The United States on Wednesday condemned the "despicable attack" on university buildings in the Syrian city of Aleppo, blaming the regime for unleashing air strikes that killed at least 82 people.
"The United States is appalled and saddened by the Syrian regime's deadly attack yesterday on the University of Aleppo," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding most of the victims were students and refugees.
"According to eyewitnesses at the scene, regime planes launched aerial strikes on university facilities," she told journalists.
"We condemn this despicable attack on unarmed civilians and continue to emphasize that those responsible for unlawful killings and other violations of international law will be identified and held accountable."
The United States also sent its "sympathies and condolences... to all those devastated by this senseless tragedy."
"The Syrian people have already endured too much loss as a result of the Assad regime's relentless attacks on its own people," Nuland added.
The twin blasts ripped through the university buildings in Syria's second city Aleppo on Tuesday, in attacks which the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad blamed on opposition rebels
Israeli political leaders reacted yesterday to a report on the Bloomberg news website by well-known American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg which claimed, in [US President] Obamas view, [Israels Prime Minister] Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation.
Goldberg, who writes principally on foreign affairs and in particular the Middle East, said that White House contacts had told him that on matters related to the Palestinians the President [Obama] seems to view the Prime Minister [Netanyahu] as a political coward and that privately Obama shared the view that Israel doesnt know what its own best interests are.
Although Netanyahu himself has not commented on Goldbergs column, according to Israel Hayom, senior figures in the Likud Party have suggested that Obamas alleged comments are an attempt to interfere in Israels election next week, in retaliation for Netanyahus perceived endorsement of Obamas opponent Mitt Romney ahead of Novembers US presidential election. However, Likuds Education Minister Gideon Saar simply commented, Netanyahu will know very well how to work with Obama while at the same time safeguarding Israels interests. Meanwhile, another senior Likud minister Gilad Erdan dismissed Goldbergs report as gossip a journalist wrote, and the facts suggest that the opposite is true.
The F-16 carries an M61A1 Vulcan gun, which fires 20mm projectiles at the rate of 6000 rounds per minute, in addition to various ground-attack and air-to-air missiles.
The Abrams tank carries a 120mm smoothbore gun with a muzzle velocity of more than a mile per second even with an earlier generation of ammunition it could penetrate 22 inches of armor at more than a mile, and this performance has since been improved. The Abrams also carries three machine guns and a sophisticated ballistic computer system.
So, Mr Obama do you think Mohamed Morsi can pass the background check to qualify for the ownership of such weapons?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
01/16/2013
13:18 ||
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President Barack Obama has unveiled a raft of sweeping gun control proposals, setting the stage for a showdown with firearms rights advocates.
Mr Obama called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and wider background checks on gun buyers. The Democratic president also signed 23 executive actions, which do not require congressional approval.
Mr Obama said gun-control reforms could not wait any longer, after last month's school massacre in Connecticut.
Never let a crisis go to waste, I think Rahm said...
He unveiled the proposals at the White House on Wednesday, flanked by children who wrote him letters after December's Newtown school shooting, which left 26 dead.
But it's despicable to ask him why the children of the nomenklatura can have armed guards at their schools...
Mr Obama said: "If there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try."
He urged Congress:
to reintroduce an expired ban on "military-style" assault weapons, such as those used in several recent mass shootings
limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds
introduce background checks on all gun sales; currently private sales and some sales at gun shows, constituting about 40% of the national total, are exempt
pass a ban on possession and sale of armour-piercing bullets
introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers, especially unlicensed dealers who buy arms for criminals
finally approve the appointment of the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Mr Obama also signed 23 unilateral orders, including an end to a ban on gun-violence research by a prominent federal agency, as well as a measure promoting responsible gun ownership.
He acknowledged his legislative push would encounter stiff opposition in Congress.
#2
All 23 executive orders: Link. Many of them have been tried and did nothing. The others are attempts at unbridled authority. Others try to link the Affordable Care Act with gun control. If I'm not mistaken, the NRA lobbied hard to include a section in Obamacare that made it illegal for doctors to ask whether you have firearms in your home. These executive orders try to do an end-around to that legal requirement.
Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
Nominate an ATF director.
Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
#3
give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
So seizing a gun gives permission for a 'fishing expedition'? Was the gun seized 'for cause' of some kind, or just because a policeman saw it? Was it seized from the owner or from a gun shop or from someone who had stolen it?
#7
Besoeker: having the CDC involved has been a long-time dream/plan for the progressives. They want to use it for stealth regulation, the same way they've wanted the CDC to regulate tobacco, salt and sugar. I'm not kidding. If the CDC can 'study' it, they can come up with 'recommendations'. Remember, they want 'science' to drive the debate -- their science.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2013 15:43
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#8
Could not agree more Doctor. That CDC crowd are are pathogens unto themselves. If you want reliably independent, valid research conducted, visit BMI in Columbus.
#10
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."
#13
Theres actually a progession going on here.
#6 :Is the setup for later gun regulations and backgroud checks on personal sales and gifts.
-Remember, govt programs never go away, they just look for something to do.-
#14 : The CDC study. Want to bet what they official result is? Health and safety risk.
Which leads to
#16 : Will these doctors questions be official, or can you decline to discuss?
And -ta-da
#21 : Your health insurer and ACA supplier gets to ask specific questions regarding health risks, aka smoking, drinking, drugs. They add gun ownership to list, and want specific answers, as in type, serial numbers, and ammunition availability. Theyre not the govt, so no rights apply. Price of coverage would be based on the answers, coverage could be denied/cancelled based on answers or the lack thereof.
Now tell me Im paranoid.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/16/2013 20:27
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#14
Better to ask if you own or operate a motor vehicle given the higher rate of deaths associated with the technology.
Even better to ask if you had been in a hospital - An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a new study of 37 million patient records...
#15
The training for active shooter response is long overdue. Only thing missing is giving teachers the firearm to fully carry out the full gamut of proper responses. Some of these are horrid CDC, consumer product safety, etc. but there are a few good things in there (surprised the hell out of me).
#16
Meanwhile, D'JANGO Fans, those illegals sneaking into the US from Mexico are taking a well-earned siesta because their illegal comrades up in Canada are demanding "fair-n-equal time" [catch-up] wid Mexico as per covert penetration into the US.
NO NEED FOR PRIVATE GUN OWNERSHIP ANYMORE BECAUSE THE CANADIANS WILL STOP'EM COLD JUST AS THEY STOPPED SEVERAL SOVIET ARMY GROUPS FROM INVADING ALASKA, CANADA, + UPPER US IN THE ORIGINAL "RED DAWN".
#2
Whole Foods CEO says Obama healthcare law is 'more like fascism' Correction more like :
Posted by: Au Auric ||
01/16/2013 13:50
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#3
No, he's splitting a hair here: In socialism, the means of production is owned and run by the state. In facism, MOP is privately owned, but run by the state.
I know, big freakin' difference. The point is in fascism, you're allowed to be out-and-out wealthy, but in socialism eveybody's completely equal.
Yeah. Hoo Ha.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/16/2013 15:35
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#4
In socialism the workers control the means of production; the state controls the workers; and the nomenklatura controls the state.
In fascism the corporations control the means of production; ; the state controls the corporations; and the nomenklatura controls the state.
That should clear it up for you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2013 15:44
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#5
Which is why Fascism is the 'right' wing of the Left versus Socialism which is the 'left' wing of the Left.
Suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives blew themselves up near security targets in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people, state-run media and activists said.
The near-simultaneous attacks in the city of Idlib brought the carnage of Syria's civil war to a second major urban center in the country's north in as many days, following the massive blasts a day earlier that killed 87 people at a university in the commercial hub of Aleppo.
There were conflicting reports about the number of explosions Wednesday in Idlib, where rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad control much of the countryside, while the regime remains in charge of the city itself.
Suicide bombers won't be effective unless they're on a boat and they ram the Russian ship with Assad on it...
"Several" British nationals are caught up in a terrorist attack at a gas field in Algeria where workers have been taken hostage.
An Islamist militant group has claimed to have kidnapped up to 41 foreign nationals - including seven Americans and an Irishman in a dawn raid on the gas facility part-operated by BP, Sonatrach (the Algerian national oil company), and Statoil in Algeria.
Three people have reportedly been killed in the attack on the plant situated in the east of the country near the Libyan border.
Prime Minister David Cameron chaired a 45-minute meeting of the Government's crisis committee Cobra on the attack, attended by ministers from the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, as well as officials from other agencies.
His official spokesman said afterwards: "The ongoing incident has involved various nationalities, including several British nationals.
"We are working with BP to support the families of staff and provide consular assistance."
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) warned they would take revenge for the intervention in Mali, saying they would bring the war to Paris.
That may yet happen, but in the short term it looks as if they are on the hunt for Westerners wherever they can find them.
A good place to look is the oil and gas industry, especially in Algeria. The five Japanese hostages taken may just be unlucky enough to be foreigners the hostage takers came across along with those they would prize more highly - Europeans and Americans..
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2013 13:48
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#3
at least 41 hostages ... British, American, Norwegian, Japanese, French. The Islamists got a virtual United Nations of oil & gas workers when they took over the living compound inside the BP plant. One way or another this will get resolved ... it's just a question of how many hostages get killed.
#4
"Bring the war to Paris" > reminds me of an old Dream/Vision of mine where the French Foreign Legion + Gendarmes were seemingly setting up fighting or combat positions inside Paris + France.
I suspect the Hard Boyz made good on their threat to bring the Jihad to France.
Iff Central Africa does fall to Radical Islam, that wil leave formerly British southern Africa -WHAT ARE THE DUTCH DOING TO PROTECT THEMSELVES + THEIR BOER RELATIONS [South Africa] + LOWLANDS [Camelkaze threats to the Zelder Zee], ESPEC IFF FRANCE IS SUCCESSFULLY DESTABILIZED + THE BRITS [post-2014 = England + Wales left] HAVE TO SEND FORCES TO FRANCE INSTEAD OF THE MALVINAS AGZ ARGIE BABE CRISTINA???
According to a background briefer provided by the White House, President Barack Obama is asking doctors to help deal with guns. Here's the relevant passage:
PRESERVE THE RIGHTS OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS TO PROTECT THEIR PATIENTS AND COMMUNITIES FROM GUN VIOLENCE: We should never ask doctors and other health care providers to turn a blind eye to the risks posed by guns in the wrong hands.
Clarify that no federal law prevents health care providers from warning law enforcement authorities about threats of violence: Doctors and other mental health professionals play an important role in protecting the safety of their patients and the broader community by reporting direct and credible threats of violence to the authorities. But there is public confusion about whether federal law prohibits such reports about threats of violence. The Department of Health and Human Services is issuing a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits these reports in any way.
Protect the rights of health care providers to talk to their patients about gun safety: Doctors and other health care providers also need to be able to ask about firearms in their patients' homes and safe storage of those firearms, especially if their patients show signs of certain mental illnesses or if they have a young child or mentally ill family member at home. Some have incorrectly claimed that language in the Affordable Care Act prohibits doctors from asking their patients about guns and gun safety. Medical groups also continue to fight against state laws attempting to ban doctors from asking these questions. The Administration will issue guidance clarifying that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit or otherwise regulate communication between doctors and patients, including about firearms. Good Luck With That, Mr. Zero
#1
Doctors already have to ask about seatbelt wearing and other bullshit with Obamacare. Why not guns? In fact, why not have to report to a doctor for weekly confession under Obamacare? He will then report you to the IRS treasury agents that are stationed there and have you arrested and/or fined appropriately.
#2
This doesn't look like it asks doctors to collect gun info, per se. Nor does it seem to require you to answer. For now. It does allow them to do so and seems to place such conversation outside patient confidentiality though.
#3
We are not required to ask; this is saying that we are not prohibited from asking.
It's the slippery slope, which is getting more slippery and is sloping more sharply.
Pediatricians are already mandated to ask about certain issues either by state laws or by their professional society. You can see where this is going.
Example: I am not 'required' to use the EMR at my institution, but my institution gets extra money if I do use it to check off certain items (I electronically reviewed a patient's allergies, medications, etc). Guess how that works out in the end.
Again, you can see where this is going. I can.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2013 12:54
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Plenty of people are both. Crazy people commit somewhat more violent crimes per capita than non-crazy people, but most crazy people are not evil... we must face the facts about the possibility of changing what is crazy and changing what is evil. I have spent most of my life working with mental illness. I have been president of the worlds largest association of mental-illness workers, and I am all for more funding for mental-health care and research but not in the vain hope that it will curb violence.
While revising five editions of my textbook on abnormal psychology, I have found that drugs and therapy offer disappointingly little additional help for the mentally ill than they did 25 years ago despite billions of dollars in funding. And there is zero promise that any developments I am aware of will help curb the violence that mentally ill persons commit.
As for progress on restraining or rehabilitating evil people, the past record and future promise are even more dismal. I know of no development that has much reduced recidivism or violence or done more to identify violent offenders in advance than was in place a generation ago.
I conclude from all this that progress in reducing violence through either helping the mentally ill or curbing the impulses of violent, non-crazy people will be very slow in coming, perhaps even fruitless.
--- He does go on to advocate stricter gun control despite his reservations, but his principal point still stands, that identifying 'threats of violence' is of very little use. "Direct and credible threats" are nearly always determined ex post facto.
#5
you can see where this is going. I can.
Very easy to see where this is going, using health care providers to oppress people, a la the old USSR.
Perhaps a way to civilly respond to this is for all health care providers to report every single patient they have in these words: "Patient, &/or patient's parent(s) or legal guardian(s) either admits owning firearms, denies owning firearms, or will not respond to my question about ownership of firearms, and I am not sure whether or not the patient, &/or patient's parent(s) or legal guardian(s) is telling the truth, lying or withholding information. I am submitting this to higher authorities for their review."
--- EMR (electronic medical records) should make this bit automatic in every patient chart for every visit.
--- The authorities would have their system crash in 24 hours if the great majority of health care providers did this.
Posted by: Au Auric ||
01/16/2013 13:51
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#7
If my doctor asks me about guns, I will politely tell her it's none of her damn business.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/16/2013 14:02
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#8
They may not ask you as-so-far, but they will ask the young children; most likely when the parent is not with the child - like at school when the nurse checks for head lice or more effective one-on-one situation. Think, "Before I take your temperature to see if you are ill, you may have become infected by someone in your family handling a gun. Now, you wouldn't want me to not tell you the truth, so tell me the truth so I can treat you correctly - did you are your parents handle a gun?"
#12
swksvolFF has it. This is exactly what has happened in the pediatric community, where pediatricians and pediatric nurses are being asked (required) to ask questions of the young'ens so as rat out their parents.
This happened in the Soviet Union; indeed it was considered a mark of honor to inform on your parents. Though I think the population had a rather different word for it -- 'stukach'...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2013 15:47
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#13
However, you can't ask if they're illegally in the country. Remember doctor-patient confidentiality means that the doc can't tell the parents, let alone the local prosecutor [can you say Carnal Knowledge Mr. Prosecutor?], when an underage girl is pregnant, but the doc is to tell the government you have something completely legal and specified in the Constitution.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/16/2013 20:04
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#16
Went in for a drivers license renewal today and they asked all of us if we were mentally ill or had ever been in a mental institution or in jail.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/16/2013 20:27
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#17
Procopius2k - that question was asked on the license renewals today.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/16/2013 20:29
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#18
And we all know the DMV sells driver info.... so...
We need to hear... does your president have a legal US birth certificate?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
01/16/2013 20:30
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#19
"Went in for a drivers license renewal today and they asked all of us if we were mentally ill or had ever been in a mental institution or in jail."
WM, I've never been asked that for my driver's license, but if I were, the answer would be "Sure! We were called to the jail all the time when I was in the rescue squad. Lots of locked and barred doors - you don't want to go there." ;-p
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/16/2013 21:06
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#20
Makes perfect sense to me - iff the Doctors don't ask, anti-sovereign, ex-Superpower, "Globalist" Amerikka won't qualify for aid from the OWG NAU.
ZZZOOOOOOOMMMGG, THE OWG + OWG NAU WON'T GIVE US ANY $$$ - D **** NGED NATIONALISTS!
#3
Conspiracy theorists say the gold that isn't there was in the WTC & Tower 7, explaining why it was blown hours after the planes hit....maybe they aren't as crazy as we thought. It's a chance to prove them wrong...
The world is on the brink of a fresh "currency war," Russia warned, as European policy makers joined Japan in bemoaning the economic cost of rising exchange rates.
"Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow," Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank, said at a conference today in Moscow.
The push for weaker currencies is being driven by a need to find new sources of economic growth as monetary and fiscal policies run out of room. The yen has slid 11 percent against the dollar since December and this week touched its lowest level in two years.
The alert from the country that chairs the Group of 20 came as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker complained of a "dangerously high" euro and officials in Norway and Sweden expressed exchange-rate concern.
The push for weaker currencies is being driven by a need to find new sources of economic growth as monetary and fiscal policies run out of room. The risk is as each country tries to boost exports, it hurts the competitiveness of other economies and provokes retaliation.
Yesterday "will go down as the first day European policy makers fired a shot in the 2013 currency war," said Chris Turner, head of foreign-exchange strategy at ING Group NV in London.
The skirmish may lead to a clash of G-20 finance ministers and central banks when they meet next month in Moscow, three months after reiterating their 2009 pledge to "refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies."
#2
Geesh - we haven't even finished the currency war which began about 2008 and we're starting another one with the same participants and same currencies!
#3
Actually 2008 turned unto the war on creditors, not currency wars, the central banks were revealed to be a cartel not in the interests of the public.
Interest rates should be around 8% and Bank reserve ratios (deposits stored with the central bank) should be 10%+ level.) Of course this won't happen because exponential debt covers over the harm of income taxes.
#1
IFF THE DEMOLEFT CAN DO FOR MAINSTREAM OR DEMOGRAPHIC MINORITIES, IT CAN DO FOR US MUSLIMS + SHARIA IN AMERIKKA [or face Jihad + Beheading] .... ...
versus
* WORLD NEWS > [Examiner.com] AMERICAN LEFTISTS FEARFUL OF AMERICAN RELIGIOUS "TALIBAN" DOMINATING AMERICA.
Evangelical or Conservative Right-Wing Christians overthrowing Secularism + Secular Govt. in favor of de facto Theocratic Govt. in Washington, DC + the US.
#3
The Jihadis will help sure the Commies + Lefties, etc. don't have to suffer under their own -Isms because the latter will either be Muslim or they will be dead.
On the day that President Barack Obama will announce an agenda for curbing gun violence following last months shooting at a Connecticut school, the National Rifle Association is running an ad labeling Obama an elitist hypocrite because his own children receive armed protection.
Obama plans to propose executive actions and legislative proposals at an 11:55 a.m. White House appearance today with Vice President Joe Biden, who developed the plan in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings, which killed 20 first- graders and six educators on Dec. 14. Following those shootings, the NRA proposed armed guards for all the nations schools.
#1
was just watching p.o.s. Joe Scarborough gnash his judas teeth over supposed NRA ad pointing out Dear leader's hypocrisy on his kids going to schools that have armed guards...Scarborough and useful idiot sidekicks all feigned sufficient outrage (while obviously missing point completely) at "out of touch" NRA. I'm proud to be an NRA life member and am good w/that ad.
#2
I'm also a life member. I'm good with the NRA video. The NRA recommended armed security in the schools and it was dismissed by this administration as not being a serious approach. The NRA has also mentioned addressing crazy people and gang violence. I've heard no mention of this by the administration.
#3
I do worry about how the government might address crazy people. For example, they might deem anyone who speaks out against or disagrees with Champ a mental health threat. What's the next step--anyone who has a firearm is deemed a threat? I have no confidence in an administration to enforce laws when it has a history of law-breaking. I have been hearing about some pushback against the executive orders from county sheriffs in various places across the country.
#5
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."
#6
Ah yes, the govmint worked for the benefit of the children at Waco and Ruby Ridge too. The 2nd Amendent was created with an eye towards a wariness of a of corrupt and tyrannical government and a prescription for what to do about it.
The Commentator has found evidence of self-styled 'vigilantes' patrolling streets of London, accosting women and vandalising public property. The group, which is attempting to cordon off 'Muslim areas', has dubbed itself 'Muslim Patrol'.
So far, the group has posted two videos to its new YouTube account which was set up in December 2012. The first video shows the destruction of advertising and vandalising of bus shelters, both displaying images of H&M push-up bras. The second video sees the 'vigilantes' approaching and harrassing members of the public for either consuming alcohol, dressing 'inappropriately', or being inebriated near a mosque.
#5
What the Left has done for various Mainstream or Demographic Minorities in the US, e.g. where no one has to pledge allegiance to America to be an American, + "Fascism = Communism" where Fascism is merely "Limited Communism", IT CAN DO FOR ISLAM-N-SHARIA IN OWG = CALIPHATE AMERIKA - DITTO FOR ISLAM-N-SHARIA OUTSIDE OF AMERIKA IN LONDINISTAN + EURABIA.
D *** NG IT, OWG MIGHTY USSA = OWG WEAK USRoA SSR, WHATS THE HOLD-UP!
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by All Nippon Airways Co. made an emergency landing Wednesday, prompting a voluntary grounding of Japan's two Dreamliner fleets and an expanded investigation into the technical problems affecting the aircraft.
Alarms indicated smoke in the forward area of the plane, which houses batteries and other equipment, the airline said, and there was a "burning-like smell" in the cockpit and parts of the cabin. The plane landed at Takamatsu airport in western Japan, where the 129 passengers were evacuated using the plane's emergency chutes. The plane also carried eight crew members.
I WOULD THAT all could look on death as a cheerful friend who takes us from a world of trial to our true home. All our sorrows come from a forgetfulness of this great truth. I desire to look on the departure of my friends as a promotion to another and a higher sphere, as I do believe that to be the case with all.
General Charles 'Chinese' Gordon (1833-1885), quoted in Paul Charrier, Gordon of Khartoum, 1965
President Obama on Wednesday will formally announce the most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations as he presses Congress to mandate background checks for all firearms buyers and prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. The announcement will set off a fierce confrontation with Congress over an issue that has riven American society for decades. Obama's far-reaching firearms agenda has at best tepid support from his party leaders and puts him at loggerheads with Democratic centrists. I heard he's gonna get the children on his side. "Kids - ask your Mommie why she thinks people should have guns to hurt you."
In the weeks ahead, he will attempt to rally popular support to bend the will of lawmakers to vote for what he considers the ideal, not merely the possible. The same way he always works - my way or the highway.
"Yes, we can reduce gun violence, but it's something we have to do together," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday. "It's something that cannot be done by a president alone. It can't be done by a single community alone or a mayor or a governor or by Congress alone. We all have to work together." But it can't be done by the President alone, you say? Does your boss know you're saying his poweers are limited and finite? And if we don't go along with him he'll definitely do it alone...
In addition to background checks and restrictions on military-style guns and ammunition magazines, Obama is expected to propose mental health and school safety initiatives such as more federal funding for police officers in schools, according to lawmakers and interest group leaders whom White House officials briefed on the plans. Good thing we have plenty of money in the budget. Oh, wait... I thought armed guards in schools wouldn't solve the problem. I think the police unions smelled a moonlighting opportunity for their members and put Champ onto it...
Bruce Reed, Vice President Biden's chief of staff, told liberal activists late Tuesday that Obama's package would also include a federal gun trafficking measure to stop straw-man purchases and crack down on trafficking rings after a number of mayors raised the issue, said a person familiar with the plan. Maybe the NRA can get some traction on "Fast and Furious" gun-running. Straw-man purchases are okay when it's the ATF that's the straw-man...
Obama also is expected to present up to 19 executive actions that his administration will take, the lawmakers and advocates said. These steps include enhanced federal scientific research on gun violence and a modernized federal database system to track guns, criminals and the mentally ill. See, if we'd had that, Fast & Furious would've worked out just fine.
Most of these actions are relatively narrow in scope, however, and experts have said that without accompanying legislation they will do little to curb gun violence, at least in the near term. So ... 19 feel-good directives followed by feel-good removal of rights.
Asked about the constraints on Obama's executive powers, Carney said, "It is a simple fact that there are limits on what can be done within existing law." No, no! That's OTHER presidents! Not the ONE President!
After Biden led a month-long task force, Obama decided to push an expansive agenda that in many ways represents his liberal base's wish list rather than proposals that may be more politically viable to a divided Congress. I think he planned on that the day of the shootings - let no crisis go to waste.
Obama's proposals amount to the most comprehensive federal regulations of the firearms industry since 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson acted in the aftermath of high-profile assassinations. Would any of the existing or proposed laws have prevented Lee Harvey Oswald from acquiring firearms?
Already, there are warning signs about the hurdles Obama's agenda may face on Capitol Hill. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said it would be exceedingly difficult to pass an assault-weapons ban, which appears to be the most polarizing of Obama's proposals.
"Let's be realistic," Reid told a Nevada PBS affiliate last week. "In the Senate, we're going to do what we think can get through the House, and I'm not going to go through a bunch of these gyrations just to say we've done something." Unless el Presidente directs otherwise, of course!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/16/2013
06:06 ||
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#1
That Bullshit Won't work, we the people ARE smarter, But he's NOT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:35
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#2
Unfortunately I won't be able to watch this street urchin's teevee announcement. I'll be hunched over my reloading bench with some Paganiniana playing softly in the background. I'm doing it for the kids.
"I am writing to ask you to STOP gun violence," wrote Tajeah, a 10-year-old from Georgia. "I am very sad about the children who lost their lives. So, I thought I would write to you to STOP gun violence."
"Eleven-year-old Julia, who lives in the District of Columbia and dotted the "I'' in her name with a heart, wrote that she has four brothers and sisters and "I know I would not be able to bear the thought of losing any of them." She said it should be "very hard" for people to buy guns and closed by acknowledging that Obama can't do it alone."
#5
So asuming Champ does issue some sort of an EO, is there precedent on an EO being overturned./found unconstitutional? And does an EO apply to private industry?
#12
Seems He listens to Children, But children can't/Don't vote, well we don't listen if you can't vote,EXACTLY.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 15:45
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#13
He has all but one media on his side. He has all the unions on his side. He has every left winged moonbat treehugging idiot on his side. Face it, He has it beat before he even starts. Expect it, expect it to pass, expect it to pass the SC, Expect them to require a turn in of weapons, Expect to be called a baby killer if you disagree, expect them to ID you in public, Expect to be labled a criminal for not turning in your weapon when they ask for it.
Oh, and have a nice day....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/16/2013 15:55
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#15
Point of order: since when did the senate originate legislation, constitutionally? Just another sign of how badly our republic has degenerated toward an mobocracy controlled by oligarchs, and governed by decree AKA executive orders.
#1
On Monday, the New Jersey state Senate, in a party-line vote, passed a bill that would exclude construction workers who are not a part of a union from doing work related to Hurricane Sandy cleanup and reconstruction in the state.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:16
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So now we'll see what Governor Christie is made of.
From the Richard Reid (the Shoebomber) sentencing hearing, the judge said the following, along with a great deal more worth reading:
You're a big fellow. But you're not that big. You're no warrior. I know warriors. You are a terrorist. A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders ...
See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom. You know it always will. Custody, Mr. Officer. Stand him down.
Nothing says military strategy like telling your enemy what you are going to do.
French troops are set for their first major ground combat with Islamist rebels in Mali after heading out from the capital, Bamako.
A convoy of about 30 armoured vehicles set out on Tuesday for Diabaly, 350km (220 miles) to the north, a town captured by the rebels on Monday.
The first units of an African force are set to arrive on Wednesday to bolster the French.
France intervened last Friday to halt the Islamists' drive to the capita
#1
French special forces were fighting "hand-to-hand" with Islamists alongside Malian forces in Diabaly. The French may face a difficult situation in the town.
The should consider the Fallujah method--level the buildings housing the Islamists.
#2
this is not a 3-month conflict. it will go on for years. the Islamists are well equipped (with Libyan weapons and US training), have dug caves and hideouts, and stored supplies in many secret locations. France is seriously undermanned if they are committing only 1,000 men and some aircraft. They can capture a few key towns, but by no means can secure a large terrority.
#4
The rebels control just about everything north of Dialbaly, Konna, and Douentza (Nearly 3/4th of Mali); an area about the size of Texas. It's going to take much more than what the French have there. The conflict will most likely broaden. As Raider said this is not a 3-month conflict.
#11
loss of Dennis Allex ... very sad day. About 3-1/2 years in captivity, who knows what kind of mistreatment he underwent, rescue mission failed and he was aware that it cost lives. that's a hard way to go. Condolences to his family and friends.
I hope they have ROEs that don't handicap them and good air support readily available. There was another convoy Groupement Mobile 100 that got chewed up badly in the French Indo China War. Death on the highway Just saying.
#13
I suspect the Frenchies will be requesting ARCLIGHT assistance vee the US very soon, as Muslim Clerics are repor calling on loyal Muslims to travel to Mali to fight France + its African coalition.
The Canadian-Pakistani cleric at the head of a protest movement that is galvanizing Pakistan says he wants to bring about reforms where Islam is at the root of democratic politics in the country.
Tahir ul Qadri told the National Post, Islam teaches democracy, Islam teaches human rights, Islam defends the rights of minorities. Islam does not believe in discrimination. So my interpretation of Islam is a bit different from the mullahs. I feel that the teachings of Islam creates a moderate, progressive, free and democratic society, free of every kind of extremism and terrorism. This is my interpretation of Islam and what I want to see here.
The preachers calls for electoral reforms and a peaceful, moderate Islamic state for Pakistan, have brought out tens of thousands of his supporters on to the streets of Islamabad for a second straight day.
#2
Radical Islam has got Israel surrounded or nearly surrounded like Custer at the LBH, vee "Arab/Islamic Springs" so why not the USA = CONUS-NORAM.
Custer + Battalion was doomed - DDDOOOOOOMMMMED THEY TELL YA - once the hard-fighting Calhoun's Command ran out of ammo + collapsed, as complemented by the no-show of Benteen + reno. The massive numbers of Indians fighting Calhoun were now free to attack the rest of Custer + Boyz.
ONCE SHARIA + JIHAD BEGINS IN THE US PROPER, ISRAEL WILL BE FINISHED.
#3
> NOSTRADAMUS > "...Until the SEVEN/SEVENTH HOLDS THE LINE".
> "WHITE RABBIT": THE THEME FROM "PLATOON".
- A Soldier-King named Francis.
- a Valley, Battle called the Little Big Horn.
- An Asteroid the size of Texas.
- A sword called EXCALIBUR.
By destroying Custer the Indians won a great military battle but also destroyed any hopes in Washington of a separate sovereign homeland = independent country for themselves in 19th Century America,
At least 10 people have been killed in a bomb attack on a political office in northern Iraq, officials say.
More than 90 people are reported to have been injured in the attack on offices of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in the city of Kirkuk.
The KDP is led by the president of the largely autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani.
Police say the blast was caused by a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber and caused considerable damage.
Kirkuk has a population of Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen, who each claim ownership of the city and the region's oil resources.
Baghdad and the Kurdish authorities had been planning to hold talks over the disputed territory.
Although sectarian violence has decreased in Iraq since the height of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, attacks are still common.
Two more people were killed and 20 others wounded in a second attack outside the offices of another political party in Tuz Khurmato 55 miles (85km) to the south.
A building belonging to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) has been attacked by a suicide bomber in the capital, Kabul, officials have told the BBC.
A loud explosion was heard, followed by gunfire around the building.
It is close to the interior ministry and other key government offices.
It is not yet clear who the attackers are, but the Taliban have over the past two years launched several high profile attacks in Kabul.
It is also unclear whether there are any casualties.
The area involved in central Kabul is heavily barricaded and also houses several Western embassies.
The main explosion took place around noon local time (07:30 GMT). A plume of smoke rose from the area, and gunfire and police sirens were then heard.
The international military coalition in Afghanistan confirmed the explosion and gunfire but had no further details.
[Ynet] Clip released by jihadist group shows operatives shooting firearms, details plan for attack that claimed life of Israeli soldier on border with Egypt
Senior Likud officials accused US President Barack Obama on Tuesday of leaking sharp criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahus leadership to columnist Jeffrey Goldberg in order to sway voters in next Tuesdays election.
Goldberg quoted Obama in a Bloomberg piece as having said privately that Israel doesnt know what its own best interests are. Not having a lightworker and all
[CBSNEWS] A gunman walked into a business school in downtown St. Louis on Tuesday and shot an administrator in the chest before shooting himself, police said. Today's Dork with a Gun story.
Police Chief Sam Dotson said the shooting happened about 2 p.m. at the Stevens Institute of Business and Arts. The administrator was a man in his 40s who was shot in his office.
Dotson said the gunman was a student at the school who had no history of threatening behavior, and the motive wasn't clear. Both the administrator and the gunman were in surgery. Dotson didn't know whether their wounds were life-threatening.
CBS affiliate KMOV St. Louis reported that authorities recovered a handgun inside the school.
Police arrived within a minute of the call about the shooting. Students were huddled under desks and in closets. The administrator had made it to an elevator; the gunman was found injured in a stairwell.
"We've trained all of our officers in active shooter response," Dotson said. Officers hurriedly escorted out students and staff and then made sure no other gunmen were inside.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
Obviously an Obama Backer.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:50
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Can't even shoot HIMSELF competently; clearly a loser with a capital 'L.'
[Dawn] Addressing his supporters after the expiration of the 11 am deadline given to the government to resign and dissolve all assemblies, Dr Tahirul Qadri, chief of the Tehrik-e-Minhajul Koran (TMQ) said the nation had gathered in Islamabad to demand its rights, adding that the conclusion of the long march was the revolution's victory.
Terming it the "Islamabad Declaration ", Qadri said the conclusion of the long march was the beginning of the revolution.
Qadri said he wanted changes and reforms in the country's system, adding that his long march was democratic and peaceful.
He moreover said that if he would ask the protesters to take over the houses of parliament, they would go ahead with the instruction, adding that no power in the world could stop the march's participants from taking over the parliament.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the TMQ chief said the goal of the participants was to eliminate anarchy and unrest and not spread it.
Qadri stated he did not want any unlawful and unconstitutional measures, adding that he did not intend to take over the President House and the Prime Minister's residence.
He said he wanted the rulers to be made to account before the laws of the country.
The TMQ chief said he had gathered with his supporters in front of the parliament to save the country from dismemberment.
The current form of democracy served the interests of only one per cent of the population whereas 99 per cent of the population remained deprived of the fruits of democracy, Qadri told the crowd, members of which were chanting "we want change".
Speaking to the crowd, the TMQ chief further said the political government was responsible for creating a bad impression of the army.
He added that it was the military's job to implement the government's policies, adding that the army was the defender of the country's ideological and physical boundaries.
Qadri said only the institutions of the judiciary and the army were fulfilling their responsibilities.
He criticised the parliamentarians and said 70 per cent of Pak politicians did not pay their taxes.
Allama Qadri said that we have staged a sit-in and we wont leave without getting a response.
Earlier, DawnNews quoted sources as saying that government authorities, including Inspector General Islamabad Police, Commissioner Islamabad and Rangers officials held talks with TMQ leaders over restricting the long march to D-Chowk.
A heavy contingent of coppers had arrived at the site and restricted the marchers from proceeding ahead of D-Chowk also known as Express Chowk.
Thousands of long march participants , including Qadri in a bullet-proof container truck, had arrived at the D-Chowk Tuesday morning.
Rangers and police personnel had formed a security cordon around Qadri's truck after Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship. issued instructions for the provision of strict security to the TMQ chief, private news channels reported.
The security forces personnel forming the cordon were later reportedly replaced by Qadri's supporters.
Reports were received of tear-gas shelling by police personnel to disperse the protesters near Kulsoom Plaza in Islamabad's Blue Area after gunshots were heard and marchers resorted to pelting stones on security personnel.
The injured coppers, including an inspector, were shifted to the PIMS hospital in the federal capital.
It was not clear who had fired the gunshots.
Malik had also sought an immediate report from Islamabad's commissioner over the incident.
Previously during the early hours of Tuesday, Qadri had addressed tens of thousands of protestors in Islamabad, giving the Pak government until 11 am to dissolve all assemblies and voluntarily resign.
A large crowd of supporters, by some estimates between 25,00 to 50,000, had poured into the federal capital early on Tuesday, led by Qadri, a holy man who many accuse of trying to sow political chaos ahead of elections.
"This president and prime minister...they are now ex-presidents and prime ministers. Their time is over. Dissolve the national and provincial assemblies by the morning. I am giving you until 11 am to step down or else the people will start making their own decisions," said Qadri. "These millions of supporters have spoken. They have rejected your so-called mandate. You are no longer their representatives."
Qadri, a Pak-Canadian who returned to Pakistain last month after years in Toronto, accuses the government of corruption and incompetency, and calls for sweeping reforms to be enacted by a caretaker administration before polls.
The federal government had agreed with Qadri to hold the rally in the federal capital as long as there was no violence and crowds were kept away from the Parliament House. Arrangement had been made for the march with a makeshift stage set up at Jinnah Avenue.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... speaking in a more aggressive tone than any of his earlier speeches, Qadri had called on his supporters to shift the rally to D-Chowk, the highly-sensitive area in front of the parliament and close to several international embassies and consulates.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
UP YOURS, AND THE IMAM YOU RODE IN ON.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 6:13
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[An Nahar] A United Arab Emirates court sentenced an Emirati national married to an Iranian woman to seven years in jail on Tuesday after convicting him of spying, the official WAM news agency reported.
Salem Musa Fairuz Khamis was convicted of "having contact with a foreign country" at the Supreme Federal Court, the UAE's highest court, WAM said.
The defendant had confessed to establishing contact in 2008 with two officials at an unnamed consulate "to help him with a private matter concerning his Iranian wife," it said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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Anwar al-Aulaqui was terminated via drone on orders from POTUS, so that ends any further 9/11 questioning as well as questions with regard to his connection to MAJ Nadal Hasan and the Fort Hood shooting. How very convenient.
[Al Ahram] A Saudi court has sentenced Ahmed El-Gizawy, an Egyptian lawyer, to five years in jail and 300 lashes, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic website.
El-Gizawy was detained by Saudi authorities in April 2012 as he entered the kingdom to perform Umrah, a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, for allegedly smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian activists say the charges were trumped up by the Saudis after his public criticisms of human rights violations in the Gulf kingdom.
His arrest sparked outrage in Egypt when hundreds of protesters took to the Saudi embassy in Cairo, prompting its brief closure and a decision by Saudi authorities to temporarily recall its ambassador that April.
The incident was said to have strained relations between the long-time allies according to a number of political experts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
First time I've heard of a lawyer being given the proper treatment.
[An Nahar] At least 12 Pak security personnel have been killed in festivities and a landmine kaboom in the two regions of the country most troubled by Death Eaters, officials said Tuesday.
In the northwestern tribal belt, officials said dozens of gun-hung tough guys attacked a checkpoint overnight, sparking festivities that killed six security personnel and four myrmidons.
The fighting broke out in the northwestern Khyber district, where troops are frequently locked in festivities with homegrown Islamist militia Lashkar-e-Islam.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[Dawn] A policeman was bumped off in Sohrab Goth in the early hours of Monday, officials said.
They added that Shabbir Moazzam, 35, was rubbed out in his house in Jamali Goth within the remit of the Sohrab Goth cop shoppe.
The latest incident has brought the number of police officials killed in the city over the past two weeks to five. Over 120 coppers were killed in Bloody Karachi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[FRANCE24] France deployed a convoy of armoured tanks towards Mali's restive north from the capital Bamako on Tuesday, as part of an expanding joint Malian-French offensive to retake the region from Islamist rebels. I've actually never laid eyes on an unarmored tank. Where do they get these people?
It's France24. AFP calls them "armoured vehicles", and has a photo so the reader can judge for himself.
Witnesses said hundreds of Malian and French troops in armoured vehicles were headed to Diabaly, a town 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital that was seized by the rebels on Monday. Another convoy was seen leaving Bamako in a northerly direction.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
Looks like a 4 Wheeled truvk to me.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 6:18
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#2
I'd have called it an armored car, but what do I know?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013 10:10
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#4
It's a VAB - Vehicule de l'Avant Blinde (armoured vanguard vehicle). It's an armored personnel carrier with protection typically up to 12.7mm rounds.
[FRANCE24] President Barack Obama The Cambridge police acted stupidly... warned Monday that unless Republican politicians agree to raise the US sovereign debt ceiling the country could face a new economic crisis and global markets could go "haywire."
"To even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, it is irresponsible, it is absurd," Obama said, repeating his demand for a debt limit rise.
"We are not a deadbeat nation," the president said in his final presser of his first White House term, pinning responsibility for the government's deficit spending on Congress, which passes spending bills.
"While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
IIRC the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution reuires + supports that the US as a Nation "pay its debts" + obligations + "live widin its means" which IMO only strongly infers "balanced budget" but NOT support for the concept of frivolous deficit spending, i.e. spending $$$ just because we can espec when the national budget is NOT in balance or in the black???
Where "budget surplus" now means "deficit/debt reudction" where the national budget remains prennially in the negative.
BECAUSE CLEARLY STATUTORY "... NOT GREATER THAN 6% OF GDP" = "37%" AND STILL COUNTING".
#2
Well considering that the US can only pay 60% of its bills with the current tax receipts... and we don't want to cut off any of that yummy government cheese... the spending spree will continue.
Until the US credit card is no longer accepted. Then all hell will break loose.
#3
Under OWG + NAU, the Mexicans + Canadians + Greenland Govts-Citizens will absolutely positively categorically undeniably .... @etc.
give the US Govt. $$$ to pay its soon-to-be-outdated US$16.4Trilyuhn Debt Ceiling, + widout having the US to pay anything back!
MUST BE BECAUSE THE US DEMOLEFT + GLOBALISTS SAY SO.
Yuuuuuppp.
FYI as per FOX NEWS + DEBT CLOCK.ORG, as of January 15, 2013 US DEBT IS NOW US$16.445Trilyuhn + still rising.
For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Mexican Policia Federal units will continue to patrol the roads and highways of Zacatecas and more reinforcements are coming, according to Mexican news reports.
In a news account published in the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily, Zacatecas governor Miguel Alonso Reyes was quoted saying that Mexico interior minister, Miguel Osorio Chong has promised to keep Mexican federal security forces patrolling the state.
Govenor Alonso Reyes recounted a meeting with Osorio Chong last Thursday in which the Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB), the official name for the interior minister, iterated federal support for security operations in the state.
Two weeks ago in a required report, SEGOB said that Policia Federal units would be dispatched to the border area between Jalisco and Michoacan states in the wake of a spike in violence in that area.
The area to be reinforced is well south of Zacatecas state. Another trouble spot for Zacatecas state has been the border area with Jalisco state to its south. Already Mexican Army troops patrol the area and maintain a large base.
SEGOB last December folded the old Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) -- the controlling agency for the Policia Federal -- into a separate sub agency of SEGOB, while discussions in Mexico City among legislators continue with President Enrique Pena's newly proposed Gendarmaria Nacional continue. What form and what mission the new police force will take remains a mystery. Despite its new role in SEGOB, Policia Federal units are constantly being shifted to trouble spots in Mexico, much as they was used during the term of former president Felipe Calderon.
Alonso Reyes also said that SEGOB has committed to keeping Mexican Army and Naval Infantry troops in the state. Zacatecas currently houses three Mexican Army rifle battalions in the state in the form of several rifle company sized installations.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[AFP] A British Airways employee suffered discrimination at work over the wearing of a cross, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday.
Nadia Eweida, a 60-year-old Christian, took the airline to the European court after British courts upheld BA's decision to ban her from wearing a crucifix.
The Strasbourg-based court ruled that the British courts had given "too much weight" to BA's desire to "project a certain corporate image" and her right to manifest her religious beliefs had been violated.
Eweida had worked since 1999 as a flight attendant for BA, whose uniform code stipulated that women must wear a high-necked shirt and a cravat, without any visible jewellery.
When the wearing of the cross provoked a dispute in 2006, she was offered an alternative job within the company, which she refused.
She eventually returned to work in February 2007 when BA's policy was changed to permit the display of religious symbols, with the cross and the star of David permitted.
[An Nahar] Russia said Tuesday it would be "counterproductive" to refer war crimes committed in the Syria conflict to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... as proposed by dozens of states led by Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... "We view this initiative as untimely and counterproductive to solving today's main goal -- an immediate end to the bloodshed in Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Switzerland sent a petition on Monday demanding referral from the 15-member U.N. Security Council -- the only body that can send the case to the ICC but where Russia wields veto power.
The letters' signatories included many European and Latin American nations as well as Australia and Japan.
Only the Security Council has the right to refer the Syria case to the Hague-based court because Syria is not an ICC member.
But Russia -- a traditional Syria ally that vetoed three prior Council resolutions sanctioning Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... -- argued that a war crimes referral could only escalate the crisis.
"We are convinced that speculation on the subject of international criminal prosecution and a search for the guilty will only entrench the two sides' irreconcilable positions and complicate a search for a political settlement of the Syrian conflict," the Russian statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[Al Ahram] In a sign of growing conservative unease at modest social reforms, King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the Shura Council, giving them a fifth of the seats in the consultative body - a move he promised to make in 2011.
The kingdom's top religious authorities including the Grand Mufti accepted that decision, but the gathering of about 50 holy mans outside the Royal Court suggested wider disquiet among conservatives in the world's top oil producer.
A Saudi activist in touch with the holy mans confirmed the accuracy of photographs showing them standing in a group as they demanded a meeting with King Abdullah and his top aide Khaled al-Tuwaijri, seeking to offer them "advice".
Tuwaijri, the Royal Court chief of staff, is believed to be King Abdullah's right-hand man and is seen by many Saudis as a driving force behind the country's cautious reforms.
"The holy mans were in front of the royal court to address the king and Tuwaijri with regard to women in the Shura Council ... they waited for two hours but were denied access," Waleed Abu al-Khair told Rooters by phone.
Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... is a conservative monarchy, backed by religious scholars, that has little tolerance for dissent. It follows an austere Salafi form of Sunni Islam and allows holy mans wide powers in society where they dominate the judicial system and run their own police squad to enforce religious morals.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[24 views]
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#1
Seems they "Prorest" whenever there's a Woman, didn't they have Mothers?
Or dofn't they.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 8:57
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#2
Ptotest.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 15:40
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[An Nahar] Some 670 Syrian students at British universities risk being expelled because they can no longer meet their fees due to the conflict back home, campaign organizers claimed Tuesday.
The collapse of the Syrian currency, the closure of the embassy in Britannia, sanctions on Syrian banks and the Syrian higher education ministry stopping funding have made it hard for students to finance their tuition.
Some Syrian students have already been expelled or asked to pay up or leave their courses, according to campaigners who have launched a petition.
To help out the affected students, Britannia's finance ministry is freeing up funds from accounts hit by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... asset freeze on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's inner circle, said a spokeswoman from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which handles universities.
Brunel University post-graduate student Husam Helmi, from outside Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , has lost his aunt and uncle in the conflict while his family have fled their homes.
"This is a disaster. If we don't complete our courses, we will have to pay double our entire fees when we return to our Syrian universities," he said in an email from the online campaigning community Avaaz.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
plus, teh Syrian Universities have a habit of 'splodeying
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/16/2013 13:57
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[An Nahar] Qatar cast doubt on Tuesday over the value of La Belle France's military intervention in Mali against beturbanned fascisti, arguing that force would not solve the problem and urging dialogue, as the U.S. threw its support behind the French military action.
"Of course we wish that this problem could be solved through dialogue, a political dialogue. I think that political dialogue is important and necessary. I don't think that power will solve the problem," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told news hounds.
He said the Mali problem should be "discussed between neighboring countries, the African Union
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[28 views]
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#1
Considering that Qatari money has likely helped father the problem...
[FRANCE24] Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin ... who may not be a woman ... has warned that military intervention in Mali risked dragging the country into an interminable conflict in the former French colony, was ill thought-out, and "not the French way". Remember him? The guy with the sash and the pretty hair? Oh, c'mon. You remember! Axis of Weasels?... Hah! I knew it'd come back to you!
He wrote a book of poetry, too...and it was published. That's the kind of deep thinker he was.
In an editorial for the Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, Villepin compared La Belle France's mission to stem Islamist advances into southern Mali to "a decade of lost wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[Dawn] Chief of the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... on Tuesday called on President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... to resign immediately to make way for free and fair elections.
"President Asif Ali Zardari should resign immediately. He cannot hold free and fair elections because he is holding two offices," Khan told a news conference in Lahore.
His call came after the Supreme Court issued an order for the arrest of the prime minister over corruption allegations, and as at least 25,000 people took part in the largest political protest in Islamabad since Zardari's government took office.
"The government should immediately announce new elections and should also announce a date for it," Khan told the news conference. "Change is not possible without holding of free and fair elections," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
Imran Kahn should IMMEDIATELY go to Paradise.
ALLAH said so.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 8:00
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[Al Ahram] A jacket wallah killed a Sunni Iraqi MP and six others Tuesday, wrapping his arms around the politician before blowing himself up, officials said, amid a political crisis engulfing the country.
The killing of Ayfan Saadun al-Essawi comes just two days after Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi, a fellow Sunni and a member of the same tribe and political bloc, escaped an apparent liquidation attempt as his convoy was passing near where Tuesday's attack took place.
It is likely to further enflame tensions with Iraq already grappling with a political crisis that has pitted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against Essawi's secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.
Continued on Page 49
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In case you care, Der Spiegel has this take on the news.
[VOA News] Tahir-ul Qadri returned to a hero's welcome in Pakistain in December, attracting thousands with calls for reforms ahead of this year's elections. The Pak version of General Boulanger...
In 1981, he founded Minhaj-ul-Koran, an educational, spiritual and humanitarian non-governmental agency that now has branches in more than 90 countries. Qadri later went on to create the political party Pakistain Awami Tehrik. Ties to the Zia ul-Haq regime. That's always comforting, isn't it?
In 2002, he won a seat in Pakistain's National Assembly under General Pervez Perv Musharraf's ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... rule. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... he resigned two years later, condemning Pakistain's political system as corrupt. He then moved to Canada, where he became a Canadian citizen and continued his religious activities. He hadn't noticed that Pakistain's political system was corrupt while working as part of the Zia ul-Haq regime's repression machine, and it took him two entire years for that to sink in as a member of the Pak People's Assembly. The man's brilliant. What are his beliefs?
Qadri preaches a philosophy that promotes merging modernist views with Islam and encouraging Moslems in Western countries to become fully integrated with those societies. The fifth column works so much better when the fifth columnists aren't sporting beards down to their belly buttons and wearing dresses.
He achieved some international fame in 2010 with his fatwa - or religious opinion - condemning terrorism. "Terrism is... bad."
According to his group's website, Minhaj-ul-Koran's goals include promoting peace, tolerance, interfaith harmony, education, integration, community cohesion, and women's rights; engaging with young Moslems for religious moderation; and providing social welfare.
"Boulangisme: 'a vague and mystical aspiration of a nation towards a democratic, authoritarian, liberating ideal; the state of mind of a country that is searching, after the various deceptions to which she was exposed by the established parties which she had trusted up to then, and outside the usual ways, something else altogether, without knowing either what or how, and summoning all those who are dissatisfied and vanquished in its search for the unknown.'
What does he want?
Qadri returned to a hero's welcome in Pakistain in December with his message that there must be reforms ahead of this year's elections. This is the first Pak civilian govt, whatever its faults (which are epic) to make it this close to actual elections.
Analysts say this call struck a chord with average Paks, who are upset with a status quo that includes electricity blackouts, a sluggish economy and a decade-long fight against domestic Talibs.
The holy man and former politician is calling for the dissolution of the current government and for early elections. His most controversial demand has been for the military to play a role in picking an interim government that would take over ahead of the vote and could stay in charge longer than normal in order to implement reforms.
Why does he face opposition?
It is his call for the military to participate in the election that has left many in the political establishment worried. For the first time in Pakistain's history, the country is poised to have a peaceful handover of power from one civilian government to another. But Qadri's demand for military involvement, as well as his ties to the Zia- and Musharraf-era governments, have led critics to accuse him of being a military puppet.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... experts say it is still too early to tell if Qadri is a viable threat to Pakistain's political establishment. While he has drawn crowds in the thousands, it is still nowhere near the "millions" of protesters he has promised. Also, his Canadian citizenship prevents him from running for office in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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#1
"Boulangisme" = Bammer-Boehner Fiscal Cliff Deal, as per moving the US towards OWG + NAU widout having to ask the People or Electorate to vote on it???
* EINNEWS > PROTEST LEADER TAHRIR UL-QADRI ACCUSED OF INCITING REVOLUTION IN PAKISTAN.
J'Accuse?
* SAME > QADRI ISLAMABAD SIT-DOWN RAISES FEAR OF "SOFT COUP" AMONG PAKISTAN'S POLITICIANS.
[An Nahar] The United States on Tuesday condemned vitriolic anti-Semitic remarks attributed to Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi before he was elected to office, and urged him to make clear his views.
"The language that we've seen is deeply offensive," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding "we think that these comments should be repudiated, and they should be repudiated firmly."
According to a TV clip released by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, Morsi is seen referring in a 2010 interview to Israelis as "blood suckers and war mongers, and descendants of pigs and apes."
Continued on Page 49
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Citing "privileged and protected" information, judge orders memo connecting PA to suicide kaboom returned or destroyed.
A US judge ruled that the Paleostinian Authority has the right to cover up evidence of its connection to a 2002 suicide kaboom in Karnei Shomron which killed three teenagers, The New York Post reported Monday.
According to the report, a two-page memo directly linking the PA to the terror attack was inadvertently handed over to lawyers suing the Paleostinian government for $300 million on behalf of the parents of two American teens killed in the bombing. An Israeli teen also was killed in the attack.
The New York Post claimed that the document reveals a "close relationship" between the bomber, Sadeq Hafez, an operative for 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) terror group, and Raed Nazal, a captain in the Paleostinian Authority security forces who allegedly planned the attack.
At the time, Nazal allegedly "was both a salaried officer in the PA's security services and a leader of the PFLP cell" which carried out the bombing.
The NY Post further reported that the memo, written in April 2012 by Maj. Ziad Abu Hamid of the PA's General Intelligence Service, details "at least six other critical facts" about the attack and "clearly establishes the [PA]'s material support and liability."
Nevertheless, Washington, DC, federal Judge Richard Leon ordered the memo destroyed or returned to the PA, citing "privileged and protected" information.
The plaintiffs' lawyers, David Schoen and Robert Tolchin, denounced the ruling, asserting that the PA's "illegitimate cover-up efforts must not be permitted with impunity." Otherwise, they claimed, "this critically important evidence of murder will likely be lost forever.
"It would also deprive Congress of the kind of evidence it must have to evaluate whether to continue funding [the PA] only to see the money go to support and reward terrorism against Americans."
Lawyers for the Paleostinian Authority did not return a request for comment.
In court papers, however, they said the memo was mistakenly handed over in a Sept. 12 deposition. They said the memo "retains the protection of the privilege despite the inadvertent disclosure."
#4
IANAL, so this is just seat-of-the-pants. New Federal Rule of Evidence 502 states:
"(b) Inadvertent Disclosure. When made in a federal proceeding . . . the disclosure does not operate as a waiver in a federal or state proceeding if:
(1) the disclosure is inadvertent;
(2) the holder of the privilege or protection took reasonable steps to prevent disclosure; and
(3) the holder promptly took reasonable steps to rectify the error, including (if applicable) following Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 (b)(5)(B)."
So it depends on how the memo got handed over; whether the court decided the bad guys "took reasonable steps to prevent disclosure"; and whether they quickly ("timely") notified the other side what had happened and demanded the memo back. And "timely" doesn't mean two months.
I'm pretty sure the handover was "inadvertent" just based on the content, but that doesn't cut any ice with a court (or shouldn't). There are fairly specific requirements as to what constitutes "inadvertent."
I'm pretty sure they'll appeal the ruling. I'd appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court before turning it over.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/16/2013 19:37
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal immigration agents were prepared to arrest an illegal immigrant and registered sex offender days before the November elections but were ordered by Washington to hold off after officials warned of "significant interest" from Congress and news organizations because the suspect was a volunteer intern for Sen. Robert Menendez, according to internal agency documents provided to Congress.
The Homeland Security Department said last month, when The Associated Press first disclosed the delayed arrest of Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, that AP's report was "categorically false."
Sanchez, 18, was an immigrant from Peru who entered the country on a now-expired visitor visa. He eventually was arrested at his home in New Jersey on Dec. 6. He has since been released from an immigration jail and is facing deportation. Sanchez has declined to speak to the AP.
So in the meantime we're allowing a known sex offender to wonder our streets while 'awaiting' deportation...
After the AP story, which cited an unnamed U.S. official involved in the case, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and six other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Obama administration for details about the incident.
According to those documents, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Newark had arranged to arrest Sanchez at the local prosecutor's office on Oct. 25. That was fewer than two weeks before the election.
That might have knocked everyone off the favored narrative of 'binders' and 'impending hurricane'...
Noting that Sanchez was a volunteer in Menendez's Senate office, ICE officials in New Jersey advised that the arrest "had the possibility of garnering significant congressional and media interest" and were "advised to postpone the arrest" until officials in Washington gave approval. The documents describe a conference call between officials Washington and New Jersey to "determine a way forward, given the potential sensitivities surrounding the case."
The senators, in a letter to the Homeland Security Department, said the agency documents showed that Sanchez's arrest "was delayed by six weeks," as AP had reported. They asked for details about the department's review of potentially sensitive, high profile immigration cases when arrests are delayed.
In the meantime, the good Senator continued to make use of Sanchez's services in his campaign office...
In a letter Monday, Assistant DHS Secretary Nelson Peacock said an allegation that the government delayed Sanchez's arrest "for political purposes" was categorically false. Neither the unnamed U.S. official cited in AP's original story or the senators in their letters to the department had specifically alleged that the arrest had been delayed for political purposes.
So why was the arrest delayed then?
The documents provided to Congress do not indicate why the arrest should have been delayed or whether anyone outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- such as in the headquarters offices of the Homeland Security Department -- was consulted.
So you can indicate it now. Now would be an excellent time.
Menendez, D-N.J., who advocates aggressively for pro-immigration policies, was re-elected on Nov. 6 with 58 percent of the vote. Menendez said last month that his staff was notified about the case immediately before AP's story, he learned about the case from the AP and he knew nothing about whether or why DHS had delayed the arrest.
Of course not. No one in Washington ever talks or leaks, you know...
According to police records, Sanchez was 15 when he was arrested on a charge of aggravated sexual assault in 2009. The records show he was accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy at least eight times and sentenced to two years' probation and required to register as a sex offender. The AP is not reporting the boy's relationship to Sanchez to avoid identifying the victim.
Fair enough. Why wasn't he deported in 2009? What's this 'probation' nonsense for a child molester?
The agency documents show that Sanchez failed to update his sex offender registration, and local prosecutors considered arresting him for that.
Perhaps they were busy chasing down red light offenders or were harrassing internet pioneers who were downloading publicly-accessible documents...
During the same time, immigration officials learned that Sanchez had applied for the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which would have allowed him to stay in the country and legally work for two years. He did not disclose his arrest or status as a sex offender on the application and was eventually denied, according to the documents.
And then he was deported. No wait, he wasn't...
Immigration enforcement operations in New Jersey were largely halted starting Oct. 28 as officials prepared for Hurricane Sandy. By Nov. 29, ICE had planned to arrest Sanchez after Citizenship and Immigration Services had formally denied his deferred action application. The following day, the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor was consulted. The agency's chief counsel was also consulted and the arrest was approved Dec. 5.
Sanchez was arrested the next day.
During the final weeks of President George W. Bush's administration, ICE was criticized for delaying the arrest of President Barack Obama's aunt, who had ignored an immigration judge's order to leave the country several years earlier after her asylum claim was denied. She subsequently won the right to stay in the United States after an earlier deportation order, and there was no evidence of involvement by the White House.
None at all. ICE never talks to anyone...
In that case, the Homeland Security Department had imposed an unusual directive days before the 2008 election requiring high-level approval before federal agents nationwide could arrest fugitive immigrants including Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late father. The directive from ICE expressed concerns about "negative media or congressional interest," according to a copy of that directive obtained by AP. The department lifted the immigration order weeks later.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Nice to be President.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:14
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Wait a minute...Bob Mendez...Bob Mendez...where have I heard that name before? Oh, right, it seems the senator has a few, um, peccadillos of his own.
#3
This is an ugly can of worms. No wonder the can was kicked down the road and a lid was placed on damaging information. Tranparency--a Washington myth.
[An Nahar] Oracle on Monday was distributing a patch for Java software flaws deemed so dangerous that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that people should stop using it.
"Oracle recommends that this Security Alert be applied as soon as possible because these issues may be exploited 'in the wild' and some exploits are available in various hacking tools," Oracle's Eric Maurice said in a blog post.
The patch was crafted to fix two holes that hackers could slip through in Java 7 software used by web browsers to interact with websites.
"To be successfully exploited, an attacker needs to trick an unsuspecting user into browsing a malicious website," Maurice said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Got the patch.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:57
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Strange how Homeland Security never issued a similar warning about any Microsoft OS exploits. Maybe Oracle's check didn't show up or clear the reelection campaign coffers properly.
[Al Ahram] Italia suspended activity at its consulate in Benghazi and withdrew staff for security reasons on Tuesday after a gun attack on its consul at the weekend which underlined the precarious security situation in the North African state.
Unidentified gunnies opened fire on Guido De Sanctis's heavily armoured car in Benghazi, Libya's second city, on Saturday. The diplomat was unhurt but the attack was a reminder of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission there that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.
The foreign ministry said "attempts to destabilise" Libya showed that the international community needed to intensify its support for the governmentin Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn....
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#5
And Obama today, in concert with the Teachers Union's indoctrination of our children in the class rooms are publishing letters from kids and trotting them out. The most innocent segment of society that Obama and his supporters refuse to protect.
#6
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." -Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403
#7
Glenmore, if that is a true quote why hasn't anyone quoted that before? I'm not denying its real, you quote the page and all, but its so damning of the hiding behind children political class I'm amazed nobody dug it up.
#8
I wonder myself, rjs. I don't have the document, merely the citation of it, which could be fabricated. The use of children as props for political action did occur though. And continues to by politicians worldwide. 'Kissing babies' and all that.
#10
Glenmore, I can believe the statement. Children were sired by the fittest for the benefit of the State. Hitler Youth was created--not exactly your Boy Scouts. It was said they often turned their parents in for infractions against the State.
Wait a minute, I've been seeing children in Presidential photo ops prior to announcements more and more.
Enough to turn your stomach. I know that Obama has no shame. But the parents of these children really should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their children to be exploited this way for political purposes.
#14
#12 Nice picture of a man signing the indentured servitude of children behind him to pay off the graft disbursement of trillions in Treasury bonds. It's for the children. Right.
#16
""The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." -Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403 "
Only the first sentence is in the original text:
"Er hat das Kind zum kostbarsten Gut eines Volkes zu erklären. "
But then something totally different (and sinister) on racial hygiene follows.
So the quote is a hoax
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2013 22:17
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"Er hat das Kind zum kostbarsten Gut eines Volkes zu erklären."
[TEHRANTIMES] An international aid agency says the conflict in Syria is causing a "staggering humanitarian crisis" in the Middle East.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a 23-page report published on Monday that more than 600,000 Syrians have fled the country because of violence, including gang rape.
The New York-based organization described the level of rape and sexual violence taking place in the conflict zones in Syria as "horrific."
Many refugees told the IRC that sexual violence was the main reason that they fled the country, saying gang rapes are often committed in front of family members.
Refugees said girls and women had been kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed.
"After decades of working in war and disaster zones, the IRC knows that women and girls suffer physical and sexual violence in every conflict. Syria is no exception," the group said in the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
It'll all fix itself after Israeli-Palestinian conflict is settled.
Turkey blocked Cyprus and Israel's affiliation with the International Agency for Renewable Energies (IRENA), Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said, Anadolu agency reported on Tuesday.
No big loss. Israel and Cyprus should concentrate on natural gas development off their shores -- and not sell a cubic meter of it to Turkey...
Queerly enough, since Israel turned their attention toward renewable energy, they've moved into the top tier for such things ... or they were almost two years ago. But under Prime Minister Erdogan, Turkey has been more concerned with spewing bile than effectiveness. And to be fair, he's very good at spewing bile.
The Minister said that voting on admission of new members to the IRENA was held in the UAE's capital Abu Dhabi. Given that Turkey is a member of the agency, the country was able to oppose the adoption of Cyprus and Israel to membership in IRENA.
The International Agency for Renewable Energies (IRENA) was established in January 2009 at its founding conference in Bonn. The event was attended by over 120 countries. IRENA is the first organization on the intergovernmental level with the power to stimulate the development of renewable energy sources.
Golly.
The Agency aims to take its rightful place in the global energy sector, along with the IAEA and IEA.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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They can keep the agency---we'll keep the energy.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 6:16
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Caroline Munro appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me as Naomi. She tried to gun 007 down from her helicopter as she winked at him. She was the first woman ever killed by Bond in this series of films.
Two policemen were injured, one seriously, when their patrol was attacked in Benghazi, the official Libyan News Agency (LANA) reported on Tuesday.
Unidentified assailants threw a bomb into the policemen's car Monday night. Security forces later detained the occupants of two suspect vehicles for questioning over the attack, dpa reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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They will train Afghans to fly them, use them and maintain them, Mr. Karzai said, though he did not specify how many would be handed over. Besides drones, Afghanistan will be provided with other intelligence gathering equipment which will be used to defend and protect our air and ground sovereignty.
No information was provided on the Afghanistani Mars orbiter, Pashtun space station, or Fermilab exchange program.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 6:07
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#4
If this is true, it will probably be the AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven. We are selling 85 of them to Pakistan, so it shouldn't be a big deal to sell them to the Afghans. It isn't a very complex system and could possibly be supported by them.
#7
You have to figure that some corrupt official will turn around and sell one or more to China and Iran. Knowing this, sell the Afghans some "specially crafted" drones so as to set back their stealth drone projects at least five years.
David Cameron must seize back control of employment and social laws from Brussels and stop European nationals from claiming benefits in this country, dozens of Conservative MPs will demand.
A report backed by William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, will warn that "the status quo is no longer an option" and demand "a new and different relationship" with the European Union.
The Fresh Start group of Conservative backbenchers will throw down the gauntlet to the Prime Minister two days before he delivers a speech on EU membership, as it sets out proposals to return responsibility for laws to Westminster and cut Britain's bill for EU membership by billions of pounds a year.
Continued on Page 49
[POLITICO] CNN president Jeff Zucker told CNN New York staff today that he supported Piers Morgan's decision to speak in favor of gun control, sources at the network tell POLITICO.
During a town-hall meeting with staff, Zucker was asked about CNN expressing opinion, something it has traditionally tried to avoid. Zucker said he was in favor of it where it was appropriate, citing Morgan's stance on gun control as one example, sources said.
Since the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Morgan has emerged as a staunch advocate for increased gun control, including a ban on AR-15 assault rifles and similar weapons.
Today's meeting in New York was attended by at least 600 staffers, sources said. One described Zucker's support for Morgan's position on gun control as "clear and unequivocal."
Posted by: Fred ||
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Might as well. Anything to get anybody talking sbout CNN. If they talk maybe somebody will watch.
#6
At least mime magazine doesn't read itself to you loud enough to drown and stifle conversation - at least until they figure a way to force themself onto a smart phone when a person enters a waiting room.
#7
I've watched Piers just right now and I somewhat begin to understand the deportation demands.
But I don't thin k the Brits will take him back.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2013 22:05
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#8
"I've watched Piers just right now"
You're a better man that I am, EC.
Or maybe you didn't have any oil paint you could watch dry instead?
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/16/2013 23:13
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#9
Well, who said we ask if they want him back. Instead let us build a giant catapult and fling him back across the ocean. If he doesn't make it or lands in France, meh. Good Riddance.
#10
@Barbara, it was interesting to watch.
He tried to pester his interviewees with the stubborn question whether they supported people buying tanks, too.
I can't understand that they couldn't find the obvious answer: No, the constitution says "bear arms" and you can't bear a tank.
And of course the term "assault weapon" is as stupid as saying "assault knife". The weapon is just a tool, for assault or defense.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/16/2013 23:35
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[Dawn] Senior civil judge of Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... Ali Gohar on Monday handed over the seven people charged with killing three brothers over the controversial dance video to police on three-day physical remand.
Among the accused were Shamsuddin, Mukhtasar Khan, Awal Khan, Jintasir, Mohammad Taus, Mohammad Batual and Jehangir Khan, who were locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in different parts of district, were produced before the judge in tight security.
Policemen were deployed in and outside the court in large numbers in view of the tensions over the matter, which surfaced in the middle of the last year.
Senior superintendent of police, Kohistan Akbar Ali Khan told Dawn that police were likely to produce the challan ... list of charges ... of the case in the court within 14 days.
He said police had arrested all the accused under Section 302 or 109 of Pakistain Penal Code and seized weapons for the killing of three brothers last weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2013
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[An Nahar] A top Jordanian Salafist leader said on Tuesday the "mufti" of the jihadist al-Nusra Front in Syria's southern province of Daraa has been in a killed in raid.
"Riyad Hdeib, or Abu Hamzah, was martyred in a regime raid on Daraa on Monday. Hdeib was al-Nusra's mufti in Daraa," Abed Shehadeh, known as Abu Mohammad Tahawi, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Hdeib, a 32-year-old father of six, worked as a teacher in Amman before going to Syria for jihad seven months ago, according to Tahawi.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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NEW YORK-- The New York Police Department wants pharmacies in and around the city to fight prescription drug thefts by stocking pill bottles fitted with GPS tracking chips.
Police [want] pharmacies to hide fake pill bottles fitted with GPS devices amid the legitimate supplies on their shelves. The New York Police Department believes the so-called "bait bottles" could help investigators track stolen drugs and locate suspects.
That'll work until the hoods figure it out. Like about the time they read this story. Not to say that we won't ever see it work -- there's a reason why we feature "Today's Idiot" at Rantburg -- but I think the usefulness of GPS in a fake bottle is about blown.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2013
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Dumb Idea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:56
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#2
I wonder how much their going to blow on this idiocy. Next - GPS devices on 2-liter bottles of soda.
Now, there's a headline you don't see every day.
[NEWSFEED.TIME] It's pretty much goes without saying that you probably shouldn't steal something you don't know how to drive. A Swedish cleaning woman found herself a bit over her skill level when she decided to make off with the hulking mass of steel she was polishing -- a Stockholm commuter train.
Her joyride didn't turn out so well. The early-morning trip ended when the train jumped the rails and crashed into a three-story luxury apartment building in the Stockholm suburb of Saltsjöbanan, a Baltic seaside town 11 miles southeast of the Swedish capital. The unauthorized driver was seriously injured in the crash and airlifted to a nearby hospital. The three families inside the building weren't hurt -- "at least not physically," Tomas Hedenius, spokesman for train operator Arriva, added.
The unnamed woman allegedly made off with the four-car train around 3 a.m. while cleaning it at the Neglinge train station, two stops from the end of the line at Saltsjöbaden. The mile-long ride went as smoothly as the novice driver could manage, but stopping was clearly not her strong suit: the train went off the end of the line and slammed into the apartment complex about 90 feet past the end of the tracks.
The woman wasn't a licensed train driver, nor did she even work for the Saltsjöbanan rail company. She was employed by an outside contractor hired to clean the trains. Arriva, the train operator, is currently investigating how she could have obtained the keys to the train. The woman, in her early 20s according to Hedenius, was charged with endangering the public.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#8
Well, Rambler, if you are of a mind for another selection, Danica patrick announced that she is getting a divorce and that GoDaddy Chevy is faster than a train.....
Posted by: USN, Ret ||
01/16/2013 19:16
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Damn, probably will result in more train control regulations here.
The activity of the Consulate General of Russia in Aleppo has been temporarily suspended, a representative of the Russian Embassy in Syria told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
"The Consulate General in Aleppo has temporarily suspended its work. It is now necessary to contact the consular office of the Russian Embassy in Damascus for all consular matters", the source said.
Must be the heat...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/16/2013
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#1
Quick to recognize the deteriorating security posture and got everyone out alive did they ?
[Al Ahram] Egypt has quashed a report by Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... , claiming that Syria's Al-Assad regime forces had allegedly used cluster bombs against the civilian citizens which were made by an Egyptian company called Sakr Factory for Development Industries.
Major-General Dr. Mahmoud Khalaf, an advisor at Nasser Higher Military Academy, told the Al-Ahram Arabic news website: "It is an easy matter to launch media accusations against Egypt and defame it, but to provide evidence is another issue. Egypt is a main target for many foes in the region, but will never be the 'hat rack' for talking about this kind of internationally band bombs."
Khalaf stressed that Egypt is committed to the international conventions and does not produce nor manufacture this kind of unlawful weapon.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
They make anything in Egypt besides beatings, rapes and trash?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/16/2013 0:52
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They make anything in Egypt besides beatings, rapes and trash?
Lovely high thread count, long staple cotton fabric -- mostly bedsheets, towels, and t-shirts.
[MAGHAREBIA] The Algerian army on Monday (January 14th) killed three beturbanned goons and maimed two others in the region of Meskeline, 300km south-east of Djanet, APS reported.
The terrorist group attempted to infiltrate Algeria through the common border area with Niger and Libya, according to a defence ministry statement. Five automatic weapons and one all-terrain vehicle were seized in the operation. The ministry added that the army would "guarantee border security against all attacks on national territorial integrity".
Posted by: Fred ||
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[REUTERS] Two kabooms tore through one of Syria's biggest universities on the first day of student exams on Tuesday, killing 83 people and wounding dozens, a monitoring group said.
Bloodshed has disrupted civilian life across Syria since a violent government crackdown in early 2011 on peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform turned the unrest into an armed insurgency bent on overthrowing Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad. Supressor of the Damascenes...
More than 50 countries asked the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Security Council on Tuesday to refer the crisis to the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... , which prosecutes people for genocide and war crimes. But Russia - Assad's long-standing ally and arms supplier - blocked the initiative, calling it "ill-timed and counterproductive.
Each side in the 22-month-old conflict blamed the other for Tuesday's blasts at the University of Aleppo, located in a government-held area of Syria's most populous city.
Some activists in Aleppo said a government attack caused the kabooms, while state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
accused "terrorists" - a term they often use to describe the rebels - of firing two rockets at the school. A rebel fighter said the blasts appeared to have been caused by "ground-to-ground" missiles.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based monitoring group, said 83 people were killed and dozens maimed, but it could not identify the source of the blasts.
"Dozens are at death's door," the Observatory said in a statement, citing doctors and students.
State television showed a body lying on the street and several cars burning. One of the university buildings was damaged.
Video footage showed students carrying books out of the university after one of the kabooms, walking quickly away from rising smoke. The camera then shakes to the sound of another kaboom and people begin to run.
"A cowardly terrorist act targeted the students of Aleppo University as they sat for their mid-term examinations," Syria's United Nations ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, told the U.N. Security Council in New York. He said 82 students had died and 162 more were maimed.
If confirmed, the government's report of a rocket attack would suggest rebels in the area had been able to obtain and deploy more powerful weapons than previously used.
The nearest rebel-controlled area, Bustan al-Qasr, is more than a mile away from the university.
Activists rejected the suggestion that cut-throats were behind the attack, however, and instead blamed the government.
"The warplanes of this criminal regime do not respect a mosque, a church or a university," said a student who gave his name as Abu Tayem.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[BBC.CO.UK] French military officials have denied an earlier claim by the Malian army that the central town of Konna has been recaptured by government forces. Harrisburg remains uncaptured, too. La Belle France launched its military intervention last Friday after Islamists seized Konna and began advancing further south. Nobody's taken Saskatoon, either...
Another central town, Diabaly, was captured by rebels on Monday.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The Northern Alliance was a real army, with leaders that had spent years fighting the Soviets and then duking it out among themselves. It sounds like Mali's government troops are a shambles. Makes sense, given that its elite, most of them Tuaregs, defected to the rebels.
You gotta love the Pentagon's political correctness - if we train Malians on the basis of competence without any thought to the fact that most of the highly-competent are from the ethnic group with the separatist movement, the nation's different ethnic groups will all hold hands and sing "We are the world". Lo and behold - as soon as the rebels start making serious advances, the US-trained Tuareg troops defect. It would be even more amusing if they were working hand-in-glove all along.
[FRANCE24] The troubled American actress Lindsay Lohan pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three misdemeanor charges stemming from an auto accident in a case that could send her to prison.
Lohan did not attend the hearing in Santa Monica, west of Los Angeles, and did not have to do so. The judge convened the next hearing for January 30.
The 26-year-old actress was charged in November with resisting and obstructing an officer, giving false testimony and driving recklessly. All this stemmed from an accident in which a Porsche hit a truck; Lohan said she was not driving the sports car in that June accident in Santa Monica.
Police later concluded she had in fact been driving the Porsche.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Give a shit.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/16/2013 7:49
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..obviously Lindsay doesn't. Then again about 51 percent of our voters don't either.
[Al Ahram] Western analysts say Iran has launched increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks in a growing confrontation with foes, including the United States, Israel and Gulf Arabs, at a time of rising pressure on Tehran to curb its nuclear programme.
For its part, Iran has suffered a string of cyber attacks in the past year targeting industrial sites, an oil export terminal and oil platforms, Iranian officials have said. And a computer worm disrupted its nuclear activity in 2010. The Islamic Theocratic Republic has denied accusations that it hacked into U.S. banks last year, but has also devoted resources to building up its cyber defence capabilities.
On Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, Iran's ground forces commander, said that Iran was now capable of disrupting its enemies' communications.
"We have been equipped with electronic warfare systems in order not to remain just a defending force, and rather become able to jam the enemy's communication systems," said Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, Iran's ground forces commander, according to the Fars news agency.
"Communications are highly valuable in future and current wars and our armed forces have realised this completely and have prepared themselves proportionate to today's needs."
It was unclear whether Pourdastan was referring to military targets that Iran might consider a threat or civilian targets, such as what it considers to be subversive foreign media.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Iff it means jamming MTV "as is" in 2013, we all win!
[MAGHAREBIA] The Tunisian town of Sidi Bou Said took its name from a Sufi mausoleum.
Last week-end, vandals set the revered site on fire.
"This crime against our culture and history must not go unpunished," the presidency said about the January 12th arson attack in the scenic tourist village near Tunis.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
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[FRANCE24] France's top anti-terrorist investigating judge has warned that an Islamist-controlled northern Mali is a dangerous potential training ground for jihadists wanting to launch attacks against France
Not just France, of course, but only France is rightly the judge's concern.
- and that they "must be stopped".
Marc Trévidic, 47, told left-leaning daily Libération on Tuesday that while taking the fight to al Qaeda-linked Malian extremists made France an "ever more obvious target" for terror attacks, "we don't have any choice but to go to war".
France launched Operation Serval on Friday against the Islamists now controlling northern Mali; its main aim to stop the rebels moving south towards the capital Bamako.
As Libération published excerpts from his book "Terrorists: the seven pillars of folly", Trévidic explained that Mali, a former French colony, was the most easily accessible and attractive destination for would-be terrorists with their eyes on French targets.
"I'm not a warmonger, but if 2,000 or 3,000 jihadists were able to install themselves in Bamako there would be very little we could do to be able to dislodge them," he said.
"Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) wants to paint France as aggressors -- but the group have nevertheless been central to a number of kidnappings of French citizens and is constantly making threats against France. They have to be stopped."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Excellent way to recycle to petrodollars, and far more productive than renting expensive European hookers. Not that they're mutually exclusive, of course.
#4
The infusion of full-paying international students has been a boon for cash-strapped U.S. colleges.
These rent-seeking colleges will be the death of us yet.
#5
My Christian daughter studying to be an English Lit teacher was matched with a Saudi male for tutoring--they are still FB friends years later and he + friends were invited to a Christian sorority party, as they wanted to meet girls. I'm wary of their motives, and yes, they are flooding the Midwest and Plains states, but they are also bombarded with the pioneering values of Americana. There were a lot of Iranians prior to the '79 overthrow of the Shah and those educated here either fled to raise their children in freedom or are working to oppose Dinnerjacket from within. Crossculturalism can work both ways....
[HUMANEVENTS] Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network in which he rather strongly denounced President B.O.'s threats to impose gun control through executive orders. "I'm against having a king," said the Senator. "I think having a monarch is what we fought the American Revolution over, and someone who wants to bypass the Constitution, bypass Congress, that's someone who wants to act like a king or monarch."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#6
I think having a monarch is what we fought the American Revolution over
I think somebody needs a little history lesson.
Maybe me too. I thought the cause was absentee government, 'taxation without representation'.
Like paying a gas tax for highway maintenance then driving on potholes and falling down brid...wait a minute!
#7
We have taxation without representation all the time. Ever stay in a hotel outside your home state? You didn't vote for somebody who voted for that tax.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/16/2013 14:10
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#8
The one that really sends me off is sales tax (or whatever they refer to it as) on RENTAL cars.
The pic is an exaggeration. For now. But the trend is clear.
Christians' rights of conscience are being sacrificed on the altar of "obsessive political correctness" contrary to the values of a democratic society, two European human rights judges have claimed.
They likened the treatment of a London marriage registrar, who asked not to carry out civil partnerships because of her beliefs on homosexuality, to conscientious objectors of the past who suffered "at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition or a Nazi firing squad".
The claims were contained a vocal dissenting judgment by two of the seven European Court of Human Rights judges who sat in a landmark case on religious freedom in Britain.
In an eagerly anticipated ruling, the court in Strasbourg upheld the right of workers to wear crosses as a visible manifestation of faith -- as long it does not fall foul of health and safety policies.
It concluded that the UK had failed to protect the rights of Nadia Eweida, a British Airways check-in clerk who was sent home because the small cross she wore contravened the airline's uniform policy -- a policy which has since been changed.
But it rejected claims by three other Christians who said that their right to religious freedom had been ignored.
They included Shirley Chaplin, a nurse from Exeter, who was forbidden from wearing a cross at work on "health and safety" grounds.
The court also threw out challenges by two Christians who lost their jobs for taking a stand on what they saw as a matter of conscience.
Gary McFarlane, a former Relate counsellor, and Lillian Ladele, a marriage registrar from Islington, north London, both resisted performing tasks at work they believed would amount to condoning homosexuality which they believe is against the teaching of the Bible.
Miss Ladele asking to be excused from conducting civil partnership ceremonies and Mr McFarlane indicated he would be uncomfortable providing sex advice to a same-sex couples on account of his beliefs.
The court said that where there is a clash of rights -- such as between freedom of conscience and protecting gay people from discrimination -- states should have a "wide margin of appreciation" to strike the balance.
It found that the British courts had not acted beyond this margin in rejecting legal challenges by the pair.
Employment lawyers claimed it meant Christians could now be "lawfully excluded" from some jobs.
A man was arrested in Narathiwat province for his alleged involvement in an terrorist insurgency attack on a karaoke pub and a restaurant in the province earlier this month. The suspect was identified as Kareeya Pi, one of five men who opened fire on the pub and the restaurant on January 9. Four were wounded in the attack.
Thai marines conducted a raid in Ngee Ngor district and nabbed the suspect at his house after monitoring him and other suspects for days after the attack.
Capt Somkiat Ponprayoon, commander of the marine unit, claimed Kareeya confessed during interrogation to being one of the gang and to being responsible for identifying the venue and cooperating with other suspects. He identified two of the other four as Asem Bueraheng and Maroemuelee Kajaekasor, both of whom are now hiding in Ruesoh district.
A total of 39 unidentified individuals have been murdered or have been found dead in Mexico state and in Mexico's capital since Sunday, according to Mexican news accounts.
A news item posted on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily Monday said that 14 individuals were found in three separate sites Monday in Mexico state.
An unidentified spokesman with the Mexico state Procuraduria General del Etstado (PGE) or attorney general reported that six of the dead were found in Toluca, the state capital of Mexico state, wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed inside a vehicle in Zinacantepec colony. Another five were found in El Seminario colony, and two more were found dead in Santiago Tianguistenco colony.
According to a news item posted on Animal Politico website, a total of 17 dead have been found since Sunday including the 13 found dead Monday.
The report also quoted Procuraduria General de Justicia del Distrito Federal (PGJDF) Rodolfo Fernando Rios Garza saying 22 more victims have been found in Distrito Federal since last Sunday. Violent incidents also included three kidnappings in Venustiano Carranza and Alvaro Obregon.
Rios Garza insisted that some of the shootings and deaths in Distrito Federal were isolated incidents, with little connection to organized crime.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
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.