A couple of nights ago we reported that Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg dressed up as a taxi driver and spent one afternoon driving customers around so that he could learn the concerns of ordinary citizens. Since then it has been revealed that all the passengers — who were videotaped and used in Labour Party promotional materials — were vetted in advance, and paid $85 dollars apiece to be taxi customers.
In other news, tension is rising in Cairo between police and supporters of former President Morsi. One person was killed and eleven others wounded in the latest clashes.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Erick Stakelbeck, Fausta, Fjordman, JD, LS, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
They Are Systematically Destroying Our Independence and Making US All Serfs of the State
The percentage of Americans that are economically independent has dropped to a stunningly low level. In order to be economically independent, you have got to be able to take care of yourself without any assistance from anyone else. Unless you are independently wealthy, that means that you either have your own business or you have a full-time job. Unfortunately, as you will see below, the percentage of Americans that are self-employed is at an all-time record low and the percentage of Americans with a full-time job has declined to a level not seen in about 30 years. As a result, more Americans than ever find themselves forced to turn to the government for assistance. When you add it all up, about half of all Americans get money from the government each month these days. And yes, there will always be poor people that cannot take care of themselves that need help, but when you have more than half of the population dependent on the government that is a major problem. You see, the truth is that our independence is systematically being taken away from us and we are steadily being made serfs of the state. And once you become a serf of the state, it is very hard to resist anything the government is doing in a meaningful way. After all, the money that you are getting from the government is enabling you to survive. In essence, your allegiance has been at least partially purchased and you may not even realize it.
Of course this is not how the United States was supposed to operate. We were never intended to be a collectivist nation. Rather, we were intended to be a country where liberty and freedom thrived and where most people would be able to independently take care of themselves.
Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be economically independent in America today. One reason for this is that the environment for small businesses in this country is the most toxic that it has ever been before. The federal government, our state governments and even our local governments are constantly coming up with new ways to oppress small business.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unsealed Court-Settlement Documents Reveal Banks Stole $ Trillions’ Worth of Houses
Back in 2012, the major US banks settled a federal mortgage-fraud lawsuit for $95,000,000. The suit was filed by Lynn Szymoniak, a white-collar fraud specialist, whose own house had been fraudulently foreclosed-upon. When the feds settled with the banks, the evidence detailing the scope of their fraud was sealed, but as of last week, those docs are unsealed, and Szymoniak is shouting them from the hills. The banks precipitated the subprime crash by “securitizing” mortgages — turning mortgages into bonds that could be sold to people looking for investment income — and the securitization process involved transferring title for homes several times over. This title-transfer has a formal legal procedure, and in the absence of that procedure, no sale had taken place. See where this is going?
The banks screwed up the title transfers. A lot. They sold bonds backed by houses they didn’t own. When it came time to foreclose on those homes, they realized that they didn’t actually own them, and so they committed felony after felony, forging the necessary documentation. They stole houses, by the neighborhood-load, and got away with it. The $1B settlement sounded like a big deal, back when the evidence was sealed. Now that Szymoniak’s gotten it into the public eye, it’s clear that $1B was a tiny slap on the wrist: the banks stole trillions of dollars’ worth of houses from you and people like you, paid less than one percent in fines, and got to keep the homes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Allen West Asks Why the ‘Usual Race Baiters’ Are Silent on Bus Beating
West is referencing the July 9 attack — caught on videotape — of three 15-year-olds beating a student while riding a school bus. The attack was reportedly in response to the student telling on one of the attackers for trying to sell drugs.
“Who leaked the information provided in confidence by the victim about the black teens selling drugs?” West asked. “Who allowed those same individuals to board the bus, which was not theirs?”
According to reports, the attackers gave the student a broken arm and two black eyes. Many have asked why the bus driver, John Moody, didn’t physically intervene during the attacks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Can Elon Musk’s Superfast ‘Hyperloop’ Transit System Really be Built?
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled new details today (Aug. 12) about his proposed “Hyperloop” project, a futuristic, super-fast transportation system that could ferry passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in about 30 minutes.
The high-speed Hyperloop, which Musk has described as a “cross between a Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table,” could travel at a blistering pace of 760 mph or so (1,220 km/h).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cory Booker Wins N.J. Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate Seat, The A.P. Projects
Cory A. Booker, the mayor of Newark, captured the Democractic nomination for New Jersey’s vacant United States Senate seat, the Associated Press projected based on early returns.
Local election officials in the state’s 21 counties are still tallying the results of Tuesday’s primary election. The A.P. also projected that Steven M. Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, N.J., won the Republican primary.
The death of Frank R. Lautenberg, the long-time Democratic senator, in June led to an accelerated campaign, with the primary coming when many families are on summer vacation and a special election to be held just weeks later. As challengers scrambled to garner attention, much of the focus was on the Democratic side of the ballot and on Mr. Booker, who has held a commanding lead in pre-election polls and fund-raising.
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Dare to Mock Obama — Get Banned for Life
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri State Fair officials on Monday barred a rodeo clown who wore a Barack Obama mask and mocked the president from ever performing at the fair again.
And the president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, a private nonprofit group that sponsored the rodeo and employed the clown, resigned Monday after getting deluged with criticism for serving as the announcer during the Saturday night performance…
But Stockton resident John Rummel said the uproar, and subsequent banning of the rodeo performer, is “nonsense.”
“Since when has making fun of the president been off limits?” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DeMint to Newsmax: Defund ObamaCare, No Matter the Risk to GOP (Video)
Heritage Foundation President and former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint tells Newsmax that the House should defund Obamacare no matter what the risk to the Republican Party, even if it leads to a government shutdown.
The South Carolina Republican also says the Affordable Care Act will do more damage to the nation “than anything I’ve seen pass in my lifetime.”
And he insists, in an exclusive interview Thursday with Newsmax TV, that a path to citizenship for illegals constitutes amnesty and opposing immigration reform won’t necessarily hurt the GOP.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Dept. Files Lawsuit to Block US Airways-American Merger
The Justice Department, along with the attorneys general of six states, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to block the proposed merger of American Airlines and US Airways.
The $11 billion deal, announced in February, took American out of bankruptcy. It would create the nation’s biggest airline, a company with the size and breadth to compete against United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which have grown through mergers of their own in recent years and are currently the biggest domestic carriers.
But in the complaint filed Tuesday in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that the merger “will leave three very similar legacy airlines — Delta, United and the new American — that past experience shows increasingly prefer tacit coordination over full-throated competition.”
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Major Hasan is honest about himself; why aren’t we?
On December 7, 1941, the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor was attacked. Three years, eight months, and eight days later, the Japanese surrendered. These days, America’s military moves at a more leisurely pace. On November 5, 2009, another U.S. base, Fort Hood, was attacked — by one man standing on a table, screaming “Allahu akbar!” and opening fire. Three years, nine months, and one day later, his court-martial finally got under way.
The intervening third-of-a-decade-and-more has apparently been taken up by such vital legal questions as the fullness of beard Major Hasan is permitted to sport in court. This is not a joke: See “Judge Ousted in Fort Hood Shooting Case amid Beard Debacle” (CBS News). Army regulations require soldiers to be clean-shaven. The judge, Colonel Gregory Gross, ruled Hasan’s beard in contempt, fined him $1,000, and said he would be forcibly shaved if he showed up that hirsute next time. At which point Hasan went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which ruled that Colonel Gross’s pogonophobia raised questions about his impartiality, and removed him. He’s the first judge in the history of American jurisprudence to be kicked off a trial because of a “beard debacle.” The new judge, Colonel Tara Osborn, agreed that Hasan’s beard was a violation of regulations, but “said she won’t hold it against him.”
The U.S. Army seems disinclined to hold anything against him, especially the 13 corpses plus an unborn baby. Major Hasan fired his lawyers, presumably because they were trying to get him off — on the grounds that he’d had a Twinkie beforehand, or his beard don’t fit so you must acquit, or some such. As a self-respecting jihadist, Major Hasan quite reasonably resented being portrayed as just another all-American loon gone postal. So he sacked his defense team, only to have the court appoint a standby defense team just in case there were any arcane precedents and obscure case law he needed clarification on. I know that’s the way your big-time F. Lee Bailey types would play it, but it doesn’t seem to be Major Hasan’s style. On the very first day of the trial, he stood up and told the jury that “the evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter.” Later, in one of his few courtroom interventions, he insisted that it be put on the record that “the alleged murder weapon” was, in fact, his. The trial then came to a halt when the standby defense team objected to the judge that Major Hasan’s defense strategy (yes, I did it; gimme a blindfold, cigarette, and tell the virgins here I come) would result in his conviction and execution…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Most Gardasil ‘Safety’ Data Discovered to be Fraudulent
(NaturalNews) Every time a new scientific study is published with regards to a vaccine or a dietary supplement, the mainstream media is quick to praise the former and denounce the latter without ever actually reading the study in question, let alone critically analyzing it to get an honest grasp of its true implications. One prominent example of this is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil, which mainstream media outlets have repeatedly touted as safe and effective using mounds of fraudulent, misinterpreted, and sometimes never-even-looked-at “safety” data.
Recently, a surveillance study evaluating the potential autoimmune side effects of Gardasil was used by the mainstream media as “evidence” that the vaccine is supposedly not linked to such conditions, and is thus safe, even though the study did not actually come to this conclusion. As reported by Dr. Chandler Marrs, Ph.D., from HormonesMatter.com, the study itself was poorly conducted, it contains obvious statistical skewing, it did not include a matched case control group, and it truly did not come to any meaningful conclusions about Gardasil’s safety.
But this did not stop the mainstream media from running wildly deceptive headlines like “No increase in autoimmune conditions from use of HPV vaccine” and “HPV vaccine unlikely triggered autoimmune disease,” which were designed to trick the public into thinking that “science” somehow supports the safety of Gardasil. The fact that dishonest researchers were willing to craft such a specious study and pass it off as valid suggests that there truly are many potential dangers associated with Gardasil that the medical establishment is trying to hide from public view.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prominent Psychiatrist Admits He Helped Invent ADHD as a Disease
(NaturalNews) Many vaguely understand that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) keeps making up diseases as they continue developing new issues of their DSM or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Recently, a founding father of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), announced a few months before his death that … “ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease.”
After turning 87 years old, American psychiatrist Dr. Leon Eisenberg made this statement to the German weekly Der Spiegel on 2 February 2012. Seven months later, he died. Apparently, he had decided to come clean and confess before moving to the beyond.
Dr. Eisenberg was among the committee of psychiatrists who put together the DMS II in 1968. He had initially coined the term “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood,” which was described and agreed upon by the committee and confirmed by a small percentage of APA members as a mental disorder. Later, the term was altered to the current ADHD.
Yet, there is no biological proof or test to determine exactly what chemicals are “out of balance” in the brain for ADHD or any other disorder. Most psychiatric drugs are unnecessary at least. And they have often caused suicide and homicide.
Then there are the milder adverse reactions that include feeling depressed or not like oneself and even physically out of sorts among those taking psychotropics for mental disorders created by committees.
An epidemic of pharmaceutical drug use is harming millions of kids…
Ritalin, commonly prescribed for kids “diagnosed” (labeled is more appropriate) with ADHD was tested a little over a decade ago by the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The BNL study determined that Ritalin is pharmacologically similar to cocaine with perhaps even worse brain damaging potential.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Michael Hastings Was Investigating CIA Director John Brennan
Journalist Michael Hastings was investigating CIA director John Brennan before his untimely death in a suspicious car accident it has been revealed, with the report set to be published posthumously by Rolling Stone Magazine within the next two weeks.
According to San Diego 6 News reporter Kimberly Dvorak, “John Brennan was Hastings next exposé project.” Dvorak says she received an email from the CIA, “acknowledging Hastings was working on a CIA story,” although the text of that email was not displayed.
Dvorak also cites a Stratfor email hacked by Wikileaks and first published last year which names Brennan as being, “behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
State Dept. ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ Posters for Islamic Civil War
President Barack Obama has resurrected ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ posters in his astroturfed fight against al Qaeda. But rather than displaying them on the walls down at the local post office, this ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ poster is boldly displayed on the website of the U.S. State Department.
The ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ poster appeared on the State Dept. website on the very day the Obamas departed for their Martha’s Vineyard holiday, but not-to-worry buzz about Bo flying on his own separate plane was destined to pick up the slack.
“The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information that helps authorities kill or capture Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” was the message that appeared on the State Dept. website, August 10, 2013.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Hostage Situation in St. Joseph
It looks as if there is something a little more going on than your typical bank robbery-gone-wrong scenario in St. Joseph this afternoon.
What’s on the wires at present is this. Someone with what might be an automatic weapon has holed himself up in the Tensas State Bank in that sleepy burg along the Mississippi about 20 miles north of Natchez, and he apparently has at three bank employees holed up with him. A state police hostage negotiator is on the scene, and it’s a developing situation.
That’s what we know.
Here’s what the grapevine is spitting out.
First, a couple of miles up the river from St. Joseph, on the Mississippi side of the river, is the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant. This is important because some new arrivals to town have been freaking out the locals.
It seems the new arrivals are Yemenis. And the locals are freaked out because they’re scared the new people in town have evil designs on Grand Gulf.
Second, we’re told by someone in law enforcement who is in a position to offer actual knowledge of the case that the suspect in question is of Middle Eastern descent, with a name on his driver’s license indicating that he is of a particular cultural and religious persuasion not common to the Mississippi Delta, and that the suspect is 20 years old.
We’re also told that this suspect is not unknown to local law enforcement; they’ve had problems with him before.
And third, what we’re hearing is that the suspect isn’t giving the hostage negotiator any particular reason to think he can be talked out of that bank.
Which dovetails with word we’re hearing that the Louisiana State Police has been scrambling snipers to the scene all afternoon.
This is obviously developing, so we’ll try to see if we can separate some wheat from the chaff as more information comes across…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Army Conducts Military Occupation Drill in Small Town Wisconsin
Operation Tiger emulates military control of local, elected officials.
A U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations (CA & PSYOP) Command battalion recently practiced joint control of a small town with local authorities in a “realistic training exercise.”
According to an article released by the army, 22 soldiers of the 432nd Battalion unloaded their Humvees in Gillett, Wisconsin and set up a forward operating base at the Oconto County Fairgrounds in order to “conduct assessments” on some of the surrounding cities and to meet with “local key leaders.”
For the drill, the battalion apparently found it necessary to find a small, rural community with complete, working infrastructure such as:
- Garbage and recycling pickup
- Police and fire departments
- Parks
- Schools
- Doctors
- A dentist
- A chiropractor and
- An optometrist
All of which would be difficult to find in a war-torn city in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The soldiers also gathered information on community leaders “from hobbies, interests and religion” as well as “daily activities,” thus honing behavior profiling skills that could be useful to PSYOP teams in identifying “political dissidents.”
[Comment: Communists maintain a list of “dissendents for immediate extermination once the Communists come to power.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A shocking video featuring a child seemingly praying to the commander-in-chief is sparking outrage from conservatives, as well as more religious members of the public who view the boy’s actions as possibly blasphemous.
In the past, we have documented how Obama’s image in the mind of children has been elevated to a “messianic” cult-like status, promulgated through indoctrination facilities better known as public schools…
“The Orwellian nature of what is going on in American schools should at least send a shiver down the spine of all those who are aware of what has happened historically when leaders carefully groom a cult of personality and create a generation of mindless sycophantic followers who are unaware they are pledging allegiance to a dictator,” Prison Planet editor Paul Watson wrote in September 2009.
Watch the videos below to see how public schools have encouraged the wholesale idol worship of Obama.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Watch Stakelbeck Monologue on the Blaze TV
Last Friday, I filled in for Glenn Beck on his Blaze TV show and delivered an opening monologue on Al Qaeda expanding, the Middle East aflame and the Obama administration floundering.
Click the link above to watch.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Part 1: The Next Horizon
From April to October of 1962, some ten million people visited the Seattle World’s Fair, popularly known as Century 21 and officially opened by President John F. Kennedy. With construction of the Space Needle, the Coliseum, Science Pavilion, monorail, and other architectural feats that imparted a glimpse into the future, Seattle was said to have entered the 21stcentury thirty-eight years ahead of schedule.[1]
Trans-Federal Futuring at its Finest
Yet again, over the course of two and a half days, some 900 futurists are expected to gather in Chicago for more than sixty sessions, workshops, and special events featuring world future studies, coupled with reports of progress toward achieving a coveted, one-world order.
Starting July 19, the World Future Society 2013 will convene at the Hilton Chicago to explore humanity’s “next horizon” — this,under the watchful eye of the mainstream media. The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and Washington Post will join MS-NBC and CBC to cover this annual convention.
With an eye to the 22nd century, politicians, scientists, and lay people alike will dialogue on what the planet’s future holds.At Chicago’s Word’s Fair of Ideas (Century 22), deemed-to-be-premier minds will collectively map out the future of science and technology, humanity and religion, economics and global governance.
Sponsored by the Gorbachev Foundation, and called for in the Club of Rome’s 1972 book, Limits to Growth, the 1995 World Forum first used the term “global governance” instead of “New World Order.” The latter was considered too emotionally charged and, therefore, not likely to be as well received. Limits to Growth likewise called for a sort of clearinghouse for all global conglomerates — enter, the World Future Society merging together political, spiritual, and economic aspects of one-world government.[2]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Some 500 young Europeans are currently fighting with Islamists in Syria — and against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Many of these foreign fighters come from Belgium.
They’re being recruited by a radical Islamist group called Sharia4Belgium. In raids of close to 50 homes earlier this year, Belgian police discovered stashes of explosives and weapons. The group is mainly active in Antwerp and Wallonia. Dozens of young Belgians are now fighting alongside Syrian rebels. Many parents are frantically searching for their children — and some are even travelling to Syria to look for them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Cops Taking Covert Looks at Muslims
Copenhagen Police and PET examining money trail to see who is funding Danish fighters in Syria
Copenhagen Police have been secretly investigating controversial preacher Abu Ahmed, his Quba mosque in Amager and the charitable organisation Hjælp4Syrien. The investigation is centred on allegations that Ahmed and his associates have encouraged people to travel to Syria to take part in the civil war there and that monies collected under the guise of charitable donations are being used to fund terrorism.
Jens Møller, head of the Copenhagen Police’s violent crime division, confirmed that they have been investigating a number of separate cases since March, including posts on the Quba mosque’s Facebook page via the educational branch operated by Ahmed, Islamisk Undervisning, that seek financial support for the al-Nusra Front in Syria.
“We can confirm that there is an investigation in progress based on new information, including the support of al-Nusra Front,” Møller told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “We cannot comment further.”
The al-Nusra Front, according to Western intelligence agencies, was formed by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Published reports claim that the group is in regular contact with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the recognised global head of al-Qaeda and successor to Osama bin Laden.
Fears are increasing that the more than 6,000 foreign fighters who have poured into Syria from around the world in recent months pose a significant new terror threat to the West. Intelligence reports say that camps are being set up to give the foreign fighters combat training.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam Conquering Higher European Education
by Soeren Kern
Critics say that such efforts to create a “European Islam” are naïve and misguided, and will serve only to contribute to the “mainstreaming” of a religious and political ideology that is intrinsically opposed to all aspects of the European way of life.
The Catholic University of Leuven, the oldest university in Belgium and one that has been a major contributor to the development of Roman Catholic theology for more than 500 years, will offer a degree in Islamic theology beginning in 2014.
The decision by KU Leuven, as the university is commonly known, to focus on Islam follows similar moves by other leading universities in Europe and reflects the growing influence of Islam on the continent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muhammad Becomes London’s Favourite Boy’s Name But Harry Still Comes Out Top Overall
Muhammed has become the most popular name for baby boys in London for the first time.
Combined spellings of the Islamic prophet’s name have made it the most popular name for newborn boys in England for three years in a row.
They rank higher than other favourites such as Harry and Jack in the top 100 names for boys from the Office for National Statistics.
Now, however, the single variant Muhammad has topped the list in the capital with 768 registered births last year, ahead of Daniel on 666.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Norway PM’s Taxi Passengers Were Paid
An audacious election stunt where Norway’s Prime Minister worked undercover as a cab-driver has back-fired after it emerged that five of his passengers had been vetted and paid.
Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg won global press coverage for the video of his shift, which shows him light-heartedly chatting to his customers, and hearing their concerns.
But the coverage started to sour when the background to the video came to light.
“They’re five ordinary people who were asked if they wanted to take part in a video for the Labour Party and who knew nothing else, except that they were going to be picked up in a taxi,” Pia Gulbrandsen, a spokeswoman for the Labour Party told AFP. “Their spontanaeity was real when they realised that the driver was the prime minister.”
Each of the five received 500 kroner (65 euros, $85) from production company Try, run by Kjetil Try, who is known to be a close friend of the Prime Minister.
The opposition has been quick to jump on the revelations, with Bård Hoksrud, transport spokesman for the Progress Party claiming to feel “cheated”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
A 14-year-old schoolboy has been jailed after he barricaded his teacher inside a classroom then laughed as he sexually assaulted her.
Desperate colleagues tried to break down the door when they heard the teacher screaming for help but could not stop the boy, now 15, from Wrexham.
Staff fought their way into the school’s computer room and pulled the ‘distressed and terrified’ teacher to safety.
The teenager, who admitted sexual assault and was sentenced to four years’ youth detention, had put his hand up her skirt and forced himself on her.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unions have tightened their grip on Labour and are now responsible for three-quarters of all big donations to party coffers.
The Unite union, which went to war with Ed Miliband over plans to curb union influence, gave £722,195 from April to June this year.
New figures reveal that even the Lib Dems have raised more from individual non-union donors than the Labour party since the election.
The Labour leader is caught between trying to widen the appeal of his party while relying increasingly on trade unions to bankroll his campaign for Number 10.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi Whistleblower Lawyer: “Stolen” Libyan Missiles Will be Used to Shoot Down Aircraft
A former U.S. attorney, Joe DiGenova, who is representing a Benghazi whistleblower, told a Washington, D.C., radio station on Monday that 400 surface-to-air missiles were “stolen” in Libya and given to some “very ugly people,” aka al-Qaeda.
“We had troops ready to deploy in Croatia to go (to Benghazi) that night of Sept. 11, 2012 to rescue Americans,” DiGenvoa said. “We have learned that one of the reasons the administration is so deeply concerned — we have been told there were 400 surface-to-air missiles stolen, and that they are on or about in the hands of many people, and that the biggest fear in the U.S. intelligence community is that one of these missiles will be used to shoot down an airliner.”
Earlier this month, Infowars.com confirmed that the CIA had sent the missiles to Syrian “rebels” who are supported by the CIA and funded by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in an effort to depose the al-Assad regime. Turkey has permitted the mercenaries to establish bases in its country on the border with Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-Mursi Protester Shot Dead as Egypt Standoff Intensifies
(Reuters) — One Muslim Brotherhood member was shot dead and at least 11 people wounded in Egypt on Tuesday, security sources said, with the Islamist group accusing plain clothes police of firing on their march.
The killing could harden the standoff between the Brotherhood, which is demanding the reinstatement of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, and the army-backed government.
Authorities have held back from clearing two Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo, and a religious authority made some progress in establishing negotiations, but the shootings and other street clashes showed Egypt remained dangerously divided.
Thousands of Mursi supporters marched to the Interior Ministry earlier in the day and were confronted by residents who threw stones and bottles and taunted them as “terrorists”. Police fired teargas at the demonstration which had brought Cairo traffic to a standstill.
“There’s no going forward with negotiations, the only way is back. Mursi must be reinstated,” said Karim Ahmed, a student in a blue hard-hat who waved a picture of Mursi as he flung rocks at a ministry building.
Things remained quiet at the two pro-Mursi protest camps despite the government’s frequent demands that protesters end a sit-in that has lasted more than six weeks.
Some officials wish to avoid a bloody showdown that would damage the government’s efforts to present itself as legitimate, while hardliners in the army and security forces fear they are losing face to the Brotherhood and want to move in.
More than 300 people have already died in political violence since Mursi’s overthrow on July 3, including dozens of his supporters killed by security forces in two separate earlier incidents…
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Dubai to Host First ‘Global Islamic Economy Summit’
Industry experts will focus on six major pillars of the Islamic economy — Islamic Finance; Halal Food; Halal Lifestyle; Halal Travel; SME Development; and Islamic Economy Infrastructure — during the forthcoming ‘Global Islamic Economy Summit’ in Dubai.
Following the launch of ‘Dubai: Capital of Islamic Economy’ by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in partnership with Thomson Reuters, is organising the summit on November 25 and 26, 2013. It will gather leading thinkers, policy makers and stakeholders from around the world to lead a discussion on the future of the $4 trillion Islamic economy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As Afghanistan Endgame Looms, India-Pakistan Tensions Rise
(Reuters) — Pakistan-based militants are preparing to take on India across the subcontinent once Western troops leave Afghanistan next year, several sources say, raising the risk of a dramatic spike in tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.
Intelligence sources in India believe that a botched suicide bombing of an Indian consulate in Afghanistan, which was followed within days last week by a lethal cross-border ambush on Indian soldiers in disputed Kashmir, suggest that the new campaign by Islamic militants may already be underway.
Members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant outfit in Pakistan, the group blamed for the 2008 commando-style raid on Mumbai that killed 166 people, told Reuters they were preparing to take the fight to India once again, this time across the region.
And a U.S. counter-terrorism official, referring to the attack in Afghanistan, said “LeT has long pursued Indian targets, so it would be natural for the group to plot against them in its own backyard”.
Given the quiet backing — or at least blind eye — that many militant groups enjoy from Pakistan’s shadowy intelligence services, tensions from a new militant campaign are bound to spill over. Adding to the volatility, the two nations’ armies are trading mortar and gunfire across the heavily militarized frontier that divides Kashmir, and accusing each other of killing troops.
Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and came close to a fourth in 1999. The tension now brewing may not escalate into open hostilities, but it could thwart efforts to forge a lasting peace and open trade between two countries that make up a quarter of the world’s population.
“With the Americans leaving Afghanistan, the restraint on the Pakistani security/jihadi establishment is going too,” said a former top official at India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence arm.
“We are concerned about 2014 in either scenario. If the jihadis (Islamist militants) claim success in Afghanistan, they could turn their attention to us. Equally, if they fail, they will attack in wrath.”
But Pakistan, which has a border with India to the east and with Afghanistan to the west, has concerns of its own. It sees India’s expansive diplomacy in Afghanistan as a ploy to disrupt it from the rear as it battles its own deadly Islamist militancy and separatist forces. Vying for influence in a post-2014 Afghanistan, it worries about India’s assistance to the Afghan army, heightening a sense of encirclement.
“I’m shocked by these allegations. Pakistan has its own insurgency to deal with. It has no appetite for confrontations abroad,” said a Pakistani foreign ministry official referring to the Indian charges of stirring trouble in Afghanistan and on the Kashmir border.
“If anything, we are looking at our mistakes from the past very critically. These accusations are baseless. India needs to act with more maturity and avoid this sort of propaganda.”
Both U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry spoke during visits to India recently of the need for New Delhi and Islamabad to resume their stalled peace process as the region heads into a period of uncertainty…
| — Hat tip: LS | [Return to headlines] |
Fukushima Now in State of Emergency, Leaking 300 Tons of Radioactive Water Into the Ocean Daily
(NaturalNews) Japan’s nuclear watchdog has now declared the leak of radioactive water from Fukushima a “state of emergency.” Each day, 300 tons of radioactive water seeps into the ocean, and it’s now clear that TEPCO has engage in a two-and-a-half-year cover-up of immense magnitude.
“I believe it’s been leaking into the ocean from the start of the crisis two-and-a-half years ago,” disclosed a 12-year TEPCO veteran named Suzuki-san (SOURCE)
“There are still reactor buildings we haven’t gotten into yet,” said another worker named Fujimoto-san. “So there’s always the possibility of another explosion…”…
The U.S. government, of course, plays along with the charade because its own top weapons manufacturer — General Electric — designed and built the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in the first place. And the design decisions made by GE, such as storing spent fuel rods in large pools high above the ground, now look not just incompetent but downright idiotic. It turns out there was never any long-term plan to dispose of the spent fuel rods. The idea was to just let them build up over time until someone else inherited the problem.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Zanzibar: Islamic Extremists Cause Unrest as Tensions Rise on Island of British Acid Attack Girls
WHILE the motives for the monstrous acid attack on two British teenagers in Zanzibar remain unclear, one thing is apparent…there is trouble in this particular paradise.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NM Ruling: Non-English Speakers Can be Jurors
The New Mexico Supreme Court is cautioning trial courts and lawyers in the heavily Hispanic state that citizens who don’t speak English have the right to serve on juries — a right enshrined in the state constitution even if people are non-English speakers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama DHS Publishes Instructions for Asylum Loophole on Internet
The process for people attempting to enter the country illegally through the Mexican border has often been characterized as grueling, dangerous and even potentially deadly; a trek across smoldering hot deserts led by ruthless ‘coyotes’ who profit from human suffering.
Meet the new coyotes: immigration attorneys and government rule-writers.
According to the clear guidelines published on the Internet and updated by the Obama administration in mid-June, there’s an easier way to cross to gain entrance to the United States: simply step right up to a border crossing and tell the officials that you have a “credible fear” of persecution or torture. Use that exact phrasing and you may be able to enter the USA while you await a hearing before an immigration judge…a process that could take years.
As Breitbart News reported yesterday in a story that swept through the Internet, that’s exactly what’s been happening recently with a flood of new asylum requests that seem designed to overwhelm the system.
The Obama Department of Homeland Security led by Janet Napolitano updated the information on their article Questions & Answers: Credible Fear Screening on June 18th, 2013. The article explains that if you claim ‘credible fear of persecution or torture’ that you can seek asylum, and that the process is subject to review.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
California Gov. Brown Signs Transgender-Student Bill
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill into law Monday afternoon allowing the state’s transgender public school students to choose which bathrooms they use and whether they participate in boy or girl sports.
The law would cover the state’s 6.2 million elementary and high school kids in public schools…
Randy Thomasson, of savecalifornia.com, says the law would “damage” kids.
“This radical bill warps the gender expectations of children by forcing all California public schools to permit biological boys in girls restrooms, showers, clubs and on girls sports teams and biological girls in boys restrooms, showers, clubs and sports teams,” Thomasson said. “This is insanity.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DC Mayor Disinvites Famed Gospel Singer From Civil Rights Concert Over Stance on Homosexuality
WASHINGTON — The mayor of Washington, D.C. disinvited a famed Gospel singer last week from headlining a civil rights concert in the nation’s capital, according to reports.
Multiple Grammy and Stellar Award winner Donnie McClurkin, who says that he turned to homosexuality for a time after being sexually abused by men as a child, posted a video statement on SocialCam on Saturday stating that he was “asked not to attend” the event that day. “Reflections on Peace: From Gandhi to King” was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement in America.
McClurkin, who has performed in support of Barack Obama’s election efforts, has stated in times past that he has been “villified” for sharing with the world that “God delivered me from homosexuality.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The working classes are less likely to get married or have children in wedlock than the middle-classes as they struggle with the financial commitment, a study has found.
Job insecurity and lower wages are leaving blue collar workers disillusioned at the prospect of having meaningful relationships, according to the researchers at University of Virginia and University of Harvard.
Sociologist Sarah Corse, who conducted the study said: ‘Working-class people with insecure work and few resources, little stability and no ability to plan for a foreseeable future become concerned with their own survival and often become unable to imagine being able to provide materially and emotionally for others.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A senior researcher at a respected think tank has revealed that he commissioned a study into the BBC’s left-wing bias after one of its staff assumed he must be homophobic — because he believes in free markets.
Ryan Bourne, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said he was ‘astonished’ when a researcher at the BBC World Service asked him to debate against veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell simply because he works for an organisation associated with the Centre-Right.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judges Who Want to be Supremacists
Redefining the First Amendment is a core aim of Barack Obama’s plan to “fundamentally transform the United States.” He is steadily changing the First Amendment’s words, “free exercise” of religion, to the much more restricted notion of freedom of worship.
That means he will still accord us our right to go inside our churches, lock the doors and worship as we please. But with the help of atheist organizations and supremacist judges, Obama is steadily chipping away at our constitutional right of “free exercise” in public places, public events, and public schools.
Obama wants to force employers to provide contraception and abortion-inducing drugs to employees not only of churches, but also to employees of religious institutions such as schools, colleges and hospitals, and even to force this mandate on Christian employers who find it contrary to their religious belief. Dozens of lawsuits are now climbing through the judiciary to challenge this mandate.
Obama not only has the help of the ACLU and similar organizations to pursue anti-religion litigation, but he is determined to appoint many like-minded judges to the federal courts. He recently nominated a scary feminist named Nina Pillard to the important D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Her extremist views include the wild allegation that abortion is necessary to help “free women from historically routine conscription into maternity.” She says that those who oppose ObamaCare’s contraception-abortion mandate are really reinforcing “broader patterns of discrimination against women as a class of presumptive breeders.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Newly Discovered Eighth Grade Exam From 1912 Shows How Dumbed Down America Has Become
Have you ever seen the movie “Idiocracy”? It is a movie about an “average American” that wakes up 500 years in the future only to discover that he is the most intelligent person by far in the “dumbed down” society that is surrounding him. Unfortunately, that film is a very accurate metaphor for what has happened to American society today. We have become so “dumbed down” that we don’t even realize what has happened to us. But once in a while something comes along that reminds us of how far we have fallen. In Kentucky, an eighth grade exam from 1912 was recently donated to the Bullitt County History Museum. When I read this exam over, I was shocked at how difficult it was. Could most eighth grade students pass such an exam today? Of course not. In fact, I don’t even think that I could pass it. Sadly, this is even more evidence of “the deliberate dumbing down of America” that former Department of Education official Charlotte Iserbyt is constantly warning us about. The American people are not nearly as mentally sharp as they once were, and with each passing generation it gets even worse.
Just check out some of the questions from the eighth grade exam that was discovered. Do you think that you could correctly answer these?…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Revolutionary Communist Party Leads ‘Abortion Rights Freedom Rides’ To 14 States
WICHITA, KS, August 9, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) — Numerous mainstream and left-leaning media outlets have highlighted the “Abortion Rights Freedom Rides,” a caravan of activists now traveling to 14 states to support “Abortion on demand and without apology.” However, no media outlet has reported that the event is being conducted by the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, a cult-like Maoist sect that calls for “millions of people to rise up in mass armed revolution” against the United States “when the time is right.”
The abortion freedom rides are being led by Stop Patriarchy, a front group for the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (RCP). SP’s original “Call to Action” gives the RCP’s web address as its own and prominently quotes RCP founder and chairman Bob Avakian…
The RCP is anything but guarded in its belief that the U.S. government must be overthrown by force. At a feminist lecture Taylor led at New York University in 2010, a student asked fellow RCP member Annie Day if the group endorsed warfare and bloodshed. “Revolution is a serious business,” Day replied. “We are not pacifists. So to answer your question, yes.”
During the 1992 L.A. riots following the Rodney King verdict, party members spray-painted graffiti in English and Spanish to fan the flames.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Raymond Widstrand was out for a walk on St. Paul’s East Side late Sunday night when he tried to make his way through a crowd of people.
Without warning, police say, Widstrand was knocked to the ground and kicked repeatedly by several people, including reputed gang members.
On Friday evening, with the 26-year-old in critical but stable condition at Regions Hospital, his family and police put out an appeal for the public’s help in solving the assault.
[Comments to the article make interesting reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
United Nations Expert Challenges UN’s Pet Development Project
The United Nations has refused to publish a recent study by one of its own statisticians employed by the United Nations Population Fund, Dr. Howard Friedman.
The study has upended the conventional wisdom in the UN bureaucracy regarding the effectiveness of its 15 year Millennium Development Goals (“MDG”) project that began in 2000. The UN cited as its reason for not publishing Dr. Friedman’s study that he wrote it in his personal capacity while he was on sabbatical from his UN job. Apparently, protocol is more important to UN bureaucrats than openness to empirical evidence that contradicts the UN’s official line. Fortunately, Dr. Friedman was able to have his study published independently…
The reason why Dr. Friedman’s study is important is that it calls into question the global wealth transfer model upon which the UN’s MDG project is based.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |