Partners For a New Beginning - the vision President Obama laid out in his June 2009 Cairo speech

HT:WeaselZippers.Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, along with Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, and Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of The Aspen Institute, announced today the formation of the Steering Committee and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitments for Partners for a New Beginning (PNB).

Partners for a New Beginning is a non-partisan, non-profit organization established to harness private sector and civil society resources to advance the vision President Obama laid out in his June 2009 Cairo speech of renewed engagement with Muslims around the world based on mutual respect and responsibility. Secretary Albright serves as PNB’s Chair. Mr. Kent and Mr. Isaacson serve as Vice-Chairs.

This advisory group of prominent American leaders has committed to using their expertise, global networks, and access to resources to foster locally-driven public-private partnerships and projects to advance opportunity in Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities in four key areas: economic opportunity, science and technology, education, and exchange.

Today at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting, PNB announced its first commitments to increase access to finance, business capacity and development services; improve educational opportunities for students and teachers; foster physical and virtual exchange programs; and enhance science and technology solutions. These commitments will positively impact up to 500,000 people across the PNB targeted countries of Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and West Bank/Gaza during the next five years.

Now lets look once who's among  the  "U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project".Leadership Group Members :

Madeleine Albright, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; former U.S. Secretary of State.

The guest speaker last week at Obama ’s Church. Dr. Ziad Asali.President and Founder, American Task Force on Palestine.

Among other members of the organisation are : Surprise!

Daisy Khan, Executive Director, American Society for Muslim Advancement and Feisal Abdul Rauf, Imam.

Anyone starting to understand why the state department is paying for Iman Rauf his trips?

Click here to read the full story.U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project

MFS - The Other News

                      Afternoon Posting.

• HT:HotAir.Judiciary Committee taking up confirmations of controversial bench nominees.Jeff Sessions is ringing the alarm bells on Judiciary Committee hearings set to take place today for five Barack Obama nominees to the federal bench. The Senate, which has few days left on its pre-midterms legislative calendar, wants to quietly move these five picks to floor votes while Republicans will still have difficulty blocking their confirmations. In at least two of the cases, and perhaps all five, people may want a better look at these appointments, which one can see here and now, as the hearing is already underway for a whole slate of nominations.Sessions’ office released the following criticisms of the five appointments he opposes.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• After Delhi's disgrace, the shame: Child labourers pictured working on construction sites in frantic effort to get Commonwealth Games stadiums ready.CNN find dozens of incidents involving children of seven and younger Save The Children 'concerned' .English athletes arrive to prepare for next week's events.India was yesterday building its chaotic Commonwealth Games venues with the toil and sweat of the country's children.Distressing pictures show children apparently as young as seven carrying hods and buckets as part of the Delhi's desperate bid to complete construction ahead of the opening ceremony a week tomorrow.The images, released by CNN, drew criticism from Save The Children. 'We are concerned about reports of young children working on construction sites,' said the charity.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Russian-US crew fails to returns to Earth.Two Russians and a US astronaut aborted a return to Earth on Friday when their space capsule failed to separate from the International Space Station.”This situation has never occurred before,” a spokeswoman at Russian Mission Control near Moscow said, as space officials scrambled to determine the cause.Russia's space agency chief Anatoly Perminov told reporters at Mission Control that Dyson, Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko's return to Earth after nearly six months in space had been rescheduled for Saturday.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:PajamasMedia.Mainstream Islam Rejects Freedom of Conscience.The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will be meeting in Chicago later this month, sponsoring a program promoting values antithetical to the U.S. Constitution.This principle of freedom of conscience is also upheld in Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which further makes explicit the fundamental right to change one’s religion: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.Islamic Rulings:the issuance of such “rulings” by a so-called council of Muslim jurists in North America — antithetical to the protection of freedom of conscience enshrined in American law — is mirrored by the overwhelming refusal of mainstream Islamic organizations to sign a simple, unequivocal pledge composed and distributed one year ago by ex-Muslims living in America:To repudiate the threat from authoritative Sharia to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims.Sadly, the OIC may find fertile grounds for any planned Islamization campaign in America, spearheaded by like-minded American Muslims.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Soros revealed as funder of liberal Jewish-American lobby.The Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, which bills itself as the dovish alternative to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby, has secretly received funding from billionaire George Soros despite previous denials that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and liberal political activist.Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.Mr. Ben Ami in past interviews has described J Street as President Obama's "blocking back" in Congress, with the group billing itself as the lead Jewish-American group supporting elements in the Israeli political spectrum who favor negotiating a lasting two-state peace deal with the Palestinians.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Examiner Editorial: Obamacare is even worse than critics thought!Six months ago, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, we know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations.If you wonder why so many American voters are angry, and no longer give Obama the benefit of the doubt on a variety of issues, you need look no further than Obamacare, whose birthday gift to America might just be a GOP congressional majority.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Meet the Muslim Superheroes who are Ready to Indoctrinate American Kids.In the Islamic world, cartoons have a more sinister purpose. In Iran, on Al-Quds Day, Iranian TV schedules are filled with cartoons about evil Israelis with red eyes, shooting and murdering innocent doe-eyed Palestinians. For older kids, the heroes fight back, and even get martyred in the cause of Allah. Al-Quds day, named after the Arab term for Jerusalem and initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1983, is a time for Iranian media to reinforce Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic propaganda.Muslims comprise only one and a half percent of the American population, but be prepared for the latest exercise in Muslim propaganda and toy promotion – “The Ninety-Nine”. This began life as a series of printed comic “super-hero” characters, each one representing one of the Ninety-Nine names of Allah.Muslims represent 1.5 % of the American population, but the President speaks almost 100 % of the time on their behalf?Reads the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IslaminEurope.Rotterdam: Top official has links to radical Turkish organization.A top official in Rotterdam, Bilal Taner, is in contact with a Turkish radical-Islamist organization, which is fiercely anti-Israeli and anti-American, openly supports the Hamas terror organization and glorifies martyrdom for Jihadists.The warm personal connection with Rotterdam senior adviser Bilal Taner was recently clarified when he was extensively congratulated in an orthodox-religious manner on the Haksöz Haber website for the birth of his daughter. This website serves as a platform for radical Islamists, anti-Israeli and anti-American authors.The radical Turkish movement reject societies which are not based on the Koran.In the German-language American Jewish Committee 2006 report "Antisemitism - Made in Iran" (Antisemitismus - Made in Iran) it says: "The goals of Haksöz include uniting Muslims in the battle against Israel and the United States".The orthodox-religious congratulations to 'our brother in Rotterdam' is signed by prominent members of the Turkish Hasöz Haber movement. Several of the congratulations to the Rotterdam policy official come from important activists who were passengers on the Mavi Marmaris, one of the ship in the flotilla which recently tried to break through the Gaza blockade. The attempt ended in a bloody encounter with the Israeli navy where several people were killed. The dead activists are honored as martyrs by Haksöz.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Obama team uses flimflammery to inflate job numbers.Are you a financial adviser? You may not know it, but you've got a green job. Are you a wholesale buyer? You've got a green job, too. Or maybe you're a newspaper reporter. You, too, have a green job -- at least according to the Obama administration.For months, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has been pushing the administration to substantiate its claims of having created nearly 200,000 green jobs. More fundamentally, Grassley has asked Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to state clearly what a green job is. So far, he hasn't gotten an answer.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:AmericanThinker.'DREAM Act' Threat Remains.Senator Harry Reid launched a sneak attack by adding the "DREAM Act" to the Defense Authorization Bill. Although the Defense Bill was temporarily sidelined Tuesday, most expect it to be revived at a later date. The Act will allow students who have lived in America for five years to obtain a green card after they attend college or serve in the military. This is nothing more than an amnesty program that gives citizenship to these illegal immigrants. The "DREAM Act" is sending the wrong signal that the way you become an American is to break the law. Congressman Bilbray is frustrated and upset and wants to make it clear that "Harry [Reid] is desperate and is in a tight election. However, there should be some issues more important than politics."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 'Great flotilla' group mounts anti-Israeli campaign.Organizers of next Gaza aid sail mount display featuring Israeli premier clutching bloody knife, skeleton of Israeli soldier with Palestinian children coming out of its mouth in efforts to rally support for journey. Foreign Ministry: Campaign heinous.The future flotilla is expected to reach the area in early October, carrying hundreds of anti-Israeli activist from Europe. Organizers launched the media campaign in London, last week.Displays including skulls embedded with the Star of David and Palestinian flags are expected to be shown throughout the journey.Organizers claim the flotilla will include 12 vessels carrying 5,000 activists, but Israel says only a few hundreds are expected to actually arrive."Just as the Marmara terror ship was not carrying so much as one ounce of humanitarian aid for Gazans... this sail and others like it aim to breach a hypothetical blockade and ease 'mass hunger' which is nothing more than the figment of an anti-Israeli campaign." Gaza, he concluded, "Longs not for the end of an Israeli occupation, but for the end of Hamas occupation, which has plunged it into great darkness." Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Stephen Colbert Testifies in Congress, in Character.Stephen Colbert testified in a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on immigrant farm workers this morning (video here, not embeddable). The hearing got off to an awkward start when Democratic Rep. John Conyers asked the comedian to leave the hearing. Colbert responded, seemingly concerned, that he had only agreed to testify at the request of subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, who then asked him to stay.A sampling of his satiric offerings:-"I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan, in a spa, where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.-"I'm not a fan of the government doing anything. But I've got to ask, why isn't the government doing anything? ... Like most members of Congress, I haven't read the bill."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Ground Zero Imam Ordered To Pay Union City.Rauf was ordered to pay $12,960 to city authorities who were fired up after having to front the ten days worth of pay earned by the officer keeping fire watch while the imam made repairs ranging from faulty fire alarms to moldy bathrooms and bedbugs.Over 200 health and fire code violations were found in the building, and Rauf has until Oct. 9 to fix them. Union City is suing the religious leader for ignoring some 30 tenant complaints from 1996 to 2010.Rauf’s lawyer said the complaints were all addressed in 2007 and that the suit is a political move in retaliation to his client’s hotly-contested plans to build a mosque in New York City’s financial district.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:GatewayPundit.Vatican Official: “Islam Will Sooner Or Later Conquer Majority of Europe”.Europe will grow more “Islamicized” if Christian Europeans do not start having more children, and going back to Church, a senior Vatican official said this month. Msgr. Piero Gheddo, a famous missionary and an official with the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, told Zenit news service that Europe’s indigenous inhabitants have abandoned Christianity and are becoming “paganized.”“The fact is that, as a people, we are becoming ever more pagan and the religious vacuum is inevitably filled by other proposals and religious forces,” said Msgr. Gheddo, who founded AsiaNews, the Christian missionary news service. As religious practice diminishes in Christian Europe, “indifference spreads; Christianity and the Church are attacked.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:The Volokh Conspiracy.Speech Hostile to Gays Constitutionally Unprotected, Speech Hostile to Whites Constitutionally Protected?Perhaps Republican Party v. White, which applies to judicial candidate speech the highly speech-protective “strict scrutiny” test is the right test for speech by sitting judges. Perhaps Pickering v. Board of Education, which applies to government employees a much less speech-protective balancing test is the right test for speech by sitting judges. But I saw no explanation from Justice Graves, or from the opinions he joined, of why Pickering should have been applied as to the hostile-to-gays speech in Wilkerson but not to the hostile-to-whites speech in Osborne.As I mentioned, perhaps there is a good explanation for Justice Graves’ conclusions in these cases. But it would be good, I think, if the Senators asked Justice Graves what that explanation might be.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Catholic school 'could be run by mosque'.A Roman Catholic primary school faces being taken over by a mosque following a sharp rise in the number of Muslim children.Sacred Heart primary in Blackburn could become the first Catholic school in Britain to be converted into an Islamic faith school following a dramatic change in the pupil population.More than nine-in-10 of the school's pupils were Catholic a decade ago but that number plummeted to just three per cent this year.The local diocese admitted the school – which must have a Catholic head teacher and devote 10 per cent of the timetable to Christian-based religious education – was no longer “serving the needs” of the community.Under current legislation, the local council must effectively run a competition to find a new organisation to run the school.Blackburn’s Masjid-e-Tauheedul Islam mosque, which already runs a girls’ secondary school in the town, is among a series of organisations expressing an interest.Hamid Patel, principal of the Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School, told the Times Educational Supplement: “Given that most of the pupils are Muslim it makes sense for us to engage with the school.“We will need more information on the expectations of the local authority, but if the community and the school want us to be involved, then, yes, we are interested.”The disclosure comes amid rising demand for Islamic state schools.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:AstuteBloggers.Libs claim anti - Muslim discrimination is up - But it's creeping Sharia in legal garb.In 2009, workplace discrimination against Muslims rose 20 percent to a record 803 claims, according to federal data cited in the New York Times.We sat down with the author of the article, Times labor and workplace reporter Steven Greenhouse, along with Arsalan Iftikhar, an Muslim- American international human rights lawyer and founder of themuslimguy.com, to discuss why these numbers have increased and what could be the cause.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Larry Elder: Australian Muslim cleric calls for a beheading. Who cares?What happens when an Australian(!) Muslim cleric calls for the beheading of a Dutch politician?Not much.What happens when an American pastor no one ever heard of threatens to burn a Koran?It ignites an international outcry.Bottom line: Barbarity in the name of Islam is not even remotely condemned to the degree that the West condemns insensitivity by cartoonists, politicians and anti-Islam clerics.Why? A denunciation of Muslim practices suggests a superiority of American values and culture. The left finds the very notion objectionable.Conclusion : It is a bizarre and dangerous double standard that allows a Pastor Jones to become more notorious than a Feiz Muhammad.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Pakistan's Supreme Court, Government On Collision Course.Conspiracy is a frequently uttered word in Islamabad these days, with the Pakistani capital awash in talk of a return to military rule and every political move being interpreted as a power grab.In recent days, senior members of the governing coalition have been talking about a "judicial coup," in which the country's courts would oust politicians and form power by judicial processes, paving the way for an eventual military takeover. Friction between the Supreme Court and the civilian government is high in the wake of the court's directive to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari in Switzerland. Given a deadline of September 24 to reply, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani dutifully refused to obey it.Gilani signed a government document presented to the Supreme Court on September 24 that reiterates the president's immunity from prosecution while in office and that, as supreme commander of the armed forces, he cannot be subjected to court proceedings in a foreign country. The document was leaked to the press, despite the government's request that it be kept secret, adding to the discord between the two bodies.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Soldier who served in Afghanistan refused council house 'for not being local while he was overseas'.But Afghan family given a £1.2m house by their local authority.A father-of-two who served in Afghanistan has been denied a council house because he has not been living in his local area while serving in the forces.Lance Corporal Craig Baker, 26, completed two tours of duty in the war-stricken region before he decided to leave the Army to spend more time with his sons.But the former soldier, who grew up in Bracknell, Berkshire, has been denied a council property for his family because he 'does not have a local connection'. It is in sharp contrast to an Afghan family who were given a £1.2 million seven-bedroom house by their local authority just 30 miles away in 2008.And he accused the local authority of discriminating against him because of his service background.Simon Hendey, chief officer of housing for Bracknell Forest Council, denied that Craig Baker was discriminated against because he was a soldier.Hmmmm....option go back to Afghanistan trow away British passport and come back as a refugee,housing insured?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Mexican Journalists Flee Drug War, Seek U.S. Asylum.Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a series of measures this week designed to safeguard the work of journalists who cover the violent cartel war in that country.Mexico's drug war, which has claimed more than 28,000 lives, has become one of the most dangerous stories in the world. Some journalists have taken the ultimate step: They have fled to the United States to seek political asylum.It is the moment that thousands of Mexican citizens who have fled to the United States wait for, but very few get to savor: the celebration when they learn the U.S. government has granted them political asylum.Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco, a TV cameraman from Torreon who was kidnapped in July by suspected cartel thugs for reporting on corrupt prison authorities, says he hopes the asylum granted to Aguirre "opens the door for people like me.""I can't return to Mexico," he says, "either the cartels or the police will get me."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Los Angeles Judge Rules Lindsay Lohan Must Return to Jail After Failed Drug Test!Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan was ordered back to jail following a public confession to a failed court-mandated drug test.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox made the decision to deny bail for Lohan Friday, following days of speculation about her fate. Fox issued a warrant for Lohan’s arrest earlier this week, compelling her to appear in court Friday morning.Looking somber and wearing black and white clothing, Lohan arrived on time for the Friday morning hearing. While cameras were not allowed inside the hearing, media lined the outside of the courtroom awaiting the news.She was later taken outside in handcuffs. A second hearing was scheduled for October 22.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Civil rights commission hearing on the New Black panthers voter intimidation live 10a .Click here.Click here for comments.

• 'Jewish dancer' rocks West Bank.Mysterious belly dancer from Israel turns into Palestinian wedding sensation; earns NIS 1,600 per 15 minutes of dancing.The woman of mystery has become the talk of the town among Palestinians, after appearing in many wedding celebrations and leaving the crowd flabbergasted.Recently, the woman, dubbed "the Jewish dancer" appeared in a wedding at Bethlehem. Guests who saw her perform said she quickly turned into the highlight of the night, and came up in almost every conversation during the event.The wedding sensation, whose name and other identifying details remain unknown, reportedly charges an astronomic amount of NIS 1,600 (about $425) for every 15 minutes of performance.To watch the dance or not to watch the dance?This is the question.Not her nationality.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• British monarch 'asked for heating handout' from fund for the poor!Queen Elizabeth II asked the British government for money from a fund for poor people to help pay heating bills on her palaces, a newspaper reported on Friday.Aides said the 15-million-pound state grant the queen received for the upkeep of the palaces was inadequate and asked if the royal family was eligible for special funds to replace four combined heat and power units at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.The money would come from a government scheme to fund heating programmes that benefit people on low incomes.According to the Independent, the then Labour government initially agreed to the idea but then changed its mind.An official wrote to the palace pointing out the fund's intended purpose, adding: "I also feel a bit uneasy about the probable adverse press coverage if the palace were given a grant at the expense of, say, a hospital."Buckingham Palace refused to comment on the report.Hmmm....perhaps sell a few things to pay the bills?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Last Friday’s News: Obama’s Latest Group of US Science Envoys to the Muslim World.So while Obama continues to turn us into a third world country w/ today’s installment of rationed socialized healthcare, last Friday, START-Star Senator Lugar announced the installation of 3 new US Science Envoys to the Muslim World. NOT ONCE does the world “muslim” appear in his press release.We get it from Science Mag, (not the msm, as usual).This is the second set of science envoys. A previous set was sent to Muslim-majority countries during the first half of the year. There may be more we don’t know about ..So much for Obama’s disavowal to hand over NASA this past summer.. sounds like utter BS at this point.Meanwhile unemployment just went up again the USA?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Rightist MKs slam Obama remarks at UN.President's call for extension of settlement freeze 'inappropriate interference,' rightist Knesset members say. Rightist Knesset members slammed American President Barack Obama Thursday over his remarks during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.Responding to the president's call for an extension of the West Bank settlement freeze, Likud MK Danny Danon said "Obama is invited to turn on CNN Sunday and watch the bulldozers resuming construction in Eretz Yisrael." "A person who presents the freeze as a condition for peace is completely detached (from reality,) and will apparently not get to be a partner for peace in the Middle East," he said. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:DanielGreenfield.Mohammed's Ghost and the Incompatibility of Islam and the West.A clash of civilizations is at the heart of it a clash of allegiances, for a civilization is defined by its pattern of allegiances. Therefore the clash between Islam and the West, is also the clash between what we give allegiance to and what they give allegiance to. It is also one of the best demonstrations of why Islam is incompatible with Western democracies.Given enough centuries of residence, the problem might resolve itself. If Islam did not insist on conquering infidels by the sword, but merely on separatism, the problem would be mainly a social one. If Muslims were not swiftly moving from minorities to majorities across Europe, there might still be time. Unfortunately there is very little time left before Europe becomes Eurabia, and much of the rest of the world will follow. The toxic combination of Saudi wealth, a booming birth rate, a decaying West and the industrialized secularism of the First World colliding with the fanatical determinism of the Muslim world, leaves only two ways for this clash of civilizations to end.One idea, one way of life must win. The other must lose. The great question being decided now in our words and deeds, is which will stand and which will fall.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Video:Donald Trump shares his doubts about whether President Obama can win a re-election in 2012.Trump on Obama: ‘I Don’t Think He’s Ever Going to Recover’.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:AtlasShrugs.OIC Subversive Supremacist World Summit in Chicago: Installing the Universal Caliphate.There is, from the 28th to the 30th of this month, a conference being held by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the American Islamic College on "Islam and Muslims in America" in Chicago. It is a summit of Islamic supremacists at the highest levels of national and international power. Notice how all of these Islamic organizations and groups all share the same goal, worldwide. This conference appears to be the penultimate chapter, a decidedly evil moment, in American history.The fox is in the hen-house. Here we see, up close, just how deeply the US government has been infiltrated by the stealth jihadists. The panel discussions give us a true picture of their agenda -- The Role of the OIC & The scope for its relations with American Muslims, American Foreign Policy & The Muslim World, and Islam in the American Context.Unindicted co-conspirators, Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood fronts like CAIR and ISNA pow wow with Muslim Congressmen and with people at senior levels of the White House, the State Department and the largest Islamic supremacist body in the world, the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference).Look what i got about "Ufuk Gocken",Turkey Honorary Consul General Mr. Ufuk GOKCEN.Oct 2007 - "CORDOBA speech"Conference on intolerance and discrimination against Muslims.Weird how they like the use of CORDOBA?Is this weird or what?Hmmm ....Turkey - Iran.....Blame the Jews??Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 9/11 Memorial Lights Trap Thousands of Birds.On the evening of the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the twin columns of light projected as a memorial over the World Trade Center site became a source of mystery.Illuminated in the beams were thousands of small white objects, sparkling and spiraling, unlike anything seen on other nights. Some viewers wondered if they were scraps of paper or plastic caught in updrafts from the spotlights’ heat. From beneath, it was at times like gazing into a snowstorm. It was hard not to think of souls.Those unidentified objects have now been identified as birds, pulled from their migratory path and bedazzled by the light in a perfect, poignant storm of avian disorientation.“It’s only happened once before. It’s a confluence of circumstances that come together to cause this,” said John Rowden, citizen science director at the Audubon Society’s New York City chapter. “Some of it has to do with meteorological conditions, and some with the phase of the moon.”New York City sits in the middle of a major migration corridor, used for millennia by birds flying south for the winter. During autumn nights, thousands of birds pass directly above the megalopolis, a passage generally unnoticed by its human inhabitants.Gives a whole new meaning to "Holy Ground".Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Iran: Journalist sentenced to six years over Ayatollah Montazeri interview.Emadeddin Baqi, 48, was indicted for a video broadcast on a BBC program in Farsi. He is charged with propaganda against the establishment and undermining national security. Since 2000, he has been in jail at least 67 times. In 2009 he won a prize for campaigning for human rights in Iran.Since 2000 he has ended up in jail at least 67 times and suffers from serious heart and kidney diseases, exacerbated because of prison. Last year in Madrid Baqi was awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, for his campaign for human rights in Iran.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:GatewayPundit.Radical American Islamist: “We Will Build Our Victory Mosque – On Top Of Your Grave”.Here’s a tip: If you’re going to write a threatening email about a victory mosque on top of the bones of dead Americans don’t use your hotmail account and a university computer.Stop the 911 Mosque received this email today.We received an email today about the Ground Zero mosque stating, “we will build our Victory Mosque … We will even build it on top of your grave!” The IP for the sender indicates they accessed their email account via a computer at the University of Washington.Here is the email:Message:My name is Malik Bawwab and I am an Arab Muslim! And we will build our Victory Mosque wherever we want to build it! And there is nothing any of you damn infidels can do about it! We will even build it on top of your grave! You can cry all you want and complain like little babies, but WE OWN YOU!!! And all my Arab brothers and sisters spit on your grave!!!Well at least we can all now agree on one thing: it IS a Victory Mosque.Well, all of us except Obama and Bloomberg.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Why Does the US Need a Consumer Czar?Elizabeth Warren to be appointed White House 'consumer czar' ... The White House will announce Friday that Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren will be appointed to be an assistant to the president and oversee the creation of a new consumer financial protection bureau. The move is largely seen as a compromise to avoid a potentially bruising Senate confirmation battle over Warren, who was the first to call for the creation of such a bureau. The government, via a private banking cartel, created a terrible recession that cost millions their homes and savings. Those elites that sit behind government then decided this same suffering population needed "protection" from the ravages its central banking economy caused. Accordingly, private agreements were redefined as products and the promotion began. Gogol anyone?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:GatewayPundit.Sec. of Education Duncan Pledges to Turn Kids Into ‘Good Environmental Citizens’.Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, pledged to turn America’s school children into good enviro zombies at an appearance at a Virginia high school earlier in the month and he intends to use federal funds to do it.Duncan says that this enviro indoctrination effort, the “Blueprint for Reform,” will be funded by $265 million allocated by Obama for his 2011 budget.“The president has proposed $265 million for this program in his fiscal 2011 budget,” said Duncan. “These grants will support subjects such as the arts, foreign languages, history, and civics–all of which receive funding under current Education Department programs. Because we recognize the importance education plays in the sustainability movement, these grants also will support environmental education.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• UAE is member of IAEA Board of Governors.The UAE was on Thursday chosen a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the highest authority for decision-making by proxy. It includes 35 countries from the Middle East and South Asia group.Permanent Representative of the UAE to the IAEA Hamad Ali Al Ka'abi, described the selection of the UAE to the Board of Governors of IAEA, which includes Jordan, as a significant step and a great opportunity to play a role in the decision-making in this important global forum to support the Agency in achieving its goals, strengthen its role in working on nuclear non-proliferation and international expansion in the field of clean energy use and the peaceful use of atomic energy.Something tells me things wont improve for Israel.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Jordan's king warns of war by year's end.In Daily Show interview, Abdullah says if issue of settlement construction freeze is not resolved, violent conflict could break out by end of 2010. He also criticizes Iranian involvement, saying Palestinian issue 'hijacked by non-Arab elements'. Several hours after describing what Israel and the Palestinians are expected to gain from peace in his UN General Assembly address, Jordan's King Abdullah warned Thursday night that if the settlement construction freeze issue would not be solved, a violent conflict could break out by the end of 2010."If we don't get past the 30th, which shows sincerity that the Israelis and Palestinians are going to move forward," expect a war by the end of the year, the Jordanian king told Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va) Warns Holder Not to Interfere w/Coates’ Commission on Civil Rights Testimony.(PJM) In an exclusive obtained by Pajamas Media.com, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has warned Attorney General Eric Holder not to interfere with the decision of Christopher Coates to testify before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights tomorrow, citing the federal “1912 Anti-Gag Legislation and Whistleblower Protection Laws for Federal Employees.Will this become a new "Watergate'?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The Gathering Storm.The parallels with early perestroika are there, to be sure. But that is no guarantee that the script will play out as it did in the 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, it probably won't. History, to paraphrase Mark Twain, doesn't always repeat itself. But it often rhymes.In an article this week for Politkom.ru, Tatyana Stanovaya, director of the Center for Political Technology, makes a compelling argument that the struggle over whether or not to remove Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov is presenting Russia's ruling tandem of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev with their most serious political test to date.A key component of Stanovaya's argument is that the very nature of conflict within the elite has changed over the past couple years.Clan warfare, of course, has always been present in Putin's power vertical. There was the battle between Rosneft and Gazprom for Yukos' assets in the middle of the past decade, there was the vicious "siloviki war" in late 2007, and there was the rivalry between the pro-Kremlin parties United Russia and A Just Russia.But, as Stanovaya notes, those conflicts were contained because "the political regime was built on a 'vertical' and operated according to strict rules of the game for the main players," all of whom - like under Leonid Brezhnev's "stability of cadres" approach -- were accorded a degree of protection.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Liam Fox warns of electromagnetic disruptions due to solar flares.Defence Secretary Liam Fox has highlighted the fear that once-in-a-century phenomenon of a large solar flare could cause electromagnetic disruptions which could paralyse the earth.Earlier this year, NASA scientists had warned that large solar flares could be caused by a peak in the sun's energy cycle in 2012 or 2013, which would be powerful enough to leave many countries, including the UK, without crucial communication signals.The electromagnetic disruptions could widespread power blackouts around the world by crippling electrical equipment as well as satellites that are orbiting our planet.Speaking to Channel 4 News, former US government advisor Avi Schnurr, warned that a major solar flare could cause a permanent blackout through out the world.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Netanyahu: UN report on Gaza flotilla raid is biased and distorted.Earlier on Thursday, Turkish president said Turkey still waiting for apology and monetary compensation from Israel over flotilla raid.The United Nations report on the Gaza flotilla raid is biased and distorted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, adding that the group responsible for the report was "obsessed with targeting Israel." I agree completely it's more like "Just blame the Jooows"!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Moscow mayor may resign Monday - paper.Luzhkov, who turned 74 on Tuesday, left for Austria on vacation on Sunday amid a media campaign against him and his billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina.Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, who has recently come under attack by Russia's state-run media, may sign his resignation letter on Monday on his return from vacation, a Russian business daily said on Friday.Luzhkov, who turned 74 on Tuesday, left for Austria on vacation on Sunday amid a media campaign against him and his billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina.National TV channels accuse Luzhkov of corruption and indifference to the plight of Moscow during the summer smog. Earlier this month, a documentary aired by the NTV TV channel said Luzhkov's wife Yelena Baturina, the world's third richest woman, had used her husband's position to amass her alleged $2.9 billion wealth.The Kommersant paper quoted sources close to Moscow City Hall as saying that Luzhkov may sign his resignation letter at the beginning of next week, possibly Monday.Well it's not like he needs the job anyway?Read the full story here more on this story here.Click here for comments.

• New discoveries hint at 5,500 year old fratricide at Hamoukar, Syria.Five years ago, archaeologists found the “earliest evidence for large scale organized warfare in the Mesopotamian world.” Using slings and clay bullets a – likely Uruk – army took over the city of Hamoukar, burning it down in the process. Now, new discoveries at a nearby settlement shed more light on the 3500 BC battle – and raise more questions. If the invading army was from Uruk, did they kill their own people? If so, why?Researchers believe that this colony was there to facilitate trade, but was probably not controlled by Uruk’s rulers. “I’m tending more to them being sub-state entities,” said Reichel, private entrepreneurs, perhaps like the British East India Company of more recent colonial times. In 3500 BC Hamoukar was destroyed by a violent attack. Slings and clay bullets were the force’s primary weapons. While incredibly crude, by today’s standards, these weapons could do a lot of damage. The archaeologists tested the slings' effectiveness by creating their own bullets and attacking their own dig house.“The impact is quite remarkable,” said Reichel. At one point he was accidentally hit in the head by a colleague who was practising. “He wasn’t very good at that point, but by god I felt it,” he said. “Once he got really good, the speed, the velocity, that those guys get, is amazing... I’m virtually certain it can be fatal.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.