December 18, 2014

Texas truck ends up with Jihadists in Syria

"Non Lethal" aid for the rebels.



A Texas plumber who has never been to Syria said he is getting threatening phone calls related to the country's civil war because his former truck appeared in an Islamist group's propaganda video.

Callers knew it was Mark Oberholtzer's old truck because it still had his company's decal and phone number on the door.

Now, it also has an anti-aircraft gun secured to the bed of the truck, as seen in a photo and video on the Syrian group's Twitter account.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-plumbers-truck-ended-syrian-islamist-video/story?id=27669215

December 18, 2014

Col Steele our man in Iraq

December 18, 2014

Judge throws out teen’s murder conviction 70 years after his execution

Source: Washington Post

When George Stinney Jr. was executed for the killings of two white girls in 1944, he was so small that the straps of South Carolina’s electric chair didn’t fit him properly, and he had to sit on a book for his electrocution.

Stinney was just 14 years old at the time and became the youngest person put to death in the United States in the 20th century. But this week, 70 years after the fact, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen tossed out his conviction, which was reached after a trial that didn’t even last a full day and was never appealed. As the Associated Press noted, it took Mullen “nearly four times as long to issue her ruling as it took in 1944 to go from arrest to execution.”

“I can think of no greater injustice,” Mullen wrote in her 29-page order, the AP reported.

Stinney, who was black, was arrested for the beating deaths of two young girls in the segregated town of Alcolu. There wasn’t any physical evidence linking him the crimes, and he wasn’t allowed to see his parents after he was apprehended.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/17/judge-throws-out-teens-murder-conviction-70-years-after-his-execution/

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December 17, 2014

The Obamas: How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences

The protective bubble that comes with the presidency – the armored limo, the Secret Service detail, the White House – shields Barack and Michelle Obama from a lot of unpleasantness. But their encounters with racial prejudice aren't as far in the past as one might expect. And they obviously still sting.

"I think people forget that we've lived in the White House for six years," the first lady told PEOPLE, laughing wryly, along with her husband, at the assumption that the first family has been largely insulated from coming face-to-face with racism.

"Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs," Mrs. Obama said in the Dec. 10 interview appearing in the new issue of PEOPLE.

"I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn't see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn't anything new."

http://www.people.com/article/barack-obama-michelle-obama-ferguson-racism-racial-profiling-interview

December 17, 2014

Russia Crisis Hits Pimco Fund, Wipes Out Options

Source: Bloomberg

After the single worst day in Russia’s nine-month-old financial crisis, the fallout is spreading across global markets.

Pacific Investment Management Co. (PEBIX) is facing mounting losses on its Russian bond holdings; almost every bullish ruble option contract registered in the U.S. has been made worthless; and foreign-exchange brokers in New York and London told clients they’re no longer taking ruble trades. Sergey Shvetsov, a first deputy central bank governor, expressed astonishment at the scope of the collapse during a conference in Moscow.

“We couldn’t imagine what’s happening in our worst nightmare even a year ago,” Shvetsov, who oversees financial markets at Bank of Russia, said yesterday. He said the surprise interest-rate increase in the middle of the night, a 6.5 percentage-point move that failed to stem the run on the ruble yesterday, was a choice between a “very bad” option and a “very, very bad” option.

The ruble sank beyond 80 a dollar, a record low, as panic swept across Moscow’s financial markets before it rebounded after Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev denied speculation the government would impose restrictions to stop Russians from converting cash into dollars. The currency ended the day at 67.9, down 5.4 percent on the day, while bonds and stocks also tumbled. The ruble fell 0.8 percent to 68.0150 at 1:36 p.m. in Moscow, as the Micex Index of stocks dropped 0.6 percent.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-16/russia-crisis-hits-pimco-fund-wipes-out-options-as-ruble-sinks.html?hootPostID=42225f86d7c6a76fce583c8848acb022

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Ouch that stings...

December 17, 2014

JEB BUSH V. HILLARY CLINTON: THE PERFECTLY ILLUSTRATIVE ELECTION

Jeb Bush yesterday strongly suggested he was running for President in 2016. If he wins the GOP nomination, it is highly likely that his opponent for the presidency would be Hillary Clinton.

Having someone who is the brother of one former president and the son of another run against the wife of still another former president would be sweetly illustrative of all sorts of degraded and illusory aspects of American life, from meritocracy to class mobility. That one of those two families exploited its vast wealth to obtain political power, while the other exploited its political power to obtain vast wealth, makes it more illustrative still: of the virtually complete merger between political and economic power, of the fundamentally oligarchical framework that drives American political life.

Then there are their similar constituencies: what Politico termed “money men” instantly celebrated Jeb Bush’s likely candidacy, while the same publication noted just last month how Wall Street has long been unable to contain its collective glee over a likely Hillary Clinton presidency. The two ruling families have, unsurprisingly, developed a movingly warm relationship befitting their position: the matriarch of the Bush family (former First Lady Barbara) has described the Clinton patriarch (former President Bill) as a virtual family member, noting that her son, George W., affectionately calls his predecessor “my brother by another mother.”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/17/jeb-bush-v-hillary-clinton-perfectly-illustrative-election/

Barbara Bush gushes about Bill Clinton, says he treats George H. W. Bush like a father
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/barbara-bush-gushes-bill-clinton-treats-george-h-w-bush-father-article-1.1113917

December 17, 2014

US to veto UN resolution 'to end occupation'

Source: ynetnews

US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly told the Palestinians the United States will veto a proposed Palestinian resolution "to end the occupation" at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, Palestinian sources said.

Kerry, however, told a press conference on Tuesday that "no determinations" have been made yet.

"We've made no determinations about language, approaches, specific resolutions, any of that," Kerry said.

"This isn't the time to detail private conversations or speculate on a UN Security Council resolution that hasn't even been tabled no matter what pronouncements are made publicly about it."


Read more: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4604469,00.html

December 17, 2014

EU court says Hamas should be removed from terror list

Source: Reuters

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should be removed from the European Union's terrorist list, an EU court ruled on Wednesday, saying the decision to include it was based merely on media and internet reports.

However, the General Court of the European Union, the bloc's second highest tribunal, said EU member states could maintain their freeze on Hamas's assets for three months to give time for further review or to appeal the ruling.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly called on Europe to maintain the ban. "We expect them to immediately put Hamas back on the list," he said in a statement from Jerusalem, denouncing Hamas as "a murderous terrorist organization".

Hamas holds sway in the Gaza Strip and its founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel. It has regularly clashed with the Jewish state, most recently in a 50-day war this summer.

However, most Western countries, including the United States, agree with Israel that it is a terror organization, pointing to indiscriminate rocket strikes out of Gaza and waves of suicide attacks, primarily between 1993 and 2005.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-eu-hamas-courts-idUSKBN0JV0S020141217?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

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The Israeli origins of Hamas

December 17, 2014

Wealth: America's other racial divide

December 17, 2014

Exhibition chain scraps rollout of comedy about assassination of North Korea’s leader

Carmike Cinemas has canceled the nationwide Christmas Day release of Sony’s “The Interview,” the first theater chain to do so on the day hackers threatened 9/11-like attacks on theaters that showed the movie, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.

The hacking group, which has claimed responsibility for last month’s massive cyberattack that paralyzed the studio and resulted in the theft of thousands of sensitive documents and emails, had demanded that the studio pull “The Interview.”

The comedy stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as U.S. journalists who are asked by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea last summer warned that the film’s release would be an “act of war that we will never tolerate,” and said that the United States will face “merciless” retaliation. Its government on Dec. 6 denied it was behind the Sony hacking, but called the cyberattack “a righteous deed” and said that it could be the work of its supporters.

The comedy stars Seth Rogen and James Franco as U.S. journalists who are asked by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea last summer warned that the film’s release would be an “act of war that we will never tolerate,” and said that the United States will face “merciless” retaliation. Its government on Dec. 6 denied it was behind the Sony hacking, but called the cyberattack “a righteous deed” and said that it could be the work of its supporters.

http://www.thewrap.com/carmike-theater-chain-cancels-the-interview-release-after-hackers-threaten-terror-strikes/