16,000 penal colonies prisoners walk free under amnesty impacting nearly 100,000 in Russia.

Woman penal colony.

16,000 penal colonies prisoners walk free from, detention facilities under amnesty impacting nearly 100,000 in Russia.(RBTH).

The number of Russians who have been made exempt from criminal liability under the amnesty devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War has neared 100,000, Valery Maksimenko, acting head of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), said.

"Over 95,000 people have been released since the adoption of the decree on amnesty as of January 19, including some 13,000 from penal colonies," Maksimenko told reporters on Monday.

Three hundred convicts with sentences that have taken legal effect have been released from detention facilities, he said.

According to the FSIN, over 79,000 people registered with criminal inspectorates have walked free. Among the people released under the amnesty are 24 teenagers, Maksimenko said.

Number of the week: A look at the figures for Russian amnesties

Obama’s Cinco de Mayo wish: "Once i'm 'More Flexible' Signing the DREAM Act".

Obama’s Cinco de Mayo wish: "Once i'm 'More Flexible' Signing the DREAM Act".
(Yahoo).President Barack Obama hosted a Cinco de Mayo party at the White House -- "even though it's only tres de mayo, we just like to get the fiesta started early around here" -- and promised to push for a comprehensive overhaul of America's immigration policies if he's reelected. "There's still plenty of unfinished business, including fixing our broken immigration system," he said. "It's long past the time that we unleash the promise of all our young people and make the DREAM Act a reality." Mitt Romney has vowed to veto the legislation, which would allow some undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to stay on American soil legally, provided they have a clean record and graduate from high school or serve in the military. Republican Senator Marco Rubio has also pushed a version of the measure that would provide temporary, non-immigrant visas. "No is not an option, I want to sign the DREAM Act into law!" Obama said. "I've got the pens all ready, I'm willing to work with anybody who's serious to get this done, and to achieve bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform that solves this challenge once and for all." A lot of you remember: Over a year ago, we brought the DREAM Act to a vote in Congress thanks to the hard work of many of you, and it passed the House, [got] the majority of votes in the Senate," Obama said. "Unfortunately, we had some on the other side of the aisle that got together and blocked it, but we didn't come this far just to let partisan politics stand in our way. So we're going to keep fighting for this common sense reform. Ultimately, America depends on it.""These are victories for Latinos but they're more importantly victories for America," Obama said.Hmmmm........Obama Blames “Founding Fathers” For Making It Difficult For Him To “Bring Change” But..."I will keep plotting".Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

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

• What Happens When Iran Kills American Soldiers?(EliotAbrams).There must be very few times in American history when a foreign government is accused of killing American troops, and absolutely nothing is done about it.Every school kid used to learn lines like “Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead,” or “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute.” The War of 1812 was fought in large part due to the “impressment” of American sailors by the British, a similar example of denial of freedom that fell far short of actually killing American sailors.So what are we to make of the following statements by America’s senior military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen? Reuters reports that at a luncheon with journalists, Mullen said this:

“Iran is very directly supporting extremist Shia groups which are killing our troops. And there’s no reason … for me to believe that they’re going to stop that as our numbers come down….There’s no question they want to influence, and particularly in the south,” Mullen said. “They are shipping high-tech weapons in there … which are killing our people and … the forensics prove that.”

Mullen made these comments in the context of discussing the American troop presence in Iraq, and went on to say that any agreement to keep U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the end of the year “has to be done in conjunction with control of Iran in that regard.” So Iran’s killing of American troops is a problem because it complicates leaving some forces in Iraq?What is one to make of it when our senior commander does not seem outraged by this Iranian conduct and does not demand that we put a stop to it? Our forces are not killing Iranians, but Iran has been killing Americans–in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also through involvement in terrorist attacks such as the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996–for decades, and it has paid no price. This is the probable explanation why continuing American promises, or threats if you like, that “it is unacceptable for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons” don’t appear to rattle Tehran. What credibility can we possibly have when they know we know that Iran has been killing American soldiers year after year without any significant American response.It isn’t just Iran, either: the Assad regime in Syria became the transit point for every jihadi wanting to travel to Iraq to kill Americans (and large numbers of Iraqis). From all around the globe they came–Pakistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, you name it–to Damascus International Airport, thence to be shepherded into Iraq with the full cooperation and coordination of the Government of Syria. The American military response: none. This was especially galling, for whatever dangers may have existed in threatening Iran and then having to carry through on those threats if Iran did not cease acting to kill American soldiers, they were absent in the case of a weak country like Syria. A few object lessons would have persuaded the Assad regime to desist from its actions.Soon we will have a new Secretary of Defense and a new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and one can only hope that we will also have a new policy: that neither Iran nor any other government can kill Americans with impunity. The least we owe servicemen and women who risk their lives for our country is the certainty that when we know a foreign government is trying to kill them, we will act to stop it. If we adopted such a policy, we would never again have to hear a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs reveal such a set of facts and suggest as an American response……well, nothing.Read the full story here.

• An Open Letter to @SpeakerBoehner and Sen. McConnell: You Blow This and You Are Political Toast.(DougRoss).You cave on the debt ceiling without meaningful spending cuts -- not Social Security, not Medicare, not some far-off, mystical trillion dollars a decade in the future -- but cuts now in the massive discretionary spending programs that exploded under the 111th Congress, well, then you are both political toast.President Obama has publicly vilified you, has equated you with terrorists ("holding a gun to the American people's head") and has now gone 800 days without a budget. He spent this money. He knew it would blow past the debt ceiling. This is his fault And now he demands something "balanced"?This is the real deal, since you or your staffers haven't figured it out yet: Obama is prepared to slash Social Security, Medicare, Defense--in fact, anything except the bloated public sector unions.As always with Obama, it's about the unions. There can be no negotiation with the ideologues who have blown trillions in borrowed money to no avail.The bloated government bureaucracies are the Democrat Party and vice versa. One can't exist without the other. If you -- Senator McConnell -- and you -- Speaker Boehner -- blow your advantage, you can stick the old political forks in you. You're done.Your starting position -- non-negotiable -- should be the Cut, Cap, Balance Pledge.Period.No secret, back-room deals. No bullcrap "trillion-dollar spending deals for 2020 with non-tax revenue increases".This is Obama and the 111th Congress' fault. They didn't pass a budget. They spent like drunken liberals. And, as we speak, they are destroying the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury.If you are too wedded to your status on the Beltway cocktail and press circuit -- rather than as representatives of a pissed-off electorate -- there will be hell to pay.P.S., How's "Speaker West" sound to you?Read the full story here.

• Operation Fast and Furious: We The People Are Furious So Let’s Get Eric Holder Out Of Office Fast.(BigPeace).Political stooge Eric Holder’s latest poke in our collective eyes comes from his role in Operation Fast and Furious.Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley have accused Holder of blocking their investigation of the scandalous operation that resulted in the deaths of two US agents and many Mexican civilians.Please see Michael Walsh’s piece.Fast and Furious was designed as an ATF sting and involved the “transfer” of thousands of weapons from gun shops in Arizona to Mexican drug cartels in an effort to track those guns back across the border. Predictably those weapons were used by the Mexican drug lords in scores of killings.As Walsh points out, many lawful gun owners believe this ill conceived plan was hatched and implemented by Holder’s ATF to “prove” the Obama Administration’s contention that 90% of the guns Mexican Cartels use originate in the United States. This “proof” would provide the administration with the political cover it would need to further control guns by executive order.If this scenario involving Holder providing political cover sounds familiar, it should. Once again Holder is a willing stooge to his political masters.Holder provided Bill Clinton with the political cover he needed to offer clemency in 1999 to 16 unrepentant FALN and Macheteros terrorists. When Pardon Attorney, Roger Adams refused to reverse his predecessor Margaret Love’s recommendation against the clemency offers in 1998, Holder concocted an “options report” for Adams to deliver to Holder in which Adams would not be required to provide any recommendation for or against clemency.The existence of that new report allowed Clinton the wiggle room to justify his clemency to terrorists who had not even requested clemency, who did not show remorse but whose supporters met with Holder and his team at least 9 times. Holder and his team ignored the families of those killed while pandering to the terrorists and their supporters.Like he did in 1999 by pushing the release of those terrorists, Holder is once again playing Russian roulette with the American People; this time by furnishing guns to gangsters in a reckless attempt to provide political cover to his superior(s).Like he did in 1999, Holder now refuses to answer questions regarding his or his boss’s involvement in the scandal and is even holding up a congressional investigation.Aside from Fast and Furious, since becoming AG, Holder’s other recent travesties of justice are well documented and include his:

1. failure to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation

2. desire to prosecute members of the intelligence community over terror interrogations

3. goals of closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center and trying foreign terrorists in civilian courts

Holder’s previous misdeeds are so numerous and insidious that they are difficult to identify and summarize. Investigative Reporter Ron Kolb, for the America’s Survival conference last week, provided the best brief I have ever seen on Mr. Holder. Look, Holder must go. I don’t know how much more evidence we need; how many more misdeeds Holder has to perpetrate, how many more Americans have to be put at risk, how many more Fast and Furious scandals we have to endure.The American people are Furious so Holder has to go Fast.Read the full story here.

• Obama, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood Vs. America, Israel, and Freedom .(Marezilla).Obama has publicly stated that Americans "do not consider ourselves a Christian nation" and that the United States is "one of the largest muslim countries in the world". Of course he is wrong, the US is not a muslim country, but do these statements reflect wishful thinking on his part, or do they reveal his intentions to islamicize America as described in THIS article by Victor Mordechai in Israel Today? Is Obama's deliberate undermining of American and Israeli interests his "Final Solution", as described in THIS article by James Lewis?Read the full story here.

• Obama's Plan to Islamicize America.(IsraelToday).At a meeting of the David Allen Lewis “Eschatology Club” a year ago in Springfield, Missouri, where I was the featured speaker, I was told by the organizers that in the previous monthly meeting, Pastor Don Jones made a disturbing statement about President Barack Obama’s plan to Islamicize America.Jones went to one of his orphanages in Haiti after the massive earthquake there and met with a senior UN official, who said Obama had told him that the US would be a Muslim country by 2016, or by the end of his second term in office.While that may seem far-fetched, it is not beyond the realm of possibility. First, Obama’s biological father was a Muslim— which makes the President a Muslim. His stepfather was an Indonesian Muslim who raised Obama as a Muslim in a mosque and madrassa (Islamic religious school) in Indonesia until age 11. His halfbrothers in Kenya are Muslims.My wife Rachel, who is a radio and TV monitor in the Arabic language for Israel Radio in Jerusalem, has picked up many broadcasts indicating that the Arabs see Obama as a Muslim. In one broadcast prior to the 2008 elections, the Saudis claimed that “we will have a Muslim in the White House.” Another Saudi broadcast said: “Obama’s job is to terminate the Shiite threat [Iran] and the Jewish threat [Israel]. And if he cannot do this, he should pack his bags and go home.”America has always been a Judeo- Christian nation, but demographically at least, this is no longer true. While there are more than 250 million Christians in the US, the 6 million Jews are now outnumbered by Muslims who total about 20 million (9 million Iranians who fled after the fall of the Shah, 7 million Arabs and at least 3 million black Muslims, with the remainder being from Somalia and the former Yugoslavia).Numerically, the Jews are now no. 3 or 4 along with the Hindus in the US, whose population is about the same as the Jews. According to Obama’s Inauguration Day speech, America is a “Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu” country. Numerically, he is right. So much for Judeo-Christian America.In the June edition of Israel Today, I wrote about the worsening conditions of the Christians in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. International investment in Egypt has all but dried up since the Revolution. What international (Christian) corporation will invest in a country which is killing and ethnically cleansing its Christians? So the Egyptian economy appears doomed to collapse, which would create fertile ground for a takeover by the radical Muslim Brotherhood.This would leave 70 million Muslims in Egypt in dire poverty.The same applies to other countries in the Middle East that could be taken over by Islamic militants. In the case of Syria, the ruling Muslim Alawite sect will probably share the same fate as the Christians. This could lead to a flood of Arab Muslims to greener pastures in the West.The Bible says Egypt will be a desolation and Egyptians will flee to other countries because the nation will be uninhabitable for 40 years (Ezekiel 29). If the official Syrian newspaper Tishrin is correct in saying that 600,000 Palestinian refugees and Syrians will march on the Golan Heights to reclaim their land, then a war with Syria is inevitable, which means that Syria will be a desolation as well (Isaiah 17).The result could be tens of millions of Muslims fleeing to the US and Europe. President Obama would welcome these “brethren” on humanitarian grounds, and in effect, America would become a Muslim country.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Cleveland airport suddenly very,very popular.Unruly passenger caused a flight from Chicago to Germany to be diverted to Cleveland.(JawaReport).CLEVELAND - An unruly passenger caused a flight from Chicago to Germany to be diverted to Cleveland, an airport spokesperson said.The United Airlines 777 jet landed at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport at about 5:30 p.m. Friday.Jackie Mayo, spokesperson for the airport, said a passenger on Flight 944 headed to Frankfurt was acting “suspicious and unruly,” and would not comply with the flight crew's request to settle down. As a result, the flight was diverted to Cleveland to have the passenger removed.When the plane landed, Mayo said K9 dogs searched the plane as a safety measure.Next thing you know this happens: Several Flights Diverted to Cleveland Hopkins with Emergency on board.Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) It has suddenly gotten busier with diversions. Joining our earlier noted 767-300 is another United 767-300 from London Heathrow and a 777-200 headed to Frankfurt just landed. The 767-300s in United (new blue, pre CO) are now parked at the FIS at the end on Concourse A and the 777-200 is on pad 1 (in new United/Continental livery). CLE had another unexpected visitor this afternoon. United flight 965, a Boeing 767-300 flying from Moscow to Washington Dulles landed with a medical emergency onboard. CLE medical staff are attending to the passenger. The aircraft is expected to be refueled and dispatched to IAD.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Calling Dr. Jihad.Last call before departure for Dr. Jihad.(Aina).Splendid news: Our homeland-security officials have sent fresh warnings to foreign governments that "human bombs" may try to board planes with surgically implanted explosives. The ticking terrorists are reportedly getting help from murder-minded Arab Muslim physicians trained in the West. Infidels beware: Dr. Jihad's version of the health-care oath omits the "no" in "Do no harm."The death docs may be using their expertise to play "Hide the IED" in body cavities that bomb-detection equipment cannot penetrate. At least one Saudi operative has been nabbed with explosives in his bum, and British intel picked up on Arab-website chatter last year about possible breast-bomb inserts. Officials are now said to be on the lookout for physicians' notes requesting that passengers be allowed to carry syringes -- which could carry detonation chemicals.Lest you shrug off reports of these literal booby-traps as empty fear-mongering, listen up:"It's more than aspirational," one U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal. "They're trying to make this happen."There should be no shock at the role of purported healers in these and other hellish plots to destroy masses of innocent lives in the name of Allah. Anyone who still clings to the bleeding-heart belief that poverty breeds terrorism -- including, alas, our commander-in-chief -- is willfully blind to history and present reality.Medical charities have long served as front groups for jihad. Palestinian jihadists used ambulances owned and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) -- subsidized with billions in American tax dollars -- to ferry explosives and gunmen from attacks. Hezbollah terrorists used ambulances as props in Lebanon to stage anti-Israel propaganda and elicit sympathy from Western media.And radical Islam's bloody perversion of the medical profession traces back to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, the global terror operation that wooed wealthy young docs and other intellectual elites with cushy union benefits.

● Ayman al-Zawahiri, a surgeon from a family of doctors, was raised in the Muslim Brotherhood, was helmed the murderous Islamic Jihad, and masterminded myriad al-Qaeda plots before succeeding Osama bin Laden this summer.

● Former Hamas leader Abdel Rantissi, bent on wiping out the children of Israel, was a pediatrician.

● Convicted al-Qaeda scientist Aafia Siddiqui studied microbiology at MIT and did graduate work in neurology at Brandeis.

● Rafiq Abdus Sabir was a Columbia University grad who served as an emergency-room physician in Boca Raton, Fla., before his terrorism conviction in 2007 for agreeing to provide medical aid and treatment to wounded al-Qaeda fighters so they could return to Iraq to kill American soldiers.

● Rafil Dhafir, an Iraqi-born oncologist, practiced in New York before being convicted in 2004 on 59 criminal counts related to violating Iraqi sanctions and committing large-scale medical-charity fraud.

● A den of well-heeled jihadi doctors from around the world was implicated in the 2007 London/Glasgow bombings. At least one of the convicted terror MDs worked for Britain's National Health Service.

● Mahmoud al-Zahar, another bloodthirsty Hamas biggie and medical doctor, described his specialty to a New York Times reporter in 2006 this way: "'Thyroids: I'm very good at cutting throats,' Dr. Zahar said, drawing his forefinger across his neck as a rare smile spread across his face."

Evil zealots who'll use children as human shields won't hesitate to employ revered caregivers as human explosive-enablers. They've warned us for years. Days after the 2007 terror-doc conspiracy unraveled in London, a Church of England clergyman, Andrew White, recounted to National Public Radio a warning he received from a Sunni fanatic in Amman, Jordan: "I listened to him for 40 minutes, and he went on about how they were going to destroy Britons and Americans and how they were going to be doing more in the U.K. and U.S., and he finished by saying 'those who cure you will kill you.'"How many more Dr. Jihads are operating in the open, exploiting our borders and tolerance, wielding medical licenses to kill?Hmmmm........"Don't worry it won't hurt, you'll feel nothing"?Read the full story here.

• Three Ways to Tell If a Muslim Charity Supports Jihad.(Aina).The Chicago-based Zakat Foundation of America, a 501©3 non-profit, was founded in 2001, and presents itself in a benevolent light: Zakat Foundation of America (ZF) is an international charity organization that helps generous and caring people reach out to those in need. Our goal is to address immediate needs and ensure the self-reliance of the poorest people around the world with Zakat and Sadaqa [acts of worship] dollars of privileged Muslims and the support of other generous donors.Does the Zakat Foundation of America merely help, in an innocent charitable way, "the poorest people" or is it a front for jihad? Part of the answer comes in the identity of the Muslim thinkers the foundation promotes. Chief among them is Yusuf al-Qardawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who in 2009 declared his hope that before his death, even if he was wheelchair-bound, he would be able to "shoot Allah’s enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom."Another answer comes in the organizations with which the charity is associated. A number of organizations in the United States have already been identified as Muslim Brotherhood front groups by the FBI. The Zakat Foundation of America works with at least two of the 29 groups the bureau has specified as falling into this category--the Islamic Center of North America (ISNA) endorsed the Zakat Foundation as an organization with "a strong history of immediate and effective responses to national and international disasters" and featured in several of the Zakat Foundation promotional videos. The other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group the Zakat Foundation collaborates with is the Muslim Students Association (MSA), having designed printed material guiding MSA activists on "How to start a successful halaqa group in your Masjid," "How to Help Neighbors in Need," and "Starting a Food Pantry."Finally, there is the question of how the Zakat Foundation distributes its funds. The Caipirinha Foundation, the charitable organization created by anti-Israel documentarian Iara Lee and her billionaire husband George Gund III, utilized Zakat as a fiscal sponsor for a grant to the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (IHH). The IHH is part of the "Union of Good," an umbrella coalition of Hamas-affiliated organizations led by Qaradawi. The Foundation supports the IHH's efforts to disrupt Israel's self-defense, describing last year's controversial flotilla as a "heroic effort."Given these intimate connections to radical figures and Muslim Brotherhood fronts, it's safe to characterize the Zakat Foundation of America as another component in the jihad.Hmmmmm.......Obama: “I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat”. Read the full story here.

• Obama Officials Misled Congress Regarding Scope of Illegal Immigration Deportation Dismissals According to Documents.(JudicialWatch).Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Obama Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showing that DHS officials misled Congress and the public about the scope of an immigration enforcement policy change that gave wide latitude to local immigration officials to dismiss illegal alien deportation cases. According to the documents, obtained pursuant to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, immigration officials sought the dismissal of charges against a wide range of illegal alien criminals, including those convicted of violent crimes, despite claims by the Obama administration to the contrary.The documents concern the response by Houston immigration officials to a June 30, 2010, memo from John Morton, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to all ICE employees instructing local immigration officials to use their discretion in “prioritizing” illegal immigration deportation cases. This new policy resulted in the dismissal of hundreds of immigration cases and an overall 40% increase in deportation dismissals with the City of Houston taking a particularly aggressive approach to the policy’s implementation.In response to calls by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for more information regarding this new deportation policy, DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said, “The idea that DHS is engaged in ‘selective enforcement’ couldn’t be further from the truth.” However, the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch show that Houston immigration officials moved quickly to implement a broad interpretation of Morton’s memo, earning praise from ICE agency headquarters.Moreover, despite the claims of immigration officials, ICE attorneys sought to block deportation proceeding for illegal aliens with violent crime offenses. A spreadsheet obtained by Judicial Watch lists the specific violent crimes that immigration officials were prepared to overlook. They include: sexual assault, solicitation of murder, aggravated assault, assaulting a police officer, and kidnapping, as well as numerous drug charges.On June 17, 2011, John Morton sent another memo to all field officers, special agents and to the chief counsel further defining the term “prosecutorial discretion.” “In basic terms, prosecutorial discretion is the authority of an agency charged with enforcing a law to decide to what degree to enforce the law against a particular individual,” Morton writes. Critics point out that this is precisely the type of “selective enforcement” the DHS has denied fostering with its new deportation policy.“These documents show that the Obama administration is implementing ‘stealth amnesty,’ which is an end-run around the rule of law and Congress.” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Obama administration doesn’t seem to care about its constitutional responsibility to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ by pushing the selective enforcement of immigration laws. And they are thumbing their noses at Congress and the American people by stonewalling information requests and lying to cover up their stealth amnesty scheme. Congress should initiate a full investigation to get to the truth of the matter. The lawlessness must stop.”Hmmmm.......Thugocracy in motion?Read the full story here.

• Obama Stiffs the Dalai Lama Again.(CommentaryMagazine).Yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi greeted the Dalai Lama on Capitol Hill. The reception was entirely appropriate. The Dalai Lama is an important symbol not only of the struggle for political freedom against tyranny but also of the value of non-violent protest. But the Dalai Lama won’t be making a stop at the White House during his current 10-day stay in Washington. President Obama is apparently determined to do nothing to anger China and is refusing to give the Dalai Lama another meeting.It is true Obama has already met with the Tibetan leader in exile once. But unlike the reception the Dalai Lama got during the presidency of George W. Bush, the visit with Obama was low-key, and only one photo of the two men together was permitted. From its earlier days in office, this administration has demonstrated little interest in human rights issues. But its penchant for “realist” policies have done nothing to advance American interests.As Elliot Abrams wrote earlier this week on his blog for the Council on Foreign Relations, Obama is making a big mistake. The Chinese only respect strength and the administration’s determination to appease Beijing will pay no dividends for U.S. policy. The Chinese haven’t helped much on Iran or any other outstanding issue but that hasn’t stopped Obama from behaving in a cowardly manner when it comes to any issue that might discomfit the Communist leadership of the world’s largest tyranny. By taking a pass on another meeting with a truly inspirational world figure, all the president has done is to show once again how small a man he really is.Read the full story here.

• "Birth of a Nation"!Behold the Republic of South Sudan.(GlobeAndMail).Church bells rang at midnight to mark the birth of the world’s newest nation – the Republic of South Sudan. Despite the excitement of the independence celebrations and a mood of joyful expectation in its new capital – the Nile River city of Juba – the emerging country faces grim realities: It is one of the most underdeveloped countries on the planet and has only a 15-per-cent literacy rate. Most citizens live on $1 a day. Education and health facilities are sorely underdeveloped, and fears of renewed conflict abound.Despite independence day festivities, there are fears the conflict could be reignited because troops from the north and south are facing off in the contested oil-rich border region of Abyei. South Sudan produces about 375,000 barrels of oil each day, and although negotiators are still working on the specific formula of how the two Sudans will share the oil, the south stands to make billions from its reserves. In the contested region of Abyei, South Sudan’s oil, for now, still has to flow through the north’s pipelines. One observer noted that the problems South Sudan faces are “bigger and harder than what any other country in Africa faced” when most nations on the continent gained independence from the colonial powers in the 1960s.

Flag

It’s the former emblem of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – black, red and green horizontal stripes, with a gold star in a blue triangle.

President

Salva Kiir Mayardit, 60, a former army officer, who often wears cowboy hats. He is the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the political wing of the rebel army that fought with the north before a peace accord was signed in 2005.

Religion

Mostly Christian (Anglican, Catholic), but many practise traditional African beliefs.

Population

An estimated 8.5 million citizens. At least 80 per cent are illiterate – rising to 92 per cent for women – the majority of civil servants did not finish secondary school and there are estimated to be fewer than 500 trained doctors. More than three million people, nearly 40 per cent of the population, need food aid to survive.

Geography

A landlocked 580,000 square kilometres, roughly equal to France or Texas. Formed from the 10 southern-most states of Sudan, South Sudan is a land of expansive grassland, swamps and tropical rain forest straddling both banks of the White Nile. In contrast, Sudan in the north is mostly desert. Infrastructure is still lacking – with only about 50 kilometres of paved roads. Water remains a luxury in most communities.

Borders

Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan.

Exports

Oil. However, South Sudan has the potential to be among the largest food producers in Africa. The country also has hardwood timber, gold, chromium, iron ore and a host of other minerals.

Currency

Not yet decided. Currently the Sudanese pound.Hmmmm.....Time before the next conflict with the Islamic North......Countdown running.Read the full story here.

• Islam's Scourge Returns, his name is: Zakaria Botros.(Aina).Father Zakaria Botros, also known as Islam’s “Public Enemy #1,” is back.Scourge of Islam; lover of Muslims. From around 2005-2010, this 76 year-old Coptic priest was Islam’s bane. Appearing weekly on Arabic satellite, where he was viewed by an estimated 60 million people worldwide, mostly Muslims, he meticulously exposed any number of theological problems with Islam--all from Islam’s own books--while simultaneously evangelizing from his own book, the Bible.His mission “is to attack Islam, not to attack Muslims but to save them because they are deceived. As I love Muslims, I hate Islam.”And he has been effective: Mass conversions to Christianity, open and clandestine, have resulted. Indeed, years back al-Jazeera aired a segment complaining about Fr. Zakaria’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world; similarly, one Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatani lamented that as many as six million Muslims annually “apostatize” to Christianity. Unsurprisingly, Fr. Zakaria’s exploits caused al-Qaeda to proclaim him “one of the most wanted infidels in the world,” putting a $60 million bounty on his head; undeterred, the priest kept going, his viewers and converts multiplying by the week. Then, in May 2010, after a particularly graphic episode on Muhammad, his shows inexplicably stopped airing. His enemies exulted. Muslim leaders, preachers, and sheikhs appeared on TV, gleefully announcing that Allah had silenced the great enemy of Islam.Yet, over a year after his many foes--external and internal, Muslim and non-Muslim--have managed to stifle him, Fr. Zakaria is back on satellite, now with his own station Fady TV (Redeemer TV), “a channel for those searching for the truth.” Though other Islam-critics and evangelists have appeared on Arabic satellite since, many with a good following, it is clear that people have not forgotten the priest, the original trailblazer of open and honest talk on Islam--the original scourge of Islam.Watching the first episode of his new show, “Knowledge of the Truth,” was like witnessing a reunion between a lost flock and its spiritual shepherd. Viewer after viewer--Christians and Muslims, much more of the latter--called in to express how much they had sorely missed the evangelist, and how happy they were to see him again, some in tears, others in joyous laughter.And while their words were full of sincere and enthusiastic praise--many insisted that he is a living saint, others a modern day St. Paul--it was only when an elderly-sounding woman asserted that everyone must support Fr. Zakaria, not for his sake, but for the sake of his work liberating Muslims from bondage, that the normally stoic Zakaria broke down in tears.Why is Fr. Zakaria so loved--and hated? For starters, as a native Arabic-speaker, he takes his message straight to the heart of the Islamic world; as a man of God, he takes his message straight to the heart of Muslims--something the Western approach cannot achieve.You see, while Western critics are limited to making secular arguments against specific aspects of Islam--for instance, that it is illiberal, intolerant, sexist--he makes spiritual arguments against the very foundations of the religion.This is not to say that Western polemics are not beneficial; they are, in that they awaken Western peoples to the nature of Islam. However, arguing or even proving that Islam falls short of Western/secular standards has little impact on Muslims--except perhaps to make them more tenacious of their faith (the inevitable result of comparing apples and oranges).But an attack on the veracity of the religion itself--an attack articulated through a spiritual as opposed to a secular paradigm--must be confronted by Muslims.In short, Fr. Zakaria’s success rests in the fact that he fights fire with fire; that he speaks the same language Muslims do--not just literally, Arabic, but more importantly, figuratively, the language of religion and faith, the language of God. He cannot simply be ignored.For example, during this, his first episode, he discussed Sheikh Huwaini‘s recent assertions that Islam advocates plundering, enslaving, buying, and selling infidels. Many have written about this anecdote either to show that Islam is intrinsically violent, or that “radical Islamism” is spreading, or that Islamic teachings are incompatible with the West.But Fr. Zakaria takes it a step further--takes it right to the heart of the matter. After asserting that “God created mankind in his image,” he sincerely addressed his Muslim viewers: “Would God truly want you to kill your neighbor, to enslave him? Would the Almighty truly want believers to buy and sell other human beings like animals? Think people! Use your minds, listen to your hearts--for your souls are at stake!”The same reason the secular mindset may find this approach too simplistic or “unsophisticated” is the same reason it is far from comprehending Islam.Still in its early stages of development and financially challenged, Fady TV has yet to reach the Middle East, where the real battle for souls is waged, though the priest is hopeful. The station is set to air entire programs dedicated to examining various topics in depth, including the Koran, the Hadith, Muhammad, and Allah.As I previously did, I plan on following and summarizing Fr. Zakaria’s programs. For more information on this singular priest, read his exclusive 2009 FPM interview, wherein he discussed his life story, including the torments he experienced for preaching to Muslims in Egypt. Also, to get a feel for his very “non-dhimmi” approach, watch his famous “Ten Demands of Islam.”Read the full story here.

• Erdogan 'Israel must apologize and pay 'Diya' a.k.a. blood money to normalize ties'.(Ynet).No apology, no normalization – After delaying the publication of a UN report that probed the events of the Gaza flotilla last May, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan said on Friday it was "unthinkable" to normalize ties with Israel unless the Jewish state apologized for the killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists aboard the Gaza-bound Turkish ship.Erdogan also said in the text of a speech to parliament seen by Reuters that lifting an Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory of Gaza and paying compensation to the victims of the raid were also conditions for the normalization of relations.The Palmer committee was appointed by UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon to investigate the events that led to the death of nine activists onboard the Mavi Marmara.Last week, it was reported that Israel's representative to the UN inquiry committee Yosef Ciechanover, his Turkish counterpart and other officials were shuttling between Jerusalem and Ankara in an attempt to soften the report's conclusions and improve relations between the countries.Hmmmm.....Why in Gods name would Israel even try to soften the Palmer report?Read the full story here.

• Why Muslim Demands for Headscarves Are Exaggerated.(Aina).Islamic attire for women--the burqa and hijab--are back in the news, though with a twist, as they cause problems and lawsuits in America, where they are legal. In France, however, they have been banned, and Muslim women are happily complying.There is an instructive reason for this.In France, where Islamic dress is altogether banned, a new report suggests that Muslim women are happily complying--indeed, more Muslim women are traveling to France than before the ban:

Wealthy Gulf tourists are expected to continue to flock to France this summer in spite of a law that prohibits Muslim women from wearing the burqa, travel agencies said. Travel industry experts had initially feared a decline in Arab tourists after the April ban on full veils but now report no decline in peak-season bookings to France. Hotels.com, the parent company of the online travel website expedia.com, has seen a 219 percent increase in the number of searches for France from its Arabic Middle East site from April 1 to date. Searches for Belgium, which in 2010 passed a bill banning any clothing that would obscure the identity of the wearer, have increased 300 percent the website said.Lest you think these Gulf women are any less pious than their American counterparts, there is a simple reason for why they are complying:

Islam’s doctrine of taysir allows for hiyla, or the relaxation of Islamic law whenever Muslims find it inconvenient to uphold aspects of Sharia law, like when they are under infidel/Western authority. In fact, some of Islam’s top leaders, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for example, are great advocates of taysir, “especially for those Muslim minorities living in Europe and America.”Taysir is like a broader concept of taqiyya, which permits Muslims to lie when circumstances call for it, while taysir only permits Muslims to drop aspects of Sharia law when circumstances call for it.But there is another distinction. The Gulf women traveling to France are tourists who are not nearly as acquainted with the West as their American counterparts. They naturally assume the West is like the Islamic world--actually tenacious about its customs and laws, hardly to be pushed around by minority groups. (This is precisely why Muslims in the West shamelessly push for the Ground Zero mosque — Muslims in the Middle East can’t believe it and think it’s a Zionist conspiracy.)Muslims living in the West, on the other hand, know how easily the West can be pushed into submission, so why settle for the Muslim option of taysir when they can score a victory for Islam--and make some money while at it?Read the full story here.

• Iran's killing spree stifles Arab spring.(Ynet).As the Arab spring flourishes throughout the Middle East, Iran, one of the region's most prominent targets on Amnesty International's watch list seems to be an "island of calm". The reason, according to Iranian human rights groups, international watchdogs and country experts is that Tehran is pursuing a campaign of public intimidation and covert killing to subdue political opposition and quell turbulence caused by the region's revolts while claiming that it is cracking down on drug trafficking and other criminal activity. According to Amnesty International, Iran has admitted executing 190 people between January and the end of June this year; an additional 130 reported executions have gone unacknowledged. These figures put Iran on course for a record year for capital punishment. In 2010, 252 people were executed, according to official figures, with 300 more also believed to have been killed.In a report on Iran's "judicial killing spree" Britain's Guardian newspaper presents testimonies from various human rights organizations that claim to have a truer picture of the human rights situation in Iran. Iran Human Rights, an independent monitoring organization alleged that 25 people were hanged in one day, July 3, in Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, west of Tehran. The hangings, supposedly all drug-related, were not reported by official media. The same report said another seven people were hanged the same day in Evin prison in Tehran. It alluded to further uncorroborated mass executions in prisons in Khorasan province in 2010.The number of public hangings is also on the increase. Since the start of 2011, up to 13 men have been executed in public, eight of them since 16 April, an Amnesty report this year stated.Iran meanwhile reportedly defied international law to become one of the only countries to execute two juvenile offenders on 20 April. Overall, Iran's execution "average" is running at almost two people per day in 2011, making the regime the world's number two executioner after China.Decrying Iran's execution "binge", Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador and president of the United Against Nuclear Iran action group, said Tehran must be forced to stop. In an article for the Los Angeles Times he said "the international community needs to call for an end to this kind of barbarism and highlight more broadly the deteriorating human rights situation"."It is no coincidence that Iran's increased staging of public executions came at the same time protest movements were gaining steam through the Middle East. What better way to keep Iranians from having 'dangerous ideas' like those of their neighbors? "And it should come as little surprise that Iran is now aiding other governments in the region, notably Syria, in their efforts to suppress domestic uprisings." This latter claim was recently corroborated by the US treasury department.Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel peace prizewinner, joined human rights organizations in February this year in appealing to Iran to impose a moratorium on executions – but after a brief pause following a spate of adverse international publicity; the pace of judicial killings has accelerated again. "The Iranian authorities have shown that they are no longer content to repress those contesting the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by arresting and convicting them – they have shown they will now resort to execution. Hmmmmm.......Obama doesn't want to be seen meddling in iran's politics.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 138.Source : Here .

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

• Biden to Union Members: If You Vote Republican, Don't Ask Me For Any Help.(Fox).Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged it wasn't a political event, but it still didn't prevent him from sending this warning to Teamsters union members during his address at their annual convention in Las Vegas this past Friday."And don't any of you, by the way, any of you guys vote Republican," Biden said. "I'm not supposed to say, this isn't political. ...don't come to me if you do! You're on your own, Jack!"Biden provided the closing address at the 28th Annual International Brotherhood of Teamsters Convention at the Paris Hotel on Friday. The Vice President, who is known for his straightforward style, didn't hide his feelings about the current labor union fights across the country. He believes they are under attack by his Republican rivals for no apparent reason."Look at Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Florida, Pennsylvania. Did you ever think in 2011 you would be fighting for the right to work for less again?," said Biden. "What in God's name did any organized labor union do to the collapse of this economy? ... [I]t's bizarre, but that's the case they're making."Republican governors in several states have sought to curb Union power in an effort to balance their state's budgets.Biden also jokingly took a jab at the GOP, suggesting they change their logo."Jimmy," said Biden, referring to Teamsters Union president James R. Hoffa, "your (the Teamsters Union) logo is the horse's head. Their (GOP) logo should be the other horse's end."Hmmmm.........Still beats a "Swastika" and it might feed you.Read the full story here.

• Who Is The Real 'Reich Wing'?(DougRoss).A favorite pejorative used by the progressive left is 'Reich Wing', designed to tar conservatives as Nazi-like extremists. Notwithstanding its nature as a premature violation of Godwin's Law, the term implies a certain set of characteristics presumably endemic to conservatives.But let's examine those attributes to see if they have merit.

On the Constitution

While conservatives advocate for fidelity and loyalty to the nation's highest law -- the United States Constitution -- the progressive left tries to evade it. The term they use is "living and breathing", which simply means that the left can morph the law into whatever shape it wishes.

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan outlined the progressive's perspective in a 1993 tribute to Justice Thurgood Marshall. She quoted from a 1987 speech Marshall in which he said the Constitution as originally conceived and drafted was "defective" and that the mission of the Supreme Courtwas to “show a special solicitude for the despised and the disadvantaged.”

In other words, the Constitution could be "adjusted" to benefit certain parties at the expense of others -- certainly a far cry from the image of justice as a blindfolded seer weighing the merits of two arguments.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler subverted Germany's Weimar Constitution using subterfuge and pretext to eradicate civil rights.

Less than a month after Adolf Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in 1933, the Reichstag Fire Decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, suspending several constitutional protections on civil rights. The articles affected were 114 (habeas corpus), 115 (inviolability of residence), 117 (correspondence privacy), 118 (freedom of expression /censorship), 123 (assembly), 124 (associations), and 153 (expropriation).

On Free Speech

Conservatives believe in free political speech, in each and every situation. But that is not the case with today's leftists.

Put together the left's advocacy of "the Fairness Doctrine", its insistence on "Community Standards" for media, its hatred of the "Citizens United" decision, its efforts to "sabotage" certain news outlets, and one can come to no other conclusion but that it appears terrified of free speech.

No less an eminence grise than then-SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan asserted that the United States government can ban political books and movies if necessary.

Elena Kagan argued on behalf of Citizens United essentially stating it would not be a violation of the First Amendment to have movies or even books banned. Of course, she only meant certain movies/books for specific times, but even so, I believe the point remains... all tyrants find a pretext for their tyranny. That tyranny may even begin with a humble, caring act, but one day we awake to find we have lost all freedom.

In Nazi Germany, officials banned at least 4,100 different publications. Censorship of media was a regular occurrence and all political messaging emanated from government bureaucrats.

On Intimidation by Uniformed Civilian Forces

Tea Party protests by conservative activists were uniformly civil and represented a true "rainbow coalition" of people with every background, race, religion, and culture.
In Wisconsin and other states, the Left used uniformed civilian enforcers -- including purple-clad SEIU thugs -- to threaten, intimidate and coerce lawmakers and taxpayers.In Nazi Germany, the term Sturmabteilung (also known as 'Brown-shirts') was used to describe a para-military force deployed by Hitler prior to 1934. They were employed as street thugs and enforcers to attack the Nazis' political rivals in order to secure more power for Hitler's ring of leaders.

Leader Cult

From chants of 'Yes We Can' to a curious iconography that lives on even today, the rise of Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign was orchestrated using a marketing approach that could be considered the construction of a "cult of personality."Obama was deified in the mainstream press, highlighted in scores of photos using a "halo effect", and lobbed softball questions during television appearances that seemed more like infomercials than serious journalistic affairs.

Such was the case with the rise of the Third Reich. Hitler's power "transcended his official title, reaching into the depths of Germans and German society [and] Hitler became a seemingly flawless revolutionary figure for the German people [and he took] specific measures [designed] to promote the view of himself as larger than life."

Who Is The Real 'Reich Wing'?

Who abuses the Constitution for crass partisan purposes? Who despises free speech and attempts to censor legitimate public opinion? Who rallies around a figure portrayed as some sort of messianic savior? Who uses uniformed thugs to intimidate lawmakers and taxpayers?

We all know who the "Reich Wing" is: it is today's far left Democrats that are now so radicalized even Communists are surprised.Hmmmmm.........National Socialist German Workers' Party( Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei),abbreviated NSDAP..a.k.a. NAZI.Read the full story here.

• HHS/Obamacare Prepares to Collect LGBT Health Data: race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status.(hhs).HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced new draft standards for collecting and reporting data on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status, and announced the administration’s plans to begin collecting health data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. Both efforts aim to help researchers, policy makers, health providers and advocates to identify and address health disparities afflicting these communities.Under the plan announced today, HHS will integrate questions on sexual orientation into national data collection efforts by 2013 and begin a process to collect information on gender identity. This plan includes the testing of questions on sexual orientation to potentially be incorporated into the National Health Interview Survey. The department also intends to convene a series of research roundtables with national experts to determine the best way to help the department collect data specific to gender identity. “The first step is to make sure we are asking the right questions,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Sound data collection takes careful planning to ensure that accurate and actionable data is being recorded.”The proposed standards for collection and reporting of data on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status in population health surveys are intended to help federal agencies refine their population health surveys in ways that will help researchers better understand health disparities and zero in on effective strategies for eliminating them.The race and ethnicity standards, for example, will provide additional categories from which racial and ethnic differences in health care and outcomes can be examined in more detail, particularly among Asian, Hispanic/Latino and Pacific Islander populations. The disability standards would consist of six items that are already being used successfully in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. It is intended to improve researchers’ ability to monitor health disparities.“These new data standards, once finalized, will help us target our research and tailor stronger solutions for underserved and minority communities,” added HHS Director of the Office of Minority Health, Dr. Garth Graham. “To fully understand and meet the needs of our communities, we must first thoroughly understand who we are serving.”Read the full story here.

• Obama's Amnesty for Illegals Sidesteps the Law Again.(HumanEvents).The only announced Democrat candidate for President has repeatedly called for complete immigration reform while consistently failing to enforce the federal immigration laws on the books now.Large majorities of Americans in repeated polls want border security first, jobs for Americans first and "path to citizenship" last. Obama wants amnesty first to get the undocumented Democrats to the polls in 2012, has bullied Republican employers with workplace raids to get their support for amnesty, and will never secure the border any more than his immediate predecessor did.

Senators Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) and Bob Menendez (D.-N.J.) have introduced in Congress Obama's "comprehensive immigration reform," and Durbin introduces his Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act legislation every year, but the only ones dreaming are those two.

Because the public opposes these Obama priorities, Congress won't pass his amnesty agenda. In fact, Congress wants to pass mandatory E-Verify for employers to check whether job applicants are legally in the country. Obama opposes it.Not to worry, big employers looking for cheap, exploitable, illegal labor. Not to worry, Democratic Party desperately looking for a way to win in 2012. Obama has simply dictated the amnesty. Mission accomplished. On to wiping out corporate jets. How did amnesty for illegals happen?Failing to get support for Obama's legislative agenda in Congress, La Raza and other open-border advocate groups have long pressured Obama to issue an Executive Order to implement the DREAM Act (placing illegals ahead of citizen students in college), and the "path to citizenship" (illegals get an immediate green card while learning English and paying back taxes at their leisure). Obama publicly refused to do so, proclaiming, "That's not how democracy works."But this is how dictatorship works. An "Executive Order is not even necessary. On June 17, 2011, Obama's Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton issued new guidelines to ICE agents, basically calling off deportation prosecutions of other than criminal aliens.  In school? Don't worry. No deportation even if caught. (DREAM Act accomplished.) Longtime illegal resident? Don't worry. No deportation. (Amnesty accomplished). Got an illegal job? Don't worry. No deportation.

Well, they've done it again. This time, congressional investigators have a draft memo from Homeland Security that describes the goal as to "reduce the threat of removal" for illegals and calls it "a nonlegislative version of amnesty."How much more clear does dictatorship have to be?Through nonenforcement of the law (Defense of Marriage Act, immigration), through regulation without authorization by Congress (EPA, NLRB, FCC), and now through "prosecutorial discretion," Obama does not govern, he rules.Hmmmmm........Dictatorship or Democracy.Read the full story here.

• Why is the Obama administration defying federal law by funding ACORN?(BigGovernment).Judicial Watch discovered that the president is flouting the will of Congress by surreptitiously giving federal taxpayer money to ACORN, his former employer and legal client. This is the first such grant to surface this year but more are certain to follow.Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave a $79,819 grant to a Florida office of the largest branch of the ACORN tree, the massive conglomerate known as ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC). AHC filed papers last year legally changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA). Despite the nifty new moniker, it’s the same old corrupt, antisocial organization.As I wrote in my new book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN Housing grew out of crime: trespassing. It emerged from a 1982 squatting campaign in which ACORN built a squatters’ tent city behind the White House. Rampaging ACORN activists break in and illegally occupy property already owned by others – and your tax dollars subsidize this criminal activity.The secretary of HUD is Shaun Donovan. Donovan and ACORN are tight. (Donovan and ACORN’s then-chief organizer Bertha Lewis are seen in the above screen grab from footage shot for the documentary film Battle for Brooklyn.)“Perhaps no administration official has had more interaction with ACORN than” Donovan, the New York Times has reported. Reinforcing the newspaper’s point, ACORN’s Bertha Lewis praised the HUD secretary. “We grew to respect him, and he grew to respect us,” she said.Roll Call said Lewis admitted “ACORN has friends in high places for the first time in a long time.” She acknowledged “that she has particularly good relationships with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and with Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director.”Donovan’s close ties to ACORN might help to explain why the cabinet member went into overdrive two years ago publicly distancing himself from the group. That’s around the time Big Government began promoting the undercover brothels-for-pedophiles videos that showed ACORN employees giving two conservative activists helpful advice on how to break the law without getting caught.No doubt Donovan was personally involved in making sure ACORN landed this new grant.Moving along, it needs to be said that the $79,819 HUD grant that has gone to ACORN funds a political agitation and indoctrination program. Saul Alinsky himself couldn’t have devised better euphemisms than the ones HUD uses to describe the program:

Education and Outreach Initiative grants (EOI) – HUD awarded $6.8 million to organizations that educate the public and housing providers about their rights and obligations under federal, state, and local fair housing laws. Groups will also conduct fair lending workshops, community meetings, and individual counseling activities focused on homeowners at risk for discrimination.According to HUD, the grant money came out of fiscal 2010 appropriations.That’s a big problem.As I reported previously, in 2009 Congress passed four separate appropriations measures that contained language blocking federal funds from flowing to ACORN during federal fiscal year 2010, which ran from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010. All four of the laws prevent ACORN and its affiliated groups from receiving federal taxpayer dollars.The funding prohibition in Public Law 111-117 (PDF) applies specifically to HUD. It spells out in pretty clear terms that ACORN shouldn’t be getting any government funding. Let’s see just how clearly it spells it out: Division A – Section 418. None of the funds made available under this Act or any prior Act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations. [p. 80 of PDF]

Division B – Section 534. None of the funds made available under this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries. [p. 125 of PDF]

Division E – Section 511. None of the funds made available in this division or any other division in this Act may be distributed to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) or its subsidiaries. [p. 279 of PDF]

Yet despite the ban, President Obama, who worked for ACORN as an employee and as the group’s lawyer, found it in his heart to hand over $79,819 of your money to his thug friends at ACORN.

America needs to know that ACORN is restructuring in time to help re-elect President Obama in 2012. Obama used to work for ACORN and represented the group in court as its lawyer. These radical leftists who use the brutal, in-your-face, Machiavellian pressure tactics of Saul Alinsky want to destroy America as we know it and will use any means to do it.Hmmmmm......THUGOCRACY in motion.Read the full story here.

• Report: Iran smuggled weapons to Iraq, Afghanistan.(Ynet).The Iranian military smuggled new deadly munitions to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months in order to accelerate the US withdrawals from these countries, The Wall Street Journal reported.Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has supplied its allies with rocket-assisted projectiles, which have already killed American troops.The officials said Iranians had also given long-range rockets to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increasing the insurgents' ability to hit US and other coalition positions from a safer distance, the report said. "I think we are likely to see these Iranian-backed groups continue to maintain high attack levels," Major General James Buchanan, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, told The Journal. "But they are not going to deter us from doing everything we can to help the Iraqi security forces." Violence killed more Iraqis last month than at any time since September, figures showed on Friday after the US reported deaths that also made June the deadliest month for its troops in Iraq for three years.The Baghdad government blames al-Qaeda for most of the 271 deaths of its citizens last month, while the US military accuses Iranian-backed Shiite insurgent groups for the attacks that killed 14 Americans. Data compiled by the health, interior and defence ministries showed that 155 civilians, 77 policemen and 39 soldiers died in attacks last month, 34 percent more than the 177 killed in May.The majority of American troops killed in June died in rocket attacks against military bases, or by roadside bombs that targeted their convoys. Last month's toll was the highest since June 2008, when 23 American soldiers were killed, at a time when US forces were directly involved in fighting insurgents.Hmmmmm......All applaud the 'military genius'.Read the full story here.

• Obama's 'partners': El-Erian to Masrawi: The Brotherhood Would Oppose the Army if It Adopts the Notion of ''Constitution First''.(IW).In a challenging clear tone, the vice president of the FJP emphasized the impossibility of changing the path set by the constitutional declaration regarding holding the parliamentary elections in September this year, then the election of a Constituent Assembly to develop the new constitution. He said: “The country has a straight line to abide by and a clear road map to follow, but there are those who want to obstruct the progress that would go according to this line. The road ahead is going to be a proclamation of a Constitution that is based on a process that gives it official legitimacy of sovereignty. There is nothing that can stop that path; neither a hundred million signatures or demonstrations, nor any effort to cancel the result of the referendum. What is approved can only be abolished by a new referendum, which is kind of impossible, because this would mean returning to square one.” He added: “Among the slogans of the revolution was that “the army and the people are one hand”, and we (the Muslim Brotherhood) criticized the military a lot and are still doing so, and we will tell the army - if it violates the Road Map set out by the Constitutional Declaration - that we bid to differ and we clearly say "no" to any such attempt. If the army adopts the notion of “Constitution First”, we will be the first to stand against that." El-Erian said that the essence of the referendum is the constitutional declaration, despite some changes in the articles that were approved in the national referendum. El-Erian also said that the only way is to have an agreement among the various political forces and parties to avoid any differences, adding that the ''features of the final status of the document that would be governing the actions of those forces in the next elections should be defined'', together with discussing all proposals and security concerns as well as economic development matters. Regarding proposals to have some constitutional articles, and the debate on the civil state and state identity, Dr. Essam El-Erian said that the people should be the authors of the Constitution, calling for everyone to sit at one table to say what they want. He said that the Muslim Brotherhood says that all parties and factions should sit at one table and reach a consensus, then throw that to the people and see how the people will decide about these proposals. El-Erian said he believes that there is no dispute that the State should be for all Egyptians, with a democratic political system and the Islamic Sharia as the reference. He said: "Those who opposed Islamic law before the referendum have now returned and agreed to the principles of Islamic law - and these principles are to ensure and guarantee the rights of all Egyptians. This very same idea has been expressed by Pope Shenouda himself, as he said that Islamic Sharia gives him what he wants regarding the personal status (i.e. marital) law."Regarding adding a paragraph to the second article of the Constitution that allows for non-Muslims to resort to their own rituals and laws in family matters, Dr. Essam El-Erian said: "The party that is allowed to add new clauses, phrases or paragraphs to the constitution is the people, and thus, the Constituent Assembly is the entity that would decide on all such issues." He also pointed out his opinion that there is no harm in adding such phrase or statement in the event of it being approved."In response to the inquiry about the position of the Muslim Brotherhood regarding having a woman or a Copt assuming the post of the presidency of the republic, El-Erian said that "no one has the right to withdraw the right of any Egyptian citizen – man or woman – from exercising his/her rights, even if this was not stated in the Constitution". El-Erian also said that the FJP sees that there are two ways to handle the issue of exporting Egyptian gas to Israel, which he described as a crime committed by the former regime against all Egyptians. The first way out is "procedural"; i.e. re-consideration and revision of these agreements and the global gas prices and comparing this with the present deal made with Israel, and thus, we should study the consequences of stopping exporting gas in case the contract is cancelled. The second would be to treat it realistically said El-Erian, which would be stopping exporting the gas through shutting down the pipeline. He said that this solution is easier, and such solutions are employed by states at certain times. He said that this is a kind of interruptive measure that takes the form of a combat maneuver.The vice-president of the FJP said that he believes the will of the people should decide on the peace agreement signed with Israel; so if the people decide to reject it, we must respect their will. He said that the Camp David Treaty is between the two parties, and all treaties are subject to review.El-Erian was challenged with the idea that it is known that the Muslim Brotherhood raised the slogan "Islam Is the Solution" in any electoral process, and still, the FJP did not confirm or categorically deny that it would use the same slogan in the upcoming parliamentary elections. When he was asked about this issue, El-Erian said: "'Islam Is the Solution' was a slogan used in the era of challenging the former regime and proving the identity of the group.At the end of his interview with Masrawi, Dr. Essam El-Erian sent a message to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, and said: "I address a message to Dr. ElBaradei here, telling him that we are waiting for your congratulations to us – which is highly overdue now – for the establishment of the FJP."Hmmmmm........"Islam is the solution".......What was the question again?Read the full story here.

• Egypt - FJP Demands Swift Investigations Into Friday's Tahrir Square Violence.(IW).Alexandria’s Freedom and Justice Party FJP) Secretary Hussein Ibrahim condemned the violence in Tahrir Square earlier this week which took place between families of the martyrs and security forces. The clashes, which left over 1000 people injured, occurred few hours after a court ruling to dismantle municipal councils nationwide. Ibrahim stressed that the party rejects both the violence by the police against citizens, and rioting by citizens. He stated that these clashes benefit nobody and in fact hinder the revolution’s success and the development of the nation.He urged the ruling authorities and Sharaf’s government to take immediate action against those who advocated such violence and to take measures to stem further sedition.Hussein appealed to the people not to be misled and deceived by what he described as plans by remnants of the regime to undermine the revolution’s success. He asserted that unity and solidarity are significant to achieve stability at these critical time of the nation's history.Hmmmm.......Welcome to Egypt .....Iranian style.Read the full story here.

• Erdogan's Turkey : Imprisoning Turkish Generals — and Ending Secularism,but who's commanding now?by Andrew Bostom.Turkey continues its regression to full re-Islamization—a process already begun within a decade of Ataturk’s death in 1938—and about to be fully realized under the fundamentalist Erdogan regime.Shredding the Turkish Constitution, which institutionalized Turkey’s harshly imposed secularism by assigning the military as “protectors of the secular order,” there are now more generals that have been imprisoned for purported “coup attempts” against Erdogan’s fundamentalist rule than are in active service for the military.The total of 34 officers being held at the military prison in Hasdal, explained the daily, was reached following the arrest of rear admiral Mucahit Sislioglu…Hmmmm........US ambassador Ricciardone says Turkey’s democracy an inspiration for the Middle East.Read the full story here.

• The poorer you are, "the less you will have to account for in this life and the next".Saudi Arabia's clerics challenge King Abdullah's reform agenda.(Guardian).On a Friday at one o'clock, Sheikh Saad Bin Naser al-Shethri is leading prayers in a small mosque in an upmarket neighbourhood of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The faithful fill two floors, listening to the cleric's sermon on the true sense of the traditional greeting "salaam aleikum" – peace be upon you. This, Shethri says, means love thy neighbour.It is a moderate message from a man who even in fiercely conservative Saudi Arabia, home to the most rigorous strands of Muslim practice in the world, is considered a hardliner. Only 18 months ago, Shethri, 46, was fired from the country's high council of religious scholars by King Abdullah, who has ruled the kingdom since 2005.His offence was to have criticised the king's decision to allow male and female researchers to work together at the new multibillion pound science university built on the Red Sea coast. The king had called the university, a key part of Saudi Arabia's drive towards economic modernisation, a "beacon of tolerance". Shethri retorted that "mixing [genders] is a great sin and a great evil ... When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal [of] education."Shethri remains unrepentant. In an interview with the Guardian, his first with a western newspaper, he says the duty of religious scholars is to advise sovereign rulers but also "to make governors fear God if they err from the right path and to remind them of God's punishment if they continue to err".More than 10,000 people have been arrested on terrorism charges, sometimes on flimsy evidence, human rights campaigners say. Many senior extremists have fled to Yemen. Last week, the trial of alleged militants accused of an assault on a housing compound full of expatriates in 2003 started. Dozens of death sentences are expected.Less serious offenders are dealt with more leniently. Hadlaq runs a team of counsellors, psychologists and clerics who work to rehabilitate former militants at a centre on the outskirts of Riyadh. Since it opened in 2007, hundreds of recently released prisoners, all convicted for militant activity, have "graduated".Recidivism rates, Hadlaq said, were around 10% for those involved in support activities or who had travelled to Iraq to fight American troops there but approached 25% for the 123 Saudi citizens who had been incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay.Many of these "Gitmo veterans" now head the Ministry of Interior's wanted list, according to General Mansour al'Turki, a senior official. Several are now leaders of the "al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula" group, based in Yemen.Last week, Prince Nayef, the most conservative of senior princes and minister of interior, told a local audience that terrorism had "wronged many, damaging the image of Islam, the Arabs and in particular the kingdom of Saudi Arabia."Nayef is head of the religious police who continue to enforce, even if less brutally and intrusively than previously, Saudi Arabia's fierce puritanism and is known to be opposed to any major social reforms in the country.The erosion of Saudi Arabia's deep conservatism is a reality but is neither a uniform nor linear process. It is extremely unlikely even the more moderate elements within the royal family will seek to accelerate the pace of reform and risk alienating the clerical establishment. Should Prince Nayef succeed – he is currently 76, second in line to the throne and eleven years younger than the king – most analysts expect a new reactionary atmosphere.Many Saudis will be pleased."You have democracy. We have our religion," said Abdallah al'Utaiba, 32, a camel dealer who listened to the news of the Arab spring uprisings on a radio in a tent in the dusty hinterland on the fringes of Riyadh. "You have lost your traditions. We have not. It is better that it stays that way."Hmmmmmm..........Read the full story here.

• Will France drop more weapons for the Lybian rebels?(Al-Jazeera).In a telephonic message delivered to thousands of supporters, Libyan leader tells NATO to leave or "face catastrophe".Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has delivered a telephone address through loudspeakers to thousands of supporters gathered in Tripoli's Green Square, warning the NATO-led alliance to stop its war support or face "catastrophe".In the Friday speech, 100 days after NATO first entered the country, Gaddafi gave multiple warnings to foreign forces that have been militarily supporting anti-regime rebels for months, to a crowd of supporters who waved green flags and posters of the head of state."We advise you to retreat before you face a catastrophe... If we decide to, we are able to move to Europe like locusts, like bees," Gaddafi said.Addressing the West, Gaddafi warned that Libyans could take revenge on Europe for supporting of rebel forces."We can decide to treat you [Europe] in a similar way," adding, "if we decide, we can also move it [the war] to Europe, to target your homes, offices, families, which would become legitimate military targets, like you have targeted our homes.""I advise you to ground your planes... and to hold discussions with the Libyan people," Gaddafi said, denouncing an arrest warrant against him issued on Monday by the International Criminal Court [ICC].In his speech, the embattled Libyan leader addressed the thronging crowd of supporters, giving them specific direction surrounding a French weapon drop earlier in the week."March on the jebel [Nafusa] and seize the weapons that the French have supplied [to rebel forces]. If later you want to pardon them [the rebels], that's up to you."Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said in Vienna on Friday that this week's arms drop was meant only to defend peaceful civilians from Gaddafi's forces and thus fell in line with existing UN resolutions on the conflict."Civilians had been attacked by Gaddafi's forces and were in an extremely vulnerable situation and that is why medicine, food and also weapons of self-defence were parachuted," Juppe said, speaking on France Inter radio.Friday's was one of the largest pro-government rallies in recent weeks, coming just days after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi and two others.Earlier in the day, anti-government forces who had advanced to within 80km of Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital were forced to retreat after coming under a barrage of rocket fire from government forces.A rebel advance five days before to the outskirts of the small town of Bir al-Ghanam had raised the possibility of a breakthrough in the four-month old conflict that has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.Rebel fighters who had been on the outskirts of the small town of Bir al-Ghanam and preparing for an attack were forced to pull back under fire from Russian-made Grad rockets, said a Reuters photographer in Bir-Ayyad, 30km to the south.He said the rocket barrage was now reaching as far back as Bir-Ayyad, a road junction in the foothills of the Western Mountain range southwest of Tripoli from where the rebels had launched their advance last week.The reversal underlines the resilience of Gaddafi's forces, who have withstood 15 weeks of bombardment by NATO missiles and warplanes, and attempts by rebels on three fronts to break through their lines.Meanwhile, the African Union [AU] on Friday said it will not execute an ICC arrest warrant issued for the Libyan leader.African leaders at the AU summit in Equatorial Guinea said the warrant issued last week "seriously complicates" efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Libyan conflict.The warrant "seriously complicates the efforts aimed at finding a negotiated political settlement to the crisis in Libya, which will also address, in a mutually reinforcing way, issues related to impunity and reconciliation," it said.An assembly of the summit decided that "AU member states shall not cooperate in the execution of the arrest warrant," according to a text of the decisions.Hmmmmm.........."No Boots On The Ground"?Warning Video contains violant images,read and see the full story here.

• Christian Iranian man facing execution.(Persian2English).Based on the latest unconfirmed reports, the Iranian Supreme Court may have overturned the death sentence for Yousef Nadarkhani.According to reports received from Nadarkhani’s relatives, which HRANA has been unable to independently confirm, the Supreme Court has expressed its opinion by offering three options:

1. The case be returned to the same preliminary court for retrial.
2. The case be referred to a court on the same level as preliminary court with new charges laid, and old charges thrown out.
3. The case and the charges be dismissed.

This ruling has not yet been issued to Nadarkhani’s lawyers. The lawyers are unable to confirm this ruling. The source of the report is an oral report received by the defendant and his family.Nadarkhani’s relatives have told HRANA that branch 11 of the Gilan Judiciary has asked the defendant to be interrogated on his Islamic beliefs and one of the three following decisions be made:

1. If he is a Muslim, he would be released.
2. If he is a Christian convert, he is asked to repent [and then would be released].
3. If he is a Christian convert, and insists on his Christian beliefs, he would be executed.

Branch 11 has based its approach on section 167 of the Islamic Republic constitution that states: “The judge is bound to make a decision on each case based on the codified law. In the case of the absence of any such law, he has to deliver his judgement on the basis of authoritative Islamic sources and authentic Fatwa [religious decrees]. He, on the pretext of the silence of or deficiency of law in the matter, or its brevity or contradictory nature, cannot refrain from admitting and examining cases and delivering his judgement.” The relatives of Mr. Nadrkhani say that based on the fact that out of the three options given by the Supreme Court, the case has not been sent to another court, nor has it been dismissed. It is probable that the case will be retried all over again, and preliminary investigation and interrogation be launched.Given the sensitivity of the case, HRANA will try its best to report on the developments as accurately as possible. - Iranian Supreme Court upholds death sentence of man on charge of “apostasy” June 30, 2011.On June 28th, the Supreme Court of Iran rejected the appeal of Yousef Nadarkhani against his death sentence and upheld his conviction and the sentence.According to HRANA, Yousef Nadarkhani is accused of abandoning Islam and converting to Christianity at the age of 19. According to judicial authorities, he has been preaching and propagating Christianity since his conversion.He was sentenced to death by branch 11 of the Gilan (province in Iran) Judiciary for “apostasy and preaching Christianity” to his Muslim compatriots.Yousef Nadarkhani has been imprisoned since October 12, 2009.If the execution is conducted, it will be the first execution of such a [charge] in 20 years. The last [person executed on a similar charge] was Hossein Soudmand. he was hanged in a prison in Mashhad (capital city of the Khorasan province) on December 3, 1990 for insisting on his Christian beliefs. Hossein Soudmand is the only priest/preacher who has been officially executed by Iranian authorities for refusing to deny his Christian beliefs.Translator’s note: Yousef Nadarkhani is also mentioned on page 7 of a 2011 Amnesty International report on Iran.Hmmmmmm........."The Religion Of Peace".Read the full story here.

• Jewish Orthodox chief Rabbi claims that anti-discrimination policies had fuelled an “erosion of religious liberty" in Britain.(Telegraph).New equality laws are forcing religious people to flee the country because they are being denied the freedom to live in accordance with their beliefs, the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, has warned. The Orthodox Jewish leader claimed that anti-discrimination policies had fuelled an “erosion of religious liberty" in Britain that was leading to a new “Mayflower”, a reference to the flight of the persecuted Pilgrim Fathers to America in the 17th century.His comments follow growing alarm from leading religious figures over the increasing influence of equality laws. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has called on the Prime Minister to review equality legislation amid concerns that religious freedoms and Britain’s Christian heritage are under threat.Speaking to the House of Commons public administration select committee, Lord Sacks said there was "no doubt'' numbers of religious believers in Britain were "extraordinarily'' low.He continued: “I share a real concern that the attempt to impose the current prevailing template of equality and discrimination on religious organisations is an erosion of religious liberty.“We are beginning to move back to where we came in in the 17th century - a whole lot of people on the Mayflower leaving to find religious freedom elsewhere.”The Pilgrim Fathers sailed on the Mayflower from Plymouth to America in 1620 to escape religious intolerance in England.Charles Wookey, the assistant general secretary of the Catholic bishops conference of England and Wales, told the MPs that religious organisations were struggling with “rapid social change”. This meant they were forced to alter practices that had been in place for many years, he said.Recent months have seen a series of clashes of rights reach the courts as a result of equality legislation which was introduced under Labour and designed to prevent discrimination on the grounds of religion or sexuality.Roman Catholic adoption agencies have closed because they cannot reconcile the requirements under the new laws with their belief that children should not be placed with gay couples.“These days, you can lose your job if you have 'incorrect' views. At the Christian Legal Centre we have 50 cases and have seen a number of Christians sacked or disciplined because of their beliefs.“We were a nation admired the world over. Now people look at us in astonishment unable to believe that we have let such heritage slip so quickly and dramatically.”Hmmmm.............Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Secret Treasure Found in India's Kerala Temple Could Be Worth $10 Billion .(TheGatewayPundit).Researchers discovered a treasure of gold inside a hidden vault in one of Kerala’s oldest temples.The treasure at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram may exceed over Rs 50,000 crore or $10 billion.Thiruvananthapuram: One of Kerala’s oldest temples may soon turn out to be one of the India’s richest. A seven-member Supreme Court-appointed team is at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram taking stock at the shrine.The chambers near the temple’s sanctum sanctorum are believed to contain priceless gold and silver ornaments. The chambers had been kept shut for the last 130 years but were finally opened on June 27 following a Supreme Court order.One of the chambers believed to have remained shut for nearly a century revealed precious jewels, stones, ornaments and metal lamps of rare heritage and antique values when it was opened and examined on Thursday.The inner recess of this chamber was believed to have previously been opened during the reign of Travancore ruler Sree Visakham Tirunal about 130 years back. The opening of the first four chambers showed that three of them housed gold ornaments, vessels, jewels and precious stones worth hundreds of crores of rupees. It also had gold chains, diamond-studded bracelets, a crown and a golden bow. The temple, built in 18th century by King Marthanda Varma of the Travancore royal lineage, is run by a trust under control of the royal house and Lord Padmanabha is the family deity of Travancore Royal house.The Supreme Court appointed committee consists of two former Kerala High Court judges. The actual worth of the treasure will only be revealed in a report to the Supreme Court.Read and see the full story here.