Thursday 29 May 2008

Obama will probably get the Democrats nomination....


Now the guy has nowhere enough experience to be president of the US. Yes he's bright and seems a nice enough guy but that is not enough. From the BBC:





Obama: I'll be winner next week

Barack Obama believes he will be the Democrat nominee by Tuesday
US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has told the BBC that he expects to be his party's nominee once the final primaries are over next week.
Speaking to the BBC's Katty Kay, he said the general election campaign - against Republican John McCain - would then begin in earnest.
Mr Obama is battling Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
Mrs Clinton could still win, by persuading enough "super-delegates", or senior party officials, to back her.
But Mr Obama is confident that he will pick up enough of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination.
"If we've gotten the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination then I am the nominee," he told the BBC.
'Political stunt'
The delegates will choose the party's nominee at a nominating convention in August and the candidate with the most delegates will win.
Some delegates are "pledged" to vote according to the results of elections - or primaries - held in their state, while others - the unelected "super-delegates" - are free to vote for whoever they like.
So far in the race, Mr Obama has picked up more of both types of delegates - elected and unelected - than Mrs Clinton.
Only three more contests remain: the Puerto Rico primary on Sunday and the South Dakota and Montana primaries on Tuesday.
Mr Obama also told reporters that if he managed to sew up the nomination he planned to make an overseas trip, including a possible visit to Iraq.
The announcement comes amid criticism from the McCain campaign that Mr Obama has not visited Iraq since the beginning of 2006.
"It's been 871 days since he was there," said Mr McCain in Los Angeles, as he offered to accompany Mr Obama on a joint visit to the country.
"I am confident that when he goes he will then change his position on the conflict in Iraq, because he will see the success that has been achieved on the ground," the senator added.
But Mr Obama described Mr McCain's offer as "a political stunt".
"I think that if I'm going to Iraq, then I'm there to talk to troops and talk to commanders, I'm not there to try to score political points or perform," he told the New York Times.


Friday 23 May 2008

Islamic terrorism in Exeter- Will British Muslims come out in protest?


I believe according to the EU I should not call it thus but Jihadi terrorism committed exclusively by Muslims in the name of Islam is Islamic terrorism. In this latest incident it seems a white convert may have been responsible he may also reportedly have had a history of mental illness. From the BBC :





Two quizzed over restaurant blast

An area of Plymouth City centre was evacuated by armed police
Armed police have detained two men in an operation linked to an explosion in a restaurant in Exeter.
Officers targeted the men at a cafe in the Old Town Street area of Plymouth. One man was arrested and the other is described as "helping police".
The operation is linked to Thursday's explosion in Exeter, for which Nicky Reilly, 22, has been arrested.
Meanwhile, sources close to the investigation revealed police were aware of Mr Reilly prior to his arrest.
BBC Home Affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford says Mr Reilly became known to officers because he was close to a group which police had been gathering information on.
It is also understood Mr Reilly received a text message before he travelled to Exeter, which could be significant to the investigation.
In Friday's operation, armed police targeted two men who were drinking at the Bagatelle cafe in Plymouth.

Eyewitness Ed Hayward describes the arrests
Tony Merrick, who works nearby, told BBC News: "There were about 25-30 officers in 10 vehicles.
"They sealed off the area and two men in the cafe were surrounded."
Rebecca Pope, 25, who was looking out of a window above the cafe, said the two men were put in paper suits before being taken away in unmarked cars.
Police arrested Mr Reilly, from Plymouth, on Thursday after an explosive device detonated inside the Giraffe restaurant in Exeter.
It is thought there were two further devices which were recovered from the scene and made safe.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford said the devices contained nails, drain cleaner, kerosene, an organic oil and aluminium foil.
He added that it is not yet known if the explosion was caused by a deliberate or accidental detonation.
'Preyed upon'
Officers later revealed Mr Reilly, who was injured in the blast, had a history of mental illness.
Deputy Chief Constable Tony Melville said on Thursday evening police believed Mr Reilly had adopted the Islamic faith and had been "preyed upon" and "radicalised".
However, Devon and Cornwall Police have not since elaborated on these claims.

Nicky Reilly suffered facial injuries in Thursday's blast
Neighbours of Mr Reilly have told BBC News he converted to Islam and changed his name to Mohammed Rasheed.
Police said Mr Reilly boarded a number X38 double-decker Stagecoach bus in Bretonside bus station, Plymouth, on Thursday morning and have appealed to passengers on the service to contact them.
"We know that between 1026 and 1040 yesterday morning 54 other passengers boarded the same bus and travelled to the main bus station in Paris Street, Exeter, arriving just after midday," a spokesman said.
The explosion took place at about 1250 BST.
He was taken to hospital following the explosion where he remains under police guard.
A bomb disposal team arrived at Mr Reilly's home in the Stonehouse area of Plymouth at lunchtime on Friday.
Police investigations are continuing at the flat, while the cordon at Old Town Street has been lifted.


Now of course I'm just waiting for Muslims to condemn this and march against it with the same zeal as they did over harmless cartoons.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Should our Bobbies get more pay?


Perhaps but they should not go on strike. In terms of pay our nurses and armed forces certainly deserve more. Currently the cops seem to possibly want the right to go on strike to force the government's hand. From the BBC:





Smith 'betrayed' police over pay

The home secretary was stony-faced during most of Jan Berry's speech
The home secretary has "betrayed the police service" by refusing to backdate a 2.5% pay rise, the chairman of the Police Federation has said.
Jan Berry told its annual conference that Jacqui Smith's decision, affecting Wales, England and Northern Ireland, had been "a monumental mistake".
But Ms Smith stood by her decision, adding it had been taken "only after a lot of thought".
On Tuesday, federation members voted to lobby for the right to strike.
Ms Berry praised Ms Smith for facing the Bournemouth conference, but also mocked her, picking on her admission that she smoked cannabis in her youth.
"I am sure you felt like reaching for a stab-proof vest and perhaps slipping into an old habit - lighting up, calming your nerves," she said.
What is it that Mr Balls has that you do not?
Jan BerryPolice Federation chairman
Nick Robinson's blog
"But as you've reassured us, you've moved on from those past indiscretions. Your recent crimes have been more for the serious fraud office than the drug squad."
Ms Berry also compared Ms Smith to Education Secretary Ed Balls who has recently defended a pay deal for teachers.
"Home Secretary, what is it that Mr Balls has but you do not?" she asked.
"Your decision not to honour the pay award was a breach of faith.
"It was a monumental mistake, and I don't say this lightly when I say you betrayed the police service."
Officer numbers
Ms Smith later addressed the 1,000 delegates herself.
"I know you strongly disagree with the decision," she said, "but it was one that I took only after a lot of thought, after considering the full facts of the case, the need to keep mortgages and the cost of living under control - and that includes your mortgages and your families' cost of living as well.
"And there was another crucial factor at play: affordability. And for that, read police officer numbers.".

Jan Berry, the chairman of the Police Federation, criticises the home secretary
Ms Smith said she "did not set out to alienate police officers", but added: "Setting out on the road to the right to strike will only lead to a dead end."
A Downing Street spokesman said Gordon Brown believed the home secretary's decision was "difficult" but "absolutely right".
Last year, she decided not to backdate to September a 2.5% pay rise for police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The police say this means their rise, only paid from December 2007, in reality amounts to 1.9%. Officers in Scotland, however, were awarded the backdated rise by the Scottish Government.
At present, officers are banned from striking and any such action is a criminal offence, but they are now planning to lobby to change that.
'Scandal'
Ms Berry, who will step down from her role as Police Federation chairman on Thursday after six years, called for an independent review of policing and vowed that the federation's members would abide by its recommendations.
She said such a review was vital to come up with "a clear vision for 21st Century policing".

Police officers have marched in protest over pay
"The inept management of modernisation is nothing short of a scandal," Ms Berry said.
She also said all 16,000 police community support officers in England and Wales should be given the training to convert them into full-fledged officers.
This, she said, would give the public what they want - "the bobby on the beat".
Ms Berry said the need to achieve targets and gather data had left the police "lost between statistics and reality".
But she said the other extreme - where officers were only called to deal with conflict and serious incident - would lead to the police becoming "a paramilitary force".
Pension reforms
The chairman was not entirely critical of the government. She told the conference she believed the police force was "more professional now than ever before".
"There are more of us now, we are better equipped and we have been catching more criminals," Ms Berry said.
"In fairness, you've listened to our concerns, but we have yet to feel those effects on the ground."
The home secretary used her speech at the conference to announce a number of changes to police remuneration, including increasing the lump sums paid to many officers.
She also said that in future, partners of officers killed in service should no longer lose their full police pension if they remarry.
The government would also look to cut officers' paperwork by reducing the amount of data it required them to collect by a third, she added.
The outcome of a judicial review of Ms Smith's decision is due within days and she told the conference she would honour the ruling whatever it was.
But Clive Chamberlain, from the Dorset Police Federation, told the BBC he was sceptical.
"The trouble is we don't trust her and we don't trust the government," he said.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Saudis hold 'Women in the workplace forum'- With no women present!


You really could not make this crap up but it is true. Okay so what you may ask? But as I reported on the piece about the King Fahad academy in London here the Saudis fund religious schools and Mosques extensively including in the UK. So if we are not seeing such cultural retardation here already it is only a matter of time. We have seen such nonsense before such as when the Saudi Human Rights Commission criticised western governments for infringing the human rights of Muslims in the west as they said here The link for the article concerning the female workplace forum is here :




Scholar lifts veil on sharia
May 11 2008 at 02:03PM
When clerics, ministers and businessmen gathered at a forum in Riyadh in April to discuss women in the workplace, there were no women in sight. Typically for Saudi Arabia, the women who took part were seated in a separate room so the men could only hear them. Such things are part and parcel of the complex system of social control maintained by clerics of Saudi Arabia's austere version of Sunni Islamic law, often termed Wahhabism. It is a system called into question by scholar Hatoon al-Fassi. In her study, Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia, the outspoken rights advocate argues women in the pre-Islamic period enjoyed considerable rights in the Nabataean state, an urban Arabian kingdom centred in modern Jordan, south Syria and north-west Saudi Arabia during the Roman empire.
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'father, husband, brother or son - to accompany women in public'Most controversially, Fassi says women in Nabataea - whose capital was the famous rose-red city of Petra in south Jordan, and which was at its height during the lifetime of Jesus Christ - enjoyed more freedom than in Saudi Arabia today because clerics have misunderstood the origins of Islamic law. She also suggests some Saudi restrictions on women may have their origins in Greco-Roman traditions. "One of the objectives of this book is to question the assumption of subordination of women in pre-Islamic Arabia," Fassi writes. "Most of the practices related to women's status are based on some local traditional practices that are not necessarily Islamic. Nor are they essentially Arabian."She argues that women in Nabataea were free to conduct legal contracts in their own name with no male guardian, unlike in Greek and Roman law, and in Saudi Arabia where the guardian is central to the clerics' idea of a moral public sphere. The Wahhabi interpretation of sharia requires a "muhrim" - father, husband, brother or son - to accompany women in public, allow them to travel and attest their legal contracts. United States-based Human Rights Watch attacked that system in a report in April as treating women as effectively legal minors. At last month's televised National Dialogue, clerics insisted women could work only in segregated female-only workspaces. Their opponents in government say these rules have kept unemployment among women at around 26 percent.
'Fassi's ideas reflect views often expressed by Arab liberals'Adaptation"I found that with Nabataean women the legal status and self representation was stronger and more evident than with Greek women who needed always a 'tutor', or representative, in order to conclude any contract," Fassi said in an interview. "An adaptation of Greek and Roman laws was inserted in Islamic law," she said, referring to guardianship. "I would insist that it is an ancient adaptation that (Muslim) scholars are not aware of, and they would really be shocked."The main schools of sharia were codified in the 9th century AD in territories where a ruling Arab elite mixed with non-Arab and non-Muslim populations in the aftermath of the Arab conquests and the rise of Islam in the 7th century AD.The main body of the law is derived mainly from oral traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, and viewed by Islamic scholars as divine in origin. Scholars in the West have seen, in effect, a mix of Arabian, Jewish and Roman origins. "The argument about Greco-Roman law having influenced the sharia rules about women could have some basis if one thinks in terms of Middle Eastern adaptations, 'provincial versions' of Greco-Roman law," said Gerald Hawting, a historian of early Islam at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Fassi, he said, "is not likely to win many friends among the traditional ulama (scholars) by arguing that important elements of the sharia originate from human history and not from God".Fassi's ideas reflect views often expressed by Arab liberals - that restrictive traditions in the empires conquered by the Arabs found their way into Islam. Egyptian feminist Nawal al-Saadawi, for one, has often been attacked for saying as much. "The deterioration in women's status is clear. We now live the worst status imaginable as women," said Fawziya al-Oyouni, a women's rights activist who lobbies for women's right to drive. "There is no religious text that stipulates guardianship."Signs are that around 2 000 years ago things were not so strict. Using coins and inscriptions on Nabataean tombs and monuments in Greek and Semitic languages, Fassi surmises that women's independent status was linked to a rise in trade and political exchanges in the ancient world at the time. "There was a certain economic change in that period that allowed women to become stronger or more visible," she said. "I believe it was because of the economic absence of men. At the end of the first century BC the caravan trade became intensive, twice a year rather than once in the previous millennium." The last of the Middle East states to fall to direct Roman rule in AD106, the Nabataean confederation's power was based on desert trade routes from Yemen to Greece and Rome. Nabataean queens had coins struck in their name and showing their face, with light hair-covering veils. Today, Saudi clerics expound at length on television and in other forums on the complex rules over when women can and cannot reveal their faces. - Reuters