By Nicholas Contompasis
"This Middle East unrest continues to drive oil and gasoline prices higher as food inflation is now pressuring third world countries into a danger zone. The IMF is getting worried that further economic decay could reemerge and head the world into another precarious situation. Any disruption of oil coming out of the Middle East could be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
Global Imbalances Returning, Could Fuel Unrest Per International Monetary Fund Chief
By Kevin Lim
SINGAPORE | Tue Feb 1, 2011 1:12am EST
(Reuters) - The world economy has begun improving but is beset by problems such as high unemployment and rising prices which could fuel crippling trade protectionism and violent social unrest, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Google Has Set Up a Way For Egyptians to Tweet Messages By Leaving a Voice Mail
1/31/2011 02:27:00 PM
Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.
Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.
The Islamification of the World and the North Atlantic Oscillation
By Nicholas Contompasis
As the northern tier states of the United States experience the beginning of a new North Atlantic Oscillation, everyone prays for a spring that may never come.
Historically, this oscillation can last decades and can bring bitter cold and snow to most of North America which has been experiencing mild winters for almost thirty years. With the cyclical cooling of the sun which brings on this effect, most of the United States could look forward to decades of long, cold, hard winters.
Like a gift from Allah, this weather phenomenon is playing right into the hands of the oil rich Muslim Middle Eastern countries. Many in the West have been lulled into the belief that not pumping oil off our coast and in Alaska is a prudent strategy to preserve our environment and natural resources. Their efforts could be called noble but most pragmatists are about to dump a proverbial cold bucket of water over them.
The facts are that this new radical Muslim movement that has taken over Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, and is spreading to other countries like Jordan, Algeria, Libya, Turkey and finally Saudi Arabia. This January surprise from the Middle East could cause the West to lose its chief source of cheap energy, forcing oil past $250 and gasoline to $10 at the pump. Heating oil that heats many American homes could skyrocket and cause many to die and turn winters in America into a living hell for many elderly and poor.
If Egypt is lost to the Muslim Brotherhood it will only be a matter of time before the entire region is dominated by anti-western governments hell-bent on squeezing every penny from its abundant natural resource – oil. Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood with its modern military could easily force the Saudis to fall, leaving them in control of much of the world’s available oil, a prospect that most experts have explained as a worst case scenario.
Egypt’s Suez Canal plays an even more important role now with most of Europe’s oil passing through it. The possible forced Islamification of Europe is not so farfetched. When the people of Europe are forced to decide between freezing to death and bowing to Allah, they’ll ask which way is Mecca.
In conclusion, Israel our last ally in the region, would be strangled by war and economic blockades that would force an eventual evacuation to Western countries, leaving the once brilliant nation a deserted wasteland.
The preservation of our environment and natural resources may be a luxury we can no longer afford. The politician that chooses oily birds over freezing voters won’t last long in this new North Atlantic Oscillation.
As the northern tier states of the United States experience the beginning of a new North Atlantic Oscillation, everyone prays for a spring that may never come.
Historically, this oscillation can last decades and can bring bitter cold and snow to most of North America which has been experiencing mild winters for almost thirty years. With the cyclical cooling of the sun which brings on this effect, most of the United States could look forward to decades of long, cold, hard winters.
Like a gift from Allah, this weather phenomenon is playing right into the hands of the oil rich Muslim Middle Eastern countries. Many in the West have been lulled into the belief that not pumping oil off our coast and in Alaska is a prudent strategy to preserve our environment and natural resources. Their efforts could be called noble but most pragmatists are about to dump a proverbial cold bucket of water over them.
The facts are that this new radical Muslim movement that has taken over Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, and is spreading to other countries like Jordan, Algeria, Libya, Turkey and finally Saudi Arabia. This January surprise from the Middle East could cause the West to lose its chief source of cheap energy, forcing oil past $250 and gasoline to $10 at the pump. Heating oil that heats many American homes could skyrocket and cause many to die and turn winters in America into a living hell for many elderly and poor.
If Egypt is lost to the Muslim Brotherhood it will only be a matter of time before the entire region is dominated by anti-western governments hell-bent on squeezing every penny from its abundant natural resource – oil. Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood with its modern military could easily force the Saudis to fall, leaving them in control of much of the world’s available oil, a prospect that most experts have explained as a worst case scenario.
Egypt’s Suez Canal plays an even more important role now with most of Europe’s oil passing through it. The possible forced Islamification of Europe is not so farfetched. When the people of Europe are forced to decide between freezing to death and bowing to Allah, they’ll ask which way is Mecca.
In conclusion, Israel our last ally in the region, would be strangled by war and economic blockades that would force an eventual evacuation to Western countries, leaving the once brilliant nation a deserted wasteland.
The preservation of our environment and natural resources may be a luxury we can no longer afford. The politician that chooses oily birds over freezing voters won’t last long in this new North Atlantic Oscillation.
Screw the People
The world's wealthiest people support and lead totalitarian governments because that's how they keep their money and their necks - screw the people.
Nicholas Contompasis
Nicholas Contompasis
Israel's Netanyahu Fears Egypt Could Go Way of Iran
Borrowed from Reuters - Thank you
(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he feared Egypt could end up with a radical Islamic regime as in Iran.
Speaking at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu said he hoped Israel's three-decade-old peace treaty with Egypt would survive any changes that were taking place in Cairo.
Netanyahu's comments were his sharpest since the start last week of a wave of unrest against Israel's most significant and long-standing ally in the Arab world, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he feared Egypt could end up with a radical Islamic regime as in Iran.
Speaking at a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu said he hoped Israel's three-decade-old peace treaty with Egypt would survive any changes that were taking place in Cairo.
Netanyahu's comments were his sharpest since the start last week of a wave of unrest against Israel's most significant and long-standing ally in the Arab world, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
President Barack Obama Will Be Remembered
By Nicholas Contompasis
"President Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who “lost” Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq and finally the jewel of the West - Saudi Arabia.
President Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who gave us $250 oil and $10 gasoline.
President Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who didn't give a damn about our country.
A good leader is not found in a pretty smile or sweet speech, but in the hard decisions made."
"President Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who “lost” Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq and finally the jewel of the West - Saudi Arabia.
President Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who gave us $250 oil and $10 gasoline.
President Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who didn't give a damn about our country.
A good leader is not found in a pretty smile or sweet speech, but in the hard decisions made."
Sunday, January 30, 2011
'Mega Protest' Planned in Egypt
Borrowed from Al Jazeera - Thank you
Opposition movement calls for "a million people demonstration" on Tuesday in a bid to topple president Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptian protesters have called for a massive demonstration on Tuesday in a bid to force out president Hosni Mubarak from power.
The so-called April 6 Movement said it plans to have more than a million people on the streets of the capital Cairo, as anti-government sentiment reaches a fever pitch.
Several hundred demonstrators remained camped out in Tahrir square in central Cairo early on Monday morning, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.
"It seems as if they are saying: 'We are here to stay. We are re-invigorating our movement and we are not going anywhere'," one of Al Jazeera's correspondents in Cairo said.
Protesters seem unfazed by Mubarak's pledge to institute economic and political reforms. Our correspondent said that people feel that such pledges "are too little, too late".
Early on Monday morning, unconfirmed reports said the police had been ordered back on the streets.
"We are expecting a statement by the minister of interior about whether the police are going to return or not," our correspondent said.
"The absence of police has given looters a free rein, forcing ordinary citizens to set up neighborhood patrols. Many people are wondering where the police disappeared to.
"There are two schools of thought as far as the police are concerned: One is that many of them decided to join the protesters. The other is that the regime was saying to the people, 'You want to protest. We'll pull back the police and you feel what anarchy feels like'," our correspondent said.
A day earlier, Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition figure, joined thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square.
The former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told the crowd on Sunday night that "what we have begun cannot go back" referring to days of anti-government protests.
The National Coalition for Change, which groups several opposition movements including the Muslim Brotherhood, wants ElBaradei to negotiate with the Mubarak government.
"The people want the regime to fall," protesters chanted as ElBaradei walked to the centre of the square, holding hands with some demonstrators.
Jail breaks
The show of continued defiance by the people came on a day when air force fighter planes flew low over Cairo along with helicopters and extra troop lorries appeared in the central square.
As the protests continue, security is said to be deteriorating and reports have emerged of several prisons across the country being attacked and of fresh protests being staged in cities like Alexandria and Suez.
Thirty-four leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood were freed from the Wadi Natroun jail after guards abandoned their posts.
The protesters in Cairo, joined by hundreds of judges, had gathered earlier in Tahrir Square in the afternoon to demand the resignation of Mubarak.
Al Jazeera's correspondent, reporting from the scene, said that demonstrators confronted a fire truck, at which point army troops fired into the air in a bid to disperse them.
He said the protesters did not move back, and a tank commander then ordered the fire truck to leave. When the truck moved away from the square, the thousands of protesters erupted into applause and climbed onto the tank in celebration, hugging soldiers.
Main roads in Cairo have been blocked by military tanks and armoured personnel carriers, and large numbers of army personnel have been seen in other cities as well.
Our correspondent said that extra military roadblocks had been set up in an apparent attempt to divert traffic away from Tahrir Square, which has become a focal point for demonstrators.
"It's still a very tense scene to have so much military in the capital city of the country."
Opposition movement calls for "a million people demonstration" on Tuesday in a bid to topple president Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptian protesters have called for a massive demonstration on Tuesday in a bid to force out president Hosni Mubarak from power.
The so-called April 6 Movement said it plans to have more than a million people on the streets of the capital Cairo, as anti-government sentiment reaches a fever pitch.
Several hundred demonstrators remained camped out in Tahrir square in central Cairo early on Monday morning, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.
"It seems as if they are saying: 'We are here to stay. We are re-invigorating our movement and we are not going anywhere'," one of Al Jazeera's correspondents in Cairo said.
Protesters seem unfazed by Mubarak's pledge to institute economic and political reforms. Our correspondent said that people feel that such pledges "are too little, too late".
Early on Monday morning, unconfirmed reports said the police had been ordered back on the streets.
"We are expecting a statement by the minister of interior about whether the police are going to return or not," our correspondent said.
"The absence of police has given looters a free rein, forcing ordinary citizens to set up neighborhood patrols. Many people are wondering where the police disappeared to.
"There are two schools of thought as far as the police are concerned: One is that many of them decided to join the protesters. The other is that the regime was saying to the people, 'You want to protest. We'll pull back the police and you feel what anarchy feels like'," our correspondent said.
A day earlier, Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition figure, joined thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square.
The former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency told the crowd on Sunday night that "what we have begun cannot go back" referring to days of anti-government protests.
The National Coalition for Change, which groups several opposition movements including the Muslim Brotherhood, wants ElBaradei to negotiate with the Mubarak government.
"The people want the regime to fall," protesters chanted as ElBaradei walked to the centre of the square, holding hands with some demonstrators.
Jail breaks
The show of continued defiance by the people came on a day when air force fighter planes flew low over Cairo along with helicopters and extra troop lorries appeared in the central square.
As the protests continue, security is said to be deteriorating and reports have emerged of several prisons across the country being attacked and of fresh protests being staged in cities like Alexandria and Suez.
Thirty-four leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood were freed from the Wadi Natroun jail after guards abandoned their posts.
The protesters in Cairo, joined by hundreds of judges, had gathered earlier in Tahrir Square in the afternoon to demand the resignation of Mubarak.
Al Jazeera's correspondent, reporting from the scene, said that demonstrators confronted a fire truck, at which point army troops fired into the air in a bid to disperse them.
He said the protesters did not move back, and a tank commander then ordered the fire truck to leave. When the truck moved away from the square, the thousands of protesters erupted into applause and climbed onto the tank in celebration, hugging soldiers.
Main roads in Cairo have been blocked by military tanks and armoured personnel carriers, and large numbers of army personnel have been seen in other cities as well.
Our correspondent said that extra military roadblocks had been set up in an apparent attempt to divert traffic away from Tahrir Square, which has become a focal point for demonstrators.
"It's still a very tense scene to have so much military in the capital city of the country."
Jihad Jane - Remember Her - Will Plead Guilty - Part of Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist
Jan 31, 2011, 06.31am
BOSTON: An American woman, who called herself 'Jihad Jane' and is accused of conspiring to provide support to terrorists for staging terror attacks in South Asia and Europe, is expected to reverse last year's not-guilty plea in a Philadelphia court on February 1.
Colleen LaRose, 47, had pleaded not guilty in March 2010 to charges including conspiracy to kill in foreign country. She was allegedly part of a plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, whose portrait of prophet Mohammed had angered many. According to a court document, LaRose is set to plead guilty at a "change-of-plea" hearing.
Islam on the Edge - Radical Muslim Victories Are Well-Funded
Borrowed from The Cutting Edge - Thank you
By Rachel Ehrenfeld January 30th 2011
FamilySecurityMatters
For the past five decades most funding to MB-affiliated organizations around the world – especially those involved directly in terrorist activities – has come from oil rich countries in the Middle East. However, Hamas, the MB Palestinian branch, designated as a terrorist organization by the E.U. and U.S., seems to derive large sums of money from the EU, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), of which the U.S. is the largest contributor. Individual countries also donate directly to the PA and Gaza (i.e. Hamas). The U.S. also aids the PA and Gaza through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
By Rachel Ehrenfeld January 30th 2011
FamilySecurityMatters
For the past five decades most funding to MB-affiliated organizations around the world – especially those involved directly in terrorist activities – has come from oil rich countries in the Middle East. However, Hamas, the MB Palestinian branch, designated as a terrorist organization by the E.U. and U.S., seems to derive large sums of money from the EU, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), of which the U.S. is the largest contributor. Individual countries also donate directly to the PA and Gaza (i.e. Hamas). The U.S. also aids the PA and Gaza through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Muslim Brotherhood Throws Support Behind ElBaradei - This is Not Good for the U.S. And Israel
Borrowed from - JPOST.COM STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS - Thank you
01/30/2011 18:10
Opposition figure calls on Mubarak to "leave today," calling it "non-negotiable for every Egyptian"; banned Islamic opposition party, other groups give ElBaradei mandate to negotiate unity government.
The Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday threw its support behind Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei to hold proposed negotiations with the government in order to form a unity government.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera, Muslim Brotherhood official Essam el-Eryan said that "political groups support ElBaradei to negotiation with the regime."
ElBaradei, in an interview aired on CNN Sunday, said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must leave the country immediately.
"It is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today, and it is non-negotiable for every Egyptian." he said. He added that it should "be followed by a smooth transition [to] a national unity government to be followed by all the measures set in place for a free and fair election."
Addressing Mubarak's Friday night move to sack his entire cabinet, ElBaradei said, "I think this is a hopeless, desperate attempt by Mubarak to stay in power." He added that it "is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today, and it is non-negotiable for every Egyptian."
The statements came as protests continued in central Cairo, where tens of thousands of protesters were reportedly gathered despite an announced curfew and strong military presence. Fighter jets swooped low over Cairo in what appeared to be an attempt by the military to show its control of a city beset by looting, armed robbery and anti-government protests.
Minutes before the start of a 4 p.m. curfew, at least two jets appeared and made multiple passes over downtown, including a central square where thousands of protesters were calling for the departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
01/30/2011 18:10
Opposition figure calls on Mubarak to "leave today," calling it "non-negotiable for every Egyptian"; banned Islamic opposition party, other groups give ElBaradei mandate to negotiate unity government.
The Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday threw its support behind Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei to hold proposed negotiations with the government in order to form a unity government.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera, Muslim Brotherhood official Essam el-Eryan said that "political groups support ElBaradei to negotiation with the regime."
ElBaradei, in an interview aired on CNN Sunday, said that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must leave the country immediately.
"It is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today, and it is non-negotiable for every Egyptian." he said. He added that it should "be followed by a smooth transition [to] a national unity government to be followed by all the measures set in place for a free and fair election."
Addressing Mubarak's Friday night move to sack his entire cabinet, ElBaradei said, "I think this is a hopeless, desperate attempt by Mubarak to stay in power." He added that it "is loud and clear from everybody in Egypt that Mubarak has to leave today, and it is non-negotiable for every Egyptian."
The statements came as protests continued in central Cairo, where tens of thousands of protesters were reportedly gathered despite an announced curfew and strong military presence. Fighter jets swooped low over Cairo in what appeared to be an attempt by the military to show its control of a city beset by looting, armed robbery and anti-government protests.
Minutes before the start of a 4 p.m. curfew, at least two jets appeared and made multiple passes over downtown, including a central square where thousands of protesters were calling for the departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
President Mubarak Talks to Military Commanders While Protesters, Looters Disregard Curfew
Borrowed from Bloomberg - Thank you
By Vivian Salama, Ola Galal and Massoud A. Derhally
Jan 30, 2011 7:23 AM PT
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with top military commanders as tens of thousands of protesters defied a curfew and gathered in central Cairo, chanting slogans against the prime minister and vice president he just named.
“No Shafik, no Suleiman, we want you gone, you cowards!” the crowd chanted, in reference to yesterday’s appointments of former air force commander Ahmed Shafik as prime minister and Omar Suleiman, the country’s intelligence chief, as vice president. Fighter aircraft flew over the crowd and almost two dozen tanks could be seen in central Cairo.
By Vivian Salama, Ola Galal and Massoud A. Derhally
Jan 30, 2011 7:23 AM PT
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with top military commanders as tens of thousands of protesters defied a curfew and gathered in central Cairo, chanting slogans against the prime minister and vice president he just named.
“No Shafik, no Suleiman, we want you gone, you cowards!” the crowd chanted, in reference to yesterday’s appointments of former air force commander Ahmed Shafik as prime minister and Omar Suleiman, the country’s intelligence chief, as vice president. Fighter aircraft flew over the crowd and almost two dozen tanks could be seen in central Cairo.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Power of the People
The power of the people - People never go away - deal with them or else. True in Egypt, true in the United States and true anywhere in the world.
Nicholas Contompasis
Nicholas Contompasis
Friday, January 28, 2011
Egypt - President Sputnik’s Jimmy Carter Moment - Iran
By Nicholas Contompasis
With a full court press on President Mubarak of Egypt, by the Muslim Brotherhood, the mobs in the street have been looking for a message from God to fuel their anger against his strict rule. That message finally came yesterday from the politically dead Hillary Clinton. There’s no doubt that the angry people of Egypt would have loved seeing President Obama supporting their cause. Instead, Obama sent out his Secretary of State to support the Mubarak regime in direct contradiction.
With a full court press on President Mubarak of Egypt, by the Muslim Brotherhood, the mobs in the street have been looking for a message from God to fuel their anger against his strict rule. That message finally came yesterday from the politically dead Hillary Clinton. There’s no doubt that the angry people of Egypt would have loved seeing President Obama supporting their cause. Instead, Obama sent out his Secretary of State to support the Mubarak regime in direct contradiction.
Logically thinking, a fall of the Mubarak regime would lead to a major breakdown in Israeli-Egyptian relations and be a political disaster of the Obama Administration. The shutdown of Egypt's Internet and phone services had to be encouraged by the Obama Administration. The switching off of satellites comes from Washington, not Cairo.
This is all so reminiscent of the Carter Administration’s boondoggle of the Iranian Revolution in 1978 when the Shah was forced into exile and a primitive theocratic regime took its place.
There is no question that Obama’s foreign policy is lacking and has created a vacuum for other unfriendly forces to take our place. Obama’s signaling to our allies two years ago, that the U.S. won’t be there if the people rebel against you, has caused a complete breakdown of U.S. global influence and is adding fuel to an eventual religious war against non-Muslim religions.
The domino's are falling in the Middle East and they’re not falling in our direction. The world is watching President Sputnik, what will you do? As you gaze at your unearned Nobel Peace Prize, are you worthy?
Egypt Internet Blackout
Liberal Small Time Asian-American California (Who Helped Bankrupt The State) Politician Demands Apology From Rush Limbaugh For Ching Chong Funny Talk
Asian-American Lawmakers Demand Limbaugh Apology
Jan 28, 2010
By JUDY LIN
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Rush Limbaugh's imitation of the Chinese language during a recent speech made by Chinese President Hu Jintao has stirred a backlash among Asian-American lawmakers in California and nationally.
California state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, is leading a fight in demanding an apology from the radio talk show host for what he and others view as racist and derogatory remarks against the Chinese people.
In recent days, the state lawmaker has rallied civil rights groups in a boycott of companies like Pro Flowers, Sleep Train and Domino's Pizza that advertise on Limbaugh's national talk radio show.
Jan 28, 2010
By JUDY LIN
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Rush Limbaugh's imitation of the Chinese language during a recent speech made by Chinese President Hu Jintao has stirred a backlash among Asian-American lawmakers in California and nationally.
California state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, is leading a fight in demanding an apology from the radio talk show host for what he and others view as racist and derogatory remarks against the Chinese people.
In recent days, the state lawmaker has rallied civil rights groups in a boycott of companies like Pro Flowers, Sleep Train and Domino's Pizza that advertise on Limbaugh's national talk radio show.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Beware of the Islamic Monster That Will Rise from the Ashes of an Imploding Middle East
By Nicholas Contompasis
Make no mistake about it; what’s going on, this very second, in every Middle Eastern country is not good. At first blush the hopes and dreams of all peoples of the world wish these long oppressed countries good luck, but the odds are against them historically. This region has long been controlled by dictators and police states that have brutalized their people. The list is long and the death toll is even longer.
Both the Bush and Obama Administrations have encouraged Middle Eastern countries to adopt more Western ideals of human rights and Democracy over the years so as not to be blamed for the injustices their allies committed. Yes, it was lip service but it helped Presidents and Prime Ministers sleep at night. The takeover of Iraq and Afghanistan has given countries in the region hope that a country like the United States would be there if they revolted against their masters. That’s why President Obama’s refusal to intervene in Iran’s corrupt elections and days of riots was very disappointing on so many levels. His refusal just may have delayed the uprisings you’re seeing now across the region by two years. Nevertheless, what is taking place now has a double edg to it which could either end up destroying any stability in the region or be the blessing we all have been waiting for.
The current leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Jordan and yes even Saudi Arabia have held a lid on human rights and Democracy for a good reason. They know that the real power and underlying force in their countries is the Mosque and the Imam that runs his flock. The Imams know that dictators come and go, but the mosque will always be there, and so will the religion and its power over the people.
For the West it’s easy to advise from afar, but when it comes to knowing how to keep order in a country and keep the radical violent Islamic movement at bay, only the current leaders would know what’s best. The lesser of two evils always seems to be our Catch-22 and we are always damned no matter which position we take in that part of the world.
Unfortunately, installing Democracy in the Middle East is like releasing a lamb onto a field of wolves. What a shame for these children of the desert who have long been mistreated and abused.
What’s so troubling about the past two weeks developments in the Middle East is that the possibility of a monolithic radical Islamic nation could form. It would be a coming together of all nations of the region that would be led by a strict Islamic theocracy similar to Iran, if not by Iran. The formation of this type of entity would be biblical in dimension and could be considered a step closer to a global religious war that would kill millions and solve nothing.
Make no mistake about it; what’s going on, this very second, in every Middle Eastern country is not good. At first blush the hopes and dreams of all peoples of the world wish these long oppressed countries good luck, but the odds are against them historically. This region has long been controlled by dictators and police states that have brutalized their people. The list is long and the death toll is even longer.
Both the Bush and Obama Administrations have encouraged Middle Eastern countries to adopt more Western ideals of human rights and Democracy over the years so as not to be blamed for the injustices their allies committed. Yes, it was lip service but it helped Presidents and Prime Ministers sleep at night. The takeover of Iraq and Afghanistan has given countries in the region hope that a country like the United States would be there if they revolted against their masters. That’s why President Obama’s refusal to intervene in Iran’s corrupt elections and days of riots was very disappointing on so many levels. His refusal just may have delayed the uprisings you’re seeing now across the region by two years. Nevertheless, what is taking place now has a double edg to it which could either end up destroying any stability in the region or be the blessing we all have been waiting for.
The current leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Jordan and yes even Saudi Arabia have held a lid on human rights and Democracy for a good reason. They know that the real power and underlying force in their countries is the Mosque and the Imam that runs his flock. The Imams know that dictators come and go, but the mosque will always be there, and so will the religion and its power over the people.
For the West it’s easy to advise from afar, but when it comes to knowing how to keep order in a country and keep the radical violent Islamic movement at bay, only the current leaders would know what’s best. The lesser of two evils always seems to be our Catch-22 and we are always damned no matter which position we take in that part of the world.
Unfortunately, installing Democracy in the Middle East is like releasing a lamb onto a field of wolves. What a shame for these children of the desert who have long been mistreated and abused.
What’s so troubling about the past two weeks developments in the Middle East is that the possibility of a monolithic radical Islamic nation could form. It would be a coming together of all nations of the region that would be led by a strict Islamic theocracy similar to Iran, if not by Iran. The formation of this type of entity would be biblical in dimension and could be considered a step closer to a global religious war that would kill millions and solve nothing.
Who Murdered David Kato Kisulle? Hillary Clinton and Gay Rights in the Battle for Africa Against Islam
By Nicholas Contompasis
"Supporting gay rights on the battlefield of Africa's fight against Islam is like shooting yourself in the foot as you go into battle. In a more enlightened environment, one would accept such a gesture but against strict Muslim beliefs, it only throws fuel on the argument.
Islam's claims of decadence and immorality of the West helps sell their radical religious lifestyle. We are the perverted ones, they are the pious. Again, the Left has no end game, just mindless misdirect."
Murder of Ugandan LGBT Activist David Kato
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
January 27, 2011
We are profoundly saddened by the loss of Ugandan human rights defender David Kato, who was brutally murdered in his home near Kampala yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and colleagues. We urge Ugandan authorities to quickly and thoroughly investigate and prosecute those responsible for this heinous act.
David Kato tirelessly devoted himself to improving the lives of others. As an advocate for the group Sexual Minorities Uganda, he worked to defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. His efforts resulted in groundbreaking recognition for Uganda's LGBT community, including the Uganda Human Rights Commission's October 2010 statement on the unconstitutionality of Uganda's draft "anti-homosexuality bill" and the Ugandan High Court's January 3 ruling safeguarding all Ugandans' right to privacy and the preservation of human dignity. His tragic death underscores how critical it is that both the government and the people of Uganda, along with the international community, speak out against the discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of Uganda's LGBT community, and work together to ensure that all individuals are accorded the same rights and dignity to which each and every person is entitled.
Everywhere I travel on behalf of our country, I make it a point to meet with young people and activists -- people like David -- who are trying to build a better, stronger future for their societies. I let them know that America stands with them, and that their ideas and commitment are indispensible to achieving the progress we all seek.
This crime is a reminder of the heroic generosity of the people who advocate for and defend human rights on behalf of the rest of us -- and the sacrifices they make. And as we reflect on his life, it is also an occasion to reaffirm that human rights apply to everyone, no exceptions, and that the human rights of LGBT individuals cannot be separated from the human rights of all persons.
Our ambassadors and diplomats around the world will continue to advance a comprehensive human rights policy, and to stand with those who, with their courage, make the world a more just place where every person can live up to his or her God-given potential. We honor David’s legacy by continuing the important work to which he devoted his life.
"Supporting gay rights on the battlefield of Africa's fight against Islam is like shooting yourself in the foot as you go into battle. In a more enlightened environment, one would accept such a gesture but against strict Muslim beliefs, it only throws fuel on the argument.
Islam's claims of decadence and immorality of the West helps sell their radical religious lifestyle. We are the perverted ones, they are the pious. Again, the Left has no end game, just mindless misdirect."
Murder of Ugandan LGBT Activist David Kato
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
January 27, 2011
We are profoundly saddened by the loss of Ugandan human rights defender David Kato, who was brutally murdered in his home near Kampala yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and colleagues. We urge Ugandan authorities to quickly and thoroughly investigate and prosecute those responsible for this heinous act.
David Kato tirelessly devoted himself to improving the lives of others. As an advocate for the group Sexual Minorities Uganda, he worked to defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. His efforts resulted in groundbreaking recognition for Uganda's LGBT community, including the Uganda Human Rights Commission's October 2010 statement on the unconstitutionality of Uganda's draft "anti-homosexuality bill" and the Ugandan High Court's January 3 ruling safeguarding all Ugandans' right to privacy and the preservation of human dignity. His tragic death underscores how critical it is that both the government and the people of Uganda, along with the international community, speak out against the discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of Uganda's LGBT community, and work together to ensure that all individuals are accorded the same rights and dignity to which each and every person is entitled.
Everywhere I travel on behalf of our country, I make it a point to meet with young people and activists -- people like David -- who are trying to build a better, stronger future for their societies. I let them know that America stands with them, and that their ideas and commitment are indispensible to achieving the progress we all seek.
This crime is a reminder of the heroic generosity of the people who advocate for and defend human rights on behalf of the rest of us -- and the sacrifices they make. And as we reflect on his life, it is also an occasion to reaffirm that human rights apply to everyone, no exceptions, and that the human rights of LGBT individuals cannot be separated from the human rights of all persons.
Our ambassadors and diplomats around the world will continue to advance a comprehensive human rights policy, and to stand with those who, with their courage, make the world a more just place where every person can live up to his or her God-given potential. We honor David’s legacy by continuing the important work to which he devoted his life.
President Obama You're No Ronald Reagan
“President Obama, I served with President Ronald Reagan, I knew Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan was a friend of mine. President Obama, you're no Ronald Reagan”
Nicholas Contompasis
Tea Party Cracks Down on ObamaCare - Thank God
By Nicholas Contompasis
"The Tea Party led Congress has scared the hell out of HHS over its preferential treatment of some U.S. corporations over others. It looks like no more special waivers, only for, "Friends of Obama."
If this was a good law there would be no reason for waivers. Waivers are nothing but paid political extortion of companies and organizations that are just trying to survive in a sea of leftist corruption. Stop this law now, all of it, or the cancer that it is will destroy everything that is good in our medical industry."
HHS grants 500 new healthcare waivers
By Jason Millman - Borrowed from The Hill - Thank you
A week after Republicans announced plans to investigate waivers granted to organizations for healthcare reform provisions, President Obama’s health department made public new waivers for more than more than 500 groups.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is granting temporary waivers to organizations that would not be able to meet the reform law’s new requirement for annual coverage limits.
"The Tea Party led Congress has scared the hell out of HHS over its preferential treatment of some U.S. corporations over others. It looks like no more special waivers, only for, "Friends of Obama."
If this was a good law there would be no reason for waivers. Waivers are nothing but paid political extortion of companies and organizations that are just trying to survive in a sea of leftist corruption. Stop this law now, all of it, or the cancer that it is will destroy everything that is good in our medical industry."
HHS grants 500 new healthcare waivers
By Jason Millman - Borrowed from The Hill - Thank you
A week after Republicans announced plans to investigate waivers granted to organizations for healthcare reform provisions, President Obama’s health department made public new waivers for more than more than 500 groups.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is granting temporary waivers to organizations that would not be able to meet the reform law’s new requirement for annual coverage limits.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Number of U.S. Muslims to Double
By Cathy Lynn Grossman
Borrowed from USA TODAY - Thank you
Muslims will be more than one-quarter of the Earth's population by 2030, according to a study released today.
The number of U.S. Muslims will more than double, so you are as likely to know a Muslim here in 20 years as you are to know someone Jewish or Episcopalian today.
Those are among key findings in "The Future of the Global Muslim Population," the first comprehensive examination of Muslims, whose numbers have been growing at a faster rate than all other groups combined.
Borrowed from USA TODAY - Thank you
Muslims will be more than one-quarter of the Earth's population by 2030, according to a study released today.
The number of U.S. Muslims will more than double, so you are as likely to know a Muslim here in 20 years as you are to know someone Jewish or Episcopalian today.
Those are among key findings in "The Future of the Global Muslim Population," the first comprehensive examination of Muslims, whose numbers have been growing at a faster rate than all other groups combined.
Hugo Chavez Tells His Poor to Take Over Middle-Class Properties - When Will Obama Move in This Direction - Soon - Expect It
By Nicholas Contompasis
"Chavez is going radical old book communist. Not a good idea. It's an old playbook that played itself out decades ago. He's setting himself up for a big fall and could leave Iran in control with a puppet President to take his place. Not good for the Venezuelan people and not good for the U.S."
Chávez Tells Venezuelans To Pop-A-Squat On Wealthy Parts of Caracas
By drillanwr, on January 26, 2011, at 10:17 pm
Move to exploit 'unused' land in capital rattles Venezuela's middle class, as troops also take over 'unproductive' farms ...
Hugo Chávez has sent out troops to take over farms and urged the poor to occupy "unused" land in wealthy areas of Caracas, prompting a wave of squats that is rattling Venezuela's middle class.
"Chavez is going radical old book communist. Not a good idea. It's an old playbook that played itself out decades ago. He's setting himself up for a big fall and could leave Iran in control with a puppet President to take his place. Not good for the Venezuelan people and not good for the U.S."
Chávez Tells Venezuelans To Pop-A-Squat On Wealthy Parts of Caracas
By drillanwr, on January 26, 2011, at 10:17 pm
Move to exploit 'unused' land in capital rattles Venezuela's middle class, as troops also take over 'unproductive' farms ...
Hugo Chávez has sent out troops to take over farms and urged the poor to occupy "unused" land in wealthy areas of Caracas, prompting a wave of squats that is rattling Venezuela's middle class.
SEIU - Andy Stern and the Top Ten Union Corruption Stories of the Year
Borrowed from National Legal And Policy Center - Thank you
by Carl Horowitz on Tue, 01/11/2011
Organized labor, masters of aggressive politics, had its share of triumphs in 2010. With Democrats having taken control of the White House and both houses of Congress in 2009, this was to be expected. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other union officials used their window of opportunity to pressure Congress into passing a health care overhaul mandating unprecedented degrees of government intrusion, and by extension, major opportunities for unionization of the health care labor force. They also secured key presidential appointments.
by Carl Horowitz on Tue, 01/11/2011
Organized labor, masters of aggressive politics, had its share of triumphs in 2010. With Democrats having taken control of the White House and both houses of Congress in 2009, this was to be expected. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other union officials used their window of opportunity to pressure Congress into passing a health care overhaul mandating unprecedented degrees of government intrusion, and by extension, major opportunities for unionization of the health care labor force. They also secured key presidential appointments.
Big International Investor calls Obama a Whore and Bernanke Disposable on Video
Marc Faber Compares Obama To A Prostitute
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/25/2011 19:58 -0500
Earlier, Marc Faber appeared on Bloomberg TV, in what may go down in history as his most scandalous interview ever. When asked, in advance of the SOTU address, what he thinks of the president, Faber, who appears to have had enough with all the bullshit, propaganda, and lies, replies: "I think he's done a horrible job and I think that will continue, I think he is a dishonest person, and nothing has changed...
Who is Killing SEIU Union Officials? - Berresford "Berry" Bingham Political Director Found Murdered
By Nicholas Contompasis
"This union is dirty. Andy Stern, former national President stepped down and is under FBI investigation. Now we have these murders. Is someone hiding something? You betcha. President Obama's connection to this Union is well known and should be investigated by our new Congress. I Wonder Who will be next?"
SEIU Union Official Found Dead in Oakland California Home
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The political director of SEIU Local 616 was found dead Tuesday in his West Oakland home, the victim of a homicide, police said.
The body of Berresford "Berry" Bingham, 64, was discovered inside his home on the 500 block of Henry Street, off Seventh Street a block from the West Oakland BART Station, at about 11:35 a.m., said Officer Holly Joshi, an Oakland police spokeswoman. He was found after co-workers, concerned that they had not heard from him in several days, asked police to check on his welfare, police said.
There were signs of trauma to the body, but the cause of death has not been determined pending an autopsy today by the Alameda County coroner, authorities said.
No arrests have been made.
Bingham, known to friends as "Berry B.," served as the political director of Local 616 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 14,000 public sector professional, clerical and technical employees of Alameda County and Alameda County Medical Center. It also represents county-funded home care workers and child care providers.
Bingham, a father of three, had previously served on the Alameda school board.
"This union is dirty. Andy Stern, former national President stepped down and is under FBI investigation. Now we have these murders. Is someone hiding something? You betcha. President Obama's connection to this Union is well known and should be investigated by our new Congress. I Wonder Who will be next?"
SEIU Union Official Found Dead in Oakland California Home
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The political director of SEIU Local 616 was found dead Tuesday in his West Oakland home, the victim of a homicide, police said.
The body of Berresford "Berry" Bingham, 64, was discovered inside his home on the 500 block of Henry Street, off Seventh Street a block from the West Oakland BART Station, at about 11:35 a.m., said Officer Holly Joshi, an Oakland police spokeswoman. He was found after co-workers, concerned that they had not heard from him in several days, asked police to check on his welfare, police said.
There were signs of trauma to the body, but the cause of death has not been determined pending an autopsy today by the Alameda County coroner, authorities said.
No arrests have been made.
Bingham, known to friends as "Berry B.," served as the political director of Local 616 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 14,000 public sector professional, clerical and technical employees of Alameda County and Alameda County Medical Center. It also represents county-funded home care workers and child care providers.
Bingham, a father of three, had previously served on the Alameda school board.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Could it be That the Tea Party Has Stopped Rahm Emanual in His Tracks?
By Nicholas Contompasis
"The Illinois appellate court which is dominated by democrat operatives just could be influenced by the weakening of the Obama Administration after the midterm elections. Just this morning the President sent a strong message to the Illinois Supreme Court that he is not happy with the lower courts decision, not to let his buddy run for Mayor of the Second City.
Millions are on the line for Rahm who has racked up over $10,000,000 in campaign contributions. He would have to return that money if he is not successful in being placed on the ballot. Also, let's not forget the many secret's of the former Mayor and Obama that must be kept in the closet or somebody could go to jail.
The winds across the country have changed in favor of the Tea Party and it seems they've reached the halls of the higher courts in Illinois."
By Jeff Coen and Annie Sweeney - Borrowed from the Chicago Tribune - Thank you
Rahm Emanuel has two legal issues looming large for Supreme Court
He wants to stop election officials from printing ballots without his name and to persuade the state's highest court to restore his candidacy
Rahm Emanuel faces a double-barreled legal problem just days before voting begins in the Chicago mayoral race — stopping election officials from printing ballots without his name and persuading the state's highest court to restore his candidacy.
Hours after an Appellate Court decision removed him from the Feb. 22 election, lawyers for Emanuel late Monday asked the Illinois Supreme Court to stay that ruling while they prepare an appeal to make the case that Chicagoans should have a chance to vote for the former White House chief of staff.
Though the issue of whether Emanuel properly met a one-year residency requirement to run for mayor was always destined to come before the high court, he now goes to that seven-member forum in a weakened posture, carrying the weight of trying to prove the Appellate Court wrong. Traditionally, the state's highest court has shied away from local candidacy and residency election issues.
"We're ready to go on a very fast track," Emanuel attorney Kevin Forde said.
Read more here http://sns.ly/FKbry3
"The Illinois appellate court which is dominated by democrat operatives just could be influenced by the weakening of the Obama Administration after the midterm elections. Just this morning the President sent a strong message to the Illinois Supreme Court that he is not happy with the lower courts decision, not to let his buddy run for Mayor of the Second City.
Millions are on the line for Rahm who has racked up over $10,000,000 in campaign contributions. He would have to return that money if he is not successful in being placed on the ballot. Also, let's not forget the many secret's of the former Mayor and Obama that must be kept in the closet or somebody could go to jail.
The winds across the country have changed in favor of the Tea Party and it seems they've reached the halls of the higher courts in Illinois."
By Jeff Coen and Annie Sweeney - Borrowed from the Chicago Tribune - Thank you
Rahm Emanuel has two legal issues looming large for Supreme Court
He wants to stop election officials from printing ballots without his name and to persuade the state's highest court to restore his candidacy
Rahm Emanuel faces a double-barreled legal problem just days before voting begins in the Chicago mayoral race — stopping election officials from printing ballots without his name and persuading the state's highest court to restore his candidacy.
Hours after an Appellate Court decision removed him from the Feb. 22 election, lawyers for Emanuel late Monday asked the Illinois Supreme Court to stay that ruling while they prepare an appeal to make the case that Chicagoans should have a chance to vote for the former White House chief of staff.
Though the issue of whether Emanuel properly met a one-year residency requirement to run for mayor was always destined to come before the high court, he now goes to that seven-member forum in a weakened posture, carrying the weight of trying to prove the Appellate Court wrong. Traditionally, the state's highest court has shied away from local candidacy and residency election issues.
"We're ready to go on a very fast track," Emanuel attorney Kevin Forde said.
Read more here http://sns.ly/FKbry3
General Petraeus - 2011 Will Be "Tough" in Afghanistan
US commander in Afghanistan: Tough fight in 2011
Borrowed from the Associated Press - Thank you
KABUL, Afghanistan — The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says in an assessment of the war that the military has "made impressive progress" in 2010 but that 2011 is "likely to be tough" as forces work to expand security.
The assessment comes in a letter from Gen. David Petraeus to the troops Tuesday, ahead of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
Petraeus says in the letter that troops will have to hold onto progress made in Taliban strongholds in the south while working to reverse insurgent advances in the north and northeast.
He praises security gains in the capital, but says they will need to be expanded into neighboring provinces.
Progress is being watched closely, as Obama has said he hopes to begin drawing down U.S. troops in July.
Borrowed from the Associated Press - Thank you
KABUL, Afghanistan — The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan says in an assessment of the war that the military has "made impressive progress" in 2010 but that 2011 is "likely to be tough" as forces work to expand security.
The assessment comes in a letter from Gen. David Petraeus to the troops Tuesday, ahead of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
Petraeus says in the letter that troops will have to hold onto progress made in Taliban strongholds in the south while working to reverse insurgent advances in the north and northeast.
He praises security gains in the capital, but says they will need to be expanded into neighboring provinces.
Progress is being watched closely, as Obama has said he hopes to begin drawing down U.S. troops in July.
Monday, January 24, 2011
"The Rose of Democracy is Surrounded by a Sea of Arab Shit." Lebanon Ready to Explode
By Nicholas Contompasis
"The Rose of Democracy is surrounded by a sea of Arab shit."
Hariri backers call "day of anger."
The nomination of Hezbollah's candidate for Lebanon's prime minister has drawn the ire of the caretaker PM's.
Saad Hariri's supporters have termed Hezbollah's efforts to form a government a "coup."
Supporters of Saad Hariri, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, have called for a day of anger in protest against Hezbollah's nomination of a candidate for the post of prime minister, a move that brings the group one step closer to controlling the government.
Protests had earlier erupted in Sunni Muslim regions across Lebanon against the nomination of Najid Mikati, a billionaire businessman, as Hezbollah's favoured candidate to be the next prime minister on Monday.
Hezbollah, which draws its support mainly from Lebanon's Shia Muslim community, has a powerful military wing as well as a parliamentary faction.
The decision by Hezbollah comes at the beginning of consultations headed by Michel Suleiman, the president, with parliamentary groups on appointing a new prime minister, after the group brought down the unity government earlier this month.
"It's Mikati for sure," Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon's Druze community, who last week became allied with Hezbollah, told the AFP news agency.
"The Rose of Democracy is surrounded by a sea of Arab shit."
Hariri backers call "day of anger."
The nomination of Hezbollah's candidate for Lebanon's prime minister has drawn the ire of the caretaker PM's.
Saad Hariri's supporters have termed Hezbollah's efforts to form a government a "coup."
Supporters of Saad Hariri, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, have called for a day of anger in protest against Hezbollah's nomination of a candidate for the post of prime minister, a move that brings the group one step closer to controlling the government.
Protests had earlier erupted in Sunni Muslim regions across Lebanon against the nomination of Najid Mikati, a billionaire businessman, as Hezbollah's favoured candidate to be the next prime minister on Monday.
Hezbollah, which draws its support mainly from Lebanon's Shia Muslim community, has a powerful military wing as well as a parliamentary faction.
The decision by Hezbollah comes at the beginning of consultations headed by Michel Suleiman, the president, with parliamentary groups on appointing a new prime minister, after the group brought down the unity government earlier this month.
"It's Mikati for sure," Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon's Druze community, who last week became allied with Hezbollah, told the AFP news agency.
Egypt Ready to Explode
Borrowed from the BBC - Thank you
Anti-government activists in Egypt are preparing for a rare day of protest, inspired by the recent political upheaval in Tunisia.
Organisers have called for a "day of revolt against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment".
But the government has warned they face arrest and is calling its supporters out in a counter-demonstration.
Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia earlier this month.
The events in Cairo are being co-ordinated on a Facebook page - tens of thousands of supporters have clicked on the page to say they will take part.
"Our protest on the 25th is the beginning of the end," Reuters quoted the organisers as saying.
"It is the end of silence, acquiescence and submission to what is happening in our country. It will be the start of a new page in Egypt's history - one of activism and demanding our rights."
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says event is a direct response to the campaign that ousted President Ben Ali of Tunisia, in which the internet also played an important part.
But there is bound to be scepticism about exactly how many will actually turn up, say our correspondent.
Anti-government activists in Egypt are preparing for a rare day of protest, inspired by the recent political upheaval in Tunisia.
Organisers have called for a "day of revolt against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment".
But the government has warned they face arrest and is calling its supporters out in a counter-demonstration.
Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia earlier this month.
The events in Cairo are being co-ordinated on a Facebook page - tens of thousands of supporters have clicked on the page to say they will take part.
"Our protest on the 25th is the beginning of the end," Reuters quoted the organisers as saying.
"It is the end of silence, acquiescence and submission to what is happening in our country. It will be the start of a new page in Egypt's history - one of activism and demanding our rights."
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says event is a direct response to the campaign that ousted President Ben Ali of Tunisia, in which the internet also played an important part.
But there is bound to be scepticism about exactly how many will actually turn up, say our correspondent.
Private Spy Ring Competes With C.I.A. - A Shadow Unbridled Intelligence Agency - Why Not?
By Nicholas Contompasis
"The cowboys have found a home and just could do the job better than the over scrutinized, over politicked C.I.A. There could be many problems with this, but for now they seem to be on our side. The world is getting more and more complex. Who do you trust, who can you trust, with so many moving parts how can one mind wrap itself around all of this and come up with an effect intelligence policy?"
When U.S. Said No, Private Spy Ring Fed Bloggers Instead
By Spencer Ackerman Borrowed from Wired - Thank you
Last May, author Brad Thor published a shocking report on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website claiming that Pakistani authorities had captured Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Other reporters didn’t bite on the story, which Thor attributed to “key intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Those sources, if a New York Times piece is correct, are the remnants of an off-the-books spy operation that the Pentagon shut down last year, now funded by entirely private cash.
"The cowboys have found a home and just could do the job better than the over scrutinized, over politicked C.I.A. There could be many problems with this, but for now they seem to be on our side. The world is getting more and more complex. Who do you trust, who can you trust, with so many moving parts how can one mind wrap itself around all of this and come up with an effect intelligence policy?"
When U.S. Said No, Private Spy Ring Fed Bloggers Instead
By Spencer Ackerman Borrowed from Wired - Thank you
Last May, author Brad Thor published a shocking report on Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website claiming that Pakistani authorities had captured Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Other reporters didn’t bite on the story, which Thor attributed to “key intelligence sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Those sources, if a New York Times piece is correct, are the remnants of an off-the-books spy operation that the Pentagon shut down last year, now funded by entirely private cash.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Chinese Pianist Plays Anti-American Tune at White House US Humiliated in Eyes of Chinese
By Matthew Robertson - Thank you
Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist, plays the piano at the White House on Jan. 19, 2011. The music he is playing is the theme song from an anti-American propaganda movie about the Korean War. (Screenshot from Youtube)
Lang Lang the pianist says he chose it. Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as he heard it. Patriotic Chinese Internet users were delighted as soon as they saw the videos online. Early morning TV viewers in China knew it would be played an hour or two beforehand. At the White House State dinner on Jan. 19, about six minutes into his set, Lang Lang began tapping out a famous anti-American propaganda melody from the Korean War: the theme song to the movie “Battle on Shangganling Mountain.”
The film depicts a group of “People’s Volunteer Army” soldiers who are first hemmed in at Shanganling (or Triangle Hill) and then, when reinforcements arrive, take up their rifles and counterattack the U.S. military “jackals.”
The movie and the tune are widely known among Chinese, and the song has been a leading piece of anti-American propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for decades. CCP propaganda has always referred to the Korean War as the “movement to resist America and help [North] Korea.” The message of the propaganda is that the United States is an enemy—in fighting in the Korean War the United States’ real goal was said to be to invade and conquer China. The victory at Triangle Hill was promoted as a victory over imperialists.
Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist, plays the piano at the White House on Jan. 19, 2011. The music he is playing is the theme song from an anti-American propaganda movie about the Korean War. (Screenshot from Youtube)
Lang Lang the pianist says he chose it. Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as he heard it. Patriotic Chinese Internet users were delighted as soon as they saw the videos online. Early morning TV viewers in China knew it would be played an hour or two beforehand. At the White House State dinner on Jan. 19, about six minutes into his set, Lang Lang began tapping out a famous anti-American propaganda melody from the Korean War: the theme song to the movie “Battle on Shangganling Mountain.”
The film depicts a group of “People’s Volunteer Army” soldiers who are first hemmed in at Shanganling (or Triangle Hill) and then, when reinforcements arrive, take up their rifles and counterattack the U.S. military “jackals.”
The movie and the tune are widely known among Chinese, and the song has been a leading piece of anti-American propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for decades. CCP propaganda has always referred to the Korean War as the “movement to resist America and help [North] Korea.” The message of the propaganda is that the United States is an enemy—in fighting in the Korean War the United States’ real goal was said to be to invade and conquer China. The victory at Triangle Hill was promoted as a victory over imperialists.
The Third World is Imploding - Another Wall Street Dividend
By Nicholas Contompasis
"You cannot deleverage trillions of dollars globally without dire consequences. The problems of Wall Street are now the problems of tin horn police states and fledgling governments around the world. Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Pakistan, Albania and many more countries that survive on a paper thin existence are starting to crumble under the weight of higher commodity costs and creeping inflation. Also, lets not forget the promise of a better life offered on the Internet from the West, to the people of these poor third world countries.
They're angry and getting angrier as more of these countries see more demonstrations and riots. The chances of these countries self-correcting is an impossibility, unfortunately.
Many will die. Anarchy and violence will rule till someone or country steps in to save them from themselves.
The West keeps printing money to quell the storm in their countries. So, who will print the money to stop the third world from imploding, which seems to be right on schedule?"
Albania - More Demonstrations Slated for this Week
By Altin Raxhimi, Borrowed from CNN - Thank you
January 23, 2011 -- Updated 2357 GMT (0757 HKT)
On Sunday, Albanian opposition leader Edi Rama gives a speech during a ceremony for a man killed during riots.
"You cannot deleverage trillions of dollars globally without dire consequences. The problems of Wall Street are now the problems of tin horn police states and fledgling governments around the world. Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Pakistan, Albania and many more countries that survive on a paper thin existence are starting to crumble under the weight of higher commodity costs and creeping inflation. Also, lets not forget the promise of a better life offered on the Internet from the West, to the people of these poor third world countries.
They're angry and getting angrier as more of these countries see more demonstrations and riots. The chances of these countries self-correcting is an impossibility, unfortunately.
Many will die. Anarchy and violence will rule till someone or country steps in to save them from themselves.
The West keeps printing money to quell the storm in their countries. So, who will print the money to stop the third world from imploding, which seems to be right on schedule?"
Albania - More Demonstrations Slated for this Week
By Altin Raxhimi, Borrowed from CNN - Thank you
January 23, 2011 -- Updated 2357 GMT (0757 HKT)
On Sunday, Albanian opposition leader Edi Rama gives a speech during a ceremony for a man killed during riots.
Al-Jazeera Releases "The Palestine Papers": Thousands Of Documents Detailing A Decade Of Secret Israeli Palestinian Negotiations
By Tyler Durden on 01/23/2011 17:00 -0500 - Thank you
Al-Jazeera has released thousands of previously classified documents which due to their content will likely bring the already sensitive situation in the Middle East to a boil once again. While the document progenitor could well be Wikileaks, the TV network refuses to disclose the source: "Because of the sensitive nature of these documents, Al Jazeera will not reveal the source(s) or detail how they came into our possession. We have taken great care over an extended period of time to assure ourselves of their authenticity." As for what is contained: "The material is voluminous and detailed; it provides an unprecedented look inside the continuing negotiations involving high-level American, Israeli, and Palestinian Authority officials." Apparently, the disclosure is so sensitive that the ISP of the Palestinian authority has just blocked the Aljazeera site containing the early releases. We look forward to reading the documents as they are released between January 23 and 26. Judging by the prompt retaliation they will be worth the read: according to the Palestinian Authority, Al-Jazeera has just declared was on Palestinians, which intuitively makes little sense.
From Al-Jazeera:
Al-Jazeera has released thousands of previously classified documents which due to their content will likely bring the already sensitive situation in the Middle East to a boil once again. While the document progenitor could well be Wikileaks, the TV network refuses to disclose the source: "Because of the sensitive nature of these documents, Al Jazeera will not reveal the source(s) or detail how they came into our possession. We have taken great care over an extended period of time to assure ourselves of their authenticity." As for what is contained: "The material is voluminous and detailed; it provides an unprecedented look inside the continuing negotiations involving high-level American, Israeli, and Palestinian Authority officials." Apparently, the disclosure is so sensitive that the ISP of the Palestinian authority has just blocked the Aljazeera site containing the early releases. We look forward to reading the documents as they are released between January 23 and 26. Judging by the prompt retaliation they will be worth the read: according to the Palestinian Authority, Al-Jazeera has just declared was on Palestinians, which intuitively makes little sense.
From Al-Jazeera:
The Liberal Coward
By Nicholas Contompasis
"Liberals search far and wide within academia to justify conclusions that support their inability to make the hard decisions in life. People that make those hard decisions can be called Patriots, people that can't can be called cowards."
"Liberals search far and wide within academia to justify conclusions that support their inability to make the hard decisions in life. People that make those hard decisions can be called Patriots, people that can't can be called cowards."
Congressional Seating and the Minimization of the Tea Party
By Nicholas Contompasis
"Over decades of Democrat control of Congress never had they asked that the seating during the State of the Union be "every other party" seating. This attempt, no matter how trivial should be looked at as an attempt to diminish the POWER of the new sheriff in town - THE TEA PARTY"
"Over decades of Democrat control of Congress never had they asked that the seating during the State of the Union be "every other party" seating. This attempt, no matter how trivial should be looked at as an attempt to diminish the POWER of the new sheriff in town - THE TEA PARTY"
A Quick Illustration of Why most States are Doomed Financially
By REUVEN BLAU
Last Updated: 7:04 AM, January 23, 2011
No wonder the state Of New York has a $10 billion budget deficit.
The number of retired state employees pulling down pensions of more than $100,000 surged a startling 43 percent last year, from 1,059 in 2009 to 1,513, according to the state Comptroller's Office.
"This is like hitting the lottery -- virtually nobody in the private sector has a guaranteed six-figure income with health benefits," said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute think tank.
Four of the retirees make more than $200,000 annually, according to documents obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request.
All told, the six-figure pensioners cost taxpayers $123 million a year.
The spike in the $100,000-plus club is partially due to 6,372 employees who raced to take advantage of the state's early-retirement incentive offered by Gov. David Paterson's administration in an attempt to save $95 million this year.
The early-retirement sweetener usually goes to state workers who were planning to retire anyway, raising long-term pension expenses, fiscal watchdogs and government insiders say.
Between 1983 and 2002, state lawmakers approved 10 early-retirement bills, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy. The most recent, in 2002, attracted 5,562 employees and added $249 million in pension costs over five years, the center said.
"The system is just completely out of line with reality," McMahon said.
At the state's largest pension system, employees contributed $284 million while state taxpayers shelled out $2.3 billion in payouts to retirees in fiscal year 2010, according to the Empire Center.
About one out of every seven cops and firefighters from the suburbs and upstate municipalities who retired last year is receiving a six-figure state pension, according to data compiled by the Empire Center. That's because they are paid high salaries, and often pad their pensions by putting in huge amounts of overtime in their final years.
Last Updated: 7:04 AM, January 23, 2011
No wonder the state Of New York has a $10 billion budget deficit.
The number of retired state employees pulling down pensions of more than $100,000 surged a startling 43 percent last year, from 1,059 in 2009 to 1,513, according to the state Comptroller's Office.
"This is like hitting the lottery -- virtually nobody in the private sector has a guaranteed six-figure income with health benefits," said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute think tank.
Four of the retirees make more than $200,000 annually, according to documents obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information request.
All told, the six-figure pensioners cost taxpayers $123 million a year.
The spike in the $100,000-plus club is partially due to 6,372 employees who raced to take advantage of the state's early-retirement incentive offered by Gov. David Paterson's administration in an attempt to save $95 million this year.
The early-retirement sweetener usually goes to state workers who were planning to retire anyway, raising long-term pension expenses, fiscal watchdogs and government insiders say.
Between 1983 and 2002, state lawmakers approved 10 early-retirement bills, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy. The most recent, in 2002, attracted 5,562 employees and added $249 million in pension costs over five years, the center said.
"The system is just completely out of line with reality," McMahon said.
At the state's largest pension system, employees contributed $284 million while state taxpayers shelled out $2.3 billion in payouts to retirees in fiscal year 2010, according to the Empire Center.
About one out of every seven cops and firefighters from the suburbs and upstate municipalities who retired last year is receiving a six-figure state pension, according to data compiled by the Empire Center. That's because they are paid high salaries, and often pad their pensions by putting in huge amounts of overtime in their final years.
The Ethnic-Cleansing of Christians and Jews in the Middle-East
By Nicholas Contompasis
"The killing of Christians in Egypt this past Christmas by al-Qaida should be looked on as an attack on all Christians by one of the many Muslim led expansionists groups. Al-Qaida now blamed for this attack, based in Gaza, should be evidence enough that Gaza is out of control and should be classified as a terrorist haven with connections to Iran and now al-Qaida. The United Nations is always so quick to condemn Israel for any attempt to stop military and terrorist contraband, yet this evidence should help justify Israel's efforts.
The export of terror from Gaza to Egypt is a first that should not be overlooked. Most that goes on in this region is usually led by Iran. Any connection between Iran and al-Qaida would be a clear indication that Iran should be targeted as part of al-Qaida's global terrorist efforts, thus adding further justification of a NATO attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
In the meantime Christians and Jews in the Middle East continue to be slaughtered and edged out of the region by a systematic ethnic-cleansing that the Western press chooses to ignore. Like many have said "political correctness will be the death of us all."
Egypt: Militant group in Gaza behind church attack
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Borrowed from The Associated Press - Thank you
Sunday, January 23, 2011; 6:04 AM
CAIRO -- An al-Qaida-linked group in Gaza was behind the New Year's Day suicide bombing that killed 21 Christians and wounded about a hundred outside a church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the country's interior minister announced Sunday.
Habib al-Adly said the shadowy, Gaza-based Army of Islam in Gaza was behind the attack, which sparked three days of Christian rioting in Cairo and several other cities. It was the deadliest attack against Christians in Egypt in more than a decade.
Security officials said an unspecified number of people have been detained in connection with the bombing but gave no more details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.
The Army of Islam is thought to have participated in the kidnappings of Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit in 2006 and BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was later released.
Late last year, Israel killed three members of the Army of Islam in separate airstrikes, alleging the men had planned to attack Israeli and American targets in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
"The killing of Christians in Egypt this past Christmas by al-Qaida should be looked on as an attack on all Christians by one of the many Muslim led expansionists groups. Al-Qaida now blamed for this attack, based in Gaza, should be evidence enough that Gaza is out of control and should be classified as a terrorist haven with connections to Iran and now al-Qaida. The United Nations is always so quick to condemn Israel for any attempt to stop military and terrorist contraband, yet this evidence should help justify Israel's efforts.
The export of terror from Gaza to Egypt is a first that should not be overlooked. Most that goes on in this region is usually led by Iran. Any connection between Iran and al-Qaida would be a clear indication that Iran should be targeted as part of al-Qaida's global terrorist efforts, thus adding further justification of a NATO attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
In the meantime Christians and Jews in the Middle East continue to be slaughtered and edged out of the region by a systematic ethnic-cleansing that the Western press chooses to ignore. Like many have said "political correctness will be the death of us all."
Egypt: Militant group in Gaza behind church attack
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Borrowed from The Associated Press - Thank you
Sunday, January 23, 2011; 6:04 AM
CAIRO -- An al-Qaida-linked group in Gaza was behind the New Year's Day suicide bombing that killed 21 Christians and wounded about a hundred outside a church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the country's interior minister announced Sunday.
Habib al-Adly said the shadowy, Gaza-based Army of Islam in Gaza was behind the attack, which sparked three days of Christian rioting in Cairo and several other cities. It was the deadliest attack against Christians in Egypt in more than a decade.
Security officials said an unspecified number of people have been detained in connection with the bombing but gave no more details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.
The Army of Islam is thought to have participated in the kidnappings of Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit in 2006 and BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was later released.
Late last year, Israel killed three members of the Army of Islam in separate airstrikes, alleging the men had planned to attack Israeli and American targets in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tunisia-Style Riots in Yemen -Now
Reported: 04:49 AM - Jan/23/11
Drawing inspiration from the revolt in Tunisia, thousands of Yemenis fed up with their president's 32-year rule demanded his ouster Saturday in a noisy demonstration that appeared to be the first large-scale public challenge to the leader.
Clashes also broke out Saturday in Algeria, as opposition activists there tried to copy the tactics of their Tunisian neighbors, who forced their longtime leader to flee the country more than a week ago. The protests in Yemen appeared to be the first of their kind. The nation's 23 million citizens have many grievances: they are the poorest people in the Arab world, the government is widely seen as corrupt and is reviled for its alliance with the United States in fighting al-Qaeda, there are few political freedoms and the country is rapidly running out of water.
Drawing inspiration from the revolt in Tunisia, thousands of Yemenis fed up with their president's 32-year rule demanded his ouster Saturday in a noisy demonstration that appeared to be the first large-scale public challenge to the leader.
Clashes also broke out Saturday in Algeria, as opposition activists there tried to copy the tactics of their Tunisian neighbors, who forced their longtime leader to flee the country more than a week ago. The protests in Yemen appeared to be the first of their kind. The nation's 23 million citizens have many grievances: they are the poorest people in the Arab world, the government is widely seen as corrupt and is reviled for its alliance with the United States in fighting al-Qaeda, there are few political freedoms and the country is rapidly running out of water.
Friday, January 21, 2011
$1 Billion Home - Russia's Own WikiLeaks Exposes Putin's Vast Wealth - Will the Russian People Rebel?
Borrowed from the Moscow Times - Thank you
By Olga Razumovskaya
A new web site striving to become Russia's answer to WikiLeaks became an online hit this week with the publication of the first photographs of a luxury mansion linked to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
No proof exists that the mansion in the pictures is really Putin's, a residence that RuLeaks.net says was built on the Black Sea at a cost of $1 billion for the prime minister's personal use.
But RuLeaks' apparently exclusive photos have paid off handsomely for the team behind the web site, which refers to itself as "The Anonymous" but actually consists mainly of members of the Pirate Party of Russia, a group that opposes copyright laws.
Since the photos were released Tuesday, the site's traffic has soared by 10 times to about 80,000 hits per day, according to RuLeaks' own statistics.
The site's team promised that the mansion photos were only the beginning.
“Never keep quiet! Be afraid of nothing!” the team said in an e-mailed reply to questions from The Moscow Times. “In the time of total lies one word of truth can conquer the whole world. … History is happening before our eyes. An ocean of opportunities lies before us."
By Olga Razumovskaya
A new web site striving to become Russia's answer to WikiLeaks became an online hit this week with the publication of the first photographs of a luxury mansion linked to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
No proof exists that the mansion in the pictures is really Putin's, a residence that RuLeaks.net says was built on the Black Sea at a cost of $1 billion for the prime minister's personal use.
But RuLeaks' apparently exclusive photos have paid off handsomely for the team behind the web site, which refers to itself as "The Anonymous" but actually consists mainly of members of the Pirate Party of Russia, a group that opposes copyright laws.
Since the photos were released Tuesday, the site's traffic has soared by 10 times to about 80,000 hits per day, according to RuLeaks' own statistics.
The site's team promised that the mansion photos were only the beginning.
“Never keep quiet! Be afraid of nothing!” the team said in an e-mailed reply to questions from The Moscow Times. “In the time of total lies one word of truth can conquer the whole world. … History is happening before our eyes. An ocean of opportunities lies before us."
Keith Olbermann Leaving MSNBC, Ends `Countdown'
Borrowed from The Associated Press - Thank you
NEW YORK -- Keith Olbermann is leaving MSNBC and has announced that Friday's "Countdown" show will be his last.
MSNBC issued a statement Friday that it had ended its contract with the the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.
Olbermann did not say why he was leaving.
He was suspended without pay from the network for two days in November for donating to three Democratic candidates, which violated NBC News' policy on political donations. Olbermann complained that he was being punished for mistakenly violating an inconsistently applied rule that he had known nothing about.
The host apologized to fans - but not to the network.
NEW YORK -- Keith Olbermann is leaving MSNBC and has announced that Friday's "Countdown" show will be his last.
MSNBC issued a statement Friday that it had ended its contract with the the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.
Olbermann did not say why he was leaving.
He was suspended without pay from the network for two days in November for donating to three Democratic candidates, which violated NBC News' policy on political donations. Olbermann complained that he was being punished for mistakenly violating an inconsistently applied rule that he had known nothing about.
The host apologized to fans - but not to the network.
Secret U.S. War Plan That Can Disable a Country By Remote Control - Who Needs Nukes
When China’s stealth-fighter prototype took to the air two weeks ago, it intensified what was already aheated debate in Washington over which, and how many, new fighter planes to buy.
Lost in all this noise was the U.S. Navy’s real plan for winning any future air war with China or another big baddie. Rather than going toe-to-toe with J-20s and other enemy jets, the Navy is planning to attack its rivals where they’re most vulnerable: in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The frontline weapon for this electronic war is a new airborne jamming system currently in development. The Next Generation Jammer should allow the Navy to blind the enemy’s radars, disrupt its communications and slip malicious code into computer networks.
The new jammer, and its initial host airplane, the EA-18G Growler (pictured), have quickly become top Pentagon priorities. U.S. regional commanders opted in 2009 to buy more Growlers rather than continue production of the F-22 stealth dogfighter. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced this month that he would accelerate the NGJ’s current five-year-or-so development plan, using cash saved from shutting down redundant command staffs.
Four teams are vying for the jammer contract, including Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Raytheon and a pairing of Boeing and New York-based ITT. The Navy expects to gradually eliminate competitors until it’s got one supplier.
When all’s said and done, the resulting program could cost billions of dollars. The result should be what ITT vice president Ed Palacio calls a “highly modular, totally programmable” combination of antennas and processors that can be squeezed into the Growler’s underwing pods, as well as into the F-35 and future drones.
One goal is to simply replace the ancient EA-6B radar-jamming planes flown by the Navy and Marine Corps (with some Air Force exchange pilots). But that’s just the beginning for the NGJ. “Electronic attack system and concept of electronic attack has really evolved over years,” Palacio told Danger Room. “Initially, it primarily was a system to deal with enemy air defenses. But as you start going forward and realize the electromagnetic spectrum does many things … [so] if you build a system that can generate power and modulation over a very broad RF spectrum, it can be used not only in traditional roles, but inmany different roles.”
Besides radar-jamming, the NGJ should allow the Navy to disable remotely detonated, improvised explosive devices — something the EA-6B already does — as well as insert viruses into command networks, a tactic Israel allegedly first used in combat during its 2007 air attacks on a suspected Syrian nuke site.
Hints that air-launched cyberattacks could shut down industrial (and nuclear) operations could explain why the Air Force has been flying stealthy RQ-170 drones near Iran. The NGJ could expand on that apparent capability.
Never mind the F-22 and its admittedly incredible dogfighting skills, or the purported versatility of the newer F-35 in its fighter-bomber role. With the EA-18G and other planes carrying the Next Generation Jammer, the U.S. military will have a weapon capable of doing more than just firing missiles and dropping bombs. Anything that works in the electromagnetic spectrum — and these days, that’s almost everything — will be fair game.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Obama Finds Some Balls and Threatens China on North Korea
Borrowed from the Jerusalem Post - Thank you
Obama warns Jintao that if China doesn't increase pressure on N Korea the US will redeploy forces in Asia, the 'New York Times' reports.
US President Barak Obama warned Chinese President Hu Jintao that if China did not increase its pressure on North Korea the United States would be forced to redeploy its forces in Asia, the New York Times reported a senior administration official as saying on Friday.
According to the report Obama first issued the warning to the Chinese president over a phone call last month and repeated his stance over a private dinner at the White House on Tuesday.
The official said the warning persuaded China to take a harder line in its policies towards North Korea, leading to the resumption of dialogue between the North and South, according to the report.
Obama warns Jintao that if China doesn't increase pressure on N Korea the US will redeploy forces in Asia, the 'New York Times' reports.
US President Barak Obama warned Chinese President Hu Jintao that if China did not increase its pressure on North Korea the United States would be forced to redeploy its forces in Asia, the New York Times reported a senior administration official as saying on Friday.
According to the report Obama first issued the warning to the Chinese president over a phone call last month and repeated his stance over a private dinner at the White House on Tuesday.
The official said the warning persuaded China to take a harder line in its policies towards North Korea, leading to the resumption of dialogue between the North and South, according to the report.
If You're Collecting a State, Local Pension or Expect to in the Near Future, You Could Get a 50% Haircut or More
Path Is Sought for States to Escape Debt Burdens
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH - Thank you
Borrowed from the New York Times - Thank you
Published: January 20, 2011
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH - Thank you
Borrowed from the New York Times - Thank you
Published: January 20, 2011
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
Something Stinks in California
"If every person in California that voted for Republican John McCain for President in 2008 voted straight ticket Republican on November 2, 2010 (midterm elections) every Republican would have won by 1,000,000 votes. Meg Whitman would be Governor, not Jerry Brown. Carly Fioreno would be Senator, not Barbara Boxer. What Happened in California?"
By Nicholas Contompasis
By Nicholas Contompasis
Obama Plans to Control and Track Your Internet Usage and Information - No Joke
By Nicholas Contompasis
This is so dangerous on so many levels I can't even begin to proclaim my objection. The days of anonymous usage of the internet could soon be over if President Obama has his way. Your privacy for all that is you in cyberspace could soon be controlled and tracked by Federal authorities. Facebook and Twitter are now being observed as a framework for a government creation of a monolithic agency that would destroy every right granted you in the Bill of Rights.
The Washington Times is warning that the White House cyber-security adviser and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke are drawing up "ObamaNet," President Obama's mandate for what amounts to a national ID card for the Internet.
The government will be able to track every web site you visit, every keystroke you send, every purchase you make, every blog comment, and every Facebook and Twitter post.
President Obama wants to establish passwords for every citizen to centralize your personal information. Instead of logging onto Facebook or one's bank using separate passwords established with each individual company or website, you will be required to use the government-issued password.
According to the Washington Times, here are the problems with "ObamaNet":
Although the White House will tell you it is a voluntary program, the government "voluntary" programs too often end up becoming mandatory.
This is so dangerous on so many levels I can't even begin to proclaim my objection. The days of anonymous usage of the internet could soon be over if President Obama has his way. Your privacy for all that is you in cyberspace could soon be controlled and tracked by Federal authorities. Facebook and Twitter are now being observed as a framework for a government creation of a monolithic agency that would destroy every right granted you in the Bill of Rights.
The Washington Times is warning that the White House cyber-security adviser and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke are drawing up "ObamaNet," President Obama's mandate for what amounts to a national ID card for the Internet.
The government will be able to track every web site you visit, every keystroke you send, every purchase you make, every blog comment, and every Facebook and Twitter post.
President Obama wants to establish passwords for every citizen to centralize your personal information. Instead of logging onto Facebook or one's bank using separate passwords established with each individual company or website, you will be required to use the government-issued password.
According to the Washington Times, here are the problems with "ObamaNet":
- The government will be able to track every website you visit and every keystroke you send on your home computer.
- The government will be able to track every purchase you make and every deposit and withdrawal, and gain access to your electronic health care records.
- The government will be able to track every blog comment you make, along with every Facebook and Twitter post.
- The government will be able to create lists of your friends and acquaintances and lists of all your political affiliations, political donations, club memberships, hobbies and interests.
Although the White House will tell you it is a voluntary program, the government "voluntary" programs too often end up becoming mandatory.
5 to 20 Cents on the Dollar - The Muni Bond Disaster is Here - NOW - Yes, This Does Effect Little Old You
By Nicholas Contompasis
Those that sell you munis will tell you "but, but munis always pay back almost 100 cents on the dollar, even in bankruptcy". Not quite. Bankrupt Vallejo just filed a POR to pay back unsecured creditors between 5 and 20 cents. "The city regrets that it cannot pay a higher percentage,” Vallejo officials said in the court filings. “The city lacks the revenues to do so while maintaining an adequate level of municipal services, such as the provision of fire and police protection and the repairing of the city’s streets."
The reaction to this when holders of other unsecured debt for all those other (hundreds or thousands) insolvent cities, towns, and states realize that a 5 cent recovery is all too possible, will further the pressure on the sector. Stories like this that will become all the more common in coming months will make it tough for the muni's raise new capital through bond sales at reasonable rates and for present investors to remain in their holdings. It creates a negative feedback loop just like when mortgage bonds began to collapse in 2006. Selling brings lower prices, which begets fear and more selling and so on.
The reason nobody will admit this is a serious problem is because any money manager you ask about them either owns them or sells them. If not, they know that what they do sell you -- stocks, mutual funds etc -- would go through a really bad period if the muni bond market were to come under fire.
There are $3 trillion in outstanding munis covering literally everything from state general obligations to city parks. Obviously, not all are bad. Those in over-levered cities and states such as CA, NV, FL, IL, NJ etc are much higher risk than those in Montana for example. But it doesn't not take all to be bad to put serious pressure in the sector and cause a rout. Remember, Subprime mortgage bonds were only $2 trillion of a $57 trillion mortgage market and look what happened when they imploded. Further, the popularity of bond funds and etf's in recent years have made it so investors can easily sell and buy but when you sell an etf made up of a variety of bonds it basically causes indiscriminate selling pressure across the sector.
It's a simple math problem of paying for the massive excess debt, leverage and spending from 2000 through 2007 with today's revenue. Some municipalities barely had a balanced budget in 2006 at the peak of revenue. Raise taxes by double digit percentages? Not in CA due to props 25 and 26 both passing. And even if they did, it would drive revenue from muni. Cut services -- again, it drives away income.
Those that sell you munis will tell you "but, but munis always pay back almost 100 cents on the dollar, even in bankruptcy". Not quite. Bankrupt Vallejo just filed a POR to pay back unsecured creditors between 5 and 20 cents. "The city regrets that it cannot pay a higher percentage,” Vallejo officials said in the court filings. “The city lacks the revenues to do so while maintaining an adequate level of municipal services, such as the provision of fire and police protection and the repairing of the city’s streets."
The reaction to this when holders of other unsecured debt for all those other (hundreds or thousands) insolvent cities, towns, and states realize that a 5 cent recovery is all too possible, will further the pressure on the sector. Stories like this that will become all the more common in coming months will make it tough for the muni's raise new capital through bond sales at reasonable rates and for present investors to remain in their holdings. It creates a negative feedback loop just like when mortgage bonds began to collapse in 2006. Selling brings lower prices, which begets fear and more selling and so on.
The reason nobody will admit this is a serious problem is because any money manager you ask about them either owns them or sells them. If not, they know that what they do sell you -- stocks, mutual funds etc -- would go through a really bad period if the muni bond market were to come under fire.
There are $3 trillion in outstanding munis covering literally everything from state general obligations to city parks. Obviously, not all are bad. Those in over-levered cities and states such as CA, NV, FL, IL, NJ etc are much higher risk than those in Montana for example. But it doesn't not take all to be bad to put serious pressure in the sector and cause a rout. Remember, Subprime mortgage bonds were only $2 trillion of a $57 trillion mortgage market and look what happened when they imploded. Further, the popularity of bond funds and etf's in recent years have made it so investors can easily sell and buy but when you sell an etf made up of a variety of bonds it basically causes indiscriminate selling pressure across the sector.
It's a simple math problem of paying for the massive excess debt, leverage and spending from 2000 through 2007 with today's revenue. Some municipalities barely had a balanced budget in 2006 at the peak of revenue. Raise taxes by double digit percentages? Not in CA due to props 25 and 26 both passing. And even if they did, it would drive revenue from muni. Cut services -- again, it drives away income.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Obama Kisses China's Ass Today
“When the Soviet Union fell, it tumbled into the arms of the United States, a country that respects human rights and promotes Democracy and self rule. What if the United States failed, whose arms would we fall into, China? We better get our act together or else the people of the "shining city on a hill" will be harvesting rice paddies, forced to have one child per family, told what their occupations will be and condemn future generations to poverty. The obvious arrogance of the President of China towards our government today should make it crystal clear that the landlord has arrived and plans on raising the rent.”
By Nicholas Contompasis
By Nicholas Contompasis
Anonymous Pipe-bomb on MLK Day – In Your Dreams Obama
By Nicholas Contompasis
This past Martin Luther King Day was marred by a phone activated pipe-bomb found in an abandoned backpack along the course of a scheduled parade in Spokane, Washington. The FBI is hot on the case and hasn’t released any information other than what I’ve already mentioned.
This is an important story to watch because of the way the mainstream media has already peppered it with subtle innuendos. Time, CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN have already started setting up this story as a domestic terror plot with absolutely no evidence. CBS News just this morning released its updated story on the situation and has implied that since Washington state is next to the state of Idaho where ten years ago a white supremacist group was disbanded; that’s who must have done it. Their stretch to link right wing Tea Party activists has become absurd and is bordering on insane. They are now so desperate to find someone, anyone who can fit the bill of being racist; they are now imagining fairytale scenarios and publishing them.
The Obama administration’s supporters are so desperate; it wouldn’t surprise me if they attempted to create a false flag event such as the pipe-bomb in Spokane. Any connection to violence and the Tea Party, whether true or not could affect its political strength, which has cornered the left wing liberals into a box they may never emerge from.
It’s not far fetched to expect such a reaction from Obama supporters if you know anything about who they really are. Socialists, Marxists, atheists, communists, anarchists and black secessionists help make up this group of disenfranchised people who would invite a well placed bomb they can blame on someone else.
So, we over here at The Left - Watch What They Do, Not What They Say, will be watching this story and will be reporting to you as it develops.
Retirements Boost GOP's 2012 Senate Hopes and More
By Nicholas Contompasis
"The recent announced retirements in the Senate increases already mounting pressure on President Obama. His agenda has not only been stopped in it's tracks but what he has accomplished could be overturned by the Tea Party led Congress. Based on current polls, any Senator expecting to win in 2012 better vote for the repeal of ObamaCare which should be passed today in the House of Representatives. Democrats in the Senate, the whores that they are, just could surprise the President."
Borrowed from the Daily Beast - Sorry about that
Start counting chickens: Republicans are hopeful about capturing the Senate in 2012. With North Dakota Democrat Kent Conrad retiring, at least seven races currently look to be toss-ups, and the GOP only needs four of them for a majority. Competitive races include North Dakota, Virginia, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, Florida, and Ohio, plus maybe Wisconsin, if Herb Kohl retires, and Hawaii, if Governor Linda Lingle challenges Daniel Akaka. The sole bright spot for liberals? Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman—long a thorn in their side (though an instrumental senator in repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell)—is retiring.
"The recent announced retirements in the Senate increases already mounting pressure on President Obama. His agenda has not only been stopped in it's tracks but what he has accomplished could be overturned by the Tea Party led Congress. Based on current polls, any Senator expecting to win in 2012 better vote for the repeal of ObamaCare which should be passed today in the House of Representatives. Democrats in the Senate, the whores that they are, just could surprise the President."
Borrowed from the Daily Beast - Sorry about that
Start counting chickens: Republicans are hopeful about capturing the Senate in 2012. With North Dakota Democrat Kent Conrad retiring, at least seven races currently look to be toss-ups, and the GOP only needs four of them for a majority. Competitive races include North Dakota, Virginia, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, Florida, and Ohio, plus maybe Wisconsin, if Herb Kohl retires, and Hawaii, if Governor Linda Lingle challenges Daniel Akaka. The sole bright spot for liberals? Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman—long a thorn in their side (though an instrumental senator in repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell)—is retiring.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
CIA Update 2/22/11 on the Assassinated John Wheeler III
"By Nicholas Contompasis
John Wheeler's employment with The Mitre Corporation and their connection to the CIA is No Secret. John Wheeler was an important man in the intelligence community with many secrets. His assassination is a much bigger deal than the media is reporting. Was he tortured before being murdered to find out information or was he rubbed out because he was a threat to someone big? Was John Wheeler to testify at the upcoming congressional hearings against the Obama Administration? Time will tell."
Update - 2/22/11
New Details on the Wheeler Murder
For the better part of two days before his body was found, Jack Wheeler had fallen out of contact with his world.
Usually tied to his cellphone and e-mail, he went silent. He somehow got from his home to Wilmington — about 8 miles away — where video cameras at various locations showed him wandering about, disheveled and seemingly confused. In the last of the grainy videos, taken hours after Dill found Wheeler's house in disarray, he's seen walking down the street toward one of the city's rougher neighborhoods, pulling up the hood of a sweatshirt.
Less than 12 hours later, his body was spotted at the landfill. It was in one of the 10 Dumpsters picked up that morning by a trash truck in Newark, Del., a city nearly 15 miles from where Wheeler was last seen. The coroner concluded that Wheeler had been killed. Cause of death: blunt force trauma, likely the result of a beating.
Today, seven weeks after Wheeler's body was discovered, the killing has become a confounding nightmare for Wheeler's friends and family, and a whodunit for police.
Neither the intense publicity surrounding the case nor the $25,000 reward offered by Wheeler's family has yielded a viable suspect. Though police returned to the Wheeler house last week and have removed the part of the kitchen floor where Dill saw the footprint, they concede they have no idea where Wheeler was killed, or why.
"There are a lot of things we still don't know," says Lt. Mark Farrall, spokesman for the Newark Police Department.
Police offer few particulars, but in interviews with Wheeler's neighbors, USA TODAY learned previously undisclosed details about the state of Wheeler's house on the day he disappeared, and about a man who appeared to be trying to burn down a house across from the Wheelers' two nights before.
The details might offer new insights into Wheeler's disappearance and death. Or, like many of the other bits of information from Wheeler's final days, they may deepen what seems an intractable mystery. A range of Internet conspiracy theories have surfaced, many linking the killing to Wheeler's stint as a senior Pentagon official with access to secret information during the Bush administration.
As far-fetched as those theories might seem — one has government agents killing Wheeler because he was going to blow the whistle on secret tests of chemical weapons slated for use in Afghanistan — Wheeler's wife wonders whether someone may have been hired to kill her husband.
"I think perhaps no one has been on the reward because they've already been paid," Klyce told the online magazine Slate. She pointed to where authorities found his body — in a landfill. "The way they disposed of his body, it's a miracle anybody ever found it. That just sounds like a pro to me."
Klyce would not talk with USA TODAY, but the lawyer hired to represent the family during the investigation says her feelings are more nuanced than what she told Slate. "Ms. Klyce is distraught and frustrated that she doesn't know what happened to her husband," lawyer Colm Connolly says. "At times, she speculates it was a random act; at times, she speculates it was a targeted killing."
As police work to reconstruct what happened in the days leading up to his death, the questions they face are daunting. Perhaps most important: trying to make sense of a series of disparate and perplexing events.
Does a critical clue lie somewhere in Wheeler's last days?
Emotional and forgetful
John Parsons Wheeler III — Jack to those who knew him — graduated near the top of the famed West Point Class of '66 and was a key figure in The Long Gray Line, a seminal book that followed that class through Vietnam. There, the class suffered the highest casualty rate of any at the academy. Fitting, then, that Wheeler later would be a driving force in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built on the National Mall.
He was similarly accomplished in the civilian world — an MBA from Harvard, a law degree from Yale, an appointment as secretary of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He held notable positions at the Pentagon, including a stint as a top assistant to the secretary of the Air Force from 2005 through 2008.
He also devoted himself to causes outside government: four years as chairman and CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and another four as president of the Deafness Research Foundation.
In recent months, he'd been spending a few days a week in the capital, where MITRE had hired him as a part-time consultant. His job: to facilitate discussions among government, industry and academia on cybersecurity, an issue in which Wheeler had immersed himself for years.
At times, colleagues found him moody and emotional. He sometimes got worked up almost to the point of tears at Pentagon senior staff meetings. More than once, he was barred from an online Class of '66 forum for posting personal or abusive attacks when he was upset with someone's position on an issue important to him.
"He could exhibit a high level of frustration and got agitated at colleagues who opposed him, but he was always compassionate," says former Air Force secretary Michael Wynne, Wheeler's ex-boss and a West Point classmate. "His determination was just bulldozer-like and always for the little guy."
Wheeler struggled with depression and bipolar disorder, taking medication to help control the problems. Friends and family suspect he had a touch of Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that can affect a person's ability to handle social contacts properly. Often, he was absent-minded. He occasionally left his car at the Wilmington train station, forgetting it was there and taking a cab home.
Wheeler spent Christmas in New York at a condo he and his wife owned — a ninth-floor unit on 124th Street in the heart of Harlem. The two had been married for more than 13 years, and they each had two children — now grown — from previous marriages. She worked in New York, and the couple split time between the condo and the house in New Castle.
Wheeler had arrived on Christmas Eve and stayed several days. He seemed like his normal self, Connolly says. He posted some messages on the West Point class forum, including a reflective piece on Christmas Day that talked at length about memories from the academy and classmates lost in Vietnam. The next day, Dec. 26, a blizzard hammered the city, and Wheeler posted a photo of the snow from his condo window. On Dec. 27, he made more posts.
One of his last messages was a critique of the government's preparedness for cyberattacks.
"In cyberspace and on power grid, U.S. is standing around in boxer shorts," he wrote.
That night, Dec. 27, Wheeler had dinner in the city with friends.
Earlier in the day, he had told his wife that he had to leave the next morning for Washington to take care of a few things; Klyce wanted him to stay longer and felt annoyed, Connolly says. The week from Christmas to New Year's was one of her favorites, a chance to relax, spend some downtime together, maybe go out for dinner. But Wheeler's mind was set, and as was often the case, there would be no changing it.
Wheeler left before dawn the next morning, Dec. 28, to catch an early train for Washington.
His family had seen him alive for the last time.
Dec. 28: 'It was a guy'
Around 11:30 that night, B. Scott Morris, one of Wheeler's neighbors, was in bed watching TV when he heard a loud thud from outside.
It's got to be kids messing around in thathouse being built across the street, he thought.
Morris, 44, went to the window and peered out at the house, a stark silhouette perched alone on the edge of a stretch of parkland along the Delaware River. A glow shone from inside, out the unfinished windows.
Morris heard another thud and the glow grew brighter.
Had a homeless man gone inside? Maybe lit a fire in a trash can to keep warm? Morris went downstairs to get a better look from his living room.
That's when he saw him: a man, thick and average height, wearing a light-colored hooded sweatshirt and dark sweat pants. Morris watched as he tossed what looked like a ball of fire through the opening of a first-floor window. Thud. Then another. Thud. His motion was easy, like a pitcher in softball, and licks of flame clung to his gloved hand after each toss. To Morris, it seemed that some sort of accelerant was sticking to him.
Morris opened the front door and flicked on the light. The man turned and walked calmly into the open parkland next to the house, heading toward the riverbank. Morris hurried to his phone and dialed 911. He never got a look at the man's face.
Firetrucks were dispatched at 11:36 p.m., and by the time they got there a few minutes later, it looked to Morris like the flames had gone out by themselves. The police came, too, and Morris told them about the man he had seen at the house.
A short time later, the police returned to the house and said they'd found a couple of teenagers in the park with unlit roman candles. Morris was adamant. It wasn't them. "No, it was a guy," Morris said. "He walked down towards the river path."
The teenage boys also told police they had seen a man. Morris, speaking publicly about that night for the first time, recalls that the police seemed unconvinced.
Investigators with the state fire marshal's office found smoke bombs in the house — the sort of devices commonly used in pest control to flush rodents from their burrows. The damage was limited to some scorched plywood flooring. The boys were cleared almost immediately, and no other suspects have been identified publicly by investigators.
Was it Wheeler?
Wheeler and his wife had been fighting to stop construction of the house, which blocked the sweeping river view from their front porch. Standing on the edge of the open riverfront parkland, it sticks out as a big, new building in a quaint historic district filled with smaller, antique row houses and colonial-style homes, some dating to the early 1700s.
In a series of legal challenges, the Wheelers argued that the project violated regulations aimed at preserving the area's historic character. They were among dozens of neighbors who signed a petition opposing it.
Wheeler spoke fiercely against it, calling it an affront to the historic character of an area where William Penn first set foot on American soil in 1682. His emotions ran so high that he once lit into Dill for not being outraged enough.
"Would William Penn have wanted that house on this historic piece of land?" he demanded, his voice rising.
Beginning the night of the fire — Dec. 28 — Wheeler's whereabouts are largely a mystery, punctuated only by a few puzzling sightings and the snippets of footage from the surveillance cameras he happened to pass.
He had spent much of that day, a Tuesday, in Washington, but if anyone knows where he was or what he was doing, they haven't said so publicly.
Wheeler posted a couple of messages to the Class of '66 forum that afternoon. The last, sent at 5:10 p.m., seems an unremarkable comment about his gripes with what he saw as corruption in the NCAA's management of college sports.
At the end of that day, he was scheduled to ride the train to Wilmington, about an hour and a half by Amtrak. Police say he made it back, though they're not sure he was on the train he had planned to take.
Locals at a bar and bistro up the street argue about whether Wheeler was the man Morris saw tossing the fire balls late that night. A Philadelphia TV station reported after his slaying that investigators had found his iPhone in the fire-bombed house. Police have not confirmed the report and haven't identified Wheeler as a suspect in the fire. Fire investigators never got a chance to talk to him. Whether Wheeler was home when the firetrucks pulled up remains unclear. If he was, he didn't come outside.
Could the man tossing the fire bombs have been Wheeler? Morris says he doesn't think so.
"He was built like Wheeler, but to me, I just don't think it was him," Morris says. "I know smart people do stupid things, but it just doesn't make sense. And the guy didn't even try to run away. He was really calm. It still puts a chill down my spine."
Morris and others wonder: If the man wasn't Wheeler, who was he? And could he be connected to the Wheeler killing?
Dec. 29: Wheeler's last e-mail?
The next public sighting of Wheeler came at 8:45 the following morning — Wednesday, Dec. 29.
Wheeler was back at the Wilmington train station, about 6 miles from his house. His car was in a garage nearby (after he was killed, police found it in the spot where he left it before his stop home on Christmas Eve, and garage records indicated it had not been moved). Instead of picking up the car, he grabbed a cab that morning. It's unclear how he got to the train station or whether he came from home.
"Hotel du Pont."
Roland Spence glanced back at the man who'd hopped into his cab.
Wheeler wore a sport coat and slacks. No suit, no coat. No luggage. Not even a briefcase. Not the usual businessman type, Spence thought.
The ride was short, less than a mile, and Wheeler was chatty and relaxed, Spence recalls. They talked about the hotel, a grand old building with luxury suites that has hosted everyone from Charles Lindbergh to President Kennedy.
"I wouldn't stay there," Wheeler told Spence. "Not worth the money."
Must be meeting someone, Spence thought.
At the hotel, Wheeler hopped out of the cab, handing Spence $12 for a $9 fare.
Less than an hour later, Wheeler sent an e-mail to his daughter Kate — nothing alarming, just benign chatter. The family can tell from the e-mail that it did not come from Wheeler's iPhone, says Connolly, a former U.S. attorney now with the Morgan Lewis law firm.
"We have asked the authorities to track down the IP address for the computer that was used to send the e-mail," he says.
For the next eight hours, the man who was always in touch went dark.
Then, around 6 p.m., Wheeler walked into the Happy Harry's drug store several blocks from his house in New Castle. He headed toward the prescription area in back and approached Murali Gouro at the counter. The pharmacist knew him. He considered Wheeler a regular. Tonight, something seemed odd. Gouro thought Wheeler looked a little upset.
"Can you give me a ride to Wilmington?" Wheeler asked.
Gouro couldn't but offered to call Wheeler a cab. Wheeler declined and left.
'I've been robbed'
Forty minutes later, Wheeler was back in downtown Wilmington. There, surveillance cameras show him in the parking garage at the New Castle County Courthouse. In the video, Wheeler appears slightly disheveled and maybe a bit confused.
He carries his right shoe in his left hand, his gait slightly lopsided, perhaps because he is wearing one shoe. He had changed at some point in the day — in the video he wears a black suit with a white shirt, a different outfit from what he had on when he took the cab to the Hotel du Pont that morning. In the video at the parking garage, Wheeler walks past the attendant's window, then backtracks to say a few words to the person behind the glass. He jabs his finger for emphasis before turning again and walking out.
The attendant called security, suspecting Wheeler may have been homeless.
Cathleen Boyer, one of the courthouse guards, got the call just before 7 p.m. She and a couple of state workers ran into Wheeler as he left the garage's lower level. Boyer looked him over. She says she noticed some dirt on his right pants leg but he didn't smell of liquor.
His eyes ... they were red. Like he's been crying or something, Boyer thought.
"I've been robbed," Wheeler told them. His briefcase, he said, had been stolen. Boyer and the workers asked whether he was OK. They offered him money. Wheeler wouldn't take it. "I have plenty of money," he said.
He told them he was staying at a nearby hotel, Boyer recalls, and then mentioned something about his brother and mother before walking off.
From there, Wheeler's movements became even more mystifying. He wasn't registered at the Hotel du Pont, and police, despite canvassing nearby hotels and shelters, haven't figured out where he spent the night.
Dec. 30: The last sightings
The next day — Dec. 30, the day his neighbor Gill discovered Wheeler's home in disarray — Wheeler was spotted in downtown Wilmington again.
He was at the Nemours Building, a historical, 14-story landmark with shops and a cafe in the lobby, apartments and business suites on the upper floors.
In the midafternoon, police say, several people saw him wandering around the lobby, looking disoriented. They asked whether he needed help. Wheeler declined. He went to the 10th-floor offices of the Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz law firm and asked to speak to a managing partner. The firm has no connection to the newly hired Wheeler family lawyer Connolly, and it's unclear why Wheeler stopped there.
Wheeler didn't stay long. He left before speaking to the partner, stopping to ask for train fare on the way out. The request seems especially strange given that the night before, after saying he had been robbed, Wheeler told the courthouse guard that he still had "plenty of money."
At around 8:30 p.m., surveillance cameras show him leaving the building. By then, he was wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt, clothing that friends and family say they had never seen on him. As he walked out, he pulled the hood over his head.
A few minutes later, a camera around the corner at the Hotel du Pont valet station shows him walking down the street. He disappeared from view at 8:42 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 30, headed toward the city's rough East side.
To date, few tips
The trash truck that picked up Wheeler's body had emptied 10 Dumpsters before it dropped its load at the landfill Dec. 31. All of the Dumpsters were in Newark, about a half-hour away by car from the part of Wilmington where Wheeler was last seen.
Some of the Dumpsters where his body could have been left are in plain view — outside a McDonald's and a bank. Others are more remote — behind a Goodwill store, in an alley behind the library. Although video cameras are trained on some of them, none appears to have captured clues to solve the case.
For the family, the weeks since Wheeler's death have been trying. "They're frustrated by the apparent lack of progress in the investigation and the unwillingness of authorities to share information with them," lawyer Connolly says. When the medical examiner announced the cause of death, the family learned the findings through the news media, Connolly says.
At the end of January, a month after Wheeler's death, the family offered the $25,000 reward. Police set up a tip line but say they've been disappointed by what has come in.
Newcastle County Parking Authority via AP
Surveillance video shows Jack Wheeler inside a garage in Wilmington, Del.
Residents of New Castle talk about whether Wheeler simply suffered a breakdown, losing his grip on reality and wandering into the wrong neighborhood. Maybe he antagonized the wrong person; maybe a robbery became a homicide.
Others, including some neighbors and friends, say that theory leaves too many unanswered questions. Did dumping a body 15 miles from where Wheeler was last seen indicate that he was killed by a professional, as Wheeler's wife has speculated? And what about the man who fire-bombed the house across from Wheeler's?
Friends who watched the surveillance video taken in Wheeler's final hours found it disturbing to see a man known for his sharp intellect in such a bewildered state.
Jeff Rogers was close to Wheeler for six decades, since grade school. They double-dated together as teens, attended West Point together, and when Rogers married, Wheeler was his best man. When he saw the tape, some of the physical mannerisms rang true — the arm outstretched during a moment of thought. But the man in the video wasn't the Jack Wheeler he knew.
"The physical disorientation, the lack of control, walking around with one shoe, none of that was Jack," Rogers says. "It was completely unlike him. I don't know what happened, but something happened to him."
In April, Rogers will be among scores of family, friends and admirers who are likely to attend a memorial service for Wheeler in the chapel at Arlington National Cemetery. They'll remember a life of achievement, a life well lived. By then, they hope these questions might have answers: What happened to Jack Wheeler? Who killed him? And why?
C.I.A. - John P. Wheeler III Murder Update: Dead End So Far - Big Surprise
Borrowed from the Examiner.Com - Thank you
You know how it is when you are driving in a winter snow storm and get to the point you are unable to see the car in front of you - or even the road? If you are careening down a mountain that's a serious danger; same thing for a homicide investigation like John P. Wheeler III.
Newark Police Department can't go willy nilly off into their own little personal crusade when considering suspects or preparing to arrest someone. They need the cold hard facts to support their actions in the light of day. They need to traverse their investigation as slowly and diligently as you would down that mountain.
In fact, just as you might have to stop in your tracks on a dangerous snowy road to get your bearings - or to wait until it clears a bit, so you can see better - law enforcement has to do the same thing too, at times, in a murder investigation.
Will Newark PD solve Wheeler case?
John Wheeler's employment with The Mitre Corporation and their connection to the CIA is No Secret. John Wheeler was an important man in the intelligence community with many secrets. His assassination is a much bigger deal than the media is reporting. Was he tortured before being murdered to find out information or was he rubbed out because he was a threat to someone big? Was John Wheeler to testify at the upcoming congressional hearings against the Obama Administration? Time will tell."
Update - 2/22/11
New Details on the Wheeler Murder
For the better part of two days before his body was found, Jack Wheeler had fallen out of contact with his world.
Usually tied to his cellphone and e-mail, he went silent. He somehow got from his home to Wilmington — about 8 miles away — where video cameras at various locations showed him wandering about, disheveled and seemingly confused. In the last of the grainy videos, taken hours after Dill found Wheeler's house in disarray, he's seen walking down the street toward one of the city's rougher neighborhoods, pulling up the hood of a sweatshirt.
Less than 12 hours later, his body was spotted at the landfill. It was in one of the 10 Dumpsters picked up that morning by a trash truck in Newark, Del., a city nearly 15 miles from where Wheeler was last seen. The coroner concluded that Wheeler had been killed. Cause of death: blunt force trauma, likely the result of a beating.
Today, seven weeks after Wheeler's body was discovered, the killing has become a confounding nightmare for Wheeler's friends and family, and a whodunit for police.
Neither the intense publicity surrounding the case nor the $25,000 reward offered by Wheeler's family has yielded a viable suspect. Though police returned to the Wheeler house last week and have removed the part of the kitchen floor where Dill saw the footprint, they concede they have no idea where Wheeler was killed, or why.
"There are a lot of things we still don't know," says Lt. Mark Farrall, spokesman for the Newark Police Department.
Police offer few particulars, but in interviews with Wheeler's neighbors, USA TODAY learned previously undisclosed details about the state of Wheeler's house on the day he disappeared, and about a man who appeared to be trying to burn down a house across from the Wheelers' two nights before.
The details might offer new insights into Wheeler's disappearance and death. Or, like many of the other bits of information from Wheeler's final days, they may deepen what seems an intractable mystery. A range of Internet conspiracy theories have surfaced, many linking the killing to Wheeler's stint as a senior Pentagon official with access to secret information during the Bush administration.
As far-fetched as those theories might seem — one has government agents killing Wheeler because he was going to blow the whistle on secret tests of chemical weapons slated for use in Afghanistan — Wheeler's wife wonders whether someone may have been hired to kill her husband.
"I think perhaps no one has been on the reward because they've already been paid," Klyce told the online magazine Slate. She pointed to where authorities found his body — in a landfill. "The way they disposed of his body, it's a miracle anybody ever found it. That just sounds like a pro to me."
Klyce would not talk with USA TODAY, but the lawyer hired to represent the family during the investigation says her feelings are more nuanced than what she told Slate. "Ms. Klyce is distraught and frustrated that she doesn't know what happened to her husband," lawyer Colm Connolly says. "At times, she speculates it was a random act; at times, she speculates it was a targeted killing."
As police work to reconstruct what happened in the days leading up to his death, the questions they face are daunting. Perhaps most important: trying to make sense of a series of disparate and perplexing events.
Does a critical clue lie somewhere in Wheeler's last days?
Emotional and forgetful
John Parsons Wheeler III — Jack to those who knew him — graduated near the top of the famed West Point Class of '66 and was a key figure in The Long Gray Line, a seminal book that followed that class through Vietnam. There, the class suffered the highest casualty rate of any at the academy. Fitting, then, that Wheeler later would be a driving force in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built on the National Mall.
He was similarly accomplished in the civilian world — an MBA from Harvard, a law degree from Yale, an appointment as secretary of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He held notable positions at the Pentagon, including a stint as a top assistant to the secretary of the Air Force from 2005 through 2008.
He also devoted himself to causes outside government: four years as chairman and CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and another four as president of the Deafness Research Foundation.
In recent months, he'd been spending a few days a week in the capital, where MITRE had hired him as a part-time consultant. His job: to facilitate discussions among government, industry and academia on cybersecurity, an issue in which Wheeler had immersed himself for years.
At times, colleagues found him moody and emotional. He sometimes got worked up almost to the point of tears at Pentagon senior staff meetings. More than once, he was barred from an online Class of '66 forum for posting personal or abusive attacks when he was upset with someone's position on an issue important to him.
"He could exhibit a high level of frustration and got agitated at colleagues who opposed him, but he was always compassionate," says former Air Force secretary Michael Wynne, Wheeler's ex-boss and a West Point classmate. "His determination was just bulldozer-like and always for the little guy."
Wheeler struggled with depression and bipolar disorder, taking medication to help control the problems. Friends and family suspect he had a touch of Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that can affect a person's ability to handle social contacts properly. Often, he was absent-minded. He occasionally left his car at the Wilmington train station, forgetting it was there and taking a cab home.
Wheeler spent Christmas in New York at a condo he and his wife owned — a ninth-floor unit on 124th Street in the heart of Harlem. The two had been married for more than 13 years, and they each had two children — now grown — from previous marriages. She worked in New York, and the couple split time between the condo and the house in New Castle.
Wheeler had arrived on Christmas Eve and stayed several days. He seemed like his normal self, Connolly says. He posted some messages on the West Point class forum, including a reflective piece on Christmas Day that talked at length about memories from the academy and classmates lost in Vietnam. The next day, Dec. 26, a blizzard hammered the city, and Wheeler posted a photo of the snow from his condo window. On Dec. 27, he made more posts.
One of his last messages was a critique of the government's preparedness for cyberattacks.
"In cyberspace and on power grid, U.S. is standing around in boxer shorts," he wrote.
That night, Dec. 27, Wheeler had dinner in the city with friends.
Earlier in the day, he had told his wife that he had to leave the next morning for Washington to take care of a few things; Klyce wanted him to stay longer and felt annoyed, Connolly says. The week from Christmas to New Year's was one of her favorites, a chance to relax, spend some downtime together, maybe go out for dinner. But Wheeler's mind was set, and as was often the case, there would be no changing it.
Wheeler left before dawn the next morning, Dec. 28, to catch an early train for Washington.
His family had seen him alive for the last time.
Dec. 28: 'It was a guy'
Around 11:30 that night, B. Scott Morris, one of Wheeler's neighbors, was in bed watching TV when he heard a loud thud from outside.
It's got to be kids messing around in thathouse being built across the street, he thought.
Morris, 44, went to the window and peered out at the house, a stark silhouette perched alone on the edge of a stretch of parkland along the Delaware River. A glow shone from inside, out the unfinished windows.
Morris heard another thud and the glow grew brighter.
Had a homeless man gone inside? Maybe lit a fire in a trash can to keep warm? Morris went downstairs to get a better look from his living room.
That's when he saw him: a man, thick and average height, wearing a light-colored hooded sweatshirt and dark sweat pants. Morris watched as he tossed what looked like a ball of fire through the opening of a first-floor window. Thud. Then another. Thud. His motion was easy, like a pitcher in softball, and licks of flame clung to his gloved hand after each toss. To Morris, it seemed that some sort of accelerant was sticking to him.
Morris opened the front door and flicked on the light. The man turned and walked calmly into the open parkland next to the house, heading toward the riverbank. Morris hurried to his phone and dialed 911. He never got a look at the man's face.
Firetrucks were dispatched at 11:36 p.m., and by the time they got there a few minutes later, it looked to Morris like the flames had gone out by themselves. The police came, too, and Morris told them about the man he had seen at the house.
A short time later, the police returned to the house and said they'd found a couple of teenagers in the park with unlit roman candles. Morris was adamant. It wasn't them. "No, it was a guy," Morris said. "He walked down towards the river path."
The teenage boys also told police they had seen a man. Morris, speaking publicly about that night for the first time, recalls that the police seemed unconvinced.
Investigators with the state fire marshal's office found smoke bombs in the house — the sort of devices commonly used in pest control to flush rodents from their burrows. The damage was limited to some scorched plywood flooring. The boys were cleared almost immediately, and no other suspects have been identified publicly by investigators.
Was it Wheeler?
Wheeler and his wife had been fighting to stop construction of the house, which blocked the sweeping river view from their front porch. Standing on the edge of the open riverfront parkland, it sticks out as a big, new building in a quaint historic district filled with smaller, antique row houses and colonial-style homes, some dating to the early 1700s.
In a series of legal challenges, the Wheelers argued that the project violated regulations aimed at preserving the area's historic character. They were among dozens of neighbors who signed a petition opposing it.
Wheeler spoke fiercely against it, calling it an affront to the historic character of an area where William Penn first set foot on American soil in 1682. His emotions ran so high that he once lit into Dill for not being outraged enough.
"Would William Penn have wanted that house on this historic piece of land?" he demanded, his voice rising.
Beginning the night of the fire — Dec. 28 — Wheeler's whereabouts are largely a mystery, punctuated only by a few puzzling sightings and the snippets of footage from the surveillance cameras he happened to pass.
He had spent much of that day, a Tuesday, in Washington, but if anyone knows where he was or what he was doing, they haven't said so publicly.
Wheeler posted a couple of messages to the Class of '66 forum that afternoon. The last, sent at 5:10 p.m., seems an unremarkable comment about his gripes with what he saw as corruption in the NCAA's management of college sports.
At the end of that day, he was scheduled to ride the train to Wilmington, about an hour and a half by Amtrak. Police say he made it back, though they're not sure he was on the train he had planned to take.
Locals at a bar and bistro up the street argue about whether Wheeler was the man Morris saw tossing the fire balls late that night. A Philadelphia TV station reported after his slaying that investigators had found his iPhone in the fire-bombed house. Police have not confirmed the report and haven't identified Wheeler as a suspect in the fire. Fire investigators never got a chance to talk to him. Whether Wheeler was home when the firetrucks pulled up remains unclear. If he was, he didn't come outside.
Could the man tossing the fire bombs have been Wheeler? Morris says he doesn't think so.
"He was built like Wheeler, but to me, I just don't think it was him," Morris says. "I know smart people do stupid things, but it just doesn't make sense. And the guy didn't even try to run away. He was really calm. It still puts a chill down my spine."
Morris and others wonder: If the man wasn't Wheeler, who was he? And could he be connected to the Wheeler killing?
Dec. 29: Wheeler's last e-mail?
The next public sighting of Wheeler came at 8:45 the following morning — Wednesday, Dec. 29.
Wheeler was back at the Wilmington train station, about 6 miles from his house. His car was in a garage nearby (after he was killed, police found it in the spot where he left it before his stop home on Christmas Eve, and garage records indicated it had not been moved). Instead of picking up the car, he grabbed a cab that morning. It's unclear how he got to the train station or whether he came from home.
"Hotel du Pont."
Roland Spence glanced back at the man who'd hopped into his cab.
Wheeler wore a sport coat and slacks. No suit, no coat. No luggage. Not even a briefcase. Not the usual businessman type, Spence thought.
The ride was short, less than a mile, and Wheeler was chatty and relaxed, Spence recalls. They talked about the hotel, a grand old building with luxury suites that has hosted everyone from Charles Lindbergh to President Kennedy.
"I wouldn't stay there," Wheeler told Spence. "Not worth the money."
Must be meeting someone, Spence thought.
At the hotel, Wheeler hopped out of the cab, handing Spence $12 for a $9 fare.
Less than an hour later, Wheeler sent an e-mail to his daughter Kate — nothing alarming, just benign chatter. The family can tell from the e-mail that it did not come from Wheeler's iPhone, says Connolly, a former U.S. attorney now with the Morgan Lewis law firm.
"We have asked the authorities to track down the IP address for the computer that was used to send the e-mail," he says.
For the next eight hours, the man who was always in touch went dark.
Then, around 6 p.m., Wheeler walked into the Happy Harry's drug store several blocks from his house in New Castle. He headed toward the prescription area in back and approached Murali Gouro at the counter. The pharmacist knew him. He considered Wheeler a regular. Tonight, something seemed odd. Gouro thought Wheeler looked a little upset.
"Can you give me a ride to Wilmington?" Wheeler asked.
Gouro couldn't but offered to call Wheeler a cab. Wheeler declined and left.
'I've been robbed'
Forty minutes later, Wheeler was back in downtown Wilmington. There, surveillance cameras show him in the parking garage at the New Castle County Courthouse. In the video, Wheeler appears slightly disheveled and maybe a bit confused.
He carries his right shoe in his left hand, his gait slightly lopsided, perhaps because he is wearing one shoe. He had changed at some point in the day — in the video he wears a black suit with a white shirt, a different outfit from what he had on when he took the cab to the Hotel du Pont that morning. In the video at the parking garage, Wheeler walks past the attendant's window, then backtracks to say a few words to the person behind the glass. He jabs his finger for emphasis before turning again and walking out.
The attendant called security, suspecting Wheeler may have been homeless.
Cathleen Boyer, one of the courthouse guards, got the call just before 7 p.m. She and a couple of state workers ran into Wheeler as he left the garage's lower level. Boyer looked him over. She says she noticed some dirt on his right pants leg but he didn't smell of liquor.
His eyes ... they were red. Like he's been crying or something, Boyer thought.
"I've been robbed," Wheeler told them. His briefcase, he said, had been stolen. Boyer and the workers asked whether he was OK. They offered him money. Wheeler wouldn't take it. "I have plenty of money," he said.
He told them he was staying at a nearby hotel, Boyer recalls, and then mentioned something about his brother and mother before walking off.
From there, Wheeler's movements became even more mystifying. He wasn't registered at the Hotel du Pont, and police, despite canvassing nearby hotels and shelters, haven't figured out where he spent the night.
Dec. 30: The last sightings
The next day — Dec. 30, the day his neighbor Gill discovered Wheeler's home in disarray — Wheeler was spotted in downtown Wilmington again.
He was at the Nemours Building, a historical, 14-story landmark with shops and a cafe in the lobby, apartments and business suites on the upper floors.
In the midafternoon, police say, several people saw him wandering around the lobby, looking disoriented. They asked whether he needed help. Wheeler declined. He went to the 10th-floor offices of the Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz law firm and asked to speak to a managing partner. The firm has no connection to the newly hired Wheeler family lawyer Connolly, and it's unclear why Wheeler stopped there.
Wheeler didn't stay long. He left before speaking to the partner, stopping to ask for train fare on the way out. The request seems especially strange given that the night before, after saying he had been robbed, Wheeler told the courthouse guard that he still had "plenty of money."
At around 8:30 p.m., surveillance cameras show him leaving the building. By then, he was wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt, clothing that friends and family say they had never seen on him. As he walked out, he pulled the hood over his head.
A few minutes later, a camera around the corner at the Hotel du Pont valet station shows him walking down the street. He disappeared from view at 8:42 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 30, headed toward the city's rough East side.
To date, few tips
The trash truck that picked up Wheeler's body had emptied 10 Dumpsters before it dropped its load at the landfill Dec. 31. All of the Dumpsters were in Newark, about a half-hour away by car from the part of Wilmington where Wheeler was last seen.
Some of the Dumpsters where his body could have been left are in plain view — outside a McDonald's and a bank. Others are more remote — behind a Goodwill store, in an alley behind the library. Although video cameras are trained on some of them, none appears to have captured clues to solve the case.
For the family, the weeks since Wheeler's death have been trying. "They're frustrated by the apparent lack of progress in the investigation and the unwillingness of authorities to share information with them," lawyer Connolly says. When the medical examiner announced the cause of death, the family learned the findings through the news media, Connolly says.
At the end of January, a month after Wheeler's death, the family offered the $25,000 reward. Police set up a tip line but say they've been disappointed by what has come in.
Newcastle County Parking Authority via AP
Surveillance video shows Jack Wheeler inside a garage in Wilmington, Del.
Residents of New Castle talk about whether Wheeler simply suffered a breakdown, losing his grip on reality and wandering into the wrong neighborhood. Maybe he antagonized the wrong person; maybe a robbery became a homicide.
Others, including some neighbors and friends, say that theory leaves too many unanswered questions. Did dumping a body 15 miles from where Wheeler was last seen indicate that he was killed by a professional, as Wheeler's wife has speculated? And what about the man who fire-bombed the house across from Wheeler's?
Friends who watched the surveillance video taken in Wheeler's final hours found it disturbing to see a man known for his sharp intellect in such a bewildered state.
Jeff Rogers was close to Wheeler for six decades, since grade school. They double-dated together as teens, attended West Point together, and when Rogers married, Wheeler was his best man. When he saw the tape, some of the physical mannerisms rang true — the arm outstretched during a moment of thought. But the man in the video wasn't the Jack Wheeler he knew.
"The physical disorientation, the lack of control, walking around with one shoe, none of that was Jack," Rogers says. "It was completely unlike him. I don't know what happened, but something happened to him."
In April, Rogers will be among scores of family, friends and admirers who are likely to attend a memorial service for Wheeler in the chapel at Arlington National Cemetery. They'll remember a life of achievement, a life well lived. By then, they hope these questions might have answers: What happened to Jack Wheeler? Who killed him? And why?
C.I.A. - John P. Wheeler III Murder Update: Dead End So Far - Big Surprise
Borrowed from the Examiner.Com - Thank you
You know how it is when you are driving in a winter snow storm and get to the point you are unable to see the car in front of you - or even the road? If you are careening down a mountain that's a serious danger; same thing for a homicide investigation like John P. Wheeler III.
Newark Police Department can't go willy nilly off into their own little personal crusade when considering suspects or preparing to arrest someone. They need the cold hard facts to support their actions in the light of day. They need to traverse their investigation as slowly and diligently as you would down that mountain.
In fact, just as you might have to stop in your tracks on a dangerous snowy road to get your bearings - or to wait until it clears a bit, so you can see better - law enforcement has to do the same thing too, at times, in a murder investigation.
Will Newark PD solve Wheeler case?
How to Repeal ObamaCare in the Senate
Borrowed from the Heritage Foundation - Thank you
This week the House will pass a bill to repeal Obamacare. Congressional experts will argue that the Senate won’t pass a full repeal. They are correct to argue that full repeal will not be passed by both the House and Senate in the next few months, but they may be wrong that a full repeal bill will not pass in this Congress within the next two years. If Senators don’t take two procedural steps this week, they will make it virtually impossible to ever get a vote on the House-passed full repeal bill this Congress.
The House will pass H.R. 2 this week. Once that bill is passed, it will be sent to the Senate for consideration. Once the Senate receives the bill, any Senator can use Rule 14 to object to the second reading of the bill. This procedural objection will “hold at the desk” the House-passed bill and allow the Senate to act on the full repeal measure.
This week the House will pass a bill to repeal Obamacare. Congressional experts will argue that the Senate won’t pass a full repeal. They are correct to argue that full repeal will not be passed by both the House and Senate in the next few months, but they may be wrong that a full repeal bill will not pass in this Congress within the next two years. If Senators don’t take two procedural steps this week, they will make it virtually impossible to ever get a vote on the House-passed full repeal bill this Congress.
The House will pass H.R. 2 this week. Once that bill is passed, it will be sent to the Senate for consideration. Once the Senate receives the bill, any Senator can use Rule 14 to object to the second reading of the bill. This procedural objection will “hold at the desk” the House-passed bill and allow the Senate to act on the full repeal measure.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Obama Issues New Executive Order - Launches Rule Review, Pledging to Spur Jobs, Growth - You're Two Years To Late - Schmucko
By Nicholas Contompasis
"It appears that President Obama will try and preempt the Tea Party's attempt to attack the thousands of new regulations that are meant to disable the effectiveness of not only the private sector but also our government.
By issuing an executive order his real intent is to simply appear to be concerned with the nightmare of entangling job killing nanny-state regulations.
America will not survive as we once knew it if he persists on strangling our multinational corporations who at this time are looking overseas for greener pastures."
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Borrowed from the Wall Street Journal - Thank you
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama plans a government-wide review of federal regulations, aiming to eliminate rules that stymie economic growth.
President Obama talks on the phone with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R, Va.) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) on January 5.
In an article published in the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama said he intends to issue an executive order initiating a review to "make sure we avoid excessive, inconsistent and redundant regulation," focusing on rules that "stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive." He also suggested future regulations must do their job "while promoting economic growth."
The move is the latest effort by the White House to repair relations with corporate America, hoping to spur investment by the nation's largest multinationals and reduce unemployment.
"It appears that President Obama will try and preempt the Tea Party's attempt to attack the thousands of new regulations that are meant to disable the effectiveness of not only the private sector but also our government.
By issuing an executive order his real intent is to simply appear to be concerned with the nightmare of entangling job killing nanny-state regulations.
America will not survive as we once knew it if he persists on strangling our multinational corporations who at this time are looking overseas for greener pastures."
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Borrowed from the Wall Street Journal - Thank you
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama plans a government-wide review of federal regulations, aiming to eliminate rules that stymie economic growth.
President Obama talks on the phone with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R, Va.) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) on January 5.
In an article published in the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama said he intends to issue an executive order initiating a review to "make sure we avoid excessive, inconsistent and redundant regulation," focusing on rules that "stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive." He also suggested future regulations must do their job "while promoting economic growth."
The move is the latest effort by the White House to repair relations with corporate America, hoping to spur investment by the nation's largest multinationals and reduce unemployment.
Jihadists Promote Theft From Anyone From the West - To Fund Terror
By Catherine Herridge
Borrowed from AP - Thank you
Followers of one of the fastest-growing radical Muslim terror groups are being told to steal, embezzle and seize property – especially from Americans – in order to finance their jihad.
While Muslim teaching generally forbids theft, the new edition of Inspire magazine -- launched by the group behind the air cargo printer bombs in October, the underwear bomb plot in December 2009 and the most recent pre-Christmas alert -- is now telling followers that such crimes are justifiable, especially if the U.S. government and U.S. citizens are targets.
In the fourth edition of the magazine, launched by Al Qaeda in Yemen in July, American-born radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki encourages his disciples to fund more attacks through crime. The Middle East Media Research Institute provided Fox News with its copy of the magazine.
Borrowed from AP - Thank you
Followers of one of the fastest-growing radical Muslim terror groups are being told to steal, embezzle and seize property – especially from Americans – in order to finance their jihad.
While Muslim teaching generally forbids theft, the new edition of Inspire magazine -- launched by the group behind the air cargo printer bombs in October, the underwear bomb plot in December 2009 and the most recent pre-Christmas alert -- is now telling followers that such crimes are justifiable, especially if the U.S. government and U.S. citizens are targets.
In the fourth edition of the magazine, launched by Al Qaeda in Yemen in July, American-born radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki encourages his disciples to fund more attacks through crime. The Middle East Media Research Institute provided Fox News with its copy of the magazine.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
JORDAN: Thousands of Demonstrators Protest Food Prices, Denounce Government
Borrowed from the L.A. Times - Thank you
In an unprecedented development in Jordan, protests similar to those that have rocked Tunisia and Algeria in recent weeks erupted in the Arab kingdom Friday.
Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, Amman, and several other cities to protest rising food prices and unemployment, media reports say.
Aside from complaints, they also pointed rare and stinging criticism toward the Jordanian government, headed by Prime Minister Samir Rifai.
"Down with Rifai's government," protestors chanted as they marched through Amman's city center, according to Agence France-Presse. "Unify yourselves because the government wants to eat your flesh. Raise fuel prices to fill their pockets with millions."
In an unprecedented development in Jordan, protests similar to those that have rocked Tunisia and Algeria in recent weeks erupted in the Arab kingdom Friday.
Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, Amman, and several other cities to protest rising food prices and unemployment, media reports say.
Aside from complaints, they also pointed rare and stinging criticism toward the Jordanian government, headed by Prime Minister Samir Rifai.
"Down with Rifai's government," protestors chanted as they marched through Amman's city center, according to Agence France-Presse. "Unify yourselves because the government wants to eat your flesh. Raise fuel prices to fill their pockets with millions."
Arab Dictators Are Shaking On Their Thrones – Tunisia – Why You Should Watch This Story
By Nicholas Contompasis
"Today Tunisia’s head of security, Ali Seriati was arrested while the former President, Ben Ali is in exile in Saudi Arabia. The country is now attempting to put itself together and should announce on Monday who will be running the place and what direction it will take, Democracy or Police State.
People around the world should watch this transition and the way the world courts handle it. Human rights violations were a way of life in Tunisia under Ali and his henchmen. I’m sure after the dust settles evidence will emerge that will condemn many that ran the government for over twenty years.
This could be the first Muslim nation that would be put to the international test of human rights violations, but will it happen?
If the international community is so concerned with these violations, they now have their first test case of Muslim led rights violations. The ramifications are massive to countries like Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Algeria.
If the people of these Muslim countries know, all they have to do is take to the streets to overthrow their tyrant dictators, it will spread like wildfire and the failed leaders of these failed lands will hang by their balls in the noonday sun."
Tunisia: All Arab Dictators Are Shaking on Their Thrones – Left and Arab Voices on the Insurrection
By Dyab Abou Jahjah
Borrowed from Links – a socialist rag that usually gets it wrong but this time may have something important to say – Thank you
January 16, 2011 -- Abou Jahjah commentsتعليقات أبو -- The Tunisian revolution continues to dictate its own logic on all levels. After attempts by regime leftovers to spread chaos by several techniques (cars driving through the streets shooting at people and houses, randomly destroying infrastructure, etc.), the Tunisian people have organised themselves in committees that have spread all across the country in every neighbourhood and in every city and started patrolling the streets and protecting the people. Popular committees even chased the militias of the old regime and in one case in a shoot out a martyr fell and two militiamen were executed by the people.
There are reports of Israeli activity in Tunisia in support of the counter revolution, also of infiltrators sent in from Libya to sabotage. It is not clear yet if this is a pattern or independent isolated cases.
"Today Tunisia’s head of security, Ali Seriati was arrested while the former President, Ben Ali is in exile in Saudi Arabia. The country is now attempting to put itself together and should announce on Monday who will be running the place and what direction it will take, Democracy or Police State.
People around the world should watch this transition and the way the world courts handle it. Human rights violations were a way of life in Tunisia under Ali and his henchmen. I’m sure after the dust settles evidence will emerge that will condemn many that ran the government for over twenty years.
This could be the first Muslim nation that would be put to the international test of human rights violations, but will it happen?
If the international community is so concerned with these violations, they now have their first test case of Muslim led rights violations. The ramifications are massive to countries like Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Algeria.
If the people of these Muslim countries know, all they have to do is take to the streets to overthrow their tyrant dictators, it will spread like wildfire and the failed leaders of these failed lands will hang by their balls in the noonday sun."
Tunisia: All Arab Dictators Are Shaking on Their Thrones – Left and Arab Voices on the Insurrection
By Dyab Abou Jahjah
Borrowed from Links – a socialist rag that usually gets it wrong but this time may have something important to say – Thank you
January 16, 2011 -- Abou Jahjah commentsتعليقات أبو -- The Tunisian revolution continues to dictate its own logic on all levels. After attempts by regime leftovers to spread chaos by several techniques (cars driving through the streets shooting at people and houses, randomly destroying infrastructure, etc.), the Tunisian people have organised themselves in committees that have spread all across the country in every neighbourhood and in every city and started patrolling the streets and protecting the people. Popular committees even chased the militias of the old regime and in one case in a shoot out a martyr fell and two militiamen were executed by the people.
There are reports of Israeli activity in Tunisia in support of the counter revolution, also of infiltrators sent in from Libya to sabotage. It is not clear yet if this is a pattern or independent isolated cases.
Top 10 Obama Administration Investigation Targets
"If the Republicans have the guts too."
By Nicholas Contompasis
by Human Events - Thank you
Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has signaled he will conduct numerous oversight investigations of the Obama Administration. Here are the Top 10 areas ripe for investigation for Issa and other congressional Republicans:
(1) ObamaCare: Any measure that restructures one-sixth of the U.S. economy bears scrutiny particularly when passage of the bill required legislative bribes such as the Louisiana Purchase and Cornhusker Kickback. To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, now that ObamaCare has passed, let’s see exactly what is in it — and how it got there.
(2) Stimulus: The American people deserve to know what they got for the $787 billion stimulus package that Obama signed in February 2009, including how much money was spent frivolously to publicize the legislation. And where exactly are all those jobs that the administration claims were “created or saved?”
(3) Freddie and Fannie: Previous attempts by congressional Democrats to get to the bottom of the 2008 financial meltdown conveniently overlooked the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. How much of the housing crisis was due to financial donations going to Democratic officials, who overlooked financial transgressions at the agencies so long as mortgages flowed to unworthy credit risks?
By Nicholas Contompasis
by Human Events - Thank you
Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has signaled he will conduct numerous oversight investigations of the Obama Administration. Here are the Top 10 areas ripe for investigation for Issa and other congressional Republicans:
(1) ObamaCare: Any measure that restructures one-sixth of the U.S. economy bears scrutiny particularly when passage of the bill required legislative bribes such as the Louisiana Purchase and Cornhusker Kickback. To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, now that ObamaCare has passed, let’s see exactly what is in it — and how it got there.
(2) Stimulus: The American people deserve to know what they got for the $787 billion stimulus package that Obama signed in February 2009, including how much money was spent frivolously to publicize the legislation. And where exactly are all those jobs that the administration claims were “created or saved?”
(3) Freddie and Fannie: Previous attempts by congressional Democrats to get to the bottom of the 2008 financial meltdown conveniently overlooked the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. How much of the housing crisis was due to financial donations going to Democratic officials, who overlooked financial transgressions at the agencies so long as mortgages flowed to unworthy credit risks?
Update - Russia Warns of "Iranian Chernobyl"
"Since Russia is helping Iran build it's nuclear program, they are the real eyes and ears on the ground in Iran. Yes, Russia is helping Iran acquire nuclear technology so that they can build a bomb, but are they really? One must ask, do they, the Russians, really need or want a radical religious Iran just to the south of them with nuclear bombs and missiles that can deliver them to downtown Moscow? I think the answer is obvious. You would have thought the leaders of Iran who hired them would have asked the very same question. Who's playing stupid here, the Russians or Iran or both? Time will tell as this high stakes chess game plays out.
My Take - Russia is about to teach the Ayatollah a lesson he'll never forget, well at least in a half life of Radioactive decay. So yea wanna play with the big boys huh?"
Nicholas Contompasis
Borrowed from The Telegraph - Thank you
By Con Coughlin
Russian nuclear officials have warned of another Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster at Iran's controversial Bushehr reactor because of the damage caused by the Stuxnet virus, according to the latest Western intelligence reports.
Russian nuclear scientists have raised serious concerns about the extensive damage caused to Bushehr's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus.
Russian nuclear scientists are providing technical assistance to Iran's attempts activate the country's first nuclear power plant at the Gulf port.
But they have raised serious concerns about the extensive damage caused to the plant's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus, which was discovered last year and is widely believed to have been the result of a sophisticated joint US-Israeli cyber attack. According to Western intelligence reports, Russian scientists warned the Kremlin that they could be facing "another Chernobyl" if they were forced to comply with Iran's tight deadline to activate the complex this summer.
After decades of delays over the plant, which was first commissioned by the Shah in the 1970s, Iran's leaders are demanding that scientists stick to the schedule set last year. They argue that any delay would be a blow to Iran's international prestige.
Bushehr is due to produce its first electricity for Iran's national grid this summer after Russian technicians started loading the first nuclear rods into the reactor last October.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's foreign minister who also serves as head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, rejected suggestions earlier this month that the Bushehr opening schedule should be postponed. "All the rumors related to the Westerners' claims that Stuxnet had caused damage to the nuclear plants are rejected," he said.
However, Russian scientists working at the plant have become so concerned by Iran's apparent disregard for nuclear safety issues that they have lobbied the Kremlin directly to postpone activation until at least the end of the year, so that a proper assessment can be made of the damage caused to its computer operations by Stuxnet.
The Iranian government is bitterly opposed to any further delay, which it would regard as another blow to national pride on a project that is more than a decade behind schedule. While Western intelligence officials believe Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, Iran insists the project's goals are peaceful.
The Russian scientists' report to the Kremlin, a copy of which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, concludes that, despite "performing simple, basic tests" on the Bushehr reactor, the Russian team "cannot guarantee safe activation of the reactor".
It also accuses the Iranian management team, which is under intense political pressure to stick to the deadline, of "not exhibiting the professional and moral responsibility" that is normally required. They accuse the Iranians of having "disregard for human life" and warn that Russia could find itself blamed for "another Chernobyl" if it allows Bushehr to go ahead.
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Stuxnet virus had been developed as a joint project by US and Israeli intelligence officials at Israel's top-secret Dimona project in the Negev desert.
The virus was developed at Dimona over a period of two years before it was planted into Iran's nuclear programme, an operation now widely regarded as the world's most successful cyber attack.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, recently declared that the Stuxnet virus had set Iran's nuclear program back by several years.
My Take - Russia is about to teach the Ayatollah a lesson he'll never forget, well at least in a half life of Radioactive decay. So yea wanna play with the big boys huh?"
Nicholas Contompasis
Borrowed from The Telegraph - Thank you
By Con Coughlin
Russian nuclear officials have warned of another Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster at Iran's controversial Bushehr reactor because of the damage caused by the Stuxnet virus, according to the latest Western intelligence reports.
Russian nuclear scientists have raised serious concerns about the extensive damage caused to Bushehr's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus.
Russian nuclear scientists are providing technical assistance to Iran's attempts activate the country's first nuclear power plant at the Gulf port.
But they have raised serious concerns about the extensive damage caused to the plant's computer systems by the mysterious Stuxnet virus, which was discovered last year and is widely believed to have been the result of a sophisticated joint US-Israeli cyber attack. According to Western intelligence reports, Russian scientists warned the Kremlin that they could be facing "another Chernobyl" if they were forced to comply with Iran's tight deadline to activate the complex this summer.
After decades of delays over the plant, which was first commissioned by the Shah in the 1970s, Iran's leaders are demanding that scientists stick to the schedule set last year. They argue that any delay would be a blow to Iran's international prestige.
Bushehr is due to produce its first electricity for Iran's national grid this summer after Russian technicians started loading the first nuclear rods into the reactor last October.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's foreign minister who also serves as head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, rejected suggestions earlier this month that the Bushehr opening schedule should be postponed. "All the rumors related to the Westerners' claims that Stuxnet had caused damage to the nuclear plants are rejected," he said.
However, Russian scientists working at the plant have become so concerned by Iran's apparent disregard for nuclear safety issues that they have lobbied the Kremlin directly to postpone activation until at least the end of the year, so that a proper assessment can be made of the damage caused to its computer operations by Stuxnet.
The Iranian government is bitterly opposed to any further delay, which it would regard as another blow to national pride on a project that is more than a decade behind schedule. While Western intelligence officials believe Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, Iran insists the project's goals are peaceful.
The Russian scientists' report to the Kremlin, a copy of which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, concludes that, despite "performing simple, basic tests" on the Bushehr reactor, the Russian team "cannot guarantee safe activation of the reactor".
It also accuses the Iranian management team, which is under intense political pressure to stick to the deadline, of "not exhibiting the professional and moral responsibility" that is normally required. They accuse the Iranians of having "disregard for human life" and warn that Russia could find itself blamed for "another Chernobyl" if it allows Bushehr to go ahead.
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Stuxnet virus had been developed as a joint project by US and Israeli intelligence officials at Israel's top-secret Dimona project in the Negev desert.
The virus was developed at Dimona over a period of two years before it was planted into Iran's nuclear programme, an operation now widely regarded as the world's most successful cyber attack.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, recently declared that the Stuxnet virus had set Iran's nuclear program back by several years.