Saudi Arabia ready to tolerate low oil prices to $ 10 a barrel for sake of market share.

Saudi Arabia ready to tolerate low oil prices to $ 10 a barrel for sake of market share. (Taz).

Saudi Arabia is ready to tolerate the low oil prices to preserve its market share and displace the US from the market, Talgat Mamyrayymov, the former head of the Real politik analytical service, independent political analyst from Kazakhstan, told Trend.

He said that oil prices are falling for objective reasons.

"First, Iran will soon enter the market,” he said. “Second, Saudi Arabia said that it is ready to tolerate a price of $10 per barrel. Saudi Arabia seeks to find its niche on the market and press the US shale oil suppliers."

He said that oil prices continue falling and can reach up to $10-15 per barrel, adding that big oil players intend to leave the oil business and count on alternative energy sources.

"Thus, the games on the stock markets will not be in favor of the oil market because the major Western capital is beginning to leave it," he said.

According to the forecasts of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of North Sea Brent oil will reach $40 per barrel in 2016 and $50 per barrel - in 2017. The EIA forecasts the average price on the US WTI oil at $38.54 per barrel in 2016 and $47 per barrel - in 2017. Hmmm......What will happen to those countries selling low quality crude Oil?

OPEC waiting for US oil companies’ bankruptcy, then cut production and raise prices.

OPEC waiting for US oil companies’ bankruptcy, then cut production and raise prices. (Taz).

OPEC will cut crude production and export in order to raise oil prices, after the US companies extracting hydrocarbons go bankrupt due to the current low energy prices, said Alexander Razuvayev, economist and director of the analytical department at Russian company Alpari.

Alpari is one of the leading companies offering forex trading in Russia.

"The price war will end sooner or later,” he told Trend Jan. 11. “We can expect positive changes this year. As a result of falling oil prices, budgets are running out, shale companies go bankrupt. Those, who survive the crisis, will take the new position on the market at comfortable prices."

He said that none of the largest oil producers will be able to work at current low prices for a long time.

Razuvayev believes that the current conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran is unlikely to impact the world oil prices.

“There won’t be a massive clash between the parties,” Razuvayev said. “Iran has just been released from the sanctions. Saudi Arabia is weaker than Iran militarily. The sides do not need a war." Read the full story here.

Related:   Shale Producer Gets $1.4 billion Wall St. Help in Re-Arming for OPEC War

Oil prices will rise in case of Riyadh-Tehran conflict turns into a military confrontation.

Oil prices could rise in case of Saudi Arabia-Iran hot conflict. (Taz).

Supplies continue to exceed demands on the world hydrocarbon market, Valentyn Zemlyansky, the director of energy programs at the Center of World Economy and International Relations of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, told Trend Jan. 6.

“The oil price growth is not expected in the short term,” he said.

The expert said that the oil price can increase on the world market if Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict deteriorates.

He did not rule out the possibility that Riyadh-Tehran conflict can turn into a military confrontation.

"The world economy is in a serious crisis,” he said. “This is the first sign of a possible big conflict."

Iran produces 2.8 million barrels of oil per day and exports 1.1 million barrels of this volume per day.
Saudi Arabia produces more than 10 million barrels of oil daily and exports more than seven million barrels per day.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran soured after execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, by the Kingdom along with other 46 people, which was followed by a strong protest from Iran.

Iranian Kharg Terminal is getting ready to receive big tankers, once the sanctions on Iran are lifted.
Right now nine tankers can simultaneously berth at Kharg Terminal, which is able to receive giant tankers with 360 barrels capacity, Qolamhossein Gerami, an official with Iran’s Oil Terminals Company said.

Referring to Kharg as the biggest oil terminal in Iran, he said the terminal is currently responsible for letting through 94 percent of Iran’s exported oil, Mehr news agency reported January 6.

Oil is pumped through five pipelines to the terminal and stored in reservoirs as big as one million barrels, he explained.

He said the terminal is able to store 28 million barrels of oil, both light and heavy.

At the eastern terminal, with a T pier, six tankers can birth at the same time and receive 67,500 barrels of oil per hour, the official further said.

The pier’s waterline is 21 meters and can serve tankers with capacities of 275 thousand metric tons, he noted.
According to the official, the western front can receive three tankers at a time and transfer 360 thousand barrels of oil in one hour.


The pier’s waterline is about 30 meters and is therefore able to serve the biggest tankers there is, he stated.

Any coordination within OPEC is highly unlikely amid the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Sam Barden, the director of Wimpole International, an energy market development company believes.

“OPEC has no future what so ever. It does not fit the notion of a modern economy, and given current tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia the likely hope of any coordination is zero,” Barden told Trend.


Over the past few days, the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia deteriorated following the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2.

And then there's this:

First of all, the prices may increase in reaction for the potential threat of failures in supply of raw materials via the Strait of Hormuz, which is of strategic importance to the world market, through which one-third of the world’s maritime oil supplies pass. The northern coast of the strait belongs to Iran, the southern – to the United Arab Emirates, which have lowered the rank of its embassy in Tehran as a result of the recent conflict.

For temporary diversification and security of oil supplies to the world market, Iran can potentially start transportation through Azerbaijan, which has an extensive network of oil pipelines. Technically, Iran can deliver its oil to Baku via the Caspian Sea or railway with a view to its subsequent export via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline with access to the Mediterranean Sea. However, the economy of such deliveries should be seriously studied, especially against the background of low global oil prices.

Thus, on one hand, a mess in the OPEC may lead to uncontrolled oil supplies to the global market, which would reduce oil prices to historic lows, 

on the other hand - the deliberate blocking or, at least, a threat of restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz with the further development of the conflict may cause an increase in oil futures prices.

Related:

On average, the “all-in,” breakeven cost for U.S. hydraulic shale is $65 per barrel, according to a study by Rystad Energy and Morgan Stanley Commodity Research.

Global redistribution of oil market coming.

Global redistribution of oil market coming. (Taz). By Vagif Sharifov.

OPEC’s dumping oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s desire to constantly expand its market share, and expectations of coming of Iranian oil after removal of sanctions on Tehran, have forced the US to urgently take the historic decision to start exporting its own oil.

Experts have already reacted negatively to this news, saying that oil prices will fall significantly, at least, due to a psychological factor. However, the US itself doesn’t think so – the Department of Energy believes that by 2025 the price of Brent oil will reach $90.23 per barrel or only $0.18 per barrel less than if the export ban had been kept.

Greatest difficulties will be faced by the business in the domestic US market, where a limited supply of WTI will increase its value at oil refineries, leading to higher prices for gasoline, and dragging consumer price inflation in the economy. On the other hand, it will be easy for China, as it will be selling its consumer goods in the US for higher prices, while their prime costs being kept due to lack of a significant impact from WTI on the Brent oil price.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia - the main market player physically pressing the prices - is trying by all means to “pour” oil even to places where others have previously worked.

This, in turn, causes a conflict of interests with Russia, which, because of different prime costs, can’t afford such level of dumping in Europe, as Saudi Arabia does.

Apparently, this “overdumping” game will soon be joined by the US. By the way, the estimates presented by the US Department of Energy look at least strange against the backdrop of the fact that Iran expects the lifting of sanctions in Q1, 2016 in order to begin oil exports.

There is no doubt that Iran would offer its oil cheaper than the market price, pursuing the following objectives:

- to gain market share in the world as fast as possible;

- to fill its budget with money coming from oil exports as quickly as possible to use them for restoration of domestic market infrastructure, including the construction of new oil and gas pipelines.

The whole situation will lead to an unplanned meeting of OPEC in the first six months of 2016, where the countries will blame each other of deliberate glutting the market. But the decision will not be taken to cut the production because there will be the US oil on the market.

Any reduction in any direction will immediately lead to a decrease in a market share, despite the break-even point of the state budgets of Iran, Algeria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE is rather less compared to the current oil price. Libya will be in the worst situation. Its state budget may be deficit-free only at the price of $207 per barrel.

The global redistribution of the oil market between Saudi Arabia and the US is obvious. OPEC ceased to be a locomotive. It became a purely commercial company making a profit regardless of anything. Many specialists believe that there is no need for the cartel any more.

Alberta’s Finance Minister once said that we need such a position when we would not listen to OPEC to decide how many schools we should build. If OPEC wanted, it could increase the prices, forgetting about the market share. It is always possible to restore as it was in 1973, when the cartel cut its production so that the price has risen from $3 to $12 per barrel.

Iranian chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Closing Hormuz Strait lies within Supreme Leader’s authority.

Iranian chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Closing Hormuz Strait lies within Supreme Leader’s authority.(TI).The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces has said that although a plan for closing the Hormuz Strait is pursued, but the final decision lies within authority of the Supreme Leader. Major General Hassan Firouzabadi added, "Of course, we have not yet decided to block the Strait of Hormuz. This falls within authorities of the Supreme Leader. But, we have prepared a rational and reasonable plan in this regard," according to the Fars News Agency. On July 7, Firouzabadi said that the country will make a wise decision as to whether to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz. He made the remarks in reply to a question about the proposal that the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee put forward on July 1, which calls for the Strait of Hormuz to be blocked to prevent the passage of tankers that carry oil for the countries that have imposed sanctions on Iran. The proposal, which has not yet been submitted to the Majlis Presiding Board, was prepared in response to the European Union's oil embargo on Iran that took effect on July 1 and a new U.S. law that penalizes countries that do business with the Central Bank of Iran by denying their banks access to the U.S. market. The law came into force on June 28. The Mehr News Agency quoted Firouzabadi as saying, "I, as a senior military commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran, say that we have a (contingency) plan to block the Strait of Hormuz because military men should have plans in regard to all issues, and the Strait of Hormuz is the world's fourth or fifth (most) strategic strait, which affects everything in the world."Read the full story here.

More here from AlArabiya.

"Saudi Oil Production to be Lowered?" - Workers in Saudi Arabia will not be working from noon to 3 PM until after August.

"Saudi Oil Production to be Lowered?" - Workers in Saudi Arabia will not be working from noon to 3 PM until after August.(BM).Cairo: In a move aimed at helping workers avoid the midday heat in Saudi Arabia, a government law was to be enforced beginning Sunday barring work to be done outside during the hottest part of the day. From July 1 through August 31, workers will be getting relief from being outside in the sun from noon until 3 PM, the Saudi Arabian Labor Ministry established last year and went into force again this year. However local daily Arab News reported that human right groups have complained that the ban is not being enforced everywhere. “We have had many cases and complaints about companies forcing their employees to work in the sun during the banned hours,” said Mufleh al-Qahtani, president of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) to Arab News. The complaints have prompted NSHR to file a petition with the Ministry of Labor and as a result the ministry has vowed to crack down on firms that do not enforce the ban this summer. “This, year we will send out inspection teams to construction sites to enforce the ban and protect the kingdom’s outdoor workers,” said ministry spokesman Hattab al-Anizi. In May 2012, fellow Gulf state Oman decided to also enforce a midday work ban as the temperatures soar in June, July and August. The United Arab Emirates has been enforcing the ban for several years and companies this year face a fine of 15,000 dirhams ($4,084) if they violate the rule.Hmmmm....."There's more than one way to 'skin a cat'.Read the full story here.

Update:
Flashback April 2012 - Saudi Arabia Builds Up Crude Inventories: Goldman. Saudi Arabia appears to have been building crude oil inventories in lower domestic demand months in a scramble to offset the risks of “limited” effective spare production capacity, Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday.The reason the increased production was not pooled into exports, Goldman Sachs analysts argue, is grounded in an anticipation of “a substantial increase” in demand that cannot be covered by “simply raising production levels”.

The logic behind the build-up in stocks, which amount to 390,000 barrels per day (bpd) in that period, is not the possibility of shortages resulting from escalating tensions with Iran. Rather, it is primarily in preparation for the strains of peak domestic demand that the summer heat brings to the Kingdom.Read the full story here.

Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi calls for emergency OPEC meeting.

Iranian oil minister Rostam Qasemi calls for emergency OPEC meeting.(TI).The Iranian oil minister on Saturday called for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to hold an emergency meeting to cut output as oil prices have dipped to a "critical level" under $100 a barrel, MNA reported. "We have asked the secretary general to set up an emergency meeting as prices have become irrational," Rostam Qasemi was quoted as saying by the Shana News Agency. Qasemi stressed that the last OPEC meeting, on June 14, had decided the organization's overall quota would be 30 million barrels but "members' production has reached 33 million barrels a day." OPEC had agreed that "when the prices go below $100 a barrel, they have reached a critical level," and therefore an emergency meeting was needed before the next scheduled OPEC meeting in December, Qasemi said.Hmmmm.......No decrease in Production......closure of the Strait of Hormuz?Read the full story here.

Has the 'Go-Ahead' been given and is the Countdown running for the Attack on Iran?

Has the 'Go-Ahead' been given and is the Countdown running for the Attack on Iran?(JPost).DUBAI - Saudi Arabia has reopened an old oil pipeline built by Iraq to bypass Gulf shipping lanes, giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude from Red Sea terminals should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources say. The Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA), laid across the kingdom in the 1980s after oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf by both sides during the Iran-Iraq war, has not carried Iraqi crude since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Saudi Arabia confiscated the pipeline in 2001 to compensate for debts owed by Baghdad and has used it to transport gas to power plants in the west of the country in the last few years. Iran in January threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US and European sanctions that target its oil revenues in a bid to stop Iran's nuclear program. Alarmed, Saudi Arabia has now quietly reconditioned IPSA to carry crude, test pumping along the line over the last four to five months, several sources with knowledge of the project say. "The testing started because Saudi Arabia wanted to secure alternative routes to export oil," an industry source in Saudi Arabia said. Western industry sources said the tests through the 1.65-million barrel-a-day line had delivered into storage facilities at Mu'ajjiz near Yanbu on the Red Sea for at least four months. More than a third of the world's seaborne oil exports pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz from the oilfields of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Qatar's liquefied natural gas exports are all shipped through Hormuz. As tensions over Iran's nuclear program ratcheted up, Riyadh decided to put IPSA on standby to transport more crude west in an emergency. The United Arab Emirates has built its own Hormuz bypass pipeline, which is due to start exporting from the Gulf of Oman next month.MFS - The Other News -22 June: United Arab Emirates - First oil flows through UAE’s Hormuz bypass.
“This is a great solution for the UAE but it’s not a 100 percent solution for the whole problem,” said Theodore Karasik, research director at Dubai-based security consultancy INEGMA Group. The new pipeline has a stated capacity of around 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) while UAE exports total around 2.4 million bpd. Some sources say the pipeline could carry around 2 million bpd of the UAE’s biggest export at a push. The 370-km (231-mile) Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline carries oil from fields in the UAE’s western desert to the east coast port of Fujairah, a major oil storage and fuel bunkering hub. “Today oil has been received at the main oil terminal in Fujairah and 1 million barrels is coming in,” a source directly involved in the project said. “The plan is to load the first oil tanker around July 1... We will slowly increase it to 1.5 million bpd.”Hmmm.......Great for Iranian 'Target practice'.It seems the countdown is on.
The main question is will it be BEFORE or After the U.S. Elections?Read the full story here.

"Re-election Drill" - In the last quarter the US produced six million barrels of conventional and unconventional oil a day.

                                            Photo By pp cam/ks/AFP Graphic.
       Oil demand down for North America and Europe, must be the economy "DOING FINE"



"Re-election Drill" - In the last quarter the US produced six million barrels of conventional and unconventional oil a day.(Yahoo).The United States is seeing a dramatic surge in oil and gas production and could overtake the world's biggest producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, in another decade, a US official said. "Some of the numbers are eye-popping," Daniel Sullivan, commissioner in Alaska's department of natural resources, told a panel of experts at the International Economic Forum of the Americas in Montreal. In the last quarter the US produced six million barrels of conventional and unconventional oil a day, he said, adding: "We haven't done that in 15 years." Since 2008, the US added 1.6 million barrels of additional oil, and in 2011, the US registered the largest increase in oil production of any country outside of OPEC, he told hundreds of participants. In Alaska alone, the potential off the coast was viewed as the largest of any country, about 40 billion barrels in conventional oil, according to the US Geological Survey. US President Barack Obama has indicated that offshore oil resources could help mitigate global disruptions in supply, and his administration has tried to craft an energy strategy that balances business interests with environmental concerns, especially in the Arctic. In November the Obama administration proposed a new plan for offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, including the environmentally sensitive Arctic. But it did not open up for exploration the politically sensitive Atlantic or Pacific coastlines, or the eastern Gulf of Mexico along the Florida coast. The chairman of the World Energy Council drew a more somber global picture. Pierre Gadonneix said the economic crisis meant energy demands had slowed down, even though they were starting to grow again, and that oil prices remained high. "Future growth is threatened by the prospect of climate change and the drain on our natural resources," he said, adding the main challenges would be to improve the security of energy supply, to improve competitiveness and to struggle against "energy poverty."Hmmmm.....Why the sudden increase in the last quarter?Trying to lower the Gasprices for Election day?Read the full story here.

Obama Administration Signs Accord in Mexico for Oil Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico With State-Owned Pemex

Obama Administration Signs Accord in Mexico for Oil Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico With State-Owned Pemex.(BB).
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa signed an agreement today for development of oil and gas reservoirs that straddle the two nations’ boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico.
The agreement is the first of its kind signed by the U.S., establishing a legal framework and creating incentives for U.S. energy companies to develop oil and gas resources jointly with Petroleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state oil company known as Pemex. When it comes into force, the agreement will end the current moratorium on oil exploration and production in the Western Gap portion of the Gulf of Mexico.
“With this, we are setting aside the old fear that honestly exists among many Mexicans that Mexico’s oil could be extracted from the other side,” said Mexican President Felipe Calderon. “Any joint reservoir will be jointly exploited,” and we will all gain the benefits.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar called the agreement an historic step that “opens to door to previously off-limits areas in the Gulf of Mexico,” an area larger than the state of Delaware.Hmmmm.......I wonder if Mexico will follow Brazil's example and sell also the oil to China?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                   Morning  Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 04. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• French forces take over Abidjan airport. Here . (Al -Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 4.7 and 5.1 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 74.On 04.04.2011 at 08:31 GMT+2.

JAPAN plans to dump 11,500 tons of radioactive water at sea to free up storage space at its crippled nuclear plant for more highly contaminated water, the plant's operator said on Monday. A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), operator of the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said the water was only weakly radioactive. 'We have no choice but to release water tainted with radioactive materials into the ocean as a safety measure,' government spokesman Yukio Edano told a televised press conference.

Situation Update No. 73- On 04.04.2011 at 03:00 GMT+2.

Workers at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant worked to plug a radioactive leak at the site Monday after efforts failed a day earlier to stop the flow of contaminated water into the sea. By Monday morning, chemical polymers being used to block the flow of radioactive water had yet to absorb the water, the Kyodo news agency reported. The 20-centimetre crack is in a pit where cables are stored near reactor number 2. The Japanese government warned it could take months to get the leak under control following the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged the plant. Plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), has begun putting dye in the water to find the location of other possible leaks. Meanwhile, Kyodo reported officials were considering the possibility of wrapping the entire reactor in a 45-metre high sheet in an effort to contain the radiation coming from the facility. Source .

• International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War – Japan. Physicians for Social Responsibility, has prepared the following summary of events at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant since March 11, 2011, when an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale struck northern Japan and created a tsunami that devastated large areas in northeastern Japan, killing thousands and leaving hundreds of thousands more stranded and without essential services.A must read !Read the full story here. 

• Gaddafi envoy in Europe 'seeking solution'.Libya's acting foreign minister on mission to Greece and Turkey in apparent initiative aimed at ending fighting.Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, Libya's acting foreign minister, has told the Greek prime minister in Athens that embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is seeking an end to fighting in the country."It seems that the Libyan authorities are seeking a solution," Dimitris Droutsas, the Greek foreign minister, said. He added that Obeidi planned to travel on to Malta and Turkey.Obeidi crossed into neighbouring Tunisia and travelled from Djerba airport to the Greek capital on Sunday and met George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, later in the day. "They [Libyan government] requested to send an envoy with a message for prime minister George Papandreou and that is why he is in Athens," a senior Greek government official said.In a statement, the Greek foreign ministry said it was committed to seeking a "political, diplomatic solution" to the crisis in Libya, where government forces are battling rebels seeking to end Gaddafi's decades-old rule."We reiterated the clear message from the international community: respect for and full implementation of UN resolutions, an immediate ceasefire to stop the violence, particularly against the civilian population of Libya."In Tripoli, the Libyan capital, government officials were not immediately available to comment on Obeidi's movements. The New York Times has reported that Seif al-Islam and Saadi Gaddafi, two of the leader's sons, have created their own plan to remove their father from power amicably and negotiate an end to the conflict.Papandreou's office said Baghdadi al-Mahmudi, the Libyan prime minister, requested Obeidi's visit during a phone conversation on Saturday. Papandreou also discussed the Libyan crisis with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, on Sunday.Papandreou has been talking by phone with the leaders of Qatar, Turkey and Britain over the last two days.Read the full story here.

• Washington pulls support for Yemen's Saleh: report15 protesters killed, hundreds hurt in Yemen clashes.Yemeni soldiers shot dead at least fifteen protesters and wounded hundreds of others in a second day of bloody clashes with demonstrators in the city of Taez, south of the capital, witnesses and medical sources said. Tens of thousands of demonstrators were marching on the governorate headquarters in Taez, 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Sanaa, when the army opened fire from different directions, witnesses said.Medical sources said that there are hundreds of injured people.Earlier, police using live rounds and tear gas wounded more than 400 protesters who tried to march to a presidential palace in Yemen's Red Sea city of Hudaida, as reports said that President Barack Obama's administration has shifted position on President Ali Abdullah Saleh and now believes he should leave office. Witnesses said that armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on protesters.The New York Times reported on Sunday that the United States has concluded Saleh will not likely enact reforms demanded by opposition protesters and must be eased out of office. Washington has long supported Saleh, who has been in power since 1978, and the administration of President Obama has largely refrained from criticizing him in public.But U.S. officials have told allies that they see Saleh's position as untenable due to the widespread protests, and believe he should leave office.Negotiations over Saleh's departure began more than a week ago, the newspaper reported, citing U.S. and Yemeni officials.The United States has talked openly of its concern about who might succeed Saleh, whom it views as an ally who has helped to contain al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based wing of the militant group.Hmmmm.....The whole Middle East is becoming one 'Obamination'.Read the full story here.

• Ivory Coast braces for bloody final battle as Ouattara promises 'rapid' assault on capital.The Ivory Coast is today nervously awaiting a bloody showdown between troops loyal to rival politicians both claiming leadership of the country. Fighters backing the internationally recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, are massing in the north of Abidjan preparing for the final assault on Laurent Gbagbo, who is holed up in the presidential palace and refusing to yield power.Mr Ouattara was declared the winner of last November's election, but he has not been able to assume office because outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to yield power.Water has been cut off to much of Abidjan, where the streets are empty and residents have barricaded themselves inside their homes.The showdown comes as both sides deny responsibility for a massacre in the western town of Duekoue, where the Red Cross reported finding up to 800 bodies at the weekend.Reports that forces loyal to Mr Ouattara committed the massacre have damaged his standing despite the UN saying that he us the legitimate ruler of the Ivory Coast after elections last month. Traditional hunters fighting for Mr Ouattara are said to be responsible for the most of the killings by machete and the burning of homes. And Mr Outtara's prime minister-in-waiting today promised a 'rapid assault' on the capital. Guillaume Soro told local TV: 'The situation is now ripe for a rapid offensive. The operation will be rapid because we have discovered the exact number of operational tanks on the ground. Ivorians must trust in the Republican forces.'Read the full story here.

• Dead voters like Walter Cronkite could decide New York elections: Mix-up means Walter Cronkite still eligible to vote.He died in July 2009 but legendary newscaster Walkter Cronkite could still have an influence on U.S. politics, thanks to an electoral oversight.New York City’s Board of Elections still lists Cronkite and hundreds of thousands of other New Yorkers on the city’s electoral rolls, even after they have died.And if the cost of sending forms to all those dead voters wasn’t enough, the mistake could potentially see an election rigged.Fraudsters could impersonate dead voters as a signature and confirmation of a residential address – rather than producing any form of identification – is all that is required for long-time voters to cast their ballot.Former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez was removed from office in 1997 after it was alleged ballots had been cast in the names of dead people.And in the late 90s, a flawed attempt to remove the dead from the electoral register in Florida meant thousands of legitimate voters were allegedly disenfranchised before the 2000 U.S. presidential election.Deceased celebrities like Cronkite, Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt and the late actress Natasha Richardson still registered to vote in New York, the city’s future elections could be unfairly contested.Aside from its political implications, the registration of dead people has financial implications for New York, with the city’s Campaign Finance Board spending $5.4million on posting voting guides to seven million homes in 2009.It was reported earlier this year that nearly a third of registered voters in Zimbabwe are dead.The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network reported 27 per cent of people on the electoral roll were dead while more than 2,000 registered voters were purportedly over 100 years old, even though Zimbabwe’s life expectancy is 43.Hmmmmm.......Liberals and fraud?Read the full story here.

• French police warned not to arrest Muslim women covering up near mosques as country prepares for 'burka ban'.Police in France have been warned not to arrest any women wearing Muslim veils ‘in or around’ mosques.The strict instructions, from Interior Minister Claude Guent, are contained in a nine page circular issued to officers prior to a full-blown burka ban coming into force next week.With tensions running high within the country’s six million strong Muslim community, people have already been warned not to perform ‘citizen’s de-veilings’.This means that members of the public will not be allowed to take the law into their own hands when they see a woman hiding her features in a public place.Instead they will have to call the police, who will in turn consider whether the offender should be fined 150 euros, 212 $ or around 132 pounds.This will apply to all garments which cover the eyes, although scarves, hats, and sunglasses are excluded.As well as at a mosque, Muslims will also be able to put on a veil in the privacy of their own homes, a hotel room, or even a car, as long as they are not driving. Police have already complained that they will have to waste time on ‘burka-chasing’, with Denis Jacob, of the Alliance police union, adding: ‘We have more important matters to be dealing with.’Hmmmmm.....More important things then uphold the law?Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.Muslims and Moral Handicaps.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants an investigation into Koran burning. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that this form of free speech could be banned. Senator Lindsey Graham is also looking for ways to limit free speech, saying, "Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war".Free speech is more than a great idea, it's a fundamental freedom untouchable by legislators. But all it takes is a few Muslim murders-- and Reid, Breyer and Graham eagerly hold up their lighters to the Constitution. Free speech has been curtailed before in the United States during a time of war-- but only free speech sympathetic to the enemy. During WW1 a suspected German propagandist filmmaker was jailed. But could anyone have imagined anti-German propagandists being jailed? The Wilson administration was behaving unconstitutionally, but not insanely. Today we aren't jailing filmmakers who traffic in anti-American propaganda in wartime. If we did that half of Hollywood would be behind bars. Instead Democratic and Republican Senators are discussing banning speech offensive to the enemy. Because even though they're killing us already-- we had better not provoke them or who knows how much worse it will become.Traditionally it's the victors who give their laws to the defeated. But massive immigration at home and nation building occupations abroad mean that the defeated of failed states are imposing their Sharia law on us. We're asked to trade in our Constitutional freedoms out of fear of Muslim violence. And so the murderers impose the terms of peace on us. And then don't abide by them.It is far more insulting to treat Muslims as if they have no ability to control themselves and have no responsibility for their actions-- than it is to burn their Koran. That is an assessment that even many Muslims would agree with. To blame Jones for their actions, we must either treat murder as a reasonable response to the burning of a book, or grant that Jones has a higher level of moral responsibility than the rioters do. There are few non-Muslims who could defend the notion that burning the Koran is a provocation that justifies bloodshed. And virtually no liberal would openly concede that he believes Muslims are morally handicapped-- but then why does he treat them that way?Now in the age of Globalism-- Muslims are the new oppressed, exempted from the norms of civilized society. The morally handicapped who cannot be expected to turn the other cheek, the way we're supposed to. But Muslims are not morally disabled-- they are immorally enabled. Muslim violence is a choice. Their choice. It is not a reflex or a reaction or a pinball bouncing off the cycle of violence. It is not something that we are responsible for. It is something that they and only they are responsible for. By pretending otherwise, we are immorally enabling them. Treating them like mad dogs or ticking time bombs just guarantees that they will play their part and fulfill our expectations by mauling or exploding.We have never held Muslims morally accountable for anything they do. Not as a religion or as countries or individuals. Instead we pretend that Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi are the problem. A handful of extremists and a few bad leaders somewhere. Not the people themselves. Never them.Treating someone as dangerous gives them power over you. They will test that power and then use it. Allowing yourself to be intimidated is the first step to being defeated. For many it is also the last step. We treated Muslims as dangerous and then we insist loudly that we love them very much and aren't afraid of them at all. Guess who we're fooling? Only ourselves. Every time there's a terror alert or American politicians talk about the wonders of the Koran-- the Muslim world sees it as evidence of their power over us. And when a Koran is burned, that just means we need further intimidating. It's a cycle of violence, but we're not the ones driving it except through our appeasement.Senator Graham wishes there was a way to hold Koran burners accountable for violence carried out by Koran readers, but what we really need is a way to hold Koran believers accountable for their own violence.Read the full story here.

• HT:CreepingSharia.Muslims kill, US politicians consider limiting Americans free speech (aka sharia).Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional lawmakers are discussing taking some action in response to the Koran burnings of a Tennessee pastor that led to killings at the U.N. facility in Afghanistan and sparked protests across the Middle East, Politico reports.“Ten to 20 people have been killed,” Reid said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We’ll take a look at this of course. As to whether we need hearings or not, I don’t know.”Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress might need to explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech, in light of Tennessee pastor Terry Jones’ Quran burning, and how such actions result in enabling U.S. enemies.“I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war,” Graham told CBS’ Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” Sunday.“During World War II, we had limits on what you could do if it inspired the enemy,” Graham said, adding certain speech can “put our troops at risk.”Hmmmm.....Yup that's exactly why they forbid Chaplin imitating Hitler in "The Great dictator"?Read the full story here."If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." ~ George Washington.

• Food Stamp Graph… gulp!Read and see it all Obamanomics in their natural environment here.

• Canada - Toronto "SlutWalk"Cop's slut comment 'stupid': Chief.A Toronto cop who warned women that dressing like sluts can attract sexual assault was reprimanded and underwent “further training,” Chief Bill Blair said Sunday.Blair called Const. Michael Sanguinetti “inexperienced,” adding the officer uttered “something stupid and he’s apologized.”The constable’s comment sparked outrage, prompting more than 1,500 protesters to stage a “SlutWalk” Sunday from Queen’s Park to police headquarters on College St.“I don’t think the officer meant any offence,” added Blair.Even though the police force insisted the comment does not reflect modern training or professional attitudes towards victims, protesters embarked on the “SlutWalk” to condemn the long-held belief that a woman’s way of dressing “makes you a target,” organizer Jeanette Janzen said.Sanguinetti may have had a “sincere wish to help people,” but she said “it points to a larger problem within police culture.”The officer told a York University law class on Jan. 24 that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”During the two-hour, peaceful and often light-hearted march from Queen’s Park, most participants dressed casually, others flamboyantly, with many proudly proclaiming they are “sluts.”Natalee Brouse wore a bride’s gown, walking with Stephanie Murphy in a groom’s dark gray suit over a black shirt and bright lime-green tie.Leading the march, Sierra “Chevy” Harris danced in knee-high black boots, with Magdalena “Maggie” Ivasecko sporting see-through, waist-high net stockings over white panties.Protest co-founder Sonya Barnett said victims are “never at fault.“Slut shaming needs to be addressed,” the York undergrad said.“We said an apology is not enough,” march organizer Heather Jarvis told the crowd.The University of Guelph student said some police “are good people,” but criticized the force for avoiding the rally officially and not addressing demands to cite officer education improvements.Rape victim Polly Esther, 39, said “it has nothing to do with what you are wearing.”Dragged into a stairwell at 14, “I was a child ... bundled in pants, with a long coat and gloves,” she said. What Sanguinetti said “is like a punch in the guts.”Jane Doe, a high-profile survivor who successfully sued Toronto Police for not warning residents of a home-invading attacker in 1986, said attitudes that women’s clothing invites rape are perpetuated by media, police and church leaders.Read the full story here.

• 'NYT refused to publish Goldstone retraction'.Source close to South African judge claims he initially approached liberal publication to print his letter of regret – and was rejected. New York Times says in response it does not comment on editorial process. Not only did Judge Richard Goldstone's words of regret fail to match the global resonance of his original report, it now comes to light that one of the most important newspapers in the world refused to publish his retraction.Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday that a source close to Goldstone stated that in the past few days the judge had approached the editor of the New York Times opinion pages requesting to post the article he wrote in the paper – and was told his article was rejected. The editor gave no explanation as to why the article was rejected, but the source believes this was due to the newspaper's political agenda. The letter was ultimately published in the more conservative Washington Post over the weekend. The New York Times said in response that they do not comment on the editorial or reporting process. In recent years the New York Times adopted a highly critical line of reporting towards Israel. Lately, its senior commentator Thomas Friedman has been publishing extremely aggressive articles against Israel and its current government.Hmmmm......."Change".Read the full story here.

• 14-Year-Old Suicide Bomber in Pakistan Wants to ‘Send All You Policemen to Hell’.Multan, Pakistan (AP) - His accomplices brought carnage to a Sufi shrine, but the 14-year-old suicide bomber who was captured after his explosives failed to detonate was unrepentant."Let me go, I want to be a martyr," he said as he was being led away, according to police officer Khalid Mahmood. "I want to send all you policemen to hell!"The boy, identified as Fida Hussain, was arrested at the shrine in central Pakistan shortly after Sunday's twin suicide blasts, which killed 42 people and wounded 100 others. The complex close to Dera Ghazi Khan in central Pakistan was crowded with thousands of people attending an annual festival.Another suspect was also detained at the shrine, but police gave no details about him.Mahmood said both boys were apparently from North Waziristan, one of seven tribally administered areas close to Afghanistan. All those areas are militant hotspots, but North Waziristan is considered especially so. It is under virtual militant control and is home to extremists from around Pakistan and the world.Young boys, often with little or no education, are often used by the Taliban as suicide bombers. As well as being less suspicious, terrorism analyst say their handlers find it easier to persuade them to carry out suicide missions.Mahmood said Hussain and the other attacker were at the shrine around for around one hour before striking. When Hussain's vest failed to detonate, he threw a grenade but it exploded close to him, blowing off his hand. Police then fired at him, hitting him in his other arm.He was being treated for his injuries Monday, Mahmood said.His comments to policemen offer a glimpse into the level of indoctrination he had received."You all are accomplices of the enemies of Islam who are bent upon eliminating Islam and Muslims," he allegedly said. "If I get a chance, I will again strike as a suicide bomber."Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Senator: Gulf Coast Residents ‘Galled’ by Obama’s Suggestion We Buy More Brazilian Oil.(CNSNews.com) – Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) told CNSNews.com that residents of the Gulf Coast, whom he represents, were “galled” when President Obama went to Brazil two weeks ago and suggested they ramp up energy production so the U.S. could become one of the nation’s “best customers.”Obama, Vitter said, “went on that trip and made comments encouraging Brazilian offshore development and saying we want the U.S. to be your best customer. Particularly, those of us on the Gulf Coast found that pretty galling. How about starting in the Gulf?”Meanwhile, however, Obama’s Interior Department has been in a fierce court battle over how quickly to approve new drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon spill last summer.In February, Louisiana District Court Judge Martin Feldman ruled the Obama administration in contempt of court for what he said was “dismissive conduct” and their “increasingly inexcusable” refusal to approve permits that had met new standards. As of Vitter’s March 17 letter, just two permits had been granted for Gulf oil drilling.CNSNews.com asked Vitter whether he had received a response in the past two weeks. He nodded that he had not and then explained his frustration.“The day before the president went to Brazil, as you alluded to, I sent a letter to the administration asking some detailed questions about this ExIm Bank loan of $2 billion guaranteed, backed by U.S. taxpayers and it’s to develop Brazilian offshore opportunities while we’re shutting down U.S. offshore opportunities,” Vitter said.“In addition, the president went on that trip and made comments encouraging Brazilian offshore development and saying we want the U.S. to be your best customer. Particularly, those of us on the Gulf Coast found that pretty galling,” he added.“How about starting in the Gulf?” Vitter asked. “How about starting by having the U.S. be our own best customer and developing U.S. jobs right here at home?”Vitter held the press conference to announce he was introducing a bill to do just that. He is calling it a “3-D” bill, which stands for Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy and Deficit Reduction.Hmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• HT:PajamasMedia.Islamists on Welfare: Paid to Plot the West’s Demise.In 2008, the Toronto Sun reported that “hundreds of [Greater Toronto Area] Muslim men in polygamous marriages — some with a harem of wives — are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say.”“Polygamy is a regular part of life for many Muslims,” Canadian Society of Muslims president Mumtaz Ali declared bluntly. “Ontario recognizes religious marriages for Muslims and others.”Government officials quickly denied the Muslim leader’s claims about immigration law and social benefits regulations. Only one public servant seemed sufficiently concerned. “This is wrong,” said city councilor Rob Ford. “They should put a stop to this immediately.”Instead, welfare abuse by Muslims appears to have metastasized across the Western world. Almost three years later, news stories about radical Muslims — often immigrants — engaged in social benefits scams emerge regularly from Europe, Canada, and Australia. Even when they are not involved in fraud, Muslims frequently are overrepresented on welfare rolls, compared with other communities. The statistics from around the globe are jaw-dropping, especially in economically uncertain times.According to one 2007 source, immigration, of which Muslims comprise a significant part, “costs Sweden at least 40 to 50 billion Swedish kroner [approximately $7 billion] every year … and has greatly contributed to bringing the Swedish welfare state to the brink of bankruptcy.” Yet two years earlier, the country’s finance minister declared counterintuitively that “more immigrants should be allowed into Sweden in order to safeguard the welfare system.”One Iranian immigrant to Sweden expressed astonishment at his new country’s policies: “In Sweden my family encountered a political system that seemed very strange. The interpreter told us that Sweden is a country where the government will put a check into your mailbox each month if you don’t work. She explained that there was no reason to get a job.”Research by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard from 2002 reveals that mostly Muslim immigrants in Denmark “constitute five percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.” In that country, numerous “single” women who receive social assistance are really the wives of polygamous Muslim men.Polygamy and benefits fraud go hand in hand across the continent. Last year in France, a polygamous Muslim and father of 17 children was charged with welfare fraud when authorities discovered that “two of his companions lived in Dubai for a year while continuing to receive welfare benefits worth 10,000 Euros.” The man did not exactly have a low profile, as he made news previously when one of his wives was fined for driving while wearing a niqab that restricted her vision.Meanwhile, Canada’s most famous welfare recipients — Muslim or otherwise — remain the Khadrs. Confessed war criminal Omar Khadr still resides in Guantanamo Bay, having pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. However, his extended family members, all of whom share his radical views, continue to live on welfare in a Toronto suburb.Despite the public outrage provoked by the Toronto Sun in 2008, little evidence suggests that the situation has improved in Canada. In early 2011, the Mounties charged Ahmad El-Akhal, a Quebec immigration consultant, with “providing Canadian citizenship documents to hundreds of people in the Middle East so they could collect benefits and tax refunds” to the tune of $500,000. Adding an original twist on the venerable scam, none of the individuals receiving benefits actually lived in Canada. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the scheme had been going on since 1999.This author contacted the officials originally quoted in that Toronto Sun report to ask what is being done about welfare abuse by Muslims. The office of Rob Ford, who is now Toronto mayor, never replied to inquiries. Just one individual, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Community and Social Services, responded — but only with a boilerplate email. Rebecca MacKenzie explained that the ministry is “not able to provide comment on specific cases due to privacy concerns,” adding that they “take allegations of fraud very seriously.”Seriousness is long overdue. As an Islamist Watch blog post from 2009 put it, “Only one adjective properly describes a government that funds those who seek its destruction: suicidal.”Read the full story here.

Boxing terror as undefeated female Muslim star is shot by her stepfather ahead of title fight.A top woman boxer's career is hanging in the balance after she is believed to have been shot by her stepfather.German Rola El-Halabi, 25, was allegedly shot in the hand, knee and feet before a title fight on Friday night by the 44-year-old who was also her former manager.The undefeated fighter was preparing to fight Irma Balijagic Andler from Bosnia for the vacant IBF lightweight title when the man went to her dressing room and shot her.Berlin police sources said that two security guards were also shot before the gunman was arrested.All three victims were taken to a local hospital where they underwent surgery and police said their injuries were not life threatening.El-Halabi, who was born in Lebanon, won the WIBF and WIBA world titles in 2009 and has an 11-0 career record, with six knockouts.Rola El-Halabi told the German daily: 'Papa rushed into the room. He threatened us with a gun in his hand and shouted "Everyone out," and then he shot me in the hand from three metres. I cried and screamed.'Bild reported that El-Halabi split from her stepfather as a manager in January.'When I had problems I could talk with him about anything, except when it was about boys. That was taboo,' El-Halabi said.Hmmm......Sounds like another (Dis)honor shooting?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• HT:crockettlives.Obama’s Coup D’état.Over the past year, it has become obvious that what leftists cannot win at the ballot box, they will accomplish via bureaucratic dictate. After the U.S. Senate in 2009 rejected the massive cap-and-tax scheme on carbon credits, the Obama administration rode to the rescue of global-warming fanatics.“Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool.” –Paul Begala, as quoted by the New York Times.Fast forward to 2011, and Barack Obama (a man who doesn’t merely list to port–he’s already as far to the left as you can get), is faced with a similar threat to his planned imposition of socialism upon these formerly capitalistic United States. A House populated by the increasingly flinty-eyed (well, except for an often leaky Speaker) representatives of a grass-roots uprising of fed-up Constitutionalists, and a Senate nearly evenly divided between Republican and Democrat is not likely to advance the President’s “progressive” agenda legislatively. Stalemate. Ergo, the coup d’état currently being undertaken by Obama’s bureaucratic minions. And make no mistake–that is exactly what we are witnessing.Hmmmmmm.....America finally waking up?Read the full story here.

• HT:HotAir.Russian Duma to link missile defense to START limitations.The Russian Duma delivered two embarrassing blows to the Obama administration over the holidays on the START treaty, one of which may end up scotching the deal altogether. First, the Russian legislature refused to do what Barack Obama insisted of the US Senate, which was a quick ratification. More importantly, however, the Duma will do what Senate Republicans wanted, which was to amend the treaty to clarify the relationship between START and missile defense. However, the Duma’s changes will link the two and recast START into a de facto anti-missile defense pact.The Duma might in fact reinvigorate START opposition in the Senate, and at the worst possible time. Any alteration to the treaty will force a new ratification vote, and clearly Obama would have lacked the signatures in the last session of Congress for missile-defense restrictions. With his 18-seat majority reduced to six seats, the new session of the Senate won’t approve it either, and it won’t even be close. If the Duma follows through on this threat, then Obama will suffer an embarrassing defeat on foreign policy, essentially conducting a rerun on more substantial grounds of the “reset button” embarrassment from two years ago.Even if the Duma doesn’t formally alter the treaty, though, Obama’s credibility will be shot. They will have been publicly caught arguing one thing to the Senate while apparently agreeing to its opposite with Russia. The next time Obama brings a treaty of any consequence and controversy to the Senate, don’t expect the Senate to just accept Obama’s word ….and don’t expect it to pass ratification, either.
  Hmmm......Obama ....Transparancy....Hahahahaha!Another Obamination.Read the full story here.

• HT:Aim.Times Helps Muslim Rep. Ellison Obstruct Terror Probe.In an editorial titled “Homeland Blather,” The New York Times said that it agrees with Rep. Keith Ellison that it is “very scary” that the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, wants to investigate the “radicalization of the American Muslim community.” The editorial, however, failed to note that Ellison, “the nation’s first Muslim elected to the House,” comes from a district that includes young Muslims recruited to go to Somalia to participate in plots to kill Americans.The problem of radicalization, as we pointed out in another column about Ellison’s resistance to the probe, has been examined by the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The topic was addressed by Andrew Liepman, Deputy Director of Intelligence of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). “FBI Watching Somali Muslims In Minneapolis” was the headline over a CBS News story about the danger.Investigations into this continuing problem are clearly warranted, especially in relation to the Muslim problem in Minneapolis—Ellison’s district. But perhaps Ellison, the newly elected co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, fears being probed as well. After all, the radicalization of American Muslims is personified in his own transformation from radical leftist to advocate of Muslim causes.An Ellison speech on behalf of Olson, in which he called the terrorist a freedom fighter, has been eliminated from most websites, including one devoted to her legal defense, but a Minneapolis blogger who followed the case saved and posted it. One notices the lavish praise that Ellison bestows not only on Olson, also known as Katherine Soliah, but to Bernardine Dohrn, the former leader of the communist terrorist Weather Underground. Ellison also praised cop-killers Mumia Abu-Jamal, on death row in Pennsylvania, and Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur), who escaped the U.S. and is now living under the protection of the Castro dictatorship.In an article for The Weekly Standard, entitled, “Louis Farrakhan’s First Congressman,” Scott Johnson of PowerLine blog examined Ellison’s radical record, including his involvement with the Nation of Islam, and how the local paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, tried to keep this information from the voters.Now we know why Rep. Ellison wants to obstruct a probe into radical Islam. But why would The New York Times want to conceal this information?Hmmmm....As i said before you would think they have something to hide?Read the full story here.

• America needs a new national debate on the Constitution.It might seem unlikely that a lone law professor could spark a national discussion about the kind of government Americans want in the 21st century, but that's exactly what Georgetown Law School's Randy E. Barnett hopes to do with his modest proposal known as the Repeal Amendment. You can read Barnett's description of the plan and his response to critics of it like the New York Times here.Under the plan, measures approved by Washington could be repealed if both houses in two-thirds of the state legislatures vote to do so. Incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., is among the proposal's most significant supporters, which means it will receive serious attention during the 112th Congress convening this week. Whatever one's view of the propriety of amending the U.S. Constitution in the manner proposed by Barnett -- and for the record, we think the Repeal Amendment is a dandy way to restore the proper balance to our federal system -- the professor's idea could not be more appropriately timed.Comparing the words of the Constitution to the actions of our leaders in recent years will surely make clear the enduring wisdom of James Madison's warning that "there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." Talking seriously about this condition is the first step to remedying it, just as Madison and the rest of the Founders intended.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGoverment.Five Things We Should Worry about in 2011.The mid-term elections were a rejection of President Obama’s big-government agenda, but those results don’t necessarily mean better policy. We should not forget, after all, that Democrats rammed through Obamacare even after losing the special election to replace Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts (much to my dismay, my prediction from last January was correct).Similarly, GOP control of the House of Representatives does not automatically mean less government and more freedom. Heck, it doesn’t even guarantee that things won’t continue to move in the wrong direction. Here are five possible bad policies for 2011, most of which the Obama White House can implement by using executive power.Hmmmm.....Which all of them he will impliment by using executive power?Read the full story here.

• Darrell Issa reveals list of investigations.Rep. Darrell Issa is aiming to launch investigations on everything from WikiLeaks to Fannie Mae to corruption in Afghanistan in the first few months of what promises to be a high profile chairmanship of the top oversight committee in Congress. According to an outline of the committee’s hearing topics obtained by POLITICO, the House Oversight and Government Reform is also planning to investigate how regulation impacts job creation, the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the foreclosure crisis; recalls at the Food and Drug Administration and the failure of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to agree on the causes of the market meltdown.Hmmmm....."Barking dogs don't bite"?Lets meet again in a year and look back.Read the full "story" here.

• HT:Judicialwatch.New House Watchdog Lets Obama Slide On “Criminal Event”.During a public relations campaign touting upcoming probes of the Obama Administration, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said the president won’t be investigated for a bribery scandal because his party is guilty of the same crime. This astounding example of bipartisan corruption was actually delivered on national television over the weekend. California Republican Darrell Issa, the federal lawmaker responsible for scrutinizing presidential misconduct, did the Sunday talk-show rounds to promote a wasteful spending inquiry of “one of the most corrupt administrations,” and assure Americans that his committee will identify $200 billion in waste. In the process, Issa confirmed that he’ll let President Obama slide on one of his most serious offenses so far.Issa didn’t buy it and over the weekend confirmed it “was a criminal event under the law” yet he won’t pursue it, though he’s obligated as the head of the congressional watchdog that investigates all matters with federal policy implications. The reason is because Republicans have in the past committed the same crime, according to Issa, who openly acknowledged the Sestak scandal “is in fact an example of misconduct.”Hmmmm......"His bark is worse then his bite"comes to mind.Read the full story here.

• Drilling Is Stalled Even After Ban Is Lifted .More than two months after the Obama administration lifted its ban on drilling in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, oil companies are still waiting for approval to drill the first new oil well there. Experts now expect the wait to continue until the second half of 2011, and perhaps into 2012.The administration says it is simply trying to enforce new safety rules adopted in the wake of the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Environmental groups say the administration is right to take its time because the Gulf disaster exposed the risks of offshore drilling.But the delay is hurting big oil companies such as Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which have billions of dollars in investments tied up in Gulf projects that are on hold and are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a day for rigs that aren't allowed to drill. Smaller operators such as ATP Oil & Gas Corp., which have less flexibility to focus on projects in other regions, have been even harder hit.The impact of the delays goes beyond the oil industry. The Gulf coast economy has been hit hard by the slowdown in drilling activity, especially because the oil spill also hurt the region's fishing and tourism industries. The Obama administration in September estimated that 8,000 to 12,000 workers could lose their jobs temporarily as a result of the moratorium; some independent estimates have been much higher.The slowdown also has long-term implications for U.S. oil production. The Energy Information Administration, the research arm of the Department of Energy, last month predicted that domestic offshore oil production will fall 13% this year from 2010 due to the moratorium and the slow return to drilling; a year ago, the agency predicted offshore production would rise 6% in 2011. The difference: a loss of about 220,000 barrels of oil a day. Hmmmmm....Is the Obama administration restricting on purpose  the US oil companies?If so what's Obama's goal?Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.States Will Push Tough Immigration Laws In 2011.Fed up with the federal government’s perpetual failure to secure the southern border, state legislators across the country will begin the New Year with aggressive efforts to curb illegal immigration.Dozens of state lawmakers throughout the nation have already started drafting measures designed to contain the devastating impact of illegal immigration, according to several news reports. Local governments are so desperate for relief that the possibility of a costly legal challenge is not deterring them from their campaign to crack down on illegal immigration.Elected officials in at least six states have already confirmed plans to introduce bills similar to Arizona’s, which bans “sanctuary city” policies, makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. without proper documentation and requires police to check the immigration status of people stopped for questioning. Others have announced measures to limit access to public benefits for illegal aliens and to punish employers who hire them.Oklahoma may enact a measure that allows authorities to seize and keep the vehicle of anyone who harbors an illegal immigrant and Missouri, Mississippi and Nebraska are among states where legislators will offer bills similar to Arizona. In several other states, lawmakers plan to push for laws that require employers to verify the immigration status of their workers.Hmmmm.....The "Dream" is turning in to a "Nightmare" for illegals?Read the full story here.

• Egypt on high alert ahead of Coptic Christmas.Egypt was on high alert on Monday ahead of the Coptic Christmas holiday following a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people as investigators raced to identify those behind the attack.Police cancelled leave for top officers and were tightening surveillance of airports and ports to prevent suspects from leaving the country, as new checkpoints were set up across the nation. Security was also to be beefed up at churches for Christmas which Copts celebrate on Jan. 7.The clampdown comes amid fears of new protests by Copts following overnight clashes at Cairo's St. Mark's Cathedral - headquarters of Coptic leader Pope Shenouda III - during which 45 policemen were wounded.The protesters pelted with rocks a minister who had come to visit the pope and heckled other government officials while other demonstrators blocked off four main streets in Cairo before police dispersed them.Coptic Christmas will fall on Friday - the weekly Muslim day of prayer and rest - and Shenouda said he intended to say mass as usual on Christmas Eve. "Not praying would mean that terrorism has deprived us of celebrating the birth of Christ," the official Al-Ahram newspaper quoted him as saying.Hmmmm.....Can't wait to hear Obama talk again about Muslim victims.Read the full story here.More here.

• Ex-Lebanon Leader: Christians Target of Genocide.Extremist groups are waging a "genocide" against Christians in the Middle East, a former Lebanese president said Monday, after a New Year's suicide bombing of a church in Egypt killed 21 people. Amin Gemayel, a Christian who served a six-year term as president in the 1980s, cited the attack in Egypt and recent violence in Iraq as he urged leaders to give Christian communities a larger political role. "Massacres are taking place for no reason and without any justification against Christians. It is only because they are Christians," said Gemayel, who leads Lebanon's right-wing Christian Phalange party. "What is happening to Christians is a genocide," he said.Egyptian newspapers warned on Sunday that "civil war" could break out unless Christians and Muslims close ranks.Hmmmmm.....And who would profit from this may i ask?Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Russia: Church set on fire in Caucasus.Unidentified attackers set a church ablaze with a grenade in Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus late on Sunday, media reported, in the latest act of violence in a region where Moscow is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency.No one was hurt in the attack on the Russian Orthodox Church, state-run RIA news agency reported, which took place at 9.30 p.m. in the town of Ordzhonikidze, in the impoverished Ingushetia region which borders Chechnya.Though rare, vandalism of churches belonging to the small Christian communities in the North Caucasus has increased over the past year.Read the full story here.HT:IslamInEurope.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Ground Zero Mosque Update.From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:Mayor Bloomberg’s Office Spearheaded Drive for Ground Zero Mosque, New Docs ShowOn July 2010, Mayor Bloomberg outrageously told reporters it was “un-American” to investigate the individuals behind the Ground Zero Mosque. Now we know why he wanted no one to look into the controversy.Read the full story here.

• HT:StrategyPage.Did you know that Islam approves of men who dress in women's clothes? Sort of. Islamic scripture details several incidents where the prophet Mohammed protected men who preferred to dress as women. Thus it should be no surprise that, in Saudi Arabia, major clerics been conspicuous in not condemning the use of women’s clothing by terrorists. There have been several publicized (and many more unpublicized) incidents where terrorists were caught in drag.The Saudis regularly catch terrorist suspects using this kind of disguise in an attempt to get past police checkpoints. Most of these incidents end in an arrest, not gunfire.This type of disguise is frequently used by terrorists and criminals. While most Islamic clerics do not condemn such cross-dressing, the Koran comes right out and says this should not be done. Despite Mohammed's lenient attitudes in this area, he was not condoning such practices, but simply trying to help these men to mend their ways and dress right. Pro-terrorist clerics take the position that, while on a Mission From God, anything is permissible.Hmmmm......"The devil wears .....Burkas"?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.30 Reasons Why 2011 Is Going To Be Another Crappy Year For America’s Middle Class.Do you think that 2011 will be a good year for America's middle class? Well, you might not be so optimistic after you read the 30 statistics posted below. The truth is that 2011 is going to be another crappy year for America's middle class, and there is not a whole lot that you or I can do about it. Sadly, what we are facing as a nation is not just a short-term economic downturn. Rather, there are some very serious long-term economic trends that are absolutely ripping apart the U.S. middle class. For example, did you know that even though our population has been growing at a brisk pace we have lost about ten percent of our middle class jobs over the past decade? The vast majority of jobs that have been created have been low paying service jobs. We now have hordes of highly educated young people that are waiting tables and that are welcoming customers to Wal-Mart. Without good paying jobs there is no middle class, but today American corporations are actually creating more jobs overseas than they are inside the United States. This has helped pad the profits of the big corporate fatcats, but it has been devastating for middle class communities across the United States. Every time a factory gets closed down in America and gets set up in some other country instead, it means that the U.S. middle class is shrinking just a little bit more. The new "global economy" has been good for the bottom line of the largest U.S. corporations, it has been great for countries like China and India, but it is absolutely wiping out the U.S. middle class.If you still have a good paying middle class job you should be very thankful. The total number of those jobs is rapidly decreasing. Millions of those that have lost their jobs over the last several years have been forced to take lower paying jobs or even part-time jobs in an attempt to fill the void. Millions of others have not been able to find a job at all.Meanwhile, the price of everything is going up. Have you been to the supermarket lately? The price of food is going up substantially. Many analysts are already talking about $5 a gallon gasoline in 2010. Utility bills are going through the roof. Health care premiums are soaring. Many state and local governments are seriously hiking up taxes and fees.The following are 30 reasons why 2011 is going to be another crappy year for America's middle class....Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.The Muslim Elephant in the Room of Tolerance.Headlines in New York papers are blaring once again that Islamophobia is up. Up and rising. Statistics released by the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services reveals that Islamophobic bias attacks are up by a whopping 15 percent.15 percent that does sound like a lot. And by a lot, I mean that they've gone up from 8 incidents in 2008 to 11 in 2009. That's right, that whopping "15 percent" is actually an increase of 3 incidents. To put this into context, in 2008 there were 219 attacks targeting Jews. And in 2009, that number went up to 251. And here's some more context. That same report shows that Anti-Multi-Religious Groups attacks went up from 3 to 11 incidents in that same year. That's a much steeper spike which brings us to the same number as the so-called Islamophobic attacks. And yet you don't see the media trumpeting those numbers. But when there are more bias attacks by people who can't figure out which religion they hate more, than anti-Muslim attacks, it's safe to say that there is no Islamophobia crisis.News reports typically misrepresent Muslim attacks on synagogues as hostility to Israel spilling over into Anti-Semitism. But in reality it was always Anti-Semitism. Muslim hostility to Israel springs out of a hatred for Jews. An attitude that goes back to the days of the Koran and the founding of Islam. If this was really about Israel, then why attack synagogues? Particularly synagogues that are often non-political. Sometimes downright liberal. So too Muslim violence against Americans is supremacism spilling out. It's not really about the War in Iraq, or any war, those are only excuses for Muslim violence against people they consider to be subhuman. There's over a thousand years of history for this sort of thing. And it isn't going away any time soon.Targeting synagogues and churches is a clear example of a religious war. A religious war has political components, but it is religious first and political second. Muslim violence is part of a religious war. It's not a mistake or a misunderstanding. There's no confusion on the subject. It's a religious war guided by the scriptural verses and tenets of the Koran. Yet while we frantically collect scraps of Islamophobic crimes, we have never defined the sheer body of hate crimes by Muslims.And our leaders take to the air to urge us to be more tolerant. Because while tolerance may not stop bombs or bullets, it does stop you from thinking. And to our leaders who promote Tolerance Uber Alles, thinking is a thousand times more dangerous than bombs or bullets. Bombs and bullets kill, but thoughts bring change.Read the full story here.

• Turkey asked US to take astronaut in return for Boeing sale.Turkey’s aspirations are not limited to its region, or even the globe, according to a recently released document that says the Turkish president sought to cut a deal to put a Turkish astronaut into outer space.President Abdullah Gül asked his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to let a Turkish astronaut participate in a NASA space flight in return for buying Boeing jets, said a U.S. diplomatic cable obtained by the New York Times from the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.Commenting on how the meeting went, Jeffrey said in the cable that assisting Turkey’s aviation and aerospace agencies could be mutually beneficial in and of itself and merits further study. “We probably cannot put a Turkish astronaut in orbit, but there are programs we could undertake to strengthen Turkey’s capacity in this area that would meet our own goals for improved aviation safety in the region,” he wrote. “In any case, we must show some response to the minister’s vague requests if we want to maximize chances for the sale.”Hmmmm.....One might think they heard of "NASA's outreach to Muslims"?Read the full story here.

• Demise of Iraqi water park illustrates limitations, abuse of U.S. funding program.BAGHDAD - In the spring of 2008, Gen. David H. Petraeus decided he had spent enough time gazing from his helicopter at an empty and desolate lake on the banks of the Tigris River. He ordered the lake refilled and turned into a water park for all of Baghdad to enjoy.The military doctrine behind the project holds that cash can be as effective as bullets. Under Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq at the time, that principle gained unprecedented emphasis, and it has become a cornerstone of the war effort in Afghanistan, now under Petraeus's command. But today the Baghdad park is nearly waterless, more than two years after a U.S. military inauguration ceremony that included a marching band and water-scooter rides. Much of the compound is in ruins, swing sets have become piles of twisted steel, and the personal watercraft's engines have been gutted for spare parts. The troubled history of the venture speaks to the limitations and mishandling of a program that has provided U.S. military commanders with $5 billion for projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past six years. The program has given officers enormous flexibility to address urgent needs with few bureaucratic hassles. But in many cases, such as that of the Jadriyah Lake park, the investments under the plan, known as the Commander's Emergency Response Program, have created no more than a temporary illusion of progress. They have also shown a lack of U.S. foresight and highlighted the shortcomings of an Iraqi government the Americans were trying to boost.Hmmmm.....Another "Obamination"?Read the full story here.

• French police probe Copt churches threat.French police are investigating threats made against Coptic churches in France in the wake of a deadly attack on one in Egypt, a security source said Monday.The Paris anti-terrorism squad launched a probe on terrorism-related charges after a church leader filed a complaint, the source said.A priest at the Coptic church of Saint Mary and Saint Mark in the Paris suburb of Chatenay-Malabry told AFP on Monday that he had made a complaint to police.The priest, Girguis Lucas, said a worshipper at his church had seen "threats made on the Internet by Islamic mujahedeens who announced other attacks in Europe and in France in particular, and who mention our church.""These threats are not a fantasy," said Lucas, who estimated there are 250,000 Coptic Christians in France. "Here people are free. We cannot accept these threats."Germany's Coptic Christians have also received threats of attack by radical Muslims and asked for protection, a bishop said in comments published by a newspaper on Sunday."The Internet is full of threats of this kind against us. The police have alerted us several times against attacks by radical Muslims," Coptic Bishop Anba Damian said in a report on the Bild's online edition.Hmmmm......"The War on Christianity" First they came for the Copts?Read the full story here.

• HT:DailyCaller.Obama to increase engagement with Africa in 2011.President Barack Obama is quietly but strategically stepping up his outreach to Africa, using this year to increase his engagement with a continent that is personally meaningful to him and important to U.S. interests.Expectations in Africa spiked after the election of an American president with a Kenyan father. But midway through his term, Obama’s agenda for Africa has taken a backseat to other foreign policy goals, such as winding down the Iraq war, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and resetting relations with Russia.Obama aides believe those issues are now on more solid footing, allowing the president to expand his international agenda. He will focus in Africa on good governance and supporting nations with strong democratic institutions.The White House says Obama will travel to Africa again and the political calendar means the trip will almost certainly happen this year, before Obama has to spend more time on his re-election bid. No decision has been made on which countries Obama will visit, but deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said stops will reflect positive democratic models.Rhodes said the White House understands that U.S. involvement in African politics can be viewed as meddling. But he said Obama can speak to African leaders with a unique level of candor, reflecting his personal connection to Africa and that his father and other family members have been affected by the corruption that plagues many countries there.Hmmmmm......Another trip and as soon he's there his first words will be "Islam is a great religion"?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video : British Salafi "Abu Mounisa": We Should Attack David Cameron, Attack the Law and Order, and Make the Entire System Bow Down to Allah.Hmmmm....."We do not want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Iraqi Christians in Karbala Report Looted Churches, Desecrated Graves.Reporting from Karbala, Iraq, journalist Fadhel Rashad says that Iraqi Christians are not only subject to killing and deportation, but that their churches, cemeteries, and historical artifacts are being targeted for desecration and looting by organized criminal gangs. In the province of Karbala, 108 km (67.5 miles) south of Baghdad, officials confirmed that the legacy and history of Christians have become a target for destruction. Karbala, Fadhel wrote, is not just a city for Shi'a Muslims; it was inhabited by people of various sects and religions throughout history, and there is a great deal of archeological evidence to indicate that Christians had built churches and performed religious rites in the city.In one church, he wrote, Aramaic writing on the walls suggests that the church was in existence in the fifth century CE. Read the full story here.

• United Arab Emirates, Etihad offering Canadians visas at under $70.Travellers can bypass embassy route where visa charges have been increased substantially.Canadians travelling through Dubai can obtain a short-term visa of four days for $61.5 (Dh225.9), provided they are travelling with Emirates airline.Similarly, Canadian citizens, holding a valid residency in the UAE and wanting to bring their parents and immediate relatives on a visit, can do so by booking tickets on Emirates airlines.The visa charges are now $74.5 (Dh273.6) for a 30-day visa extendable by another 30 days.A 90-day visa only for parents or in-laws travelling by Emirates is available for for Dh1155.The facility is only available to passengers of Emirates airline irrespective of the nationality,” said an Emirates official at the Dnata office on Sheikh Zayed Road."Canadian travellers can now apply for and purchase UAE visas online via www.emirates.com. All ticketed Emirates customers, regardless of whether their ticket was purchased via a travel agent, online via www.emirates.com, or directly from an Emirates call centre or retail shop, may log-in to ‘Manage a Booking’ on www.emirates.com and access the application tool. Both 96 hour and 30 day visas are available and these will be issued via email within 3-4 working days," said a statement isued by Emirates airline.Meanwhile, Etihad airways is offering visas for Canadian citizens at $68 (Dh249.7) for 96 hours, $83 (Dh304.7) for 30 days and $365 (dh1340) for 90 days.Passengers can also apply for a 14 days entry permit for $103 (Dh378.2) . However the passenger has to enter UAE within ten days of the issuance of the visa.Effective from 02nd January 2011, “Visa on arrival” facility has been withdrawn for Canadian Nationals and are thereby requested to apply for visa in advance.Hmmmm........Why do i get the feeling that landing rights have something to do with this?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different ! What's next to die in Arkansas? Now 100,000 dead FISH are found washed up... after 1,000 blackbirds fell from the sky.Residents of Arkansas must be wondering what they are going to find next.More than 100,000 fish have been found washed up on the banks of the Arkansas River - as 1,000 blackbirds fell from the sky in the nearby town of Beebe.The bizarre incidents appear to be unrelated but many locals will be contemplating whether the piles of animal corpses provide an eerie omen for the New Year.Environmental experts believe disease killed the fish while the violent storms that swept that state over the weekend may account for the fallen birds.The dead drum fish were discovered by a tug boat operator on the river banks on a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, near Ozark. on Thursday.David Price, who spotted the fish from his parents' Roseville house, located on the banks of the river, pointed and said: 'Over from down here at the bottom of the rocks, out maybe 40 or 50 feet, there were just thousands of fish along the shorebanks all the way around the river here. 'This is kind of amazing because the the fish were about a pound and a half a piece.'Travis Harmon of the Department of Environmental Quality said: 'Barges reported passing up river and churning up dead fish from the bottom of the river. 'A single species is killed, and we don't know the cause. If it was toxic, other species would be affected.'Hmmmm.....Flying....Swimming ....What's next in line?Note to secretary cancel that Arkansas trip !Read the full story here.More here with video.