There Goes The Neighbourhood

A joke or a horror show. US faces first scrutiny by UN rights council Oct 31, 2010 The United States will come under the spotlight at the UN's top human rights assembly's for the first time over the coming week along with other countries that face scrutiny by the Human Rights Council. The 12-day session of the 47 member council starting on Monday will include regular "universal periodic reviews" of 16 members of the United Nations, including the United States on November 5. Several dozen non governmental organisation are expected to lobby the debate on the US human rights record, while Washington will also defend its record. Some 300 US civil liberties and community groups in the US Human Rights Network on Monday called on the Obama administration to bring "substandard human rights practices" in the United States into line with international standards. The United States only agreed to join the Council in May 2009, after the Bush administration had shunned th...

Dear Republican Lawmakers (especially those just elected in on Tuesday Nov 5, 2010): Tuesday November 5, 2010, is a day that will live in infamy - if you fail to act on the opportunity provided to you by the American people.  It is also President Arthur's birthday if you were unaware. It is a day to be ever so happy and work to bring everyone together and hug and sing kumbaya ... but you will be given eviction papers in two years if that is the path you take.  I promise. It is a day to turn to the left and follow the plan Obama has laid out for us ... and if you do, the Republican party will self-destruct, and you will be evicted in 2012. You have been given a solemn responsibility, and no matter what Keith Obermann, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, the NPR staff, or the Huffington woman say, it is a political earthquake.  Given the fact that Obama won by an amazing percent, with a majority of Americans solidly behind him - this election will show they have left him standing wit...

The Daily Telegraph October 30, 2010 By Richard Edwards, Duncan Gardham and Gordon Rayner MI6 tip-off foils al-Qaeda ink cartridge bomb plot AN INTERNATIONAL terrorist alert over an al-Qaeda parcel bomb plot was triggered yesterday following the discovery of a package containing explosive material at a British airport. Police load a parcel removed from a UPS container at East Midlands airport on to a helicopter. It contained a suspicious device, inset The plot — described as a “credible threat” originating in Yemen — was uncovered by MI6 after a tip-off to one of its officers based in the Middle East. Last night, airports in the United States were on high alert after parcels containing explosive material, and addressed to synagogues in Chicago, were discovered on cargo aircraft at East Midlands airport and in Dubai. The “sinister” parcel at East Midlands, which was found in a UPS container, comprised what police described as a “manipulated” computer printer cartridge that was covered i...

He has it right.  Amazing they were falling all over themselves when a man who held federal office for less than 18 months was miraculously elected to the highest office in the United States and Free World, and that they had no problem with. Clipped from Newsbusters NPR's Nina Totenberg said Friday that she's very afraid of the upcoming elections. Newsweek's Evan Thomas, her co-panelist on "Inside Washington," said historians might look upon November 2, 2010 "as kind of a joke...obviously the political system’s a mess" GORDON PETERSON: Nina, columnist Paul Krugman says if the election goes as expected, his advice is be afraid, be very afraid. Should we take his advice? NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: I am already afraid, very afraid. I mean, it’s not like governance has been going great. I think we’ll, I don't know whether I should be afraid, but there will be gridlock. PETERSON: Evan, Krugman also says that future historians will probably look back at the 2010...

There are quite a few questions we may ask after reading the below article - 1) have they made it clear where the UPS plane was about to head off to? 2) the nationality, ethnicity, and religion of the perpetrators was?  or was most likely? 3) how many other such attempts have been made in the very recent past (the article indicates a possible number).  I have also posted part of a 2nd article by the Los Angeles Times. 4) England (and Europe less specifically) is at the highest state of readiness and alert.  The US is ... 5) All targets known have been against ? Theresa May's statement on cargo plane bomb Full text of the home secretary's speech on the explosive device found on a UPS plane at East Midlands airport guardian.co.uk Saturday 30 October 2010 "Earlier today, I chaired a meeting of Cobra to review the progress of our investigation following the discovery yesterday of a suspect package at East Midlands airport. Our preliminary examination of the device is now comp...

PA Legislator's New Math Updates Number of Virgins for ‘Martyrs’ by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 09/14/10 Israel National News Palestinian Authority Hamas legislative Speaker Ahmad Bahr has updated from 72 to 2.5 million the number of virgins waiting for “martyrs” upon their arrival “in the Garden of Eden.” In a recent speech translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Bahr, who is the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the “palace” where the virgins are waiting can be entered “only by prophets, by the righteous, and by martyrs." Most Muslim preachers and politicians have used the expression "72 virgins” to encourage Arab youth to be ready to die in anti-Israeli terrorist attacks and suicide bombings. Bahr’s new arithmetic reasons, "In the Garden of Eden, there is a palace... with 500 gates. At every gate, there are 5,000 black-eyed virgins. Brothers, 500 multiplied by 5,000 is 2.5 million." He said in his speech, aired on Hamas telev...

Extremists exist everywhere, this does not mean very much.  I am surprised it has not appeared in any newspapers or on television and I have not seen any protests or demonstrations, but then again, I don't watch TV or read the paper, and wouldn't know a protest from a small gathering if I saw one. Malawi Muslims burning Bibles Reuters October 6, 2010 LILONGWE, Malawi -- Muslims in southern Malawi have been burning Bibles to protest their distribution in Islamic schools by Gideon's International, a Muslim Association of Malawi official said yesterday. The Bibles "annoyed some parents and other leaders, who have resorted to burning the holy books . . . in protest," said Sheik Imran Sharif. He said the burning of bibles was carried out by a few Muslim fanatics, and the association has ordered them to stop.                       Islam

VA. Man Arrested For Plotting DC Attacks October 27, 2010 - 1:33 PM by Mike Levine FOXNews A Virginia man has been arrested for allegedly trying to help Al Qaeda plan multiple bombings around the nation's capital, according to U.S. officials. Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., was arrested today by the FBI and charged with providing material support to terrorists and collecting information for a terrorist attack. “It’s chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks,” said Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Today’s arrest highlights ... our ability to find those seeking to harm U.S. citizens and neutralize them before they can act." According to an indictment filed in U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, between April 2010 and Oct. 25, Ahmed repeatedly met with individuals he thought were affiliated with Al Qaeda to ...

• THE WASHINGTON TIMES • October 25, 2010 WikiLeaks papers back Bush claims of Iran role in Iraq war The largest unauthorized disclosure of classified government documents in U.S. history confirms a long-standing assertion of President George W. Bush at the start of the 2007 troop surge: Iran was orchestrating one side of the Iraqi insurgency. Field reports made public by the website WikiLeaks on Friday show that U.S. military intelligence agencies had many strands of evidence revealing that Iran provided paramilitary training to Shiite Muslim insurgents at the height of the civil war in Iraq. In one case, the military circulated a Dec. 22, 2006, warning that a group known as Jaish al-Mahdi planned to kidnap U.S. troops. The man planning the operation, Sheik Azhar al-Dulaimi, was trained by Hezbollah terrorists near the Iranian city of Qom, the document stated. Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based militia that was founded, trained and funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. “This conf...

US Refutes South Korean Media Report About Naval Exercise Monday, October 25th, 2010 The U.S. military has refuted South Korean media reports that Seoul and Washington have called off plans to hold a major joint naval exercise in the Yellow Sea this month, because there were no such plans. A spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea told VOA Monday that no such exercise was set for this year. The spokesman said there is no exercise to cancel. The Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean government anonymous sources Sunday as saying an exercise involving a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier had been postponed to avoid tensions on the Korean peninsula during the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul. There was no official confirmation of the Yonhap report. The U.S. and South Korea have been holding a series of joint military exercises as a warning to North Korea after the sinking of a South Korean warship. An international investigation concluded that the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan with the loss of 4...

Two U.S. air marshals flee Brazil after being charged with assault By Mike M. Ahlers CNN October 22, 2010 Washington (CNN) -- Two U.S. air marshals who arrested the wife of a Brazilian judge on a flight to Rio de Janeiro -- and were themselves arrested and had their passports confiscated by Brazilian authorities -- fled the country using alternate travel documents rather than face what they believed to be trumped-up charges, sources said. The incident has impacted air marshal operations on flights to Brazil, officials said, and air marshals contacted by CNN said the case raises questions about Brazil's willingness to support future law enforcement actions by U.S. officials on international flights. The incident occurred on October 1 on Continental Flight 128 from Houston, Texas, to Rio de Janeiro. During the flight, a female passenger who appeared to be intoxicated tried to serve herself drinks by going to the plane's galley, one source said. The plane's crew asked air mars...

Rubbish crisis making us ill, say Naples residents October 23, 2010 Silvia Aloisi Reuters Clutching her sickly 1-1/2-year-old son, Anna Langella says the family doctor had this simple prescription for her: move somewhere else. Skip related content Langella says her toddler often vomits and she blames this on the foul smell and toxic waste piling up in a rubbish dump near her house in Terzigno, on the outskirts of Naples where the streets are strewn with mounds of garbage. "We have to keep the children inside, with the doors and windows shut, but even then it's not enough," she told Reuters. "It's terrible. The state has abandoned us." The dump was opened last year as a stop-gap solution for rubbish from Italy's third largest city, where organised crime, inefficiency and political opportunism have turned waste disposal into a chronic emergency. It is already full and plans to open a new one have provoked protests. After days of clashes between police and ...

A Brief History of NPR's Intolerance and Imbalance October 21, 2010 FoxNews.com From calling Tea Party members “Tea Baggers,” to saying that "the evaporation of 4 million" Christians would leave the world a better place, to suggesting that God could give former Sen. Jesse Helms or his family AIDS from a blood transfusion, NPR's personalities have said some pretty un-PC things in the past. A look at the record reveals no shortage of intolerant statements and unbalanced segments on the publicly sponsored network's airwaves. Here's an incomplete list of questionable and controversial content that has aired on NPR or has been uttered by its employees: -- In June, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said it was easy to see why some refer to NPR as "National Palestine Radio" following a June 2 segment hosted by Tom Ashbrook on the Gaza flotilla incident. The segment featured five guests -- none of whom defended Israel...

Apparently that has been determined .... Talk about 'sticking' around. Anatomist sells body parts online October 22, 2010 By Michelle Martin BERLIN (Reuters) - Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist famous for his controversial Body World exhibition displaying plastinated bodies, is now selling human and animal body parts -- even as jewelry -- online. The move has provoked strong condemnation from German churches which accuse him of degrading human dignity. A whole body from www.plastination-products.com costs about 70,000 euros ($97,400), torsos start at 55,644 euros and heads come in at around 22,000 euros each -- excluding postage and packaging. For those on a tighter budget, transparent body slices are available from 115 euros each. But these real body parts -- which have undergone plastination, a process which replaces water and fat with plastic for preservation purposes -- are not available to everyone. Only "qualified users" who can provide written proof that t...

Pretty shocking news statement.  Good question - WHY???? Friday 22 October 2010 RFI US to offer two billion dollars more military aid to Pakistan The United States will offer two billion dollars in fresh military assistance to Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday. The move comes after controversy over Pakistani intelligence relations with the Taliban.                                   Pakistan

On the RFI English website, an article titled: Are the French a Bunch of Lazy Slackers Some bits from that article: Under Strikes, the article states that no, France is not the leader of strikes, that award goes to Canada, and Denmark just had a bad strike worse than the French so the French can't be too bad, except throwing those bits into the argument don't change the fact that according to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions - France topped the list for number and length of strikes for 2005-2009. Hours worked is AMAZING.  The AVERAGE French worker works 1453 hours a year.  Which doesn't mean much to us unless we do a weekly average -  27 hours a week.  Life is hard! Retirement is confusing.  Presently they may retire at 60, down from 65 in 1982.  Work 27 hrs a week on average and retire at 60.  Life is hard.  The article goes on to confuse things a bit by stating that "At present French women can retire at the same ...

Interesting. Both of these writers are good.  For a brief moment I would be interested to know their background, because ... read the article and then ponder the last sentence.  It seems to me the article tells the facts, implies one thing, but heads off on another path only to return to it at the end. That the code is usually kept with the President, on him, but ... blah blah blah ... and now the policy is to verify that he does have it on him (or on the person of the holder of the football).  Now where could he have left them! Nuclear launch card was missing for months, new book says From Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, CNN October 22, 2010 (CNN) -- A former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says in a new book that while Bill Clinton was in the White House, a key component of the president's nuclear launch protocol went missing. "The codes were actually missing for months. This is a big deal," says Gen. Hugh Shelton. "We dodged a silver bullet." In his bo...

It really does sum it up pretty well. French strike to save 'birthright' of privileges Associated Press October 21, 2010 MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Battling for benefits is a tradition in the Gilly family, passed from generation to generation — as it is for families across the country. And that goes some way toward explaining why the protests against plans to raise France's retirement age have shown such determination and ferocity. For Gilly and many other Frenchmen and women, social benefits such as long vacations, state-subsidized health care and early retirement are more than just luxuries: They're seen as a birthright — an essential part of the identity of today's France. [THAT is the problem.  Who will pay you when you are on your vacation for two months, and when you retire at 60 and ... dumb bunnies.] The protest against a government plan to raise the retirement age to 62 has special meaning for five members of the Eric Gilly clan who are demonstrating in the ...

JUAN WILLIAMS: I Was Fired for Telling the Truth By Juan Williams October 21, 2010 FoxNews.com Yesterday NPR fired me for telling the truth. The truth is that I worry when I am getting on an airplane and see people dressed in garb that identifies them first and foremost as Muslims. This is not a bigoted statement. It is a statement of my feelings, my fears after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 by radical Muslims. In a debate with Bill O’Reilly I revealed my fears to set up the case for not making rash judgments about people of any faith. I pointed out that the Atlanta Olympic bomber -- as well as Timothy McVeigh and the people who protest against gay rights at military funerals -- are Christians but we journalists don’t identify them by their religion. And I made it clear that all Americans have to be careful not to let fears lead to the violation of anyone’s constitutional rights, be it to build a mosque, carry the Koran or drive a New York cab without the fear of having your throat sla...

Williams Firing Sparks Calls to Defund National Public Radi o Published October 21, 2010 FoxNews.com "I think the U.S. Congress should investigate NPR and consider cutting off their money," said Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also a Fox News contributor Gingrich called the firing "an act of total censorship." "I think the whole idea that if you honestly say how you feel about Islam -- what he said was very balanced, people should read what he actually said -- the idea that that's the excuse for National Public Radio to censor Juan Williams is an outrage and every listeners of NPR should be enraged that there's this kind of bias against an American," Gingrich said. NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller sent an internal memo Thursday seeking to clarify why Williams' contract was terminated, claiming that the remarks he made on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" weren't the problem, he was canned because he's bec...

Curse of the Gujjar marriage Oct 21, 2010, 12.01am IST The Times of India DHARWAD: In the marriage mandis of North Karnataka and Uttara Kannada, agents rule the roost, striking bargains with parents and selling innocence for hard cash. Here, women are a commodity and their price is fixed, depending on age and beauty. It is called a Gujjar marriage, and is the first link to the booming trafficking racket in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The victims are impoverished lower caste women, for who the marriage becomes the path to a brothel in Mumbai or North India. Police say they are aware of this problem, but are unable to act because they receive no complaints and no complainants have come forward so far. Only human rights and NGO activists alert people to the issue. Widely known as `Gujjar marriages' (also `Gurjara maduve' -- the word Gujjar here is not intended to refer to any community, but a practice, tradition and style of marriage) across North Karnataka ...