Communist China abolishes re-education camps

"Study hard the words of Chairman Mao and you will get
an extra helping of lima beans in your gruel." 

 

 

In a step toward rule of law, China’s national legislature on Saturday voted to abolish a much-criticized penal system that allowed police to lock up people for up to four years without due process.

The standing committee of the National People’s Congress adopted a resolution to abolish the re-education labor system, formalizing a November decision by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, according to the official Xinhua News Agency and the state-run China Central Television reports the Washington Times.

State media said all those serving time in the labor camps would be set free starting Saturday, but that the penalties handed out before the abolition would still be considered legitimate, a provision aimed at preventing the victims from suing the state and seeking redress.

Established to punish early critics of the Communist Party, the penal system was retooled to focus on petty criminals. In recent years, however, it had been used by local officials to deal with people challenging their authority on issues including land rights and corruption.

“It has become a tool of revenge and retaliation,” Wang Gongyi, a former director of a research institute under the Chinese Ministry of Justice, said earlier this year.

As Florida grows does it kill off the GOP?

Florida - What is there not to like?
Panama City Beach Spring Break revelers set a new Guinness World Record for
World's Largest Bikini Parade at 450 participants.

Florida Passes New York

The Sunshine State is growing but this is

not good news for the GOP.

For decades the Republican Party has cheered the population growth in the southern and western sun belt states and a shift of Congressional seats away from the more Democratic north.  That was fine in the short term, but now the GOP is hitting a wall of new Democrat voters.

Population shifts have turned Republican California into a Democrat People's Republic.  Now those shifts are hard at work on Florida.  The GOP will have to adapt or die.

New York, whose status as the most populous state has long been ceded, will soon fall behind Florida into fourth place

Census Bureau demographers expect that Florida and New York will be narrowly separated — perhaps by as little as a few thousand people — and that if Florida does not pass New York this time, it almost certainly will do so in 2014.

The census figures underscore immigration trends, as foreign-born migrants continue to move to warm-weather states such as California and Texas — No. 1 and 2, respectively — as well as to Florida reports the Times Union.

The newcomers also include winter-weary New Yorkers who move or retire to Florida at a rate of more than 50,000 a year, twice the number of Floridians who head to New York.

Florida Becomes Purple

In the 2010 nationwide Republican landslide the GOP almost lost the Florida Governorship (below).  Senator Marco Rubio's percentage of 48.9% was nearly identical to Scott's.  Add in that Bill Clinton carried Florida in 1996, Al Gore almost winning it in 2000 and Comrade Obama carried the state in both 2008 and 2012.

.

If the GOP cannot find a formula to break into states like Florida, Ohio or Pennsylvania then it will never again win a Presidential election and over time will lose seats in Congress.  Increasingly the U.S. will look more and more like the People's Republic of Venezuela.  Capitalism and freedom will vanish.

.

2010 General Election Results for Governor of Florida
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Republican	Rick Scott & Jennifer Carroll	2,619,335	48.87%
	Democratic	Alex Sink & Rod Smith	2,557,785	47.72%
	Independence	Peter Allen & John E Zanni	123,831	2.31%
	No party	Michael E. Arth & Al Krulick	18,644	0.35%
	No party	Farid Khavari & Darcy G. Richardson	7,487	0.14%
	No party	C. C. Reed & Larry Waldo, Sr.	18,842	0.35%
	No party	Daniel Imperato & Karl C.C. Behm	13,690	0.26%
	No party	Josue Larose & Valencia St Louis (write-in)	121	0.00%
Totals			5,359,735	100%
	Republican hold

Immigration to Florida
Some 847,550 Puerto Ricans have moved to Florida.  Plus Florida has seen
massive immigration from Caribbean and Latin American countries.

Hispanics in Selected States
9% - Georgia  /  23% - Florida  /  8% - Virginia

8% - North Carolina   /   30% - Arizona   /   27% - Nevada

38% - Texas   /   21% - Colorado   /   11% - Washington state

Food Nazis to ban the cinnamon bun

Food Nazis at Work

• Traditional Danish pastries threatened by EU cinnamon ban.
• "An average person would have to eat so many Danish pastries in order to be effected, they would certainly die of obesity before being hurt by a low level of cinnamon," said Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader of Ukip.

The season's festivities in Denmark have been overshadowed by the prospect that it could be the last Danish Christmas before a European Union ban on their beloved kanelsnegler or cinnamon rolls.

The proposed ban followed plans by Denmark's food safety agency to implement EU regulations aimed at limiting the amount of coumarin, a naturally occurring toxic chemical found in the most commonly used type of cinnamon, cassia.
 

Under Danish interpretation of the EU legislation the amount of cinnamon in "everyday fine baked goods" will be limited to 15mg per kilo meaning a ban on Kanelsnegler pastries, a winter favourite in all Nordic countries, which take their name from their coiled snail shape reports the UK Telegraph.
 

The move has provoked a furious reaction from Danish bakers because neighbouring Sweden has decided to save their spicy pastries, known as kanenbullar in Swedish, by classing them as a traditional and seasonal dish with a permitted cinnamon level over three times higher, at 50mg per kilo.
 

"It's the end of the cinnamon roll as we know it," said Hardy Christensen, the head of the Danish Baker's Association.

"Cinnamon rolls are of course a traditional Danish baked product. We've been making bread and cakes with cinnamon for 200 years."

Following the row, dubbed "cinnamon-gate", the Danish food authorities have given kanelsnegler a temporary reprieve until next February while insisting "consumers should not run a risk when they eat cinnamon rolls".

In Norway, where the pasties are known as skillingsboller, the country's food agency issued Christmas advice warning that "heavy users of cinnamon should limit their intake".

British research has concluded that "the extent to which coumarin is bad for the health is debatable" bypassing the need for specific UK legislation to enforce the EU laws.

"Research has shown that the average dietary intake of the UK population does not exceed the safe limits," said CBI advice for cinnamon importers to Britain.

Cinnamon intake among South Asians, who consume 10 times more of it than any other section of the British population, mainly in curry spices, was only 0.022 mg per kilo of body weight, five times less that the EU limit.

"An average person would have to eat so many Danish pastries in order to be effected, they would certainly die of obesity before being hurt by a low level of cinnamon," said Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader of Ukip.

"We don't need the nanny state or the EU to tell us what do and certainly not how many Danish pastries we should eat for Christmas."

Thanks to the Libertarian Republican for a heads up on this story.

Larry Pressler runs for Senate as a pro-Obama independent

The Loons Are Out Early

• Ex-GOP Senator Pressler to run for his old seat as an independent pro-Obama, anti-debt, anti-war Conservative.  Call me crazy, but I am not sure what voter group he is trying to appeal to.

Former South Dakota Senator Republican Larry Pressler, made it official Thursday he will run for his old seat as an independent reports KELO TV.

The 71-year-old Republican, who some in the GOP worry might become a spoiler if his bid gains traction.

Comrade Obama lost South Dakota by 18 percentage points last year and has become increasingly unpopular there reports Politico.  Pressler supported Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
 

Former GOP Governor Mike Rounds
is a favorite to win the seat.

“I voted for Obama for conservative reasons,” Pressler told POLITICO in a Tuesday phone interview from Sioux Falls. “I sense that there’s an early effort to identify me before I can identify myself.”

He said he backed Obama because the Democrat promised to bring troops home from overseas and cut the national debt.

“I’ve been disappointed that he’s been taken over by the military-industrial state,” Pressler said of the president. “I shall propose in my announcement speech, if I give it, that we get out of Afghanistan within a year.”

Pressler lost in 1996 to Democrat Tim Johnson, who will retire when his term expires after the 2014 election. Former Republican Gov. Mike Rounds is the heavy favorite to win the Senate seat.

The top Democratic recruits passed on running, and the national party has been slow to rally behind Rick Weiland, a former aide to ex-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle.

“We feel that if we can obtain 35 to 40 percent of the vote we can win,” Pressler said of the three-way contest.

Pressler, the first Vietnam veteran elected to the Senate, said the U.S. should not be “in a state of constant war.”

The odds are against Pressler in a strongly Conservative South Dakota.

Christian mob destroys third mosque in CAR

Christians Strike Back!

'We don't want Muslims here; they must leave'.

An angry mob on Friday destroyed a third mosque near Bangui, the violence-wracked capital of the Central African Republic (CAR).

The destroyed mosque had served a Muslim community of about 100 members in Bassekotto, located 7km from Bangui.

"No one was injured in the morning attack," Imam Ahmed Tijan Naib of Bangui's central mosque, told Anadolu Agency.  He said the attack had taken place at about 10am before Muslims had started converging for weekly Friday prayers reports the Turkish Weekly.
.

Efforts by an AA correspondent to reach the area's local imam were unsuccessful, as the latter's cell phone was turned off.

An eyewitness told AA that a group of about 80 Christians had come with hammers, pipes and sticks and began destroying the mosque before eventually setting it ablaze.

"You could see the hatred in their faces. They kept chanting, 'We don't want Muslims here; they must leave'," Naib said.

It was the third mosque to be destroyed recently in or near Bangui, which has witnessed widespread sectarian violence in past weeks.  One mosque was destroyed in Fouh earlier this month. Another was destroyed in Gobongo, some 10km from Bangui, on December 20.

CAR, a landlocked, mineral-rich country, descended into anarchy in March, when Muslim Seleka rebels ousted Christian president François Bozize, who had come to power in a 2003 coup.
.
The country has since been plagued by tit-for-tat sectarian violence between the self-styled Christian militias, known as "anti-balaka," and former seleka fighters.

According to UN estimates, more than 400,000 people – nearly ten percent of the country's 4.6 million-strong population – have abandoned their homes as a result of the violence.


Christian militiamen walking in a clearing near Bangui,
capital of the Central African Republic.
See more at Reuters News.
(AP Photo)

Liberals Oppose Buffalo Sex - And the horror of hunger goes on and on

"Thou Shalt Not Hump"

• Liberal Conservationists in California have put bison on birth control to prevent new baby bison.  This is considered "enlightened" in a world of hungry people.
• On the other hand, a Conservative John Muir Conservationist would encourage endless bison humping and the birth of baby bison.  The meat of the "extra" bison would be used to feed hungry children. 

Liberalism is a Mental Disorder  -  It is bad enough that Liberals fall all over themselves to abort or birth control every human baby possible.  Now that strange form of mental illness has moved into environmentalism with birth control for buffalo.  Under Liberalism they want just enough buffalo to "look at" in parks but never in large enough numbers so they can be used commercially to feed people.

A contraceptives program launched in 2009 on Catalina Island has been deemed an effective and more humane way of controlling the bison population than relocation, according to a new study by the Catalina Island Conservancy that will be published this month.

The new program is a form of immuno-contraception, using porcine zona pellucida (PZP) applied in a very small dose administered by a dart or syringe.

“It follows the same rules as a vaccine,” Duncan said. “The bison are doing what they were doing before and it’s not causing any difference in hormones or behavior,” reports the Daily Breeze.

The contraceptive has been used for fertility control in zoos, wild horses and white-tailed deer. The females are administered two doses their first year of the program and then one every year after that. This program is more cost-effective and efficient for the biologists, who no longer have to corral the huge animals or find them across the island. The population now is already stabilized at 159 animals.

The program has allowed wildlife biologists to keep population levels that are both beneficial to the herds of bison as well as the ecological health of the island.

“It’s a long-term program,” said Calvin Duncan, a wildlife biologist who co-led the contraceptives effort. “The conservancy is looking to find a balance. The bison have been really ingrained into the culture and the residents love them. Hopefully, this is something that can be considered in other bison herds.”

Bison were introduced to Catalina Island in 1924 for a movie that was never made, but have become somewhat of a historical icon indicative of the island’s wildlife. Over time, the herd grew to more than 600 animals, creating a need to remove bison off the island.

The conservancy had been shipping bison off to auction houses or relocating them to Native American reservations.

Think of the Children

But Liberals refuse to think of the children and would rather

they go hungry than eat buffalo meat.

"I am so hungry and liberal environmentalists
won't let me eat a buffalo burger."

Santa Catalina Island, a closed environment where Liberals can properly control the births and deaths of all living creatures.

New Obamacare taxes coming in 2014

"From each according to their ability"

The real question is, are there enough tax-payers left who care?

Obama’s massive health-care law will hit Americans in 2014 as new taxes pile up on their insurance premiums and on their income-tax bills.

Most insurers aren’t advertising the ObamaCare taxes that are added on to premiums, opting instead to discretely pass them on to customers while quietly lobbying lawmakers for a break.

But one insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, laid bare the taxes on its bills with a separate line item for “Affordable Care Act Fees and Taxes,” reports the New York Post.

After Obamacare taxes this is all
you can afford to eat.

The new taxes on one customer’s bill added up to $23.14 a month, or $277.68 annually, according to Kaiser Health News. It boosted the monthly premium from $322.26 to $345.40 for that individual.

The new taxes and fees include a 2 percent levy on every health plan, which is expected to net about $8 billion for the government in 2014 and increase to $14.3 billion in 2018.

There’s also a $2 fee per policy that goes into a new medical-research trust fund called the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Insurers pay a 3.5 percent user fee to sell medical plans on the HealthCare.gov Web site.

ObamaCare taxes don’t stop with health-plan premiums.

Americans also will pay hidden taxes, such as the 2.3 percent medical-device tax that will inflate the cost of items such as pacemakers, stents and prosthetic limbs.

Those with high out-of-pocket medical expenses also will get smaller income-tax deductions.

Americans are currently allowed to deduct expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of their annual income. The threshold jumps to 10 percent under ObamaCare, costing taxpayers about $15 billion over 10 years.

Then there’s the new Medicare tax.

Under ObamaCare, individual tax filers earning more than $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000 will pay an added 0.9 percent Medicare surtax on top of the existing 1.45 percent Medicare payroll tax. They’ll also pay an extra 3.8 percent Medicare tax on unearned income, such as investment dividends, rental income and capital gains.

Christmas Eve demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israel

Father and child amongst their belongings following the demolition of their home.

Property Rights Ignored

• There is plenty of finger pointing and blame to go around in the Middle East.  But one thing is for sure, when Israel bulldozes Arab homes and turns Arab land over to Jewish settlers they are not making friends with their neighbors.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees has condemned Israel's demolition of Palestinian Bedouin dwellings in the West Bank, calling for an immediate halt.

"UNRWA condemns the latest demolitions in the West Bank, which displaced 68 people, the most recent of which occurred on Christmas Eve," spokesman Chris Gunness said  in a statement.

“The demolitions took place in Ein Ayoub near Ramallah and Fasayil al-Wusta near Jericho in the Jordan valley with 61 persons displaced in Ein Ayoub, and seven persons, all refugees, displaced in Fasayil al-Wusta," Gunness said. He added that 32 of those displaced were children, "including a five year old girl who is paralyzed from the waist down," reports RT News.

Gunness stated that at least 663 Palestinian buildings – including 259 homes – have been demolished, and 1,103 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year.

The spokesman urged Israel to obey international laws and halt demolitions.

Israel maintains that it only dismantles buildings that were put up without permission. But Palestinians say they are almost never granted permits.

A Bedouin refugee child standing on the site of his demolished home.
Image from UNRWA

 Palestinian Christian Daoud Nassar
"The Israelis want this whole area. Their plan is to force as many of us as possible to leave," said Palestinian Christian Daoud Nassar, who is fighting to hold on to his family's farm in Nahalin.
.
There cannot be peace in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world, unless the right of individuals to own private property is respected by governments and protected by the courts.
.
See our article:  "Do Arabs have Property Rights?"

In 1991, the Israeli military committee had ordered three-fourths of the Nassar farm taken by the state, claiming it was neither privately owned nor actively cultivated. The family went to court to challenge the order with land ownership papers dated and stamped 1924. But the military judge rejected the challenge, ruling the hand-drawn map inadmissible as evidence.

The ownership papers had been honored by Turkish, British and Jordanian rulers who came and went. And until the 1991 order, there had been no hint of trouble with the new Jewish government.

"No more Witches as Candidates" says Chamber of Commerce

No Witches or Retards Please

• The Socialists will normally paint any type of Conservative as an insane kook.  We should not hand issues to them on a silver platter by nominating retards.

Anti-Obama Conservatives have lost multiple winnable US Senate elections to the Marxist Democrats in recent years by nominating some real screw-ups.  We either clean up our act and nominate quality candidates or the country will become a People's Republic like Venezuela.

The Chamber of Commerce is planning to spend at least $50 million on a campaign to boost establishment Republicans in primaries against Tea Party challengers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The group’s broader aim is to help the GOP win Senate control and block Tea Party Republican candidates who might lose otherwise winnable seats to Democrats reports The Hill.

“Our No. 1 focus is to make sure, when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates,” Chamber political strategist Scott Reed tells the Journal. “That will be our mantra: No fools on our ticket.”

The organization has been gearing up for a more confrontational approach toward Tea Party Republicans since the government shutdown. It has already been involved in some special elections for House primaries, and is supporting Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) against his Tea Party primary foe.

Hard-right, mistake-prone Senate candidates are widely perceived to have cost the GOP five Senate seats in recent years, in states including Missouri, Nevada, Indiana and Delaware.

 

Snowden cites Orwell & Conservatives rally around Big Borther

Snowden's Christmas Day Message

The first thing I see on Fox News the next morning after Snowden's speech is a "fair and balanced" panel of three of those phony "small government" Conservatives ripping into Snowden and defending the unconstitutional 1984 Police Surveillance State. 

In disgust I turned off Fox and put in a Three Stooges DVD.  The Stooges are at least honest in their stupidity compared to the moron talking heads on TV.

Edward Snowden invoked George Orwell, someone so many police state loving right and left wingers want to pretend never existed.  Snowden warned of the dangers of unchecked government surveillance Wednesday in a televised Christmas message to the British people that reflected his growing willingness to take a public role in the debate he ignited.

Speaking directly into the camera from Moscow, where he took refuge after leaking vast troves of information on NSA spying, Snowden said government surveillance methods far surpass those described in Orwell’s dystopic novel “1984.”

“The types of collection in the book — microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us — are nothing compared to what we have available today. We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go,” he said. “Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.”

The brief video marked Snowden’s first television appearance since he fled possible prosecution in the United States and arrived in Moscow in June.

It came days after The Washington Post published an extensive account of Snowden’s comments during more than 14 hours of interviews.

“The mission’s already accomplished,” he said. “I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.”

Snowden echoed those sentiments Wednesday, saying he sees an opportunity to “find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, asking is always cheaper than spying.”

(New York Post)