The European Union, A Prison Of Nations

From: Chronicles Magazine
By Serge Trifkovic

Various multiethnic states (imperial Russia, the Habsburg Monarchy, pre-World War II Kingdom of Yugoslavia) have been labeled—often unfairly—as “prisons of nations.” That designation will apply more aptly to the European Union when the Lisbon Treaty, signed by all 27 EU heads of states or governments last December, takes effect next year. Under the “European Arrest Warrant,” which is to be implemented under the terms of the Treaty, every citizen or visitor of a member country the European Union will be liable to arrest and extradition at the behest of a judge in any other EU member-country, under one of 32 vaguely defined categories of “crime.”

This is a momentous development, and not one in a hundred EU citizens, let alone non-EU visitors to Europe, are fully aware of its implications.

Those 32 offenses, according to the drafters of the Treaty, “if they are punishable in the issuing Member State by a custodial sentence or a detention order for a maximum period of at least three years and as they are defined by the law of the issuing Member State, shall, under the terms of this Framework Decision and without verification of the double criminality of the act, give rise to surrender pursuant to a European arrest warrant.”

The list of 32 offenses includes criminal conspiracy, terrorism, human trafficking, child pornography, smuggling of drugs, weapons and explosives, fraud and money laundering, murder, kidnapping, forgery, etc. It also includes “racism and xenophobia,” as well as “computer crime” and “crimes under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.” The local police will be obliged to arrest the indicted person and have him transferred to the issuing judge’s court for trial—and they will have to act regardless of their country’s judicial system or penal code.

Once the person is at the local court, he will be at the mercy of the local laws. The involvement of the ICC implies possible further extradition to non-EU countries. The Warrant is already in force in eight EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). An initial hearing takes place before a judge within 48 hours merely to establish the identity of the arrested (habeus corpus) and whether the arrest warrant has been filled in correctly. Additional information from the state that issued the arrest warrant may be requested. The major difference between extradition and EAW procedures is that the “hearing” in the latter process does not consider the allegations against the defendant or examine evidence. Instead, the hearing is merely meant to satisfy the court that no “legal bars to surrender” apply.

The European Arrest Warrant was one of the main topics at the recent Counter-Jihad Summit in Vienna, where the former Austrian Ambassador Edgar K. Selzer gave a detailed talk on the implications of this new weapon against freedom of speech in the EU. Dr. Selzer pointed out that the inclusion of “racism and xenophobia” brings “an emotion, a sentiment” into the category of major crimes, such as murder, arson etc, which is a legal and logical absurdity.

The European Arrest Warrant does not define “racism and xenophobia” as such, but its drafters have relied on the European Commission’s “Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia” which criminalizes “belief in race colour, descent, religion or belief, national or ethnic origin as a factor determining aversion to individuals.” The Decision mandates that “racist and xenophobic behaviour must constitute an offence in all Member States and be punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties.” This framework decision will apply to all “offences” committed within the territory of the European Union, or “for the benefit of a legal person established in a Member State.”

The implications of all this are significant, for the future of civil liberties in the Western world no less than for me personally.

On May 11, I gave a speech at the Counter-Jihad Summit in Vienna. As our readers are well aware, “racism and xenophobia” in the EU-speak have long included the nebulous thought-crime of “Islamophobia”—and my speech could be construed as paradigmatically “Islamophobic” by the drafters of the EU Framework Decision, and accordingly acted upon by the future users of the European Arrest Warrant.

I am not an EU citizen, but that is immaterial if the “offence” was committed in an EU member-country. Once the European Arrest Warrant is in force, a Muslim-friendly judge in, say, Leicester or Birmingham could issue a warrant for my arrest in Greece—where I often go during the summer— for the “offence” committed by giving that speech in Austria last May, and the authorities in Thessaloniki or Athens would have to comply, no questions asked.

Furthermore, the speech was given at a gathering of 60 like-minded persons, most of them EU citizens. This constitutes a criminal conspiracy, a separate offense among those 32 crimes covered by the Warrant, since the Framework Decision defines a “racist or xenophobic group” as “a structured organisation consisting of at least two persons established for a specific period.” The speech was given to the Karl Martell Society, i.e. “for the benefit of a legal person established in a Member State.”

Last but not least, the said speech is widely available on the Internet, in both German and English, which potentially falls under the separate and as yet undefined offence of “computer crime.” Such EAWs have been issued already by British judges to Dutch authorities demanding the surrender of a Danish citizen in a case involving pornography.

Interestingly, under the Framework Decision, anything that is said at a John Randolph Club conference here in the United States may be deemed illegal and actionable under the European Arrest Warrant, if the offending speech or statement is posted on a website (such as www.chroniclesmagazine.org) that is downloadable within the EU, or if some supposedly “racist and xenophobic” material written by one of our editors or contributors is distributed by mailing Chronicles to a subscriber or an institution in the EU. This would be actionable under the Framework Decision as “public dissemination or distribution of tracts, pictures or other material containing expressions of racism and xenophobia,” potentially subjecting the author to arrest in any EU country on a warrant issued by a judge in any other EU country.

Orwell was prescient but his date was wrong, a quarter-century premature.

Fellow IBA Blogger Sentenced To Prison In Finland

Warning, explicit sexual content contained in this post. If you are under 18, leave this site immediately. If you are over 18, run, don't walk, to see a member of the clergy, and commit yourself to a monastic life.


Fellow IBA blogger, Seppo Lehto, sent me this notice this morning. He hasn't published here much. Just a few times. The thing he is most well known for is this video. (By the way, after I posted this, I realized Seppo had already posted his story at this blog. Click here to see his post.)





Finnish blogger sentenced for two years and 7 months

Notorious hatemonger and self-styled historian Seppo Lehto was sentenced to two years and four months + 3 months
= 2 years 7 months imprisonment in Tampere District Court Thursday 30th of May
2008. Lehto was charged with nine counts of gross defamation, inciting
ethnic hatred and inciting religious hatred.

Lehto had previosly served
a suspended sentence for defamation and was under probation, which means that
his three month sentence will become mandatory. The total mandatory sentence
will be two years and four months, which is by far the harshest sentence ever
for a "Freedom of Speech crime" in Finnish legal history.

The full verdict can be read in Finnish here.

Outside Finland Lehto is perhaps best known from his
Youtube video, in which he draws a cartoon of muslim prophet Muhammad. The
video was withdrawn from Youtube but has later been republished there as well as in
other online video sites.

However, in his home country he has become notorious for his
numerous 'filth blogs' containing explicit racist insults illustrated with
manipulated pornographic images and Patrioottiradio podcast radio site, which he
used to hurl racist insults to politicians, civil servants and members of ethnic
and religious minorities.

The filth blogs are located in Blogger meaning that so far it has been very difficult for
Finnish authorities to establish the perpetrator. Lehto has stubbornly denied
his involvement with the blogs and continued to do so during the trial.

Blogger is owned by Google and the servers are located in the United States
leaving Finnish authorities without jurisdiction. Since the content of Lehto's
filth blogs is covered by the First Amendment, the US authorities cannot force
the closure of the blogs.

According to my estimate (I have a list of his blogs) there are dozens of
similar blogs allegedly made by Lehto and his associate who was only given a
suspended sentence as a first time offender.

Some of the blogs are named after people who Lehto either politically
disagrees with or authorities that have come across him during his trials. These
people include leading Finnish politicians like Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
and President Tarja Halonen. However, neither of them was involved with the
trial as a plaintiff.

Among the plaintiffs there were three Finnish MP's, Oras Tynkkynen
(Green Party), Minna Sirnö (Leftist League) and Leena Rauhala (Leftist League).
The others were police officers involved in previous investigations, a District
Court judge, a local politician with immigrant backround and two District
prosecutors. Each of them was awarded damages ranging from 2000 to 7500 euros.

It is important to note that there were others who had filed complaints
to the police, but state prosecutor Mika Illman chose the nine people to be
included in the case by himself. So it is only natural that he included his
fellow legal professionals among the plaintiffs.

Lehto has been an Finland's number one internet pest for years
and it is very hard to feel sympathy for him based on the content of his
numerous filth blogs. It is possible that he is the main reason behind
former Minority Ombudsman Mikko Puumalainen's jihad against racism in the
internet and Mika Illman's aggressive prosecution in cases involving the
internet.

Conviction of Lehto is perhaps Illman's biggest coup to date and has
provoked cheers from members of Finnish political elite. Former Foreign Minister
Erkki Tuomioja expressed his satisfaction about the verdict in his website.

What has made some people, including me, suspicious, is the
fact that he managed to include the charge of ethnic and religious hatred in the
trial. Last time anybody was convicted of insulting religious feelings
(blasphemy) in Finland was during the 1960's.

Artist Harro Koskinen's painting Sikamessias (Pig Messiah) was
considered to be blapshemous and the artist was force to pay a fine for the
offence. The successful conviction of Lehto for inciting religious hatred may
lead to prosecution of other bloggers publishing material deemed offensive to
muslims.

As far as I know this was the first time anybody was convicted
for insulting muslim religious feelings in Finland.

Lehto was convicted for displaying rude images
of islamic prophet Muhammad and Allah having sexual intercourse with a
pig. The pictures were not
created by Lehto or his associate but they had found them from another website
and included them in their blog.

So far it is not yet clear if Lehto will appeal. The Appeals court will
probably reduce the sentence but Lehto will find it hard to avoid doing jail
time. The length of the sentence is extensive by Finnish standards. Normally,
similar sentences are issued for aggravated rape or manslaughter and the maximum
penalty given for murder is twelve years.

Some updates and clarifications

The length of the sentence can be explained by the fact that Lehto is a
repeat offender and he was convicted of several offences. He was under probation
and his suspended sentence of three months will be added to the two years and
four months sentence received at the trial making the total jail time two years
and seven months.

For inciting religious hatred (or disturbing religious worship may be a
better translation) the maximum penalty is six months. For the other two crimes
(inciting ethnic hatred and 9 counts of gross defamation) the maximum penalty is
two years. I am not a legal expert but I know that according to Finnish law the
sentences are not served up one after the other like in the US.

Somebody more knowledgeable with Finnish law than me may correct if I'm
wrong.

Most priceless quote via (In Finnish)

Police commissioner from Keskusrikospoliisi (Central Criminal Police) Timo
Laine stated:

"The writings should be punishable by law in both countries for us to be
able to request assistance. In the United States this kind of writings could be
regarded as exercise of free speech."

Laine was commenting the reason why Seppo Lehto's blogs could not be
removed from Blogger. State prosecutor Mika Illman said that the plaintiffs
should request 'the operator' (meaning Google) to remove the defamatory blogs
(Helsingin Sanomat).

However, it is fair to say that Lehto's blog posts are defamatory and I
don't blame some of the plaintiffs if they want the filth blogs concerning them
removed. This is a small country and not all of the plaintiffs are well known to
the Finnish public.

As far as I know none of Lehto's filth blogs (that he denies being author
of) have so far been removed from the internet. The verdict is not yet legally
valid pending Lehto's appeal.

Pictures offensive to muslims

I only provided a single link to a blog containing a picture offensive to
muslims. The actual picture I mentioned in the text can be found here
(scroll down to see the picture). The blog was mentioned in the verdict but the
target of the blog, former Minister of Culture Tanja Karpela, was not among the
plaintiffs.

I didn't know about Lehto's "filth blogs", but if you ask me, the idea sounds pretty funny.

I wonder if they include stuff like this. Here's a photo I found interesting. I am told it is of Barack Obama doing sexual favors for Hilary, to insure that she will drop out of the race for President. It doesn't look like her to me, but my source insures me that it is. On the other hand, the guy in the photo does look like Obama to me, because I think all black people look the same (including the women):

(Click photo to enlarge black man's penis.)

By the way, here's a picture of Mohammed having sex with a pig. One ought not be able to post such things.

More On Seppo Lehto

Infidel Bloggers Alliance writer Seppo Lehto has been sentenced to prison for inciting racial hatred.

I'm usually pretty careful about who I invite to post here. I have never seen anything by Lehto which indicates that he is a racist, or that he is dangerous. I have seen and read of things done by European governments which do indicate that they have fascist leanings when it comes to free speech.

Therefore, I believe there is nothing wrong with Lehto. Even though Gates of Vienna says,

As was pointed out by several commenters at the time, Mr. Lehto is not the
most appealing poster child for freedom of expression.Unfortunately, one can’t
choose only the most noble and upstanding people as defendants in civil
liberties cases.

When it comes to the suppression of free speech, authorities are more
likely to pick off the stragglers — the unpopular, unpleasant, and unattractive
media personalities who inhabit the fringes of public discourse.Seppo Lehto is
one such character, and now he has just been convicted and sentenced for
inciting ethnic hatred. He will spend more than two years in prison for posting
his noxious opinions on his blog.

Let's face it, even if he does post racist opinions on his internet sites, which I don't know that he does, he does not deserve to go to prison. If he explicitly threatens public officials, then he would deserve to go to prison. However, I have never seen any indication that he does that either.

In fact, in attempting to dig up news on why he is being imprisoned, I have not yet come across a single blog which has presented anything worse than the two pictures which accompany this post.

Here is some info on Seppo Lehto from a blog called Road Sassy (some of which is a quote from "European News"):

Seppo Lehto, seen in the first video here, has been described as a
“notorious hatemonger”, racist and other epithets. I do not really care. Maybe
he is, maybe he isn’t. In a saner time, those who made themselves unappealing to
society at large were shunned, perhaps mocked, and finally, ignored. They
certainly were not jailed for holding those views and expressing them. As long
as no physical or financial harm came to anyone, the freedom to express hatred,
or scorn, or mockery has always been protected.

The whole issue of what offends and what does not, should be dismissed
out of hand, with anti-religious and anti-free speech laws being stricken from
the books. The realm of where things should be decided is in the public sector,
with racist idiots like Seppo Lehto being confined to the ash heap in peoples
minds, not being incarcerated in a cell for two years.

Most of what can be said of Seppo Lehto’s numerous websites, is that
they are for the most part,..parodies, nothing that anyone could be close to
believing that they were true. lehto’s actions have been widely known for few
years, and posed no danger to society, due to his being written off as a crank.
In other words, not to be taken seriously.

And then along comes allah and his possess of caterwauling muslims and
the world is turned upside down.See, Lehto is going to go to jail for expressing
his views and he is one of a growing number world wide who are loosing their
freedoms because muslims are offended, and, I might add, because
PC-multiculturalism has castrated the West.

Unfortunately, one can’t choose only the most noble and upstanding
people as defendants in civil liberties cases. When it comes to the suppression
of free speech, authorities are more likely to pick off the stragglers — the
unpopular, unpleasant, and unattractive media personalities who inhabit the
fringes of public discourse.

Seppo Lehto is one such character, and now he has just been convicted
and sentenced for inciting ethnic hatred. He will spend more than two years in
prison for posting his noxious opinions on his blog. In many ways, Finland is
leading the way in the repression of free speech. Britain generates more cases,
but the Finns have been prosecuting theirs more effectively and imposing harsher
punishments.” (Source)

I pose the simple question, what has Seppo Lehto done which deserves imprisonment?

By the way, the Seppo Lehto I have known would only pose in a Nazi salute as an ironic statement. That may not be your favorite form of humor, but he ought not go to prison for such a thing, whether it was an ironic statement, or a personal statement.

The Year of the Long Knives: Part I

Guest Commentary by Edward Cline:

Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934): Purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler. Fearing that the paramilitary SA [“Assault Division”] had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS [the paramilitary “Protective Echelon”] guards to murder the organization’s leaders, including Ernst Rohm [head of the SA]. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived opponents of Hitler, including Kurt von Schleicher and Gregor Strasser. (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia)

Now that Barack Obama has unofficially won the Democratic presidential nomination, it is time to place this ambitious man under a microscope for closer examination. In a morbid sense, it has been instructive watching the two contending power lusters, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Obama, slash and gouge each other over what has seemed endless months of vying for the nomination, the one touting her alleged “experience” and the other touting his alleged political “innocence” and desire for “change.”

So strong is their appetite for supreme political power that each has been willing to say anything, do anything, deny anything. Each has purged his campaign of supporters and workers and past associates, all of whom at various points in the primaries embarrassed the candidates or jeopardized their chances with the electorate and the party delegates.

And each has committed numerous memorable gaffs in speeches and off-the-record comments, gaffs that revealed either their ignorance of facts and of history and even of geography, or a willingness to lie in the rush to preserve a patina of veracity, experience, and trustworthiness.

Unlike the nocturnal bloodletting of the Nazis, the candidates’ purgings have been public and bloodless and will continue to be that right up to the November national election. But, it will be purging nonetheless, all for the sake of maintaining images and stances of originality, wisdom and farsightedness. Obama has the most to purge. And unlike Rohm and Strasser, who charged Hitler with abandoning socialism in favor of a “personality cult,” Obama will continue to purge anyone who provides substantive evidence that, beneath his glib but vapid rhetoric and blasé promises, he is promoting full-scale socialism, and that promoting it has always defined his political activism and ambition.

The “untouchables” are not completely cast out as liabilities, however, and will not mind the ostracism. They will simply stay out of sight until Obama thinks it opportune to invite them back into the open (if and when he wins the White House). It is important to remember that while Obama has “repudiated” them in nationally broadcast public ablutions, they have not repudiated him. Neither Rev. Jeremiah Wright nor Father Michael Pfleger has publicly cursed Obama for calling their ranting sermons “disgusting,” nor has any black or white liberal supporter of Obama upbraided him for discarding the racist, rabble-rousing clerics. This fact seems to have eluded his supporters and the news media, who are giddily eager to absolve him of any wrong-doing, misconduct, or having had a less than sterling past and political career. It is another form of Kennedy or Clinton idolization, one that sweeps all evidence of scandal, criminal behavior, and malfeasance beneath an impenetrable rug of irrelevancy. He makes us feel good, so never mind his missteps.

Why link an infamous chapter of Nazi history to any discussion of Barack Obama’s character and political aspirations? Because the parallels of his rise in politics and that of Hitler’s in Germany are too eerie in their particulars to ignore. To be sure, Obama’s rise has been, in terms of violence, betrayal, and criminal skullduggery, entirely blameless. Never mind his early career as a “community” advocate, activist, and ward-heeler in Chicago and his somewhat lackluster but leftist record in the Illinois legislature and the U.S Senate. Obama himself is a man of no convictions, and a man of no convictions, as a consummate second-hander, will adopt the “greatest good for the greatest number” as his moral compass, whether or not he is running for office.

A man with no sense of self-identity will become what others wish him to be, or what he believes others wish him to be. The empty vessel will naturally gravitate to crowds to be filled to the brim with their hopes, dreams, wishes, sores and frustrations. Only then will he feel complete. He will become their servant, their icon, to be placed on an altar to be worshipped and prayed to in self-effacing idolatry.

So it is with Obama. It helps to explain why so many Americans are excited by him, and why he exudes a confidence not evident in any of the other candidates. His admirers cannot be excited by him because of his ideas; he has not expressed anything as solid as an idea (and clichés, bromides and populist tripe are not ideas), and his confidence grows as the number of his admirers and supporters grows.

Obama has not deliberately posed as a miracle-working Messiah who promises to cure all ills for all complainants; that is how his supporters and most of the news media view him, but he is willing to meet them halfway. And his race, fundamentally, is immaterial, regardless of what importance others attach to it. Virtually every other candidate has mouthed the same bromides, clichés, and populist tripe as Obama. Why they have worked for Obama and not much for anyone else (especially not for Hillary Clinton, whose sincerity is transparently phony and calculating) can be ascribed to his “charisma,” his public speaking skills, and the apparent sincerity of the “feelings” behind his words.

Feelings. This is the key to understanding Obama’s appeal. Ian Kershaw, noted biographer and professor at the University of Sheffield, wrote a two-volume biography of Hitler that is distinguished from other such biographies in that it not only dissects Hitler, but the German culture that made him possible, and indicts both. It is the only non-Objectivist biography of Hitler that comes near to Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America (1982) by offering a philosophical explanation for the Nazi phenomenon (it stops just short of reaching the same conclusions). Kershaw, in Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris (1998), makes a number of important observations about how and why Hitler was able to succeed, first in rising through the tumultuous politics of the 1920’s, then in seizing power with the approval of the political establishment and the electorate.

It was as a propagandist, not as an ideologue with a unique or special set of political ideas, that Hitler made his mark in these early years. There was nothing new, different, original, or distinctive about the ideas he was peddling in the Munich beerhalls. They were common currency among the various völkisch groups and sects and had already been advanced in all their essentials by the pre-war Pan-Germans. What Hitler did was to advertise unoriginal ideas in an original way. Others could say the same thing but make no impact at all. It was less what he said, than how he said it that counted. (“The Beerhall Agitator,” p. 133.)

Hillary Clinton can advocate “national unity,” “change that matters,” “working together,” “social justice” and all the other unoriginal floating abstractions as often as can Obama, but make no lasting impression, because she has never been able to communicate sincerity. Obama can make that impression, especially when he couches those vague “yearnings” in what Saul Alinsky, the Chicago sometime communist community activist whom both Clinton and Obama have emulated in terms of applying his political tactics, called “middle class language.” (Alinsky’s influence on Clinton and Obama is discussed in “Hillary Clinton’s Uncle Ellsworth” and its “Postscript,” August 8 and 10 respectively.)

In the contest for the Democratic nomination, Obama more successfully applied Alinsky’s “principles” of political activism than did Clinton. Clinton has always talked down to her supporters and would-be voters; Obama talks to his supporters and would-be voters as an equal with many things in common with them. That is his subtle but no less calculating posture of camaraderie with the “oppressed” and “disenfranchised.”

Kershaw shortly afterwards explains the confidence Hitler exuded.

…[T]he response of the beerhall crowds – later the mass rallies – gave him the certainty, the self-assurance, the sense of security, which at this time he otherwise lacked.

Similarly, Obama almost glows when facing a wildly enthusiastic crowd. In one-on-one interviews with television reporters, however, he is soberingly banal and nondescript, almost as much as is Republican candidate John McCain.

Part Two of this commentary will examine the phenomenon of Obama’s abrupt appearance on the national stage. The parallels there are also frighteningly eerie.

Crossposted at The Dougout

Finnish blogger Seppo Lehto sentenced for two years and 7 months

I send this for you that you know what is situation in Finland nowadays http://jumalanpilkasta.blogspot.com

Thanks for this english newsletter to "Vasarahammer" who has done this article in his own blog:

Pastorius cutting in here: There are people, including "Vasarahammer" whose post is quoted here, who are indicating that Seppo is a bad guy. That has not been my experience. It is my opinion, from everything that I have seen of Seppo on the internet, and here, that he is a misunderstood satitirst. The following video is an example of Seppo's work (apparently, this is what passes for hate-mongering in Finland):

http://vasarahammer.blogspot.com/

Finnish blogger Seppo Lehto sentenced for two years and 7 months

Notorious hatemonger and self-styled historian Seppo Lehto was sentenced to two years and four months + 3 months = 2 years 7 months imprisonment in Tampere District Court Thursday 30^th of May 2008. Lehto was charged with nine counts of gross defamation, inciting ethnic hatred and inciting religious hatred. Lehto had previosly served a suspended sentence for defamation and was under probation, which means that his three month sentence will become mandatory. The total mandatory sentence will be two years and four months, which is by far the harshest sentence ever for a “Freedom of Speech crime” in Finnish legal history. The full verdict can be read in Finnish here.

Outside Finland Lehto is perhaps best known from his Youtube video, in which he draws a cartoon of muslim prophet Muhammad. The video was withdrawn from Youtube but has later been republished there as well as in other online video sites. However, in his home country he has become notorious for his numerous ‘filth blogs’ containing explicit racist insults illustrated with manipulated pornographic images and Patrioottiradio podcast radio site, which he used to hurl racist insults to politicians, civil servants and members of ethnic and religious minorities. The filth blogs are located in Blogger meaning that so far it has been very difficult for Finnish authorities to establish the perpetrator. Lehto has stubbornly denied his involvement with the blogs and continued to do so during the trial.

Blogger is owned by Google and the servers are located in the United States leaving Finnish authorities without jurisdiction. Since the content of Lehto’s filth blogs is covered by the First Amendment, the US authorities cannot force the closure of the blogs. According to my estimate (I have a list of his blogs) there are dozens of similar blogs allegedly made by Lehto and his associate who was only given a suspended sentence as a first time offender. Some of the blogs are named after people who Lehto either politically disagrees with or authorities that have come across him during his trials. These people include leading Finnish politicians like Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and President Tarja Halonen. However, neither of them was involved with the trial as a plaintiff.

Among the plaintiffs there were three Finnish MP’s, Oras Tynkkynen (Green Party), Minna Sirnö (Leftist League) and Leena Rauhala (Leftist League). The others were police officers involved in previous investigations, a District Court judge, a local politician with immigrant backround and two District prosecutors. Each of them was awarded damages ranging from 2000 to 7500 euros.

It is important to note that there were others who had filed complaints to the police, but state prosecutor Mika Illman chose the nine people to be included in the case by himself. So it is only natural that he included his fellow legal professionals among the plaintiffs.

Lehto has been an Finland’s number one internet pest for years and it is very hard to feel sympathy for him based on the content of his numerous filth blogs. It is possible that he is the main reason behind former Minority Ombudsman Mikko Puumalainen’s jihad against racism in the internet and Mika Illman’s aggressive prosecution in cases involving the internet. Conviction of Lehto is perhaps Illman’s biggest coup to date and has provoked cheers from members of Finnish political elite. Former Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja expressed his satisfaction about the verdict in his website.

What has made some people, including me, suspicious, is the fact that he managed to include the charge of ethnic and religious hatred in the trial. Last time anybody was convicted of insulting religious feelings (blasphemy) in Finland was during the 1960’s. Artist Harro Koskinen’s painting Sikamessias (Pig Messiah) was considered to be blapshemous and the artist was force to pay a fine for the offence. The successful conviction of Lehto for inciting religious hatred may lead to prosecution of other bloggers publishing material deemed offensive to muslims.

As far as I know this was the first time anybody was convicted for insulting muslim religious feelings in Finland. Lehto was convicted for displaying rude images of islamic prophet Muhammad and Allah having sexual intercourse with a pig. The pictures were not created by Lehto or his associate but they had found them from another website and included them in their blog.

So far it is not yet clear if Lehto will appeal. The Appeals court will probably reduce the sentence but Lehto will find it hard to avoid doing jail time. The length of the sentence is extensive by Finnish standards. Normally, similar sentences are issued for aggravated rape or manslaughter and the maximum penalty given for murder is twelve years.

Some updates and clarifications

The length of the sentence can be explained by the fact that Lehto is a repeat offender and he was convicted of several offences. He was under probation and his suspended sentence of three months will be added to the two years and four months sentence received at the trial making the total jail time two years and seven months.

For inciting religious hatred (or disturbing religious worship may be a better translation) the maximum penalty is six months. For the other two crimes (inciting ethnic hatred and 9 counts of gross defamation) the maximum penalty is two years. I am not a legal expert but I know that according to Finnish law the sentences are not served up one after the other like in the US. Somebody more knowledgeable with Finnish law than me may correct if I'm wrong.

Most priceless quote via (In Finnish)

Police commissioner from Keskusrikospoliisi (Central Criminal Police) Timo Laine stated: "The writings should be punishable by law in both countries for us to be able to request assistance. In the United States this kind of writings could be regarded as exercise of free speech."

Laine was commenting the reason why Seppo Lehto's blogs could not be removed from Blogger. State prosecutor Mika Illman said that the plaintiffs should request 'the operator' (meaning Google) to remove the defamatory blogs (Helsingin Sanomat).

However, it is fair to say that Lehto's blog posts are defamatory and I don't blame some of the plaintiffs if they want the filth blogs concerning them removed. This is a small country and not all of the plaintiffs are well known to the Finnish public.

As far as I know none of Lehto's filth blogs (that he denies being author of) have so far been removed from the internet. The verdict is not yet legally valid pending Lehto's appeal.

Pictures offensive to muslims

I only provided a single link to a blog containing a picture offensive to muslims. The actual picture I mentioned in the text can be found here (scroll down to see the picture). The blog was mentioned in the verdict but the target of the blog, former Minister of Culture Tanja Karpela, was not among the plaintiffs.

Lähettänyt Vasarahammer klo 20:42

quotation end
-------------------------------------

Sense from the military:Army training for fight against Hizbullah

WASHINGTON --GERTZ-- The U.S. Army has been training troops and developing systems to defeat Hizbullah, regarded as the most lethal non-state military in the world.

Hizbullah, controlled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been operating in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and African states.

Two Hizbullah fighters patrol in the southern town of Ghajar, Lebanon. Secretive and disciplined, the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah says little about the source of its arsenal of rockets and weapons. AP/Mohammed Zaatari

"The assessment is that someday, somewhere, we will confront Hizbullah, probably in any engagement with Iran," an official said.

The army has conducted exercises and simulations meant to test its capabilities against Hizbullah. Officials said the army has tested the effectiveness of the Future Combat Systems, a key element in military modernization.

In late 2007, army units with FCS platforms and systems fought a force meant to resemble Hizbullah. Officials said the scenario envisioned a U.S. operation in Lebanon, the headquarters of Hizbullah.

FCS, scheduled to reach operational capability by 2015, has been criticized by Congress as wasteful and ineffective in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Officials said Hizbullah has become the model for both Sunni and Shi'ite militias in Iraq.

In a recent simulation at Fort Bliss, Texas, officers concluded that the army required enhanced intelligence, surveillance and engineering for any war with Hizbullah. Officials said the army would introduce these changes into combat brigades.

Officials said simulations of a conflict with Hizbullah have raised the need for armored systems that could withstand powerful bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. They said the army would seek to develop active protection systems designed to intercept RPGs and anti-tank guided missiles acquired by Hizbullah.

They are ON THE OTHER SIDE, people

Gertz:

Report: Iran got U.S. military communications tech from Russia, China

Russia and China have supplied sensitive U.S. telecommunications technology to Iran and its terrorist surrogate Hizbullah, according to an Israel report.

The Israeli website Sigint reported May 14 that a secret Hizbullah telecommunications network is based on U.S. technology, specifically encoding and military communications ciphering gear is being used by Hizbullah and Syrian intelligence.

"According to preliminary suspicions, the sensitive information was stolen by a U.S. or foreign element and was transferred to the Soviet foreign intelligence agencies (SVR) and from there to Iran in exchange for money," the report said.

"As part of the military ties between Moscow and Tehran, the latter has undertaken in writing not to transmit the information to a third party -- a practice that is common in the military export market - but has not lived up to its word."

The Hizbullah network is based on fiber optics that are difficult to intercept. The network was installed by Iranian technicians.

U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating the compromise.

The First Law of Russian Foreign Policy:
Anything which hurts the USA and its people -
is good for Russia
in the big zero sum great game that doesn't exist.
EVEN IF that means a nuclear detonation in Israel
or the USA
since they have judged
that a full scale nuclear war will not break out.

According to the report, in the past several weeks, Tehran and Damascus have pressured Hizbullah into keeping the communication network secret from the Lebanese government, since the re-export from Russia will complicate Syrian and Iranian ties with Moscow.

"According to well-founded preliminary information, the communication center is located on Syrian soil, branching out into Lebanon in a structure that has not yet been fully uncovered," the report said. "The assumption has been raised in the past few days that this is a system that links Hizbullah to the Syrian intelligence; however, the reason for the great secrecy around it has not yet been clarified."

The report stated that the network is a "well-greased command and control alignment" that is harden against disruption or interception.

The network indicates that there is an effective intelligence link between Russia and Iran with the direct partnership of Syria and Hizbullah.

The report said that U.S. design and communication technology have been compromised by industrial espionage from Russia and China spying on U.S., European and other companies involved in innovative technology.

Winds of War: Turkish Moderates Fight Back

Now why do Muslims understand the threat of Islamism and take proper action every time it raises its ugly head – and we in the West don’t? Why don’t we learn from Muslims themselves who see the threat quite clearly and act quickly?

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.

Another one on Obama's adviser list....Amb Kurtzer

The perfidy of change --- is MIND BOGGLING.
HAT TIP Mizz Mellie.... HERE on this guy, HERE. Another one ..and a clear predictor of Obama's BRAZEN LIES. BRAZEN.

Now this ground is well covered.

Obama, despite his words is no friend to the future existence of a secure, survivable Israel. That's because he believes there is a point to try and negotiate with people whose sole reason for life is to end Israel, and to do it by force of arms, either as a religious imperative (HAMAS), or as a poltical-religious principle (Abbas). Like Haaretz, Obama believes the US must 'rape' Israel into 'peace', and that is his canard to say he believes in the security of Israel. But never mind that.

This is about the AIPAC LIES OF OLD POLITICAL MEANS to the ends of jewish votes.

United Jerusalem.
Hey, I would never have promised such a thing.
But that Obama lied in that venue, in that way, with that purpose, makes it clear that he believes the ends (his presidency) justifies any means, and I have a further message for you jews of america.

He actually thinks less of you jews than of the 'gun hugging, bitter, jobless, bible thumping barely high school grads of the baptist midwest'.

Otherwise how could he have uttered the absurd promises he did, in contravention to every SINGLE foreign policy appointment he has made.

Not some appointments, not most appointments, every single one.

BRAZEN LIES OF THE OLD STYLE

The West Is The Best - Why There Is No Need To Worry In The Long Run

Human beings can solve any problem given enough time. We are unlimited in our creative potential. Our only limits in the real world are that we must work with matter, and it takes time to do so.

Given time, we will develop solutions to any problem which presents itself. If we find ourselves earth-bound, we will learn to fly. If we find that we get sick, we will find ways to attack and destroy the disease. If we find we are running out of a particular form of energy, we will find a way to use other common materials to create new forms of energy.

We are now developing new "nano-arrays" which will allow us to capture all the energy of light without any waste. Light can thus be turned into heat, which of course, can be turned into energy.

A Tale of Two Nano-Arrays, from Al Fin:

The nano-array pictured above is described as a perfect absorber of light--it reflects none of the incident light, instead turning all radiant energy into heat.

"Three things can happen to light when it hits a material," says Boston College Physicist Willie J. Padilla. "It can be reflected, as in a mirror. It can be transmitted, as with window glass. Or it can be absorbed and turned into heat.

This metamaterial has been engineered to ensure that all light is neither reflected nor transmitted, but is turned completely into heat and absorbed. It shows we can design a metamaterial so that at a specific frequency it can absorb all of the photons that fall onto its surface."...

Because its elements can separately absorb the electric and magnetic components of an electromagnetic wave, the "perfect metamaterial absorber" created by the researchers can be highly absorptive over a narrow frequency range.

The metamaterial is the first to demonstrate perfect absorption and unlike conventional absorbers it is constructed solely out of metallic elements, giving the material greater flexibility for applications related to the collection and detection of light, such as imaging, says Padilla, an assistant professor of physics.

Metamaterial designs give them new properties beyond the limits of their actual physical components and allow them to produce "tailored" responses to radiation. Because their construction makes them geometrically scalable, metamaterials are able to operate across a significant portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The nano-array above was previously discussed here at Al Fin and at New Energy and Fuel.

This second array was designed to capture the radiative energy of light and turn it into electrical energy. Compare the two arrays at your leisure and note the similarities and differences. Both nano-arrays can be optimised for particular ranges of photon wavelength.

The potential range of applications for these arrays, and similar "metamaterials" made from precise nano-configuration of ordinary matter, is immense. These nano-arrays are something new under the sun, and worth considering.

Our planet is constantly bathed by showers of photons, and other particles from the sun. Until recently, humans have used the sun for agriculture, tanning, and heating, and inadvertently for Vitamin D production. It is long past time for us to begin using the sun, and other sources of infrared radiation, more thoroughly.

Fighting Back: Send Mo-Toons To Islamic Embassies

From Stogie:

SIOE, or "Stop the Islamization of Europe" website is involved in active
resistance to the islamization of Europe. But you probably figured that out by
their title.

Upset by the recent bombing of the Danish Embassy in Pakistan (over the
Danish cartoons of Mohammed), they have come up with a "strike back" strategy.
The strategy is this: draw a cartoon of Mohammed, or use an existing one, and
send it (anonymously) to Pakistani embassies. Every time the radical Muslims
create terrorism over cartoons, more cartoons will result.

SIOE has posted a list of addresses for Pakistani embassies and
consulates, as well as Pakistani news outlets and broadcasting organizations.A
word of caution: don't use the Danish cartoons, as they are copyrighted and you
could be sued. Those cartoonists already have death threats and fatwas hanging
over them, and don't want you to make it worse.

After you draw the cartoon, send it to SIOE. They will post the best
cartoons on their site and, each Friday, will select the best cartoon for the
week, and make a t shirt bearing the cartoon, as a prize to the creator.

For details go here.

We Need More Leaders Like Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel was a Czech writer and dramatist who became so angered by the oppression of the Communist government of the UUSR that his anger and sense of drove him all the way to the Presidency of his country.

Vaclav Havel was no career politician. He was a man shaken but not bowed by the events of his time. He was a man in whom anger lit a sense of purpose. He was a man driven by the righteous idea that every individual on the Earth was born endowed with the unalienable right to freedom.

From Bruce Bawer at Pajamas Media:

In these decadent times when powerful people in the West cannot conceive of
any response to totalitarian jihad other than rank appeasement, and when the
name of Che Guevara, a bloodthirsty Stalinist and enemy of freedom, is
synonymous with heroism, it is vital that free people be familiar with — and
honor — the examples of those valiant few who, living under totalitarianism,
have stood up to it with a courage that today’s appeasers of Islam could hardly
imagine.

Among the greatest of these heroes is Vaclav Havel.

Born in 1936, Havel spent his early years under the two major
twentieth-century varieties of totalitarianism — first Nazism, then Communism.
When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia after World War II, instituting a
system under which, as Havel biographer Edá Kriseová writes, “[e]veryone was
afraid of his neighbor” and “[p]eople disappeared without a trace,” they
confiscated the Havel family’s money and the theater they owned.

In 1949, Havel’s father was imprisoned and interrogated for several weeks;
three years later, the Havels’ home and possessions were taken from them as part
of a new policy under which class enemies were to be removed from Prague. News
of the latter development gave Havel’s maternal grandfather a stroke from which
he died; meanwhile Havel’s uncle Miloš, after spending two years in prison and
labor camp as punishment for having run a movie studio, escaped to West Germany
with the help of American troops — whereupon his name, according to Kriseová,
was “erased from the history of Czech film.”

Prohibited from being a full-time university student because he was the
son of bourgeois parents, Havel cobbled together an education by working as a
chem lab apprentice, attending night classes, and studying economics and, later,
drama. In 1952, when Havel was sixteen, the Czechoslovak government tried
thirteen people on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Communist
regime. The questions and answers were scripted, the defendants found guilty
(the verdict, of course, having been preordained), and all but two of the
convicts executed, their ashes, as Kriseová writes, “shoveled into sacks and
scattered on an icy side road in the outskirts of Prague.”

This was only one of many “crazed experiment[s] in the arts of legalized
terror” that took place in Czechoslovakia at the time, the purpose of which was
not to punish real criminals or dissidents but to maintain an atmosphere of
terror and reaffirm the state’s power to do what it pleased. Such “experiments”
had the desired effect: most people in Czechoslovakia kept a low profile. But
not Havel: determined to work in the theater, he continued to write plays —
mostly critiques of Communist utopianism and dogmatism — even though their
production and publication were banned.

Then, in 1968, something remarkable happened: the “Prague Spring,”
during which Alexander Dubček’s government lifted censorship and travel
restrictions and granted freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. But not for
long: Russian tanks moved in, and Dubček was handcuffed and shipped to Moscow,
where he was interrogated, isolated, threatened, bullied, and humiliated. After
he finally agreed to sign a document capitulating entirely to the Kremlin, he
was allowed to fly back to Prague, where he sobbed his way through a radio
speech announcing his capitulation. The Communists then proceeded to whip
Czechoslovakia back into line by (among other things) purging most government
ministers, top diplomats, and company officials; firing thousands of teachers,
school principals, and professors; persecuting actors and artists; forcing
almost half of the country’s journalists to resign and replacing everybody at
the management level of news organizations; dismissing the great majority of
writers from the Writers’ Union, imprisoning or exiling many of them, and
removing books by scores of them (including Havel) from libraries.

The lesson was clear: in the words of Havel biographer John Keane, the
people of Czechoslovakia
were expected to join what Havel’s friend Ivan Klíma
called the “community of the defeated,” and to abide by its basic rules: that
there would only ever be one governing party, to which everything, including
truth itself, belonged; that the world was divided into enemies and friends of
the Party and, accordingly, that compliance with Party policies was rewarded,
dissent penalized; and, finally, that the Party no longer required the complete
devotion of its subjects, only the quiet acceptance of its dictates.

It is a mark of Havel’s character that when
Czechoslovak officials, eager to be rid of him (one of the country’s leading
troublemakers), actually offered to let him move to the West and take a dream
job he had been offered with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Havel, who at
the time was working in a brewery, refused. “The solution to this human
situation,” he wrote, “does not lie in leaving it.”

Years passed. Organized dissent in Czechoslovakia disappeared. Then, in 1976, a rock group called the Plastic People of the Universe was
arrested. The musicians were not dissidents, or even politically
inclined; but in the eyes of the Communist leaders, their music was, in
and of itself, subordinate. The group’s arrest underlined the fact that
what was at issue in Communist Eastern Europe was not simply the right to
political dissent — it was the right simply to be oneself, to spread one’s
wings, to do one’s thing.

The trial led Havel and others to found Charter 77, a group that called on
the government to live up to its obligations under international human rights
agreements. It was a new tactic:

Czechoslovakia’s leaders, like the heads of other Communist countries, had
entered into a number of such agreements, of which their very system of
government was, of course, a violation; signing them was an act of pure cynicism
on which no one had ever challenged them.

At first the Plastics didn’t even know whether to align themselves with
Charter 77; but they eventually decided to stand up for themselves — and with
Havel.

“In this trial,” Kriseová would later write, “the human desire to lead
one’s life freely was in the dock. It was a trial in the name of sameness,
indifference, bureaucratization, total obedience, and conformity. Anything that
deviated from the norm in any way had to be liquidated.” Or, in Havel’s words: the trial was “an impassioned debate about the
meaning of human existence, an urgent questioning of what one should expect from
life, whether one should silently accept the world as it is presented to one and
slip obediently into one’s pre-arranged place in it, or whether one has the
strength to exercise free choice in the matter.”

Eventually over a thousand people signed Charter 77’s manifesto, and
many were punished severely for it. Havel — already under the watchful eye of
the Czechoslovak government — became a constant target of its attentions. The
secret police interrogated him regularly. “He received threatening letters and
anonymous telephone calls,” writes Keane.

His life began to feel as if it was one continuous round of threats,
bright lights, padded doors, wooden desks, sliding chairs, handcuffs,
truncheons. … When it became clear to the authorities that the man was not for
giving up … Havel was arrested, charged … with committing “serious crimes
against the basic principles of the Republic.” He was confined without trial “in
total isolation” for four and a half months in Ruzyně prison. After his release,
he and other Chartists were beaten brutally by police at a ball for railway
workers.

In all, Havel was imprisoned four times. “Prison hammered into Havel’s
hide the painful realization that responsibility is the key to human identity,”
Keane writes.

Courage did not come easily to Havel. It was a matter of will, of
resolve. In prison, swarming with worries about what prison would do to his
soul, his sense of humor, he struggled to keep up his spirits. … He was riddled
with guilt over having dragged other people into Charter 77. He was deeply
suspicious of utopians with their “radiant tomorrows”:

“What is a concentration camp but an attempt by Utopians to dispose of
those elements which don’t fit into their Utopia?”

After the Charter’s appeal was made public, the Czechoslovak government
put together a group of artists, musicians, journalists, and performers who
publicly declared their enthusiasm for the Communist system and who condemned
Havel and others as imperialist agents. To read their testimonies now is to be
reminded of today’s Western apologists for jihadism. (The difference, of course,
is that the latter, who are not yet living under the totalitarianism they so
reprehensibly defend, have less excuse for their cowardice.)

In 1978 Havel wrote a long essay that would have an extraordinary
impact and that should be required reading in Western schools. “The Power of the
Powerless” explained on a profound human level why Communist tyranny should be
resisted with all one’s heart and mind and soul.

It wasn’t a dry political treatise — it was a work of deep thought and
feeling that accomplished the apparently impossible: it enabled many Eastern
Europeans to look with fresh eyes at the oppression that they had long taken for
granted as the way of the world. And in doing so, it persuaded them to abandon
their meek passivity and stand up for their liberties.

Only on a very few occasions in history has a writer attained a unique
insight into his society and expressed it in words that moved mountains; Havel
is one such writer. His essay took Eastern Europe by storm. Solidarity member
Zbigniew Bujak later said that it came along at a time when he and many of his
fellow Polish activists felt dispirited and had decided that it was pointless to
challenge their Communist masters.

“The Power of the Powerless” changed that. It articulated, in words that
touched them to the core, the spiritual need to resist oppression.

“Reading it,” explained Bujak, “gave us the theoretical underpinnings for
our activity. It maintained our spirits; we did not give up, and a year later —
in August 1980 — it became clear that the party apparatus and the factory
management were afraid of us.” Of the spectacular successes of Solidarity in
Poland and of Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, Bujak said, “I see in them an
astonishing fulfillment of the prophecies and knowledge contained in Havel’s
essay.”

In the essay, Havel imagined a man who runs a fruit and vegetable stand in
Communist Czechoslovakia (runs, not owns: in Communist Europe, of course, all
businesses were owned by the state). The man puts in his store window a sign
bearing a Communist slogan: “Workers of the world, unite!” Why, Havel asked,
does he do this? The answer: he’s afraid. He wants to live “in harmony with
society,” and must prove he’s obedient. Havel noted that such a man might
hesitate, out of shame, to post a sign explicitly admitting his fear; but the
sign bearing the Communist slogan helps him conceal his cowardice from himself
by hiding it behind the façade of ideology — an ideology that offers people “the
illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for
them to part with them.”

Communist ideology, Havel pointed out, obliges
people to “live within a lie. They need not accept the lie. It is enough for
them to have accepted their life with it and in it. For by this very fact,
individuals confirm the system, fulfill the system, make the system, are the
system.”

Moreover, while life in free societies “moves toward plurality,
diversity, independent self-constitution, and self-organization,” life under
Communism “demands conformity, uniformity, and discipline.”

People like Havel’s greengrocer, by going along with all this, become not
only victims of the system’s oppression but also collaborators in it — for the
sign in the window, in addition to testifying to the shopkeeper’s meek
compliance, increases pressure on other merchants to put signs in their windows
lest the authorities start asking why they haven’t.

So it is that ordinary people, by kowtowing to the system, become its
enforcers. (Thus are the subjects of Communism the equivalent of dhimmis under
Islam.)

Go read the whole thing.

Is Barack Obama The Messiah?

Jonah Goldberg ponders the ineffable:

Is Barack Obama the Messiah?

Before we answer that question, let me vent for a moment. In 2000 I was
cruelly denied the Pulitzer despite being the only columnist in America to ask
the pressing question: Is Al Gore an alien? The evidence was there for all to
see. He was born nine months after the mysterious alien sighting at Roswell,
N.M. His weird syntax and verbal rhythms are otherworldly. He often refers to
“earth” or “this planet” as if he’s just passing through, and he once angrily
complained to the Washington Post that it had printed a picture of the earth
from outer space “upside down.”

There is no “upside down” in space — unless Gore had his childhood view in
mind.At least I’m not in the wilderness this time. Lots of people have pondered
the possibility that Barack is our Divine Redeemer. There are websites dedicated
to the question “Is Barack Obama the Messiah?” Google that question and you’ll
get more than 35,000 hits. (Enter just the words “Messiah” and “Obama” and
you’ll get nearly 10 times that.)

But there’s more concrete evidence. Since Obama declared his candidacy,
there have been remarkably few biblical plagues. And lions and lambs seem open
to bilateral negotiations.

Obama’s apostles are hard to dismiss. Oprah simply calls him “The One,”
because “we need politicians who know how to be the truth.” (Jesus says in John
14:6 “I am the way, the truth ...”) Oprah goes on to say Obama will help us
“evolve to a higher plane,” which would put Obama in the role of our Intelligent
Designer.

According to the New York Times, Obama’s volunteers are taught to eschew
discussions of the issues and instead “testify” about how they “came to
Obama.”

Oh sure, Jonah may joke about it. But, it is a possibility:

Is Obama an enlightened being?

To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the
pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people
from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of
the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?

No, it’s not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even
inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a
black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different
ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking
charm, didn’t have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a
unique high-vibration integrity.

Dismiss it all you like, but I’ve heard from far too many enormously
smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who’ve been intuitively blown away by
Obama’s presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it’s
just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot
campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from
perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their
suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Here’s where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know
(not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a
Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not
merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can
actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and
connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of
people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very
high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a
brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is
so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King
Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate
throughout our short history.

Are you rolling your eyes and scoffing? Fine by me.

Barack Obama Ran On A MARXIST PARTY Line in 1996

From Yid With Lid:


It seems that Senator Obama's Old party was called the New Party. The party was a Marxist Political coalition. This was not a guilt by association thing. Senator Obama sought out their nomination. He was successful in obtaining that endorsement, and he used a number of New Party volunteers as campaign workers. Read more on the Marxist endorsement that Barack Obama sought out:

Co-founded in 1992 by Daniel Cantor (a former staffer for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign) and Joel Rogers (a sociology and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) , the New Party was a Marxist political coalition whose objective was to endorse and elect leftist public officials -- most often Democrats.

The New Party's short-term objective was to move the Democratic Party leftward, thereby setting the stage for the eventual rise of new Marxist third party.Most New Party members hailed from the Democratic Socialists of America and the militant organization ACORN.

The party's Chicago chapter also included a large contingent from the Committees of Correspondence, a Marxist coalition of former Maoists, Trotskyists, and Communist Party USA members.

The New Party's modus operandi included the political strategy of "electoral fusion," where it would nominate, for various political offices, candidates from other parties (usually Democrats), thereby enabling each of those candidates to occupy more than one ballot line in the voting booth. By so doing, the New Party often was able to influence candidates' platforms. (Fusion of this type is permitted in seven states -- Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont -- but is common only in New York.)

Though Illinois was not one of the states that permitted electoral fusion, in 1995 Barack Obama nonetheless sought the New Party's endorsement for his 1996 state senate run. He was successful in obtaining that endorsement, and he used a number of New Party volunteers as campaign workers.

In 1996, three of the four candidates endorsed by the New Party won their electoral primaries. The three victors included Barack Obama (in the 13th State Senate District), Danny Davis (in the 7th Congressional District), and Patricia Martin, who won the race for Judge in the 7th Subcircuit Court. All four candidates attended an April 11, 1996 New Party membership meeting to express their gratitude for the party's support.

The New Party's various chapters similarly helped to elect dozens of other political candidates in a host of American cities.

One of the more notable New Party members was Carl Davidson, a Chicago-based Marxist who became a political supporter of Barack Obama in the mid-1990s.

In 1997 the New Party's influence declined precipitously after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that electoral fusion was not protected by the First Amendment's freedom of association clause. By 1998 the party was essentially defunct. Daniel Canto and other key party members went on to establish a new organization with similar ideals, the Working Families Party of New York.-

Source Discoverthenetworks .org

Barack Obama: "Friends"