LATEST News You won’t find on CNN or FOX News

A powerful hand-held weapon being developed by the Pentagon could end up in police hands, says a report in a UK science journal.

The Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been developing the Thermal Laser System since 2005, with the purpose of developing a weapon that could disperse crowds or incapacitate individuals by causing them to experience burning sensations in their skin.

According to NewScientist magazine, the weapon has evolved into a rifle-mounted instrument, and there are plans for a hand-held model that could be used by police forces.

News of the possibility that police departments could obtain the burn weapon will likely concern civil-liberties advocates, who have been watching with alarm as the Taser conducted-energy weapon has gone into regular use in police forces across the United States.

As NewScientist notes, the weapon is still in the testing phase and kinks have yet to be worked out.

The Gizmag blog reported last week that “the infrared [rays] of the Thermal Laser System can be blocked by clothing – fine if you’re trying to subdue a group of nudists, but problematic otherwise.”

NewScientist reports:

[T]ests at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s human effectiveness lab have established that the skin heating effect causes no permanent damage - suggesting it may have “military utility”. The tests also highlighted areas in need of improvement before troops can use it, says lab manager Semih Kumru - though what those features are has not been revealed.

The proposed system is rifle mounted, with a sight above it and a visible low-power laser beam that the soldier uses to aim the invisible infrared laser. The solid-state laser system is battery-powered, and could become hand-held “in the near future”…

“I’d like to know why they want another advanced pain compliance weapon like this,” says Steve Wright, non-lethal weapons analyst at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. “Persuading by pain rather than brain - through conversation - has led to push-button torture in the past. If it leaves no mark on the skin how will anyone prove it’s been abused?”

US House Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican who introduced a motion to condemn Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson for saying that the Republican health care plan amounts to hoping that the sick “die quickly,” said he would withdraw the motion to give Rep. Grayson (D-FL) a chance to apologize.

Well, Grayson has apologized — just not to the Republicans he offended.

“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America,” a defiant Grayson said on the House floor Wednesday.

The “holocaust” Grayson was referring to was the 44,000 Americans that a recent study says die each year because of inadequate access to health care. The representative cited the Harvard study (PDF) in what appeared at first to be an apology, but quickly turned into a retort.

The number of dead “is 10 times more than the number of Americans who have died in Iraq and who died in 9/11,” Grayson said. “But that was just once. This is every single year. That’s right. Every single year.”

On the House floor Tuesday night, Grayson caused a stir among opponents of health care reform when he said the Republican model for health care is “a very simple plan. Don’t get sick. That’s what the Republicans have in mind. And if you get sick in America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly.”

House Republicans quickly issued demands for an apology, and on Wednesday Rep. Price tabled his motion to condemn the comment.

But, as some commentators have pointed out, that move — had it not been withdrawn — could have opened House Republicans to accusations of hypocrisy, as 166 of them voted against the motion to censure Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) over his exclamation of “You lie!” during the president’s address to Congress.

The following video was posted by Politico on Sept. 30. 2009.

In another sign that the Obama administration is increasingly willing to take on its media critics directly, the White House blog has published a comparison of Fox News “rhetoric” versus “reality” on the issue of President Obama’s support for Chicago’s Olympic bid.

The statement went so far as to use the expression “Fox lies.”

“Last night Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration’s efforts to win the Olympics for the United States,” the White House blog entry begins. “In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News’ Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings.”

Some Republicans criticized the president earlier this week for his last-minute plan to fly to Copenhagen to help Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. While some have accused the president of hometown favoritism, on Tuesday Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said the trip was a distraction from larger priorities; Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO) said the president should stay in the US and focus on the war in Afghanistan.

Fox News’ Glenn Beck picked up and expanded on those talking points Tuesday night, and on Wednesday the White House responded with a scathing debunking of numerous points the TV personality made.

The statement attacked Beck for claiming that the Olympics cost the city of Vancouver $1 billion, pointing out that the Vancouver Winter Games haven’t taken place yet. It also took a Beck guest to task for claiming that Chicago has had to close its city government several days a week because of a fiscal crunch; “Chicago has had one reduced-service day in 2009, and will have two more on the Friday after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve,” the White House retorted.

The statement concludes: “For even more Fox lies, check out the latest ‘Truth-O-Meter’ feature from Politifact that debunks a false claim about a White House staffer that continues to be repeated by Glenn Beck and others on the network.”

The White House now appears unafraid to take on Fox’s controversial coverage of the Obama administration directly.

On Sept. 20, President Obama appeared on five Sunday talk shows, but not on any show hosted on Fox. Asked why, a White House spokesperson suggested it was retaliation for the Fox network’s decision not to broadcast the president’s Sept. 9 address to Congress on health care.

“We figured Fox would rather show So You Think You Can Dance than broadcast an honest discussion about health insurance reform,” a White House deputy press secretary said. “Fox is an ideological outlet where the president has been interviewed before and will likely be interviewed again; not that the whining particularly strengthens their case for participation any time soon.”

Chamber backtracks on climate change as resignations mount

Athletic footwear maker Nike has resigned from its position on the board of the US Chamber of Commerce, the latest sign that a major rift has formed within the US’s preeminent business group over climate change legislation expected this fall.

According to The Hill, the Oregon-based shoe maker cited “differences with the business group on climate change” as the reason for its departure from the board. The company will remain a member of the chamber.

Nike is the latest and most high-profile company to publicly distance itself from the Chamber of Commerce, which has taken an active stance against proposed climate-change legislation.

Last week, two major utilities, the Public Service Company of New Mexico and California’s Pacific Gas and Electric, left the chamber. PG&E said it was leaving because of the chamber’s “extreme” position on climate change, the Associated Press reported.

“At the heart of the ongoing clash with utilities is a statement from the Chamber of Commerce which asked that the science of global warming be put on ‘trial,’” the report stated.

The climate change debate “has exposed deep rifts within the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other business lobbies, with companies leaving their trade organizations almost daily in disputes over climate change legislation,” reports the New York Times.

Nike’s move “follows pressure by some Nike shareholders for the company to leave the chamber, which recently challenged a new initiative by the Environmental Protection Agency to track emissions of heat-trapping gasses like carbon dioxide,” The Portland Oregonian reports.

Oregon-based Nike has been working hard in recent years to rehabilitate its image after accusations surfaced in the 1990s that the company was contracting with manufacturers in Asia who had poor records of adhering to labor laws.

The company has worked to counter the image that shoe-making is an environmentally harmful activity. It has launched a number of initiatives to make its business more environment-neutral, including projects to recycle running shoes.

“Nike believes US businesses must advocate for aggressive climate change legislation and that the United States needs to move rapidly into a sustainable economy to remain competitive and ensure continued economic growth,” the company said in a statement released Wednesday.

CHAMBER BACKTRACKING?

Evidence is mounting that pressure from its member companies is beginning to have an effect of the chamber’s position on climate change. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues to support strong federal legislation and a binding international agreement to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change,” chamber CEO Tom Donohue said in a blog posting Tuesday.

“We’ve never questioned the science behind global warming,” spokesman Eric Wohlsclegel told the New York Times Tuesday.

“This is a blatant falsehood, by any definition,” retorted Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress. “Just last month, the Chamber’s Senior Vice President, William Kovacs, called for the ‘Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century’ to put ‘the science of climate change on trial.’ The chamber, dominated by pollution-industry skeptics such as Don Blankenship, Harry Alford, and Fred Palmer, has questioned climate science since at least 1992.”