“Eurozone Unemployment Stuck at Record 11.4%” How Unexpected!
Decades of telling their populations that socialism is the answer to their problems. Hard sell to wean people off of the government largesse.
One of the big news stories from the Associated Press today ran with the headline quoted above. This development, of course, is shocking to liberals in the media, academia, and politics.
Perhaps more shocking—and frightening—to liberals is this: “Europe’s problems are dragging down the entire global economy… as well as President Barack Obama’s election prospects.”
The good news is, anybody with half a brain (and fortunately, even with half a brain, you’re smarter than the average liberal), understands exactly why The Eurozone is in its current mess. In fact, the author of this piece, Sarah DiLorenzo, even hit on the core of this problem further in the article:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Dangerous Territory’ Concerns Mount That ECB Bond-Buying Program is Illegal
The markets have celebrated Mario Draghi’s announcement that the European Central Bank will embark on unlimited purchases of sovereign bonds from crisis stricken countries. But are such purchases really legal? Draghi’s own justification for the program leaves plenty of room for doubt.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is spending a lot of time on the road these days, not unlike a traveling salesman. The product he has on offer is credibility, but in Germany at least, it is proving difficult to find eager takers.
Last week, for example, Draghi gave a speech to several hundred business leaders at the Berlin Congress Center — and the mood was reserved. German business owners still have fond memories of the old deutsche mark, and Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, still has a good reputation. Draghi’s recently announced plans to launch unlimited purchases of sovereign bonds from crisis-stricken euro-zone member states, on the other hand, are being met with disconcertment and concern.
“These new steps are not a departure from our mandate,” Draghi told German industrial leaders. The ECB, in other words, isn’t just focused on price stability, but is also engaged in “ensuring the proper transmission of monetary policy.” Beyond that, though, concerns are unfounded. The moves made by the ECB, Draghi insisted, “do not aim to finance governments, and nor would they if they were activated.”
Draghi, of course, was not as concerned about those gathered in the room before him as he was about a man sitting 425 kilometers (266 miles) away in Frankfurt: Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann. Weidmann believes that, with its bond purchases, the ECB will help euro-zone governments gain access to funds at attractive rates by pushing down interest rates on those bonds. But that, in Weidmann’s view, is fiscal policy rather than monetary policy and is thus outside the ECB mandate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Economic Implosion in Spain Driving Citizens to ‘Dumpster Diving’ Survival Food Scavenging
(NaturalNews) Make no mistake — the economic situation in a number of European nations is deteriorating rapidly, so much so that basic survival has become an issue for more and more people.
Consider Spain, whose government will have to borrow ï¿1/2207 billion (about $334.6 billion) next year just to survive (widening the country’s debt to more than 90 percent of its annual gross domestic product — the sum of all its revenues), many people are turning to dumpsters and garbage to feed themselves.
“On a recent evening, a hip-looking young woman was sorting through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store here in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas as it shut down for the night,” says The New York Times in a story last week. “At first glance, she looked as if she might be a store employee. But no. The young woman was looking through the day’s trash for her next meal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Airlines are on course to nose-dive into the red as the number of first and business class passengers are slashed across Europe because of economic turbulence, high taxes and cost-cutting, air industry bosses revealed today.
European carriers are expected to be worst affected and post combined losses of around £750million in 2012, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicted today.
The drop in lucrative First Class and Business Class travel mirrors the poor economic climate as firms cut costs by sending their executives in economy, or fly with low-cost budget airlines.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Industry Chief Forecasts ‘True Recovery’ In 2015
Squinzi calls for decrease in tax burden, longer hours
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 2 — Italy will have to wait until 2015 for true economic recovery, the president of the Italian industrialists’ association Confindustria said on Tuesday.
“We are not going to see a real upturn next year, except for improvements towards the end,” said Giorgio Squinzi on the fringes of a conference in Brussels. “I’d go with a real recovery in 2015”. For this to happen the industry boss said Italy needs to work hard particularly in terms of introducing long-awaited reforms.
“The mother of all reforms is the simplification of the country’s laws and bureaucracy, namely everything,” Squinzi said, adding that the fight against tax evasion is also a just aim.
The Confindustria president advocated introducing longer work hours as a means of achieving his “dream” of improving competitiveness by 10%. He also reiterated his call for a decrease in the tax burden on companies in exchange for fewer incentives as a way of reducing labour costs.
“It is not a problem for companies to renounce incentives given their modest amount,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Office of Sicilian Assembly Speaker Cuts Annual Budget
Move comes amid widespread funding scandals
(ANSA) — Palermo, October 2 — The office of the speaker of the Sicilian regional assembly on Tuesday cut 4.1 million euros from its annual budget.
The cuts amount to 20.4 million euros over the duration of the regional parliament. Last month Palermo prosecutors opened a probe into spending by caucuses in the Sicilian regional assembly.
No one was under investigation, they said.
The probe follows funding scandals involving parties from both sides of the political fence in Lombardy, Lazio and other regions.
In Lazio an investigation into suspected embezzlement by the former caucus leader of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party in the regional council led to the resignation of Lazio governor Renata Polverini last week.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities: Oregon Farmer Eaten by His Hogs
COQUILLE, Oregon. (AP) — Oregon authorities are investigating how a farmer was eaten by his hogs.
Terry Vance Garner, 69, never returned after he set out to feed his animals last Wednesday on his farm near the Oregon coast, the Coos County district attorney said Monday.
A family member found Garner’s dentures and pieces of his body in the hog enclosure several hours later, but most of his remains had been consumed, District Attorney Paul Frasier said. Several of the hogs weighed 700 pounds or more.
It’s possible Garner had a medical emergency, such as a heart attack, or was knocked over by the animals, then killed and eaten, Frasier said, adding that at least one hog had previously bitten Garner.
The possibility of foul play is being investigated as well.
“For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it’s so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities,” Frasier told The Register-Guard.
A pathologist was unable to identify a cause or manner of death, the newspaper reported. The remains will be examined by a forensic anthropologist at the University of Oregon.
Terry Garner was “a good-hearted guy” who cared for several huge adult sows and a boar named Teddy, said his brother, Michael Garner, 75, of Myrtle Point.
Piglets were typically sold to local 4-H kids.
“Those animals were his life,” Michael Garner said. “He had all kinds of birds, and turkeys that ran all over the place. Everybody knew him.”
Michael Garner said one of the large sows bit his brother last year when he accidentally stepped on a piglet.
“He said he was going to kill it, but when I asked him about it later, he said he had changed his mind,” the brother said.
Domestic hogs are not typically known to be as aggressive as their feral cousins, but “there is some degree of danger associated with any animal,” John Killefer, who heads the Animal and Rangeland Sciences Department at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told the newspaper.
While pigs “are more omnivorous than other farm animals, (such as) cows,” Killefer called the case highly unusual.
Most hogs are raised until they reach a market weight of between 250 and 300 pounds, while breeding female pigs rarely weigh more than 400 pounds, Killefer said.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR Can Expel You “For Any Reason”
This past Saturday, folks, was a big day for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Its “Leadership Conference & 18th Annual Banquet” at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel in Arlington, Va. lasted from 9 am until past 10 pm.
Sadly, I missed the event. Not that I wouldn’t eagerly have plunked down my $199.00 for a ticket to hear Linda Sarsour, Nihad Awad, Siraj Wahhaj, Al Sharpton, and Dennis Kucinich. Even better, I could have learned CAIR’s “Strategies for Challenging Anti-Islam Legislation and Campaigns” from the horse’s mouth. However, this little clause stopped me short:
CAIR Leadership Conference & 18th Annual Banquet is/are private CAIR event(s) and CAIR reserves the right to refuse admittance to anyone for any reason. CAIR also reserves the right to eject anyone from the private event(s) for any reason. Rejected guests will not receive a refund for their tickets or be compensated in any way for their loss.
All audio, visual and audio/visual devices and photography, filming, recording and taping are strictly prohibited.
Given that CAIR’s been on my case since 1999, calling me all sorts of names, it seemed likely that it would refuse me admittance and keep my money, so I stayed home. But these 42 words inspire a few thoughts about my least-favorite American Muslim organization:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fast and Furious Scandal Blown Wide Open by Univision
(NaturalNews) In a report that is essentially a total indictment of members and agencies of the Obama Administration — most notably, Attorney General Eric Holder and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — as well as the American media establishment, most of which has dedicated its time and resources to helping Barack Obama win reelection — Spanish language television network Univision has blown wide open the “Fast and Furious” scandal.
In a bombshell investigative report broadcast Sunday, one filled with scathing details and grim, grisly video including security-cam footage of actual execution-style murders and blood-soaked rooms (there’s your warning, for those of you who might be a little unnerved by that kind of real-life graphic violence), the network said it discovered that in January 2010, drug cartel hit men annihilated students with guns the U.S. government allowed to flow to them across the border into Mexico.
“On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez,” said an English version of the report, posted on the ABC News website.
“Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers,” the report said. “Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.”
It gets worse. Much worse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Legacy on Black America
I am on the road touring with Tea Party Express. In my hotel room, I caught an interview with first lady Michelle Obama on “Lift Every Voice,” a faith-based program on BET (Black Entertainment Television). I was amazed at how the black host and program producers portrayed Mrs. Obama and her husband as the couple they want to believe them to be — that is, strongly committed Christians.
In reality, Obama is the most anti-Christian president in U.S. History. Obama’s behavior is irrelevant to the TV program producers. I felt like I was watching an episode of the Twilight Zone in which everything was the opposite of reality.
What on earth is going on in the hearts and minds of most black Americans in regard to Obama? Why are a majority of blacks apparently incapable of honestly accessing President Obama’s job performance?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya, Foreign Policy, Economy, Energy, Fast and Furious, Obamacare, Afghanistan.
I suspect that Barack Obama has been told by his pollsters that he is going to lose.
Most certainly whenever Masseurs Axelrod and Ploufe, his political brain trust, get on television to respond to questions about how he will fix the economy, all one hears are the same tired excuses and empty promises. The news headlines these days tell another story.
Headline — Libya: The White House handling of the Libyan attack has already been dubbed “Benghazi-Gate” and revealed the level of contempt the White House has for the intelligence of Americans. Bad enough Americans are angry that an American ambassador lost his life in a 9/11 anniversary al Qaeda attack, no one with ten brain cells to rub together believes it was about an amateur movie no one had seen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Still Wants to Fundamentally Transform America
An American compound in Libya is invaded by al Qaeda terrorists and an American ambassador is purportedly tortured before being killed. Muslim mobs attack American embassies in 27 countries chanting,”Death to America.” The White House response? A statement blaming the outrages on a filmmaker in the United States, along with apologies to the Muslim world.
The American economy languishes with millions unemployed in the worst times since the Great Depression. Yet the president spends his first years in the White House focusing on a plan to create a trillion-dollar socialized health care system opposed by a majority of Americans. Then he campaigns for re-election on a platform blaming rich Americans for the economic woes.
What’s going on here?
The answer lies in a famous statement the president made on the eve of his election, when he told a crowd of cheering supporters: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” These are not the words of a traditional, pragmatic-minded American politician. A practical politician attempts to address problems and fix them, not to fundamentally transform an entire nation. Transforming nations is what radicals aspire to do.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Romney v. Obama Debates: What to Watch From the Leftist “Moderators”
Media have been operating in an unprecedented biased manner, public relations arm of the Obama campaign.
On Wednesday 3 October 2012, the first of three scheduled presidential debates will occur. The debates are to be moderated by the most liberal/leftist “journalists” who could be found by the leftist media. This election cycle, the media have been operating in an unprecedented biased manner and have—literally—become no more than the public relations arm of the Obama campaign. They are no longer reporting anything even remotely close to the truth if it has any capacity to harm Barack Hussein Obama. They continue to lie and carry his water for him.
In fact, the media have become so prejudiced toward Obama and against Mitt Romney that even Pat Caddell (Democrat pollster who worked for both President Jimmy Carter (D) and Democrat candidate George McGovern amongst others) said of them: “The press’s job is to stand in the ramparts and protect the liberty and freedom of all of us from a government and from organized governmental power. When they desert those ramparts and decide that they will now become active participants, that their job is not simply to tell you who you may vote for, and who you may not, but, worse—and this is the danger of the last two weeks—what truth that you may know, as an American, and what truth you are not allowed to know, they have, then, made themselves a fundamental threat to the democracy, and, in my opinion, made themselves the enemy of the American people.“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The EPA’s Disturbing Human Experiments
by Arnold Ahlert
If the shocking allegations contained in a lawsuit filed last Friday by responsible science advocate Steven Milloy are accurate, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a major scandal on its hands. As reported by the National Legal and Policy Center, Milloy initiated litigation in U.S. District Court in Virginia, based on evidence he accumulated via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He alleges that the EPA engaged in disturbing experimentation that deliberately exposed human beings to airborne particulate matter the agency itself considers lethal. The experiments were conducted at EPA’s Human Studies Facility at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. “That EPA administrator Lisa Jackson permitted this heinous experimentation to occur under her watch shocks the conscience,” said Milloy.
The suit accuses the EPA of paying as many as 41 participants $12 an hour to breathe in concentrated diesel exhaust, for as long a two hours at a time. The exhaust was directly piped in from a truck parked outside the Chapel Hill facility. According to the lawsuit, the fine particulate matter, called “PM2.5,” was piped in at levels 21 times greater than what the EPA calls its “permissible limit.”
Yet even that phrase is misleading. In testimony delivered to Congress in September of 2011, EPA chief Lisa Jackson claimed that exposure to fine particulate matter of 2.5 microns—or less—was lethal. “Particulate matter causes premature death. It’s directly causal to dying sooner than you should,” she testified at the time.
Milloy learned about the experiments last year, after reading about them in a government-supported scientific journal…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
How did the 20th Century guide, push, nudge and force the United States into the 21st Century as an Obama Nation?
That question covers almost one hundred years of world history, beginning with the entrance of Joseph Stalin into the Russian Revolution.
The Communist campaign to own the Free World, America particularly, was first begun by Joseph Stalin’s open campaign to control all of the arts in Russia, the performing arts, film and music in particular, the composer Dimitri Shostakovich most specifically.
Stalin’s “Great Purge”, as it is now known, began with signed orders such as that below.
[…]
The increasingly-blurred-distinction between Marx and Lenin is where the Intellectual Elite of America have been most helpful to the spread of Communism in the Free World, the European Union particularly. Through multiple corners of the Ivy League and into the highest halls of power in the United States, the Intellectual Elite of American Marxism are now wrapping a fist around any ability of America to regain her former world status.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Miracle That Would Save America From Obama-Imposed American Marxism
There’s a promise made over an unbeknownst open mic to outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on March 26, 2012, that awaits the outcome of November 6.
“This is my last election…after my election I have more flexibility,” President Barack Obama told Medvedev, indicating a chilling confidence that he would win a second term.
Prime Minister Medvedev, his replacement President Vladimir Putin, the reelection-bound Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Obama-propped Egyptian president Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi await the fulfillment of that not meant to be heard promise.
They are the enemy at the gate who will goad Obama on to the continuing destruction of America should the worst happen on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
We have been in the dark before but never has the dark been so dangerous as now when Marxism and radical Islam have joined forces to deliver world populations over to the One World Order-driven United Nations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Throwing Money at Climate Lies
Since 2008 the federal government has spent nearly $70 billion on ‘climate change activities.
One of the fun and interesting blogs to visit is Real Science. Its editor, Steven Goddard, recently posted the following facts regarding this year’s weather.
- Quietest tornado summer on record.
- Quietest hurricane summer on record.
- Quietest long term hurricane period since the Civil War.
- No global warming for 16 years.
- No change in sea level rise rates.
- Record cold in the Midwest.
- Average fire season.
- A cyclical drought affecting portions of the country.
Another post noted that “In a few months, we will reach the critical point when there has been no global warming for more than half of the satellite temperatures record—which extends back to 1978.” Goddard noted that “In a few weeks we will reach the point where there have been no major hurricane strikes on the U.S. in seven years, the longest such period since the Civil War.” Hurricane Katrina occurred in 2005.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: New York Muslim Day Speaker Lauds Suicide Babies
A speaker at New York’s Muslim Day lauded ‘suicide babies’ prompting a New York State Senator to flee from the stage (Hat Tip: MFS — The Other News).
A New York State Senator stormed off the stage of a Muslim Day speech by a jihadist who said, “We have the unborn martyrs in our wombs.”
Under this year’s theme that “Islam advocates peace and justice for all, an Imam from Brooklyn told last week’s parade, where State Sen. Tony Avello was a marshal and sat on stage, that the United Nations should pass a law that would criminalize blasphemy.”…
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France: Boy Stabbed Teacher to Avenge Detention
A high school pupil has been sentenced to five years in prison after stabbing is teacher in retaliation for being given a detention in a suburb of Toulouse.
In 2009, the boy, who was 13 at the time, stabbed his maths teacher after being given a detention or not handing in his homework.
Scared his father would find out, the boy thought the only way to avoid the punishment was to kill his teacher — he stabbed her once in the chest.
The teacher, now 41, has returned to teaching after taking some time off for the physical and psychological damage after the attack.
Before making its decision, the court heard from the boy’s lawyer that they should not think of the incident as a sign of delinquency, but “as the mistake of a young boy”.
The boy, charged with attempted murder, was given five years in prison, three years of which is to be suspended.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
I Don’t Like the Word Islamophobia, Rushdie
Pope gets ridiculed too, Catholics don’t attack others
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, OCTOBER 2 — Freedom of expression is a fundamental value, and in no way comparable to physical violence against others, British-Indian author Salman Rushdie said at his latest book launch on Tuesday. Titled Joseph Anton, it’s a memoir of the nine years he spent in hiding after Iran’s spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a death warrant against him in 1989, accusing Rushdie of blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses.
“The pope gets ridiculed every day, but you don’t see Catholics organizing terrorist attacks around the world,” the atheist author said. “I don’t like the word Islamophobia. We must distinguish between attacking ideas and attacking people.
The response to words must always be more words. People are using offense as an excuse for revenge. But there is no intrinsic right to not be offended, it’s absurd.” The title of his new book, a composite of the names of his two favorite authors, Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov, is the pseudonym he chose when he went into hiding, Rushdie explained.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian EMP Slams Germany for Not Prosecuting Former Nazis
‘Those responsible for Tuscan massacre must not go unpunished’
(ANSA) — Rome, October 1 — An Italian deputy of the European parliament on Monday denounced Germany’s decision not to prosecute eight former Nazi officials for having a role in a notorious massacre of 560 people in Tuscany during World War II.
After a 10-year investigation, German magistrates concluded that there was not enough evidence to prosecute surviving suspects for participating in the 1944 incident in the village of S. Anna di Stazzema, near Lucca.
“We are saddened and disheartened by the news that eight former SS leaders suspected of taking part in the massacre of S.
Anna di Stazzema will not be taken to trial,” said Paolo Corsini, an Italian deputy to the European parliament and member of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD). “We are not resigned, however. That massacre must find truth and justice. We will present a request to the (German) government to acquire the documentation and to know how it intends to prevent those responsible from going unpunished”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Emilia-Romagna Regional Offices Raided by Finance Police
Search latest in string of national anti-corruption moves
(ANSA) — Bologna, October 2 — Italian finance police raided Emilia-Romagna regional offices on Tuesday, in a search for evidence for probes opened last Friday by Bologna prosecutors into the region’s handling of public funds.
The prosecutors, who cite no specific wrongdoing, are already investigating Paolo Nanni, the Bologna provincial leader of the anti-corruption party Italy of Values (IdV), for allegedly mishandling party money.
The inquiry was announced shortly after police searched party offices at the Piedmont regional administration on Friday in a preliminary inquiry into suspected over-spending by various caucuses.
They are the latest in a string of national anti-corruption moves following a wave of scandals that led to the arrest of the caucus leader of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party in Lazio, Franco Fiorito, on Tuesday. Lazio governor Renata Polverini quit earlier this week after mounting pressure forced her to hand in her resignation.
Regional and national politicians have vowed to revise regional spending laws.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Photos Published of Rome Mayor’s Son Giving Fascist Salute
Pictures are a ‘violation’ says father
(ANSA) — Rome, October 2 — Pictures of Manfredi Alemanno, the son of Rome Mayor Gianni Alemmano, giving the ‘Roman salute’ published by the online news service Huffington Post are a “violation,” the mayor said Tuesday. The photos, taken while Manfredi was vacationing in Mykonos, Greece, shows him together with friends with his arm straight and raised in the manner popular among 20th-century European fascist regimes. “Unfortunately, it is obvious where the Alemanno family comes from historically…and the son has inherited its questionable habits,” Umberto Marroni, caucus leader of the Democratic Party (PD) on Rome city council said.
Mayor Alemanno, who was born in the southeast port city of Bari, debuted in politics at an early age with the youth sector of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) and his first official post was regional secretary for the Fronte della Gioventu’, the MSI’s youth division. In 2008, Alemanno became Rome’s first right-wing mayor since the fall of Fascism, for Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom party (PDL).
“My son made a mistake but Lucia Annunziata (Italian Huffington Post director) should be ashamed. Our children, even when they do something wrong, should not and must not be put at risk of hate crimes or violence by being put on the front page,” Alemanno said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Disgraced PDL Official Fiorito in Jail After Arrest
Berlusconi party’s Lazio caucus leader suspected of embezzling
(ANSA) — Rome, October 2 — Franco Fiorito, the disgraced former caucus leader of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party in Lazio, was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of embezzling public money.
Fiorito was arrested and taken to prison after a judge agreed with prosecutors that there was a risk he could reoffend or tamper with evidence.
The arrest warrant also said Fiorito had tried to throw the investigators off track via statements he gave to the media. “I shout my innocence loud and clear,” Fiorito told ANSA via telephone.
“I’ll focus on the truth for my defence”. The case, which exploded when Fiorito was put under investigation earlier this month, caused the PdL’s Renata Polverini to step down as governor of Lazio last week.
Investigators are looking at around six million euros of financial transactions carried out by Fiorito over the last two years. They said 1.380 million euros of this money went into bank accounts in Fiorito’s name via 193 fund transfers. Fiorito’s lawyer Carlo Taormina said the arrest was unnecessary.
“Fiorito was willing to return the documents in his possession and the money. In the light of this, there was no need for the arrest,” said Taormina, who added that he now expected other Lazio regional councillors to be arrested.
The scandal is seen by many as a threat to the centre-right PdL’s chances of maintaining its position as the biggest party in parliament in next year’s general elections.
Ex-premier Berlusconi’s party currently trails far behind the main centre-left Democratic Party (PD) in the polls. “My job is to keep watch and promote good politics and isolate, with all the means at my disposal, those exceptions who I will not allow to soil the history of a great party, nor its dignity, nor its prospects,” said PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano.
“I work for this every day with all those who think it is possible to work well in politics without stealing.
“Fiorito’s actions hurt us. We’ll stop others doing similar actions that can hurt us”.
This investigation is only one of a series of recent corruption scandals that have hit various parts of Italy’s political spectrum, sparking condemnation from Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and the Catholic Church.
Experts say the scandals have also strengthened widespread public disaffection with the nation’s political class and contributed to the rise of comedian Beppe Grillo’s grassroots Five Star movement, which is opposed to the present party system.
The Five Star movement is vying with the PdL for second place in the polls, according to several surveys.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
by Manfred Gerstenfeld
To my surprise, a Belgian state TV station came to interview me about the documentary “Allah-Islam, the Spread of Islam in Europe.” The third of this four-part series had been shown on Israeli Channel 10 the night before. It gave much attention to the anti-Western hate-mongering and encouragement of terrorism by the small Muslim Sharia4 group in Belgium.
The seriesâ€(tm) viewers had by then seen no-go areas in Muslim ghettos in countries such as France, the UK and Sweden. It had given attention to violence and other crimes among Muslim immigrants into Europe, expressions of justification of Muslim terror, intimidation of dissenters, discrimination against and sometimes murder of Muslim women, as well as religious fanaticism. It also showed that the third and fourth generation of immigrants into Europe was often less integrated than the first one.
The fourth part shown since was devoted to the widespread anti-Semitism of radical
I mentioned to the interviewer that it was telling that he considered this a news item. Many similar documentaries should have been made long ago by European broadcasters. The problems with segments of the Muslim population shown in the Israeli documentary are European ones. Israeli TV should have had a choice of which European films on this subject to buy. I wondered whether it was not shameful for Europe that an Israeli reporter, Zvi Yehezkeli, had to pose as a Palestinian to make this material accessible.
The interviewer then asked me why I thought that European stations had not made many similar films. One answer is that it is not politically correct to point out that there are a substantial number of people from a specific religious or ethnic group who cause disproportionate problems in European democratic societies. Political correctness in this case is thus a synonym for obfuscating and distorting the truth.
Other reasons include the desire to ignore major problems, as well as fear of aggressive elements in the Muslim community. That comes under the heading of European cowardice. Nor does the much vaunted European freedom of press mean that all major problematic issues will be tackled as needed. All these reasons have another facet: European decadence…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Amnesty Mocks SVP Over Asylum Laws
The Swiss chapter of Amnesty International is using humour and satire in a new hard-hitting campaign to combat policies that toughen conditions for asylum seekers in Switzerland.
The NGO targets politicians from the right-wing populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) while poking fun at what it regards as their heartless approach to people seeking refuge on humanitarian grounds.
In a video released as part of the campaign, SVP federal cabinet minister Ueli Maurer MP and party strongman Christoph Blocher are depicted as Somalian refugees sitting outside a shabby mobile home.
They are seated on either side of a pot where horns in a bubbling soup appear to be the remains of the SVP’s famous mascot, a goat named Zottel.
Maurer tells Blocher not to look so sullen.
“Me, I’m also hungry,” Blocher replies.
“But even so, we are not going to eat our mascot!”
SVP politicians are being singled out for their support of laws that make life for asylum seekers more difficult.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Kurdish Brothers Charged With ‘Terror’ Ties
Two Kurdish brothers from Iraq, living as refugees in Switzerland, have been charged with taking part in a “terrorist” organization linked to Al-Qaeda, the Swiss attorney general’s office said on Monday.
The two brothers, whose names and ages were not given, stood accused of using internet forums and chat-rooms to distribute images and texts about “attacks carried out by Islamist terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam,” the office of Switzerland’s top prosecutor said in a statement.
They were charged among other things with participating in and supporting “a criminal organization, (and) public incitement to crime or violence,” according to the statement.
The elder brother was suspected of creating a new Al-Qaeda support organization in cooperation with Mullah Krekar, the founder of the radical Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al Islam who is currently serving consecutive prison sentences in Norway for threatening a former government minister and others.
The new group, according to Monday’s statement, had used a number of internet platforms to distribute images of terror attacks and messages from Al-Qaeda “for propaganda purposes.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Commons Watchdog Asked to Investigate Labour MP’s Mysterious Bank Accounts
Keith Vaz could face a Commons investigation over the revelation that he held almost £500,000 in mystery bank accounts.
Scotland Yard detectives found the money during a secret investigation and regarded it as being of a ‘suspicious nature’.
Now the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has received a complaint about the former Labour minister, who denies wrongdoing.
He has not faced any criminal charges over the money, which was deposited between 1997 and 2001.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A top Egyptian politician has sparked outrage by cheekily asking a journalist live on air if her questions would be ‘as hot as she is’.
Minister of Information Salah Abdel Maksud was caught on camera asking Dubai TV news show host Zeina Yazjy the ‘inappropriate inquiry’ during an interview last week.
He said: ‘I hope your questions won’t be as hot as you.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Tunisia: Working Together to Cool Tensions
We are open to dialogue, says Premier Jebali
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 2 — EU-Tunisian relations are back on track following the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, full-time European Council President Herman Van Rompuy told reporters following his meeting on Monday with Tunisian Premier Hamadi Jebali.
The EU has “privileged relations” with Tunisia, which banned demonstrations against French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. “Recent events prove we must work together on every level to cool tensions and improve mutual knowledge,” said Van Rompuy.
“Tolerance, dialogue and respect are the only weapons we need to promote greater understanding between our societies. I will push the Council to develop our relations with Tunisia and with other Arab Spring countries.” EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso confirmed Brussels’ support for the Jebali administration.
“Now countries like Tunisia are better equipped against extremism. The apparent stability of the former dictatorship was an ideal hotbed for terrorism,” Barroso said. “In the new democracies, it is not always easy for the security forces to strike the right balance.” Accordingly, the EU and Tunisia are discussing possible cooperation on police training, Barroso added.
The Tunisian premier said that the deadly attack on the US consulate was unjustified, no matter what the provocation. “It had no moral basis in a country that is open and tolerant, that treats criminals with civility in spite of attacks, such as those against our Prophet,” Jebali said. “We must not answer misdeeds with more misdeeds: we must be open to dialogue. We will not allow any act of violence against our guests or our citizens. We will uphold the law, and take all the necessary steps against those responsible for such acts.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Post-Mortem on the Muhammad Protests
by Daniel Pipes
Trends: As someone who’s been watching that clash since Khomeini’s time, I ascertain three main trends. First, Muslims increasingly devote themselves to the political imperative of preserving Muhammad’s sanctity. Second, Western governments and elites (i.e., journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, artists) have become increasingly timid over time when facing Islamist fury, willing to apologize, appease, and placate; for one appalling example, see the U.S. embassy in Cairo’s effusions on this Sept. 11, as a mob raged outside. Third, Western non-elites have increasingly responded to Islamists with a You-want-to-be-insulted-well-take-this! attitude that includes Koran burnings, “Defeat Jihad” ads, belligerently offensive French cartoons, and a promised roll-out of Muhammad movies.
In combination, these three points lead me to predict that the conflict over values will continue to heat up.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s president has blamed the steep drop in Iran’s currency on ‘psychological pressures’ linked to Western sanctions.
Admitting for the first time that sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme are taking their toll, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad highlighted concerns over his country’s economy.
In the past few days Iran’s currency, the rial, has lost more than half its value against the U.S. dollar.
It has prompted fears that the economy is on the verge of collapse, cripple by sanctions which means Iran has lost markets where it can export oil. The price of goods has also risen, as many have to be imported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Uprisings Leave Wake of Weakened States
The protests that swept through the Arab world have strengthened democracy. But in many places, the state has been severely weakened, giving radical groups space to maneuver and destabilizing an entire region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Moves to End Turkish Presence in North Iraq
Iraq’s cabinet on Tuesday called for the abrogation of treaties permitting foreign forces in Iraq, a move a high-ranking official said is aimed at ending Turkey’s military presence in the north.
Turkey has maintained several military bases in the autonomous Kurdistan region of north Iraq since the 1990s.
“The cabinet decided to reject the presence of any foreign bases or forces on Iraqi land and to reject the entry of any foreign military forces into Iraqi land,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
And it “recommends that parliament cancel and not extend any treaty signed in the past with any foreign state that allows the presence of foreign forces and military bases on Iraqi land or the entry of these forces,” he said.
A high-ranking Iraqi official said that the decision was aimed at Turkish military bases in the north Iraq province of Dohuk, one of the three provinces that make up the Kurdistan region.
The treaty in question “is the one that Saddam Hussein signed in 1995 allowing Turkish forces to have a presence in Iraq’s northern regions to pursue the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),” the official said on condition of anonymity, referring to a Kurdish rebel group with bases in north Iraq.
Kurdistan premier Nechirvan Barzani has previously said that an agreement had been in force since 1997 to allow the Turks to have military bases inside the Kurdish region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Women Stone French Embassy
A small group of protesters, most of them women, on Tuesday destroyed a Iranian police post protecting the French embassy in Tehran and threw stones at visitors to the mission before being arrested, a diplomat inside told AFP.
The unannounced, violent demonstration lasted 90 minutes and involved around 15 people, the French diplomat said.
“There was no damage to the embassy itself,” though the visitors — all of them Iranians applying for French visas — had to take refuge inside, he said.
The police post — a one-man shelter for a uniformed member of Iran’s diplomatic police — had its windows destroyed by stones but remained standing. There was no report of any officer being injured.The diplomat said the protest happened suddenly, with none of the advance notice given in previous demonstrations. As a result there was no added police presence.
He said the protesters yelled “God is greatest,” but he could not discern any other slogan.
He stressed that “it is up to the Iranian authorities to ensure our security.”
Just before the French embassy attack, a bigger demonstration was held at the nearby Tehran University in which the crowd shouted “Death to America,” “Death to Israel” and “Those who insult the prophet should be executed,” according to the Fars news agency.
Demonstrations have taken place in several Muslim countries in the past two weeks over a film made in the United States and cartoons in a French magazine, both of which made fun of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Embassy security in Tehran is a sensitive issue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Ruling Party Celebrates Hamas
Michael Rubin
This weekend saw the convention of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey’s ruling Islamist party. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he would remain active in politics until 2023, thereby confirming his role as the Turkish equivalent of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The AKP’s convention played host to a number of foreign officials, including the leader of Hamas:
Among the many high-profile leaders from around the world, Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Hamas movement, was by far the most popular foreign guest for the thousands of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who gathered for the party’s convention in Ankara yesterday. In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced all foreign dignitaries attending the convention one by one. The biggest applause from the AKP supporters present came for Meshaal, prompting him to stand up and greet the audience. While Meshaal was greeting the audience, slogans such as “Damn Israel” echoed around the convention hall.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
West Waging Economic ‘War’ On Iran, Says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The West is waging economic war on Iran in a vain effort to make it yield on its nuclear activities, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, amid a steep plunge in the value of his country’s currency.
Western sanctions hitting oil exports generating foreign currency revenues and restricting Iran’s ability to repatriate those revenues “is a hidden and heavy war on a planetary scale,” he told a news conference in Tehran.
“It’s a battle. They have managed to diminish a little our oil sales, but we are going to compensate for that,” he said.
Reacting to the accelerated slide of the rial’s value on the open market, where it has lost around 80 percent of its value from a year ago, Ahmadinejad said Iran has sufficient foreign currency reserves for the country’s needs, and that it was “a psychological war on the exchange market.”
He said that the sanctions were “targeting the people” and added: “The enemy believes it can break the resistance of the Iranian people, but it is wrong.”
The president said Western nations “lie when they say that the sanctions are pressuring the government. There is no reason for these (currency) fluctuations. The enemy has thrown a rock on our path. Everybody needs to help to remove the rock.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Attack on Camp Bastion: The Destruction of VMA-211
Late on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, a Taliban insurgent force of sappers attacked the NATO ISAF base, Camp Bastion, in Afghanistan, resulting in the worst loss of U.S. airpower in a single incident since the Vietnam War. Two Marines, including VMA-211’s commanding officer, were killed in the attack, and nine other personnel (eight military and one contractor, reportedly) were wounded. By the time the base was secured roughly five hours later, six U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) AV-8B+ Harrier “jump jets” had been destroyed, and two more “significantly” damaged. In addition, three refueling points were destroyed, and six “soft-skinned” aircraft hangers were damaged to some degree. As a result of this attack, the air strength of Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211 — “The Avengers”) presumably 10 aircraft, was almost completely destroyed. …
Eight irreplaceable aircraft (the AV-8B has been out of production since 1999) have been destroyed or put out of action — approximately 7 percent of the total flying USMC Harrier fleet. Worse yet, the aircraft involved were the AV-B+ variant equipped with the APG-65 radar and AAQ-28 Litening II targeting pods — the most capable in the force. Given the current funding situation, it’s likely that the two damaged AV-8Bs will become spare parts “hangar queens” and never fly again. A Harrier squadron commander is dead, along with another Marine. Another nine personnel have been wounded, and the nearby Marines at Camp Freedom are now without effective fixed-wing air support. The USMC’s response to this disaster will be a telling report card on its leadership and organizational agility…
| — Hat tip: LH | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Rohingya and Politics Behind the Anti-Buddhist Violence
Local sources speaking to AsiaNews, anonymous for security reasons, exclude religious motivation. The Rohingyas have exploited the tension of the last few days resulting from the anti-Muhammad film to attract attention to their social demands. Police arrested 166 people over attacks on Buddhist temples and villages. The sources warn: “The consequences are more severe for the tribals.”
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Muslim attacks to Buddhist communities in Bangladesh are born of “political, not religious questions “, “the story behind the anti-Mohammed film’ and cartoons hide the Rohingya’s social demands”, a local source, anonymous for security reasons, tells AsiaNews. The attacks took place September 29 and 30 last in the upazila (sub-districts) of Ramu, Ukhia, Patia and Teknaf (Chittagong Division, southeast). Police have arrested 166 people over the violence.
The disorders are mainly concentrated in Ramu, where a crowd of at least 2 thousand Muslims razed 15 Buddhist temples (one of which is 250 years old) and burned more than 100 homes. The final toll is about 24 temples demolished (22 Buddhists and two Hindus) in the whole area, and thousands of people forced to flee their villages. The violence erupted after the publication on Facebook of a photo offensive to the Koran, which soon spread to mobile phones via bluetooth. Yesterday, Jamaat-e-Islami, the Islamic opposition party, called for the arrest of Uttar Kumar Barua, a Buddhist charged with having posted the image on the social network. The political party also condemned the violence and vandalism, accusing some leaders of the government “of implicating Jamaat in the violence”.
According to the source, “twin interests” are behind the incidents; the Rohingya who “used the occasion to draw attention to their problem,” the other, Jamaat, who “never miss an opportunity to put the government in a bad light [Awami League, moderate and pro-Western, ed]. “ The Rohingya, a Muslim minority native to Rakhine State of Myanmar, is the center of an unresolved ethnic political issue: Yangon does not recognize them as a race, and considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Dhaka, however, refuses to accept them.
In this situation, the source points out, “ there is the risk of remaining blind to serious consequences: once again, the Bengali settlers [Muslims] will exploit the situation to occupy the lands of the tribals in the area [mostly Christians, Buddhists and animists] and drive them away. “ In recent years, in fact, Bangladesh is experiencing a period of rapid overpopulation: the so-called settlers (Bengali originating in other areas) covet tribal lands (concentrated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts), and illegally take possession of their properties. This widespread trend for some time, said the source, threatens to become “a real social problem” that will “explode at any moment.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Admits Wilders Visa Procedure Was Political
THE HAGUE, 03/10/12 — Australia has admitted that the delay in providing a visa to Geert Wilders was politically motivated.
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said yesterday Wilders will get a visa. The minister told ABC radio the visa application procedure had taken longer than usual because “we had to find a balance between our freedom of expression and his rather extreme views”.
Wilders was due in Australia later this month to give two speeches at the invitation of an Australian anti-Islam group. On Monday the Party for Freedom
(PVV) leader said he would postpone the trip until February because his visa application was taking so long to process.
The minister said Wilders is a provocateur who would like nothing more than to be refused a visa so he could become a cause célèbre. “I think our society is robust enough to deal with him without using the blunt axe of refusal.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama USDA Met 30 Times With Mexican Gov’t to Promote Food-Stamp Use Among Mexican Immigrants
Department of Agriculture personnel in the Obama administration have met with Mexican Government officials dozens of times since the president took office to promote nutrition assistance programs — notably food stamps — among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.
Writing in response to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions’ July request for information about the USDA’s little known partnership with the Mexican government to educate citizen and noncitizen immigrants from Mexico about the availability of food stamps and other nutrition assistance programs, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the partnership as a way to curb hunger in America — and the continuation of a program formed under the Bush administration in 2004.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Agenda 21, The End of Western Civilization, Part 8
Much is written about the international cold war, but little about the incognito warfare on United States soil which public officials and their accomplices are waging to wrest private property from landowners. Jo Hindman, 1972, Blame Metro, p31.
Objectives
10.5 The broad objective is to facilitate allocation of land to the uses that provide the greatest sustainable benefits and to promote the transition to a sustainable and integrated management of land resources. In doing so, environmental, social and economic issues should be taken into consideration. In more specific terms, the objectives are as follows:
(a) To review and develop policies to support the best possible use of land and the sustainable management of land resources by not later than 1996. Agenda 21, Earth Summit, p.85
Today (1995), some 70 years after (Herbert) Hoover’s committee drafted the standard acts,[1] another, similar effort is taking place: the American Planning Association’s GrowingSmart project.[2]
In Part 6, I discussed the Transect which is a system to divide the land of our country (and the world) into the Wildlands devised by Arne Noss (deep ecologist) and Dave Foreman (radical environmentalist), but under deceptive, seductive names. You can read how a New Urbanism posted story titled “Transect applied to regional plans,” describes it:
[…]
How is all this to be done? According to Agenda 21, by “Promoting application of appropriate tools for planning and management
10.8 Governments at the appropriate level, with the support of national and international organizations, should promote the improvement, further development and widespread application of planning and management tools that facilitate an integrated and sustainable approach to land and resources.” One of the tools, of course, is SmartCode.
SmartCode is defined in a pamphlet of 72 pages; there is no way all of it can summarize all of it in this article but I am going to give some highlights (?) (in ital) with page numbers so you can look them up with the accompanying information:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GMO Cows to Produce Hormone-Induced ‘Engineered’ Milk for Human Babies
So while criminalizing fresh milk and pushing an inferior, dead, pasteurized milk that causes allergies in those who drink it, the corrupt food system in America is almost certain to embrace mutant genetically modified cloned cow’s milk and call it “safe” for infants!
Never mind the fact that the genetically altered milk produced by this cow had “double the concentrations of caseins,” as The Guardian is reporting.
Oh, and by the way, the milk being produced by this mutant, cloned, tail-less GMO cow is of course 100% driven by artificial hormones! As the BBC reports:
“It has not yet become pregnant and produced milk normally so the scientists used hormones to jump-start milk production.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) The recent release of the first ever study to independently and honestly evaluate the long-term effects of eating Monsanto’s genetically-modified (GM) corn has sparked massive outcry around the world against the continued use of this genetic poison in the food supply. Authorities in France, Austria, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere are reconsidering not only their current policies regarding existing GMOs, but also the legitimacy of the criteria they have been using all along to approve GMOs.
In case you missed it, a recent peer-reviewed study on the effects of routine exposure to “safe” levels of Monsanto’s GM corn and the chemical herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) have revealed that the two toxins are directly linked to causing cancerous tumors. The horrifying pictures now circulating the internet of rats with gigantic tumors all over their bodies unveil precisely what Monsanto’s GM corn and Roundup are potentially doing to your own body and the bodies of millions of people all over the world (http://www.naturalnews.com).
The study, which was published in the highly-reputable journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, showed how rats fed a diet containing Monsanto’s NK603 Roundup-resistant GM corn, which is widely cultivated in the U.S. today, died much earlier than GM-free control rats. Even rats fed just GM corn that had not been treated with Roundup ended up developing multiple ghastly tumors, indicating that some component of GM corn itself, apart from Roundup, is responsible for causing cancer. (http://www.thegrocer.co.uk)
[…]
In the new study, tumors did not begin showing up in the test mice until after 120 days of eating GM corn, with the majority of their tumors showing up after 18 months of GM corn consumption. This is more than six times the amount of time typically allotted for GMO safety studies, which proves that long-term safety assessments of GMOs have never truly been conducted.
“Health Canada must re-evaluate the safety of all GM foods based on these results and halt new approvals until we have long-term testing and transparent regulation,” said Lucy Sharratt from Health Canada about the new findings. “The federal government needs to redesign the entire system that approves GM foods because our regulations are not designed to look for the types of problems these scientists have found.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will 3D Printers Conquer the Consumer Market?
The 3D printer seems to have gone mainstream, at least for the do-it-yourself movement that populates the Maker Faire. But it remains to be seen if some “killer app” will make these printers a must-have item for consumers.
This year’s Maker Faire devoted an entire tent to perhaps a dozen brands of 3D printer, many of them for sale at the faire or for later delivery. While all share the same basic functionality — they build a shape in plastic, layer by layer — they each present slight design variations.
Their proponents are enthusiastic about the printers’ potential. “It’s like a new industrial revolution,” said Siert Wijnia, a founder of Netherlands-based Ultimaker. “(3D printers) are where the microcomputer was 30 years ago.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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