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Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein releases pro-gay marriage PSA

EU Times — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:57:51 +0000

Advocating: Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, appeared in a commercial supporting same-sex marriage for the Human Rights Campaign

Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, one of Wall Street’s most powerful figures, has become the first major business leader to join a national media campaign in support of same-sex marriage.

Gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign published a video on Sunday in which Mr Blankfein, who has headed investment bank Goldman Sachs since 2006, asks viewers to join a ‘majority of Americans who support marriage equality.’

‘America’s corporations learned long ago that equality is just good business and it’s the right thing to do,’ Mr Blankfein, 57, said in the video, which was posted on popular video website YouTube.

Mr Blankfein, who is married to Laura Jacobs Blankfein and has three children, had already made his views on the issue known.

Last year he was one of the financial industry executives to sign an open letter calling on New York state lawmakers to legalize same-sex marriage.

‘Our campaign is all about recruiting unexpected spokespeople so Americans can connect the dots and realize that on an issue like this there can be agreement,’ Human Rights Campaign spokesman Fred Sainz said.

Besides Mr Blankfein, the Americans for Marriage Equality campaign has attracted a dozen personalities on similar videos, including Senator Al Franken, Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita and Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique.

‘The fact that we have Mo’Nique and Lloyd Blankfein campaigning on this should show that we can have commonality on the issue,’ Mr Sainz said.

‘We approached Lloyd Blankfein and literally within hours he had said yes, he would do it.’

Gay marriage remains outlawed in more than 40 of the 50 U.S. states and the issue promises to surface in the 2012 presidential election even as economic woes seem to take priority in the minds of voters.

President Barack Obama has supported rights for same sex couples but has stopped short of endorsing marriage, while most of the Republicans seeking to challenge him in November have come out against it.

Mr Blankfein has long been a supporter of the Democratic party, and before Mr Obama was elected to office, he contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Clearly the two have overcome their differences as Mr Blankfein has made at least 10 visits to the Obama White House, a number of which were to discuss possible solutions to the country’s economic crisis.

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Michael Savage labels Ron Paul Hater and Lunatic

EU Times — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:07:22 +0000

On December 29, nationally syndicated talk radio show host Michael Weiner “Savage” trashed Ron Paul. He characterized him as a “lunatic” who supports Hamas and Hezbollah after Paul said the Gaza Strip is a concentration camp.

Savage joins the rest of the “conservative” punditry in the act of viciously trashing Ron Paul as the Iowa caucus approaches. His audience is well over 9 million people. The “Savage Nation” has now demonstrated that it is an important element in the effort to portray Ron Paul as not only a political fringe kook, but also a racist and – according to Weiner and his neocon fellow travelers – a Jew-hating antisemite who hates Israel and supports Hamas and Hezbollah.

Weiner said Paul is a threat to the survival of the United States. He said there is little difference between him and “the psychotic, progressive leftists” who support Obama. “If Obama’s team wanted to invent someone else on the other side to make Obama look mild and moderate and safe, they couldn’t have done better than inventing Ron Paul,” he said.

On the same day he trashed Ron Paul, Michael Savage gave his tacit support to Mitt Romney. “Of course Romney is a liberal Republican. Of course he is in the tradition of middle-of-the-roaders. Of course Romney is a milquetoast, and of course we would like someone more conservative,” Savage said.

“However, I am a pragmatist. Romney might be electable – although I’m not sure after Gingrich has gotten through with him – while Paul is unelectable, and Gingrich is so soiled with dirt that he is contemptible beyond being unelectable,” he said.

In October, Savage praised Ron Paul for his take on the illegality of the supposed al-Awlaki assassination. In August, he showered Paul with kudos for his principled stand on the federal budget and government spending.

However, now that Paul is a Republican front-runner poised to win in Iowa and possibly take the New Hampshire primary, Savage believes he is a “lunatic.”

Savage likes to portray himself as an independent who has contempt for both establishment political parties, but his sudden denouncement of Ron Paul reveals his true role as a ringmaster playing the false right-left paradigm game.

The threat of a Ron Paul in the White House has forced Savage’s hand. It has revealed him for the establishment operative that he obvious is.

Congressmen’s incomes triple while America gets poorer

EU Times — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:13:56 +0000

If you feel like Congress fat cats can’t relate to their fellow Americans anymore, the truth behind the matter might just be that they can’t.

While Americans have seen a recession ravage savings accounts, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have only gotten richer.

Between the US Senate and House of Representatives, the median net worth for a member of Congress is around $913,000, reports The New York Times. That man in the middle is Ed Pastor (Dem-AZ), and although he makes a pretty penny nowadays, his income today is gigantic when gauged with what he was worth when he first came to Washington. Twenty years earlier, Pastor pulled in enough to have only $100,000 saved up, a figure he has magnified nearly tenfold in the two decades since.

Comparing the mean in 2009 with the mean for lawmakers’ assets in 1984, the figure has tripled.

Off of the Hill, however, others aren’t so lucky. Taking into account all of America, the median net worth today is roughly $100,000 — what Congressman Pastor pulled in 20 years earlier. And while lawmakers have seen their wallets only fatted in recent times, the incomes of average Americans have dwindled as a recession and depression downturned the American economy.

Somehow, those effects managed to largely miss Washington.

While the US Census Bureau reports half of America as either impoverished or otherwise living in low-income conditions, 250 members of Congress — nearly half of the Hill — can say that they are legit millionaires. In Washington DC, one-in-ten residents live below half of the poverty line — but if you can track down Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) in his Capitol Hill chamber, you might be able to borrow a few bucks from the richest man in Congress — who holds onto $294.21 million in assets.

Rep. McCaul wasn’t always as lucky. Back in 2005, his worth was only at around $12 million. But with dozens of lawmakers worth more than just one or two millions, those that they represent think that perhaps their vote isn’t being cast by a voice that really represents the people.

“There’s always a concern that they can’t truly understand or relate to the hardships that their constituents feel — that rich people just don’t get it,” Representative Laura Richardson tells The New York Times. While Rep. Richardson might have an office on Capitol Hill, the Democrat from California is also in debt to the tune of $464,000. She is among the poorest members of Congress, but that group isn’t exactly a big one. Regardless, with 200-plus lawmakers pulling in the multi-millions, it’s easy to see why the so-called 99 percenters feel poorly represented in America today.

The National Defense Authorization Act that recently cleared Congress has become a hot topic for debate among average Americans who fear the provisions in the bill that will allow for the US to detain and torture citizens indefinitely. Despite petitions and pleas from coast-to-coast, the legislation passed overwhelmingly. As it turns out, many politicians may be representatives of the people, but their voices are ones bought by corporations. Senator Robert Portman (R-Ohio) not only voted in favor of the NDAA, he also received $272,853 from the special interest groups that backed the bill.

For others, incomes are subsidized in other ways. Rep. Pastor from Arizona, his income is also subsidized by Social Security. If that makes you angry tough, don’t worry — you’re not alone. A study conducted by CBS News in conjunction with The New York Times this October revealed that Americas’ job approval rating of Congress was at an all time low. A similar poll this summer courtesy of the Washington Post revealed that Americans were more into human cloning than Congress, too.

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US to give extra $235 million to Israel

EU Times — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:30:32 +0000

Israel's Iron Dome system

The Unites States will give an additional USD 235 million to Israel for the development of its rocket and missile systems at a time that Americans are experiencing dire economic situation.

According to Israeli media, a large part of the money is scheduled to be spent for the development of the David’s Sling system, which is designed to intercept medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles, and the Arrow 2 and 3 systems against long-range ballistic missiles.

The Israeli ministry of military affairs said the additional funding comes on top of the three billion dollars in annual military aid that Washington allocates for the use of the Tel Aviv regime.

In March, Israel declared its ‘Iron Dome’ system operational.

Israel says the system, financed by the US, has been planned to be used to protect areas in southern Israel against “rocket attacks from the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Washington’s three-billion-dollar assistance to Israel has been planned for 10 years, beginning in 2007.

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US wants CIA spy captured by Iran back

EU Times — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:15:02 +0000

Arrested US spy, Amir Hekmati.

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the US government demanding that Iran return the CIA spy, recently arrested by the country’s intelligence agents, is outrageous.

“The US spy is a criminal and must be tried in Iran for the crime he has committed,” Kazem Jalali said on Wednesday.

The lawmaker, who is also the spokesman for Iran’s Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, added that US officials have shamelessly sent spies and spy drones into Iran and brazenly says they want their operative and spy drone back.

Noting that President Barack Obama is in dire conditions, Jalali said, “ The severe economic crisis in the United States and the difficult times ahead of the Democrats in the upcoming presidential election, have prompted them to launch such a immature political propaganda campaign.”

“How come that the Americans kidnap Iranian citizens and keep them in custody for [many] years, but…when our intelligence forces arrest an American spy, the US president [Barack Obama] says he must be freed?” he asked.

On Saturday, December 17, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced that it has arrested a CIA spy of Iranian descent, foiling an intricate American plot to carry out espionage activities in the Islamic Republic.

In a televised confession broadcast on the Iranian television on Sunday night, the US intelligence operative, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, said he joined the US Army in 2001 and underwent decade-long intelligence training.

He added that he was sent to the US-run Bagram Airbase in eastern Afghanistan and given access to classified intelligence before flying to Tehran.

Hekmati served with the elite US Marines as an Arabic translator, and travelled to Iran some four months ago, said his father, adding that Amir was born in the State of Arizona in southwestern US and joined the Marines after he receiving his high school diploma.

On Monday, December 19, the United States demanded that Iran return its captured CIA spy “without delay.”

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added that the US had requested access to Hekmati through the embassy of Switzerland, which maintains a US interest section in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“We call on the Iranian government to grant the Swiss protecting power immediate access to him and release (him) without delay,” Nuland told reporters.

She claimed that the family of the detained US spy first reported his detention in September and that the State Department has offered the relatives consular assistance.

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Obama Asks Iran to Give Back Captured US Spy Drone

EU Times — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:25:04 +0000

US President Barack Obama

Following days of silence on the American spy drone captured and unveiled by Iranian armed forces, US President Barack Obama says Washington has asked Tehran to return the US reconnaissance drone.

“We’ve asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond,” Obama said in a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday.

The plea comes as the US and CIA refused to adopt an official position after Iran aired footage of the captured unmanned aerial vehicle on December 8.

The US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft was brought down with minimal damage by the Iranian Army’s electronic warfare unit on Sunday, December 4, 2011, when flying over the northeastern Iran city of Kashmar, some 225 kilometers (140 miles) away from the Afghan border.

On December 6, two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to CNN that the drone was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission, involving the US intelligence community stationed in Afghanistan.

They claimed the reconnaissance capability of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone enabled it to gather information from inside Iran by flying along Afghanistan’s border with the Islamic Republic.

The RQ-170 is an unmanned stealth aircraft designed and developed by the Lockheed Martin Company.

Iran has announced that it intends to carry out reverse engineering on the aircraft, which is similar in design to a US Air Force B2 stealth bomber.

Tehran says that the US drone spy mission was a “hostile act,” adding that it will lodge a complaint with the United Nations over the violation of its air sovereignty by the intelligence gathering aircraft.

Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaei on December 8 called on the world body to condemn US aggressive moves against the Islamic Republic with respect to the reconnaissance drone that violated the Iranian airspace.

He made the plea in a letter sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz a-Nasser, and Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador who holds the rotating Security Council presidency for December.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents US interests in the country, and the Afghan ambassador to condemn the US violation of Iranian airspace.

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Australian Police criticised after tent dress torn off Occupy protester

EU Times — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:43:30 +0000

Police have been criticised after tearing a tent being worn as a dress by an Occupy Melbourne protester.

The Ethical Standards Department is investigating a physical assault complaint over an incident in which police stripped an Occupy Melbourne protester down to her underwear.

The incident happened in the Flagstaff Gardens this morning when police moved in to remove tents being worn by a couple of protesters.

Disturbing video of the exchange has been posted on YouTube. See above: Strong language warning

Victoria Police released a statement this evening revealing the Ethical Standards Department was investigating the incident after receiving a complaint.

”The Ethical Standards Department has subsequently received a physical assault complaint in relation to this incident and is investigating. As this investigation is ongoing we will not be commenting further.”

The footage appears to show a council worker being handed a knife by police to cut the tent from the woman – identified as Sarah, 20, who begins to struggle.

“This is not consensual,’’ she says as police work to tear the tent off her body. “Don’t take my clothes off.’’

After a minor scuffle police are filmed walking away with the tent, leaving the distressed woman semi-naked and cowering on the grass.

Police said they advised protesters that if they chose not to wear clothes under the tents, they would be given reasonable time to dress before the structures were seized.

”Three of the four protesters co-operated and evacuated their tents. The fourth, a female, refused to comply with direction,” police said.

According to Occupy Melbourne spokesperson Tal Slome, “Sarah” was just out of high school and was “extremely distressed” by the incident.

Ms Slome said Sarah had been wearing the tent as a costume and said police stripped her knowing she was wearing nothing but underwear underneath.

And she claimed there were eight police officers involved including a female officer, who had for some reason targeted Sarah among two other “tent wearers”, cutting the tent off with a knife.

Ms Slome described the incident as a “completely unnecessary form of brutality. Who decides what constitutes clothing in our society?”

Occupy Melbourne earlier released a statement this morning condemning police for their behaviour.

“This morning at 8:45am a peaceful Occupy Melbourne Protester was violently stripped of her protest costume and discarded on the ground in her bra and panties,” the statement reads.

“The individual in question was part of the Occupy Melbourne protest and was dressed in a protest costume made from a converted tent. The significance of the costume was to highlight restrictions placed on protesters staging a 24/7 protest in Flagstaff Gardens.

“The protester was surrounded by at least four Melbourne City Council officers and eight Victorian police officers.

“Her movement was restricted by the formation of officers surrounding her and she was subsequently restrained as officers proceeded with aggressively removing her costume.

“At each stage she declared that she did not consent or feel comfortable with the actions of the council and police officers, stating that this was a sexual assault.’’

“Her requests and declarations were ignored as officers continued to rip and jostle her costume and person. A knife was requested and used by MCC Officers as the Protest Costume was cut from her body.

“The remaining severed costume was violently torn from her body while the protester herself was discarded, semi-naked and crying on the ground as Vic police and MCC officers walked away with the costume.”

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Russia breaks Qatar strings after envoy attack scandal

EU Times — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:43:57 +0000

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Russia has down-scaled the level of diplomatic relations with Qatar following an incident with the Russian ambassador to the country, who was physically attacked by Qatari customs and security officers.

Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko suffered an assault at Doha Airport on November 29, on his return from a mission to Jordan. While passing through customs control he was attacked by customs security, who made an attempt to confiscate his diplomatic pouch. Titorenko resisted and was beaten, together with two other Russian diplomats who were there to welcome the ambassador.

The next day Russian Foreign Ministry filed a note of protest to Qatar, demanding that official Doha apologize, but no such apology followed.

On December 4, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov officially informed Qatari Prime Minister and concurrently Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani that Moscow is suspending diplomatic relations with Doha until demands of the Russian side are completed in full.

Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko will leave Qatar once he finishes a course of medical treatment as a result of the attack.

Earlier, the ambassador told RIA Novosti that at first he had been hoping the incident had occurred due to the incompetence of customs and security officers, who simply were not familiar with the Vienna Convention that allows diplomats to bring in diplomatic mail without having it x-rayed.

On top of that, the Russian diplomatic mission in Qatar has specially-issued permission not to subject its diplomatic mail to x-ray, but customs officers disregarded this exemption.

Moscow’s relations with Doha became somewhat strained in the course of the Arab Spring gripping Middle Eastern and North African countries. The previous week, Russia officially criticized Qatar for its role in the Libyan uprising, which violated the arms embargo imposed on the country by the UN Security Council.

“We know how the arms embargo was applied in Libya. The opposition was receiving arms, with such countries as France and Qatar publicly stating that they have supplied those arms,” said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference in Moscow on the same day Titorenko was attacked at Doha Airport.

An unnamed Russian diplomat gave comments to RIA Novosti, linking the incident with the Russian position on the unrest in Syria.

Qatar has been consistently supporting sanctions against Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whereas Russia is acting against sanctioning Syria on all diplomatic levels, including the UN Security Council.

The source said Titorenko had been actively explaining the Russian position at press conferences and in articles he has written exposing the nature of the conflict in Syria. Thus, the Russian ambassador’s activity displeased certain figures and led to the attack, concludes the source.

The incident with the Russian diplomat may be viewed as an extension of the “aggressive stance” Qatar has adopted after it became the rotational head of the Arab League, says James Corbett, the editor of the independent news website corbettreport.com.

“It must have been done intentionally,” Corbett told RT. “This is a major diplomatic incident not to be smoothed over easily. One can imagine this might have a lasting impact on the relations between the two countries.”

Washington may be involved in shaping Qatar’s policy, believes the editor. The US interest in the region is $60-70 billion worth of investments in the Qatari energy industry.

“The US is probably playing its diplomatic angle to put pressure on Qatar to wield its power in the Arab League in a way it is beneficial to the Anglo-American interests,” remarks Corbett.

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Assange: US demands WikiLeaks destroy all files about them

EU Times — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:30:01 +0000

Julian Assange addresses News 2011 Summit via Skype (28 November, Hong Kong)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told a media summit that the US government has ordered him to destroy all the material WikiLeaks holds on them – published and unpublished – and to stop using government insiders to gather fresh material.

“[When we released our documents] the Pentagon said we must destroy everything we published and were going to publish,” Assange said. ”And if we didn’t, we would be ‘compelled to do so,’” the summit’s website says.

Assange made the allegation as he addressed the News 2011 Summit in Hong Kong via Skype. News executives and media owners from over 80 countries have gathered there to discuss editorial principles and tools as well as business models for the news media. Reports say Assange has been under police pressure to stop talking – exactly the kind of oppressive official action he has been working to highlight.

He was met with a storm of applause from journalists as he appeared on the screen.

Speaking about modern journalism, Assange claimed it was facing crisis of a legitimacy today and accused the mainstream press of corruption and bias.

Answering a question from the moderator on whether he considers himself a journalist, Assange said, “Of course I’m a goddamned journalist,” and emphasized the role WikiLeaks played in some significant events, such as the revolution in Tunisia.

The WikiLeaks founder has dubbed the Internet the biggest surveillance machine ever built: “Any information stored in Gmail or Yahoo is accessible by any government agency.”

Julian Assange is facing extradition from the UK to Sweden on rape charges. His defense believes the move could lead to their client facing prosecution in America for his involvement in WikiLeaks.

The NEWS 2011 summit, which started on Sunday, will last for four days. Follow the latest updates from the summit on Twitter with RT’s Ksenya Fyodorova.

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New Scandals Surface About Dominique Strauss-Kahn

EU Times — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:41:20 +0000

Accused: The prostitute's revelations are the latest in a tide of sleazy accusations to surround Strauss-Kahn which overall is now morally unsuitable to become next French President

A prostitute told how Dominique Strauss-Kahn joined her at 11 orgies over six years, it was revealed in France today.

The 30-year-old vice girl named Florence described in lurid detail how the disgraced economist enjoyed having sex with ‘every girl in the room’ during the debauched sessions.

She said the 62-year-old had ‘exceptional energy’, and always preferred the newcomers to the older women at the sex parties.

Florence is one of three hookers being quizzed by French police over an illegal prostitution racket operating out of hotels in Lille, northern France.

Her revelations are the latest in a tide of sleazy allegations to engulf the man once tipped to be the next French president.

Strauss-Kahn was forced to quit as boss of the International Monetary Fund after accusations he tried to rape a New York hotel chambermaid in May.

He returned to France after the charges were dropped, and then escaped more accusations of trying to rape a young writer in Paris eight years ago.

He has now been named as a client of the sprawling vice network, though there is no suggestion he had sex with underage girls.

But during the investigation it also emerged that he flew hookers to Washington DC and even took one girl to his office at the IMF headquarters.

Another girl told police she met Strauss-Kahn at a Paris hotel. She told detectives: ‘He did not rape me, but you got the feeling that he liked rough sex’.

Texts sent to pimps by Strauss-Kahn, in which he ordered girls and planned orgies, were uncovered in France last week, meaning he now risks being arrested for ‘encouragement of pimping’.

In the latest damning allegations, the hooker Florence has told police how she had sex with Strauss-Kahn at 11 orgies over six years.

She said: ‘He was a very active member of the group.

‘I also understood there were other sessions to which I was not invited.

‘I concluded that this meant he liked a regular supply of different girls’.

On one occasion, Florence and another hooker named Mounia, 38, were paid £2,000 to spend three days in Washington DC with Strauss-Kahn, and another £1,300 for orgies in Lille and Paris.

She added: ‘At these evenings, DSK had sex with every girl.

‘He was always more interested in the new girls, and less fixated with the older ones’.

Following the swathe of claims against Strauss-Kahn, he has admitted to friends that he is ‘ill’ and needs treatment for sex addiction.

Other friends have told how he has plunged into a spiral of depression over the flood of allegations against him.

One friend told France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper: ‘Now he sits alone at home, biting his fingernails until they bleed.

‘He is a shadow of his former self. In the last few days he has said that he needs to seek treatment. He admitted he was ill’.

French news website Le Post said: ‘If this confession happened, they would be the first real recognition by this former politician of the sex addiction he has been suffering from for years’.

Detectives have said there is no suggestion Strauss-Kahn had sex with underage girls or committed any offence by sleeping with prostitutes – which is legal in France if the girls are over 18.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has branded the claims he had orgies as ‘dangerous and malicious insinuations’ and insisted he will be able to clear his name.

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Gillard backs vote on gay marriage

EU Times — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:40:02 +0000

Australian PM Julia Gillard said she favours a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage, despite opposition

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard said she favours allowing a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage – although she personally opposes changing the law.

In an opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald and other Australian newspapers, Ms Gillard said politicians “should be free to vote in parliament according to their own values and beliefs”.

However, Ms Gillard quickly came under attack from same-sex marriage advocates, who claim the prime minister is endorsing a vote she knows is destined to fail in order to keep the status quo.

Currently, three Australian states recognise civil unions, which entitle same-sex couples to the same federal benefits as married couples.

Recent polls indicate a majority of Australians favour allowing same-sex marriage.

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CNBC Removes Online Poll Because Ron Paul Won

EU Times — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:00:16 +0000

After the October 11, 2011 Republican Presidential debate, Ron Paul took a 75% lead in the post-debate poll. Did he win? No, Allen Wastler, Managing Editor, CNBC.com, admitted that Ron Poll supporters “flooded” the server. He determined that the actions of a “few” strong Paul supporters distorted the poll; the poll was removed.

CNBC posted an internet poll after Wednesday’s debate, too. But it has been removed too. Again, CNBC alleges that Paul supporters have stuffed the poll with votes for their candidate. This time they did not name the candidate, instead, they decreed that the margin did not reflect the consistency of other polls.

“We had a poll up from our Republican Presidential Debate asking readers who they thought won,” Wastler wrote on the www.cnbc.com website. “ One candidate was leading by such a margin that it became obvious the polling wasn’t so much a reading of our audience, but of the Internet prowess of this particular candidate’s political organization. We have therefore taken the poll down.

“Yes, we’ve gone through this exercise before,” he concluded.

In the October statement, Wastler stated, “Paul is a fine gentleman with some substantial backing and, by the way, was a dynamic presence throughout the debate , but I haven’t seen him pull those kind of numbers in any “legit” poll. Our poll was either hacked or the target of a campaign. So we took the poll down.

“The next day, our email basket was flooded with Ron Paul support messages. And the computer logs showed the poll had been hit with traffic from Ron Paul chat sites. I learned other Internet polls that night had been hit in similar fashion. Congratulations. You folks are obviously well-organized and feel strongly about your candidate and I can’t help but admire that.

“But you also ruined the purpose of the poll. It was no longer an honest “show of hands” — it suddenly was a platform for beating the Ron Paul drum.”

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Man dies in hospital yard in Romania without anyone helping him

EU Times — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:43:02 +0000

Authorities in Iasi, northeastern Romania, started an investigation after a man has died in the yard of the hospital C.I. Parhon, as doctors, ambulance crew and patients passed by and ignored him.

The man, 76, was brought there by taxi from another hospital for a urological consultation, but while his family was looking for the doctor to check his health, the man died in the yard, ignored by medical personnel passing by.

As the man was waiting in the yard, he collapsed and no one intervened to help him, despite ambulance personnel and hospital personnel passing by.

When his relative returned to get him inside, the man was already dead.

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Xiong Maoke, 5, dies in latest horrific Chinese traffic accident

EU Times — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:20:59 +0000

Fatal: The truck that killed her five-year-old Xiong Maoke

After the tragedy of Yue Yue, the Chinese trucker who hit a boy… then ran over him again to be sure he’d died ‘because it was cheaper than paying the hospital bills’.

A lorry driver ran over a five-year-old boy – and then reversed over him to make sure he was dead in an apparent attempt to avoid footing hospital bills for the child.

The sickening incident happened in Luzhou, western China, when driver Ao Yong hit Xiong Maoke as he left home to walk to school.

Witness Zhang Shifen said: ‘I saw the truck move back a little and then move forward again. Xiong became wrapped up in the wheel and the truck continued forward another ten yards.’

The tragedy comes just a week after two-year-old Yue Yue was knocked down by two vehicles on a busy market street. The child was ignored by 18 passers-by before someone came to her aid. She died in hospital a few days later.

Sickening: The truck that killed Xiong as he was walked home to school in Luzhou, western China

In this latest incident passers-by said the lorry driver jumped from his cab after hitting the boy. They claimed Yong then asked: ‘How much shall I pay?’

Police said Yong, a 35-year-old lorry driver from Luxian, argued with the boy’s family about the size of the damages for seven hours.

After the latest incident, Yong denied reversing over the boy to kill him. Last night, police and government staff insisted Xiong died on impact.

Their investigation ruled that Yong was the first person to call the police after his truck hit the boy in the village of Yunfeng, in Luzhou, Sichuan province.

They said his body was not removed immediately because angry villagers were demanding instant compensation from the driver.

In heartrending scenes, the boy’s mother sat shocked next to the covered body of her five-year-old son.

A string of such horrific cases have led to soul-searching in China, where the economic boom has been blamed for fuelling materialism at the cost of compassion.

Handing over compensation if an accident victim dies is seen by many Chinese as cheaper than paying for lengthy hospital treatment. The Communist regime does not provide free healthcare for its 1.3billion citizens.

The fear of high medical bills is also thought to be behind a second accident in China in which toddler Yue Yue was knocked down by two vehicles on a busy market street.

The gruesome ordeal, captured by security cameras, showed the bleeding child was ignored by 18 passers-by before she was picked up by a scrap picker and given to her mother, who rushed to the street looking for her.

A week after the accident, she died in hospital.

Two drivers suspected of running over the Chinese toddler were arrested on Sunday.

The Beijing News and other outlets reported that police in the city of Foshan concluded their initial investigation and ordered the two men formally arrested, a step that almost always leads to a trial.

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Dramatic rescue of unwanted dog ‘buried alive by school caretakers’

EU Times — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:15:29 +0000

No mercy: Warrior, as he has now been named by rescue workers, was found buried five feet under the ground, covered in dirt.

Cruelty beyond words in South Africa: The disabled dog ‘buried alive by school caretakers annoyed by its barking’.

Traumatised and just minutes from death, a disabled stray was rescued after allegedly being buried alive by school caretakers.

Police think the unwanted pet had annoyed the men by barking and they callously vowed to bury him alive in the school playing field as punishment.

Horrified witnesses spotted the disabled stray, now named Warrior after his ordeal, yelping for mercy as he was buried in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsh.

They called animal welfare officers who managed to get the school before Warrior suffocated in his makeshift grave.

Two men, who are caretakers at the Luhlaza Secondary School, were arrested by police who confirmed they had been charged with animal cruelty.

Rescuers said the desperate animal was close to death when officials arrived later to dig it out.

Shocking pictures of the rescue show it gasping for air as it was pulled out from the sand.

Animal welfare boss Christina Pretorius said the dog was saved by a local vet and his assistant who received an anonymous tip off about its live burial at 8.30am yesterday.

She said: ‘They rushed to the school and apprehended two caretakers on the school field. The men initially claimed the dog was dead, but on further questioning admitted the animal was still alive when they buried it.

‘They said one of the school’s senior supervisors had told them to get rid of the dog as it was being a nuisance by hanging around the classrooms.’ The dog was discovered at the bottom of a pit which had been dug five foot deep.

Stray: Police said the caretakers buried the unwanted pet after his barking got in their nerves

Haunted: Warrior, just after being rescued, is making a slow and steady recovery.

It was rescued by officials and taken to a local veterinarian practice for an examination.

Experts said the animal was disabled, although it is believed that it could have been injured during a previous road traffic accident.

Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk today confirmed two 59-year-old men had been arrested and would be charged.

He said: ‘The two men were arrested on Thursday afternoon and they remain in custody. They will be charged with animal cruelty under the Animal Act.’

Officials said they believed the suspects buried the dog on the orders of a senior caretaker who had become tired of it hanging around the state-run school.

Cape Town’s provincial government last night launched an investigation into the incident.

Department of education spokeswoman Bronagh Casey said: ‘We are horrified by this incident and our district office is investigating.’

Warrior was today receiving medical assistance at Khayelitsha’s Mdzananda Animal Clinic, which is backed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Centre manager Jane Levinson said: ‘This story is tragic and, as awful as this story is, without access to animal welfare these are the kinds of desperate measures people resort to when they have nowhere to turn for help.

‘None of this excuses the decision of a senior, and presumably educated and intelligent supervisor, to instruct his juniors to dispose of a problem dog in such a cruel fashion.’

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