Indonesia Will Ban Bitcoin In 2018

Indonesia's central bank "is drawing up regulation to enact a sweeping ban on all forms of cryptocurrency....claiming the crippling regulation was required to maintain the sovereignty of the rupiah [Indonesia’s fiat currency] as the country’s legal tender," reports CryptoCoinsNews.

Image: Bloomberg

It will be a complete ban, partly to protect the sovereignty of the rupiah, Indonesia's currency. Other reasons for the ban on cryptocurrencies include potential abuse by terrorists and money launderers. Cryptocurrency is a favored method of payment for illicit products and services on the dark web.

Indonesia is not alone in fearing cryptocurrency. In the UK, reports Financial Times, banks are shunning companies that handle cryptocurrencies.

Pan Gongsheng, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, has very little faith in Bitcoin. Quartz reported this week that Pan thinks "Bitcoin will die of a grand theft, a hack into the blockchain technology behind the cryptocurrency (which actually is unlikely), or a collective ban by global governments."

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not banned everywhere, of course. Some nations, such as Japan, have actually embraced them. "Governments that ‘get’ bitcoin, such as Japan, have passed legislation that protects its citizens whilst facilitating the free trade of the digital currency," Bitcoin.com reported in November.

Updated: Man Held in UK Mosque Stabbing of Four Including Police Officer

Washwood Heath Muslim Centre ~ Google Maps

June 15, 2013 - A quiet residential neighborhood in Birmingham, England was shaken by a multiple stabbing incident Saturday night. The incident seems to have nothing to do with terrorism or hate crimes.

"Four men including a police officer have been taken to hospital after being stabbed in a mosque in Birmingham," reports Sky News tonight. "The officer was stabbed as he arrived at a mosque in Birmingham where three people had been attacked by a knifeman." Sky News says that all four men are hospitalized and a 32-year old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Police tape off Washwood Heath Muslim Centre, 15 June
Photo: Sky News

UPDATE, 16 June: "Two worshippers, a 28-year-old man who suffered multiple stab wounds and a 36-year-old man who suffered a single stab wound to the thigh, were also being treated in hospital," reports The Guardian UK. "Another worshipper suffered a hand injury but did not need hospital treatment. All were given first aid at the scene by police officers and worshippers, who included an off-duty surgeon." The Guardian also reports that attacker's motivation for Saturday's attack are not known, "but there was no evidence it was a hate crime or linked to any other incidents." The Guardian says that the 32-year-old murder suspect "was transferred to a secure mental health facility on Sunday after he was deemed unfit to be interviewed by police."

The mosque is the Washwood Heath Muslim Centre at 790-792 Washwood Heath Road, Ward End, Birmingham, West Midlands. (See map and photo.) Listed at the same address is a school called Madrasah Qasim ul Uloom and a majid called Anwar-ul-Madina.

The West Midlands Police press release said that "Officers arrived at the incident and whilst the suspect was being detained, one police officer also suffered stab wounds. The three men and the male police constable were taken to hospital; all four men are currently described as being in a stable condition and their injuries are not believed to be life threatening. The man was arrested at the mosque on suspicion of attempt murder and is currently in custody. Officers are conducting patrols in the area in a bid to reassure local people and a cordon is in place whilst investigations continue at this time."

Ward End is an area of Birmingham, England. It covers the area between Saltley, Hodge Hill and Stechford and includes Ward End Park, according to Wikipedia, which also notes that "there are a large number of mosques, located on Ward End, Washwood Heath, Hodge Hill and Alum Rock Road or nearby." The UK Mosque Searcher lists nine mosques in Ward End.

Duh: Obama Gets Name of British Embassy Wrong

November 30, 2011 - You thought it was pretty funny when Herman Cain messed up the name of Uzbekistan, didn't you? Sure you did. "U-becky becky becky becky stan stan," is what he called it, albeit tongue-in-cheek, as he said in an interview in October.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quickly had a good laugh about it with none other than Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan. Yep, pretty funny when a conservative politician intentionally mispronounced Uzbekistan, eh?

But what about Barack Obama's expertise on foreign affairs?  In a press conference last night, Obama had no teleprompter. In a remarkably ignorant statement, he called condemned the recent storming of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Problem is, he called it "the English Embassy."

For those of you who, like Obama, are as ignorant about foreign affairs as the average 3rd grader, the correct term is "British Emabassy," not "English Embassy."

This is succinctly explained by Nile Gardiner at The Foundry in a Nov. 30 column:. "In case the president is unaware," he wrote, "England forms part of Great Britain, which also includes Scotland and Wales, though not Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. There is no such thing as an 'English' embassy anywhere in the world, and there hasn’t been one for several centuries."

What Obama did, in effect, was to refer to a foreign embassy that technically does not exist. There is no such thing as an "English Embassy" anywhere on Earth. Gardiner also wrote that "One can only imagine the kind of howls of derision that would greet any presidential contender if that kind of basic error were made..."

Great Britain has no embassies, just England does not. England is part of Great Britain, which in turn is part of the United Kingdom.

The "Know Britain" website tells us that many Brits are confused by what the term "Great Britain" means. "Try asking a person living in the United Kingdom the exact meaning of the expression they have on their passports: 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. Many will not be able to provide an adequate answer. No wonder, therefore, that confusion also exists outside the United Kingdom and that in other European countries people erroneously group together the English, Scottish and Welsh under the word in their own language meaning 'English'."

Will Hillary Clinton yuk it up with any world leaders about Barack Obama incorrectly calling the British Embassy in Tehran the "English Embassy?" No, I don't think so either, and the Mainstream Media won't play it up either.

Obama's defenders might call his "English Embassy" reference an understandable gaffe, but it clearly was not. Rather, it was the result of Obama's ignorance.

In the press conference, Obama said the following: "All of us, I think, are deeply disturbed by [pause] the [pause] aaahhh [pause, brain fart] crashing of, uh, the English Embassy. Ah, thuh, the embassy of the United Kingdom in Iran."  He got it wrong not once, but twice. It is not the "embassy of the United Kingdom." It is the embassy of Great Britain, or "British Embassy."

The President of the United States should certainly know this. But we'll give him this much: He's on a par with some of the lesser educated citizens of the UK for not knowing the basic political makeup of the British Isles.

Here's something else we can (and should) all laugh at: Michele Bachmann has stated that she would close the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Problem is, the United States does not have an embassy anywhere in Iran. We haven't had one since the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration, when revolutionaries stormed our embassy there and held it for 444 days.

Talking Points Memo reports that, "According to a tweet from NBC News’ Jamie Novogrod, Bachmann responded to the recent raiding of the British embassy in Iran, by saying that if she was President, she would close down the U.S. embassy there." What's especially disturbing about Bachmann's statement is the fact that she is a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Wikileaks Head Julian Assange Arrested by Brits, Denied Bail

December 7, 2010 - England - Julian Assange, 39, is the evil genius and man of mystery behind Wikileaks, a so-called "whistler blower" web site. Assange, an Australian national, was arrested today in England (United Kingdom) on charges of sexual crimes. Assange had been hiding out in London, but police knew his whereabouts. They did not arrest him for days because of legal technicalities involving a Swedish warrant for his arrest for sex crimes. After speculation last night that Assange might surrender to police, he did turn himself in this morning at 9:30 a.m (local time) and appeared before Westminster Magistrate's Court. Many speculate that the Swedish sex crimes charges were trumped up in an effort to capture Assange and further prevent him from releasing more U.S. state secrets on the Wikileaks website. Gangster Al Capone, remember, was finally done in by charges of income tax evasion. The BBC reports today that Assange "has been refused bail by a court in London but vowed to fight extradition to Sweden. Mr Assange denies sexually assaulting two women in Sweden. He was remanded in custody pending a hearing next week. A judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court refused bail because of the risk of the 39-year-old fleeing." Assange has published many confidential documents on his Wikileaks, without regard for the damage his actions could bring to international diplomatic relations or even for lives that such releases may have endangered. Tensions are rising between NATO and Russia, reports CBS News, because of today's "Wikileaks' revelation of secret NATO plans to defend the Baltic states and Poland in the event of a Russian attack, the former communist country's envoy to the alliance says his country will demand NATO drop the plans..." The Telegraph (UK) reported on November 28, Assange "denies he has committed any crime, was believed to have recently spent time in London but his whereabouts....were unknown. He had been under investigation in Sweden since August over rape allegations." Wikileaks has been a thorn in the side of the United States for many months, but the last straw was the most recent Wikileaks release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents, called embarrassing by some and dangerous by others. He was hunted by Interpol, which acted on an arrest warrant from the International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg, Sweden. That's where the sexual assault charges were formalized. The arrest of Assange will probably not have much effect on the operation of Wikileaks. Fox News reports today a WikiLeaks spokesman "said the flow of secret U.S. diplomatic cables would not be affected by Assange's legal troubles, nor by the group's increasingly rocky finances as both Visa and MasterCard cut off key funding methods" and that "WikiLeaks released a dozen new diplomatic cables, its first publication in more than 24 hours, including the details of a NATO defense plan for Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that prompted an indignant response from the Russian envoy to the alliance." RELATED: Arrested WikiLeaks chief denied bail in UK (video) YouTube British Police Arrest WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange (BBC video) YouTube Julian Assange Arrest (France24 video) YouTube WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is refused bail The Telegraph British Judge Denies WikiLeaks Founder Assange Bail Fox News Interpol's Online Wanted Poster for Julian Assange Profile: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange The Telegraph Who is Pfc. Bradley Manning? Fox News Pfc. Bradley Manning, Lady Gaga And How 250000 Top Secret Documents Were Leaked Weasel Zippers US says leaks are a crime, threatens prosecution Associated Press

Irish Terror Threat Called "Severe" After MI5 Attack

Irish terrorists are alive, well and still active. Just after midnight (local time) on Sunday, April 11, a bomb exploded right outside of a British intelligence facility in not far from Belfast City Airport.  The Express today quotes a top police official as saying that "The threat from dissident republicans who attacked the MI5 headquarters in Northern Ireland is 'severe'."

Northern Ireland is appointing its first justice minister in 40 years - hours after key powers were transferred from London at midnight on Monday, in a handover clouded by a car bomb blast claimed by dissident militants. Lawmakers voted to appoint David Ford, leader of the cross-community Alliance Party. (Source)

USA Today reports that "The Real IRA splinter group admitted responsibility for forcing a Belfast cabbie to drive the bomb to the gates of Palace Barracks, the high-security home of the anti-terrorist agency MI5 in Northern Ireland. The blast caused little damage to the base or nearby homes, and injured nobody seriously. But it did dramatically underscore the problems facing Northern Ireland's new Justice Department in seeking to build greater support for law and order, particularly in a minority Catholic community that still harbors Irish Republican Army die-hards." 

Terrorists come in a wide variety of flavors. One flavor is distinctly Irish and has been a major problem since well before the current phase of the Islamist wave of terror. To those in the United Kingdom, of course, this is not news. Some Americans, however, may need a reminder of the fact that not all terrorists are Muslims or Arabs.

The Real IRA (RIRA), also known as Óglaigh na hÉireann, is a radical terroritst group that does not acknowledge the peace between Sinn Fein and the British Government brokered in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Michaelin Daugherty writes that the "RIRA split with the Provisional IRA (PIRA), which supported the peace process and decommissioned all of its arms between July and September 2005."

According to The Telegraph UK, "Three terrorists took a taxi driver and his family hostage in north Belfast around 9.50pm, holding him for two hours while they loaded a bomb into his Skoda taxi and then forcing him to drive to the base."  The Telegraph also notes that "The attack came weeks after the first anniversary of the shooting of two soldiers by the Real IRA at the Massereene Barracks in County Antrim. Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and Patrick Azimkar, 21 were shot dead days before they were due to deploy to Afghanistan. Two days later, Constable Stephen Carroll was murdered by the Continuity IRA in Craigavon, Co Armagh. The blast follows a series of attacks by dissidents in Northern Ireland."

RELATED:
Sinn Féin denounces Real IRA bombing of M15 headquarters Guardian UK
Real IRA Claims Barracks Car Bomb Blast (with video) Sky News
Bomb blast coincides with N Ireland milestone‎ Financial Times
Bomb Rattles MI5 Offices in Northern Ireland‎ Wall Street Journal



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British Tea Party Movement? It's No Surprise, Really

By now, unless you've been hiding in a cave, you know about the "Tea Party movement" in the United States. It's an all-American movement, right? Yes, and no. 

Daniel Hannan, MEP explains that the Tea Parties sweeping America draw inspiration from the Boston Tea Party, which he says was actually a protest by British citizens. 

Writing on his Telegraph UK blog page, Hannan said this on February 27, 2010: Some British Lefties – and some Americans – are thrown by the idea of a Brighton Tea Party. After all, they point out, the original Boston Tea Party was directed against the British Crown. Yes, it was. But where do you think its leaders drew their inspiration from? The American patriots didn’t see themselves as revolutionaries, but as conservatives. In their own minds, all they were asking for was what they had always assumed to be their birthright as freeborn Englishmen. 

This should not surprise anybody who has a basic familiarity with American history, which is of course deeply intertwined with British history. Hannan explains his reasons for hosting a Tea Party in Britain on Fox News (watch video). 

As the American Revolution was still in its embryonic stage, circa 1774-1775, people such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, George Washington and others were Englishmen and considered themselve to be loyal to the British Crown. Their initial intentions were not to break away from England; for years they and others had tried diplomatic methods to pursuade Parliament to treat the American colonies as equals, on a par with their fellow Englishmen back in the British Isles. 

It didn't work, as you may know, and the rest is history. It's been correctly said that the grievances against King George III (left) in 1776 pale in comparison to those against the U.S. Congress in 2010. 

The Declaration of Indepedence was signed on July 4, 1776, about ten and a half months after the King George's Rebellion Proclamation of August 23, 1775, which officially declared the American colonies to be in rebellion. Keep in mind that on April 14, 1775, Massachusetts Governor Gage was given secret orders from the British to suppress "open rebellion" among American colonists by using all necessary force. 

Today, we have an American government that is taxing the people at higher rates than the British taxed the American colonists. Americans today are openly rebelling, albeit it non-violently, in hundres of groups called "tea parties." Like the revolutionaries of 1775 and 1776, the Tea Party people are not completely united. The 13 American colonies, while agreeing to cooperate in a struggle for independence, were also frequently bickering amongst themselves. As they did over 234 years ago, today's American revolutionaries will get their act together and come together as a united and formidable force. 

Back to the British Tea Parties. History and movements often move circularly. The American Revolution began as a movement by Englishmen in the British colonies of North America to be treated fairly. In early 2009, an American resistance to massive government and ever increasing suppression of financial and personal freedoms spawned the modern Tea Parties. That idea bounced over to the United Kingdom, where modern Englishmen (and women, of course) are fighting Parliament anew - and for reasons that would feel familiar to some of the most famous Englishmen in history: Franklin, Jefferson, Adams and Washington. 

Hannan and I agree, although he puts it differently: Those British Lefties who now sneer at what they regard as the Americanisation of the British Right would do well to remember their own history. They are the political heirs of Charles James Fox, of John Wilkes, or Tom Paine. I have no doubt that if the heroes of that age – Burke or Fox or Pitt or Johnson or Swift – could be transported to our own time, they would recoil with horror at the level of taxation and state intervention. 

This all comes with a caveat, however. Just as Franklin, Jefferson, Adams and Washington would find common ground with today's tea parties, whether in the United States or the United Kingdom, they would also see potential danger. King George III was, after all, rather tolerant toward the uppity American colonists for years before he ordered force to be used against them. Push any government too hard and too fast, and the resulting consequences could be dire. That's not meant to discourage Tea Parties, but to simply say that history must be used as a guide for victories that can be achieved, but also for mistakes and dangers to avoid. 

Welcome to Britain, Have a Miserable Stay

A funny - and tragically accurate - bit of political satire from the Formerly Great Britain. See more good stuff at the HairyChestnuts channel on YouTube. Conservative Caps, Shirt and more! Leave a Comment - Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Visit us on Twitter!

Blast From the Past: Thatcher on Socialism, Her Final Speech

"These brief exchanges took place during Margaret Thatcher's last speech in the House of Commons on 22 November 1990," says mynameiswhatever, who posted this great video on YouTube. You can read the complete transcript for this speech here. Conservative Caps, Shirt and more! Leave a Comment - Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Visit us on Twitter!

Labour Pains in UK a Warning for US Politicians

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is having a bad week. His bad week started yesterday. The current bad week follows a string of bad ones that led up to yesterday's low-turnout European Parliament elections. Brown, possibly the dumbest lump of protoplasm ever to occupy Number 10 Downing Street, is likely to be forced out of power by his own unhappy Labour Party power brokers. From The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2009: The U.K.'s ruling Labour Party suffered big losses Sunday in early results from elections for European Parliament seats, heaping further pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown and giving a lift to fringe parties as voters expressed their anger over the Parliamentary expense scandal. Scandal. Yes, yes, but really that's not the biggest issue. The expense scandal was merely one of the last straws dropped onto a mountainous heap on the electorate's back. As in the United States, Britons have been suffering under misguided economic policies for some time under Brown. (Dissatisfaction with Brown was well established before the expense scandals, which included a number of MPs virtually all political parties.) Relatively speaking, Brown's economic policies are actually worse than those of Barack Obama (so far). The WSJ report continues: The results are likely to provide more ammunition for Mr. Brown's critics, who are calling for him to step down, arguing that under his leadership the party can't win a general election that must be called within a year. Early election results showed that Mr. Brown's Labour Party could be heading for third place in elections for 72 European Parliament seats. Perhaps Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for the South East of England, said it best in his now famous and stunningly brilliant speech (see the video) to the EU Parliament. He ripped Gordon Brown a new arse hole in a style unmatched, calling Brown "the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government." Indeed. The biggest beneficiaries were the opposition Conservative Party and the UK Independence Party, which wants to pull Britain back from integration into the European Union. Underscoring the rightward, anti-European drift, the anti-immigration British National Party won two seats - its first in the European Parliament. In other words, British voters seem to be as sick of their major political parties as we in the U.S. are of ours. They have expressed their disgust with the political status quo, the selling out of their nation by their own "leaders," and the pawning off of Britain's economic future. The UK is ahead of the US in time only. Democrats and their Republican enablers in the US take note: This is a harbinger of things to come here in 2010. RELATED: European elections - story of the night - Times Online Support for Labour collapses - Aberdeen Press and Journal Economic woes send Europeans to fringes at polls - Seattle Times Britain's Brown faces revolt after poll thrashing - Reuters Far right make gains in ten member states - EUobserver.com EU election tilts toward the right - Philadelphia Inquirer Vote Stings Europe Leaders, Shows a Swing to the Right - Wall Street Journal See Comments... Visit Our Online Store Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter

Time Bomb in Washington. Tick. Tick. Tick...

With trillions of dollars in debt piling up under the "guidance" of the Obama Regime and its economic "advisors," the United States comes closer every minute to complete economic meltdown. The U.S. debt is larger now than ever, and we have not yet begun to see the unavoidable effects of the coming catastrophe it will bring. It is one of the great ironies of history that the Obama "stimulus" is actually doing just the opposite. The same people who screamed about the obscene spending on the Iraq War are now gleefully spending far, far more than all of the Iraq War spending totalled up. The irony is rich, if less than enjoyable. The U.S. Congress has become like an amphetamine addict; the initial dose makes him feel better, more energetic and more able to carry on. But that dose slow him down when the drug wears off and the euphoria loses its glow. Then he's in big trouble. Sooner or later, the Obama stimulus dose will wear off, and we will be in a world of pain. Like that addict, there is no escape from the inevitable downer. Unlike that addict, the Congress seems eager to overdose. Robert Romano wrote a brilliant summary of the bad situation we've allowed our politicians to get us into. Romano is the Senior Editor of ALG News Bureau and wrote this on GetLiberty.org on May 28: Last week, Moody’s downgraded Japan’s sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA2. The UK suffered a similar fate from Standard & Poor’s as the medium-term outlook on her Majesty’s debt was lowered from “stable” to “negative.” (Note: "Sovereign debt" is a debt instrument that is guaranteed by a government.) That's worrisome enough. Japan and the United Kingdom are/were strong trading partners of the United States. They are both economic engines that help drive the world economy. Neither of them is nearly as big as the U.S., however, and the U.S. is about to lose its AAA rating too. Amid the ensuing economic and political fallout, now all eyes are turning to the largest sovereign debt in the world. Ever. It is held by the United States government. And, it is a ticking time bomb. With every vote congressmen make to plunge the nation deeper into debt—now more than $11.3 trillion (and growing)—the clock draws closer to zero. Even Barack Obama has to admit that it is “unsustainable,” although in the same breath he proposes another trillion dollar bailout or a vast expansion of the government health care monstrosity. DeRoy Murdoch of the Scripps Howard News Service, offers his take on the U.S. federal spending orgy and it's alleged attempt to "stimulate" the economy. He wrote this on May 28: While Obama is refreshingly realistic, he resembles a man who strolls into a bar, sees that his wallet is empty, and then slaps a round of drinks for everyone onto his wheezing credit card. Rather than use America's rapidly deteriorating public finances to restore fiscal discipline after G.W Bush's deplorable spend-o-rama, Obama is digging America into a deeper hole -- not with a shovel, but with a backhoe. If he continues, the ensuing canyon walls will collapse and crush us. Look how spectacularly Washington squanders your money:... (More at Scripps Howard...) "Stimulus?" I think not. But is it panic time yet? I think not, not quite yet. Today we see headlines that seem reassuring. One, for example, is "US government debt to keep top rating, Moody's says." That's nice, but it doesn't take into account the severe crisis that other nations are going through. Remember that the Great Depression in the United States dragged the rest of the world down. This time around, it may be the other way around. Like that addict I alluded to earlier, we may be basking in the warm glow of a temporary dose-induced high. But all around us, fellow addicts are jittery, and jittery addicts desperate for that next high can be very dangerous. RELATED: Stocks, Treasuries Tumble - msnbc.com Murdock: America is broke - Scripps News Europe Battles a Deep Recession - eGov monitor Tax Revenue Plunges as Obama Deficit Soars - NewsMax.com Euro falls despite positive eurozone data -AFP Drop Deepens On Wall Street - Forbes US Credit Rating Not Under Immediate Threat - Wall Street Journal Tumbling towards a sovereign debt crisis? - Edmund Conway - The Telegraph UK Choking on Debt in the Unfolding Anglo-Saxon Bond Crisis - Daily Reckoning World stocks, bonds fall on sovereign debt fears - Reuters Leave a Comment Here... See our cool merchandise... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter

Lou Susman, Obama's Pay to Play Ambassador

Say what you will about Barack Obama, the guy has no class. He's a Chicago politician through and through, and he just can't help following the Pay To Play Rule Book. One of the rules in that book: Reward your big contributors in a way commensurate with the amount of money they raise for you. That's what Obama has done with his recent appointment of Chicago money man Lou "The Vacuum Cleaner" Susman. He was a major money bundler for Obama (surprise!). Friend Carol Felsenthal has a great column in the Huffington Post about this pay-to-play ambassador to our friends across the pond: Last March I posted here that Obama's probable pick for the most prestigious of ambassadorships--the Court of St. Jame's- was going to Chicagoan and retired investment banker Louis B. Susman. Susman, 71, is so talented at raising money for Democrats--he was John Kerry's national finance chairman and an early money man for Obama--that he was nicknamed "the Vacuum Cleaner" or "the Hoover" during the Kerry campaign, and "the Big Bundler" during the Obama campaign. Full Post by Felsenthal... Say, comrade, is blatant cronyism more of that "change" thing you voted for? RELATED: Special Relationship Fretting: Ambassadorial Edition Obama crony, king-maker Lou Susman goes to London « RBO Obama's Wall Street Buddies - Deal Journal - WSJ What Obama's Asian Ambassador Picks Reveal Obama's Crony Diplomacy Embassy Row Leave a Comment on our Guestbook! CommieBama Hats and More Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Follow ChiNewsBench on Twitter

Obama Accused of Attempted Sex Attack

Oh my, what a family. What if this was Jeb Bush? Barack Obama's half brother was REFUSED a visa to enter the UK after being accused of an attempted sex attack on a young girl in Berkshire. Full Story... RELATED: Obama's Brother Arrested on Drug Charges Auntie Zeituni, Above the Law Chicago News Bench RSS Feed CommieBama Hats and More

Will Lloyds Enter the Equities Business?

Sarah Butcher at eFinancialCareers says "maybe." If true, this will come as quite a shock to financiers in the UK - and the rest of the financial world as well. Surprise, surprise – according to various headhunters, Lloyds, the doyenne of the nationalised banking sector, is said to be building an equities business. Rumour has it that the bank has brought in the services of Terry Murray, a former Bridgewell banker, as head of equity sales, and is looking to hire a team. Full Article... See more about Lloyds from Sarah Butcher. Eeeyipes. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed CommieBama Hats and More

UK's UFO Hotline Buzzing

Okay, so, you're somewhere in the United Kingdom. You see something weird in the sky, something that doesn't look... like... it's... from this world. A UFO? Marsh gas? A weather balloon? Too much to drink? Somebody wants to hear from you, and they're manning a phone at the Swindon UFO Research and Wiltshire Phenomena Research response centre. Now West researchers dealing with UFOs and the paranormal, have joined forces to launch a new hotline for people to report intriguing sightings or occurrences. The 24 hour response line has been set-up by the Swindon UFO Research and Wiltshire Phenomena Research to cope with the enquiries and reports from the public. From UFOs to spirits that apparently don't just come out of a bottle down at the local pub, they want to hear from anyone who has witnessed such happenings. Full Article at Western Daily Press... RELATED NEWS: Swindon UFO Research (official website) Strange lights seen in skies over Swindon Bizarre lights seen in skies UFOs witnessed over four [US] states Water link to Rossendale UFO sightings Chesham UFO riddle solved 'Sprites' May Explain UFO Sightings Robbie Williams Moves To "UFO Hotspot" Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Heavy Snow In Great Britain

The United Kingdom is bracing for more heavy snow - up to 10 inches on Monday, February 2. The Brits are not used to this much snow all at once. The Daily Mail reported early Monday morning (2:14 a.m. London; 8:14 p.m. Chicago) that "Central London was coated in a blanket of snow more than 6in deep," closing major roads, with temperatures down to –5c (that's 23 Fahrenheit, which is balmy by Chicago standards in early February). You can read more at the Daily Mail website. This is the heaviest snowfall for Britain in 18 years, according to The Sun: The Met Office’s Nigel Bolton warned: “It’s going to be the worst snow since 1991. The Pennines will take the brunt but London and the South East will be unusually badly affected too.” Get the latest conditions at London/Heathrow Airport here. CNB RSS Feed

BRITISH MP ARRESTED: WITHER, MAGNA CARTA?

STALIN'S SHADOW IN LONDON: Is this the beginning of a political purge a la Stalin and Lenin? Some say the arrest of British MP Damian Green could signal the beginning of political persecution. Green, a member of the Conservative Party, was arrested for actions connected with his position as an official whistleblower, charged with "leaking" information improperly. The BBC reports: "Conservative sources said a police investigation into a high-ranking politician would have to have been cleared at "the very top" and have described the actions as "Stalinesque".(Source: BBC) The "very top" is Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a member of the liberal Labour Party. The United Kingdom, birthplace of the Magna Carta, that beautiful document that has inspired democratic movements around the world and across centuries for more than 700 years, is becoming a dictatorial anti-free speech tyranny. In 1956, Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during WWII, described the Magna Carta as "a law which is above the King and which even he must not break." Today, Brown is being accused of abusing his power, and, indeed, the Magna Carter itself. The Magna Carta says, "No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned,...or in any other way destroyed...except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice." The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution was inspired by that. It says, "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The flap over Damian Green's arrest is especially band for Brown in the wake of recent polling that shows public confidence in him has sharply dropped. This is tyranny with a smile, but it's a crooked smile with very sharp teeth. You may say I am exaggerating. If so, then so is Iain Martin, writer for the respected Telegraph newspaper in the UK. Martin writes that the arrest of Damian Green is "seriously sinister" and will likely cause a constitutional crisis (emphasis added): This entire episode is quite chilling and the implications of his arrest in connection with information he gathered from a whistle blower (information which was true) are horrendous for parliamentary authority. The encroachment of the Executive and the police on the business of an MP going about his business, who was working to put legitimate information in the public domain, is seriously sinister. (Source: Telegraph.co.uk) Another respected newspaper, The Scotsman, offers the headline, "'Stalin-style' arrest of Tory MP by terror police sparks fury." There are many others who see Stalin's shadow in this story. Bloomberg.com reports that an email from the Conservatives denounced Green's arrest for activities related to his job as the Shadow Immigration Minister (opposition spokesman for immigration): “Mr. Green has, on a number of occasions, legitimately revealed information which the Home Office chose not to make public. Mr. Green denies any wrongdoing and stands by his actions.” (Source: Bloomberg.com) Gordon Brown, of late, has been writing letters to contestants on ITV's X Factor. According to The First Post, "Gordon Brown has been writing individual letters to all 12 of the finalists of ITV's The X Factor. In what could be interpreted as a craven bid togarner favour with the general public, Brown not only wishes each contestant good luck but also offers some criticism of the programme's devisor and notoriously tough judge, Simon Cowell." Will Mr. Brown write a letter to Damian Green, wishing him good luck? Perhaps he will, if his behavior continues to grow more bizarre by the week. RELATED: Profile of Damian Green MP for Ashford and Shadow Minister for Immigration 'Stalin-style' arrest of Tory MP by terror police sparks fury Tory minister Damian Green arrested under the Official Secrets Acts Support for Gordon Brown plummets over economic rescue Shadow immigration minister arrested This bird should never have been caged Cameron hits out at MP's arrest Mayor's 'grave' concerns Plight of the unpeople

BRITISH PM: CUT TAXES NOW!

Gordon Brown, the recently re-elected British Prime Minister, is urging the world's wealthiest nations to immediately cut taxes. Sure, Brown's a Labour guy, a liberal. But Brown has some good common sense and an awareness of reality. Let's hope his message is not shunned by the tax-and-spend Democrats (and Republicans) in the United States. From the Guardian tonight: Gordon Brown tonight called on the world's most powerful industrial nations to agree a programme of immediate and coordinated tax cuts to prevent the global economy sliding deeper into recession. (Too bad Brown didn't make this speech to the idiots in Michigan, a gang of Democrats who have spent decades destroying the state's economy with higher and higher taxes. Too bad Todd "The Stoopid" Stroger, Cook County's president, will not be able to comprehend Brown's message of common sense.) The Guardian's report continues: Arriving in New York for this weekend's unprecedented gathering of the leaders of the world's leading 20 economies, the prime minister said the need for a "fiscal stimulus" both for the UK economy and the world had increased after an autumn in which accelerating job losses had intensified fears of a deep and lasting slump. Full Story at Guardian.co.uk: Brown: major countries must cut taxes now...

FLASH: HUGE WIN FOR LABOUR IN UK: BROWN'S BIG VICTORY

BREAKING NEWS: Our cousins across the pond had a huge national election this week, too, and the big winner was Gordon Brown, who retains his position as Prime Minister. It was a surprise to many observers. The United Kingdom has been suffering much more than the US in the current crisis, and Brown "may be willing to follow the cuts in interest rates by sanctioning tax reductions in the UK, as part of an internationally coordinated effort to give world economies a boost," according the Guardian UK. This will probably set an example that the rest of Europe, and perhaps the Obama Administration in the US., will follow. Labour pulled off a stunning...victory in the early hours of this morning, defying predictions to retain the once safe Labour seat of Glenrothes in the first indication that Gordon Brown's heightened international standing and handling of the financial crisis has translated into improved electoral fortunes. (Guardian UK) Brown's Labour Party managed to energize voters and get them to the polls: "I saw people coming out to vote for Labour who haven't voted for 20 years. I need to think about that," said Tricia Marwick, the SNP MSP who won the equivalent Scottish parliament seat of Central Fife from Labour last year. (Guardian UK) The victory and the scope of the voter turnout were a surprise even to the insiders: The scale of the win, however, took everyone, including Labour strategists, by surprise. It marks an abrupt end to Alex Salmond’s honeymoon as Scotland’s First Minister and a thumping personal endorsement for Mr Brown. Holding the seat that Labour won with a 10,664 majority in 2005 meant that Mr Brown’s decision to break with tradition and campaign in the contest — along with his wife, Sarah, who made several visits — paid off. (TimesOnline.UK)

UK: Sharia Law "Incompatible" With Human Rights

British lawmakers struck a blow for common sense, decency and one against fundamentalist Islamic sharia law. Our friends at Sharia Finance Watch posted this: The House of Lords today drew stark attention to the conflict between sharia and UK law, calling the Islamic legal code “wholly incompatible” with human rights legislation. The remarks came as the Lords considered the case of a woman who, if she was sent back to Lebanon, would be obliged under sharia law to hand over custody of her 12-year-old son to a man who beat her, threw her off a balcony and, on one occasion, attempted to strangle her. FULL POST at SHARIAFINANCEWATCH.ORG...

Killing Homosexuals? Hmmmm....

See, I would never propose that. Really. It's, well, it's just wrong. Some Muslims in Europe, however, just can't make up their minds as to whether or not killing homosexuals is, you know, the right thing to do. Certainly there are Muslims outside of Europe who feel the same way; after all, they line homosexuals up against a wall and stone them to death or crush them to death by pushing the brick/stone/cinder block wall over on them. But let's stay with these particular Muslims, living in Norway, who can't make their minds up about killing homosexuals. Now, if you're a Liberal, the PC thing to do would be to say, "Ah, but it's all relative and it's a cultural thing. Golly, that's how their culture does it. Who are we to tell them what to do?" The report about an Islamic council in Norway: By Bruce Bawer - For a case in point, I will refer the reader to an episode I’ve mentioned previously in this space — an Oslo debate last November at which the deputy chairman of Norway’s Islamic Council, Asghar Ali, refused to reject the death penalty for gays. When Senaid Kobilica, the head of the Islamic Council (which represents 60,000 Muslims), was asked where he stood on the question, he replied that he couldn’t give a definitive answer until he got a ruling from the European Fatwa Council. This week it was reported that he’s still waiting... FULL POST at FrontPage Magazine... Of course, the Truly Correct thing to do is to condemn, loudly, the atavistic, primitive brutality that could allow even a moment's hesitation in deciding whether or not to kill homosexuals. I say let 'em live. To be fair and balanced, however, there is also this story out of England: Sharia law incompatible with human rights legislation, Lords say. Good lord, common sense in the UK? Perhaps there is still a glowing ember of reason...