Rev. Jones cancels Quran burning, after given promise of mosque move

The White House added its voice to warnings that the move could trigger outrage around the Islamic world and endanger the lives of US soldiers. A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union roundly “condemns” the plans.  “The High Representative respects all kinds of religious beliefs and this is not the right way to go,” the spokesperson told reporters.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa dubbed Jones a “fanatic” and urged Americans to oppose his “destructive approach.” Moussa, who heads the 22-member pan-Arab body based in Cairo, said: “There is an increasing majority in the United States against this fanatic. “We want to see the reaction of the educated in the United States against this fanatic’s destructive approach,” he said.


US Attorney General Eric Holder met religious leaders to discuss ways of stemming the anti-Islam tide, with calls from the broad coalition of faiths to make a strong speech condemning hate crimes.more arabnews

– A Florida minister who had created an international furor with his plan to burn the Quran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 canceled the event under intense pressure Thursday, saying he agreed to back off after reaching a deal to move the location of a controversial mosque near New York’s ground zero. The imam planning the New York mosque said no such deal has been reached.
The Rev. Terry Jones announced his decision Thursday afternoon, standing outside his small church alongside Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. However, Musri and the imam planning the New York mosque disputed Jones’ contention that a deal had been cut.

After the news conference, Musri told The Associated Press there was an agreement for him and Jones to travel to New York and meet Saturday – on the actual anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – with the imam overseeing plans to build a mosque near ground zero.


“I told the pastor that I personally believe the mosque should not be there, and I will do everything in my power to make sure it is moved,” Musri said.more

Jones, the pastor of a Florida Pentecostal church of 50 members, has said that he believes the Quran is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.
Jones on Thursday said he prayed about the decision and that if the site of the mosque was moved, it would be a sign from God to call off the Quran burning.

“We are, of course, now against any other group burning Qurans,” Jones said during the news conference. We would right now ask no one to burn Qurans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.”
His decision comes after a firestorm of criticism from leaders around the world. President Barack Obama, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan and several Christian leaders had urged Jones to reconsider his plans.more

I’m sorry but your Tax Extension has run out!

Capitol Hill  employees owed $9.3 million in overdue taxes at the end of last year, a sliver of the $1 billion owed by federal workers nationwide but one with potential political ramifications for members of Congress.
The debt among Hill employees has risen at a faster rate than the overall tax debt on the government’s books, according to Internal Revenue Service data. It comes at a time when some Republican members are pushing for the firings of government workers who owe the IRS and President Obama has urged a crackdown on delinquent government contractors.

The IRS data does not identify delinquent taxpayers by name, party affiliation or job title and does not indicate whether any members of Congress are among the scofflaws. It shows 638 employees, or about 4 percent, of the 18,000 Hill workers owe money, a slightly higher percentage than the 3 percent delinquency rate among all returns filed nationwide.
The average unpaid tax bill is $12,787 among the Senate’s delinquent taxpayers and $15,498 among those working in the House.
IRS debt among government workers has surfaced as a political issue repeatedly over the years, most recently when Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced legislation this year to fire federal workers who owe back taxes unless they have entered into a payment plan. Eight Republicans co-sponsored the bill. No Democrats have signed on, and some have said firings would reduce the government’s prospects of being paid.
“If you’re on the federal payroll and you’re not paying your taxes, you should be fired,” Chaffetz said in an interview. He said the policy should apply across the board and “there should be no special exemptions.”
An agency-by-agency breakdown of IRS debt is not published but is available in a redacted form from the agency upon request. Along with the Capitol Hill totals, it shows that three employees at the Office of Government Ethics owed a total of $75,000. MORE

‘Tomasz Winnicki’ White supremicist running for mayor

An avowed white supremacist who has called himself London’s “biggest hater” is running for mayor.
Tomasz Winnicki joined the race Tuesday for the city’s top political job, a move that likely holds little political significance for London but will no doubt shock many in the Forest City.

Winnicki’s hate speech has been the frequent focus of Free Press reports in the past, and he’s been at the forefront of the city’s white supremacy movement.

He’s appeared at rallies and loaded websites with profanity-laced diatribes about blacks, Jews, other non-whites and non-Christians.

Reached Tuesday night, Winnicki agreed he’s a controversial figure.
“Controversial? Absolutely,” he said. “(But) anything is controversial now.
Just about anything — they say this guy’s controversial, that guy’s controversial.
“You can say that about anybody.”
Winnicki, whose Wikipedia profile states he’s 35, made dubious history in 2006 when he became the first white supremacist in Canada jailed for breaking a court order to stop posting hate messages online.
The controversy made Winnicki something of a hero to white supremacists across North America.
Winnicki served some time in jail before appealing the sentence.
Canada’s human rights tribunal also ordered Winnicki to pay $11.500 in fines and compensation.more
Thank you Battleskin

New evidence undermines feds’ case against Arizona

You’ve heard a lot about the Justice Department’s lawsuit to stop the new Arizona immigration law. But that’s just one part of the Obama administration’s multi-front war on immigration enforcement in Arizona.
In addition to the drive to kill the new law, Attorney General Eric Holder is also suing the Maricopa Community College system in Phoenix, alleging it broke the law by requiring a job seeker to provide a green card before being hired. And on Thursday the Justice Department filed suit against the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office, run by the flamboyant Joe Arpaio, as part of an extended investigation into alleged civil rights violations there.
Despite the splash of attention from the newest lawsuit, the Justice Department’s investigation of Arpaio could end badly for Holder. When the Department first informed Arpaio that a probe was under way, back in March 2009, it sent a letter saying the investigation would focus on “alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.” But now we learn that just six months before that, in September 2008, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, did its own investigation of Arpaio’s office — and gave it a clean bill of health.(more)

Wroughton school ‘failed to spot racism’ before attack

A school where a boy was attacked with a hammer failed to recognise a series of racist incidents prior to the assault, a serious case review has found
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Henry Webster, then 15, suffered three skull fractures in the attack by a group of Asian youths in 2007.
His mother Liz Webster said the review showed the school was at fault.
Mr Webster, now 18, was punched, kicked and hit with a claw hammer at Ridgeway School, in Wroughton, near Swindon.  Mrs Webster said: “This review has confirmed our belief that the Ridgeway School was responsible for the horrific, devastating assault on our son which has left him with permanent injuries.
“The criticism of the local authority is tantamount to a whitewash as it is so minimal and limited.”

Before the attack, Mr Webster had agreed to fight a boy “one on one” due to peer pressure and to stop harassment he thought he and his friends were experiencing.  He has returned to part-time education, but still suffers from short-term memory loss.  The report summary, published by the Swindon Local Safeguarding Children Board, said: “The school, although it knew in advance, did not prepare for the arrival of a significant number of British Asian students in 2005.”more

Texas: ATS Labels Anti-Traffic Camera Initiatives Racist

Traffic camera firm invokes 1965 civil rights bill to stop votes in Baytown and Houston, Texas that would ban red light cameras.
The citizen-led groups that want the public to decide the future of red light cameras are racist, according to lawsuits filed by American Traffic Solutions (ATS) in a pair of Texas cities. The Arizona-based photo enforcement firm filed in a state court in Baytown on Thursday and then an ATS-funded front group filed an identical case in a federal court in Houston on Friday. Residents in both cities signed petitions placing a ban on automated ticketing machines onto the November 2 ballot, but ATS cites the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 as a reason to block these votes.

“Because the camouflaged referendum has been improperly placed on the ballot, a potential for racial discrimination exists,” Houston lawyer Andy Taylor wrote on behalf of ATS. “More specifically, minority voters may lose their ability to elect candidates of their choice in local, statewide and federal offices.”

The ATS claim may come as a surprise to the diverse groups behind anti-camera petition efforts elsewhere in the country. In East Cleveland, Ohio the group Black on Black Crime led the effort to gather signatures for a referendum. In Cincinnati, the anti-camera coalition included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Green Party. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also battled cameras in Iowa and Rhode Island. Baytown initiative sponsor Byron Schirmbeck suggested the traffic camera industry was disguising its true aim with the racism charge.

The Chronicle has no evidence to support this claim first developed by ATS hired gun Jim McGrath. more

Jesse Got His Cadillac Escalade Rims Stripped while Promoting Green Jobs in Motor City

When the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally for “green jobs” in Detroit, he arrived in the Motor City in a massive Cadillac SUV. But his exit from the Motor City was a lot more environmentally friendly — thanks to some car thieves.

The robbers stole the civil rights activist’s rented 2009 Escalade SUV on Monday. He was in Detroit for Saturday’s Jobs, Justice and Peace Rally in downtown Detroit.  Police found the car later that day, stripped of its wheels but otherwise intact, WXYZ reported.

Jackson, who led the march along with United Auto Workers President Bob King, said there was nothing contradictory about renting an SUV and promoting green jobs.

“We were promoting a car manufacturer and representing the American worker, whatever car they chose,” Jackson said. “My wife has a Smart Car, but for the purposes that we were traveling, the car was — it fit the bill.”

One Detroit columnist disagreed. “Add Jesse to the Al Gore-Tom Friedman-Barack Obama School of Environmental Hypocrisy,” Detroit News columnist Henry Payne wrote. “While preaching to Americans that they need to cram their families into hybrid Priuses to go shopping for compact fluorescent light bulbs to save the planet, they themselves continue to live large.”more