Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Gay Rights Suffers a Serious Shiner: Shocking Child Molestation Story

07/03/2013
Written By Laurie Higgins


In 2010, the Australian press, as in thrall to the homosexual community as our ignorant, sycophantic America press is, told the foolishly titled story “Two dads are better than one,” about a homosexual couple who went to Russia to adopt a child. These “fathers” described the obstacles they faced in trying to find a surrogate in the U.S. and the scrutiny they faced when they returned to Australia with their child, all because of the suspicions of authorities who feared that two homosexual men might be pedophiles. The article concluded with this heartwarming quote: “’We’re a family just like any other family,’ [one of the fathers] said with pride.”

Fast forward to 2013. One of these two proud and ostensibly loving fathers, U.S.-Australian citizen Mark J. Newton was just convicted in an Indiana court of “conspiracy to sexually exploit a minor and conspiracy to possess child pornography” and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Newton’s partner Peter Truong awaits trial on similar charges.

Multiple news reports state that there is video of one of the “fathers” performing a sex act on their son when he was two-weeks old. In addition, these men made their son sexually available from age 2-6 to at least eight other men in three countries. They also videotaped these sick crimes, posting the videos on the homosexual pedophile website “Boy Lovers Network.”

This story follows the 2012 story of Kenneth Brandt who adopted three boys and a girl and then raped and prostituted the boys.

And the Brandt story follows the 2011 story of “married” Connecticut couple George Harasz and Douglas Wirth who adopted nine boys, five of whom have accused the men of raping them.

I’m going to make the wildly politically incorrect statement that the male homosexual community has a serious problem with pedophilia, including its various incarnations like hebephilia and ephebophilia. To the uninitiated, those terms refer to the predator’s favored age of prey.

The Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal was primarily homosexual in nature. In other words, all of the predators were male and the vast majority of their victims were male.

The Boys Scouts of America sex abuse scandal revealed in 2012 was entirely homosexual in nature, which is to say, male predators were preying on male children and teens.

Though male homosexuals constitute between 3-4 percent of the population, multiple reports suggest they commit a statistically higher rate of sexual abuse than do heterosexuals.

And let’s not forget that in virtually every society in history that accepted homosexuality, the dominant form was between adult males and pubescent boys. If you have a spare minute and a strong stomach, wander around a “gay” website. You will see photo upon photo of youthful, hairless boys who appear to be teens.

Sexual crimes against children are certainly not limited to the homosexual community. And I’m not arguing that all homosexuals are pedophiles. I am arguing, rather, that the homosexual community is not immune to the infection of pedophilia—or what some euphemistically refer to with the neologism “minor-attraction,” which to “minor-attracted persons” is just another “sexual orientation.” (And “sexual orientation” is itself a euphemism concocted to efface the difference between rightly ordered sexual impulses that are consonant with biology and anatomy and disordered sexual impulses that result in sterility and disease because they oppose biology and anatomy).

It just may be true that the community that pridefully celebrates that which is worthy of shame has an even more serious perversion problem than just the sexual desire of men for men.

I wonder if the poor little Russian boy whose mother sold him for 8,000 pieces of silver to evil men who used him as their sex toy will grow up to be sexually attracted to men. Oh wait, that can’t happen because the homosexual community says they’re “born that way.”

For multiple reasons children should not be placed in the homes of homosexuals. First, homosexual acts are inherently immoral. Second, there is evidence that many homosexuals find nothing problematic about sex between adult males and minors of diverse ages. Third, homosexual couples are more unstable than heterosexual couples. Fourth, for many male homosexual couples, fidelity does not include sexual monogamy. And finally, children have an inherent right to be raised by a mother and father—roles that Barack Obama has publicly declared are essential to the lives of children even as he incoherently declares his support for a form of marriage that necessarily presupposes the expendability of either mothers or fathers.

source

Independence Day: American Culture (Happy 4th!)

07/03/2013


link


Mongolian neo-Nazis rebrand themselves as environmentalists

07/03/2013

Tsagaan Khass, or White Swastika, whose leader has expressed reverence for Hitler, now says its main goal is to save nature

READ MORE

Westboro Baptist Church tweets intent to 'picket' funerals of Arizona firefighters

07/03/2013

PHOENIX - The notoriously outspoken and often controversial Westboro Baptist Church has made several threats through social media intending to picket the funerals of the 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill wildfire near Prescott.

Read more (or don't lol)

Distrusting Government

07/03/2013

Recent opinion polls demonstrate a deepening distrust of the federal government. That's not an altogether bad thing. Our nation's founders recognized that most human abuses are the result of government. As Thomas Paine said, "government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil." Because of their fear of abuse, the Constitution's framers sought to keep the federal government limited in its power. Their distrust of Congress is seen in the governing rules and language used throughout our Constitution. The Bill of Rights is explicit in that distrust, using language such as Congress shall not abridge, shall not infringe and shall not deny and other shall-nots, such as disparage, violate and deny. If the framers did not believe that Congress would abuse our God-given, or natural, rights, they would not have provided those protections. I've always suggested that if we see anything like the Bill of Rights at our next destination after we die, we'll know that we're in hell. A perceived need for such protection in heaven would be an affront to God. It would be the same as saying we can't trust him.

More from Walter Williams 

Higher Learnin'z: UCLA's Michael Sondheimer Resigns After Alleged Online Sex Chats with Minors

07/03/2013

“13? Good”, “Love ghetto girls U are so real and so cool” and ‘Want to do anything to your hot body.”

READ MORE

More air passengers showing up with guns

07/03/2013

In the first six months of this year, Transportation Security Administration screeners found 894 guns on passengers or in their carry-on bags, a 30 percent increase over the same period last year...

READ MORE

Houston Doctors to Close Doors Because of Obamacare

07/03/2013

An ABC 13 report from Houston, Texas on doctors who are closing their doors because of Obamacare:

"It's going to hurt me," says a Houston doctor of Obamacare. "But it's going to hurt the patients more."

FULL STORY

California bill would fine big firms whose workers get Medi-Cal

07/03/2013

Proponents say it would eliminate a loophole in the Affordable Care Act that encourages employers to dump hourly workers onto the government dole. Opponents call it a job killer.

FULL STORY

Report: Public University Unfairly Raising Grades of Black Students, Says Former Faculty Members

07/03/2013

Three former faculty members at Winston-Salem State University said the school was systematically raising grades of African-American students.

READ: Campus Reform reported

Kermit Gosnell Pleads Guilty to Running Pill Mill at His Abortion Clinic

07/03/2013

.. The investigation into his abortion practices came after federal agents raided the clinic over allegations he was flooding city streets with the widely abused painkillers..

READ MORE

Desperate Prosecution on High in Zimmerman Trial: Ice cream post could lead to inquiry

07/03/2013

SANFORD, Fla. — Prosecutors have asked a judge in the George Zimmerman trial to conduct an inquiry into an Instagram photo that was posted by the daughter of a defense attorney.

READ MORE

WATCH: Greenwald: ‘Vast’ Obama NSA Spying Programs to be Revealed ‘That the World Will be Shocked to Learn About’

07/03/2013


Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who broke the original story about the Obama NSA’s massive spying on U.S. citizens without probable cause, a clear constitutional violation, was interviewed by Eric Bolling on Fox and Friends and indicated that this is just the tip of the iceberg (link to video below):

Eric Bolling: NSA leaker Edward Snowden, speaking out for the first time since getting stuck in the Moscow airport, saying he, quote, remains free and able to publish information that serves the public interest. According to the journalist who broke Snowden’s first story, there is a lot more to come. That journalist, Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian newspaper is my guest this morning. Glenn, thank you for joining us. So you say you have another big NSA scoop. Do you care to break it right here, right now?

Glenn Greenwald: Unfortunately, Eric, you’re going to have to wait along with everybody else until our stories are published, but I will say that there are vast programs of both domestic and international spying that the world will be shocked to learn about that the NSA is engaged in with no democratic accountability, and that’s what’s driving our reporting.

Watch the rest of the interview here

In Venezuela, Russia's Rosneft Quietly Expands Its Reach

07/03/2013

Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft , said it signed a deal with Venezuelan state owned oil major PDVSA on Tuesday to explore for fossil fuels off the coast of the oil rich South American nation.

Read The Rest ...

Democrat Rips ‘Black English’ On Fox: Black Leaders ‘Have To Stop Making Excuses’ For Rachel Jeantel’s Speech

07/03/2013



More at Mediaite

Obama warns Africans not to improve their lifestyle because ‘the planet will boil over’ if they do

07/03/2013

You have to feel bad for the people of Africa. After all, we are the sad saps who elected Barack Obama. Nobody in South Africa chose Obama to be their leader. Yet they are forced to listen to his lectures. Yesterday, he told them that because of global warming they have no right to modernize their lifestyle:

Continue to Article...

Colorado recall efforts get ugly ahead of key ruling

07/03/2013

Recall efforts against two Colorado Democrats are reaching a fever pitch ahead of an expected ruling on Wednesday on whether a petition recalling Senate President John Morse contained the right language to proceed with an election.

FULL STORY

Unconscionable: Agenda-Driven Obama Hints at Global Warming in Firefighter Deaths

07/03/2013


Barack Hussein Obama: "I think we are going to have to ask ourselves a set of broader questions about how we are handling increasingly deadly and difficult firefights. Wildfires have been continually escalating at higher and higher cost, and putting more and more pressure not only on the federal fire services but also on state and local fire services, and we are going to have to think about what more we can do on that front. But for now, I think what we are most concerned about are how painful these losses are."

Read More at Big Government

Egypt army says ready to die in "final hours"

07/03/2013

Supporters of President Mohamed Mursi carry a banner with his pictures during a protest to counter anti-Mursi protests elsewhere in Alexandria, July 2, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Asmaa Waguih
(Reuters) - Egypt's high command said on Wednesday the army was ready to die to defend Egypt's people against terrorists and fools, in a response to Islamist President Mohamed Mursi that was headlined "The Final Hours".

The post on the official Facebook page of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), headed by armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said: "We swear to God that we will sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool."

Issued three hours after Mursi appeared on television to reject an ultimatum from Sisi that he share power with his opponents or face a military solution by 10:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), a military source said the statement made clear that the armed forces would not abandon their demands.

US supporters of late abortion shout ‘Hail Satan’ as Texas legislators consider a 20 week limit

07/03/2013

Young women and men supporting late-term abortions shouted ‘Hail Satan’ throughout the day as the Texas House and Senate convened a special session to discuss timekeeping measures following Democrat Wendy Davis’ filibuster de-railing the vote to limit abortions to 20 weeks and establishing stricter safety standards for abortion clinics. On one occasion some young women shouted ‘Hail Satan’ as Christians gave personal testimony about abortion and sang ‘Amazing Grace’.

Read More ..

Immigrants account for all job gains since 2000: native-born workers’ employment has fallen

07/03/2013

..The Center for Immigration Studies report, which is being released Wednesday, says 22.4 million immigrants of working age held jobs at the beginning of this year, up 5.3 million over the total in 2000. But native-born workers with jobs dropped 1.3 million over that same period, from 114.8 million to 113.5 million..

FULL STORY

It’s. The. Law? Can Obama administration legally delay Obamacare mandate until 2015?

07/03/2013


A petulant White House staffer got in on an #ObamacareInThreeWords hashtag game in May, posting a picture of the president’s signature on the Affordable Care Act along with the terse message, “It’s. The. Law.”


This evening, though, as word circulates that the employer mandate will be pushed back until the 2014 elections are out of the way, many are asking about that January 1, 2014 implementation deadline written into the bill. Isn’t that the law too?

Read the Rest at Twitchy>>





Shameful Acts of the Retarded Left: Kids recruited to hold ‘pro-choice’ sign featuring wire hanger

07/03/2013

via Twitchy:

pic.twitter.com/jXq7FFIWov
Children holding up signs with wire hangers on them saying "no to SB5" here at the #texas Capitol

READ MORE

National Intelligence Director Apologizes for Lying to Congress

07/03/2013

Minimization: Director Clapper says a response to the Intelligence Committee in March was nothing but lies 'clearly erroneous'

The director of National Intelligence apologized in June to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee for lying during a hearing, according to a letter published on the DNI website on Tuesday.

Director James Clapper appeared before the committee in March, where Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked him specifically if NSA spies on millions of Americans. Clapper answered, "No."


FULL STORY

Deviously Brilliant: Obama Administration Delays Health Care Law Employer Penalty Until After Mid-Term Elections. BUT Individuals MUST Still Comply

07/03/2013

The so-called employer mandate, which penalizes employers with more than 50 employees if they fail to provide a minimum standard of affordable health insurance, was set to kick in in 2014, but now will take effect in 2015, the Treasury Department announced in a blog post first reported by Bloomberg News. The delay not only allows the Administration time to alleviate concerns among business owners, but also takes a controversial component of the law off the table before the midterm elections.

Read More ...

Individuals STILL REQUIRED TO COMPLY...

via Drudge


Looks like someone finally read the bill.

The Obama administration is postponing the ‘employer mandate’ – which would levy financial penalties on businesses with more than 50 employees that fail to provide health insurance that meet the minimum standards and “affordability” — until 2015. The move delays implementation of at least one component of the unpopular law until after the next mid-term elections. A coincidence, no doubt.

Individuals? You’re still on the hook.


READ: Treasury Department statement

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Pentagon wanted searchable database of people’s lives in 2003

07/02/2013

Ten years before the recent global panic over the U.S. government’s domestic spying program, the Pentagon solicited contractors for a searchable database of people’s lives.

READ MORE

Russia doing it right -- Police convoy massive group of illegal immigrants

07/02/2013

"Citizens of the Moscow suburb of Reutov have witnessed a
previously-unseen procession of illegal aliens arrested by police at a
local market. There were so many arrested that police had to form them
 into a column resembling POWs during WWII.

Police in Reutov suppressed a looming conflict at a local
wholesale and retail market on May 27, arresting over a hundred
of men armed with knives, metal rods and traumatic pistols, ready
to set upon each other as a result of some kind of a conflict of
interest between merchants. Many of the arrested turned out to be
living and working in Russia illegally."

READ MORE

Arming Syrian rebels helps prevent Iran's ambitions: US Senator McCain

07/02/2013

Visiting US Senator John McCain said in Jerusalem Monday that arming the Syrian rebels helped prevent Iran from furthering its ambitions on nuclear weapons, the Israel Army Radio reported.

READ MORE

In Myanmar the underground trade in boy soldiers continues

07/02/2013

I have spent more than a decade documenting the use of child soldiers in Myanmar, and have interviewed boys who were only 11 when they were forced to join the army. Initially, Myanmar's government flatly denied any use of children by its army, despite evidence that children were systematically recruited in large numbers.

READ MORE

Cops go door-to-door in Trayvon town

07/02/2013

Cops are going door-to-door in an American city again, only this time at least they are knocking on doors instead of knocking them down.

The most recent example of a police-state presence is developing even now in Sanford, Fla., where neighborhood-watch participant George Zimmerman is on trial for murder for the death of teenager Trayvon Martin.

READ MORE

Record shows U.S. officials misled public on NSA programs

07/02/2013

Speaking about classified information is 'mine field'

WASHINGTON – Amid the cascading disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance programs, the top lawyer in the U.S. intelligence community opened his remarks at a rare public appearance last week with a lament about how much of the information being spilled was wrong.

“A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on,” said Robert Litt, citing a line often attributed to Mark Twain. “Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of misinformation that’s come out about these programs.”


READ MORE

Good Guy with a Gun Stops Bad Guy with a Gun

07/02/2013

NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre was famously ridiculed in elite circles for his post-Newtown observation that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Well, from the facts-are-stubborn-things department comes this item from Atlanta:

Police say an armed man trying to rob customers outside an Atlanta shoe store was fatally shot by one of the patrons waiting in line to buy sneakers.

WSB-TV reports the shooting happened Saturday morning in the city's Little Five Points neighborhood, where people lined up outside Wish Clothing to buy new $180 sneakers endorsed by Miami Heat star LeBron James.

Witnesses told police a man armed with a gun tried to rob people standing outside the store. But one of the customers drew his own handgun and shot the robber. Police say the suspect ran just a few yards before he fell dead.

Atlanta police officer John Chafee says the shooter won't be charged because investigators determined he fired in self-defense.

I doubt that this lawful act of self-defense by armed citizens--the video report describes two concealed carry permit holders responding to the threat--will break through wall-to-wall coverage of the Zimmerman trial, or even compete for airtime with the latest anti-Second Amendment fulminations by the likes of Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg or Dianne Feinstein. But 30 Atlantans owe their property and possibly their lives to the courage and preparedness of a couple of their peers, making me thankful that, for now at least, shoe stores are not "gun free zones."

source: ricochet

President Obama’s Data Harvesting Program: NSA as Pollster, PRISM as MISO

07/02/2013

It is way too soon to bet the house fortune on the reliability of reports by the Washington Post (Washington, DC) and The Guardian (United Kingdom) on US President Barack Obama’s data harvesting program, known for the moment as PRISM.

Read More ...

Gay couple in Florida win green card to stay in the US

07/02/2013

Bulgarian who married his US partner granted residency days after supreme court ruling on same-sex marriage

FULL STORY

The Trayvon Martin Case: Lack of Outrage about Black-on-Black Crime Claim is Invalid.

07/02/2013

(ThyBlackMan.com) Anyone who isn’t living under a rock knows that this past week, coverage of the George Zimmerman trial flooded almost every news outlet. Almost every outlet had analysts and commentators who freely offered their opinions on the case; don’t worry, you won’t be reading another one today—at least not on the guilty-versus-innocent debate.

I want to talk about a common phrase/idea I keep hearing black people say, “Nobody cares about the everyday black-on-black crime though.”

READ MORE

We have no beef with Israel, Syrian Islamist rebel group says

07/02/2013

The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, which operates near the border, praises Israel’s medical assistance for refugees, fighters

Full Story ...

Prank Calls That Shut Down U.S. Schools Traced to Korea

07/02/2013

An anonymous phone call that led to the lockdown of nine schools in the U.S. state of New Jersey has apparently been traced to Korea.

FULL STORY

Get Cuffed for Filming Police; Your Dog Gets Upset; Cop Kills Your Dog

07/02/2013

Here's the way it is, America: annoy a cop, even doing something perfectly legal, and he might cuff you. And if your dog sees it and gets upset, he might kill your dog.

KEEP READING

Who Do You Think Started the Fight?

07/02/2013

Reading the comment section in all the blogs on Rachel Jeantel was, hmm, not-so utopian. I look at the GG demographic as progressive, open-minded people who value the fabrics of the American quilt, appreciate urban influence culture and would attend the same music festival. Unfortunately, life is not a concert.

READ MORE

Alison Lundergan Grimes will challenge McConnell

07/02/2013

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) announced Monday that she will run for Senate, giving Democrats a top challenger against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2014

READ MORE

Ramadan a ding-dong

07/02/2013

- Daily broadcast of Muslim call to prayer 'stunt' could inflame tension
- Holy month 'bigger than the Jubilee'


CHANNEL 4 yesterday said it will screen a Muslim call to prayer every day during Ramadan — because it is more relevant than the Diamond Jubilee.

Boss Ralph Lee claimed the fact that 2.8 million UK Muslims will celebrate the holy month from next week put last year’s Royal celebrations in the shade.


FULL STORY

US spied on S. Korea, other allies

07/02/2013

SOUTH KOREA - A US intelligence agency is suspected of spying on key allies including South Korea and the European Union, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

READ MORE

UVA Sorority Girl "Busted," Terrified and Arrested for Buying… Sparkling Water

07/02/2013

A quick run to the store for some bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream should be piece of cake right?! NOPE! At least not at the the University of Virgina, where a sorority girl was reportedly ARRESTED after purchasing LaCroix sparkling water, which was mistaken for a 12-pack of beer.

20-year-old Elizabeth Daly was driving out of the convenience store parking lot when one man jumped on the hood of her car while another PULLED A GUN ON HER. Turns out, they were agents with Virginia's Alcoholic Beverage Control, but because they were in plain clothes, Elizabeth and her roommates were completely confused and terrified.

Read More ...

Obama and the crumbling of a liberal fantasy hero

07/02/2013

It has taken a long time, but the world’s fantasies about Barack Obama are finally crumbling. In Europe, once the headquarters of the global cult of Obama, the disillusionment is particularly bitter. Monday’s newspapers were full of savage quotes about the perfidy of the Obama-led US.

It is not entirely Mr Obama’s fault that he became the vessel into which liberals all over the world poured their fantasies. Of course, like any politician, he pumped up expectations when running for office.

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...

h/t: Innovative

Texas Teen Faces 8 Years in Prison for Making Joke

07/02/2013

An Austin, Texas, teenager faces eight years in prison for making a “terroristic threat” after he made a sarcastic comment online about shooting up a school.

Justin Carter was 18 back in February when a dispute over the online video game “League of Legends took an ugly turn on Facebook, KHOU.com reported.

“Someone had said something to the effect of ‘Oh you’re insane, you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head,’ to which he replied, ‘Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,’ and the next two lines were lol and jk,” said Jack Carter, Justin’s father…

Apparently, this kid has been in jail since March.

Read the full story here.

h/t: tcf

Monday, July 1, 2013

Windows XP Loses Almost No Users in June

07/01/2013

Windows XP remains the second most popular OS in the world


Even though all eyes are now on the new Windows 8.1 Preview, Windows XP remains a very popular operating system, with fresh statistics indicating only a slight decline last month.

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to move users from XP, it remains the second most popular operating system in the world, with a market share of 37.17 percent, down from 37.74 percent a month before.

As you probably heard by now, Windows XP will no longer receive updates and support as of April 8, 2014, so its users are now urged to make the move to a newer platform, be it Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Of course, the Softies hope that the arrival of Windows 8.1 would boost the demise of Windows XP, even though so many users have already expressed their intention to stick to XP beyond the April 8 deadline.

source

The Obama administration is not just killing coal

07/01/2013

Not content with pending rules that virtually bar construction of new coal-fired power plants, President Obama directed the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency to set limits on how much carbon dioxide the nation's existing electric power plants may emit.

The implications for the American coal industry, coal-fired utilities, and business and residential power customers are enormous.

The Natural Resources Defense Council estimated it would cost utilities $4 billion to comply with new regulations on coal power plants, but the economy would see from $25 to $60 billion in benefits.

This, plainly put, is a crock, and the story behind it is one of dishonest government that should be curbed.

The figures stem from a new construct slipped into a new efficiency standard for microwave ovens.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy declined to set energy conservation standards for microwaves, saying it "has determined that such standards would not be technologically feasible and economically justified."

Four years later, everything had changed. In May Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said his department had finished new efficiency standards for microwaves that would save Americans almost $3 billion by 2030.

Into this seemingly innocuous regulation of soup-nuking devices, the department slipped in a gargantuan redefinition of what it called the "social benefits" of cutting carbon emissions.

In 2010, an interagency group decided that every metric ton of carbon reduced by regulation would count for $21 in "social benefits."

The government's previous official estimate was $0.

In issuing its new microwave efficiency standards, the Energy Department - citing what it said was "the best available science" - raised its assumption of the "social benefits" of reducing carbon emissions to about $36 per metric ton, the Wall Street Journal said.

"The social-cost gambit will allow the administration to claim an enormous economic benefit for any greenhouse gas regulation that reduces carbon - such as new standards on existing coal plants (new plants are already being regulated out of existence), oil refineries or lawn mowers."

Added the Journal: "This will also help to disguise the net cost of these rules in lost jobs, higher energy prices and less consumer choice."

Lost jobs. Higher energy prices.

And dishonest, deceptive government.

As the Journal points out, "Congress has never determined that there are social costs to carbon emissions, much less how to measure them."

Republicans are not OK with government by an unscrupulous and unaccountable bureaucracies. Democrats in the Senate have blocked action to curb it.

Add that to the list of things to be upset about.


source: Charlotte Daily Mail

Syria govt, rebel forces blamed for Xinjiang violence

07/01/2013

BEIJING - Chinese state media blamed Syrian government and opposition forces today, in unusually specific finger pointing, for training Muslim extremists responsible for the deadliest unrest in four years in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang.

FULL STORY

The Week That Perished

07/01/2013

George Zimmerman’s murder trial is a rapidly unspooling farce that could likely result in a massive tragedy.

When Trayvon Martin’s slaying became an international moral panic last year, the media’s blind barking supplicants to the Global Cult of Equality stoked racial tensions by first insisting that George Zimmerman was white.

Continue to article...

Judge to rule on whether yoga tied to religion

07/01/2013

SAN DIEGO — A judge is expected to issue a ruling Monday on whether yoga is a religious practice that shouldn't be allowed to be taught in public schools.

Read the rest...

Gun Control Results "Baltimore": Wave of street violence shakes Baltimore

07/01/2013

About 40 people shot and 16 killed in less than two weeks

Heading into the first official weekend of summer, Baltimore police officials were pleased with how crime was trending, and, it seemed, so were residents. Total crime was down and though killings continued at one of the highest rates in the nation, there had been few dramatic spikes to draw the attention of this crime-weary city.


FULL STORY

Gun Control Results "Chicago":1 Dead, 23 Injured in Weekend Shootings

07/01/2013

One person was killed and at least 23 others were injured in weekend shootings across Chicago, including a drive-by shooting that left six people injured in the city's Uptown neighborhood.

The weekend's most recent shooting took place in the city's West Englewood Sunday evening when a young mother and her 2-year-old son were shot, police said.

READ MORE

Obama has ‘no vision, no future’ planned for Africa

07/01/2013

President Obama’s trip to Africa is little more than a public relations stunt to a continent desperate for his help, Lawrence K. Freeman, editor of Executive Intelligence Review magazine, told RT.

RT: What can we expect from Obama’s three-nation tour, do you think?

Lawrence Freeman: There’s not going to be much accomplished. The purpose of the trip is not to help the African people to develop these African nations. This is a very calculated, glorified public relations tour to three countries and most people in Africa are going to realize, and do realize already, that this country is doing nothing to help their continent. And what they do know is that the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, led by Obama and NATO, has been a catastrophe for north and West Africa in supporting various elements that have now allowed the destabilization of many of these countries, especially with the arms and the flow of Tuaregs and terrorists coming out of Libya. So the South African people are not pleased or happy with President Obama and he’s going to offer absolutely nothing except maybe entice private sector companies to make a few investments. But this is really pathetic in terms of what Africa needs.

RT: To what extent is this more about China’s influence there?

LF: Well there is this silly notion in the US that somehow China is our competitor in Africa. But in fact what China has done over the last recent period, five to ten years, is invest massively and construct all types of infrastructure projects throughout many African countries totaling tens of billions of dollars per year. So the US had to stop doing that 40 years ago. The US does not build infrastructure. The US does not provide government-backed investment in the kinds of projects that are necessary for the people of Africa. We’ve done nothing, for example, to develop water management in the African Sahel. We’ve done nothing to develop the Arab culture capability of these regions and therefore you have the spread of terrorism, the spread of insurgency because you have these alienated youth who see no future because their economies are dying. In fact Obama’s done less than George Bush and less than Bill Clinton even though he’s called the Son of Africa. So he has a record of failure and in fact he’s been supporting destabilization, such as the overthrow of Gaddafi, which has actually worsened conditions throughout Africa.

RT: In terms of visits, he had one brief visit to Ghana in 2009 and now this short visit. Why only that, why not more?

LF: He’s not really concerned. In 2009 he spent less than 24 hours and made one speech in Ghana. Here he’s visiting three countries - Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania - and avoiding going to other countries such as Nigeria, such as Mali, many other countries that are in the spotlight right now. He doesn’t have anything to offer them, the United States - the transatlantic community of Europe and the United States, the financial system, is collapsing. We see this throughout Europe and the United States, dying economically, politically, and culturally. We have no vision, we have no future. Obama cares nothing about the welfare of the South African people as he cares nothing about the welfare of the people of the United States. In fact he’s supporting a British policy of genocide throughout Africa by allowing destabilization and by allowing hunger and shortages of food and medicine to kill Africans in large numbers, and this is something that could be corrected and changed if we had a policy to do that.

source: RT

Feds, truckers clash over new safety rules

07/01/2013

The federal government thinks long-haul truckers like Bryan Spoon need more rest.

But with the Department of Transportation's new rules forcing drivers to take longer breaks and cut back on hours behind the wheel, Spoon thinks the government has created a solution looking for a problem.

"I wish the government would just quit trying to fix something that's not broken," Spoon said on a recent rest stop in Columbia, Mo., after hauling a load of construction materials on the 48-foot Great Dane flatbed behind his 2009 Volvo 780.

"If I get any more breaks out here I won't be able to make a living," he said.

Read the Full Story..

Pakistan teenage sisters shot dead because they were DANCING

07/01/2013

Police suspect that the murders were ordered by the sisters’ stepbrother to restore the family’s “honour”

Two teenage sisters have been shot dead in Pakistan – because they danced in the rain.

Noor Basra, 15, and Noor Sheza, 16, were killed after a clip of the cavorting caused outrage in their ultra-conservative town.

Their mother Noshehra was also shot. The three were killed by five gunmen.

Police suspect that the murders were ordered by the sisters’ stepbrother to restore the family’s “honour”.

The sisters were filmed six months ago break-dancing as the heavens opened.

They were wearing traditional shalwar kameez trouser suits and green and purple headscarves.

One flashes a smile in the clip, which has gone viral on the internet.

The girls were filmed running around with two younger children outside the family’s stone bungalow in Chilas in the deprived northern region of Gilgit.

Their older brother is suing stepbrother Khutore and the gunmen, who are all thought to be on the run.

The murders follow the scandal last year of the case of four women who were killed on the orders of tribal elders for singing and dancing with men at a wedding party in the remote north-western Pakistan village of Kohistan.

The group of clerics, called a Jirga, condemned the women to death after decreeing they had stained their families’ names by “fornication.”

Under strict Sharia law, men and women are not allowed to dance together.

However, it is always the woman, not the man, who is punished.

About a thousand so-called honour killings take place in Pakistan every year, say women’s rights group the Aurat Foundation.

Human Rights Watch, which campaigns against atrocities worldwide, has called for tougher measures against tribal elders who condemn women to death.

The news of the latest deaths emerged today as David Cameron became the first head of government to hold face-to-face talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif since his election in May.

Mr Sharif’s victory could translate into a “golden moment” for Pakistan, the PM declared.


source

Berlin accuses Washington of cold war tactics over snooping

07/01/2013

Reports of NSA snooping on Europe go well beyond previous revelations of electronic spying

FULL STORY

Chicago Cop Arrested Four Times in Seven Years Still Working, Makes $80K

07/01/2013

Chicago Police Officer Richard A. Rizzo has been arrested four times in the past seven years, but that’s not enough to get him fired from the department. Rizzo has been arrested for domestic battery, child endangerment and aggravated assault with a gun. Yet while members of the general public are expected to pay fines or go to jail, prosecutors have dropped charges against Rizzo each and every time.

Read More..

Obama's Climate Five-Year Plan

07/01/2013

The president proposes ecological central planning to solve global warming

The central planners in communist governments were notorious for issuing massively detailed top-down five-year plans to manage every facet of their economies. The accumulating inefficiency and waste produced by this sort of rigid planning led eventually to the demise of those regimes.


Read the Rest..

Protesters overrun Egypt streets

07/01/2013

CAIRO — Millions of protesters filled streets across Egypt on Sunday, loudly calling for Mohamed Morsy to resign on the one-year anniversary of his presidency.

The turnout in the capital far exceeded the large demonstrations of the 2011 revolution that ousted Morsy's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

Read the Full Story

Overlooked Story: Impeach Obama rally causes 10-mile traffic jam

07/01/2013


(Rare.us) - A TEA Party sponsored “Impeach Obama” demonstration on a major Southern California freeway overpass caused traffic to backup at least ten miles, as the organizer apologized for “any small inconvenience” drivers may have dealt with, as reported by the San Diego-based local news portal the Carlsbad Patch on June 9, 2013.

Flying a number of American flag as well as the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party-adopted Gadsen flag, protesters flashed to motorists on the Interstate 5 southbound lanes in Carlsbad, California placards stating “Remember Benghazi,” “Obama Lies” and “Amnesty Hell No!”

Organizers estimated between 25,000 and 30,000 vehicles would drive under the Tamarack Rd. overpass where the protesters set up shop.

By 12:15, the notoriously slow California freeway traffic had become a slow flowing parking lot from the protest site all the way back to the main gate of the sprawling Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, ten miles distant.


Read more at The Examiner

Sunday, June 30, 2013

NSA Spied On European Union States At Brussels And UN, Der Spiegel Says Edward Snowden Documents Show

06/30/2013

U.S. National Security Agency on the display of an iPhone Reuters
The United States bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday, citing NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Der Spiegel cited from a September 2010 "top secret" National Security Agency document that it said the fugitive former NSA contractor had taken with him to Hong Kong and which its journalists had seen in part, Reuters reported.

The document outlines how the NSA bugged offices and spied on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the United Nations, not only listening to conversations and phone calls but also gaining access to documents and emails. The document explicitly called the EU a "target."

The revelation is the latest in a cascade of disclosures set off by Snowden's flight.

According to Der Spiegel, the NSA also targeted telecommunications at the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, home to the European Council that groups EU national governments, by using a remote maintenance unit.

Without citing sources, the magazine reported that more than five years ago security officers at the EU had noticed and traced several missed calls to NSA offices within the NATO compound in Brussels.

Each EU member state has rooms in Justus Lipsius with phone and Internet connections, which ministers can use.

The spying methods resemble those reportedly used by the British at the 2009 G20 Summit in London, which saw the UK's Government Communications Headquarters into phones and computers used by heads of state. That surveillance campaign was uncovered by a separate Snowden leak earlier this month.

Snowden fled from Hawaii to Hong Kong in May, a few weeks before publication in the Guardian and the Washington Post of details he provided about secret U.S. government surveillance of Internet and phone traffic. He has been holed up in a Moscow airport transit area since last weekend.

Source: IBT

Saudi Kingdom:: 30% divorces in KSA blamed on ‘takhbeeb’

06/30/2013

DAMMAM — About 30 percent of divorces that take place in the Kingdom are the result of what is described in the Islamic law as “takhbeeb,” Alsharq newspaper reported quoting judicial sources.

“Takhbeeb” is corrupting a woman and goading her to hate her husband in favor of another man.

Muhammad Al-Jirani, judge of Al-Qatif Endowments and Inheritance Court, said takhbeeb is prohibited in Islam because any marriage relationship is based on harmony between both spouses.

Some men bring takhbeeb lawsuits against people who encouraged their wives to abandon them. Usually, a sentence will be handed down to anyone found guilty of such action.

A source in the same court said at least 2 percent of cases that reach criminal courts in the country each year involve takhbeeb, and most of them are filed by the prosecution or a woman's husband. The source added that men bring lawsuits after finding out illicit extramarital relationship between their wives and other men.

If a married couple ends up in divorce due to takhbeeb, the judge may hand down a discretionary punishment commensurate with the damage inflicted on the husband.

If the person charged with takhbeeb has used the Internet and entered into an illicit relationship with the woman and encouraged her to get divorce, in this case the judge should enforce the cyber crime law, which imposes prison sentence and fines.

Humood Al-Khaldi, lawyer, agreed that a person found guilty of takhbeeb should get discretionary punishment that is suitable to his crime. He stressed the importance of family harmony, adding that Saudi laws did not determine a certain punishment for takhbeeb and left the matter to the judge to decide after reviewing individual cases thoroughly. He noted that it is usually difficult for the judge to prove a takhbeeb case due to lack of evidence.

Khalid Al-Fakhry, legal consultant and member of the National Society for Human Rights, said women should not divulge their private information to strangers as this would make them vulnerable. He encouraged women to seek advice and consultation professionally instead of trusting strangers on the Internet.

Source: Saudi Gazette

4 New Slides Of The NSA's PRISM Spying Program Have Been Published

06/30/2013

Four new slides detailing more of the top-secret NSA program known as PRISM were released Saturday by The Washington Post.

The slides — given to the Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — show more detail of the flow of information from private companies to the NSA, how the information was analyzed, and how many people were targeted by the PRISM program.

The new slides appear to contradict earlier reports of "direct access" into private companies servers and claims of the NSA operating outside of the law.

The first slide shows the targeting process of an NSA analyst, with supervisor and FBI oversight to ensure that American citizens are not being targeted.

On the second slide, a flow chart is shown, with private companies — such as Yahoo or Google — first providing data to the FBI, then on to the NSA for processing upon request.

Perhaps the most interesting slide is the fourth, which says there were 117,675 active surveillance targets in the Prism database, as of April 5.

The Prism program, first revealed on June 6, reportedly allows the NSA to gain access to a number of major internet companies, including Google, Facebook, and Skype.

All the companies named have strongly denied any involvement and James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, has stressed that the program is lawful.

The original four slides were first published on June 6. Snowden gave The Guardian and The Washington Post a presentation that included 41 slides, which has not yet been revealed in full.

NOW: See the new Prism slides at the Washington Post »

Source: Business Insider

Anti-Obama Protests in Johannesburg

06/30/2013

Demonstrations during President Obama's South Africa visit (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
(The Root) - In Johannesburg, anti-Obama protesters who had gathered in front of the University of Johannesburg, where the U.S. president is slated to receive an honorary degree today, were greeted with rubber bullets, reports USA Today.

Protests have been planned at the university over Obama's visit and the news that he is expected to receive an honorary doctorate when he speaks later Saturday.

"They don't believe Obama deserves that award. The U.S. position and its relationship with Israel has created a problem," said Levy Masete, president of the Student Representative Council. "The students say, 'Stop the oppression in Palestine,' and you want to honor this man who is making this oppression possible."

"He's here for our African resources," said Nomagugu Hloma, 19, a student at what she called the "sell out" university. "Hands off our gold, oil, diamonds and land," she said.

Read more at USA Today.

The Record of Our Scientist-In-Chief

06/30/2013


At a recent press conference proposing the launch of a federally funded brain-mapping initiative, President Barack Obama embraced the title of “scientist-in-chief” bestowed on him in an introduction by Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. “Given my grades in physics, I’m not sure [I’m] deserving,” said the president — before going on to note that “I hold science in proper esteem, so maybe that gives me a little credit.” This was an echo of his inaugural promise to “restore science to its rightful place.” Four years into his administration, with another four years to go, we are now well positioned to revisit that promise — to reconsider its meaning and to see whether the scientist-in-chief has lived up to the pledge even on its own terms.

Politicians, journalists, and academics regularly throw around the terms “pro-science” and “anti-science” to denigrate their opponents and to advance their own views. This rhetoric is often effective because the American people hold science and scientists in great regard: for decades, surveys show, Americans have had more confidence in the leadership of the scientific and medical communities than in that of lawmakers, organized religion, the press, and most other institutions. So posing as a defender of science and attacking its supposed enemies is an easy way to score political points; the president’s inaugural promise is an instance of this political strategy, as we noted in these pages four years ago.

Americans’ high esteem for the scientific enterprise is rooted in our gratitude for the advances in medicine and technology that it makes possible, as well as for the insights into the wonders of nature — from the structure of the atom to the history of the cosmos — that science alone can reveal. Unfortunately, the good standing of science is all too often abused by those who invoke its authority as a way to shut down policy debates. The usefulness of new technologies and the promise of new medical treatments are routinely exaggerated to deflect needed consideration of the moral and social controversies arising from innovation. Policymakers simplistically speak of increasing government spending on scientific research and ramping up the role of science, technology, engineering, and math in our educational system as solutions to our economic woes. And scientific knowledge, which can be an essential tool for policymaking, is frequently used as a cover for political and ideological agendas.

An examination of President Obama’s first four years in office shows that, unsurprisingly, his administration has followed the advice of science only insofar as it has supported or justified his political agenda.

Since the Second World War, the U.S. government has invested a great deal of money — over $4.5 trillion in constant 2005 dollars — on scientific research and development, following a bipartisan consensus that scientific knowledge is an important foundation for economic growth, rising standards of living, and national security. But in much of his rhetoric and policymaking, President Obama has twisted that rationale, treating science as a symbol of the need for more government spending.

For instance, at the April 2013 press conference announcing his proposed brain-mapping initiative, the president repeated a claim that he had made in his most recent State of the Union address: “every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy — every dollar.” This figure can be traced to a study published by the research firm Battelle Technology Partnership Practice. But the economic modeling used to generate that figure has been criticized for including as benefits of the Human Genome Project some things that were actually costs, such as the salaries of the scientists and technicians involved in the project. The study also unrealistically claimed that economic activity across the entire genomics industry could be counted as “induced impacts” of the Human Genome Project — including, again, expenditures that might be better considered costs than benefits.

Few would dispute that basic scientific research of the sort performed in the Human Genome Project — or, for that matter, the proposed brain-mapping project — can be a worthy way for the government to spend taxpayer dollars. But exaggerating the promise of these endeavors can undermine the value of science in the long run, when overhyped projects fail to deliver. (As one commentator told the journal Nature, the lack of noticeable practical benefits flowing from the vaunted Human Genome Project in the decade-plus since its completion has led some of the lawmakers who supported the $3.8 billion project to wonder, “where are the goodies?”) But President Obama still seems unafraid to overpromise, claiming of the new brain project that the knowledge of the human mind it seeks not only “could be” but “will be transformative.”

The president’s expression of unqualified high hopes for this project fits his rhetorical pattern of invoking science to justify his broader political agenda — in this case, his aim of increasing the government’s role in the economy. During the same press conference, he paused twice to criticize the “arbitrary, across-the-board cuts” imposed by the recent budget sequestration, and explicitly tied the proposed brain-mapping project to “other grand challenges like making solar energy as cheap as coal or making electric vehicles as affordable as the ones that run on gas.” The talk of “grand challenges” has been another hallmark of the Obama administration’s approach to science and technology funding, although it seems to have resulted less in serious scientific accomplishments than in cronyism and corporate welfare — the kind of politically motivated venture capitalism that led to the disastrous loan guarantees for green-energy companies like the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra.

The Obama administration’s handling of two prominent issues relating to energy and the environment — the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and the Keystone XL pipeline — merit particular attention. These cases highlight the administration’s lack of transparency and demonstrate the limited extent to which scientific advice can be expected to influence controversial policy decisions, while revealing the difficulty of sticking to the president’s 2009 promise to “base our public policies on the soundest science.”

Yucca Mountain was the site designated by federal law for the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel, a project that faced persistent opposition from both Nevadans and anti-nuclear activists ever since the site was first suggested in the mid-1980s. Despite widespread scientific consensus that underground storage is the safest approach for disposing of nuclear waste, and billions of dollars and decades of research demonstrating the safety of the Yucca facility, the Obama administration used every tactic it could devise to halt the project. The administration even went so far as to start dismantling the project while still legally required to continue it.

Meanwhile, the Keystone XL pipeline controversy also demonstrates the limits of using science to dictate policy. An exhaustive study of Keystone’s potential environmental impact by the State Department found that the construction and operation of the pipeline would cause “no significant impacts” to nearby habitats and communities. But opposition to Keystone is not only based on concerns over the environmental impact of the pipeline itself, but also on the threat of climate change posed by the use of petroleum from the Canadian oil sands. In a 2011 open letter, several activists described the pipeline as a “1,500-mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent,” quoting climate scientist James Hansen’s claim that Canadian oil sands must be “left in the ground” if we are to have any chance of “stabiliz[ing] earth’s climate.”

Of course, no matter how much President Obama — or any other president faced with the choice of whether to build the pipeline — might want to base his decision only on the “soundest science,” the decision is an unavoidably political one. Some scientists report that the pipeline is a comparatively safe way to transport oil, but others contend, not incompatibly, that building and using the pipeline will contribute devastatingly to climate change. Meanwhile, the existence of the global marketplace suggests that if the pipeline is not built, Canada will export its oil-sands resources to some other country. And all this must be weighed against the U.S. economy’s ever-growing energy needs. Politics cannot be reduced to science or avoided by invoking the authority of science.

The Obama administration may not have distorted scientific evidence to suit its political agenda in the Yucca and Keystone cases — indeed, the State Department study on Keystone has drawn fire from the president’s environmentalist supporters for not condemning the pipeline. But the administration has not acted in accordance with the president’s 2009 statement that “promoting science isn’t just about providing resources” but about “listening to what [scientists] tell us, even when it’s inconvenient — especially when it’s inconvenient.” Instead, when science has confronted the administration with its own inconvenient truths, the administration has pursued a strategy of misdirection, delay, and inaction. We may disagree with the administration’s policy decisions in these cases and we certainly disapprove of its political tactics, but casting these issues as conflicts between science and politics would be a mistake — the same sort of mistake made by those critics who wrongly accused the Bush administration of waging a “war on science.”

In spite of the claims made by our scientist-in-chief and his allies that they, unlike their conservative political opponents, hold science in the “proper esteem,” the politicization of science is in many ways a greater temptation for the left than for conservatives. The Obama administration’s simplistic equation of government-funded scientific research with innovation appeals to the left’s impulse for economic collectivism; in his infamous “you didn’t build that” campaign speech, President Obama said that it was the government “investing” in “basic science” that “keeps us as a leading-edge economy.” (Never mind that the private sector spends twice as much on R&D as the federal government.) And the conceit of putting science in its “rightful place” above politics, although drawing from many motivations, also neatly matches the progressive desire to shift the policy process away from democratic oversight and toward the centralized control of government agencies which can implement technocratic reforms.

Science is a vital part of American democracy and rightly enjoys a special position of trust and, on questions about the natural world, of epistemic authority. But this authority is based in no small part on the perception that science is an objective, disinterested means of pursuing the truth. Elevating science to a position of political authority is bound to change that perception, and indeed to corrupt the scientific spirit of disinterested objectivity. At this halfway mark in his presidency, we continue to disagree with President Obama’s implication that restoring science to its “rightful place” means putting it above politics. Rather, preserving the rightful place of science means remembering that its indispensable contribution to the crafting of policy must be balanced by the contributions of ethics, culture, economics, religion, and other sources of wisdom, and that science, like the rest of society, must be governed democratically.

— Adam Keiper and Brendan P. Foht

The Guardian Revealed An NSA 'Scoop' Then Deleted It From The Website

06/30/2013


The Guardian released another shocking NSA scoop on Saturday, revealing collusion and mass harvesting of personal communications among the United States and at least six European Union countries — only to delete it from their website hours after publication.

The article, titled "Revealed: secret European deals to hand over private data to America," was written by Jamie Doward, who reported information from Wayne Madsen, a former Navy Lt. and NSA employee for 12 years.

Doward wrote:

Madsen said the countries had "formal second and third party status" under signal intelligence (sigint) agreements that compels them to hand over data, including mobile phone and internet information to the NSA if requested.

Under international intelligence agreements, confirmed by declassified documents, nations are categorised by the US according to their trust level. The US is first party while the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand enjoy second party relationships. Germany and France have third party relationships.

He went on to say that seven European countries and the U.S. have access to a fiberoptic cable network, intercepting phone calls, emails, and user logs from websites. The article describes Madsen as having "been attacked for holding controversial views on espionage issues."

That's a light way of putting it.

Some of Madsen's controversial views include the belief that President Obama is secretly a homosexual and that the Boston bombing suspects were government agents. He's also reported on a "former CIA agent" alleging the 2000 USS Cole bombing was perpetrated not by al Qaeda terrorists, but by a missile fired from an Israeli submarine.

John Schindler, a professor at the Naval War College and intelligence expert, called Madsen "batsh-- crazy, to use the technical term."

The pulled article now bears the message, "this article has been taken down pending an investigation" but appears to still be on tomorrow's front page of the print edition. It was originally published in The Observer, a Sunday newspaper owned by The Guardian and hosted on their website.

You can still read a cached copy of the article via Google.

Here's a partial screenshot:



Source: Business Insider

Egyptian liberals, moderates angry over American support for Muslim Brotherhood

06/30/2013

CAIRO — As tension mounted here in anticipation of Sunday protests against President Mohamed Morsy, another foe emerged for many Egyptians: the United States.

Four people died in clashes — including an American student stabbed while photographing fighting in Alexandria — before any crowds took to the streets.

For days, Egyptians have steeled themselves for what many expect to be an explosive day. Conversations about the political turmoil often end with the phrase, “May God save us.”

“We have to go down to the street,” said a serious-faced Ramez Nashed, 32.

He said the opposition's rally — which it hopes will attract millions of supporters on the one-year anniversary of Morsy's election — is not just directed at the ruling Muslim Brotherhood but also at fuel and water shortages, power blackouts, rising food prices and a collapsed economy.

Yet Nashed, like so many in the opposition, asked another question, too: “Why is America supporting Morsy and the Brotherhood?”

This most-populous Arab nation is still considered a key U.S. ally, despite its Islamist turn after a 2011 revolution ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

It pockets about $1.3 billion annually in U.S. military aid and $250 million in other U.S. assistance.

For months, Egyptian liberals and moderates have grown angrier over what they say is inexplicable U.S. support for Islamists.

In Tahrir Square, Cairo's epicenter of protest since 2011, graffiti near the Egyptian Museum declares: “Down with the Brotherhood, Down with America!”

On a downtown building, a poster shows a distorted portrait of U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson over the words, “Crone, Go Home.” On a nearby corner, another poster says, “Obama supports terrorism.”

“For the Christian people here, for 10 years America was our dream,” said Nashed, who works in an electronics store. “Now we are afraid of America. … I have family in America, and I know the Americans don't support terrorism.”

Anger and confusion over the Obama administration's policy flared here in April and June of 2012, when Islamist parliamentarians met with State Department, National Security Council and other senior U.S. officials in Washington.

One of those was Hani Nour Eldin of Gama'a Islamiyya, a group whose brutal attacks of the 1990s — including a role in the 1997 bombing of New York's World Trade Center — put it on the U.S. terror watch-list, where it remains. The group renounced terrorism and is a parliamentary ally of the Brotherhood.

Liberal rage ignited again in November when U.S. officials responded tepidly to Morsy's assuming near-dictatorial power to enact a hastily written constitution — one that, Islamists later crowed, lacked many basic rights.

In a recent speech, Patterson defended working with the Morsy government “across a huge range of issues” because it was democratically elected.

“Some say that street action will produce better results than elections. To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical,” she said. Instead, she encouraged Egyptians to organize and participate in politics.

Her address infuriated Egyptians who say she neglected to mention any presidential abuses.

“The real problem of the speech is the mere fact that it was given at all — and that, once given, the ambassador ignored the real cause of the current Egyptian turmoil, which is the forced and vile constitution passed by nearly extra-legal means,” said an Egyptian American blogger writing under the pen name Salama Moussa.

“The least she could have done is couple her stout defense of President Morsy with a call to amend a constitution that violates most civilized norms, including American values.”

Days after Patterson's speech, Egyptian media filmed her leaving a meeting with Khairat El Shater, the Brotherhood's No. 2 man and widely considered the real power behind Morsy.

That visit contributed to Egyptian suspicions that Washington backs the Brotherhood.

“Why was she meeting with him?” asked Nashed, echoing a popular question. “He is not elected or in government.”

In downtown Cairo, Amar Karim, 33, pointed to the anti-Patterson poster. “This woman, she helps the Muslim Brotherhood and talks very good about Morsy,” he said. “(She) works with Shater to do business with the Muslim Brotherhood, at the expense of the Egyptian people.

“I love the American people, but why is the American government interfering here?”

Spokesmen for the U.S. embassy here and the State Department in Washington declined to comment.

The U.S. embassy has issued warnings to Americans in or considering travel to Egypt, and it is evacuating some nonessential personnel, according to news reports.

On tour in South Africa, President Obama said he supports “peaceful methods to bring about change in Egypt,” adding: “Our most immediate concern with respect to protests this weekend have to do with our embassies and consulates.

“We do not take sides in terms of who should be elected by the Egyptian people,” he said. “We do take sides in terms of observing a process for democracy and rule of law.”

source

“WHAT WOULD TYRANNY LOOK LIKE IN AMERICA? LOOK AROUND!”

06/30/2013

Congressman Bridenstine speaks on tyranny in America on the House floor.



http://youtu.be/bWaK-DB894c