From the Daily Kos with Midknight Review commentary

Each story is linked to the an originating news source via a hyperlinked headline.  The commentary belongs to the Daily Kos and the "Editor's notes" are mine.  What I am hoping to do is offer "news" from two differing perspectives.  Truth never fears exposure. As the reader may know,  I am fiercely conservative.  But,  that does not mean that we should isolate ourselves from the ideas and claims of others.  Understand that conversation is awareness, awareness is education,  education is knowledge and knowledge is power.   All of the Kos commentary comes from this site source at The Daily Kos.  Understand that these folks can be as far Left as is possible.  That does not mean they are always wrong. If I have no readership on this type of article,  I will not repeat this particular format.

Cispa will give US unprecedented access, internet privacy advocates warn

With echoes of Sopa, critics charge that bill will overturn US privacy protections in government attempts to track hackers
Washington looks set to wave through new cybersecurity legislation next week that opponents fear will wipe out decades of privacy protections at a stroke.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week and already has the support of 100 House members.
It will be the first such bill to go to a vote since the collapse of the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in January after global protests and a concerted campaign by internet giants such as Google, Wikipedia and Twitter.
Editor's notes:  this is an area of great agreement.  I am almost startled that the Left is equally concerned with such legislation.  I am equally startled (even ashamed) with the fact that the GOP Establishment (i.e. Lamar Alexander and others) support such anti-liberty legislation.  This  blog joined the January shutdown and successful protest.  "We" won the day,  but Congress simply hates the notion that the civilian population wants exist without their (congress) permission or supervision.  So,  these clowns have returned with similar legislation.  Understand that once they (congress) give themselves legislative permission to interfere with our individual liberties in any venue,  they only move to greater interference as time goes by.  Make no mistake,  this bill is about the control of individuals and,  even more so,  about tax revenues.  And, such is the purpose of both parties.
BP proposes Gulf spill accord terms, trial delay
(Reuters) - BP Plc reached settlements to resolve billions of dollars of claims from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and asked a U.S. judge for a long delay in any trial over remaining disputes stemming from the disaster.
The London-based oil company expects under Wednesday's agreements to pay $7.8 billion to resolve economic, property and medical claims by more than 100,000 individuals and businesses.
Editor's notes:  what is not mentioned in this story is the fact that the oyster floors in the Gulf have been given a clean bill of health.  In fact,  that has been the case for more than a year !!  The promised environmental and long term disaster did not occur.    Hot Air reports the facts with these words:
 After spewing oil and gas for nearly three months, the BP PLC well was finally capped in mid-July 2010. Some 200,000 tons of methane gas and about 4.4 million barrels of petroleum spilled into the ocean. Given the enormity of the spill, many scientists predicted that a significant amount of the resulting chemical pollutants would likely persist in the region’s waterways for years.
According to a new federally funded study published Monday by the National Academy of Sciences, those scientists were wrong. By the end of September 2010, the vast underwater plume of methane, plus other gases, had all but disappeared. By the end of October, a significant amount of the underwater offshore oil—a complex substance made from thousands of compounds—had vanished as well.
SEC Beware, Money Funds Can Bring System Down
News reports suggest that the Securities and Exchange Commission may be backing away from a reform of money-market funds. This would be a mistake.
The debate over how to overhaul prime money-market funds has focused on preserving the commercial viability of these instruments while significantly lowering the threat they pose to financial stability. The latter objective should have priority.
The threat is a run by investors who believe they face impending losses on fund shares. In the two weeks after the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., institutional investors reduced their investments in prime money-market funds by about 40 percent, amounting to almost $400 billion. Only a prompt guarantee by the U.S. Treasury -- a measure that is no longer a legal option -- stopped the withdrawals.
Editor's notes:  "SEC" is the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kos believes in the recent increase of regulatory powers.  We do not.  The SEC functions in addition to Congressional oversight, as is the case with most regulatory agencies. It has enough power,  perhaps more than it should.  The real problem with these regulatory agencies is the fact that unelected bureaucrats (mostly Left leaning) determine federal regulatory content.  In other words,  "we" could have a fully conservative legislature while regulatory increases continue to be supportive of Leftist or liberal causes.  
Obama’s Atomic Solyndra
The future of nuclear power now hangs on a single decision by President Obama—and us.
His Office of Management and Budget could cave to the unsustainable demands of reactor builders who cannot handle the standard terms of a loan agreement.
Or he could defend basic financial procedures and stand up for the future of the American economy.
You can help make this decision, which will come soon.
Editor's notes: in this story, we realize the devious strategies of the Left and Obama.  While supporting Nuclear power in  his many public statements,  he keeps nuclear power "off the grip" with his stealth opposition via issues of economic sustainability. Time will tell which way the Slickmeister will go.  I doubt that even he knows.
Obama's Biggest Environmental 'Victory' Was Really a Big Win for Gas Drillers
While new regulations on power plants are a hit to Big Coal, they are a boon to the gas industry.
That sounds dandy, but ending subsidies to polluters is only half the battle, and Obama's idea of a "clean-energy future" is tenuous at best. In an attempt to round up the green vote, President Obama is trumpeting his half-hearted attempt to put the breaks on global warming by tapping energy sources here at home and regulating the industry that's doing most of the damage. Only days after the president announced he was looking to fast-track the southern portion of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, his administration released the first-ever federal standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.
In what's now become typical Obama fashion, the move was meant to appease environmental critics while at the same time ensure the fossil fuel industry that the so-called New Source Performance Standard would not actually hurt its bottom lines.
Editor's notes:  in this Kos commentary,  you can see the angst held by those on the Left.  Many of Obama's supporters are fully aware that the man is much more a politician than he is one capable of being commented to the causes he espoused during the 2008 campaign,  an agenda he has given little more support than what comes out of his mouth.  The Left knows that he abandoned "Cap and Trade" (our side won that very important battle via public opinion);  that the world's Copenhagen Climate Conference collapse due more to inattention than any thing else;  that his current energy policies have opened the door to special interests and lobbying - something the Left supposedly hates.
'Extreme Universe' puzzle deepens
The mystery surrounding the source of the highest-energy particles known in the Universe has grown deeper.
The particles, known as cosmic rays, can show up with energies a million times higher than the biggest particle accelerators on Earth can produce.
Astrophysicists believed that only two sources could make them: supermassive black holes in active galaxies, or so-called gamma ray bursts.
A study in Nature has now all but ruled out gamma ray bursts as the cause.
Editor's notes:  I have no idea that all this means,  but it sounds very interesting.  One thing for certain,  the Big Bangers have no real idea how their theories as to the origins of our universe work. They only "know" that a real and living God could have nothing to do with origins of our cosmos experience.  They cannot answer such questions as:  where did "matter" come from and,  if it "just always existed,"  how is that possible;  what started atomic/particulate interaction that resulted in the big bang,  I mean,  "objects at rest,  tend to remain at rest."  So,  what happen to that bright idea?  Since no form of life in this world has a conscience, what evolutionary principle explains the human conscience or his universal desire to look beyond himself for direction?  Or, in the case of the above,  now that gamma ray outbursts have been  ruled out,  what is the origin of high-energy particles.

The true legacy of an utopian inventor
In the summer of 1954, Buckminster Fuller was granted U.S. patent number 2,682,235 for his invention of the geodesic dome . Over the following decade, more square kilometres of earth were covered with his trussed structures than with any single other kind of architecture - including skyscrapers - leading Time Magazine to place Fuller in the same league as inventor Thomas Edison.
Half a century later, with Fuller rarely mentioned except by way of nostalgia, you might be forgiven for wondering what ever happened to him. A well-intentioned exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Utopian Impulse, seeks to answer that question, at least from the perspective of the Bay Area.
Fuller's influence in his own time was undeniably profound. His ultra-efficient low-cost domes were taken up by the military and industry, while his signature ideas about doing more with less on "spaceship Earth" were embraced by the burgeoning counterculture. His rambling full-day lectures about "anticipatory design" were practically as popular as rock concerts.
Editor's notes:  maybe someone should tell these folks about Mark Levin's book,  Ameritopia.  

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