Former CBS News president Richard Salant (1961 - 64 and 1966 - 79) explained the major media's role: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." ...and to this very day most Americans haven't noticed they're being brained washed! ~ N. Hooben
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Election Results 2008 - We sure deceived them...The ends justifies the means! Now let's party!
1. to mislead by a false appearance or statement; delude: They deceived the voters by consistently lying...and what a great time they had
2. to mislead or falsely persuade others; practice deceit: an engaging manner that easily deceives...and how easy it was!
"Should I Obey The Orders Of An Imposter ?" Great question sir! Great question!
OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
Berg files new challenge to eligibility
'There is nothing more important than our U.S. Constitution'
Posted: December 30, 2008
10:05 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Philip Berg's earlier case and a request for an injunction in the case are scheduled for conferences with the justices on Jan. 9 and Jan. 16.
The new case, filed with co-counsel Lawrence J. Joyce, was submitted to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and names as defendant "Barry Soetoro a/k/a Obama."
It demands to know Obama's real name and his constitutional qualifications to occupy the Oval Office. The plaintiff is Gregory S. Hollister, a resident of Colorado Springs, who has "standing" and "needs a decision so he knows whether or not to follow any order of Soetoro a/k/a Obama."
Berg reported the case is in the nature of an interpleader, shifting the burden of proof to Obama and Joe Biden.
"I am determined, on behalf of the 320 million citizens in the United States, to see that 'our U.S. Constitution' is followed. Specifically, in the case of Soetoro a/k/a Obama, does he meet the constitutional qualifications for president?" Berg said.
He said he doubts that is the case based on his information that Obama was born in Kenya, his mother was not yet 19, Obama later was a citizen of Indonesia and several other factors.
"I am appalled that the main stream media continues to ignore this issue as we are headed to a 'Constitutional Crisis.' There is nothing more important than our U.S. Constitution and it must be enforced," he said.
Berg said he was pleased the U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled two conferences to look into the merits of the claims in his earlier case.
"I know that Mr. Obama is not a constitutionally qualified 'natural-born' citizen and therefore, is ineligible to assume the office of the president of the United States," he continued. "Obama knows he is not 'natural born' as he knows where he was born and he knows he was legally adopted/acknowledged in Indonesia; is an attorney, Harvard Law head of the Law Review and graduate who taught constitutional law; knows the Obama candidacy is the biggest 'hoax' attempted on the citizens of the United States in over 200 years; places our constitution in a 'crisis' situation; and Obama is in a situation where he can be blackmailed by leaders around the world."
WND reported earlier on a campaign to seek members of Congress to object to the Electoral College vote when it is presented for affirmation.
More than a dozen cases have been brought into various courts challenging Obama's eligibility. Several have reached the Supreme Court.
They all in various ways allege Obama does not meet the "natural born citizen" clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, which reads, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some of the legal challenges have alleged Obama was not born in Hawaii, as he insists, but in Kenya. Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges also have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. Such cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Several details of Obama's past have added twists to the question of his eligibility and citizenship, including his family's move to Indonesia when he was a child, his travel to Pakistan in the '80s when such travel was forbidden to American citizens and conflicting reports from Obama's family about his place of birth.
His campaign posted the image of a "Certification of Live Birth" online when the questions first arose, but critics have dismissed that as irrelevant, since at the time Hawaii granted such documents to parents whose children were born outside the state.
WND has reported on two of the cases that the Supreme Court justices apparently reviewed, but refused to continue to a full hearing.
Those cases were brought by Cort Wrotnowski and Leo Donofrio. Both challenged Obama on essentially the same issue: allegations that dual citizenship based on a father who was a British subject and a mother who was an American minor disqualified him for office.
A partial listing and status update for several of the cases surrounding Obama's eligibility to serve as president is below:
- Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania Democrat, demanded that the courts verify Obama's original birth certificate and other documents proving his American citizenship. Supreme Court conferences on the case and its motions are scheduled Jan. 9 and 16.
- Leo Donofrio of New Jersey filed a lawsuit claiming Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court but denied a full hearing.
- Cort Wrotnowski filed suit against Connecticut's secretary of state, making a similar argument to Donofrio. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied a full hearing.
- Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California, in a case on which the United States Justice Foundation is working, that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending, and lawyers are seeking the public's support.
- Chicago's Andy Martin sought legal action requiring Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to release Obama's vital statistics record. The case was dismissed by Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Bert Ayabe.
- Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Electoral College vote in North Carolina until Barack Obama's eligibility could be confirmed, alleging doubt about Obama's citizenship. His case was denied.
- In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.
- In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued the secretary of state seeking a determination on Obama's citizenship. The case was denied.
- In Georgia, Rev. Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama's birth certificate. His request for an injuction against Georgia's secretary of state was denied by Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter.
- California attorney Orly Taitz also has brought a complaint alleging Obama is not a "natural born" citizen and has written an open letter to the Supreme Court asking for the issue to be resolved.
- Pennsylvania attorney James D. Schneller is suing Pennsylvania's secretary of state, Pedro A. Cortes., to prevent transmittal of the certified electoral vote, claiming severe moral consequences and infringement upon even freedom of religion if Obama's eligibility is not established. His case is active before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
- In Washington state, attorney Stephen Pidgeon is representing 12 plaintiffs in a case that claims to have standing under a unique Washington statute that allows any registered voter to challenge the election of someone who, at the time of the election, was ineligible to hold the office. The suit intends to include a subpoena of Obama's Hawaii birth certificate. The case is scheduled for argument before the Washington Supreme Court on Jan. 8.
Last month, WND reported on the potential complications an ineligible president could create.
"Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void," argues the Alan Keyes case pending in California, "Americans will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal."
With such high stakes potentially at risk, WND earlier launched a letter campaign to contact Electoral College members and urge them to review the controversy.
WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi had gone to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama's birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.
The biggest question was why, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists as his campaign has stated, Obama hasn't simply ordered it made available to settle the rumors
The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii?
Related offers:
Will Obama bring the end of prosperity? How higher taxes will doom the economy – if we let it happen
Whistleblower magazine's "THE SECRET LIFE OF BARACK OBAMA"
Previous stories:
Message to Congress: Protect Constitution
Supremes schedule 2nd eligibility conference
Campaign demanded Change.gov Web domain
Supreme Court to talk about Obama 3rd time
More challenges fail in Supreme Court
Supreme Court refuses 2nd challenge to eligibility
Status report: The eligibility issue
Supremes turn down request to stop Electoral vote
Join exploding demand for citizenship documentation
Electors challenged to investigate birth dispute
Last few hours to FedEx Electoral College voters
Supremes turn down request to stop Electoral vote
Eligibility question? FedEx Electoral College members
Not even Supreme Court can kill citizenship dispute
Supreme Court denies citizenship challenge
More than 60,000 letters sent to U.S. Supreme Court
Petition to see the birth certificate
Will Supremes review citizenship arguments?
Imaging guru: 'Certification' of birth time, location is fake
Chasm dividing Americans over birth certificate widens
WND launches new forum on Obama's eligibility
Supremes to review citizenship arguments
'Constitutional crisis' looming over Obama's birth location
Obama camp: Lawsuits by citizens are 'garbage'
Will Supreme Court have say in presidency?
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Stop The Madness ! Shariah Finance Is Not For Americans...So when ya gonna wake up?
If you don't understand this now, you never will... Whoops, I take that back! You will understand when Obama imposes it (against your will!)!
While America struggles with the sub-prime and credit market crisis, Shariah Islamic Finance, also known as Shariah-Compliant Finance, is quickly infiltrating our financial markets – and bringing Islamic shariah law with it. As one leading Islamic authority on Shariah-Compliant Finance has stated, it is “jihad with money.” In a new ACT! for America video, Joy Brighton, ACT! for America’s financial expert on Shariah-Compliant Finance, warns America of this chilling threat.
Hugging Shari'a Finance at the Fed
By Alyssa A. Lappen
FrontPageMagazine.com 12/10/2008
The first market day after President-elect Obama announced plans to appoint Federal Reserve Bank of New York president Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, U.S. equities rose 6.5%. Pundits praised his experience handling crises and understanding of the troubled economy. But possibly, the market hoopla was premature, or even unwarranted. Some analysts seek his retirement.
As turmoil built, Geithner criticized Wall Street's self-regulatory system, negative incentives and market forces, sought tighter supervision and berated insufficient “derivative securities” regulation and “credit-default” swaps allowing investors to “insure” against loses---only to fail. The Treasury Department's former attaché to the International Monetary Fund had overseen U.S. responses to the 1990s Mexican, Indonesian and Korean bailouts. But at the Fed, Geithner did not use regulatory powers to check abuses, or advocate for more regulation, impartial supervision or new laws. He even concluded that markets were improving---and after Bear Stearns' collapse confessed, nobody “understands [the causes] yet.”
Worst of all, since Nov. 2003, Geithner let dangerous new Islamic and shari'a-based securities, markets and financial institutions gain business currency---despite the Fed's role in U.S. monetary policy, currency distribution, government securities markets, legal supervision, regulatory enforcement, bank and capital markets investigation, foreign accounts and a payments mechanism handling over $4 trillion daily in funds and securities transfers. Not to mention Fed officials' admitted lack of understanding.
On July 1, 2004, eight months after Geithner assumed command, the New York Fed hosted Asim Ghanfoor (sic), AG Group founder and managing director, to address its Seventh Annual Global Economic Forum on “ABCs of Islamic Financing” and Islam's increasing global financial role. A month later, a href="http://www.globalterroralert.com/faisalgillletter.pdf">Senators Charles Grassley and John Kyl identified Ghafoor as a representative of Boston's terror-funding Boston's Care International, the Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and the Al Harimain Islamic Foundation, which the U.S. Treasury specially designated a terrorist organization in September 2004 and again in June 2008. Given Ghafoor's connections, how could the Fed have featured him, much less warmly accepted Islamic finance?
In fairness, the New York Fed began authorizing obscure shari'a banking institutions, structured shari'a issues, and opaque Islamic securities trading long before Geithner arrived. “Islamic bankers have been quite ingenious in developing financial transactions that suit their needs,” New York Fed first vice president Ernest T. Patrikis told an Islamic Finance conference in May 1996. “We bank supervisors, too, can be ingenious and will want to work with any of you should you decide that you want to engage in Islamic banking” in the U.S.
The dangers of Islamic finance should have been apparent. From 1996 on, all 12 Federal Reserve banks received, and were charged to enforce many Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control circulars designating Islamic groups and banks as terrorist-financing institutions, organizations and individuals. In 1998, OFAC warned the Fed against transactions with Osama bin Laden and his affiliates, in 1999 froze Taliban assets, in 2002 reminded banks to check customers against known terrorist lists and in 2003 warned against trading with any unnamed counter-party.
Meanwhile, had the Fed only noticed, there were warning signs elsewhere too. In 1999, Saudi scholar Mohammad Nejatullah Siddiqi proposed at Harvard that banning interest would “cure the ills of contemporary finance,” “create a safer, saner financial world,” incorporate the “institution of waqf [Islamic trust]” in economics and create “morally inspired” behavior. In 2001, Siddiqi openly labeled shari'a finance a revolution-driver---an “universal endeavor” to replace “excesses of capitalism.”
Alarm bells should have gone off at a New York Fed event on Nov. 21, 2002, furthermore, where shari'a banking proponent Wafiq Fannoun described Islam as “Peace through submission to Allah (God), however, “revelation-based [the Qur'an, Hadith] ... complete way of life” --- that is, a system of religious law proscribed by the U.S. Constitution from inclusion in secular legislation or regulatory systems. Equally at odds with Constitutional law and Western capitalism are other Islamic notions he described---namely that Allah is both creator and “owner” of all material things, and that “individuals” may not possess “natural resources important to society.” as “alternative financing for Muslims” and others recognizing individual ownership rights.
True, most of that happened before Geithner ran the New York Fed. But after he took the helm in November 2003, the bank missed several still more critical red flags on Islamic banking.
First came Basel II Capital Accord, supposedly designed to strengthen the “regulatory capital framework” for big international banks. Authorities increasingly expected to trust banks to internally assess their own credit and operational risks. However, in July 2004 Switzerland's Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reported, 53% of Middle Eastern bank supervisory staffs lacked the necessary training to meet Basel II's December 2007 deadline. Middle Eastern banks originated and still predominate in Islamic banking. Nevertheless, by 2007, they still needed historical data to fashion reliable risk models but instead counted on “heavy” collateral and “exceptional” economic conditions to eliminate risks.
Islamic institutions had manufactured “special purpose entities” (SPEs)---renamed, “special-purpose vehicles (SPVs)”--- such as coincidentally helped destroy Enron. These legal devices restructured “interest-bearing debt, collecting interest [as] rent or [a] price mark-up,” Rice University Islamic economics chairman Mahmoud el-Gamal warned in May 2007. “Interest-based” Islamic finance equaled “shari'a arbitrage,” concerned only “religious identity” and merely employed Western securitization methods to transform liquid, traceable cash flows from interest-bearing debt into illiquid, opaque assets.
Shari'a banking, though, had far fewer regulatory and accounting protections than sub-prime mortgages---and like “portfolio insurance” in 1987, mortgage-backed bonds in 1994, and sub-prime mortgages in 2008, could also cause huge market declines. Islamic banking purveyors admitted shari'a regulations could “override commercial decisions;” didn't “standardize” documentation; and used complex “inter-creditor agreements” and “off-balance sheet financing.”
Even hosting hosting Islamic financier Asim Ghafoor, a representative to three terror-funding organizations, on July 1, 2004 apparently gave no one inside Geithner's Fed reason to pause from its rush to further accommodate shari'a banking.
In March 2005, New York Fed general counsel Thomas C. Baxter Jr. asserted the Constitutional “wall of separation between church and state” Thomas Jefferson had described was “not absolute.” Chief Justice Warren Burger had in 1984 suggested that the Constitution “affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions,” Baxter told an Islamic financial industry “Legal Issues” seminar. “[S]ecular law should ... accommodate differing religious practices,” he indicated, apparently even if that meant specially excepting Islamic banking from secular laws and regulations.
In April 2005, New York Fed executive vice president William Rutledge admitted that the bank was “in no position to take a stance on shari'a interpretation.” He also claimed the bank would hold Islamic finance to “the same high licensing and supervision standards” as conventional banks.
Despite the New York Fed's role as a legal supervisor of Islamic banking, neither Rutledge nor Geithner noticed, however, that shari'a banking, a 20th century “tradition” invented by the Muslim Brotherhood, can't be severed from Islamic law---statutes that Mohammed initiated, which caliphs, scholars and jurists developed over the last 1,400 years. They hold that shari'a grants Muslims (the ummah) supremacy over all others---along with all land and property to hold in trust for Allah. Thus as Fannoun effectively told the Fed in Nov. 2002, land or property, once conquered or acquired by Muslims (or for Allah), can't generally revert to their original owners. Shari'a commands Muslims to wage jihad warfare until they subdue all “infidels” under universal Muslim rule, as Ibn Khaldun avowed in the Muqaddimah (trans., Franz Rosenthal, Princeton Univ. Press, 9th printing, 1989, p. 183).
Confiscating possessions from non-believers exacts “revenge,” wrote jurist Abul Hasan al Mawardi (d. 1058). Qur'an 57:2 argued, “To Him belongs all dominions of the heavens and earth.” Qur'an 59:7 echoed, “That which Allah giveth as spoil [war booty] unto his Messenger…” Allah authorized 2nd Islamic Caliph, Umar Ibn Khattab, to confiscate property by force, fulfilling an Islamic trust, or ruling under Allah’s law. It was thereby just to take anything from nonbelievers, (The Laws of Islamic Governance, Taha Publishing, 1996, pp. 207-251) including all territories Islam ever controlled.
Apparently, Fed officials also neglected to investigate the alliances and beliefs of shari'a advisors and their affiliates in the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) standards agencies.
The shari'a-based Islamic Development Bank established the AAOIFI in 1990 to set Islamic finance standards. Its trustees include executives of Kuwait Finance House, Saudi Arabia's Dallah al Baraka Group and al-Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation---all implicated in al-Qa’ida and other terror-funding---and Sudanese (and until recently Iranian) officials, both U.S. Treasury-sanctioned countries.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamed Mahathir in 2002 christened IFSB “a universal Islamic banking system” and “a jihad worth pursuing….” Its board members include the terror-funding Iranian, Sudanese and Syrian central banks and Palestinian Monetary Authority.
Yusuf Qaradawi, an U.S.-designated foreign terrorist barred entry since 1999 for example, supports wife-beating, suicide bombings, murder of American military forces and female suicide “martyr operations.” A large shareholder of Al Taqwa Bank, Qaradawi also chairs the recently designated terrorist-funding Union of Good “charity,” Qatar National Bank, its al-Islami subsidiary, Qatar Islamic Bank, and Qatar International Islamic Bank---and follows AAOIFI standards he helped create.
Similarly, Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes (DJIM) shari'a board uses “stringent and published” methods to determine “compliance of index-eligible companies.” But its industry screens, financial ratios and biographies omit advisors’ affiliations or beliefs. Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index (DJCSI)’s shari'a board certifies Islamic asset-backed bonds if structures meet “AAOIFI standards” and shari'a principles, but don't mention AAOIFI history or governance.
Until July 2008, shari'a banks, the Dow Jones Islamic Index board and an North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) fund also employed a 20-year veteran of Pakistan’s Shari'a Supreme Court, former judge Taqi Usmani, who taught at the Taliban spawning ground, Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi, headed the AAOIFI religious board, endorsed suicide bombing, and in 2007 advised U.K. Muslims to impose shari'a when their numbers suffice.
Shari'a finance advisor Muslim Brother Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo advised Pakistan's tyrannical Zia ul-Haq from 1981 to 1984, and ran the Virginia Islamic Saudi Academy educational program cited in 2008 for using hateful Islamic texts. Trained at Karachi's terror-espousing Jamia Al Alomia Al Islamia, he served the Muslim Brotherhood International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and from 1989, was secretary to the MB's Fiqh Council of North America.
Perhaps Treasury Secretary-designate Geithner seriously meant to keep Rutledge's promise to grant Islamic financiers no special favors. But allowing shari'a finance to exist at all is itself a special favor.
Moreover, on November 23, 2008 Geithner, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke agreed to add another $20 billion taxpayer-gilded bailout to Citibank's previous $25 billion bailout---and offer $306 billion in new loans to cover Citi's losses on soured real estate debts and securities.
Only three days earlier Citigroup uber-shareolder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a godfather of Islamic finance, had announced plans to up his stake in America's largest (failing and “underpriced”) bank from 4% to 5%. On March 20, 2006, the Saudi Kingdom Holding Co. CEO was “honored for humanitarian contribution to Islam” at a “glittering gala to celebrate excellence in Islamic Finance” that also featured terror-financier and Dallah al-Baraka founder and president Saleh Abdullah Kamel.
Alyssa A. Lappen is a former Senior Fellow of the American Center for Democracy, former Senior Editor of Institutional Investor, Working Woman and Corporate Finance, and former Associate Editor of Forbes. Her website is http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.alyssaalappen.org%252F. Hugging Shari'a Finance at the Fed
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.actforamerica.org
ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. Thank you for helping us make America safer and more secure.
What They Say Isn't What You Hear - A Must Read For The Readers Of The New York Times
What They Say Isn't What You Hear
December 16, 2008
The full horror of contemporary Middle East politics and debate is comprehended by few in the West, largely because they aren't informed by their political leaders, intellectuals, and media.
Occasionally, the truth emerges, as on September 11, 2001, but soon is reburied under mountains of obfuscation. After all, Iran's president called for Israel to be wiped off the map, according to the official Iranian translation, and the New York Times publishes an article analyzing whether this ever happened.
I imagine exchanges like this:
Middle Easterner (in Arabic): "We'll wipe you out, kill your children, and trample your cities into dust!"
Translator (in English): "He says that justified grievances about American aggression are creating hurt feelings which can only be resolved by Western policy changes."
These thoughts are inspired by at least four examples this week.
First, an Arabic-speaker writes me, "Right now I'm watching Himam As-Sa'id, leader of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, on al-Aqsa TV giving a speech (or rather a rant). He's screaming about how the Islamic armies will turn Palestine into a graveyard for the Jews." This is followed by threatening the Jordan government as traitorous for making peace with Israel and "the usual clichés."
But then my friend concludes: "As we all know, this isn't the sort of language the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood uses when speaking English." For good measure, he inserts some links to Western newspaper articles that claim the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood is really a moderate organization with which Western governments should dialogue.
Then there are two recent interviews given by Palestinian Authority (PA) ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, who explains that the PA considers the United States an enemy. Of course, the Americans have been paying Zaki's salary for 14 years through direct aid and by persuading allies to donate money; backed a Palestinian state, and pressed Israel into many concession for the PA. But none of this matters to Zaki and other senior Fatah leaders. In Arabic, they are still hardliners and anti-Americans.
But, the Lebanese interviewer asked, doesn't his boss Abu Mazin consider America to be a friend? He replied: "Well, this isn't true. Perhaps Abu Mazen, in his position, needs to use diplomatic language, but he is the greatest critic of the United States."
If Abu Mazin wants to show that this is false, he need merely discipline or fire Zaki. Of course, he's too afraid of Zaki and the fact that the ambassador represents the mainstream Fatah line to do so--just as he's afraid to make peace or educate Palestinians away from extremism.
In early November, Zaki gave a lecture explaining that moderation was just a pretense and the goal was still Israel's destruction. In his words, given the Arab nation's weakness and U.S. power, "The PLO proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy." Soon it would be in a position to bring about Israel's collapse and drive "them out of all of Palestine."
One of the main examples of nonsense substituting for serious analysis today is the fantasy of splitting Syria away from Iran. This notion is encouraged by Syria's effective propaganda network and lots of Western helpers. A Lebanese friend sends me a boatload of citations from Syrian officials promising eternal loyalty to Iran. I believe them.
For example, Syria's ambassador to the United States explained on al-Jazira television back in May, "Syria will not distance itself from Iran because our ties with Iran are...[linked] to deep historic, cultural, social, and religious ties, common interests."
An article by regime fan Rime Allaf in Novosti press agency on November 25 notes: "For three decades, the Syrian-Iranian relationship has survived a sustained Western effort to break the alliance...and to shift the politics of both regimes." But nothing will weaken this partnership unless the regime in one of these countries falls. Agreed.
The Washington Post's David Ottoway writes of how Syria needs and benefits from the alliance with Iran. But he continues, "Western and Arab sources...feel, nonetheless, that the Syrian-Iranian friendship is unnatural [and] short-term." Syrias regime is thought too secular to stick with Tehran very long. He also, however, provides extensive quotes from Syrian officials who insist--with detailed arguments--that the alliance is here to stay.
Oh, by the way, the article is dated September 29, 1983.
Finally, if you want to understand the current spectrum of public debate in the Arab world, consider a television debate between Kamal al-Hilbawi, director of the London Center for the Study of Terrorism, and political analyst Nabil Yassin. The former is supposed to be the radical; the latter the moderate.
Hilbawi endorses killing Israeli civilians, including children, because, he says they're all potential soldiers. He claims, "In elementary school, [in Israel] they pose the following math problem: 'In your village, there are 100 Arabs. If you killed 40, how many Arabs would be left for you to kill?' This is taught in the Israeli curriculum."
Yassin responds by saying he is against murdering civilians: "I condemn the Israeli governments for teaching children such things, but I do not condemn the child, who still doesn't know how he will kill the Arabs in 20 years' time, when he becomes a soldier."
I read that just after helping my two kids with their math homework and I guess I must have missed those equations. Actually, in my daughter's school they're now studying Islam and Christianity, learning a fair, factual picture of both religions.
There are, however, schools that teach that way. What Hilbawi described is an almost precise rendition of Syrian second-grade textbooks, for example, which contain math problems about killing Israelis.
At any rate, their debate shows us the permissible margin of discussion: The Arab radical lies that Israel is a nation of genocidal killers; the moderate retorts that of course it's true but the children aren't responsible for being brainwashed by those evil monsters.
Certainly, the best Western strategy in today's Middle East is to cooperate with relatively moderate states and groups opposed to the spread of radical Islamism and Iranian-Syrian influence.
The first problem is that many in the West are more interested in courting the extremists in the mistaken belief they'll change.
The second problem is that even those whose objective interests are relatively moderate and parallel those of the West and Israel--even those acknowledging this fact in private--aren't willing to speak and act along these lines.
The third problem is that there are few moderates and that the spectrum of debate is so dominated by extremists and those who pretend to be radical for safety or to exploit militancy for their own advantage.
Oh, by the way, the program in which Arab viewers were told that Israeli schools teach children to murder Arabs wasn't aired on the Hizballah channel but on the BBC's Arabic service. That's quite a service. Incitement to terrorism thanks to British taxpayer money. Political insanity denied can be contagious.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley).
What was that again? The religion of peace you say. Say what!
UK Honor Killings
Whenever I make fun of Muslim violence and Islamic bombings, some Muslim always responds with some excuse that they happen to live peaceful lives, that they don't blow up buses filled with schoolchildren, nor are they stoned or killed for not wearing the hijab. Usually these peaceful, liberated Muslims live in Western countries and think that because they haven't yet been killed for taking on western ways that Muslim life must truly be just as they are living it.
For example, reader Saara, a Muslim female, commenting on my post Muslim Humor - Muslim Jokes left this comment:
OMG whats goin on here?? Im 15 years old and im more mature than all of you !! God Sake forget all the rascim and grow up ! i know there are so many muslims out there bombing people and i totally disagree with that but you have got to remember its not all muslims !! Im a muslim and i would never think to bomb people. And in my family women are equal to men, we have jobs we go out we have a life , we don`t be locked inside our houses and we are not forced to cover ourselves up. Girls in my family that wear headscarves are treated the same as girls that don`t wear headscarves in our family so don`t get your final opinion that muslim women are opressed because thats only a minority. last of all stop swearing at each other it doesnt solve anything neway BYE =]
I checked the IP address [94.192.79.198] from whence came this young lady: Leeds, UK. I never get comments from Muslim women in Islamic countries, probably because they are not allowed on the Internet, prisoners as they are in their own homes. As usual, this girl thinks that because her father hasn't killed any of her sisters for taking on western ways, that her family is the norm for Muslim families. Saara is in denial, see my article, Muslim Women Slaves in Denial. It happens that at least one young Muslim is killed by a relative every month in the UK for dishonoring her family by wearing western clothing or dating someone. Saara most likely ignores material like this readily found by googling "uk honor killings":
BBC, Honour killings in the UK
In 2002, Heshu Yones, 16, was stabbed to death by her father, Abdullah, because he disapproved of her Western dress and Christian boyfriend.
...
Mustaq Ahmed, 40, a Muslim businessman murdered his daughter's boyfriend because he disapproved of their relationship. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 22-year-old Albanian Rexhap Hasani in 2003.
...
Rukhsana Naz, 19, wanted to divorce her husband to marry her boyfriend by whom she was pregnant. She refused to have an abortion and was strangled by her brother with a piece of plastic flex while her mother, Shakeela, held her down. The family put Rukhsana's body in the car and drove 100 miles to dump it. Shakeela Naz and her son Shazad Ali were sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing in 1999.
...
Outside the UK, honour killings have been reported in countries throughout the world including: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.The practice is common in Pakistan where police believe that up to 4,000 people, mostly women, have died in brutal honour killings in the four years between 2000 and 2004. Hundreds of women are raped or killed there each year in so-called honour attacks for behaviour including extramarital affairs or marriage without a family's consent.
It should be noted that the BBC is a media entity quite biased in favor of Islam so whatever you read above has likely been softened up and cleaned of even more egregious examples of Muslim barbarity and savagery against their own families.
Despite the fact that thousands of young Muslim women are killed each year for acting western, Saara actually believes that those women who are oppressed are only in the minority. Poor deluded Saara, she doesn't even realize that whenever one of her girl friends die because of a supposed suicide, fire or accident, in actual fact it is a disguised honor killing by the girl's family. So Saara continues in her ignorant belief that Muslim women are treated hunky-dory in all of Islam. Poor Saara, some day she will dishonor her family and I will lose a reader.
Related:
Hitmen charge $100 a victim as Basra honour killings rise, Except: "Authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have admitted they are powerless to prevent 'honour killings' in the city following a 70 per cent increase in religious murders during the past year."
Some Muslim apologists will excuse honor killings as a cultural/Mideast/Arab problem, but what about honor killings by non-Arabs not from the Middle East:
UPI Asia, 9 Feb 2008, U.K. honor killings a blotch on immigrants
Committed mostly against women -- first, second and even third generation British Asians from Pakistan and India -- who dare make the most of a free, democratic society by educating and asserting themselves, "honor killings" are carried out by the male or elderly members of their family.
Having migrated from tribal, feudal and patriarchal rural societies with little or no education, the men have not been able to shrug off the cloistered male-dominated psyche. Their home societies, where village elders still set the moral parameters and empowerment of women is sacrilegious, continue to impact their conscience and judgment even when they are settled in the United Kingdom.
UK Muslim Honor Killing: Wife & Daughters Burned Alive, Excerpt: "Mohammed Riaz made every conceivable attempt to prevent his wife and daughters enjoying their Westernised lifestyle. He destroyed their clothes - modest by Western standards but tight fitting by his own - when they came out of the wash ..."
Sadly, in many cases the British police are afraid of arresting the offending murderers. They even ignore child abuse if committed by Muslims:
Dhimmi Watch, UK: Police tread lightly as mullahs beat children at mosques
Police and child protection officials have launched an investigation into allegations of child abuse at two mosques in the West Midlands. Around 40 schoolchildren are to be interviewed over claims that they have been subjected to violence and punishment by elders at the mosques, which are on adjoining roads. .. As word spread that an official complaint had been made, more children from the area came forward to report beatings and abuse which, the youths say, include being hit, slapped and even beaten with a hockey stick. .. Police have been forced to tread lightly as elders and mullahs at mosques are among the most respected and influential people in the community.
Relations with the Muslim community in the area are fragile and police officers are aware of the difficulty they face getting evidence as often local people are reluctant to talk.
A source close to the inquiry said: "There is a cultural problem to deal with.
Yes, the cultural problem is that Muslims are friggen too violent to get involved with.
By the way, in the photo above can you spot which is the Muslim wife and which is the garbage?
Monday, December 29, 2008
Dr. Allen. Would you say this is 'not' a faction? Stalin-Nat'l Hero or Tyrant?
We have factions right here in America that are already re-writing history. And you say we don't have factions... What school you went? The question was not meant to insult you but to wake you up to reality...different ideologies create turmoil...turmoil creates violence, violence creates wars. For every non-violent person there is an opposition force. Just what is it that determines a 'faction' in your view? Now we have the Russian faction trying to reincarnate Joseph Stalin. Do you think for one moment the Stalinists will view George Washington as a hero to bring back to life? Tell me if I'm wrong. You want to re-write history so that ole G.W. number one was a dictator and ole Tommy Jefferson wrote the Commuist Manifesto. Now that's a faction to contend with!
Stalin - national hero or tyrant? A re-writing of history.
According to the BBC
one of Russia’s biggest television stations is due to announce later today the winer of a nationwide vote for the greatest Russian ever to have lived. A highly controversial figure who could win the contest is the former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, one of the blood thirstiest leaders of the last century, who killed many millions of his own people.
Also from the report:
The official line now is that Stalin and the Soviet regime was successful in creating a great country and if the terror of Stalin is justified then the government today can do what it wants to, to achieve its aims.
Go Navy! ...a rarely seen perspective...a U.S. Navy SEAL extraction
Chinook helicopter rescues Navy Seals .... a rerely seen perspective: A video of a U.S. Navy Seal extraction which was filmed inside an MH-47 Chinook helicopter. The pilot has lowered the ramp, dipped the tail end into the water to partially flood the compartment (a maneuver that requires quite precise flying) and awaits Navy Seals to board in their F470 Zodiac.
You just got to love the skill of our military...
H-T to Ulrike from Köln
Imagination Gone Wild....or is it?
Somebody either has a lot of time on their hands or we're in big trouble!
"The Democrats' display of rank hypocrisy on race is a familiar scenario." Yeah...so what else is new?
OBAMA THE MAGIC NEGRO
By Frances Rice
If it were not so hypocritical, it would be comical how Democrats and their media allies have created a media firestorm over a parody on racism in the Democratic Party. The Democrats' display of rank hypocrisy on race is a familiar scenario. First, Democrats exhibit vile racism. Then, any Republican who points out the Democrats' display of vile racism is attacked by Democrats as being racist.
The current target of this Democratic Party racial jujitsu is RNC chairman candidate Chip Saltsman. So, what did Saltsman do to warrant being called a racist? Well, he dared to distribute a music CD with a parody about the fact that back Democrat David Ehrenstein called Sen. Barack Obama a "Magic Negro" in an article published by the left-wing, Democrat-controlled "Los Angeles Times." Huh?
None of the people now trashing Saltsman uttered one peep of protest when the article entitled "Obama the Magic Negro" was first published in the "Los Angeles Times" on March 19, 2007 with the subtitle: "The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man." Below is the link to that article.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Sadly, some high-profile Republicans who should know better have joined the Democrats and the mainstream news media in their Republican bashing frenzy.
Lost in the media uproar is the fact that the parody has been broadcast several times on the radio, and the satirical content understood by the more than 20 million listeners of the popular Rush Limbaugh Show. One is left to wonder if the critics have even listened to the parody.
Where was all this outrage over racism when the Democrats used despicable racial stereotypes (just as Democrats did during the days of slavery and Jim Crow) to slur black professionals, such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele?
Brazenly, on the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of Steele, depicting him as a "Simple Sambo."
Cartoonist Jeff Danziger depicted Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy," reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie Gone with the Wind who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies." Black comedian Harry Belafonte and Rev. Al Sharpton publicly denounced Powell as a "House Negro." NAACP Chairman Julian Bond equated the Republican Party with the Nazi Party and called Rice and Powell "tokens."
The liberal media showed not a hint of concern about racial insensitivity when Obama campaigned for white Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin and against Michael Steele during the 2006 Maryland senate race, not long after Obama issued a letter of support for the re-election of white Democrat and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd.
Not one word of angst was uttered by the liberal press when a black Democrat pundit on national television called black Democrat Juan Williams a "Happy Negro." What offense did Williams commit that resulted in such a vicious racial slur? He had the temerity to defy the Democratic Party's "thought police" and wrote a book called "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-end Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America." His book exposes how the failed socialist polices of the Democrats who have been running black communities for the past 40 years have turned those communities into economic and social wastelands.
As author Michael Scheuer stated, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. Visit the website www.NBRA.info on the Internet to see the racist cartoons of Rice and Steele and the details about the Democratic Party's 150-year history of racism.
The time is long overdue for Republicans to stop cowering over the issue of race. Republicans should cease attacking fellow Republicans for telling the truth about Democrats, recapture the Republican Party's rich civil rights legacy, and shed the light of truth on the failed socialism and racism in the Democratic Party - past and present.
Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black Republican Association. She can be contacted at www.NBRA.info
Note: Two of the leading RNC chairman candidates are black Republicans Ken Blackwell whose website is http://kenblackwell.com/ and Michael Steele whose website is http://www.steeleforchairman.com/
IMHO I would simply turn the rockets in the opposite direction and light the fuse!
Katyushas Found in S. Lebanon Ready to Launch at Israel
(IsraelNN.com) Seven Katyusha rockets were discovered in southern Lebanon Thursday less than five kilometers, or three miles from Israel's northern border, primed and ready to fire.
Report on Katyushas on Lebanon TV station.
Lebanese Army sappers were called to defuse the missiles, according to the Lebanese Naharnet news website, which quoted a "reliable source".
The 107-mm missiles, which were fitted with timing devices, were deployed in the Naqoura region, across the border from the central and western Galilee regions, and were set up to be launched at Israel. The source, which spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Katyushas were found in the area between the border towns of Naqoura and Teir Harfa, "a short while before the time set for their launching."
No details were made available as to which specific type of Katyusha missile was discovered. There are several different versions; during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the Hizbullah terrorist group used Iranian-modified RAADD Katyushas equipped with warheads carrying 100 kilograms (220 lb) of explosives.
The area in which the missiles were found is supposed to be under the control of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but is considered a Hizbullah stonghold. According to the terms of ceasefire agreement set forth in the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, the presence of the force was established specifically to prevent such an occurrence.
Hamas terrorists in Gaza began launching medium-range Grad-type Katyusha rockets at the port city of Ashkelon more than a year ago, after receiving advanced munitions and guerrilla training from the Iranian-backed Hizbullah guerillas. One of those missiles was launched at Ashkelon Thursday evening.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
You Don't Like The Bombing-well move your butt to safer ground! And stop the rockets! You think we're just going to sit here & take it, you're nuts!
Peres:
'Anyone Asking Israel to Stop Shooting, Change Address'
(IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres said in a statement released to the media Sunday that it is time for the world to understand that Israel has been more than patient in waiting for the people of Gaza to come to their senses.
Detailing all the agony and subsequent fallout of the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza, Peres said, "The story is simple. Israel has left Gaza completely… The passages were open. Money was sent to Gaza. We suggested aid in many ways – economically, medically and otherwise… Still I have not heard until now a single person who could explain to us reasonably: why are they firing rockets against Israel?"
He added that in planning the current Operation Cast Lead, the IDF had been "true to its principles: namely, to be precise in its targets and careful not to hit civilian life."
He noted that this was a complex problem, because many of the bombs were stored in private houses. "We have contacted the owners of the houses, the people that dwell there, and told them leave it. You can't live with bombs. We have to bring an end to the source of the bombs."
Peres added that Israel has no intention of returning to Gaza. "We left out of our free choice. We have never gone back to the idea of returning to Gaza. It's over," he said. "But we cannot permit that Gaza will become a permanent base of threatening and even killing children and innocent people in Israel for G-d knows why."
The bottom line, he said bluntly, is that anyone in the world who now wishes to ask Israel to stop the shooting, "they have to change the address. Let them turn to Hamas and ask them to stop shooting, and there won't be shooting."
Hamas Admits Majority of Casualties are Military Fighters
The Hamas terrorist organization admitted Sunday morning that the majority of casualties sustained in attacks by the IDF on Saturday were fighters from its military ranks.
According to the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a news ticker running repeatedly from 10:00 a.m. announced, "More than 180 Palestinian policemen were killed, including the [Police] Commander, General Tawfik Jaber."
The news ticker is reportedly being broadcast against a background of scenes from the destruction of a graduation ceremony from a Hamas officer's course that was taking place when the IAF attacked.
Dozens of bodies of the uniformed Hamas "soldiers" who were killed in the air strike are shown in the broadcast, according to the report.
Related story: http://www.greatamericanjournal.com/editor/archives/IsraelGetsSlammedAgainForDefendingItself.htm
Saturday, December 27, 2008
The Present Day Economy And How We Got Here
* The above cartoon was published fifteen years ago.
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