German Giants Flee Wall Street
By Eric Kelsey
With expensive accounting rules, an increased threat of litigation and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for some firms, the once prestigious New York Stock Exchange and other American markets have become unattractive to Germany’s biggest companies. Daimler and Deutsche Telekom have fled this year and the few remaining are likely to follow.
On June 18, the symbol of the German company Deutsche Telekom, DT, made its last run across the ticker at the New York Stock Exchange. Europe’s largest telecom company left the world’s biggest and most recognizable exchange after nearly 14 years of trading.
The company is currently in the process of delisting from all foreign exchanges and will soon only be traded on its home stock market in Frankfurt.
Deutsche Telekom is just the latest German blue chip to say goodbye to the American capital market. In an emblematic departure, Daimler, the first German firm to be listed in New York in 1993, officially quit trading on the NYSE on June 4, saying that it no longer needed a presence in New York to attract international investors. And Munich-based insurance and financial services giant Allianz abandoned the NYSE last fall.
The recent retreat of German firms from the American capital market has been nearly a decade in the making. Tighter regulations introduced by the United States government in the wake of the accounting scandals in the early 2000s brought extra oversight and added costs for foreign companies listed on the NYSE. Of the 11 firms on Germany’s DAX index of blue chip companies that were at one time listed on the NYSE, only four still remain: Deutsche Bank, Fresenius, SAP and Siemens.
Why German Firms Went to New York
“In the 1990s, there was a great euphoria for joining the American capital market, especially for mergers and acquisitions” says Rüdiger von Rosen, the managing director of the Deutsches Aktienenistitut, an association that represents publicly traded German companies.
The 1990s and early 2000s was the era of the mega merger on Wall Street, highlighted by the $81 billion merger of Exxon and Mobil in 1999, and the ill-fated $164 billion merger between AOL and Time Warner in 2000.
Daimler’s $36 billion marriage with Detroit automaker Chrysler, commenced in 1998, underscored the thought that a listing on the American capital market meant that German companies could compete with American rivals to gobble up competition and expand their international presence. Giant German firms like Siemens, Allianz and SAP could offer simple stock swaps to acquire other firms listed on American exchanges. Deutsche Telekom, for example, used its position on the NYSE to aquire a handful of mobile telephone operators and turn its T-Mobile subsidiary into the United States’ fourth-largest mobile carrier today.
A listing on the American capital markets also brought with it a certain prestige for foreign companies. In addition to offering German firms greater access to institutional investors, it also meant the firms would be closely monitored by Wall Street analysts, which in turn could attract new investors and establish a higher profile for the companies internationally.
All but three of 16 German companies that are or were at one time listed on the NYSE began trading on the exchange before 2002, riding the mergers and acquisitions wave of the 1990s — just before the US government stepped up compliance rules with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which became law on July 30 of that year.
Sarbanes-Oxley
The attractiveness of the American capital market to German firms began to erode with Sarbanes-Oxley. In the wake of accounting scandals at large US companies like Enron and WorldCom, the law tightened regulations on public companies listed on US stock exchanges.
Named for the law’s co-sponsors, Paul Sarbanes, a Democratic Senator from Maryland, and Michael Oxley, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, the law tightened accounting practices to prevent companies from cheating on investors. From the start, companies voiced their displeasure with the high costs required to comply with the reforms. In one provision, companies were obligated to hire an independent auditor to monitor and report on the company’s financial reporting. The regulation was meant to protect investors from fraud, create greater transparency of a firm’s risks and to expose accounting firms that were helping companies cook their own books.
Even so, “some companies have said that the American capital market is more attractive than before,” says Georg Stadtmann, a German professor of business and economics at the University of Southern Denmark who studies financial markets. “Accounting rules put a mechanism in place that makes companies suddenly aware of risky parts of their business.”…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
GM to Pay $3.5b for Fort Worth-Based AmeriCredit
Fort Worth’s AmeriCredit Corp. Thursday said General Motors has agreed to pay $3.5 billion for the finance company to help sell cars to consumers with less-than-perfect credit.
If completed, the deal would be yet another loss to Fort Worth’s stock of large publicly-traded companies. It doesn’t appear initially that much will change with AmeriCredit’s presence as GM said the finance company’s management will stay in place.
AmeriCredit, which targets car buyers with credit scores below 650, will enter the auto leasing business after the transaction closes in the fourth quarter to expand beyond its traditional auto loan business.
“This acquisition supports our efforts to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles by expanding the financing options we can offer to consumers who want to buy GM vehicles,” said GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ed Whitacre, in a release Thursday morning. “Adding AmeriCredit to our team will improve our competitiveness in auto financing offerings, and I am very pleased to have them on board.”
The $3.5 billion cash offer represents a 24 percent increase over Americredit’s Wednesday closing price. Its shares soared in early trading, up $4.34 to $24.04. The shares had traded as high as $26.49 in April.
Fort Worth has lost XTO Energy Inc. to ExxonMobil Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to Berkshire Hathaway, among other high-profile acquisitions of public companies in the past year.
AmeriCredit already has relationships with 4,000 GM dealers. It will continue to finance cars through non-GM dealerships under the terms of the deal; it has 800,000 customers and $10 billion in receivables.
AmeriCredit has weathered the cash crunch particularly well compared to other “subprime” lending companies. Its shares have risen the most among finance companies this year, rising 22 percent, according to Smartrend research.
For GM, AmeriCredit fills a gap in its financing portfolio. GM’s former credit arm, GMAC, is now called Ally Bank and has struggled with mortgage investments. AmeriCredit will allow more buyers to have a chance to own GM cars because of its expertise in subprime lending, which can be profitable in strong economic times because of the higher interest rates customers pay.
GM leases fewer of its cars than rivals and lends to fewer subprime customers. Subprime loans dropped 6.3 percent industry-wide, according to Edmunds.com research.
“Chrysler and GM are aware of this trend and are anxious to tap into buyers presumably shut out of the market because of their credit scores,” asserted Bill Visnic in a report released through AutoObserver.com. “In this depressed auto sales market, deep sub-prime and sub-prime borrowers represent a market that might help generate the increased sales volume they need to fuel their post-bankruptcy revivals.”
For GM, the acquisition helps polish its image to investors as it moves close to an initial public offering that will help pay back the U.S. Treasury, which still owns 61 percent of the reorganized company. In a conference call with analysts, GM said it started talking with AmeriCredit about a month ago and feels that the automakers’ strong balance sheet makes the cash deal palatable.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Obama is Stripping National Defense
There is no single duty that a President has as Commander-in-Chief that is more important than ensuring the nation’s engines of defense remain at a level that will deter and defend against any attack upon America or its allies.
How is that going under the Obama Administration? As this is being written, the U.S. Air Force and Navy are seeking alternative ways of powering their aircraft after having been ordered to cut fuel costs by $20 billion. The Obama solution includes an August test flight of the C-17 transport aircraft attempt to fly missions on tallow, which is a nice way of describing animal fat.
The push for biofuels notwithstanding, the notion approaches absurdity considering the fact that, beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, there are millions of untapped barrels of oil to power military aircraft. The absurdity is compounded by the White House attempt to shut down deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which has been struck down by the courts not once, but twice.
My interest in the status of our air defense was piqued while watching a recent C-SPAN broadcast of some Senate committee discussing funding of the C-17. I paid scant attention until one senator said, “We don’t have the money.” Suffice to say, that caught my attention.
Of course we have the money! There are billions unspent in the failed “stimulus” act and millions more wasted weekly across the spectrum of a government that funds all manner of idiotic “research” programs of dubious value. Some $20 million was just spent on signs touting construction projects funded by the stimulus bill.
As Frank Gaffney, the founder and president of the Center for Security Policy, recently noted, “Barack Obama came to office promising to ‘fundamentally transform’ America.” Gaffney and others are increasingly concerned that Obama is “changing the United States from ‘the world’s sole superpower’ to a nation that may require the permission, or at least the help, of others to project power and defend its interests around the globe.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Zapatero Wants More Effort From High Income Brackets
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 21 — Spanish premier Jose’ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has today reiterated the government’s intention to request “more efforts” from the country’s citizens “with high economic capacity” as concerns a possible increase in income tax or the creation of a tax for the wealthy in the 2011 budget. “If there is the need to ask for more efforts from Spanish citizens, then I will do it within the budget law,” said Zapatero in Congress in response to a question by the leader of the opposition party PP, Mariano Rajoy.
The latter had once again criticised the government for cuts to social services and civil servants’ salaries as well as the elimination of baby bonuses. “Its social policy can be summed up by saying that when it took office unemployment was at 10% and now it has almost doubled,” said Rajoy.
Zapatero noted that the socialist government had increased social spending by 50% since taking office in 2004, “even faced as it is with such a serious crisis. It is true that we have asked for efforts from citizens, especially one part, in order to meet austerity and savings targets. And austerity and reforms will be the objectives of the budget bill.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Average Household Spends £18,500 on Bills Every Year as Cost of Living Soars
It is a final demand that will come as a shock to most of us — we will pay out almost £1million to cover essential bills during our adult lives.
Currently we pay an average of £1,541.91 for gas, electricity, telephone, mortgage or rent and food.
This equates to £18,502.86 a year, or £962,148.72 between the ages of 18 and 70.
According to the price comparison website confused.com, which questioned 3,000 people, the annual figure has risen by £642.12 in the past 12 months, up by some 3.5 per cent.
Given that millions of private sector workers have suffered a pay freeze or reduced income due to a cut in hours, the rises are putting a real squeeze on living standards.
Just this week it emerged BT is putting up landline call charges by 10 per cent to counter the effect of customers switching to mobile or internet calls.
And despite gas and electricity bills being lower than a year ago, suppliers stand accused of failing to pass on the full benefit of falls in wholesale prices.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Dying Media Writes Its Own Obituary
Rise of the internet has only accelerated media bias
The high cost of producing a widely read newspaper, a television station or a radio station, has traditionally limited ownership and injected the owner’s biases into the outlet. But the rise of a professional media class in America has made the owner’s views almost redundant, in the same way that unions have ensured that every business they work for will be used to serve the interests of the Democratic party. While some reporters may still report, overwhelmingly the members of the professional media class do not report, they advocate.
That is why the rise of the internet has only accelerated media bias, as advocacy journalists are less worried about owners and working for a single outlet, and instead focus on maintaining political solidarity with their professional colleagues. A journalist no longer thinks in terms of working for the same newspaper for 20 or 30 years. He knows that by then there probably won’t even be any newspapers. A month from now he’ll be in a different outlet. Two months from that, he might be printed in three others, one of them a media blog. Three months from now he may be doing video blogs for Time Magazine. The unstable nature of the market means that the journalist is less concerned with the owners, and much more with his professional standing with the colleagues who will hire him or recommend him for jobs. And today professional standing means political reliability, just as it did in the Soviet Union.
Journalist is only one of the more public revelations about that private political solidarity, which these days determines the content of the news we are allowed to read. That boys and girls media club serves as an unofficial union in an unstable marketplace that is bounded not by accomplishment or educational credentials, but by pulling together for a common political cause. Whether it was plotting to bring down Bush or raise up Obama, to push nationalization of health care or internationalization of national security— that unofficial fraternity and sorority of advocacy journalists has turned media bias into their reason for being. They have turned into the definition of what a journalist should be.
The difference between a reporter and an advocate, is that the former reports on events, while the latter uses events as props in his message. Where a reporter tries to learn what happened, the advocate tries to understand how he can use that event in his narrative. The advocate has less in common with the reporter, than he does with an ad executive. Like the ad executive looking at a box of chocolate, the advocate looks at an event and decides how he can use it to sell his message.
[…]
The politicization of all forms of media is the result of an understanding that places political advocacy above any notion of objective truth or individual rights. It is fanaticism and propaganda in a suit and tie, sometimes even with an American flag placed around the border. Its not so secret belief is that the American people are stupid, that their culture is stupid and that their opinions can only be improved through direct programming from newspapers, books, radio, television, websites and any other source that can deliver political messages to them, whether they are disguised as news or entertainment.
Americans today are living surrounded by as much propaganda as any North Korean. The difference is that the propaganda is subtler because it is less standardized by any regulatory body or fear of prison sentences. But that too is beginning to change. The Obama Administration has defined its idea of the media’s role as being the purveyor of its talking points, nothing more. Obama’s avoidance of press conferences, and unwillingness to grant access to the media, makes it clear that he wants to keep them on a short leash. Like most totalitarian organizations, the Obama Administration is not interested in being asked questions, only in making sure that their propaganda is distributed in a timely and consistent fashion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Pull Plug on Climate Bill
Senate Democrats pulled the plug on climate legislation Thursday, pushing the issue off into an uncertain future ahead of midterm elections where President Barack Obama’s party is girding for a drubbing.
Rather than a long-awaited measure capping greenhouse gases — or even a more limited bill directed only at electric utilities — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will move forward next week on a bipartisan energy-only bill that responds to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and contains other more popular energy items.
“It’s easy to count to 60,” Reid said. “I could do it by the time I was in eighth grade. My point is this, we know where we are. We know we don’t have the votes [for a bill capping emissions]. This is a step forward.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Direct Energy to Debut Prepaid Plan
Direct Energy will announce a prepaid electricity plan today, eliminating the risk to the company of serving customers with bad credit.
At 10.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, Direct’s prepaid offer is far cheaper than some others in the market, yet still higher than the rates customers can get if they have good credit or can afford to pay a deposit.
On a prepaid plan, a customer doesn’t pay a deposit or go through a credit check at all. The customer simply pays for electricity before using it.
“It provides a lot of flexibility and really enables consumers to think about a choice that they may not otherwise have,” said Direct Energy vice president of Jim Steffes.
With the new digital meters, Direct can accurately measure the amount of electricity a customer uses, quickly cut the customer off if the account hits zero, then turn the customer back on within hours of a fresh payment.
Consumer advocates say prepaid plans put customers at a disadvantage.
“You’re providing two different levels of customer protection,” said Carol Biedrzycki, executive director of Texas Ratepayers’ Organization to Save Energy.
Retailers extend credit to regular customers, while prepaid customers must constantly monitor their accounts to prevent getting cut off, she said.
“There is no risk to the company associated with a prepay account,” she said.
Some prepaid plans came under fire from the Public Utility Commission because the companies signed up customers who didn’t have digital meters.
The new meters measure electricity usage every 15 minutes. Without the technology, a company can only estimate when a customer’s payment runs out…
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Eyewitness Examples Proving Tea Parties Not Racist
I’m black tea party patriot Lloyd Marcus. I have attended over 200 tea parties nationwide as a spokesperson and performing my “American Tea Party Anthem” on the Tea Party Express.
Incredibly, liberal radio interviewers and their callers and liberal TV interviewers who have not attended a single tea party have vigorously confronted me with accusations of unabated racism in the tea parties. Their beliefs and impression of the tea parties are based on undocumented lies and hearsay shamelessly reported by the liberal mainstream media as fact. Apparently the Obama administration and his media minions are counting on the old adage being true, “Tell a lie long enough and it becomes true.”
Well folks, I was there, live, in person, at over 200 tea parties; experiencing the mood and tone of the events and the types of people who attend them. Tea Party attendees are a broad mix of people, granted mostly white, who disagree with Obama’s socialist agenda, not his skin color.
Accusers attack, “Why are blacks not attending the tea parties?” During my tea party travels, I have not encountered a single white security guard at rally entrances with orders to “Keep blacks out.” Thus, I can only conclude most of my fellow blacks are either frighten to come out of the closet to oppose socialism and express love for their country or they are socialist or racist sheep committed to following their black Sheppard no matter what.
Here are 5 of my eyewitness accounts and personal experiences proving the tea parties are not racist.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas-Linked Group Behind ‘Muslim’ Day at Six Flags
Critics alarmed over organization’s use of ‘family’ event
A “Muslim Family Day” scheduled Sept. 12 for Six Flags’ Chicago park has prompted criticism from Fox News’ and Premier Radio Networks’ host Glenn Beck, who calls it lacking in taste.
His comments were publicized in a video posted by Media Matters, which challenged his critique by arguing, “Six Flags periodically hosts christian [sic] concerts at their parks.”
But the blogger at Creeping Shariah and Americans Against Hate chief Joe Kaufman said while the event itself may be insignificant, the sponsor is a worry.
The Muslim Family Day website identifies the group as the Islamic Circle of North America, or ICNA.
“Does Six Flags have any idea who ICNA is or what ICNA represents?” asked the Creeping Shariah blog author. “Here is just a little background…”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is This Man Obama’s Worst Nightmare?
‘The One’ may have met his match in emerging presidential candidate
He could be President Obama’s worst nightmare — a business mastermind, a natural problem solver and a black man of “substance” who says he would “take the race card off the table” in a challenge against Obama as the GOP presidential candidate in 2012.
Has Obama met his match?
“We need a realistic candidate to run on the Republican ticket who can beat Barack Obama — not just beat the Democrats,” Herman Cain, an Atlanta radio talk-show host, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and 2004 Senate seeker, told WND. “We’ve also got to beat Barack Obama.”
He added, “Obama is a master of rhetoric. He is a master of deceptive language. And any white candidate who runs against him will be up against the race card. I take the race card off the table.”
Cain, a devout Christian, emphasized he is “prayerfully considering” a 2012 bid for the GOP nomination.
“I’m a man of faith, and I do believe in prayerful consideration of something this big,” he explained.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Newt Gingrich: Proposed Ground Zero Mosque is Religious “Double Standard”
There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.
The proposed “Cordoba House” overlooking the World Trade Center site — where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks — is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain — the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.
Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.
Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for “religious toleration” are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.
And they lecture us about tolerance.
If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.
We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million mega-mosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.
Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.
America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.
No mosque.
No self deception.
No surrender.
The time to take a stand is now — at this site on this issue.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Poll Numbers Down, Imaginary Racism Up
The Democrats are depressed about their collapsing poll numbers, so it’s time to start calling conservatives “racist.”
As we now know from the Journolist list-serv, where hundreds of liberal journalists chat with one another, and which was leaked to Daily Caller this week, journalists cry “racism” whenever they need to distract from bad news for Obama. (Ironically, this story did not make headlines.)
When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal broke during the 2008 campaign, the first response of Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent was to demand that they start randomly picking conservatives — “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
Ackerman, frequent guest on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” continued on Journolist:
“What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.”
This is what “racism” has come to in America. Democrats are in trouble, so they say “let’s call conservatives racists.” We always knew it, but the Journolist postings gave us the smoking gun.
This explains why we’ve heard so much about Tea Partiers being “racists” lately.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Adviser: U.S. ‘Ideal Place for Renewal of Islam’
Religion aide closely linked to imam seeking to build Ground Zero mosque
A religion adviser to President Obama has close ties to the imam who wants to build a 13-story Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero. The two have been documented together discussing America as “the ideal place for a renewal of Islam,“ WND has learned.
In February, Obama named a Chicago Muslim, Eboo Patel, to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Patel is the founder and executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, which says it promotes pluralism by teaming people of different faiths on service projects.
[…]
Patel boasts of a “critical mass” of Muslims in the U.S.
“Islam is a religion that has always been revitalized by its migration,” he wrote. “America is a nation that has been constantly rejuvenated by immigrants. There is now a critical mass of Muslims in America.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Paladino Vows ‘Eminent Domain’ For Ground Zero-Area Mosque
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino is upping the ante in the debate over the planned ground zero-area mosque, saying in a new statewide radio ad that he would use the governmental power of eminent domain to prevent the project from happening.
This goes to one of the central issues of the debate that’s raged around the mosque, which is a point made succinctly by Rep. Pete King recently: He doesn’t support the project but legally sees no way to stop it.
The ad lays out Paladino, a Buffalo-area real estate developer, against Democrat Andrew Cuomo, who has defended the right of the mosque to exist under religious freedom.
From the news release:
“As governor I will use the power of eminent domain to stop this mosque and make the site a war memorial instead of a monument to those who attacked our country,” Paladino says in the spot.
“Andrew Cuomo supports the mosque,” Paladino said. “He says it is about religious freedom and he says the mosque construction should proceed. I say it is disrespectful to the thousands who died on Sept. 11 and their families, insulting to the thousands of troops who’ve been killed or injured in the ensuing wars and an affront to American people. And it must be stopped.”
“There is little to no democracy in the Middle East other than Israel. The Islamic fundamentalists are fascists — women have limited rights, there is no free speech or freedom of expression, and citizens are subject to the often barbaric Sharia Law. I oppose a mosque near the site of ground zero, not because of race, but because of the ideology of the Islamic fundamentalists,” Paladino said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rangel Charged With Multiple Ethics Violations
A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, a blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and an election-year headache for Democrats.
The committee did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in House seniority. The announcement by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where a separate eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Red Press: Make Fox News Shut Up!
A UCLA law professor, Jonathan Zasloff, actually thinks the federal government can and should simply “yank” Fox News off the air.
We never hear similar arguments from the other side. No prominent conservative has demanded that MSNBC be taken off the air. Actually, we’d miss the hilarity. I never heard any Tea Partier or conservative commentator call for the de-licensing of Air America. Sure, we actually get how business works and knew it was only a matter of time, but nobody was trying to stop crazy people from occupying the air waves.
The difference comes from the very core of our beings. Liberal Moscow-on-the-Potomac operatives have no use for free speech unless it serves their cause. Our side never considers the possibility of forcing the opposition to shut up. It’s not in our DNA. Point and laugh—sure. Just like when we see a Smart Car. But force them to be silent? That’s never on the table.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Virginia Man Arrested on Charges He Aided Terror Group
The Virginia man who warned on a radical Islamic website that the creators of the cartoon series “South Park” will be targeted for death for their caricature of the Prophet Muhammad has been arrested on charges that he provided material support to the terrorist organization Al-Shabab, federal officials said Wednesday.
Zachary Adam Chesser, aka Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, admitted to federal agents that he attempted on two occasions to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shabab as a foreign fighter. After he was stopped from boarding a flight from New York to Uganda on July 10, Chesser, 20, allegedly admitted that he intended to travel from Uganda to Somalia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Your Health Records Available to Millions
Including sensitive details about diseases, prescriptions, addictions, mental illness
Would American citizens object if they knew 4 million health-related businesses distributed private details about their mental illnesses, cancer diagnoses, sexually transmitted diseases, prescriptions, addictions and sensitive genetic information?
Psychoanalyst Dr. Deborah Peel told WND most patients don’t know that their highly sensitive information is being shared with thousands of law-enforcement agencies, insurance brokers, life and health insurance companies, credit bureaus, transcription vendors, disease registries, employers and banks every day — and the data can be used to discriminate against Americans.
“Part of the language that keeps people assured is they say things like, ‘No unauthorized users can see your information.’ That sounds pretty good,” she said. “The problem is, they don’t tell you how many authorized users there are.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Affirmative Action Policy Faces Review
The federal government has ordered a review of its affirmative action policy one day after a woman complained that she couldn’t apply for a public service position because she’s Caucasian.
Sara Landriault of Kemptville, Ont., told the media Wednesday that she applied online for an administrative assistant job with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and was asked by the online application if she was white, aboriginal or a visible minority. When she answered white, she said a message informed her she did not meet the criteria and could no longer proceed.
Treasury Board President Stockwell Day said no Canadian should be barred from a federal job because of race or ethnicity.
“While we support diversity in the public service, we want to ensure that no Canadian is barred from opportunities in the public service based on race or ethnicity,” Day said in a statement.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who was also involved in the decision to review the government’s hiring practices, which give priority to qualified applicants from minority groups, said everyone should be considered for federal jobs.
“We are in favour of appropriate diversity in the public service and reasonable efforts to achieve it, but we don’t think any Canadians should be excluded from applying within their government,” he told CBC News. “It’s OK to encourage people from different backgrounds to apply but in our judgment it goes too far to tell people that if they are not of a particular race or ethnicity they cannot apply [for a job] that is actually funded by their tax dollars.”
But he said the review wouldn’t affect any particular cases, including Landriault’s.
Landriault, who is the founder of the International Family Childcare Association and has a picture of herself with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the association’s website, said that no one from the government has contacted her since she went public with her story.
The government’s latest figures show more women, aboriginals and visible minorities worked in the public service in 2009 than the year before. The number of people with disabilities stayed the same in the same periods.
As of March 2009, women made up 54.7 per cent of the federal workforce, aboriginals made up 4.5 per cent, people with disabilities made up 5.9 per cent and visible minorities made up 9.8 per cent.
| — Hat tip: SF | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Conservative MP Calls for a ‘Fat Tax’
Overweight people and others who pursue unhealthy lifestyles should have to pay more into Germany’s healthcare system to cover the extra costs they create, a conservative politician said on Thursday.
Marco Wanderwitz, a federal MP from the state of Saxony and head of the conservative Christian Democrats’ group of young parliamentarians, said the health costs created by fat people should not forever be borne by the rest of the community.
“The question must be admitted whether the immense costs that, for example, arise from excessive consumption of food, can be permanently paid out of the consolidated health system,” he told daily Bild.
“I think it’s sensible that people who knowingly live unhealthily carry a responsibility for it in a financial respect.”
Wanderwitz, 34, describes himself on his website as a keen squash and football player.
Health economist Jürgen Wasem joined the call, demanding that Germany consider a “chocolate tax.”
“One should, as with tobacco, tax the purchase of unhealthy consumer goods at a higher rate and partly maintain the health system. That applies to alcohol, chocolate or risky sporting equipment such as hang-gliders.”
According to the Bild report, one study has found that fat people cost the health system €17 billion a year.
Opposition Social Democrats health spokesman Karl Lauterbach sharply rejected the idea that the overweight should pay higher contributions to the statutory health insurance system, describing it as an idiotic suggestion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Real Estate Scandal, Reciprocal ND-Pasok Accusations
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JULY 22 — There is a great deal of tension between the two major Greek political parties following the severe restrictive measures — bail set at 400,000 euros and banned from leaving the country — handed down by the Athens court to Giannis Angelou, close collaborator of former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, among those accused in relation to the Vatopedi scandal. At the centre of the Vatopedi scandal is one of the Mount Athos monasteries, two monks — Arsenios and Efraim — and a magistrate, who have already been given a suspended sentence of 15 months in jail for having fraudulently managed a real estate transaction which ended with the illegitimate attribution to the monastery of state-owned property, which was then sold to the state in exchange for real estate of a higher value. According to the prosecution, also allegedly involved were representatives of the previous government, including Angelou, head of Karamanlis’ political office when the later was at the head of the government. During a lengthy witness statement before the judge, Angelou tried to keep the former premier entirely out of the matter, saying he was the “victim of political maneuvering” and saying that repeated — but unsuccessful — attempts had been made to get at Karamanlis. The amount of bail set by the judge led to harsh reactions from the New Democracy Party which, according to many of its representatives, has come to the defence of Angelou and, therefore, of Karamanlis. New Democracy spokesman Panos Panajiotopoulos said that “the only thing that Pasok cares about is to trick the public, to make the innocent seem guilty and to take the Greek public’s attention away from the enormous mistakes and failures of its government.” Even those within Karamanlis’ closest circle have accused Pasok, the party under Premier Papandreou, of “systematically organising political persecutions.” In trying to distance himself from the judge’s decision, government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis reiterated the need for everyone to respect the independence of the judiciary. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Guantanamo: Third Former Detainee Arrives in Spain
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 22 — Spain has taken in an Afghan national from the Guantanamo prison. He is the third former Guantanamo detainee to come to Spain following a Palestinian and a Yemenite who arrived in the country over the past few weeks, according to a statement released by the Interior Ministry.
The former detainee does not have any judicial proceedings pending for terrorism either in Spain or the rest of the EU or the United States — and none in his home country either. He will live in Spain with a residency and work permit granted as part of the Organic Law on the Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners.
(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Is Germany’s Left Party a Threat to Democracy?
A top court in Germany has ruled that the country’s domestic intelligence agency may monitor the far-left Left Party. Commentators on Thursday argue that the party may have many failings, but a desire to overthrow democracy isn’t one of them.
The far-left Left Party has long strived to rid itself of its pariah status in German politics. Slowly but surely the amalgamation of former East German communists, disaffected former Social Democrats and western German Marxists has turned itself into an important fixture on the political landscape.
In the last national election it garnered 12 percent of the vote, it is the most popular party in eastern Germany, and is in coalitions with the Social Democrats in the regional governments of Berlin and Brandenburg. But at a national level, potential allies still regard it as not fit to govern.
On Wednesday the party suffered a blow to its attempt to forge a more moderate image when a top court ruled that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency had the right to monitor a prominent member. The Federal Administrative Court ruled that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) could continue to observe Bodo Ramelow, leader of the Left Party in the eastern state of Thuringia. The agency is charged with observing the activities of those deemed a threat to the constitution, including neo-Nazis and Islamists.
The Left Party is furious to have been tarred with the same brush. While the court noted that it did not believe that Ramelow himself wanted to overthrow the state, it argued that there were extreme-left groupings within the party, such as the Communist Platform or the Marxist Forum, which had anti-constitutional tendencies. The court was also concerned that the party tolerates extreme-left violence. The BfV observation does not include spying but rather allows the agency to monitor Ramelow’s public statements and writings. The court also ruled that other members of the party could be similarly observed. (The Left Party is also kept under observation at the state level, but only in some states, mostly in western Germany.)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Start Building Nuclear Plants in 2-3 Yrs
(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON, JULY 21 — Italy may be “laying the first stone” of its nuclear energy system “within two-three years”, said Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo on the fringes of a Washington press conference held with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu as part of Clean Energy, in which 24 Environment Ministers took part.
Clean energy is “the” theme of the future, according to Prestigiacomo, who said that to deal with it also nuclear energy must be taken into consideration. This is why Italy has gone to the US “to understand better and find out more” in order to draw up an Italian path towards nuclear energy production. Minister Prestigiacomo said that “we are moving forward. We have spent two years to get the Security Agency up and running, but I would say we have now managed it. Within two or maximum of three years we will be able to lay the first stone of a new nuclear power plant.” There are a number of problems to be dealt with, and especially that of selecting the sites, but the minister said that “it is not up to the government to choose the sites. The government selects the criteria which a nuclear power plant must meet but private companies will be the ones to make the proposals. Unfortunately, in Italy there is much confusion over the issue of nuclear energy.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Paintings With Pigs Removed From Hospitals
LEERDAM, 23/07/10 — Three paintings depicting pigs have been pre-emptively removed from a hospital in Leerdam because they might offend Muslims.
One patient, not actually himself a Muslim, made a complaint about the paintings because he wanted to avoid Muslims having confrontations with the pigs. The leadership of the healthcare institution, the Linge Polyclinic, thereupon decided to remove the paintings immediately, Algemeen Dagblad newspaper reports.
The artist, Sylvia Bosch, is astounded. “One week earlier, I had an e-mail from the clinic saying that they were getting nice reactions. After a single complaint, they had to be taken away immediately.”
The Linge Polyclinic has stated that the pictures were removed because “all visitors must feel comfortable in the institution”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Women Vote to Keep Their Tops On
Swedes, long famous round the world for their relaxed attitude to nudity, are now some of Europe’s biggest prudes, according to a new survey.
While Italians, Spaniards, Brits and Germans were unperturbed about the idea of women taking their tops off on the beach, Swedes were far less at ease with the practice, according to a survey of 3,000 people by flight website Skyscanner.
Ninety-nine percent of Germans were in favour of topless female sunbathing, but only 84 percent of Swedes agreed, and a mere 67 percent of Swedish women thought it was acceptable to let it all hang out at the beach.
The findings paint a picture of a much more prudish Sweden than the one portrayed in Ingmar Bergman films like Summer with Monika, where innocent naked frolics upset moral guardians abroad.
Now, even traditionally prudish Americans are more relaxed about stripping off on the beach than people from Bergman’s homeland, according to the survey.
Overall, 96 percent of men and 87 percent of women thought it was acceptable for women to take their tops off on the beach. 98 percent of respondents thought it was alright for men to take their tops off on the beach, although only 18 percent thought it was acceptable in a shop.
“We Swedes think we’ve got a very liberal and relaxed attitude to nudity, but it turns out that many other countries are more positive to topless sunbathing than we are,” said Kristin Andersson, manager of Skyscanner Scandinavia.
“Regardless of our own attitudes, the important thing is to respect those around us and to be aware of local customs and cultures, so that we don’t cause outrage or upset anyone,” she said.
Sweden has in recent years been the home to activists pushing for increased acceptance of topless sunbathing and swimming. The network Bara Bröst (meaning both “Just Breasts” and “Bare Breasts”) argued that women should be allowed to take off their bikini tops at public swimming baths. The network got international attention for a number of bare-breasted demonstrations at Swedish swimming baths.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Muslim Women Marched Out of Swimming Pool in French Holiday Village Because They Were Wearing Burkinis
Two Muslim women were ordered out of a swimming pool at a French holiday village because they were wearing ‘burkinis’.
The pair leapt into the water wearing the specialised bathing suits that covered their entire bodies, including a veil over the head.
The incident comes just ten days after French MPs voted to impose a full ban on wearing a burka.
The new law, which brands the garment ‘an insult to the country’s values’, means women will be fined or jailed for hiding their faces in public.
The women at the Rives des Corbieres holiday camp in Port Leucate, southern France, were told the rules stated only swimming costumes may be worn in the water.
They were asked to either change into conventional bikinis or one-piece costumes or leave the swimming pool.
Police were then called to the drama on Wednesday after the husband of one of the women threatened the pool’s lifeguard with a bowling ball.
A holiday camp spokesman said: ‘The husbands became very irate that their wives were not allowed to swim with their bodies covered, and one of them threatened violence.
‘Police were called and he eventually backed down. The two Muslim couples left the pool area and no charges were brought.’
Regional government official Marie-Paule Bardeche said: ‘This is an issue stemming from the holiday centre’s own regulations.
‘They state men and women must wear ordinary swimwear for hygiene reasons. Men are not even allowed to wear long shorts in the water.’
Last year a Muslim woman was banned from wearing a burkini at a public swimming pool also for hygiene reasons.
She later failed in her bid to sue the council in the Paris suburb for discrimination.
Police have this year also stopped and fined two women for wearing a burka while driving because the garb impaired their field of vision.
France has now become the second country in Europe after Belgium to outlaw Muslim veil that hides the face.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has already described the burka as a ‘sign of debasement’.
His immigration minister Eric Besson called it ‘a walking coffin’.
The law was passed with an almost total majority of 335 to one MPs in the Paris parliament last week.
It must now be rubber-stamped by the Senate in September and is expected to come into force by spring next year.
The law will create a new offence of ‘incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender’.
It will state: ‘No-one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face.’
Under the new rules, women who hide their faces and husbands who force them to do so will both face fines and jail terms.
Men can be fined up to £25,000 and jailed for a year for forcing their wives to wear a burka.
Women will face a smaller fine of around £130 because they are ‘often victims who are not given any choice’, the law states.
Repeat offenders who persistently refused to pay their fines will be sent to prison.
If caught wearing a burka, a woman will not be ‘unveiled’ in the street but instead taken to a police station to be formally identified.
The law will also apply to Muslim tourists — including the thousands of wealthy Middle Eastern visitors to the French capital every year.
Penalties will not be imposed until the law has been in operation for six months, to allow burka-wearers to adapt to the ban.
The new law comes comes after a year of heated debate on burkas and niqabs that is growing in Europe, and mounting public tensions over the issue.
There is also widespread support for a similar ban in the Netherlands, while Switzerland recently voted to ban the construction of new minarets on mosques.
Spain recently rejected a ban on the burka, and there are calls for a similar ban in Britain.
France has already banned wearing any relgious garb such as veils, Jewish skullcaps and crucifixes in schools.
Only around 5,000 women among France’s five million strong population, the largest in Europe, wear full Muslim face veils in public.
But despite widespread support for a full ban, their highest legal body the Council of State has warned any legislation could be overturned by European human rights laws.
A French Council of State spokesman said in March: ‘There appears to be no legally unchallengeable justification for carrying out such a ban.’
Left-wing politicians across Europe have also warned that a law banning the burka could inflame tensions in Muslim communities.
And human rights group Amnesty International has voiced its strong opposition to countries banning the burka.
The organisation’s Interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone said: ‘A general ban on the wearing of full-face veils would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who choose to express their identity or beliefs in this way.’
Al Qaeda terrorists have also vowed revenge on France if it banned the burka on its streets.
Leaders of Al Qaeda’s North African network wrote on an Islamic extremist website: ‘We will seek dreadful revenge on France by all means at our disposal, for the honour of our daughters and sisters.’
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Crook Frogmarched to Police Station With ‘Thief’ Sign Around His Neck Sues Employer for £90,000 for ‘Being Humiliated’
A man who was marched to the police station with a sign round his neck branding him a ‘thief’ is suing the boss he stole from for an estimated £90,000 for the humiliation he suffered.
Mark Gilbert, 41, was paraded through the streets with a homemade cardboard sign strung around his neck saying ‘THIEF. I stole £845 am on my way to the police station’.
His employer Simon Cremer, 46, forced him to walk to the police station in October 2008 after discovering the father-of-three had written out a cheque for himself and taken it to Cash Converters.
Now Gilbert, who admitted his crime to police and was let off with a caution, is to sue Mr Cremer, who runs a floor-fitting firm, for a staggering £90,000, claiming he was left traumatised and unable to work.
Following the frog-marching incident through the streets of Witham, Essex, Mr Cremer, his brother Andrew, 42, and two colleagues were hauled into court accused of false imprisonment. However, the case against them was later dropped.
Mr Cremer, a father-of-two from Little Maplestead, said: ‘He has put in a civil claim form which is in the hands of my solicitor. His claim is for the trauma, distress and psychological help he needed.
‘He’s claiming he’s not be able to work for the last two years because of the trauma and distress he has suffered.
‘I don’t think it is right you and steal from someone and then sue them, that is not justice.
‘We have got 14 days to launch a counter claim. We’ve got to look to whether I can afford to fight the case. It costs £25,000 just to fight it and I haven’t got that sort of money laying around.’
He added: ‘It’s basically morals or money. If I fight him the solicitors bill will be huge and he only has to be awarded a pound to win, or I make him an offer to make it go away at a quarter of the price. What a moral dilemma
“He’s got £22,000 insurance cover to pay for his legal costs. It adds insult to injury.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Parents’ Fury as Teenage Daughter Dies Just Days After Doctors Sent Her Home and ‘Told Her to Take Paracetamol’
A schoolgirl suffered multiple organ failure and four heart attacks just days after doctors sent her home with paracetamol and told her to take ‘plenty of rest’, an inquest heard.
Amy Carter, 15, begged doctors not to discharge her, telling them ‘I’m dying’ but medics assured her she would be fine.
She developed septicaemia after being released by doctors who had diagnosed her with glandular fever.
Two days later on Christmas Eve, Amy — who had not been able to eat for 19 days and weighed just six stone — was taken to hospital and died hours later.
She developed septicaemia after being released by doctors who had diagnosed her with glandular fever, an inquest heard.
A post-mortem examination revealed Amy, from Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, died from glandular fever and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome — a lethal combination of conditions never before seen in a patient.
[…]
Amy was discharged by the Worcestershire Royal Hospital before results of blood tests and a throat swab were known — the swab later revealed bacteria that entered her bloodstream and triggered septicaemia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
VVD, PvdA Agree: Cabinet With PVV Next Option
THE HAGUE, 23/07/10 — The cabinet formation process should now look emphatically at a rightwing cabinet, in the view of conservative (VVD) leader Mark Rutte. Labour (PvdA) agrees.
Rutte was the first of a long list of parliamentary leaders being received in turn yesterday and today by informateur Ruud Lubbers. After Rutte yesterday came Job Cohen of Labour (PvdA), Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom (PVV) and Femke Halsema of the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks).
Cohen agreed that a rightwing cabinet is in the picture. “It is not bad if this is looked at thoroughly. It must be investigated, otherwise it will continue to hover above the market.”
PVV leader Geert Wilders said he wants to govern with VVD and CDA. If this should not succeed, he is willing to look at supporting a minority VVD-CDA cabinet from the opposition. GroenLinks leader Femke Halsema said she would not object to VVD-PVV-CDA if this was a parliamentary majority’s preferred choice.
The parliamentary leaders of the other parties will have their turn today. The most important of these is Christian democratic (CDA) leader Maxime Verhagen. He would normally already have been called yesterday but this was postponed due to his stay at a vacation address in the Netherlands Antilles.
Rutte has always expressed a preference for a rightwing cabinet of VVD, PVV and CDA., as has PVV leader Wilders. Verhagen however earlier found this option not discussible, largely due to the PVV’s anti-Islam agenda.
Lubbers was summoned by Queen Beatrix on Wednesday evening. This, insiders say was an autonomous choice by the monarch and her advisors. The Queen asked the former CDA prime minister to be informateur, as successor to Uri Rosenthal and Jacques Wallage.
Lubbers announced at a press conference yesterday that he would speak to all parliamentary leaders again in the next two days. Lubbers has been appointed from his function as Minister of State. Still, commentators regard his CDA background as an attempt to help involve CDA in talks.
Rosenthal (VVD) and Wallage (PvdA) were appointed as informateurs with the aim of putting together a so-called Purple Plus coalition. This failed on Tuesday, as VVD and PvdA could not agree on socio-economic reforms. Centre-left D66 and the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) were the other parties in Purple Plus.
Various parties found it unnecessary to allow Lubbers, as an external informateur, to carry out a new debriefing of all party leaders. According to TV programme RTL Nieuws, CDA, PvdA, GroenLinks and D66 actually wanted VVD leader Rutte to be appointed informateur. He would then have to draw up a draft coalition accord himself and ask other parties which of them wanted to negotiate further on this.
Rutte however considers it understandable that the queen opted for the former CDA premier. The VVD leader does not consider that the cabinet formation is back to square one now. “Much useful work has already been carried out in the recent period.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italy at Tunisia’s Side for Privileged Accord With EU
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Tunisia is looking at Brussels and hoping — with the help of Italy — for progress towards the privileged partnership with the European Union which at the moment only Morocco enjoys as concerns the southern shore of the Mediterranean. It is a closer relationship which would benefit both, since a politically stable and economic secure Euro-Mediterranean is ever more of an opportunity for Rome and Tunis, as well as for Europe and North Africa. It would be useful for Tunisia, first of all, which with the granted “advanced status” — ever closer after the May 11 exam in Brussels as part of the EU-Tunisia Association Council — would take part in EU community programmes and agencies and would see more opportunities for economic integration and support for development open up. However, it is also useful for the EU which — with its limited presence as concerns anti-illegal immigration from the south — would have facilitated and shared management of immigration flows. Italy, linked to Tunisia with the Good Neighbourhood, Friendship and Cooperation Treaty of 2003 and convinced of the need for foreign policy with a close eye on the Mediterranean, has always provided its support, as shown by the frequency of institutional contacts: only in the last few months visits have been carried out by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini (January), European Policies Minister Andrea Ronchi and Chamber President Gianfranco Fini (June). Italy has also pledged to support Tunisia’s case in a Europe which too often has it focus on regions further north. It is a political choice which provides the background for important economic exchanges on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Especially since, Italy is pushing strongly for an extension of an entrepreneurship which already enjoys a substantial presence over the territory and for stronger and strategically-oriented energy cooperation. The underlying foundation is strong. The country is in top place in the region as concerns integration within the EU and was the first Euromed space to enter the EU free trade zone for industrial products in 2008, two years earlier than planned. The union covers 68% of Tunisian imports and 73% of its exports. The environment is attractive for investment and favourable ‘notes’ from ratings agencies are a good “business card” for Tunisia, which boasts qualified manpower at a low cost and one-stop shops for easy access, as well as large tax advantages, such as total exemption from taxes for the first ten years of activity for off-shore companies, which therefore report 100% of their production. Italian entrepreneurs know this well and Italian companies in Tunisia number around 700, with over 55,000 employed and 216 million euros in investments. Rome is the second largest economic-trade partner of Tunis, as customer and supplier, and the North African country is one of its three main outlet markets in the Mediterranean, alongside Turkey and Algeria. A key field is that of energy. At the end of 2008 works were completed for the expansion of Transmed, the network of gas pipelines connecting Italy with Algerian gas fields across the Mediterranean and Tunisia. Managed by Eni through TTPC, in which it holds a controlling stake, the works increased transport capacity by 20% per year for a total of 34 million cubic metres.
Now the attention has shifted to progressive integration between the European and North African electricity systems according to a strategic option for energy diversification of which Tunisia is also a part. The latter is called Elmed, and the World Bank and many international institutions support the project which is to lead to the building of a 1200 MW production hub in Tunisia in El Haouraia and the laying of an underwater interconnecting cable to Marsala (Sicily). The new energy hub will be operative from 2016, based on a mix of conventional and renewable energy sources and will be entirely financed by the market (for a total of 2.5 billion euros).
On the other hand, the importance of North Africa as a source of supplies is not new: over the past ten years Eni has invested 50 billion dollars and given jobs to over 5,000 people in the energy sectors of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Focus on Mobilising Opposition
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 21 — Ahead of Egypt’s parliamentary elections in October, the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s main (even if illegal) opposition force, are reviving attempts to unite anti-government parties, starting with the new movement launched by the former president of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed El Baradei.
According to the independent daily newspaper Al Masry Al Youm, about thirty opposition representatives took up an invitation by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, to coordinate action by opposition groups. The meeting was attended by Hassan Nafaa, the coordinator of the National Association for Change (NAC) — the movement started by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former secretary general of the IAEA, who is in the running, albeit not declaredly, for next year’s presidential elections — and Osama El Ghazali, the leader of the Democratic Front Party.
Participants agreed to meet on August 4, using the slogan “Participate together or boycott together”, in reference to their attitude towards the October elections. ElBaradei has previously called a number of times for the opposition to boycott this year’s elections and next year’s presidential vote, in order to “isolate” the governing National Democratic Party, which has a firm grip on Parliament. “Until opposition parties accept to represent less than a third of parliamentary seats, they have to remain decorative,” said the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. At the beginning of June, ElBaradei received the Muslim Brotherhood’s support for his campaign for political change in Egypt, with the outlawed group saying today that they have collected 100,000 signatures in two weeks.
This rapprochement, however, has not gone down well with all of Egypt’s opposition forces, including the country’s Nasserite party, who are at odds with the Islamic organisation.
While opposition groups attempt to find common ground to make their action more effective, the Muslim Brotherhood has decided to focus on social networking, and have launched their own version of Facebook. The website is called Ikhwanbook, which plays on the Arab word for “brothers”, and is very similar graphically to the original. Like Facebook, the network can be used to chat, to post videos and photos, and above all to stay in touch. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Armed Forces Commit to Reduce Civil Victims
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, JULY 21 — According to a report sent by the ministry of Foreign Affairs to the UN, Israeli armed forces are adopting a series of procedures to reduce the number of civil victims in the conflicts to come.
In the answer to the UN committee headed by judge Goldstone that accused Israel of war crimes during the Operation Cast Lead launched in Gaza against Hamas in 2008, the armed forces claimed that among the measures currently adopted to minimise the number of civilian casualties there are restrictions on the use of white phosphorus and that an army officer for humanitarian matters has been added to the fighting troops. The Palestinians claim that during Operation Cast Lead 1,400 people were killed by Israeli troops, and most were non-combatant civilians. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A Fourth Approach to the Muslim World
Accountability means no more aid to tyrants or terrorists
American policy toward the Middle East has been traditionally split between the Stabilizers and the Radicals.
The Stabilizers were old foreign policy hands in the State Department, the Pentagon or the CIA, sometimes tied in with the oil industry. They advocated maintaining stability in the Middle East by putting American support behind “our friends”, the dictators.
The US would supply them with weapons and military backing in case they were ever invaded or overthrown, and in exchange we would have reliable access to oil. From the Eisenhower interventions to the Gulf War, the United States protected Arab Muslim tyrannies in order to maintain stability in the region.
The Radicals were often academics, part time journalists or old line leftists. They insisted that everything wrong in the Middle East was caused by Western colonialism and imperialism, and the healing could only begin when the United States stopped backing the tyrants and began backing Marxist and Islamist terrorists in taking over their respective countries. The Radicals believed that if the United States would only abandon the dictators and throw their support behind the Marxists and the Islamists, a wonderful new age would dawn in the Middle East.
[…]
Obama’s ascension marked the return of the Radicals to power. Outreach to the Muslim world was now the top priority. Covert contacts with Hamas and the Taliban were quietly opened. Israel was now truly enemy number one. But so was America. Iran’s post-election riots were met with the same shrug that the left had used on pro-Democracy protesters in the USSR. The Arab dictators began growing nervous, as the Obama Administration took a hands off approach to Iran. And Obama’s outreach had failed to win any new allies, but only alienated existing allies. Which was inevitable as Radicals are never very good at alliances, especially those that required them to think along the lines of national interest.
[…]
The Fourth Way is Accountability and it is simple enough. Stop arguing over who will rule in which Muslim country. That is a decision that only the inhabitants of that country can make. And they won’t make it through elections, so much as through dealmaking among their oligarchy, tribal leaders and occasional outbursts of armed force. It would take a massive project of decades to have any hope of changing that. But we don’t need to. What we need to do is make very clear the consequences of attacking us to whoever is in charge.
Rather than trying to shape their behavior by shaping their political leadership, we can use a much more blunt instrument to unselectively shape all their leaders. A blunt instrument does not mean reconstruction. It doesn’t mean Marines ferrying electrical generators. It doesn’t mean nation building. It means that we will inflict massive devastation on any country that aids terrorists who attack us. If they insist on using medieval beliefs to murder us, we will bomb government buildings, roads, factories and power plants to reduce them back to a medieval state. We will not impose sanctions on them, we will simply take control of their natural resources and remove the native population from the area, as compensation for the expenses of the war.
Accountability means no more aid to tyrants or terrorists, and no grand democracy projects either. It means that we stop trying to pick a side, and just make it clear what happens when our side gets hurt. We gain energy independence and never look back.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Four Iranian Deputies in Gaza Next Tuesday
(ANSAmed) — TEHERAN, JULY 21 — Four Iranian deputies today expressed their intention to enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt next week. The Gaza Strip is under an Israeli blockade. The report was made by agencies in Teheran.
Deputy Mahmud Ahmadi-Bighash, who is also a member of Parliament’s Foreign affairs committee, was quoted by Irna agency saying that “the trip will be next Tuesday”. The other deputies who should join the mission are Shobaib Juiari, Evaz Heidarpur and Parviz Saruri. The four deputies should enter Gaza through the Rafah pass, which is controlled by Egypt.
After a bloody blitz carried out by Israeli special forces on May 31 against a flotilla that was sailing towards Gaza and resulted in a total of nine deaths, Iran’s Red Crescent stated that it would send two vessels towards Palestinian territory to challenge Israel’s blockade. But to date the initiative still has to be implemented, with the Red Crescent even blaming Egypt for denying the units passage through the Suez canal. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maj-Gen (Res.) Eiland Presents Conclusions of Examination Team
(http://www.debka.com/article/8916/)
Syria massacres Kurds aided by Turkey’s Israel-made drones
“Syrian troops and Kurdish tribesman are locked in fierce battle since the Syrian army blasted four northeastern Kurdish towns and neighborhoods at the end of June, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report. Hundreds of Kurds are reported dead.
The Syrian campaign is backed by Heron (Eitan) spy drones Israel sold Turkey, made accessible on the personal say-so of Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan. Turkey therefore becomes the first NATO member to make advanced Western military technology available for the use of a strong ally of radical Iran and an active sponsor of terrorists. Following intense exchanges between Jerusalem and Washington, the NATO command was urged to put Ankara on the carpet — with no response as yet.” The drones are being used to track Kurds in flight across Syria’s borders, mainly into Lebanon, where Hizballah is helping Syria hunt the refugees down. The accessibility to Damascus of the unmanned aerial vehicles is in direct breach of the Israel-Turkish sales contracts which barred their use — and the use of other Israeli high-tech items sold to Turkey during years of close military collaboration — in the service of hostile states or entities.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Man Chains His Son in the Basement for Six Years Because He is ‘Possessed by an Evil Female Genie’
A semi-comatose Saudi man has been chained in a basement apartment for more than six years because his father believes he is possessed by an evil female genie.
‘When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white,’ said the father of the 29-year-old man who has been identified only as Turki.
‘Then the voice of a woman can be heard coming from him.’
When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him.
‘But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no-one can exorcise her unless Turki dies,’ his father said.
One cleric advised him to shackle his son’s arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Honor Killing; Girl Murdered by 15-Years-Old Brother
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 22 — A 17-year-old girl found dead one month ago was allegedly murdered by her 15-year-old brother in an “honor killing” after she left the women’s shelter where she was staying, daily Radikal reported Wednesday. The body of Seyma G. was found half buried in the ground in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, while subsequent tests revealed that she had been strangled to death. Her brother Y.G.
was caught by police and then arrested July 16. According to the Diyarbakir police, the suspects in the murder were determined after an examination of the crime scene revealed footprints in the area and fingerprints on the tape put over the victim’s mouth. The victim had reportedly been staying in a women’s shelter after being subjected to violence at home.
Family members allegedly found her after they learned she had left the shelter. Her brother, who is accused in the murder, had previously been detained for being a member of the illegal Muslim organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman: Obama Buying Votes in Kenya
Pumping $23 million into measure advancing abortion, Islamic law
The Obama administration is buying votes in Kenya, charges Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.
WND reported Monday the Obama administration has funded $23 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, to support the passage of a Kenyan constitutional referendum Aug. 4 that would increase access to abortions and authorize the operation of Islamic law tribunals in the East African nation.
In a statement issued by his office yesterday, Smith charged that several Kenyan groups receiving USAID money had been given specific quotas built into their USAID contracts requiring the grantees to each produce 20,000 “yes” votes for the Aug. 4 referendum.
“A chart produced by USAID’s inspector-general shows that 60 sub-recipients got funds for activities that include transportation, fuel, road shows, voter ID and ‘yes’ vote ‘buy in’ for professional elites,” Smith said.
“It is unconscionable that U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing a massive one-sided political campaign thinly disguised as ‘civic education’ in another sovereign nation,” the congressman said. “It is a very bad precedent and it is illegal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oliver Stone Given Verbal Drubbing Over ‘Imbecile’ Remarks
‘Climategate’ author dubs him ‘minister of propaganda for goons like Castro, Chavez’
One of Hollywood’s most notorious purveyors of conspiracy theories is curiously uncurious about the “mass scheme and Marxist motives masquerading as environmentalism,” says the author of a book offering new revelations on global warming.
While promoting his latest film on Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez, director Oliver Stone recently argued for the nationalization of energy.
“We shouldn’t make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons,” the Associated Press reported Stone saying. “All these industries should be public industries. …This BP oil spill is typical.”
What should we expect from the “minister of propaganda” for a “tin-pot dictator,” asks Brian Sussman, author of the new WND Books title “Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes The Global Warming Scam.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alarms Raised Over Boot Camps as Social Experiments
Dispute over homosexuality in the ranks reaching boiling point
WASHINGTON — An effort by President Obama to use the military as a social experiment — and possibly a payback for support from homosexuals during his presidential campaign — is raising alarm bells for critics and could be the subject of a major fight in the U.S. Senate.
National political, military and policy leaders gathered for a national webcast this week at the Family Research Council here, expressing deep concern for two amendments that have been installed in the 2011 Defense Bill.
[…]
Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness criticized the political strategy of the president’s party.
“One thousand one hundred sixty three flag and general officers sent a letter to the president and members of Congress that the law should not be repealed, that it would disrupt good order and discipline in the all-volunteer force,” Donnelly said.
[…]
However, Donnelly warned of an even larger agenda that most people have not figured out yet.
“The Defense Department does not do things halfway, so if you have a school curriculum in all of the military training reflecting support for the LGBT, that would get into the elementary schools where everyone would have to go along with this,” she said.
“The military is the largest school system in the world, and if you teach homosexuality is OK for the Marine Corps, then why is it not OK for the local schools?” Donnelly said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Sex No Go on WWI Landmark River
‘They’re ill’ says mayor, sending police to Piave
(ANSA) — Spresiano, July 21 — A northern Italian mayor aims to stamp out gay sex along a river remembered as a ‘last stand’ symbol of Italian bravery in the First World War.
Riccardo Missiato has ordered police to patrol the north bank of the Piave River near the small town of Spresiano near Treviso, a popular summer hang-out for gays and transsexuals, many of them prostitutes.
“They’re ill but I’m not prescribing any physical or psychological treatment,” said Missiato, a former Christian Democrat.
“The fact is they can’t go down to the Piave and hog an area that should be for everybody. I even get reports from people working in the fields”.
“This isn’t female prostitution, it’s male and you can’t turn a blind eye”.
“The Piave has an historic value, there’s a monument to the artillery corps littered with condoms and tissues”.
Missiato said the area, which is advertised on gay Internet sites, would be cordoned off and patrolled until September 22.
“Cars that stop and obscene acts will be sanctioned. The situation has become intolerable”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Gay Day for Justice Minister Nick Herbert at the Europride 2010 Parade
David Cameron sent openly gay Justice Minister Nick Herbert to the Europride 2010 gay parade in Warsaw.
Why so? Perhaps to offset the Conservatives becoming allies in the EU of Poland’s Law and Justice Party, which is considered homophobic.
My source there says Herbert wore a linen jacket and ‘chino’ trousers ‘amid a sea of curly rainbow wigs, pink feather boas and pairs of fake breasts’.
Her Majesty’s ambassador to Poland — Ric Todd — was also ordered to attend.
His concession to flamboyance? A Panama hat.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Eastenders Bosses Defend Gay Syed’s Koran Slam Scene After ‘Hundreds’ Of Complaints
EastEnders bosses have defended a scene in which a Muslim character slammed down a copy of the Koran after scores of complaints from viewers.
Fans have watched gay Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott, struggle with his love for Christian Clarke (John Partridge) in the face of disapproval from his devout family.
Syed was seen to drop the religious text in frustration.
The BBC would not say how many complaints had been received although today’s Sun newspaper reported the Beeb had taken ‘several hundred calls’ from viewers who were upset by the incident which was screened last Thursday.
The Corporation responded, saying it had not intended to cause offence, merely to demonstrate Syed’s ‘utter confusion’.
In a statement, it said: ‘As regular viewers will know, Syed has been struggling to come to terms with his sexuality for some time now.
‘Desperate not to lose his family, Syed is trying to suppress his homosexuality and has vowed to read and learn from the Koran in an attempt to re-connect with his Muslim faith, hoping that this will help him in his quest.
‘Feeling unable to reconcile his feelings for another man with his religious beliefs, Syed slams down the Koran in frustration.
‘It was not intended to be a disrespectful act, rather a totally spontaneous one, symbolic of Syed’s utter confusion and frustration at what feels like an impossible situation.
‘It wasn’t our intention to cause any offence.’
TV watchdog Ofcom told MailOnline it has received 23 complaints about the episode, and is not currently investigating the matter.
It is the second time in a fortnight that the Albert Square soap has prompted complaints on religious grounds.
Last week the BBC responded to complaints about the portrayal of murderous EastEnders preacher Lucas Johnson (Don Gilet) after some viewers considered the storyline offensive to Christians.
| — Hat tip: Reinhard | [Return to headlines] |
Collider Gets Yet More Exotic ‘To-Do’ List
The Large Hadron Collider could throw up evidence of new physics earlier than expected.
As if the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) didn’t have enough to look for. It is already charged with hunting for the fabled Higgs boson, extra dimensions and supersymmetry, but physicists are now adding even more elaborate phenomena to its shopping list — including vanishing dimensions that could explain the accelerating expansion of the Universe. Some argue that signs of new and exotic physics could show up in the LHC far sooner than expected.
In March, the LHC, sited at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics facility near Geneva, Switzerland, began colliding protons at energies of 7 trillion electronvolts — half the final target but already three times greater than its nearest rival, the Tevatron in Batavia, Illinois. This week, particle physicists gather at the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) in Paris to discuss what they hope to find — and when the discoveries might emerge.
Still topping physicists’ wish lists is the Higgs boson, the elusive particle thought to be part of the mechanism that gives other particles their mass. If the standard model of particle physics has correctly predicted its characteristics, gathering enough data to find the Higgs should take about two more years, says Albert de Roeck, deputy spokesman for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC.
But beyond the Higgs, researchers hope to see evidence of new physics. So far, accelerator experiments have repeatedly confirmed the predictions of the standard model, which encompasses all discovered particles, the Higgs and three of the fundamental forces of nature: electromagnetism; the weak force that controls radioactivity; and the strong force that binds quarks together. “It’s annoying, because from a mathematical perspective, we know that the standard model must be wrong,” says Greg Landsberg, a particle physicist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The model breaks down at high energies (such as those predicted in the early Universe), giving infinite answers for the strength of particle interactions, unless physicists fudge the numbers.
One addendum to the standard model that does away with this fine-tuning is supersymmetry (SUSY), which posits the existence of heavier twins for all known particles. These SUSY twins could show up at the LHC within a couple of years, says de Roeck…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why Music is Good for You
A survey of the cognitive benefits of music makes a valid case for its educational importance. But that’s not the best reason to teach all children music, says Philip Ball.
Remember the Mozart effect? Thanks to a suggestion in 1993 that listening to Mozart makes you cleverer, there has been a flood of compilation CDs filled with classical tunes that will allegedly boost your baby’s brain power.
Yet there’s no evidence for this claim, and indeed the original ‘Mozart effect’ paper1 did not make it. It reported a slight, short-term performance enhancement in some spatial tasks when preceded by listening to Mozart as opposed to sitting in silence. Some follow-up studies replicated the effect, others did not. None found it specific to Mozart; one study showed that pop music could have the same effect on schoolchildren2. It seems this curious but marginal effect stems from the cognitive benefits of any enjoyable auditory stimulus, which need not even be musical.
The original claim doubtless had such inordinate impact because it plays to a long-standing suspicion that music makes you smarter. And as neuroscientists Nina Kraus and Bharath Chandrasekaran of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, point out in a review published today in Nature Reviews Neuroscience3, there is good evidence that music training reshapes the brain in ways that convey broader cognitive benefits. It can, they say, lead to “changes throughout the auditory system that prime musicians for listening challenges beyond music processing”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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