Slow Saturday Special: It's About Time For a Maine Post

I call.

"New gambling era arrives at Maine casino; Celebratory mood as patrons line up" by Clarke Canfield  |  Associated Press, March 17, 2012

BANGOR - A new era in gambling arrived in Maine on Friday with the spinning of a roulette wheel, the shuffling of cards, and shouts of “blackjack.’’

About 60 people were waiting outside Hollywood Casino in Bangor when it opened its doors at 8 a.m., and the poker and blackjack tables were filled by midmorning at the casino. It had been limited to slot machines since its opening in 2005 until Penobscot County voters in November approved the addition of table games.

I guess there is something better to do at 8 a.m. than reading a Boston Globe.  

“It’s about time,’’ said Dennis Stevens, 64, of Sabattus, as he watched the betting at a blackjack table....

There was a celebratory mood around the table games, nestled along one side of the gaming floor, with its 925 beeping, dinging, and ringing slot machines. The blackjack and poker players were predominantly men, many dressed in blue jeans and baseball caps as they made wagers with white, pink, red, green, black, and purple chips, worth between $1 and $500 each. A waiting line for the four Texas Hold ‘em poker games had formed by 9 a.m.

Ken Kelley, 50, of Bangor, has been coming to the casino for years and thought it was only a matter of time before table games were added. The games will help boost jobs, boost business in the city, and boost revenues for the city and state, he said.

“The city gets tax revenue. The state gets tax revenue. Any revenue’s good revenue,’’ he said.  

Then he also favors the legalization of drugs and prostitution, right?

The casino and Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor forged a partnership last fall for the school to offer a course in table games where students would learn how to deal poker and blackjack and run the roulette wheel. An upcoming course will teach craps....   

And you wonder why AmeriKan kids are falling behind, failing, and coming out with (literally) crap degrees?

Of course, college kids don't have gambling problems or anything.

--more--"  

At least the job will help you repay all the loan debt, kids.

Related: Community colleges, high schools are working toward solutions

Uh-huh.  

Now deal 'em!

Also see: Teddy bear vigil held for missing Maine toddler

Related: Sunday Globe Special: Maine in Metro

Slow Saturday Special: Boston Globe Bike Ride

You can take your life in your hands if you want.   

"Bicyclists embark on 500-mile trek" by Johanna Kaiser  |  Globe Correspondent, March 17, 2012

The cyclists will be traveling through cities and towns along the East Coast to promote bicycling and to raise money for the Bikes Belong Foundation, a group that advocates for biking and biking infrastructure....

Tim Johnson, a Topsfield resident and six-time national cyclocross champion who started the event, said he was excited to see people concerned about fitness, transportation, and the environment on bikes and supporting cycling together.

“The whole point of the ride is to show you can ride anywhere,’’ Johnson told the riders before leading them down Cambridge Street.

Related:   

Accidents common at Cambridge intersection

Bicyclist killed by truck was MIT graduate
  
Bicyclist, 20, is struck by car, then shot

There is a time and place to ride bikes, and busy city streets are not one of them.

Along the way, riders will be trailed by a caravan of vehicles offering support and first aid and a portable kitchen cooking food such as sushi rice cakes and waffle sandwiches from scratch. Riders will consume up to 5,000 calories per day. 

So much for minimizing the carbon footprint.

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Maybe the helmet will help spare your lives:

"A vending machine that serves up safety" December 31, 2011|Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE - Working with the city of Boston, the MIT students have added another chapter to the annals of the vending machine.

The prototype of the product they call HelmetHub would dispense headgear to what until now have been the mostly helmetless riders of Hubway, the bicycle-sharing system that burst onto the scene in Boston last summer....

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"Hubway to branch out next spring; Bikes, stations will debut in Cambridge and Somerville" November 28, 2011|By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff

After recording 140,000 trips in four months, Boston’s European-style bicycle-sharing system is expanding across the Charles River, with stations planned for Cambridge and Somerville after a winter hiatus.

The 60-station, 600-bike Hubway system will shut down Wednesday night and reopen in March, weather permitting, when it will quickly expand....

--more--" 

Also see: Bikes and Burritos in Boston 

Yeah, it is time for lunch.

Slow Saturday Special: Slimy Salvadoran War Criminal

"Salvadoran officer’s case to be updated" March 17, 2012

Lawyers in the case of a former Salvadoran military officer accused of colluding in the 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests have agreed to update the judge in the case next month. Inocente Orlando Montano was arrested on federal immigration charges in Massachusetts last year. Prosecutors say Montano made false statements when he applied for a status that allows some foreigners to seek temporary protection in the United States if they are unable to safely return to their own country. Montano was among 20 Salvadorans indicted in Spain last year in connection with the slayings of the priests and two women during El Salvador’s 12-year civil war. He has denied involvement in the killings. A prosecutor said Friday that he would disclose government evidence to Montano’s lawyer within the next couple of weeks. Another hearing was scheduled for April 26 (AP)."  

Also see: El Salvador War Criminal Was Living in Everett

Ex-Salvadoran army official backs out of plea deal

Ex-Salvadoran officer pleads not guilty

Slow Saturday Special: Patrick Awards Millions to Centralize Massachusetts

"State awards regionalization grants" State House News Service, March 17, 2012

The Patrick administration awarded $5 million in grants Friday to cities, towns, and counties across the state for regionalization and government efficiency projects, providing what one official called the “seed money’’ for municipalities to band together to provide education, public works, and other services....

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Related: 

"The state has offered incentives in the past, but has not always fulfilled the promises it made to communities that regionalized. Wachusett Regional, which was formed in 1955 and enrolls students from the towns of Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, and Sterling, never received all of the state money promised for increased transportation costs, said Cynthia Bazinet, a School Committee member there. Such experiences could deter other communities from regionalizing, she said. "Out transportation costs are enormous," she said. "And we've never been reimbursed in the manner promised."

Also see: Cutting Globe's Community College Classes

Slow Saturday Special: Boston Globe Spoils St. Patrick's Day

And I'm not even Irish.

"St. Patrick’s Day holds mixed emotions for some" by Martine Powers  |  Globe Staff, March 17, 2012

His appearance does not fit the bill of a stereotypical Irishman....   

Whose pushing stereotypes here?

As the American population has grown increasingly mixed-race in recent decades, some descendants of Irish immigrants are claiming a multiracial heritage, though they may differ in appearance from their red-haired, freckled ancestors. For them, the joys of embracing Irish roots are complicated by the challenges of being multiracial....

St. Patrick, I'm tired of being divided at every turn by the prejudiced pos Boston Globe.

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Also see: City urges restraint at St. Patrick’s Day parade

Politicians sharpen knives for annual roast

Isn't St. Patrick the guy that ran those snakes out of Ireland?

Slow Saturday Special: Biotech Court Battle

"A battle within cancer fight; Biotech’s cofounder accused of stealing intellectual property" by Robert Weisman  |  Globe Staff, March 17, 2012

The article cowritten by Dr. Craig B. Thompson in the scientific journal Cancer Cell pointed to a promising approach to fighting cancer. By targeting metabolic enzymes, he suggested, it might be possible to alter cancer pathways and starve tumors of nutrients.

Thompson’s piece didn’t just capture the attention of scientists. Officials at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked as director of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, also took notice. They wondered if Thompson’s breakthrough research could lead to patents that would give the school a lucrative source of revenue.

One of those officials, Robert H. Schenkel, sent Thompson an e-mail in February 2010, asking to talk about such a possibility. But when Schenkel and two associates from Penn’s technology transfer office met with him a couple weeks later, they were surprised. Thompson downplayed the significance of the article, and an earlier one he wrote for the journal Nature, insisting the findings weren’t worthy of being patented, they later recalled.

Unbeknownst to Schenkel and his colleagues, however, a Cambridge biotechnology start-up cofounded by Thompson had applied for at least 20 patents on the same research he described in the journals, according to a lawsuit filed by the university last month in US District Court in New York.

The suit alleges that Thompson, now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, essentially stole discoveries made at Penn to start his company, Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. Penn said that as a condition of employment, he had agreed to give the university right of first refusal for any discoveries that came out of school labs. 

The case, which pits an elite university against the leader of one of the nation’s most prestigious cancer hospitals, highlights the heated competition for control over groundbreaking biomedical discoveries that can win inventors bragging rights and shower their sponsors with rich licensing fees.   

I thought this was about taking care of sick people.

It centers on the activity of Agios, a low-profile company tucked in the warren of buildings behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....

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Slow Saturday Special: Boston Globe Gets a Ringer

"Runner in sex ring to serve 15 months; Cited for role in scheme trafficking Asian women" by Patricia Wen  |  Globe Staff, March 17, 2012

A 43-year-old Quincy man, who has admitted being an errand runner for an Asian prostitution ring operating in Boston and its nearby suburbs, was sentenced this week to 15 months in prison.

Dong Kai Chen is one of five defendants charged in a scheme that lured Asian women from New York and California, among other places, to come to Massachusetts and work as prostitutes in Boston and suburbs including Stoneham, Wellesley, Malden, Burlington, and Newton.

Prosecutors said some of the women who were in the US illegally were threatened with legal exposure or physical abuse if they did not work in the brothels.

Customers were recruited through ads offering the services of Asian women that ran in the Boston Phoenix and Craigslist, the indictment said.

During sentencing on Thursday, US District Court Judge George O’Toole declined Dong Kai Chen’s request to spare him prison time based on his consistent work record in the Asian food market business in Boston, as well as his lack of a criminal record....

In a phone interview Friday, Chen’s attorney, Robert Peabody, characterized him as a bit player in this prostitution business. He said Chen was a single man, a cash-strapped factory worker who responded to an ad in a Chinese-language newspaper, distributed in Boston, for “a driver.’’ Peabody said Chen discovered only later that the job was related to an illicit escort business.

“He did not know what he was getting into at first,’’ Peabody said. “He needed the cash.’’

Federal prosecutors portrayed Chen as the one who picked up women arriving at South Station or Logan Airport, deposited large amounts of cash at banks, and delivered bed linens, towels, food, and condoms to prostitutes at various locations. Chen, who immigrated here from Guangdong province, became a US citizen a few years ago, Peabody said.

Prosecutors say the leaders of the brothel operation are the alleged “madam’’ Hong Wei and two men, Jing Liang Chen, and Darren Liu, also known as Xiang Hua Zhang....

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Slow Saturday Special: Wells Fargo Goes Too Far

The Boston Globe wouldn't want a bank to look bad, would it?

"Developer in fight with new lender; Original loans from failed bank now held by Wells Fargo" by Casey Ross  |  Globe Staff, March 17, 2012

A Boston developer who financed a real estate buying spree with loans from the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank is locked in a legal struggle for control of a property empire that stretches from Massachusetts to Texas.

The developer, John McGrail, who also owns prominent pubs in the Boston area, is trying to fend off an attempt by a new lender, Wells Fargo Bank, to recoup about $190 million he borrowed to buy property during the real estate bubble of the mid 2000s. Wells Fargo acquired his loans following the 2009 collapse of Anglo Irish Bank, which was taken over by the Irish government.

The bank’s lawsuit alleges that McGrail, who previously fell behind on his debt payments to Anglo Irish, has failed to pay operating expenses on some of his properties and let others fall into disrepair, among other issues.

McGrail in turn has sued Wells Fargo, contending the bank concocted a scheme to seize his property and has tried to disrupt his businesses in recent days. His lawsuit alleges, for example, that agents for Wells Fargo got a locksmith to drill through the door of one of his pubs, the Stadium in South Boston, and began boarding up windows and throwing food into the street.  

The f***ers tuly think they can do anything!

The legal fight is the latest to erupt over real estate purchased with debt from Anglo Irish, whose stunning failure helped trigger the collapse of Ireland’s economy and created myriad legal and financial issues for its US borrowers. Irish authorities have sued Anglo Irish’s former chief executive, David K. Drumm, who built the lender’s US operations and now lives in Wellesley after fleeing Ireland in 2009 to evade questioning.  

Related: Irish Banker Bolts to U.S.

Irish authorities blame Drumm for fueling the speculative lending that led to the country’s financial problems, and in a suit filed in US District Court in Boston accuse him of bilking Irish taxpayers by illegally doctoring more than $10 million in loans he took from the bank before its collapse....

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Slow Saturday Special: Bank of America Office Closed

Then how am I going to get the money to pay for the Globe? I guess I just won't buy one.
"Bank of America adds to closings; 4 more in Bay State to be shuttered" by Todd Wallack  |  Globe Staff, March 17, 2012

Bank of America, the state’s largest bank, plans to close at least four more of its 270 branches in Massachusetts as part of an effort to streamline its national network of offices, according to regulatory filings. The loss of those four branches would come on top of two other local branch closings announced last month by the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank.

The closings are another indication that US banks are shrinking branch networks to trim expenses, absorb acquisitions, and take advantage of customers moving to online banking.   

Just as newsreaders are moving to the Internet for the truth.

Related: Banks Brighten Boston

Can you blame us?

Overall, the number of bank branches declined by about 1 percent nationwide over the last two fiscal years, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

In the latest round of closings, Bank of America said it plans to shutter branches on St. James Avenue in Springfield and West Street in Ware on June 15 and branches on Cochituate Road in Framingham and Pleasant Street in Malden on June 22. The bank previously announced plans to close branches in New Bedford and the village of Turners Falls in Montague in June.

“We constantly evaluate our retail network to ensure we are meeting evolving customer demand,’’ said Bank of America spokeswoman Christina Beyer Toth in a statement. “While we will continue to expand and invest in our banking center network through more personalized services and expertise, we project that ultimately the number of banking centers we have nationwide will continue to decline.’’

You were just charged a fee for reading that statement.

******************************************

Separately, Bank of America has been selling its office buildings across the country to further streamline its operations. Last month, it struck a deal to sell its 37-story office tower in Boston’s Financial District, the sixth tallest skyscraper in the city, to Boston Properties for $615 million.

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Boston Globe Blackout

I haven't read one all week; in fact, I haven't even prepared a note paper for the stories I intended (ha-ha) to read. Maybe you can''t even see this post over there.

Life upended across the Back Bay 

6 substations power downtown, which leaves little room for error

Back Bay, South End await power

Power restored for all customers in the Back Bay

The powerful and the powerless

Blackout means red ink for many

Update: NStar won’t pay damages; more outages planned

Well, back to basketball for now I guess.

Boston Globe Supper Will Make You Sick

And every other meal they serve up.

"Boston’s public schools shelve ‘pink slime’; Hamburgers, meatballs are off lunch menus until questions are answered" by Akilah Johnson and Matt Rocheleau  |  Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, March 16, 2012

Hamburgers, taco meat, meatballs, and Salisbury steak - all products made with ground beef - have been temporarily stricken from lunch menus in Boston’s public schools as the district awaits word from the federal government about the presence of “pink slime.’’

That is the name critics have slapped on the ammonia-treated ground beef filler that the US Department of Agriculture dubs “lean, finely textured beef.’’  

This from the government that cares soooooooooooo much about your health, kids.

As Boston school authorities demanded answers about the ground beef in their freezers, the USDA announced Thursday that it will give districts nationwide the chance to opt out of purchasing meat containing the filler.  

Have you checked the date on that shit?

It has been used in the National School Lunch Program for years, but drew widespread objection last week when word of its use hit the Internet and went viral.

Yeah, I know, I saw the story there first as well. I guess that is why I'm not reading the agenda-pushing, corporate-serving paper much anymore.

“It’s yet another form of the adulteration of food products in our food supply,’’ said Michael Peck, the new director of food and nutrition services at Boston’s schools. “I am sure that it is considered generally safe, but I think we need to hold the USDA to a higher standard than ‘generally safe’ when, in fact, this product has been eliminated from many retail segments . . . because they felt it didn’t meet a high enough standard.’’

The district quarantined about 62,000 pounds of beef worth $200,000 Wednesday, marking it “do not use.’’ And it will stay that way until the school district has answers. If the meat contains the product, it will be discarded; if it does not, it will return to the cafeteria.

But Peck cautioned that the district might never know, because the federal government, he said, “does not require labeling of beef that has been treated with this product.’’ A third option would be to buy beef from a purveyor other than the federal government.  

This is the same government cramming obesity down your hungry throats, right? The same one lying you kids into wars as they support and create the economic conditions that drive you to be cannon fodder? Just checking.

The low-cost filler is made from fatty scraps of beef left over from cuts typically thrown away. The meat and fat are separated by extreme heat, pushed through a tub, and treated with ammonia hydroxide, a chemical used to decontaminate food and kill bacteria.  

Makes the brains, guts, and garbage all ground and pressed together not sound so bad, huh?

Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietitian and clinical associate professor at Boston University’s Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, likens the process to a high-tech way of trimming as much fat as possible from a steak. “It’s meat,’’ she said, “and it’s up to you if you want to eat it. Sort of like you buy organic, or you don’t buy organic.’’  

It's just a cheaper cut, folks! Anybody for a burger?

Next year, the USDA will give school districts nationwide the choice to choose between beef patties, meatballs, and gyro strips made with or without the products “in response to requests from school districts across the nation.’’  

Why would school districts be refusing it if it was oh-so-good?

“USDA only purchases products for the school lunch program that are safe, nutritious, and affordable, including all products containing lean finely textured beef,’’ the department said in a statement released Thursday.  

From the government that cares about what you put in your tummy, kids.

“However, due to customer demand, the department will be adjusting its procurement specifications.’’

Translation: They know they are serving you shit, kids.

Dubbed “pink slime’’ by a federal microbiologist, the meat product has been on the market for years.

While federal regulators insist that the processed meat is safe to eat, advocates of organic agriculture disagree, saying that it is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

But Katherine Tucker, chairwoman of Northeastern University’s department of health sciences, said the issue is not necessarily one of safety but of consumer confidence.

Wow, the organic agriculture folks sure were given a small serving by the corporate Globe, 'eh? The agenda-pushers immediately switched the subject! They turned it into a PUBLIC RELATIONS ISSUE from the BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE rather than a HEALTH ISSUE regarding the people they are supposedly serving and representing -- YOU!

There is no precise way to determine pink slime’s prevalence in the market, industry officials said, because the meat filler does not have to be labeled as an ingredient in ground beef.

Consumers are not aware that their hamburger might not be made solely of ground beef but filled with “something that’s been forcibly separated,’’ Tucker said.

“I study food, and it’s new to me,’’ Tucker said. “The treatment of it is just really unattractive. And the idea that it’s in our school lunches and has been fed to children without our knowledge is upsetting to a lot of people.’’  

From the government that cares soooooooooooo much about us!

Parent Nikkisha Thompson-Speivey said she was comforted by the school district’s move to take the product out of school lunches.

“The whole ammonia thing was unsettling,’’ said Thompson-Speivey, whose two children attend Orchard Gardens K-8 School in Roxbury. “When I heard about it, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ And it makes me wonder what’s in the other foods.’’

She expects her youngest to be particularly upset that lunches bereft of ground beef, such as tacos and meatballs, will be served until substitute supplies arrive. “But she’ll get over it,’’ the Roxbury mother said.

The school’s cafeteria manager thinks the outcry is overblown. “If this food was bad, the whole school would be sick,’’ said Kathy Carney from inside the walk-in freezer.

“Do not eat’’ was written in red marker on four boxes and a few bags, the school’s supply of products containing ground beef.

But there was nothing pink, slimy, or noticeably unusual about the contents inside. It looked like standard frozen beef.  

So eat up, kids! The intrepid Boston Globe reporter has given your plate an eyeball and declared it mmmmmm-good!

--more--"  

Yeah, I should have skipped the Globe serving.  When will I ever learn?

A New Beginning With the Boston Globe

I'm in love again, readers! All I'm going to do is accept the Globe's garbage as God's honest gospel and the complete and honest truth!

Actually, it's more of an ending, sorry. Haven't read a Globe all week, and am much happier for it. I'm still aware of what is going on because I look at blogs, and once you understand what interests head the power structure the agenda-pushing from the AmeriKan media prism is easy to identify.

Basketball Before the Boston Globe

Thus the half-read, quarter-read, and unread Boston Globes pile up.  Not that it really matters when the papers can't even get the sports scores right(!!). 

The point is made when you total the points to 59 when the team only scored 58 -- and that was not the only mistake. Valley scored 21, not 23, and S. Parker scored 19, not 18. My accounts are verified by my local printed paper, even though there is no box score on-line. 

Unfortunately, the local scribe botched it last night by crediting a girl with a basket that she did not make (again, box score not available on-line), while the Springfield fella got the point totals for the players correct.

Related: Hey Reporter, What Game You Watchin'?

Sigh. 

I'm sure I'm not missing much by not reading the Boston Globe, dear readers. I happened to glance at the local and saw an article about Iran moving trucks and bulldozers around one of its nuclear sites in an attempt to cover-up evidence of nuclear weapons work, blah, blah, blah, and my FIRST THOUGHT was we HEARD ALL OF THIS BEFORE about 9 YEARS AGO!!!

The fact is I have actually FOUND MYSELF a LOT HAPPIER the last few days NOT READING the NEWSPAPER! I think I really have reached an end point with the supremacist piece of Zionist crap.  Digesting all that diversion, deception, and distortion can not be a healthy activity at all. 

The sad part about it is this blog was ALWAYS ABOUT YOU, dear readers. It was always meant to TELL YOU what my newspaper was telling me ABOUT YOU!  To let you, the world, know what an average American citizen who has a conscience and who cares about this world is being told by the AmeriKan media. In the process I have tried to share some of my searches for truth with you in attempt to educate and inform.  Whether I have succeeded in that attempt is for you to decide, dear and beloved reader.  

I Voted For Ron Paul in the Massachusetts Primary

For all the good it will do in this rigged election state. I suspect Mitt will be the big winner here and nationally tonight.

Israel Gives Abbas a Kick in the Ass

After all the years of faithful collaboration and service? 

"Israel withdraws Abbas’s VIP status" Associated Press, January 16, 2012

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel has stripped Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of VIP status and given him a watered-down travel permit that is valid for just two months, Palestinian officials charged yesterday.

The officials said Abbas complained about the permit at an internal meeting of his Fatah Party last week.

In a speech, Abbas said the new permit, similar to those required for Palestinian laborers entering Israel, was a reflection of Israel’s continued control over the Palestinians and suggested that Israel was trying to punish him for applying for Palestinian membership in the United Nations....

Major Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli agency that issues travel documents to Palestinians, said there has been no change in policy. He said the permit was the result of a technical glitch that should be resolved soon.

“Freedom of movement . . . remains exactly the same as it was,’’ Inbar said. “I deny all claims of changes in travel passes of Palestinian officials,’’ he said. “There is no change in position or policy regarding the travel passes of Palestinian officials.’’

The VIP permit allowed Abbas to travel whenever and wherever he wanted. Palestinian officials acknowledged the new permit has not prevented Abbas, a frequent traveler to world capitals, from moving in and out of the West Bank. Yesterday, Abbas flew to London for talks with British leaders.

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"Militant Hamas aims to join PLO" December 23, 2011|By Mohammed Daraghmeh

CAIRO - The rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas took an important step toward reconciliation yesterday, announcing plans for the Islamic militants to join the umbrella group that has overseen two decades of on-and-off peace talks with Israel.

The deal to admit Hamas into the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization could have deep repercussions. Hamas has opposed the peace talks and rejects Israel’s right to exist.  

That's a lie. 

"Hamas would respect any peace deal reached between Israel and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, provided it is approved in a global Palestinian referendum.... Hamas would abide by any PLO negotiations"  "

Related: Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media

Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed

Oh, NOW the newspaper makes sense.

A strong Hamas voice in the group would further complicate the already troubled Middle East diplomatic process.  

For Israel.

Israeli officials reacted with alarm to the emerging agreement.

Hamas overran Gaza in 2007, and President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the head of Fatah, has ruled only the West Bank since then. The division has been an obstacle in peacemaking efforts with Israel, since Abbas does not speak for all Palestinians.   

A full reconciliation could solve that - or it could put Hamas in charge. The Islamist group won a parliamentary election in 2006, and a short-lived government Hamas formed with Fatah was shunned by Israel and the West, freezing peace efforts....

Winning elections is overrunning the place?

 Btw, Hamas foiled a COUP ATTEMPT!!!!  I noticed the report left that out.

In a separate step toward reconciliation, the sides have tentatively agreed to hold separate elections next year in the West Bank and Gaza. That vote is meant to choose a single government for both territories, where Abbas hopes to establish an independent state....

Jibril Rajoub, a Fatah official and former West Bank security chief, said he was confident. “There are difficulties ahead, but the train has left the station and no one can stop it,’’ he said.

Israel objects to any Palestinian government that includes Hamas, which is committed to Israel’s destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in attacks.  

Then why did Israel help create it? 

Hamas, Son of Israel 

Israel's Dirty Secret

They don't want peace with Palestinians.

Hamas has sent some signals that it might be willing to reach some sort of accommodation with Israel. The group has largely adhered to a cease-fire with Israel since a brief war three years ago, and Mashaal has said he would not stand in the way if Abbas decides to resume negotiations. It also has indicated willingness to accept a state in the West Bank and Gaza as a step toward replacing Israel with an Islamic entity.

So much for opposing peace talks and not recognizing.... SIGH!

An Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev, rejected suggestions that Hamas is becoming more moderate. He noted that the group reiterated its calls for Israel’s destruction at its anniversary celebrations this month.

“This is a movement that is terrorist to the core. When Abu Mazen walks toward Hamas, he’s walking away from peace,’’ Regev said, using Abbas’s nickname.  

Created by Israel to undermine the PLO before they flew out of control.  How ironic, huh?

--more--"

"Hamas political leader to step down amid turmoil in region" by Fares Akram  |  New York Times, January 22, 2012

GAZA - Hamas has been buoyed by the recent rise of Islamic parties in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East after the Arab Spring revolts last year. But the group’s leaders in Damascus have found themselves in an increasingly uncomfortable position since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising.

Hamas has been unwilling to express support for the beleaguered Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, despite pressure from its Iranian backers to do so, and relatives of many of Hamas’s leaders are reported to have already left Damascus for reasons of personal safety.

An analyst close to Hamas, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested that Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal, who has Jordanian residency documents, might want to quit so that he could return to Jordan because the situation in Damascus had become unbearable. Jordan has said that Hamas leaders who hold Jordanian papers can return to its territory as long as they refrain from conducting any political activities there.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and the European Union and is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Meshal told the New York Times in May 2009 that Hamas should be judged on its current deeds and policies and that it was “not logical for the international community to get stuck on sentences written 20 years ago’’ in its charter.

Hamas won parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories in 2006, and a year later seized control of Gaza, the Palestinian coastal enclave, after a brief factional war with its rival party, Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority.

Related:  "Hamas took over the Gaza Strip violently in 2007"

How many times have they omitted winning elections? I've lost count.

Hamas routed Fatah forces from Gaza, confining the Palestinian Authority and its president and Fatah’s chief, Mahmoud Abbas, to the West Bank and deepening the internal Palestinian schism. Last May, Meshal and Abbas signed a reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt that calls for genuine power-sharing. So far the agreement has not been acted upon, for the most part, though talks are under way to put it into effect.

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"Abbas moves toward Palestinian unity with Hamas" February 07, 2012|By Ibrahim Barzak

RAMALLAH, West Bank - After months of wavering, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took a decisive step yesterday toward reconciliation with the Islamic militant group Hamas, a move Israel promptly warned would close the door to any peace talks.  

Gives Israel an excuse to continue doing what they are doing, but let's face it: without reconciliation, Abbas was finished anyway.

In a deal brokered by Qatar, Abbas will head an interim unity government to prepare for general elections in the Palestinian territories in the coming months. The agreement appeared to bring reconciliation - key to any statehood ambitions - within reach for the first time since the two sides set up rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza in 2007.

Yesterday’s deal, signed in the Qatari capital of Doha by Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, put an end to recent efforts by the international community to revive long-stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the terms of Palestinian statehood.

Abbas appears to have concluded that he has a better chance of repairing relations with Hamas, shunned by the West as a terror group, than reaching an agreement with Israel’s hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu quickly condemned the Doha deal. “It’s either peace with Hamas or peace with Israel. You can’t have them both,’’ he said in a warning to Abbas, who has had wide international support.  

That is SO SITH-LIKE, isn't it?

In moving closer to Hamas, Abbas risks losing some of that backing and hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid.

Qatar, awash with cash from vast oil and gas reserves, assured the Palestinians that it would help limit any political and financial damages, according to Palestinian officials close to the talks....

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence. It must recognize the state of Israel. And it must accept the previous agreements and obligations between the parties, including the road map.’’

Amazing how others must commit to nonviolence while USrael uses it as a central plank in its foreign policy, 'eh? How do you say hypocrisy in Arabic?

So when is Israel going to abide by the already out-of-date road map due to expanded Israeli settlements?

Abbas and Hamas have had bitter ideological differences, with Abbas pursuing a deal with Israel and the violently anti-Israel Hamas dismissing such talks as a waste of time.  

Really, the ax-grinding agenda-pushing is getting to be a bit much.

The rift deepened with Hamas’s 2007 takeover of Gaza, which left Abbas with only the West Bank.  

Well, they won elections, but.... sigh.

However, some of those differences seem to have narrowed in recent months.

--more--"

"Palestinian-Israeli talks end without progress, Abbas says" by Karin Laub   |  Associated Press, January 26, 2012  

What a shock.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A low-level dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians about a future border has ended without any breakthrough, the Palestinian president said yesterday, reflecting the impasse plaguing the negotiations for at least three years.

President Mahmoud Abbas said he would consult with Arab allies next week to figure out how to proceed now. While frustrated with the lack of progress, Abbas is under pressure to extend the Jordanian-mediated exploratory talks, which the international community hopes will lead to a resumption of long-stalled formal negotiations on establishing a Palestinian state.

Israel said yesterday that it is willing to continue the dialogue. Abbas did not close the door to continued meetings, saying he will decide after consultations with the Arab League on Feb. 4.

A Palestinian walkout could cost Abbas international sympathy at a time when he seeks global recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Why? Everyone conscious and with a functioning brain knows Israel is the belligerent in this matter. It's all about PIECE with them!

The gaps between the leaders are vast, and Abbas believes there is no point in returning to formal negotiations without assurances, such as marking the pre-1967 war lines as a basis for border talks and halting Israeli settlement building on occupied lands. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says everything should be discussed in negotiations and insists he is serious about reaching a deal by year’s end.

Though there have been talks off and on, the last substantive round was in late 2008, when Israel informally proposed a deal and the Palestinians did not respond. When Netanyahu took office the next year, he took the proposal, including a state in most of the territories the Palestinians claim, off the table.

A round that was started in 2010 by President Obama quickly sputtered over settlements.

Visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is scheduled to meet separately over the next two days with Abbas and Netanyahu to try to salvage the exploratory talks. Two officials involved in the contacts said she is trying to put together a package of Israeli incentives that would keep the Palestinians from walking away.

The Palestinians have accused Netanyahu of having no real intention to reach an agreement.

--more--"

"Palestinian officials say Israelis want barrier to define new border" January 28, 2012|By Dan Perry and Mohammed Daraghmeh

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel is proposing to essentially turn its West Bank separation barrier into the border with a future state of Palestine, two Palestinian officials said yesterday, based on their interpretation of principles Israel presented in talks this week.  

Yeah, we all pretty much knew that is what was happening.

The officials said Israeli envoy Yitzak Molcho told his Palestinian counterpart that Israel wants to keep East Jerusalem and consolidate Jewish settlements behind the separation barrier, which slices off close to 10 percent the West Bank. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing strict no-leaks rules by Jordanian mediators.

The proposal would fall short of what the Palestinians seem likely to accept, especially because it would leave Jerusalem on the Israeli side of the border.

But it would also mark a significant step for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who has spent most of his career as a staunch opponent of Palestinian independence.

And if talks advance in such a direction, it could also spell the end for his nationalist coalition, as key members would consider the abandonment of most of the West Bank - a strategic highland and biblical heartland - an unforgivable betrayal.

Israel has confirmed that it presented principles this week for drawing a border with a Palestinian state. But the politically charged nature of the talks - though they were held at a relatively low level, below that of Cabinet ministers - was reflected in the guarded refusal by any top official to discuss details.

An Israeli government official said that as far as he knew, the information was incorrect but declined to elaborate or go on the record, citing Jordan’s demand for discretion.

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, one of the closest Cabinet ministers to Netanyahu, said that he has been supporting such an offer for months and that Israel should concentrate on preserving the large West Bank settlement blocs....   

But no preconditions.

Israel started building the barrier in 2002, in the midst of a Palestinian uprising that included scores of deadly attacks by Palestinian militants who crossed from the West Bank into Israel and blew themselves up among civilians.

Israelis have generally credited the barrier - along with other punitive measures - with stopping the spate of incursions several years ago.

However, it was routed in a way that raised questions about Israel’s claim that it was a temporary security measure - weaving through the West Bank, looping wide around some settlements to leave room for expansion, and looking very much like a border a future Israeli government might want.

Palestinians condemned it from the start as a land grab.

Palestinian officials also said that Molcho portrayed the Jordan Valley, which makes up about one-fourth of the West Bank and borders Jordan, as a strategic Israeli security asset....

Netanyahu has said he wants a continued Israeli presence on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state as part of any peace deal.  

But no preconditions.

Netanyahu has long said that Israel needs the area as a security buffer - protection against possible attack from the east.  

That's what the Nazis said about Poland.

--more--"  

And now a shot to Abbas' balls:

"Netanyahu retains Likud leadership; OK’d West Bank housing subsidies earlier in day" by Josef Federman  |  Associated Press, February 01, 2012

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel won the leadership race of his Likud Party over his ultranationalist rival yesterday, hours after his government approved new incentives to entice people to move to West Bank settlements.

While Netanyahu was expected to win the leadership race decisively, a relatively strong showing by his ultranationalist rival, Moshe Feiglin, suggested that many Likud voters consider the prime minister too soft on peacemaking with the Palestinians....

The new housing subsidies offered to West Bank settlers appeared to be aimed at appeasing those hard-liners.

The Israeli move threatened international efforts to revive Mideast peace talks, just as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was visiting the region, and drew angry condemnations from the Palestinians, who accused Netanyahu of undermining prospects for a Palestinian state.

“They are adding obstacles at a time when everyone is intensifying efforts to try to resume peace talks,’’ said a Palestinian government spokesman.

Makes you think they don't really want peace, huh?

A round of low-level peace talks ground to a halt last week, in large part because of continued Palestinian objections to Israeli settlement construction....

--more--"

"UN leader urges Israel to halt settlements; Ban says issue key to resuming peace process" by Isabel Kershner  |  new york times, February 02, 2012

JERUSALEM - The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, urged Israel yesterday to refrain from further settlement construction and to offer goodwill gestures to the Palestinians during a visit aimed at revitalizing the peace process.

Ban said he hoped the exploratory talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials that took place last month in Jordan, the first direct contacts in more than a year, could be sustained.

“Israel’s cooperation in creating a positive dynamic is vital,’’ Ban told reporters after meeting with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said last week that the discussions had ended in failure, but he left open the possibility of resuming contacts under certain conditions and after consultations with Arab League representatives later this week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told his cabinet Sunday that the signs of possible resumption were “not particularly good.’’

Ban arrived in Israel the day after Netanyahu won three-quarters of the vote in a primary race in his Likud Party, adding to his domestic strength.

“This is the moment to display further leadership to ensure that negotiations continue,’’ Ban told Netanyahu at a joint news conference.

Netanyahu thanked Ban for his “good intentions,’’ but said the settlement question should be dealt with as part of a final agreement. “It cannot be a precondition to enter into that agreement,’’ he said.

Netanyahu also spoke with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday and told her that Israel was interested in continuing talks with the Palestinians while preserving Israel’s security interests, according to a statement from his office.

Israel has been calling for direct negotiations without preconditions. The Palestinians have demanded a freeze in Israeli settlement construction and an Israeli acceptance of the pre-1967 lines as the basis for negotiations on the borders of a Palestinian state.

The five meetings in January ended on an acrimonious note after the Palestinian envoy refused to allow an Israeli military official to outline Israel’s security requirements and the Israeli envoy offered a vague, verbal formula on territorial issues that would have existing settlement blocs becoming part of Israel, a stance the Palestinians rejected as unacceptable.

The Palestinians say they have already presented detailed, written proposals on borders and security to the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia. Ban said he hoped that Israel would yet submit its own “concrete proposals on territory and security.’’

Ban came to Jerusalem from Jordan, where he met King Abdullah II and other officials. After meeting with Israeli leaders he headed for the West Bank where he toured Rawabi, an ambitious city under construction that is the Palestinians’ first planned municipality. Later he met with Abbas and other officials in Ramallah.

Abbas told reporters after his meeting with Ban that the Palestinians rejected any further Israeli settlement construction and “would not accept it today or tomorrow.’’

--more--"  

Related:

"Netanyahu denied caving in to international pressure by removing the settlements from the list....  although the settlements still appear on the list." 

Can you see why I'm sick of the s***?

Also see:  West Bank settlement housing gets initial approval

Israel legalizes settler enclave

Is that ever an up-your-ass, in-your-face piece of chutzpah as Bibi comes on over to attend the AIPAC conference and give Obama his marching orders? 

"Israeli troops raid two West Bank TV stations" New York Times, March 01, 2012

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops raided two Palestinian television stations in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, confiscating transmitters, hard drives, and documents and eliciting condemnation from the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli communications ministry said it had repeatedly warned both stations they were using frequencies that violated Israeli-Palestinian agreements and that interfered with communications in Israel. An Israeli military spokesman said interference was affecting communication at Ben-Gurion Airport.

The Palestinian Authority said it had received no warnings and that the stations were guilty of no violations.

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority visited both stations and vowed to get them replacement transmitters.

An Israeli military spokesman, asked why documents and hard drives were confiscated, said soldiers noticed suspicious documents.

--more--"

"Also Wednesday, Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against foreign-funded solar panels and wind turbines that have provided small Palestinian herding communities with electricity, according to one of the donors, the German-based group medico international.

Is there NO LEVEL of INHUMAN OUTRAGE that ISRAEL will not stoop?  

WHAT ASSHOLES!!!!!

Israeli volunteers, using funds from the German government and other foreign donors, have installed the panels and turbines in 16 herders’ hamlets in recent years because Israel refuses to link them to the electricity grid, arguing that the herders have no legal claims to the land. The hamlets are in the southern West Bank and are part of the 62 percent of the West Bank territory that mains under sole Israeli control.

Palestinians and Israeli rights group allege that Israel systematically suppresses Palestinian development in that part of West Bank, known as in Area C, while encouraging the growth of Israeli settlements, deemed illegal by most of the international community.

Last month, Israel issued stop-work orders in six of the 16 herders’ communities, saying the panels and turbines were installed without permits. Such orders often precede demolition orders.

On Wednesday, Tsafrir Cohen of medico international said demolition orders have since been issued for four of the communities, clearing the way for demolition any time after March 5.

He said the orders target projects supported by the German and New Zealand governments, as well as medico international and a Swiss aid group.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

The German government has expressed concern about Israel’s targeting of the installations and has asked for clarifications. Israel says it is willing to cooperate with foreign donors, but that they have to seek permits for their projects.

 I say it is TIME TO STOP SENDING THEM the EXTORTION and AID CHECKS!

--more--"

"West Bank crash kills five children" Associated Press, February 17, 2012

JERUSALEM - A truck lost control in slick, rainy weather and barreled into a Palestinian school bus yesterday, killing five children and a teacher and drawing hundreds of people to a West Bank hospital in an outpouring of grief, police said.

The bus left the city of Ramallah on a school excursion but returned due to heavy rains and stormy weather, according to Palestinian police spokesman Yousif Osrael. On the way back, a truck careened into the school bus, causing it to flip and catch fire, Osrael said. The children killed were ages 4 to 6.

The accident was in the central West Bank, in an area where Israel has full control. Both Israeli and Palestinian rescuers arrived at the scene and evacuated at least 30 injured passengers to hospitals in Ramallah and Jerusalem, according to Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

The truck driver was an Arab Israeli and all the victims were Palestinian, Rosenfeld said. He said there is no suspicion of foul play and it is likely that the wintry weather and slick roads caused the collision.

Wintry weather near the equator in this age of global fart mist?

--more--"

"Palestinians to give Israel ground rules

JERICHO, West Bank - Palestinian officials said yesterday that they plan to give a deadline to Israel to accept ground rules for negotiations, and suggested that a “no’’ will allow them to shelve Middle East talks until it does. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is to spell out the requirements in a letter to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Palestinian foreign minister, Riad Malki (AP)."

Also see:  Harvard conference draws fire

Jewish charity in Boston decries ad attacking funding

A united, democratic nation with equal rights for all
  
Noble-sounding bid for one nation would destroy Jewish state

Sorry I missed the conference and debate, dear readers. 

 How are you going to make a state out of that?  

There is even less green now.    

Related:  Memory Hole: Future Vision of Israel

A Bridge Too Far For Palestinians

"Israelis, Muslims at odds over bridge work near holy site; Area’s control is sore point since takeover after 1967 war" December 13, 2011|By Matti Friedman, Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israel closed a pedestrian walkway next to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site yesterday before work to replace it, despite vehement Muslim objections to any construction at the spot.

The dispute illustrated how the holy city’s clashing religious claims and sensitivities can turn even the most mundane aspects of urban life into potential conflict.

The controversy surrounds the Mughrabi Bridge, a walkway that leads up to one of the world’s most combustible holy sites: the enclosure known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

The city’s chief engineer ordered the walkway closed because of fears of fire or collapse. The bridge was built in 2004 as a temporary replacement for an adjacent older ramp that collapsed in a snowstorm.

Muslim anger and international politics have put any plans to renovate or replace the structure on hold since then. Muslim leaders charge the planned work is part of a plot to destroy their holy sites, a notion Israel rejects....  

As part of the theft of Palestine and wider war on Islam, yeah.

--more--"   

Related:


Israel Attempting to Destroy al-Aqsa Mosque


Israel to Destroy 700-Year-Old Mosque

Israel Planning False-Flag Attack Against Muslim Shrine

Then they can rebuild their temple, cui bono? 

Also see: Netanyahu and the End Times 

Yeah, nothing to it all, right?

Olmert Indicted by Israeli Court

I'm still waiting for the one from the Hague, but....

"Former Israeli prime minister indicted" New York Times, January 06, 2012

JERUSALEM - Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister of Israel in 2008 amid corruption charges, was indicted yesterday for allegedly taking bribes in the construction of a huge residential complex while he was mayor of Jerusalem.

Olmert, who is on trial on three unrelated counts of fraud and breach of trust from before his tenure as prime minister, has denied all wrongdoing.

In the newest and by far most serious indictment, he is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to smooth the way for construction of the Holyland, an enormous hulk of a residential complex in southwestern Jerusalem.

He's done worse.

When the case was first made public nearly two years ago, the presiding judge called it “one of the worst corruption affairs in Israeli history.’’

The Holyland is built on a ridge with interlocking apartment buildings and one outsized tower that dominates the landscape for miles and is widely considered an eyesore. It has been dubbed “the monster.’’

Millions of dollars are said to have changed hands to allow the project to go up in a hurry.

--more--"  

Also see: Olmert the Thief

A Beirut suburb last July, after Israeli airstrikes ordered by Ehud Olmert

Oh, yeah, did I also mention he's a war criminal?

Irish Apologies

And mine, too, for being so enthusiastic about posting lately, readers.

"IRA apologizes for killing boy in 1973" Associated Press, February 25, 2012

DUBLIN - The outlawed Irish Republican Army apologized yesterday for its 1973 killing of a 9-year-old Northern Ireland boy who stumbled across an IRA bomb while playing in his backyard.

The declaration was a major shift, since for decades the group had blamed the boy’s death on the British Army.

The IRA made its admission and apology for killing Gordon Gallagher after the dead boy’s parents called publicly for Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander in Londonderry, to tell them who planted a bomb in their children’s play area and why.

The IRA said the group accepted responsibility and was “truly remorseful and profoundly sorry.’’

The IRA has issued similar admissions and apologies over the past 15 years for killings that it long denied committing and sometimes falsely attributed to the British Army....  

Or maybe not. 

Have you ever heard of the FRU, readers? 

Related: Irish Are No Fools

No, they are not, nor are we any longer.   

Gordon was running playing cowboys and Indians when he triggered a booby-trap bomb.

The victim’s father, Billy Gallagher, said the statement represented a major U-turn from the group’s 1973 position but wasn’t good enough....

The IRA killed nearly 1,800 people during its unsuccessful 1970-1997 campaign to force Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. It declared its cease-fire permanent in 2005, but small splinter groups continue to mount occasional attacks, particularly in Londonderry.  

Yes, and we know which intelligence agencies are employing them, sigh.

--more--"   

More apologies due:

"Ex-priest sentenced on child porn charge" February 01, 2012

LONDON - A defrocked Roman Catholic priest who admitted molesting more than 20 children in California has been sentenced to three years in prison in Ireland for possessing child pornography, court officials said yesterday....

--more--"  

Ever notice we never get apologies from the war paper?

Globe Leaves Australian Question Unanswered

"Australian foreign minister resigns" New York Times, February 23, 2012

SYDNEY - Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned yesterday amid growing speculation that he and his backers in Parliament were seeking to topple Prime Minister Julia Gillard and regain for him the country’s leadership role.

Rudd, who was displaced by Gillard in a 2010 party coup, told reporters in Washington, where he was on an official visit, that he had lost his leader’s support and could no longer continue to serve in her Cabinet. 

Related: Australia's New Ma'am

Gillard put her job on the line yesterday, announcing a leadership ballot in hopes of quashing a comeback by Rudd. Rudd’s supporters said that even if she survives Monday’s vote, the turmoil surrounding her unpopular government will continue until she is out.

Funny how governments that do the bidding of foreign powers over their own people get that way.

--more--"  

Related: Greenmail in Australia 

Either the Zionist controllers are dumping her or the Australians are throwing off the shackles (to a certain, yet-to-be-seen degree).

"Australia faces leadership vote Monday" New York Times, February 25, 2012

SYDNEY - Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd announced yesterday that he would challenge his successor, Julia Gillard, for the leadership of the Labor Party and the country in a vote set for Monday morning.

The move sets up a showdown to end an acrimonious public leadership battle that analysts warn has begun to paralyze the government.

Rudd, who was displaced as prime minister by Gillard in a 2010 party coup, told reporters in Brisbane that he was “sick and tired’’ of being blamed for the failures of his successor’s unpopular government and described the prime minister as incapable of defeating the opposition in elections next year.

The announcement, although widely expected, unleashed a flurry of political maneuvering as both sides sought to use the 72-hour window before the vote to woo supporters in what many here are calling the most bitter political battle in a generation.

Gillard, who is believed to have a commanding but not insurmountable lead over Rudd among the party leadership, fired back late in the day, deriding his appeal to let “people’s power’’ decide the issue as akin to the format of a popular reality television program.

“This isn’t ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ - it is about working out who can lead the nation, who has got the ability to get things done,’’ she said.

In the unlikely event that Rudd wins Monday, there would be an upheaval within the Cabinet followed by snap elections within two to three months.

--more--" 

I guess the timing of the wire stories the Globe slaps in place in its printed pos didn't connect because I never saw the result of the vote.

But this did come up:

"Australia urged to apologize for forced adoptions" Associated Press, March 01, 2012

CANBERRA, Australia - A Senate inquiry called yesterday for the Australian government to apologize to and compensate thousands of unwed mothers who were forced to give up their babies for adoption in the mid-20th century.

About 100 mothers who gave up babies, and adults who had been adopted, sat in the Senate public gallery, applauding or weeping as the report was read.

Unwed mothers were pressured, deceived, and threatened into giving up their babies from World War II until the early 1970s so the infants could be adopted by married couples, which was perceived to be in the children’s best interests, the Senate committee report found.

“If it wasn’t illegal, it was unethical,’’ said the committee chairwoman, Senator Rachel Siewert. “The evidence . . . tells the accounts of mothers and fathers who were pressured into giving up their babies by their families, by institutions - both state and territory and private institutions - by social workers, doctors, nurses, and those who they rightly expected to have helped them.’’

Robin Turner, 61, one of the mothers in attendance, wanted only public recognition of the injustice she suffered in ’67 when her newborn son was taken from her at a hospital.

“Acknowledgment,’’ she said. “I want the Australian public to know what happened to us.’’

The seven-member Senate committee began investigating the federal government’s role in forced adoption in 2010 after the Western Australian state parliament apologized to mothers and children for the flawed practices in that state from the 1940s until the 1980s.

--more--"

Sudan and the Surrounding Area

"Kenya to start construction of new port" Associated Press, March 03, 2012

NAIROBI - East African heads of state, including South Sudan president Salva Kiir, attended a ceremony yesterday to mark the beginning of construction for a controversial new port in Kenya’s eastern coastal region of Lamu.

Villagers fear the port may ruin idyllic beaches that draw Hollywood stars to the nearby island of Lamu. But Kenya hopes the port will make the country a regional telecommunications and transportation hub.

Kiir said the port will be a terminal for an alternative oil pipeline through Kenya, freeing South Sudan from its dependence on the infrastructure of Sudan, its former ruler in the north. South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July.

Oh, NOW the WHOLE BUSH DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS on the U.N. VOTE for SOUTHERN SECESSION makes SENSE!  That and the fact that South Sudan is the regions arms smuggling hub for western intelligence agencies.

Landlocked South Sudan stopped pumping oil through Sudan in January, accusing the government in Sudan’s capital Khartoum of stealing hundred millions of dollars of oil revenue.

Sudan responded Wednesday by bombing two oil wells in the south, Kiir said.

Kiir said the port is strategically and economically important for the region. Construction will be done in phases and will cost Kenya about $24.5 billion, according to Kenyan government estimates.

The port is part of a wider project to improve infrastructure in the region. It is designed to include a highway, a railway line, and a petroleum pipeline crossing over three countries. Kiir said the improved transport links and pipeline could create a backbone for South Sudan’s infrastructure and allow his country to end its reliance on oil.

A lobby group called Save Lamu has objected to the construction, saying not enough has been done to study the impact of the port on the environment and the nearby island of Lamu, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The group said in a statement Thursday that the communities in Lamu have not been consulted and land ownership was not being respected by the government.

--more--"  

So the threats worked?

"Kenyans face trials over election deaths" Associated Press, January 24, 2012

THE HAGUE - International Criminal Court judges yesterday ordered four prominent Kenyans, including two potential presidential candidates, to stand trial for allegedly orchestrating a deadly wave of violence after their country’s disputed 2007 presidential election.

Among the four suspects sent for trial were Uhuru Kenyatta, deputy prime minister and finance minister, and the former education minister, William Ruto - both of whom are planning to run for the presidency this year.

Kenyatta, 50, is the son of Kenya’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, and the country’s richest citizen with a personal fortune of half a billion dollars. Ruto is a former ally of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but the two had a falling out - partly over Ruto’s insistence on making his own presidential bid this year.

In a majority decision by the three-judge panel, Ruto was ordered to stand trial with radio broadcaster Joshua Arap Sang for crimes against humanity allegedly targeting supporters of the 2007 victor, President Mwai Kibaki.

In a separate case, Kenyatta will stand trial alongside Francis Muthaura, cabinet secretary, for alleged crimes against humanity directed at Odinga supporters.

--more--"  

Also see: 

"Holiday terrorist attacks thwarted

NAIROBI - Kenyan authorities said yesterday that they had thwarted attempted attacks by an Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group over Christmas and the New Year, as Britain warned its citizens over looming terrorist threats in Kenya. Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a military spokesman, said officials received intelligence from credible sources that the Somali militant group Al Shabab was planning an attack over Christmas and New Year. He said Kenyan troops in Somalia made preemptive strikes on different targets in Somalia based on that information." 

So which "Al-CIA-Duh actors" did they get to fill those roles?

Related: Kenya Comes to Somalia's Rescue

Somali troops seize final pockets of capital
  
4 die in plane crash near US base in Africa

"1 in 4 children malnourished, global report says" February 15, 2012|Jason Straziuso, Associated Press

Five children around the world die every minute because of chronic malnutrition, according to a report released Wednesday that also said that almost half a billion children risk are at risk of permanent damage over the next 15 years.

Not that I want them to starve; however, I notice the elite buffet lines are always well-stocked and their bellies full.

A report from Save the Children said the deaths of 2 million children each year could be prevented if malnutrition were better addressed. The report called chronic malnutrition a largely hidden crisis that affects one in four children globally....

--more--"

"Cameroon sends troops after poachers" Associated Press, March 03, 2012

DOUALA, Cameroon - Cameroon has launched a military offensive to flush out elephant poachers from a remote national park in the country’s northeast near the border with Chad.

Defense Minister Alain Mebe Ngo’o announced the operation on state TV late Thursday, saying that the country needed to take action against the poachers believed to be from Sudan.   

They are going quite a way, but those Sudanese sure are bad people.

Also see: Poachers kill 200 African elephants

In just eight weeks, the World Wildlife Fund estimates that the poachers have decimated the elephant population, killing between 200 and 300 of the roughly 400 elephants in the Bouba N’Djida National Park.

The wildlife group said in a statement released yesterday that the military operation was launched Wednesday night after a high-level meeting between the minister of defense and the minister in charge of wildlife. The group cited unnamed sources confirming that more than 100 Cameroonian soldiers entered the park on Thursday to secure the area from poachers.

According to the wildlife group, the heavily armed poachers entered Cameroon illegally via the border with Chad in order to harvest ivory.

The government has been under pressure to take action from environmental groups and the European Union since graphic images of the slaughtered elephants were published.

“This is their wake-up call,’’ said Basile Yapo Monssan, the World Wildlife Fund country director.

--more--"

"Sudanese army says it killed rebel leader" December 26, 2011|By Mohamed Osman

KHARTOUM, Sudan - The Sudanese army said yesterday that it had killed the leader of the main Darfur rebel group in fighting last week, declaring his death a key victory against a powerful rebel force that once threatened Sudan’s capital.

Khalil Ibrahim led the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, the most organized and effective military force in Darfur, the western region torn by conflict since 2003. The group did not join a peace deal signed last year in Doha, Qatar, between other Darfur rebel groups and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s government in Khartoum.

The military said he was wounded Thursday during a military offensive in North Kordofan state, which borders Darfur. The government said he died of his wounds Saturday and that rebels quickly buried him. The government did not say how it confirmed his death.

JEM representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. If Ibrahim’s death is confirmed by the group, it would be a serious blow to JEM, which has on several occasions threatened to bring down Bashir’s regime in Khartoum by advancing toward the capital.

Sudanese Information Minister Abdullah Massar said Ibrahim’s death sends a message to rebel groups “to listen to the voice of wisdom and join the peace process.’’

“Our doors are open and the Doha agreement is open,’’ Massar said yesterday.

Darfur has been in turmoil since 2003, when ethnic African rebels accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination took up arms against it. The Khartoum government is accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militias on civilians - a charge the government denies.

The conflict has tapered off since 2009, but the UN estimates 300,000 people died and 2.7 million have been displaced. The International Criminal Court in the Hague has issued an international arrest warrant for Bashir for his alleged role in crimes against humanity in Darfur....  

When Bliar and Bush get one let me know.

--more--"

"Sudan police raid university dorm, arrest hundreds" Associated Press, February 18, 2012

CAIRO - Sudanese police raided student dormitories at Khartoum’s main university yesterday, beating and arresting hundreds of students in the latest crackdown on youth protesters, activists said.

The youth activist group Change Now said the National Intelligence Security Services stormed the dormitories before dawn at the University of Khartoum and detained more than 350 students.

All of those arrested were later released, the President of the Sudanese Student Union, Mohammed Salah, was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency.

Students at the university began protesting in late December to demand compensation for people displaced by construction of a dam near the city of Dammir, 175 miles northeast of the capital. They also have been calling for the right to form a student union and for an end to police violence.

Change Now said that the students arrested yesterday “were brutally beaten and their properties destroyed.’’

I'll bet American Occupiers can relate.

“Terrorization and intimidation of the students in the dorms further complicates their reasons for protesting from the onset,’’ the group said.

Opposition lawmaker Mariam al-Sadeq al-Mahadi, a member of the Umma Party, called the raid “an attack on freedom of expression.’’

“What happened is part of a crippled and failing dictatorship,’’ she said. “We now have an illegitimate regime that has completely failed to rule because it does not provide services for people nor does it respect people’s rights.’’  

That feel familiar, Americans?

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"120,000 in South Sudan need aid, UN says" Associated Press, January 21, 2012

JUBA, South Sudan - More than 120,000 people need humanitarian aid because of a wave of ethnic clashes in a remote and volatile region of South Sudan, the United Nations said yesterday, underscoring the challenges the world’s newest nation faces six months after independence....

Just get that pipeline built.

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Related: 57 killed in revenge attack as South Sudan violence continues

"Congo presidential coalition leads race" January 28, 2012

KINSHASA, Congo - Two months after voters went to polls in a chaotic election, the electoral commission announced yesterday that parties supporting Congo’s president won two-thirds of legislative seats.

The commission also indefinitely postponed provincial elections that were scheduled for March.

Electoral officials said they also want to annul results of the legislative elections in seven of Congo’s 169 voting districts and prosecute a dozen candidates accused of introducing irregularities and violence.

Local and international observers have already said the Nov. 28 elections for the president and 500 national assembly seats were too flawed to be legitimate.

It was only the second democratic election Congo has ever held, with the stability of the mineral-rich African nation at stake.

Critics say any election results are unreliable because millions of voters were unable to cast ballots, hundreds of thousands of ballots have been tampered with, and 1.3 million completed ballots went missing.

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Also see: Congo Casts Ballots

What you couldn't see unless you purchased a printed paper:  

"ACTIVIST DETAINED -- Police in Uganda arrested opposition leader Kizza Besigye (front left) yesterday before the start of a rally against government corruption and economic hardships in Uganda's capital Kampala. Police fired tear gas before placing Besigye and several allies into police vans and taking them away (Boston Globe January 20 2012)."


But Uganda an ally so no big deal.