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No dissent allowed: Two members of College Democrats of America forced to resign after criticizing Israel's assault on Gaza

Rania Khalek
The Electronic Intifada
Sat, 09 Aug 2014 11:55 UTC
Gaza grief
© Ali Jadallah / APA images
“Collateral damage”: the family of the four Baker boys, gunned down mercilessly by Israel on a Gaza beach 16 July, mourn their loss. One young Democrat claimed Hamas forced Israel to kill them.
The College Democrats of America (CDA), the youth wing of the Democratic National Committee, forced two of its members to resign from leadership positions following a right-wing smear campaign this week.

They were branded anti-Semites after expressing anger at Israel's assault on Gaza in a heated social media exchange.

Christopher Woodside, a twenty-year-old student at Catholic University of America, says he was fired 6 August from his position as Communications Director with the DC Federation for College Democrats, CDA's Washington DC branch.

Woodside told The Electronic Intifada he was "told we would never receive donations because I made the organization seem radical." He added, "while I was officially asked to resign by the state level at DC College Dems, it was highly suggested their request for me to leave was from being pressured at the national college Dems level."
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Sherlock

FBI opens civil rights investigation into shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by police


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 16:28 UTC
Image
© Scott Olson / Getty Images / AFP
With their hands raised, residents gather at a police line as the neighborhood is locked down following skirmishes on August 11, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. Meanwhile, officials have rescinded a plan to reveal the shooting officer's identity, according to reports.

Residents of Ferguson clashed with law enforcement for the second successive night, as protests over the shooting of Michael Brown, 18, ended Monday with riot-gear-clad officers firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

More than 50 people have been arrested in protests following the Saturday shooting. Police officials claim Brown was shot after a struggle over a gun with a municipal police officer in a squad car. Witnesses, though, say the unarmed Brown had his hands raised when the police officer approached with his weapon drawn and fired repeatedly.
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Light Sabers

Majority of voters in Britain believe Israel is using disproportionate violence in Gaza


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 16:22 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Roberto Schmidt
A Palestinian woman sits on August 11, 2014 with two boys at the edge of a crater left where her home used to be and which was completely demolished by an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip.
A majority of British voters believe that Israel is using disproportionate violence in the Gaza conflict, and 41 percent say their opinion of Israel has dropped, according to a new poll.

The Guardian/ICM poll, which was published Tuesday, found that due to its military operation in Gaza, Israel's standing in the UK has significantly worsened. The poll found that 52 percent of voters believe that Israel acted disproportionately when it launched airstrikes against the Gaza Strip.

By contrast, 19 percent of respondents thought Israel had acted proportionately in retaliating to Hamas rocket fire with air and artillery strikes, while 29 percent did not know.

According to the poll, 41 percent of voters say their opinion of Israel has worsened during the recent conflict and 48 percent still think the same way about Israel. Only 2 percent reported that their opinion of Israel has actually improved.
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Heart - Black

UK prisons like death traps, government policy the cause for rising suicide rates sez Chief Inspector


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 15:50 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Paul Hackett
Staff shortages and overcrowding in Britain’s prisons are so serious, they are fuelling a rise in suicides amongst UK inmates, the Chief Inspector of Prisons warns.
Staff shortages and acute overcrowding in Britain's prisons are so serious they are fuelling a rise in suicides amongst UK inmates, the Chief Inspector of Prisons warns.

Chief Inspector Nick Hardwick told the Independent on Tuesday it was simply "not credible" for the coalition government to refute a direct link between mounting pressures on Britain's prison system and a dramatic increase in suicides.

Hardwick's intervention compounds heated criticism which has been directed at the UK's Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, over his mishandling of the prison system, amid accusations that jails throughout Britain have evolved into "death traps" as a result of stark budgetary cuts.

Commenting on the crisis, Hardwick said that self-inflicted prison deaths were "not acceptable in a civilized country," and warned if UK ministers wanted the population in British jails to rise, concrete"resources to deal with that rise" must be employed.
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Camera

Journalist organizations express concern over missing Russian photographer in Ukraine


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 15:32 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti
Rossiya Segodnya special photojournalist Andrei Stenin. Photo by Damir Bulatov. Archive photo.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) voiced concern over the safety of Russian photographer Andrey Stenin, who has been missing for almost a week after reportedly being detained in E. Ukraine.

"We join our Russian affiliate, the Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ), to express our serious concern for the well-being of our colleague Andrei Stenin," said IFJ President Jim Boumelha, according to the organization's statement.

"If he has been detained in Ukraine then we appeal for whoever is holding him to release him immediately. He is a journalist, not a soldier, and as such is entitled to move freely and report the truth without the threat of intimidation, violence or detention," Bourmelha stressed.

Stenin, an experienced war photo-correspondent and employee of major news agency Rossiya Segodnya (Ria Novosti), was declared missing almost a week ago. Stenin was in the country working on a photo assignment.

The journalist is believed to have been with self-defense forces before he disappeared. An anonymous source in Donetsk told Ria Novosti that Stenin had been abducted by Ukrainian security forces.
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People 2

For the first time, whites in U.S. schools will not be in the majority this Fall


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 15:26 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Frank Perry
This autumn, the majority of students in public schools across the United States will be non-white for the first time in American history.

The new data comes courtesy of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which estimates that 49.8 percent of all American students this coming school year will be non-Hispanic white students. At just under 50 percent, white students will still be the biggest racial group represented in US schools, but they will no longer make up the majority of all students in the country.

According to the Associated Press, the NCES projects that nearly 25 percent of minority students will be Hispanic, while 15 percent will be black and another five percent Asian. Biracial and Native American students will make up the rest of the minority stake in schools.

The news comes as the US population in general continues to undergo significant racial and ethnic changes. The US Census Bureau projects that minorities will make up a greater share of the US citizenry than whites by 2043, partially thanks to the fact that birth rates are going down or staying the same for whites - as well as for African Americans and Asians - while climbing higher for Hispanics.
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Eye 1

Crowds protesting shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown teargassed by police


RT
Tue, 12 Aug 2014 14:51 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Getty Images / Michael B. Thomas
Protestors stand with arms in the air during a protest of the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer, outside Ferguson Police Department Headquarters August 11, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Violence has broken out again as authorities dressed in riot gear in a St. Louis, Missouri suburb - where an unarmed black teen was fatally shot by police over the weekend - have used tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse a large crowd.

Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson told the Associated Press that a group gathered throughout the day on Monday at a burned-out convenience store, then turned rowdy at nightfall. Along with tear gas, observers tweeted that police fired rubber bullets into the crowd.

Police were telling people to go home, but had blocked streets off in the area, an AP photographer said. Jackson said police closed the area where most of the looting and vandalism occurred during the previous night, out of concern that cars passing by might hit demonstrators in the street.
Saw #riot #police use tear gas in #missouri while locals stood out on the street, outside their homes, no violent protesting. #MichaelBrown

- Anastasia Churkina (@NastiaChurkina) August 12, 2014
The St. Louis suburb has been marred by unrest for three days, moving from protests and vigils during the day to rioting and looting at night. The tumult is over the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager who was killed on Saturday following an altercation with a Ferguson police officer.
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Smoking

British smokers being denied treatment by State-run healthcare service

David Atherton
Breitbart
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
Scotland's second largest health board, NHS Lothian, will not be giving further treatment to smokers for non-urgent cases, with referrals from GPs being refused.

Dr. Zahid Raza said: "In Edinburgh, we will not see patients at the clinic that are still smoking. Evidence shows that they would not do well with the treatment." He also went onto say: "We try to avoid intervention and, in around 80 percent of cases, a smoker's condition will improve just simply by stopping smoking and smoking other lifestyle changes."

Dr Jean Turner of the Scotland Patients Association said that she was "extremely disappointed", adding: "I'm really quite shocked. You should not refuse to see anybody and certainly not penalise patients who are smoking.

"It is very God like and highly unfair to refuse to see anybody referred...Doctors are there to see if they can help and relieve symptoms."

NHS Lothian is by no means unique. NHS Hertfordshire back in January 2012 also withdrew treatment to smokers and, as an ominous sign of the slippery slope, those with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30 - i.e. the obese - are refused services too.

Smokers may well have a case of righteous indignation.

Comment: Doctors and health services in general nowadays are way past contraventions (minor legal infraction) of any ethical oath to protect its clients, they are in criminal neglect of it! As for real data on smoking, so much have been suppressed:


Also read:
Dr. Relic's sure-fire no-risk unequivocally-guaranteed method to completely eliminate the pain and stress of quitting smoking!

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Pocket Knife

Sharp encounter: Mysterious knife falls from city skies and land on man's head


Mirror
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 09:49 UTC
A Chinese man has suffered a lucky escape after a knife fell from the sky and landed in the top of his head.
Image

Mr Xiao is still being treated in his local intensive care unit
Xiao Yunzhi, 57, was out for a walk in his hometown of Guangyuan, Sichaun Province, before a five-inch kitchen knife fell from the top of a high-rise apartment block.

Even more unbelievably, Mr Xiao did not immediately notice the impact, despite reporting that his head started to feel heavy.

However, as soon as the problem was pointed out by the astonished local tobacconist, pain rushed though Mr Xiao's body as bemused onlookers called for an ambulance.
Image
He was still being treated by local intensive care on Monday after the knife which was lodged in his head was finally removed. The man's sister was quick to the scene and explained the horror.
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Cardboard Box

Biting the hand that feeds:​ British food exporters feel the pressure from Russian embargo


RT
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 23:13 UTC
fish
© Reuters/Dylan Martinez
Skipper of the Whitby Rose, Howard Locker sorts his catch aboard his trawler in the North Sea, off the coast of Whitby, northern England
UK food firms said they've already started feeling the brunt of the Russian import ban on some agricultural products. British businesses are warning they would lose out if the tension ratchets up to other industries.

On August 7, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev ordered a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway.

UK food exporters are concerned over the possible damage caused from losing sales in the Russian market.

"It will have a big impact on business," the BBC quotes Sinclair Banks, the boss of fishing and fish processing firm Lunar.


Comment: D'uh! That's the whole point. And guess what, you deserve it for following the wholly irrational whims of a certifiably insane country.


Half of Lunar's annual turnover of £60 million comes from Russian exports.

"We've £200,000 of herring sitting at St Petersburg, we don't know if it will go through or even if it will be paid for," Sinclair Banks complained, adding that his company had already cancelled a boat exporting herring because of the sanctions.

Another food producer, cheese maker Belton Cheese is also suffering.

Comment: Simple solution, people: end the ridiculous sanctions on Russia and start listening to common sense.

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