MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:CanaryInTheCoalMine.When Anti-Semitism Is Part Of The Vacation.I was in Barcelona, dropping by a friend’s shared apartment, when it started up. “I’ve been so busy here, I haven’t even had time to go shopping!” I laughed, and was met with this teasing response from my friend’s housemate — a Bulgarian cellist I barely knew. “No shopping? Why, for you, that must be as unthinkable as not building settlements would be for an Israeli!”Huh? What on earth did shopping have to do with Israel? It was a nasty comment, and weird to boot. I was still reeling from the unexpected dig at a nationality none of us had any obvious ties to when the cellist’s girlfriend, a Brazilian, mentioned that she hadn’t been shopping during her visit, either. “I’m very frugal lately — I’m like a Jew, I just hate to spend money,” she said.Jewishness hadn’t come up in the conversation, nobody had a clue about my heritage, and the comments were uttered lightly, unprovocatively. But there it was. In Europe, I have found, ugly remarks about Israel and Jewish stereotypes surface as a matter of course, with the tacit assumption that everyone shares an anti-Israel viewpoint — and that nobody present is Jewish.If it is unfashionable to say ethnically pointed things in historically multicultural America, it can sometimes seem the opposite abroad, at least with regard to Jews and Israel. And it can make traveling to otherwise lovely lands, filled with otherwise friendly people, very uncomfortable for American Jews.Read the full story here.

• Iraqi PM to U.S.: Thanks, but We Don't Need You Anymore.BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ruled out the presence of any U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of 2011, saying his new government and the country's security forces were capable of confronting any remaining threats to Iraq's security, sovereignty and unity.A majority of Iraqis—and some Iraqi and U.S. officials—have assumed the U.S. troop presence would eventually be extended, especially after the long government limbo. But Mr. Maliki was eager to draw a line in his most definitive remarks on the subject. "The last American soldier will leave Iraq" as agreed, he said, speaking at his office in a leafy section of Baghdad's protected Green Zone. "This agreement is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration. It is sealed."He also said that even as Iraq bids farewell to U.S. troops, he wouldn't allow his nation to be pulled into alignment with Iran, despite voices supporting such an alliance within his government."For Iraq to be dragged into an axis or an orbit, that's impossible, and we reject it whether this comes from Iran, Turkey or the Arabs," he said.He added that a kind of "paranoia" about a Tehran-Baghdad alliance in the U.S. is matched by a fear in Iran about U.S. influence: "An Iranian official visited me in the past and told me, 'I thought the Americans were standing at the door of your office,' " he said.Hmmmmm.....Seeing is believing.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video: Abdul Salam Zaeef, Former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan: We Presented Three Proposals to the Americans to Resolve the Conflict, But All They Wanted Was Osama Bin Laden.Source.

• HT:Memri. Video : Baby Martyrdom Culture among Shiites in Iran and Lebanon.Source.

• HT:HumanEvents.If Christians Were Treated Like Muslims.Few Americans would deny that Judeo-Christian beliefs and values informed the Founding of this country and that they continue to shape much of American life today. Nor would many of us deny that Americans who embrace Islamic values are a distinct minority here.I raise these two facts because of an emerging reality: that, in a variety of contexts, American Muslims are treated better than American Christians. That might seem like a bizarre assertion, so think about it in another way: What if the Christians were treated like Muslims in America, and Muslims like Christians?If Muslims were treated like Christians in America, Muslims would have to tolerate the defamation of their holiest images in our national museums, acts which would be called "artwork" -- and, if particularly provocative, even given taxpayer-funded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. They would also have to accept Korans being burned and thrown into toilets, which instead of inciting worldwide outrage and retribution would provoke a collective shrug of the shoulders.If Christianity were treated like Islam in America, our president, a professed Christian, would proudly attend Christian-themed dinners and events while skipping Ramadan dinners, not vice versa. And Muslim politicians would go out of their way to assure people that their faith would not affect their policy-making.Read the full story here.

• Five arrested for planning imminent attack against the Copenhagen of Jyllands-Posten newspaper connected to the Mohammed drawings.Police in Sweden and Denmark on Wednesday arrested five men suspected of plotting an attack against theDanish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, security officials in those countries said. The officials gave no details on precisely how they believed the suspects were intending to attack the newspaper, which is housed in a building in Copenhagen. But Jakob Scharf, the head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, known as PET, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying “an imminent terror attack has been foiled.”The Danish security service provided some details about the four men arrested in Denmark. Three were Swedish residents: a 44-year-old Tunisian citizen, a 29-year-old of Lebanese origin and a 30-year-old whose origin was not immediately clear. The fourth was a 26-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq who lived in Copenhagen.Read the full story here.

• Canadians to pay $998 for UAE visas from Jan 2.A 30-day, non-renewable visa will cost $249.Canadian citizens travelling to the UAE will need to budget a little extra time and money when planning their trips.The UAE Embassy in Canada has announced it will charge Canadian nationals up to C$1,000 (US$998) for entry visas to the Gulf country from January 2 onwards.The UAE Embassy in Ottawa has posted the new rates on its website, including a short-term (30 days), non-renewable visa that will cost C$250 ($249), a long-term (3 months) non-renewable visa for C$500 ($499), and a six-month multiple-entry visa for C$1,000 ($998), which allows for a maximum stay in the UAE of 14 days per visit.While Canada was earlier among the list of 30-plus countries whose nationals do not require a visa to travel to the UAE - including the US, Germany, Japan and France - travellers will now need to apply for the visa about three weeks prior to flying.Hmmmmm.....Not happy enough to kick Canada out of the UN Security Council seat,they're fining them also,speaking the truth is a costly item.Read the full story here.

• Where We Stand and Where We Must Go.As we embark upon a new year of trying to save this country and restore its founding principles, I have spent much time contemplating questions of readers — most important of which is that given the massive problems we continue to face, and would face even with the most principled conservative Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, what can be done?But in order to deal with our current struggles, we must recognize that they are symptoms. The cure to these symptoms lies in dealing with their root causes. However, even before dealing with our struggles and their root causes, we must ask, what is our vision for America, and what is the role of government in helping to ensure it rather than dooming us to never reach it?My view of America is a country in which people are free to pursue their greatest good as they see it, or as the founders put it to create a land in which people can pursue their happiness. This system presupposes that the people are protected. Before people can partake in mutually beneficial trade and activity, they must be reasonably secure in their persons and their property. As such, free markets and the free people that create these markets require strong national defense.So the vision should be clear — government’s role is to lay the foundation for people to be free, furnishing and preserving prosperity by providing defense for it, both against external aggressors and internal ones by providing a set of stable laws protecting private property and contracts specifically and the individual generally.Where we stand today is that the government, created to ensure these things is instead imperiling them. Rather than securing private property it consumes and redistributes it. Further, at every avenue government creates barriers to the free voluntary exchange of goods and services that heretofore have provided such unparalleled levels of comfort for us all. Rather than defending us from foreign enemies it cuts deals with them, concedes to them and generally submits to them out of political correctness, moral relativism and an inane commitment to multiculturalism.As such, in my view we are headed for catastrophe, with the only question being whether it is our economy that completely collapses through the insolvency of our government which will bring down much of the real economy through crippling interest rates and the chaos caused by the collapse of the welfare state, a currency collapse whose effects will be the same or a terrorist attack or attacks that lead to either of these scenarios. Regardless, business will plod along lethargically as the growth of the state continues to suffocate it. That the economy has continued to function at all is a testament to the will of people who continue to produce in the face of looters trying to play G-d and centrally plan the lives of the masses for their own good.Read the full story here.

• Jews in former Soviet Union struggle to survive.Economic crisis leaves elderly without food, medicine, while kids might soon lose their schools. 'I don't understand how Jews worldwide can see their despair, but not help,' says Yechiel Eckstein, head of International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.The state of the Jewish community in the former Soviet Union is deteriorating: Tens of thousands of elderly Jews living in the Commonwealth of Independent States are no longer receiving stipends for food and medicine, and the Jewish school system is on the brink of collapse.The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the humanitarian organization that supports elderly Jews reported that it had to cut down the number of aid recipients from 200,000 to 150,000 this year - leaving a quarter of the senior population without basic assistance."We are forced to distribute less of everything," said Asher Ostrin, the executive director of Former Soviet Union Programs at JDC. "The needs are growing, but the budget isn't." According to Ostrin, the Jewish population in that part of the world is growing older and poorer. Since the governments do not provide their senior citizens with more than a meager pension, many of them live in poverty, unable to pay for medicine and medical services. The JDC is forced to prioritize people who are seriously ill over those who don't have food or medicine. "If the condition of an elderly person deteriorates and he needs assistance, it will unfortunately come at the expense of another elderly person," Ostrin said. "Food and medicine supply is less urgent than a person lying alone at home, about to die." Read the full story here.

• Asia Bibi: Pakistani Christians march against blasphemy law at Christmas. Moments of tension in Lahore when two demonstration, one pro and one against the controversial law, met.Islamist hackers have obscured the site of the Pakistan Christian Post.The Lahore High Court has not yet set a date for the hearing of the appeal for Asia Bibi, a Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy. But the battle over the controversial law goes on. On Christmas Day demonstrations for and against the law took place in Pakistani cities. And the website of Pakistan Christian Post, the main voice of Christians in the country, was down for a number of days after being hacked by Muslims. The image of a bloody angel on black background was posted to the homepage. At the centre of the screen a banner reading: " Hacked by Islamic Hacker Dragons."In Karachi various social and human rights organizations, as well as trade unionists and lawyers have formed an alliance called "Citizens for Democracy, which aims to launch a national campaign to amend the controversial blasphemy law. The founding meeting took place December 26, 2010, attended by 28 different denominations. The meeting expressed its full support for the amendment bill submitted by the Parliamentarian Sherry Rehman. And it was decided to meet with the parliamentary committee dealing with bills and Parliamentary Affairs to speed up the process of change. "Most of blasphemy cases registered against minorities are not genuine, and there should be a clause in the law that provides the same penalties against anyone who frames a complaint, if it is not true, so that no one dares to lodge false complaints in the future" said one of the speakers at the conference.Read the full story here.

• Stuxnet may have destroyed 1,000 centrifuges at Natanz.Malicious computer virus accelerated, wrecked motors and may have decommissioned uranium enrichment centrifuges, think tank concludes.According to the paper, the timing of the removal of 1,000 centrifuges was consistent with a statement made last month by Ali Akbar Salehi, then-head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and recently appointed as the country’s foreign minister, who confirmed in an interview: “One year and several months ago, Westerners sent a virus to [our] country’s nuclear sites.”There are currently approximately 10,000 IR-1 centrifuges installed inside the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, according to the report.Widespread speculation has named the IDF’s Military Intelligence Unit 8200, known for its advanced signal intelligence capabilities, as the possible creator of the software, or perhaps the United States. Langer said last week that in his opinion at least two countries were behind Stuxnet.Hmmmm.....Stuxnet: Made in the USA?Read the full story here.

• HT:AceOfSpades.Obama Destined For Scrapheap of History?Obama's fall is all the more spectacular because of the way he sold himself. I don't mean the messianic part, but that's a huge part of it.I mean this: Candidates and parties sell themselves partly on ideology and party on simple competency. Ideology convinces some, but not a majority; to get to the majority, a pitch of competency grabs those who aren't sold on ideology but aren't dead-set against the candidate's ideology.Two years into his hopefully four year term, it's apparent to anyone who's not a fucking idiot that Obama doesn't have a fucking clue what the fuck he's doing. Far from being the Mr. Fix It, he's Mr. Fuck It Up Worse. All the calumnies thrown at Bush-- blundering incompetent idiot retard chimp -- apply fully to Obama. As they used to joke about Bush -- Obama is the idiot who broke the world.Well we see now that none of these problems (and fake problems, like global warming) were simple to solve, and only a simpleton cold have claimed otherwise, but now Obama and his still-loyal media defenders are telling us, retroactively, how difficult all these things are to change and fix.But I don't think the public is fooled. They were told that simply switching the supposedly dumb people out for the smart people would fix things. It didn't, and exposed the supposedly smart people as dumber than those they called dumb. Obama's luminescent incompetence is going to make it hard for Democrats to run on non-ideological competency as a platform for a generation.Hmmmm......No the Chosen one can't walk on water ,perhaps on snakeoil?Read the full story here.

• HT:EmergingCorruption.The Key to Beating Obama in 2012 Is Publicizing the Truth About Him and ACORN.Fox News and talk radio notwithstanding, Obama was not generally perceived as a radical and a stealth socialist.And critically important Obama lies went unexposed.“’Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drives in Illinois, Acorn was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work,” Mr. Obama said.That was the truth.But in the last presidential debate Obama blatantly lied.Obama in the last presidential debate: “My only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.”That’s a lie, not a fact. Obama represented ACORN in that lawsuit and the Clinton Justice Department predictably sided with ACORN, but that was the public tip of the iceberg, NOT Obama’s only involvement with ACORN. Obama looked into the camera during the last presidential debate and flat out lied to the American people about it (in his calm, seemingly non-threatening manner).ACORN is the organization with which Obama has been associated throughout his adult life, as organizer, trainer, lawyer, funder and political beneficiary…and Obama’s Achilles heel.ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief revealed connections between ACORN and the Obama campaign based on personal knowledge that all Americans should know, but most do not know.Bottom line: ACORN improperly coordinated with and operating as an arm of the Obama campaign, and “the Senator from ACORN”‘s involvement with ACORN was much more than his representation of ACORN in the motor voter case years ago.As Ingraham posted on her Facebook page: “Obama is not going to roll over in the 2012 campaign, and the country needs a strong, courageous, America- focused alternative in order to beat him.”Read the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.CNN reports $5 gas in 18 months thanks to collapsing dollar, poor planning, and Obama oil drilling bans, but mostly all of the above.The former president of Shell Oil is predicting $5/gallon gas by the summer of 2012, which should do wonders for "the middle class".In an interview with Platt's Energy Week television, Hofmeister predicted gasoline prices will spike as the global demand for oil increases... "I'm predicting actually the worst outcome over the next two years which takes us to 2012 with higher gasoline prices," he said......Gasoline prices have been steadily rising. Last week, gas prices crossed the $3 mark for the first time since October 2008. According to AAA figures, prices are up 4% from a month ago and 16% from the $2.585 average a year ago...In 2008 President Bush used his bully pulpit to cajole the Democrat-controlled Congress into expanding oil drilling. The Democrats refused.After the BP spill, the Obama administration used the crisis to lock down even more drilling, going so far as to lie about a panel of experts' decision to continue a drilling moratorium. The federal Judge hearing the case called the administration's claims "untrue" and "misleading".The net result is that the United States is the only country on Earth that restricts access to its own abundant energy resources. I wonder how high gas prices have to get before Democrats are smashed into oblivion -- politically, of course -- leaving them a footnote to history akin to the Whig Party.Thankfully, the unemployed have all of those millions of high-paying green jobs to look forward to. Or so the Democrats keep telling us.
  Hmmmmm....If he really wanted to destroy America ,would he do anything different?Read and see the full story here.More here.

• Turmoil in Pakistan as party quits Cabinet.Pakistan's U.S.-allied ruling party suffered a fresh blow to its fragile hold on power Tuesday when a coalition partner said it will quit the cabinet, deepening the nation's political turmoil and potentially distracting Islamabad from helping American forces target militants.New elections could lead to the emergence of a government not as friendly to U.S. interests and less vocal in opposing the Taliban.The current government "is not only too weak to meet the U.S.'s short-term priorities even if it wanted to, it's already too weak to meets the long-term priorities that would give Pakistan stability," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.Cordesman said the stability of a nuclear weapons-armed Pakistan is a higher strategic priority for the U.S. than the future of Afghanistan. If Pakistan came under Islamist extremist rule, it would be far more threatening as an al-Qaida sanctuary than Afghanistan ever could be, he said.Quarterman added that the Obama administration has worked hard to cultivate a relationship with the powerful Pakistani military and is also keen on supporting civilian governance and institutions.Hmmmm...Did he mean the Obama administration has donated Billions of Dollars to Pakistan?Any common Farmer in the US could have told them that Islamic extremists stick together!Read the full story here.

• India on nationwide security alert as terror fears spread.India has increased security in major cities across the country after receiving information that a Pakistan-based militant group is planning an attack over New Year's weekend.More police were deployed to city streets, including in India's financial capital, Mumbai, which was attacked in 2008. Security was already heightened in Mumbai last week, and now the threat is being taken seriously nationwide.Read the full story here.

• Home Prices Fall in Largest Cities, Raising Possibility of Housing 'Double-Dip'.The anemic housing market continues to drag the economy down, with new data showing home prices in America's biggest cities on a downward trend which could last through next year. One analyst said the possibility of a "double-dip" downturn in the housing market is becoming more likely. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, showed home prices falling 1.3 percent from September to October. For the first time since February 2009, every city on the list marked a decline in that period. The dismal real estate news comes as the Conference Board shows consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped in December, in part reflecting concern about the availability of jobs."Anybody who says housing is out of the woods ... they're not looking at these numbers," Blitzer said. "There's clearly a lot of weakness."But the Obama administration is urging bailed-out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do more for Americans who owe more than their homes are worth - an estimated one in five borrowers. The Treasury Department wants Fannie and Freddie to lower the principal on such underwater mortgages and roll them into a Federal Housing Administration program to get their monthly payments down. Despite the concern that this could cause more losses at the troubled entities, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said the plan could improve the overall housing market by reducing the number of homeowners defaulting on their loans.Hmmmm....."Change you can see"?Read the full story here.

• Obama has publicly mentioned his “Christian faith” more times in the past three months than he has over the past year. He has more frequently cited passages of the Bible, including repeated references to the spirit of Genesis 4:9 — “I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper” — which was a mainstay of Obama’s 2010 campaign stump speech. And he’s taken his family to church twice, a shift for a president who has preferred to worship privately since the end of the 2008 campaign.The White House says nothing has changed in Obama’s public remarks. The president “has consistently talked about his Christian faith, and the role of faith in America, over the course of his public life,” deputy press secretary Bill Burton said.Indeed, Obama has spoken about his religion at various prayer breakfasts and in a 2009 commencement address at Notre Dame. And earlier this year, he held the first Easter prayer breakfast at the White House for Christian pastors, welcoming them as “my brothers and sisters in Christ.But one key difference between the way Obama is now referencing his “Christian faith” and how he has in the past is in the types of events.Hmmmmmm.....Amazing for a man from who we have not seen a proof of Baptism.Even more: The one remark which leaps out at me is when he said: “I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, we are all children of God.”Agreed we are all children of God, however in the Bible, it was a question asked, and never answered, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” President Obama chose to answer that which God did not. He emphatically states, “I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper.”While living a life in the lap of luxury, as President of the United States, taking from the haves to give to have nots, and re-distributing property, taking from producers and giving to non-producers, reflecting upon what he stated: “I am my brother’s keeper,” appears to me to be his propensity to fulfill his prophecy. To speak as a medium between man and God, by expressing his answer to a question God did not choose to answer, according to the Bible.He seems to promise that he will protect his .....Brothers and Sisters.For sure not the Christians the way he's silent when they kill them!Read the full story here.More here.

• China moves closer to ruling the waves with a ballistic missile that can sink an aircraft carrier.China aspires to become a global military, according to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.The nation is developing a ballistic missile designed to sink an aircraft carrier, which could spell the end to the U.S.'s naval supremacy.The DF 21D's uniqueness is in its ability to hit a powerfully defended moving target with pinpoint precision - a capability U.S. naval planners are scrambling to deal with.The Chinese military are also expected to launch their first aircraft carrier next year - a year earlier than anticipated by U.S. experts.But China's Foreign Ministry insists his military is one of peace, saying: 'We pose no threat to other countries.'Admiral Robert Willard told Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper he believes the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile programme has achieved 'initial operational capability.' This means a workable design has been settled on and is being further developed.Hmmmm.....Obama's answer "Cut the defense budget".Read the full story here.

• Israeli navy tracks ship carrying aid for Gaza.The Israeli navy is closely monitoring a vessel carrying medical supplies and Asian activists poised to set sail from the Syrian port of Latakia for el-Arish in Egypt.The ship, christened Asia One, is to offload passengers and cargo valued at $1 million at el-Arish.Activists and aid are to proceed to Gaza by land rather than directly challenge Israel’s block- ade at sea.This new effort to reach Gaza comes seven months after Israeli naval commandos killed nine Turkish activists on the Istanbul ferry Mavi Marmara and seized half a dozen ships taking part in the largest blockade busting flotilla mounted since 2008.An unnamed activist insisted there were no weapons on board Asia One. If the ship is approached by the Israeli navy during its passage to Egypt, he said passengers would “face it with non-violence. We’ll face it with a prayer in our hearts.”While the aim of the Asian organisers was to enter the Strip on December 27th, the second anniversary of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, the ship’s departure from Latakia has been delayed by the Egyptian authorities which need to issue a landing permit for el-Arish.The first Asian land and sea caravan attempting to break the Israeli siege of Gaza set off from India early this month and proceeded to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Syria, picking up activists and donations en route.Some 160-180 Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist peace campaigners from a dozen Asian countries are on board the vessel. They were joined by seven Iranian parliamentarians in Syria where a delegation from the group met the head of Hamas’s politburo, Khaled Mishaal, in Damascus.Hmmmmm....Read like a Michelin travelguide of who's who in terrorisme?I wonder how many stars Iran gets?Read the full story here.

• Man Arrested at Miami Airport After Bullet Parts Found in Bag.MIAMI – A 37-year-old man is facing a federal charge after bullet primers ignited in his bag as it was being unloaded at Miami International Airport from a flight that had just arrived.FBI spokesman Mike Leverock says there is no connection to terrorism. The man is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was traveling Tuesday on an American Airlines flight from Boston to Miami and on to Jamaica. His name was not immediately released.Leverock says several hundred bullet primers were discovered inside the bag after some ignited. No one was injured, although a few small shards struck the shoe of a baggage handler.The man was being held on a charge of traveling in interstate commerce without a license to carry ammunition.Read and see the full story here.

• Turkish workers caught in rift with Israel.Turkish construction workers in Israel staged a demonstration in front of Turkey’s Tel Aviv Embassy on Tuesday, demanding their work permits be extended.“We need our work permits to be extended. If we are sent back, they should find us jobs. We are falling victim to politics. As the elephants fight, it is the grass that gets stamped upon,” said worker Osman Nuri Yazıcı, who added that he had four children to support back in Turkey.The protesting workers, whose permits will expire Jan. 1, are all employees of Yılmazlar Holding, a conglomerate that does extensive construction work in Israel.Nearly 500 workers, wearing red and white clothes, protested the Turkish government while waving Turkish flags and carrying placards that said “Israel-[Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan hand in hand, sending Turkish workers back,” “Why did you cancel our work permits?” “Dear PM [Erdoğan], what do you want from workers abroad?” and “800 workers here feed 8,000 at home.” Some wore T-shirts saying “Government, don’t mess with us” while other also chanted slogans such as “We are workers, we will win.”Yılmazlar’s name came to the fore after a May 31 raid by Israeli commandos on a Turkish aid ship that left nine Turkish activists dead. Afterward the company’s chief executive, Ahmet Reyiz Yılmaz, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the Turkish government’s “anti-Israel rhetoric” was jeopardizing $100 million-worth of Yılmazlar operations in Israel.Yılmazlar has been operating in Israel for the past 16 years. It has carried out about $1 billion worth of projects there, including construction of the Defense Ministry and Air Force buildings.Hmmmmm.....Erdogan might find them jobs in Iran,don't know if they're well paid?Read the full story here.

• HT:Imra.Sunni Religious Scholars Condemn Iranian Television Series for Insulting the Companions of the Prophet.Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat – The Sunni community in Iran has called on the Iranian regime to ban a television drama that "insults the Prophet's companion Abdullah Bin Zubayr [Ibn al-Awwam]" and other companions of the Prophet. Religious scholars at Egypt's Al-Azhar University have condemned the Iranian regime allowing the broadcast of the Persian-language series "Mokhtarnameh" [Al-Mokhtar's Message] on Iranian television. The scholars said that this televisions series includes "insults to the companions of the Prophet, including Abdullah Bin Zubayr." The Al-Azhar scholars also stressed that "Al-Azhar University does not accept any insult of the Prophet's companions."For his part, official Al-Azhar spokesman Mohamed al-Tahtawi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Al-Azhar University categorically rejects any insult of the companions of the Prophet, or the Prophet's wives.He also called on the Iranian authorities to take immediate action "to prevent the outbreak of sectarian violence."For his part, Dr. Mohamed Rafat Osman, a member of Al-Azhar University's Islamic Research Academy said that "under the provisions established by Islam…it is prohibited to insult any human being, whether he is present or absent, alive or dead, and this is something that is agreed upon by the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet."This series has [also] been the subject of controversy in Iran between Shiite religious scholars over the portrayal of certain historic Islamic figures. Whilst Sunni groups have condemned this series, with the Imam of the Ahl Al-Sunna group in the Sistan and Baluchistan province of Iran issuing a fatwa prohibiting people from watching this series, and calling on the Iranian authorities to ban it from television.Mokhtarnameh is a television series based upon the life of al-Mokhtar Ibn Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi who sought to avenge the death of Imam al-Hussein at the Battle of Karbala, killing many of those who took part in this battle before being killed, along with many of his supporters, outside of Kufu, Iraq.Read the full story here. 

• HT:TheBrusselsJournal.Democracy, Obama Style.No respect for Parliament. No respect for judges. No respect for the constitution. December gave us a taste of what’s coming in 2011.Obama’s administration grabs the power to regulate the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a board of five people who are selected and nominated by the President. The FCC declared herself authorized to define rules about how and what can be done on the Internet. With this decision she brings the American Internet under the control of the US government. Three people, all selected by Obama, two women and one man, approved the decision against the two men, chosen by Bush during his presidency. The FCC took her decision although over 300 of the federal senators and House representatives of the 535 in total, a clear majority, had written a statement opposing such power grab. The aversion will certainly be even larger in the new 2011 Congress. The FCC action, with full support of Obama, is also in direct violation of the decision of a federal judge, who in April 2010 decided the FCC has no power to regulate the Internet.The real question is: will the Republicans in Congress be encapsulated, or will they push bold fundamental changes, by, if necessary, closing down Obama’s government, by not voting any spending budget to force Obama into compromises.Obama knows the wheels of the judicial systems turn very slowly, that it will take many years before eventually the Supreme Court decides on Obama’s policies.How far from tyranny is the Head of the Republic removed with his disdain for Congress and the Judicial System?MFS - Hmmmm....It's obvious he will do whatever he can to pretend to be the people's President,if he can not master the votes for a second term,then he will seize power,he will have had another two years to prepare for this final attack on "America the land of the free". Read the full story here.

• HT:IslamInEurope.Germany: Airports demand racial profiling to fight terror.Christoph Blume, the head of Düsseldorf Airport, told daily Rheinische Post that air passengers should be divided into different risk categories, meaning they would be subject varying degrees of scrutiny by airport security.“That way, the security system could become more effective to everyone’s benefit,” said Blume, who will take the helm of the ADV airport association next month.He said profiling passengers according to characteristics such as race, religion and country of origin would allow German airports to avert a further tightening of security.Read the full story here.

• Iranian government stirs up antisemitism with invented massacre.The threatened desecration of the graves of two Jewish saints is just one result of the spreading of fabricated stories.On 10 December, 250 Basij students from Abu Ali Sina University in the Iranian city of Hamedan gathered in front of the mausoleum of two Jewish saints and threatened to tear it down, in revenge for what the students claimed were Israeli threats to infringe on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.The graves are those of Esther and Mordechai. Esther was the second wife of Xerxes I (the Great) (486-465BCE, also known as Khashayarsha in Persian), the fourth Zoroastrian king of the Achamenid Empire. Esther was a Jew who moved to Persia after the Babylonian captivity of the Israelites (6th century BCE). King Xerxes also appointed Mordechai, who was Esther's cousin and had raised her, as a royal court adviser. The king's vizier, Haman, plotted to kill Mordechai, who refused to bow down to Haman, and all the Jews of Persia. That plan was foiled and King Xerxes, who wanted to protect his country's Jews, hanged Haman and his 10 sons instead.Since then, every year on the 14th day in the Hebrew calendar month of Adar, Jews everywhere celebrate the deliverance of Persia's Jews from death. Children and adults go to synagogues and read the Book of Esther all over the world, including in Iran.The hostile act of tearing down part of the tomb is unprecedented in the modern history of Iran, as graves of Jewish saints in Iran (which also include Daniel) have always been considered holy and respected by Jews and Muslims alike. In fact, many Muslim families go to such graves to pray for the health of their loved ones, alongside their Jewish compatriots.Even more worrying is the revisionism of Jewish history flourishing in Iran under the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.The narrative being promoted by this regime is that it was Mordechai who was a murderer because he ordered the massacre of more than 70,000 Iranians. This is being called an "Iranian holocaust".The eminent Oxford University Professor Homa Katouzian, in his book Sadeq Hedayat: His Work and His Wondrous World, traces this fabrication back to an article published in Iran-e Bastan in 1934.According to Professor Katouzian, this publication, "imitating German antisemitism, fabricated sensational reports of Jewish plots". Not only did this publication reverse the facts in the story of Esther and Mordechai but it also, among other things, distributed reports that Jews were "selling fatal medicine to Muslims". One of the goals of such articles was to emphasise and promote what it saw as the Aryan roots and historical commonality between Iran and Nazi Germany. Such false reports provided the foundation for anti-Jewish Islamist campaigns in the 1940s.For years afterwards, no one took notice of such antisemitic material, let alone promoted it. This has all changed since Ahmadinejad took power in 2005. These days one can hear about the fabricated and highly anti-Jewish "Iranian holocaust" from Iranian politicians.This was seen in September this year. Hussein Kanaani Moghadam, secretary general of the Green party (a separate party – not related to Mousavi or Karroubi) and a member of the central committee of the Osulgarayan coalition, stated in an interview: "According to what is said in the Torah, in the time of Khashayarshah (Xerxes), through Esther and Mordechai, Jews were told that they had three days to kill Iranians and it is said that 75,000 Iranian women, children, old and young were massacred by them."Hmmmmm....."History A L'Iranienne"?Read the full make belief story here.HT:IsraelMatzav.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.9 Signs That The Price Of Oil In 2011 Will Soar Well Beyond 100 Dollars A Barrel.Will we see the price of oil rise significantly in 2011? Unfortunately, that appears to be precisely where we are headed. Despite stubbornly high unemployment and a very sluggish economy in the United States, the price of oil continues to creep upward. Part of it can be attributed to the fact that the U.S. dollar and other major currencies are continuing to lose value relative to all commodities, and part of it can be attributed to the continuing rise in the global demand for oil. But those factors alone do not explain what we are seeing. Expectations are a very powerful thing, especially for financial markets, and right now there is an overwhelming consensus that oil prices are going to rise in 2011. The big oil companies, the big oil exporting nations and the big investment banks are nearly all in agreement that a higher price for oil is coming and the speculators smell money and are starting to jump on to the bandwagon.Those who "play the game" in the financial markets are always looking for the next big trend. Right now, a whole lot of people are talking about oil being one of those trends. It is considered to be a "hot" investment for 2011, and unfortunately the underlying economic fundamentals seem to support a higher price for oil.The following are 9 signs that the price of oil in 2011 will soar well beyond 100 dollars a barrel....Hmmmm.....Number 10. Iran is chairman of the Opec!Read the full story here.

• HT:WindsOfJihad.Cyprus: Turkish Troops Attack Churches for Christmas.More Islamic supremacism from the reislamicized Turks with imperialistic aspirations of an Ottoman Empire. The local Cyprus TV and radio are reporting since Christmas evening that troops in northern occupied Cyprus entered at least seven Greek Orthodox churches, stopped the worship services, threw out the people, and in at least one case forced a priest to remove his clerical dress.Why are the Muslims occupying Cyprus?Hmmmmm.....Anyone still doubting in what direction Turkey is heading?Get Turkey out of Nato.Read the full story here.