Video - The Vetting: Obama, Radical Islam and the Soros Connection.

HT: Shoebat.

Chomsky 1997: The new party is a "Social Democratic Version of State Capitalism".

Chomsky 1997: The new party is a "Social Democratic Version of State Capitalism".(Breibart).By John Sexton.An interview with Noam Chomsky from 1997 has the far-left professor describing his involvement with the New Party at about the time that Barack Obama Obama joined and sought an endorsement from the group. Contrary to claims made by founder Joel Rogers (some of which have been shown to be false), Chomsky says the New Party is not just the left wing of the Democratic Party, but a socialist alternative. en Smith has already admitted that part of his 2008 story was wrong. And I think we’ve convincingly established that Joel Rogers word shouldn’t be trusted on this issue for the rest of it. Fortunately, we don’t have to take Rogers’ word on the nature of the New Party. In 1997, Noam Chomsky explained what the New Party was and what it’s goals were: Brief comments [on the New Party], because I’m in a rush, and don’t want to delay.

1. Am I a member? Yes.
2. Do I think it’s a constructive idea? Yes.
3. Is it just a “reform movement within capitalism”? Yes.
4. Am I against capitalism? Yes.
5. Is there a contradiction between 3 and 4? No.
6. How is the New Party different from liberalism? Hard to answer without some clarification. If by “liberalism” is meant the Democratic Party, it is plainly different from liberalism. If what is meant is some kind of social democratic version of state capitalism, presumably not — at least now, though the project is one that has a possible evolution in mind, and in prospect, I think. First of all, you can see that in Chomsky’s view, the New Party is not part of DNC liberalism. This completely contradicts the thrust of Joel Rogers statement and Media Matter’s post relying on it to make the same point. But after saying what the New Party isn’t, Chomsky goes on to say what it is. It is liberalism in the sense of a “social democratic version of state capitalism.” Let’s unpack this. First off, “state capitalism” has a wide range of possible meanings, the majority of which are tied up in Marxism and socialism. However, we should note that Chomsky himself defined state capitalism in a recent interview as something not very different than what we have already in America, i.e. a capitalist system in which the government plays a major role.
But Chomsky didn’t identify the New Party as state capitalism, he identified it as “some kind of social democratic version of state capitalism.” That narrows things down considerably because “social democracy” is plainly a species of socialism. 
As Wikipedia notes, the origin of the term is in a specific critique of Marxism: The social democrats, who had created the largest socialist organizations of that era, did not reject Marxism (and in fact claimed to uphold it), but a number of key individuals wanted to reform Marx’s arguments in order to promulgate a less hostile criticism of capitalism.
They argued that socialism should be achieved through evolution of society rather than revolution. So a "social democratic version of state capitalism" amounts to a reformist socialism (as opposed to revolutionary Marxism) or we might more simply say euro-socialism. That's where Chomsky places the New Party on the spectrum circa 1997 when Barack Obama was a dues paying member. Coincidentally, that's right where some have suggested Barack Obama fits on the political spectrum to this day.Read the full story here.

VIDEO: Gibson Guitar CEO on Obama: ‘He Lied’

Allen West: “Marxist” Obama Intentionally Destroying Economy

Allen West: “It’s intentional because that’s who this President is. The President is a Marxist who believes in the separation of classes.”

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan today 5.2  ! More info here.

• Volcanic Activity : Mount Hekla -Situation Update No. 6  - Source.

• Japan - Nuclear disaster - Situation Update No. 141 - .Source .

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

• Obama: Job Losses Prove Stimulus Worked.(CNSNews).By Fred Lucas. Three days after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the national unemployment rate had ticked up from 9.1 percent in May to 9.2 percent in June, President Barack Obama said that the loss of jobs in the public sector is “evidence” that his $830-billion economic stimulus legislation worked.“Now, without relitigating the past, I’m absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the Recovery Act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs,” Obama said at his Monday press conference.“And part of the evidence of that is as you see what happens with the Recovery Act phasing out,” he said. “When I came into office and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the Recovery Act was giving states help so they wouldn’t have to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. As we’ve seen that federal support for states diminish, you’ve seen the biggest job losses in the public sector--teachers, police officers, firefighters losing their jobs.”President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17 2009. His top economic adviser, Christina Romer, had reported that the act would prevent the national unemployment rate from reaching 8 percent. Initially, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the act would cost $787 billion. CBO now estimates it cost $830 billion.Hmmmm......You are now entering...the Obama Zone!There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man.There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture!Read the full story here.

• Video - Project Gun Runner (Fast and Furious) was launched under the orders of President Barack Obama with the knowledge of Attorney General Eric Holder. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced the Obama Administration's new and aggressive 'comprehensive plan' on March, 24, 2009. The plan was aimed at disrupting gun trafficking between the United States and Mexico.Here.

• Obama’s Watergate.(NorthEastintelligence).By Douglas J. Hagmann.

11 July 2011: Just after 10:00 a.m. on March 23rd, 1973, John Dean, White House counsel to former President Richard M. Nixon advised Nixon of a “a cancer within-close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily.” Within the same breath, he advised Nixon that “people are going to start perjuring themselves very quickly that have not had to perjure themselves to protect other people and the like.” That cancer became known as “Watergate,” and eventually led to Nixon’s resignation.

Nearly forty years later, another “scandal,” exponentially larger than Watergate, has the potential to bring down the occupant of the oval office along with other high ranking officials. While no one was murdered as a result of Watergate, two law enforcement officers are dead because of the current “scandal” that is leading closer and closer to the highest levels of the Obama administration, including the Department of Justice and the U.S. State Department.Unfortunately, the arguably illegal and certainly ill advised methodology implemented by the BATFE is not limited to the Project Gunrunner offshoot of “Operation Fast and Furious.” Other similar operations, each with the apparent knowledge and approval of the U.S. Justice Department, began to spring up elsewhere. There was also Operation Castaway in Tampa, which mirrored the methods of lack of interdiction as Operation Fast and Furious.According to several agents who are now ready to offer testimony, each operation where weapons were allowed to “walk” into Mexico from the U.S. was approved at the highest levels of the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State. Some believe that operations of this magnitude could not have been possible without the knowledge and approval of Obama himself.Almost 40 years after the biggest scandal to rock the nation, it is again time to ask the question to Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama under oath and in front of congress: What did you know and when did you know it?Read the full story here.

• Guess What?: It Turns Out Obama Gave ACORN $541K This Year, Not $80K.(BigGovernment).Remember that story from a few days ago, the one about the Obama administration giving ACORN a $79,819 grant in March despite a federal law that prohibits the government from giving money to ACORN?It turns out that sum is a lowball figure.I discovered Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave ACORN another $461,086 in January. The funds were earmarked for ACORN Housing Corp. in January under HUD’s Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP), according to the government website USAspending.gov.In order words, the Obama administration gave fraud-ridden ACORN nearly a half million dollars to be used on housing development.The administration isn’t even trying to conceal the fact that it gave this money to ACORN.USAspending.gov identifies the recipient as “ACORN Housing Corporation Inc.” even though that nonprofit entity filed papers last year legally changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA).The website also provides the address of record for ACORN Housing as 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana. That’s the renovated funeral home that until recently served as headquarters for ACORN’s 370-plus shady affiliates.This means the Obama administration has given at least $540,905 in taxpayer money to ACORN this calendar year alone.The money was given to ACORN apparently in defiance of Public Law 111-117 which spells out in pretty clear terms that ACORN shouldn’t be getting any government funding.This is just the tip of the iceberg. More grants to ACORN are bound to surface.As I warn in my new book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN is still with us, doing its best to destroy American capitalism and democracy.The group is gearing up right now to make sure President Obama, who worked for ACORN as an employee and as its lawyer, gets reelected in 2012. Its state chapters have adopted assumed names and remain active. Project Vote, ACORN’s vote manufacturing factory, continues to operate unmolested in ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office. ACORN International (a.k.a. Community Organizations International) has spreadwide worldwide and is now operating in many countries, including Canada, Peru, Kenya, Dominican Republic, and India.Hmmmm........Thugocracy in motion.Read the full story here.

• Canada To Boycott UN Conference On Disarmament Over Appointment Of North Korea To Chair.(NationalPost).OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is set to announce Monday that Canada is boycotting the United Nations Conference on Disarmament over North Korea’s involvement, a senior government source told Postmedia News.So Se Pyong, North Korea’s ambassador, was last week named chair of the Geneva-based group dedicated to promoting global nuclear disarmament.“North Korea is simply not a credible chair of this UN body as its leaders are working in the exact opposite direction,” the source told Postmedia News on Sunday evening.“Our government feels this undermines not only the Conference on Disarmament, but the UN itself. And Canada will not be party to that . . . Our government received a strong mandate to advance Canada’s values — freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law — on the world stage.”During North Korea’s term as chair, Canada will not “engage” in the conference, the source said Baird will announce Monday.Baird was among the many critics who slammed North Korea’s appointment last week, urging the country to pass the opportunity on to a country with policies more in line with the conference’s stated mission.“The fact that it gets a turn chairing a United Nations committee focused on disarmament is unacceptable,” Baird said in a statement last week.“We call on North Korea to pass the chair on to a credible country that will advance the disarmament agenda within the UN.”The UN accused North Korea of sharing nuclear information with Iran as recently as May.The country pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and went on to conduct its first nuclear bomb test three years later. North Korea is believed to have stockpiled up to eight nuclear warheads.Baird’s Monday announcement comes in contrast to the warm words Canada’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva had for his North Korean counterpart after his appointment last week.Delivering his farewell address to the disarmament conference on Tuesday, Marius Grinius not only followed protocol by “welcoming” his North Korean counterpart’s appointment, but spoke fondly of his recollections of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.“It is appropriate that my last statement in open plenary take place under your presidency,” Grinius said.Hmmmm......Thank God for Canada.Read the full story here.

• House Passes Bipartisan Bill Threatening US Sanctions Against Palestinians If They Attempt UN Statehood Bid.(Algemeiner).With talk of a Palestinian attempt to bring its case for statehood directly to the United Nations, questions about such an attempt have been raised in the halls of governments around the globe. The PA’s statement that it would unilaterally declare itself an independent state has challenged international diplomacy.Key to the success or failure of this effort is the response of the United States. Any question about that position should be clearly answered by the directives contained in the recently passed H.R.268. Introduced May 13, 2011, the bill states that U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be restricted “should (PA) leaders continue to evade direct negotiations with Israel and seek statehood at the United Nations.” The House resolution calls on the President to “consider suspending American financial assistance to the PA as a result of its reconciliation with Hamas.Introduced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the Bill had 320 cosponsors upon its arrival to the floor. The final vote was close to unanimous: H. Res. 268 passed by an extraordinary vote of 407-6. The legislation now goes to Committee” where it will be integrated with the parallel Senate (S. Res. 185), introduced by Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME), Robert Casey (D-PA), John Thune (R-SD), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Jim Risch (R-ID), and passed by unanimous consent.The passage of these paired bills indicates a strong congressional affirmation of American support for direct negotiations aimed at developing a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Rep. Eric Cantor, Republican Majority Leader, called “upon the Palestinian Authority to return to the negotiating table and join the Israelis in direct discussions to end this conflict,: and said “Furthermore, we call on the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to renounce the violence Hamas condones and teaches to its followers.”Hmmmmmm.........Obama might not like this.Read the full story here.

• Feds ask to cut sentence of convicted al Qaeda financier and Hamas supporter,who was convicted of financing a plot to kill the king of Saudi Arabia.(CreepingSharia).ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to cut the 23-year prison term being served by an American Muslim activist who admitted participating in a Libyan plot to assassinate King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.Abdurahman Alamoudi, 59, of Falls Church has been in jail since his arrest in September 2003. He pleaded guilty to illegal business dealings with Libya and admitted receiving more than $500,000 in cash from Libyan officials as part of an assassination plot. According to court records, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi wanted then-Prince Abdullah killed after a 2003 Arab League summit where Gadhafi felt he had been insulted. At one point in the summit, Abdullah wagged a finger at Gadhafi and said, “Your lies precede you, while the grave is ahead of you.”The documents explaining why prosecutors want to cut Alamoudi’s sentence are under seal, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria declined to say how many years they are seeking to cut from Alamoudi’s term.But such reductions are allowed only when a defendant provides substantial assistance to the government. It is rare for the government to seek a reduction so many years after the initial sentence was imposed.It is not entirely clear whether Alamoudi’s cooperation is related to the current upheaval in Libya, but it is clear that Alamoudi had extensive connections with Libyan officials in the years before his arrest. Alamoudi made at least 10 trips to Libya between 2000 and 2003, according to court records, frequently meeting with government officials there.Alamoudi was a well-known activist in the U.S. Muslim community. He founded the American Muslim Council and visited the White House during the Clinton administration. He also participated in a group discussion with George W. Bush in 2000, during Bush’s presidential campaign, in a meeting of Muslim activists in Texas.Alamoudi’s lawyer, Henry St. John Fitzgerald, did not respond a request for comment Friday.The Saudi embassy also did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.The government’s request for a reduced sentence must be approved by U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton. A hearing on the issue had been scheduled for Friday but Hilton canceled the hearing and said he will issue a written ruling based on the papers that have been submitted to him.It is not unusual for the government to request sentence reductions of 35 to 50 percent, or even more, as a reward for substantial assistance.Alamoudi was indicted not only for his illegal dealings with Libya, but also for tax evasion and immigration fraud. He ultimately pled guilty to, and was convicted of, being a senior al Qaeda financier who had funneled at least $1 million into the coffers of that terrorist organization. He also acknowledged that he had pocketed almost $1 million for himself in the process. In October 2004, Alamoudi was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison.Did terrorist-friendly Eric Holder or Obama request this? Or was it Hillary Clinton? Is it related to Libya or Obama’s new and official outreach to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood?Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• Obama's response to attack on US embassy in Damascus: He's going to file a lawsuit.(IsraelMatzav).In an earlier post, Carl reported on attacks on the American and French embassies in Damascus by pro-Assad 'demonstrators.' Carl has now have some updates on that post. The US State Department on Monday formally condemned Syria for failing to protect the US embassy complex in Damascus from a violent assault it said was encouraged by a pro-government Syrian television station."A television station that is heavily influenced by Syrian authorities encouraged this violent demonstration," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement."So what does the world's only superpower do? Send in the Marines to get the ambassador out and protect the embassy grounds? Not in the age of Obama. In the age of Obama the US threatens... to file a lawsuit."We strongly condemn the Syrian government's refusal to protect our embassy, and demand compensation for damages. We call on the Syrian government to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens as well," the statement said."We are calling in the Syrian charge [d'affaires] to complain," said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity."We feel they failed [in their responsibility to protect US diplomats]. We are going to condemn their slow response."Spoke on condition of anonymity? The Secretary of State hasn't got the junk to stand up there and say we're withdrawing our ambassador and instead a low-level functionary speaking on condition of anonymity is trotted out to threaten to summon the Syrian Charge d'Affaires?!?What happened to Teddy Roosevelt's 'speak softly and carry a big stick'? It looks like it's been replaced by Jimmy Carter's helicopter crash in the desert. Is this how Reagan would have responded? Is this how Bush II would have responded? Of course not. We would have seen Shock and Awe on all of Assad's palaces. Instead, Obama is going to file a lawsuit demanding compensation. What could go wrong?Hmmmm......And they want to compare him to Reagan?......hahahaha.Read the full story here.More here.

• Remember Saterday's story? "Cleveland airport suddenly very,very popular.Unruly passenger caused a flight from Chicago to Germany to be diverted to Cleveland:, well it turns out the 'unruly passenger' is an Arab: Saleh Alramakh of Akron.CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - The unruly passenger that caused a plane to have an emergency landing at Hopkins is expected to appear in municipal court Tuesday.The incident happened Friday on a United Flight from Chicago to Frankfort.The FBI has charged the man, identified as 21-year-old Saleh Alramakh of Akron, with seven counts of aggravated menacing -- which is a misdemeanor. So far, no Federal charges. He remains in jail.On Friday, a flight attendant pushing the beverage cart says Alramakh started yelling and swearing. He also made several trips to the bathroom, and stayed inside for long periods of time. Flight attendants considered taping the bathroom door shut so he couldn't go back inside.In the end, passengers tied Alramakh up and taped his mouth with duct tape. "Kind of just ran up to me and grabbed me, literally, by the shirt and said you need to come with me now," said passenger Joseph Shulfer. "And I ran back there to see that there were basically three guys wrestling on top of the guy who I later learned had been inside the restroom for, like, 20, 30 minutes and he wouldn't come out. So we duct taped his mouth shut. He was able to get that off himself and almost choked by swallowing the duct tape.Hmmmm.........ATA's Castelveter said. "If any passenger is interfering with the duties of the flight crew member, it's a federal crime."Why were there NO federal charges laid?Read and see (Video) the full story here.HT: BNI.

• Government of Sociopaths.(SultanKnish).It's politically risky to raise taxes. It's politically risky to cut spending. The one thing that isn't politically risky to do is go deeper and deeper into debt. Whatever agreement evolves or devolves out of congress it will likely allow Republicans to satisfy their base by cutting spending a little, allow Democrats to satisfy their base by raising taxes a little, and kick the ball down the road by going deeper into debt.The real subject of this is not Medicare or the Stimulus plan-- it's long term thinking.We did not suddenly go to sleep and then wake up the next day with a political class that acted this way. Or with CEO's that act this way. The erosion of long term thinking is progressive. It begins slowly before becoming pervasive.Lack of long term thinking manifests itself as a lack of responsibility. The difference is not in intelligence. Very intelligent people show no grasp of responsibility and no understanding of consequences. 'Stupid' behavior by intelligent people is often a symptom of that. Sociopaths, who often have very high IQ's, yet a poor understanding of consequences, are at the farthest limit of that category.What explains this behavior? Socialization and empathy. Sociopaths are often quite bright, but it is the company of other people that makes us fully human. Sociopaths are too detached from other people to be able to rationally calculate long term consequences in a social context. They understand rules in an abstract fashion, but they don't internalize them. Because rules are socially internalized and given priority as higher truths over personal feelings only by an ego that has learned it is not master of the universe. A sociopath may be a physics professor, but if an impulse pushes him into a situation where the laws of physics are in his way, then they will be less valid to him than that impulse. The same goes for mathematics. The sociopath is irresponsibility taken to the extreme, but there is a long gradation on the way there.What does a country run by sociopaths look like? It looks a lot like our own actually. Lots of short term fixes. Lots of 'keep this thing running' pragmatism. Short attention spans. No sense of responsibility. And no thought for the future.Read the full story here.

• Checklist: America Meets 90% of Karl Marx’s Demands.(NewZeal).By: Kirk Elliott, Ph.D.Article by Kirk Elliott, Ph.D., originally appearing at WorldNetDaily.

I recently re-read “The Communist Manifesto” written by Karl Marx in 1848.

What I read was a bit shocking. Marx had “10 planks” that this evil manifesto was based upon and he advocated the use of any means to accomplish these socialist goals including violent revolutions. The planks are listed bellow, followed by my comment on how it applies to America today:   10 planks of communism by Karl Marx

1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.

Author’s Comment: This is where eminent domain comes into the picture, and even property taxes. Once you own your property outright by paying off your mortgage, you still don’t technically own it because the government could jack up property taxes so high that it makes it unaffordable to remain.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

Comment: Marginal tax rates increasing as income goes up IS a graduated income tax. This is in opposition to a more fair tax like a national sales tax or flat tax where a person is not taxed at a higher rate the more income they earn.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

Comment: In the U.S. these can be seen as estate taxes (i.e. the death tax).

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

Comment: This is nothing more than government seizures, IRS property confiscation and the 1997 Crime/Terrorist bill which calls for the imprisonment of terrorists (not such a bad thing), but also for those who speak out against the government. Your life is the most valuable property you have, but the government has the right to take it away because of things that you may say. Consider Senate Bill 3081, the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

The following is actual text from the bill that explains what a belligerent may be and the reasons they can be detained without due process: “(A) The potential threat the individual poses for an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the United States or upon United States citizens or United States civilian facilities abroad at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States… (B) The potential threat the individual poses to United States military personnel or United States military facilities at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States…. (C) The potential intelligence value of the individual… (D) Membership in al-Qaida or in a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaida… (E) Such other matters as the president considers appropriate. . .”This is where there is a major, major problem. This is very subjective and could include a multitude of things – even just disagreements on policy!

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

Comment: This is an easy one. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the Federal Reserve, and now the government owns many of the country’s largest banks via bailout money. Government control of private industry is just a polite way of saying fascism!!!!

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.

Comment: The FAA, FCC, and the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) are all government entities that propose to regulate how we travel and what is said. There is nothing particularly disturbing about this now, but what about in the future? Could the government shut down communication or transportation for various people groups? Yes, they could pretty much do whatever they want. There is no competition here. There is no free market private entity as a choice. I thought the government made monopolies illegal? Oh, that’s right they did, except for where they have a monopoly.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

Comment: Recent events have made this one very disturbing. On June 9, 2011 President Obama signed into law Executive Order 13575 in which the intent is to seize greater power over “food, fiber, and energy.” A great article explaining this was written by Raven Clabough and posted on the New American website here.

8. Equal obligation of all to work and the establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

Comment: Because of high inflation and higher taxes our society has been thrust into a dual income family at the minimum. In many instances both husband and wife have multiple jobs.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.

Comment: I am not qualified to answer this question, as I don’t really know of any combination of the two industries. In fact it seems what we have in this country is opposite as there seems to be a corralling of people into the urban areas. However, Executive Order 13575 mentioned in Plank 7 may be related to this.

10. Free education for all children in government schools and abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form – combination of education with industrial production, etc.

Comment: The public school system and the department of education indoctrinate our kids into the agenda that the federal government wants for our children. Both the national department of education and the state level departments of education adhere to an outcome based education model where excellence in not rewarded and lackluster performance is not dealt with in the proper manner so kids don’t get their feelings hurt. The whole standard of “equalization” is drilled into our kids’ heads through the public school system so by the time they graduate they are “socialized.”

Analyzing where America is now

In the United States we fulfill Marx’s 10 planks of a complete communist state on 1-8, and 10, kind of on 7 and maybe on 9. So, according to Marx’s vision of communism we are about 90 percent there. Good grief! It’s time to wake up and take action now before it is too late and the freedoms that we have come to expect in our beloved country are stripped away from us.Read the full story here.

• Poverty rate in Washington DC ,Greece and Spain worse than in Arab Judea and Samaria.(Israelmatzav).With the 'Palestinians' looking for more handouts, this ought to give American and European lawmakers some pause: The Arab-occupied areas of Judea and Samaria, which are under the control of the 'Palestinian Authority,' have a lower poverty rate than Washington DC.But do “Palestinian People” really need billions more in aid? The World Bank report for 2011 found that only 16 percent of the West Bank under PA control was living below the poverty line.How serious is a 16 percent poverty rate? It’s better than the poverty rate in Washington D.C. which hit 18.9 percent. That means that politicians in Washington D.C. are diverting money that could have been used to help needy Americans a few miles from their offices, to help the comparatively better off terrorist populations in the West Bank. Contrary to the barrage of news stories on the suffering of the Palestinians, the poverty rate for America and the West Bank aren’t that far apart. The California poverty rate is at 15.3 percent. And the national average at 14.3 percent is hardly that much better.If a 16 percent poverty rate requires billions in international aid– then where is Washington D.C.’s international aid. Why isn’t there a UN aid facility distributing food near Foggy Bottom? And if being a failed state with no budget discipline requires international aid, then where are California’s aid pledges?Many of the PA’s chief donors have poverty rates in the same range. Some are even worse off. Greece’s poverty rate is at 20 percent. Spain’s is nearly as high. And 17 percent of the EU population is considered to be at risk of poverty. Even Germany’s strong economy still has a 15.5 percent poverty rate. A few percentage points away from the West Bank.But most damningly Israel’s poverty rate is nearly 24 percent. Worse than in the Palestinian Authority. About half those numbers come from its Arab population, which unlike their cousins in the Palestinian Authority, aren’t the beneficiaries of vast amounts of aid.What’s the West Bank’s economic secret? 16.9 percent unemployment, a better number than among many of its international donors, funded by those same donor countries.Read the full story here.

• Lebanon 'ready to defend maritime borders'.(Ynet).Beirut's anger with Israel's decision to ratify maritime borders growing as President Suleiman says will defend Lebanon's borders using every 'available and legal' measure.The controversy over Israel's decision to ratify its maritime borders is growing: Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Monday that his country is ready and has the right to defend its borders and resources using every "available and legal" means.On Sunday, Israel ratified an agreement with Cyprus regarding its naval territory. The borders delineate an area thought to contain natural gas as well as oil reserves.Lebanon rejected the borders set by the two countries, claiming they infringe on its naval territory; and Beirut's Minister of Energy Gebran Bassil warned that Lebanon will not give up its maritime rights. Lebanon called Israel's proposed maritime boundary between the two nations "an act of aggression," adding it will take the matter up with the UN.Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour addressed the conflict Monday, saying that his country relies on the UN to prove its legal rights.In an interview with al Jazeera Television, Mansour said that "Israel claims that it defined its maritime border based on international law, but it acted in an invalid manner that is an affront to Lebanon." Read the full story here.

• Erdogan - Ahmadinejad and Assad are "family members"?(Memri) Iranian, Turkish Foreign Ministers: Solve Syrian Crisis Without Foreign Intervention. In a press conference in Tehran, the foreign ministers of Iran and Turkey called to solve the Syrian crisis via trilateral cooperation with their two countries, and without Western intervention.Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran, Syria, and Turkey are family members that help each other in times of crisis; Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Syria is a sister-country and warned that the Syrian unrest could spill over into other countries if the legitimate demands of the Syrian people are not met.The London daily Al-Hayat reported that the Turkish foreign minister asked Iran to pressure Assad to enact reforms, while his Iranian counterpart expressed concern that Turkey is leaning towards the Western position on the Syrian matter.Hmmmm.....No wonder Obama calls Erdogan weekly.Read the full story here.

• "The Bosnian Vampire".Bosnian Muslim woman made Serbs drink blood of Serbs she killed.(Serbianna).Azra Basic has been described as a “Croatian woman” and a “Lovely’ Ky. woman” but she slayed Serbs, collected their blood and made other Serb prisoners she was yet to kill drink the blood she so carefully collected.American media considers Bosnian Muslims “heroes” and the American President Clinton bombed Serbs so Bosnian Muslims like Basic can drain Serbian blood and make other Serbs that America bombed drink it.Of course, the accusations against her are just the tip of the iceberg of Bosnian Muslim atrocities but she's beeing discribed as the typical 'victim':“She’s a pretty nice person. If I was standing here right now and … she drove by, she would throw her hand up and if the window was down, she would speak and say ‘hi’ by my name.”“She’s a lovely person, very diligent in her work,” another said. Azra Basic was born Azra Alesevic on June 22, 1959 in Rijeka, Croatia, so that is why this Bosnian Muslim is called a “Croatian”.She married another Muslim, Nedzad Basic in 1994 in Bosnia. She holds Croatian and US citizenship.She lived in Rochester, NY but moved in 2006 elsewhere.US accuses Serbs of “genociding” Bosnian Muslims like Basic and are persecuting the Serbian General Ratko Mladic for Srebrenica although many of the Bosnian Muslims that are listed as massacred in Srebrenica are living in the US. Investigators have found that numerous Bosnian Muslim names that are listed at the Srebrenica memorial as allegedly murdered by Mladic’s forces are actually living in the US, especially in Minnesota.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 29. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Syria Live Blog - April 29. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Live feed and highlights of the Royal wedding from :

"The Royal Channel"  here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.9 and 5.0! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 100.Source : Here .

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

• Crowds Bust Barricades At Pastor's Jones Speech In Dearborn,Counter-Protesters Rush Michigan Ave. Friday During Speech.(ClickonDetroid).DEARBORN, Mich. -- Florida pastor Terry Jones was outside Dearborn's City Hall for his planned 5 p.m. protest, drawing a crowd of hundreds."We're glad to be back," he told reporters. "We're going to talk about a number of issues. Of course Sharia, jihad, what happened last week and we're even going to be talking about president Obama's reelection."Counter-protesters lined Michigan Avenue across the street from City Hall. About an hour into the protest, the crowds broke the barricades and a police line. They rushed the street but were quickly contained by riot police crews.The crowd was throwing water bottles and shoes at supporters of Jones screaming "Fuck you,fuck you" even  'persons' shouting 'kill the motherfucker'.Police worked to push the crowd back across Michigan Avenue.Hmmmm.....Dearborn Muslim protesters waving.....The Lebanon Flag???Read and see the full story here. Video report here

• 'Change' via executive power grab.(NYPost).Having lost the House of Representa tives in the last election, the Obama administration is now imposing "fun damental change" via executive order, regulatory fiat and political pressure. Talk about the unitary executive:

* The Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that Shell Oil Co. may not drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Circle off Alaska, where an estimated 27 billion barrels of domestic oil are waiting to be extracted. Never mind that Shell's already spent nearly $4 billion on the project, including $2.2 billion to Uncle Sam for the leases. No, the EPA's appeals board said the oil giant had failed to include possible greenhouse-gas emissions from an icebreaking vessel in its calculations and that the project might somehow threaten the health of the 245 people in an Eskimo village 70 miles away.So, thanks to a Nixon-era regulatory agency, our dependence on foreign oil will rise and gas prices will continue their relentless climb.

* Continuing President Obama's war on domestic oil production, the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the three-inch Dunes Sagebrush Lizard for inclusion on the endangered species list -- a decision that could spell doom for two of Texas's top oil-producing counties. And right behind the lizard is the Lesser Prairie Chicken.

* In a move to end-run the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United ruling, which held that corporations have the same free-speech rights as individuals, the White House is drafting an executive order that would require private companies with federal business to disclose contributions to independent political groups. (They already have to report candidate donations.) So it's an attempt to accomplish by ukase what Democrats failed to do last year when Congress rejected the Disclose Act. And, naturally, public-employee unions would be exempt.

* Then there's this week's flap over the Defense of Marriage Act, which the administration says it will no longer defend. Under pressure from the gay lobby, the law firm hired by the House Republicans to step into the breach announced it was pulling out. So, our elected representatives in Congress may pass a law and a president may sign it, but if Obama decides -- absent any Supreme Court ruling -- that the law is unconstitutional, out it goes. It all boils down to this: Are we to be a constitutional government with three distinct branches, or a single executive entity that makes policy, carries it out and decides for itself whether it's constitutional or not? That's what the next presidential race is really all about.Hmmmm....As i said many times before "Dictatorship or Democracy" the 'tyrant' is here and now.Read the full story here.

• Obama’s Big Labor Paybacks Coming Under Increasing Scrutiny.(BigGovernment).The National Right To Work Committee and many other liberty based organizations, BigGovernment.com, legislators like Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Jim DeMint; and an increasing number of news organizations and commentators are exposing and even demanding that Obama Administration pullback its usurpation of state and individual rights.One example of fighting back: Employees at the Boeing plant in South Carolina who are or will be injured by the Obama Administration’s recent actions have even been offered free legal help by the National Right To Work Legal Defense Fund to fight the NLRB actions. NRTW President Mark Mix, “All current or prospective Boeing employees who could lose their jobs may request free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys by calling 1-800-336-3600.”In his “‘Change’ via executive power grab” NY Post article, Michael A. Walsh gives a quick rundown of Obama’s overreach:Having lost the House of Representatives in the last election, the Obama administration is now imposing “fundamental change” via executive order, regulatory fiat and political pressure. Talk about the unitary executive.The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against a private employer, Boeing, for having the capitalist gall to want to move 30 percent of its Dreamliner jumbo-jet production from highly unionized Washington State to right-to-work South Carolina.The NLRB accuses Boeing of union-busting in retaliation for the four strikes the union has staged since 1989. Boeing, not unreasonably, says it wants to make its assembly lines less vulnerable to union-led work stoppages.So a federal agency formed by executive order in 1934 asserts the right to tell private companies where they may or may not do business.The NLRB is also suing Arizona and South Dakota over voter-approved state constitutional amendments that would require workers to vote in secret-ballot elections, instead of just signing cards saying they wished to unionize. The “card check” bill couldn’t make it into law even in the old, hyper-Democratic Congress.So a bunch of bureaucrats nonetheless mean to require card-check against the wishes of the voters in two sovereign states — and have reserved the right to sue South Carolina and Utah for the same “offense,” too.Will Congress begin investigations and force NLRB Board members to justify their positions in hearings when it returns next week? (For Walsh’s complete list of power grabs click here.)Hmmmm.....Dictatorship or Democracy?Read the full story here.

• Black Chamber of Commerce CEO Blasts “Marxist,” “Fanatical,” “Brownshirt” Obama.(WZ).Today on The Laura Ingraham Show, Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, blasted President Obama’s anti-business administration in an explosive interview. Alford, a 2008 Obama supporter, labeled the administration “Marxist” and “fanatical.” “They might as well put on the brown shirts and swastikas,” he said.He also admitted he voted for Obama simply because he was black.Hmmmm.....On the other hand they might wear the black uniforms with the 'totenkopf' insigne?Read the full story here.

• French Air traffic Controller who was stabbed to death at Mulhouse airport tower allegedly killed by his Muslim ‘friend’ and colleague.(Lefigaro).The suspect is a friend of the victim.The victim was stabbed 8 or up to 10 times,three of them deadly two piercing the lungs and one cutting the coronary vein.On Friday, police issued a search warrant against Karim Ouali Aderfi, 34 years for stabbing Jean Meyer , 34, also on Thursday while the latter would take his place in the control tower.The man, unknown to police, worked for 18 months EuroAirport. On sick leave for three months Karim – or “Aderfi” as he calls himself – Ouali was seen coming out of the control tower in a rush , tower which he had entered with his service badge.According to the french authorities there's no link to terrorism.Hmmmm... The idea of an failed terrorist plot seems more likely?Read the full story here.(Google Translate).

• A mosque in Montreal has been ranked in the world’s top nine Al Qaeda recruiting zones.(Yahoo).MONTREAL - New WikiLeaks documents that describe a Montreal mosque as a terror hub are defamatory, says a local Muslim spokesman.The newly leaked U.S. documents claim a Mauritanian terror suspect being held at Guantanamo Bay was the leader of a Montreal-based al-Qaida cell that planned terror attacks in the United States.The secret documents, released by WikiLeaks on their website last weekend, also claim that members of al-Qaida were recruited and trained at Montreal's Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque, where the terror suspect served briefly, possibly as an imam.But the chairman of the Muslim Council of Montreal said the documents serve as an example of how the community's institutions are unfairly targeted by authorities."Our allegations are certainly correct that we've been targeted and this is biased targeting," Salam Elmenyawi said in an interview."None of the information is based on evidence. It's rather based on intelligence analysis and this analysis has certainly ignored any other facts that contradicted the conclusion."Elmenyawi said the documents defame the mosque and show a blatant bias against the Muslim community.Elmenyawi noted the mosque is one that frequently takes part in open house events, has frequently welcomed politicians and is heavily involved in interfaith work with synagogues and churches in the city.Several Montreal mosques have been brought to the attention of authorities since the late 1990s.The most notable of these is Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah, which intelligence officials have long maintained was used by a faction of North African jihadists.Another Montreal mosque, Al-Qods, is also mentioned in the documents. It made headlines in 2007 when Canadian immigration officials deported its imam, Said Jaziri, for falsifying his refugee application.Jaziri, a Tunisian who came to Canada in 1997, gained noteriety for advocating Shariah law in Canada and organizing a large protest against cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish magazine.He was detained in California earlier this year for trying to sneak into the U.S. in the trunk of a car.One terrorism expert says the revelations in the documents are not surprising at all."Canada for at least a decade has been considered a hub for North African Islamist terrorism," said David Harris, a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service."Somebody has been trying to tell us something and we haven't been very eager to listen."We will eventually get the message. It'll just be a bloody message when we do."Hmmmm.....The Canadian Islamic Congress:"We should support only those non-Muslim candidates who are willing to present and support a Private Members’ Bill making it a hate-crime to publicly associate Islam to terrorism, whether in written, spoken, printed, broadcast or electronic media".Nothing to see here move along?Read the full story here.

• "The War On christianity".Sanity Continues Losing Ground In School Culture Wars, Part I.(BigGovernment).Public schools continue to be a battleground in the culture war, as the education establishment – composed primarily of leftists bent on political correctness – gains more ground.This strain treats Christianity and its holidays as a pariah, while embracing Muslim holidays.The Hillsboro, Oregon school board just held a vote on what to call the time off school around Christmas and New Years. It had traditionally been called “Christmas Break.” But new calendars, produced by school staff, changed it to “Winter Break.” The school board voted 4-3 to call it “Christmas Break.” From OregonLive.com:

“[School board member] Janeen Sollman said winter break ‘respects everyone in the community. This isn’t about religion, it boils down to respect.’“Later, Hillsboro Education Association president Kathy Newman sided with Sollman and reminded the school board that equity is among its goals and ‘the district calendar should reflect that.’”Further up the Pacific coast, a high school sophomore explained to a local radio station that the term “Easter eggs” could no longer be used because the administration preferred “spring spheres.”Is this a joke? Is America being Punk’d?No, the trend caught on elsewhere in Seattle. The parks department had several listings for “Spring Egg Hunts” all over the city. The word “Easter” has been wiped off the site.

But never fear: one religion, Islam, is being protected – and in fact gaining ground – in American public schools.The Boston Globe reports:

“But beginning next year, Cambridge public schools will attempt to make it easier for Muslim students to honor their highest holy days.“In a move that school officials believe is the first of its kind in the state, Cambridge will close schools for one Muslim holiday each year beginning in the 2011-2012 school year.“The school will either close for Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, depending on which holiday falls within the school year. If both fall within the school calendar, the district will close for only one of the days.And if you’re wondering, the calendar does denote the existence of a “Winter Break.” This is little more than political correctness run wild.This isn’t just about holidays. The political correctness that has taken root in public schools has also provided a platform for radical ideology, namely Marxism. I’ll deal with that topic very soon.Hmmm.... Stalin had the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer in Moscow destroyed in 1931,how long before they start in the US?Read the full story here.

• Admit it, Obamanomics has failed.(WashingtonTimes).The only thing dropping faster than President Obama’s poll numbers is America’s economic future. Only one in five believe the country is headed in the right direction, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday. More than half of those responding to Gallup’s queries believe we are either in a recession or depression. The grim mood reflects growing disenchantment with administration policies that have sucked the life out of the economy.In his 27 months in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama has written $3,677,533,458,800 in checks against a bank account that contains no money. It’s time to stop pretending that extracting money from private-sector entrepreneurs to spread around among political cronies will do any good. It’s time for Mr. Obama to side with the vast majority of Americans who are demanding a change in direction.Hmmm....."CHANGE" ist's all that's left in people their pockets!Read the full story here.

• President George W. Bush and Lance Armstrong Ride With Wounded Warriors: ‘There’s a One-Legged Guy Barely Breathing’.(BigPeace).Former President George W. Bush and Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong recently went on a bike ride with wounded vets as part of the Wounded Warriors Project. The 15 vets rode 62.5 miles with Bush and were joined on the final leg by Armstrong. Both Bush and Armstrong were impressed with the athleticism of these wounded, but still proud and strong, warriors.“The losses endured by so many veterans and their families prompted Armstrong to make a surprise appearance Wednesday to thank the troops for their efforts overseas.Downplaying the athletic feats revered by sports fans across the country, the Austin native recalled meeting a soldier in Germany who had just lost his leg who wanted to set a record for regaining his walking ability. ‘Now that’s heroic,’ Armstrong said.The cyclist also teased the former president, recalling the athleticism Bush showed last time they rode together in 2005.‘Today he started fast but then he kind of blew a gasket,’ Armstrong joked.The 64-year-old Bush retorted: ‘Well, I’m eligible for Medicare next year.’The former president also joked about his inability to keep up with the veterans, whose war injuries did little to slow them down.‘I’m riding as hard as I possibly can, and I look over my shoulder and there’s a one-legged guy barely breathing. … I am in awe of our troops,’ Bush said.”Hmmmm.....Do you miss him yet? Yes we do ,what you see is what you get!Read the full story here.

• Donald Trump Drops F-Bombs, Calls Leaders 'Stupid' in Vegas Stop.(Foxnews).Real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump unleashed an f-bomb-laced attack on President Obama and Washington politics Thursday night during a speech that likely won't help him win the family-values vote should he decide to run for president.At a Las Vegas casino that bears his name, Trump assured a crowd of adoring supporters that he is seriously weighing a presidential run and will make a decision soon.During a 30-minute stump speech focused mostly on foreign affairs, Trump blasted Obama's handling of Libya, Iraq, China and Afghanistan, and in one of his many curse-bombs, he lamented the nation's focus on building schools in war-torn Iraq, while neglecting education in the United States.

"In the meantime we can't get a f---ing school in Brooklyn," he said.

He also cursed the spike in gas prices: "We have nobody in Washington that sits back and said, you're not going to raise that f---ing price."

Trump even dropped what's considered the most offensive f-bomb when he promised to use swear words while negotiating with China.

"Listen you mother f---ers, we're going to tax you 25 percent," he said.

Trump also sprinkled in a number of insults directed toward the nation's leaders.

"Our leaders are stupid, they are stupid people," he said. "It's just very, very sad."

At one point, a woman in the lavish reception at the Treasure Island casino on the Las Vegas Strip yelled out that Trump should run for president."I think I am going to make you very happy," the developer said.But he later said: "There is a really good chance that I won't win because of one of these blood-sucking politicians."Trump hosts the successful reality series "The Celebrity Apprentice" on NBC."I would have to give a lot of stuff up," he told the casino crowd Thursday. "But you know what? It is peanuts compared to the importance of this country."Hmmmmm.......F......ire him!Read the full story here.

• Three Convicted in Terror-Related Cases Later Granted U.S. Citizenship by Obama regime.(CNSNews).Three people convicted of crimes as a result of a terrorism-related investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) were later naturalized as U.S. citizens by the Obama administration, according to federal auditors.The March 2011 audit (released on April 21, 2011) by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), entitled Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests and Costs, shows that three individuals were among “defendants where the investigation involved an identified link to international terrorism but they were charged with violating other statutes [not directly related to terrorism], including fraud, immigration, drugs, false statements, and general conspiracy charges,” referred by DOJ as Category II terrorism-related cases.The three individuals in question can be found in a DOJ list of unsealed terrorism-related investigations conducted from Sept. 11, 2001 through Mar. 18, 2010. There are 403 defendants on that list of which, according to the GAO, at least 43 percent were aliens — both legal (26 percent) and illegal (17 percent) — at the time they were charged with crimes.Hmmmm.....But,but they are voters......hopefully for me?Read the full story here.

• Iranian Cultural Foundation Mocks Holocaust.(Memri).HoloCartoons.com, an antisemitic Iranian website launched in August 2010, aims to mock and denigrate the Holocaust, on the premise that these events were completely fabricated by the Jews for their own nefarious purposes.Hmmm.....Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in several countries,perhaps next time they visit one of these countries?Read the full story here.

• Hamas to PLO : "There can be only One" - Rescind recognition of Israel.(Ynet).Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh urged the PLO Friday to rescind its recognition of Israel in response to the Jewish state's objection to the Palestinian unity agreement. Haniyeh said that there was no justification for recognizing the "Israeli entity" in wake of Israel's objection to Palestinian rights and unity. "Their presence on our land is illegal and cannot be recognized," the Hamas leader said. Earlier, Haniyeh stressed that the temporary Palestinian government to be established following the unity deal will not embark on negotiations with Israel. He also made it clear that his group had no intention of recognizing the Jewish state. Speaking on Friday, Haniyeh downplayed Israeli threats to thwart Palestinian reconciliation efforts."We move forward on what serves the interest of the Palestinian people, and the Israeli positions are of no interest to us," he said.Lieberman told Ashton that Europe must demand that Hamas comply with International Quartet terms, which Europe itself helped formulate: Reorganization of Israel, annulment of the clause calling for Israel's destruction in Hamas' charter, an end to terror against Israel and the honoring of past agreements with the Jewish state.Lieberman added that Hamas must be urged to allow the Red Cross to visit abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Endorsing the Palestinian unity deal without insisting that Hamas adhere to the terms will convey the message that terrorism pays off, thereby minimizing the chances for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, the foreign minister said. He added that the Gaza scenario may be repeated in the West Bank, with Hamas taking over the region and proceeding to directing missile and suicide terror at Israeli civilians.Hmmmmm......Full scale War is coming....September or perhaps even sooner.Read the full story here.

• The West should not be fooled by Syria,the 'predator' is still alive and killing.by Fiamma Nirenstein.(TundraTabloids). Today, as the Syrian unrest continues, we are forced to acknowledge our weakness and to measure the lies of Realpolitik. Indeed it’s worth quoting President George Bush: “… the horrors of dictatorships remind us that at the end of the day, no dialogue is possible with bullies.” After Rafiq Hariri’s assassination in 2005, the Bush administration broke up all ties with Syria; following that decision, the State Department launched a wide finance campaign aimed at helping secular Syrian dissidents and their projects, including an anti-Assad satellite TV. But later on Bashar Assad started his big game, playing simultaneously ‘at once the arsonist and the fireman’, just as Fouad Ajami writes.But it’s time to be honest and to admit that we – the West, the US who sent back its ambassador to Syria, the EU that called Assad to start peaceful talks with Israel, the UN that might let him have a seat in the Human Rights Council – it’s time to tell ourselves honestly that we wanted to see only ‘Assad the fireman’. After so many killings, America now starts talking of personal sanctions on the Assad family (not a big deal). Meantime the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, told publicly something really worth mentioning: the United States can prove that among Syrian security forces, the same that are perpetrating a mass killing of civilians, there are many Iranian emissaries.

The governments of Italy, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Spain have summoned the Syrian ambassadors and the EU is expected to gather an high ranking meeting in the following days to discuss potential sanctions against Assad’s regime. Meanwhile, another of the very few initiatives of the EU nations, i.e. a resolution in the Security Council, has been defeated by Russian, Chinese and Lebanese opposition.But one the most interesting of all the useless reactions to the Syria slaughter is the call by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the Human Rights Council to take a position. Yet Syria is still a candidate for the vacant Libyan seat in the HRC. Ban Ki Moon, requested to express his opinion on this contradiction, answered that this is not his business. Since Syria is one the four Asian countries entitled to one seat in this UN body, without a veto on the nomination, Syria could get its aim, while Syrians are slaughtered in the streets.The UN should do whatever is necessary to save Syrians, reaffirming ‘the responsibility to protect’, the same principle that has led the UN Security Council to approve the 1973 resolution, and allowed Nato to wage war against Muammar Ghaddafi. But Robert Gates, while still US Secretary of Defense, in a joint statement with his British counterpart, Liam Fox, has stated that the situation in Syria is far different from that of Libya. And even though the international community has responded to Ghaddafi’s brutality with military means, it certainly won’t do the same in confronting Assad.This is the kind of weakness revealed by this UN indifference for democracy and human rights; the same unfortunate deviation we witnessed on massacres like Darfur and Tibet. And this tells the truth about the real reasons inspiring most of the approved Security Council resolutions: political interests. Ghaddafi is a bizarre dictator, his ferocity is unquestionable but his strategic value is poor, it is not critical for our and Middle East future. And after all, when he started to shoot his own people, we certainly had to stop him.

Syria is a completely different story. This country is the core of Iranian power in the Middle East, a hub for deadly terrorist groups. Syria is the mother of Hezbollah, the father of Hamas. It borders with Israel and dreams to destroy it. It borders with Iraq and has sent there its anti-American terrorists. As a matter of fact, Syria still occupies Lebanon even though Assad withdrew his troops few years ago, and it shares a very long border and a complicated relations with Turkey, that refuses to condemn the Syrian regime.

Bashar Assad knows that the Sunni majority of his country – where the Alawites are a tiny Shiite minority - keeps a vivid memory of 1982 Hama massacre, where 20,000 Muslim Brothers were wiped out by Bashar’s father, Hafez. The Syrian president knows that unless he would succeed in chocking the protests at the very beginning, only tanks could crush a large opposition waiting for revenge. Now we can expect from Assad an awful enormous carnage that we have the duty to stop. But the world concern about a possible collapse of Syria, the best friend of Iran, is much greater than the worry about the future of Libya. For that reason we wait and see, while Syrians keep being killed.

Because of our fear of Iran, looking at Bashar Assad in recent years, we have rather chosen to see a beanpole guy wearing well-tailored British suits, a middle class faced boy with a charming wife, instead of the professional butcher who has already decreed the killings of more of 500 among his citizens, awfully using for this aim his bother Maher who commands the Presidential Guard.Many self made videos show us ferocious aggressions even against women and children. Assad has employed tanks and warplanes against his own towns. This is what we witness, but we don’t want to face it. In the meanwhile the death toll rises.It’s time to define with moral clarity how worth is the Western religion of human rights. But we must do it now, before the next dictator shoots his people. We gave credit to a dictator, Assad, who didn’t deserve such a chance as no dictator have ever deserved. Instead he used the chance we gave him to arm terrorist groups, to build up chemical weapons and a powerful army. And today, to crash his own people. Hmmmm......The 'people' Turkey,NATO ally and...Obama's best buddy deal with.Read the full story here.