MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation New Zealand 6.3 - 5.8 ;  Tonga 5.6 - 5.5 ; Japan 5.1   !More info here.

• Breaking: Copy of ATF Email Wanting More Gun Control in Wake of Fast and Furious.(BigGovernment).By AWR Hwakins.For the better part of a year, I have been saying that the end goal of Fast and Furious was more gun control. Rush Limbaugh has said this, Sean Hannity and other FOX NEWS personalities have said this, and the NRA and Gun Owners of America have said this, among others. (I had a post on Big Government on July 13th dedicated to making this very point.)Throughout this time, I have had a copy of an email that was sent to me back in March of 2011. It’s an July 2010 email from ATF Special Agent in Charge Mark R. Chait to ATF Supervisor William Newell. It is copied to a third ATF Supervisor, William McMahon. Newell and McMahon were assigned to the Phoenix area at the time (and Phoenix just so happened to be ground zero for Fast and Furious.) In it, Chait asks Newell if he can find enough “anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales.” In other words, Chait was asking whether, in the midst of the flood of new weapons hitting the streets via Fast and Furious, a means could be found to justify more gun control.And as you know, they found the “anecdotal cases” they wanted to find and used the very long sales associated with Fast and Furious to justify new reporting regulations (aka “gun control” measures) on 8,000 gun dealers throughout four Border States in the U.S. – Arizona, California, Texas, and New Mexico.Looking at the email again today I thought I’d provide it here for all to see, it seems to be proof positive that more gun control was at least one of the motivations behind Fast and Furious.Read and see the full story here.

• Constitution, Anyone? Obama Promises to Rule… Without Congress.(Heritage).Well, we can’t say he didn’t warn us. After the November 2010 elections when the President’s party lost control of the U.S. House, Barack Obama told America that where he can’t legislate, he will regulate. In the last year, he lived up to that pledge, and now he’s promising to do even more of it in 2012. With 2011 coming to a close and the President about to embark on an election year, he is unabashedly showing his cards and telling America that he’s going to enact his agenda, whether the legislative branch is with him or not. Real Clear Politics captured the President’s words from an interview with KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Reporter Rob Quirk asked what we can expect from the President over the next year. Obama’s response: Well, what we’re going to have to do is continue to make progress on the economy over the next several months. And where Congress is not willing to act, we’re going to go ahead and do it ourselves. But it would be nice if we could get a little bit of help from Capitol Hill.Make no mistake, those words weren’t a slip of the tongue. It’s the same line the President uttered in his 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft that aired Sunday. Here’s the relevant excerpt: Kroft: Do you have any hope that anything is gonna get accomplished between now and the next election?

Obama: If I have anything to do about it, absolutely. We’re gonna keep on pushing to get things done. I want to work with Congress. I want to work with both parties in Congress. I think that we can still make progress on a balanced approach to deficit reduction. What I’m not gonna do is wait for Congress. So wherever we have an opportunity and I have the executive authority to go ahead and get some things done, we’re just gonna go ahead and do ‘em. As Heritage has detailed here and here, whether it is in the area of environmental regulations, labor and immigration law, No Child Left Behind, the auto bailout, the selective enforcement of other federal laws, and the regulation of the Internet (among others), the Obama Administration has in fact enacted its agenda via legislative fiat. So what’s the problem? A big thing called the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers. The Honorable Douglas Ginsburg explains: Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution respectively vest the legislative, executive, and judicial powers each in a separate department of the federal government. This separation of powers, which draws upon ideas advanced by John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Sir William Blackstone, reflects the Framers’ intention that undue power not be combined in any one department lest, being unchecked, it become tyrannical.

The separation, by which each department may exercise only its own constitutional powers, is fundamental to the idea of a limited government accountable to the people. The principle is particularly noteworthy in regard to the Congress. The Constitution declares that the Congress may exercise only those legislative powers “herein granted.” That the power assigned to each branch must remain with that branch, and may be expressed only by that branch, is central to the theory. In short, it’s Congress’ job to legislate, not the President’s, whether Barack Obama likes it or not. Hmmmmm..........I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes. ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.Rmore about the separation of powers in Legislative Powers: Not Yours to Give Away at Heritage.org.

• Ron Paul: Obama pushing ‘martial law,’ Holder should be ‘fired’.(RawStory).Speaking to conspiracy talk show host Alex Jones on Tuesday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said he believes that Attorney General Eric Holder should be “immediately fired,” and that President Barack Obama is pushing for the legalization of “martial law” in the U.S.
In his comments about Holder, Paul, who’s in a close second place among Iowa Republican primary voters, suggested that his role in the “fast and furious” gun-running scandal should be enough to leverage him from office.“He should be immediately fired and then there should be an investigation to find out if charges should be made,” he said. “That’s obviously over the top. All these kind of sting operations and false-flag, this is criminal. They do it constantly. I think they were doing that when there was this so-called attempt to kill the Saudi, or, the Iranian ambassador. That kind of stuff. They should be investigated.”He went on to say that although House Republicans are investigating Holder, he wasn’t sure if the attorney general would ever face charges. “But I think he deserves to have charges up against him,” Paul added. Holder, who put a stop to the sting operations that saw U.S. agents selling guns to straw buyers, then attempting to track them as they made their way into Mexico, has said he will not resign over the scandal. About 2,000 guns went missing in the investigation. Though several hundred have been recovered, many of them were found at gruesome cartel crime scenes. The Republican frontrunner also took issue with the inclusion of an “indefinite detention” provision in a defense budget authorization bill that recently made its way through Congress. The provision cements into law the power claimed by the Bush administration and reaffirmed by the Obama administration, letting authorities detain American citizens under military custody, without formal charges against them or access to legal representation. As a candidate, then-Senator Obama said repeatedly that should not happen in the U.S., but as president he pushed Congress to approve that very power, and created by executive order a system of once-yearly reviews for detainees in military custody. He’s threatened to veto the bill, which is currently being renegotiated, but only because it imposes too many checks on the administration’s power to detain prisoners. “You know our government has been involved with the CIA, in overthrowing governments for a long, long time, and of course last spring, I guess it was in February, the administration admitted they could assassinate American citizens,” Paul told Jones. “Now they’re putting it into law. This, to me, is an extremely wrong way to go. This is a giant step. This should be the biggest news going right now, literally legalizing martial law. “That is arrogance of the administration and neglect of the Congress in using their authority and responsibility, as well as the people’s. That’s why it’s up to us now to wake the people up, because they don’t probably realize the significance of it. This is big. This is big.”Read the full story here.

• Documents Reveal Coordination Between ACORN Affiliate and Justice Department Voting Section.(BigGovernment).Judicial Watch has done it again. It has produced–following a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)–documents that suggest extensive coordination and communications between the DOJ Voting Section and former ACORN affiliate Project Vote.Project Vote appears to be directing DOJ resources toward particular states; is having meetings with DOJ staff; and is even recommending lawyers to work in the Justice Department Voting Section that will oversee the 2012 presidential election.Project Vote also appears to have played a role in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration, which aims to force the state to increase voter registration in welfare agencies and drug treatment offices.The documents also appear to show that Project Vote receives special access to, and meetings with, DOJ officials. So do other voter fraud-deniers, such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Tova Wang at Demos; and the Brennan Center for Justice. I write about numerous similar instances in my book, Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department.These activist groups have enjoyed access to the top political appointees at DOJ over voting–including Aaron McCree Lewis, in the Office of the Attorney General; Sam Hirsch, Deputy Associate Attorney General; and Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of voting issues, Matthew Colangelo.Emails obtained by Judicial Watch also suggest that Project Vote was directing complaints to the persons at DOJ responsible for deploying election monitoring resources, urging them to devote resources to races around the country–particularly where Tea Party groups were active in efforts to combat voter fraud.On February 23, 2010, Estelle Rogers, head of Project Vote and a former ACORN lawyer, also urged Voting Section Chief Chris Herren to hire two particular ACORN-approved attorneys to work in the Justice Department Voting Section. “Now that the application period has closed, I want to heartily recommend two candidates to you,” she wrote.“Thanks very much Estelle,” Herren wrote back.Eventually, the Voting Section in fact hired numerous lawyers from left-wing groups, such as those that were dedicated to aggressive enforcement of the welfare agency voter registration provisions of Motor Voter. The relevant emails obtained by Judicial Watch are redacted, so we don’t know if the individuals hired were the same ones suggested by Rogers. However, we do know that DOJ hired attorneys expert in Motor Voter–such as Bradley Heard and Elizabeth Westfall, who brought lawsuits while at the Advancement Project that stopped Colorado and Michigan from purging voter rolls of ineligible voters prior to the 2008 Presidential election.But that isn’t the worst of it. Other documents suggest that a swarm of left-wing groups is meeting regularly with top DOJ election officials. The documents show these groups urging the DOJ to open investigations into particular people, states and events.For example, Rogers met with Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes to discuss lawsuits under Section 7 of the Motor Voter law. Previously, Fernandes had announced her unwillingness to enforce portions of the same law designed to ensure dead voters or ineligible felons were not on the rolls. Former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates testified under oath that he had recommended investigations into eight states with possibly corrupted voter rolls, but Fernandes and other Obama appointees had spiked the investigations.Instead, the documents show pleasing Project Vote was a DOJ priority.Hmmm.......Democrats legislate; Republicans investigate. ~ Lyndon B.Johnson.Read the full story here.

• Michael Savage Slams Orthodox Jewish Rabbis For Attending Obama Chanukah Party At The White House.(Matzav).By Yechezkel Gordon.Michael Savage, the well-known conservative talk radio host, had some harsh words for the Orthodox Jewish Rabbis who attended the annual Chanukah party at the White House last week together with President Obama.On his show this past Friday (December 9th), which is syndicated across the U.S. in over 400 markets and heard by 8-10 million listeners a week, Mr. Savage wanted to know what deal these rabbis received for attending the party with Obama and, “which sect of hasidim went there as quislings, to sell Israel down the river,” singling out Satmar and Lubavitch.He started off criticizing the President for celebrating Chanukah two weeks early, saying Obama would never disrespect a Muslim holiday like that. But what really got him going was an off the cuff joke that Obama made at the celebration. Obama joked that he would give a kiss and a hug to everyone in attendance except for the rabbis with the whiskers.“Why wouldn’t he ever say that to the guys with whiskers who practice Islam? Anyone have an answer to that? Anything with Muslims and Islam there like grim faced in the White House, they follow it to a tea, like they walk on glass.” He continued, “But with Jews it’s two weeks early, we’ll light all the candles (and) we’ll joke about you guys with beards. Alright come on up, let’s break some Matzoh together. But sir it’s not Passover? Never mind, come on have some Manischewitz, we like a good party over here ha ha ha.”That’s when he turned his anger away from Obama and redirected it towards the Rabbis that attended.“What do the Rabbis get for this, the guys with the whiskers, what deal did they get for going there? I don’t get this because most Orthodox Jews are pretty conservative. Don’t they understand that Obama is the most anti-Israel president in history? So who are these quisling Rabbis who were there with the black coats? Which sect of Hasidim was there? Is there a Hasidic Jew listening? Which sect of Hasidim went there as quislings to sell Israel down the river? Anyone know? I don’t know who the guys with the whiskers were. Was it the Satmars, was it the Lubavitch, was it another group I never heard of?”Apparently, Mr. Savage didn’t realize that Orthodox Jews don’t listen to the radio or make phone calls on Shabbos, which starts at sunset on Friday. Thus, no one called in to respond to these comments that he made during the first hour of his Friday show, which airs from 6-9pm eastern time.Finally, Savage dared his audience to report him to the ADL for his remarks.Hmmmm.......The comments on this post are 'interesting'.Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• Iran claims to have four Israeli and three American drones.(IsraelMatzav).The English-language Tehran Times reports that Iran claims to have four Israeli drones that it has shot down, and that it says that it will put them on display, along with an American RQ-170 that mysteriously fell in Iranian territory two weeks ago and two other American drones. According to the source close to the Tehran Times, the foreign unmanned aircraft that Iran has are four Israeli and three U.S. drones. The most advanced spy drone in Iran’s possession, which was recently downed, is RQ-170 unmanned U.S. plane, which the Islamic Republic announced on December 4 had been brought down by the country’s armed forces.According to the source, the four Israeli drones that are now in Iran’s possession had violated the country’s airspace along the eastern borders, and the three U.S. unmanned aircraft had penetrated into the country’s airspace along either the eastern or southern border.Seeing is believing. And in the case of the Israeli drones, they could well be drones that were sold to Turkey.Hmmm......The Turkish - 'Israeli' drones , perhaps Iran does the 'repair' work on them for the Turks?Read the full story here.

• Putin accuses U.S. Special Forces of participating in Qaddafi’s killing.(AlArabiya).Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the U.S. Special Forces of being involved in the killing of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi. “Who did this?” Putin said in his annual televised phone-in with Russians. “Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then − through the Special Forces, who should not have been there − they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation.”Russia had initially allowed NATO’s air campaign in Libya to go ahead by abstaining in a U.N. Security Council vote. But it then vehemently criticized the campaign which Putin at one stage compared to a “crusade.”His comments mark the first time that Russia has implicated the U.S. administration in Qaddafi’s death.Putin also lashed out at U.S. Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate and frequent Putin critic who warned in a message on Twitter this month that an “Arab Spring” may soon be coming to Russia.“I know Mr McCain,” said Putin, adding that he would prefer not to refer to him as a “friend.”“This was not addressed in my direction. This was said about Russia. Some people want to move Russia aside somewhere in a corner, so it does not intervene − so that it does not intervene in the ruling of the world,” said Putin.“They still fear our nuclear capabilities,” he said in reference to the West.“That is why we are such an irritant. We have our own opinion and are conducting our own independent foreign policy ... And it clearly bothers someone.”Read the full story here.

• “Hakoras Hatov”(Gratitude): Hundreds In Iraq Burn U.S., Israeli Flags To Celebrate Troops Pulling Out.(Matzav).Hundreds of Iraqis set alight U.S. and Israeli flags today as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah.Shouting slogans in support of the “resistance,” the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, “Now we are free” and “Fallujah is the flame of the resistance.”Surrounded by the Iraqi army, demonstrators carried posters bearing photos of apparent insurgents, faces covered and carrying weapons.They also held up pictures of U.S. soldiers killed and military vehicles destroyed in the two major offensives against the city in 2004.“We are proud to have driven the occupier out of Iraq, at the cost of enormous sacrifice,” said Khalid al-Alwa, the local leader of the Islamic Party, a Sunni Muslim grouping.“Those who destroyed Iraq paid the price because the people here held them accountable.”The demonstration, which was held in Al-Khadra Mohammediyah Square in the centre of Fallujah, was dubbed the first annual “festival to celebrate the role of the resistance.”The United States is due to pull out the last of its troops from Iraq by the end of December, more than eight years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.Fallujah, a city of about half a million people 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, was home to some of the earliest anti-U.S. protests in the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion.At the time, Fallujah residents were content to throw only their shoes at US soldiers. But in March 2004, four American employees of the U.S. private security firm Blackwater, since renamed Xe, were brutally killed in the city.That year, the U.S. military launched two massive offensives against Fallujah, signs of which are still visible today in collapsed buildings and bullet holes in walls.The first offensive in April aimed to quell the burgeoning Sunni insurgency but was a failure - Fallujah became a fiefdom of Al-Qaeda and its allies, who essentially controlled the city.Read the full story here.

• Panetta to visit Turkey after trip to Afghanistan.(HurriyetDaily).U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to visit Turkey today for talks focusing on enhancing defense cooperation and the ongoing fight against terrorism, Turkish diplomatic sources said.Panetta is coming from Afghanistan where he told U.S. troops yesterday they were winning the 10-year war against terrorist networks during a visit focused on handing over security to Afghans as U.S. troops withdraw. Panetta’s two-day Turkey visit comes just two weeks before the end of the year, by which time a U.S. radar system will be installed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO’s missile shield project, officials have said. The radar, prompting Iranian reactions against Turkey, will also be on Panetta’s agenda, sources said. On the agenda for talks with Panetta are the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, and a $111 million defense deal between Ankara and Washington, diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News. Panetta is also expected to raise the issue of Turkey’s strained relations with Israel. Meanwhile, after a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta President Hamid Karzai said yesterday Afghanistan did not want to be involved in any hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, after a U.S. reconnaissance drone was captured by the Islamic republic. “Afghanistan should maintain and has maintained a very friendly relationship with Iran so we don’t want to be involved in any adversarial relation between Iran and the U.S.,” he said.Hmmmm......Helping the friends of Iran,great strategy.Read the full story here.

• Can NATO trust Turkey?Turkey and Iran favor peace, stability and security in region - Salehi.(NewsAZ).Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Akbar Salehi said Wednesday that Iran's official look at Turkey was based on deep brotherhood and friendship.In an exclusive interview with the Anadolu Agency (AA), Salehi said that Turkey and Iran were not rivals but complemented each other."We have warned the Iranian official who made remarks on Turkey," Salehi noted.Our relations with Turkey are at their best level ever from a political, economic and cultural perspective. More than two million Iranians visit Turkey each year, Salehi said.We are in constant touch with our Turkish friends. We hold talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on bilateral and regional issues continuously. There may be different views but that is natural. Turkey and Iran favor peace, stability and security in the region, Salehi said.Certain circles, some of them knowingly and some others unknowingly, try to cause a conflict between our great nations and countries, Salehi underlined.Unfortunately, certain figures in the Turkish and Iranian medias convey the views of Western commentators. Some others express views without having the necessary knowledge on international issues. Expressing views insensibly lead to misunderstandings. Such views exist in both countries. In recent times, certain individuals made comments on Turkey unknowingly and such comments were out of the boundaries of their duties in Iran. We reject all such views and comments, Salehi said.Touching on those Iranians who made remarks on Turkey recently, Minister Salehi said that the remarks made only belong to those who made them.Hmmmm......"Both carry the same 'love' for Israel".Read the full story here.

• Turkish New Textbooks Escalates Hatred Towards Armenians.(Aina).Turkish Assyrian Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) MP Erol Dora stated that the new textbooks on history contain expressions of escalating hatred towards Armenians and Assyrians. Dora stated that the textbooks on history for the 10th grade, published by the Turkish Ministry of Education in 2009, violate human rights, Turkish Anadolu agency reports.MP stated that he spoke with the Minister on the issue. The Minister also expressed concern adding that the textbooks were not published during his office time.Read the full story here.

• US resolution against Turkey unfair - US envoy.(NewsAZ).The Turkish ambassador in Washington has said that a US resolution against Turkey was unfair and unjustified.The House Resolution HR 306 asking Turkey to respect rights of Christians in the country was approved by only Reps. Howard Berman and Edward Royce on Tuesday.A message by Ambassador Namik Tan said it was unfair and unjustified."Yet, the House approved it. Who benefits when Congress acts at the expense of allies-" he said.Read the full story here.

• Iran says Saudi won’t fill Iran gap in oil embargo; IEA warns of high oil prices.(Alarabiya).Saudi Arabia will not seek to replace Iranian oil in the case of oil sanctions against Iran, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Wednesday.“We had a full discussion with him yesterday and Mr Naimi rejected replacing Iranian crude if Iran faces oil sanctions,” Qasemi told reporters ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna.“We have very good ties and a close relationship with Saudi Arabia,” said Qasemi.Asked at the same press briefing about Qasemi’s statement Saudi Oil Minister Ali al Naimi declined comment.The European Union is considering an embargo on Iranian oil exports that would block the sale of about 450,000 barrels a day from Iran into the EU.Meanwhile, high oil prices threaten to worsen a global economic slowdown and crude producers should consider boosting output, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.“The current high oil prices have the potential to strangle the economic recovery in many countries,” Fatih Birol said in a speech Wednesday in Singapore. “I hope that high oil prices don’t slow down Chinese economic growth and the negative effect that would have on the global recovery.” Crude has jumped to $100 a barrel from $75 in October amid signs the U.S. economy will likely avoid a recession. Most economists expect global economic growth to slow next year as Europe’s debt crisis threatens to drag the continent into recession.Birol suggested crude producers should boost output amid growing demand in developing countries and falling inventories in wealthy nations.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is meeting later Wednesday in Vienna to decide whether to change the cartel's output quotas. “I’m sure OPEC knows much better than me what to do,” Birol said when asked if OPEC should raise output. “But seeing that oil prices are still high today and the negative effect that has on the recovery of the global economy, I hope the energy producing countries will take these things into account and make their decision accordingly.” Birol said crude prices could rise to $150 by 2015 if oil-producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa don't invest $100 billion a year to maintain existing fields and develop new ones.More than 90 percent of global crude production growth during the next 20 years will come from that region, led by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria and United Arab Emirates, Birol said.“Recent developments, including the Arab Spring, have changed the mindset of many governments,” Birol said “In some countries, oil investments have been diverted to social spending. Oil policies are taking on a more nationalistic tone, which means not to increase production as much is needed in the world market.”Read the full story here.