Arizona inferno: 19 firefighters killed, town evacuated, 500 homes destroyed.

Arizona inferno: 19 firefighters killed, town evacuated, 500 homes destroyed.HT: RussiaToday.

An estimated 500 homes have been destroyed by the ongoing fire that is currently covering more than 2,000 acres. Wickenburg Community Hospital is treating at least eight firefighters who were among 22 injured in the line of duty.

"It has been confirmed that 19 wildland firefighters have lost their lives on the Yarnell Hill fire Arizona," the US Wildland Fire Aviation said in a statement, Reuters reports.

TRUE HEROES! PHOTO FROM THE 19 PRESCOTT FIREFIGHTERS IN BETTER DAYS. 'THOUGHTS & PRAYERS TO THEIR FAMILIES'. DCOURIER http://t.co/pcMw5mvpEa
— 911 Operator (@911BUFF) July 1, 2013

Arizona State Forestry Division spokesman, Mike Reichling, said the fire is quickly reaching “Type 1” status. It is estimated that two hundred firefighters are now battling the flames. Federal authorities are expected to arrive with additional force to help tackle the disaster. Reichling expects manpower to reach about 400 people and involve numerous water carrying aircrafts

About 250 firefighters, including two Type 2 crews, three Type 1 crews, and four engines, were on the scene, Reichling said. Three Type 1 crews, seven helicopters, two air tankers, four single engine air tankers, and multiple engines and air tankers were ordered. 

Earlier Sunday, 50 homes in the Buckhorn, Model Creek and Double A Bar Ranch areas some 85 miles from Phoenix were ordered to evacuate. By afternoon the evacuation order  included residents in the Peeples Valley area and in the town of Yarnell.

The natural disaster also shut down state Route 89, the Arizona Department of Transportation announced.

The Red Cross has opened a shelter at Yavapai College in Prescott, the sheriff's office said.

The blaze erupted first on Friday but rapidly spread on Sunday as the area was hit by unfavorable weather conditions.

Update:
YARNELL, Ariz. — Gusty hot winds blew an Arizona wildfire out of control on Sunday, overtaking and killing 19 elite firefighters in the deadliest wildfire involving firefighters in the U.S. for at least 30 years.

The specially trained "hotshot" firefighters were forced to deploy their fire shelters — tent-like structures meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat — when they were caught near the central Arizona town of Yarnell, state forestry spokesman Art Morrison told The Associated Press. 

Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo also said that 19 firefighters had been killed by the fire. "The entire hot shot crew had been killed by the fire," he said. He said that the firefighters had to deploy the emergency shelters when "something drastic happened." The crew killed in the blaze had worked other wildfires in recent weeks in New Mexico and Arizona. The unit was established in 2002.
Hmmmm........

Forest Fires an Act of Jihad- Fresh From ‘Inspire’, Al-Qaeda’s English Language Online Magazine.

This is not a land management issue. It is a national security issue. As is securing the border and more vigilant monitoring of suspicious, profiled individuals. Yes, I said it profiled individuals -not every living, breathing American citizen.

Video - Mark Levin interviews Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

HT: BarracudaBrigade.

Gov. Jan Brewer: " President Obama is not above judgment – and the American people will have theirs very soon."

Gov. Jan Brewer: " President Obama is not above judgment – and the American people will have theirs very soon."(CNSNews).Hours after the Supreme Court upheld a key provision of Arizona's immigration law, President Obama "demonstrated anew his utter disregard for the safety and security of the Arizona people," Gov. Jan Brewer announced on Monday.

"Within the last two hours, I have been notified the Obama administration has revoked the 287(g) agreement," which allows Arizona police to partner with the federal government in enforcing immigration law.

It's no coincidence, Brewer said, noting that while 68 law enforcement bodies in 24 states have 287(g) agreements with the federal government, the only agreement eliminated on Monday was the one with Arizona -- "the state that happens to be on the front lines of America's fight against illegal immigration," she said.

"We are on our own, apparently," Brewer said in the statement posted on her website.“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised," she continued. "The Obama administration has fought the people of Arizona at every turn --“The President’s action should be of concern to all Americans," Brewer said. "This fight is not over. President Obama may disregard Congress. He may target individual states like Arizona. He may generally act with impunity. But he is not above judgment – and the American people will have theirs very soon.”Read the full story here.More here.

MFS - The Other News

                      Morning Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 10. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 10. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 5.3 - 5.4 activity. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 105.
  On 09.05.2011 at 14:42 GMT+2
  
  Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Monday detected radiation levels in the building housing the faltering No. 1 reactor that far exceeded expected levels reaching as high as 700 millisieverts per hour, the utility firm said. The latest readings for the troubled reactor has lead Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to embark on new radiation shielding measures so that work to bring the crisis under control can go ahead with risks of massive doses of deadly radiation poisoning hopefully being lessened for the TEPCO workers and their affiliates as they attempt to embark on a massive project to install a nuclear fuel cooling system. TEPCO is currently mulling ideas to protect its workers -- some who have only had a single medical check since the March 11 triple disasters and many who have been exposed to levels of radiation far exceeded legal levels -- such as constructing a metal tunnel for people to walk through, or using lead sheeting to provide increased protection against radioactive substances and increase safer mobility for the workers moving around in high-radiation areas. An area with a double-digit millisievert level, let alone three-digit figures, is quite tough as a working environment. So we have to do the work by using some shielding,'' Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a press conference.
  
  TEPCO during the press conference were unable to confirm whether the latest measures would be a success and could not say unequivocally whether Asia's largest utility's well-publicized schedule to stabilize the plant's troubled reactors by October would be met. TEPCO said that as 10 to 70 millisieverts per hour were detected in areas where workers would be expected to spend prolonged periods of time inside of the No. 1 reactor, restoration work is possible. But the utility firm opened the main access points to the reactor and in doing do freely released 500 million becquerels of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, where it had gathered in the upper part of the reactor following a massive hydrogen explosion on March 12. Seven TEPCO representatives and two from the nuclear agency entered the reactor in the early hours of Monday morning and measured radiation, working and safety conditions inside the reactor for roughly 30 minutes. Following the reconnaissance mission, the nine people involved were exposed to radiation ranging from between levels of 2.7 millisieverts and 10.56 millisieverts, according the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The installation of such cooling equipment is likely to be hampered by high radiation, as the group found several radiation " hot spots," especially around pipes suspected to be clogged with highly radioactive material. The nuclear agency and the Environment Ministry on Monday also began taking readings from highly contaminated rubble from the vicinity of the stricken No. 1 nuclear plant and remove some of the debris and bring it back to laboratories in Tokyo for further tests. The radioactive rubble continues to emit radiation into the atmosphere, the ministry said. Source : Here .

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

• WTF?Terrorists in Iraqi Prisons Have Cellphones And Are Free To Phone Media And Direct Acts Of Terrorism.(Memri).The security and defense committee of the Iraqi parliament characterized the owning of cellular phones by terrorists held in Iraqi prisons as "a big scandal." A member of the committee who refused to give his name said that the absence of deterrent laws allow officers and prison guards to cooperate with the terrorists and to facilitate their obtaining cell phones at low cost. A number of major terrorist acts were carried out with the help of instructions provided from within the Iraqi prisons.Hmmmm.....Who needs enemies with the Obama regime in charge?Read the full story here.

• State Department Ignores Christian Slaughter.(Aina)."It's time to speak out against hate," declared Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a video introducing the State Department’s new "campaign to stop bigotry." Created by the Obama administration's Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Farah Pandith, and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal, 2011 Hours Against Hate will "promote respect across lines of culture, religion, tradition, class, and gender." (All 23 current classifications of gender? Just wondering.) The campaign was launched at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, February 17, 2011.

At the OSCE, Pandith raised legitimate concerns about the defacing of mosques and of Jewish tombs, schools, synagogues, and kosher shops. But she also said that the "latest trends show growing movements that target 'the other' -- be they immigrants, or religious and ethnic minorities, in the name of protecting the identity and 'purity' of their nation." By 2011 Hours Against Hate standards, British Prime Minister David Cameron's declaration that multiculturalism has failed is a dangerous targeting of "the other." Pandith also noted that "permissibility of anti-Muslim speech is growing." Really? A host of individuals facing charges, paying fines, and hiding from death threats would be surprised to hear this. But then it seems permissible to target "the other" of "the other."

"Hate is hate, no matter who the target is," 2011 Hours Against Hate intones. But some targets of hatred appear to be more equal than others. Perhaps because some leftist elites never got over their assumption that Christians are the persecutors, not the persecuted, they have difficulty speaking out against hatred aimed at those whom the mainstream media sees as hate-mongers.

On April 29, 2011, the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom (IRF) co-sponsored a 2011 Hours Against Hate event. Hosted by George Washington University, the event was billed as a "Town Hall Discussion on U.S. efforts to combat discrimination and hatred against Jews, Muslims, and others." Hopefully, the 100 million-plus Christians experiencing persecution around the world today, along with Hindus, Sikhs, Baha'i, etc., are included in "and others." The IRF office should be reminded that advocates for persecuted Christians played a major role in its creation, along with the creation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom(USCIRF). Both were mandates of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).Though outspoken in their denouncement of hurtful language, the folks at Foggy Bottom have been silent about the massacre of hundreds of Christians in Kaduna State, and several other states in northern Nigeria that took place after Nigeria's federal elections last month. Angry that Christian President Goodluck Jonathan defeated Muslim candidate Muhammadu Buhari, Islamists in the Shariah-ruled north began rioting on Monday, April 18, 2011, after preliminary results of the April 16 election were announced. Soon newspapers featured grisly photos of charred bodies lining the streets. Hundreds of churches were burned and thousands of Christian-owned businesses destroyed, according to the Christian human rights group, Open Doors. And International Christian Concern reported that the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress was still "discovering more details of massacres that have been carried out in the hinterland." Upwards of 40,000 Christians have been displaced in the past few weeks.In its comments about the situation in Nigeria, the U.S. State Department disregarded the religious aspect of the post-election mayhem. Secretary of State Clinton's April 19 statement on the elections (available in Arabic as well as English) "deplored violence," but ignored the targeting of Christians. Clinton congratulated Goodluck Jonathan for winning Nigeria’s presidential election, and applauded "the people of Nigeria for their enthusiastic and orderly participation." She did caution that the process was "far from perfect," though, and called on the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission “to transparently review and take appropriate and transparent action on all allegations of “under-age” voters, violence and intimidation, ballot stuffing, and inordinately high turnout in some areas of the country."Although some, including U.S. State Department officials, would paint the post-election violence as purely political, the head of the advocacy group Justice for Jos, attorney Emmanuel Ogebe, refutes this claim. While Muslims and Christians in southern Nigeria get along fine, on this particular occasion there is an intersect between religion and politics when it comes to the Shariah-compliant north. And besides that, Ogebe says that for the Islamists in northern Nigeria, "anything is used as an excuse to kill Christians — beauty pageants, lunar eclipses, school exams, political elections…." These are the sundry reasons in the last dozen years alone that have sparked violent, deadly attacks against Christians. He calls it their "default setting."Ogebe reported that strikes on Christians took place simultaneously in rural districts of a dozen Nigerian states (northern). Some initial attacks took place in the middle of the night, when the Christians were least able to defend themselves. And anti-Christian sentiment was inflamed in many of northern Nigeria's mosques, since in those areas Islamists emerged from mosques with the goal of killing anyone who is an "infidel" whether they voted for the Christian president or not. Victims were made to quote the Quran, not identify for whom they had voted. Nigerian church leaders agree with Ogebe. In a May 3, 2011 press briefing in Kaduna State, leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) called for a federal investigation into the violence that targeted Christians. "Islamic attacks on churches reflect [the] religious dimension of political conflict," said Compass Direct News Service.Pretending the jihad against Nigerian Christians is mere political division and remaining silent about the egregious persecution is about as sensible as pretending the terrorist threat against America is a criminal justice issue, or pretending that justified concerns about the spread of Shariah are Islamophobia that can be squelched by a campaign against hate.Hmmmm....A 'regime' that encourages the killing of Christians, Jews and Budhists!Selfconfessed 'Christian' indeed,beware of false prophets.Read the full story here.

• Brigitte Gabriel: Islamist Persecution of Muslims, Christians, Jews and Minorities.(BigPeace).“It’s of concern, of course, not because all Muslims are behaving this way but because those who are doing it in the name of Shariah are unmistakably seeking this kind of supremacist outcome and it won’t stop with Christian populations and it won’t stop with people in other parts of the world.” – Frank Gaffney concerning recent flash points in Salifist violence against minorities.Today on Frank GAffney’s Secure Freedom Radio, author of They Must Be Stopped, Brigitte Gabriel sets the record straight on the recent history of violent Islamist persecution of Christians, Jews, minorities and other Muslims from the vantage point of an American Arab woman. It has never been more timely to check the historical record against public stereo types. Listen to Brigitte and Frank hear the full story here.

• “Lula” and Barack’s Common Marxist Ties.(NewZeal).Brazil’s immediate past president Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, a former labor boss, built his Workers Party, an alliance of communists, Trotskyites, “liberation theologists”, black radicals, environmentalists and labor militants, into the most powerful political force in Latin America.Working with Cuba, “Lula” as he is commonly known, has had an huge influence in the revolutionary wave that has swept Latin America since the early 90s.Less widely known is that Lula has enjoyed support and advice from the US’s largest Marxist organization Democratic Socialists of America, since at least the year he founded his Party, 1981.Incidentally, this is around the same time that Barack Obama began his thirty year association with the organization.Obama became involved with D.S.A. when he attended their Socialist Scholars Conferences in New York in the early 1980s. the connection may have gone back even into the late 1970s when he associated with members of Occidental College’s Democratic Socialist Alliance.The Obama/D.S.A. relationship blossomed in Chicago and has never wavered since.D.S.A. member Stanley Gacek is a labor attorney and A.F.L.-C.I.O. and was a long time International Affairs Assistant Director, responsible for the Federation’s relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. He has spoken and written extensively on Brazilian labor and politics and has been a friend and adviser to President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and the Workers Party since the early 1980s.In November 2010 Obama awarded John Sweeney the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Socialist revolution is international in scope.The same people who helped deliver Brazil to the socialists and communists, are working to do the same to the U.S.This may help explain why Barack Obama lets Brazil drill for Gulf oil, but denies American companies the same right.He is simply looking after his real friends.Hmmmm..........Democracy or Dictatorship?Read the full story here.

• New Phones being adapted to broadcast "Dear Leader" his messages.(DailyMail). New emergency alert SMS system set to launch (but you can’t block the President’s messages).It's easy to ignore a phone message from someone you don't know that well. But when Barack Obama sends you a text, you listen.A national emergency alert system that will send messages to mobile phones during disasters is set to launch in New York City and Washington by the end of year.The Commercial Mobile Alert System will direct emergency messages to mobile phones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other serious emergencies.Citizens can opt out of receiving most of the messages, unless they are from the President himself.'If there’s a terrorist bomb set to off in Times Square, you’d be able to tell everyone in the vicinity to get out of there,' one New York official to the New York Post.The alert plan was approved by Congress in 2006 under the Warning Alert and Response Network Act.Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate said the new national system will be selective in what it sends out.'These are really focused on the highest levels of alerts, and those that require urgent action,' Fugate said.Genachowski added that officials expect the alerts 'to be very limited.There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children. People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts, Genachowski said.A special chip is required to allow the phone to receive the messages, and starting next year all new phones will have the technology. Some smart phones already have the chip and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year, Genachowski said.Fugate said cell phones turned on in the direct vicinity of a disaster - an evacuation zone, for instance - would receive a message warning them of the impending danger. The alert would show up on the phone's front screen, instead of the traditional text message inbox, and arrive with a distinct ring and likely a vibration.Messages are expected to get through even if traditional phone lines are swamped.Hmmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Iran Training “Sleeper” Terrorists in Venezuela?(NewZeal).Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is allegedly training a large number of Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Saudis in a private training camp located in Waheera, a remote area near the borders of Venezuela and Colombia, and intends to use them to carry out terrorist activities within their respective countries and other areas across the world in case Iran is attacked militarily, Al-Seyassah daily quoted a reliable source as saying.The trainees are first sent to Venezuelan capital Caracas or Colombian capital Bogota via Damascus and from there, they are sent to the border region in cars, one of the militants who broke away from the Iranian group told the daily.Reportedly, the training camp is run by some Iranian intelligence officers and others affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard in cooperation with Hezbollah and Hamas. The trainees were given courses in making bombs, carrying out assassinations, kidnapping people and transporting the hostages to other locations.The trainees have been trained to act in case there is a war against Iran. As per the plan, all embassies of Gulf countries, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan in Latin American countries were to be targeted. These bombings, however, will not be carried out by Iranian Shiites, but mercenaries from poorer countries like Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Bolivia besides some other supporters from Hamas and other individuals so that Iranian involvement won’t even be suspected.Hmmmm......Any idea why Obama doesn't stand up to Iran?Because all his friends are allies of Iran !Read the full story here.

White House PC police fix the Bin Laden press release.(IsraelMatzav).The White House PC police have fixed up the press release announcing Osama Bin Laden's death no longer being a threat to the American people. I thought you would like to see it. I received it by email: Subject: Press Release of bin Laden Raid

Here's a re-write of the press release for the bin Laden raid, as approved by the PC police for publication: Dateline: The White House — Monday, May 2, 2011

Yesterday the President ordered a raid against an al Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, an affluent suburb of Islamabad, Pakistan. A small U.S. team found Osama bin Laden living in a large house in the center of a secured compound. The raid accomplished its objective, and 9/11 mastermind bin Laden no longer is a threat to America.

President Obama privately assured world leaders that although the U.S. finds some satisfaction in Mr. bin Laden’s demise, this does not mean that he thinks American culture is superior to any other. Nor should international leaders assume that military action was America’s first choice. We are all citizens of the world.It can now be revealed that Mr. Obama had extended the hand of friendship to Mr. bin Laden, and would have much preferred to arrange a “beer summit” in the back yard of the White House to discuss their differences. However, since Mr. bin Laden wanted to express his personhood by bringing a rusty knife to the summit, with the intent to saw off Mr. Obama’s head while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Mr. Obama had no choice but to have Mr. bin Laden shot dead. Several bystanders were killed in the raid, but thankfully, no small animals were harmed.The president regrets that it was not possible to fuel the special operations helicopters with eco-friendly bio fuels, due to the requirements of secret equipment located in the Blackhawk’s tail. However, as part of Mr. Obama’s continuing commitment to a clean environment, the Administration purchased carbon footprint offsets for the aviation fuel used in the raid. The SEALs also took care to protect the environment by using ammunition that had been forged with lead extracted from enemy dead bodies and shots that had previously missed their targets. This prudent recycling reduced the amount of lead that would seep into Abbottabad’s wells and water tables.Read the full 'story' here.

• Boehner hands Obama a yellow card for Taking a “Victory Lap” After Bin Laden Killing.(The Hill) — President Obama is taking “somewhat of a victory lap” following the killing of Osama bin Laden, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday.Boehner largely praised Obama’s decision to execute the raid on the al Qaeda leader’s Pakistani compound and the president’s decision not to release photos of bin Laden’s body. But he said that Obama has gone to lengths to take credit for bin Laden’s slaying.“There’s no question that there is somewhat of a victory lap going on,” Boehner said on conservative talker Sean Hannity’s radio show.Some of Obama’s critics questioned his conduct following the bin Laden mission in lieu of his decision not to release the reportedly “gruesome” photos of bin Laden’s body.Critics say there is disparity between the president’s schedule last week, when he held several events with military members and retired veterans, and his comments on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” when he justified the decision to withhold the photos, saying “we don’t spike the football” and it “is not who we are.”Several members of the administration and lawmakers from both political parties pressured Obama to release the photos to prove bin Laden’s death to any doubters, especially those in the Muslim world. But ultimately, Obama disagreed, saying they could inflame radicals sentiments.Hmmmm.....My guess these pictures will surface shortly before the elections.Read the full story here.

• Obama's half-brother runs questionable charity.(NYPost).President Obama's half-brother runs an off-the-books American charity that claims to support poor Kenyans -- but it lies about its federal status and no one knows how it spends its money. The group, the Barack H. Obama Foundation, was named after the president's father and founded by his sibling Abon'go Malik "Roy" Obama, a 53-year-old polygamist who recently made headlines by adding a third wife -- who's still in her teens. Its Web site claims to have provided drinking water in Kenya's Siaya District, which includes the Obama clan's ancestral village. The organization also says it has completed a madrassa, or Muslim school, and is building an imam's residence. A photo of the tidy little school building is displayed on the site.That and other photos on the site are the only purported evidence that the nonprofit has accomplished any of its mission. A group of Missouri State college students who visited the Obama family village of Kogelo in 2009, and who met the president's half-brother, felt something was amiss. They sensed he was an "operator" and decided to give their donation of 400 pounds of medical supplies directly to a local clinic. "We didn't know what he was going to do with them," said Ken Rutherford, a former Missouri State professor who led the trip and who shared in the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to ban landmines. Rutherford said the Obamas' relatives are the only Muslims in a village of 4,000 Christians and that Malik has a private mosque on his property. Malik started his charity the year his brother ran for president. The foundation claims to be a tax-exempt, federally recognized nonprofit. It is not.Nor are there any filings of its expenditures, which the IRS requires of larger charities. Alton Ray Baysden, a former State Department employee at whose Virginia home the charity was founded in 2008, admitted the organization has not even applied for tax-exempt status. "We haven't been able to find someone with the expertise to do this," he told The Post. "We are informally scouting for an executive director, someone who knows how to register the charity." The charity is not even registered in Virginia, a requirement for soliciting donations in that state. The foundation's Web site includes a donation form that says it has nonprofit status. Charity expert Marcus Owens said knowingly telling donors contributions are tax-deductible if they are not could amount to fraud. "If they haven't applied for exemption, they can't promise their donors that contributions are deductible," said Owens, a lawyer and former IRS official.Malik Obama, reached in Kenya, said the foundation has a budget of $250,000. When asked about why it wasn't a registered charity, Malik, an accountant by trade, said that he was "in process" of changing that. The White House did not return a message seeking comment.Hmmmmm......"Obamas' relatives are the only Muslims in a village of 4,000 Christians "?Read the full story here.

• Michelle Obama welcomes rapper to White House who called for burning of George Bush.(DailyMail).First Lady Michelle Obama has invited a rapper who called for the burning of George Bush to perform at the White House.Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr, who uses the stage name ‘Common’, will be welcomed at an event celebrating American poetry on Wednesday.He is expected to take part in rap workshops with schoolchildren in the afternoon before performing in the evening.In footage on YouTube he is seen calling for the burning of the former president.‘Burn a Bush cos for peace he no push no button,’ the hip-hop artist raps in one video, which has more than 800,000 views.Other song lyrics reportedly include threats to shoot the police.The controversial rapper hails from President Obama’s hometown Chicago and has also rapped about the former Illinois senator.Hmmmm.....Another 'proud of my country moment'?Read the full story here.

• 'Religion of peace' angered by Christians plan to introduce another official religion in Malaysia.(Al-Arabia).Malaysia’s government was seeking ways on Monday to defuse religious tensions following reports that church leaders were working toward making Christianity an official religion, reports The Associated Press. Muslim activists have filed police complaints demanding an investigation into what they believe is a threat to Islam in this Muslim-majority country.Christian leaders deny the allegations saying these accusations are intended to create suspicions and divisions between Malay Muslims and religious monitories.The allegation surfaced on the Internet in a post by two anonymous political bloggers and went largely unnoticed until on Saturday, when the Utusan Malaysia newspaper reported it on its front page under the headline “Malaysia a Christian nation?”The story said that at a recent meeting dozens of pastors reportedly pledged to make Christianity an official religion and ensure that the prime minister is Christian. Christians comprise 10 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million population.Opposition politician Lim Guan Eng said on Monday, “The government would have to bear full responsibility for any undesirable consequences on the Christian community in Malaysia because of Utusan’s report,” reported AP.Malaysia prides itself on its multiethnic peace between majority Malays, and minority Christians and Tamils. Nevertheless, there have been occasional communal disputes. Malys feel that the Chiense dominate the economy, and Chinese and Tamils both feel that the government’s affirmative action program favors unqualified Malays.Last January, 11 churches were attacked and vandalized after a court verdict that allowed minorities to use the word “Allah” as a translation for God. Nevertheless, observers said that it seemed unlikely that Malaysia, officially an Islamic state, would want to permit another official religion, even though the country is widely considered tolerant of all faith.Hmmmmm.........Total explosion of violence in 3...2....1?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan PM Warns of 'Full Force' Response to Future U.S. Raids.(FOX).Pakistan's prime minister warned the United States Monday that his country could respond to any future U.S. raids on its soil with "full force," in the latest escalation of rhetoric in the wake of Usama bin Laden's death. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, like other officials in Islamabad, said the killing of bin Laden in northern Pakistan was a positive step. But, reflecting concerns that the unilateral strike violated his country's sovereignty, Gilani sent a clear message to the United States. He warned any "overt or covert" attack would be met with a "matching response" in the future. "Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland," Gilani said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said the president reserves the right to enter Pakistani territory to act against terror suspects if Pakistan will not, and reiterated that message when asked about Gilani's speech. He said Monday that while the U.S. takes Pakistanis' concerns seriously, the U.S. does "not apologize" for the raid."It's simply beyond doubt in his mind that he had the right and the imperative to do this," Carney said Monday. With analysts combing through the bin Laden files for clues on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri or Taliban chief Mullah Omar, some are calling on Obama to strike again while Al Qaeda and its allies are staggering. "We have no right to keep our troops on the defense dying, when we know where some of the highest-ranking people in the Taliban are," Bing West, former assistant defense secretary, told Fox News on Monday. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said that if the U.S. gets bin Laden's deputy -- presumed to be al-Zawahiri -- in its sights, "the same calculus" that was used on bin Laden should apply. But the thought already has Pakistani leaders fuming. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., told ABC's "This Week" that the Pakistani government wants to continue "joint operations," but is concerned about the nature of the raid last weekend.Obama, in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," confirmed that he did not inform Pakistani officials of the raid in advance, though he praised Pakistan's cooperation considering "we've been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than just about any place else."Read the full story here.

• Iran’s Leader Orders Murder of Protesters in Syria.(BigPeace).An official source within the Sadr movement, the Iraqi Islamist national movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr, is insisting that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran has declared the protesters in Syria to be “God’s enemies,” ordering the Revolutionary Guards and Lebanese Hezbollah to fiercely combat the protesters in Syria and enter into an armed battle with them.In an interview with Al Arabiya, the source, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed that Ayatollah Khamenei held a covert meeting in Tehran with commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, representatives of the Syrian embassy, members of Hezbollah, and leaders of the Sadr movement. There, he demanded that all operational and logistic forces be applied in order to stamp out the blaze of sedition in Syria and to destroy those who are enemies of God in that country.Experts have construed Ayatollah Khamenei’s comments regarding Syria as a form of religious fatwa, which has a direct effect in spreading terror and insecurity in Syria, increasing Iran’s role in destabilizing Arab countries.What’s more, according to the website Green Voice of Freedom, an informed source inside President Ahmadinejad’s administration revealed that the deputy chief of Iran’s National Police, Ahmad-Reza Radan, was part of a security delegation that visited the Syrian capital two weeks ago amidst the intensification of repressions against anti-government protesters in Syria.Radan was a key figure in the brutal suppression of the Iranian protesters following the June 2009 elections in Iran.Ever since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Syria has proven a staunch ally to the radicals ruling Iran. It has also provided a passageway for the Revolutionary Guards into Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, arming Hezbollah and Hamas.The Revolutionary Guards also have several bases in Syria, where they train and arm militias in the expansion of their terrorist activities in the region and beyond.The Obama administration has substantiated charges of Iranian complicity in Syrian repression. On April 26, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice announced that the United States had evidence of active Iranian support for the Syrian government’s suppression of the peaceful demonstrators.For its part, the Syrian opposition has also claimed that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have participated in the shooting and killing of the Syrian protesters. But the leaders of Iran know full well that they have the power to prevent the opposition from succeeding. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria could be a devastating blow to the policies of the radicals in Iran and its proxies in the region, and the mullahs are determined not to let that happen.Hmmmmm.....Hillary ...."Assad is a reformer", save the people in Egypt and Tunesia but let them die in Syria?Read the full story here.

• Arizona Says It Will Ask Supreme Court to Overturn Decision Striking Down Enforcement of Immigration Law.(Yahoo).PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Monday she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration enforcement law on hold.The planned appeal to the high court comes after Brewer lost an initial appeal April 11, when a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court’s order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.Attorney General Tom Horne said going directly to the Supreme Court and skipping a possible second appeal to the 9th Circuit will save time in resolving the case, while Brewer said she is confident “Arizona will prevail in its fight to protect its citizens.”The state must file the appeal by a July 11 deadline, the officials said. The Supreme Court has discretion on whether to hear the appeal on the lower court’s order.“It seems like this is a big enough national issue that it will ultimately be determined by the United States Supreme Court,” Horne said.In its April ruling, the 9th Circuit panel said federal officials are likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in their argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.The Arizona law isn't the only one that has challenged federal primacy in immigration.The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling arguments in an appeal by groups that are trying to overturn a 2007 Arizona law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit aimed at halting a new immigration law in Utah, saying it violates constitutional rights to due process and is too much like portions of Arizona's immigration law.Read the full story here.

• Council forbids pork and wine buffet outside Muslim prayer hall.(RFI).Authorities in the French city of Nice have forbidden a far-right group to hold a "porchetta and rosé apéritif" outside a Muslim prayer hall. The Nissa Rebela nationalist group says it has already submitted a second request for permission for the event after its first was rejected on Wednesday.The permit was denied on technical grounds, according to the Alpes-Maritimes regional council.Under French law, organisers must seek a licence for all public gatherings at least three days before the event takes place. Nissa Rebela applied after this deadline, the council said.The group's members could face six months in prison and a 7,500-euro fine if they go ahead with the event without permission.But Nissa Rebela insists that the event is still on. The group is calling its supporters to gather outside a Muslim prayer hall on Nice's rue de la Suisse on Friday evening, where it will be serving pork and wine.The worshippers at the hall have been conducting evening prayers in the street, since they say the building is too small to house them.Anti-racism groups and local politicians have strongly condemned Nissa Rebela's plans. The event is deliberately provocative and designed to stir up hatred, said the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.Nissa Rebela courted controversy in 2005 with a stunt that saw them hand out pork soup to homeless people, thereby excluding Jews and Muslims.The group has 15 candidates in local elections this month.Hmmmm.....Ah ! ça ira?Read the full story here.

• Earthquake shifted Japan's land mass, leaving coastal areas under water at high tide.(Yahoo).ISHINOMAKI, Japan - When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighbourhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home.Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep, carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber boots or on bicycle."I look out the window, and it's like our houses are in the middle of the ocean," says Takahashi, who moved in three years ago.The March 11 earthquake that hit eastern Japan was so powerful it pulled the entire country out and down into the sea. The mostly devastated coastal communities now face regular flooding, because of their lower elevation and damage to sea walls from the massive tsunamis triggered by the quake.In port cities such as Onagawa and Kesennuma, the tide flows in and out among crumpled homes and warehouses along now uninhabited streets.A cluster of neighbourhoods in Ishinomaki city is rare in that it escaped tsunami damage through fortuitous geography. So, many residents still live in their homes, and they now face a daily trial: The area floods at high tide, and the normally sleepy streets turn frantic as residents rush home before the water rises too high."I just try to get all my shopping and chores done by 3 p.m.," says Takuya Kondo, 32, who lives with his family in his childhood home.Most houses sit above the water's reach, but travel by car becomes impossible and the sewage system swamps, rendering toilets unusable.Scientists say the new conditions are permanent. Japan's northern half sits on the North American tectonic plate. The Pacific plate, which is mostly undersea, normally slides under this plate, slowly nudging the country west. But in the earthquake, the fault line between the two plates ruptured, and the North American plate slid up and out along the Pacific plate.The rising edge of plate caused the sea floor off Japan's eastern coast to bulge up — one measuring station run by Tohoku University reported an underwater rise of 16 feet (5 metres) — creating the tsunami that devastated the coast. The portion of the plate under Japan was pulled lower as it slid toward the ocean, which caused a corresponding plunge in elevation under the country.Some areas in Ishinomaki moved southeast 17 feet (5.3 metres) and sank 4 feet (1.2 metres) lower."We thought this slippage would happen gradually, bit by bit. We didn't expect it to happen all at once," says Testuro Imakiire, a researcher at Japan's Geospatial Information Authority, the government body in charge of mapping and surveys.Imakiire says the quake was powerful enough to move the entire country, the first time this has been recorded since measurements began in the late 19th century. In Tokyo, 210 miles (340 kilometres) from Ishinomaki, parts of the city moved 9 inches (24 centimetres) seaward.The drop lower was most pronounced around Ishinomaki, the area closest to the epicenter. The effects are apparent: Manholes, supported by underground piping, jut out of streets that fell around them. Telephone poles sank even farther, leaving wires at head height.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 29. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Syria Live Blog - April 29. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Live feed and highlights of the Royal wedding from :

"The Royal Channel"  here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.9 and 5.0! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 100.Source : Here .

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

• Obama’s Economic Policies Create Misery.(Cato)The public has finally started to give President Obama’s economic policies a big “thumbs down”. This shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the Misery Index.While President Obama sings the glories of big government, it is ironic that he has been marked by the curse of government failure. One metric that measures how this curse will affect the President’s performance is the Misery Index.Read and see the full story here.

• What is it about twin girls born day after Obama?(WND).(See previous post wednesday).Today, Barack Obama blinked – releasing birth records he has hired lawyers to prevent the public from seeing, even at the expense of allowing U.S. Army Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin to be court-martialed and sent to prison for having dared ask questions the White House until now has resolutely dismissed with ridicule and disdain. A key problem for Obama is that birth certificates issued to twin girls born one day later at Kapi'olani hospital, the Nordykes, are the Rosetta Stone of deciphering both Obama's previously released short-form Certification of Live Birth and the newly released purported copy of his long-form birth certificate.The problem since the short-form certificate was released during the 2008 presidential campaign has always been this:

As WND reported, the long-form birth certificates issued by Kapi'olani to the Nordyke twins have certificate numbers lower than the number given Obama, even though the president purportedly was born at the same hospital a day earlier than the Nordykes.

Note, Susan Nordyke, the first twin, was born at 2:12 p.m. Hawaii time Aug. 5, 1961, and was given certificate No. 151 – 61 – 10637, which was filed with the Hawaii registrar Aug. 11, 1961.

Gretchen Nordyke, the second twin, was born at 2:17 p.m. Hawaii time Aug. 5, 1961, and was given certificate No. 151 – 61 – 10638, which was also filed with the Hawaii registrar Aug. 11, 1961.

Yet, according to the Certification of Live Birth displayed by FactCheck.org during the 2008 presidential campaign – and now according to the long-form birth certificate the White House released today – Barack Obama was given a higher certificate number than the Nordykes.

Note, Obama was given certificate No. 151 – 1961 – 10641, even though he was born Aug. 4, 1961, the day before the Nordyke twins, and his birth was registered with the Hawaii Department of Health registrar three days earlier, Aug. 8, 1961.In 1961, the birth certificate numbers were not assigned by the hospitals. Instead, the numbers were stamped to the birth record by the Hawaii Department of Health at the main office in Honolulu. This is the only place birth certificate numbers were assigned. At the last step of the process, the documents were accepted by the registrar general, with the date of registration inserted in box No. 22 on the lower right hand corner of the long-form birth certificate. The date the birth document was accepted by the registrar general was the date the birth certificate number was stamped on the birth record. The birth certificate number was stamped on the form by a rubber stamp that automatically increased by one each time a birth certificate was stamped. The question, therefore, is how was it possible that the Nordyke twins had their birth certificates accepted by the registrar general in Hawaii three days later than the registrar general accepted Obama's birth certificate, when the twins' numbers are lower than Obama's number?Now that President Obama has personally vouched for the authenticity of the birth certificate the White House released today, he can reasonably be asked to authorize Kapi'olani Medical Center to release any and all medical records the hospital may hold for his mother and Barack Obama Sr., his listed father. The debate over Obama's eligibility to be president has truly only just begun, with Obama's status having changed overnight from a bemused observer to a full-contact participant. Two weeks before the publication of my book "Where's the Birth Certificate?" the effort to document Obama's past has begun in earnest. Fundamentally, the world changed for Barack Obama this morning, not just in increasing pressure for the release of the many hidden documents about his past, but in the inescapable reality that the White House must defend this newly released birth certificate as authentic. Before today, Obama may have attempted to explain away problems with the short-form Certification of Live Birth as the work of his supporters. Before today, the president largely remained above the fray. Now, he has fully engaged in the presentation and defense of his birth records and his status as a "natural born citizen" under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. Obama's presidency now depends upon the White House being able to support the veracity of all the information contained in the birth document released yesterday morning. In the final analysis, proof that the document is an authentic Obama birth record will await forensic examination.Read the full story here.

• Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate. So Fake It Had To Be Done On Purpose.(LogisticsMonster). The only curiosity questions I have left is ‘why obviously forged’ and ‘why now?’ Who gains and how?Now for the forgery. First up; Karl Denninger of MarketTicker.org showing that the AP’s scan of the document the White House gave them is just that; a scan. He then shows the document that was posted on the White House website as a manufactured photoshop document that has layers, overlays, no ‘scan landmarks’, color blurring, etc.Next up, Alex Jones and one of his photoshop experts explaining the layering, original print and added print, and wondering why the White House would release an obviously assembled document.Hmmm........In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. – Franklin D. Roosevelt.Read the full story here.

• Obama regime punishes reporter for using multimedia.(SfGate).The hip, transparent and social media-loving Obama administration is showing its analog roots. And maybe even some hypocrisy highlights. White House officials have banished one of the best political reporters in the country from the approved pool of journalists covering presidential visits to the Bay Area for using now-standard multimedia tools to gather the news.The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci - who, like many contemporary reporters, has a phone with video capabilities on her at all times - pulled out a small video camera last week and shot some protesters interrupting an Obama fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel. She was part of a "print pool" - a limited number of journalists at an event who represent their bigger hoard colleagues - which White House press officials still refer to quaintly as "pen and pad" reporting.But that's a pretty Flintstones concept of journalism for an administration that presents itself as the Jetsons. Video is every bit a part of any journalist's tool kit these days as a functioning pen that doesn't leak through your pocket.The President and his staffers deftly used social media like Twitter and Facebook in his election campaign and continue to extol the virtues and value. Except, apparently, when it comes to the press.So what's up with the White House? We can't say because neither Press Secretary Jay Carney nor anyone from his staff would speak on the record.Other sources confirmed that Carla was vanquished, including Chronicle editor Ward Bushee, who said he was "informed that Carla was removed as a pool reporter." Which shouldn't be a secret in any case because it's a fact that affects the newsgathering of our largest regional paper (and sfgate)and how local citizens get their information.What's worse: more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla's spanking became public. Really? That's a heavy hand usually reserved for places other than the land of the free.Mason referred to the San Francisco St. Regis protest as "a highly newsworthy event" where "reporters had to rely on written pool reports..."Except, thanks to Carla's quick action with her camera, they didn't. I get that all powerful people and institutions want to control their image and their message. That's part of their job, to create a mythology that allows them to continue being powerful. But part of the press' job is to do the opposite, to strip away the cloaks and veneers. By banning her, and by not acknowledging how contemporary media works, the White House did not just put Carla in a cage but more like one of those stifling pens reserved for calves on their way to being veal.Carla cannot do her job to the best of her ability if she can't use all the tools available to her as a journalist. The public still sees the videos posted by protesters and other St. Regis attendees, because the technology is ubiquitous. But the Obama Administration apparently wants to give the distinct advantage to citizen witnesses at the expense of professionals.Why? Well, they won't tell us.The White House Press Correspondents' Association pool reporting guidelines warn about "no hoarding" of information and also say, "pool reports must be filed before any online story or blog." While uploading her video probably was the best way to file her report, Carla may have technically busted the letter of that law.But the guidelines also say, "Print poolers can snap pictures or take video. They are not obliged to share these pictures...but can make them available if they so choose."Then what guidelines is the White House applying here? Again, we don't know."We've come full circle here," Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Foundation's Project for Excellence in Journalism told me today. "A newspaper reporter is being punished because she took pictures with a moving camera. We live in a world where there are no longer distinctions. The White House is trying to live by 20th century distinctions."Hmmmm.....Dictatorship or Democracy?Don't 'soil' dear leader.Read the full story here.

• Mexican drug gangs being armed with U.S. weapons.(DailyMail).Mexican drug cartels are being armed with weapons supplied by the U.S., leaked documents show.The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, reveal that grenades and light anti-tank weapons seized from drug traffickers in Mexico and Colombia were from the U.S.A cable entitled ‘Honduras: Military weapons fuel black market in arms’ states that the serial numbers of arms taken from drug gangs coincide with those supplied by the U.S. to the Honduran Armed Forces.According to the Defense Intelligence Agency file, the brands and serial numbers seized equipment are the same as a shipment sent to the Second Infantry Battallion in Honduras.‘The [U.S. Government] has become aware that light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) and grenades supplied to Honduras under the Foreign Military Sales program were recovered in Mexico and Colombia,’ the cable said.‘According to the [Defense Intelligence Agency] report, three light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) were recovered in Mexico City in January 2008, and one was recovered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in April 2008.’‘Over 50 per cent of the military-type weapons that are flowing throughout the region have a large source between Central American stockpiles, if you will, left over from wars and conflicts in the past,’ said General Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command in the memo.According to the report, in April 2008, an investigation by the Honduran Armed Forces showed that the battalion did not know the whereabouts of 26 pieces of military equipment supplied by the U.S. for training.The weapons had been sent in 1992 as a part of U.S. military sales to foreign armies.The leaked cable comes as Mexico explores lawsuits against U.S. gun makers to stem flow of illegal arms.Gun stores on the border between the U.S. have Mexico have been criticised for their firearms ending up in the hands of drug cartels.Spreading drug gang violence has claimed more than 34,600 lives in Mexico over the past four years with more than 15,000 deaths last year.The drug wars have prompted foreign governments, including the U.S., to issue a number of travel warnings for parts of Mexico.Hmmmm........Read the full story here.

• Bill Fletcher, Jr. – Leading Socialist Calls for Mass Actions, Law Breaking, to Re-Elect Obama in 2012.(NewZeal).Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the far left Institute for Policy Studies, and a member of both Democratic Socialists of America and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.In 2008, Fletcher co-founded Progressives for Obama, with veteran activist Tom Hayden, leftist actor Danny Glover and fellow DSAer Barbara Ehrenreich.Writing in The Rag Blog, Fletcher explains what “progressives” must do, to secure a victory for Barack Obama in 2008.It is a grass roots vision, taking focus off the President and instead using mass action and the people’s movements to unseat to defeat Republicans and centrist Democrats.It is a revolutionary vision, in that it calls for law breaking, and “masses of people making a situation untenable”.It is an internationalist vision, looking to revolutions abroad, both for inspiration and solidarity.This is a “people’s power” strategy, owing not a little to recent events in the Middle East.Comrade Fletcher says “progressives” must :

We desperately need mass action. Wisconsin was wonderful for many reasons but one important one was the sustained presence in the capitol. A protest movement focused on power needs to be prepared to break the law, not through the actions of a few individuals, but much as happened in Wisconsin, as well as in the Civil Rights movement, with masses of people making a situation untenable.But we also have to develop key strategic targets for our actions where we are clear on what we want them to do. This will largely happen at the local level at first, but it can also happen at the national level, such as through selective boycotts.

While many on the US left express disappointment with Obama, when push comes to shove, they will back their man to the hilt,

The US left understands that 2012 is decisive.If a conservative Republican wins, they know that many of the US left’s hard fought gains will be rolled back.If Obama wins, they know the socialist juggernaut will be virtually unstoppable.Consequently the US left, from Democrats to socialists, to Marxist-Leninists, will throw every thing into this election. Look for mass protests, street violence, intimidation and mass law breaking, as the US left mounts a do or die, last gasp “Thet Offensive” against Middle America and its values.Hmmmm.......The 'ShutszStaffels' are forming?Read the full story here.

• DHS Insider: White House Silencing Reports That Border Patrol Has Caught Iranians, Syrians and Yemenese on Mexico-Arizona Border.(DougRoss)."Vinnie", a caller from Long Beach, California on last night's Mark Levin radio program, told a brief, chilling tale of border insecurity.You need to get this out to the people. I became aware about OTMs [Other Than Mexicans] coming over the border.I work for Homeland [Security] and in our prisons right now, we have, Iranians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Yemenese, Syrians... and our Border Patrol has found... the drug cartels are going to smuggle terrorists and terrorist weapons across our porous borders... especially in Arizona [Ed: would that be the same Arizona that the Obama administration's Justice Department has sued for enforcing immigration law? Why, yes, it would be]......So, we need to secure the borders -- and I don't know why this administration has not done anything... previous administrations have not done anything... this is a major issue. We are going to be hit from within. It's not going to come from outside, it's going to come from within......The [American] people are in the dark. They don't know what's going on. We apprehended more than a quarter-of-a-million illegals last year. Hundreds -- hundreds -- of those were OTMs. So this is a big concern and we need to get this [news] out in the open.But rather than protect the border, the cynical Obama administration and its Democrat sycophants are suing states like Arizona for enforcing the nation's immigration laws.Hmmmm......"The 'Ennemy' within our borders?Read the full story here.

• Turkey - Obama's best ally and Friend helped landmark Palestinian reconciliation.(TodaysZaman).Turkish officials on Thursday confirmed that they played a crucial role in efforts to end a more than three-year split between rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza; however, they stressed that they do not intend to cast a shadow over Egypt's role and efforts in achieving Palestinian reconciliation. Rival Palestinian groups on Wednesday announced they had reached an agreement on reuniting their governments in the West Bank and Gaza after years of bitter infighting, which had weakened them politically and caused the deaths of hundreds in violent clashes and crackdowns.The plan brokered by Egypt calls for the formation of a single caretaker government over coming days. The government will administer day-to-day business until new presidential and legislative elections are held in a year’s time.Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu became intensely involved in the issue after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas initiated a telephone conversation with him on March 31 and informed him of his call to Hamas on March 16. At the time Davutoğlu conveyed his support for Abbas’s announcement, in which he said he intended to visit the Gaza Strip in a bid to end the bitter split with the Hamas movement that governs the territory.Davutoğlu initiated a telephone conversation with Abbas late on Wednesday night and the two assessed developments regarding the deal between the two Palestinian factions, diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman on Thursday. Davutoğlu expressed his pleasure over the fact that an agreement had been finally reached, sources said.Hmmmm.....Wednesday night.....right... that was just after Panetta left Turkey from that five day 'working visit',no wonder Obama calls Erdogan weekly"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? Read the full story here.

• Should You Buy A Home In 2011? Check Out These 29 Absolutely Crazy Statistics About The Housing Crisis.(TheAmericanDream).Has the U.S. housing market reached a "bottom" yet? Are home prices going to start recovering? Is the housing crisis going to end at some point? Today there are millions of American families that would like to buy homes but they are not sure what to do. After all, nobody wants to end up like all the suckers that bought at the top of the market and now owe far more on their mortgages then their homes are worth. A lot of people are really afraid to take out home loans right now. So should you buy a home in 2011? That is a very good question. The reality is that there are a lot of reasons why home prices could continue to fall. Unemployment is still rampant, and American families simply cannot afford to buy homes without good jobs. Also, lending institutions have really, really tightened lending standards. That is really restricting the number of buyers in the marketplace. The number of foreclosures set another record high last year so there are a ton of homes that need to be sold and not a lot of demand for them. So with all of these factors working against the real estate market, are there any reasons why anyone would actually want to buy a home in 2011?Well, yes there are. The truth is that all of the reckless money printing that the Federal Reserve has been doing and all of the insane borrowing that the U.S. government has been doing have flooded our financial system with new dollars. At some point all of these new dollars are going to cause a tremendous amount of inflation.Right now we are seeing the price of gas go up and the price of food go up, but eventually the price of everything (including housing) will go up.When the U.S. economy totally collapses, you are going to want to have your housing expenses locked in. In a highly inflationary environment you may find that your wages do not keep up with inflation and at some point you may be unable to afford to buy any kind of a decent house at all. If you are renting, you may have to deal with rent increase after rent increase.The best way to avoid housing inflation when it comes will be to own your own home and have a mortgage with a fixed interest rate. But the timing is key. You don't want to buy that home too early and you don't want to buy that home too late.So when will the exact "right" time be?That is very hard to say.However, to give us all some numbers to think about, the following are 29 absolutely crazy statistics about the housing crisis that show just how nightmarish the U.S. housing market is right now....I'll give you One:

Deutsche Bank is projecting that 48 percent of all U.S. mortgages could have negative equity by the end of 2011.Hmmmm......."Change"?Read the full story here.

• Wal-Mart CEO: Consumers feeling the crunch more and more. (MarketWatch) — Consumers’ spending power has been affected In the face of rising fuel prices and other inflationary pressures.The world’s largest retailer /quotes/comstock/13*!wmt/quotes/nls/wmt WMT +0.50% , which gets 140 million customers in its U.S. Walmart stores alone every week, has seen more shoppers spending more on the first day of the month when they receive their paychecks, Duke said at The Wall Street Journal Viewpoints executive breakfast presentation in New York. “Our customers are running out of money, buying smaller pack sizes and less discretionary items near the end of the month,” Duke said. “It shows greater pressure on consumers. Rising fuel price has been one of the factors that affect consumer spending. The end of paycheck cycle is pronounced among our core customers.” Consumers, still facing a near 9% unemployment rate, also is bracing for other inflationary cost pressures in areas such as fresh foods even as categories such as consumer electronics continue to see price declines, Duke said. “Inflation and fuel price have come into place” along with other economic pressures to hurt consumer spending, he said.With the rising fuel pressures, Duke said one-stop shopping has “become even more important.” Consumers also have become more focused on “value and price” and use technology such as smart phones to compare prices while in stores, he said.Hmmmm......."Change"?Read the full story here.

• Oklahoma Senate Passes Illegal Immigration Bill, Bans Illegals From Working in State, Allows Police Officers to Check Immigration Status.(Reuters).The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would create criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants who work in Oklahoma and those who smuggle them into the state.It would also give police officers more authority to question citizenship status of suspects.The bill, approved by a 37-8 vote, originated in the Oklahoma House and underwent revisions in the Senate. The two chambers must reconcile differences in the bill before it can go to Governor Mary Fallin. Senators faced a deadline on Thursday to pass bills that originate in the House.Oklahoma is one of several states — including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah — where Republicans are pushing immigration measures reminiscent of the one that became law in Arizona a year ago. The Arizona law required police to investigate the immigration status of anyone they detained and suspected of being in the country illegally.Under the Oklahoma measure, local police officers trained through a federal program would be authorized to ask about immigration status.The bill would also make it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants to work, apply for work or solicit work in a public place. Convictions could result in up to a year in jail and/or a $500 fine.

In addition, the measure:

- Targets the common practice of employers hiring day workers who gather along roadways by making it a misdemeanor to stop a vehicle in a roadway and impede traffic while picking up workers. In addition, it prohibits undocumented workers from entering vehicles stopped in a roadway.

- Prohibits employers from hiring workers who do not have proper identification issued by state or federal authorities, but it does not call for any specific punishment for violations.

- Makes human smuggling for profit a felony offense punishable by no less than a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine; it also allows for the forfeiture of vehicles used to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.

- Repeals a section of Oklahoma law that enables undocumented immigrants in the state to pay in-state tuition for college.Hmmm....How long before Holder comes charging on his white horse?Read the full story here.

• Grocers prepare for anti-Walker stickering thugs.(JsOnline). The Wisconsin Grocers Association has alerted members to an anti-Walker product sticker campaign planned for May 1.Opponents of Gov. Scott Walker for months have been urging people to boycott companies linked to donations to Walker's campaign. Now there is an effort under way to expand the boycott nationally to encourage people to go into stores and place stickers on products.Among products targeted for stickers are Johnsonville brats, AngelSoft toilet paper, Sargento cheese and Coors beer.The grocers group has produced a sign that stores can post alerting people that placing stickers on products in stores is illegal. But the trade group's chief executive officer, Brandon Scholz, said he didn't expect the proponents of the sticker campaign to be successful."I would be astounded if this happened to a single store in the state," Scholz said. Aside from the fact that anyone engaged in defacing products risks arrest, there is a logistical challenge, he said."Unless they're going to label thousands of products, it's going to have zero effect," Scholz said.The identity of the backers of the sticker effort is unknown, although many assume it is being orchestrated by public employee unions. This latest effort follows boycotts organized by members of the Wisconsin State Employees Union AFSCME 24.In March, members of the union circulated a letter to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers' rights by putting up a sign in their windows. The letter said the businesses would be boycotted if they didn't comply with the request.Hmmm....Reminds me so much of 1936 Germany and the "brownshirts' their tactics.Read the full story here.

• Assad to Erdogan: Reforms Will Continue. Turkey (Obama regime) Worried.(Memri).According to the pro-AKP Turkish daily Sabah, Turkey's warnings to Damascus forced Bashar al-Assad to take steps. Al-Assad phoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said that he was standing behind his earlier promises. "Reforms in Syria will continue," al-Assad told Erdogan. During their conversation Assad and Erdogan discussed the reasons behind the delay in implementing the necessary reforms. According to Assad the fact that the police force was not strong enough necessitated the involvement of the military, which caused further escalation. Turkey reiterated its readiness to help and the answer was, “We expect Turkey’s support for the establishment of security and stability and for implementation of the reforms”.Turkey’s Ambasador to Damascus Omer Onhon, who was called back for consultations, participated at a high level evaluation meeting at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. It was decided that Turkey will dispatch a special delegation to Damascus today – and not just an envoy. According to sources that participated in the meeting, which preceeds today’s special meeting of Turkey’s National Security Council, following evaluations were made:

- It is difficult to say that Assad has full control of his security forces. There are anti-Turkey elements within the Syrian intelligence.

- Syria is not Libya. There is no civil war yet. The events in Syria are in the realm of street fights.

- Turkey is very worried about the possibility of growth of the turmoil. Instability in Syria would affect Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Israel.

- The international community has not yet demanded the ousting of Assad.

- Assad was late in taking the steps towards reform. It is difficult for him now to suppress the rebels without use of force.

- There are differences of view between Assad and the military. Police is not strong.

- The U.S. (Obama) differs from the EU in its attitude towards Damascus and it does not target Assad.Hmmmm.....Very Strange how Obama and Turkey always favor the Anti Israel countries?Read the full story here.

• Syrian, Iranian Officials: U.S. Will Be Harmed If It Acts Against Assad.(Memri).Syrian and Iranian officials have told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai that the Middle East will be ablaze if there is any attempt to change the balance of power within it, and threatened that harming the regime in Syria will have grave ramifications for Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan, and for the U.S. forces in the region. They said that the Syrian regime can allow mujahideen to infiltrate into Iraq to harm American interests there, and that it will be possible to harm Americans in the regions under Taliban control if they act against the Syrian regime.Read the full story here.

• Threatening and Murdering Muslim porn stars.Sexual liberation is proving to be no match for jihad.(WashingtonTimes).Islamists are targeting Western Muslim porn stars. This is how far the West has fallen: The porn star versus the Koran. Sila Sahin, a daytime TV soap-opera star, has sparked a public firestorm in Germany. The 25-year-old actress appears topless on the current cover of the German edition of Playboy. By Western standards, Ms. Sahin’s behavior is typical, even tame. She is an amoral celebrity hoping to cash in on her fame by baring it all. Been there, done that. Marilyn Monroe, Drew Barrymore, Daryl Hannah - the list goes on of celebrities who have posed for Playboy.Yet Ms. Sahin is Muslim. Raised in Germany by conservative Turkish parents, she is casting her actions as a form of personal liberation, a brave rebellion against the strict moral standards and repressive sexual norms of her traditional religious upbringing.“For years I subordinated myself to various societal constraints,” Ms. Sahin said in Britain’s Sun newspaper. “The Playboy photo shoot was a total act of liberation.”She added: “What I want to say with these photos is, ‘Girls, we don’t have to live according to the rules imposed upon us.’ “I am woman, watch me pose. Ms. Sahin is the new darling of European feminism, while she is despised by Germany’s burgeoning Islamic community. It is calling upon the country’s 3 million Muslims to boycott Ms. Sahin. She has been branded a “Western slut” and “whore.” Her father reportedly is ashamed and shocked by her behavior. Her mother is no longer speaking to her. Many Europeans are simply baffled: Why would any self-respecting parent object to their daughter being in Playboy? Isn’t that the goal of every young woman?Ms. Sahin is its latest victim and a symbol of the West’s decadence. Yet Germans are now waking up to another horror - that many of their fellow Muslims want the actress to be killed.Islamic websites have posted threats. “She must pay,” one said. “She needs to be very careful,” another warned. German TV crews then asked some ordinary Muslims on the street what they thought of Ms. Sahin’s actions. To their shock, some openly espoused the right to honor killing. A kebab shop owner vowed that if she were his daughter, “I would kill her. I really mean that. That doesn’t fit with my culture.”Hmmmm......."The religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• Turkey where Domestic violence flourishes unchallenged.(Hurriyetdaily).She is neither a celebrity nor a prominent politician, but a bodyguard escorts Nahide Opuz at every step, even at the supermarket, to fend off a menace that has proved lethal: herprominent politician, but a bodyguard escorts Nahide Opuz at every step, even at the supermarket, to fend off a menace that has proved lethal: her ex-husband.The 39-year-old mother of two is the first Turkish woman to have a government-funded bodyguard after the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey in 2009 for failing to protect her and her slain mother.Before the landmark case reached the judges in Strasbourg, Opuz was repeatedly beaten and survived both a stabbing and an attempt to run her over with a car.After Turkish authorities repeatedly failed to act on her complaints, her ex-husband killed her mother.Opuz, from the mainly Kurdish southeast, now lives a secluded life."For her, it is impossible to talk about and have a normal life. She has been haunted by violence and death threats all throughout her marriage and afterward," lawyer Meral Danış Beştaş told AFP.Activists say violence against women in the EU-candidate country has reached an alarming level and point the finger at the judicial authorities and the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP.In February and March, 52 women were killed by men, according to a tally by BIAnet, a news site focusing on human rights abuses.The figure was at least 217 for last year, and 27 percent of them were killed after asking for a divorce.In another major shortcoming, Turkey, a country of some 74 million, has only 49 women's shelters even though the law obliges each city with a population over 50,000 to have one.From 2002 to 2009, the number of women killed in pre-meditated murders rose 14-fold, according to Justice Ministry statistics that do not provide details on the perpetrators and circumstances."The problem in Turkey has reached the level of ‘gendercide,’" said Hülya Gülbahar, a leading women's rights activist.Women have long been victims of violence, including honor killings, in a country where patriarchal traditions persist.But critics argue the problem has been compounded in recent years by the AKP's advocacy of conservative values."The AKP's conservatism and Islam target the woman's body and sexuality," said Pınar İlkkaracan, a rights campaigner.Gülbahar also blamed mounting violence on "an intense propaganda that women and men are not equal by creation, and women are therefore responsible for housework and motherhood."Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – who once called women activists "marginals" – came under fire last year when he said, "men and women cannot be equal" but only "complementary to each other."Hmmmm....."Islam the religion of peace",Keep Turkey out of the European Union!Read the full story here.

• "Life and Death in Iran's Prisons".Mostafa Tajzadeh’s Condition Deteriorating, 11 Months Solitary Confinement, Evidence of Torture.(Persian2English).According to the latest reports from Evin prison, Mostafa Tajzadeh’s physical condition has become increasingly worrisome.Mostafah Tajzadeh, a senior member of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization [a reformist organization, not to be confused with banned opposition group MKO], who returned to Evin prison 9 months ago after seven reformists complained about Commander Moshfegh*, is reportedly in terrible physical condition. When Tajzadeh was summoned back to Evin prison to complete his 6 year prison sentence, due to interference by the IRGC’s Intelligence Unit, he was transferred to a cell under supervision of the Intelligence Ministry rather than the general ward reserved for most political prisoners.For a while, Tajzadeh, who was the Political Vice Minister of the Ministry of Interior of Iran in during the administration of Mohammad Khatami, shared a cell with Mohammad Nourizad at Evin’s Ward 2A. However, after Ashura, Nourizad’s hunger strike and being transferred to a hospital, Tajzadeh was once again held in solitary confinement for long periods of time.According to reports from anonymous Green sources at Evin prison, Tajzadeh also shared a cell for several months with an inmate with psychological problems, which was designed to be more difficult to endure than solitary confinement and increase the level of torture and inflict more pressure on him.These sources also report that prisoners who accidentally witnessed Tajzadeh being transferred in recent days expressed grave concern for his well being.In the past two years, Tajzadeh has endured a minimum 15 months in solitary confinement and in cells holding two inmates, 11 months of which show clear evidence of torture while in solitary confinement.According to experts and political activists, Tajzadeh has been treated very poorly by IRGC agents in Evin prison. It appears that IRGC agents are determined to take revenge against this well-known political figure.Read the full story here.

• Hungary's Rising Right.Roma Defenseless against Extremist Vigilantes.(Spiegel).Right-wing extremists have been on the rise for years in Hungary, and the country's Roma population lives in increasing terror. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has preferred to look the other way as vigilante groups have supplanted the rule of law.It was one year ago that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's national-conservative Fidesz party rose to power behind populist calls for law, order and more police. Soon after he was sworn in, he promised a "noticeable increase in public security within two weeks." But now, his government is losing its grip. The police and the judiciary have lost control over the growing right-extremist citizen groups and paramilitary-style gangs. In recent months, extremists have repeatedly staged marches, primarily in eastern Hungary, against "Gypsy criminality." And police in the villages which have been targeted have shown a preference for standing aside. Roma activist Aladár Horváth says that the country has been gripped by a "civil war-like atmosphere" and "rampant racism."

The situation is particularly grim in the village of Gyöngyöspata. On Tuesday, right-wing radicals entered the town and three people were injured in the resulting brawls. Dozens more extremists marched in on Wednesday morning. Fully 100 Roma left the village as a result, according to news agency MTI.As early as the beginning of March, the right-extremist group Szeb Jövöért ("better future") -- the name comes from an old fascist greeting -- showed up in the village. Last week, it was Véderö, likewise a group of right-wing vigilantes, which arrived in Gyöngyöspata to take part in training exercises over Easter weekend. Police banned the event, but two-thirds of the 450 Roma who live in the village left anyway, out of fear of right-wing violence. They spent Easter in a recreation center near Budapest. The exodus was organized by a foundation run by an American businessman in Hungary together with the Red Cross. The government, including State Secretary Zoltán Balog, referred to the trip as a "weekend excursion."

Roma activist Aladár Horváth says the case of Gyöngyöspata is a sign that the Hungarian state has retreated from certain regions and left them to the right-wing vigilantes. "For the Roma there, the rule of law, the police and the judiciary simply don't exist anymore," he says. "They are defenseless."The Hungarian Guard, clad in black uniforms, made a habit of frequently marching through towns and villages to call attention to so-called "Gypsy criminality," often with the raucous approval of non-Roma residents. Consequences for Roma, however, were often grim. In 2008, for example, the Hungarian Guard repeatedly turned up in the village of Tatárszentgyörgy, south of Budapest. In February 2009, a right-wing group set alight a house belonging to a Roma family on the edge of the village. A man and his son were shot to death as they tried to escape from the flames; his wife and daughter were seriously injured by gunfire.The perpetrators, who ultimately murdered a total of six randomly chosen Roma and injured 55 in arson and firearm attacks, were arrested in the summer of 2009. They are currently being tried in Budapest. But horror at their crimes was far from widespread and right-extremist marches continued.Jobbik was able to build on their general election success last April by securing up to 30 percent of the vote in eastern Hungary in municipal elections last autumn. In the small town of Tiszavasvári, population 13,000, the right-extremist mayoral candidate Erik Fülöp received 53 percent of the vote. Party head Gábor Vona has since referred to the town as the "capital of our movement" -- a reference to Munich's Third Reich nickname as "capital of the movement."Hmmmm......1939 Germany ...The Jews .,The gypsies ,the gay and the mentally ill.Read the full story here.

• Iranian Daily: The Saudis' War In Bahrain Is Against God.(Memri).The Iranian daily Jomhouri-e Eslami stated that the war waged by the Saudi royal family in Bahrain is a crime against Islam and a war against God, because during it the Saudis burned copies of the Koran and desecrated mosques and places of worship in Bahrain. The paper added that the Saudi Al-Saud and Bahraini Al-Khalifa royal families' roar of victory over the demonstrators in Bahrain would not last long, because "divine retribution" was imminent. Source.

• Police brace for PA's declaration of state.(Ynet).Police Chief Dudi Cohen says major disruptions of order are expected once Palestinians declare statehood in September. 'We are preparing for worst-case scenario,' he says.As part of the defense establishment's preparation for the Palestinian Authority's projected declaration of independence in September, outgoing Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said Thursday that the police is expecting the worst."The police's orders for September are to prepare for the worst-case scenario, which we are working on right now," he said. "We are conducting a repeat inspection of all of the headquarters. The scenario includes large-scale disruptions of order. "What is certain for September is the place and the date, but I suppose that until then some actions will take place both in the international and political arenas."In light of the recent wave of international recognition for the Palestinian state, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned recently of what might happen once the PA makes the unilateral move."We are facing a political tsunami of which most of the public is unaware," he said. "There is an international movement to recognize a Palestinian state within 1967 borders. It would be a mistake not to take notice of this." Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said that 150 nations are expected recognize a Palestinian state by September. He claimed that 10 Caribbean countries are to declare recognition of the state over the coming month. Hmmmmm......I'm pretty sure you'll need a lot more then police,thank you verry much HUSSEIN!Read the full story here.