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“Iran today responded to growing criticism over political detainees by freeing 140 inmates incarcerated in its most notorious jail following the recent post-election upheavals.

“The prisoners were released from Tehran's Evin prison after MPs inspected the facility, where hundreds of opposition politicians, activists and protesters have been held following protests over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bitterly disputed re-election.

“The move followed the closure of another detention centre where human rights groups say torture led to several deaths. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the closure of Kahrizak prison on Tehran's southern outskirts because it "lacked the standards" to maintain detainees' rights, officials said.

“The release of the Evin prisoners came a day after the judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, urged officials to free inmates not suspected of serious offences. Some 150 political prisoners remain inside, according to official figures, including prominent supporters of the reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims last month's presidential election was stolen from him.”

related material
protests against terror dictatorship in iran
behind the current iranian election
iran - the continuing story

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stasi volunteers wanted

Before reading, be aware this is from a comic.

“SNOOPING residents are being offered rewards of up to £500 to spy on their neighbours.

“Taxpayers’ money is being used to pay "covert human intelligence sources" who report bad conduct to authorities.

“Anyone who photographs dog fouling, litter being dropped, graffiti crime or fly tipping which result in prosecution will receive a cash reward.

“The amount is staggered, according to how far the prosecution is taken.

“If a court summons is issued the snooper gets £100. On a conviction he gets £150 and if the offender gets a maximum sentence he receives £500.”

Of course, it will be important to find sufficient ‘crime’to be snooped. That will inevitably mean making up crimes, as is already a growing problem in the UK.

If a socialist government is to gain the power to do good unto us, then first it is vital that no-one, but no-one, can trust anyone else.

The project is clearly going well. Every day you may hear Brown the Clown and his cronies boasting about his success.

Must go now - time to denounce Mummy and Daddy.

And this is not a twisted joke. Here is the Waltham Forest Council web-site advertising their “Conviction Reward Scheme”. And here are further junior snooper schemes.

• Junior Streetwatchers [Ealing]
  Press release
• StreetCare Champions [Crawley]
• Street Scene Champions [Harlow]

[latter references from James Hammerton]

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what to look for in the next p.m.

Tony Bliar was privately educated. His problem is his mediocre intelligence.

‘New’ Labour prefers a bunch of uneducated dullards.

Why on earth ‘Salt of the Earth’ types would think they might be better off with poorly educated masters, let alone with rather dim socialist masters, is beyond reason.

The better the leaders, the better for the country, and thereby the better for individual society members. Better leaders are not to be found on the Left.

Neither are leaders likely to be found in the local comprehensive school. There can be found intelligent leaders like Thatcher or socialist John Major, but probably not a highly experienced, educated leader.

Those coming out of the public school system include those from families used to power and thereby much less easily corrupted by that power. Those from the wealthier families are also more often experienced in managing large organisations.

Now look at the ‘New’ Labour front bench. What have any of them ever built or achieved in the real world? It is crazy to expect such people to be able to run a country, however much one may wish otherwise.

Sanity is facing reality, not engendering jealousy of those luckier or more privileged, let alone those with greater ability.

All to be found on the Left are the poorly or shallowly educated recruits into the socialist cult, complete with a chip on their shoulder, a lack of real experience, and a determination to foment class warfare.

Socialism is for fools. The best hope of a reasonable Opposition in the UK is that the fake-Lib-Dems drop their socialist entryists, and that socialism dies, understood as the dangerous, mentally deranged and mentally bankrupt dogma it always was.

What is needed, whether or not the electorate prefer, is decent educated people like David Cameron, not ignorant dogmatists like Brown the Clown.

the difference between a Consevative and a Socialist, from Daniel Hannan

“A heart-warming email arrives from a constituent:

“I recently asked my friend’s little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up.

“She said she wanted to be Prime Minister some day. Both of her parents, Labour supporters, were standing there, so I asked her, ‘If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would do?’

“She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

“Her parents beamed.

“ ‘Splendid: what a worthy goal.’ I told her ‘But you don’t have to wait until you’re Prime Minister to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you £50. Then I’ll take you over to the supermarket where that homeless fellow hangs out, and you can give him the £50 to use toward food and a new house.’

“She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked:

“ ‘Why doesn’t the homeless man come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the £50 ?’

“I said, ‘Welcome to the Conservative Party.’

“Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.”

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victor hanson on thugocracies

“Lesson Two. Being anti-American and mouthing tired charges about imperialism, colonialism or capitalism do not make a thug authentic or populist...Theocratic Ahmadinejad may scream constantly about Western oppression, but that does not mean any of his loud grievances are legitimate, or that his own people see him as a romantic popular leader. Communist Fidel Castro may scream anti-American slurs, but he still spent a half-century jailing or executing anyone he pleased.”
—
“ Lesson Four. Thugs can never be trusted - whether an Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin of the past or the rogue's gallery of today. Ahmadinejad is lying about his peaceful plans for nuclear technology. Kim Jong-Il continued his nuclear program when he promised that he would not. Syria's Bashar Assad hid his nuclear reactor under construction.”

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the racism and dishonesty of ‘democrats’ - the auroran sunset

It’s worth watching the video accompanying this highly dishonest article [see below] to see a crystal clear view of how dishonest and racist these ‘Democrats’ are.

10:49 mins

Note that Buchanan never says the title ‘quote’ of the article, “Pat Buchanan Thinks White Men Deserve So Much More” , nor implies that he believes any such thing. In fact, he says close to the opposite.

Note that Maddow never answers Buchanan’s questions.

Note that Maddow is living in the past of racism against non-whites: most of her constantly repeat ‘108 Supreme Court justices’ were before emancipation, desegregation and the civil rights acts.

Note that Buchanan is living in the present of racism against white males: he constantly repeats that he wants the best and the brightest and he couldn’t care less about their light reflectivity.

Buchanan correctly states that all Obama, Maddow, Yale or the others cared about is Sotomayor’s sex and light reflectivity, not ability: that is, they are the sexists and racists.

Unfortunately Buchanan’s not bright enough to really rub Maddow’s nose in her racism and stuck-in-the-past mindset (despite the article and her dishonestly trying to make Buchanan seem like the old fogie).

This is a clear example of ‘Democrats’ continuing their long history of systematic racism. They have only, from political expediency, changed the targets.

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uk socialists in their next step to tax and eliminate choice in education

“The final argument for state-run education has collapsed. It turns out that maintained schools are just as expensive as private ones. School fees in the private sector have shot up; but so has the state education budget, reaching £77.7 billion last year. Divide that by the number of pupils in the system and it works out as more than £9,000 per head. The average cost of an independent day school? £9,069.

“Why, then, do supporters of nationalisation insist that the only reason private schools get better outcomes is because they enjoy better facilities? Because, tragically, most of the education budget never gets near the classroom. Instead, it is wasted on otiose Local Education Authority staff, who spend their day devising Plans and Strategies and Partnerships, occasionally breaking off to sue each other for discrimination.” [Quoted from article by Daniel Hannan, telegraph.co.uk]

So that’s why the socialists are now trying to add tax to private schools. Of course, the government schools don’t pay tax - they take it.

And the users of private schools both pay fees and do not use the government cartel schools.

“....new rules requiring all charities in England and Wales to demonstrate they provide “public benefit”.

“In its assessment, rel­eased on Monday, the watchdog found these schools did not provide “sufficient opportunity to benefit” for people “who cannot afford the fees”.

“The commission’s assessment implies charitable private schools will have to find the money to fund significant numbers of bursaries. David Lyscom, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said the assessments “will inevitably lead to fee increases for the vast majority of parents” at many schools.”
—
“...analysts said the implication of the commission’s reports was that schools must spend be­tween 1 and 5 per cent of income on means-tested bursaries to pass the public benefit test.

“Simon Northcott, headmaster of St Anselm’s, said: “We have asked them several times for the percentage [necessary to pass the test], and they have not been very helpful.” He said attempts by the school last year to raise money for bursaries from donors had been unsuccessful. He said he would find an increase in fees to pay for more bursaries “difficult to justify to parents in the current econ­omic climate”.” [Quoted from ft.com]

Education has been a legitimate heading for charity - relief of poverty being a separate header.

This is just more socialist class hatred and trying to foster hatred among the population.

And still more arbitrary ‘law’ and retrospective ‘law’.

Socialism destroys societies and destroys wealth. It is government schools which should be controlled for unfair competition (subsidised trade) and misrepresentation, in that the quality of the product hardly meets the trade claims.

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innumerate ‘reporters’ and helicopters - what is brown the clown covering up this time?

Gordon Brown the Clown apparently says:

“There had been a huge funding increase and helicopter numbers have increased by 60 per cent in the last 3 years.”

There is, of course, a 117% probability he is lying again.

Why am I not hearing the actual and real number of ‘extra’ helicopters over three years?

So, I am going to guess. There were ten helicopters, three years ago, and now there are sixteen.
Or perhaps there were five, and now there are eight.

Why are we being given percentage claims instead of numbers?

Why are we not being told how many helicopters the operations in Afghanistan requires?

But more to the point, why are our innumerate reporters supinely accepting this blather?

And where are these helicopters coming from? Iraq?

There is usually only one reason to quote percentages without base numbers, and that reason is base dishonesty.

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