U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Blasts Obama Amnesty Plan; Will Hurt Blacks

U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Blasts Obama Amnesty Plan; Will Hurt Blacks. HT: JudicialWatch.

Illegal immigration has a particularly disastrous effect on the employment of black Americans and disproportionately impacts the wages and work opportunities of African-American men, according to a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

In a letter to President Obama, the commissioner, Peter Kirsanow, blasts the administration’s plans to grant legal status and work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants.

Kirsanow is an African-American lawyer with an Ivy League degree who also sits on the National Labor Relations Board and the Center for New Black Leadership. He is a presidential appointment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights which was established by Congress in 1957 to enhance enforcement of federal civil rights laws. The agency has eight commissioners, four appointed by the president and four by Congress. They serve six-year terms and play a vital role in advancing civil rights through objective and comprehensive investigation, research and analysis.


“Any grant of legal status will serve as a magnet to prospective illegal immigrants and further depress employment opportunities and wages for African-Americans,” Kirsanow writes to the president. “Given that the labor force participation rate is at a historic low, the unemployment rate is 6.2 percent and there has been a precipitous decline in household wealth, the timing for such a grant of legal status could not be worse.”

The veteran civil rights commissioner cites expert testimony and research conducted by his agency in the last few years to back up his words.

As an example Kirsanow tells the president about a 2008 commission briefing to address the impact of illegal immigration on the wages and employment opportunities of African-Americans. Despite ideological diversity, a number of well-regarded scholars from leading universities and independent groups acknowledged that “illegal immigration has a discernible negative effect on black employment,” Kirsanow confirms.

This is because illegal immigrants and blacks are disproportionately low skilled and often compete for the same jobs, according to one scholar cited by the commissioner. Other research has found that illegal immigrants had displaced U.S. citizens in industries that had traditionally employed large numbers of African-Americans, such as meatpacking.

“Granting legal status to millions of people who are in the United States illegally will continue to depress the wages and employment opportunities of African-American men and teenagers,” Kirsanow writes.

“It will also depress the wages and employment opportunities of African-Americans going forward. The civil rights commissioner goes on to blast the commander-in-chief for igniting the recent flood of illegal immigration by granting legal status to those living in the U.S. illegally. “When you incentivize bad behavior, you get more of it,” Kirsanow tells Obama.


The civil rights commissioner also slams the president with one of his administration’s favorite arguments on behalf of minority civil rights. It’s called disparate impact on the basis of national origin and Kirsanow asserts amnesty will constitute an unlawful discrimination because it will disproportionately benefit a particular group—Mexicans and Central Americans—and disproportionately disadvantage other ethnic groups. 

This would be considered a violation of Title VII, Kirsanow writes referring to the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Here’s another great point that few have bothered to bring up; an executive order granting amnesty is unfair to people who are attempting to immigrate legally, the commissioner reminds.

WOW...Ahmadinejad to defend the Jews? Ahmadinejad Vows to Reveal Hands behind UN's Discriminatory Structure.

WOW...Ahmadinejad to defend the Jews? Ahmadinejad Vows to Reveal Hands behind UN's Discriminatory Structure.(Fars). "The UN seems to be meant for defending the rights of nations, but I will reveal what is going on behind the scene of the UN in due time," Ahmadinejad said at Tehran's Mehrabad international airport on Sunday before leaving Tehran for New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting. "The UN was apparently set up for all nations to benefit from ties and have equal footings, but today we can see the situation of the UN (which is different from what it should be)," he added. Ahmadinejad underlined that progress in the world depends on correcting the global relations and establishment of a just and humane world order, and added, "We should make efforts so that our nation and all nations enjoy their interests." The Iranian president has on many occasions lambasted the present world order dominating the nations' relations in various economic, cultural and political fields, and asked the global community to start a major change in this order. He also has blasted the UN Security Council's discriminatory structure, saying that it has provided certain powers with the chance to misuse their veto-wielding right. "A few countries have the veto power at the Security Council which means the rule of a few states over humanity," Ahmadinejad said in 2010. Also, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has repeatedly underlined the necessity for reforms in the UN structure, and reiterated that Muslims should also have a proper share of the permanent UN Security Council seats. Winners of the Second World War shaped the Charter of the UN in their national interests, dividing the veto-power pertinent to the permanent seats amongst themselves. Even though the geopolitical realities changed drastically since 1945, when the set-up of the current Council was decided, the Security Council has changed very little during this long period. Reform of the United Nations Security Council encompasses five key issues: categories of membership, the question of the veto held by the five permanent members, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council and its working methods.

The U.N.'s Record Vis A Vis Israel.

Summary

Security Council:

175 Total Resolutions
74 Neutral
4 Against the perceived interests of an Arab state or body
97 Against Israel

General Assembly:

Cumulative Number of Votes cast with/for Israel: 7,938.
Cumulative Number of Votes cast against Israel: 55,642.

Canada - Pearson airport Muslim cab drivers rules can take the bark out of your trip home.

                                               Muslim and Dogs HARAM???????? 


Canada - Pearson airport Muslim cab drivers rules can take the bark out of your trip home.(TS).By Sue-Ann Levy.TORONTO - Last Monday morning at 1:30 a.m. I came out of Pearson Airport with my dachsie Kishka in tow looking for a limo to drive us home. Kishka, as is the requirement whenever I fly to and from my home in Florida, was comfortably zipped up in his soft kennel. He was half-asleep at that hour — and so hidden away — that the first driver in line headed towards me to start loading my luggage. It was when he grabbed Kishka’s kennel and realized a dog was in there that he turned around quickly and waved me away. The second driver, also a visible minority, said “No” the moment I approached him. The second driver — who works for McIntosh Limousine — refused to give me a reason for refusing me or his name. Thankfully, a third driver eventually pulled up. He had no issue transporting Kishka, who promptly fell asleep in his kennel the moment we hit the highway. However after I posted my plight on Facebook later that day, I soon discovered I’d opened quite the can of worms. 
What I realized is that this occurs quite often not only at the airport but in Toronto proper and is happening due to religious reasons — that is, because dogs are considered unclean in certain religions. In fact, Gail Beck-Souter, general manager of Beck Taxi that operates about 900 cars in Toronto, confirms that if certain Muslims take a dog in their vehicle, they are required to go home and shower afterwards (before they pray). It would seem that the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) which licenses limos that pick up at Pearson airport and the companies that operate out of the airport have bent over backwards to accommodate the religious demands of their drivers — who clearly have strength in numbers. 
McIntosh Limousine manager Anne Ruddy claimed the driver who turned me down, a gentleman from India, did so because he “doesn’t have to” take dogs. But the driver would have to take Kishka if he was a service dog — that’s the “law,” she said. She denied Muslim drivers in their fleet would ever turn down dogs for religious reasons contending it has more to do with “them being scared” of dogs.
Asked how she felt about a woman being denied a ride at 1:30 a.m., Ruddy said she “hates the idea” but they have to “abide by the GTAA rules” — they “don’t have a choice.” I had to laugh when I read the description of their drivers on the McIntosh website, most particularly this gem: “Our drivers have taken sensitivity training...” Guess that sensitivity training didn’t include the part about not leaving a woman stranded at 1:30 a.m.
The GTAA isn’t much better. Spokeswoman Trish Krale confirmed that drivers are “not required” to take passengers with animals and if they do, they must give their vehicle a “full interior cleaning” after a ride due to dander and allergies. However, they are not entitled to turn down someone travelling with a service animal — after which a “full cleaning” would also be required. Although I’m not ruling out the people who are allergic to dogs, I suspect the “full cleaning” issue has been driven entirely by the religious demands of the drivers. Besides, it’s absolute B.S., in my view. Does that mean whenever a limo picks up my partner and I with our two dogs, they have to take it off the road right after to clean it? We’ve never been told that by any drivers. One doesn’t have to go further than the GTAA website to note how far their Consultative Committee on Taxicabs and Limousines (CCTL) will go to pander to the drivers. One of their issues in the minutes of this past January is to have their Prayer Room relocated from the international departures area of Terminal 3 to the domestic arrivals area. Souter tells me while they “don’t like it” they do give their drivers the option of not taking a dog and sometimes it is “difficult” to find a car that will take dogs. “Some feel unclean (with dogs),” she said, adding that a “small percentage” will also not pick people up at the liquor store. She says some will use allergies as an excuse when their concern is really religious. Kudos to Souter for being, shall we say, less than politically correct about this issue. Last I looked this is Canada. Seeing as they’ve chosen to move here for presumably a better life, the least we can expect is that they assimilate.Read the full story here.

Hmmmm.....And what does the 'Holy Koran' say about dogs?: "Abu Dharr reported: THE MESSENGER OF 'ALLAH (may peace be upon him)
SAID: When any one of you stands for prayer and there is a thing before him equal to the back of the saddle that covers him and in case there is not before him (a thing) equal to the back of the saddle, HIS PRAYER WOULD BE CUT OFF BY (passing of an) ASS, WOMAN, AND BLACK DOG.
I said: O Abu Dharr, what feature is there in a black dog which distinguish it from the red dog and the yellow dog?
He said: O, son of my brother, I asked the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) as you are asking me, and he said: The black dog is a devil. (Sahih Muslim, Book 004, Number 1032).

Toronto’s Pearson International has been voted the country’s worst airport, for the second time, in an online survey by FlightNetwork.com.

Video - CAIR-FL News Conference for UPS Employee Alleging Anti-Muslim Bias

Chaplain Alliance Asks Congress to Investigate Removal of Military Bibles.

"The War On Christianity" - Chaplain Alliance Asks Congress to Investigate Removal of Military Bibles.(CP).By Alex Murashko.An atheist activist group is claiming a victory in its ongoing effort to keep religious expression and symbols out of the U.S. armed services after it was announced that the Department of Defense is removing military edition Bibles from its exchange stores. A chaplain alliance group is asking Congress to investigate whether the action taken was religious discrimination. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) said that the Holman Christian Standard Bibles editions "prominently emblazoned with exact replicas of the trademarked emblems of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force" could be seen as the official religious text of the four branches. "Once again our foundation has decisively beaten back those who would see the wall separating church and state reduced to rubble," said Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of MRFF.
"The very fact that the Pentagon – or 'Pentacostal-gon' – had allowed for the insignias of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force to be used for such a clearly evangelical fundamentalist agenda should sicken anyone with any inkling of respect for the 'sacred' principle of religious freedom as enshrined by the foundational documents of our nation, namely the U.S. Constitution."The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty expressed disappointment on Tuesday over the decision by the Department of Defense officials to remove military edition Bibles from the shelves of military exchange stores. "This is one more case of Department of Defense officials bowing to political pressure to create a 'religion free' zone in the military," said Chaplain Alliance officials. Crews questions whether the DoD's apparent alignment with the MRFF's demand is an act of discrimination and is asking politicians to investigate. "Why should these Bibles be removed because of the demands of a small activist group?" Crews asked. "MRFF must cease and desist their reckless assault on religious liberty. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty calls on Congress to investigate this frivolous threat and apparent discrimination against religious views by the DoD." Hmmmmm.........Obama: “We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.”Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 18. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 18. Here (Al-Jazeera).

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 112. Source : Here .

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

• “Something really wrong is going on here”.(NorthEastIntelligence).By Douglas J. Hagmann.In the U.S., under the Obama-Holder “Justice” Department, which can be considered a policy extension and acceleration of the former administration and Department of Justice policies in many ways, it is certain that “something really wrong is going on here.”Many might recall the scene in the 1979 hit movie And Justice For All when star Al Pacino, cast as lawyer Arthur Kirkland, delivered his opening statement to the jury in the packed courtroom of Judge Francis Rayford, played by actor Jack Warden. Sick of the injustice system that would allow a guilty man to go free and innocent men jailed, Pacino stated about his own client, “That man is guilty! That man, there, that man is a slime! he is a slime! If he’s allowed to go free, then something really wrong is going on here!”At that point, Judge Rayford angrily slammed his gavel and retorted “Mr. Kirkland you are out of order!” Attorney Kirkland then responded with a full throttle meltdown, shouting ”You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They’re out of order! [...] It’s just a show! It’s a show!” As he was being dragged from the courtroom by bailiffs, Kirkland (Pacino) added ” Hold it! Hold it! I just completed my opening statement!”The opening statement of this article bears repeating. “Something really wrong is going on here.”Consider the following two unrelated cases, one involving a Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq and was shot dead in his Tucson, Arizona home by a Pima County SWAT team, and the other involving the raid on a Florida mosque where three Muslims were arrested on suspicion of providing aid to the Taliban. I don’t believe there can be two more different approaches than represented by these two cases. One case involves a U.S. Marine veteran, the other a mosque whose leaders are under indictment for providing aid to the Taliban.In the case of at Jose Guerena, the Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, a Pima County, Arizona SWAT team were serving a narcotics conspiracy warrant at his home earlier this month. Guerena, who had been sleeping just two hours after working his shift at a local mine, was awakened y screams from his wife when she observed an unidentified man with a gun outside of their home. She grabbed her baby and hid in a closet as Guerena grabbed a rifle and proceeded to investigate. He was shot dead inside the sanctity of his own home, in the U.S. and not by some sniper in Iraq. In total, seventy-one rounds were fired at Guerena.To make matters worse – much worse, medical treatment was withheld by the SWAT team, according to his widow and verified by police and medical logs. At this point, it would appear that Guerena was startled awake and thinking he was protecting his family from a possible home invasion, stumbled onto a police raid. He never had a chance.As a result of the lax border security at the hands of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, there has been a sharp rise in home invasions in Tucson over the last few years. Of course, one would not know that by the “cocky football spiking” Obama from his recent speech in El Paso, where he mocked and ridiculed anyone who dared to question the state of U.S.-Mexico border insecurity.Now, consider the raid on a south Florida Mosque at about 6:00 a.m. Saturday by dozens of heavily armed federal agents. They pounded on the door of the Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque in Miami-Dade county, armed with warrants for Muslims who are suspected of a long-running conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas in support of the Taliban. As morning prayers were in progress inside the mosque, the armed agents respectfully waited until the prayers ended, and then entered the mosque only after removing their footwear.The raid at the mosque resulted in three arrests: Imam Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan and his two sons, Izhar Khan and Irfan Khan. Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles.Additionally, three others named in the indictment are currently at large in Pakistan. They are identified as Ali Rehman (a/k/a Faisal Ali Rehman), Amina Khan (a/k/a Amina Bibi), the daughter of Hafiz Khan, and her son, Alam Zeb, who is also Khan’s grandson.Yes, “something really wrong is going on here.”Hmmmm......"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".Read the full story here.

• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu under pressure by Obama to expel 130,000 Jews from their homes?(IsraelMatzav).National Union party leader Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz has accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of preparing the expulsion of 130,000 Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s seeming agreement to surrender Jewish communities outside of “settlement blocs” sets the stage for the largest expulsion of Jews since the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, National Union chairman and Knesset Member Yaakov (Ketzaleh) Katz charged Tuesday.The Prime Minister did not spell out which “settlement blocs” he meant during his Herzl Day speech in the Knesset Monday night.“Now the truth has become clear,” said MK Katz. “This is the first time that the Prime Minister has stood up and declared, contrary to the platform of his Likud party, that he is prepared to expel 130,000 Jews, residents of the hills of Judea and Samaria, in effect advancing Kadima party policies."“There has been no such wholesale expulsion since the Spanish Inquisition by the worst Jew-haters of Europe." He urged MKs and ministers of the Likud to join the National Union “to be true to the platform on which they were elected.”Prime Minister Netanyahu may not have spelled out which Jews he intends to expel from their homes in Judea and Samaria, but Ketzaleh has. If you go to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew site, there's a list of communities Netanyahu intends to keep and a list of those he intends to give up with their populations.In a speech on Monday to the Israeli Parliament, Mr. Netanyahu ruled out any dealings with Hamas but suggested that Israel would be open to surrendering most of the West Bank in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Hmmmm......Israel Brace yourself for tomorrow and obama speech?Read the full story here.More here.

• A word of caution about Obama's 'turnaround'.(IsraelMatzav).I have a sense of deja vu regarding President Obama's seeming turnaround. In the last couple of months, he has seemingly let up on pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu and has lowered both the tone and the priority of the 'peace process.' Now, word is coming out of Washington claiming that Obama's speech on Thursday night will be conciliatory to Israel, and well it might be if he doesn't want to be booed out of the room when he speaks to the AIPAC convention on Sunday.
  
  I feel like we're back in 2008. We're being told to ignore the fact that Obama sat in Reverend Wright's anti-Semitic church listening to his sermons for 20 years and listen only to what he is saying now. We're being told to ignore the fact that one of Obama's closest advisers called for sending US troops to Israel to enforce a 'Palestinian state' because he fired her anyway and she won't be part of his administration. We're being told that the 'new Obama' understands that Prime Minister Netanyahu has done all he can to bring about peace and that he realizes that we cannot even negotiate with an entity that includes an unrepentant Hamas. We're being told all these warm and fuzzy things. And they are all a lie.When we look at Arab leaders, we are constantly warned - and rightfully so - to look at what they are saying in Arabic before accepting what they say in English at face value. In fact, an entire cottage industry (principally MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch) has sprung up to translate the words of the Arab media into English. Similarly, we cannot just accept what Obama says to Israel supporters and ignore what he says to our opponents.If Obama wins in 2012, all is not well. Every action Obama takes for the next 18 months has one goal and one goal only: To get himself re-elected. Once that happens (God forbid), the Obama who visited MJ Rosenberg, the Obama who sat in Reverend Wright's church, the Obama who was close friends with Rashid Khalidi and Ali Abunimah, is likely to come out of the closet.Hmmmm......I think his speech on Thursday will include nothing good for Israel.Read the full story here.

• Obama regime sends Herald scribe to Coventry.(BostonHerald).The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.”“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit.“My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting US President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits,” Lehrich wrote.Obama is in town today to raise money for his 2012 re-election campaign. His afternoon speech in the South End’s Cyclorama is open to all media, but only a selected pool can attend other aspects of his fund-raiser. Pool reporters must share all their material with other press. The Herald has been bypassed for pool duty during Obama’s last two visits despite asking the White House to be the local pool reporter.“Newspapers don’t have to be unbiased to get access. You can’t just let only the newspapers you want in,” said Boston University journalism professor Fred Bayles.Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom defended Romney’s March 8 opinion piece:“That op-ed was about jobs, which apparently is a sensitive subject for the thin-skinned people around the president. The White House may be able to manipulate pool coverage, but they can’t manipulate the fact that millions of Americans are out of work because of President Obama’s failure to create jobs and get our economy moving,” Fehrnstrom said in a statement yesterday.The administration has a history of controversial clashes with the press.In April 2010, Bloomberg’s Ed Chen, president of the White House Correspondent’s Association, met with then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to hash out complaints about limitations on the press, saying, “In my 10-plus years at the White House, rarely have I sensed such a level of anger ... over White House practices and attitudes toward the press.”Last month, a San Francisco Chronicle editor reported the White House threatened to bar Hearst reporters from pool duty after a Chronicle reporter shot video of protestors mocking Obama at a fund-raiser.Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who has followed White House-press relations at right-leaning Instapundit.com, said a pattern appears to be developing.“It’s all about control,” Reynolds said. “At some point this will blow back on them. Most presidents behave in a more refined fashion. Experience has shown that acting presidential is good politics and to their advantage.”Hmmmm....Observe Dictatorship in it's natural habitat?Read the full story here.

• 10 Indications The United States Is A Dictatorship.(BeforeitisNews).The good news is that freedom is won and lost in the hearts and minds of men. It is for this reason that we must state the obvious: we have clearly passed through the first "atmospheric" stage of approaching dictatorship, and have now entered the second -- the open behavior of a dictatorship in the United States.It will never be announced on the evening news, and it is not likely to continue under an authoritarian leader in the mold of a Stalin, Hitler, or Mao. Likewise, it is not to say that Barack Obama is the first dictator of The United States, but rather is part of a continued expansion of executive power that is now so great that by all measures America can no longer be called a Land of the Free ruled by We the People. We stand no chance of reversing this forced march by false democracy until we understand where we are headed, who is leading us there, and for what purpose.

1. Rule by force, not by law: This is where it all begins; when the legal framework that serves to define a country and its behavior is dismantled and intimidation tactics take over. In the most extreme case, drone bombings and assassinations have begun of non-citizens, as well as U.S. citizens, leading only to a debate over whether U.S. citizens should be stripped of citizenship before assassination. Governmental assassinations are in complete opposition to the laws of America and all international laws and agreements. In the last week we have also seen the official elimination of the 4th Amendment in Indiana, which is a clear precedent-setting ruling to say that the State now believes that it owns the property and person of its citizens. As a result, the militarized police have been granted unlimited access, which will only cause an escalation in cases of police brutality and misconduct.
2. Crushing peaceful protest: Despite the current mission to defend protesters living in dictatorships overseas, when George Bush brought "free speech zones" to America it effectively spelled the end of peaceful, lawful street protest. Now the full force of brutality and surveillance has been unleashed upon the very people intent in stopping it through peaceful means. It is as sure a sign as any about totalitarian intentions, when anti-war activists have become one of the targets. The activist is beginning to equal terrorist in the all-seeing eye of the State, and any street gathering is a sure sign to let loose all of the riot weapons that were formerly used against insurgents on foreign battlefields.
3. Checkpoints: The slow acclimation of the populace to military-style checkpoints began first as border control operations up to 100 miles inland in what the ACLU calls the Constitution Free Zone. However, this has rather quickly morphed into local traffic stops across the country for "unsavory" characters such as those targeted by the Amber Alert system and DUI checkpoints. Though apparently well meaning, we are now far beyond even loosely suspected criminal activity, as VIPR teams have been introduced to take over public transportation and events. The TSA tyranny has hit the streets of America, now forming a de facto internal passport system straight out of the totalitarian playbook.
4. Citizen spy network: Dictatorships know how difficult it is to rule over large populations with only the relatively small numbers of military and police. Despite the lessons of terror created by citizen surveillance that the East German Stasi files left us to examine, just such a network has been openly introduced to present-day America -- and now it's even more high-tech and populated. Secret black budget projects organized through the NSA like Perfect Citizen is just one among many. Our head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano -- in partnership with retailer Wal-Mart -- kicked off the See Something, Say Something program, which goes beyond the already high-tech surveillance apparatus of the NSA and turns each of us into an unpaid employee of the police state.
5. Executive Orders: This is means by which a dictator can come to power in the United States, despite a framework of checks and balances. Any time a country has centralized its power to the executive branch by erasing the checks and balances of separate legislative and judicial bodies, the result has been dictatorship. And this normally happens when national security is “threatened.” The Constitution is clear, however: only the legislature (Congress) can make laws.Executive Orders also form the basis for control over regulatory agencies, which then impose the directives. While it seems multi-layered with potential checks and balances, all directives can now be issued top-down in dictatorial fashion.
6. Control of regulatory agencies: This is the more insidious and, ultimately, dangerous tactic used by dictatorships. Dictatorship through regulation invades every facet of society without relying only upon overt violence. As mentioned above, only the legislature can make laws. However, the legislature has created “regulatory bodies” which make de facto laws through “violations” that rob us of freedom. There is no clearer example at the moment than the FDA, which has brought in near-total food control.
7. President declares war unilaterally: Despite the parade of lies that led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it pales in comparison with the new war in Libya and other interventions and sanctions throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Through Executive Orders, outlined above, the President can declare war so long as there is a resolution passed by Congress. This has been dispensed with through Obama's illegal wars, and it appears that Congress could go even further by ceding its power completely to the president. The disregard for Congressional approval is already dictatorial, but if this last step is taken we will effectively be living in a permanent state of war tantamount to WWIII that will be controlled at the sole discretion of the current and future presidents. This unilateral power to drag nations into war without checks and balances is a hallmark of dictatorships where entire countries are swept along purely by the ideology of their leader.As Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell have stated, "We have a dictatorship when it comes to foreign policy."
8. Torture: Torture has long been a tactic used by America. In fact it runs the leading school on its methods. The School of the Americas has been responsible for training Latin American dictators and their thugs on how to intimidate the local population and rule with an iron fist. However, the torture debate has hit mainstream media in a serious discussion about its effectiveness, especially following the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Aside from the despicable morals involved, torture doesn't work for intelligence gathering, according to experts. Furthermore, the legalization of torture was what really brought the dreaded Russian secret police out into the open.
9. Forced labor camps (gulags): This is when we know that a totalitarian society has arrived in full and our society is run completely by coercion. As Naomi Wolf has illustrated, "With its jails in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, of course, Guantánamo in Cuba, where detainees are abused, and kept indefinitely without trial and without access to the due process of the law, America certainly has its gulag now." Additionally, a silent gulag has already been created inside America, starting with the nation's prisoners who are increasingly locked up within a for-profit prison-industrial system that makes money both on the construction of prisons as well as the cheap labor force. The Defense Department itself pays prisoners 23 cents per hour to build its weapons systems, which is clearly a type of slave labor.Through Continuity of Government, national emergency directives would openly suspend the Constitution and could possibly lead once again to internment camps in America.
10. Control over all communications (propaganda): Once the physical framework of dictatorial control has been set up, then the justification for its continued presence can commence. The type of high-tech control grid now put into place in The United States to this point has only been explored in works of fiction such as 1984, which has led Paul Craig Roberts to draw a correct parallel. A public emergency announcement system has in fact been in place since the '50s, whereby the president can interrupt television and radio to deliver critical messages. However, this has been recently expanded even beyond the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as the FCC voted to mandate (PDF) "the first-ever Presidential alert to be aired across the United States on the Nation’s Emergency Alert System (EAS).” Now, with the arrival of the trackable smartphone that can be hijacked to bring government messages (emergency or not) we find ourselves "willing" participants in a scenario reaching far beyond 1984. Using the bin Laden assassination and the threat of guaranteed reprisal, the government has announced that the president will break into these private networks to carry PLAN government messages and warnings; and there is no opt-out.  It would appear that the United States should be a called a dictatorship based on the above criteria. Once the atmosphere is established, average participants need not be part of a conspiracy, as they tend to unquestioningly go with the flow. However, we must acknowledge that the U.S. is in a vastly different position than totalitarian regimes of the past, as well as her contemporaries. America has a history that is built upon the foundation of resistance to dictators.Hmmmmm...."Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" -- Lord Acton.Read the full story here.

• Obama to Pledge New Mideast Aid ,especially for the Muslim Brotherhood.(WSJ).Washington —President Barack Obama will announce this week a new aid plan for the Middle East and North Africa that U.S. officials say will be far bolder than previous American economic assistance to the region.Mr. Obama will outline the plan, which could include debt cancellation and a reprogramming of financial aid the U.S. already provides to countries like Egypt, in a speech he is scheduled to deliver Thursday at the State Department.Whatever aid he announces, though, is unlikely to assuage Arab governments, which had been hoping the White House would push forcibly for a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The president's aides say his speech will focus only briefly on the issue."At the end of the day, the Palestinian cause remains a dominant issue," said a senior Arab official. "A speech by the president without addressing the conflict is unlikely to generate much enthusiasm."Mr. Obama met Tuesday with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has been pressing U.S. officials to take a more aggressive role in the peace process, according to Arab diplomats.After the meeting, Mr. Obama said the U.S. will provide Jordan with hundreds of millions of dollars through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the government institution that finances and insures private business to promote economic growth. The result, according to the U.S., will be roughly $1 billion for economic activity in Jordan. The president also pledged 50,000 metric tons of wheat."All of this will help to stabilize the cost of living and day-to-day situation of Jordanians and will provide a foundation so that these economic reforms can move forward and long-term development can take place," Mr. Obama said.The president's goal, officials said, is to give a financial boost to the political change sweeping the Mideast and North Africa, where dashed economic aspirations have fed unrest. Senior U.S. officials are particularly alarmed by the deterioration in Cairo's finances since the street revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February. The Egyptian government has been forced to spend between $3 billion and $3.5 billion of its foreign-exchange reserves a month to pay for food and other commodities as tourism has plunged and overseas remittances have dried up.Egypt's government has been seeking relief on around $1 billion in debts tied to wheat purchases in the 1970s, according to officials involved in the talks. Cairo has paid off the principal on these loans, but continues to service interest payments. The administration is looking at a mixture of direct aid, debt relief, and export credits to help stabilize Egypt's finances. "There are a whole range of tools we could use," said a U.S. official. "We've been looking for the right mix."Hmmmm.....More foodstamps in America more wealth in the middle East,"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers".Read the full story here.

• The Nakba: Blood, tears and hypocracy.(HurriyetDaily).Sometimes a little disrespect can be good for humanity, especially if we must choose between respect for hateful ideology and disrespect.“Let me give you a very clear message,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a United States television station recently. “I don’t see Hamas as a terror organization. It is a resistance movement.” This powerful line came only a day after Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar said while his organization would accept a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, it would never recognize Israel.And according to Mr Erdoğan, “calling them Hamas terrorists would be disrespect to the will of the Palestinian people.”I am not going to list the names of victims of Hamas’ violent campaign, which prompted civilized nations of the world to put the Jihadists to a list of terrorist organizations. I am not going to list Hamas’ attacks against civilian and military targets either as I don’t want to fill up a hundred columns with a boring catalogue of crimes. But let’s see how Hamas defines itself, its members, its mission and better comprehend what the “will of the Palestinian people” is about.The Hamas Covenant, proclaimed in 1988, declares members to be Muslims who “feat God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors.” Very impressive membership criteria. But there is more.The charter calls for the eventual creation of an “Islamic state in Palestine,” in place of Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the “obliteration or dissolution of Israel.”The peace-champion charter defines “our struggle against the Jews,” as very great and very serious: “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslims! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him.” That’s a mission almost impossible, especially the part about crying and speaking trees and rocks.And the charter goes on by outlining its peace mission: “The only way to engage in this struggle between the truth and falsehood is through Islam and by means of Jihad until victory or martyrdom.” Here, obviously, “victory” is killing the last Jew tipped off by a rock or a tree; and martyrdom is getting killed by Jews. Finally, there is a nice little piece of fatwa on defining who is Muslim and who is not: “Renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion of Islam.”Erdoğan is free to think that that charter is a declaration of goodwill and amity. He is free to think Hamas is a blessed grouping whose members fear God, raise the banner of Jihad and throw flowers and candies to civilians. And he has every liberty to believe that winning votes and prescribing the deaths of everyone belonging to one faith makes one organization a political party. It’s all fine.But then he will have no liberty to denounce as terrorists legitimate Kurdish politicians who have never touched the cold steel of a Kalashnikov or a rocket launcher. He will have no liberty to claim that the “will of the Kurdish people” amounts to terrorism especially when none of the Kurdish parties have produced a charter calling for the destruction of a nation and a country. And the prime minister should learn not to be disrespectful to the will of the Kurdish people.Hmmmm......Erdogan "Muslims don't commit genocide".Read the full story here.

• Overweight? The doctor will NOT see you now: How ob-gyns in Florida are turning away obese patients.(DailyMail).Countless studies have shown that obesity can be a danger to your health but few foresaw this particular peril.Some ob-gyn doctors in Florida are not refusing to see otherwise healthy women solely because they are overweight, it has emerged.The Sun Sentinel polled 105 obstetrics-gynaecology practices. Fifteen said they now have weight cut-offs for new patients starting at 200lbs or based on measures of obesity. Any woman who is heavier is simply turned down.Several of the doctors claimed they are doing so because their equipment can not handle people over a certain weight. However six confessed that they were simply trying to avoid the complications that come with treating someone whose health is already in danger because of their weight.In a nation with 93million obese people, it is an alarming standard.The policy is not illegal - but critics slammed it as abusing the spirit of the medical profession. 'If I had that policy... I'd lose half my patients,' said Dr Maureen Whelihan in West Palm Beach.'No doctor should be unable to treat patients just because they are heavy,' added Dr Bruce Zafran of Coral Springs. But the doctors who do hold the police were defensive, telling the Sun Sentinel they have to protect themselves.Another practice turns down women weighing more than 250lbs. The office manager told the paper the doctors do not want to have to send their patients to specialists later on if they develop problems. 'They are not experts in obesity,' the manager said. Several doctors said their ultrasound machines can not get good images of obese woman, making it harder to diagnose problems and potentially putting the patient in danger. It is common practice for ob-gyns to decline to see pregnant women who are overweight, sending them to specialists. For them to refuse to see obese women who are not overweight is new.So far the practice seems to have been confined to South Florida, where more than half of ob-gyns go without medical malpractice insurance due to high rates.But Dr Robert Yelverton of the Florida Obstetric and Gynecologic Society said decisions are typically made after assessing an individual patient, not by ruling out an entire group.'Overweight people need doctors,' he said.Hmmmm.......Another "CHANGE" MOVE on nothing to see.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan Taliban warns of retaliation.(Al-Jazeera).Exclusive video that shows the group vowing revenge for bin Laden's death.The Pakistani Taliban have issued their first videotaped message since Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals earlier this month.In the exclusive footage, obtained by Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, the group is shown vowing revenge for the al-Qaeda leader's death.Read and see the full story here.

• Hamas insists: No talks with Israel.(Ynet).Mahmoud al-Zahar negates politburo chief's speech, says there is no change in Hamas stance.Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar insisted his organization would not negotiate with Israel despite a statement to the contrary made by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal, the Palestinian paper Al-Quds reported Wednesday.Mashaal's statement "does not represent the movement's official stance, which is based on a plan of resistance and not negotiations", al-Zahar said.He added that Gaza's government had not given Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas permission to negotiate with Israel after a joint Hamas-Fatah government is formed, due to a recent Palestinian reconciliation between the rival factions. "We do not agree to such negotiations and do not encourage them – just the opposite," he said, adding that the speech made by Mashaal on the matter surprised many in the organization. "There has been no change in the movement's position on everything related to the resistance, which is our only option," he said. Al-Zahar also predicted that Hamas would rack up more votes than Fatah in both the West Bank and Gaza in elections once they are held, but a unity government is most likely in any case, according to most predictions. The Hamas spokesman added that there was nothing new in talks for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. He also praised 'Nakba Day' protesters for "creating serious danger for the Zionist entity". Hmmmm.....Obama's 'peacepartners'.Read the full story here.

• 'Love seats' removed by Istanbul "Virtue" police in morality push, cafe owners claim.(HurriyetDaily).Municipal officials in Istanbul’s central Beyoğlu district have dismissed claims by cafe owners that police have been removing two-person seats located outside their establishments to prevent couples from sitting next to each other.The Beyoğlu Municipality said in a statement that cafe, bar and restaurant owners are required to replace old and worn-out tables and chairs located outside their establishments, which some owners had failed to do.Cafe owners near certain parts of bustling İstiklal Avenue saw the situation differently.“When we came to open up our cafe one morning a week ago, we realized some seats were missing. The municipal police had removed 12 of our two-person seats and taken them to a storage depot in Kasımpaşa without notifying us,” said Murat Kahraman, one of the owners of Bodega Kafe.“When we went to the depot, we saw the seats were broken. We paid 70 Turkish Liras for transportation and repaired them. When I asked why only our venue had been targeted, they said they were going to do it to everyone,” Kahraman said, adding that municipal police had previously asked them to remove the seats without explaining why.The two-person seats have been in place for eight years and the cafe pays 60 liras per table for taking space outside, Kahraman said.Two employees from nearby Cafe Nero also claimed the municipal police had been visiting their workplace for a month and saying the two-person seats should be removed. When they asked whether the seats had to be removed to prevent couples from sitting next to each other, the police replied that this was “a good insight,” according to employees Muhammed Şimşek and Derya Göksu. The workers said they had no intention of removing the seats and would continue to fight the directive.Negative reactions to advertisements by international fashion retailer H&M, which featured swimsuit- and bikini-clad models and appeared on some of Istanbul’s billboards and bus stops, have caused the company to pull the ads. Some of the advertisements, prepared by Wall City Design and Commerce, had been vandalized with spray paint.“The reactions in Turkey were vexing when we received such positive feedback on this campaign in other countries, but we believe there are fashion lovers who appreciate this campaign in our country as well,” said Pelin Atay Kuran, H&M’s director of communications in Turkey. She said the company’s summer ad campaign had been put on display with the knowledge of all related authorities.No criticism or threats were made directly toward the company, but because of the vandalism and the criticism aimed at the advertising firm, H&M decided to remove the ads so as not to upset the authorities and the public, Kuran said, according to daily Hürriyet.Hmmmm....Erdogan's Turkey the next hardline Islamic Iran?Read the full story here.

• Saudi student charged with hate crime after 'spitting on WalMart customers - because Americans are pushing us around'.(DailyMail).A Saudi Arabian student is facing hate crime charges after she allegedly spat on several 'white people' in her local Walmart because a 'higher authority' made her do it.Nuha Mohammed Al-Doaifi, 21, an engineering student at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, was arrested on a charge of misdemeanour battery at the Palm Bay WalMart.But the hate-crime determination could mean that the charge may be elevated to third-degree felony.Authorities say that Al-Doaifi spat in the face of a WalMart customer who was trying to help her after the student was butting her trolley into the exit door of the supermarket.She also allegedly spat at another customer who 'got too close to her', but the spittle managed to miss him.When she was arrested, she told officers that she was spitting on 'white people' because a 'higher authority' made her do it and that 'Americans are pushing us around.'Yvonne Martinez, spokeswoman for the Palm Bay Police Department, said: 'Her actions were directed at random people based on their ethnicity, and that's according to her own statement.' The incident happened about 1pm on Sunday as Al-Doaifi hit a door with her cart as she was going into the store at 1040 Malabar Road, a report states. She was with her 15-month-old son, who was sitting in a shopping cart. An item on the cart had saliva on it, an officer wrote. Terry Rakowski, a 39-year-old resident of Palm Bay, says the incident occurred after she tried to help the woman, who was wearing a religious head covering and pink burka, enter the local WalMart.She told Florida Today: 'She just spit all over me. All I was trying to do was tell her she was coming in through the out door. She was just ramming it into the door.'She then looked at me and said, "Yes I did," then walked off. This really bothered me last night. You just don't know what she might be capable of.'The state Department of Children and Families turned the boy over to his father when his mother was taken to the Brevard County Jail.The father told officers that Al-Doaifi spat at an FIT professor two or three weeks ago, they said. The school's dean notified the Saudi Arabian Embassy, which counselled her, Martinez said.Police have initiated procedures to send her back to Saudi Arabia.Hmmmmm....Apparantly "The Djini made me do it' defence doesn't work in the US..........well not yet.Read the full story here.

• The obsession with the ‘plot to take down the AKP and Gülen’.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey is a very interesting country. Thanks to the massive erosion of all values, norms and indeed the concept of patriotism and nationalism, this country has become a place where for some the military of the country has become the enemy. Was not this country proud of its military until yesterday?Is there any other country on this world where there is a “legal” political party, which constantly condemns the security forces of that country, praises a separatist terrorist group and indeed declares a three-day mourning for a group of terrorists killed by the security forces while attempting to sneak into Turkey from the northern Iraqi “free-terrorism zone?”Is there any country where the government of that country is against the media reporting of the funerals of soldiers fallen in operations against the separatist and terrorist elements?Is there any country where after security forces stage an operation and kill 12 separatist terrorists trying to infiltrate the country from a neighboring “friendly country” where terrorists have been roaming around as free as birds as executives of a political party and a large group of supporters of that legal party defy all the laws, border security, enter illegally the neighboring country and collect the bodies of the terrorists killed by the security forces?Are there journalists and political commentators in any country who can complain that it was “strange if not awkward all together” if in an operation in the mountainous border region with an unstable neighboring country security forces kill one dozen members of the separatist terrorist gang who were trying to sneak into Turkish territory, but not one single Turkish soldier was killed or wounded in that operation?Were those journalists, writers or political commentators pleased if there were casualties among the security forces as well? What kind of a mentality is that?Hmmmm......Government orchestrated terrorism?Read the full story here.

• British tourist faces year in Dubai jail after calling prophet Muhammad a 'terrorist' during heated row.(DailyMail).A British tourist called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a terrorist in a heated row with an electronics salesman in a Dubai shopping mall, a court heard yesterday.Andrew Graham, 40, faces spending a year in a Dubai jail if he is convicted of insulting Islam.The holidaymaker was wandering through the Mall of the Emirates when he got into an argument with Hassan Habeeb, a 21-year-old salesman from Pakistan.During the row, Graham allegedly said that ‘Muslims in Pakistan are not normal because they kill each other and kill people outside Pakistan’.Mr Habeeb tried to tell the Briton that Muslims are ‘peaceful people and are all brothers who help each other’.In a written statement produced before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, the Pakistani salesman said: ‘He laughed and said that I’m crazy and that prophet Muhammad was not a peaceful man but he is a terrorist.’Mr Habeeb then became angry and tried to punch Graham, only for a customer to intervene, it was said.The tourist was then taken to a police station and charged with swearing in public and insulting Islam.Yesterday Graham appeared in court wearing shorts and was ordered to change into trousers by the judge on the grounds of decency.Once in the appropriate attire, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.The court heard how the argument began after Graham had walked into E-Max electronic shop and struck up conversation with Mr Habeeb about the Taliban on March 3.The salesman claims the conversation became aggressive after Graham discovered he was from Pakistan.‘I wanted to end the discussion and asked him if he need anything in the shop but he added that Pakistan would soon come to bad end,’ Mr Habeeb said.An Egyptian customer who calmed down the salesman and a Sri Lankan colleague also gave statements supporting the claims.In a police statement Graham said: ‘I spoke with him about the problems between the Pakistani government and Taliban and I understood that the Pakistani is a supporter of the Taliban.‘I told him he was crazy because they were terrorists and they kill people and bomb each other. I didn’t say anything bad about Muslims and the prophet.’ The judge released Graham on bail and will deliver his verdict on June 9.The case once again highlights the difficulties faced by some of the one million Britons who visit Dubai each year.Unlike some Arab states, Dubai tends to be a little more lenient towards westerners.However, officials in the Gulf state have prosecuted several British tourists for indecent behaviour and for swearing in public over the past three years.Read the full story here.

• West Vancouver Muslim woman charged with human trafficking.(VancouverSun).A West Vancouver woman has been charged with human trafficking in connection with a case in which a young woman was allegedly brought over from Africa and forced to work in demeaning and slave-like conditions in a lavish West Vancouver home.Mumtaz Ladha, 55, is wanted on a warrant for hiring the 21-year-old African woman, police said Monday afternoon. Police said Ladha allegedly promised the victim a work visa and a job at a Vancouver-area hair salon, but instead forced her to work 18 hours a day, seven days a week, in her home.“This was work well beyond what you would expect reasonable working conditions to be in Canada,” said Const. Michael McLaughlin, a federal spokesman for the RCMP’s E Division. “Things like hand-washing underwear of all the people in the house, hand-washing cars, hand-washing the cars of guests who came over.“She wasn’t given enough food. In some cases, she was forced to eat whatever was left over from a meal — table scraps, in other words. She had no money, her identity documents weren’t with her, and it’s our information that she was often only allowed to sleep when the other people in the home were all sleeping.”The young woman was brought over during the summer of 2008 and lived in a “state of fear” for about one year at Ladha’s home, McLaughlin said.In June 2009, she learned the conditions she was living under were not acceptable and sought help at a women’s shelter.“I can’t talk about the exact circumstances, but ultimately, she finally understood through having a conversation with somebody that the conditions she was living under were not acceptable,” McLaughlin said.“She had so little idea, you would be shocked. She was very depressed, she was very upset, she thought she was stuck, she thought there would be no way out of this situation.”The victim is now at a safe place in B.C., but police are keeping her identity private to protect her. Police would not disclose where in B.C. she is, or where in Africa she came from.Police have not yet been able to make contact with Ladha. They believe she is not at home, and possibly not in the country.As well, no one answered the door at the family’s upscale home in the British Properties, a three-storey, tan-colour building with large windows and a view of downtown Vancouver.The home has an outdoor basketball court, an indoor pool and is surrounded by chain-link fences. A Mercedes 560 SEL and an Infinity QX4 were parked on the driveway, neither with licence plates attached.The total value of the home was valued at $3,145,000 in 2011, according to a BC Assessment report.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Iranian becomes first woman convicted under Bahrain ‘state of national safety’.(Al-Arabia).An Iranian national, Fadhila Mubarak Ahmed, became the first woman to be convicted by the Bahraini authorities for imperiling national safety in the unrest-hit country, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Ms. Ahmed received a four-year sentence on charges of assault on a public officer, incitement for hatred of the regime, participation in a rally with the intent to commit crimes and undermining public order, the UAE-based Gulf News reported.The National Safety Court of First Instance, described the defendant on March 27 as speeding as she approached a security checkpoint with her car’s audio system blaring anti-regime statements.During her arrest by the public security, Ms. Ahmed reportedly grabbed the shirt of one of security personnel before pushing him.Investigations by the court also revealed that she took part in a rally at the Pearl Roundabout, the epicenter of Shiite-led protests in February 2011 and March, during which demonstrators demanded a constitutional monarchy to give more representation to the Bahraini Shiite majority. A minority Sunni royal family has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years.The court, in another first, sentenced an Iranian national, Mohammad Qassim Ghuloom Hussain, to two years in prison followed by deportation for taking part in two rallies near the Safriya Palace and Pearl Roundabout.The court also sentenced six defendants to terms between one and four years for their alleged roles in the unrest.Three defendants were acquitted.But verdicts by the lower court, adjudicating the state of national safety, are not final and can be appealed within two weeks.It is not the first time that Bahrain acted against foreigners in the name of national security amid the unrest unleashed in the country. For example, more than 15 Lebanese living in Bahrain have been expelled by the security forces, following a speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in which he expressed support for the demands of the Bahraini opposition.Joining opposition rallies has also backfired against several Bahraini athletes who were expelled from their respective teams for doing so. The Bahraini unrest has created a fault line in the region. Shiites in all of Iraq, Lebanon and Iran have mostly showed solidarity with Bahraini Shiites. Iran has been actively encouraging protestors.Hmmmm....To be continued.Read the full story here.

• "Life and death in Iran's prisons".The Fathi Brothers Executed in Isfahan Prison Today.The International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran – Moments ago, Bijan Fathi told the International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran that his two sons Abdollah and Mohammad Fathi were executed after meeting for the last time with their mother. The efforts of, the victims’ family members, the activists, and the human rights organizations to halt or postpone the execution continued until the last moment, but were unsuccessful. The two brothers were hanged early morning on may 17th in Isfahan prison.Mohammad Fathi, 27, and Abdollah Fathi, 29, were arrested on March 2010 and transferred to Isfahan prison. According to the family they endured severe physical and psychological torture to accept the false charges against them. The charges include, “Involvement with anti-revolutionary groups”, “Taking action for arms struggle”, “Enmity against God”, and “Armed robbery”. They were sentenced to death by Judge Moghiseh from branch 24 of the Revolutionary Court on the charge of Moharebeh (enmity against God).Bijan Fathi, the father of the two political prisoners awaiting execution told the International Campaign for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Iran that “the sentence was confirmed a month ago in the Supreme Court, and today, the officials told their mother that the executions will be carried out [on May 17th].”Bijan Fatthi added, “The confessions that the sentences were based on were obtained under severe torture. Throughout the entire judicial process, my sons were deprived of all of their basic lawful rights, like the right to have an attorney and the right to defend themselves.”Hmmmm.....Still silence from the defender of the opressed?Probably to busy setting up Israel this week?Read the full story here.
  

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:Stratfor.The Threat of Civil Unrest in Pakistan and the Davis Case.On Feb. 13, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) issued a statement demanding that the government of Pakistan execute U.S. government contractor Raymond Davis or turn him over to the TTP for judgment. Davis, a contract security officer for the CIA, has been in Pakistani custody since a Jan. 27 incident in which he shot two men who reportedly pointed a pistol at him in an apparent robbery attempt.Pakistani officials have corroborated Davis’ version of events and, according to their preliminary report, Davis appears to have acted in self-defense. From a tactical perspective, the incident appears to have been (in tactical security parlance) a “good shoot,” but the matter has been taken out of the tactical realm and has become mired in transnational politics and Pakistani public sentiment. Whether the shooting was justified or not, Davis has now become a pawn in a larger game being played out between the United States and Pakistan. When one considers the way similar periods of tension between the Pakistanis and Americans have unfolded in the past, it is not unreasonable to conclude that as this current period plays out, it could have larger consequences for Davis and for American diplomatic facilities and commercial interests in Pakistan. Unless the Pakistani government is willing and able to defuse the situation, the case could indeed provoke violent protests against the United States, and U.S. citizens and businesses in Pakistan should be prepared for this backlash.Hmmmm.......How long before pakistan turns against the US?Read the full story here.

• In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council.The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal. But the Palestinians rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesday of Arab representatives and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution on Friday, according to officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospect that the Obama adminstration will cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council. Still, the U.S. offer signaled a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with Israel and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to its key ally to stop its construction of new settlements. U.S. officials were not available for comment, but two Security Council diplomats confirmed the proposal. The Palestinian delegation, along with Lebanon, the Security Council's only Arab member state, asked the council's president late Wednesday to schedule a meeting for Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today to reject the U.S. offer is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from Washington.Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined the new U.S. offer in a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East. In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel's settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet. The U.S.-backed draft statement -- which was first reported by Al Hurra -- was obtained by Turtle Bay. In it, the Security Council "expresses its strong opposition to any unilateral actions by any party, which cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community, and reaffirms, that it does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, which is a serious obstacle to the peace process." The statement also condemns "all forms of violence, including rocket fire from Gaza, and stresses the need for calm and security for both peoples."Hmmmm......"Let me be clear"He did exactly what i have been saying for the last 10 months.When will Israel realise he is their enemy?Read the full story here.

• Poll: Most support House look at radical Islam in USA.Americans haven't heard much about upcoming congressional hearings on the radicalization of U.S. Muslims, yet more than half think it's a good idea, and nearly as many believe Muslims here haven't done enough to fight extremists in their midst, according to a new poll.At the same time, 62% say American Muslims are an important part of the religious community, and a clear majority (72%) say Congress should investigate religious extremism anywhere it exists, not just among Muslims, according to a new survey released today by The Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service.The PPRI/RNS poll was released as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., prepares to hold hearings on the threat of homegrown Islamic extremism during the week of March 7.The poll examined attitudes toward both the hearings and American Muslims, analyzing the responses by gender, age, most trusted news source, and religious and political affiliation.Overall, men, viewers who trust Fox News, white evangelicals and Republicans are more likely to think the hearings are a good idea and to believe Muslims want to establish Shariah law in the United States.Those groups are also among the most likely to say they feel "well informed" about Islam and the "religious beliefs and practices of Muslims."These groups aren't necessarily more knowledgeable, however -- just more confident in their beliefs, researchers explained. Researchers said a person's preferred news source is significantly correlated to how much they worry about American Muslim extremism."The Muslim community has been fairly successful at demonstrating themselves as neighbors, but the question becomes are they good neighbors?" said Gottschalk, chairman of the religion department at Wesleyan University."There's a double standard that Muslims are responsible for extremism by people who happen to be Muslim, but all Christians aren't responsible for abortion clinic bombers or the KKK."Key findings:

•Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans haven't heard anything about the upcoming hearings to investigate U.S. Muslim extremism.

• A majority (56%) believes that a hearing on American Muslim extremism is a good idea, including most Republicans (71%), people who trust Fox News (76%), and white evangelicals (70%). The hearings find less support among Democrats (45%), people who trust CNN (45%) or public television (28%), and white mainline Protestants (50%).

• Nearly half (49%) of Americans do not believe Muslims in the U.S. have been unfairly targeted by law enforcement; more than one-third (36%) believe Muslims have been targeted unfairly.•One in five (22%) Americans believes U.S. Muslims want to establish Shariah law here. This view is far more common among Republicans (31%) than Democrats (15%), people who trust Fox News (35%) than those who trust public television (9%), and white evangelicals (34%) than white mainline Protestants (20%) or white Catholics (22%).

•A plurality (46%) believes American Muslims have not done enough to oppose Muslim extremism, including most men, white evangelicals, Republicans and Fox News viewers. In contrast, only 42% of Democrats, 43% of people who trust CNN or network news (42%) or public television (30%) say American Muslims haven't done enough.

• Americans are split over whether they feel well informed about Muslims and Islam, but men (56%) and viewers who trust Fox News (52%) are more likely to report feeling well-informed than women (36%), and viewers who trust CNN (41%) and network news (31%).Hmmmmm......At least half of America is awake it seems.Read the full story here.

• HT:AmnonandJonathan.POLL will Israel be at war ?Read and vote here.

• HT:Redstate.Obama’s assault on our domestic energy now a 4-alarm fire.Make no mistake. It’s all. About. Control.I am talking about Sunstein, Obama, EPA, Steven Chu (Dept of Energy), Ken Salazar, Soros, Brasil, BOEMRE, Working Families Party, the whole nine yards. Did I leave anyone out? There is so much going on here, so as not to take up too much space I am going to bullet the more urgent and important items and the others will be in the scribd. document below.People are going to have to start paying attention and this has to get to the right people who can legislate, go to court, enforce contempt of court rulings, etc. or we’ll be living in caves with no wood, no matches. Only solar panels where there is no sun and windmills where there is no wind.And to Doc Hastings Chair of House Natural Resources: let me be perfectly CLEAR, I’m sure you are competent and a very nice man, but writing letters to Obama’s minions, doing op-eds in The Hill and issuing press releases is NOT going to get this fixed. Even if Obama does read these letters, which I highly doubt, I am sure he immediately tosses them in the huge trash can next to his desk which also contains wadded up copies of the Constitution. We are losing thousands of jobs. We are losing coal mines, natural gas and oil wells and exploration. Millions upon millions of dollars in revenue and taxes which should be keeping us energy independent from the Middle East especially now when things are so uncertain are going down the tubes.I am not normally an alarmist, but what I am seeing is truly alarming. A four-alarm fire with no fire hydrant in sight. Gonna lay it all out.Hmmmm........Dictatorship or Democracy?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheExaminer.Report--Obama quietly appoints Muslim Brotherhood to key posts.By Anthony Martin.An ex-CIA agent and counter-intelligence expert has revealed in a special report that Barack Obama has quietly appointed members of the Muslim Brotherhood to key posts within the Administration. Dr. Clare Lopez, professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, wrote a policy paper in December of 2009 which details the systematic appointment of Sharia-friendly advocates within the State Department and other government agencies.For example, the Tehran-born Dr. Vali Nasr was appointed to co-direct Obama foreign policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. Former Saudi Arabian supplicant Charles Freeman was appointed by Obama to chair the Administration's National Intelligence Council, but withdrew his name when it was revealed he issued a 2-page screed in which he postulated a conspiracy theory claiming he had been 'victimized' by American supporters of Israel. In addition, John Limbert was appointed to direct U.S. policy toward the Islamist regime in Iran. Limbert, who was taken hostage during the Iranian upheaval of the late 70s-early 80s, is an Iranian sympathizer who advocates negotiation with one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.While it is true that some of the initial appointees have departed from the Administration, the fix was already in. The Obama Administration is manned by Sharia-friendly appointees who help steer American foreign policy in the Middle East.Why is this relevant to 2011?Events which are currently unfolding in the Middle East are a consequence of the behind-the-scenes work of Islamic advocates within the Administration.The goal was to push moderate Muslim dictators out the door in countries such as Egypt, while advocating so-called 'democracy' which would then insure the rise of Muslim Brotherhood-supported Islamists to fill the power-gap.How would such a grand scheme be accomplished?The reports expose a consortium of Leftwing organizations, Islamic groups, labor unions, and Obama-friendly corporations which would organize and fund a 'youth movement' in certain areas around the Middle East which would then take to the streets in protest against current governments.Some of the corporations involved are Google, YouTube, MSNBC, Facebook, National Geographic, M-TV, and Pepsi. In addition, the U.S. State Department, Columbia Law School, and various Islamic extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, and others are central to the plot.Obama's top national security advisor declared that the Muslim Brotherhood is a 'secular' organization, non-extremist, and dedicated to 'peace.' Obama himself, in an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, refused to refer to the Brotherhood as an Islamic extremist organization, in spite of the fact that the group's own charter, and recent statements made by its leadership, indicate exactly that.And a Muslim board member of CPAC, of all things, declared in a news conference that 'there is no Muslim Brotherhood in the United States,' despite the fact that the group issued a document in 1991 indicating its North American objectives.At the very least it is clear that things are not as they seem on the surface in Eqypt, Iran, nor within the Obama Administration and the American Muslim community. And, due to the fact that the mainstream media merely parrots the official Administration propaganda, the American people are being bamboozled.Hmmmmm......"The thruth nothing but the truth"?Read the full story here.

• Bahrain Police Use Force to Crack Down on Protests.MANAMA, Bahrain — Without warning, hundreds of heavily armed riot police officers rushed into Pearl Square here early Thursday, firing tear gas and concussion grenades at the thousands of demonstrators who were sleeping there as part of a widening protest against the nation’s absolute monarchy. Men, women and young children ran screaming, choking and collapsing. The square was filled with the crack of tear gas canisters and the wail of ambulances rushing people to the hospital. Teams of plainclothes police officers carrying shotguns swarmed through the area, but it was unclear if they used the weapons to subdue the crowd. “There was a fog of war,” said Mohammed Ibrahim as he took refuge in a nearby gas station. He was barefoot, had lost his wallet and had marks on his leg where he said he had been beaten. “There were children, forgive them.”At least two people were killed in the mayhem, according to witnesses at a nearby hospital and news agency reports. Many people were injured in the chaos — trampled, beaten or suffocated by the tear gas. Only hours earlier the square had been transformed from a symbol of the nation — anchored by a towering monument to its pearl-diving history — into a symbol of the fight for democracy and social justice that has been rocking autocratic governments all across the Middle East. Tens of thousands of people had poured into the square during the day, setting up tents, giving rousing speeches and pressing their demands for a constitutional democracy. By 11 p.m. Wednesday, the square had started to quiet down. Young men sat smoking water pipes, while young children slept on blankets or in tents. At 2:45 a.m. Thursday, the camp was quiet, those awake still reflecting on the remarkable events of the day. And then, the blue flashing lights of police vehicles began to appear, encircling the square. At first there were four vehicles, then dozens and then hundreds. Wearing white crash helmets, the police rushed the square. “Everybody was sleeping, they came from upside and down,” said Zeinab Ali, 22, as she and a group of women huddled, crying and angry, in small nearby market. Read the full story here.More here.

• Michelle Obama: First Lady of Junk Science.By Michelle Malkin.While her husband may have paid lip service to ending the abuse of science for "politics or ideology," First Lady Michelle Obama gave herself a super-sized waiver. Two of her showcase social engineering campaigns -- tax preferences for breast-pumping working mothers and expanded nutrition labels -- are based on distorting or dismissing the prevailing public health literature.Just as the White House costumed Obamacare activists in white lab coats, the fashionable Mrs. O has cloaked her meddling anti-obesity crusade in medical fakery.Over the past year, the first lady has marshaled a taxpayer-subsidized army of government lawyers, bureaucrats and consultants against the "national security threat" of childhood obesity. She has transformed the East Wing of the White House into Big Nanny's new Central Command headquarters. The biggest threats to Mrs. Obama's 70-point plan for national fitness: parental authority and sound science.As part of her "Let's Move!" anniversary celebration this week, Mrs. Obama rolled out a new breastfeeding initiative because "kids who are breastfed longer have a lower tendency to be obese." She made her assertion to an invitation-only group of handpicked reporters who were barred from asking questions about her scientific conclusions. It's not healthy to challenge Super Nanny, you see.After the Internal Revenue Service carefully studied and rejected an advocacy push to treat nursing equipment as a tax-deductible medical expense last fall, the tax agency suddenly reversed itself in time for the first lady's new public relations tour. The surgeon general has also issued a "Call to Action" to pressure private businesses to adopt more nursing-friendly environments to combat childhood obesity, all while denying that government is intruding on personal decisions. "No mother should be made to feel guilty if she cannot or chooses not to breastfeed," Surgeon General Regina Benjamin asserted, while laying an unmistakable guilt trip on moms and moms-to-be.So, what do studies on breastfeeding and babies' weight actually say? Rebecca Goldin, Ph.D., research director of George Mason University's Statistical Assessment Service, points out that the literature is inconclusive or demonstrates that the health advantages of bosom over bottle are short-lived. Despite weak evidence, there is a lingering conviction that formula causes obesity among pediatricians and the press; if anything, the study about infants should make us reflect more carefully on this conclusion."Alas, such nuance from Mrs. Obama and her unquestioning media water-carriers is scarcer than tofu at Taco Bell.But as I've noted many times over the past year, Mrs. O's real interest isn't in nurturing nursing moms or slimming down kids' waistlines. It's in boosting government and public union payrolls, along with beefing up FCC and FTC regulators' duties.Will the first lady and her food cops be chastened by the science that undermines their spin? Fat chance.Hmmmm....On the other hand the Cro Magnum did not eat fat and was for sure breastfed!Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video - Muslim Brotherhood-Affiliated TV Clerics Launch Campaign to Replace Egypt's Religious Leadership.Read and see the full story here.

• Arctic communities choking on sky-high food prices.IQALUIT — Nunavut's MP and officials from the Northwest Company went into damage control mode Tuesday after photos of expensive food at a Northern Store in Arctic Bay caused outrage in the North and awe in the South.Among the items pictured were a $13 bag of spaghetti, a $29 jar of Cheez Whiz, a $77 bag of breaded chicken and a $38 bottle of cranberry juice.David Anderson, the manager of major market stores for the Northwest Co., told a meeting of Baffin mayors in Iqaluit that prices on those items went up when the supply shipped last summer by sealift ran out."When they reordered the product by air, the new rate kicked in, which resulted in a price increase," he said.Anderson said the Northwest Co. will try to ship larger quantities of items that aren't subsidized by Nutrition North Canada via sealift in an effort to control price increases.But he said the Northwest Co. backs Nutrition North and promised Nunavut customers will see a drop in prices of "healthy-living product" when the new program kicks in April 1.Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut's MP and the federal health minister, said "misinformation that's out there" is to blame for people attacking Nutrition North for food price increases, when the program hasn't started yet.The Arctic Bay prices shown in the photos "have nothing to do with Nutrition North Canada," Aglukkaq said.Complaints about the price of foods not covered by Nutrition North should go directly to retailers, she said.Quttiktuq member of legislature Ron Elliott, who distributed the photos of Arctic Bay groceries through his email list, said he'll wait until the new program starts April 1 before he passes judgment."If the prices do go down, I'll be the first to stand up and applaud," he said.Aglukkaq said the government will step up efforts to communicate with northerners about how the new program works."The federal government needs to be a little bit more aggressive in their communications plan," Elliott said.In a technical briefing for reporters Wednesday, Terry Lloyd, the head of Nutrition North Canada, said the government will roll out a communications plan after the program starts April 1.Hmmmm.......One could call it "High North Robbery".Read the full story here.

• Iranian Govt. Calls for Friday Rally to Show 'Hatred' for Opposition.Iran's clerical establishment has called for a major rally in Tehran on Friday, to express what it calls its "hatred" of reformists who organized a day of major anti-government protests earlier this week. In a statement Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Propagation Coordination Council urged Tehran residents to join the rally after Friday prayers to show anger at what it calls the "crimes" of "seditionist" leaders and their rebel allies. Iranian conservative lawmakers have accused reformist leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi of sedition for organizing anti-governments protests that drew thousands of people to the streets of Tehran and other cities Monday. Sedition is a crime punishable by death in Iran.Iranian authorities say two people were killed in Tehran Monday as police dispersed the protesters. One of the dead was a Tehran University student whom authorities identified as a government-allied Basij militiaman. But opposition activists say the student, Sanee Zhaleh, came from their ranks. Iranian state television says a memorial ceremony for Zhaleh at Tehran University erupted into fighting between opposition activists and government loyalists. It says the government loyalists forced the opposition activists to leave Wednesday's ceremony by chanting slogans calling for the death of seditionists.Read the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers. Female Genital Mutilation.Compiled by Laura Reymond, Asha Mohamud, and Nancy Ali. Funding was provided by the Wallace Global Fund.Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia. External genitals include the clitoris, labia, mons pubis (the fatty tissue over the pubic bone), and the urethral and vaginal openings. The practice of FGM is often called "female circumcision" (FC), implying that it is similar to male circumcision. However, the degree of cutting is much more extensive, often impairing a woman's sexual and reproductive functions. Newborns, Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults Are Affected.•Most girls undergo FGM when they are between 7 and 10 years old. However, FGM seems to be occurring at earlier ages in several countries because parents want to reduce the trauma to their children. They also want to avoid government interference and/or resistance from children as they get older and form their own opinions.

•Some women undergo FGM during early adulthood when marrying into a community that practices FGM or just before or after the birth of a first child (Mali and Nigeria).FGM is Practiced Globally

•FGM is practiced in at least 26 of 43 African countries7; the prevalence varies from 98 percent in Somalia to 5 percent in Zaire. A review of country-specific Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) shows FGM prevalence rates of 97 percent in Egypt8, 94.5 percent in Eritrea9, 93.7 percent in Mali 10, 89.2 percent in Sudan 11, and 43.4 percent in the Central African Republic.12

•FGM is also found among some ethnic groups in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, as well as in parts of India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.13

•FGM has become an important issue in Australia, Canada, England, France, and the United States due to the continuation of the practice by immigrants from countries where FGM is common.Read the full story here.

• "The war on Christianity".University of California Davis Defines Christians as “Oppressors”.The University of California at Davis has backed away from a policy that defined religious discrimination as Christians oppressing non-Christians after more than two dozen Christian students filed a formal complaint.The definition is listed in a document called, “The Principles of Community.” It defines “Religious/Spiritual Discrimination” as “The loss of power and privilege to those who do not practice the dominant culture’s religion. In the United States, this is institutionalized oppressions toward those who are not Christian.”“This is radical political correctness run amok,” said David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. The conservative advocacy group had written a letter on behalf of more than 25 students who object to the policy. He said it’s absurd to single out Christians as oppressors and non-Christians as the only oppressed people on campus.Raheem Reed, an associate executive vice chancellor at UC-Davis, said he received the letter and removed the definition Wednesday afternoon.“I certainly can see how a Christian student reading that definition might feel and that’s why it was immediately disabled and taken down,” Reed told Fox News Radio. “This is not how we define religious discrimination.”However, one student said they complained to administrators last November about the policy and nothing was done.“Christians deserve the same protections against religious discrimination as any other students on a public university campus,” French told Fox News Radio. “The idea that a university would discriminate against Christians is a very old story, unfortunately, and one that we see played out every day.”One student, who asked not to be identified, said university officials asked her to reaffirm “The Principles of Community” last semester. She refused to do so when she realized that Christians were not protected under the policy.“To have a non-discrimination policy that excludes the Christian faith is a cause for action,” she said. “In higher academia, one would hope that a diversity of ideas and beliefs would be appreciated. But my experience has been that this has not always been the case. There is a real fear of academic bias against the Christian faith.”Hmmmm......Now just image if it were the other way around?Read the full story here.

• Russia Plans Food Fund to Regulate Prices.Russia may create a fund to buy and sell food to help regulate prices as inflation accelerates, Kommersant reported, citing government documents. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov ordered the Agriculture, Finance and Economy ministries to formulate mechanisms to regulate food prices, the Moscow-based newspaper reported today. The government may start with buying and selling potatoes, which have jumped 25 percent in price since the start of the year, Kommersant reported. The government may fund the program from money received from selling stockpiled grain, the newspaper said.Read the full story here.

• HT:CrossroadsArabia.Saudi Reforms Need to Start Now.Sometimes, blindingly obvious problems have only complicated solutions. Those solutions must be sought, however difficult they may be. That’s the bottom line of this lengthy analysis of unemployment problems in Saudi Arabia by the Chief Economist of the Banque Saudi-Fransi (Saudi-French Bank).In its headline, Arab News suggests that the wave of reform sweeping the region will hit Saudi Arabia as well as Bahrain, Libya, and Yemen. Being unable to see a productive, personal future is definitely a motivator for protest and dissent. But fixing the multitude of problems that come together is not a job for the timid. With youth unemployment ranging toward the 40% mark, it’s clear that major changes need to be made. But with sub-standard education, rising food prices, and a housing crunch all piling up, it’s even clearer that reforms need to start now.Saudi youths’ struggle to find work raises urgency for reform.By John Sfakianakis.Education reform and job creation in Saudi Arabia and across Arab countries could come under the glare of publicity in the coming months as successful popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia renew the urgency to address these most-pressing social dilemmas. For years, improving the quality of education in a bid to engage youth in the Kingdom’s expanding economy has been a top state priority. Saudi Arabia’s budget dedicated to education spending has more than doubled in size since 2005. Allocations for education and training programs in 2011 amount to 26 percent of the country’s record SR580 billion budget, or SR150 billion ($40 billion).With unemployment among Saudis hovering around 10 percent according to the most recent Labor Ministry estimations – and youth unemployment as much as four times greater than that in some age brackets – education and labor market reform are the foremost challenges facing the country.Concern over whether the education system is arming students with relevant technical skills for the work force is paramount since only one out of every 10 employees working for a Saudi private sector company is a Saudi citizen. This scenario must be drastically reversed if the private sector can shoulder the burden of future job creation to meet the needs of the 66 percent of Saudis below the age of 30 in 2009. Of the country’s indigenous population of 18.5 million, 47 percent are 18 years old or younger.Read the full story here.

• Religious Intolerance Discussed in the European Parliament.BRUSSELS,PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, February 9, Member of the European Parliament Ana Gomes hosted a seminar titled "Religious Intolerance in Pakistan."Invited speakers of the event were Prof. Joel Kotek from the Free University of Brussels, Ruby Akhtar from the Christian Party, Amin ul Haq, who is the president of the Institute for Peace and Scheikh Majid, who is the chairman of the Pakistani, Belgian Friendship association.Ms. Gomes stressed she could not agree with the polarising comments of Ms. Akhtar, which "result in alienating Muslims" while what is needed is to "support pluralism and tolerance in all political areas."That means that she is just as opposed to the blasphemy laws in Pakistan that are creating hatred and are marginalising Christians and other minorities in Pakistan as she is to Islamophobia and the people in certain countries who use Islam as a scapegoat for the social and political problems.All speakers agreed that it is the radicals in Islam that hold the religion hostage in order to reach their own agenda and that the vast majority of Pakistanis are tolerant and moderate.Prof. Joel Kotek was able to give many examples of the way religious hatred has been misused in Europe before the WW II by political actors to increase their control over the population. "The Pakistani blasphemy laws are being used by radical groups inside the Pakistani establishment in order to disseminate fear amongst the Pakistani population and institute more control via this fear," Ana Gomes closed her remarks in agreement with Prof. Kotek that separation of Church from State was an essential factor to help distance ourselves from past religious wars and conflicts.Read the full story here.

• Roommate of Stingaree Muslim Cab Driver says He Feared for His Life.SAN DIEGO - Dan Rose says he has been living with [O]Sam[a] Hassan Daly for the last two months. Rose says, "he's a pretty solitary man kind of a recluse I guess you would call it." Rose says things have gotten progressively worse since he moved in. "It's been a very uncomfortable situation living here the last couple months."A photo shows Daly's cab parked in the garage before Saturday morning's crash. A crash and confrontation that injured 35 people in the Gaslamp district in front of Stingaree nightclub.Rose said he feared the 52-year-old Egyptian born cab driver. "Just very irrational behavior, um I don't know if it was necessarily a terroristic type thing or maybe he's just imbalanced."Rose said Daly called him names and confronted him for bringing a date home. The confrontation scared him so much, he began to carry a knife with him in the house.Rose says, "the reaction he had towards me kind of made me a little scared so I carry one with me even in my home when I'd go to the bathroom."Rose says Daly gave him his move out notice last Friday. That the home is in foreclosure and Daly was leaving the country and heading back to Egypt.The home is stark. Rose says, "he doesn't have any pictures or anything on the walls, pretty bare house pretty bare house pretty bare minimum."It's not clear if Daly had diabetes but it does appear he was on some kind of medication at the time of the crash.Hmmmmm.......Seems lately these kind of 'accidents' happen more often?Read the full story here.