Jeffrey Rosen interviews Cass Sunstein about the NSA task force recommendations (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHEnYkJx6lZd4PklsyJww7480CfVmwHO6ipqW9uJcfOb_X7tutcmMvf-ASZ2FlPrrnEsR23FfX3oUr86aNixEQ7OFKWXQ5ONWPINeeny3Hi8eh9nO9tAv7lxGglOzcPSAE-Dt3CXvCZs/s1600/NSAlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHEnYkJx6lZd4PklsyJww7480CfVmwHO6ipqW9uJcfOb_X7tutcmMvf-ASZ2FlPrrnEsR23FfX3oUr86aNixEQ7OFKWXQ5ONWPINeeny3Hi8eh9nO9tAv7lxGglOzcPSAE-Dt3CXvCZs/s1600/NSAlogo.jpg" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15711" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15716">On December 20, the day after the President’s Review Group on Communications and Intelligence Technologies issued its <a data-rapid_p="8" href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/929267/review-group-exec-summary-and-recs.pdf" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">recommendations for reform of American surveillance policies</a>, The New Republic’s legal affairs editor and National Constitution Center President, Jeffrey Rosen, interviewed Cass Sunstein, a member of the Review Group, about the recommendations in the report. An edited transcript of their conversations follows.</em></div><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">JR:</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> Let’s run through the major recommendations, which you </span><a data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/protecting-citizens-and-their-privacy.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;">summarized</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> in </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The New York Times</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">. Tell us about the first recommendation: that the government should stop storing bulk telephone metadata for domestic surveillance, and the data should be held by private third parties and only accessible by a court order.</span><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15638" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> The idea is that for the government to hold metadata of that magnitude creates risks to public trust, privacy and civil liberties. The risks shouldn’t be overstated. We didn’t find that government is trying to snoop on political dissenters or trying to go after people’s private lives, but there are risks in government ownership of such material through storage. The question is whether those risks are justified by national security needs, and our conclusion is they aren’t. You can have a more standard process by which the government doesn’t store otherwise private data but still has access by a showing of need. We think that transition to a more standard procedure– the data is held privately and the government has access only by a showing of need – strikes a better balance between privacy and security.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15734" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Some civil libertarians think that even allowing private storage concedes too much. Did you consider recommending that the data not be collected and stored at all?</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15740" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Under existing FCC law there’s an 18-month requirement of storage by the phone companies, which is motivated by a consumer protection rationale. The fact that many companies voluntarily keep this material for longer periods, and the fact that the FCC requires retention for reasons that have nothing to do with national security, seems to us suggestive that there are legitimate reasons to hold the material. The risks of private owning don’t seem high and the possibility of helping to protect the safety of the American people is real. In the face of that possibility, a system of private ownership and government access on the proper showing seems to strike the right balance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You recommend tightening the standard the government has to meet to access the data. How so?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> We believe if government has access to data, it has to be limited in scope, like a subpoena. The data have to be tightly and narrowly limited, and the government has to a reasonable belief that the material is relevant to an investigation that involves national security or foreign intelligence. The idea that there’s a reasonable belief the data is relevant to an investigation means the government is put to a kind of demonstration of relevance, and you have to get the court convinced of that relevance. So the model we’re trying to create is more like the conventional subpoena model, with judicial safeguards.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The two previous administrations said the old standard of access to the data was just like a grand jury subpoena, but in fact it wasn’t.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I’d want to leave to others the characterization of previous system. We believe that to see this as a standard subpoena with independent court approval is more consonant with our legal traditions. It deprives the government of nothing that it deserves to have access to and ensures appearance and reality of oversight.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You recommend that the government shouldn’t have access to private information held by third parties (like telephone companies or Internet providers) without a court order. In her <a data-rapid_p="11" href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1259.pdf" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">concurrence</a> in the Jones GPS case, Justice Sonia Sotomayor identified the “third party doctrine,” which holds that Americans have no constitutionally protected expectations of privacy in data held by third parties, as the biggest threat to privacy today. Were you trying to address the problems with the third party doctrine?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Our group wasn’t thinking in constitutional terms, but we were saying that if people’s bank records are of concern to the government, the government should have access only if there’s sufficient reason to get them. We believe that whatever the Fourth Amendment was originally understood to mean, it’s right in the modern era to say that fact that people dealing with a credit card or internet company doesn’t mean it’s open season on their transactions or communications.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Would implementing this and other recommendations require legislation, or could it be done by an administrative regulation?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> In each case, it depends on the program. There are things that the executive branch can do on its own that would be respectful of this kind of recommendation. We didn’t clearly separate the things that would require legislation and the things that are properly handled by the executive but certainly elements of what I just described could be done within the executive branch.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report talks a lot about the importance of transparency and urges Congress to pass laws authorizing telephone and Internet providers to disclose the now secret orders they get from the government telling them to turn over private data. Tell us about the transparency recommendations.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> They have several motivations. Justice Brandeis said sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we think accountability to the public in terms of what the government is doing is desirable in a democracy. The recommendation that the government disclose orders on its own and that Congress should authorize the companies to do so is partly motivated by the accountability goal. There’s also another interest. I don’t think anyone wants our national security policies to be having adverse effects on our economic goals. The idea that American companies would be at a competitive disadvantage for fear that their customers aren’t being allowed to communicate safely and securely with others, no one wants that. So the idea of the disclosure is to provide some mechanism for assurance about what government is actually asking. We think that because the requests aren’t are as numerous and alarming as some people fear, transparency is a good idea for that reason.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You say that if the government happens to collect the data of Americans when they’re communicating with non-Americans, it shouldn’t be allowed to use that data in any legal proceedings against the Americans. What was the thinking behind that recommendation?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> If an American is communicating with someone outside the country, which is hardly unusual, and if the government lawfully but inadvertently picks up the material and finds out something about the American, we recommend that it can’t use that as evidence against the American if there’s no national security rationale. The idea is that section 702, [the part of the foreign intelligence law that justifies the surveillance of non-Americans], was about national security and if Americans are incidentally swept up because they’re talking to other people, that’s not legitimately used as evidence against Americans. It wasn’t intended as a program for surveillance of Americans.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Some European countries have adopted controls on the use of data swept up in national security investigations. In Germany, for example, foreign intelligence information can’t be shared with law enforcement unless it relates to terrorism – evidence of low-level crimes can’t be introduced in court. But the Germans don’t distinguish so sharply between citizens and non-citizens. What was your model in making this recommendation?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> It was based on an understanding of what section 702 is about and how to square it with our ordinary privacy safeguards. We monitor not foreigners generally but foreigners who want to do violence to us, and if in course of legitimate monitoring of people who want to do us violence in Saudi Arabia, one person is American and it turns out to be an innocuous conversation – say, what you learn about an American involves gambling­ – that’s not the way we convict people of gambling, by listening in on their phone calls on unrelated matter. The idea was not necessarily to build on any particular model others have adopted but to ensure that the 702 program was focused on what the 702 program was about: communications by non-U.S. persons that are legitimately connected with a national security investigation.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report does say that the protections of the federal privacy act should apply to all people, citizens and non- citizens alike. Tell us about that recommendation.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> The basic idea is that there’s evident concern in a number of nations that the United States is spying on people. The fact is that such surveillance is done for national security purposes, not other purposes. That’s important and true, we think it’s very important to affirm that the use of any surveillance will never be done to target people’s political convictions, their religious beliefs or would never be done to go after trade secrets or promote the interest of domestic industries. We also think the Privacy Act, which the Department of Homeland Security actually has applied to non-Americans as a presumption, should be applied by all agencies to non-Americans so that there are fair information practices. That means that if people have access to information the government has, they can correct errors and restrict dissemination.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">We also think that there’s a very important part of U.S. law called minimization, where, inside the government, you’re not going to disseminate people’s names even if you have a query where you find them. The idea is that if you discover someone’s name in a foreign country, and there’s an investigation where the name pops up lawfully, once you know there’s no national security reason to have concern, you don’t disseminate. No nation treats foreign nationals outside of its territorial boarders exactly the same as it treats its own citizens, but these various steps would go a significant way toward affirming values that are constitutionally required or in our domestic law.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Was there any consideration about applying the same surveillance standards for Americans as non-Americans?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> We thought long and hard about the options, but there are challenges about applying the same standards to non-Americans and Americans alike. The system doesn’t equally treat people outside the country exactly the same as people inside the country, but our recommendations would go a long way in that direction</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report says the president should require high-level approval of all sensitive intelligence requests against all non-citizens, including foreign leaders. What’s the idea there?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> This is a large recommendation, and it’s important to isolate what makes it large. If the United States is involved in hostilities with another nation or if it’s involved in some very tense conflict that doesn’t amount to hostilities, it’s perfectly legitimate to learn what you can to save lives. Every country does that. On the other hand, we don’t want to be recording material just because we can. If we have nations with whom we share values and interests, the fact that we can engage in surveillance doesn’t mean we should.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">There are many reasons for that. One has to do with respect. Another has to do with mainlining cooperative and congenial relations. The idea is you don’t just want the intelligence community, as honorable and impressive as it is, to be making the decision about the scope of surveillance. This should be done by very high-level policy makers. You want to have a process by which people with multiple perspectives — including economic perspectives, including treaty formation perspectives, including maintaining collegiality perspectives — are playing a role in the decision about the uses of surveillance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Another way to put it, which I saw in government myself, is that often an entity, whether it’s the Department of Transportation of the Department of the Interior or the Environmental Protection Agency, has its own knowledge and perspective. That’s really important, but for an administration-wide decision, you want multiple people involved, including those who have a focus maybe that the particular department or agency doesn’t have foremost in its mind. The idea of senior policy level review is designed to ensure a broader perspective</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report recommends FISA Court reforms, including more transparency of decisions and a public interest advocate to represent civil liberties and privacy interests.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> This is an extremely important recommendation. We have a great deal of respect for the FISA court and its judges. We think the institution makes sense. When the court was created, it was thought most of its decisions would be deciding whether to issue a subpoena, and that was supposed to be a small fact based decision. But it turns out that some of its decisions involve large questions of law that depend not just on the facts but also on big judgments about how the law should be understood. For anything like that, an adversarial proceeding is really important. Ours is an adversarial system, and someone presenting privacy and civil liberties concerns will promote the public interest and make the court function more like a standard court does in cases that have high level stakes. In addition, as recent decisions have shown, a number of the FISA court’s decision belongs in the public domain. There’s no reason to keep them from the people, so to move toward declassification is a good idea</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Another thing we say is we’d like to change is the mechanism for composing the FISA court. It’s now the case that 10 of the 11 judges are Republican nominees to the federal bench. While we all have all the respect in the world for Chief Justice Roberts, and no one thinks he is trying to stack the bench in any way, it’s not ideal if any court of this importance has one or another party showing that kind of percentage domination. To split the choices among the various justices is one approach. The approach we recommend is toward decentralizing the appointment process. If we have a mix of choosers, we’ll almost inevitably have a mix of choices as a result.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It would take Congress to enact that recommendation but everyone is on notice now that the 10 out of 11 from one party isn’t ideal and it wouldn’t be surprising if the next appointees show a better mix.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You also say that Congress should strengthen the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, creating a new oversight body.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> There’s a current board called PCLOB that is understaffed and under resourced. It’s not in a position to provide the strong independent voice we think the system deserves. We think there should be a new board, whose mission would be to oversee not just terrorism related judgments but a broader array and be in a capacity to review and assess the protection of privacy and civil liberties throughout the government. This, by the way, is part of two- pronged institutional change. The other is we think there should be a privacy official within the white house, dual hatted both in the National Security Council and OMB whose portfolio is privacy protection to have an internal privacy person and an independent entity creates two levels of safeguards. One thing I saw in government is that it matters who is in the room. If you have someone in the room that has a privacy profile, that makes a difference</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You say the U.S. should support international treaties and promise not to subvert or get around commercial encryption.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> One very important idea that has bipartisan support is that the Internet should be a free area where there won’t be suppression or dissent. We won’t create the Splinternet, which is something some people are worried about. One thing we’re recommending is that the US reaffirm policies stated in 2011, open policies for Internet governance. Also, the affirmation that we will respect encryption and not create backdoors. That’s not meant as a commentary on what’s been feared and claimed but it’s a forward-looking recommendation for U.S. policies consistent with our commitment to a genuinely free and open Internet.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> All the spying scandals dating back to the nineties have involved concerns about U.S. hacking and the government’s insistence on backdoors around commercial encryption.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> There’s a part of the report that discusses the allegations and what we understand to be the case. But the report is not a kind of retrospective assessment of existing practice. What the president asked us to do is to make recommendations for the future not to conduct an ex post evaluation of recent years. We did get careful briefing on existing practice, and our emphasis was informed by those briefings.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> You say that while classified information should be shared on a “need to known” basis, departments and agencies should have “work related” access. What’s the difference there?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Here’s the way to understand that recommendation. There was an idea that was prominent in the intelligence community especially before 9/11, which was “need to know.” After 9/11, it was reasonably thought that could result in an inability to get a full picture of emerging threats. So there was an idea that some people appeared to speak for which was called “need to share.” That was designed to ensure against keeping things in buckets, which prevented the government from getting an adequate picture of what the threats were.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">What we propose instead is that there’s a need to share with people who need to know. By itself, the need to know model is inadequate if it doesn’t take on board the importance of separate buckets and the need to share model can create risks to national security and privacy when people are getting access to material merely because they’re curious. The idea of work related access says that if it’s necessary for your work, you get to see it, but not if you are interested in it or would like to be informed by it. We have a large number of reforms designed to reduce the risks that people inside or outside the government will see material even if it’s not necessary for their work. That’s important both for national security purposes – we don’t want people leaking practices which are secret – and it’s also important for privacy purposes – we don’t want the restrictions on dissemination of material to be violated by people seeing stuff simply because they’re curious.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Security and privacy concerns sometimes conflict. Did either predominate in your deliberations?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Both were important, but it’s fair to say that there are a range of recommendations designed to reduce insider threats, and those have an initial motivation as a national security protection. The risks that surveillance is designed to reduce can also be augmented if government releases classified information because it hasn’t adequately confined the number of people who have access to that information.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Your report wouldn’t have been possible without the Snowden disclosures. Does he deserve our thanks?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> We believe there are internal processes for bringing to people’s attentions concerns about government practices. The right way to respond to concerns about existing practices is through internal channels that are ample and fair, and not through illegality.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> How likely is it that the White House and Congress will implement your recommendations?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I don’t have a crystal ball. The president’s made clear that he’s taking it very seriously. I know from being there that if the president wants a report to be taken seriously, it will be taken seriously. I have all the confidence in the world that recommendations that withstand careful security will be considered very carefully. There are recommendations that could run into counter arguments that maybe we didn’t adequately appreciate, and those recommendations will be bracketed.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> What about Congress?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I certainly don’t have a crystal ball with respect to Congress. We did meet with the heads of the Senate and Foreign Relations Committees both on the Republican and Democratic sides. They are very interested people with a range of views. We’ll see.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> What surprised you most about what you learned on the commission?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> That’s a great question. I had no clear expectation about what would happen. Maybe the biggest surprise was that there was no division on the group on any of the recommendations. The unanimity on 46 recommendations of 300 pages of text — it would have been a lot to expect going in that would happen with five pretty diverse people.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">We worked extremely congenially together, and we decided at the outset that if we had a difference of opinion, we’d note it. In other words, the majority thinks this and minority thinks that. It would have been reasonable to expect splits, but in the end, there was nothing on which we split.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report says that while privacy and security sometimes involves balancing, on some questions, there can be no balancing. Do your recommendations set out to protect privacy and security at same time?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> It’s true that sometimes a balance needs to be struck but some things compactly off limits. If some people are dissenters or worshiping at a particular alter, then to engage in surveillance of them for that reason is not ok with us. Our government does not and should not engage in surveillance to get trade secrets or to give an unjustified economic advantage to domestic companies. There are some considerations that don’t involve a balance because they’re legitimate grounds for surveillance. That distinction between illegitimate and legitimate grounds is an extremely important part of what distinguishing free country from an unfree one. Countries that aren’t free have surveillance to protect those in political power, to intimidate, to punish dissenters. It’s not as if the goals there are part of the balance. They are not part of the balance. Some grounds for surveillance are per se illegitimate.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> The report notes that some forms of surveillance haven’t made us more secure. Have any surveillance programs actually worked?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Everyone agrees that section 702 is very useful. The 702 program, which involves non-U.S. persons, there are documented cases where that program has been a significant contributor. There is a consensus, and we see no reason to disagree with this, in the intelligence community about the importance of the 702 program. On the domestic side, the evidence is less overwhelming. I’ll let the report speak for itself, and here I’m just speaking for myself.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">I believe there is value in allowing the government to be able to get at metadata not because it holds it and stores it itself but because it’s gone through the normal legal process to contribute information to actual and prospective threats. So for 702 the record is unambiguous. For section 215 [of the Patriot Act] it doesn’t have the overwhelming character of the 702 program in terms of effectiveness.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Section 215 of the Patriot Act has been the most controversial provision, especially as construed by the FISA Court, which would allow the government to seize any data that might be relevant to future investigations that don’t yet exist. How would your report change the construction of section 215?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Probably most important thing in the report on section 215 is that the metadata material shouldn’t be held by the government any more. Many people are concerned that the government is holding and storing telephone metadata, and we share that concern. It’s not that government has been prying into people’s private life and going after dissenters. But there are risks if the government holds this material. There are risks to public trust, to privacy and liberty. We think that a better system is one in which private providers hold that information and the government can’t get access to it except by getting judicial authorization. The judicial authorization would be available on two conditions. First, the request has to be reasonable and focused in scope and breadth. You can’t get subpoena by saying I want everyone’s phone calls. Second, the government has to have not just a wish for material but reasonable grounds to believe that material its seeks is relevant to an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine terrorist activity.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">If after the bombing in say, Boston, the government has reasonable grounds to figure out who was having conversations with a suspect, there’s a pretty good argument that the information sought is relevant and time may be of the essence. The idea of getting who is calling whom, that’s legitimate under standard legal rules, but the idea is that government isn’t holding material and the court will allow the government to have access only on a particular showing.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> So if your recommendations are adopted, the government couldn’t do the “three hops” analysis it’s doing now, where it investigates all the numbers called by a suspect, all the numbers those numbers call, and all the numbers those numbers call?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> No, not unless you specified what you wanted. Three hops would be a lot to ask for, and you’d’ have to explain why that is a good idea. Obviously, in the aftermath of an apparent terrorist attack either of the magnitude of what happened after 9/11 or the magnitude of what happened in Boston, our report didn’t specify what would be the acceptable requests. But if you had a terrible attack, the government might reasonably want more than it would if it just had a report of a possibility.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> Your group didn’t have access to <a data-rapid_p="12" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115962/courts-nsa-ruling-against-metadata-collection-fourth-amendment-win" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Judge Richard Leon’s opinion</a> questioning the constitutionality of the metadata surveillance program. But it’s consistent with some of your recommendations.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS</strong>: I didn’t read the opinion after the report was finalized and I haven’t gone back and forth from one document to the other. Our report is free standing. The members of our group have a legal background, but we weren’t making a legal determination. Our task was to think about policy.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> How would shutting down the database work in practical terms?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> The idea would be that phone companies already have the information and voluntarily some of them hold the information for a long time. They would have it, and the government could get access if it needed it. The challenge for the government is what if the phone calls involve several carriers? Can they figure out this carrier was involved and this one and can they query them in away that is workable despite the fact that there talking to different entities? We believe that is technically feasible. The idea would be that government would go to carriers with a technical mechanism by which it could check the various numbers that are involved. We recognize that our judgment that this is technically feasible is an empirical judgment and not every one shares it. We suggest that if it turns out not to be feasible, an alternative worth considering would be another private entity that could hold the material. It would have to be a genuinely private entity. We would leave to others which that private entity should be. That’s not our preferred outcome, though. Our preferred outcome is that there’s a need to access the material, and you get to the people who have the metadata.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> So the current data collection system and the government database would have to be shut down?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> Yes, we would transition from a system where the government has the information to one, which is based on the status quo, where phone companies have the information.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15819" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>JR:</strong> if you could pick a single recommendation to be implemented, what’s the most important?</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15813" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>CS:</strong> I wouldn’t single any one. We’re committed to all 46.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15790" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15802">Jeffrey Rosen is the CEO and president of the National Constitution Center, and also the legal affairs editor of </em>The New Republic. <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116027/nsa-reform-report-panelist-cass-sunstein-metadata-storage" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15796" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_15795">This article first appeared in The New Republic.</em></a></div></div>

Jeffrey Rosen interviews Cass Sunstein about the NSA task force recommendations (BLOG)

On December 20, the day after the President’s Review Group on Communications and Intelligence Technologies issued its  recommendations for r...

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Water in Ageing Spacesuit Caused Problems for Astronaut (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJotR-cXOuAf21mD6-QN4nX6C654LKAl7XMgUIEUffaOkN6juVKTO3W42Nz3fs5Oaz39aJTlbaaajxh110IGr0SVYZkvfsjziCv5qJoN_dB22YBbXTUxZEdwlcRmK-RYAH3rpLsRyAYc/s1600/ap_international_space_station_wy_131220_16x9_992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJotR-cXOuAf21mD6-QN4nX6C654LKAl7XMgUIEUffaOkN6juVKTO3W42Nz3fs5Oaz39aJTlbaaajxh110IGr0SVYZkvfsjziCv5qJoN_dB22YBbXTUxZEdwlcRmK-RYAH3rpLsRyAYc/s320/ap_international_space_station_wy_131220_16x9_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13513" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">NASA's Mission Control has revealed the problem that prompted the early end of the latest spacewalk: Water in one of the astronaut's 35-year-old spacesuits.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13519" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The spacewalk ended short of its anticipated six-and-a-half-hour time frame when Mastracchio, the lead spacewalker, began complaining about chilly temperatures in his space suit.Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and fellow astronaut Michael Hopkins ran into trouble while they were conducting an urgent repair outside the <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/space-station.htm" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">International Space Station</a> during a spacewalk that lasted five hours and 28 minutes.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13530" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The seven-time spacewalker said his feet were cold during at least part of the nearly five-and-a-half-hour walk and at times had to re-adjust temperature controls in his suit.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13536" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Even before the emergency repair mission began,<a data-rapid_p="14" href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/nasa.htm" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">NASA</a> acknowledged it was working with aging spacesuits, which were designed in the same era of the space shuttle.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13542" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Because the suits are 35 years old we review the hazards every so often as a matter of course," NASA's ISS Program Manager, Mike Suffredini told ABC News Radio.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13548" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The astronauts began working at 7:01 a.m. ET on Saturday to replace a degraded ammonia pump module associated with one of the station's two cooling loops that keep internal and external equipment cool, NASA said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13554" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The engineers raced to successfully remove, ahead of schedule, the cooling pump that has jeopardized operations aboard the ISS since it broke on Dec. 11.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 780-pound pump is about the size of a double-door refrigerator and difficult to handle, with plumbing full of toxic ammonia, <a data-rapid_p="15" href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nasa-astronauts-begin-urgent-spacewalking-repairs-21297124" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">The Associated Press reported</a>. Flight controllers tried but failed to fix the bad valve through remote commanding.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">During the repairs, the astronauts communicated with Mission Control Houston about the procedure. NASA's website offered the public a live video feed showing the astronauts and Mission Control.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">At one point, when Mission Control asked Mastracchio to extend the spacewalk, he balked.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"My vote would be to call it for today, but it's up to you guys if you really want to go out there," Mastracchio said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The work of the two astronauts Saturday was part of a planned series of spacewalks to replace the ammonia pump module.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">While the astronauts successfully removed the pump on Saturday, plans to replace it two days later have been delayed. The pair will now spend Christmas Eve trying to finish the work, after NASA cancelled Monday's spacewalk to investigate what caused the latest malfunction.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">NASA says a third spacewalk would occur on Christmas Day if necessary to finalize the installation of the replacement pump module. It would be the first Christmas spacewalk for NASA.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13558" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Mastracchio has conducted six previous spacewalks, and holds the record for the 14th longest total number of spacewalking hours. He wore extra safety gear to prevent a recurrence of helmet flooding that nearly drowned an Italian astronaut last summer. This was Hopkins' first spacewalk.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_13564" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The two astronauts received guidance on the spacewalk procedures from NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who replaced the pump at the same location during three spacewalks in August 2010, NASA said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em>ABC News' SUSANNA KIM, ABC News Radio and the AP Contributed to this report.</em></div></div>

Water in Ageing Spacesuit Caused Problems for Astronaut (BLOG)

NASA's Mission Control has revealed the problem that prompted the early end of the latest spacewalk: Water in one of the astronaut's...

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Weight Reduction with Capsiplex

<div style='font-style:italic;' class='uawbyline'>By Charles Kate</div><br /><br /> <div class='uawarticle'>With the number of diet supplements out there, it is easy to get confused as to which is the best supplement for losing weight and which is best for your needs. Our experts have reviewed many products in the market to assist you in making an informed choice on the best supplements for losing weight. Even though some supplements make high and questionable weight loss claims, others contain inferior ingredients which do not work.<br /> <br /> What exactly is Capsiplex?<br /> <br /> Capsiplex is a very effective supplement for losing weight. By taking one capsule per day, you could burn 278 calories which is equal to jogging for 25 minutes. It is intended for those who are too busy to follow extreme workouts or crash diet programs. It is a 100% natural product produced from hot peppers, capsicum and tiny quantity of caffeine. It does not contain any harmful substances or synthetic chemical compounds that make it very safe and secure to use.<br /> <br /> Benefits of Capsiplex<br /> <br /> 1) Can burn to 278 calories per day - Burns calories while you sit at your desk 2) Improves metabolism - Faster metabolic process means your body can burn fat and calories faster 3) Burns carbohydrates and extra fat - Burning carbs and fats results in weight loss. 4) Helps reduce appetite - Makes you feel fuller and reduce your cravings 5) Boosts energy levels - Helps you feel less tired at home and at work<br /> <br /> Capsiplex Ingredients<br /> <br /> The main ingredients are capsicum extract, black pepper extracts (piperine), niacin (vitamin B3) and caffeine.<br /> <br /> Capsicum - Capsicum or red hot chilli pepper has been used for hundreds of years in cooking and in herbal medicine to treat various ailments including circulation and digestion. The heat from Capsicum boosts the body's temperature which then stimulates metabolism by up to 12 times. As your metabolic rate increases, your body starts burning fats and calories naturally in a process called thermogenesis. This results in fast natural weight loss.<br /> <br /> Capsiplex Unwanted Effects<br /> <br /> As Capsiplex is 100% natural product containing 100 % natural ingredients, there are no negative effects. It does not contain any harmful substances or synthetic chemical compounds that make it very safe and secure to use. It was developed by a UK Pharmaceutical Company after years of medical research and clinical tests and is built to prevent any kind of unwanted effects.<br /> <br /> How does Capsiplex work?<br /> <br /> It is a natural fat burner which fits and burns calories while you go about your normal day. However if you combine it with light exercise and nutritious diet you will achieve your unwanted weight loss goals faster and healthier.<br /> <br /> </div><br /> <div class='uawresource'><br /> <div style='font-style:italic;' class='uawabout'><br /> About the Author:<br /> </div><br /> <div class='uawlinks'>Joshpeckweightlosstips.com contains info on weight loss, vitamin supplements and diet programs. For more info, Please visit <a href="http://joshpeckweightlosstips.com/">http://joshpeckweightlosstips.com/</a></div><br /> </div><br />

Weight Reduction with Capsiplex

By Charles Kate With the number of diet supplements out there, it is easy to get confused as to which is the best supplement for losing we...

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Green Tea Supplement Guidelines On How To Keep Your Body Healthy

<div style='font-style:italic;' class='uawbyline'>By Robert D</div><br /><br /> <div class='uawarticle'>You will see from the labels on all food products which "nutrition" is actually a word that covers every one of the food's nutrients. Here are a few nutrition tips that can shed light for this sometimes-confusing topic.<br /> <br /> Green Leaf Tea<br /> <br /> To improve your health, try skipping the sweet tea and drink green tea instead. Green tea leaf is shown to increase your metabolic process and protect against various forms of cancer. It will also reduce your cholesterol. Don't drink green tea leaf from the box, though. Brew it yourself having a tea bag or use loose leaves.<br /> <br /> When trying to lose weight, it is essential that you keep the metabolism high. Green leaf tea might help. Green tea has components that have been shown to increase your metabolism. Furthermore, spicy foods have been proven to raise the metabolism. Consider adding chili peppers in your food to accomplish this.<br /> <br /> A lot of people love drinking iced tea, but try drinking green iced tea rather than "regular" iced tea. Green tea has polyphenols, that help protect against cancer, reduce cholesterol and get anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Black tea contains polyphenols too, but a lot less than green tea leaf. Green tea extract also offers less caffeine than black tea.<br /> <br /> A great nutritional tip would be to start drinking green leaf tea. Green tea leaf is rich with antioxidants, and research has shown that green tea extract can certainly delay fatigue during harsh exercise. Drinking green tea leaf offers us with increased energy and causes more fat to become burned during exercise.<br /> <br /> Drink a single serving of green tea extract everyday in your daily fluid intake. The caffeine present in tea stimulates alertness and may improve your mood. Green tea extract is also a rich supply of catechins, an antioxidant which scientists believe could control heart problems which will help prevent the formation of thrombus.<br /> <br /> Add green tea to your diet. Green tea extract contains polyphenols, that are powerful antioxidants. It offers anti-inflammatory properties that may protect your skin layer and benefit its general health. Drinking green tea will help you to minimize the damage from sunburn, subsequently reducing the risk of skin cancer. Attempt to drink two cups of green leaf tea every day.<br /> <br /> Drinking green tea extract can contribute to enhancing your nutrition. While a big component of nutrition involves appropriate eating, developing a healthy metabolism can also be essential. Green leaf tea is of course efficient at boosting your metabolism. You must therefore incorporate a cup of green tea leaf within your daily routine, and make sure you use natural tea bags with boiling water instead of instant tea mixes.<br /> <br /> To help you improve your health, ditch all soda, including diet soda. Diet soda contains harmful chemicals and studies show they can can make your system crave more sugar. Instead, drink club soda and give a slice of fruit for flavor. If you want caffeine, try green tea leaf, which is rich in antioxidants.<br /> <br /> This article has given you ways to plan your nutrition around your daily life. Emphasized earlier, if you know how to plan your diet plan you're already many steps in front of the average person. Good nutrition is not merely significant but almost absolutely vital for personal development and growth nutritious diet is the foundation where good living is made.<br /> <br /> </div><br /> <div class='uawresource'><br /> <div style='font-style:italic;' class='uawabout'><br /> About the Author:<br /> </div><br /> <div class='uawlinks'>Before you buy any green tea products online, make sure you check Robert D' excellent free information about <a href="http://www.greenteapros.weebly.com/">green tea supplement</a>, and <a href='http://www.squidoo.com/green-tea-diet5'>green tea diet</a></div><br /> </div><br />

Green Tea Supplement Guidelines On How To Keep Your Body Healthy

By Robert D You will see from the labels on all food products which "nutrition" is actually a word that covers every one of the ...

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Ukraine opposition struggles after Russia deal (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJFyEj98nGgaWqDLda1iwcn8dD6i5WnlBIDyU4odBzbld9kFBEbDgpFLdYXjKH3bJWbkDHCU2sp_Gh0M8MX1foKPmUE_jHPpangmH1x-zKQx-ykDcsaQloK3cuUu0xiYFWaQf43vkUZo/s1600/060e63796bcf47b7b45f1ab563c9d4e9747ed8bb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJFyEj98nGgaWqDLda1iwcn8dD6i5WnlBIDyU4odBzbld9kFBEbDgpFLdYXjKH3bJWbkDHCU2sp_Gh0M8MX1foKPmUE_jHPpangmH1x-zKQx-ykDcsaQloK3cuUu0xiYFWaQf43vkUZo/s320/060e63796bcf47b7b45f1ab563c9d4e9747ed8bb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7754" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's opposition is in disarray after failing to offer a clear agenda to their supporters in response to the signing by President Viktor Yanukovych of a bailout deal with Russia, analysts say.</div><div class="body-slot-mod" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"><div class="yom-remote"><div class="" id="mediacontentrelatedstory_container"><section class="yom-mod " data-ylk="mid:mediacontentrelatedstory;mpos:1;elm:hdln;elmt:ct;cat:Related Stories;rspns:nav;t1:a3;itc:0;sec:lst-ct;" id="mediacontentrelatedstory" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></section></div></div></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7744" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">While the protests against the authorities' decision to scrap an integration pact with the EU under Kremlin pressure have continued in the streets of Kiev, opposition leaders appear unable to harness this support in an effective way.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7764" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to buy $15 billion (11 billion euros) of Ukraine's debt in eurobonds and slash its gas bill by a third to preserve Kremlin influence in its neighbour.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7769" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Tens of thousands rallied Sunday for the latest major weekend protest against Yanukovych but the turnout was the lowest since the mass protests started on November 24.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7775" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It is clear that Yanukovych has retained his standing and received an additional resource in the form of the deal with Russia," said Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Penta political research centre.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7780" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The protesters have occupied Independence Square -- known in Kiev as the Maidan -- since late November and erected barricades to prevent security forces from entering the area.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="200dce50-8f8d-3cd1-8dfb-9d33cd4c7b56" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-flags-left-protesters-remain-attached-statues-monument-photo-190821357.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Ukrainian flags left by protesters remain attached&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" id="geom_inter_77_1387828709655_26" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 202px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" id="geom_inter_80_1387828709671_17" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" id="geom_inter_78_1387828709671_60" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Ukrainian flags left by protesters remain attached&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="202" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/NPodO_7OoBuoFx5hoDfYGQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMjtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/f3c8cfe86911e36c8a0a5ba513ff182dd0906195.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" id="geom_inter_79_1387828709671_80" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Ukrainian flags left by protesters remain attached to statues at a monument honoring the founders of …</div></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7785" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Several police attempts to shift the protest camp ended in failure and provoked outrage inside and outside Ukraine over the use of force against peaceful protesters.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7790" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">While it seemed in early December that Yanukovych might not be able to withstand the protests, the Moscow agreement could be a turning point as the authorities seek to gain the upper hand.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7796" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">'There is no leader'</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7802" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The three main opposition leaders -- world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk who heads the faction of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and nationalist Oleg Tyagnybok -- have appeared at a loss over how to respond.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The three were taken aback by the lack of concessions offered in public by Yanukovych to the Kremlin for the help, which would have provided them with a major weapon to mobilise supporters.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="9" data-uuid="6fa624ce-cf4f-3269-a2b5-ccafbeedcb6b" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/protester-holds-daughter-camp-ukrainian-opposition-independence-square-photo-190821777.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="A protester holds his daughter, at the camp of the&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 200px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="A protester holds his daughter, at the camp of the&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="200" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/iSfid.gX5vBepqiGXEMeQA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/63eee6f3c199e682433108db3a2bc72ca0421592.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">A protester holds his daughter, at the camp of the Ukrainian opposition on Independence Square in Ki …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"There is no leader, no personification of the Maidan," said Ukrainian political analyst Vadym Karasev, adding the trio are also riven by internal divisions.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Their demands to punish policemen who beat up students during an early bid to disperse the protests on November 30 and the resignation of the current government are still unanswered.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Only Klitschko wants early presidential elections, but there is no support from others," said Karasev, saying the three opposition leaders had presidential ambitions with no desire to yield to the other.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Having missed the chance to shake Yanukovych from his perch, each of the opposition leaders may have already begun his campaign for the next presidential polls to be held in March 2015.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Experts believe that the opposition should have been more convincing in its closed-door negotiations with Ukraine's oligarchs, who control a lot of pro-government members of parliament.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="10" data-uuid="5ad72d5e-0d93-303f-ab92-1ad548fab1c9" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/protesters-cook-camp-ukrainian-opposition-independence-square-kiev-photo-190821980.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Protesters cook at the camp of the Ukrainian opposition&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 200px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Protesters cook at the camp of the Ukrainian opposition&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="200" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/IiqAaSnYoKGHs7XuVZGh3Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/cd9c4ffafb51d9f694dee7cd33cd7c883f55968c.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Protesters cook at the camp of the Ukrainian opposition on Independence Square in Kiev on December 2 …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Despite the annoyance of pickets outside their apartments and offices both in Ukraine and abroad, the Moscow deals show that the country's super rich are still behind Yanukovych for now.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"The backstage struggle failed. It was necessary to seek allies in parliament, among the oligarchs, but it was not done," Karasev said. An expected flood of defections from MPs in Yanukovych's Regions Party never happened.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Where is Yulia?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Another big problem is the lack among opposition trio of an obvious leader such as the jailed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a feisty icon of the 2004 Orange Revolution, whose detention supporters say is aimed at eliminating her from politics.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"There is no charismatic leader, no counterweight to Yanukovych," said Karasev.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The leader of the anti-Communist protest movement in the 1980s and former Polish president Lech Walesa told Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita that he did not "see a major social movement that would overthrow the government."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Experts say the opposition should prepare for long-term actions. But Tymoshenko has urged them not to waste the Maidan's protest energy by waiting for the 2015 polls to change the president.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7819" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">She was echoed by former emergencies minister in her cabinet, Viktor Baloga, who called on the opposition "to prevent a loss of tempo" and to prepare an action plan for the near future.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_7812" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"If this goes on, 2015 will not come. It's about saving the country where we live," he wrote on his Facebook page.</div></div>

Ukraine opposition struggles after Russia deal (BLOG)

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's opposition is in disarray after failing to offer a clear agenda to their supporters in response to the signing by...

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5 things to know after Arizona stuns Seattle 17-10 (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPp0GY4lA1hiw4BRQ5tmRxG2c5itIXraeqAvQRWFVXnkgW3JDefTrqiNCYT6dPi1CNstDddSIcbpYqbdYxWjPAL4Yg3ID6BJirn6VjJLAcP0nWGRxHeZa0rLU0DuEai61thSsfQolRT7k/s1600/dbfbd78b1711b02b460f6a706700fce1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPp0GY4lA1hiw4BRQ5tmRxG2c5itIXraeqAvQRWFVXnkgW3JDefTrqiNCYT6dPi1CNstDddSIcbpYqbdYxWjPAL4Yg3ID6BJirn6VjJLAcP0nWGRxHeZa0rLU0DuEai61thSsfQolRT7k/s320/dbfbd78b1711b02b460f6a706700fce1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5586" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">SEATTLE (AP) — The last time Arizona walked into CenturyLink Field, they were handed the worst beating in franchise history, a 58-0 rout by Seattle that still resonated more than a year later.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5592" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"We're a different team, different mindset and today was definitely a team win," Arizona defensive end Calais Campbell said. "We've been playing for each other maybe the last eight, nine, 10 weeks. We definitely knew we had the chance to come here and get a victory."That's last trip made the Cardinals' 17-10 win over the Seahawks on Sunday even more meaningful. They erased the memories of the past, while taking down what was widely considered the best team in the NFL at a place no visiting team had won in nearly two calendar years.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5623" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Carson Palmer overcame four interceptions to find Michael Floyd for a 31-yard touchdown with 2:13 left, and Arizona (10-5) won for the seventh time in eight games and snapped the Seahawks' 14-game home win streak.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Cardinals were nasty on defense, frustrating Russell Wilson into the first home loss of his pro career and giving Palmer a chance to come through late. Palmer did and now Week 17 has meaning for Arizona.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"We're not the same football team we were earlier in the year, that's evident," Arizona coach Bruce Arians said. "The belief in this locker room is strong. I can't wait until next week. I know you have to watch what you wish for."</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="13" data-uuid="f89818d2-a6ad-3012-b692-6d2b8cb5320e" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/arizona-cardinals-wide-receiver-michael-floyd-15-makes-photo-030549561--spt.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15)&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 205px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15)&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="205" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/QCQQg0CeQvZ01JgJGiEzlw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwNTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/73c833cd170fb02b460f6a706700b43d.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15) makes a catch for a touchdown around the defense  …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Seattle (12-3) saw its chance of wrapping up the NFC West title and home-field advantage through the playoffs delayed by at least a week. They were unable to get started offensively, failed to capitalize on scoring chances and go to Week 17 still playing for something rather than resting up for the postseason.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's a good thing that it happened here because now we know that we're not invincible at home," Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. "This is going to help us, not only with the next game next week, but through the playoffs if we get home field advantage."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Here are five things learned from the Cardinals' stunning victory over Seattle:</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">NASTY STREAK: Arizona already had the best run defense in the league entering Sunday. What showed up was a pass defense that made Wilson indecisive in the pocket and struggle to find open receivers. He was sacked four times and forced from the pocket many other times. He completed only 11 passes and none of his receivers had more than three receptions. The 108 yards receiving was the lowest total of Wilson's career and his 49.6 passer rating was his worst of the season.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"We have one of the best defenses in the league, and to be one of the best defenses in the league, you've got to go on the road and beat a team like this," Arizona's Darnell Docket said. "We had our minds set to win this battle. This was a team win."</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="14" data-uuid="6a6e8839-7928-3505-9f9b-f48d8fc2a6b2" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/arizona-cardinals-wide-receiver-michael-floyd-15-celebrates-photo-030549616--spt.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15)&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 183px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15)&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="183" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/jYv_mQw9ltJotWTiaLgCHw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE4MztxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/8de1869f170eb02b460f6a7067009b23.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd (15) celebrates after he made a catch for a touchdown  …</div></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5627" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">GOAL-LINE STAND: Lost in the two late touchdowns of the fourth quarter was a key goal-line stop by Arizona late in the second quarter. Malcolm Smith had just intercepted Palmer and returned it to the Cardinals' 3.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5634" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Seattle tried Marshawn Lynch on first and second downs but he was stopped short both times. On third down, Wilson was rushed and threw incomplete. Following a penalty, Steven Hauschka pulled his 24-yard field goal attempt off the left upright. It was his first true miss of the season, his only other missed attempt was blocked.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5640" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">SUPER SHERMAN: Even though it came in a losing effort, Richard Sherman continues to make his case to be in the conversation for defensive player of the year. Sherman had two interceptions to reach eight picks for the second consecutive season.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">His first interception he ran the route better than Larry Fitzgerald and was in perfect position to grab Palmer's pass. The second was more luck as he happened to be in position to react on Palmer's pass that floated after he was hit.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">LUCKY BOUNCES: Seattle got two fortunate bounces on two of the four interceptions Palmer threw. But the bigger breaks came to Arizona on two possible turnovers. Running back Rashard Mendenhall was ruled down before fumbling in the fourth quarter on a drive that led to a field goal. Then on Seattle's final drive, Karlos Dansby intercepted a deflected pass off Baldwin that appeared to hit the ground.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="15" data-uuid="8b65ed26-ff11-3403-90bb-9d19157f93bc" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/arizona-cardinals-kicker-jay-feely-4-greeted-holder-photo-002554515--spt.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely (4) is greeted by&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 204px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely (4) is greeted by&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="204" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/VNl_loJicOvPGYV0m7YYmw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwNDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/c767bc6cfd33af2a460f6a7067006203.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely (4) is greeted by holder Dave Zastudil (9) after Feely kicked a f …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Both plays were reviewed and referee Scott Green said there was not indisputable evidence to overturn either call.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">HOME SWEET HOME? The Seahawks were believed to be impenetrable at home. They had won 14 straight by an average margin of more than 18 points. The home dominance was why so many were already penciling Seattle in for a trip to the Super Bowl if it got home-field advantage in the postseason.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5685" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">That still may happen, but some of the sheen has been taken off Seattle's home aura.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5679" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">___</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1387828343548_5673" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org</div></div>

5 things to know after Arizona stuns Seattle 17-10 (BLOG)

SEATTLE (AP) — The last time Arizona walked into CenturyLink Field, they were handed the worst beating in franchise history, a 58-0 rout by ...

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Rising Interest Rates: A Long-Term Saver's Perspective

The following chart shows the natural log of the 10-year treasury yield. When using natural logs, exponential growth is seen as a straight line.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELEfq2JmWlanjwxyJQUMItB1n64J81w9XlZZhW2vFxBlC5KvWngRCSXYMvsSd-eh57o-iQQuauCzEHB0kRNBGFL8vRa-Ex7IQVeoxPcDT36CPjHnRjBdlV-RdzYVNgWDHP8OJwFhvbn4/s1600/10-Year+Treasury+-+Log.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELEfq2JmWlanjwxyJQUMItB1n64J81w9XlZZhW2vFxBlC5KvWngRCSXYMvsSd-eh57o-iQQuauCzEHB0kRNBGFL8vRa-Ex7IQVeoxPcDT36CPjHnRjBdlV-RdzYVNgWDHP8OJwFhvbn4/s320/10-Year+Treasury+-+Log.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />We've actually clawed our way back to the middle of the long-term declining trend channel. Hurray.<br /><br />The 10-year yield is destined to climb up well outside of that miserable channel soon thanks to our financially innovative, modern, improved, strong, robust, and resilient economy. There are just four things we need to see first.<br /><br />1. <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=qjT">The End of ZIRP</a><br />2. <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=qjU">Skyrocketing 5-Year CD Rates</a><br />3. <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snowball%27s_chance_in_hell">Hot Snowballs</a><br />4. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_pig">Avian Pigs</a><br /><br />I could be wrong of course. Perhaps we'll get pork hot dogs at 50% off and flying snowballs instead. What a Christmas that would be!<br /><br /><b>December 23, 2013</b><br /><a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/237052551_Procrastinators_may_be_rewarded.html">Procrastinators may be rewarded</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>Abercrombie & Fitch: Fifty percent off the entire store.</i></div><br />Don't forget to load up on Abercrombie & Fitch stock too! <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ANF&t=5y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=">50% off!</a> It's all a part of their long-term plan to be financially innovative, modern, improved, strong, robust, and resilient! <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2008/05/our-pillars-of-retail-strength.html">Pillar of retail strength!</a><br /><br /><b>December 23, 2013</b><br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/dark-side-of-after-christ_b_4490468.html">Dark Side of After-Christmas Sales Starting BEFORE Christmas</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>As some consumers jubilantly hop from store-to-store reaping the benefits of these price-slashing events, <span style="color: red;">I suspect that there may be a hangover waiting</span>.</i></div><br />You think? This is not investment advice.<br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=qjS">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

Rising Interest Rates: A Long-Term Saver's Perspective

The following chart shows the natural log of the 10-year treasury yield. When using natural logs, exponential growth is seen as a straight l...

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