Barack Obama to announce return of 34,000 US troops in a year at State of the Union address , say sources

Barack Obama to announce return of 34,000 US troops in a year at State of the Union address , say sources.(NDtv).Washington: A person familiar with President Barack Obama's State of the Union address says he will announce that 34,000 U.S. troops will be home from Afghanistan one year from today. That's about half the US troops currently in Afghanistan. The decision marks the next phase in Obama's plans to end the US-led war in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The person who provided the information did so on condition of anonymity to discuss the drawdown before the president's announcement.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 138.138
  On 30.06.2011 at 11:23 GMT+2
  
  A small amount of radioactive substances was found from urine samples of all of 10 children in Fukushima surveyed by a Japanese civic association and a French nongovernmental organization, the groups said Thursday. David Boilley, president of the Acro radioactivity measuring body, told a news conference in Tokyo that the survey on 10 boys and girls aged between 6 and 16 in Fukushima city suggested there was a high possibility that children in and near the city had been exposed to radiation internally. The highest levels found by the survey were 1.13 becquerels of radioactive cesium-134 per 1 litre of urine from an 8-year-old girl, and 1.30 becquerels of cesium-137 in a 7-year-old boy. The city is located 60 kilometres north-west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, which has been leaking radiaoactive material into the environment since it was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The radiation levels detected did not represent an immediate risk to health, but those two isotopes of cesium have half-lives of two and 30 years respectively, raising concerns about the long-term contamination of the environment and locally grown foodstuffs.
  
  The Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation, consisting of local parents, said the group would urge the central and local governments to have all citizens in the prefecture undergo detailed tests soon. Acro previously investigated radiation exposure of children who lived near the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which runs the plant, started its work Thursday to transfer low-level radiation-tainted water to a large floating container, which has a capacity to collect about 10,000 tons of water. TEPCO said some 8,000 tons of water that the operator has stored at a temporary tank would be moved to the container, which is berthed along the quay near the plant, Kyodo reported. The water came from the turbine buildings of reactors 5 and 6, and most of the water was believed to be seawater left after devastating tsunami waves hit the plant on March 11. TEPCO has struggled to deal with 110,000 tons of contaminated water at the plant while a newly-installed water-treatment system has halted several times due to water leaks and other technical problems.
  Situation Update No. 137 - On 29.06.2011 at 03:40 GMT+2
  
  Tonnes of radioactive water was discovered to have leaked into the ground from the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan's nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday. About 15 tonnes of water with a low level of radiation leaked from a storage tank at the plant, on the Pacific coast 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said it was still investigating the cause of the leak, which was repaired after being discovered around noon on Tuesday. Vast amounts of water contaminated with varying levels of radiation have accumulated in storage tanks at the plant after being used by the utility to cool reactors damaged when their original cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Tepco is trying to use a decontamination system that cleans radioactive water so it can be recycled to cool the reactors, but has encountered technical glitches.
  Situation Update No. 136  -  On 28.06.2011 at 10:53 GMT+2
  
  Radioactive strontium has been found on the seabed near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Kyodo reported on Tuesday. Tokyo Electric Power Company said strontium-89 and -90 was discovered in the seabed soil about 3 kilometers off the coast, some 20 kilometers north and south of the nuclear complex. Between 10 and 44 becquerels per kilogram of strontium-90 were detected, which has a half-life of 29 years. Shigeharu Kato, a member of the Nuclear Safety Commission, said further examination was needed to determine if or how the substances can accumulate in marine life, the NHK news agency reported. A 9.0-magnitude quake struck off Japan's northeast coast on March 11, triggering a tsunami and explosions at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. According to Japanese scientists, the tsunami triggered by the quake washed over 561 square kilometers in 23 prefectures. Huge waves reached 10 kilometers (6 miles) inland destroying everything on their way. The disaster destroyed over 151,000 buildings and killed at least 15,000 people, while 9,893 people still remain unaccounted for. The government has previously said the damage from the disaster could total $184 billion.Source : Here .

• UPDATED ! Radioactive cesium was detected in processed tea that was made from leaves that elementary school children picked in Tokyo as part of their school curriculum, it has been learned. The Itabashi Ward Office announced on June 30 that 2,700 becquerels of radioactive cesium -- in excess of the government's provisional limit -- was detected in processed tea that used leaves picked at a plantation in the ward by some 300 students of local elementary schools. The processed tea is set to be disposed of, while none of the children have suffered any health problems. The tea plantation is dedicated to providing visitors with opportunities to pick leaves and does not ship its harvest to the market. According to the ward office, the tea-picking class took place on May 9, and fourth- and fifth-grade students from three public elementary schools in the ward participated in the event. When the approximately 20 kilograms of processed tea -- made of some 80 kilograms of first-harvest leaves that the students had picked -- was screened, 1,300 becquerels of cesium 134 per kilogram and 1,400 becquerels of cesium 137 per kilogram were detected. Following the revelation, ward officials picked second-harvest tea leaves at the plantation on June 22 and detected 350 becquerels of cesium from raw tea leaves. The ward office will conduct screenings of locally-grown agricultural products but will not regulate the shipment of tea leaves as there is no other tea plantation in the ward. It is the first time that radioactive cesium has been detected in tea leaves grown in Tokyo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's survey had previously detected no radioactive substances exceeding the government limit in agricultural products grown in the capital.Source.
  
  
• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez treated for cancer.(Al-Jazeera)Video - Hugo Chavez makes his first televised speech after surgery in Cuba and says he will "overcome" health battle.The Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, has admitted in a television address that he had a tumour but had undergone a successful operation in Cuba to extract the cancerous cells and was on the road to full recovery.Chavez, 56, made his first televised speech to the nation on Thursday, weeks after he was hospitalised in the Cuban capital, Havana, sparking widespread speculation he might be seriously ill."They confirmed the existence of a tumourous abscess, with the presence of cancerous cells, which required another operation to extract the tumour completely," he said, standing at a lectern by a Venezuelan flag and a painting of his hero, South American independence leader Simon Bolivar."I deeply appreciate the demonstrations of solidarity by Venezuelans and other brotherly people."Chavez said the medical process was "slow and careful" and that he was determined to "overcome" the health battle.Comparing his health problem to a previous dark moment - a short-lived 2002 coup against him - Chavez promised he would be back in typically grandiose language."I want to talk to you about the rising sun, I think that we have emerged," he said.The Venezuelan government had earlier said he was recovering from an abcess in the pelvis in Cuba, from where Thursday's speech was broadcast.Shortly after the speech, Venezuela's vice-president, Elias Jaua, flanked by government ministers, said on state television that the wide-reaching socialist reforms would be "deepened" despite Chavez's ill health.Nevertheless, there is huge uncertainty about who could replace Chavez, given the fact that Venezuela's political structures are so closely tied to his persona."Chavez is really the man of Venezuela," Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez said. "There's really not a figure in the ruling party, or even in the opposition, that will match the charisma that Hugo Chavez has."Analysts said Chavez's prolonged absence could prompt infighting among his allies ahead of the 2012 elections."From the president's speech, it is impossible to deduce if he will or will not be in a physical state and the right mood to go into the 2012 campaign," Luis-Vicente Leon, a local analyst, said.Eva Golinger, a lawyer and writer in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, told Al Jazeera there was "no sign" Chavez would not be able to continue as president."He gave his speech ... from a very energetic and strong and charismatic position and so it seems as though he's recovering well," she said."He is someone who has faced all kinds of difficulties and obstacles, particularly during his presidency, and so it seems as though he is going to pull through this one just fine."Until Thursday, the official line had been that he was recovering well from an operation to remove a pelvic abscess and would return soon.Hmmmmm.......Prostate cancer?Average lifespan after surgery 5 years.Read the full story here.

• Obama: Still Getting the Hang of Answering Questions.(NationalReview).Has Obama ever given a bravura performance at a press conference? No wonder he goes three months or so without doing them.Today he mentioned a tax break for corporate jets six times. He didn’t mention that he signed legislation preserving the tax code provision into law, or that the grand total of the savings of ending that tax break would be about $3 billion over ten years.The man who flies anywhere he wants, anytime, cost-free, complained at great length that other people’s private jets are insufficiently taxed. yesterday, Obama flew on Air Force One to Philadelphia, Pa., to attend two DNC fundraisers,denouncing the current tax rates on corporate jets, without anyone remarking on the irony.

What I think this reveals is that Barack Obama is not used to being challenged. Most of us have scoffed at his predictable straw men, his off-the-cuff references to tonsil-stealing doctors, his exhausted, “some on the right say we should take this extreme path, some on the left take this extreme path, but I choose this sensible path in the middle” framing of every issue.

As we recall from his attacks upon Paul Ryan at GWU, the Supreme Court justices at the State of the Union, and his jabs at Pete Hoekstra, Obama loves to go after his opponents in national addresses, with his targets in the audience, unable to respond. In the setting of the grandiose national address, there is rarely a rebuttal. Any interruption to dispute the facts — like, say, Rep. Joe Wilson yelling out, “You LIE!” during an address to Congress — comes across as rude to the office of the presidency. The Supreme Court is completely unused to being criticized to their faces; members of Congress are used to the back-and-forth of debates on the floor in which every accusation and assertion can be rebutted and cross-examined.

So even ten questions from the White House press corps can take Obama off his game. Among the highlights of today:

• Asked about whether the War Powers Act was constitutional, he responded, “I’m not going to put my constitutional law professor hat on here.” Er, wait, wasn’t that a reason folks were supposed to vote for you?

• Asked whether marriage was a civil right – a yes or no question that obviously put him on the spot about gay marriage – he began talking about separate issues, like hospital visitations.

• Occasionally Obama’s gaffes would seem strangely honest, like when he said, “I’ll keep on giving you the same answer until I give you a different one,” on gay marriage, or “I don’t even have to get to the Constitutional question,” rather bluntly acknowledging he was ignoring Chuck Todd’s actual question on the War Powers Act.

• The President constantly infuriated by the perception that he hates the private sector responded to a question, “The business community always complains about regulations.” Unlike unions, trial lawyers, public sector employees, apparently.

• Asked about the ATF “Fast and Furious” operation, Obama said that Attorney General Eric Holder made very clear that he would have opposed the operation… you know, the one that occurred on his watch.

• Discussing the DREAM Act, Obama said, “Kids who grow up here and think of themselves as Americans… let’s make sure those kids can stay.” There’s no dispute that many of these children and teens often have heartbreaking stories, and no real emotional or physical connection to their country of legal citizenship. But thinking of yourself as an American is not the same as being an American. Citizenship is not a state of mind.

•“It’s time to stop playing games,” he concluded, and then ended the press conference for the next event on his schedule: welcoming the WNBA Champion Seattle Storm to the White House Rose Garden.

Obama survives difficult questions by avoiding them and waiting for the world to move on. His Republican opponents must challenge him, early and often, and consistently.Hmmmmm........"The Truth Shall Set You Free".Read the full story here.

• Alaska to EPA: Suck It.(ChamberPost).Big energy news was broken at today's press conference at the Chamber. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (via teleconference) and Alaska Commissioner of Natural Resources Dan Sullivan announced the state would allow drilling off a strip of state-owned land, expanding energy production: It would allow the state to start allowing drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, up to three miles off the federally protected regions of ANWR and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, bypassing the need for federal permission.

While the state has no control over drilling in ANWR, it does own the three miles of Arctic Ocean just off the coast—after those three miles, the federal government owns the waters. Officials say it stands to reason that that three-mile ribbon likely cuts through the vast oil deposits believed to lie beneath ANWR and the Arctic Ocean. Alaskan officials and oil companies hope that by drilling in that strip, they can tap into up to a dozen giant oil pools that would otherwise be off-limits.Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, who was also at the press conference, was happy with the news:

America is in serious need of more domestic energy production, but the federal government has thrown up nothing but roadblocks. According to government estimates, U.S. oil production will be down 90 million barrels in 2012—a direct result of the Obama Administration’s approach. With the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the Administration has finally acknowledged that there is a need to increase supply. However, the Five Year Plan for oil and natural gas exploration they have proposed takes new areas off the table—which could make us even more reliant on foreign oil in the future.Today, Governor Parnell and Commissioner Sullivan have announced a plan for Alaska that will start to change that equation.Hmmmmm......Reaction from Emperor "WTF"?Read the full story here.

• Congressman Asks IRS to Investigate CAIR.(TIP).Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., asked the IRS Monday to investigate whether the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has illegally received or solicited funds from foreign governments.The letter, sent to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, was written in response to news that CAIR has lost its IRS tax exempt status for failing to properly file annual tax reports, known as form 990s, for three years in a row.The fact that CAIR's donations are no longer tax deductible was exposed last week by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. CAIR's national entities, CAIR-National and the CAIR Foundation, were both included on a list of hundreds of thousands of organizations that had lost their status for failing to file the paperwork.But Rep. Wolf indicated that CAIR differs from those thousands of other organizations because it was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator (UCC) in the case of a U.S. Muslim charity found guilty of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. When CAIR tried to have its named removed from the UCC list, a U.S. district court judge declined to strike CAIR's name."Given CAIR's status…this failure to comply with federal disclosure laws is all the more troubling," Rep. Wolf wrote.Rep. Wolf expressed concern over CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad's letter to Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which solicited money and praised Gaddafi. Wolf also asked the IRS if it is aware that Awad tried to solicit funds from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, who has been indicted internationally as a war criminal.CAIR told Fox News that it hopes to appeal to the IRS and gain retroactive tax-exempt status. That would mean that any donations accepted during the interim would be tax deductible upon CAIR's reinstatement."We'll be doing whatever's necessary…to rectify the situation," CAIR Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said. CAIR has 15 months to turn in papers explaining why the organization failed to file, and to submit the missing or corrected annual forms and a new application for tax exempt status.Hooper said that CAIR filed properly in the past few years, but that the problems come from "questions" over tax filings dating back to 2006 or 2007.State Department records obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism show CAIR sent delegations in 2006 to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates seeking millions of dollars in support. CAIR-National's most recent available tax records are from 2005. A required attachment of donations over $5,000 to that year's filing showed a $600,000 donation from Saudi businessman Adnan Bogary. According to the list, it was the single largest donation to CAIR for that tax year.Hmmmmm.....Any donations to Obama?Read the full story here.

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg Wants to Take Away Your Guns Before Al Qaeda Gets Them.(BigGovernment).Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his little outfit “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” are at it again. Hoping to gain traction for what has heretofore been an absolutely pathetic gun control campaign, Bloomberg is rolling out all the stops by trying to scare us into thinking Al Qaeda agents are buying their guns at U.S. gun shows.I’m not kidding: Bloomberg’s latest television ad contains clips of an American-turned-Islamist advising his comrades to buy their weapons at U.S. gun shows.The ad is very, very sloppy, and full of factual errors. Like when the Islamist says, “You can go down to a gun show and come away with a fully-automatic assault rifle.” I’m sorry, but that’s just not true. Fully automatic weapons are subject to strict federal regulations above and beyond the normal, all too stringent, regulations on semi-automatic firearms in this country. To purchase a fully automatic weapon you have to live in a state that allows them, go through a 3 to 6 month process of federal background checks, pay a significant federal firearms tax, and receive approval by local law enforcement authorities, among other things.To be honest, it’s sick that Bloomberg is so desperate to take away our guns that he’d actually present such an out-and-out lie by an Islamist as justification for limiting our access to firearms.Other problems with Bloomberg’s latest ad campaign deal more with issues the ad raises than the ad itself. For instance, instead of contending that U.S. gun shows are a “national security threat” because members of Al Qaeda can supposedly buy guns there, Bloomberg should be lambasting a Homeland Security Department that’s so inept it allows terrorists to enter the country to buy guns.Moreover, I don’t think Bloomberg realizes it, but he’s made a great case for profiling gun buyers the way we should be profiling airline and train passengers throughout the country. Laws should allow gun sellers to refuse sales to Islamists who dress the way the gentleman in Bloomberg’s ad is dressed. (I mean, seriously folks, it’s not like he’d be hard to spot in a crowd.)The refusal to profile forces our government to treat everyone the same: which means, that in order to keep “terrorists” from buying guns at gun shows Bloomberg is pushing for a law that keeps us all from buying guns at gun shows.What Bloomberg is trying to do to law abiding citizens under the guise of saving us from terrorism is absolutely shameful. The good news is that he has exaggerated the situation considerably. The bad news is that he is not in the least embarrassed to attack our 2nd Amendment rights again and again.Hmmmmm..........“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine.Read the full story here.

• Texas Gov. Rick Perry urges US attorney general Holder to act against pro-Palestinian protesters.(IsraelMatzav).Governor Rick Perry (R-Tx) has urged Attorney General Eric Holder to take legal action against Americans participating in the flotilla of fools. Perry wrote that he had information that American citizens were aboard two U.S.-flagged ships that plan to challenge the blockade on the Gaza Strip. He urged U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to take legal steps to stop them from taking part, or to prosecute them if they make the attempt.“The state of Israel is a friend and critical ally of the United States, and the only stable democracy in an increasingly unstable and hostile region,” wrote Perry, a vocal supporter of Israel who is considering a run for president in 2012. “These initiatives to breach Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip is an unacceptable provocation.”Under federal law, anyone who “prepares a means for, or furnishes the money for, or takes part in, any military or naval expedition” against a friendly country can be fined or jailed for three years. Perry also suggested that Holder prosecute the protesters for providing materials or assistance to a terrorist organization.Hmmmm.....Don't expect anything happening soon.Read the full story here.

• Obama administration puts Israel on list of countries that support terrorism, removes North Korea.(BarracudaBrigade).It is only fair that deluded and self-loathing Jews who continue to support the despot in the White House despite his relentless campaign against the Jews should be the first on the Obama trains. And they are coming.Obama's relentless pounding on the Jews mimics previous dictatorial leaders in recent history who promoted alienation of the Jews in concert with national socialism (another Obama favorite).

Obama's anti-semitism is meticulously documented in my book, The Post American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.

Obama Administration Puts Israel On List Of Countries That Support Terrorism Yid with Lid

Only in the twisted world of the Obama Administration, where allies are trashed, and enemies are embraced, could the tiny nation of Israel, on the front lines of the war on terror for decades, be on a list of 36 nations which “have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members.”

As reported by CNS News

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General published the list of "specially designated countries" as an appendix to an unclassified May 11 report--"Supervision of Aliens Commensurate With Risk"--that was publicly posted on the Internet. (The appendix is on page 18 of the document.)

As a matter of policy, according to the inspector general’s report, citizens of Israel and other “specially designated countries” are subjected to a special security screening called a “Third Agency Check” (TAC) when they are actually detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the division of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for enforcing the immigration laws.The five countries on the list that do not have majority Muslim populations--Kazakhstan (47 percent Muslim), Eritrea (36.5 percent Muslim), Israel (16.9 percent Muslim), the Philippines (5 percent Muslim) and Thailand (4.6 percent)--have had internal problems with radical Muslim terrorists, as reported by the State Department.

Isn't that kind of blaming the victim?OK lets get this straight. Based on new Department of Homeland Security procedures, illegal immigrants who are caughtbreaking the law will not be deported, but the Inspector General is now recommending that every Israeli that visits the US should be subject to special screening procedures.Wait! It gets crazier:

Even though the adminisration includes Israel among “specially designated countries” that it believes "have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members,” ICE Spokeswoman Gillian Christensen told CNSNews.com that the U.S. also considers Israel, as well as some other countries on the “specially designated countries” list, as partners in the struggle against terrorism.

“The U.S. does not and never has considered Israel to have links to terrorism, but rather they are a partner in our efforts to combat global terrorism,” Christensen said in a written statement. “Countries may have been included on the list because of the backgrounds of arrestees, not because of the country’s government itself.”

OH Israelis will now be subject to extra screening because the country arrests terrorists.

That makes sense?ICE declined to say who put Israel on the list or when Israel was put there. However, in her written statement, ICE spokeswoman Christensen said the “specially designated country” list had been created "at least" seven years ago--which would have been during the presidency of George W. Bush--and that ICE was not responsible for creating it. True but when this final list was proposed in March 2008 Israel was not on the list but North Korea was, today that is reversed.“So many federal agencies have created different lists that U.S. officials contemplated adopting a single one to streamline the process, Stark wrote,” said the McClatchey report. “The proposed list, which officials said had yet to be adopted, includes 35 countries, most with significant Muslim or Arab populations.”“The group of agencies--which included ICE, the National Security Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection--not only recommended one list but also suggested an interagency definition of ‘special interest alien,’” said the McClatchey report. “Under the proposal, a special interest alien would be an immigrant with terrorist ties or an immigrant who by nationality, ‘ethnicity or other factors may have ties or sympathies’ with the listed country.”

The 35 countries plus the West Bank and Gaza that were on the proposed list discussed in the ICE memo uncovered by McClatchey in March 2008 almost exactly matches the “specially designated countries” on the list published by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General on May 11, 2011. There are only two differences: North Korea was on the list proposed in 2008; it is not on the May 2011 list. Israel was not on the listproposed in 2008; it is on the May 2011 list.

See how this administration cares about Israel? Even though the list was already set, they made a change to put our ally on this special list. Boy oh boy, just like he is with Great Britain, whose Queen he gave an Ipod full of his speeches and Broadway Show tunes, Barack Obama is a real friend of Israel.Obama always says that despite his constant criticism of Israel, America will always have a special partnership with the Jewish State. Now we understand he means putting Israel on a "special" terrorism watch list.Hmmmmm......As i said before Israel has nothing to fear but Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Read the full story here.

• Israel - Obama regime has no problem with illegal Mosque building in Jerusalem.(ArutzSheva).Construction of a mosque near the grave of late prime minister Menachem Begin and Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook has been under way since October despite court orders to stop. Attendees at the recent President's Conference in Jerusalem were shown pictures of the construction.On Thursday, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem (National Unity-NRP), David Hadari, arrived at the illegal building site in person to serve a court order to cease and desist, accompanied by Council Member Elisha Peleg.The action, undertaken to publicize the lax enforcement of the law against massive Arab illegal construction in East Jerusalem, was an object lesson that proved just how unequal enforcement of the law is against those building without permits in the city.According to Hadari, “The last straw was this massive illegal construction on the extension of the Mount of Olives, with a mosque located only a few meters from the gravesites of Eliezer ben Yehuda, the reviver of the Hebrew language, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, head of Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva and of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.”Hadari arrived holding the administrative cease and desist order which he handed to the construction workers.The workers ignored the order. Councilmen who arrived at the mosque said that the police and the government are responsible for not enforcing the order, and that the police are afraid to enforce the law in eastern Jerusalem, particularly against the contruction of a mosque.Elisha Peleg said that the government and law enforcement system should act against Imams and illegal mosques, as they seem to have the courage to do against rabbis.Hadari said that unless work is stopped immediately, there are measures the municipality could employ, including the confiscation of equipment such as tractors and trucks.Hadari ruefully expressed hopes that the government will instruct the police to enforce the law against the illegal mosque as it does elsewhere in Jerusalem.The High Court recently decided to seal the synagogue which was being built by a private donor during the period of the building freeze at the El Matan North Samaria community, ignoring another illegal mosque being built nearby. Hmmmmm..........Answer to building permit problems?Read the full story here.

• Two Ivory Coast Brothers  Crucified on “the example of Christ” by Muslim Loyalists.(VinIenco).Two peasant brothers were brutally crucified on “the example of Christ” as forces loyal to Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara continue to target perceived supporters of his ousted Christian predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo.Raphael Aka Kouame died of his injuries; incredibly his younger brother, Kouassi Privat Kacou, survived the ordeal. The pair were badly beaten and tortured before being crudely nailed to cross-shaped planks by their hands and feet with steel spikes on 29 May.The brothers were falsely accused of hiding weapons in their home village of Binkro, which has been targeted by Ouattara supporters as the birthplace of a key enemy. They are looking for Prefect Koko Djei, President of the General Council of Oumé and an official in Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front party, who is accused of distributing weapons to young Oumé men. The brothers repeatedly denied any involvement in a weapons cache, but their pleas were ignored.After crucifying the brothers, Ouattara’s men took them on an extensive search of Binkro, but they found only a store of medical equipment and supplies, which they looted. The seriously wounded pair were then taken to prison in Oumé, where Raphael died in the night.This is just one of the many atrocities that have been committed as fighting between Ouattara and Gbagbo supporters has continued in the wake of the disputed presidential election last November. Christians have been caught up in the conflict as perceived supporters of Gbagbo. Support for the two men is split broadly along geographical and religious lines, with the predominantly Muslim north largely backing Ouattara, a Muslim from that region, while support for Gbagbo, a Christian, comes from the mainly Christian south.Hmmmm......"Interfaith Dialog" in it's natural habitat.Read the full story here.

• Libya: War and rape.(Video).(Al-Jazeera). Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif and his intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi, were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the Libyan uprising. The ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that the three men were responsible for the murder and persecution of civilians.The charges are based on an investigation by the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, launched in February at the behest of the UN Security Council.  So far the indictment relates only to the first weeks of the conflict, but it is likely to expand to cover subsequent events. If so, then the court may also be asked to rule on allegations that Gaddafi's regime has used rape as a weapon against its opponents.  These claims first surfaced in March when a Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidi, burst into a Tripoli hotel and told journalists she had been raped by security forces. Though she was quickly bundled away, other similar accusations have since emerged.   As Al Jazeera's Sue Turton has been finding out, getting evidence to substantiate the claims is far from easy. Some of the content of this film is disturbing.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

Hmmm....by the way it seems Al Yazeera is now available on cable in Canada?"If you live in Canada, contact the following cable and satellite providers to subscribe to Al Jazeera English" Bell TV: 516 - Cogeco: 182 - Rogers: 176 - Shaw: 513 - Videotron: 173

• UN draft sanctions names 23 Libyan officials.Security Council speeds up efforts to impose international sanctions on Libyan regime. Draft resolution includes arms embargo, travel ban and asset freezes for country's senior officials, Gaddafi's eight children, close relatives.The draft sanctions resolution on Libya presented by the United Nations includes an arms embargo, as well as travel bans and asset freezes for the country's top 23 leaders.Diplomats in New York stated that the Security Council has already discussed the proposal, which was drafted by France and Britain, and is similar in content to the proposal approved by the European Union on Friday.It is still unclear when the Security Council is scheduled to vote on the draft resolution, but diplomats estimate it may happen in the next 24 hours.Following United States President Barack Obama's public statement against the violence in the North African country, Washington has been applying pressure on Security Council members in order to quickly approve the sanctions. The Obama administration on Friday said it is freezing all assets in the United States held by the Libyan government, Gaddafi and four of his children, and abandoning the US Embassy in Tripoli. On Friday night, Obama accused Gaddafi of violating "human rights, brutalization of its people and outrageous threats." In a statement issued by the White House, the president said "Gaddafi, his government and close associates have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries and wanton violence against unarmed civilians." Read the full story here.

• Attack shuts Iraq's largest oil refinery, kills one.The assailants, carrying pistols fitted with silencers, broke into the Beiji refinery, attacked the guards and planted bombs.BAGHDAD — Gunmen attacked Iraq's largest oil refinery Saturday, killing a guard and detonating bombs that sparked a fire and forced the facility to shut down, officials said.The assailants, carrying pistols fitted with silencers, broke into the Beiji refinery around 3:30 a.m., attacked the guards and planted bombs near some production units for benzene and kerosene, said the spokesman for Salahuddin province, Mohammed al-Asi.One guard was killed and another wounded, al-Asi said.By midmorning, firefighters were still trying to extinguish the blaze, said Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, adding that an investigation will be launched. "We hope that work will be resumed in a short period of time," Jihad told The Associated Press, but did not give a date.The Beiji refinery has two sections. The attackers targeted the installation's North Refinery that handles 150,000 barrels a day. The second section, the Salahuddin Refinery, is under renovation. It used to process 70,000 barrels per day.Iraq's overall refining capacity is currently slightly over 500,000 barrels per day. Its three main oil refineries — Dora, Shuaiba and Beiji — process slightly over half of the 700,000 barrels-per-day capacity they had before the 2003 US invasion.Iraq sits on the world's third-largest known oil reserves with an estimated 115 billion barrels, but its production is far below its potential due to decades of war, UN sanctions, lack of foreign investment and insurgent attacks.Hmmmm......Terrorists using weapons with silencers....Yeah whatever.Read the full story here.

• HT:IMRA."Saudi Arabia is willing and able to plug any oil supply gap".'"There is no reason for the price to go higher'"Riyadh : Saudi Arabia is willing and able to plug any oil supply gap and has the capacity to provide all types of oil, including the light, high-quality crude produced by OPEC member Libya, senior Saudi sources said. World oil prices have surged towards $120 a barrel as unrest grips Libya.Italian oil major ENI said Thursday [24 Feb]the nation’s output had fallen by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). Traders and analysts have said the loss of virtually all Libya’s production  is particularly serious because it is high-quality, easy-to-refine oil in contrast to the heavier crudes often associated with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).“Saudi Arabia is willing and capable of supplying oil of the same quality, either Arab extra light or through blending,” one of the sources said.“OPEC stipulates that it is able to supply all types of oil if needed,” the source added. “There is no reason for the price to go higher.”OPEC has yet to make any formal changes to its output policy.The Kingdom said at talks this week the market was still adequately supplied, but it was always ready to release some of its roughly four million bpd of spare capacity on to the markets in the event of a shortage.OPEC has officially held output policy steady since December 2008 when it implemented record supply curbs totalling 4.2 million bpd. As the oil market has risen, OPEC has unofficially increased the amount it produces above its agreed limits.Data supplied by Saudi Arabia showed its output reached the highest in two years in December, although its exports had dipped from the previous month.An industry source also said Saudi Arabia had large amounts of light crude, although he added Saudi Aramco had not yet issued new instructions to increase the rate of pumping. Early this week, Saudi Aramco invited journalists to Khurais oilfield and told them it could produce up to 1.4 million bpd of light oil. For European customers, the advantage of Libya is that it is only a short journey away across the Mediterranean.The sources said Saudi Arabia could shorten the journey time for its crudes by shipping them through its East-West pipeline and then to the Mediterranean and on to Europe. Some West African OPEC crude, such as from Angola could also be redirected to Europe, the sources said, while Saudi Arabia could temporarily send extra oil to Asia to compensate. Following the comment by Saudi sources, oil dropped sharply from 2-1/2-year highs near $120 a barrel Thursday.Hmmmm........Reminds me of the TIME story about oil installations being destroyed anymore news about that hoax?Seems i was right to doubt that storyChicago politics:"Never let a good crisis go to waste"?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Muslim Brotherhood Reject U.S. Intervention In Libya.The Muslim Brotherhood has announced that it rejects U.S. intervention in Libya, for fear that what happened in the other countries in the region will happen in Iraq as well. The announcement stated that the Libyan people can remove leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi by itself, at whatever cost, and that freedom is a religious obligation that is dearer than life. The Muslim Brotherhood also called on the Arab League to intervene to save the Libyan people and condemned the interference by the British prime minister in the internal affairs of Egypt, which does not need his advice.Hmmmm.....These are the people the Obama regime is planning to give 1,57 Billion Dollar in 2012 !Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.The United Caliphate States of Europe.Increasingly, the leaders of Western Europe are recognizing the failure of multiculturalism. Whether they will do anything about the problem remains to be seen.How did Europe come to this pass? I speak as one born in the Balkans but raised in Canada, where I was, thankfully, assimilated to democratic, Anglophone culture. The issue in Europe has in part to do with the formation and expansion of the EU and whether, with the massive migration of worker Turks into Western Europe, Turkey should be admitted to the EU. Admission of Turkey into the EU clearly would exacerbate an already critical illegal migrant situation. This particularly affects Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the UK (which also has a large population of Islamic Pakistanis). The drain on welfare resources and medical services to support these unassimilated populations has reached crisis proportions, to say nothing about the undermining of civil law in parts of Paris and London, the Midlands of England, Germany, and Austria.The extent of infiltration of Islamic organized crime from Albania and Bosnia into Europe is staggering. This is ignored or excused by the powerful Albanian lobby in America's Northeast and in Congress. To be fair, some in Congress, such as Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana, are alert to the situation, and a fresh look is being taken at our Balkan policy within the State Department.Few in America recognize that in the Balkans we are reaping the whirlwind of recent policy errors. In Samuel Huntington's words, we are indeed witnessing the clash of civilizations. But our adversary is not an identifiable state enemy. The strategy is to insinuate a minority Islamist population into a culture and allege discrimination while practicing it. Once they gain status or power they turn on their hosts. In America today one cannot even begin to discuss the issues. On April 25, 2008, at the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, warned that there is: adegree of thought control and limitations of freedom of expression without parallel in the Western world since the 18th century ... Islam and Islamic values now have a level of immunity from comment and criticism in the Western world that Christianity has lost and Judaism has never had.Hmmmm......Read the Bibble and the Torah...Good prevails in the end ! Read the full story here.

• "The war on Christianity".Afghan Officials Say Jailed Convert Is Free.He was released only after agreeing to return to Islam?Under international pressure, government officials in Kabul, Afghanistan, say they have freed an Afghan man who had been jailed since May and faced the prospect of the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.The release of the man, Sayed Mussa, 46, follows months of quiet diplomacy between the Afghan government and United States Embassy officials in Kabul, who along with members of Congress and other foreign embassies had sought the former aid worker’s release. Mr. Mussa, a married father of six who worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross before his arrest, was released Monday from Kabul Detention Center after prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to go forward with the case, said Gen. Qayoum Khan, the detention center director. But there were conflicting accounts about the terms of his release. A senior prosecutor involved in the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was released only after agreeing to return to Islam. It was also not immediately clear where he was taken or if he even remains in the country. Some of his relatives, including his wife, said they had not heard from him.Afghanistan’s Constitution, established in 2004, guarantees that people are “free to exercise their faith.” But it also leaves it open for the courts to rely on Shariah, or Islamic law, on issues like conversion. Under some interpretations of Shariah, leaving Islam is considered apostasy, an offense punishable by death. Mr. Mussa’s cousin-in-law, Said Yaseen Hashimi, said he visited Mr. Mussa at the jail on Monday but when he returned the next day he was told Mr. Mussa had been released the night before. In a phone interview from Pakistan, Mr. Mussa’s wife, whose full name is not being used out of concern for her safety, said she had not heard from her husband and did not know if he had been released. “I am very concerned about him,” she said. “I don’t know how he might have spent the time in prison in this cold winter season. Even if he is released I don’t know where he might be now. Or maybe he is in one of the foreign embassies for protection.”Hmmmm......"There can be only one"?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.CIA man in Pakistan may not have immunity.A former State Department lawyer says real questions remain about the legal status of Raymond Davis.An expert who previously worked in a key State Department diplomatic affairs position is questioning the Obama administration's claim that Raymond Davis, the American currently imprisoned in Pakistan after killing two men, has diplomatic immunity.A specialist in diplomatic law, Ron Mlotek served for 25 years as legal counsel at the State Department Office of Foreign Missions, which regulates foreign missions in the United States. In an interview with Salon, Mlotek said there remain crucial unanswered questions in the case, and that the question of Davis' immunity is not nearly as clear-cut as the administration has argued."On the basis of what has been publicly reported, it appears to me that the State Department is relying on legal smoke and mirrors," says Mlotek, who retired two years ago. In his former position, Mlotek dealt with many cases of alleged crimes by foreign representatives in the United States.Davis was recently revealed to be a former Blackwater contractor working for the CIA in Pakistan, though it turns out those are not the most relevant facts when it comes to determining whether he has immunity.Davis was arrested after the incident and has been held in Lahore while a court considers his claim of immunity. The Obama administration has argued that Davis' detainment is not permitted because he has full diplomatic immunity -- a position that, if he does enjoy such immunity, would be correct, according to Mlotek.So the key questions are: How does one get full diplomatic immunity, and does Davis have it?There are two relevant international treaties to consider: the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961).When a diplomatic officer (someone who works at the embassy) or a consular officer (someone who works at a consulate) is dispatched to a foreign country, the United States informs the so-called "receiving state" that the officer is arriving and describes his or her job at the embassy or consulate. The mode of official communication is known as a "diplomatic note." After getting the notification, the receiving state -- in this case Pakistan -- typically recognizes the person as a diplomatic officer or a consular officer and issues some kind of diplomatic ID card or notice of recognition.Diplomatic officers get full immunity, while consular officers get only limited "official acts immunity." This difference is crucial in Davis' case. That's because the administration has changed its story about Davis' status. In late January, the administration described Davis as "a staff member of the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore." Later on, they insisted that Pakistan had been officially informed in early 2010 that Davis was "a member of the administrative and technical staff" at the embassy.Diplomatic officers who work at the embassy get absolute immunity, meaning, according to Mlotek, that they "could in theory pull out a gun and shoot down a family in cold blood and walk away and the foreign government could not lay a finger on them." But consular officers have a lesser class of immunity that covers only actions that are part of their official duties."Davis' official duties almost certainly would not have involved using an unregistered pistol against Pakistani civilians," says Mlotek.Assuming what the administration is now claiming is true, there is a second set of potential flaws in the claim of full immunity, according to Mlotek. That is, if the U.S. informed Pakistan in 2010 that Davis was working at the Islamabad embassy, why was he actually working in Lahore? Mlotek summarizes the potential problem:"Suppose we not only lie about the fact that he's a spy, but we lie about the fact that he has anything to do with the embassy in Islamabad. And then, to top it all off, not only is he not in Islamabad, he's in Lahore. He's not even working in the premises of the consulate. He's working in a secret facility that we have not announced. The Vienna Convention specifically obligates the U.S. to tell Pakistan about where their premises are. And not only that, he's carrying a weapon -- we didn't tell the Pakistanis that," Mlotek says. "At what point do you say the diplomatic note was not valid?"Mlotek also says a crucial concern when he worked at the Office of Foreign Missions was the "reciprocity angle.""What if the other guys did the same thing here? Would the U.S. allow the Pakistani agent to go free?"UPDATE: State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson tells me that the January 2010 diplomatic note regarding Davis will not be made publicly available. "We don't release diplomatic communications," she said.Hmmmm...Obama administration an example of "Transparency"?Read the full story here.

• Gingrich: If Palin Took Obama Actions, There Would Be Calls for Impeachment.In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama’s decision not to fully enforce the Defense of Marriage law eventually could lead to a constitutional crisis, as he has directly violated his constitutional duties by arbitrarily suspending a law.Gingrich even suggested that, if a “President Sarah Palin” had taken a similar action, there would have been immediate calls for her impeachment. Asked directly whether President Obama could be subject to articles of impeachment, Gingrich said, “I think that’s something you get to much later. But I think clearly it is a dereliction of duty. Clearly it’s a violation of his constitutional oath. Clearly it is not something that can be allowed to stand."(A Gingrich spokesman stressed after the interview that we are not currently in a constitutional crisis, nor was Gingrich calling for the direct impeachment of the president. His statements were meant to illustrate the hypocrisy of the left and the mainstream media.)Obama’s decision to forego a legal defense of the law has caused a firestorm of anger from conservative groups.Gingrich slammed Obama for his decision, telling Newsmax that he is not a “one-person Supreme Court” and his decision sets a “very dangerous precedent” that must not be allowed to stand.“First of all, he campaigned in favor of [the law]. He is breaking his word to the American people,” Gingrich says.“Second, he swore an oath on the Bible to become president that he would uphold the Constitution and enforce the laws of the United States. He is not a one-person Supreme Court. The idea that we now have the rule of Obama instead of the rule of law should frighten everybody. “The fact that the left likes the policy is allowing them to ignore the fact that this is a very unconstitutional act,” Gingrich said.Gingrich said it is absolutely critical for Obama to comply with Congress and the constitutional process.“I believe the House Republicans next week should pass a resolution instructing the president to enforce the law and to obey his own constitutional oath, and they should say if he fails to do so that they will zero out [defund] the office of attorney general and take other steps as necessary until the president agrees to do his job. “His job is to enforce the rule of law and for us to start replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama is a very dangerous precedent."Gingrich adds: “I don’t think these guys set out to create a constitutional crisis. I think they set out to pay off their allies in the gay community and to do something that they thought was clever. I think they didn’t understand the implication that having a president personally suspend a law is clearly unconstitutional.”Hmmmm......I would say to Mr Gingrich beware you have only seen the tip of the iceberg  from this regime.Read the full story here.

• HT:RefugeeResettlement.What’s driving Obama and the radical Left to increase immigration?They are transforming America—more needy people=a greater demand for stuff (goodies from you, the taxpayer). Immigrants will then reliably vote for Democrats who promise stuff.I’m asked frequently, why don’t they (the open borders gang) see that America can’t afford all those immigrant workers and social services, it makes no logical sense to bring so many people who end up suffering, they say. It is perfectly logical and it is not about helping the world’s downtrodden, it is all about transforming America as Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies clearly tells us in an opinion piece yesterday here.In 2008, President Obama described his goal as “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” This is as true for immigration as it is for health care and other issues.President Obama’s support for what advocates call “comprehensive immigration reform” — amnesty, loose enforcement and increased legal immigration — which he reiterated in his State of the Union address, is not just another item on a laundry list.In the same way that critics of Obamacare warn that it will lead to irreversible changes in the nature of American politics, the president’s immigration goals — effectively, open borders — would alter the political system itself, leading to inexorable growth in government and consequent constriction of personal liberties.In short, immigration is the health of the state.Leftists have been quite open about the politically transformative effects of immigration. Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service Employees International Union and an honorary chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America, said immigration “will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has publicly made the same point, as has Ruy Teixeira, author of “The Emerging Democratic Majority.”On immigration, the president and his allies are playing the long game. The Left’s current difficulties will prove merely temporary if mass immigration keeps working its transformative effects.The necessary response from the Right is clear: Reach out respectfully to legal immigrants already here, but work tirelessly for comprehensive enforcement of immigration laws and reductions in future levels of legal immigration.About ten days ago the Palm Beach Post published an article about the US State Department (through their federal contractors) resettling Muslim Iraqis to Palm Beach County, Florida when there are few jobs, no low-cost housing, and virtually no other Iraqis. It’s my opinion that this is a twofer—import poverty to wealthy Palm Beach County, show the suffering Iraqis with stories like this one, and THEN SALT MUSLIMS INTO COMMUNITIES WHERE FEW LIKELY EXISTED.Hmmmmm.....Why is the most 'transparent' Obama regime withholding since 2008 the numbers of refugee inflow,something they are obliged to give yearly to Congress ? WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?Read the full story here.

• Report: Iran's nuclear plant hits setbacks.Iran tells IAEA it has run into major problems operating its first nuclear reactor in Bushehr, according to a New York Times report. Nuclear scientists unload 163 fuel rods from reactor core, as experts contemplate whether problem related to Stuxnet computer worm. Iran announced this week to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it has run into problems with its nuclear facility in Bushehr, which was scheduled to begin supplying electricity this month, the New York Times newspaper reported on Saturday.The cause of the problem remains unclear, and experts said it may be anything from a solvable technical issue to a serious problem that may bring to the complete shutdown of the plant.A report published Friday by the UN nuclear monitoring agency reveals that Iran told atomic inspectors on Wednesday that it intends to remove 163 fuel rods from the core of the reactor. According to the New York Times, Iran did not detail the reason for the setback in its report to the IAEA, and some claim the Stuxnet computer worm may have caused heavy damage to the reactor's operating system.Last month, Russia's NATO representative Rogozin warned that the Stuxnet attack could have triggered a "new Chernobyl disaster," similar to the one that took place in Ukraine 25 years ago. Iranian nuclear scientists expressed similar concerns two weeks earlier. Nuclear experts told the New York Times that even if Russia's concerns were exaggerated, the full scale of the damage caused by the computer worm remains unknown.Hmmmm.....Why would Iran let the West know about these problems?Read the full story here.

• Thousands of Jordanians protest for democratic gains. Protestors in Amman chant 'people want an elected government'.Opposition leader Sheikh Mansour says 'reform has become a necessity that cannot wait'.Around five thousand Jordanian protestors took to the streets of Amman on Friday demanding political liberalization, wider parliamentary representation and constitutional changes limiting the powers of the throne. "Reform and change, this is the demand of people," angry protestors shouted among a mainly Islamists and leftist crowd joined by some tribal and liberal figures marching from the main Husseini mosque in the capital's downtown to a nearby square.The Jordanian opposition, spearheaded by the mainstream Islamists, the country's largest political party, have been protesting for weeks for wider democratic gains as anti-government demonstrations sweep across the Arab world. They are demanding more say, starting with a modern election law that broadens representation in parliament for inhabitants of the capital and the major cities of Zarqa and Irbid, where most of the country's seven million population live. The cities which are Islamist strongholds and heavily populated by Jordanians of Palestinian origin are under-represented in the 120-seat assembly in favor of sparsely populated rural and Bedouin areas inhabited mainly by native Jordanians, or so called East Bankers who are the backbone of support for the throne."We tell our government that reform has become a necessity that cannot wait," Sheikh Hamza Mansour, the head of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country's largest opposition group, told the crowds in a rally at the end of the march. "It's not just the demand of the Islamist movement or the opposition party. It's the demand of all Jordanians," he added.Hmmmmm.....I wonder how long they would have lasted with king Abdullah his father?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.The Pigford Files: Here Comes Pigford 3 and Pigford 4.In a Friday afternoon news-dump, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and a representative of the Obama Justice Department announced a bombshell : the Obama administration has set up their own “streamlined process” for women and Hispanic farmers to collect damages from the federal government for alleged past discrimination.Like the fraud-filled Pigford claim persons who claim to have “attempted-to” farm will be eligible for awards of up to fifty thousand dollars each. In response to a question from Big Government’s Lee Stranahan the Department of Justice laid out a set of requirements that is eerily similar to the Pigford claims process, such as categories of “farmed” or “attempted-to-farm,” “owned land” or “attempted-to-own land,” standards that will almost certainly result in thousands of fraudulent claims.This low standard creates a simple way for people to game the system by claiming that they attempted to farm.Responding to a follow-up by Stranahan, Secretary Vilsack also laid out an extensive outreach program that he said would include the USDA, lawyers and community organizers. National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd, who has been exposed as a serial exaggerator in recent articles here at Big Government, has been doing “outreach” to women farmers for the past several months.Vilsack did not indicate that Boyd would be excluded from future outreach.Hmmmm....Anything for a vote?Read the full scam story here.

• HT:BigGovernment.One Chart that Tells You Everything You Need to Know about State and Local Government Pay.The showdown in Wisconsin has generated competing claims about whether state and local government bureaucrats are paid too much or paid too little compared to their private sector counterparts.The data on total compensation clearly show a big advantage for state and local bureaucrats, largely because of lavish benefits (which is the problem that Governor Walker in Wisconsin is trying to fix). But the government unions argue that any advantage they receive disappears after the data is adjusted for factors such as education.This is a fair point, so we need to find some objective measure that neutralizes all the possible differences. Fortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and this “JOLTS” data includes a measure of how often workers voluntarily leave job, and we can examine this data for different parts of the workforce.Every labor economist, right or left, will agree that higher “quit rates” are much more likely in sectors that are underpaid and lower levels are much more likely in sectors where compensation is generous.Not surprisingly, this data shows state and local bureaucrats are living on Easy Street. As the chart illustrates, private sector workers are more than three times as likely to quit their jobs.Hmmmm....."You can't fool all the people , all of the time"?Read the full story here.

• Firebrand Muslim cleric Bashir Says Ahmadiyah Worse than the PKI.Firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Thursday attacked Ahmadiyah as being “poisonous” to Islam.Speaking to reporters at the South Jakarta District Court on Thursday, Bashir said the government must disband the Muslim sect or face being disbanded itself.He also described the Ahmadiyah sect as being crueler than the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).“Ahmadiyah must be disbanded, or the government must step down. Ahmadiyah is a poison against Islam. It is crueler than the PKI.”Hmmmm.....Obama "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

• Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law.Policing Belief.. The Impact of Blasphemy Laws on Human Rights – Pakistan is a Freedom House Publication which examines Pakistan’s notorious, headline hype worthy blasphemy laws. The Report cited by UNHCR and Refworld, weighs the validity of the blasphemy law against each one of fundamental articles enshrined in the ICCPR, to which Pakistan became a signatory in June 2010; 44 years after the Covenant was opened for signature. The country scores dismally on each weigh-in, from freedom of expression, to freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman & degrading treatment. The report concluded; “the country is unique in the severity of abuses arising from the application of its blasphemy laws, and in the frequency with which the laws are invoked to prosecute individuals and justify vigilantism. The overall effect is a serious erosion of the rule of law itself, with police and courts seemingly at the mercy of Islamist extremists and other extralegal forces. Basic injustices are meted out not just to religious minorities and Muslims with dissenting views on Islam, but also to ordinary people whose personal disputes, opinions, or weaknesses make them ready fodder for the broader conflicts that trouble Pakistani society.”It is a rhetoric Pakistanis have been hearing for decades.However, nothing it seems will change. Rejecting Pope Benedict’s call, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani reiterated his government's refusal to amend the blasphemy law in January this year, while noting that it was his predecessor, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who "introduced this law in Pakistan”.For years now, the blasphemy law regime has been the point of furious debate among Pakistan’s ‘liberal elites’ including British educated Salman Taseer, journalist and politician Sherry Rahman, nuclear physicist and political analyst Pervez Hoodbhoy, head of the Foundation for Pluralism Mike Ghouse and Human Rights activist Asma Jahangir. Joining this small chorus are local and international organizations. Their arguments against it have always been the same; the country's blasphemy laws are unduly harsh, they are regularly exploited by extremists to target and discriminate against minority groups, and misused by others to settle petty disputes or exact personal vengeance, and therefore should be repealed. Clearly, this is reasoning with little appeal to the mullah-led masses. The only panacea must come from within – just as much as Islam is used to justify the law and its application, Islam must be a basis on which it is countered. What the country needs right now are scholars; scholars who will speak up and incite masses against it.Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.From Obama to Khaddafi, a Tale ofTwo Tyrants.While Americans are going hungry and cutting back, not because Michelle Obama told them to, but because they can't afford it-- the White House is throwing yet another party. This time to celebrate the cultural accomplishments of Motown complete with performances by trendy musicians.It's funny how the media breathlessly reports that Khaddafi spent 1 million dollars to fly in one singer or another for a performance, and yet the White House has flown in far more singers, at doubtlessly far greater expense to throw themselves a party. If Khaddafi was a wastrel madmen for throwing himself parties like this, what of the Obamas who are doing far worse, under the pretext that this is a celebration of the form. The Libyan papers might well have it in reverse, condemning Obama for his spendthrift wastefulness, while celebrating the Khaddafi spawn for circulating with famous musicians to show the cultural amplitude of Libya. But it's propaganda either way. Wrap it in the wax paper of civil rights and some blather about Americanism-- and it still comes down to our leaders acting like the very Middle Eastern buffoons they claim to despise. Even as the American media fulfills the same role for the Obamas, that its Libyan counterparts do for the Khaddafis.All this might have been forgivable, if the big zero hadn't been making constant noises about his commitment to cutting spending. If his first spouse hadn't appointed herself Czar of America's Kitchens, in between gorging during her constant vacationing. If they just admitted that they were rotten liars who are going to take us for all they can get-- then we could almost tolerate their thievery. So many Americans forgave Clinton when he smiled and winked, but wouldn't forgive him when he self-righteously shook his finger at us, when everyone knew he was lying. Obama has never stopped shaking his finger at us, while going from the party to the golf course.Americans like to believe that we are better off than the Libyans. And we are... for now. But we won't be for long if this style of government continues. Leaders who play messiahs, wrap themselves in cults of personality, enforce only those laws they like and send out their thugs to assail and assault anyone who threatens their power.We are not better off than then Libyans because of the government we have now, but because of the legal traditions and open elections that have not been completely eradicated by the left.The law of the land is the law of the land-- until the Democrats decide otherwise. And then they just refuse to enforce them. As Obama is doing with DOMA. But imagine the outcry had a Republican president's attorney general had refused to defend civil rights legislation for gay rights. The law is the law, so long as it's liberal law. But that's no way to run a country.Hmmmm.......And one day we'll wake up in a Gulag if Republicans don't act.Read the full story here.

• Sex, brothels and the REAL tyranny threatening the Arab world: Islamic fundamentalists are already imposing their own brutal puritanism.A few hundred metres from the main mosque in the heart of Tunis’s old quarter lies Abdallah Guech Street, a red-light district which has thrived since the 19th century. Here, the Ottomans legalised and regulated prostitution — as they had in much of the rest of the Muslim world. Uniquely, though, in the Arab world, the tradition in Tunisia endured. Every one of the country’s historic quarters boasts bordellos; even, most remarkably, Kairouan, Islam’s fourth holiest city after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. In keeping with Tunisia’s deep-rooted secularism and unprecedented championing of Muslim women’s rights, the prostitutes carry cards issued by the Interior Ministry, pay taxes like everyone else and enjoy (along with their clients) the full protection of the law.Or at least they did until last month’s Jasmine Revolution. But last week, faster than you could scream ‘Allahu Akbar’, hundreds of Islamists raided Abdallah Guech Street armed with Molotov cocktails and knives, torching the brothels, yelling insults at the prostitutes and declaring that Tunisia was now an Islamist state. As soldiers fired into the air to disperse them, the Islamists won a promise from the interim government that the brothels would be permanently closed. In other cities, brothels were targeted, too; and there have been demonstrations throughout the country — whose economy is heavily dependent on the vibrant tourism industry — against the sale of alcohol. Suspected Islamists otherwise preoccupied themselves with slitting the throat of a Polish Catholic priest, which, if confirmed, would be the first such sectarian murder in modern Tunisian history. And anti-Semitic slogans could be heard outside Tunisia’s main synagogue: this in a country with no history of persecution of its Jewish minority.Hmmmm......Welcome to A.D. 620?Read the full story here.

• HT:IslaminEurope.WTF??  Belgium: Halal beer.Sultane, a halal Cherry beer produced by Caulier, a brewery from Péruwelz in Henegouwen, will be available in Belgium in the upcoming weeks. The beer is targeted at Muslims, reports La Capitale. This is the first malted drink (Cherry drink)- not beer - with a halal certificate in Europe. An Algerian imam certified Sultane. The halal beer will be available also in France, and contacts have been made to offer it in the UK, Tunisia, Germany and Kuwait.Hmmmm......Do the cherries keep fermenting in the bottle?Read the full story here.Brewery Here. Belgium Cherry beer.

• HT:IslaminEurope.Netherlands: Massive fraud among Turkish bakers.Turkish bakers massively violate the tax laws in the Netherlands, according to an investigation by the anti-fraud agency FIOD. The agency found bakers who committed tax fraud, as well as those who employed illegal immigrants or those who made a mess of the bookkeeping.An FIOD spokesperson told De Telegraaf that they found something wrong with 60% of the bakers they investigated. They found illegal immigrants working there, or people who were on welfare, or the bookkeeping wasn't in order. They also had to warn the Foods and Good Authority several times, due to filth.The tax authority started to investigate a group of about 500 bakers of non-Western origin last fall, together with the justice ministry and welfare authorities. Evidence and former violations led to intensive investigations of the mostly Turkish (85%) bakers. The FIOD meanwhile demanded 3 million euro in back taxes from 17 of the companies.Last week the tax authority investigated five bakeries in Roermond and Eindhoven, and found that half a million euro had gone missing via fraud in buying and selling flour.The Bread and Pastry Bakers association (NBOV) responded in shock to the preliminary results of the investigation. Secretary Cor Havermans said that they had regularly gotten signs of abuses, but 60% is extremely serious. Ibrahim Özgül of the Turkish businesses association HOGIAF says that it doesn't make sense. Everybody must follow the rules, but it's strange that the FIOD limited themselves to Turkish bakers. It's the first time that only a small portion of a whole sector is being investigated, he said. Özgül spoke of "FBI-like raids" against his members.The FIOD says that the extra supervision was due to repeated problems with this specific group. The investigation will conclude next year.Hmmmm.......Keep Turkey out of Europe and NATO!Read the full story here.

• HT:LezGetReal.EGYPT: There are No Jews in Tahir Square.Needless to say neighter are gay people in the square.Egypt is in the news and how I miss my father. I see “Rioting in Mansoura, Cairo, Alexandria,” flash on the news. Cities that were home to my dad, at different points in his life. Born to an old Egyptian family in Mansoura, “the Wahbas were real (not transplants from another country), Egyptians” he bragged. They were indigenous to the land, originally farmers, peasants, in Midghram.When President Obama spoke in Cairo he didn’t ask, “Where are your Jews”? Once not so long ago Egyptian Jews were an integral part of Egypt’s infrastructure. Obama did mention the Copts (Egypt’s Christians,) another indigenous group who suffer discrimination and he asked for “tolerance”.ASK WHERE ARE THE JEWS WHO LIVED HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS I wanted to break through his eloquence. But yelling at the TV is not my style.And now I shall deliver some mostly ignored facts and have my own Tahrir Square experience:In 1948 there were 75,000 Jews in Egypt After the expulsion in l956 during Nasser’s reign, most of Egypt’s Jews were forced to flee. My grandfather had to sign a document saying he would never return. A variety of creative humiliations accompanied the confiscation of any property. Nothing of monetary value was allowed out with their one suitcase of clothing.Penniless, the majority of Egyptian Jews ended up in transit camps in Israel.In 2005 there were approximately 100 old Jews left in Egypt. And I imagine most are dead or too old to walk today.Hmmmm......"First they came for the Jews ,then for the gays and now finally for the Christians....Obama ..."Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• Kansas: Female Lawmakers Sexually Degraded by AFL-CIO Union Thugs on Their Way to Vote on Union Bill…Kansas Republicans accused organized labor activists Thursday of forcing female legislators to endure sexually explicit and degrading comments while passing into the House chamber before a vote to end automatic deductions from paychecks for union political causes.Democrats and a representative of the Kansas AFL-CIO disputed the GOP claims, and both sides pointed to video evidence to support their interpretation of events.House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, said the vocal crowd crossed the line by engaging in salty commentary outside of the House chamber and by shouting inside the chamber when the paycheck bill came to a vote.“There were comments of sexually explicit nature directed at both female legislators and female staff,” O’Neal said. “That’s the most disrespectful display from the gallery I’ve seen in 27 years I’ve been here.”He said two union sympathizers attempted to intimidate a male House member into voting against the measure, which was passed 75-46 and forwarded to the Senate.As word spread of tension on the third floor of the Statehouse, House members were instructed to enter the chamber by a back staircase. No one was injured, and there were no arrests.The Kansas Republican Party fired off a news release blasting “union thugs” who “brought their street tactics to the Kansas House” where they offered a “taste of the bullying tactics being employed by unions across the country.”“This conduct has no place in Kansas, especially not in our Capitol,” said Amanda Adkins, chairwoman of the state GOP. “Unfortunately, this only provides a glimpse into the ‘negotiation’ style preferred by these agitators.”Adkins called on the Kansas Democratic Party to condemn the “threats and sexually degrading comments.”Hmmmm......."Dear leader" his 'supporters'.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Italy Arrests Six Islamists Who Wanted to “Punish” Pope Benedict For Converting Muslim Journalist to Catholicism.Italian police said Friday they had arrested six suspected Moroccan militants, with one report saying they wanted to “punish” Pope Benedict XVI for converting a Muslim journalist to Catholicism in 2008.They “are accused of setting up a group that aimed to incite discrimination, racial and religious hatred, violence and jihad against Christians and Jews,” police in the northern city of Brescia said in a statement.Five of the Moroccans have been put under house arrest, while the sixth is in jail. The six are all suspected of belonging to an Islamist fundamentalist movement called Adl Wal Ihsane (Justice and Charity), the statement said.ANSA news agency reported that a note had been found on one of the Moroccans that called for revenge against the pope for converting Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a former columnist for Italian daily Corriere della Sera.Allam, who condemned Islam for being a “violent” and “conflictual” religion was baptised by the pope in March 2008. The comment against the pope was found in a notebook hidden inside a jacket, the report said.Hmmmmm.......Interfaith dialog in its natural habitat?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Poetic Politics: Are the Afghans one of the lost tribes of Israel?Some Afghans claim a descent from Israel. According to them, Affghaun was the nephew of Asaph, the son of Berachia, who built the temple of Solomon.It was in the nineteenth century …that the West began to take a more serious interest in the countries of the Far East, and reports began to filter in from several Western explorers describing their astonishment at encountering tribes all over the north-west of India who were clearly of Jewish descent.The missionary doctor Joseph Wolff, for example, reported:All the Jews of Turkistan assert that the Turkomauns are the descendents of Togarmah, one of the sons of Gomar, mentioned in Genesis 10:3…..but in the reign of Gheghis Khan they lost all their written accounts…..Some Affghauns claim a descent from Israel. According to them, Affghaun was the nephew of Asaph, the son of Berachia, who built the temple of Solomon. The descendents of Afhhaunn, being Jews, were carried into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, from whence they were removed to the mountain of Ghoree in Affghanistan, but in the time of Mohammed turned Mohammedans.G. T. Vigne, a French travelling scholar and member of the Royal Geographical Society…wrote:The father of Ermiah was the father of the Afghans. He was a contempory of Nebuchadnezzar, called himself Beni Israel and had forty sons. But a descendant in the thirty-fourth generation was called Kys, and he was a contemporary of the prophet Mohammed.One of the most important contributions is The Lost Tribes by Dr George Moore, who found many Hebrew inscriptions on archaeological sites in India. Quite close to Taxila, now in Sirkap, Pakistan, a stone was dug up that bears an inscription in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke.The eleventh century Arab historian Biruani wrote that at that time no foreigners were being allowed into Kashmir, other than Hebrews.The inhabitants of Kashmir are different from the other peoples of India in every respect. Their way of life, their behaviour, their morals, their character, their clothing, their language, customs and habits are all of a type that might be described as typically Israelite. Like present day Israelis, the Kashmirs do not use fat for frying and baking, they only use oil. Most Kashmirs like boiled fish, called fari, eaten in remembrance of the time before their Exodus from Egypt (We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt: Numbers 11:5)Butchers knives in Kashmir are made in the half-moon shape typical of the Israelites and even the rudders of the boat people (Hanjis) are of a similar heart shape.The men wear distinctive caps on their heads. The clothing of the old women of Kashmir is very similar to that of Jewish women, and like them they also wear headscarves and laces. Like young Jewish girls, the girls of Kashmir dance in two facing columns with linked arms, moving together forwards and backwards to the rhythm. They call their songs rof.After bearing a child, a woman in Kashmir observes forty days seclusion for purification; this too is a Jewish custom. Many of the older graves in Kashmir are aligned in an east-west orientation, whereas Islamic graves usually point north-south.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Google search formula changed.Move aimed at pushing down 'low-quality' sites.Google Inc. has modified the algorithms that dictate search result rankings in an attempt to push up more 'high-quality sites', reported 'Los Angeles Times'. The formula changes will affect 11.8 per cent of search queries - about one in every eight, Google said in a blog post. For now, the tweaks will stay in the US before eventually rolling out to the rest of the world.For months, Google has been combating the presence of “content farms” such as eHow that mine for clicks by generating articles based on popular searches, though none were mentioned specifically.The new algorithm will lower such sites in the search rankings in favor of “sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on,” the company wrote.The update is not directly related to feedback from the Blocklist Chrome extension Google launched last week to block specific sites that show up in search results. But when crosschecked against the top several dozen domains blocked through the extension, Google found that the formula change also addressed 84 per cent of blocked domains.Hmmmmm......What's next results that only serve the Obama regime?Read the full story here.