Afgan Women Killed for Giving birth to a baby girl .

(AFP) – 1 day ago

KABUL — Afghan police were on Monday hunting a man who allegedly killed his wife after she gave birth to the couple's third daughter, an official said.

Storay, 30, was beaten to death in the Khan Abad district of the northern province Kunduz last Wednesday after she delivered another baby girl, angering her husband who had wanted a son, police said.

"She was beaten to death by her husband after she gave birth to their third baby girl. We were informed of the case by Storay's father," Sayed Sarwar Husaini, the provincial police spokesman, told AFP.

There were signs of torture on her body, he added.

"Police have arrested Storay's mother-in-law in connection with the case, but her husband has fled. Police are searching for him," Husaini said.

Violence and abuse against women continues to be a major problem in Afghanistan, a decade after US-led troops brought down the Taliban regime.

Last month, police found a teen bride who had been locked in a toilet for six months at her husband's house in neighbouring Baghlan province.

She was burned and beaten, and had her fingernails pulled out.

British charity Oxfam says 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2,700 cases for the whole of 2010.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

FBI Arrests Man U.S. Government Helped Relocate To Colorado After Fleeing Uzbekistan On Charges of Aiding Jihadist Group…

Rather odd way of saying thank you.

(ABC News) — A man from Uzbekistan that the United States and the United Nations helped relocate to Colorado now faces a terrorism charge.
Jamshid Muhtorov opposed his home country’s dictator following a 2005 massacre, endured a brutal detention, and saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge. The 35-year-old fled his country by night dressed as a woman, and the U.S. and the U.N. helped bring him to Aurora in 2007.
Now, he’s accused of providing material support and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union. The violent group opposes the Uzbek government and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
Federal authorities say the Islamic Jihad Union has claimed responsibility for attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, including a March 2008 suicide attack on a U.S. base. The group is also blamed for carrying out simultaneous suicide bombings of the U.S. and Israeli embassies and a prosecutor’s office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
“It is a crime, and has been a crime for many years, to provide material support for a designated terrorist organization, the IJU,” said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. “Our job is to enforce the law.”
The FBI said Muhtorov communicated with a contact with the IJU by email using code words, asking to be invited to the “wedding.” He also told the contact that he was “ready for any task, even with the risk of dying,” the FBI said.

Operation fast and furious may finally get peoples attention
(Politico) — House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened Tuesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department did not provide certain documents in response to the committee’s subpoena.
In a letter to Holder, Issa wrote that “this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress” if Holder and the DOJ didn’t produce documents they demanded relating to the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal.
Holder has until Thursday, Feb. 9. to comply, according to Issa.
Issa accused the Justice Department of trying to “obstruct our investigation and deceive the public” by withholding documents.
“Your actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up,” he said in a four-page letter.

Commie California To Run Out Of Money In March…

Another bankrupt “progressive” utopia.

(SacBee) — California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today.
The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June.
But Chiang said additional cash management solutions are needed because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers assumed in their optimistic budget last year. Meanwhile, Chiang said, the state is spending $2.6 billion more than state leaders planned on.
The Assembly budget committee approved a bill today that would enable $865 million of borrowing from existing state accounts, Senate Bill 95. Chiang, after consultation with the Department of Finance and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, is also seeking about $2.4 billion in delayed payments to universities, counties and Medi-Cal, as well as additional borrowing from outside investors.

New Bible Translation Removes “Father” And “Son” From The Trinity Because Terms “Offensive To Muslims”…

What the ….?

(Yahoo! News) — A controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations, which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words “Father” and “Son” from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for “producing Bibles that remove “Father,” “Son” and “Son of God” because these terms are offensive to Muslims.”
Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last recourse because meetings with these organizations’ leaders, staff resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native national Christians concerned about the translations “have failed to persuade these agencies to retain “Father” and “Son” in the text of all their translations.”
Biblical Missiology, a ministry of Boulder, Colorado-based Horizon International, is sponsoring the petition.
The main issues of this controversy surround new Arabic and Turkish translations. Here are three examples native speakers give:
First, Wycliffe and SIL have produced Stories of the Prophets, an Arabic Bible that uses an Arabic equivalent of “Lord” instead of “Father” and “Messiah” instead of “Son.”
Second, Frontiers and SIL have produced Meaning of the Gospel of Christ , an Arabic translation which removes “Father” in reference to God and replaces it with “Allah,” and removes or redefines “Son.” For example, the verse which Christians use to justify going all over the world to make disciples, thus fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) reads, “Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiahand his Holy Spirit” instead of “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Rev. Bassam Madany, an Arab American who runs Middle East Resources, terms these organization’s efforts as “a western imperialistic attempt that’s inspired by cultural anthropology, and not by biblical theology.”
Keep reading…

European Bailout Infographic: Presenting The Truckloads Of Cash Needed To Rescue The Insolvent PIIGS

...No, literally truckloads. Our friends at demonocracy.info have been kind enough to put together an infographic that explains the European bailout in simple, visual terms, that even the most innocent of FTL truckers can grasp without much exertion, for the simple reason that it shows all the bailouts amounts in terms of trucks of cash. And here is the kicker: one would need a 13 lane highway, filled with trucks bumper to bumper, stretching for about 3 kilometers to represent the €2.91 trillion in total amounts owed by the PIIGS and their citizens (whether voluntarily or not... actually make that involuntarily) to Europe's largest banks. What is most frightening is what is not shown: just how it is that the world's central banks are keeping all of these banks propped up. Because sooner or later all this money will be discovered to have been fatally misallocated. Then the real bailout cost will become all too evident, and just like in the US, it will be in the double digit trillions. Which means the metaphorical highway of trucks full of cash will stretch on for kilometers and kilometers and so on (or miles, for the naive US-based truckers). But since that day is in the future, there is no reason to worry about it.
From Demonocracy.info

One Canadian's Perspective

The Shafia murder trial has returned a verdict, and to no great surprise the jury has found Mohammad Shafia, 58, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. They now begin a long, and we hope a horrible, next part of their life behind bars.
Much has already been written about the Shafia honour killings, but the ugly argument about culture clash has barely been allowed to surface. Though media publish the facts of the case and invite commentary, they are quick to delete and close commenting when Canadians begin to express their feelings. In that way the truth remains largely hidden, and that’s not a good thing for Canada because we desperately need to discuss it.
What sort of people are we letting into Canada that would consider doing such a thing? Is this the sort of Canada we want in the future? And if not, why are we not doing more to stop these kinds of people from bringing their warped, twisted sense of morality with them?
A few people have said that these sorts of immigrants should leave their barbaric views at home where it belongs. But even that opinion is a relativist one. Why should the third world be subjected to this kind of misogynistic tyranny? Is it ok to murder your family members for honour provided you’re beyond the borders of Canada?
There’s an even more unsettling thought to this case. In the rare instances in which a Shafia-type family actually acts on their barbaric ideals, how many find more non-violent means to coerce their family members in complying with their dishonourable notions of honour? How many women are abused behind the smiling, glossy-coloured magazine faces depicting Canada’s multicultural mosaic?
What’s more disturbing than the fact that there are people who would do this to their own daughters, is that such people who harbour such views even want to live in Canada. One is reminded of our most infamous Canadian family of convenience, the Khadrs, who immigrated here in order to exploit our own freedoms and generosity and use it against us. The Shafias are little different than the Khadrs.
For unless you despise Canada, why would you act so contrary to its nature? Why would you even want to come to Canada, where women are free to choose their own mates and make their own decisions in life, unless you intend to somehow change it?
Nobody wants to stop and think about immigration and the shifting demographics for fear the discussion is inherently racist. We are rapidly shifting from a Christian nation of European descendants, to one that is populated by South Asians, North Africans and people from the Middle East. That is a fact that is objectively neither good nor bad. The question one should ask next is whether there are negative consequences to these changes, and if so, what are they?
Well, the most obvious one is staring us in the face. If there are Islamic zealots in our midst, is it likely that the sort of incidents like the Shafia murders would become more common as we invite immigrants from Islamic countries? Or is this merely an aberration in a statistical average in which most Muslims follow the spirit and the letter of the law?
Who knows? But what is clear is that these new cultures have, in certain parts of Canada, decided to make their customs welcome. There are examples of Muslim women creating women-only swimming classes and salons and classrooms. This segregation may have a superficially friendly explanation, but it demonstrates a disinclination to conform to Canadian customs and modern attitudes.
Some people don’t seem to care about how Canada changes, since our nation relies on immigration for population growth, and hence can only become the face of those we allow in. And if that means a new majority decides to make certain customs and traditions a Canadian staple, so be it. This would be not unlike the sort of attitude that led to entire streets in France becoming impromptu prayer mats five times a day. And if that’s the sort of Canada you want, then by all means let’s not have a discussion about any of this.
If, however, you prefer that the country retain the sorts of values inherited by our founding European, Christian forebears, it would behove us to have a frank talk about who’s arriving at Pearson International Airport every single day, and what they’re bringing with them.

Shafia Murders: CBC Finds Apologist Who Implies Canada Racist & Just Like Islamist Hell Holes

Shafia Murders: CBC Finds Apologist Who Implies Canada Racist & Just Like Islamist Hell Holes

Leave it to the CBC to dig up Alia Hogben, Islamist apologist for the Canadian Council of Muslim Woman, who implies that interest in the Shafia honour killings is driven by racism and that Canada is no different than Islamist Hell Holes.

"Would there have been such a hullabaloo about this case if this had been non-immigrant, non-Afghani, non- Muslim people..." Damn Racists!

The Shafia murders are due to: "a patriarchy, a tribal patriarchy which exists in all cultures and it still exists in Canada" Cuz Canada is just like your everyday, run of the mill Islamist Crap-Hole nation.

It is lost on Ms. Hogben that these murders would not have happened in Canada had we not let in the very people we were trying to kill in Afghanistan.

FiveFeet Asks: "If Mark Lepine, the Muslim who committed the Montreal Massacre, had lived & gone to trial, would the CBC have had a Men's Rights spokesman on to give their side of the story?"


What the judge said: "It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous, more honourless crime," Justice Robert Maranger said in court after the verdict was delivered Sunday. "The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour...that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."


What the CBC says...



The CBC Poll asks: Do you agree with the Shafia Verdict? Seriously they asked that

Changing old-age benefits fragile situation for government

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated his government is determined to reform Canada’s pension system.

Photograph by: Christine Musschi/Reuters, National Post

Messing with public pensions is a minefield one would think most prime ministers would avoid if possible.

One only has to look at Brian Mulroney's experience in 1985 when public backlash forced him to retreat from a plan to de-index old age pensions from inflation.

But this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper — attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — indicated his government is determined to reform Canada's pension system.

While he didn't say specifically what's in store, it's widely believed a main part of any pension reform would be to move eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) up to the age of 67 from 65.

Opposition politicians have denounced this hypothetical move, saying it would hurt many low-income Canadians at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives.

But James MacKinnon, an economics professor from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said such a policy could be relatively painless for most Canadians, if done right.

"Of simple changes you can make, this one is very attractive because . . . it's a lot better to have to work in your mid-60s than it is to have to work in your 80s or 90s," he said.

The key difference between Harper's likely plan and what Mulroney attempted, MacKinnon pointed out, was the latter would have affected all OAS recipients — present and future.

"You could cut everybody's Old Age Security, whether they're 66 or 95. That's a way of saving money. But I think people would think that's both not very fair and not very efficient," he said. "The 95-year-old can't very easily go back to work to supplement a pension that's been cut. . . . It's certainly a lot easier, in general, for someone who is 66 to work than someone who is 86 to work."

However, Tyler Meredith, research director of aging issues for the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, said pushing old age pension eligibility up by two years could be problematic.

"If it is going to be a broad, across-the-board increase in the eligibility for OAS, then that will have some significant consequences for low- and modest-income individuals," Meredith said.

He said he's not opposed to the general idea of adapting social-retirement programs to the realities of an aging population, and the fact people work longer than in the past. But Meredith said policy changes should be flexible for people whose financial means and physical ability to work are more limited.

Tina Di Vito, head of the BMO Retirement Institute, agreed that low-income seniors would be hurt most by moving up the OAS eligibility age. She added that it could also affect plans of middle-income people who were planning a move to a partial retirement at the age of 65, assuming they would get some money from OAS.

"They're going to have to think twice about their ability, or the affordability, of working part-time instead of working full-time," she said.

The logic behind reforming Canada's pension system is the fact that as more and more baby boomers age and retire, the ratio of working people paying money into OAS compared to people receiving it is slated to be significantly skewed toward the latter group.

Government documents indicate the cost of OAS could triple to $108 billion by 2030 from $36.5 billion in 2010, during which time the number of seniors will climb to 9.3 million from the current 4.7 million.

Even as Harper made his case for "major transformations" that would include the public pension system, he made of point of saying the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is not a target.

Old Age Security is funded directly from government revenues, while CPP is a separate fund that Canadians and their employers pay directly into during the course of their working lives. The independent Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is tasked with actively investing this money so that it grows well beyond the value of its contributions.

A government study on the CPP, released Friday, "confirms that the plan will continue to meet its financial obligations and is sustainable over the long term," said Jean-Claude Menard, Canada's chief actuary.

The maximum basic amount paid out monthly by Old Age Security is $540.12. Parts of that can be clawed back for those whose annual net income is more than $66,335. For those at the low end of the economic scale, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and other allowances can boost the overall benefit.

While it's still speculation at this point, MacKinnon said the government would likely retain measures to help out the most cash-strapped seniors.

He also said it's likely that any change in OAS eligibility would be brought in over time.

"You really have to phase it in so people who are now really close to retirement don't suddenly get blindsided," he said. "If you're now 64 and you're planning to retire a year from now and start getting Old Age Security and other pensions, and all of a sudden you're told, 'Nope. Can't do that. It's now 67,' well you can imagine how extremely upset — and rightly so — people in that position would be."

MacKinnon pointed to the U.S. model as something that the Canadian government could follow.

In 1983, the U.S. changed its Social Security system so that the age for retirement benefits was pushed from 65 to 67 over several years. Currently, the standard age for retirement is 66. People born in 1937 were the last group to receive full benefits at the age of 65, with the date moved up by months at a time for people born in subsequent years. It's been pushed back to 67 for people born in 1957 or later.

Moves to alter pension systems in Europe have resulted in public wrath. For example, millions of people demonstrated in France a little more than a year ago in protest of the move to raise the standard retirement age to 62 from 60.

No matter how fair and gentle the government tries to be in reducing the overall cost of supporting retired people, it will take some heat from the public, MacKinnon predicted.

"Not everyone's going to happy with it," he said. "I can't imagine that people are going to welcome it with open arms."

Meredith said public reaction might not be so bad if the matter is handled appropriately, and he agreed a phased-in approach is most likely if the government raises the age for OAS eligibility.

"I don't think the government is spoiling for a fight with retirees right now," he said.

dabma@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/derekabma

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Read more: http://www.canada.com/life/Changing+benefits+fragile+situation+government/6063600/story.html#ixzz1ktr7fUgD

Myopic Liberals Don't Really Care About Canada's Future
Based on the current rules, the math for the Old Age Security (OAS) benefits just doesn't add up. There are simply too many people in the coming years who will be claiming these benefits and not enough younger workers to support them. So one might think that now might be the right time to alter the rules sufficiently to make the math work again. Not if you're a Liberal and insanely desperate to get back into power again.
Related: From Roy Green's show on Saturday, this discussion on the subject is well worth a listen (beginning at 7:15).

Posted by Robert at 6:30 AM| Comments (2)

Congratulations to Regina's Mark McMorris
   Gold at Winter X games , next stop Olympics

Pentagon Seeks Mightier Bomb vs. Iran

By ADAM ENTOUS And JULIAN E. BARNES

WASHINGTON—Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.
The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.

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Defense Threat Reduction Agency / Associated Press

A crew loaded a 'bunker buster' at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2007; the military hopes to make the bomb more powerful.

But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them.
Doubts about the MOP's effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb's ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, the officials said.
The push to boost the power of the MOP is part of stepped-up contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear program, say U.S. officials.

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The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, according to government officials briefed on the plan.
Some experts question if any kind of conventional explosives are capable of reaching facilities such as those built deep underground in Iran. But U.S. defense officials say they believe the MOP could already do damage sufficient to set back the program.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal Thursday, acknowledged the bomb's shortcomings against some of Iran's deepest bunkers. He said more development work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon.
"We're still trying to develop them," Mr. Panetta said.

More

• Floating Bases Enhance Capacity For Quick Strikes

• Army's Top General Backs Troop Rollback

President Barack Obama has made clear that he believes U.S. and international sanctions can curb Iran's nuclear program if they are given more time to work. At the same time, however, Mr. Obama has asked the Pentagon to come up with military options.
In Tuesday's State of the Union address, Mr. Obama said: "Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal." Iran denies it is trying to develop atomic weapons.
The U.S. has sought in recent weeks to tamp down tensions with Iran, but the Pentagon is at the same time pushing ahead with contingency planning.
"The development of this weapon is not intended to send a signal to any one particular country," Pentagon press secretary George Little said. "It's a capability we believe we need in our arsenal and will continue to invest in it."
Officials said the planned improvements to the MOP were meant to overcome shortcomings that emerged in initial testing. They said the new money was meant to ensure the weapon would be more effective against the deepest bunkers, including Iran's Fordow enrichment plant facility, which is buried in a mountain complex surrounded by antiaircraft batteries, making it a particularly difficult target even for the most powerful weapons available to the U.S.
Developing an effective bunker-buster is complicated in part because of the variables, experts say. Penetration varies depending on factors such as soil density and the types of stone and rock shielding the target.
Boeing received a contract in 2009 to fit the weapon on the U.S.'s B-2 Stealth Bomber. The Air Force began receiving the first of the bombs in September, a time of growing tensions with Iran. The Air Force has so far contracted to buy 20 of the bombs, and more deliveries are expected in 2013, after additional tests are made.
Should a decision be made to use the MOP as currently configured, it could cause "a lot of damage" to Iran's underground nuclear facilities but wouldn't necessarily destroy them outright, Mr. Panetta said.
"We're developing it. I think we're pretty close, let's put it that way. But we're still working at it because these things are not easy to be able to make sure that they will do what we want them to."
Mr. Panetta added: "But I'm confident, frankly, that we're going to have that capability and have it soon,"
The decision to ask now for more money to develop the weapon was directly related to efforts by the U.S. military's Central Command to prepare military options against Iran as quickly as possible, according to a person briefed on the request for additional funds.
A senior defense official said the U.S. had other options besides the MOP to set back Iran's nuclear program. "The Massive Ordnance Penetrators are by no means the only capability at our disposal to deal with potential nuclear threats in Iran," the official said.
Another senior U.S. official said the Pentagon could make up for the MOPs' shortcomings by dropping them along with other guided bombs on top of a bunker's entry and exit points—provided the intelligence is available about where they are all located.
Successful strikes on bunker entry and exit points could prevent an enemy from accessing such a site and could cause enough damage to stop or slow enrichment activity there.
"There is a virtue to deepness but you still need to get in and out," the senior U.S. official said.
The Pentagon was particularly concerned about its ability to destroy bunkers built under mountains, such as Iran's Fordow site near the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, according to a former senior U.S. official who is an expert on Iran.
The official said some Pentagon war planners believe conventional bombs won't be effective against Fordow and that a tactical nuclear weapon may be the only military option if the goal is to destroy the facility. "Once things go into the mountain, then really you have to have something that takes the mountain off," the official said.
The official said the MOP may be more effective against Iran's main enrichment plant at Natanz but added: "But even that is guesswork."
The Pentagon notified Congress in mid-January that it wants to divert around $82 million to refine the MOP, taking the money from other defense programs. The decision to sidestep the normal budget request process suggests the Pentagon deems the MOP upgrades to be a matter of some urgency.
Mr. Panetta said Iran wasn't the only potential target. "It's not just aimed at Iran. Frankly, it's aimed at any enemy that decides to locate in some kind of impenetrable location. The goal here is to be able to get at any enemy, anywhere," he said
Mr. Panetta and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates have argued that a military strike would at best delay Iran's nuclear development for a few years. Advocates of a strike say such a delay could be decisive by buying time for other efforts to thwart the program.
According to Air Force officials, the 20.5 foot-long MOP carries over 5,300 pounds of explosive material. It is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet underground before exploding. The mountain above the Iranian enrichment site at Fordow is estimated to be at least 200 feet tall.
Israel has large bunker-buster bombs but the U.S. hasn't provided the MOP to any other country.
Write to Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com and Julian E. Barnes

6 Years old charged with sexual assult !!

The Lupine Hills Elementary School campus in Hercules. (CBS)

HERCULES (CBS 5) – An East Bay dad claims a game of tag on the playground resulted in his 6-year-old son being accused of sexual assault – a decision he said was an overreaction by school officials.
The parent, who asked only to be identified as Oswin, said his son was accused of brushing his best friend’s leg or groin while the two were playing on the playground at Lupine Hills Elementary in Hercules two months ago.
Oswin said his child was kept in the principal’s office for two hours until he confessed. He was suspended, and a sexual battery charge was placed on his permanent school record.

“To me, I think it’s an overreaction,” said Marilyn Cheeks, a Lupine Hills Elementary parent
Legally, there’s no such thing as sexual assault for a six year-old in California.
It wasn’t until Oswin and his wife got a lawyer that the school backed off. District officials declined to discuss specifics. They did confirm that an investigation was conducted, and that the child could not be charged with sexual battery. The claim was removed from the boy’s record.
Oswin’s son is attending another school now. He said he only hopes no one else will have to go through what his family did.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

On this day in History:
1986

Lets all protest Gateway and Keystone Again !

State Of The Union, Jan 24, 2012;

"In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries."

State Of The Battery, Jan 26, 2012;

Obama-backed electric car battery-maker files for bankruptcy

h/t Ed S.

Kenney stands firm amid calls for his resignation | CTV News

That Dirty Jason Kenny
Kenney stands firm amid calls for his resignation CTV News

Thank God for the Opposition partys
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/big-money-biography/1415049757001

Must Watch T.V

On this day in History :
     1979 : The Dukes of Hazzard Debut

In 1926 Televison made its first apperance

Your tax dollars at work
     Ezra Rips Shelia Leggett a new one  

As much as i like Sun news , I have to say there wrong here .

    The Catiplilar plant in Ontario received money in a bailout  package to keep the doors open . they may or may not have paid that back but we as taxpayers paid to keep it afloat at one point .  thats why i say NO more Bailouts for businesses . 

Another Example of talking to hear yourself talk

On this day in History :
   1964 the Beattles "I wanna hold your hand" reaches #1 on the charts  

In 1533 Henry the VIII married Anne Boleyn

he loved her so much he had her beheaded ! but their Daughter became the greatest ruler the English ever had ,  Elizabeth the 1st

Nygard lawsuit against CBC to proceed

By James Turner ,Winnipeg Sun

First posted: Monday, January 23, 2012 02:02 PM EST | Updated: Monday, January 23, 2012 08:43 PM EST

Peter Nygard. (HANDOUT)

 

WINNIPEG - Peter Nygard has won Round 3 of his legal battle with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Winnipeg-based clothing manufacturer’s lawsuit against the CBC will forge ahead, despite three separate attempts by the state broadcaster to see it quashed.
The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled Monday to dismiss the broadcaster’s appeal of a lower-court ruling in which a judge stated CBC appeared to be looking for “constitutional immunity” from lawsuits stemming from its news-gathering methods.
The case is one of many launched by Nygard relating to CBC’s April 2010 airing of Larger Than Life, a Fifth Estate documentary featuring former employees speaking critically of the fashion mogul.
Nygard International’s lawsuit was launched a year before the documentary aired.
In it, Nygard claims the CBC induced and conspired with Nygard employees to breach confidentiality agreements they had signed with the fashion company in the making of the documentary.
Justices Michel Monnin, Richard Scott and Alan MacInnes will provide written reasons for their decision in coming days.
The court also ordered CBC to pay Nygard’s legal costs. The amount was not disclosed in court.
’WHERE'S THE MEAT?’
CBC appeared before Manitoba’s highest court hoping to prove Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Diana Cameron made errors in her June 2011 ruling to let Nygard’s claim stay alive.
Among other things, CBC claims the timing of Nygard’s lawsuit constituted “libel chill,” and that Cameron failed to consider how Nygard’s actions could effect CBC’s right to gather information and “investigate matters of public interest.”
The hearing was frequently boisterous, with the three top judges challenging both sides on their claims.
It appeared clear early on, however, CBC’s arguments weren’t finding much traction with the court.
“You’re reaching,” Monnin told CBC’s lawyer, Robert Tapper, within minutes of the hearing’s start.
“All we’ve got here is something that on the face of it looks really good and when I go behind it I’m like Old Mother Hubbard — the cupboard’s bare ... where’s the meat?” MacInnes later asked him.
Despite Monday’s development, Nygard’s suit remains in a very preliminary stage and none of the allegations have been proven.
Nygard has also launched a private prosecution against CBC which is slated to return to Provincial court on May 28.
The skinny on Nygard v. the CBC:
In April 2010, CBC aired a Fifth Estate documentary critical of Peter Nygard that was based on interviews with the clothing manufacturer’s former employees.
Nygard officials have many beefs about the documentary and have launched civil suits not just in Winnipeg, but also in New York, Los Angeles, and the Bahamas. This particular Winnipeg-based lawsuit, launched before the documentary aired, deals with the company’s claim the CBC induced and conspired with Nygard employees to breach confidentiality agreements they signed with the fashion company.
A separate criminal suit was also launched last April in Winnipeg, with lawyers for Nygard launching a direct criminal prosecution for defamatory libel against the CBC and three of its employees — including Fifth Estate host Bob McKeown.
The criminal suit, which includes sworn testimony from a Scotland Yard detective working undercover for Nygard in the Bahamas, claims the CBC conspired with enemies of Nygard to discredit him. Those people include billionaire Louis Bacon, Nygard’s former neighbour in the Bahamas, and Allan and Michelle May, two longtime con artists featured prominently in the documentary.
All allegations have yet to be proven.

james.turner@sunmedia.ca

Driving home the hypocrisy : Prime time : SunNews Video Gallery

Driving home the hypocrisy : Prime time : SunNews Video Gallery

Lorne Gunter: Big cuts needed in Ottawa’s bloated public service

Lorne Gunter Jan 23, 2012

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The very left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) – it’s never met a tax increase, a social program or a government expansion it didn’t like – warns that over the next four years the federal Tories intend to cut 50,000 to 60,000 public-sector jobs or “private-sector jobs funded by the government.”
I wish.
My biggest disappointment with the Tories since they took office in 2006 has been the way they have continued to expand the size and cost of government, just as the Liberals before them did. I only wish they would find the courage to roll back the size of the civil service. At 17% of total federal spending, civil service pay is now Ottawa’s biggest single expense. Without cuts in the number of bureaucrats, the federal government will never be able to balance its budget again.
Not surprisingly, the CCPA study was funded, in part, by the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), two of the largest unions in the federal public service. The PIPSC made news last November when it voted to up its radicalism and join the Canadian Labour Congress so it could wage war on the Tory government, which is charged was plotting to “change the nature of Canada” by launching an “all-out attack on unionized employees in this country, particularly those … working in Canada’s public service.”
Also not surprisingly, the Toronto Star report on the CCPA study makes no mention of the study’s very biased sponsors. No sense undermining the reports credibility by identifying the CCPA sugar-daddies behind its conclusions!
Here are some key facts to keep in mind about the federal budget in general and the cost of the civil service in particular:
Two years ago, Ottawa had a deficit of $55.6 billion, on revenues of $218.6 billion and expenses of $274.2 billion. Last year it cut that deficit to $33.4 billion, but almost entirely because revenues returned to pre-recession levels. In 2010-11, federal revenues were $237.1 billion — $18.5 billion ahead of a year earlier. That’s the second-highest revenue total on record, just behind the $242.2 billion Ottawa raked in in 2007-08.
Ottawa cut only $3.7 billion in spending between 2010 and 2011, and most of that wasn’t deliberate. It was the result of lower unemployment payments and less stimulus spending, things that occurred without the federal government lifting a finger.
The key is: Ottawa doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. In the coming budget cycle, you will hear plenty of lefty politicians, activists and think tanks (such as the CCPA and its public-sector union sponsors) claiming that if Ottawa wants to balance its budget it must raise taxes rather than cutting vital public services.
But in the last 20 years, federal-government revenues have doubled, while over the same period, inflation has gone up by 45%. Even after accounting for both inflation and population growth, federal revenues are one-quarter higher than they were in 1992. And since just over 90% of federal revenues come from individuals and businesses (just under 10% comes from Crown corporations and the sale of government goods and services), Canadians are already taxed enough.
If the budget is to be balanced again, the balance has to be found on the spending side, not the revenue side, and what better place to start than with Ottawa’s largest, single expense – civil service pay.
Each of the more than 450,000 federal civil servants costs taxpayers an average of $92,000 annually for salaries, benefits and pension contributions, according to James Lahey, a former senior bureaucrat who has done the most comprehensive studies yet into civil service pay and benefits. The cost of a federal civil servant is nearly $20,000 a year more than the cost of an average private-sector worker.
And in the past decade under first the Liberals and later the Tories, there has been an explosion in the size of the federal civil service. While the Liberals under Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Finance Minister Paul Martin did make real cuts in public-sector employment in the early years of their government, they had replaced all those jobs and then some before leaving office in 2006. While direct federal employment (not including the military, RCMP and Crown corporations) fell from 245,000 in 1994 to 195,000 in 1999, by 2004, the Liberals were once again employing 235,000 public workers.
Moreover, the 2004 civil service was costing taxpayers 50 per cent more than the lean civil service of 1999. While the number of civil servants had grown by just 20 per cent in five years, their pay and benefits had mushroomed by half because among the new hires were far more administrators and professionals and fewer blue-collar workers, clerks and secretaries.
Since replacing the Liberals in 2006, the Tories have added 13% to the rolls of bureaucrats themselves. A large part of that has been an expansion of the military, police and border service, but Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research have all expanded, too. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada has grown by 47%, Aboriginal Affairs by 32% and Citizenship and Immigration by 28%.
Cutting 50,000 or 60,000 federal bureaucrats – the amount warmed about by CCPA – would merely return the civil service to 2002 levels. That would hardly be an Armageddon for public services or – as PIPSC worries – for Canada as we know it.
National Post

A lesson for us all .

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A ... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.
These are possibly the 5 best points you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.


2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.


3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.


4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!


5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Received via e-mail

Canada’s cheapest tuitions are still too much for Quebec students

Kelly McParland Jan 19, 2012 – 11:53 AM ET | Last Updated: Jan 19, 2012 12:16 PM ET

Times must be tougher in Quebec than we knew.
According to the Fédération Étudiante Universitaire du Québec, the biggest student union in the province, Quebec students will be crushed by a planned tuition increase.
Federation president Martine Desjardins says 55% of student have to work all year to pay for their education as is. “With the tuition hike planned, about 40 per cent of students say they may have to drop out of school.”
But wait a minute. The average tuition fee at the moment is $2,168. That’s less than half what students pay in most provinces. More like a third. And the increase would only take it to $3,793, five years from now. It costs more for a couple of months of daycare in Toronto than it does for a year of university tuition in Quebec.
So how can students be working 52 weeks a year to earn $2,168? That’s $42 a week. Or about four hours at minimum wage.
Of course there are other costs besides tuition, but housing in Quebec is generally also lower than other provinces. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, student debt among graduates in Quebec is the lowest in the country. In ROC it’s $27,000, in Quebec it’s $13,000.
So 40% of the university students in the province are going to drop out over an increase of $1,625 spread over five years, even though they still get through school on much less than it costs everyone else? Evidently students in the rest of the country see a greater value in higher education than students in Quebec.
National Post

Oilsands explained !  What is oilsand ? Was rejecting it a good move ?

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/business/2012/01/21/ym-xyz-keystone-xl-political.cnn

Is this a good use of 500 Million dollars of Taxpayers money ?


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089746/Bankrupt-Solyndra-caught-destroying-parts-worth-millions--despite-owing-taxpayer-half-billion-dollars.html

Levin: Tell ABC's Ross To 'Find Out Who Obama's Drug Pusher Was'

By Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr.

January 20, 2012

Subscribe to Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr.'s posts

Last night, Mark Levin asked his producer to call Brian Ross at ABC News to find out who used to be President Obama’s “ex-drug pusher.”
“Mr. Producer, wake up Brian-what’s his name-Brian Ross again, ABC News, the senior investigative reporter. Tell him to find out who Obama’s drug pusher was, would you please? Oh, use this; say it’s an ex-drug pusher because he likes to look into things that begin with e-x, an ex-drug pusher.”
Levin’s request was prompted by a caller who said that the best ways to choose someone for the job of the presidency is to look into that person’s history. The caller was defending the ABC News interview with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife and her revelations concerning their love life.
Levin asked the caller if he would also “want to know about Obama’s drug dealer.” The caller answered, “No” – to which Levin replied:
“I want to know all about Gingrich’s love life, his wife, the cheating, this and that-you want to know about Obama’s drug dealer? No. Now he doesn’t want to know who Barack Obama’s drug dealer was…and we know Obama used drugs, he said so in his book.”

What Media Biased ???  Why Did Jack Layton get a free pass ?  How many heard of this ?

Iran Threatens To Torpedo US Carriers In The Persian Gulf

Robert Johnson|January 18, 2012|

13,198|105

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Underscoring its desire to keep U.S. aircraft carriers from the Persian Gulf, a senior Iranian military commander today announced his possible plan to ambush the American fleet.
Chalk this one up to more bluster, or part of a mounting back and forth rhetoric headed nowhere good, either way — Tehran plans to rely on its subs.
Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad, Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri told FARS that Iran has the finest electric diesel submarines in the world, and that while the U.S. has focused on Tehran's "astonishing surface capabilities," it has forgotten about the underwater threat.

Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-18/news/30638111_1_supreme-leader-tehran-plans-iran-claims#ixzz1jxlLMJUf
Amiri said he plans to slip his fleet of subs onto the Persian Gulf floor and "fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously."
Iran claims to have 17 Ghadir diesel electric subs in its fleet, and four have been photographed together, so the threat is not entirely without merit.
The Ghadir is incapable of holding a commando crew, and despite scant details it may be well-equipped to follow through on this most recent threat.
Earlier this month Iran demanded the U.S. remove its carriers from the Gulf after the John C. Stennis passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi said "We advise, warn and recommend [the U.S. Navy] not to return this carrier to its previous location in the Persian Gulf."
"We are not in the habit of repeating the warning and we warn only once," Salehi said, without mentioning the Stennis.
In a related update: FARS reports that President Obama is calling for direct talks with Iran and communicated this desire through a secret letter to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader.
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Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-18/news/30638111_1_supreme-leader-tehran-plans-iran-claims#ixzz1jxll0pUJ

(wikipedia commons)