MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

Hmmm....by the way it seems Al Yazeera is now available on cable in Canada?"If you live in Canada, contact the following cable and satellite providers to subscribe to Al Jazeera English" Bell TV: 516 - Cogeco: 182 - Rogers: 176 - Shaw: 513 - Videotron: 173

• 'What took you so long': Stricken Libyan rescue boat finally leaves Tripoli, but why did they take so long to depart?Hundreds of Americans trapped aboard a rescue ship that was too small to sail in rough weather have finally left Libya.The 167 stranded U.S. citizens have been holed up on the Maria Dolores since Wednesday, as rough weather has prevented the ship from leaving.At the same time larger Greek and Turkish vessels have transported thousands of their own citizens to safety, crossing the choppy water to mainland Europe.The President has been under intense criticism for his muted response to the bloodshed in Libya, with speculation that Colonel Gaddafi has intimidated the White House into silence by blocking the evacuation of U.S. citizens.But last night as the Americans remained stranded, the president enjoyed a White House pop concert in celebration of Black History month.Hmmm....Other countries have send naval ships ,military planes ,the community organiser and commander in chief of the US Navy sends a pleasure cruiseship.I think the Navy command must be saying WTF is he doing now?Read the full disgrace story here.

• Libya in crisis: The key battle grounds, the areas under opposition control and the oil fields that supply 50% of Europe's supplies.As more towns fall to anti-Gaddafi protesters, names such as Benghazi and al Zawaiah are becoming famous for standing up to the evil tyrant who has ruled Libya and amassed billions in his personal fortune over 41 years.Here, with this detailed graphic, we show the key battle grounds, the areas under opposition control and the oil fields that supply 50% of Europe's oil.Read and see the full story here.

• Wisconsin Assembly passes bill taking away union rights.Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the Assembly. But the political standoff over the bill — and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it — appear far from over.The Assembly's vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing.The Assembly's vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing."I applaud the Democrats in the Assembly for earnestly debating this bill and urge their counterparts in the state Senate to return to work and do the same," Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a statement issued moments after the vote.The plan from Republican Gov. Scott Walker contains a number of provisions he says are designed to fill the state's $137 million deficit and lay the groundwork for fixing a projected $3.6 billion shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 budget.GOP leaders in the Assembly refused to speak with reporters, but earlier Friday morning Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, warned Democrats that they had been given 59 hours to be heard and Republicans were ready to vote.The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said earlier this week that the debt refinancing could be pushed back as late as Tuesday to achieve the savings Walker wants. Based on a similar refinancing in 2004, about two weeks are needed after the bill becomes law to complete the deal. That means if the bill is adopted by the middle of next week, the state can still meet a March 16 deadline, the Fiscal Bureau said. Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he and his colleagues wouldn't return until Walker compromised.Hmmmm.....People who don't perform their jobs shouldn't be paid!It's called democracy not Dictatorship!Read the full story here.

• Al-Qaida No. 2 blast Coptic church in Egypt.CAIRO (AP) — The deputy to Osama bin Laden issued al-Qaida's second message since the Egyptian uprising, accusing the nation's Christian leadership of inciting interfaith tensions and denying that the terror network was behind last month's bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria that killed 21 and sparked protests.The message Friday from Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of the terror network, comes amid renewed Muslim-Christian tension over the slaying of a Coptic priest and a dispute involving a monastery.As with his first message, delivered Feb. 18, al-Zawahri in his new, 35-minute videotape makes no mention of the protests or Hosni Mubarak's fall from power. Al-Qaida had advocated for the destruction of Mubarak's regime — and al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor, was part of a failed militant uprising against the former president in the 1990s.But the pro-democracy tone of the protests, led by secular liberals, contrasted greatly with the Islamic state al-Qaida envisions.In the latest video, al-Zawahri devoted much of the time to the Muslim-Christian divide. But he denied that his group was behind the Alexandria bombing, according to a transcript by the SITE Intel group, a U.S. group that monitors militant messages.The next day, around 2,000 Copts gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest reports that an Egyptian army unit had attacked a desert monastery earlier on Wednesday. The protesters said that a military unit using armored vehicles had demolished newly-built fences surrounding the old monastery. They claimed that the soldiers fired live bullets at monks.Egypt's military council, which has been ruling the country since the Feb. 11 ouster of Mubarak, said the soldiers were removing "some walls that had been illegally built on the road and on land owned by the state."Hmmmm.....Selfconfessed 'Christian' Obama "I will stand with my Muslim brothers.Read the full story here.

• Unions Are Holding Taxpayers Hostage.By Michael Reagan.The turmoil and shocking thuggery we are now witnessing in Madison, Wis., is at a level seldom seen in America in this era. School teachers, of all people, are setting bad examples for their students. Some engage in outright fraud, aided by medical doctors giving them phony diagnoses of nonexistent illnesses to give them an excuse for near rioting instead of doing their job of teaching. There is a name for that kind of thing — it's called a crime. You know, the kind of offense that can get you tossed in the slammer. In the process they show students how to commit fraud — on their taxpaying parents.Faced with the sorry fact that his state is flat broke a la Greece, Gov. Walker — who has sought to reduce the deficit threatening to drown Wisconsin in debt the citizens will never be able to repay — is asking the state's teachers to contribute to their own retirement funds, which they now enjoy virtually free of charge. To listen to the outraged union you'd think he was trying to put chains on their ankles and enslave the teachers.To put it bluntly, no government employee — local, state, or federal — should be allowed to join a union. To repeat: They are not your ordinary workers — they are servants of the public, a status they accept when they seek government employment. It goes with the job. In return, they can look forward to a pension or an early retirement — benefits not readily available in a lot of civilian jobs.Early in his administration my father, President Ronald Reagan, faced a walkout by air-traffic controllers which threatened to completely shut down air travel. Their union, known as the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), went on strike — at the time a totally illegal action.He ordered them back to work, and when the PATCO members refused, he simply fired them and replaced them.The unions have broken Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, and California, to name a few. It is time to rein in the unions and save our states. The Reagan you are looking for is sitting in Republican governorships, not in Washington.The war cry against unions holding taxpayers hostage should be: "Remember PATCO!"Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• New Soros investment fund, profiting off Obama's 'green energy' push, hires top Obama energy aide.George Soros -- whom we're always told is not serving his own economic interests at all by promoting liberal politicians and big-government policies -- is launching a new investment fund that plans to profit off of the "green energy" boom, which is entirely dependent on government subsidies supported by the groups Soros funds.As the press release puts it, this fund will "leverage technology and business model innovation to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, harness renewable energy, and more efficiently use natural resources, among other applications." As Soros puts it in the same release: “Developing alternative sources of energy and achieving greater energy efficiency is both a significant global investment opportunity and an environmental imperative.” Cadie Thompson at CNBC's NetNet flagged this.So, yeah. The big-government policies advanced by the liberal outfits he funds -- like Center for American Progress -- will enrich the companies in which Soros is investing.But this story gets better.Hmmmm.....And where does Obama and the ex-shorebank fit in.1 Billion Dollar is a lot of money for a re -election.Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Police Capt. Punished Over Islamic Event.An Oklahoma police captain with an impeccable service record has been disciplined for refusing to order officers under his command to attend an Islamic event at a Tulsa mosque.The unbelievable story was first reported by an Oklahoma news station that obtained internal memos detailing how the Tulsa Police Department punished one of its top brass for dodging a rather bizarre assignment; to attend the Islamic Society’s law enforcement appreciation day and command his officers to do the same.The veteran cop, Captain Paul Fields, said the order conflicted with his personal religious convictions and violated his civil rights. He added that attending prayer service at a mosque, meeting Muslim leadership and sitting through a presentation of Islamic beliefs was not related to his work as a police officer. Fields, a 16-year veteran who has earned many commendations, assured that he would respond diligently to a call for police service.Fields was promptly investigated by Tulsa Police internal affairs for violating the department’s obedience policy and he subsequently got “reassigned.” The department memos linked in the story indicate that the Muslim event, scheduled for next month, was originally voluntary to attend but few officers signed up and it became mandatory. A deputy chief distributed a follow up memo ordering each patrol division to send six officers and three supervisors to the event, which is described as a “community outreach operation” that’s as much a part of police work as responding to calls. The department has participated in similar outreach events at a Jewish center and various churches that cater to African Americans and Hispanics, the assistant chief said.Captain Fields remains adamant that he should not be forced to attend the Islamic gathering and has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that his First Amendment rights were violated by the department and the deputy chief who ordered him to. He is asking for $1 in damages.Hmmmm......Just try to imagine what it would be like if they were sending a Muslim Officer to attend services at the Synagogue?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.Pigford Files: What Is the John Boyd Institute?In testimony before a congressional committee in 2008, John Boyd introduced himself and said “I am Dr. John Boyd. I am President and founder of the National Black Farmers Association, which has more than 94,000 members in 46 states.”In addition to my strong back in agriculture, I also founded the John Boyd Agricultural and Technology Institute to help educate farmers of all educational levels in order to fight illiteracy. To teach familiarity with and use of the internet, and much more. The program has assisted several thousand farmers and has been expanded to Denmark Technical College.Boyd’s National Black Farmers Association website has a page about the John Boyd Argicultural and Technology Institute as well — complete with a photo showing a road sign.In a ‘10 Questions’ article in 2009, John Boyd began one of his answers by prefacing, “Being a visiting professor and forming the John Boyd Agriculture and Technology Institute”.As I was driving through Virginia yesterday, I decided to take a drive by the Boyd Institute and hoped to walk the hallowed halls that have taught thousands of farmers. Boyd has talked about the Boyd Institute so much that I was keen to visit this august institute.But there’s no there there. Literally.I went to the campus of St. Paul’s College, a small Christian college in southern Virginia. There’s no Boyd Institute. The secuirty guard I spoke with had never heard of it but suggested I talk to someone in the administration building. I found a woman who knew about it — she told me that Boyd had never taught classes there and that the ‘Institute’ was an office that Boyd kept for a few years that he would sometimes use to make phone calls. She said she’d never seen thousands of farmers training there. Or any.But what about the expanded John Boyd Institute program at Denmark Technical College in South Carolina that Boyd told congress about in 2008? I phoned Denmark Tech and was told to visit Boyd’s website. I asked if there was a John Boyd Institute on campus and was told that they just referred people to the website. I was told Boyd had never taught classes there.I have no reason to believe that St. Paul’s or Denmark aren’t solid, small schools that do a good job for their students and I don’t want the pretend John Boyd Institutes at those schools to cast any aspersions on them. Why did these two colleges ‘host’ the John Boyd Institute? There seems to be a link — a man named John Waddell.Waddell was the president of St. Paul’s in 2001, when Boyd claims to have founded the Institute there. Waddell was president of Denmark at the time Boyd claimed to Congress that he had just expanded there. And although I currently have no clear link to Boyd related to the following charges, John Waddell was fired from his position at Denmark after an audit revealed irregularities, inclduing……a student recruitment program unlawfully paid for with about $52,000 in federal funds; financial aid given to ineligible students who did not have high school diplomas or GEDs; about $31,000 in fees incurred due to late filing of payroll taxes; and lack of compliance with state codes in the hiring of an Atlanta accounting firm.I have calls out to both Mr. Boyd and Mr. Waddell for comment about their relationship and for clarification about the real facts about the John Boyd Institute.Hmmmmm.....Something smells big time and it aint the manure used by real life farmers!Read the full story here.

• Egypt - US Ambassador Scobey accused of Deliberate Killing of Egyptians.Gamal Tag El-Din, Secretary General of the Freedoms Committee at the Journalists Syndicate, submitted a complaint on Thursday accusing Margret Scobey, US Ambassador in Egypt, of facilitating the seizure of the car owned by the embassy which ran over the peaceful protesters on 28 February 2011.Hmmmm.... Obama ....Muslim Brotherhood anyone?Read the full story here.

• HT:Ross'sRightAngle.Indonesia - Suspended’ FPI Chairman Has Wrist Slapped for Incitement in Stabbed Pastor Case.A nauseating verdict yesterday saw the sleazy bigot behind the assault on two Batak Protestant church leaders in Bekasi last year given a lighter sentence than even the measly six months requested by the prosecutor. And the slug (suspended Islamic Defenders Front leader, Murhali Barda ) is already looking forward to release on SUNDAY!This is because his time on remand is subtracted from the sentence decreed.Murhali Barda - He's Offically 'Unpleasant!'The judge observed that “the defendant had abused his role as a religious leader and committed unpleasant conduct,” according to the Jakarta Globe.Very unpleasant! At least you can tell by looking at him he’s a no-good turd.His fellow-lout, Adji Ahmad Faisal, the fanatic who actually stabbed Revd. Asia Sihombing got a WHOLE SEVEN MONTHS! Wow!And another Islamist creepoid, Ade Firman, who bashed a lady pastor, Rev. Luspida Simandjuntak, got a month less than that.The swine Murhali incited the vicious sectarian attack using Facebook, sms slogans on his handphone.He also incited the local layabouts by means of radio broadcasts.Of course the FPI suspended him, but will he be re-instated. And who were all those guys with funny white hats and ape-like expressions in the court. whom the judge had to order to shut up? Not FPI, surely not.So you can stick a knife in a Protestant pastor and get seven months?Well, far be it for me to say those sentences are a damn disgrace.Hmmmmm.....Obama "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

• Pakistan puts CIA contractor Davis on trial for murder.Trial taking place in jail for security reasons. American could face death sentence.A Pakistani court adjourned on Friday the trial of a CIA contractor charged with killing two Pakistanis until March 3, dismissing U.S. demands for his release.The contractor, Raymond Davis, shot dead two men in the eastern city of Lahore last month. He said he acted in self-defence and the United States says he has diplomatic immunity and should be repatriated.The case has inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and is straining relations between the allies. Pakistani efforts against Islamist militants on its border with Afghanistan are seen as crucial to ending the war in neighbouring Afghanistan."He (Davis) said that he should be given immunity ... a discussion will be held on this at the next hearing," said Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for the families of the two men Davis killed.Davis, a former US special forces officer, has been charged with double-murder and faces possible execution. There have been conflicting accounts about the identity of the two victims with Davis and a police report indicating they were armed robbers while Pakistani media and some officials have portrayed them as innocent victims.With public anger and anti-American feeling running high, President Ali Asif Zardari's unpopular government had little choice but to let the case go through the courts."Davis case is not so simple as it is sometimes portrayed by some. It is a complex case involving issues in national and international law as well as grave sensitivities that cannot be wished away," presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said."The court has not only taken cognisance of it but also declared that it will decide on the immunity issue. We respect the court and will wait for its verdict."Hmmmm.....Sounds like Sen Kerry's visit 'solved' everything?Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.Globalist Shill Barack Obama Asks Business Leaders For Job Creation Ideas Even As He Ships More Of Our Jobs Overseas As Part Of The New One World Economy.The other day, Barack Obama summoned a group of business and labor leaders to the White House and "challenged" them to come up with some great ideas for creating more jobs inside the United States. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is pushing hard for Congress to approve the new free trade agreement with South Korea. This is yet another bad "free trade agreement" in a long string of bad "free trade agreements" that are absolutely gutting the U.S. economy. The truth is that the United States has become a nation which is constantly consuming more while at the same time producing less and less. The gap between the wealth that this nation produces and the wealth that this nation consumes is becoming absolutely astronomical. But instead of fighting for changes that would keep American jobs in America, Barack Obama has allied himself with the multinational corporations that are making huge profits by outsourcing and offshoring our middle class jobs as part of the new one world economy. Our politicians can give speeches until they are blue in the face about how "wonderful" globalism is, but the truth is that it is taking millions of our jobs away and it is ripping the U.S. middle class to shreds.That is the situation that so many of our multinational corporations are facing today. In the new one world economy, they can choose to hire incredibly expensive American workers, or they can go to the other side of the world and legally hire very motivated workers that will gladly work for slave labor wages.Do you see why so many jobs are leaving America?American workers were never told that all of these "free trade agreements" would mean that they would be merged into a global labor pool where they would directly compete for jobs with slave labor on the other side of the world.But that is exactly what is happening and it is destroying the U.S. middle class.Talk about the biggest union busting plan of them all!What is going on up in Wisconsin is nothing compared to what globalism is doing to U.S. workers.And yet idiot American workers keep voting these same chumps back into office again and again and again.Take Obama for example. Either the guy is a complete idiot when it comes to trade issues or he is willingly spouting Wall Street propaganda. According to a recent CNN article, Obama actually believed it when an Apple executive told him that they make the iPad overseas because there are not enough "skilled workers" in America....He said he learned during a meeting with tech executives last week, that a big reason Apple manufactures the iPad overseas is that the United States lacks a workforce of tens of thousands of lower-skilled technicians needed to quickly produce the tablets.Are you kidding me?Oh, I suppose it has nothing to do with the fact that they can pay those "technicians" a dollar and a half hour?What a joke.But senior White House adviser (actually she pretty much runs the White House) Valerie Jarrett insists that Obama "wants to make sure that the federal government is doing everything that we can to foster the kind of environment where companies want to invest and grow and hire people right here in America."So is that why Obama is pushing so hard for this new "free trade" agreement with South Korea?The Economic Policy Institute has already said that this free trade agreement will cost the U.S. about 159,000 jobs.Hmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheStrategyPage.Battlehawks Confront Iran.The UAE (United Arab Emirates) is converting 23 of its 40 UH-60 Black Hawk transports into AH-60 Battlehawk gunships. This will cost about $12 million per helicopter (including training, parts and support.) Arming UH-60s is nothing new. There have long been "weapons packages" for the Black Hawk. There is also the ESSS (External Stores Support System) available, which gives the UH-60 two stubby wings (like the AH-64 has), each with two hard points (for Hellfire missiles, rockets or machine-guns). The ESSS are wired to connect to the UH-60 cockpit, and weapons controls that can be installed there. These AH-60s roughly equal to an early model AH-64, when armed with Hellfire missiles and machine-guns (7.62mm or 12.7mm multiple barrel rotary weapons), as well as more sensors. With this conversion, the UAE gets another 23 gunships in a hurry. Existing UH-60 pilots are being trained to do what they have to do in an AH-60.Hmmmmm.....Somebody has been shopping while recovering in the US hospital?Read the full story here.

• Amid Chechnya's Islamic Revival, Some Women Live in Fear.At the entrance to a school in Grozny, the capital of Russia’ s Chechen republic, two security guards grip their guns as they order a woman to cover her head before walking into class.“ You can’ t go inside with your head like that,” one of them yells, tapping his AK-47.The young student rumbles inside her purse before pulling out a black silk scarf.“Is this better?” she asks, covering up her entire head with the scarf, matching her kohl-lined eyes.Under the Russia-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya is swiftly becoming a conservative Muslim state, a sharp change from the officially atheist Soviet Union when women in the Caucasus burnt their headscarves. Many Chechen women here are the first in three generations to cover their heads.Kadyrov’ s efforts to enforce a dress code have angered rights activists in Moscow who say such rules violate Russia’ s constitution.But few women dare to challenge Kadyrov's rule in this southern border region of more than one million people.Zalina, a 19-year-old student and hair stylist, says wearing a headscarf is not really a choice.“ I don’ t see the point in wearing it,” says the student, whose long dark hair flows out from under her head covering. “But if I don’ t, I know I will be punished. I am scared of that.”Hmmmm......Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• Mystery surrounds deaths of bottlenose dolphins as scientists investigate links with BP oil spill.Scientists are baffled as to why the carcasses of a large number of bottlenose dolphins have washed up on beaches and are trying to establish if it is connected to the BP oil spill.Since the start of the year there have been 29 baby dolphin deaths, compared with 89 in all of 2010.The same thing happened in Texas in March 2007 when 68 dolphins washed up in Galveston and Jefferson, including a large number of infants.The carcasses of 20 infant and stillborn dolphins washed up on the shores of the 130-mile stretch of coastline from Gulfport, Mississippi, east to Gulf Shores, Alabama yesterday. The remains of about ten adult dolphins, none of them pregnant females, have also been found so far this year. Only one was not a bottlenose.Scientists are looking at possible causes like cold winter and disease. But they are also investigating whether there was a link to the BP oil spill. though the spike in deaths has only occurred in one species.Mr Solangi said: 'For some reason, they've started aborting or they were dead before they were born.The average is one or two a month.'Hmmmm.....Beyond Prosecution.Read the full story here.

• Iran unveils supercomputers, hydro car.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has unveiled two domestically-designed and manufactured supercomputers, and a smart hydrogen car. The supercomputers were unveiled via video conferencing in Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT), and Esfahan University of Technology, IRNA reported Wednesday. During the ceremony, President Ahmadinejad encouraged Iranian scientists and researchers to develop evermore self-belief, saying Iran must become “a scientific and technological reference for the world.” The Iranian chief executive also pointed out that Iran managed to become one of the world's ten countries that design and manufacture supercomputers in a short time. Amirkabir University's supercomputer has a power of 34,000 billion operations per second, and a speed of 40 gigahertz. The project was carried out by a group of 20 Iranian researchers from the faculties of electricity and computer. Meanwhile, President Ahmadinejad also unveiled Iran's electric-hydro smart car on the same day. The experimental model of the electricity-hydrogen-powered vehicle is manufactured by Iranian researchers and is the first of its kind in the Middle East. It has a maximum speed of 180 kph and can travel a distance of 500 kilometers with every instance of recharging. It consumes 140 watts per hour and weighs 350 kilograms, with a recharge time of two to six minutes.Hmmmm.....A country full of Oil devellops a tiny electric car?Probably needed the technology for military purposes.Read the full story here.