Saudi Arabia is about to add another victim to its adherence to the medieval Sharia law system imposed by the Kingdom. Karl Andree, 74, is a sick asthmatic Englishman who has survived three periods of cancer treatment. He has already been held in prison for a year but will now face 350 lashes . . . for having homemade wine. He has been held for a year despite that fact that his wife Verity is dying of Alzheimer’s — all under the Kingdom’s insistence on carrying out the tenets of Islamic morality codes.
Andree is the grandfather of seven and lived in Saudi Arabia for 25 years while working in the oil industry. One could certainly accept that Saudi Arabia has a right to impose jail after Andree was arrested in Jeddah with bottles of home-made wine in his car. However, he was sentenced not just to 12 months in jail and flogging.
The flogging of this elderly sick man is a disgrace and the very essence of immorality. While the United States (correctly) denounces ISIS and Iran for their cruel application of Islamic law, it is important to note that our closest allies continue to impose similar punishments that shock the conscience.
Must be po, back from the dead.
Garbled English and garbled logic, to match. Try to make some sense. This man is not accused of being a terrorist. He is accused of having some homemade wine. Get it together. He has been sentenced to 350 lashes, which will be a death sentence. Your coddled terrorist brothers are spending their time playing soccer, eating three squares a day. 350 lashes? If the guards so much as look at them the wrong way it’s an international story.
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/10/14/headlines
The sixth headline…. not to mention Guantanamo…
Liberty for Who???
wont speak out for Muslims in his own being indefinitely detained by his own country, but a Brit in Muslim hands
That’s injustice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Herein lies JT’s definition of justice….. It’s hideous.
$23,000,000.00 case closed.
It appears she refunded almost $38,000 of those funds.
Here is the FEC filing for Kay Hagan as of June, 2015
http://www.fec.gov/fecviewer/CandidateCommitteeDetail.do?&tabIndex=1&candidateCommitteeId=S8NC00239
Receipts were $51,000. I’m pretty sure that was for cleaning up the books for her 2014 loss. But take a look at the FEC report and tell us what you think.
Lookeditup:
I too was skeptical of the report regarding Kay Hagan raising $23 M this year, as she is no longer in office. Fact checking is indeed important, we need more of it obviously. Thank you for correcting the erroneous information.
Something is very wrong with reporting that Kay Hagen raised $23M in 2015. She lost her election and left office January, 2015.
Campaign Cmte Fundraising, 2009 – 2014
Raised: $24,849,812
Spent: $24,851,013
Cash on Hand: $23,012
Debts: $0
Last Report: Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Are you sure the $23M was raised in 2015? I’m doubtful you are correct. This report says it was from 2009 – 2014. $23 million is a hell of a lot of money to raise in 9 months, unless you’re running for president. Can you provide more details?
Fundraising is generally for campaigns. And no, I do not expect congressional people to have to be responsible for funding their offices where their constituents want to meet them and their staff.
As far as the photo goes, that’s like seeing a Diamondback destroy a bunch of Mohave Sidewinders, or the other way around. They’re both deadly rattlesnakes that you don’t want to encounter, and you probably wouldn’t care which one took out the other as long as they left you alone. Of course, if you stay out of their territory, you aren’t likely to see any or be bothered by them (unlike desert dwellers from the Middle-East, unfortunately).
This story is like hearing about someone who went hiking in the desert here in Arizona, climbed rocks without watching where he put his hands, and got bit by a rattlesnake. If you absolutely don’t want to get bit by a rattlesnake, don’t go hiking in the desert, and if you do, watch where you put your hands and feet and where you choose to sit down. Same goes for the Middle-East, especially Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are not your friends, anymore than a rattlesnake is.
Kay Hagan, the Dem US Senator from NC, leads the Senate this year, raising almost $23 million so far. I think you can run a few offices w/ that cash, don’t you?
I’m pretty cheap. Even so, I’m glad my senator and congressman have offices back home and that they can hire staff to man those offices. I think the citizens like to be able to call or drop into offices to discuss various concerns. I also think the Capitol has lots of office space – enough to provide office space for all senators and congresspeople. I’m all for that. Again, citizens like to be able to see their representatives when they visit Washington. Their salary is okay, but it is not nearly enough to keep three offices up and running at their own expense. Three is just a guess at a minimum requirement. Senators from bigger states might require more.
Lookeditup – I have my Senators’ phone numbers (local and DC) and call their offices on a semi-regular basis to voice my opinion on a particular bill that is coming up. McCain has a DC phone with options so I usually call his Arizona office.
Senators pay for insurance just like we all do. It is not free. Here are the specifics:
Under the Affordable Care Act, beginning in 2014, insurance coverage for members of Congress switched from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the government’s employer-subsidized private insurance plans that cover more than 8 million federal employees and retirees, to the health care exchanges created by the law. Active members now must purchase a plan under the small-business health options program on the exchange in order to receive a government contribution toward their health coverage.
But going forward, congressional retirees, based on an October 2013 final rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management, will still be eligible to purchase insurance through the FEHB plan if they meet certain criteria. The criteria, according to CRS, are eligibility for retirement from the federal government, and continuous enrollment in a health plan offered under FEHB or the exchanges for the five years of service immediately prior to retirement.
In either case, health coverage for retirees isn’t free. Enrollees and the government both pay for the insurance coverage. On average, the government pays 72 percent of the premiums for its workers, up to a maximum of 75 percent depending on the policy chosen. As federal retirees, former members of Congress would still be responsible for paying the same share of premiums as active federal employees.
I don’t know what Karen S means by a full pension, but the size of that pension depends on many factors, most especially on length of service. Five years would mean a smaller payment than someone who had served 12 years.
Not a bad thread. It looked like it might go south there for awhile, but then the good folks rallied and it got back on track. My Royals need a rally now.
Taxpayers pay Bernie Sanders around $175,000/year. Plus he paid his wife and daughter out of his campaign funds. Senators do not report their tax returns, assets, or liabilities, so every report on his assets is merely an estimate from cobbling together clues.
As a Congressman, he gets free healthcare for life. He gets a 401K (matched 5%), AND a FULL PENSION if he serves only FIVE years. They also get a nice slush fund (MRA & SOPOEA) to pay for unlimited office space as well as free furnishings to decorate said unlimited office space, and he can hire up to 18 employees, all paid for by taxpayers.
The Senate averages only 3 to 3.5 working days/ week.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/29/benefits-members-congress-shabby/
http://library.clerk.house.gov/reference-files/114_20150106_Salary.pdf
I hope this illustrates how politicians live a nice, cushy lifestyle paid for by taxpayer money. It is true that Hillary Clinton makes more at a single speaking engagement than Bernie earns via his Senate Salary. But it is also true that the guesses at his net worth are low for a politician. Which could just mean that a socialist, as per usual, cannot figure out how to save money or control spending.
I dislike this socialist government ruling class – living a nice taxpayer funded government lifestyle while at the same time demanding trillions of dollars to burden those taxpayers.
The hypocrisy of socialism in CA:
http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2015/09/17/rich-socialists-and-the-bernie-sanders-moment-n2053366
People vote for higher taxes, and then pay their illegal alien nanny cash because they then try to avoid those high taxes.
Bernie Sanders is proposing to spend approximately $18 Trillion over 10 years, and the largest peacetime expansion of government in our history.
Considering the trend is for people to vote for higher taxes, and then immediately try to circumvent them, this might be their wakeup call. Plus, most of us realize the disaster of bloated government creep. What does the government do efficiently and cost effectively? Plus there is the ubiquitous government procurement problem where we overpay contracts that under deliver. So…voters are actually going to want MORE of this?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/price-tag-of-bernie-sanders-proposals-18-trillion-1442271511
Bernie reminded me of the crazy, old guy who spends his days shouting at neighborhood kids, while standing on his front porch, to GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!