Archive for January 2008

(VIENNA) - Right-wing nationalist leaders from four EU member states announced Friday in Vienna the creation of a broad new European “patriotic” party by November.

The leaders of Austria’s Freedom Party, France’s National Front, the Bulgarian Attaca party and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang told a press conference that they had agreed to set up the new party as a counter-balance to other political forces in Europe.

“We say: patriots of all the countries of Europe, unite! Because only together will we solve our problems,” Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache told journalists.

“European parties receive great benefits within the union and so we believe there is no reason nationalists shouldn’t also have a formation like the Socialists, the Christian Democrats, the liberals or the Greens,” the National Front’s Jean-Marie Le Pen told AFP.

The announcement comes months after the demise of the barely one-year-old extreme right group in the European Parliament, “Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty” (ITS), to which several of the founders of the new party belonged.

Asked about the chances of success of the as-yet-unnamed new party, dubbed for now European Freedom Party or European Patriotic Party, Le Pen said, “It’s not necessary to hope in order to try, nor to succeed in order to persevere.”

Unlike a European parliamentary group, which according to EU law requires at least 20 deputies from five different states to exist, a party only needs members from seven states.

Complete text linked below:

How many are actually paying attention to this? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Native Americans, etc. And then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You Call me “White boy,” “Cracker,” “Honkey,” “Whitey,” Caveman” ..And that’s OK.
But when I call you, Nig…, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nig…, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink…

You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You Have Yom Hashoah
You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi
You have the NAACP.
You have BET.

If we had WET (White Entertainment Television). We’d be racists.
If we had a White Pride Day ..You would call us racists. If we had White History Month
We’d be racists. If we had any organization for only whites to “advance” OUR lives

We’d be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, And then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that? If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships … You know we’d be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US. Yet if there were “White colleges” ..
THAT would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights.

You would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re Not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride ..

You call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society.

You call him a racist.

I am proud. But, you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists?

There is nothing improper about this subject.

A politician has warned that a “fear of Islam” is governing Holland after he delayed the release of a short film attacking the Koran.

Geert Wilders, 44, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, who compares the Muslim holy book to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, sparked government panic after saying the anti-Islam film would be released tomorrow.

As Dutch police prepared for a weekend of riots and Mr Wilders was told by the authorities that he would have to leave country, he launched a new attack on “intolerant” Islam while announcing that his 10-minute film attacking the Muslim faith would be postponed for two weeks.

“If I had announced that I was going to make a film about the fascist character of the Bible would there have been a crisis meeting of Holland’s security forces?” he wrote to the Volkskrant newspaper.

Complete text linked below:

Richard Barnbrook, the far-Right party’s leader in London, walked alongside top members of the Police Federation and at one point was yards from Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick.

Mr Barnbrook, a BNP councillor in Barking & Dagenham and a candidate in the election to pick London’s next Mayor, told the Standard he took part to support the police and denied his presence was an embarrassment. An estimated 22,500 off-duty police officers, many wearing white baseball caps with the logo “Fair play for police”, walked from Park Lane to Millbank, passing close to the Houses of Parliament.

Police Federation officials claimed they were powerless to prevent Mr Barnbrook from marching. Spokesman Metin Enver said he was not invited specifically but police officers recognised him when he turned up. He said: “Some of my colleagues saw we had the BNP Mayoral candidate with us. The one thing we want to make clear is we didn’t invite him. It wasn’t a closed march. He chose to attend by his own accord which is his right in a democracy. It is disappointing if anyone chose to join the march for their own agenda.

“We didn’t ask him to leave because whether we like it or not we live in a democracy.”

Complete text linked below:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2008) — A study led by McGill University researchers has demonstrated that small differences between individuals at the DNA level can lead to dramatic differences in the way genes produce proteins. These, in turn, are responsible for the vast array of differences in physical characteristics between individuals.

This study solves in part the mystery of how a relatively small number of differences within DNA protein coding sequences could be responsible for the enormous variety of phenotypic differences between individuals. It had previously been shown that individual differences reside in simple, relatively small variations in the DNA sequence called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, often pronounced “snips”), which exist primarily in the “junk code” of the DNA not previously known to have any profound genetic effect.

“There are many SNPs,” explained Dr. Jacek Majewski of McGill University. “If you add them all together, you’d expect that two individuals would differ at more than a million of those positions. So we have a million or more small differences that distinguish you and me, and yet it would be very hard to explain all the phenotypic differences in the way we look, grow, and behave just by the handful of these protein coding differences.”

Complete text linked below:

DENVER — Intent on dismantling affirmative action, activists in five states have launched a coordinated drive to cut off tax dollars for programs that offer preferential treatment based on race or gender.

The campaign aims to put affirmative action bans on the November ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The effort is being organized by California consultant Ward Connerly, who has successfully promoted similar measures in California, Michigan and Washington.

Supporters of affirmative action say the initiatives will be hard to block, given that Connerly has a proven ability to raise funds and persuade voters, even in more liberal states.

“They’ve targeted states where there’s a white majority electorate and a vocal, if small, extreme anti-immigrant right wing,” said Shanta Driver, who runs By Any Means Necessary, a coalition that defends affirmative action. In such states, she said, “it’s extremely difficult for us to win.”

Connerly’s campaign — which he calls Super Tuesday for Equality — could also get a boost if the presidential ballot includes an African American or a woman. That would help him make the case, he said, that the playing field is level and minorities no longer need a hand up.

Complete text linked below:

Mosques in Britain are more extreme than in Iraq, according to the country’s deputy prime minister.

Dr Barham Salih claimed some mosques in Blackburn would be banned in Iraq for the extremist messages they preach.

He made his comments during a dinner party in Baghdad attended by Tory culture spokesman Tobias Ellwood.

The 41-year-old MP claimed Dr Salih said: “I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn.

“What I saw would not be allowed here in Iraq. It would be illegal.”

Dr Salih, a Sunni Muslim, went to several mosques in Blackburn when he visited the town on the invitation of the then Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in 2005.

Complete text linked below:

A looming court battle over Manitoba’s anti-smoking law will hinge on whether the province must treat white bar owners the same as their aboriginal counterparts, an issue that could have implications across the country.

The section of the law that exempted aboriginal reserves from the smoking ban was struck down in August by Justice Albert Clearwater of Court of Queen’s Bench, who ruled it violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Manitoba government is trying to appeal the decision by arguing, in part, that the charter guarantee was not designed to provide a level playing field for white males.

Heather Leonoff, director of constitutional law in Manitoba’s Justice Department, said Manitoba wants to argue that the charter guarantee of equal treatment under the law was meant to address historic wrongs.

“Not make everybody treated the same, not level the playing field necessarily, but to have an opportunity to address certain historically disadvantaged groups,” she said.

Complete text linked below:

Mr Nikolic, who leans towards Russia, appeared to have won 39.6%, while the more pro-EU president, Boris Tadic, had 35.5%, the electoral commission said.

Mr Nikolic said his Radical Party could not be stopped now. Mr Tadic said he was certain of victory in the run-off.

The poll is seen as key for Serbia’s future, with tensions high over Kosovo.

One of the main issues facing the new president will be Serbia’s breakaway province, whose majority ethnic Albanian population is expected to declare independence in the near future, the BBC’s Nick Hawton in Belgrade says.

‘Road to victory’

Posters were already being put up in the Serbian capital Belgrade for the 3 February run-off campaign, after it became clear that neither candidate had achieved the 50% necessary to win outright in the first round.

Mr Nikolic hailed his campaign’s success and the “extraordinary turnout” of more than 60%.

“Citizens have responded to their wish for change. We opened a road to victory in the run-off. We have never been closer to changes. I want to unite Serbia,” he said.

Complete text linked below:

Some 19% of white people agreed they had a say, compared with 33% of other groups, the Department for Communities and Local Government found.

Black African people were most likely to think they could have an influence - 38% said they could.

The DCLG surveyed 3,905 people between April and August last year.

Local decisions

The second most confident group, in terms of its ability to influence the country, was Bangladeshis, on 36%.

Next on 35% were Indians, followed by 34% of Pakistanis and 33% of black Caribbean people.

White people were also the least likely to feel they could influence their local area - 37% of those surveyed agreed they could, compared with a national average of 47%.

The groups most confident in their ability to shape local affairs were black Caribbean and black African people on 51%.

The figures refer to respondents who replied they “definitely agree” or “tend to agree” they could influence decisions.