Dear Mahmoud Dude,

     There are a lot of decent, kind, and intelligent Iranians and Muslims. You, unfortunately, are not one of them. You have a brain and a heart; it's okay to use them once in a while.


Hugs and Kisses,
L

US walks out on Ahmadinejad's UN speech

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 23, 11:51 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS – Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadprovoked yet another controversy Thursday saying a majority of people in the United States and around the world believe the American government staged the Sept. 11 terror attacks in an attempt to assureIsrael's survival.

Source

The provocative comments prompted the U.S. delegation to walk out of Ahmadinejad's U.N. speech, where he also blamed the U.S. as the power behind U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used as fuel for electricity generation or to build nuclear weapons. 

Delegations from all 27 European Union nations followed the Americans out along with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Costa Rica, an EU diplomat said.

Ahmadinejad said the U.S. has allocated $80 billion to upgrade its nuclear arsenal and is not a fair judge to sit as a veto-wieldingpermanent member of the Security Council to punish Iran for its nuclear activities. Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon.

The Iranian leader — who has in the past cast doubt over the U.S. version of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — also called for setting up an independent fact-finding U.N. team to probe the attacks. That, he said, would keep the terror assault from turning into what he has called a sacred issue like the Holocaust where "expressing opinion about it won't be banned".

Ahmadinejad did not explain the logic behind blaming the U.S. for the terror attacks but said there were three theories:

That a "powerful and complex terrorist group" penetrated U.S. intelligence and defenses, which is advocated "by American statesmen."

"That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime. The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view."

After Ahmadinejad uttered those words, two American diplomats stood and walked out without listening to the third theory: That the attack was the work of "a terrorist group but the American government supported and took advantage of the situation."

Mark Kornblau, spokesman of the U.S. Mission to the world body, issued a statement within moments of the walkout.

"Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people," he said, "Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable."

France begins controversial Roma expulsion

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 19, 2010 7:04 a.m. EDT

Source

Paris, France (CNN) -- France was beginning the controversial expulsion of Roma on Thursday, putting 79 of them on a charter flight out of the country, the spokesman for the French minister of immigration said.

The government did not confirm the destination of the flight, but the head of a Roma support group, French media, and the Romanian Foreign Ministry said the plane was heading for Bucharest, Romania.

Some Roma had already flown out of France in the morning on a commercial flight to Bucharest, according to a spokesman for ROMEUROPE, a support group for Roma in Europe. The Romanian Foreign Ministry said there were 14 people on the earlier flight, for a total of 93 being expelled Thursday.

The deportation is part of what the French government says is a crackdown on illegal immigration, and it follows the government's dismantling in the past three weeks of 51 Roma camps that it called illegal.

The government is offering 300 euros ($384) to each Roma adult and 100 euros ($128) to each Roma child who accepts the offer for a "voluntary return."

I am worried about the risks of populism and xenophobic reactions in a context of economic crisis.
--Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi

RELATED TOPICS

• France
• Romania
• Bulgaria

Roma are a group of people marked by poverty who live mainly in southern and eastern Europe. Often referred to as Gypsies, they tend to live in camps or caravans and have been persecuted throughout history.

Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi told Radio France International that he is concerned about the French policy.

"I am worried about the risks of populism and xenophobic reactions in a context of economic crisis," Baconschi said.

Roma from Romania and Bulgaria are allowed free passage into France if they are European Union citizens. After that, however, they must find work, start studies, or find some other way of becoming established in France or else risk deportation.

The French government said those Roma being expelled this week have overstayed the three-month limit.

Two more charter flights were scheduled to leave in the next two days, the French Ministry of Immigration said. Friday's flight will have about 100 Roma aboard, a spokesman there said.

The vice president of France's Human Rights League, Malik Salemkour, told CNN the expulsion is pointless because the there are no provisions for those being sent away.

"Those that still have a house there can go back to it, but a lot of them do not have any shelter in Bulgaria or in Romania, so they are just stranded in Bulgaria or Bucharest for several days," said Salemkour, who is also head of ROMEUROPE.

He said the Roma will only return to France in the coming days because that's where they have set up their lives.

"Their children are at school here. They want to work here. It's been five, seven, 10 years that they have been living here. And though there have been obstacles, they are going to stay. And it's not fancy policies that are going to solve the problem," he said.

Two Romanian secretaries of state plan to be in Paris on August 30 to discuss the integration of Roma populations, the French Foreign Ministry said. It said Paris favors the social integration of the Roma in Romania.

CNN's Saskya Vandoorne, Sarah Goddard, and Jim Bittermann contributed to this report.

WILL HAWAI`I SECEDE FROM THE US?

Reblogged from The Koani Foundation 

Hawai`i is not, and has never been in or a part of the United States. 
So you cannot secede from something you've never been legally part of.

You cannot quit something you didn’t join. You cannot resign from something to which you don’t belong. You cannot divorce from someone to whom you were never married. Hawai`i regaining its independent status is a matter of reinstatement; of putting something back into its rightful place. Since Hawai`i was never lawfully made a part of the United States, its rightful place is still that of a sovereign, independent nation.

The current status of Hawai`i is that it’s people, lands and government are being held captive by the US. The Hawai`i independence movement is not seeking to secede from a bad union, it is seeking freedom from captivity, and the freedom to resume Hawaii’s status as a sovereign and independent nation. 

"Israeli Defense Forces Execute American Citizen"

By Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks for The Huffington Post

What else would you call it? The Israeli commandos that boarded the Free Gaza Flotilla shot Furkan Dogan once in the chest and four times in the head at close range. Was he still resisting after the third head shot? Did five different commandos happen to shoot him all at the same time in the middle of the night with stunning accuracy? No, someone shot Dogan at close range and did so enough times to make sure he was dead well after there might have been any resistance. That's generally known as an execution.


 Dogan is an American citizen. That's an uncomfortable fact for a lot of people, especially for our politicians who will do anything possible to cover for what Israel has done here. It's hard to cover for the summary execution of an American citizen. But they've managed pretty well so far. Do you hear any cries of outrage coming from America? No, didn't think so. 

Now, let's be fair. Dogan was born in Troy, New York, but he moved to Turkey when he was young. Maybe that's why the American government or media haven't made a big deal out of it.

So, imagine if Hamas had boarded a ship in international waters and shot a Jewish American who had lived in Israel most of his life. Now imagine they shot him in the head four times. Does anyone really believe we would say that doesn't really count because he'd been living in Israel too long? Does anyone believe we wouldn't be apoplectic about that? And rightfully so.

Anybody know what we would call it if Hamas had shot an American citizen in the head? Yeah, you guessed it. Terrorism.

So, I'd like to ask the Obama administration - which one is it? Was his life more expendable because he was a) Turkish-American b) Muslim-American c) lived outside the country for awhile or d) because Israel killed him rather than another country?

I'm genuinely curious about that. The US government so far has reacted with what appears to be complete and utter indifference to the brutal slaying of one of its citizens. So, what was it that made this guy's life irrelevant?

I'm about to have a son. He will be partly Turkish-American. Can he be executed by Israel or any other country? Will our country protect him? Will they consider him a real American? Does he count?

Is there any other country that also has immunity in killing US citizens? We're apparently very good allies with Saudi Arabia. Do they get to execute of any our citizens? I'm just trying to figure out the ground rules here.

Does it still mean something to be an American?