A Special Warning to ALL COMRADES

In America, violence and guns forever
WASHINGTON - Another American Mass Shooting. Another rush to buy more guns. On the Monday after the latest of the bloody rampages that are part of American life, gun sales in Arizona shot up by more than 60 percent and rose by an average of five percent across the entire country. The figures come from the FBI and speak volumes about a gun culture that has long baffled much of the world. The Federal Bureau of Investigation compared January 10, 2011, with the corresponding Monday a year ago. So ...

Arizona gun sales jump 60% following Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Another American Mass Shooting. Another rush to buy more guns. On the Monday after the latest of the bloody rampages that are part of American life, gun sales in Arizona shot up by more than 60 percent and rose by an average of five percent across the entire country. The figures come from the FBI and speak volumes about a gun culture that has long baffled much of the world. The Federal Bureau of Investigation compared January 10, 2011, with the corresponding Monday a year ago. So what would prom...

Bill Maher Unhinged on Jay Leno
Bill Maher gives his best performance, ever, on Jay Leno by saying rightwingers think it would be fun to kill those who disagree with them. He quotes the “rightwing” saying “wouldn’t it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?” Listen to the audience reaction to this maniacal rant. He asks them if they “read.” “Stop the bullsh*t about the Second Amendment and the Constitution” he says. My hubby asks if Maher reads? Does he think all the ...

Dennis A. Henigan: On Guns: Tucson Shows Two Visions of America
The gun issue confronts us with two competing visions of America. The Tucson tragedy puts those visions in stark, clarifying relief. The gun lobby's vision is guns in every corner of American society. The National Rifle Association wants guns in more American homes. It wants more guns on the streets, in Grocery Stores, in restaurants, in coffee houses, in bars, in churches, at workplaces, at political events, and on college campuses. Guns everywhere, to deter criminals from attacking and to s...

Analysis: Palin isn't retreating, she's reloading (The Christian Science Monitor)
Say one thing for Sarah Palin: She heeds her own advice. Coming only days after Ms. Palin was drawn into the Arizona shooting drama, news that the former Alaska Governor and potential presidential aspirant will headline a gun-friendly hunting convention Jan. 29 fits her famous stump phrase: "Don't retreat, reload." It is a philosophy that defines Palin as a political figure and also points to how closely her own public persona echoes that of the American gun culture she promotes....

Bill Maher Asks Hostile Audience if They Read Bill Maher Unhinged Video
Bill Maher gives his best performance, ever, on Jay Leno by saying rightwingers think it would be fun to kill those who disagree with them. Maher quotes the “rightwing” saying “wouldn’t it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?” Listen to the audience reaction to this maniacal rant. He asks them if they “read.” “Stop the bullsh*t about the Second Amendment and the Constitution” he says. My hubby asks if Maher reads? Does he think all the...

Guns In U.S. Politics: 10 Recent Examples
In the wake of the Saturday shooting of in Tucson, Ariz., Rep. Peter King (D-N.Y) announced he will introduce Legislation to make it illegal to bring a gun within 1,000 feet of a government official -- but if recent political events are any indication, there's been little interest in separating guns and U.S. politics. Just last year, Giffords's Republican opponent Jesse Kelly encouraged voters to join him in rallying to oust Giffords from office by shooting a fully-loaded Assault Rifle: "Get o...

Lessons from a witch hunt
I shouldn’t even feel the need to write this, but alas I must.  Apart from the lessons from the tragedy in Tucson, there needs to be a retrospective of the reactions and the lessons that we can glean from it. A primary lesson is that of media reaction in and around Washington.  CNN in particular is guilty on this one.  They are emblematic of the wider problem.  Within hours of the shooting, CNN reporters began inserting the fact that Rep. Giffords was one of Sarah Palin...

Gabrielle Giffords, Sarah Palin and Angry Americans Searching For Answers
Six people including a judge and a nine-year-old girl were killed Saturday at a Grocery Store in Tucson, Arizona after a 22-year-old tried to assassinate Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-D.) Psychologists later said that the man was probably a paranoid schizophrenic. He was clearly troubled and got kicked out of his local college. Fellow Students called him "creepy." For fun, the 22-year-old, Jared Loughner, read the Communist Manifesto. In addition, according to people that knew Loughner,...

U.S. Eases Travel Restrictions to Cuba
From Reuters: President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order on Friday loosening more restrictions on U.S. travel and money remittances to Cuba, a further step in his efforts to reach out to the people of the Communist-ruled country. The latest measures, which stop short of lifting a ban on tourist travel to the island by Americans, are aimed at developing “people-to-people” contacts by allowing more travel for college Professors and Students, artists and church groups. The regu...

Read the full changes to U.S. Cuba policy here
Here is the Obama Administration's full news release on the changes to Cuba policy, which they titled "Reaching out to the Cuban people": Today, President Obama has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security to take a series of steps to continue efforts to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future. The President has directed that changes be made to regulations and policies governing:  (1) pu...

Obama opens up U.S.-Cuban contacts
President Obama is opening up American contacts with Cuba. Obama is easing restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba, Visas, and remittance of money from Americans to Cubans, according to orders issued Friday evening. "These measures will increase people-to-people contact; support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people; and help promote their independence from Cuban authorities," the White House said in a statement. "It is unthinkable that the...

Cuban-American Lawmakers Blast Obamas Plan to Ease Cuba Travel Restrictions
Republican lawmakers of Cuban descent sharply criticized President Obama's plans to loosen Cuban travel policy to allow Students and church groups to go to the Communist country, saying the changes will benefit the Castro regime while doing little for ......

Nepal, ex-rebels agree on monitoring as UN leaves
The chief of the U.N.'s peace mission in Nepal, Karin Landgren, center, participates in a ceremony of lowering the U.N. flag symbolizing the U.N.'s wrapping up of the peace mission in Nepal, in Katmandu, Nepal, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. The United Nations peace mission to Nepal has ended after a four-year engagement that helped end a Communist Insurgency. Nepal's government and the former Communist rebels have reached an agreement on monitoring thousands of ex-fighters after the United Nations lea...

Obama eases US Cuba travel rules
There has been an easing of tension between the US and Cuba since Mr Obama came to power. US President Barack Obama has said he will ease restrictions on US citizens travelling to Cuba. The president said he had instructed the relevant government departments to allow religious groups and Students to travel to the Communist-run island. President Obama said he believed the new, more relaxed, rules which also make it easier to send remittances to Cuba will support civil society there. The chan...

Nepal: Ex-fighter monitoring agreement reached
Nepal'S government and the former Communist rebels have reached an agreement on monitoring thousands of ex-fighters after the United Nations leaves this weekend. Peace minister Rakam Chemjong said an agreement was reached between Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The Maoists agreed to a proposal that a special committee headed by the Prime Minister would take over the task. The UN has been monitoring the peace process and...

Obama eases Cuba travel restrictions
Not sure why this isn't bigger news: The president said he had instructed the relevant government departments to allow religious groups and Students to travel to the Communist-run island. [...] The rules will be modified to, among other things: * Allow religious organisation to sponsor religious travel to Cuba under a general licence * Allow accredited institutions of Higher Education to sponsor travel to Cuba * Allow any US person to send remittances (up to $500 per quarter) to non-fami...

Nepal, ex-rebels agree on monitoring as UN leaves
KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal's government and the former Communist rebels have reached an agreement on monitoring thousands of ex-fighters after the United Nations leaves this weekend, officials said Saturday. Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong said an agreement was reached between Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The Maoists agreed to a proposal that a special committee headed by the prime minister would take over the task. T...

Another step on saintly road
In the painstaking business of declaring saints, six years and one month is rather immediate. First of all, the exhaustive investigation of a Candidate’s life cannot even begin until five years have passed since death. Pope Benedict XVI waived that rule for John Paul, as John Paul himself had done for Mother Teresa. She was beatified six years and six weeks after her death, meaning John Paul will hold the modern record. In early medieval and ancient times, saints were declared within even ...

Keith Olbermann is not a madman, he just ate some bad oysters: We watch, because were paid to
Oh, boy. This was quite a week for Keith Olbermann. There’s nothing like a senseless act of violence to bring out the worst in pundits of all stripes, and Olbermann not only isn’t an exception, he’s the rule. By Saturday evening, just a few hours after the shooting at a Tucson strip mall, we had hardly any information about alleged gunman Jared Loughner or his motivations. That didn’t stop Olbermann from somberly opining about why the act required widespread self-censorin...

ACLU assails Royal Oak for ban on begging
"At first we thought this was just an old ordinance they weren't enforcing," but a check of police records found 15 arrests for the offense in the last two years, ACLU staff attorney Dan Korobkin said. Across Michigan, cities including Detroit, Birmingham and Grosse Pointe have similar ordinances they rarely if ever enforce, Korobkin said. "It's Unconstitutional to charge begging as a crime. The ordinance Royal Oak has is the same language used in a st...

MCLU v. TiZA, cont'd
Posted by Scott at 7:28 AM We've written a lot about the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy K-8 public Charter School in suburban St. Paul. It appears to be is an Islamic School operating illegally at Taxpayer expense. Among other things, school Executive Director Asad Zaman is an imam and almost all of its Students are Muslim. It is housed in a building that was owned originally by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. The study of Arabic is required at the school. The Arabic comes in handy for the K...

US rights group accuses Rumsfeld of torture (AFP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US rights group Thursday appealed to a court in the case of former Prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan who accuse ex-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld of being to blame for their Torture. The case, which dates back to December 2006, was thrown out by a Federal Court in March 2007 which found that Rumsfeld and other senior Military figures have immunity from such charges. On Thursday, three judges at an appeals court in the District of Columbia signaled that the case br...

Journalism educator Claussen takes helm of Nevada ACLU
The new Executive Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, Dane S. Claussen, has experience in Higher Education, journalism and has been with the organization for 30 years, group officials announced Thursday. The ACLU of Nevada said Claussen began work Monday. He most recently left Point Park University in Pittsburgh, where he had been the director of graduate programs in journalism and mass communication since August 2001. Claussen also has been editor of the quarterly Journal...

New evidence in Minnesota Madrassa lawsuit; case possibly in jeopardy over legal status of ACLU chapter
The ACLU is on the right side of this one, challenging the use of Taxpayer money to fund a Charter School found to be functioning as an Islamic academy. Technicalities do not subtract from the truth or merit of this case, and must not spell the end of attempts to hold those in charge of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy legally accountable for a long and deliberate pattern of deception and thuggish behavior. "Lawsuit finds new evidence in TiZA Charter School case," by Sarah Lemagie for the Star Tribune,...