Mark Kelly to CNN: Plan Was to Hand Over AR-15 All Along

March 12, 2013

by AWR Hawkins 
Breitbart.com

Appearing on CNN's The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer on March 11, Mark Kelly said he planned from the start to hand over an AR-15 rifle he purchased to the Tuscon Police Department. 





Blitzer then quoted a section from the March 9 Breitbart News story on Kelly's purchase, and asked Kelly to respond.

Here's what Blitzer read:

Breitbart News then began investigating the details surrounding the purchase, including visiting the gun store. Suddenly, Kelly announced on his Facebook page that he was not going to keep the AR-15, which he has yet to pick up from the store.

Kelly responded that he went into the gun store with a plan to buy a .45, "and if we had the opportunity, to buy the AR-15 as well." He said he didn't "know the timing," but he and his people "had a plan for when [they] were going to announce it on Facebook."

Attention to this issue has been intense, because Kelly bought the AR-15 on March 5 but did not announce that he was turning it over to Tucson PD until three days later.

During the interview, Kelly criticized the AR-15 as a "deadly" weapon "designed for the military" – one which people can buy too easily. But it is unclear what it proves if Kelly, a man with an apparently immaculate record, does not trigger any red flags in a gun purchase background check.

As it now stands, his purchase an AR-15 is simply another purchase of a great rifle by a law-abiding citizen. And that process will get harder and harder to complete if Kelly gets his way with gun control.

When Blitzer asked Kelly if he was turning in the .45 as well, Kelly said: "That one I'll keep."

This post has been updated for copy editing.

Five Guys: Obamacare will boost burger prices

March 12, 2013

Paul Bedard
Washington Examiner

President Obama at a Five Guys restaurant. AP Photo.

The fight over Obamacare, so far held at the 30,000-foot level, is about to hit home. The latest impact hot off the grill: prices of burgers and hot dogs at Five Guys, the national chain that started in Washington, are going to rise to cover the president's mandated insurance coverage.

"Any added costs are going to have to be passed on," said Mike Ruffer, a Five Guys franchise holder with eight of the popular restaurants in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. area. He will need all the profits from at least one of his eight outlets just to cover his estimated added $60,000-a year in new Obamacare costs.

What's more, he's iced plans to build another three restaurants until after the administration explains the exact rules and penalties employers will face. The law's plan to have those available March 1 has been pushed back to October.

"I'm kind of in a holding pattern," said Ruffer, a former Marriott executive who added that many franchise owners are in a similar situation.

Ruffer was the star witness at a Monday Heritage Foundation seminar on the impact Obamacare will have on small businesses. He is typical of many: Because he has enough full time employees to activate the law, he faces either coughing up the money to provide health insurance or paying a fine of up to $3,000 per worker.

Ruffer initially thought he would escape the law because he created each restaurant as its own company. But the law doesn't recognize that distinction, so now he's trying to determine if he can fire enough workers, or cut enough hours, to slide out of the grasp of Obamacare.

He said that "scorched earth plan," however, would hurt his restaurants, so Ruffer is likely to either pay the fine or buy insurance. But spreading the costs over his basic menu of fries, drinks, burgers and hot dogs, could scare off customers, he worries. He said that the recent spike in gas prices cut into his profits since fewer people were stopping at his restaurants.

And the health care law isn't only going to hit Ruffer. He's quizzed his workers to ask if they understand that they will be fined if they don't get health insurance. Just one of 20 workers were aware of the $95 tax penalty that rises to $695 by 2016.

Concealed carry ban at heart of firearms case

March 12, 2013
Chicago Tribune


Attorney wants unlawful use of weapon charges against Chicago man dropped

  (Tribune illustration)

By George Houde, Special to the Tribune

9:40 p.m. CDT, March 11, 2013

A Chicago man found with a loaded gun in his car says felony weapons charges against him should be dropped because of a court ruling that tossed out Illinois' concealed carry ban.

Deafalla Haddad was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after he was pulled over for speeding in November in Schiller Park and informed the officer he was carrying a loaded gun in a waistband holster.

His attorney, Matt Fakhoury, said the case should be dismissed because the law Haddad broke was found to be unconstitutional and because his actions would be legal in any other state.

"He did everything as a lawful citizen," Fakhoury said. "The courts ruled that the law, as it stands now, is unconstitutional because it does not allow for law-abiding citizens to (own and carry) a weapon. ... There's not a scratch on his record."

Illinois was the last state with a concealed weapons ban when a federal appeals court tossed out the law in December and gave legislators six months to revise it to allow people to carry guns legally. The Illinois attorney general could decide to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Haddad, a 29-year-old married father of three, said he legally obtained an Illinois Firearm Owner's Identification card and a .45-caliber Glock pistol after a man jumped on his car and attacked him with a wiper blade on Chicago's North Side in early 2012.

"He jumped up and landed on the hood of my car, like the 'Incredible Hulk,'" Haddad said. He said he stepped out of his car, at first thinking he had struck the man, but then the man ripped off a wiper blade and began to strike him.

"I was attacked. I was scared," Haddad said after a hearing Monday in Cook County court during which his attorney sought to have the charges dismissed.

Haddad said no one was ever arrested in that incident. Several months later, he said, he was pulled over for speeding and told the officer that he had the loaded weapon. His lawyer said Haddad faces a mandatory minimum of one year in prison if convicted.

Fakhoury contends Illinois' concealed carry ban is not only illegal but that it prevents average, law-abiding people from protecting themselves in a legitimate way.

A ruling on the motion to dismiss charges against Haddad could come at his next court date in April.

Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC

Judge halts Bloomberg’s large soda ban one day before it's set to go into effect

March 12, 2013

Justice Milton Tingling of state Supreme Court in Manhattan called the ban 'arbitrary and capricious.' Bloomberg said that he would not seek the City Council’s approval to try and enforce the ban, as the chances of passage would be low.

By Erin Durkin
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Updated: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 4:45 AM

Mayor Bloomberg saw his ban on large sugary sodas overturned on Monday.     Lombard/News

Mayor Bloomberg 's controversial ban on large, sugary sodas fell flat Monday when a judge shredded nearly every legal argument advanced by the mayor’s lawyers and tossed the regulation out.

The sweeping ruling, a day before the ban was to take effect, was a stinging setback for Bloomberg, who won national acclaim in pushing the regulation — and condemnation that he was creating a nanny state.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling dismissed the rule as “arbitrary and capricious,” with too many loopholes and exemptions, siding with soda companies and business groups that had taken the city to court.

Tracing the Board of Health’s powers more than 300 years to the late 1600s under Britain’s King James II, the judge said the city agency simply had no authority to issue it. Only the City Council had that power, he said. “One of the fundamental tenets of democratic governance here in New York, as well as throughout the nation, is the separation of powers. . . . No one person, agency, department or branch is above or beyond this,” the judge said.

Judge Milton A. Tingling put the kibosh on Mayor Bloomberg's ban one day before it was to go into effect.   Rebecca McAlpin for New York Daily News

The rule “would not only violate the separation of powers doctrine, it would eviscerate it,” the judge said.

The rule would have banned sales of sugary sodas larger than 16 ounces by restaurants, movie theaters, pushcarts and sports arenas.

The decision appeared to stun Bloomberg, who pushed the regulation to attack the rising tide of obesity. He vowed to appeal. But across the city, restaurant and pizzeria owners who had denounced the regulation as intrusive and costly rejoiced.

In his 37-page decision, Justice Tingling seized on the fact that the rule would have applied only to food-serving businesses regulated by the city, such as restaurants and movie theaters, and not to state-regulated establishments, like 7-Eleven stores.

He also pointed out that it would have applied to some sweetened drinks, such as sodas, but not others. Milkshakes, for example, would have been exempt.

“The loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of the rule,” the judge said.

“It is arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments,” and because it applies to some sweetened drinks but exempts others, he wrote.

The judge also said that only the legislative branch of city government, the Council, had the power to approve such a ban. The Health Board can promote rules to prevent the spread of communicable diseases but it has no power to attack obesity, he said.

Bloomberg rejected the judge’s arguments. “Anytime you adopt a groundbreaking policy, special interests will sue. That’s America,” a somber Bloomberg said at City Hall. “We believe that the judge’s decision was clearly in error, and that we will prevail.”

He said adopting the rule — the latest and most controversial of his policies to improve public health — made sense.

“With so many people contracting diabetes and heart disease, with so many children who are overweight and obese, with so many poor neighborhoods suffering the worst of this epidemic . . . it would be irresponsible not to,” he said.

“People are dying every day. This is not a joke,” he said. “We’re talking about lives versus profits.”

Businesses groups hailed the decision.

“The court ruling provides a sigh of relief to New Yorkers and thousands of small businesses in New York City that would have been harmed by this arbitrary and unpopular ban,” said Chris Gindlesperger, spokesman for the American Beverage Association, one of the plaintiffs.

Matt Greller of the state chapter of the National Association of Theatre Owners said the group was “elated” by the ruling.

“This was all about power. The court rejected the mayor’s attempt to unilaterally tell New Yorkers what to drink, and where to drink it,” he said.

Andrew Moesel of the New York Restaurant Association predicted any appeal would fail. “The ruling makes it clear they don’t have a leg to stand on,” he said. “We feel like we won on all counts.”

He also pointed out that it would have applied to some sweetened drinks, but not others.

Restaurant owners who had been scrambling to comply with the edict — buying new soda glasses, and updating signs and menus — were thrilled.

Jameel Ali, 36, a manager at the Carve deli at Eighth Ave. and 48th St., hailed the ruling as “good for us and good for customers.”

“Now we’ll get to keep all of our sodas — at least for now,” he said, standing in front of a refrigerated display of 20-ounce sodas that would have been outlawed under the ban.

At a nearby Subway restaurant, manager Om Kohli said the larger drinks mean bigger profits.

“I was about to put the new sign up. I guess I don’t have to now,” said Kohli. “It’s good for business. People would be glad to have options.”

With Tina Moore and Edgar Sandoval

edurkin@nydailynews.com

TRUTH – Allen West on exposing Democrats: Lynching and mobs did not come from Republicans

March 12, 2013

The Right Scoop  

Allen West spoke recently at a GOP dinner and gave another fantastic speech. Very inspiring. He spoke a lot about Republicans and how they aren’t exposing the truth about Democrats. He said they aren’t even going into the inner cities and explaining the party of Lincoln, the party of opportunity.

Below is an excerpt:

We are the party of opportunity. We are the party that looks at a young man born in the inner city of Atlanta, GA, and says you’re not a victim. You don’t have to be dependent. You can achieve whatever greatness, whatever your hearts desire! But the thing is we refuse to go into the neighborhoods today and tell that story about the party of Lincoln, about who we are.

See, we refuse to expose the other side and what they believe in – I call it the four S’s. The Democrat Party has stood for this. They have stood for slavery. They have stood for secession. They have stood for segregation – if you don’t believe me go back and read. Jim Crow did not come from Republicans. Poll taxes and literacy tests did not come from Republicans. Lynching and mobs did not come from Republicans. And today, now this party stands for socialism.

There’s much more including a ‘hint, hint’ about a possible run for president.

Watch>>

WH Official: Holder's Letter to Rand Paul was an Intentional Non-Answer

March 12, 2013

Guy Benson
Political Editor, Townhall.com


Here's Kevin explaining why Eric Holder's curt reply to Rand Paul's question on domestic drones is "slippery," at best:


Sen. Paul's communications team declared victory after Eric Holder sent a letter to Paul today saying that no, President Obama does not claim "the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil." ... While it sounds nice that if an American isn't "engaged in combat," she'll be safe, that still leaves the Obama Administration a lot of wiggle room. And precious little oversight.


That was last Thursday. Fast forward to today:


“Sen. Paul’s 13 hours on the Senate floor won’t have any practical effect on our policy and how we’re going after terrorists on a day-to-day basis,” a senior administration official told Yahoo News on condition of anonymity. But didn’t Paul wring a letter out of Obama's top lawyer, Attorney General Eric Holder, in which he effectively promised that Americans who aren’t lining up to take a shot at the Capitol with a grenade launcher (to paraphrase the senator) are safe? In a word: No. During his 13 hours on the Senate floor, Paul repeatedly asked whether Obama believed he had the authority to kill an American, on U.S. soil, who was not “actively attacking” America. The question prompted Holder to respond. “Dear Senator Paul,” Holder said in a 43-word letter. “It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: ‘Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?’ The answer to that question is no.” Holder didn't use the phrase “actively attacking.” And administration officials privately agreed on Friday that “not engaged in combat” was the key phrase going forward. None of them agreed to define the expression on the record.


Which returns us to Sen. Paul's core question. The administration failed to explicitly define relevant terms like "combatant" and "imminent" in its recently-leaked drone memos, and has conspicuously declined to do so throughout all subsequent discussions of the controversy. Let's call it strategic ambiguity. Last week, the junior Senator from Kentucky hoped to box the White House into conceding at least one very narrow circumstance under which the president lacks the Constitutional authority to order a drone strike on an American citizen on US soil: If the potential target were not in the process of carrying out an active attack. In other words, even if this hypothetical citizen were in fact a nefarious character intent on taking part in a destructive act at some point, the government couldn't just take him out while eating at a cafe or sleeping in bed. Paul wanted confirmation that this "(currently) passive citizen/terrorist" scenario would require an arrest, and would bar a summary execution. Holder's letter appeared to satisfy that concern, but the administration is now admitting that the devil resides in the definitions -- and that they're not too interested in doing much more defining, thank you. This is why derisive chuckling about "paranoia" from the Left and irrelevant fact-checks from the Right miss the point. Rand Paul wasn't making dark intimations about the Obama White House's active plans or intentions. Paul went out of his way to aver exactly the opposite during last week's filibuster. He was merely seeking a straight answer about one very specific limit on executive power vis-a-vis due process, citizens, and drones. The quasi-answer he received was crafted for the purpose of appearing to settle the question without actually offering a meaningful resolution on substance. Parting thoughts: (1) Donald Trump is blasting Paul's filibuster effort as essentially useless. Given today's developments -- and I hate to ask this -- but is Trump right? (2) Shameless duplicity on parade:


David Barron and Martin Lederman, the two DOJ honchos who signed off on the legality of assassinating Awlaki, co-authored a famous critique of Bush’s counterterror policies a few years ago in the Harvard Law Review. They thought warrantless wiretapping, among other techniques used by Bush-era counterterror officials, were unconstitutional; their reward for that was being hired by Obama’s Office of Legal Counsel, where they ended up making the case for … executive authority to kill United States citizens without due process. That’s the second example I can think of in which a prominent left-wing legal academic spent the Bush years inveighing against presidential power gone wild and then joined the Obama administration, only to be tasked with defending power grabs that were arguably even more legally dubious. (Harold Koh was the other.)


Take it away, Glenn Greenwald.


UPDATE - Here's Kevin talking drones, filibusters and cynicism on Bloggingheads TV:

A New Low: BBC uses Easter show about crucifixion to push gay agenda

March 12, 2013

Gay rights activist Ben Cohen will say on BBC Radio 4 that
Jesus' experience on the cross echoes his experience.

The BBC will broadcast an Easter programme saying the way Britain treats gay people is like the crucifixion of Jesus.

Critics say the BBC has sunk “to a new low” by using the crucifixion to push a gay rights message.

The programme will be broadcast on Radio 4 as part of a series of lectures in the run up to Easter.
Activist

The lecture will be given by Benjamin Cohen – a gay rights activist and former Channel 4 News reporter.

He founded the gay news website, pinknews.co.uk, and has been campaigning for marriage to be redefined.

Mr Cohen will say that the words of Jesus on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, echo his own experience of rejection as a gay man.
Liberal

But the Christian Institute has hit out at the BBC.

A spokesman said: “This is typical of the BBC’s socially liberal bias which tries to distort the Christian message at every turn.

“Using the crucifixion to push a gay rights agenda is a new low, even for the BBC. It’s yet another slap in the face to every Christian who pays the licence fee.”

source

HEZBOLLAH MONITORING JEWS WORLDWIDE

March 12, 2013
AFPC

New and disturbing details are emerging about the efforts of Hezbollah to monitor and target Jewish citizens in cities across the world. Hossam Yaakoub, a Lebanese-born Swedish citizen arrested in Cyprus last July for spying on Israeli tourists has given new details on Hezbollah’s global operations at his trial in February. Yaakoub, identified by police as a Hezbollah operative, told authorities he was “just collecting information about the Jews. This is what my organization is doing, everywhere in the world.” Yaakoub admitted that Hezbollah “wanted to have Cyprus as a base” and that he was searching for restaurants catering to Jews and monitoring charter flights bringing Israelis to Cyprus. Analysts who have studied Hezbollah’s tactics suggest the group is evolving and employing more sophisticated techniques, no longer emphasizing “speed over tradecraft.” Daniel Benjamin, the recently retired counterterrorism czar at the State Department says Hezbollah’s level of activity outside the Middle East is greater than at any time since the 1990s.

(Washington Post, February 26th, 2013)

Cincinnati poll worker charged with voting half dozen times in November

March 12, 2013

She admitted voting twice in the presidential election last November, and now, Obama supporter Melowese Richardson has been indicted for allegedly voting at least six times. She also is charged with illegal voting in 2008 and 2011.

The 58-year-old veteran Cincinnati poll worker, indicted Monday, faces eight counts of voter fraud. Two others, one of whom is a nun, have been charged separately.

Richardson had admitted on camera to a local TV station, "Yes, I voted twice," claiming she was concerned that her vote would not count. She also said there "was no intent on my part to commit any voter fraud."

"I'll fight it for Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama's right to sit as president of the United States," she proclaimed in the interview.

Officials charged that she voted in her own name by absentee ballot and also in person at the polls, but Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Deters said she also is charged with voting in the name of five other people in various elections.

"This is not North Korea," Deters said in a statement announcing the indictments. "Elections are a serious business and the foundation of our democracy. In the scheme of things, individual votes may not seem important, but this could not be further from the truth. Every vote is important and every voter and candidate needs to have faith in our system. The charges today should let people know that we take this seriously."

Richardson made national headlines when the Hamilton County Board of Elections announced that it was investigating whether she voted up to half a dozen times, including on behalf of her granddaughter, India Richardson.

India told Fox News that her grandmother did indeed vote in her name, telling us that "it wasn't a big deal."

But voting twice or in another person's name is illegal.

Prosecutors say the five other people for whom Richardson cast ballots are all relatives.

Sister Marguerite Kloos also faces one count of illegal voting, for allegedly submitting an absentee ballot in the name of a fellow nun, Sister Rose Marie Hewitt, who had died before absentee ballots were sent out. She is accused of opening Sister Hewitt’s ballot, forging her signature and mailing it to the Board of Elections as a vote.

The 54-year-old Kloos has resigned as the dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, where she still serves as an associate professor of religious and pastoral studies.

Kloos was not indicted but faces what is known as an information, because her lawyer contacted prosecutors and she agreed to cooperate and plead guilty.

"As a valued member of the Mount community, our thoughts are with her during this difficult time," the college said in a written statement. "We respect her privacy and will not comment further on this matter at this time."

Russell Glassop, 75, also is charged with illegal voting. He is accused of voting on behalf of his wife, who died before election day.

But it was Richardson's case, and the possibility of repeated votes, that shocked many. She faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. Efforts to contact her and her lawyer have been unsuccessful.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections recently held hearings on cases of possible double voting and voter fraud, part of a statewide review ordered by Secretary of State John Husted. He called on all 88 counties to review complaints of fraud, as well as voter disenfranchisement.

“Every voter must play by the rules, and if they don’t they will be held accountable,” Husted, a Republican, said in a written statement. “For voters to have confidence in our elections, we must prosecute every case of voter fraud in Ohio.”

Last month, Husted told Fox News that Richardson's case was especially troubling, because "it appears she not only attempted to vote more than once, but was actually successful at it and having those additional votes counted."

"Most attempts are caught by the system. But there are cases that do slip through, as this one does, and we need to make sure that we really send a strong message, that if you do this, you are going to be held accountable,” Husted said. “It might mean fines, it might mean jail time."

Hamilton County prosecutors are investigating three additional cases of possible voter fraud.

Fox

Police: Oklahoma mom tried to sell kids on Facebook for bail money

March 12, 2013

Mother offered both kids for a price of $4,000, investigators say


SEQUOYAH COUNTY, Okla. —Sequoyah County police say an Oklahoma mother tried to sell her children on Facebook.

Investigators say Misty Vanhorn contacted an acquaintance and attempted to sell sell 2-year-old and 10-month-old children. Vanhorn wanted $1,000 for the toddler or $4,000 for both kids.

Police say she told them she needed the money "to bail her boyfriend out of jail."

Vanhorn was arrested, according to officers, and could be charged with trafficking children.


source: KOCO

Wait a minute.. Catalytic converters are worth over 5000USD each? BRB...

March 12, 2013

Silver Spring Township police arrest two men for catalytic converter thefts

Detectives in Silver Spring Township arrested two men they believe were behind the theft of over $81,558 in car parts stolen from a Dodge dealership on Carlisle Pike last weekend.

Spencer Thomas, 23, of Enola, and Matthew Fordyce, also 23, of Carlisle, were arrested Sunday and were being held in Cumberland County Prison Monday, according to online court records.

Matthew Fordyce, left, and Spencer Thomas.
Silver Spring Township Police Department

As of Monday evening, neither Thomas nor Fordyce had posted their separate $7,500 bail amounts, the records state.

Both men admitted to stealing 15 catalytic converters between 5 p.m. March 2 and 7 a.m. March 4 from newer model diesel-fueled Dodge trucks parked in the parking lot of Cumberland Valley Motors at 6720 Carlisle Pike, police said.

The men then took the converters to two scrapyards to sell them, according to police.

Both men were charged with four counts each of theft, conspiracy to commit theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy to receive stolen property, as well as one count each for the possession of drug paraphernalia, according to court records.

Both Thomas and Fordyce were scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Paula P. Correal on March 27, records state.

source

CINCINNATI (AP) — A southwest Ohio nun who voted on behalf of another nun who died before last year’s presidential election has been charged with illegal voting. The Hamilton County prosecutor in Cincinnati said Monday that Sister Marguerite Kloos (kloos) was among three people charged with voting illegally. Defense attorney Ralph Kohnen (KOH’-nihn) says Kloos was trying to fulfill the wishes of a friend who died before absentee ballots were mailed. He says she’ll plead guilty. Prosecutors say a man faces the same count after he cast a ballot in November for his late wife. A poll worker also has been charged with eight illegal-voting counts. Prosecutors say she’s charged with voting twice in November and voting for other people in various elections.

March 12, 2013

Daily Caller

CINCINNATI (AP) — A southwest Ohio nun who voted on behalf of another nun who died before last year’s presidential election has been charged with illegal voting.

The Hamilton County prosecutor in Cincinnati said Monday that Sister Marguerite Kloos (kloos) was among three people charged with voting illegally.

Defense attorney Ralph Kohnen (KOH’-nihn) says Kloos was trying to fulfill the wishes of a friend who died before absentee ballots were mailed. He says she’ll plead guilty.

Prosecutors say a man faces the same count after he cast a ballot in November for his late wife.

A poll worker also has been charged with eight illegal-voting counts. Prosecutors say she’s charged with voting twice in November and voting for other people in various elections.

BREAKING: Senate panel rejects Medicaid expansion

March 12, 2013

By: JORGE BONILLA

A select Senate panel has just rejected Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed Medicaid expansion, a week after identical action by their counterparts in the Florida House of representatives.

Governor Rick Scott is left standing alone on the proposed Medicaid expansion, which some critics (myself included) viewed as an electoral move which would leave Florida on the hook for a huge unfunded mandate long after Scott has left office.

Per the Palm Beach Post:

A Senate panel Monday joined its House counterpart in rejecting Gov. Rick Scott’s push to expand Medicaid to bring health coverage to another 1 million lower-income Floridians.,

The partyline vote came after Republicans ridiculed the expansion as building on a broken Medicaid system. Scott’s call to at least try the expansion for the three years it will be fully financed by the federal government also carried little weight with critics.

Be sure to read the full post, both for possible republican alternatives to Medicaid expansion, and for the PBP’s special, special reportage- which includes not a peep from fiscal conservatives anywhere who might express skepticism at the notion that a state with recent and well-documented budget issues has enough money to fund an aggressive new entitlement.  

If you read a bit further down, you’ll see a bit of Democrat concern-trolling. I’m fairly certain that reports of shock and dismay that some Republicans somewhere bucked a business group are greatly exaggerated.

Democrats were stunned — pointing out that Republican leaders were also defying major business associations and Florida hospitals, which also have embraced the expansion.

“We have a moral and economic responsibility to seize this moment for the good of Floridians,” said Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood.”

If anything, we need more of that. Cronyism is bad whether red or blue.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, but I’m willing to posit that the Florida Legislature will start working on some variant of the Arkansas Plan…and Governor Scott will try to extract himself from this self-inflicted rick-rolling, and from this cudgel that he has unwittingly handed to Charlie Crist.


Shark Tank

FLOTUS Goes After Obese Parents

March 11, 2013




(Breitbart.com) - First Lady Michelle Obama

"But in the end, we also know that it's not enough to simply change the way our children eat — we have to change our own habits and behaviors as well. And this is final point I want to make today. We as parents are our children's first and best role models and this is particularly true when it comes to their health. Research shows that kids who have at least one obese parent or more are then twice as likely to be obese as adults. So, as much as we might plead with our kids to “do as I say and not as I do,” we know that we can’t lie around on the couch eating French fries and candy bars and expect our kids to eat carrots and run around the block. But too often that’s exactly what we’re doing.We’re skipping the gym so that we can drive the kids to school in the morning. We’re eating fast food at lunch so we have time afterwards to pick go to the store to pick up something decent for dinner. We are working so hard to keep our kids healthy that we are neglecting ourselves. Now in some ways that’s what it means to be a parent, right? It means there are plenty of things we won’t do for ourselves but there is nothing that we won’t do for our children. But as it turns out one of the most important things we can do for our children’s health, is to take care of our own health and to make being healthy truly a family affair.”

Haiti's nightmare: Missing billions in aid, rebuilding left to the women, and a president protected by baton-wielding thugs

March 11, 2013

Three years on from the earthquake that devastated the country, a shocking report on the squalor and chaos that remains

By Toby Walne

UK Daily Mail

Air of menace: Armed policemen guard Haitian president Michel Martelly after a voodoo ceremony in Port-au-Prince

First there’s a tap on the shoulder. A huge palace-guard policeman in full body armour and a black balaclava uses a riot stick to suggest it’s time to go.

Then he swings the truncheon high in the air and it comes down with a sickening thud on the back of a demonstrator. Beside him a man lies groaning as blood drips from a deep hand wound.

The President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, stands just yards away, surrounded by a crowd of 10,000 people in the central square of the capital Port-au-Prince.

This pop-star leader – a former Creole singer known as ‘Sweet Micky’ – is lapping up the attention despite the obvious concern for his safety.

The sharply dressed politician offers his best toothy grin and waves eagerly to the unsettled mob.

Perhaps he feels safe because he’s protected not only by a police army, whose fingers twitch nervously on sub-machine guns and pump-action shotguns, but also by a ring of bodyguards in suits with pistols hidden discreetly in shoulder and waist holsters.

They stare blankly out towards the crowd in an eerie reminder of earlier presidential protectors – the Tontons Macoutes, bogeymen who wore dark glasses and ruled from the shadows.

They murdered and tortured on behalf of the tyrannical leader François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier throughout the Sixties until 1971, and then for his playboy son ‘Baby Doc’, who was overthrown in 1986.

Homeless: A young boy carries water he has just collected from the filthy stream running through a camp for people displaced by the earthquake in Port au Prince

Those who questioned their authority often vanished in the night – occasionally reappearing as a corpse hanging from a tree.

It’s dark now – past curfew for foreign visitors – and the atmosphere is heavy with danger. A hot, sweaty odour combines with an overpowering stench of raw sewage and rotting rubbish.

It’s the smell of two million people crammed into a city that’s estimated to contain over 1,000 squalid tent communities and slums, the vast majority of which have no toilets, proper drainage or water supplies. A grey sludge seeps like a disease along the broken roads and alleys.

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck here, its epicentre ten miles west of the capital.

Already the poorest country in the Americas, within a few moments Haiti collapsed into chaos.

Some 316,000 people were killed and 1.5 million made homeless – nearly one in six of the population.

It remains a total mess. Although some earthquake victims have found shelter in slum dwellings, over 350,000 still live in tent communities or sleep rough.

The evil reek of sewage seems to have infected society itself: brutal and lawless gangs rule the streets.

After the earthquake: Planeloads of rescuers and relief supplies headed to Haiti as governments and aid agencies launched a massive relief operation after the powerful earthquake which killed thousands

While billions of pounds have poured in from the international community to help rebuild the country, much of it seems to have been squandered or pocketed by corrupt officials and criminals.

The most vulnerable in society struggle to live in appalling conditions. Such is the desperation here that mausoleums in the capital’s main cemetery have been smashed open by grave robbers, who sell the coffins along with their brass fittings.

Amid the misery and devastation, many Haitians have turned to the ancient traditions of voodoo; in a ceremony opposite the destroyed palace in Port-au-Prince, 18 priestesses and a male high priest call on voodoo gatekeeper ‘Papa Legba’ to let the spirits of the dead free. Others seek solace from the Church.

In January, on the third anniversary of the quake that killed her husband, Teresa Constance, 38, was attending her local church in the incongruously named slum district of Bel Air for an overnight candlelit vigil with her 19-year-old son.

Just after midnight, three dozen men armed with pistols, rifles and knives forced their way into the building.

The 250 worshippers were subjected to a horrific three hours of torture, rape and beatings.

Teresa sits upright and proud, but her eyes betray her pain as she relives the ordeal of sexual assault and rape by ten attackers.

Crowds gather to see the arrival of a sacred tree that is being met by the President in a Voodoo ceremony in downtown Port au Prince

‘They held me down and hit me with the butt of a rifle – one of them held a pistol to my head while the others punched and grabbed at me.

'They were laughing and would not stop despite my pleading. How can this happen in a house of God? Humans should not do such things.

'I can never go back to the church now. They attacked my faith, but I still love God. I want my son to be a preacher one day. But it is difficult to carry on living. I no longer want to eat and my heart is in despair.’

The church had been a comfort for Teresa and her son after the earthquake struck – killing a husband and doting father, and destroying the family home.

Mother and son slept rough in an old children’s-park area of Bel Air with thousands of others until they found a shabby concrete room which they were able to rent for £6 a week thanks to donations from the church.

Rent in the capital is high and only the rich can afford to buy. The day after the attack, Teresa went alone to the police to report the crime.

The police said they could do nothing and sent her to the local hospital. The hospital told her to go home.

Such attacks are far from isolated. Women and sometimes even children are systematically raped in camps by armed gangs engaged in a sick power struggle in which life has little meaning – and the victims no hope.

A man with a shotgun guards graves in the main cemetery in Port au Prince. Violent crime and poverty are on the rise in Haiti and graves are regularly raided by people who steal coffins to resell

When we visit a camp just west of the capital in Carrefour, a muscle-bound gangster type swaggers past dressed as a grotesque caricature of an American rapper – skewed baseball cap, shades, gold chain around the neck and white shorts hanging off his hips.

It’s important to avoid eye contact and move to one side – these ‘bandits’ don’t do interviews. In daylight the guns are hidden from view, but at night the lawless terror takes hold and any semblance of civilisation is abandoned.

So what has happened to all the money raised by British viewers who watched the terrible aftermath of the Haiti earthquake unfold on their TV screens?

The public gave £107 million and a further £22 million was made available by the British Government to a country few people even knew about before – a nation in the Caribbean that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

Our generous donations were part of a huge pot of international aid worth a total of £6 billion. Where has the money gone?

Large white 4x4 Toyota Land Cruisers with blacked-out windows clog up already gridlocked roads as UN officials and charity bosses are driven around the capital. Many foreigners stay at luxury hotels in the leafy hillside retreat of Pétionville.

They sit by hotel swimming pools tapping away at their laptops, drinking coffee. They’re no doubt doing good, but from an outsider’s point of view it seems to be an obscene abuse of power when most Haitians struggle on around £1 a day and are unemployed.

As much as 40 per cent of aid money is believed to be spent on supporting these foreigners, who play God with the cash we donated.

A gang of men, wielding guns raided a Church in which Teresa Constance (pictured in the room she shares with her son) and friends were holding a candle lit vigil, raping and beating them all

Less than ten per cent of the pooled foreign aid money has gone directly to the Haitian government and only 0.6 per cent to Haitian charities or companies.

Despite the response to the disaster, not all countries have been as honourable as Britain when it comes to making good on their pledges.

Only 53 per cent of the £3 billion pledged for reconstruction projects by international governments in 2010 and 2011 has actually materialised.

Mancunian John Heelham is a project manager for Oxfam in Port-au-Prince. The 29-year-old is using his engineering skills to build toilets in slum camps.

‘Haiti is known as the “Republic of NGOs (non-governmental organisations)”,’ he says.

‘We’ve been here since 1978, but when the earthquake struck, thousands of charities from nowhere flooded in.

Although well meaning, many simply turned up, put in a toilet block and went home. In the long term some did more harm than good. Others were just running around from meeting to meeting.’

An 11,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti has the unenviable job of trying to maintain law and order.

Haiti’s own army was disbanded in the mid-Nineties by the government to stamp out the threat of military coups.

UN armoured vehicles tour the streets offering the pretence of control – but no one is fooled.

As day turns to dusk, three soldiers in blue helmets and sunglasses sit nervously atop their vehicle eyeing the squalor, clutching guns tightly to their chests in case they come under attack.

Theirs is a thankless task made almost impossible following an outbreak of cholera in October 2010 – just a few months after the earthquake struck.

Morance Methmise works on a building site where chairty CARE International is training women to rebuild houses. 'I have three young children to look after. My husband was killed in the earthquake,' she said

The disease was introduced by Nepalese UN forces in Mirebalais – 25 miles north-east of Port-au-Prince – who had dumped raw sewage into the local river.

Villagers picked up the disease by drinking and washing in the water downstream and that started an epidemic.


To date cholera has killed around 8,000 people and made an estimated 650,000 sick. The UN hasn’t apologised for causing an outbreak that experts believe could cost the nation an additional £1.4 billion to wipe out by providing adequate sanitation – an irony not lost on the local population.

'We hate the UN,’ says Deba Jean-Jude, a 42-year-old father of three.

‘What have they done for us but brought disease? They should leave us alone.’

He’s standing on a children’s play area by a destroyed campsite, where a day earlier 800 families lived. The site is in front of what remains of St Anne’s Church. It looks like a bad set design for an apocalypse movie.

The earthquake destroyed almost all of the church, but a dome behind an altar and a fresco of the Ascension are left standing.

Deba explains how the families were told they would each get 4,000 gourdes (£60) if they left the site, but when they went to the mayor’s office to collect the money, gangs smashed and looted their camps.

‘Gangsters turned up with machetes and broke down our tents and frightened the people away.

'Then the UN came with tear gas to stop us protesting. There is no one here to protect us and we have nowhere else to go.’

All that’s left behind are pathetic scraps of cardboard, plastic sheeting and clothing. Deba admits the camp will soon return, as the homeless have no alternatives. It’s a depressingly common story here.

Three years ago a powerful earthquake claimed the lives of over 200,000 people and displaced thousands more. Over 350,000 are still living in camps like this despite a multi-billion pound aid effort

Well-meaning celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Robbie Williams raised money after the earthquake, but after the photo shoots they vanished.

Only Hollywood actor Sean Penn bothered to stay – helping to pull down the crumbling palace last year and offering support to a sprawling camp of tens of thousands of people living on a golf course.

Penn still has a base in Haiti where he spends time, and continues to raise funds back home in Los Angeles.

But a medical centre above the camp that he opened is now closed and boarded up, solar-powered lights have been smashed and there’s a perimeter of razor wire. No one knows if it’s to keep people in or out.

Of the five cholera treatment centres around the Port-au-Prince area run by charity Médecins Sans Frontières, one is a tent compound in Carrefour.

Doctors there say they can receive 50 patients a day, and the epidemic isn’t over. Treatment is a simple rehydration process, but the poor struggle to meet the cost of clean water.

Around the city ‘MINUSTAH = Cholera’ is graffitied on the walls – MINUSTAH being the acronym for the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti.

The Université d’Etat d’Haiti hospital receives about 100 patients a day. The majority walk out the same day, but some – including patients with gunshot wounds – require a bed if one can be found.

The hospital is funded by a number of charities, but is struggling to attract money due to ‘donor fatigue’ setting in three years after the quake.

The Red Cross has just cut aid to the hospital by £1.6 million, so a third of the 18 long-term beds have been lost and patients in dire need of help must be turned away.

Laguerre Mercier, 57, has been lying in a hot, cramped ward with nine others for three months and has steel pins in his left leg, which was crushed by a UN vehicle.

UN troops from Brazil go out on patrol in the beleagured city

‘I got the doctors to write to the UN and ask if they might help towards the cost of treatment and painkillers,’ he says. ‘They haven’t even bothered to reply.’

Among those helping patients is Carwyn Hill, 29, of Bromley, south-east London. He is the director of the Haiti Hospital Appeal, and explains how a three-year Disasters Emergency Committee plan that ended in January means the axe is falling on many services.

‘Of course not all the aid has been spent wisely, but life still goes on and we still need money for essentials – such as medical and maternity support.’

Women are the biggest victims in Haiti, but they may also prove to be the key to any future recovery, thanks to a new initiative by the British arm of the charity CARE International – offering a blueprint for others to follow.

Rather than just throw money at the crisis, as so many outfits have done to little effect, CARE is training women to rebuild the nation, cultivating skills that they’ve traditionally been barred from learning.

These include building, carpentry and even establishing their own bank. The banks help women pool resources so they can set up small businesses together.

Morance Methmise, 22, enjoys the toughest jobs at a building site in Port-au-Prince where CARE is training women to rebuild houses.

She lugs cement, carries boulders and mixes mortar. The charity is enrolling her onto a month-long course, along with 40 other women, that will give her the construction skills to compete for work with men.

‘I have three young children to look after,’ she says. ‘My husband was killed in the earthquake.

'I used to come and help the builders out for a few gourdes, as I didn’t have enough money to feed the children. I now have hope and want to build our own home.’

With sweat pouring down her face, her work ethic is impressive. She’s watched from the side by her two youngest, Blandina, two, and Richard, seven. Wearing odd shoes scavenged from a rubbish tip, she still lives in poverty in a nearby tent city.

Her story offers a small glimmer of hope in a dark and desperate country that’s still fighting for survival amid the horrors of natural disaster and human despair.

Now it’s clear! General Electric profiting big off drone manufacturing, Ed Schultz called out then threatens to send drone to attack her (Video)

March 11, 2013

Now I understand why Obama loves drones so much. It makes his sugar daddies at General Electric a lot of money. Ed Schultz of course has to protect the only network who would be stupid enough to pay him to spout his propaganda. So when challenged by a female caller named Terry in Los Angeles about what a hypocrite Schultz is for supporting the drone program, Ed Schultz did his usual misogynistic schtick, laughing at her, and even threatening to send a drone to ‘take her out.’



Do you find Schultz funny? I don’t. Could you imagine if a Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin told a caller he didn’t agree with on his radio show that he would send a drone to her house to ‘take her out’ what the media coverage would be? Could you imagine NOW going absolutely batsh*t crazy calling for the firing of a Limbaugh or Levin if they acted this way to a female caller? But it’s just Ed Schultz being Ed Schultz, a typical figurehead of NBC News and MSNBC so move along, nothing to see here.

source: fireandreamitchell

EXCLUSIVE: City restaurant inspectors will now be armed with 17-ounce cups to make sure eateries aren't selling oversized sugary beverages

March 11, 2013

The Health Department plans to check during regular restaurant inspections whether eateries are selling sugary drinks larger than those allowed under Bloomberg's ban, which goes into effect on Tuesday.

By Tina Moore
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

New procedures give restaurant inspectors cups that can hold 17 fluid ounces and they'll be instructed to issue a violation only when a cup is found to 'clearly exceed' 16 ounces.

There will be no SWAT teams policing Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial new ban on large sodas and other sugary drinks starting Tuesday, but city inspectors will be armed — with 17-ounce cups.

The Health Department plans to use regular restaurant inspections to make sure eateries are not selling sugary beverages in servings larger than 16 ounces. But the inspectors will have specially ordered cups to help them enforce the new rule, Deputy Health Commissioner Daniel Kass said.

He spelled out the new procedures in exacting detail in an affidavit recently filed as part of the legal challenge to Bloomberg’s anti-big-soda policy. “The measuring cups that we will be issuing ... will be able to contain 17 fluid ounces,” Kass said. Inspectors will be instructed to issue a violation only when a cup is found to “clearly exceed” 16 ounces “when measured in the inspector’s measuring cup,” he added.

Bloomberg proposed the ban last May — the latest in a series of public health policies by his administration to take a bite out of unhealthy habits in the Big Apple.

The Bloomberg-appointed Board of Health gave final approval in September, framing it as a major initiative to attack obesity. “Sugary beverages are a leading driver of the obesity epidemic that is killing more than 5,000 New Yorkers annually,” Bloomberg spokeswoman Samantha Levine said. “Our bold initiative — which will preserve health and save lives — has already changed the national dialogue about obesity and sugary drinks.”

In the affidavit, Kass explained that the 17-ounce cup was being used to provide restaurants with a margin of error. But that reasoning didn’t placate critics.

“Will they deploy sugar sniffing dogs to detect the amount of calories from sugar?” said Matthew Greller, a lobbyist for the National Association of Theatre Owners, one of the business groups trying to quash the new rule. “Can someone please call Jerry Seinfeld and request a reunion show just on this ridiculousness?”

“The ban is arbitrary and impacts businesses as well as consumers,” said Christopher Gindlesperger, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association. “So there’s a 1-ounce margin of error. I think there’s a lot of confusion.”

All establishments that receive inspection grades from the Health Department, including concession stands at movie theaters, ballparks and arenas, will be covered by the rule. New Yorkers also will no longer be able to order a family-sized bottle of sugary soda with a pizza delivery.

But convenience stores like 7-Eleven, vending machines and some newsstands are exempt, as are fruit juices, milkshakes and alcoholic beverages.

Health Department spokeswoman Veronica Lewin said inspectors had been trained for the drink-size inspections and were ready to go.

She said the frequency of the inspections depends on an establishment’s letter grade. A-graded restaurants are inspected once a year; visits increase as the letter grade drops. She declined to provide specifics about the special cup.

North Korea tells its people how Americans live today

March 11, 2013
LiveLeaks.com

We were told by Mao that life in the West was so miserable that they were waiting for us to liberate.

Dems threaten Colo. sheriffs’ salaries over gun control

March 11, 2013

Sheriff Terry Maketa: “I was absolutely outraged…
I made it very clear that I felt it was almost bordering
extortion, attempted influence of a public official.”

Photo credit www.denverpost.com

The Colorado gun debate is heating up. Companies are threatening to move, rape victims are ridiculed for testifying in committee hearings that they desire guns for self-protection, and potential victims are instructed to rely on rape whistles and call boxes.

Now the state’s sheriffs have entered the fray, expressing support for the Second Amendment, and according to El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, the officers are getting some blowback from the Democratic Party.

In an interview Saturday morning with Jeff Crank on 740 AM KVOR radio, Maketa said 30 Colorado sheriffs went to the state capitol to speak out against restrictive gun control legislation.

Only one sheriff of the 30 present was allowed to speak against the rule-change bill, Maketa told KVOR, adding that typically all those present would have been allowed to speak.

Maketa then referred to an email he’d received Wednesday saying “that the Senate Dem Leadership is very upset with the Sheriffs and their opposition to the gun control bills.”

Sheriffs’ salaries are set by state lawmakers upon the recommendation of a salary commission’s findings, he explained. “But the Dems have been dangling [the salary bill] out there and refusing to follow their own created commissions’ recommendations. They’ve put it off now for two years.”

The Senate Democrats, Maketa told Crank, were “very upset” with his “testimony in opposition on the gun bills. And they are stating that, basically, we should reconsider our position to gain a more favorable light for salary support from the Dems.”

The sheriff said he was “absolutely outraged by that. Number one, the salary bill for elected officials is a mandate of the legislature. Creating gun control is not a mandate, and in this case, there is no factual basis for it. And I made it very clear that I felt it was almost bordering extortion, attempted influence of a public official, but more so that we would be sacrificing our morals and principles in what we know is the right thing to do.”

The email is not being released so it can be preserved as evidence in a likely investigation, according to SpotlightOnCorruption.com.




source: bizpacreview

Ironic: St. Peter SEIU Hospital Workers Strike Over Escalating Obamacare Costs

March 11, 2013

A perfect example of "be careful what you wish for"..

OLYMPIA – Pickets will replace performing the rounds at Olympia’s St. Peter Hospital tomorrow.

500 members of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, will walk off the job tomorrow in what it says is a case of health care workers striking over the rising cost of health care.

“My husband has cystic fibrosis,” says Certified Nursing Assistant Abbey Bruce, who says his medication used to be covered by the Providence Plan. But now, “we’re up to out of pocket, $400 per month, for his medications he needs baseline to stay alive. So I’ve had to take a second job,” says Bruce.

She put together pickets for the strike, which the union says would be the first for Western Washington hospital employees since 2004.

“We’re going to be fully staffed,” says Susan Meenk, VP for Human Resources at Providence St. Peter. “We do have some replacement workers coming in,” she added, “from other Providence hospitals, and temporary workers.”

She admits the deductible has gone up for families, but says the union is not taking into account the company’s new wellness program as an added benefit. She also disputed figures, provided by the union, which show hospital executive salaries have skyrocketed while employee deductibles have gone up.

“If you look at any other organizations that are similar in size and scope to ours, we actually feel those wages are conservative,” said Meenk.

The SEIU says the strike will last until Saturday at 9:59am.


source: NBC

Death by a thousand cuts

March 11, 2013

Land of the pure or land of the purge? Saturday’s mob attack on a Christian colony in Lahore is a reminder of how unsafe Pakistan has become for minorities such as Shias, Hindus, Ahmadis and Christians.

After each act of violence against religious minorities, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi or Sipah-e-Sahaba proudly own up to it without fear of punishment

The recent mob attack on Christians in Lahore, resulting in the burning down of over one hundred Christian homes while the police stood by, is a reminder of how unsafe Pakistan has become for religious minorities. The attacks on Christians follows a rising tide of attacks on Pakistan’s Shia Muslims, sometimes mischaracterised in the media as the product of sectarian conflict. In reality, these increasingly ferocious attacks reflect the ambitious project of Islamists to purify Pakistan, making it a bastion of a narrow version of Islam Sunni. Pakistan literally translates as “the land of the pure”. But, what started in an imperceptible way as early as the 1940s, picking up momentum in the 1990s, is a drive to transform Pakistan into a land of religious purification.

Muslim groups such as the Shias that account for possibly 20-25% of Pakistan’s Muslim population and Non-Muslim minorities such as Christians, Hindus and Sikhs have been target-killed, forcibly converted, kidnapped and had their religious places bombed and vandalised with alarming regularity. At the time of partition in 1947, Pakistan had a healthy 23% of its population comprise non-Muslim citizens. Today, the proportion of non-Muslims has declined to approximately three per cent. The distinctions among Muslim denominations have also become far more accentuated over the years.

Changing times


Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and his two closest political and personal lieutenants, the Raja of Mahmoodabad and my grandfather Mirza Abol Hassan Ispahani, were all Shia Muslims. All three devoted their political lives and personal finances to the creation of Pakistan. Mr. Jinnah named Sir Zafrulla Khan, member of the embattled Ahmadiyya sect, as Pakistan’s first foreign minister. As originally conceived, Pakistan did not discriminate among various Muslim denominations, and non-Muslim minorities too were assured of equal rights as citizens. But things have changed over the last several decades. Last week, the massacre of the Shia community of Abbas Town in Karachi took place on and around a road named after my Shia grandfather.


Driven out or degraded

Over the years, Pakistan’s constitution has been amended to designate the Ahmadiyya as non-Muslims. A similar drive, influenced by Salafi ideology from Saudi Arabia, has been undertaken by Deobandi groups against the Shias. A terrorist offshoot of the Deobandi movement (‘Takfiris’ — those who declare some Muslims as ‘kafirs’ or unbelievers) has been escalating atrocities against Shias in an effort to drive them out of the country or to force them to accept a lowered status in an Islamised Pakistan. Their targets have included men, women and children.

Pakistan’s Shias belong to different ethnic and linguistic groups and different tribes. They are spread all over the country. The one thing that unifies them in the eyes of their murderers is their religious beliefs. The anti-Shia terrorists roam the land with impunity, appear on primetime talk shows on television and hold political rallies where they declare Shias as unbelievers and Wajib-ul-Qatal (deserving of death). They are very rarely arrested, even after they proudly and publicly announce their deeds — like in the two recent massacres of the Hazara Shias of Quetta. When they are arrested, they have access to mobile phones in prison, receive visitors openly and are often released swiftly on their own recognisance. The few who have been tried have always been acquitted by Pakistan’s judiciary for “lack of evidence”.


State turning a blind eye

What is often painted — deliberately — as a Shia-Sunni conflict is, in fact, quite another creature. The anti-Shia groups are used by Pakistan’s permanent establishment in Afghanistan and other neighbouring countries in pursuit of “strategic depth”. When, inspired by their bigotry, the Jihadis attack Shias within Pakistan, their state sponsors tend to avert their eyes.

A year ago, a bus was stopped on its way to Gilgit-Baltistan. Shias on board were identified by their names and other means, taken off the bus and beheaded and shot dead. Several months later, the same type of massacre was repeated in the same region. The Taliban took credit for both acts of terrorism. Shias in Parachinar and Hangu located in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) have been fighting the Taliban unaided for years. And, their dead bodies now number thousands.

The recent extensive reporting of the plight of the Hazara Shias by the media is the result of mass protests held across the country in solidarity with the victims. The targeting of Shia doctors and other professionals in Karachi has also been an attempt to make the middle-class Shia flee abroad to leave only the poor and voiceless of their community behind. After each act of violence the Taliban/Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) or Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) proudly own up the operations.

One example is from a news agency reporting from Qudrat News in Quetta: “Banned religious terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, has claimed responsibility for the suicide blast on Kirani Road, Hazara Town. The spokesman, Abu Bakr Sidiq, called the news channels on Saturday evening from an identified location and said that the attack was carried out by our colleague, Umar Farooq.”

“In 2013, this was our second suicide attack in the Shia areas. Like this, we have 20 vehicles full of explosives ready for our suicide bombers. Soon as we get the order [from LEJ leader Malik Ishaq], their target will be Alamdar Road, Mehr Abad, and Hazara Town. God Willing, now we will kill Shias in their home.

“We want to tell the Sunnis, for God sake, strap your bodies with bombs and stand up with LEJ in the fight against the Shias… If Sunnis won’t rise up, then they should refrain from having any relation with the Shias because now either we will live in Balochistan or the Shias… We seek help from Allah in this fight and this fight will end as Balochistan becoming the graveyard of the Shias.”

The international community must not ignore the systematic elimination of Pakistan’s Shias, Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis. The United Nations must nominate a Special Rapporteur on the systematic elimination of Pakistan’s minorities. Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment as well as the federal and provincial governments must be asked to fulfil their responsibilities in protecting the Shias and other Muslim and non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan.

(The author is a former Member of Pakistani Parliament)

source: The Hindu