Monday, February 28, 2011
In Mexico, Monterrey Becoming 'City of Massacres'
Will there be a Monterrey, Mexico, in your future?
GOP Promotes Job Losses Exceeding 700,000
From First Read
And there you have it, the real GOPTP agenda. Eliminate 700,000 jobs by 2012--win the White House. Senator McCain cannot declare his own economic adviser as illegitimate and have any credibility; the words he spoke smack of hypocrisy. Plus, stop with the "failed stimulus" garbage because that is exactly what it is garbage. Remember the photo ops of republican state governors handing out stimulus checks and their accompanying remarks noting how many jobs would be saved and created. For once, it would be refreshing if the GOP could actually speak the truth about the stimulus and state what anyone with one economics class knows is the truth: spending cuts equals lost jobs equals lost federal and state revenues equals more lost jobs.
*
23 votes
Reply#3 - Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:30 PM EST
Pietro, Columbus, Ohio
I am really having a hard time with people who will vote for/support a party that is willing to destroy 700,000 lives - and livelyhoods - as a means to get power.
Has anyone asked those 700,000 people who will lose their jobs how THEY felt about it?
*
19 votes
#3.1 - Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:59 PM EST
Paul S, NY NY
Jody - to paraphrase a line from "A Few Good Men" - The republicants can't handle the truth" they have to make up lies to keep in power. Their goal for the US is to have the "Yes Massa" and the rest of us.
We now see the republicants job creation strategy - less is more.
*
10 votes
#3.2 - Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:06 PM EST
And there you have it, the real GOPTP agenda. Eliminate 700,000 jobs by 2012--win the White House. Senator McCain cannot declare his own economic adviser as illegitimate and have any credibility; the words he spoke smack of hypocrisy. Plus, stop with the "failed stimulus" garbage because that is exactly what it is garbage. Remember the photo ops of republican state governors handing out stimulus checks and their accompanying remarks noting how many jobs would be saved and created. For once, it would be refreshing if the GOP could actually speak the truth about the stimulus and state what anyone with one economics class knows is the truth: spending cuts equals lost jobs equals lost federal and state revenues equals more lost jobs.
*
23 votes
Reply#3 - Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:30 PM EST
Pietro, Columbus, Ohio
I am really having a hard time with people who will vote for/support a party that is willing to destroy 700,000 lives - and livelyhoods - as a means to get power.
Has anyone asked those 700,000 people who will lose their jobs how THEY felt about it?
*
19 votes
#3.1 - Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:59 PM EST
Paul S, NY NY
Jody - to paraphrase a line from "A Few Good Men" - The republicants can't handle the truth" they have to make up lies to keep in power. Their goal for the US is to have the "Yes Massa" and the rest of us.
We now see the republicants job creation strategy - less is more.
*
10 votes
#3.2 - Mon Feb 28, 2011 4:06 PM EST
Syria's Lovable First Family
How easy is it to play the Western media? Apparently, it is trivial.
Vogue went to Syria to show how wonderful Bashir Assad and his wife are. Without doing a modicum of research on Syria's history of ruthless oppression and mass murders, the writers fall under the spell of Bashir Assad's lovely wife, wearing a T-shirt that says "Happiness."
Asma al-Assad is glamorous, young, and very chic—the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies. Her style is not the couture-and-bling dazzle of Middle Eastern power but a deliberate lack of adornment. She’s a rare combination: a thin, long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind who dresses with cunning understatement. Paris Match calls her “the element of light in a country full of shadow zones.” She is the first lady of Syria.
Let's fall in love!
Other gems:
Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East.
Asma’s husband, Bashar al-Assad, was elected president in 2000, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, with a startling 97 percent of the vote.
The French ambassador to Syria, Eric Chevallier, says, “She managed to get people to consider the possibilities of a country that’s modernizing itself, that stands for a tolerant secularism in a powder-keg region, with extremists and radicals pushing in from all sides—and the driving force for that rests largely on the shoulders of one couple. I hope they’ll make the right choices for their country and the region. ”
On Friday, the Muslim day of rest, Asma al-Assad opens the door herself in jeans and old suede stiletto boots, hair in a ponytail, the word happiness spelled out across the back of her T-shirt. At the bottom of the stairs stands the off-duty president in jeans—tall, long-necked, blue-eyed. A precise man who takes photographs and talks lovingly about his first computer, he says he was attracted to studying eye surgery “because it’s very precise, it’s almost never an emergency, and there is very little blood.”
Did the writers check out any human rights reports on Syria? Did they discuss freedom of expression? Anti-semitism? Did the word "Hama" escape their lips?
Perhaps the people from Vogue would be interested in how Bashir's father liked to spend his time...
The article is so fawning it sometimes appears to be a spoof. Unfortunately, it is quite serious.
(h/t Folderol)
Full Video:Very Ugly Attack by Egyptian Islamic army tanks on St.Bishoy ...
You Tube description: Full Video: Very Ugly Attack the Egyptian Islamic army tanks on St.Bishoy Coptic Orthodox monastery 23-2-2011: (hat tip Michael S)
- Beaten monks & Christian youth by live bullets & RPJ mortars.
- Tanks attack & armored vehicles by the Egyptian Muslims army on monks & Coptic youth ,& down the wall of the Coptic Orthodox monastery in Wadi Al- Natroun-Cairo Alexandria high way & and break the Crosses,Door,even the Trees & a sign the monastery , also logging own monastery.
- Battalion Commander Usama & Muslims Army soldiers Swearing at Christian youth & Monks by dirty words with Death threat
Yesterday I posted on Egypt: Muslims Fire on Christian Monasteries
For the second time in as many days, Egyptian armed force stormed the 5th century old St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi el-Natroun, 110 kilometers from Cairo. Live ammunition was fired, wounding two monks and six Coptic monastery workers. Several sources confirmed the army's use of RPG ammunition. Four people have been arrested including three monks and a Coptic lawyer who was at the monastery investigating yesterday's army attack.
Monk Aksios Ava Bishoy told activist Nader Shoukry of Freecopts the armed forces stormed the main entrance gate to the monastery in the morning using five tanks, armored vehicles and a bulldozer to demolish the fence built by the monastery last month to protect themselves and the monastery from the lawlessness which prevailed in Egypt during the January 25 Uprising.
"When we tried to address them, the army fired live bullets, wounding Father Feltaows in the leg and Father Barnabas in the abdomen," said Monk Ava Bishoy. "Six Coptic workers in the monastery were also injured, some with serious injuries to the chest."
The injured were rushed to the nearby Sadat Hospital, the ones in serious condition were transferred to the Anglo-Egyptian Hospital in Cairo.
Father Hemanot Ava Bishoy said the army fired live ammunition and RPGs continuously for 30 minutes, which hit part of the ancient fence inside the monastery. "The army was shocked to see the monks standing there praying 'Lord have mercy' without running away. This is what really upset them," he said. "As the soldiers were demolishing the gate and the fence they were chanting 'Allahu Akbar' and 'Victory, Victory'."
He also added that the army prevented the monastery's car from taking the injured to hospital.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
France's Extremists Right & Left Join Versus Islam
Against kuffars make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war to strike terror into the (hearts of) the Enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others beside, whom you may not know, but whom Allah does know. Whatever you shall spend in the Cause of Allah, shall be repaid to you, and you shall not be treated unjustly. (Qur'an: 8:60)
Bruce Crumley describes French writer and anthropologist and "moderate Muslim" Dounia Bouzar this way: (hat tip nook)
"Yet despite her efforts to find common ground between Muslims and wider French society — and her feminist defense of women within Islam — Bouzar is no Kuffar-appeasing Uncle Tom."
But the increasing ease with which mainstream politicians and commentators now point a guilty finger at Islam on virtually any topic has created an unhealthy environment in which hard-core secularists on the extreme left have joined forces with Arab-hating neo-Nazi groups in a mutual effort to erase Islam's visibility — or even presence — in France. The fusing of such dark forces should have Sarkozy and other French leaders rushing to embrace moderate Muslims like Bouzar to find a common way forward for France and Islam — not talking down to them in a manner that leaves them looking like even better targets for extremists.
Atlas Shrugs
Bruce Crumley describes French writer and anthropologist and "moderate Muslim" Dounia Bouzar this way: (hat tip nook)
"Yet despite her efforts to find common ground between Muslims and wider French society — and her feminist defense of women within Islam — Bouzar is no Kuffar-appeasing Uncle Tom."
But the increasing ease with which mainstream politicians and commentators now point a guilty finger at Islam on virtually any topic has created an unhealthy environment in which hard-core secularists on the extreme left have joined forces with Arab-hating neo-Nazi groups in a mutual effort to erase Islam's visibility — or even presence — in France. The fusing of such dark forces should have Sarkozy and other French leaders rushing to embrace moderate Muslims like Bouzar to find a common way forward for France and Islam — not talking down to them in a manner that leaves them looking like even better targets for extremists.
Atlas Shrugs
Susan Rice - Absentee Ambassador
But instead of taking the lead as the United Nations tried to force Khadafy to end his war on his own people, America's top UN official was essentially AWOL.
Which is every bit as shameful as it sounds.
But it's hardly a surprise, given the Obama administration's utter cluelessness in the Middle East of late.
O & Co. have been out to lunch since protests swept dictators out of power in Tunisia and Egypt -- just as they've been slow to act against Khadafy now.
Though maybe it's for the greater good that Rice is an ocean away -- when she shows up for work she seems to do even more damage.
Case in point: Just a week ago, she vetoed an anti-Israel resolution in the Security Council, but immediately unleashed a loathsome attack on Israel, damaging US ties with the Jewish state.
Her disappearance now sends an odd message to a close ally:
When it's time to bash Israel, Rice stays put. When it's time to get to work on Libya, her deputy can pick up the pieces.
Again, back in the real world, Libya's dictator has turned warplanes and helicopter gunships on his own people.
America's ambassador has been off in Susan Rice-land. Maybe it would be better if she stayed there for good.
(HuffPo) — . . . Missing the only Security Council meeting on the Middle East revolution was not Rice’s first absence from high profile UN business. Rice was absent when the UN held an emergency Security Council meeting on Israel’s raid of a ship headed to Gaza and when Iran was elected to the UN Women’s Commission. Rice also failed to speak out when Libya was elected to the UN Human Rights Council in May 2010.
She sure had plenty of time to devote to that anti-Jewish statement several weeks ago, didnt she? Regrettably, indeed.
Really creepy.
NY Post
Friday, February 18, 2011
1/4 - Geert Wilders: Europe's Most Dangerous Man?
Is Wilders Europe's Most Dangerous Man to Muslims?
Global Jihad are this Century's Nazis
Members of Sunni pro-Hezbollah fighters called "Saraya al-Muqawama al-Lubnaniya", salute as they pay respect at the grave of the assassinated Hezbollah military commander Imad Moughniyeh marking the third anniversary of his assassination in the southern suburbs of Beirut, February 13, 2011. Moughniyeh was assassinated by a car bomb on Feb. 12, 2008, in Damascus after more than two decades of being hunted down by a host of regional and international spy agencies. REUTERS/Issam Kobeisy
Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan.......... the rise of Islamic supremacism.
Camp David Peace Accord Saves Lives
Number of Egyptians killed in the wars against Israel in the 3 decades prior to Camp David:
* 1948: total Arab casualties were 8000-15000
* 1956: 3000
* 1967: 10000-15000
* WOA 1967-1970: 6000-13000
* 1973: 8000-18500
* And more, killed in 3 decades worth of localized clashes
Number of Egyptians killed in wars against Israel in the 3 decades since Camp David:
* zero
* 1948: total Arab casualties were 8000-15000
* 1956: 3000
* 1967: 10000-15000
* WOA 1967-1970: 6000-13000
* 1973: 8000-18500
* And more, killed in 3 decades worth of localized clashes
Number of Egyptians killed in wars against Israel in the 3 decades since Camp David:
* zero
Glasgow Police Investigate Muslim Child Abuse
Police Launch Child Beatings investigation at Three Glasgow Mosques
Many more child beatings are being exposed at leading mosques in the UK and Scotland. Under investigation are Glasgow Central Mosque, Scotland’s biggest place of worship of any faith, the Masjid Noor in Pollokshields, and the Zia ul-Quran nearby. In the UK, the very same madrassas and Islamic schools where children are systematically beaten and taught hatred and violence towards non-Muslims were praised by inspectors for their religious teachings. Is it any wonder that the zombies that emerge from these islamic institutions of higher learning are anti-human?
I exposed these same beatings in shariah class in a Tennessee mosque, and law enforcement and child services refused to investigate. A first-hand undercover investigation was done in Al-Farooq mosque in Nashville, TN. Despite the audio and video posted at Atlas here, the Nashville DA refused to investigate the child abuse and the beatings in shariah class. Atlas readers called, wrote and contacted the DA's office, but nothing was done.
One of my sources on the story told me at the time that the child who is heard in the video was in imminent danger. Her mother was, too. We do not live in an Islamic state.
Police have launched child assault investigations at three Glasgow mosques.
Evening Times, Scotland February 15th 2011 (hat tip Zeminkaya)
Their inquiries are understood to be focusing on madrassas – Islamic schools – at Glasgow Central Mosque, Scotland’s biggest place of worship of any faith, the Masjid Noor in Pollokshields and the Zia ul-Quran nearby.
A police spokeswoman said a report on a 49-year-old woman had been sent to the procurator fiscal.
The investigations came after prominent Muslims raised concerns about teaching methods and child safety regimes at the mosques and their associated madrassas.
Scottish-born parents are understood to have complained that some teachers in the madrassas recruited from Pakistan were using corporal punishment against their children.
Scotland News Net, February 10th 2011
The 14-year-old schoolboy who blew himself up at a Pakistani army training camp on Thursday was a student at a local madrassa, a Qur‘anic school.
It has been suggested such schools have become virtual recruiting centres for aspiring suicide bombers
Research last year by an international organisation revealed that Pakistani madrassas promote violence and intolerance.
Boys are taught jihad, the holy war, as well as hatred for non-Muslims.
According to AsiaNews, Qur‘anic schools are virtual brainwashing centres in which ideologues, do not hesitate to indoctrinate young students to accept martyrdom in the name of religion.
We can see how madrassas are being used in Pakistan. Is this what Britain can expect in a few years time? When the young pupils at British madrassas are suitably terrorised, brutalised and indoctrinated to hate kuffar, will they be ripe for recruitment as home-grown suicide bombers?
Pamela Geller
Many more child beatings are being exposed at leading mosques in the UK and Scotland. Under investigation are Glasgow Central Mosque, Scotland’s biggest place of worship of any faith, the Masjid Noor in Pollokshields, and the Zia ul-Quran nearby. In the UK, the very same madrassas and Islamic schools where children are systematically beaten and taught hatred and violence towards non-Muslims were praised by inspectors for their religious teachings. Is it any wonder that the zombies that emerge from these islamic institutions of higher learning are anti-human?
I exposed these same beatings in shariah class in a Tennessee mosque, and law enforcement and child services refused to investigate. A first-hand undercover investigation was done in Al-Farooq mosque in Nashville, TN. Despite the audio and video posted at Atlas here, the Nashville DA refused to investigate the child abuse and the beatings in shariah class. Atlas readers called, wrote and contacted the DA's office, but nothing was done.
One of my sources on the story told me at the time that the child who is heard in the video was in imminent danger. Her mother was, too. We do not live in an Islamic state.
Police have launched child assault investigations at three Glasgow mosques.
Evening Times, Scotland February 15th 2011 (hat tip Zeminkaya)
Their inquiries are understood to be focusing on madrassas – Islamic schools – at Glasgow Central Mosque, Scotland’s biggest place of worship of any faith, the Masjid Noor in Pollokshields and the Zia ul-Quran nearby.
A police spokeswoman said a report on a 49-year-old woman had been sent to the procurator fiscal.
The investigations came after prominent Muslims raised concerns about teaching methods and child safety regimes at the mosques and their associated madrassas.
Scottish-born parents are understood to have complained that some teachers in the madrassas recruited from Pakistan were using corporal punishment against their children.
Scotland News Net, February 10th 2011
The 14-year-old schoolboy who blew himself up at a Pakistani army training camp on Thursday was a student at a local madrassa, a Qur‘anic school.
It has been suggested such schools have become virtual recruiting centres for aspiring suicide bombers
Research last year by an international organisation revealed that Pakistani madrassas promote violence and intolerance.
Boys are taught jihad, the holy war, as well as hatred for non-Muslims.
According to AsiaNews, Qur‘anic schools are virtual brainwashing centres in which ideologues, do not hesitate to indoctrinate young students to accept martyrdom in the name of religion.
We can see how madrassas are being used in Pakistan. Is this what Britain can expect in a few years time? When the young pupils at British madrassas are suitably terrorised, brutalised and indoctrinated to hate kuffar, will they be ripe for recruitment as home-grown suicide bombers?
Pamela Geller
Bahraini Women Mourn
Bahraini women wait outside a hospital in Manama, Bahrain, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, where victims of the confrontation between anti-government protestors and riot police were being treated. Armed patrols prowled neighborhoods and tanks appeared in the streets for the first time after riot police with tear gas and clubs drove protesters from a main square where they had demanded sweeping political change
Thursday, February 17, 2011
After Lara Logan Muslim Men Have Free Sexual Access to US Women
sECULAR sTUPIDEST - Dear President Obama #parody #humor
The Obama regime could have stopped the rape of Lara Logan with a nuclear device. The regime should have nuked the rapists after the attack to discourage future rapes. The Obama administration demonstrates the Muslim disrespect for female human rights.
The Obama regime could have stopped the rape of Lara Logan with a nuclear device. The regime should have nuked the rapists after the attack to discourage future rapes. The Obama administration demonstrates the Muslim disrespect for female human rights.
Middle Eastern Dominoes - Charles Krauthammer
On Friday night's Fox News All Stars, Charles Krauthammer discussed the possibility of revolution spreading from Egypt to elsewhere in the Arab Muslim world.
Well Iran, of course, is the prize. If that regime were to fall, it would have the most important effect in that region because its satellites Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, and its agents around the Arab world would be weakened. In the same way that when the Soviet Union collapsed, communism around the world essentially disappeared.
The problem is that we’re not in 2009 and people have experienced that incredible repression. There are levels of repression: Mubarak repress[ed] his people, but he’s nowhere in the league of the mullahs. Just today Iranian state media reported a statement by one of the top officials of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, who said of the demonstrators “The conspirators are nothing but corpses.”
They shoot, they kill, they imprison, and they rape. Last year 66 people were hanged. So those brave young people who went out into the street in 2009, who got to the cusp of a revolution and were essentially defeated, remember that it’s really hard to get a second wave of revolution after that kind of repression and when you know how deeply evil and cruel is the regime. …
Jordan has some stability. It has a tradition of a king. It’s a benign dictatorship under a monarchy. They have — the monarchy, the Hashemites — have the support of the Bedouins, who are a big ethnic element in the population, the army is largely Bedouin. So King Hussein and his son have had success in holding off really dangerous revolutions [such as in] 1970, the Palestinian [uprising] of Black September.
I think the one area where there might be a domino effect is Bahrain. It’s small, it’s rich, and it’s heavily Shiite. Iran has had a lot of influence there. It has a Sunni leadership, [but] a majority Shiite [population]. It’s in turmoil. The Saudis support the leadership, and Iran has actually claimed it as its territory — so it could be a real flash point.
I wish I could share his optimism that a Democratic Iran would drop support for Syria, Hamas and Hezbullah. But we can dream, can't we?
Labels: Arab democracy, Charles Krauthammer, dominoes
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:36 PM
Western Liberal Dupes Love Palestinians Not Arabs
"UNTIL the Palestinians are given back their rights we're going to have instability throughout the Middle East," declared John Pilger on ABC1's Q & A last night. "That is central to everything."
Yet, one of the most striking things about the uprising in Egypt was the lack of pro-Palestine placards. As Egypt-watcher Amr Hamzawy put it, in Tahrir Square and elsewhere there were no signs saying "death to Israel, America and global imperialism" or "together to free Palestine". Instead, this revolt was about Egyptian people's own freedom and living conditions.
Yet on the pro-Egypt demonstration in London on Saturday, there was a sea of Palestine placards. "Free Palestine", they said, and "End the Israeli occupation". The speakers had trouble getting the audience excited about events in Egypt, having to say on more than one occasion: "Come on London, you can shout louder than that!" Yet every mention of the word Palestine induced a kind of Pavlovian excitability among the attendees. They cheered when the P-word was uttered, chanting: "Free, free Palestine!"
This reveals something important about the Palestine issue. In recent years it has moved from the realm of Arab radicalism, where Egyptians and other peoples frequently demanded the creation of a Palestinian state, and has instead become almost the exclusive property of Western middle-class radicals, such as Pilger.
Emptied of its nationalist vigour and militancy, the Palestine problem, it seems, is now of little immediate interest to protesting Arabs and is instead the ultimate cause celebre for Western liberal campaigners who like nothing more than having a victimised people they can coo over.
The power and allure of Palestine in Western radical circles is extraordinary. Palestine is the only issue they get excited about. But there is nothing progressive in their pro-Palestine fervour. It is not driven by future-oriented demands for economic development in a Palestinian homeland in the West Bank or Gaza. Instead it is driven by a view of Palestinians as the ultimate victims, the hapless and pathetic children of the new world order, who need kindly, wizened Westerners to protect them from Big Bad Israel.
Today's pro-Palestine leftism is more anthropological than political. It treats Palestinians less as a people who ought to have certain democratic rights and more as an intriguing tribe to be prodded and preserved. Some Western radicals have even adopted the fashions of their favourite tribe. Step on to any university campus in the West, or join any left-wing march, and you'll see concerned-looking youths wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, a politically correct version of blacking up.
This is the politics of pity rather than solidarity. Groups of Western middle-class youth have taken Palestinian pity holidays in the West Bank and Gaza. They turn up and marvel at the dignity of this beautiful besieged people, like those wives of old Victorian colonialists who discovered they rather liked the African tribes they had been sent to Christianise. "I've never met people like the Palestinians. They're the strongest people I've ever met", gushed British peace activist Kate Burton, who hit the headlines in 2006 after being kidnapped by a Palestinian faction in Gaza....
...Palestinian pitiers have no time to think about the inconvenient fact that Hamas is an intolerant political entity that has no time for gay rights or women's equality. Instead, everything gets reduced to a Narnia-style story of wicked witches v happy fauns, because this is ultimately about providing vacuous-feeling Westerners with some much-needed momentum in their lives, not about untangling a messy political reality.
It's very revealing that Palestine has become less important for Arabs and of the utmost symbolic importance for Western radicals at exactly the same time. With the Palestinian people somewhat deflated, the Palestine issue can become perfect political fodder for the victim-oriented, fancy-dress radicals of the modern West.
Brendan O'Neill, The Australian
Yet, one of the most striking things about the uprising in Egypt was the lack of pro-Palestine placards. As Egypt-watcher Amr Hamzawy put it, in Tahrir Square and elsewhere there were no signs saying "death to Israel, America and global imperialism" or "together to free Palestine". Instead, this revolt was about Egyptian people's own freedom and living conditions.
Yet on the pro-Egypt demonstration in London on Saturday, there was a sea of Palestine placards. "Free Palestine", they said, and "End the Israeli occupation". The speakers had trouble getting the audience excited about events in Egypt, having to say on more than one occasion: "Come on London, you can shout louder than that!" Yet every mention of the word Palestine induced a kind of Pavlovian excitability among the attendees. They cheered when the P-word was uttered, chanting: "Free, free Palestine!"
This reveals something important about the Palestine issue. In recent years it has moved from the realm of Arab radicalism, where Egyptians and other peoples frequently demanded the creation of a Palestinian state, and has instead become almost the exclusive property of Western middle-class radicals, such as Pilger.
Emptied of its nationalist vigour and militancy, the Palestine problem, it seems, is now of little immediate interest to protesting Arabs and is instead the ultimate cause celebre for Western liberal campaigners who like nothing more than having a victimised people they can coo over.
The power and allure of Palestine in Western radical circles is extraordinary. Palestine is the only issue they get excited about. But there is nothing progressive in their pro-Palestine fervour. It is not driven by future-oriented demands for economic development in a Palestinian homeland in the West Bank or Gaza. Instead it is driven by a view of Palestinians as the ultimate victims, the hapless and pathetic children of the new world order, who need kindly, wizened Westerners to protect them from Big Bad Israel.
Today's pro-Palestine leftism is more anthropological than political. It treats Palestinians less as a people who ought to have certain democratic rights and more as an intriguing tribe to be prodded and preserved. Some Western radicals have even adopted the fashions of their favourite tribe. Step on to any university campus in the West, or join any left-wing march, and you'll see concerned-looking youths wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, a politically correct version of blacking up.
This is the politics of pity rather than solidarity. Groups of Western middle-class youth have taken Palestinian pity holidays in the West Bank and Gaza. They turn up and marvel at the dignity of this beautiful besieged people, like those wives of old Victorian colonialists who discovered they rather liked the African tribes they had been sent to Christianise. "I've never met people like the Palestinians. They're the strongest people I've ever met", gushed British peace activist Kate Burton, who hit the headlines in 2006 after being kidnapped by a Palestinian faction in Gaza....
...Palestinian pitiers have no time to think about the inconvenient fact that Hamas is an intolerant political entity that has no time for gay rights or women's equality. Instead, everything gets reduced to a Narnia-style story of wicked witches v happy fauns, because this is ultimately about providing vacuous-feeling Westerners with some much-needed momentum in their lives, not about untangling a messy political reality.
It's very revealing that Palestine has become less important for Arabs and of the utmost symbolic importance for Western radicals at exactly the same time. With the Palestinian people somewhat deflated, the Palestine issue can become perfect political fodder for the victim-oriented, fancy-dress radicals of the modern West.
Brendan O'Neill, The Australian
The Spread of Evil is Symptomatic of a Vacuum
The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum.
Libya: Rioters chant "no god but Allah"
No doubt they are peace-loving advocates of democracy at heart. "Rioting hits Libyan city of Benghazi," from Reuters, February 16 (thanks to Ravi):
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Hundreds of people clashed with police and government supporters overnight in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a witness and local media said, in a rare show of unrest in the oil exporting country.
Protesters angered by the arrest of a human rights activist threw petrol bombs, set cars ablaze and chanted "no God but God!" in clashes that left dozens injured, according to reports from the city....
A video clip posted on the YouTube site by someone who said it was recorded in Benghazi on Tuesday night showed a crowd of people outside what looked like a government building chanting: "No God but God!" and "Corruption is the enemy of God."...
People in Benghazi and the region around it have a history of distrust of Gaddafi's rule. Of the hundreds of people jailed in Libya over the past decade for membership of banned Islamist militant groups, many are from the city....
At the Abu Salim prison near Tripoli, 110 men jailed for membership of the banned Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) were set free, though local rights activists overseeing the release said it had nothing to do with events in Benghazi....
Ya think?
Atlas Shrugs
Libya: Rioters chant "no god but Allah"
No doubt they are peace-loving advocates of democracy at heart. "Rioting hits Libyan city of Benghazi," from Reuters, February 16 (thanks to Ravi):
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Hundreds of people clashed with police and government supporters overnight in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a witness and local media said, in a rare show of unrest in the oil exporting country.
Protesters angered by the arrest of a human rights activist threw petrol bombs, set cars ablaze and chanted "no God but God!" in clashes that left dozens injured, according to reports from the city....
A video clip posted on the YouTube site by someone who said it was recorded in Benghazi on Tuesday night showed a crowd of people outside what looked like a government building chanting: "No God but God!" and "Corruption is the enemy of God."...
People in Benghazi and the region around it have a history of distrust of Gaddafi's rule. Of the hundreds of people jailed in Libya over the past decade for membership of banned Islamist militant groups, many are from the city....
At the Abu Salim prison near Tripoli, 110 men jailed for membership of the banned Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) were set free, though local rights activists overseeing the release said it had nothing to do with events in Benghazi....
Ya think?
Atlas Shrugs
We Heard "Jew, Jew, Jew" as Mob Raped Lara Logan
"60 Minutes" Lara Logan was Repeatedly Raped by Egyptian Mob Yelling, "Jew, Jew! Jew!"
"60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, "Jew! Jew!" as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's main square Friday, CBS and sources said yesterday.
This horrible story gets worse and worse. Worse still, CBS tried to keep the whole thing quiet and was forced to get in front of the story only when it became widely known that other media outlets were on to it. Who are they covering for?
And why? Because the false narrative the media is painting of what is going on in Egypt is patently false, and this brutal sex attack points to something else entirely.
Nypost logan
US May Rebuke Israel at UN
bama is brash in his respect for Islamic anti-semitism. He was raised on it. His hatred of Israel and his history of forging antisemitic alliances is meticulously detailed in my book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America. Now it is yielding stinking, rotting, poisonous fruit.
Jews living in the Jewish homeland are not settlers; their homes are not "settlements."
In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council Foreign Policy
The U.S. informed Arab governments Friday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.
But the Palestinian's rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesdy of Arab representativs and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution Friday, according officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospects that the Obama adminstration may cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council.
Still, the U.S. offer signaled a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with its key ally and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to Israel to stop its construction of new settlements. The Palestinian delegation, along with the council's Arab member Lebanon, have asked the council's president this evening to schedule a meeting on Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from the United States.
Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined the new U.S. offer in a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East. In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel's settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.
The U.S.-backed draft statement -- which was first reported by Al Hurra -- was obtained by Turtle Bay. In it, the Security Council "expresses its strong opposition to any unilateral actions by any party, which cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community, and reaffirms, that it does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, which is a serious obstacle to the peace process." The statement also condemns "all forms of violence, including rocket fire from Gaza, and stresses the need for calm and security for both peoples."
U.S. officials were not available for comment, but two Security Council diplomats confirmed the proposal. The Arab Group was scheduled to meet this afternoon to formulate a formal response to the American offer. Council diplomats said that the discussions were fluid and that there was still the possibility that the U.S. draft would be subject to further negotiations. They said it was also not yet certain that the U.S. offer would satisfy the Arab Group, and that the U.S. may be forced to veto the Palestinian resolution.
U.S. officials argue that the only way to resolve the Middle East conflict is through direct negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians. For weeks, the Obama administration has refused to negotiate with the Palestinians on a resolution condemning the settlements as illegal, signaling that they would likely veto it if it were put to a vote. The Palestinians were planning to put the resolution to a vote later this week. But Security Council statements of the sort currently under consideration are voted on the bases of consensus in the 15-nation council.
The United States has , however, been isolated in the 15-nation council. Virtually all 14 other member states are prepared to support the Palestinian resolution, according to council diplomats. A U.N. Security Council resolution generally carries greater political, and legal force, than a statement from the council's president.
The U.S. concession comes as the Middle East is facing a massive wave of popular demonstrations that have brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are posing a challenge to governments in Algeria, Bahrain, and Iran.
Atlas Shrugs
Jews living in the Jewish homeland are not settlers; their homes are not "settlements."
In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council Foreign Policy
The U.S. informed Arab governments Friday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.
But the Palestinian's rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesdy of Arab representativs and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution Friday, according officials familar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospects that the Obama adminstration may cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council.
Still, the U.S. offer signaled a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with its key ally and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to Israel to stop its construction of new settlements. The Palestinian delegation, along with the council's Arab member Lebanon, have asked the council's president this evening to schedule a meeting on Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from the United States.
Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined the new U.S. offer in a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East. In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel's settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.
The U.S.-backed draft statement -- which was first reported by Al Hurra -- was obtained by Turtle Bay. In it, the Security Council "expresses its strong opposition to any unilateral actions by any party, which cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community, and reaffirms, that it does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, which is a serious obstacle to the peace process." The statement also condemns "all forms of violence, including rocket fire from Gaza, and stresses the need for calm and security for both peoples."
U.S. officials were not available for comment, but two Security Council diplomats confirmed the proposal. The Arab Group was scheduled to meet this afternoon to formulate a formal response to the American offer. Council diplomats said that the discussions were fluid and that there was still the possibility that the U.S. draft would be subject to further negotiations. They said it was also not yet certain that the U.S. offer would satisfy the Arab Group, and that the U.S. may be forced to veto the Palestinian resolution.
U.S. officials argue that the only way to resolve the Middle East conflict is through direct negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians. For weeks, the Obama administration has refused to negotiate with the Palestinians on a resolution condemning the settlements as illegal, signaling that they would likely veto it if it were put to a vote. The Palestinians were planning to put the resolution to a vote later this week. But Security Council statements of the sort currently under consideration are voted on the bases of consensus in the 15-nation council.
The United States has , however, been isolated in the 15-nation council. Virtually all 14 other member states are prepared to support the Palestinian resolution, according to council diplomats. A U.N. Security Council resolution generally carries greater political, and legal force, than a statement from the council's president.
The U.S. concession comes as the Middle East is facing a massive wave of popular demonstrations that have brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are posing a challenge to governments in Algeria, Bahrain, and Iran.
Atlas Shrugs
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Ohio Prison Leads Nation in Tax Fraud
I-Team: Ohio Prison No. 1 in Tax Fraud
WJW - CLEVELAND — Inmates have taken the IRS for over $120 million in just the past seven years. The top prison for tax fraud appears to be located right here in Ohio.
"It's absurd that anyone can defraud the IRS so brazenly," says Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. "It's even more absurd when it's prisoners."
WJW - CLEVELAND — Inmates have taken the IRS for over $120 million in just the past seven years. The top prison for tax fraud appears to be located right here in Ohio.
"It's absurd that anyone can defraud the IRS so brazenly," says Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. "It's even more absurd when it's prisoners."
Sibel Edmonds, POTUS, Exec Priv & Espionage
As soon as Obama became president, he showed us that the State Secrets Privilege was going to continue to be a tool of choice. It’s an arcane executive privilege to cover up wrongdoing—in many cases, criminal activities. And the Obama administration has not only defended using the State Secrets Privilege, it has been trying to take it even further than the previous terrible administration by maintaining that the U.S. government has sovereign immunity. This is Obama’s change: his administration seems to think it doesn’t even have to invoke state secrets as our leaders are emperors who possess this sovereign immunity. This is not the kind of language that anybody in a democracy would use.
The other thing I noticed is how Chicago, with its culture of political corruption, is central to the new administration. When I saw that Obama’s choice of chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel, knowing his relationship with Mayor Richard Daley and with the Hastert crowd, I knew we were not going to see positive changes. Changes possibly, but changes for the worse. It was no coincidence that the Turkish criminal entity’s operation centered on Chicago.
__________________________________________
Sibel Edmonds is a former FBI translator and the founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Philip Giraldi is a former CIA officer and The American Conservative’s Deep Background columnist.
The other thing I noticed is how Chicago, with its culture of political corruption, is central to the new administration. When I saw that Obama’s choice of chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel, knowing his relationship with Mayor Richard Daley and with the Hastert crowd, I knew we were not going to see positive changes. Changes possibly, but changes for the worse. It was no coincidence that the Turkish criminal entity’s operation centered on Chicago.
__________________________________________
Sibel Edmonds is a former FBI translator and the founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Philip Giraldi is a former CIA officer and The American Conservative’s Deep Background columnist.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
TOYLAND (English Subtitles) - presented by the San Francisco Jewish Film...
During the Holocaust a Jewish mother tells her son the family is going to Toyland [not a concentration camp].
Message from Egypt to Iranian people: Iran its your turn now!!!
Shooting citizens down in the street is an effective short term policy lousy in the long run. Ahmadinejad has opened his nation to the first wave of carpetbaggers who possess nukes with a Stuxnet immunity.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
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