MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Venezuela 4.9 ! More info here.

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

• "The Perfect Solar Storm" - Storm Clouds Gather Over Obama, Solyndra.(Examiner).While the sun has set on Solyndra, the solar panel company that received more than $500 million of taxpayer money only to go bankrupt, storm clouds are gathering over the Obama administration and its relationship with the now-defunct company.Many of you may not know much about Solyndra and that is primarily because most media outlets have remained mum on the subject or are hiding the news. Like the Chicago Tribune, for instance. In its Sept. 14 edition, the unfortunate death of popular Chicago Bears player Brian Urlacher’s mother was the top “news” story. Coverage of House hearings into the bankruptcy of Solyndra and how it got $535 MILLION of taxpayer money was pushed all the way to the bottom of page 20. I guess taxpayers being on the hook for more than one-half a billion dollars is minor compared to the death of a football player’s mom.Anyway, in March 2009, at the urging of the Obama White House, the Department of Energy loan department approved a $535 million guaranteed loan to Solyndra. Of course, the administration is trying to blame the Bush White House (what new?) because the loan application occurred while Bush was president. The fact is the Energy Department under President Bush DENIED the loan request from Solyndra during the administration’s waning days in early January of 2009. The Bush Energy Department denied the loan because the “company didn’t have good long-term prospects.”However, that isn’t deterring the Obama Energy Department from rewriting history. Jonathan Silver, who heads the Energy loan program, said, “By the time the Obama administration took office in late January 2009, the loan program’s staff had already established a goal of, and timeline for, issuing the company a conditional loan guarantee commitment in March 2009.”History, Mr. Silver, proves otherwise. Internal Energy Department e-mails indicate the panel evaluating the loan unanimously decided to shelve Solyndra’s loan application two weeks BEFORE Obama took office. But that didn’t stop a green-driven Obama administration from changing course. Two months later, new Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the government would give Solyndra a $535 million loan, funded with money from the stimulus program passed in February 2009.History also shows that the Obama White House asked the Energy Department to make a decision on the loan so they could schedule a visit by President Obama to the Solyndra facility to announce the loan. Records also show that Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser was a private backer of the deal and that he raised tens of thousands of dollars in 2008 for President Obama’s presidential campaign. Kaiser made repeated visits to the White House as did Solyndra executives (more than 20 to be exact). Solyndra executives also were telling Democratic members of Congress that Solyndra was a financially strong company that was doing well. They were telling this to the Obama White House and Democratic members of Congress even just weeks before the company shut its doors and filed for bankruptcy.White House and Energy Department e-mails show the Obama administration was hot to trot over Solyndra. Vice President Biden appeared at the company’s groundbreaking ceremony in 2009 and President Obama showed up May 23, 2010 to tout the company, its green products and the green jobs being created. One month after Obama touted the green jobs being created at Solyndra, the company laid off 100 workers. One cannot make this stuff up.All of this took place even as administration analysts were skeptical of the company’s claims and business stability. “This deal is NOT (emphasis in original e-mail and not my own) ready for prime time,” one White House budget analyst wrote all the way back on March 10, 2009. A few days before Solyndra’s groundbreaking ceremony in September 2009, a Department of Energy official concluded the company would run out of money by September 2011. Wow, a government analyst actually got a prediction correct!Unfortunately, no one in the Obama administration seemed to care as it continually pushed the company as a shining light in the green movement and green jobs creation.Taxpayers lost more than half a billion dollars on this company, and now 1,100 people are out of work. The Obama administration, which received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from those affiliated with Solyndra, continually touted the company as a shining example of the green economy and green jobs even as administration analysts doubted the company’s viability. And the agreement by the Energy Department to allow recent investors to recoup their investment before taxpayers is deemed illegal.And now the Obama White House is scrambling to approve another 15 loans through the Energy Department before Sept. 30. There is $10 billion still available in the Energy Department loan program that must be used by the end of the month or be re-allocated. Rather than wasting that money, wouldn’t it be better to either save that money or at least use it to help pay for the disaster costs associated with Hurricane Irene? I guess that makes too much sense.The worst presidency in U.S. history is now embroiled in a developing scandal, with another scandal brewing as well: the Fast and Furious gun-running program with Mexican drug gangs. Anyway, November 2012 can’t come soon enough, nor can January 2013.Hmmmm.....Can they startup the impeachment procedure now?Is this why they start Shoving Hillary on the front row?Realising Obama will get Impeached on this?Read the full story here.

• Turkish Ambassador ""It is Impossible to Assimilate Turks".(IslamVersusEurope).The German newspaper Die Welt yesterday featured an interview with Ali Ahmet Acet, the outgoing Turkish ambassador to Germany. During the interview, the ambassador made the following interesting remarks:

It is impossible to assimilate Turks. Turks have great homesickness. They feel strong ties to their villages and their family. Also, they have another religion. Because of these differences, assimilation is not possible. He also said that "the EU should ask Turkey to join".Hmmmm.......Keep Turkey out of the European Union.Read the full story here.

• Obama and the Jews -It’s time for the Jewish vote to defect from the Democratic Party.(WashingtonTimes).The Republican upset victory in the special election for New York’s heavily Jewish 9th Congressional District has set off alarm bells in Democratic political circles. The White House is launching an outreach effort to American Jews to convince them that Mr. Obama is the best friend Israel has ever had in Washington. If that were even remotely true, there would be no desperate need for outreach.Several recent polls have shown Mr. Obama’s support among the Jewish population is dropping. In general, Jews tend to be more liberal and more affiliated with the Democratic Party than most Americans, but approval for Mr. Obama is waning even faster than among the electorate at large. In response, the White House is touting Mr. Obama’s purported strong support for Israel. This won’t work because the notion that Jews primarily cast their votes based on that issue is wrong. American Jews suffer as much from Mr. Obama’s disastrous economic policies as anyone else, and the faltering recovery is just as damaging in the Jewish community as elsewhere. If anything, it’s a wonder his support from Jews is still above average.It’s also untrue that Jews are the only group concerned about Israel’s fate. Americans in general recognize that Israel is America’s steadiest and most loyal ally in the Middle East. It’s one of the region’s only democracies and certainly the most durable. For many American conservatives, Christians and Jews alike, the existence of the state of Israel is evidence of the unfolding of a divine plan. Like the United States, it is a nation of immigrants, a diverse, tolerant and multicultural society surrounded by countries that are anything but. For example, this week, Maen Areikat, the Palestine Liberation Organization ambassador to the United Nations, said, “it would be in the best interest of the two people*” that the proposed future Palestinian state be free of Jews.Lately, the relationship between America and Israel has been punctuated by periodic dust-ups between Mr. Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has a stronger will and vastly more diplomatic experience. Many liberal American Jews are not fans of the conservative prime minister, but a July poll by Dick Morris found that 85 percent of Jewish Democrats believe, “Israel is a small country surrounded by countries and peoples that want to destroy it.” There’s no question Mr. Netanyahu agrees with that, but there is some doubt about Mr. Obama.The major difference between the Obama administration and those before it is the general sense of moral equivalence with which it approaches the peace process. Mr. Obama’s obsessive outreach to Muslim countries has led him to adopt a very even-handed tone when discussing Israel. Surrendering the moral argument for the Jewish state in pursuit of a deal has conveyed American weakness to both sides. It’s no wonder the Palestinian Authority is pushing for United Nations recognition of statehood. With Mr. Obama in office, they think they can get away with it.The White House is in a bind with Jewish voters. Those who believe Mr. Obama has been bad news for Israel will never be convinced otherwise. Those for whom the economy is the most important issue see the same bad news as everyone else. If this small but influential voting block is starting to turn decisively against Democrats, it could signal a sea change in American politics more important than the transfer of allegiance of black voters away from the GOP in the mid-20th century. It’s about time.Read the full story here.

• Gov. Rick Perry: The U.S. Must Support Israel At the U.N. (WSJ).By Gov. R.Perry.The historic friendship between the United States and Israel stretches from the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 to the present day. Our nations have developed vital economic and security relationships in an alliance based on shared democratic principles, deep cultural ties, and common strategic interests. Historian T.R. Fehrenbach once observed that my home state of Texas and Israel share the experience of "civilized men and women thrown into new and harsh conditions, beset by enemies."Surrounded by unfriendly neighbors and terror organizations that aim to destroy her, the Jewish state has never had an easy life. Today, the challenges are mounting. Israel faces growing hostility from Turkey. Its three-decades-old peace with Egypt hangs by a thread. Iran pursues nuclear weapons its leaders vow to use to annihilate Israel. Terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians from Hezbollah and Hamas continue. And now, the Palestinian leadership is intent on destroying the possibility of a negotiated settlement of the conflict with Israel in favor of unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by the United Nations.The Palestinian plan to win that one-sided endorsement from the U.N. this month in New York threatens Israel and insults the United States. The U.S. and the U.N. have long supported the idea that Israel and its neighbors should make peace through direct negotiations. The Palestinian leadership has dealt directly with Israel since 1993 but has refused to do so since March 2010. They seem to prefer theatrics in New York to the hard work of negotiation and compromise that peace will require. Errors by the Obama administration have encouraged the Palestinians to take backward steps away from peace. It was a mistake to call for an Israeli construction freeze, including in Jerusalem, as an unprecedented precondition for talks. Indeed, the Palestinian leadership had been negotiating with Israel for years, notwithstanding settlement activity. When the Obama administration demanded a settlement freeze, it led to a freeze in Palestinian negotiations. It was a mistake to agree to the Palestinians' demand for indirect negotiations conducted through the U.S., and it was an even greater mistake for President Obama to distance himself from Israel and seek engagement with the hostile regimes in Syria and Iran.Palestinian leaders have perceived this as a weakening of relations between Israel and the U.S, and they are trying to exploit it. In taking this destabilizing action in the U.N., the Palestinians are signaling that they have no interest in a two-state solution. The Palestinian leadership's insistence on the so-called "right of return" of descendants of Palestinian refugees to Israel's sovereign territory, thereby making Jews an ethnic minority in their own state, is a disturbing sign that the ultimate Palestinian "solution" remains the destruction of the Jewish state.The U.S.—and the U.N—should do everything possible to discourage the Palestinian leadership from pursuing its current course. The U.S. should oppose the statehood measure by using our veto in the Security Council, as President Obama has pledged to do, and by doing everything we can to weaken support for the unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood in the General Assembly. The U.S. must affirm that the precondition for any properly negotiated future settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is the formal recognition of the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state behind secure borders.Since the Oslo accords were signed in 1993, the U.S. has provided more than $4 billion in aid to the Palestinian Authority. This year alone, the Obama administration is seeking to secure $550 million in funding for Palestinians. The U.S. has an interest in the development of Palestinian civil society and institutions. We should encourage Palestinians who are more interested in building a prosperous future than in fueling the grievances of the past. Our aid is, and must remain, predicated on the commitment of the Palestinian leadership to engage honestly and directly with the Israelis in negotiating a peace settlement. Their threatened unilateral action in the U.N. signals a failure to abide by this commitment. We must not condone and legitimize through our assistance a regime whose actions are in direct opposition to a peace agreement and to our vital interests. The Palestinian people should understand that their leaders are now putting this much-needed support in jeopardy and act in their own best interests—which are also the interests of peace.Hmmm....Hear,Hear.Read the full story here.

• Boehner's Jobs Speech — (NYT).The following is a prepared text of Representative John A. Boehner's speech about jobs to the Economic Club of Washington on Thursday, as provided by the House Speaker's office.Read the full statement here.

• Perry Rips Obama Regime: “They Are Socialist,” Their Policies Are “Socialism”.(NY Times) — In an interview with Time magazine, Gov. Rick Perry showed that he had no intention of softening the cactus-thorned rhetoric he developed during his decades in Texas politics, notably repeating his characterization of President Obama’s policies as “socialist.”“Look, when all the answers emanate from Washington, D.C., one size fits all, whether it’s education policy or whether it’s health care policy, that is, on its face, socialism,” Mr. Perry told Time’s Richard Stengel and Mark Halperin.In 2009, Mr. Perry told a Republican group in Texas that the Obama administration is “hell bent on taking America towards a socialist country.” This year, as he faces charges from his rivals for the Republican nomination that his positions are too extreme to win the general election, Mr. Perry said he will not change the way he speaks to appeal to the nation as a whole.He also refused to back down from his characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme.”“American citizens are just tired of this political correctness and politicians who are tiptoeing around important issues,” he said. “They want a decisive leader.”Read the full story here.

• Obama’s ‘Jobs Bill’ Makes ACORN Eligible for $15 Billion in Taxpayer Money.(PajamasMedia).ACORN and other radical left-wing groups would be eligible for up to $15 billion in federal funding if President Obama’s new economic stimulus package becomes law.Now that public polling shows Americans are realizing that economic stimulus programs don’t work, the Obama administration is calling the latest round of futile stimulus a “jobs bill.” In a sense it really is a jobs bill: a jobs bill for Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizers.The draft legislation, which had not yet been introduced in Congress at press time, makes ACORN, Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), and a phalanx of leftist groups that regularly feed at the public trough eligible for funding.Section 261 of the bill provides $15 billion for “Project Rebuild.” Grants would be given to “qualified nonprofit organizations, businesses or consortia of eligible entities for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed-upon properties and for the stabilization of affected neighborhoods.” Radical groups like ACORN won’t get the whole $15 billion, though, because they will have to compete with state and local governments for the money.ACORN would have to get creative to extract grant money from the $5 billion allotted in the legislative package for two other competitive grant programs covered in sections 214 and 215. At first glance ACORN wouldn’t seem to be eligible for funding under the Community Oriented Policing Stabilization Fund and First Responder Stabilization Fund, but oddly enough the group has managed over the years to receive funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so anything’s possible.But there is every reason to believe ACORN, which has long been in the real estate development business, will get a chunk of the $15 billion. President Obama, who used to work for ACORN, wants to give his allies taxpayer dollars regardless of whether it is lawful to do so.Read the full scam story here.

• AttackWatch Armbands Now Available.(MyPetJawa).Show the world you care about our President! AttackWatch armbands* now available!Turn in 10 friends and you'll receive this brown armband.Read and see the full story here.

• Europe’s Debt Crisis Prompts Central Banks to Provide Dollar Liquidity.(Cryptogon).Fears of a deepening of Europe’s debt crisis have prompted the world’s leading central banks to pump US dollars into the financial system, in a co-ordinated action designed to boost market confidence.The Bank of England joined the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan on Thursday to announce that they would flood money markets with dollars over the coming months.The move, on the third anniversary of the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, sent shares soaring in banks heavily exposed to debt default by Greece and the other struggling members of the 17-nation eurozone. The euro, which had been falling in recent days, rebounded, rising roughly 1% in European trading on Thursday.Speaking in Washington, Christine Lagarde, the president of the International Monetary Fund, said: “They [the banks] are getting together and acting together. To me, that is the most important message.”Lagarde warned that more action was needed.“We have entered into a dangerous phase of the crisis,” she said. There is still a path to recovery, Lagarde said, but it is a “narrow” one.Under the terms of the deal, banks will be able to bid for unlimited amounts of US dollars at fixed interest rates in three separate auctions. The first of these will be on 12 October.Nick Parsons, head of strategy at National Australia Bank, said the decision to provide unlimited liquidity well into 2012 was a big show of support to the global banking system.But he added: “If Greece were to default, an announcement that there would be unlimited liquidity available from central banks is one of the things you would want to have in place beforehand.”Hmmmmm........Central banks conspiring acting together,what will the price of Gold do?Read the full story here.

• Devout taxi drivers allowed to veto strip-club roof ads.(NYPost).The great religious war, waged on top of yellow cabs, has ended.Devout Muslim hacks -- who were crouched behind their steering wheels in shame while driving with ads for strip clubs atop their taxis -- won a major victory yesterday in their war on roof smut. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission agreed to give cabbies who own their vehicles absolute veto power on the content of ads on their cars -- delighting scores of modest hacks of various faiths who had fought hard for the rule overhaul. “We are Muslims, and we do not like the ads!” crowed cabby Mohamed Tahir, 66, whose cab is topped with an image of a sexy brunette from Flashdancers Gentlemen’s Club.He added, “If I had another ad, I’d change it right away! It bothers many of us.” It won’t have to anymore. Under the new rules, Tahir and other conservative cabbies who own their vehicles will have the right to nix any advertisements they deem offensive. Previously, the owners of the taxi medallion -- often someone other than the car’s owner -- could decide what ads went up.“The law is now on our side!” said a jubilant Osman Chowdhury, a longtime cabby and leading member of the Bangladesh Society in Queens. Last week, he was so embarrassed at the strip-club ad on his cab -- which he uses as his primary mode of transportation during off hours -- that he refused to drive it to his mosque for services. “I had to walk to mosque,” said Chowdhury. “People getting out of the mosque would see the disgusting things.”Prior to the vote, several cabbies recounted their shame at promoting jiggle joints to the TLC board of commissioners -- in a desperate effort to convince them to change the rules. In one horrifying example, cabby Mohan Singh recalled his 6-year-old granddaughter telling him she wanted to be a “dancer” -- after seeing a Flashdancers ad atop his taxi. That risque ad also prompted his grandnephew to ask what a “gentlemen’s club” was and if he could ever go to one. “We should keep [the advertisement] there to tell the children that it is good?” he asked angrily. In lobbying the board to vote yes on the rule change, Singh said, “I think you will be kindhearted and do what is right.” The TLC board obliged yesterday, prompting a burst of applause from the appreciative crowd. “If you’re a taxi driver who owns his or her own car, you take it home, your neighbors see it,” said TLC Commissioner David Yassky, who strongly supported the rules change. "This is an appropriate and measured step that gives the driver the authority to screen out ads.” Medallion owners make, on average, about $125 a month from the rooftop ads. It is now illegal for medallion owners to dictate what ad content is displayed over the wishes of the car owners.Singh -- the driver whose granddaughter noticed the Flashdancers ad -- said he would never again have another strip-club ad on his car.“The most important thing is for the children,” he said after the TLC’s action.Hmmmm......FOX NEWS:"No. 1 Nation in Sexy Web Searches? Call it Pornistan a.k.a. Devout Pakistan ".And: Iranian web users rank highest for visits to porn sites on Holy Day: Ashura Day, a Shiite day of mourning.Another Country of 'Devout' Muslims.Read the full story here.

• Muslims Defy French Ban on Street Prayers.(IslamversusEurope).Today a ban on street prayers officially came into force in France. But the Muslims seem to have other ideas.This afternoon around 200 Muslims prayed in the street in the Paris district of Goutte-d'Or, despite the ban which the Interior Minister Claude Guéant committed himself to ensured was respected. Shortly after 2 pm, around 200 believers set themselves up on the pavements and road in the rue Polonceau (XVIIIth arrondissement).Hmmmm........'Surprised?.....No not really.Read and see the full story here.

• Youngmuslims.ca spells out educational strategy for the "Tyrannical Culture" they live under in Canada.(BlazingCatFur).Someone really ought to forward this to Chris Spence of the TDSB. The following screen shots are taken from a document on the Youngmuslims.ca online library entitled "Muslim Youth in the West - Towards a new education strategy".It's a lovely document carefully outlining the steps required to assure that Muslims are not integrated into the "Tyrannical Culture" that is Canada. As is happening with the TDSB it outlines a broad strategy to co-opt the state school system and ensure that "Islamic needs", especially with regard to girls, are met, all of which will contribute to the stated goal of establishing an Islamic Society. For example Quote:
  "When surrounded by an alien, secular, tyrannical culture..."

"To sum up: even growing up and remaining muslims with an Islamic identity, being acepted as a minority, would be impossible unless we give our youth the goal of making the society Muslim. Primarily because such is the nature of Islam."

Well at least their upfront about it.Read and see the full story here.

• Muammar Gaddafi’s heartland digs in against revolution.(TodaysZaman).The revolution’s quest to unite Libya under its control has a formidable challenge standing in the way: A swath of territory where disciplined loyalists fighters stage precision attacks and withering shelling barrages to defend land that includes Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown.It’s far too early to predict whether the pro-Gaddafi heartland -- wedged between the former rebel hub of Benghazi and the capital Tripoli -- could turn into a seat of resistance such as insurgent zones in Iraq or Afghanistan. But, for the moment, it carries the same interplay of firepower and zealotry, fueling attacks that have killed at least 80 anti-Gaddafi forces in recent days.“Its cities are packed with weapons, missiles and ammunition depots,” said Fadl-Allah Haroun, a commander of revolutionary units near Benghazi. “It is an unbelievable force.”Currently, former rebel fighters are assembling for an expected push into the well-defended loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid, on the western end of the 240-mile (400-kilometer) band of pro-Gaddafi territory. It includes the hunted leader’s Mediterranean birthplace Sirte and stretches to near the oil port of Ras Lanouf -- which came under back-to-back attacks by loyalist forces on Monday that killed 15 guards. The stiff resistance in Bani Walid, including by highly trained snipers, offers a glimpse of possibly much bigger fights ahead to try to dislodge Sirte and other places from loyalist hands. Cities and towns throughout the Gaddafi belt are apparently awash with arms -- with larger weapons such as 152mm Howitzer canons now well hidden against NATO airstrikes that continue in the area, revolutionary commanders told The Associated Press. The pro-Gaddafi commandos also stage hit-and-run strikes from the desert to the south, suggesting that Libya’s vast hinterlands and distant loyalist hubs such as Sabha could become rallying points for resistance fighters.Outside Wadi Al-Hammar, a village on the coastal road about 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of Sirte, anti-Gaddafi forces have found armored vehicles hidden under tents and other weapons stashed in encampments of nomadic Bedouin tribesmen. Al-Tayab Said, a revolutionary commander from Sabha, said loyalist fighters are trying to regroup and are using desert supply lines from Algeria. “They are moving freely across the border,” he said. “They get constant supply.”Other anti-Gaddafi leaders have noted the superior fighting tactics of the highly trained loyalists units compared with the civilian-heavy revolutionary brigades. A battlefield report about a Mitsubishi pickup is now making the rounds as a cautionary tale. On Saturday, pro-Gaddafi forces left the vehicle -- loaded with ammunition -- in a conspicuous hilltop in Wadi Al-Hammar. Revolutionary fighters rushed to claim the prize, but were picked off by hidden marksmen. At least 35 deaths were counted before the group managed to retreat to safety.Dr. Ahmed Alsharif, who heads a field hospital in Nawfaliyah, said at least 80 anti-Gaddafi fighters have been killed since Saturday in or around the loyalist territory.Read the full story here.

• Dear Arab brothers: Yes, you may borrow our prime minister!(Hurriyetdaily).After all, we are brothers! Our prime minister is your prime minister. So, please do not hesitate to borrow him – and please do not feel obliged to return him any time soon. After all, Muslims are never greedy and know well to share their jewels.I know you have been longing for a Gamal Abdel Nasser 2.0. I know it’s been four unlucky decades. But luckily, here is a better one: Our prime minister is even “more Muslim” than the late Mr. Nasser. He may not be an Arab, but he is trying so hard to be one.And the good news is that we have a special offer for you, brothers: If you borrow our prime minister, we’ll lend you our foreign minister too – and that special offer is only for you! I know, that’s what brothers are for.We, your Turkish brothers, perfectly understand the humiliation and collective trauma you may have suffered from the years 1948–49, 1956, 1967, 1973–74, and 1982. But here is a new Saladin Ayyubi who promises you the lands you wholeheartedly believe are yours. The lands for which you are prepared to kill – and die.Here is a powerful leader who promises not only to run the Palestinian flag up over the UN building but also to liberate al-Quds. He will not only push Israel into the pre-1967 borders, but also to its pre-1948 borders, Inshallah!Ironically, the holy task of uniting the Arab world (or putting together a new anti-Israeli front) may have fallen to a non-Arab leader, but try to be pragmatic. In the first place, you have failed to produce an Arab leader as charismatic and Arab-loving as our prime minister. And besides, what’s the point of objecting to a Turkish caliph since you lived under the rule of several of them for over four centuries in the past?Moreover, this Turkish leader whom you so dearly adore will take your countries into the European Union, precisely like he has taken ours. He will give you state-of-the-art war toys including fighter jets, aircraft carriers, helicopters, modern tanks, frigates and spaceships, all made in Turkey, and more than just good to fight the holy enemy! And one day, who knows, perhaps a nuclear bomb! Are we not as good as our Shia brothers?Dear Egyptian brothers! I know you feel nervous because our prime minister, visiting you capital, pledged to launch a high-level strategic cooperation council between our two brotherly countries, like he had done a few years earlier with our Syrian brothers.He has also vowed to increase our bilateral trade by more than three-fold, like he had done with our Syrian brothers. I know past experiences show that these are not good signs, but they should in no way scare you. Remember, one day we’ll pray all together at al-Aqsa mosque in the Palestinian capital al-Quds!All the same, I have learned with deep regret that some irresponsible leaders of your Muslim Brotherhood/Freedom and Justice Party have been gossiping to infidels about our prime minister and our country.For example, a certain brother Mahmoud Ghazlan has said that Turkey violates the Shariah because it does not punish adulterers. That shame is not our prime minister’s fault at all! A few years earlier he wanted to pass a law that illegalizes adultery but infidel Turks prevented that. And it was very unbrotherly of brother Ghazlan to say that “it’s not allowed for any non-Egyptian to interfere in our constitution.”Also, a certain brother Essam al-Erian spoke to a Christian news agency, saying that our prime minister and Turkey could not assume a leader’s role in shaping our region.Now, what kind of brothers are they? One suspects a Zionist conspiracy here, but never mind… Brothers Ghazlan and al-Erian should have carefully listened to our prime minister when he said that Turkey may be a secular country, but he, as an individual, is not secular. So, give him credit.Dear Arab brothers! You have yearned for a Nasser, and God has given you an Ottoman sultan. Enjoy him.Peace be upon you.Hmmmm......I salute a brave Turkish journalist.Source Here.

• Iran - Female Blogger Somayeh Tohidlou Sentenced to 50 lashes on the charge of “Insulting the President”.(Persian2English).Deutsche Welle – The sentence of 50 lashes for Somayeh Tohidlou, a PhD student of sociology and a campaigner for Mir Hossein Mousavi, was “symbolically” carried out in Evin prison on Wednesday. The sentence had been issued against the civil activist on the charge of “Insulting the President”.According to the Jaras website, the 50-lash sentence was carried out while Somayeh Tohidlou’s hands and feet were chained.Somayeh Tohidlou was born in 1978. At the time of the 2009 Iranian Presidential election, she was a campaigner for Mir Hossein Mousavi and one of the main planners of the Green Human Chain from Rah Ahan Square to Tajrish Square. She is also a member of the central council of the Islamic Association of the College of Engineering (at the University of Tehran) and a member of the central council of the Islamic Association of the University of Tehran. Somayeh Tohidlou was arrested on June 13, 2009, one day following the election. After 70 days of detention she was released on a 200 thousand [USD] bail (200 million tomans). The Revolutionary Court sentenced her to one year in prison and 50 lashes, on the charge of “Insulting the President”. According to Jaras, she was pardoned from serving the one-year prison sentence but the lashing sentence was [upheld]. On Thursday, Somayeh Tohidlou posted on her FriendFeed and Google Reader that the lashing sentence had been carried out symbolically and not as it had been expected. She wrote: “I must tell my friends who were worried about me that the execution of the sentence was symbolic and not in the way they had in mind. Therefore, they should not worry about me having endured any physical pain. Although there are unspoken facts, which I believe must be revealed at another time when my emotions and morale will not be overshadowed by the circumstances.”Regarding the execution of this sentence, Shirin Ebadi, lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, told Deutsche Welle: “The reason for the increasing naked violence of the regime is the weakness of its support bases. The regime turns more violent as it turns weaker and tries to show this naked violence to the people to intimidate them. And, in their own words, they believe in “victory by intimidation”. It is only when people fear them that they can overcome them. And lashing a PhD student and civil activist while her hands and feet are in chains is another shameful deed by a regime that bears the title of Islamic”.Shirin Ebadi believes that the charge of “Insulting the President” has been merely a pretext and the [real] charge is that [Somayeh Tohidlou] was a campaigner for Mousavi. She said: “The real reason behind lashing her has been her participation in Mir Hossein Mousavi’s electoral campaign, otherwise, insulting the President is a common pretext. Take a look at all the pro-government newspapers, from Keyhan and Resalat to Jomhouri Eslami to pro-government websites. They are all filled with accusations and insults to the President, due to the recent political disputes. Why are the [words] of the Keyhan and Resalat newspapers not considered insults, but if a campaigner for Mir Hossein Mousavi states the same thing, then it is considered an insult? Therefore, the real reason is that this woman has participated in the electoral campaign of Ahmadinejad’s rival.”After the execution of this sentence, Somayeh Tohidlou posted the following note on her blog: “Be happy, for if you wanted to humiliate me, I confess that I feel my entire body is suffering with degradation”.Read the full story here.

• Vice Chairman of Egypt's Al-Wafd Party Denies Holocaust.(Memri).In an August 31, 2011 article in Al-Wafd, the daily of the Egyptian Al-Wafd party, the party's vice chairman, Ahmad 'Ezz Al-'Arab, presented translated excerpts from an article by Holocaust denier Jim Kirwan, and advised the readers to read Kirwan's other writings on the latter's website. This is not the first time 'Ezz Al-'Arab has showcased Kirwan's writings. In an Al-Wafd article titled "The Jewish Holocaust – Between Fact and Fantasy," published August 14, 2009 and reprinted on November 6 of the same year, he presented another article by Kirwan denying the Holocaust.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!Visible Only From Above, Mystifying Nazca Lines Discovered in Mideast.(ArcheologyDaily).They stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, can be seen from the air but not the ground, and are virtually unknown to the public.They are the Middle East's own version of the Nazca Lines - ancient "geolyphs," or drawings, that span deserts in southern Peru - and now, thanks to new satellite-mapping technologies, and an aerial photography program in Jordan, researchers are discovering more of them than ever before. They number well into the thousands.Referred to by archaeologists as "wheels," these stone structures have a wide variety of designs, with a common one being a circle with spokes radiating inside. Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across. [See gallery of wheel structures] "In Jordan alone we've got stone-built structures that are far more numerous than (the) Nazca Lines, far more extensive in the area that they cover, and far older," said David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia.Kennedy's new research, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveals that these wheels form part of a variety of stone landscapes. These include kites (stone structures used for funnelling and killing animals); pendants (lines of stone cairns that run from burials); and walls, mysterious structures that meander across the landscape for up to several hundred feet and have no apparent practical use. His team's studies are part of a long-term aerial reconnaissance project that is looking at archaeological sites across Jordan. As of now, Kennedy and his colleagues are puzzled as to what the structures may have been used for or what meaning they held.Dating the wheels is difficult, since they appear to be prehistoric, but could date to as recently as 2,000 years ago. The researchers have noted that the wheels are often found on top of kites, which date as far back as 9,000 years, but never vice versa. "That suggests that wheels are more recent than the kites," Kennedy said.Amelia Sparavigna, a physics professor at Politecnico di Torino in Italy, told Live Science in an email that she agrees these structures can be referred to as geoglyphs in the same way as the Nazca Lines are. "If we define a 'geoglyph' as a wide sign on the ground of artificial origin, the stone circles are geoglyphs," Sparavignawrote in her email.The function of the wheels may also have been similar to the enigmatic drawings in the Nazca desert. "If we consider, more generally, the stone circles as worship places of ancestors, or places for rituals connected with astronomical events or with seasons, they could have the same function of [the] geoglyphs of South America, the Nazca Lines for instance. The design is different, but the function could be the same," she wrote in her email.Kennedy said that for now the meaning of the wheels remains a mystery. "The question is what was the purpose?"Read the full story here.

• PUBLIC BANISHMENT ORDER Issued against the Corporations known as the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, and United Church of Canada.(ITCCS).By Elders in Council from the Inuit, Cree, Metis, Mohawk, Anishnabe, Basque and Gaelic Nations under traditional and sovereign Land Law Jurisdiction.As of this day, Sunday, September 18, 2011, your organizations, their clergy and officers, are forever banished from our territories and lands, and your property and wealth are claimed and re-possessed for the use and benefit of all our people.Your right to operate on our land has been forfeited by your rape, torture, and murder of our children, by your refusal to change and do justice, and by your betrayal of your own faith and public trust.Depart, Now and Forever

If you continue to operate on our land after September 18, 2011, your clergy and officials will be in a state of criminal trespass and public mischief, and will be subject to immediate arrest and detainment by our Common Law Peace Officers.

We call upon all the members of these churches to honor this Banishment Order by withdrawing their financial and material support for these criminal corporations posing as religious bodies, lest they be found guilty of complicity with these crimes.This Banishment Order will be enforced through direct, non-violent actions by our people to peacefully occupy the church properties of these corporations, and use them to house the homeless and feed the hungry.We invoke the Great Law of Peace and the Sovereignty of our respective Nations as we proclaim the Permanent Expulsion and Banishment from our communities of the Roman Catholic Church, Inc., the Church of England, Inc. (Anglican-Episcopalian), and the United Church of Canada, Inc.Posted at these churches around the world at 11 am, local time, Sunday, September 18, 2011 – Issued under the authority of the Council of Nine Traditional Elders of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Chruch and State – Jeremiah Jourdain, Convenor.Read the full story here.