MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation North America: Oregon 6.0 - 5.9 ; Brazil 5.4 ; Fiji 5.3 - 5.1!More info here.

• Fifty Members of Congress Hold Press Event on Obama Mandate.(LN).The new mandate pro-abortion President Barack Obama put in place forcing religious employers to pay for insurance coverage including birth control and abortion-inducing drugs is so offensive more than 50 members of Congress will speak out against it today.Congressman Jeff Fortenberry will hold a press conference today with supporters of the bipartisan, bicameral Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. His legislation would protect the religious liberty and conscience rights of every American who objects to being forced by the strong-arm of government to pay for drugs and procedures recently mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).The Fortenberry bill currently has the support of approximately 220 Members of Congress and Senators, the most strongly-supported legislative remedy to the controversial HHS mandate. This measure would repeal the controversial mandate, amending the 2010 health care law to preserve conscience rights for religious institutions, health care providers, and small businesses who pay for health care coverage.“The President still doesn’t understand that religious institutions will still be unacceptably entangled–financially and provisionally– with drugs, procedures, and services to which they may have religious and moral objections, in violation of their long-held rights of conscience,” he told LifeNews in a statement. “Moreover, this announcement still does not get to the very core of American distress: religious freedom and conscience rights are natural rights as enshrined in the Constitution. The government does not confer them and must not force persons to violate them by paying for things to which they have reasoned religious or moral objections.”“Congress should protect the religious liberty and conscience rights of every American who objects to being forced by the strongarm of government to pay for services to which she or he has deeply-held objections. We must do so for the benefit of the millions of Americans who are calling for swift bipartisan action,” he added.“This is a genuine assault on First Amendment freedoms,” Blunt said in an exclusive interview with Heritage following a speech there Monday. Blunt dismissed Obama’s “accommodation” announcement last week as an “accounting gimmick.” He said it’s not an issue of money as Obama portrayed it Friday.“This is not about cost. It’s about the Constitution,” Blunt told Heritage. “And if you can decide this no longer offends me because I don’t have to pay for it, I guess you’re concern is financial all the time and not faith-based.”Read the full story here.

• A Warning Sign For The World.(BLN).Any financial system that is based on debt is doomed to fail. Today, we are living in the greatest debt bubble that the world has ever seen, and if all of a sudden people could not use credit to buy things our economy would immediately ground to a halt. Unfortunately, no debt bubble can last forever. When this current debt bubble finally bursts, faith in the financial system is going to disappear, credit is going to freeze up and there is going to be a massive wave of bank failures. Right now, Greece is a warning sign for the world. Nobody wants to lend money to Greece, the Greek banking system is dying, one out of every four businesses has already shut down, unemployment is soaring and the Greek economy has now been in recession for five years in a row. Sadly, the economic implosion in Greece is rapidly accelerating. The Greek economy shrunk at a 7 percent annual rate during the 4th quarter of 2011. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Things were supposed to be getting better in Greece by now. But instead the Greek depression is getting even worse, and very soon the rest of the world is going to be going through what Greece is currently experiencing.Unfortunately, most in the mainstream media are treating what is happening in Greece as an “isolated incident” rather than as a very serious warning sign for the world.Thankfully, there are at least a few reporters out there that are realizing the gravity of the situation. The following is how one reporter from the New York Times recently described what life is like in Greece now….Greece is most definitely a warning sign for the world. If you keep recklessly piling up debt, eventually a day of reckoning comes. It is inevitable.But Barack Obama does not seem to understand this. He continues to pile another 150 million dollars on to our national debt every single hour. He knows that cutting spending significantly right now would hurt the economy and that would significantly hurt his chances for another term.Needless to say, Barack Obama is not likely to do anything that is going to significantly hurt his chances for another four years in the White House.So we continue to roll on toward disaster.The U.S. financial system is like a car with no brakes that is heading straight toward a 5,000 foot drop at 100 miles an hour.It is all going to seem like fun and games to some people until we hit the canyon floor.Once that happens, nobody will be laughing.Hmmmm....In one year time the fed reserve has increased its holdings from zero to 1,5 trillion dollar, what are they preparing for?Read the full story here.

• Fast and Furious: Rep. Issa to Holder, We Want Documents Now, Contempt Charges Still On The Table.(BG).On February 14th I received an email from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) office, containing a copy of a letter the Congressman just sent to Attorney General Eric Holder. In it, Issa points out Holder’s “lack of good faith,” in not complying with document requests heretofore, and to the fact that the DOJ as a whole appears “more concerned with protecting its image through spin control than actually cooperating with Congress.”Wrote Issa:  The Justice Department’s request for additional time has, unfortunately, not been followed by efforts to bridge the significant differences between its legal obligation to Congress and the reality of its stonewalling. The [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee] is determined to know what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and how the Justice Department responded when it was publicly confronted with evidence of reckless conduct after Agent Terry’s death. If the Justice Department cannot commit to providing, at a minimum, a detailed description of documents it is withholding, and the legal basis for doing so, then the committee has no other option than to move forward with the contempt process against Attorney General Holder.In addition, the letter sets forth central questions that have to be answers, among which are:

1. Exactly how and when did senior Department officials learn the truth of what happened?
2. Did Department officials retaliate against whistleblowers?
3. Why did Department officials decide to move forward with prosecuting old cases involving highly objectionable tactics when line prosecutors had refused to do so?
4. Why did senior Department officials fail to see the clear connection between Fast and Furious and prior flawed operations they have admitted they knew about?
5. When did the Department first learn about Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s February 2011 suggestion of gunwalking, and why did the Department wait so long before telling Congress about it?
6. A year later, will the responsible senior Department officials be held accountable?The letter also contains a specific line of questions about Patrick Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, who pled the 5th when subpoenaed by Issa. Apparently, Cunningham did his own “comprehensive review” of Fast and Furious in April 2011, and Issa wants to know what he found out.Wrote Issa: “What information did Cunningham uncover To whom did he report this information? What was done with this information?”Issa ended his letter thus: [And] this is not an “election year political ‘gotcha’ game,” but rather a bipartisan sentiment. As Ranking Member [Elijah] Cummings (D-MD) promised the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, “we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of this, no matter where they are, are brought to justice.” I applaud his revolve, and I want to make it clear that Congress will not give up until this accountability has been achieved.Hmmmm.....'Gunwalker' These boots will keep on walking, one of these days these boots.........Read the full story here.

• Obama tells China's vice president he welcomes China's rise.(SD).US President Barack Obama said yesterday that the United States welcomes China's rise, saying that strong cooperation between the two powers is good for the rest of the world.Obama offered a warm welcome to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the White House."We welcome China's peaceful rise," Obama said as the two men sat in the Oval Office. "We believe a strong and prosperous China is one that can help to bring stability and prosperity to the region and to the world."Obama said he was looking forward to future cooperation.A smiling Xi told Obama he wants to build on the relationship between Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao. He wants to engage the American people to strengthen cooperation and "deepen the friendship" between the people of the two countries.Obama sought to balance his desire to make a good start with Xi with the political need to look firm with Beijing in an election year."We have tried to emphasize that because of China's ... extraordinary development over the last two decades, that with expanding power and prosperity also comes increased responsibilities," Obama said."We want to work with China to make sure that everybody is working by the same rules of the road when it comes to the world economic system, and that includes ensuring that there is a balanced trade flow between not only the United States and China, but around the world," he said.Xi said he looked forward to building a "cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interests." He added: "I hope to engage with a broad cross-section of American society during my current visit."The two leaders smiled and nodded as the other spoke and shook hands during an appearance in front of reporters.Read the full story here.

• Israel ambassador says Thai bombs similar to ones from India, Georgia attacks.(Yahoo).BANGKOK - The bombs discovered in a Bangkok house after a series of blasts in the Thai capital were similar to those used in attacks on Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia, the Israeli ambassador said Wednesday.While the targets of the bombs was not clear, "we can assume from the other experiences that we were the target," Ambassador Itzhak Shoham told The Associated Press.

• Israel ambassador says Thai bombs similar to ones from India, Georgia attacks.(Yahoo).Thai police found and defused two magnetic bombs that could be stuck on vehicles after Tuesday' blasts."They are similar to the ones used in Delhi and in Tblisi," Shoham said. "From that we can assume that there is the same network of terror."He said the arrest of two Iranians in the blasts "again leaves not too much room to assume who was behind it."A bombing of an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi on Monday injured four people, including a diplomat's wife. A similar bomb found under a car in Georgia on Monday was defused.Four Thai civilians were wounded in Bangkok in a series of blasts that began Tuesday when a cache of explosives ignited at a house, apparently by mistake. One explosion blew off the leg of an Iranian who had fled, carrying what looked like grenades.Read the full story here.

• Thailand plays down terrorist link to Bangkok blasts.(BM).Bangkok (dpa) – Thai officials on Wednesday said it was too early to link three blasts in Bangkok to international terrorist groups.“At the moment, there is no evidence linking this incident to terrorism,” Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said.On Tuesday, an explosion in a rented house in Bangkok prompted the four foreign residents to flee, police said. One man, after failing to hail a cab, threw a grenade at a taxi, injuring the driver and three pedestrians. He later threw another at a police car, but it bounced back and blew up in front of him, severing both legs.The suspect was initially identified as Iranian national Saeib Morabi. Police arrested another Iranian, Mohammad Hazai, 42, at Suvarnabhumi International Airport late Tuesday as he was about to board a plane to Kuala Lumpur.He had been identified by surveillance cameras as one three Iranians staying at the house where the bomb was detonated, police said.The two other suspects, including one woman, were still at large. Police said they found C-4 plastic explosives in the house that they rented in Bangkok.“We are checking with the Iranian embassy whether the two men under custody are Iranians,” Surapong said. “They could be holding fake documents,” he noted. Bangkok is a regional hub for purchasing fake identification documents.Iran on Wednesday denied any involvement and condemned the attacks by accusing Israel.“The Zionist regime is trying to tarnish the historic ties between Iran and Thailand by such acts,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told state television network IRIB.The incident prompted 10 embassies to issue travel warnings to their citizens visiting Bangkok.Last month, the US and 10 other embassies issued travel warnings after being informed of planned terrorist attacks on US and Israeli citizens in the Thai capital.On January 16, police found 400 boxes of bomb-making materials in a shophouse believed to be linked to that plot.Police said they were alerted to the cache by Attis Hussein, a Swedish-Lebanese man arrested days after the US embassy travel alert on suspicion of being a member of the Hezbollah militant group.Maintaining security and the country’s appeal as a tourist destination is a key task for authorities in Thailand, which drew 19 million visitors last year.Although Iranians, unlike many Middle Eastern nationals, cannot get a visa on arrival, “there has been a significant increase in Iranian tourists visiting Thailand last year,” said a Thai diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.Hmmmm......Foreign Minister Genius:" At the moment, there is no evidence linking this incident to terrorism".Read the full story here.

• Israel - Rachel’s Tomb, Cave of the Patriarchs cut from national heritage program.(IH).The Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb, both holy sites in Judea and Samaria, will be omitted from Israel’s list of national heritage sites, contrary to a promise made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two years ago, Army Radio reported Tuesday. The list of national heritage sites was expected to be approved by the government on Tuesday. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office insist that the two sites were left off the list for purely logistical reasons, but other government officials suggested that the decision was motivated by fear of worldwide condemnation. In 2010, Netanyahu announced a list of sites, including the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb, which were slated for rehabilitation and renovation as part of Israel’s National Heritage Program. However, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova expressed concern that inclusion of the two sensitive sites would escalate tensions in the region, and U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry said the sites were “of historical and religious significance not only to Judaism but also to Islam and to Christianity as well.” Now, with the final list submitted to the ministers for approval, it has emerged that the two sites have been omitted by a prioritization committee. Science and Technology Minister Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowitz (National Religious Party) submitted a letter to Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser, Army Radio reported, demanding to restore Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs to the list. “Omitting Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs is like denying our elementary heritage,” Army Radio quoted him as writing in the letter. “They are the burial place of our three fathers and four mothers. The state of Israel extracts its entire heritage from these sites.” Read the full story here.

• Ask not what Egypt can do for you; ask what Egypt will Blackmail you to do for them!(WShoebat).Seriously, what more evidence does one need? The Obama administration helped to facilitate the fall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. It was all about Democracy! Freedom! If that were true, the Muslim Brotherhood, which filled the vacuum, should be thanking America, asking us how we can be re-paid, right?Uh, not so much.One day after it was learned that the proposed Obama budget included $800 Million in aid to “Arab Spring” countries (Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya), with continued military aid to Egypt, the United States is now being met with threats from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Oh, and the Brotherhood also appears to be holding Americans hostage.Folks, this is nothing new.The Barbary Wars of the early 1800′s, which led to the formation of the US Navy and its Marines did the same types of things from the very same regions of North Africa (from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli). They pirated ships and held Americans hostage for ransom.Why? Terrorizing infidels was how they earned a living.Things didn’t change until Thomas Jefferson’s patience finally ran out.They’re Baaaaaaaccccck.Read the full story here.

• Gaza's power station ceased to operate.(AM).Gaza's power station ceased to operate. Ismail Haniyeh called Egypt to intervene in the energy shortage and show its support for the Palestinians and provide them with everything needed to operate the station - " to prevent a real humanitarian crisis". UN Officer for Humanitarian Affairs says - that the quantity of fuel transferred to Gaza through tunnels in the last two weeks was only half the amount of fuel that came from Egypt in the previous week, probably because of restrictions imposed by Egyptian police on the movement of fuel shipments to Rafah. The power plant provides about a third of the electricity in Gaza, and because of the many disruptions in power supply, the Health Ministry's spokesman in Gaza warned that:- "power cuts endanger the lives of some Hospitalized patients in the hospital." Hallo! El-Qaeda Sinaistan! Blow the Gas pipe line from Egypt to Ashkelon!... And F**k the "other two thirds" as well !...Read the full story here.