MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Solving the Problem Posed by President Obama’s High Personal Approval Rating.As Abraham Lincoln explained: “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”Polls show that “generic Republican” would easily beat President Obama in the 2012 presidential election, but Republicans have to run a particular person and therefore they need to tell America the real truth about President Obama instead of do what Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, did at the Al Smith dinner in 2008–say that Obama is a  fine young I man.

• Obama: People Have Noticed.“Apres moi le deluge”, “After me, the flood” and though attributed to the French King Louis XV, historians believe it was actually said by Jeanne Poisson, Madame de Pompadour. The last members of the monarchy spent France into the poorhouse until they had their heads separated from their bodies via the guillotine.People have noticed the same eerie disconnect from the suffering of the populace as Barack and Michelle Obama party on. There has been a succession of vacations topped off by Michelle in Spain on the U.S. dime. Keeping track of the vacations, about seventeen this year, has become a media pastime. Twenty months into his first and last term, President Obama, has wasted a trillion dollars we didn’t have on a stimulus package that was little more than a wish list of pet projects for Democrat congressmen and bailouts of the teacher’s unions whose members would otherwise have to join the long lines at the unemployment office.

• Breaking news. Frankfurt Airport official: Air traffic control problem halts flights to, from northern Europe.

• Video:LatimaTV: "The Bomb" -Iran Minister Of Information & Destruction.

• A 'spine-for-a spine': Saudi criminal faces having spinal cord severed after paralysing victim with meat cleaver.A Saudi man convicted of paralysing a fellow countryman in a cleaver attack is being threatened with having his spinal cord cut in a tit-for-tat punishment.The ultra-conservative desert Kingdom enforces Islamic law and on rare occasions metes out punishments based on the ancient code of an ‘eye-for-an-eye’.The case judge in the northwestern province of Tabuk has sent letters to several hospitals seeking their advice on whether it is medically possible to render the attacker’s spinal cord non-functional, local newspapers said.Welcome to A.D.613?

• Crocodile in the Channel! France closes beaches after 'huge' beast is spotted.English Channel beaches in France were closed today after a crocodile was spotted in the sea.The ‘huge’ creature with razor-sharp teeth was seen swimming around sailing boats in the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer on Thursday.‘We decided to close all beaches nearby and ban swimming just in case,’ said a spokesman for the local town council.‘All local zoos and amphibian centres are being investigated to see if any of their crocodiles are missing. We can take no chances.

• An Airline Magazine That Makes Travelers Want to Pull the Rip Cord.Safi Shows the Real Afghanistan, From Dog Fighting to Dry Swimming Pools.KABUL—Safi Airways, a start-up Afghan airline, ventures where few air carriers dare to go: Its in-flight magazine tells the ugly truth about the place where you're about to land.In the seat pocket in front of you on Safi, you will find an article on Kabul heroin addicts, photos of bullet-pocked tourist sites and ads for mine-resistant sport-utility vehicles.

• Steinitz demands ultimatum for Iran.Raising the stakes: Finance minister says America must warn Tehran of military strike within weeks; ‘Time has come for whole world, under US leadership, to present Iran with unequivocal ultimatum,’ he says.In the first such statement by a Cabinet member, Steinitz said: "The US must issue a clear ultimatum to Iran, tell it that if it does not change its behavior within weeks, the military option that has been on the table up until now will become relevant."

• Is Barack Obama a Muslim? Part one of a six-part series.With a background of being a practicing Muslim and no proof of switching to Christianity, the question remains, is Obama a Muslim?Or is he just  plain evil  pretending to be all kind of things?

• Focus U.S.A. / The ongoing saga of the U.S. Navy swastika building. In the 1960's a building was built in U.S. Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego which looked from satellite images like a swastika; it still stands.A couple of years ago, the swastika-shaped building at the Naval Amphibious Base in San-Diego discovered by Google Earth became an Internet hit. The former U.S. resident and now Israeli citizen Avrahaum Segol got word from a friend in 2006 and made getting rid of the offensive symbol his own personal project.

• BBC’s flotilla film slammed as ‘biased’.Anti-Israel groups outraged at 'racist' documentary; plan protests.A BBC documentary screened this week that investigated the Gaza flotilla incident on May 31 is causing a storm of protest – from critics of Israel, who are furious that the program was not as hostile to Israel as they thought it should be.The critics, including an activist from the Free Gaza movement who was aboard the Mavi Marmara, are organizing demonstrations on Sunday outside the BBC’s London headquarters and other BBC offices, and are calling for a mass campaign of complaints to the BBC in general and the program makers in particular.

• Lockerbie bomber could live until 2017, say doctors.The Lockerbie bomber could live for another seven years, it has been claimed.A year ago, Ali Al Megrahi was released from prison by the Scottish government, after being given just three months to live.But as Libyans prepare to celebrate the first anniversary of the 58-year-old’s release today, medical sources in Tripoli say he could still be alive in 2017.

• A Biased Ideology and Double Standard.Our president has attempted, in his pro-Ground Zero mosque statement, to maintain that his stance is such because it's a civil rights issue. Civil rights for Muslims, that is.I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now. He is absolutely biased towards Muslims, whom he says should be afforded all rights to build wherever they want--but what about the Jews, whom he prohibits from building in East Jerusalem, in "the heartland of Jewish history?" That, according to the president, is verboten. And the fact that Abbas does not want Jews living in a Palestinian state, if it is created? That's ok by Mr. Obama, the great proponentof civil rights for all, right? Just not for Jews.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Video:New GOP Ad: Who’s Really Extreme?…Great job!

• You’ll Get Served.If Republicans win the House this fall, Rep. Darrell Issa will wield the majority’s sharpest investigative tool: the subpoena pen.“Cabinet officers, assistant secretaries, directors — I will be able to take on everybody that the president hires and relies upon; the people who tell him that everything is fine,” pledges Issa, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in an interview with National Review Online.

• EXCLUSIVE: Proposed Chicago Suburb Mosque Has Likely US Muslim Brotherhood Leader On Executive Committee.According to the MECCA website, one of the members of the MECCA Executive Committee is Basman Osman, likely the same individual identified by a Hudson Institute report as a US Muslim Brotherhood leader and a representative of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) who is known to have a home located approximately 2 kilometers northwest of the proposed new MECCA mosque. NAIT is an affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and a document released in 2007 by the prosecution in the Holy Land Terrorism financing case names NAIT as one of the entities that is part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.

• Ayatollah Khameneie: If military threats materialized nations counter-attacks not merely regional.Tehran, August 19, IRNA (Iran news agency)- Focusing on US military threats, Ayatollah S. A. Khameneie said here Wednesday, "Their resorting to such foolish option is a remote possibility, but if so, Iranians counter-attack will not be merely regional, but covering a vaster scene."

• AP advises staff on location of Islamic center and mosque.The Associated Press, one of world's most powerful news organizations, issued a memo today advising staff to avoid the phrase "Ground Zero mosque."The Upshot reported Tuesday that the AP started using the phrase "Ground Zero mosque" in some headlines in late May. The New York Times, for one, has consciously avoided that phrasing.The AP began using the phrase as the controversy over the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque in Lower Manhattan started bubbling up to the national level. Many news organizations, across platforms, routinely dub the project the "Ground Zero Mosque."Yeah lets call it the Obama & Democrats playground?

• Is Obama a Muslim?10 points that indicate he is a Muslim.

• Asking The Right Questions About Islamic Law And Human Rights.The recent stoning of a young couple by the Taliban in Afghanistan has prompted another round of discussion around the world about whether Islamic Shari'a law and Western human rights are reconcilable. As a student of Islamic history and philosophy, and as a member of the Baha'i faith, I worry whether certain lines of argument have been thought through.Translated into non-philosophese, it's one thing to convert the jirga and ulema into resemblances of Western-style legislatures, but entirely another to argue that this therefore means Shari'a and Western human rights are reconcilable, even the same. It would be like trying to argue that because certain trees bloom in springtime they are therefore flowers.

• BP oil spill: scientists find giant plume of droplets 'missed' by official account.A 22-mile plume of droplets from BP's Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico undermines claim that oil has degraded.Scientists have mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP's rogue well in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, providing the strongest evidence yet of the fate of the crude that spewed into the sea for months.The report offers the most authoritative challenge to date to White House assertions that most of the 5m barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf is gone."These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume," said Christopher Reddy one of the members of the team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

• HT:TerrorfreeSomalia.Somali shop owner charged with lying about son with possible terrorist link.SALT LAKE CITY — A Somali shop owner faces federal charges for allegedly lying to FBI agents regarding the whereabouts of her son, who authorities apparently suspect could be associated with a terrorist network.Wearing a Muslim hijab over her jail jumpsuit, Lul Noor Abdi, 42, of Salt Lake City, appeared at a detention hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court. About 30 members of the Somali community, including Abdi's mother, crowded into the small courtroom and in a hallway.Abdi faces two counts of making false statements to the FBI. Magistrate Judge Samuel Alba ordered her to be released from jail, with restrictions, including the seizure of her passport.

• Giuliani: If dialogue and sensitivity are the goals, don’t build the mosque on Ground Zero.Rudy Giuliani took on Matt Lauer, his successor as Mayor, and apparently Nancy Pelosi’s thought police to argue against the building of the Ground Zero mosque. Giuliani acknowledged, as most of the project’s opponents do, that the owners of the property have a right to build anything within the zoning regulations at the site. Giuliani doesn’t call for government intervention, either. But he calls for the same kind of sensitivity that the Pope showed in pushing to move a convent in the vicinity of Auschwitz to a less provocative location as a way to foster actual healing, dialogue, and understanding.The best interview yet!

• John McCain, Twitter genius.In a joint study conducted by George Washington and New York universities, the 73-year old Republican was found to have the highest “Digital IQ” in the Senate, what the researchers are dubbing as the “definitive benchmark for online competence.” You rock senator!

• Warlords and Taliban fighters earn money from U.S. in the form of protection.A new report titled “Warlord, Inc., Extortion and Corruption along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan” was published by Congressman John Tierney (D-MA) in June. The report details the millions of dollars spent to protect U.S. military supply convoys in Afghanistan- the majority of the money is paid out from the Department of Defense through the use of defense contractors and often finds its way into the hands of shady characters.

• Obama is hell bent on destroying America's energy production.In a report released Monday, the administration announced that all offshore drilling permits will now be subject to an environmental review and puts and an end to the 30 day decision process set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act.When you couple these capricious decisions with the administration’s plans to seize millions of acres of energy rich, privately held land, America’s ability to produce energy will be even further restricted. In doing so, the administration will cause us to become even more dependent on foreign oil. And even more likely, this is a backdoor mechanism to drive up energy prices and push us further towards Obama’s dream of a green economy which will “necessarily result in skyrocketing energy prices” as the president likes to say. Regardless of how you look at it, the administration appears to be hell bent on destroying America’s energy production.See you in the trenches.

• Major study charts long-lasting oil plume in Gulf.A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill.The most worrisome part is the slow pace at which the oil is breaking down in the cold, 40-degree water, making it a long-lasting but unseen threat to vulnerable marine life, experts said.

• The Gulf Disaster Is Far From Over. A few weeks ago, I flew over the Deepwater Horizon site and saw what looked like the opposite of all the news reports: it looked more like somebody had spilled water into a Gulf filled with oil.

• Low Friends in High Places: The Ground Zero Mosque’s Ties to The Obama Administration.With President Obama igniting political controversy by commenting on the right of American Muslims to build an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero, it is worth noting the close ties of several Obama administration officials to the cleric behind the proposed project. The ties include a religion adviser to Obama, Eboo Patel, who discussed with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf – the controversial Muslim leader behind the mosque initiative – America as “the ideal place for a renewal of Islam.” … In Patel’s 2007 book, “Saving Each Other, Saving Ourselves,” he recounts discussing with Rauf the future of Islam in the U.S.

• Turkey prepares for UNSC presidency as Iran talks loom.Turkey will take over the rotating presidency of the 15-member UN Security Council on Sept. 1 for one month, as talks on a standoff over Iran’s nuclear program are expected to resume.

• Bid for Sharia Court in St. Petersburg Fails.ST. PETERSBURG — A Muslim lawyer's attempt to create St. Petersburg's first sharia court flopped just weeks after the court opened amid a storm of criticism from local Muslim leaders and human rights activists that climaxed with an order from prosecutors for its closure.The court, which adhered to Islamic law, had no judicial power, and its activity was limited to civil disputes, such as reconciling members of estranged families, founder Dzhamaliddin Makhmutov said.But the court could have just the opposite effect, by further isolating members of the Muslim community who already had problems adapting to city life, said Valentina Uzunova, a senior researcher with the St. Petersburg Museum for Anthropology and Ethnography.“I would recommend an integration strategy, rather than locking themselves in seclusion,” said Uzunova, who often acts as a consultant on hate crimes in the city's courts.Many Muslim and non-Muslim leaders in St. Petersburg also understood it to be a sharia court and roundly condemned it.

• Cameron Diaz 'Most Dangerous' Star On Web.Cameron Diaz is the most dangerous celebrity in cyberspace with Julia Roberts and Jessica Biel also posing a threat to internet security.Users searching for Knight And Day actress Diaz stand a one in 10 chance of linking to a risky site, according to research by security company McAfee.Downloading photos or wallpaper of the star could expose users to the risk of downloading viruses.