Wednesday - September 17, 2008

Secret Hippies Live Amongst You

No, not in Borneo, nor in far off Madagascar. Right next door. Well, next door if you happen to be living in Wales. Turns out a whole tribe of hippies had gone back to the land about a decade and a half ago, and nobody knew they were there. Once found out, of course, local government tried to tax them and make them adhere to laws, rules, and regulations, but they fought back in the court system until their Green ideas were popular, at which point they won their case. Who knows how many other little groups are tucked away in unnoticed places? Better check under ever rock and bush. They could be training ninja monkeys as we speak. Hippie ninja monkeys ... the worst thing that could happen to mankind.

Lost middle-class tribe’s ‘secret’ eco-village in Wales spotted in aerial photograph taken by plane
For five happy years they enjoyed simple lives in their straw and mud huts.  Generating their own power and growing their own food, they strived for self-sufficiency and thrived in homes that looked more suited to the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings. Then a survey plane chanced upon the ‘lost tribe’… and they were plunged into a decade-long battle with officialdom.

Yesterday that fight, backed by more modern support for green issues, ended in victory. The eco-community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales was set up in 1993 and lived contentedly away from the rat race round a 180-acre farm bought by Julian and Emma Orbach.

In 1998, it was spotted when sunlight was seen glinting off a solar panel on the main building, which was built from straw bales, timber and recycled glass. When the pilot reported back, officials were unable to find any records, let alone planning permission, for the mystery hillside village surrounded by trees and bushes. They insisted the grass-covered buildings should be demolished.

The eco-community endured a decade of inquiries, court cases and planning hearings. The 22 villagers fought planners even when they were within hours of the bulldozers moving in to demolish their eight homes. Now, however, they can celebrate, thanks to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s ‘sustainability’ policy.

With green issues now getting a more sympathetic hearing, the commune has been given planning approval for its roundhouses along with lavatories, agricultural buildings and workshops.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 04:40 PM   
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Radical is a dirty word

Obama has been less than forthcoming with information that might shed light on these close associations in his past.  Until quite recently, researchers have been blocked from accessing the document archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, now held at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  This delay has provided ample time to review and quite possibly sanitize the contents.  When Klonsky was identified online earlier this year, all his posts at Obama’s website were instantly deleted.  Documentation concerning many aspects of Obama’s life remains unavailable, including papers from his time in college and law school, medical records, law firm clients, and files as an Illinois State Senator. 

Obama’s campaign attorney has tried to suppress a TV ad that calls attention to his connection with Ayers, threatening the broadcast licenses of TV station managers and calling for the Justice Department to prosecute those who produced and financed the ad.

Throughout his life, Barack Obama has selected his mentors from the ranks of those who despise the United States.  This common thread connects Hawaiian Communist Party organizer Frank Marshall Davis, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright ("God bless America?  No, no… God DAMN America!") and the former Weatherman leaders, Ayers and Dohrn. 

Commenter: Is there not yet another weatherman link with Howard Gutman who bundled $500k to launch Obama’s campaign and was the pardon lawyer that got the weatherman bomber Susan Rosenberg pardoned by Bill Clinton.

Ayers now uses his academic position and political connections to promote his theories of “progressive” education, a topic on which he has authored several books.  In 1995, Ayers co-founded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a radical education reform project created to award grants to Chicago schools and “education networks.” The grant-making non-profit handed out well over $100 million between 1995 and 2001, but failed to measurably improve the Chicago school system.  Where all the money went may never be determined, but some of it was used to fund projects run by Ayers’ radical friends.

For example, $175,000 went to former SDSer Mike Klonsky, who until recently was also a blogger at Obama’s official campaign website.  Before reinventing himself as an educator, Klonsky founded an American Maoist communist sect that worked with the Chinese communists.  Among the organizations receiving funding from CAC were the community action group ACORN, the Arab American Action Network, Bernadine Dohrn’s Children and Family Justice Center, and Trinity United Church, home base of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The man Ayers and his friends chose as CAC’s first board chairman was a little-known 33-year old associate at a small Chicago law firm, Barack Obama.  Ayers himself co-chaired CAC’s other operational arm, the “Collaborative.” Ayers and Obama held their respective positions for more than four years, working closely together during that time.  They also served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago for three years.

Even before Weatherman began its notorious bombing campaign, the group’s future leaders had formed relationships with others who shared their hatred for “Amerikkka.”

Bernadine Dohrn made numerous contacts with Fidel Castro’s Cuban Mission at the UN in 1968 and 1969, during which time she arranged for SDS groups to visit Havana.

After returning from Cuba, Dohrn and others met with North Vietnamese and Viet Cong representatives in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss antiwar strategy on US campuses.  Speaking a few days later at an assembly of revolutionary student movements at Columbia University, Dohrn reported that the Vietnamese communists she met in Budapest were working with US GIs in Saigon, attempting to obtain military information.

As a gesture of solidarity, the Vietnamese who Dohrn met in Budapest presented her with a ring made from an American aircraft shot down over North Vietnam. Bill Ayers would receive a similar ring while meeting with Vietnamese communists in Toronto.  He later recalled being so moved by the gesture that he “left the room to cry.” He said, “I realized...America was an evil… and that I was… living inside the belly of the beast....”

h/t to Sara at Pal2Pal ... please go read the whole thing at American Thinker.

Remember folks, this is just a smear. No fleas can be allowed to stick to the Teflon Dog. It does not matter that this is true. Believing it means you are a racist. Do as you are told. Shut up, and get back in line. Thatisall.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 03:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Terrorists •  
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Wednesday Question: Is Sarah Palin the new Friday?

I submit that Sarah Palin is the most Heinleinian candidate for Vice-President of the United States in this country’s history

You’d think there would be an entire post here, but really, why bother? If you’ve read Heinlein you understand. If not, you can find out a little bit by reading the small post here.

Examination shows that Heinlein’s female characters are almost invariably highly intelligent, educated, competent, practical, resourceful, courageous, independent, sexually aggressive and sufficiently personally secure to be able to stroke their men’s egos as often as their own get stroked. I will—reluctantly—concede that this does not sound like the average woman as I have known her, but I am bemused to find myself in the position of trying to convince feminists that such women can in fact exist.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 02:34 PM   
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Sussex supermarket attack: Woman stabbed 20 times .  In broad daylight. Nobody had a gun.

Not to say that this sort of crazyness hasn’t happened at home in the USA.
But maybe just maybe someone back home might have had the means to help.

This is NOT a safe place. I recall a time when it was safer then the states.

Sussex supermarket attack: Woman stabbed 20 times

A young woman is fighting for her life after being stabbed up to 20 times at a supermarket in a seaside town.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:08PM BST 17 Sep 2008

The 20-year-old was holding a shopping basket and standing in an aisle when a man pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and chest at a Somerfield store in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

She remains in critical condition after the attack, which happened in broad daylight on Tuesday afternoon. It is unclear whether she knew the man or if it was a random assault.

Witness Bonnie Brown, a 54-year-old grandmother, said that she heard the girl screaming and dragged the victim out from under the attacker as he continued to stab her.

Mrs Brown, said: “I heard a lot of screaming. Everyone stopped what they were doing. I went round the corner and looked down the aisle.

“I saw a man stabbing this young lady. He was stabbing her again and again and again. There was blood everywhere.

“She was screaming and he was screaming at her. She fell to the ground and he got on top of her and carried on stabbing her in the neck and body.

“I just went up to her and grabbed her legs and pulled her away, leaving a trail of blood in the aisle. She needed to be pulled away.

“Everyone was screaming and crying.

“The security guard then jumped on the guy and kept hold of him. Me and some of the other shoppers kept pressure on her wounds. She had wounds all over her body, several on her neck.

“She was conscious but wasn’t saying much. She was just lying in a pool of blood.”

Sussex Police have made an arrest. The man, in his twenties and from nearby Bognor, remains in custody.

Shoppers and staff consoled each other outside the store after the attack.

Mary Linnington, 61, who was with her daughter Carrie, said: “People suddenly started screaming and shouting and the staff were ushering us out the doors.

“It was really busy and there were loads of kids around as the schools had just finished. It was complete bedlam.

“It doesn’t bear thinking about. Everyone is so shaken up. I just hope and pray she will be okay.”

The store was closed last night as forensic investigators carried out inquiries.

A spokesman for Worthing Hospital said the victim received emergency surgery and was transferred overnight to a hospital in Southampton for specialist treatment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2976054/Sussex-supermarket-attack-Woman-stabbed-20-times.html

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 11:00 AM   
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US embassy blast: 10 die in car bomb attack in Yemen .

I guess this isn’t news anymore but .....

US embassy blast: 10 die in car bomb attack in Yemen

Islamist militants attacked the heavily-guarded US embassy in Yemen with a car bomb and rockets, killing at least ten people.

By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:57PM BST 17 Sep 2008

The car exploded some distance from the embassy in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, at a checkpoint manned by security personnel, before gunmen in another car started firing.

The attackers wore police uniforms to try to get through the embassy’s perimeter security during a morning shift change.

Four civilians and six members of the police died in the attack, a spokesman for the Yemeni security forces said. The six attackers - one wearing an explosives belt, also died. There were no casualties among US diplomatic staff.

Trevor Mason, a British eye-witness who lives in an apartment block close to the US embassy compound, said the attack began around 8.30 am local time.

“We heard the sounds of a heavy gun battle going on,’’ he said.

“I looked out my window, and we saw the first explosion going off—a massive fireball very close to the US embassy.

“The gun battle went on for a further 10 to 15 minutes, followed by two further loud explosions.

“The situation is quiet now but obviously very tense.’’

A militant group calling itself the Islamic Jihad in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack.

Three days ago it issued a warning it was preparing to attack targets in Yemen including the British and US embassies.

The Yemeni regime’s close links to the West - allowing US soldiers to train its security forces - has prompted numerous recriminatory attacks from the militant groups that enjoy strong support from the country’s deeply conservative, tribal population.

Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, but his father was born in Yemen and the bin Laden clan still has deep roots in the country’s arid, lawless hinterland.

The British embassy was attacked with grenades so many times in the 1990s it was moved to a more secure location on a hillside overlooking Sanaa after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The US ordered non-essential staff to leave Yemen in April, a day after an attack on a residential compound.

In December 1998 three British tourists and an Australian were killed after Islamic militants kidnapped a tour group near Aden in the south of Yemen.

And in 2000, 17 US sailors were killed when suicide bombers with alleged links to al-Qaeda blew themselves up on an inflatable raft next to the USS Cole in
Aden.

http://tinyurl.com/5j8tos

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 10:52 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists • War On Terror •  
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Another Zero Tolerance Attack Of The Stupids

Oh brother. The Ninny Police are at it again.

A 10-year-old Hilton Head Island boy has been suspended from school for having something most students carry in their supply boxes: a pencil sharpener. The problem was his sharpener had broken, but he decided to use it anyway. A teacher at Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School noticed the boy had what appeared to be a small razor blade during class on Tuesday, according to a Beaufort County sheriff’s report. It was obvious that the blade was the metal insert commonly found in a child’s small, plastic pencil sharpener, the deputy noted.

The boy—a fourth-grader described as a well-behaved and good student—cried during the meeting with his mom, the deputy and the school’s assistant principal. He had no criminal intent in having the blade at school, the sheriff’s report stated, but was suspended for at least two days and could face further disciplinary action.

District spokesman Randy Wall said school administrators are stuck in the precarious position between the district’s zero tolerance policy against having weapons at school and common sense.
“We’re always going to do something to make sure the child understands the seriousness of having something that could potentially harm another student, but we’re going to be reasonable,” he said.

Hey Randy? You’re a fuckin twerp.

But hey, Hilton Head is just rife with troubles these days. Shootings galore, leftists rallying for illegal alien rights and calling it a “Peace Meeting”, even doubts about the stability of the oyster supply. Trouble in Paradise. Obviously the solution is to bust little kids for carrying broken school supplies. Another Columbine averted, for sure!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 10:13 AM   
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Sarah Palin: You Brits will never get her.  (From an American writer for London paper)

I rather like what this fellow had to say and so am sharing with you folks back home.
Sorry ‘bout the longish link at the bottom. Some things just aren’t working well today.

Sarah Palin: You Brits will never get her

By Irwin Stelzer
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/09/2008

The American election campaign has made life better for those of us living here and identified as non-enemies of President Bush or, even worse, one of the “neo-cons” David Cameron went all the way to Islamabad to denounce.

It is not that our British friends have fallen in love with George Bush, or adopted a more tolerant attitude towards those of us who think the world might be a more dangerous place if America were to retreat into reliance on the United Nations to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

No, it is that Brits with any interest in America, which means most of you, are so distracted by the campaign that they don’t have time to share with us their latest reason for Bush bashing, or to tell us at dinner parties that 9/11 wouldn’t have happened if the Jews hadn’t been so ghastly to the Arabs, or to accuse us of over-heating the globe.

Now, there is only time for, “Tell us about the elections? Is it really possible that Obama won’t win?” That’s the easiest question. Yes, it is possible that Barack Obama’s rhetoric will not succeed in fooling enough of the people enough of the time to gain him the keys to the White House.

He claims to be a bipartisan healer, but has never voted against his Democratic leadership in the Senate. He claims to love America, but spent 20 years as a disciple of a pastor who urged his congregation to “God damn America”, rather than call on God to bless it.

He is a man whose list of ways young people might serve their country definitely does not include enlistment in the military.

No matter. In Britain, as in the rest of Europe, Barack Obama is seen as the second coming, at least of John F Kennedy, if not of that other fellow.

Tall, articulate, handsome, with a stylish wife and engaging children (paraded on stage at the Democratic convention before 80,000 fans and tens of millions of television viewers, but, says the candidate, “off limits” to reporters). Better still, he is black but, as Charles Moore reminded us last week, borrowing from Colin Powell, “not that black”.

There is, we have found, no use laying out such facts before Brits who want to see Obama in the White House.

It is, however, productive to discuss Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for vice-president. The first question goes something like this: “My God, does she really believe in God, just like those jihadists we are supposed to be fighting?”

Well, yes and no: yes, she is deeply religious, but no, she is not about to engage in a holy war against Islam, or even against Europe’s secularists. Nor is she about to denude the nation’s libraries of books with which she disagrees, or bar the teaching of Darwinism in schools, even though she thinks there should be a place to advise students that there is another point of view as to the origin of man.

Should she want to do just that, our founding fathers had the sense to reserve power over education to local communities and the states.

Next question: “She shoots moose and wolves, poses with the sort of weapons favoured by Vladimir Putin and drug lords, and seems to have no objections to the proliferation of arsenals in the homes of Americans. Doesn’t that worry you?”

Not very much. The second amendment to our constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms, a right affirmed only recently by the Supreme Court in a decision Obama says he supports.

Also, we have long known, as Britain is now learning, that laws do not keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys; they only disarm law-abiding citizens and reduce their ability to defend themselves. Surveys in prisons show that burglars fear two things: trained guard dogs and armed potential victims.

Many Americans find it encouraging that the McCain-Palin ticket includes a man willing to defend his country and a woman willing to defend her home.

Then there is abortion: “Won’t she deny women the right to choose?” Well, no. Sarah Palin is opposed to abortion - witness her “hillbilly fecundity”, as Mark Steyn describes liberals’ reaction to her five children, her willingness to bear a Down’s syndrome baby, and support for her unwed daughter’s decision to carry her baby to term. But Governor Palin has shown no inclination to impose her view on others.

In the end, the Supreme Court will remain the arbiter of the battle between “pro-life” and “pro-choice” Americans. Which perhaps is unfortunate: were the electorates in several states given an opportunity to pronounce on the issue, the minority might be more willing to accept the verdict than it is when eight men and one woman in black robes opine.

What many foreigners might be missing is that Palin’s supporters don’t much care what she thinks about babies, guns and Jesus. They seem to care only that she is what one British friend described as “a real person”.

Fortunately for the American electorate, there is nothing much that the British commentariat can do to prevent its worst nightmare from becoming a reality: Sarah Palin sworn in as President of the United States, dining with the Queen at a state banquet.

So sit back and enjoy the show. It is far more entertaining, and certainly more democratic, than waiting for the defenestration of a prime minister by a cabal of his colleagues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/17/do1705.xml

Posted by Drew458     on 09/17/2008 at 10:07 AM   
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   Tuesday - September 16, 2008

Night of the Living Biden

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, campaigning in North Carolina where black votes could help swing the state to the Democrats, said today that electing a black person to the White House would be transformative.

Biden said the policies of running mate Barack Obama make his presidency even more urgent and declared this to be the most important election that any living person has seen in their lifetime. But he particularly singled out the meaning of electing someone who is black.

“That will be a transformative event in American politics and internationally,” Biden said. “That all by itself will be significant.”

North Carolina last voted for a Democrat in 1976, when Jimmy Carter won much of the South. But the state has a large population of blacks galvanized by Obama’s candidacy, and the Illinois senator has competed aggressively here for months.

Biden also sought to undercut the appeal of his Republican counterpart, Sarah Palin, to women voters. Citing income gaps between men and women, Biden declared that he and Obama would ensure equal pay for equal work.

And the Delaware senator said the two would appoint Supreme Court members to do so.

That’s right, elect Obama because he’s black. Because it’s not at all about race. Except that it’s really about race and nothing else. So be a racist, vote Obama.

PS - McCain is up 11 points over the magic dust bunny in North Carolina. Because this race may not really be about race after all, at least to the voters.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 10:33 PM   
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Unctuous Pusillanimous Prevaricating Twits

WASHINGTON — The House has voted to allow oil drilling off the nation’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts if states agree — but only 50 or more miles out. Republicans called the bill a ruse, saying that’s well beyond where most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil is located.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill — approved late Tuesday 236-189 — marked “a new direction in energy policy” as it also funnels billions of dollars to be collected from new taxes and royalties on large oil companies to promote alternative fuels and energy efficiency in an attempt to move the country away from polluting fossil fuels.

The bill rolls back $18 billion in oil industry tax breaks and imposes new oil and gas royalties, while giving tax incentives for wind and solar industries and for conservation. Even before the vote, the White House said President Bush would veto it if it passes Congress.

Pelosi, who not long ago characterized Republican demands to lift the ban on offshore drilling a hoax, shifted gears in recent weeks and conceded some drilling measure would have to be part of any energy package.

The Democrats’ bill would allow drilling in waters 50 miles from shore almost everywhere from New England in the Northeast to Washington state in the Northwest, so long as a state agrees to go along with energy development off its shores. Beyond 100 miles, no state approval would be required. The drilling ban would remain in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

But Republicans lashed out at the Democratic concession and accused Pelosi of trying to deceive the public and simply provide cover from Democrats this election year with a vote on offshore drilling.

They cited Interior Department estimates that 88 percent of the 18 billion barrels of oil believed to be in waters now under drilling bans would remain off-limits because they are within 50 miles of shore. And they said few states would be likely to agree to drilling since the bill does not provide states with any of the royalties from the new energy production.

It is a bill “written in the dark of night” that won’t do a thing about the supply of energy, said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. “It’s a hoax on the American people. This is intended for one reason ... so the Democrats can say we voted on energy.”

PS - who the fuck do the states think they are having any say whatsoever over what goes on at sea? Ain’t none of their God Damned business. Not one tiny little bit. Never was. Never will be. The state border stops at the beach. National Sovereignty extends out over the water. Because We The Nation have a NAVY to enforce that. What the snatch-whistle is wrong with people’s brains these days?

UPDATE: All hands on deck! All hands on deck! Now READ THIS. Juan McAmnesty is poised to sign onto this bullshit, just like he did before with his gang of 14 12 10 7 gang of dickless compromising idiots. STOP THEM NOW. To the batphone Robin!

It’s better to have no bill at all than a phony one which dishonesty “proves” there’s simply no point to drilling more American oil.

At least with no bill, we can keep fighting on this vital issue into the future, with some hope of success.

(innerquote borrowed from Vilmar, blockquote borrowed from Ace. Original article at The Corner at NRO.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 09:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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Did We Just Become Commies?

Seriously. Did we?

A few days ago the feds did a bailout and takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is nationalization isn’t it? Fan & Fred have a big slice of the mortgage and loan pie.

I just heard that now the feds are giving AIG an enormous floating loan, for which they will get a 79.9% controlling interest in the company. AIG has the rest of the pie, and the dish it was baked in.

Between Fannie, Freddie, and AIG ... these are the 3 companies that ultimately hold most of the paper on most of the loans in the entire country? From your car payments to your mortgage to the debt on your credit card even?  All nationalized. Whether it gets called that or not. A rose by any other name ...

Default on anything and ownership goes to the government. Try to borrow money to purchase anything large and you’ll have to put it up as collateral to get the loan. From the government.

We don’t have much in the way of “means of production” anymore. It’s all gone offshore. The only thing America really produces is money. And the whole money game is based on borrowing it first, then investing it somewhere where it can earn money faster than you have to pay back the loan. And now the government owns that. And you’d better believe that a ton of new regulations is coming down the pike for the entire financial sector. And twenty tons more if Ocommie gets elected.

How is that not communism? Sure, in theory We The People are the government. Want to really make a bet? Kelo did away with the sanctity of private property, even if you pay your mortgage and taxes. Now ... it’s even worse. Are we now a CINO nation? (Capitalist In Name Only)

Discuss. Please. Because I think I’m seeing Red over this.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 09:35 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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A Land Fit for Criminals, A trumpet blast against current dogma.

This is a worthwhile book review and clearly states the current condition of law and disorder in this country.

It is not a very pretty picture but then the ppl here don’t need a book to verify what they know already.

Been here all day or almost all of it.  Just noticed the clock. Not the one on the wall. The internal one that says time to quit for the night.
So, that’s all for today, Tuesday, 16 Sept.

Cheers All ...

A trumpet blast against current dogma

Leo McKinstry reviews A Land Fit for Criminals by David Fraser.

For decades, policy on crime has been dominated by an anti-punishment ethos, which holds that offenders are really victims of deprivation and therefore need support instead of incarceration.

This is now the ideology that prevails in social work, the probation service and much of the judiciary, with the result that less than one per cent of all crimes in Britain result in a custodial sentence. Indeed, the bureaucracy of the state often seems more interested in protecting the criminal classes than the public.

David Fraser’s excellent book is a trumpet blast against this cowardly, defeatist approach. As a former probation officer himself, with 34 years of experience in dealing with offenders, he is able to provide an insider’s account of the current state of our criminal justice system, where thugs, burglars, muggers, even rapists are taught that they have little to fear from the courts. In a series of passionately argued chapters, full of compelling statistics and striking examples, he reveals how far the civic institutions of Britain have surrendered to criminality.

Fraser’s central theme is that, contrary to all the liberal propaganda, prison is the only effective method of dealing with criminals. With refreshing straightforwardness, so different from the complex jargon favoured by left-wing criminologists, he asserts that ‘Prisons can never fail because whilst an offender is locked up he cannot commit any more offences.’ In contrast, every kind of scheme to keep offenders out of jail, such as community sentences or action-plan orders, has only succeeded in encouraging more crime.

Fraser is particularly scathing about one fashionable new theory from the sociological madhouse: so-called ‘restorative justice’, where the victim of crime is encouraged to seek an apology from the perpetrator in a face-to-face meeting. Fraser rightly argues that it is outrageous to pressurise a victim into taking on some of the responsibility for an offender’s rehabilitation. Nor is there any evidence that this approach has had the slightest effect on rates of re-offending.

This book is a wonderful antidote to the poisonous myths so assiduously promoted by the anti-prison lobby. Fraser demonstrates, for instance, the emptiness of the claim that Britain sends more people to jail than any other European country. In fact, in proportion to our crime rate, we have a far more lenient sentencing policy than most other continental nations, including France, Italy and Spain. In response to wails about over-crowding, he has a refreshingly simple solution: build more prisons. Compared with the overall cost of crime, estimated by the Home Office to be at least £60 billion, the annual price tag of each prison place, at around £37,000, is good value.

Through insights based on his own career, Fraser also exposes the bogus statistics, marketing initiatives and Orwellian newspeak used by the apologists for criminality to assuage the public’s fears about their failing approach. He demonstrates, for instance, that the much-vaunted ‘intensive supervision’ of repeat offenders in the community can in practice amount to little more than one hour per week.

A sense of anger and despair runs throughout the text, mainly on behalf of the public, which has been betrayed by the self-styled experts and policy-makers. Fraser believes that sentencing has been reduced to ‘a farcical game’ and that social theories about deviance have destroyed the ability of society to defend itself.

‘We do not need psychologists to tell us the simple truth that if you reward bad behaviour you will get more of it,’ he writes with typical clarity. Before the Home Secretary Charles Clarke embarks on yet another of his Government’s fatuous exercises in promoting community sentences, he should sit down and read this book. It will teach him more about penal policy than all the research of his own supine, dogma-driven experts.

http://tinyurl.com/59mdp7

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 11:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Daily Life • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • UK •  
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Fraudsters bought their own gas stations and stole thousands of customers’ credit card details.

WELL TALK ABOUT AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT. 

Take a good look at their names and tell me if ANY are pronounceable.

THREE FRAUDSTERS JAILED FOR ELABORATE GAS STATION CREDIT CARD SCAM
A gang of fraudsters bought their own petrol stations and stole thousands of customers’ credit card details in a £254,000 scam

By Tom Peterkin

The three Sri Lankans were involved in taking over petrol stations or bribing staff at others to fit cameras in the ceilings above the shop counters to film motorists typing in their pin numbers.

They used sophisticated electronic devices to intercept account information and clone credit cards which were then used around the world.

Somabalu Jeyaganesh, a 34-year-old asylum seeker, his cousin Ariyakunathasa Pirathesan, 28, and Sivanesan Mayilvaganam, 27, had converted a semi-detached house in Coventry into a “fraud factory” that affected 4,500 customers.

Judge Martin Beddoe jailed Pirathesan, a British passport holder from Coventry, for four and a half years commenting that he was a “significant player” in the fraud who distributed equipment and oversaw the work of his criminal associates. Jeyaganesh of Liverpool and Mayilvaganam, an illegal immigrant based in Mitchum, were both jailed for three years each and recommended for deportation.

The trio had all admitted conspiracy to defraud between January 1 last year until March 13 this year.

The judge said although the fraud was estimated at £254,000 the potential loss could have been as much as £3.5million.

“This was a worldwide fraud to leach money from the genuine card holders’ accounts,” Judge Beddoe told Southwark Crown Court.

“This was a determined, sophisticated and well-organised operation and this particular form of credit card fraud is becoming widespread.”

The men were arrested during a police raid at the “factory” in Winsford Avenue, Allesley, Coventry on March 12 this year.

Prosecutor Chris Coltart said: “Officers found a wealth of electronic equipment used in the cloning of debit and credit cards.”

Items seized from the house plus those from a storage facility in Leicester included digital cameras, an ISDN device and laptop computers.

The fraud began at the “point of purchase”, where sophisticated technology was used to capture the card details.

The information was downloaded onto a computer, imposed onto blank plastic cards and the pin number was then written onto the cards.

Mr Coltart said the fraud centred around petrol stations in the West Midlands and London.

“This was done by fraudsters acquiring petrol stations and running them as legitimate businesses or by bribing staff that worked there already.”

When officers arrived at the credit card cloning factory, Jeyaganesh was found sleeping in one of the back bedrooms.

A search of his room revealed a large quantity of white plastic cards fitted with magnetic strips, memory sticks which contained hundreds of compromised card details, a laptop, a digital recorder, a card reader and disks.

Officers also found a BP staff name badge.

Stashed around the house cops found documents containing card details which contained Jeyaganesh’s and Mayilvaganam’s fingerprints.

A storage facility in Leicester, registered in the name of Pirathesan, was also raided and contained a hoard of similar items.

Pirathesan was found to have made 29 foreign trips to the USA, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka between January 2006 and December 2007 to pick up payments from criminals using the cards abroad.

Mr Coltart said: “The international dimension of the fraud was encapsulated by the stamps in Mr Pirathesan’s passport.”

http://tinyurl.com/5tbvhk

A “commercial valuation” of a petrol station in Bootle, Liverpool, was also found amongst Jeyaganesh’s papers as well as travel cards showing he had been travelling between London, Liverpool and Coventry.

Mayilvaganam admitted being responsible for embossing the blank cards.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 11:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

College bans ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’ from calendar for fear of offending ethnic students.

More lunacy from the pc crowd that today control England.  I’m not gonna add anything to this.  Isn’t that I wouldn’t like to. I would.
I just can not find the words.

College bans ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’ from calendar for fear of offending ethnic students

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:26 PM on 16th September 2008

Yorkshire Coast College has re-branded Christmas and Easter as ‘end of term breaks’

A college has renamed the traditional Christmas and Easter breaks in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions.

The college’s new calendar shows that both of the traditional holiday periods have now been re-branded as ‘end of term breaks’.

Critics have complained that the decision by Yorkshire Coast College is nothing more than ‘political correctness’.

Tory MP Robert Goodwill said: ‘I have heard that some people refer to the Christmas period as the Winterval, which is worse. This is absolutely barmy.

‘We are a Christian country and, to be honest, religious tolerance in this country is about respecting other people’s religious beliefs.’

‘We live in a country where there is a mutual respect for religious beliefs.

‘School terms are traditionally separated by Christmas and Easter and they should be referred to as such.

‘They are petrified that they offend the minority but what they are doing is offending the majority.

‘It’s political correctness gone mad and I am disappointed that it’s from an edict from Ofsted.’

The college, based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire offers a range of courses concentrating on training for ‘life skills’ such as Engineering, Motor Vehicle Training and IT.

The college insists that the decision is in line with Ofsted guidelines and has been made to ‘increase inclusion and diversity’.

It circulates the internal year planner annually to 150 teaching staff and up to 50 other workers to inform them of important dates such as term times and training days.

A spokeswoman for the college said: ‘Every school and college, wherever located, is responsible for educating its learners who will live and work in a country which is diverse in terms of cultures, religions or beliefs, ethnicities and social backgrounds.

‘All employees at Yorkshire Coast College are encouraged to closely follow guidelines set out by Ofsted for the promotion of equality and diversity.

‘We constantly review the ways in which we communicate, to ensure that we do not discriminate, and part of those reviews means that we have stopped referring to the Christmas Break and Easter Break and we now have End of Term Break.’

However, Ofsted today denied this. A spokesperson said: ‘Ofsted inspection guidance for colleges makes no reference whatsoever to the observance of religious festivals; there is no ‘edict’ from Ofsted.’

http://tinyurl.com/5oazny

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 11:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity • Nanny State • Outrageous • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

THIS IS SO TOTALLY STUPID ONLY FOUR LETTER WORDS SHOULD APPLY. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS. NEITHER WILL U

HOW DO THINGS GET THIS SCREWED UP?  HOW ABOUT A FLAG THAT REPRESENTS YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL CLUB? IS THAT ADVERTISING?
THIS IS PLAIN NUTS! THE COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO ARE GIVING THIS GUY A HARD TIME REALLY NEED TO BE SERIOUSLY STRUNG UP AND THEIR BODIES LEFT TO ROT AS A WARNING TO OTHER WOULD BE JERKS.

AH ... I HAVE PROVED TO MYSELF THAT EVEN WHEN REALLY UPSET, EXCEPT RE. MY COMPUTER, I CAN WRITE AND VENT AND NOT USE FOUR LETTER WORDS.
I JUST THINK EM.

NOT MY COUNTRY, NOT MY ARMY FLAG.  BUT I’M PO’d. ??  I GUESS I’VE READ TOO MUCH HISTORY OF THIS PLACE AND DON’T SEE ANY ARMY OR NAVY OR MARINE FLAG AS ADVERTISING.  I SEE EM AS PROUD SYMBOLS OF THIS NATIONS HISTORY.

MY WIFE HAS NO COMMENT THAT I CAN PRINT HERE. SHE’S A BRIT.  RIGHT NOW, AN ANGRY ONE.

Council orders man to take down Army flag flying outside his house… because it’s ‘advertising’

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 16th September 2008

A patriot flying the British Army flag outside his house was told by council killjoys to take it down - because they considered it advertising.

Dave Dingvean today branded the order to remove the military colours as ‘treacherous’.

Mr Dingvean, 46, a volunteer for the British Army Association who raises money for the charity, was told any national flag was acceptable - but not those of our nation’s armed forces.

Furious: Dave Dingvean branded the council’s order to take down the Army flag as ‘treacherous’

And if the demolition contractor failed to comply, council bosses said he would face enforcement action which could end up in court.

Outraged Mr Dingvean, from Tolleshunt Major near Maldon, Essex, said: ‘A friend gave it to me and I decided to fly it to support our troops.

‘Someone must have seen it and reported me because within two days I had a letter from the council telling me to take it down.

‘They said only a certain type of flag is permitted to be flown - any national or state flag is allowed.

‘So I can fly the flag of Iraq, Baghdad or Afghanistan but not the Army flag. It’s ridiculous - it’s a show of support.

‘It’s a cause I feel strongly about.’

In protest, Mr Dingvean is now flying the national standard of Saudi Arabia on a flagpole outside his semi-detached bungalow, as he is flabbergasted this is allowed under the rules.

He added: ‘This is treacherous. It is petty minded - they are not thinking about the troops. No one in the village has complained to me.’

A council spokesman spokesman confirmed that under the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2007, only a certain type of flag as stated by the Department for Communities and Local Government is permitted to be flown.

He added: ‘Unfortunately, this flag is not one of them and the council have advised the resident that this is the case.

‘The council would be more than willing to advise residents on such issues in the future.’

http://tinyurl.com/5r36og

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2008 at 11:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Insanity • Stoopid-People • UK •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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