Tory and Liberal Racism Gets Called Out!

A former coalition minister has launched a wide-ranging attack on the government’s proposals to reform immigrants’ access to housing, healthcare and other essential services, condemning the plans as “unworkable, unjust, and nakedly political”.

In a candid interview with the Guardian Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central and minister for children and families until last September’s reshuffle, revealed that an internal working group on immigration was initially named the Hostile Environment Working Group, because it was explicitly tasked with making Britain a hostile environment for unwanted immigrants.

via Lib Dem MP attacks coalition’s plans for immigration reform | Politics | The Guardian.

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Free Syrian Army threatens blood feud after senior officer killed by jihadists | World news | The Guardian

July 12, 2013 nedhamson

The main homegrown group, Jabhat al-Nusra, has been undermined by a power struggle between its nominal leader, Abu Muhammad al-Golani, and the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has led the terror group in its revitalised insurgency against Iraq’s Shia-led government.

Baghdadi has attempted to combine his group with Jabhat al-Nusra but was rebuffed in May by Golani, who was reported to have instead pledged loyalty to the al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Since then, Jabhat al-Nusra’s ranks have split in the same way that the FSA has splintered in the past year.

While it remains a formidable fighting force, it cannot boast the same rigid control over its members and especially over foreign fighters who are increasingly creating their own leadership structures and setting their own rules.

“I’ve always said that this would become like Anbar,” where al-Qaida was driven out in 2006 after earning the ire of local hosts, said a rebel leader in Aleppo. “And I was right. This is now a land of warlords and clans, of foreigners with a perverse form of Islam that share neither our views or goals.

via Free Syrian Army threatens blood feud after senior officer killed by jihadists | World news | The Guardian.

racism

Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Round-Up: Everything You Need to Know About SNAP

July 12, 2013 nedhamson

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program. In 2012, it helped almost 47 million low-income Americans to afford a nutritionally adequate diet in a typical month. Nearly 72 percent of SNAP participants are in families with children; more than one-quarter of participants are in households with seniors or people with disabilities.

SNAP Is Effective and Efficient

January 29, 2013

In recent years SNAP has achieved impressive results in meeting the needs of low-income Americans while maintaining strong program integrity and payment accuracy.

SNAP has responded effectively to the recession.

The recent growth in SNAP spending is temporary.

SNAP reaches a high share of people who are eligible.

SNAP payment accuracy is at all-time highs.

via Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Round-Up: Everything You Need to Know About SNAP.

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New test of California same-sex marriages : SCOTUSblog

July 12, 2013 nedhamson

Arguing that the right of same-sex couples to get married in California actually exists now in no more than two of the state’s fifty-eight counties, the sponsors of the “Proposition 8″ ban on such unions returned to the California Supreme Court on Friday, seeking an order to block further marriage licenses for gays and lesbians. The ballot measure’s advocates asked for immediate enforcement of the ban approved by California voters in 2008.

via New test of California same-sex marriages : SCOTUSblog.

Give up now

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Purslane-The Edible Weed

July 12, 2013 nedhamson 1 Comment

giantveggiegardener

The other Purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is considered a common weed in most of the U.S but did you know it is also edible? Look how different it looks from the cultivated types I just posted about. I want to write about both aspects of it as a food source and also as a weed. Purslane thrives in New Mexico where the dry climate is conducive to its needs. The plant looks like a succulent with its thick reddish, flesh colored stems and milky leaves. It has a long taproot and produces a yellow flower with many seeds.

This purslane is edible (like the cultivated types from Europe) when young and can be used in salads or cooked like greens. It is more and more being discovered as a food source and is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and antioxidants. In fact it has…

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racism, terrorism

Airport check of artificial leg leaves marketing executive in tears – The Times of India

July 12, 2013 nedhamson

She had an even more painful experience in 2011. She was at Delhi’s T3 terminal and was asked to remove her artificial leg for the first time. She approached senior officers and yelled loudly to draw the attention of other passengers but soon “was reduced to tears. With folded hands, I begged them to let me go as I had a genuine problem. I showed them my business card. The lady officer-in-charge said something along the lines of ‘Aise nahi karte toh kaise pata chalta ki aap terrorist nahi hain’? (If we hadn’t put you through this, how would we have known that you’re not a terrorist?). In minutes, from a smartly dressed, self-confident woman and professional, I had been reduced to a spectacle to be mocked at. My dignity and self-respect were totally battered,” she recollects.

via Airport check of artificial leg leaves marketing executive in tears – The Times of India.

Urbanfarm

AVA encourages vegetable farms to adopt new technologies

July 12, 2013 nedhamson

At Kok Fah Technology Farm, a machine sows 25,600 vegetable seeds per hour. They are then watered by automatic spray, cooled in a vacuum cooler and packed factory-line style.

Before they adopted such technology, workers at this Sungei Tengah farm used to dump buckets of water over their crops, broadcast seeds manually and sell their produce to middle-men in large rattan baskets. The new machines have helped the farm increase leafy vegetable production from 500 tonnes in 2008 to 1,400 tonnes a year now.

via AVA encourages vegetable farms to adopt new technologies.

Urbanfarm

Making their stands – Philly.com 3 Philly Farms

July 12, 2013 nedhamson

What if you just want to buy some vegetables?

Recently, I had the chance to visit three very different farming operations, all of which have a public retail component operating within Philly city limits. Community-oriented and independently operated, these farms exist slightly outside the mainstream market hype, but each exudes a strong, sincere passion for agriculture, education and, of course, eating.

For a change of farmers-market pace, pay one of these places a visit.

via Making their stands – Philly.com.

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Tory MP Paul Maynard claimed over £10k in expenses for biscuits, soap and coasters

July 12, 2013 nedhamson 1 Comment

Tory MPs doing away with need for satire – they are satire on responsible democratic government – problem is that they are actually the government!

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the Tories!)

Tory MP Paul Maynard has been in the news recently for labelling as extremists campaigners who want the government to assess the impact that benefit cuts are having on the sick and disabled.

Like most Tory MPs, he probably thinks benefits paid to the disabled are a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Unlike the £10,007.77 of taxpayers’ money Maynard himself claimed as expenses in just 5 months for things like soap, coasters and biscuits presumably: