Britain is at ‘Significant’ Risk of a Return to Recession, Warns Bank of England Expert
Britain faces a ‘significant’ risk of sliding back into recession, a key policymaker at the Bank of England revealed today.
Warning that the central bank’s growth forecast for this year and next may be too optimistic, BoE Monetary Policy Committee Member Martin Weale said it would be foolish to rule out the possibility of a double-dip recession.
Mr Weale, who voted with the majority to keep monetary policy ultra loose in his first Monetary Policy Committee meeting this month, said the BoE’s latest economic forecasts put ‘a significant chance on the economy contracting over a four-quarter period’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California to Delay Payments Sooner Than Expected
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state controller and treasurer decided Monday to delay $2.9 billion a month in payments to school districts and counties sooner than expected so the state can meet debt and pension obligations.
The leaders issued a joint letter notifying state lawmakers of their decision to begin withholding the payments in September instead of October.
The move reflected the limited resources the state has to work with as the impasse over California’s $19 billion budget shortfall has dragged on for nearly two months.
Controller John Chiang has warned that the state could again issue IOUs, perhaps as soon as the end of August.
The Legislature gave authority in February to the three officers to delay $2.5 billion a month in payments to schools and $400 million in monthly payments to counties during October, November and December to help manage cash flow.
The step came on top of a July deferral of $2.5 billion for schools and $700 million for counties.
Bob Wells, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, said the state is only shifting its problems to school districts.
“What started as not a big deal from one day to the next is now delaying $10 billion from schools for many months and school districts still have to meet payroll,” Wells said.
The governor’s finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said most school districts should be able to endure the delayed payments because the state issued the notification within the same fiscal year.
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Home Sales Plunge 27 Pct. To Lowest in 15 Years
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of previously occupied homes plunged last month to the lowest level in 15 years, despite the lowest mortgage rates in decades and bargain prices in many areas.
July’s sales fell by more than 27 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. It was the largest monthly drop on records dating back to 1968, and sharp declines were recorded in all regions of the country.
The plunge in home sales also magnified fears about the broader economy.
“The housing market is undermining the already faltering wider economic recovery,” said Paul Dales, U.S. economist with Capital Economics. “With the increasingly inevitable double-dip in prices yet to come, things could yet get a lot worse.”
Sales were particularly weak among homes in the lower- to mid-priced ranges. For example, in the Midwest, homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000 tumbled nearly 47 percent.
The weakness follows a strong spring, when now-expired government tax credits sparked sales, especially among first-time buyers of lower-priced homes.
The tax credits caused many of those buyers to speed up their home purchases. Sales have weakened since the credits expired on April 30.
As sales have slowed, the inventory of unsold homes on the market grew to nearly 4 million in July. That’s a 12.5 month supply at the current sales pace, the highest level in more than a decade. It compares with a healthy level of about six months.
One reason the market is hurting is that buyers and sellers are in a standoff over prices. Many sellers are reluctant to lower their prices. And buyers are hesitating because they think home prices haven’t bottomed out.
Laurie Salaman has been trying to sell her home in New York City for a year so she can move to the suburbs. She’s had no offers, even after cutting her listing price on the three-bedroom Bronx home from $475,000 to $449,900.
She notes that she has upgraded the kitchen and bathrooms, refinished the basement and put in new decks and patios. Her goal is to take about $100,000 from the sale and put it toward the purchase of the new house. She said she won’t lower her price any further.
“That’s my bottom price,” said Salaman, 55. “If I don’t get that price, then I will hold off until the market gets a little better,” she said.
The housing market is also being hampered by the weakening economic recovery. Unemployment remains stuck at 9.5 percent and many potential buyers worry they might not have a job to pay the mortgage.
Prices have fallen in part because foreclosures are running about 10 times higher than before the housing bust. Though the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has sunk to 4.42 percent, many people can’t qualify because banks have tightened their lending standards.
Home sales picked up in the spring when the government was offering tax credits. But sales have sputtered since the tax credits expired.
The drop in July’s sales was led by 35 percent plunge in the Midwest. Sales were down 30 percent in the Northeast, 25 percent in the West and 23 percent in the South.
The median sale price was $182,600, up 0.7 percent from a year ago, but down 0.2 percent from June.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
UK: More Than £1billion Lost to Disability Benefit Fraud and Error — and That’s Just the Tip of the Iceberg
More than £1billion has been lost in the past six years due to fraud and error in payments of a disability benefit, according to official estimates.
Some of the cash is disappearing because officials do not check whether thousands of people are as disabled as they claim.
The rest is lost to the public purse because of mistakes that mean claimants get more money than they should.
The problem is getting worse: the amount that has gone through fraud has risen by 50 per cent over the same period.
The figures are the tip of the iceberg because they only relate to disability living allowance.
They do not cover other similar handouts such as incapacity benefit and the attendance allowance that is also paid to the disabled.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling said last night that the figures show the benefits system developed under Labour is ‘out of control’ and that urgent reform is required to cut the huge bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bloggers Beware: Lawyers Are After You
Bloggers, beware of posting stories from Stephens Media news outlets, the publishers of over 70 newspapers in nine states.
Military blogger Blackfive took action when he learned of lawsuits being brought by the legal wrangler Righthaven against bloggers using Stephens Media copyrighted content.
Instapundit thoughtfully provided a link to a Firefox plug-in to ensure that you don’t accidentally use content contained in Stephens Media.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: The ‘End of the Beginning’ On Shariah
As I looked out at the thousands of people assembled near Ground Zero on Sunday to oppose the construction of a megamosque there, I was reminded of Winston Churchill’s famous line that enspirited Britain at the first sign the tide was turning in World War II: “Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
To be sure, the rally held two blocks from the World Trade Center was not a decisive defeat of the enemy like that dealt by the storied British “Desert Rats” to Hitler’s Afrika Korps in November 1942. But there was something pivotal about the fact that throngs of ordinary Americans — many of them family or friends of those who died on 9/11 — had come together to stand for hours in an intermittent rain not just to contest the construction of a megamosque at a wholly inappropriate location, but in informed opposition to the impetus behind that mosque: shariah.
In fact, throughout the crowd could be seen signs with just the word “shariah” lettered in dripping, blood-red ink. The prospect that the tide is beginning now to turn in our generation’s War for the Free World can be found in those signs. They bespeak a recognition of the danger posed by the brutally repressive, totalitarian and anti-constitutional program that is espoused by the authorities of Islam. Shariah, the law of Saudi Arabia and Iran, is what Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the prime-mover behind the Ground Zero mosque, says he wants to “bring to America.”…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
John McCain’s Attack on Liberty
Lately, however, McCain has outdone himself. He has introduced two bills in the US Senate that are about as Machiavellian as they could be. I am referring to S.3081, a bill that would authorize the federal government to detain American citizens indefinitely without trial, and S.3002, a bill that would authorize the federal government to regulate vitamins, minerals, and virtually all health and natural food products.
According to Examiner.com, “John McCain introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate which, if passed, would actually allow U.S. citizens to be arrested and detained indefinitely, all without Miranda rights or ever being charged with a crime.”
The Examiner report continued by saying “This bill, introduced by McCain, who despite overwhelming evidence, claims to be a ‘conservative,’ would not only take away our right to a trial, but would also allow the federal government to arrest and imprison anyone the current administration deems hostile.
“Of course, that would be the same administration whose Homeland Security Secretary has classified veterans, retired law enforcement, Ron Paul [and Chuck Baldwin] supporters, and conservatives as ‘terrorists.’“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More Evidence Pins Congresswoman to Socialist Party
President Obama also linked to group seeking to infiltrate Democrats
More evidence has emerged tying Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Ohio, to a U.S.-based Marxist-oriented socialist organization.
A 1997 press release from the Center for Democratic Values, the think tank arm of the Democrat Socialists for America, or DSA, announced Kilroy led a discussion at a conference titled “Arguing with the Right.”
The conference was hosted by the DSA, which boasts it is the “largest socialist organization in the United States.”
[…]
The Democratic Socialists of America’s chief organizing goal is to work within the Democratic Party and remove the stigma attached to “socialism” in the eyes of most Americans.
“Stress our Democratic Party strategy and electoral work,” explains an organizing document of the DSA. “The Democratic Party is something the public understands, and association with it takes the edge off. Stressing our Democratic Party work will establish some distance from the radical subculture and help integrate you to the milieu of the young liberals.”
Nevertheless, as WND reported, the goal of the DSA has never been deeply hidden. Prior to the cleanup of its website in 1999, the DSA included a song list featuring “The Internationale,” the worldwide anthem of communism and socialism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
N.Y. Times Covering for Ground Zero Imam?
Newspaper misleads on Muslim leader’s stunning jihad comments
The New York Times has minimized the refusal of the controversial imam behind the Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero to condemn the Hamas terrorist organization.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, head of the Cordoba Initiative, which seeks to construct the proposed 13 story, $100 million center, repeatedly refused in a live radio interview to affirm the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization or call the Muslim Brotherhood extremists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police Say It’s ‘Very Possible’ Attacks Near Fairgrounds Had Racial Overtones
A Des Moines police are trying to determine what led to a series of attacks outside the Iowa State Fairgrounds over the weekend that included the assault of two police officers.
At least three people were arrested Friday through early Monday morning. Other arrests may occur as officers investigate the incidents, officials said.
There are indications that some of the fights — which appear to involve mostly teenagers and young adults — were racially motivated, police said.
“We don’t know if this was juveniles fighting or a group of kids singling out white citizens leaving the fairgrounds,” Sgt. Lori Lavorato said. “It’s all under investigation, but it’s very possible it has racial overtones.”
Officials announced last week that they were stepping up security outside the fairgrounds after a series of attacks Aug. 14 that included a pair of stabbings. Investigators are still investigating those assaults and victims intend to pursue charges.
Sgt. David Murillo stated in a report on Friday night, “On-duty officers at the fairgrounds advise there was a group of 30 to 40 individuals roaming the fairgrounds openly calling it ‘beat whitey night.’ “
Jammie Carroll, 36, of Polk City, was seriously injured in the 3000 block of East Grand Avenue Friday night after a group of people beat him up, causing severe injuries to his eyes, cheekbones and nose, Murillo wrote. Carroll is white, and many of the suspects are black, police said.
State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, who has worked to fight gang-related violence, said he doesn’t have enough information to decide if the fights were racially motivated. He said police comments that race was involved could miss other factors, such as nonracial taunting.
“Unfortunately, like any other city, you have certain parts of town that individuals congregate in,” Abdul-Samad said. “You have those that go into that area with no problem, and those who cannot.”
He added, “We of course need to work on race relations. If anyone says we don’t, they are playing games with themselves.”
State Fair spokeswoman Lori Chappell said she had few details about the incidents. Police had increased security near the western edge of the fairgrounds specifically, she said.
The fair, which drew more than 960,000 visitors over 11 days, ended when the gates closed at 1 a.m. Monday.
About 10:30 p.m. Sunday, two police officers were attacked as they waded into a combative crowd outside the fairgrounds’ main gates at East 30th Street and Grand Avenue.
Sgt. Richard Schuett and reserve Officer Lynn Hubbs both complained of head, neck and back pain after being punched from behind while trying to make arrests.
“There were pockets of people fighting,” Schuett said. “People were leaving the fair and they were walking into the middle of them. We were trying to move people along but some of them wouldn’t move.”
A police report says Schuett “was on the ground fighting with his suspect, and several other females began to attack him.” Another officer grabbed one of the attackers and tried to make an arrest, but she spun away.
Officers sprayed chemical deterrent and deployed a stun gun while trying to gain control. Two teenage girls were taken into custody for questioning following that incident.
Also Sunday night and early Monday:
- Beth Longen, 25, of Des Moines was at the gas pumps at the QuikTrip store, East 30th Street and University Avenue, taking video of the crowd when she was assaulted about 11:20 p.m., police said. A 17-year-old girl allegedly slapped Longen and threatened her in front of police officers. The teen was one of several taken to police headquarters and later released to parents.
- Earl Tice, 17, of Des Moines was attacked near East 30th Street and Grand Avenue about 9:45 p.m. Sunday. He told officers he was jumped while leaving the fair. Tice was having X-rays taken at a hospital when police took a report from his mother. Officials said he had been kicked and punched.
- Officers arrested Daveion Trell Smith, 18, of Des Moines on a charge of disorderly conduct. Police said they observed him with a large group of people, yelling and gesturing and trying to start a fight with another group of people. He was warned and told to leave the area, police said.
- Kiera Agee, 18, of Des Moines was charged with disorderly conduct. Police said they told her several times to leave the area. She allegedly responded by swearing at police. She was arrested and was taken to jail.
- Ashley Robinson, 18, of Des Moines was charged with interference with official acts. Police said they were doing paperwork in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant near the fairgrounds when Robinson walked up demanding answers to questions. Police were holding several suspects there at the time. She was ordered to leave the area. When she refused, she was taken into custody.
Laurie Christensen, a resident of Walker Street near the fairgrounds, said she’s never seen such hostility around the fairgrounds.
Groups “have been openly taunting the police — in the street right to their faces,” she said. “We found some of them that ran from the police hiding in our backyard.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Racial Strife Escalates in Staten Island
In a working-class area, 10 Mexicans have been attacked by blacks since April in suspected hate crimes. Some community leaders say tensions have grown along with anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S.
Reporting from New York — There’s no doubt in Christian Vazquez’s mind why he was beaten up as he headed home from work late one night, and it wasn’t for the $10 the attackers stole from him.
“They were after me because I was a Mexican,” the 18-year-old said, his left eye still swollen shut from the assault July 31 while he was walking through Staten Island’s Port Richmond neighborhood. As his attackers punched him, they yelled, “Go home!” and anti-Mexican slurs, according to the police report, which had a familiar ring.
That’s because Vazquez was the 10th Mexican victim of a suspected hate crime in the neighborhood since April. “Why this is happening? If you ask 10 different people, you might get 10 different answers,” said Ed Josey, president of the Staten Island branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, during a march Aug. 6 led by religious and civic leaders to condemn the violence.
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“The impression that Staten Island is a place of hate and violence — that’s just not true,” said state Sen. Diane Savino as marchers stood in a small Port Richmond park.
Borough President James Molinaro has attributed the violence to criminals looking for easy prey, not ethnic violence. “It could have been anybody,” he said of the victims.
But police say that of 11 assaults on Mexicans in Port Richmond since April, 10 are considered bias-related, and those 10 involved blacks attacking Mexicans.
Citywide so far this year there have been 222 suspected hate crimes, compared with 125 by this time last year, according to the New York Police Department. The Borough of Staten Island has accounted for 26; there had been 11 by this time last year.
Ana Maria Archila said the officials’ comments point up the challenge of tackling an ugly issue that some in the so-called forgotten borough, where leaders have been struggling to increase tourism, would rather see played down.
Archila is a co-director of Make the Road New York, one of several groups involved in efforts to resolve the problem. “It’s extremely insular and it’s extremely isolated,” she said of Staten Island, a mostly suburban island of 491,000. Best known for the orange ferry that carries commuters and tourists the five miles between Lower Manhattan and the borough, its population is overwhelmingly white — 75% — but it has a growing Latino population now estimated at about 15%.
Archila and Jacob Massaquoi, a leader in Staten Island’s African immigrant community, said tensions had grown along with anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, something they blame on Arizona’s crackdown on undocumented residents and conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. “Their rhetoric is very personal, very inflammatory,” Massaquoi said.
It probably doesn’t help that some of the people leading reconciliation efforts have sparred publicly. In a Wall Street Journal interview last month, Josey said Mexican-owned businesses in Port Richmond were failing to hire blacks, sparking a retort from Molinaro, who accused the black leader of being biased himself. When the Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., led a march for black-Latino reconciliation through Port Richmond earlier this month, Assemblyman Matthew Titone and Savino accused him of using Staten Island for personal publicity…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Representative Kendrick Meek Wins Florida Democratic Senate Primary, A.P. Reports
Kendrick Meek, 43, a congressman from Miami, beat Jeff Greene, a 55-year-old Florida real estate mogul, for the Democratic nomination to the United States Senate, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Meek will take on Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate, and Gov. Charlie Crist, who abandoned the Republican Party in April after it became clear that he was likely to lose the primary.
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The Fox News Connection to Ground Zero Mosque
Hundreds of thousands for project’s imam come from high-profile network investor
The Saudi prince whose post-9/11 relief check was rejected by former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani has found a more willing recipient in the city for his millions: the head of the Ground Zero mosque project.
The same Saudi potentate, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, owns the biggest chunk of the parent company of the Fox News Channel outside of the Murdoch family.
| — Hat tip: Penseur | [Return to headlines] |
The Moment an Angry Crowd Protesting Against Ground Zero Mosque Turns on Man in a Skullcap … Because They Think He is a Muslim
This is the terrifying moment a man is verbally abused because a crowd demonstrating against plans to build a mosque near New York’s Ground Zero believe he is a Muslim. The powerfully built black man who is wearing a type of hat similar to that worn by Muslim men is called a ‘coward’ and verbally abused by some opponents to the mosque. Telling them that he does not practice Islam and that they ‘don’t know why I’m here’, the man — identified as a carpenter called Kenny — is eventually saved by the intervention of two men.
But that doesn’t stop one construction worker in a hard-hat, seeming spoiling for a fight, from squaring up to him. After a series of jostles, the man is eventually asked to leave the site for his own safety and escorted away by police officers. The protests drew hundreds of fever-pitch demonstrators, with opponents carrying signs associating Islam with blood, supporters shouting ‘Say no to racist fear!’ and American flags waving on both sides.
Brooklyn plumber Steve Ayling said the people who want to build the project are the same ones who ‘took down the twin towers’. Nearby, several hundred people who support the mosque chanted: ‘Muslims are welcome here. We say no to racist fear.’ The proposed £70million mosque has ignited furious debate.
The growing movement against the building of the mosque gained another prominent supporter last week: the first Muslim Miss USA. Rima Fakih, 24, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants and a Muslim, criticised the location of the planned mosque. ‘It shouldn’t be so close to the World Trade Center,’ Fakih, 24, told Inside Edition during a break from the Miss Universe pageant preparations in Las Vegas. ‘We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.’
After wading into the highly-charged political issue, the Michigan-born Fakih then went on to support President Obama’s statement on the constitutional rights of religious freedom. ‘I totally agree with President Obama with (that) statement,’ she said. Meanwhile a growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero, according to the New York Daily News.
‘It’s a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground,’ said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site. The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet, reported the Daily News. One construction worker created the Hard Hat Pledge on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays in its current location.
‘Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country,’ said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. ‘People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there. Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it,’ he said. ‘I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero.’ L.V. Spina, a Manhattan construction worker who created anti-mosque stickers that some workers are slapping on their hardhats, told the New York Daily News he would ‘rather pick cans and bottles out of trash cans’ than build the Islamic center near Ground Zero. But if they moved it somewhere else, we would put up a prime building for these people,’ he said.
‘Hell, you could do it next to my house, I would be fine with it. But I’m not fine with it where blood has been spilled.’
The leader of the proposed Islamic centre and mosque says dropping the plan in the face of protest is not an option. Daisy Khan says she and other organisers of the center are closely consulting with American Muslim leaders as the plan moves forward. Khan says she realises the uproar is affecting Muslims nationwide. The project has created a national debate over religious tolerance and the September 11 attacks. Khan said yesterday she’s under no pressure to change locations from the political leaders who previously expressed support. Khan and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, say the centre will promote moderate Islam. Critics say the location is insensitive to 9/11 families.
New York Governor David Paterson says no meeting to discuss relocating has been scheduled with developers. Paterson told WNYC Radio’s The Take Away last night that he’s still seeking a meeting, but the discussion he’d hoped to have this week won’t happen.
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Reader comment:
- Jeannine, USA, 23/8/2010 15:50
It’s amazing to read the slant of the media in articles such as these. The man was not attacked and he was not “verbally abused” because of the way he looks. He was in favor of the mosque project and a non-violent debate took place on the street. So much for a “terrifying moment”!!!!!
The proposed mosque is not 3 blocks from Ground Zero, it’s two blocks. The imam did not postpone the meeting with Govenor Paterson, he declined the meeting and said there was nothing to talk about. There weren’t hundreds of protestors against the mosque, there were thousands that overwhelmed the mosque supporters. The project doesn’t have 1/50 of the money to build the mosque. We don’t want it and it will NOT be built. I don’t know why Obama felt that he need to comment, we don’t care what his opinion is on anything.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tired of Playing the Race Card
[Rabbi Shifren is a Candidate for California State Senate]
For years, we have been made to feel guilty about our country, our language, and our flag. Our schools, work places, and political parties have been part of a coordinated assault, preparing the way for a Third World “bienvenido” (welcome) to an already overburdened Los Angeles.
The uniqueness of the United States of America, with its treasure of individual rights guaranteed by our Constitution and Bill of Rights, has been ripped off by revisionist teachers and administrators with their willing political accomplices. Their goal has been to transform this country into “just another country,” calling into question the entire premise for our way of life.
We are not just another country. We are the beacon for freedom throughout the world. Each of us has the golden opportunity to make a better life for ourselves and our children — unless we are stopped and trapped by entitlements that enslave and imported criminality that robs us of our free will.
Why has this happened?
Malevolent special interest groups are constantly claiming that their “civil rights” have been violated. Of course, illegal aliens cannot fairly claim any rights here, since they have already broken the law by being here illegally.
Unfortunately, after years of being hammered with the “white man’s guilt” trip, after continually being told that America is a racist nation that stole the land from Mexico (never mind the war that we won, or the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo), we see that the big-lie technique has worked its evil spell upon the land. School children, EVEN INCLUDING MANY AFRICAN AMERICANS, are somehow convinced that the US is just one big Home Depot, where everybody who wants to work may come in and pick up a check — whether they actually work or not! Radical Hispanic groups, with their well-placed proxies in City Hall and Sacramento, put continuous litigation, as well as political pressure on our elected leaders — to the point where our own citizens are now confronted with unbearable costs in exorbitant taxes, dumbed down schools, and lower quality of life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Islam’s Power, Europe’s New Reality
One day Karen Jespersen and Ralf Pittelkow drove from their home in Dragør, over the Øresund bridge, to the Rosengård district in Malmö. They drove around and felt that they’ve arrived in a different world. Shops had signs in Arabic. Only a few spoke Swedish on the street. Veiled women were everywhere. There were satellite dishes on the balconies. “We thought of a young headscarf-wearing woman who appeared on Swedish TV,” remembers Karen Jespersen. “She said: ‘it feels like Iraq or another Arab country. I feel excellent in Malmö’. Rosengård is a Muslim parallel society where people live their own lives. This provides fertile ground for radical Muslims to have growing influence. All over Europe we see the same trend in many major cities.”
This trend led the athor husband-and-wife team to write the book ‘Islams magt. Europas ny virkelighed’ (Islam’s power, Europe’s new reality). The book is meant as a warning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Football: England Boss Capello ‘Told to Improve His English’
London, 23 August (AKI9 — England boss Fabio Capello has been told by his employers, the Football Association, to improve his English, according to UK tabloid The News of the World. The Italian is still struggling to grasp the language after two years in the job, and England players have complained of communication problems with their heavily accented boss, according to the paper.
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is said to be the example to which Capello — former Real Madrid and Juventus coach — should aspire. Ancellotti was reportedly conversational in English within weeks of joining the Blues.
He reportedly stunned them last week following their win against Hungary, with a very short statement of congratulations before leaving the dressing room.
English is a fifth language for Capello, who studied Spanish French and Latin. When he signed in December 2007, he told the press he would be fluent within a month and has been taking English lessons ever since.
Even Capello’s fellow countrymen have joined in the criticism of Capello’s grasp of English. Aldo Zilli, the Italian celebrity chef called it a “disaster” and said he wouldn’t hire someone with such poor English to wait tables in his restaurant.
The complaints about Capello’s linguistic abilities follow criticism over England’s early exit from the World Cup and the way he sacked David Beckham — publicly, on air, without telling him first.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Free Tuition for Students Who Stay in Sweden’
Gifted foreign students should be allowed to take their Masters’ for free at Swedish universities, in exchange for a promise to stay in Sweden and work after completing their courses, Higher Education Minister Tobias Krantz has suggested.
Students from countries outside the EU will from next autumn have to pay tuition fees to study at Swedish universities. But the Liberal Party’s higher education policy committee, led by Krantz, wants to introduce new labour force grants to attract foreign students, according to Svenska Dagbladet.
The main targets of the scheme would be talented young people who want to take two-year Masters’ programmes in natural sciences or technology-related subjects. Under the proposal they would have tuition fees paid and receive living allowances. In return, they would commit to staying in Sweden to work for “a couple of years.” If they failed to keep to their end of the bargain, they would be obliged to pay back the money.
Ylva Johansson, the Social Democrats’ spokeswoman on welfare issues, criticized the plans. She said that the best students from other countries had better options than living in “serfdom” in Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hitler ‘Had Jewish and African Roots’, DNA Tests Show
Adolf Hitler is likely to have had Jewish and African roots, DNA tests have shown.
Saliva samples taken from 39 relatives of the Nazi leader show he may have had biological links to the “subhuman” races that he tried to exterminate during the Holocaust.
Jean-Paul Mulders, a Belgian journalist, and Marc Vermeeren, a historian, tracked down the Fuhrer’s relatives, including an Austrian farmer who was his cousin, earlier this year.
A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
“One can from this postulate that Hitler was related to people whom he despised,” Mr Mulders wrote in the Belgian magazine, Knack.
Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.
Knack, which published the findings, says the DNA was tested under stringent laboratory conditions.
“This is a surprising result,” said Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven.
“The affair is fascinating if one compares it with the conception of the world of the Nazis, in which race and blood was central.
“Hitler’s concern over his descent was not unjustified. He was apparently not “pure” or ‘Ayran’.”
It is not the first time that historians have suggested Hitler had Jewish ancestry.
His father, Alois, is thought to have been the illegitimate offspring of a maid called Maria Schickelgruber and a 19-year-old Jewish man called Frankenberger.
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi’s Estranged Wife Rejects Divorce Deal
Milan, 23 August(AKI) — Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s estranged wife Veronica Lario has rejected a divorce settlement which means the couple may face off in civil court. The billionaire politician in May offered his second wife 300,000 euros a month and the use of the Macherio villa outside Milan in a legal settlement to end their marriage.
Lario filed for divorce last year after revelations that her billionaire husband had attended the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model who said she called him “Daddy”.
Berlusconi, 73, presented Naples underwear model Noemi Letizia with a 6,000 euro necklace when he attended the party at her family’s home in 2008.
Soon after La Repubblica daily reported Berlusconi had attended the party, Lario said her husband was “unwell” and announced she could not remain with someone “who dated minors”.
A former actress, Lario had demanded 3.5 million euros a month from her husband, who owns Italy’s three biggest private television stations, as well as other media assets.
Berlusconi’s fortune was estimated to be worth over 6.5 billion euros in 2009. The US-based Forbes magazine’s rich list ranked him as Italy’s second richest man.
A courtroom battle could mean that personal details of Berlusconi’s life would become public domain.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Michelle Obama Made Dusk Visit to Great Mosque of Granada During Spanish Trip
While President Barack Obama was “forcefully” endorsing the Ground Zero Mosque, Michelle Obama was paying homage with her presence to the Great Mosque at Granada, which overlooks what was once Islam’s most important outpost in Europe, the Alhambra palace in Granada.
There is no doubt about the influence of the Great Mosque of Granada overlooking Alhambra. One Spanish guidebook states that the Alhambra is to Granada what St.Peter’s is to Rome or St. Mark’s Square to Venice.
Michelle Obama and her nine-year-old daughter, Sasha, visited the Alhambra Mosque at dusk on the second day of her visit to Spain, one day after Barack had celebrated his 49th birthday without his family with Chicago friends.
Built in 2003, the Great Mosque in Granada, like the mosque planned in the shadow of Ground Zero, was born in controversy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: MP Wants Cabinet to Spread Wilders’ Values Abroad
The new Dutch cabinet should promote Geert Wilders’ views on immigration and integration internationally, his fellow Freedom Party member Hero Brinkman told Elsevier Magazine. The MP’s position clashes with the agreement to disagree which underlies the current coalition negotiations between free market liberal VVD and Christian Democrat CDA.
The anti-Islam Freedom Party has promised to lend support to the prospective centre-right minority cabinet without supplying any ministers to the government. With the help of Geert Wilders’ party, the cabinet will have a one-seat majority in parliament. Mr Wilders has ensured that he can continue to express his anti-Islam views, even if they are at odds with the policies of the cabinet he is supporting. Part of the draft agreement is that the Freedom Party will have no role in the Netherlands’ Foreign Affairs.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Assange ‘Still Suspected’ On Lesser Charges
WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange is still suspected of molestation, prosecutors in Stockholm have said. Meanwhile, chief prosecutor Eva Finné has rejected criticism of the original warrant for Assange’s arrest.
“This concerns two separate reports from two women,” said Karin Rosander, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Finné said she had not yet decided how to proceed.
“I am going to look thoroughly at this and take a view on the question of how to classify the complaints in the coming days. I have not ordered for Assange to be questioned,” she said.
The two women making the allegations, believed to be Swedish, approached police separately, one in Stockholm and one in an unnamed Swedish city.
Finné defended the original decision by a duty prosecutor on Friday night to issue an arrest warrant for Assange for suspected rape.
“I made my decision to reverse that decision one day later, when I had a lot more information to work with,” she said.
The rape accusations have now been dropped. Finné’s office could not on Monday say when a decision would be made about whether to take further action against Assange.
The Australian has been in Sweden to give lectures about Wikileaks’ controversial publication of secret documents about the war in Afghanistan. WikiLeaks’ servers are hosted in by a company in a Stockholm suburb.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Let’s Pickle a Few More Costly Commissions
Telegraph View: Every quango should be made to justify itself to the breezily brutal Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles.
Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, is a no-nonsense Yorkshireman who has brought a sort of breezy brutality to the job of saving public money. Earlier this year, he blocked an attempt by the Audit Commission to pay its new chief executive £240,000 a year and attacked its decision to spend more than £50,000 on a lobbying company — this from a body that is supposed to secure the best value for money in the public sector. Mr Pickles has now decided to scrap the commission altogether: it will cease to exist in two years. It had lost its way, he said, and instead of acting as “a watchdog that champions taxpayers’ interests” had become “a creature of the Whitehall state”.
Mr Pickles’s language is instructive. Empire-building is endemic in the state sector and the Audit Commission provides a pretty typical case study. Established in the 1980s to introduce fiscal discipline to local authorities and other public services, it has lost sight of that remit when it comes to its own performance. Six members of its “management team” earn more than the Prime Minister; it has 37 offices around the country employing 2,000 staff — and still it cannot balance the books. Last year it posted a £9 million loss. Mr Pickles believes he can save the taxpayer £50 million a year by hiving off its functions to other auditors, in both private and public sectors.
The Audit Commission should not be a lone target. Similar bodies have proliferated in the past couple of decades and a rigorous examination of their role is long overdue. Take Ofcom, the media and telecoms regulator, which has 873 staff, a budget of £142 million and pays its chief executive nearly £400,000 a year. Does media regulation require quite such a lavish superstructure?
Or what about the Charity Commission, whose vendetta against independent schools is so disagreeable? Last year, it managed to spend £7.5 million “promoting the effective use of resources”. And then there’s the Equality and Human Rights Commission, whose accounts have not been signed off for the past two years because of “irregular expenditure in a number of areas”.
Just three quangos out of many, but they all exhibit a failure to represent the taxpayers’ best interests that Mr Pickles has identified at the Audit Commission. Scores more could be included. Their modus operandi is to self-perpetuate by imposing onerous new obligations that they can then “police”. It is time to call a halt. In these harsh economic times, every quango should be made to reapply for its job, to justify its existence afresh. They must make a convincing case for their continued existence and if they cannot, they should be Pickled.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Whoever Kills a Police Officer Enters Paradise
This statement is on the wall in the Göteborg suburb Hisingen. It is not randomly painted there, rather it is part of a program. In this video, young Muslims say that the police “should not play Allah.” In their neighborhoods, state authority holds no way. Muslims are the ones who decide. The consequence: violence, vandalism, burning automobiles, attacks against police, firemen and paramedics. This TV report from Swedish television was broadcast back last spring. But the conditions described therein are good examples of the developments in all of Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Israel Fights the Demagogues
Israeli academia is in an uproar. And this is a good thing. Last week, the Zionist student movement Im Tirtzu opened a rather modest campaign against Ben-Gurion University’s Politics and Government Department. And the howls of protest stretched from the Negev to the border with Lebanon.
Im Tirtzu is a grass-roots initiative of university students. Over the past few years it has managed to amass a modest budget funded by Jewish and non-Jewish Zionists here and in the US.
One of Im Tirtzu’s central goals is to engender an atmosphere of academic freedom and intellectual pluralism on university campuses. Over the past generation or so, those campuses, and particularly the humanities and social sciences faculties, have become hotbeds of anti-Zionist activism and intellectual terror. Stories of professorial intimidation of and discrimination against Zionist students are widespread, as are instances of outright indoctrination in the classrooms…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Alwaleed Heads Meeting of News Corporation Directors
RIYADH: Rotana Holding Chairman Prince Alwaleed headed recently a board of directors meeting attended by News Corporation executives.
The meeting focused on the latest developments at Rotana and News Corporation, and ways to further strengthen the strategic corporate alliance between Rotana and News Corp. Alwaleed holds a strong presence in the media industry throughout the Arab world. Rotana Group recently won the third FM radio license bid in the Kingdom at a cost of SR67 million.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Partnering With Iran: Turkey’s New Direction
Report also notes one-time West-leaning nation’s relations with Israel ‘troubled’
Turkey and Iran are emerging as strategic partners in nuclear cooperation and counter-insurgency against a mutual threat from the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The emerging partnership is making the West concerned especially about Ankara’s more eastward tilt away from ambitions of joining the European Union.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Soldiers and Archaeologists Work Side by Side at Ancient Citadel
LETTER FROM TRIPOLI: High temperatures and hungry workers mean slow work at the Citadel of Raymond de Saint Gilles, writes FRANK SHOULDICE
THERE HAS been no shooting in Tripoli this week. By day, a combination of heat and devotion has reduced things to slow-motion — the holy festival of Ramadan is under way so its predominantly Sunni Muslim population is fasting from sunrise to sunset.
Meanwhile, unusually hot August temperatures hover close to 40 degrees to leave this Mediterranean port city gasping in its own vapours.
Lebanon’s second largest city seems to have recovered from a bus bombing two years ago and a gruesome shoot-out with an Islamist faction from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the outskirts.
For all Tripolites the absence of gunfire is hugely welcome but few are confident the respite is set to last.
Either way, the Lebanese army is taking no chances. It operates checkpoints in and out of the city and has bases at strategic points around town, including the Citadel of Raymond de Saint Gilles, which commands a clear view of everything as far as the static waters at El Mina.
The Crusaders built this castle in 1103 and it has passed through many hands since.
The latest occupants use two sections of the citadel as lookouts. Sandbags fill the narrow stone openings, khaki hangs from improvised washing lines, stainless steel cooking pots balance on the castle ramparts. It’s as though M*A*S*H relocated to the Middle East.
But since its arrival here the Lebanese army has met with unexpected resistance — from a committed team of archaeologists. Soldiers, the archaeologists have noted, do not care too deeply about medieval treasures. “We want them out of here,” said the team leader, “but they don’t want to go.”
It’s a battle she’s unlikely to win, but the archaeologist, a diminutive and spirited archivist, conceded that the army’s unwanted presence is a sort of history in the moment.
Different militia groups occupied the citadel during Lebanon’s civil war and in its 900 years the structure has borne the brunt of everything from catapults to RPGs.
But now the team leader faced a different problem. Her workmen, nearly all Muslim, were feeling the personal exigencies of Ramadan. Their daily fast includes water, so in addition to losing energy the workmen were losing heart.
“A disaster,” shrugged the archaeologist, herself a Christian. “They’re hungry, they’re thirsty, they’re in a bad mood all day and they don’t feel like working. I know it’s hard when you can’t even take water but I keep telling them that’s their choice.”
When she tried to rally her recalcitrant crew one of the men complained of backache. His workmate attempted a remedy by clasping from behind and lifting the man in a manoeuvre borrowed from Heimlich. It didn’t work. The complainant stooped even lower, shuffling away to sit in the shade.
But work at the fortress had to continue, even if split into two very different camps. Over by the ruins of a mosque a more enthusiastic member of the dig panned through a mound of dirt like a gold prospector. Shaded by an umbrella he sat on the ground happily caked in dust. The job was laborious, he said, but when you found something it made it all worthwhile.
A small trove of medieval utensils — mostly pieces of ceramic pots — testified to his diligence and every find was logged in the team leader’s ledger.
But the Lebanese army was unimpressed. Three soldiers sprawled nearby under a large cypress tree watching in mute disapproval as the archaeologist sifted through another pile of clay.
In a stone turret high above the courtyard a sentry with a machine gun swatted away a fly. No invasion today. Up on the ramparts the only sound was car horns from Tripoli’s clogged streets, the croaking chorus of ramshackle Mercedes exhumed from the NCT graveyards of Germany and Switzerland.
The midday sun was unrelenting. Unmoved by the latest archaeological discovery the sentry blinked, gathering sweat, and stood by his citadel post, gazing towards the sea like hundreds of soldiers before him, watching over the city below.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey to Remove Iran From Enemies Watchlist
Turkey is to remove Iran from a watchlist of nations it considers a specific threat to its national security, a news report said Monday, amid Western concerns of rapprochement between the two countries.
The updated list is contained in Turkey’s security review produced by the country’s National Security Council, or MGK, that will be adopted in October and will no longer refer to Iran as a “specific threat,” the Milliyet newspaper said.
The review replaces a previous edition published five years ago, the newspaper added.
Members of the council, made up of government and military leaders, were not immediately available for comment on the report on Iran, which Western nations accuse of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The new document also downgrades the security threat presented by traditional rival Greece, Milliyet reported. The two countries have long-standing territorial differences but ties have improved recently in the commercial field.
The updated review mentions Iran’s controversial nuclear weapons program and repeats Turkey’s diplomatic line that it favors a nuclear-free Middle East, in a statement taken as a reference to Israel, which is believed to hold the region’s only nuclear weapons arsenal.
Turkey’s improved ties with Iran have caused concern in the West. Turkey, a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, upset the United States and its Western allies when it opposed a resolution to impose new sanctions on Iran that was adopted by the Security Council in June.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government insists that it retains its strong ties to the West even as it seeks deeper relations with its Middle East neighbors and Asia.
At the same time, Turkey’s relations with Israel have been strained, notably by the May 31 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship.
Turkey threatened to sever ties completely following the deadly raid unless Israel apologized, a step the Israelis refused to take.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Polygamous Government Advisor
Here’s how Turkey really shows it belongs to Europe: it appoints a government advisor (Ali Yüksel, photo) who is known for his polygamy. He has three wives, soon to be four, and the self-appointed human rights people say nothing about it. Isn’t that true, Madame Roth?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Jakarta, Islamic Leaders Liken Corrupt Politicians to Infidels
The two main moderate Islamic organizations in the country have published the book “Corruptor is infidel”. For Nahdlatul Ulama leaders, when a corrupt person dies he or she should not receive the Islamic ritual or prayers. Corruption is rampant among politicians in Indonesia in 2010 alone, it has caused the loss of 175 million euro.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — “ Corruptor is infidel” is the title of a book released recently published by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest moderate Islamic organization in the country, and Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia.
Corruption is one of the ills afflicting the country’s political classes. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had promised to uproot the problem. However according to the Indonesian Corruption Watch, the situation is rather worse: the state has lost one trillion rupees (87 million euro) in 2009, 2 thousand billion (175 million euro) in 2010.
“Corruption is a grave practice — said Kiai Haj Masdar Farid Mas’udi among the leaders of NU — which destroys religious truth. Islam considers it a grave sin”. Following publication of the provocative book, NU has made another controversial decision: a corrupt person will not receive Islamic prayers when he or she dies.
“Let the family [of the corrupt] pray — said Kiai Hajj Prof Said Agiel Siradj NU leader — but not our imams.” According to Kiai Hajj Malik Madani, a religious in NU, the proposal was made to ensure that the organization is not accused of blessing corruption. “These criminals — says Madani — should think hard about the fact that when they die, there will be no one to pray for them.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Floods: ‘Cultural Shock’ For Women in Camps
Three weeks after Pakistan’s worst natural disaster began, many people are living in camps all around the country.
Shmyalla Jawad, who is the gender advisor for the Plan International organisation in Pakistan, visited some of these camps in the Layyah district in Southern Punjab.
She found out that apart from the dire conditions in the camp, women and girls are also facing a cultural challenge.
Visiting these camps was a heart wrenching experience. I was appalled to see the conditions in which these people are living.
But what emerged for me to be the most worrying thing was how women and young girls are being affected by this. They are always the worst hit in these situations.
Health and sanitation is a big issue. One camp set up in a government building had no bathing facility.
Whereas the men and young children can take baths outside on the school lawn, women don’t have that option.
Many people didn’t have a chance to pick up their belongings when the floods hit their village so they have no change of clothes.
Many are wearing what they left home in and without being able to wash and women’s hygiene in particular has deteriorated.
The situation is even worse for menstruating and pregnant women.
The camps are also culturally shocking for women and girls. Many have never been around a man who isn’t a member of their family.
Now they are amongst hundreds of men who are complete strangers.
In some sectors of Pakistan society, apart from the religious notions of covering up and not mingling with males outside one’s family, women are considered to be the custodians of male and family honour.
This notion of honour is linked with women’s sexual behaviour so their sexuality is considered to be a potential threat to the honour of family. Therefore, the systems of sex segregation known as purdah are used by the society to protect the honour of the family.
But in the camps there are no provisions for purdah. Young boys and girls have to sleep in the same room, at times next to each other, most mothers and families do not feel it’s safe for their daughters, especially in the current circumstances.
But even then, I still have hope, provided that relief is well targeted.
Funds and relief items have started coming in, but we still have a long way to go. We need to ensure that relief is distributed effectively, efficiently and without unnecessary time delays.
The people affected by the flood are also trying their best to brave out this bad patch in their lives.
Their major concern is of how to help their children continue with their education; how to rebuild their lives, their houses and their communities once they go back.
I believe that we should do anything that we can to support them.
| — Hat tip: Russkiy | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda: End Environmental Experiments on Africans!
If Africans used DDT for indoor residual spraying, they will be using a chemical that America, Europe, India, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all shown is effective in fighting malaria, and safe for people and the environment.
But environmentalists still say, don’t do it in Uganda, Rwanda and other countries where malaria is still killing our parents and babies. They say we should just use bed nets, ACT drugs and maybe some Icon. These things certainly help. But they only reduce malaria by 30% or so — whereas we could prevent and almost eradicate this disease, if we would also use DDT.
Bluntly put, environmentalists are using African parents and children in anti-DDT experiments. Against all the evidence from decades of using only nets and drugs and maybe other insecticides, they want to keep ignoring DDT as a long-lasting spatial insect repellant. They want to keep us doing what has at best worked only partially, on the assumption that maybe it will work better next year — or that a 30% malaria reduction is good enough.
They are playing with our lives. So are the government agencies, health NGOs and others who support their policies. This is wrong and immoral. And it is only one of the ways they use Africans as experimental laboratory animals. They are also denying us access to other modern technologies that can improve and save lives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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