Russia To Halt Gas Supplies To Ukraine, considering Coal shipment Cuts.

Russia To Halt Gas Supplies To Ukraine, Mulling Coal Cuts.(Rferl).

Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak says Moscow will cut gas supplies to Ukraine for Kyiv's failure to pay up front for deliveries and might also suspend coal shipments to Ukraine in retaliation for a power blackout of Crimea.

Novak said on November 24 that the gas deliveries will be stopped "today or tomorrow due to the lack of advance payment by Ukraine," adding that Russia could retaliate "politically and economically" unless Kyiv restores electricity supplies to Crimea.

Russian-annexed Crimea continues to rely on emergency generators to meet its basic power needs after unknown saboteurs blew up electricity pylonssupplying the peninsula with electricity, in Ukraine's Kherson region over the weekend.

Pro-Ukrainian activists have so far prevented repairs to the damaged pylons and associated power lines.

The Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on November 23 that just one of the four damaged transmission towers could be repaired at the moment. Hmmmm......They knew they could not pay for the Gas, so blew up the pylons to escalate the situation?

#Russia may terminate coal supplies to #Ukraine as response to #Crimea blockade — minister https://t.co/GAkwC0Pb02

— rouge68 (@rougek68) November 24, 2015

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Dominican republic 5.3 !More info here.

• Obama: With Coming Cuts to Defense, New Military Will Be Leaner. Still Superior.(Fox).President Obama offered a new Pentagon strategy that cuts billions of dollars in defense and which he says will "turn the page on a decade of war," but that critics argue will gut the U.S. ability to defend itself.In a rare appearance in the Pentagon press briefing room Thursday where he announced that the military will be reshaped over time, Obama suggested that the reality of the U.S. economy is forcing the Defense Department to look at its strategy in an all-new way. "We have to renew our economic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength in the world. That includes putting our fiscal house in order," the president said.But that doesn't mean hollowing out the military, the president stressed, noting that a comprehensive defense review resulted in a new emphasis on counter-terrorism, maintaining a nuclear deterrent, protecting the U.S. homeland and deterring and defeating aggression by any potential adversary."Yes, our military will be leaner, but the world must know -- the United States is going to maintain our military superiority with Armed Forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats," Obama said.Obama did not announce new missions, capabilities or defense initiatives. But, Obama said, the defense budget while growing more slowly will still grow."We have global responsibilities that demand our leadership. In fact, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration. And I firmly believe, and I think the American people understand, that we can keep our military strong -- and our nation secure --with a defense budget that continues to be larger than roughly the next 10 countries combined."Calling the "debt and deficit problem at home" a national security risk, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who spoke after the president, said curbing the growth in the defense budget from its expected $487 billion in increases over the next decade doesn't mean choosing between national and fiscal security."The president has made clear, and I've made clear that the savings that we've been mandated to achieve must be driven by strategy and must be driven by analysis, and must not be driven by numbers alone," he said.Read the full story here.

• Santorum says Senate should sue over Obama appointments.(TheHill).Rick Santorum said the Senate should sue over President Obama's decision Wednesday to appoint Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and name three members to vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. "What the president did was wrong — pretty scary stuff," Santorum said. "I hope that the United States Senate does what they're supposed to do, and they should go and even take the president to court. This is not something that the president should get away with," he added.Republicans had been hoping to cripple the agencies, unpopular in conservative circles, by refusing to confirm appointments. The GOP maintained Wednesday that the president's move was unconstitutional because the Senate was in a pro forma session and not technically in recess, during which the president can make temporary appointments.Obama defended the move in a speech in Ohio on Wednesday."When Congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them," Obama said. "I have an obligation to act on behalf of the American people."Hmmmm......."Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• A Tyrannical Abuse of Power: Obama Attempts to Appoint Cordray to CFPB.(Heritage).By Todd Gaziano.In a revelation that is quite shocking to anyone who knows anything about the 100-plus years of precedent on the recess appointment power or the separation of powers, the White House today announced that the President planned on making a purported recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This is a position the Senate has refused to confirm Cordray for, and it is also of note that the White House announced this momentous decision in an official tweet from communications director Dan Pfeiffer.Heritage’s Diane Katz has explained why that position should remain unfilled until the agency’s powers are modified, but the alleged recess appointment is outrageous no matter what position it would supposedly fill. What is shocking is that the Senate is not in a recess that would allow a recess appointment, and it can’t be under the Constitution, even if many Senators are not in D.C.The Constitution, in Article I, section 5, plainly states that neither house of Congress can recess for more than three days without the consent of the other house. The House of Representatives did not consent to a Senate recess of more than three days at the end of last year, and so the Senate—consistent with the requirements of the Constitution—is having pro forma sessions every few days. In short, Congress is still in session, and no one in Congress is saying (or can reasonably say) otherwise. It does not matter a wit that most Members of Congress are not in town voting on legislation, because ending a session of Congress requires the passage of a formal resolution, which never occurred.Under Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution, the President has the power to fill vacancies that may happen during Senate recesses. That power has been interpreted by scores of attorneys general and their designees in the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) for over 100 years to require an official, legal Senate recess of at least 10–25 days of duration. (There are a few outlier opinions, never sanctioned by the courts, that suggest a recess of six to seven days might be enough—but never less than that.)The President’s purported recess appointment of Cordray would render the Senate’s advice and consent role to normal appointments almost meaningless. It is a grave constitutional wrong that Senator Mitch McConnell (R–KY) has already denounced. But it fits a pattern of extra-constitutional abuse by the White House that seems more interested in energizing a liberal base than safeguarding the office of the presidency.As a former OLC lawyer, I have and will continue to defend President Obama’s issuance of signing statements and other powers that are truly his, but there is no argument that the President can make a recess appointment without doing serious damage to the office Obama holds.Press reports suggest that “White House lawyers” advised the President that he has such power. What did Attorney General Eric Holder, the most senior lawyer for the President, have to say about that? If he or others at DOJ were asked and provided an affirmative response, that is surprising enough. If Holder was not asked, that is equally telling.No matter how the decision was reached in the White House, both houses of Congress should respond forcefully to this tyrannical abuse of power, and as soon as possible. A lawsuit would take time and faces various jurisdictional problems that are not necessary to relate here. If a party with standing could be found before the agency head took any adverse action, the courts still might decline to rule on the matter, believing that it is a political question. But that would not mean that there was no wrong or that Congress is without any power to respond.Congress and the general public should speak out vigorously lest this usurpation lead to yet others.Read the full story here.

• Why don't supporters of Israel trust Barack Hussein Obama? Let me count the reasons.HT: IsraelMatzav.(DiscoverTheNetworks).Why don't supporters of Israel trust Barack Hussein Obama? Here's the most comprehensive list I have ever seen.Read it all.Here.

• Obama’s Constitutional Gamble on Consumer Finance Nomination.(DocsTalk).By Mark A. Calabria.President Obama is announcing today that despite the fact that the Senate is not in recess, he’s going to recess appoint Richard Cordray to be the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created under the Dodd-Frank Act.Of course the President is actually claiming that the Senate isn’t in session and that its “pro forma” sessions are just a “gimmick”. Funny I don’t remember then Senator Obama complaining about gimmicks when the Senate used the sames tactics to block Bush recess appointments. But then again this is the guy who signs a bill allowing indefinite detention of American citizens after having campaigned on shutting down Guantanamo. Only a former constitutional law professor could be so creative with the Constitution.More importantly the “recess” appointment of Cordray doesn’t solve the President’s problem. The Dodd-Frank Act is very clear, even a law professor can probably under this section, that authorities under the Act remain with the Treasury Secretary until the Director is “confirmed by the Senate”. A recess appointment is not a Senate confirmation. Now don’t ask me why Dodd and Frank included such unusual language, they could have just given the Bureau the new authorities, but they didn’t. So even with this appointment, the CFPB won’t be able to go after all those non-banks, like the pay-day lenders and check-cashiers that caused the financial crisis (oh wait, those industries didn’t have anything to do with the crisis).This appointment also guarantees that Obama, even if he gets a second term, is unlikely to ever get a CFPB Director past the Senate. Maybe not such a big deal for Cordray since the rumor has always been this is just a political stepping stone so he can go back to Ohio and run for office. The real harm is that Obama has decided to take a gamble with the Constitution, risk the further erosion of the Senate’s advise and consent powers, solely to have another campaign issue. So he can try to paint Republicans as captive to Wall Street, all despite the fact the new agency exempts Wall Street (who will continue under the ever effective oversight of the SEC). Maybe he can have Geithner and the various Goldman alum in the Administration stand next to him to help remind us how hard he is fighting for the middle class.Read the full story here.

• Flashback: Senator Outlines Objections to ‘Unaccountable’ Consumer Czar.(Heritage).Last fall Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) visited Heritage to talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the “unaccountable” nominee to head the agency. At the time, there was speculation President Obama would attempt to bypass the U.S. Senate to install Richard Cordray as CFPB director. That’s exactly what happened today in what Heritage’s Todd Gaziano calls a “tyrannical abuse of power.”At the time of his visit in October, Shelby said bluntly, “I think it would be devastating if we let [Obama] make a recess appointment.”Of course, this purported “recess appointment” comes with the Senate not even in recess. Congress is still in session, and the Senate is having pro forma sessions every few days based on requirements of the Constitution.The debate over Cordray and former CFPB special adviser Elizabeth Warren dates to the bureau’s creation. Senate Republicans had asked the White House to make three reforms to the CFPB. They included creating a board rather than a single czar to run the agency, subjecting the CFPB to the congressional appropriations process, and making sure it considers impact of new rules on the safety and soundness of financial institutions.“Forty-four of us have written a letter to the president and asked for three changes,” Shelby said. “We haven’t heard from the president. Maybe he’s off campaigning. … Until we hear from him, I don’t believe we’re going to confirm anyone.”Heritage has outlined a number of problems with the CFPB. Research fellow Diane Katz writes that “eliminating the bureau outright would be the best option.”Hmmmm......Thugocracy in it's natural habitat.Read the full story here.

• Richard Cordray: Any Legislation Which Has Even "Incidental Effects on the Economy" is a "Valid Exercise of Congressional Authority".(Mrctv).President Obama announced today that he was going to take a new step in the expansion of executive authority by recess appointing a head to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau despite the fact that the Senate isn't actually in recess. This has, of course, spawned an angry backlash. However, the man that the President is appointing is relatively unknown.His name is Richard Cordray and he has some interesting views on the limits of congressional power. Before losing his bid for reelection as Ohio's Attorney General Cordray appeared on a program called Capitol Square. He was asked about his decision not to join Attorney Generals, including one democrat, in filing suit against Obamacare. The full interview can be seen here but his answer to this question is most interesting:Cordray essentially says that lawsuits against Obamacare are "frivolous" because courts have held, and Cordray seems to agree that, any legislation which has even "incidental effects on the economy" is a "valid exercise of congressional authority" because of the commerce clause. Now the surprising aspect of what Cordray says certainly isn't that courts have held that the commerce clause basically negates the rest of the constitution. Some courts certainly have and very famously so.The surprising aspect of what Cordray says isn't even that someone would have to implicitly hold this extremely far left view of the commerce clause to justify the individual mandate.No, the surprising aspect is that he said this at all. Most liberal politicians have better sense then to explicitly spell out the radical beliefs that make up the foundation of their political philosophy. Off the wall interpretations of the Constitution are generally disliked by average Americans when explained to them so bluntly.Honestly, how many people in this country would agree that the Constitution views any legislation that has any effect on the economy, no matter how slight or round about, as a valid exercise of congressional authority? After all, what legislation wouldn't fall under that standard? What human action, or in Obamacare's case, inaction wouldn't be under congress's authority to impose its will upon?Apparently, unlike most of us, when Richard Cordray gets to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution and reads "[The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes" he takes that to mean any law that leads to even "incidental effects on the economy" is a "valid exercise of congressional authority".Hmmmm......I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes. ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read and see the full story here.

• Obama to Share Missile Defense Secrets With Russia?(BigPeace).Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reports that President Barack Obama has indicated he is prepared to convey information about secret American missile defense technology to Russia: In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses.Even before this latest revelation, the entire enterprise of President Obama’s disarmament policy–from “reset” with Russia to selling out our European allies–had been a colossal failure, an exercise in cowardice and appeasement that placed the security of the United States at risk.In the pursuit of a thirty-year-old leftist grudge against President Ronald Reagan’s policy of “peace through strength,” Obama has now apparently suggested his willingness to give away a technological edge eagerly coveted by Russia and especially by China.There can be no stronger case for replacing Barack Obama in November.Read the full story here.

• Obama’s EPA Opens Another Front in the War on Coal.(BigGovernment).Now we know why President Obama isn’t spending any time fighting a war on unemployment. He’s too busy fighting his war on coal.Indeed, while the past few months have seen tiny signs our economy might be growing despite Obama’s anti-job policies, the White House is ramping up its effort to make sure our labor force is expunged of every last coal job it can find. It’d be humorous if it wasn’t so real.If we start exposing this radical nonsense coming out of the Obama EPA, conservatives can push back on these bad policies. Environmentalists rarely get their way when people actually pay attention to what they want to do.The latest battle will be coming any day now, as the EPA has said it will issue its Utility NSPS (New Source Performance Standards) sometime in January. Any new utility plants will have to meet a new set of environmental standards – standards that conveniently work out great for natural gas but are prohibitively expensive for coal plants, even new ones, to meet.In capitalist terms, this means the United States can say goodbye to the construction of any new coal plants on its soil.Sadly, this war on coal didn’t start here. Last month, moments before Christmas weekend, the EPA released its new Utility MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) rule, which set new emissions standards for pre-existing U.S. coal and oil power plants. The EPA did this in spite of the fact that the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) warned in November that such a rule would shut down as many as 300 coal power plants at the same time. Some of the older plants would be unable to meet the post-modern standards so quickly.Nearly half of total U.S. electrical supply is provided by coal. It’s one of the most vibrant and successful industries in the country. It’s a home-grown resource, begging for U.S. workers to mine it out of the ground and convert it into electricity that millions of Americans can use to power their homes and small businesses.27 states have filed complaints asking for a delay, arguing the strict standards under such a short time span are realistically unfeasible.I’d start asking why the Obama Administration has decided to demonize the coal industry, risking massive power shortages and thousands of American jobs just to satisfy the environmentalist left. They’ve always hated coal, and under this White House, as early as this year, they might get their wish.Hmmmm........How many Americans will loose their job now thanks to Obama?Read the full story here.

• An Election-Year Trend: Disaster Declarations on the Rise.(Heritage).The Iowa Caucus was not the only thing folks looking to the 2012 election were talking about this week. Barron’s Washington Editor Jim McTague warned that 2012 is likely to be a banner year for natural disaster declarations. Why? As the numbers show, “In nearly every presidential election year since 1972, there was an increase in disaster declaration; the same holds for the year before the elections.”Citing Heritage expert Matt A. Mayer, McTague goes on to explain that in 2011, the Obama Administration issued a whopping 242 disaster declarations. This figure was an all-time high and well surpassed the 108 declarations issued by the Administration each year in both 2009 and 2010. It also represents a 54 percent increase over the previous record, set in 1996 when President Bill Clinton was running for reelection.Election years aren’t the only problem. Since 1993, the number of federal disaster declarations has been climbing quickly. And no, this isn’t some manifestation of 2012 doomsday prophecy coming true. Catastrophic natural disasters are not increasing at the same rate as disaster declarations. Rather, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is granting declarations for a growing number of routine disasters, seemingly for nearly every minor flood, fire, earthquake, and snow storm that comes its way. To put this into perspective: Hurricane Irene—barely a Category 1 hurricane when it finally struck the U.S.—resulted in Major Disaster Declarations for 12 states, largely for flooding. In sharp contrast, just six years ago, Hurricane Katrina—America’s costliest disaster by tens of billions of dollars, with more than 60,000 square miles impacted—resulted in just four states receiving Major Disaster Declarations.Ultimately, this means that the costs of response to and recovery from our nation’s natural disasters are increasingly being shifted from the states in which they occurred to the federal government. It should be no wonder that FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) nearly ran out of money last year.Yet 2012 need not necessarily follow the election-year trend. By setting clear requirements that limit the types of disasters eligible for a federal disaster declaration and reducing the federal cost-share for disaster declarations to no more than 25 percent, the Administration has the chance to stop abusing FEMA declarations and reverse the trend.See our chart  for a list of FEMA declarations by year and presidential administration.Read the full story here.

• Court to Hear Obama Eligibility Challenge on Merits, First Time Ever, Jan. 26.(GulagBound).“This will be the first time ever, since this whole thing began, that it will be looked on, on merit.” Those are the words of Carl Swensson, Republican Party Chairman of Clayton County, Georgia. “This” refers to an actual judicial hearing of the case against the eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. to be, according to the United States Constitution, “Commander in Chief” and United States President.The attorneys of Barack Obama requested a pretrial dismissal, as it had done on so many other occasions, against so many other cases. But yesterday, one judge denied and scheduled an official hearing of the case to commence, January 26.From 2008 to the present, judicial standing has been refused the plaintiff, often via convoluted rationale, many say sophistry. The question however is elementary to our constitutional republic: can we as Citizens be assured those presented to us for our votes are eligible to hold office?Unlike many other states, Georgia has a statue requiring just that. For Swensson’s part, he had “resolved that I would not let anyone on the ballot who is not demonstrably qualified to hold that office.” That would appear to be part of his job as party official and it is the job of Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brian Kemp (R) to assure election law is justly carried out. Swensson relates, “We have been hounding him at hearings he’s been having across the state.”And so it came to pass that Kemp after some delay, followed due process and called forth the court designated by Georgia law, to hear such a case. This particular case was brought by Swensson and co-litigant, Kevin Richard Powell, attorney: J. Mark Hatfield, judge: Michael M. Malihi.While Obama’s attorney, Michael Jablonski, had argued that the requirements didn’t apply to candidates for a presidential primary, the judge said that isn’t how he reads state law.“Statutory provisions must be read as they are written, and this court finds that the cases cited by [Obama] are not controlling. When the court construes a constitutional or statutory provision, the ‘first step … is to examine the plain statutory language,” the judge wrote. “Section 21-2-1(a) states that ‘every candidate for federal and state office’ must meet the qualifications for holding that particular office, and this court has seen no case law limiting this provision, nor found any language that contains an exception for the office of president or stating that the provision does not apply to the presidential preference primary.”Read the full story here.

• "Dear Leader" Obama to help unveil 'realistic' US military plan.(JPost).WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will join top Pentagon commanders to unveil a new "more realistic" vision for the US military, including cuts to ground force numbers as a result of budget strains, officials familiar with the plans said on Wednesday.Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will hold a news conference fleshing out the contents of the strategic review of US security interests after Obama's brief remarks on Thursday at the Pentagon, the officials said.They said the review would emphasize military investment in Asia as well as US air and maritime power, while reducing the pace of growth in Pentagon budgets overall and relying less on ground troops for American engagement abroad. Read the full story here.

• US troops deploying to Israel?(IsraelMatzav).Calling it not just an “exercise”, but a “deployment”, the Jerusalem Post quotes US Lt.-Gen Frank Gorenc, Commander of the US Third Air Force based in Germany. The US Commander visited Israel two weeks ago to confirm details for “the deployment of several thousand American soldiers to Israel.” In an effort to respond to recent Iranian threats and counter-threats, Israel announced the largest ever missile defense exercise in its history. Now, it’s reported that the US military, including the US Navy, will be stationed throughout Israel, also taking part.Also confirming the upcoming US-Israeli military missile exercises is JTA.org - 'global news service of the Jewish people'. In their account, they report, 'Last week, plans for Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, to visit Israel in January were leaked to Israeli media; his visit likely will coincide with the largest-ever joint U.S.-Israel anti-missile exercise'.While American troops will be stationed in Israel for an unspecified amount of time, Israeli military personnel will be added to EUCOM in Germany. EUCOM stands for United States European Command.In preparation for anticipated Iranian missile attacks upon Israel, the US is reportedly bringing its THAAD, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and ship-based Aegis ballistic missile systems to Israel. The US forces will join Israeli missile defense systems like the Patriot and Arrow. The deployment comes with “the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East”.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Islamists could soon challenge generals.(WP).CAIRO — The dominant showing by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt’s first post-revolution elections puts the country on a collision course, analysts say, with emboldened Islamists and the entrenched military set to vie for power.The Brotherhood, which was the leading opposition force under now-deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, has emerged as the country’s most viable political power. While votes are still being counted in the last of three stages of elections for parliament’s lower house, the Brotherhood expects to take more than 40 percent of seats and could claim an outright majority on Jan. 23, when the new parliament is scheduled to convene.Until now, the relatively moderate Islamist group had an uneasy alliance with the council of generals who took control of the country after Mubarak’s ouster on Feb. 11. But with the military leaders intent on protecting their political and economic interests as Egypt lurches toward democracy, some analysts say a clash between the two centers of power is inevitable.The long-term interests of the military leaders and the Brotherhood “do not converge,” said Shadi Hamid, an Egypt expert at the Brookings Doha Center. “The military wants to effectively stay in power behind the scenes. That certainly is not what the Brotherhood wants.”The powers of the incoming parliament remain unclear and are to be laid out in the as-yet-unwritten constitution, a document that the ruling generals have said they want military-appointed bodies to influence. But the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is calling for real powers for the parliament, including the authority to appoint a prime minister and full control over the writing of the constitution.Read the full story here.

• Goodbye Democracy: My Political Analysis is Banned By A European Government’s Computer Program As “Hate Speech”.(PJM)By BarryRubin.I have just been informed that my PJ article, “Egypt: As Grim Islamists March Toward Power, The Naïve Dance in Tahrir Square” has been barred on sites used by officials of a European government–hint, they speak English there and it is the birthplace of modern democracy and free speech–on the grounds that this article is “hate speech.”What this means is that if you work for any institution that is part of this government–including the Foreign or Defense ministries–you cannot read this PJ Media column on your computer that’s part of such a server.The message reads: Access denied — reason given : hate speech. My reader asks sarcastically if complaining about this action would constitute a “thought crime” on his part.Update: A reliable reader reports the same thing happened on a business computer in the United States where the sheriff is apparently something called DansGuardian.This is the first time ever that one of my articles has been so flagged. But it brings out an important point: A computer program that picks out “key words” can accuse you of a crime and block your free speech. If I had to guess at the phrase it would be my reference (that’s a guess) to “Muslim [space inserted to avoid censorship] riots” in France several years ago. But they were riots by Muslims and that is not only factually correct but necessary for making an important point.  Apparently, this system has done the same thing to articles by other people before though I don’t know the details.So there are three problems here:

1. Free speech is now conditional on someone’s judgment of your viewpoint. This also has a chilling effect since the reader might say, “I’m not the kind of person who wants to see hate speech!” or frightened, “What if my employer sees that I’m viewing such material? I might be fired or not promoted!”
2. That judge isn’t even a human being but a computer program that makes arbitrary selections out of context. Would the phrases “Christian riot,” “Hindu riot,” “Jewish riot,” “Caucasian riot,” etc., trigger an accusation of hate speech? Who decides? Where is this information available to the public? Perhaps we might be told what we are and aren’t allowed to say now so we can save time by censoring ourselves.
3. As far as I can see, all of the intimidation and censorship are in one direction. It’s like in Lebanon where all these moderate politicians, judges, and journalists were attacked and assassinated while not a single supporter of Hizballah or Syrian-Iranian client was hit.

I cannot even figure out who I am supposedly telling people to “hate” in this article. Is it “hate speech” to argue anything other than that the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate pro-democratic group? Are the messages of Hamas, Hizballah, Hizb al-Tahrir, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, and the Taliban, groups that explicitly and deliberately call for genocide, ever blocked as “hate speech?” I’ve never heard of that happening.Well, Western democracies have finally accepted censorship based on the clever lie that they are only protecting people from racism and those who want to incite violence and murder. The door that this is opened has now made possible what liberals and democrats have warned against for more than a century–even though people claiming such positions are responsible for this–giving authorities to block and ban political views that they don’t like.It’s proper to defend the rights of those who are being provocative in some way. But we have gone far beyond that: the censorship of straight political analysis that conflicts with the “official line” and that’s a line determined by a software program. A lawyer points out that employers have a right to stop their workers from using official computers to play games or engage in personal activities. But blocking non-relevant sites is quite different from accusing people of crimes, censoring speech, having an official governmental standard of impermissible phrases, and blocking people from reading material that is relevant for their work.Hmmmm......."Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• Speculation swirls over Erdogan’s health.(JPost).Speculation is mounting that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cancer, and political jostling has already begun in Ankara to replace the rabble-rousing prime minister who is Turkey’s most popular leader since Kemal Ataturk.Last month Turkish media revealed that Erdogan had had stomach surgery the month before – the reports said doctors had removed polyps from his intestines, but found no traces of cancer.The 57-year-old spent several weeks at home recuperating, but President Abdullah Gul, an Erdogan ally, was quick with reassurances the premier remained in good health.“It was a preventative operation,” Gul said. “There is nothing more normal than someone who has undergone an operation to rest for a while.”But a Turkish blogger said a physician with ties to the Turkish executive branch told him Erdogan is suffering from colorectal cancer and is under close examination to determine its severity. On the condition of anonymity, the blogger said a respected authority in academia had told him the prime minister was expected to start chemotherapy last month.The blogger said Turkish media have reported almost nothing about Erdogan’s condition, leaving most Turks totally unaware anything might be wrong. Still, he said, it’s an “open secret” in the Turkish medical community that Erdogan has been diagnosed with cancer.Last month the Jerusalem-based intelligence website DEBKAfile quoted “Western intelligence sources” as saying Erdogan had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, also known as colon cancer.Official Turkish sources have remained tight-lipped. Following Erdogan’s surgery the AKP’s English- language website ran a three-sentence news item headlined “Premier Erdogan says he is fine,” quoting the premier as saying only, “I’m fine and I will be better.”Erdogan is immensely popular not only in Turkey but around the Muslim world for promoting Islamic values, growing the economy and adopting a hardline foreign policy that is often at odds with Ankara’s former allies Israel and America.First elected in 2003, Erdogan was reelected in June for a third-straight term after his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) won fully half of the national vote.AKP bylaws, however, prevent candidates from running for parliament for a fourth time. Instead, Erdogan was widely expected to stand for president in the next national elections in 2014, when Gul’s two-term tenure expires. (Like its Israeli counterpart, the Turkish presidency is largely a ceremonial position.) Four senior AKP figures – Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, Economy Minister Ali Babacan and Gul himself – have been named as possible successors.None of the candidates, however, match Erdogan’s popular appeal: A recent poll conducted by an independent US-based NGO found one-third of Turks would “definitely not” vote for AKP if it were run by anyone other than Erdogan.“From an electability perspective, there is no one who can replace Erdogan,” the blogger said.Davutoglu is an erudite former political-science professor fluent in English, German and Arabic, and his piety and sense of Turkish exceptionalism endear him to many conservative voters. Gul boasts leadership experience (he served four years as foreign minister and briefly as premier) who has the backing of the Fethullah Gulen movement, an obscure but powerful Islamist movement led by a US-based religious scholar of the Sufi mystical order.Another potential candidate is Kemal Kılıçdarog˘lu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, an opposition movement known by its Turkish acronym CHP. But despite its venerable legacy – it was founded by Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey – the CHP remains driven by internal divisions that make a challenge to AKP dominance unlikely.Erdogan reiterated the unyielding positions that have become his hallmark – Hamas, he said, is not a terrorist group but “freedom fighters protecting their land.”Images from the meeting showed him looking pale and gaunt.Hmmmm......"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." ~ Genesis 12:3.Read the full story here.

• 'Attacks on Iran won't be allowed from Turkish territory'.(JPost).Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed Thursday that his country would not allow attacks on Iran to be carried out from its territory, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported.Davutoglu made the comments at a joint press conference in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi.The Turkish foreign minister attempted to dispel rumors that the NATO missile shield recently stationed in Turkey, should pose as a threat to Iran or damage relations between the countries.Davutoglu stated that Turkey and Iran trust each other. "I certainly do not see Iran as a threat," Hurriyet quoted Davutoglu as saying.The Turkish foreign minister arrived in Iran on Wednesday for talks with Salehi on Iran's nuclear program and developments in neighboring Iraq and Syria.Davutoglu's visit was described as being in the framework of regular talks between the two ministers, but it comes at a key time for the region and relations between the two regional powers."It is intended that they will exchange views on topical subjects such as Iran's nuclear program and developments in Syria and Iraq," the Turkish foreign ministry said.Davutoglu's visit was set to finish on Thursday.Turkey is evaluating whether to seek a waiver from the United States to exempt Turkish oil importer Tupras from new US sanctions on institutions that deal with Iran's central bank, a Turkish official said on Tuesday.US ally Turkey is among the biggest buyers of Iranian oil and gas. It gets about 30 percent of its oil from neighbor Iran, and Tupras, Turkey's biggest crude oil importer is a big buyer of Iranian crude.Hmmmmm.....Can NATO and the U.S.even trust Turkey?Read the full story here.

• Hamas says Gaza ‘not occupied;’ UN disagrees.(DocsTalk).By HillelC.Neuer.GENEVA – The UN continues to label the Gaza Strip “occupied” by Israel, despite a Hamas leader stating this week that that’s no longer a tenable position.Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar confirmed Tuesday there is no Israeli occupation of Gaza, according to a report published by Ma’an, a Bethlehem- based Palestinian news agency.Zahar was casting doubt on whether Hamas would organize anti-Israel marches in Gaza in conjunction with similar protests that the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority would organize in the West Bank.“Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable,” Zahar said. The radical Islamist organization has merely recognized the obvious: that after Israel in 2005 dismantled its military administration in Gaza, forcibly evicted all Israeli residents and withdrew every last soldier, Israel no longer occupies the territory by any legal definition or other sense of the term.Whatever external control Israel – and Egypt - may exercise, everyone in Gaza knows that Hamas rules the territory with an iron fist.THE HAMAS statement follows growing recognition among international lawyers that the UN’s resistance to holding Palestinians responsible for territory they control is outdated.Four-and-a-half years after seizing power in Gaza, Hamas runs its own police, courts, jails, schools, media and social services, noted Abraham Bell and Dov Shefi, two international legal experts, in a 2010 research paper for the University of San Diego law school.Hamas regulates business activities, banks and land registries. It levies taxes, controls its own borders and even imposes a dress code. In sum, wrote Bell and Shefi, Hamas operates “a functioning and fully independent local civil government, buttressed by armed forces.”Similarly, in an article published in the American University International Law Review, Elizabeth Samson concluded that under the Geneva Conventions and international judicial precedents, Gaza can no longer be considered occupied because Israel, despite its ability to exercise certain powers over the area, no longer exercises “effective control,” the litmus test for what qualifies as occupation.Under Israel’s own law, the country’s Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Jewish state had disengaged from Gaza and no longer exercised “effective control over what occurred there.”Now that Hamas itself has publicly recognized this reality, the UN’s refusal to do the same is less defensible than ever. The organization’s official policy has not changed since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman, Farhan Haq, declared in 2008 that “the UN defines Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory.”In 2009, the UN’s Goldstone Report claimed that “the international community continues to regard [Israel] as the occupying Power” in Gaza, and cited to the UN Human Rights Council resolution that created their inquiry, which referred to “the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip.”This terminology continues to appear:

1. A September 22 report in the name of the secretary- general speaks of a UN mission’s visit to the “occupied Palestinian territory, specifically the Gaza Strip.”
2. In May, Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council’s permanent investigator on alleged Israeli violations, referred to the “occupied Gaza Strip.”
3. A UN fact sheet on “the Occupied Palestinian Territory” includes Gaza.

THERE IS a certain paradox in all of this. Even as a key UN agency, UNESCO, recently recognized “Palestine” – which includes Gaza – as a full and independent member of its organization, the UN continues to use the “occupied” terminology.The inconsistency isn’t new. For decades, the UN’s policy toward the Palestinians has been marked by a fundamental contradiction: giving them maximum privileges within the organization, while demanding minimum responsibilities.But absolving Palestinians of basic responsibility hasn’t helped them one iota. On the contrary, Palestinian citizens are the main losers when those that directly govern and police them are never seriously held accountable for their actions.It’s time for the UN to drop its intransigent insistence on a legal position that has the effect, if not intent, of justifying Palestinian terrorism as “resistance to occupation,” undermining Israel’s ability to invoke its inherent right of self-defense against deadly rockets fired from Gaza, and, not least, dehumanizing Israelis as the demonic and faceless “occupier.”And if the UN really wants to advance Palestinian self-rule and help Palestinians achieve sustainable independence, it must help, rather than hinder, the Palestinians develop a healthy culture of self-rule. The world body must stop patronizing them with a legal fiction designed to sustain a permanent state of grievance and absolve them of any responsibility.Hillel C. Neuer, an international lawyer, is executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch. Read the full story here.

• Kurds launch "Letter to President Obama" campaign.(Firat).Within the frame of the campaign launched by KON-KURD (the Confederation of In Kurdish Associations in Europe) and other 10 federations affiliated to it, Kurds are beginning to send a letter to U.S. president Barack Obama. The campaign will last until January 31th.Kurdish institutions aim to point out the support the USA are providing to Turkey, both in terms of intelligence-sharing and military sales, ultimately hits Kurds. In the statement calling on people to mobilize, KON-KURD and the other associations organizing the protest underlined the recent massacres and operations in which the Turkish army had the support of the USA. It is no mystery that the USA have been providing Turkey with intelligence on PKK camps and movements. Indeed the U.S. have deployed four RQ-1 Predator MALE drones at Turkey’s southern İncirlik airbase to fly over PKK camps in northern Iraq and provide the Turkish military intelligence.The letter which is being sent to president Obama begins with a reminder of "the genocides and massacres that the Kurdish people have witnessed and also what the Kurdish people are facing today".The letter also stresses that "The Republic of Turkey, your strategic partner, is massacring Kurds everyday with the very support you give them whether it is military, political or economical. The very latest example of this is the most recent killing of 36 unarmed Kurdish civilians by F-16 Jets bought from the USA and intelligence gained from Predator Drones supplied by yourselves". Underlining that over 4 thousand people have been jailed by the Turkish government, the letter adds that "The Turkish Army, by using airspace that is controlled by your state, has massacred Kurdish civilians and ruined our landscape and yet you still have not said a word".The letter then underlined that for five months there has been no news from "the leader of our people Mr. Abdullah Ocalan who was actively kidnapped and handed over to the Turkish authorities by your predecessors, and yet not a word from your administration". The letter ends with some questions directly put to president Obama: "What have we, the Kurds, ever done to you or your country, what have we come against for you to declare us enemies? Or maybe this “democracy, human rights and freedom” are just part of a rhetoric only used to further the USA’s interests across the globe. What is the reason for this double standard? Why do you continue to support a state that bombs its own people within its own borders?" And then underlines that Kurds "will not allow for Kurdish children to be massacred in this way" nor "will allow for history to repeat itself".The final sentence of the letter is a reminder to president Obama, "the Nobel Prize for Peace". "To play the role of peacemaker for the Kurdish and Turkish people - says the letter - whom we believe is also in the best interests for the USA. We believe that you have a positive role to play in bringing peace to Kurdistan, the Middle East and the World".Hmmmm.....Did a US drone give the go Ahead for the last attack that killed 36 unarmed Kurdish civilians?Read the full story here.

• Snubbed Egyptian millionaire's brutal attack on Norwegian girlfriend, after he attacked first her small dog.(Emirates24/7).A Norwegian girl was brutally attacked by her boyfriend as she refused to marry him.Twenty four year old Sulvy Leopreez Sakkur was severely beaten by her Egyptian millionaire boyfriend.  The lady confirmed the news in an interview with Al Wafd newspaper. She identified her boyfriend as Ahmed AL Ajati, the son of Egyptian millionaire Yahiya Al Ajati. She said, “The reason behind this was because I refused to marry him and asked him to end our relationship".Sulvy said she feared to speak up about her ordeal for fear of being punished more by the businessman and his son.The incident took place on September 7th when she was in her flat at Ma’adi accompanied by her boyfriend. Sulvy asked him to end their relationship and refused his marriage proposal.She was surprised by his reactiono as he started screaming hysterically then hit her small dog on the wall and trumpled it under his feet.She pleaded and begged him to stop, but instead directed his anger towards her. He hit her hard on his face and stomach.She experienced heavy blood flow from her mouth and face. Her neighbour heard the comotion and inquired about the reason for her cries. But Ahmed threatened to beat Sulvy more if she dared to open her mouth.Ahmed AL Ajat lied to the neighbour who was at the door of her apartment.Soon after he dragged Sulvy by her hair from her apartment from the fifth floor to the ground and pulled her into the car.Sulvy tried to call her friend but could not manage to do so as Ahmed grabbed her hand and threw the mobile out of the car.Sulvy testified that she was saved by pedestrians who carried her to the hospital and reported the incident to the police. But she feared more torture from the powerful business family.Read and see the full story here.

• Uganda launches investigation into “nodding disease”.(BikyaMasr).Kampala (dpa) – Ugandan authorities have began an investigation into a mysterious disease that has left about 3,000 victims, mainly children, nodding their heads continuously, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.Medical and government authorities have so far failed to explain the cause and mode of transmission of the disease that has been attacking children between the ages of five and 15 in the districts of Pader and Kitgum, in the north.“Over 3,000 people have been affected by this nodding disease. (The) government has launched an investigation into the disease and we are going to release a statement next week,” Rukia Nakamatte, a spokeswoman for the ministry, told dpa.According to the Daily Monitor newspaper, in the past two years, 60 people have died from the disease. The illness causes the victims’ hands to shake repeatedly. They also nod their heads continuously and later faint.The newspaper said in its report Wednesday that it could be a result of toxic substances emitted from firearms during the 20-year rebellion launched by insurgents against government forces.The publication quoted local residents as saying they believed it could be the spirits of people killed by the rebels which were haunting the civilians.The civil waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army in the region left tens of thousands of people dead, mutilated, raped or tortured by the rebels, while more than 2 million others across eastern Africa were displaced.Hmmmm.....Sounds a bit similar to the 'Kuru disease' which is linked to Cannibalism.Read the full story here.

• The Worst Product Flops of 2011,'Bronze Medal winner': Nr. 3.The Chevy Volt.(Yahoo).GM was originally so excited about the Volt that the company had announced in January it was speeding up its roll-out by six months. But by November the excitement had fizzled out. Larry Nitz, GM’s executive director for vehicle electrification told Reuters, “It’s naive to think that the world is going to switch tomorrow to EVs [electric vehicles].” Indeed, sales for the vehicle have been consistently low. Only 125 models were sold in July 2011. This was after GM spokeswoman Michelle Bunker was quoted as saying that the Volt was “virtually sold out” due to its popularity — a statement later shown to be misguided. Adding insult to injury, Chevy Volts are under investigation for fires involving the cars’ lithium-ion batteries. For concerned Volt owners, GM has offered free loaner cars. Hmmmm......The Obama administration decides to purchase 116 Chevy Volts worth $41000 a piece, so who where the other 9 fools?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 03. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 03. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 03 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 6.2 - India 5.9  ! Lots of activity in Turkey.More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 128.On 02.06.2011 at 20:47 GMT+2
  
  The level of radioactive water has fallen significantly in the No. 1 reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday. The water level, which had risen 376 millimeters in the 24 hours from 7 a.m. on Monday, fell one millimeter in the following 24 hours, and plunged 79 millimeters from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. on Thursday. The underground water level around the No. 1 reactor facility is higher than the water level in the reactor building. TEPCO is checking whether the water is leaking from the No. 1 reactor building into the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor. The utility said the water temperature in the temporary storage pool for spent nuclear fuel rods in the No. 2 reactor had declined from 70 C at 11 a.m. on Tuesday to 42 C Thursday morning. As a cooling system for water outside the reactor building has been working since Tuesday, the water temperature has declined. Regarding the No. 3 reactor, TEPCO said it would transfer contaminated water accumulated in the turbine building to a condenser. However, as the condenser is already used to store contaminated water, TEPCO will transfer 2,000 tons of contaminated water to a condensate storage tank first to provide space.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic No. 31 - On 03.06.2011 at 05:02 GMT+2

'It's completely new to us, we've never experienced anything like it,' says Michaela Kiemes, ward manager at Kiel University Clinic. The 44-year-old and her colleagues have been caring for a flood of patients over the past two weeks who have been infected with the enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) bacteria, and are experiencing its alarming symptoms first hand. The cause of the outbreak - which has spread across Europe but is centred in northern Germany - remains unclear, and little research has been done on its treatment. Doctors and nurses, patients and their relations have all been pushed to their limits. 'We're sleeping badly, and have bad dreams,' Kiemes says quietly. 'We can't get the images of suffering patients out of our heads.' The neurological breakdowns of patients are particularly concerning. 'When their condition gets worse, then it's dramatic.'

The clinic is currently treating around 180 patients suffering from EHEC, of whom 95 have life-threatening haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), a form of kidney failure caused by E coli. Around every other HUS patient suffers serious neurological complications. The patients become disoriented, have difficulty expressing themselves, suffer convulsions. Some become apathetic, others make strange noises. Some get such strong cramp attacks they have to be restrained. Since the first EHEC patients arrived in the hospital, the wards treating them have been on a 'complete emergency footing,' Kiemes says. Doctors and co-workers have worked through weekends and days off, delaying their holidays in order to help out. In daily meetings they examine the situation from all angles. The patients 'spend all their time thinking,' says Keimes. 'They're mentally exhausted because they don't know what EHEC is, where it's come from and what happens next.'

What's worst is when patients realize that particularly severe cases have been taken to intensive care. 'Then they wonder whether they'll come back and are afraid of what will happen to them.' The situation is also a nightmare for relatives. Like the doctors and nurses, they have to disinfect themselves thoroughly before entering the wards, as well as donning green overalls, gloves and masks to cover their mouths. The protective clothing then has to be left behind after each visit. In the corridor outside they have to change immediately into new overalls, in order to minimize the chances of spreading the infection. 'Is she worse?' asks one mother, sounding frightened and shocked, when she discovers that her daughter is not in her usual room. The 40-year-old has been moved to intensive care. Her partner is carrying two plastic bags filled with her belongings out of the room. 'The uncertainty is horrible,' the mother and partner say.

They are despondent because they do not know where their loved one caught the infection - or whether she will get better. Doctors are battling in the dark, surprised by the length of the illness and its unpredictable developments. Gastroenterologist Stefan Schreiber bemoans the fact that, despite intensive questioning about eating habits, there has as yet been no eureka moment, when doctors discover which food links the cases. 'It will only be over when we find the source of the infection and we don't have any infections for two, three weeks,' he says. 'It really annoys me that we still haven't found the cause.' Schreiber believes that the blame lies with cheap, mass-produced and easily contaminated food. 'That will always create weak points.' Source.

• Boehner Gives Obama Two Weeks On Libya: Either Abide By War Powers Act Or Disengage US Forces.(ABC).In the immortal words of the vice president, this could be a big $%^ing deal: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls “a legal and political hot potato at the President.”In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks – until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up – to either:

a) Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or

b) Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya.

The resolution states: “The President has not sought, and Congress has not provided, authorization for the introduction or continued involvement of the United States Armed Forces in Libya. Congress has the constitutional prerogative to withhold funding for any unauthorized use of the United States Armed Forces, including for unauthorized activities regarding Libya.”

Boehner is explicitly and formally stating that the president did not check the box on the War Powers Act before sending the US military to intervene in Libya.Hmmmmm......Dictatorship versus Congress.Read the full story here.

• US offers Turkey lead role in Mideast talks in flotilla bargaining, report says.(TodaysZaman).The US administration is mulling offering the Turkish government a deal under which Turkey would host peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in exchange for a recovery in Turkish-Israeli ties and the prevention of a second flotilla that is expected to depart for Gaza from sailing later this month, a news report said on Friday.Organizers say the flotilla, including ships from Turkey and several European countries, is to depart at the end of June. A similar mission last year turned bloody, with Israeli commandos killing eight Turkish and one Turkish American activist in a raid on one of the ships on May 31. Turkey has scaled down its relations with Israel since then, recalling its ambassador and severing political dialogue. Ankara now says Israel should apologize for the killings and offer compensation for victims in order for ties to normalize. Israel rejects this, saying the commandos acted in self-defense.Citing unnamed sources, the Turkish Hürriyet daily said on Friday that the US was about to officially ask Turkey to host Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in return for stopping the second flotilla and ending the crisis in its ties with Israel. Under the US proposal, Turkey will host peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, similar to the major peace talks that took place in the past, such as a 1991 conference in Madrid and secret talks in Oslo in 1993.US officials are currently testing the waters to see how Ankara would react to such an offer, the daily said. But an American official said the Turkish side seems unwilling to accept the proposal as Ankara insists that there will be no progress in Turkish-Israeli ties without Israel apologizing for the May 31, 2010 incident.Israeli officials said they were not aware of any such proposal, according to the report.The new flotilla is set to create further tensions among Turkey, the United States and Israel. Israel has said it would resort to the use of force if necessary to stop the flotilla. Turkey has rejected calls to stop the flotilla, saying it is a civilian initiative and that the government has no say in it. Turkey also warned Israel not to “repeat the same mistake” it made last year.The United States is on the Israeli side and has said it has expressed its concerns to the Turkish government.(Yeah whatevah)“We have made clear through the past year that groups and individuals who seek to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that entail a risk to their safety,” Mark Toner, the deputy spokesman of the US State Department, said at a press conference on June 1.“We've raised our concerns with the Turkish government as well, and we've also met … with some of these NGOs. … We want to just reiterate that there are established and efficient mechanisms for getting humanitarian assistance through to Gaza, and that's been our message consistently,” Toner also said.Hmmmm.......Permit me to doubt this greatly, and why then send a US boat to take part in the Flotilla,named "The audacity of Hope"?A very meager smokescreen.Read the full story here.

• Ya'alon: Military strike may be needed to stop Iran nukes.(JPost).Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon called on the world to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, by all means necessary, including a military strike, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Ya'alon made the comments in an interview to Russian news agency Interfax ahead of a visit to Moscow."We strongly hope that the entire civilized world will come to realize what threat this regime is posing and take joint action to avert the nuclear threat posed by Iran, even if it would be necessary to conduct a pre-emptive strike," Yaalon said.Ya'alon emphasized that not only Israel would be endangered by a nuclear-armed Iran. "An Iran possessing nuclear weapons would be a threat to the entire civilized world," he stated.Western analysts say increasingly tough sanctions on Iran as well as the Stuxnet virus and possible other sabotage have delayed Iran's nuclear progress, even though they say the country now has enough low-enriched uranium for two bombs if refined more.Enriched uranium can be used to fuel power plants, Iran's stated aim, or provide bomb material if processed much further.Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, said last week that "the totality of the evidence indicates beyond reasonable doubt" that Iran was seeking a capability to make such weapons.If Iran decided to "weaponize" enrichment, it would need about 16 months to yield the first bomb's worth of highly enriched uranium at its Natanz enrichment facility, if all centrifuge machines were used for this purpose, he said.At least six months would then be required to fashion the highly-refined uranium into a weapon, Fitzpatrick added. Developing a missile to deliver it would add to the timeline, the former senior US State Department official said.An IAEA report last week said it had received new information about possible illicit military dimensions to Iran's nuclear activities"The latest IAEA report includes evidence that what originally were thought to be just paper studies also include actual experiments, including on triggers for a nuclear weapon," Fitzpatrick said.Hmmmm......They can't expect aid from Obama , so the best defence is the attack,God willing Saudi Arabia might help.Read the full story here.

• 'This product is for use on armed Muslim terrorists only.Did a pork-coated bullet kill Bin Laden? Yes, says firm who claim its pig fat gun oil is bought by U.S. military personnel.(DailyMail).Was Osama bin Laden shot with a bullet soaked in pork fat, denying him a place in paradise?Yes, if one rather shady website, that peddles gun oil containing liquefied pig fat, is to be believed.The makers of Silver Bullet Gun Oil claim it contains 13 per cent USDA liquefied pig fat thus making the product 'a highly effective counter-Islamic terrorist force multiplier.'The apparent owner of the gun oil site, who goes by the name 'The Midnight Rider,' explains how the pig fat will transfer onto anything the bullet strikes.This 'effectively denies entry to Allah's paradise to an Islamo-fascist terrorist,' Rider adds.The oil, which costs $8.95 for 4oz, apparently puts the 'fear of death into them (terrorists)'.In Islam consumption of pork is forbidden, but the Quran also states that if one is forced to consume the meat then they are guiltless and therefore not disqualified from paradise. The website also notes its customers include members of the U.S. military.'Thousands of bottles of Silver Bullet Gun Oil have been distributed since July of 2004 by its creator to members of ALL U.S. Military branches,' it claims.A promotional YouTube video for the oil shows a picture of Bin Laden and the claim: 'Killed with a weapon using Silver Bullet Gun Oil'.'Midnite Rider' also known as 'Warrior of YAHWEH,' claims to be a former Marine scout sniper on the site.Pictures of the 'production line' show a masked men wearing regulation Marine camouflage uniform, that is officially off-limits for civilians. A disclaimer on the website also reads: 'This product is for use on armed Muslim terrorists only. 'We do not promote discrimination against any race or religion, only terrorists.'A spokesman for the U.S. Army's weapons-procurement command told the Southern Pverty Law Center's Hatewatch - a not-for-profit that monitors the evolving problem of online bigotry - that he was unfamiliar with Silver Bullet, 'though he conceded that a soldier or marine could theoretically purchase the oil on his or her own and use it on the battlefield.'Hmmmmm.....Reminds me of The British Army in India used a combination of lard (pig fat) and tallow (cow fat) to grease the cartridges,resulting in offending both the Muslims and the Hindus.Read the full story here.

• Report: Lebanese 'Naksa Day' march postponed.(Ynet). Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper, Palestinians sources claim planed march on Israel's border canceled due to US pressure.Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday that the committee organizing the "Naksa Day" march on Israel's border has decided to postpone it following pressure by Washington on Beirut. One of the newspaper's sources said the similar marches planned in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank, may also be cancelled.According to the report the final decision to delay the "Naksa Day" events was made Thursday night. An Islamic Jihad Movement official in Lebanon conveyed similar messages, announcing that "after the Palestinian forces learned about the current situation in Lebanon we're leaning towards cancelling the marches planned for Sunday along the borderline with Palestine.""The organizers are expected to make an official announcement in the next few hours, clarifying the reasons for the cancelation and deciding upon alternative steps they might take to ensure the marches and parades take place in all of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon," said the Islamic Jihad official. The al-Akhbar report claimed the main reason behind the delay is due to pressure on Beirut put on by the US embassy via Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman. Meanwhile, UNIFIL forces talked with the Lebanese army in an attempt to prevent this provocative initiative. According to the report, the committee organizing the "Naksa Day" march stressed they have no intention to create a crisis within the borders of Lebanon. They have made it clear that holding the march is a "sacred value" but that the timing is given to change. "If we won't be able to head towards the border on Jun 5, then we'll try to do it on any other date," said a Palestinian official in Lebanon. Another official addressed the decision to postpone the march, saying: "It will leave the Israeli enemy in a state of suspense and anxiety." Meanwhile, the Lebanese al-Safir newspaper quoted Palestinian sources claiming preparations for the marches in Syria are still on. The sources promised the Sunday march from Damascus will be a lot bigger than the one on "Nakba Day." Read the full story here.

• John Bolton how to Block the Palestine Statehood Ploy.(WSJ).Congress can take a cue from Jim Baker in 1989 and threaten to cut U.S. money for the U.N.Now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recent sparring partner Barack Obama are back in their corners, the next Arab-Israeli political flash point could be this fall at the U.N. General Assembly. The Palestinian Authority is lobbying Assembly members to legitimize its claim to international status as a “state.”Recognizing “statehood” does not mean U.N. membership, but it would nonetheless be a major Palestinian success. A resolution recognizing a Palestinian “state” could also declare its boundary to be the 1967 borders (in actuality, merely the 1949 armistice lines), with or without President Obama’s caveat about “agreed upon swaps” of land.The obvious Palestinian objective is to remove the issues of statehood and boundaries from the realm of bilateral negotiations with Israel, making them fait accompli. Last fall, the Palestinians focused on obtaining a Security Council resolution for this purpose. They believed, for whatever reason, that Mr. Obama would not order an American veto, as his predecessors would have done without hesitation. Many thought the administration might even vote “yes” rather than abstain.When it became clear that U.S. opposition in the Security Council was likely, on statehood or on U.N. membership, Palestinian attention shifted to the General Assembly, where there is no veto. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, and that body has no authority to recognize states, although its actions can be politically powerful, as the 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution demonstrated.This is déjà vu all over again. In late 1988, Palestinians issued a “declaration of statehood,” changing their U.N. observer delegation’s name from “Palestine Liberation Organization” to “Palestine” to sound more like a state, which scores of countries recognized. The Palestinians then campaigned to join U.N. bodies like the World Health Organization, reasoning that since U.N. agency charters allow only states as members, the admission of “Palestine” would prove that it, too, was a state.Ridiculous in the real world but not in the U.N., the PLO effort gained overwhelming support there. George H.W. Bush’s new administration and Israel protested that “Palestine” manifestly did not meet customary international law definitions of statehood, such as having a clearly defined territory and exercising a government’s legitimate domestic and international responsibilities. Third World countries rallied almost unanimously to the PLO, and Europe’s response was weak. European diplomats believed Washington’s opposition was merely pro forma due to the “Jewish lobby.”Faced with the near certainty of defeat, Secretary of State James Baker warned publicly: “I will recommend to the President that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any changes in the PLO’s status as an observer organization.”No politician of Mr. Baker’s skill would publicize his proposals unless he knew that the president would accept them, and this reality was rapidly understood internationally. Although defeating the PLO campaign required further maneuvering, Mr. Baker’s statement was the death knell of the “statehood” push.The lesson for today is plain. If President Obama wants to block a General Assembly Palestinian statehood resolution, he should act essentially as Messrs. Bush and Baker did. Yet Mr. Obama is highly unlikely to do anything so decisive, which is why many in America and Israel remain gravely concerned about this latest Palestinian diplomatic ploy.Accordingly, we should turn to Congress, which has a rich history of dealing with U.N. actions it doesn’t appreciate. Rather than wait for a Baker-like threat, Congress should legislate broadly that any U.N. action that purports to acknowledge or authorize Palestinian statehood will result in a cutoff of all U.S. contributions to the offending agency. If the General Assembly ignored this warning, all funds would be cut off to the bloated Secretariat in New York, but not to separate agencies like the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and others with their own governing bodies and funding mechanisms.The logic is the same today as it was in 1989. Moreover, our current federal budget deficits provide another attractive reason to reduce U.N. contributions. If political realities make it impossible to cut off funding completely, perhaps a partial reduction, say 50%, might be a suitable compromise.Although the General Assembly will not convene again until September, there is no time to waste. Fatah’s coalition with Hamas already provides statutory grounds (since the U.S. lists Hamas as a terrorist organization) to eliminate funding for the Palestinian Authority. Reducing U.S. funding to the U.N. is the next available, highly visible, target of opportunity. It presents the U.N. membership with a fascinating question: Would they rather recognize Palestinian statehood, or keep America’s money?Read the full story here.

• Trumka: “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.”(BigGovernment).Good news! We’re all one step closer to being able to call socialism by its name! According to a Bloomberg report, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka “said he’d like to see the U.S. become more like a European nation that provides pensions and health care for all its citizens. He said he is accustomed to criticism and doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism.”Trumka added that “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.”*Glad we’ve cleared that up!It was so confusing to figure out another name for a union movement that has been pushing socialized medicine, cradle-to-grave entitlements, government monopoly of the school system, European-style regulation, higher taxes on working Americans to fund high government-employee salaries, auto bailouts to save union (and union boss) jobs, killing secret ballots in favor of card check, eroding private property rights, and more.* This is a true statement when one recalls that Trumka blamed a victim for his own death at the hands of militant union strikers.Hmmmm.....Only make it a national movement to have "National socialisme".Read the full story here.

• If he really wanted to destroy America, would he do anything different?Obama’s War on Coal Takes a New Turn.(BigGovernment).Cap-and-trade legislation may have failed in Congress in 2010, but that doesn’t mean that this is the last we will hear from this economically-harmful policy.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Air Act has been busily proposing and finalizing nearly 200 major policy rules aimed at curbing carbon and other particulate emissions. This despite the fact that the Clean Air Act was never intended for this purpose and widespread opposition exists among the business community, citizens and states.One particular regulation that is generating deep concern among the business community is the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule or better know as the MACT rule. This rule would require coal-fired plants to reduce emissions of particular toxic air pollutants.The big problem with this is MACT would require coal-fired power plants to install very costly equipment to comply with the regulation. In some cases, these companies simply can’t afford to buy the equipment and for others the needed equipment isn’t commercially available.If this rule is implemented, it would force the shut down of many coal-fired power plants. For states like Ohio, who rely on coal power for 90 percent of their energy, this is a major problem. According to some estimates, enough coal-fired power plants would close to equal about 30-70 gigawatts of electricity generated nationwide. A single gigawatt of energy can power about 750,000 homes.In a time where national unemployment hovers around 9 percent, these regulations threaten to lead to more job losses and do some serious damage to the economy. The American Legislative Exchange Council estimated that the EPA regulation will eliminate 2.5 million jobs, depress investment by $300 billion by 2014 and reduce GDP by up to $500 billion.Many states and local communities are already voicing strong concern about the EPA’s regulations. States like Michigan and Utah have claimed that the EPA has overstepped their regulatory jurisdiction and urged the U.S. Congress to intervene and provide much needed oversight over the agency.More citizens, communities and states need to join in the call for Congress to intervene if the EPA is to be reined before it does the anticipated damage to our economy, which recent speculation has suggested could be headed for more trouble.Hmmmmm......And the replacement technology for this loss of energy is........Thin air?Read the full story here.

• "The Evil Djini made me do it" defence,Sheikh: Terror suspect possessed by devil.(Ynet).A sheikh familiar with an Arab truck driver who went on a recent rampage in Tel Aviv says the man, Issa Ibrahim Islam, was "possessed by the devil" at the time of the incident. The sheikh claims he treated Islam, who he said was in a difficult mental state before the incident took place. The truck driver prayed at his mosque frequently, the sheikh said. On the recent "Nakba Day," Islam went on a rampage with his truck in southern Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 17. The sheikh, who was interrogated by police Wednesday, said that Islam was "possessed by the devil," which prompted him to press the gas pedal of his heavy truck. Islam has been under arrest since the incident and continues to insist that the rampage was not a deliberate or terror-related act.The sheikh said he treated Islam using alternative methods in the days before the incident. The treatment included rubbing oil on the suspect's stomach while reciting Koran verses. The sheikh was summoned for an interrogation after Islam's relatives, including his brother, claimed that the terror suspect was in a difficult mental state, which prompted him to go on the rampage. Islam's attorney, Mufid Badir, told Ynet: "I asked the police before…to look into his mental history, in light of the medical and alternative treatments he underwent…I don't understand how they gave him a license to drive a heavy truck given his mental state." Hmmmmm.....Perhaps condem the Djini and the 'host vessel' to life without parole?Read the full story here.

• “The Audacity of Hope.” I demand Obama tell them to change the name of the boat.(AstuteBloggers).Americans Are Joining Flotilla to Protest Israeli Blockade. When an international flotilla sails for Gaza this month to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory, among the boats will be an American ship with 34 passengers, including the writer Alice Walker and an 86-year-old whose parents died in the Holocaust. ... The Americans have named their boat “The Audacity of Hope,” lifting the title of a book by President Obama to make a point, said Leslie Cagan, a political organizer who is the coordinator of the American boat. Hmmmm.....If the US is 'telling' Turkey to persuade their subjects not to participate in this flotilla why not do the same with your own people?Read the full story here.

• Indiana Says It Will Defy Obama Admin Order to Continue Funding Planned Parenthood.(NationalJournal). Indiana officials said Thursday they will defy a federal order to continue funding Planned Parenthood and other clinics that offer abortion services.Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a law in May that would cut off federal funding from Indiana clinics that perform abortions. The law is primarily aimed at the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics, which get federal family planning grants to administer services unrelated to abortion.Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick said on Wednesday the federal government could not endorse the law because it restricts access to a range of important family planning services. Federal money cannot be spent directly on abortion services anyway, but most clinics that offer abortion also offer other family planning and health services, from breast cancer screening to birth control advice.Indiana says it will implement the amendment despite Berwick’s warning.“The way the law was written, it went into effect the moment the governor signed it,” Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, said in a telephone interview.“We were just advised by our lawyers that we should continue to enforce Indiana law.”Hmmmm......Dictatorship or democracy?Read the full story here.

• "The missiles did not explode".Two dead, 52 injured as Russian arms depot continues to explode.(Rainovosti).Two people have died and at least 52 have been injured in ongoing explosions at an artillery arsenal in Russia's Volga region Republic of Udmurtia, a spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said."As of now, 52 people turned for medical assistance, 25 were hospitalized with two of them already discharged," the spokesman said.The republic's health minister, Vladimir Muzlov, said earlier two elderly people died from heart attacks caused by stress from the explosions.The Defense Ministry has reported one person as missing in the incident, but did not say whether the individual was a civilian or a military serviceman.At around 11:10 p.m. Moscow time [19:10 GMT] on Thursday shells began to explode in an artillery depot near the village of Pugachevo in Udmurtia. The facility belongs to the Defense Ministry's missile and artillery directorate and is tasked mainly with munitions disposal.Currently, the intensity of explosions has dropped to a third of the initial level, but military officials are still unable to say when the series of explosions will stop, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.A group of seven aircraft from the Emergencies Ministry has arrived at the scene from Moscow to deal with the blaze and explosions, including two planes with special equipment, two firefighting planes and three helicopters.That is in addition to the previously deployed 200 personnel, 30 firefighting units and three firefighting trains. A fourth train is to arrive from the neighboring republic of Tatarstan soon.According to the Russian presidential press service, some 13,500 people were evacuated from the nearby residential areas, while the regional emergencies department says 28,000 people were evacuated.A senior Russian military official has confirmed that artillery rockets are stored at the arsenal, but added that there is no threat of them exploding."The missiles did not explode. They are kept in a concrete storage unit with 70-cm (27.6 inches) thick walls," Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov said.A police source said earlier that rockets for Grad multiple rocket launcher systems started to explode in underground storage facilities on Friday morning.Eyewitnesses said fragments of the detonated shells were spotted up to two kilometers (1.6 miles) from the blast site.Irina, a resident of the nearby town of Agryza, said the evacuation was well organized and began at around midnight with buses taking people away."These sounds [of explosions] woke us up and we did not understand anything... it was very scary. No one had time to grab their documents, money or valuables," Irina said adding that she, her son, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren fled the town by car.The blast-hit facility stores from 5,000 to 10,000 railway carriages with various ammunition. It is believed 18 storage facilities are on fire.The accident forced the Emergencies Ministry to temporarily close the Yelabuga-Izhevsk zone of the M7 federal highway, connecting Moscow and Ufa, the capital of the Urals republic of Bashkortostan. The nearby railway link was also closed.The incident is the second major accident involving munitions explosions at a Russian army base in a week. Last Thursday, a military arsenal in the republic of Bashkortostan, which borders Udmurtia, was rocked by a series of explosions as artillery ammunition exploded, causing the evacuation of nearby residents and leaving 160 homeless. No-one died in that incident.Hmmmm......."The missiles did not explode. They are kept in a concrete storage unit with 70-cm (27.6 inches) thick walls,".Read the full story here.

• Moldovans Rally To Protest Formal Recognition Of Islam.(Rferl).CHISINAU -- Hundreds of Moldovans have taken to the streets in Chisinau to protest the government's recognition of the country's tiny Muslim minority, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports.Some participants in the rally warned that the decision would open the door to terrorism and lead to mass conversions to Islam."We want to guard our borders and to defend our Orthodox faith.... The Muslims are like a virus. If you let in just a few they will multiply," one female participant at the rally told RFE/RL, refusing to give her name.Another woman in the crowd outside the government building said Muslims would introduce polygamy and "harems" to Moldova. And a priest named Gheorghe was quoted by local media as saying at the rally that the Muslims "are all instructed in terrorism."The rally was organized by several Orthodox Christian associations under the umbrella of the powerful Moldovan Metropolitan Church, which has for weeks criticized the government's decision in March to register the Islamic League as a representative of the Muslim faith.Also today, the Moldovan Antidiscrimination Coalition NGO organized a much smaller counterprotest outside the headquarters of the Metropolitan Church, asking it to stop what it called "its endless campaigns of intolerance."Earlier this year, the Moldovan Orthodox Church and conservative politicians forced the pro-Western government to shelve a bill that would have banned discrimination against many minorities, including religious groups and gays.Officially there are just 2,000 Muslims living in Moldova. But the Islamic League says the number is closer to 17,000, though not all of them are registered as Muslims because previous governments considered Islam to be illegal. Read the full story here.

• Iranian Woman Calls for ‘Slut Women’ to be Stoned…on the Pages of Calif. Paper.(TheBlaze).Infidelity seems rampant in our culture and during these times. Just recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger is alleged to have had a love child with his housekeeper. So what’s the solution to this problem? Shamci Rafani of Visalia, CA has a proposal: stone the “sluts” responsible.In a letter to the editor that appeared in yesterday’s Visalia Times-Delta, Rafani — herself the victim of infidelity — angrily calls for the death of woman who knowingly engage in an affair. And she didn’t hold back: But the woman who had been aware of her wrongdoing, and yet had done it without any shame or fear, must be punished severely.Yes, in many countries, the public will stone that woman to death.Believe me, that might be the right answer to the behavior of these kind of loose women, who want to blame it all on men.My main question is, how many more families have to be destroyed?These women not only must not be awarded, but they must pay for destroying the happiness and the future of their victims, especially this woman who lived with the family and had become a member of that family.These slut women do not know how to say no. To my judgment, these women who freely sleep with married men must be severely punished and put to death. If the lawmakers do something about it, you will find less stories like Arnold’s.Those are some strong words. And the absurdity of them raises more then a few questions. The man one: Is this a joke? Gawker went digging and found that, no, it’s not a joke. Rafani is a real woman, and bringing adultress women to justice has become her life goal: The Visalia Times-Delta didn’t respond to our inquiry. By phone, Shamci Rafani assured us that she is a real person, a 77-year-old immigrant from Iran. She says her husband left her thirty years ago for another woman, and since then she has been dedicated herself to speaking out against “sluts” in letters to the editor and a self-published book.I guess there‘s nothing like a woman’s scorn. And I guess adulterers in the U.S. should be glad that capital punishment — unlike in Iran and other countries in the Mideast– is reserved for the killers and traitors.Hmmmm....Aren't you glad Sharia isn't practiced in the US?Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Federal Judge Bans Religious Words From Texas Graduation Ceremony, Says One Student Would “Suffer Irreparable Harm”.(Fox-Todd Starnes).(Todd Starnes/FNR) – A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony. Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including “prayer” and “amen.”The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturday’s graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would “suffer irreparable harm” if anyone prayed at the ceremony.Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the school district is in the process of appealing the ruling and his office has agreed to file a brief in their support.“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News Radio, saying the judge wanted to turn school administrators into “speech police.”“I’ve never seen such a restriction on speech issued by a court or the government,” Abbott told Fox News Radio. “It seems like a trampling of the First Amendment rather than protecting the First Amendment.”Hmmmmmm.....“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country,” AMEN.Read the full story here.

• Austrian Freedom Party Leader Greets Recall of Turkish Ambassador.(StopTurkey).Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of the anti-immigration Austrian Freedom Party has welcomed the recall of Turkey's ambassador to Austria, Kadri Ecvet Tezcan, who is to be re-assigned to Israel later this month. He deplored the fact that it had taken so long, however, insisting that the ambassador should have been recalled immediately last November after he had "insulted the Austrian people in a scandalous way" and acted "like a colonial lord". Strache called on the new ambassador to immediately distance himself from his predecessor and to denounce his remarks.For an indication of how much anger the Turkish ambassador managed to provoke last year, take a look at the YouTube video above, which shows a debate in the Austrian parliament in which the MP Ewald Stadler fiercely denounces Kadri Ecvet Tezcan and Turkey, and highlights the persecution of Christians in Turkey.Hmmmmm.....Off course the Turkish ambassador is the perfect choice for Israel.Read the full story here.