MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Obama pulls high speed rail projects in Wisconsin and Ohio.Citing disinterest from newly-elected Republican governors, President Obama has redirected federal high-speed rail dollars from Wisconsin and Ohio to other states in need of the infrastructure investment. The Obama administration has pulled federal funds from high-speed rail investment projects in Wisconsin and Ohio, and reallocated the money to other states that are more eager to develop high-speed rail corridors between their cities. The $1.195 billion that the federal government had intended for Ohio and Wisconsin will now be dispersed to 14 other states.New Jersey Governor Chris Christie effectively pulled the plug on the largest commuter rail project in the country, and Republican mid-term election victories have put the brakes on many large-scale infrastructure investment projects in other states, with both Wisconsin and Ohio indicated an unwillingness to move forward on the high-speed rail projects - citing cost concerns from incoming Republican governors. "Today is one of the saddest days during my four years as governor because I see jobs leaving Ohio, I see resources leaving Ohio, I see vital infrastructure leaving Ohio," outgoing Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said, according to Reuters. "And I see other states being enriched by resources that would otherwise have created thousands of new jobs, revitalized our cities and helped keep our young people in Ohio."Hmmmm.....Payback for the midterm elections?Read the full story here.More here.

• US envoy Holbrooke in critical condition after taking ill.Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was in critical condition after doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta, the State Department said today."This morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is in critical condition and has been joined by his family," State Department spokesman P J Crowley said.69-year-old Holbrooke was admitted to the intensive care unit of the nearby George Washington University and was being treated for blood clot, the ABC news reported.He was meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he gasped and clearly was undergoing some sort of medical situation, it added.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christmas".Stores airbrush Christ out of Christmas cards.Supermarkets were accused of ‘airbrushing Christ out of Christmas’ yesterday after it emerged that less than one per cent of cards they stock have religious themes.Many stores display hundreds of different Christmas cards yet offer just a handful featuring traditional Christian scenes. Some had no cards at all with religious references in their extensive ranges.The Daily Mail visited major outlets of the big four supermarkets – Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons – in seven towns and cities.Out of 5,363 cards sold individually or in multipacks, just 45 featured Christian scenes such as the Nativity – 0.8 per cent.Stephen Green, of Christian Voice, said: ‘The situation is caused by managers subscribing to political correctness and the idea that in some way Christian cards are offensive to other religions. This is simply not true.’Anas Altikriti, of the Muslim Association of Britain, said he was ‘worried’ at the increasing secularisation of Britain. He added: ‘People who are looking for proper choice of Christmas cards should raise it with the store manager.’Hmmmm......."Political correctness is killing Christ?"Read the full story here.

• 17 killed in attack on Pakistan hospital.At least 17 people were killed and 20 injured on Friday when a suicide-bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a hospital being built by the minority Shia community in Pakistan's restive northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The Hazara Hospital in Hangu town collapsed in the impact of the blast and several persons were buried under the rubble, witnesses said. Rescue workers and local residents pulled the bodies and the injured out of debris. Many nearby buildings were also damaged in the blast. Rescue efforts were hit by lack of heavy machinery and a power outage caused by the explosion. No group has claimed responsibility for the Friday attack. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani described the attack as a “brutal and inhuman act of militants.” Hmmmm....This is becoming the "Weekly friday prayer bomb".Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericaBlog.Obama gets FDR's history wrong ... again.Once more Obama distorts the FDR-era history of Social Security. (The first time was here, during the famous Progressive Bloggers interview, when he passed as fact a blatant and false Republican smear about FDR and Hoover.)And he's at it again. In recent his press conference, Obama said this during his anti-progressive rant: This is why FDR, when he started Social Security, it only affected widows and orphans. You did not qualify. And yet now it is something that really helps a lot of people. When Medicare was started, it was a small program. It grew.Which is just flat false; not in any history of the era I studied. Krugman calls him out: This is all wrong: both programs were huge from the start. From the beginning, Social Security applied to all private-sector workers, except those in agriculture, domestic service, or casual employment — and yes, those exceptions happened to exclude the majority of African-Americans. Still, it was by no means a small program that grew big. Medicare covered everyone 65 and older right from the beginning, although initially it only provided hospital insurance.It is, as Rosenberg says, odd that Obama doesn’t know this history.I included the last sentence to contrast the Professor's characteristic politeness with my own opposite thought. No, it's not odd at all; he passes on Republican talking points because ...Hmmmm.....Because he's nothing more then  mere"Makebelief"?Read the full story here.

• Doctors shocked by spread of swine flu – and its severity.H1N1 virus returns, already claiming lives of 10 British adults with early signs that illness has spread to other European countries.The 10 deaths were in younger adults under 65 and associated with H1N1 swine flu. Most had underlying conditions but "a small proportion" were healthy before being struck down by the virus, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA). Seasonal flu normally causes severe illness and death in the elderly. The H1N1 swine flu virus targets pregnant women, younger adults, and those with chronic conditions, making it a cause of particular alarm.All parts of the country are affected with deaths reported from each region, according to the HPA. There were nine flu outbreaks last week, eight in schools and one in an army barracks in Yorkshire.Five of the 10 adults who died for whom information was available had not received the flu vaccine, the HPA said. National figures show vaccination rates are lower than in previous years covering 66 per cent of the over-65s and 40 per cent of younger adults at risk (pregnant women and those with chronic diseases such as asthma). Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health said: "These figures demonstrate that the effects of flu are not to be underestimated. It is not the same as getting a cold and can seriously affect your health. Hmmmm....."Swine Flu back with a vengeance"?Read the full story here.

• Video:Obama Ditches Tax Cut Presser, Bill Clinton Takes Control.Former President Bill Clinton gave a statement after his meeting with President Obama about his tax compromise with the Republicans.

However, after his statement, Clinton began to call on and take questions from the press with Obama at his side. Obama leaves promptly after a few moments and said he had to see Michelle, as he was keeping her "waiting."
"I don't want to make her mad, please go," Clinton told Obama.Hmmmmm.....He hates the tax cuts for the rich so much that he can't even talk about it?Read the full story here.

• Realated.HT:HotAir.Great news: Bill Clinton apparently now president again.The depressing truth: Given the alternative, it really would be great news.I can’t do justice to what you’re about to see. The spectacle of the president bugging out of his own press conference to go to a Christmas party is weird enough, but having Clinton back at the White House podium fielding questions on the hottest domestic issue of the day shoots past deja vu and lands firmly in “am I hallucinating?” territory. Adding to the exquisite oddness of the scene: Thanks to his op-ed this morning insisting that Obama totally rolled the GOP on the tax cuts deal, Charles Krauthammer is now “a brilliant man” in Clinton’s eyes. Exit question: The White House is very keen to reassure liberals that Obama is not, repeat not, trying to “triangulate” ahead of 2012. Hmmmm....This administration just go's down the drain more and more,just imagine if there was a real crisis going on,who will they call on?Ghostbusters?Read the full story here.

• Pensioner wearing his old RAF jacket is headbutted by thugs shouting 'death to the soldiers'.An ex-serviceman wearing an RAF jacket was attacked by thugs who shouted at him 'Bomb the soldiers! Death to the soldiers!'The 69-year-old was punched and headbutted by two Asian or mixed-race attackers who spotted him in military uniform.Paramedics took the veteran to hospital after he was left with bruising, black eyes and an injured nose following the early evening attack.The youths, aged between 17 and 20, shouted offensive remarks about soldiers at the white-haired pensioner and then attacked him when he responded.The incident happened in Sherwood Street, Fallowfield, Manchester, police revealed today.Officers today released a shocking picture of the bruised victim in a hospital bed with two black eyes after the attack.Hmmmm....We've heard "Death to the soldiers" before.Read the full story here.

• WikiLeaks cables: Pope wanted Muslim Turkey kept out of EU.Vatican diplomats also lobbied against Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and wanted 'Christian roots' enshrined in EU constitution.The pope is responsible for the Vatican's growing hostility towards Turkey joining the EU, previously secret cables sent from the US embassy to the Holy See in Rome claim.The cable released by WikiLeaks shows that Ratzinger was the leading voice behind the Holy See's unsuccessful drive to secure a reference to Europe's "Christian roots" in the EU constitution. The US diplomat noted that Ratzinger "clearly understands that allowing a Muslim country into the EU would further weaken his case for Europe's Christian foundations".But by 2006 Parolin was working for Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and his tone had distinctly chilled. "Neither the pope nor the Vatican have endorsed Turkey's EU membership per se," he told the American charge d'affaires, "rather, the Holy See has been consistently open to accession, emphasising only that Turkey needs to fulfil the EU's Copenhagen criteria to take its place in Europe."But he did not expect the demands on religious freedom to be fulfilled: "One great fear is that Turkey could enter the EU without having made the necessary advances in religious freedom. [Parolin] insisted that EU members – and the US – continue to press the [Turkish government] on these issues … He said that short of 'open persecution', it couldn't get much worse for the Christian community in Turkey."
  Hmmmm.....So what now,they will call the Pope a bigot also?Read the full story here.

• Saudi crackdown on colourful gowns.Thousands of ornamented gowns seized in raids on Riyadh markets.Saudi Arabia has launched a crackdown against ornamented female gowns, confiscating thousands of the dresses in a surprise raid on markets in Riyadh by the Gulf Kingdom’s most feared Islamic law-enforcement group.Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stormed several markets in the capital this week and seized a large quantity of garnished gowns on the grounds they are no longer allowed in the country. One shop said all its nearly 7,100 gowns were impounded.Reporting the raids, the online Arabic language daily Wojooh said all the gowns were black embroidered with golden threads and other colours, adding that scores of shops in various markets were raided without prior notice.“Those who sell such gowns were arrested for one day and were made write statements pledging not to sell these gowns in the future,” the paper said. “In case they repeat the offence, they will be deported from the country.”He said such rules have been issued by the so-called Committee for the Following up of Anti-religion Acts at the Ministry of Interior.But the paper quoted an official at the Ministry of Interior as saying:”I have never heard about this committee at the Ministry.
  ”Hmmmm....Just think these are the people who got the seat for women's rights at the U.N.Who's bright idea was that?Read the full story here.

• Barak backs Jerusalem partition plan.Defense minister expresses support in division outline proposed by former US president Clinton; 'There is no contradiction between two-state solution, security of Israel,' he notes. Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday night said he supported a plan to divide Jerusalem, as suggested by former United States President Bill Clinton in 2000. During a speech at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy's seventh annual forum in Washington, Barak noted that the western part of the capital and the Jewish neighborhood belonged to Israel, while neighborhoods with dense Arab populations should be under Palestinian control.We need to demarcate Israel's borders so to secure a solid majority of Jews on the one hand, and a demilitarized Palestinian state on the other, he added.Barak also noted that the settlement blocks must remain under Israeli sovereignty while the few isolated settlements should be returned home.Read the full story here.

• 'Erdogan seeks reconciliation; Barak won't apologize'. Turkish prime minister wants to normalize relations with Israel before upcoming June elections, but defense minister, IDF officials refuse to issue apology, a Turkish newspaper report claims.According to the report, top IDF ranks also objected issuing an apology for the killing of nine activists onboard the Mavi Marmara last May."Israeli military officials are not against paying compensation to the families of the slain activists, but do oppose an Israeli apology," the report read."Even though Barak said that continued tension in Turkish-Israeli relations would not serve the goal of stability in the Middle East, he has been against an Israeli apology toward Turkey," said one of the sources.Ozdem Sanberk, the Turkish representative at the UN commission of inquiry for the flotilla incident, told reporters that there is an ongoing debate over the use of the word "apology."“As far as it concerns the Turkish side, it has never negotiated a word other than the word ‘apology’,” he said.Hmmmm....There can be no apology for protecting your country from terrorists,even Iranian expert considers the IHH as a jihadi organisation.Read the full story here.

• Protests over block on church of the Pyramids. "The government discriminates against Christians".168 Copts are still in jail (including 20 children) arrested during the demonstration on November 24 against the block on construction of the church opposed by radical Muslims.Security forces arrested 168 Copts, who are still detained, among them there are 20 minors under 18 years of age who are confined in juvenile detention center in Al Marg. A request for their release has also come from International Christian Concern (ICC), an organization based in the United States that monitors the situation of Christians in the world. On 4 December, the Egyptian head of the Union for Human Rights, Naguib Ghobrial, organized a demonstration outside the High Court of Egypt which was attended by both Christians and Muslims to demand the release of prisoners, particularly minors, and that charges be brought against the governor of Giza and the Head of Security who authorized the use of live bullets against the demonstrators on November 24.Aidan Clay, regional director for the Middle East for ICC, said: "While most attacks against Egypt’s Coptic Christians are committed by Muslim mob violence, the Talbiya attack on unarmed protestors was the first incident in recent memory authorized by branches of the Egyptian government and carried out by Egyptian security forces. Anti-Christian persecution in Egypt is reaching a new level, as Copts are no longer merely discriminated against, but are in fact being targeted and murdered by the government.Hmmmmm....."Interfaith dialog at it's best"?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.David Yerushalmi: The Legal Battle Against Shariah.Today on Secure Freedom Radio, Frank Gaffney hosts Shariah Law expert David Yerushalmi to break down a new Pew research study that shows that the “vast majority of the Muslim world wants strict Al-Qaeda-like Shariah” to be the law of the land. Yerushalmi also debunks the myth that the fundamental precepts of Shariah vary significantly across the Muslim world, discusses his legal action against the government takeover of the largest promoter and holder of Shariah financing (AIG), and highlights local and state activism across the United States to bar consideration of Shariah Law from our courts. Hmmmm...."We don't want to take over your country"?But we'll start with your laws?Read and hear the full story here.

• From Audacity to Animosity. No president has alienated his base the way Obama has.We have not in our lifetimes seen a president in this position. He spent his first year losing the center, which elected him, and his second losing his base, which is supposed to provide his troops. There isn't much left to lose! Which may explain Tuesday's press conference. President Obama was supposed to be announcing an important compromise, as he put it, on tax policy. Normally a president, having agreed with the opposition on something big, would go through certain expected motions. He would laud the specific virtues of the plan, show graciousness toward the negotiators on the other side—graciousness implies that you won—and refer respectfully to potential critics as people who'll surely come around once they are fully exposed to the deep merits of the plan.Instead Mr. Obama said, essentially, that he hates the deal he just agreed to, hates the people he made the deal with, and hates even more the people who'll criticize it. His statement was startling in the breadth of its animosity. Republicans are "hostage takers" who worship a "holy grail" of "tax cuts for the wealthy." "That seems to be their central economic doctrine." There is only one Democrat who could possibly challenge Mr. Obama for the nomination successfully and win the general election, and that is Hillary Clinton. Who insists she doesn't want to. What are the Democrats to do? If you are stuck with a president, you try to survive either with him or, individually, in spite of him. Some Democrats will try to bring him back. How? Who knows. But that will be a great Democratic drama of 2011: Saving Obama. The White House itself still probably thinks the Republicans can save him, by overstepping, by alienating moderates. But so far, on domestic matters, they're looking pretty calm and sober. They didn't crow at the tax compromise, for instance, even though they knew the left is correct: It wasn't a compromise, it was a bow. To reality, but a bow nonetheless.
  Hmmmm....Perhaps he doesn't seek to be re elected but to take power as a new Ivan Grosny,together with his inner circle of oprichniki?Read the full story here.

• Nader: Pres. Obama Is a 'Con Man'."He has no fixed principles," Ralph Nader said of Mr. Obama in an interview with CBS News. "He's opportunistic -- he goes for expedience, like Clinton. Some call him temperamentally conflict-averse. If you want to be harsher, you say he has no principles and he's opportunistic.""He's a con man," Nader continued. "I have no use for him."Read the full story here.

• 25+ Signs That Point to Nuclear War.It’s hard for most people to even think about the possibility of nuclear war. They have completely lost their fear of nuclear war. It can’t happen! Unfortunately, that’s not true, and I’m going to show you why.How can one possibly know that nuclear war approaches? History provides the clues we’re looking for. Just like history informs us when a forest is susceptible to a major forest fire. The exact timing might be impossible to figure out, but we can know the season.Possible reasons for war:

1.  The rise of a power rival in the presence of a declining superpower has led to war six out of the last seven times. Today it’s China versus America.
2. When a rival finds that it is incapable of keeping up militarily, then it may launch a preemptive strike before it is too late. Russia is now in danger of falling behind. This is the reason why Germany started World War I.The decline of a superpower is a very important historical sign of bad things to come. America is now in this situation.
3. Another important historical sign is that when most people from the last big crisis have died then society becomes susceptible to another big crisis. The last big crisis was the Depression plus World War II.Here are three possible catalysts for war:
4. A conflict in the Middle East involving Israel.
5. .A conflict on the Korean peninsula.
6. A conflict over Taiwan.The use of nuclear weapons by any country could result in an an escalation.Introduction to Nuclear War Signs 1 to 5.
7. Doomsday shelters making a comeback.Now read the rest here.

• And now for something completely different.Why are hundreds of Dartmoor ponies being slaughtered and fed to tigers at the zoo?Five degrees below zero on Dartmoor and the fog is ­settling onto the valley floor for the evening. The last rays of the setting sun bounce off ­frozen ponds and lakes. There is no sign of life — even the Hound of the Baskervilles wouldn’t be seen dead on the moors at this time of year — except for one breed of animal which has been here for 3,000 years and has seen much worse ­winters in its time.The Dartmoor ponies appear ­oblivious to the plummeting mercury.Heads bent to the ground to graze the icy turf, they occasionally shake their shaggy manes — not to warm themselves up, just to flick their ­dangling fringes out of their eyes.Those manes — and their tails — are broad and thick, to cope with the worst Dartmoor can throw at them. The ponies’ coats change according to the season. Their winter double-coat has guard hairs, which shed the rain and keep their skin dry in the worst of ­weathers; in summer, the coat is short with a silky sheen.Other ponies are occasionally dumped on Dartmoor but struggle on these wild, bleak moors — their coats get out of ­condition and they quickly lose weight as they fight a losing ­battle with the ­elements. Dartmoor ponies have been here so long that they have become uniquely conditioned to the uplands of Devon. With the recession and a calamitous decline in hill-farming profits, the demand for ­Dartmoor ponies has fallen through the floor — as has the price they fetch for sale. A costly increase in red tape for pony ­owners has contributed to a glut in the ­market, as farmers offload the money-losing animals.A minimum price tag of ten ­guineas (£10.50) has now been ­introduced by the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association for the ­animals but, before that, they were going for as little as £1 a head. And so, this year, the knackerman has been called in — again and again and again. Andrew Goatman, the local ­slaughterman from South Brent, ­normally culls around 100 of the weaker Dartmoor ponies a year, to ensure the genetic pool of the ­breeding stock is kept healthy.And so the unwanted ponies become ­animal feed. Apparently they are popular with tigers at ­Dartmoor Zoo. Pitifully sad as it is, the process makes money, which helps to ­support the surviving ponies, with the zoo paying a ­special ­premium for the meat.According to Benjamin Mee, ­director of Dartmoor Zoo: ‘The tigers’ coats look much better on horsemeat. Ponies are much closer in ­protein-content to the zebras and ­antelopes, which they would ­normally eat in the wild.’A century ago, there were 30,000 ­Dartmoor ponies. Now there are just 1,500 mares left. The Dartmoor pony is rarer than the Giant Panda. ‘The ponies’ gene pool is a natural ­treasure, which must not be lost,’ says ­Charlotte Faulkner, of the Dartmoor Hill Pony ­Association, who has kept ponies on the moors for 15 years.‘We have an invaluable source of resilient ponies — which are true children’s friends, future ­competition animals and the ­perfect tool for looking after Dartmoor.Hmmmm.....I think it's outrageous to slaughter such a fine animal for feed!Read the full story here.