MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Afghan sex practices concern U.S., British forces.A document released by WikiLeaks described efforts by high-ranking Afghan officials to quash reports of police officers and other Afghans arrested for "purchasing a service from a child." The leaked diplomatic cable quoted former Minister of the Interior Hanif Atmar's concern that publicity about the arrests, which involved the hiring of "dancing boys," would "endanger lives."The author of the diplomatic cable fretted that the case would be "blown out of proportion, an outcome that would not be good for either the U.S. or Afghanistan."The vast gulf between U.S. and Afghan attitudes about homosexuality and pedophilia has generated concern among U.S. advisers in Afghanistan since the American presence there began to expand.In late 2009, U.S. and British forces ordered a study of Pashtun male sexuality. They were worried that homosexuality and pedophilia among Afghan security forces and tribes could create cultural misunderstanding with allied troops, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Examiner."I know Marines and soldiers who have refused to work with Afghan military or police," said one U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's not about homosexuality as much as it is about the young boys. Some of them like to show pictures on their cell phone -- that should be illegal. Some of the Afghans have their own young boys they use for sexual purposes and we can't do anything about it."Hmmmm....Someone tell me again why our troops are there?Read the full "Story" here.

• "The War On Christianity "!PALESTINE - ISRAEL - Christmas in Bethlehem: the cross banished from souvenirs shops.This Christmas in Bethlehem, the cross has been banned from souvenirs for tourists and pilgrims in the Holy Land. Some textile workshops in Jerusalem and Hebron have begun to print and sell T-shirts depicting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem without the cross. Because of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Palestinian territories, the cross was also removed from t-shirts of football teams. Interviewed by AsiaNews, Samir Qumsieh, journalist and director of the Catholic television station Al-Mahed Nativity TV in Bethlehem, said: "I want to launch a campaign to urge people not to buy these products - he says - because the removal of the cross is an intimidation against Christians, it is like saying that Jesus was never crucified. "The reporter says that if this exodus continues there will be no more Catholics in the Holy Land and that one day the Church of the Nativity could be turned into a museum. "If there are no more Christians in the Holy Land - he says – then there will no longer be Christians anywhere."Hmmmm.....Obama :"Islam is a great religion".Read the full Islamic Crusade story here.

• Asia Bibi affair: Islamic parties set strike date for 24 December, same day as Christian march.Pakistan’s Islamic parties are setting up a steering committee to oppose any attempt to change the blasphemy law. Representatives of all Islamic parties met yesterday at the Zarghoni mosque in Hayatabad under Sahibzada Fazle Rabbani, head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan. In the meantime, a decision by the High Court in Lahore concerning Asia Bibi’s appeal against her death sentence could come as early as tomorrow.Nazir S. Bhatti, president of the Pakistan Christian Congress, who is in exile in the United States, said that he was surprised about the announcement of the strike and demonstrations on 24 December. He called on Islamic parties to move their action plans to a later date since 24 December is part of Christmas celebration.For Nazir Bhatti, the decision to hold a strike on 24 December harms Christians because on that day they will hold a march demanding the abolition of the blasphemy law.Read the full story here.

• F.C.C. Approves Net Rules and Braces for Fight.Want to watch hours of YouTube videos or sort through Facebook photos on the computer? Your Internet providers would be forbidden from blocking you under rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. But if you want to do the same on your cellphone, you may not have the same protections.The debate over the rules, intended to preserve open access to the Internet, seems to have resulted in a classic Washington solution — the kind that pleases no one on either side of the issue. Verizon and other service providers would prefer no government involvement. Public interest advocates think the rules stop far short of ensuring free speech. Republicans believe the rules are another instance of government overreach.The two Republican commissioners, Robert M. McDowell and Meredith Baker, vocally opposed the rules as unnecessary and unjustified.“The F.C.C. has provocatively chartered a collision course with the legislative branch,” Mr. McDowell said, alluding to the complaints of Republicans in Congress. Before the F.C.C. meeting even began on Tuesday, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement that the Internet “should be left alone,” and that his colleagues would “push back against new rules and regulations” next year.Read the full story here.

• Obama wants to give America back to the Indians. President Obama likes the “U.N. Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” He says it can “help reaffirm the principles that should guide our future.” The State Department added helpfully that although the declaration is not legally binding, it “carries considerable moral and political force and complements the president’s ongoing efforts to address historical inequities faced by indigenous communities in the United States.” This declaration - which carries”considerable moral and political force,” don’t forget - contains this little gem of a paragraph, in Article 26: “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired,” and nations “shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources.” In other words, President Obama wants to give the entire land mass of the United States of America back to the Indians. He wants Indian tribes to be our new overlords.I see no reason why the president, after he leaves office, can’t submit himself to the authority of any Indian tribe he wants to. Perhaps he figures that, as an adopted Crow Indian, he will be the new chief over this revived Indian empire.But for the other 312 million of us, I think we’ll settle for our constitutional “We the people” form of government, thank you very much.Hmmmmm....I fear it might be to the Turks(Gulen) working with the native indians.Read the full story here.

• Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law arrested 'trying to smuggle sim card into Belmarsh Prison under her burka'.The daughter-in-law of hate preacher Abu Hamza has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his jail under her burka.Chayme Hamza, 26, was apprehended by guards during a routine search when she went to visit the firebrand cleric in Belmarsh high security prison in south-east London last Friday.Police were called and she was arrested on suspicion of bringing a prohibited article into a prison.The sim card was found in a pocket in clothing under her burka, according to The Sun. Hamza's eldest son Mohamed Kamel Mostafa - Chayme's husband and a convicted terrorist - was arrested over the same incident the next day.The pair have been bailed until February pending further inquiries, Scotland Yard said.The arrests have raised fears that Hamza has had access to a mobile phone while he awaits extradition to the U.S on terror charges.Hmmmm....We need to wear a burka to smuggle stuff?Read the full story here.

• HR:BigGoverment.Pigford: How to Get $50k from the Government for ‘Attempting to Farm’.The Pigford scandal is big enough that there’s no reason to overstate the case or get the facts wrong. Understanding what actually happened should be sufficient to make anyone deeply troubled.One common misconception is that Pigford is about people who defrauded the government by pretending to be farmers. From the research I’ve done, there’s almost nobody who pretended to be a farmer. The shocking truth is that you didn’t have to fake a farming resume to collect $50,000 — all you had to do was to make a credible enough claim that you “attempted to farm.”This category of “attempted to farm” was a huge slap in the face to the bona fide black farmers that the Pigford case was supposed to help. Many of these farmers faced real discrimination at the hands of the USDA and it’s clear they had legitimate claims.In this video clip, you’ll hear what happened right before the consent decree was issued. It’s a class action bait-and-switch. This is Tom Burrell, head of the Black Farmer Agricultural Association, Inc.Hmmmm....Something smells real bad and it aint the manure!Read and see the full story here.

• "Change you can see"Or not?Playing games in dark too dangerous, Court of Appeal tells scouts.Playing games in dark too dangerous, Court of Appeal tells scoutsChildren's groups have been warned not to play games in the dark after the Court of Appeal upheld a compensation award to a scout injured during night activities.In ruling that playing ball games at night created an unacceptable risk to youngsters, the court upheld a £7,000 compensation payout to a former scout, who was injured during a game called Objects in the Dark. The Scouts Association had urged the court to overturn the award, arguing it would make it harder to draw youngsters away from computer screens and televisions. But Lady Justice Smith and Lord Justice Ward, dismissed their appeal. They ruled that Mark Barnes, of Castle Bromwich, West Mids, had been a victim of negligence and that playing the game in the dark had created an unacceptable risk. Despite expressing "instinctive sympathy" towards the Scout Association, Lord Justice Ward said that "scouting would not lose much of its value" if such games were played with the lights on. In a dissenting ruling, Lord Justice Jackson found that it was not the function of the law "to eliminate every iota of risk or to stamp out socially desirable activities". Hmmm...What has become of America?Read the full story here.

• South Korea stages massive show of strength with three-day land and sea live-fire drill close to border with North.South Korea is to stage its largest ever live-fire drill close to the border in a series of military manoeuvres that is certain to ratchet up tension with the North.The land and sea exercises, which will take place over three days starting from tomorrow.The land drill alone will involve three dozen mobile artillery guns, six fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems and 800 troops, the largest number of personnel in a single peace-time exercise.It is seen as a bold move by President Lee Myung-bak to look strong on the domestic stage.'We'll be sure to deal a punishing blow if the North tries to repeat the kind of situation like the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong,' Brigadier General Ju Eun-shik said in a statement.'The drills are an indication that (the South) is aiming to keep tensions very high, partly because of the possibility of the North striking back,' said Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University. 'Dialogue is clearly not high on the agenda. It's still very much in the mode of how they can respond to incidents like the one on Yeonpyeong and to show that response in the future will be overwhelming.' The South Korean army is making no secret that the drill is aimed at displaying its firepower to its neighbour. 'Yes, it will be a show of force against that,' an army officer said, when asked if the shelling of Yeonpyeong last month was a factor in the land drill's planning. He said similar drills had been staged previously on more than 50 occasions, but the scale this time was unprecedented. 'The scale of mechanised assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanised artillery, we'll have 36. We'll have the F-15 jets firing. We'll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanised assets taking part will be firing live ammunition.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyCaller.TheDC Analysis: Yes, Virginia, the Palestinian Arabs do have a deep connection to the Holocaust.The loquacious Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likes to repeat certain rhetorical flourishes incessantly.His favorite, of course, is that Israel, which he often endearingly refers to as the “Zionist entity,” will be “wiped off the map” — or, in some more literary translations, “eliminated from pages of history.” Perhaps his second favorite rhetorical flourish, though, is asking why Palestinian Arabs should have to suffer for what Europeans did during World War II?“Let’s assume (the Holocaust) happened, the extent of which everyone is speaking of,” Ahmadinejad said in one iteration of this favorite rhetorical styling. “If the crimes were committed in Europe, why should the Palestinian people be victimized as a result?”This formulation, obviously, is wrong on many levels, not least of which because Israel’s legitimacy as a nation does not depend on the Holocaust. But since the Iranian president is determined to press this point, it seems only appropriate to point out, well, actually yes, the Palestinian Arabs do share a deep and sordid connection to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews.With a new report published by the National Archives incorporating thousands of newly declassified documents, some shedding new light on this connection, this little piece of not-so-well-known history seems relevant to address again.The Palestinian Arab tie to the Holocaust comes primarily through Haj Amin al-Husseini, the recognized leader of the Arabs of Mandate Palestine from shortly after World I until well after World War II. Forced out of Mandate Palestine by the British in the late 1930s for inciting violence, al-Husseini found his way to Nazi Germany during World War II.Hitler’s Mufti, as some would later not so affectionately call him, spent the war years in Germany aiding the Nazis and plotting to bring the Final Solution to the Jews of the Middle East.“Hitler himself signaled his intention to eliminate the Jews of Palestine,” the National Archives new report, “Hitler’s Shadow,” reads. “In a November 29, 1941, conversation in Berlin with the Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hitler said that the outcome of the war in Europe would also decide the fate of the Arab world. … Hitler said that Germany’s only objective there would be the destruction of the Jews.This was a cause that al-Husseini was more than ready to sign on to.The newly declassified documents also show just how lavishly al-Husseini lived in Berlin during the war years – thanks to the generosity of his benefactor, Adolph Hitler.
  Hmmmmmm.........Arafat's Uncle Haj Amin al-Husseini Hitler's Mufti,a man who started first with aiding in the Armenian Genocide.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video : Leading Sunni Scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi Supports Suicide Bombings in Palestine and Declares: "I Am Against the Peace Process"Hmmmm....That peace process is really "booming" Mr President.Read and see the full story here.

• UN Restores Sexual Orientation Reference To Violence Measure, After U.S. Push.The United States has successfully persuaded the United Nations to include "sexual orientation" as a category of vulnerable populations whose targeted killings the world body condemns.The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on a vote of 122 in favor and 0 against, with 59 nations abstaining.Controversy broke out after African and Arab states successfully stripped the resolution of a reference to killings for reasons of "sexual orientation," which was included along with killings for racial, national, ethnic, religious, or linguistic reasons, and killings of refugees, indigenous people, and other groups.U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said she was "incensed" at the move and vowed to restore the original language in a U.S.-sponsored amendment, which was adopted.In a statement issued after the December 21 vote, she said, "The United Nations General Assembly has sent a clear and resounding message that justice and human rights apply to all individuals regardless of their sexual orientation."A spokesman for President Barack Obama said the U.S. leader "applauds those countries that supported the amendment." The statement continued, "Protecting gays and lesbians from state-sponsored discrimination is not a special right, it is a human right."A heated exchange of statements and opinions in the General Assembly chamber delayed the voting for more than two hours. African and Asian states -- among them Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan -- resisted the inclusion of the "sexual orientation" reference, arguing that it is a personal matter and as such has no place among human rights issues.Homosexuality is a crime in many African and Arab nations.Hmmm...I think they mean Islamic countries like :Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan ?Read the full story here.

• HT:GulagBound.Hugo Chavez Militarily Confiscating Farms of Venezuelan Patriots? Using Foreign Forces?Late Sunday night, we began to see sketchy reports from individuals that farmers in the region of Sur del Lago, Venezuela were being attacked by Venezuelan as well as foreign military, all directed by Hugo Chavez.Initial and unconfirmed reports allege that fellow perpetrators are Cubans, thugs from the drug cartel FARC, and even Hezbollah, all there for the action.This seems to be a crackdown on elements of the Venezuelan populace which opposed Hugo Chavez in the recent Venezuelan election. The blog, Venezuelan News and Views puts it this way: “Sur del Lago people are resisting. The legislative assembly of the state moved down there to seat, the representatives elect are stirring the pot, the regime sent a Cuban general!”It was reported that up to 47 farms have been taken by Marxist forces. Is it the official Venezuelan military? Just who if any, are assisting them?Another said that the media in Venezuela has been completely closed and that Twitter is the only way they can get the word out.Read and see the full story here.

• The Freedom Center’s New Campaign: Countering an Anti-Semitic Propaganda Assault on Israel in Seattle.Responding to an advertisement on municipal buses in downtown Seattle accusing Israel of war crimes, the David Horowitz Freedom Center today began its own counter campaign to denounce Palestinian War Crimes.Placed by a pro Palestinian group calling itself the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, the anti Israel ads, designed to fill full panels on the sides of 12 King County Metro buses, show the words “Your Tax Dollars at Work” under the headline “Israeli War Crimes.” King County Metro Transit spokesman Linda Thielke told members of the local press that the ads, scheduled to appear on 12 buses beginning two days after Christmas on the second anniversary of the Gaza War, were within the company’s guidelines which, she claimed, forbid only pornography, alcohol, tobacco and incitements to riot.David Horowitz, President of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, said today, “These ads are part of an escalating attack on Israel by the left throughout American culture. We expect this sort of obscene propaganda in our radical universities but not on our city streets. These lies can not go unanswered. The Gaza War took place because Hamas, a group committed to the mass murder of Jews, was rocketing Israeli civilians on a daily basis. War crimes are the Palestinian terrorists’s reason for being.”Under the headline “Palestinian War Crimes,” the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s ads also carry the legend, “Your Tax Dollars at Work.” The ad panels also show a picture of Israeli buses destroyed by Palestinian suicide bombers and Israeli victims of this violence. They will appear on 25 metro buses at about the same time as the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign’s ads.“The U.S. government gives the Palestinians about a half a billion dollars a year,” Horowitz notes, “which is basically a subsidy for rejectionism and terror. It is ironic, moreover, that this Seattle pro terror group chose to put their ads on buses, since buses carrying innocent Israelis have always been the targets of Palestinian murderers.”Read and see the full story here.

• HT:MichelleMalkin.Internet Access Is Not a ‘Civil Right’.When bureaucrats talk about increasing our "access" to x, y or z, what they're really talking about is increasing exponentially their control over our lives. As it is with the government health care takeover, so it is with the newly approved government plan to "increase" Internet "access." Call it Webcare.The "net neutrality" mob -- funded by billionaire George Soros and other left-wing think tanks and nonprofits -- has openly advertised its radical, speech-squelching agenda in its crusade for "media justice." Social justice is the redistribution of wealth and economic "rights." Media justice is the redistribution of free speech and other First Amendment rights.The meetings of the universal broadband set are littered with Marxist-tinged rants about "disenfranchisement" and "empowerment." They've targeted conservative opponents on talk radio, cable TV and the Internet as purveyors of "hate" who need to be managed or censored. Democratic FCC panelists have dutifully echoed their concerns about concentration of corporate media power.As the Ford Foundation-funded Media Justice Fund, which lobbied for universal broadband, put it: This is a movement "grounded in the belief that social and economic justice will not be realized without the equitable redistribution and control of media and communication technologies."For progressives who cloak their ambitions in the mantle of "fairness," it's all about control. It's always about control.Read the full story here.

• U.N. Passes Religious ‘Defamation’ Resolution Sponsored by Islamic Nations, But Support Dwindles. For the sixth consecutive year, the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday passed a controversial resolution on religious “defamation” sponsored by Islamic nations, but this time, the measure passed by a mere 12 votes.Lobbying by a broad range of religious freedom and other groups has steadily eroded the vote tally for the resolution each year since 2006, but outright defeat of the measure sponsored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) remains elusive.Tuesday’s vote in the 192-member General Assembly passed by 79 votes to 67, with 40 abstentions. The full voting record was not immediately made available.Earlier this month a petition opposing the resolution, signed by 428,856 people from more than 70 countries, was handed to senior U.N. officials in New York City.Tad Stahnke of Human Rights First said Tuesday’s U.N. vote affirms the dwindling support for the religious “defamation” concept.It was nonetheless “unfortunate for both individuals at risk whose rights will surely be violated under the guise of prohibiting ‘defamation of religions,’ as well as for the standards of international norms on freedom of expression,” he said.Tuesday’s U.N. meetings did not take place in the usual General Assembly building, which was evacuated because of noxious odors caused by sewage problems attributed to unusually high tides in the East River. The session was moved to a temporary building nearby.Read the full story here.

• Energy Policy in Iran Leaves Many Gasping.TEHRAN — One of Tehran’s signature landscapes — the imposing, rugged line of the Alborz Mountains at the city’s northern boundary — has suddenly become an elusive one. Instead, Tehranis’ eyes, and complaints, have turned toward a dense and noxious wall of smog that has only rarely lifted during the past two months. “I had an eye infection for two consecutive weeks,” said Azadeh Kimiyai, a 32-year-old public relations manager, describing one of the health problems residents have complained about over the past month, a long list that includes headaches, dizziness and fatigue. “Two of my colleagues had the same problem. The pharmacist told us it was caused by the pollution.”According to e-mails circulated to industry experts and reproduced on unofficial news sites and blogs, Iran’s new supply of domestic gasoline may contain high levels of aromatics — more than twice the level permitted by Iranian law. Burning aromatics in car engines produces exhaust packed with high concentrations of “floating particles” or “particulates” that, added to the typical smog caused by nitrous oxides and ozone, can cause a range of health problems from headaches and dizziness to more serious cardiac and respiratory complaints. “Previous governments knew that petrochemical plants could produce this kind of gasoline,” said an oil industry expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. “But Ahmadinejad has gone ahead and done it — despite the consequences — for his own populist and political reasons,” he said, referring to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, within days, an official in Tehran’s municipal government leaked Health Ministry statistics for pollution-related deaths on his personal Web site — more than 3,600 in the first nine months of the Iranian calendar year — figures that until now had never been released to the Iranian public. With pollution warnings this year lasting for weeks on end, the possibility that the Ahmadinejad administration may have achieved a partial victory over international sanctions at the cost of public health has alarmed industry experts and Tehran residents alike. “If independence comes at the cost of people’s health, it’s not worth it at all,” Ms. Kimiyai said. “Instead of that, they should give up on some of their stupid demands on the international scene.”Hmmmm......"Late last month, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi reported a 30 percent increase in pollution-related health problems and an 18 percent increase in emergency hospital admissions, though she did not say over what period."Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.Terrorizing Our Own.Airline travelers flying the unfriendly skies are presented with two options, that are actually only a single option, to have themselves and their children degraded in public in order to spare Muslim feelings. That we have a ban on profiling travelers, but no ban on molesting or humiliating them, tells us everything we need to know about why we have the current system that we do.In a war we terrorize the enemy. In a siege we terrorize our own. And we have been terrorizing our own for a long time now.We molest 3 year olds in airports, because we can't possibly screen Muslim terrorists. No, we must spread the abuse and humiliation to ordinary Americans, so that the people who are trying to kill us never feel bad about it.Muslims don't need to actually blow up planes in order to terrorize Americans. All they need to do is to force Americans to live with the possibility that their plane might blow up. To make them live with the checkpoints, with the sense of helplessness and humiliation of tough security measures, and to pit them against their governments. And right now they're laughing themselves silly in Riyadh and Tehran, every time there's another TSA story coming down the wire. Because their endgame is working.In a war, you terrorize the enemy. In a siege, you terrorize your own. The Muslims are fighting a war against us, while we're living under siege. And terrorizing our own.Muslim terrorists don't expect to wipe out America with a bomb. Their goal is to break American morale. To shift the context so effectively that America will be willing to cut any kind of deal with them, in order to get things back to normal. The idea seems absurd right now, but it's actually coming along really well.Hmmm..." I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle."--Qur'an:8:12.Read the full story here.

• The Big Lie: ‘1967 Borders’ is a Fallacy, Says Former Ambassador.The term “1967 borders,” the Arab world’s mantra for the borders of a PA state, never existed, says former Ambassador to Canada Alan Baker in a research paper for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.Ever since neighboring Arab countries attacked Israel in 1948 as it became an independent country for the first time in 2,000 years, there were no borders, only temporary military lines defined by the 1949 “Armistice Lines” that ended, at least formally, the War for Independence.However, the Arab world has repeated the term “1967 borders” so much that it has been adopted as fact by mainstream media and most international leaders. The term refers to the 1949 ceasefire line from which Israel military forces advanced at the beginning of the Six-Day War on June 4, 1967 and should be called "pre-1967 War Armistice Lines" or "1949 Armistice Lines". INN, it should be noted, has used those accurate terms consistently.Baker (pictured) noted that Jordan, which also has adopted the fallacy of “1967 borders,” said in the same debate, "There is an Armistice Agreement. The Agreement did not fix boundaries; it fixed a demarcation line. The Agreement did not pass judgment on rights political, military or otherwise. Thus I know of no territory; I know of no boundary; I know of a situation frozen by an Armistice Agreement.".Although the “1967 borders” denote lines of separation, they have no basis in history, law, or fact,” Baker explained. “The 1949 armistice agreements specifically stated that such lines have no political or legal significance and do not prejudice future negotiations on boundaries,” he continued.“There are no provisions in any of the agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians that require withdrawal to the ‘1967 borders.’ There were never any geographic imperatives that sanctify the 1967 lines."The "Armistice Lines” of 1949 were determined in agreements signed by Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. They were not borders, Baker pointed out. “The armistice demarcation line represented nothing more than the forward lines of deployment of the forces on the day a ceasefire was declared…. The line was demarcated on the map attached to the armistice agreement with a green marker pen and hence received the name ‘Green Line.’“The Security Council in its resolution stressed the temporary nature of the armistice lines that were to be maintained ‘during the transition to permanent peace in Palestine.'"The PA in the past several months has called for “negotiations” but in reality has demanded that Israel accept the so-called “1967 borders” without negotiation, lines which Baker’s research paper shows havs no legal or historical foundation as borders.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.Canadian elected Politician Joins Arab Stormtroopers in Terrorizing Jewish Storeowner.In a shocking affront to democracy, publicly elected politician Amir Khadir from Montreal, Quebec, has joined in a demonstration to harass an Israeli store owner.Yves Archambault is owner of the shoe store Le Marcheur which carries Israeli made shoes. Regular pickets to boycott the store have been ongoing since October by a Montreal based pro- Palestinian group. Signs have been brandished labelling Israel Apartheid and “terrorist” and tensions have escalated to the point of police intervention. Archambault responsed to Khadir, solidaire Member of the National Assembly:I was sickened to see him distributing flyers and stopping people who were coming into the store to tell them they shouldn’t support a business that sells Israeli products.In Quebec we have free enterprise, and as long as it is legal, nobody has the right to tell me what I can and cannot sell in my store.Sadly Amir khadir thinks he has the authority to dictate the freedoms of a citizen, in his own riding to boot and he makes no apologies for it:Just because a business is in my riding, I am not going to abandon my principlesPrinciples? This man should be stripped of his office for lack thereof, or at least be publicly reprimanded by MNA authorities. Scary that as a politician, Khadir does not adhere to the principles of his country’s democracy of which he owes allegiance. He has resorted to intimidation tactics against one of his own constituents, and even sent an e-mail prior to the demonstration asking Archambault to stop selling Israeli-made products. Furthermore he said:Business without conscience is a crime.How many pickets and boycotts does Khadir conduct in solidarity with the victims of atrocities in Islamic regimes where women are forced to cover themselves, suffer scorn, unspeakable abuses, stonings and FGM? And what about the human rights abuses of communist regimes likeThe People’s Republic of China? Does Khadir set up pickets against stores that carry products from there– Canada’s biggest trade partner? Khadir is clearly a man of questionable principles, double standards and an anti-Semite with an obvious agenda to delegitimize the Jewish state.The case of Yves Archambault represents a deeply disturbing twist: that a Canadian elected politician has engaged in an attack on a citizen’s democratic rights and freedoms. With the publicity Khadir tried to explain his position as a terrible misunderstanding between him and Archambault on a local radio station and embarrassingly groped for an explanation on why it is necessary to single out Israel for boycotts. Then he finally encouraged people to go to Archambault’s store but not buy Israeli products. The question still at large is: when does Khadir face accountability to the Canadian public?Archambault said he did not respond, because he is not interested in talking about politics."I don't care where my products come from. I only care about comfort and quality," he said.Read the full story here.

• Government liabilities rose $2 trillion in FY 2010: Treasury.The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Tuesday.The Financial Report of the United States, which applies corporate-style accrual accounting methods to Washington, showed the government's liabilities exceeded assets by $13.473 trillion. That compared with a $11.456 trillion gap a year earlier.Hmmm....The Obama policy,how to destroy America from within.Americans will be nothing but worker slaves in future.Read the ful story here.

• Turkey slams Cypriot-Israeli accord demarcating maritime borders; says it is "null and void". Turkey on Tuesday slammed a maritime border accord between Cyprus and Israel, saying it was "null and void" because it disregards the rights and jurisdiction of Turkish Cypriots on the island.The agreement, signed last week, was aimed at facilitating the search for mineral deposits in the east Mediterranean, where huge natural gas reserves have been discovered by a U.S. firm.Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it has no claims on the areas subject to the agreement, but "Turkish Cypriots have also rights and jurisdiction over the maritime areas of the island of Cyprus." It said the Greek Cypriot government should not unilaterally sign international agreements without a solution to the division of the island.The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said countries in the regions should not back moves "that would have a negative impact on the comprehensive settlement negotiations" and that "agreements signed by the Greek Cypriots with countries of the region are null and void for Turkey."A spokesman for the Greek Cypriot government, Stefanos Stefanou, had no comment on the Turkish statement on Tuesday, saying he had not seen it. But asked Monday on media reports referring to Turkish objections, he said no other country has the right to interfere in Cyprus' affairs.Turkey does not recognize the Greek Cypriot government as representing the entire island and its ties with Israel have been strained over a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in May.Turkey stated that it "does not have any claim regarding the maritime areas," subject to the demarcation agreement.Cyprus has licensed Noble Energy to explore an 800,000-acre area bordering Israeli waters where massive gas fields have been found under the seabed. Two fields, Tamar and Dalit, discovered last year, are due to start producing in 2012, and experts say their estimated combined reserves of 5.5 trillion cubic feet (160 billion cubic meters) of natural gas can cover Israel's energy needs for the next two decades.Read the full story here.

• 'This is in honour of Michelle Obama': Sarah Palin takes aim at the First Lady as she attacks her anti-obesity campaign.Rummaging through her kitchen cupboards looking for marshmallows, crackers and chocolate, the former governor of Alaska said: 'Where are some more ingredients?'This is in honour of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.'The jibe was aimed at the Let's Move campaign which aims to encourage schools and families to eat better food and take more exercise.In speeches in the past, Mrs Obama has told children on the campaign that 'dessert is not a right'.She has also avoided angering Americans on Thanksgiving by telling them to tuck into whatever they wanted to eat, as long as they watched their portion size.In an interview, she said: 'One of the reasons I talk about pie and burgers is because if you tell people they can never have the stuff they love, they'll shut down.'What is life without the things you love to eat? For me it's pie.'Hmmmmm....Freshly baked Chocolate chip cookies?Read the full story here.

• HT:BloggerBase.Good News! Building On The Mount Of Olives.Construction of Jewish Neighborhood in East Jerusalem Underway.Year after building project approved, bulldozers begin infrastructure work atop Mount of Olives Ridge; housing units to serve married students attending nearby yeshiva. Rabbi: Project strengthens Jewish presence in united Jerusalem .Ronen Medzini, Kobi Nahshoni, December 2010.Construction commenced on Wednesday on a new residential Jewish neighborhood atop the Mount of Olives Ridge in east Jerusalem, near Hebrew University.The neighborhood will be an extension of the Irving Moskowitz Yeshiva & Campus - Yeshivat Beit Orot – named after the Jewish-American millionaire who purchases land with the purpose of "Judaizing" the eastern part of the capital. In early 2010, the Jerusalem Municipal Planning and Construction Committee authorized the construction of 24 housing units at the site. The project is likely to draw harsh condemnation from the US and Europe.Good! The U. S. and Europe will have yet another opportunity to show their true colors. Actually, they have many times, but we Israelis never seem to get it.Read the full story here.

• Saudi Cleric: Don't Wish Christians Happy Holidays.Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Salih Al-Uthaymeen posted a fatwa banning Muslims from wishing Christians a merry Christmas or greeting them on their other holidays. The fatwa was posted on the website of the Saudi religious police. He said that wishing non-Muslims happy holidays or imitating their symbols is a crime graver than drinking wine or committing suicide.Hmmmm....I'll take the drinking wine anytime!Du pain,du vin et du Boursin!Read the full story here.

• Anti-Semitic website back online: York U student on the run from Interpol.VANCOUVER - An anti-Semitic Islamic website police say is operated by an Ontario student who is on the run is now back on the Internet after being shut down earlier this year by a Canadian web-hosting provider.Salman An-Noor Hossain, 25, of Mississauga, operated a website called Filthy Jewish Terrorists and he and the site were the subject of a five-month investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.The site was shut down in March and Hossain was suspended from York University as the OPP investigated him.But the anti-Semitic site has re-launched, using a host in Switzerland.On Tuesday, Hossain posted a blog identifying himself as the operator of the re-launched site, and using the same design as the old one. The new web site is registered with generic information making it impossible to locate him.Last July, the OPP said in a statement that Hossain "wilfully promoted hatred and advocated genocide of the Jewish community." His website called for direct terrorist attacks.Hossain was charged with five counts under the seldom-used hate-crime section of the Criminal Code, but he didn't show up for his court date.Last month, the Ontario Superior Court issued an international warrant for his arrest on Interpol. Hossain's picture, birth date, height, weight, colour of eyes and hair are listed on the international police web site."Every single Muslim in North America and Europe has a right to go and physically fight alongside the Islamic resistance groups in the various regions under external occupation (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, and other places)," the website reads.The Canadian Security Intelligence Service issued a statement Tuesday saying it knows of such sites."CSIS is very aware of certain Internet websites which support or incite terrorist violence, and that some of those sites are based in Canada," the statement said.Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.Stopping Obama: A Republican Game Plan.Barack Obama may have had a licking, but he keeps on ticking. How will the new Congress deal with a president who is relentless in his agenda to create a transformed America?But people who fall for Obama's feints to the center (such as the faux pay freeze for federal employees or the tax deal he was forced into by Republican victories in November) have no one to blame but themselves. Who says so? Barack Obama, through his rhetoric and actions over the last two years. Lest we forget, when he was forced to swallow the tax bill, he showed his true nature, lashing out at Republicans and saying that he was "itching for a fight on a wide range of issues."Obama is on a mission to advance a far-left agenda, and he will use all means at his disposal to accomplish his goals. "The end justifies the means" is his modus operandi. The means may not be as apparent as they were when he was riding high with a sledgehammer in his hand; instead, he will rely on stealth. (Stanley Kurtz researched Obama's career as a state senator and nicknamed him "Senator Stealth" in recognition of the subtlety Obama resorted to when he was a lowly state senator.)We have seen already that Barack Obama is inclined to use all the powers and tricks he can to force his ideology on us: executive orders that favor his allies and donors, big Labor among them; presidential signing statements that signal the provisions of legislation he feels he is entitled to ignore (a tactic that has riled even his own Democrats); appointments of czars and czarinas; and repeated reliance on recess appointments to circumvent the Senate confirmation process, helping him to choose key officials who are ideologically compatible with him, albeit not with the American people (see the Justice and Labor Departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and a raft of other agencies). The the list goes on and on.Hmmmmm.... "Senator Al-taqiyya "would be more like it?Read the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.Obama's ShoreBank: Jeremiah Wright's $10 Million Cash Machine.And what bank underwrote Wright's mortgage and $10 million line-of-credit? That would be none other than the troubled ShoreBank, a favorite of the Obama family and other Democrat politicians, who have worked mightily to have the feds rescue it despite the fact that it would otherwise not qualify for a bailout.In fact, while other banks in ShoreBank's boat have been permitted to fail, the Obama administration allegedly pressured Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and others to prop up the bank. According to news reports, this infusion would permit ShoreBank to receive an additional $75 million in TARP funds. The Central Illinois 9/12 Project has described the bank's ties to the president and his associates, including Rev. Wright and Obama's self-described "Communist" associate Van Jones. In fact, according to erstwhile 2010 GOP Congressional candidate Joel Pollak, Illinois Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky -- one of Nancy Pelosi's favorite far left House members -- has strenuously argued for the bailout of the bank.Read the full scandal story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Was General George S. Patton Assassinated Sixty-Five Years Ago Today?Sixty-five years ago, on December 21, 1945, America lost one of its greatest champions of liberty – Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., a largely unsung hero today of the Liberal-Conservative battles that have raged in America most of this century. There is evidence he was assassinated.Patton, perhaps America’s greatest fighting general, died twelve days after a mysterious vehicle accident outside Mannheim, Germany, December 9, 1945. He was the only person injured. Sitting in the rear of a chauffeured Cadillac limousine with an aide beside him, Patton suffered a broken neck when a two-and-a- half-ton US Army truck suddenly veered into the Cadillac’s path without signaling. Patton’s driver, who couldn’t avoid the crash, would later privately tell his son that the truck had been waiting for them on the side of the road as they’d started up from a railroad track stop. All on-scene reports and military investigative reports of the incident have vanished.Patton when he was injured on that fateful Sunday was just a day away from leaving Europe for good. During and after the war he’d angered the Roosevelt Administration with his antagonism toward the Russians. FDR, believing the Soviets crucial to maintaining world peace, wanted them appeased and had acquiesced to their domination of Eastern Europe at Yalta. Patton, an ardent anti-communist who foresaw the Iron Curtain descending over Russian-occupied countries, wanted to fight them; in effect, start World War III. “We’ve kicked hell out of one bastard (Hitler),” he lamented, only to “help establish a second one (Stalin)…more evil and more dedicated than the first.”By late 1945, with the like-minded Truman continuing FDR’s pro-Kremlin policies, he was the lone, high-ranking voice against the Democrat administration’s foreign policy. His bosses, political and military, no longer needed him to win battles and had exiled him to an almost meaningless command. He was angry. And, on the eve of the crash, Patton was vowing to reveal “blockbusting” secrets about the war, including how badly it was conducted by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and to rally Americans against the Soviets when he arrived home, possibly even run for office. Patton, in late 1945, was high on the list of most popular Americans and the loudest critic of the Left’s love affair with the Soviets, who had clandestinely infiltrated the White House and other top US government branches and were manipulating them for communist aims.We now know how extensive this infiltration was through the “Venona” revelations. “Venona” was the ultra-secret US deciphering of Russian codes at that time that only recently was declassified. It details the Russian spying in America but had just started when Patton was injured. While the driver and passengers of the truck that hit him mysteriously disappeared – as did the sergeant driving the jeep leading his limousine – Patton was taken, already paralyzed, not to the nearby Mannheim hospital, but to Heidelberg where it was assumed he would die soon. But Patton rallied and was soon deemed fit enough to withstand a grueling trans-Atlantic flight home. On the eve of that flight, however, he had a sudden and unexpected relapse, dying from a spate of embolisms that migrated to his lungs, stopping his breathing.Although he was the highest ranking general in Europe at the time, he had uncharacteristically requested a guard be posted outside his room. After his death, rumors immediately circulated that he’d been assassinated. Curiously, there was no autopsy.Read the full story here.

• Smoke the Iraqi donkey in centre of three-way custody battle.A donkey in Baghdad is in the centre of a custody battle involving a marine, now back in the US, a sheikh and an Iraqi family that has demanded $30,000 to give him up.Affectionately called Smoke, the donkey wandered onto a US military base in Baghdad two years ago and won the hearts of the men there. Now, a retired Marine colonel wants to bring Smoke from Iraq to Nebraska to work with the children of soldiers who have been killed or wounded, the Christian Science Monitor reported.It's unclear who the skinny young donkey originally belonged to, but for the Marine unit that adopted him in 2008, he quickly became part of their family."Marines aren't all tough guys with hard hearts - we're suckers for kids and animals," says retired Marine Col. John Folsom, who was commandant of Camp Taquddam in Anbar province when Smoke showed up.The military made an exception to its ban on pets, officially declaring the gregarious donkey a working therapy animal."He's a symbol in my mind of humility and peace," adds Folsom, who now runs Wounded Warriors Family Support and is spearheading an effort to bring Smoke to Nebraska to work with children whose parents have been wounded or killed.Once Folsom located Smoke, he worked out a plan with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to bring Smoke to the States.The donkey would fly via Kuwait, Amsterdam, and Washington Dulles, where he would be quarantined for two weeks before being sent to his new home in Nebraska - first at Take Flight Farms in Omaha, and then to a Wounded Warriors retreat in the northwestern part of the state.But Kuwait has stopped allowing donkeys to enter the country. "I was hoping to have the donkey back in Dulles by Christmas," says Folsom, who isn't giving up. "If not (via) Kuwait, there's Jordan. Or perhaps Turkey."Hmmmm......Lets hope their Christmas doesn't go up in "Smoke"?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Japanese woman sues Google for displaying images of underwear.A Japanese woman is suing Google for displaying images of underwear hanging on her washing line on its Street View function.The woman, who has not been named, is suing the internet giant for 600,000 Yen (£4,588) claiming the images caused her psychological distress, according to Japan's Mainichi newspaper. The first hearing in the case was held this week in the southern city of Fukuoka. "I was overwhelmed with anxiety that I might be the target of a sex crime," the woman told a district court. "It caused me to lose my job and I had to change my residence." According to the suit, the woman first saw the photo on Google this spring when she did a search for her own apartment, where she lived alone. The suit claims her existing obsessive-compulsive disorder was worsened by the anxiety brought on by the photo, as she feared that everything she was doing throughout the day was being secretly recorded.Hmmmm....I think she might have a case there.Read the full story here.

• Japanese scientists said that they had produced a Mouse tweets like a bird.Japanese scientists said that they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered "evolution" that they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their Evolved Mouse Project, in which they use genetically-modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and are thus prone to mutations."Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen," lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura said."We checked the newborn mice one by one ... One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird," he said, noting that the "singing mouse" was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations."I was surprised because I had been expecting mice that are different in physical shape," he said, adding that in fact the project had also produced "a mouse with short limbs and a tail like a dachshund."Hmmmm...What's next snakes that fly?Read the full story here.