Violent Leftists protest Spanish Spending Cuts

Waving the Communist flag in Spain.
Violent Socialists riot in Spain because the right of center government dares to try and balance the budget and cut insane leftist spending. 

A Warning to the U.S.A. about Leftists holding power

• 23% unemployment in Socialist welfare state Spain.
• Mountains of debt that can never be paid off.
• A Socialist Entitlement Society where no one has no work and everybody get "free" stuff from the State. 

The Spanish government has vowed to stick to its labour market reforms, defying union leaders who threatened further unrest after staging the first general strike since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office three months ago.
                                                                          .
Demonstrators, brandishing a sea of red flags of Spain's major unions, marched down the Spanish capital's main streets towards the central Puerta del Sol square.
                                                                  .
Rajoy's conservative government says the new labour law, which makes it cheaper to lay off staff and easier to cut salaries, is needed to attack Spain's 22.85 per cent jobless rate. The government predicts the unemployment rate, already the highest among industralised nations, will rise to 24.3 per cent this year as another 630,000 people lose their jobs reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

About 800,000 people took part in street protests across Spain during a general strike held Thursday against labor market reforms and government spending cuts, the interior ministry said.

The largest demontrations were held in Galicia where 140,000 people turned out, in Madrid with 85,000 demonstrators, Andalusia with 80,000, the Basque Country with 85,000 and Catalonia with 68,000, according to ministry figures.

Spain's two main unions, the CCOO and the UGT, which organized the general strike and evening protests in over 100 cities and towns across the country said participation in the demonstrations was much higher.

Nearly one million people turned out to the protest in Madrid alone and 800,000 hit the streets of Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city.  Police shot smoke canisters and fired rubber bullets into the ground so they would ricochet into people's legs in the Catalan capital, television pictures showed, as a rubbish container burned in a city street.

Across the country 116 people were injured during the strike and protests -- 70 police officers and 46 protesters -- according to the interior ministry.

Violent Spanish Socialists riot over budget cuts.

Conservatives: "A 20% sales tax on fast food"

Conservatism in Action  -  A 20% sales tax on fast food.

"A wise and frugal Government shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."   - - - - Thomas Jefferson


The problem with so-called British (and European) "Conservatism" is they never had a Boston Tea Party.  Conservatism around the world has bought into the idea of the Marxist re-distribution of wealth and the cradle to grave welfare state.

Now in a totally natural and knee-jerk reaction to a budget deficit, the British Conservative Party proposes to increase taxes on the food people eat rather than cut the size of government.

The Conservative-led government's latest budget would put a tax on some of the nation's favorite hot snacks such as the humble meat pie.

Outlining Britain's annual budget last week, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne added previously tax-free treats such as pasties, sausage rolls and meat pies to the list of hot take-away food and meals bought from hamburger outlets and restaurants that are subject to the 20 percent value added tax imposed on most retail products and services reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The traditional meat pie of the southwest county of Cornwall is a favorite among the lower-income working population.


Osborne was challenged on the pasties tax by a parliamentary committee questioning him on the budget this week. "When was the last time you bought a pasty at Greggs?" Labor Party lawmaker John Mann asked him, referring to a low-price bakery chain.
                                        .
"I can't remember," answered the chancellor, looking flummoxed.
                                   .
"I think that sums it up," Mann said.
                                            .
Meanwhile tabloid newspapers have made a meal of the question. The popular Sun newspaper referred to Labor Party jibes that called Osborne a modern-day Marie Antoinette, the 19th century French queen famous for suggesting the starving population clamoring for bread should just eat cake.
.

(San Francisco Chronicle)

The Conservative Party "Pie Tax"   -   Greggs - a chain of bakers and makers of snack food in London, Wednesday, March, 28, 2012. The boss of Greggs has accused Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, of having "lost touch" after the Chancellor admitted he could not remember the last time he bought a pasty from the baker. Chief executive Ken McMeikan said ministers did not appreciate the impact changes to VAT rules would have on ordinary people. 

The high street chain saw millions wiped off its shares after the Budget closed a loophole that has meant some hot takeaway foods, such as sausage rolls and pasties, escaped the duty. The move - quickly dubbed the "pie tax" - sparked outrage, with critics pointing to the contrast of a cut in the 50p top tax rate.

Chinese Candidate Stripped, Beaten

Your passport to wealth and privilege  -  Membership card
to the Communist Party of China.

Communism in Action
The Elites of the West whore themselves to get into bed with the Communists and could care less about human rights inside the "People's Republic"



Authorities in Beijing detain a woman running in a district election in southern China's Jiangxi province.

                                                .

A Jiangxi-based laid-off worker who gained the backing of more than 30 people for her nomination in district elections has been strip-searched and beaten during several weeks' detention in an unofficial detention center, or "black jail," a Hong Kong-based rights group reports Radio Free Asia.

                                 .

Liu Ping was detained at the Beijing West Railway Station on March 6 by security personnel from her former employers, the state-owned Xinyu City Steel Group, and forced to return to the eastern province of Jiangxi, the China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said in an e-mailed statement.

"Her belongings were confiscated, and she was held temporarily in a black jail," CHRD said. "Her captors then forced Liu into a car and drove her back to Jiangxi."

The next day, Liu was blindfolded before being driven to a secret location, the group said.

Chinese candidate Liu Ping was stripped and beaten 
Liu Ping (l) with lawyer Li Zhiyong (r) in Wukan, Guangdong province.
.
While human rights are violated in China, the American Beltway Elite eagerly whore themselves to the Chinese Communists to become lobbyists and line their pockets with corrupt money.  The Elite in Congress sells out American workers and business giving the Communists Most Favored Nation Status in the U.S.

"[There,] three women then strip-searched Liu, damaging her clothes so badly that she was left virtually naked and completely disheveled," the statement, adding that the guards had refused Liu food during the daytime.

"When Liu confronted them about her mistreatment, the women beat and kicked her until she fell on the ground," CHRD said.

Liu was detained in "a windowless padded room equipped with surveillance cameras and monitored daily by three women and three men working in two shifts," CHRD said, adding that Liu was tied up and returned home on March 19 after she got sick.


Independent candidate

Before her candidacy for district People's Congress in Xinyu city was rejected, Liu had mustered a strong following among laid-off and retired workers, as well as existing workers who complained of poor conditions in their jobs.

In her declaration to her constituents that accompanied her application for candidacy, Liu promised, if elected, to "do everything in my power to reflect the voice of ordinary people."

"I am not an official, but I am wholeheartedly for the people," she wrote in the document, which has since been circulated online by Chinese netizens. "I have fought on the front line of rights defense work for a very long time, and while my powers are limited, I have never stopped trying!"

The Chinese authorities have warned that there is "no such thing" as an independent candidate, and that anyone hoping to stand for elections this year to the People's Congresses will first have to clear "due legal procedures," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
                                       .
(Radio Free Asia)

.
We workers are happy to toil for our Communist Masters in China.
Elections?  The Party says elections are a creation of decadent Western Culture.

No wonder the U.S. is bankrupt

The cost of Pentagon’s F-35 program is up 45 percent from $1 trillion a year ago.

• Like domestic spending, government spending for the military is out of control.
• The American economy cannot support a monster welfare state and military machine that sucks down money faster than taxpayers can earn it.

The U.S. government now projects that the total cost to develop, buy and operate Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be $1.45 trillion over the next 50-plus years, according to a Pentagon document obtained by Reuters. 


Something must be done about the insane levels of spending.  See our article:  THE FEDERALIST - "It is time to re-organize our military."

The Pentagon’s latest, staggering estimate of the lifetime cost of the F-35 -- its most expensive weapons program -- is up from about $1 trillion a year ago, and includes inflation. While inflation accounts for more than one-third of the projected F-35 operating costs, military officials and industry executives were quick to point out that it is nearly impossible to predict inflation over the next half-century.

The new cost estimate reflects the Pentagon’s proposal to postpone orders for 179 planes for five years, a move that U.S. official say will save $15.1 billion through 2017, and should avert costly retrofits if further problems arise during testing of the new fighter, which is only about 20 percent complete. 

The Pentagon still plans to buy 2,443 of the new radar-evading, supersonic warplanes, plus 14 development aircraft, in the coming decades, although Air Force Secretary Michael Donley last week warned that further technical problems or cost increases could eat away at those numbers. The new estimate, based on calculations made by the Cost Assessment Program Evaluation (CAPE) office, includes operating and maintenance costs of $1.11 trillion, including inflation, and development and procurement costs of $332 billion. 

The Pentagon office has a lower estimate for lifetime costs, although it is still around $1 trillion, according to two sources familiar with the estimates. The new baseline forecasts the average cost of the F-35 fighter, including research and development and inflation, at $135 million per plane, plus an additional $26 million for the F135 engine built by Pratt & Whitney. 

In 2012 dollars, the average cost of each single-seat, single-engine plane, including R&D, would be $112.5 million, plus $22 million for the engine.
.
(Hurriyet Daily News)

The economical World War II Jeep.
The U.S. used the Jeep to defeat the Empire of Japan and the Axis Powers.  But today the Jeep is not good enough for the military.  Instead we purchase massively expensive vehicles to transport soldiers.

Obama's Green Energy Marxism

Obama:  "Shut down the economy."
Comrade Obama, the Green Energy Marxist, wants to destroy jobs and capitalism by preventing the generation of electric power.   

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."


-- Ayn Rand  (Atlas Shrugged)



Comrade Obama has doomed American Society

• Luddite Marxist Obama and his lackeys are using environmental regulations to shut down Capitalism and the creation of jobs and wealth.
• Comrade Obama does not act alone.  Nearly his entire party backs his every move to attack job creation and economic freedom.

By Gary;

The Obama administration proposed the first rules to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new U.S. power plants, a move hotly contested by Republicans and industry in an election year.

                                             .
The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal would effectively stop the building of new energy generation plants if they use coal reports Reuters News.  The EPA is the main tool Comrade Obama has left to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which he pledged at an international climate meeting to cut by about 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.
                                                            .
Some Democrats from energy-intensive states also complained. "The overreaching that EPA continues to do is going to create a tremendous burden and hardship on the families and people of America," said Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia.

Green Marxism  -  The new tool by the Left
to destroy jobs and wealth creation.

Democrat Luddite Marxism


Red Flag waving Socialists have a hard time getting votes from those who work for a living when their platform is the elimination of jobs created by the "evil" capitalists.  But Leftists around the world have found a new way to appeal to the simple minded among us  -  Green Energy.
                                 .
Leftists like Comrade Obama now use the back-door Socialism of "Green Energy" to control and destroy the job creating capitalist machine. To these Fellow Travelers all energy sources that power a free market must be crushed . . . . with the added benefit that with fewer jobs created more and more people become dependent of the Big Brother State.
                                            .
Coal Electric Plants  -  Totally evil.  They give off CO2 and must be closed down and no new ones built.
                                                    .
Oil Powered Plants  -  Totally evil.  They give off CO2 and must be closed down and no new ones built.  But oil drilling is a two-fer for Eco-Marxists.  By opposing oil drilling they not only shut down power plants but attack industry and the ability of ordinary people to drive around in their cars without the permission of their Eco-Masters.
.
Nuclear Electric Plants  -  Totally evil.  We could all glow in the dark.  They must be closed down and no new ones built.

Hydroelectric Plants  -  Totally evil.  Little fish might get hurt.  They must be closed down and no new ones built.


Oil Pipelines  -  Totally evil.  Bringing oil in from Canada might power the job creating machine called the Free Market.


Wind Power Plants  -  In the process of becoming totally evil.  Eco-Marxists are now beating the drum that wind turbines are evil "bird blenders" that kill little birdies by the dozen.  Even endangered species have died in the blades of this monster!
                                             .
Natural Gas Electric Plants  -  Eco-Marxists pretend to like natural gas.  But getting gas requires you to drill into the ground.  And, as we all know, drilling is evil.
                                    .
The Light Bulb  -  Totally evil.  The safe and affordable 99 cent light bulb that allows the common people to see in the dark must be destroyed and replaced by ultra-expensive Socialist Approved light bulbs filled with deadly mercury.    
                                                                   .
And the insanity of Leftist goes on and on.
.
(Reuters News)

1984 - The Thought Police are here

1984  -  Really.  Think about it.  It there anything more stupid than a liberal?

• The Thought Police in liberal Democrat New York schools want to ban words like "religion", "sex", "cancer", "terrorism" and "dinosaur".
• Big Brother says we need to "re-educate" the children and protect them from thinking impure thoughts that are not government approved.

George Orwell's Thought Police are marching in the New York City Department of Education.  The touchy-feely Leftist Democrats of New York are waging a war on words that might upset the little children . . . or worse . . . cause the children to think non-government approved thoughts.  The insane liberals are seeking to have words they deem upsetting removed from school standardized tests.
                                               .
Fearing that certain words and topics can make students feel unpleasant, officials are requesting 50 or so words be removed from city-issued tests reports CBS News.
                                                                 .
The word “dinosaur” made the hit list because dinosaurs suggest evolution which creationists might not like. “Halloween” is targeted because it suggests paganism; a “birthday” might not be happy to all because it isn’t celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses.


Video  -  In honor of the New York City Dept. of "Education"

Banned in New York  -  Here is the complete list of words that could be banned:

Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)

Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs

Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)

Bodily functions

Cancer (and other diseases)

Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)

Celebrities

Children dealing with serious issues
Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
Crime
Death and disease
Dinosaur
Divorce
Evolution
Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
Gambling involving money
Halloween
Homelessness
Homes with swimming pools
Hunting
Junk food
In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
Loss of employment
Nuclear weapons
Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
Parapsychology
Politics
Pornography
Poverty
Rap Music
Religion
Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
Rock-and-Roll music
Running away
Sex
Slavery
Terrorism
Television and video games (excessive use)
Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
Vermin (rats and roaches)
Violence
War and bloodshed
Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.

Never think improper non-government approved thoughts.

Big Brother is watching . . . . and yes, you voted the bastards in and you are too big a pussy to vote them out.  So just shut up and obey your Puppetmasters.

                         .

(CBS News New York)

"Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it... All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children."
- George Orwell, (1984), Book 1, Chapter 2

Rand Paul blocks Iran action, defends Constitution

Senator Rand Paul blocks Iran sanctions bill . . . . demands that the Constitution be followed

• Paul:   “Many in this body cannot get boots on ground fast enough in a variety of places, from Syria to Libya to Iran.”

Republican Senator Rand Paul has effectively single handedly blocked a bi-partisan bill to place yet more crippling economic sanctions on Iran, by demanding an amendment to prevent the White House using the legislation as an authorization to attack the country.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wanted to immediately pass the sanctions bill by unanimous consent.  However, Paul intervened and blocked it, in order to ensure that unauthorized use of military force against Iran does not transpire, reports Infowars.

Rand Paul defends the Constitution:

Paul’s one sentence amendment reads:  “To clarify that nothing in the Act shall be construed as a declaration of war or an authorization of the use of force against Iran or Syria.”

“Our Founding Fathers were quite concerned about giving the power declare war to the Executive,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “They were quite concerned that the Executive could become like a king.”

Paul noted that in the lead up to the NATO led conflict in Libya, several Senators, including John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), were beating the war drums. The Kentucky Senator warned that the same rhetoric is now being used in relation to Iran and Syria.

“Many in this body cannot get boots on ground fast enough in a variety of places, from Syria to Libya to Iran,” said Paul. “[I] urge that we not begin a new war without a full debate, without a vote, without careful consideration of the ramifications of a third or even a fourth war in this past decade.”

The Bankrupt States of America

Greece here we come . . . . . 
Cities, Counties and States are borrowing billions to pay for public employee pensions

• From city hall to Congress every political hack has gone on an insane spending binge.
• With no money in the treasury, government is borrowing money to pay for public employee pensions.
• "They are just going to dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole."

BANKRUPTCY   -   It is an amazing thing to witness.  The thrift and commonsense of our Founding Fathers has totally vanished like a fart in the wind.  In their place we have a bi-partisan orgy of spending of non-existent monopoly money by both political parties

Struggling to pay employee pensions, local governments are increasingly borrowing money to cover their obligations — exploiting a loophole in federal law that allows them to issue taxable bonds without seeking voter approval.
                                               .
Exotic but increasingly popular financial instrument known as a pension obligation bond. Cities, counties and states use the bonds to take out high-interest loans from private investors to plug shortfalls in their employee pension funds reports the Los Angeles Times.
                                      .
If the pension funds make smart investments with the borrowed money, the returns can help pay the interest due to borrowers and sometimes even spin off some extra cash to pay pension costs. If they don't, the bonds can create additional costs for taxpayers, put the retirement funds of teachers and firefighters in jeopardy, and, in the worst case scenario, force municipalities into bankruptcy.

Just in the last few weeks, proposals to issue the bonds have come out of Cincinnati, Ohio; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Hamden, Conn.; and the Democratic mayoral candidate in San Diego, Bob Filner, who said he would use the bonds to help the city's budget crunch.

Illinois   -   In Illinois the teachers' fund has only 48% of the money it will need, down from 63%.  The state has struggled even to make the ongoing payments to the fund, much less make up the shortfall.  For the last two years the state has issued billions of dollars of pension bonds just to pay the immediate contribution to the pension fund.
                               .
The state will shell out $1.6 billion — or 5% of the state's entire annual budget — just to pay off the interest on its pension bonds issued over the last decade, according to the Illinois Civic Federation. The bonds were issued with the hope of increasing the funding level of the pension fund, but that level has actually dropped.


California   -   The pension plan for California public school teachers currently has only 72% of the money that it estimates it will need to pay for the retirement benefits of the state's teachers, down from 90% in 2007, according to the Pew Center on the States. 
                                      .
Oakland, California took a bet on its pension fund that ended up costing the city an estimated $245 million — nearly a quarter of its annual budget.  That hasn't stopped the city from looking to try its luck one more time.  The Oakland city administration  proposes more than $200 million of new pension bonds in the coming months.

Another California municipality to encounter problems after issuing pension bonds is Stockton. The city issued $125 million in pension bonds in 2007, a third of which promptly disappeared when the market crashed in 2008. But Stockton is still on the hook for the annual interest payments, some $6 million, or about 75% of the city's deficit this year. In late February, the city announced it was moving toward bankruptcy after determining it was unable to make the payments on these and other bonds.

"Municipalities find it attractive to think that there might be a free lunch — they can issue bonds and solve their problems," said Jeff Esser, chief executive of the Government Finance Officers Assn., which has issued an advisory cautioning its members against pension bonds. "Unfortunately there is no free lunch."

"There are communities that just do not want to make the hard choices, even though it means the choices in the future will be worse," said Robert Doty, a municipal finance consultant in Sacramento. "They are just going to dig themselves deeper and deeper into a hole."

                            .

(Los Angeles Times)

.
Bi-Partisan Corruption  -  The Democratic Party makes sure to shovel mountains of tax money into labor unions in return campaign cash.  But the hands of the GOP are not clean.  Republicans also use taxes taken from the producers of society and then re-distribute the wealth in order to buy votes on election day.

Billions in Housing Bailouts

Taxpayers Bend Over  -  Billions in bailouts for the Federal Housing Administration

• FHA loans going bad may require a huge bailout in 2012.
• Comrade Obama wants to bailout 3,400,000 homeowners with your tax money.
• Obama:  "If you pay your bills on time you are a fool."  

Massive losses for the Federal Housing Administration increases the chance it will need a taxpayer bailout, based on an updated forecast from Moody’s Analytics.
                                                    .
Comrade Obama wants to tax the producers in our economy and then re-distribute that "extra" wealth to those who made bad business decisions in housing, credit, insurance or banking. 
                                                       .
The U.S. government mortgage-insurer, which guarantees $1.1 trillion in home loans, had been counting on “robust growth” in home prices to help rebuild its insurance fund after paying out $37 billion to cover defaults the past three years, according to its annual report to Congress says Bloomberg News
.
“The FHA’s economic projections are surreal,” said Andrew Caplin, a New York University economics professor who has testified to Congress on the agency’s finances. “They must believe there will be very few readers in Congress able to critically review such a complex report.”


VIDEO  -  The Free Market solution to the housing problem

“They can’t even track their data correctly,” Caplin said in an interview. “Not knowing how to measure the performance of your borrowers is tragic and profoundly wrong.”
                                                .
The White House submitted a budget plan to Congress this year that would have provided the FHA as much as $688 million from the U.S. Treasury, the first bailout in the agency’s 78- year history.
                                           .
Comrade Obama said Feb. 1 he wants to reduce rates on FHA refinancings for about 3.4 million eligible FHA homeowners.  Let's just borrow and print phony monopoly to bail out every possible voter group.  

(Bloomberg News)

House GOP blocks e-verify

GOP House Speaker Boehner is blocking e-verify from coming to a vote

• The Republican leadership talks tough on immigration and spending but they drag their feet on any meaningful action.
• While millions of Americans are unemployed, GOP Presidential candidates have fallen all over themselves in debates to prove to voters that they favor the legal importation of countless millions of brand new immigrants into the U.S.  . . . . . and every one of these new immigrants will compete with Americans for the limited supply of jobs.

Republicans who won control of the House in 2010 promised to get tough on illegal immigration.  But the GOP has totally failed to push through any major crackdown.
                            . 
Fed up with Republican congressional leaders, a group advocating a crackdown on immigration began running ads demanding that House Speaker John  Boehner allow a vote on legislation requiring businesses to use E-Verify, the government database to check workers’ legal status reports the Washington Times.
                                               .
NumbersUSA, the group sponsoring the ads, accused Boehner and his fellow Republican House leaders of blocking the bill over fears that it will anger Hispanic voters in an election year. But NumbersUSA says enacting the bill — which cleared a key committee in September but has since stalled — would help clear out unauthorized workers and open those jobs for Americans.

TV ad from Numbers USA

“Our gloves are off,” said Roy Beck, executive director of the group, who noted that his organization has pushed for action behind the scenes without success.

He said the group is now ready to take the issue public with radio and television ads designed to force the GOP to choose between politics and American workers.

“At some point, you just have to bring this stuff out into public. We’ve given the leadership all kinds of time, all kinds of excuses, but it’s been six months,” Mr. Beck said.

Radio ad for Numbers USA

(Washington Times)

.
FACT  -  80% of Republicans are RINOs.
There is a reason why the Federal Budget has not been cut by even one penny while the Republicans controlled Congress.  Simply, almost all Republicans are RINOs (Republicans in name only).  True small government Conservatives have not existed in any real numbers in the GOP since the 1920s.

Since Theodore Roosevelt, Socialism and Marxism have won the war of ideas.  Republicans eagerly vote to fund and protect every possible Big Government wealth re-distribution program passed since 1900 in a quest to buy votes every two years.  

Tunisia's Islamist party pulls back from Sharia Law

A Tunisian islamist waves a flag as he looks at a demonstration in Tunis. Several thousand men and women demonstrated outside the Tunisian parliament today to demand the inclusion of Islamic law in the north African country's future constitution.  (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)  

"The democracy they speak of is a curse upon the Islamic civilization."   - - - - Pro- Sharia Demonstrator

Officials from the largest party in Tunisia's governing coalition have said they will not support moves to enshrine Islamic law in the new constitution.

Senior members of the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party said the wording of the old constitution, which proclaims Islam as the state religion, would remain reports BBC News.

A group of ultra-conservative Muslims known as Salafis had demanded the introduction of Sharia.  Ennahda has been under growing pressure to declare its position on the issue.

The BBC's Jon Leyne says that the news will disappoint the increasingly vocal conservative minority, but it will bring relief to liberals and secularists who fear a tide of Islamism sweeping across the region.



Massive Pro-Sharia Demonstration in Tunisia

"Ennahda has decided to retain the first clause of the previous constitution without change," senior Ennahda official Ameur Larayed told local media.
                                   .
"We want the unity of our people and we do not want divisions."
                       .
The article from the 1959 constitution states: "Tunisia is a free, sovereign and independent state, whose religion is Islam, language is Arabic and has a republican regime."
.
(BBC News)

Tunisian Islamists demonstrate in Tunis, Tunisia, Sunday, March 25, 2012. Thousands of conservative Tunisians have marched through the capital calling for the application of Islamic law.