The story of how the President's grandfather was jailed by British troops in 1949 and brutally whipped for aiding the violent struggle for Kenyan independence is probably untrue, a new book has concluded.
It is a harrowing tale of torture in a colonial prison in Kenya that is said to explain the President's coolness towards Britain and even his removal of Winston Churchill's bust from the Oval Office.
David Maraniss, the author of Mr Obama's most comprehensive biography so far, said five associates of Hussein Onyango Obama doubt he was even jailed. One told him: "People make up stories".
Mr Onyango, a Muslim convert who worked for the British Army in Burma during the Second World War, was accused of sympathising with the burgeoning pro-independence movement that eventually turned into the Mau Mau rebellion in 1952.
Mr Obama wrote in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, that his grandfather "was placed in a detention camp" after being reported as a subversive "to the white man" by a rival land-owner.
After his release, "he was very thin and dirty", he "had difficulty walking, and his head was full of lice," wrote Mr Obama, who was told the story by relatives during his first visit to Kenya in 1988.
A Russian ship believed to be carrying helicopters and missiles for Syria has been effectively stopped in its tracks off the coast of Scotland after its insurance was cancelled at the behest of the British government.
The British marine insurer Standard Club said it had withdrawn cover from all the ships owned by Femco, a Russian cargo line, including the MV Alaed.
"We were made aware of the allegations that the Alaed was carrying munitions destined for Syria," the company said in a statement. "We have already informed the ship owner that their insurance cover ceased automatically in view of the nature of the voyage."
British security officials confirmed they had told Standard Club that providing insurance to the shipment was likely to be a breach of European Union sanctions against the Syrian regime.
They said they were continuing to monitor the ship, which has been the subject of a fierce international row since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week revealed it was adding to the arsenal of weaponry available for Mr Assad to use against rebellious Syrian towns.
"We have various ways of keeping track of this ship and that is what we are doing," a source told The Daily Telegraph.
He has to wash his hair those four days....oh, and doesn't want to get the stank on him. Ay-Pee article
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2012
18:35 ||
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#1
Oops! Appears a whole lotta WV Dems have....something...else...to do that week
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2012 19:02
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Democratic West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin says he won't attend the party's national convention, citing serious problems with President Barack Obama.
Same reason most of us won't be attending as well.
#3
Well, talk openly about crucifying the energy industry and phasing out coal energy doesn't sell in some places outside of urban environments like the Beltway.
Long article that summarizes a series of 3 scholarly articles. Thought provoking. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
The mid-Victorian period is usually defined as the years between 1850 and 1870, but in nutritional terms we have identified a slightly longer period, lasting until around 1880. During these 30 years, we argue here, a generation grew up with probably the best standards of health ever enjoyed by a modern state. The British population had risen significantly and had become increasingly urbanised, but the great public health movement had not yet been established and Britain's towns and cities were still notoriously unhealthy environments. Despite this, and contrary to historical tradition, we argue in this paper, using a range of historical evidence, which Britain and its world-dominating empire were supported by a workforce, an army and a navy comprised of individuals who were healthier, fitter and stronger than we are today. They were almost entirely free of the degenerative diseases which maim and kill so many of us, and although it is commonly stated that this is because they all died young, the reverse is true; public records reveal that they lived as long -- or longer -- than we do in the 21st century.
These findings are remarkable, as this brief period of great good health predates not only the public health movement but also the great 20th century medical advances in surgery, infection control and drugs. They are also in marked contrast to popular views about Victorian squalor and disease, views that have long obscured the realities of life and death during that 'period of equipoise'.
Our recent research indicates that the mid-Victorians' good health was entirely due to their superior diet. This period was, nutritionally speaking, an island in time; one that was created and subsequently squandered by economic and political forces. This begs a series of questions. How did this brief nutritional 'golden age' come about? How was it lost? And could we recreate it?
#2
Processed foods didn't exist back then. People have a ton more choice now. Junk food is aimed squarely at the local palate, and scientists are hired to create it.
#3
Other factors, too. Very locally produced vegs and fruits using organic fertilizers => more micronutrients in the crop, so that not only did they eat more of these good foods, the foods were better for them than our mass-farmed equivalents grown on highly-worked soil & bred to hold up to long distance travel. Also very little butter fats in the diet, much less alcohol and very little tobacco use. Way less sugar and those mostly not the refined cane sugar type. Whole grains.
The stats on changes in strength and stature within one - two subsequent generations are eye-opening.
#4
The tract homes that mushroomed outside of major cities grew lawns instead of vegetable gardens because 1. The topsoil had been stripped away by the builders and there wasn't much left; 2 Lawns were a sort of status symbol: "I don't have to devote my property to growing my own food".
Fast forward a few generations. Now, for the first time in my stodgy domestic life, I'm a trendsetter. Two years ago we took out a tree in the front yard and dug up the lawn for vegetable beds. Now a few neighbors have their tomatoes in the front yard too, and the Sunday paper had an article about urban gardens in Madison.
#5
Have any problems with thieves?
It's in the FRONT yard and any passer-by could grab whatever's ripe, prove it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2012 21:04
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#6
The paper says that many urban families had a couple hens, too, yielding a dozen or more eggs a week. Those birds ate a lot of insects and food scraps, not just grain, so they would have had more Omega 3s etc. than the industrial, grain fed egg factories produce.
#7
Despite this, and contrary to historical tradition, we argue in this paper, using a range of historical evidence, which Britain and its world-dominating empire were supported by a workforce, an army and a navy comprised of individuals who were healthier, fitter and stronger than we are today.
Yep, if you lived beyond childhood. They sort of skip the 'thinning out' that occurs with 19th Century infant mortality rates. It makes great statistics when the weak are gone by adulthood. Smack of Social Darwinism. Didn't we just have an issue with people who cherry pick data?
William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has been all over the Warren story from the beginning. Go there and read.
Four outraged Cherokee activists who say Elizabeth Warren's campaign has ignored their emails and phone calls will trek to Boston this week in hopes they can force a meeting with the Democratic Senate candidate over her "offensive" Native American heritage claims.
"It's almost becoming extremely offensive to us," said Twila Barnes, a Cherokee genealogist who has researched Warren's family tree. "We're trying to get in contact and explain why her behavior hurts us and is offensive, and she totally ignores that. Like we don't exist."
Late last night, a Warren campaign official told the Herald that staffers will "connect" and "offer to have staff meet with them."
The four women, who Barnes said are all registered Cherokee tribal members -- from Missouri, Oregon, Oklahoma and one within the Bay State -- are due to arrive in Boston late today for four days. But they are closely guarding their itinerary, and Barnes would not say exactly what they have in mind.
"We're going to be visible. We have some things planned," said Barnes, hinting: "It's (Warren's) birthday this week."
Politics isn't a motivator, Barnes insisted. One of the women is a registered Democrat, and the other three are left-leaning independents, said Barnes, who said she voted for President Obama in 2008.
"Everyone has put their political issues aside, because we feel we're not going to sacrifice our integrity for a seat in Congress," Barnes said.
What they want, Barnes said, is for Warren to sit down with them and to stop claiming she's a Native American.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
13:21 ||
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"It's almost becoming extremely offensive to us," said Twila Barnes, a Cherokee genealogist who has researched Warren's family tree. "We're trying to get in contact and explain why her behavior hurts us and is offensive, and she totally ignores that. Like we don't exist."
Of course you don't exist anymore than free will conservative women or blacks.
And its OK, because as a liberal, it not the reality or truth that is important but that she means well by identifying with 'oppressed people' unlike the bigoted small mined people she runs against. /sarc off
#3
1. You would think someone could meet and at least pretend to be sympathetic and sincere for four fours (or even four minutes) but Elizabeth Warren is such an arrogant jerk that she might not be able to that.
2. Even if Warren does 'charm' the gang of four, there is the issue of truth. Much of Massachusetts is not following the real story and actually believes that Warren is telling the truth or something close to the truth on this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/18/2012 16:46
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Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2012 19:00
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"Almost extremely offensive" > Yokay, I'll bite, not sure WTH that means - IMO either the Cherokee Nation, etal. is offended or extremely offended, or else it is NOT???
Plano police believe the suspect was carrying an explosive device that blew up, causing minor damage to the gas main and leaving him critically injured.
We dont know any of the whys, police spokesman David Tilley said. We dont know why he was back there, what type of device he had. Thats what were trying to figure out.
That may have to wait until the suspect has recovered from the life-threatening injuries he suffered in the explosion.
The man, who has yet to be identified, first told authorities that he was jogging and was struck by a hit-and-run driver, but that story quickly unraveled, Tilley said.
His injuries to his body are all on the front of his body, he said. If you get hit by a car, youre going to have scratches, youre going have road rash, youre going to have something all over your body.
He remains hospitalized at Medical Center of Plano.
Meanwhile, the Plano police bomb squad and FBI agents are scouring the area, and Parker Road has yet to reopen.
Tilley said gas service in the area has not been affected because the utility company quickly switched to another regulatory system.
#2
Most of the situations like this that I have read about is some dumb schmuck, pissed off at something and wants a little revenge but it too stupid to do it well.
My bet is this dolt was mad at the gas company/town for raising rates/unemployment and wanted to send a message but blown himself up in the process.
#3
If it didn't kill him, then I put my money on "incompetent".
An Islamist would have carried it to the mall. This is mere sabotage...it's what WE would do, but we're not Islamists so the thought process is different.
#11
FYI MEMRI.ORG > HIZB AL-TAHRIR AMERICA: SET TO HOLD JUNE 17 CONFERENCE IN ILLINOIS, ADVOCATES JIHAD, SAYS IRAN + SAUDI ARABIA ARE "MODERN, NON-EXPANSIONIST NATION-STATES", + HAVE THUS ABANDONED "THE DEFINITIVE [ISLAMIC] OBJECTIVE OF JIHAD" AS STIPULATED IN THE KORAN.
IIUC, by inference an "Islamic/Islamist America" under the auspice of the Hizb al-Tahrir
would be PRO-EXPANSIONIST VEE NON-ISLAMIC NATIONS???
ARTIC = HIZB AL-TAHRIR BANGLADESH, PAKISTAN have called for Military-led coups in their home countries.
versus
* TOPIX > AMERICA'S MARXIST [Marxist-Communist] PICNIC: WHY GOVERNMENT NO LONGER WORRIES ABOUT COMMUNISTS.
Cold War = POTUS Reagan-era views, e.g. subjective profiling for real-or-potential Commie allegiances; versus the alleged Commie-born-n-raised "Obamunist" in the White House [dedicated Marxist-Commie family background + upbringing, education, influences]. COMMIES HAVE CHANGED THEIR DESCRIPTIVE LABELS, BUT NOT THEIR IDEOLOGY.
Lest we fergit, 1990's CLINTONISM > RIGHTISM IS THE NEW LEFTISM, GOP-RIGHT IS THE NEW DEMOLEFT, FASCISM IS THE NEW COMMUNISM.
[Wall Street Journal] Egypt's interim ruling military council pledged to honor its promise to hand over power by the end of this month, hours after Islamist candidate Mohammed Morsi claimed victory in the first free presidential vote since the ouster of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. Oh, yeah. Trust them on that. And if they feel like taking over again in six months or so, sure they won't indulge themselves.
Major-General Mohamed El Assar, a member of the interim ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, tried to assuage widespread concerns that a constitutional declaration, which came only a few days after Egypt's highest court dissolved its parliament, amounted to a military coup. When the military takes charge of running the country it's kind of a coup by definition, isn't it? In most civilized countries the military is for fighting wars, not for running the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
12:41 ||
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Can we start calling this the 'Chicago Corpse Count'?
[NBC Chicago] President Barack Obama's Because I won... visit to Chicago didn't stop another violent weekend.
At least seven people were killed and 35 were maimed since Friday night. The youngest victim was a 16-year-old girl who died after she was shot three times in the chest Saturday evening in the Englewood neighborhood.
Ten people were shot overnight Friday, and in one hour Sunday morning, three people were killed. The latest shooting happened just after midnight Monday when a 19-year-old was shot to death on the city's North Side.
The shootings mark the third weekend in a row with gunfire injuries totaling well into the double digits. Last weekend, 46 people were hurt and eight killed across Chicago. The previous weekend, 29 were maimed and three were killed in shootings.
"None of it is OK," Supt. Garry McCarthy told NBC Chicago last week. "And I don't want it to seem like we're managing it, but the realistic expectations have to be over the long-term."
This weekend marked the beginning of an overtime incentive program to put more police in neighborhoods where crime is highest. Fewer than 60 officers signed up for the program, though.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
12:41 ||
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Well, if Chicago had passed laws making guns illegal this wouldn't be happening....oh, wait, what?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2012 15:44
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Duh! You also need a law making it illegal to shoot people with illegal guns.
Soldiers who have been made redundant were sacked days before they qualified for a full pension, families of servicemen have complained.
They have raised suspicions that the Army, which has just axed 3,000 personnel, targeted a number who were within touching distance of generous lifelong pay outs.
One 40-year-old sergeant serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers was only three days away from serving 22 years and qualifying for an immediate pension pot worth £108,000. He will now have to wait until he is 65 to receive the pension.
Parents of officers have also contacted The Daily Telegraph saying that their sons have been sacked just short of serving 16 years, at which point they would get an immediate annual stipend of around £12,000. They too will have to wait until they are 65.
The Armed Forces pension scheme is seen as one of the more generous in the public sector with personnel awarded around 40 per cent of their final salary. Servicemen aged over 40 with 16 or 18 years service can claim an immediate pension and tax-free lump sum on leaving the Army and a second lump sum at 65.
But Henry Witham said his son, Rupert, a major in the infantry, was just a year away from qualifying for an immediate pension when he was sacked. The 38-year-old soldier has served four tours in Afghanistan and received a steady number of good reports. Not only does he lose his pension but also the boarding school allowance for his two young children.
Enthusiasm and loyalty to the Army have been rewarded by the sack, purely on the grounds that a decent pension was due after 16 years of service, Mr Witham said.
The decision is not being made on the grounds of ability, experience or commitment, purely on cost. It would appear that capable, experienced and dedicated officers are being sacrificed.
His suspicions were further raised after 38 out of 50 of his sons Sandhurst 1999 intake have been sacked. In the most recent round of redundancies announced last week the Army lost 300 officers in total, who are seen as the most combat experienced for generations.
Brigadier Rob Nitsch, the head of Army manning, said that the sackings had been determined by future manpower requirements.
It is not the case that proximity to the date at which a pension would be paid was a consideration for redundancy selection.
#2
Used to do it in the American forces too till Congress inserted the eighteen year lock in protection. If they can't process you out through normal attrition procedures before you hit the 18 year mark, you're protected till 20 and retirement eligibility barring courts martial or separation for cause.
Brigadier Rob Nitsch, the head of Army manning, said that the sackings had been determined by future manpower requirements.
Wonder how many cut backs are slicing into the Colonel/General level?
The Scottish ruling party SNP says the British government has "no democratic mandate to impose" a planned £1 billion project for renewal of Britain's nuclear-armed submarines on Scotland, where the boats are based.
SNP defense spokesman Angus Robertson said there is overwhelming opposition to the Trident nuclear program in Scotland.
"People in Scotland do not want Trident. Church leaders, the Scottish Trades Union Council, The Scottish Government and the Scotland's Parliament are all against weapons of mass destruction being in our waters," Robertson said.
"Despite this the UK Government is prepared to spend £1 billion of taxpayers money on a needless program and then expect the people of Scotland to accept weapons of mass destruction being dumped here," he added.
He further called for a "world free from nuclear weapons" saying the party, which is leading a campaign for Scotland's independence from Britain, has a "solid commitment" to the "earliest possible withdrawal of Trident from Scotland."
SNP's reaction came after British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said the government plans to announce a contract ordering nuclear reactors for a new class of submarines to replace the current Vanguard fleet that carries the Trident nuclear missiles.
The London governemnt is also facing strong opposition to Trident replacement due to its massive costs to an already sinking British economy.
Scottish government Strategy Secretary Bruce Crawford earlier said the costs for the new Trident weapons system are estimated to "be anything up to £25billion and, over the lifetime, £100billion."
"I think it's an obscenity that we're going to be pressing ahead at this time with this particular system," he added.
British Royal Navy is now operating 58 nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles as well as around 200 nuclear warheads on four Vanguard-class submarines based in Clyde Naval Base at Faslane, western Scotland.
MOSCOW The Interfax news agency said Monday that two Russian navy ships are to sail to Syria to protect Russian citizens and its naval base there. This would mark the first time since the uprising in Syria started that Russia is sending extra troops to its base in Syria.
Interfax quoted an unidentified Russian navy official as saying that the Nikolai Filchenkov and Caesar Kunikov amphibious assault vessels will be heading to the Syrian port of Tartus, but didnt give a precise date.
No word on the name of the sea-going tugboat that will accompany them...
The official said the ships will carry an unspecified number of marines to protect Russians in Syria and evacuate Saddam's weapons of mass destruction materials from Tartus if necessary.
Tartus is Russias only naval base outside the former Soviet Union with Russian personnel of an unspecified size. The bulk of Russian military men in Syria are military advisers teaching Syrians how to use Russian weapons.
Russia has shielded Syrias regime from international sanctions over its crackdown on protests. It also continued to provide it with arms.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2012
07:45 ||
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Thanks Obummer. The vacuum in geopolitics and the diminishing of national strength will haunt us for a long time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2012 14:50
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#8
* FREEREPUBLIC this AM > [Itar-Tass = Russia]BLACK SEA FLEET SHIPS READY TO GO TO SYRIA - GENERAL STAFF.
* SAME > IRAN, RUSSIA, CHINA, + SYRIA TO LAUNCH BIGGEST JOINT WARGAME IN MIDDLE EAST.
* TOPIX > RUSSIA: WE WILL NOT SUPPORT ANY FOREIGN FORCE INTERVENTION IN SYRIA.
I'm interpreting the above Artic as Russia saying it will not support any US-led or non-US led, "Libyuh/Gaddafi-style"?, UN Coalition = "Coalition of the Willing" agz Assad.
On a separate note, I don't see Russia giving up its Med base at Tartarus under any conditions, Assad or post-Assad.
'Tis a serious "Catch-22" for Russia - the anti-Assad Syrian rebels are supported by the Radical Islam whom also directly or indirectly support the Caucasus jihadis-insurgents. Russia also has an interest in protecting its Caucasus security [strategic flank(s)] by making sure neither Iran nor Turkey, etc. achieve their ambitions of regional + trans-regional ethnic reunification vee the former Soviet -Stans. OUTSIDE OF RECOVERING THE GOLAN HEIGHTS VEE ISRAEL, SYRIA MAY BE IRAN'S ALLY BUT HAS NEVER DISPLAYED THE EXPANSIONIST ZEAL OF IRAN. RUSSIA DOES NOT WANT ANY "ASSAD/SYRIA DOMINO" TO EXTEND TO THE CAUCASUS + CENTRAL ASIA.
#9
RUSSIA = CHINA in SCS + Taiwan = "front-line" of Russia's geopolitical security + desired future "manifest destiny" under alleged
"proxy/surrogate" US-Western threat, i.e. US-NATO, UNO support for anti-Assad, pro-Islamist Syrian rebels.
A situation which is NOT helped by allegations by the Catholic Patriarchate of Jerusalem that the SYRIAN REBELS ARE USING CHRISTIANS AS "HUMAN SHIELDS" AGZ ASSAD'S SECURITY FORCES.
Security forces killed a notorious kidnapper in a clash in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines. Officials said Wahid Pingli, believed to be behind a spate of kidnappings for ransom in Zamboanga, was killed on Sacol Island after a 15-minute gun battle over the weekend.
Army Colonel Buenaventura Pascual, commander of a local anti-terror task force, said, His neutralization is a big relief for Zamboanga.
He said police and military forces were serving an arrest warrant on Pingli on his hideout when opened fire on soldiers and policemen. He aadded that security forces had recovered an automatic pistol and a grenade launcher, including mobile phones and a medical kit from his hideout.
Police said Pingli was a senior member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and tagged as behind the kidnapping of a US woman Gerfa Lunsmann and her son Kevin, and a Filipino relative while they were vacationing in Zamboanga City.
Only in San Francisco. San Francisco is to appease the Golden Gate Audubon Society by spending $150,000 on top of $75,000 in legal fees to study if Americas Cup yachts scare birds.
#2
I think most birds have good enough vision that they can see a boat coming and they're smart enough to get the hell out of the way. I would not give the human residents of San Francisco the same credit.
#3
In other news, the city of San Francisco is trying to curb panhandling with puppies. They're going to pay homeless people to adopt dogs. So now they'll have dogs and people peeing and pooping in the streets.
An Israeli citizen was killed Monday morning when Orcs and similar vermin infiltrated the southern border with Egypt. Israel Defense Force soldiers and Orcs and similar vermin are currently exchanging fire on the border, near Kerem Shalom.
The attack follows a few days of intelligence warnings.
Initial information reveals that a terrorist cell penetrated the fence along the border with Egypt and clashed with IDF soldiers. The exchange of fire is currently continuing. Communities near the border have been put on high alert.
Posted by: Barbara ||
06/18/2012 13:05
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#3
Various terrorist groups are thick as thieves in that part of the world. If a terrorist group, as an example say the MB becomes a majority party in one of the muslim countries (say Egypt), when do they cease to be terrorists and transition into full blown enemy?
#4
See also FREEREPUBLIC > BARAK: ATTACK SHOWS EGYPT LOSING CONTROL THE SINAI.
and
* SAME > EGYPT'S MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ORDERED ROCKET ATTACK [Grad] ON ISRAEL.
Moshe Dyan, Begin + Sadat have passed on, Mubarak is out, + Ariel Sharon is medically disabled - THIS MAY NOT END WELL FOR EITHER EGYPT OR ISRAEL OR US MIDDLE EAST POLICY.
#5
Any major Israeli mil counter-response in the Sinai, espec iff Israel refuses to pull its IDF from newly secured areas, could induce the Muslim Brotherhood + aligned to demand Egyptian dev Nuclear Weapons to counter [US-approved?]Israeli mil "aggression" agz Egypt???
[Haaretz] It is unclear whether the rocket was part of an attempt to launch rockets at specific targets within Israel.
Israeli security officials say that the rockets that landed on Friday in the area near Ovda and Mitzpeh Ramon, were launched after a request by big shots of the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt. According to these officials, the rockets were launched from the Sinai Peninsula by a Bedouin unit, according to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, orders, even though Hamas itself wasn't the initiator of the launching, but responded to the request of the Brotherhood, who wanted such an event on the eve of the second round of presidential elections in Egypt. It is yet unclear why the Brotherhood requested such an unusual action, a first military strike against Israel, or whether the strike was aimed at specific sites in the area.
The remains of the 122 mm Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... were discovered yesterday in the Ovda area, north of Eilat, and in the Mizpeh Ramon area. Security forces began searching for the remains on Friday after hearing the kabooms. This was the first time rockets landed in these areas. Last April three Grad rockets were launched at Eilat. Then, too, there was no prior warning, and the fact that they were fired from the Sinai Peninsula was clarified only after their remains were found. In August, 2010, five Grad rockets were launched from Egyptian territory, causing the death of a Jordanian citizen. In recent months Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed their fear that the Sinai Peninsula has become a greenhouse for Islamist terror groups, and is being used by Hamas as a "back yard," for various experiments. Last August, a deadly terror attack from the peninsula was initiated, according to Israeli officials, by the Popular Resistance Committees, and carried out by Islamist Extremists.
[Jerusalem Post] The spending, restrictions and anti-intellectual policies might undermine Turkish democracy, stability and economic progress. The Turkish regime is gradually suppressing freedom as its society moves steadily toward a more hardline Islamic identity. Keep in mind that Turkey has been a very self-consciously modern and secular country. While there were always restrictions on freedom -- especially regarding the expression of Kurdish nationalism -- it was miles ahead of the usual Middle Eastern standards in that regard. And Istanbul was the ultimate expression of modern, secular Turkey.
Thus, a minor incident is of immense psychological importance. Here's one of many. A woman wearing sweatpants sought to board a public bus and a dozen or more passengers blocked her way. One man said, "Look at her. Her head is not covered, shame!" Nobody on the bus came to her defense and the driver did nothing.
Why is this especially significant? Because the implication is that head covering for women should be mandatory in public and that those who advocate such measures will use intimidation to achieve this goal, unafraid of any possible consequences. On the contrary, it is those who would advocate freedom of choice who are intimidated.
Then there's the new law requiring that every shopping mall, movie theater and indeed every public facility in the country have a Moslem prayer room. One newspaper columnist who ridiculed this idea wrote, "Have you ever heard any conservative or religious person in this country complaining: 'I can't live my religion if there are no [mosques] in opera or ballet houses?'"
In other words, such legislation is not happening because there is a burning need for such things but because the government is Islamizing the country. It should be pointed out that anyone who wants to pray could easily find an existing mosque not far away and, indeed, a dedicated room isn't even a requirement for Moslem prayer.
OF COURSE, it should be understood that the government is offering a lot of incentives for becoming not just a practicing Moslem but an Islamist. Consider. You want a high-level career, especially in government. Do you go to an academic high school with a tough curriculum or to an Islamic school which focuses not only on religion but on an Islamist interpretation?
The number of students attending such religious (imam-hatip) schools has tripled in 10 years, rising to seven percent. The gap is narrowing, especially true for "regular" students since enrollment at open admissions schools fell from 50% to about 25 percent. The rest go to selective schools (21%) or vocational schools (50%).
The government has now decreed that Islamic schools be accorded equal status with academic schools for purposes of admission to university and also that Islamic junior high schools will be established. These decisions will accelerate the relative growth of education that indoctrinates students with the regime's ideology.
THEN THERE'S Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's announcement that virtually all abortions will be banned, even if the woman was raped.
The court-authorized prosecution of a famous Turkish concert pianist, Fazil Say, for sending tweets critical of Islam is another sign of the times. So is the sentencing of a student to eight years' imprisonment solely for the crime of holding up a sign demanding free education at an Erdogan rally. So is the sentencing of a former top general to one year in prison for telling a villager in a personal conversation that the regime had sold out the country.
Most recently, the government has decreed that it will choose two-thirds of the Turkish Academy of Sciences' members. Until now, the existing members chose the new ones, and one-third of them resigned in protest.
Then there's the foreign policy realm, where there are also dozens of examples of the regime's Islamist orientation. The basic trend is anti-American, ferociously anti-Israel, and supporting Iran and radical Islamist movements. Despite differences with Tehran over Syria -- the Turkish regime wants a Sunni Islamist government there; Iran wants to keep its allied incumbents in power -- the two countries are constantly expanding their trade to hitherto unprecedented levels.
When a US Arclight airstrike against forces of Evil went astray and 24 Pak soldiers were killed, Erdogan quickly demanded a US apology and called the dead "our deaders." It symbolized his eagerness to take the side of any Islamic country or movement against the United States. The Turkish regime has ignored, with US permission, the sanctions on Iran and the media in both countries is full of reports about their ever-tightening relations. The large portion of the Turkish media controlled by the regime systematically spreads anti- Americanism and public opinion polls show ever-rising hostility to the United States.
Toward Israel, the regime is so unrelentingly hostile that the leader of the opposition asked whether Erdogan intended to go to war against that country. It has now decided to file criminal charges against Israeli officials involved in the attempt to stop the ship Mavi Marmara from running the blockade on the Gazoo Strip, a situation in which Turkish jihadists were killed after assaulting Israeli soldiers. It should be noted that the Turkish government was directly involved in working with a terrorist group -- defined as such by the United States and Germany -- in mounting that deliberate provocation.
Since then, Erdogan has had three non-negotiable demands: that Israel apologize, admitting it committed a crime; that reparations be paid to the families of the dead Death Eaters on the basis of Israeli guilt; and that Israel stop all sanctions on the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-ruled Gazoo Strip. In response, Israel offered to express regrets and pay compensation on a humanitarian basis. Erdogan has refused all compromise -- as indicated especially by his third demand -- and has no desire to settle the issue.
Erdogan's anti-Israel campaign has continued with such actions as insisting that NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... installations in Turkey not provide information to Israel, that Israel be excluded from joint maneuvers in which it formerly participated, and that Israel not be permitted to attend a NATO meeting and an international counter-terrorism conference. (The real problem with the counter-terrorism group is that the B.O. regime made Turkey the co-director and didn't even include Israel as a member when it launched the project last September 11.)
I have no problem if individual Turks want to be more pious in their religious observance. The problem is that this quickly slides over into intolerance, repression, extremism and a radical foreign policy. Moreover, in the long run the spending, restrictions and anti-intellectual policies might undermine Turkish democracy, stability and economic progress.
The writer is the director of Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center. He also publishes the Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
[Jerusalem Post] PFLP hard boyz fire at least 5 mortars at IDF forces, who return fire into Gazoo; Paleostinians medics say 1 moderately injured.
IDF soldiers and armed Paleostinians exchanged fire near the Gazoo Strip border on Sunday, resulting in the moderate injury of one Gazook according to Paleostinian Ma'an news agency.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said that an IDF patrol conducting routine activity adjacent to the Gazoo Strip border were attacked by Paleostinian terrorists, who fired eight mortars at the forces.
The Jihad Jibril brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... Paleostinian Marxist movement, founded in 1967. It is considered a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries including the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica. The PFLP's stated goal is the establishment of a socialist State in Paleostine. They pioneered armed aircraft hijackings in the late 60s and early 70s... (PFLP) grabbed credit for firing five mortar shells at the Israeli forces in the area, according to Ma'an.
In response to the attack, IDF soldiers fired towards suspicious areas but did not confirm a hit. Paleostinian medics, quoted by Ma'an, said that a man suffered moderate injuries and was transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for treatment..
Also Sunday, a number of Arab youth were suspected of throwing lit firecrackers at an army base outside of Jerusalem, starting a large forest fire. Ten soldiers at the Oferit Army base in Jerusalem next to Mount Scopus were lightly injured on from smoke inhalation and two were taken to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital for treatment.
[Jerusalem Post] An aide of Egypt's presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik, an ex-military man who was Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's last prime minister, on Monday challenged the claim by the Moslem Brüderbund that it had won the vote.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said in a news conference that its candidate Mohamed Morsy had won 52.5 percent of the vote compared to Shafik's 47.5 percent with almost all votes counted.
"The campaign of Ahmed Shafik is astonished by the conference of the FJP that represents a violation of the laws of the election commission," Mahmoud Baraka, the media of Shafik's campaign, said, accusing the Brotherhood of "hijacking the election result."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/18/2012
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#1
iiuc, in Egypt voter registration is not required, however, a National ID card is required to vote (and, at least de jure, all Egyptians have a national ID card)
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/18/2012 11:13
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[Yemen Post] After the Yemeni army managed to dislodge the hard boyz from their strongholds in the southern province of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... , tribal committee started mediation efforts intended to convince the hard boyz to withdraw peacefully from Shabwa.
The tribal chiefs aim to spare Azan, a town in Shabwa and al-Qaeda stronghold, the war and bloodshed that is absolutely going to take place as the government forces are resolved to recapture all the seized towns by the Jihadists and eliminate them. Local sources told the al-Masdar online newspaper that the tribal committee, which is comprised of social dignitaries and chiefs from Shabwa, has not reached an agreement with the hard boyz yet. The sources said that al-Qaeda-linked hard boyz are still in control of Azan and that they are still manning checkpoints at its entrances.
Meanwhile, ...back at the hoedown, Bob finally got to dance with Sally... government sources confirmed that advanced operations bases have been established in Shabwa with the aim of delivering painful strikes against the hard boyz and driving them out from it. On Friday, air force planes launched Arclight airstrikes targeting the hard boyz hideouts and whereabouts in Azan. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... said the Arclight airstrikes resulted in no causalities.
Yesterday, the army troops assisted by armed rustics managed to dislodge al-Qaeda elements from their last stronghold of Shuqra, a port town in Abyan, putting an end to the rein of terrorism in the southern province which has witnessed violent festivities over the recent 13 months. Tens of thousands were displaced due to the conflict.
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[Al Ahram] Five Egyptian political parties have jointly called for the establishment of a pro-civil-state political force to stand against "repression" by the military and Islamist groups.
In a statement released Sunday, the parties said attempts by the ruling military council to rehabilitate the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... is "state despotism."
They also condemned what they said were plans by Islamists, including the Moslem Brüderbund, to establish a religious dictatorship through the control of state institutions and by excluding other political factions from power.
The statement was signed by the Free Egyptians Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Egypt Freedom Party and the- three parties established after the 2011 uprising - as well as the older Democratic Front Party and Nasserist Karama Party.
The parties criticised last week's decision by the justice ministry to grant military police the power to arrest civilians, as well as the High Constitutional Court's decision to dissolve parliament.
The parties said the decisions were politically motivated and their timing suspicious because they had provoked a political crisis just days before the presidential election runoff.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#2
When I was kid, there was a barn fire in our neighborhood. At first, the horses ran out of the barn, escaping the fire. Then they all ran back into the barn and perished. These Egyptian secular parties remind me of that.
[Dawn] Violent incidents of bloodshed continued in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , as eight more people bit the dust and several received injuries on Sunday, DawnNews reported.
The new wave of assassinations has possibly escalated after the death of Awami National Party (ANP) leader Liaquat Bangash, whose body found in Rabia city near Bloody Karachi's Gulistan-e-Jauhar area on Saturday.
Tension prevailed and the markets remained closed in the area after the death of Bangash.
Addressing a presser, Acting Additional Inspector General (AIG) Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh said that Bangash, in his efforts to escape from police, jumped from the height which resulted in his death.
The acting AIG issued 'shoot on sight' orders if any myrmidon was seen taking the law in his/her hands.
Two men were rubbed out in the Surjani town's sector 10. A man was rubbed out and another was injured in the in sector L-1 of the same area.
A man received bullet wounds after faceless myrmidonsshot up Maskan roundabout in Gulshan-e-Iqbal..
Two people were rubbed out in the areas of Baldia town and Quaidabad.
Dead bodies of a man and a woman, identified as Shabana and Liaquat, were found from a farmhouse located in the area of Gulshan-e Maymar.
At least 21 people have bit the dust in the last 36 hours in the violent killings of the city.
Heavy troops of police and Rangers have been deployed in different areas of the metropolis.
Additional police deployment
An additional force of 500 coppers has been called from interior of province under a well-planned strategy to combat the crimes especially the extortion, assassinations and kidnapping for ransom in Bloody Karachi.
The additional force has been deployed at different places in the city, while the measures are being taken to strengthen the number of police personnel deployed at posts and pickets particularly in old city trade centers.
Moreover, 1000 surveillance cameras are being installed at trade and business centers and they would start functioning shortly, as currently these cameras are being tested.
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06/18/2012
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[Dawn] Former amir of Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... Qazi Hussain Ahmad ... third president (1987--2009) of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Qazi was also head of the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal until his ego became bigger than the organization. Qazi is what is known as a fiery preacher, which means he has lots of volume, a good delivery, and not a lot of reverence for coherence. He was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasool Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden during the war against the Soviets. He used to recommend drining camel's urine to maintain good health before his kidneys started to go... has said that flawed policies of rulers have weakened the country's institutions.
Speaking to party workers at Karnal Sher kallay here on Saturday, he vowed that the JI and people would stand by the Supreme Court and foil all conspiracies to discredit judiciary.
Mr Ahmad said that the rulers had failed to deliver while toeing the American policy, which was bent upon weakening Pakistain. He said that the latest agreement between the US and India giving the latter a greater role in Afghanistan should serve as an eye-opener for the rulers.
"The objectives of Pakistain's establishment have not been achieved. The regimes who ruled the country one after the other are responsible for pushing the country into the prevailing quagmire," he said.
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06/18/2012
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Israeli tanks and bulldozers have carried out an incursion into the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gazoo Strip, injuring a Paleostinian during the attack.
Israeli bulldozers also destroyed on Sunday agricultural land in Deir al-Balah, located about 14 kilometers (8.5 miles) south of Gazoo City.
The latest Israeli attack on Gazoo was carried out on the same day when an illegal Israeli settler rubbed out two Paleostinians in the city of al-Khalil in the southern occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... acting Paleostinian Authority chief the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... condemned the killing of the two Paleostinians on Sunday.
Israel conducts attacks against the Gazoo Strip on an almost regular basis.
Three Paleostinians were maimed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike on southern Gazoo on June 1.
On March 30, Israeli troops rubbed out a 20-year-old Paleostinian in the city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gazoo Strip on a day when thousands of pro-Paleostinians had gathered in the occupied territory to mark the Paleostinian Land Day.
In addition to Arclight airstrikes and ground attacks, the Tel Aviv regime also denies about 1.7 million people in Gazoo their basic rights, including the freedom of movement and the right to decent living, work, health and education.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#1
Don't forget the three rockets that rained down on Israel today.
[Iran Press TV] Iran's Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi says at least 20 people, involved in the liquidation of Iranian nuclear scientists, have been identified and cooled for a few years. Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! Moslehi told news hounds on Sunday that the arrests were made following the identification of two terrorist groups and through multiple sting operations across the country, IRNA reported.
He added that more information about the places where the suspects had been tossed in the clink Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! , will be released in the future.
On June 14, Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced the capture of the main elements behind the murder of Iranian nuclear experts.
"The key perpetrators of the liquidations of Majid Shahriari, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan (two of the slain nuclear scientists), and Reza Qashqaei (the driver) were identified and, in a series of swift and authoritative operations, were cooled for a few years Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! and transferred to detention facilities," the ministry announced in a statement on the same day.
The statement made mention of Iran's extensive intelligence operations following the liquidation of the first Iranian nuclear scientist in 2010 and pointed out that investigations had led to the identification of a number of Israeli intelligence officers and their mercenaries.
Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was targeted on January 11 when an unknown motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to his car near a college building in Tehran. He was immediately killed and his driver, who had sustained injuries, died a few hours later in hospital.
The deadly incident happened after some US presidential hopefuls in November 2011 openly called for conducting covert operations against Iran to stop its nuclear energy program. The measures they advised included the liquidation of Iranian nuclear scientists and carrying out acts of sabotage against the country's nuclear facilities.
Dariush Rezaeinejad and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, another Iranian nuclear scientist, are also among the victims of acts of terror.
On July 23, 2011, unidentified gunnies killed Rezaeinejad outside his house in Tehran.
Terrorist attacks targeted Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi, the current director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, on November 29, 2010. Shahriari was killed immediately, but Abbasi sustained injuries.
Iran condemns Washington and Tel Aviv for the strings of deadly attacks mounted against its nuclear experts.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#1
Pssst - I hear Big Ed plugged your maw - in the back.
Pass it on.
[Iran Press TV] Egypt's ruling junta has issued a new constitutional declaration, reassuming legislative powers after the country's constitutional court dissolved the elected parliament, a report says.
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[Yemen Post] A security director was assassinated in Hadramout ...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard... early Sunday.
Local security sources said an explosive bomb targeted at the car of brigadier Muhammad Al-Harmaly, security director in the Roukab area in Mukalla city.
"The bombing killed the officer and two other soldiers and injured others while they were leaving the security office in the district," the sources continued.
Al-Qaeda is believed to behind the attack, which came days after its forces of Evil were severely defeated and driven from Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province, they said.
After its last stronghold in Abyan fell in the hands of the army, Al-Qaeda vowed to step up its attacks against key US and Yemeni targets in retaliation.
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A Maryland man faces trial in a $9.1 million fraud case that is shedding light on problems in a renewable energy credits program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Federal prosecutors accuse Rodney Hailey of Perry Hall of selling renewable fuel credits even though his company, Clean Green Fuel LLC, did not produce any renewable fuel. Instead, prosecutors say he pocketed the money and bought Ferraris and other luxury cars, as well as tractor-trailers, homes, jewelry and computers.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin in the case Monday in U.S. District Court. If Hailey is convicted, prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the $9.1 million, including the cars, homes and other items, of which nearly $3 million has been recovered, said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office.
Joseph Evans, a federal public defender representing Hailey, declined comment.
The case is one of several nationwide, including similar fraud cases in Texas and Alabama, that have led to calls in Congress for a review of the program.
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[Yemen Post] Three suspects were sentenced to death after a Yemeni court convicted them of throwing a bomb on a revolution protesters killing one of them last year, informed sources in Taiz city said on Sunday.
The East Taiz court handed down the death sentences in absentia since the three are still on the lam, the sources said. The convicts were named: Omer Ghulais, Muhammad Abdu Saif and Ahmed Hamoud Saeed.
The bomb exploded at the freedom square in downtown in February 2011 in the province, which turned into a battlefield between revolutionaries and the pro-former regime forces.
Al-Bathadi was the first revolutionary victim in the southern province.
The verdict has been hailed by the youth-led protesters in the change and freedom squares in Yemeni cities, with youths inside the change square in Sanaa hoping it will be the first in a series of coming verdicts against all involved in the crackdown against the protests last year.
Activists and lawyers said justice must be established in Yemen, especially on cases related the popular uprising as they argued the verdict in Taiz today was a real victory.
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[Iran Press TV] Striking workers on low incomes are to have their benefits cut under the British government's controversial welfare reforms to be unveiled this week, a move that has been criticized for attacking vulnerable low-paid workers.
Striking workers will not have their wages topped up by the state under the rules of the new Universal Credit, which is replacing the current benefit system.
The British Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the current benefit system, which compensates the workers and tops up their income when they go on strike, is "unfair and creates perverse incentives."
"Striking is a choice and in future benefit claimants will have to pay the price as, under Universal Credit, we no longer will," he added.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the Coalition government's move to halt the working tax credits of striking claimants, earning under £13,000 a year, has been widely criticized.
"Iain Duncan Smith isn't just out of touch; he's in La-La Land. He tells hard-pressed families simply to get a new job. What planet is he on?" said British shadow welfare secretary Liam Byrne.
In addition, Labour MP Anne Begg, chair of the work and pensions select committee, said, "There are still a lot of questions to be answered about the Universal Credit."
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France's Socialists won control of parliament in a run-off vote Sunday, handing President Francois Hollande the convincing majority needed to push through his tax-and-spend agenda, estimates said.
The Socialists' bloc obtained between 308 and 320 seats -- an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly -- and so will not need to rely on the Greens or the far left, polling institutes CSA, Ispsos and Sofres said.
Hollande, who defeated right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in a May presidential election, had urged voters to give him the MPs he needs to steer France through the eurozone crisis, rising unemployment and a faltering economy.
Sarkozy's UMP and the New Centre won between 221 and 231 seats, the Socialist-allied Greens 20 seats and the far-left Left Front 10, the polling institutes said, with the centrist MoDem winning two seats.
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[An Nahar] Troops pounded besieged districts of the flashpoint city of Homs as 10 people were killed across Syria on Sunday, taking the weekend corpse count to nearly 80, a watchdog said.
A civilian was killed in the rebel stronghold of Khalidiyeh, which, like other parts of the central city, was "being shelled and shot at by regime forces who have been trying to enter these districts for several days," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Speaking to AFP via Skype from Homs' Old City neighborhood, activist Abu Bilal said the regime siege of several parts of the city was "suffocating."
"They are shelling us all the time. There's very little food and water, and we're running out of medication."
Abu Bilal reiterated fears expressed by the opposition and rights watchdogs on Saturday that, should regime forces enter the encircled districts, people trapped in them "will be massacred."
He added that dozens of civilians in the Old City, in central Homs, were maimed, "and many of them will die if they don't get treatment as we can't get any of the injured out."
Amateur video posted on YouTube by anti-regime activists in the surrounded Homs district of Jourat al-Shiah showed widespread destruction, deserted streets and parts of a building shelled and on fire.
"We don't have any milk for the children, nor water, nor electricity," a woman whose house was destroyed tells the unidentified cameraman.
"We are not scared. We don't want weapons or money. We just want a way to get our children out of here," says the mother of two.
The Observatory had reported on Saturday that more than 1,000 families were trapped in Homs, adding that there was a lack of medical staff and equipment.
Home to several rebel hideouts, Homs has been under intermittent attack by regime forces ever since its Baba Amr neighborhood was relentlessly pounded for a month earlier this year and retaken by the regime.
Elsewhere in the country, among those killed on Sunday was a civilian rubbed out by a sniper at Khan Sheikhun in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Observatory said.
In the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , regime forces shelled Abyan ...not the same Abyan as the one in Yemen... village, killing one man, it said. ...similar results, though...
According to activist network the Local Coordination Committees, "violent shelling" of Babka village in Aleppo province led "residents to panic, and to flee." Violent shellings are pretty common. Non-violent shellings are a rarity.
Violence also hit other areas of Syria, including the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, where festivities between regime troops and rebels killed two people, one of them a rebel fighter, the Observatory said.
In the central province of Hama -- one of the first to rise up against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... -- at least three regime troops were killed in fighting on Sunday morning, the monitoring group said.
In Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , a young man was rubbed out, the watchdog added, while another was bumped off in the suburbs of the capital.
Troops and rebels clashed in Mliha village in Damascus province overnight, the Observatory said.
Forces loyal to Assad also shelled the rebel bastion of Douma, on the outskirts of the capital, for the fourth day in a row.
Sixty-nine people were killed across the country on Saturday -- 51 civilians, 16 troops and two rebels -- according to the Observatory which says more than 14,400 people have died in the 15-month uprising, most of them civilians.
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[Dawn] A former office-bearer of the Awami National Party died after he reportedly jumped from the fourth floor of a building to escape arrest during a raid conducted by the Rangers in Rabia City, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, early Sunday morning, police said. "What was that he said before he jumped?"
"He said 'You'll never take me alive, coppers!'"
"Hmmm... Y'know, he was right."
Following the incident, tension gripped different areas, including Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Safoora Goth, Pehlawan Goth, University Road, Lasbela and Patel Para, where some armed men fired into the air compelling traders to pull down shutters. "Arrr! Close yer shops to show support or we'll kill the lot of yez!"
Heavy contingents of police and Rangers were deployed in the localities, but the situation remained tense during the day. "Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Gun sex in Rabia City!"
The police claimed to have arrested two men for the firing that they said left at least three people wounded. "Step away from the guns witcher hands up! And put out those cigarettes!"
While Additional IG Ghulam Shabbir Shaikh said Bangash died after he jumped from the building to avoid arrest "Yep. That's what he did. I seen it!"
Sindh ANP Secretary General Bashir Jan, who had reservations over the police version, said the body was swollen indicating that he had been administered poison. "Quick, Officer Chaudry! While nobody's looking, administer this iocaine powder and throw him out the window!"
"Hey! I don't...!"
"Shuddup, you! Open yer mouth wide!... Wider!"
Doctors at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the body was shifted, reserved a post-mortem report and sent a sample to a lab for a chemical examination. "Doctor Quincy! Pick up the white courtesy phone!"
"The deceased had a criminal record as he was involved in several cases of crime, including that of targeted killing," said the acting city police chief, Shabbir Shaikh. "Sounds like he was a pretty bad guy, huh?"
"Just another Karachi alderman."
He added that Liaquat Bangash had been arrested in the past also. "Put down the heavy weapons and step away witcher hands up, Alderman!"
On Sunday morning, law-enforcers came under fire when they tried to raid the Rabia City residential complex, the officer said, explaining that the law-enforcers then cordoned off the area. Finally as they entered an apartment, he said, Liaquat Bangash tried to escape by jumping from the building but fell to the ground and died. Jumped out the window and fell to the ground? That doesn't usually happen, does it?
Initial port-mortem findings showed multiple fractures of the rib-cage as the cause of death, the officer said. "What do you think, Doctor Quincy?"
"I think he looks like an asterisk, Sam."
Following the autopsy, the body was shifted to Pehlawan Goth for funeral. A large number of people attended the funeral prayers. "Jeez! I never seen a coffin that wide!"
Sindh ANP Secretary General Bashir Jan said that Liaqauat Bangash had remained a district and alderman ward president of the party but his party membership was suspended because he was facing an inquiry. While he did not explain the nature of the inquiry, he expressed reservations over the police version about the death of the former party leader.
Mr Jan said that Bangash was brought in a critical condition to a private hospital in Gulistan-i-Jauhar but was then referred to the JPMC, where he was pronounced dead.
He quoted party workers as saying that the body was swollen, which, according to them, indicated that he had
been poisoned. He then quoted hospital sources as saying that there were marks of rope on his hands and neck and the rib cage was broken.
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06/18/2012
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#1
"jumped" did he?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2012 8:14
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[Al Ahram] The head of the UN observers' mission in Syria has demanded that warring parties allow the evacuation of endangered women, children, elderly and sick from the besieged city of Homs and other combat zones. Major-General Robert Mood said that neither Syrian troops nor rebels were willing to hold their fire to allow them to leave, particularly from Homs. He said UN efforts to evacuate civilians from Homs had so far failed.
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[Al Ahram] Authorities in restive northern Nigeria's Kaduna State on Sunday imposed a 24-hour curfew following several kabooms on churches in the area, a government front man and police said.
"The government has approved a 24-hour curfew with immediate effect in the state due to a breakdown of law and order," government front man Reuben Buhari told AFP.
The police also confirmed the decision.
"A 24-hour curfew is now in force throughout the state," Kaduna state police front man Aminu Lawan said, adding that security agents would ensure compliance. The curfew followed a series of coordinated kabooms on churches in several cities in the state early Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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[Al Ahram] Three suicide kabooms on churches rocked a northern Nigerian state Sunday, killing at least 21 people and wounding about 100, officials said, prompting protests in a state that has previously been strained by religious tensions.
The first two blasts occurred within minutes of each other and targeted two churches in the city of Zaria, said Kaduna State police chief Mohammed Abubakar Jinjiri. A third blast hit a church in the city of Kaduna about half an hour later, Jinjiri said.
An official working for a relief agency involved in rescue efforts said Sunday evening that 21 people had been killed and that at least 100 people were maimed in Sunday's blasts. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he said he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists.
Earlier in the day, Nigerian Red Thingy official Andronicus Adeyemo said the Zaria attacks killed the bomber and at least one other person and left 51 maimed. The Kaduna attack claimed 10 more lives, he said, and maimed 29 people.
Jinjiri said security at the three churches prevented the jacket wallahs from ramming car bombs into the buildings filled with worshippers.
"If not for security, there would have been (many) more casualties," Jinjiri said.
Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence in Nigeria. The situation has led churches in Nigeria's predominantly Mohammedan north to boost their security in a nation of more than 160 million people almost equally divided between Mohammedans and Christians.
Last weekend, a suicide car boomer detonated his explosives outside a church in central Nigeria as gunnies attacked another church in the nation's northeast, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others.
Attacks on Christian holidays have claimed the most lives. An Easter Day blast in Kaduna left at least 38 people dead. A Christmas Day suicide kaboom of a Catholic church in Madalla near Nigeria's capital killed at least 44 people.
Police tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! one of the bombers who survived. Jinjiri declined to say who police suspected might be responsible, though a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... has claimed similar church attacks in the past.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north, is waging an increasingly bloody fight with security agencies and the public. More than 560 people have been killed in violence blamed on the sect this year alone, according to an News Agency that Dare Not be Named count.
The Nigerian Red Thingy said young people had started protesting in Kaduna, leading the state government to impose a 24-hour curfew in a state deeply divided along religious lines. An News Agency that Dare Not be Namednews hound also saw billows of smoke over a mosque in a predominantly Christian part of the city. People had mounted illegal roadblocks and were seen harassing motorists. A cycle of violence rider in that same neighborhood lay seriously hurt and bleeding by the road side. Motorbike riders there are often presumed to be Mohammedan and become easy targets during reprisal attacks by Christians.
Kaduna state, which sits on Nigeria's dividing line between its largely Christian south and Mohammedan north, was at the heart of postelection violence in April 2011. Mobs armed with machetes and poison-tipped arrows took over streets of Kaduna and the state's rural countryside after election officials declared President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... the winner. Followers of his main opponent, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, a Mohammedan, quickly alleged the vote had been rigged, though observers largely declared the vote fair.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[Iran Press TV] Egyptian authorities have jugged You have the right to remain silent... several people for allegedly selling "invisible ink" pens in polling stations on the first day of the presidential runoff elections.
Secretary General of the Supreme Presidential Elections Commission Hatem Bagato said most of the suspects were jugged You have the right to remain silent... in the coastal city of Alexandria and authorities have started an investigation into the plot.
The inks of the pens will be erased two to four hours after writing and they have been distributed among the voters with the aim of damaging the election process, he said.
After the spread of the rumor, the commission called for distribution of 50,000 pens in 13,000 polling stations, urging the judges of the polling centers to use only indelible ink pens.
Egyptian people are going to the polls for the second and final day of voting on Sunday to choose their president with the Moslem Brüderbund candidate Mohammed Morsi running against former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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[Iran Press TV] A US unmanned aerial vehicle has crashed in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia.
The Western military alliance, NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... , confirmed the Sunday incident, saying the drone went down due to technical problems.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... the Taliban have grabbed credit for the crash.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#1
Updates on the story this morning indicate it was only nesting.
From TFA:
And he is up for re-election and fighting the constant perception that he's weak, a one-man apology tour whose foreign policy is unclear, unsure, and lacking in strategic depth.
There's something in the leaks that is a hallmark of the Obama White House. They always misunderstand the country they seek to spin, and they always think less of it than it deserves. Why do the president's appointees think the picture of him with a kill list in his hand makes him look good? He sits and personally decides who to kill? Americans don't think of their presidents like that. And they don't want to.
National security doesn't exist to help presidents win elections. It's not a plaything or a tool to advance one's prospects.
The conversations must be getting vicious at the dinner parties she attends...
#2
It's all out there now. Mr. Sanger's sources are, apparently, high administration officials, whose diarrhetic volubility marks a real breakthrough in the history of indiscretion.
I believe the correct word should be treason or sedition.
The United States will not bail out European countries if the eurozone economy falls apart under a spiraling debt crisis, Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney said Sunday.
"We're not going to send checks to Europe. We're not going to bail out the European banks. We're going to be poised here to support our economy," Romney told CBS television's "Face the Nation" program.
He expressed hope that "regardless of what happens in Europe, that our banking sector is able to weather the storm," noting that US banks are on a "much stronger basis" than during the last crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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[Al Ahram] At least 10 people were killed on Sunday after a series of church bombings in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna sparked riots by Christian youths, an AFP reporter saw. "I saw 10 bodies being taken to the mortuaries after Christian youths protested the attacks on the churches around mid-day." the reporter said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[Iran Press TV] The Egyptian military is planning to complete its coup against the revolution by preparing to announce former Premier Ahmed Shafiq as the winner of the presidential election, reports say.
The reports say that the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) has already made necessary arrangements with the US to complete its planned coup by placing Shafiq ahead of Moslem Brüderbund's Mohammed Morsi in the race.
Meanwhile, ...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... the SCAF has also warned the Egyptians against holding protests after the release of election results. The judiciary has reportedly authorized the junta to make arrests in case of unrest.
As another part of the plan to derail the revolution, on the second and final day of voting, the SCAF announced its decision to issue an amended constitutional declaration, allowing it to remain in control of the country's legislation and state budget.
The army's recent efforts to remain in power come while the it had vowed to hand over power to the country's elected president on July 1. The military junta announced on Saturday its decision to dissolve the Egyptian parliament that was dominated by the Moslem Brüderbund.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he intends to retire from politics at the end of his second term in 2013, Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Saturday. Ahmadinejad, a civil engineer by trade, said he plans to return to academics after leaving politics.
Unless the "people" won't let him leave, of course...
The Iranian president may not serve more than two consecutive terms, but may run for office again after an absence of one four-year term. Despite this, Ahmadinejad said "Eight years is enough," in an interview with Allgemeine Zeitung that will be published on Sunday.
"Maybe I'll get involved politically at the university, but I'm not going to found any political party or group," he said.
He might take supplements and grow an inch or two...
He has served as Iran's president since 2005, and served as mayor of Tehran prior to his election to the presidency.
Ahmadinejad's announcement came days before world powers and Iran are scheduled to reconvene in Moscow for a third round of nuclear talks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2012
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#1
See also TELEGRAPH.UK > IRAN + WORLD POWERS TO MEET FOR "MAKE OR BREAK" TALKS OVER NUCLEAR PROGRAMME.
Yeeuup, "MAKE OR BREAK" is a good way of describing it.
* WAFF > [Salon.COM] WE CAN'T CRUSH IRAN.
NOSTRADAMUS may agree, except until such time "...THE SEVEN/SEVENTH HOLDS THE LINE".
[SONGS OF THE THIRD WORLD WAR - "WHITE RABBIT", THE THEME FROM "PLATOON" [1960's = 1980's Oliver Stone] here.
#1
What is this? These things look like laws passed by a totalitarian regime. Since when did we elect a king with a four year regency? If one of these kings felt like it they could probably write themselves all subsequent elections.
Where is Congress? Since when did they be one subservient to this self-proclaimed monarch?
Where does this power end? Worst case suggests it ends at the Constitutional boundary except in times of war as recognized by Congress alone.
The good thing is that whatever Obean taketh, Romney could give back.
#3
Just scanning down the list, it looks like someone preparing to take over. I hope the plan was for the second term...
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2012 5:54
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#4
I'm not a great fan of BHO but something doesn't square with the list of executive orders reported by Dr. Laurie Roth. The archives and other sites report that Obummer signed executive orders as follows:
Executive orders tend to abrogate and diminish the legislative branch of government. They basically end-run Congress. They are more the instrument of a dictator than a freely elected government.
#6
I'm afraid it is later than most Americans realize. Soros estimated 3 more months--Romney may not be able to undo it as we may not survive until the election. Greece and Spain may surrender sovereignty in exchange for a bailout and the Axis of Evil is profitting from carbon credit exchanges. Global Governance born out of chaos is upon us. The Constitution does provide for endemic corruption, however...a convention.
However, it may be that, for example, one of Obama's EOs modified 10990 for example.
In addition, EOs are, if properly used, a simple and transparent method of improving accountability.
For example, a law may be passed saying, "X dollars are provided for the purpose of Y". An EO or even a departmental order would then say, "With respect to the law "X dollars...Y", the Administrator of Z will issue a notice in the Federal Register with the required information that must be in a grant proposal".
The first on the Dr. Roth's list is Exec order 10990, which per Dr. Roth takes of transportation facilities.
As far as I know, Exec order 10990 dates from the JFK admin and has to do appointing officials to a safety council pursuant to an earlier act by Congress. Obama's exec orders begin at about number 13,400 or so, although some merely amend previous EOs.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/18/2012 12:08
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#9
Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals. George Washington
From TFA:
After several years during which Fernandez bragged that Argentina was one of the world's most rapidly growing economies while the United States and Europe were crumbling, Argentina's economy is now projected to slow down from nearly 9 percent last year to 2.2 percent this year, according to the latest World Bank estimates. Many independent economists say that even that projection is too optimistic, and that the country may end this year with a recession.
#1
Why did Argentinas economy take such a sudden turn downwards?
Because their president is a heavy-handed left-wing Peronist who tries to limit free speech, nationalize industries, and get cozy with large labor unions.
A total of three deaths and three hurt have been recorded so far in the aftermath of Hurricane Carlotta as the Mexican Army began its preparations for relief efforts, according to Mexican news reports.
The Mexican Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), the controlling agency for the Mexican army announced Sunday that their part in relief efforts would begin in three southern Mexican states affected by Hurricane Carlotta.
According to a news item posted on the website of Informador news daily, the two unidentified young female victims, ages 13 and seven, were killed in a mudslide in their residence in Pluma Hidalgo in Oaxaca.
Accrdoing to a news item on CNN Mexico blog, a third victim identified as Paula Medina Alaves, 56 in San José Manialtepec municipality died when the truck she was riding in was caught by winds and flipped. The driver, said to be her nephew was unharmed.
According to a news item on the website of La Jornada, a railroad bridge collapsed in Loma Bonita municipality Sunday injuring three and destroying six railroad cars. La Jornada also posted in a separate item that power has already been restored to 92 percent of residents and businesses in Oaxaca and Guerrero states.
According to data supplied by the US National Hurricane Center, Carlotta became a hurricane early Friday and made landfall near Puerto Escondido municipality in Oaxaca state with winds of 148 kph (90 MPH) at 2000 hrs Friday night. Saturday morning the storm was downgraded to tropical depression status.
The affected states include Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. The extend of the damage is uncertain at this point, but concerns are for damage from flooding and mudslides. The effected area mostly consists of dense jungle and mountains.
According to a news item post on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, an army command center is expected to be in place at the base of the Mexican 54 Infantry Battalion base in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.
Additional army units from the Mexican 36th Military Zone are expected to be deployed in Mapastepec Pijijiapan, Tonala and Arriaga municipalities in Chiapas to assist in relief efforts.
Five refugee shelters have been activated in Puerto Escondido, Bajas de Chila, Pinotepa Nacional, Coyante and Pochutla municipalities in Oaxaca state. So far, 334 refugees have appeared in those shelters.
The storm is not expected to have much effect on the G-20 Economic Summit to be held in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur today and Tuesday.
Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police helped spark the 1992 L.A. riots, died Sunday at his home in Rialto. He was 47. It wasn't me! I got an alibi!
King became a symbol for police brutality and the troubled relations between the LAPD and minority residents. He was eventually awarded a $3.8-million settlement, but the money and fame brought him little solace. He had repeated run-ins with the law and as of April said he was broke.
King's fiancée called 911 about 5:25 a.m. and said she had found King at the bottom of his pool, Sgt. Paul Stella told The Times. Officers pulled him from the pool and began CPR until paramedics arrived and took King to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. King was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:11 a.m., Stella said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#1
King's fiancée called 911 about 5:25 a.m. and said she had found King at the bottom of his pool,
Yup, broke, With a pool, HIS pool.
Suuurre.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2012 3:41
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#2
You just knew this guy would not die of old age in bed.
[Dawn] An offer by the United States to apologise ' softly' for the death of 24 Pak troops killed in a cross border attack by US forces on a Pak security checkpost in November last year, Dawnnews reported.
A meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet has been immediately summoned to tackle the issue.
Ten days remain to the passing of seven months since the closure of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supplies after the cross border attack and experts are hoping that the strained relations between the US and Pakistain would be resolved.
Diplomatic sources have said the US has offered a 'soft low level apology' over the checkpost attack incident and it is expected to be delivered next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#1
As per DEFENCE.PK.FORUMS, in return has Pakistan conveniently "lost" = weirdly-n-mysteriously-n-...... can't find, its costs records on how much it spent andor is owed by the US-NATO [read, USA]as per the GWOT???
D *** NG IT, INQUIRING PAK BLOGGERS-POSTERS WANNA KNOW!
Posted by: Lonzo Dark Lord of the Sith5381 ||
06/18/2012 9:54
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#4
"We're terribly sorry that your Dumfuks started a war so now you're killed by Drones.
"
"We're also sorry the asses hide behind your Civilians so they die as well."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/18/2012 11:28
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#5
Kinda sorta like this?
Yeah, we did it. We're not sorry. And it's pro'lly gonna happen again. Now stop shooting at us.
#6
That ISAF aviation unit didn't just vector over to a PAK border outpost and open fire. Those helo's were FIRED UPON and they finished the scrap! Get a grip Pakistan.
#7
ION TOPIX > [Washington Examiner]PAKISTAN SPY AGENCY MOVES TOWARD OPEN DEFIANCE OF US.
ARTIC = US fears Pak ISI + aligned Radical Islamist extremists, e.g. HAQQANIS, aspire to create a post-2014, anti-American, MilTerr "safe haven" in Afghanistan.
And "safe havens" in PAKISTAN???
* SAME > PAKISTAN: NO SUPPLY ROUTES/TRANSIT DEAL WIDOUT APOLOGY.
IIUC, Pakistan desires a PCorrect-Deniable, good/proper-sounding "soft" apology acceptable to the Pak People; OR THE DEAL'S OFF, I.E. THE NATO SUPPLY ROUTES = SDN STAYS CLOSED.
SOME KIND OF APOLOGY THAT ISLAMABAD CAN USE, OR NO-GO.
-----------
OTOH SAME > THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NDN [Northern Distribution Network], to the US-NATO.
* SIASAT DAILY > [Mass]RIOTS IN PAKISTAN OVER POWER CUTS.
* RELATED DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > POWER PROTESTORS GO ON RAMPAGE.
* WAFF > [Afghanistan] WOULD-BE SUICIDE BOMBERS: WE WERE [profiled, recruited, +] TRAINED IN PAKISTAN, vee Madrassas.
The "lazy", the dirty, the poor + poverty-stricken, ...@etc.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > UGANDA ARRESTS FIVE PAKISTANI REBEL SUSPECTS.
And then there's IRAN ...
* MEMRI.ORG > IRAN REGIME OFFERS OBAMA A "WIN-WIN" DEAL - RECOGNIZE OUR NUCLEAR RIGHTS, + YOU WILL BE RE-ELECTED.
[Iran Press TV] Unemployment rates rose in 18 U.S. states in May, the most in nine months. Increasing unemployment in more than a third of U.S. states is the latest evidence of a weaker job market.
The Labor Department said that unemployment rates fell in only 14 states. That's fewer than the previous month, when rates fell in 37 states. Rates were unchanged in 18 states.
Nationally, the rate rose to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April, the first increase in almost a year. Employers added only 69,000 jobs, the fewest in 12 months.
North Carolina reported the biggest loss, shedding 16,500 jobs. It was followed by Pennsylvania, which lost nearly 10,000.
Nevada had the nation's highest unemployment rate, at 11.6 percent, followed by Rhode Island's 11 percent and Caliphornia's 10.8 percent.
Some of the hardest-hit states have seen improvement in the past year. Some of those declines reflect more hiring.
But the lower rates also are a result of more people becoming discouraged and dropping out of the work force. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively looking for work.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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#1
Sad that we have to get such news from Iran.
Of course, it's not "news" here.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2012 6:14
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#2
Yes, thanks to the MSM shills for Obama and the lefty progressives, we get more accurate news from the internet and other sources.
#3
Too many confuse the original First Amendment 'free press' with the technology of the times rather than the intent of 'free flow of information' which today's institutional MSM is abjectly against.
#4
no worries, obama has another 25 million green jobs lined up for all the unemployed!
Posted by: chris ||
06/18/2012 10:28
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#5
The unemployment rate is BS.
Just because a person runs out of unemployment benefits, it does not mean they have quit looking for work.
Look at the employment ratios in the US. Currently, the employment ratio is at 63% the lowest since the depression.
If someone would do an accurate count, the real unemployment rate is closer to 30%. Heck I know more people out of work than I do people that work. All of us are college educated professionals and we cannot find work.
It is a disgrace, we are in a depression, the growth rate, as stated by the Department of Commerce is less than the rate of inflation, which is someone would pull out a calculator would find the economy is contracting not expanding.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/18/2012 10:54
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#6
The CIA was 'surprised' by the collapse of the Soviet Union because they were reading all the official reports that the apparatchiks sent up to the bosses telling the bosses what they wanted to hear. Not much difference here either these days.
On the marginally bright side, these functionaries have self identified for the cleaver when it comes time to cut government.
[Dawn] Police on Saturday thwarted a sabotage bid with the help of people by defusing an improvised explosive devise planted near the Kohat Bus Stand.
Unidentified persons had put a nine-kilogram bomb in a sack and placed it on roadside adjacent to Kohat Bus Stand. The residents of the area informed police about the sack lying on the roadside.
Police reached the spot and cordoned off the area. The officials of Bomb Disposal Squad were also called to defuse the bomb.
Officials of Bhana Mari cop shoppe told Dawn that the bomb could have caused huge losses if it was went kaboom!. Often, they said, huge rush could be witnessed in the area where the bomb was planted
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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[Dawn] A large number of people tried to storm into a cop shoppe in North Nazimabad to get hold of a man who was booked and placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! for allegedly desecrating the Koran on Sunday.
The Taimuria police placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! the man, Saleem, a resident of North Nazimabad's Block N, and started the paperwork but haven't done much else (FIR 308/2012) against him under Section 295-B (defiling, etc, of Holy Qura'an) of the Pakistain Penal Code on behalf of the state.
The police said the man, whom they described as a drug addict, was placed in durance vile Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on a complaint of people who had witnessed the alleged desecration in the apartment building where the suspect lived.
Following his arrest, a large number of people gathered outside the Taimuria cop shoppe and demanded that the police to hand over the suspect to them so that they could lynch him.
The mob tried to storm into the cop shoppe, but the law-enforcers had gun sex and hurled teargas shells to disperse the crowd.
Rangers were also called in to avert any further breakdown of law and order. Finally, the crowd dispersed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2012
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No one in England is willing to play the role of King Edward this time...
MSPs have for the first time voted in favour of Scotland becoming independent.
First Minister Alex Salmond hailed the vote, by 69 to 52, as a "milestone" in the country's history. He also revealed that 15,000 people have backed a declaration stating it is "fundamentally better" if decisions about the country's future are taken by the people of Scotland.
The declaration is a key part of the Yes Scotland cross-party campaign for independence, which officially got under way just six days ago. At the time of its launch Mr Salmond declared that if one million voters put their names to it "then we shall win an independent Scotland".
The SNP leader revealed 15,000 people had already given it their backing as Holyrood debated the country's constitutional future.
Labour, Tories and the Liberal Democrats all united round an amendment put forward by Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader. It argued that it was in Scotland's best interest to remain part of the United Kingdom and that the country was "stronger together and weaker apart".
But that was defeated, with MSPs instead backing Mr Salmond's motion, which said: "The Parliament agrees that Scotland should be an independent country."
While the vote is largely procedural, it will have symbolic significance for Nationalists, who can now state that independence is "the will of the Scottish Parliament".
Mr Salmond said: "Today, for the first time since the beginning of the political union, the elected representatives of the people of Scotland have agreed that this nation should be an independent country." He said the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 had a been a "milestone in Scotland's journey" and added: "The motion today marks another."
While he said Holyrood had "achieved much in its short life span" - such as the ban on smoking in public places - he added: "This Parliament is not yet able to make many of the key decisions which affect the lives of our fellow countrymen and women."
But Ms Lamont argued that most Scots did not want independence. "We, as a nation, were never conquered," the Labour leader said. "The United Kingdom has not been imposed upon us, it is the choice of Scots. It is the choice of Scots to share power with our neighbours in these small islands."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2012
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#1
England would be much better off without the Scottish albatross.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Wall Street Journal] Egypt's interim ruling military council pledged to honor its promise to hand over power by the end of this month, hours after Islamist candidate Mohammed Morsi claimed victory in the first free presidential vote since the ouster of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
After the Yemeni army managed to dislodge the 
[Iran Press TV] Israeli warplanes have struck the south of the Gaza City in northern Gaza Strip, wounding five Palestinians, medics say.
Five Egyptian political parties have jointly called for the establishment of a pro-civil-state political force to stand against "repression" by the military and Islamist groups.
Violent incidents of bloodshed continued in 
[Dawn] Former amir of 
Israeli tanks and bulldozers have carried out an incursion into the city of Deir al-Balah in the central 
Iran's Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi says at least 20 people, involved in the 
Egypt's ruling junta has issued a new constitutional declaration, reassuming legislative powers after the country's constitutional court dissolved the elected parliament, a report says.
A security director was assassinated in 
[Yemen Post] Three suspects were sentenced to death after a Yemeni court convicted them of throwing a bomb on a revolution protesters killing one of them last year, informed sources in Taiz city said on Sunday. 
France's Socialists won control of parliament in a run-off vote Sunday, handing President Francois Hollande the convincing majority needed to push through his tax-and-spend agenda, estimates said.
Troops pounded besieged districts of the flashpoint city of Homs as 10 people were killed across Syria on Sunday, taking the weekend 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
A former office-bearer of the Awami National Party died after he reportedly jumped from the fourth floor of a building to escape arrest during a raid conducted by the Rangers in Rabia City, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, early Sunday morning, police said.
Three suicide 
Goodluck Jonathan
A US unmanned aerial vehicle has crashed in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia.
The United States will not bail out European countries if the eurozone economy falls apart under a spiraling debt crisis, Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney said Sunday.
The Egyptian military is planning to complete its coup against the revolution by preparing to announce former Premier Ahmed Shafiq as the winner of the presidential election, reports say.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he intends to retire from politics at the end of his second term in 2013, Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Saturday. Ahmadinejad, a civil engineer by trade, said he plans to return to academics after leaving politics.
An offer by the United States to apologise ' softly' for the death of 24 Pak troops killed in a cross border attack by US forces on a Pak security checkpost in November last year, Dawnnews reported.
Unemployment rates rose in 18 U.S. states in May, the most in nine months. Increasing unemployment in more than a third of U.S. states is the latest evidence of a weaker job market.
[Dawn] Police on Saturday thwarted a sabotage bid with the help of people by defusing an improvised explosive devise planted near the Kohat Bus Stand.
