The BBC has a new feature called Sudanese conflict: What you need to know. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer up what you need to know.

First of all, it makes out the South Sudanese to be the aggressors.

The crisis started in April, after months of border skirmishes, when South Sudan seized an oil field, which is internationally accepted to be in Sudan, saying the area was being used as a base for Sudanese attacks on its territory.

That's weird. Sudan has been attacking South Sudan since that nation achieved its independence (Actually, since before it became independent. That's kind of why they wanted to be independent).

Those semantically-neutral "border skirmishes" you mentioned? I suppose those are euphemisms for almost entirely one-sided Sudanese aggression against its bullied neighbor. The seizing of the oil field, where the South finally went on the offensive, only happened after incessant Sudanese aggression meant to perpetrate genocide against border communities.

Genocide? Sure. The President of Sudan is a war criminal who the international community blames for the Darfur genocide that killed millions. Now he wants to do it again. You'd think that would be included in "what you need to know".

There's no mention...More >>

Respect and Labour thugs in Tower Hamlets stand outside polling stations on the day of an election, harassing and intimidating both voters and candidates. Mass-fraud is already suspected. Voting on local issues has been replaced by a growing tendency to show allegiance to sectarian and tribal affiliations.

Mr Smith said he was too frightened to stay at the polling station. “It’s not right that people are being  harassed,” he added.

 

Caroline Kerswell, the Tory candidate in the Weaver ward’s by-election, witnessed the altercation. She said: “We were standing here discussing electoral rules with them, then one guy threatened to punch his lights out.

“They’ve been here since early in the morning and they’re very intimidating. People coming to vote are nervous. We want a clean election in Tower Hamlets because of the reports of corruption.”

When it's got to the point that police feel compelled to call in reinforcements, you know it's already a crisis.More >>

It's not just Warren Buffett. More and more of America's wealthiest elites are coming out and shouting, Tax Me, for F@%&’s Sake!

Maybe the Republicans, who do so love to dote on their wealthy constituents, ought to listen to what their people are telling them. Folks like Stephen King:

I guess some of this mad right-wing love comes from the idea that in America, anyone can become a Rich Guy if he just works hard and saves his pennies. Mitt Romney has said, in effect, “I’m rich and I don’t apologize for it.” Nobody wants you to, Mitt. What some of us want—those who aren’t blinded by a lot of bullshit persiflage thrown up to mask the idea that rich folks want to keep their damn money—is for you to acknowledge that you couldn’t have made it in America without America. That you were fortunate enough to be born in a country where upward mobility is possible (a subject upon which Barack Obama can speak with the authority of experience), but where the channels making such upward mobility possible are being increasingly clogged. That it’s not fair to ask the middle class to assume a disproportionate amount of the

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Let the spin begin. We've heard for years that Al Qaeda and its supporters only represent a hard core of (probably insane) Muslim extremists. Some have put forth wild guesses that only one percent of all Muslims around the world would ever fit in that category -- as if one million absolutely bonkers genocidal twerps around the globe wouldn't be anything to be concerned about.

It turns out it's a lot worse than anyone knew (OK, not worse than we knew. But some people still sound surprised). Al Qaeda has all kinds of support throughout the Muslim world. Sure, it's not majority support (though one must wonder -- if you secretly supported an evil bastard like Osama bin Laden, would you be willing to tell a pollster you did, even if they assured you of confidentiality?). But it's more than a statistical blip. A lot more.

In Egypt, a full 21 percent of Muslims have a favorable opinion of a terrorist organization that murders Muslims and non-Muslims alike in pursuit of an apocalyptic agenda of an all-powerful theocratic fascism.

That's about 17 million people who have warm and fuzzy feelings about people who blow up innocents with bombs and...More >>