September 11, 2013

UN Report: Abuses on Both Sides of Syrian Civil War

Source: CNN

By Mariano Castillo, CNN

September 11, 2013 -- Updated 1518 GMT


CNN) -- A new United Nations report asserts that both sides in the Syrian civil war have committed grave crimes in violation of international law.

Government forces continue to attack civilian populations in what amounts to crimes against humanity, says the report, released Wednesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

But anti-government groups, in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad, have themselves committed war crimes, including murder, torture and hostage-taking, the report states.

The report provides details on nine massacres that it is investigating, eight believed to have been carried out by the government and one by the opposition.

As the fighting rages, "it is civilians who continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict," the agency said in a prepared statement

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/11/world/meast/un-syria-report/

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It is a civil war.
It speaks for itself..

September 9, 2013

I don't know...but maybe this from September 4, was correct???? It aint over yet...but...

I get so much of this stuff wrong. I was the one that predicted that BP would go broke after the big oil spill
Anyway.....link to this if you wish......It was titled....."Maybe the Plan is Not to Attack, Is that possible?" It is a pretty short thread with about 10 responses. ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023596900

September 7, 2013

TIFF 13:Did Steve Mc Queen's ,12 Years A Slave Just Change the Game? : L A Times.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-tiff-12-years-a-slave-michael-fassbender-20130907,0,1493185.story


By Steven Zeitchik
September 7, 2013, 7:00 a.m.



TORONTO -- Brad Pitt didn't say much during the question-and-answer session that followed the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of "12 Years a Slave" Friday night, just a short comment on why he produced and co-starred in the Steve McQueen period drama.

But, like his turn as an abolitionist-minded maverick amid a group of brutal slaveowners, Pitt spoke volumes as he stood on the stage with cast and filmmakers. "If I never get to participate in a film again," he said, his voice trailing off as if to imply this would be enough, "this is it for me," he finally finished.

It's a sentiment you could imagine the lead cast members -- Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and of course Chiwetel Eijiofor, standing out amid the standouts -- sharing with Pitt. And it's a sentiment you could imagine the audience feeling. Festivals come and go; movies rise and fade. But once in a great while there's a film that feels almost instantly, in the room, like it's going to endure, and change plenty of things along the way. And "12 Years" offers that feeling.

Most narrowly, that’s true on Oscar level. By 9 p.m. Friday night, just six days into September, the film had already become a top contender for various acting, writing and directing prizes, as well as the big prize. You could say that’s premature. But you probably wouldn’t if you sat in the room. (Vulture's Kyle Buchanan certainly didn't hold back.) It's equally true on a social level. “12 Years” tells the fact-based story of Solomon Northup (Eijiofor), a free man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery, and his travails -- at once horrifying and surprising, no matter how much you think you're ready for them -- when he is trafficked to a series of Southern plantations for more than a decade.

September 7, 2013

Pat Robertson's Katrina Cash.. The Nation : September 2005

Deep within this article is this quote on how Robertson contributed to Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley who helped stop prosecution that was called against him..hit the link to see the whole story....(5th paragraph into story)

from September 19, 2005...issue of Nation
by Max Blumenthal

http://www.thenation.com/article/pat-robertsons-katrina-cash#axzz2eAAgQP6b


Far from the media's gaze, Robertson has used the tax-exempt, nonprofit Operation Blessing as a front for his shadowy financial schemes, while exerting his influence within the GOP to cover his tracks. In 1994 he made an emotional plea on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire (now Congo). Reporter Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot later discovered that Operation Blessing's planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Zaire's then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

After a lengthy investigation, Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications." Yet when the office called for legal action against Robertson in 1999, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican, intervened with his own report, agreeing that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution. Two years earlier, while Virginia's investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley's campaign--Earley's largest contribution. With Earley's report came a sense of vindication. "From the very beginning," Robertson claimed, "we were trying to provide help and assistance to those who were facing disease and death in the war-torn, chaotic nation of Zaire."

September 5, 2013

Popular Leather Sofa Falls Apart, Customers Complain..Today News.. (Jennifer Convertibles)

http://www.today.com/news/popular-leather-sofas-fall-apart-customers-complain-8C11073452

_____________________________________________________________________________________
This is about a furniture store that does not keep its word ...Jennifer Convertibles.

______________________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Rossen and Josh Davis
September 5, 2013


Rose Zapotochny bought a leather sofa from Jennifer Convertibles in 2005 for nearly $1,700. But she says that within a year, it was already falling apart. “You sit on the couch and when you get up, parts of it peel off,” she said.

And it turns out she's not alone: Scores of customers are complaining about clumps of leather peeling away from couches sold by Jennifer Convertibles around the country. And many of those customers were sold a protection plan they believed would cover any problem.


Zapotochny paid $200 for her warranty. "Bumper to bumper," she said. "That's what they told me." But in the fine print, the warranty excludes "cracking and peeling."

TODAY cameras went undercover at two stores to see if the company's salespeople would disclose that exception. At one, the clerk got it right, admitting that wear and tear isn't covered, even if the leather starts cracking. "They don't cover that part," he said... But at a different Jennifer Convertibles, the saleswoman did not mention the exception. "We do have a protection plan for five years so if something happens, food and beverages, rips, cuts, tears, punctures, they're all covered: They get you a brand new sofa within five years," she said. "Definitely you should get the protection plan."

September 4, 2013

Maybe the plan is....not to attack..is that possible?

Talk about it, threaten, but in the end, no. Perhaps Putin can get rid of Assad, quietly... And maybe that will be it. Just a thought. Maybe....