MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Breaking News!Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot and killed at Public Event! Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with three of her aides by a gunman Saturday morning outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, Fox News has confirmed.Twelve others were shot as well at Giffords' first public event called "Your Corner." The gunman is in custody.Giffords was taken to a hospital but the condition of those shot was not immediately known, a senior congressional aide told Fox News.Rep. Giffords, who is 40, is married to an astronaut. Jonathan Allen of Politico says that Giffords is involved with immigration and armed services issues.Eight others were shot, including three of the Arizona Democrat's aides, at Giffords' "Your Corner" event held at a Safeway grocery story. A suspect is in custody.The three staffers who were shot worked out of Giffords' Arizona office.Congres woman shooting Update !At least four people are dead, University Medical Center spokesman Darci Slaten said.Her husband Mark Kelly scheduled to command the Shuttle Endeavor in April...he is reportedly on his way to Tuscon w their daughter. Read the story as it develops Here,Live update here.Video report here.

• Twitter Subpoenaed by U.S. Government for Wikileaks Accounts.The U.S. government has asked Twitter to hand over private messages sent to and from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other WikiLeaks staffers. In all likelihood, it's also contacting other web services Assange may have used to get contact details and personal information about Assage's activities and supporters.
  According to a report just filed by The New York Times, Twitter has been subpoenaed by the U.S. government in connection to the ongoing WikiLeaks investigation.Twitter, like most web companies, has a "spy guide," documents pertaining to compliance with request from governments and law enforcement into criminal investigations. These requests are supposed to be accompanied by subpoenas or warrants.According to Twitter's specific guide [PDF], "In accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, non-public information about Twitter users is not released unless we have received a subpoena, court order or other legal process document." Such requests would only be valid if sent by law enforcement.In this particular case, every indication would point to the speedy release of Assange's direct messages and other data to the U.S. government.The court ordered Twitter to surrender the above information for accounts belonging to Assange, WikiLeaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning (widely suspected to be the original source responsible for transfering cables to WikiLeaks), and several WikiLeaks associates and volunteers, including Birgitta Jonsdottir, Rop Gongrijp, and San Francisco-based programmer Jacob Appelbaum.Google and other web and social media services all have the same kinds of spy guide documents governing compliance; we'd be shocked if Twitter was the only company that got a WikiLeaks-related court order to surrender information. And we're pretty sure other services have much more sensitive information on Assange et al.Hmmmmm......"A Tweet to far"?Read the full story here.

• WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas.Call comes after it emerges that US has tried to force Twitter to release WikiLeaks members' private details.WikiLeaks has demanded that Google and Facebook unseal any US court subpoenas they have received after it emerged that a court in Virginia had ordered Twitter secretly to hand over details of accounts and use of the micro-blogging site by five figures associated with the group, including Julian Assange.Amid strong evidence that a US grand jury has begun a wideranging trawl for details of what networks and accounts WikiLeaks used to communicate with Bradley Manning, the US serviceman accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of sensitive government cables, some of those named in the subpoena said they would fight disclosure."Today, the existence of a secret US government grand jury espionage investigation into WikiLeaks was confirmed for the first time as a subpoena was brought into the public domain," WikiLeaks said in a statement today.The writ, approved by a court in Virginia in December, demands that the San Franscisco based micro-blogging site hand over all details of accounts and private messaging on Twitter – including the computers and networks – used by five individuals.Those include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Manning, Icelandic MP Brigitta Jonsdottir and Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp. Three of those – Gonggrijp, Assange and Jonsdottir – were named as "producers" of the first significant leak from the US cables cache, a video of an Apache helicopter attack that killed civilians and journalist in Baghdad.The broad-reaching legal document also targets an account held by Jacob Applebaum, a US computer programmer whose computer and phones were examined by US officials in July after he was stopped returning from Holland to the US.The court issuing the subpoena said it believed that it believed that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe Twitter held information "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation."It also ordered Twitter not to notify the targets of the subpoena, which the company successfully challenged.The court order crucially demands that Twitter hand over details of source and destination Internet Protocol addresses used to access the accounts, which would help investigators identify how the named individuals communicated with each other, as well as email addresses used.The emergence of the subpoena appears to confirm for the first time the existence of a secret grand jury empanelled to investigate whether individuals associated with WikiLeaks, and Assange in particular, can be prosecuted for alleged conspiracy with Manning to steal the classified documents."I think I am being given a message, almost like someone breathing in a phone," Jonsdottir said in a Twitter message.Twitter has declined comment on the claim, saying only that its policy is to notify its users, where possible, of government requests for information.
  The subpoena itself is an unusual one known as a 2703(d) which a recent Federal appeals court ruled was insufficient to order the disclosure of the contents of communication. Significantly, however, that ruling is binding in neither Virginia – where it was issued – or in San Francisco where Twitter is based.Assange has promised to fight the order, as has Jonsdottir, who said in a Twitter message that she had "no intention to hand my information over willingly".Gonggrijp praised Twitter for notifying him and others that the US had subpoenaed his details. "It appears that Twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in," Gonggrijp said. "Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me."Read the full story here.

• HT:Aim.Mideast Christians Victims of 'Cleansing': Sarkozy.PARIS -- French president Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.A series of attacks against Christians "looks more and more... like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," Sarkozy said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.A deadly attack on a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on January 1 killed 21 people.An al-Qaida-linked website had published threats against that church and other Coptic communities in various countries.Forty-four worshippers and two priests died in an attack on a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad in October, the worst of a series of attacks against Christians in Iraq.Read the full story here.

• HT:Spectator.BREAKING: CBO Says Repealing ObamaCare Would Reduce Net Spending by $540 Billion.The Congressional Budget Office, in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021. That number represents the cost of the new provisions, minus Medicare cuts. Repealing the bill would also eliminate $770 billion in taxes. It's the tax hikes in the health care law (along with the Medicare cuts) which accounts for the $230 billion in deficit reduction.Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan: With Salmaan Taseer out of way, Sherry Rehman next target of Taliban.Praising the commando of Pakistan's elite force Mumtaz Qadri for assassinating Punjab Governor Salaam Taseer, the Taliban warned that all those who opposed the blasphemy law would meet a similar fate.Angered by the governor's opposition to a controversial blasphemy law, Qadri shot him in a market as Islamabad on Tuesday. The blasphemy law was introduced by Pakistani military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul Haq in 1980s.Under the law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty but activists say the vague terminology has led to its misuse.Only recently, Pakistan People's Party leader and former information minister Sherry Rehman submitted a bill in the national assembly to amend the blasphemy law.Talking about amendment in the law TTP spokesperson Ihsanullah Ihsan said, "Our next target is Sherry Rehman who introduced the bill to the Parliament She wants to make amendments in religion. Other politicians who supported this move are also on our radar. All secular lawmakers and politicians should know that we monitor their activities and we can target them any time."Ihsan added, "Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Salman Taseer is hero for all the Muslims. He has encouraged Muslims around the world and Taliban appreciates his efforts. He gave a message to the world that whoever insulted the Prophet would not be spared."The Taliban spokesperson criticised those who attended Taseer's funeral. "Under Islamic law no one should offer prayers at a funeral." Allama Afzal Chisti of Ulema Wing of PPP led the funeral prayers on Wednesday.Interior Minister Rehman Malik also advised Rehman, a former journalist, to leave the country for her own safety. Malik told her on phone to leave the country at the earliest because “fanatics are hell bent to take her life due to her views on blasphemy laws.”Malik cited intelligence reports that extremists were after her and advised her to go abroad for the time being. Rehman, however, refused to leave the country. She told Malik that she would not be attending the National Assembly session due to inadequate security in the federal capital. She also told Malik that she felt more secure in Karachi than in Islamabad.Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since November when a court sentenced a Christian mother of four to death, in a case that has exposed deep rifts in the troubled Muslim nation.Hmmmm....."The Religion of Peace".Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.Unfortunately, Obamacare Is Not Going To Be Repealed In 2010, It Is Not Going To Be Repealed In 2011 And There Is A Good Chance That It May Never Be Repealed.Right now the mainstream media is paying a lot of attention to the effort by Republicans in the House of Representatives to repeal the health care reform law that Barack Obama and the Democrats crammed down the throats of the American people during the last session of Congress. House Republicans are calling their legislation the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act", and the House of Representatives is expected to pass the legislation on January 12th. However, there are two huge problems. One is that Democrats control the U.S. Senate and they have declared that there is not a chance in the world that a repeal of the health care reform law will get through them. Secondly, even if a repeal of the health care law did somehow magically get to Barack Obama's desk, he has sworn that he would veto it. So unfortunately, Obamacare is not going to be repealed any time soon.So what do the American people think about all of this?Well, according to a Gallup Poll released this week, 46 percent of Americans are in favor of repealing Obamacare while 40 percent of Americans do not want it repealed.The numbers are pretty close. Republicans overwhelmingly want it repealed while Democrats overwhelmingly want to keep the new health care law.But perhaps someone should be paying attention to what doctors are saying about this new legislation. This new health care law is driving thousands upon thousands of American doctors out of the profession. In fact, according to one absolutely stunning new poll, 40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to bail out of the profession over the next three years.Considering the fact that the U.S. was already facing a very serious shortage of doctors over the next several decades, this has the potential to be a national crisis of mammoth proportions.Today, there are nearly a million practicing physicians in the United States. So what in the world is going to happen if several hundred thousand of them actually do throw up their hands and head for the exits?Yes, this is really happening. The U.S. health care system is actually starting to come apart at the seams.Sadly, there is absolutely no chance that the new health care law is going to be repealed in the next two years. If Barack Obama wins in 2012, that will mean that we are facing at least six years until it has any chance of being repealed.Meanwhile, this new health care law is going to be savagely ripping apart our health care system and our entire economy.But this is the new Amerika - where "The American Dream" is rapidly becoming "The American Nightmare".
  Hmmmm......"Change you can see"?And once America is completely disintegrating who will "Controll" what is left?Read the full story here.

• HT:ThePeoplesCube.My Favorite Progressive Talking Point in Jeopardy.I heard a very well versed progressive woman say this very thing to Comrade Red Square in a Houston book store."If it weren't for the Iraq War, we would have enough money for health care and other programs and there would be no deficit."For years, we had it as a solid gold talking point. In my opinion, it was our number one talking point, but now, I'm sad and concerned--we progressives are always sad and concerned, don't you know? Only now, I came across this very disturbing chart showing the war spending in comparison to all other spending. What! I said. This cannot be. No! No! No! The war spending in this chart appears miniscule. What will we do if the masses get a look at this chart? Keep it to yourself, and don't e-mail this post to anyone.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan: Orgy of hate.WHERE is the state? In the days since Punjab governor Salman Taseer`s assassination, the hate speech and incitements to violence have been openly, matter-of-factly and brazenly spread. What began as `celebrations` by obscure, extremist clerics has quickly snowballed into even mainstream religious party leaders seemingly endorsing the murder of Mr Taseer. And thus far there has been nothing, not a peep, not a meaningless arrest, not a word of condemnation from the government or state officials against the orgy of self-congratulatory hatred swatches of the population have been wallowing in since the governor`s assassination.The `mainstream` conservative and religious political party leaders who appear to be endorsing Mr Taseer`s killing have set a new low in what passes for acceptable public discourse. It is one thing for some illiterate, small-time `religious leaders` in parts of the country where modernity has yet to visit to spew out odious thoughts; it is quite another to see familiar political faces publicly expressing sympathy for a murderer and his motive. What appears to have happened is that when the initial eulogising of Mumtaz Qadri`s act by the far right was not condemned by any quarter, other conservative elements were emboldened to come forward with their own expressions of support and understanding for Mr Taseer`s killer. Perversely, a call by obscure clerics gathered under the banner of an equally obscure religious group to not give Mr Taseer a Muslim burial resulted in senior clerics associated with renowned religious institutions in Lahore declining to lead the funeral prayers for the late governor. Whether it was done out of fear or conviction is not known, but the chilling effect threats from extremists can have is very clear.Read the full story here.

• Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans.STANFORD, Calif. - President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today. It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said. That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The move also is likely to please privacy and civil liberties groups that have raised concerns in the past over the dual roles of police and intelligence agencies. The announcement came at an event today at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, where U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Schmidt spoke. The Obama administration is currently drafting what it's calling the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which Locke said will be released by the president in the next few months. (An early version was publicly released last summer.)"We are not talking about a national ID card," Locke said at the Stanford event. "We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities." The Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office to work on this project, Locke said. Details about the "trusted identity" project are unusually scarce. Last year's announcement referenced a possible forthcoming smart card or digital certificate that would prove that online users are who they say they are. These digital IDs would be offered to consumers by online vendors for financial transactions.Hmmm....The original idea of the card came from Microsoft boss Bill Gates after seeing years ago the new Belgium micro chipped identity card!With such a card logging on a public computer would still tell the Gov who's on that computer.Big Brother in overdrive?Read the full story here.

• China's New Fighter Jet Could Pose 'Terrifying' Challenge to U.S. Fleet.While the Pentagon downplays China’s rollout this week of what appears to be a jet fighter designed using sophisticated stealth technology, military experts are warning that the aircraft – reportedly capable of besting America’s F-22 in speed and maneuverability – could pose the greatest threat yet to U.S. air superiority.Decorated Navy fighter pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a Top Gun graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School who flew 44 combat missions over Iraq, says, “It’s probably leaps and bounds above where we are, and that’s terrifying.”“As a former Navy fighter pilot, going up against something that’s stealthy, highly maneuverable and with electronic systems more capable than mine -- that’ll keep me up at night,” said Buckley, now chief strategy officer at Fox3 Options LLC.Buckley said photos posted online of the radar-evading Chengdu J-20 jet fighter lead him to believe the aircraft has great stealth capabilities, based on what appears to be a bumpy exterior possibly housing stealth technology, and the lack of external components, such as a gas tank and missiles.“It was built to reduce radar signatures. You can tell it has some serious stealth technology,” he said. “My F-18 looks like an 18-wheeler on radar. That thing might not even show up.”“We used be No. 1 at having the leading technology. ... Now, we’re kind of in catch-up mode, where we’ve never really been before.”Hmmmm.....Obama "Lets cut the defence budget".Read the full story here.

• HT:Northeast Intelligence Network.Fish & Bird kills: are we getting answers or being placated?7 January 2011: Readers looking for reassuring evidence that the recent massive die offs of fish and birds will find comfort in knowing that such events are historically not all that uncommon. Weather, pollution, parasites and disease are reported as the major culprits behind such events, even as reported yesterday by Glenn Beck. That appears to be the “safe, middle-of-the-road” explanation. It might even be the correct explanation. But what if it’s not?Also, why are we treated with absurd explanations by our government when the truth, if it is indeed the truth, would be more convincing?Before dismissing the concerns of us regular folks by citing statistics and general causes, however, shouldn’t we be getting answers that are specific to the latest series of incidents? Or at least have someone asking direct and specific questions instead of relying on anecdotal evidence?After all, we are supposedly at war, and our enemy has made it clear their intent to use biological and chemical weapons. If that is indeed a legitimate threat, doesn’t it make sense to know the truth before shrugging the events off to natural happenstance?After receiving several e-mails about this matter, including one from a soldier with extensive biological and chemical experience currently serving in Iraq, I thought it was time to begin conducting my own investigation.Hmmmm.....the Truth is out there"?Read the full story here.

• Obama strongly backs US trials for terror suspects.WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama forcefully declared his support Friday for U.S. civilian trials of Guantanamo detainees, pledging to overturn language in a sweeping defense bill that would effectively block such trials anytime soon."The prosecution of terrorists in federal court is a powerful tool in our efforts to protect the nation and must be among the options available to us," the president said. "Any attempt to deprive the executive branch of that tool undermines our nation's counterterrorism efforts and has the potential to harm our national security."Obama made the comments even while signing the legislation, which also allows funding for a wide range of military and national security programs that the president said were too important to dispense with.The language reflects deep concerns in Congress and the country about Guantanamo detainees being tried on U.S. soil. The first Guantanamo detainee tried in federal court was acquitted in November on all but one of more than 280 charges that he took part in the al-Qaida bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. That case ignited strident opposition to any further such trials.Obama's comments drew a swift rebuke from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky."The American people strongly oppose the president's goal of transferring these terrorists to the United States for trial and detention. And there is overwhelming bipartisan opposition in the Congress as evidenced by the legislation the president signed Friday," McConnell said. "When it comes to terrorism, we should err on the side of protecting the American people."Hmmm......"They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• Get ready for gender-neutral passports.“They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’”The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, according to the State Dept.“The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father’,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services Brenda Sprague. “They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’”A statement on the State Department website noted: “These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.".Sprauge said the decision to remove the traditional parenting names was not an act of political correctness.Some conservative Christians are outraged over the decision.“Only in the topsy-turvy world of left-wing political correctness could it be considered an ‘improvement’ for a birth-related document to provide less information about the circumstances of that birth,” Family Research Council president Tony Perkins wrote in a statement to Fox News Radio. “This is clearly designed to advance the causes of same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual parenting without statutory authority, and violates the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act.”Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, agreed.“It’s part of an overall attempt at political correctness to diminish the distinction between men and women and to somehow suggest you don’t need both a father and a mother to raise a child successfully,” said Jeffress. “(This decision) was made to make homosexual couples feel more comfortable in rearing children.”Hmmmm....Where are the days that politicians would kiss babies in order to gain votes?Read the full story here.

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Submission II is too risky.Ayaan Hirsi Ali says she will not make sequels to her controversial 2004 film , an attack on the treatment of Muslim women. In an interview for Dutch TV, the former Dutch politician said the risk to the crew and cast would be too great.The script for is finished and a third part was planned, Ms Hirsi Ali says, but it would be too difficult to guarantee anonymity for producers or actors.Submission criticised alleged violence against women in Islam, and featured images of women’s bodies painted with verses from the Qur’an. After the film was aired on Dutch TV, its director Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist. The filmmaker and broadcaster was an outspoken critic of Islam. He had been open about his role in collaborating with Ms Hirsi Ali on Submission, which some Muslims criticised as blasphemous.Fanatics Submission II was to have tackled the oppression of homosexuals in Islam. In part three God would have been portrayed speaking directly. Although Ms Hirsi Ali says she feels too great a sense of responsibility to go ahead with the sequels, she denies her decision was based on fear. Creating a climate of fear was precisely the aim of Muslim fanatics who reject any criticism of Islam, she says. As a feminist Islam critic she argued that Dutch politics had ignored the oppression of Muslim women.Hmmmm....."Silence or I Kill You?"Read the full story here.

• HT:Serbienna.Bosnian Muslim town Tuzla griped by rape, violence.Bosnian Muslim town of Tuzla is convulsing in a grip of violence and rape after several young females have been ganged raped by multitude of Muslims.On New Years Eve, a 19 year old student was gang raped by 2 armed men, just a day later after another one was also ganged raped at a gun point. Later, 3 unknown men ganged raped another female after they got hold of her on the streets.Before these new year rapes, a 25-year old Muslim, Samel Catic, raped a 50-year old woman in the city then stabbed her 15-year old son in the back.Then, 4 men kidnapped a guy and his girlfriend, then took his girl to the village of Pasci where they ganged raped her.In Tuzla’s Shi Village area, a 29-year old female was assaulted then raped by a 34 year old man while another Muslim from Montenegro came to Tuzla and raped a married woman.A 73-year old Tuzla man was arrested after a 13 year old girl delivered a baby that was conceived after the old man raped the child.Muslim political party, BOSS, has issued a communique in which it says that Tuzla is in the state of lawlessness and that the power of the city is held by organized criminal groups that are victimizing the the public and raping women at random.The Association of Muslim women of Tuzla and several other groups are planning a “spontaneous” demonstration on the streets of Tuzla against rape.The protest, titled “I’m Afraid!” is scheduled for Sunday.Earlier in 2010, 7 Muslim men held an underage female as sexual slave and raped her for days on end. The men brought in an 11-year old boy to show him “how it’s done”.Bosnia is experiencing a tremendous escalation of all sorts of gruesome violence and criminals are using inventive ways to kill their victims.Hmmmm.....Welcome to A.D. 620?Read the full story here.