11 Most Absurd Lies Conservatives Are Using to Brainwash America's School Kids

If recent elections have taught us anything, it’s that young Americans have taken a decided turn to the left. Young voters delivered Obama the election: the under-44 set voted Obama and the over-45 set broke for Romney. The youngest voters, age 18-29, gave Obama a whopping 60% of their vote.

Now Republicans have a plan to try to recapture the youngest voters out there: Take over the curriculum in public schools, replace education with a bunch of conservative propaganda, and reap the benefits of having a new generation that can’t tell reality from right-wing fantasy.

Here’s a list of 11 lies American kids may be in danger of learning in school.

Lie #1: Racism has barely been an issue in U.S. history and slavery wasn’t that big a deal.
Lie #2: Joe McCarthy was right.
Lie #3: Climate change is a massive hoaxscientistshave perpetuated on the public.

Explanation and 8 more lies on Alternet

A Brief History of Market Manipulation

Global Research TV – Centre for Research on Globalization

Luxembourg Prime Minister Warns European War 'Demons' May Return

The prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, has warned Europe risks descending into a conflict similar to the First World War as a result of the eurozone crisis.

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Juncker, who used to head the Euro Group of eurozone ministers, said the single currency was about "forging peace" but too many EU members states were "returning to a regional and national mindset".

"The way some German politicians have lashed out at Greece when the country fell into the crisis has left deep wounds there," he said."I was just as shocked by the banners of protesters in Athens that showed the German chancellor in a Nazi uniform. "Sentiments suddenly surfaced that we thought had been finally relegated to the past. The Italian election was also excessively anti-German and thus un-European."

Junker said that "anyone who believes that the eternal issue of war and peace in Europe has been permanently laid to rest could be making a monumental error". He added: "The demons haven't been banished; they are merely sleeping, as the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo have shown us. I am chilled by the realization of how similar circumstances in Europe in 2013 are to those of 100 years ago."

The Sun

Bradley Manning Speaks: In Leaked Court Recording, Army Whistleblower Tells His Story for First Time

A leaked audio recording has emerged of the statement Army whistleblower Bradley Manning delivered at his pre-trial hearing in military court late last month. Manning acknowledged he gave hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, saying he wanted to show the American public the "true costs of war" and "spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan." This is the first time Manning's voice has been heard publicly since he was arrested nearly three years ago. We air excerpts of his remarks, hearing Manning describe in his own voice the moment he decided to release the documents, and the outrage he felt at the "Collateral Murder" video of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq.

http://www.democracynow.org

Burma confirms phosphorus used in crackdown on mine protesters

An official report has confirmed that police in Burma used smoke bombs that contained phosphorus during a crackdown on anti-mine protesters last year that left 108 people with burns. The report also recommended the controversial Chinese-backed project continue.

The report by an investigation commission appointed by President Thein Sein and chaired by the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was released on Monday, more than three months after the incident at the Letpadaung copper mine in north-western Burma. It was the biggest use of force against protesters in Burma since Thein Sein's reformist government took office in March 2011.

Protesters say the joint-venture between China's Wanbao mining company and a Burma military conglomerate causes environmental, social and health problems. They want it halted and are demanding punishment for those who hurt peaceful protesters. The findings are likely to disappoint opponents of the project and could reignite demonstrations.

Authorities had said they used water cannon, teargas and smoke grenades to break up the 11-day occupation of the mine last November, but protesters said burns were caused by incendiary devices. They described "fire balls" being shot at them during the night-time raid on their encampment. A separate, independent report released last month by a lawyers' network and an international human rights group said police dispersed the protesters by using white phosphorous, an incendiary agent generally used in war to create smoke screens.

The Guardian

Crazy Law

Ukrainian pop sensation Kazaky releases their latest video titled ‘Crazy Law’, a possible rebuttal to Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws

The Ukranian all-boy-band, a group of muscled dancers who don stiletto heels to headline performances that include Diesel fashion shows and Madonna music videos, has released a new video titled “Crazy Law’.

Gay Star News

Bolivian president blames 'imperialists' for death of Chaves

Bolivian President Evo Morales is blaming "imperialists" for the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Morales said Tuesday that "if they can't achieve their goal democratically or with a putsch ... then they're trying different methods — that is ending someone's life."

Chavez's death last week from cancer has spawned conspiracy theories about his demise. Morales called for an investigation, telling reporters that Chavez was "only 58 years old and he died so quickly." He says that "sooner or later it will be proven that there was an attempt on his life. Because it is always like that when presidents or union leaders open their mouth to demand their rights."

The Montreal Gazette

Mali war disrupts cocaine supply to Europe

France's surprise intervention in northern Mali against Islamist fighters involved in lucrative drug-running has disrupted cocaine supply to Europe but smugglers are already finding new routes, analysts said. The former colonial power sent its jets and troops exactly two months ago to eliminate Al-Qaeda-linked groups that had been controlling northern Mali for nine months and were threatening to move south towards the capital.

The jihadist network in Mali's north has funded itself by taking foreign hostages but also by levying a tax on smugglers running drugs from Latin America to feed Europe's ever-growing market. Poverty and the lack of government presence in the vast desert expanse has provided an ideal ground for smugglers.

Daily Nation

UFO Conspiracy of the Highest Echelon

This video examines a possible conspiracy regarding UFO contact and government collusion at the highest levels. The presentation includes stunning NASA footage of orbital and lunar alien encounters, interviews with physicists and defense ministers, and even mysterious comments by Buzz Aldrin himself concerning a monolith found on the Martian moon. The generation now alive is "privileged" to see the greatest transition in the history of the human race -- to a Planetary Type 1 civilization.

SuspectSky

Iran's president Ahmadinejad criticised for hugging mother of Hugo Chavez

The Iranian president's domestic opponents reacted furiously after photos emerged of him giving Elena Frias de Chavez, 78, a consoling hug at last Friday's funeral in Caracas - at which he also kissed Mr Chavez's coffin. Religious conservatives said the act insulted Iran's religious dignity and amounted to "haram" – a term used to describe a religiously forbidden act under Islamic rules.

Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, the Friday prayer leader of Iran's second city, Isfahan, told Mehr news agency that Mr Ahmadinejad had "lost control". He added: "Shaking hands with a non-mahram (unrelated by family) woman, under any circumstances, whether young or old, is not allowed. Hugging or expressing emotions is improper for the dignity of the president of a country like the Islamic Republic of Iran."

From the Telegraph

Support the Syrian rebels…. Not!

The Insurgents in Syria the FSA have uploaded a video of themselves beating, torturing and humiliating an old man, known around Aleppo as the 'yellow man' for wearing all yellow. They accuse him of snitching about them to the Army, as they beat and harass him. In 2010 he was a small time celebrity around Aleppo. "I chose yellow because it's a colour that gives people happiness and joy. People loved me from the beginning and I want to repay them that love. "

LiveLeak.com

Americans are training Syria rebels in Jordan – Reuters

Chewed Up

Louis C.K. (2008)

Russian Dashcams

Systemic Economic Collapse:

A Brief History of Market Manipulation

As the major stock indices hit new record highs, many are left wondering how such a bull market can develop while the average worker faces layoffs, lower wages and rising costs. The answer presents itself in the documented, admitted and openly acknowledged manipulations of the markets by governments, central bankers, and institutional banks.

 Global Research TV - Corbett Report.com

Evolution is irrelevant to God

Ed Miliband: 'I'm a Zionist and oppose boycotts of Israel'

Ed Miliband (UK Leader of the Labour Party) has pledged to protect Jewish customs including brit milah and shechita if he becomes Prime Minister. Speaking at a Board of Deputies event the Labour leader said he was opposed to boycotts of Israel and warned of the need to be “ever-vigilant”against antisemitism.

Asked whether he would work to ensure religious slaughter and circumcision practices could continue in Britain, Mr Miliband said: “Yes, these are important traditions. The kosher issue has recently been brought to my attention. Ways of life must be preserved.” He added: “I take antisemitism very seriously. Any kind of delegitimisation of Israel is something we should call out for what it is and not tolerate it.

“I think the boycotts of Israel are totally wrong. We should have no tolerance for boycotts. I would say that to any trade union leaders.” But Mr Miliband warned the audience that while he was opposed to anti-Israel activities in this country, people must “understand the anger and dismay about settlements”.

He said that he considered himself a Zionist but was critical of some Israeli government policies. Asked about Labour’s support for the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations, Mr Miliband said he wanted to “encourage moderate” Palestinians and work in an “even-handed” way

The Jewish Chronicle

Phoenicians discovered America 2000 years before Columbus?

Columbus, credited with the discovery of Americas, may not have been the first to set foot on the continent, says a British explorer, claiming that Phoenicians actually beat him by 2,000 years. Christopher Columbus, the poster boy Renaissance explorer found fame and fortune by sailing from the ‘Old World’ to the ‘New’, crossing the great unknown waters between Spain and the Caribbean in 1492.

In an ambitious voyage that could challenge maritime history, former Royal Navy officer Philip Beale hopes to sail a replica Phoenician boat 10,000 kilometres across the Atlantic. Beale aims to demonstrate that the Phoenicians – a Semitic civilisation that prospered between 1500BC and 300BC on the Mediterranean coast – sailed to the Americas first, CNN reported.

“It is one of the greatest voyages of mankind and if anyone could have done it [before Columbus], it was the Phoenicians,” said Beale. “Of all the ancient civilisations they were the greatest seafarers – Lebanon had cedar trees perfect for building strong boats, they were the first to use iron nails, and they had knowledge of astrology and currents,” he said.

phenomenica.com

Haredi: The Ultra orthodox society in Israel

More parts on YouTube

Forget Hamas and Iran. This may be Israel’s most pressing problem. As tensions grow between secular Jews and the ultra-Orthodox, many Israeli feel it is the most troubling conflict the country faces.

The country’s 1 million ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredim, account for about 19 per cent of the country’s Jewish population of 5.4 million. Many Haredim, a Hebrew word meaning those who tremble before God, marry in their teens. Academics say they typically have eight children, compared with two for secular couples.

In 1960, 15 per cent of Israeli primary students attended schools in the Arab or Haredim systems, rather than non-religious state-run schools. Now it’s about 50 per cent, and is on pace to reach 78 per cent by 2040, according to the Taub Centre, an Israeli think-tank. By 2050, 25 per cent of Israel’s population will be Haredim, the International Monetary Fund estimates.

More on The Star

'Attempt to ban porn' discovered in EU report

On Tuesday, members of the European Parliament will vote on the worthy yet mundane-sounding Report on Eliminating Gender Stereotypes in the EU. But bloggers this week pounced on an article in the report that calls for “a ban on all forms of pornography in the media”, and urged their supporters to bombard all 754 MEPs with emails condemning the “unacceptable political invasion of people’s bedrooms”.

While Tuesday’s vote in Strasbourg is merely an expression of support and would not be legally binding, critics worry that it could be the first step towards draconian policing of the internet in Europe. It comes after Iceland began drafting legislation to ban all online pornography, prompting cries of censorship.

Rickard Falkvinge, a founder of the libertarian Swedish Pirate Party, said the text coming before the European Parliament was a “horrendous attack on our fundamental freedoms of speech and expression” while a Pirate Party MEP, Christian Engstrom, warned that “the devil is in the detail” – in particular a call in the report for “a charter to which all internet operators will be invited to adhere. This is quite clearly yet another attempt to get the internet service providers to start policing what citizens do on the internet, not by legislation, but by ‘self-regulation’,” he wrote on his blog. “This is something we have seen before in a number of different proposals, and which is one of the big threats against information freedom in our society.”

More on The Independent

Hugo Chávez enshrined as 'comandante eternal'

Back in 2007, Hugo Chávez created a unique time zone, ordering Venezuela's clocks back half an hour, but on Friday his heirs improvised a funeral like no other to stop the clocks and immortalise the comandante eternal.

Dozens of presidents, prime ministers and princes from around the world joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the military academy in Caracas to bid farewell to a leader who simultaneously inspired, enchanted and repelled during his 14-year rule.

They came not to bury but enshrine him, for the funeral was a prelude to an indeterminate period of lying in state before Chávez's body is embalmed and displayed in perpetuity at the Museum of the Revolution.

"We have decided to prepare the body … so that it remains open for eternity for the people. Just like Ho Chi Minh. Just like Lenin. Just like Mao Zedong," said Nicolás Maduro, the vice-president who was due to be sworn in as president at sunset after the ceremony.

Full article on The Guardian

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, left, Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro, second from left, Uruguay's President Jose Mujica, third from left, Bolivia's President Evo Morales, fourth from left, and Mujica's wife, Uruguayan Senator Lucía Topolansky stand next to the flag-draped coffin containing the body of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez. List of more attendees.

The world is hottest it has been since the end of the ice age - and the temperature's still rising

The world is now warmer than at almost any time since the end of the last ice age and, on present trends, will continue to reach a record high for the entire period since the dawn of civilisation, a study has found.

A reconstruction of global temperatures going back 11,300 years, which covers the historical period from the founding of the first ancient cities to the space age, has concluded the biggest and most rapid change in the climate has occurred in the past century.

Scientists found that the warm period following the end of last ice age, called the Holocene, peaked about 5,000 years ago when the world began to get cooler. However, this cooling went into a dramatic and sudden reversal about a century ago when global temperatures shot up to levels not seen for thousands of years, the scientists found.

Full story on The Independent

Racist, anti-semitic, violent - the true face of Golden Dawn

Golden Dawn, the extreme right-wing party in Greece, won 18 seats in the country's last election. Since then support for the party has doubled as it pushes tough new anti-immigrant laws, including banning non-ethnic Greeks from the military and police.

Channel 4 News

Vatican, Russia and Iran resist U.N. efforts to fight abuse of women

The Vatican, Iran and other religious states are resisting efforts by a U.N. conference, which started Monday, to demand tougher global standards to prevent violence against women and children.

More than 6,000 non-governmental groups are registered at the annual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, one of the biggest events held at the U.N. headquarters and one that regularly turns into a diplomatic battle. This year’s meeting has been made more emotive after an attack in October by the Taliban on 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai for her attempts to promote girls’ education in Pakistan and widely publicized gang rapes in India and South Africa.

Diplomats said the Holy See, Iran and Russia are leading attempts to wipe out language in a final statement that says religion, custom or tradition must not be used as an excuse to avoid a government’s obligation to eliminate violence. They have also opposed references to rape by a woman’s husband or partner, diplomats said. “Violence against women must be seen as a human rights issue and that has nothing to do with culture or religion,” Norway’s Gender Equality Minister Inga Marte Thorkildsen told AFP.

“The Vatican, conservative religious forces within the United States and Europe, Catholic and Muslim countries are joining forces to stop women from gaining sexual rights,” the minister said, predicting tough negotiations during the two-week conference.

The Daily Star (AFP)

Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres revealed

The Pentagon sent a US veteran of the "dirty wars" in Central America to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres to get information from insurgents. These units conducted some of the worst acts of torture during the US occupation and accelerated the country's descent into full-scale civil war.

Colonel James Steele was a 58-year-old retired special forces veteran when he was nominated by Donald Rumsfeld to help organise the paramilitaries in an attempt to quell a Sunni insurgency, an investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic shows.

After the Pentagon lifted a ban on Shia militias joining the security forces, the special police commando (SPC) membership was increasingly drawn from violent Shia groups such as the Badr brigades.

A second special adviser, retired Colonel James H Coffman, worked alongside Steele in detention centres that were set up with millions of dollars of US funding.

Coffman reported directly to General David Petraeus, sent to Iraq in June 2004 to organise and train the new Iraqi security forces. Steele, who was in Iraq from 2003 to 2005, and returned to the country in 2006, reported directly to Rumsfeld.

The allegations, made by US and Iraqi witnesses in the Guardian/BBC documentary, implicate US advisers for the first time in the human rights abuses committed by the commandos. It is also the first time that Petraeus – who last November was forced to resign as director of the CIA after a sex scandal – has been linked through an adviser to this abuse.

More on The Guardian

Link to video: US special forces veteran links General Petraeus to torture in Iraq

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Hugo Chávez  28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013