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By LARA JAKES AND LOLITA C. BALDOR, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to address some of the thornier aspects of national security policy, including drone strikes, the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the dire threats Americans continue to face – even from fellow citizens.

From the blog Breakout: After rising 80% in the past seven months, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 (^N225) stock index finally blinked. A staggering 7% single-day decline rocked Tokyo's market in ways not seen since the Earthquake-Tsunami disaster of 2011. While the cause of the sell-off is being laid at the feet of weaker than expected Chinese manufacturing data and [...]

Cicadas have begun to surface across the East Coast of the U.S. So far the majority of sightings have been in Virginia and other southern states Further north the weather has been too cool but the emergence of Brood II emergence isn't expected...

DENVER - County sheriffs from across the state are trying to bring down two gun control measures signed into law in March with a constitutional challenge filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Denver. Today represents a line in the sand, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said. The filing of this lawsuit is our only option. We did not want this. We did not ask for this, but we will not stand by silently while good citizens are deprived of their rights and criminalized. Maketa is among 54 sheriffs challenging the constitutionality of the state's ban on high-capacity magazines and the mandate that universal background checks be conducted on all gun sales, including between private individuals. Those laws - HB 1224 and HB 1229 respectively - take effect in July and attorney David Kopel with the Independence Institute said the plaintiffs are considering asking for a temporary injunction to keep the laws from impacting gun-owning Coloradans. Attorney General John Suthers released a statement that his office has worked with law enforcement to clearly outline how the laws are to be implemented with regard to issues raised with the legislation. Suthers will be responsible for mounting the legal defense on the state's behalf. The objective of the Attorney General's Office will be to get court rulings on the legality of various aspects of the legislation as expeditiously as possible, Suthers said in a statement. Colorado citizens and law-abiding gun owners in particular, deserve such clarification. Still, the lawsuit is expected to draw out for a long time. On the side of the sheriff's, it's being funded by donations accepted by the Independence Institute - a Denver-based think tank. The state's defense will be funded by taxpayers. Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, who authored the magazine limit bill, said both laws were carefully written to be within constitutional bounds. They were constructed to protect us from massacres like the ones we suffered in Aurora and Newtown, Hodge said in a statement. Reasonable Coloradans know that one doesn't need a large-capacity magazine for self defense. Kopel said that the law requiring background checks for the sale or transfer of a firearm between individuals is so vague it violates the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. And the process of obtaining a background check at a federally licensed firearm dealer is so burdensome that it violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms, he said. The argument is more clear cut when it comes to the ban on the sale or possession of magazines that hold more than 15 bullets or tubes that hold more than eight shotgun shells. Kopel said similar to handgun bans that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Chicago and Washington D.C., the ban on magazines overreaches a reasonable limit on the Second Amendment. What the Supreme Court said is you may not prohibit arms which are typically owned by law abiding persons for lawful purposes, so if you've got arms that are in that category, that includes magazines, that's the end of the case, in our view, Kopel said. At the same time the court said you can ban things that are the opposite. Kopel used the example of sawed off shotguns which are illegal at the federal level and machine guns that can only be owned with extremely tight permitting process. A pistol with a 17 round magazine is not some dangerous or unusual weapons that is only used by gangsters or terrorists or nuts, Kopel said. It is a very good choice for a law abiding citizen for lawful protection. However, magazines are not firearms, they are for many guns accessories that can be changed and selected to fit within a law. Advocates say the laws are a reasonable way to not only prevent gun homicides but also massacres such as the Aurora theater shooting last summer. Democrats argued during the legislative session that high-capacity magazines are weapons of war that have no place in neighborhoods, on streets or in movie theaters. - Contact Megan Schrader: 719-286-0644 Twitter @CapitolSchrader

Google and NASA are forming a joint research lab to look at quantum computing for things like facial recognition and understanding of disease. Their computer is from D-Wave Systems, which appears to be producing quantum computing results years earlier than many expected. Read

The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian ( HQ 1080p HD Upscale ) "Walk Like an Egyptian" is a number-one hit from the album Different Light by The Bangles in 1986. Liam Sternberg wrote the song after seeing people on a ferry walking awkwardly to keep their balance, which reminded him of figures in Ancient Egyptian reliefs. The opening lyrics state, "All the old paintings on the tombs/They do the sand dance don't you know". The reference to the sand dance possibly refers to a music hall routine performed by Wilson, Keppel and Betty where Wilson and Keppel danced around in the postures portrayed on the reliefs wearing the fez while Betty watched. Sternberg offered his song to Toni Basil, who turned it down. David Kahne, the producer of Different Light, took the song to the Bangles who agreed to record it. Kahne had each member of the group sing the lyrics to determine who would sing each verse, with Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson and Michael Steele each singing lead vocals on a verse in the final version. Kahne did not like any of Debbi Peterson's leads and she was relegated to backing vocals. This angered Peterson and caused tension within the group as she felt the rest of the group wasn't being supportive to her, which was worsened by fact that the drumming in the song is done by a drum machine instead of Peterson, further diminishing her role in the song. The music video for "Walk Like an Egyptian" was nominated for Best Group Video in the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. It featured people dancing in a pose similar to the pose depicted in the Ancient Egyptian reliefs that inspired songwriter Liam Sternberg; while most of them are ordinary people, some famous figures were depicted dancing in that same pose through the use of simple special effects, like Lady Diana and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. In a popular scene from the video, Hoffs was filmed in a close-up where her eyes moved from side to side, looking left and right. When asked about the scene in an interview with online magazine PlanetOut.com, Hoffs explained that she was actually looking at individual audience members during the video shoot, which took place with a live audience. Looking directly at individual audience members was a technique she used to overcome stage fright, and she was unaware that the camera had a close-up on her while she was employing this technique, switching between one audience member on her left and one on her right. Info source http://en.wikipedia.org The video vob file I have for this is not very good and yet my copy is better than the others I've tried to get to replace this one. So in the end I used my copy even though it was blurry, chock full of noisy fizz and other bits of crap that made me wince. Truly one of the worst videos available for such a good song. Well this is a classic and lots of people love it including me and so I had to do the best I could with this. I have removed 95 percent of all the noise from this video without damaging the already poor image detail. Even the blocky compression artifacts have been zapped to never never land. This rendered the image quite clean and brought out some of the poor detail obscured by so much digital junk. Lighting and colors have been tweaked as well to round it all off before sharpening and scaling it to HD resolution. Don't expect miracles with this video. I've pushed it as far as it would go and it came out better than I expected. Unfortunately there is no better source file to work with. The better the file the better the results will be. Audio from the original source was good and just needed normalizing which I have done. Even though this came from a poor quality file the end result is the best quality you will get online for this old video. Enjoy walking like an Egyptian! :-)

Illinois Rep Mike Bost Screams in Outrage on House floor! (The tyranny is coming unglued) When Rome degenerated from a free republic into a tyranny the statesmen, who had previously served the people, were intimidated to be silent. Caesar left the Senate functioning to preserve the illusion of a government of laws. The difference was that the only function of the Senator was to do exactly as Caesar said to do. This history is being repeated in America. But not every legislator lacks the courage to speak out. We are seeing numerous examples of resistance from within the ranks of those who are expected to be submissive puppets. We saw Supreme Court Judges holding back tears while Obama hyped the H.R. 5175 DISCLOSE Act. Congressman Joe Wilson yelled 'You Lie' when Obama claimed that his health care would not be for illegal aliens. Why are not all one of them yelling "You lie"? Without the internet we would never hear about these daring challenges that are being made. Some politicians are as fed up as we are, and are saying what the rest of of are saying. Be proud to restore liberty. GOOGLE THIS "What would Patrick Henry say today?" Read what Patrick Henry said on March 23, 1775 Then read this again, and change a few words: Change "British ministry" to "federal government". Change "kings" to "tyrants". Change "Great Britain" to "Washington". Change "ministry and Parliament" to "federal government". Change "throne" to "federal government". Change "British guard" to "federal officer". Change "Boston" to "Waco and Ruby Ridge". Rep. Mike Bost made his point emphatically. The second viewing should be devoted to those around him, most of whom look like total wimps: some even smirking. Why were not every one of them yelling? Did they not all take the same OATH TO SUPPORT THE CONSTITUTION? Please investigate OATHKEEPERS. We organize police and military and teach adherance to the oath of office: To support and defend the constitution. If police and military will refuse to obey illegal orders, then any dictator will fail. Yes, we must forgive him for one error: This is a REPUBLIC, not a democracy. Democracy is not a synonym for freedom. Democracy is rule by majority. In a Democracy minorities have no rights. Democracy is 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Republic is rule by morality with rights of minorities protected. Rule by majority is the opposite of rule by morality unless you are in Heaven. Thomas Jefferson said: "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." John Perna said: "The battle for freedom is never won & never lost. The battle for freedom always continues. It is never too late & never soon enough to defend freedom. No matter how enslaved we are we always have hope. No matter how free we are, we are never safe. NOTHING EVER LIMITS GOVERNMENT EXCEPT THE PEOPLE. Any generation that fails to defend freedom will lose it. The next generation must shed blood to regain it" Democracy is 5000 wolves & 4000 sheep voting on to have for dinner. A Republic is 5000 wolves & 4000 sheep that elect 50 wolves & 40 sheep who to decide to have for dinner. A Constitutional Republic is 5000 wolves and 4000 sheep who elect 50 wolves & 40 sheep who then decide what's for dinner, BUT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS THAT YOU CANNOT EAT SHEEP. Without the eternal vigilance of the people The Supreme Court, by a vote of 5 wolves to 4 sheep, declares that mutton is not sheep. For more details visit: http://targetfreedom.com/cfr/republic-or-democracy/

Many Chicagoans who call 911 will no longer receive immediate help. Chicago police will no longer show up at crime scenes unless someone is in critical condition or a criminal suspect remains on the scene.

Global unemployment is at a record high in the wake of the financial crisis, says a UN report. A rise in joblessness of 5.

FBI Won't Release WikiLeaks File - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. In a letter dated January 14, 2013, the FBI responds to my FOIA request and states that WikiLeaks file is now an "investigative file" which is exempt from disclosure. The letter goes on to state that the responsive records could "reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings"