Dymphna's Packet o' News for May 14th

Thanks to Paul Green, JD, Steen, Insubria, Net Right Nation, PEJ, and TB for the stories. Apologies to others, like Tuan Jim, for not getting to his group.

Stories from the Netherlands, Britain, US enviro education propaganda, Italy, Brazil, Italy and Egypt together, Al Qaeda in Italy, a potato-faced Jesus in Sweden, Tamils in Toronto (that’s a good rant), Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s criminally large bail outs, and a Freedom Party for the UK. Well, he can dream…
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Wilders Sees Leftwing Cordon Sanitaire

Geert Wilders considers the leftwing parties have set up a ‘cordon sanitaire’ around his Party for Freedom (PVV). In the wake of the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks), centre-left D66, the Socialist Party (SP) and small Christian party ChristenUnie, Labour (PvdA) has now also said it will not govern with the PVV.

The PVV has been the Netherlands’ biggest party in a leading poll for a month and a half, which has led to speculation on possible governing combinations. It has now become clear that none of the leftwing parties in the Lower House will join a coalition with the PVV.

[…]

The term ‘cordon sanitaire’ is understood in the Netherlands as the tactic employed for years by the political parties in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, against Vlaams Belang. All the parties there have from 1989 up to the present maintained the rule that they will never work with that party.

The situation in the Netherlands is not comparable with that in Flanders. There, all parties have enshrined the cordon sanitaire in a written statement. Additionally, the Christian democrats (CDA) and conservatives (VVD) are not ruling the PVV out as a coalition partner. On top of this, a combination of PVV with one of the leftwing parties is in any case unlikely.

A coalition of PVV, CDA and VVD would according to the two leading pollsters (Maurice de Hond and Synovate) currently respectively win 76 and 73 seats in the 150-seat Lower House. It is therefore the only realistic three-party coalition that would have or come close to a majority. However, elections are not scheduled until 2011.

that just gives the Netherlands more time to melt down, more time to experience the growing lawlessness that Wilders wants to fight. Time is probably on Wilders’ side

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The America Hating Kids Enviro Video Coming Soon to Your School

by Warner Todd Hudson

A new propaganda video created by an extreme environmental activist is making its way into America’s classrooms and The New York Times loves the whole idea. Enviro obsessive Annie Leonard, Greenpeace member and activist, has created a 20 minute video filled with anti-capitalist, anti-American propaganda to encourage kids to eschew “stuff,” calling the presentation “The Story of Stuff.”

Leonard’s propaganda piece is so anti-American she even begins her video by saying that her “friends” say she should describe the United States by using the symbol of a military tank because “it’s true in many countries and increasingly in our own.” And why is a tank “increasingly” the symbol of the USA? Because “more than 50% of our federal tax money is going for our military.” Naturally, this misleading propaganda doesn’t mention that a large portion of that federal military spending ends up going to the weekly pay and health care of our soldiers, something apparently Ms. Leonard is against. She goes on to say that a government’s job is to “take care of us, that’s their job.” Here she is trying to promote dependency and proves that she has no clue what a government is really for - especially in the U.S. system.

Leonard also starts the intro of the piece off saying that “some people matter more than others” in an effort to impress on kids that “the system” is evil and that “some” people are of lesser value as far as our system is concerned. Again, this is a clear abrogation of the simple truth that everyone in the U.S. is equal under the law but that the individual’s own abilities makes them what they are.

Naturally her symbol for “the corporation” is a bloated, fatcat with a top hat and a huge dollar sign on its stomach. Leonard claims that “the corporation looks bigger than the government because the corporation IS bigger than the government.” Of course what is misleading with this is that the business community is not “the” corporation. There are many thousands of corporations world wide, so presenting business as an evil “the corporation” is starkly anti-capitalist, unrealistic and dangerously simplistic for kids.

Her second chapter is the “explanation” of what “extraction” is. Leonard calls extraction “a fancy word for natural resource exploitation, which is a fancy word for trashing the planet.” Well, you can see where this is going, I am sure. From here every chapter shows how evil production, invention, capitalism, and economies are as kids are told that everything we eat, wear, and every tool we use is one more step toward destroying the planet.

Despite the fact that this is pure anti-American, anti-capitalist propaganda with no balance and no real economic or scientific truth, The New York Times celebrates this thing in its Sunday, May 10 piece. The Times story oohs and ahs over this “sleeper hit” that has seeped into our nation’s classrooms and is awed that it caused one little boy to wonder if he should want to buy a set of Lego toys because toys are now thought to be evil thanks to Leonard’s film. Imagine frightening a kid so bad that he is afraid to want a toy! This is the level of zealotry we are talking about.

[…]

Still, at least the Times gave the other side of the story, though it did wait until the end of its coverage to do so. The last few paragraphs detail a single parent that stands against the video and reports of a school in Montana that has decided not to use the propaganda flick in its classrooms.

I would suggest that if you are a parent you find out quickly if this anti-American video is being shown in your schools without your knowledge. I am sure it is a “sleeper hit” because teachers of far left ideology are sneaking it into classrooms without alerting parents.

Having a child in a government school means eternal vigilance for the parents. It’s a long slog.

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Berlusconi’s anti-immigration comments spur outcry

By Deepa Babington
Reuters

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s open rejection of the vision of a multi-ethnic Italy sparked sharp debate Sunday, winning praise from far-right allies and accusations of racism from the left.

Berlusconi’s conservative government has won public favor by cracking down on illegal immigration, allowing the premier to go a step further as he defended Saturday a new policy to deport migrants to Libya before they arrive on Italian shores.

“The left’s idea is of a multi-ethnic Italy,” Berlusconi told a news conference. “That’s not our idea, ours is to welcome only those who meet the conditions for political asylum.”

[…]

Opposition lawmakers denounced the premier’s comments as racist and told him to accept Italy would inevitably become multi-cultural whether Italians liked it or not.

“France, Great Britain and Germany are European nations with far more immigrants than us but they’ve worked for integration.” […]

Yeah, and we know how well France, Great Britain and Germany are doing with immigration. These guys must have been living under a rock

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Battisti prefers suicide to Italy

A convicted left-wing terrorist who Italy wants extradited from Brazil has told a French-German TV channel that he would rather kill himself than return to Italy.

‘‘I will not go back to Italy, I’ll never go back alive,’’ Cesare Battisti told Arte TV from his cell in Papuda, near the Brazilian capital Brasilia, where he is awaiting a definitive ruling on his extradition.

‘‘I’m afraid, but there are things that one can still decide, like when to die. I don’t think I’ll let others decide my death, not the unjust Italian government,’’ the 54-year-old former terrorist added.

In the interview, which Arte TV will broadcast on Saturday, Battisti said that ‘‘after 30 years they’ve put me in jail for crimes I didn’t commit. I never killed anyone. I was a member of an armed gang and took part in some robberies, but I was just a militant and not the monster, the killer they made me out to be’’.

Battisti was an alleged leader of the 1970s leftist terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC) which was held responsible for four murders and numerous robberies in the late 1970s.

In order to avoid prosecution in Italy, he fled to France in 1981 where he lived for over 20 years and became a successful writer of crime novels.

Italy’s request five years ago for his extradition made front-page headlines in France, with French left-wing parties and libertarian newspapers rallying to support the former terrorist’s battle to remain in Paris.

Battisti went missing in France in August 2004 while awaiting the outcome of his appeal against extradition and later turned up in Brazil, where he was arrested in March 2008.

Brazil initially granted Battisti political asylum because he risked ‘‘persecution’’ due to his political convictions if he was returned to Italy.

[…]

Italy firmly protested and worked to have his case reviewed by the highest authorities. A decision is currently pending from Brazil’s supreme court.

There’s nothing the Left loves more than a terrorist. “Truth speaking to Power” and all that.

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Fannie Loses $23 Billion, Prompting Even Bigger Bailout Chance of Repaying Taxpayers Is Slim

By Zachary A. Goldfarb

Fannie Mae reported yesterday that it lost $23.2 billion in the first three months of the year as mortgage defaults increasingly spread from risky loans to the far-larger portfolio of loans to borrowers who have been considered safe.

The massive loss prompts a $19 billion investment from the government to keep the firm solvent, on top of a $15 billion investment of taxpayer money earlier this year.

The sobering earnings report was a reminder of the far-reaching implications of the government’s takeover in September of Fannie Mae and the smaller Freddie Mac. Losses have proved unrelenting; the firms’ appetite for tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer aid hasn’t subsided; and taxpayer money invested in the companies, analysts said, is probably lost forever because the prospects for repayment are slim.

But the government remains committed to keeping the companies afloat, because it is relying on them to help reverse the continuing slide in the housing market and keep mortgage rates low.

Even as the government bailout of banks appears to be leveling off, the federal rescue of Fannie and Freddie is rapidly growing more expensive. Fannie Mae said that the losses will continue through at least much of the year and that it “therefore will be required to obtain additional funding from the Treasury.” Analysts are estimating that the company could need at least $110 billion.

Freddie Mac, which has been in worse financial shape than Fannie Mae and has obtained $45 billion in taxpayer funding, will report earnings in coming days.

Fannie’s most recent loss compares with a $2.2 billion loss in the first quarter last year, before the government takeover.

Fannie Mae, of the District, and Freddie Mac, of McLean, have been growing ever more dependent on federal largesse. The Federal Reserve has bought $366 billion of their mortgage investments and $70 billion of their debt, and has pledged to buy hundreds of billions of dollars more of both. The Treasury has pledged $200 billion to each company to keep them solvent and already bought $124 billion of their mortgage investments.

In total, the government has committed about $2 trillion to supporting Fannie and Freddie and buying the securities they issue.

The federal government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last September out of concern that they would collapse and threaten the entire financial system.

The usual suspects in Congress refused to listen last year when it was common knowledge that Fannie and Freddie were shipping water. Didn’t want to hear it because the incestuous relationship between our national government and Fannie and Freddie has been a disgusting porn show for years. TWO TRILLION DOLLARS for these criminals. I don’t see Obama threatening the executives there. In fact, I think their bonuses went through as usual.

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Tamils take over Toronto

By Arthur Weinreb

Although there have been short protests by Tamil Canadians in Toronto protesting civilian deaths in Sri Lanka there were no major problems until the end of last month. What began as a protest before the U.S. consulate on Toronto’s University Avenue ended up blocking a main street in Toronto for four consecutive days.

The worsening of Toronto’s already gridlocked city that resulted in problems for ordinary people just trying to go about their business didn’t faze any of the thousands of Tamils who blocked the street. Nor did the fact that three of Toronto’s largest hospitals are located just up the street from the consulate seem to be a concern. They had a point to make and the hell with everyone else. And the city of Toronto paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to have police stand around and watch them.

Further protests were held last weekend that culminated in Tamils blocking the Gardiner Expressway, a major east-west artery. It’s hard to understand the mentality of this mob. They claim it is to get the attention of the Canadian and U.S. governments to what is happening in “their country”. These governments have already called for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka in order to save the civilians caught up in what appears to be the final stages of the 25 year old war. Governments, including the one headed by the godlike Barack Obama, are not likely to do anything else .

[…]

The police no longer control the streets of Toronto, the Tamils do

Many protesters in the crowd proudly wave the flag of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) which Canada has declared to be a terrorist organization. This further angers ordinary law abiding Torontonians. But at least the antics on the Gardiner Expressway finally got the attention of the authorities. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Mayor David Miller both warned them not to do that again. But unless there are some Tamils out there who have a morbid fear of being taxed to death, the warnings will likely do no good.

The person who seemed most upset about the demonstration that closed the expressway was Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. Blair went on and on and on about how the Tamils put little children, some in strollers, at the front of the demonstration opposite police dressed in riot gear. Perhaps if Blair spent more time reading and less time trying to look pretty for the media he would know that this is a typical Tamil Tiger tactic; using innocent people, particularly children, as human shields. The use of these children was disgusting and proof that if left unchecked, we will turn into a third world country. On a positive note at least none of the adults were yelling at the kids; if they were they no doubt would have been done for child abuse. At least we now know that putting children between those engaged in illegal activities and the police do not constitute such abuse.

As is constantly being pointed out, there are many places where protests can take place without causing undue hardship to others. But the protesting Tamils, waving the flags of their beloved terrorist group don’t care. They don’t care about their fellow citizens; they don’t even care about whether or not they put their children in danger. There’s an apparent drug war in Toronto’s west end and yesterday a 14-year-old boy was shot to death; the fourth such death in the area in the past three weeks. But the Tamil protesters don’t care that scarce police resources are being employed when they block streets and expressways because they feel that they have a right to. Mob rule has come to Toronto.

Meanwhile in Ottawa, Parliament is going to consider whether certain groups should be designated as criminal organizations, similar to the terrorist designations that were legislated after 9/11. If this is carried out, the Hell’s Angels will no doubt be the first group so designated. The boys can’t be too happy about this possibility. Perhaps they should protest by closing a highway or two down. Let’s see if Chief Billy Blair wrings his hands over that one.

At least one thing is certain about the Hell’s Angels; if they do protest they won’t bring any children along.

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We Need a Freedom Party of Britain

by Ed West

The thing about the Euro elections is that everybody gets their turn. It was the Greens in 1989, UKIP in 2004, and most people believe this year it will be the BNP’s turn. And the more the great and the good warn people not to vote for them, the more votes they get - after Russell Brand denounced the party I was tempted to join out of sheer bloody-mindedness.

That’s not to say this is the part in Cabaret where the blond boy starts singing in the beer garden. Even if they do well next month, the BNP are not going to sweep to power any time soon because, unless or maybe until Britain’s demographics hit a Doomsday scenario, middle-class voters are too repulsed.

It’s all branding - whatever the membership is like now, they were founded by Holocaust deniers and they are associated with beery violence (even if BNP members are just as much victims from anti-fascists, if not more). I’ve never believed the myth that working-class whites are more racist than the middle class - the opposite is true - but the BNP remains a working-class party and no party can achieve power without cross-class support.

But across the pond another type of anti-immigration party does seriously threaten to take power, and its success could well be a model for English dissenters.

Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party is expected to top the poll in the Netherlands, and don’t be surprised if they take power within a decade. They have a winning formula: the party opposes any more third world immigration and is hostile to Islamism (and, indeed, Islam), but it is also economically liberal (unlike the BNP) as well as being culturally conservative, and dedicated to the cause both of Christianity and humanism. They are serious contenders because they have broken through the stigma barrier in a way the BNP will never achieve.

If UKIP had any sense it would have taken Wilders as its model and made immigration and societal breakdown their main focus, rather than remaining a slightly bizarre one-issue party. I know Europe is very important, but on a day-to-day level it does not affect people in the same way that immigration, crime and the general decline in everyday civility do.

Perhaps after UKIP loses most of its seats next month, and if David Cameron’s Tories are as socially liberal as many people fear they will be, a genuine gap in the market will open up for a Freedom Party of Britain.

What a lovely dream. Things are so chaotic it doesn’t seem likely. I hope some Brits will tell me I’m wrong.

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Rome and Cairo agree democracy needed to stem immigration

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday said spreading democracy was the best way to tackle immigration problems, adding that Rome and Cairo were united on this front. Speaking at the end of an Italian-Egyptian summit, Berlusconi said he would take a bilateral ‘‘democratisation project’’ drawn up during the talks to the next meeting of European Union leaders. ‘‘The world’s democracies must unite in a project of democratising those countries immigrations come from,’’ he said. ‘‘This is because a free society is the only way to ensure people are able to use their talents to escape poverty’’.

Berlusconi, who said he had reached agreement on the issue with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, added that rising populations in poorer countries ‘‘will inevitably result in unsustainable migratory pressure’’ on Europe. The Italian premier provided no details about how the project envisioned ‘‘spreading democracy’’ to poorer countries but did say ‘‘concrete infrastructural works’’ were more important than straight financial aid.

[…]

An accord was reached on Egypt’s Oil Ministry and Italian oil and gas giant Eni on various new areas of cooperation. Other agreements included one on the return to Alexandria of Ancient Egyptian masterpieces currently in Italy and the creation of an Italian University in Egypt. The summit also marked the official launch of the Italian-Egyptian Year of Science and Technology.

The summit has been set up as an annual event, following the first such meeting last year. The Italian government has said this type of fixed annual event, normally reserved for European nations, reflects the value it places on its partnership with Egypt.

An Italian University in Egypt? That would be an interesting cultural mix. And it might give the Copts some place to run when the Arab Egyptians are persecuting again. There’s some “democracy” for you: asylum.

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The Singing Revolution

Just go there and watch the trailer. I promise you’ll be impressed.

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SCAR Goes To War

Two years after completing field testing, the new American assault rifle, SCAR, has been issued to a battalion of U.S. Army Rangers, who are headed for Afghanistan. SCAR (Special operations forces Combat Assault Rifle) was a SOCOM (Special Operations Command) effort to develop a new assault rifle that had some of the characteristics of the (now abandoned) U.S. Army XM-8 rifle. SOCOM had the money, and authority to develop their own weapons. And SCAR is mainly for use by SOCOM troops.

SOCOM wanted a weapon that did everything the XM-8 did, and a little more. Back in 2003, SOCOM asked rifle manufacturers to submit proposals, and FN (a Belgian firm) came up with the best ideas. One advantage FN has was its ability to quickly implement requests for design changes. FN’s rapid prototyping shop was often able to turn out a new part in hours. This, and FNs long history of good weapons design, gave them the edge. SCAR has a more reliable short-stroke, gas piston operating system, and a floating barrel for better accuracy, plus several other improvements over the current M-4/M-16.

Pictures here

You have to love a gun named SCAR. Has the right kind of manly heft to it. Think about it: would SCARF have the same effect?

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Italy accuses two of leading role for al Qaeda

Reuters

Italian prosecutors have accused two men, arrested last year for links to trafficking in illegal immigrants, of being leading al Qaeda figures in Europe involved in training militants for suicide attacks.

Police in the southern city of Bari yesterday said the two men, identified as Syrian imam Bassam Ayachi and French computer engineer Raphael Gendron, played a leading role in “communication, transmission and propaganda” for al Qaeda.

They were arrested by Italian police in November 2008 on suspicion of trying to smuggle five illegal immigrants into Italy. Among the documents found on them was the will of a would-be suicide attacker, detailing the compensation to his family after his death, police said.

[…]

Documents found in their possession mentioned attacks in France and Britain, “but as a mere possibility, without anything concrete or any immediate threat”, Claudio Galzerano of Ucigos, another police anti-terrorism unit, said.

[…]

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Jesus image in a fried potato in SWEDEN???

A restaurant in southern Sweden has put a potato up for auction after staff discovered what they believed to be the face of Jesus Christ in a spud that “hopped out of the frying pan” earlier this week.

Restaurateur Sylvia Szepanski told The Local that she witnessed the first appearance of the “holy” vegetable first hand in the kitchen of her restaurant at the Söderslätt Golf Club, 20 kilometres south of Malmö.

“Our chef was frying some potatoes when suddenly one of them hopped out of the frying pan and set itself apart from the others.”

But opinions differed initially as to the nature of the alleged apparition. Szepanski’s voice turned to one of wonder as she reenacted the moment.

“I said, ‘Look, it’s the face of a child angel’.

“But the chef said, ‘No, it’s the face of Jesus’.”

Szepanski soon agreed that there was indeed something Christ like about the shapes visible in the fried peel and news of the potato Jesus was fed to the local media.

“We’ve had people coming here asking to see the potato. We have set it up in a sort of plastic crib in the kitchen,” she said.

But with business brisk, Szepanski said staff did not have time to welcome curious visitors into the kitchen. Instead the “miracle” root vegetable has been put up for auction on eBay, where there have so far been no bids.

Bishop of Lund Antje Jackelén was not immediately available for comment regarding the Lutheran Church of Sweden’s view on whether everyday items could attain a form of religious significance.

Puh-leeze. This is not Swedish behavior. Maybe the chef is part Italian? French? I’ll bet the Bishop of Lund is hiding, waiting for the darned potato face to rot.



Yes, I’ll be glad when the Baron returns with the real news, too. I’ll be even gladder about it than his readers.