By Dr. Richard Swier of Redcounty
I was part of an intense discussion among individuals from France, Austria, Holland, England, Germany, and across America on the Qur'an burning. All of them are all experts on Shariah Islam and the cultures of the countries in which they live. All of us have been reading about Gainesville based Pastor Terry Jones' burning of the Qur'an. Dozens of people from the President on down have given their opinions about what Pastor Jones did and its aftermath. Most of the comments I and other have read have revolve around how out of proportion the reaction to the burning in Afghanistan were. One view has not been covered by anyone to date. Please bear with me as I explain.
The fundamental question is: What did Pastor Jones burn?
The answer is: His property. Pastor Jones bought a copy of the Qur'an and then burned it. It does not matter where you live in the world, property ownership is fundamental to human freedom and individual rights.
Unlike religion, which is personal, ownership of property is universal in its nature.
Some have argued that Pastor Jones' burning of the Qur'an is protected under the First Amendment to our Constitution. While that argument makes perfect sense here in America it does not hold water in most of the world, especially in the Middle East. Even in Europe, First Amendment rights as you and I understand them are not recognized. In Europe they have laws against "hate speech". This is problematic as these laws at times are used to actually suppress free speech. Recently any criticism of Shariah Islam in particular has been singled out for prosecution as hate speech. However, property rights are a completely different matter and should be so.
Man has been arguing over property rights since he began walking on two feet. Wars have been fought to obtain or regain lost property. Laws have been enacted to address ownership of property. Class warfare, as posited by totalitarian regimes, has always revolves around property. The more totalitarian the regime the more property, and thereby the individual, is controlled and ultimately owned by the state. The more free the government the more property is in the hands of the individual. In freedom loving countries the state's role is to protect property at all cost. Property or "the pursuit of happiness" is an unalienable right in America. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot be separated. If these rights are torn asunder then no one is free, except a privileged few rulers or bureaucrats.
What Pastor Jones did is burn his property. It was legally his, an idea embedded in our Constitution and an idea held universally. European serfs fought lords and kings to obtain what? Not freedom but ownership of their property - whether land or the fruits of their labor. That is what drives mankind today and drives the major political conflicts we are seeing not only in the Middle East but across the globe. Who has the right to encumber our property via taxes, regulation and laws. Or at the extreme, confiscation by a few dictators, kings, potentates or oligarchs.
I humbly suggest that Pastor Jones can do what he will with his property.
Those who killed innocents in Afghanistan committed the ultimate crime - the taking of lives, the ultimate property. Those in Afghanistan who rioted were attacking the idea that Pastor Jones owned that book, not what that book represents religiously. That is my take on this issue. I humbly ask for your comments.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Japan’s Tragic Tsunami Trash to Clog Hawaiian, Western U.S. Beaches, Ship Lanes
By Jane Jamison
Timber, homes, upended boats, cars, pieces of human beings
Americans will relive the tragedy of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami over and over again in a sad, personal, and dangerous way in the months and years to come: a huge floating pile of tsunami “trash,” estimated to be at least 500 miles wide, is heading east across the Pacific Ocean. It is expected to hit the beaches of Hawaii and then the western seaboard, from Washington State to San Diego.
“More than 200,000 buildings were washed out by the enormous waves that followed the 9.0 quake on March 11.
There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water.
But even more grisly are the predictions of U.S. oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who is expecting human feet, still in their shoes, to wash up on the West Coast within three years.
‘I’m expecting parts of houses, whole boats and feet in sneakers to wash up,’ Mr Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has spent decades tracking flotsam, told MailOnline.
Several thousand bodies were washed out to sea following the disaster and while most of the limbs will come apart and break down in the water, feet encased in shoes will float, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.
‘I’m expecting the unexpected,’ he added.”
Members of the U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet, who spotted the extraordinary floating rubbish, say they have never seen anything like it and are warning the debris now poses a threat to shipping traffic.
‘It’s very challenging to move through these to consider these boats run on propellers and that these fishing nets or other debris can be dangerous to the vessels that are actually trying to do the work,’ Ensign Vernon Dennis told ABC News.
‘So getting through some of these obstacles doesn’t make much sense if you are going to actually cause more debris by having your own vessel become stuck in one of these waterways.”
Year 3...tsunami trash expected to wash up on west coast
Hawaii News Now reports tourism from Japan, a huge contributor to the Hawaiian economy historically, has already dropped by 28% in April and those visitors are believe to have connected through Japan, not originated there. The impact of years of Japanese trash floating up on the many island beaches is going to be devastating.
Compounding Hawaii’s problem is another huge floating trash heap: The Great Pacific Trash Patch.
Timber, homes, upended boats, cars, pieces of human beings
Americans will relive the tragedy of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami over and over again in a sad, personal, and dangerous way in the months and years to come: a huge floating pile of tsunami “trash,” estimated to be at least 500 miles wide, is heading east across the Pacific Ocean. It is expected to hit the beaches of Hawaii and then the western seaboard, from Washington State to San Diego.
“More than 200,000 buildings were washed out by the enormous waves that followed the 9.0 quake on March 11.
There have been reports of cars, tractor-trailers, capsized ships and even whole houses bobbing around in open water.
But even more grisly are the predictions of U.S. oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who is expecting human feet, still in their shoes, to wash up on the West Coast within three years.
‘I’m expecting parts of houses, whole boats and feet in sneakers to wash up,’ Mr Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has spent decades tracking flotsam, told MailOnline.
Several thousand bodies were washed out to sea following the disaster and while most of the limbs will come apart and break down in the water, feet encased in shoes will float, Mr Ebbesmeyer said.
‘I’m expecting the unexpected,’ he added.”
Members of the U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet, who spotted the extraordinary floating rubbish, say they have never seen anything like it and are warning the debris now poses a threat to shipping traffic.
‘It’s very challenging to move through these to consider these boats run on propellers and that these fishing nets or other debris can be dangerous to the vessels that are actually trying to do the work,’ Ensign Vernon Dennis told ABC News.
‘So getting through some of these obstacles doesn’t make much sense if you are going to actually cause more debris by having your own vessel become stuck in one of these waterways.”
Year 3...tsunami trash expected to wash up on west coast
Hawaii News Now reports tourism from Japan, a huge contributor to the Hawaiian economy historically, has already dropped by 28% in April and those visitors are believe to have connected through Japan, not originated there. The impact of years of Japanese trash floating up on the many island beaches is going to be devastating.
Compounding Hawaii’s problem is another huge floating trash heap: The Great Pacific Trash Patch.
An Update: The Iranian Armageddon
By Alan Caruba
In the months and years leading up to the beginning of World War Two, all the parties knew full well Hitler’s intention to start a war. When he struck a deal with Stalin to divide Poland, the die was cast. The invasion came in September 1939. Previously, diplomats had met with the Nazis to offer them the former Czechoslovakia and turned a blind eye to other provocative events.
World War Two was preceded by Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” that spelled out his plans for Europe’s Jews and the torrent of lies that led to war and the genocide that became known as the Holocaust.
It is not surprising that history is repeating itself as in the case of an April 7 letter to The Wall Street Journal by Alireza Miryousefi of the Iranian Mission to the U.N. “There is no evidence of any military diversion” in Iran’s nuclear facilities claimed Mr. Miryousefi, who went on to assert that “the real threat of nuclear proliferation” was Israel which he described as “the Zionist regime.”
Despite Iran’s support for two terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas, it was Israel, said Mr. Miryousefi, that was “the biggest terrorist and apartheid regime.”
Today, everyone knows the Iran’s crazed ayatollahs intend to secure nuclear weapon capability and everyone knows that, when they do, they will attack Israel with them. They have never ceased to call for its destruction. It is not a question of if, but when.
How close is “when”? The Iranians just released a video titled “The Coming is Near” that describes the current events in the Middle East as the prelude to the coming of the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi, a figure particular to the Shiite branch of Islam and one that Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.
In a nuclear age, as Nikita Krushchev, a former Premier of the Soviet Union, once said, “The living will envy the dead.” Those were the days of the Cold War and, with both the U.S. and Russia possessing nukes, the concept of mutually assured destruction, MAD, was understood. This, however, does not apply to the ayatollahs. They need massive destruction to bring about their Islamic End Times scenario.
In a recent Wall Street Journal interview with Bernard Lewis, the West’s leading scholar on the Middle East, he pointed out that the mullahs “are religious fanatics with an apocalyptic mindset. In Islam, as in Christianity and Judaism, there is an end-of-times scenario—and they think it’s beginning or has already begun.”
The result, said Lewis, is that “mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent—it’s an inducement.”
In the days leading up to World War Two, the diplomatic choice was appeasement. Today, hope is that the mullahs can be deterred long enough that Iranians will somehow bring about regime change from within. The computer virus, Stuxnet, had the affect of interfering with the enrichment process necessary to weaponize uranium, but may not now be a factor.
In the meantime, the Gulf Cooperation Council, composed of six GCC states are discussing a proposal to identify and deport an estimated 20,000 Shiites linked to Iran. In Kuwait the plan would focus on Lebanese Shiites with links to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It is believed that many Iranian agents have been activated this year and, as such, pose a security threat. Said one GCC insider, “For years, the GCC knew of these people, but looked the other way. We can’t look the other way anymore.”
The news, unfortunately, just keeps getting worse and worse. In the muddle that represents the effort to overthrow Libya’s Gadhafi, DebkaFile reports that the “rebels” have sold thousands of chemical shells found in Benghazi to Hezbollah and Hamas, two puppet organizations funded by Iran.
When you add to that the thousands of rockets cached in Lebanon by Hezbollah and the rocketing that has been reinstituted from Gaza by Hamas, you have a trigger for a wider war.
Specifically, you have the elements of the destruction of Israel by the Iranians and the so-called Palestinians, a stateless group that have been the pawns of Iran and Arab nations for more than six decades.
In late March, Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) were joined by twenty-five other Senators who sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to identify specific steps the administration is taking to press the Palestinian Authority to end the “dangerous incitement against Jews and Israel.” The letter was sent in the wake of the terrorist murder of the Fogel family in Itamar and a bombing of a civilian bus in Jerusalem. A school bus has since been attacked.
You don’t have to be a CIA analyst to know that events in the Middle East will be exploited by the Iranians to bring about their apocalyptic End Times aspirations and that the destruction of Israel is, in their view, the trigger. After Israel, the United States and Europe will be next.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
www.redcounty.com
In the months and years leading up to the beginning of World War Two, all the parties knew full well Hitler’s intention to start a war. When he struck a deal with Stalin to divide Poland, the die was cast. The invasion came in September 1939. Previously, diplomats had met with the Nazis to offer them the former Czechoslovakia and turned a blind eye to other provocative events.
World War Two was preceded by Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” that spelled out his plans for Europe’s Jews and the torrent of lies that led to war and the genocide that became known as the Holocaust.
It is not surprising that history is repeating itself as in the case of an April 7 letter to The Wall Street Journal by Alireza Miryousefi of the Iranian Mission to the U.N. “There is no evidence of any military diversion” in Iran’s nuclear facilities claimed Mr. Miryousefi, who went on to assert that “the real threat of nuclear proliferation” was Israel which he described as “the Zionist regime.”
Despite Iran’s support for two terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas, it was Israel, said Mr. Miryousefi, that was “the biggest terrorist and apartheid regime.”
Today, everyone knows the Iran’s crazed ayatollahs intend to secure nuclear weapon capability and everyone knows that, when they do, they will attack Israel with them. They have never ceased to call for its destruction. It is not a question of if, but when.
How close is “when”? The Iranians just released a video titled “The Coming is Near” that describes the current events in the Middle East as the prelude to the coming of the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi, a figure particular to the Shiite branch of Islam and one that Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.
In a nuclear age, as Nikita Krushchev, a former Premier of the Soviet Union, once said, “The living will envy the dead.” Those were the days of the Cold War and, with both the U.S. and Russia possessing nukes, the concept of mutually assured destruction, MAD, was understood. This, however, does not apply to the ayatollahs. They need massive destruction to bring about their Islamic End Times scenario.
In a recent Wall Street Journal interview with Bernard Lewis, the West’s leading scholar on the Middle East, he pointed out that the mullahs “are religious fanatics with an apocalyptic mindset. In Islam, as in Christianity and Judaism, there is an end-of-times scenario—and they think it’s beginning or has already begun.”
The result, said Lewis, is that “mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent—it’s an inducement.”
In the days leading up to World War Two, the diplomatic choice was appeasement. Today, hope is that the mullahs can be deterred long enough that Iranians will somehow bring about regime change from within. The computer virus, Stuxnet, had the affect of interfering with the enrichment process necessary to weaponize uranium, but may not now be a factor.
In the meantime, the Gulf Cooperation Council, composed of six GCC states are discussing a proposal to identify and deport an estimated 20,000 Shiites linked to Iran. In Kuwait the plan would focus on Lebanese Shiites with links to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It is believed that many Iranian agents have been activated this year and, as such, pose a security threat. Said one GCC insider, “For years, the GCC knew of these people, but looked the other way. We can’t look the other way anymore.”
The news, unfortunately, just keeps getting worse and worse. In the muddle that represents the effort to overthrow Libya’s Gadhafi, DebkaFile reports that the “rebels” have sold thousands of chemical shells found in Benghazi to Hezbollah and Hamas, two puppet organizations funded by Iran.
When you add to that the thousands of rockets cached in Lebanon by Hezbollah and the rocketing that has been reinstituted from Gaza by Hamas, you have a trigger for a wider war.
Specifically, you have the elements of the destruction of Israel by the Iranians and the so-called Palestinians, a stateless group that have been the pawns of Iran and Arab nations for more than six decades.
In late March, Senators Mark Kirk (R-Ill) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) were joined by twenty-five other Senators who sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to identify specific steps the administration is taking to press the Palestinian Authority to end the “dangerous incitement against Jews and Israel.” The letter was sent in the wake of the terrorist murder of the Fogel family in Itamar and a bombing of a civilian bus in Jerusalem. A school bus has since been attacked.
You don’t have to be a CIA analyst to know that events in the Middle East will be exploited by the Iranians to bring about their apocalyptic End Times aspirations and that the destruction of Israel is, in their view, the trigger. After Israel, the United States and Europe will be next.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
www.redcounty.com
Saturday, April 9, 2011
The President of 2012
"The kind of President America will need in 2012 will be a man or woman who will reverse the damage Obama has caused. This President will be expected to fire all federal employees that were hired during Obama's term in office, for they are the cancerous tumors that will render our government useless.
It will be necessary that this person sign all bills that a Republican controlled House and Senate pass.
We're not interested in a messiah or a super star in speech giving. We want a red blooded American who will defend the Constitution and the sovereignty of the United States.
Americans want a President in 2012 that will minimize the size of government and regulations. This President must abolish the Departments of Energy, Education and put a leash on the Internal Revenue Service.
America wants an uncomplicated simple person who believes in the basic values of good character and citizenship.
All Americans should be watching for these characteristics and campaign promises as the list of candidates grow.
This person can be any color, creed or gender, it makes no difference. America just wants a President that loves her, truly loves her." - N.P.Contompasis
It will be necessary that this person sign all bills that a Republican controlled House and Senate pass.
We're not interested in a messiah or a super star in speech giving. We want a red blooded American who will defend the Constitution and the sovereignty of the United States.
Americans want a President in 2012 that will minimize the size of government and regulations. This President must abolish the Departments of Energy, Education and put a leash on the Internal Revenue Service.
America wants an uncomplicated simple person who believes in the basic values of good character and citizenship.
All Americans should be watching for these characteristics and campaign promises as the list of candidates grow.
This person can be any color, creed or gender, it makes no difference. America just wants a President that loves her, truly loves her." - N.P.Contompasis
What the Political Pundits Missed About Last Night’s Showdown
By Nicholas Contompasis
“John Boehner and the Tea Party led Congress tweaked the Left by pushing cuts to NPR, Planned Parenthood, along with other Lefty favorites. As predicted they came out in droves to condemn these supposed draconian cuts with shouts of killing women, etc, etc.
But, what was missed in all this flurry was the brilliance of the Tea Party’s strategy to in the end have an agreement with the Left on the very cuts they so viciously condemned. Now, this agreement adds more fuel to the continual division that is slowly destroying the Left’s Progressive plan to socialize America.
The Presidents polls will not get a bump from this agreement, in fact they will drop further due to more on Left becoming disenfranchised from the leader they thought would bring them peace and harmony, Lefty style. Instead he has brought an additional war and a continuation of all of George Bush’s policies.”
“John Boehner and the Tea Party led Congress tweaked the Left by pushing cuts to NPR, Planned Parenthood, along with other Lefty favorites. As predicted they came out in droves to condemn these supposed draconian cuts with shouts of killing women, etc, etc.
But, what was missed in all this flurry was the brilliance of the Tea Party’s strategy to in the end have an agreement with the Left on the very cuts they so viciously condemned. Now, this agreement adds more fuel to the continual division that is slowly destroying the Left’s Progressive plan to socialize America.
The Presidents polls will not get a bump from this agreement, in fact they will drop further due to more on Left becoming disenfranchised from the leader they thought would bring them peace and harmony, Lefty style. Instead he has brought an additional war and a continuation of all of George Bush’s policies.”
Friday, April 8, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
11 Children Murdered by Al Qaeda Terrorist Attack in Rio de Janeiro School Massacre Today
RIO DE JANEIRO—At least 11 people, mostly children, died Thursday and more that 15 were wounded when an armed man attacked a school in Realengo in the poor suburbs of Rio de Janeiro.
Police initially said that 13 people had died, but Rio de Janeiro’s Health Ministry later lowered the death toll.
According to a preliminary police report, the attacker—a 24-year-old former student at the school—was among the dead after shooting himself in the head. He attacked Tasso da Silveira school, where some 400 students ages 9-14 were in classes.
Police Col. Djalma Beltrami said the killer used two handguns and a lot of ammunition. The suspect left behind a letter, in which he anticipated committing suicide after the attack. Beltrami, however, gave no details of any possible motive.
Beltrami described the letter as “the words of a person who no longer believes in anything, full of sentences that made no sense and references to Islamic fundamentalism.”
Beltrami said the attacker was friendly as he went into the school, chatting with administrators and teachers and asking for permission to address the children. When he reached the third floor of the building, the suspect entered one of the classrooms and started to shoot at students, killing nine girls and one boy.
The attacker apparently committed suicide upon being chased by a police officer who had been called in by a student who managed to escape the building.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was “in shock” over the killings, government spokesperson Rodrigo Baena Soares said in Brasilia.
“He still had a lot of ammunition in his possession. Had it not been for the arrival of the police officer, the tragedy would have been even worse,” Beltrami said.
Roselane de Oliveira, a sister of the attacker, told Rio de Janeiro radio station Band News that the young man “was very strange.”
“He had no friends, and he spent all his time on the internet,” she said.
In recent months, she said, he appeared to have got closer to Islam.
Police stressed, however, that there was no concrete evidence that the attack had either a religious or a political motive.
McClatchy-Tribune
Police initially said that 13 people had died, but Rio de Janeiro’s Health Ministry later lowered the death toll.
According to a preliminary police report, the attacker—a 24-year-old former student at the school—was among the dead after shooting himself in the head. He attacked Tasso da Silveira school, where some 400 students ages 9-14 were in classes.
Police Col. Djalma Beltrami said the killer used two handguns and a lot of ammunition. The suspect left behind a letter, in which he anticipated committing suicide after the attack. Beltrami, however, gave no details of any possible motive.
Beltrami described the letter as “the words of a person who no longer believes in anything, full of sentences that made no sense and references to Islamic fundamentalism.”
Beltrami said the attacker was friendly as he went into the school, chatting with administrators and teachers and asking for permission to address the children. When he reached the third floor of the building, the suspect entered one of the classrooms and started to shoot at students, killing nine girls and one boy.
The attacker apparently committed suicide upon being chased by a police officer who had been called in by a student who managed to escape the building.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was “in shock” over the killings, government spokesperson Rodrigo Baena Soares said in Brasilia.
“He still had a lot of ammunition in his possession. Had it not been for the arrival of the police officer, the tragedy would have been even worse,” Beltrami said.
Roselane de Oliveira, a sister of the attacker, told Rio de Janeiro radio station Band News that the young man “was very strange.”
“He had no friends, and he spent all his time on the internet,” she said.
In recent months, she said, he appeared to have got closer to Islam.
Police stressed, however, that there was no concrete evidence that the attack had either a religious or a political motive.
McClatchy-Tribune
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Trump Has Investigators in Hawaii
Donald Trump told NBC News he has investigators in Hawaii looking into President Obama's birth certificate.
Said Trump: "I am saying I want to see the birth certificate. It's very simple. I want to see the birth certificate. How come his own family doesn't know which hospital he was born in? How come -- forget about birth certificates. Let's say there's no birth certificate. How come in the hospital itself, okay? This is one of the...in the hospital itself, there's no records of his birth. In other words, it doesn't say how much they paid, where is the doctor, here's your room bill."
Meredith Viera: "You've been privy to all of this to know this?"
Trump: "Well, I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're talking."
Viera: "You have people now out there searching -- I mean, in Hawaii?"
Trump: "Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they're finding. And I'm serious--"
Said Trump: "I am saying I want to see the birth certificate. It's very simple. I want to see the birth certificate. How come his own family doesn't know which hospital he was born in? How come -- forget about birth certificates. Let's say there's no birth certificate. How come in the hospital itself, okay? This is one of the...in the hospital itself, there's no records of his birth. In other words, it doesn't say how much they paid, where is the doctor, here's your room bill."
Meredith Viera: "You've been privy to all of this to know this?"
Trump: "Well, I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're talking."
Viera: "You have people now out there searching -- I mean, in Hawaii?"
Trump: "Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they're finding. And I'm serious--"
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Israel Struck Convoy of 17 Trucks Carrying Arms in Sudan Destined for Hamas-ruled Gaza
By Amos Harel, Yossi Melman and Barak Ravid
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted on Thursday at Israel's suspected role in an air-strike that reportedly hit a convoy of arms smugglers as it drove through Sudan toward Egypt in January.
"We operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places, in places further away, everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure, we hit them and we hit them in a way that increases deterrence," said Olmert, speaking at a conference in Herzliya.
"It was true in the north in a series of incidents and it was true in the south, in a series of incidents," he added. There is no point in going into detail, and everybody can use their imagination. Those who need to know, know. And those who need to know, know that there is no place where Israel cannot operate. There is no such place."
Earlier Thursday, two senior Sudanese politicians confirmed that unidentified aircraft attacked the suspected arms smugglers, killing almost everyone in the convoy. An American news network said that the attack was carried out by the Israel Air Force.
CBS reported that the IAF carried out the attack on a convoy of trucks in Sudan carrying arms for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, 39 people riding in the 17-truck convoy were killed, while a number of civilians in the area were injured.
Israeli officials declined to confirm or deny whether Israel had been involved in an air strike in Sudan.
The Sudanese politicians, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the strike took place in a remote area of east Sudan but did not say who carried it out.
Sudanese State Minister Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem was quoted in the Paris-based Sudan Tribune Web site as saying that a "major power bombed small trucks carrying arms, burning all of them."
The strike "killed Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians, and injured others," Saleem added.
The two Sudanese politicians who knew about the January attack said it was still unclear where the aircraft came from. But one of the sources, a senior politician from eastern Sudan, said his colleagues had spoken to a survivor of the raid.
"There was an Ethiopian fellow, a mechanic. He was the only one who survived. He said they came in two planes. They passed over them then came back and they shot the cars. He couldn't tell the nationality of the aircraft ... The aircraft destroyed the vehicles. There were four or five vehicles," he said.
The politician added that the route, in a desert region northwest of Port Sudan on the Red Sea cost, was regularly used by groups smuggling weapons into Egypt.
"Everyone knows they are smuggling weapons to the southern part of Egypt," he said.
The CBS national security correspondent David Martin broke the story. He said that Israeli intelligence learned of plans to move weapons through Sudan, north toward Egypt and then via the Sinai into the Gaza Strip.
According to Martin, Israel and the U.S. had signed an agreement for closer international efforts to block smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip.
During the final days of the Israeli offensive against Hamas, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her then-American counterpart Condoleezza Rice signed a security-intelligence memorandum on intensifying cooperation in a joint effort to block the smuggling of arms from Iran to Hamas via Sudan.
The Sudanese news site said the attack took place "in a desert area northwest of Port Sudan city, near Mount al-Sha'anun."
According to SudanTribune.com, the airstrike was an "embarrassment" to Sudan's government, and it discussed the matter with Egypt's government "to gather more information to formulate a response."
On the basis of the report from Sudan, American reporters sought confirmation from U.S. administration officials, which led them to the conclusion that the air strike did take place but that the U.S. Air Force was not involved and that the aircraft were Israeli.
CBS correspondent Dan Raviv said that "if Israeli airplanes carried out the attack in Sudan, it would suggest that there is a shadow against Hamas and its weapons sources that is wider than the Israeli or U.S. government has revealed."
In the original Sudanese report, an unidentified Egyptian official was quoted as saying that the planes that carried out the attack were based out of many countries in the region, and some observers guessed that he meant Djibouti, but there is no such confirmation.
Israeli defense sources have reiterated on a number of occasions that Iran embarked on an intensive effort to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition during Operation Cast Lead.
The Israeli security sources said that an international network has been set in place in which smugglers move arms caches from Iran through the Persian Gulf to Yemen, on to Sudan and then to Egypt and Sinai where they are brought into the Gaza Strip through tunnels.
Israeli intelligence has warned that the deliveries include anti-tank missiles, small arms, and military grade high explosives, as well as missiles.
Meanwhile, in May, an international conference is scheduled to take place in Ottawa, the third of its kind since the end of Operation Cast Lead, which will discuss how to prevent arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip.
In addition to host Canada, Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Denmark, the U.S. and Israel will also take part.
Immediately after the conference a "war game" is scheduled to take place in Washington, with the participation of security officials and diplomats from the countries involved. The "war game" will practice a scenario of foiling arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip.
The most recent conference took place in London a week ago and the countries cooperating in blocking the arms smuggling from Iran formulated a joint plan of operations. The plan includes the signing of a series of bilateral agreements with countries situated along the path of the smugglers, as well as countries whose commercial fleets carry cargo from Iran elsewhere.
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted on Thursday at Israel's suspected role in an air-strike that reportedly hit a convoy of arms smugglers as it drove through Sudan toward Egypt in January.
"We operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places, in places further away, everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure, we hit them and we hit them in a way that increases deterrence," said Olmert, speaking at a conference in Herzliya.
"It was true in the north in a series of incidents and it was true in the south, in a series of incidents," he added. There is no point in going into detail, and everybody can use their imagination. Those who need to know, know. And those who need to know, know that there is no place where Israel cannot operate. There is no such place."
Earlier Thursday, two senior Sudanese politicians confirmed that unidentified aircraft attacked the suspected arms smugglers, killing almost everyone in the convoy. An American news network said that the attack was carried out by the Israel Air Force.
CBS reported that the IAF carried out the attack on a convoy of trucks in Sudan carrying arms for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, 39 people riding in the 17-truck convoy were killed, while a number of civilians in the area were injured.
Israeli officials declined to confirm or deny whether Israel had been involved in an air strike in Sudan.
The Sudanese politicians, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the strike took place in a remote area of east Sudan but did not say who carried it out.
Sudanese State Minister Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem was quoted in the Paris-based Sudan Tribune Web site as saying that a "major power bombed small trucks carrying arms, burning all of them."
The strike "killed Sudanese, Eritreans and Ethiopians, and injured others," Saleem added.
The two Sudanese politicians who knew about the January attack said it was still unclear where the aircraft came from. But one of the sources, a senior politician from eastern Sudan, said his colleagues had spoken to a survivor of the raid.
"There was an Ethiopian fellow, a mechanic. He was the only one who survived. He said they came in two planes. They passed over them then came back and they shot the cars. He couldn't tell the nationality of the aircraft ... The aircraft destroyed the vehicles. There were four or five vehicles," he said.
The politician added that the route, in a desert region northwest of Port Sudan on the Red Sea cost, was regularly used by groups smuggling weapons into Egypt.
"Everyone knows they are smuggling weapons to the southern part of Egypt," he said.
The CBS national security correspondent David Martin broke the story. He said that Israeli intelligence learned of plans to move weapons through Sudan, north toward Egypt and then via the Sinai into the Gaza Strip.
According to Martin, Israel and the U.S. had signed an agreement for closer international efforts to block smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip.
During the final days of the Israeli offensive against Hamas, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her then-American counterpart Condoleezza Rice signed a security-intelligence memorandum on intensifying cooperation in a joint effort to block the smuggling of arms from Iran to Hamas via Sudan.
The Sudanese news site said the attack took place "in a desert area northwest of Port Sudan city, near Mount al-Sha'anun."
According to SudanTribune.com, the airstrike was an "embarrassment" to Sudan's government, and it discussed the matter with Egypt's government "to gather more information to formulate a response."
On the basis of the report from Sudan, American reporters sought confirmation from U.S. administration officials, which led them to the conclusion that the air strike did take place but that the U.S. Air Force was not involved and that the aircraft were Israeli.
CBS correspondent Dan Raviv said that "if Israeli airplanes carried out the attack in Sudan, it would suggest that there is a shadow against Hamas and its weapons sources that is wider than the Israeli or U.S. government has revealed."
In the original Sudanese report, an unidentified Egyptian official was quoted as saying that the planes that carried out the attack were based out of many countries in the region, and some observers guessed that he meant Djibouti, but there is no such confirmation.
Israeli defense sources have reiterated on a number of occasions that Iran embarked on an intensive effort to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition during Operation Cast Lead.
The Israeli security sources said that an international network has been set in place in which smugglers move arms caches from Iran through the Persian Gulf to Yemen, on to Sudan and then to Egypt and Sinai where they are brought into the Gaza Strip through tunnels.
Israeli intelligence has warned that the deliveries include anti-tank missiles, small arms, and military grade high explosives, as well as missiles.
Meanwhile, in May, an international conference is scheduled to take place in Ottawa, the third of its kind since the end of Operation Cast Lead, which will discuss how to prevent arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip.
In addition to host Canada, Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Denmark, the U.S. and Israel will also take part.
Immediately after the conference a "war game" is scheduled to take place in Washington, with the participation of security officials and diplomats from the countries involved. The "war game" will practice a scenario of foiling arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip.
The most recent conference took place in London a week ago and the countries cooperating in blocking the arms smuggling from Iran formulated a joint plan of operations. The plan includes the signing of a series of bilateral agreements with countries situated along the path of the smugglers, as well as countries whose commercial fleets carry cargo from Iran elsewhere.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Bloody Pig's Foot, Hate Mail Sent to GOP Rep. Peter King Who Led Hearings on Muslim 'Radicalization'
BY Richard Sisk
Borrowed from the New York Dailey News
Rep. King held controversial hearings in Congress on 'radicalization' in the Muslim community.
A package containing a bloody pig's foot and a hate-filled note was mailed to the Washington office of Rep. Peter King, prompting a police investigation.
U.S. Capital Hill cops said the parcel was intercepted Monday morning at a postal facility in Landover, Maryland, during a routine screening of congressional mail that began after the 9/11 attacks and an anthrax scare.
The severed pig's foot was accompanied by a letter filled with anti-Semitic slurs.
The gory package never reached King's office, and police notified the Long Island Republican about it Monday.
"The package was discovered at a mail facility off the Hill early this morning. We have an active open investigation regarding the incident and are working with postal inspectors," said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider without elaborating.
The threatening mailing came after King launched a series of controversial hearings last month on the "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community."
It was not clear if the package was mailed in response to the hearings, whichsparked protests from American-Muslims in New York and in Washington.
King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has been the target of threats since he scheduled the hearing.
The Congressman, who is Catholic, had no immediate comment and referred all questions to the Capital Hill police.
King and his office have received increased security since the threats began.
"I'm getting a lot of hostile phone calls now, but the main threats I'm getting are from overseas," King said in an interview last month.
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which monitors hate-crimes against Muslims, said his organization routinely receives pig-themed hate messages, including letters smeared with bacon. The Muslim religion forbids eating pork.
"My guess is it was an anti-Muslim bigot, and bigots not being brain surgeons they probably got their signals crossed," Hooper said.
Borrowed from the New York Dailey News
Rep. King held controversial hearings in Congress on 'radicalization' in the Muslim community.
A package containing a bloody pig's foot and a hate-filled note was mailed to the Washington office of Rep. Peter King, prompting a police investigation.
U.S. Capital Hill cops said the parcel was intercepted Monday morning at a postal facility in Landover, Maryland, during a routine screening of congressional mail that began after the 9/11 attacks and an anthrax scare.
The severed pig's foot was accompanied by a letter filled with anti-Semitic slurs.
The gory package never reached King's office, and police notified the Long Island Republican about it Monday.
"The package was discovered at a mail facility off the Hill early this morning. We have an active open investigation regarding the incident and are working with postal inspectors," said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider without elaborating.
The threatening mailing came after King launched a series of controversial hearings last month on the "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community."
It was not clear if the package was mailed in response to the hearings, whichsparked protests from American-Muslims in New York and in Washington.
King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has been the target of threats since he scheduled the hearing.
The Congressman, who is Catholic, had no immediate comment and referred all questions to the Capital Hill police.
King and his office have received increased security since the threats began.
"I'm getting a lot of hostile phone calls now, but the main threats I'm getting are from overseas," King said in an interview last month.
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which monitors hate-crimes against Muslims, said his organization routinely receives pig-themed hate messages, including letters smeared with bacon. The Muslim religion forbids eating pork.
"My guess is it was an anti-Muslim bigot, and bigots not being brain surgeons they probably got their signals crossed," Hooper said.
Two of Qaddafi Sons Are Said to Offer Plan to Push Father Out
Borrowed from the New York Times - Thank you
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
TRIPOLI, Libya — At least two sons of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are proposing a resolution to the Libyan conflict that would entail pushing their father aside to make way for a transition to a constitutional democracy under the direction of his son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a diplomat and a Libyan official briefed on the plan said Sunday.
The rebels challenging Colonel Qaddafi as well as the American and European powers supporting them with air strikes have so far insisted on a more radical break with his 40 years of rule. And it is not clear whether Colonel Qaddafi, 68, has signed on to the reported proposal backed by his sons, Seif and Saadi el-Qaddafi, although one person close to the sons said the father appeared willing to go along.
But the proposal offers a new window into the dynamics of the Qaddafi family at a time when the colonel, who has seven sons, is relying heavily on them. Stripped of one of his closest confidantes by the defection of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa and isolated by decades of attempted coups and internal purges, he is leaning on his sons as trusted aides and military commanders.
The idea also touches on longstanding differences among his sons. While Seif and Saadi have leaned toward Western-style economic and political openings, Colonel Qaddafi’s sons Khamis and Mutuassim are considered hard-liners. Khamis leads a fearsome militia focused on repressing internal unrest.
And Mutuassim, a national security adviser who also commands his own militia, has been considered a rival to Seif in the competition to succeed their father. But Saadi, who has drifted through careers as a professional soccer player, a military officer and a businessman, firmly backs the plan, an associate said.
The two sons “want to move toward change for the country” without their father, one person close to the Seif and Saadi camp said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “They have hit so many brick walls with the old guard, and if they have the go-ahead, they will bring the country up quickly.” One son, this person said, has said many times that “the wishes of the rebellion were his own.”
The proposals are the latest turn in a drama between Seif and his father that has played out for years on the stage of Libyan public life as the son has alternately pushed forward with calls for political reforms and then pulled back. During the recent revolt, he appeared to march in lockstep with his father in vowing to stamp out the rebels. “We are coming,” he declared to a crowd of supporters who chanted, “Seif al-Islam, step on the rats.”
The proposals are also the latest sign that the Qaddafi government may be feeling the pressure from two weeks of allied airstrikes that have severely diminished the advantage in equipment of the Qaddafi militias. A senior Libyan official arrived in Athens for talks about a potential resolution to the conflict, the Reuters news service reported. And Mohamed Ismail, a top aide to Seif, is returning from a trip to London, where, a Libyan official said, he presented the proposal for Seif to take over from his father.
Mutuassim may be particularly resistant because of his longstanding rivalry with Seif.
After Seif made a high-profile trip to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2008, a WikiLeaks cable reported, the attention paid “exacerbated tension with his siblings.”
When Mutuassim visited Washington the next year, the American ambassador to Libya wrote, “Mutuassim’s desire to visit Washington this spring and his seemingly overweening focus on having meetings with senior U.S. government officials and signing a number of agreements are driven at least in part by a strong sense of competition with Saif al-Islam.”
In a recent interview with the pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya, Saadi suggested that before the revolt Seif was already “the person who used to run the show every day in Libya.” The defection last week of Mr. Koussa, the former top aide to Colonel Qaddafi, removes a figure who had been considered a leader of the old guard distrustful of Seif and opposed to reform.
A diplomat familiar with the proposal, however, said discussions remained in the initial stages. Despite the evidence of deep internal discontent, Colonel Qaddafi appears to believe that rebellion against him is a foreign conspiracy of Islamist radicals and oil-hungry Western powers attempting to take over Libya, the diplomat said. And the rebels, who have set up their own provisional government, continue to insist on the exit from power of Colonel Qaddafi and his sons.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
TRIPOLI, Libya — At least two sons of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are proposing a resolution to the Libyan conflict that would entail pushing their father aside to make way for a transition to a constitutional democracy under the direction of his son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a diplomat and a Libyan official briefed on the plan said Sunday.
The rebels challenging Colonel Qaddafi as well as the American and European powers supporting them with air strikes have so far insisted on a more radical break with his 40 years of rule. And it is not clear whether Colonel Qaddafi, 68, has signed on to the reported proposal backed by his sons, Seif and Saadi el-Qaddafi, although one person close to the sons said the father appeared willing to go along.
But the proposal offers a new window into the dynamics of the Qaddafi family at a time when the colonel, who has seven sons, is relying heavily on them. Stripped of one of his closest confidantes by the defection of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa and isolated by decades of attempted coups and internal purges, he is leaning on his sons as trusted aides and military commanders.
The idea also touches on longstanding differences among his sons. While Seif and Saadi have leaned toward Western-style economic and political openings, Colonel Qaddafi’s sons Khamis and Mutuassim are considered hard-liners. Khamis leads a fearsome militia focused on repressing internal unrest.
And Mutuassim, a national security adviser who also commands his own militia, has been considered a rival to Seif in the competition to succeed their father. But Saadi, who has drifted through careers as a professional soccer player, a military officer and a businessman, firmly backs the plan, an associate said.
The two sons “want to move toward change for the country” without their father, one person close to the Seif and Saadi camp said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “They have hit so many brick walls with the old guard, and if they have the go-ahead, they will bring the country up quickly.” One son, this person said, has said many times that “the wishes of the rebellion were his own.”
The proposals are the latest turn in a drama between Seif and his father that has played out for years on the stage of Libyan public life as the son has alternately pushed forward with calls for political reforms and then pulled back. During the recent revolt, he appeared to march in lockstep with his father in vowing to stamp out the rebels. “We are coming,” he declared to a crowd of supporters who chanted, “Seif al-Islam, step on the rats.”
The proposals are also the latest sign that the Qaddafi government may be feeling the pressure from two weeks of allied airstrikes that have severely diminished the advantage in equipment of the Qaddafi militias. A senior Libyan official arrived in Athens for talks about a potential resolution to the conflict, the Reuters news service reported. And Mohamed Ismail, a top aide to Seif, is returning from a trip to London, where, a Libyan official said, he presented the proposal for Seif to take over from his father.
Mutuassim may be particularly resistant because of his longstanding rivalry with Seif.
After Seif made a high-profile trip to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2008, a WikiLeaks cable reported, the attention paid “exacerbated tension with his siblings.”
When Mutuassim visited Washington the next year, the American ambassador to Libya wrote, “Mutuassim’s desire to visit Washington this spring and his seemingly overweening focus on having meetings with senior U.S. government officials and signing a number of agreements are driven at least in part by a strong sense of competition with Saif al-Islam.”
In a recent interview with the pan-Arab news channel Al-Arabiya, Saadi suggested that before the revolt Seif was already “the person who used to run the show every day in Libya.” The defection last week of Mr. Koussa, the former top aide to Colonel Qaddafi, removes a figure who had been considered a leader of the old guard distrustful of Seif and opposed to reform.
A diplomat familiar with the proposal, however, said discussions remained in the initial stages. Despite the evidence of deep internal discontent, Colonel Qaddafi appears to believe that rebellion against him is a foreign conspiracy of Islamist radicals and oil-hungry Western powers attempting to take over Libya, the diplomat said. And the rebels, who have set up their own provisional government, continue to insist on the exit from power of Colonel Qaddafi and his sons.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Veil Ban to Take Effect in France April 11th - Oh Boy This is Going to Get Ugly
By Mildrade Cherfils
PARIS, France — With a law banning face-covering veils in public places set to take effect April 11, the French government has scheduled a national debate on religion and secularism.
"Why now? Perhaps if this was happening after the 2012 elections, we would be looking at this differently," said Abdallah Zekri a board member of Paris' main mosque who revoked his membership in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party in protest.
The debate set for Tuesday is “a political scam” that will focus unfairly on Islam and further stigmatize the estimated 5 million to 6 million Muslims who live in France, Zekri said.
The prevailing sentiment among opponents of the national debate is that the government is exploiting division, fear of Islam and xenophobia for political gain.
Having recently declared multiculturalism a failure in France, the president is using these issues, critics say, to obscure the reality that his ruling UMP party is lagging behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front, whose anti-immigration turned anti-Islamism message seems to have struck a chord with French voters.
Recent surveys put Le Pen ahead of Sarkozy if the presidential election were held today and in opinion polls only 29 percent of the French hold a favorable opinion of the president. It remains to be seen how his strong stand with international allies against Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan forces will affect his popularity rating.
“Stigmatising Muslims is not politically dangerous,” said Francois Durpaire, a historian in identity studies as well as the president of a newly minted multicultural movement. “Stigmatising Islam is more profitable electorally; one should not leave this political space to the National Front,” he said of Sarkozy’s likely calculation. Furthermore, Muslims typically do not vote as a block, so Sarkozy is risking little, he added.
The government has maintained that the country need not shy away from the issues the debate will raise, such as sensitive topics like halal menus in school cafeterias, veiled mothers picking up their children from school, overflow crowds spilling into the streets during Friday prayers and public funding for the construction of Muslim places of worship.
But Muslim leaders fear the discussions will deteriorate into offensive cacophony and divide citizens in much the same way a ballyhooed national identity debate did last year when it was held ahead of regional elections. The effort resulted in a few proposals but had little to no lasting effect.
“We respect UMP’s choice and we ask that our position be understood and respected,” said Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of the Muslim Council of France, who convened a recent press conference of Muslim leaders.
The leaders also took their concerns to Claude Geant, France's newly appointed interior minister, who described their meeting as productive even though the two sides did not see eye to eye.
Since then, a battle of semantics has unfolded with conflicting sides accusing each other of exploitation. Moussaoui echoed sentiments that the debate would create an atmosphere of free speech run amok where people would be able express opinions without considering the consequences. Some politicians and pundits have already learned their lessons.
Earlier this month, a UMP deputy suggested would-be immigrants fleeing conflict in North Africa should be put back in their boats to ensure security in France and reassure the French. Chantal Brunel later apologized for her words but not for their sentiment, while some high-ranking members of her party publicly disapproved.
When a local UMP official from southeast France made disparaging jokes about Arabs, homosexuals and laborers on Facebook, SOS Racisme threatened a lawsuit. Despite her apology, Josaine Plateret was suspended from the party.
Earlier this year, Eric Zemmour, a conservative commentator, stood trial for defamation and provoking racial hatred, and lost. He had said on television that “most traffickers are black and Arab,” conflating the issues of immigration and delinquency.
And statements by the interior minister caused an uproar recently when he said that because of “uncontrollable immigration” the French sometimes feel like they are not at home.
“It’s not by chance that the law was almost unanimously adopted,” Geant said, referring to the veil ban. “Religion should not penetrate our social lives.”
Violators of the ban face a 150 euro ($211) fine, while a person who forces a woman or minor to wear the garment could face up to two years in prison and a 60,000-euro ($84,500) fine.
Europe immigration France Presidential Election 2012 Islamophobia Nicolas Sarkozy France Europe World Religion.
PARIS, France — With a law banning face-covering veils in public places set to take effect April 11, the French government has scheduled a national debate on religion and secularism.
"Why now? Perhaps if this was happening after the 2012 elections, we would be looking at this differently," said Abdallah Zekri a board member of Paris' main mosque who revoked his membership in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party in protest.
The debate set for Tuesday is “a political scam” that will focus unfairly on Islam and further stigmatize the estimated 5 million to 6 million Muslims who live in France, Zekri said.
The prevailing sentiment among opponents of the national debate is that the government is exploiting division, fear of Islam and xenophobia for political gain.
Having recently declared multiculturalism a failure in France, the president is using these issues, critics say, to obscure the reality that his ruling UMP party is lagging behind Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front, whose anti-immigration turned anti-Islamism message seems to have struck a chord with French voters.
Recent surveys put Le Pen ahead of Sarkozy if the presidential election were held today and in opinion polls only 29 percent of the French hold a favorable opinion of the president. It remains to be seen how his strong stand with international allies against Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan forces will affect his popularity rating.
“Stigmatising Muslims is not politically dangerous,” said Francois Durpaire, a historian in identity studies as well as the president of a newly minted multicultural movement. “Stigmatising Islam is more profitable electorally; one should not leave this political space to the National Front,” he said of Sarkozy’s likely calculation. Furthermore, Muslims typically do not vote as a block, so Sarkozy is risking little, he added.
The government has maintained that the country need not shy away from the issues the debate will raise, such as sensitive topics like halal menus in school cafeterias, veiled mothers picking up their children from school, overflow crowds spilling into the streets during Friday prayers and public funding for the construction of Muslim places of worship.
But Muslim leaders fear the discussions will deteriorate into offensive cacophony and divide citizens in much the same way a ballyhooed national identity debate did last year when it was held ahead of regional elections. The effort resulted in a few proposals but had little to no lasting effect.
“We respect UMP’s choice and we ask that our position be understood and respected,” said Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of the Muslim Council of France, who convened a recent press conference of Muslim leaders.
The leaders also took their concerns to Claude Geant, France's newly appointed interior minister, who described their meeting as productive even though the two sides did not see eye to eye.
Since then, a battle of semantics has unfolded with conflicting sides accusing each other of exploitation. Moussaoui echoed sentiments that the debate would create an atmosphere of free speech run amok where people would be able express opinions without considering the consequences. Some politicians and pundits have already learned their lessons.
Earlier this month, a UMP deputy suggested would-be immigrants fleeing conflict in North Africa should be put back in their boats to ensure security in France and reassure the French. Chantal Brunel later apologized for her words but not for their sentiment, while some high-ranking members of her party publicly disapproved.
When a local UMP official from southeast France made disparaging jokes about Arabs, homosexuals and laborers on Facebook, SOS Racisme threatened a lawsuit. Despite her apology, Josaine Plateret was suspended from the party.
Earlier this year, Eric Zemmour, a conservative commentator, stood trial for defamation and provoking racial hatred, and lost. He had said on television that “most traffickers are black and Arab,” conflating the issues of immigration and delinquency.
And statements by the interior minister caused an uproar recently when he said that because of “uncontrollable immigration” the French sometimes feel like they are not at home.
“It’s not by chance that the law was almost unanimously adopted,” Geant said, referring to the veil ban. “Religion should not penetrate our social lives.”
Violators of the ban face a 150 euro ($211) fine, while a person who forces a woman or minor to wear the garment could face up to two years in prison and a 60,000-euro ($84,500) fine.
Europe immigration France Presidential Election 2012 Islamophobia Nicolas Sarkozy France Europe World Religion.
The Global Islamic Cyber-Mob
By Nicholas Contompasis
"As the global Islamic world becomes more connected, we now see an outcropping of discontent that has been suppressed literally since the beginning of time. The face of this discontent is different within each country, but the theme is the same, "change."
No matter what comes, these permanent residents of the third world have nothing to lose by taking the gamble of a lifetime.
With mobile devices each person has now become "The Mouse That Roared." Setting themselves up with global megaphones like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, they are now able to reach not only their own countrymen but the world.
What becomes of this historic moment in time is still to be determined, but one thing is certain, the global Islamic cyber-mob is growing, angry and wants a piece of your ass."
"As the global Islamic world becomes more connected, we now see an outcropping of discontent that has been suppressed literally since the beginning of time. The face of this discontent is different within each country, but the theme is the same, "change."
No matter what comes, these permanent residents of the third world have nothing to lose by taking the gamble of a lifetime.
With mobile devices each person has now become "The Mouse That Roared." Setting themselves up with global megaphones like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, they are now able to reach not only their own countrymen but the world.
What becomes of this historic moment in time is still to be determined, but one thing is certain, the global Islamic cyber-mob is growing, angry and wants a piece of your ass."
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Governor Jerry Brown of California Plans to Destroy the Integrity of the Electoral Process
by Jane Jamison|
Here is an excellent summary about why we MUST fight Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to have “mail-in” elections. We have enough vote fraud the way the system is now. Don’t allow more.
The following letter and and all the information below is from the Election Integrity Project in California to Republican lawmakers in Sacramento. Contact EIP to get organized for 2012 in California. Votes only count if we have honest elections.
Dear Honorable Leaders Dutton and Conway;
Several media sources recently reported on a plan submitted by Gov. Jerry Brown to require all voting in the upcoming June Special Election be vote by mail only. As an organization devoted to preserving the integrity of our voting process, we must express our concern that this plan is a move away from fair and honest elections. We strongly urge the state legislation to consider the ramifications of this decision, especially since it will set the stage for furthering this mandate to all future elections.
Based on the evidence, VBM only elections risk the security and integrity of the voting process, with only minimal reductions in cost. There are numerous concerns about fraud in VBM ballots, such as:
Read more here
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/04/huge-fraud-potential-in-california-vote-by-mail-proposed-by-governor-brown/
Here is an excellent summary about why we MUST fight Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to have “mail-in” elections. We have enough vote fraud the way the system is now. Don’t allow more.
The following letter and and all the information below is from the Election Integrity Project in California to Republican lawmakers in Sacramento. Contact EIP to get organized for 2012 in California. Votes only count if we have honest elections.
Dear Honorable Leaders Dutton and Conway;
Several media sources recently reported on a plan submitted by Gov. Jerry Brown to require all voting in the upcoming June Special Election be vote by mail only. As an organization devoted to preserving the integrity of our voting process, we must express our concern that this plan is a move away from fair and honest elections. We strongly urge the state legislation to consider the ramifications of this decision, especially since it will set the stage for furthering this mandate to all future elections.
Based on the evidence, VBM only elections risk the security and integrity of the voting process, with only minimal reductions in cost. There are numerous concerns about fraud in VBM ballots, such as:
Read more here
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/04/huge-fraud-potential-in-california-vote-by-mail-proposed-by-governor-brown/
The World Electronic Mob Is Taking Us...Where?
By Jack Curtis
We're passengers on a wild ride into uncharted -- and dangerous -- territory with no one driving.
Electronic technology has eroded our political, civil, commercial, cultural, social, and linguistic frameworks; everyone in the world has been tossed together to make what we can. Those capable and flexible enough will create new structures in which they will survive; Darwin will clean up the rest. As always, the journey will be rough and full of surprises and there's no turning back.
Why? Because cell phones and computers give us limitless, cheap, anytime information and communication almost everywhere and those have consequences.
Politics has belonged to politicians who swindled the voters periodically at elections, and left town before the swindle was recognized. They didn't have to repeat until after the swindle was forgotten by most; then those who remembered could be bribed in a new swindle. Elections are always run by government; in most places in varying degrees, so are the outcomes. Most voters have known little of those for whom they vote; that little provided over time by media with its own interests to satisfy. That happy little empire is folding.
Government actions are published to everybody interested and argued in real time at almost no cost; peoples' reactions are reflected as quickly. Politicians can't put off concerns to the next election now any more than they can hide their personal behavior behind time and distance. Voters no longer await an election to react; an electronic Tea Party or an electronic Cairo mob is available on 24 hours' notice when an issue catches on or a powerful interest is involved. When mobs appear, politicians must face them in real time; government today has no machinery for that. It's both voluntary democracy and an accelerated opportunity to set up a lynching.
Evolving to govern facing this newly informed, quickly responding citizenry will be a rough ride; the new responsiveness is, with present governmental structures, destabilizing. Electronic mobs have shown in the Middle East, Europe, the U.S, South America, Russia, China, nearly everywhere. And along with the impact of technology on human organization designed for a simpler, slower time, Murphy will be in charge; whatever can happen, at some time and place, will happen. We've already seen governments shoot, cave, and try to stand pat, all in some way unsuccessfully.
Commerce: Computers reduced the complexity human production labor had to handle, lowering the value of the labor. Cheaper labor was politically impeded in the U.S, that and regulation sending jobs overseas. Inevitably from when the rich world first raised its labor costs, the world's living standards are now equalizing with the industrialization of the rest of the world. Equalizing today meets in the middle; that means the top half has to drop while the bottom rises. Unfortunately, the U.S. government sees its people as the top half, ignoring the option to bring the bottom half up since the environmentalists won't allow it.
U.S. government accelerates the decline in living standards by increasing the cost and reducing the availability of energy, food, transport, shelter, and most basic necessities via taxation, regulation, and inflation. Its foreign, social, and financial policies are defunding the economy and devaluing the wealth of the population. These are merely new reruns of old patterns but today, they are published widely, perceived faster, and reaction is quicker.
Civil, cultural, social, and linguistic patterns have been maintained historically through personal contact and custom. They've been reinforced by education, entertainment, the media, religion, law, voluntary organizations, and practicality. They've radiated out from a center until they bumped into another, different set, then a border appeared.
Government policy is forcing the removal of borders. The push is to interpenetrate U.S. common and Constitutional law with Islamic Sharia and others, to have southern Spanish speakers interpenetrate North American English speakers and to remove the various religious-based behavior patterns from the population. These are accelerations of existing historical tendencies; people have been moving in these directions on their own for a long time. However, that motion without government pushing has been slower and cheaper; the exception being language, where English has usually replaced Spanish (or any foreign language) in a generation. The acceleration is a very messy undertaking since it necessarily pits against each other so many different interests and threaten so many strongly-held territories. It is politically a strongly disruptive policy and since it relies on government choosing winners and losers, necessarily corrupt.
World government apparently tempts some of our leaders but it seems almost an oxymoron; subsidiarity says no government too distant from the impact of its work can do that work well. Government in Washington D.C. seems already to be pretty far away in that sense, as increasing state rebelliousness suggests.
People once found friends in the village; now they socialize in the entire world. That brings commonality to behavior and language, though it takes some time. People once traded locally; now they shop world-wide; that imposes commonality of commercial behavior and language rather quicker. We don't buy our shoes from the local bootmaker any more. Once we adopted tribal beliefs and only occasionally saw others with different ideas; ours were reinforced daily by all around us. Now, all beliefs are on the internet, subject to innumerable challenges daily in front of all. Travel, commerce and electronic communication have reduced useful world languages to a few for international utility; that will ultimately end with still fewer, not a hodge-podge of diverse ones. There is already a nearly uniform commercial culture and law; the socio-cultural uniformity will follow, though geographical distances will maintain enough differences to be interesting. Governments will have to find means to accommodate the electronic mobs complicated by the inclusion of both local and foreign members.
Getting wherever we're going is going to be a wild ride because governments will try to put the genie back in the bottle, grabbing the technology and using it for control as China and some others are demonstrating; U.S. government has made moves toward the internet. But learning to govern an engaged and observant public is only one challenge; learning not to mismanage the economy seems at least as difficult.
Technology is supplying imperatives of its own; some reinforcing government and some resisting it. In the long run, technology must prevail but just as in handling economic issues, government can prolong the time and worsen the conditions of change. That will slow but not stop the changes; once a road is mapped and demand exists, a bumpy surface slows but can't stop traffic. It can be very hard on tourists, though.
Comments on "The World Electronic Mob Is Taking Us...Where?"
We're passengers on a wild ride into uncharted -- and dangerous -- territory with no one driving.
Electronic technology has eroded our political, civil, commercial, cultural, social, and linguistic frameworks; everyone in the world has been tossed together to make what we can. Those capable and flexible enough will create new structures in which they will survive; Darwin will clean up the rest. As always, the journey will be rough and full of surprises and there's no turning back.
Why? Because cell phones and computers give us limitless, cheap, anytime information and communication almost everywhere and those have consequences.
Politics has belonged to politicians who swindled the voters periodically at elections, and left town before the swindle was recognized. They didn't have to repeat until after the swindle was forgotten by most; then those who remembered could be bribed in a new swindle. Elections are always run by government; in most places in varying degrees, so are the outcomes. Most voters have known little of those for whom they vote; that little provided over time by media with its own interests to satisfy. That happy little empire is folding.
Government actions are published to everybody interested and argued in real time at almost no cost; peoples' reactions are reflected as quickly. Politicians can't put off concerns to the next election now any more than they can hide their personal behavior behind time and distance. Voters no longer await an election to react; an electronic Tea Party or an electronic Cairo mob is available on 24 hours' notice when an issue catches on or a powerful interest is involved. When mobs appear, politicians must face them in real time; government today has no machinery for that. It's both voluntary democracy and an accelerated opportunity to set up a lynching.
Evolving to govern facing this newly informed, quickly responding citizenry will be a rough ride; the new responsiveness is, with present governmental structures, destabilizing. Electronic mobs have shown in the Middle East, Europe, the U.S, South America, Russia, China, nearly everywhere. And along with the impact of technology on human organization designed for a simpler, slower time, Murphy will be in charge; whatever can happen, at some time and place, will happen. We've already seen governments shoot, cave, and try to stand pat, all in some way unsuccessfully.
Commerce: Computers reduced the complexity human production labor had to handle, lowering the value of the labor. Cheaper labor was politically impeded in the U.S, that and regulation sending jobs overseas. Inevitably from when the rich world first raised its labor costs, the world's living standards are now equalizing with the industrialization of the rest of the world. Equalizing today meets in the middle; that means the top half has to drop while the bottom rises. Unfortunately, the U.S. government sees its people as the top half, ignoring the option to bring the bottom half up since the environmentalists won't allow it.
U.S. government accelerates the decline in living standards by increasing the cost and reducing the availability of energy, food, transport, shelter, and most basic necessities via taxation, regulation, and inflation. Its foreign, social, and financial policies are defunding the economy and devaluing the wealth of the population. These are merely new reruns of old patterns but today, they are published widely, perceived faster, and reaction is quicker.
Civil, cultural, social, and linguistic patterns have been maintained historically through personal contact and custom. They've been reinforced by education, entertainment, the media, religion, law, voluntary organizations, and practicality. They've radiated out from a center until they bumped into another, different set, then a border appeared.
Government policy is forcing the removal of borders. The push is to interpenetrate U.S. common and Constitutional law with Islamic Sharia and others, to have southern Spanish speakers interpenetrate North American English speakers and to remove the various religious-based behavior patterns from the population. These are accelerations of existing historical tendencies; people have been moving in these directions on their own for a long time. However, that motion without government pushing has been slower and cheaper; the exception being language, where English has usually replaced Spanish (or any foreign language) in a generation. The acceleration is a very messy undertaking since it necessarily pits against each other so many different interests and threaten so many strongly-held territories. It is politically a strongly disruptive policy and since it relies on government choosing winners and losers, necessarily corrupt.
World government apparently tempts some of our leaders but it seems almost an oxymoron; subsidiarity says no government too distant from the impact of its work can do that work well. Government in Washington D.C. seems already to be pretty far away in that sense, as increasing state rebelliousness suggests.
People once found friends in the village; now they socialize in the entire world. That brings commonality to behavior and language, though it takes some time. People once traded locally; now they shop world-wide; that imposes commonality of commercial behavior and language rather quicker. We don't buy our shoes from the local bootmaker any more. Once we adopted tribal beliefs and only occasionally saw others with different ideas; ours were reinforced daily by all around us. Now, all beliefs are on the internet, subject to innumerable challenges daily in front of all. Travel, commerce and electronic communication have reduced useful world languages to a few for international utility; that will ultimately end with still fewer, not a hodge-podge of diverse ones. There is already a nearly uniform commercial culture and law; the socio-cultural uniformity will follow, though geographical distances will maintain enough differences to be interesting. Governments will have to find means to accommodate the electronic mobs complicated by the inclusion of both local and foreign members.
Getting wherever we're going is going to be a wild ride because governments will try to put the genie back in the bottle, grabbing the technology and using it for control as China and some others are demonstrating; U.S. government has made moves toward the internet. But learning to govern an engaged and observant public is only one challenge; learning not to mismanage the economy seems at least as difficult.
Technology is supplying imperatives of its own; some reinforcing government and some resisting it. In the long run, technology must prevail but just as in handling economic issues, government can prolong the time and worsen the conditions of change. That will slow but not stop the changes; once a road is mapped and demand exists, a bumpy surface slows but can't stop traffic. It can be very hard on tourists, though.
Comments on "The World Electronic Mob Is Taking Us...Where?"
Friday, April 1, 2011
Breaking News - Libyan Rebels Sold Hizballah and Hamas Chemical Shells
Exclusive Report
US Adm. James Stavridis
Senior Libyan rebel “officers” sold Hizballah and Hamas thousands of chemical shells from the stocks of mustard and nerve gas that fell into rebel hands when they overran Muammar Qaddafi’s military facilities in and around Benghazi, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report.
Word of the capture touched off a scramble in Tehran and among the terrorist groups it sponsors to get hold of their first unconventional weapons.
According to our sources, the rebels offloaded at least 2,000 artillery shells carrying mustard gas and 1,200 nerve gas shells for cash payment amounting to several million dollars.
US and Israeli intelligence agencies have tracked the WMD consignments from eastern Libya as far as Sudan in convoys secured by Iranian agents and Hizballah and Hamas guards. They are not believed to have reached their destinations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, apparently waiting for an opportunity to get their deadly freights through without the US or Israel attacking and destroying them.
It is also not clear whether the shells and gases were assembled upon delivery or were travelling in separate containers. Our sources report that some of the poison gas may be intended not only for artillery use but also for drones which Hizballah recently acquired from Iran.
Tehran threw its support behind the anti-Qaddafi rebels because of this unique opportunity to get hold of the Libyan ruler’s stock of poison gas after it fell into opposition hands and arm Hizballah and Hamas with unconventional weapons without Iran being implicated in the transaction.
Shortly after the uprising began in the third week of February, a secret Iranian delegation arrived in Benghazi. Its members met rebel chiefs, some of them deserters from the Libyan army, and clinched the deal for purchasing the entire stock of poison gas stock and the price
The rebels threw in a quantity of various types of anti-air missiles.
Hizballah and Hamas purchasing missions arrived in the first week of March to finalize the deal and arrange the means of delivery.
The first authoritative American source to refer to a Hizballah presence in Benghazi was the commander of US NATO forces Adm. James Stavridis. When he addressed a US Senate committee on Tuesday, March 29, he spoke of “telltale signs of the presence of Islamic insurgents led by Al-Qaeda and Hizballah” on the rebel side of the Libyan war. He did not disclose what they were doing there.
US Adm. James Stavridis
Senior Libyan rebel “officers” sold Hizballah and Hamas thousands of chemical shells from the stocks of mustard and nerve gas that fell into rebel hands when they overran Muammar Qaddafi’s military facilities in and around Benghazi, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources report.
Word of the capture touched off a scramble in Tehran and among the terrorist groups it sponsors to get hold of their first unconventional weapons.
According to our sources, the rebels offloaded at least 2,000 artillery shells carrying mustard gas and 1,200 nerve gas shells for cash payment amounting to several million dollars.
US and Israeli intelligence agencies have tracked the WMD consignments from eastern Libya as far as Sudan in convoys secured by Iranian agents and Hizballah and Hamas guards. They are not believed to have reached their destinations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, apparently waiting for an opportunity to get their deadly freights through without the US or Israel attacking and destroying them.
It is also not clear whether the shells and gases were assembled upon delivery or were travelling in separate containers. Our sources report that some of the poison gas may be intended not only for artillery use but also for drones which Hizballah recently acquired from Iran.
Tehran threw its support behind the anti-Qaddafi rebels because of this unique opportunity to get hold of the Libyan ruler’s stock of poison gas after it fell into opposition hands and arm Hizballah and Hamas with unconventional weapons without Iran being implicated in the transaction.
Shortly after the uprising began in the third week of February, a secret Iranian delegation arrived in Benghazi. Its members met rebel chiefs, some of them deserters from the Libyan army, and clinched the deal for purchasing the entire stock of poison gas stock and the price
The rebels threw in a quantity of various types of anti-air missiles.
Hizballah and Hamas purchasing missions arrived in the first week of March to finalize the deal and arrange the means of delivery.
The first authoritative American source to refer to a Hizballah presence in Benghazi was the commander of US NATO forces Adm. James Stavridis. When he addressed a US Senate committee on Tuesday, March 29, he spoke of “telltale signs of the presence of Islamic insurgents led by Al-Qaeda and Hizballah” on the rebel side of the Libyan war. He did not disclose what they were doing there.
UN Workers Murdered in Quaran Protest - These People Are Crazy
By DION NISSENBAUM
KABUL--A frenzied mob, inflamed by reports of Quran burning in Florida, overran the United Nations office in northern Afghanistan's main city Friday, killing at least eight people, Afghan and UN officials said.
The fatalities in Mazar-e-Sharif included at least three UN staff members, one of them a woman, officials said. Early reports received by two diplomatic officials indicated that two of the victims had been beheaded.
An injured man is carried out of the United Nations office in northern Afghanistan after a violent protest against the burning of a copy of the Quran in a small Florida church.
Staffan De Mistura, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, was flying to the city, considered one of the safest in the country, to assess the situation after the attack, diplomats said.
The tragedy in Mazar-e-Sharif was the worst to hit the world body in Afghanistan since October 2009, when Taliban militants stormed at UN guest house in Kabul, killing eight people.
The Afghan protests erupted days after President Hamid Karzai condemned as "abhorrent" the burning of Islam's holy book at a ceremony supervised by Florida pastor Terry Jones last month.
Mr. Jones stirred outrage among millions of Muslims and others worldwide after he threatened to burn the holy book last year. The Florida pastor backed down but purportedly went through with the burning in late March.
Demonstrators chanting "Death to America" marched to the UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif after Friday prayers.
Qari Qudrat, a spokesman for the Balkh provincial governor, said that police had arrested several insurgents who grabbed the guns of the UN guards and used them during the attack.
Mazar-e-Sharif is scheduled to be one of the first big cities to be officially turned over to full Afghan security control beginning this July.
—Walid Fazly contributed to this article.
KABUL--A frenzied mob, inflamed by reports of Quran burning in Florida, overran the United Nations office in northern Afghanistan's main city Friday, killing at least eight people, Afghan and UN officials said.
The fatalities in Mazar-e-Sharif included at least three UN staff members, one of them a woman, officials said. Early reports received by two diplomatic officials indicated that two of the victims had been beheaded.
An injured man is carried out of the United Nations office in northern Afghanistan after a violent protest against the burning of a copy of the Quran in a small Florida church.
Staffan De Mistura, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, was flying to the city, considered one of the safest in the country, to assess the situation after the attack, diplomats said.
The tragedy in Mazar-e-Sharif was the worst to hit the world body in Afghanistan since October 2009, when Taliban militants stormed at UN guest house in Kabul, killing eight people.
The Afghan protests erupted days after President Hamid Karzai condemned as "abhorrent" the burning of Islam's holy book at a ceremony supervised by Florida pastor Terry Jones last month.
Mr. Jones stirred outrage among millions of Muslims and others worldwide after he threatened to burn the holy book last year. The Florida pastor backed down but purportedly went through with the burning in late March.
Demonstrators chanting "Death to America" marched to the UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif after Friday prayers.
Qari Qudrat, a spokesman for the Balkh provincial governor, said that police had arrested several insurgents who grabbed the guns of the UN guards and used them during the attack.
Mazar-e-Sharif is scheduled to be one of the first big cities to be officially turned over to full Afghan security control beginning this July.
—Walid Fazly contributed to this article.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
What Donald Trump Knows About Obama's Birth Certificate
By Nicholas Contompasis
I feel that Barrack Obama is not really Barrack Obama. He’s Barrack Davis the son of now deceased Frank Marshall Davis the well known “married at the time” communist poet. If you know anything about the President’s birth certificate problem, you will know that it’s still an issue but not for the reason everyone thinks.
To put it simply, I think it’s to protect the marriage and children of Frank Davis his biological father. This flurry over his birth certificate is just a misinterpretation as to why they are hiding the real certificate. It was a family secret that was intended to stay secret but unfortunately Mr. Obama’s life turned public, thus the problem. Also, it wouldn't look good if your father was a known and closely watched communist living in Hawaii.
Now, on to the President and his connection to the Super Bowl ad two years ago which had all of the pro-abortionists going crazy. A few years ago the President stated that he admired his mother for making the very same decision Tim Tebow’s mother did. So, Barrack’s mother was impregnated by a married man and she simply chose to have the baby who is now our President.
Barrack Obama once stated “I don’t want my daughters to be ‘victimized’ with a child and I am alive because my mother took the contrary view”, thus, the same decision as Tim’s mother.
Donald Trump is smart in pushing this birth certificate issue because it will show the truth about what Obama wants for America. His mentoring with Davis in his formative years twisted his feelings about the country he was raised in.
I feel that Barrack Obama is not really Barrack Obama. He’s Barrack Davis the son of now deceased Frank Marshall Davis the well known “married at the time” communist poet. If you know anything about the President’s birth certificate problem, you will know that it’s still an issue but not for the reason everyone thinks.
To put it simply, I think it’s to protect the marriage and children of Frank Davis his biological father. This flurry over his birth certificate is just a misinterpretation as to why they are hiding the real certificate. It was a family secret that was intended to stay secret but unfortunately Mr. Obama’s life turned public, thus the problem. Also, it wouldn't look good if your father was a known and closely watched communist living in Hawaii.
Now, on to the President and his connection to the Super Bowl ad two years ago which had all of the pro-abortionists going crazy. A few years ago the President stated that he admired his mother for making the very same decision Tim Tebow’s mother did. So, Barrack’s mother was impregnated by a married man and she simply chose to have the baby who is now our President.
Barrack Obama once stated “I don’t want my daughters to be ‘victimized’ with a child and I am alive because my mother took the contrary view”, thus, the same decision as Tim’s mother.
Donald Trump is smart in pushing this birth certificate issue because it will show the truth about what Obama wants for America. His mentoring with Davis in his formative years twisted his feelings about the country he was raised in.
Bill Gross Says U.S. Debt Has Little Value, Echoes Buffett - "Don't Tell the ChiComs"
"One must beg the question, why would anyone buy our debt?".
N.P. Contompasis
By Bill Gross Co-CIO of PIMCO
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said Treasuries “have little value” because of the growing U.S. debt burden.
The U.S. has unrecorded debt of $75 trillion, or close to 500 percent of gross domestic product, counting what it owes on its bonds plus obligations for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Gross wrote in his monthly investment outlook. The U.S. will experience inflation, currency devaluation and low-to- negative interest rates after accounting for consumer-price gains if it doesn’t reform its entitlement programs, he said.
Pimco “has been selling Treasuries because they have little value within the context of a $75 trillion total debt burden,” Gross wrote in the report published on Newport Beach, California-based company’s website. Congress “must make ‘debt’ a four-letter word.”
The comment echoes Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who recommended avoiding long-term fixed-income bets in U.S. dollars because the currency’s purchasing power will drop. Treasuries have handed investors a 0.1 percent loss this quarter, adding to a 2.7 percent decline in the final three months of 2010, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.
President Barack Obama’s government has increased the U.S. publicly traded debt to a record $9.05 trillion, leading Gross to compare the nation to Greece, which had its credit ratings cut two steps by Standard & Poor’s on March 29.
“We are out-Greeking the Greeks,” he wrote.
Inflation Risk
Gross said in an interview March 11 that he eliminated government-related debt from his Total Return Fund because investors aren’t being adequately compensated for the risk of quickening inflation.
Buffett has shortened the maturities of Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s bond holdings as the Federal Reserve eased monetary policy to stimulate the economy, according to regulatory filings.
“I would recommend against buying long-term fixed-dollar investments,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire, said March 25 in New Delhi. “If you ask me if the U.S. dollar is going to hold its purchasing power fully at the level of 2011, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now, I would tell you it will not.”
Consumer Prices
Treasuries were little changed today, with benchmark 10- year notes yielding 3.44 percent as of 6:52 a.m. in London, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 3.625 percent note maturing in February 2021 traded at 101 1/2.
The Fed said in November it would pump $600 billion into the U.S. economy by purchasing Treasuries to sustain the economic expansion.
The difference between yields on 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, a gauge of trader expectations for consumer prices over the life of the debt, has widened to 2.46 percentage points from 1.82 percentage points six months ago. The 10-year average is 2.0 percentage points.
Treasury 10-year notes pay 1.34 percent after subtracting consumer-price increases, the so-called real yield. That’s down from last year’s high of 2.39 percent in December.
Pimco’s record $236.9 billion Total Return Fund gained 7 percent in the past year, beating 82 percent of its competitors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company is a unit of insurer Allianz SE in Munich.
N.P. Contompasis
By Bill Gross Co-CIO of PIMCO
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said Treasuries “have little value” because of the growing U.S. debt burden.
The U.S. has unrecorded debt of $75 trillion, or close to 500 percent of gross domestic product, counting what it owes on its bonds plus obligations for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Gross wrote in his monthly investment outlook. The U.S. will experience inflation, currency devaluation and low-to- negative interest rates after accounting for consumer-price gains if it doesn’t reform its entitlement programs, he said.
Pimco “has been selling Treasuries because they have little value within the context of a $75 trillion total debt burden,” Gross wrote in the report published on Newport Beach, California-based company’s website. Congress “must make ‘debt’ a four-letter word.”
The comment echoes Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who recommended avoiding long-term fixed-income bets in U.S. dollars because the currency’s purchasing power will drop. Treasuries have handed investors a 0.1 percent loss this quarter, adding to a 2.7 percent decline in the final three months of 2010, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.
President Barack Obama’s government has increased the U.S. publicly traded debt to a record $9.05 trillion, leading Gross to compare the nation to Greece, which had its credit ratings cut two steps by Standard & Poor’s on March 29.
“We are out-Greeking the Greeks,” he wrote.
Inflation Risk
Gross said in an interview March 11 that he eliminated government-related debt from his Total Return Fund because investors aren’t being adequately compensated for the risk of quickening inflation.
Buffett has shortened the maturities of Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s bond holdings as the Federal Reserve eased monetary policy to stimulate the economy, according to regulatory filings.
“I would recommend against buying long-term fixed-dollar investments,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire, said March 25 in New Delhi. “If you ask me if the U.S. dollar is going to hold its purchasing power fully at the level of 2011, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years from now, I would tell you it will not.”
Consumer Prices
Treasuries were little changed today, with benchmark 10- year notes yielding 3.44 percent as of 6:52 a.m. in London, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 3.625 percent note maturing in February 2021 traded at 101 1/2.
The Fed said in November it would pump $600 billion into the U.S. economy by purchasing Treasuries to sustain the economic expansion.
The difference between yields on 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, a gauge of trader expectations for consumer prices over the life of the debt, has widened to 2.46 percentage points from 1.82 percentage points six months ago. The 10-year average is 2.0 percentage points.
Treasury 10-year notes pay 1.34 percent after subtracting consumer-price increases, the so-called real yield. That’s down from last year’s high of 2.39 percent in December.
Pimco’s record $236.9 billion Total Return Fund gained 7 percent in the past year, beating 82 percent of its competitors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company is a unit of insurer Allianz SE in Munich.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is Under House Arrest
"Sent by Twitter from Syria and translated from Arabic to English by me."
Submitted 26 March 2011 - 09:46 AM civilians in Syria by Admin Today at 8:16 am killed Farouq al-Shara and the development of Bashar al-Assad is under house arrest and a war of extermination against civilians in Syria ... Andenne - Arabs and Wikileaks - through a telephone conversation with the officer in the Division of Political Security. This source confirmed to us that Faruq al-Shara was assassinated at the hands of Maher al-Assad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under house arrest and de facto authority, however, Maher Assad, brother of Syrian President and the Commander of the Republican Guard. It is expected in the coming days (today or tomorrow) to be declared a military coup in Syria, especially after the defection of some of the military leaders and their refusal to participate in this war by targeting civilians. The source confirmed that they had received direct orders from high command to kill the demonstrators and a big focus on the Sunni community because they have this community what is happening now in Syria, the source added that the Republican Guard under the leadership of Maher al-Assad is preparing for the complete annihilation of the demonstrators in all the provinces were brought elements fighter from neighboring countries ( declined to give these countries), and this is a campaign of genocide under the name of maintaining security and considering that these demonstrators tool to stir up trouble !!!!! She said our sources from within Syria that have been killed more than 400 people at the hands of the Republican Guard and security forces in all Syrian governorates.
Submitted 26 March 2011 - 09:46 AM civilians in Syria by Admin Today at 8:16 am killed Farouq al-Shara and the development of Bashar al-Assad is under house arrest and a war of extermination against civilians in Syria ... Andenne - Arabs and Wikileaks - through a telephone conversation with the officer in the Division of Political Security. This source confirmed to us that Faruq al-Shara was assassinated at the hands of Maher al-Assad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under house arrest and de facto authority, however, Maher Assad, brother of Syrian President and the Commander of the Republican Guard. It is expected in the coming days (today or tomorrow) to be declared a military coup in Syria, especially after the defection of some of the military leaders and their refusal to participate in this war by targeting civilians. The source confirmed that they had received direct orders from high command to kill the demonstrators and a big focus on the Sunni community because they have this community what is happening now in Syria, the source added that the Republican Guard under the leadership of Maher al-Assad is preparing for the complete annihilation of the demonstrators in all the provinces were brought elements fighter from neighboring countries ( declined to give these countries), and this is a campaign of genocide under the name of maintaining security and considering that these demonstrators tool to stir up trouble !!!!! She said our sources from within Syria that have been killed more than 400 people at the hands of the Republican Guard and security forces in all Syrian governorates.
Soros Fingerprints on Libya Bombing
Borrowed from Fox News - Thank You
By Aaron Klein
Philanthropist billionaire George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the global organization that promotes the military doctrine used by the Obama administration to justify the recent airstrikes targeting the regime of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
The activist who founded and coined the name of the doctrine, "Responsibility to Protect," sits on several key organizations alongside Soros.
Also, the Soros-funded global group that promotes Responsibility to Protect is closely tied to Samantha Power, the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights.
Power has been a champion of the doctrine and is, herself, deeply tied to the doctrine's founder.
According to reports, Power was instrumental in convincing Obama to act against Libya.
The Responsibility to Protect doctrine has been described by its founders and proponents, including Soros, as promoting global governance while allowing the international community to penetrate a nation state's borders under certain conditions.
By Aaron Klein
Philanthropist billionaire George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the global organization that promotes the military doctrine used by the Obama administration to justify the recent airstrikes targeting the regime of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
The activist who founded and coined the name of the doctrine, "Responsibility to Protect," sits on several key organizations alongside Soros.
Also, the Soros-funded global group that promotes Responsibility to Protect is closely tied to Samantha Power, the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights.
Power has been a champion of the doctrine and is, herself, deeply tied to the doctrine's founder.
According to reports, Power was instrumental in convincing Obama to act against Libya.
The Responsibility to Protect doctrine has been described by its founders and proponents, including Soros, as promoting global governance while allowing the international community to penetrate a nation state's borders under certain conditions.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Leader of the Libyan Rebels Spent 20 Years Living Next Door to the CIA - Hmm
New Libyan rebel leader spent much of past 20 years in suburban Virginia
BY CHRIS ADAMS
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The new leader of Libya's opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled - even in his late-60s - to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him.
Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to anti-Gadhafi groups.
Late last week, Hifter was appointed to lead the rebel army, which has been in chaos for weeks. He is the third such leader in less than a month, and rebels interviewed in Libya openly voiced distrust for the most recent leader, Abdel Fatah Younes, who had been at Gadhafi's side until just a month ago.
At a news conference Thursday, the rebel's military spokesman said Younes will stay as Hifter's chief of staff, and added that the army - such as it is - would need "weeks" of training.
According to Abdel Salam Badr of Richmond, Va., who said he has known Hifter all his life - including back in Libya - Hifter, whose name is sometimes spelled Haftar, Hefter or Huftur, was motivated by his intense anti-Gadhafi feelings.
"Libyans - every single one of them - they hate that guy so much they will do whatever it takes," Badr said in an interview Saturday. "Khalifa has a personal grudge against Gadhafi.... That was his purpose in life."
According to Badr and another friend in the U.S., a Georgia-based Libyan activist named Salem alHasi, Hifter left for Libya two weeks ago.
alHasi, who said Hifter was once his superior in the opposition's military wing, said he and Hifter talked in mid-February about the possibility that Gadhafi would use force on protesters.
"He made the decision he had to go inside Libya," alHasi said Saturday. "With his military experience, and with his strong relationship with officers on many levels of rank, he decided to go and see the possibility of participating in the military effort against Gadhafi."
He added that Hifter is very popular among members of the Libyan army, "and he is the most experienced person in the whole Libyan army." He acted out of a sense of "national responsibility," alHasi said.
"This responsibility no one can take care of but him," alHasi said. "I know very well that the Libyan army especially in the eastern part is in desperate need of his presence."
Omar Elkeddi, a Libyan expatriate journalist based in Holland, said in an interview that the opposition forces are getting more organized than they were at the beginning up the uprising. Hifter, he said, is "very professional, very distinguished," and commands great respect.
Since arriving in the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large family.
BY CHRIS ADAMS
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The new leader of Libya's opposition military spent the past two decades in suburban Virginia but felt compelled - even in his late-60s - to return to the battlefield in his homeland, according to people who know him.
Khalifa Hifter was once a top military officer for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, but after a disastrous military adventure in Chad in the late 1980s, Hifter switched to the anti-Gadhafi opposition. In the early 1990s, he moved to suburban Virginia, where he established a life but maintained ties to anti-Gadhafi groups.
Late last week, Hifter was appointed to lead the rebel army, which has been in chaos for weeks. He is the third such leader in less than a month, and rebels interviewed in Libya openly voiced distrust for the most recent leader, Abdel Fatah Younes, who had been at Gadhafi's side until just a month ago.
At a news conference Thursday, the rebel's military spokesman said Younes will stay as Hifter's chief of staff, and added that the army - such as it is - would need "weeks" of training.
According to Abdel Salam Badr of Richmond, Va., who said he has known Hifter all his life - including back in Libya - Hifter, whose name is sometimes spelled Haftar, Hefter or Huftur, was motivated by his intense anti-Gadhafi feelings.
"Libyans - every single one of them - they hate that guy so much they will do whatever it takes," Badr said in an interview Saturday. "Khalifa has a personal grudge against Gadhafi.... That was his purpose in life."
According to Badr and another friend in the U.S., a Georgia-based Libyan activist named Salem alHasi, Hifter left for Libya two weeks ago.
alHasi, who said Hifter was once his superior in the opposition's military wing, said he and Hifter talked in mid-February about the possibility that Gadhafi would use force on protesters.
"He made the decision he had to go inside Libya," alHasi said Saturday. "With his military experience, and with his strong relationship with officers on many levels of rank, he decided to go and see the possibility of participating in the military effort against Gadhafi."
He added that Hifter is very popular among members of the Libyan army, "and he is the most experienced person in the whole Libyan army." He acted out of a sense of "national responsibility," alHasi said.
"This responsibility no one can take care of but him," alHasi said. "I know very well that the Libyan army especially in the eastern part is in desperate need of his presence."
Omar Elkeddi, a Libyan expatriate journalist based in Holland, said in an interview that the opposition forces are getting more organized than they were at the beginning up the uprising. Hifter, he said, is "very professional, very distinguished," and commands great respect.
Since arriving in the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large family.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Reverse Terrorism
"From afar, for the most part, the people across the Middle East are offering themselves to the sharpshooters of their masters. They are sacrificing their young hopeless lives for the mere chance, now with the aid of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, that the world will finally see the tortuous inhuman environment they've lived with for decades. Can you imagine how desperate one must be to go out into the streets unarmed against modern mechanized armies? This form of reverse terrorism goes far beyond passive resistance. It illustrates in its purist form man's desire to be free.
With that said, unfortunately we must remember this is the Middle East where nothing is what it appears to be." - N.P. Contompasis
With that said, unfortunately we must remember this is the Middle East where nothing is what it appears to be." - N.P. Contompasis
Donald Trump’s Gets Support With Birth Certificate Strategy
By Jonathan Strong - The Daily - Thank you
“Of course I’d release it. In two seconds I’d release it. If I decide to run, I’ll absolutely release it,” Donald Trump said in an interview with The Daily Caller Thursday, referring to his own birth certificate. “I have it right on my desk. I have it right here, right now, right this minute. I am literally looking at it. Because, based on this I said, ‘do me a favor, get me my birth certificate.’ I have my original birth certificate right here.”
Donald Trump has been thinking a lot about birth certificates lately. Indeed, he has made questions about Barack Obama’s birth certificate a pivotal part of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. And it appears to be working. One recent poll has Trump running fifth in the GOP field, just two points behind former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
“There’s a very clear niche in the Republican primary,” said longtime political consultant Roger Stone. “It’s a brilliant base-building move. There’s a very active, fervent subset of voters interested in this.” Stone, who has worked for Trump in years past, says he has no paid role in Trump’s current campaign, though he does allow that the two continue to “talk politics from time to time.”
Republican pollster John McLaughlin agrees that Trump’s remarks may be part of a larger, and potentially effective, campaign strategy. “Just like Obama won the nomination as the most anti-Bush candidate, the Republican nomination is going to be won by the most anti-Obama candidate,” McLaughlin said. “He’s positioning himself to be the most
aggressive candidate against Obama. If you want to win a primary that’s the way you win a primary.”
For his part, Trump denies that raising questions about Obama’s birth certificate has anything to do with his own political ambitions. “No. Not at all. Not at all,” he said.
With that said, Trump launches into a passionate and detailed discussion of the subject. “We’ve studied it very closely. His family doesn’t even know what hospital he was born in. You know that, right? Do you know that? This is all fact. This is all in the records.”
The publicly-released records of Obama’s birth include a “short-form” certification of live birth created in 2007, a document adequate to apply for a U.S. passport. Yet, as Trump points out, Obama has never released his hospital-produced, “long form” birth certificate. “Here’s the thing: why doesn’t he release his birth certificate?” Trump asked. “If they have it, why don’t they release it?”
Asked if he believes Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, as contemporaneous newspaper announcements suggest, Trump repeated the same line several times: “I want to see his birth certificate.”
Told that the current governor of Hawaii, Democrat Neil Abercrombie, has claimed he remembers Obama’s birth, Trump scoffed. “Well, I think it’s pretty unusual that … a governor currently sitting is going to think back to 50 years and say ‘I remember when he was born.’ Pretty unusual, right? He must have a pretty good memory.”
“I hope he was born in this country,” Trump said. “But the word ‘hope’ is not good enough because if he’s president, he has to be born in the country.”
Lines like this are unlikely to win Trump the endorsement of the New York Times editorial page. But according to consultants Stone and McLaughlin, they may help with primary voters. “It’s a brilliant stratagem in a multi-candidate field,” Stone said. “He just needs a plurality.”
Voters with questions about Obama’s birth could provide that margin. A poll conducted in last month by Public Policy Polling found that 51 percent of likely Republican primary voters don’t believe Obama was born in the United States. Twenty-one percent said they were unsure, while 28 percent said they firmly believe he was born here. Stone said he’s seen other private polls that show about one-third of primary voters feel “very strongly” about the issue.
So far, Obama and his political machine have done an effective job of controlling the issue in the mainstream press, and many think the president has deliberately avoided releasing his birth certificate so he could use the issue to paint conservatives as crazy.
John McLaughlin says that tactic worked well in 2008, but since Obama is far less popular now, and facing much greater scrutiny as a sitting president, questions about his birth certificate are hurting him. “To not put it out now, it’s like, ‘why won’t you put it out?’” McLaughlin said, adding that he personally believes Obama was born in Hawaii.
At this point, Donald Trump and Barack Obama have at least one thing in common: Both claim to have an original birth certificate, yet neither has publicly released one. Asked if he would release his now, before officially announcing for president, Trump doesn’t hesitate. “Nooo,” he said. “Why would I release it to you? I’ve never even heard of you.”
“Of course I’d release it. In two seconds I’d release it. If I decide to run, I’ll absolutely release it,” Donald Trump said in an interview with The Daily Caller Thursday, referring to his own birth certificate. “I have it right on my desk. I have it right here, right now, right this minute. I am literally looking at it. Because, based on this I said, ‘do me a favor, get me my birth certificate.’ I have my original birth certificate right here.”
Donald Trump has been thinking a lot about birth certificates lately. Indeed, he has made questions about Barack Obama’s birth certificate a pivotal part of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. And it appears to be working. One recent poll has Trump running fifth in the GOP field, just two points behind former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
“There’s a very clear niche in the Republican primary,” said longtime political consultant Roger Stone. “It’s a brilliant base-building move. There’s a very active, fervent subset of voters interested in this.” Stone, who has worked for Trump in years past, says he has no paid role in Trump’s current campaign, though he does allow that the two continue to “talk politics from time to time.”
Republican pollster John McLaughlin agrees that Trump’s remarks may be part of a larger, and potentially effective, campaign strategy. “Just like Obama won the nomination as the most anti-Bush candidate, the Republican nomination is going to be won by the most anti-Obama candidate,” McLaughlin said. “He’s positioning himself to be the most
aggressive candidate against Obama. If you want to win a primary that’s the way you win a primary.”
For his part, Trump denies that raising questions about Obama’s birth certificate has anything to do with his own political ambitions. “No. Not at all. Not at all,” he said.
With that said, Trump launches into a passionate and detailed discussion of the subject. “We’ve studied it very closely. His family doesn’t even know what hospital he was born in. You know that, right? Do you know that? This is all fact. This is all in the records.”
The publicly-released records of Obama’s birth include a “short-form” certification of live birth created in 2007, a document adequate to apply for a U.S. passport. Yet, as Trump points out, Obama has never released his hospital-produced, “long form” birth certificate. “Here’s the thing: why doesn’t he release his birth certificate?” Trump asked. “If they have it, why don’t they release it?”
Asked if he believes Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, as contemporaneous newspaper announcements suggest, Trump repeated the same line several times: “I want to see his birth certificate.”
Told that the current governor of Hawaii, Democrat Neil Abercrombie, has claimed he remembers Obama’s birth, Trump scoffed. “Well, I think it’s pretty unusual that … a governor currently sitting is going to think back to 50 years and say ‘I remember when he was born.’ Pretty unusual, right? He must have a pretty good memory.”
“I hope he was born in this country,” Trump said. “But the word ‘hope’ is not good enough because if he’s president, he has to be born in the country.”
Lines like this are unlikely to win Trump the endorsement of the New York Times editorial page. But according to consultants Stone and McLaughlin, they may help with primary voters. “It’s a brilliant stratagem in a multi-candidate field,” Stone said. “He just needs a plurality.”
Voters with questions about Obama’s birth could provide that margin. A poll conducted in last month by Public Policy Polling found that 51 percent of likely Republican primary voters don’t believe Obama was born in the United States. Twenty-one percent said they were unsure, while 28 percent said they firmly believe he was born here. Stone said he’s seen other private polls that show about one-third of primary voters feel “very strongly” about the issue.
So far, Obama and his political machine have done an effective job of controlling the issue in the mainstream press, and many think the president has deliberately avoided releasing his birth certificate so he could use the issue to paint conservatives as crazy.
John McLaughlin says that tactic worked well in 2008, but since Obama is far less popular now, and facing much greater scrutiny as a sitting president, questions about his birth certificate are hurting him. “To not put it out now, it’s like, ‘why won’t you put it out?’” McLaughlin said, adding that he personally believes Obama was born in Hawaii.
At this point, Donald Trump and Barack Obama have at least one thing in common: Both claim to have an original birth certificate, yet neither has publicly released one. Asked if he would release his now, before officially announcing for president, Trump doesn’t hesitate. “Nooo,” he said. “Why would I release it to you? I’ve never even heard of you.”
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Egypt Makes Protesting and Union Strikes Against the Law
The Egyptian government on Wednesday passed a law criminalizing protests and strikes. Under the new law, anyone organizing or calling for a protest will be sentenced to jail and/or a fine of LE500,000.
The new law will be enforced as long as the current Emergency Law is in place, said the cabinet in a statement on Wednesday. The Emergency Law has been in force since 1981 following the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat.
The new law will apply to anyone inciting, urging, promoting or participating in a protest or strike that hampers or delays work at any private or public establishments.
Since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, Egypt has witnessed nationwide labor strikes and political protests. Among those protesting have been university students, political activists, railway workers, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, journalists, pensioners, and the police force.
The new law will be enforced as long as the current Emergency Law is in place, said the cabinet in a statement on Wednesday. The Emergency Law has been in force since 1981 following the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat.
The new law will apply to anyone inciting, urging, promoting or participating in a protest or strike that hampers or delays work at any private or public establishments.
Since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, Egypt has witnessed nationwide labor strikes and political protests. Among those protesting have been university students, political activists, railway workers, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, journalists, pensioners, and the police force.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Libya
"Let's not mince words, we are not in Libya for humanitarian reasons. We are there for the benefit of our European allies access to Libyan oil. Anything else is pure bullshit." - N.P.Contompasis
CAUGHT ON TAPE: A SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan to Destroy the Country, JP Morgan, Crash the Stock Market, and Redistribute Wealth in America
"There are plans by these people to disrupt our country this year. They will be working in the shadows to destroy America, with designs on recreating a socialist society. All of America must be on guard, we as a people have never been more vulnerable, so you must resist any attempts to cause disruption in America." N.P.Contompasis
By Henry Blodget
A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, has a secret plan to "destabilize" the country.
The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government.
The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend.
The Blaze procured what appears to be a tape of Lerner's remarks. Many Americans will undoubtedly sympathize with and support them. Still, the "destabilization" plan is startling in its specificity, especially coming so close on the heels of the financial crisis.
Lerner said that unions and community organizations are, for all intents and purposes, dead. The only way to achieve their goals, therefore--the redistribution of wealth and the return of "$17 trillion" stolen from the middle class by Wall Street--is to "destabilize the country."
Lerner's plan is to organize a mass, coordinated "strike" on mortgage, student loan, and local government debt payments--thus bringing the banks to the edge of insolvency and forcing them to renegotiate the terms of the loans. This destabilization and turmoil, Lerner hopes, will also crash the stock market, isolating the banking class and allowing for a transfer of power.
Lerner's plan starts by attacking JP Morgan Chase in early May, with demonstrations on Wall Street, protests at the annual shareholder meeting, and then calls for a coordinated mortgage strike.
Lerner also says explicitly that, although the attack will benefit labor unions, it cannot be seen as being organized by them. It must therefore be run by community organizations.
Lerner was ousted from SEIU last November, reportedly for spending millions of the union's dollars trying to pursue a plan like the one he details here. It is not clear what, if any, power and influence he currently wields. His main message--that Wall Street won the financial crisis, that inequality in this country is hitting record levels, and that there appears to be no other way to stop the trend--will almost certainly resonate.
A transcript of Lerner's full reported remarks is below, courtesy of The Blaze. We have heard the tape, but we have not independently verified that the voice is Lerner's. You can listen to the tape here.
Here are the key remarks:
Unions are almost dead. We cannot survive doing what we do but the simple fact of the matter is community organizations are almost dead also. And if you think about what we need to do it may give us some direction which is essentially what the folks that are in charge - the big banks and everything - what they want is stability.
There are actually extraordinary things we could do right now to start to destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement.
For example, 10% of homeowners are underwater right their home they are paying more for it then its worth 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home that's totally spontaneous they figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up
If you could double that number you would you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again.
Students have a trillion dollar debt
We have an entire economy that is built on debt and banks so the question would be what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike if we get half a million people to agree it would literally cause a new finical crisis for the banks not for us we would be doing quite well we wouldn't be paying anything...
We have to think much more creatively. The key thing... What does the other side fear the most - they fear disruption. They fear uncertainty. Every article about Europe says in they rioted in Greece the markets went down
The folks that control this country care about one thing how the stock market goes what the bond market does how the bonuses goes. We have a very simple strategy:
• How do we bring down the stock market
• How do we bring down their bonuses
• How do we interfere with there ability to be rich...
So a bunch of us around the country think who would be a really good company to hate we decided that would be JP Morgan Chase and so we are going to roll out over the next couple of months what would hopefully be an exciting campaign about JP Morgan Chase that is really about challenge the power of Wall Street. And so what we are looking at is the first week in May can we get enough people together starting now to really have an week of action in New York I don't want to give any details because I don't know if there are any police agents in the room.
The goal would be that we will roll out of New York the first week of May. We will connect three ideas
• that we are not broke there is plenty of money
• they have the money - we need to get it back
• and that they are using Bloomberg and other people in government as the vehicle to try and destroy us
And so we need to take on those folks at the same time. And that we will start here we are going to look at a week of civil disobedience - direct action all over the city. Then roll into the JP Morgan shareholder meeting which they moved out of New York because I guess they were afraid because of Columbus. There is going to be a ten state mobilization to try and shut down that meeting and then looking at bank shareholder meetings around the country and try and create some moments like Madison except where we are on offense instead of defense
Where we have brave and heroic battles challenging the power of the giant corporations. We hope to inspire a much bigger movement about redistributing wealth and power in the country and that labor can’t do itself that community groups can’t do themselves but maybe we can work something new and different that can be brave enough and daring and nimble enough to do that kind of thing.
Read more here http://www.businessinsider.com/seiu-union-plan-to-destroy-jpmorgan
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A Closer Look at Obama's Attack on Libya
By Nicholas Contompasis
"So, by using Obama's reckless logic of volunteering our US Military for a UN attack against Libya without Congressional approval, you could some day see these same UN forces on the streets of America, bombing and killing US cities and Americans without Congressional approval. President Obama has crossed the line our Forefathers feared."
"So, by using Obama's reckless logic of volunteering our US Military for a UN attack against Libya without Congressional approval, you could some day see these same UN forces on the streets of America, bombing and killing US cities and Americans without Congressional approval. President Obama has crossed the line our Forefathers feared."
Monday, March 21, 2011
Minister Louis Abdul-Haleem Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr. – “Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?” – 3:33 P.M. March 21st 2011
By Nicholas Contompasis
Dave knew why the President had dragged his feet in helping the European coalition attack Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi in Libya, and it wasn’t because he was indecisive. It was because he knew the President had personally seen the millions of petrodollars that came in from Gaddafi to Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam while in Farrakhan’s headquarters in Chicago. A lot of that cash was redirected to a personal slush fund for the Senator, now President, and Farrakhan knew it. Farrakhan had the President by the balls, and one comment from Calypso-Louie and the jig would literally be up.
Dave knew there would be problems with the action against Libya and that it could expose the President's loyalty to a known terrorist. It could be construed as aiding and abetting a terrorist, along with violating the human rights of the Libyan people. He knew this made the President nervous and it showed every time he was on the tube. Any connection to Gaddafi’s money and the President would be an impeachable offense. The President’s past was getting to close too the surface and he couldn’t stop it from bubbling into the media, especially when his old Black-Muslim buddy in Chicago was spouting off over the weekend with threats of “who the hell do you think you are Barack Hussein Obama?”
Hillary Clinton was looking more like Superwomen after the past three weeks of infighting with the President. She knew what she was dealing with. Hillary had already been briefed on Obama’s past, two years ago, and knew he had many Achilles heals that could hamper him from making decisions, and this was one of them. She knew that when these moments would occur it would be very beneficial to her future political ambitions if she capitalized on the event.
But, Dave didn’t have time for this political intrigue; he had bigger fish to fry. From most of the intel he was receiving from around the world, in his thirty plus years at the agency, he had never seen such chaos and disorder. It was as though the entire third world was unraveling. There were always moving parts, but now there were more of them and moving faster than the speed of light. What was even more troubling was Africa and the Middle East. It literally was imploding in front of his very eyes, and he knew George was out there in the middle of it all carrying out his off-the-grid mission of God knows what.
Dave was running all of this through his mind when he set his late afternoon coffee down in the console of his BMW and pulled over after noticing someone was following him in a white rental van with the obvious advertisements on the sides. They had been there for almost 12 miles as he drove deeper into the rolling Virginia countryside from Langley. He was armed with two extra clips, something he had started doing since Obama took office. He didn’t need this shit right now. After exhuming George's dummy last week he felt he was being watched, but by whom? If the company knew that he was aware of George's operations, which the boys upstairs wanted hush-hush, would they go extreme on his ass by taking him out. That was inconceivable to his logical mind, but it wouldn’t be the first time his logical mind was wrong as three lead projectiles pierced his rear window with the sounds of dull thuds, penetrating his passenger-side floor.
Time to go, as he took off with the quickness the best the Bavarian Motor Works had to offer as the 779th day of the Obama Presidency was out of town again.
"This is an excerpt from Now the Eagle http://nowtheeagle.blogspot.com/ a novel by Nicholas Contompasis about the Obama Administration. This is fiction. It should not in any way be considered factual. We hope you enjoy this daily fictitious tongue-in-cheek novel of the Obama Presidency. The author has taken the liberty to use these fictitious, factual events and individuals to express his concerns and fears of this Administration."
Sunday, March 20, 2011
NPR Smears Michelle Malkin After Her Cousin Goes Missing
Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, March 20, 2011
NPR smeared Michelle Malkin today in a tasteless comedy segment. The channel aired a comedy sketch that suggested that Michelle was obsessed with Obama’s background and faith. Of course, this is not true at all.
What is true is that Michelle Malkin is working tirelessly to locate her missing cousin in Seattle.
Michelle’s cousin Marizela Perez has been missing since March 5.
NPR felt this was a good time to attack the popular conservative.
Gently Hew Stone reported:
This morning on NPR’s popular comedy show, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, a segment aired where a contestant had to choose which of three strange news stories was actually true. One of the (false) options concerned conservative commentator Michelle Malkin. The NPR show joked that, after Malkin had advertised her belief that President Obama is a “secret Muslim” and that she believes other “secret Muslims” are “taking over this country,” she found, to her dismay, that her own grandfather was a Muslim.
First of all, while the humor of this segment was based on the idea that Malkin must be a hypocrite with a Muslim relative (which even the show acknowledged was untrue), the setup was based on the premise as I described it above, which the narrator clearly presented as factual.
I’ve followed Malkin’s blog and columns for years now, and she has never said that President Obama is a Muslim, nor does she believe that Muslims, “secret” or otherwise, are somehow “taking over this country.” While she does report on multiethnic strife in many areas of the world, including ours, as a result of political correctness and lack of assimilation, nothing she has ever written comes close to the bizarre, mean caricature aired this morning on NPR.
But NPR’s mistake goes far beyond mere slander. Their joke targeted the family of a specific conservative at a time when that specific conservative’s family is suffering a tragedy. Quite a coincidence. It’s been two weeks since Malkin’s cousin Marizela Perez went missing, possibly the victim of a kidnapping. Malkin has used her media presence tirelessly since then to help find her young relative. Either NPR and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me are not nearly as well-informed in their news awareness as they’d like us to believe, or they cruelly decided to go ahead with a particularly tasteless joke.
Ironically, just before this segment aired, they made fun of Gilbert Gottfried getting fired for his tasteless jokes about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Pot, meet kettle.
Remember: Your tax dollars are helping to pay for this garbage.
NPR smeared Michelle Malkin today in a tasteless comedy segment. The channel aired a comedy sketch that suggested that Michelle was obsessed with Obama’s background and faith. Of course, this is not true at all.
What is true is that Michelle Malkin is working tirelessly to locate her missing cousin in Seattle.
Michelle’s cousin Marizela Perez has been missing since March 5.
NPR felt this was a good time to attack the popular conservative.
Gently Hew Stone reported:
This morning on NPR’s popular comedy show, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, a segment aired where a contestant had to choose which of three strange news stories was actually true. One of the (false) options concerned conservative commentator Michelle Malkin. The NPR show joked that, after Malkin had advertised her belief that President Obama is a “secret Muslim” and that she believes other “secret Muslims” are “taking over this country,” she found, to her dismay, that her own grandfather was a Muslim.
First of all, while the humor of this segment was based on the idea that Malkin must be a hypocrite with a Muslim relative (which even the show acknowledged was untrue), the setup was based on the premise as I described it above, which the narrator clearly presented as factual.
I’ve followed Malkin’s blog and columns for years now, and she has never said that President Obama is a Muslim, nor does she believe that Muslims, “secret” or otherwise, are somehow “taking over this country.” While she does report on multiethnic strife in many areas of the world, including ours, as a result of political correctness and lack of assimilation, nothing she has ever written comes close to the bizarre, mean caricature aired this morning on NPR.
But NPR’s mistake goes far beyond mere slander. Their joke targeted the family of a specific conservative at a time when that specific conservative’s family is suffering a tragedy. Quite a coincidence. It’s been two weeks since Malkin’s cousin Marizela Perez went missing, possibly the victim of a kidnapping. Malkin has used her media presence tirelessly since then to help find her young relative. Either NPR and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me are not nearly as well-informed in their news awareness as they’d like us to believe, or they cruelly decided to go ahead with a particularly tasteless joke.
Ironically, just before this segment aired, they made fun of Gilbert Gottfried getting fired for his tasteless jokes about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Pot, meet kettle.
Remember: Your tax dollars are helping to pay for this garbage.
Prepare for a Euro Zone Divided in Two
Borrowed from the Wall Street Journal - Than you
By IRWIN STELZER
Twenty-seven divided by two equals 17, with 10 left over. That's the new Euromath.
Sooner or later, the euro-zone financial crisis will be over. Greek, Irish, Portuguese and probably Spanish creditors will have neatly trimmed hair, the banks will have had to shore up their inadequate capital, German exporters will continue to cash the profits from the euro their southern partners have obligingly weakened, and the eurocracy will have found other reasons to meet. But Europe will not be the same.
It will be changed in two very important ways. First, the 27-nation European Union will have fractured into separate groups of 17 and 10. Second, the economies of the Gang of 17 will be centrally managed by a Franco-German coalition, while the nations among the 10 "leftovers" will fight a losing battle to effect the policies of the EU of which they are paid-up members. Peaceful coexistence between the 17 and the 10 is no sure thing.
The 17 euro-zone countries have made the direction in which they are heading very clear. The felt need to prevent defaults by its overly indebted members is leading to a more pervasive system of central economic management. The 17 are to have access to Germany's balance sheet, in return for which Germany is quite properly demanding a say in how they manage their economic affairs. Not only their budgets, but all the factors that affect their international competitiveness: methods of wage bargaining; the generosity of their welfare states, including the timing and terms of retirement; regulations concerning access to various occupations; and, most of all, tax rates.
The European Union is effectively being split into separate groups of 17 and 10.
It's not on for Greece to borrow money from the stronger euro-zone countries while operating loss-making, nationalized transport systems; or for euro-countries to index retirement benefits to wage rates rather than retail prices, with Germany the payer of last resort; or for one member to maintain corporate tax rates at half the level of the group average. It has become clear that a one-size-fits-all interest rate must be accompanied by more uniform fiscal and related economic policies. Joy unbounded in Paris as the long-sought French goal of a 17-nation euro-zone "economic government" comes closer to realization, marginalizing EU institutions.
The nations outside of the euro zone, the left-over 10, maintain their own national currencies, and retain control over their own interest rates. The value of their currencies can fluctuate, allowing depreciation if they are over-valued, and appreciation if inflation threatens. Their central banks can raise or lower interest rates in response to changing economic conditions. And to some extent they are free to follow the more liberal economic policies they prefer, rather than hew to the line set by the more anti-free-market euro-zone 17.
Those differences between the 17 and the 10 are creating a threat to the cohesion of the 27-member European Union. The euro-zone countries are developing rules for coordinated economic management without consulting the excluded group of 10. Next step: apply some of those rules to the 27-nation EU to prevent non-euro countries from gaining a competitive advantage over euro-zone members, as France and others complain Britain has done by allowing the pound to float, countenancing a less regulated labor market, and keeping regulation of financial services to an essential minimum.
The excluded 10 are well aware of their exclusion from meetings that set policies that will affect them. "It really rankles that they [Denmark and Sweden] can't get into important policy meetings," reports the Economist. Add Britain to the increasingly rankled as Brussels makes it more costly to employ part-time workers and weaves a new web of regulations around the U.K. financial services sector, and you have a core group that just might decide that exclusion from euro-zone
summits makes membership in the EU less attractive. After all, majority voting allows the bloc of 17 to dominate rule-making in the EU.
France has a solution for the under-represented, non-euro countries: get rid of your national currencies adopt the euro, and get to have a say—a tiny one compared to Germany and ours, but a say nevertheless—in the rules being drafted to implement the new European-wide system of economic management. That has little appeal for many members of the excluded 10. Britain's economic reasons for refusing to buy a seat at the table by surrendering its own currency are rooted in basic differences from euro-zone countries—a more interest-rate sensitive economy, greater reliance on financial services, the need for a currency that adjusts to changing economic conditions. These remain as powerful a deterrent to membership as when they were first developed by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and the current shadow chancellor, Ed Balls.
Meanwhile, Sweden points out that its economy is the fastest growing in the EU, Danish voters believe they are not Ireland because the krone is not the euro, and euro members Greece and Ireland are wondering whether friends-in-need should have to pay usurious interest rates to their friends-in-deed.
The American colonies went to war to break away from Britain, and fought under the banner, "Taxation without representation is tyranny." The excluded 10 will have to decide just how long they want to tolerate marginalization before deciding that regulation without representation is equally tyrannical.
By IRWIN STELZER
Twenty-seven divided by two equals 17, with 10 left over. That's the new Euromath.
Sooner or later, the euro-zone financial crisis will be over. Greek, Irish, Portuguese and probably Spanish creditors will have neatly trimmed hair, the banks will have had to shore up their inadequate capital, German exporters will continue to cash the profits from the euro their southern partners have obligingly weakened, and the eurocracy will have found other reasons to meet. But Europe will not be the same.
It will be changed in two very important ways. First, the 27-nation European Union will have fractured into separate groups of 17 and 10. Second, the economies of the Gang of 17 will be centrally managed by a Franco-German coalition, while the nations among the 10 "leftovers" will fight a losing battle to effect the policies of the EU of which they are paid-up members. Peaceful coexistence between the 17 and the 10 is no sure thing.
The 17 euro-zone countries have made the direction in which they are heading very clear. The felt need to prevent defaults by its overly indebted members is leading to a more pervasive system of central economic management. The 17 are to have access to Germany's balance sheet, in return for which Germany is quite properly demanding a say in how they manage their economic affairs. Not only their budgets, but all the factors that affect their international competitiveness: methods of wage bargaining; the generosity of their welfare states, including the timing and terms of retirement; regulations concerning access to various occupations; and, most of all, tax rates.
The European Union is effectively being split into separate groups of 17 and 10.
It's not on for Greece to borrow money from the stronger euro-zone countries while operating loss-making, nationalized transport systems; or for euro-countries to index retirement benefits to wage rates rather than retail prices, with Germany the payer of last resort; or for one member to maintain corporate tax rates at half the level of the group average. It has become clear that a one-size-fits-all interest rate must be accompanied by more uniform fiscal and related economic policies. Joy unbounded in Paris as the long-sought French goal of a 17-nation euro-zone "economic government" comes closer to realization, marginalizing EU institutions.
The nations outside of the euro zone, the left-over 10, maintain their own national currencies, and retain control over their own interest rates. The value of their currencies can fluctuate, allowing depreciation if they are over-valued, and appreciation if inflation threatens. Their central banks can raise or lower interest rates in response to changing economic conditions. And to some extent they are free to follow the more liberal economic policies they prefer, rather than hew to the line set by the more anti-free-market euro-zone 17.
Those differences between the 17 and the 10 are creating a threat to the cohesion of the 27-member European Union. The euro-zone countries are developing rules for coordinated economic management without consulting the excluded group of 10. Next step: apply some of those rules to the 27-nation EU to prevent non-euro countries from gaining a competitive advantage over euro-zone members, as France and others complain Britain has done by allowing the pound to float, countenancing a less regulated labor market, and keeping regulation of financial services to an essential minimum.
The excluded 10 are well aware of their exclusion from meetings that set policies that will affect them. "It really rankles that they [Denmark and Sweden] can't get into important policy meetings," reports the Economist. Add Britain to the increasingly rankled as Brussels makes it more costly to employ part-time workers and weaves a new web of regulations around the U.K. financial services sector, and you have a core group that just might decide that exclusion from euro-zone
summits makes membership in the EU less attractive. After all, majority voting allows the bloc of 17 to dominate rule-making in the EU.
France has a solution for the under-represented, non-euro countries: get rid of your national currencies adopt the euro, and get to have a say—a tiny one compared to Germany and ours, but a say nevertheless—in the rules being drafted to implement the new European-wide system of economic management. That has little appeal for many members of the excluded 10. Britain's economic reasons for refusing to buy a seat at the table by surrendering its own currency are rooted in basic differences from euro-zone countries—a more interest-rate sensitive economy, greater reliance on financial services, the need for a currency that adjusts to changing economic conditions. These remain as powerful a deterrent to membership as when they were first developed by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and the current shadow chancellor, Ed Balls.
Meanwhile, Sweden points out that its economy is the fastest growing in the EU, Danish voters believe they are not Ireland because the krone is not the euro, and euro members Greece and Ireland are wondering whether friends-in-need should have to pay usurious interest rates to their friends-in-deed.
The American colonies went to war to break away from Britain, and fought under the banner, "Taxation without representation is tyranny." The excluded 10 will have to decide just how long they want to tolerate marginalization before deciding that regulation without representation is equally tyrannical.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Breaking News - Cairo Now Backs Hamas - Israel in Jeopardy
Exclusive Report March 19, 2011
Borrowed from the DEBKAfile Thank you
Israeli civilians living around the Gaza border woke up Saturday, March 19, to the most massive mortar attack in years – 50 rounds fired in 15 minutes. Two civilians were injured and substantial damage caused to property. Hamas unusually claimed responsibility, emboldened by the support it has won from a new ally, the new rulers of Cairo, which have now lined up with Syria and Iran.
The Netanyahu government has not informed the Israeli public about the ominous new winds blowing in fromCairo although they are already in motion: Cairo has given Hamas rule of the Gaza Strip de facto recognition, is about to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and is forging new understandings with Damascus and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad radicals based there.
The Egyptian military which has taken over in Cairo also turned a blind eye to at least two or three Iranian arms ships which, prior to the capture of the A.S. Victoria last week, made it through the Israeli sea blockade and delivered weapons, including C-704 shore-to-sea missiles at El Arish. Hamas will be free to go out and collect them through the reopened Rafah crossing.
It is now obvious that Cairo's permission for two Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal on Feb. 22, knowing that at least one was laden with weapons for extremists, was in line with the new Egyptian policy.
Israel had earlier allowed two Egyptian mechanized infantry brigades to enter Sinai and deploy along its Mediterranean coast, although this opened up the demilitarization clause of the 1979 peace treaty. Israel expected these troops to guard the gas pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan and block the Iranian arms deliveries to Hamas. But this did not happen.
This week, spokesmen on behalf of the pipeline company announced that Egyptian gas was again flowing. It was not. After Israel appealed to the White House and the heads of the Senate and House foreign relations committees to intercede with Egypt, just a trickle of gas reached the pipeline on the pretext that the pipeline needed testing after it was blown up by Hamas on Feb. 5.
The Egyptian charade is ably supported by the Israeli government and its defense spokesmen, who keep on assuring everyone that nothing has changed in Egyptian-Israeli peace relations.
According to DEBKAfile's Cairo sources, the live wire behind the Egyptian policy U-turn is the new foreign minister Nabil Alaraby. Only two weeks on the job, the first tasks he set himself were to lift the Egyptian-Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip, reopen the Fatah crossing to free passage of people and goods, downgrade relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, and open a new page with Syria.
During the two days US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent in Cairo (March 15-16), the Egyptian Supreme Military Council sent the Mahabharat (Secret Service) chief Gen. Mourad Mwafi to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad received him for a long conversation Friday, March 19, on the third day of his visit.
Thursday, the Egyptian general met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. He was not put off by Meshaal's participation in the Iran-backed Islamist radical summit in Khartoum in the first week of March and its approval of two missions – to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Cairo and to step up terrorist attacks on Israel.
So far, Israeli forces have had no success in tracking down the Hamas perpetrators of the vicious murders of five family members at Itamar on March 11. Considering the precipitous downturn in Israel's political and military situation and the ostrich-like reactions of its leaders, it looks very much as though Hamas is now dictating Israel's security agenda. Hamas, backed to the hilt by Iran, Syria and now Egypt, feels it can safely intensify its warfare on Israel without being slapped down.
Borrowed from the DEBKAfile Thank you
Israeli civilians living around the Gaza border woke up Saturday, March 19, to the most massive mortar attack in years – 50 rounds fired in 15 minutes. Two civilians were injured and substantial damage caused to property. Hamas unusually claimed responsibility, emboldened by the support it has won from a new ally, the new rulers of Cairo, which have now lined up with Syria and Iran.
The Netanyahu government has not informed the Israeli public about the ominous new winds blowing in fromCairo although they are already in motion: Cairo has given Hamas rule of the Gaza Strip de facto recognition, is about to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and is forging new understandings with Damascus and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad radicals based there.
The Egyptian military which has taken over in Cairo also turned a blind eye to at least two or three Iranian arms ships which, prior to the capture of the A.S. Victoria last week, made it through the Israeli sea blockade and delivered weapons, including C-704 shore-to-sea missiles at El Arish. Hamas will be free to go out and collect them through the reopened Rafah crossing.
It is now obvious that Cairo's permission for two Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal on Feb. 22, knowing that at least one was laden with weapons for extremists, was in line with the new Egyptian policy.
Israel had earlier allowed two Egyptian mechanized infantry brigades to enter Sinai and deploy along its Mediterranean coast, although this opened up the demilitarization clause of the 1979 peace treaty. Israel expected these troops to guard the gas pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan and block the Iranian arms deliveries to Hamas. But this did not happen.
This week, spokesmen on behalf of the pipeline company announced that Egyptian gas was again flowing. It was not. After Israel appealed to the White House and the heads of the Senate and House foreign relations committees to intercede with Egypt, just a trickle of gas reached the pipeline on the pretext that the pipeline needed testing after it was blown up by Hamas on Feb. 5.
The Egyptian charade is ably supported by the Israeli government and its defense spokesmen, who keep on assuring everyone that nothing has changed in Egyptian-Israeli peace relations.
According to DEBKAfile's Cairo sources, the live wire behind the Egyptian policy U-turn is the new foreign minister Nabil Alaraby. Only two weeks on the job, the first tasks he set himself were to lift the Egyptian-Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip, reopen the Fatah crossing to free passage of people and goods, downgrade relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, and open a new page with Syria.
During the two days US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent in Cairo (March 15-16), the Egyptian Supreme Military Council sent the Mahabharat (Secret Service) chief Gen. Mourad Mwafi to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad received him for a long conversation Friday, March 19, on the third day of his visit.
Thursday, the Egyptian general met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. He was not put off by Meshaal's participation in the Iran-backed Islamist radical summit in Khartoum in the first week of March and its approval of two missions – to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Cairo and to step up terrorist attacks on Israel.
So far, Israeli forces have had no success in tracking down the Hamas perpetrators of the vicious murders of five family members at Itamar on March 11. Considering the precipitous downturn in Israel's political and military situation and the ostrich-like reactions of its leaders, it looks very much as though Hamas is now dictating Israel's security agenda. Hamas, backed to the hilt by Iran, Syria and now Egypt, feels it can safely intensify its warfare on Israel without being slapped down.
Gaddafi's Secret Meeting With UN General Secretary for Tuesday in Tunis Exposed
By Yasmine Ryan
March 19th, 2011.
Muammar Gaddafi has sent a top diplomat to Tunisia in what was supposed to be a secret visit.
Ali Treki, Libya's former foreign minister, is staying at the same hotel where Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, is booked when he arrives on Tuesday.
When Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tunisia, uncovered Ali Treki's visit to Tunis, the Libyan diplomat responded with a burst of rage.
Treki, who was president of the UN General Assembly until September, berated the Al Jazeera team when they filmed him in the lobby of the Regency Hotel in Gammarth, a suburb north of Tunis, on Saturday afternoon.
"You animal, stop shooting," Treki told Samir Gharbiah, Al Jazeera's cameraman, as his security personnel attempted to block Al Jazeera from filming.
Security staff at the hotel, at the request of Treki, tried to destroy Al Jazeera's camera, and to confiscate the footage of Treki. They manhandled Gharbiah and producer Youssef Gaigi, pushing them out into the hotel carpark.
They refused to allow the Al Jazeera team to leave and physically prevented Moshiri from getting in the car, holding the journalists captive in the parking lot for nearly an hour.
It was only after the Tunisian police intervened that Moshiri and her team were freed, tapes in hand. The hotel’s manager apologised and tried to insist that no mention be made of the Regency in any reports about the incident, saying that it dampen the UN Secretary-General’s willingness to stay at the hotel during his coming visit.
Gaigi said the hotel manager’s change of stance came only after Al Jazeera had contacted the interior ministry.
"I believe he was under pressure from different people." Gaigi said.
Word had already spread on Twitter, and around 30 Libyan protesters arrived to demonstrate against the hotel's treatment of the journalists.
Apparently backing away from its support for Treki once the protesters arrived, the hotel permitted the protesters to raise the pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag that has been adopted by the Libyan opposition.
Gaddafi appointed Treki as his UN envoy on March 4, after Libya's previous representatives to the UN, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shelgham, and Ibrahim Dabbashi, distanced themselves from Gaddafi and played an instrumental role in passing Resolution 1970.
The US refused to allow Treki to travel to New York to take up the post. Treki must present himself in person to the Secretary-General in order to be accredited as his country's new ambassador.
In the meantime, Gaddafi has no representative at the UN, meaning he has no legal way to lobby support against block any resolutions concerning Libya.
March 19th, 2011.
Muammar Gaddafi has sent a top diplomat to Tunisia in what was supposed to be a secret visit.
Ali Treki, Libya's former foreign minister, is staying at the same hotel where Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, is booked when he arrives on Tuesday.
When Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tunisia, uncovered Ali Treki's visit to Tunis, the Libyan diplomat responded with a burst of rage.
Treki, who was president of the UN General Assembly until September, berated the Al Jazeera team when they filmed him in the lobby of the Regency Hotel in Gammarth, a suburb north of Tunis, on Saturday afternoon.
"You animal, stop shooting," Treki told Samir Gharbiah, Al Jazeera's cameraman, as his security personnel attempted to block Al Jazeera from filming.
Security staff at the hotel, at the request of Treki, tried to destroy Al Jazeera's camera, and to confiscate the footage of Treki. They manhandled Gharbiah and producer Youssef Gaigi, pushing them out into the hotel carpark.
They refused to allow the Al Jazeera team to leave and physically prevented Moshiri from getting in the car, holding the journalists captive in the parking lot for nearly an hour.
It was only after the Tunisian police intervened that Moshiri and her team were freed, tapes in hand. The hotel’s manager apologised and tried to insist that no mention be made of the Regency in any reports about the incident, saying that it dampen the UN Secretary-General’s willingness to stay at the hotel during his coming visit.
Gaigi said the hotel manager’s change of stance came only after Al Jazeera had contacted the interior ministry.
"I believe he was under pressure from different people." Gaigi said.
Word had already spread on Twitter, and around 30 Libyan protesters arrived to demonstrate against the hotel's treatment of the journalists.
Apparently backing away from its support for Treki once the protesters arrived, the hotel permitted the protesters to raise the pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag that has been adopted by the Libyan opposition.
Gaddafi appointed Treki as his UN envoy on March 4, after Libya's previous representatives to the UN, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shelgham, and Ibrahim Dabbashi, distanced themselves from Gaddafi and played an instrumental role in passing Resolution 1970.
The US refused to allow Treki to travel to New York to take up the post. Treki must present himself in person to the Secretary-General in order to be accredited as his country's new ambassador.
In the meantime, Gaddafi has no representative at the UN, meaning he has no legal way to lobby support against block any resolutions concerning Libya.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Iran Unveils Flying Saucer - No Joke!
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran unveiled a home-made unmanned flying saucer as well as a light sports aircraft in an exhibition of strategic technologies.
The unmanned flying saucer, named "Zohal", was unveiled in a ceremony attended by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
Zohal, designed and developed jointly by Farnas Aerospace Company and Iranian Aviation and Space Industries Association (IASIA), can be used for various missions, specially for aerial imaging.
The flying machine is equipped with an auto-pilot system, GPS (Global Positioning System) and two separate imaging systems with full HD 10 mega-pixel picture quality and is able to take and send images simultaneously.
Zohal uses a small, portable navigation and monitoring center for transmission of data and images and can fly in both outdoor and indoor spaces.
The second project unveiled in the exhibition was a light sports plane. The plane designed and developed by Dorna Aerospace Company is a full composite sports plane and complies with the Standard Test Method (ASTM).
It is the third ISA-class model introduced to the world and can be used for private flights, aerial patrolling and surveillance.
The unmanned flying saucer, named "Zohal", was unveiled in a ceremony attended by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
Zohal, designed and developed jointly by Farnas Aerospace Company and Iranian Aviation and Space Industries Association (IASIA), can be used for various missions, specially for aerial imaging.
The flying machine is equipped with an auto-pilot system, GPS (Global Positioning System) and two separate imaging systems with full HD 10 mega-pixel picture quality and is able to take and send images simultaneously.
Zohal uses a small, portable navigation and monitoring center for transmission of data and images and can fly in both outdoor and indoor spaces.
The second project unveiled in the exhibition was a light sports plane. The plane designed and developed by Dorna Aerospace Company is a full composite sports plane and complies with the Standard Test Method (ASTM).
It is the third ISA-class model introduced to the world and can be used for private flights, aerial patrolling and surveillance.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
"Nancy" Boehner Funds Obamacare Again, Trashes Tea Partiers
Borrowed from The Conservative Post - Thank you
I guess it was too much for conservatives to expect an entrenched Washington insider like Nancy Boehner to get the message that we conservatives, and the Tea Partiers, were sending them in the last election… that business as usual is no longer acceptable in DC.
Yesterday, Obama & Harry Reid, ate Boehners lunch again when the hapless GOP leadership passed another short-term CR, with puny spending cuts, that continues to fully fund Obamacare. Now, I don’t know why I ever trusted Nancy Boehner when he pledged to defund Obamacare… he’s had two opportunities to put up or shut up, and he’s failed twice. Even Schmucky Schumer sees Nancy Boehner as another all talk blowhard.
This from the Daily Caller: Schumer taunts Boehner again: Democrats saved you from the Tea Party
Top ranking Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer doubled down on his call for House Republican Speaker John Boehner to ditch the Tea Party after Democrats helped pass a short-term federal funding bill that would have failed without their support because of defections within the GOP.
“Speaker Boehner wouldn’t have been able to pass this short-term measure without Democratic votes, and he won’t be able to pass a long-term one without Democratic votes either,” Schumer said in a statement. “It’s time for him to abandon the Tea Party, and forge a bipartisan compromise.”
Fifty-four House Republicans, many of them Tea Party-backed freshman, voted against a stopgap measure Tuesday that would fund the government for three weeks while the parties negotiate a long-term deal. The proposal included $6 billion in cuts, but did not touch funding for the health care law and other programs that some in the caucus said needed to be included to get their approval.
Schumer said Mondaythat Boehner “should consider leaving the Tea Party behind” because they “are unwilling to accept anything short of the extreme cuts in the House budget, even if it risks a shutdown.”
Note to Schmucky…. there is no “Tea Party” and Boehner was never with the Tea Partiers in the first place, so he’s had no problems turning his back on us. In fact inside sources are claiming that Nancy Boehner is trashing Tea Partiers and Conservatives as “Extremists”.
Excuse me? When you hapless “moderates” cuts a measly $6 billion, when we have a $1,600,000,000,000 yearly deficit, and then have the gaul to come to us and tell us that we should be happy, and that’s the best you can do… how pathetic! If it’s “extreme” to simply demamnd the government live within their means, and stay the hell out of our lives and medical decision, then color me extreme I guess!
It is becoming increasingly clear that a gutless Nancy Boehner is NEVER going to take Obama on, and defund Obamacare in a meaningful way. He’ll take the easy route, and pass a defunding bill separate of any of the budget legislation, a bill he knows will go no where, and claim that he’s heard us… give us a break Nancy, we’re not a stupid as you think!
Author: Scott Miller
I guess it was too much for conservatives to expect an entrenched Washington insider like Nancy Boehner to get the message that we conservatives, and the Tea Partiers, were sending them in the last election… that business as usual is no longer acceptable in DC.
Yesterday, Obama & Harry Reid, ate Boehners lunch again when the hapless GOP leadership passed another short-term CR, with puny spending cuts, that continues to fully fund Obamacare. Now, I don’t know why I ever trusted Nancy Boehner when he pledged to defund Obamacare… he’s had two opportunities to put up or shut up, and he’s failed twice. Even Schmucky Schumer sees Nancy Boehner as another all talk blowhard.
This from the Daily Caller: Schumer taunts Boehner again: Democrats saved you from the Tea Party
Top ranking Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer doubled down on his call for House Republican Speaker John Boehner to ditch the Tea Party after Democrats helped pass a short-term federal funding bill that would have failed without their support because of defections within the GOP.
“Speaker Boehner wouldn’t have been able to pass this short-term measure without Democratic votes, and he won’t be able to pass a long-term one without Democratic votes either,” Schumer said in a statement. “It’s time for him to abandon the Tea Party, and forge a bipartisan compromise.”
Fifty-four House Republicans, many of them Tea Party-backed freshman, voted against a stopgap measure Tuesday that would fund the government for three weeks while the parties negotiate a long-term deal. The proposal included $6 billion in cuts, but did not touch funding for the health care law and other programs that some in the caucus said needed to be included to get their approval.
Schumer said Mondaythat Boehner “should consider leaving the Tea Party behind” because they “are unwilling to accept anything short of the extreme cuts in the House budget, even if it risks a shutdown.”
Note to Schmucky…. there is no “Tea Party” and Boehner was never with the Tea Partiers in the first place, so he’s had no problems turning his back on us. In fact inside sources are claiming that Nancy Boehner is trashing Tea Partiers and Conservatives as “Extremists”.
Excuse me? When you hapless “moderates” cuts a measly $6 billion, when we have a $1,600,000,000,000 yearly deficit, and then have the gaul to come to us and tell us that we should be happy, and that’s the best you can do… how pathetic! If it’s “extreme” to simply demamnd the government live within their means, and stay the hell out of our lives and medical decision, then color me extreme I guess!
It is becoming increasingly clear that a gutless Nancy Boehner is NEVER going to take Obama on, and defund Obamacare in a meaningful way. He’ll take the easy route, and pass a defunding bill separate of any of the budget legislation, a bill he knows will go no where, and claim that he’s heard us… give us a break Nancy, we’re not a stupid as you think!
Author: Scott Miller
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Economic Disaster That Could Have Been Averted
"The irresponsible fluctuation by the Federal Reserve of their monetary policy, that started in the winter of 2004, has led us to continuous Quantitative Easing, or in other words the devaluation of our currency and others around the world. Due to their lack of knowledge and understanding of our world economy and the monster they created, many will die and feel the hardships connected to this deleveraging process. If restraint was exercised at the beginning of this period much of this could have been averted." - Nicholas Contompasis
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