'Sanity' rally draws tens of thousands - USA Today

By Douglas Stanglin and Jessica Durando, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people turned out on the sun-splashed National Mall on Saturday to hear comedian Jon Stewart proclaim "reasonableness" as the norm in American life and to jab the cable news media for being purveyors of fear and division."The country's 24-hour politico-pundit-perpetual-panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder," said Stewart in a speech that wrapped up the event.

The three-hour "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" mixed comedy and music with a message that was non-partisan, yet deeply political.

Stewart, using the Capitol behind him as a physical and rhetorical backdrop, hammered home a simple message — that most people go about their lives trying to solve their day-to-day problems, even in the worst of conditions.

"The truth is, we work together to get things done every damn day," he said. "The only place we don't is here, or on cable TV — but Americans don't live here or on cable TV."

The host of The Daily Show spoke directly to the audience at the close of the program, noting that as a comedian he may well be breaking some unwritten rules of the punditocracy. "I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow how I violated them," he said, in a reference to commentators who have questioned his place on the political landscape.

Later, Stewart underscored his disdain for how some of the media operates when he was asked how he thought they would react to his barbs: "Don't care."

"Our currency is not this town's currency," he said to reporters at the National Press Club after the rally. "We're not running for anything. We don't have a constituency. We do television shows for people who like them."

Still, Stewart said, "We're proud of ourselves" for actually pulling off the rally and putting on a good show.

Crowd sizes are notoriously hard to judge, but Comedy Central, which broadcasts The Daily Show, estimated the crowd at 250,000.

The rally started out as a response to the "Restoring Honor" rally by conservative commentator Glenn Beck at the Lincoln Memorial this summer.

Katie Tackett, 32, of Washington, D.C., attended the rally because she saw it as a cultural phenomenon, rather than a way to send America a message. "I don't think having a rally by a satirical comedian is the best way to get out a message," she said.

At the end of the event, Stewart took the stage, somewhat puzzled by what it all meant.

"So what exactly was this?" he asked as the rally wound down. "I can't control what people think this was, I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism, or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear. They are and we do."

The rally's purpose, he said, was to show that there is more that unites Americans than divides them, and that the nation should not let others use fear and bombast to undermine that.

"I'm a little bit choked up after listening to Jon Stewart talk," said Hy Alvarah, 28, who works for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay civil rights organization. "He covered all the things we're missing in life, not just sanity and reasonableness. I was moved to tears. You expect that from politicians and preachers, not a comedian."

While the remarks were sometimes pointed and stinging, the rally was notable for its lack of partisanship. No one noted from the stage that midterm elections will be held on Tuesday.

The tone struck an important chord with many in the audience. Pat Reynolds, 76, said she came from Florida for the opportunity to "get some reasonableness."

"I was tired of the yelling and the screaming. I believe sanity is reality," Reynolds said. "We've got to put the best men in government that can compromise and that work for the American people."

That theme played out during the three-hour rally as Stewart, using fellow comedian Stephen Colbert's bombastic character as a foil, handed out awards for "reasonableness" to Colbert's awards for "fear."

To counter Colbert's call that Muslims should be feared, Stewart said, "There are a lot of Muslim people who you might like."

He then brought out basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was way too tall for the two to high-five.

Abdul-Jabbar made the point, "No matter whatever religious position someone plays, we're all on the same team."

The audience came prepared to play along. Many brought signs to underscore the message of reasonableness, or just to be funny.

Among them:

•"I'm somewhat irritated about extreme outrage."

•"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — and spiders"

•"Stand united against signs"

"I'm really glad this is an optimistic rally. All the other ones are serious. We can just laugh and realize that things aren't so bad," said Brian Steele, 19, a student at George Washington University.

Onstage, the comedy was both high and low. At one point, Stewart gave an award to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's tight, black T-shirt, which Cooper has worn covering natural disasters.

Kid Rock performed, as did Sheryl Crow, Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples. Ozzy Osbourne got in a mock dispute with mellow folk singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens.

Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, arranged for buses to transport about 10,000 rally-goers from New York for free. She took issue with news organizations that wouldn't allow their employees to participate in the rally because they considered it political.

"It doesn't make any sense to be agnostic about sanity," said Huffington. "The rally is not political. It's not partisan. Contrived objectivity does not serve journalism."

Huffington also said the rally "helps us recognize we can have big disagreements as a country without demonizing opponents."

Contributing: Lindsay Deutsch, Marisa Kendall, Sara Newman, Bruce Schwartz

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Australian Security Will Screen All Cargo Coming From Yemen, Gillard Says - Bloomberg

Australia will screen all cargo coming from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha, the three transit points for passengers flying from Yemen, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said, after an attempt to send parcel bombs from Yemen to the U.S. was foiled.

Police in Yemen yesterday arrested a woman suspected of attempting to send two parcel bombs to synagogues in Chicago via air-cargo services, after authorities in Dubai and the U.K. intercepted the packages on Oct. 29. Authorities are investigating whether the shipments were staged as rehearsals for a future attacks, a U.S. official said.

“There are no direct flights from Yemen to Australia, so any cargo that originated in Yemen would come through one of those three locations and there will be 100 percent screening as a response,” Gillard said in Hanoi yesterday, according to a transcript of her comments e-mailed today.

Gillard said she will take any “further advice arising from this incident” when it becomes available.

The prime minister, who is in the Vietnamese capital for the East Asia Summit, said she has been pushing hard to formalize the participation of the U.S. and Russia in future gatherings.

The two nations, which will join the summit from 2011, attended as special guests this year.

Regional Forum

“Prior to this there was no regional forum that brought together the U.S., China, the countries of our region, working comprehensively across the economic, strategic, political and defense relationships,” Gillard said. Such a forum “is important for our future, for the future of China and its role in our world.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will visit Melbourne for the Austrialia- United States Ministerial meeting, a forum between the two nations, on Nov. 8.

Gillard said she plans to visit China next year after Premier Wen Jiabao invited her when they met in Hanoi yesterday.

The Australian prime minister, who also met with leaders of India, Laos and the Philippines, will travel to Indonesia and Malaysia from Hanoi, according to local media reports.

Stock Exchange Merger

Gillard, who also met with Singapore Prime Minister Hsien Loong Lee during her trip, said her counterpart had raised Singapore Exchange Ltd.’s bid for ASX Ltd.

“We both agreed there’s a clear process to be gone through,” Gillard told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview. “From the Australian point of view, from the Foreign Investment Review Board, and that process will be gone through.”

Singapore Exchange, part-owned by the city-state’s central bank, on Oct. 25 offered to buy the owner of Australia’s stock exchange for cash and shares in a deal worth A$8.1 billion ($8 billion), according to Bloomberg’s calculations based on Singapore Exchange’s closing price of S$8.80 on Oct. 29.

The transaction requires an amendment to Australia’s Corporations Act, approved by parliament, which prohibits anyone from owning more than 15 percent of ASX. Singapore Exchange needs the support of the minority Labor government, which hasn’t decided its stance on the deal, and at least four other legislators in the lower house of parliament to approve the bid.

Australian lawmakers including two Greens party members, opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey and two independents said they oppose Singapore Exchange’s bid, saying it’s unlikely to be in the best interests of Australians.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net

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Some key Tea Party races - Boston Globe

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The Tea Party movement has been a defining force in 2010. With its aim zeroed in at the power structure of Washington, this political whirlwind has energized some Republicans and independents and left others shuddering. Some GOP leaders have feared that the movement’s candidates — most have never held high elective office — would cost the party a chance at grabbing control of the Senate. With the exception of Christine O’Donnell’s campaign spectacularly crashing, costing the GOP dearly in Delaware, Tea Party-backed Republicans are either running ahead of Democrats or about even. In Republican-dominant Utah, Mike Lee is expected to easily win. Marco Rubio, one of the first candidates to tap into Tea Party fervor, is cruising in Florida. Here’s a look at six other Tea Party-backed candidates in six races that will keep political junkies on the edge of their seats Tuesday night.

?Grew up in a household of avid Democrats in East Providence, R.I., and graduated from Harvard.

?Business career includes stints as an international currency analyst and co-founder of a string of sports bars.

?Was three-term US representative before becoming president of Club for Growth, which supports fiscally conservative politicians.

Campaign: With his longstanding attacks on business-as-usual in Washington and his fervent push for fiscal conservatism, Toomey had been a Tea Party-type politician before there was a Tea Party. His decision to challenge longtime GOP Senator Arlen Specter sparked a series of decisions that altered the political landscape in Washington. Specter, who barely beat Toomey in 2004, decided he could not win a rematch and switched parties, giving the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority until the election of Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Despite White House backing, Specter still lost the primary to Joe Sestak. Toomey backs replacing the income tax system with either a flat tax or consumption tax and calls for a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget. The success of his campaign depends on the heartland of Pennsylvania, a state that Democratic consultant James Carville once characterized as (liberal) Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.

Prospects: Although his numbers have been slipping, Toomey still has a lead of 4 percentage points.*

?Son of US Representative Ron Paul of Texas, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate whose libertarian backers formed a cornerstone of the Tea Party movement.

?Has practiced ophthalmology for 17 years.

?Running for seat of retiring Republican Jim Bunning.

Campaign: “I have a message, a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We have come to take our government back,’’ Paul said in May after he became the first candidate backed by the movement to win a primary. He did so resoundingly, crushing the establishment candidate endorsed by his potential Senate stablemate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It did not take long, however, for libertarian views to land Paul in hot water. He suggested that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should not apply to businesses and questioned whether the federal government should have a role in food or worker safety, prompting a storm of attacks. Yet his tough talk on the need to cut government programs and stiffen eligibility for entitlement benefits has attracted a strong following. The race has turned particularly ugly, with ads by Democratic nominee Jack Conway characterizing sophomoric pranks Paul allegedly did in college as anti-Christian and potentially criminal, a ploy even some Democrats say is desperate. Also, a video of Paul supporters pinning a protester to the ground and stepping on her head has inflamed emotions on both sides.

Prospects: He has maintained a rather sizable lead throughout the fall and is now up by almost 9 percentage points.

?Started an Oshkosh company that makes plastic packaging material.

?A political neophyte, he became drawn to the race after speaking at a Tea Party rally.

?Has pumped $4.4 million of his own money into the campaign.

Campaign: Johnson was catapulted to a primary win when the establishment candidate unexpectedly dropped out and supported him. He started as an underdog against incumbent Russ Feingold, but by pitching himself as an outsider and Feingold as a big-spending, out-of-touch insider, he has become the late favorite. He also has combined a well-regarded quirky ad campaign touting “the Johnson Way” with such provocative quotes as “I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change’’ and calling the health care overhaul the ”greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime.’’

Prospects: Johnson maintains a lead of about 5 percentage points.

?Earned All-Ivy League honors as a punter on the Princeton football team.

?Served as a lawyer and investigator for Dick Cheney, then a US representative, during the Iran-contra hearings and worked as a prosecutor for the Justice Department.

?Served 14 years in the US attorney’s office before becoming district attorney for a county north of Denver.

Campaign: His upset win over the GOP establishment candidate put him against Democrat Michael Bennet, who was appointed to replace Ken Salazar when Salazar was named US interior secretary. In this ideologically splintered state, Buck has generally avoided moderating his positions to attract independents. He opposes abortion except to protect the life of the mother and suggests ending Social Security benefits for well-off Americans. He also calls for overturning the new health care law and opposes cap/trade legislation, while backing nuclear energy.

Prospects: Buck’s lead in the polls has been dwindling -- down to less than 1 percentage point.

?Co-founded a K-12 Christian school.

?A grandmother of 10 and a weightlifting aficionado known to carry a .44 Magnum handgun.

?Earned a reputation in the Nevada legislature for opposing nearly all bills, with votes of widely popular legislation becoming known as 41-to-Angle. Led fight in state and federal courts to preserve state rule requiring two-thirds legislative vote to pass tax increases.

Campaign: In an upset, she won the primary over the establishment candidate for the chance to grab one of the top trophies of this election for the GOP: the seat of majority leader Harry Reid. Her campaign, however, has suffered through several misfires of intemperate remarks, awkward run-ins with media and voters, and backpedaling from hard-line views, such as privatizing Social Security and Medicare and eliminating the EPA and departments of education and energy. She has, however, been able to raise a staggering amount of money -- $14 million in last quarter -- and her strident pitch against the Beltway mentality has resonated with Nevadans in one of the states hardest hit by the housing downtown. Reid, on the other hand, has struggled to spark much enthusiasm among independents.

Prospects: After swapping leads with Reid in the polls for much of the late summer, Angle has seemed to regain her footing, up by 3 percentage points. Fans of politics might need plenty of coffee for this one: Returns will probably be coming in through the early morning.

?A West Point graduate, he earned the Bronze Star in the Gulf War.

?A Yale Law graduate, he served as a state judge and federal judge.

?Lost his first attempt for elective office, for state representative in 2004.

Campaign: Propelled by support from fellow Alaskan Sarah Palin, Miller won a stunning upset in primary, edging out GOP incumbent Lisa Murkowski, a body blow to national Republican leaders. That was only Act I in this political drama. Murkowski has bounced back with a write-in campaign that features fliers picturing skis to guide voters on how to spell her name, and Democrat Scott McAdams is showing life in a state where his party had been on the edge of extinction for years. Miller vows to drastically cut the size of government, but the only thing shrinking now is his lead. His campaign has been freighted by controversy recently, with charges that his family had received various federal benefits despite his criticism of such programs. With questions swirling on how to verify Murkowski’s write-in votes and with potential challenges to thousands of ballots expected, campaign watchers say Alaskans could be in for an extended and contentious tallying of ballots.

Prospects: It’s a tossup between Miller and Murkowski, with McAdams about 10 percentage points behind.

*All poll results are from an averaging of recent surveys by political website, fivethirtyeight blog.

SOURCES: New York Times, Washington Post, campaign websites

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MPs accuse Google on wi-fi data - BBC News

29 October 2010 Last updated at 08:48 ET Google grabbed wi-fi data to help with location-based services

MPs have accused Google of deliberately collecting wi-fi data for commercial gain.

It is another twist to events kicked off by the search giant collecting of millions of pieces of sensitive information via its Street View cars.

Discovery of the data triggered investigations around the globe.

Google has always maintained that the data was collected in error because of code being mistakenly included in the Street View software.

The code was created by a Google engineer as part of a wider project to map wi-fi hotspots but should never have found its way into Street View cars, the search giant said.

Google's head of PR told the BBC's Today programme this week that there was code incorporated into Street View which was intended to map wi-fi hotspots in order to improve Google's location-based services.

But it was never the intention that any part of it would also suck up personal and sensitive information relating to unsecured wireless networks, he said.

"This data has never been used in any Google product, was never intended to be used by Google and will never be used," he said.

Continue reading the main story

I find it hard to believe that a company with the creative genius and originality of Google could map the personal wi-fi details, computer passwords and e-mail addresses of millions of people across the world and not know what it was doing”

End Quote Robert Halfon Conservative MP He added that Google had now stopped collecting any wi-fi data, had "isolated" the personal data and wanted to delete it as soon as investigations by information commissions around the world had concluded.

During a two-hour parliamentary debate on privacy, MPs questioned Google's version of events.

Conservative MP Robert Halfon questioned Google's insistence that the details were sucked up by Street View cars as a result of code being accidentally included in the software.

"I find it hard to believe that a company with the creative genius and originality of Google could map the personal wi-fi details, computer passwords and e-mail addresses of millions of people across the world and not know what it was doing," he said.

"My own feeling is that this data was of use to Google for commercial purposes and that is why it was done.

The question is whether the company underestimated the reaction of the public, and many governments around the world, once it had been revealed what it had done."

Google said that the allegations were "completely untrue".

Graham Cluley, a senior consultant at security firm Sophos, told the BBC that he found it "surprising" that Google staff did not realise that the Street View cars were storing more than just the location of wi-fi hotspots.

"If you were competent then it would be surprising that you wouldn't know that you were storing far more than you actually needed," he said.

Refuge pictures

During the two-hour parliamentary debate, there was wider criticism of the Street View service, which offers detailed maps of the country on a street-by-street basis.

Continue reading the main story The essential step is to turn on the encryption system built in to your router.This will prompt you to set up a password to browse via the router. Choose one that's hard to guess and combines letters and numbers.As a final step, change the default admin password for the router. Again, choose one that is hard to guess.Conservative MP Mark Lancaster cited a women's refuge in his constituency which had asked to be removed from Street View.

"Imagine their great concern when on entering the name of the organisation on Google, a picture of the building the refugees use and also their addresses appear on the search engine," he said.

He said that requests to Google to remove the refuge from the map had received no response.

"I find it staggering that such an invasion of privacy on an organisation whose purpose is to protect others is allowed to occur," he said.

Google told the BBC that it was unaware of this particular case.

"Anyone can request an image for removal using our simple 'report a problem' tool in Street View. When they do we remove the image quickly," said a Google spokeswoman.

No investigation

In June Privacy International made a complaint to the UK Metropolitan police, saying the data collection put Google in breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).

Broadband minister Ed Vaizey revealed during the debate that the police had "decided that it would not be appropriate" to launch a criminal investigation in the matter.

But he said that he planned to meet with Google to discuss the data breaches.

MPs also criticised the way the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) had handled the matter, describing it as "lily-livered".

In July, the ICO said that Google did not harvest "significant" personal details when the data was collected.

But as more details have emerged about the nature of the data it is reassessing its position.

"Earlier this year the ICO visited Google's premises to make a preliminary assessment of the 'pay-load' data it inadvertently collected.

Whilst the information we saw at the time did not include meaningful personal details, we have continued to liaise with, and await the findings of, the investigations carried out by our international counterparts," it said in a statement.

"Now that these findings are starting to emerge, we understand that Google has accepted that in some instances entire URLs and e-mail and passwords have been captured," it added.

In the light of this the ICO said it was "deciding on the necessary course of action, including a consideration of the need to use our enforcement powers".

Investigations conducted by the Canadian information commissioner revealed that Google had collected some highly sensitive information including complete e-mails, lists of names of people suffering from a certain medical conditions, telephone numbers and addresses.

Its findings go against Google's initial assertion that all the information collected was "fragmentary".

The Canadian investigation found that Google was in breach of privacy laws but said no further action would be taken if Google tightened up its internal privacy policies.

Medical conditions

The US Federal Trade Commission ended its investigation yesterday, welcoming changes Google has recently announced to its internal processes.

On Friday Google revealed that it would be creating a director of privacy and offering more training and better procedures regarding privacy.

"Every engineering project leader will be required to maintain a privacy design document for each initiative they are working on," Google said in a statement.

But it still faces on-going investigation in the US, with a lawsuit looming and a large scale enquiry backed by 38 states demanding detailed explanations about the process which led to so much personal data being stored by Google.

It has pressed Google to name the engineer responsible and to explain in full how the code he designed came to be incorporated in Street View.

Google has never publicly named the engineer.

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