Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

Rachel Maddow Calls Out The Republicans On Their Big Government Agenda

Jason Easley
Politicususa/MSNBC
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:58 UTC
On her MSNBC program, Rachel Maddow debunked the idea that all Republicans support small government. The reality is that all Republicans talk small government, but most want to take away liberties and grow government. Maddow said, "Republicans all say they are small government libertarian conservatives.But what they have done when they have power is authoritarian big government stuff."

Here is the video:


Maddow began with the three individual freedom killing abortion related bills that the House is currently working on, "Freedom, liberty, letting people do what they want! And then they arrived in Washington and immediately started working on putting government in charge of every single pregnancy in America. Even as they slowed the legislative calendar way down, stopped doing much of anything else, they advanced not one, not two, but three super radical bills to restrict abortion rights. One of those bills had a hearing in the House today. Another one has a hearing tomorrow."
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Arrow Down

Ireland: Plane crashes at Cork airport, up to 8 killed

Henry McDonald
The Guardian
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:51 UTC
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© Michael MacSweeney/Rex FeaturesEmergency crews at the scene of the crash at Cork Airport, Ireland.
Six people have died and six others were injured after a plane travelling from Belfast crashed while landing in fog at Cork airport.

Confirmation of the fatalities came from a Cork county council spokesman, while unconfirmed reports said the death toll could be as high as eight. There were 12 people on board the small turboprop commuter plane, which crashed on the pilot's third attempt at landing. It is believed to be on fire near the runway.

The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed the crash happened at 9.51am on runway 17, but said the number of fatalities or injured were still unknown.

"[The plane] had been trying to land in foggy conditions. This was its third attempt to land," an IAA spokeswoman said.

It is understood debris from the wreckage has been scattered over a wide area of the runway.

A Garda Síochána spokesman said gardai, fire crews and ambulances from across the city and county were responding.

The flight was operated by the Isle of Man-based company Manx2.com, which took over the Belfast to Cork route from Aer Arann last year.
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Bizarro Earth

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices

John Vidal
Guardian.co.UK
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:42 UTC
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© George Steinmetz/CorbisSaudi oil refinery. WikiLeaks cables suggest the amount of oil that can be retrieved has been overestimated.
US diplomat convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world's biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40%

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels - nearly 40%.

The revelation comes as the oil price has soared in recent weeks to more than $100 a barrel on global demand and tensions in the Middle East. Many analysts expect that the Saudis and their Opec cartel partners would pump more oil if rising prices threatened to choke off demand.

However, Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached.

According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then - possibly as early as 2012 - global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".
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Light Sabers

Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed


Jerusalem Post
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:09 UTC
Image
© Ahmed Ali/APThousands of Egyptians surround army tanks in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011. Hundreds of anti-government protesters have returned to Cairo's central Tahrir Square, chanting slogans against Hosni Mubarak.
Translated by Palestinian Media Watch, book details group's goal of global Islamic conquest.

One of the greatest beneficiaries of the unrest in Egypt has been the Muslim Brotherhood.

Banned but tolerated for decades by successive Egyptian regimes, the Islamist movement is now emerging as a central player in the country's resurgent opposition.

On Tuesday, two Brotherhood representatives participated in an opposition delegation that met with Vice President Omar Suleiman for the first set of talks over implementing political reforms.

Pundits have portrayed the Brotherhood as uncompromising zealots or beneficent providers of social services that long-deprived Egyptians desperately need.

But a translation released Tuesday of a 1995 book by the movement's fifth official leader sheds light on just how Egypt's Brotherhood views itself and its mission. Jihad is the Way is the last of a five-volume work, The Laws of Da'wa by Mustafa Mashhur, who headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1996-2002.
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Beaker

Why Did The HIV Epidemic Decline In Zimbabwe?


Medical News Today / PLoS Medicine
Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00 UTC
In this week's PLoS Medicine Magazine, Daniel Halperin from the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues examine reasons for the remarkable decline in HIV in Zimbabwe, in the context of severe social, political, and economic disruption.

Funding: Some of the studies upon which this paper is based were funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provided some logistical support as well as helping with coordination between the studies. Two of the authors of this paper (Benedikt and Campbell) are employed by UNFPA and helped edit the manuscript. The United Nations HIV-AIDS Program (UNAIDS) and the Zimbabwean Ministry for Health and Child Welfare also sponsored this study. TBH and SG thank the Wellcome Trust for funding support. The funders had no other role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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People

Egyptian talks near collapse as trade unions back protests

Jack Shenker & Chris McGreal
The Guardian
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:31 UTC
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© Stringer/EPAEgyptian employees of service companies owned by the Suez Canal Authority have joined workers across the country in strike action.
Talks between the Egyptian government and opposition have all but collapsed after the regime balked at surrendering power to a transitional administration in the hope that mass protests would die down.

Instead, the unrest is spreading as some of the largest demonstrations yet against President Hosni Mubarak were joined by labour strikes across the country, including on the Suez canal, in the city of Alexandria and by public transport workers in Cairo.

A prominent member of a key opposition group, the Council of Wise Men, said negotiations had "essentially come to an end". A western diplomat said Washington was alarmed by the lack of progress and the vice-president Omar Suleiman's warning of a coup if the opposition refused to accept the government's terms.
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Pharoah

New Egyptian minister for culture resigns amid relentless protests


Press TV
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:24 UTC
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© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty ImagesOur country now: Anti-government demonstrators hold a huge national flag in Tahrir (Liberation) Square
Egypt's newly appointed Culture Minister Gaber Asfour has resigned as protests against President Hosni Mubarak's regime continue.

He resigned on Wednesday just nine days after he joined the cabinet in a reshuffle that was prompted by mounting demonstrations against the three-decade authoritarian rule of Mubarak, reports say.

Asfour, who had replaced Farouk Hosni after twenty-five years in office, has said he quit because of medical reasons. However, there is no official comment on the resignation so far.

The sixteenth day of the deadly demonstrations turned more violent on Wednesday with security forces using live bullets to disperse the outraged protesters in the small town of Kharga, witnesses said.

Having denied permit for a peaceful demonstration, Kharga police clamped down on protesters, killing at least five people and injuring hundreds of others in the past 24 hours, medics said.

On Wednesday, Cairo's Liberation Square remained flooded with demonstrators who have vowed not to go home until Mubarak steps down.
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Che Guevara

Go Egypt Go! Revolution Enters Its 17th Day


Press TV
Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:20 UTC
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© Press TVDemonstrators take part in a candlelight vigil for the people who were killed during the pro-democracy protests against Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Liberation Square in Cairo February 9, 2011.
Revolution has entered its 17th consecutive day in Egypt, despite massive crackdown on demonstrators in the past two days which left more than a hundred people killed or wounded.

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters camped overnight in the streets in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, near parliament building, the site of a massive march on Wednesday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Pro-democracy protesters blocked roads and railways connecting the northern part of the country to the south on Thursday.

Reports say the protesters set fire to tires placed across the main motorway that goes from Cairo to Assiut, 350 kilometers south of Cairo.

Around 8,000 protesters, mainly farmers, took to the streets in Assiut, and used wooden planks and bricks to block the railway line. More than 3,000 railway workers went on strike to put more pressure on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to resign.
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Stormtrooper

Mubarak's thugs loot and vandalise International Media Center in Cairo


Press TV
Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:08 UTC
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Reeling in the years
Security forces and thugs have raided and looted the International Center for Media in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, as the revolution in the crisis-hit country enters its 13th day.

The International Center for Media announced on Sunday that all the equipment at its Cairo office has been seized by the assailants, a Press Tv correspondent reported.

This is while, Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has started landmark talks with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman demanding an immediate elimination of Emergency Law and guarantees for peaceful protests.

Meanwhile, much larger crowds of Egyptian protesters have been entering Cairo's Liberation Square to mark the 13th day of revolution, dubbed "Day of Martyrs."
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Stormtrooper

Police detain anti-Berlusconi protesters in Italy


Press TV
Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:04 UTC
Image
© UnknownA member of Italy's civic movement Justice and Freedom protests against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Italian anti-riot police have arrested two protesters at a thousand-strong rally held in Milan against scandal-plagued Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Thousands of Italian protesters, including writers and intellectuals, protested on Sunday, demanding the premier's resignation as soon as possible.

"Resign, resign!" the protesters shouted at the gates of Berlusconi's private villa in the Milan suburb of Arcore, where he was spending the weekend.

Clashes with riot-police erupted when protesters tried to break a security cordon erected several hundred meters from Berlusconi's residence. They threw bottles and other objects at the Italian police.

Another clash took place in front of Arcore's train station between several officers and demonstrators, which left a journalist injured, police said. Police arrested two protesters in the clash.

The organizer of the rally was an Italian activist group called Justice and Freedom.
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