MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 08. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Middle East Live Blog here .(Al-Jazeera)

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 6.0 today. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 76.

• HT:The Blaze.Live Blog: Will the government shut down tonight? Read and see everything here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.What Wisconsin's Judicial Election Means.The ballots in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race show a relatively small difference between Justice David Prosser, the "conservative" incumbent, and JoAnne Kloppenburg, the leftist challenger. Yesterday, previously uncounted votes in Waukesha County swung the victory to Prosser by over 7,000 votes (out of almost a million and a half cast), though Kloppenburg earlier claimed victory by a much smaller margin.In this case, of course, the term "conservative"means an impartial jurist who follows the rule of law without political bias. As for the "liberal" candidate, Ann Althouse, a University of Wisconsin law professor, noted Kloppenburg's lawn signs indicating that the latter had made up her mind about the state's new collective bargaining law.Regardless of the ultimate result, there are vital lessons we should take from the race. We grasp what is happening. We have stopped listening to the chatterbox phonies of the leftist establishment media. We see the inner workings of the left and its minions. We know now that a senator who votes for cloture on a bad bill but votes against the bill on the Senate floor (where it passes easily) is trying to trick us -- but we will no longer be tricked. We comprehend that the dreaded "government shutdown" means nothing when Congress and the White House before the election never even passed a budget. We see from our children's textbooks and the unruly behavior of their teachers that the regime of public school reeducation must be defeated and reformed.The left has been winning because we have not fought the battles which we must fight. Now, we are fighting back. That ultimately is the key. We were unwilling soldiers at first, preferring to live in a civil society in which we could live in friendly peace. The Wisconsin judicial election, which forces the highest notions of impartiality -- judges -- into the war of ideology, and our response to players like Kloppenburg show that we are now fighting the war that we must fight, and the fight which we shall win.Hmmm.....Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
  Martin Luther King, Jr.Read the full story here.

• Want to know the 2012 election result?Here's a sneak preview!High-profile lawyers retained for possible Supreme Court recount.Twenty-four hours ago challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg was looking at an all but certain recount of her razor-thin victory over incumbent Justice David Prosser in the Supreme Court race. Now that it's come to light that Prosser might take a thin but substantial lead due to a computer error in Waukesha County, Kloppenburg could be the one to trigger a recount. But one thing hasn't changed: both camps are lawyering up and have brought in the big guns.Kloppenburg's campaign is working with Marc Elias, an attorney with Perkins Coie, a Washington D.C.-based firm with an office in downtown Madison. Elias is the same attorney who represented Democratic challenger Al Franken in his eight-month epic recount battle with incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. Franken eventually prevailed, winning his U.S. Senate seat by 312 votes.Prosser has hired Ben Ginsberg, a Washington-D.C. attorney who played a prominent role in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential recount effort in Florida. He was also part of the team that represented Coleman in his recount effort. Prosser has also retained Madison attorney Jim Troupis, and Dan Kelly, who is based in Milwaukee.Melissa Mulliken, Kloppenburg's campaign manager, said the campaign first hired Perkins Coie months ago to file an amicus brief in a suit lodged by Wisconsin Right to Life over the state's new judicial campaign public financing law, which Right to Life says stifles free speech. Mulliken said Thursday the campaign "plans to continue to work with him (Elias)."Hmmmm....A computer is only as smart as the one who 'programs' it!Read the full story here.

• HT:TheFoundry.Morning Bell: Commander-in-Chief Turns His Back on America’s Military.The American military is engaged in multiple conflicts and humanitarian missions around the world, yet President Obama promised to veto legislation funding the troops for the remainder of 2011. This is a reprehensible political stunt, and it comes at the expense of our servicemen and women and the families they support.Yesterday, as efforts to resolve the debate on 2011 government funding continued, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) introduced yet another temporary bill designed to keep the government operating for one more week during negotiations, and in this case, ensure the military portion of the budget is appropriated to eliminate the economic uncertainty facing our troops.Before a vote was even taken, President Obama issued a Statement of Administration Policy that offered no policy, and merely called Speaker Boehner’s efforts a “distraction”, with the promise to veto the legislation. In fact, Speaker Boehner’s goal was to aid our armed forces by removing the distraction of a looming government shutdown for our troops. The House went on to pass the bill 247-181 with 15 Democrats joining nearly all Republicans.The American public has clearly spoken that it is demanding budget cuts, but so far nothing has happened in the Senate—not one serious alternative to the budget with $61 billion in cuts the House passed nearly two months ago. That Harry Reid is even allowed at the negotiating table before completing the prerequisites is a mystery, and this latest episode of defense funding angst by he and Obama continues the drama.United States military personnel are actively supporting the Libyan rebellion. Navy sailors and Marines are providing humanitarian relief to our ally Japan. American soldiers are still working to rebuild Iraq often in hostile conditions. They are engaged in active combat in Afghanistan. Some are being wounded daily; some maimed; some even killed. Others are doing their jobs around the globe keeping sea lanes open, on patrol, standing a post, and training for whatever conflicts lie ahead. Yet incredibly, their Commander-in-Chief vows to veto their paychecks.The House-passed bill is essential to ensure military forces deployed around the world will get the equipment they need to succeed. Even it will fund defense at levels significantly below President Obama’s request, unfortunately, which is causing strain across the military right now.The drawn-out budget fight to fund the government for 2011 is reaching a crescendo with a potential government shutdown now hours away. President Obama chose to finally engage the negotiations this week, yet still deflected leadership saying: “I shouldn’t have to oversee a process in which Congress deals with last year’s budget…”Absent a deal today, President Obama should actively press Congress to fund the troops, and withdraw his threat to veto their funding. Let our soldiers get back to work without threats to their safety and their families’ finances. It’s time for President Obama and Senator Reid to show that kind of leadership.Hmmmm...Sadly dictators hardly ever show leadership qualities.Read the full story here.

• HT:WhitehouseDossier.Is Michelle Planning Some Pricey Shopping in Williamsburg?It appears the Obamas may be headed down to Colonial Williamsburg this weekend for more than a history lesson. Mrs. Obama, it seems, wants something much more up to date.According to the Daily Press, which covers southeastern Virginia, the first lady has shopping on the brain. And we’re not talking about the Williamsburg Walmart.Rather, Mrs. Obama has been quietly investigating from afar the wares at Binns of Williamsburg, an upscale shop for uptown gals who want to look fabulous.Indeed, Mrs. Obama has been looking into the lifestyle, ordering catalogues and dispatching envoys to the store itself to see what’s good for the gettin’. Perhaps the first lady can also pick up another $1,000 handbag when she’s there.According to Tom Smith, assistant CEO of Binns of Williamsburg, the First Lady has expressed interest in his store in the past.“We have been contacted by different assistants of the family,” he says.Representatives have visited the store in the past, and Smith knows that Michelle has brochures from his store. He also has sent some accessories to the White House for her consideration.“Our gown department is a big area that she would probably end up looking at,” he says.Well, now we know better what the White House means by a “long planned” vacation that the Obamas might be loathe to cancel.If there is a government shutdown, the president will almost certainly have to stay at the White House. But Michelle has shown in the past she doesn’t mind traveling without him.If the White House communications team allows her to be seen browsing he bins at Binns while government workers are getting furloughed, they need to be impeached on charges of PR malpractice.Thanks to Nelly, one of our readers, who alerted me to this and who also noted that Mrs. Obama probably is seeking some stunning new items for her trip to Europe next month!Hmmmm......"Let them eat K Rations"?Read the full story here.

• UN: Scores of bodies found in Cote d'Ivoire. UN reports that more than 100 bodies, some burned alive, have been found over the past 24 hours across the country. More than 100 bodies, some burned alive and others thrown down a well, have been found in the past 24 hours by United Nations staff in Cote d'Ivoire.Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesperson, told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday that about 60 bodies were found in Guiglo, 15 bodies in the western town of Duekoue and about 40 in Bloloquin.The announcement comes as Allasane Ouattara, the claimant president, said in a speech late on Thursday that he would seek to restore security and basic public services in the country following fierce fighting between his forces and those of Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president."I have asked that European Union sanctions on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro and certain public entities, be lifted," Ouattara said in the speech broadcast on French television."I have also asked the central bank BCEAO to reopen its branches in Ivory Coast, to ensure a resumption of operations in all banks so as to enable the payment of salaries and arrears in the shortest possible time," he said on television channel LCI.In Brussels, the European Commission said it hoped to be able to begin easing sanctions soon.Diplomatic and military efforts to oust Gbagbo this week were met with fierce resistance and Ouattara said his rival's residence had been sealed off to protect the area.The Reuters news agency reported on Friday that as a direct response to Ouattara's request, the EU planned on lifting the sanctions on all Ivorian port authorities and exports by Tuesday next week.A commander for the French military force in Cote d'Ivoire, Licorne (Unicorn), also said on Friday its troops would carry out mixed patrols with police and gendarmes loyal to Ouattara to restore security and rebuild infrastructure.Gbagbo remained defiant on Thursday, even after air strikes hammered his military bases and the palace, where he is holed up with his wife inside a subterranean tunnel.Ouattara won the November presidential poll by eight percentage points, according to UN certified results, but Gbagbo rejected the outcome citing fraud, and accused the United Nations of meddling in Ivorian affairs.The poll was meant to draw a line under Ivory Coast's 2002-3 civil war, but the dispute over results rekindled it, turning Abidjan into a war zone.Via a spokesman in Europe, the ruler continued to insist he'd won last November's election and stressed he would never leave the country he has ruled for the past 10 years."I reached the head of state and his wife less than an hour ago and no - he will not surrender. President Gbagbo will not cede," said his adviser Toussaint Alain by telephone from Paris. "It's a question of principle. President Gbagbo is not a monarch. He is not a king. He is not an emperor. He is a president elected by his people."Gbagbo has refused to accept defeat even though he was declared the loser of the November election both by his country's electoral body and by international observers including the United Nations.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Missile From Gaza that Hit School Bus was deliberatly aimed at the bus!JERUSALEM — A 16-year-old Israeli boy was critically wounded on Thursday when an antitank missile fired out of Gaza struck a school bus in southern Israel, according to military officials, setting off a new round of hostilities along the Israel-Gaza border. This was the first time that an antitank missile had hit a civilian target in southern Israel, sharply raising the stakes for residents of the area. It also prompted one of the most intensive Israeli retaliatory bombardments of Gaza in the past two years, killing five. The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, claimed responsibility for the attack on the bus, saying it had specifically aimed at the target as a response to Israel’s killing of three Hamas commanders last Saturday. Israel said the three had been planning to kidnap Israelis.“This is an initial response to the occupation’s crimes,” Hamas said in a statement on Thursday, referring to Israel, “the latest of which was the assassination of the three holy fighters.” In the hours after the strike on the bus, Gaza militants fired 45 rockets and mortars at southern Israel, hitting one house but causing no more injuries. Hmmmm....What kind of 'poor excuses for a human being' target a schoolbus?Read the full story here.

• Obama Admin Training Thousands of Arab “Activists” to Evade Security Forces.The United States is training thousands of cell phone and Internet pro-democracy campaigners worldwide to evade security forces in what it calls a “cat-and-mouse game” with authoritarian governments.The US government is sponsoring efforts to help activists in Arab and other countries gain access to technology that circumvents government firewalls, secures telephone text and voice messages, and prevents attacks on websites.“This is sort of a cat-and-mouse game and governments are constantly developing new techniques to go after critics, to go after dissenters,” said Michael Posner, the assistant US secretary of state for human rights and labor.“We are trying to stay ahead of the curve and trying to basically provide both technology, training, and diplomatic support to allow people to freely express their views.”Posner told a small group of reporters that the theme of Internet freedom will be “peppered” throughout the State Department’s annual report on human rights for 194 countries that is scheduled for release on Friday.Hmmm....Arab 'activists' is this the new term for Al-Qaida?Read the full story here.

• Holder Declares Obama’s Libyan Adventure is Completely Legal.President Obama had the constitutional power to lawfully launch military strikes in Libya without permission from Congress because he “could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest,” the Justice Department concluded in an internal memorandum released on Thursday.The 14-page document, addressed to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., was signed by Caroline D. Krass, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the executive branch about whether proposed actions are lawful.The memorandum laid out in detail the thinking of the administration’s legal team about the scope of Mr. Obama’s power to initiate hostilities unilaterally under his authority as commander in chief – confirming, as The New York Times has reported, that the administration’s argument centers on the idea that hostilities of limited nature, scope and duration do not rise to the level of a “war” that would trigger Congress’s powers under the Constitution.Much of the memorandum recites the facts of the lead-up to the Libyan strikes and Mr. Obama’s statements about them, as well as precedents involving other unilateral military interventions by recent presidents of both parties – and quotations from previous Justice Department memorandums approving of such deployments.Hmmmmm...... Louis XIV "L'Etat c'est moi"?Read the full story here.

• Turkey 'world leader' in imprisoned journalists, IPI report says.Turkey has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, including China and Iran, according to a press release issued Monday by the International Press Institute.The group based its release on a report published by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, that said 57 journalists are currently in prison in Turkey. As of December, Iran and China each had 34 journalists behind bars.“While Iran and China topped lists in December by reportedly jailing some 34 journalists each, Turkey, a candidate for membership in the European Union, has nearly doubled that number five months later, raising questions about the country’s commitment to freedom of the press and the legitimacy of its democratic image,” IPI Press Freedom Adviser Steven M. Ellis wrote in an article featured on the institute’s website.“These journalists are in jail because of Turkey’s anti-terror Law. This law threatens the freedom of press, and investigative journalists live under its menace. We find this unacceptable. We made a request to the government to change this law, but unfortunately the government does not lend an ear to professional journalist associations,” said Ferai Tınç, the chair of IPI’s Turkey National Committee and an IPI board member.“Turkey, at the crossroads between East and West, is a major regional power with an ancient cultural heritage. The country is also often held up as an example of a healthy Muslim democracy,” said IPI director Alison Bethel McKenzie, who warned that moving away from this history and imprisoning more journalists than any other country is damaging.McKenzie also called on the Turkish government to respect press freedom and release all journalists who have been detained because of their work.Hmmmm....Get Turkey out of NATO NOW!Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Terrorists Slip By TSA Behavior Detection Officers on at least 23 occasions.Years after implementing a costly passenger screening program, the Homeland Security agency responsible for protecting the nation’s transportation system failed to detect terrorists at U.S. airports on nearly two dozen occasions. As a result the terrorists slipped right through “security” checkpoints and boarded commercial airplanes, according to a government report that's difficult to swallow nearly a decade after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Unfortunately, it’s true and, not surprisingly, it involves the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created after 9/11 mainly to prevent terrorists from using planes as weapons of mass destruction.

The agency’s perpetual blunders have been well documented by Judicial Watch over the years, but this seems to be the icing on the cake for an agency with unlimited resources and unconditional support from Congress and the White House. A heavily-touted and quite expensive TSA program that targets terrorists by observing their behavior has failed miserably, according to a congressional probe conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Known as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT), the innovative project was implemented with great fanfare to enhance aviation security after Islamic terrorist slammed commercial jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. In 2010 SPOT cost taxpayers nearly $212 million and the Obama Administration wants $232 million for it this year.

But on at least 23 occasions its highly specialized Behavior Detection Officers failed to stop terrorists from boarding planes, investigators found. At least 16 people who were later charged or pleaded guilty to terrorism charges slipped through eight different U.S. airports with SPOT programs, according to the GAO’s findings.It gets better. Most of the airports where terrorists boarded planes rank among the top 10 highest risk on the TSA’s Airport Threat Assessment list. For instance, an individual who subsequently pleaded guilty to providing material support to Somali terrorists boarded a plane at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport en route to Somalia an another who later admitted providing Al Qaeda with material support took a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport to participate in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.Before pouring more taxpayer dollars into this dubious security program perhaps the Obama Administration should consider a point made by congressional investigators in their report; “the TSA deployed its behavior detection program nationwide before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for the program.”Hmmmm.....It's all about control?Read the full story here.

• Netherlands to vote on law banning slaughter of meat by halal and kosher methods.One of Europe's first countries to allow Jews to practice their religion openly could pass a law banning centuries-old traditions on the ritual slaughter of animals.An unlikely alliance of an animal rights party and the Freedom Party is behind a ban on kosher and halal slaughter methods in the Netherlands.They claims the practices inflict unacceptable suffering on animals.The far right's support of the bill, which is expected to go to a parliamentary vote this month, is based on its strident hostility towards the Dutch Muslim population.The Party of Animals, the world's first such party to be elected to parliament, said humane treatment of animals overrode traditions of tolerance.But Jewish and Muslim groups have called the bill an affront to freedom of religion.Most Dutch are believed to favour a ban.If the bill is passed, the Netherlands will join New Zealand, Scandinavian countries and Switzerland which have had bans for decades.The Netherlands has a proud history of tolerance and was one of the first countries in Europe to allow Jews to live openly with their religion in the 17th century.The country has around one million Muslims out of a total population of around 16 million. There are estimated to be around 50,000 Jews after 70 per cent of their community died in Nazi concentration camps in World War Two.Read the full story here.

• Hamas: Commander killed in Gaza.'Our aim is to get message across to Hamas,' says IDF official, adding retaliatory strikes in Gaza could increase. Meanwhile army kills two gunmen belonging to Hamas's military wing, who fired rockets at Ashkelon.The IDF continued Friday evening to bomb targets in the Gaza Strip in response to unceasing projectile fire by terror groups.Air Force craft attacked a rocket-launching cell that fired four rockets at Ashkelon, three of which were intercepted by Iron Dome. Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, announced that one of its commanders was killed in the strike along with an additional gunman. In addition, Palestinian sources reported two killed and 10 injured from IDF tank fire on Sajaiya neighborhood. The commander killed by the IDF was 27-year old Rayid Shehadeh, Hamas said. The IDF had announced after the strike that it had identified a direct hit. More than 24 hours after beginning to bomb Gaza heavily, IDF officials said the army has no plans of stopping, and that the intensity of the strikes may be intensified until terror organizations understand the message. "Our aim is to get a message across to Hamas, to clarify that we will not accept incidents the likes of which occurred yesterday," one official said, referring to an attack on a school bus that critically wounded a 16-year old boy. "They understand their situation and are thinking on it," one official said. "They are beginning to understand that the anti-tank fire (at the school bus) wasn't worth it. "They don't want to cause an increased Israeli response, but we are determined to continue operating against targets as well as rocket-launching cells. We will not hesitate to increase (military action). This operation will end when Hamas understands the price of its actions." Hmmmm....Sigh.....This isn't a 'game' to get a message through.The only way to dictate peace is through victory!Read the full story here.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Looming Budget Showdown: Feck the Troops but Dems Saved Google!It pays to be Google CEO Eric Schmidt, now serving on Obama’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).Update: Hey, who says the federal government isn’t efficient? The deal got announced a few minutes ago : The Justice Department said on Friday it has approved Google’s $700 million acquisition of ITA, an online travel company specializing in airline ticketing software, with several conditions.Eric Schmidt must be proud!Whew! Never mind that military families will have to do without pay; at least they’ve taken care of Eric Schmidt. Our long national nightmare is over.Now, about Google's JihadTube, where does Obi One admin stand? Do they approve of terrorist propaganda and stuff? I mean, there are thousands and thousands of terrorist supporters videos.Inquiring minds wanna know..Hmmmm.....Is there anything the Obama regime doesn't control?Read the full story here.

• 'Massacre' at Camp Ashraf: Iranians call for international help as Iraqi soldiers run down refugees in armoured trucks, killing 25.Iranian refugees have called for international help to prevent a massacre at Camp Ashraf after Iraqi forces invaded the compound and killed at least 25 people. A full state of alert has been declared by the Iranian group after 65 Iraqi vehicles carrying soldiers entered Ashraf late yesterday, with reports that they are running down and shooting the refugees. Videos have emerged seemingly showing Iraqi troops firing on Iranian refugees and one instance appears to show an Iraqi vehicle ramming a resident and trapping him under its wheels.Muzzle flashes of gunshots are also visible as the vehicles chase residents around the compound at speed. Another six-minute video posted on YouTube that the exiles claim was taken of the offensive, shows Humvees flying the Iraqi flag chasing down around 100 stone-throwing masked people in an open area. At least one Iraqi soldier was seen firing from his AK-47 machine gun, but his target was not clear. The video also shows at least six people lying on a the ground, and a dozen of blood-soaked men being treated by doctors. Camp Ashraf resident Shahriar Kia said the dead include six women and said 325 had been wounded in the violence. Behzad Saffari, who has lived at Ashraf for nine years and acts as the camp's legal adviser, said: 'This is a massacre, a catastrophe. 'They came inside the camp and attacked people with grenades and tear gas, and then they started to shoot people.'When people saw the attack was about to begin, they lined up to defend their homes.'Neither his claims or the videos could be immediately be verified because access to the camp is restricted.A hospital in Baqouba has reported three dead and treated 13 wounded, and treated five injured Iraqi soldiers. However, a memo from the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran called on 'American forces in Iraq and the United Nation to immediately intervene to prevent the killings of Ashraf residents.'Iraqi Lt. General Ali Ghaidan confirmed a conflict took place overnight at Camp Ashraf but denied anyone was killed and said his men did not use live rounds. He acknowledged that there were people injured but said he did not know how many. Iraqi forces have reported their own casualties.Ghaidan said his troops were responding to two days of provocation by exiles who, armed with shovels, have been throwing stones at Iraqi guard positions.He also claimed the refugees had been throwing themselves in front of soldiers' trucks over the last few days.'One hundred members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran attacked our security and military forces,' said al-Dabbagh. 'Our forces did not use weapons. The situation is calm now. Our forces are trying to redeploy themselves inside and outside the camp. 'The Iraqi government is warning of violating the Iraqi laws in that area.'However, Ashraf residents and their supporters are calling the event a 'massacre'.The UN mission in Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. military in Iraq all declined immediate comment.Hmmmmm......Iraq.....Turkey......Iran...Follow the dots.Read the full story here.

• Witnesses: 13 killed in Syria.Thousands protests Baath Party's rule in several Kurdish regions. Security forces said to be using live ammunition on masses.Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on thousands of protesters in the southern city of Daraa, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, witnesses said. Mass protests against autocratic Baath Party rule erupted on Friday in several Kurdish regions in eastern Syria, a Kurdish activist said, a day after President Bashar Assad offered Kurds Syrian nationality. Protest organizers called for demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in several provinces in what they called a “Friday of Steadfastness.” "The citizenship gesture only helped fuel the street (protests). The Kurdish cause is one for democracy, freedom and cultural identity," Hassan Kamel, a high-level member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, said. SANA said a police officer and an ambulance driver were killed Friday in Daraa. The report blamed "armed men" for the violence. The government has blamed much of the unrest in recent weeks on armed thugs. It was not clear if the state-run agency and the eyewitness were counting the same people. One witness said he helped ferry the dead and wounded to the city's hospital, where he counted 13 corpses. "My clothes are soaked with blood," he said by telephone from Daraa, adding that he was among thousands of people at the protest and he witnessed security forces shooting live ammunition. Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Special Parole Pushed For Illegal Immigrants With Kids.The Illinois congressman charged with crafting President Obama’s amnesty bill has embarked on a national tour to promote a special program that allows illegal immigrants with children to remain in the United States.Launched by Democrat Luis Gutierrez, the "Campaign For American Children and Families” aims to grant a special parole to illegal aliens who have relatives in the U.S. so that families can remain together in the land of opportunity. The measure is essential to help those “whose lives are being turned upside down by deportation,” according to the veteran lawmaker who authored a bill to give the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants amnesty.Gutierrez estimates that around 4 million U.S. citizen children (“anchor babies”) have a deportable mother or father and all live in fear that they’ll lose a parent at any moment. His national tour will visit at least 20 cities and feature heartbreaking testimony from illegal immigrant families torn apart by deportation. Children and spouses of removed illegal aliens will take the microphone to tell their sob stories at the various rallies, Gutierrez promises.The goal is to pressure Obama into using his executive power to halt deportations while a broader amnesty bill is being considered by Congress. Immigration reform is necessary in the long run, Gutierrez says, but in the meantime the government must ensure that it doesn’t “needlessly deport” those who are working, raising families and “contributing to our nation and economic recovery.” Obama must “provide relief” from deportation, the congressman asserts.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Ban on Skype, Hotmail and Gmail proposed.Federal Security Service says their "uncontrolled use" could threaten security.The Federal Security Service (FSB) is "increasingly concerned" by the mass use of these services, which use foreign-made encryption technology, said head of the FSB's information and special communication centre Alexander Andreyechkin, RIA Novosti agency reported."Uncontrolled usage of these services may lead to massive threat to Russia's security," he said at a meeting of the government's communication and technology committee.Control of Internet traffic through these services is done from servers outside Russia, and so they are often used by extremist organizations, Andreyechkin was reported as saying before the meeting continued without the press.Deputy Minister of Communications Ilya Massukh later said that recommendations regarding regulation of mass usage of encryption technology will be given to the government by October 1.The FSB would like to ban these services in Russia because "security authorities cannot access them," Massukh was reported as saying.The secretive FSB, which is a successor to the Soviet KGB, has denounced the popular non-Russian services in the past.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheRightScoop.Video : Levin blasts Obama for not funding troops. Obama is pledging to veto a one week CR, offered by Boehner since they can’t agree on the current CR, that would fund defense for the rest of the year. Even Mike Pence, who is frustrated at another short-term CR, said that the troops must come first and therefore he will support this one week CR. Obama feels differently and Levin has a few words for him.Levin : “This Is What Saul Alinsky Marxists Do”.Hmmm....Exactly:"How does this 'man' looks at himself in the mirror?Napoleon said "an army marches on its stomach" he valued his troops!You can't have a dialog with an dictator!Read and see the full story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.FDR opposed repealing anti-Jewish Vichy laws in North Africa.I came upon a shocking article in the Jewish Journal (via Point of No Return and Emet m'Tsiyon) revealing some very telling details about FDR.Among the more remarkable documents of the Holocaust is a scroll, created in North Africa in 1943, called “Megillat Hitler.” Written in the style of Megillat Esther and the Purim story, it celebrates the Allies’ liberation of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which saved the local Jewish communities from the Nazis. What the scroll’s author did not realize, however, was that at the very moment he was setting quill to parchment, those same American authorities were actually trying to keep in place the anti-Jewish legislation imposed in North Africa by the Nazis.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!'Huge Asteroid' to Pass Near Earth in November.Mark your calendars for an impressive and upcoming flyby of an asteroid that’s one of the larger potentially perilous space rocks in the heavens – in terms of smacking the Earth in the future.It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances.Due the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned.Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered by Spacewatch at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Dec. 28, 2005.En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet.“The close Earth approach of 2005 YU55 on Nov. 8, is unusual since it is close and big. On average, one wouldn’t expect an object this big to pass this close but every 30 years,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.Asteroid 2005 YU55 is a slow rotator. Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., has designated the space rock as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                   Morning  Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - March 27. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• Sirya live blog - here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world lots of seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 5.6 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 63.On 27.03.2011 at 08:29 GMT+2

Workers were evacuated on Sunday from a reactor building they were working in after high doses of radiation were detected at Japan's stricken nuclear power plant in Fukushima, the plant's operator said. Tokyo Electric Power Co , the plant's operator, said radiation 10 million times the usual level was detected in water that had accumulated at the No.2 reactor's turbine housing unit. Source .More here.

• From society's shadows, yakuza among first with relief supplies.TOKYO (Reuters) - Tons of relief goods have been delivered to victims of Japan's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami from a dark corner of society: the "yakuza" organized crime networks.Yakuza groups have been sending trucks from the Tokyo and Kobe regions to deliver food, water, blankets and toiletries to evacuation centres in northeast Japan, the area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which have left at least 27,000 dead and missing.Yakuza are better known for making money from extortion, gambling, pornography and prostitution, as well as for the often-elaborate tattoos covering much of their bodies.But disasters bring out another side of yakuza, who move swiftly and quietly to provide aid to those most in need.As with the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake, government workers were slow in reaching afflicted areas, and the 300,000 or so survivors, so yakuza groups stepped in quickly, and in many cases, were first on the ground.Such actions stem from yakuza knowing what it's like to have to fend for yourself, without any government or community support, because they are considered outcasts.Many gang members faced discrimination and come from minority populations such as ethnic Koreans or "burakumin" - those who work in businesses seen as related to death, such as butchers and leather tanners."Yakuza are dropouts from society," said Manabu Miyazaki, a prolific author who has written more than 100 books about yakuza and minorities."They've suffered, and they're just trying to help other people who are in trouble," said Miyazaki, himself the son of a former Kyoto yakuza boss.Others see ulterior motives to the groups' charity."If they help citizens, it's hard for the police to say anything bad," said Tomohiko Suzuki, a journalist who has written several books on Japan's underworld."The yakuza are trying to position themselves to gain contracts for their construction companies for the massive rebuilding that will come."Yakuza groups have so far dispatched at least 70 trucks to the quake zone loaded with supplies worth more than $500,000, according to Jake Adelstein, an expert on yakuza who lives in Tokyo and is writing two books on the Japanese syndicates.The gangs' charity is rooted in their "ninkyo" code, Adelstein says, which values justice and duty and forbids allowing others to suffer. "In times such as earthquakes, they put their money where their mouths are," he said.Atsushi Mizoguchi a freelance writer and yakuza antagonizer who has written about organized crime for 40 years, also gives the yakuza the benefit of the doubt."Rather than a PR effort, I think it's actually good intentions," said Mizoguchi, who has angered the yakuza so much that he has been stabbed twice in attacks by gang members.But yakuza shun the spotlight regarding their relief work.Adelstein explains that there is an informal understanding between yakuza and police who tolerate the gangs carrying out such charitable work, but not seeking publicity for it."What they seek most is self-satisfaction," said Miyazaki, the son of the former yakuza boss. "It's not for pay, but for pride."There are an estimated 80,000 yakuza in Japan. The Sumiyoshi-kai and Inakawa-kai, the second and third biggest organized crime syndicates, are believed to be the most active in the earthquake-tsunami disaster relief.And, says author Suzuki, this is not the time to nitpick over the origins of emergency goods."When it's life or death, you don't care where your food comes from," he said.Hmmmm.....Who remembers a man who lives and dies without honor?Read the full story here

• HT:Pajamasmedia.Reporter imprisoned in closet by Biden staffers at Florida Dem fundraiser.An incident at a Florida Democratic political fundraiser this week should be front page news in every paper in the country, and the lead story on TV newscasts, but it has been virtually buried…. until nowHere are the details.On Wednesday morning, Vice President Joe Biden attended a fundraiser for Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. The event was at the home of billionaire real estate developer Alan Ginsberg, a long-time Dem supporter. Ginsberg’s enormous lakefront home is in an exclusive section of Winter Park, an uber-upscale Orlando suburb. To give you an idea of the size and opulence of the home, it was originally built for Orlando Magic and NBA superstar Horace Grant.The Orlando Sentinel assigned longtime reporter Scott Powers to cover the event. But when he arrived, Biden staffers decided they didn’t want him mingling with the 150 guests who had forked over $500 to meet Biden, so they locked him in a closet! A member of the Biden advance team even stood guard outside the door to prevent Powers from escaping.Powers has all the details, even pictures of the inside of the closet where he was held; but it appears the Sentinel editors have refused to let him report on all the details of what some are calling a kidnapping! There was a very brief, and very “vanilla” mention of the incident in Thursday’s paper. One attendee later emailed the Sentinel to say “I was in attendance at the Fundraiser and enjoyed a nice lunch. If I had known there was a reporter stuffed in the closet, I would have been compelled to stand up and demand answers. I would also like to know if this is actually legal to treat people like caged animals. I’m disgusted by these actions.”Despite this outrage, Sentinel editors have dropped the story.Some longtime journalists are furious with Biden’s team over the incident. Some are more angry at Sentinel editors for downplaying the story. Others are asking “where was the Secret Service when a crime was obviously being committed?” Others appear to have no problem with it, since it involves their “Administration that can do no wrong.”So far, none of the DC papers or TV networks has covered the story, but of course, they are the first to cry in outrage when dictators imprison reporters overseas. What have we become: Cuba, Iran, Libya, or Stalinist Russia, that we would allow such police-state tactics to muzzle the media?Does the “Free Press” still exist in America? Or are we relegated to the status of a Banana Republic where the media approves anything Team Obama does?Some people saw this coming when then-Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden exploded and flatly refused to answer the insightful questions of an Orlando television reporter when she asked about Obama’s connections to ACORN, socialism and his “spread the wealth” comments to Joe the Plumber. Since then, Biden’s mandate seems to have changed from refusing to answer embarrassing questions, to imprisoning reporters who might ask them.Hmmm....."Democracy or dictatorship"?Once a country looses it's free speech ,soon after they loose their freedom also.The most 'transparant' administration evah!Welcome to 1934 Germany.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.April 5th Will Decide Who Governs Wisconsin: The Voters or 4 Judges.Had the federal government passed a law (in the best interest of the people, naturally) mandating that every household in America purchase a handgun and learn how to use it in order to protect themselves and in turn save the government money on police protection, that law would be a constitutional issue for the courts to decide in the exact same way ObamaCare — a real federal law requiring every American purchase health insurance — is also a constitutional issue. Regardless of your political persuasion, any intellectually honest individual understands that the government requiring an individual purchase something is exactly why our founders created a judicial branch. That’s what they’re there for. What they’re not there for, however, is to use judicial fiat to overturn an election. But that is exactly what the Left in Wisconsin is counting on happening just a few days from now on April 5th.Before I get to that, though, I want to backfill my point with a rundown of the hows and whys that make a Wisconsin State Supreme Court race so crucially important to everyone in America, not just my fellow cheese heads.What are the Stakes?Nothing less than democracy. Will four Robed Masters rule Wisconsin or will the representatives elected by the people of the state be allowed to govern?Hmmmm.......As i asked many times before:"Democracy or Dictatorship"?Read the full story here.

• Candidate Obama in 2007: Americans ‘Have a Right to Know’ Before Government Takes Military Action.A new video shows President Barack Obama, as a presidential candidate in 2007, saying that the American people have a right to know about and participate in the debate over U.S. foreign policy decisions and whether the nation uses military force.“But the fact of the matter is that when we don’t talk to the American people – we’re debating the most important foreign policy issues that we face, and the American people have a right to know,” Obama said at the AFL-CIO debate on Aug. 7, 2007.“It is not just Washington insiders that are part of the debate that has to take place with respect to how we’re going to shift our foreign policy,” he said.Obama’s comments came at the end of a colloquy between himself, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) over whether it was proper to announce, as Obama had done, that he would launch military strikes into Pakistan if Osama bin Laden was found there.Obama then went on to make the statement shown in the video, defending his position that telling the American people what he planned to do, before he did it, was the right thing to do.Hmmmm.......The most transparant administration evah!Read and see the full story here.

• HT:CreepingSharia.More U.S. colleges adding Muslim chaplains.“The last two to four years is when you really saw it taking off,” Bajwa says, pointing to Yale, Princeton and Duke all hiring chaplains in 2008 and Northwestern’s hire last year. “You find it picking up momentum.”No one keeps official numbers, but more than 30 Muslim chaplains work on college campuses or at private high schools around the nation, most of them part time, says Tahera Ahmad, who started at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in fall 2010 as associate chaplain and the university’s first Muslim chaplain.“I don’t necessarily only cater to the Muslim students,” she says. “I’ve had more non-Muslim students go through my office than Muslim students. I serve the larger campus community.”Hmmmm.......“Behind every Islamic terrorist there is an Imam…” ~ Oriana Fallaci.Read the full story here.

• HT:JihadWatch.Geert Wilders: The Failure of Multiculturalism and How to Turn the Tide.Geert Wilders's speech at the Annual Lecture at the Magna Carta Foundation in Rome on March 25:Signore e signori, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of the Magna Carta Foundation, molte grazie. Thank you for inviting me to Rome. It is great to be here in this beautiful city which for many centuries was the capital and the centre of Europe’s Judeo-Christian culture.Together with Jerusalem and Athens, Rome is the cradle of our Western civilization – the most advanced and superior civilization the world has ever known.As Westerners, we share the same Judeo-Christian culture. I am from the Netherlands and you are from Italy. Our national cultures are branches of the same tree. We do not belong to multiple cultures, but to different branches of one single culture. This is why when we come to Rome, we all come home in a sense. We belong here, as we also belong in Athens and in Jerusalem.It is important that we know where our roots are. If we lose them we become deracinated. We become men and women without a culture.I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst.It is this ideology of cultural relativism which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently referred to when she said that multiculturalism has proved “an absolute failure.”My friends, I dare say that we have known this all along. Indeed, the premise of the multiculturalist ideology is wrong. Cultures are not equal. They are different, because their roots are different. That is why the multiculturalists try to destroy our roots.Rome is a very appropriate place to address these issues. There is an old saying which people of our Western culture are all familiar with. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” it says. This is an obvious truth: If you move somewhere, you must adapt to the laws and customs of the land.Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: The multiculturalist Left is facilitating islamization. Leftist multiculturalists are cheering for every new shariah bank, for every new islamic school, for every new mosque. Multiculturalists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties. Ladies and gentlemen, what is happening in Europe today has to some extent been deliberately planned.Let me end with a final – and a positive – remark: Though the situation is bad and multiculturalism is still predominant, we are in better shape than the Roman Empire was before its fall.The Roman Empire was not a democracy. The Romans did not have freedom of speech. We are the free men of the West. We do not fight for an Empire, we fight for ourselves. We fight for our national republics. You fight for Italy, I fight for the Netherlands, others fight for France, Germany, Britain, Denmark or Spain. Together we stand. Together we represent the nations of Europe.I am confident that if we can safeguard freedom of speech and democracy, our civilization will be able to survive. Europe will not fall. We, Europe’s patriots, will not allow it.Read the full speech here.

• Thousands of Syrian mourners burn Baath party buildings.Assad faces crisis as security forces open fire on protesters; more funerals planned, demonstrators gather in Deraa; 260 prisoners released in bid to placate reformists; Amnesty says 55 believed dead. DAMASCUS - Thousands of mourners at a funeral for a Syrian killed in anti-government protests burned a ruling Baath party building and a police station on Saturday as authorities freed 260 prisoners in a bid to placate reformists.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the deepest crisis of his 11 years in power after security forces fired on protesters on Friday, adding to a death toll that rights groups have said now numbers in the dozens.Read the full story here.

• Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan supports Syria's butcher Assad.Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday to express his support for the leader of Turkey’s neighbor and warn him of the image of security officials using force against the Syrian people.The Syrian president reassured Erdoğan of his decision to make reforms; however, he complained that there were circles whose aim was to stir up trouble rather than protest for reforms, Prime Ministry officials told Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review on Sunday.Welcoming Assad’s decision to institute reforms, Erdoğan urged his Syrian counterpart to implement social and economic reforms posthaste. People should practice concrete reforms as soon as possible, Erdoğan told Assad.The Turkish prime minister drew attention to the pictures of Syrian security officials’ intervention in protests and warned against the confrontational image of police and people, officials said.Prime Ministry officials recalled that Erdoğan urged Assad to implement urgent reforms during his visit to Aleppo in February. Erdoğan said last week he had spoken to Assad during his last visit to Syria about the upheaval in the Arab world and had urged him to find a more democratic path.The telephone call, a gesture to anti-government protesters in Syria, came after the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement on Friday urging the Syrian administration to conduct reform as soon as possible in the face of growing unrest.Relations between Turkey and Syria have improved markedly since the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power. Turkey is boosting its relationships with its Arab-Muslim neighbors, among whom Syria is clearly a key state.Hmmmmm.......NATO doesn't need enemies with members like Turkey,Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full story here.

• Despite Allied Airstrikes, Crackdown Keeps Tense Peace in Tripoli.TRIPOLI, Libya — As allied airstrikes pound the military forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, rebels in eastern Libya and politicians in Western capitals are watching closely for signs that residents in the colonel’s stronghold of Tripoli will rise up to drive him from power.But during a rare unsupervised visit Friday to the Tajura neighborhood here — a rebellious district that led the brief uprising that burned police stations around the city just one month ago— several residents warned that a crackdown by Colonel Qaddafi’s security forces had left them terrified of taking to the streets again anytime soon. Two men, speaking anonymously for their safety, said that during Friday Prayer last week about 200 armed militiamen entered the mosque and prayed alongside them, a clear and intimidating message not to join protests after the services. “Lots of people have been detained, including some of our relatives,” one of the men said. “They tell people, ‘We will only release your relatives if you don’t protest next Friday.’ ”“People are very scared these days,” he continued. “They are watching from everywhere. They have people on the rooftops.” Many white Toyota pickup trucks — the preferred vehicle of the Qaddafi militia — could be seen cruising the streets full of armed men, and a police wagon with men carrying machine guns was parked at an intersection leading downtown. Nearby gunshots were heard during the interviews. Several others said they were afraid to speak. A cafe emptied immediately after two Western journalists walked in. One young man who stayed, Hamza al-Hader, said he worked at the cafe. Contradicting scores of recent interviews with Tajura residents, he repeated the story told by state television. He said the few protests that took place there were led by foreign-born Islamic terrorists wearing long beards — a line that in some circles appears to have become code language meant to signal one’s disbelief in the official propaganda.Whether he was sincere or ironic could not be determined. “Qaddafi should hit back hard,” he said. “I would be a suicide bomber.” Even the official minders who typically accompany foreign journalists seemed jumpy on Friday. On an official trip earlier in the day, an official minder turned back over his shoulder to warn journalists not to photograph a heavily armed checkpoint in Tajura. “I don’t want to go to jail,” he said, “so don’t film anything.” Later, a minder was stopped by security forces — more than 15 armed men sprang out of at least six vehicles — and questioned for more than 30 minutes, apparently because he allowed foreign journalists too much latitude to roam Tajura freely.The Libyan government has been eager to show that the allied airstrikes are killing civilians. State television, for example, has been showing images of insurgent attacks on American military vehicles in Iraq, as part of its extensive effort to draw comparisons between the allied airstrikes on Libya and the war in Iraq. Hmmmmm......not much 'kinetics' going on here.Read the full story here.

• Israel flag outside Prague hotel irks Iranians.Iranian diplomat asks hotel to remove Israeli flag ahead of embassy event, but Arab-Israeli manager tells him: 'If you don't like it, use another venue'.On Wednesday the Iranian embassy in Prague organized an event at a well-known hotel in the Czech capital. Prior to the event, a senior embassy official was shocked to see an Israeli flag flying high at the head of a line of flags situated near the entrance to the hotel. The diplomat spoke to the hotel manager and demanded that the Israeli flag be taken down, but the manager, and Arab-Israeli from Nazareth, rejected the request."The (Israeli) flag will remain at the front of the hotel always," the manager told the Iranian official. "If you don’t like it, you are welcome to hold the event at another hotel."The angry Iranian diplomat had no choice but to accept the hotel's position, and the event was held as scheduled.According to the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, Israeli Ambassador to Prague Yaakov Levy reported the incident to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, and said the Pakistani embassy was scheduled to hold a reception at the same hotel next week. This was not the first time the presence of the Israeli flag resulted in a diplomatic incident. A few years ago former Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki visited Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Upon his arrival at the local Holiday Inn, Mottaki noticed an Israeli flag flying proudly near the entrance. An infuriated Mottaki asked that the flag be removed, but his request was denied.Hmmmm........Read the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Canada - Oh Caledonia,home of the radical left-criminal aboriginal - fundamuslim nexus.Last night I had the opportunity to interview one of the principle people, as well as attend a lecture and set of videos by many of the residents of the besieged town of Caledonia where I learned a great many disturbing things, just two of which are,

1. The government seems to treat what should be a law enforcement issue, as a “peacekeeping” one. This has disturbing implications.
2. Out of over 3000 bands of aboriginal people, all of whom live in peace with the general population of Canada and with varying degrees of success ,only the ‘Six Nations people’ or Mohawk have allied themselves with international terrorists and use their special status to run organized crime with impunity from the police and state, even, on occasion, with their assistance.

Over the course of the coming week, I will publish as much as I can of the video I shot along with their various materials. For the moment, here is a short segment of last night’s ‘Free Thinking Film Society’ presentation with, among many other people, Gary McHale.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Related to previous story : Though this appears to be a bit off topic for the Tundra Tabloids, it isn’t. The situation in Caledonia Canada, which involves the strong arm tactics of local hard-Left radicals, aboriginal criminals and fundamentalist Muslims while a feckless police department looks the other way, needs to be widely reported.Besides, this looks to be a mirror image of what’s happening elsewhere across Europe. The reluctance of local government and law officials to step in and do the right thing, due to their ‘knee-jerk’ adherence to political correctness, is both condemnable and an outrage.By their lack of interest in honestly pursuing the truth in the matter, local Caledonian government and law officials are setting the stage for even more aggressive tactics by the group just mentioned, against the local populace and perhaps emboldening other similar outbreaks across Canada.Another speaker from the Caledonia night at Free Thinking Film Societies night on the issue. This is the former mayor of Haldimand county talking about her frustration attempting to get the Ontario police and Ontario government to uphold Canadian law.Read and see the full story here.

• Bin Laden sets alarm bells ringing.ISLAMABAD - After a prolonged lull, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has launched a series of covert operations in the rugged Hindu Kush mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan following strong tip-offs that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been criss-crossing the area in the past few weeks for high-profile meetings in militant redoubts. The US has been on Bin Laden's trail ever since he fled Afghanistan when the US invaded the country in 2001 to oust the Taliban, but the 54-year-old with a US$50 million reward on his head has always remained several steps in front.For at least two years, little credible news has emerged of Bin Laden's movements and motives. Now, intelligence officials believe they have top-grade accounts as they come from the inner circles of militant camps. Officials are said to be "stunned" by the visibility of Bin Laden's movements, and their frequency, in a matter of a few weeks in the outlawed terrain of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the most unprecedented reports about him since he evaded the US in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan in 2001. The development has fueled speculation in intelligence circles that al-Qaeda could be planning another major attack along the lines of the September 11, 2001, assault on New York and Washington, and the July 2007 foiled bomb attack in London.However, extensive investigations by Asia Times Online, including exchanges within al-Qaeda's camps, point in another direction: given the nature of Bin Laden's meetings, this appears to be the beginning of a new era for a broader struggle in which al-Qaeda, through its Laskhar al-Zil (Shadow Army), will try to capitalize on the Arab revolts and the Palestinian struggle and also revitalize and redefine its role in Afghanistan. Read the full story here.

• Bomb explodes at Lebanese church, no injuries .Device consisting of two kilos of TNT goes off at side entrance of St. Mary's Church in Zahle.A bomb exploded overnight at the entrance of a church in the eastern Lebanese city of Zahle, causing no injuries, a church official said Sunday.The bomb, which consisted of about two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of TNT, was placed at the side entrance of St. Mary's Church, a Syriac Orthodox church, Monsignor Youstinios Boulos Safar told AFP. The device went off at 4:15 am (0115 GMT), blowing out a side door of the church and damaging benches inside as well as the altar, Safar said. Seven cars parked nearby were also damaged. No one claimed responsibility. "I denounce this type of attack and urge people to remain calm," said Safar, who hails from neighboring Syria and is bishop of Zahle, a mainly Christian town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital Beirut. He said he planned to hold Sunday mass at the church despite the attack. Read the full story here.

• Rabbinate freezes interfaith dialogue. Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger says his representatives have suspended all meetings with Muslim clerics until they denounce Jerusalem bombing. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has decided to freeze all types of dialogues held by its representatives with Muslim clerics in Israel, until the latter denounce last week's terror attack in Jerusalem and the ongoing rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli communities from the Gaza Strip. In a statement released Wednesday night, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said he expected the Muslim spiritual leadership to strongly condemn the act of terror in the capital."Once again our neighbors have proved that we have no real partner," Metzger said. "Until the inciting religious leaders denounce the terrorists, the Rabbinate will suspend its interfaith dialogue with them." He was referring to different forums in which Rabbinate representatives meet with Palestinian Muslim clerics, like the "council of religious leaders in Israel", in which the chief rabbi participates alongside officials like Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement's northern branch. A Rabbinate official said Wednesday night that the Palestinian terror organizations believe they are operating in the name of Allah, and therefore the Muslim clerics have an important and influencing role and can work to eradicate this phenomenon.Hmmmm....."Interfaith dialog" in it's natural habitat.Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan: Year 2010, bloodiest chapter in history of Ahmedi killings.LAHORE: The year 2010 witnessed a series of intermittent persecutions of Ahmedis and can be labelled as the bloodiest chapter in the history of the minority’s killings in Pakistan with an unprecedented number of assassinations including a twin terrorist attack on their worship places in Lahore.At least 98 people were gunned down for following Ahmedis’ religious beliefs, while 86 were brutally killed and 124 injured when terrorists attacked their worship places in the city last year on May 28. Separately, several others survived assassination bids during numerous incidents in different parts of the country.Among the victims of the target killings was Professor Muhammad Yusuf, who was murdered by terrorists in his own locality.Yusuf ran a small, charitable school at his house where he provided education to the poor and downtrodden children of Ferozwala area, irrespective of their colour, creed or caste. However, after Yusuf’s assassination, his own family was forced to flee to Sri Lanka in order to survive.Separately, as per the annual report issued by the community’s information office, at least three Ahmedis were wrongfully booked under the blasphemy law and 67 others were unjustly charged with and dragged into religion-based cases.Other incidents involving injustices to Ahmedi citizens include handing over the control of an Ahmadiyya worship place in Ahmad Nagar to non-Ahmedis on January 14 last year as per the orders of the Chiniot District Co-ordination Officer and the denial of shelter and food to the flood affected Ahmedis in the ravaged areas of southern Punjab.Hmmmm.....The religion of peace.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.The 'Human Rights Watch' hierarchy. Here's a look at some of the people in the hierarchy of 'Human Rights Watch'.A deep look into the HRW’s hierarchy reveals their anti Israel agenda:For starters -

-The former Human Rights Watch’s military expert, Marc Garlasco, is a collector of Hitlerian memorabilia.

-According to the Ngo Monitor, Joe Stork, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, took part in a conference on “Zionism and Racism” at the University of Baghdad in 1976, under the auspices of Saddam Hussein.

-Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, promoted boycott campaigns against Israel.

-Researcher Lucy Mair worked for the radical website “Electronic Intifada”.

-Associate Nadia Barhoum campaigned to divest from Israel.

-Staff member Darryl Li, promoted a project on the “Israeli war criminals” at Harvard.

-The “European Press Director”, Reed Brod,y took an active role in the effort to bring Ariel Sharon to trial in Belgium.

-The vice chair of the Human Rights Watch board was instrumental in inviting Iran’s Ahmadinejad to Columbia University in 2007.Hmmm....Sounds really amazing,your tax Dollars at work. Read the full story here.

• UN Resolution Singles Out Israel Over Treatment of Women, Ignores Iran and Libya.A U.N. policy-making body dedicated to “gender equality and the advancement of women” adopted a resolution accusing Israel of holding back the advancement of Palestinian women, but it took no action on the emergency in Libya or the legally enshrined discrimination faced by women in Iran.The only country-specific resolution passed by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at its recent session in New York was one condemning Israel over the Palestinian issue.Libya is a member of the 45-country CSW, and Iran has just taken up a seat on the body for the next four years.In Libya, a U.N. aid coordinator estimates this week that some 600,000 people affected by the conflict now underway will need humanitarian help. Many of those will be women.Difficulties experienced by Libyan women long predated the current crisis. Human rights monitors say women’s and girl’s rights are routinely violated by the state in so-called “social rehabilitation” facilities, where those suspected of violating moral codes – including rape victims – can be held indefinitely.Hmmmm.....This 'organisation' is a joke,all over the world especially Iran women are mistreated and they single out Israel.The UN just lost all credibility!Read the full story here.

• Witness at King Hearing to Warn 'Political Fear' Stifling Debate Over Radical Islam.Relatives of two young men who were lured away by Islamic radicals plan to tell a House committee Thursday that Muslim leaders in America "brainwashed" and "manipulated" their family members, and that "political fear" is preventing people from talking about Islamic extremism. The witnesses are part of the panel Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., plans to call at a controversial hearing on the threat posed by radical Islam in the United States. Two witnesses are expected to provide a first-hand account on how their relatives were exploited by Islamic radicals. Melvin Bledsoe, whose son allegedly attacked an Army recruiting center in Arkansas, said in written testimony -- which Fox News has seen -- that Americans are ignoring the issue. "There is a big elephant in the room, but our society continues not to see it. This wrong is caused by political correctness. You can even call it political fear," he said. Bledsoe plans to describe how his son, Carlos, was radicalized when he went off to college in Nashville, Tenn. In his testimony, he explained how his son's personality changed and how, when he returned home for the holidays in 2005, he told his family he converted to Islam. From that point, he changed his name and eventually traveled to Yemen. "Some Muslim leaders had taken advantage of my son. But he's not the only one being taken advantage of. This is going on in Nashville and in many other cities in America," Bledsoe plans to say. "In Nashville, Carlos was captured by people best described as hunters. He was manipulated and lied to. That's how he made his way to Yemen." Bledsoe claims his son's link-up with Yemeni extremists was "facilitated by their American counterparts in Nashville. ... Something is wrong with the Muslim leadership in Nashville."The Council on American-Islamic Relations joined other groups for a press conference Wednesday denouncing the hearing. CAIR Director Nihad Awad said that King's "bias" and "fear-mongering" make him "unfit" to lead the House committee. Awad condemned violent extremism but said King was spreading "false" allegations and "irresponsible rhetoric" about American Muslims. CAIR was among the groups that backed a protest in New York City over the weekend. Dozens of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also sent out a letter Tuesday comparing King's plans to "McCarthyism and Japanese internment." But King in his statement plans to urge "responsible" Muslim leaders to reject CAIR and plans to defend his hearing as the "logical response to the repeated and urgent warnings" coming out of the Obama administration."There is no equivalency of threat between Al Qaeda and neo-Nazis, environmental extremists or other isolated madmen. Only Al Qaeda and its Islamist affiliates in this country are part of an international threat to our nation," King plans to say.Hmmmmm......Ever heard of Al-taqiyya ?Read the full story here.

• HT:UnifiedPatriots.Wild Thursday in Store for Madison.Amid reports that security has all but disappeared in the Wisconsin capitol, expect a wild day of union protesters finding interesting, creative and imaginative ways of making a specatacle of themselves on Thursday.Note that many outlets reported that the WI bill had ended collective bargaining for public sector employees. The new legislation keeps collective bargaining in place for base pay, but curtails union negotiations on benefits packages.Hmmmm......"Dear Leader smiling about his 'troops'?Read the full story here.

• Ex-soldier linked to white supremacist group arrested over 'plot to bomb MLK Day parade'.An ex-soldier has been arrested in connection with a bomb planted at a Martin Luther King Day parade that could have killed hundreds.FBI vehicles converged on a home about 75 miles north of Spokane, Washington, earlier today and arrested Kevin William Harpham, 36, who has been linked to white supremacist groups.The bomb was found on January 17 inside a backpack by city workers on the side of the street before the start of the parade.It was recovered and defused before it could cause any injuries but was said to have had the potential to kill hundreds.The Southern Poverty Law Centre confirmed that Harpham was a member of the National Alliance in 2004 and a member of the U.S. Army in 1996 and 1997.The two T-shirts, found inside the backpack, led agents to the area he lived in Colville, Stevens County.For weeks, the FBI said nothing about possible suspects, but public opinion from the beginning focused on some of the white supremacist groups that have brought notoriety to the region in the past three decades. The area once served as headquarters for Richard Butler's Aryan Nations, whose members were lured by the small number of minorities.Officials for the FBI in Spokane, which is leading the search, declined to comment on the developments Wednesday.Spokane has 200,000 residents and is about 100 miles south of the Canadian border.Hmmmm......A notion of being the "Herren Volk" can only lead to destruction as we've seen with the Nazi's in the past.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.Unions Storm Madison, Break Windows: Capital in Chaos.We have almost completely lost control of the Capitol building. We now only control the 3rd and 4th floors.Teachers Unions are sending out robo calls and emails to all their members, asking them to get to the capitol NOW. We know this as a fact.Democrat Senators are opening windows and letting protesters in. Door’s have been ripped off their hinges.Next 6-8 hours will determine who controls the capitol. If we lose control, the assembly can’t meet tomorrow.Quasi-military forces are the only option to win back control of building. They are very close to being called in.Law enforcement are leaking legislators whereabouts to protesters. No one is safe.Today they escorted State Senators across the street via an underground tunnel. It’s top secret, but protesters were waiting for them.National Guard may be called in….plans have been set. We are running out of options.Hmmmm.......Obama's "Reichstag fire" finally here?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheBlaze.No. 3 House Dem to Join Louis Farrakhan for Program on ‘Disappearing Black Community’.U.S. Assistant House Minority Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., will join controversial Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan Friday at Pittsburgh’s August Wilson Center for African American Culture for a live broadcast discussion on “The Disappearing Black Community and How We Can Get It Back.”The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported Tuesday that Clyburn — a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus — and Farrakhan were scheduled to be joined by Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. However, Campbell has since announced she will not appear alongside Farrakhan and has chosen not to participate.If he attends, Clyburn won’t be the first member of Congress to appear with Farrakhan. In 2004, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., stood on stage at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion as Farrakhan delivered remarks on “Reparations: What Do America and Europe Owe?“I’m honored to join this distinguished leader who gives hope and understanding to people all over the world, of every color, of every religion, and of every political belief,” Conyers said of Farrakhan during the 2004 “Saviours Day” celebration. What Does Allah (God) Promise?”“What is God’s promise?” Farrakhan rhetorically remarked in 2004: “Justice, after which (Blacks in America) will come out with great substance,” he answered. “What does America and Europe owe? They owe everything. They must repent or be destroyed from the planet.”Additionally, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress, is reportedly a “former” member of the Nation of Islam. When he was elected in 2006, FrontPage Magazine labeled Ellison “Farrakhan’s candidate“ and the Weekly Standard called him ”Louis Farrakhan’s First Congressman.”The [Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party] is now handing its “greatest stronghold” over to a candidate with long ties to Louis Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic Nation of Islam and who has already accrued at least an estimated $20,000-$35,000 in funding from the terrorist-connected Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), including the maximum personal donation from CAIR chief Nihad Awad. [...]Blogger Michael Brodkorb at Minnesota Democrats Exposed uncovered two articles that Keith Ellison wrote for the Minnesota Daily under the name Keith E. Hakim as a University of Minnesota Law student in 1989 and 1990. In one Ellison-Hakim repeats standard Nation of Islam (NOI) rhetoric, complaining of “the burden of brutal white savagery” and calls for a secessionist black “land base”…consisting of “Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.”While Smith did not defend or excuse any comments Farrakhan has aimed toward Jews, she insisted they were not relevant to Friday evening’s town hall meeting. “This is a conversation for and to African Americans,” she said. “We’re not talking about anti-Semitism. We do not tell the Jewish community who to talk to and we never have.”Hmmmm......"Change we can see"?Read the full story here.

• Gross Eliminates Government Debt From Pimco's Flagship Total Return Fund.Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., eliminated government-related debt from his flagship fund last month as the U.S. projected record budget deficits. Pimco’s $237 billion Total Return Fund last held zero government-related debt in January 2009. Gross had cut the holdings to 12 percent of assets in January, according to the Newport Beach, California-based company’s website. The fund’s net cash-and-equivalent position surged from 5 percent to 23 percent in February, the highest since May 2008.As the Fed maintains its target rate at a record low range of zero to 0.25 percent and has made an increase in inflation a cornerstone of its monetary policy, Gross noted that inflation may be a bigger factor than many suggest. Gains in so-called headline inflation matter more for the U.S. economy than Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke suggests and rising oil prices may cut U.S. gross domestic product by a quarter to half a percentage point, Gross said March 4 in a radio interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene. “Bernanke tends to think this doesn’t matter -- at least in terms of headline versus the core -- we do,” Gross said.Hmmmm....Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Muslim Journalist: Congressman King’s Radical Islam Hearings A Good Idea.The political spin against Thursday’s congressional hearing into Islamic radicalization against America is off base, a Muslim journalist argues. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., is not waging a McCarthyite witch hunt, but acknowledging a problem self-anointed Muslim political leaders refuse to see.As she does so often, Asra Nomani swims against the tide in columns published by the Daily Beast and the Washington Post. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who just completed a compelling investigation into all the players behind the murder of her former colleague Daniel Pearl, has been pushing for Muslim Americans to do a better job policing their own communities.It’s difficult, she writes, for “shame-based societies” to break through a reflexive denial that any problem exists. Instead, they deliver “obtuse PR campaigns that don’t address issues of radicalism head-on.”That’s what national Islamist groups are doing this week, drumming up protests and condemnation of King and of the hearing’s focus on radicalization among Muslims, as opposed to political violence in general.Muslim Americans “have to shake off the fear of shame and own the problems inside our community. In a sense, we need to be shameless,” Nomani writes. “We have to realize that neither our community nor Islam has to be defined by criminals such as [Fort Hood shooter] Maj. Nidal Hassan and [Times Square attempted bomber]Faisal Shahzad, but they will be if we don’t disavow these men and their ideologies.”Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.Obama Wants a “Cabinet Czar” Liaison to His Own Administration.The Middle East is in flames, China will shortly rival our military power, trade deals needed to help our limping economy continue to lag, and the Washington Post reports the Administration is now engaged in a major diplomatic effort to improve relations with their own cabinet secretaries?The lowlight:“News this week of the first departure of a Cabinet secretary from the Obama administration comes amid a wide-ranging effort under the new chief of staff, William M. Daley, to repair badly frayed relations between the White House and the Cabinet.”The “solution” includes the creation of a new “Cabinet Czar”…“At the same time, the White House recently created the position of Cabinet communications director, appointing media adviser Tom Gavin to the job. The goal, according to the official statement, is ‘to better coordinate with and utilize members of the Cabinet’ and is a ‘high priority.’”…even as the Post reports that part of the problem is the current “czars.”“Part of the problem, people on both sides said, has been an abundance of issue specialists – the ‘czars’ – who manage matters on the environment and the economy within the West Wing. ‘The White House loops people out. The czars keep people from getting in,’ said one senior Democratic official who has fielded such complaints from three agency heads. ‘The level of frustration is pretty high.’”Of course Rahm is to blame – but only now that he is gone.Hmmmm.....A liason between the different "Chains of Command"?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Video :Aziza Ibrahim, Former Bodyguard of Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, Recounts Her Experiences: We Had to Watch Students Being Executed.Aziza Ibrahim has nothing left but memories. Today, 17 years after her return from Libya, the "revolutionary nun," as Al-Qadhafi called his female bodyguards, decided to acknowledge that she was one of them. She has no photograph or evidence to support what she says, but we believe her, because she knows more than expected. Aziza Ibrahim: First, Al-Qadhafi's female bodyguards must refrain from getting married. He calls them "revolutionary nuns," and nuns cannot get married. Secondly, she needs to have a strong personality, because she has to get along without her family. She may have to kill members of his family. There was a female bodyguard, for example, called Jamila Abu Ghneim, who used to terrify us. She killed his cousin, Colonel Hassan Shkeir Al-Qadhafi. He raised his voice at Mu'ammar during an argument, in front o fall of us, and just because of this, she shot him, next to Al-Qadhafi.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.On the use of the term 'Palestinian'.Those of you who have been to this blog more than once or twice know that I always put the term 'Palestinian' in scare quotes. The reason I do this is that - as they have admitted themselves - the term 'Palestinian' was an invention of the Arab countries in a bid to separate the 1948 and 1967 wars (which were undertaken by the Arab countries) from their consequences. Many of the usages of the term 'Palestinian' before 1948 referred to Jews.Yisrael Medad has gone a step further and has researched the use of the word 'Palestinian' to refer specifically to Arabs (and not to Jews) in the 1920's starting around the time that what is now known as the 'kingdom of Jordan' was detached from the Palestine Mandate. Of course, if the term 'Palestinian' was a common usage for Arabs only in the 1920's, perhaps my claim that there is no such thing as a 'Palestinian people' is unfair. On the other hand, if the term 'Palestinian' was rarely or never used to describe Arabs only that would be evidence for my point.Yisrael's research is not conclusive, but it certainly seems to lean to the view that there is no distinctly 'Palestinian people' who are Arabs.Hmmmm......."What's in the Name?"Read the full story here.

• Egypt Gas Shut Off Also Affecting Jordan.Israel is not the only country who isn't receiving gas from Egypt following the sabotage of the Egyptian gas pipeline in Sinai during January's unrest which led to former President Hosni Mubarak's ouster. While most focus solely on Egypt's failure to resume the supply of natural gas to Israel, Jordan isn't receiving any gas from Egypt, either, according to Dr. Aaron Lerner of International Media Review Analysis.“Given that there is absolutely no problem in relations between Jordan and Egypt there is no reason to attribute the failure to resume gas supplies to Israel to any possible problem in Israeli-Egyptian relations,” Dr. Lerner wrote, citing a press release on the website of the Jordanian National Electric Power Company (NEPCO).In a statement to Al Doustour, on Sunday, Jordan's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dr. Khaled Tuqan, said: “Our brothers in Egypt told us yesterday it was the finalization of all technical procedures at the plant, which was vandalized last month, and that there are internal procedures for the resumption of pumping gas.Under current agreements between the two countries, Jordan's import of natural gas from Egypt via the Arab gas pipeline passing through the Hashemite kingdom's territory accounts for 80% of electricity production in the kingdom.Israel, who receives 40% of its natural gas supplies from Egypt under a deal that went into effect three years ago under which Egypt is to sell Israel 1.7 billion cubic meters a year for at least 15 years, has taken the interruption of gas from Egypt as a sign it needs to achieve diversified energy security."Israel needs to achieve security of energy supply. This is one of the most fundamental security and economic aspects of a country," said Gina Cohen, an electricity and gas industry consultant based in Israel.Israel's recently discovered Leviathan and Tamar gas-fields, may prove to be game-changers in terms of the region's energy politics, however. Combined, the fields contain an estimated 24 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. The finds are enough to keep Israel energy self-sufficient for decades – and may allow Israel to export natural gas to its neighbors.Hmmmm.......If the UN doesn't change the Lebanese Borders,with support from Obama?Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Ethiopia Sends Military to Stop Muslim Violence Against Christians.Washington -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Ethiopian government has sent military forces to put down the anti-Christian violence perpetrated by Muslims in Asendabo and the surrounding areas. Government officials have arrested several Muslims suspected of attacking Christians in the area.When the attacks began on March 2, Muslims killed one Christian, wounded several others, burned down 55 churches, 30 Christian homes, a Bible school, a Christian orphanage, and a church office. More than 3,000 Christians are now displaced because of the violence.The violence started after Muslims falsely accused Christians of desecrating the Qur'an. The local police and government officials did nothing to stop the attackers. Federal government officials have now stepped in and removed the local Muslim administrator for his failure to protect Christians.A Christian leader told ICC that the attacks were organized by members of Kwarej, a radical Islamic group that fights to establish an Islamic state in Ethiopia. The Muslim attackers came from different parts of Ethiopia, including the Somali region."It's very sad that a radical Muslim group destabilizes the unity of Ethiopian Christians and Muslims. We are devastated by the attacks and we urge all concerned people to help us. We call upon Ethiopian officials to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future," the church leader added."Islamic radicals are fighting to establish an Islamic state in Christian majority Ethiopia. Unfortunately, the Christians have borne the brunt of the Islamic attacks. Christians will continue to be killed unless the government of Ethiopia starts taking serious measures to stop Islamists from carrying out similar attacks. We urge all the concerned to put pressure on Ethiopia to protect its citizens," said Jonathan Racho, ICC's Regional Manager for Africa.Read the full story here.

• Iran - Recap of March 8th Opposition Protests in Iran + Videos.Since a newly formed Green opposition group called for mass peaceful protests to take place in Iran on every Tuesday in the month of March, until the day of the Fire Festival (Charshanbe Soori, March 14th), Iranian citizens have responded by heading to the streets on the specified days to chant slogans against the Islamic Republic regime. The scheduled protest on March 8th was to mark the anniversary of International Women’s Day.Reports and videos that surfaced from Iran today show a heavy presence of security forces on the streets of Tehran and Shiraz.According to the human rights group HRANA, anti-riot police and plainclothes forces were positioned at the main squares in Tehran since before noon, to prevent the formation of protests. Security forces blocked the streets leading to the squares and told the people, “Downtown is closed today.” On Takht Tavoos Street, security forces took extra measures to prevent the formation of protests. They performed public physical checks and interrogations on pedestrians and investigated their mobile phones. On Yousef Abad Street, there were clashes reported between protesting civilians and security forces. On Fatemeh Street, Special Guard Unit forces attempted to disperse civilians [who were planning to gather] by using tear gas and firing shots in the air. HRANA reported on mass beatings and arrests of civilians by regime forces.A banner with the picture of Khamenei and the text "Dictator, say hello to the end" hangs from a bridge over the Niayesh highway in Tehran.The Human Rights and Democracy Activists group reported that numerous teenage Basiji forces harassed and attacked the Mourning Mothers of Laleh Park group near Amirabad Street. The mothers attempted to gather in recognition of International Women’s Day.Additionally, Iran News Agency reported that a large crowd had gathered today on Molasadra street in Shiraz. People chanted, “Death to the dictator” and “Mubarak, Ben Ali, now it’s time for Seyed Ali”. Regime forces reportedly beat up protesters. The video below shows the brave Shirazi people booing regime forces who terrorized the streets with their suppressive and violent actions.Hmmm......WHY is Obama silent,WHY does he protect this Dictator?Because he's the Enemy of Israel?Read and see the 6 videos & the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Young Members of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Call for 'Revolution' Within the Movement.Recently, some of the younger members of the Muslim Brotherhood have called for a revolution inside the movement, demanding recognition for the vital role of youth and women within the Brotherhood and greater representation in the movement's institutions. They also demanded that the Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council and the Office of the General Guide be dissolved, pending open elections under proper judicial oversight. The members threatened that if these demands were not met, they would demonstrate en masse with the aim of overthrowing the movement's leadership.On February 23, 2011, the "coordinators of the Muslim Brotherhood youth revolution" held a conference in Alexandria at which they presented their demands. They warned that if their demands were ignored, over 30,000 would demonstrate on March 17 to advance their cause. The editor of the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Tariq Alhomayed, wrote that the hostility to the Mubarak regime had been a uniting factor for the Muslim Brotherhood, and that with Mubarak gone the time was ripe for an upheaval within the movement: "The mere fact that Muslim Brotherhood youths are planning to recruit close to 30,000 members, and to stage a revolution against the old faces [in the movement], indicates that the members feel disgruntled. [They are dismayed that] their movement has aged, and that an exclusive clique controls its decisions – [especially considering that] the Brotherhood itself called on the former Egyptian regime, and on the Arab states, [to allow] greater pluralism and openness, among other demands. "This youth revolution within the Brotherhood is not a mere imitation of the January 25 revolution [in Egypt], for young members have called for a revolution inside the movement in the past. But naturally, the clandestine [nature of] the Brotherhood's activity, and its hostile relations with the former Egyptian regime, helped the movement to maintain its cohesion – because, as everyone knows, a [common] enemy is a uniting factor. With the regime threatening the movement as a whole, the Brotherhood managed to [contain] its malcontents. But today, things are different..."All this pertains not only to the Muslim Brotherhood. As a colleague of mine said, 'Who knows, maybe we will see a youth revolution in Hizbullah soon.' But it looks as though the success of such a revolution depends on the success of the Green Revolution in Iran.Hmmmmm........."Once upon a time in there was a revolution in Egypt"?Read the full story here.

• 'British show demonizes Israel'.British mini-series based in Israel 'worse than anything I've seen,' London embassy spokesman says; show draws parallels involving IDF, Nazi era, heroine helps Palestinians smuggle arms into Gaza.A British mini-series that slams the IDF and the State of Israel has been slammed by the Jewish state's embassy spokesman, Amir Ofek, as "a new category of hostility towards Israel." The mini-series, which provoked accusations of demonization and hate-mongering, has been hailed by British TV critics as the year's best drama.The show, which was mostly filmed in Israel, provoked fury among many British Jewish. Ofek told the Jewish Chronicle that "In my 15-year career I have never seen anything like it in the Western media. I'm aware of artistic freedom, but nevertheless I feel this is worse than anything I've seen." "It's obvious there was a special attempt to demonize Israelis," he said. They used every tool available - visuals especially - to undermine the Israeli perspective." The show's heroine is a young British woman who travels to Israel ahead of her Israeli friend's enlistment with the IDF. Before the trip, she comes across a dairy written by her dying grandfather, who during the 1940s helped save Jews from death camp and was later sent to the Land of Israel at the service of Her Majesty. In Israel, the young Londoner searches for Muhammad, a friend of her grandfather. While at it, she helps the Palestinians smuggles arms to Gaza, just like her grandpa helped the Arabs earlier.Embassy Spokesman Ofek said IDF troops were portrayed as blood-thirsty, while the Palestinians were mostly in the role of helpless victims. The diplomat also slammed the portrayal of wealthy Israeli families spending their time in the swimming pool as unrepresentative of Israeli society. "In my time here, we have never had as many complaints from people as we have had for this program. When I asked people if they had watched all the episodes they said they had given up because it was so upsetting," he said. Hmmmmm........Germany 1939 anyone?Read the full story here.

• HT:Stratfor.Bahrain and the Battle Between Iran and Saudi Arabia.By George Friedman.The world’s attention is focused on Libya, which is now in a state of civil war with the winner far from clear. While crucial for the Libyan people and of some significance to the world’s oil markets, in our view, Libya is not the most important event in the Arab world at the moment. The demonstrations in Bahrain are, in my view, far more significant in their implications for the region and potentially for the world. To understand this, we must place it in a strategic context.As STRATFOR has been saying for quite a while, a decisive moment is approaching, with the United States currently slated to withdraw the last of its forces from Iraq by the end of the year. Indeed, we are already at a point where the composition of the 50,000 troops remaining in Iraq has shifted from combat troops to training and support personnel. As it stands now, even these will all be gone by Dec. 31, 2011, provided the United States does not negotiate an extended stay. Iraq still does not have a stable government. It also does not have a military and security apparatus able to enforce the will of the government (which is hardly of one mind on anything) on the country, much less defend the country from outside forces.The U.S. withdrawal from Iraq sets the stage for Iran to pursue this goal, profoundly changing the regional dynamic.Iran has another, more challenging strategic interest, one it has had since Biblical times. That goal is to be the dominant power in the Persian Gulf.For Tehran, this is both reasonable and attainable. Iran has the largest and most ideologically committed military of any state in the Persian Gulf region. Despite the apparent technological sophistication of the Gulf states’ militaries, they are shells. Iran’s is not. In addition to being the leading military force in the Persian Gulf, Iran has 75 million people, giving it a larger population than all other Persian Gulf states combined.With the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, this strategy is being abandoned in the sense that the force needed to contain Iran is being withdrawn. The forces left in Kuwait and U.S air power might be able to limit a conventional Iranian attack. Still, the U.S. withdrawal leaves the Iranians with the most powerful military force in the region regardless of whether they acquire nuclear weapons. Indeed, in my view, the nuclear issue largely has been an Iranian diversion from the more fundamental issue, namely, the regional balance after the departure of the United States. By focusing on the nuclear issue, these other issues appeared subsidiary and have been largely ignored.As important, the U.S. withdrawal will cause a profound shift in psychological perceptions of power in the region. Recognition of Iran’s relative power based on ground realities will force a very different political perception of Iran, and a desire to accommodate Tehran. The Iranians, who understand the weakness of their military’s logistics and air power, are pursuing a strategy of indirect approach. They are laying the foundation for power based on a perception of greater Iranian power and declining American and Saudi power.Hmmmmm......Another result of this 'Obamination.Read the full story here.

• 'NATO seizes Iranian arms smuggling en route to Taliban'.NATO forces intercepted the most powerful Iranian-made rockets ever smuggled to the Taliban in Afganistian, The Associated Press sited an international intelligence official as saying Wednesday. The rockets were to be used for the Taliban's spring campaign. NATO troops captured a three-truck convoy carrying 50 122 millimeter rockets in Southern Nirmuz, near the Iranian and Pakistani borders, the official said.The Associate Press reported rockets are capable of being fired up to 13 miles away from the target, and have an 80 foot explosion, a figure double that of what was previous provided to the Taliban from Iran since 2006, the official said.In December 2010, Shin Bet reported that Iran had smuggled into the Gaza Strip about 1,000 mortar shells, hundreds of shortrange rockets and a few dozen advanced anti-tank missiles throughout the year.Iran has continued to be Hamas's chief arms provider, smuggling through Sudan and Sinai.Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:ANSAMed.Egypt - Women Kicked Out Of Egypt's Tahrir Square On International Women's Day.CAIRO, MARCH 8 - Small groups of women protesting in Egypt's Tahrir Square to mark International Women's Day, have been removed from the square by young men who have treated the women aggressively, snatched their placards and thrown them to the ground. Tahrir Square was the focal point of the January 25 revolt in the country."I am very upset. It is not possible that women, whose presence contributed so much to the success of the Egyptian unrest, be denied their rights," the former Minister for Families, Moushira Khattab, told ANSA. After arriving in Tahrir Square, Khattab stayed only for a few minutes, disgusted at anti-female slogans being chanted by groups of men.Hmmmm.....Yes these changes in the Arab world are for the better Mr President.Read the full story here.

• British Government Gave Over $800K in Taxpayer Funds to Violence-Linked Islamist Group.LONDON- The Government gave more than half a million pounds of taxpayers’ cash to a controversial Islamic group, it has been revealed.The Department of Communities and Local Government handed the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and related groups £550,985 over three years.In March 2009 the Government suspended links with the MCB and demanded one of its leaders should be sacked for allegedly supporting violence against Israel.In a written Parliamentary answer tonight, the coalition detailed its grants to the MCB and linked organisations.It said £174,000 was given to improve mosques, £167,000 went to the Nottingham-based Karimia Institute for “youth leadership training”, and £25,000 was awarded to Young Muslims UK to “promote talent”.Read the full story here.

• Saudi protestors warned.Saudi Arabia to 'cut off any finger' raised against regime, foreign minister says.Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Wednesday that dialogue - not protests - is the way to bring reform and warned that the oil-rich nation will take strong action if activists take to the streets. "The kingdom does not interfere in the affairs of others and will not allow for anyone to interfere in its own affairs," Prince Saud al-Faisal said Wednesday at a press conference in Saudi Arabia's port of Jiddah. Using a figure of speech, he said his regime would "cut off any finger" raised against the regime."Reform cannot be achieved through protests ... The best way to achieve demands is through national dialogue," he said. Inspired by a wave of uprisings in the Arab world, activists from Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslim minority have called for a "Day of Rage" on Friday to demand the regime's ouster. The government accuses Shiites from outside the country of spurring the protests. The Interior Ministry on Monday reiterated that demonstrations are banned in the kingdom on grounds that they contradict Islamic laws and values and said in a statement that its security forces will act against anyone taking part in them.Hmmm....Read the full story here.

• The Belgium - Primo Magazine. 12 - 18 March 2011 . Carries on page 43 the following story : Obama's NOT invited by William and Kath. Most significant absentees on the guest lists are Barack and Michelle Obama,they have 'officially' no problem with this since this wedding is a private matter and not a states matter.But un officially it's said that especially Michelle has a problem with it.According to Michelle Obama : " I'm not invited to the Royal wedding because Camilla can't stand that I'm younger and more popular". Some say that Camilla was encouraged by Prince William because he heard from hearsay that Michelle called his mother the late Princes Diana "a sex enslaved fashion doll". Then Michelle continued: 'these idiots invite ex junkies and hooker visitors but not me'!Hmmm.......... Source.