MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 08. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Middle East Live Blog here .(Al-Jazeera)

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 6.0 today. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 76.

• HT:The Blaze.Live Blog: Will the government shut down tonight? Read and see everything here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.What Wisconsin's Judicial Election Means.The ballots in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race show a relatively small difference between Justice David Prosser, the "conservative" incumbent, and JoAnne Kloppenburg, the leftist challenger. Yesterday, previously uncounted votes in Waukesha County swung the victory to Prosser by over 7,000 votes (out of almost a million and a half cast), though Kloppenburg earlier claimed victory by a much smaller margin.In this case, of course, the term "conservative"means an impartial jurist who follows the rule of law without political bias. As for the "liberal" candidate, Ann Althouse, a University of Wisconsin law professor, noted Kloppenburg's lawn signs indicating that the latter had made up her mind about the state's new collective bargaining law.Regardless of the ultimate result, there are vital lessons we should take from the race. We grasp what is happening. We have stopped listening to the chatterbox phonies of the leftist establishment media. We see the inner workings of the left and its minions. We know now that a senator who votes for cloture on a bad bill but votes against the bill on the Senate floor (where it passes easily) is trying to trick us -- but we will no longer be tricked. We comprehend that the dreaded "government shutdown" means nothing when Congress and the White House before the election never even passed a budget. We see from our children's textbooks and the unruly behavior of their teachers that the regime of public school reeducation must be defeated and reformed.The left has been winning because we have not fought the battles which we must fight. Now, we are fighting back. That ultimately is the key. We were unwilling soldiers at first, preferring to live in a civil society in which we could live in friendly peace. The Wisconsin judicial election, which forces the highest notions of impartiality -- judges -- into the war of ideology, and our response to players like Kloppenburg show that we are now fighting the war that we must fight, and the fight which we shall win.Hmmm.....Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
  Martin Luther King, Jr.Read the full story here.

• Want to know the 2012 election result?Here's a sneak preview!High-profile lawyers retained for possible Supreme Court recount.Twenty-four hours ago challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg was looking at an all but certain recount of her razor-thin victory over incumbent Justice David Prosser in the Supreme Court race. Now that it's come to light that Prosser might take a thin but substantial lead due to a computer error in Waukesha County, Kloppenburg could be the one to trigger a recount. But one thing hasn't changed: both camps are lawyering up and have brought in the big guns.Kloppenburg's campaign is working with Marc Elias, an attorney with Perkins Coie, a Washington D.C.-based firm with an office in downtown Madison. Elias is the same attorney who represented Democratic challenger Al Franken in his eight-month epic recount battle with incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. Franken eventually prevailed, winning his U.S. Senate seat by 312 votes.Prosser has hired Ben Ginsberg, a Washington-D.C. attorney who played a prominent role in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential recount effort in Florida. He was also part of the team that represented Coleman in his recount effort. Prosser has also retained Madison attorney Jim Troupis, and Dan Kelly, who is based in Milwaukee.Melissa Mulliken, Kloppenburg's campaign manager, said the campaign first hired Perkins Coie months ago to file an amicus brief in a suit lodged by Wisconsin Right to Life over the state's new judicial campaign public financing law, which Right to Life says stifles free speech. Mulliken said Thursday the campaign "plans to continue to work with him (Elias)."Hmmmm....A computer is only as smart as the one who 'programs' it!Read the full story here.

• HT:TheFoundry.Morning Bell: Commander-in-Chief Turns His Back on America’s Military.The American military is engaged in multiple conflicts and humanitarian missions around the world, yet President Obama promised to veto legislation funding the troops for the remainder of 2011. This is a reprehensible political stunt, and it comes at the expense of our servicemen and women and the families they support.Yesterday, as efforts to resolve the debate on 2011 government funding continued, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) introduced yet another temporary bill designed to keep the government operating for one more week during negotiations, and in this case, ensure the military portion of the budget is appropriated to eliminate the economic uncertainty facing our troops.Before a vote was even taken, President Obama issued a Statement of Administration Policy that offered no policy, and merely called Speaker Boehner’s efforts a “distraction”, with the promise to veto the legislation. In fact, Speaker Boehner’s goal was to aid our armed forces by removing the distraction of a looming government shutdown for our troops. The House went on to pass the bill 247-181 with 15 Democrats joining nearly all Republicans.The American public has clearly spoken that it is demanding budget cuts, but so far nothing has happened in the Senate—not one serious alternative to the budget with $61 billion in cuts the House passed nearly two months ago. That Harry Reid is even allowed at the negotiating table before completing the prerequisites is a mystery, and this latest episode of defense funding angst by he and Obama continues the drama.United States military personnel are actively supporting the Libyan rebellion. Navy sailors and Marines are providing humanitarian relief to our ally Japan. American soldiers are still working to rebuild Iraq often in hostile conditions. They are engaged in active combat in Afghanistan. Some are being wounded daily; some maimed; some even killed. Others are doing their jobs around the globe keeping sea lanes open, on patrol, standing a post, and training for whatever conflicts lie ahead. Yet incredibly, their Commander-in-Chief vows to veto their paychecks.The House-passed bill is essential to ensure military forces deployed around the world will get the equipment they need to succeed. Even it will fund defense at levels significantly below President Obama’s request, unfortunately, which is causing strain across the military right now.The drawn-out budget fight to fund the government for 2011 is reaching a crescendo with a potential government shutdown now hours away. President Obama chose to finally engage the negotiations this week, yet still deflected leadership saying: “I shouldn’t have to oversee a process in which Congress deals with last year’s budget…”Absent a deal today, President Obama should actively press Congress to fund the troops, and withdraw his threat to veto their funding. Let our soldiers get back to work without threats to their safety and their families’ finances. It’s time for President Obama and Senator Reid to show that kind of leadership.Hmmmm...Sadly dictators hardly ever show leadership qualities.Read the full story here.

• HT:WhitehouseDossier.Is Michelle Planning Some Pricey Shopping in Williamsburg?It appears the Obamas may be headed down to Colonial Williamsburg this weekend for more than a history lesson. Mrs. Obama, it seems, wants something much more up to date.According to the Daily Press, which covers southeastern Virginia, the first lady has shopping on the brain. And we’re not talking about the Williamsburg Walmart.Rather, Mrs. Obama has been quietly investigating from afar the wares at Binns of Williamsburg, an upscale shop for uptown gals who want to look fabulous.Indeed, Mrs. Obama has been looking into the lifestyle, ordering catalogues and dispatching envoys to the store itself to see what’s good for the gettin’. Perhaps the first lady can also pick up another $1,000 handbag when she’s there.According to Tom Smith, assistant CEO of Binns of Williamsburg, the First Lady has expressed interest in his store in the past.“We have been contacted by different assistants of the family,” he says.Representatives have visited the store in the past, and Smith knows that Michelle has brochures from his store. He also has sent some accessories to the White House for her consideration.“Our gown department is a big area that she would probably end up looking at,” he says.Well, now we know better what the White House means by a “long planned” vacation that the Obamas might be loathe to cancel.If there is a government shutdown, the president will almost certainly have to stay at the White House. But Michelle has shown in the past she doesn’t mind traveling without him.If the White House communications team allows her to be seen browsing he bins at Binns while government workers are getting furloughed, they need to be impeached on charges of PR malpractice.Thanks to Nelly, one of our readers, who alerted me to this and who also noted that Mrs. Obama probably is seeking some stunning new items for her trip to Europe next month!Hmmmm......"Let them eat K Rations"?Read the full story here.

• UN: Scores of bodies found in Cote d'Ivoire. UN reports that more than 100 bodies, some burned alive, have been found over the past 24 hours across the country. More than 100 bodies, some burned alive and others thrown down a well, have been found in the past 24 hours by United Nations staff in Cote d'Ivoire.Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesperson, told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday that about 60 bodies were found in Guiglo, 15 bodies in the western town of Duekoue and about 40 in Bloloquin.The announcement comes as Allasane Ouattara, the claimant president, said in a speech late on Thursday that he would seek to restore security and basic public services in the country following fierce fighting between his forces and those of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president."I have asked that European Union sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro and certain public entities, be lifted," Ouattara said in the speech broadcast on French television."I have also asked the central bank BCEAO to reopen its branches in Ivory Coast, to ensure a resumption of operations in all banks so as to enable the payment of salaries and arrears in the shortest possible time," he said on television channel LCI.In Brussels, the European Commission said it hoped to be able to begin easing sanctions soon.Diplomatic and military efforts to oust Gbagbo this week were met with fierce resistance and Ouattara said his rival's residence had been sealed off to protect the area.The Reuters news agency reported on Friday that as a direct response to Ouattara's request, the EU planned on lifting the sanctions on all Ivorian port authorities and exports by Tuesday next week.A commander for the French military force in Cote d'Ivoire, Licorne (Unicorn), also said on Friday its troops would carry out mixed patrols with police and gendarmes loyal to Ouattara to restore security and rebuild infrastructure.Gbagbo remained defiant on Thursday, even after air strikes hammered his military bases and the palace, where he is holed up with his wife inside a subterranean tunnel.Ouattara won the November presidential poll by eight percentage points, according to UN certified results, but Gbagbo rejected the outcome citing fraud, and accused the United Nations of meddling in Ivorian affairs.The poll was meant to draw a line under Ivory Coast's 2002-3 civil war, but the dispute over results rekindled it, turning Abidjan into a war zone.Via a spokesman in Europe, the ruler continued to insist he'd won last November's election and stressed he would never leave the country he has ruled for the past 10 years."I reached the head of state and his wife less than an hour ago and no - he will not surrender. President Gbagbo will not cede," said his adviser Toussaint Alain by telephone from Paris. "It's a question of principle. President Gbagbo is not a monarch. He is not a king. He is not an emperor. He is a president elected by his people."Gbagbo has refused to accept defeat even though he was declared the loser of the November election both by his country's electoral body and by international observers including the United Nations.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Missile From Gaza that Hit School Bus was deliberatly aimed at the bus!JERUSALEM — A 16-year-old Israeli boy was critically wounded on Thursday when an antitank missile fired out of Gaza struck a school bus in southern Israel, according to military officials, setting off a new round of hostilities along the Israel-Gaza border. This was the first time that an antitank missile had hit a civilian target in southern Israel, sharply raising the stakes for residents of the area. It also prompted one of the most intensive Israeli retaliatory bombardments of Gaza in the past two years, killing five. The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack on the bus, saying it had specifically aimed at the target as a response to Israel’s killing of three Hamas commanders last Saturday. Israel said the three had been planning to kidnap Israelis.“This is an initial response to the occupation’s crimes,” Hamas said in a statement on Thursday, referring to Israel, “the latest of which was the assassination of the three holy fighters.” In the hours after the strike on the bus, Gaza militants fired 45 rockets and mortars at southern Israel, hitting one house but causing no more injuries. Hmmmm....What kind of 'poor excuses for a human being' target a schoolbus?Read the full story here.

• Obama Admin Training Thousands of Arab “Activists” to Evade Security Forces.The United States is training thousands of cell phone and Internet pro-democracy campaigners worldwide to evade security forces in what it calls a “cat-and-mouse game” with authoritarian governments.The US government is sponsoring efforts to help activists in Arab and other countries gain access to technology that circumvents government firewalls, secures telephone text and voice messages, and prevents attacks on websites.“This is sort of a cat-and-mouse game and governments are constantly developing new techniques to go after critics, to go after dissenters,” said Michael Posner, the assistant US secretary of state for human rights and labor.“We are trying to stay ahead of the curve and trying to basically provide both technology, training, and diplomatic support to allow people to freely express their views.”Posner told a small group of reporters that the theme of Internet freedom will be “peppered” throughout the State Department’s annual report on human rights for 194 countries that is scheduled for release on Friday.Hmmm....Arab 'activists' is this the new term for Al-Qaida?Read the full story here.

• Holder Declares Obama’s Libyan Adventure is Completely Legal.President Obama had the constitutional power to lawfully launch military strikes in Libya without permission from Congress because he “could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest,” the Justice Department concluded in an internal memorandum released on Thursday.The 14-page document, addressed to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., was signed by Caroline D. Krass, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the executive branch about whether proposed actions are lawful.The memorandum laid out in detail the thinking of the administration’s legal team about the scope of Mr. Obama’s power to initiate hostilities unilaterally under his authority as commander in chief – confirming, as The New York Times has reported, that the administration’s argument centers on the idea that hostilities of limited nature, scope and duration do not rise to the level of a “war” that would trigger Congress’s powers under the Constitution.Much of the memorandum recites the facts of the lead-up to the Libyan strikes and Mr. Obama’s statements about them, as well as precedents involving other unilateral military interventions by recent presidents of both parties – and quotations from previous Justice Department memorandums approving of such deployments.Hmmmmm...... Louis XIV "L'Etat c'est moi"?Read the full story here.

• Turkey 'world leader' in imprisoned journalists, IPI report says.Turkey has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, including China and Iran, according to a press release issued Monday by the International Press Institute.The group based its release on a report published by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, that said 57 journalists are currently in prison in Turkey. As of December, Iran and China each had 34 journalists behind bars.“While Iran and China topped lists in December by reportedly jailing some 34 journalists each, Turkey, a candidate for membership in the European Union, has nearly doubled that number five months later, raising questions about the country’s commitment to freedom of the press and the legitimacy of its democratic image,” IPI Press Freedom Adviser Steven M. Ellis wrote in an article featured on the institute’s website.“These journalists are in jail because of Turkey’s anti-terror Law. This law threatens the freedom of press, and investigative journalists live under its menace. We find this unacceptable. We made a request to the government to change this law, but unfortunately the government does not lend an ear to professional journalist associations,” said Ferai Tınç, the chair of IPI’s Turkey National Committee and an IPI board member.“Turkey, at the crossroads between East and West, is a major regional power with an ancient cultural heritage. The country is also often held up as an example of a healthy Muslim democracy,” said IPI director Alison Bethel McKenzie, who warned that moving away from this history and imprisoning more journalists than any other country is damaging.McKenzie also called on the Turkish government to respect press freedom and release all journalists who have been detained because of their work.Hmmmm....Get Turkey out of NATO NOW!Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Terrorists Slip By TSA Behavior Detection Officers on at least 23 occasions.Years after implementing a costly passenger screening program, the Homeland Security agency responsible for protecting the nation’s transportation system failed to detect terrorists at U.S. airports on nearly two dozen occasions. As a result the terrorists slipped right through “security” checkpoints and boarded commercial airplanes, according to a government report that's difficult to swallow nearly a decade after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Unfortunately, it’s true and, not surprisingly, it involves the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created after 9/11 mainly to prevent terrorists from using planes as weapons of mass destruction.

The agency’s perpetual blunders have been well documented by Judicial Watch over the years, but this seems to be the icing on the cake for an agency with unlimited resources and unconditional support from Congress and the White House. A heavily-touted and quite expensive TSA program that targets terrorists by observing their behavior has failed miserably, according to a congressional probe conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Known as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT), the innovative project was implemented with great fanfare to enhance aviation security after Islamic terrorist slammed commercial jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. In 2010 SPOT cost taxpayers nearly $212 million and the Obama Administration wants $232 million for it this year.

But on at least 23 occasions its highly specialized Behavior Detection Officers failed to stop terrorists from boarding planes, investigators found. At least 16 people who were later charged or pleaded guilty to terrorism charges slipped through eight different U.S. airports with SPOT programs, according to the GAO’s findings.It gets better. Most of the airports where terrorists boarded planes rank among the top 10 highest risk on the TSA’s Airport Threat Assessment list. For instance, an individual who subsequently pleaded guilty to providing material support to Somali terrorists boarded a plane at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport en route to Somalia an another who later admitted providing Al Qaeda with material support took a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport to participate in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.Before pouring more taxpayer dollars into this dubious security program perhaps the Obama Administration should consider a point made by congressional investigators in their report; “the TSA deployed its behavior detection program nationwide before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for the program.”Hmmmm.....It's all about control?Read the full story here.

• Netherlands to vote on law banning slaughter of meat by halal and kosher methods.One of Europe's first countries to allow Jews to practice their religion openly could pass a law banning centuries-old traditions on the ritual slaughter of animals.An unlikely alliance of an animal rights party and the Freedom Party is behind a ban on kosher and halal slaughter methods in the Netherlands.They claims the practices inflict unacceptable suffering on animals.The far right's support of the bill, which is expected to go to a parliamentary vote this month, is based on its strident hostility towards the Dutch Muslim population.The Party of Animals, the world's first such party to be elected to parliament, said humane treatment of animals overrode traditions of tolerance.But Jewish and Muslim groups have called the bill an affront to freedom of religion.Most Dutch are believed to favour a ban.If the bill is passed, the Netherlands will join New Zealand, Scandinavian countries and Switzerland which have had bans for decades.The Netherlands has a proud history of tolerance and was one of the first countries in Europe to allow Jews to live openly with their religion in the 17th century.The country has around one million Muslims out of a total population of around 16 million. There are estimated to be around 50,000 Jews after 70 per cent of their community died in Nazi concentration camps in World War Two.Read the full story here.

• Hamas: Commander killed in Gaza.'Our aim is to get message across to Hamas,' says IDF official, adding retaliatory strikes in Gaza could increase. Meanwhile army kills two gunmen belonging to Hamas's military wing, who fired rockets at Ashkelon.The IDF continued Friday evening to bomb targets in the Gaza Strip in response to unceasing projectile fire by terror groups.Air Force craft attacked a rocket-launching cell that fired four rockets at Ashkelon, three of which were intercepted by Iron Dome. Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, announced that one of its commanders was killed in the strike along with an additional gunman. In addition, Palestinian sources reported two killed and 10 injured from IDF tank fire on Sajaiya neighborhood. The commander killed by the IDF was 27-year old Rayid Shehadeh, Hamas said. The IDF had announced after the strike that it had identified a direct hit. More than 24 hours after beginning to bomb Gaza heavily, IDF officials said the army has no plans of stopping, and that the intensity of the strikes may be intensified until terror organizations understand the message. "Our aim is to get a message across to Hamas, to clarify that we will not accept incidents the likes of which occurred yesterday," one official said, referring to an attack on a school bus that critically wounded a 16-year old boy. "They understand their situation and are thinking on it," one official said. "They are beginning to understand that the anti-tank fire (at the school bus) wasn't worth it. "They don't want to cause an increased Israeli response, but we are determined to continue operating against targets as well as rocket-launching cells. We will not hesitate to increase (military action). This operation will end when Hamas understands the price of its actions." Hmmmm....Sigh.....This isn't a 'game' to get a message through.The only way to dictate peace is through victory!Read the full story here.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Looming Budget Showdown: Feck the Troops but Dems Saved Google!It pays to be Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now serving on Obama’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).Update: Hey, who says the federal government isn’t efficient? The deal got announced a few minutes ago : The Justice Department said on Friday it has approved Google’s $700 million acquisition of ITA, an online travel company specializing in airline ticketing software, with several conditions.Eric Schmidt must be proud!Whew! Never mind that military families will have to do without pay; at least they’ve taken care of Eric Schmidt. Our long national nightmare is over.Now, about Google's JihadTube, where does Obi One admin stand? Do they approve of terrorist propaganda and stuff? I mean, there are thousands and thousands of terrorist supporters videos.Inquiring minds wanna know..Hmmmm.....Is there anything the Obama regime doesn't control?Read the full story here.

• 'Massacre' at Camp Ashraf: Iranians call for international help as Iraqi soldiers run down refugees in armoured trucks, killing 25.Iranian refugees have called for international help to prevent a massacre at Camp Ashraf after Iraqi forces invaded the compound and killed at least 25 people. A full state of alert has been declared by the Iranian group after 65 Iraqi vehicles carrying soldiers entered Ashraf late yesterday, with reports that they are running down and shooting the refugees. Videos have emerged seemingly showing Iraqi troops firing on Iranian refugees and one instance appears to show an Iraqi vehicle ramming a resident and trapping him under its wheels.Muzzle flashes of gunshots are also visible as the vehicles chase residents around the compound at speed. Another six-minute video posted on YouTube that the exiles claim was taken of the offensive, shows Humvees flying the Iraqi flag chasing down around 100 stone-throwing masked people in an open area. At least one Iraqi soldier was seen firing from his AK-47 machine gun, but his target was not clear. The video also shows at least six people lying on a the ground, and a dozen of blood-soaked men being treated by doctors. Camp Ashraf resident Shahriar Kia said the dead include six women and said 325 had been wounded in the violence. Behzad Saffari, who has lived at Ashraf for nine years and acts as the camp's legal adviser, said: 'This is a massacre, a catastrophe. 'They came inside the camp and attacked people with grenades and tear gas, and then they started to shoot people.'When people saw the attack was about to begin, they lined up to defend their homes.'Neither his claims or the videos could be immediately be verified because access to the camp is restricted.A hospital in Baqouba has reported three dead and treated 13 wounded, and treated five injured Iraqi soldiers. However, a memo from the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran called on 'American forces in Iraq and the United Nation to immediately intervene to prevent the killings of Ashraf residents.'Iraqi Lt. General Ali Ghaidan confirmed a conflict took place overnight at Camp Ashraf but denied anyone was killed and said his men did not use live rounds. He acknowledged that there were people injured but said he did not know how many. Iraqi forces have reported their own casualties.Ghaidan said his troops were responding to two days of provocation by exiles who, armed with shovels, have been throwing stones at Iraqi guard positions.He also claimed the refugees had been throwing themselves in front of soldiers' trucks over the last few days.'One hundred members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran attacked our security and military forces,' said al-Dabbagh. 'Our forces did not use weapons. The situation is calm now. Our forces are trying to redeploy themselves inside and outside the camp. 'The Iraqi government is warning of violating the Iraqi laws in that area.'However, Ashraf residents and their supporters are calling the event a 'massacre'.The UN mission in Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. military in Iraq all declined immediate comment.Hmmmmm......Iraq.....Turkey......Iran...Follow the dots.Read the full story here.

• Witnesses: 13 killed in Syria.Thousands protests Baath Party's rule in several Kurdish regions. Security forces said to be using live ammunition on masses.Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on thousands of protesters in the southern city of Daraa, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, witnesses said. Mass protests against autocratic Baath Party rule erupted on Friday in several Kurdish regions in eastern Syria, a Kurdish activist said, a day after President Bashar Assad offered Kurds Syrian nationality. Protest organizers called for demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in several provinces in what they called a “Friday of Steadfastness.” "The citizenship gesture only helped fuel the street (protests). The Kurdish cause is one for democracy, freedom and cultural identity," Hassan Kamel, a high-level member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, said. SANA said a police officer and an ambulance driver were killed Friday in Daraa. The report blamed "armed men" for the violence. The government has blamed much of the unrest in recent weeks on armed thugs. It was not clear if the state-run agency and the eyewitness were counting the same people. One witness said he helped ferry the dead and wounded to the city's hospital, where he counted 13 corpses. "My clothes are soaked with blood," he said by telephone from Daraa, adding that he was among thousands of people at the protest and he witnessed security forces shooting live ammunition. Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Special Parole Pushed For Illegal Immigrants With Kids.The Illinois congressman charged with crafting President Obama’s amnesty bill has embarked on a national tour to promote a special program that allows illegal immigrants with children to remain in the United States.Launched by Democrat Luis Gutierrez, the "Campaign For American Children and Families” aims to grant a special parole to illegal aliens who have relatives in the U.S. so that families can remain together in the land of opportunity. The measure is essential to help those “whose lives are being turned upside down by deportation,” according to the veteran lawmaker who authored a bill to give the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants amnesty.Gutierrez estimates that around 4 million U.S. citizen children (“anchor babies”) have a deportable mother or father and all live in fear that they’ll lose a parent at any moment. His national tour will visit at least 20 cities and feature heartbreaking testimony from illegal immigrant families torn apart by deportation. Children and spouses of removed illegal aliens will take the microphone to tell their sob stories at the various rallies, Gutierrez promises.The goal is to pressure Obama into using his executive power to halt deportations while a broader amnesty bill is being considered by Congress. Immigration reform is necessary in the long run, Gutierrez says, but in the meantime the government must ensure that it doesn’t “needlessly deport” those who are working, raising families and “contributing to our nation and economic recovery.” Obama must “provide relief” from deportation, the congressman asserts.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Ban on Skype, Hotmail and Gmail proposed.Federal Security Service says their "uncontrolled use" could threaten security.The Federal Security Service (FSB) is "increasingly concerned" by the mass use of these services, which use foreign-made encryption technology, said head of the FSB's information and special communication centre Alexander Andreyechkin, RIA Novosti agency reported."Uncontrolled usage of these services may lead to massive threat to Russia's security," he said at a meeting of the government's communication and technology committee.Control of Internet traffic through these services is done from servers outside Russia, and so they are often used by extremist organizations, Andreyechkin was reported as saying before the meeting continued without the press.Deputy Minister of Communications Ilya Massukh later said that recommendations regarding regulation of mass usage of encryption technology will be given to the government by October 1.The FSB would like to ban these services in Russia because "security authorities cannot access them," Massukh was reported as saying.The secretive FSB, which is a successor to the Soviet KGB, has denounced the popular non-Russian services in the past.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheRightScoop.Video : Levin blasts Obama for not funding troops. Obama is pledging to veto a one week CR, offered by Boehner since they can’t agree on the current CR, that would fund defense for the rest of the year. Even Mike Pence, who is frustrated at another short-term CR, said that the troops must come first and therefore he will support this one week CR. Obama feels differently and Levin has a few words for him.Levin : “This Is What Saul Alinsky Marxists Do”.Hmmm....Exactly:"How does this 'man' looks at himself in the mirror?Napoleon said "an army marches on its stomach" he valued his troops!You can't have a dialog with an dictator!Read and see the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.FDR opposed repealing anti-Jewish Vichy laws in North Africa.I came upon a shocking article in the Jewish Journal (via Point of No Return and Emet m'Tsiyon) revealing some very telling details about FDR.Among the more remarkable documents of the Holocaust is a scroll, created in North Africa in 1943, called “Megillat Hitler.” Written in the style of Megillat Esther and the Purim story, it celebrates the Allies’ liberation of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which saved the local Jewish communities from the Nazis. What the scroll’s author did not realize, however, was that at the very moment he was setting quill to parchment, those same American authorities were actually trying to keep in place the anti-Jewish legislation imposed in North Africa by the Nazis.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!'Huge Asteroid' to Pass Near Earth in November.Mark your calendars for an impressive and upcoming flyby of an asteroid that’s one of the larger potentially perilous space rocks in the heavens – in terms of smacking the Earth in the future.It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances.Due the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned.Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered by Spacewatch at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Dec. 28, 2005.En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet.“The close Earth approach of 2005 YU55 on Nov. 8, is unusual since it is close and big. On average, one wouldn’t expect an object this big to pass this close but every 30 years,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.Asteroid 2005 YU55 is a slow rotator. Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., has designated the space rock as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.