Thursday, May 19, 2011

Spanish anti-crisis protesters defy ban

AFP: Spanish anti-crisis protesters defy ban

MADRID — Several thousand protesters angry over Spain's economic crisis and soaring jobless rate defied a ban by Madrid authorities and pressed on Wednesday with demonstrations ahead of weekend local elections.

Demonstrators have camped in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square and in cities around the country since the weekend, responding to calls on online social networks and by the Real Democracy protest organisation.

Some have vowed to stay until the regional and municipal elections on Sunday.

However, electoral authorities in the Madrid region denied an official request by organisers to hold a rally in the Puerta del Sol from 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Wednesday.

The request was not submitted with 24 hours' notice as required by law and the demonstration "could affect the electoral campaign and the freedom of citizens with the right to vote," a spokeswoman for the election authority in the region said.

A spokesman for the organisers, Juan Rubio, vowed the protesters would "stay here until election day."

If police try to "remove us we will sit down, everything will be peaceful, and if we are eventually dispersed we will come back tomorrow."

One demonstrator, Carlota Jover, said the electoral board's decision "has no binding effect, therefore there is no ban."

About 15 police vehicles took up positions in and around the square Wednesday evening but police took no action and the police presence diminished later.

By midnight, most of the protesters were starting to disperse as rain fell.

Hundreds also defied bans in the southern cities of Granada and Seville, Spanish media said. Protests have been held in Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza and Palma de Majorca.

In London, around 100 Spaniards gathered outside their country's embassy to voice their support for the protests, an AFP reporter said.

The Queens visit Dublin- Irish flag banned under Public order offence

The Queens visit Dublin- Irish flag banned under Public order offence | Sovereign Independent

The powers that be have made the carrying of the Irish flag a Public order offence under section 21.I had earlier not consented to a search and was threatened with arrest under this act also.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1994/…021.html#sec21

Short URL: http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=20325

Sovereign Citizens, Anti-Government Group Files Liens, Some Embrace Violence (VIDEO)

Sovereign Citizens, Anti-Government Group Files Liens, Some Embrace Violence (VIDEO)

The FBI considers them one of the nation’s topdomestic terror threats. Their members include cop killers and a convicted Oklahoma City bomber. They call themselves “sovereign citizens,” and have taken various measures to fight the U.S. government. But now, the government is fighting back.

Sovereign citizens are a loosely organized group of people who claim they are not subject to government laws. Estimates suggest there are as many as300,000 sovereign citizens in the U.S. Sovereign citizens have been known to oppose taxes, file liens against public officials, sign documents with a red thumbprint, and use homemade license plates.

Some sovereign citizens focus on the role of government, a relatable, much-debated issue in the U.S. Alfred Adask told “60 Minutes,”"I think the government has gone far beyond its Constitutional limits.” The problem is where they draw the line. Adask once said, “We have the right to keep and bear arms in order to shoot our own politicians." The violence used by some sovereign citizens is cause for serious concern.

“60 Minutes” recently reported on Jerry Kane Jr. and his 16-year-old son, Joe. A divorced, out-of-work truck driver, Kane and his son began pushing a debt reduction scam around the country. At one seminar, Kane spoke out against members of authority, saying, “I don't want to have to kill anybody. But if they keep messing with me, that's what it's going to have to come out, that's what it's going to come down to is I'm gonna have to kill. And if I have to kill one, then I'm not going to be able to stop.”

On May 20, 2010, Kane and his son were pulled over on a highway by police officers. A dashboard camera shows that his son then shot and killed both officers. “60 Minutes” reports that the men were hit with a collective 25 bullets. One of the dead officers was Sgt. Brandon Paudert, West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert’s son.

Following his son’s death, Chief Paudert has become fixated on sovereign citizens. Paudert told "60 Minutes" correspondent Byron Pitts, "They're willing to die for what they believe in. These international terrorists that bombed the twin towers, they were willing to die for their beliefs. The sovereign citizens, the Kanes, are the exact same thing." Since the shooting, Paudert has traveled the country, educating law enforcement officers on sovereign citizens.

Some actions are now being taken against sovereign citizens. The News Virginian reports that sovereign citizen Michael Creath Jones, 31, was arrested and charged with five misdemeanors last week after a state police officer pulled the man over for having a fake painted license plate. Jones allegedly locked his doors, refused to identify himself, and later resisted arrest.

'Israel pushing Obama into war with Iran'

PressTV - 'Israel pushing Obama into war with Iran'
The Israeli lobby in the US is pushing President Barack Obama to go to war with Iran and the Middle East countries need “to be on guard about this [plot],” says a political analyst.


“Israel lobby AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] is pushing for confrontation with Iran,” James Morris told Press TV in an interview on Thursday.

Morris said it was worrying that Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon has called on the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs to take stronger actions against Iran.

The analyst added that neo-conservatives in the US are also plotting against Syria since Damascus supports the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah.

“What is happening in Syria with the protests...I think the neo-cons through the National Endowment for Democracy have been involved with this, perhaps in terms of rabble-rousing in Syria,“ Morris said.

“They want to create strife there [in Syria] and get President Barack Obama to intervene like he did in Libya,” he said.

Morris urged the Middle East countries to be vigilant against US and Israel's plots in the region.

“The only thing I can say is to be ready for more war...It is all part of a plan to get an eventual war for Israel against Iran and Syria and the region really has to be on guard about this... We just have to watch out for that.”

MN/AKM

RAGE....

United Ad at Ground Zero Raises Questions | NBC New York

United Ad at Ground Zero Raises Questions | NBC New York
United Ad at Ground Zero Raises Questions

School Wants To Allow Bus Drivers To Search Students

School Wants To Allow Bus Drivers To Search Students - Education News Story - WRTV Indianapolis
A western Indiana school district wants to give its bus drivers the authority to search students for weapons or drugs.

The Tribune-Star reported that a Vigo County School Corp. proposal would allow the drivers to search a student and the student's belongings if there is an immediate threat of harm or danger to those on the bus.

Ray Azar, director of student services, said the Terre Haute-based district wants its drivers to have the authority to conduct searches in case they are on the road and must immediately respond to an emergency situation. That would include scenarios where a student might be in possession of a dangerous drug or a weapon.

9/11 Bin Laden Blamed No Evidence

Lowkey: 'Bush imperialism continues under Obama'

Is Your Religion Your Financial Destiny?

Is Your Religion Your Financial Destiny? - NYTimes.com

The economic differences among the country’s various religions are strikingly large, much larger than the differences among states and even larger than those among racial groups.

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The most affluent of the major religions — including secularism — is Reform Judaism. Sixty-seven percent of Reform Jewish households made more than $75,000 a year at the time the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life collected the data, compared with only 31 percent of the population as a whole. Hindus were second, at 65 percent, and Conservative Jews were third, at 57 percent.

On the other end are Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists. In each case, 20 percent or fewer of followers made at least $75,000. Remarkably, the share of Baptist households making $40,000 or less is roughly the same as the share of Reform Jews making $100,000 or more. Overall, Protestants, who together are the country’s largest religious group, are poorer than average and poorer than Catholics. That stands in contrast to the long history, made famous by Max Weber, of Protestant nations generally being richer than Catholic nations.

Many factors are behind the discrepancies among religions, but one stands out. The relationship between education and income is so strong that you can almost draw a line through the points on this graph. Social science rarely produces results this clean.

What about the modest outliers — like Unitarians, Buddhists and Orthodox Christians, all of whom are less affluent than they are educated (and are below the imaginary line)? One possible explanation is that some religions are more likely to produce, or to attract, people who voluntarily choose lower-paying jobs, like teaching.

Another potential explanation is discrimination. Scott Keeter of Pew notes that researchers have used more sophisticated versions of this sort of analysis to look for patterns of marketplace discrimination. And a few of the religions that make less than their education would suggest have largely nonwhite followings, including Buddhism and Hinduism. Pew also created a category of traditionally black Protestant congregations, and it was somewhat poorer than could be explained by education levels. These patterns don’t prove discrimination, but they raise questions.

Some of the income differences probably stem from culture. Some faiths place great importance on formal education. But the differences are also self-reinforcing. People who make more money can send their children to better schools, exacerbating the many advantages they have over poorer children. Round and round, the cycle goes. It won’t solve itself.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 17, 2011

An earlier version of the graph accompanying this article mislocated “Seculars” on it; 35 percent are college graduates, not 45 percent.

Bono Still hasn’t Found What He’s Looking For and He Won’t Find It Between His or Obama’s Ears! Another day, Another Hypocrite, Another Liar

Bono Still hasn’t Found What He’s Looking For and He Won’t Find It Between His or Obama’s Ears! Another day, Another Hypocrite, Another Liar. | Sovereign Independent

By Neil Foster – The Sovereign Independent –

Bono backing Obama and praising his smile for being genuine should show Irish people once and for all that this sanctimonious pop ‘star’ is nothing less than a sycophantic bootlicker of the globalist, corporate, criminal classes who are right now sucking Ireland dry whilst this hypocrite flies around the world in his own airliner claiming he’s saving the planet from life giving CO2 and who further claims to care about starving Africans whilst he gets his tacky sunglasses made in Chinese sweatshops.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-400188/St-Bono-hypocrite.html

http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/bono_hypocrisy_third_world_scam.htm

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/04/more-on-bonos-tax-.html

I could give you more links to his hypocrisy but there’s enough there to prove the point.

The article below has a number of issues I’d like to take up with Mr. O’NOB and his sidekick this week Barry Soetoro aka Barack obama.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-visits/bono-gives-his-full-backing-to-president-2651449.html

Firstly, if he thinks Barack Obama is a genuine politician when his real name is well known to be Barry Soetoro, he’s Indonesian and is therefore ineligible to be president of the United States because he’s not a US citizen, and he’s an out and out liar, then Mr. Onob…. You are either a party to this lie or are as dumb as your salivating ‘fans’ who worship the ground you walk on… I’ll presume that’s that land where you don’t pay any taxes… IRELAND!

Unless you hadn’t noticed Nobo, the world is heading into the abyss of World War III, mainly due to the aggression of successive US administrations, under the corporate control of international banking criminal cabals, and whose own country is collapsing around Barry Soetoro’s prominent ears who you seem so sickeningly prone to trying to get some feeble remarks into regarding your own overinflated egotistical ideas on how the world should be run U2 style… That’ll be using the U2 spy plane no doubt which is used on many occasions to target innocent civilians in the ‘War OF Terror’ being inflicted on the poor across the world today. But hey… according to Barry boy, war is peace!

Another idiotic remark by Nobo suggests that he thinks that Osama bin Laden, or to use his CIA cover name, Tim Osman, wasn’t executed recently. Well, for once I’ll agree with Nobo because you see, it’s very difficult to execute a guy who’s been dead for almost a decade so if you ever wanted to see a trial Nobo, you’re out of luck… At this stage you’ll be lucky to see what’s left of his rotting torso.

But nevermind, the urge to see a trial was only a feeling in part of Mr. Onob and I have a feeling it wasn’t his brain or his conscience.

But anyway… apparently we have Nobo to thank for Google and Faecalbook, sorry Facebook, coming to Ireland so now we have the CIA snooping on us from all angles, as well as MI6, right in our own green backyard. And talking of ‘green’ isn’t a bit hypocritical of Barry ‘bankers bootlicker’ Soetoro to talk about reducing CO2 when he flies into town when he requires “…four large US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters…?

The Chinooks, which can carry up to 47 people with five crew, are just part of the massive entourage surrounding the president and will be used to ferry them around. They were immediately surrounded by gardai, and Irish Army Cavalry troopers armed with Steyr assault rifles.

A succession of giant USAF cargo planes will visit Dublin over the next few days to deliver the president’s helicopter, Marine One, his back-up helicopter, his armoured Cadilliac known as ‘The Beast‘, and armoured and soft skin SUVs for use by his heavily armed Secret Service guards.”

Better put up the barricades guys, we’re being invaded!

The only CO2 issue I can possibly take up with these two talking heads is the amount of unrecyclable garbage and the copious amounts of CO2 being expelled by them in the guise of public relations… sorry propaganda.

But hey it’s going to be a great day for the local residents of Moneygall, apparently Barry’s ancestral home although it’s a long way from Kenya or Indonesia for that matter, but what has fact got to do with anything when it comes to these talking glove puppets? A fake president can lie with the best of them afterall and hey… Nobo’s simply the best isn’t he! Or is that just ‘SIMPLE’?

Unfortunately his ancestors, the residents of Moneygall, are to be treated like terrorists and forced from their homes, reminiscent of an Israeli clear out of Palestinian homes no doubt. I wonder what’ll happen if they refuse to leave their homes? Maybe the heavily armed goons will move in with their machine guns or a JCB will just bulldoze them into a field nearby?

Welcome home Barry, but will you turn out the lights before you leave cos we’re too poor to pay for the lecky and take your pet Bono with you!

Short URL: http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=20365

Growing Unemployment, Rising Poverty: Spain’s People’s Movement

Growing Unemployment, Rising Poverty: Spain’s People’s Movement
Spain’s people’s movement has finally awoken, la Puerta del Sol in Madrid is now the country’s Tahrir Square, and the ‘Arab Spring’ has been joined by what is now bracing to become a long ‘European Summer’. As people across the Arab world continue their popular struggle for justice, peace and democracy, Spain’s disillusioned citizens have finally caught on with full force. Slow at first, hopeful that Spain’s dire economic conditions would magically correct themselves, the Spanish street has finally understood that democratic and economic justice and peace will not come from the pulpits of the country’s corrupt political elite.

Amidst local and regional election campaigns, with the banners of the different political parties plastered across the country’s streets, people are saying ‘enough!’ Disillusioned youth, unemployed, pensioners, students, immigrants and other disenfranchised groups have emulated their brothers in the Arab world and are now demanding a voice – demanding an opportunity to live with dignity.

As the country continues to explode economically, with unemployment growing incessantly – one in two young people unemployed across many of the country’s regions. With many in the crumbling middle class on the verge of losing their homes while bankers profit from their loss and the government uses citizen taxes to expand the military industrial complex by going off to war; the people have grasped that they only have each other if they are to rise from the debris of the militarized political and economic nightmare in which they have found themselves.

Spain is finally re-embracing its radical past, its popular movements, its anarcho-syndicalist traditions and its republican dreams. Crushed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco seventy years ago, it seemed that Spanish popular culture would never recover from the void left by a rightwing dictatorship, which exterminated anyone with a dissenting voice; but the 15th of May 2011, is the reminder to those in power that Spanish direct democracy is still alive and has finally awaken.

In the 1970’s a transition through pact, transformed Spain’s totalitarian structures into a representative democracy in which all the economic structures remained intact. For the highly illiterate generations of the time, marred in the reality of a poverty-stricken country, the concessions made by the country’s elite seemed something worth celebrating. Nevertheless, as the decades passed, the state-owned corporations were privatized robbing the nation of its collective wealth, and the political scene crystallized into a pseudo-democracy in which two large parties PP and PSOE marginalized truly democratic alternatives. As this neoliberal political project materialized, the discontent begun to resurface, but the fear mongers, Spain’s baby-boomers who had once fought for democracy, were quick to remind the youth of the dangers of rebellion. For many decades in Spain, the mantra was, ‘it is better to live as we are than to go back to the totalitarianism of the past, and if you shake the system too much, it will take away our hard-earned rights’. So the youth remained silent, fearful of what could happen if they spoke, and the baby-boomers in their content blamed the youth for their indifference. According to them, it was the youth unwilling to work, which were bringing the country to its knees. But the youth have stopped this blame game, and aware of the true risks to their future are finally enticing the whole country to mobilize.

A failed European project, with its borders quickly being reinstated, a collapsing Euro currency, and the examples of Greece, Portugal and Ireland are the reminders to those on the streets of what it is they are fighting to disassociate themselves from, and of the freedoms they are working towards. The economic and political project of the country’s elite has destroyed the economic dreams of whole generations of naïve and apathetic Spaniards; it has left the country in the hands of bond speculators and central bankers, and Spaniards will have to pay that price. Nevertheless, the debt accumulated by the Spanish family, has also earned it the education with which it can understand what is going on, and through it Spanish people will liberate themselves from the tyranny of their government.

What has begun in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and has been echoed in fifty-two cities across the country is the crystallization of a popular movement for freedom, which has no intention of fading away. The people have no choice, either they take city squares as symbols of their struggle, or their message is never heard. The government knows this and that is why it has quickly responded by trying to disperse the crowds with its repressive police force, but following some arrests, the people are back with more strength.

"Paycheck Prostitutes" Alan Watt

New Fake Bin Laden Message Tells Arabs To Work With Obama And NATO For R...

Greenbelt Alliance | What We Do

Greenbelt Alliance | What We Do

What is a
livable community?

Imagine an attractive, pedestrian-oriented and easily accessible neighborhood, with houses close to shops, restaurants, workplaces, entertainment, and other activities. There are parks and great public spaces. People have choices in the types of homes provided, and new housing meets a variety of income ranges. For many, it is possible to commute to work by train or bus.

These are some of the essential elements of livable communities, towns and cities that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

Livable Communities are located near various commercial and recreational facilities, alleviating automobile dependency.

How Greenbelt Alliance fosters livable communities:

  • We advocate for smart growth, good transit and transit-oriented development, housing choices, affordable housing, and open space protection.

  • We endorse infill developments that meet our smart growth criteria, helping put these residential and mixed-use projects on the ground.

  • We engage residents of fast-growing Bay Area communities to help them advocate for good development.

  • We conduct research and policy advocacy to promote better development.

  • We build coalitions working for these objectives.

German insurer Munich Re held orgy for salesmen

BBC News - German insurer Munich Re held orgy for salesmen
The sculpture Man Walking by US artist Jonathan Borofsky stands in front of the headquarters of Munich Re AG in Munich, March 2006A recent photo of Munich Re's headquarters and its sculpture Man Walking

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One of the biggest insurance companies in the world held a party for salesmen where they were rewarded with the services of prostitutes.

Munich Re is the world's biggest re-insurer - in other words, the company acts as an insurance company for other insurance companies.

One of its divisions, Ergo, told the BBC that the party had taken place to reward salesmen in 2007.

A spokesman said the people who organised it had since left.

The gathering was held at a thermal baths in the Hungarian capital Budapest as a reward to particularly successful salesmen.

'Whatever they liked'

There were about 100 guests and 20 prostitutes were hired.

A German business newspaper said the prostitutes had worn colour-coded arm-bands designating their availability, and the women had their arms stamped after each service rendered.

According to Handelsblatt, quoting an unnamed participant, guests were able to take the women to four-poster beds at the spa "and do whatever they liked".

"After each such encounter the women were stamped on the lower arm in order to keep track of how often each woman was frequented," the paper quoted the man as saying.

"The women wore red and yellow wrist bands. One lot were hostesses, the others would fulfil your every wish.

"There were also women with white wrist bands. They were reserved for board members and the very best sales reps."

A spokesman for Ergo told the BBC that the party had happened, but said it was not the usual way of rewarding their employees.

Driving tax gains favor as gas tax funds fall short

Driving tax gains favor as gas tax funds fall short - May. 18, 2011

EW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Washington lawmakers are kicking around a new idea to help raise funds to fix our highways and infrastructure: a national driving tax charging motorists by the mile.

A driving tax could either replace the current 18.4 cent a gallon federal gas tax or, possibly, add to it.

Gasoline prices and taxes by state
Prices at the pump can vary widely among states due to a number of factors. More

Because greater fuel economy is letting motorists drive more miles using less gas, the current gas tax that funds the federal government's efforts to build and maintain highways isn't generating enough money.

A driving tax, officially known as a "vehicle miles traveled" tax, could close that gap.

While many see a driving tax as more efficient than the gas tax, there are privacy concerns over how driving information would be collected. Plus, lawmakers opposed to the idea say it places a heavier burden on motorists from rural states.

"It's a true user tax," said Ken Orski, publisher of the infrastructure industry publication Innovation NewsBriefsand a former transportation official in the Nixon and Ford administrations. "But there are serious political problems with this proposal."

Although there's currently no bill proposing such a tax, lawmakers are looking into it.

Earlier this year, North Dakota Democrat and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad asked the Congressional Budget Office to study the idea. In March CBO issued a report that said such a tax was feasible and had many advantages over a gas tax.