MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• US President Obama condemns Pakistan suicide bombing.US President Barack Obama has condemned as "outrageous" Saturday's deadly suicide bomb attack on a town in north-western Pakistan. A female bomber killed at least 43 people in the attack on a large crowd receiving food aid in Khar in the Bajaur region.The town is in tribal areas close to the Afghan border - a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold.People displaced by fighting had been getting food at a distribution centre.Saturday's bombing was the latest in a string of recent attacks in Pakistan's north-west."I strongly condemn the outrageous terrorist attack in Khar, Pakistan," President Obama said.Hmmmm....How about the bombing of Christians Mr President?Read the full story here.

• Pope: earth again stained with blood at Christmas. Vatican City - Even at Christmas, "the earth was again stained with blood", especially in the Philippines, Nigeria and Pakistan said the pope today at the end of the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in the square St. Peter's."In this Christmas season - said the pontiff - the desire and the invocation of the gift of peace becomes even more intense. But our world continues to be marked by violence, especially against the disciples of Christ. I learned with great sadness of the attack in a Catholic church in the Philippines, while the Christmas Day rites were being celebrated, as well as the attack on Christian churches in Nigeria ". Yesterday morning during Christmas Mass for the police in Jolo (Mindanao), a bomb exploded near the altar wounding the priest and five other people. In Jos (Nigeria), long plagued by social and religious tensions, seven bombs exploded in the center of the city, leaving 32 dead and 74 wounded. A bomb that was set to explode during midnight mass was defused by police."The earth - continued Benedict XVI – was again stained with blood in other parts of the world, such as in Pakistan. I wish to express my heartfelt condolences to the victims of this senseless violence, and I repeat once again the call to abandon the path of hatred to find peaceful solutions to conflicts and gift security and serenity to these dear people. "Hmmmm.....Earth was stained again by the silence of the US President when it comes to murdering Christians!Read the full story here.

• Updated!Muslim ham complaint thrown out.A PROSECUTOR has thrown out a complaint made by a Muslim family against a geography teacher who mentioned pork in their son’s class.The teacher was explaining how cold climate in Granada highlands helps to preserve local Serrano ham.The Children’s Prosecutor of Algeciras, Juan Cisneros, described the complaining pupil’s attitude as ‘abusive, sectarian, capricious and inadmissible’ and ordered the denouncement to be archived.He said: “There is not even the minimal indication of any type of crime.”The prosecutor went on to condemn the media storm created by the pupil’s parents and their opponents. He described the public’s interest in the case as ‘worrying’.Hmmmm....I couldn't have said it better.Read the full story here.HT: TROP.

• 'Jihadist' issues Christmas bombing threat.A "jihadist" in an audiotaped threat said fireworks displays will set off terrorist bombs in countries celebrating Christmas, the SITE monitoring group said.The recording, titled "The Zero Hour has arrived" and directed to "the unbeliever and Christian countries celebrating Christmas," lasts one minute, three seconds and bears the voice of a member of the Shumukh al-Islam forum, said the US-based monitor.The speaker, according to SITE, said that failure to heed warnings to cease bloodshed in Muslim countries would result in attacks."Your (Christmas) fireworks will act as an alarm for the time of our devices to blow up -- devices that we, not Santa Claus, are going to offer to you as gifts, to turn your night into day and your blood into rivers," he said in a translation provided by SITE.Hmmmm....A bit late,we got your "message" in person?Read the full story here.

• Turkey probes US nukes at Airbase - report.Washington currently has 90 nuclear bombs of the "B 61" variety in Turkey, all on the Incirlik Air Force base.Turkish parliamentarians are discussing a report revealing that the United States has deployed 90 nuclear bombs at Turkey's Incirlik Air Force base, a report says.The report, called the "US nuclear weapons in Europe," indicates that Washington currently has 90 nuclear bombs of the "B 61" variety in Turkey, all on the Incirlik Air Force base, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported on its website on Friday.It says 50 of the B-61 bombs are ready to be loaded onto American bomber planes while the remaining 40 will be loaded onto Turkish planes.According to the daily, Turkish MP Shukru Elekdag has questioned reasons behind keeping the bombs on Turkish soil even decades after the end of the Cold War.Elekdag has also noted that Turkey's consent to the deployment of the US nuclear bombs at Incirlik is an act which 'could not be easily explained to its Muslim and Arab neighbors.'Press reports have established that US currently has more than 100 nuclear bombs positioned in bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.Hmmm....Anyone still doubting where Turkey is heading?Who's to say where Turkish planes will drop there nuclear load?Get Turkey out of Nato! Read the full story here.

• HT:ElderOfZion.Church of Nativity desecrators wish Merry Christmas.Fahmi Kan’an, a spokesman for the Gaza deportees, said Friday that they grieved to be away from the festivities. “The deportees will never forget the courageous support they received from the monks who disobeyed Israeli military orders to evacuate the church, and instead they offered as much services and support to those who took refuge in their church,” Kan’an said.He added: “Nine years have passed, and we are burning and yearning to see each alley, tree, and stone in the city. We would never give up on Bethlehem even if they give us the whole world. It is our right to return to Bethlehem just as all other Palestinians displaced from their homes have the right to return.” Kan’an wished all Christians in Palestine a merry Christmas expressing his hope that all deportees in Gaza and in Europe will celebrate Christmas next year in Bethlehem. The deportees shot their way into, and desecrated, one of the holiest shrines of Christianity, bringing guns and explosives in and causing huge amounts of damage. They used nuns as human shields and insulted Christians worldwide.And now they are wishing them a Merry Christmas???Hmmmm....This just showed once again how phony these "people" are.Read the full story here.

• Another "Land grab" by the Obama administration.US to make 'wild' public land eligible for protection.The order reverses former President George W Bush's policy forbidding the government from doing so.Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday said the new policy would help to protect public land "for current and future generations to come".In 2003, the Bush administration opened million of acres in the Rocky Mountains to potential commercial development.Under the new policy, announced on Thursday, the US Bureau of Land Management will have the authority to designate certain public land as "wild lands" and recommend they be roped them off from future commercial development.If an area is designated as a "wild land" through the public land management planning process, that designation can be modified later based on a new public planning process."Americans love the wild places where they hunt, fish, hike, and get away from it all, and they expect these lands to be protected wisely on their behalf," Mr Salazar said in a statement.The order repeals a policy initiated by President George W Bush's interior secretary, Gale Norton, which effectively halted the Bureau of Land Management's authority to recommend new land for wilderness protection.Hmmmm.....How much land has the Obama administration taken in these two years of office?Read the full story here.

• 5,500 children to attend main Kremlin Christmas Tree party.More than 5,500 children from across Russia, as well as from former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will take part in New Year celebrations in the Kremlin on Saturday.Winners of various Olympiads, orphans and children whose parents were killed in hot spots are invited to attend the presidential Kremlin Christmas Tree party. During their stay in the capital, the children will also take part in various cultural activities, visit museums and attend master classes by prominent Russian figure skaters on a skating rink on Red Square.A 30-meter high and 100-year old Christmas tree, chopped in the Moscow region, has been installed in the Kremlin's Cathedral Square and decorated with white, blue and red LED Christmas lights representing the colors of the Russian national flag.This year, the Christmas tree was consecrated by a Russian Orthodox priest for the first time.Hmmmm....Somehow the Russians have no problem with the Christian part of Christmas.Read the full story here.

• HT:IowaHawk.So You Lost Your Election.A outplacement transition guide to life beyond Washington for former members and associates of Congress.Losing a job can be a challenging and stress-filled time. Especially during the holidays, and especially for someone like you - the soon-to-be former team associate of the United States Congress. At this moment, you may be packing boxes and moving vans with the cherished mementos and petty cash of your career in Washington. You may be wrapping those last-minute trillion dollar gifts and holiday earmarks for loyal supporters, phoning final farewells to your Washington colleagues, lobbyists, and "escort services." In many cases you may find that they, too, have lost their jobs -- and, if they haven't, will no longer return your calls. And in those lonely moments between, you ask: why me?Read the full story here.

• No matter where he goes, Obama lives in 'the bubble'.He lives, works and plays behind fences and a wall of Secret Service agents. He never cuts the grass, does the laundry, or cleans the kitchen. He's driven a car only twice in nearly four years, once for 10 feet. He rarely goes to church; a chaplain visits him at his private Camp David mountain retreat. He doesn't go to movies; first-run releases are sent to him....At the White House, he has a staff of about 100 to cook and clean for him.All told, nearly 6,600 people work to take care of the president, according to Bradley H. Patterson, a veteran of the Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford White Houses who's written extensively about White House staff.That includes the Secret Service, the White House policy staff, the people who take care of the White House and its grounds, as well as Camp David, Air Force One, the Marine One helicopters and the armored cars. It also includes a staff florist and calligrapher.The price tag totaled $1.5 billion in 2008, the latest year records are available...The 200 to 300 people who clean and maintain the White House are listed in the General Services Administration and the National Parks Service, for example.Hmmm....An Emperor or dictator in his luxurious bubble?Read the full waste story here.

• HT:IslamTodayOregon.Karzai's Taliban.Our "friends" in Afghanistan, particularly President Karzai, have shown themselves to be less than that. I have pointed out that the Afghan constitution, approved by Obama and the administration, has as its first article sharia law as the highest law in the land, and Islam as the official state religion. Now, Karzai has taken the next step towards relinqushing Afghanistan back to the Taliban.The Taliban, after being routed in 2002-2004 have been making inroads. Although the general population are not fans of the Taliban, they know enough to keep their mouths shut to save themselves and their families. Now Karzai is about ready to throw his people under the bus permanently buy giving the Taliban official recognition as a legitimate representative body.The Taliban, according to Karzai can and should set up a liason office in Turkey, with the blerssings of President Gul, naturally. By giving legitimate voice to a group dedicated to the destruction of the west and the expansion of the caliphate, he is setting the stage for problems similar to those when a legitimate voice was given to Hamas or the PLO.Karzai is an enemy, and he is in bed with Islamists.Hmmm....Afghanistan cultivates the Heroin and Turkey sells it?"Axes of Evil" anyone?Read the full story here.

• HT:BloggerBase.Three Routes the Government Is Following To Take Over the Internet.The Obama Administration has been trying at least three distinct approaches to ending freedom on the Internet, initially under the pretext of copyright protection or consumer protection. The main goal is to take the internet under government control, so that content ultimately has to have government approval or be subject to removal and websites controlled to the point of removal and the banning of “offenders” from using the Internet.The triple-threat strategy has been to act (1) through a legislative initiative, promoted in Congress by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and sponsored by Hollywood, known as COICA (2) through a treaty styled as a trade agreement called an Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement (ACTA), and (3) through a decree by the Federal Communications Commission (“Net Neutrality”). The Obama Administration has seen an opportunity to take control of the Internet. As mentioned above, it is a move to use government power to protect “intellectual property” interests of the entertainment industry, using unconstitutional and unethical measures that will destroy Internet freedom.However, the problem goes much deeper and, if unchecked, must ultimately lead to government control of Internet content. Through claims of copyright violation, the government can go after any Internet site that they oppose, and largely silence opposition. In the hands of a power-seeking government (the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats), partnered with other governments that want bureaucratic control over the people (the EU, for example), the groundwork is being laid for tyrannical rule of the Internet by unelected bureaucrats through means that defy direct opposition.Traditionally, intellectual property issues have been dealt with as civil matters, but in line with the government’s trend of a few decades, more and more actions have been criminalized. So “violators” may face jail time or fines and a criminal record even where nothing wrong has been done. An allegation might be sufficient.
  Hmmmm....Freedom is a very volatile thing one minute it's there,the next it's gone!Read the full story here.

• HT:ElderOfZion.Poster: Obstacle to peace.This one requires some documentation.Here are the best numbers I could find in Arabs killing Arabs since 1948, mostly relying on Wikipedia.Hmmm....The problem with numbers is they remain stuck in statistics,for people to find them back.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:JihadWatch."All Americans Must Die" written on wall of Tyson Chicken plant that adopted Muslim holiday in 2008.They've complained for years, as to why these people are being hired in our food department when we are worried about our safety as Americans, you know, and that's something we all need to think about."Indeed. Tyson Chicken in Shelbyville went out of its way to be accommodating to its Muslim employees in 2008, when it adopted Eid al-Fitr as an official plant holiday. Of course, maybe it wasn't one of the Muslim employees who wrote "All Americans Must Die" on the wall, but given the prevalence of jihadist sentiments among Somali Muslims elsewhere in the U.S., it is neither rocket science nor "Islamophobia" to put two and two together. The Shelbyville chief of police and a former Tyson employee confirmed that threatening messages surfaced this week, leading to extra security at the plant."A couple days ago, they had a terrorist threat that was written on the bathroom walls that said 'all Americans must die,'" said a woman, who said she wanted to remain anonymous to protect her relative, who works inside the plant...."One day last week, someone set the women's bathroom on fire, and they finally put a security guard at the bathroom door," the woman said.She said workers are scared.
  "Some of them are afraid. They've been talking about it and worried about it and wondering what Tyson is going to do about it," she said.But Swing said the department has been asked to provide an armed, off-duty officer to patrol inside the plant through the holidays. Tyson didn't explain the reason why....He said he believes Tyson has already removed the graffiti and is conducting its own investigation into who's responsible."They've doubled up the guards in the guard shack outside," the anonymous woman said.Some at the plant are concerned.The FBI did not returned Channel 4's request of whether it's involved.You know that if it had said something threatening to Muslims, the FBI would have been all over it in a nanosecond.Hmmmm.....This "Outreach to Muslims" works great Mr President.Read the full story here.

• Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir.WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1. Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment. Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.The final version of the health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, authorized Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations, or wellness visits. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit. Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make health care decisions for themselves.Hmmmm.....Welcome to saving costs on pensions and healthcare?Read the full story here.

• It's our coldest Christmas Day ever as mercury plummets to MINUS 18C: UK set for biggest December freeze since 1890.Britons awoke yesterday to the coldest Christmas Day on record.In parts of the country, the mercury touched minus 18C and few places saw temperatures rise above freezing.At 8am in Shawbury, Shropshire, it was minus 15.9C and in Altnaharra, in the Highlands of Scotland, minus 18.2C.Forecasters predict this December is likely to be the coldest on record. The previous coldest was in 1890, when the average temperature for the whole month for England was minus 0.8C. The average temperature for all of Britain up to Christmas Eve this year was also minus 0.8C, though forecasters said the weather would improve from Wednesday.Read and see the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Civil War Message Opened, Decoded: No Help Coming!A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.The message is from a Confederate commander on the west side of the Mississippi River across from Pemberton."He's saying, 'I can't help you. I have no troops, I have no supplies, I have no way to get over there,"' Museum of the Confederacy collections manager Catherine M. Wright said of the author of the dispiriting message. "It was just another punctuation mark to just how desperate and dire everything was."The bottle, less than 2 inches in length, had sat undisturbed at the museum since 1896. It was a gift from Capt. William A. Smith, of King George County, who served during the Vicksburg siege.It was Wright who decided to investigate the contents of the strange little bottle containing a tightly wrapped note, a .38-caliber bullet and a white thread."Just sort of a curiosity thing," said Wright. "This notion of, do we have any idea what his message says?"The answer was no.Read the full story here.