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In another blow against freedom of speech on the Internet, Fox News is reporting that Google has taken the measure of de-listing the work of an anti-UN blogger named Matthew Lee. For several years, Lee has run the Inner City Press, a small news/opinion site that is focused on criticizing the United Nations. But since Google has teamed up with the UN on recent initiatives, Google has found that Lee's criticism is too much for them to handle.

Mr. Lee has been taking after big targets for a long time, so he is no newcomer to the scene. In 1987 he went after Citigroup with his corruption exposes, but since 2005 the United Nations has been his favorite target. He has especially focused on the "inner workings of what could be called the practical-applications arm of the international organization, the United Nations Development Programme."

As Fox News reports:

Many of Lee's stories were featured prominently whenever Web users looked for news about the U.N. using the powerful Google News search engine, a vital way for media outlets both large and small to get their articles read… But beginning Feb. 13, Google News users could no longer find new stories from the Inner City Press.

After the Government Accountability Project discovered the plight of Inner City Press and raised their own stink about the de-listing, Google claimed that the de-listing was a mistake but that it would take "a couple weeks" to fix the "glitch."

"We acknowledged our misunderstanding … but it takes time for the restoration to occur," [Google spokesman Gabriel] Stricker said. "The glitch will be resolved as soon as possible. We're working on it."

The GAP, however is none too happy about Google's "glitch." GAP's international-program director Bea Edwards told Fox that Inner City Press was "the most effective and important media organization for UN whistleblowers."

"We're alarmed. The question is, is what user sent the complaint? And it's probably not too hard to guess. We would guess the complaints came from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)."

This isn't something new for Internet organizations like Google, however. Google and other Internet organizations like Newsvine and Digg have been embroiled in efforts to eliminate the conservative voice from the Internet for quite some time.

For instance, Newsvine recently canceled the account of the conservative news/opinion site called The New Media Alliance. And, as Noel Sheppard reported back in May of 2006, the conservative opinion site called The New Media Journal was removed from search engines by Google because Google deemed the commentary site a "hate site."

So, far from being the wild west of opinion, the Internet is seemingly more and more in the grip of leftist organizations that are out to eliminate conservative expression on the net. Add to this the liberals in Congress who want to reinstate the inaptly named "Fairness Doctrine," and we get ominous signs of the left's oppressive ideas of "freedom of speech."

It's just one more example that Jonah Goldberg is right. Liberals are closer to fascists than any conservative.

There is just so much wretch-worthy content in this pathetic Anita Snowjob-authored tribute to one of the most brutal dictators of our time, but I will focus on just one paragraph. It tells you what you need to know about how the AP just can't seem to call a totalitarian Communist who's imprisoned a nation for a half century what he is.

Castro's supporters admired his ability to provide a high level of health care and education for citizens while remaining fully independent of the United States. His detractors called him a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.

I'll take liberty (not in the same way Castro "took liberty" of course) to rewrite this silly paragraph to include the truth. Interesting concept, no?

Leftist propagandists have lied for years about Cuba's health care and education in order to promote a radical anti-American agenda. The truth is, he is and always has been a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.

Everyone knows that Cuba's fabled "universal heath care" is a sick and stupid lie. Foreigners who have visited its health care facilities are useful idiots who were exposed to Potemkin hospitals to which ONLY government elites in Cuba and foreigners have access.

Education? So where are all the Cuban scientists and Nobel laureates now?

AP has shamed itself once again. I thought I was going to get to play Warner Todd Huston's favorite AP game, "Name the Party," but Anita Snowjob did get around to mentioning the whole Communist thing in the 12th paragraph. That amidst a fairy tale that tries to convince the reader that Cuba has a humming democratic system.

The entire piece is a condemnable piece of trash — no comment from any of the thousands of political prisoners. No mention of the many thousands executed for no reason under orders from T-Shirt boy coward Che and Fidel himself…because THEY ARE DEAD. No attempt to ask the tens of thousands that have fled the "worker's paradise" how they feel. No, just a quote from a Havana "boat worker" who is so, so grateful that Fidel will be able to kick off his boots and finally catch a siesta now.

It is getting tiresome already, but we are starting to see a new kind of story on this issue of McCain and his tiff with the conservative wing of the GOP and that is the shut-up-and-take-it style of commentary, the style were conservatives are told to throw away their principles and just vote McCain anyway.

I am sure that you all have noticed that John McCain is not the conservative's hero? There has been story after story expounding on how McCain has a lot of cajoling to do before principled conservatives will vote for him in November. He hasn't made those efforts yet, at least if looking at the primaries and caucuses that have occurred since McCain became the "presumptive nominee" — at least according to the media — are concerned. These last few early February events did not make him look much like an obvious winner, either. Even president Bush has said that he has some convincing of conservatives to do before he could expect their vote. All this clearly shows that McCain lacks serious conservative credentials.

A recent editorial by former Scripps Howard News Service editor Dan K. Thomasson serves as a perfect example of this sort of wrist slapping that conservatives are increasingly receiving from so many quarters, both from the left and their own reputed party members. Thomasson even takes it a step further by positing that conservatives should act like John F. Kennedy who allowed Lyndon Johnson to become his vice presidential pick even though they were rivals for the Democrat nomination for president in 1960. Similarly, he says, conservatives should accept the ideologically impure McCain and then work with him to put one of their own guys on the ticket in the second spot.

All of these stories have a singular concept underlying them and that is that conservatives should throw away their principles and vote for McCain without a whimper. In other words, the press imagines that conservatives should rather be more interested in a White House win than in upholding their principles. But this raises an interesting question: where were all the stories that chided Dail Kos, netrooters for holding to their principles by attempting to take over the Democratic Party during the 2006 midterms? Far from scoffing at the netrooter's too stiff spines, they were praised for their campaign to force the Party into going their way.

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Gorgeous Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is all set to unfold many untold and unheard happenings of her life. She is going to write a book on her life story with the help of her mother Vrinda. Her book would reveal many unknown facts of her life. The book will also speak about secrets of her relationship [...] - [Read more]

Screw drinking the Kool-Aid, this guy's mixing it with crack and smoking it….

Is Barack Obama the Messiah?

4000+ hits a day…..

ZIP

Crossposted via Weasel Zippers….

Let's see, middle name is Hussein, went to a madrassa in Indonesia, both fathers were Muslim, yeah, I'm shocked….

DOHA, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) — Delegates at a US-Islamic forum voiced support on Monday for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, although some warned against expecting any radical policy change irrespective of who captures the White House.

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president of the United States, won overwhelming support in a mock election by more than 200 American and Muslim delegates at the US-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital.

Many Muslim delegates said they hoped to see Obama win the Democratic nomination and go on to be elected next November to succeed US President George W. Bush.

"I would like to see Obama become president of America because he champions 'change and hope', which we Muslims need as much as the Americans do," Islamic television preacher Amr Khaled told AFP.

Khaled told the forum that he speaks "on behalf of millions of Muslim youth who seek work, respect and freedom," and urged the next US administration to "solve the political problems in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and not to mix between Muslims and extremists."

ZIP

Crossposted via Weasel Zippers….

America is roughly 60 times bigger than Denmark, so use that multiplier to give these numbers a better context.  I'm not sure if I've ever said this before, but this has nothing to do with Islam……

Via Islam in Europe….

The Danish police have been following up on reports of 'honor' crime for the past year and a half.

The Danish police say that about every 3 days, a woman comes in to lodge a complaint about 'honor' crime.  From the numbers advertised it looks as though reports aren't evenly spread throughout the year.  It is hard to fully figure this out, since every newspaper report presents the dates slightly differently, but I tried to make some sense of it.

June, 2006 - August, 2006: 50

August 2006 - July 2007: 154 (154 cases in 10 months -> 15.4 cases a month for Sep-Jun)

August 2006 - December 2007: 170  (+16 cases in 5 months -> 3.2 cases a month for Jul-Nov)

August 2006 - February 2008: 210 ( +40 cases in 2 months -> 20 cases a month for Dec-Jan)

Read the rest>>>>

ZIP

Crossposted via Weasel Zippers….

First she said that only Obama can "fix America's broken soul," and now this. If anything can stop Obama from getting the nomination or eventual Presidency, his wife running her mouth could be it.

“For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” she told a Milwaukee crowd today, “because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”

Robert Novak reveals the real reasons why the House refused to pass the FISA bill.

A closed-door caucus of House Democrats last Wednesday took a risky political course. By four to one, they instructed Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call President Bush's bluff on extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to continue eavesdropping on suspected foreign terrorists. Rather than passing the bill with a minority of the House's Democratic majority, Pelosi obeyed her caucus and left town for a 12-day recess without renewing the government's eroding intelligence capability.

Pelosi could have exercised leadership prerogatives and called up the FISA bill to pass with unanimous Republican support. Instead, she refused to bring to the floor the bill approved overwhelmingly by the Senate. House Democratic opposition included left-wing members typified by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, but they are but a small faction. The true cause for blocking the bill was the Senate-passed retroactive immunity from lawsuits for private telecommunications firms asked to eavesdrop by the government. The nation's torts bar, vigorously pursuing such suits, has spent months lobbying hard against immunity.

The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party's most important financial base, is more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to Republicans. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the phone companies for giving personal information to intelligence agencies without a warrant. Adm. Mike McConnell, the nonpartisan director of national intelligence, says delay in congressional action deters cooperation in detecting terrorism.

Big money is involved. Amanda Carpenter, a Townhall.com columnist, has prepared a spreadsheet showing that 66 trial lawyers representing plaintiffs in the telecommunications suits have contributed $1.5 million to Democratic senators and causes. Of the 29 Democratic senators who voted against the FISA bill last Tuesday, 24 took money from the trial lawyers (as did two absent senators, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama). Eric A. Isaacson of San Diego, one of the telecommunications plaintiff's lawyers, contributed to the recent unsuccessful presidential campaign of Sen. Chris Dodd, who led the Senate fight against the bill containing immunity.

Captain Ed:

When people wonder who has the ear of the Democratic Party, the answer is quite clear. Trial lawyers want immunity stopped so that they can participate in big paydays, and they're willing to invest in the Democrats now to preserve them.

By the way, its not just trial lawyers….No wonder the ACLU applauded the House!

It is a completely different kind of "Yes, we can", that Reagan spoke of, one that isn't empty, and is truly inspiring. This is Reagan's answer to the socialism displayed by Obama and others as of late. This is the kind of answer we need to hear from our conservative leaders today. Thanks to Curt at Flopping Ace's for the video.

I got quite an education the other day when I opined on Kosovo's independence. I'll step back and keep my mouth shut on this one, and let someone who knows what they are saying comment.

Hyderabad, Feb 18 (IANS) Eminent filmmaker Shyam Benegal Monday alleged that there was a political hand behind the protests held against Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic romance “Jodhaa Akbar” in several cities. “This is the way politics is being played in this country,” he said at a press conference here. However, he refused to elaborate on which political [...] - [Read more]

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant are slated to tie the knot at the end of next month. According to a family source who did not wish to be identified, the wedding is to take place in the last week of March after Sanjay returns from Paris where he is working on a musical, [...] - [Read more]

Should foreign law firms be allowed into India?

No, says Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner of Amarchand Mangaldas, one of India’s largest law firms.

Amarchand and other large Indian law firms have benefited immensely from liberalization in India. However, when it comes to opening up the legal sector, here’s Mr Shroff touting shibboleths like a good old protectionist from India’s socialist past. Unfortunately enough, Shroff’s self-serving arguments have a pedigree in India. They spring from the same well as Rahul Bajaj’s Bombay Club, or its older cousin, the Bombay Plan, and to that extent are somewhat predictable.

Shroff’s hypocrisy is galling. However, in my opinion, even more appalling is the mediocrity of the writing and the flimsiness of Shroff’s arguments — blanket claims not backed up by any evidence, non-sequiturs galore and a lack of logical coherence. Is this really one of India’s best legal minds?

For instance, take this piece of bombast, “the law ministry’s proposal in its current form cannot be accepted”. Ummm… this proposal cannot be accepted by whom, exactly? Not to be too snarky but the mushy, vague pabulum which characterizes the entire article would fit well here.

Or the “national interest” line that Shroff trots out several times in his essay, almost like a mantra. One wishes that Shroff took the trouble to spell out exactly why the entry of foreign law firms is inimical to India’s national interest.

The tour de force might well be Shroff’s claim that “the sole pressure (behind foreign law firms’ interest) is that of a lucrative market and market access. Nothing else.”

I’m shocked. Shocked! Those greedy, money-grubbing foreign *#$% lawyers! Of course the foreign firms in other sectors that are making a beeline for India are not really interested in market access or such like. Not as long as they keep paying big fees to Amarchand Mangaldas’ and their legal brethren, I presume.

Scour the article closely and you’ll notice that one constituency Shroff hardly mentions are clients, which is telling. Why doesn’t Shroff bother discussing what consumers want, and whether the entry of foreign law firms is in their best interests. After all, that’s the litmus test, isn’t it? But nope. Shroff takes it upon himself to declare that there is no pressing need to permit the entry of foreign firms.

When it comes to his next essay, I suggest that Shroff take a page or two from Bastiat. At least, we’ll have something to laugh about.

The original article isn’t accessible on the Business Standard web site , thanks to linkrot. I’ve reproduced Shroff’s article in full after the fold (emphasis mine).
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So, Jodhaa and Akbar show up today, in infinitely younger versions of the Mughal-Rajput royal pair engraved in the public mind as a heavyweight Prithviraj Kapoor in snowy whiskers and Durga Khote exuding the milk of maternal kindness. In fact, Mughal-e-Azam, completed and released by K Asif 47 years ago after over a decade of labour [...] - [Read more]

Saif and Kareena have already made their relationship public, and have been spotted together on many occasions. But now it seems like Saif and Kareena are getting more bold in public. Recently the couple were with their friends at a party at a five star hotel. On an impulse both Saif and Kareena jumped up [...] - [Read more]

About a month back, I’d written that farmers in Karnataka, when faced with a glut in the tomato crop, elect to throw sack loads of tomatoes on the highways, rather than selling them. During the great depression in America, sack loads of wheat were burnt in order to prevent wheat prices from falling. During the India-Pakistan test match in Bangalore 2 months back, an entire stand (south east i think) was left completely unsold. All these have a common thread of logic - artificially restrict supply so that prices don’t crash, and you make more money.

Yes, I understand this is counterintuitive. How can you expect to make more by selling less rather than selling more? How can you expect to make more money by destroying what you’ve produced after investing thousands of rupees? Here is my take on the same. I’ll start with the necessary conditions for this kind of a situation, and then proceed to try and explain why this works. And then I’ll try and explain how some policy changes can help avoiding wastage.

1. Monopoly: A monopoly is essential for implementation of this kind of a situation. It is easy to understand why. Suppose there are multiple independent suppliers. Who is going to dump their stock? What is the incentive for you to dump your stock? You would rather that your neighbor dump his stock which is going to increase your profits. The only way out of this is in collusion. All producers get together and decide to dump stocks. Which effectively creates a cartel, and thus a monopoly. (more…)

  Sanjay Dutt tied the knot with his girlfriend of two years, Manyata, at the Taj Exotica in Goa on February 7 under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, in front of a few close friends as witnesses. The couple solemnised the marriage vows according to Hindu rites on Monday, Feb 11 in Mumbai. The wedding reportedly took place at [...] - [Read more]

Former beauty Queen and now top-flight Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has told numero-uno film-maker Karan Johar that she will not take her clothes of. Karan Johar has asked the sexy starlet to get her figure toned to perfection, so that he can show her in a bikini on the sex-frilled Miami beach. Karan has roped in [...] - [Read more]

Chandra Kochar, joint managing director and chief financial officer of India’s largest privately owned bank, $80 billion ICICI Bank, is bullish on India growth story. She contends that the growth in India is shifting from consumerism to manufacturing and infrastructure.

In the last five to seven years, India has grown on the basis of its knowledge economy and consumerism. The IT industry, and its related industries, provided jobs for Indians. As Indians earned more, they spent more, and that’s how consumerism drove economic growth as a whole and also led to a huge growth in the retail-credit and consumer-credit business in India. As we peak today, this growth in consumerism is leading to a huge investment cycle in India. Because manufacturing capacities have been fully utilized, and infrastructure needs to be established, people are now investing in manufacturing capacities and infrastructure. I estimate the Indian corporate sector has plans today to invest about $700 billion in manufacturing and infrastructure, which will be spent over the next three years. The next wave of growth for India is going to come out of capital investment.[IK@W]

The Indian government has already accepted a little dent in its prospective growth rate this year. It is widely believed that India’s internally driven growth, has increasingly decoupled its fortunes from the US economy. It is certain that an US slump will impact India to a lesser extent now, than it might have done a few years ago. Indian companies are more resilient than ever to a global downturn these days, with lower borrowing costs and healthier debt-equity ratios. Nevertheless, there are some challenges.

Inflationary pressures loom on the horizon. Inflation triggered by higher food and oil prices could deflate the rapid economic growth curve in India. The tight monetary policy of the RBI is related to inflationary pressures. With large-scale credit contraction in the Western markets, the growth plans and capacity expansion at Indian companies will find it difficult to access overseas credit .

The uneven growth in the middle to short term, with the states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar having seen lesser growth than others, has led to increased social and political tensions. The increased spending on social sectors and populist largesses in the election year, including recommendations of a new pay commission, can also impinge on the growth story. This spending, however, can be met by the dramatic increase in direct tax collections (by over 40% in each of the last two years).

As a banker, Kochar can probably view certain propitious omens that most other economic commentators in this country cannot. The jury is, however, still out on her hypothesis and previsions of a sustained growth rate for the Indian economy.