Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has failed in his appeal against extradition from the UK to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Two judges at the High Court in London said that a ruling in favor of extradition must be upheld.

Swedish authorities want him to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting another in Stockholm last year.

Mr. Assange has staunchly denied the allegations and says they are politically motivated.

Once in Sweden, Assange could be extradited to the United States where he would likely face charges that he published classified documents. If convicted, he would likely face the death penalty.

The Guardian reports:

"The decision means Assange could be removed to Sweden within 10 days, though it is more likely that the earliest time he would find himself on Swedish soil would be around 26 November."

"Assange has 14 days to seek leave to appeal to the supreme court if he believes there is a wider issue of "public importance" at stake in the decision. If he is successful in persuading the high court of that, he is likely to remain on conditional bail until a hearing, which is unlikely to take place until next year."

"If he is denied the right to appeal then British law enforcement officers will be responsible for arranging his removal to Sweden within 10 days."

Last month, Assange, an Australian citizen, said WikiLeaks would stop publishing secret cables and devote itself instead to fund-raising because of a financial blockade on payments to the site by U.S. firms Bank of America. Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union.

The blockade began within ten days of the launch of publication of classified diplomatic cables that has been blamed on a "concerted US-based, political attack that included vitriol by senior right wing politicians, including assassination calls against WikiLeaks staff."

In a public statement, Wikileaks said that “The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process. It is without democratic oversight or transparency.”

Assange was nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian parliamentarian who entered the nomination said that "His publication of thousands of secret government documents has helped to promote human rights, democracy and freedom of speech."

"Wikileaks have contributed to the struggle for those very values globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture -- sometimes even conducted by allies of Norway," he said.

Read the court's full judgement here.

But you'll notice it's the kind where the owners got ripped off, not the investors.

This is the son of "Little Nicky" Scarfo Sr, former head of the Philadelphia mob, who's cooling his heels in prison. The statement from the U.S. Attorney's office said Scarfo and his partner Salvatore Pelullo, 44, of Philadelphia, "used threats of economic and physical harm to members of the company to gain control of FirstPlus — forcing the board of directors to resign, while new ones friendly to their enterprise were appointed."

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Nicky Scarfo Jr. indicted.

CAMDEN — Nicodemo S. Scarfo, a Galloway Township resident who is the son of a former mob boss with Atlantic City ties, was named in a 107-page indictment Tuesday that said he and a partner from Philadelphia forcibly took over the Texas financial services firm FirstPlus Financial Group in late spring 2007 and allegedly looted it for $12 million through a string of fraudulent acquisitions and consulting agreements over a year.

Ultimately, Scarfo and associates planned a “pump-and-dump” scheme, which would artificially boost the price of shares and allow the principals to cash out, as their “piece de resistance,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said, but federal agents stepped in before that could happen.

Scarfo, 46, was arrested Tuesday morning at his home in Galloway Township, and he appeared in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Ann Marie Donio on Tuesday afternoon.

He appeared rumpled and unshaven, wearing mismatched sweat clothes, bound in chains. He sought a public attorney, saying all he had was $125 in a checking account. A hearing on bail and his request for a public defender will take place in court at 11 a.m. Friday.

Scarfo was named in 25 counts, including racketeering, wire fraud, and firearms charges, in addition to conspiracy counts over wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud and obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 175 years in federal prison and $7 million in fines, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Beyond the indictment, Scarfo faces seven additional charges since the alleged crimes happened when he was under supervised release following 33 months in prison for a 2002 conviction of running a gambling operation.

You may have heard the Occupy Wall Street protesters are being paid to camp out. I heard it; they’re being funded by a shifty billionaire and that’s why they’re demanding billionaires be taxed more. Seems likely. Also they’re all Communists and ACORN. And whatever you’ve been scared of before – probably that. Sharia Law, maybe? Anti-Semites? Anarchists?

The weirdest dismissal of the encampments that has sprung up across the country is it’s just a bunch of homeless people – who’d be sleeping on the streets anyway. As if homeless people should have no voice in a discussion about economic justice. As if huge groups of homeless people shouldn’t warrant media attention.

I asked a protester in New York, Ashley Anderson, about this very thing: where is their rapid response to deal with all the rumors and accusations? Where is their team of media people? “This here,” he pointed to the crowded GA or General Assembly at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan a few feet from where we were standing. Every night hundreds participate in a slow all-inclusive assembly to figure out a consensus on what to do next. “This is like a healthy immune system. It can handle it.” He then said if anyone didn’t like what they’re doing, all are welcome to come down and tell them.

I’ve now been to four Occupations in two countries (I had a trip to Canada planned months ago) and the lamest rumor I’ve heard by carefully coifed talking heads is that the protesters are all something: are all Ron Paul fans; or all union; or all liberals; or all white; or all illegals; or all students who don’t want to pay their loans back; or all “the people who always show up to a protest.” Occupy Wall Street and its solidarity encampments are more a lot of everything as opposed to all of anything. That’s why the rumors keep going – those who wish to discredit the movement pick out one person to identify with the movement and then they’re all Neo-New Redux Black Panthers.

At the (very crowded) Zuccotti Park I saw people with children in strollers but no one has accused all Occupiers of being overly fertile. Yet.

The under-reported story to me is how many veterans are at these Occupations. I spoke at length with a Canadian vet who served in Somalia in the ‘90s and is now “pitching in” at Occupy Toronto. In the U.S. I met several vets from Iraq and Afghanistan. They volunteered to fight for a country they now feel has fewer opportunities for them and their families. Vets are the middle-class. It was the vets who created the suburbs and the Baby Boomers after WWII. They are as big of stakeholders in the country as anyone and they’ve been given a rotten deal just like the rest of the 99 percent. Vets have the distinction of being deified by the right-wing on occasion. That’s until it comes to having their benefits cut … then they should blame themselves for not being rich.

Meet the new face of Occupy Wall Street: Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine and Iraq War vet who was shot in the head with a “non-lethal round” during a raid on Occupy Oakland last week. His skull was fractured and it put him in a coma. He has since woken up to being a rallying cry for the movement. I followed a march in Toronto to the U.S. consulate to denounce police brutality in Oakland. I counted two national news trucks and a local reporter there to cover the demonstration. There was even a solidarity march to the U.S. Embassy from Tahrir Square in Egypt.

Olsen’s story is compelling. Not just because he fought in a foreign war and while in his home country, utilizing his first amendment right to peaceful assembly he was fired on by police. His may be the name you know from Occupy Oakland, but like Rosa Parks, he’s part of a bigger story. He’s a symbol for something we’ve managed to not talk about. Which is we’ve had two (sometimes three) wars in this country in the last 10 years and those who’ve fought overseas are coming home to an America with a shockingly high poverty rate. An America with the worst economic inequality in four generations. An America with less for those who work and fight and die.

Which is why they’re camped out and asking the question: “What have we been fighting for?”

Cross posted at TinaDupuy.com

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Tuesday advised protesters in the Occupy movement to worry less about income inequality.

"You know, we have young people who are today occupying Wall Street, that there are some people out there that are making too much money," the Texas governor said at an education forum in Des Moines, Iowa. "And if somebody were to ask me what the best advice that I could give them? It would be that money is probably the most highly overrated thing in the world."

"It's good to have some," he admitted. "Because I've been without and I've had some, and it's better to have some."

Perry is said to have an overall net worth of about $2.8 million.

In 2007 alone, he made over $1 million, putting him well withing the top 1 percent of earners in the country.

CNBC's John Harwood pointed out to Perry last week that his recently unveiled flat tax plan could actually worsen income inequality.

"I don't care about that," the candidate said. "If that's what comes, I'll take that criticism."

The video above is being touted by right-wing bloggers as "proof" that ACORN, SEIU and other groups are a shadowy socialist conspiracy behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. They do this by putting unsourced statements in between clips of Laura Flanders talking to a Occupy organizer and by making conclusions that would get you a failing grade in even a basic class on logic.

The same right-wing bloggers behind the video are also spreading the nonsensical idea that ACORN is running Occupy Orlando. Forget for the moment that ACORN no longer exists and take a look at the horrible, horrible logic used by these conspiracy theorists:

Questions continue to arise regarding who, exactly, is behind the Occupy Wall Street movement (as you know, the Blaze has explored this subject a number of times already).

Considering the framework behind the mass protests, it’s virtually impossible to ignore that progressive groups are likely heavily involved in the movement. This is especially true as the days go on and unions and other special-interest groups dig their nails into a movement that holds a great deal of potential political power.

This is a clear example of projection. Conservatives know that their "movements" aren't really movements and are paid-for enterprises created by their financiers in order to make it look like their extreme ideas are supported by the masses. So they assume that the left does the same thing. As someone who has been working on the left for more than a decade in volunteer and professional capacities, nothing could be further from the truth. One of the most talked-about concerns among left-wing activists is the fact that the people with money on our side rarely fund our movements the way the other side does. Left-wing activists rarely have the opportunity to make fighting for what is right a career, because the money just isn't there.

ACORN, one of many groups that have created angst among conservatives, seems to be finding its way back into the headlines once more. While the organization’s leaders claim that it has been disbanded, evidence seems to suggest the contrary. In fact, ACORN may be re-branding and some charge that its new chapters are heavily involved in helping to organize the protests.

Last week, a reader sent the Blaze some intriguing e-mails he’s been receiving from an Orlando, Florida-based group called “Organize Now.” He explained that he originally signed up to receive updates from ACORN back in 2009 (before the group shuttered).

While e-mails from ACORN have stopped, this new group — Organize Now — has begun e-mailing him, touting Occupy Wall Street and asking recipients to support the movement. Here’s a portion of the text from a recent message he claims to have received

This is all pretty straightforward stuff in the reality-based world. Conservatives killed ACORN by lying about it, which meant that the people who worked for the organization had to find new jobs. So they found jobs that matched with their existing skillsets and that meant that often people who worked together in one organization in a particular area found themselves working with some of the same people in these new jobs.

Many groups, including Organize Now, agree with the things that Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Orlando have been saying and, as happens across the political activist spectrum, these groups helped out by sending e-mails letting people know about what was happening. Every progressive group sends these kinds of e-mails. So does every conservative group. To suggest that such an e-mail means that Organize Now, which has a few former members of ACORN on staff, is actually ACORN and is behind Occupy Orlando, is laughable at best, and tin foil hat-type stuff at worst. I'm leaning a bit more towards the tin foil hat explanation.

Groups like JudicialWatch have been tracking what they see as a re-branding of ACORN for months. After all, discovering these connections and understanding what’s going on beneath the surface is paramount. While ACORN claimed that it was shutting down back in 2010, JudicialWatch wrote the following in a report entitled, “The Rebranding of ACORN,” this past August:

…evidence clearly suggests the following:

New and existing ACORN “spin-offs” are alive and well and will surely continue to flaunt state and federal laws in a blatantly partisan effort to register people — eligible or otherwise — who will vote for the reelection of Barack Obama and other liberal candidates across the country in 2012.

Let's remember, of course, that there was no evidence that ACORN ever did anything wrong as an organization and was, in fact, extremely responsible in attacking fraud. There is, of course, no evidence that these new groups have any connection to ACORN beyond having some of the same employees. And, let's realize that every conservative organization registers people in blatantly partisan ways, too.

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We know that right-wing thinkers like Peter King and Bill O'Reilly believe the only serious domestic-terrorism threat Americans face is from "radical Islam" and its adherents. So no doubt they will again turn a blind eye to the most recent case of right-wing domestic terrorism, this time involving a plan involving one of the most toxic biological agents -- ricin, which is lethal in small doses -- and explosives.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Four North Georgia men accused of being members of a fringe militia group were arrested Tuesday by federal authorities for planning to make the deadly toxin ricin and obtain explosives, federal authorities said.

Authorities said that, beginning in March, the men held clandestine militia meetings and discussed using toxic agents and assassinations in an effort to undermine federal and state government and advance their interests.

The four men taken into federal custody are: Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland, and Toccoa residents Dan Roberts, 67; Ray H. Adams, 65; and Samuel J. Crump, 68.

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Newman: "So I sped home to save my friend's life and I was stopped for speeding. Yes, I admit I was speeding, but it was to save a man's life. A close friend. An innocent person who wanted nothing more out of life than to love, to be loved, and to be a banker."

Kiko's House: It's the banksters, stupid! (Who caused the Great Recession and, with the GOP, are preventing recovery.)

Just an Earth-Bound Misfit: No matter what, banksters will find some way to separate you from your money. Hold on tight.

Human Voices: When up means down. Prophecies of economic doom, circa 2012.

All Things Democrat: Preventing election fraud on November 8. A primer.

Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction. I'll be here all week.

Send tips, along with wine and roses, to mbru@crooksandliars.com.

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Credit: @ChazFrench

Open Thread below....

Apparently, Ohio's Captain Foam was billed as a one man band. That one man sure made a big noise.

From time to time, we're going to take a break from the political to look at the cultural. I really love Japanese martial arts films and I watched one recently that I really felt was an excellent example of the genre.

Takeshi (Beat) Kitano is a legendary Tokyo director who is usually known for acting and directing more introverted crime movies, but returns to the yakuza genre with a bang in his new outing, Outrage. It's loaded with slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am-type violence, murder and double-crosses galore. He pulls no punches coming up with wild methods of maiming and killing as a clan war breaks out because of a simple pact of honor between two different clan leaders in prison together. This pace causes 'The Chairman' of the Sanno-Kai syndicate to think he's being played for a fool in some way. Of course it's all in his head, but he can have none of that and that's all it takes for him to ignite a bloody war which escalates out of control.

You may differ, but in a way, I viewed it as almost a dark comedy in the same vein as Johnny To's Election, but it's played straight all the way through. I won't spoil the plot too much, but I will tell you that Kitano himself also plays the head of a clan delegated by his boss Ikemoto, who made the pact with the Murase clan, to do what he must to hopefully relieve The Chairman's paranoia because of their recent loyalty pact.

Because of their code of loyalty, Otomo (Kitano) obeys Ikemoto's wishes even though he sees the folly in it and instigates a conflict between the two sworn brothers. He hopes a simple act of violence will be the end of the mistrust, but that's only the beginning of a free-for-all of knives, guns, flying chopsticks, exploding cars, assassinations, gambling, double-crosses and everything in between. You can understand why Tarantino was so inspired by this genre of film and recognize that influence in most of his earlier movies.