www.outlookindia.com | The India Banquet
I loved Naipaul's analogy of Benares with Washington DC - India's cosmic (and not just political) capital. what a way to look at the past!
the more I read Aatish Taseer - the more respect I come to feel for the guy. I have read his Islamic travelogue and it's probably the best observation on Islam since Naipaul himself. Of ocurse - because he does not do gutter inspection of the Slumdog kind - he will never win any Booker's like Suzie
Anyone here read Taseer's latest book about Delhi?
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Congress B-team [sic] scores a self-goal
apr 28th, 2010
even without kulkarni (former card-carrying communist) in the picture, bjp honchos are perfectly capable of saying unnecessary things that will boomerang on them!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: K
From: K
| http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100426/818/tnl-congress-did-not-initiate-anti-sikh.html Obviously he has forgotten the proverbial adage about falling trees and ground tremors... |
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Quotas and Women in India
Notice how the NYT will disparage left-wing socialist-backed quotas in Latin America, but will support the use of quotas in India? It once again shows the double standards of the Atlanticist mouthpieces.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
han proliferation: China opens missile plant in Iran
apr 26th, 2010
obummer has no problem with this, of course. as successive yank presidents certified that china was *not* sending nuclear materials to pakistan.
sino-mohammedan axis ki jai.
obummer has no problem with this, of course. as successive yank presidents certified that china was *not* sending nuclear materials to pakistan.
sino-mohammedan axis ki jai.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
From:
China opens missile plant in Iran
TEHRAN, April 23 (UPI) -- China inaugurated a missile plant in Iran last month, even as the United States and its allies were pressing Beijing to support a new round of tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, Jane's Defense Weekly reports.
It's a military relationship that goes back two decades and, in light of Russia's reluctance to provide the Iranians with advanced air-defense missile system to counter possible U.S. or Israeli airstrikes, is set to expand.
Robert Hewson, editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, reported that the factory for assembling and producing Iran's Nasr-1 -- Victory 1 -- anti-ship missile was opened March 7.
The Nasr is identical to China's C-704 anti-ship missile, Hewson says. Iran's burgeoning defense industry, much of it controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has been producing Chinese-designed anti-ship missiles such as the C-801 since the early 1990s.
The C-704, developed by China Aerospace Group, targets ships of 1,000-4,000 tons displacement and is the equivalent of the U.S. AGM-119 anti-ship missile. With a range of 106 miles and a 240-pound warhead, the C-704 has a kill probability of 95.7 percent.
The Iranians, possibly with Chinese assistance, have even developed improved versions such as the Noor, an upgraded version of China's C-802, with a longer range than the original and over-the-horizon capabilities.
Indeed, Hewson observed that "Iran has gone further than China in fielding the C-802, taking what was previously a land- and ship-launched weapon and producing an air-launched version that can be carried by Mi-17 helicopters and fast-jet types."
Over the years Iran has developed a range of anti-ship missile systems from the Chinese weapons that gives the Islamic Republic's regular navy and the IRGC's naval arm the capability to exert a considerable degree of control over waters in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
This is the area from which U.S. naval forces would strike if hostilities erupt.
On Saturday, the IRGC concluded its annual three-day Great Prophet exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, the choke point gateway to the Gulf and a key energy artery, in a show of defiance against the United States.
The Nasr is a medium-range weapon that can be launched from warships or shore batteries and its development and planned mass production has been trumpeted by Tehran at a time when Iran's military forces are making preparations to counter possible attacks.
"In a methodical and deceptively modest manner China has helped Iran take charge of all its surrounding waters and this work between the two nations continues," Hewson reported.
"Follow-on versions of the Nasr are being developed to include an air-launched variant.
"There are other cooperative tactical missile programs under way and China's design bureaus have displayed several 'export only' weapons (such as the C-705 lightweight cruise missile) that would seem set to follow the established route into Iran," Hewson added.
"With such a solid relationship established between the two countries it is not difficult to see why China has been reluctant to commit to the Western push for sanctions against Iran."
China, ever hungry for energy sources to fuel its expanding economy, imports around 12 percent of its oil from Iran and seeks to secure Iranian natural gas through overland pipelines -- another reason it has shown little enthusiasm for new U.N. sanctions on Iran.
Hewson said no Chinese envoys were seen at the opening of the Nasr factory conducted by Iran's hard-line defense minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, but the event marked "another milestone in the continuing military/industrial bond between the two countries."
Hewson observed that unlike Russia, China "has been very successful in offering Iran technology and capabilities that are actually wanted, as opposed to those that might be 'nice to have.'
"A path has been found through the factions within Iranian officialdom (and its armed forces) to deliver products that build trust in Beijing. In return, China gains influence with Tehran that can be parlayed into access to Iran's natural resources."
While these Chinese-origin systems have provided Iran with invaluable missile technology, this has had little or no impact on the development of its ballistic missile capabilities.
"Iran's strategic weapons can only (ultimately) involve it in a losing battle with the United States,' Hewson concluded, "but its tactical weapons have already altered the regional balance of power in a much more practical way."
Fwd: Trinetra April Issue
apr 26th, 2010
forwarding information about this journal. this is the first time i have seen it.
hope the lovely images come through when this is posted on blogger.
forwarding information about this journal. this is the first time i have seen it.
hope the lovely images come through when this is posted on blogger.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Trinetra shiva
To:
From: Trinetra shiva
To:
TriNetra -Where the glory & beauty of Hindu Dharma & heritage come alive.....
April 2010 Vaisakhi Edition
Trinetra wishes all its visitors & readers a Very Auspicious Vaisakhi 2010
Hinduism & the Environment
The Pagan element in Hinduism advocated Sustainable Development through living a simple way of life inclusive of a very simple diet, without causing any harm to one's natural environment which included the flora & fauna on Earth. Click on image to Read More..
Hindu Festivals - Vaisakhi 2010
Vaisakhi, April 13 - 15. The Hindu Solar New Year. Celebrated with bathing in holy waters, especially the Ganges. Click on image to Read More...
Bollywood = Hindu Culture?
Reena Mathur looks at Bollywood & its destructive influence on Hindu youngsters through movies and Bollywood dance schools.
Click on image to Read More..
Hindu History
Abhimanyu & The Kurukshetra War
We begin our section on Hindu history with Abhimanyu, a key personality and one of the greatest warriors mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. Click on image to Read More..
Hindu Temples Around The world..
This month we explore the famous landmark of Bangladesh - Dhakeshwari Mandir. Click on image to Read More..
Monday, April 26, 2010
The theft of yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla
apr 25th, 2010
just as the christists are stealing all sorts of other hindu inventions and customs. in kerala, lots of churches now sport 'dwajasthambhas' -- the traditional copper-clad flagpoles. now why aren't they thinking these are, gasp, lingas? gasp, gasp, christists worshipping lingas?
also, on vidyarambham, the day when children are initiated into the word by writing 'om hari sri ganapataye namah:' on a bed of rice, now christists are initiating their kids by writing some nonsense about jesus.
these are cultural thefts. well, christists have no culture, so they have to steal from others, just as they stole christmas (the alleged birthday of the non-existent jesus) from the druids' and persians' and hindus' winter solstice celebration of mitra-utsav.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
From:
The theft of yoga
By Dr. Aseem Shukla
Nearly 20 million people in the United States gather together routinely, fold their hands and utter the Hindu greeting of Namaste -- the Divine in me bows to the same Divine in you. Then they close their eyes and focus their minds with chants of "Om," the Hindu representation of the first and eternal vibration of creation. Arrayed in linear patterns, they stretch, bend, contort and control their respirations as a mentor calls out names of Hindu divinity linked to various postures: Natarajaasana (Lord Shiva) or Hanumanasana (Lord Hanuman) among many others. They chant their assigned "mantra of the month," taken as they are from lines directly from the Vedas, Hinduism's holiest scripture. Welcome to the practice of yoga in today's western world.
Christians, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, agnostics and atheists they may be, but they partake in the spiritual heritage of a faith tradition with a vigor often unmatched by even among the two-and-a half-million Hindu Americans here. The Yoga Journal found that the industry generates more than $6 billion each year and continues on an incredible trajectory of popularity. It would seem that yoga's mother tradition, Hinduism, would be shining in the brilliant glow of dedicated disciples seeking more from the very font of their passion.
Yet the reality is very different. Hinduism in common parlance is identified more with holy cows than Gomukhasana, the notoriously arduous twisting posture; with millions of warring gods rather than the unity of divinity of Hindu tradition--that God may manifest and be worshiped in infinite ways; as a tradition of colorful and harrowing wandering ascetics more than the spiritual inspiration of Patanjali, the second century BCE commentator and composer of the Yoga Sutras, that form the philosophical basis of Yoga practice today.
Why is yoga severed in America's collective consciousness from Hinduism? Yoga, meditation, ayurvedic natural healing, self-realization--they are today's syntax for New Age, Eastern, mystical, even Buddhist, but nary an appreciation of their Hindu origins. It is not surprising, then, that Hindu schoolchildren complain that Hinduism is conflated only with caste, cows, exoticism and polytheism--the salutary contributions and philosophical underpinnings lost and ignored. The severance of yoga from Hinduism disenfranchises millions of Hindu Americans from their spiritual heritage and a legacy in which they can take pride.
Hinduism, as a faith tradition, stands at this pass a victim of overt intellectual property theft, absence of trademark protections and the facile complicity of generations of Hindu yogis, gurus, swamis and others that offered up a religion's spiritual wealth at the altar of crass commercialism. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, under whose tutelage the Beatles steadied their mind and made sense of their insane fame, packaged the wonders of meditation as Transcendental Meditation (TM) just as an entrepreneur from here in Minneapolis applied the principles of Ayurveda to drive a commercial enterprise he coined as Aveda. TM and Aveda are trademarked brands--a protection not available to the originator of their brand--Hinduism itself. And certainly these masters benefited millions with their contributions, but in agreeing to ditch Hinduism as the source, they left these gifts orphaned and unanchored.
The Los Angeles Times last week chronicled this steady disembodying of yoga from Hinduism. "Christ is my guru. Yoga is a spiritual discipline much like prayer, meditation and fasting [and] no one religion can claim ownership," says a vocal proponent of "Christian themed" yoga practices. Some Jews practice Torah yoga, Kabbalah yoga and aleph bet yoga, and even some Muslims are joining the act. They are appropriating the collective wisdom of millenia of yogis without a whisper of acknowledgment of yoga's spiritual roots.
Not surprisingly, the most popular yoga journals and magazines are also in the act. Once yoga was no longer intertwined with its Hindu roots, it became up for grabs and easy to sell. These journals abundantly refer to yoga as "ancient Indian," "Eastern" or "Sanskritic," but seem to assiduously avoid the term "Hindu" out of fear, we can only assume, that ascribing honestly the origins of their passion would spell disaster for what has become a lucrative commercial enterprise. The American Yoga Association, on its Web site, completes this delinking of yoga from Hinduism thusly:
"The common belief that Yoga derives from Hinduism is a misconception. Yoga actually predates Hinduism by many centuries...The techniques of Yoga have been adopted by Hinduism as well as by other world religions."
So Hinduism, the religion that has no known origins or beginnings is now younger than yoga? What a ludicrous contention when the Yoga Sutras weren't even composed until the 2nd Century BCE. These deniers seem to posit that Hinduism appropriated yoga so other religions may as well too! Hindus can only sadly shake their heads, as by this measure, soon we will read as to how karma, dharma and reincarnation--the very foundations of Hindu philosophy--are only ancient precepts that early Hindus of some era made their own.
The Hindu American Foundation (Disclosure: I sit on the Foundation's Board) released a position paper on this issue earlier this year. The brief condemns yoga's appropriation, but also argues that yoga today is wholly misunderstood. Yoga is identified today only with Hatha Yoga, the aspect of yoga focused on postures and breathing techniques. But this is only one part of the practice of Raja Yoga that is actually an eightfold path designed to lead the practitioner to moksha, or salvation. Indeed, yogis believe that to focus on the physicality of yoga without the spirituality is utterly rudimentary and deficient. Sure, practicing postures alone with a focus on breathing techniques will quiet the mind, tone the body, increase flexibility--even help children with Attention Deficit Disorder--but will miss the mark on holistic healing and wellness.
All of this is not to contend, of course, that yoga is only for Hindus. Yoga is Hinduism's gift to humanity to follow, practice and experience. No one can ever be asked to leave their own religion or reject their own theologies or to convert to a pluralistic tradition such as Hinduism. Yoga asks only that one follow the path of yoga for it will necessarily lead one to become a better Hindu, Christian, Jew or Muslim. Yoga, like its Hindu origins, does not offer ways to believe in God; it offer ways to know God.
But be forewarned. Yogis say that the dedicated practice of yoga will subdue the restless mind, lessen one's cravings for the mundane material world and put one on the path of self-realization--that each individual is a spark of the Divine. Expect conflicts if you are sold on the exclusivist claims of Abrahamic faiths--that their God awaits the arrival of only His chosen few at heaven's gate--since yoga shows its own path to spiritual enlightenment to all seekers regardless of affiliation.
Hindus must take back yoga and reclaim the intellectual property of their spiritual heritage--not sell out for the expediency of winning more clients for the yoga studio down the street.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
El Popa of the Church of Child Buggery - running away from lawsuit
looks like ratzy is running scared of hitchens and dawkins lawsuit. i am not sure what is so offensive about the memo. it is full of the only redeeming british trait - english humor.
reminds me of that great song in python's Meaning of Life - Every Sperm is sacred
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7632259/Pope-could-cancel-UK-visit-over-offensive-Foreign-Office-memo.html
interesting that a memo appears as if by miracle to save El Popa the blushes. Miracle memo. verily - behold - the memo is born of a virgin!
the irony is not lost on anyone. the church claims that reassigning the civil servant is not punishment enough. but reassigning child-rapists - is well... ahem. nevermind.
this benedictine church is one sick collection of gangsters...
reminds me of that great song in python's Meaning of Life - Every Sperm is sacred
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7632259/Pope-could-cancel-UK-visit-over-offensive-Foreign-Office-memo.html
interesting that a memo appears as if by miracle to save El Popa the blushes. Miracle memo. verily - behold - the memo is born of a virgin!
the irony is not lost on anyone. the church claims that reassigning the civil servant is not punishment enough. but reassigning child-rapists - is well... ahem. nevermind.
this benedictine church is one sick collection of gangsters...
Govt Wiretapping Phones
The crooked and paranoid Kaangress One Party State has been caught tapping the phones of opposition members and even its own cabinet ministers.
china builds blue-water navy, while manmohan farts around on cricket
apr 25th, 2010
in a case of fiddling while rome is burning, manmohan "mohdans have first rights to india's resources" singh is using the cricket garbage to divert attention from the real problems that are facing the country:
1. increasing military threat from china
2. pakistan's de facto occupation of afghanistan and intense pressure from obama for india to exit kashmir
3. inflation with food prices going up by 20%
4. de facto occupation by china's proxies of half of the country. the communist terrorists are han proxies
5. children in uttar pradesh eating mica-laden clay because they are starving
it's as aditya sinha said in the new indian express, there is an 'indian proxy league' patronized most by the kkkangress. this is far more wicked than the cricket league
godman doublespeak du jour: vatican wants 'transparency' ROTFLMAO!
apr 24th, 2010
just like mohammedans, christist also have their own peculiar vocabulary.
what the padre means by 'transparency' here is 'opaqueness'. truly orwellian! they want all their shenanigans to be kept hidden from the public and from the courts. lots of chutzpah to talk about transparency! n fact it is transparency that's got ratzy in trouble and all the pedophile godmens' knickers in a twist.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
(Video) Hindus react as Muslim mob kills Hindu youth in Surendranagar, Gujarat
apr 24th, 2010
peas in action.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi
From: Ravi
See News Video of Hindu Anger in Patdi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UaaC7K1reE&feature=channel
http://deshgujarat.com/2010/03/17/tense-patdi-observes-bandh-continuously-on-second-day/
Tense Patdi observes bandh continuously on second day
Surendranagar, DeshGujarat, 17 March, 2010
http://deshgujarat.com/2010/03/17/tense-patdi-observes-bandh-continuously-on-second-day/
Tense Patdi observes bandh continuously on second day
Surendranagar, DeshGujarat, 17 March, 2010
Surendranagar district's Patdi village observed complete strike on continuously second day following a death of Hindu Thakor youth attacked by a group of Muslims.
Hindus in angry mood pelted stones over houses of Muslims involved in attack on Hindu youth.
Patdi's Hemant Thakor was attacked by group of Muslims on 5 March after verbal argument over occupying seat at a circus show. This had triggered a clash between two communities on 6 March.
Hemant was taken to hospital in Ahmedabad for treatment where he died yesterday. Traditionally women do not take part in funeral procession, but yesterday even village women joined Hemant's funeral after which the incidents of stone pelting compelled local police to lobb a couple of rounds of teargas shells to control the crowds.
Fresh communal clash broke out today in Patdi town of Gujarat's Surendranagar district after a Hindu youth, who was attacked by a group of local Muslims on 6 March, died today at a hospital in Ahmedabad.
Police rounded up more than 50 persons from Patdi and brought them to Dasada police station to control the situation.
The culprits Anwar Riyaz Pathan, Iqbal Abu Vora, Sakir Ibrahim Khan, Inayat Khan Ibrahim Khan, Chatur alias Salim Daval, Abbas Abdul Mohammad Khan, Abbas Abdul Mohammad Khan's son, and Abbad Abdul Mohammad Khan's another son are arrested. One culprit, the son of Abbas Abdul Mohammad Khan's driver's son is still at large.
Links: Buddhism under siege by Christian converts in South Korea; photos of destroyed temples & deities.
apr 24th, 2010
what samuel reddy and co have in mind for hindus.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishwar
Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 9:44 PM
Subject: Links: Buddhism under siege by Christian converts in South Korea; photos of destroyed temples & deities.
To:
See what Christians have done to Buddhist temples in South Korea.
From: Ishwar
Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 9:44 PM
Subject: Links: Buddhism under siege by Christian converts in South Korea; photos of destroyed temples & deities.
To:
See what Christians have done to Buddhist temples in South Korea.
1] Photos of destroyed temples and deities: http://www.buddhapia.com/eng/tedesco/pic1/list.html
2] Buddhism under siege 1982-96 by Christian converts: http://www.buddhapia.com/eng/tedesco/2.html
3] Chronology of events 1997-98: http://www.buddhapia.com/eng/tedesco/3.html
These links are also posted at "Kanchi Acharya: No more conversions" http://bharatabharati.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/kanchi-acharya-no-more-conversions-indian-express/
wsj: a dangerous belief that all religions are the same
apr 23rd, 2010
see the quotes. it is only idiot hindus who claim all religions are the same. they are not. some are better (much better) than others (hint: eastern, forest religions are much better than arab, desert religions).
this can be added to several other stupid beliefs in india:
1. we go to the olympics to be part of the scenery ie. "to participate is the thing, not to win"
2. cricket is not fixed and is better than the world wrestling federation
3. 'saint' thomas came to india (hard to do, unless he had two skeletons. his skeleton is in ortona, italy. his other skeleton is in chennai, india)
4. jesus came to india (hard to do, as jesus did not exist)
5. hindus wiped out buddhism in india (no, it was mohammedans who literally beheaded all the monks and burned all their monasteries)
6. nehru brought india its independence
7. the nehru dynasty has sacrificed a lot for india
8. mohammedans are a poor, woebegone oppressed group in india (no, they flex their muscles and oppress hindus)
9. communism and socialism are good for the oppressed (no, their objective is to *keep* the oppressed oppressed)
10. poverty is somehow dignified (no, it's not. otherwfse rich white people would be dying to become poor. i don't see any of them giving their money away and becoming wandering penniless mendicants).
hitchens: bring ratzy to justice
apr 23rd, 2010
ah, when pigs fly. or hell freezes over. el popo knows how to take care of himself.
but then augusto pinochet thought he too could swagger around.
this is so ironic! it was cedric "2000 mohammedans" prakash, a catholic godman in gujarat, who pushed for the revocation of narendra modi's visa to the US. it is only poetic justice that cedric's boss is now likely to be served with an arrest warrant if he shows his face in britain. i do hope hitchens and dawkins and their lawyers will hound ratzy and make him an international criminal-fugitive.
i also like hitchens' deconstruction of the fiction of the vatican as a 'state'. what state? it's smaller than the stanford campus! darn -- interesting thought -- will the hoover institution at stanford secede from o'bummer's US and declare itself a sovereign state?
Pak Army sends Politico Military Signals to India thru 'EX AZM-E-NAU' by Dr Subhash Kapila
apr 23rd, 2010
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sanjeev
From: Sanjeev
| |
List of critics of Islam (in italian)
apr 23rd, 2010
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sri
From: sri
Hi
This article has a list of critics of Islam such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie, Ibn Warraq etc (50) plus links. The comments section has of more such links.
http://www.lisistrata.com/cgi-bin/02lisistrata/index.cgi?action=forum&board=islam&op=display&num=4
This article has a list of critics of Islam such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie, Ibn Warraq etc (50) plus links. The comments section has of more such links.
http://www.lisistrata.com/cgi-bin/02lisistrata/index.cgi?action=forum&board=islam&op=display&num=4
pedophile padre du jour: Belgian bishop resigns over sexual abuse of boy
apr 23rd, 2010
at least this bugger had the decency to resign. what about ratzy?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi
From: Ravi
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100423/wl_nm/us_pope_abuse_belgium/print
Belgian bishop resigns over abuse of boy
April 23, 2010
VATICAN CITY/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A Belgian Catholic bishop resigned on Friday after admitting he had sexually abused a boy when in charge of the diocese of Bruges.
"When I was still a simple priest, and for a while when I began as a bishop, I sexually abused a boy in my close entourage," the bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, said in a statement issued at a news conference in Brussels.
"I profoundly regret what I have done and I present my sincerest apology to the victim, his family, the Catholic community and society in general," said the 73-year-old.
The abuse took place more than 20 years ago. It was not clear how old the boy was when the abuse began or how long it lasted.
Vangheluwe stepped down after a person close to the victim complained to the church. His is the first such case in Belgium, although a church commission said it was investigating about 20 other cases involving sex abuse allegations.
Hundreds of instances of abuse by clergymen have come to light in Europe and the United States in the last month as disclosures encouraged victims to go public with their allegations.
Vangheluwe was born in the western town of Roeselare and was ordained as a priest in Bruges at the age of 26. He was appointed bishop of the historic city aged 48, a role he held for 25 years until his resignation on Friday.
Vangheluwe had a high profile at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, one of Belgium's leading universities, where he often delivered a homily at the beginning of the academic year. He also sat on the steering committee of a local charity.
(Reporting by Stephen Brown in Rome and Ben Deighton in Brussels; editing by Robert Woodward)
Another Indian Christian priest faces jail term for sex abuse in Italy
apr 23rd, 2010
crawling out of the woodwork, aren't these horny little indian christist buggers?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi
From: Ravi
| Indian priest faces jail term for sex abuse | |
Rome, April 17 (IANS/AKI): http://www.deccanherald.com/content/64356/indian-priest-faces-jail-term.html | |
| An Indian priest who confessed to sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in the central Italian province of Abruzzo could face up to 12 years in jail. | |
| Under Italian law, the penalty for sexual violence against a child under the age of 14 ranges from six to 12 years. The 40-year-old priest, who has been named as 'David', comes from the southern city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. He was released from prison in the town of Teramo, 175 km northeast of Rome, Thursday and remains under house arrest in an undisclosed location, believed to be a local convent. "He is feeling relieved now that he is under house arrest," said Davide Pagnottella, a priest and friend from the Teramo diocese told AKI. Pagnottella said it was not clear when the priest's court hearing would be held since the timetable was up to the judiciary. He it should be recognised as "an isolated case" and justice should be allowed to take its course. "He has suffered a great deal because he understands the seriousness of what he has done," Pagnottella said. "Naturally he is part of a culture that is very different to our own," he said. "He is having trouble with the language, and this has created more problems on top of his psychological pain." Pagnottella said the priest had not had any contact with his ailing mother since he returned to Italy from India Monday. The priest Wednesday admitted to visiting the girl at her home Dec 19 last year and after offering her a Santa Claus doll placed her hand on his genital area. His defence lawyer Giovanni Gebbia could not be contacted Friday but previously declined to discuss the potential sentence his client may face. He said his client had been singled out because of the "current climate" after a wave of sexual abuse allegations by priests has shaken the Catholic Church in the US, Germany, Ireland, Italy and several other countries. The Vatican is now strongly urging bishops to report abuse cases to civil authorities if required by local law. | |
new indian express: As long as Manmohanomics prevails, Maoism will survive
apr 23rd, 2010
well, this is not coming from the right-wing, it's coming from the lunatic-fringe-left. so it must be true, no?
personally i don't support communist terrorism, but it's interesting to see the lunatic-fringe left (communists) attacking the far-left (congress).
crony capitalism (eg. IPL) leads to marie-antoinette-type excesses while the natives are getting restless. i guess in this orgy of IPL-love manmohan singh has forgotten the Mango Man (aam aadmi).
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sri
Indias gravest threat
GS Vasu
The Express Buzz
I am amused by the nature of the discourse that has taken place ever since
the Maoists carried out the biggest ever attack on Indian security forces in
Dantewada, Chhattisgarh last fortnight. Did the CRPF men walk into a trap?
Should we use the army? Will use of unmanned aircraft help? These have been
the typical questions that have been raised but we are unwilling to discuss
why this is happening.
And I am not the only one who is amused. In the wake of the Chhattisgarh
incident, I visited a senior police officer with considerable experience in
handling Naxalite issues, and to my surprise, he too was amused. He asked me
a counter question: What else do you think will happen when thousands of
acres are given away to companies and lakhs of tribals are displaced? They
are bound to fight back. Feigning innocence, I asked him if this aspect is
ever discussed in Delhi where plans are made to root out the menace of
Naxalism. No, he replied. It is always about how many platoons should be
sent, where and what kind of weapons they should be armed with.
This despite having the plain facts before us. It is now four decades since
we saw Spring Thunder. During this period, some 10,000 people, supposedly
Maoists, have been killed in encounters, thousands of crores have been spent
on deploying forces and equipping them with modern weaponry, but all that we
managed to do is to help the movement spread from one district in one state
to over 200 districts in 15 states. I would not give the credit for this to
the Maoists. It is the Indian state and its economic policies which are
creating Maoists as we speak.
During my travels in Telangana, I happened to visit a Special Economic Zone
that has displaced about 1,000 people. Their lands, abutting a national
highway, were taken away by the government for sums ranging from Rs 18,000
to Rs 60,000 per acre. As construction began, the same farmers turned into
coolies working for daily wages of Rs 100, carrying brick and sand on the
same land they had once tilled. As the chief minister turned up to
inaugurate a companys unit, police fenced off the village to keep the
oustees at bay lest they create trouble. It reminded me of the Indo-Pak
border.
In another district, another company has been given close to 10,000 acres
for an SEZ. All that the farmers got was around Rs 50,000 per acre while the
SEZ promoter is now said to be quoting Rs 50 lakh per acre to those
intending to set up a unit there. In the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam
district, a government enterprise took up the responsibility of mining
bauxite and handing over the ore to a foreign company for smelting because
the law prevents private firms from exploiting natural resources in tribal
areas. This is a Machiavellian way to circumvent the Constitution and the
protection it offers to people who are vulnerable to exploitation. Most of
the companies favoured with such SEZs have, as a quid pro quo, invested
hundreds of crores in business ventures in which the powers-that-be have an
interest. Who is to remind our rulers of the oath they take when they assume
office that they will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution
and work without fear or favour, affection or ill will? And, tomorrow, if
all those affected by these projects become Maoists, who are we to blame?
That is not all. Today, in the rural areas, our primary health centres dont
function, and government hospitals in towns and cities are on the verge of
collapse. Every year, in the Agency areas of Andhra Pradesh, tribals die in
the hundreds of curable diseases such as diarrhoea or malaria. Who cares for
them? We have placed our healthcare system firmly in the control of
corporate hospitals. We dont care when tribal women are raped by security
forces as is happening in the Agency areas of AP or Chhattisgarh but the
molestation of a middle or upper middle class woman in Mumbai or Delhi
becomes front page news for our media. I dont condone the latter but this
only reflects our class bias. Are we saying it is acceptable or tolerable
for tribal women to be raped?
The same holds good for education. Gone are the days when government-run
residential schools and colleges produced top rankers. Like healthcare,
profit-oriented companies today control education and those who cant get
into their schools are made to feel they do not deserve to study. Thanks to
globalisation, several sections have been pushed to the brink. Debt-ridden
farmers and weavers are driven to suicide. In the cities, small businesses
are being edged out by big companies selling everything from vegetables,
footwear, milk and broomsticks to gold and petrol. Today, we have corporates
which show off their stinking wealth by dumping thousands of crores on
fashion shows like the Indian Premier League. Once upon a time we used to
talk disapprovingly of the politician-businessman nexus. Now businessmen
themselves get elected to legislatures and dictate our policies.
The revolutionary writer Vara Vara Rao was candid to tell me that its the
governments policies displacing tribals to benefit MNCs that have
largely strengthened the Maoist movement, be it in Lalgarh, Orissa or
Chhattisgarh. What globalisation and market fundamentalism have done in many
South American countries should teach us the perils of our current economic
policies, provided we are willing to learn from the experience. When Maoists
held talks with the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh five
years ago, two of their main demands were: (a) implementation of land
reforms and (b) laws meant to protect tribals and their rights over land. It
is ironic that a group which does not believe in the Constitution had to
tell a constitutionally-elected government what to do.
The fact is that city lights are not the real India. They are just a facade
beneath which a volcano is bubbling. When our Union home minister talks of
restoring order in Naxal-dominated areas, he does not seem to realise what
the causes of disorder are. At some point, inflation, unequal distribution
of income and corruption our vice-president believes that corruption is a
threat to national security while our prime minister thinks it is the
Maoists are bound to threaten social stability and state power too. The
police officer I met very casually remarked to me that as long as
Manmohanomics prevails, Maoism will survive, irrespective of how many forces
you deploy and how many Naxalites you kill. The time has come for the Indian
intelligentsia to debate whether Manmohanomics or Maoism is the gravest
internal security threat.
vasu@expressbuzz.com
About the author:
G S Vasu is the resident editor of The New Indian Express, Andhra Pradesh
and is based in Hyderabad
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/indias-gravest-threat/166894.html
From: sri
Indias gravest threat
GS Vasu
The Express Buzz
I am amused by the nature of the discourse that has taken place ever since
the Maoists carried out the biggest ever attack on Indian security forces in
Dantewada, Chhattisgarh last fortnight. Did the CRPF men walk into a trap?
Should we use the army? Will use of unmanned aircraft help? These have been
the typical questions that have been raised but we are unwilling to discuss
why this is happening.
And I am not the only one who is amused. In the wake of the Chhattisgarh
incident, I visited a senior police officer with considerable experience in
handling Naxalite issues, and to my surprise, he too was amused. He asked me
a counter question: What else do you think will happen when thousands of
acres are given away to companies and lakhs of tribals are displaced? They
are bound to fight back. Feigning innocence, I asked him if this aspect is
ever discussed in Delhi where plans are made to root out the menace of
Naxalism. No, he replied. It is always about how many platoons should be
sent, where and what kind of weapons they should be armed with.
This despite having the plain facts before us. It is now four decades since
we saw Spring Thunder. During this period, some 10,000 people, supposedly
Maoists, have been killed in encounters, thousands of crores have been spent
on deploying forces and equipping them with modern weaponry, but all that we
managed to do is to help the movement spread from one district in one state
to over 200 districts in 15 states. I would not give the credit for this to
the Maoists. It is the Indian state and its economic policies which are
creating Maoists as we speak.
During my travels in Telangana, I happened to visit a Special Economic Zone
that has displaced about 1,000 people. Their lands, abutting a national
highway, were taken away by the government for sums ranging from Rs 18,000
to Rs 60,000 per acre. As construction began, the same farmers turned into
coolies working for daily wages of Rs 100, carrying brick and sand on the
same land they had once tilled. As the chief minister turned up to
inaugurate a companys unit, police fenced off the village to keep the
oustees at bay lest they create trouble. It reminded me of the Indo-Pak
border.
In another district, another company has been given close to 10,000 acres
for an SEZ. All that the farmers got was around Rs 50,000 per acre while the
SEZ promoter is now said to be quoting Rs 50 lakh per acre to those
intending to set up a unit there. In the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam
district, a government enterprise took up the responsibility of mining
bauxite and handing over the ore to a foreign company for smelting because
the law prevents private firms from exploiting natural resources in tribal
areas. This is a Machiavellian way to circumvent the Constitution and the
protection it offers to people who are vulnerable to exploitation. Most of
the companies favoured with such SEZs have, as a quid pro quo, invested
hundreds of crores in business ventures in which the powers-that-be have an
interest. Who is to remind our rulers of the oath they take when they assume
office that they will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution
and work without fear or favour, affection or ill will? And, tomorrow, if
all those affected by these projects become Maoists, who are we to blame?
That is not all. Today, in the rural areas, our primary health centres dont
function, and government hospitals in towns and cities are on the verge of
collapse. Every year, in the Agency areas of Andhra Pradesh, tribals die in
the hundreds of curable diseases such as diarrhoea or malaria. Who cares for
them? We have placed our healthcare system firmly in the control of
corporate hospitals. We dont care when tribal women are raped by security
forces as is happening in the Agency areas of AP or Chhattisgarh but the
molestation of a middle or upper middle class woman in Mumbai or Delhi
becomes front page news for our media. I dont condone the latter but this
only reflects our class bias. Are we saying it is acceptable or tolerable
for tribal women to be raped?
The same holds good for education. Gone are the days when government-run
residential schools and colleges produced top rankers. Like healthcare,
profit-oriented companies today control education and those who cant get
into their schools are made to feel they do not deserve to study. Thanks to
globalisation, several sections have been pushed to the brink. Debt-ridden
farmers and weavers are driven to suicide. In the cities, small businesses
are being edged out by big companies selling everything from vegetables,
footwear, milk and broomsticks to gold and petrol. Today, we have corporates
which show off their stinking wealth by dumping thousands of crores on
fashion shows like the Indian Premier League. Once upon a time we used to
talk disapprovingly of the politician-businessman nexus. Now businessmen
themselves get elected to legislatures and dictate our policies.
The revolutionary writer Vara Vara Rao was candid to tell me that its the
governments policies displacing tribals to benefit MNCs that have
largely strengthened the Maoist movement, be it in Lalgarh, Orissa or
Chhattisgarh. What globalisation and market fundamentalism have done in many
South American countries should teach us the perils of our current economic
policies, provided we are willing to learn from the experience. When Maoists
held talks with the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh five
years ago, two of their main demands were: (a) implementation of land
reforms and (b) laws meant to protect tribals and their rights over land. It
is ironic that a group which does not believe in the Constitution had to
tell a constitutionally-elected government what to do.
The fact is that city lights are not the real India. They are just a facade
beneath which a volcano is bubbling. When our Union home minister talks of
restoring order in Naxal-dominated areas, he does not seem to realise what
the causes of disorder are. At some point, inflation, unequal distribution
of income and corruption our vice-president believes that corruption is a
threat to national security while our prime minister thinks it is the
Maoists are bound to threaten social stability and state power too. The
police officer I met very casually remarked to me that as long as
Manmohanomics prevails, Maoism will survive, irrespective of how many forces
you deploy and how many Naxalites you kill. The time has come for the Indian
intelligentsia to debate whether Manmohanomics or Maoism is the gravest
internal security threat.
vasu@expressbuzz.com
About the author:
G S Vasu is the resident editor of The New Indian Express, Andhra Pradesh
and is based in Hyderabad
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/indias-gravest-threat/166894.html
on nukes, Obama obliges India?
apr 23rd, 2010
hard to believe this is anything of value to india. a better headline would have been 'o'bummer obliges his nuke industry'.
also shows the value of the threat substitutes. o'bummer roused himself when it was apparent that there are other suppliers.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
From:
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Wednesday, April 21, 2010
U.S. makes new nuke concessions to India
Nicholas Kralev
The United States has made new concessions as part of its civilian nuclear agreement with India, further angering arms control advocates, while New Delhi has yet to make it possible for U.S. companies to benefit from the unprecedented deal.
In the most recent accord completed late last month, Washington agreed to Indian demands to increase the number of plants allowed to reprocess U.S.-supplied nuclear fuel from one to two, with the option of another two if India's needs grow in the future.
At the same time, India thus far has failed to pass legislation that would release U.S. companies from liability in case of accidents related to equipment they have provided for two reactors expected to be built under the 2007 U.S.-Indian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. That effectively prevents those firms from starting businesses in the South Asian country.
The U.S. government understands "the need for sufficient indigenous Indian capacity to reprocess or otherwise alter in form or content, under [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards, U.S.-obligated nuclear material," says the new document, which was released by the State Department.
In 2008, the Bush administration restricted Indian reprocessing to one plant in an effort to limit potential proliferation of dangerous dual-use technology, which could be used for military or civilian purposes.
However, last month's agreement refers to "two new national reprocessing facilities established by the government of India." It also says that "the management of separated safeguarded plutonium … shall take into account the need to avoid contributing to the risks of nuclear proliferation, the need to protect the environment, workers and the public."
Arms control experts denounced the new deal, saying it adds to the "damage" done by the original agreement. In an unprecedented move at the time, the Bush administration went against established norms and allowed a country that has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to use U.S.-supplied fuel to make plutonium, though for strictly civilian purposes.
"It will further undermine U.S. efforts to stop the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technologies," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said of the March deal. "It should be rejected by Congress because it is inconsistent with the terms outlined in" the original agreement.
The new document does not need congressional approval and will go into force unless Congress stops it within 30 days. Administration officials and analysts said they do not expect any hurdles on Capitol Hill.
"There was never a possibility that the arms control people would like the U.S.-India agreement — they hated it from the beginning," said Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The number of reprocessing facilities "shouldn't be a deal-breaker," she added.
A State Department official said the administration agreed to allow two plants instead of one to avoid long-distance transportation of dangerous materials to just one reprocessing facility from two nuclear reactors on opposite sides of India.
Under the initial agreement, U.S. companies are allowed to help build the two reactors. The sites that the Indian government chose for those facilities are in the western state of Gujarat and the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh. "Highly radioactive spent fuel" will have to be "carried in big storage casks" to the reprocessing plant from those sites, and it is safer to have two plants close to each reactor than to move the casks across the country to only one plant, the official said.
Lisa Curtis, senior research fellow for South Asia at the Heritage Foundation, said "U.S. companies can't take advantage of the deal" and export equipment for the Indian reactors because "the Indian government hasn't presented in parliament nuclear liability legislation."
The State Department official said the government in New Delhi planned to submit the legislation recently but decided against it because of a "big backlash" from several political parties that want the Americans "to pony up in the event of an accident." The law would bring Indian legislation in line with international standards, under which the equipment operator — not the supplier — is liable in accidents.
Even though the 2007 agreement allows American companies to export equipment for the Indian reactors, they still are banned by U.S. law from selling India reprocessing and enrichment technology.
Mr. Kimball said the Indians most likely will seek such technology from other countries in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which "maintains a policy of 'restraint' regarding the transfer of reprocessing or enrichment equipment" but does not ban it.
The State Department official expressed doubt that Western NSG members will sell such equipment to India, but Mr. Kimball cited recent reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "is reported to have appealed to [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev for reprocessing technology and equipment transfers."
"This is a major proliferation danger, since there is no civil-military separation plan or safeguards regime that can prevent such technology from being sold for civilian purposes, and then used or copied for use in making nuclear weapons," Mr. Kimball said.
how chinese treat their ethnic minorities: this is how kashmiris deserve to be treaten
apr 23rd, 2010
instead, the rage boys get coddled by the UPA. note how when the
courts gave a death sentence to terrorists in lajpat nagar, srinagar
was shut down by the rage boys.
also, note that j&k is the richest state in the country. the % of
people below the poverty line is 2%, as compared to a national average
of about 30%.
truly, the kashmiri mohammedans have colonized india. (not the
kashmiri hindus. with all their talk of 'kashmiriyat' they are now
dying off in refugee camps.) my old essay on 'india, the kashmiri
colony' is still absolutely true.
http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/when-living-look-like-skeletons-shamed.html
pundita: A new book deconstructs America's Manchurian President
apr 23rd, 2010
from the intrepid pundita, news about obummer the manchurian.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:52:58 EDT
Subject: A new book deconstructs America's Manchurian President
To:
Greetings and best regards to all. I'm hoping "Manchurian President" will
be the breakthrough book - a muckraking account that is too well researched
for the lamestream media to ignore. Call me an eternal optimist.
Pundita
_#_
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html)
posted by Pundita : 4/23/2010 12:33:00 PM
_RBO's Brenda J. Elliott, the American political blogosphere's best
investigative researcher, takes on "The Manchurian President"_
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html)
In the time it takes most writers to think up a theme for an essay,
historian and investigative political researcher Brenda J. Elliott can gather
enough material for an encyclopedia entry and weave it into a muckraking
report that does double duty as a _mini-history course_
(http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/reading-list/) on a topic.
Since early 2008 her blog
Rezko Watch and its present incarnation _RBO_
(http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/) (the "Real Barack Obama")
have been a go-to place for political
junkies and journalists looking for background material on Barack Obama and
his associates.
Now Brenda has teamed with investigative reporter and best-selling author
_Aaron Klein_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Klein) to write an
exhaustively documented examination of Barack Obama's ties to
leftists. The _450
page work_
(http://www.amazon.com/Manchurian-President-Communists-Socialists-Anti-American/dp/1935071874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271951569&sr=8-
1) , titled The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists,
Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists and due in bookstores May 3,
is the book the American journalism profession should have produced at least
as early as 2007, when it became evident that Obama was being groomed to
step into the White House. Instead, the profession cranked out one puff
piece after another and didn't examine Obama's network of leftist alliances.
When conservative partisans began to learn about the alliances they rushed
into publication in a desperate attempt to alert the voting public during
the presidential campaign; in the process they too often sacrificed
thorough research and documentation, which made it easy for Obama's
supporters to
discredit their books.
The upshot was that until Glenn Beck came to Fox News Cable in 2009 and
began plowing through histories of American Progressivism and highlighting
research from ex-Communist _David Horowitz's_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Horowitz_Freedom_Center) massive
_Discover the Networks_
(http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/) project, few Americans who
didn't closely follow
the political blogosphere knew about Barack Obama's extensive ties with
Communists and hard-left socialists. That the ignorance extended to most
Democratic voters, that they had seen him simply as a 'Liberal,' helps explain
how a small minority of Americans with Communist leanings gained the White
House.
Yet it was only when Beck released secretly taped footage of Obama's White
House Communications Director at the time, _Anita Dunn_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Dunn) , standing before a pulpit
in the Washington
National Cathedral and passionately proclaiming to American
schoolchildren that
modern history's most ruthless oppressor of religion, China's Communist mass
murderer Mao Zedong, was one of her favorite political philosophers that
the American majority finally started to wake up.
If Dunn had looked the part of the popular imagination of a Maoist, the
awakening might not have been so rude. But her standard-issue conservative
Washington power dress and haircut, her clean-cut looks, had the jarring
effect of invoking the bored tone of Nazi officers describing their
part in the
Holocaust when she casually dismissed her remark as an attempt at irony.
Suddenly, many statements that Barack Obama and his advisors had made over
the course of the presidential campaign and during his first year in
office, statements that supportive media outlets had insisted were not an
indication of Communist sympathies, jelled into a revealing portrait
of America's
44th President.
With just a few words Anita Dunn, one of Obama's closest political
advisors, had managed to convey what all his right-wing political
opponents had
been unable to get across: the foxes had somehow taken over the chicken coop.
It is the "somehow" that makes The Manchurian President as much an
important read for students of American political history as for the general
public because it supplies pages that have been missing from the history.
_http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html_
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html)
from the intrepid pundita, news about obummer the manchurian.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:52:58 EDT
Subject: A new book deconstructs America's Manchurian President
To:
Greetings and best regards to all. I'm hoping "Manchurian President" will
be the breakthrough book - a muckraking account that is too well researched
for the lamestream media to ignore. Call me an eternal optimist.
Pundita
_#_
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html)
posted by Pundita : 4/23/2010 12:33:00 PM
_RBO's Brenda J. Elliott, the American political blogosphere's best
investigative researcher, takes on "The Manchurian President"_
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html)
In the time it takes most writers to think up a theme for an essay,
historian and investigative political researcher Brenda J. Elliott can gather
enough material for an encyclopedia entry and weave it into a muckraking
report that does double duty as a _mini-history course_
(http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/reading-list/) on a topic.
Since early 2008 her blog
Rezko Watch and its present incarnation _RBO_
(http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/) (the "Real Barack Obama")
have been a go-to place for political
junkies and journalists looking for background material on Barack Obama and
his associates.
Now Brenda has teamed with investigative reporter and best-selling author
_Aaron Klein_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Klein) to write an
exhaustively documented examination of Barack Obama's ties to
leftists. The _450
page work_
(http://www.amazon.com/Manchurian-President-Communists-Socialists-Anti-American/dp/1935071874/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271951569&sr=8-
1) , titled The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists,
Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists and due in bookstores May 3,
is the book the American journalism profession should have produced at least
as early as 2007, when it became evident that Obama was being groomed to
step into the White House. Instead, the profession cranked out one puff
piece after another and didn't examine Obama's network of leftist alliances.
When conservative partisans began to learn about the alliances they rushed
into publication in a desperate attempt to alert the voting public during
the presidential campaign; in the process they too often sacrificed
thorough research and documentation, which made it easy for Obama's
supporters to
discredit their books.
The upshot was that until Glenn Beck came to Fox News Cable in 2009 and
began plowing through histories of American Progressivism and highlighting
research from ex-Communist _David Horowitz's_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Horowitz_Freedom_Center) massive
_Discover the Networks_
(http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/) project, few Americans who
didn't closely follow
the political blogosphere knew about Barack Obama's extensive ties with
Communists and hard-left socialists. That the ignorance extended to most
Democratic voters, that they had seen him simply as a 'Liberal,' helps explain
how a small minority of Americans with Communist leanings gained the White
House.
Yet it was only when Beck released secretly taped footage of Obama's White
House Communications Director at the time, _Anita Dunn_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Dunn) , standing before a pulpit
in the Washington
National Cathedral and passionately proclaiming to American
schoolchildren that
modern history's most ruthless oppressor of religion, China's Communist mass
murderer Mao Zedong, was one of her favorite political philosophers that
the American majority finally started to wake up.
If Dunn had looked the part of the popular imagination of a Maoist, the
awakening might not have been so rude. But her standard-issue conservative
Washington power dress and haircut, her clean-cut looks, had the jarring
effect of invoking the bored tone of Nazi officers describing their
part in the
Holocaust when she casually dismissed her remark as an attempt at irony.
Suddenly, many statements that Barack Obama and his advisors had made over
the course of the presidential campaign and during his first year in
office, statements that supportive media outlets had insisted were not an
indication of Communist sympathies, jelled into a revealing portrait
of America's
44th President.
With just a few words Anita Dunn, one of Obama's closest political
advisors, had managed to convey what all his right-wing political
opponents had
been unable to get across: the foxes had somehow taken over the chicken coop.
It is the "somehow" that makes The Manchurian President as much an
important read for students of American political history as for the general
public because it supplies pages that have been missing from the history.
_http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html_
(http://pundita.blogspot.com/2010/04/rbos-brenda-j-elliott-political.html)
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