Monthly Archives: February 2012

Deadly Violence Resurfaces in Nepal’s Political Turmoil

The United Ethnic Liberation Front claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack. The group could be trying to get attention for its demands by attacking the state oil company at a time of public grievance against recent fuel-price increases and energy shortages, experts said.

A bomb exploded near a government office in Katmandu, Nepal, killing three men and injuring seven in what appeared to be the first major terrorist incident in the country since the end of a civil war six years ago.

The police said a group calling itself the United Ethnic Liberation Front took responsibility for Monday’s blast, which went off near the gate of state-owned Nepal Oil Corp. and close to government offices. No details about the group were immediately available.

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Riots flare in China’s region of ethnic tension

In recent years, the region has been quiet, but in 2009 almost 200 people died in race riots in the capital of Urumqi, which saw ethnic Uighurs fight against Han Chinese.

At least 12 people have been killed in riots in western China, according to state media.

A mob armed with knives attacked victims outside the city of Yecheng, in the Xinjiang region, early yesterday (Tuesday) evening. Xinhua state news agency said the rioters had killed 10 people, and that police had shot two of them dead.

The riot broke out on the opening day of a 3.64 billion yuan (pounds 364million) highway linking Yecheng to Kashgar, 155 miles away. Yecheng is a main entry point for Han Chinese migrants into western Xinjiang, and is also one of the closest points in China to the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For years, Beijing has said it is fighting terrorists who want to separate Xinjiang from Chinese rule. Between 1990 and 2003, according to state media, more than 300 terrorists escaped through Yecheng into Pakistan.

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Original source.


Media Matters boss paid former partner $850G ‘blackmail’ settlement

David Brock, 49, heads the non-profit Media Matters for America, which bills itself as a watchdog of the conservative media but has recently come under fire for allegedly coordinating with Democrats in what could be a violation of its tax-exempt status.


Media Matters CEO David Brock

Media Matters chief David Brock paid a former domestic partner $850,000 after being threatened with damaging information involving the organization’s donors and the IRS – a deal that Brock later characterized as a blackmail payment, according to legal documents obtained by FoxNews.com.

In an acrimonious lawsuit settled at the end of last year, Brock accused William Grey of making repeated threats to expose him to the “scorn or ridicule of his employees, donors and the press in demanding money and property.” Brock claimed in legal papers that he sold a Rehoboth Beach, Del., home he once shared with Grey in order to meet Grey’s demands, which he called “blackmail” in the lawsuit.

Brock, 49, heads the non-profit Media Matters for America, which bills itself as a watchdog of the conservative media but has recently come under fire for allegedly coordinating with Democrats in what could be a violation of its tax-exempt status.

Brock’s bitter legal battle with Grey, who is described in a Sept. 14, 2010, police report obtained by FoxNews.com as his domestic partner of more than 10 years, began after Brock began dating Washington, D.C., restaurant impresario James Alefantis about five years ago. For the next three years, Brock and Grey traded angry accusations, which were documented in the police report and were the foundation of a pitched legal battle replete with charges of blackmail, theft and financial malfeasance.

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Original source.


#Occupy90210 Tells BreitbartTV They’ve Had It With Obama (Video)

BreitbartTV’s Christian Hartsock attended #Occupy90210 this week where energies channeled against President Obama as he attended a $35,800-a-plate dinner with Hollywood moguls in Beverly Hills. He is now under fire for accepting unlimited SuperPAC money, thus repudiating his own stances on campaign finance.


The Ghettoization of Hollywood

The easiest way to bypass the culture clash is to turn out action movies that are all sound and fury. The blockbuster has evolved or devolved into a special effects spectacle with completely disposable characters and, increasingly, even actors. It is a form of entertainment that can be enjoyed even without the ability to understand a single word. Which makes it a portable commodity that can play anywhere from Beijing to Bahrain to Boston.

Once again the movie industry is throwing itself a lavish party, one in a series of them, even though there is surprisingly little to celebrate. Movie attendance in 2011 hit a fifteen-year low, and while the industry isn’t doing as badly as its counterparts in the music industry, beneath the greasepaint and glamour, it is panicking every bit as badly.

There’s still plenty of money to be made, but the industry has the clear sense that it has lost its audience. And it has.

The movie industry began, as so much else, with the mass production of theatrical entertainment from classical drama to low vaudeville spectacle. Public entertainment no longer had to be an in-person show repeated anew each time and in each place. Now everyone across the nation and across the world could hear the same soliloquy, see the same pratfall and thrill to adventures that could not be performed on stage.

For all the technology, the movie took American culture and used film to reproduce it in palatable form to large audiences. Like mass produced suits, the cinema took a unique experience and turned it into a universal one. But selling films was much trickier than selling suits and involved far more risks, and while the analogy seems distant, fashion and entertainment have a great deal in common.

When you sell wares that depend on the public taste, you have to try and manipulate that taste while at the same trying to get out in front of it. Both fashion and entertainment frantically chase trends and leap on anything that smacks of youth, while trying to fuse it with their own dated tastes, constantly reviving and retrofitting the old to make it new again. At their worst, both end up selling a product with no content, a product that is all hype, but is not remotely wearable or viewable.

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Original source.


It’s Coming: Union, Leftist Leaders Announce ‘99% Spring?’… and Training in ‘Places of Worship’

“This spring we rise!” the website declares. “We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.”

Since Occupy Wall Street seemingly went into hibernation (we note seemingly because the movement keeps popping up despite what some national outlets are reporting), The Blaze has brought you plenty of analysis theorizing that the spring could be an even bigger time for the movement. Now, it looks like those theories have been confirmed: the unions and other leftists have announced a “99% spring.”

Original source.


Want to Visit This National Monument in Arizona? You’ll Need an Armed Escort for That

Ken Hires explained that some law enforcement officers would be hiding in the hills and closely watching the two-hour nature hike, while another pair of armed rangers would follow the tourists closely from the ground. “They’ll have M14s at hand,” he told the group. “Don’t be worried.”

As voters head to the polls in the Grand Canyon state to cast their votes for a GOP primary candidate, Arizona is still being overrun with illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. If you’ve ever wanted to visit Organ Pipe National Monument, located near Tucson along the U.S.-Mexico border, you’ll need a heavily armed escort to do so. A decade ago, a park ranger was shot and killed in the park by armed illegal smugglers touting AK-47s. Just three years ago, the park started offering van tours escorted by rangers armed with semi-automatic weapons.

Since 2009, the park has offered van tours to the springs, as long as rangers armed with assault rifles go along to protect the visitors. Now, ten years after Eggle’s murder, the park’s leadership has decided to open up a portion of the closed areas to the public in March, citing improved safety conditions and a big increase in Border Patrol agents in the area.

“There is a chance we might have to cancel the tour if there’s some sort of apprehension in progress,” Park Ranger Karl Sommerhauser, wearing a bulky dark green bulletproof vest, told the tourists last week. Sommerhauser had an ear piece curling out of his left ear. “We expect you to take direction from Ken,” he said sternly.

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Original source.


Video: PJTV – Bill Whittle – The Narrative – Political Correctness

An episode of Bill Whittle’s PJTV show ‘Afterburner’ with a discussion of the insidious political narrative of left-wing politics, mainstream media and the education system, from the mid twentieth century to today.


Idaho – Train

“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.” William Shakespeare


Defense Of Corrupt Freddie/Fannie Execs $200 Mil And Growing

As if it weren’t atrocious enough that U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for the monumental bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they’re also getting squeezed for tens of millions more to cover the legal costs of the corrupt executives who drove the government-run mortgage giants to the ground.

So far the legal tab has run north of $200 million and it will only keep growing, according to the government agency (Federal Housing Finance Agency—FHFA) that oversees Fannie and Freddie. In a report released this week, the FHFA’s inspector general reveals that the unscrupulous officers responsible for Fannie and Freddie’s collapse have mounting legal bills and taxpayers will continue picking up the exorbitant tab.

They are charged with a variety of crimes, including securities and accounting fraud, and the cases are expected to drag on right along with their already-bloated defense funds. In fact, the inspector general suggests the government only work to “limit” (not stop) legal expenses “to the extent possible and reasonable.” Another brilliant suggestion from the FHFA’s watchdog, which supposedly is looking out for taxpayers, is to “control costs of legal expenses.”

It’s like there’s no end to the Freddie and Fannie madness. Political corruption of epic proportions is at the heart of the scandal. The lenders collapsed because those who operated them played fast and loose with accounting, risk assessment and executive compensation issues while Congress looked the other way and protected them from much-needed regulation. For years Freddie and Fannie backed risky mortgages and implemented a policy of lending to high-risk individuals with poor credit.

Lawmakers, including then-Senator Barack Obama, protected Fannie and Freddie from proper oversight because they got political contributions from the mortgage giants. In fact, Judicial Watch uncovered records that show for more than six years members of Congress were aware of the massive problems at Fannie and Freddie yet they did nothing. As a result taxpayers are on the hook for at least $400 billion and $5 trillion in mortgage liabilities.

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Original source.