‘If Gays Don’t Like It, they Can Choose Another Pasta’: Barilla Pasta Faces Global Boycott after Chairman Says Brand Would Never Feature a Homosexual Family in Its Ads

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Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Campaigners have called for a boycott of Barilla, the world’s biggest pasta maker, after the company said they would never feature gay people in their advertisements.

Company chairman Guido Barilla provoked outrage when he said that his idea of the ‘traditional families’ where the woman played a central part was ‘sacred’.

If gay people didn’t like it they could eat another brand of pasta, he said.

He said: ‘I would never do a commercial with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect, but because I don’t think we are like them.

‘Ours is a traditional family where the woman has a fundamental role.‘

Read more from this story HERE.

Interpol Issues International Arrest Warrant for Samantha Lewthwaite, the “White Widow’

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Photo Credit: REX

Photo Credit: REX

Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for Samantha Lewthwaite, the British woman dubbed the “white widow” who has been linked to the Kenyan shopping centre attack, in connection with suspected terrorist offences in 2011.

The international police agency said its red notice had been issued at the request of Kenya and circulated to police authorities in 190 countries around the world, activating “a global tripwire” for the Briton.

The warrant does not relate to the terrorist attack at the weekend on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, despite intense speculation linking Lewthwaite, the widow of one of the July 7 London bombers, to the atrocity, for which the al-Qaida-linked Somali group al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility.

Instead, said Interpol, the 29-year-old is being sought on charges of possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony dating back to December 2011.

That month Kenyan police raided a property in Mombasa that had been linked to Lewthwaite, arresting another Briton, Jermaine Grant from east London. Grant is currently on trial for the offences in a secure Mombasa court.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rapist Teacher Whose Victim, 14, Killed Herself is Released from Prison After Just 30 Days

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Prison officials have today released former high school teacher Stacey Rambold, 54, the man sentenced to just 30-days behind bars even after admitting raping a 14-year-old girl.

His lenient punishment for the 2007 rape of Cherice Moralez, who killed herself three-years later, was handed down to him by District Judge Todd Baugh and the comments made by Baugh about Moralez sparked national outrage.

Rambold, who was 48 when he committed the crimes in 2007, left the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge at around 9.30am local time.

State prosecutors are appealing the sentence, saying Rambold should have received a minimum of two years. But barring new offenses, the former teacher has served his time and will stay out of prison pending the appeal.

Rambold was picked up at the prison by a family member and was expected to return to Billings, prison spokeswoman Linda Moodry said. He has been registered as a level 1 sex offender – meaning he’s considered a low risk to re-offend- and will remain on probation through 2028 unless the original sentence is overruled.

Read more from this story HERE.

Timber Industry Suffers as Loggers Blame Federal Regs for Lost Jobs

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Photo Credit: Fox

Photo Credit: Fox

The Rough and Ready Sawmill was an institution in southern Oregon for 91 years. Its lumber helped fuel the post-World War II building boom and settle the rural West. Now, it sits empty, the last of 22 mills in Josephine County to shut down for good, signaling the end of an era.

For Ivan Cross, it’s the end of the only job he’s ever had.

“I haven’t drawn an unemployment check in 43-and-a-half years,” said Cross. “Now, that’s what I do for a living.”

While Rough and Ready sits in the middle of America’s richest timber country, the federal government owns 80 percent of the land. Many in these decimated small towns blame The Endangered Species Act, which paved the way for a flood of lawsuits blocking federal timber sales, because of an endangered species in the region.

“You just can’t run a business, no matter how you adapt, if you don’t have the raw materials and the log supply to run that business,” said Link Phillippi, owner of Rough and Ready.

Read more from this story HERE.

Google Must Face Most Claims in Gmail Wiretap Lawsuit

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photo credit: brionv

photo credit: brionv

Google Inc. (GOOG) must face most claims in a lawsuit alleging it illegally reads and mines the content of private messages sent through its Gmail e-mail service in violation of federal wiretap laws.

U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California, today granted Google’s request to throw out state claims, while allowing the plaintiffs to refile. She refused to dismiss federal claims, rejecting the company’s argument that the plaintiffs agreed to let Google intercept and read their e-mails by accepting its service terms and privacy policies.

“The court finds that it cannot conclude that any party — Gmail users or non-Gmail users — has consented to Google’s reading of e-mail for the purposes of creating user profiles or providing targeted advertising,” Koh said in the ruling.

Users of Gmail and other e-mail services from states including Texas, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida contend that Google “does not disclose the extent of its processing,” according to a May 16 court filing. The case consolidates seven individual and group lawsuits.

“We’re disappointed in this decision and are considering our options,” Google said in an e-mailed statement. “Automated scanning lets us provide Gmail users with security and spam protection, as well as great features like Priority Inbox.”

Read more from this story HERE.

NRA Blasting Obama Admin for Signing UN Arms Trade Treaty (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

On September 25, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The NRA described the action as another clear example of the Obama administration’s “contempt for our fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms.”

According to the NRA: “This treaty threatens individual firearm ownership with an invasive registration scheme [and is full of regulations and requirements that are] blatant attacks on the constitutional rights of every law-abiding American.”

The NRA warns that the ATT “urges record keeping of end users, directing importing countries to provide information to an exporting country regarding arms transfers, including ‘end use or end user documentation’ for a ‘minimum of ten years.'” This information on end users is a de-facto registry and one that could be “made available to foreign governments.” Read more from this story HERE.

Listen as Rep. Mike Kelly, Rep. Jim Bridenstine and their colleagues explain the extreme dangers of what the Obama Administration has done with the ATT:

Laborers’ Union: Fix Obamacare or Repeal It; ‘We’re Getting Our A– Kicked Here’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Terry O’Sullivan, president of the 600,000-plus-member Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), often referred to as the Laborers’ Union, said that if Obamacare is not fixed, then “it needs to be repealed.”

At a convention in Las Vegas of the AFL-CIO, with which the Laborers’ Union is affiliated, O’Sullivan took to the podium to endorse a proposition and then launched into a criticism of Obamacare, how it is hurting union members’ health coverage, and demanded it be fixed, adding that if it is not fixed, labor will make the issue a “big fricking deal.”

“If the Affordable Care Act is not fixed, and it destroys the health and welfare funds that we have all fought for and stand for, then I believe it needs to be repealed,” said O’Sullivan. “We don’t want it repealed, we want it fixed, fixed, fixed, and I commend Richard Trumka and the AFL-CIO for leading that charge. ”

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Gov’t ‘Buying Up’ AK-47 Rifles (+video)

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ak-47Secretary of State John Kerry signing the a United Nations small arms treaty is nothing more than empty symbolism, and President Obama will get nowhere in his latest attempt to advance gun-control legislation, says Bill Frady, host of “Lock ‘n’ Load Radio” presented by Gun Owners of America, who also noted that the U.S. government has been buying up AK-47 rifles and ammunition.

Kerry signed the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty this week while in New York City for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly. Supporters say it would clamp down on weapons trafficking between rogue regimes and terrorist organizations. Frady told WND it would have a restricting effect on law-abiding gun owners in the U.S. as well.

“It also dictates to the signing states that they have to impose new rules and regulations within their nations to make sure they’re able to comply with this treaty and that covers small arms,” Frady said. “Terrorists are not running around with American-made weapons. They’re running around with AKs. There’s various nations that will underwrite any cause (such as) Russia, China. The AK is the prevalent weapon on the planet. So we’re not the problem. I did notice that along the way (Obama) did manage to get in there and back Syrian rebels to the tune of $340 million.

“I’m sure he wants to arm them,” he said. “The United States Army has been buying AKs and AK magazines and AK ammo. I’m just presuming that they want to send that to our Syrian brethren, the great rebel freedom fighters, so they’ll have something they’re accustomed to.”

Like any treaty, this one would need two-thirds support in the U.S. Senate to be ratified in this country. A procedural vote months ago shows the plan cannot even draw a simple majority in the Democratically controlled chamber. As a result, Frady said Kerry and Obama embracing the treaty is just window dressing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ted Cruz Might Just Have Won the Future for the GOP

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Photo Credit: The Washington Post

Photo Credit: The Washington Post

Make no mistake about it: the “extended speech” by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had absolutely nothing to do with defunding the Affordable Care Act—or even delaying it for one go*da** day.

As the long list of Senate Republicans who declined to back a full-blown, fill-your-hands-you-son-of-a-bitch filibuster over Obamacare could tell you, it’s a done deal that the president’s consistently unpopular health-care law is going forward even if the government shuts down. Come next week, the enrollment period is going to start, and come January 1, 2014, the plan will kick into gear despite every reason to believe it will be a clusterfudge of epic proportions.

So what exactly was Cruz doing up there, hogging the limelight on C-SPAN’s low-wattage webstream for a couple of hours, if he wasn’t serious about stopping Obamacare? He was playing his part in a pretty goddamned brilliant strategy to win the future not for himself but for the Republican Party.

Cruz and his fellow Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are the best-known of the gaggle of legislators that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) denounced as “wacko birds” earlier this year. “It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone,” sputtered McCain in the wake of Paul’s immensely popular and influential filibuster, which called much-needed attention to the Obama administration’s glib attitude toward civil liberties and executive branch overreach.

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmakers Seek to End Bulk NSA Phone Records Collection

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picture - NSADemocratic and Republican senators introduced legislation Wednesday to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ communication records and set other new controls on the government’s electronic eavesdropping programs.

The measure introduced by Democrats Ron Wyden, Mark Udall and Richard Blumenthal and Republican Rand Paul is one of several efforts making their way through Congress to rein in sweeping surveillance programs.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding a public hearing Thursday where the panel’s leaders are expected to discuss their surveillance reforms. The Senate Judiciary Committee is addressing the issue, and several members of the House of Representatives have also introduced legislation.

“The disclosures over the last 100 days have caused a sea change in the way the public views the surveillance system,” said Wyden, a leading congressional advocate for tighter privacy controls, told a news conference.

The surveillance programs have come under intense scrutiny since disclosures this spring by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the government collects far more Internet and telephone data than previously known.

Read more from this story HERE.