President Obama on Wednesday will formally announce the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations as he presses Congress to mandate background checks for all firearms buyers and prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. The announcement will set off a fierce confrontation with Congress over an issue that has riven American society for decades. Obama%u2019s far-reaching firearms agenda has at best tepid support from his party leaders and puts him at loggerheads with Democratic centrists.
Obama to announce most expansive gun-control agenda in generations - The Washington Post    

John Stossel Links Gun Control to Higher Crime Rates - YouTube    

A Texan student who refused to wear a badge with a radio tag that tracked her movements has lost a federal court appeal against her school's ID policy. The radio chips track attendance, which in turn helps secure school funding. But Andrea Hernandez, 15, stopped wearing the badge on religious grounds, saying it was the "mark of the beast". After John Jay High School suspended her, she went to court and won a temporary injunction to continue going to the school, without the badge. The federal court ruling overturned that, saying if she was to stay at the school, she would be required to wear the badge. Otherwise, she would have to transfer to a new school.
BBC News - Pupil Hernandez, who refused to wear RFID, loses appeal    

Happy New Year!
Republica Drop Dead Gorgeous Top Of The Pops 1997 - YouTube    

Syria - 50000 Syrian Scuds Ready to Fire - YouTube    

Ministers have agree to pay more than £2m to the family of a prominent Libyan dissident abducted with the help of MI6 and secretly flown to Tripoli where he was tortured by the security police of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Having sought for years to avoid the agents of the Libyan dictator, Sami al-Saadi was forced on board a plane in Hong Kong with his wife and four young children in a joint UK-US-Libyan operation. They were then flown to Libya, where all of them were initially imprisoned. Saadi was held and tortured for years. The Saadi family had accepted a settlement of £2.23m, the high court heard on Thursday. The government paid the sum by way of compensation and without admitting any liability. http://tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/news/human-rights/26488-uk-pays-lib...

In spite of the threat of American weapons ending up in the hands of terrorist groups, President Barack Obama secretly approved an arms transfer to Libyan rebels through Qatar at the height of the rebellion against Moamar Khadhafi, a knowledgeable source noted on Friday. However, American counterterrorists are discovering that some of those U.S. weapons ended up in the hands of radical Islamists including associates of al-Qaeda, according to a law enforcement source who trained police in the Middle East. Some Americans who are retired from the military, as well as intelligence and law enforcement agencies, believe there should be an investigation into possible connections between the weapons provided by the Qataris back then and the attack that killed an American ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. During the months leading up to the terrorist attacks, the Obama administration worried about its part in helping to arm the Libyan rebels who were members of terrorist organizations especially so close to Election Day.
BenghaziGate: Libyan terrorists got arms from Obama administration - National Law Enforcement :: Examiner.com    

Mayan priests have started off ceremonies aimed at marking the end of the current era in the Mayan long-count calendar, with dancing, incense and rituals designed to thank the gods. The Mayas performed the New Fire ceremony at a park in Mexico City, but complained they have been barred by authorities from performing rituals at their ancestral temples in the Maya region. The Mayas measure time in 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The 13th Baktun ends around December 21, and 13 is considered a sacred number for the Maya. The estimated 800,000 surviving Mayas in Mexico are hoping for a better new Baktun than the one now ending, which began around 1618.
Mayans gather to mark end of era - World News, Breaking News - Independent.ie    

Published on Nov 21, 2012 by danieljsaulmon 4 days in jail for 2 minutes of video. Routine traffic stop on 11-8/9-2012, on holiday weekend.
Arrested for recording Hawthorne Police - YouTube