A cloud over India's Muslims

A good article by the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum

Walmart employee killed by bargain-crazed crowd

The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.

Acid to be thrown on face of man who blinded woman with it

I'm posting this to stimulate discussion, not to prove Muslims are barbarians or anything like that.

American kids asking Santa for jobs for their parents

"They're not asking for a Wii or an Xbox. They're asking for personal care items, they're asking for school supplies, they're asking for warm clothing," Santa said.

India's Muslims in Crisis

The disparities between Muslims, which make up 13.4% of the population, and India's Hindu population, which hovers around 80%, are striking. There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking Muslim Indians have shorter life spans, worse health, lower literacy levels, and lower-paying jobs. Add to that toxic brew the lingering resentment over 2002's anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat. The riots, instigated by Hindu nationalists, killed some 2000 people, most of them Muslim. To this day, few of the perpetrators have been convicted.

125 people declared dead so far in Bombay (the Hindu nationalist government renamed it Mumbai in 1996)

It seems their at least one of their motives was to make Americans and Britons not feel safe anywhere. One of the theories of modern terrorism/terrorists seems to me to be terrorize the public so much that they pressure their government to change the policies in question. But has this ever worked?

US officials flunk test of Amerian history, economics, civics

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to "supervise the first televised presidential debates."

lol!

Global Forecast by U.S. Intelligence Sees Qaeda Falter

It said the global shift from West to East in wealth and economic power “is without precedent in modern history.” Of a projected increase in world population of 1.2 billion by 2025, only 3 percent will take place in Western countries, the report said.

“We’re projecting a multipolar world,” C. Thomas Fingar, chairman of the National Intelligence Council and the government’s top intelligence analyst, said at a briefing on the report on Thursday. “The unipolar moment is over, or certainly will be over by 2025.”

DA targeting Cheney turns up missing

Lewis said, “I don’t think he (Cheney) will ever spend a day in court.”

Bloggers being targeted in ME

In Egypt

In Iran

Dow Plummets

Dow Plummets Nearly 430... Sinks Below 8,000 For First Time Since 2003... Fleeting Chances For Auto Bailout... Bill To Rescue Big Three Is Stalled... White House Reluctant To Use Money From $700B Financial Bailout

Secularist website not welcome in Arab states

The Arabic Network for Human Rights said today that the website of Arab Secularists’ http://www.3almani.org is facing a campaign that it should be blocked in several Arab states. There are already five states which have blocked this website, making it the most blocked website, surpassing even the Alhewar website http://www.ahewar.org which has been blocked in four Arab countries.

Four Arab states have blocked both the websites (Saudi, the Emirates, Tunisia and Bahrain) and now the Syrian authorities have joined the four states and blocked the Arab Secularists’ website, which makes it the most banned website.

Zawahiri calls Obama "house nigger"

"America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always," Zawahari said.

He resorted to racial slurs to make his point, calling Obama a "house slave" in Arabic who just did the bidding of his white masters. Subtitles supplied by al-Qaida translated the term as "house negro".

Britain Grapples With Role for Islamic Justice

The woman in black wanted an Islamic divorce. She told the religious judge that her husband hit her, cursed her and wanted her dead. But her husband was opposed, and the Islamic scholar adjudicating the case seemed determined to keep the couple together. So, sensing defeat, she brought our her secret weapon: her father...

This is Islamic justice, British style. Despite a raucous national debate over the limits of religious tolerance and the pre-eminence of British law, the tenets of Shariah, or Islamic law, are increasingly being applied to everyday life in cities across the country.

The Church of England has its own ecclesiastical courts. British Jews have had their own “beth din” courts for more than a century.

Cheney, Gonzales indicted for "prison profiteering" in South Texas county

Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.
The indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

Starving 1.4 million people

Under siege: 70% of Gaza blacked out; Israel turns away convoy carrying medicine

There have been rolling blackouts in Gaza since the power station shut down on Thursday.

Israel has sealed its borders with Gaza virtually every day since 4 November, blocking deliveries of food, fuel, and medicine.

The United Nations was forced to suspend a food program serving 750,000 Palestinians on Friday due to the blockade

Iraqi Cabinet Approves Security Pact With U.S.

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi cabinet voted overwhelmingly Sunday to approve the security agreement that sets the conditions for the Americans' continued presence in Iraq from Jan. 1 until the end of 2011.

Saudi-Iranian-cold war

One of the untold stories about the effects of U.S. involvement in the Middle East has been the escalating power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for control of the region. At the height of the insurgency in Iraq, for instance, Saudi Arabia—a supposed U.S. ally—was funneling money and volunteers to the Sunni insurgency to undermine the Maliki government, which it feared could become too susceptible to Iranian influence. The insurgency was prolonged by both countries funding militants in hopes of filling the power vacuum and/or preventing the other from taking control.

The Audacity of Hype

The Obama bandwagon is moving fast and furious, rolling over the few remaining pockets of dissent even as it prepares to take power. The mainstream media, particularly on television, has lost all sense of objectivity and proportion, and their reporting of the president-elect's doings has taken on a distinctly Soviet air. "Our Glorious Leader Picks the White House Dog" is the emblematic headline of a servile fourth estate. The political atmosphere is positively eerie: amid calls for "unity" and attacks on "toxic" language that is "divisive," there is an odd uniformity of thought similar to the virtual unanimity that gripped the nation in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Groupthink is all the rage, and the media has joined in the fun. Due to this love-fest, they're oblivious to the warning signs that worry us few and scattered skeptics. They somehow missed the Dear Leader's call for a civilian "national security force," for example, one that is "just as well-funded" and "just as powerful" as the U.S. military.

Yes Men at it again

Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out
that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
come to an end.

If, that is, they happened to read a "special edition" of today's New
York Times.

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million
papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged
pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass
them out on the street.

Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the
establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate
lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the
war.

The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes
International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as
editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a
recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a
timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of
progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama's "Yes
we REALLY can" speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)

"It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever,"
said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper's writers. "We've got to make
sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do.
After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start
imagining heaven."

The ACLU's Close Gitmo video

Emanuel Was Director Of Freddie Mac During Scandal

President-elect Barack Obama's newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot "red flags," according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

in the first frame, for some reason it cut out the shot of the Black kid looking back at the sign.

White people feel happy now. They're not racist. I hope you know better. Let's face it: Obama is pretty much a textbook "acceptable" black man. 1. He's half white, so he can't hate white folks, right? and 2. The guy looks white. Would he have won if he looked like this? Would he have won if almost the entire country didn't hate Bush and McCain actually knew how to run a campaign and had ideas other than smearing his opponent Or if the economy wasn't in shambles? Or if Obama's republican opponent was a youngish capable, intelligent white guy? Of course not. Now you can go back to patting yourself on the back.

Obama offers former member of IOF his chief of staff

Former IDF memberRahm Emanuel.

background

And I was hoping he would offer it to Khalidi.

The Guardian's comment is free has a new Middle East section

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Between Hope and Reality

By Ralph Nader

Dear Senator Obama:

In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo.

Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?

cont

How McCain could win

It's November 5 and the nation is in shock. Media blame it on the "Bradley effect": Americans supposedly turned into Klansmen inside the voting booth, and Barack Obama turned up with 6 million votes less than calculated from the exit polls. Florida came in for McCain and so did Indiana. Colorado, despite the Democrats' Rocky Mountain high after the Denver convention, stayed surprisingly Red. New Mexico, a state where Anglos are a minority, went McCain by 300 votes, as did Virginia. That's the nightmare. Here's the cold reality. »

13 year old victim of rape stoned to death in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses. The Islamic militia in charge of Kismayo had accused her of adultery after she reported that three men had raped her, the rights group said.