With declarations of a conservative civil war being proclaimed this week, political combatants on the right are picking sides between Tea Party activists hungry for radical change within the GOP, and the Republican Establishment, which seeks to regain control of the party's message and improve upon 2012's election setbacks.

This week Karl Rove and his allies at the American Crossroads super PAC launched the "Conservative Victory Project," a group that plans to support more traditional Republican candidates in an effort to end the streak of undisciplined Tea Party hopefuls who blew Republican-leaning races with controversial campaign comments. (Think: Todd Akin.)

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric Canton (R-Va) just launched an effort to rebrand brand the Republican Party and broaden its appeal by softening the harsh rhetoric and, theoretically, seeking common ground. That kind of bipartisan, bridge-building rhetoric is precisely what the Tea Party labels as conservative heresy.

A baby camel presented to French President Francois Hollande for 'liberating' Mali was stolen and will not be allowed to stay in Paris, it emerged today.

In a plot straight out of a madcap Gallic comedy film, a Malian refugee said he wanted the young dromedary back.

Mr Hollande was hailed a hero on Saturday when he arrived in Timbuktu, Mali, which until a few days before had been in the hands of Al-Qaeda backed terrorists.

As a token of thanks for the part French troops played in defeating the Islamist radicals, Mr Hollande was presented with the camel.

The pair were pictured together, although the camel screeched constantly, and was far from impressed with the portly French head of state tried to pat him on the head.

Now it has emerged that the camel, who had not been named, actually belonged to a farmer, whose house was destroyed by French shelling during their attack on Timbuktu.

In the aftermath of the elections in Israel, only one person is laughing hard. On January 11, 2013, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave an interview to Channel Two's "Friday's Studio." He accused Netanyahu of spending $3 Billion on "hallucinated adventures that were not implemented and would not be implemented." As described in Israel Spent $3 Billion on Iran Attack, the sum went missing on preparations of an attack on Iran. Most Israelis are naive, but not naive enough to believe that military exercises for an airstrike can cost so much.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who had been recently acquitted after having been forced to leave office, used his regained innocence to hit the most probable figure behind his impeachment: Netanyahu. Olmert's careful whisper destroyed Netanyahu's dreams. Instead of increasing his power as polls predicted, Netanyahu lost 11 seats in the Knesset, giving place to the current Treason Season. However, Olmert's achievement went beyond that. He opened the gate for other corruption cases to be exposed. On February 6, Yedioth Aharonot exposed a case that led on the next day to the banning of six communication equipment suppliers by the IDF, following the acknowledgment of a non-commissioned officer to have robbed the army.

How long will it be before they actually start shooting us from helicopter gunships a la The Running Man?

In that movie, Arnold Schwarzennegger plays Ben Richards - pilot of a gunship who actually refuses to spray a crowd of helpless people with his mini-gun. For his refusal to be brutal, he is turned into a contestant on The Running Man, where he must fight for his life against a series of gladiators for the amusement of the crowd.

Is it not amazing how predictive so many mass-market films have proved to be? Only in this case, the real-life 'copter pilots are itching to mow us down. See, for instance, the recent "drills" in Florida and Texas - video seen below, for instance- where civilian areas were overflown by military choppers firing blanks. To train them. More precisely, to acclimate them to the idea of raining death down on Americans.


Everything's ramping up; you have to be willfully oblivious to not see it.

Outside support for the myriad of Syria's armed groups is no secret. Saudi Arabia and Qatar alone funnel millions of dollars to the rebels every month. But, as Gayane Chichakyan reports, it's not just cash and weapons being smuggled into Syria, but suicide bombers and ideology too.

Department of Energy Wants to Let Radioactive Scrap Metal Back into Consumer Products

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that any amount of radiation - no matter how small - can cause cancer and other serious health effects.

(Current safety standards are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20s - and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body. In the real world, however, even low doses of radiation can cause cancer. Moreover, small particles of radiation - called "internal emitters" - which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. See this and this. And radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults.)

"Everything the [Ford] Foundation did could be regarded as "making the World safe for capitalism", reducing social tensions by helping to comfort the afflicted, provide safety valves for the angry, and improve the functioning of government (McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (1961-1966), President of the Ford Foundation, (1966-1979))

"By providing the funding and the policy framework to many concerned and dedicated people working within the non-profit sector, the ruling class is able to co-opt leadership from grassroots communities, ... and is able to make the funding, accounting, and evaluation components of the work so time consuming and onerous that social justice work is virtually impossible under these conditions" (Paul Kivel, You Call this Democracy, Who Benefits, Who Pays and Who Really Decides, 2004, p. 122 )

In August 2010, the Yesha Council together with Israel Sheli (My Israel), organized a workshop in Jerusalem to teach people how to edit Wikipedia articles in a pro-Israeli way. (Wikipedia)

The Yesha Council which is the Hebrew acronym for Yehuda Shomron, Aza, lit. "Judea Samaria and Gaza Council") is an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank (and formerly in the Gaza Strip), known by the Hebrew acronym Yesha. (ibid)

My Israel (Israel Sheli) is "an Israel right wing extra-parliamentary Zionist movement", which "deals with PR across the internet and especially social networks".

We bring to the consideration of Global Research readers this short video which features the Yesha Council-Israeli Sheli training program, pertaining to the art of manipulating online content on Wikipedia entries.

Newtown resident, Bill Stevens addresses a gang of CT politicians. His 5th grade daughter's friend was murdered on 12/14/12 'when 911 and lockdown were not enough to protect her from an evil person, not an assault rifle - an inanimate object, an evil person.' He then attempts to educate the group on what the CT constitution and the Bill of Rights say about the right to bear arms.

Doug Casey Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator

L: Doug, we've been hearing a lot about this image of the president shooting a shotgun circulating on the Internet. In the wake of the Connecticut massacre and multiple other shootings that have occupied the headlines of late, it's quite striking. There have been so many murders involving guns in the news lately, it's starting to look like a bloody wave of copycat activity. Or maybe, as the Greater Depression deepens, more and more people are just going to go nuts, making this a taste of things to come... What do you think?

Doug: Either of those things could be true. Both may well be; but the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about is that so many of these murderers - the vast majority, actually - turn out to be under some form of psychiatric care and on meds. What's really needed is a deep and thorough review of psychological and psychiatric practices in the US, with strict examination of the correlation between various medications and subsequent violent behavior.

Popular drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Ritalin, and literally hundreds of others have very serious side effects. Shrinks are in the custom of prescribing them as an answer to the moral problems that everyone has to confront. These drugs don't resolve moral dilemmas; they disguise them and confuse the issue. I find it interesting that random mass murders were never an issue up until the last 20 years or so - roughly coincidental with a substantial portion of the US population, especially kids, being put on meds for all kinds of imaginary psychological disorders... things that used to be considered just part of life. I suggest readers look into the views of Peter Breggin, M.D., an old friend of mine who's done an immense amount of work in the area for years.

L: We need more laws regulating shrinks, not guns?

Doug: I'm not in favor of laws regulating either, but yes, people are confusing the means of violence with the cause of violence. We need to have an honest and unbiased look at what makes people turn murderous. If we don't, the massacres will continue, just using different weapons.