Gates of Vienna News Feed 12/17/2010

Moscow police arrest 500 as ethnic tensions linger (AP)
Moscow – Russian news agencies say Moscow police have arrested 500 people to stop them attending rival Protests over the killing of a Soccer fan and the ethnic violence that erupted after the slaying. A young Moscow man was fatally shot with rubber bullets during a fight with people from the Russia's Caucasus region at a bus stop this month. People from the Caucasus are typically darker-skinned than northern Russians and many are Muslim. They have traditionally been Victims of ethnic dis...

Russia: Studying Online Mobilization of the Manezh Riots
This post is part of RuNet Echo, a Global Voices project to interpret the Russian language Internet. All posts · Learn more Recent riots on Manezhnaya Square next to the Kremlin showed that Russian Soccer fans have become a powerful community who can mobilize thousands very quickly around an event. Last week, that  event was the commemoration of Yegor Sviridov, a fan of the Moscow Soccer club “Spartak” who was murdered in during a brawl among Soccer fans on December 6. The...

Happy Autumn! Global Warming Updates:
Record low temp broken 14 degrees. Old record stood since 1917 Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Please Support COMMON CENTS by doing your Christmas Shopping here. Thank You!! Watermark template. Powered by Blogger. ...

More Jihad in Bosnia, the Life of the First Iranian Martyr in Bosnia
Will we ever be capable of admitting what a terrible mistake that Clinton made by sending our Troops to fight for an Islamic State in the heart of Europe? I mean, really. “Documentary film about the Life of the First Iranian Martyr in Bosnia” But Bosnia wasn’t a Jihad, right? And all those charges of ‘mujahedin’ presence were just vicious serbianationalist Propaganda, right? Right? In fact, Bosnia and Kosovo weren’t jihads only in the eyes of the West. The Muslim world

Spain: Muslims sue teacher for speaking about ham in class
Spanish ham (absolutely offensive to "Ham-o-phobic" Muslims...) According to the account of the facts, the teacher was explaining the different climates in a geography class and cited the village of Trevelez due to its cold and dry climate. According to the newspaper account, "as a story, the teacher told his Students that such a climate was conducive to making hams (this refers to the procedure that it's necessary between the pig is killed and the ham is actually ready to be eaten). Then the ...

Spain: Muslim family denounces teacher for talking about ham in class
Here is my rough translation of a Spanish-language article about a manifestation of Islamic Supremacism so outrageous that it is hard not to wonder whether or not it is a parody. But it doesn't seem to be one. "Una familia musulmana denuncia a un docente por hablar de jamones en clase," from Diario de Jerez, December 18 (thanks to Eloy): A teacher at Menéndez Tolosa institute has been denounced by a Muslim family from La Línea because their son, a Student in the first year of High School, fe...

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!
The Senate has passed a three-day temporary continuing resolution to keep the government running until Tuesday. Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt is giving $50,000 to Wikileaks. The Obama Administration has finally released guidelines designed to take politics out of scientific research. Bad Weather may delay South Korea's artillery drills this weekend as the US seeks talks between both Koreas. Google's Ngram Viewer shows people how and when words are used and how they evolve over the years...

Moscow Police Arrest Hundreds to Head Off Ethnic Violence
Moscow police detained more than 1,000 people in Moscow and other Russian cities, after Internet postings threatened new ethnic violence on Wednesday evening. Most of the Detainees were ethnic Russian football (Soccer) fans, although a few migrants from the Caucasus region were also detained, according to the Associated Press. The Russian Detainees were carrying guns, knives and metal bars, and were shouting Racist slogans and raising their hands in Nazi salutes. The move comes admidst a sharp i...

START clears one more hurdle
START cleared another hurdle Saturday as the Senate voted down an amendment that would have required re-negotiation of the U.S.-Russian Arms Control treaty, and Obama moved to reassure Republican Senators that the treaty does not limit U.S. Missile Defenses, I report: The Senate voted 59-37 against an amendment sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that would have struck missile defense language from the treaty&rsq...;

Moscow police arrest 500 to prevent ethnic violence
By Jessica Bachman Moscow | Sat Dec 18, 2010 1:44pm EST Moscow (Reuters) - Russian police detained hundreds of people in Moscow on Saturday, including young nationalists who rallied in the north of the city, as part of a clampdown to prevent new outbreaks of ethnic violence. The arrests came a week after some 7,000 Soccer fans and nationalists chanting Racist slogans demonstrated near Red Square and attacked passers-by who appeared to be ethnic Minorities, injuring more than 30 people. Russia...

Is Joe Biden trying to impersonate Vladimir Putin?
It’s bad enough that the Obama White House is willing to surrender to Moscow over the heavily flawed New START Treaty, but does it have to resort to impersonating Russia’s leaders too? Watch this astonishing clip (hat tip: RealClear Politics) of Vice President Joe Biden’s interview with Andrea Mitchell during a taping of Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC. In the video, an angry Biden warns Republican senators Jim DeMint and Jon Kyl to “get out of the way” i

Nationalist Uprising in Moscow has Serious Implications for the North Caucasus - The Jamestown Foundation
On December 11, the largest ever Russian nationalist riots in modern Russia broke out in Moscow. The Protesters, consisting of about 5,000 Soccer fans and members of several Russian nationalist organizations, gathered at Manezh Square, which is adjacent to the Kremlin and Red Square. They shouted “Russia for Russians,” “Moscow for Muscovites,” and expletive-filled anti-Caucasian slogans, and attacked passersby who were assumed to be from the Caucasus or of Asian origin. Mosco...

Vladimir Putin Defends Central Control in Russia
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on a television screen in an electronics shop during his annually televised question-and-answer session on Thursday. Moscow — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday said that an outburst of nationalist violence in Moscow proved that Russia could not allow its Law Enforcement bodies to weaken, despite the arguments of “our liberal intelligentsia.” In a marathon question-and-answer session that went on for four hours and 29 minut...

Putin 'deals blow' to release of jailed tycoon
Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's chances of being released from Prison were dealt a blow by an uncompromising message from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Moscow Newspapers said Friday. Russia's powerful former president used a televised question and answer session Thursday to observe that a "thief must be in prison" and compare Russia's former Richest man to jailed US financier Bernard Madoff. The country's most famous Prisoner is serving the seventh year of an eight-year sentence for Fraud....

Corruption and Leadership in Russia
In an environment where traffic tickets often are "arranged" with the Police Officer who charged the infraction, and the former mayor of Moscow's wife "cleared" municipal building contracts, the Russian public has become inured to all forms of Corruption. It's an area of clearly different perceptions by the country's president, Dmitry Medvedev, and its Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. It is not that one leader is for corruption and the other is against it. Rather it's a matter of how influential ...

START clears hurdle in Senate
The Obama Administration on Saturday overcame a big hurdle toward the prospects for New START ratification — though the path to passage of the U.S.-Russia Arms Control pact is still unclear. The Senate voted 59-37 against an amendment sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that would have struck Missile Defense language from the treaty’s preamble. Supporters of the U.S.-Russia Arms Control pact said the defeated amendment would have effectively killed ...

Russian whistle-blowing doctor fears dismissal
MOSCOW - A Russian cardiologist says he is facing dismissal after telling Vladimir Putin that an impressive display at his Hospital was faked for the Prime Minister's visit. Putin visited a Hospital in mid-November in the central town of Ivanovo where he saw new medical equipment and met doctors boasting about salaries of $1,000 a month. Ivan Khrenov told Putin during a live call-in show Thursday that the equipment was borrowed and the doctors were instructed to show fake pay slips and pos...

Russian whistle-blowing doctor fears dismissal (AP)
Moscow – A Russian cardiologist said he feared dismissal and beating after phoning Vladimir Putin to say that an impressive Hospital display for the premier was faked. And then, Putin called him back. Ivan Khrenov told Putin during a live call-in show Thursday that his bosses instructed doctors and nurses to show fake pay slips and pose as recovering patients surrounded by new equipment during the premier's November visit to a Hospital in the central town of Ivanovo. Khrenov told Putin t...

Glenn Beck Video: Four Miracles
Amazing show Saturday Night on Fox News' Glenn Beck Show. He promises, and delivers, on providing four miracles to needy families of Wilmington, Ohio. Tonight: Earlier this week, we celebrated America's First Christmas in Wilmington, OH. We celebrated a town coming together to celebrate their unbreakable spirit. It was two Christmases ago that Wilmington was hit by a self-described economic Tsunami as DHL closed their factory doors. 7,500 people out of the town's 12,000 residents found themselve...

9/11 First Responders Bill Needs Just 1 Vote More: Gillibrand Confident Legislation Will Pass Senate
ABC News: The First Responders still suffering health effects more than nine years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks could get a "Christmas miracle" this year, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said today. Read the whole story: ABC News Get HuffPost Politics On Twitter and Facebook! Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newsletter! Know something we don't? E-mail us at [email protected] ...

9/11 First Responders Bill Fails: Calls For Justice Go Unheeded 5 Years After Documentary (VIDEO)
Almost a decade after 9/11 First Responders dropped everything to help others, Legislation to pay for treatment of the diseases and debilitating effects that responders contracted is still being blocked by Senate Republicans. The Legislation was dealt its latest setback Friday, after Republicans moved to Filibuster the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said he will bring up the Legislation once more before the end of the session. The bill's defeat was already its second in th...

US Senate rejects bid to end Russia treaty
The US Senate on Saturday beat back an attempt by President Barack Obama's Republican foes to kill a nuclear Arms Control pact with Russia over charges it may cripple US missile defence plans. Lawmakers voted 37-59 to reject an amendment by Republican Senator John McCain to strip out language in the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty's (START) preamble tying offensive Nuclear Weapons to defensive systems. The preamble is non-binding but, because it resulted from talks between Washington and Mos...

US Senate rejects bid to kill Russia nuclear treaty
Graphic on the global stockpile of Nuclear Weapons. The US Senate on Saturd... The US Senate beat back an attempt by President Barack Obama's Republican foes to kill a nuclear arms control pact with Russia over charges it may cripple US Missile Defense plans. Lawmakers voted 37-59 to reject an amendment by Republican Senator John McCain to strip out language in the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty's (START) preamble tying offensive nuclear weapons to defensive systems. The preamble is non-b...

2,100 arrested in Moscow protests
Published: Dec. 18, 2010 at 10:23 PM Moscow, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- More than 2,000 people were arrested Saturday during ethnic Protests in Moscow and the region around the Russian capital, police said. Police said those detained included demonstrators from both sides, RIA-Novosti said. The situation in Moscow between ethnic Russians and immigrants from the North Caucasus has been tense since a 28-year-old Russian was killed in a clash Nov. 28. About 1,300 people were arrested in Moscow and another 80...

Belarus votes, Lukashenko to extend 16-year rule
MINSK (Reuters) - Voting got under way on Sunday in the former Soviet republic of Belarus in an election certain to extend strongman Alexander Lukashenko's 16-year stay in power for five more years. Lukashenko won backing at the 11th hour from Moscow after being vilified on Russian television for weeks and he seemed set to continue a policy of playing off Russia against the West. The conduct of the vote, the margin of Lukashenko's victory, and his handling of opposition Protests could decide ho...