Gov. Perry responds to Obama's 'advice'

MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Philipines 5.3  and 5.1 in China! More info here.

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

• London riots Live reporting  Here.

• Beijing Downgrades US Treasury to A+ Is Anybody Listening?(BlacklistedNews).Source: 321 Gold - Gary Dorsch. Of the big-3 credit rating agencies, only the S and P rating agency had the courage and fortitude to speak the truth, about the severe deterioration of America’s financial status. S and P shocked the political establishment in Washington, by following through with its threat to downgrade US Treasury debt to AA+ on the evening of August 5th. S and P added that the US Treasury debt could be downgraded further, if the crooked and inept politicians in Washington haven’t taken any meaningful moves to cut the size of its mounting debt. Yet the most important voice in the debate about the credit worthiness of America’s debt, is not the twisted opinions of the US-credit rating agencies, but rather, that of China’s credit rating agency - Dagong Global Credit Rating, which downgraded US-Treasury’s debt from A+ to single-A last week. “The US decision to raise the borrowing ceiling will not change the fact that the growth of its debt has outpaced its overall economic growth and fiscal revenue. “It may further erode the country’s debt paying ability in the coming years,”Dagong Global said. It also issued a negative outlook. “The rise of the US-debt ceiling helped temporarily avoid a debt default but has not improved its solvency and the increasing government debt burden will deteriorate the US sovereign debt crisis.”In a commentary published by the China News Agency on the evening of August 7th, the technocrats in the Politburo dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bombshell that ignited a worldwide meltdown in global stock markets and sent gold soaring above $1,700 /oz. “China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right to demand the US to address its structural debt problems and insure the safety of China’s dollar assets. If no substantial cuts were made to the US’s gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs, the latest credit downgrade would prove to be only a prelude to more devastating credit rating cuts, which will further roil the global financial markets all along the way,” it said.That report followed by another editorial published by the China News Agency on August 6th. “Dagong Global degraded the US Treasury bonds late last year, yet its move was met then with a sense of arrogance and cynicism from some Western commentators,” the New China News Agency’s Saturday editorial said. “Now S and P has proved what its Chinese counterpart has done is nothing but telling the global investors the ugly truth.” On August 8th, Beijing shocked the markets again, in a stinging commentary carried by the official Xinhua news agency. “China has every right to demand the US address its structural debt problems and safeguard China’s dollar assets. Washington needs to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone. To cure its addiction to debts, the US has to re-establish the commonsense principle that one should live within one’s means,” Xinhua said. It’s only been five weeks since the Fed finished its $600-billion QE-2 scheme, and already, jittery mutual fund managers on Wall Street are crying for help. However, on August 7th, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, warned US President Obama that the Fed mustn’t be allowed to launch another round of money printing that could crush the value of the US-dollar. “We also hope the United States can adopt measures to insure the safety of assets in the US held by other countries. The economic trend in the US has a significant impact on the global economy. A stable value of the US-dollar, as a major global reserve currency, is very significant to global economic and financial conditions,” he said. Over 60% of China’s foreign currency stash is believed to be in US-dollar assets. Apart from Treasury bonds, China holds hundreds of billions in mortgage-backed securities issued by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and corporate equities and bonds. The dollar assets held by China are now believed to total $2-trillion. It is estimated that in the first four months of 2011, China’s invested three-quarters of its foreign currency surplus in non-US dollar assets. As a result, China is vulnerable to the demise of the US-dollar, but also the European debt crisis that threatens the existence of the Euro as a unified currency.The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) still hasn’t been able to get the country’s inflationary spiral under control. The consumer price index was reported +6.5% higher in July from a year ago, it’s fastest in three years. Beijing is laying the groundwork for another quarter-point rate hike in the weeks ahead, by guiding China’s 1-year T-bill rate to 3.80%. Another round of QE-3 in the US would force Beijing to print vast quantities of yuan in order to prevent a collapse of the US-dollar, which in turn, could fuel even faster inflation in the Chinese economy. In that case, the PBoC would be forced to hike short-term interest rates much more aggressively, - thus risking the chance of toppling the world’s economic locomotive into a “hard landing.” Already, there are signals that China’s vast factory sector is stalling out, and the Shanghai red-chips have tumbled into bear market territory. Read the full story here.

• Turkey's General Staff sent duty summons to every officer retired from the military in the past five years.(TodaysZaman).In anticipation of what is expected to be a massive influx of Syrian refugees, Turkey has taken extraordinary measures along its borders with Syria, including summoning retired military officers to duty and assigning them to border provinces.Officials on Thursday announced that the number of Syrians taking refuge in Turkey had reached 7,239 , a number reminiscent of the situation during the 1991 Gulf War, when Turkey hosted tens of thousands of refugees from Iraq. In addition to the expected influx, there is concern that NATO forces might intervene in Syria. Experts believe the number of refugees coming to Turkey might soar above all expectations.Also on Thursday, the Syrian army stormed Saraqeb, a Syrian town near Turkey’s border, a mere one a day after Syrian authorities declared the military had pulled out of the region. Hundreds more fled across the border during the attack. Experts say Syrians are currently coming into Turkey through Hatay, but many others might flee across the border through the Turkish towns of Kilis and Mardin in the near future.The international community has been urging the Syrian government to stop the bloody crackdown on activists. On Wednesday, the United States announced new sanctions and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu visited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to repeat Turkey’s condemnation of the attacks on protestors.The General Staff sent duty summons to every officer retired from the military in the past five years. More personnel have been deployed in bases and strategically important outposts. A majority of those summoned to serve were positioned in stations near the border. Security measures at the İskenderun Naval Base were doubled.Turkey is also concerned about a possible NATO intervention in Syria. The government believes that such an intervention would hurt Turkey the most and hopes that the situation is resolved without the need for an international intervention. Turkey also fears that a NATO intervention might spark a backlash in the Muslim world.Veysel Ayhan, an associate professor from the Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University and an expert on the Middle East and Syria, said a NATO intervention in Syria would turn the region into absolute hell. “Turkey is back to its position in the 1990s. It is pursuing a proactive foreign policy. We can confidently say that a wave of refugees much bigger than the one during the Gulf War is in store, as it is unlikely that the situation in Syria will be resolved in the near future. NATO handled the situation in Afghanistan and Libya badly. Western countries can't make any contributions to NATO in similar operations. If this can be solved, it can only be solved through Turkey's efforts. If, in the long run, NATO intervenes, we could be faced with a more dire picture.”Hmmmm.......What will Iran do?Read the full story here.

• Top Hamas engineer tells all.(Ynet).Nabbed engineer Abu Sisi provides Israel with invaluable information about Hamas' operations, newly released documents reveal; terror group's military academy operated in Gaza mosques, he says.Hamas engineer Dirar Abu Sisi, nabbed by Israeli security forces earlier this year, provided interrogators with priceless information on Hamas' modus operandi, the terror group's readiness for a clash with Israel and attempts to improve its rocket range.According to interrogation excerpts, cleared for publication Thursday by the Beersheba District Court following Ynet's appeal, the Hamas engineer described the terror group as an orderly hierarchical organization that aims to learn from its mistakes and adapt to changing regional realities.The engineer told interrogators that following Operation Cast Lead Gaza, top Hamas terrorist Mohammed Deif and the group's military wing commander Ahmed Jabari found Hamas' operations to be lacking and decided to make Abu Sisi in charge of establishing the organization's new military academy. "An analysis of the war with Israel was undertaken. It found that a large number of Hamas activists ran away from their positions. A failure occurred in decision-making coupled with an inability to use arms during the battle – because of fear," he said. "A program of study had to be created, in order to improve the situation." The new academy was tasked with imparting combat methods and tactics to Hamas terrorists, Abu Sisi said. Hamas men were undertaking their studies at mosques, while passing their final exams in known Gaza universities or in mosques."The books and academic materials did not bear the Hamas name or logo," he said. Instructors include university lecturers, education ministry officials, merchants and others.Abu Sisi is believed to be Hamas' rocket expert. He joined the terror group in 2002, despite working for the Palestinian Electric Company, which forbade its employees from joining any group. "I assisted Hamas in developing their missile capabilities, by identifying and handing over mathematical equations that improve the metal pipe's ability to withstand pressure and heat," he said. "I was present when a missile was test-fired at the sea in Khan Younis." The terror group was lacking materials that could improve their rocket range and later smuggled it in from Egypt through tunnels, he said.Abu Sisi's interrogation revealed that he acquired plenty of information on improving rocket range via the Internet, including the YouTube website. "I know nothing about explosives. I only calculated the pressure and heat…I downloaded the formula from the Internet," he said, adding that he also downloaded software pertaining to the rocket's structure.Hamas would send its activists for further instruction overseas, Abu Sisi said. Selected graduates of the academy reached military academies in foreign countries, he said, including Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Iran.During his interrogation, Abu Sisi expressed his regret for joining Hamas."I greatly regret my affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas Movement, my work to develop the missile range, my part in establishing Hamas' military academy, and all the information I handed over to Hamas that can threaten the security of Israel and its citizens," he said."I know the missiles are lethal and take the lives of others, without distinguishing between Arabs and Jews," he said. Hmmmm......."I greatly regret my affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas Movement"Something the Obama administration obviously doesn't regret.Read the full story here.

• Contact lost with hypersonic glider after launch.(Source AP)(BlacklistedNews).An unmanned hypersonic glider developed for U.S. defense research into super-fast global strike capability was launched atop a rocket early Thursday but contact was lost after the experimental craft began flying on its own, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said.There was no immediate information on how much of the mission's goals were achieved.It was the second of two planned flights of a Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2. Contact was also lost during the first mission.The small craft is part of a U.S. military initiative to develop technology to respond to threats at 20 times the speed of sound or greater, reaching any part of the globe in an hour.Read the full story here.

• Union Thugs Attack Communication Lines, Desecrate Funeral Homes.(Rightwingnews).Having the backing of the most aggressively pro-union president since FDR seems to have thrown the thuggery that characterizes these pernicious organizations into overdrive. Striking Verizon workers are now attacking communication lines:  Verizon Communications Inc. reported a dozen cases of sabotaged cable lines and warned of delays in repairs and customer service on the second day of a strike involving about 45,000 employees.The telecommunications company said there have been 12 acts of sabotage to telephone lines and to Internet and television services in Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York since the strike began.Fiber-optic lines were intentionally cut in Tewksbury and several other municipalities on the East Coast, the company said.Stolen equipment in Cedar Grove, N.J., affected service to a police department…In the town whose radical left community launched Obama at the country, not even the dead are safe:

On July 10, three Chicago-area Alderwoods funeral homes were viciously vandalized. All were Dignity Memorial network facilities that had also been targeted for a strike by local Teamsters.As always the union denies responsibility, just don’t be slow to meet our demands in the future, wink wink, nudge nudge.It turns out not everyone low enough to desecrate funerals belongs to the Fred Phelps cult:

Making union protestations of innocence hard to believe were nasty fliers bearing a Teamsters banner, pictures of which have popped up all over the Internet, warning ominously: “Any family that makes arrangements with a Chicago-area Dignity Memorial funeral home during this time may encounter a labor dispute at the location.”This is the mentality of the people running the White House under SEIU BFF Barack Hussein Obama, who became so expert at union-style tactics as a community organizer that he served as an instructor for ACORN.Hmmmm......The Nationalsozialistische  Deutsche Arbeiterpartei a.k.a. NAZI had their 'brownshirts'.When or what will be their 'KristallNacht"?Read the full story here.

• The Rise of the Mob Has Begun Here Too.(Rightwingnews).Just because England got a head start on the road through liberalism toward oligarchical collectivism, don’t assume the explosion of mob violence there is still distant in our future. It has already begun here, but goes unreported because of the racial component. From American Thinker:

The wave of racist violence committed by black flash mobs is different from any other form of racism today. The neglected social problem of racial mob violence is unique in its organization, the high numbers of people involved, the intensity of the violence, and the stark racial impact of that violence. The violence is also unique in that it has been purposefully obscured by the mainstream media, with the editor of the Chicago Tribune, among others, saying that his paper will not report on the race of the attackers.The hateful murders of Matthew Shephard, who was gay, and James Byrd, Jr., who was black, were memorialized with national legislation. When similar crimes are committed by blacks against whites, they are greeted with ignominious silence. Just ask your friends how many of them are familiar with the murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome, or David Graham. How many are familiar with Hoang Nguyen, who was killed in a senseless “game” called the knock-out game, in which mostly black attackers attack mostly non-black victims? Now that some news outlets like the Drudge Report have occasionally taken notice of some of this violence, the left is acting out in response. Some on the left — always on the lookout for racism against minorities — are now upset that people are paying attention to black mob violence. The hypocrisy is so extreme that some liberals, like Roy Edroso at The Village Voice, are condemning people who point out the mob violence.A society can’t defend itself from enemies it is too cowardly even to acknowledge.Eventually this phenomenon will reach the point that it cannot be ignored, even by our shamelessly irresponsible and hyperpoliticized liberal media. By then America will resemble a zombie movie.Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• It can't be true. Can it?(DougRoss).Amidst news of the S&P credit rating downgrade, the loss of 30 Americans in Afghanistan, to include nearly two dozen of our elite Navy Seals, and news predicting that world markets were going to react most negatively, reports are coming in that Obama decided to play golf over the weekend.I know this guy's callous, arrogant, narcissistic... but this can't be true.It simply can't be true.There's just no way.Is there?Though Camp David's golf facilities are limited, it's not hard to imagine POTUS teeing off during a tragic week for the families of America's warfighters. Read the full story here.

• ‘U.S. Day of Rage’ Being Orchestrated for ‘Worldwide Democracy’ (think pseudoanarchist, neo-Marxist, globalist).(GulagBound).We thought this would be happening, now didn’t we.A movement is suddenly springing up from nowhere (ah-huh) to take on the free enterprise, “capitalist” system. In America, they are especially targeting Wall Street, a place still somewhat constitutionally sovereign to the U.S.A. and not thoroughly controlled yet by authoritarian global collectivism.That is a Wall Street which has already been damaged by the Cloward-Piven orchestrated mortgage meltdown and stemming from that was assailed by the protorevolutionary Obama-Peloisi-Reid government, which brought boa constrictor regulation — by “reform” with loopholes wide enough to fit Brinks trucks for large and coordinated hedge fund manipulators, and which shielded a Securities and Exchange Commission gone dark from the kinds of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiries that uncovered Bernie Madoff. Cloward-Piven government, indeed.A “U.S. Day of Rage” is scheduled to start an “Occupy Wall Street” camp-out on “17/9/2011″ (which would denote orchestration by those who use the British means of writing dates). And as with the “Arab Spring,” much of the organizing is being done through social media, especially super-popular Facebook and Twitter.Immediately upon clicking links, one finds it to be the America-targeting element of a worldwide movement, especially popular by the looks of it, in Old Europe. Again, that is no surprise to those who have looked into the updated mode of Marxist revolution stemming from the Gramsci and Trotsky schools and historically, even the days before Marx and Engels. Revolutionary proponents likes to hide behind the non-American ideal of democracy (as in permanent rule of the proletariat majority, forget about a republic) along with nebulous and mysterious anarchistic labelling.The term “Day(s) of Rage” is the product of Chicago’s Weathermen, led by Obama workmate Bill Ayers and cohabitants.This Day of Rage speaks of non-violence, yet plays up the violent terrorism of the current rioting proceeding in Great Britain.Hmmmm........The left going for no elections needed?Protect dear leader at all costs?Read the full story here.

• Caught on Tape: Violent Flash Mob of Black Students from Oprah Funded-Obama Praised School Assault Innocent White Bystander.(ironicsurrealism).PHILADELPHIA – Fox 29 has obtained video of an attack on a bystander in Philadelphia’s Old City by teens from a charter school group that received a $1 million donation from Oprah Winfrey.Slideshow: Images From Teen Attack Video. The incident happened on the afternoon of July 29th near 4th and Spruce Streets, and just blocks from the location of the Mastery Charter High School.That was the same day that saw violent attacks near Chestnut Street in Center City that injured two other bystanders. A man is walking down 4th Street near Independence Hall toward Spruce Street as a group of teens starts to walk by. The man is wearing hospital scrubs.As the students walk next to the man, one teen turns around, without warning, and punches the man in the head.Six to eight students then swarm the man as he is pushed into a wall, kicking and punching him.The entire group runs away, and a second camera catches them running away from the attack around a corner at 4th and Walnut Streets.Another bystander runs over to check on the man, who gets back on his feet.Sources tell Fox 29 that man was taken to Jefferson University Hospital with injuries to his head and teeth. [...]Video of the mob assault at link. It is apparent in the video that the attack was premeditated.Philly.com reports that the victim suffered a fractured jaw as a result of the attack, and three of the violent teen thugs have turned themselves in.Hmmmm.......Is there some structure behind these attacks?Read the full story here.

• Palin bus tour to roll into Iowa, Perry also dropping in Iowa.(CNN) (JohnPaulus).- After a more than two-month hiatus, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is planning to crash the presidential party once again with a heartland-themed re-launch of her "One Nation" bus tour this week in Iowa, according to a Palin fundraising email obtained by CNN.Palin is bringing her Constitution-draped bus to the Iowa State Fair, just 30 miles south of where the Republican presidential field will take the stage on Thursday for a presidential debate in Ames.It's not yet clear which day the tour begins, but her surprise arrival in Iowa will happen before the closely watched Ames straw poll. Palin is not on the straw poll ballot.According to a video link included the fundraising solicitation for Palin's political action committee, Sarah PAC, it appears the bus will also take Palin to Missouri and Illinois to visit the respective hometowns of former presidents Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. "The heartland is perfect territory for more of the One Nation Tour as we put forth efforts to revitalize the fundamental restoration of America by highlighting our nation's heart, history, and founding principles," Palin wrote in the email.Tim Crawford, the treasurer of Sarah PAC, confirmed the authenticity of the email but would not provide more the details about the tour.Texas Governor Rick Perry plans to be in Iowa next Tuesday, when President Obama visits the state, in hopes of establishing a one-to-one contrast between one of the nation’s most successful governors and an incumbent president sliding in the polls.Perry announced this week that he plans to come to Iowa on Sunday, the day after the Ames Republican Straw Poll. Perry’s motive for coming is at least two-fold. One, he obviously wants to include Iowa in his first trip as a semi-official candidate; Perry reportedly plans to “make clear” his intention to run during an appearance in South Carolina on Saturday.What still has not been announced is that Perry intends to stay in Iowa for a while, visiting the State Fair on Monday and then planning an event Tuesday to play off Obama’s visit to Peosta, Iowa as part of the president’s three-day bus tour highlighting economic issues. Obama will host an event that’s being called a “White House Rural Economic Forum” at Northeast Iowa Community College.Perry may have the field much to himself, at least among major Republican candidates. Rep. Michele Bachmann is scheduled to be in South Carolina on Tuesday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won’t be in Iowa, either. And former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has not yet decided which days he’ll be in Iowa next week. If they’re all away, Perry’s headline-grabbing move on Saturday could be matched by his challenge to Obama on Tuesday.Read the full story here and  here.

• Obama Marks 9/11 at Ramadan Dinner.(WSJ).By Laura Meckler. President Barack Obama marked the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by looking ahead to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks next month and reminding Americans that Muslims were both victims and heroes that day.The president made no mention of the men who hijacked four planes that day, or their religious beliefs. But his remarks at an Iftar dinner at the White House were meant to push back against any suggestion that because they were Muslims, other Muslims are tainted by their deadly actions.Muslims, Mr. Obama said, were passengers on those planes and were at the Pentagon and working in the twin towers when they were struck. “They were cooks and waiters, but also analysts and executives,” he said. “They were taken from us much too soon.” Muslims, he said, were among the first responders and, later, among those who volunteered for military service—part of what he called the “9/11 generation.”“Make no mistake, Muslim Americans help to keep us safe,” he said.He said the way to honor the nearly 3,000 people who died nearly 10 years ago is to treat one another with respect and to honor, not just tolerate, differences.“This year and every year, we must ask ourselves: How do we honor these patriots — those who died and those who served? In this season of remembrance, the answer is the same as it was 10 Septembers ago. We must be the America they lived for and the America they died for, the America they sacrificed for,” he said. “Here in the United States, there is no them or us; it’s just us.”This was the third Iftar dinner, which marks the end of the daily Ramadan fast, that Mr. Obama has hosted. He spoke at about 8:40 p.m., just after sunset, and promised to be brief as the observant at the dinner had been fasting since sunrise.The White House Iftar tradition was begun by President Bill Clinton and continued by President George W. Bush. Invited guests Wednesday included two Muslim members of Congress, Reps. Andre Carson (D., Ind.) and Keith Ellison (D., Minn.); a large number of ambassadors from the Muslim world and two professional football players.Huma Abedin, the Muslim aide of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wife of former Representative Anthony Weiner, recently disgraced, was also in attendance.Mr. Obama’s remarks this year were far less controversial that they wound up being a year ago, when he appeared to endorse construction of a community center and mosque on property near Ground Zero in Manhattan. In that speech, he referred to the controversy and said Muslims have the same rights to practice their religion as anyone else.Read the full story here.More here (Video).

• White House Uses Fallen Heroes For Photo-Op – Against Their Families’ Wishes.(BigPeace).The remains of the 30 Americans killed in the recent crash in AFPak returned to the US today, and that return was the occasion for a cynical photo-op that ignored the wishes of both the Pentagon and the fallen warrior’s loved ones.A White House photographer was allowed to take and widely distribute a photo from the ceremony Tuesday, showing President Obama saluting and other officials in attendance. An official White House photo of the saluting was widely distributed and published by the media. It also was posted on the White House website as the “Photo of the Day.”Doug Wilson, head of public affairs at the Pentagon, said the Department of Defense didn’t even know the White House photographer was present and had no idea a photo of the event was being released until it became public. He said the photographers who normally travel with the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were not allowed to go to the event…for the very good reason that under a Pentagon policy set in 2009, media coverage at the Dover, Delaware base that is the entry point for all US war dead is allowed only when family members approve. And according to the Pentagon, during initial notification of next of kin, 19 of the 30 families said they did not want media coverage.At the time, The Pentagon was still debating whether to release publicly the names of the Americans who died in the Chinook crash because doing so might endanger families of the SEAL Team 6 troops, because of the Team’s involvement in killing Ossma bin-Laden.The Pentagon’s policies, the wishes of the dead heroes’ families – none of it mattered to President Obama or the White House in the least. Not when there’s an election coming up and a photo-op to be had.I admit, I have to censor myself here, out of respect for the presidency even if the man currently occupying the office deserves little of it.This is a despicable and disgraceful action in an already deeply flawed and immoral presidency. And to say it makes me deeply angry is a massive understatement.Read the full story here.

• Defeating Islamic Terrorism Through Appeasement.(Aina)By DanielGreenfield.The Obama Administration has a new strategy for combating Islamic terrorism. The document that lays out its new strategy avoids using "Terrorism" in its title, instead substituting "Violent Extremism". Jihad is not mentioned anywhere. Even "Muslim" is used as little as possible.Eight pages of mostly redundant text repeat the same idea, that the only way to fight Islamic terrorism is by partnering with and empowering Muslim communities and organizations. That is the "revolutionary" new idea that merited coverage from the New York Times, NPR and CNN. And if the strategy had to be summed up in one word, it would be, "Collaborate!""Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States," sounds almost as catchy as "Man-Caused Disasters", and comes from the same school of thought. The University of Denial, whose motto is that the best way to fight Islamic terrorism, is not to talk about it. And "Not talking about it" is a big part of the new strategy. The document warns repeatedly that associating Islam with terrorism leads to terrorism. WWII had "Loose Lips, Sink Ships", and we have, "Loose Stereotypes Fly Planes into Buildings."Released as an answer to Congressman King's hearings into Islamic radicalization, it completely fails to address the questions raised by those hearings. Instead the strategy compares Islamic terrorism to gangs and pedophiles-- treating it as a persistent social issue, rather than a violent threat. And its only answer is to keep working with Muslim groups to teach their youth not to do drugs, join gangs or blow up bombs.Empowering Local Partners is a transparent defense of CAIR and other Muslim organizations accused of radical activities. But rather than countering the charges raised against them, it pretends those charges have never been made, and urges law enforcement to continue partnering with Muslim groups. A course that leads local and national law enforcement to unwittingly work with the political partners and fundraisers of terrorist organizations.The White House could not have found anyone better to devise its new strategy than Quintan Wiktorowicz. After September 11, Wiktorowicz co-wrote an article for the Saudi funded Middle East Policy Council Journal, which made a point of distinguishing between Al-Qaeda and more mainstream organizations such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.Wiktorowicz also distinguished between violent and non-violent Salafis. The "good" Salafis have PhD's from Saudi universities. The "bad" Salafis are a "small radical fringe" who are mostly self-taught and ignorant. Want to fight Islamic terrorism, then you have to put more Islamic scholars with Saudi PhD's on the job.This is exactly the argument that Wiktorowicz makes, that "very religious Muslims" are "the most resistant to radicalization" while those most likely to be radicalized lack a good grounding in Islam. Fighting Islamic terrorism with Islamism was his approach in the UK and it derives from his fondness for Salafism.In another Middle East Policy Council Journal article, Wiktorowicz warned against "radicalizing the Salafis and creating a legion of new supporters for Bin Laden". This is the fulcrum of appeasement. On the one hand Wiktorowicz and those like him argue that terrorists are a tiny minority of a tiny minority. On the other, if the United States fails to mend its ways, they warn that any number of Muslims can become radicalized and turn into terrorists.Wiktorowicz's defense of Salafism as a primarily non-violent movement and his warnings about alienating them expose him as the apologist for a radical movement whose control over mosques in America has been identified as a key factor in radicalization. Mainstream defenders of Islam try to separate Salafism from what they claim is a more moderate Islam-- but Wiktorowicz even defends Salafis as peaceful.The new strategy could have been written in Saudi Arabia. And for all intents and purposes was."Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States," replaces terrorism with euphemism. With words so generic that they mean nothing at all. And the content is equally generic. Swap out a few words and it could be about any social problem.Even former Hizb-ut-Tahrir member Ed Husain, now at the Council on Foreign Relations, has been critical of the new strategy for not addressing Islamic ideology, and prison and campus radicalization. But that's the essence of the new strategy. Inaction and ignorance.The new strategy is eight pages of inaction. Eight pages of silence. Eight pages of noise. It is not a document that sets out real goals and objectives. Its only objective is to sideline serious critical work and replace it with blank buzzwords. With FBI agents and prosecutors visiting mosques, removing their shoes, pressing the flesh and then going back to doing nothing. Because they have no idea what's out there anymore.Intelligence is the first line of defense against any threat. To know the enemy is the first step toward defending against an attack. But how do you defend against a threat, when you can't even spell its name?The Orwellian blankness of the new strategy is a space of ignorance to mask the truth of terrorism. The enemy is reduced to a social problem, terrorism to violent extremism and the war on terror to programs teaching Muslims about the dangers of violent extremism on the internet. The same dead end European counter-terrorism strategies imported to the United States.The new strategy begins with Obama carefully using the Arabic transcription spelling of Usama and al-Qa'ida, and ends on cautioning that, "Strong religious beliefs should never be confused with violent extremism." Unless you're Christian, of course.Read the full story here.

• As some call for bold strokes, Obama sticks with vacation plans.(LAtimes).When it comes to curbing unemployment, President Obama "will not rest" until everyone looking for a job can find one, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.A couple of hours later, the White House put out an announcement that the president will soon begin a nine-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard.No one can credibly make the argument that Obama is loafing. He puts in the hours. But the trip is coming at a queasy moment for the economy and the markets. Stocks recorded another huge drop Wednesday, the third straight day of convulsive swings following Standard and Poor's announcement that it was downgrading America's credit rating. Unemployment remains high and the Federal Reserve on Tuesday presented a bleak picture of the overall economy.So is this a good time for Obama to hole up on a tony Massachusetts island, playing golf with friends?"I think he can shorten his vacation and focus on this issue," said Peter Buttenwieser, a major Democratic donor who counts himself as an admirer of Obama. "If there were a real jobs summit and a jobs push, I would feel much better. We're not paying enough attention to jobs.""I'm always for bold action," said Begala, a former campaign advisor to President Clinton. "The whole focus of the country for the last month has been on these terrible negotiations over the debt ceiling. That hurt everybody. He's got to turn the page. The president can't wave a magic wand, but he has the power to set the agenda. Now's the time."Obama has resisted such steps. And he's not willing to give up his Martha's Vineyard trip, which has become an August ritual for the Obama family.If the past is any guide, Obama will spend his time on the Vineyard golfing, cycling, reading books, playing board games with family and going out to dinner with friends. He will once again stay at a 28-acre estate in Chilmark that in past summers has commanded a rental fee of about $50,000 a week.In making the trip, of course, Obama risks looking out of touch with everyday Americans coping with $3.60-a-gallon gas and flat wages. In Washington-speak, that's called an "optics" problem.Hmmmm......12 th of July :“I'm ready to roll up my sleeves over the next several weeks and next several months.” ....Yeah sure.Read the full story here.

• Did Israel just stop 'spectacular' terror attack?(WND).Sources say it would have devastated both Jewish state and Gaza population.TEL AVIV – Israel stopped what would have been a spectacular border terrorist attack planned from inside the Gaza Strip, according to Egyptian security officials.The Egyptian officials said there is information the attack Tuesday was aimed at the sole pipeline that supplies Gaza with gas. The pipeline, located at the Israeli town of Nahal Oz, is manned and provided by Israel.Israeli security officials would not comment on the matter.In a rare incident, on Tuesday all electricity, phone and Internet service was suspending for about 18 hours in the Gaza Strip.The blackout was reportedly caused by Israeli military bulldozers operating near the fuel pipeline in the Israeli town of Nahal Oz, which is close to the Gaza Strip. At about the same time the electricity went out in Gaza, the Egyptian officials said Israel passed a message for Egypt to be on high alert for possible attacks from inside the Gaza Strip.The Egyptian officials said they have information that Israel was actually working to stop a cross border attack aimed at the fuel pipeline. The officials said the downing of communications inside Gaza was central to halting the attack.The Egyptian officials said members of Jihadiya Salafiya, an al-Qaida-allied group in Gaza, are suspecting of attempting the major attack along with elements of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad.Read the full story here.

• Al-Sadr to American: Leave Or We'll Target You.(Memri).Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr has warned the U.S. forces of the consequences of staying in Iraq beyond the end of this year. In the fourth warning in as many days, he called on the U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq with all their weapons, in keeping with "the logic of freedom and democracy that you have laid down, the right of self determination, the Bill of Human Rights and the logic of humanity."Speaking in English for the first time, he called on the U.S. forces to leave "our holy land and go back to your families who await you impatiently." He continued: "Go and don't listen to the voice of your devils… Go out so that we do not target your trainers."[He was referring to the negotiations between Iraq and the U.S. to retain military trainers after the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.]Hmmmm.......Obama at Ramadan Iftar:"We are all children of a loving God".Read the full story here.

• Burka-clad suicide bomber kills a boy and four police officers guarding earlier blast site.(DailyMail).A female suicide bomber wearing a burka has blown up police in Pakistan who were attending the scene of another explosion.Five people were killed in the double attack that happened in the north west of the country.The first blast was a remote-controlled bomb exploded which in Peshawar's Lahori Gate area which exploded as a police truck carrying constables about to start their shift drove by. Four police officers and a boy, who was walking nearby, were killed, while 22 people were wounded.An hour later, two women approached police guarding the area.One of the females, estimated to be aged 16 or 17, threw a grenade and was then able to partially detonate her suicide vest.Himayat Ullah, a police officer who was wounded in the attack, said: 'I thought the girl was pregnant as she was walking slowly with another woman. As I tried to push people away, suddenly a blast took place'.The tactics deployed in the attack - deploying a female bomber to return to the scene of an earlier blast to target officers there - are not unprecedented.In June, militants said they had sent a husband and wife suicide squad to a police station in another northwestern town, killing 10 people.Late last year, a female suicide bomber attacked a World Food Program food distribution center in the region, killing 45.Hmmmm.....The holy month of Ramadan, day 11 so far 44 terror attacks and 106 dead.Read the full story here.

• Algeria: A Ramadan of rare violence.(FDesouche). Police first count for the first week of Ramadan Algerian version: 2000 riots in which 100 were injured, four dead and fifty car accidents that killed 19 people.Attempted explanations: cultural violence, poverty, crime and drugs.Fasting, abstinence, causes serious problems. Dehydration and heat cause delusions, lack of coffee and tobacco make nervous, lack of cannabis as well, to much more serious stage, withdrawal of psychotropic drugs to addicts chemicals. Algeria is among the largest consumers of the world (29 tonnes against 40 tonnes of cannabis) that fuel a thriving informal market.This is where the violence comes into play: these are addictive neurotoxic molecules very strong, pain, seizures, severe mental illness.Apart from its high consumption of psychotropic drugs, there is a typically Algerian violence.For historical reasons, or ideological. That's it? No, of course, Algeria has hunger for all, and also money. The soaring food prices during Ramadan. It is during this period that the poor are counted, the number food baskets provided by the Ministry of Solidarity. If in 2010, one million baskets were distributed to families (6 million people), 1 million and a half baskets of basic necessities were provided this year, 9 million poor. This explains it a little, misery ahead with the crime, the statistics of the security services account for more than 50% of the criminals that plague the capital are part of the dormant company. In Algiers, the days are difficult, both by fasting, by the presence of idle young offenders, beset by shortages of all kinds.Read the full story here. (GoogleTranslate).

• More deaths reported as Syrian tanks and troops enter two protest hubs.(Al-Arabiya).Syrian security forces killed at least five civilians Thursday in Qusayr, in the central flashpoint province of Homs, after troops stormed the town to crush anti-regime dissent, an activist said.“The security forces opened fire on residents who tried to flee to the Al Basateen district (of Qusayr), killing at least five people,” said the activist speaking to AFP in Nicosia from the nearby city of Homs, adding that 10 other people were wounded.Earlier, Syria’s army stormed another two towns in pursuit of anti-regime protesters, activists said, in defiance of Western calls for action after a “chilling” UN Security Council briefing.Tanks, troop carriers and buses transporting security force members sped soon after dawn into the town of Saraqeb in the northwestern Idlib province bordering Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.“Shooting was heard soon afterwards in the town, where protests demanding the fall of the regime have been staged every day after the evening (Muslim) prayers,” the statement said.Later the rights advocacy group reported that security forces were “raiding homes and carrying out arrests, rounding up more than 100 people, including 35 children.”“Army troops are smashing the doors of shops owned by activists in search of them, and they have cut off electricity in the town,” a statement said. The operations came a day after security forces reportedly shot dead 18 people in the Baba Amro neighborhood of the city of Homs, according to the latest toll provided by the Syrian Observatory.“The number of those wounded has risen to over 100, some of them in critical condition, and residents from Baba Amro have begun to flee looking for safer places in the city,” a statement said.It said heavy machine gun fire rattled Baba Amro well into Thursday morning.The latest assault comes after UN Assistant Secretary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco on Wednesday briefed the 15-member Security Council about events in Syria in the week since the council called for an “immediate” halt to the violence.Mr. Taranco, who spoke behind closed doors, was quoted as saying there had been no letup in the deaths of protesters while UN officials had met Syrian diplomats to try to get accurate information.Western envoys said the Security Council would have to consider "further action" if events did not improve and pressed for a new report next week.Ignoring the international outrage, President Bashar Al Assad this week pledged a relentless battle against “terrorist groups” Damascus says is fomenting a popular uprising across Syria.Hmmmm......Yeah it sure sounds like Assad stopped 'reforming' oooooh look an unicorn.Read the full story here.More here .

• "Islamophobia" - A Crime Against Humanity.(BrusselsJournal).You may be interested in an article that appears at the Arab website Asharq Alawsat, by Ibrahim Kalin, senior adviser to Turkish premier Recep Tayyib Erdogan. Kalin warns the West about the dangers of "Islamophobia" and proposes that it be designated a crime against humanity. This was bound to happen. The massacre in Norway has been a boon to Arab and pro-Muslim activists. And the Gayssot Law, in France, that criminalizes holocaust denial, racist speech and discriminatory actions, will soon be invoked again in defense of Muslims. Thus, anyone critical of Islam or of immigration could be guilty of a crime against humanity. He uses perfectly logical reasoning. But logic and truth are two different things.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan: Red Mosque imam ready for war to ‘talebanise’ Pakistan.(Speroforum).Mullah Abdul Aziz accuses the government of “corrupting the country” and inviting “the wrath of Allah”. .Islamabad – The imam of Islamabad’s famous Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) has accused the government of “corrupting the country”. He has called on the “soldiers of Islam” to fight “to create an Islamic nation” where “Sharia laws can be enforced”. Mullah Abdul Aziz’s threats are raising concerns in a country where minorities are already victimised and the central government is hostage to fundamentalist fringes. In July 2007, the Lal Masjid was the scene of a gun battle between extremist militants and Pakistani soldiers that caused more than a hundred dead. Meanwhile, the Christian community is preparing for Minorities Day, tomorrow, which was established by the late Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic government minister murdered on 2 March.The Red Mosque leader blames the Pakistani government for not imposing “Islamic laws in the country,” of polluting it “with corruption” and inviting “the wrath of Allah by allowing the Americans to continue the drone attacks” that “kill our Muslim brothers”. “It`s time for us, the soldiers of Islam, to take a stand against this government and reclaim the Islamic Pakistan," he said. For that purpose, “I already have over 5,000 students” and “we will use every means possible to make Pakistan an Islamic state” in which Sharia is enforced.The imam’s latest threats have raised concerns among local political experts and religious minority leaders. The Red Mosque is located in the heart of the federal capital, and remains fertile grounds for extremism. In the meantime, Pakistani Christians are set to celebrate Minorities Day tomorrow. On this occasion, they will call for the upholding the right of religious freedom and will demand equal rights and protest against violence, forced conversions and targeted murders.Nayala J. Dayal, president of the Christian Progressive Movement, said that education and economic development are the best insurance policy for minorities in Pakistani society. However, for her 11 August will be a ‘black day’ rather than a day to celebrate minorities as promoted by the government and will be a time for protests against the ongoing anti-Christian violence.Read the full story here.

• Life magazine unpublished photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Warning contains graphic images.Here.  HT: NuclearHistory.

MFS - The Other News

                      Afternoon Posting.

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

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

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 105.
  Source : Here .

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

• Mississippi Floods : 33 pictures of the disaster,none of them contains images of President Obama who's campaigning now!See the whole story here.

• Judges Hearing Arguments on Obama Law Appointed by Democrats.(Fox).All three judges that will hear Tuesday's arguments on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law were appointed by Democratic presidents, including two by Obama himself.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit made the announcement shortly before the trial started, even though the case has been scheduled for months. Judges Diana Motz, the senior member of the panel, was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Andre Davis and James Wynn were appointed by Obama.The hearing in Richmond is the first appellate review of Obama's signature legislation passed last year, and combines two cases. The first case was brought by Liberty University, and the second case was brought by the government after losing to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinell.The judges were randomly selected by computer a couple of months ago. They have presumably been reading briefs in the case ever since. The full 14 member Fourth Circuit is evenly split between Republican and Democratic judges, but only three judges hear any given case.The fact that the judges are Democratic appointees doesn't mean they'll decide to uphold the law in the end, but this has been one of the most bitterly partisan issues around the country in recent memory.Hmmm....."Randomly selected by computer"yeah whatevah.Let me guess only democrat nominated judges their names were entered in the computer program? Read the full setup story here.

• Amnesty for votes!Obama Ready to Roll Out New Amnesty Carpet for Illegals.(SunshineState).Meanwhile, E-Verify and tougher state laws have led to self-deportation in Arizona.Amnesty or bust. Though not using those words, that's expected to be the message President Barack Obama will deliver in the border town of El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday.Obama, according to unofficial reports, will argue that his administration has tightened America's borders and stepped up deportations, and that it is time for Congress to enact a "path to citizenship" for at least some of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens in this country.Wary congressional Republicans and even a few Democrats say that "path to citizenship" means "amnesty," and they're not willing to go down that road again. Previous amnesty programs, which effectively rewarded lawbreakers, simply enticed more illegals to enter the country.Obama, eager to make good on campaign promises from 2008 and bolster his Hispanic base for 2012, says the time is ripe for immigration reform. The administration reports that it deported a record 392,000 immigrants, and has put more "boots on the ground" along America's southern border.Workplace raids have stepped up, too, and more businesses are using the federal E-Verify program to screen new hires. As for the illegals who remain, reformers argue that it is unrealistic to expect the government to deport some 11 million people.But the experience in Arizona suggests that self-deportation occurs when and where immigration laws are toughened.Worried that the GOP-controlled House will oppose anything that smacks of amnesty, the Illinois Democrat said he's looking for the president to use "discretionary powers" to enact the changes.In an indication of where he is heading Tuesday, Obama recently conducted a series of private meetings with business executives, evangelical leaders and Hispanic activists -- the same groups that repeatedly blurred the distinction between "legal" and "illegal" immigrants in helping to defeat Florida's modest E-Verify legislation.Hmmmmm......Dictator President Obama will push trough once again his way.Read the full story here.

• Report:US born Anwar Al-Awlaki Could Be Next AQAP(Al-Qaida) Leader!(Memri).The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported today, citing "informed sources," that "there are talks among the organization's [Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] members to appoint Anwar Al-Awlaki as the group's [AQAP] leader."Read the full story here.

Osama Bin Laden's Children Threaten Legal Action If Whereabouts Of Bin Laden's Body Remain Undisclosed.(Memri).On May 9, 2011, a letter was published on Mustafa Hamid's (aka Abu Walid Al-Masri) website, which the website said was authored by the children of Osama bin Laden.Hmmmm....US goverment rounding up all the sharkhunters in the Arabian sea?Read the full story here.

• O-pression: Experts Put Real Unemployment At Between 18% and 22%.(DougRoss).Mike Shedlock crunches the numbers and comes to an inescapable conclusion: real unemployment is far, far worse than official government statistics reflect.Either way, this president's bankruptcy-inducing policies have set this nation on a course for an unprecedented fiscal calamity. We are seeing a preview of coming attractions in Europe, the results of unchecked deficit spending and the spread of socialist welfare programs that can't work and have never worked throughout human history.And yet Democrats lobby for more: more spending, more deficits, more unchecked wealth redistribution schemes. They know they are unsustainable, yet they plow ahead, bankrupting future generations for some mirage of a Utopian society where everyone is equal, no matter how hard they work.And that, my friends, truly is the definition of insanity.Hmmmm...."You can't fool all the people,all of the time"?Read the full story here.

• The Obamas Invite Cop Hating Rapper to the White House.(WhitehouseDossier).What do you think of when you imagine a White House “Celebration of American Poetry and Prose?” A quiet collection of serious minded women and professorial looking men reciting, in tones both dramatic and hushed, carefully crafted cadenzas in a setting of earnest reflection?

Think again. Think of THIS:

Yo, yo, yo, lissen up. This is not your father’s candy ass poetry reading, you hear?

Mrs. Obama, who is supposedly so concerned about the future of our nation’s impressionable and overweight youth, has invited this spigot of hatred, a rapper who calls himself “Common,” to the White House Wednesday to share his vitriol.It’s one thing to be angry about your circumstances and to express it. It’s quite another to threaten harm against the police.Instead of inviting this person to the White House, Obama should probably be trying to find out if “Common” is serious about his own lyrics. He’s not a poet. He’s a security threat.

How fraudulent of Obama to head to Ground Zero last week and have his picture taken with police who responded to the 9/11 disaster, and then give the presidential seal of approval to someone who wrote this:

Tell the law, my Uzi weighs a ton.

 I walk like a warrior,

from them I won’t run . . .

Use your mind and nine-power, get the government touch

Them boys chat-chat on how him pop gun

I got the black strap to make the cops run

They watching me, I’m watching them

The man seems to wish violence against George W. Bush as well:

With that happening, why they messing with Saddam?

Burn a Bush cos’ for peace he no push no button

Killing over oil and grease

no weapons of destruction

How can we follow a leader when this a corrupt one?

Tomorrow night, “Common” will be standing in the East Room, below the life size paintings of George and Martha Washington, spewing this kind of stuff.It’s not just an outrage. It’s incomprehensible.How could this be?Well, turns out Common is from Chicago. Not just from Chicago, but a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ since childhood. Does that church name ring a bell? The pastor there is Jeremiah Wright.I wonder where Common learned his songs of hatred? It appears the Obamas have not completely cut their ties to the church.Whatever the artistry that may be involved here, this is not a man whose “ouvre” merits to a visit to the White House. It’s an insult to the nation.I assume Common has been instructed not to recite his anti-cop rant. If he does, Obama will incur the political damage he richly deserves.Hmmmmm.....When will they impeach this poor excuse for a President?Read the full story here.

• Boehner demands ‘trillions’ in spending cuts in exchange for lifting debt ceiling.(WashingtonPost).NEW YORK — House Speaker John A. Boehner defined the GOP’s terms for raising the legal limit on government borrowing Monday, demanding that President Obama reduce spending by more than $2 trillion in exchange for an increase big enough to cover the nation’s bills through the end of next year.Delivering a sermon on fiscal austerity to a Wall Street crowd clamoring for compromise on the debt limit, Boehner (Ohio) firmly rejected any effort to raise taxes. He also called on Democrats to engage in “honest conversations about how best to preserve Medicare,” signaling that House Republicans remain committed to restructuring at least some portions of the program.And for the first time, he signaled that Republicans would come to the negotiating table with the expectation that the White House and Senate Democrats be prepared to discuss major reductions in federal spending — and enact them immediately. That’s a sharp shift from Republicans who just last week talked of finding “commonality” on less-ambitious measures. “Without significant spending cuts and changes in the way we spend the American people’s money, there will be no increase in the debt limit. And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in the debt limit that the president is given,” Boehner said in an address to the Economic Club of New York at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “We’re not talking about billions here. We should be talking about cuts in trillions if we’re serious about addressing America’s fiscal problems.”Hmmmmm.....What happened to abolishing Obama care?Read the full story here.

• The Associated Press's Case for Releasing the Bin Laden Photo.(AP).President Obama's decision to withhold the visual evidence of Osama bin Laden's death has created a fundamental disagreement between the White House and one of the largest journalism organizations in the world. "This information is important for the historical record," said Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor at The Associated Press. "That's our view."Last Monday, the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the photographic and video evidence taken during the raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The organization's FOIA request included a reminder of the president's campaign pledge and a plea to be more transparent than his predecessor. "The Obama White House 'pledged to be the most transparent government in U.S. history," wrote the AP, "and to comply much more closely with the Freedom of Information Act than the Bush administration did.'"Two days later, the president told 60 Minutes he would not release any of the footage related to the raid, including video of bin Laden's deep sea burial and photographs of his slain corpse. Though Oreskes voices his disagreement diplomatically, there's no way around it: The AP believes the president is wrong to maintain exclusive ownership of the evidence. "We're asking to see it," said Oreskes in an interview with The Atlantic Wire. "It's about us saying we would like to make our own news judgements about news worthy material."For Oreskes, the photo is an important piece of evidence to establish what happened during the Navy SEALs raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad compound. "In the week since the raid there's been a whole series of story-lines about what happened in this raid," said Oreskes. "At this point, anything that might shed more light on what occurred is potentially quite newsworthy. So we would like this imagery to fully understand what happened during this event.""I can't tell you what understanding we would get," he prefaced. "But we would like to see it and compare it with other things we're being told about this raid both by U.S. officials and officials in other countries."The AP isn't alone in wanting more insight on the specifics of the raid. When it eventually surfaced that bin Laden was not killed in a firefight, his wife wasn't used as a human shield, there was no live footage of the event and the "mansion" where he lived was only worth between $250,000 and $480,000, many became skeptical of the White House's narrative. Other organizations that have filed FOIAs include Politico, Fox News, Judicial Watch and Citizens United. Oreskes sympathizes with the president. "This is obviously one of his most difficult decisions and we understand that."Read the full story here.

• GOP Sen. Rand Paul questions whether White House has 'enemies list'.(TheHill).Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Tuesday if the White House had an "enemies list" in light of the National Labor Relations Board's complaint against Boeing for moving some of its operations to South Carolina.The complaint stems from Boeing's decision to move some of its production line for the Dreamliner jet to the right-to-work state to avoid the work stoppages that have hampered the company in the state of Washington. The labor board contends that the move is retaliation against unionized workers, while Boeing says it is a business decision designed to keep production running smoothly.Speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with several other GOP lawmakers and business lobbyists, Paul implied that President Obama was playing politics, since the complaint could see Boeing move jobs out of South Carolina."I have a question for the president. Mr. President, do you have an enemies list? Is this decision based on the fact that South Carolina appears to be a Republican state, has two Republican senators? Is this decision based on the fact that South Carolina is a right-to-work state? Are they on your enemies list?" Paul said.The freshman senator also mentioned a draft executive order under consideration by the White House that would have government contractors disclose their political contributions."Will you now punish contractors who have given money to Republican candidates?" Paul asked.Paul rattled off several other states, including Kentucky, Alabama and Texas, that he said could fall under the administration's cross-hairs for voting Republican in the last election."Are we going to use the whole power and bully nature of government to say that business cannot be located in a state that might happen to vote Republican?" Paul said. "I find this appalling and I respectfully ask the president to immediately rescind this assault on business."Hmmmm.....Dictatorship or Democracy?Read the full story here.

• Record sale of Osama posters in Pakistan.(Indiatimes).Islamabad : There has been a record sale of posters of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan after the al-Qaida leader was gunned down in a daring US commando raid May 2 in the country, a media report said on Tuesday. More than 100,000 posters of Osama Bin Laden have been sold since his death, the Online news agency reported citing the print industry. It added that the volume of sale is increasing daily. Osama's death on May 2 ended nearly a decade-long hunt for the US's most wanted terrorist. He was blamed for the terrorist attacks in the US in September 2001 in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. Hmmmm....'Genius' Obama "Osama Bin Laden is not a Muslim".Read the full story here.

• Osama Bin Laden Son Missing From SEAL Raid, Pakistan Says.(ABC).One of Osama bin Laden's sons went missing in the midst of the Navy SEAL raid that took the life of the al Qaeda leader more than a week ago, Pakistani security officials told ABC News today. The officials said bin Laden's three wives, who are all in Pakistani custody, said that one of bin Laden's sons has not been seen since the raid. The son has not been identified, but Pakistani investigators agreed that it appeared someone was missing from the sprawling compound, the officials said.U.S. officials said that one of bin Laden's sons, Khalid, was killed in the raid. It is not known if another son, Hamza, was in the compound at the time of the raid, though his mother is reportedly one of the wives in custody. The U.S. has denied the SEALs took anyone from the compound other than bin Laden's body. The U.S. initially faced resistance from Pakistani authorities when investigators asked for access to bin Laden's widows, but a U.S. official said Monday Pakistani official promised to make the meeting happen sometime soon. One senior Pakistani security official told ABC News there is still no timeframe for that meeting, however.Hmmmmm....Remember that i kept asking last week 'what happened to the son the Seals allegedly took with them' to Afghanistan?Read the full story here.

• Governor Perry declines Obama's invite.(Politico).Rick Perry has declined the White House’s request that he greet President Obama when Air Force One lands in Texas on Tuesday, the Republican governor’s office says. “We did try to arrange something with the White House,” Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry, told POLITICO. “They asked us if we wanted to meet him out on the tarmac in El Paso, but we weren’t able to work anything out, based on the fact that it’s probably going to be a 10-minute greeting.” Perry, who met Obama at the airport when the president traveled to Austin in August, accused the administration two weeks ago of denying aid to his state to help recover from wildfires. Other Republican governors, like Rick Scott and Mitch Daniels, recently greeted Obama when he visited their states. Obama will talk about immigration in El Paso on Tuesday before going to Austin to campaign.Hmmmmm......Remember the Alamo?Read the full story here.

• The Plagues coming to Egypt : Hunger. (AsiaTimes).By Spengler. Egypt is running out of food, and, more gradually, running out of money with which to buy it.The most populous country in the Arab world shows all the symptoms of national bankruptcy - the kind that produced hyperinflation in several Latin American countries during the 1970s and 1980s - with a deadly difference: Egypt imports half its wheat, and the collapse of its external credit means starvation. The civil violence we have seen over the past few days foreshadows far worse to come. The Arab uprisings began against a background of food insecurity, as rising demand from Asia priced the Arab poor out of the grain market (Food and failed Arab states, Asia Times Online February 2, 2011). The chaotic political response, though, threatens to disrupt food supplies in the relative near term. Street violence will become the norm rather than the exception in Egyptian politics. All the discussion about Egypt's future political model and its prospective relations with Israel will be overshadowed by the country's inability to feed itself. Egypt's political problems - violence against Coptic Christians, the resurgence of Islamism, and saber-rattling at Israel, for example - are not symptoms of economic failure. They have a life of their own. But even Islamists have to eat, and whatever political scenarios that the radical wing of Egyptian politic might envision will be aborted by hunger. The Ministry of Solidarity and Social Justice is already forming "revolutionary committees" to mete out street justice to bakeries, propane dealers and street vendors who "charge more than the price prescribed by law", the Federation of Egyptian Radio and Television reported on May 3. The collapse of Egypt's credit standing, meanwhile, has shut down trade financing for food imports, according to the chairman of the country's Food Industry Holding Company, Dr Ahmed al-Rakaibi, chairman of the Holding Company for Food Industries. Rakaibi warned of "an acute shortage in the production of food commodities manufactured locally, as well as a decline in imports of many goods, especially poultry, meats and oils". According to the country's statistics agency, only a month's supply of rice is on hand, and four months' supply of wheat. The country's foreign exchange reserves have fallen by US$13 billion, or roughly a third during the first three months of the year, Reuters reported on May 5. The country lost $6 billion of official and $7 billion of unofficial reserves, and had only $24.5 billion on hand at the end of April. Capital flight probably explains most of the rapid decline. Egypt's currency has declined by only about 6% since January, despite substantial capital flight, due to market intervention by the central bank, but the rapid drawdown of reserves is unsustainable. At this rate Egypt will be broke by September. Hmmmm....."CHANGE" Aren't they glad Obama made Mubarak 'dissapear'?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan spy agency's alleged role in Mumbai terrorist attacks to be revealed.(Guardian).Witness in US trial expected to say ISI officers were complicit in the 2008 terrorist attacks that killed more than 160 people.The apparent involvement of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Pakistan's premier spy agency, in international attacks carried out by Islamic militants is to be revealed in a trial starting next week in the US.A former member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a violent Pakistan-based extremist group with close links to the Pakistani military, is expected to tell a court in Chicago that ISI officers were complicit in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, in which more than 160 people died.The trial comes at a critical time, with relations between Islamabad and Washington at a new low following the death of Osama bin Laden.The hearings could acutely embarrass the ISI, which is suspected by many in the US and elsewhere of protecting the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks.The trial is also likely to fuel pressure in the US for the high levels of financial aid to Pakistan to be cut.Official court documents in the case have so far played down the role of the ISI, still officially considered by the CIA and other American agencies as a key ally in the hunt for al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan. They avoid mentioning the Pakistani spy service by name, for example.Spokesmen for the ISI have repeatedly denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks to the Guardian.The key witness in the hearings will be David Headley, an American-Pakistani LeT militant who has already told Indian intelligence services that he carried out the surveillance for the Mumbai operation while working for the ISI.Hmmmm.....A nice Nuclear war to take care of the over population?Read the full story here.

• Iran mocks Israeli leaders for 'stupid ideas'.(Ynet).Islamic Republic comments on Meir Dagan remarks regarding potential Israeli attack on Tehran nuclear sites. Iran on Tuesday mocked Israeli officials for flirting with "stupid ideas" after former Israeli spy chief Meir Dagan admitted that an Israeli attack on Tehran's nuclear sites was foolish."It is interesting that Zionist regime officials admit they have stupid ideas, as they have had so many such ideas in the past," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly press conference. His remarks came after former Mossad head Dagan said on May 6 that the possibility of a future Israeli aerial attack on Iran "would be stupid." Dagan, who retired in January after eight years as director of the Israeli intelligence service, suggested that the attack could fail to curb Iran's atomic ambitions while risking engulfing the region in conflict."Anyone attacking Iran needs to understand that it could start a regional war, which will include missile fire from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon," he said. Read the full story here.