IRS Faces Lawsuit After Stealing 60 Million Medical Records.

IRS Faces Lawsuit After Stealing 60 Million Medical Records.HT: GatewayPundit.

The IRS is facing a lawsuit after stealing 60 million medical records from 10 million patients.
Healthcare IT News reported:

The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges. 

According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. 

The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data.

“This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service agents,” the complaint reads. “No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no subpoena authorized the seizure of these records; none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS search. IT personnel at the scene, a HIPPA facility warning on the building and the IT portion of the searched premises, and the company executives each warned the IRS agents of these privileged records,” it continued.

According to the case, the IRS agents had a search warrant for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the John Doe company, however, “it did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter,” the complaint read.

The lawsuit is seeking punitive damages for constitutional violations, as well as $25,000 “per violation per individual” in compensatory damages. Those damages could start at a minimum total of $250 billion.Read the full story here.

Obama 'Admin' Exempt Labor Unions from Stalking, Trespassing Laws.

Obama 'Admin' Exempt Labor Unions from Stalking, Trespassing Laws.(Heritage).At least four states provide exemptions to anti-staljking laws for labor union officials conducting organizing activities, according to a new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Every state in America criminalizes stalking, generally defined as repeated unwanted contact with another individual designed to cause some sort of mental or emotional distress. But Illinois, California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania offer broad exemptions for union officials.
A law in Illinois, for instance, exempts from stalking prohibitions individuals who are engaging in “any controversy concerning wages, salaries, hours, working conditions or benefits . . . the making or maintaining of collective bargaining agreements, and the terms to be included in those agreements.”
Pennsylvania law says that laws against stalking “shall not apply to conduct by a party to a labor dispute.” That could prove troubling for the owners of Philadelphia-based Post Brothers Apartments, who allege that the wife of one of the company’s owners “is routinely followed taking their toddler to pre-school by picketers” involved in a labor dispute.
Some state laws exempt union activities from other criminal prohibitions, such as trespassing. As the Chamber explains, California “explicitly excludes persons engaged in labor union activities” from its strict laws against trespassing, which specify that individuals must leave another’s property when asked.
California prohibits individuals from entering or exiting a private property, or from willingly inhibiting the operations of a business, imposing fines and a potential 90-day imprisonment for those convicted of the latter. But as with its trespassing laws, the state has exempted unions from these laws.
Exemptions to these California laws are the subject of ongoiong litigation, the Chamber explains:

Beginning in October 2008, representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 8 began to picket outside a Ralphs store on a sidewalk owned by Ralphs. According to court documents…the picketers…provoked confrontations with store employees and harassed customers coming to shop, so store employees called the police. Unfortunately for Ralphs, the police refused to remove the protesters, even though the disruptive behavior and confrontations were occurring on the store’s own property.
In response to this situation, Ralphs filed a lawsuit against the union seeking an injunction to end the union tactics. The trial court declined to issue the injunction claiming that it was prevented from doing so because of another California state law prohibiting injunctions against unions. An appeals court, however, ruled in Ralphs’ favor after finding the state law cited by the trial court was unconstitutional because it granted greater rights to unions than to others. As of July 2012, the case was pending appeal in the California Supreme Court.

Hmmmm......Jimmy Hoffa: “President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,”Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 15. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 15. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7 activity. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 109.Source : Here .
• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• Obama Goes Golfing For 7th Straight Week, 68th Round Since Taking Office.Why would this Scriptures quoting self confessed Christian President bother with the flooded Americans?Can a man be more hypocrite?Source.
• Related - Obama Golfs for the Seventh Weekend in a Row.(WhiteHouseDossier).President Obama is skipping church this morning to head to out to the golf course, playing with two of his usual mates – White House staffers Ben Finkenbinder and Marvin Nicholson – as well as guest player Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Negotiator.Okay, I shouldn’t say the president is skipping church. It’s not fair. Because actually, the president never goes to church, so he can’t exactly be said to be skipping it.Gosh, I’m really being hypocritical now, because the fact is, I don’t go to church either. But at least I have a pretty good excuse: I’m Jewish.Hmmmm....Does the scriptures say anything about aiding those who are about to be flooded Mr President?Read the full story here.

• Obama vs. Israel.(EmergingCorruption).By Alan Caruba.Is Obama a Muslim? Does Obama hate Israel? Will Israel be attacked again? Will Iran nuke Israel? Has Maghreb and Middle Eastern turmoil flummoxed the White House? Why did Obama bow to Saudi Arabia’s king? Questions, questions, questions?Watching President Barack Hussein Obama try to pick winners and losers in the Middle East would be amusing if it were not so deadly serious. Not a word about Syria’s slaughter of its protestors. A demand that Libya’s Gadhafi step aside and a quick retreat behind NATO’s skirts. Throwing Egypt’s Mubarack under the bus when saying nothing would have sufficed. And then there was the infamous and inauspicious start to his presidency with the “World Apology Tour” that included a stop in Cairo.

A May 11th Reuters news article published in the Jerusalem Post was titled “Obama may preempt PM’s speech to U.S. Congress.” Benyamin Netanyahu, at the invitation of Speaker John Boehner, will address the Congress on May 24. If President Obama delivers a speech about “political change in the Middle East and North Africa” prior to the PM, it will be impossible to deny that it is a deliberate effort to rebut in advance anything Netanyahu says.President Obama’s special envoy, George Mitchell, whose mission it was to fashion a peace between Israel and the Palestinians just rendered his resignation. He could have saved himself the bother by not even taking the job. The Israelis have given up territory and made countless concessions to the Palestinians without any reciprocity. Now the Palestinians are counting on the United Nations to unilaterally declare them a sovereign state. When not killing Israelis, they kill each other.The United Nations has a long, ugly record of hostility, passing endless resolutions condemning Israel while maintaining the Palestinians as the world’s oldest “refugee” group to the tune of millions via the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The European Union whose World War II member nations allowed their Jews to be frog-walked to Nazi concentration and death camps has also demonstrated its hostility.America, to its credit, has always been Israel’s one true friend. During the campaign, Obama even visited the Wailing Wall to demonstrate his solidarity. Once elected, however, and to the astonishment of voters the new Obama administration was reluctant to even say that militant Islam was the enemy or to even use the word “terrorism.” It was renamed “overseas contingency operations”!Call me a cynic but I believe that the decision to kill Osama bin Laden was not taken until the 2012 elections became a priority. Why? Because three terrorist attacks, including the Fort Hood murders, had previously been swept under the rug by the Obama administration. Moreover, the Obama Justice Department continues to threaten CIA agents with jail for the aggressive interrogation techniques that led to finding bin laden.The Obama administration’s hostility to Israel and the rush to preempt the Israeli Prime Minister’s speech is a reflection the 180 degree reversal of all previous administration’s relations with Israel. The president’s national security advisor, John Brennan, has referred to Jerusalem as “Al Quds”, the Arabic name for the ancient and modern capital of Israel and the State Department continues to send funds to Hamas.New voices out of Egypt are calling for the abrogation of its peace treaty with Israel. Hezbollah has been removing its cache of long-range rockets (courtesy of Iran) from Syria as that regime faces opposition. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization worldwide, has joined hands with the PLO, negating any possibility for peace with Israel.It is bad enough when various nations openly declare their hostility to Israel, but it is very dangerous when the current regime in Washington demonstrates its hostility in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.President Harry Truman recognized Israel when it declared its sovereignty on May 14, 1948. At the time he said, “I have faith in Israel and believe it has a glorious future, not just as a sovereign nation, but as the embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.”Israel and Americans who support it must wait for the November 2012 elections before the threat the Obama administration represents can be removed. Israel’s enemies may not be willing to wait, seeing the present regime and time as the best and possibly the last opportunity to make good on their threat to “wipe it from the map.”Hmmmm......On Thursday when he makes his speech he will stab Jews and Christians once again in the back.Read the full story here.

• "I'll put a spell on you"?Iran's Ahmadinejad 'under a spell': top cleric.(Ahram).Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been put "under a spell" by his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, an ultra-conservative cleric was quoted by local media on Sunday as saying."I've told some of my close friends that I am more than 90 percent certain that (Ahmadinejad) has been put under a spell. This is not natural at all," Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, believed to have once been a mentor of the president, told the weekly Shoma."No sane person does such things unless his free will has been taken away," Mesbah Yazdi said in reference to a crisis that has erupted since mid-April between Ahmadinejad and the hardline conservative camp close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."His actions have no justification. When he has 10 friends... does it make sense to constantly defy nine of them and defend (the actions of the) tenth person?" Mesbah Yazdi asked in an allusion to Mashaie.Mashaie, the president's top advisor and close relative who has worked alongside Ahmadinejad for more than 25 years, has been the target of a barrage of criticism from the conservative camp in past weeks.Mesbah Yazdi said he sensed a "great danger" lingering over Ahmadinejad because of Mashaie."I do not know if it is (because of) hypnotism, a spell or relations with yogis. But there is something wrong," said Mesbah Yazdi."It is almost as if this questionable person (Mashaie) has put this man (Ahmadinejad) under a spell, as if he has wrapped him around his finger," he said.The conservatives also accuse Mashaie of orchestrating the attempted sacking of Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi in mid-April, which was vetoed by the supreme leader.The aborted dismissal triggered an unprecedented political crisis in the higher echelons of Iran's regime, with Ahmadinejad expressing his displeasure by withdrawing from public life and official duties for 10 days.Several conservative websites have recently hinted that he may be connected to practice of dark magic, while the judiciary has announced the arrest of two "sorcerers" while stopping short of linking them to Mashaie.Hmmmm....Who you gonna call?...Ghostbusters!Read the full story here.

• The Maladives their Islamic style waste recycling.Maldives 'trashing' an island.(Al-Jazeera).Country's tourist industry fuelling waste glut, turning coral reef into 7km long rubbish dump. In a bid to battle a growing waste problem, the Maldives has been dumping almost all of its rubbish on a single one of its some 1,200 islands.Thilafushi island has turned into a dump, and environmental activists say the bad practices adopted there are causing contaminants to seep into the Indian Ocean nation's once pristine sea water, and then into the food chain.Hmmmm......Read and see the full story here.

• ‘Arab Spring’ – Winter For Israeli Security.(BigPeace).At the recent White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C., which is the equivalent of D.C.’s Academy Awards celebration – only for “less beautiful” people – President Barack Obama celebrated his roughly two years in office. The crowd of 3,000-plus, filled mostly with leftist journalists and TV and radio commentators, as well as Hollywood types, fawned over Obama, encouraging him to pursue a heightened push for his promised leftist-socialist agenda. In this regard, Seth Meyers, the primo star of “Saturday Night Live” and the master of ceremonies of the event, tried to humorously tweak the president by saying he would be even more electable in 2012 if he stood fast to the “change vision” as enunciated during Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign.Seth Meyers is a liberal Jew. But his call for Obama to pursue an even stronger “change agenda” had to also mean by definition that Obama should pursue even stronger anti-Israel, pro-Muslim policies – which have been a centerpiece of the Obama presidency. While it is regrettable if not tragic that many liberal Jews are insensitive to their heritage and all to easily forget the lessons of the Holocaust, Meyers’ advice to Obama was in the process of taking on even greater significance, if not irony, since plans were then in operation to kill the world’s leading anti-Jew hater, Osama bin Laden. But our “fearless leader” saw the death of OBL as less of an effort to mete out justice for the thousands killed on 9/11 and elsewhere by al-Qaida than a milestone in his push to further Muslim interests worldwide, as well as advance has own prospects for re-election in 2012.Now, this week, as has been reported widely, Obama plans an even greater and stepped-up Muslim outreach as part of his agenda for the next two years.This comes at a time when the so called “Arab Spring” – the current so-called democratic uprising in the Middle East – has produced frightening and negative results. Having pushed Egypt’s pro-American and Israel-friendly president, Hosni Mubarak, out of office, only to have installed forces sympathetic to the granddaddy of terrorist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has pledged the destruction of Israel, while ignoring the opposition freedom movement in the key country in the region, Iran, Obama’s Middle East foreign policy furthers his Muslim agenda, by unleashing forces hostile to Israel and the United States.This is all happening at a time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with Obama in the White House and address a joint session of Congress. This moment is crucial, because as part of his Muslim outreach, Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are planning – if Netanyahu does not roll over to their Middle East pro-radical Muslim agenda – to cut Israel down to size by imposing a Palestinian state on the Jewish nation at the General Assembly meeting of the United Nations this fall.In the past, I have criticized Republicans, the professed opposition party, for not doing more to support Israel during this crucial and pivotal time. While I applaud House Speaker Boehner for being instrumental in inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, Republicans need to urgently make Israeli, and thus American, security a key issue of their agenda. Thus far, few Republicans, save for Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and a handful of others, have pushed for this. Not coincidentally, Palin proudly wore a joint American and Israeli flag pin to the White House Correspondents Dinner.the time has come to get serious in Iran. Reports are that the Revolutionary Guard, the mullahs’ equivalent of the Nazi SS, is in a rebellious mood with the mullahs. We should try to foment more discontent inside of the Revolutionary Guard and arm opposition pro-freedom groups, just as we have in Libya (ironically a virtually meaningless country strategically), to begin in earnest the overthrow of the regime. If Libya, then why not even more so Iran – which, along with Israel, holds the key to greater stability in the Middle East?Republicans, sympathetic Democrats in Congress, and concerned Jews, Christians and Persians everywhere must urgently take an active role at this time, as the security of Israel, the United States and the world hangs in the balance. Obama’s Muslim outreach must not be allowed to morph further into what it truly is: a cleverly packaged anti-Semitic and anti-Christian design to harm Israel, Jews and Christians, to beat down the anti-Muslim secular revolution in Iran and to further the radical Muslim revolution worldwide. Obama may be born only half Muslim, but his actions are totally pro-Muslim! They must be stopped in their tracks now!Hmmmmm......Why do you think he got money in 2008 for his election campaign from Palestine?And why the weekly phone calls to Erdogan,who happens to be Ahmadinejad's best buddy?Read the full story here.

• When will Caliph President Obama release an "Outreach to Coptic Christians"?(NationalReview).The Arab spring unleashes Islamists on Egyptian Christians.Screaming “With our blood and soul, we will defend you, Islam,” jihadists stormed the Virgin Mary Church in northwest Cairo last weekend. They torched the Coptic Christian house of worship, burned the nearby homes of two Copt families to the ground, attacked a residential complex, killed a dozen people, and wounded more than 200: just another day in this spontaneous democratic uprising by Muslim hearts yearning for freedom.In the delusional vocabulary of the “Arab Spring,” this particular episode is known as a sectarian “clash.” That was the Washington Post’s take. Its headline reads “12 dead in Egypt as Christians and Muslims clash” — in the same way, one supposes, that a mugger’s fist can be said to “clash” with his victim’s face. The story goes on, in nauseating “cycle of violence” style, to describe “clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians” that “left” 12 dead, dozens more wounded, “and a church charred” — as if it were not crystal clear who were the clashers and who were the clashees, as if the church were somehow combusted into a flaming heap without some readily identifiable actors having done the charring.The thugs in question were Egyptian Muslims. Were they representative of all Egyptian Muslims? No, but it would be more accurate to portray them as such than to suggest, as the Pollyanna narrative holds, that Egypt (and Tunisia, and Yemen, and Syria, and Lebanon, and Algeria, and …) is teeming with legions of Gamal al-Madisons.This is the Egypt where the toppling of the pro-American, pro-peace Mubarak regime was celebrated by the rape of CBS correspondent Lara Logan amid the familiar chants of “Allahu Akbar!” The same Egypt where, just a few weeks ago, Islamist factions wiped out the proponents of democracy by a whopping 78–22 margin in a referendum on the formation of a new government. The result ensures a Muslim Brotherhood hammerlock on the new parliament, and perhaps even the presidency — a Brotherhood leader having announced this week that he will run against the popular but weak Amr Mousa.Hmmm....This is the Muslim Brotherhood the Obama regime already pledged 1,57 Billion Dollar to for 2012.Read the full story here.

• The Facts about Obama's War On Domestic Oil and Gas.(WolfHowling).Let's go over some of the eye-opening facts about our gas and oil industry:

- Oil Prices: The major oil companies do not set the price of oil. That price is set independently by traders based on world supply and demand, the strength of the dollar, stability in oil producing regions, and weather events, among other factors.

- Oil Usage - Transportation: Per the DOE, oil accounts for 94% of the energy used in our transportation sector.

- Oil As Our Single Largest Source Of Energy: Per the DOE, oil is our single most important source of energy, accounting for 35.6% of all energy consumed in America. In comparison, solar and wind, added together account for less than 1% of all energy consumed in the U.S. There is a reason for that. Wind and solar energy are vastly more inefficient and costly than oil, gas and coal. They are not commecially viable without substantial subsidies.

- Profit Margin: While oil companies' profits may be vast, that is because their volume is vast. America uses over 20 billion barrels of oil daily. The actual profit margin across the oil industry averages less than 6 cents on the dollar. By comparison, Obama's favorite crony capitalist, GE, has a profit margin nearly 33% higher.

- Oil Companies and Taxes: The oil and gas industry is a cash cow for government. Oil and gas companies pay, on average, more than 40% of their profits in taxes. To put a number to this, over the past three years, the oil and gas industry has paid over $242 billion in taxes. Obama's favored business, GE, paid no taxes last year.

- Oil Companies and Jobs: Domestic gas and oil companies play a huge role in our private sector, supporting "9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy."

- Reinvesting Profits: Exploring and exploiting new sources of oil is a time consuming and very expensive process. For instance, Exxon, in the first quarter of 2011, made an after tax profit of $10.65 billion. Of that, Exxon invested "$7.8 billion into capital and exploration."

- Our Trade Deficit and Foreign Oil: We are, today, transferring vast amounts of our wealth outside of the U.S. to purchase foreign oil. Approximately 62% of our monthly trade deficit comes from the purchase of foreign oil.

And then there are the law suits charging that carbon dioxide is a pollutant for which emitters are liable. Their ultimate goal is to have the courts take over our nation's energy policy. Whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant and whether it is causing "global warming" are scientific questions very much at issue and that courts are unqualified to answer. Even assuming arguendo that CO2 is a pollutant causing global warming, what to do about it is a political question with massive ramifications for our economy. It is not a question to be decided by our Courts, but by our elected representatives.Yet our federal judiciary, from the Supreme Court on down - none of whom are scientists - has shown an avid willingness to hear and decide such cases. The EPA is regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant today under the Clean Air Act because five members of the Supreme Court felt qualified to pass judgment on this issue. Moreover, enterprising lawyers have brought suits against power companies under a nuisance theory because they are contributing to carbon dioxide in the air. These law suits are currently in the court system. If the lawyers succeed, the Courts then become the single most important arbiters of energy policy in America. On top of this, we have seen in the past week NASA's Jim Hansen, the "Bernie Madoff of climate science," file lawsuits with children as the plaintiffs seeking to have courts take complete control over our energy policy in the name of Global Warming.While Obama's attempt to punish our domestic oil and gas industry for daring to make a profit is not going to go anywhere, his and the left's larger war on that industry is "untethered from the facts." We are all going to ultimately pay the price. I am praying that we are able to elect someone in 2012 who is both capable of articulating a coherent energy policy and who is able to take our courts and the radical left out of the business of deciding our nation's energy policy.Hmmm....The 2012 election question is dead simple and serious :will you vote for "Dictatorship or Democracy"?Read the full story here.

• Union Members Blow Whistle on Labor Bosses Stealing, Promptly Beaten by Thugs, Receive Death Threats, Dead Rat Thrown in Locker.(NYDailynews).Unionized phone company employees say they were beaten or threatened after they accused their labor bosses of looting their coffers through various scams.One member of Communications Workers of America Local 1101 said that after he reported a time-sheet padding scheme, a thug beat him so badly his spine was injured.Another says he found a dead rat in his locker, while a third said a union officer warned that suspected informants should be brought off company property and "taken care of."The threats come to light as the U.S. Labor Department is probing charges that union bosses lined their pockets at the rank-and-file's expense.Accusations include an unauthorized 401(k) plan union officers gave themselves funded with members' dues, along with hefty weekly allowances, lavish expense accounts and six-figure salaries, union documents show.The feds are also looking into allegations that double-dipping union bosses illegally received pay from Verizon and the local for the same hours, sources said."This was union greed and that's worse than corporate greed," said Kevin Condy, a reform movement leader of the 6,700-member local that represents mostly Verizon workers in Manhattan and the Bronx. "These guys acted like they felt they were entitled."And, some members charge, the bosses retaliated when threatened with exposure.In August, business agent Patrick Gibbons said he received death threats and his office was vandalized after he complained that union bosses were misappropriating cash."They were warning me that if I continue to complain about their finances, they would have me killed," Gibbons wrote in an open letter to union members.Hmmmm.....Sounds like 'Chicago politics'.Read the full story here.

• Former Dem Rep. Cynthia McKinney: “The First Afro-American President of the United States Has Ashamed us All”. Former member of the US House of Representatives Cynthia Anne McKinney said she is truly ashamed of her country’s policies.Addressing an international conference dubbed ‘International Coalition against Terrorism for Fair Peace’ here in Tehran on Saturday, the former US House member urged Washington to avoid imposing its will on the world nations through the use of force, violence and weapons.“As an American, I am upset with the policies of my country, but the measures adopted by the first Afro-American president of the United States has ashamed us all,” she said.“If there is no truth, there won’t be any justice, and today the US policies are rooted in lies, injustice and war,” she continued."(the late) Martin Luther King once said that the US has guided missiles, but has no guided man," McKinney added.Hmmmm......"The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." Martin Luther King, Jr. Read the full story here.

• Turkish Association in Germany Calls for Autonomous Government for Turks.(StopTurkey).This is my translation of statements made by a Turkish association in Germany calling itself "Generation Zukunft e.V." (Future Generation). The association is organising a protest against Thilo Sarrazin in Berlin on June 21.

We are Turks or Turkish-descended students, employees, employers and academics who live and work in Germany. Just as other citizens feel attached to their home, citizens of Turkish descent also feel attached to this country, their country of origin. Within the framework of the laws of this country, we are proud to say: "Happy those who call themselves Turks." We are aware that we bear a responsibility not only to ourselves, but to Turkey. For this reason we have come together to call "Generation Zukunft e.V." (Future Generation Registered Association) into being.(...) The organisation of young Muslim intellectuals "Generation Zukunft e.V." calls on all Turks in Germany:

You hired us as guest workers. We built your streets; set up your companies; repaired your houses. We worked day and night for the well-being of Germans, risked our health, served them, and today they want to hold us to account for it, saying it would have been cheaper if we had never immigrated to Germany as guest workers... They drum into us that we are not allowed to speak Turkish when we're sitting with our brothers and sisters in the playground. We are forbidden from living in a Turkish spirit or practising our centuries-old culture. They take our identity and force us to eat disgusting pig meat. German children always get the best toys and enjoy more freedom than our children of Turkish descent. A torture without comparison, a machinery of oppression and assimilation policy - planned and controlled by the revolting German establishment in order to crush Turks year after year for decades and to break their will and individuality. We are your slaves and prisoners, your prey animals... We want autonomy for the Turks in Germany with the objective of independent government. We want place signs in Germany to be in Turkish. In supermarkets the information must be written in Turkish script... We want North-Rhine Westphalia to be the first federal state to become an autonomous Turkish republic. At a later stage, Berlin should also become an autonomous Turkish territory and the federal government should move to Bonn. From a demographic perspective, Turks represent a considerable part of the new generation of the German population. Seen in this way, we are the future of Germany... The German government should slowly start to think deeply about who is sitting in its lap...This sounds almost too over-the-top to be true. But it does appear to be a genuine, registered association in Germany. You can see its registration here. Representatives of the organisation have previously been quoted in the Turkish press. And the coordination committee of the Turkish association wrote the following to the German organisation Christliche Mitte (Christian Centre), whose periodical brought this to light here.Don't forget. As Germany lay in rubble and ashes, the foreigners came to build the country back up. The foreigners (Turks) brought the Germans prosperity. Without the foreigners, Germans would still be standing in their rubble today. From that follows the logical conclusion: the land belongs to those who built it. Foreigners are nationals. We want: to vote here, to work here, to participate in decisions here. Therefore: the next federal chancellor and ministers must be Turkish!!! The cross must disappear! Islam is the strongest force; Islam will prevail.Hmmmm...."We don't want to take over your country'?How long before the Turks in America demand the same?Read the full story here.

• NORWAY: Blonde girls have to die their hair brown, children can’t carry salami in their lunch boxes for fear of being beaten up.(BNI).Muslim immigrants are terrorizing native Norwegians, who are fleeing in droves. An ethnic and cultural self-annihilation is taking place and the left wing cultural relativists and political elite are allowing it to happen.Read and see the full story here.

• Brussels: Half of Muslim students are antisemitic.(IslaminEurope).Half of the Muslim students in Brussels are antisemitic, according to a study 'Jong in Brussel' by the Youth Research Platform. The chapter on antisemitism was written by sociologist Mark Elchardus of the VUB. The study was conducted by the universities of Ghent, Leuven and the Dutch-speaking VUB. It polled 2,837 students in 32 Dutch-speaking high schools in Brussels.About half of the Muslim respondents in the survey agreed with the following statements:

1. Jews want to dominate everything (total: 31.4%, Muslims: 56.8%, Non-Muslims: 10.5%)
2. Most Jews think they're better than others (total: 29.9%, Muslims: 47.1%, Non-Muslims: 12.9%)
3. If you do business with Jews, you should be extra careful (total: 28.6%, Muslims: 47.5%, Non-Muslims: 12.9%)
4. Jews incite to war and blame others (total: 28.4%, Muslims: 53.7%, Non-Muslims: 7.7%)

Mark Elchardus says that the non-Muslim/ethnic Belgians responses in this study are comparable to similar polls in Flanders. "What is alarming is that you can describe half of the Muslim students as antisemitic, which is very high. What's worse is that those anti-Jewish feelings have nothing to do with a low educational level or social disadvantage, which is the case by racist Belgians. The antisemitism is theologically inspired and there's a direct link between being Muslim and having antisemitic feelings."Catholics and Protestants were also more anti-Jewish than secular students, but not as much as Muslims. Religious and practicing Christians scored on average 12 points more than the secular students. Religious Muslims scored 28 points higher. However, while very religious Christians were much more antisemitic than less religious Christians, there was no such difference among Muslims.Elchardus says that this antisemitism is also affected by the international context and the Middle Eastern conflict, though he does not accept this as the only reason. Do we become anti-Muslim when we see the Middle-Eastern dictators, he asks.Many Muslim youth live in an environment in which their families, friends and media do not curb antisemitism and possibly even encourage it.More data from the study itself:

 37% of Turkish youth said that they didn't want any Jews allowed into their country, and 19.5% only wanted to allow them in as visitors. More than half of Turkish youth were against granting Jews citizenship. 13% were ready to be friends with Jews.61% of Moroccan youth were ready to accept Jews as citizens in their country, and 22.5% were ready to be friends with Jews.Hmmmm......."Half of Muslim students are antisemitic"......And the other half practiced Al-taqiyya?Read the full story here.

• Video - French film crew tries to do a story on a local Islamic Cultural Center but gets beaten up by Muslim thugs.(BNI).Hmmm....."The religion of peace'.This will help Marine Le Penn and the Front Nationale big time!Read and see the full 'story' here.

• Europe - Dark burkas ahead!Giulio Meotti on YnetNews, 2 May 2011: Europe risks losing all its precious gifts: human dignity, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, rule of law, separation of state and mosque. Across Europe there are dozens of journalists, cartoonists and writers who are living under terrorist threats.Read the full story here.

• Showdown in the Shia Corridors of Power.(FamilySecurityMatters).“A nation from the East will rise and prepare the way for the coming of the Mahdi”-Prophet Muhammad, Hadith tradition.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s defiance of Ayatollah Khameini, Iran’s Supreme Leader, is no laughing matter. An 11-day strike by President Ahmadinejad has ended with the arrest of 25 of his associates on the charge of sorcery – a charge which carries the penalty of death. Ahmadinejad’s Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim Masheia, lies at the heart of the controversy. Rumor has it that “Mashaei allegedly occasionally enters a trance-like state to communicate with the Twelfth Imam or will sometimes randomly say ‘hello’ to no one at all and then explain that the Twelfth Imam just passed by.”Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".Following the 2009 elections, Ayatollah Khameini rejected Ahmadinejad’s decision to raise Mashaei to the position of First Vice President. Ahmadinejad eventually relented and made him Chief of Staff.President Ahmadinejad’s political gyrations in support of his Chief of Staff were read as a breach of the traditional power-sharing agreement in Iran. In response Ayatollah Khameini, as the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Establishment of Iran, has apparently chosen to purge the propaganda arm of a millennial cult known as the Hojatieh Society. The Hojatieh’s influence in Ahmadinejad’s inner circle is well documented. Dore Gold captures the essence of the Hojatieh Society’s political drive for power in his recent release The Rise of Nuclear Iran:

Founded in 1954, its twofold mission was to fight the Bahai faith and pave the way for the reappearance of the Mahdi. It did not accept Khomeini’s doctrine of velayat-e faqih, the rule of the jurisprudent, since the arrival of the Mahdi make a cleric to represent him in the interim unnecessary.Mubarak’s fall from power in Egypt on February 11th 2011 prompted the Iranian President Ahmadinejad to remark on the Arab Spring, “This is a global revolution, managed by the imam of the ages.” Ahmadinejad’s speech in Tehran’s Azadi Square sent alarm bells through the Qom Establishment. If the Mahdi, the Hidden Imam, had indeed returned from his occultation as Ahmadinejad was suggesting, than the institution of the vilayet-e faqih, the beating heart of the Khomeini Revolution, was no longer the source of authority in Iran. The release of an Ahmadinejad-sponsored documentary in mid-March advanced the notion that the Mahdi was orchestrating the Arab Spring.Ahmadinejad may survive the purge. Indeed, the purge may be nothing more than a dramatic hoax to satisfy Western criticism of Iran’s colorful past in the industry of state-sponsored terrorism. Only a revisionist history of Iran can dismiss the Islamic Establishment of Iran’s support of organizations ranging from Hezbollah to Hamas to Al Qaeda. At present, the only certainty is that any and all aspirations of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei to win the Iranian Presidency have been sacrificed to the geopolitics of regional hegemony.The Western world is now witness to the spectacle of the Islamic Establishment of Iran achieving the status of “rational” actor by charging upstarts within its administration of sorcery.Hmmmm......Perhaps it's time to call in some US "Ghostbusters"?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Ancient 'debit card' discovered in Saxony-Anhalt.(TheLocal).Archaeologists in the town of Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, have unearthed a 453-year-old wooden "tally stick" used to keep track of debts.“It’s something of a rare find in Europe” said archaeologist Andreas Hille from the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.The antiquated debt counter measures 30 centimetres in length and displays 23 notches, with both a name and the date 1558 visible.Archaeologists made the exciting find during excavations in the small easterly university town of Wittenberg, made famous by the Protestant theologian Martin Luther.The well-preserved tally stick was used in the Middle Ages to count the debts owed by the holder in a time when most people were unable to read or write.“Debts would have been carved into the stick in the form of small notches. Then the stick would have been split lengthways, with the creditor and the borrower each keeping a half,” explained Hille. The two halves would then be put together again on the day repayment was due in order to compare them, with both sides hoping that they matched.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• HT:BigGovernment.Video : Obama: Wisconsin is Launching an ‘Assault on Unions’.Shortly after the state of Arizona began cracking down on illegal immigration, President Obama and company went on the offensive against the state.Now, with the Gov. Scott Walker taking on unions in Wisconsin, it was only a matter of time before Obama gave his two cents. He has taken the side of the state government unions against Walker’s plan that would force state workers to cover half of their pension contributions and 13 percent of their own health insurance cuts. The plan would also strip government workers of the power to collectively bargain for higher wages unless the public approved it through a vote.When asked about the public employee benefits cuts in Wisconsin and the resulting union protests President Obama said he saw the cuts as an “assault on unions”.After these comments it seems that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is going to become the next conservative sweetheartHmmmmm......."Don't touch my Socialist troops"?Read the full story here.

• US pledges $150 million to help Egypt's transition.The United States will spend $150 million to assist Egypt's democratic transformation after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday."It's very clear that there's a great deal of work ahead to ensure an orderly, democratic transition. It's also clear that Egypt will be grappling with immediate and long-term economic challenges," Clinton told reporters after briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill."I'm pleased to announce today we will be reprogramming $150 million for Egypt to put ourselves in a position to support the transition there and assist with their economic recovery," Clinton said.The United States has urged Egypt's military rulers to push ahead with plans for democratic reforms that can ultimately lead to free and fair elections in the country, which under Mubarak was a longtime U.S. ally.Clinton said Bill Burns, the under-secretary of State for political affairs, and David Lipton, a White House adviser on international economic affairs, would travel to Egypt next week to consult with various stakeholders on how too use the funds.Hmmmmm......Don't tell me he's giving the Muslim Brotherhood 150 Million Dollar US taxpayer money?Read the full story here.

• HT:ForeignPolicy.Ros-Lehtinen: Obama proposed “major concession to enemies of the Jewish state”.The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee lashed out at the Obama administration on Thursday over reports the United States offered to support a U.N. Security Council statement critical of Israeli settlements.The Obama administration's policy has long been to oppose much of Israel's ongoing settlement activity. But the revelation that the administration contemplated criticizing Israel at the U.N. has many members of Congress incensed, especially Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). "Support for this anti-Israel statement is a major concession to enemies of the Jewish State and other free democracies. It telegraphs that the U.S. can be bullied into abandoning critical democratic allies and core U.S. principles," she said in a statement on Thursday. "Pretending that criticism of Israel is OK if it comes in a ‘Presidential Statement' instead of a resolution isn't leadership, it's unacceptable. Twisting and turning and tying yourself in knots to avoid using our veto to defend our allies and interests isn't leadership, it's unacceptable. The administration should change course, stand unequivocally with Israel, and publicly pledge to block any anti-Israel UN Security Council action," she said.Quick congressional criticism of the administration based on the report isn't limited to Republicans. "This is too clever by half," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). "Instead of doing the correct and principled thing and vetoing an inappropriate and wrong resolution, they now have opened the door to more and more anti-Israeli efforts coming to the floor of the U.N. The correct venue for discussions about settlements and the other aspects of a peace plan is at the negotiating table. Period." Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), the House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops subcommittee ranking Democrat, agreed. "Compromising our support for Israel at the U.N. is not an option. The United States must veto the U.N. resolution on settlements to make clear we will not support such a blatant attempt to derail the peace process," she said.Hmmmm........"They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• Big Brother going NANO? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the army's latest $4million spy drone disguised as a hummingbird, measuring just 16 centimetres.A pocket-sized spy drone disguised as a hummingbird has been unveiled by a major Pentagon contractor measuring just 16 centimetres and weighing less than an AA battery.The mini spy plane can fly up to 11 miles an hour and took five years to develop at a cost of $4million.Army chiefs hope to use the drone’s tiny camera to spy on enemy positions in war zones without arousing detection and eventually deploy it into both rural and urban environments.Around 86 per cent of its orders come from the Government, meaning last year it was paid a whopping $215million from the Department of Defense.The company, based in California with 732 full-time employees, expects to sell even more drones to the Government once rules are relaxed to allow spying within America.The unveiling of the Hummingbird comes just weeks after the same company launched its $30million Global Observer with a wingspan similar to a Boeing 747 which can survey an area as large as Afghanistan.Chris Fisher, project manager at AeroVironment explained: ‘It gives the guy on the ground the opportunity to see what’s on the other side of the hill. There’s only so much you can see with binoculars. A small [drone] can get up and go over the hill. That gives the ground soldier a capability that is huge.He added: ‘One of the things we benefit from is the average young person in the military has hours and hours of video games experience. They are attuned to holding these things in their hands; moving the joysticks around with their thumbs and that’s how our planes are flown. To an 18-year-old it’s extremely simple.Hmmmm.....Why the sudden increase of spying capabilities on American civilians?Is the police state near?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Mavi Marmara Delegation Leader Nurettin Sirin Writes From Tehran: “ALLAHUAKBAR! Now Is The Time To Eliminate Israel..!”In an article titled “ALLAHUAKBAR! Now Is The Time To Eliminate Israel..! sent from Tehran, the radical Islamist activist Nureddin Sirin wrote, “As guests of the International Islamic Radio and Television Union, we are here in Tehran, together with the Mavi Marmara freedom fleet’s mujahedeen, ghazis and families of the shahids, to participate in the anniversary ceremonies of the (Iranian) Islamic Revolution, and to celebrate with unparalleled joy and pride, the ousting of the Pharoah Mubarak through the holy intifada of freedom-loving Egyptian people. We are sending (to Turkey) our proud salutations from this land of revolution.“We are delivering to you the promising words of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that ‘only a short time is left for the building of a Middle East without Israel or America in it’ and we are praying for the quick arrival of that bright day, when all of us will meet in a free al Quds (Jerusalem). We are sending our salutations to the people of Palestine – that feels the utmost joy for the demise of Egypt’s pharoah Mubarak – and the defiant Muslim heroes of Gaza.”Sirin ends his article with the following lines:“(…) Salutations to the shimmering dawn of revolution, that’s upon the world of Islam!“Salutations to the Free Quds!“Salutations to a Middle East, without Israel!“WAIT FOR US ISRAEL, EVERYWHERE YOU’RE WAITING,“WAIT FOR US ISRAEL, EVERYWHERE WHERE YOU ARE NOT WAITING..!”Hmmmm.....Yup real peacefull humanitarian group.Read the full story here.

• Human Rights Watch Appoints ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ to MidEast Advisory Board.Jerusalem – Signaling the continuing decline of the organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has appointed Shawan Jabarin, an alleged senior activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, to its Middle East Advisory Board. This appointment, as first reported in the Daily Beast, is further evidence of the moral collapse and corruption in HRW, says Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, a research institution that tracks NGOs.“This appointment ends any façade that Human Rights Watch is a moral ‘watchdog’ organization,” says Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “Mr. Jabarin has ties to the PFLP terror group, which specialized in aircraft hijackings and carries out suicide bombings and political assassinations. He also heads an organization, Al Haq, which is among the leaders of delegitimization campaigns targeting Israel. This appointment is a slap in the face from HRW Executive Director Ken Roth and Chairman James Hoge to terror victims, Israelis, Jews, and others who seek to uphold universal human rights.”With this appointment, HRW blatantly disregards decisions by the Israeli Supreme Court and other countries that have affirmed Jabarin’s terror links. Jordan also has denied him exit visas because of his alleged ties to the PFLP.As reported by NGO Monitor, the Israeli Supreme Court in June 2007 referred to Jabarin as a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a human rights worker by day and a terrorist by night. In 2008, the Supreme Court upheld a visa denial because of his terror connections.“By appointing Jabarin, HRW has contemptuously dismissed the widely respected Israeli Supreme Court” Steinberg adds. “The assault on the courts is a key component of the strategy of demonizing Israel, as developed at the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference. HRW played a central role in Durban, and this is another step in the organization’s implementation of this strategy.”“Unfortunately, Jabarin’s appointment is the latest and most egregious immoral act for an organization that already lost its moral compass,” adds Steinberg. “HRW founder Robert Bernstein has denounced the biases and failures of his own organization, lamenting the organization’s failure to hold accountable closed societies and oppressive regimes. The appointment of an individual with ties to terror reinforces Mr. Bernstein’s assessment of HRW.”As donations decreased amid the scandals, George Soros rescued HRW with a 10-year, $100 million donation. Mr. Soros also funds Al Haq.“Perhaps Mr. Soros and his cohorts should reevaluate their contributions, particularly as these groups strengthen ties with individuals linked to terror,” Steinberg adds. “This is the antithesis of advancing universal human rights.”Hmmmmm.....When will this "travesty of justice" end?Read the full scandal story here.

• Bahrain military locks down capital.Following deadly pre-dawn raid on Manama's central square, army says it has 'key parts' of city under control. Protesters, banned from gathering, chant 'regime must go'.Army patrols and tanks locked down the capital of Bahrain after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical officials said four people were killed.Hours after the attack on Manama's main Pearl Square, the military announced a ban on gatherings, saying on state TV that it had "key parts" of the capital under its control. After several days of holding back, the island nation's Sunni rulers unleashed a heavy crackdown, trying to stamp out the first anti-government upheaval to reach the Arab states of the Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The move was a sign of how deeply the Sunni monarchy - and other Arab regimes in the Gulf - fear the repercussions of a prolonged wave of protests, led by members of the country's Shiite majority. Tiny Bahrain is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the region. It hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet, which is a critical counterbalance to Iran. Bahrain's rulers and their Arab allies depict any sign of unrest among their Shiite populations as a move by neighboring Shiite-majority Iran to expand its clout in the region.But the assault may only further enflame protesters. In the wake of the bloodshed, angry demonstrators chanted "the regime must go" and burned pictures of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa outside the emergency ward at Salmaniyah hospital, the main state medical facility. The hospital was thrown into chaos by a stream of dozens of wounded from Pearl Square with gaping wounds, broken bones and respiratory problems from tear gas. Men and women lay in shock on stretchers, heads bleeding, arms in casts, faces bruised as they were shuttled around by nurses. At the entrance, women wrapped in black robes embraced each other and wept.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned her Bahraini counterpart on Thursday to express deep concern after the violent raid, the State Department said. "She expressed deep concern about recent events and urged restraint moving forward. They discussed political and economic reform efforts to respond to the citizens of Bahrain," a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.Hmmmm........How much damage has Obama done with his "Outreach to Muslims"?Read the full story here.Tanks in Bahrain streetsVideo footage here.

• Wind Power FAIL!Northern New Brunswick wind turbines frozen solid.FREDERICTON — A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a potential supply of renewable energy for NB Power.The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, located 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, N.B. has been completely shutdown for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades.GDF SUEZ Energy, the company that owns and operates the site, is working to return the windmills to working order, a spokeswoman says."We can't control the weather," Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas. "We're looking to see if we can cope with it more effectively, through the testing of a couple of techniques."She says the conditions in northern New Brunswick have wreaked havoc on the wind farm this winter."For us, cold and dry weather is good and that's what's typical in the region. Cold and wet weather can be a problem without any warmer days to prompt thawing, which has been the case this year."This weather pattern has been particularly challenging."Wintery conditions also temporarily shutdown the site last winter, just months after its completion. Some or all of the turbines were offline for several days, with "particularly severe icing" blamed.The accumulated ice alters the aerodynamics of the blades, rendering them ineffective as airfoils. The added weight further immobilizes the structures.Vitek says workers are trying to find a way to prevent ice buildup from occurring again in the future. The shutdown has not had any effect on employment at the site, which provides 12 permanent jobs.Hmmmm......No word if they use electric cars by chance?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.Betrayed! Tea Party Politicians Vote To Renew The Patriot Act As America Is Slowly Transformed Into A Big Brother Police State Worse Than George Orwell’s 1984.For a moment, imagine that you are awakened one night by a heavily-armed team of federal agents dressed in all black breaking into your home. As you confront them, they hand you a piece of paper that says that your son has been identified as a "terrorist" and that they are there to take him away. They pull your son out of bed, they throw him on the floor and the use a taser on him repeatedly. Then they handcuff him and haul him away without telling you a thing about where they are taking him. Your son suddenly has no rights because the Patriot Act supersedes the U.S. Constitution. That's right - because your son has been identified as a "terrorist" because of something that he has said on the Internet he no longer has any constitutional rights. Your underage son is held indefinitely and is subjected to "enhanced interrogation" because he has been identified as a "threat". You are not able to get your son back for years even though it turns out that he is completely and totally innocent. If you think that such a thing cannot happen to you then you are a fool, because this kind of thing is happening over and over across the United States and it is all legal because of the Patriot Act.America is rapidly turning into a horrible Big Brother police state and most of our politicians are fully supporting this transformation. In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives gave us quite a Valentine's Day gift the other day when it voted to once again extend provisions of the Patriot Act that allow for domestic surveillance of American citizens, wire tapping of American citizens and warrantless searches of the homes of American citizens.What was perhaps most disappointing was that a large number of "Tea Party politicians" cast votes in favor of renewing the Patriot Act provisions.The majority of Americans were absolutely disgusted when the Bush administration instituted the Patriot Act and many other police state measures and they voted for Barack Obama hoping for something different.Well, it turns out that Barack Obama has been even worse.Many of us had hoped that Tea Party politicians would be different and would stand up for our liberties and freedoms, but now we can clearly see that many of them will not.In the past, Americans would ready George Orwell's 1984 and would think that nothing like that could ever happen in the United States of America.Well, it is happening in the United States of America.Are you going to stand up and say anything about it?Read the full story here.

• Egypt: Iran naval vessels submit request to transit Suez.Egyptian Foreign Ministry confirms that authorities received request; Suez Canal official says Defense Ministry to process application.In Tehran, Iran's official English-language Press TV cited an Iranian naval official saying the two warships are to pass through the canal. The official said Tehran was in contact with Egypt about the ships.Earlier, a canal official had said the Iranians had withdrawn a request to transit the waterway, without giving an explanation for the application's withdrawal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.Ahmed al-Manakhly, a senior Suez Canal official, said international agreements regulate the traffic through the canal. He said that only in the case of war with Egypt may vessels be denied transit through the waterway.Al-Manakhly noted that Iran and Egypt are not at war, and said the final decision on whether to grant the vessels' passage lies with the Defense Ministry.He said he will not allow any warships to transit the canal without approval from the Defense Ministry.The Suez Canal official identified the two vessels as the Alvand, a frigate, and the Kharq, a supply ship, and said they were en route to Syria. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Iran was about to send two naval vessels through the Suez Canal for the first time in years, calling it a "provocation."Hmmmmm........Read the full story here.More here.

• Pakistan Delays Decision on U.S. Murder Suspect.A Pakistani court on Thursday delayed a hearing to decide whether a U.S. man charged with murdering two locals should be granted diplomatic immunity, triggering fresh tension among officials over the Asian country's ties to the United States.Raymond Davis, who the American government insists is a diplomat immune to local prosecution and should be immediately repatriated to the U.S., was arrested in Pakistan for last month's murder of two Pakistani nationals in Lahore. Thursday's decision by a Lahore court to put off hearing the case until March 14 means the Davis case will inevitably drag on, dashing hopes among senior officials in both Islamabad and Washington for a quick resolution."I leave here with confidence that if people act with both conviction and courage and vision, we will be able to move forward, said Kerry before leaving Pakistan on Wednesday. "I look forward to the next few days hopefully to finding ways that we all agreed on, that we can find in order to resolve this issue that's in front of us," he added, referring to the Davis case. Ahead of the Senator's departure, a senior Pakistani official told CBS News that President Asif Ali Zardari's government had decided to officially grant Davis immunity -- a crucial step to ultimately enable his exit from the country and avoid prosecution in Lahore.Hmmmmm.........How long before Pakistan explodes?Read the full story here.

• Report: Mubarak refused to talk to Obama.Al-Quds al-Arabi says former Egyptian leader felt 'humiliated' by US president's call to resign.Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to accept a phone call from US President Barack Obama, the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reported Thursday.The report says Mubarak feels "humiliated and embittered at Obama's most recent statement about the need for him to resign immediately", so he rejected the call. The report adds that the former president is residing at his palace in Sharm el-Sheikh and maintaining a similar lifestyle, though he has hired additional guards. Israel has also approved the entry of two Egyptian army battalions into the southernmost Sinai city in order to help guard the palace. Mubarak's health is deteriorating rapidly, the report says, and has been since he was forced to leave his Cairo residence. Saudi King Abdullah has offered him asylum in his country, but the former leader refused, saying he would like to die on Egyptian land.In addition, Mubarak continues to employ the aides who worked under him during his term as president, the report says, adding that the military has apparently "decided to grant Mubarak an honorable resignation" as no one has threatened him with charges of unlawful activity, though other officials have been accused of corruption. Meanwhile, CBS has broadcast footage of Mubarak leaving Cairo by chopper, apparently on his way to Sharm el-Sheikh. The footage was apparently filmed last week, immediately after Mubarak relayed power to his deputy, Omar Suleiman.Hmmmm......When will Israeli leaders grow enough spine to refuse to answer the call also?Read the full story here.

• Republican congressmen sign on to Israel aid letter.GOP newcomers to US House of Representatives call on party leadership to maintain current level of defense assistance to Israel.Among the 87 freshmen, 65 have signed the letter initiated by Reps. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) and Austin Scott (R-Ga.) to the party's House leadership. "As Israel faces threats from escalating instability in Egypt, Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, Hamas terrorists in Gaza and the existential danger posed by Iran's nuclear program, full US security assistance to Israel, including supporting Israel's acquisition of the Iron Dome defense system, has never been more important for our own national security interests," said the letter asking fellow freshmen to sign, which was still accruing signatures as of Tuesday.The appeal -- and the support it garnered -- is significant because it answers questions pro-Israel groups had about the 2011 class of GOP freshmen, many of them spurred to office by the Tea Party movement, which has cost cutting as its central focus.The letter is a sign that US President Barack Obama's proposal this week to maintain levels of funding for Israel, currently at about $3 billion annually, will be untouched.Dold joined Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is not a freshman lawmaker, in sending a similar letter last week to House appropriators.Hmmmm......Lets first see what "They don't trust me because of my middle name does"before celebrating.Read the full story here.

• All Free Speech Systems are Works in Progress: Prof. Craig LaMay.Kourosh Ziabari: Dear Craig; there’s a belief with regards to the mass media in the Western countries in general, and the United States in particular, which is undisputedly accepted by the international community: the widely-accepted belief is that the Western media are unrestrictedly free to publish whatever they want, to publish the viewpoints of the opponents of the government, the political dissidents and anti-governmental activists, without being harassed. Is it true that the mass media in the West are absolutely free to publish whatever they want? Isn’t there any implicit pressure on the media to publish the news and analysis in a way which is favorable to the interests of the government?

Craig LaMay: That belief is overstated. In the United States, for example, it has always been the law that restraints on publication, gag orders, are facially unconstitutional, and where they occur they get an immediate judicial review. Nonetheless, it is also the law that some materials are subject to what we call prior restraints, or injunctions against publication. Those materials fall into three broad categories: obscenity (which is subject to community standards, and thus what is ‘obscene’ in Alabama might not be so in New York); incitements to violence, but only when violence is likely and imminent, not when speech is mere advocacy, even advocacy that the government be overthrown by force; and risks to national security. The last of these is the most contentious for journalists, since even benign governments are apt to see national security threats where there are none. In Western Europe, there is no rule against prior restraints even if the principle against them is generally accepted. So information that is libelous or invasive of privacy can be enjoined before publication. Particularly notable is the high regard that EU law, and many national laws, have for personal privacy, not only for private citizens but also for celebrities and public officials.

In the majority of European countries, there are laws which restrict the publication of materials, articles, news and op-eds about Holocaust. Much of the journalists and academicians who publish materials which dispute the veracity of Holocaust get incarcerated immediately and have their respective media outlets banned or penalized with punitive measures. Isn’t this a violation of freedom of press and information on behalf of those who introduce themselves as the pioneers of freedom of speech?

CL: Interesting question. From the American point of view, the answer would be yes. But law is never abstract; it is always born of experience. The natural state of Europe for the last thousand years has been war, under Charlemagne, then Napoleon, then Hitler. The core purpose of the EU is to prevent future conflict, and in that system, and given the European experience with hate speech, it is hardly surprising that nation states from France to Austria would ban speech directed at certain minority populations. I get that. BUT, this does not explain the virulent anti-immigrant and racist speech you find all over Europe at any football game, for example, but also in public discourse. Sarkozy’s expulsion of the Roma last fall was the largest mass expulsion in Europe since the Holocaust, and yet it seemed to trouble few Europeans. The rise of anti-immigrant parties all over Europe is also a concern. So the problem the Europeans have, it seems to me, is that they have chosen to ban some hate speech directed at some minorities, but not all. I would say, however, that ALL free speech systems, including the United States’, are works in progress. The ideal of Europe regarding speech is contained in Article 10 of the EDHR, but it is far from realized.

What’s in your view, the main difference between the local newspapers and magazines, with the national/international media outlets? Aside from the extent and area of their coverage which varies from the local media to the national and international media, what are the major differences in the mechanisms of performance, distribution of facilities and approaches to the current affairs in these media?

CL: The main difference I think is economic and have to do with audiences. Local media are often hyper-local, since that’s what people want to know about — their own neighborhoods, not the goings on in Washington or Tehran. And people consume much more local than national media. Our national media run the gamut from very good (eg, the NYTimes) to very bad (FOX News), but the difference there is, to me, economic. Each of those two media serve a small but well-paying audience. That market is only so big, and at the local level it is often too small to sustain anything of quality.Read the full story here.

• Turkish religious head criticizes remarks blaming women for sex crimes.A professor’s controversial remarks on sex crimes have drawn strong criticism, including from the head of Turkey’s top religious body.Religious Affairs Director Professor Mehmet Görmez said Thursday criticisms and bans in Islam preventing women from exposing their sexuality cannot be used as an excuse for harassment or rape.His comments came after a professor from Konya’s Selçuk University Faculty of Theology claimed women wearing clothes that reveal their cleavage were provoking harassment.“Who is the focus of the problem? Women,” said Professor Orhan Çeker. “If you wear clothes that reveal your cleavage, it would not be a surprise for you to encounter such ugliness. It would not be reasonable for you to complain about the result after your provocation.”Görmez, speaking to reporters following a meeting with Chinese Islam Association Chairman Hilalunddin Chen Guangyan, said sexual harassment and rape were a crime committed against all humanity.Çeker’s remarks drew criticism from several female deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, as well as Higher Education Board, or YÖK, chair Professor Yusuf Ziya Özcan, who ordered an investigation into the comments.Selçuk University Rector Süleyman Okudan has ordered a probe into Çeker’s remarks, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.Zafer Üskül, head of Parliament's Human Rights Commission, said Çeker’s remarks were unacceptable and women were not the only target of rape and sexual harassment.“This is a sick mentality that perceives women as sex objects,” Üskül told Anatolia news agency.Emphasizing that Çeker’s comments violated women’s rights and human rights in general, Üskül said every kind of rape and harassment was a crime and no situation could make the victim responsible for a crime. Such comments are humiliating and they should be severely protested, he added.Hmmmmm......Perhaps he should look at the sexual harrasment numbers in countries where women wear the burka?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.47 Statistics That Indicate That Economic Stress Points In 2011 Could Be Setting The Stage For A Global Economic Meltdown In 2012.Is the world approaching a devastating global economic meltdown? Right now there are a large number of factors that are creating economic stress points all over the globe. All of the crazy money printing that the Federal Reserve and other central banks have been doing is putting inflationary pressure on agricultural commodities, oil and precious metals. Massive floods, horrific droughts and extreme weather patterns all over the globe are ruining crops and creating food shortages. Some nations are now actually hoarding food, and in other nations rising prices have sparked food riots. The price of oil has been moving back towards $100 a barrel, and if it stays at a high level for an extended period of time that is going to have very serious consequences for the global economy. In addition, the growing sovereign debt crisis could erupt again at any time. Half a dozen nations in Europe are on the verge of insolvency, Japan's national debt is now well over 200 percent of GDP, and the global financial system is growing increasingly concerned about the exploding national debt of the United States. The truth is that the entire world financial system is a house of cards balanced on a razor's edge and it could come down at any time.Sadly, very little has changed since the world financial system experienced almost a complete meltdown back in 2008. Global financial markets are still a whirlpool of debt and speculation. One really bad week could put us right back where we were prior to the infamous Wall Street bailouts. Very little in our world is truly stable anymore. As we have seen recently in Egypt, the globe can literally change almost overnight. All it would take is for one really bad event to happen and world financial markets would instantly start imploding. So when will the coming economic collapse happen? Nobody knows for sure, but the fact that the global economy is increasingly becoming less stable as we approach the year 2012 is making a lot of people very nervous.The following are 47 statistics that indicate that economic stress points in 2011 could be setting the stage for a global economic meltdown in 2012....Hmmmm.....If it even takes that long?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.'Holy dove' drives yeshiva wild. Jerusalem yeshiva students view new classmate as 'a sign from God'."It's a real wonder," one of the students at the haredi Kamenitz Yeshiva says about his new classmate – a white dove. "This holy bird just listens to full lessons." Several weeks ago, during a Torah lesson in the Jerusalem yeshiva, a white dove entered the house of study, sat on the window sill and flew out at the end of the lesson. The following days, the bird would arrive at the yeshiva and stand in the corner for the entire lesson – prompting the excited yeshiva students to view it as a sign from God. They created a "studying circle" around the bird and began reading Talmud verses and begging forgiveness from the soul which they believed "wandered" into the dove. Surprisingly, these actions did not help send the mysterious bird away. Rumors about the righteous bird became the talk of the day in Jerusalem, and students watching the dove with binoculars discovered that it would visit the rooftop of the nearby Vizhnitz yeshiva as well. The yeshiva students tried to test the bird once again and sealed all the entrances to the yeshiva, but it "miraculously" managed to get in and attend its regular class on time."A few days ago," haredi newspaper Bakehila reported, "one of the yeshiva students, who could not bear the great waste of time that could be spent on studying Torah, went over and kindly took (the bird) to his home, where he fed it." The yeshiva student even took the dove to a slaughterer, but it turned out that the magnificent bird does not meet the rules of kashrut and the yeshiva is now contemplating what to do with it.Read the full story here.