MFS - The Other News

                      Afternoon Posting.

• Ht :InstaPundit.PROPERTY TAXES: Highest In Blue States, Lowest In Red States.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Nobel experts predict low-key prize after Obama.Jurors singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.Too soon, said critics. A Gallup poll shortly after Obama won the award in October found 61 percent of Americans did not believe he deserved it. People were split along partisan lines on whether they were happy for him.China has said giving the prize to a Chinese dissident would harm relations between Norway and China, but Lundestad dismissed the warning, saying the committee is independent from the Norwegian government.As always Lundestad declined to comment on nominations but said that over time the committee seeks to achieve a certain geographical balance and make an effort to find female candidates. Of the 97 peace laureates to date, only 12 have been women.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Assad: Peace talks only to boost Obama's image.Syrian president arrives for official visit to Tehran, where he receives award for supporting 'regional resistance groups' like Hamas, Hezbollah. Meanwhile, Syrian deputy FM says only interested in peace talks with Israel if Turkey mediates Syrian President Bashar Assad said Saturday that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are aimed at bolstering Obama's political image."There is no goal but to gain support for Obama within America," he told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, adding that "there has been no change in the peace process in Palestine."We said we would follow American efforts, but consult with our Turkish brothers in everything concerning the peace process," Makdad said.He explained that Syria would only agree to peace talks with Turkish mediation, and that substituting US mediation would not be acceptable. "I can say there is almost global consensus on the Turkish mediation, and the only opposition to this comes from Israel," he said.Hmmm.....Turkish brothers.....Iran.....Syria....Hezbollah.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Canadian defence Min MacKay shuts down Islamic group speech.Defence Minister Peter MacKay has vetoed the speech from a controversial Islamic group because of its "extremist views."Imam Dr. Zijad Delic, the national executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress, was to speak at an internal event at Department of National Defence headquarters Monday.A spokesman for MacKay said when the minister learned of the CIC's participation in the Islamic Heritage Month event, he pulled the plug "based on extremist views promulgated by the Canadian Islamic Congress.""The Canadian Islamic Congress has declared that Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets of suicide bombers," wrote Jay Paxton, MacKay's director of communications, in an e-mail. "These types of comments don't support Islamic Heritage, they simply divide Canadians, promulgate hate and they have no place in Monday's celebrations."Charles McVety, who heads up the right-wing Institute of Canadian Values, issued a statement Friday saying Delic's invitation to speak is an insult to the Canadian Forces soldiers who have died in Afghanistan."This will shock the conscience of Canadians of good faith, dismay military families whose children have made the supreme sacrifice, and undermine the credibility and morale of our armed services in the eyes of allies and enemies alike," McVety said in the statement on the association's website.Hooray for Canada!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Today’s Obama-Backed Leftist “One Nation” Rally a Bust?…Update: Further Proof.Just watched a bit of it on C-Span, looks like a few more have trickled in (don’t forget they chartered 2,000 buses to astroturf the event), still nowhere near the size of the Restoring Honor rally.Hmmm......the American flag seems to be the most absent at the meeting?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Delhi goes into lockdown for Games opener.New Delhi will go into a security lockdown Sunday for the opening of the biggest and most trouble-plagued Commonwealth Games ever.With an estimated 100,000 police and military personnel dedicated to keeping the athletes, visitors and games venues safe, and with foreign governments issuing travel advisories highlighting a risk for terror attacks in India during the Games, local authorities didn't want to leave softer targets vulnerable.The Delhi government used a law enacted in 1954 as authority to enforce the closure of shops and markets on the day of the opening ceremony and the Oct. 14 closing ceremony, announcing it to businesses two days ahead of time.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:AmericanThinker.A Clear Danger: Obama, a 'Living Constitution,' and 'Positive Rights'.I think it's safe to say that President Obama is not exactly fond of the United States Constitution as written. That statement is based on Mr. Obama's own words and his choice of nominees to the federal bench.Mr. Obama the activist-turned-politician has always been shrewd about hiding his far-left philosophy from the general public, whether by voting "present" or by speaking in abstract language. Of course, Obama, like most people, cannot completely hide his worldview. Thankfully, we have record of a few of his unguarded moments from which his radical views have escaped.Mr. Obama correctly (and painfully) refers to the Constitution as a "charter of negative liberties," as "interpreted."So far, the Senate has confirmed 41 of Obama's nominees, leaving 104 federal judgeships open. Presently, a battle over five of Obama's nominees known as the "fringe five" is being fought by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Connie Hair writes that these "candidates ... have once been returned to the President as unacceptable. Each of these controversial nominees was passed out of committee but are so controversial that President Obama and Democrat leaders have avoided discussing them in public."Certainly, the "fringe five" symbolize Mr. Obama's judicial philosophy, and yet any one of his high-ranking nominees, if scratched, would bleed a leftist worldview. Of all the president's radicals, let's focus on just one of the fringe nominees, Goodwin Liu, because his writings mirror exactly what Obama was getting to in his WBEZ-FM interview.In other words, Liu is a "living Constitution" theorist who, like Obama, uses conservative-sounding words to support his radical positions. A Constitution that is interpreted by a few robe-wearing elitists "in a way that adapts its principles" is effectively no Constitution at all.After many decades of "living Constitution" interpretation, the people have already lost much of their Constitution to leftist judges. And now, the elitist establishment is positioning itself for its next break from the constraints.Mr. Obama is a constitutional deconstructionist on steroids, and the damage he will wreak in four years of judicial appointments should not be underestimated.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Poor Turn to Midnight Food Shopping, On The Brink Of Poverty.Take a trip to one of those 24-hour Walmarts on the last day of every month, and you'll get a glimpse into the lives of low-income families trying to get by. At one location in Fredericksburg, Va., at around 11 p.m., families start to load up on necessities like diapers and groceries.People like Tracy and Martin Young live nearby, and for the pair in their early 30s, it's a chance to shop quietly without their five children, two of whom are teenagers. Each is pushing a shopping cart overflowing with food. There's mac and cheese, bags of cereal and cans of evaporated milk. Most of this has to last for the whole month.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Ariz. Border Sheriff: Obama’s ‘Got His Hands Wrapped Around Our Throat'.Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County, Ariz. told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama has “got his hands wrapped around our throat” as his administration sues the state of Arizona for trying to enforce the immigration laws that the federal government itself will not enforce.Dever also said he has “zero confidence” Obama will secure the border before his presidential term is up in two years and that the president is putting the people who live and work in Cochise County at risk by willfully failing to secure that border so that he can maintain political leverage for his goal of winning an amnesty for illegal aliens.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Pakistan : LHC upholds death for blasphemy accused.LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence handed down to a blasphemy convict and ordered that he be hanged till death.This is the second case of its kind in the country when the death sentence of a blasphemy accused has been confirmed by the LHC since inception of the blasphemy law.Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairman told The Express Tribune that the commission was against the capital punishment at first place, adding that blasphemy laws have long been misused in Pakistan.Read  the full story here.Click here for comments.