snake-plisskin's blog
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 13:18.
Almost 5 million California adults say they could use help with a mental or emotional problem, according to a survey released Wednesday by researchers at UCLA. About 1 million of them meet the criteria for "serious psychological distress."
However, only one in three people who perceive a need for mental health services or are in serious distress have seen a professional for treatment, the survey found.
The survey was conducted among more than 44,000 adults as part of the 2005 California Health Interview Survey, administered through the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Since the survey was conducted, the recession probably has contributed to worsening mental health for even more people, said the lead author of the study, David Grant The survey showed that lack of health insurance coverage was a major reason why people didn't seek help -- a situation that may be rectified somewhat by state and national mental health parity laws now in effect that require insurers to cover mental health conditions similarly to they way they cover physical conditions. (The final phase of the federal law went into effect on July 1.) However, stigma continues to be a barrier to mental health services. The survey found that men, people 65 and older, Latinos and Asians were less likely to seek help because of the stigma associated with mental or emotional problems. But being poor is the biggest barrier to care.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 13:13.
AP – 21 mins ago
PHOENIX – Arizona is preparing to ask an appeals court to lift a judge's ruling that put most of the state's immigration law on hold in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that may go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 02:51.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 02:47.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 12:18.
By Jon Ward - The Daily Caller | Published: 6:01 AM 07/28/2010 | Updated: 9:28 AM 07/28/2010
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 20:02.
Anderson-Wiley reportedly complained about Keeton’s Christian belief that homosexuality is sinful and demanded she choose between her faith and the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics.
“You couldn’t be a teacher, let alone a counselor, with those views,” court documents quoted Dr. Paulette Schenck, another of the university’s counseling professors, as having said in response to Keeton’s affirmation of her Christian beliefs.
And Anderson-Wiley subsequently told Keeton the faculty wanted her to “alter some of her beliefs,” court documents say.
According to e-mails between Keeton and the professors, the faculty does not expect her to change her personal beliefs and values, but rather wants her to not expect others to share her values or impose them during her counseling sessions.
“This is the unethical part — applying your own personal beliefs and values on other people and not truly accepting that others can have different beliefs and values that are as equally valid as your own,” court documents say Schenck wrote in an e-mail exchange with Keeton.
The ACA would not immediately comment on the facts of the case, but released a statement clarifying its standards.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 19:55.
If it were ever in doubt that one can be very talented and very stupid (or possibly simply venal), Oliver Stone’s recent interview with The Sunday Times surely settles the matter. Stone is planning a 10-part documentary about Stalin and Hitler that will put them “in context.” And heaven knows we need a dollop of “context” for the planet’s top two pathological murderers with 8-figure victims (well, top three, you have to include Mao).
No, Oliver, “context” is a mitigating, larger, more nuanced truth that yields a less judgmental perspective. As body counts go, Stalin and Hitler created the über-context, and any impulse to be “less judgmental” is a moral travesty. In fact, it is not possible for a human being to be sufficiently judgmental of Stalin and Hitler.
I’m apt to give the Stone documentary a pass — not because it wouldn’t deliver some sparkle of Stone’s filmmaking aptitude, and not even because Stone would likely indulge his penchant for conspiracy theories — but because Stone’s core ideology, with which the documentary will presumably be suffused, is offensive nonsense. Here, courtesy of Norman Geras, are excerpts from the Stone interview in The Sunday Times:
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 13:05.
The Catholic church, already reeling from a string of clerical sex abuse scandals, is facing new embarrassment after an Italian magazine published an investigation into what it termed the double life of gay priests in Rome.
Using hidden cameras, the weekly Panorama, owned by Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, captured priests visiting gay clubs and bars and having sex. The Vatican does not condemn homosexuals, but it teaches that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered". In one of his earliest moves, pope Benedict barred actively gay men from studying for the priesthood.
The diocese of Rome lashed out at the prime minister's magazine, saying its aim was "to create scandal [and] defame all priests". But it also urged gay clerics to leave both the closet and the priesthood.
It said, "Consistency would require that they come into the open", but that they "ought not to have become priests".
The semi-official papal daily, L'Osservatore Romano, made no reference to the affair. Vatican Radio reported it briefly.
One priest, a Frenchman in his 30s identified as Father Paul, attended a party at which there were two male prostitutes then said Mass the following morning before driving them to the airport, Panorama reported. A photo on its website claimed to show the priest in his dog collar but without his trousers with a gay man who acted as decoy for the magazine. In other shots, priests were shown apparently kissing Panorama's collaborator.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 13:01.
LONDON — Perhaps the only consistent thing about Britain’s socialized health care system is that it is in a perpetual state of flux, its structure constantly changing as governments search for the elusive formula that will deliver the best care for the cheapest price while costs and demand escalateEven as the new coalition government said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising moves so far, it has done the opposite, proposing what would be the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948.
Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.
The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government’s goal to effect $30 billion in “efficiency savings” in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 12:58.
Around 5,000 girls have gone missing in the Indian state of Kerala, and Pakistan's nefarious governmental jihad arm, the ISI, appears to be involved. Yet the Kerala police remains silent. "Love jihad cases: Mahila Morcha for NIA probe," from the Express News Service, July 25:
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha state president Sobha Surendran has urged the authorities to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the 'love jihad' cases.
She told a news conference here on Saturday that over the past five years, around 5,000 girls had gone missing in the State. Many of them were recruited by terrorist outfits sponsored by the ISI and sent to Pakistan. But the Home Department told the High Court in an affidavit that no such activities were noticed in the State, she said.
The Police had seized some CDs during the raids conducted as part of the investigation into the chopping of the hand of Newman College teacher T J Joseph. These CDs had visuals of girls sent to red streets in Pakistan. But the Kerala Police is maintaining silence over this development, despite having registered over 1,000 cases related to 'love jihad'. Sobha Surendran said that 'love jihad' was a planned move to recruit girls for terrorist activities. She said that as the Home Department was functioning under a tacit understanding with the Popular Front of India (PFI), the Union Home Department should take up the cases. The raids on the houses of PFI workers were a farce.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sat, 07/24/2010 - 14:27.
LAS VEGAS, NV — Liberals could face major losses if they continue to ignore the Tea Party movement, a panel of progressive writers said Thursday during a discussion at NetrootsNation, an annual gathering of bloggers, activists and policy makers.
The panelists, which included well-known authors David Neiwert and John Amato of Crooksandliars.com, warned that regardless of whether people have negative attitudes toward the Tea Party, progressives could lose their footing unless they mobilize their own base and treat the right-wing movement as a force to be reckoned with.
“The thing that has me most concerned about the Tea Party movement is the overarching theme on our side of things that we should dismiss these people because they’re nuts,” said Adele Stan, Washington bureau chief for Alternet.org, a progressive website that covers politics and culture. “We really do that at our peril.”
The panelists agreed that the era of writing off the conservative populist movement must end, adding that serious steps need be taken to combat the growing antagonism to the party in power.
“The answer to the Tea Party is to activate truly the populist wing of the progressive movement,” Neiwert said. “That’s the only way we’re going to have a chance to overcome this very threatening and very powerful movement.”
“We have to rise to the challenge,” Amato added.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sat, 07/24/2010 - 14:23.
LAS VEGAS, NV — While the federal government sinks deeper into debt than any time since World War II, former White House “green jobs” adviser Anthony Van Jones said it was time to stop worrying about budget deficits and pressure Washington to take more money from American businesses to fund larger social and infrastructure projects.
“This is a rich country. We have plenty of money, and if you don’t believe me, ask Haliburton,” Jones told a group of progressive bloggers and activists at the Netroots Nation convention Friday. “There’s plenty of money out there; don’t fall into the trap of this whole deficit argument.”
“The only question is how to spend it,” he added.
American corporations currently face the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world, according to the Tax Foundation.
Jones, who rejoined the Center for American Progress after resigning from his White House post amid criticism for signing a petition calling for an investigation of the Bush administration’s prior knowledge of the September 11 terrorist attacks, also urged progressives to ease up on the criticism of President Obama.
“This is harder than it looks,” he said. “Having spent six months in the White House, it’s a totally different experience when you’re sitting there and the missiles are coming over the horizon at you.”
Only hours before, Democrats in the U.S. Senate announced they would not pass energy reform legislation before the November midterm elections, a cause Jones has championed throughout his career.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sat, 07/24/2010 - 14:02.
BERLIN – At least 10 people were killed and another 15 injured when mass panic broke out Saturday in a tunnel at an annual celebration of techno music in western Germany.
The deaths occurred at the Love Parade in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, where thousands had gathered for the event.
Police gave no other immediate details. But the German news agency DAPD reported the stampede broke out after authorities tried to stop thousands of people from entering the area where the parade was being held.
DAPD reported the victims were crushed and that emergency workers had trouble getting through to them.
The all-news station n-tv said the party continued after the accident, with many of the other participants unaware of the stampede.
The Love Parade was once an institution in Berlin, but has been held in the industrial Ruhr region of western Germany since 2007.
The original Berlin Love Parade grew from a 1989 peace demonstration into a huge outdoor celebration of club culture that drew about 1.5 million people at its peak in 1999. But it suffered from financial problems and tensions with city officials in later years, and eventually moved
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Fri, 07/23/2010 - 23:24.
Affecting one out of every four girls, the brutal practice of "breast ironing" is on the rise in the African country of Cameroon. The procedure -- which involves the flattening of a young girl's growing breasts with hot stones, coconut shells and other objects -- is considered a way to curb the country's staggering number of teenage pregnancies, particularly high in rural areas, as well as limit the risk of sexual assault.
According to a new report by CurrentTV, Cameroonian mothers believe breast ironing will protect their daughters from becoming pregnant and being assaulted in that it will postpone their development and men will not be enticed by their breasts. With dietary habits in the country improving, girls are beginning to hit puberty as young as 9, and are subject to the practice around at the same age.
Though only limited medical research has been done on the practice, Cameroonian women say breast ironing can lead to numerous physical issues, such as burns and deformations, not to mention psychological problems. The procedure has been compared to the custom of female circumcision/genital mutilation.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Fri, 07/23/2010 - 14:46.
July 21, 2010
The Democrats are depressed about their collapsing poll numbers, so it's time to start calling conservatives "racist."
As we now know from the Journolist list-serv, where hundreds of liberal journalists chat with one another, and which was leaked to Daily Caller this week, journalists cry "racism" whenever they need to distract from bad news for Obama. (Ironically, this story did not make headlines.)
When the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal broke during the 2008 campaign, the first response of Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent was to demand that they start randomly picking conservatives -- "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares -- and call them racists."
Ackerman, frequent guest on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," continued on Journolist:
"What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically."
This is what "racism" has come to in America. Democrats are in trouble, so they say "let's call conservatives racists." We always knew it, but the Journolist postings gave us the smoking gun.
This explains why we've heard so much about Tea Partiers being "racists" lately.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 21:13.
WASHINGTON | Wed Jul 21, 2010 6:12pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many supporters of Barack Obama hoped his election as America's first black president might herald an era of post-racial politics, but race has been an issue his administration just can't seem to avoid.
Division and tension between black and white Americans has cropped up repeatedly over Obama's 18 months in office, hurting his popularity and distracting from his political agenda.
The issue surfaced this week when the Agriculture Department pushed a black official to resign after allegations she discriminated against a white farmer, only to apologize a day later for acting too quickly and without the facts.
Some said the White House was too eager to prove to its critics on the right that it does not favor blacks.
"The Obama administration lost some political capital because they acted without thinking things through," said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University.
Obama and race relations have often grabbed headlines.
Last July -- in the heat of the White House fight for its healthcare overhaul -- when Obama was subjected to scathing criticism for saying police had "acted stupidly" when they arrested Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, on charges he was breaking into his own home.
More recently, the Justice Department dismissed voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panther Party, prompting criticism from conservative groups who said the black president was unwilling to prosecute fellow blacks for civil rights violations.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 20:58.
WASHINGTON — A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, dealing a serious blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and complicating Democrats' election-year outlook.
The panel did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in seniority. The charges by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where a separate eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.
The timing of the announcement ensures that a public airing of Rangel's ethical woes will stretch into the fall campaign, and Republicans are certain to make it an issue as they try to capture majority control of the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had once promised to "drain the swamp" of ethical misdeeds by lawmakers in arguing that Democrats should be in charge.
Responding to the charges, Rangel said in a statement, "I was notified today, two years after I requested an investigation, that the Ethics Committee will refer the allegations reviewed by an investigations subcommittee to a subcommittee that will review the facts. I am pleased that, at long last, sunshine will pierce the cloud of serious allegations that have been raised against me in the media."
Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said, "The action today would indicate that the independent, bipartisan ethics committee process is moving forward."
WASHINGTON — A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, dealing a serious blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and complicating Democrats' election-year outlook.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 16:47.
Published : Thursday, 22 Jul 2010, 7:47 AM EDT
MYFOXNY.COM - Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.
It's part of Newark Mayor Cory Booker's belt-tightening plans that include reducing most city workers to a 4-day work week and shuttering city pools. Booker estimates that the pool closures alone would save $250,000. He also says that no gas will be purchased for municipal vehicles that are not deemed critically important.
Police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers would not be affected by the furlough plan. City workers were already bracing for furloughs starting in August. The number of unpaid days would increase from 11 to 19 with Booker's plan.
The city budget shortfall is $70 million and Booker plans to meet the revenue shortfall with budget cuts instead of property tax increases.
"Taxes can not be the answer," Booker said.
Booker says property taxes in Newark have gone up 76 percent in last decade and 19 percent in the past five years.
At the news conference Booker was also quoted as saying, "Call me Mr. Scrooge, if you want, but they'll be no Christmas decorations around the city."
Booker has proposed a $600 million budget which includes the possibility of laying off as many as 350 police and firefighters.
The moves come after the City Council deferred action on the creation of a municipal utilities authority, which is a key part of Booker's budget.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 16:41.
WASHINGTON — Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky.
In little more than a year, State Department contractors in Iraq could be driving armored vehicles, flying aircraft, operating surveillance systems, even retrieving casualties if there are violent incidents and disposing of unexploded ordnance.
Under the terms of a 2008 status of forces agreement, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, but they'll leave behind a sizable American civilian presence, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest in the world, and five consulate-like "Enduring Presence Posts" in the Iraqi hinterlands.
Iraq remains a battle zone, and the American diplomats and other civilian government employees will need security. The U.S. military will be gone. Iraq's army and police, despite billions of dollars and years of American training, aren't yet capable of doing the job.
The State Department, better known for negotiating treaties and delivering diplomatic notes, will have to fend for itself in what remains an active danger zone.
Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, flew to Washington this week for a conference with the State Department on how to transition Iraq from soldiers to diplomats.
He and Ambassador Christopher Hill "have built a joint plan to do this transition," Odierno said. "So we are now going to go through this (plan) and brief them on it and tell what they have to do to support this transition."
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 16:35.
Comments by David G. Littman in his capacity as a failed letter-writer to the International Herald Tribune:
I went through the ritual of sending a letter to the International Herald Tribune, knowing full well it would not be published. For 30 years and more, all my letters were accepted, especially from 1986 on UN topics - but for the last decade or so nothing from me passes muster. It proves (for me) that freedom of opinion and expression depend on the whims of an editor. As this 'letter to the editor' was a joker's query for Jihadists and Haredis alike, it merits publication as a teaser in Jihad-Watch.
* * * * *
Alana Newhouse's article (Who is a Jew? - July 17-18) raises a tricky question for
outsiders. If the "ultra Orthodox, or Haredi, rabbis" manage to push through their
Knesset Bill on "Jewish identity", how will the ulema then decide: "who is a Jew?"
Their reiterated preaching of the hadith (from al-Bukhari and Muslim) concludes
the binding Hamas Charter's genocidal article 7: "The Day of Judgment will not come
about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind
stones and trees. The stones and trees will say: O Muslims, O Abdullah [slave of Allah],
there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree would not do that
because it is one of the trees of the Jews."
And what about the Jewish Gharkad tree - who will decide if it's 'Jewish' or not
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 16:32.
Ninety percent of honor killings worldwide are done by Muslims. Yet the world human rights organizations continue to look the other way and treat the practice as purely "cultural," instead of calling Islamic countries to account for their tolerance of honor killing. "Turkey: Honor Killing; Girl Murdered By 15-Years-Old [sic] Brother," from ANSAmed, July 22 (thanks to Insubria):
(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, JULY 22 - A 17-year-old girl found dead one month ago was allegedly murdered by her 15-year-old brother in an ''honor killing'' after she left the women's shelter where she was staying, daily Radikal reported Wednesday. The body of Seyma G. was found half buried in the ground in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, while subsequent tests revealed that she had been strangled to death.
Her brother Y.G. was caught by police and then arrested July 16. According to the Diyarbakir police, the suspects in the murder were determined after an examination of the crime scene revealed footprints in the area and fingerprints on the tape put over the victim's mouth. The victim had reportedly been staying in a women's shelter after being subjected to violence at home.
Family members allegedly found her after they learned she had left the shelter. Her brother, who is accused in the murder, had previously been detained for being a member of the illegal Muslim organization Hizb ut-Tahrir. (ANSAmed).
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 21:06.
While Hamas continues to complain that Gaza lacks building materials, a luxury mall in Gaza City held its grand opening over the weekend. Among the goods on sale are Israeli men's clothing, and items from Turkey, France, and the United States Photojournalist Tom Gross, who publicized photos from Saturday's event on his website, noted that the opening coincided with a visit to Gaza from European Union foreign policy director Catherine Ashton. "The BBC and other media have featured extensive reports all day long on what they term the dire economic situation in Gaza; why are they not mentioning the new shopping mall that opened there yesterday?” Gross asked.
Pictures of the new mall were featured on the Palestinian Authority Safa website and by the Associated Press.
A variety of stores sell cosmetics, clothing, office supplies, toys, shoes, appliances and more. The mall boasts air conditioning and a delivery service.
Hamas has often accused Israel of creating a “siege” by keeping its border crossings to Gaza closed. According to Hamas, Gaza lacks electricity and building supplies.
Gross, who has previously posted pictures of fancy restaurants, shops filled with goods, and even an Olympic-size swimming pool during the “Israeli siege,” pointed out that Gaza enjoys a higher standard of living than Turkey, which recently sent citizens on a flotilla to Gaza in violation of an Israeli naval blockade of Hamas. Noting that life expectancy and literacy rates are higher in Gaza than in Turkey, while infant mortality rates are lower, he asked, “Have they considered that perhaps the humanitarian flotillas ought to be going in the other direction, towards Turkey?”
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 20:21.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 02:16.
An update on this story. "Spanish parliament to debate ban on public burqas," by Harold Heckle for the Associated Press, July 18:
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sun, 07/18/2010 - 23:21.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – There are few pleasures left for Gaza's 1.5 million people, squeezed by both a blockade and Hamas efforts to impose its strict Muslim lifestyle. And women here just lost another one.
Gaza's Hamas rulers have banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, sending plainclothes agents through popular beachside spots Sunday to enforce the edict. Some women in the Palestinian territory are grumbling.
"This is silly," said Haya Ahmed, a 29-year-old accountant who said she has smoked water pipes stuffed with hash for 10 years. "We are not smoking in the streets but in restaurants, where only a few people can enter."
She predicted the ban would actually make water pipes more tempting for rebellious young women. "Everything forbidden becomes desirable. The decision will lead to more smokers," Ahmed said. we will burn our bras
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Sun, 07/18/2010 - 22:08.
By COLLEEN LONG and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writers Colleen Long And Harry R. Weber, Associated Press Writers – 18 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS – BP and the Obama administration offered significantly differing views Sunday on whether the capped Gulf of Mexico oil well will have to be reopened, a contradiction that may be an effort by the oil giant to avoid blame if crude starts spewing again.
Pilloried for nearly three months as it tried repeatedly to stop the leak, BP PLC capped the nearly mile-deep well Thursday and wants to keep it that way. The government's plan, however, is to eventually pipe oil to the surface, which would ease pressure on the fragile well but would require up to three more days of oil spilling into the Gulf.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 13:00.
After a Supreme Court decision affirming the right to bear arms was handed down in June, the owners of Midwest Sporting Goods, just outside of Chicago, started noticed something any retailer would find encouraging – an increasing number of customersWith Chicago's 28-year ban on handgun ownership rendered unconstitutional, more people were coming into Midwest, in Lyons, Illinois, to exercise their Second Amendment rights, according to Noel, the store's owner. He asked that his last name not be published.
Lock and Load
"It's not like sales suddenly went through the roof," he said. "There are still restrictions and waiting periods. But we are anticipating a major increase in sales going forward. It's not going to happen overnight, but it's going to happen."
Others in the industry agree that sales of firearms, particularly pistols andOver the long term, as restrictions fall by the wayside, you will see gun sales increase," said Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the Newton, Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a lobbying group representing the nation's 55,000 licensed firearms dealers.
The legal reverberations of the Supreme Court Case, McDonald v. City of Chicago, likely will be felt across the country for years to come, so gun sellers shouldn't be overly fired up just yet.
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 12:55.
President Obama released this statement after suicide bombers killed dozens of people at a Shiite mosque in Iran on Thursday:
"I strongly condemn the outrageous terrorist attacks on a mosque in southeast Iran. The murder of innocent civilians in their place of worship is an intolerable offense, and those who carried it out must be held accountable. The United States stands with the families and loved ones of those killed and injured, and with the Iranian people, in the face of this injustice. Together, the people of the world must condemn and oppose all forms of terrorism, and support the universal right of human beings to live free from fear and senseless violence."
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 12:53.
As Arizona’s controversial immigration law enters the courtroom, Capitol Hill Republicans are trying to intervene in the legal brawl.
This week, Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana introduced legislation that would block the Obama administration from suing Arizona over its new law cracking down on illegal immigration. Sen. John McCain of Arizona donated $5,000 to a legal defense fund to fight off challenges to the law.
And the GOP-dominated House Immigration Reform Caucus will file a friend of the court brief early next week backing Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as she defends the law from a taxpayer-funded Justice Department lawsuit.
“Instead of spending time and taxpayer resources on a lawsuit, the Obama administration should be securing the border,” said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton. “The president and his administration are trying to invalidate a law that simply enforces federal law.”
Both parties are accusing the other of playing politics with the immigration issue and the Arizona law.
“It’s political opportunism,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said of Republicans. His district runs along the U.S.-Mexico border and he has called for economic boycotts of the state until the law is overturned. “It’s a very divisive issue not only in Arizona but obviously in other parts of the country. Showing support for [Arizon’s law] is supposed to show hardness on immigration, but it’s appropriate that they wait and see whether this law passes constitutional muster.”
Submitted by snake-plisskin on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 12:47.
Hoping to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah" (Qur'an 8:60)
"Second terror attack may have targeted city's clubs, restaurants," by Mike Levine for FoxNews/Newscore via the New York Post, July 16 (thanks to Davida):
The failed bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day may not have been the only attack that extremists planned for the 2009 holiday, with intelligence from overseas indicating three weeks earlier that a plot targeting New York City on the same day may have been in the works, according to an FBI report obtained Friday by the Fox News Channel.
"The final target of the attack was not known, but extremist members had allegedly discussed restaurants and night clubs located in New York City," the FBI's assistant legal attache in London wrote in a so-called threat report exactly three weeks before Christmas.
"The extremists allegedly discussed conducting the attack on Dec. 25, to coincide with the Christmas holiday."
The Dec. 4 report, sent to U.S. and British counterterrorism officials, warned that "extremists allegedly planned to conduct a test run" that evening, hiding components for an improvised explosive device in a shipment of khat, a plant often chewed like tobacco that is a tradition for many in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
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