MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Senior Republican against US aid to Palestinians. Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, who stands to head House Foreign Affairs Committee, opposes transfer of $150 in aid because Palestinian leadership 'failing to live up to commitments'.The likely next head of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee said she is against handing out $150 million in direct aid to help the Palestinian Authority close its budget deficit.“It is deeply disturbing that the Administration is continuing to bail out the Palestinian leadership when they continue to fail to meet their commitments, under international agreements and requirements outlined in US law, including dismantling the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, combating corruption, stopping anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement, and recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. She stressed that funds are continuing to flow into Ramallah despite reports indicating that corruption among the Palestinian leadership is increasing.Read the full story here.

• HT:BacktoBasics.New Evidence Links BP to Health Crisis in the Gulf.Severe headaches, nausea, respiratory problems, burning eyes and throat, earache and chest pains — and that’s just the beginning.BP’s stock has already bounced back. The media has mostly moved on. But the long-term health impacts on Gulf Coast residents from the catastrophic oil spill are only beginning.Exhibit A, says chemist Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, is a recent evaluation she performed of blood sample analyses from eight BP cleanup workers and residents in Alabama and Florida.Originally collected on four separate dates throughout August, all the blood samples — from three females, age 44, 46 and 51, and five males, age 30, 46, 48, 51 and 59 — contained dangerously high levels of volatile organic chemicals found in BP crude oil, including Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene and Hexane, Subra explained during a wide-ranging interview with Alternet.“The people that are sick are going to be sick for the rest of their lives,” Subra said. “This isn’t just a short time that they’re sick and then they’ll get well. These issues are long-term chronic health impacts that will linger.”She pointed out that 21 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, people in Alaska are still experiencing related health issues today.BP has seen all of Subra’s findings but hasn’t responded.“I’ve sent them the data,” she said, “but I didn’t really expect them to respond.”Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Clinton - Netanyahu meeting: Epic fail? Part 2 (Why the 'Palestinians' will accept the deal).Before I discuss the incentives, I want to say that as an Israeli I don't believe that there's any package that's acceptable, and as an American I'm embarrassed to see the American government groveling before a much smaller power in a bid to get that power to accept something - anything - to move ahead. As much as I couldn't stand him, Bush 41 had the right idea in 1990, when he gave both sides the White House phone number and told them to call when they were ready to make peace. The Obama administration has made the US look like a middling regional power by continuing to push under these circumstances. There is no 'fierce moral urgency' other than its own survival that ought to make a great power like the United States grovel in front of anyone. It doesn't bode well for American power and prestige in the future - regardless of whether Israel accepts the incentives.There is very little else that is more dangerous to Israel's existence right now than the prospect of a Chapter 7 (compulsory for all UN members) resolution creating a 'Palestinian state.' That's why Israel's government must say no!A MUST read !Read the full story here.

• HT:WarOnTerrorNews.Islamist Mullah Omar Bakri Arrested in Lebanon.Lebanese Authorities Arrest Radical Muslim Cleric Sentenced Last Week.VoA News: A radical Muslim cleric who last week was sentenced to life in prison by a Lebanese military court has been arrested.Omar Bakri was taken into custody Sunday in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli.The military court handed down his sentence in absentia Thursday, on charges of carrying out terrorist acts and attempting to destabilize the Lebanese government. It is not clear why Lebanese authorities waited until Sunday to take him into custody.One day after the sentencing, Bakri insisted he would not spend “one day” in prison. He has denied the charges against him, referring to them as “fabrications” that are politically motivated. Read the full story here.

• Nazis Were Given ‘Safe Haven’ in U.S., Report Says.A secret history of the United States government’s Nazi-hunting operation concludes that American intelligence officials created a “safe haven” in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II, and it details decades of clashes, often hidden, with other nations over war criminals here and abroad. The 600-page report, which the Justice Department has tried to keep secret for four years, provides new evidence about more than two dozen of the most notorious Nazi cases of the last three decades. It describes the government’s posthumous pursuit of Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz, part of whose scalp was kept in a Justice Department official’s drawer; the vigilante killing of a former Waffen SS soldier in New Jersey; and the government’s mistaken identification of the Treblinka concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible.The Justice Department itself sometimes concealed what American officials knew about Nazis in this country, the report found.Ms. Feigin said she was baffled by the Justice Department’s attempt to keep a central part of its history secret for so long. “It’s an amazing story,” she said, “that needs to be told.”Read the full story here.

• Netanyahu: US proposal not final.PM tells cabinet American incentives package offered in exchange for 90-day construction freeze in West Bank 'undergoing consolidation process'; four Likud ministers oppose moratorium.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is trying to convince ministers to support an additional 90 day settlement construction freeze said on Sunday morning that the proposal he presented to the inner cabinet, which consists of the seven top government ministers, is not final. Netanyahu mentioned that the proposal "is undergoing a consolidation process on both the US and Israeli sides. If and when the process is completed it will be brought before the proper governmental forum – the Political Security Cabinet, for approval".Ahead of the meeting, four ministers from the Likud party Silvan Shalom, Gilad Erdan, Yuli Edelstein and Moshe Ya'alon expressed their opposition to the three month renewal of the settlement construction freeze.Interior Minister Eli Yishai said that he would agree to abstain from a government vote on the renewal of the construction freeze for three months on condition that construction throughout Jerusalem would be resumed immediately.He also stated that Shas would demand that "a letter be sent from the US president which promises future construction in Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Illit, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer" when the freeze period comes to an end.Settlers were also displeased with the US proposal. Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said "it is clear that Netanyahu is a tiger on television but a frightened cat on the ground".Hmmm....better have that letter carved in granite rock,with matching fingerprints.Read the full story here.

• U.K. Couple Freed by Somali Pirates After a Year.Somali pirates have freed Paul and Rachel Chandler, ending the retired British couple's year-long captivity, British news agencies reported early Sunday.Sky News' Emma Hurd said a ransom of up to one million dollars was paid to the pirates to secure the release. It is understood private individuals came up with the money.Hurd said the Chandlers were in the hands of the mayor of Adado, a central Somali town near the Ethiopian border.The release ends an ordeal that started when the couple's yacht was hijacked off the idyllic shores of the Seychelles a year ago.Sources told Hurd, talking from Nairobi, that the couple looked tired but happy to be free.Read the full story here.

• Should you be snuggling with your cellphone?San Francisco: WARNING: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body. San Francisco officials voted to require retailers to display how much radiation each cellphone emits. A supporter of the rule wore a button at City Hall. I'm paraphrasing here. But the legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn't want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry's manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch.Brain cancer is a concern that Ms. Davis takes up. Over all, there has not been a general increase in its incidence since cellphones arrived. But the average masks an increase in brain cancer in the 20-to-29 age group and a drop for the older population. Read the full story here.

• HT:NewZeal.Foreign Nations to Challenge Arizona Law?This is unbelievable. Foreign nations being allowed to challenge the laws of a sovereign US state.10 Latin American Countries joining Mexico to challenge Arizona law.Read and see the full story here.

• Betting On The Gold Standard? Odds Are Still Long.When the price of gold tipped $1,400 a troy ounce this week, the news fit right into a frenzy over the metal ignited by the World Bank president on Monday.In a Financial Times column, Robert Zoellick wrote that the global economy should consider using the price of gold as an "international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values."His statement was immediately taken, in some quarters at least, as a call for a return to the gold standard. Although he later clarified his point, the fire had been lit. And Zoellick, for the moment, became a hero for a small group that believes the U.S. should return to the gold standard. At the same time, he drew ire from mainstream economists tired of having the discussion in the first place.Bell says he'd like to see gold as the "final money of the world.""It should be what people keep as reserves, the way it was in the hundred years until 1914," he says.Read the full story here.

• HT:RightTruth.Oklahoma: When Sharia comes sweeping down the plains.Two questions should be forwarded to Muneer Awad, American Muslims and visitors who feel that a rejection of Sharia law within the American court system is worthy of court litigation. The first question is, what are the true motivations for the opposition of the American justice system applying its own laws within a sovereign nation? The second question is, just what country do you think you are living in? Some that may wish to push the Sharia agenda at worst, or to be apathetic to its dangers at best, say that Oklahoma’s lawmakers and voters are premature to address this issue as it has not yet been a factor in Oklahoma courts. Really, this question is of little importance when compared to Oklahoma’s right to deal as a sovereign state with the issues it finds important. It appears that something dark and sinister may be afoot within the upcoming Oklahoma Sharia litigation, and Americans should be privy to the truth. Groups like CAIR and the ACLU should be made to more fully explain their motivations for opposing state’s right in Oklahoma and its people’s desire to uphold American law. Read the full story here.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Pentagon Readies New Ship-Killers for Pacific Showdown.Pentagon planners were wary of China’s double-digit military-budget growth rates even before the global economic crisis put the squeeze on America’s own defense investment. Now the Chinese army’s growth continues while America’s flat-lines. That’s got the U.S. military, especially the Navy, scrambling for new ideas.The most hopeful is an emerging concept for mixing U.S. Navy ships and subs with Air Force planes to form a tightly-knit, super-lethal, ship-killing force meant to counter an increasingly powerful Chinese fleet. The Pentagon calls it “AirSea Battle,” an homage to NATO’s Cold War “AirLand Battle” concept that pioneered tactics for taking out thousands of Soviet tanks with smart weapons. U.S. Secretary of Defense Bob Gates called the classified AirSea Battle concept “encouraging.”On Wednesday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Lockheed Martin a 3-year, $160 million contract to develop the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile. The goal is for LRASM to give Navy ships “the ability to attack important enemy ships outside the ranges of the enemy’s ability to respond with anti-ship missiles of their own.”Read the full story here.

• UN special rapporteur says waterboarding is torture.MARK COLVIN: There’s no question that in international law waterboarding is torture?JUAN MENDEZ: I don’t think there is any question, any serious question. I mean it’s a question of severity. If you think that waterboarding is not severe mistreatment you don’t really know what waterboarding is. But you know if just with the definition that it’s designed to create a sensation of asphyxia, you can tell that it’s severe. There’s just no other way.MARK COLVIN: So where does that leave Dick Cheney and George Bush?JUAN MENDEZ: Well I think they’re left with the obligation of the United States government to investigate you know to the best of its capabilities and then to decide who is to be prosecuted and who is not. I mean I don’t have you know access to the evidence to know that any individual is particularly responsible but what I do know and I think and I’m disappointed about is that even under the Obama administration the government of the United States is not seriously pursuing these episodes.I mean with a false sense of not being partisan et cetera they are, maybe it looks like they have put a stop to torture, at least I keep my fingers crossed that I’m not wrong, but there’s no evidence that they’re actually pursuing this the way they should: the way they are obliged by international law to do.Read the full story here.

• Women with “seditious” eyes must cover up.Women unveiling their eyes in public in Saudi Arabia will be forced to fully cover up their faces if their eyes are found to be seditious, according to the Gulf Kingdom’s most feared Islamic law-enforcement group.The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was reacting to last week’s fight between one its members and a Saudi husband, who was maddened by the man’s orders to his wife to cover up her face, the Saudi Arabic language daily Alwatan reported on Sunday.“The Commission members have orders to tell any women in public to cover up her face if they find that her eyes are seditious,” the paper said, quoting Sheikh Mutlaq Al Nabit, a Commission spokesman in Hael.Women in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Muslim nations, must veil their faces in public but some of them uncover their eyes.Hmm....i wonder if this would be allowed?Read the full story here.

• Another Sri Lankan maid alleges nail torture in Kuwait.Woman had told surgeons that her employers drove the nails into her hands and left leg.A Sri Lankan housemaid has accused her Kuwaiti employer of hammering 14 nails into her body, in the second such incident in the past few months, a local doctor said Saturday.The woman, identified only as Lechchami, 38, underwent surgery to have the nails removed after returning home to Sri Lanka, the director of the hospital in the northwestern town of Kurunegala said."We have removed nine out of the 14 wire nails that showed up in X-rays," hospital director Soma Rajamanthri told AFP.A police spokesman said the case was under investigation.Non-governmental organisations report frequent cases of employer abuse of maids who work abroad.Read the full story here.

• Snowstorm causes 400 Minn. crashes; 2 die in Wis.Parts of the Upper Midwest dug out from a heavy snowfall Saturday that caused more than 400 traffic accidents in Minnesota, and wintry conditions also were being blamed for a collision in northern Wisconsin that killed two people.Nearly a foot of snow had fallen in parts of the Twin Cities area by Saturday evening, downing trees and causing sporadic power outages.The storm that began late Friday night was blamed for a collision Saturday morning that killed both drivers and left a passenger hospitalized. The sheriff's department in Wisconsin's Bayfield County said the storm produced "rapidly deteriorating road conditions" that likely contributed to the crash.Kevin Kraujalis of the National Weather Service's Duluth office estimated that Bayfield County had a couple of inches of snow on the ground when the collision occurred. The meteorologist said the county had about 5 inches as of 6 p.m. Saturday.Read the full story here.

• Jailed hate preacher Abu Hamza's home has a £40,000 makeover... paid by taxpayers.Hate preacher Abu Hamza’s family home is having a £40,000 makeover paid for by tax­payers, the Daily Mail can reveal.Workmen from at least three construction firms have already spent two months doing up the £700,000, five-bedroom council property in an exclusive West London street.Astonishingly, it is the second time in only five years that council bosses have approved expensive renovations on the property where the hook-handed cleric’s wife and eight children live supported by benefits worth nearly £700 a week.All the Hamza children are British-born, meaning they are entitled to support from the state, which would continue even if Hamza is extradited. At one time, the family received a weekly income of £351 in dependant children’s allowance, £97 child benefit, £56 lone parent allowance and a £16 family premium.The rent of £120 per week and council tax of £42 per week were also paid by the taxpayer.‘The house is one of a scarce supply of large family homes and we, of course, have to do repairs and look after the property for future tenants.’Hmm....Whats the average repair frequency on council houses if i may ask?....Every 5 years? Read the full story here.

• FANATICAL Muslims behind the burning of a giant poppy in an Armistice Day outrage are unmasked by The Sun. The hate-filled extremists whipped up a 40-strong mob who screamed insults about Britain's war dead during the nation's two-minute silence on Thursday. They head Muslims Against Crusades - formed after the radical group Islam4UK was banned - and want Sharia law imposed in the UK. Pony-tailed leader Abu Assadullah masterminds the organisation's sick demos from a website where he spouts bile supporting al-Qaeda. He shares the name of a dead chief of the terror network linked to the 2008 Mumbai massacre, and posts video diatribes on MAC's YouTube channel.Muslims Against Crusades follows the same agenda as banned groups al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK, which were fronted by notorious firebrand Anjem Choudary. He has claimed the men behind MAC as his "students". The group protested in Barking, East London, in June and called for Muslims to burn the Stars and Stripes outside the US embassy on the anniversary of 9/11. Islam4UK was outlawed in January after threatening to protest in Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire town through which dead British soldiers are transported after being brought back from Afghanistan.Being a descendant of someone who actually took part in the Medieval Crusades, i would say not much has changed since those days. Read the full story here.

• Russia - Russian archbishop sacks clergy accused of alleged child abuse in convent.The archbishop of Vladimir and Suzdal fired on Saturday the Mother Superior of St. Bogolyubsky Convent in the central Vladimir Region and other clergymen allegedly involved in a child abuse scandal.Media reports earlier said the convent's nuns victimized teenagers from a local orphanage, beating them with belts, forcing them to bow innumerable times, eat spoonfuls of salt, as well as depriving them of food and sleep as "punishment." However, a human rights working group established by the Vladimir Region's governor has found no proof of these claims.Archbishop Yevlogy ruled that no children or volunteer workers with children can reside on the convent's territory and that the boarding school will be transformed into an ordinary Orthodox school.Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida said the archbishop's move will help avoid pressure on the children involved in the abuse row, and investigators of the case.The convent was investigated a year ago after allegations of mistreatment, but no action was taken as the claims were not proven.Read the full story here.

• Growing backlash against TSA body scanners, pat-downs.A growing pilot and passenger revolt over full-body scans and what many consider intrusive pat-downs couldn't have come at a worse time for the nation's air travel system.Thanksgiving, the busiest travel time of the year, is less than two weeks away.Grassroots groups are urging travelers to either not fly or to protest by opting out of the full-body scanners and undergo time-consuming pat-downs instead.According to the group, passengers who say "I opt out" when told to go through body scanners are submitted to a pat-down."Be sure to have your pat-down by TSA in full public -- do not go to the back room when asked. Every citizen must see for themselves how the government treats law-abiding citizens," the website says.Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has issued its own travel advisory over pat-downs many "describe as invasive and humiliating."Some scientists and two major airline pilots unions contend not enough is known about the effects of the small doses of X-ray radiation emitted by one of the two types of airport scanning machines.Read the full story here.

• Related : PETITION TO STOP 'ENHANCED' AIRPORT SCREENING TECHNIQUES NOW! Source.

• Mexico Drug Hitman Is 12-Year-Old Boy.The Mexican army is hunting a 12-year-old assassin who is employed by a drug cartel to torture and murder its enemies.Known simply as El Ponchis, which means The Cloak, the young boy is accused of helping wage a turf war in the central Morelos state.Reports say he is paid $3,000 per murder, tortures his victims before killing them and often cuts his victim's throat, leaving the head attached by just a thread.Videos of El Ponchis attacking one enemy with a stick and cutting the throat of another have appeared online, as have photos of him posing with various weapons and standing by a dead body.The boy works for the little-known South Pacific cartel, which has allied itself with the brutal Los Zetas - former government paramilitaries who have gone rogue - to battle the major La Familia cartel for control of southwest Mexico.Based just outside the city of Cuernavaca, El Ponchis is said to work with a group of girls, including his sisters, who are referred to as Las Chavelas and are often responsible for disposing of the bodies.Hmmm...illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican - American border...No problemo Mr President?Read the full story here.

• UN worker jailed two-month for showing the finger at female staff member at the Dubai airport.A tourist has received a two-month prison sentence after flipping the finger at an airport official, the 7Days tabloid reported on Sunday, quoting the English tabloid The Sun.The 34-year-old Brit, Paul Anthony, was arrested at Dubai International Airport following an altercation with a female member of staff as he made his way through passport control.Dubai Misdemeanors Court then sentenced the United Nations worker to two months behind bars.The prosecution claims he argued with the woman because she would not allow him to use a telephone at a customer service desk.It is alleged he then cursed and made an offensive hand gesture.Read the full story here.

• Ground Zero Mosque Imam’s  Apartment Goes Into Temporary Receivership.A northern New Jersey apartment building owned by the imam planning an Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero in New York has been put into temporary custodial receivership.The Jersey Journal of Jersey City reported Saturday that Hudson County Judge Thomas Olivieri issued the order this week, citing a lack of improvements at the Union City site owned by Feisal Abdul Rauf.Tuesday’s ruling is the latest in the lawsuit Union City brought against Rauf in late September, alleging that he’s failed to address code violations. Olivieri’s decision means the tenants October rent payments will be used to eliminate bedbugs from four apartments, cap sewer lines in the basement and improve a fire escape ladder. The work must be done by Dec. 9.Neither Rauf nor his attorney, Tomas Espinosa, could be reached for comment.Hmmm....total contempt for law and order,... only Sharia law counts for him?Read the full story here.

• Armed forces chief warns the West wil never win the war against Al Qaeda.The head of Britain's Armed Forces warned today that the West will never be able to defeat Al Qaeda and Islamic militants.General Sir David Richards said the national security of Britain was still at stake, but the threat can be contained to allow Britons to lead secure lives.He said he would advise the Queen that Prince William should not fight at the present time.But regarding his brother, Prince Harry, he said the 'omens were good' that he could serve again.Read the full story here.

• 'Gaza aid ship crew released in Greece'.Several aid workers who were held captive by Greek commandos while on board a relief ship that was supposed to deliver supplies to Gaza have been released. "The convoy members, who were abducted then detained in Greece, have been released following examination of video footage. The captain has been arrested," Press TV broadcaster Lauren Booth said on Saturday after receiving contact from the Road to Hope convoy members. Read the full story here and more here.

• Free! Little woman with a lion’s heart: Joy as Burmese pro-democracy leader who spent seven years under house arrest is finally released.As the light began to fade in Rangoon yesterday, the barricades were rolled away from the gates of a house beside Inya Lake. Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Nobel laureate, was finally set free after seven years of house arrest.In a lilac dress and with a customary flower in her hair, she urged her jubilant band of followers to resume the fight for democracy ‘in unison’.As cameras clicked, the world was once more riveted by one of its most charismatic freedom-fighters – an elegant but frail woman with a lion-sized, incorrigible heart. Ms Suu Kyi, 65, has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention. Yesterday, she was welcomed into the warm embrace of her countrymen, many crying tears of joy as they proudly sang their national anthem. That euphoria was mirrored across the world as international leaders celebrated her release.Read the full story here.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Walmart’s secret study: Inflation already here.The world’s largest retailer just completed a confidential study revealing inflation has already heated up.This information is counter-intuitive to the second quantitative easing (QE2) strategy that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is planning to employ. The controversial plan, designed to generate moderate inflation of 2 percent annually by injecting $600 billion into the money supply has caused loud protests from trading partners across the world including such heavyweights as Germany and China.Perhaps Walmart should take a new survey and start out with the real economic numbers as their base. They will find the results much more illuminating than the trend they believe they discovered.Read the full story here.

• Muslim-Jewish outreach effort contracts following allegations.Two area rabbis drop out after claims of radicalism.A national effort to forge better ties between Jews and Muslims has run into opposition from some Jewish community members who view the interfaith partnerships as a ruse perpetrated by radical Muslims. An undercurrent to the “twinning” events in mosques and synagogues has had a significant impact in Western New York, where two rabbis who participated in last year’s local twinning weekend have since distanced themselves from the effort.The twinning became a more contentious issue in Western New York after a national group asserted earlier this year in an online publication that Buffalo-area Jews were being deceived by radical Muslims posing as moderates. “What we found was that the entities behind the Buffalo interfaith effort are anything but moderate,” wrote Ilya Feoktistov, research director of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based organization that seeks to monitor radical Islamic groups and support moderate Muslims.Islam the religion of peace.Read the full story here.

• For 30 years the Chinese have only been allowed one child - and now they are only allowed one dog.For the last 30 years they have been banned from having more than one child in their family.Now the residents of Shanghai are facing a new limit over the size of their household - the one-dog policy.Nobody will be allowed to own more than one pooch under the proposals which call for zero tolerance on unplanned pregnancies.Read the full story here.

• Friends buy lottery ticket in Detroit porn shop and win $129 Million.A syndicate of friends and family is celebrating - albeit anonymously - after winning nearly $129 million with a lottery ticket bought at a Detroit-area porn shop. And the one syndicate member who did come forward to claim the money on behalf of the others has vowed to give some of the windfall to religious groups. Mike Greer, a member of the group, came forward on Friday to claim the Powerball winnings on behalf of the others, who chose to keep their identities secret.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Where does Google TV go from here?Those beautiful Sony television sets featuring Google TV are starting to look a lot like high-priced door stops. Google TV enables users to view Web sites and Internet video on their home TVs. However, consumers are prevented from accessing content from the four major broadcast networks on the software platform as Fox announced Wednesday it would join ABC, CBS, and NBC in blocking access to their content.If you expected to watch a wide range of popular shows for free via Google TV anytime soon, it really is time to panic. The networks are preventing Google TV, a software platform, from streaming to consumers' TVs the same content that's available for free on the Web. But why are the networks doing this and what can be done about it?In September, Google hired Robert Kyncl as head of TV and film entertainment. Kyncl was the former vice president of content acquisitions at Netflix. Last month, Netflix said the company has transformed itself from a mail-order DVD-rental business to a streaming-video service. If Google follows the path forged by Netflix, expect the search engine to push Google TV onto a large number of video game consoles, set-top boxes, and Internet TVs (Google TV is already working with Sony and Logitech). However, Google TV must generate a large following. Netflix has acquired 17 million subscribers so far. Read the full story here.