MFS – The Other News

Afternoon Posting.

  • Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Chile 4.8 and 4.5 India ! More info here.

 

  • Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to: Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog.Here.

 

  • Egypt’s Youths Vow to Raid US Embassy if Palestine Bid at UN Vetoed.(FNA).A group of Egyptian youths in a call via an internet social network called for demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Cairo to take over the US compound if Washington vetoes the Palestinian bid for UN membership.According to a report by Palestine al-Yawm (Palestine Today) news network, the young Egyptians have posted a request on their Facebook webpage and blasted Barack Obama’s speech after his presidency in Cairo in which the US President pledged a new approach towards Muslims. They said that the threat by the Obama administration to veto the Palestinian bid for UN membership revealed the realities about Obama and the fact they “he is a liar and is no different with his predecessors in supporting Israel and blatant violation of the Arab nations’ rights”.The Egyptian youths said the attack on the US embassy would serve as a strong message in response to the US hegemonic policies. They further warned the US to refrain from vetoing the Palestinian bid, saying that such a move by the US would encourage violence in the world. Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas has brought a Palestinian request for UN membership to New York, where top officials of all the member states of the world body have convened to attend an annual General Assembly sessions. The future Palestinian state would include the West Bank and Gaza, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. The PA says it believes that more than 130 countries would recognize the state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders. Israel and the US strongly oppose the Palestinian move. Washington, which supports Tel Aviv’s position, claims that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through talks with Israel. Palestinians stress that they have never gained anything through talks with the Zionist regime, mentioning that negotiation with the racist regime is a waste of time and gives the Zionists the chance to push their settlement construction plans ahead and come along with their international and internal problems.Hmmmm…..”The Audacity of the Arab Spring?”Read the full story here.

 

  • Obama’s opportunism.(IsraelHayom).By Abraham Ben-Zvi.Ladies and gentlemen, a stunning turnaround has taken place. The U.S. president, who began his term in office with a policy that was confrontational toward Israel, is shifting direction. This is directly linked to the upcoming election season. Still, it is Obama’s elasticity that should worry us.Two decades ago, on Sept. 12, 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush convened a news conference during which he broke one of the most firmly established laws in American politics. In an extraordinary display, he bitterly attacked the pro-Israel lobby in Washington. Bush’s statements condemning the lobby’s narrow-minded and sectorial-driven views, which he claimed came at the expense of the wider national interests of the U.S., brought back memories of previous confrontational remarks made by aides to President Dwight Eisenhower during the rocky days of U.S.-Israel relations in the 1950s.As a result of his verbal assault, the first President Bush’s Jewish support dropped from 35 percent (which helped him win election in 1988) to just 11% four years later, which contributed to his defeat to the Democratic challenger, Bill Clinton.In his adoring and highly effusive speech before the U.N. General Assembly two days ago, U.S. President Barack Obama proved that the lesson of Bush’s defeat is etched deep in his psyche. There is also the possibility that the president, who routinely boasts of the deep knowledge that he has amassed regarding key moments in American history, has resurrected the “reassessment” option of American policy toward Israel, as was done by President Gerald Ford. That episode cast a pall over U.S.-Israel relations in 1975, and the fallout even contributed to Ford’s defeat at the hands of Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter some 18 months later.After a chill lasting more than two years in the White House’s attitude toward Israel, there has certainly been an about-face in Obama’s conduct. This is due to the fact that the U.S. of 2011 is almost entirely ensconced in election season, one in which the Republicans, who hope to unseat Obama, have come out with sweeping statements of support for Israel while at the same time voicing strident criticism of the president’s policy on the peace process.The fact that both houses of Congress have initiated legislation against the Palestinian Authority and U.N. institutions over the attempt to attain unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state; and the fact that these actions have garnered bipartisan support contributed mightily to the dramatic turnaround exhibited by the president in his attitude toward the special relationship.Although a pragmatic course of action that is adjusted according to new political and strategic circumstances often speaks to a willingness to embrace new thought processes and an admirable ability to disengage from the errors of the past, the case before us is starkly one of clear-cut opportunism.Let us consider that just four months ago, an entirely different set of winds was blowing in from Washington. In a span of three days, Obama redefined his concept of “the 1967 borders” after the blunt, confrontational speech that he gave at the State Department on May 19.Still, Obama’s decision to exclude any specific mention of this formula in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly brings him back to the days of the election campaign in 2008, when his strong statements of support for Israel smelled strongly of politicking.From this standpoint, despite the heartwarming gesture and the warm meeting of the leaders in New York, this presidential opportunism should be quite disconcerting to Israel in the long term. Of course, that is contingent on whether Obama will regain the faith of the American public and win another four-year term.Indeed, a president who is so sensitive to pressures from home could just as easily flip-flop in the other direction when the circumstances change and a window of opportunity opens up, allowing him to make diplomatic moves at Israel’s expense.Given that Obama’s fundamental worldview is not an outgrowth of the special relationship and does not dovetail with the American narrative, which posits that Washington’s ties with Israel are based on shared moral, religious, cultural and historic values, it would be a mistake to develop far-reaching expectations of this White House despite the warm, affectionate words uttered by the president at the U.N.Obama is not cut from the same cloth as Lyndon Johnson, the Democrat who completely identified with the Israeli ethos; or George W. Bush, who possessed a deep, unshakeable understanding of Israel’s security needs and dilemmas.In contrast with these two gentlemen, whose basic policy toward Jerusalem was anchored in affection, an acknowledgment of Israel’s strategic utility, and an ideological, social and cultural symmetry that connects the two peoples, Obama’s conduct toward Israel is based solely on cold, calculated analyses of cost-benefit that is devoid of sentiment.As such, just as he began his term in office by applying pressure on Israel in the initial belief that concessions (particularly the freezing of settlement construction) would give him the leverage he needed to build a strategic and diplomatic coalition of Sunni states, Obama could just as easily return to that forceful, aggressive and adversarial path if he feels that the domestic and international circumstances allow him room to maneuver.In summary, there is no place for complacency or euphoria despite the warm words of friendship that have been heard lately from the White House. In addition, the base of support that Israel enjoys among American public opinion and Congress continues to be extensive and rock-solid, so much so that it grants Jerusalem a security net. Still, one cannot come to the conclusion that the administration has changed its attitude entirely. Thus, one should prepare for any scenario from this president, and do so in a sober-minded manner that is devoid of illusions.After all, this is a marriage of convenience from Obama’s standpoint, and not the start of a long-term special relationship.Hmmm………”I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction,” Read the full story here.

 

  • You Got To Be Kidding!Obama Administration Set to Ban Asthma Inhalers Over Environmental Concerns.(WeeklyStandard).Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer:

Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the federal government’s latest attempt to protect the Earth’s atmosphere.The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday patients who use the epinephrine inhalers to treat mild asthma will need to switch by Dec. 31 to other types that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, an aerosol substance once found in a variety of spray products.

The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle, an asthma sufferer, noted a while back that when consumers are forced to use environmentally friendly products they are almost always worse:

Er, industry also knew how to make low-flow toilets, which is why every toilet in my recently renovated rental house clogs at least once a week. They knew how to make more energy efficient dryers, which is why even on high, I have to run every load through the dryer in said house twice. And they knew how to make inexpensive compact flourescent bulbs, which is why my head hurts from the glare emitting from my bedroom lamp. They also knew how to make asthma inhalers without CFCs, which is why I am hoarding old albuterol inhalers that, unlike the new ones, a) significantly improve my breathing and b) do not make me gag. Etc.Well, tough cookies asthma sufferers! You should have written bigger checks to the Democratic party while you had the chance.Hmmmm…..it’s called “CHANGE”!Read the full story here.

 

  • UK Muslims gather for rally against extremism, to promote moderate Islam.(AlArabiya).Thousands of Muslims are gathering at a rally in London Saturday to fight extremism and promote a moderate, inclusive version of Islam.The event’s organizers Minhaj-ul-Quran International say some 12,000 Muslims are expected at Wembley Arena. The event will be broadcast live to dozens of countries around the world.The group’s founder, the Pakistan-born Islamic scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, says killing innocents is forbidden in Islam and Muslims must integrate into the societies in which they’re living.Some Islamic scholars like Tahir-ul-Qadri have warned that a power vacuum in North Africa and the Middle East could lead to militant and extremist groups gaining ground in upcoming elections caused by the so-called Arab Spring.“If these elements come into power, it will be a big disaster,” Tahir-ul-Qadri told The Associated Press.Minhaj-ul-Quran International says it represents a moderate vision of Islam that works for peace and integration. Later Saturday, the rally will feature what it calls a collective peace prayer, led by religious leaders of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and other major faiths.Britain has been involved in some of the largest international terror plots. On July 7, 2005, four suicide bombers killed 52 people in synchronized attacks on London’s subway system.The men behind the 2006 trans-Atlantic liquid bomb plot began their plan in Britain. A Nigerian man who tried to smuggle explosives onto a plane in his underwear studied in London.Read the full story here.

 

  • Erdogan “hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.”.(Ynet).Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aggressive rhetoric towards Israel continued Saturday, this time in an interview given to CNN. Erdogan spoke about severing ties with Israel in the wake on the UN’s Palmer Report – which probed the 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla – and said that “for the time being I can clearly state that the relations between Israel and Turkey have been broken on the basis of an issue… which began when a flotilla bearing humanitarian aid was trying to get to Gaza. “It has passengers from 33 countries and was attacked both from the sea and from the air. At the end of these attacks, nine Turkish citizens died… Still to this day no serious attitude has been adopted against Israel for the lives lost there. We are very upset about this. “It this situation, no matter who we are talking about, democracy, rights, freedom, should be defended,” he continued. “If liberty is in question in should be defended. We gave our warning to Israel – this is reason for war. This is something you cannot do in international waters. But as a great state we have been very forgiving. “That’s why we have been very patient. We demanded that they apologize, pay compensation and eliminate the embargo on Gaza once and for all. If these demands are not met relations between Israel and Turkey will never become normal again. “We have nothing against the people of Israel (only) against the attitude adopted by the administration in Israel. If you are insistent on creating a source of unrest you are bound to become lonelier and lonelier. They used to be great friends of ours. This solitude is Israel’s fate under these circumstances. Israel is going to be alone in the region.”As for the possibility of Turkish escorts for future flotillas to Gaza, Erdogan said: “It might be Gaza it might be Egypt… but after such an incident took place there’s lack of confidence in security, so these flotillas might be dispatched to wherever they are going with the escort of the navy. Because Israel cannot be trusted.”“Israel was on the brink of admitting to withdrawing to the 1967 borders, a few remarks (in the draft) needed to be corrected and we were working on the documents, but not even a week later Gaza was attacked – Israel did that.”Here’s what being said and this is upsetting to hear: (Israel) says that Palestine is bombing Israel and many Israelis have been killed. I would like to see accurate statistics on how many Israelis have been killed by the bombs thrown by Palestinians or by the rockets that were launched by them. Ten? 20? 100? 200? How many? Please document it and let us know! “But on the other hand we know that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. Thousands have been killed by the Gaza attack alone. These are very clear numbers. Hmmmm…..I guess Erdogan mixed up Palestine With the Armenian Genocide by the Turks what concerns numbers of the Armenian Genocide: “There is general agreement among western scholars that over 500,000 Armenians died between 1914 and 1918. Estimates vary between 600,000 (per the modern Turkish state) to 1,500,000 (per Western scholars).”Read the full fairytalestory here.

 

  • Will Turkey succeed where Iran failed?(AlArabiya).By Huda al Husseini.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The latter attempted to “hijack” the Arab street prior to the “Arab revolutions,” and when these revolutions broke out he claimed that they were inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran. As for Erdogan, he is trying to seize the opportunity and “harvest” the enthusiasm of the Arab street at the height of the Arab Spring, before the onset of the revolutions’ winter, particularly as nobody knows how long the Arab Spring will bloom.The Arab street is bestowing power upon these leaders, who are playing on their dreams and speaking about the region’s prosperous future. However the Arab street is like mercury; it is impossible for any leader to grasp it firmly. The Arab street is fickle, and so it turns its back on leaders as quickly as it [previously] rushed to adore them. What happened to the power or influence that Ahmadinejad believed the Arab street had granted him? He used this to quell the demonstrations staged to protest the allegedly rigged presidential elections that brought about his re-election. As a result of this, he lost the Iranian street, whilst the Arab street turned its back on him.The power that Erdogan obtained from his recent tour [of the Middle East] prompted him to threaten Greek Cyprus, and begin to proceed with exploring oil and natural gas surveys in the waters off northern Cyprus. Erdogan continued issuing threats, but at the same time he told the United Nations [U.N.] and the [Greek] Cypriot leadership that his country is no longer prepared to accept the concessions previously accepted by Ankara with regards to the reunification of Cyprus, in accordance with the U.N.’s 2004 plan. Turkey has said that it will not accept anything less than the recognition of two states in Cyprus. Turkey has also warned the European Union that it will not accept any solutions after [Greek] Cyprus takes over the EU presidency early next year.Erdogan is now seeking to place Turkey as a leading supporter of the Palestinian cause, and he wants the “Arab Spring” to view Ankara as a supporter and role model, stressing the need for firm Turkish – Arab unity. He is also planning to establish strategic cooperation between Turkey and Egypt.The preparation for such cooperation was clear in the size of the delegation that accompanied Erdogan during his tour of the Middle East. The Turkish delegation was made up of 6 ministers, and around 200 Turkish businessmen, which represents a clear signal that Turkey is determined to investing heavily in the region. In 2010, the Turkish trade with the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] amounted to 30 billion dollars, and constituted 27 percent of Turkish exports, whilst more than 250 Turkish companies have invested a figure totaling $1.5 billion in Egypt.We must acknowledge that despite Ahmadinejad’s attempts to win over the Egyptian street by waging a war of words with Mubarak’s regime; he failed to tempt Egyptian public opinion to support Iran. Despite this, Tehran did establish strong relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Egyptian Islamists, and there is an Iranian street named after Khaled Islambouli [the Islamist Egyptian army officer who assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981]. As for Erdogan, the Turkish state model has been extremely popular in Egypt, namely an Islamist party in power (Erdogan’s Justice and Development party), under a secular constitution. Although the army does enjoy a strong presence in Turkey, it has returned to its barracks, and this is not to mention the economic boom being witnessed by the country.Yet the problem with Erdogan is that he is not pursuing fixed foreign policies, and a quick review of his recent policies casts doubts on his commitment to these.Erdogan warned of the consequences of invading Libya, insisting that if there was going to be regime change; this must happen from within, not through foreign intervention. Turkey had billions of dollars invested in Libya, whilst more than 20,000 Turkish laborers were evacuated within days [following the outbreak of protests]. Although Turkey is a member of NATO, it strongly condemned UN resolution 1973 [which formed the legal basis for military intervention in the Libyan civil war]. However after all of this, when the Gaddafi regime was overthrown, Erdogan welcomed the rebels with open arms.Last Sunday, in an interview with CNN, Davutoglu stressed that Turkey’s “zero problems” foreign policy had only failed in Syria, meaning that relations with Iran are good.In his book “Strategic Depth” Davutoglu stressed that Turkey is now a key player in the Middle East, saying that “this is our homeland.” To put this into context, Davutoglu drew up a new equation, namely that neo-Ottomanism plus Turkish nationalism plus Islam equals the New Turkey.This neo-Ottomanism has brought Turkish influence into the Arab world and the Balkans, whilst Turkish nationalist ties extend to Central Asia. As for Turkey’s Islamic links, this extends from Morocco to Indonesia. Therefore, and this is more significant for Davutoglu, he sees the partnership between Turkey and Iran as something equal to that between France and Germany [in Europe]. In light of Davutoglu’s conception of this alliance [with Iran], we can understand the relationship between Turkey and Brazil, and the position that Brazil adopted in the UN Security Council last year against Washington, London and Paris with regards to the Iranian nuclear program.So far, Erdogan has lost two battles, the first when Syria declined to listen to his advice, and the second when Israel declined to offer Turkey an apology [for the deaths of Turkish citizens killed by Israeli forces on the Freedom Flotilla].There are those in Turkey who have begun to warn [against Turkey’s new policies], noting that there are more Azerbaijani expatriates in Turkey than there are Azerbaijani’s at home, as is the case with Turkey’s Armenian Albanian, Bosnian, and Kurdish communities. These all represent potential powder-kegs.Read the full story here.

MFS – The Other News

Morning Posting.

  • Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Tonga 6.8 !More info here.

 

  • Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to: Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog.Here.

 

  • First images of NASA satellite as it falls toward earth here.

 

  • Complete Coverage of NASA’s Falling Satellite UARS Here.

 

  • Black Friday Arrives: Biggest Weekly Move In 30 Year Bond Since Black Monday.(ZeroHedge).30Y rates move more than three standard deviations this week – the greatest move since Black Monday (1987) – as it drops 55bps – Hmmmmm…….stability.Source.

 

  • Nigel Farage: Financial “Cataclysm” To Come, Gold to Unimaginable Levels.(SHTF).Mr. Farage is a former commodities broker on the London Metals Exchange, so he understands the financial markets and monetary system (unlike 99% of the other politicians in the EU and DC), as well as the implications of the current debt crisis facing not just Europe, but the entire world. You’ll rarely hear a politician come out from behind the curtain as Nigel Farage does. Like most of us, he’s not very optimistic about what’s to come, and he lays out his views in an interview with King World News which is well worth listening to in full Here.

 

  • Breaking News! Independence Day Rocks – 2 Jews killed by Arab Independence Rocks near Hebron on Highway 60. Car was stoned,The 2 that were murdered were a 30 year old from the area and his baby.Source.Updated: IDF says no rock throwing took place, here

 

  • Another Day, Another Power Grab.(WHD).By Keith Koffler. What’s the major difference between George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law and the new education program that will be announced by President Obama today?It’s there in the very sentence above.The Bush law is a law. It was the result of arduous bipartisan negotiations that led to an agreement between, of all people, Bush and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.The Obama program is a program. It is federal fiat, a decision about what’s best by your superiors in the Obama administration. It’s a unilateral move to bypass the legislative process. It may or may not be good education policy. But the Chinese Politburo also may or may not be doing good education policy.In an August briefing previewing the new policy, Duncan encapsulated the Administration mindset: BIG BROTHER KNOWS BEST.

I want to thank the President for doing the right thing, stepping up. Congress, we would have loved them to act. They should have acted, didn’t happen, and we can’t afford to sit here and not support states.This is the right thing to do for the country. Congress just hasn’t acted. And we can’t afford to wait. People are begging, they’re imploring us to do the right thing.So it’s not my job to psychoanalyze Congress; it’s my job to move forward the children.

So you see, instructs Mr. Duncan, democracy is a slow and cumbersome process. But when you know what is right and other’s don’t – especially if others don’t – you just have to take action.Even though once, long ago, our Founding Fathers decided that democracy was the “right” thing to do.Hmmmm….“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.

 

  • Close Obama Pal Embroiled In Grant Fraud Scandal.(JW).More than two months after a Chicago nurse got criminally charged for stealing half a million taxpayer dollars from minority outreach programs one media outlet has dared to reveal that a close friend, advisor and donor of President Obama’s is embroiled in the scandal.It’s the taboo portion of the story that’s been ignored by the mainstream media and conveniently omitted in government press releases announcing the June federal indictment a month after it was filed. The one-time director of the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association (Margaret Davis) faces two decades in prison for defrauding various state grant programs out of approximately $500,000, according to federal authorities.What the feds haven’t revealed is that the state agency that gave Davis all the money, the Illinois Department of Public Health, was run by one of Obama’s closest pals, Dr. Eric Whitaker, when the cash was disbursed. We know this only because Chicago’s conservative-leaning newspaper has been digging around. This week it published a lengthy article connecting the dots between Whitaker and the corruption scheme.The state’s convicted felon governor (Rod Blagojevich) appointed Whitaker health director in 2003 after Obama, a state senator at the time, recommended him. During Whitaker’s four-year tenure, the agency spent millions of taxpayer dollars on highly questionable publicity campaigns to educate African-Americans and other minorities about common diseases in their communities, mainly AIDS.Nearly $600,000 of it went to Davis and her Black Nurses Association, which received an additional half a million dollars in state grants from other agencies. Whitaker referred to the indicted nurse as “the ultimate advocate for health care and human services” and even gave her a no-bid contract to train college nursing students in administrative areas.Similar minority programs, many of them “faith-based,” also received big chunks of taxpayer dollars from Whitaker’s agency while he was in charge. Among them is a defunct AIDS awareness program that has been sued by the Illinois Attorney General’s office for misspending $523,546.Whitaker claims that thousands of grants were distributed when he ran the agency and he “couldn’t have known about the transgressions such as the alleged embezzlement related to a contract with the Chicago Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association.”He seems to have little worries as he enjoys his lucrative, private-sector job. In 2007 Whitaker resigned to join Michelle Obama at the University of Chicago Medical Center where he makes more than $670,000 a year as executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research.Hmmmm…..Anyone has a theory about coincidence?Read the full story here.

 

  • Dem. Rep. and Muslim Ellison Slams Obama As “Wrong” To Vote Against Palestinian Statehood At UN.(TheHill).Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Friday that Obama is “wrong” to oppose the vote for Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.“The key issue of statehood is something that we can do now, that we should do now,” Ellison said on the progressive Bill Press radio show. “I think it will bring great stability to the region.”Ellison said Obama is missing an opportunity to get the Palestinian state he has previously said he wanted. Ellison’s position represents a break with top House Democrats, who have agreed with Obama on the possible U.N. vote.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) sided with Obama last week in a letter sent to 40 European heads of state urging them not to support the Palestinian bid.Not being a recognized state “puts [the Palestinians] at a considerable disadvantage when they try to bargain with Israel,” Ellison argued. “The move we should be making is welcoming Palestinians … as a sovereign nation.”Our opposition “will have a negative impact on our already hurting credibility,” Ellison said.Hmmmm…..”I will stand with my Palestinian brothers?”Read the full story here.

 

  • Palestine to defy Obama’s warning of violence and push ahead with bid for independence.(DailyMail).Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is preparing to submit his bid for UN recognition of Palestine as an independent state today in defiance of a US-led bid to stop him. He said he would deliver the application to UN chief Ban Ki-moon as planned.A top aide, Mohammed Ishtayeh, said that Mr Abbas asked Mr Ban and the Security Council’s Lebanese president this month to process the application without delay.‘We’re going without any hesitation and continuing despite all the pressures,’ Mr Abbas told members of the Palestinian diaspora at a hotel in New York on Thursday night.’We seek to achieve our right and we want our independent state.’Mr Abbas will address the UN general assembly in New York later today and he will be followed soon afterwards by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who opposes the move.U.S. President Barack Obama has also pleaded with Mr Abbas to drop the application in case it causes further violence in the region.Mr Abbas’ appeal to the UN to recognise Palestinian independence in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip would not deliver any immediate changes on the ground: Israel would remain an occupying force in those first two territories and continue to severely restrict access to Gaza, ruled by Palestinian Hamas militants.Beyond that, Security Council action on the membership request could take weeks or months.The strategy also put the Palestinians in direct confrontation with the US, which has threatened to veto their membership bid in the UN Security Council, reasoning, like Israel, that statehood can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties to the long and bloody conflict.The US and Israel have been pressuring council members to either vote against the plan or abstain when it comes up for a vote. The vote would require the support of nine of the council’s 15 members to pass, but even if the Palestinians could line up that backing, a US veto is assured.The resumption of talks seems an elusive goal.Israel insists that negotiations go ahead without any preconditions.But Palestinians say they will not return to the bargaining table without assurances that Israel would halt settlement building and drop its opposition to basing negotiations on the borders it held before capturing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza in 1967.Israel has warned that the Palestinian appeal to the UN will have a disastrous effect on negotiations.Mr Netanyahu opposes negotiations based on 1967 lines, saying a return to those frontiers would expose Israel’s heartland to rocket fire from the West Bank.Read the full story here.

 

  • Canada – Horrific video captures moment cop shoots teen in face with Taser to break up street fight.(DailyMail).There is growing outcry after a police officer was videotaped breaking up a street fight by shooting a Taser in the face of one of the teenage participants.The 17-year-old is recovering in hospital, with his mother saying it took three surgeons to remove the prongs from her son’s ear.Witnesses to the incident at 11.55am yesterday in London, Ontario, claim the officer did not shout a warning. High-school students are threatening a protest in response.A cell phone video of the clash was posted on YouTube.It shows one youth hitting the other with a chair when a London Police officer on foot walks in from the street and shoots a dart from a Taser stun gun at a young man wearing jeans and a black shirt.From the video, it appears the two males had separated when the officer approached.The crowd gasps in horror as the Taser’s prongs appear to hit the male in the face. He falls to the ground and is motionless for nearly one minute.’Why would you tase him? You shot him in the head. You never even asked him to stop,’ screams a male on the video.The officer walks and stands over the teen, motioning for bystanders to step back.Vivian Greening was riding her scooter down Dundas St. when she came across the melee, the London Free Press reported.The officer did not give any warning before using his stun gun, Ms Greening said.He just pulled out the Taser and shot him,’ she told the paper. ‘They didn’t even try to talk to the kids (or) yell at the kids.’Onlookers to the fight in the area of Dundas Street and Maitland Street spilled onto the street, many of them students at nearby H.B. Beal secondary school.Read and see the full story here.

Friday at the movies – The last Samurai – 2003

The film stars Tom Cruise (who also co-produced) in the role of American soldier Nathan Algren, whose personal and emotional conflicts bring him into contact with samurai warriors in the wake of the Meiji Restoration in the Empire of Japan in 1876 and 1877. Other actors include Ken Watanabe, Shin Koyamada, Tony Goldwyn, Hiroyuki Sanada, Timothy Spall, and Billy Connolly. The film’s plot was inspired by the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion led by Saigō Takamori, and also on the stories of Jules Brunet, a French army captain who fought alongside Enomoto Takeaki in the earlier Boshin War and Frederick Townsend Ward, an American mercenary who helped Westernize the Chinese army by forming the Ever Victorious Army.

Tom Cruise as Captain Nathan Algren, a Civil War and Indian Wars veteran haunted by the massacre of Native American civilians at the Washita River. Algren was born in the British Empire but is a naturalized American. Following a dismissal from his job, he agrees to help the new Meiji Restoration government train its first Western-style conscript army for a hefty sum. During the army’s first battle he is captured by the samurai Katsumoto and taken to the village of Katsumoto’s son, where he soon becomes intrigued with the way of the samurai and decides to join them in their cause. His journal entries reveal his impressions about traditional Japanese culture, which almost immediately evolve to admiration.

Ken Watanabe as samurai Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto, a warrior-poet who was once Emperor Meiji’s most-trusted teacher. He is displeased with Mr. Omura’s bureaucratic reform policies, which leads him into organizing a revolt against the Imperial Army. Katsumoto is vaguely based on real-life samurai Saigō Takamori.

Shin Koyamada as Nobutada, Katsumoto’s son who is lord of the village that the Samurai are encamped in and befriends Algren. Katsumoto, the leader samurai, advises Nobutada to teach Algren in the Japanese way – Japanese culture and Japanese language. He is killed during Katsumoto’s escape.

Tony Goldwyn as Colonel Bagley, Capt. Algren’s commanding officer in the 7th Cavalry Regiment, who was to train the Imperial Army and a main antagonist. Algren despises Bagley for his role in the Washita River massacre of the Native Americans that Algren cannot get over. In a flashback, we see Bagley murdering children and women in the Indians camp. Bagley bears close resemblance to General Custer (whom Algren dubs “a murderer who fell in love with his own legend”). Bagley is killed by Algren in the final battle when Algren throws his sword into his chest.

Masato Harada as Omura, an industrialist and pro-reform politician who dislikes the old samurai and shogun related lifestyle and the primary antagonist of the film. He quickly imports westernization and modernization while making money for himself through his railroads. Coming from a merchant family that was like many repressed during the days of Samurai rule and cause for his extreme dislike for their nobility, he assumes a great deal of power during the Meiji Restoration and takes advantages of Meiji’s youth to become his chief advisor (wielding power similar to those of the Shoguns). His image is designed to evoke the image of Okubo Toshimichi, a leading reformer during the Meiji Restoration. Masato Harada noted that he was deeply interested in joining the film after witnessing the construction of Emperor Meiji’s conference room on sound stage 19 (where Humphrey Bogart had once acted) at Warner Brothers studios.

Shichinosuke Nakamura as Emperor Meiji. Credited with the implementation of the 1868 Meiji Restoration, the Emperor is eager to import Western ideas and practices to modernize and empower Japan to become a strong nation. His appearance bears a strong resemblance to Emperor Meiji during the 1860s rather than during the 1870s, when The Last Samurai takes place.

Hiroyuki Sanada as Ujio, one of the most dedicated, loyal and fierce samurai under Katsumoto. He teaches Algren the art of Samurai sword fighting, none too gently but eventually grows to respect him. He is one of the remaining samurai to die in the final charge in the last battle.

Timothy Spall as Simon Graham, a British interpreter for Captain Algren and his non-English speaking soldiers. Initially portrayed as a typical practical-minded Englishman, he later comes to understand the Samurai cause. This character is shown to have some resemblances also to the real-world Corfiote photographer Felice Beato.

Seizo Fukumoto as the Silent Samurai, an elderly man assigned to follow Algren (who later calls the samurai “Bob”) as he travels through the village. Ultimately, the Samurai saves Algren’s life (and speaking for the first and only time, “Algren-san!”) by taking a fatal bullet for him. He bears a marked resemblance to Kyuzo from Seven Samurai.

Koyuki as Taka, Katsumoto’s sister and the wife of the red-masked Samurai Hirotaro, whom Nathan Algren kills earlier.

Billy Connolly as Sergeant Zebulon Gant, an ex-soldier who served with and is loyal to Algren, talked him into coming to Japan. He, along with Algren, train the imperial army before confronting the samurai. He is later killed in the opening battle by Hirotaro (Taka’s husband).

Shun Sugata as Nakao, a tall jujutsu and naginata-skilled samurai, who takes part in Katsumoto’s rescue, and is later killed in the final battle.

Satoshi Nikaido as the Lieutenant, one of the first soldiers trained by Algren, who manages to escape from the battle where Algren is captured. He later reappears as Omura’s aide in the final confrontation; distressed at the slaughter of the remaining samurai, he defies Omura by ordering the guns to stop firing so that Katsumoto can die with honor.


MFS – The Other News

Morning Posting.

  • Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Indonesia 5.3 and Turkey 5.4! More info here.

 

  • Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to: Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog.Here.
  • Liveblogging the Anti-Durban Conference – Pajama’s media here.

 

  • Palestinians torch Obama photos in Ramallah.(Ynet).Palestinian protesters have denounced United States President Barack Obama for his opposition to their bid to win United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state. Dozens rallied on Thursday outside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office in Ramallah. They held up anti-Obama signs, including one reading “Obama the hypocrite” and another claiming the American president is siding “with killers against victims.” The protesters also burned photos of the US president.Obama told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that a state can only be established through negotiations with Israel. The US has said it would block the recognition request in the Security Council.The IDF and the police are gearing for the possibility that clashes will break out Friday after Muslim prayers. Police will decide later on Thursday whether to limit the entry of worshippers into the Temple Mount compound.A security source told Ynet that the alert level was very high, although the police did not have any concrete information on plans to ignite the situation. “Abbas’ UN speech will be tomorrow evening, and they have no interest in inflaming the situation because problematic incidents will turn against them and prove they are incapable of running a state,” the source said. “The goal is to see Friday’s events end with the lowest number of casualties possible.”Despite the optimistic estimates, the police view Friday as a test with a particularly explosive potential. The police will boost their forces on Friday, focusing on Jerusalem, the Jerusalem vicinity and the crossings to Israel from the territories. Another important center is the Temple Mount, where prayers could potentially develop into riots every Friday. Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino are expected to visit the area on Friday.  Despite estimates suggesting Abbas will succumb to diplomatic pressure, it appears the Palestinian Authority will go ahead with its plan to submit a bid for UN recognition at the Security Council on Friday. However, Palestinian sources estimated that if and when the proposal is rejected by the Security Council, a General Assembly debate will take place only weeks later.PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo, currently in New York, said in an interview on Thursday that the UN proposal will be submitted on Friday directly after Abbas’ speech. Abed Rabbo stressed there has been no decision on an extension for the Security Council. He noted that more than 150 states will vote in favor of the Palestinian bid at the Assembly.Speaking to Ynet, a Palestinian source explained Abed Rabbo’s statements saying that the Security Council president will forward the Palestinian proposal to a special committee after it is submitted on Friday. The source however noted that the US could still delay the proposal at the committee. “It very much depends on the Americans,” the source said. “In Macedonia’s case it took several months, whereas in Sudan’s case it only took a few days.” He said that if the Security Council delays the request, the Palestinians will turn to the General Assembly but could not give a timeframe. “The chances of this happening while the Palestinian delegation is still in New York this week are slim to none. I estimate the vote will take place in October or November.”In his interview Thursday Abed Rabbo denied that efforts are being made for a meeting between Abbas and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but noted there was nothing wrong with such meetings. He added that Abbas had informed President Obama Wednesday on what will take place on Friday. Meanwhile, Hamas is still warning against the statehood bid. Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar said that if the international community recognizes Palestine as a UN member the Palestinians will no longer be able to engage in resistance against Israel. Another Hamas official said that Obama had given Abbas false promises and guarantees in order to maintain negotiations with Israel and prevent the Security Council bid.Read the full story here.More here.

 

  • Elizabeth Warren: Obama Friend, Socialist, Class Warfare Practitioner.(OFB).Remember Elizabeth Warren? She was Obama’s choice to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. However, she wasn’t nominated because she is, among other things, an arrogant elitist liberal. In short, she’s unlikable and her beliefs are un-American.These days, Warren is back in Massachusetts, attempting to defeat Senator Scott Brown in next year’s election. That’s where this bombshell of a video comes in :Here.

Transcript via CBS News:

Warren rejects the concept that it is possible for Americans to become wealthy in isolation.

“You built a factory out there? Good for you,” she says. “But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.”She continues: “Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”These are Obama’s friends. These are the ideologies he believes in.Hmmmm…..What is yours…will become mine!Read and see the full story here

 

  • “Leopards don’t loose their spots”.Obama’s UN Speech Continues His Diasterous Israel Policy.(YidWithLid).They say a leopard doesn’t change his spots, well neither does this President. Those who though that the NY-9 election and recent polls would cause Obama to temper his one-sided policy regarding the Israeli/Palestinian dispute were very disappointing. It’s not what he said that should be alarming to friends of Israel, its what he didn’t say, namely that Israel needed to be recognized as the Jewish State. Oh he flirted around it sometimes, but carefully negotiated around stating it, an act of appeasement to those who would destroy Israel. It is that one recognition which keeps this 40 year dispute alive (remember before 1967 Judea, Samaria were part of Jordan and Gaza was part of Egypt).This is what the President actually said about recognition of Israel at the UN Today.Let us be honest with ourselves: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, look out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile and persecution, and fresh memories of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they are. Those are facts. They cannot be denied. The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors.Some will say “see he talked about the Jewish people, you can assume that’s what he meant.” Sadly in diplomacy as well as “Odd Couple” reruns, when you assume you make an ass of u and me.The avoidance of calling Israel the Jewish State was no accident. As recently as last month the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas declared that he would never accept Israel as a Jewish State. For the naysayers who say why should the PA have to recognize the nature of the Israel. One reason is the UN who defines it that way. The original partition resolution passed by the UN in November 1947, UN Resolution 181 calls for dividing Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish States. Israeli Prime Minister outlined it brilliantly in his speech before Congress at the end of May. He talked about how Israel has been ready to establish a Palestinian State for decades, but there has been one hold-up.“You see, our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state. It has always been about the existence of the Jewish state. This is what this conflict is about….They were simply unwilling to end the conflict. And I regret to say this: They continue to educate their children to hate. They continue to name public squares after terrorists. And worst of all, they continue to perpetuate the fantasy that Israel will one day be flooded by the descendants of Palestinian refugees.” My friends, this must come to an end. President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn’t easy for me, and I said… “I will accept a Palestinian state.” It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say… “I will accept a Jewish state.”A few days before Netanyahu made his speech in the halls of Congress, President Obama gave his big Mid East peace speech. He spent much time telling Israel what she had to do, and included the controversial call for negotiations to start with recognition of Israel’s return to the 1949 Armistice lines, but he didn’t address the fact that neither Palestinian President Abbas’ Fatah party and the Hamas party refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. Today in front of the UN General Assembly he made the same mistake. I put forward a new basis for negotiations in May of this year. That basis is clear. It’s well known to all of us here. Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state…..We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve. There’s no question that the Palestinians have seen that vision delayed for too long. It is precisely because we believe so strongly in the aspirations of the Palestinian people that America has invested so much time and so much effort in the building of a Palestinian state, and the negotiations that can deliver a Palestinian state.Again he fails to mention that the reason it has taken so long is the Palestinian refusal to accept the fact that the Jewish State of Israel has the basic right to exist. The simple truth is that with seven words, President Abbas can get what he wants “We Accept a Jewish State of Israel.” Once he says that all the other issues will become much easier.But President Abbas will not make that declaration, and President Obama is satisfied with making demands of Israel while refusing to demand that the Palestinian side make the most basic of statements. Israel cannot negotiate with someone who does not believe that it should exist. And President Obama will never regain the trust of voters who support Israel as long as he continues to appease the Palestinians lack of this basic recognition.Hmmmm……You can’t hide what’s in your DNA.Read the full story here.

 

  • Even Republicans Rejected Info About Obama’s Socialist Past.(RedState).What would you do if you knew the top Democrat running for president was lying about his past? That is the question I was faced with in 2008. I had met the young Barack Obama while he was a sophomore at Occidental College, and I knew that his commitment to socialism was deep, genuine and long-standing. See, http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/meeting_young_obama.html

I had been a leader of the Marxist students at Occidental College myself starting in 1976 when I founded the precursor of the Democrat Socialist Alliance on campus. The young Obama I knew was a Marxist socialist who would have been quite comfortable with Communist party members like his Hawaii mentor Frank Marshall Davis, retired domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers, or active socialist politicians like Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer.The Obama I knew was nothing like the life-long, pragmatic centrist that he was pretending to be in the 2008 presidential campaign. When I talked politics with the young Obama, he expressed a profound commitment to bringing about a socialist economic system in the U.S. – completely divorced from the profit motive – which would occur, in his lifetime, through a potentially violent, Communist-style revolution. In this context, I saw my report on young Obama as a key piece of evidence suggesting a profound continuity in his belief system. See, http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/obamas_missing_link_1.html

Although I was surprised by Barack Obama’s insistence on his mainstream ideological credentials, I was shocked that my attempts to spread the news about young Obama’s Marxism failed to gain any media traction during the 2008 presidential campaign with reporters, activists, or campaign staffs. Once I saw the significance of my face-to-face observations on the young Obama, I went out of my way to get my story on record with the Orange County Register. I tried to contact, among others, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, the folks behind the Swift Boat ads, and the McCain campaign.I thought I would get a phone call back from Fox News – someone, somewhere – and I still do not understand why no one seemed to catch on to the urgency of the situation. I understand I did not have audio tape of young Obama. I did not have any photos or home movies. Nevertheless, I was extremely active in the leftist politics and counter cultural milieu of Occidental College in the 1970s. As a younger man, I had earned a Ph.D. in political science from Cornell which, I would think, gave me some credibility in measuring young Obama’s ideological convictions. I quickly saw other people who had known the young Obama were featured in various news articles. It seemed to me I should have been just another interview for any journalist, producer or campaign consultant interested in checking out my story and testing it against the facts.In frustration, I was also posting what I knew on The Caucus Blog site at the New York Times. My expectation was someone from the Times would call me and follow-up on the leads I was sending out. Here is a sample of what I was doing in October 2008 to get the word out about Obama’s Marxist ideology. See, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/debate-expectations-talking-up-the-town-hall/?scp=20&sq=Marxist%20occidental%20obama&st=cse

I even thought of scheduling my own press conference on the campus of Occidental College through their campus Republican club. Internally, I was conflicted by the urgency of what I knew and the sense it was best for the story to break out in a manner supportive of the McCain campaign. What shocked me about my experience in the summer of 2008 is that I thought my background as a Williams College political science professor, as a small business owner, and as a visible presence in the Orange County community would allow my message to immediately go to the very top of the McCain campaign. I thought my story would be welcomed by Fox News. Since then, things have slowly gotten better. My story on the young Marxist Obama has appeared in Michael Savage’s Trickle-Up Poverty, Paul Kengor’s Dupes, Stanley Kurtz’s Radical-In-Chief and Jack Cashill’s Deconstructing Obama.Read the full story here.

 

  • Obama’s Black Support Plummets.(WhiteHouseDossier).The passion of African-American support for President Obama is falling, posing a major new threat to his prospects for reelection.According to a new ABC/Washington Post poll, the number of blacks who have “strongly favorable” views of Obama has dropped off a cliff, declining from 83 percent five months ago to 58 percent today.That blacks will support Obama in the end is unquestionable. Eighty six percent still view him at least somewhat favorably.But the Obama campaign desperately needs to bring core constituencies like African Americans to the polls in high numbers, and flagging enthusiasm will make the task more difficult and expensive.What’s more, key swing states like Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and many others have large black populations.Black leaders have been increasingly critical of President Obama for failing to stem the high and rising black unemployment rate. And Obama’s failure to weigh in on or try to prevent the execution yesterday of Troy Davis in Georgia – a black man whom some believe was may have been innocent and a victim of racism in the justice system – may hurt him as well.Hmmmm……..”Pass the bill………if you love me”.Read the full story here.

New Perry Web ad slams Obama as ‘president zero’

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign launched a flashy new Web ad that calls President Obama “president zero” and touts Perry’s leadership.

The ad opens like a trailer for a zombie movie: empty, desolate streets and shops, a storm siren blaring. Obama’s iconic “O” symbol is then replaced with a zero, as various clips of television reporters talking about “zero jobs created” play.

The ad’s mood then shifts dramatically. “In 2012 America will discover a new name for leadership,” the ad says, while clips of Perry are spliced with shots of galloping horses in the sunlight, American flags, green farms and the Statue of Liberty.

The ad was produced by Lucas Baiano, and is reminiscent of the movie-trailer style ads he produced for former presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty’s campaign before Baiano joined Perry’s camp. It also is reminiscent, both in its movie-trailer style and its content, of rival candidate Mitt Romney’s latest Web ad, another fast-paced video that hits Obama for zero net jobs created during his presidency.Source.


Pax Ottomanica

What are Turkey’s aspirations in the region? Will Turkey manage to benefit from the ongoing Arab tsunami? Will a new axis of power be created, and will Turkey become a new Egypt? And if it does, will its NATO membership have to be thrown away? Rachel Shabi, John Feffer and Josef Olmert CrossTalking on Sep. 21.


Tears as ‘Mohammed’s cup’ brought to Chechnya.

MOSCOW — Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov broke into floods of tears as he unveiled a purported relic of the Prophet Mohammed in a bizarre ceremony involving a Rolls Royce motorcade, reports said Thursday.
The government of the majority Muslim Russian Northern Caucasus region, recovering after two separatist wars and still battling Islamic insurgents, boasted that the cup was 1,400 years old and had belonged to the Prophet.
The cup had earlier been flown into the Chechen capital Grozny from London where it was kept by unnamed descendants of Mohammed’s cousin Ali.
Kadyrov, clad in a bright purple shirt and trousers and a black Muslim skullcap, triumphantly carried the boxed relic straight off the plane at the airport at the ceremony on Wednesday.
He then sped through Grozny in a Rolls-Royce cabriolet surrounded by a motorcade of at least 20 luxury cars, the first Russian television pictures of the event showed Thursday.
The flag-waving delegation then arrived to Grozny’s central mosque greeted by a crowd of singing and clapping people.
The Chechen leader then proceeded to take the jade-coloured bowl out of bubble wrapping, and broke down in uncontrollable tears after kissing the object, covering his reddening face and shaking violently.
The Chechen government said in a statement on its website that “the cup was used by Prophet Mohammed, passing to his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib the fourth Caliph.” Further details on its authenticity were not immediately available.
Anyone will be able to drink water from it on the day of Mohammed’s birthday, the Chechen government said.
Kadyrov, who has ruled the war-torn region since 2007 and was reappointed in the post earlier this year, has overseen several grandiose projects and events in Grozny aimed at boosting his political clout.
He has also encouraged the revival of Islam in the region, inaugurating in 2008 the “Heart of Chechnya” mosque, said to be the biggest in Europe.
But rights groups have long accused him of presiding over a personal militia that they say has carried out serial rights violations, torture and even murder.Hmmmm….Does it sound like the bowl Imam Ahmed discribes?Read the full story here.


MFS – The Other News

Morning Posting.

  • Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in the US 4.8 !More info here.

 

  • Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to: Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog.Here.

 

  • Please meet “attackwatch.NET” the complete opposite of attack watch……….. the Dr Jekyll and Hyde of attackwatch.org. Here.
  • Obama’s buddy sends Turkish warships towards Cyprus in oil exploration dispute.(TodaysZaman).Turkish warships have set out for the Mediterranean at a time when Turkey and Greek Cyprus are deadlocked over possible deposits of oil and natural gas off the coast of the island.Three warships set sail from İstanbul through the Dardanelles, heading for the Aegean, the Cihan news agency reported on Wednesday. The warships’ activity was interpreted as a sign that Turkey is ready to live up to its pledge and prepare for its own drilling in the company of warships in the debated waters around Cyprus.According to Greek Cypriot presidential advisor Ertan Ersan, Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel and Turkish Land Forces Commander Gen. Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu said that Turkey would start drilling within a week, Turkish media reported on Wednesday. Özel reportedly indicated that “the Greek Cypriots would not dare to escalate the tension,” as he proposed that Turkey would start drilling since it is the country’s right to do so. Kıvrıkoğlu expressed the belief that Greek Cypriots would not make “a crazy move that would escalate the crisis.” Ersan had talks with the generals earlier this week.The countries have been exchanging warnings since the Greek Cypriots announced during the summer that they were planning to conduct oil and gas exploration in the seabed Turkey considers disputed territory, but the actual kickoff for the Greek Cypriot drilling that came on Monday proved the debate could turn into a crisis that might even involve a military showdown.The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) announced on Tuesday that it was setting up a monitoring committee that would observe developments on a Greek Cypriot oil platform that was set up recently and is expected to yield results within a few weeks. The committee is expected to issue daily reports on exploration activities while Turkish warships and aircraft keep the zone under surveillance with respect to Greek Cypriot territorial rights.“The drilling process has been started by Noble Energy on the basis of the agreement with the Republic of [Greek] Cyprus,” Greek Cypriot deputy government spokesman Christos Christofides was quoted as saying by Reuters on Tuesday, confirming that the Greek Cypriot administration feels justified in carrying out the drills unilaterally.“By ignoring the rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriots they are sabotaging the search for a solution based on the principles and framework accepted by the United Nations,” İrsen Küçük, the Turkish Cypriot prime minister, was quoted as saying in the same report.The platform of US-based Noble Energy was set up over the weekend, deepening the crisis between the Turkish and Greek sides, as Turkey vowed to cooperate with the KKTC to sign its own continental shelf delineation agreement in the event the other side of the island went ahead with its drilling project. Turkey considers seabed deposits oil and natural gas a common wealth for the entire island, both communities of which have been engaged in UN-led reunification talks that are expected to be finalized by October.However, the hydrocarbon debate seems to have undermined both parties’ readiness for a just solution to the separation that goes back almost four decades.Cyprus has been divided between Turkish and Greek sides since 1974, when the Turkish military intervened in an Athens-backed coup to reunite the island with Greece. Although the KKTC is recognized as a state only by Turkey, Greek Cyprus has enjoyed the benefits of EU membership since 2004 and is readying for its term in the EU rotating presidency in the summer of 2012.Intergovernmental bodies headed by the UN expect the two communities to come to an agreement on reunification before the Greek Cypriot presidency of the EU begins in July 2012. Turkish officials consider the presidency ample reason to freeze negotiations with the European bloc if a solution is not devised by then.Hmmmm…..No wonder Obama and Erdogan had such smiling faces at the UN,lets start a war with Israel?Read the full story here.

 

  • Saudi Columnist: Hitler Was Right about the Jews.(Memri).In an article titled “Liberalism – A Jewish Deception,” Saudi columnist Khaled Al-Ghanami justified Hitler’s views on the Jews as expressed in his book Mein Kampf, and claimed that the Jews today were exploiting economic liberalism as a means to topple the Arab states and control the world.The article was received positively by many readers, who defended Al-Ghanami’s claims and even asked him to expand on them.Following is a translation of the article:

“Regardless of our views on Adolf Hitler, his book Mein Kampf contains many stories and much philosophical commentary worth reading. Hitler’s position vis-à-vis the Jews was not capricious. It was a position he formulated over dozens of years of observing them, zealously [defending] them, and arguing with those who denied they were German citizens. Eventually he discovered that the Jew was only a Jew [and not a German].

“In his book [Mein Kampf], he castigates the Jews first and foremost for Germany’s defeat in World War I. While the [German] army fought on the front, the Jews organized demonstrations to overthrow the monarchy in Bavaria and several [other] regions in Germany, and even called for munitions manufacturers to strike. This shocked the German soldier, for how [could he] sacrifice his life on the battlefield while the workers who were supposed to send bullets to the front were striking? Hitler, himself a young soldier, returned to his country after [Germany’s] defeat, [only] to discover that the revolution had already broken out and that in its course, [Kaiser] Wilhelm II had been overthrown in a cunning Jewish plot.

“[Mein Kampf] contains many stories about the Jew who lurks in the shadows (according to Hitler), and whose calls for freedom and equality are nothing but diabolical plots aimed at weakening the state, causing anarchy, undermining security, and controlling the fate of the nations. This is because the Jew believes he is superior to others, and he dislikes manual labor, preferring to make the people his slaves by [giving them] interest-bearing loans.”Economic liberalism is the Jews’ latest plot, which reflects the greed of the Jews and of the capitalist regime that has emptied the peoples’ pockets, leaving the world impoverished and on the brink of collapse. Most of the money ended up in the pockets of a small group of people, and we all know that most of the world’s capital is in the hands of the Jews.”There are those who wonder what liberalism has to do with the Jews… We are not ashamed to say that we have been swindled by the calls for the freedom, which every freedom [lover] yearns for, and [by the call] for opportunities to succeed in the wide world, on all fronts. After long years of observing this liberal procession marching across all the Arab countries, [we wonder] – which way is it headed? At the end of the day, it seems to serve only the Zionist-American program [aimed at] crumbling our states, cleaving our unity, and taking control of the good of our lands…”Will we wake up? That is the question.”‘Okaz (Saudi Arabia), September 12, 2011.Hmmm…..Anti semitism alive and kicking in Saudi Arabia.Read the full story here.

 

  • “Brother to brother: I got a fantastic idea…… Wait a year, then go for it.”(ISU).By Kenny Solomon.

No, I don’t have any ulterior motives like seizing the reigns as president for life my re-election to a second term.
I never have any other thoughts than the complete Marxist-Jihad takeover of America and helping to wipe Israel off the map doing the right thing for America and Israel.US presents plan for PA to defer UN bid for one year.Timing is everything.Read and see the full story here.

 

  • IDF’s Scream disperses Palestinian Riot.(TheMuqata).Heard about “The Scream”?Its the IDF’s new, non-lethal, crowd dispersal device…and it was used today to disperse a Palestinian Independence Riot in Kalandia, Jerusalem. The device projects non-lethal sound waves — resulting in a deafening sound people cannot stand. “The Scream” is so effective that not even earplugs are effective as a deterrent.The Scream has been used before, yet today marked its first appearance in Jerusalem, when the IDF used it to stop dozens of rioting Palestinians who were throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at the IDF checkpoint in Kalandia.(JPost).More about the scream from a posting a few years ago: (from Wakeupfromyourslumber):

JERUSALEM—The knees buckle, the brain aches, the stomach turns. And suddenly, nobody feels like protesting anymore. Such is the impact of the Scream, the latest weapon in the Israeli army’s high-technology toolkit.Launched Friday afternoon near the West Bank village of Bil’in, after another in the almost daily demonstrations against Israel’s controversial security barrier turned violent, Israel’s secret weapon lived up to its billing, by most accounts.Witnesses describe a minute-long blast of sound emanating from a white Israeli military vehicle. Within seconds, protestors began falling to their knees, unable to maintain their balance.An Israeli military source, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, confirmed the existence of the Scream, or Tze’aka in Hebrew, in an interview yesterday.”The intention is to disperse crowds with sound pulses that create nausea and dizziness,” the Israel Defence Force spokesperson told the Toronto Star.”It is probably the cleanest device we have ever had, when you compare it to rubber bullets or tear gas. It is completely non-lethal. It has no adverse effects, unless someone is exposed to the sound for hours and hours.“IDF officials said the technology was researched and developed over a span of five years as a result of “lessons learned” during the Israeli army’s withdrawal from Lebanon.Read the full story here.

 

  • Donald Rumsfeld Stripped Of Immunity In Torture Case.(NeonTommy).Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was stripped of immunity in a case involving the torture of two United States citizens.Two FBI informants, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, were detained and tortured by United States military personnel in Iraq in 2006. They filed suit against Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for violations of their constitutional rights. The Judicial View states:

“Plaintiffs seek damages from Secretary Rumsfeld and others for their roles in creating and carrying out policies that caused plaintiffs’ alleged torture. Plaintiffs also bring a claim against the United States under the Administrative Procedure Act to recover personal property that was seized when they were detained.”

Rumsfeld and the United States government moved to dismiss the charges, and were denied. The plaintiffs relayed “in sufficient detail facts supporting Secretary Rumsfeld’s personal responsibility for the alleged torture.”

Alternet reports:

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office.”

Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel can continue their suit against Donald Rumsfeld.The torture of these two United States citizens took place among the wider context of the inhumane torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, which Rumsfeld authorized.Removing Rumsfeld’s status of immunity sends a larger message that crimes against humanity committed against United States citizens will not be tolerated, no matter who the perpetrators. It is a step toward proclaiming that no such crimes will ever be tolerated, whether the victims are United States citizens or Iraqi citizens or anyone around the world. And it is a step toward proclaiming that no matter who authorized such inhumane, illegal actions, they will be held responsible.Read the full story here.


MFS – The Other News

Morning Posting.

  • Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Saint-Helena 5.2 ! More info here.

 

  • Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to: Paul Langley’s Nuclear History Blog.Here.
  • Heritage Responds to Obama’s Debt Reduction and Tax Proposal – A must read here.
  • China Pulls The Rug From Under Europe, Halts French Bank Transactions, Makes Good On Trade War Ultimatum.Read the full debacle Here.

 

  • Hmmm….Erdogan ‘Blackmailing” the US Gov. in to recognising Palestine?Missile approval left till after key US visit.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey will wait to implement a deal to site a NATO radar system on its soil until after the prime minister’s return from UN General Assembly meetings this week.Rebuffing Washington’s demands for speedy approval, the Turkish government has decided to wait until after this week’s U.N. General Assembly meetings to complete the procedures necessary to station a NATO radar system on Turkish soil.The memorandum of understanding signed last week by Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Francis J. Ricciardone has not been brought to the agenda of the Cabinet to complete the official procedures needed for it to enter into force, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.Since the early warning radar system is part of a NATO agreement, Cabinet approval suffices for its implementation rather than a parliamentary vote. The process will thus have to wait until Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s return from the United States, where he will hold key talks with U.S. President Barack Obama.During his visit to the United States, Erdoğan will be accompanied by the General Staff’s second in command, Hulusi Akar, as well as EU Minister Egemen Bağış, Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar and other deputies and officials, the Anatolia news agency reported.Before his departure late Monday, Erdoğan addressed reports in the Turkish media that the NATO defense program would not protect all of Turkey. “These are disinformation,” he said, adding that such reports aim to create concerns among the citizenry.“What will be deployed is a radar system and not missiles. If needed, we would consider the deployment of missiles as well. But this is not on our agenda for the moment,” Erdoğan said.The agreement envisions the deployment of a U.S. AN/TPY-2 (X-band) early warning radar system at a military installation at Kürecik in the Central Anatolian province of Malatya as part of the NATO missile-defense project. Obama and Erdoğan will likely discuss the fate of the agreement, which has been described by anonymous U.S. officials as the most strategic deal between the two allies in the last 15 to 20 years.A swift approval of the deal is needed to carry out the technical phases of the radar system’s deployment before the end of this year, as suggested by the U.S. Department of Defense. U.S. warships carrying anti-ballistic missiles are expected to take up position in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in the upcoming months, U.S. media outlets have reported.Senior Turkish officials who are planning to visit Tehran in the coming weeks will seek to diffuse growing Iranian concerns about the deployment of the radar system on Turkish soil. (Share info?)Hakan Fidan, chief of the National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, is expected to be the first visitor, followed by Erdoğan.Sources said the precise plan would be decided following Erdoğan’s meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week in New York. Concerned by NATO’s recent deployment of radar and interception systems, Iran has meanwhile increased its pressure on Russia for the sale of S-300 anti-ballistic missile systems. The two countries signed a deal on the sale but Moscow has not yet begun the process.Hmmmm….Put the rocketshield in Bulgaria …Bully problem eliminated.Since when is Turkey dictating US foreign policy?Read the full story here.

 

  • Obama’s Jobs Bill Ends State Sovereignty – Wake Up Governors!!(NewZeal).By: AJ for NoisyRoom.

Section 376 of Obama’s tax and spend “jobs” bill ends state sovereignty, turns our Republic into a dictatorship and destroys the foundation upon which our country was built. The fundamental transformation of America is almost complete.

Read the bill. (Emphasis added)

“SEC. 376. FEDERAL AND STATE IMMUNITY.
(a) Abrogation of State Immunity- A State shall not be immune under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution from a suit brought in a Federal court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this Act.
(b) Waiver of State Immunity-
(1) IN GENERAL-
(A) WAIVER- A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act.
(B) DEFINITION- In this paragraphthe term `program or activity’ has the meaning given the term in section 606 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d-4a).”

Here is the link to 42 USC 2000d-4a which defines “program or activity”:

“For the purposes of this subchapter, the term “program or activity” and the term “program” mean all of the operations of
(1)
(A) a department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or of a local government; or
(B) the entity of such State or local government that distributes such assistance and each such department or agency (and each other State or local government entity) to which the assistance is extended, in the case of assistance to a State or local government;”

Also…

any part of which is extended Federal financial assistance.”

The above is stated as an extension of the actual citation of the general section itself.

More from Section 376 (emphasis added):

“(2) EFFECTIVE DATE- With respect to a particular program or activity, paragraph (1) applies to conduct occurring on or after the dayafter the date of enactment of this Acton which a State first receives or uses Federal financial assistance for that program or activity.”

 

Wake up Governors!! Wake up America!! Tell Congress about Section 376 and why they must not pass this bill.Obama’s tax and spend “jobs” bill is a stealth move to end state sovereignty and transform what made our nation the greatest country the world has ever known. If Obama’s bill passes, kiss freedom goodbye and say hello to tyranny.

The American Form of Government –  Reference:
42 USC 2000d-4a which defines “program or activity”
Read the full story here.

 

  • Obama State Department Refuses To Tell Turkey The U.S. Would Side With Israel If Armed Conflict Breaks Out.(CNS).As Turkey’s leaders intensify efforts to isolate Israel internationally, the cordial treatment they are receiving from the Obama administration this week will add to concerns some Americans have about the strength of its support for Israel.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as “excellent” her talks in New York City on Monday with her Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu. President Obama is scheduled to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan there on Tuesday. All are in the city for this week’s U.N. General Assembly sessions.The Clinton-Davutoglu meeting came a day after the Turkish foreign minister announced that his government had blocked an Israeli attempt to open a liaison office at NATO headquarters in Brussels – the latest in a string of moves aimed at punishing Israel over a deadly commando raid on a Turkish ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists to the Gaza Strip in May 2010.Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning government earlier this month angrily rejected a U.N. report on the incident that called the Israeli raid “excessive and unreasonable” but also described the attempt to breach Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory as “reckless” and concluded that the blockade was a “legitimate security measure.”Following Monday’s almost hour-long Clinton-Davutoglu meeting, a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity that the secretary had “encouraged Turkey to keep the door open” on improving the strained relationship with Israel.But asked whether Clinton had offered any specific ideas in that regard, the official said, “This is something they have to sort out between the two.”The official rejected suggestions that Washington should make it clear to Turkey that the U.S. would side with Israel in the event of a confrontation.Hmmmm……As i said all along what is the relationship between Erdogan and Obama?Why the weekly phonecalls between them?Read the full story here.

 

  • US Senators urge pro-Israel stance from Obama.(YNet).’The world needs to hear from you that Israel – our ally – is not alone in facing threats from Turkey.US senators urged President Barack Obama on Monday to use his speech to the United Nations to restate strong US support for Israel amid tensions with Turkey and a Palestinian push for statehood. “The world needs to hear unequivocally from you that Israel – our friend, ally, and strategic partner – is not alone in facing these threats,” 14 lawmakers said in a letter released as Obama arrived in New York.The senators accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “anti-Israeli rhetoric,” the attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo, and the Palestinians’ push to raise their status at the world body.We believe it is imperative for you to speak strongly, forthrightly and publicly about US concerns over these developments,” they wrote to the president, who was to address the UN General Assembly.”We need to make it clear that we will not tolerate continued threats to Israel by governments or individuals in the region or attempts to delegitimize Israel at the UN or other international forums. Violence and unilateralism against Israel will be met with the strongest US opposition,” they said.Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, Bob Casey, Kirsten Gillibrand, Dick Blumenthal, Ben Cardin, Chuck Schumer, and Chris Coons, Republican Senators Jon Kyl, Susan Collins, Mark Kirk, Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio, and Johnny Isakson, as well as Independent Senator Joe Lieberman signed the letter.The lawmakers warned “political and physical attacks on Israel” raised “the possibility of a region-wide deterioration into violence” and that “Israel’s real sense of growing isolation will make it much more difficult to move the Mideast in a positive direction.”Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann slammed Obama over his foreign policy.”I don’t believe Israel should have to give away any more of its land,” she told CNN Monday. “The president hasn’t done Israel any favors.”Instead, she advised the president to “disallow” Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from stepping “one foot” in the US for his persistent threats against Israel. “He is a genocidal madman,” Bachmann said. Texas Governor Rick Perry is slated to meet Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon as well as Jewish leaders on Tuesday. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will also be arriving in New York in the backdrop of the General Assembly meeting. Hmmmm…..Obama telling off Islamist Erdogan?That will be the day.Read the full story here.

 

  • Perry: Obama Has Isolated and Undermined Israel.(WSJ).By Jonathan Weisman. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaking in New York as the United Nations General Assembly was convening, launched a broadside against President Barack Obama, asserting that the president’s “naïve, arrogant, misguided and dangerous” foreign policy had brought Israel and the Palestinians to a crisis over Palestinian statehood.It was one of the most strongly worded foreign-policy speeches of the 2012 Republican nomination race so far. Mr. Perry said the Obama administration had appeased “the Arab Street at the expense of our own national security interests” and had fumbled an opportunity to overthrow the regime in Iran. He accused the president of “isolating and undermining Israel” at every turn.He called for the U.S. to “reconsider” the $4 billion in assistance the country has provided the Palestinians over the last 17 years. He said the U.S should close the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s office in Washington if the U.N. General Assembly votes this week to recognize a Palestinian state.“It is time to change our policy of appeasement toward the Palestinians to strengthen our ties to the nation of Israel, and in the process establish a robust American position in the Middle East characterized by a new firmness and a new resolve,” he said.“What we are watching unfold at the United Nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster,” said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Tuesday. “It is the culmination of President Obama’s repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position. That policy must stop now.”“The president must not continue to lead from behind on key issues of national and international security,” Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann also declared Tuesday.In a question-and-answer session after the speech, Mr. Perry said he does believe Palestinians should eventually be given statehood but only as the end result of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authority. That was a knock on the Obama administration’s use of U.S. envoys as go-betweens trying to broker a peace accord.“I do support a two-state solution only if the nation of Israel and the Palestinian Authorities do sit down and have direct negotiations between each other and under no other circumstances would I accept that and support that,” he said.Hmmmm…..Israel has nothing to fear but…..Obama and Erdogan it seems.Read the full story here.