MFS - The Other news

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Iran 4.5 ; Tonga 4.8 !More info here.

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

• Barack Obama and Karl Marx.(WhiteHouseDossier).By Keith Koffler.President Obama’s recent assertions about the roles of workers and companies in society betray a disconcerting lack of understanding about how capitalism works. The president of the United States is in fact mouthing ideas that have a better home in Marxism than capitalism.Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe Obama is a Marxist. But he is promoting concepts that are Marxian in origin – perhaps he learned them from some Marxist professor of sociology at Occidental – and that raise profound concerns about his approach to the U.S. economy.One of Marx’s fundamental concepts is that of the “value” and “use-value.” Value refers to the intrinsic worth of a product and therefore the labor that produces it – its quality and its expression of a worker’s talent and being. It may seem surprising, but value actually has nothing to do with capitalism.Marx felt that workers had become “alienated” because they were not properly expressing themselves by creating things of “value.” Their labor, he felt, had been stolen from them by companies looking for “use-value” and ignoring the intrinsic worth of workers and their products.Under capitalism, hopefully most people can find jobs that have something to do with their own values and skills. But, sorry, no one wants to pay you for a full day spent mowing their lawn with garden clippers, even if that’s how you like to do it and you’re good at it.Which brings us to the president.Here’s what he told Jake Tapper of ABC News in an interview Tuesday:

"We want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded, and that people who are irresponsible, who are reckless, who don’t feel a sense of obligation to their communities and to their companies and to their workers, that those folks aren’t rewarded".

What kind of system is this, and who governs it and sets it up? Who decides what is rewarded – Obama? What is rewarded under capitalism is the usefulness of your work, not whether you’ve tried hard.Did John D. Rockefeller feel an sense of obligation to community while he was putting all his smaller competitors out of business?Here’s what Obama said at a fundraiser Oct. 12:

"I hope you got involved not just because it was trendy, but because you shared with me a vision of an America in which everybody has a fair shot and everybody does their fair share . . . the idea that if you worked hard and you were responsible, that you showed up at your job every day and you looked after your family and you looked after your community. That that meant that you could pay your bills and send your kids to college and take a vacation once in a while and have a home and retire with some dignity and respect."These are indeed American values – working hard and doing your fair share. They have “value,” and they may also have “use-value,” though they don’t necessarily have use-value. But sorry, these values don’t get you vacations and a college education for your kids.The implication here is that as long as you are a good person, you succeed. Who is going to guarantee that? Who is going to decide how nice you are? Who is going to decide what is meant by “fair” share? Obama will. Or some Politburo. not the market.It’s this type of thinking that led Obama to pronounce recently that banks “don’t have some inherent right just to – you know, get a certain amount of profit,” and to say the following at a press conference earlier this month, where he tried to explain such a statement:

I will be hugely supportive of banks and financial institutions that are doing the right thing by their customers. We need them to be lending . . . We need them to help do what traditionally banks and financial services are supposed to be doing, which is providing business and families resources to make productive investments that will actually build the economy.I mean, basically the argument they’ve made is, well, you know what, this hidden fee was prohibited and so we’ll find another fee to make up for it. Now, they have that right, but it’s not a good practice.

Really? Who says it’s a bad practice for banks to make money by charging fees? Who says banks have to lend? Obama? Not the market, evidently, because they’re sitting on their cash.The hostility Obama has to profit and to the means of achieving it – and his insistence that everyone be rewarded merely for trying hard while being “responsible” to the community and contributing their “fair share” – all stems from his embrace of “value” over “use-value.” He fails to appreciate market economics and the good it ultimately brings, even if it’s not always fair or pretty.Such thinking points inevitably to Marx’s ultimate vision of paradise:“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”Read the full story here.

• Gaddaffi's convoy hit by Nato helicopter gunships, then shot by own guard?(AlArabiya).Muammar Qaddafi called the rebels who rose up against his 42-years of one-man rule “rats,” but in the end it was he who was captured cowering in a drainage pipe full of rubbish and filth.“He called us rats, but look where we found him,” said Ahmed al-Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway.Government fighters, video evidence and the scenes of sheer carnage nearby told the story of the dictator’s final hours.Shortly before dawn prayers on Thursday, Qaddafi surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.But they did not get far.NATO said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to pro-Qaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Thursday, but the alliance said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Qaddafi.Fifteen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns lay burnt out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity substation some 20 meters from the main road, about two miles west of Sirte.They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels have assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.But there was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a helicopter gunship, or had been strafed by a fighter jet.Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn in the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.Qaddafi himself and a handful of his men escaped death and appeared to have ran through a stand of trees towards the main road and hid in the two drainage pipes.But a group of government fighters were on their tail.“At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use,” said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. “Then we went in on foot.”“One of Qaddafi’s men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me,” he told Reuters.“Then I think Qaddafi must have told them to stop. ‘My master is here, my master is here’, he said, ‘Muammar Qaddafi is here and he is wounded’,” said Bakeer.“We went in and brought Qaddafi out. He was saying ‘what’s wrong? What's wrong? What’s going on?’. Then we took him and put him in the car,” Bakeer said.At the time of capture, Qaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.Other government fighters who said they took part in Qaddafi’s capture, separately confirmed Bakeer’s version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.“One of Muammar Qaddafi’s guards shot him in the chest,” said Omran Jouma Shawan.Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Qaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway.“Gaddafi was captured here,” said one simply.From there Qaddafi was taken to the nearby city of Sirte where he and his dwindling band of die-hard supporters had made a last stand under a rain of missile and artillery fire in a desperate two-month siege.Video footage showed Qaddafi, dazed and wounded, but still clearly alive and gesturing with his hands as he was dragged from a pick-up truck by a crowd of angry jostling group of government soldiers who hit him and pulled his hair.He then appeared to fall to the ground and was enveloped by the crowd. NTC officials later announced Qaddafi had died of his wounds after capture.Hmmmm.....Did his guards promise not to have their leader taken alive, therefore shot him?Read the full story here.

• Yue Yue, the two-year-old Chinese girl run over twice as bystanders watch, dies.(DailyMail).Sigh my thoughts and prayers go out to the parents, may God give them strenght to overcome this cross. Read the full story here.

• Bank Of America Is Attempting To Rob America Blind With The Help Of The Federal Reserve.(BlacklistedNews).By Madison Ruppert.Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is in trouble and any other business which would just go under without any help; the corrupt banksters, with the help of the private Federal Reserve, are attempting to pass off their failures to the American people. Again.Only three years ago the American people had massive debts piled on our heads by being forced to bail out the biggest lenders in the United States.During this bailout, Bank of America received a whopping $45 billion and as of midyear had deposits numbering some $1.04 trillion.Now Bank of America is attempting to protect itself from its derivative exposure through its Merrill Lynch unit by moving derivatives to a subsidiary replete with insured deposits.This means that if the bank were to fail, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, would be on the hook for paying for the moved derivatives.If the derivatives remained in Merrill Lynch, which is not insured by the FDIC and thus the taxpayer, and the bank were to collapse, the money would be lost.Unsurprisingly, the private Federal Reserve has absolutely no problem with the move, while the FDIC is objecting according to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg.Even more unsurprisingly, Bank of America thinks that no regulatory approval is needed, regardless of the fact that this is an openly fraudulent way of insuring items which should never be insured.This is surreptitiously timed given Moody’s downgraded Bank of America’s long term credit ratings on September 21^st, slashing both the holding company and the retail bank’s ratings by two notches each.Bill Black, a Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, summed the issue up nicely in an e-mail to Washington’s Blog:
  1. The bank holding company (BAC) is moving troubled assets held by an entity not insured by the public (Merrill Lynch) to the Bank of America, which is insured by the public
  2. The banking rules are designed to prevent that because they are designed to protect the FDIC insurance fund (which the Treasury guarantees)
  3. Any marginally competent regulator would say “No, Hell NO!”
  4. The Fed, reportedly, is saying “Sure, no worries” by allowing the sale of an affiliate’s troubled assets to B of A
  5. This is a really good “natural experiment” that allows us to test whether the Fed is protects the public or the uninsured and systemically dangerous institutions (the bank holding companies (BHCs))
  6. We are all shocked, shocked [sarcasm] that Bernanke responded to the experiment by choosing to protect the BHC at the expense of the public.
  It is also worth noting that Bank of America has been guilty of refusing to let customers close accounts in what are essentially mini-bank runs.Take your time to read the full story here.

• Fisker Karma – Half a Billion Federal Dollars, And Only 20 Miles Per Gallon in Gas Mode.......creating 500 jobs overseas with American taxpayers’ money.(BigGovernment).Big Government has learned of a shocking new dimension to the emerging Fisker Karma scandal: not only is the U.S. taxpayer-backed car manufactured overseas, but it is far less fuel-efficient than its main American competitor, the Chevrolet Volt.ABC News reports this evening that the U.S. Department of Energy gave $529 million in loan guarantees to Fisker Automotive to assist in the production of the sporty Karma, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.Instead of manufacturing the Karma in the United States, however, Fisker is building the electric vehicle in Finland–creating 500 jobs overseas with American taxpayers’ money:

“There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle,” the car company’s founder and namesake told ABC News. “They don’t exist here.”

Industry insiders have told Big Government that they are alarmed by another, largely unreported fact about the Fisker Karma: the car only gets 20 miles per gallon (mpg) of fuel when its gasoline engine is running.Fisker revealed this week that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rated the Karma at 52 MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent)–the car’s effective fuel efficiency range when its electric motor is combined with its range-extending gasoline engine.However, Fisker communications director Roger Ormisher revealed that the gasoline engine itself only performs at 20 mpg.

Even General Motors’s Chevrolet Volt performs better, according to Green Car Reports:

The comparable figures for the 2012 Chevrolet Volt–which has a less powerful single 111-kilowatt (149-hp) drive motor and an 80-hp, 1.4-liter range extender–are 94 MPGe in electric mode, and 37 mpg on gasoline, with an electric range of 35 miles.

Insiders tell Big Government that the Fisker Karma scandal is a “green car Solyndra.”Other sources have revealed additional details to Big Government about the scandal.Developing…Hmmmmm........"Bad Karma"?Read and see the full story here.
Related (DougRoss).: The affordable price makes up for it:Our tax dollars at work… a half-billion dollar loan (actually $529 million) from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a hybrid toy for the wealthy and/or celebri-licious (like Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the first customers) that, in real world driving, won’t get much better mileage than your average crossover utility vehicle. Not only that, but the cars are manufactured in Finland — that’s right, Finland – and shipped here for sale, where their purchasers will then receive a $7,500 tax credit for buying one (the “cheap” base model starts at $96,895, with the full-zoot Eco Chic model going for a bargain $108,900)....the Federal government [was] a major financial partner in Fisker Automotive... We the taxpayers are on the hook for more than half a billion dollars, about the same amount that got loaned to Solyndra, another “green manufacturer,” before they went bankrupt. At least Solyndra was manufacturing their products in this country, providing American manufacturing jobs (if short-lived jobs), and making a product that average Americans could conceivably afford. Fisker is manufacturing these gorgeous Leonardo DiCaprio toys in Finland. And the kicker, for those of you who would still claim that the risk of half a billion tax dollars is justified by environmental gains… contrary to the company’s initial hype, the Karma will only run for thirty-two miles on its electric motors before its turbocharged gasoline engine needs to kick in (as opposed to the initial estimate of fifty miles). Once that occurs, the Karma gets about the same mileage as a Ford Explorer. Not the new Explorer, even. The older, gas-hog, body-on-frame model. We’re talking twenty miles per gallon, folks. So much for your “green investment.”...Al Gore is on the list of customers waiting to receive their Fisker Karmas, having put in his order before the DOE signed off on the company’s half-billion dollar loan. Oh, and by the way, it just so happens that several major investors in the company are also major donors to the Democratic Party. And here’s information on John Doerr, an advisor to President Obama who is also a major investor in Fisker Automotive. Can you say, “crony capitalism?”Oh, good.Our children and grandchildren will pay for this green scam with interest.I wonder how many billions have been laundered from the taxpayers to President Obama's contributors under the banner of "green jobs"?Read and see the full story here.

• White House Memo: Obama Sought To Use 3% Of GDP To Invest In “High-Risk” Green Ventures, Close To A Half-Trillion Dollars.(CNS News) — The Obama administration, as a long-term goal, sought to spend three percent of the economy — or about $450 billion — on research and development of “transformational solutions to Nation’s challenges,” and it planned to prioritize spending on “solar energy, next-generation biofuels, and sustainable green buildings and building retrofit technologies.”A July 21, 2010 White House memo by John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology (OSTP), and then Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag said the three percent of Gross Domestic Product would be from public and private investment for research and development.The memo, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by CNSNews.com, is directed to the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies about budgeting priorities.It calls for making global warming a key priority in budgeting. Federal departments and agencies are also expected to target priorities at “understanding, adapting to and mitigating the impacts of global climate change,” the memo said. This section of the memo also states that the administration should “Prioritize research for measuring, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas emissions.”The memo states the administration’s long-term goal of more money for green transformative technology.“The President has a long-term goal that R and D [research and development] investments (both private and federal) in the United States should reach three percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” the Holdren-Orszag memo states. “In order to understand the status of the federal share of this goal, agencies are expected to work in close collaboration with OMB and OSTP to accurately classify and report R and D investment activities.”The current Gross Domestic Product is $15.01 trillion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Activity, of which three percent would be $450.3 billion. That would be more than the recent $447 billion jobs bill that Obama proposed and about half the cost of the $862 billion recovery act passed in February 2009.“Agencies should pursue transformational solutions to the Nation’s practical challenges, and budget submission should therefore explain how agencies will support long-term, visionary thinkers proposing high-risk, high-return (or ‘potentially transformative’) research,” the July 2010 memo says.Read the full story here.

• Courage has taken a holiday.(DocsTalk).By Ryan Mauro.At around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 19, five foreign Muslims were arrested at a historic courthouse in San Antonio. They were found with pictures of “infrastructure” around the country including malls, government buildings and water systems. After the media reported on the bomb scare, officials reacted quickly to downplay a possible link to terrorism and the media followed suit. Now, the group of five is being depicted as a harmless group of pranksters.Law enforcement arrived at the Bexar County Courthouse after an alarm went off. The police found that two individuals had entered the 120-year-old facility through a fire escape, while three others were inside a rented RV in front of the building. The five suspects are French-Moroccans, all in their early 20s. Their names are being withheld. The group’s photographs showed they had traveled around the country, snapping photos of sites including shopping malls and public buildings, as well as water systems, which are not exactly a typical tourist attraction The group had legal 90-day visas and told the authorities they arrived in New York on September 11 from London. At least three of the suspects are on an FBI watch list. The four that arrived in New York then went to New Jersey and rented an RV. They then met with the other that flew into Miami. The RV had plates from California at the time of the incident.Another fact that is being treated as a coincidence is that the GEOINT Symposium, the “nation’s largest intelligence event of the year,” was behind held only blocks away. Dozens of intelligence officials, including the chief of the U.S. Strategic Command and undersecretary of defense for intelligence, attend and speak.The suspects’ explanation for their illegal entry into the Bexar County Courthouse is that they wanted “to get a better view of the city”—at 1:30 in the morning. Deputy Chief Dale Bennett confirmed that they had beer bottles in their possession and two of the men acted intoxicated. He also confirmed that three of the men’s names showed up on the watch list and that their names are uncommon, making it unlikely that all three are cases of mistaken identities.They were interviewed by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security​. Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Louis Antu tried to calm the media storm about the suspects being terrorists, saying, “We don’t have any indication that’s what they were.” The five are being prosecuted on charges of burglary.Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said they appeared to “just be some guys on a prank.” The surveillance video from inside the courthouse showed them wearing sombreros and dancing with a judge’s gavel. Laura Jesse, spokeswoman for Bexar County, brushed off the possibility of a terrorism connection in remarks to the media.“It’s pretty entertaining at least,” she said. “Usually when you think of someone trying to commit a terrorist attack it’s not with a sombrero and waving a gavel.”“There was some alcohol involved, so that leads us to believe they might not have known what they were doing, what building they were breaking into,” said Deputy Chief Dale Bennett.The videotape does provide reason to believe that the five Moroccans were just a bunch of drunken misfits, but the disturbing coincidences should not be dismissed. The media’s quick changing of its coverage to calm public nerves was not warranted. At the least, the facts pointing towards more insidious motives should be a part of the story.When Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.org was on the KSAT website reading about the story, he noticed that its content changed. The shocking headline changed to, “5 Arrested in Break-in at Bexar County Courthouse.” The lead changed from saying, “Three men described by law enforcement officials as Muslims” to “Five men of foreign descent.” Readers were left ignorant of why the story was important and even of the fact that the five arrested were Muslims.The Associated Press, likewise, said they were “five foreign nationals with French visas” that were “later described as harmless bar hoppers just goofing around.” No explanation was given as to why the FBI initially handled it as a “high priority” situation. Instead, the article’s readers were left with the impression that the authorities had an almost comical overreaction.It may be true that the group of five French-Moroccans, three of whom have names on the FBI’s watch list, are not connected to terrorism and just made a very big mistake. However, there is more than enough reason to suspect that this isn’t the case, and the media and government officials have a duty to recognize that. There may be a bigger story here, but in part due to political correctness, it will fade away and be forgotten.As Robert Spencer wrote, “the Hamas-linked CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] will be so pleased.”Comment: We can look for future terrorists to wear costumes to pretend only to do a prank. This is a plot out of some B movie, yes? Ignore facts: three of these silly pranksters are on our own terror watch list; they took extensive photos of infra-structure; they broke into a locked County Courthouse and the PC local legal authorities deem this only a joke. well, readers, the ultimate joke will be on us for giving our safety to buffons.Read and see the full story here.

• Pelosi's silent treatment shows breaks with President Obama.(TheHill).For House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), disagreement with President Obama often takes the form of silence.While rank-and-file House Democrats have been outspoken in taking the White House to task over issues as diverse as foreclosure prevention, environmental protection and funding the federal government, Pelosi has stayed quiet or shifted her talking points to attacks on the GOP.The intention is to stay united with the president, and not let Republicans or other groups take advantage of any divide between the White House and congressional Democrats.Pelosi’s tactics can be seen clearly in the decision by a broad coalition of California Democrats to urge Obama in writing last week to take bolder steps to prevent home foreclosures, which are endemic in much of the state.“The administration has simply not done a darn thing to help my constituents,” Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza told reporters, summarizing the sentiments of many Democrats regarding the president’s housing policies.Pelosi did not sign the letter — something a spokesman described as her custom on group letters to the administration. Instead, the minority leader is preparing a similar letter of her own, the spokesman said, although the contents of that message have yet to be released.Pelosi broke with Obama last week by voting against a free-trade agreement with Colombia, citing a history of violence against workers in the South American country. Still, the minority leader didn’t criticize the president for backing the deal. Instead, she went after GOP leaders for killing the administration’s efforts to install more worker protections.“The administration was advocating for this [the worker protections] but … the leadership in this House said no,” Pelosi said on the chamber floor just before the vote.Both episodes highlights the delicate political nature of the relationship between Obama — who’s facing a tough reelection next year — and Pelosi, who even when disagreeing with the president wants nothing more than to keep him in the White House an additional four years.By trumpeting divisions between herself and the White House, Pelosi could lend ammunition to Republican leaders whose sights are set on keeping the House, taking the Senate and making Obama a one-term president.The San Francisco liberal is hardly immune to the frustrations her troops have had with Obama, and she’s felt caucus pressures to take a stand when those frictions emerge. Occasionally, as with the Colombia trade deal, she’s voted against the president. But more often than not, Pelosi has kept her criticism to herself, or softened it in public.A source familiar with Pelosi’s thinking said the minority leader is constantly in touch with the White House, but she’s doing it privately — out of the glare of the media.“A private conversation or private letter to a high-ranking official carries a lot more weight than something that’s just going to be published in one of the Capitol Hill newspapers,” said the source, who would speak only anonymously due to the political sensitivity of the issue.Many Democrats were up in arms last month when Obama scrapped plans to install tighter smog standards on the nation’s polluters — standards that were widely supported by environmentalists and liberal Democrats.Pelosi — an avid environmentalist herself — declined to weigh in on the decision.In the more recent fight over legislation to raise the debt ceiling — another contentious agreement between Obama and GOP leaders — Pelosi reviled the proposal as a “satan sandwich with satan fries on the side.” Still, she ultimately backed the president by holding her nose and voting in favor of the bill.Pelosi’s office on Tuesday continued to downplay any division between the minority leader and Obama, saying Pelosi is “fully committed” to supporting the White House, particularly when it comes to the president’s proposals to boost the economy and create jobs.Pelosi is not alone among Democratic leaders downplaying any divisions with Obama.Read the full story here.

• Obama Pleads For Applause From Crowd During Jobs Speech: "You Can Go Ahead and Clap, Go Ahead, Nothing Wrong With It".(LA Times) — Closing out his bus tour on a low-key note, President Obama made a pitch for his jobs package at a firehouse, where a subdued crowd needed a bit of prompting to applaud his proposal to boost the economy.Obama visited Fire Station 9 to draw attention to a major piece of his $447-billion jobs package. He wants to spread $35 billion among states and cities, in part to prevent layoffs of police and firefighters, and would pay for it with a surtax on millionaires. Congress may vote on that measure as early as this week.On Wednesday afternoon, Obama stood at a lectern against a backdrop of firefighters and offered his prescription for solving the persistent jobs crisis: “A fair shot for everybody; a fair share from everybody.That’s the principle that built America.”The president got a polite reception from the 100 or so people crowded into the station garage. Early in his speech he mentioned his American Jobs Act.One or two people clapped.“You can go ahead and clap,” the president said. “Go ahead, nothing wrong with it.”Read the full story here.

• WAPO's Lynne Sladky Probes Rubio's Parents Social Security Numbers But Ignores Obama's.(BirtherReport)."The Social Security numbers for Rubio’s father and grandfather suggest that Mario Rubio received his Social Security number in Florida in 1956 and that Garcia received his in New York in 1956-57." - WAPO's Lynne Sladky.The mainstream media is having a heyday going after Senator Marco Rubio's misstatements about the circumstances his parents arrived in the United States. They have gone so far as to dig up Rubio's parents Social Security numbers to bolster their position that Rubio embellished his family story for political gain.Every outlet from the Washington Post to Fox News is reporting it.Now there's no problem with the media doing their job vetting politicians except for the fact they only seem to do it when the politician is a republican. For years now these same media outlets have ignored Obama's many lies about his past and have yet to report that Obama is using a Social Security number reserved for applicants in the state of Connecticut. If you read through the many articles published on Marco Rubio you will see most fail to mention what and who started this firestorm and also fail to address the bigger issue surrounding Rubio's problem if he ever does decide to run for the presidency or vice presidency.Marco Rubio's "natural born Citizen" status. The media knows if they address Rubio's they will be forced to address Obama's.What started all this was Commander Charles Kerchner's (Ret) initial report and followup report on Marco Rubio's father's naturalization petition obtained from the National Archives and then picked up by the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald.Hmmmm.......Do not check 'Dear Leader'?Read the full story here.

• Napolitano: DHS Authorizing Illegal Aliens to Work in U.S.(CNS News).Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that under the administration’s policy of exercising “prosecutorial discretion” in the enforcement of the immigration laws, her department is currently authorizing some illegal aliens to work in the United States.Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking-member of the Senate Judiciary panel, asked Napolitano: “According to the information from your department, some individuals who are given relief will obtain work authorizations. So people with no right to be in the country will be allowed to work here. Is that correct?”Napolitano said: “Well, senator, since around 1986 there has been a process where those who are technically unlawfully in the country may apply for work authorization. This goes to CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services]. It’s not an ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or CBP [Customs and Border Protection] function. And those cases are reviewed by CIS in a case-by-case basis. So there’s no change in that process. Like I said, that goes back to the mid-80s that is contemplated now.”Sen. Grassley then asked, “But yes, some of them could have an opportunity to work here even though they are here illegally?”During Wednesday’s hearing, Napolitano mentioned that as a result of the “prosecutorial discretion” policy, the Obama administration will review “roughly 300,000” cases that are on the “master docket of what’s pending in immigration courts.”“The goal” of that process is “to administratively close some of the low priority cases so that we can facilitate handling the higher priority cases,” said Napolitano. That indicates that some illegal immigrants will be allowed to stay in the country because their cases will be closed.Although she did not rule out the possibility, Napolitano said that “absent unusual circumstances,” individuals with a final order of removal will not be eligible for relief once their case is reviewed.“Well, that happens now, senator,” said Napolitano.The three agencies she mentioned are all components of DHS.Read the full story here.

• Former federal Muslim lawyer calls for investigation of NYPD Muslim spy (Surveillance) programs.(Al-Arabiya).By AP.A former Homeland Security Department civil rights lawyer, speaking at a Justice Department civil rights conference Wednesday, implored the federal government to investigate the New York Police Department for its secret surveillance of Muslim communities.Sahar Aziz, a Texas Wesleyan University law professor, said the NYPD monitoring of mosques, Islamic bookstores and Muslim student groups needed to be looked into because the NYPD serves as a model for departments nationwide. She said reports by “What’s on their mind?” she said to an audience that included the Justice Department’s top civil rights officials. “That’s on their mind.”An AP investigation that began in August revealed the NYPD’s use of plainclothes officers, known as “rakers,” who pose as customers and eavesdrop in Muslim cafes and bookstores. Hundreds of mosques and student organizations were investigated and dozens were infiltrated as the NYPD built intelligence databases about all aspects of life in Muslim neighborhoods.NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said such programs give police a crucial head start in the event of a terrorist plot or attack. But he said police don’t make those decisions based on ethnicity and only follow leads in launching investigations.The Obama administration has repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether it supports the NYPD’s tactics, refusing to endorse them or to question them. Justice Department officials did not respond to Aziz’s comments Wednesday. Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, hurried out of the auditorium without taking questions.Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the department was still reviewing a Sept. 13 letter from Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., asking for an investigation.“It’s a politically sensitive issue,” said Aziz, who served as a senior policy adviser from 2008 to 2009 in the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and has taught at Georgetown University.Kelly has said all NYPD’s tactics are regularly reviewed by in-house lawyers. Outside the department, however, there is little oversight. The City Council is not briefed on secret intelligence programs. Congressional leaders say direct oversight has to come from the city level. The city’s comptroller has never audited the intelligence unit.The Justice Department has the authority to investigate a police department when there is reason to believe a constitutional right has been violated. That authority has not been used before to investigate the way police departments handle national security cases.Because of its history spying on anti-war protesters and political activists, the NYPD has operated since 1985 under a court order that limits how it can gather intelligence. Lawyers in the class-action lawsuit that led to that order have asked the judge to force police to turn over documents related to its surveillance of Muslims.Ms Sahar Aziz also provides career mentorship program for those interested in law in the DC Metro Area via CAMBA (Captial Area Muslim Bar Association).Ms Sahar Aziz discussed the importance of protecting civil rights and civil liberties against infringement by homeland security policies and practices.Ms.Sahar Aziz is also President of The Egyptian-American Rule of Law Association.Read the full story here.

• Holder ‘Firmly Committed’ To Eliminating Anti-Muslim Material From Law Enforcement Training.(Vinienco).Attorney General Eric Holder is “firmly committed” to nixing anti-Muslim material from law enforcement training, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Dwight C. Holton said Wednesday.Holton, who was U.S. Attorney when the FBI arrested the so-called Christmas tree bomber, said that he spoke specifically with Holder about the “egregiously false” training that took place at the FBI’s training headquarters at Quantico and at a U.S. Attorney’s office in Pennsylvania, which was first reported on by Wired.“I want to be perfectly clear about this: training materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive, and they are contrary to everything that this president, this attorney general and Department of Justice stands for,” Holton said. “They will not be tolerated.”The training materials, Holton said, “pose a significant threat to national security, because they play into the false narrative propagated by terrorists that the United States is at war with Islam.”Holton said that he spoke about the issue with Holder directly when he was out in Oregon.“He is firmly committed to making sure that this is over,” Holton said. “Now the reality is it is going to take a bit to go back and figure out what trainings have happened in the past that we need to go back and fix — we’re a big organization, we’ve got lots going on with lots of people and lots of contractors — but Attorney General Holder is firmly committed to it, and we’re going to fix it.”Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez also condemned the anti-Muslim training material in his subsequent speech during a conference on anti-Muslim discrimination, saying that Muslims have “every right to be upset about the issue of the trainings.”“The Attorney General is equally upset, the Deputy Attorney General is upset, the FBI Director is upset, and we’re upset because we have accomplished so much,” Perez said.“I recognize the words of my mother, that it only takes one or two incidents to make all that great work seem a part of the past,” Perez said. “So we have to make sure that we have the quality control across the board.”Holton struck a similar theme, recalling how he talked to his local FBI special agent in charge (SAC) the day after the Quantico revelations came out.“The SAC said to me — Greg Fowler, who used to be in New York, he’s now in Oregon — said ‘You know, they tell you on your first day as an agent at the FBI that one person can make a difference. What they forget to tell you is that it can be a good difference or a bad difference.’ So we’re working hard to get that right,” Holton said.Progress has been made on engagement with Muslim communities, including in the way that criminal complaints refer to Islam, said Holton.“Before this effort, a lot of us didn’t understand that when we make an arrest in a high-profile terrorism case that involves someone who claims they follow Islam, it creates a mini-backlash against people in communities,” Holton said.“In the 37-page complaint that laid out the allegations against Mohamed Mohamud, he is never once identified as a Muslim. We were very careful about that. It’s not relevant from our perspective, what’s relevant is the violence,” Holton said.“Every time I opened my mouth about that case, I said maybe two or three main points and one of them is ‘violence knows no country, no religion, no boundaries’,” Holton said.He added that not referring to him as a Muslim made him the target of Islamophobic bloggers.“Of all the hateful things that have been said about me as U.S. Attorney, it’s part of the job, right, having to deal with the bloggers comments — and believe me the medical marijuana crowd does not love me — but of all the hateful things that have been said about me was in response to me saying that,” Holton said. “There are people who don’t get it.”Holton called the outreach he did with the Muslim community over the course of his tour as U.S. Attorney for Oregon the most important work of his career, joking that he put on “10 pounds in lamb weight” and recalling having 15 to 20 imams over at his house for a halal meal that went until 2 a.m.“My wife jokes that our social life has been taken over by Muslim engagement,” said Holton.Hmmmm......."If the political winds shift in an ugly direction ,I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

• Turkey, its martyrs and it’s relation to Egypt.(BikyaMasr).By Paul Williams.ISTANBUL: As I type there are massive Turkish flags being sold outside on my street and anti-PKK protests (read: pro-war) going on all around the city. Yesterday “24 martyrs [şehit] were killed,” as every single newspaper’s headline read this morning. People are chanting about the need for revenge (intikam) and at least 10,000 Turkish soldiers are launching a new offensive into Iraq and against Kurdish societies on both sides of the border.As a regular contributor, one of my goals is to bridge the gap between the rhetoric surrounding the AKP in Egypt and Tunisia and across the Arab world and the rhetoric one hears in Turkey. In Egypt, any criticism of the AKP appears to come mainly from the right, as with Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement that Egypt needs to be secular. In Turkey there is vociferous and fierce opposition to the AKP, all from the left. In fact that same statement made news here in Turkey because there are few people from either side of the divide who believe that Tayyip believes the same for Turkey. As Tayyip rips out the nightlife from Taksim and greatly increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, defending these cuts by urging people to smoke and drink less anyways and lifts the ban on headscarves at universities secularists see themselves in a war with the regime to prevent Turkey from becoming, as they see it, like Iran.While my own opinion is more measured than the majority of the Turkish left, I believe that the AKP is a party concerned almost exclusively with lining the pockets of the government, and more important with lining their own pockets as a result. But I’m far from convinced that a regime with well-known ties to corruption (ie the “green money” scandal), ties to one of the world’s largest missionary networks, and the world’s worst record on freedom of the press is a regime that Egypt should emulate.Back to the present war, the country at the moment is in uproar over the loss of these 24 martyrs, and the need for revenge. This again provides a convenient opportunity for the current operation, and for the continued suppression of both Turkish and Iraqi Kurds. Turkey has the largest share of foreign investment in northern Iraq with between $7 – $9 billion in trade, including many companies run by AKP members. Just as the American-led Iraq war, though a horrible burden on the country as a whole, was less than disastrous for individual government members with ties to big international business, the current war on “Kurdistan” is hardly a burden for a government with more ties to big Turkish business than any previous Turkish government in history.The nationalist fervor in the country is also rallied in a way against the PKK in ways that are comparable, in my own experience, to only Israel. Not surprisingly, lost amidst the cries for the 24 dead Turkish soldiers are the countless (International Crisis Group puts the figures between 1200-1300 in the past three years, or 2% of the total population) numbers of Kurdish “rebels” killed, not to mention women and children who are of course “regrettable,” but never “martyrs.” The notion that it is requisite upon Turkey to exact intikam for their actions rather than the other way around is equally problematic.Of course, it only makes it sadder to think that none of the deaths could possibly have been prevented by the dead themselves. Made to stand directly in plain view on a hill directly on the Iraq border, these are 24 youths who were victims of a policy of full conscription. This regime has been launching operations into Iraq since 2008, and I have a difficult time placing the blame for their deaths at any other than the regime that started a war and then plucked kids from their lives to join this fight that can only exacerbate tensions between Kurds and Turks. While the protests around Istanbul continue it’s not so difficult to empathize with the anger, though I find it harder to empathize with that anger being directed at either Kurds or the PKK.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan - Sermon By Pakistani Cleric That Led To Assassination of Liberal Punjab Governor Salman Taseer; Former Chief Justice Defending Assassin.(Memri).According to the assassin's confessional statement to the Rawalpindi police, Imtiaz Hussain Shah, the imam (prayer leader of the Rawalpindi-based Amana Masjid) and Muhammad Hanif Qureshi had delivered public speeches in Rawalpindi organized by the Shabab-e-Islami Pakistan on December 31, 2010, where they declared that Governor Salman Taseer and other advocates of reforms in Pakistan's blasphemy laws were Wajibul Qatal, i.e. liable to be killed as per Islamic law.According to a Pakistani media report, "The clerics were trying to convince the listeners, while citing certain verses of the Holy Koran, that Taseer was worth killing (Wajibul Qatal) for having committed blasphemy by labeling the blasphemy law a black law. During their speeches, the clerics narrated an event of blasphemy committed by a woman during the rule of Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddiq, the first Caliph of Islam, saying: 'The governor of the area where the woman lived awarded punishment to her over the act of blasphemy. As she approached the Caliph, seeking mercy, the latter decided against her and ordered that her teeth to be broken and fingers and tongue be cut for having committed blasphemy.'"Fired up by the December 31, 2010 sermon, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the assassin, met with Muhammad Hanif Qureshi and after the latter's motivation decided to assassinate Salman Taseer. The Pakistani investigators put the cleric's name on a list of most wanted persons. However, both the clerics sought and were granted pre-bail by a Rawalpindi court, preventing their arrest.Pakistani Cleric's Sermon: "We Know How to Trigger a Gun... How to Behead Those Who Commit Blasphemy Against Our Beloved Prophet [Muhammad]; We Cannot Let Any Blasphemer Be Alive in Pakistan".A video of the December 31, 2010 sermon later emerged on the Internet. In the video, amid slogans of Allah-o-Akbar (God is the Great) and Ya Rasool Ullah (O Prophet of Allah), Allama Muhammad Hanif Qureshi says: "And Listen carefully! We are the heirs of the thoughts of Hazrat Ghazi Mureed Ubaid; we are the heirs of Ghazi Alamuddin Shaheed; we are those who love the spirit of Ghazi Abdur Raheem; and the followers of Ghazi Abdul Qayyum. [Ghazi being someone fighting an Islamic war.]"And we explicitly say it without mincing any words that if the death penalty was not provided in Section 295-C [dealing with the blasphemy cases] for the blasphemers in that case Allah has given us the courage. We know how to trigger a gun, how to shoot somebody dead and how to behead those who commit blasphemy against our beloved Prophet [Muhammad]." The crowd shouts: "We are the protectors of the dignity of the holy Prophet. We will sacrifice our lives for the dignity of the holy Prophet." Allama Muhammad Qureshi says: "Let them know those who consider Sunnis are coward that Allah has honored us with the courage and power to strangulate those involved in blasphemy, to cut their tongues, and to riddle their bodies with bullets. For this, nobody can arrest us under any law." Allama Muhammad Qureshi leads the audience: "The death of the blasphemer?" and the audience replies: "Death, death, death...."The gathering raises the slogans: "We are the slaves of the holy Prophet. And ready to die for him..."; "If there is no love for the holy Prophet, life is useless"; "He who is the friend of the blasphemer is a traitor."Allama Muhammad Qureshi says: "Dear listeners! We are very polite people. We are peace-loving people, but pledge an oath that you can't tolerate disrespect and blasphemy of our holy Prophet. It is altogether unacceptable for us. We cannot let any blasphemer be alive in Pakistan."I say it clearly; if the government is listening it should also note it down. Let that dog [blasphemer] out and you will see that even his body would turn beyond recognition. Bring him out of the security cordon, and you will see that those who disrespect the Holy Prophet is not liable to be alive in Pakistan. He has no right [to live]..." Sunni Ittehad Council Chief: 'The Judge Who Awarded [Death] Penalty To Mumtaz Qadri Committed Kufr [Act of an Infidel]" On October 1, 2011, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi sentenced Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri to death for the assassination of Salman Taseer. Delivering the verdict, ATC judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah, who has since gone underground following death threats, said:"A proven blasphemer is wajibul qatal (liable to be killed). He cannot be forgiven. Only the Holy Prophet (PUBH) himself can forgive him. However at this stage two questions arise. Firstly, can a person who is leading a sinful life be termed an apostate? Secondly, if he is deemed an apostate, then who will execute him? "Obviously individuals cannot be given the authority to judge someone an apostate, infidel or non-Muslim. Moreover, individuals cannot be allowed to execute the punishment on such persons because it will pave the way for anarchy, turmoil, restlessness and lawlessness in society. Therefore the defense plea in this regard is not helpful to the accused."Referring to Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri's death sentence, SIC Chairman Sahabzada Fazal Kareem and Sahabzada Mian Saeed Ahmed Sharqpuri, another Barelvi cleric, declared that ATC judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah had committed an act of Kufr (an act of an infidel not permitted in Islam), thereby becoming an infidel.
  The Sunni leaders expressed these views in their addresses to Qaumi Khatm-e-Nabuwwat conference in the town of Kala Shah Kaku in Punjab. The Qaumi Khatm-e-Nabuwwat is a movement that enforces the belief that the Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet of God. The two clerics said: "The belief in the end of Prophethood [on Prophet Muhammad] is the basis of [Islamic] faith... the judge who awarded [death] penalty to Mumtaz Qadri committed Kufr [an act of an infidel."At the conference, various Barelvi clerics demanded the release of Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, whom they described as "Ghazi" – someone who fights an Islamic war.Read and see the full story here.

• Somali Muslim Kidnappers Want Cash in Return for Dead Body of Hostage.(Vinienco).The Somali kidnappers of a disabled Frenchwoman who died after being snatched from her home in Kenya are demanding a ransom for the return of her body, France said on Thursday.“The hostage-takers are even trying to sell the remains, it could not be more despicable,” French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told the i-TELE news network.France said on Wednesday that 66-year-old Marie Dedieu, who was kidnapped on October 1 and taken to Somalia, had died in the hands of her captors, most probably because they had refused to provide her medication.Dedieu had been in a wheelchair and suffering from cancer.“Seizing a woman of this age, who is sick and paralysed, and not giving her her medication, allowing her to develop septicemia from which she apparently died, and then proposing to sell her remains. These are not people who deserve anything but contempt,” Longuet said.The French military was not planning any action against the kidnappers in Somalia because they were “a small band, a small minority, an exception who dishonor this territory”, he said.A gang of 10 armed men seized Dedieu from Manda Island in Kenya’s Lamu archipelago and fled by sea to Somalia, fighting off an attempt by Kenya’s navy to stop them.France has denounced her death as an “an act of unqualified barbarism” and demanded the immediate and unconditional return of her remains.Kenya has blamed Islamist al-Shabab rebels in Somalia for a spate of recent kidnappings of foreigners and this week launched an unprecedented incursion into Somalia against the militants.Hmmmm....... al-Shabab the 'people' the Turkish IHH aids?Read the full story here.

• 300,000 babies stolen by Catholic Church in collusion with Spanish Government and sold for adoption.(DailyMail).Up to 300,000 Spanish babies were stolen from their parents and sold for adoption over a period of five decades, a new investigation reveals.The children were trafficked by a secret network of doctors, nurses, priests and nuns in a widespread practice that began during General Franco’s dictatorship and continued until the early Nineties.Hundreds of families who had babies taken from Spanish hospitals are now battling for an official government investigation into the scandal.Several mothers say they were told their first-born children had died during or soon after they gave birth.But the women, often young and unmarried, were told they could not see the body of the infant or attend their burial.A BBC documentary, This World: Spain’s Stolen Babies, follows her efforts to discover if he is Randy Ryder, a stolen baby who was brought up in Texas and is now aged 40. In some cases, babies’ graves have been exhumed, revealing bones that belong to adults or animals. Some of the graves contained nothing at all. The BBC documentary features an interview with an 89-year-old woman named Ines Perez, who admitted that a priest encouraged her to fake a pregnancy so she could be given a baby girl due to be born at Madrid’s San Ramon clinic in 1969. ‘The priest gave me padding to wear on my stomach,’ she says. It is claimed that the San Ramon clinic was one of the major centres for the practice.Many of the families of stolen babies have taken DNA tests in the hope of eventually being matched with their children. Some matches have already been made but, without a nationally co-ordinated database, reuniting lost relatives will be a very difficult process. Read the full story here.

• USSR2 File: Lukashenko defies EU bans and sanctions, grants KGB Soviet-style powers, outlaws all protests, throws opponents into labor camps; Belarusian dictator endorses Putin’s “Eurasian Union,” admits existence of a “strategy” on part of the Russian leadership.(Onceuponatimeinthewest).- Convicted for Torching Local KGB Office, Young Christian Democrat and Anarchist Activists Disappear into Lukashenko’s “Gulag Archipelago”

- Lukashenko Shores Up Regime by Securing Natural Gas Supply from Russia, Selling State-Run Beltransgaz’s Remaining Shares to Gazprom

- EU Pours Water on Possible “Association Agreement” between Brussels and Kiev in Wake of Tymoshenko Conviction, Kiev Threatens Possible Membership in Moscow-Led Customs Union.That Lukashenko himself should admit the existence of a “strategy” on the part of the Russian leadership, with which he is closely allied, is therefore telling. There is indeed a Leninist strategy unfolding in the Not-So-Former Soviet Union, where the Stalinist boot for the most part presently wears a velvet slipper.Defying the bans and sanctions of the EU and no doubt emboldened by a US$1 billion loan from Red China, however, Lukashenko is twisting the thumbscrews ever tighter on the hapless citizens of Belarus. Last week, his rubberstamp parliament, with backing from the Communist Party of Belarus, passed legislation that grants sweeping powers to the Committee for State Security (KGB). Unlike Russia, the Belarusian communists elected to retain the old Soviet-era name for that republic’s secret police.According to the MSM, the new law lifts restrictions on the KGB’s use of weapons, gives KGB officers the authority to break into residences and offices, and makes it even easier for Lukashenko to throw his political opponents behind bars. A new ban on receiving foreign funds carries a two-year prison sentence, while simply calling for an anti-government protest can lead to a three-year prison sentence. The Minsk regime is also expanding the definition of treason in such a way as to cast possible suspicion on anyone working for a foreign organization.Oleg Gulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, has commented that Minsk’s law enforcement agencies have been granted “the same rights that the Soviet secret police had in Stalin’s time.” According to other human rights activists and dissidents, the KGB’s Soviet-style powers reflect “Lukashenko’s fear of rising public anger” over the country’s worst financial crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union. For example, the value of the Belarusian ruble has collapsed, prompting Minsk to unify the currency’s exchange rate, while inflation is running at a staggering 60 percent, forcing the regime to partly remove subsidies for food and fuel.President Lukashenko’s iron-fisted rule since 1994 has prompted both the USA and EU to impose economic sanctions on the country and travel bans on officials from Minsk. A recent poll showed that Lukashenko’s approval rating has plunged to an all-time low of 20 percent. The poll from the Independent Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Research indicates that support for Lukashenko dropped among farmers, blue-collar workers, and retirees, social groups that previously endorsed his efforts to preserve a Soviet-style social safety net and maintain relative stability in the global economy.“Lukashenko has run out of money and he is now selling fear to an angry and hungry population,” Belarus’ first post-Soviet leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, told the Associated Press last Friday. In December 1991, along with Russia’ Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine’s Leonid Kravchuk, Shushkevich co-founded the so-called Commonwealth of Independent States, a sort of “placeholder” for the soon-to-be-restored Soviet (Eurasian) Union.In another effort to shore up his crypto-communist regime, Lukashenko is also ensuring that Belarus receives a steady supply of natural gas from Russia and handing over the keys of Belarusian state enterprises to Moscow. The Minsk Telegraf reports that Gazprom Chairman Alexey Miller is hosting talks with Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister of Sergei Rumas to complete a contract for the supply and transportation of Russian gas through Belarus, as well as the sale of Beltransgaz’s remaining shares to Gazprom. Russian and Belarusian negotiators say the documents will be ready for signing in November.Ukraine’s Social Policy Minister Serhiy Tyhypko has come right out to confirm that, as a result of the Tymoshenko flap with the EU, Ukraine may move closer to the Customs Union if the EU backtracks on its proposed “association agreement” with Kiev. “If the European Union gives a clear ‘no’ signal, the possibility that Ukraine will turn to the Customs Union is quite high,” huffed Tyhypko to Ukrainian newspaper Den. Russia has invited Ukraine to join the Customs Union, but Kiev has previously said the country is ready to cooperate with the union only in a so-called three-plus-one format. At the same time, Ukraine hopes to initiate an association agreement with the EU by the end of 2011.Into the spat between Kiev and Brussels arrives Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, like Tymoshenko a graduate of the Soviet Komsomol. On Tuesday, Medvedev met with Yanukovich in Donetsk, Ukraine, for an interregional economic forum. Apart from issues of energy and the Customs Union, Medvedev and Yanukovich will discuss border interaction, joint research and technology, joint industrial ventures, transportation, and the environment. No doubt, too, the neo-Soviet leadership will look at the opportunities for exploiting the European debt crisis in order to advance its own position in the world.Read the full story here.