MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Obama’s war on democracy.President’s campaign forces seize Wisconsin statehouse.Message to Wisconsin taxpayers: President Obama and the Democratic National Committee have declared war on you. Message to other states: You’re next.The political unrest in Wisconsin, billed as some kind of grass-roots uprising, is being organized and directed by Barack Obama‘s Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee. This development is consistent with Mr. Obama‘s instructions for supporters to “get in the face” of those who oppose them, but in this case, they are seeking to derail a lawful legislative process.That the protesters speak in a different voice can be seen in the signs they carry. Many compare Mr. Walker to Hitler, Mussolini or Hosni Mubarak. One placard had the slogan “Repeal Walker” with the governor’s head in sniperscope cross hairs. This is the symbolism that Democrats recently denounced as “hate-filled rhetoric,” and it is far from the voice of the public. It is rather the voice of an entitled class that seeks by any means to stop its free ride from coming to an end.The public educators engaged in the demonstrations, many of whom earn more than $100,000 in salary and benefits, seem to think the normal rules of professional conduct do not apply to them. Many falsely called in sick to engage in self-serving political activism, apparently without fear of being disciplined. A group of Madison East High School students engaged in what a union organizer called an “unplanned walkoff” of the school grounds, but that the students said was organized truancy instigated by their teachers.These demonstrations may be dramatic and TV-friendly, but White House operatives and their union cronies are on the wrong side of history. The American people are fed up with a sense of entitlement, waste and abuse in government service. Americans in the private sector have lost jobs, been forced to take pay cuts to continue working and have reduced spending just to make ends meet. Government workers face no such jeopardy and instead enjoy automatic raises, regardless of performance. The measures causing all the ruckus in Wisconsin would require public-sector employees (excluding police and firefighters) to contribute half of their pension costs and at least 12 percent of their health care costs, which is a better deal than most Americans get. The public sector employees also would lose collective bargaining rights for anything other than pay. These are reasonable sacrifices to make in a time of fiscal crisis, and by resisting them, the demonstrators expose themselves as selfish and unreasonable.The White House and its allies have backed similar demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana, and more may be planned for other states. One can reasonably ask why Mr. Obama is spending his time seeking to undermine democratic processes in U.S. state legislatures and ignoring the pleas of Iranians trying to throw off the shackles of Islamic rule.Hmmmm.........Democracy versus Dictatorship has begun.If ever a President needed impeachment it's this one.Read the full story here.

• WTF ??? Obama allocates $1.57 billion to Egypt in 2012 budget !To The Muslim Brotherhood?Source 13:39. Snapshot here.

• Muslims Abduct Coptic Christian Woman in Egypt.Muslims broke into the home of a Coptic family this afternoon and abducted their 18-year-old daughter Nesma Sarwat. The home belongs to the building contractor who built the controversial St. Mary and St. Michael church in Talbiya, within the Omraniya neighborhood of Giza. The abductors wrote messages on the home's wall, the messages said "Islam is the solution" and "The Church has to be demolished." The abductors also wrote the names of the other family members on the wall.Neighbors heard voices, but no one saw the abductors as the whole operation took less than ten minutes and blood was found on the stairs and in the flat, reported Coptic activist Mariam Ragy of Free Coptic Voice advocacy. "I believe writing the names of the rest of the family might mean that their turn is coming," said the neighbor.The Family of the abducted woman called the security forces to the scene.Hmmmm.....Give the Muslim Brotherhood even more support Mr "Christian" President?Read the full story here.

• HT:Examiner.Looming Government Shutdown Anarchy?By James Simpson. As the battle of the budget wages on, and the March 4th D-Day moves inexorably closer, and with the Continuing Resolution passed in the House of Representatives early this morning, including two amendments by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to defund Obamacare, the media is increasingly raising the specter of a possible government shutdown. What every Republican, every patriot, every person conceivably affected needs to understand is how this will impact average Americans.Will airports shut down because air traffic controllers have gone on leave? Will those mean Republicans throw granny out in the street when Social Security stops sending payments? Will everyone who receives checks in the mail see their income dry up because the Post Office shuts down?Will welfare mothers have to toast rats on a spit to feed their children?The Democrats will tell you that and more. A Google search of “government shutdown” brings up pages describing dire consequences. But if you follow the links you will see that this is more a reflection of leftist web domination than anything else.The greatest consequence of a government shutdown will be the Democrat-generated media hysteria we will have to put up with unless/until they get their way. They will demagogue at every opportunity, describing fantastic scenes of nationwide anarchy. They will do what they always do, about the only thing they do well, and in fact have already begun doing : They will lie. President Obama almost immediately threatened that Social Security checks would stop coming.Let me be absolutely clear here. There will be no disruption in Social Security, welfare, civil service retirement, or any other kind of open-ended mandatory program payments. The mail will not stop because the Post Office is largely self-funding (with you know, those stamps you buy to mail things with). Air traffic controllers will not go on furlough, jets will keep flying, the Border Patrol will keep on attempting to secure the border that Janet Napolitano wants unsecured, and our military will stay in the fight, however poorly and treasonously led by the current Commander-in-Chief.Will there be adverse effects? Absolutely. We are talking about a government shutdown. But they are not the dire consequences Democrats are hyping. The only people who will really notice the government shutdown are government workers themselves, and most importantly, Congressional Democrats.Boo hoo!Notice that the CRS Report link is directly from the Democrats’ House Rules Committee website. So the Democrats know all this, but they blatantly lie about it. They have an advantage in doing this because the media relentlessly echoes their message.One possibility remains. Given his penchant for defying law and the Constitution through regulatory subterfuge, President Obama could possibly change the ground rules and crank up the pressure by actually ordering the Social Security Administration to stop sending checks. Once again, it will be incumbent on Republicans to explain that Democrats are choosing to do this.This is a critical juncture in our Nation’s history. Republicans must demonstrate some intestinal fortitude for a change. A few days ago, I posted an article demanding that Speaker Boehner put up or shut up by allowing amendments to the Continuing Resolution that would defund Obamacare. Given that the House passed the CR with such provisions, it appears he decided to put up. Speaker Boehner and House Republicans, you have the voters on your side, you have the facts on your side, and never in our history has it been more important for you to take a principled stand. Do not back down in the face of the Democrats’ government shutdown threats. We don’t want that, but if Democrats insist on continuing to trash our country, I say, “bring it on!”Hmmmm........Well spoken as a true patriot!Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanThinker.Pundits muse how Obama can save his presidency. He cannot. Obama, politically, is doomed. Republicans do not have a Reagan waiting in the wings, but that will not matter in 2012. All Republicans are attempting to don the mantle of Reagan, who has thoroughly captured in death what he could not in life, the heart of the Republican Party. This grand and overriding figure, like FDR and Lincoln, will dominate the rhetoric and policies of the Republican Party. Republicans will not commit hara-kiri in 2012.So why is Obama certain to lose, even against very ordinary Republican nominees? Food, fuel and clothing are rising in price at dramatic rates. Food, especially, is critical. Every shopping cart in every grocery is pushed by an American who finds prices for ordinary things, like bread, milk, and cereal jumping higher and higher. At the checkout counter, the total keeps rising higher and higher. In the last six months, food prices have risen by over 27%. The size of the beef herds in America is at a fifty year low and the impact upon consumers will, inevitably, be sharp. Obama and his Kobe beef-eating friends, invariably rich, do not feel the pinch. All the rest of us do. Government could do a lot to lower food prices, from ending the Ethanol scam to overriding environmentalists who are turning some of the richest farmland on earth in California into a dust bowl.The flamboyant traveling of Obama and his wife will also be a counterpoint to the struggling of ordinary people. Once, many Americans indulgently absorbed his costly trips to fancy places as the giddy toys of a newly elected leader who grew up in uncertain conditions. Now each trip will remind Americans that he is feasted while they furtively seek the best prices for basic commodities at discount groceries -- knowing that Obama himself is not pushing a shopping cart anywhere or paying any checkout clerk.Worse still, Michelle Obama has adopted as her signature program the obesity of our children and healthy diets for all Americans. This will make millions of Americans simmer. The overweight are not the rich of America, who can afford watercress sandwiches, organic arugula and then a deep massage. The poor and the middle class can only afford to buy cheap foods, the foods on which the economically pressed throughout human history have eaten of necessity. What are these foods? The food of poor folk consists of pasta, bread, potatoes and other starchy foods. The last thing that the mothers of poor and middle class America need, while rushing to fix dinner for their family, are lectures from someone who can have, literally, any meal she fancies prepared for her at the taxpayers' expense instructing us on how to be better cooks.Hmmmm......."Let them eat cake"?Read the full story here.

• Palestinians want 'day of rage' against US.Fatah, Hamas leaders incensed by decision to veto UN vote to condemn Israeli settlements, saying it reveals lie behind calls for democracy, freedom in Arab world. 'We'll appeal to General Assembly,' says PLO secretary.Palestinian leaders called for a "day of rage" Saturday in the streets of West Bank cities after the US vetoed a UN condemnation of Israeli settlements Friday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the Palestinians would take their resolution to the UN General Assembly."Our decision today is to go to the General Assembly of the United Nations to adopt a resolution condemning settlements and asserting their illegality before returning to the Security Council to present a proposed condemnation of settlements," he told AFP."The American veto will not prevent us from appealing to international institutions and will not stop our desire for freedom and independence," he said."There is no American mediator in the peace process and that is why we have no choice but to turn to the General Assembly to call for a halt in settlement construction." "It appears the US does not see the dramatic changes going on in the region, which are bringing freedom and democracy," he said, adding that the Palestinians would "make use of our right to appeal to international institutions, because the settlements are illegal". After the decision was made public Friday night, senior PLO member Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians would "reconsider peace negotiations", adding that the US decision was "unbalanced" and hurt the peace process. On Saturday morning Hamas held a press conference in Gaza aimed at criticizing the US as well. "The American veto is an oppressive decision which disgraces the rights of the Palestinian people and reveals the truth about US support for all of the crimes the Zionist enemy commits in its service," said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.Meanwhile, Israel commended the US' decision. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that "the continuing attempts by the Palestinians to circumvent direct negotiations and impose a solution have been doomed to failure"."If the Palestinians are serious about solving the conflict they should halt the political attacks against Israel and renew direct negotiations immediately without excuses," he said.Hmmmmm.......Explanation of Vote on the Resolution on the Situation in the Middle East, including the question of Palestine, in the Security Council Chamber."Our opposition to the resolution before this Council today should therefore not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity. On the contrary, we reject in the strongest terms the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity".What's the chances Obama will stab Israel in the back?Read the full story here.

• House Votes to Block Funds for Obamacare.WASHINGTON (AP) – In rapid-fire action Friday, the Republican-controlled House voted to strip federal money from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and from Planned Parenthood and to bar the EPA from issuing global warming regulations.Upping the ante in the budget faceoff, the Obama administration warned that workers who distribute Social Security benefits might be furloughed if congressional Republicans force cuts in government spending.In a letter the Social Security Administration sent to its employees’ union, agency officials said that while no decision about furloughs had been made, they were possible “given the potential of reduced congressional appropriations.”The letter was circulated by congressional Democrats, who said such cuts could mean shuttered Social Security offices and delayed benefit payments. The letter’s distribution by Democrats underscored how the threat of jeopardizing Social Security payments is a potent political weapon.GOP lawmakers accused Democrats of “irresponsible scare tactics,” and said their proposed cuts would not affect benefits or force the Social Security Administration to close offices. Any furloughs “would result only if that decision were made by the administration,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in a written statement.Republicans are pushing a huge spending bill through the House that would impose deep cuts on domestic programs.The overall bill is the first step in an increasingly bitter struggle between Democrats and Republicans over how much to cut federal agencies’ funding over the second half of the budget year that ends Sept. 30. Current funding runs out March 4 and a temporary spending bill will be needed to avoid a government shutdown.Republicans say the legislation would pare Social Security’s administrative budget by $125 million from current levels plus another $500 million from a reserve fund. Democrats say the cut would leave the agency with $1.7 billion less than Obama requested.Much of Friday’s focus was on GOP efforts to block implementation of Obama’s health care overhaul, which dominated Congress’ work in 2009 and was enacted last year. An amendment by Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., to block the health care overhaul money was approved by a 239-187 vote.The GOP has virtually no chance of killing the law because of support for the program from Obama and the Democratic-run Senate, but House Republicans have been trying relentlessly to chip away at it.“It’s a law designed by those who wish to control every health care decision made by health care providers and patients, by every employer and employee, by every family and individual,” Rehberg said.Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the GOP effort would “put insurance companies back in charge, further demonstrating the majority’s special-interest priorities and hypocrisy on job creation and deficit reduction.”In Friday’s action, Republicans muscled through a proposal to block federal aid to Planned Parenthood by a 240-185 vote and won bipartisan support to reverse a proposed Obama administration rule that seeks to crack down of for-profit colleges and vocational schools. A proposal by Texas Republican Ted Poe to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to issue regulations on global warming passed by a 249-177 vote.Taken together, Friday’s developments pushed the GOP-dominated House and the president even further apart as a March 4 deadline looms. It may make it more difficult to reach agreement if House Republicans become wedded to positions opposed by Obama and the Democratic-led Senate.With a government shutdown possible if the spending measure isn’t extended at least temporarily, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, inflamed the situation Thursday by insisting that the GOP-controlled House would refuse to approve even a short-term measure at current spending levels.“Read my lips: We’re going to cut spending,” Boehner declared. Democrats immediately charged that Boehner was maneuvering Congress to the precipice of a government shutdown.Hmmmm.......The end is near?Read the full story here.

• Rights group: 84 dead in Libyan protests.Forces storm protest camp in Benghazi, attack hundreds of people calling for Gadhafi's removal.Libyan special forces stormed a two-day-old protest encampment in the country's second largest city, clearing the area early Saturday, said witnesses, as a human rights group estimated 84 people have died in the harsh crackdown on days of demonstrations.Internet was also cut around 2 am removing one of the few ways of Libyans can get out information about the waves of anti-government protests in one of the most isolated and repressive nations in North Africa.At 5 am on Saturday, special forces attacked hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, camped out in front of the courthouse in the eastern city of Benghazi, which has been a focus for the anti-government unrest. "They fired tear gas on protesters in tents and cleared the areas after many fled carrying the dead and the injured," one protester said over the phone from Benghazi. "This is a ghost city; we are all afraid that something big is going to happen in Benghazi today." The protester declined to be identified, echoing the fear of reprisal widespread among the people.The New York-based Human Rights Watch estimated 84 people have been killed across the east over the last three days, based on reports from hospitals and witnesses. Tolls given to the Associated Press Friday largely tally with those announced by the rights group.Residents in Benghazi, which has borne the brunt of the casualties, said just hours before the attack on the encampment, the mood was ebullient as protesters torched police stations, government buildings and took over the local radio station. They had set up tents on the street in front of the city's courthouse, overlooking the sea. "We were preparing for a day of celebrations but now we don't know what the day will look like," the protester said. Doctors in Benghazi said Friday that 35 bodies had been admitted to the hospital following attacks by security forces backed by militias, on top of more than a dozen killed the day before. At least five cities of eastern Libya have seen protests and clashes in recent days. In one of them, Beyida, a hospital official said Friday that the bodies of at least 23 protesters slain over the past 48 hours were at his facility, which was treating about 500 wounded, some in the parking lot for lack of beds.Forces from the military's elite Khamis Brigade moved into Benghazi, Beyida and several other cities, residents said. They were accompanied by militias that seemed to include foreign mercenaries, they added. Several witnesses reported French-speaking fighters, believed to be Tunisians or sub-Saharan Africans, among militiamen wearing blue uniforms and yellow helmets. The Khamis Brigade is led by Gadhafi's youngest son Khamis Gadhafi, and US diplomats in leaked memos have called it "the most well-trained and well-equipped force in the Libyan military." The witnesses' reports that it had been deployed could not be independently confirmed.The government made an apparent gesture aimed at easing protests. The news website Quryna, which has ties to Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, another of the leader's sons, said Friday that the country's national congress has halted its session indefinitely and said many state executives will be replaced when it returns. In addition to replacing top officials, it will endorse reforms to decentralize and restructure the government, it said. There have been few anti-government protests in the capital Tripoli, in the west of the country, and instead the government has staged large pro-Gadhafi rallies.Read the full story here. More here.

• HT:AlwaysOnWatch.Insurrection In America's Midwest? House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi came out strongly in support of Wisconsin teachers and students who are protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to public employees of collective bargaining rights.Pelosi told reporters Friday that the protests are “an extraordinary show of democracy in action.”“Wisconsin's workers, teachers and public servants must have a seat at the table to fight for a safe workplace,” she said. “I stand in solidarity with the Wisconsin workers fighting for their rights, especially for all the students and young people leading the charge.”Jesse Jackson also supports the protesters, as does Obama. The Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature have fled the scene in their version of a show of support for the protesters.Hmmm.......Sadly enough History repeats itself again : Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, refers to Germany from 1933 to 1945 when it was governed by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP.Now you have a "Charismatic leader" with union thugs on his side in America.If ever a President needed empeachment it's here and now in order to save America and the free world.Read the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.By Epaminondes.AFL CIO, Obama, Pelosi mistake 2011 for 1900, are not Walter Reuther and John L Lewis.If the government cannot by the vote of majorities of citizens in the state control it’s own financial health, then the survival of a democracy or republic is in fact in the control of the most ruthless, critically situated, or powerful grouping.You can read all sorts of things about the IMPORTANT MOMENT IN WISCONSIN where : Average MPS Teacher Compensation Tops $100k/year.If the unions WIN over the citizens voting in a govt specifically to change this situation, the citizens are not in control. Vocal minorities who can stage a TV event, and intimidate are in control.Never mind Al Qaeda, here is the end of the USA. Dollar by dollar, public union contract by public union contract. The public SEIU’s are fighting for their lives AGAINST THE PUBLIC. There may be a day when we need unions desperately again, but that day is not today. Today they are the parasite that kills the host.Hmmmm........Is this what Obama wanted all along?The Destruction of America?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.Lessons From Wisconsin: Big Government Handouts Promote Big Dependence.As school teachers and other publically employed members of unions in Wisconsin continue their march on that state’s capital, protesters frequently compare Republican Governor Scott Walker to Hitler or some other megalomaniac bent on destroying the hopes and dreams of the middle class. Some Wisconsin politicians, like state senator Fred Risser (D-Madison), paint the governor a despot by claiming that “[Walker] comes across more like a dictator and less like a leader.” And President Obama has asserted himself in the mix to assure union leaders he stands with them and believes the legislation Governor Walker supports will “just [make] it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally,” and that it is “an assault on unions.”As Rush Limbaugh put it: “Average, ordinary Americans who are paying the salaries and the health benefits and the pensions [of union members] are losing their jobs and losing their homes. [So] there isn’t any money anymore!” And this means average Americans, like those in Wisconsin, can’t afford to foot an extravagant bill for others any longer.Governor Walker campaigned on reining things in financially for Wisconsin, and he’s doing just that. Along the way, he’s hit on a nerve that proves the validity of the assertion that big government handouts promote big dependence.Hmmmm......."A fat pig doesn't feel that a skinny pig is hungry"?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Mousavi and His Wife Imprisoned at Home.Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard are under house arrest. All communications have been cut off and his body guards dismissed. Iranian security forces have taken over.It is unknown at this time exactly which organization the security forces belong to, however according to eyewitnesses, the security forces are spread throughout his neighborhood. Reports indicate that at the end of Akhtar Alley off of Pastor Street, where the Mousavi’s residence is located, a van has blocked off the entrance to the residence. Eyewitnesses have reported that the people inside the van have their faces covered and anybody approaching the house is immediately apprehended and questioned.Mousavi’s daughters, who had regular contacts with their parents, have not been able to talk to them and have been prevented by the security forces of approaching the residence. They were told by the security forces that they were doing their job per the warrant by the prosecutor, but they did not provide any proof of such warrant or any identification as to who they were.The last communiqué from Mousavi was on the 26th of Bahman, or Tuesday February 15th, and he has not been heard from since then! At this time his whereabouts are unknown.This information was obtained from the official website of the Green Movement’s leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Kaleme.com, via A Time to Betray.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Why Does Google's Wael Ghonim Heart Radical Sheikh Qaradawi?Poster boy of Egypt revolution, Google's ME exec, Wael Ghonim tweet yesterday.GhonimI loved Sheikh Qaradawi Khutbah today. Was truly inspired when he said: Today I'm going to address both Muslims and Christians. Respect! about 20 hours ago.He left out this (via AmericanThinker]MEMRI is so far the ONLY organization to report/translate the Qaradawi statements beyond merely opening the Rafah crossing -- ie. his call for the Jihad re-conquest of Jerusalem, was conveniently omitted by the MSM and Arab media accounts Ghonim conveniently left it out, didn't he? Hmmmm......I wonder about what Obama and the rest talked on Thursday ?Preparing the next revolution?Read the full story here.

• What you expect from a Bishop is the truth!Video : Bishop Nazir-Ali: 'Multiculturalism was a mistake'.Michael Nazir-Ali was until recently one of the highest profile serving bishops within the Church of England. He abruptly relinquished his post last year but he remains a hugely influential conservative voice in the established church. Within Britain he argues for the reaffirmation of society's Christian roots; beyond Britain he is committed to helping Christian minority communities in Muslim nations. He talks to Stephen Sackur.Hmmm....Bishop Nazir-Ali :"This is about an ideology that has to be met on those terms"!Read the full story here.

• UK - Tablighi Jamaat mosque accused of encouraging Muslim isolationism. The Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat, which is fighting to keep its east London mosque, is described as a supremacist movement at a planning inquiry.An Islamic group fighting to keep its east London mosque, near to the Olympics site, has been described by opponents as a "supremacist movement" that encourages isolationism from wider British society.Tablighi Jamaat, a global proselytising movement with tens of thousands of members in the UK, is trying to overturn an enforcement notice on its mosque, called the Riverine Centre, after temporary planning permission expired in 2006.A planning inquiry at Newham town hall will determine whether the group can continue to use the modest collection of buildings. On Thursday it heard that followers of Tablighi Jamaat were taught to "shun integration with all unbelievers in order to be uncontaminated Muslims and to isolate themselves from wider society".According to evidence from Dr Taj Hargey, an imam who runs a progressive Islamic educational centre in Oxford, the "isolationist dynamic" of Tablighi Jamaat has caused the growth of a "separatist Muslim enclave" in the streets around its Dewsbury headquarters.Hargey told the inquiry that Tablighi Jamaat had "achieved very little for the community" and rejected the group's assertions that closing the mosque would lead to the marginalisation of Muslim youth.He said: "Over the past 14 years that TJ has occupied the site it has furnished no proven track record of opening their facilities to the wider Muslim community, let alone non-Muslim community. In that time they have not even managed to create any facilities for women. The facility itself currently contributes substantially to marginalisation". He described it as a "supremacist movement with adverse implications for the government's community cohesion policies".Hmmmm........."Integration Islamic extremist style"?Read the full story here.

• Chinese imams to study theology in Turkey with new agreement.Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate and the Chinese Islam Association have reached an agreement for China’s current and future imams to study in Turkey. With the agreement, students from China, where 23 million Muslims live, will return to their native land after studying in Turkey. According to the agreement between the two institutions, Chinese imams will also receive in-service training in Turkey.Religious Affairs Directorate President Mehmet Görmez and a Chinese delegation led by association chairman Hilalunddin Chen Guangyan gathered in Ankara on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference following the meetings, Görmez said the Chinese delegation told the Turkish officials that they can send students every year to study in Turkish theological high schools and university departments. Guangyan said a new page has been opened regarding future cooperation between the two institutions.The meetings were marked as the first ones between Turkish and Chinese Islamic authorities.Hmmmm......Joint Chinese - Turkish military excercices ,now exchange of Islam students?Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• Muslim religion teacher who amassed £1.7m property portfolio using fraudulent mortgage claims while receiving benefits is jailed.A religious teacher who managed to amass a portfolio of ten properties using £1.7million of fraudulently-obtained mortgages has been jailed.Syed Shah, 45, paid just £24.60 in income tax over a five year period and also claimed benefits despite developing his impressive array of properties, costing the lenders he duped around £450,000. The dad-of-six from Bradford created a series of bogus identities and even invented a job for himself - saying he worked at a school which was in fact derelict - to get financial support.Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court on Thursday that Shah had benefited from his underhand plan to the tune of £391,000. Mr Sharp said Shah had also gone to some length to establish false employers references and had backed up his various aliases with false identification documents, including passports, with bank accounts opened in the appropriate names.He also repeatedly quoted that he worked for the Muslim Educational Centre at Boundary Farm in Leeds, but the Crown argued that this was in fact a facade for Shah's dishonesty because it was derelict. Jailing Shah for five years and eight months, Recorder of Leeds Judge Peter Collier QC, said: 'You persisted in a course of conduct over several years. 'It involved considerable planning in advance when you created bogus identities investing these people with bank accounts in which you put money sometimes many months in advance of when you were going to use those identities.''It was calculated to cause significant loss to financial institutions who you had persuaded to loan you monies by gross deceptions and the creation of bogus identities. 'I accept some were real people but they were not in this country, they were far away in Pakistan.Read the full story here.

• Suadi - Petition to lift ban on women driving.JEDDAH/TAIF: While helping with her family’s farm outside Taif, 15 year-old Nora Muslaah usually drives the truck that carries vegetables from the field to her family’s home.Although she has four younger brothers, as the oldest she feels it her duty to help out her family as much as possible, adding that she does not feel she is breaking the law. She feels she is only doing what so many Saudi women living outside major cities do everyday to assist their families.“Because most families have a lot of work to do in rural areas and are usually living spaced apart, unlike large cities, most police authorities here don’t strictly enforce the driving ban as long as women drive safely and don’t cause trouble. Everything is fine with most officials found to look the other way,” Muslaah said.In fact, according to some people, such as Saudi businessman and economist Abdullah Alami, the boundary lines on who can and cannot drive in the Kingdom is not exactly clear to prohibit women from driving.“Driving in Saudi Arabia is a right for men as well as women if you examine the Saudi Traffic Regulations,” Alami said. “Article 32 of the Traffic Regulations states that it is prohibited for any ‘person’ driving a vehicle without a driver’s license. Based on this rule, it does not limit licenses to only men but to a ‘person’ in general,” Alami explained.With this argument intact, Alami is currently leading a campaign to permanently lift the ban on women driving. In January, Alami sent a petition to the Shoura Council for review. The petition included the signatures of 136 Saudis, 38 of whom were men. Surprisingly, a majority of men said they do not mind if women drive.“The issue is based on trust and control within one’s own family,” said Hani Abdullah, a Saudi father of four.“I would prefer to allow my daughters and wife to drive rather than have a driver. In my opinion, drivers in many Saudi families these days are allowed to get too involved with families and know too many private things about them. This is against the principles of religion,” he added.The petition recently sent to the Shoura Council by Alami not only asks for the ban to be lifted but also includes requests for a women’s section to be included within the Kingdom’s police departments, driving schools and licenses for women, and stringent punishment for men who harass women drivers.Hmmm......I wish the ladies the best of luck.Read the full story here.

• Helen Thomas: Jews didn't have to leave Europe following Holocaust.The Jews did not have to leave Germany and Poland following the Holocaust since they were not being persecuted anymore, former White House correspondent Helen Thomas said in an interview on Thursday, adding that the Jews had no right to take other people's land. Thomas, 90, stepped down from her job as a columnist for Hearst News Service in June of last year after a rabbi and independent filmmaker videotaped her outside the White House calling on Israelis to get "out of Palestine.""There hasn't been persecution since that, since World War II. You don’t take other people's land," Thomas said in reference to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. When Behar asked Thomas if she realized that her comment regarding sending the Jews back to Poland and Germany were insensitive in view of the past the Jews share with those countries, the former correspondent said: "I also said Russia." "Well Russia, they had their share of anti-Semitic pogroms," the CNN interviewer said, to which Thomas answered: "They also had 25 million who died in World War II…. More than that." "They didn't have to go anywhere really, because they weren’t being persecuted anymore but they were taking other people's land," Thomas said, adding of the perceived insensitivity of her comments by saying: "Count how many Palestinians are in jails now, taken from their homes, a million refugees, is that sensitive?" Responding to Behar's question whether or not she considered herself to be anti-Semitic, Thomas said: "Hell no! I'm a Semite…of Arab background," and saying of the Jews: "They're not Semites. I mean, most of them are from Europe."When asked by Behar how would she revise her comments in view of the reactions they garnered, Thomas said: "Why do they have to go anywhere? They aren't being persecuted! They don't have the right to take other people's land. Under international law occupied land should not be annexed," Thomas said.Hmmmm......." Out of the overflow of the mouth the heart speaks - a Christian perspective. What's in our hearts will always influence the way we act."Read the full story here.

• Mid East : Egypt ,reopening of Rafah pass to Gaza imminent.(ANSAmed) - GAZA, FEBRUARY 18 - Egyptian authorities have informed Hamas in Gaza that, following the closure which has lasted several weeks, the Rafah pass linking the southern Sinai with the Strip will re-open in the coming hours.The provision, according to explanation, is ''humanitarian'' in nature and will last for three days.During this period of time travel will be open in both directions for the sick, students and those having an urgent need. It is not yet clear whether goods transport will also be allowed.Hamas leaders had been calling for an immediate and lasting opening of the pass following the fall of the regime under Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, partly to help assuage the state of poverty on the Strip.Hmmmm........"Humanitarian"?Read the full story here.

• Muslim Brotherhood attacks Egyptian Casinos.Following Egypt President Hosni Mubarak’s forced resignation from office a week ago, one of the biggest concern was that religious groups would gain control in the country before democracy even had a chance to grow. Although still early days, a series of targeted attacks on some of Cairo’s most famous casinos has signalled a possible shift to religious intolerance in Egypt’s troubled capital city.Over a week’s period, the Europa, the Arizona, the Andalous, the Gandool and the Ramses have all come under attack by gangs of rioters hell bent on destroying these businesses.For instance, on Tuesday the Europa Egypt hotel was attacked by “about 1,000 young guys” who either destroyed or pillaged property from the establishment, while a little earlier the Ramses casino was firebombed causing two fatalities.As these attacks continue, “the ones with the beards”, as a policeman described them, were largely being blamed for the attacks on casinos labelled “dens of vice” by Muslim theologians.As quoted by the Financial Times, the policeman then went on to explain: “We are all religious, its just that some of the people in our society, a narrow current of them, take this to an extreme. They destroy anyone who is not like them. They have been using the chaos to their advantage.”In the Islamic faith playing games is fine but as far as money is concerned, it is decreed “There should be no prizes except for contests in archery, camel-racing or horse-racing.”Consequently, the Islamic Sunni transnational movement known as The Muslim Brothers is being seen as a possibly perpetrator of the attacks in an attempt to enforce their religious agenda on the country.However, the group’s Cairo spokesman Essam al Erian was keen to dispel the rumours and said they were not responsible and that it was probably anti-revolution police trying to stir up sectarian violence.Hmmmm.........Clapper : "The Muslim Brotherhood is "Largely Secular".  Read the full story here.

• The damage Obama has done.The mainstream media does not cover the full extent of the damage the Obama Administration has inflicted on this country. Even FoxNews often doesn’t have the time to go into sufficient depth to explain what is happening.From our friend Ruth S. King comes a chart which all of us should read and absorb, sobering though it may be.The mainstream media does not cover the full extent of the damage the Obama Administration has inflicted on this country. Even FoxNews often doesn’t have the time to go into sufficient depth to explain what is happening.From our friend Ruth S. King comes a chart which all of us should read and absorb, sobering though it may be.Hmmmm.......Read and weep!Read the full story here.

• Islam's the problems, not Muslims, says Senator Cory Bernardi.TONY Abbott's official frontbench understudy has reignited immigration tensions by denouncing Islam as a "totalitarian, political and religious ideology". Liberal parliamentary secretary Cory Bernardi revealed last night he had received death threats after making the comments.While the immigration debate usually differentiates between the religion of Islam and extreme fundamentalist interpretations, Senator Bernardi confronted the issue head-on yesterday."Islam itself is the problem - it's not Muslims," he told radio station MTR."Muslims are individuals that practise their faith in their own way, but Islam is a totalitarian, political and religious ideology."It tells people everything about how they need to conduct themselves, who they're allowed to marry and how they're allowed to treat other people."Senator Bernardi said Islam had "not moved on" since it was founded and that extremists wanted fundamentalist Islamic rule implemented in Australia.The senator also inflamed the row over funeral expenses for asylum-seekers by declaring that it was "wrong" for taxpayers to foot the bill.The remarks provoked a strong reaction from Ikebal Patel, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, who said Senator Bernardi had "crossed the line" with his attack on Islam.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Monster meets its match: Record-breaking alligator gar fish caught in Mississippi lake.It may not have been love at first sight but it was certainly a Valentine's Day to remember for angler Kenny Williams when he landed an alligator gar that tipped the scales at a world record 327lbs.Williams, from Vicksburg, Mississippi, bagged the fish in Chotard Lake, Issaquena County, using nets to catch it and then grabbing it by the gills to heave it into the boat.Biologists with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks measured the beast at 8ft 51/4ins long, with a girth of 47.95ins, and estimated it to be between 50 and 70 years old.The current International Game Fish Association record belongs to a 279-pounder pulled from the Rio Grande in Texas in 1951.'At first I didn't think he was that big. But as I was getting him into the boat, it was like, How big is this thing? It was a lot of effort just to get him into the boat,' Williams told ABC affiliate WAPT-TV in Jackson.Hmmmmm.......Correction record for Alligator gar : 365 lbs - 9 ft 6 in texas by Kirk Kirkland - 1991.Read and see the full story here.