MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Andrew Breitbart: Even Muslims Are Afraid to Stand Up to Islamists.According to Andrew Breitbart, two of the bravest people in the world are Irshad Manji and M. Zuhdi Jasser, because they’re outspoken Muslims who are standing up to the standard pro-Islamist narrative adopted by much of the mainstream media. Breitbart says that he started the BigPeace.com site because he wanted to provide a platform for other important narratives.Breitbart says that many Westerners are afraid to challenge this Islamist mindset. Not all Muslims are terrorists, he says, but just saying that some Muslims support terrorism is enough for the mainstream media to label you as a hater and intolerant.“You can’t be on a college campus and challenge the Islamist mindset without being shouted down. We’re in a world that’s in a constant state of something akin to permanent warfare. We’re in multiple cold wars right now. And the mainstream press is self-editing itself to conform to the peace and love gobbledy-gook of the 60s and 70s that I disagree with.Do I believe that every Muslim is a terrorist? Of course not. I have Muslim friends. But they are afraid to stand on a soapbox and criticize their own religion for fear of their own lives. It’s taken immense courage for Muslims like Irshad Manji and Zuhdi Jasser to criticize the radical mindset.Irshad Manji is a Muslim feminist and author of a PBS documentary called “Faith Without Fear.” She criticizes the culture of Islam that condones death threats against any Muslim who exhibits independent thinking, thus stripping Muslims of their God-given right to free expression. Manji herself has received death threats as a result of her work.M. Zuhdi Jasser is a devout Muslim, and President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD). He founded AIFD in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States as an effort to provide an American Muslim voice advocating for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Consitution, liberty and freedom, and the separation of mosque and state. He was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy, and received the Meritorious Service Medal.From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, these outdated ideas, and the political conflicts that result, are going to continue until a “regeneracy event” occurs, an event that regenerates civic unity for the first time since the end of World War II. (See “Basics of Generational Dynamics.”)Whatever this regeneracy event may turn out to be — perhaps a new massive terrorist attack on American soil, or perhaps a disastrous military defeat overseas — it will immediately terminate the political bickering and unite all Americans for the preservation of the United States and its way of life.Hmmmmm.....Sadly enough i don't see this happening with this American President.Read the full story here.

• Seven killed in car bomb near Alexandria church.A car bomb exploded outside a church in Egypt's northern city of Alexandria at midnight, killing seven and wounding 24. The explosion occurred in front of the church as the new year began. Egypt has a large Christian minority, about 10% of the nation's 79 million people. In November, a confrontation between Christians and riot police in Cairo took a sectarian turn when dozens of Muslims became involved in the violence, lobbing rocks from behind a security cordon. The Christians had been protesting against a decision by the authorities to halt construction of a church in a Cairo suburb.Hmmmm....2011 just started with killing people by the "Misunderstanders "Of the Religion Of Peace.Read the full story here.More here.

• Updated ! Bomb hits Egypt church at New Year's Mass, 7 dead.Bomb hits Egypt church at New Year's Mass, 7 dead.CAIRO – A car exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year's Mass in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early Saturday, killing at least seven people, officials said.After the blast, enraged Christians emerging from the church clashed with police and stormed a nearby mosque, prompting fights and volleys of stone throwing with Muslims, police and witnesses said — a sign of the sectarian anger that has been arising with greater frequency in Egypt.After the explosion, some Christians from the church clashed with police in anger over the blast. The Christians hurled stones at police and a nearby mosque, chanting, "With our blood and soul, we redeem the cross," the witnesses said.An AP photographer at the scene said the protesters stormed into the mosque, throwing books inside out onto the street. The protest sparked clashes with Muslims, as both sides began throwing stones and bottles at each other in the streets.Hmmmm....As usual by now......... no word from the US President Obama on the continous bombing of Christians.Read the full story here.

• Nigeria new year revellers hit by Abuja 'bomb'.A police spokesman said four people had died, while military sources have told the BBC 11 people were killed.Nigeria's military chief said a bomb had been planted to target people celebrating New Year's Eve in Abuja but he did not say who was responsible.The explosion happened in a market where soldiers and civilians often gather to eat and drink beer.Air Marshal Oluseyi Petirin blamed "devilish people" but did not name any group or give a possible motive.He also declined to give any casualty figures.State TV has said 30 people were killed. But police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said four people had been killed - three men and one woman.Witnesses have told the BBC they saw body parts lying on the ground and injured people being carried away after the blast."People ran in different directions. There were scores of bodies - dead and wounded. They used army trucks to pack them away," a market regular called Eric was quoted as telling Reuters news agency.The area has been sealed off.Air Marshal Petirin said a bomb had been placed "where people were relaxing and generally being happy because of the New Year which is approaching".Hmmmm......Now who would do such a thing?Read the full story here.

• Updated.Many dead in Nigeria market blast. State televison says at least 30 people killed in capital Abuja after explosion in busy market area near army barracks.Source.

• Police and SWAT team surround Texas bank after two armed men severely beat manager and take customers and staff hostage.Police, SWAT and FBI agents have surrounded a bank in Texas after two armed men took and undisclosed number of employees and customers hostage during a bank robbery.The drama unfolded today in the otherwise quiet town of Pearland, about 16 miles southest of Houston, Texas.Lieutenant Onesimo Lopez of the Pearland Police Department said a bank manager was physically assaulted by the robbers, and his condition was not known.Other people in the area claimed to have heard gunshots after the men entered the building.After more than two hours of a standoff with police, the gunmen began releasing some of the hostages.The siege started around 11am local time, when a passerby made a 911 call saying he saw masked men entering a Chase bank.'We have SWAT negotiators that have been communicating with the suspects, and we are trying to peacefully resolve this situation.'Read the full story here.

• Government by regulation. Shhh.Most people don't remember Obamacare's notorious Section 1233, mandating government payments for end-of-life counseling. It aroused so much anxiety as a possible first slippery step on the road to state-mandated late-life rationing that the Senate never included it in the final health-care law. Well, it's back - by administrative fiat. A month ago, Medicare issued a regulation providing for end-of-life counseling during annual "wellness" visits. It was all nicely buried amid the simultaneous release of hundreds of new Medicare rules. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), author of Section 1233, was delighted. "Mr. Blumenauer's office celebrated 'a quiet victory,' but urged supporters not to crow about it," reports the New York Times. Deathly quiet. In early November, his office sent an e-mail plea to supporters: "We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists . . . e-mails can too easily be forwarded." They had been lucky that "thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it. . . . The longer this [regulation] goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it." So much for the Democrats' transparency - and for their repeated claim that the more people learn what is in the health-care law, the more they will like it. Turns out ignorance is the Democrats' best hope.And regulation is their perfect vehicle - so much quieter than legislation. Consider two other regulatory usurpations in just the past few days:On Dec. 23, the Interior Department issued Secretarial Order 3310, reversing a 2003 decision and giving itself the authority to designate public lands as "Wild Lands." A clever twofer: (1) a bureaucratic power grab - for seven years up through Dec. 22, wilderness designation had been the exclusive province of Congress, and (2) a leftward lurch - more land to be "protected" from such nefarious uses as domestic oil exploration in a country disastrously dependent on foreign sources. The very same day, the Environmental Protection Agency declared that in 2011 it would begin drawing up anti-carbon regulations on oil refineries and power plants, another power grab effectively enacting what Congress had firmly rejected when presented as cap-and-trade legislation. For an Obama bureaucrat, however, the will of Congress is a mere speed bump.Obama knows he has only so many years to change the country. In his first two, he achieved much: the first stimulus, Obamacare and financial regulation. For the next two, however, the Republican House will prevent any repetition of that. Obama's agenda will therefore have to be advanced by the more subterranean means of rule-by-regulation.Hmmmm.....If he looses the elections in 2012,then he will grab power.Read the full story here.

• HT:IslamTodayOregon.The Doctrine of Taqiyya by Raymond Ibrahim.The concept of Taqiyya has a lot of people confused. Does it give Muslims permission to lie to non-Muslims, and is it part of jihad doctrine?Originally published as an essay for the subscription-only Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst in September of 2008, this is the unedited version.Originally seen at Jihad Watch Nov 10, 2008.To better understand Islam, one must appreciate the thoroughly legalistic nature of the religion. According to sharia (Islamic law) every conceivable human act is categorized as being either forbidden, discouraged, permissible, recommended, or obligatory. “Common sense” or “universal opinion” have little to do with Islam’s notions of right and wrong. All that matters is what do Allah (via the Koran) and his prophet Muhammad (through the Hadith) have to say about any given thing; and how Islam’s greatest theologians and jurists—collectively known as the ulema, literally, the “ones who know”—have articulated it.Consider the concept of lying. According to sharia, deception in general—based on the Koran’s terminology, also known as “taqiyya”—is not only permitted in certain situations but sometimes “obligatory.” For instance, and quite contrary to Christian tradition, not only are Muslims who must choose between either recanting Islam or being put to death permitted to lie by pretending to have apostatized; but some jurists have decreed that, according to Koran 4:29, Muslims are obligated to lie. THE DOCTRINE OF TAQIYYA.According to the authoritative Arabic text, Al-Taqiyya fi Al-Islam, “Taqiyya [deception] is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it. We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in Islam, and that those few sects not practicing it diverge from the mainstream…. Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.”Hmmmmm......."We don't want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• HT:JihadWatch.Roland Shirk on New Year Resolutions.I answer people who call me an Islamophobe by saying something like this: "Afraid of Islam and sharia? You're damned right I'm afraid. So are the Iraqi Christians who get gunned down in their churches, and the Pakistani Christians facing execution for blasphemy. I'm sure the victims of terrorism in New York and London were frightened, too. When you have to take off your shoes and belt at the airport, and get your whole body x-rayed before you can board a plane, who do you think the airlines are 'afraid' will blow up the plane--the Amish? The Mormons? The Hindus? If that's what it means to be an Islamophobe, then I guess you could call FBI agents 'crime-aphobes.' If Muslims want us to stop being scared of them, maybe they could--I dunno, stop oppressing and killing people around the world. That would make a really nice start." Hmmm......"Happy New Year".Read the full story here.

• HT:InvestigativeProject.‘Islamic Circle of North America’ seeks Islamic super-state governed by sharia law.The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is preaching a global Caliphate and Islamic Shari’a law over America to its members, according to the 2010 ICNA Member’s Hand Book. This is a very different message than the group’s public outreach efforts, and contradicts claims that the organization is a tolerant, mainstream Islamic group.As the hand book spells out, the organization’s ultimate goal is “the Establishment of Islam” as the sole basis of global society and governance. It also encourages members to deceive people in its proselytizing campaign to help fulfill this goal. This aim is one that ICNA has been actively pursuing as the group has set its sights on America’s constitutional separation of religion and state.It’s not the first example of radicalism by one of America’s largest Muslim organizations. ICNA’s magazine has featured interviews with terrorist leaders in Pakistan, called on youth to fight abroad in Kashmir, and honored like-minded extremist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and South Asia’s Jamaat-e-Islami. Concerns have also been expressed about 5 young members of the group’s Virginia mosque, who were arrested and convicted on terrorism charges after attempting to link up with and fight for Pakistani terror groups in December 2009.As the hand book explains, ICNA doesn’t just believe that religion is a private affair. “Establishment of the Religion” extends beyond the individual and family and into the society, state, and world. “These words [Establishment of the Religion] include not only practicing the religion in individual and collective life and propagating its true teaching to others, but also striving to make this Deen [religion] a way of life for all,” the hand book reads.Working in an ‘Islamic Movement’ culminates in an Islamic super-state, the Caliphate, the hand book says. Believers have an obligation to strive to reestablish a collective body of Muslims worldwide, organized into the super-state under the direction of a Caliphate and Islamic law. The group wants “the united Muslim Ummah [community] in a united Islamic state, governed by an elected khalifah in accordance with the laws of shari’ah.”ICNA's message in 2010 reinforces its long-held belief in spreading Islamist ideals, which it believes will culminate in a Caliphate. While its benevolent face preaches social justice and charity work, the goals it espouses to members tell a very different story.Hmmmm......"We don't want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan on strike against bill to amend blasphemy law.A 24-hour strike organised by Sunni Muslim clerics is taking place across Pakistan to protest against possible changes to blasphemy laws.Rallies were staged in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta after Friday prayers.The government has distanced itself from a bill to change the law, which carries a mandatory death sentence for anyone who insults Islam.Rights groups say the law is often used to persecute religious minorities.The legislation returned to the spotlight in November when a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death. Although no-one convicted under the law has been executed, more than 30 accused have been killed by lynch mobs.One Sunni cleric in Islamabad warned in his Friday sermon that any change to the blasphemy law would happen "over our dead bodies".Federal Law Minister Babar Awan told reporters that Friday's strike was simply the latest attempt to revive a once powerful alliance of religious parties. Many believe the two parties are acting at the behest of the security establishment to undermine the country's political system.
  Hmmmm.....Perhaps the Obama administration should donate a couple of Billion Dollars more to Pakistan?Read the full story here.

• Radical-In-Chief: Truth Finally Comes Out On Jeremiah Wright Connection.Most of the the nation was shocked during the 2008 presidential campaign when videos came out of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. After all, this was candidate Barack Obama’s spiritual advisor and mentor. The initial reaction was typical of our divided nation. Conservatives pushed the Wright videos and the Left tried to silence their importance. After a while people just got sick of talking about it.When the dust settled the accepted ‘reality’ was that Jeremiah Wright was nuts but Obama barely knew the guy and never heard any of Wright’s more extreme teaching. Today if you bring up Jeremiah Wright, eyes roll and the Left claims you’re making mountains from mole hills. But now a new book has revealed unequivocal proof that Obama was deeply connected to Wright in order to promote and push a socialist agenda.Stanley Kurtz’s Radical-In-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism is one of the most important books to come out in recent years.One of the many informative chapters of the book is chapter 8 on Wright. Kurtz shatters many of the myths used by the media and the Obama administration to try to disconnect Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama. Obama clearly did not believe some of the lunacy of Wright’s views (like the government creating AIDS to kill off black people). However, Obama shared a socialist worldview with Wright and knew he could use Wright “and the radical black-church movement he represented…to be an important element of Obama’s populist-bred, socialist-led coalition.”The facts show that Obama never picked Wright’s church simply for lessons on Jesus and the Bible. He understood Wright was a champion of black liberation theology and had the connections to make things happen. Both Obama and Wright were acquainted and even fans of James Cone who wrote the founding text of black liberation theology in 1969. Cone argued that blacks are oppressed by “whitey” and that the job of the preacher is to angrily call for “the destruction of America as he knows it”.
  Hmmmm......."Obama never picked Wright’s church simply for lessons on Jesus and the Bible" strange i thought he baptised Obama?Read the full story here.

• China preparing for armed conflict 'in every direction'. China is preparing for conflict 'in every direction', the defence minister said on Wednesday in remarks that threaten to overshadow a visit to Beijing by his US counterpart next month."In the coming five years, our military will push forward preparations for military conflict in every strategic direction," said Liang Guanglie in an interview published by several state-backed newspapers in China. "We may be living in peaceful times, but we can never forget war, never send the horses south or put the bayonets and guns away," Mr Liang added. China repeatedly says it is planning a "peaceful rise" but the recent pace and scale of its military modernisation has alarmed many of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan which described China's military build-up as a "global concern" this month.Hmmmm.....2010 sounds like a good year ,listening to this.Read the full story here.

• As frustration grows, airports consider ditching TSA.Every spring, private security officers at San Francisco International Airport compete in a workplace "March Madness"-style tournament for cash prizes, some as high as $1,500.The games: finding illegal items and explosives in carry-on bags; successfully picking locks on difficult-to-open luggage; and spotting a would-be terrorist (in this case Covenant Aviation Security's president, Gerald L. Berry) on security videos. "The bonuses are pretty handsome," Berry said. "We have to be good - equal or better than the feds. So we work at it, and we incentivize." Some of the nation's biggest airports are responding to recent public outrage over security screening by weighing whether they should hire private firms such as Covenant to replace the Transportation Security Administration. Sixteen airports, including San Francisco and Kansas City International Airport, have made the switch since 2002. One Orlando airport has approved the change but needs to select a contractor, and several others are seriously considering it. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which governs Dulles International and Reagan National airports, is studying the option, spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said. For airports, the change isn't about money. At issue, airport managers and security experts say, is the unwieldy size and bureaucracy of the federal aviation security system. Private firms may be able to do the job more efficiently and with a personal touch, they argue. Airports that choose private screeners must submit the request to the TSA. There are no specific criteria for approval, but federal officials can decide whether to grant the request "based on the airport's record of compliance on security regulations and requirements." The TSA pays for the cost of the screening and has the final say on which company gets the contract. Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), the incoming chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has written to 200 of the nation's largest airports, urging them to consider switching to private companies. The TSA was "never intended to be an army of 67,000 employees," he said.If you look at [the TSA's] performance, have they ever stopped a terrorist? Anyone can get through," Mica said in an interview. "We've been very lucky, very fortunate. TSA should focus on its mission: setting up the protocol, adapting to the changing threats and gathering intelligence." Read the full story here.

• Ottawa : Another Burka clad robber strikes again.A man used a Muslim woman’s religious garment as a disguise to rob a bank at the Pinecrest Mall on Thursday, police said.Sgt. Mark Myers said the man, who wore a blue robe and a head scarf concealing his mouth and nose, passed a note demanding money to a bank teller at a Scotiabank branch around noon.The teller handed over an undisclosed amount of cash.The suspect then fled the bank, heading eastbound on foot, he said.Myers said that since the summer, there have been a handful of other robberies in Ottawa involving male suspects using Muslim women’s religious garments as disguises. He was not immediately able to answer how many such robberies there have been or whether police suspect they have been committed by the same person.The sergeant said police are confident the suspect is a man because at one point during the robbery, he spoke in a masculine voice.Police described the suspect as male with dark skin, dark eyes and bushy eyebrows, standing about five-foot-10 with a slim build. He was wearing what police described as a dark blue hijab with designs around the head and neck and a long, dark-blue robe. The suspect spoke English with a slight accent.Hmmmm.....That discription might come in handy?Read the full story here.

• Britain forms plan for Gulf evacuation in event of war with Iran. The British armed forces are drawing up contingency plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of British residents and tourists from Dubai and other Gulf cities in the event of war with Iran.The new military co-operation plan, whose full terms remain secret, will be signed off in the first half of 2011, when Mr Cameron is expected to visit. It is regarded as such a priority that it is being protected from defence cuts. The plan is also expected to include an offer from Britain to help to keep vital infrastructure such as electricity and water desalination plants running in the event of war. Meanwhile, proposals are being drawn up to organise evacuation runs for civilians across the border to Oman, which is not currently in Iran's sights, and other neighbouring countries. Cruise liners may be posted in the Gulf of Aden, with Royal Navy warships shuttling civilians from the small emirate of Fujeirah, which lies outside the Straits of Hormuz. Depending on assessments of the safety of civilian flights, extra airfields in addition to the region's extensive network of international airports may be opened up.But as Iran refuses to dismantle its nuclear programme, the potential for disaster is not being discounted. "It is a huge number of people who are affected here," the source said. "There are over 100,000 Brits who live here, one million Brits who visit every year. Their safety is a matter of particular concern."Hmmmm.......2010 was a very good year?Read the full story here.

• HT:BrusselsJournal.Queen Beatrix On Islam.In an obvious allusion to social problems with Islam, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands stated in her 2010 Christmas speech: "The danger is that what unites us gets obscured and differences are magnified. Then walls of supposed oppositions are raised and positions hardened."Within the outlines of such a platitudinous court speech, Her Majesty seems to be saying that the rise of Geert Wilders' Freedom Party, and "Islamophobia" in general, promotes polarization. Whereas all human beings essentially share roughly the same needs and aspirations, the warners against Islam ("Islam bashers") will create artificial separation walls. It is in this sense that most observers viewed the royal speech, Geert Wilders included. In a first reaction, he twittered that the twelve recently arrested Somali terror suspects "in the Netherlands certainly were not looking at what unites us."Read the full story here.

• China makes Skype illegal.China on Thursday announced that it had made illegal the use of Skype, the popular internet telephony service, as the country continues to shut itself off from the rest of the world.In the latest move dashing Western internet company hopes of breaking into China, it was announced that all internet phone calls were to be banned apart from those made over two state-owned networks, China Unicom and China Telecom. "[This] is expected to make services like Skype unavailable in the country," reported the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist party. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are already blocked in China and Google closed down its Chinese servers last year after heavy government pressure.In a statement, Skype said: "Users in China currently can access Skype via Tom Online, our partner." It declined to comment on "speculation" that the service would be blocked in the near future. China is now the world's largest market for internet phone calls, which are far cheaper than landline calls and are cutting into the market of China's state telecommunications giants. Skype has offered Chinese users a joint service with Hong Kong-based Tom since September 2007. The service has been widely criticised for monitoring messages on the network, especially those which mention "sensitive" subjects such as Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement, and Tibet. Read the full story here.

• Iowa Woman Marries 'Devout Muslim Virgin', Embraces Islam, Discovers First Wife...Basu: Iowa woman learns hard way perils of online matchmaking.Sherri Abdelmawgoud, now of Urbandale, is learning about online matchmaking the hard way. "The person I thought he was never existed," she said this week of her husband.Sherri Welch met Ahmed Abdelmawgoud through a dating site two years ago, when she was 28 and he was 26, as she recalls. She was living in Las Vegas, where he said he was visiting a friend, having been in America a few months with plans to get his master's in mechanical engineering. Her Egyptian Prince Charming was handsome, playful, attentive and won the hearts of all her relatives. She liked the old-fashioned image he projected — a devout Muslim virgin who didn't believe in holding hands before marriage. Three months later they wed in a Muslim ceremony in Texas where Sherri followed her parents to live.She converted to Islam, and began wearing a head scarf, as some Muslim women do. Ahmed got hired at a computer repair shop and enrolled in a university. "I was blinded by love," she says, "and he was a very charismatic guy. "Sherri says they were working on starting a family when, back in Texas a month ago, her eyes fell upon his open e-mails. There were love notes to and from another woman, and something that looked like a marriage certificate.It was in Arabic, but had pictures of him and a woman, and fingerprints. When Sherri confronted Ahmed, he shrugged off the other woman as an obsessed ex-girlfriend. Unconvinced, Sherri e-mailed her. What she got in return, she says, made her feel "like I died that day." It was a studio photo of a glamorous woman in what looks like a Western bridal gown, stretched out on Sherri's husband's knee.Based on subsequent e-mails and instant messages, Sherri says the woman, identified as Dalia, lives in Egypt and told her she's been married to Ahmed five years. Sherri says Ahmed would neither confirm nor deny the marriage when she questioned him, instead packing up all his belongings and saying he was flying to Egypt to be with his dying father. He quit work, missed final exams and drained their bank account, Sherri says.Hmmmm....."Gone with the wind and the money"?Read the full story here.HT:TROP.

• All the President's men: Obama given a 20-MAN motorcade to visit childhood friend in Hawaii (no wonder his Christmas holiday is costing the country $1.5m).President Obama provoked fresh outrage today after taking a 20-man motorcade to visit a childhood friend during his lavish Christmas holiday in Hawaii.The 10-vehicle convoy drove the president and wife Michelle from his rental property in Kailua, across highways cleared of traffic and through a military community to reach Bobby Titcomb's beachfront house.Mr Obama, who spent eight years at Punahou School in Hawaii before graduating in 1979, has splashed out $1.5m on his trip – a decision that will not endear him to the millions of Americans facing economic hardship in the New Year.The Obamas holidayed at the same spot last year, but rising fuel costs have pushed up the estimated travel costs and the president flew later than the rest of his family because of delayed votes in Washington, adding more to the escalating expenses.The Honolulu Police Department said overtime for officers cost $250,000 last year, compared to $106,000 in 2008 before his inauguration.Hmmmm...."We can feel your pain"?Read the full story here.

• Larry Elder: Who's blaming Obama for high gas prices?Five dollars per gallon of gas by 2012! A former president of Shell Oil considers this likely. The average price on Christmas Day for a gallon of regular gas reached $3.28 in Los Angeles County, the highest price since October 2008. In one month, the price rose 13 cents, up 35 cents year to year.Where are the calls to sic Obama's Justice Department on Big Oil to hold the oil companies accountable for "market manipulation"? Why aren't we hunting down the amoral "oil speculators" responsible for repealing the law of supply-and-demand in order to line their pockets?During President George W. Bush's administration, we constantly heard demands to hold the President accountable for "Big Oil's price gouging." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., just two years ago, knew exactly whom to blame for "skyrocketing" oil prices: "The price of oil is at the doorstep; $4-plus per gallon for oil is attributed to two oilmen in the White House and their protectors in the United States Senate."Obama also called for "a windfall profits penalty on oil selling at or over $80 per barrel." As of Christmas 2010, a barrel of oil sold at slightly above $90. What happened to the windfall profits tax?Yes, back then the average price per gallon was four bucks. But blaming "oilman" Bush for high prices began when the average price was well below today's $3.05 national average.Why did he once support ethanol? He admitted that he'd wanted to help farmers in Iowa, site of the nation's first caucus, since he "was about to run for president."The silence over the recent price run-up is yet the latest example of left-wing hypocrisy. It was always about bludgeoning Bush rather than a sincere conviction that Big Oil was cheating. How else to explain the absence of demands for investigations?America could achieve "energy independence" if producers were allowed to drill in Alaska, the lower 48 and offshore, where substantial amounts of untapped oil remain off-limits. Obama, who currently squanders hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars by "investing" in alternative energy, possesses no more control over the law of supply-and-demand than did "evil" Oilman Bush.Hmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy america,would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Muslim Complaint Ends Pledge in Idaho School!When one thinks of the State of Idaho, visions of tradition, patriotism, apple pie and picket fences refreshingly comes to mind. Oops—also potatoes. However those days seem to have screeched to an abrupt stop, ending the last vestige of the America we once knew and loved. As kids return to school after Christmas break, one school will have a zero-tolerance Pledge policy.A lone female Muslim who is a student at Vallivue Academy in Caldwell, Idaho, complained [that] saying the Pledge of Allegience before classes was offensive to her Islamic faith and demanded that the recitation of it be stopped. The school—an American school—in America, readily complied and the national pledge was axed due to the demand of one Muslim girl.At that same school, we were told, a young man, who our source would not identify for his protection, was temporarily expelled and sent home because he made a comment critical of the government and Obama during a social studies class discussion. If this is true then something must be done.So here is a public school class discussion where only one point of view is allowed, and if any student has another viewpoint or dares to speak against Marxism, Communism, Islam and Obama, he is kicked out of the school! ..And it has been strongly implied that if he does not repent and says anything else critical of our government and Obama, he will not be allowed to graduate.If some of these writings seem repetitious, it is intended so that hopefully this will sink in once and for all. This past election is only a starting point, not a stopping point. . The work has just begun. It is critical that we do not let up.Christian legal firms please look into this situation in Idaho. Each Marxist offensive against America must be confronted and stopped immediately.Internet writers, keep this issue alive. The Democrat-liberal controlled media will never publish or broadcast this kind of truth. They have sold out to furthering the destruction of America which is inching forward bit by bit..This all is part of the goal of a One World Government, which is Communism with a One-World-Religion—Islam, This is a useful religion that will keep the world in fear and make the totalitarianism-socialist government’s job easier. And right now we are indeed making it extremely easy for them all to accomplish their goals.Reader’s Assignment: You CAN do something about all of this. Contact every Conservative in Congress and the Senate and give notice to Democrats to act NOW on these issues if they wish to stay in office. And make a habit of contacting all of them at least once a week. Either this, or we will all eventually be looking through a barbed wire fence.Hmmmm......2011 the Year America disappears?Read the full story here.

• HT:CreepingSharia.Video : How Black Muslims Celebrated Christmas Eve.Nope, no worries about sharia in Oklahoma. What do they have in store for New Year’s Eve? PS: For years, a similar group of Muslims stood outside the World Trade Center spewing similar hatred.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:BackToBasics.CAIR pressuring Secs. Gates, Napolitano to stop training counterterrorists.A vocal and politically powerful Muslim advocacy group is pressuring the Departments of Homeland Security and the Defense to cease using terrorism experts the group deems ”anti-Muslim extremists” as trainers for counterterrorism officials.With the help of the Washington Post editors, who support the allegations of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the newspaper stated : “Seeking to learn more about Islam and terrorism, some law enforcement agencies have hired as trainers self-described experts whose extremist views on Islam and terrorism are considered inaccurate and counterproductive by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies.”However, the Post does not mention that the FBI uses one of the men CAIR labels an extremist, the renowned terrorism expert Robert Spencer.CAIR also made the same allegations against former CNN reporter Steve Emerson, who founded the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a resource recognized and used by news media organizations, law enforcement agencies, police forces and security organizations.CAIR routinely sends its requests in letters to DHS Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, while releasing dozens of press releases condemning the same individuals. Last week, the Washington-based Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization sent a similar request to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.According to a report from the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security: The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its employees have combined, conspired, and agreed with third parties, including, but not limited to, the Islamic Association for Palestine , the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Global Relief Foundation, and foreign nationals hostile to the interests of the United States, to provide material support to known terrorist organizations, to advance the Hamas agenda, and to propagate radical Islam.The Council on American-Islamic Relations, and certain of its officers, directors, and employees, have acted in support of, and in furtherance of, this conspiracy, said the Senate report.Dr. Daniel Pipes, a foremost expert on radical Islam and terrorism cites several criminal cases involving CAIR officials: A senior staff member, Randall Royer a/k/a “Ismail” Royer, pled guilty and was sentenced to twenty years in prison for participating in a network of militant jihadists centered in Northern Virginia. He admitted to aiding and abetting three persons who sought training in a terrorist camp in Pakistan for the purpose of waging jihad against American troops in Afghanistan. Royer’s illegal actions occurred while he was employed by CAIR.While CAIR attempts to discredit Gaffney, they avoid acknowledging that he once held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy in the Reagan Administration.In 2010, Gaffney, along with co-authors such as former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin and former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, Jr., released a book entitled “Shariah: The Threat to America,” that angered Islamists throughout the world.Read the full story here.

• Video : Turkey's universities drop Islamic headscarf ban.Hundreds of devout Muslim women had previously been barred from some campuses for wearing a scarf.But the ban was lifted after the governing party said it would back any student disciplined for wearing a headscarf.Hmmm....Anyone doubting in which direction Iran Turkey is heading?Read and see the full story here.

• HT:IslamInEurope.Netherlands: Geert Wilders writes anti-Islam book.Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders will publish an anti-Islam book in the first half of 2011, he told the Telegraaf newspaper in an interview on Friday.“The book is aimed mainly at the US market and focuses on how to combat the spread of Islam on a global level. We can do a lot here in the Netherlands, but we want to send out a strong international signal to the Arab world that a party in the centre of power in this country is fighting back,” Mr Wilders told the paper.His Freedom Party cherishes “a wide range” of ambitions, he says in the interview. “Our first priority is to launch the International Freedom Alliance, which boils down to a platform against Islam. That will be huge.”Read the full story here.

• Belarus Crackdown. OSCE Offices Ordered Shut In Minsk.A Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman says that country ordered the closure of the rights watchdog's Minsk office because its mandate there "had been fulfilled."Read the full coverage story here.

• And now for something completely different.A bridge too far? China unveils world's longest sea bridge which is five miles LONGER than the Dover-Calais crossing.China has unveiled the world’s longest sea bridge, which stretches a massive 26.4 miles – five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais and longer than a marathon.The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge, completed earlier this week, links the main urban area of Qingdao city, East China’s Shandong province, with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas.The road bridge, which took four years and cost a cool £5.5billion to build, will be open for use in the New Year and is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.Read and see the full story here.