In today’s off-year elections, the most prominent winners were the Democrats Bill de Blasio and Terry McAuliffe, who won the races for New York City mayor and Virginia governor, respectively. The “Republican” Chris Christie won re-election as the governor of New Jersey.
In other news, in a case with a Mohammed Coefficient of 200%, a terror suspect in Britain was able to escape from police surveillance by donning a burqa while he was visiting a mosque.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fjordman, Jerry Gordon, Kitman, Nick, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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American Betrayal and “Planet X”
by Diana West
The war on American Betrayal launched from the Right continues to perplex people. I hear the same question everywhere I go, and notably from people who have actually read the book: What is inside the covers of American Betrayal that could have inspired the no-holds-barred smear campaign against it waged by putative political allies?
M. Stanton Evans has discussed his theory in “In Defense of Diana West” here; Vladimir Bukovsky and Pavel Stroilov weighed in with “Why Academics Hate Diana West” here. I have my own theories, too.
Now, Ned May of Gates of Vienna, a leading counterjihad site that distinguished itself during the hottest weeks of this battle in its defense not only of my book and me personally but also free and civil debate more generally, has published here his further and deeper thoughts on the controversy. These also include Ned’s take on the crashing silence on the part of professional commentators on the matter…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Bill de Blasio Elected Mayor of New York
Bill de Blasio, who transformed himself from a little-known occupant of an obscure office into the fiery voice of New York’s disillusionment with a new gilded age, was elected the city’s 109th mayor on Tuesday.
He defeated Joseph J. Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, by a wide margin, exit polls show.
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California to Free Double Murderer Because His Jury Had No Black Members
In 1987 Steven Crittenden killed a white couple inside their Chico, California home. They were gruesome torture murders that shocked California.
During the trial, a massive amount of evidence was presented to the jury. Police found Crittenden’s footprint and thumbprint inside the home. The day after the murder he tried to cash a check from one of the victim’s for $3,000. The victims had been tied up, gagged, then beaten and stabbed.
Now a Federal judge has ordered his release or retrial. Based solely on the fact that their were no blacks on the jury.
The judge is U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller accused former chief deputy Jerry Flanagan of “consciously or unconsciously” being a racist for not placing a potential black female juror on the jury.
U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller was appointed by Barack Obama.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey Wins Re-Election, Exit Polls Show
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey won re-election on Tuesday, defeating his Democratic rival, State Senator Barbara Buono, by a crushing margin. The victory vaulted him to the front ranks of Republican presidential contenders.
In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 700,000, Mr. Christie won decisively, making impressive inroads among younger voters, blacks, Hispanics and women — all groups that Republicans nationally have struggled to attract.
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Marty Walsh Wins Boston’s Mayoral Race
Marty Walsh will be the 54th mayor of Boston, as his opponent, John Connolly, has conceded the race.
Mr. Connolly conceded at 9:35, telling his supporters, “We came up short tonight, but I am very proud of how we ran this campaign.”
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New York Voters Approve Expanded Casino Gambling
New York voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment to expand casino gambling, authorizing as many as seven full-scale casinos as part of a plan meant to bring jobs to economically distressed parts of upstate.
The approval is a milestone in the gambling industry’s long, expensive push to tap into the New York market.
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November 5: 2009 — Jihad Terrorism at Fort Hood
Today is the fourth anniversary of Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan’s Jihad that resulted in 13 deaths and more than 32 severely wounded when he jumped on a table at a Fort Hood US Army deployment center, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and fired lethal rounds from two automatic pistols. This was clearly a terrorist act for which he was convicted and sentenced to death by a Courts Martial at Fort Hood on August 27, 2013. Years of appeals await his possible execution for his extremist actions defending his brethren in the Muslim Ummah who were fighting the very US service personnel he attacked that morning. Those victims were completing medical and dental exams prior to deployment in Afghanistan. Our military could have prevented the massacre as Maj. Hasan had been monitored listening to jihadist taped lectures from American born Sheikh Anwar Al-Awlaki whom he had heard while attending the extremist Dar al Hijrah Mosque in Herndon, Virginia. He had also been reported to Army Superiors in 2007 following a lecture on Jihad doctrine at the Uniform Services Unified University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Sheikh Al-Awlaki subsequently was tracked down and killed in a US drone strike against an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula convoy in Yemen on September 30, 2011…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Tea Party Republican Loses Alabama Runoff
Bradley Byrne, a lawyer and former state senator, won a primary runoff race in Alabama’s First Congressional District that was viewed as a critical test of whether the Republican establishment could fight off a Tea Party challenger.
Mr. Byrne defeated Dean Young, a conservative businessman who had counted on Tea Party support in the Deep Red district to overcome his opponent’s money and mainstream endorsements.
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Terry McAuliffe, Democrat, Wins Virginia
Governor Race Terry McAuliffe, a prolific Democratic fund-raiser who has never held elective office, was elected governor of Virginia on Tuesday, defeating Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the Republican attorney general, whose uncompromising conservatism was the focus of the race.
Mr. McAuliffe, 56, benefited from a larger war chest and his opponent’s decision to appeal almost entirely to his party’s conservative base. He was able to frame the vote as a referendum on whether Mr. Cuccinelli’s social views were out of step in a state that is increasingly suburban and diverse.
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Gandalf Made in Sweden — Of Glass
A glassworks company outside Kalmar has been given the prestigious job of portraying the wizard Gandalf, from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, in glimmering glass. The company now hopes that the co-operation with the film giant Warner Bros will pave the way to a new market.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Halal Meat Sparks Threats, Complaints
Authorities in Sveadala, a county in southwest Sweden, have received numerous threats and complaints after it was learned the county has bought halal meat since 2009, Swedish Radio News reports.
Many residents expressed their outraged via emails using course language, racial slurs or veiled threats. “Why should our children and grandchildren eat this food? Send (those who eat halal meat) home instead and let our kids eat real food,” read one letter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Archbishop: Why Pick Jesus Over Muhammed?
By Bruce Bawer
Sweden is the gift that keeps on giving — to Islam. In recent weeks, for those of you who are keeping score at home, Swedish feminists mounted a nationwide “hijab campaign” in “solidarity” with a Muslim woman whose veil may or may not have been yanked off her head in a parking garage, and the government announced its intention to grant automatic permanent residency to refugees from Syria. Now comes the news that the Church of Sweden has chosen as its new leader a woman who, judging from recent statements, does not care to recognize much of a difference between Jesus Christ and Muhammed.
But first a little background. Unlike the Church of Norway and the Church of Denmark, the Church of Sweden is no longer an official state church, having been cut loose in the year 2000 (a fate which will probably befall its sister Scandinavian churches before too long). But although its pews, like those in Norway and Denmark, are pretty empty most of the time (while most Swedes are church members, only 2% attend services regularly), the church in Sweden continues, like its Norwegian and Danish counterparts, to receive generous cash subsidies from the government, and still enjoys a high public profile. Scandinavians may not go to church, and most of them may not be devout believers in much of anything, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t identify, perhaps even strongly, as Christians — or, more specifically, Lutherans.
How does this work? As follows. To live under a highly statist system is to assume, as if it were the way of nature itself, that the state will take care of all kinds of things that people in other, not-so-statist countries would never think of expecting the government to do for them. In Scandinavia, at least, this habit of thought can extend even to the realm of religion. Meaning what? That under such regimes, the idea of a personal faith, to say nothing of a personal commitment to go to church, can easily fall away. One doesn’t have to go to church, or give much thought to what one does or doesn’t believe; what matters is knowing that the church is there, and that one’s tax money is helping to keep it up and running and staffed with clergy who have given thought to questions of belief, and who are continuing to hold the right services and say the right prayers — even though there’s barely enough parishioners in some churches on a Sunday morning to get a bridge game going…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bijan Ebrahimi Burned to Death After False Pedophilia Accusations
An innocent man in the United Kingdom was burned to death after being wrongly accused of pedophilia. According to the Bristol Post, Bijan Ebrahimi, an Iranian man who lived in Bristol, England, was murdered in July after rumors began swirling in his community that he had been taking indecent photographs of children.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terror Suspect Evades Police by Donning Burqa
The government defended its terror prevention measures on Monday after a Somali-born suspect escaped surveillance by putting on a burqa during a visit to a mosque.
Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, 27, who was subject to an order restricting his movements, entered a mosque in London on Friday wearing Western-style clothes but CCTV images showed him leaving disguised as a woman, with his face and body fully covered.
He is understood to have received training and fought overseas for the Somalia-based Shebab, the Al-Qaeda-linked militants who launched the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in September in which at least 67 people were killed.
Newspapers on Tuesday reported that Mohamed was trying to join up with terror suspect Samantha Lewthwaite.
The British woman, also known as the White Widow, is wanted for alleged terror offences in Kenya…
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Buries Guards Commander ‘Killed in Syria’
A funeral has been held in south-eastern Iran for a Revolutionary Guards commander who was reportedly killed by rebel forces in Syria. Brig Gen Mohammad Jamali-Paqaleh was buried with full honours in Kerman.
He had volunteered to “defend the Syrian people against terrorists” and “protect the (Shia) holy shrine of Sayyida Zainab” outside Damascus, the semi-official Mehr news agency said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Think that Iran’s “charming” President Hasan Rouhani is a “moderate” misleading the Obama West Wing into believing that the P5+1 can negotiate a deal to stop Iran’s nuclear weaponization now that the Islamic Republic has virtually achieved nuclear “breakthrough”? Read this Jerusalem Post op ed, “Who is Hassan Rouhani? by Professor Jay Bergman, Russian expert at the Connecticut Central State University. Bergman draws parallels with Yuri Andropov, the late Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party, who briefly followed Leonid Brezhnev in the Reagan era in the early 1980’s.. Bergman points out that Andropov masterminded he destruction of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 and ordered Russian fighters to shoot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in August 1983 resulting in the deaths of 269 Passengers. In comparison, Rouhani may have been involved with the Islamic Republic’s staging of the 1994 AMIA Jewish Center blast in Buenos Aires allegedly carried out by the late Hezbollah terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyah…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Sentences 150 Soldiers to Death for Mutiny
A special court on Tuesday sentenced at least 150 Bangladeshi soldiers to death and sentenced hundreds more to prison for their role in a 2009 mutiny in which 74 people, including senior army officers, were hacked to death, tortured or burnt alive.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Orissa Pogrom, 54 Extremists Acquitted. Christian Leader: Latest Farce to Target Victims
The defendants were accused of having set fire to a Baptist church and 14 houses, Christmas 2007. Despite the evidence against them, the Phulbani court acquitted them for “lack of evidence”. The court is the same one that sentenced seven innocent Christians to life imprisonment. The president of the Global Council of Indian Christians ( GCIC ) is launching an appeal for justice.
Phulbani (AsiaNews ) — A new trial has dragged the anti-Christian pogrom in Orissa back into news headlines: the Phulbani court today acquitted 54 people accused of having set fire to dozens of houses and a Baptist church during the violence that took place at Christmas 2007 in the district Kandhamal. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) says the verdict unequivocally indicates the prosecution’s “hidden agenda”: acquit the guilty and target the victims of the violence . The same court sentenced seven innocent Christians to life imprisonment, charged with the murder of the Hindu leader Laxamananada , whose death sparked the pogroms of 2008. In that case there was no evidence against the accused. In today’s trial however, the court has motivated an acquittal for “lack of evidence “ , ignoring the exsisting evidence . Below , AsiaNews publishes an appeal launched by Sajan George, president of the GCIC , the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC ) ..
Global council of Indian Christians(GCIC) is shocked and constrained infer along with the victims that there is a hidden agenda by the prosecution to weaken the cases against arsonists and looters in Kandhamal riot.The Christmas attacks in Barakhama in the year 2007 were obvious and there were clenching evidence against the perpetrators.
GCIC urges the National Human Rights commission(NHRC) to take cognizance of the large scale infringement of freedom of Christians in Barakhama and to take suo motto investigation against the Orissa government officials involved in weakening the Kandhamal cases, these acquittals are casting shadow of doubt in the minds of the hapless victims.
The Supreme Court on October,19th 2012 had sought the Odisha government’s response unusually high rate of acquittals have marred victims’ perception of fair trial in the Kandhamal communal riot cases.A bench of Justices R M Lodha and A R Dave was briefed
that there appeared to be a systemic failure, deliberate or otherwise, leading to the prosecution failing to produce crucial evidence to support statements of eyewitnesses. In several cases, material witnesses have turned hostile,.It appears convictions were recorded by the trial courts only for minor offences while accused were let off for serious charges of murder, arson, rape and looting.
“This high rate of acquittal explains the role played by the public prosecutor. It seems that the public prosecutors’ role was not to assist the administration of justice but to merely act as agents of the State whose aim was to ensure acquittal of accused persons.A court in Odisha’s Kandhamal district today acquitted 54 people who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the 2007 riots in the communally sensitive district.This was actually the dress rehearsal for a massive attack in the year 2008 against Christians.Global Council of Indian Christians(GCIC) had organized a series of protests to sensitize atrocities against Christians, including a parliament march.
Additional district and sessions judge, Phulbani, Rajendra Kumar Tosh, acquitted them them due to lack of proper evidence against them in the case.The prosecution alleged that the arrested persons had set on fire an Odia Baptist church and 14 houses at Barkhama village in the district on 25th December.The day as the president of Global Council of Indian Christians(GCIC)appeared before Justice Basudev Panigrahi Commission of Enquiry, two top state officials had testified that 2007 communal riot in Odisha’s Kandhamal district was ‘pre-planned.’
The officials deposed before the commission were former revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) and ex-deputy inspector general (DIG) of south range Satyabrata Sahu and RP Kotche respectively. During the deposition the senior officials maintained the riot was pre-planned and to restrict the movement of police, the perpetrators were engaged in massive tree felling on roads.
They further said “the movement of armed police in the district was severely hampered resulting in wide-spread violence which could not be controlled on time.” Both the officers, summoned by the Commission under section 8-B of the Commission of Enquiry Act, maintained that the administration had taken adequate steps to prevent the flare-up in the district. The two claimed that though efforts were made at the administrative level to maintain peace in the area, things suddenly went out of control.
Besides the two officials, a constable of local armed police force also deposed before the panel on that day. The constable said that he had to fire nine rounds in air to quell a mob which was heading towards the local police station.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Faisalabad: Muslims and Christians Together to Exonerate a Woman Accused of Blasphemy
Two Muslim students report a 50 year old Christian for having burned pages of the Koran . In reality it was a text book in Arabic. Efforts of Islamic leader key to saving woman who is now in hiding for fear of retaliation. His invitation to all to “properly evaluate the facts” and not “stir up divisions.”
Faisalabad ( AsiaNews) — The active collaboration between Muslim religious leaders and Pakistani Christian activists has allowed, once again, the peaceful resolution of an alleged case of blasphemy against a poor woman ( and innocent ) , belonging to a religious minority. The incident occurred in recent days in Faisalabad , Punjab , the province with the largest Christian community. The case has many similarities with that of Philip Masih and his family as recounted by AsiaNews, who was indicted for no reason and escaped trial thanks to the seminal contribution of Muslim leaders and police forces. The peaceful resolution of the story has prevented an escalation of tension, which often has exploded into attacks against entire communities (Gojra, in 2009). The names of the protagonists have been changed for security reasons.
Asia Masih, 50, last week moved into a rented house in Chamanzar Colony, Faisalabad . On the second day, Oct. 29, after cleaning the apartment she burned some remains in the garden . Two Muslim students, observing the scene, saw a few pages written in Arabic among the remains on fire and immediately thought they were pages of the Koran. A few minutes later they knocked on her door, accused her of having committed the crime of blasphemy which in Pakistan is punished with life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Terrified by this serious accusation, Asia fled with her family and is hidden in a secret and safe place, where she is still — for fear of retaliation — even if the story has had a positive outcome.
The intervention of a Christian activist (identified with the initials RD ) and the collaboration of a Muslim religious leader were fundamental to the peaceful resolution of the case. The first, a member of the Human Rights Defender Network, collected evidence of the innocence of the woman. In a second step he approached the Islamic leader, belonging to the Peace Committee of the city, which has offered its cooperation to analyze the facts and exonerate the Christian family of the charges, proving its innocence in front of the entire city .
The Islamic expert’s statement was key, according to whom the burned pages “are not from the Koran, but a school book in Arabic,” and he has also called on Muslims to “properly evaluate the facts,” before launching heavy accusations because they end up only “fomenting hatred and division”.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Iftikhar Ahmed , coordinator of the NGO South Asia Partnership -Pakistan appreciates those who “ settle such delicate issues using wisdom.” He adds that religious leaders “need to promote peace and harmony in their speeches, in order to create a more prosperous society”. This is echoed by the Christian activist Naseem Anthony who calls for constitutional reforms and amendments to the laws, together with a culture that promotes tolerance towards other religions and faiths.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Beheading Video: Who Was Mexico’s Jane Doe?
A film of a woman being beheaded in Mexico caused an international outcry in October when Facebook refused to remove it from its site. There have been hundreds of reports about the video — but why has no-one identified the victim in it?
In the grainy footage, the woman is on her knees in jeans and a pink top, before a masked man holding a knife behind her says in a gruff voice: “Well, gentleman, this is what happens to all those in the Gulf Cartel. On behalf of Los Zetas.”
The rest of the video is a gruesome 40 seconds of cold-blooded murder, which caused international controversy recently when it was posted on Facebook.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bulgaria: ‘Hunt for Illegal Immigrants’
In the wake of a media outcry prompted by a November 2 attack on a salesclerk by an Algerian man, on November 4, the Interior Ministry presented an action plan to cope with the influx of refugees, reports Bulgarian daily Troud.
Since the beginning of the year, over 8,700 refugees have entered Bulgaria which only has facilities to welcome 5,000. The government aims to divide the number of refugees arriving in the country by three, and to triple the number of deportations.
The plan, which is to be applied over the next six months, will reinforce surveillance of the country’s border with Turkey, and expel economic migrants, many of whom are from North Africa, who do not have refugee status, the paper explains.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Asylum Seekers Policy Changes, More Staff Are Needed
Asylum seekers are to be encouraged to take on voluntary work while they wait to hear the outcome of their application to stay in the Netherlands.
The change of approach was announced by Jan-Kees Goet, director of the asylum seekers centres organisation COA, in an interview with the Volkskrant.
Those waiting for the outcome of their application will be encouraged to volunteer at places such as neighbourhood centres or local football clubs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
To the commonwealth of Va: my condolences. I find it shocking that a weasel like macaullife could end up in the governor’s mansion. That was until my wife said “but look who’s in the white house”. Touche, wifey.
I smell computer fraud in the Virginia election. The way the statistics changed so quickly makes me suspicious. I hope it is uncovered and exposed, and soon. But I don’t hold out hope, for the CIA (Communists Infiltrating America) has the USA by the balls, and has had since they murdered Jack Kennedy. So who will awaken the nation to it’s treason, the Soviet Style Media? Fat chance. The 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination is coming up soon. I wonder what the false flaggers have in store for us. BOHICA.