MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 08. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

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

• Yemen Live Blog - June 08 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7 ! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 129.Source : Here .

• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic 44- . Source.

• Allooo..... it's Comrade Barry......anything else you need to know Tovarich Putin?(ForeignPolicy).The Obama administration is freely giving Russia sensitive information about missile defense that weakens U.S. national security.President Barack Obama's administration recently threatened to veto the defense budget, citing "serious concerns" over provisions that limit the U.S. missile defense know-how that the White House is permitted to share with Moscow. This is the sort of information that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in his earlier days, would have assigned his spies to steal. Through its single-minded pursuit of "resetting" relations with Russia, the Obama administration may simply be willing to hand over this information and, in doing so, weaken U.S. national security.Only two days after issuing the veto threat -- and as Obama tried to warm Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to U.S. missile defense plans at the G-8 Summit in Deauville, France -- the House of Representatives passed the defense bill. It included the provision that the president's team finds so offensive: Section 1228 requires that no funds can be used to provide the Russian Federation with sensitive U.S. missile defense technology.This act of congressional prudence did not come out of nowhere. The Senate debate over New START raised questions about what the Obama administration may have promised Moscow regarding U.S. missile defense plans. The debate stemmed from the treaty's preamble, which linked offensive and defensive weapons, and a Russian unilateral statement that stated ratification of the treaty was conditional on whether the United States made improvements to its missile defense systems. In a treaty about reducing offensive weapons, it was clear the Russians required the Obama administration to include U.S. defenses in the bargain.With that issue still unresolved, Congress discovered that the administration has been working on a missile defense agreement with the Russians and that Moscow had requested that the United States share with it loads of sensitive U.S. missile defense technology and operational authority as part of that deal. In the administration's eagerness to please the Kremlin, it may just oblige.The House of Representatives has given a firm "no" to that prospect through its decision to ignore Obama's veto threat and approve the defense appropriations bill by a veto-proof vote of 322 to 96. The Senate may act similarly. On April 14, 39 Republican senators sent a letter to the president expressing their concern over the administration's consideration of granting to the Russians sensitive U.S. technology and "red button" authority to prevent the interception of incoming missiles headed for U.S. troops or allies. This would allow Russia to deny the United States the ability to intercept a missile Washington had determined to be a threat.The letter, spearheaded by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), requested the administration provide the Senate with assurances that it will not share sensitive information with Moscow. The senators cited the problem that sharing this information with Russia poses in light of its history of espionage and technological cooperation with Iran and Syria.Leaders in the House, and particularly the Armed Services Committee, deserve commendation for trying to address these weaknesses. The House defense bill added funds for short-range defenses, the GMD system, and Aegis; and perhaps most strikingly, it mandated the administration to conduct a study on the technical and operational feasibility of space-based interceptors -- the ideal type of system to intercept missiles at the optimal point, during their boost phase.But as the administration's veto threat demonstrates, the future of U.S. missile defense requires more than Congress alone can provide. Here's hoping that the White House comes to its senses and stops trying to use a degradation in U.S. national security to purchase a Russian "reset."Hmmmmm......At what point do you start impeachment,when the Russian nukes hit US cities?Read the full story here.

• A Whiff of Secession and Nullification.(EmergingCorruption).By Alan Caruba.In May Rasmussen Reports took a survey of a thousand adults asking if they believed that States have the right to secede. “One-in-five Americans believe individual States have the right to break away from the country, although a majority doesn’t believe it will actually happen.” That a Tea Party movement sprang to life in the midst of the protests against Obamacare and then was instrumental in transferring political power in the House of Representatives in the 2010 election cannot be dismissed. People—lots of them—are increasingly wary of the central government, particularly one that has burdened them with more debt in the last three years than in the entire prior history of the nation.In October, Pelican Press will publish “Rethinking the American Union for the Twenty-First Century” in which a number of scholars edited by Donald Livingston, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, examine the implications of secession, possibly by regional groupings of States, from the present federal government. Prof. Livingston is a political philosopher and scholar, the author of two books on the British philosopher David Hume and may well be one of a handful of people who have given serious thought to the question of whether the present Union has either outlived its usefulness or, worse, become a sinkhole of power aggregating to itself total control over the States.The Tenth Amendment clearly states that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”That is true, but I doubt there is a single Governor of any of the fifty States who cannot enumerate the ways the federal government has wrested power from them while imposing costs. When Arizona finds itself the object of a federal legal suit to prevent it from trying to control its border with Mexico, you know there’s a problem.“Genuine federalism in America can be recovered only by political action in the name of the State’s own authority and not by Supreme Court legalism,” says Prof. Livingston. “To all of this it is often said that State interposition, nullification, and succession were eliminated as policy options by the Civil War. Brute force, however, cannot settle moral and constitutional question.” While Lincoln did “save the Union”, he did so at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of the South. Clearly the central government has grown so large, so unwieldy, so wasteful, and so unresponsive to the problems and costs it has imposed that people are beginning to wonder why 435 Representatives in the House and 100 in the Senate should control the lives, the economy, and the education of more than 300 million people in fifty sovereign States. The President virtually makes law with “executive orders” and the nine members of the Supreme Court exercises final authority of the constitutionality of laws. Congress is so divided by raw partisanship it is barely functioning. “The only remedy,” says Prof. Livingston “is territorial division of the Union through secession into a number of different and independent political units.” This is not a call for anarchy. It is the realization that the modern presidency has aggregated to itself powers it does not have or, in the case of Libya, is ignoring the War Powers Act that limits its ability to engage the nation in conflicts Congress does not ultimately authorize. It is the realization that every United Nations treaty the United States signs deprives it of its sovereign rights.It is a call for consideration that regional groups of States with common interests might provide better government within such groups, leaving to the central government the responsibility to protect the nation via a common military, conduct foreign affairs, and return to the gold standard that would protect the value of a common currency.When one-in-five Americans give credence to the right of secession, it is clear that the problems being experienced in all fifty States, the massive regulation of all activities within those States, the imposition of a centralized “core” curriculum to be taught in all schools, is arousing a rediscovered sense of liberty among Americans. What steps must be taken to retain that liberty and even to restructure the Union are as yet undetermined, but they are increasingly entering the public debate. There is no debate that something is terribly wrong when a president is elected whose eligibility and legitimacy is in serious question while the courts do nothing to address this critical constitutional issue and the Congress does nothing while sending bills for his signature. Read the full story here.

• Circumcision should be banned but I don't 'have the time or energy': California mother drops bid to end the practice.(DailyMail).The woman who wanted to ban circumcision in California has dropped the proposal as she can't be bothered.Last month, Jena Troutman of Santa Monica submitted a proposal that would have made child circumcision an offence, punishable by a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.Now, after being accused of anti-Semitism and linked to a ‘deeply offensive’ cartoon entitled ‘Foreskin Man’, the mother of two has dropped the proposal.Ms Troutman, a lactation consultant, said the initiative was ‘never about religion’.‘It was about protecting babies from their parents not knowing that circumcision was started in America to end masturbation,’ she told Fox News.‘I don't have the time or the energy to argue with everybody, but you shouldn't go around cutting up your little babies. Why don't people [expletive] get that?Ms Troutman submitted a proposal to make ‘Genital Cutting of Male Minors’ a misdemeanour offense to the Santa Monica city clerk.It was going to need at least 6,000 signatures to go on the November 2012 ballot.The proposal, written by San Diego-based group MGMbill.org who have proposed a ballot in San Francisco, has since come under fire for being anti-Semetic. Matthew Hess, head of the group, also authors the controversial ‘Foreskin Man’ cartoon which shows a blond superhero protecting little boys’ privates from the evil scalpel of ‘Monster Mohel’.Multiple detractors, including the Anti-Defamation League, have condemned the publication as ‘disrespectful and deeply offensive.’Ms Troutman has been careful to disassociate herself with the group:‘I respect and appreciate the Jewish religion and people's delicate feelings about their religious customs,’ adding that she had originally wanted to allow a religious exemption for the proposed ban but that it would have been unconstitutional.Still, ‘bodily integrity and genital autonomy’ are human rights, she said. Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom confirmed the news on his Facebook page late Monday:‘The proponent of the Santa Monica ballot initiative to ban circumcision just left a msg 4 me that she is WITHDRAWING the measure!!’‘I'm tired of it being about religion,’ Troutman continued. ‘For over a million babies a year, they're being cut for no reason.’Male circumcision has been associated with lower risk of HIV infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on numerous observational studies and controlled clinical trials.Amanda Susskind, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League's Pacific Southwest region is please the proposal is not coming to fruition: She said: ‘Everybody is happy that this particular petition isn't going forward.’'[But] there's a movement, so our concern is that they'll find someone else in Santa Monica to file [another initiative] on their behalf.’Ms Susskind added: ‘The main issue for us is the right for a parent to choose the religious upbringing of a child and I think that is a concept that resonates with most people.’Hmmmm....."The Lord works in mysterious ways".Read the full story here.

• Iran: US, Israel want confrontation.(Ynet).Tehran vows to offer harsh response to attack. Egyptian ex-general backs Iran's moves. The US and "the Zionist regime" are scheming in a bid to prompt military and domestic conflicts in the Middle East, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman warns."The Americans believe that the first and immediate outcome of a military conflict in the region will be the salvaging of the Zionist regime, Ramin Mehman-Parast said in a convention in Tehran.The US is "eager to push the Islamic Republic into a military confrontation in the region," he said, but added that Tehran will offer a harsh response to any act of belligerence against it. Iran's enemies have already admitted that striking the Islamic Republic will be "stupid and mad," he said.Meanwhile, a former senior official in Egypt's Navy said that Iran's presence in the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean is line with the "Muslim interest," the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars reported Wednesday."Iran's military presence in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea is not against the interests of the Islamic and Arab world; rather it will serve the interests of the regional states," said ex-General Talat Muslim. Hmmmm......Perhaps give another couple of $ Billions to the Muslim Brotherhood?Read the full story here.

• UK Jews fight Scottish boycott.(Ynet).British Jews initiate campaign to counter West Dunbartonshire anti-Israel boycott; Group wanted to boycott Scottish district, discovered nothing is produced there, campaign leader says.A group of British Jews have decided to fight back a Scottish anti-Israel boycott, inundating the district behind the move with complaint letters and setting up a Facebook page to counter the embargo. Nigel Lawrence, a representative of the Board of Deputies of Anglo Jewry, told Ynetnews of the initiative, which followed reports that Scotland's West Dunbartonshire Council was boycotting all Israeli-made products, including books."It infuriates me that Israel is set aside from all other nations," Lawrence said. "I see no reason for this other than anti-Semitism and I am enraged at the ongoing bias against Israel by some UK institutions.""There are a large number of Jewish people in the UK with a very strong love of Zionism," he said. "The community is, at last, starting to recognize Anti-Zionism for what it is. I am proud to be a part of this growing movement."Lawrence said he and other Israel fans set up a Facebook Group to boycott all goods and services in West Dunbartonshire in response to the anti-Israel boycott. "Sadly, no one has found anything made there - not even whiskey," he said.Lawrence added that during research into the issue, the pro-Israel group discovered that the life expectancy for Gaza Strip men is 71, compared to only 70 in West Dunbartonshire. "We are thinking of asking Palestinians in Gaza to send an aid flotilla to Dumbarton shire with health tips," he quipped. "We are asking people from Gaza to send a flotilla with Mars bars, batter and cooking oil in solidarity." Lawrence noted that a letter of complaint over the matter was sent to Scottish Member of European Parliament Catherine Stihler, who dismissed the Scottish boycott call as largely meaningless.Read the full story here.

• Islamic and European slavery: a very brief comparison.(Faithfreedom).The “European powers” (particularly Spain, Portugal, France and Britain) are rightly condemned for their past actions in respect of slavery, as is America.There is no disputing the fact that in the course of the approx 350 years of European/American slavery some eleven million African slaves were transported across the Atlantic ocean in the most atrocious of conditions, which resulted in an average of 10% (more than a million) perishing on the journey.That they were worked hard, sometimes literally to death, and that some of the women were used as sex-slaves is also indisputable. (The latter is provable on genetic grounds. Many African-Caribbean people have genes that could only possibly have come from Caucasians.)That this was a dreadful crime against humanity is also beyond doubt.

In slight mitigation, it has to also be accepted that these same “Powers” and especially Britain were at the forefront of efforts to ban slavery worldwide, an objective that has not yet been totally achieved, though it has been achieved within the “West” and much of the world.Many peoples throughout the World, including the Islamic world “point the finger” at the West in general, and Europeans and Americans in particular, over this issue.Whilst this is morally justified, it has to be said that in the case of the Islamic world in particular the “finger of blame” should be pointed at themselves also.

Slavery in Islam is a scarcely mentioned matter, though books and resources are available, going right back to the records kept by Islamic Sultans, their advisers and other Muslim chroniclers.At its zenith the Islamic Empire stretched from India through northern Africa and into Eastern Europe.From its very inception Islam practiced slavery as a part of war and then as a tax- or tribute-measure.A survey of sources concerning the numbers enslaved by the “Islamic powers”, according to their own records (which are incomplete and thus will under-estimate the figures) show the following:

Europeans enslaved: 400,000{1} (A secondary source{4} I have places this figure >1million.)

Indians enslaved: 6,000,000{2}

Africans enslaved: 12,000,000{3} (This figure neglects slaves for the Western trade – see below.)

Total enslaved: 18,400,000

Let me repeat: the figures shown above are, in each case, an under-estimate of the true figure. For example the Senegalese Author Tidiane N’Diaye in his book LE GENOCIDE VOILÉ, (Jan. 2008) says: “…17 million Africans who were brought to the Arab-Muslim world and transformed into eunuchs have disappeared … It was a programmed ‘ethnic extinction by castration.”. If this was the total number of male slaves, then the total number of Africans enslaved must have been much higher than that.Even the most conservative figures show that the “Islamic powers” over their history (632 AD to present, approx 1380 years) have enslaved at the very least 66% more people than the Christian West over it’s history (approx 2000 years). Further it is also documented that the European slave trade was founded on the supply of slaves by muslim slave-traders who supplied about 80% of the slaves for the Atlantic slave-trade.Thus, in total, muslims enslaved perhaps twenty-one million Africans – about nine million for the transatlantic trade and (as previously mentioned) a minimum of twelve million for the “internal” Islamic slave trade.Read the full story here.

• Eight Killed at Football Game in Thailand by Muslim Militants.(Chakranews).In Thailand’s restive south, eight Buddhists have been killed by Muslim militants, according to police reports.Police Lieutenant General, Kong-att Suwannakham says insurgents detonated a homemade bomb in a football field in the province of Pattani which resulted in four policemen being killed and another dozen being wounded. They had all just met at the field to play a friendly game of football knowing little that their lives were at stake in a few minutes time.In the province of Yala, police say that insurgents set off a roadside bomb and shot at an army patrol, killing three soldiers and wounding two. Additionally two men on bicycles, fatally shot at a formal local official in his pick up truck, in the province of Narathiwat.In Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated provinces, more than 4,300 people have been killed in the predominantly Buddhist regions. These killings have all happened since the Islamist insurgency erupted in the country in 2004.Hmmmm.....Just consider the effect of the 'defender of the oppressed' who lets the Dalai Lama out trough the backdoor along the dustbin bags.Read the full story here.