A bill pending before Congress may make it illegal for websites to link to content the government says is illegal. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) seeks to protect U.S. businesses from (mostly Chinese) copyright infringement by criminalizing forms of online piracy — but the strictures are so severe some say they amount to an “internet kill switch.”

Ironically, China’s bid to smother the internet is being held up as a model for America’s future. Former Senator Chris Dodd, formerly mired in the housing scandal and who now heads the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA),said, “When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites.” That’s not a big concern, unless one of the President Obama’s closest advisers is publicly stating China is a superior model to the United States.

Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government sketched out the bill’s Orwellian overtones in The Hill:

Under the so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) the federal government – which is prohibited constitutionally from abridging free speech or depriving its citizens of their property without due process – would engage in both practices on an unprecedented scale. And in establishing the precursor to a taxpayer-funded “thought police,” it would dramatically curtail technology investment and innovation – wreaking havoc on our economy.

Consider this: Under the proposed legislation all that’s required for government to shutdown a specific website is the mere accusation that the site unlawfully featured copyrighted content. Such an accusation need not be proven – or even accompanied by probable cause. All that an accuser (or competitor) needs to do in order to obtain injunctive relief is point the finger at a website.

Additionally, SOPA would grant regulators the ability to choke off revenue to the owners of these newly classified “rogue” websites by accusing their online advertisers and payment providers as co-conspirators in the alleged “piracy.” Again, no finding of fact would be required – the mere allegation of impropriety is all that’s needed to cut the website’s purse strings.

Read More at Floyd Reports By Ben Johnson, Floyd Reports

As the US completes its final withdrawal from Iraq, American special forces troops have been diverted to positions in Jordan opposite a Syrian tank concentration building up across the kingdom’s northern border, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report.

As of last Thursday, as of last Thursday Dec. 8, military convoys, air transports and helicopters have been lifting US troops across the border from Iraq. They have been deployed in position to ward off a possible Syrian invasion in the light of President Bashar Assad’s warning that he would set the entire Middle East on fire if the pressure on his regime to step down persisted.

Syria’s other neighbors have taken precautions against this contingency

The incoming US contingents are disclosed by our sources as having been housed at the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq, 10 kilometers from the Syrian border. US troops were sighted Monday, Dec. 12, building surveillance towers and army posts in the Jordanian villages of Albaej, Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah al-Houshah as well as near the Sarham dam of the Yarmoukh River which runs down the international border between Syria and Jordan.

Three months ago, the Syrian ruler cautioned Jordan’s King Abdullah II to stop granting asylum to Syrian military deserters and allowing his country to serve as a conduit for pumping arms to the opposition.

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 Read More at debka.com

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki standing at his side, hailed a “new Iraq” on Monday, but he failed to acknowledge persecution of religious minorities in the country that the United States helped to liberate.
“People throughout the region will see a new Iraq that’s determining its own destiny — a country in which people from different religious sects and ethnicities can resolve their differences peacefully through the democratic process,” Obama told reporters after his closed-door meeting with al-Maliki.

But Obama’s own State Department and a federal religious-freedom watchdog say that violence and threats against Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities is a continuing problem.

In a Dec. 7 letter to Obama, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal body appointed by the president and congressional leaders, urged the president to take up the issue of religious freedom with the Iraqi prime minister.

“Since 2008, and most recently in May 2011, USCIRF has recommended that Iraq should be designated as a ‘country of particular concern’ under the International Religious Freedom Act for systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,” the letter said.

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 Read More at cnsnews.com By Edwin Mora, cnsnews.com

WASHINGTON, December 9, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the days after Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius put the kibosh on the FDA’s plans to give minors over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill, numerous speculations have arisen as to how one of the most pro-abortion politicians in the United States – as well as Barack Obama himself – found themselves at odds with the nation’s top abortion lobbies.

The FDA on Wednesday responded to a request from the drug’s manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, to consider eliminating the need for a prescription.

But in announcing the final decision, FDA Administrator Margaret Hamburg noted that, while Sebelius had struck down the change, Hamburg herself felt the pill should be free for use by “all females of child-bearing potential,” hinting at a a clash at the highest levels of the administration. Sebelius later explained in her own letter that, especially as such a move would expose the powerful drug to girls as young as 11, the lack of data on Plan B’s effects on younger girls prevented her approval.

While claiming no involvement in the actual decision, President Obama agreed that “the reason Kathleen made this decision is that she could not be confident that a 10-year-old or an 11-year-old going to a drugstore should be able – alongside bubble gum or batteries – be able to buy a medication that potentially, if not used properly, could have an adverse effect.”

Abortion advocates such as the Center for Reproductive Rights and NARAL Pro-Choice America were aghast at the news: NARAL president Nancy Keenan complained that “we expected this kind of action from the Bush administration.” The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) responded several hours later in a press release that it was “extremely disapointed.” PPFA president Cecile Richards followed up on Thursday with a public letter requesting a meeting with Sebelius, and on Friday with a critical editorial in the Huffington Post.

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 Read More at lifesitenews.com By Kathleen Gilbert, lifesitenews.com

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is fighting for his political life in Iowa.

Four month ago, the Texas governor was seen as conservatives’ national savior. But with three weeks before Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, Perry is retooling his message from the strict jobs focus he started with in August to one promoting him as a conservative outsider who will fight “special interests.”

He has also fallen back on his Christian faith, with two recent ads promoting Christian themes. The bulk of his recent Iowa campaigning has been at forums sponsored by conservative evangelical groups.

The strategy change is a sign of the pressure he faces to revive his faltering campaign. So far, it’s unclear if it’s working.

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 Read More at Official Wire By Thomas Beaumont, AP and Official Wire