Tagged World News

11

Former Israeli President Convicted of Rape

After a trial lasting a year, a Tel Aviv district court comprised of a panel of judges has found Israel’s former president, Iranian-born Moshe Katsav, 65, guilty of rape and sexual harassment in a case filed four years ago by three women who worked for him. Katsav was Israel’s eight president, a position of largely ceremonial powers, but was forced to resign in 2007.

Photograph by: PIERRE OBENDRAUF, THE GAZETTE
9

Mosque Members Serve Christmas Eve Dinner to Mission

In a world gone crazy from Tea Party zealots incessant screaming over reasonable people to Jim De Mint’s reading problems holding up all business on the Senate floor, we don’t often get our moments of zen or, in this case, Christmas spirit. But here it is. Evincing the true spirit of Christmas in Montreal, Muslims volunteered to serve Christmas Eve Dinner to the Old Brewery Mission.

15

Meet Denmark’s Sarah Palin

Meet Pia Kjærsgaard. Pia is a woman who is going places. Specifically, she is going to the salon to have her hair bleached an even starker blond – but after that, she’s going to pose for a photo shoot wrapped in the Danish flag, and then she is going to make a heroic stand against the foreign hordes who threaten to overrun her fairy tale vision of a Denmark where everyone is a Lutheran, monarchist, pork-eating blonde. Pia is trying very hard to be the Danish Sarah Palin.

18

America Tell Republicans To Stop Holding National Security Hostage

Mitch McConnell and his Republican brethren are holding legislation hostage until the Democrats give them tax cuts for the rich. They claimed that this pledge didn’t include the START treaty, and then like clockwork, they started denouncing the START treaty. Democrats are beginning to realize that negotiating with Republicans “is almost like negotiating with terrorists”.

6

150,000 March in Dublin to Protest IMF/ECB Bailout and Austerity Budget

This week saw what has been described as the largest demonstration in the history of the Irish state, as an estimated 150,000 people marched through Dublin city centre to protest the Irish government’s draconian new austerity budget and the arrival of the IMF. They came from all over the country and from all walks of life, united in the belief that there is a better way to deal with Ireland’s economic woes. The march had been arranged by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

7

Irish Government Turns a Blind Eye To Bankers’ Crimes

Even if Fianna Fail were able to muster the political will, it would be a monumental task for the State to prosecute bankers of the failed Irish zombie banks, notably Anglo-Irish, because proof thresholds required in white collar crime cases are extremely high in Ireland. In fact, the Irish Independent reports in the same article that Ireland has never seen a successful prosecution for insider trading. Ever.

Nixon/Murdoch "I am not a crook!"
3

The Culture of Lawlessness in Rupert Murdoch’s Newsrooms

Scotland Yard’s evidence indicated that hundreds of celebrities, government officials, soccer stars, etc had been targets of Murdoch’s News of the World cell phone hackers. Scotland Yard looked the other way as Murdoch hacked into phones of both private citizens and the Royal Family, and again as Murdoch’s editor was installed as communications aide to Tory PM Cameron.

5

Explaining the Difference Between a Draw Down and Rebranding of War

The media (and the Left) are running with the meme that the draw down in Iraq is mere “rebranding” of the war. They buttress this notion with sarcastic references to the “combat troops” leaving Iraq. This misunderstanding is the fault of whoever started to report the drawdown as “combat troops leaving Iraq.” Combat troops have left Iraq, but we still have 50,000 combat troops there. They are no longer there in a combat role, however.

5

The Right Pretends Their Last Three Weeks of Bigotry Never Happened

yesterday, after weeks of ginning up hate, we had the RNC talking point denial of stoking violence memo via Sarah Palin’s Facebook Page and Boehner tried it on ABC News’ Good Morning America –a mistake- he was obviously more concerned with his tan than any sort of real leadership on this issue and he sounded like a spoiled frat boy. The one thing we heard in all of their CYA talking points puppetry was a rather petty and obvious comparison of burning books to building a community center. Today is the day when we are supposed to forget how we got here.

Fear mongering leads to endangering US and Troops
38

Republicans Defy Military Leaders By Not Condemning Quran Burning

Both top US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, and one of his deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, are warning Americans that burning the Quran will endanger the troops in Afghanistan (and around the world), who are there fighting a war started by Republican President George Bush. A fearful nation awaits a leader from the Republican Party to grow enough courage to take a stand for us and for our troops and their mission.

6

The Daring Idea of Happiness as GDP

It’s a question of productivity versus happiness as the ultimate judge of the welfare of nations. Yes, this is an argument for a socially just Democracy, or as I like to call it, civilization. Nic Marks must surely be a socialist. At TEDGlobal 2010 he suggested that we would be better off to measure success by happiness rather than productivity. Cue the crazy jihad nut job dance from the Right (plus a Glenn Beck cry fest), but meanwhile, I ask you on this Labor Day, have you ever been to a country where they valued overall contentment of the people over their productivity? Because once you’ve seen it in action, it’s hard to deny the validity of Marks’ inspiration.

35

About Last Night, Republicans….

And then yesterday, as the President got ready to announce the last combat troops were out of Iraq, and the nation could finally let out its war-weary breath on one front, Republicans had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to warn the President of the United States to not take “credit” for Iraq. Instead of acknowledging these sacrifices over your mistake, instead of fighting for Veterans’ benefits, instead of finding one damn thing to be positive about, Republicans can not stop being ungrateful, petty, small-minded, empty-hearted partisan hacks.

14

The Ghost of Vietnam Haunts the Left and Right Over Iraq

I don’t know about you, but for years, I’ve been secretly longing for that Time Life moment post World War II; the kiss of a returning soldier, the final exhale of an exhausted nation. I can’t say that I pictured a happy America, but I had imagined a unified America. But we aren’t going to get that moment, because there was a war in between WWII and Iraq. We’re scared. Not only have we’ve been lied to rather recently (WMD), but we’re battling with our national scars from our defeat in Vietnam.

10

Sarah Palin Encourages Franklin Graham to Spread the Holy War Against Muslims

Unwilling to let any chance for more publicity via her specialty of moral poutrage sprinkled over Dim-Sum pass her by, Sarah Palin takes to her facebook page to decry the Pentagon’s decision yesterday to dis-invite Franklin Graham from National Prayer Day. In doing so, Palin demonstrates yet again how little she thinks/knows of the law, inviting satire as the only possible rebuttal available to all reading citizens.

8

How Obama’s Nuclear Weapons Strategy Will Save the World

After the historic Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty signed the previous week between the United States and Russia, the seemingly logical next step was to get as many nations together as possible to be on the same page. The threat of nuclear weapons getting into the wrong hands like al Qaeda or rogue nations like North Korea or Iran, who are currently developing nuclear weapons, should be of grave concern to the entire world.

Copenhagen Smack Down: Der Spiegel Reporter to Inhofe: “You’re ridiculous!â€

The ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Jim Inhofe, made a scathingly embarrassing appearance in Copenhagen. While the senator didn’t have any meetings scheduled in Copenhagen, he managed to put together an impromptu press conference, during which he took it upon himself to announce that “global warming was a hoax perpetrated on the world by the UN” and sold to Americans “by the Hollywood elite.”

“How Can They Do That?”; A Progressive Responds Regarding Nobel Peace Prize Committee’s Choice

People don’t seem to get the origin of the Nobel Peace Prize, because all over the internet, you will read:

“How can they do that?”

They can do that because that was the intention of the prize….from the beginning. And it is THEIR prize. It is privately funded. They can do whatever they want. It was intended for visionaries, not necessarily an “accomplishment”.

After all, peace starts as a belief. Having the vision for a nuclear free world is huge. It starts there. Did W have that commitment? did John McCain? No. Even Hilary Clinton didn’t embrace peace as the ideal the way Obama did and does. So, it is rather special, in point of fact.

The “Right†Align with Taliban in Opposition to President Obama Winning Nobel Peace Prize

Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize and the “Right†Align Themselves with Taliban in Opposition to US President. The self-described “conservativesâ€/aka, hatriots can’t feel proud of their country if it means anything good for their President. Now, at last, the GOP has aligned themselves with the Taliban for all to see.

Republicans Only Plan is To “Kill ObamaCare”

Republicans have sold the meme that they just need more “time†to draft a good health care reform bill. More time? They had control of the House, Senate and WH for 6 years and they never even brought this issue up! They’ve had all summer to review the various plans and come up with an idea. Heck, they took us into a pre-emptive war with a sovereign nation quicker than that!

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