http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=global Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:22:51 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=global Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:42:15 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e05_1371659875 socialism-rocks Who was the first president of the United States? Ask any school child and they will readily tell you "George Washington." And of course, they would be wrong-at least technically. Washington was not inaugurated until April 30, 1789. And yet, the United States continually had functioning governments from as early as September 5, 1774 and operated as a confederated nation from as early as July 4, 1776. During that nearly fifteen year interval, Congress-first the Continental Congress and then later the Confederation Congress-was always moderated by a duly elected president. As the chief executive officer of the government of the United States, the president was recognized as the head of state. Washington was thus the fifteenth in a long line of distinguished presidents-and he led the seventeenth administration-he just happened to be the first under the current constitution. So who were the luminaries who preceded him? The following brief biographies profile these "forgotten presidents." Peyton Randolph of Virginia (1723-1775) When delegates gathered in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress, they promptly elected the former King's Attorney of Virginia as the moderator and president of their convocation. He was a propitious choice. He was a legal prodigy-having studied at the Inner Temple in London, served as his native colony's Attorney General, and tutored many of the most able men of the South at William and Mary College-including the young Patrick Henry. His home in Williamsburg was the gathering place for Virginia's legal and political gentry-and it remains a popular attraction in the restored colonial capital. He had served as a delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and had been a commander under William Byrd in the colonial militia. He was a scholar of some renown-having begun a self-guided reading of the classics when he was thirteen. Despite suffering poor health served the Continental Congress as president twice, in 1774 from September 5 to October 21, and then again for a few days in 1775 from May 10 to May 23. He never lived to see independence, yet was numbered among the nation's most revered founders. Henry Middleton (1717-1784) America's second elected president was one of the wealthiest planters in the South, the patriarch of the most powerful families anywhere in the nation. His public spirit was evident from an early age. He was a member of his state's Common House from 1744-1747. During the last two years he served as the Speaker. During 1755 he was the King's Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He was a member of the South Carolina Council from 1755-1770. His valor in the War with the Cherokees during 1760-1761 earned him wide recognition throughout the colonies-and demonstrated his cool leadership abilities while under pressure. He was elected as a delegate to the first session of the Continental Congress and when Peyton Randolph was forced to resign the presidency, his peers immediately turned to Middleton to complete the term. He served as the fledgling coalition's president from October 22, 1774 until Randolph was able to resume his duties briefly beginning on May 10, 1775. Afterward, he was a member of the Congressional Council of Safety and helped to establish the young nation's policy toward the encouragement and support of education. In February 1776 he resigned his political involvements in order to prepare his family and lands for what he believed was inevitable war-but he was replaced by his son Arthur who eventually became a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, served time as an English prisoner of war, and was twice elected Governor of his state. John Hancock (1737-1793) The third president was a patriot, rebel leader, merchant who signed his name into immortality in giant strokes on the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The boldness of his signature has made it live in American minds as a perfect expression of the strength and freedom-and defiance-of the individual in the face of British tyranny. As President of the Continental Congress during two widely spaced terms-the first from May 24 1775 to October 30 1777 and the second from November 23 1885 to June 5, 1786-Hancock was the presiding officer when the members approved the Declaration of Independence. Because of his position, it was his official duty to sign the document first-but not necessarily as dramatically as he did. Hancock figured prominently in another historic event-the battle at Lexington: British troops who fought there April 10, 1775, had known Hancock and Samuel Adams were in Lexington and had come there to capture these rebel leaders. And the two would have been captured, if they had not been warned by Paul Revere. As early as 1768, Hancock defied the British by refusing to pay customs charges on the cargo of one of his ships. One of Boston's wealthiest merchants, he was recognized by the citizens, as well as by the British, as a rebel leader-and was elected President of the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress. After he was chosen President of the Continental Congress in 1775, Hancock became known beyond the borders of Massachusetts, and, having served as colonel of the Massachusetts Governor's Guards he hoped to be named commander of the American forces-until John Adams nominated George Washington. In 1778 Hancock was commissioned Major General and took part in an unsuccessful campaign in Rhode Island. But it was as a political leader that his real distinction was earned-as the first Governor of Massachusetts, as President of Congress, and as President of the Massachusetts constitutional ratification convention. He helped win ratification in Massachusetts, gaining enough popular recognition to make him a contender for the newly created Presidency of the United States, but again he saw Washington gain the prize. Like his rival, George Washington, Hancock was a wealthy man who risked much for the cause of independence. He was the wealthiest New Englander supporting the patriotic cause, and, although he lacked the brilliance of John Adams or the capacity to inspire of Samuel Adams, he became one of the foremost leaders of the new nation-perhaps, in part, because he was willing to commit so much at such risk to the cause of freedom. Henry Laurens (1724-1792) The only American president ever to be held as a prisoner of war by a foreign power, Laurens was heralded after he was released as "the father of our country," by no less a personage than George Washington. He was of Huguenot extraction, his ancestors having come to America from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the Reformed faith illegal. Raised and educated for a life of mercantilism at his home in Charleston, he also had the opportunity to spend more than a year in continental travel. It was while in Europe that he began to write revolutionary pamphlets-gaining him renown as a patriot. He served as vice-president of South Carolina in1776. He was then elected to the Continental Congress. He succeeded John Hancock as President of the newly independent but war beleaguered United States on November 1, 1777. He served until December 9, 1778 at which time he was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands. Unfortunately for the cause of the young nation, he was captured by an English warship during his cross-Atlantic voyage and was confined to the Tower of London until the end of the war. After the Battle of Yorktown, the American government regained his freedom in a dramatic prisoner exchange-President Laurens for Lord Cornwallis. Ever the patriot, Laurens continued to serve his nation as one of the three representatives selected to negotiate terms at the Paris Peace Conference in 1782. John Jay (1745-1829) America's first Secretary of State, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, one of its first ambassadors, and author of some of the celebrated Federalist Papers, Jay was a Founding Father who, by a quirk of fate, missed signing the Declaration of Independence-at the time of the vote for independence and the signing, he had temporarily left the Continental Congress to serve in New York's revolutionary legislature. Nevertheless, he was chosen by his peers to succeed Henry Laurens as President of the United States-serving a term from December 10, 1778 to September 27, 1779. A conservative New York lawyer who was at first against the idea of independence for the colonies, the aristocratic Jay in 1776 turned into a patriot who was willing to give the next twenty-five years of his life to help establish the new nation. During those years, he won the regard of his peers as a dedicated and accomplished statesman and a man of unwavering principle. In the Continental Congress Jay prepared addresses to the people of Canada and Great Britain. In New York he drafted the State constitution and served as Chief Justice during the war. He was President of the Continental Congress before he undertook the difficult assignment, as ambassador, of trying to gain support and funds from Spain. After helping Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Laurens complete peace negotiations in Paris in 1783, Jay returned to become the first Secretary of State, called "Secretary of Foreign Affairs" under the Articles of Confederation. He negotiated valuable commercial treaties with Russia and Morocco, and dealt with the continuing controversy with Britain and Spain over the southern and western boundaries of the United States. He proposed that America and Britain establish a joint commission to arbitrate disputes that remained after the war-a proposal which, though not adopted, influenced the government's use of arbitration and diplomacy in settling later international problems. In this post Jay felt keenly the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and was one of the first to advocate a new governmental compact. He wrote five Federalist Papers supporting the Constitution, and he was a leader in the New York ratification convention. As first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Jay made the historic decision that a State could be sued by a citizen from another State, which led to the Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution. On a special mission to London he concluded the "Jay Treaty," which helped avert a renewal of hostilities with Britain but won little popular favor at home-and it is probably for this treaty that this Founding Father is best remembered. Samuel Huntington (1732-1796) An industrious youth who mastered his studies of the law without the advantage of a school, a tutor, or a master-borrowing books and snatching opportunities to read and research between odd jobs-he was one of the greatest self-made men among the Founders. He was also one of the greatest legal minds of the age-all the more remarkable for his lack of advantage as a youth. In 1764, in recognition of his obvious abilities and initiative, he was elected to the General Assembly of Connecticut. The next year he was chosen to serve on the Executive Council. In 1774 he was appointed Associate Judge of the Superior Court and, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, was acknowledged to be a legal scholar of some respect. He served in Congress for five consecutive terms, during the last of which he was elected President. He served in that off ice from September 28, 1779 until ill health forced him to resign on July 9, 1781. He returned to his home in Connecticut-and as he recuperated, he accepted more Counciliar and Bench duties. He again took his seat in Congress in 1783, but left it to become Chief Justice of his state's Superior Court. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1785 and Governor in 1786. According to John Jay, he was "the most precisely trained Christian jurists ever to serve his country." Thomas McKean (1734-1817) During his astonishingly varied fifty-year career in public life he held almost every possible position-from deputy county attorney to President of the United States under the Confederation. Besides signing the Declaration of Independence, he contributed significantly to the development and establishment of constitutional government in both his home state of Delaware and the nation. At the Stamp Act Congress he proposed the voting procedure that Congress adopted: that each colony, regardless of size or population, have one vote-the practice adopted by the Continental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation, and the principle of state equality manifest in the composition of the Senate. And as county judge in 1765, he defied the British by ordering his court to work only with documents that did not bear the hated stamps. In June 1776, at the Continental Congress, McKean joined with Caesar Rodney to register Delaware's approval of the Declaration of Independence, over the negative vote of the third Delaware delegate, George Read-permitting it to be "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States." And at a special Delaware convention, he drafted the constitution for that State. McKean also helped draft-and signed-the Articles of Confederation. It was during his tenure of service as President-from July 10, 1781 to November 4, 1782-when news arrived from General Washington in October 1781 that the British had surrendered following the Battle of Yorktown. As Chief Justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, he contributed to the establishment of the legal system in that State, and, in 1787, he strongly supported the Constitution at the Pennsylvania Ratification Convention, declaring it "the best the world has yet seen." At sixty-five, after over forty years of public service, McKean resigned from his post as Chief Justice. A candidate on the Democratic-Republican ticket in 1799, McKean was elected Governor of Pennsylvania. As Governor, he followed such a strict policy of appointing only fellow Republicans to office that he became the father of the spoils system in America. He served three tempestuous terms as Governor, completing one of the longest continuous careers of public service of any of the Founding Fathers. John Hanson (1715-1783) He was the heir of one of the greatest family traditions in the colonies and became the patriarch of a long line of American patriots-his great grandfather died at Lutzen beside the great King Gustavus Aldophus of Sweden; his grandfather was one of the founders of New Sweden along the Delaware River in Maryland; one of his nephews was the military secretary to George Washington; another was a signer of the Declaration; still another was a signer of the Constitution; yet another was Governor of Maryland during the Revolution; and still another was a member of the first Congress; two sons were killed in action with the Continental Army; a grandson served as a member of Congress under the new Constitution; and another grandson was a Maryland Senator. Thus, even if Hanson had not served as President himself, he would have greatly contributed to the life of the nation through his ancestry and progeny. As a youngster he began a self-guided reading of classics and rather quickly became an acknowledged expert in the juridicalism of Anselm and the practical philosophy of Seneca-both of which were influential in the development of the political philosophy of the great leaders of the Reformation. It was based upon these legal and theological studies that the young planter-his farm, Mulberry Grove was just across the Potomac from Mount Vernon-began to espouse the cause of the patriots. In 1775 he was elected to the Provincial Legislature of Maryland. Then in 1777, he became a member of Congress where he distinguished himself as a brilliant administrator. Thus, he was elected President in 1781. He served in that office from November 5, 1781 until November 3, 1782. He was the first President to serve a full term after the full ratification of the Articles of Confederation-and like so many of the Southern and New England Founders, he was strongly opposed to the Constitution when it was first discussed. He remained a confirmed anti-federalist until his untimely death. Elias Boudinot (1741-1802) He did not sign the Declaration, the Articles, or the Constitution. He did not serve in the Continental Army with distinction. He was not renowned for his legal mind or his political skills. He was instead a man who spent his entire career in foreign diplomacy. He earned the respect of his fellow patriots during the dangerous days following the traitorous action of Benedict Arnold. His deft handling of relations with Canada also earned him great praise. After being elected to the Congress from his home state of New Jersey, he served as the new nation's Secretary for Foreign Affairs-managing the influx of aid from France, Spain, and Holland. The in 1783 he was elected to the Presidency. He served in that office from November 4, 1782 until November 2, 1783. Like so many of the other early presidents, he was a classically trained scholar, of the Reformed faith, and an anti-federalist in political matters. He was the father and grandfather of frontiersmen-and one of his grandchildren and namesakes eventually became a leader of the Cherokee nation in its bid for independence from the sprawling expansion of the United States. Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800) By an ironic sort of providence, Thomas Mifflin served as George Washington's first aide-de-camp at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and, when the war was over, he was the man, as President of the United States, who accepted Washington's resignation of his commission. In the years between, Mifflin greatly served the cause of freedom-and, apparently, his own cause-while serving as the first Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. He obtained desperately needed supplies for the new army-and was suspected of making excessive profit himself. Although experienced in business and successful in obtaining supplies for the war, Mifflin preferred the front lines, and he distinguished himself in military actions on Long Island and near Philadelphia. Born and reared a Quaker, he was excluded from their meetings for his military activities. A controversial figure, Mifflin lost favor with Washington and was part of the Conway Cabal-a rather notorious plan to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates. And Mifflin narrowly missed court-martial action over his handling of funds by resigning his commission in 1778. In spite of these problems-and of repeated charges that he was a drunkard-Mifflin continued to be elected to positions of responsibility-as President and Governor of Pennsylvania, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, as well as the highest office in the land-where he served from November 3, 1783 to November 29, 1784. Most of Mifflin's significant contributions occurred in his earlier years-in the First and Second Continental Congresses he was firm in his stand for independence and for fighting for it, and he helped obtain both men and supplies for Washington's army in the early critical period. In 1784, as President, he signed the treaty with Great Britain which ended the war. Although a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he did not make a significant contribution-beyond signing the document. As Governor of Pennsylvania, although he was accused of negligence, he supported improvements of roads, and reformed the State penal and judicial systems. He had gradually become sympathetic to Jefferson's principles regarding State's rights, even so, he directed the Pennsylvania militia to support the Federal tax collectors in the Whiskey Rebellion. In spite of charges of corruption, the affable Mifflin remained a popular figure. A magnetic personality and an effective speaker, he managed to hold a variety of elective offices for almost thirty years of the critical Revolutionary period. Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) His resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States," approved by the Continental Congress July 2, 1776, was the first official act of the United Colonies that set them irrevocably on the road to independence. It was not surprising that it came from Lee's pen-as early as 1768 he proposed the idea of committees of correspondence among the colonies, and in 1774 he proposed that the colonies meet in what became the Continental Congress. From the first, his eye was on independence. A wealthy Virginia planter whose ancestors had been granted extensive lands by King Charles II, Lee disdained the traditional aristocratic role and the aristocratic view. In the House of Burgesses he flatly denounced the practice of slavery. He saw independent America as "an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose." In 1764, when news of the proposed Stamp Act reached Virginia, Lee was a member of the committee of the House of Burgesses that drew up an address to the King, an official protest against such a tax. After the tax was established, Lee organized the citizens of his county into the Westmoreland Association, a group pledged to buy no British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. At the First Continental Congress, Lee persuaded representatives from all the colonies to adopt this non-importation idea, leading to the formation of the Continental Association, which was one of the first steps toward union of the colonies. Lee also proposed to the First Continental Congress that a militia be organized and armed-the year before the first shots were fired at Lexington; but this and other proposals of his were considered too radical-at the time. Three days after Lee introduced his resolution, in June of 1776, he was appointed by Congress to the committee responsible for drafting a declaration of independence, but he was called home when his wife fell ill, and his place was taken by his young prot'eg'e, Thomas Jefferson. Thus Lee missed the chance to draft the document-though his influence greatly shaped it and he was able to return in time to sign it. He was elected President-serving from November 30, 1784 to November 22, 1785 when he was succeeded by the second administration of John Hancock. Elected to the Constitutional Convention, Lee refused to attend, but as a member of the Congress of the Confederation, he contributed to another great document, the Northwest Ordinance, which provided for the formation of new States from the Northwest Territory. When the completed Constitution was sent to the States for ratification, Lee opposed it as anti-democratic and anti-Christian. However, as one of Virginia's first Senators, he helped assure passage of the amendments that, he felt, corrected many of the document's gravest faults-the Bill of Rights. He was the great uncle of Robert E. Lee and the scion of a great family tradition. Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796) Another self-made man, Gorham was one of the many successful Boston merchants who risked all he had for the cause of freedom. He was first elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1771. His honesty and integrity won his acclaim and was thus among the first delegates chose to serve in the Continental Congress. He remained in public service throughout the war and into the Constitutional period, though his greatest contribution was his call for a stronger central government. But even though he was an avid federalist, he did not believe that the union could-or even should-be maintained peaceably for more than a hundred years. He was convinced that eventually, in order to avoid civil or cultural war, smaller regional interests should pursue an independent course. His support of a new constitution was rooted more in pragmatism than ideology. When John Hancock was unable to complete his second term as President, Gorham was elected to succeed him-serving from June 6, 1786 to February 1, 1787. It was during this time that the Congress actually entertained the idea of asking Prince Henry-the brother of Frederick II of Prussia-and Bonnie Prince Charlie-the leader of the ill-fated Scottish Jacobite Rising and heir of the Stuart royal line-to consider the possibility of establishing a constitutional monarch in America. It was a plan that had much to recommend it but eventually the advocates of republicanism held the day. During the final years of his life, Gorham was concerned with several speculative land deals which nearly cost him his entire fortune. Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818) Born and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland during the tumultuous days of the final Jacobite Rising and the Tartan Suppression, St. Clair was the only president of the United States born and bred on foreign soil. Though most of his family and friends abandoned their devastated homeland in the years following the Battle of Culloden-after which nearly a third of the land was depopulated through emigration to America-he stayed behind to learn the ways of the hated Hanoverian English in the Royal Navy. His plan was to learn of the enemy's military might in order to fight another day. During the global conflict of the Seven Years War-generally known as the French and Indian War-he was stationed in the American theater. Afterward, he decided to settle in Pennsylvania where many of his kin had established themselves. His civic-mindedness quickly became apparent: he helped to organize both the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania militias, led the Continental Army's Canadian expedition, and was elected Congress. His long years of training in the enemy camp was finally paying off. He was elected President in 1787-and he served from February 2 of that year until January 21 of the next. Following his term of duty in the highest office in the land, he became the first Governor of the Northwest Territory and the founder of Cincinnati. Though he briefly supported the idea of creating a constitutional monarchy under the Stuart's Bonnie Prince Charlie, he was a strident Anti-Federalist-believing that the proposed federal constitution would eventually allow for the intrusion of government into virtually every sphere and aspect of life. He even predicted that under the vastly expanded centralized power of the state the taxing powers of bureaucrats and other unelected officials would eventually confiscate as much as a quarter of the income of the citizens-a notion that seemed laughable at the time but that has proven to be ominously modest in light of our current governmental leviathan. St. Clair lived to see the hated English tyrants who destroyed his homeland defeated. But he despaired that his adopted home might actually create similar tyrannies and impose them upon themselves. Cyrus Griffin (1736-1796) Like Peyton Randolph, he was trained in London's Inner Temple to be a lawyer-and thus was counted among his nation's legal elite. Like so many other Virginians, he was an anti-federalist, though he eventually accepted the new Constitution with the promise of the Bill of Rights as a hedge against the establishment of an American monarchy-which still had a good deal of currency. The Articles of Confederation afforded such freedoms that he had become convinced that even with the incumbent loss of liberty, some new form of government would be required. A prot'eg'e of George Washington-having worked with him on several speculative land deals in the West-he was a reluctant supporter of the Constitutional ratifying process. It was during his term in the office of the Presidency-the last before the new national compact went into effect-that ratification was formalized and finalized. He served as the nation's chief executive from January 22, 1788 until George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e05_1371659875 socialism-rocks The Forgotten Presidents (The presidents before George Washington) history Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:58:29 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2f3_1371649949 Abdul Ruff Colachal H u manity has a right to know the truth. - England refuses credit to bowlers! By DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL Affairs ,Former university Teacher; Editor:INTERNATIONAL OPINION; Editor: FOREIGN POLICY ISSUES; Palestine Times: RANDOM THOUGHTS; ( http://abdulrubb.wordpress.com ); website: http://abdulruff.wordpress.com / mail: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com ] __________________________________ There is no mentioning by the paid commentators of English fake bowling. These silly guys do not a talk about the how bowlers bowl and whether the ball was easy or difficult one. -------- England invented cricket and gathered colony boys to play with and shared 100s sand 50s and kept the fighting angle youth in former colonies in good n humour and They deliberately promoted batboys by getting bowlers to offer too many runs, Feeding the batboys, with an unprotected filed and silly fielders, continues till date and England does not want to change the trend. Effective bowlers are discouraged and only fast bowlers are promoted only to offer too many runs. None is very impressed with Cook who used his bowlers to add more quick run to South Africa by offering too many runs to the two tail enders after removing all other batboys very cheap. Cook should have given his 5 bowlers the full overs to try and get the wickets of these two. Opting for part-timers just shows that he wants to keep some safe-bowling options at the death. Feeding the bowlers is not a new trend in joint cricketism exercises What Cook baby did is not all aggressive captaincy to showcase the bowling prowess of England team. He is a fraud wanting to tell lies that bowlers are not important. Cook is a cheap batboy who thinks he must have at least 50 runs to claim rewards and awards and there he asked his bowlers to give more quick runs after 80 runs for 8 at Cook's direction. The commentators as usual spread lies loudly, saying that was a "fantastic" bating and seek more money for hiding the lies and frauds. Look what they say: 'David Miller and Rory Kleinveldt were playing really nicely, some sensible batting and powerful strokemaking had threatened to rescue' There is no mentioning by the paid commentators of English fake bowling. These silly guys do not a talk about the how bowlers bowl and whether the ball was easy or difficult one. In fact South Africans could have ended without reaching 100 but Cook babies decided to feed the last two bat babies with 50 each. It is possible that England would go toe the finals to face one of the two strong bowler teams, Sri Lanka and India. But if London boys behave so cheat like this, adding more free runs to the tail enders as they have shamelessly done with South Africans, surely, Cook and friends will have cook food for the South Indians. And, sell the food only very cheaply to South Indian fools because others don't buy it. Cook should be replaced by a serious bowler who does not go all out to pamper the bat babies and feed them nice runs. That is, neither India nor Srilanka can forgive the English bowlers if they offer big score or behave like this semifinal with SA, when they meet in finals, if at all. In case South Africa comes to the finals obviously they will crash badly. ___________ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2f3_1371649949 Abdul Ruff Colachal England refuses credit to bowlers! England refuses credit to bowlers! Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:38:33 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=29a_1371648890 english-patriot33 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/online-quran-teaching-pakistan Concerns over online Qur'an teaching as ex-Pakistan militants instruct pupils Religious websites and instructors enjoy mini-boom reading Qur'an online as British Muslims tap into distance teaching With his track record as a member of the political arm of a banned terrorist organisation, Mian Shahzib is unlikely to ever be given a visa to enter Britain. But that does not stop the jovial 33-year-old from giving British children religious instruction every day from the comfort of his home in Pakistan. He spends hours each night sitting under a fluorescent light in the courtyard of a small mosque in Lahore, peering into a laptop as children first from the Middle East, then Europe and North America spend half an hour after school talking to him over a faltering Skype line. "Put on your cap and wash your hands," he told a 12-year-old boy sitting in a large office chair in his parents' home in Edinburgh. After checking the boy had memorised various prayers to get him through the day, including a special blessing for exiting and entering the toilet, he got down to business, helping the boy read aloud the classical Arabic of a few verses of the Qur'an. The fact that a hardcore Islamist and long-term follower of the UN-proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has daily access to children in the west is likely to fuel concerns about religious radicals spreading their message. Shahzib's website, Easy Qur'an Memorising, makes no mention of his history and is one of hundreds of such online companies, some of which advertise on satellite channels broadcasting to the Pakistani diaspora. They are part of a little-known outsourcing boom fuelled by parents of Pakistani origin turning to Qur'an teachers in Pakistan. "It's just like a call centre where you are saving a lot of money by getting someone overseas to do it much more cheaply," said Fawad Rana, a property developer in Solihull who has used Qur'an teachers for his two sons for the past three years. Rana makes an online payment of lb30 a month to Faiz-e-Quran, one of the larger online religious education companies, which gets his children three half-hour sessions a week. "And there's the convenience factor - the last thing kids want to do is spend half an hour travelling to the nearest mosque and then not even getting 10 minutes of one-on-one tuition," he said. Although Faiz-e-Quran say it takes care to scrutinise and monitor all the teachers it employs, the industry is increasingly dominated by one-man operations. After several years working on his business, Shahzib now has about a dozen students aged 12 to 18 scattered all over the world. It's a long way from his past role as an activist with JuD, a Pakistani Islamist organisation known for its holy war against Indian rule in the contested region of Kashmir. The organisation is on the UN's list of sanctioned organisations because of its alleged association with al-Qaida and is considered a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. As a young man, Shahzib helped prepare young JuD militants before they crossed the line of control that marks the unrecognised border between Pakistani and Indian-held Kashmir. His job was to motivate them with religious teachings and to fill their heads with tales of Indian soldiers raping Muslim women. He was briefly arrested after falling out with his old mentor, Hafiz Saeed, the JuD leader, who lives openly in Lahore but who is subject to a US reward of $10m (lb6.36m) for information leading to his arrest. Shahzib believes Saeed has bent to demands from Pakistan's security establishment to rein in militancy in Kashmir. "I told him to his face that he had betrayed the jihad," he said. These days he still follows the "philosophy" of JuD, even if he is not an active member. He supports the fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan. But he does not think the struggle should be taken to the streets of Britain. "It is completely wrong to attack soldiers in Britain," he said. "If a young man in the UK wants to support jihad I support that, but come to Afghanistan to fight, not the UK." The Guardian was told of other online tutors with radical backgrounds or who are members of extreme or sectarian organisations, but it is impossible to know how widespread the phenomenon is in a completely unregulated industry. Sultan Chaudri, the owner of Faiz-e-Quran, said his company is at pains to scrutinise all 13 teachers who work for him to ensure radicals are not employed. "All the problems we are seeing in Pakistan and Afghanistan is because these young children get sent to madrasas where no one knows what sort of education they are getting or what kind of indoctrination is taking place." When Chaudri, a retired colonel, started his business four years ago his marketing team had to assure parents that there would be no such risk with online teaching. "They used to say we are not going to get education from a maulvi in Pakistan because he is going to teach bad things to my child," he said. "Parents realise now that there is no risk because they can see the lessons right in front of their own eyes." Inspired by a call-centre model of global outsourcing, Chaudri's staff work in shifts from an office in Lahore. In a country plagued by power shortages his office uses three generators and subscribes to four different internet providers managed by a duty IT supervisor. Five clocks show the time in all the areas where his 200 students live. Outsourced Qur'an teaching started about six years ago and there are now a handful of big players. Although there are no reliable figures on how many children around the world are being taught by Pakistan-based teachers everyone seems to think it is growing fast. "We were recommended it by a cousin in America, and we've passed it on to lots of our friends," said Rana. "When we first found out we just thought, wow, what a wonderful service they are providing." According to Chaudri, the business is fragmenting, with teachers striking off on their own to establish "one computer academies", often poaching customers from companies such as Faiz-e-Quran. "They are so dishonest," he said. "In the last four years I have seen so many teachers that have run away with so many students." For young men who have only had a religious training and often struggle to find regular employment, the prospect of earning decent wages teaching Qur'an reading online is extremely attractive. Chaudri does not allow his staff to use a webcam when teaching. Instead, the teachers in Lahore simply share a page of text from the Qur'an which the student, who will rarely be able to understand the Arabic words, then attempts to read. "It is not good to let them see into the houses," he said. "I have seen that after 10 days the teachers will fall in love with the lady of the house, or the daughter of the house; they will send letters saying 'I love you very much.'" Also, he wants to spare his clients from having to look at the unkempt religious young men who work for him. "They don't take care of their beard. They are not very pleasant to look at." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=29a_1371648890 english-patriot33 Concerns over online Qur'an teaching as ex-Pakistan militants instruct pupils islam, muslims,quaran book of evil , outlaw islam, Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:26:18 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7fc_1371626458 travisjhake http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-guay/us-taxpayers--the-great-b_b_3461659.html A scathing new report out today outlines just how risky some of the world's largest coal export projects are. Funnily enough, they're not the risks environmentalists care about - the fact that they're going to be built inside the great barrier reef for instance. No, what the report is concerned with are the risks to the billions in investment at stake if the projects go sideways. If I had my money on the line (which I might if US Ex Im Bank President Fred Hochberg uses US taxpayer dollars to subsidize this boondoggle ) I'd pay attention because the report doesn't come from just anyone, but from financial industry heavyweights Tom Sanzillo (former New York State Comptroller) and Tim Buckley (former head of Australasian equity research at Citigroup). Before we get into the risks outlined in the report let's start with the project as the developer (GVK) sees it: India has 300 million people without electricity, the country is facing a supply crunch of epic proportions ), and the government is hell bent on building a massive pipeline of projects. GVK is well suited to help fuel this pipeline and alleviate the supply crunch by developing one of the world's largest integrated coal mine, rail, and export project in nearby Australia. Seems pretty cut and dry, what exactly has these analysts so worried? Leverage, leverage, leverage. It turns out GVK is trying to pull a fast one on Australian investors by getting them to pony up the cash for the project to cover the holes in their own balance sheets - which are enormous. Check out the graph below comparing the projects costs ($10 billion) with the current market capitalization of GVK ($243 million). That combined with net deb t of ~$2.7 Billion and GVK faces a whopping 1,149% debt to market ratio. For the financially illiterate - it's a financial crisis waiting to happen. One of the biggest reasons for the crash is likely the fact that despite claiming to be a "leading global infrastructure owner, manager and operator" GVKPIL (a shell company created to hide the company's debt - more on that later) has no experience operating any business outside of India. Worse, it has never successfully built and operated a coal mine - ever. That's right, the company planning to develop the world's largest vertically integrated coal export project smack dab in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef has no experience doing anything like this. This should turn out well. But there's a coal supercycle, never ending demand shall save this from catastrophe right? Not quite. Under existing financial assumptions, the Alpha Project's cost of coal production is likely to render the project uneconomic. The Newcastle FOB thermal coal price is currently around US$88/t, 30% below the peak seen in 2008. This leaves little headroom to move against a largely debt-funded US$10bn project proposal with a cash cost of production estimated to be at least US$70/t. Why does this matter? Because GVK is claiming production costs of US$55/t. Add to that Australian mining history which suggests capital cost blowouts of over 20% are likely, and you have a lot of lost cash. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7fc_1371626458 travisjhake Crown eco management jakarta-US Taxpayers &amp; The Great Barrier Reef Coal Scam Crown eco management jakarta, US Taxpayers &amp; The Great Barrier Reef Coal Scam Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:32:28 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e38_1371414457 star53 An analysis of Google search trends undertaken by news portal Mother Jones has shown that Pakistanis makes more searches for gay pornography than citizens from any other country. But at the same time, a new report from the Pew Research centre has found that Pakistan is one of the most intolerant countries in the world when it comes to same-sex relations. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e38_1371414457 star53 Pakistan tops <span class="highlight">global</span> gay porn ranking: Google analysis at odds with Pakistani Conservatism Pakistan,global gay porn,queers,perverts,abomination to man kind Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:43:12 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3fe_1371587684 Muhammad_ibn_Abdullah With so much of strife and violence dominating our world, and the aftermath of the Arab Spring, its violent protests and repressive regimes adding their bit, it is not surprising that world peacefulness declined in 2013. The seventh edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI) showed 5 per cent deterioration in the world's peacefulness over a six-year period. Afghanistan, with its two-decade history of conflict, violence and political instability, was at the bottom most rung of the GPI at 162nd place, displacing Somalia and pushing it up to the 161st position. Significantly, the least peaceful regions are Muslim countries - Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Pakistan ." What do most of those countries have in common? Islam. Not just Islam in the abstract, but wars to make Islam into the absolute and uncompromising law of the land. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia are violent because of brutal conflicts involving the imposition of Islamic law. Syria and Iraq are split by bloody fighting between Sunnis and Shiites over Islamic doctrine. Sudan is conducting a more conventional genocide with religious and racial elements that unquestionably draw support from Islam. But even if we count Sudan out, the remainder are indisputably wars defined by Islam. All this is proof again that Islam is a source of violence. http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/the-least-peaceful-countries-in-the-world-are-muslim/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3fe_1371587684 Muhammad_ibn_Abdullah <span class="highlight">Global</span> Index: Least Peaceful Countries are Islamic... islam, muslims, allah, quran, muhammad, jihad, strife, death, destruction, unpeacful, warmongers, hatred, evil, ignorance, Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:36:02 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=787_1371126882 cathy winslow US acting like global empire, says Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin says the US feeling like a global superpower following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union "didn't do them much good" because they started feeling like a "global empire." Putin's comments came during an interview with RT on Tuesday. "Any country seeks to pursue its national interests in the first place," said Putin. "And in this sense the United States is no exception. Their situation is only unique in that following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States found itself a single leader, a single hegemony in the world, for a certain duration of time. But actually that didn't serve them right, that didn't do them much good, in fact, because they started feeling like a global empire." But, he added, the current administration of President Barack Obama has shown more openness to outreach than that of his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush. "I know that the current US administration is very well aware of the fact that you cannot resolve most of today's global issues unilaterally," he said. "You cannot, but sometimes you feel like that very much." US-Russian relations have become increasingly strained since Russia strongly opposed the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Russia has also regarded the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) into the old Eastern Bloc, which was formerly part of the Soviet Union, and US efforts to gain access to Central Asian oil and natural gas as a potentially hostile encroachment on Russia's sphere of influence. The United States has recently drawn up a list of Russian citizens it considers human rights offenders, known as the Magnitsky List, which will ban anyone whose name appears on it from travelling to the country. On January 1 this year, a Russian law went into effect banning adoptions of Russian children by US couples, which came after reports of mistreatment by adoptive families in America. The two nations have also disagreed as to how to help stop ongoing fighting in Syria, which has claimed over 70,000 lives since 2011 according to the United Nations. In 2009, both nations strongly supported United Nations sanctions against North Korea following that nation's underground test of a nuclear device, thought to be a weapon. http://ruptly.tv/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=787_1371126882 cathy winslow US acting like <span class="highlight">global</span> empire, says Putin US,Russia,Putin,empire,Moscow Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:18:34 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31d_1371604027 exstazi Radical Islam's War Against the WestIn the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Islamic fundamentalism has, in the minds of many, taken the place once held by communism as the leading threat to the safety and security of the industrialized West. Filmmakers Wayne Kopping and Raphael Shore explore what they regard as the most dangerous force since the rise of Nazism in this documentary. Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West features footage from Arab television outlets with interviews which are compared with newsreel images of terrorist actions staged by the PLO and other groups in an effort to show parallels between hate-based groups of the past and the current mood among Islamic extremists.Obsession also includes interviews with guerilla fighters, former Hitler Youth members, and terrorist operatives as they discuss the role and function of extremist political and religious groups. Obsession is a film about the threat of Radical Islam to Western civilization. Using unique footage from Arab television, it reveals an 'insider's view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. The film also traces the parallels between the Nazi movement of World War II, the Radicals of today, and the Western world's response to both threats. Featuring interviews with Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson, Alan Dershowitz, a former PLO terrorist, and a former Hitler Youth Commander. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31d_1371604027 exstazi Documentarie about Radical Islam's War Against the West islam, radical. Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:06:34 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d06_1371603712 Detroit Iron By Alexander Abad-Santos The Atlantic Wire North Korea, land of gulags , government-enforced information blackouts , and humans so hungry they eat other humans , has finally weighed in on the NSA-spying controversy and has become ... an advocate for American civil liberties. Wait, what? Why is a country that doesn't believe in civil liberties for its own people and is the subject of U.N. investigations on human rights abuses suddenly the American people's privacy knight in shining armor? RELATED: UN: North Korea's Human Rights Abuses Have 'No Parallel' "This clearly proves once again the U.S. is a kingpin of human rights abuses as it puts the world under its watch network and has conducted espionage against mankind," reads a commentary from the state-run Minju Joson newspaper, picked up by Reuters on Tuesday. The commentary goes on to say: "Each individual is entitled to live and develop with dignity as a social being. But in American society, where the jungle law prevails, only the strong men's rights over the weak men are recognized." RELATED: Satellites Show North Korea's Prison Camps Expanding Under Kim Jong-Un Those are fighting words. And North Korea could very well be talking about itself considering the numerous reports where "weak men," like the thousands in labor camps never get a chance at life or the country's extensive surveillance plans aimed at making sure North Koreans never escape . But you also have to remember who North Korean propaganda is targeted at -hint: it's not for Americans. RELATED: World Cup: Should You Root for North Korea? The impetus behind this amusing defense of American civil liberties to make the U.S., which North Korean propaganda has consistently portrayed as the enemy, instigator and stifling presence on the country, look pretty terrible. And at the same time, the worse the U.S. is portrayed, the more Kim Jong-Un look more heroic and reasonable for constantly being at odds with it. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d06_1371603712 Detroit Iron North Korea Says NSA Spying Makes the U.S. a 'Kingpin of Human Rights Abuses' gulags, government-enforced information blackouts, NSA Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:56:50 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bbd_1371596115 omniradar Russian Advanced Weapons for Syria: Unrevealed Secrets of Vladimir Putin's Recent Visit to London By Global Research News Global Research, June 18, 2013 Dam Press Region: Middle East &amp; North Africa , Russia and FSU Theme: Militarization and WMD , US NATO War Agenda In-depth Report: SYRIA: NATO'S NEXT WAR? by Dam-Press. (Translated from the Arabic) During his recent visit to London and meeting with British Prime Minister Cameron, President Putin passed on a message to the US and France in response to their recent announcement that they will arm the fighters in Syria. As Russia is a sovereign nation dealing with the sovereign, legitimate government of Syria, some new arms which have never left Russia before will be delivered to the Syrian military. The Patriot Missiles will be hit and repealed with S 300 SAM . Putin also threatened to deliver the more advanced S400 anti-aircraft missiles ( see image below) far superior to the Patriot missiles and ranked as the World's most advanced air defense system. He added that Russia will also supply Syria with state-of -the-art 24-Barrell rocket launchers which have a range of 60 km ranked as the most developed artillery weapon of its kind.(see video below) He added that Russia will supply 400 of these launchers which will be able to destroy all targets around Syria's borders. Barrel 24 Launchers A British intelligence report stated that Putin went to London bringing his own Russian cooked food and did not consume anything from Britain including water as he even brought his own water with him reportedly because he had concerns of being poisoned. The British intelligence site stated that Putin threatened to send other secret Russian made weapons to Syria which would tip the balance of power even further in favour of Syria and re-iterated that these weapons will not be used against Israel on condition that Israel will not participate in the war within Syria and neighbouring countries. {Lebanon, Jordan] Reportedly, the British PM's response was very weak in relation to Putin's threats. Putin's response came just over 24 hours after Obama's statement on Saturday that he was going to arm the Syrian resistance. Putin clearly stated that the Middle East is going to witness a significant change. Syria will be armed with weapons that have never been seen before including computer guided smart missiles that never miss their target. He also added that Russia will supply Syria with Skean 5 ground -to-sea missiles that are capable of hitting and sinking any target up to 250 km off the Syrian coast. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bbd_1371596115 omniradar RUSSIA V USA/UK/ FRANCE/ISRAEL SYRIA Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:45:16 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=41c_1371572657 Ruptly Eight Oxfam volunteers dressed as G8 leaders took to the grounds of the Enniskillen Golf Club in Northern Ireland on Tuesday as part of a campaign to end global hunger. Wearing paper m^ach'e heads and dressed in golfing garb, the volunteers drove around the course in golf carts while impersonating the likes of Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Francois Hollande, and Prime Minister David Cameron. The stunt was an attempt to put ending global hunger at the top of the G8's agenda. The Oxfam charity have been staging various events over the past week, with the Big Heads also posing as chefs and sailing on a boat. The charity are hoping the events will encourage world leaders to fight hunger through tackling land grabs and tax dodging in developing countries. During the two days of the G8 summit, some $2.2 billion (EUR1.64 billion) in illicit flows will have been sucked out of developing countries into tax havens, according to Oxfam. This amount could help 2.5 million farmers in Indonesia provide food for themselves and their families. This year's G8 summit, which is now in its final day, is taking place in the Lough Erne golf resort, also in Enniskillen. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=41c_1371572657 Ruptly UK: Oxfam Big Heads score a hole in one at G8 UK, G8, politics, summit, Merkel, Hollande, Cameron, state head, golf Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:16:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=029_1371568165 Detroit Iron o Cheap Gas Spurred Exelon To Cancel Nuclear Upgrades, Exec Says Cheap natural gas has not only made new nuclear plants unfeasible, an Exelon executive said in Chicago Thursday, but has undermined Exelon's plans to upgrade its existing fleet. Five years ago the U.S. faced a shortage of natural gas, and with the prospect of a cap on carbon emissions, the world's largest nuclear utility expected nuclear power to flourish. "Nuclear generation was looking phenomenal," Andy Swaminathan, a senior vice president for portfolio strategy at Consellation-an Exelon company-told about 150 people gathered Thursday at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs forum on shale gas. "Exelon's stock price was $90. Unfortunately it's about a third of that today. It's directly related to the fact that gas has gone from $10 and $12 an MMBtu to approximately $4 to $5 an MMBtu in the visible trading horizon." When the shale gas boom began around 2009, fueled by the proliferation of lateral drilling and hydraulic fracturing of deep shale deposits, Exelon put plans for new nuclear plants on hold and turned to a less-costly strategy of upgrading existing plants. In the last decade, Swaminathan said, Exelon has been able to create the equivalent of a new nuclear plant by increasing production at its existing 20 plants. But now, Swaminathan said, even upgrades look too costly compared to power generation from cheap natural gas. "We completely abandoned new nuclear generation in the emergent generation perspective. We said you know what, we'll go to upgrades... At this point even those look very challenging." Exelon has shelved plans to upgrade its LaSalle plant in Illinois and Limerick plant in Pennsylvania, Swaminathan confirmed. But Swaminathan placed the blame on cheap natural gas, while the company's official release pointed the finger at subsidized wind power: We removed these previously deferred extended power uprate projects from our program in response to market conditions and artificially depressed power prices resulting from subsidized wind energy," Exelon spokesman Paul Elsberg said in a statement. "Extended power uprates are large investments with paybacks toward the end of plant life, and in this instance, we decided that the risk involved did not provide the necessary returns." via Midwest Energy News Exelon has been campaigning against wind subsidies, but Swaminathan did not mention wind in his analysis of nuclear power's fall. Although some in the nuclear industry insist the nuclear renaissance is making acomeback, Exelon officials have said repeatedly that the prospects for nuclear power expansion are bleak. "Obviously I think natural gas would be the preferred source of generation going forward," Swaminathan said. Follow Jeff McMahon on Facebook , Google Plus , Twitter , or email him here . http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2013/06/16/fracking-not-wind-killed-exelons-nuclear-upgrades/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=029_1371568165 Detroit Iron How Fracking Killed Nuclear Power Exelon, natural gas, nuclear power