Nationalize All Industries: The President is Right That GM is Number One Again — In China.
President Obama’s auto bailout cost taxpayers $60,000 per job saved. GM and Chrysler Fiat’s roaring sales are due to subsidized sales, indirect funding by the government, “sub-prime auto loans to inflate their car sales, selling automobiles to people who cannot afford them.” (Michael Savage, Savage Nation, August 9, 2012)
Taxpayers lost $20 to $23 billion in the auto bailout. The Obama Administration redistributed $26.5 more to the union than UAW would have received legally in the bankruptcy proceedings had the rule of law and contract been followed. “Thus the entire loss to the taxpayers from the auto bailout comes from the funds diverted to the UAW.“ (Amy Payne, Heritage Foundation, June 13, 2012) Mismanagement and high union labor costs contributed heavily to the bankruptcies
Mismanagement and high union labor costs, $70.51per hour in wages and benefits for GM and $75.86 per hour for Chrysler, contributed heavily to the bankruptcies that necessitated the bailout in the first place.
[…]
The issue is more complex. GM did not just become Government Motors, it became China Motors. After $80 billion of taxpayers’ dollars “saved” GM and Chrysler, GM opened a plant in Wuling, China. Research and development for car design was moved to China. Dan Akerson, CEO of GM said in Shanghai, China, in February 2011:
“Seven out of ten automobiles were made outside of the United States. We have 11 joint ventures in China with SAIC and FAW. We operate 11 assembly plants in China, four power train plants in eight cities across the country. We have more than 2,700 dealerships and sales outlets nationwide. We regard our eleven joint ventures as 11 keys to success. Not just in China but globally. Our commitment to working in China, with China, for China remains strong and focused in the future.We are now building out the advanced technology center which will bring our research and development that is centered largely in the U.S.; we are going to diversify that more into China because we think this market is so critically important to the success of our company. GM is a company well established for the future in China.” (May 4, 2012, video clip narrated by Vince Wade)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
No Letup in Anti-German Sentiment in Greece
During the debt crisis Greeks have been badmouthing the Germans — but the Germans have been equally critical of their EU counterparts. Some Greeks want this situation to change.
German tabloids portray Greeks as bankrupt and tell them to sell off their islands to pay their debts — and Greek cartoonists sketch German chancellor Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform or as a whip-touting animal tamer at the circus. Negative comments by both Greek and German politicians have also not made rapprochement between the two countries easier.
The sour mood is no surprise, and is just one element of the rampant populism in Europe that has only been exacerbated by the crisis, said Mary Giannakaki, deputy leader of the pro-European Democratic Left party, newly elected to the Athens parliament. She said the bleak opinion of the Greeks toward the Germans can only be thought of in a European context.
“The crisis has allowed the specter of nationalism to emerge all across Europe. The idea of ‘Europe’ is unfairly vilified and demonized,” Giannakaki, a political scientist who studied in Paris and Athens, said. She said it was clear neither Germany nor Greece was to blame for starting the current economic crisis, but this is something that needed to be explained to the people — and while that is first and foremost the job of the politicians in each country, it has been neglected: “I really cannot believe that all Greeks think the Germans are enemies and vice-versa. These are minority opinions and isolated cases,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Unemploy Obama
The latest jobs report should persuade all those who worry about the president’s economic policies but find him likable that enough is enough, and that policy trumps personality when it comes to deciding who should occupy the White House. Job creation remains anemic, the unemployment rate has ticked up to 8.3 percent, and the labor force participation rate continues to fall as more and more Americans choose the couch over tramping the streets looking for work. The Labor Department sums it up: Both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate “have shown little movement thus far in 2012.” It should be clear that it is time for a change.
The president has gambled the nation’s ability to recover from this recession on policies that include high taxes, more regulation, attacks on businesses and “millionaires and billionaires,” stimulus spending that ends up largely in the pockets of members of public service trade unions and campaign contributors, and huge deficits—gambled and lost. Like other obsessive gamblers who cannot recognize failure until they are ruined, he wants to double down—make the same bet again in the hope that this time he will roll prosperity instead of more joblessness. Ideologues, like addicted gamblers, reject experience as a teacher. And when they are gambling with other people’s money, they have little incentive to change, especially if they can count on a winning personality to persuade supporters to overlook the minor matter of oncoming penury.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
At Ramadan Dinner, Obama Calls Clinton Aide a “Patriot”
By Salimah Ebrahim
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President Barack Obama on Friday called Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an “American patriot” after a group of Republican lawmakers accused her of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political organization.
“She has been nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear,” Obama said at a White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“The American people owe her a debt of gratitude because Huma is an American patriot and an example of what we need in this country — more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace and her generosity of spirit.”
In June, Representative Michele Bachmann along with four other Republican lawmakers questioned Abedin’s security clearance in a letter to the State Department’s inspector general. They suggested members of her family had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, which the writers said may be seeking access to high levels of the U.S. government.
“If my family members were associated with Hamas, a terrorist organization, that alone could be sufficient to disqualify me from getting a security clearance,” Bachmann said on conservative host Glenn Beck’s talk show.
Abedin, a Muslim, was seated on Obama’s right at the dinner and appeared visibly moved as the president spoke to a room full of religious leaders, elected officials and diplomats.
Senior Republicans in Congress, including House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and former presidential candidate John McCain, have rallied to Abedin’s defense in recent weeks.
Greater participation of female athletes at the Olympics was another focus of Friday’s dinner. Obama noted that for the first time in Olympic history each team included a woman.
“One of the reasons is that every team from a Muslim-majority country now includes women as well,” he said.
Since taking office, Obama has focused on strengthening ties with the Muslim world. At a speech in Cairo in 2009 he called for “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world” based on “mutual interest and mutual respect.”
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Barry Soetoro, The Invisible Man
Wayne Allyn Root, 2008 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee, successful Vegas odds maker, author and speaker, recently made headlines in the style of Donald Trump by publicly stating that he believes he knows why Barry Soetoro, a/k/a Barack Hussein Obama II continues to refuse to unseal and release his college transcripts.
Root attended Columbia University and graduated in 1983, the same year as Mr. Soetoro. Root also was a political science, pre-law major in a graduating class of about 700 students, of which it is estimated that 250 or so students shared the same major.
In sum and substance, Mr. Root speculates that Barry Soetoro was accepted and attended Columbia University as a foreign exchange student, most likely as an Indonesian citizen. Mr. Root added that He paid little for either undergraduate college or Harvard Law School because of foreign aid and scholarships awarded due to his citizenship status. At this point, you might be inclined to brush off the entire matter as speculation, classify it as a distraction or otherwise downplay the significance of the issue. There are a number of critically important reasons why one must not dismiss any or all of this.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Behind the Scenes: Obama and the NDAA
Additional research and investigation into the controversial National Defense Authorization Act found something very interesting is not apparently being reported by the U.S. media. Readers will recall that controversy that surrounded the liberty-threatening NDAA legislation, passed with bipartisan support in the House and Senate and signed into law by Barack Hussein Obama last New Year’s Eve.
That law essentially gave the government the right to arrest and detain, without due process, American citizens on significantly vague and broad charges ostensibly related to terrorism. The legislation opened a “Pandora’s box” of unpleasant possibilities that undermine our Constitutional rights and threaten our liberties unlike any other time in our national history.
Supporters of the NDAA, along with the media, were quick to point to a “signing statement” penned by Obama expressing his concern over the liberty restricting rights of the law, as if that somehow made the language of the new law suddenly conform to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Obviously, it did no such thing, but people were apparently comforted by this eight-page cross-my-heart promise that Obama and his redesigned national security apparatus would never use it for “bad.” Obama said he was uncomfortable with the particular language of section 1021 (and related portions) that called for arrests and indefinite detentions of U.S. citizens under the broad brush of terrorism.
Despite what you’ve been told, it is obvious that Obama and his cohorts are not uncomfortable with those provisions, and are quietly fighting to make sure the controversial provisions remain.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama — Illusionist in Chief
Since Obama is a practiced illusionist, he hides and stuffs his lies everywhere, building his tyrannical rule on deception. We must learn sooner then later this election cycle that everything that comes out of Obama’s mouth and those sell out robots surrounding him is deception and lies. Our country is doomed if liberals and conservatives don’t face the Marxist music now.
Obama believes we are all stupid surfs to be positioned where he wants us. We are to be trained to obey or be destroyed. There is no middle ground anymore. The plot is thickening and the poison spikes are poking through the fabric. Soon, resisters will be destroyed or taken to re education camps for in your face instruction and discipline.
This week, private investigator and head of North East Intelligence Network, Doug Hagmann exposed info from his DHS informant. This was highlighted in Sher Zieves interview with him. The Bottom line is DHS and Obama are expecting and planning for a violent revolution. When asked about all the military activity and armed vehicles being peppered everywhere, his informant said ‘expect more.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Obsession With Destroying Our Country Has No Bounds
Every day I ask “When will it ever end?” Sometimes I get an answer, which really isn’t an answer, but just another question, such as “I don’t know, do you?” — then return to my wondering.
The question is meant to find out when our non-illustrious president is going to stop damaging America with his foolish and inane decisions that hurt just about all living Americans and help no one but our enemies and those covert enemies of which only he is cognizant.
As Kris Zane states in “Obama Tries to Disenfranchise Our Troops” in the August 04, 2012 online edition of The Western Center for Journalism, that it is “no secret that Obama is trying to gut our military, citing Aaron Klein’s book, “Fool Me Twice.” where he reveals that George Soros’ front group/Obama-connected Center for American Progress as recently as January 2012 published a paper describing how our military spending could be gutted in order to transform it into a peacekeeping organization (under the auspices of the UN no doubt), with the primary goals of redistributing wealth and fighting “climate change.”
If that isn’t eviscerating our military for other nefarious actions contrary to normal American procedures then I don’t know what is. Some of the ‘other’ actions come such as burdening our men and women in uniform with the home-budget-breaking news that “Tricare-the healthcare system for our military and their families (both active duty and retired)-was tripling the cost of benefits.”
“Under the new plan, Tricare annual premiums will increase 30 percent to 78 percent in the first year. After that the plan more than triples the premium payment in five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent. ‘According to congressional assessments,’ Free Beacon reported, ‘a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.’“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Olympics Math — Medal Winners to Pay Up to $9,000 to IRS
Some interesting Olympics math coming from Americans for Tax Reform. American athletes who win medals at the 2012 London Olympics will have to cough up some dough to the IRS when they return the United States:
According to research done by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, U.S. Olympic athletes are liable to pay income tax on medals earned and prizes received at the London games.American medalists face a top income tax rate of 35 percent.
Under U.S. tax law, they must add the value of their Olympic medals and prizes to their taxable income.
It is therefore easy to calculate the tax bite on Olympic glory.At today’s commodity prices, the value of a gold medal is about $675. A silver medal is worth about $385 while a bronze medal is worth under $5.There are also prizes that accompany each medal:
$25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
OR Gov. Grants Clemency to Murderer, But Not to Man Collecting Rainwater
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber won’t even discuss clemency for a man convicted of collecting rainwater, yet he’s forcing a reprieve on a convicted murderer — who wants to be executed.
Democrat Gov. Kitzhaber has granted a reprieve “for the duration of my service as governor” to Gary D. Haugen, who has twice been convicted of aggravated murder. Haugen — who wants to be executed — was first convicted of killing the mother of his girlfriend and later was found guilty of murdering a fellow inmate.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kitzhaber’s office won’t even discuss the possibility of granting any form of clemency to Gary Harrington, who is scheduled to begin serving a 30 day jail term this week — for collecting rainwater his (Harrington’s) own property.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Romney Urged to Address Muslim Brotherhood Infiltration
It is a subject that Mitt Romney and Barack Obama don’t want to talk about. But former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy on Wednesday offered a virtual indictment of top State Department official Huma Abedin as a security risk and said that Obama’s embrace of the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a national security crisis and should be a major campaign issue.
McCarthy, who prosecuted the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, said it’s “vitally important” that Romney speak out publicly in support of the five members of Congress asking questions about Muslim Brotherhood influence over U.S. policy. He said Romney should “stand up and be counted.”
Romney recently said that questions about Abedin, deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the Muslim Brotherhood, were not part of his campaign.
In addition to prosecuting terrorists, McCarthy wrote a book, The Grand Jihad, the title of which is taken from a Muslim Brotherhood document obtained by the FBI and which identifies front groups and collaborators in the U.S.
At a packed news conference with six television cameras and journalists overflowing into the hallway, Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney introduced McCarthy and released a ream of documents on Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. Government.
The conference was carried by the C-SPAN television network and is available for viewing. [url]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Romney Down by Nine as Conservatives Gripe
At a news conference on Wednesday, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy urged Romney to take a stand in favor of the five members of Congress raising security concerns about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the Obama Administration.
In this context, there is mounting concern about Romney adviser Robert Kagan, whose book, The World America Made, has curiously become a favorite of Obama’s. Indeed, it is reported that Obama recommended Kagan’s book to his advisers.
David P. Goldman notes that a theme of the book is that there is such a thing as “Muslim democracy” and that the U.S. should welcome it. Kagan argues that the U.S. can live and work with Islamist political parties taking over some Arab states in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Romney Picks ‘Budget Hawk’ Ryan as Election Running Mate
US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has chosen Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate. The choice is likely to appeal to conservatives in the Republican Party and to the influential Tea Party.
The campaign team for Romney on Saturday confirmed widespread media reports that the Republican White House candidate had chosen Ryan as his running mate.
After a months-long search, Romney officially announced his choice at an event on the retired battleship USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday.
By a possible coincidence, Wisconsin is also Ryan’s home state.
Ryan, 42, who is the House Budget Committee chairman, will join Romney in the struggle for the White House against Democratic President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. The election is scheduled for November 6.
Ryan’s House-backed plans to lower taxes and slash federal spending have made him a favorite of the conservative Tea Party, a movement that is against taxes and in favor of limited government. The Tea Party played an important role in helping Republicans take over the House of Representatives in 2010.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why GOP Leaders Slur Bachmann, Defend Obama
Now key members of the elitist faction’s leadership in the Democratic and Republican parties have embarked upon a scurrilous campaign of personal destruction aimed at discrediting Bachmann’s demand. Their campaign makes use of ad hominem attacks that accuse her of anti-Muslim bigotry and falsely suggest that her apprehension has no factual basis. Yet the ad hominem assault appears to have been launched precisely because Rep. Bachmann capably established the solid basis for her concerns. In a letter to Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., she rebutted his scurrilously false characterizations of her actions with a meticulously footnoted response amply documenting the facts that justify her security concerns.
Since her critics can’t argue the facts (as we know from the reporting of WorldNetDaily’s Aaron Klein), their tactic is to destroy the reputation of the person pointing them out. It’s not surprising to see Obama’s henchmen and fellow travelers eagerly deploying this tactic. What’s more than noteworthy, however, is the fact that Republican Sen. John McCain quickly jumped to the forefront of the GOP leadership’s contribution to what has become an all-out elitist-faction offensive against Bachmann. Along with the GOP speaker of the House (and, just recently, two Romney camp weathervanes, Sens. Marco Rubio and Scott Brown), the GOP’s 2008 nominee for president seems enthusiastically committed to this campaign of personal destruction. If successful, the campaign could bring about Bachmann’s defeat in the upcoming election, thus purging her from the GOP delegation.
Why has the GOP leadership unleashed this communist-style purge against Michele Bachmann? Why do they seek to thwart the demand to seriously investigate what could very well be a fatal threat to America’s security?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Ramadan Show Draws Ire
From The Copenhagen Post
National broadcaster DR will mark the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, next week by organising a festive event that includes music and workshops inside Koncerthuset, as well as several radio programs.
But not everyone is in a festive mood. Ole Hyltoft, DR’s deputy chairman, calls it a terrifying gamble and contends that Islam has political and warlike beliefs aimed at all non-Muslims.
“I keep thinking about the many ignorant and naïve Danes who celebrated the Hitler Youth in the 1930s for the healthy lifestyle, good food and fresh music that the young Germans embraced,” Hyltoft told Politiken newspaper. “Is it right that DR launch such a controversial project without discussing it with the board?”
Despite recently announcing that she would step down as Dansk Folkeparti’s leader, Pia Kjærsgaard showed she wasn’t going to pull out of the limelight and agreed with Hyltoft, who was appointed to DR by Dansk Folkeparti in 2007. “I guess we have to be force-fed this stuff. Wherever we turn, we have to hear something about Eid,” Kjærsgaard told Politiken,
But Nihad Hodzic, spokesperson for Muslim interest group Muslimer i Dialog, disagrees with Hyltoft’s outburst, saying that there is nothing wrong with DR focusing on the end of Ramadan. “What is terrifying is that there is a man on the board that thinks it’s “terrifying” to include people in a public service event,” Hodzic told Politiken. “The purpose of public service is to include the public, which Muslims are part of.”
All of next week, the radio station P3 will be concentrating their efforts on a pre-party to Eid and on Monday, August 20, it will all culminate in a concert at Koncerhuset.
I didn’t think Muslims who followed Mohammed to the letter had music?
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Wins Fifth Straight Women’s Basketball Gold Medal
The American women’s basketball team routed France 86-50 in the final Saturday, collecting its fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
Candace Parker scored 21 points, including eight in a game-changing run in the second quarter.
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$200m Wasted on Iraqi Police Training Program, US Audit Says
U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted.
The Police Development Program — which was drawn up to be the single largest State Department program in the world — was envisioned as a five-year, multibillion-dollar push to train security forces after the U.S. military left last December. But Iraqi political leaders, anxious to keep their distance from the Americans, were unenthusiastic.
A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, to be released Monday, found that the American Embassy in Baghdad never got a written commitment from Iraq to participate. Now, facing what the report called Baghdad’s “disinterest” in the project, the embassy is gutting what was supposed to be the centerpiece of ongoing U.S. training efforts in Iraq.
According to the report, the embassy plans to turn over the $108 million Baghdad Police College Annex to Iraqis by the end of the year and will stop training at a $98 million site at the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Basra. Additionally, the number of advisers has been cut by nearly 90 percent — from 350 to 36.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
End is Near for Syria’s Assad, Says German Spy Chief
BERLIN (Reuters) — Germany’s spy chief said Syria President Bashar al-Assad’s government appeared to be in its final phase because its army had been depleted by casualties, deserters and defectors to the opposition.
Gerhard Schindler, head of Germany’s BND intelligence agency, said Assad’s once 320,000-strong army had lost about 50,000 troops since the uprising against his rule began 17 months ago.
Smaller, flexible rebel units were sapping the strength of the army with guerrilla tactics, he told Die Welt newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.
“There are a lot of indications that the end game for the regime has begun,” said the president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst agency.
“That (army losses) includes those who have been wounded, deserted and about 2,000 to 3,000 who have defected to the armed military opposition,” he said. “The erosion of the military is continuing.”
While Assad’s grip on the country has been loosened as the uprising has gathered momentum, his forces have overwhelming firepower advantage against lightly armed rebels.
However, Schindler said small rebel units were offsetting that by using their speed and maneuverability to strike quickly in ambushes.
“Because of their small size, they’re not a good target for Assad’s army,” he said. “The regular army is being confronted by a variety of flexible fighters. The recipe of their success is their guerrilla tactics. They’re breaking the army’s back.”
Assad is fighting to crush a rebellion that aims to end his family’s four decades in charge of Syria.
Comment: Even if Schindler’s calculation is correct, and 50,000 of what started as a 320,000-man army, have been killed, wounded, deserted, or defected, that still leaves an army of 270,000 men (in the regular army) and tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of others in militias who can be counted on, even more than the army.
What should the West do? Nothing. Let the Syrian army — and its Air Force too — be further damaged and degraded, not by the West but by the acts of Muslim Arabs. Ideally the Islamic Republic of Iran will be forced to send billions in aid, and military equipment, thus draining its own resources, and possibly Hezbollah could be persuaded to do the same, or even to send volunteers. That would be great. Let it be a free-for-all, where Shi’a allies earn the long-term hatred of the Sunnis in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq and Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf sheikdoms.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Photos Prove Rare Sumatran Rhino is Still Alive
Seven of the world’s rarest rhinoceroses have been found in a national park in Indonesia. This is the first time the creatures have been seen in 26 years. Deforestation is still pushing the Sumatran toward extinction.
Hidden cameras buried deep in an Indonesian national park have snapped images of seven critically endangered Sumatran rhinos. The rhinos haven’t been seen in more than a quarter of a century and conservationists had feared the Sumatran was extinct. But, six females and one male rhino are now known to live in the Mount Leuser National Park, which is on the northern tip of Sumatra.
“I feel really happy. After 26 years, we have found the rhino in the Leuser ecosystem,” said Jamal Gawi, who heads the Leuser International Foundation. “We attend international conferences on the plight of the Asian rhinos. When they talk about the Sumatran rhinos in Leuser, they always put a question mark. Now we can prove to the world, we found the rhinos! They alive!”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Breitbart Reporter in Indonesia Has Documented Proof Obama is Indonesian Citizen
Wayne Allyn Root: Breitbart Reporter in Indonesia Has Documented Proof Obama is Indonesian Citizen — Video
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan to Take S. Korea Islands Row to International Court
Japan says it will take a territorial dispute with South Korea to the International Court of Justice. This comes a day after the South Korean president fueled tensions with a trip to the islands at the center of the row.
A spokesperson for Japan’s foreign minister said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday that Tokyo would bring the dispute over the islands to the international court following what was described as an “unacceptable action” on the part of the South Korean president.
“Japan decided to act to peacefully solve the issue by bringing it to the International Court of Justice,” the statement said.
It said that in view of the visit to the islands by President Lee Myung-bak, presenting Japan’s position to the international community was “more important than holding back, giving consideration for the whole Japan-ROK (Republic of Korea) relations.”
The action would be taken in the “not too distant future,” the statement said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Keeping Close Watch on French Roma Expulsions
(BRUSSELS) — The European Commission is keeping a close eye on a new French purge on Roma camps to ensure expulsions are not arbitrary and discriminatory, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
French authorities on Thursday dismantled two makeshift camps housing 200 people near Lille, and flew 240 Roma gypsies from Lyon to Romania in the biggest repatriation of its kind since Francois Hollande succeeded Nicolas Sarkozy as president in May.
The office of European Union justice commissioner Viviane Reding — who clashed with Sarkozy during similar deportations two years ago — is in contact with French authorities, Mina Andreeva told AFP.
Today again Reding’s staff “are analysing the situation to make sure that European rules are respected,” Andreeva said.
An EU source said the scrutiny would mean “a stiff test” for France.
Reding angered Sarkozy by comparing the earlier rounding up to World War II-era deportations.
Reding and the Commission also threatened to take France to court for discrimination against EU citizens — the Roma are mainly Romanian and Bulgarian nationals, often encouraged to return to the lands of their birth with public funds.
France changed its domestic law to meet Reding’s concerns, but expulsions continued when based on a judicial decision for instance.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Liberals, Progressives and Socialists
In Europe, especially in Germany, hoisting a swastika-emblazoned Nazi flag is a crime. For decades after World War II, people have hunted down and sought punishment for Nazi murderers, who were responsible for the deaths of more than 20 million people.
Here’s my question: Why are the horrors of Nazism so well-known and widely condemned but not those of socialism and communism? What goes untaught — and possibly is covered up — is that socialist and communist ideas have produced the greatest evil in mankind’s history. You say, “Williams, what in the world are you talking about? Socialists, communists and their fellow travelers, such as the Wall Street occupiers supported by our president, care about the little guy in his struggle for a fair shake! They’re trying to promote social justice.” Let’s look at some of the history of socialism and communism.
What’s not appreciated is that Nazism is a form of socialism. In fact, the term Nazi stands for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The unspeakable acts of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis pale in comparison to the horrors committed by the communists in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Study: In Social Psychology, Left-Wing Agenda is King
Those tolerant liberals! It’s not news that in the arts and the soft sciences academia is intractably left-wing. It is noteworthy to see the bias categorized and quantified.
The journal Perspectives on Psychological Science has published an article by researchers Yoel Inbar and Joel Lammers, psychology professors at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
It’s based on their study showing the abundance of anti-conservative animus in its own field of social psychology.
Napp Nazworth of The Christian Post picked up on the story and highlighted some of its alarming results.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Minority Victim Value Index
Toward the end of Animal Farm when the formerly revolutionary seven commandments have been rewritten to “All Animals are Equal… But Some Animals are More Equal than Others”, what began with the promise of equality has reverted to an authoritarian caste system. America’s civil rights revolution similarly began with, “All Americans are Equal” and ended up with, “All Americans are Equal… But Some Americans are More Equal than Others.”
Liberals have seized the commanding heights of the moral high ground by presenting themselves as the protectors of minorities and vowing to replace one racist system with an equally racist, anti-racist system. But caste systems aren’t just black and white and the rainbow coalition has internal conflicts. What do liberals do when different groups within the rainbow coalition conflict and how do they make that determination?
[…]
Anyone who is shocked that the left would make common cause with Islamists has forgotten the Black Panthers. From the left’s point of view they are doing the same thing by bringing on board a group with some revolutionary energy and a willingness to overthrow the system. Associating with them gives the left some revolutionary cred and the supposed ability to turn the violence on and off.
If you think that’s farfetched, what do you think happened in 2008 when a completely inept hack blew through Hillary Clinton and John McCain on a pledge to end the wars and repair our relations with the Muslim world? Why exactly do you think the Democrats chose a man with no experience except a few books about growing up in a Muslim country and Hussein as his middle name? Why was that man then awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for no discernible accomplishment?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What Same-Sex “Marriage” Has Done to Massachusetts
It’s far worse than most people realize
Anyone who thinks that same-sex “marriage” is a benign eccentricity which won’t affect the average person should consider what it has done to Massachusetts since 2004. It’s become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality on everyone. The slippery slope is real. New radical demands never cease. What has happened in the last several years is truly frightening.
On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced its Goodridge opinion, declaring that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex “marriage.” Six months later, despite public outrage, homosexual “weddings” began to take place. And that was just the beginning . . . The public schools
The homosexual “marriage” onslaught in public schools across the state started soon after the November 2003 court ruling.
- At my own children’s high school there was a school-wide assembly to celebrate same-sex “marriage” in early December 2003. It featured an array of speakers, including teachers at the school who announced that they would be “marrying” their same-sex partners and starting families, either through adoption or artificial insemination. Literature on same-sex marriage — how it is now a normal part of society — was handed out to the students.
- Within months it was brought into the middle schools. In September 2004, an 8th-grade teacher in Brookline, Mass., told National Public Radio that the marriage ruling had opened up the door for teaching homosexuality. “In my mind, I know that, ‘OK, this is legal now.’ If somebody wants to challenge me, I’ll say, ‘Give me a break. It’s legal now,’“ she told NPR. She added that she now discusses gay sex with her students as explicitly as she desires. For example, she said she tells the kids that lesbians can have vaginal intercourse using sex toys.
- By the following year it was in elementary school curricula — with hostility toward parents who disagreed. Kindergartners in Lexington, Mass. were given copies of a picture book, Who’s in a Family?, telling them that same-sex couples are just another kind of family, just like their own parents. When David Parker — parent of a kindergartner — calmly refused to leave a school meeting unless officials agreed to notify him when discussing homosexuality or transgenderism with his son, the school had him arrested and jailed overnight.
- The next year, second graders at the same school were read a book, King & King, about two men who fall in love and marry each other, ending with a picture of them kissing. When parents Robb and Robin Wirthlin complained, they were told that the school had no obligation to notify them or allow them to opt their child out.
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Green Conservation’s Victims of Land Grabbing
The biggest threat to many indigenous peoples today is being expelled from their lands in the name of green conservation.
What’s the biggest threat to the world’s indigenous peoples today? It isn’t logging, mining, or oil drilling claims Mark Dowie, its conservation. He writes, “From the Maasi nomads of East Africa to the Hmong Hill people of southeast Asia to Mayan villagers in Mexico, indigenous tribes around the globe are increasingly being expelled from lands where they have lived in harmony with nature for centuries or millennia . (1)
The unintended consequences of the global conservation movement’s success has been a mass dislocation. Worldwide estimates of the number of people displaced by conservation activities range from five million to tens of millions. The total area of land now under conservation protection worldwide has doubled since 1990, with over 12 percent of all land, a total area of 11.75 million square miles, now protected. That’s an area greater than the entire land mass of Africa. And if you aren’t aware of how massive Africa is — it is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan and all of Europe … combined!(2)
[…]
So, what about the United States? In Brian Sussman’s recently published book, Eco-Tyranny, he reports that he became aware of a secret draft document procured by the Obama Department of the Interior detailing a twenty-five year plan to provide corridors and connectivity to enormous swaths of land. The document specifically denotes 140 million acres of land, administered by the Bureau of Land Management that the government considers ‘treasured.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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