RADARSITE

Don't Attack Iran! I'll Lose The Election!

2012-02-24T18:19:00.001-08:00

Is the cry coming from the Obama ~~Regime~~ Administration. If Israel attacks Iran before October the US economy will collapse and Obama will lose the election in November.

A military strike by Israel against Iran’s nuclear facilities has emerged as one of the biggest threats to the U.S. economic recovery and could roil the November elections.

The Obama administration and economic experts have warned a pre-emptive attack by Israel could send the economy into a slump, which would change the trajectory of campaigns for the White House and Congress.

Economic and energy experts say an attack could cause an oil shock, which sent the United States into recession in the late 1970s. In the early '90s, a similar shock occurred when the OPEC oil embargo and the Iraq invasion of Kuwait sent prices soaring.

“If Iran is to retaliate against Israel or other U.S. targets, it’s really unpredictable. It’s safe to say there would be a big shock to oil prices,” said Adam Hersh, an economist at the Center for American Progress.

“The oil price shock and domestic politics in the United States are my biggest concerns for disrupting the economic recovery we’ve been seeing,” he said.

Tensions with Iran will serve as a backdrop for the emerging battle over energy policy between the White House and congressional Republicans, who are seizing on high gas prices to build political momentum.

Read it all here.

If there ever was a rational for Binaymin Netanyahu to go it alone, this is it. No longer would President Obama have to deal with Netanyahu. In fact President Obama would have more time for golf. A lot more time.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

My Letter to the US Attorney in Los Angeles

2012-02-23T18:44:00.003-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Below is the text of a letter I have written to Mr. Andre Birotte Jr., US Attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. The letter concerns a townhall last Sunday at the Islamic Center of Orange County, in which Mr. Birotte spoke.
---------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr Birotte,

I appreciate your taking the time to chat with me and listen to my concerns last Sunday at the Islamic Center of Orange County in Garden Grove. As promised, I am sending you the information I talked about regarding Imam Muzammil Siddiqi, his past words, as well as his past and present associations. In preparing this, I found it easier to retrieve the information from my own blog postings, which refer to the appropriate sources. The below links are in chronological order, past to most recent. The final link is my own posting and summary on the Garden Grove event.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/muzammil-siddiqi-omar-abdel-rahman.html

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2782/orange-county-misguided-award

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/muzammil-siddiqi-humanitarian.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/friends-of-muzammil-siddiqi.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/abdul-alim-musa-and-muzammil-siddiqi.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/muzammil-siddiqi-more-troubling.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/muzammil-siddiqi-and-more-friends.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/isna-conference-of-1998.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/05/stephen-schwarz-speaks-out-on-phony.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/book-browsing-at-mosque.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/town-hall-at-islamic-center-of-orange.html

The point of these links is to show that Imam Siddiqi is not what he represents himself to be and what our leaders have thought him to be. I have met Mr Siddiqi, and I know he comes across as a soft-spoken gentleman. He speaks of equality, tolerance and peace. The above links, however, show that there is much more to his persona.

One of the themes of the event Sunday was that there is a climate of hate against American Muslims. While there is some truth to that, it does not speak for the people who are sincerely concerned about what is happening all over the world and here in America. It does not speak for those that I work with. I do not hate Muslims. The Muslims I know love this country and appreciate the freedoms they enjoy here-freedoms they didn't enjoy in their countries of origin. I do not wish to see innocent Muslims labeled as terrorists or extremists and targeted for discrimination or attack. With certain exceptions, I think Americans have done well in that regard in not holding all American Muslims responsible for what terrorists and jihadists are doing. In fact, speaking as a Christian, I have come to the belief that the group most vulnerable to hate in this country and the world now is Jews. I have seen it first hand while working the past 14 years as an adjunct teacher at UC Irvine. It is what led me to become an activist. To me, it is not a question of practicing hate and intolerance. It is a question of fighting hate and intolerance. That is the direction from which I come.

Yet, there is a problem that we cannot ignore. Aside from terrorist attacks, non-Muslim minorities are subject to hate and violence in Muslim nations like Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and many others. At the same time, there is a subversive movement afoot among some Muslims in America, including organizations like CAIR who pose as "moderates". They use the label, "Islamophobia" as a weapon to try and silence their critics. Honest and open discussion of what is happening here and around the world is not "Islamophobia", however one wants to define that tricky term. The issue of Islam can be discussed without resorting to hate against Muslims themselves. At the same time, our freedom of speech to discuss these issues cannot be trampled upon.

As for the much-discussed Sharia law, there is no way that it can be called compatible with the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We must recognize that Islam is more than just a religion; it is also a political ideology-a totalitarian one at that. Its legal tool is Sharia. For Siddiqi to state that Sharia is compatible with the US Constitution is to say the Earth is flat. No code that calls for death to homosexuals or apostates can be compatible with our laws and rights. As you well know, these horrors are actually being committed in many Muslim lands as we speak. Last Sunday, Imam Siddiqi read the statement from the Fiqh Council of North America, of which he is the director. I would encourage you to read the complete statement-carefully- and note how craftily
it is worded.

I would never begrudge Muslims their right to worship. I believe in freedom of religion for all. Nor am I against immigrants. I am married to one and have myself lived in three other countries. What I do believe in is assimilation, as I am sure you do as well having come from Haiti. This does not mean that one has to leave his or her religion when they come to America. Yet, if there are certain traditions or aspects that are in conflict with our concept of equality and rights for all, then immigrants have to know that there must be an accommodation on their part-not on the part of their adopted country. It also means that American Muslims must have all the protections our Constitution guarantees for all including gays and those wishing to change religions.

Nor do I begrudge the effort of law enforcement to work within the Muslim community. Surely, there are many who want to cooperate, possibly because they themselves came to America to escape Sharia. It is a valid investigative tool, one I used myself while in DEA. Having said that, I detected a certain skepticism when I attempted to explain my views to the LAPD officers present. In that vein, I would suggest that you and your colleagues explore true Muslim moderates, people like Dr Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Stephen Schwartz of the Center for Islamic Pluralism and another newly created organization, the American Islamic Leadership Coalition. Here you will find the type of Muslims that our government should be working with-but has largely ignored. They will tell you the truth about organizations like CAIR and others. They recognize that there is a radical threat right here at home.

That leads me to my final observation. The three politicians who were present used the event to push their own political agenda against a rival party. Were I a law enforcement officer, I would have been most uncomfortable participating at such an event that featured partisan politics-especially when other law enforcement agencies were being singled out for attack (FBI-NYPD).

At any rate, I appreciate your allowing me to send you this rather voluminous information. My purpose is two-fold: First, our law enforcement agencies and officials need to be aware of the facts (in this case, Siddiqi and his associations). Secondly, those of us who are speaking out are not all a bunch of extremist bigots. On the contrary, I feel that I am fighting against hate and
intolerance.

I thank you for your time.

Gary Fouse
DEA-retired

PS: I will be posting this letter on my blog. Accordingly, I will be happy to post any response you care to give.

Book Browsing in a Mosque

2012-02-22T16:27:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

This past Sunday, as reported, I attended a town hall event at the Islamic Center of Orange County. Prior the start of the event, I had a chance to drop into the mosque book store and do some browsing. My time was limited, but I did happen find an interesting book called "West vs. Islam" by Margaret Marcus (aka Mayam Jameelah). The entire text of the book can be accessed at the below link.

http://www.scribd.com/islamicbook/d/32350504-West-Versus-Islam

Marcus was born to a Jewish family in New York in 1934. As a young woman, she converted to Islam and moved to Pakistan, where she lived with the family of the famous founder of the Islamic party Jamaat e Islami, Maulana Abul Ala Maududi. Eventually, Maududi arranged a marriage for her. She became a prolific writer on Islam and is a well known figure in Islamic literary circles, Much of her writing reflects a condemnation of Western society and a strict interpretaion of Islam. Below is her Wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Jameelah

A critical book about Marcus and her extremism was written by Deborah Baker. It is called, "The Convert"

Below is a wikipedia entry for Maududi, which includes his views on Jihad and Sharia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_Ala_Maududi

Below is a wikipedia entry for Jamaat e Islami. The article appears to be written by a non-English native speaker and seems favorable to the party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaat-e-Islami

If I may summarize, the writer of "West vs Islam" is a woman who apparently had psychiatric problems in her life, converted to Islam, moved to Pakistan and holds very negative opinions about Western culture. I noted in one part of her book while I was in the bookstore that she does not believe that Muslims in the West should adopt Western ways in areas such as dress and others.

Maududi's version of Islam was very strict in terms of Islam ruling Muslim countries, Sharia, and status of non-Muslims. The party he founded reflects those views. Marcus apparently does as well.

To sum up, I ask myself, why the Islamic Center of Orange County, whose imam, Muzammil Siddiqi, is a well-known religious figure in the American Muslim community, would have this book in their store? This is hardly a book that encourages American Muslims to assimilate into Western society.

Is the ideology that Muzammil Siddiqi subscribes to? Is this something that is compatible with American society, pluralism, liberty, and our Constitution? On that day, I heard a lot of speakers proclaim that Sharia law is perfectly in harmony with the US Constitution. I suggest that the non-Muslim speakers who participated in Sunday's event do their homework.

Is He Alive?

2012-02-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Reports out of Iran is that an Order of Execution may have been written and signed for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was arrested for being a Christian Minister and has been living in prison under an execution threat since 2009. The father of 2 sons, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been tortured to renounce Christianity and embrace Islam. Yet he has refused. He has gathered strength in his faith while living in close supervision and in isolation from all others but his tormenters.

We are hearing reports from our contacts in Iran that the execution orders for Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani may have been issued.

Pastor Youcef’s situation – an innocent man convicted and sentenced to death for becoming a Christian – has not been this dire since we first brought his case to your attention last year.

It is unclear whether Pastor Youcef would have a right of appeal from the execution order. We know that the head of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, must approve publicly held executions, but only a small percentage of executions are held public—most executions in Iran are conducted in secret.

There has also been a disturbing increase in the number of executions conducted by the Iranian regime in the last month.

Iran is actively violating its human rights obligations by sentencing and detaining Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. We call on the Iranian government to release Pastor Youcef immediately.

We are continuing to work to help spare the life of Pastor Youcef, and will provide additional updates on his situation as we are able.

Please continue to pray, share his story, and call for his release.

Source

Will you lend your voice to many others and sign this petition to free Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. He is living in the Lion's Den and like Daniel of old he has the same protector. But for how long?

UPDATE: It is official. A warrant of execution has been issued for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. It is not known on whether or not the execution of Pastor Nadarkhani has taken place.

Town Hall at Islamic Center of Orange County

2012-02-20T18:14:00.002-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Imam Muzammil Siddiqi of the Islamic Center of Orange County

On February 19, 2012, The Islamic Center of Orange County and the Council of Pakistan American Affairs hosted a town hall at the above Islamic Center in Garden Grove. The theme was the US Constitution, US Law and Sharia. I attended and took notes. Afterward, I had a chance to talk with a couple of the panelists/speakers.

The official host of the affair was Imam Muzammil Siddiqi, who is the head of the center. Panelists included LASD Sheriff Lee Baca, LAPD Chief of counter-terrorism, Michael Downing, US Attorney for the Central District of California Andre Birotte, Jr, Congresswomen, Loretta Sanchez, Maxine Waters and Judy Chu (all Democrats), the Pakistani Consul General of Los Angeles, Riffat Masood, and, of course, Siddiqi. Aside from Downing, there were three uniformed LAPD officers from his unit present, one of whom appeared to be recording images of the crowd with his cell phone. First, I would like to summarize the theme of the hour-long session then mention some specific statements by the speakers.

If it may be summarized, each speaker talked about equal rights for all. They stated that it was wrong to single out all Muslims as a result of the actions of some. They spoke of widespread hatred directed at the Muslim community. Most made reference to their belief that Sharia was not in contradiction with US laws, the Bill of Rights, or the US Constitution. Sanchez, Chu and Waters took the opportunity to make partisan political attacks against Republican members of Congress.

Here are some of the statements made by the speakers, each of whom spoke for 5-10 minutes.

Imam Siddiqi

Siddiqi stated that Muslims were the target of increasing hateful propaganda, also coming from public officials. He stated that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. He also complained of misinformation about Sharia. Siddiqi then read a prepared statement by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA). The statement ( I am paraphrasing from my notes) stated that they saw no contradiction between the normative values of Islam and the US Constitution. The statement stressed securing of life, equality of all humans, and religious freedom. It went on to state that Muslims in America should obey US laws, the Constitution and Bill of Rights as long as it doesn't conflict with their duty to obey God. It also stated that the core values of Sharia are respect for human life and property. There is no contradiction between Sharia and the US Constitution.

Siddiqi is the chairman of the FCNA. The entire statement is below from their website:

http://fiqhcouncil.org/node/67

US Attorney Andre Birotte Jr

There was really little noteworthy about Birotte's remarks. He spoke of civil rights, diversity, working with all creeds, colors etc. He did tell the audience that upon taking over the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, he re-instituted the public corruption unit.

Chief Michael Downing

Downing spoke of a campaign of hate against Muslims across the country. He repeated the same themes about protecting rights of all. He stated that Sharia is not a threat to America, but that the threat is violent ideological extremists

Maxine Waters

Waters (reading most of her remarks) began by praising Sheriff Baca for his courage in taking on this issue. She then went on to attack House Republicans for their hearings on Islamic radicalization. She said they were "attacking Muslim people" and using "scare tactics". She mentioned that 13 states had attempted to pass legislation banning Sharia. She criticized Peter King (R-NY) for stating that he would continue his hearings. She also referred to Newt Gingrich's calling for a federal law that Sharia would not be recognized in US law. She also referred to HR 3618, the End Racial Profiling Act, that would prohibit law enforcement agencies from profiling. She went on to list violent acts by hate groups, and said that many of the recent terrorist arrests in the US were a result of tips from the Muslim community. She added according to a report by the Muslim Public Affairs Council that since 9-11, there have been 77 terrorist acts committed by non-Muslims domestically. She quoted a rabbi named Jerry Serotta of Clergy Beyond Borders, who took a shot at Newt Gingrich for speaking about American exceptualism. She concluded by quoting ACLU director of religious affairs Daniel Mach, who said that "anti-Sharia laws are motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry, plain and simple."

Loretta Sanchez

Sanchez began her presentation by rudely challenging an older man in the audience who was filming with a hand held camera. She asked who he was and if he was an official videographer. She then asked him to turn off his camera unless he was an official videographer for the event. A few moments later, a woman in the audience pointed out another woman who was filming. Sanchez asked her to turn off her camera unless she was an official videographer.

Sanchez then launched into an attack against Peter King for his hearings, which she called, "Muslim hearings". She stated that "the one purpose of the hearings was to humiliate and offend the cultural integrity of the American Muslim community." She also used the term, "witch hunt".

She also accused Republican members of Congress of having "accused CAIR of trying to insert Muslims into Congress to spy." Sanchez told the audience that she had seen racial profiling directed to people "who look like me".

She mentioned that President Obama has instituted the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to oversee all laws relating to fighting terrorism.

Sanchez also told the audience that she is "the only member of Congress in Orange County to stand up for the American Muslim community."

Riffat Masood

Masood was introduced as someone who represents the Muslim community of Southern California in general, not just the Pakistani community. The Pakistani Consul General told the audience that the Muslim-American community needs to integrate themselves more into the political process. She also made a reference to watching the Republican debates and made a vague comment that if they can discuss these issues there is hope. There was snickering in the audience.

Masood also made a vague reference to Congress proposing legislation regarding Pakistan, but she did not go into detail. She spoke of her first trip to Washington DC and visiting the memorials-especially the Jefferson Memorial. She compared the words and slogans on the memorials as being the same as Islam.

"Today", she said, we are far from what Jefferson and the Constitution talk about". ("So much hatred.") She urged her listeners as Americans to "marry" the Constitution with Islamic values.

Lee Baca

Baca began by lavishing praise on the "great Congressman Waters". He described Los Angeles as the epicenter of diversity. He commended Janet Napolitano for creating an inter-faith council within the Department of Homeland Security.

Judy Chu

Chu arrived late, during the Q and A, thus bringing that portion to a quick halt (after two questions). She talked about hate crimes against Muslims post-9-11, which, according to her, shot up. She spoke of her opposition to the King hearings, the New York PD spying on the Muslim community, a protest against Lowe's, the "terrible" FBI counter-terrorism training materials. She quoted Attorney General Eric Holder as stating that "the people who put together those materials are no longer with the department". Below is the actual exchange at a congressional hearing.

Chu also spoke of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act that "prevented Chinese-Americans from immigrating and becoming naturalized", and spoke of a bill in Congress that would issue an expression of regret for that action. She also mentioned the relocation of the Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor. She attributed that to Japanese-Americans not standing up and speaking out, which she urged Muslims Americans to do.

During the presentations, a small notebook and pencils were passed among the audience for questions. It appeared there would be no opportunity for people in the audience to voice their questions. I managed to scribble my own question, which was directed to Imam Siddiqi. It went something like this:

"Dr Siddiqi,

"If you are a true moderate, why did you host the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, at your mosque in 1992 and interpret his speech about violent jihad? Why did you participate in a demonstration in Washington in October 2000 along with Abdul Alim Musa and Abdurahman Alamoudi?"

Needless to say, that question never made it to the light of day, but one Arab woman was able to stand up and ask a question of the two law enforcement officers on the panel. She asked them as those who had taken an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, what they would do in the case of a wife-beating by a Muslim man. That caused a lot of grumbling in the audience and some people told her to sit down and be quiet. Before Baca or Downing could answer, an agitated Siddiqi stood up and stated that wife-beating was forbidden by the Koran. The questioner referred to Koran chapter 4 verse 34 (which refers to this issue). The woman also referred to the principle of abrogation. (This means that if there is a contradiction between two passages in the Koran, that which was written later in time abrogates that which was written earlier.) Siddiqi replied that he didn't want to go into abrogation. At some point, Downing stated that in the case of wife-beating in his jurisdiction, the offender would be arrested. One other written question was taken from the audience, which concerned a National Security measure regarding arrests. Sanchez responded and told the questioner that if contacted, her office would send him or her a copy of the law. There were no other questions taken.

Once Chu concluded her remarks, the meeting adjourned because it was time for prayers.

Subsequently, I was able to chat with Mr. Birotte, Downing, and the aforementioned three LAPD officers. First, I introduced myself to Birotte as a retired DEA agent who had worled in the Central District of California (Los Angeles) for several years. I told him that I strongly agreed with his statements that all Muslim-Americans should not be painted with the same wide brush because of the terrorist and extremist acts of some. I then told him that I did have concerns about this place (the Islamic Center of Orange County) and Imam Siddiqi. I informed him that in 1992, Siddiqi had hosted the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman and had interpreted in real time Abdel Rahman's speech on violent Jihad. I also told him of Siddiqi's appearance in Washington DC in October 2000 at an anti-Israel protest, in which other speakers were Abdul Alim Musa and Abdurahman Alamoudi. I offered, if he would give me his card, to send him all the documents regarding Siddiqi. He agreed and gave me his card. Our conversation was very cordial.

Outside, I went over and introduced myself to the three LAPD officers who had accompanied Downing. Actually, I had met one previously at UC Irvine, a young officer who was born to a Muslim family in Pakistan. I repeated the same facts to them. I was met with some degree of skepticism. One officer stated that I should not blame Siddiqi for the statements of others, referring to the Washington appearance, but agreed that the information about the Blind Sheikh was troubling. Another officer asked me what evidence I had for my statements about the Washington appearance. I replied that it was on videotape and I had witnessed and reviewed the statements of Siddiqi, Musa, and Alamoudi. When asked what specifically Siddiqi had said, I replied that he had warned America not to risk the "wrath of God" by continuing to support Israel.

Here are his exact words. (The below videos come from the Investigative Project on Terrorism.)

"Siddiqui: We want our government to stop feeding the Israeli war machinery. We want to awaken the conscience of America. America has to learn that. Because if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please! Please all Americans, do you remember that, that Allah is watching everyone. God is watching everyone. If you continue doing injustice, and tolerating injustice, the wrath of God will come." (Video by Investigative Project on Terrorism- Al Quds Day rally Washington DC, October 28, 2000)

http://www.investigativeproject.org/249/muzzamil-siddiqui-at-jerusalem-rally

The man in black standing over Siddiqi's left shoulder is radical imam Abdul Alim Musa formerly Clarence Reams, who served prison time for drug trafficking. He is virulently anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and pro-Iran. He tells his audiences that Islam will "take over" America, something he said at UC Irvine in my presence a few years ago. Here is what he said in Washington on October 28, 2000:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/503/musa-celebrates-martyrs

Below is a link to a video of Alamoudi's words that day in Washington:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/218/rally-at-lafayette-park-alamoudi

Alamoudi is serving 23 years in prison based on his conspiring with Libya to murder a Saudi prince.

At some point, Chief Downing came over, and I repeated the same concerns I had to him. As to Siddiqi, he stated that over time some people change. He asked me if I was a member of any organization, and I replied that I was not. I also asked him if he knew about people like Zuhdi Jasser and Stephen Schwartz. He seemed not be aware of them, but asked if they were connected to people like Steve Emerson and David Horowitz. I replied that as far as I knew, they were not. I did elicit one telling comment from Downing. When I told him that I had concerns about leading Islamic organizations in the US like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, ICNA etc, he stated that "CAIR is problematic."

It should also be mentioned that after the meeting, one man handed an LAPD officer a flyer, which the officer proceeded to tear up in front of him.

My impressions

For what was advertised as a town hall meeting, there was no room for anything other than the narrative provided by the speakers. The theme was that hate-filled right-wingers (and Republicans) are targeting Muslim-Americans, and that Sharia law is perfectly compatible with US law. The program was timed to preclude any meaningful discussion or debate. The one person who raised the issue of wife-beating, herself, an Arab, was not treated with respect.

Maxine Waters and Loretta Sanchez shamelessly made this a partisan political issue trying to paint congressional Republicans as Islamophobes. Anyone who had fears about Sharia was just anti-Muslim.

I personally found Masood's comments about America being far from the ideals of Jefferson and the Constitution offensive. How does a diplomat come here and make such a statement about the host country? She should pay more attention to the hate, religious intolerance, and radicalism that goes on in her own country.

Of course, there was no mention of the hatred against non-Muslims and the persecution that goes on in virtually all Muslim countries against non-Muslims. Not a word was mentioned, for example, of the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Similarly, there was no mention of Muslim on Muslim violence in the name of Sharia.

As for our law enforcement representatives, I got the distinct impression that were not interested in hearing the other side of the issue or the disturbing history of Muzammil Siddiqi and his associations with Islamic jihadists in the US. In the case of the LAPD, these four officers are part of the counter-terrorist unit. Yes, they have a responsibility to maintain contact with as many elements of the Muslim community as possible, develop sources and contacts while protecting their civil liberties. I just wonder whether their eyes are really open, or they are simply bowing to political correctness. It is worrisome. One thing I learned during my nearly 30 years in law enforcement; when someone offers you information, you consider it and evaluate it. You don't just tear it up before reading it.

I also believe that it was inappropriate for two high-ranking police officials to sit on a panel with three partisan politicians who turned their presentations into attacks on a rival political party while attacking other law enforcement agencies (NYPD-FBI).

Finally this: After the meeting, while people went into the mosque to pray, I was standing outside alone. A young American Muslim girl (about 20) in hijab came up to me and asked if I needed any help. She was very sweet and gracious as she invited me to enter the mosque and observe the prayers. I politely declined (I felt it would be inappropriate to enter.) We had a brief but pleasant chat as she attempted to be of assistance. Here is my point: God forbid that I would want this young lady or others like her to be subjected to any hate and discrimination in America. She is not the problem. But I also worry about the influence that some of her leaders are having upon her and other young American Muslims.

The Water Turns To Blood

2012-02-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

For those people looking to signs from Heaven pointing to an upcoming Apocalypse, this might point the way.

Beirut River Mysteriously Runs Blood Red

BEIRUT: The Beirut River mysteriously turned blood red Wednesday after a stream of unidentified red liquid began pouring from the southern bank of the river in Furn al-Shubbak. The source of the liquid had yet to be determined Wednesday evening, as the river continued to empty the red-colored water into the Mediterranean Sea.

Government and local officials rushed to the scene at the Chevrolet crossing of Furn al-Shubbak Wednesday morning in an attempt to locate the sewage canal that was dumping the red-colored water but they were unable to locate the source. Accusations were traded among officials from the municipalities of Hadath, Hazmieh, Sin al-Fil, Furn al-Shubbak and Shiyah.

Eyewitnesses working in the area told The Daily Star this was not the first time the river had turned a different color. Several business owners around the Chevrolet crossing said that colored water pours into the river roughly every two months but no one pays attention to it.It was the quantity and brightness of the red liquid that grabbed the attention of many passersby and commuters on different bridges in the city Wednesday.

Environment Minister Nazem Khoury said the source of the water was likely from Hazmieh or Baabda.

“I call on the municipalities of Hazmieh and Baabda to cooperate swiftly to find the source of the pollution and its type,” Khoury said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Khoury sent an environmental team to the area to examine the water. The team, headed by ministry official Bassam Sabbagh, took a sample of the water to determine its composition and whether it contained dangerous pollutants.

The samples will be examined Thursday because state laboratories were already closed by the time the sample was taken. “The sample we took will be examined tomorrow [Thursday] morning ... and we will know whether it is blood being mixed with water or if it is some sort of a color dumped in it,” said Sabbagh.

A similar incident took place in the Chinese Jian River last December after a factory illegally dumped red dye into the river, which is located in the northern Chinese province of Henan.

Some cities use non-toxic dyes to color rivers on special occasions. In Chicago, the river is dyed green every year in the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.

According to Sabbagh, test results will help the ministry determine whether the substance is a chemical pollutant or blood from a nearby slaughterhouse.

“First we thought it was blood, but it seems like it is a kind of coloring dumped by a factory,” said Sabbagh, who also said that the test to determine the type of the chemical would take a week.

Sabbagh said the municipality and other ministries should help the Environment Ministry in its investigation. “We need the help of the local officials to have a clear idea of the sewage network in the region,” he said.

According to Sabbagh, who heads the ministry’s Environmental Pollution Control Office, maps of the sewage network would help officials locate the source of the red-colored water.

“After finding the source, it would be a matter of hours to get to the factory and the area where the [colored] water is originating,” said Sabbagh adding that swift action would be taken against those responsible for it.

Saad Elias, an adviser to the environment minister, did not rule out the possibility that a slaughterhouse could be behind the red color.

“After going through several phases of butchering at the slaughterhouses, they store huge amounts of blood and animal parts in containers ... they might have dumped them into a sewage canal,” said Elias.

“The ministry will definitely investigate this matter because our role is to prevent pollution,” he added.

Meanwhile, local officials in the area suggested that a paint factory could be responsible for the incident. “There are several paint factories in Hadath,” said an official from the Shiyah municipality.

As officials tried to determine the source and the nature of the substance in the river, the Beirut prosecutor assigned the Internal Security Forces to launch an investigation into the matter.

Source

The Lebanese should prepare for the next 2 plagues: Frogs and Lice. And they should discover fast what the Jews want from them. And then give it to them.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Why I Don't Support the Palestinians

2012-02-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

Gary Fouse

fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/

Amid all the propaganda against Israel going on within American and European academia, you might think that the Palestinians were the ultimate victims of brutality, occupation, and apartheid. I don't buy it. However, rather than defend Israel's security measures, which I have already done many times, I want to express here why I have so little sympathy for the Palestinians.

All during my adult life, I have been reading and hearing about Palestinian terror since the 1960s. First it was the airplane hijackings. Then it was the Munich massacre during the 1972 Olympics. There have been too many to count. When I was living in Italy in the 1980s, there was the Achille Lauro takeover in which Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly American Jew, was killed in front of his wife and thrown overboard in his wheelchair. There were the simultaneous attacks on Rome and Vienna airports, in which random victims were killed. Yes, the Palestinians have been not only content to kill Israelis, but Americans and Westerners in general.

When 9-11 happened, what did Palestinians do? They danced in the streets and passed out candy, just as they have done when terrorists blew up Israeli buses and pizza parlors killing civilians, women and children. They passed out candy when an entire Jewish family was slaughtered in their home in the West Bank including a 3- month-old infant sleeping in a crib.

The problem is that the Palestinians have hitched their wagon to blood-thirsty leaders like Yasser Arafat, Hamas and Hezbollah. They don't really want a two-state solution and peace with Israel. They want it all-"from the river to the sea". To this day, they continue to lob rockets into southern Israel, hitting schoolyards.

In Gaza, Hamas rejects peace talks. They want every last Jew driven from the Holy Land and the establishment of a Muslim state. Their very charter quotes the hadith that talks of the "last Jew hiding behind a tree and calling to the Muslim to come and kill him." To this day, they continue to lob rockets into southern. Israel hitting schoolyards where children play. Meanwhile, the so-called moderate Palestinian Authority features a news media that demonizes Jews as apes and monkeys. How is Israel supposed to sit down and negotiate with that?

In the face of all this, liberal Westerners, radical academics and gullible students have been brainwashed into thinking that Israel is the aggressor. As for the terrorism, they ignore it or call it "legitimate resistance". Our problem in the West is that we have lost our moral compass.

Yes, I want to see an eventual settlement that will lead to peace, but I am skeptical. The Palestinians have not demonstrated that they can even run a country-let alone one that would live in peace with Israel. It is easy to speak of a Palestinian nation, but once nationhood is granted, it has the sovereign power to make its own alliances with radical nations like Iran and receive shipments of God knows what. Who needs the establishment of another outlaw state?

Finally, I am convinced that this conflict is not about land, rather it is about religion. The Arab world will not accept a Jewish state in the region. That is why they tried to defeat Israel by war in 1948, 1967 and 1973. They failed, but the Palestinian "cause" is just an excuse to continue that war by other means.

Until the Palestinians decide to forget conquest and renounce terror, I cannot feel sympathy for them.

The Evil Against Israel

2012-02-14T16:06:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Hat tip to Vos iz Neias

So now Iran has unleashed its terrorists against Israel. Bombs have gone off targeted against Israeli missions in New Delhi and Tbilisi. In addition, four Iranians have been arrested in Bangkok after one of them blew his legs off trying to throw a grenade at cops. This is what the Islamic Republic of Iran does. We are dealing with terrorist nation run by religious fanatics.

http://www.vosizneias.com/101006/2012/02/14/bangkok-thailand-israeli-tv-thai-authorities-say-captured-iranians-confessed-to-targeting-israeli-interests/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+vin+%28Vos+Iz+Neias%29

And yet, the world seems to have this obsession with the tiny Jewish state that is simply trying to survive in a sea of sharks called the Middle East.

The events in India, Georgia and Thailand should educate the world about the evil that is lined up against Israel. But they won't learn. They will still go on with this brain-dead Boycott, Sanctions and Divest movement against Israel. They should have learned when Mumbai was attacked by a group of Pakistani Muslims who killed so many people and tortured, killed and mutilated a Jewish rabbi and his wife at the local Chabad House. It didn't matter. The Israel apartheid protests continued on college campuses, oblivious to what had happened in Mumbai-or not caring. They should have learned after the Fogel massacre in which an entire Jewish family had their throats cut by Palestinian intruders who also killed a three-month old infant in its crib. In the Palestinian world, they were celebrated as heroes and soldiers. But the protests against Israel continued anyway.

Meanwhile in Syria, a nation that will not make peace with Israel, the massacres continue as the world wrings its hands and talks about sanctions.

UC Irvine School of Fine Arts Rejects Statue of Raoul Wallenberg

2012-02-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Reference is made to my previous posts about an effort to have a statue of Raoul Wallenberg placed on the UC Irvine campus.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/raoul-wallenberg-monument-at-uc-irvine.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/wallenberg.html

Below is a copy of a letter sent to Peter Lancz, the organizer of the drive, by Joseph S Lewis, Dean of the Clair Trevor School of the Arts dated January 30, 2012.

This is the same department that just this past Saturday hosted some kind of symposium by a group of anti-Israel activists and film makers.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-it-aint.html

Do you suspect that had someone wanted to erect a statue of Nobel Peace Prize winner Yasser Arafat on the campus, the school would have given it more favorable consideration?

"Uhhhh, yeaaaah."

So do I.

The Occupy Movement: It's a Federal Case

2012-01-30T17:52:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

With this weekend's violence in Oakland, it is time to look into the national aspect of this phenomena from a law enforcement point of view. Can anyone seriously say that there is no national coordination going on here with these disruptions? From New York to Oakland to Los Angeles and beyond, it is one case of violence, public disorder, destruction and disruption after another. The question is will our Justice Department under Eric Holder seriously investigate it?

First of all, there is every reason to suspect that there is a link between the activists and the Democratic Party. Nancy Pelosi has publicly stated that she supports the protesters "when they speak truth to power". She also made her infamous, "God bless them" statement. President Obama, no less, said that he "can empathize with the protests". Nowhere do you see posters or chants attacking Obama or the Democratic Party.

In addition, I can name right off the top of my head three national organizations that have jumped into the Occupy Movement; SEIU, CAIR and the National Lawyers Guild, the latter of which was created in the 1930s as a legal arm of the Communist Party USA. Its Los Angeles director, James Lafferty, has not only taken a leading role in the LA protests, but was arrested in New York.

The point of the matter is this; if Occupy leaders are coordinating across state lines to cause disruption and violence, that is where federal law enforcement should step in. Let me note that I do not see a dangerous parallel with the civil rights protests of the 1960s when the FBI was wiretapping Martin Luther King under orders from J. Edgar Hoover. King's protests resulted in local arrests because he was engaging in civil disobedience of unconstitutional laws, but nowhere did King and his followers engage in violence. They did not throw rocks at police. They did not forcibly take over buildings. They never tried to shut down a sea port by forcibly occupying it. They did not assault people or cause property damage.

As for what is happening today, local law enforcement does not have the tools to go beyond making arrests at the local level. When it comes to any form of national coordination of violence , it requires a federal agency to effectively coordinate across state lines to investigate it.

That is why we have federal agencies to begin with. For example, if a local drug dealer is standing on an Oakland street corner selling drugs to addicts, that is a case for the Oakland police. But when that seller is connected to a larger dealer who is obtaining his heroin supplies from another dealer in New York, now you need a federal agency like DEA, which can coordinate together effectively to take down what is a national trafficking organization,.

Can anyone seriously argue that the Occupy movement, which has long ago crossed from peaceful protest to violence and disruption, is a spontaneous, local phenomena with no national coordination? Hardly.

It is past time that the Department of Justice started to investigate this movement on a national level. The RICO statute may be the appropriate tool. It is possible that the FBI is already looking into it, but if so, are they on a tight leash with this politically-oriented Justice Department under Eric Holder?

Final comment on Oakland: It is time for some serious charges that carry some serious prison time for those who were arrested.

Convictions in Canadian Honor-Killing

2012-01-29T14:53:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

A Canadian court has convicted three members of an Afghan immigrant family for first-degree murder, a case in which four female members of the family were murdered. The below report from CNN tells the story.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/29/world/americas/canada-honor-murder/index.html?section=cnn_latest

This case has aroused wide publicity in Canada. It is a classic case of honor-killing. The husband was infuriated at his three daughters, who were rebellious and embracing a freer Western life style. Mr Shafia's first wife was also killed because it was believed she was facilitating the daughters' rebellious behavior.

The verdict sends an important message to the rest of the country. That is that certain traditions, customs and beliefs are not acceptable in a free country that demands equality for all.

It is also a reason why shariah law must not be allowed to gain any kind of foothold in Western countries. The US and Europe have also experienced "honor-killings". It is one aspect of shariah that has no place in Western society. The point is this: Murder is murder and will be treated as such. There can be no allowances made for any religious beliefs that immigrants may bring with them from their countries of origin. In many of their previous countries, great consideration is given to the idea of honor-killing. This results in lenient sentences for the offenders. That cannot happen here.

If we allow shariah law to gain a foothold in our country, it will only grow. It is unacceptable for us to leave Muslim immigrants to the mercy of shariah within their own families or communities when it is in direct violation of our own laws and constitution. In Great Britain, local shariah courts have been allowed to operate in civil property matters. At the same time, there are loud demands from people like Anjem Choudary and his radical groups that shariah become the law of the land. In Choudary's own words, that means honor-killings, stonings, death to homosexuals, and apostates from Islam. Great Britain has allowed the camel to get his nose under the proverbial tent.

I absolutely do not mean to imply that all or even most Muslim immigrants want to practice these things in America. Many came here to escape that type of oppresion. I am of the opinion that most Muslims realize that these things are not part of American culture, are contrary to American law, and are conducting their lives accordingly. Yet, honor-killings have, indeed, occurred in the US- in Buffalo, St Louis, Phoenix, and other places. They are isolated incidents,and the victims themselves are Muslims, but the justice must be sure. Everyone in this country is guaranteed certain rights to life. That includes rebellious wives and daughters, gays, and people deciding to change religions or just abandon a religion. We cannot turn a blind eye to these practices and allow people to be victimized in the name of multi-culturalism.

Malmo: 1945 and 2012

2012-01-28T16:53:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

Hat tip to Jihad i Sverige (Jihad in Sweden)

From the Swedish-language site Jihad i Sverige, I am cross-posting (and translating) an announcement of a feature film that is showing this weekend in Sweden about the arrival in Malmo, Sweden of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. A 2-minute trailer is also available in English at the below link (Hoppets Hamn) The film is appearing as part of Europe's observation of Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27).

Malmö

Idag antisemitismens huvudstad

i Sverige. Då: Hoppets hamn för tusentals

överlevande...Malmo

Today the capital of anti-Semitism in Sweden

Then: harbor of Hope for thousands of survivors

Våren och sommaren 1945 anländer

nästan 30 000 överlevare från de

tyska koncentrationslägren till Sverige.

På kajen i Malmö hamn upplever de

sina första ögonblick av frihet.

Det är där livet börjar igen.

In the spring and summer of 1945, almost 30,000 survivors of German concentration camps arrived in Sweden. On the quais of Malmo's harbor, they experienced their first view of freedom. It was there that life began again.

Filmfotograferna är på plats och i en

journalfilm ser vi den leende, tioåriga

flickan Irene, som precis stigit av

färjan. I samma film möter vi nyfödda Ewa

när hon bärs iland av sin utmattade

mamma, stöttad av en Röda Kors-syster.

Film photographers were at the scene, and in a news film we see the smiling, ten-year-old girl, Irene, just when she gets off the ferry. In the same film, we meet the new-born Ewa as she is carried by her exhausted mother, supported by a Red Cross nurse.

I Hoppets hamn lär vi också känna ton-

åringen Joe, som anländer till Sverige

efter att ha förlorat sin familj.

Han blir god vän med den 15-årige Röda

Kors-volontären Stig från Malmö och

deras möte kommer att förändra Joes liv.

In Hope's Harbor, we also meet the teenager, Joe, who arrives in Sweden after losing his family. He becomes good friends with 15-year-old Red Cross volunteer Stig from Malmo, and their meeting will change Joe's life.

I Magnus Gerttens nya långfilms-

dokumentär berättar dessa överlevare

om frihetens ögonblick och om frågorna

de burit med sig ända sedan kriget.

Samtidigt är det en film om den hjälpande

hand som Malmö och Sverige räckte fram

till dom som kom levande ur koncen-

trationslägren

Magnus Gertten's new feature film documentary tells us about the survivors at freedom's moment and about questions they carry since the war. At the same time, this is a film about the helping hand that Malmo and Sweden extended to those who came as survivors from concentration camps.

Hoppets Hamn visas denna helgen i SvT2

SVT2 fre 27 jan kl 15.50
SVT2 lör 28 jan kl 14.30
SVT2 sön 29 jan kl 00.55

Hope's Harbor will be shown this holiday on SvT2

SVT2 Friday, 27 January. 15:50

SVT2@ Saturday, 28 January 14:30

SVT2, Sunday, 29 January 00:55

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Jihad i Sverige points out at the top, Malmo today is no longer hope's harbor, rather it is the capital of Swedish anti-Semitism. The Jewish community is leaving Malmo as fast as it can get out, unable to deal with the harassment, assaults and vandalism it suffers from Malmo's Muslim immigrant population, which makes up some 25% of the city's population, and has turned the Rosengard section into a "no-go zone."

And what support do the Jews get from Malmo's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu? None. His attitude is that the Jews are welcome to leave since he identifies them with Israel, a nation he despises. He is a disgrace.

Ohio State University Newspaper Ad

2012-01-25T11:03:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Hat tip to Frontpage Magazine

David Horowitz's Freedom Center has placed an ad in THE Ohio State University newspaper (The Lantern) that has the little rascals all riled up. It lists former Muslim Student Association leaders of various college campuses who have gone on to join the ("lesser") jihad. Frontpage Magazine also has a report about the controversy.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/25/ohio-state-students-mobilize-against-freedom-center-ad/

Again, I invite my Muslim readers, especially those who are involved with the Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine, to weigh in. I think we can have a respectful discussion on this topic. Does the ad stigmatize all Muslims on college campuses or even all MSU/MSA members?

What about the statement that there is a fine line between freedom of speech and hate speech? How does this compare with statements made at UCI over the years by Amir Abdel Malik Ali, Mohammed al Asi, and others?

C'mon! It's all about dialogue.

The Leopard Will Change His Spots

2012-01-24T22:16:00.000-08:00

Book of Obama Chapter 13

And the Holy One, anointed by Holy Chief of Justice, John of Roberts, returned to the Dome of the Capital, dressed in the Holy suit and tie and addressed the assembled chapter of the Congress, the Holy Justices of the land, the members of the anointed Cabinet and guests from near and far, the Anointed One, Wearer of the Mantle of Power, spoke:

I ended the war in Iraq, I killed the evil bin Laden, and personally I welcomed all the soldiers home from Iraq. I am the Holy One, the President and I can do everything. I have brought peace to the world, the world respects us better now than at any time, I will end the war in Afghanistan too. For I am the Messiah of the World.

I want all of you, My ~~slaves~~ oops My people to remember what I did for you after World War 2. My Grandfather who fought with Patton (and liberated Auschwitz) and My Grandmother who built the entire US Navy by herself, got to go to college for nothing. They built the US to its greatness all by themselves.

But now I see that you have done everything to destroy Me. You have overspent, you have destroyed My credit (and yours), you have bought homes that you could not afford. But I am here. I will pay your mortgages. I will refinance your mortgages. I will make it all better. I am your Savior.

I will prevent jobs from going overseas. I will investigate businesses who outsource their jobs to China. (That is until Warren Buffet tells Me to stop.) There will be no more bailouts for banks, for Wall Street, for anyone, except for Unions. I saved the auto industry. No one helped Me. And they are stronger now than before. (Sorry about the Volt thing.) I will make other nations have an equal playing field with Me. I am the equalizer.

I will tax the rich higher. And I will tax everyone else higher too. I will change the tax code. I am Omnipotent. I can and will do all.

I salute America's teachers. I stand by your unions. I will throw more money to you so you can indoctrinate the children. I want a law saying that a child must stay in school until either he or she graduates or turns 18. That way I can have them indoctrinated to be our slaves. I will find a way to destroy the home schools, the private schools (But not the ones My daughters attend.), and the religious schools. Everyone will learn the same, think the same, live the same. Everyone will get free college under Me. (Except to the "good" schools.)

I will give citizenship to every immigrant to the United States. It matters not to Me if they are legally here or not. And I demand that this be done before the November elections (I need the votes.).

I will create jobs in energy. I will have the oil fields opened up. (Until the environmentalists either go to court or demand that I stop.) I demand that we develop alternate energy (The people who created Solyndra have given Me more money. I need to give them more government funds.) Under Me the United States has imported less oil than in the last 16 years. (Not really but if you tell a lie long and loud enough the sheeple will believe it.)

I will clear away all the Red Tape, all the government regulations that hold business down. But only until I am re-elected. Then not only will it all return but I will impose stricter restrictions upon the land.

Under My leadership the Muslim world has undergone transformations. I was the cause of the Arab Spring, the Arab renewal, the Muslim revival. This is all good in My eye. I will remove Assad from Syria, nukes from Iran and Jews from Palestine. I will defeat the evil Netanyahu and replace him with the moderate Abbas. There will be peace through out the land, for under Me all will drink the Kool-Aid and sing the Kumbaya. Under Me all men, all women will live in peace. There will be peace, the peace of Islam and the joy of the jizya. This I will demand of the world.

Upon listening to this the people turned to each other and wondered why the Anointed One didn't do any of these things when He first came into office. They saw what He had done and shook their heads. In a loud voice they shouted:

NOT THIS TIME!

It's 2012!

2012-01-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

We are experiencing Solar Activity on a scale we haven't seen in decades. The Sun has come to life and is throwing a fit.

RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Solar protons accelerated by this morning's M9-class solar flare are streaming past Earth. On the NOAA scale of radiation storms, this one ranks S3, which means it could, e.g., cause isolated reboots of computers onboard Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications. An example of satellite effects: The "snow" in this SOHO coronagraph movie is caused by protons hitting the observatory's onboard camera.

ALMOST-X FLARE AND CME (UPDATED): This morning, Jan. 23rd around 0359 UT, big sunspot 1402 erupted, producing a long-duration M9-class solar flare. The explosion's M9-ranking puts it on the threshold of being an X-flare, the most powerful kind. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare's extreme ultraviolet flash:

"This was amazing," he says. "It was a wonderful experience to see these stunning auroras."

NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% - 25% chance of continued geomagnetic storms tonight as effects from the CME impact subside. The odds will increase again on Jan. 24-25 as a new CME (from today's M9-clare) approaches Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.

We could experience blackouts, loss of satellite signals, even loss of television (cable) systems.

A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles toward Earth tomorrow (Jan. 24), as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun.

Early this morning (0359 GMT Jan. 23, which corresponds to late Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10:59 p.m. EST), NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun, according to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com.

According to NOAA, this is the strongest solar radiation storm since May 2005, and as a precaution, polar flights on Earth are expected to be re-routed within the next few hours, Kathy Sullivan, deputy administrator of NOAA, said today at the 92nd annual American Meteorological Society meeting in New Orleans, La.

The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Stereo spacecraft observed the massive sun storm.

A barrage of charged particles triggered by this morning's solar flare is expected to hit Earth tomorrow at around 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), according to experts at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists call these electromagnetic bursts "coronal mass ejections" (CMEs), and they are closely studied because they can produce potentially harmful geomagnetic storms when the charged particles rain down Earth's magnetic field lines.

In addition to generating stronger than normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), geomagnetic storms aimed directly at our planet can also disrupt satellites in orbit, cause widespread communications interference and damage other electronic infrastructures.

"There is little doubt that the cloud is heading in the general direction of Earth," Spaceweather.com announced in an alert. "A preliminary inspection of SOHO/STEREO imagery suggests that the CME will deliver a strong glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24-25 as it sails mostly north of our planet."

Sunday's solar flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which placed it just on the verge of being an X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar storm. M-class sun storms are powerful but mid-range, while C-class flares are weaker.

NASA routinely monitors space weather conditions to determine any potential hazards to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Based on the agency's assessment, the six spaceflyers currently living and working on the orbiting outpost are not in any danger, said NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries.

"The flight surgeons have reviewed the space weather forecasts for the flare and determined that there are no expected adverse effects or actions required to protect the on-orbit crew," Humphries told SPACE.com in an email.

Finish reading here

The year is 2012 and perhaps the Disaster Gods don't wish to wait until December 21st.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Hate Groups on Campus

2012-01-20T20:01:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

"One person's hate speech is another person's education."

Hat tip to Frontpage

Daniel Greenfield has just published a pamphlet entitled "Muslim Hate Groups on Campus". It describes how various Muslim Student Associations, in concert with chapters for Students for Justice in Palestine, have teamed up to bring tension, hate, anti-Semitism, and violent hate speech to many university campuses.

Sadly, most of the information in Greenfield's pamphlet describes the disgraceful situation within the University of California system, particularly Berkeley and Irvine (where I teach part-time and have personally witnessed many of the incidents and hateful rhetoric over the past several years).

Frontpage Magazine has posted the text of this pamphlet, which I am cross-posting here. It is a must read

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/20/muslim-hate-groups-on-campus-2/

Hatem Bazian, who is mentioned prominently in the pamphlet, has also cast his odious shadow over the Irvine campus, where he has come to speak at the MSU annual hate-Israel events in May. He is an embarrassment to the University of California at Berkeley and the entire UC system. A couple of years ago, I confronted him about some of his alleged quotes, and he tap-danced around them.

How is it that the UC system and so many other universities in the US and Canada can allow this kind of intimidation and hate to flourish on their campuses? UC President Mark Yudof, who is also Jewish, has refused time and time again to confront this atmosphere of hate on his campuses. He only says he deplores it, but it is free speech. Similarly, his administrators at the UC campuses decry the voices of off-campus groups whose complaints are "exacerbating the situation".

Several of the incidents at Irvine mentioned in the text I have seen and heard first hand. Not only did the UCI Cross Cultural Center give an award to the MSU in spite of their numerous hateful speakers and disruption of the Oren event, but they have neglected to address anti-Semitism even when reportedly asked by Jewish students. It was after the UC San Diego event involving the Compton Cookout and a noose discovered in the UCSD library that the head of the CCC at Irvine put out a letter expressing concern about any kind of hate crime or expression. Fair enough, but when I sent him a letter (faxed from my UCI office to his) asking him to address anti-Semitism at UC Irvine, I never received a response.

Greenfield also touches on another aspect of the problem. That is the unwillingness of most of the Jewish organizations to admit there is a problem on campus. That is certainly true of the UCI campus and the Orange County Jewish Federation. Not only are they much too embedded with the administration,which they are covering for, they are also funding the insidious Olive Tree Initiative through their shadowy financial arm, the Rose Project. The ADL? Never see them around. And our illustrious law school dean, Erwin Chemerinsky? He is in total denial.

It is easy for me to wish that the whole lot of the UC administrators be canned, but they will only be replaced with like-minded empty suits who are too timid to confront certain forms of hate. What is needed is an institutional change within academia. It took several decades to create this sewer. It will take decades more to clean it up.

Obama To The American People:

2012-01-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

F**k You!

Once again the Obama regime fails to provide sound energy and job programs. Instead of looking to our neighbor to the north, Canada and their oil sands for some energy independence (From Muslim oil), he will be cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. A project that will bring 100,000 jobs (20,000 Shovel-ready.).

The State Department will announce the decision on Keystone XL pipeline is "no," as early as Wednesday, an industry source told Fox News, suggesting that the department will say 60 days is inadequate time to do the required environmental impact assessment on the path of the coveted pipeline.

For three years, the State Department has been reviewing the initial proposal to run a pipeline from Canada down to Texas through a sensitive Nebraska aquifer -- authority it has because of the transnational path the route takes. The pipeline had been through several other federal, state and local approvals, but the department backed away from signing off on the plan last year after environmentalists complained.

Industry workers and Republicans contend the project would create thousands of jobs, and Canada's prime minister has warned if the U.S. can't get on board, the North American nation will look to team with China.

"Unfortunately Prime Minister Harper of Canada just this week said because of the volatile indecisiveness on the part of this president, that they feel they are being held hostage and they will take their energy elsewhere specifically to Asia and China," Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, told Fox News Radio.

In December, Congress attached to the payroll tax cut a deadline of 60 days for the State Department to determine approval for an alternative route. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner pointed out that the legislation doesn't permit the State Department to reject the plan, only President Obama. The language says if he rejects the pipeline, Obama must then issue a report to Congress "that provides a justification for determination, including consideration of economic, employment, energy security, foreign policy, trade and environmental factors."

On Tuesday, Obama's own jobs council suggested that it agrees with the pipeline concept. While not specifically mentioning Keystone in a report out Tuesday about improving competitiveness, the council said that when it comes to energy projects in general, the government needs to "expeditiously, though cautiously, move forward on projects that can support hundreds of thousands of jobs."

"We think this all-in energy strategy can create significant economic growths and significant job creation," said Lewis Hay, NextEra Energy CEO and a member of the president's job council.

Obama has noted his environmental concerns when it comes to energy exploration but insisted Tuesday that a balance could be found.

"I think the recommendations are sound. We see enormous potential in production of traditional fossil fuels," he said without mentioning Keystone.

As oil prices rose Wednesday on fresh signs the U.S. economy was improving, which could lead to stronger demand for gasoline and other energy products, the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, argued that the pipeline doesn't make the U.S. anymore energy secure just because it would get oil from a close neighbor and friend.

Instead of carrying common crude oil, the Keystone XL pipeline would carry thick, toxic bitumen for refining in the Gulf states, effectively transporting pollution from Canada to the United States," reads the NRDC report..

"It is not in the national interest to lock the United States into supporting an expensive and dirty form of oil for many years to come. Also, additional capacity for tar sands oil perpetuates America's addiction to oil, and undermines the clean energy alternatives that would bring genuine energy security," the NRDC report continues.

But Gerard said the president's refusal to approve the pipeline is a "clear abdication of leadership." House Speaker John Boehner also accused the president of trying to put off a politically difficult decision until after the election.

"This is not good for our country," Boehner said. "The president wants to put this off until it's convenient for him to make a decision. ... The president's got an opportunity to create 100,000 new jobs almost immediately. The president should say yes."

Source

Barack Hussein Obama has given into the extreme Environmental Moonbats. These are the kooks that want the world to go back to the time we lived without electricity, modern medicine, cars, etc... And Sheik Obama agrees with them. But instead of Sheik Obama assuming the blame on this disastrous decision, he will now be able to blame the State Department (Hillary Clinton) for the decision. Just like he tries to do every time.

CAIR Attacks Tampa Case

2012-01-10T12:16:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has predictably attacked the FBI for its latest undercover operation that resulted in the arrest of a Kosovar Muslim who was planning to set off bombs in Florida. They are calling it a case of entrapment. Below is the latest report on CAIR's accusations from Steven Emerson at the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Below the link, I will explain (according to what has been reported) why this does not appear to me to be a case of entrapment.

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3371/terror-in-tampa-cair-denial

(A check of CAIR's national and Florida websites reveal no mention of the case as of this morning.)

Now to the entrapment issue. I think I am entitled to comment of this since I did engage in undercover roles on several occasions in my DEA career.

When an undercover government agent is involved in direct negotiations with a suspect, and an arrest occurs, entrapment is generally the only legal defense available to the defendant and his or her attorney. The principle argument then becomes one of predisposition. In other words, did the defendant already have the predisposition to commit the crime prior to being in contact with the undercover agent (UC) or government informant. What the defense attempts to show a jury is that the defendant would have had no intention of committing the crime absent the role of the informant or UC.

Therefore, when preparing to launch an undercover contact, it is important for the government to be able to demonstrate that the defendant already was predisposed to commit the crime. In the case of drug cases, it is useful to show that the suspect was already involved in drug trafficking prior to meeting the UC or informant. That can be done in a variety of ways. A previous conviction for drug offenses is a start, but taped conversations as to prior activity, surveillance, testimony of other witnesses all go to show that the suspect was involved in drug dealing and that he or she was not being pressured into anything.

The fact that the government may or may not have provided requested materials to the suspect (such as bomb-making materials) does not in itself constitute entrapmant. Government or police may "afford the opportunity" for the suspect to carry out a crime as long as predisposition exists. For example, if an undercover cop poses as a passed out drunk in a New York subway, it is not entrapment if a mugger attempts to rob him and then is arrested. A person such as you or I, who is not predisposed to steal, would not try to rob an unconscious drunk. Accordingly, if someone plotting a terrorist attack is attempting to procure explosives, it is not entrapment for an informant or UC to fill that role.

Again, predisposition is the key, and it must be documented in such a way as to convince a jury.

The Imperial Obamas

2012-01-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

For years we have experienced the antics of the Obama Family and their over-the-top spending sprees. From multimillion dollar vacations (The last one to Hawaii cost the taxpayer over $4 million.), to the menus of Kobe beef and lobster, to the clothing bill for Michelle Obama (Her sundress cost $2000.), but that is nothing compared to what has emerged in a recent book about Michelle Obama. Their over-the-top Halloween Party.

Right as the economy was going down the rabbit hole, the Obamas decided to host an Alice in Wonderland themed Halloween party, complete with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Tim Burton-arranged decorations.

They even talked to Star Wars director George Lucas and convinced him to lend them the original Chewbacca costume for the entertainment of their guests.

The extravagant fantasy world that they created, however, was kept very much under wraps because at the time of Halloween 2009, the economy was in the slumps and the national unemployment rate was still at a dismal 10 per cent.

The details about the lavish affair come from the pages of a new book about the relationship of the first couple during Mr Obama's presidency.

'White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,' recounts Jodi Kantor in her book, 'The Obamas'.

As is tradition, the Obamas handed out treats to Washington, D.C. school children earlier in the day, and while that event was covered heavily by the press, their later festivities were very actively kept secret.

Instead of chowing down on the presidential M&Ms, sugar cookies, and dried fruit that Mrs Obama traditionally hands out in her trick-or-treat bags, the guests at the invitation-only party had bone-shaped meringue cookies and fruit punch served in blood vials.

In keeping with her dedication to military families, the invitees were the children of military service men and women along with the children of White House employees.

Mrs Obama has invited the children of military families to many of the events she has hosted while first lady, including more recent Halloween trick-or-treating sessions and the unveiling of the White House Christmas decorations- which even had a Gold Star Families tree dedicated to the group.

The Halloween party took place five months before Mr Burton's Alice in Wonderland film was released, so the kids served as informal taste-testers and gave an indication of how his spooky take on the Disney classic would be received.

As the children walked into the State Dining Room, they were greeted by a fully-costumed Johnny Depp standing on a table decorated with vintage-inspired table cloths and surrounded by giant stuffed animals.

First daughters Malia and Sasha, who were respectively 11 and 8 at the time, were able to invite their close friends to share in the activities, which also included a magic show in the East Room.

It is beyond comprehension that the ~~Main~~ Lame Stream Media was ignorant of a party this size in the White House. The fact that this was NOT reported by the media only demonstrates the close relationship the media has with the Obamas. A relationship that has put the media into the Obama's re-election campaign working as their propaganda mill. Is it no wonder that this was not reported on. Could you imagine the Bush family (Either George H W or George W) having a party of this magnitude without the media crying about it. In fact they would have complained about the party (which looked like a promo for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland) for years. And they scream that they are impartial. Right!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Kodak Bankrupt!

2012-01-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

For generations of Americans Kodak was the only brand of film that they used. Kodak was the only brand of Camera that was allowed in the house. It was Iconic Americana. A part of American culture, history, society. And now it is about to go forever.

Eastman Kodak Co. is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would cap a stunning comedown for a company that once ranked among America's corporate titans.

The 131-year-old company is still making last-ditch efforts to sell off some of its patent portfolio and could avoid Chapter 11 if it succeeds, one of the people said. But the company has started making preparations for a filing in case those efforts fail, including talking to banks about some $1 billion in financing to keep it afloat during bankruptcy proceedings, the people said.

A Kodak spokesman said the company "does not comment on market rumor or speculation."

A filing could come as soon as this month or early February, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Kodak would continue to pay its bills and operate normally while under bankruptcy protection, the people said. But the company's focus would then be the sale of some 1,100 patents through a court-supervised auction, the people said.

That Kodak is even contemplating a bankruptcy filing represents a final reversal of fortune for a company that once dominated its industry, drawing engineering talent from around the country to its Rochester, N.Y., headquarters and plowing money into research that produced thousands of breakthroughs in imaging and other technologies.

The company, for instance, invented the digital camera—in 1975—but never managed to capitalize on the new technology.

Casting about for alternatives to its lucrative but shrinking film business, Kodak toyed with chemicals, bathroom cleaners and medical-testing devices in the 1980s and 1990s, before deciding to focus on consumer and commercial printers in the past half-decade under Chief Executive Antonio Perez.

None of the new pursuits generated the cash needed to fund the change in course and cover the company's big obligations to its retirees. A Chapter 11 filing could help Kodak shed some of those obligations, but the viability of the company's printer strategy has yet to be demonstrated, raising questions about the fate of the company's 19,000 employees.

Such uncertainty was once unthinkable at Kodak, whose near-monopoly on film produced high margins that the company shared with its workers. On "wage dividend days," a tradition started by Kodak founder George Eastman, the company would pay out bonuses to all workers based on its results, and employees would use the checks to buy cars and celebrate at fancy restaurants.

Former employees say the company was the Apple Inc. or Google Inc. of its time. Robert Shanebrook, 64 years old, who started at the company in 1967 and was most recently world-wide product manager for professional photographic film, recalls young talent traipsing through Kodak's sprawling corporate campus. At lunch, they would crowd the auditorium to watch a daily movie at an on-site theater. Other employees would play basketball on the company courts.

"We had this self-imposed opinion of ourselves that we could do anything, that we were undefeatable," Mr. Shanebrook said.

Kodak's troubles date back to the 1980s, when the company struggled with foreign competitors that stole its market share in film. The company later had to cope with the rise of digital photography and smartphones.

It wasn't until 10 years ago that the mood began to sour, said Mr. Shanebrook. By 2003, Kodak announced it would stop making investments in film. "I didn't want to stick around for the demise," he said.

Kodak shares closed Wednesday at 47 cents, down 28% after The Wall Street Journal reported the company was preparing a Chapter 11 filing.

Kodak has lost money each year but one since Mr. Perez, who previously headed the printer business at Hewlett-Packard Co., took over in 2005. The company's problems came to a head in 2011, as Mr. Perez's strategy of using patent lawsuits and licensing deals to raise cash ran dry.

Hoping to plug the hole, Kodak put some of its digital patents up for sale in August. Efforts to sell the portfolio have been slowed by bidders' concerns that Kodak might seek bankruptcy protection. The company has talked to hedge funds about borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to bridge its finances until the patents sell, but the talks have faltered, people familiar with the matter said.

The first sign of acute cash pressure came in late September, when Kodak drew $160 million from its credit line at a time when it had told investors it would be building cash. The move sent Kodak's stock tumbling and raised fresh concerns about the company's viability.

Soon after, Kodak hired restructuring lawyers and advisers to help shore up its finances.

The company and its board have weighed a potential bankruptcy filing for months. Advisers told Kodak a filing would make its patent sale easier and likely allow the company to command a higher price, people familiar with the matter have said. The obligation to cover pension and health-care costs for retirees could also be purged through bankruptcy proceedings, the people said.

Those obligations—which run to hundreds of millions of dollars a year—as well as the unprofitable state of Kodak's new businesses, have made the company undesirable as a takeover target, people familiar with the matter said.

During a two-day meeting of the company's board, management and advisers in mid-December, executives were briefed on how Kodak would fund itself during bankruptcy proceedings should efforts to sell its patents fall short, a person familiar with the matter said.

Kodak is in discussions with large banks including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. for so-called debtor-in-possession financing to keep the company operating in bankruptcy court, people familiar with the matter said.

Kodak has also held discussions with bondholders and a group led by investment firm Cerberus Capital Management LP about a bankruptcy financing package, the people said.

Should it seek bankruptcy protection, Kodak would follow other well-known companies that have failed to adapt to rapidly changing business models. They included Polaroid Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection a second time in December 2008; Borders Group Inc., which liquidated itself last year; and Blockbuster Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010 and was later bought by Dish Network Corp. A bankruptcy filing would kick off what is expected to be a busier year in restructuring circles, as economic growth continues to drag and fears about European sovereign debt woes threaten to make credit markets less inviting for companies that need to refinance their debts.

Mr. Perez decided to base the company's future on consumer and commercial inkjet printing. But the saturated market has proved tough to penetrate, and Kodak is paying heavily to subsidize sales as it builds a base of users for its ink.

The company remains a bit player in a printer market dominated by giants like H-P. Kodak ranks fifth world-wide, according to technology data firm IDC, with a market share of 2.6% in the first nine months of 2011.

As the company works on a restructuring plan, a key issue for creditors is whether the printer operations are worth supporting, or whether the bulk of the company's value is in its patents.

Nortel Networks Corp., a company that also had fallen behind the technology curve, opted to liquidate itself in bankruptcy court rather than reorganize, raising a greater than expected $4.5 billion for its patent trove.

Kodak's founder, Mr. Eastman, took his life at the age of 77 in what is now a museum celebrating the founder and Kodak's impact on photography. His suicide note read: "To my friends, my work is done. Why wait?"

Source

I have so many memories of Kodak. The first Instamatic Camera I received one Chanukah. It came with a flash cube. No more touching of hot bulbs. And how fascinating it was to watch the cube rotate each time the film was wound. The film cartridge that meant you never had to worry if your loaded your camera correctly. I remember my father loading the camera (His Brownie) with film. Black and White film, color was too expensive. Or going down to the camera store to have your film developed.

There are companies that still make and develop film. But the industry will never be the same now. For the inventor of mass photography will be gone, but not forgotten.

Kodachrome - Paul Simon

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Will Santorum be the New Flavor of the Day?

2012-01-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

All of a sudden, Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania, is surging in the Iowa polls. In fact, he may even win the Iowa caucus. I suppose that would mean that the mad-hatters at MSNBC will be looking for dirt on him as they did with previous front-runners. Unfortunately for them, Santorum has no obvious skeletons in his closet. My question is whether Santorum can take a strong showing in Iowa and become a serious candidate as a real conservative.

This morning, Santorum was interviewed by Fox's Shepherd Smith, who grilled him on his opposition to gay marriage. Santorum's answer was based on his religious opposition. That would not have been my answer, but I am not Santorum. Could that hurt him with independent voters in a general election? I don't have the answer for that, but, on the other hand, I don't view it as one of the major issues.

As a conservative, I think Santorum is in many ways, the most attractive candidate. Come the California primary, I won't be able to vote for anyone since I am not a registered Republican. I guess at this stage, I would have to weigh my preference on the one I like the most and who can beat Obama. I guess that means I am leaning toward Romney and Santorum. Whoever it is, I hope the VP pick will be Marco Rubio.

At any rate, I expect the little rascals at MSNBC will be talking a lot about Rick Santorum and what a bad guy he is by the end of the week.

A Good New Years Resolution.

2011-12-31T16:26:00.001-08:00

Many people make different resolutions on New Years Eve. Some vow to quit smoking, or drinking. Some vow to lose weight or work out more. Some vow to be a nicer person or stop doing a nasty habit.

Here is my New Years Resolution:

Anybody else making this one?

Iranians Decide To Keep Christian Pastor In Prison For Another Year Hoping To Force His Conversion To Islam

2011-12-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

Hat tip to Holger Awakens

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was arrested in his home city of Rasht, Iran on October 13, 2009. He was charged with ‘apostasy’ (renunciation of a religion) and ‘evangelim’. Yousef was tried on Sept. 21–22, 2010 by the 1st Court of the Revolutionary Tribunal and sentenced to death on Nov. 13 for apostasy.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani has been under the death threat since 2009. The Iranian government has imprisoned and torture Pastor Nadarkhani for the last 3 years.

An Iranian court is likely to delay its verdict in a case concerning Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who is facing death penalty for converting to Christianity, to allow authorities to further coerce him to convert to Islam as he remains in jail.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani
The evangelical pastor’s lawyer has learned that the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, has asked the presiding judge over the trial, Ghazi Kashani, to delay the pending judgment and keep him in prison for another year, Present Truth Ministries said in a statement Thursday.

Nadarkhani, a 32-year-old house church leader from the Church of Iran denomination, was convicted of apostasy last year and was sentenced to death by hanging. However, the Supreme Court of Iran asked for the retrial of his case by a lower court in the city of Rasht in northern Gilan Province.

The deliberate delay is meant to let the case “slip away from international attention” even as the authorities continue to “use whatever means necessary to cause him to convert to Islam,” said Jason DeMars, the founder of the ministry that was first to report on the pastor’s arrest two years ago.

It was earlier learnt that the court in Rasht had asked Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the highest ranking political and religious authority in Shi’a-majority Iran, to rule on whether the pastor should be put to death.

The pastor was arrested in October 2009 from Rasht for allegedly protesting Islamic instruction in schools for his children, Daniel, 9, and Yoel, 7, and after he sought to register his church. Authorities, however, later changed the charges to apostasy. He has been lodged in a prison in Lakan, about seven miles south of Rasht, since then.

In June 2010, authorities also arrested pastor’s wife Fatemah Pasindedih to pressure him to convert. During this time their boys went to live with a relative. Yousef and his wife were also threatened that their children would be taken away and given to a Muslim family, but they remained firm. Pasindedih was later released.

The Rasht court convicted the pastor of leaving Islam and sentenced him to death in November 2010.

The pastor appealed against the Rasht court’s ruling at the Supreme Court in December 2010, as apostasy is not a crime as per Iran’s penal code. The court, however, held in June 2011 that apostasy was still punishable under Sharia or Islamic law but asked the lower court to reexamine whether Nadarkhani was a believer in Islam when he adopted Christianity at the age of 19.

During the hearings held in September 2011, Pastor Nadarkhani was told by authorities that he would be given three opportunities to embrace Islam and renounce his faith in Christianity to have the charges removed. But he refused to do so.

On Sept. 26, the court determined that Youcef was a Muslim when he adopted Christianity because he was born in a Muslim family. All witnesses stated that he did not practice Islam, yet the court inexplicably determined he was a national apostate.

While the court is likely to wait for another year before reaching a decision, “there are no assurances that he will not be executed,” warned the ministry. “It could happen at any time. This is the way that the Iranian government operates with executions. They do not give advance notice and it is done in secret.”

Finish reading here.

The Iranians are giving themselves another year of imprisonment and torture to force this good man to renounce the faith he loves and embrace the horror of Islam. This is how Islam has converted millions over the years. Not by logical arguments, but by torture and the sword.

As long as Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani refuses to convert, he will stay alive. The minute he converts, they will kill him for blasphemy.

Pray for the safety of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani. He is in the lion's den. May G-d send one of his angels to stand besides him.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

In The Beginning...

2011-12-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

I originally published this post in 2008 on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission. I feel that tonight is a good time to repost it. I do hope you enjoy it.

Three words read by William Anders aboard the Apollo 8 mission on Christmas Eve 1968.

1968 was our Annus horribilis. It was a year of unrest at the Democratic National Convention. It was the year that saw the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. It was a year in which riots and protests were the daily fare on the nightly newscasts. It was a year in which America felt at its lowest point. And America needed a boost.

When the Apollo 8 mission was originally planned the mission was not suppose to go to the moon. It was suppose to be in a low Earth orbit checking out the systems on the Command module and possibly the lunar module if one had been ready by then. Instead the mission was changed and Apollo 8 would be the first manned mission to go to the moon. In itself it would be a very dangerous mission, the first of anything is alway a dangerous mission to accomplish. Because of the nature of the mission and the decision to change it, the true mission was kept a secret from the public until the official announcement on 12 November 1968, less than 40 days before the scheduled launch.

Apollo 8 launched at 7:51:00 a.m. on December 21, 1968. During the flight, three fellow astronauts served on the ground as capsule communicators (usually referred to as "CAPCOMs") on a rotating schedule. The CAPCOMs were the only people who regularly communicated with the crew. Michael Collins was the first CAPCOM on duty and at 2 hours, 27 minutes and 22 seconds after launch radioed, "Apollo 8. You are Go for TLI". This communication signified that Mission Control had given official permission for Apollo 8 to go to the moon. Over the next twelve minutes before the TLI burn, the Apollo 8 crew continued to monitor the spacecraft and the rocket. The S-IVB third stage rocket ignited on time and burned perfectly for 5 minutes and 17 seconds. The burn increased the velocity of Apollo 8 to 35,505 feet per second (10,822 m/s) and the spacecraft's altitude at the end of the burn was 215.4 miles (346.7 km). At this time, the crew also set the record for the highest speed humans had ever traveled.

Five hours after launch, Mission Control sent a command to the S-IVB booster to vent its remaining fuel through its engine bell to change the booster's trajectory. This S-IVB would then pass the Moon and enter into a solar orbit, posing no further hazard to Apollo 8. The S-IVB subsequently went into a 0.99 by 0.92 AU solar orbit with an inclination of 23.47° and a period of 340.80 days.

The Apollo 8 crew were the first humans to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, which extend up to 15,000 miles (25,000 km) from Earth. Scientists predicted that passing through the belts quickly at the spacecraft's high speed would cause a radiation dosage of no more than a chest X-ray, or 1 milligray (during the course of a year, the average human receives a dose of 2 to 3 mGy). To record the actual radiation dosages, each crew member wore a Personal Radiation Dosimeter that transmitted data to Earth as well as three passive film dosimeters that showed the cumulative radiation experienced by the crew. By the end of the mission, the crew experienced an average radiation dose of 1.6 mGy.

At about 55 hours and 40 minutes into the flight, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to enter the gravitational sphere of influence of another celestial body. At 64 hours into the flight, the crew began to prepare for Lunar Orbit Insertion-1 (LOI-1). This maneuver had to be performed perfectly, and due to orbital mechanics had to be on the far side of the Moon, out of contact with the Earth. After Mission Control was polled for a Go/No Go decision, the crew was told at 68 hours, they were Go and "riding the best bird we can find". At 68 hours and 58 minutes, the spacecraft went behind the Moon and out of radio contact with the Earth.

When the spacecraft came out from behind the Moon for its fourth pass across the front, the crew witnessed an event no one had ever seen — Earthrise. Borman saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon and called in excitement to the others, taking a black-and-white photo as he did so: Earthrise, seen for the first time by human eyes. In the ensuing scramble Anders took the more famous color photo, later picked by Life magazine as one of its hundred photos of the century.

As they rounded the Moon for the ninth time, the second television transmission began. Borman introduced the crew, followed by each man giving his impression of the lunar surface and what it was like to be orbiting the Moon. Borman described it as being "a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing." Then, after talking about what they were flying over, Anders said that the crew had a message for all those on Earth. Each man on board read the story of creation from Book of Genesis. Borman finished the broadcast by wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone on Earth. His message appeared to sum up the feelings that all three crewmen had from their vantage point in lunar orbit. Borman said, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

After 10 lunar orbit, Apollo 8 returned to Earth on 27 December 1968. A successful and historic mission.

So on this Christmas Eve, we should remember a historic moment in Human history that took place 40 years ago.

William Anders

"We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Jim Lovell
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Frank Borman
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

View at YouTube

On this Christmas Eve I wish to again recall the words of Apollo 8 in wishing you a Merry Christmas.

And God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

A Dictator Goes...Another Arises

2011-12-19T01:11:00.000-08:00

Sometime within the last 3 days North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il died. The North Korean government claims that he died today, but it was reported by the state television that he died a few days ago.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is dead, North Korean state TV said Monday.

Kim, 69, died Saturday, state TV said.

South Korean news agency Yonhap -- which based its reporting on its monitoring off North Korean state television -- said that Kim had died of "physical fatigue" during a train ride. North Korean TV did not provide a more specific cause of death.

The son of Kim Il-song, the founder of the communist nation, Kim Jong-il had been in power since 1994 when his father died of a heart attack at age 82.

The enigmatic leader was a frequent thorn in the side of neighboring South Korea, as well as the United States. There have been reports in recent years about his health, as well as that power will be transitioned to his son, Kim Jong-un.

North Korean news reports earlier this fall indicated that Kim Jong Il had been traveling around the country and visiting China, a big change from 2009 when he was thought to be ill with cancer.

Two senior U.S. military officials said then that they believed the pace of North Korea's planned regime change from Kim to his 20-something son appeared to have slowed.

The son, also known as Kim, started his career as a four-star general and in recent years was given more official duties by his father.

Source

It is becoming very clear that Kim Jung-un is a very young man with no actual experience in running anything bigger than is mouth. Although he has been groomed for the leadership, there is no sure guarantee for Jung-un that he will be the next "Beloved Leader". In fact, unless he has the military backing his ascent, he will be taking a large fall from power. Kim Jung-un is the youngest of 3 sons. He might have to fend off an assault from the oldest son (who had been groomed for the leadership for many years before Jung-un was chosen.) Kim Jung-nam. And then there is middle son, Kim Jong-chul who might just make a play for power too.

North Korea is a nuclear power and this will be a very turbulent time. Let us pray that none of the 3 sons of Kim Jong-il don't try to prove their power by using one of their nuclear weapon.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

In Memory

2011-12-16T21:02:00.001-08:00

It has been 2 years since the founder of Radarsite, Roger W. Gardner has passed away. And there isn't a day that we his friends haven't missed his wit, his wisdom, his advice. We miss you Roger and pray that the place you are now residing is a far better one than we can imagine.

God Bless You Roger Gardner!

The Obama Prayer

2011-12-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

From the Book of Obama

Our Gubmint Mack-Daddy, Hallowed be thy name, please forgive my trespass against Thee.

O, Holiest of Holies named 0-Bama, forgive this poor, benighted sinner, I know not what I say about Your Holiness. Forgive me, Pardon me, grant me atonement for my lack of faith in Your Works on the public dime, Your Holy Ascensions to multiple golf-courses, and Your many Junkets to raise money from Your disciples, all at $35,000 a plate.

Let not Your ATF, FBI, and IRS not hound or audit me to the poor-house, for I am with You.....Yea, thugh I blaspheme against You this day, I will be with You, always.....

I, *Insert your name*, do beseech the Saints, Saint Solyndra, Saint Soros, Saint Reverend Wright, Saint Bill Ayres, and Saint Light-Squared, to protect me and intercede with the Holiest of Holies, The 0bama, on my behalf!

Amen!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Becoming A Daily Occurance

2011-12-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

Almost daily somewhere in the United States there is an anti-Semitic occurrence. What was once a very rare event is now not even reported by the Main Stream Media. In fact, the authorities don't even bother to call these occurrences "Hate Crimes". In fact, to many communities crimes committed upon the Jewish population is just payment for supposed "crimes" they or the State of Israel have committed. Only this weekend this latest crime was committed.

A raging fire set by anti-Semitic arsonists destroyed $100,000 worth of holy objects in a Florida Jewish bookstore.

A surveillance camera disclosed that just before the fire broke out, several people were seen running away from the South Florida Judaica store, which was stocked with items for sale for Hanukkah. Firefighting officials said they are sure the blaze was the result of arson, and added that the back door of the store apparently had been kicked in,

“It's really a disaster here," a friend of store owner Michael Katz told WSVN television.

Katz himself noted, "There was nothing taken. So you have to ask, 'Why focus on a place like this?'" The fire destroyed tefillin (phylacteries), which contained texts from the Torah, menorahs for Hanukkah and hundreds of holy books.

"It saddens us that at this time of the year something like this is happening," said deputy fire chief Mark Steele.

Anti-Semitism and hate crimes in the United States occur almost daily. Brooklyn was the scene of several swastika vandalism incidents last month, and the same Nazi symbol is often found in other locations, particularly on university campuses.

In the New York City area, three high school students were suspended for scrawling swastikas and sexual drawings on a photograph of the boys’ soccer team.

One by one Jewish communities are being targeted and even members of the Obama Administration are blaming the Jews themselves and Israel for the rise in anti-Semitism. In other words: The reason the victims were victimized is because of themselves.

What will it take before the authorities finally tackle this problem? A death? A couple of deaths? A synagogue destroyed? Those are the next steps. Will the nation just let it happen without a sound? I pray not so.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Kristallnacht In Highland Park

2011-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

Not content to keep the violence to New York City (Brooklyn and Queens), anti-Semites have decided that the Jews of Highland Park, New Jersey must be the next victims on their list.

The central New Jersey community of Highland Park was targeted Tuesday night in a series of anti-Semitic attacks on at least five Jewish-owned establishments.

Vandals hurled bricks through the plate glass windows of a kosher restaurant, a kosher pizza shop, two Judaica stores, and a Jewish-owned hardware store.

At least three other Jewish-owned establishments in nearby New Brunswick were also similarly attacked, including the Rutgers Chabad House, the Rutgers Hillel and an Israeli-owned falafel eatery.

The destruction took place on the anniversary of the 1947 United Nations Partition Vote to create the Jewish State in Palestine.

A report published by the Algemeiner Journal quoted "Facebook rumors" relating two separate incidents in which a local individual made anti-Semitic remarks and threatened to launch a new Kristallnacht -- a reference to the 1938 "night of broken glass" pogrom that launched the Nazi Holocaust in Germany. However, it is not clear whether the two incidents were related, nor is it clear whether all the attacks were perpetrated by the same vandal or vandals.

The newspaper pointed out that Highland Park has recently elected an Orthodox Jewish man as its mayor.

Local police said in a statement detectives were "actively investigating these incidents and are in contact with and coordinating efforts with other law enforcement agencies that may be able to expedite the investigation."

However, police cautioned that it was "too soon to reach a conclusion" as to the nature of the crimes.

"We would also like to briefly address the fear that these are acts motivated by anti-Semitism or that these are bias crimes," the statement said. "The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office has been notified, but it is too soon to reach a conclusion.

“All of our officers are aware of the sensitivity of this situation and we will make every effort with patrols and surveillance to keep everyone safe. We would like to encourage you to communicate with your congregants and urge them to avoid speculation which could lead to unnecessary anxiety."

Source

Where is the Mayor? Governor Christie, President Obama? Why are they all silent on this? Why is this not a hate crime. Only Jewish businesses were targeted as this picture shows: Hat Tip for the pictures to Elder of Ziyon

As you can notice, only Jewish businesses have been targeted. Yet they are not considered Hate Crimes. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the only motive in common on these attacks is that they all are owned by Jews. But then again according the the Obama Regime, Jews are not a protected minority. It is open season on Jews in fact.

Once again Jews are targeted. Once again Jews are told that these attacks are not important and just lay down and be kicked. What will it take for the Jewish community to say enough is enough? Will it take a death or two? Or is Obama and his cronies allowing this to happen to appease his Muslim base?

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Why is the Brian Terry Murder Case Sealed?

2011-11-25T14:54:00.001-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

Jerry Seper, writing in the Washington Times brings up an important question in the case of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The indictment against one of the Mexicans who killed Terry (he was wounded and captured) has been sealed by the Federal District Court in the Southern District of California in San Diego, which (supposedly) is prosecuting the case. Terry, as we know, was killed by two weapons involved in the ATF's Fast and Furious operation. Prior to sealing, the indictment indicated that the killers were part of an organized group that was seeking to hunt down and kill Border patrol agents. The question is also being asked whether agents were firing bean-bag rounds at the suspects, and if so, why?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/22/armed-illegals-stalked-border-patrol/?page=1

Several points stick out here aside from the obvious outrages of the Fast and Furious scandal and its on-going cover-up by the Department of Justice and others. Why is this indictment sealed? What are they trying to keep from becoming public knowledge? Is our government trying to conceal from the public just out-of-control our border with Mexico is? Are they trying to cover up the fact that they are sending BP agents into these areas armed with bean-bag firing shotguns instead of the lethal force that they know the traffickers possess? Just what kind of government negligence and malfeasance are we dealing with here?

If all this is true, what he have here is a case of a government that refuses to effectively secure our borders and compounds it by sending in Border Patrol agents to deal with well-armed, organized killers and fight them with beanbags-only to be killed by weapons furnished to the traffickers courtesy of Operation Fast and Furious!

Don't Border Patrol head Alan Bersin and DHS head Janet Napolitano have a duty to explain to the family of Brian Terry how this could happen? Forget about the dishonest and corrupt Eric Holder. He is busy denying his own responsibility and need to apologize to the Terry family.

Where the Hell is the outrage?

A Presidential Pardon

2011-11-23T16:42:00.001-08:00

Today President Barack Hussein Obama pardoned two turkeys.

The rest of Congress will have to wait until next year.

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You,

2011-11-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

Ask What You Can Do For Your Country.

Are the words President John F. Kennedy demanded of Americans in his Inaugural Address on 20 January 1961. This was a call to action for the youth of America. A call for a generation to work for a better future, a stronger, greater America. And a generation answered the call.

Today's youth have their answer to President Kennedy's call:

The 21st Century's Answer To President Kennedy

Oh how the nation has fallen!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Kristallnact In Brooklyn

2011-11-12T21:51:00.000-08:00

73 years since the German's gave us Kristallnact it has occurred once again, this time in Brooklyn.

There’s shock and outrage in Brooklyn today after several cars were torched and numerous pieces of anti-Semitic vandalism took place in Midwood.

The incident was discovered at around 5 a.m., when residents awoke to see cars burning.

At least three cars were set ablaze and dozens of pieces of anti-Semitic graffiti were plastered along benches. The cars were damaged and the benches vandalized along Ocean Parkway between Avenues I and J. Among the vandalism: “KKK” scrawled nearby, as well as numerous swastikas.

“People are nervous, people are concerned,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind said. “The police are putting extra manpower into the community at synagogues and all over.”

“Not a way to wake up on Friday morning going into the Sabbath, definitely not,” said Midwood resident Sherry Tawil.

The incident occurred on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Hitler’s Nazi’s launched a pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria.

“I’m used to swastikas, but three cars destroyed is a whole new dimension,” said Hikind. “Three cars completely destroyed as if someone had dropped them bomb on them is just a real tragedy.”

“All of a sudden I heard explosion from the metal, I guess from the popping. I look out window. It was like my house was on fire,” victim Arlette Tebele told CBS 2′s John Slattery.

“The burning of cars and vandalism of benches in Midwood this morning represents a truly hateful act of prejudice,” said Public Advocate Bill De Blasio in a statement. “That it took place on the anniversary of Kristallnacht leaves no doubt that this attack is a hate crime in every sense, and I applaud the NYPD for investigating it as such.”

New York City Councilman David Greenfield is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person – or persons – responsible for the incident.

“We will not accept anti-Semitism in our community. There is zero tolerance for such acts of hatred and ignorance,” said Councilman Greenfield in a statement. “I’m confident that these hateful people will be caught and punished to the full extent of the law.”

“This is the most shocking thing we ever saw, never seen before,” said resident Vickie Ayal.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued the following statement Friday afternoon:

“New York City is home to more than 8 million of the most open and tolerant people in the world. But even here, there are occasional incidents involving actions that are hateful or vicious or both. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is actively investigating the twisted person or people who attacked cars, benches, and a sidewalk on a block of Ocean Parkway early this morning. The Hate Crimes Task Force, like so many other teams at our Police Department, is the world’s best, as today’s arrest for swastikas painted in Queens during October and early November shows. In fact, hate crimes are down nearly 30 percent citywide so far this year and are down roughly 33 percent in Brooklyn’s 66th Precinct.

The fact that this most recent attack came on the heels of the 73rd anniversary of Kristalnacht may or may not be a coincidence. Either way, this kind of hateful act has no place in the freest city in the freest country in the world.”

Just a week ago, two libraries and a synagogue in Queens were vandalized with swastikas.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). All calls are kept confidential. You can also log on to the Crime Stoppers website, or text your tip to CRIMES and then enter TIP577.

Source

I grew up in Midwood. This is my old stomping grounds. The place where my friends and I felt safe, secure. There was never any incidents of this kind when we were kids. What has happened?

There has been an upswing in anti-Semitic rhetoric and speech from the Occupy movement. Can we forget Patricia McAllister and her rant of hatred? Or this, or this, or this. Just 3 of the 49,500 anti-Semitic images associated with the Occupy movement.

Where is the Main Stream Media and their disgust at this level of hatred? Why is the President, Vice President and leadership of the Democratic Party standing next to this movement? Why do they accept and promote such hatred? They have stayed silent on this so long that they have accepted and are fostering this behavior.

73 years ago was the beginning of the Holocaust. For years up to Kristallnact laws were passed restricting the movements, the rights, the occupations of Jews in Germany. Today no such laws have been passed in the United States, but the level of hatred has risen to levels of violence. Given the left's hatred of Jews, can laws restricting them be next? I pray not.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

For All Those Who Have Served

2011-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

During War or During Peace,

In Combat or Safe at a Desk.

Combating Boredom, Crazy Orders and The Endless Mud.

We Never Really Thanked You.

Or Let You Finish The Job!

You Removed Many Evil Men

And Have Brought Civilization To Those Who Never Had It

Through Out The Years

1777

1812

This Nation Has Never Forgotten To Say:

THANK YOU!!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

The Left's Racist Attacks on Herman Cain

2011-11-10T18:12:00.000-08:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

Hat tip to The Blaze

It was only last week, while watching MSNBC, that I became aware of this character who goes by the name of Toure (with an accent over the e, no less). He is some kind of writer and now an "MSNBC contributor", whatever that is. He was talking, of course, about the Herman Cain scandal. Toure is one of the chorus of those on the left who hate Cain because he is a black conservative. Naturally, they are all over the scandal. My first reaction in watching Toure on MSNBC is that he was a smug, arrogant jerk. After seeing this latest video of his exchange with Martin Bashir, I also think he is a cheap race-monger. Watch as he drags up one of the vilest race libels you can imagine.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/msnbc-contributor-to-bashir-cains-predatory-black-sexuality-is-very-frightening-in-this-country/

Up till now, the debate has been strictly about whether Cain has engaged in sexual harassment and improper physical advances on women. I am not aware of any Republicans or conservatives anguishing over the race of the women involved. I did recently speculate about when the left would drag this up, and now they have. This ugly issue has been raised not by Republicans, but by the left as exemplified by Mr. Toure or whatever his nom de plume is.

Yet, no matter how much the Toures out there want to talk about this, those on the right who have supported Cain continue to care only about the truth of the allegations, the expectation that the facts will come out accurately, and Cain will be treated fairly. If it turns out they are true, he will not have my support. If it turns out false, then I will continue to have a positive view of Cain.

For people like Toure to bring up these old scares about "predatory black men harassing blonde, white women" is ugly and ridiculous. It hearkens back to a day before this little jerk was even born. It also does no service to black people, who would like to see an end to such stereotypes that have harmed them.

This is the kind of trash that MSNBC is trafficking in. That also applies to that jerk, Martin Bashir, a British journalist who is over here feeding at our trough even as he criticizes our society. He's the kind of guy you want to tell to "go back home", to use a rather jingoistic phrase. Some times, it is used in an ugly manner. Sometimes, it fits to a tee.

To reiterate, it is the left who is injecting race into this story, not the right, not the folks who continue to support Cain, and not those who are considering their vote for Cain. This is what the left does, folks, and especially what the left does to black conservatives. It is really scary stuff.

Happy Birthday!!!!

2011-11-10T08:22:00.001-08:00

United State Marine Corps

236 years of keeping the United States safe. Our own Guardians of Freedom.

If you want to become one of the best just click here.

Thank you Marines!

Semper Fi

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We will fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in ev'ry clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job--
The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Where I Stand Today on Herman Cain

2011-11-05T13:24:00.001-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

I have been making a lot of comment about the MSNBC handling of the Herman Cain allegations, which are shameful, in my view. In the next days, more is surely going to come out. It may very well turn out that Cain behaved badly-to what extent- I don't know. It may turn out that he tried to "score"-for lack of a better word- or actually did "score". At that point, we have to decide what we think about him. It may turn out that he did something worse than merely cheat on his wife. It may very well turn out that Cain will shortly have no other choice but to drop out of the Republican primary race. Frankly, I am feeling pessimistic about his future, and I have to leave the door open to the possibility that once everything comes out, I would no longer support him. (That is not to say that Herman Cain is my first choice among the candidates. He is not, and I honestly have not yet decided who I would like to see nominated to run against President Obama.)

Having said that, I think it is still important to point out that at this point, we still do not know who his accusers are, nor do we know what the specific acts are which he has been accused of. That has not stopped the mob at MSNBC from convicting him on air every night. In the end, they may turn out to have been right, but it will not vindicate what they have said before the facts have come out. Their unseemly behavior these past nights on TV has only lacked the torches and rope.

Once we know all the facts and Cain has made his decision whether to continue to run or drop out, I hope that somewhere in the media, there will be a serious discussion of how their handling of Herman Cain compares with their handling of Bill Clinton and John Edwards. Once Politico broke this story, the media-led by MSNBC- has been all over this like lions carving up a zebra. In the case of Edwards, the mainstream media not only ignored the story-which was broken by the National Enquirer of all people- but ran from it, indeed, had to be chased down the street by it no less. To this day, the media has soft-peddled this story as Edwards has piled one lie on top of another until the last lie is revealed, and on he goes.

It may very well turn out that Cain is not fit to be president of the United States. Yet, haven't we set the bar pretty low after the Clinton affair(s)? Once we know everything that Herman Cain has done during his life, how will it stack up against what is known about Mr Clinton or what has been alleged by other women?

And, of course, there is always that nasty little race issue hanging out there. Is Herman Cain being treated this way because he is a black man, as some are saying? Or is it deeper than that? Is it because he is a conservative black man? It is here that I am tempted to play the race card. I fervently believe that black conservatives represent a special threat to the liberal establishment. The threat is that they are an example of a black person who can succeed in America through his or her own talent, hard work, intelligence, initiative or what have you without depending on the benevolence of the white left and the victicrat activism of the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons. It is driving the left crazy that conservatives and Tea Party types have embraced Herman Cain thus putting the lie to the canard that they are racists. Now the left is reduced to charging that Cain is some sort of showcase you-know-what for the Tea Party. It is all beyond disgusting. Do I think there is a heightened vitriol at work here because Cain happens to be a black conservative? Frankly, I do. Those two words ("black" and "conservative") are a volatile mixture. Put them together and you have something quite different from a John Edwards or Bill Clinton, both of whom I (still) believe are guilty of far worse sins than Herman Cain.

Anyway, that's how I see it today. A few days from now, I may be lambasting Mr. Cain, but who cares? After all, I am not MSNBC.

OWS Does Not Represent 99%-It Represents a Decline

2011-11-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

As the reports from New York (and other Occupy sites) get worse, it continues to highlight the differences between the Tea Party protests and what we are seeing now.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/01/the-whole-world-is-watching-ows-protester-talks-about-assaults-inside-the-camp/

I continue to make the point that in spite of all the accusations of extremism and racism directed at the Tea Party from the left, their track record is virtually spotless when it comes to incidents of racism, violence and arrests. On the other hand, these Occupy protests continue to degenerate, and the arrests pile up. They have also been marked by expressions of anti-Semitism. These people even have the effrontery to call themselves "the 99%-ers" as they demonize wealthy people who have made their fortunes honestly and through their own intelligence, initiative, creativity and hard work. They don't represent 99% of anything, but they do represent a general decline in American values. In many ways, they represent just what has gone wrong in our educational system from K through PHD.

Is there a generational aspect to the comparsions and contrasts between the two? Pretty much so, I would argue. The Tea Party folks tend to be older folks who have worked, paid taxes, and contributed to society. The Occupy forces tend to be younger folks who seem to think that government needs to give them stuff-lots of stuff. Their older supporters tend to be left-wing academics. failed Marxists, and of course, the thuggish unions. One thing I have noted is that you don't see or hear much about Obama in the Occupy protests. They don't much like capitalism, but they are strangely silent on that thing called Solyndra, which should be a poster child for crony capitalism run amok. Suffice to say that the overwhelming majority of these people will be voting for Obama and the Democrats come next November. That's why the Obamas, Pelosis and the other Democrats will not criticize them, which puts themselves in an embarrassing situation.

I also think that the Occupy movement is partially a product of our failed educational system. These young people have been brainwashed by their educators at the secondary and university level that America is a severely flawed, racist society, and that capitalism is unfair to those who don't succeed. Never mind that socialism and especially communism have proven themselves to be unfair and unsuccessful. These young people have been led to believe that they are entitled to something which their parents and grandparents (not to mention the Tea-partiers) worked their buts off to earn- a job, good wages, a home, health care, higher education and a comfortable retirement.

If the Occupy movements continue right up to next November, so much the better. It will give the voters a crystal-clear contrast between the two roads which this country would follow. Indeed, that is the choice we will be making in the next election.

It's A Simple Answer After All

2011-10-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

President Ronald Reagan once again speaks from the past. Once again he shows his power as a prophet. Once again he calls out to Americans. Listen to his words, pass his words on.

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Alexander Hamilton

Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second--surrender.

Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the ultimatum. And what then? When Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we are retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will have weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he has heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he would rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us. You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Will we condemn our children to slavery or keep the light of freedom burning bright for them?

That Old Black Magic

2011-10-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

I find it very odd that in the 21st Century there are people and nations that actually believe that Magic exists and that there are people who practice Black Magic. Yet the idea that Magic, especially Black Magic exists is prevalent in the Muslim world. Especially in Saudi Arabia.

When Tara Umm Omar was a young bride in her first marriage, she and her Moroccan husband took the youngest sister of a family friend into their home. On the day the young Moroccan woman arrived, she gave Umm Omar a doll, which Umm Omar promptly placed in a dresser drawer.

When Umm Omar told a friend of the doll, the friend suspected it was an item for black magic and suggested the doll be destroyed. Instead, Umm Omar tossed it in the garbage. That’s when household items disappeared, the family dog barked incessantly, Umm Omar started fighting with her husband and she began seeing strange insects in the house. When the guest finally moved out, the couple found their bed sheets and an identical doll to Umm Omar’s among the woman’s discarded belongings.

The message to Umm Omar was clear: The woman she invited into her home sought to destroy her happiness through black magic.

Umm Omar is since remarried to a Saudi and now lives in Riyadh. She runs the popular blog, Future Husbands and Wives of Saudis, a help website for non-Saudis marrying Saudis. As a quasi-marriage counselor for brides and grooms nervously entering Saudi society, Umm Omar dispenses religious and practical advice to help ease the cultural shock. That includes providing insight to the real world concerns of black magic and the evil eye.

“The truth is that all magic is haram [prohibited] and only leads to bad ends,” Umm Omar told The Media Line.

Belief in black magic runs deep in Saudi society. The issue was raised last month when the quasi-legislative body Shoura Council granted permission for Moroccan women to work as maids in Saudi households. Hundreds of Saudi women complained to the Council that granting Moroccan maids permission to work was tantamount to allowing the use of black magic in their homes to steal their husbands. Saudi wives complained the issue was not lacking trust in their husbands, but their men were powerless to ward off spells.

While greeted with skepticism in western societies, Saudis would no more question the existence of black magic than they would Islam. Two surahs (chapters) in the Qur’an under Al Mi’wadhatyan address black magic and are often recited during or after prayer. Simply, part of being a Muslim is believing in the existence of magic.

In April of this year, members of the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice underwent special training in the Eastern Province to investigate black magic crimes.

Although also found in Christianity and Judaism, casting spells is particularly common in Oman, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco and Indonesia. Turkey is a secular Muslim country, but protection against evil eye is deeply rooted in virtually all aspects of daily life. Tools of witchcraft include using lizards, dead birds, photographs, hair, thread, dirt, blood and red ink. Hiding places to place “spells” may be in bedrooms and under beds. Written spells generally contain the intended victim’s name and one or two words to state the intention to do harm.

In 2007, the religious police in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, removed 23 black magic tokens, including knives and written spells on paper, from two graves in a cemetery. Black magic artists placed the tokens at the heads and feet of the corpses.

The Saudi press reported recently that evil eye was suspected in causing the death of Mastoora Al-Ahmadi, the Saudi poet who garnered international attention for her performance on “The Million’s Poet” on Abu Dhabi TV. She was the first woman to reach the semifinals in the Arabic poetry contest. Al-Ahmadi died unexpectedly on Oct. 2 in Madinah after falling into a coma.

Howaizan Muhammad, 26, of Madinah, told The Media Line that she had difficulty finding a job and failed in many interviews. And she hated the jobs she did find. She broke up with her fiancé and couldn’t find a husband. “My sister told me to read the surah Al-Baqarah to protect me against any spells,” she says. “After 14 days, my father found a spell written on paper and in blood with my name on it on the roof under our water tank.”

Muhammad says she had Indonesian maids at the time, but notes that anybody could have left the spell.

Sheikh Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, an Islamic scholar based in Qatar and the author of The Exorcist Tradition in Islam, told The Media Line that Muslims must not fight witchcraft with their own magic but refer to the Qur’an. “There are a number of Qur’anic texts that the Prophet said should be read with reflection as a means of removing or reducing the effects of black magic,” he says. “Eating adjuwah dates from Madinah is also a means of protection.”

He notes there is a tendency to fight magic with magic, but it’s prohibited. “People should avoid charms, amulets and other things that people have proffered, which has become something of a business in the Muslim world.”

Philips acknowledges that Moroccans have an “international reputation” among Muslims for practicing witchcraft, but cautions against overemphasizing Moroccans as master artists of voodoo. “Historically they [Moroccans] are most noted for it. But they are not much different than most in the Muslim world. Chechnya and Bosnia probably engage in it more.”

Although Saudis may claim that witchcraft is at the heart of their distrust of foreign maids, Umm Omar suggests that old-fashioned power struggles and jealously play vital roles in conflicts.

“There is a factor that Saudis are more well-to-do than Moroccans and magic can be used to remove those blessings [of wealth] if [maids] dislike them,” Umm Omar says. “Saudi women are used to feeling superior over maids, and in some cases look down on them. Moroccan women do not like to be pushed around and will defend themselves. My experience with Moroccan and Saudi women is they both like to be in charge of the household and are naturally bossy.”

Umm Omar adds that if a maid feels threatened, she could resort to black magic. “Of course that is not to say that a Saudi woman won’t seek out magic to harm a Moroccan maid.”
Left unsaid in this battle of wills between Saudi and Moroccan women is the consequences of practicing black magic in Saudi Arabia. Practicing witchcraft is an offense punishable by death.

Saudi religious police arrested popular Lebanese television personality and fortuneteller Ali Sabat in May 2008 on charges of witchcraft while he was on a pilgrimage. A Saudi court sentenced him to death. But an appellate court threw out the sentence in 2010, citing lack of evidence that Sabat harmed anybody. According to Amnesty International, the last documented execution for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia was in 2007. A Saudi court sentenced Egyptian pharmacist Mustafa Ibrahim to death for casting spells in order to separate a married couple.

“Fortune telling is not just sleight of hand tricks, but involves the spirit,” says Philips. “As evil, it’s the same thing as black magic. Sharia proscribes the same punishment for both.”

Umm Omar points to ignorance and the absence of a strong foundation in the teachings of Islam that lead some Muslims to practice magic and evil eye.

Although Philips says that ignorance is no excuse for breaking laws, forgiveness should be considered. “God does forgive ignorance,” he says. “We should be more tolerant in some cases because some people are not doing [harmful] things deliberately.”

Source

This is one of the heights of Muslim intellectual prowess. It ranks high along with this one. And Obama wanted to include these bozos into our NASA program.

We do not have to worry about the religious police of Saudi Arabia. After defeating the evil of Voldermort aka Moldy Shorts, the Ministry of Magic for Israel or the Department of Magic (US) can handle anything these crazy Muggles throw at them.

Ghaddafi's End Was Inevitable and Just

2011-10-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

The scenes are graphic. A dazed, wounded and bleeding man being dragged about by a howling mob of rebel fighters, thrown on the hood of a car, pleading for his life as the crowd shouts, "Allahu Akbar" and hurls insults at him. Somewhere in the maze of cell phone shots, the man is finished off, dragged around, and paraded for all to see.

Many commentators are lamenting the fact that the Muammar Ghaddafi saga ended this way in Libya. They say he should have been taken directly to jail and treated in a civilized manner. He should have been treated for his wounds and arrangements made to fly him to the Hague to face the World Court for his crimes. Then the world could see exactly what he did, not only to other peoples but his own. The rule of law and justice should have prevailed.

I respectfully disagree. This saga was not conducted in Washington DC, Paris, London, or the salons of New York. This was Libya, the Middle East, a boiling cauldron of violence, tribal traditions, and hate. Once Ghaddafi made the decision to stay in Libya and fight rather than fly off to exile in some sorry country that would offer him haven (there may have been none), his fate was sealed. There would be no sudden knock on the door, the snap of handcuffs, and off to jail to await a trial. Ghaddafi's fate could be no other than the howling mob.

I am every bit as much for the rule of law as the next person. I believe in fair and impartial trials, such as we conduct here in America. I was part of that system for 25 years, and I respected its rules even in the times when the outcome disappointed me. I would never want to see such a scene in America. However, I didn't grow up and live in a society such as Libya.

And I never arrested a man such as Muammar Ghaddafi.

This is the man who ordered the bombing of a plane filled with some 270 people over Lockerbie, Scotland. A large proportion of the passengers on that flight were in their early 20s, university students returning home after studying in Europe. Thirty-five of them were from Syracuse University. They would be in their 40s today, and only God knows what they would be doing with their lives now. Ghaddafi is the man who gave the one convicted bomber of that flight a hero's welcome when he was shamelessly released from a Scottish prison and allowed to return home.

This is the man who ordered the bombing of a Berlin disco frequented by American GIs in 1986, a bombing that killed two of them, as well as a Turkish woman. Dozens of others were seriously injured.

This is the man who gave his expelled diplomats a hero's welcome after the British authorities had to release them under the laws of diplomatic immunity in 1984; immunity for shooting at a crowd from the window of the Libyan embassy, killing a British policewoman named Yvonne Fletcher.

This was the man who supported and financed terror plots around the world.

And finally, this is the man who for four decades tortured and murdered his own people, even as he was able to periodically fly to New York and throw tirades at the United Nations. In his final years, he was even afforded a certain respectability by the US because he had given up his weapons of mass destruction after the Iraq invasion.

Shockingly, in his early years in power, Ghaddafi was considered an exotic and dashing figure among many leftists in the West. With his fancy uniforms and fashion sunglasses, many compared him to that other romantic revolutionary of the time, Che Guevara, who in reality, was a brutal and cruel executioner during the Cuban revolution. (He also faced summary justice in Bolivia.)

And to think that some wanted to see this man stand in the dock at the Hague in front of a tribunal of black-cloaked judges in powdered wigs who would send him to spend the rest of his days in one of those modern, civilized Dutch prisons with games, therapy sessions, and conjugal visits until he died in his sleep?

No. Muammar Ghaddafi got the end he richly deserved within the system that he himself ran. May those videos be seen by every dictator of his stripe-especially the one in Damascus.

How Bad is it in Norway?

2011-10-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Hat tip to Norway, Israel and the Jews

Placid Norway; land of fjords, pristine scenery and carefree people.

It was just a few months ago that a crazed gunman committed that horrific mass murder that briefly shone the spotlight on a nation we assumed was far removed from all the turmoil in the world. In fact, Norway has created a volatile situation with their liberal, multi-cultural policies that allowed a presence to grow in their country that has no respect for local culture or traditions. Rather than recognize their mistake and insist on assimilation, they ignored it, preferring to "accommodate" the hateful new presence. They became a fervent foe of Israel. Why? Because their newly-arrived population hated Israel, so they had to as well. Last year, a study concluded that virtually every forcible rape committed in the country was committed by "immigrants". Still, they refused to acknowledge the problem in the spirit of "tolerance". It seems that Norwegians, like most other Europeans, are willing to tolerate the intolerable; to tolerate intolerance itself in the very name of tolerance. Below is an article on Norway by the blog, Norway, Israel and the Jews.

http://www.israelwhat.com/2011/10/20/anti-semitic-exhibition-that-was-sponsored-by-norwegian-church-aid-removed-after-student-protests/

When will they ever learn?

When will we ever learn?

What Does Zionist Jews....They Need To Be Run Out Of This Country Get You?

2011-10-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

On the Unemployment line.

That is what Patricia McAllister has discovered after her anti-Semitic rant. Do you remember this little ditty from Patricia?

Poor Patricia. The LAUSD was inundated with phone calls condemning her remarks and demanding her dismissal. Patricia was a substitute teacher and now is an unemployed substitute teacher.

When told of Patricia's dismissal what do you think they did? Denounce the anti-Semitic remarks of a bigot? No! They are demanding her to be reinstated on the payroll.

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- Occupy LA protesters demonstrated on the steps of Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Monday, speaking out against the district's dismissal of a substitute teacher who made public comments deemed anti-Semitic at a recent protest.

The teacher, Patricia McAllister, spoke out at a recent Occupy LA protest, saying the Jews run the nation's banking infrastructure and should be forced to leave the U.S.
"I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government -- they need to be run out of this country," McAllister said in the video by Reason.tv, a Libertarian-leaning news organization.
McAllister stood by her words Tuesday, speaking with KTLA 5. When it was suggested that her statement was racist, she refused to back down.

"It is not racist, it's the truth," McAllister said. "Anyone who speaks against the Jews are called racists nowadays."

McAllister is black. When suggested that someone might be considered racist if making similar comments about African-Americans, she refused to agree.

"If we were destroying this nation, they'd better say something and take us down with it," she said.

McAllister's comments weren't endorsed by Occupy LA or United Teachers of Los Angeles -- the labor union representing the city's educators.

District officials released a statement supporting McAllister's freedom of speech, but saying the district would "never stand for behavior that is intolerant, disrespectful or discriminatory."

McAllister's status as a substitute teacher makes her an at-will employee and she has been relieved of her duty, officials said.

The teachers' union joined Occupy LA in calling on the district's Board of Education to rehire 1,200 teachers and other workers. The demonstrators said they are looking to start a new occupation site at LAUSD headquarters to make sure their demands are met.

The union protested district-wide budget cuts, ending in widespread layoffs of teachers and other personnel.

District officials said that 800 of the 1,200 employees that were originally laid off have already been rehired.

Source

Please do not try to tell me that the Occupy movement hasn't been hijacked by the rapid anti-Semites. In a true movement of peace, words like Patricia McAllister's would have been condemned immediately and she would have been told that she is not welcomed there.

Of course she doesn't even have the brains to wipe her behind.

She doesn't believe that she said anything wrong, she believes the Jews are the root of all evil and wants to throw them out of the United States (That is after she and her "friends" steal their property, rape their women and beat them to a pulp.), and they are the cause of all the problems of the world.

Patricia McAllister says she only represents herself. But in fact she represents 90% of the Black Population who is taught anti-Semitism from birth.

I hope you listened to the whole tape. The last seconds said it all: "Why do we allow people like that talk to the mike?"

He Is Alive And Home!!!

2011-10-18T01:59:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Gilad Shalit, prisoner of Hamas for 5 years, is finally home, and safe.

Gilad Shalit (rank at the time: Cpl.) was kidnapped early on Sunday June 25, 2006. A terrorist cell attacked Shalit’s tank that was defending the security fence near the southern Gaza Strip. The terrorists crossed the border using an underground tunnel dug near the Kerem Shalom crossing. During the attack, the tank commander, First Lt. Hanan Barak, and another soldier in the tank, Staff Sgt. Pavel Slotzker were killed. Four of the soldiers in the post were injured and terrorists kidnapped Shalit into the Gaza Strip, using the tunnel they dug.

In response to the kidnapping, the IDF began Operation Summer Rains in the Gaza Strip on June 28, 2006 and lasted through November 26, 2006. Ground forces entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since the unilateral disengagement was executed.

Sgt. 1st Class Shalit was 19 years old at the time of his abduction. He is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit and the brother of Yoel and Hadas. Sgt. 1st Class Shalit excels in math, graduating with distinction from the science class of Manor Kabri High School. He is also a major sports fan, with a passion for playing basketball.

Source

Sgt. 1st Class Shalit was exchanged for 447 Fakistinian murderers. Another 550 Fakistinian murderers are to be released within the next 2 months. Why should Israel release them? Let them rot in jail. Remove any privileges from them. No cable, no phones, no visits, no college classes, nothing. The minimum of food. Only 1 hour of exercise a day. Locked in small cells, crowded and with no running water. Only a hole in the ground for their bodily functions.

A curse upon the Arab peoples. A curse upon the Fakistinians. A curse upon the Red Cross, who in 5 years violated the Geneva Conventions of War.

After 5 years Sgt. Shalit is home. May he find peace after the horror he has experienced.

More Anti-Semitism Emerges at Occupy Protests in LA and NY

2011-10-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Hat tip to Pajamas Media

Pajamas Media has the disturbing report below as more expressions of anti-Semitism crop up in the Occupy protests in new York and Los Angeles. The below link contains both photos and videos.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/10/13/more-anti-semitism-at-occupy-los-angeles/

Like the writer of the PJ article, I am not attributing anti-Semitism to all of the people who show up to protest. It is disturbing, nonetheless. Added to the overall poor behavior, the arrests and the deteriorating hygienic conditions on display, this can only further serve to discredit the cause.

If only the mainstream media would point it all out to the public. Instead, MSNBC openly supports and glorifies the crowds while Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats praise them. President Obama says that he empathizes with them. On the other hand, we have not seen and heard these kinds of expressions from the Tea Party-no matter how much the left refers to them as "racist extremists".

The responsible thing to do would be for the other protesters to openly challenge these Jew-haters and tell them to leave, if for no other reason than to disassociate themselves from this hate. What we are witnessing here is the re-opening of all the old canards about Jewish people-that they are all rich, money-grubbing financiers making their fortunes on the backs of the common man. These are the things that were said in early 20th century Europe. And we know where it all led. Add that to the blaming of Jews for the Middle East situation, and you have a volatile mixture, indeed.

Breaking: Shalit deal breakthrough

2011-10-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Word out of Israel today is that Gilad Shalit will be released from Gaza in November.

A deal for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit has been worked out with Hamas, reports in Israeli media and Arab satellite television station Al-Arabiya said Tuesday night. The government is to meet Tuesday night, and sources said that the government is expected to approve the deal.

Official details have not yet been released, but reports say that Israel will release at least 1,000 terrorists in exchange for Shalit. Israel has also agreed to ease demands on where the terrorists will be released to. Israel reportedly agreed to allow at least some of the terrorists to return to their families in Judea and Samaria; previously Israel had demanded that most of the terrorists be sent to Gaza, or deported. The deal is set to take place in November, or possibly even before.

The Shalit family declined to comment on the reports. Reports in Israeli media Tuesday night said that the family had received several additional “signs of life” that were not reported to the public, the latest about two years ago.

Israel's government declined to comment, but a spokesperson in the Prime Minister's office said that “a short-term window of opportunity has opened to bring Gilad home.” A report on a Hamas-affiliated TV station said that Hamas Gaza head Khaled Mashaal would release details of the deal later Tuesday night.

Israel Radio reported that the inner cabinet met Monday night to discuss the deal, and members of the military and defense establishment were invited to present their opinions on the deal, especially the release of terrorists to areas within Judea and Samaria. Ministers reportedly discussed each of the terrorists to be released, and where Israel would demand they be sent. One minister, quoted anonymously on Israel Radio said that the deal was not necessarily the best Israel could have gotten, but that “we all feel it is time to bring Gilad home.”

Source

Israel is releasing 1,000 murderers and will get Shalit back. There is no proof that Gilad Shalit is alive and I believe that all the Israelis will receive is a dead body.

Leo is gone now but his story is still alive

2011-10-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

Originally posted here.

My Uncle Leo was quite the story teller. If the story was sad he made your eyes water. If funny you laughed. Of course all his stories came from real-life experiences. I don’t remember a whole lot about Leo during my early years for he moved his family to California while I grew up in Massachusetts. It wasn’t until I joined the Air Force that I was to get to know him like an uncle should be known.

He told me stories about my mom and dad that I had never realized but shed some light as to why I was brought up in an orphanage.

My first get-to-know-my-uncle time was when I was on my way to Alaska in 1963. I spent a few days with him while en-route to my new duty station. We had a great time while he showed me all around his place of work. He worked for MGM studios in those days as a night watchman and taking me around the studio back-lots in that army jeep (used on the TV series Combat) was as memorable as memories can be. And yes, he told me a few stories.

A few more visits over the years as I passed through California from one military assignment to another got to be almost as if the Air Force was playing family reunion as a part of my transfer orders. There was the week my family and I stayed while on our way to Okinawa with a repeat of the same on our way back from the Pacific. Just to mention that ocean brought more stories from Uncle Leo…you see he spent a lot of time there in WW II.

Then it was around 1973 while stationed in Texas that the Air Force would send me TDY (Air Force lingo for Temporary Duty) to Southern California…I guess the reason for the TDY is not important here, but just in case you’re interested, it was to buy dogs for the military working dog program. Yeah, it was great! Right down the road (so to speak) from my Uncle Leo’s place was Fort MacArthur where all the preliminary physicals and qualification testing was accomplished before the dogs were inducted into the service. But that’s another story…for it was during this visit that Leo told the story that led me to tell this story.

I’m not sure what it was that perked his memory but he began this story by lighting up a cigarette (and yes, he was a heavy smoker…the old Lucky Strikes without the filter). He was somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean being transferred to another island during some of the heaviest fighting of WW II. Now Leo can only tell this part like Leo can and I cannot re-enact the inflection of his voice. He describes the situation where he sees a grown man on his knees reciting some prayer while a torpedo is headed straight for the ship. Most everyone thought it would be their last day on earth…except Leo. He lights a cigarette and nonchalantly walks to the ship’s stern and flicks his ashes over the torpedo that passes harmlessly below curvature of the hull and disappears.

Now I may not have given the torpedo story much justice but let’s fast forward to October 1, 2011. In the town where I live they have what is called Claybank Jamboree every first Saturday in October. One of the vendors on display in the town’s square was distributing free books. When a book was handed to me I didn’t pay too much attention to the title until I reached home later in the day. It’s a religious book and I’m not a huge reader of denominational conditionings…my religious beliefs are pretty much set at my age. But then again I wasn’t going to let a book go to waste…so I began reading “Psalm 91 God’s Shield of Protection”. Not a catchy title that I’d be looking for at a book store but here’s what it said right there in chapter one:

“…a situation in which a U.S. Navy boy from Texas found himself. Running spiritually to his secret place is most likely what saved his ship from disaster. He and his mother had agreed to repeat Psalm 91 each day at a given time, to add agreement to his protection covenant. He later told of a time when his ship was under attack from the air and from an enemy submarine at the same time. All battle stations on the ship were in operation when the sub came within firing range and loosed a torpedo directly toward them. At that moment the young man realized it was the exact time that his mother would be saying Psalm 91, so he began quoting the psalm just as the torpedo wake appeared, headed directly toward their battleship. Then, when it was just a short distance away, it suddenly swerved, passing the stern and disappearing.”

Leo is gone now but his story is still alive...

By Norman E. Hooben

Eric Holder Repeats His Lies

2011-10-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://gary fouse.blogspot.com

Embattled Attorney General Eric Holder has sent an angry letter to Congress in which he defends his testimony of May 3, 2011, in which he stated that he had first heard of Operation Fast and Furious" a few weeks previous".

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/07/holder-challenges-fast-and-furious-allegations-in-scathing-letter-to-congress/?test=latestnews

This letter flies in the face of certain facts. We know that e-mails recently released show that Holder was getting memos on Fast and Furious as far back as July 2010. Holder and his defenders can treat these memos and nothing more than everyday minutia, like, say, company picnic notices, but that hardly seems credible given the nature of this operation and its consequences. One of the consequences occurred in December 2010 when Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in a gunfight in which one of the Fast and Furious weapons was recovered. Yet, Holder claimed under oath on May 3, 2011 that he had first heard of Fast and Furious "probably a few weeks previous".

Then, in February 2011, ICE agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were shot by Mexican gang members in Mexico. Zapata died from his wounds. Again, Fast and Furious weapons were recovered from the scene. Yet, on May 3, Holder told Congress under oath that he had first heard of Fast and Furious "probably a few weeks previous".

A few weeks or a few months?

I suppose Holder could always raise in his defense that Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and ICE, was never bothering to jump up and down on Holder's desk demanding answers as to why her agents were being shot and killed by weapons linked to this Justice Department fiasco of an operation. That she has not done so, privately or publicly, is to her everlasting shame. But that only makes her an accomplice to Holder's cover-up.

In addition, Holder is no claiming that a similar operation was conducted under the Bush administration. There is a difference; a controlled delivery, under which contraband is allowed to proceed to its intended recipient under surveillance resulting in arrests and seizure, is accepted law enforcement procedure. Show me where that operation allowed guns to "walk" into Mexico and disappear without any arrest or seizure. If that was the case, I would condemn that as well.

Eric Holder and anyone else in DOJ involved in this mess have no business being in federal law enforcement. Holder has been a scourge to the DOJ ever since the Clinton administration when he greased the skids for the notorious Clinton pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.

Perjury is serious business-especially when committed by the chief law enforcement officer in the land.

RIP Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T21:16:00.001-07:00

By Findalis

Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc died today at the age of 56.

Apple said founder Steve Jobs has died, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday.

In August, the legendary chief executive officer of Apple Inc., resigned and the company named Tim Cook, its previous chief operating officer, to the post.

Jobs wrote in a letter to the board that "if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

"I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it," Jobs said at the time. "And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role."

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant two years ago. He reportedly appeared at the iPad 2 launch in March and the annual developers' conference in June, The Journal reported. But he appeared thin at both events.

Jobs is credited with being the mind behind the iPhone, iPad and other devices that turned Apple into one of the world's most powerful companies.

Source

Apple changed the world. That is not just a saying. His Apple Computers gave the average person the idea that they can own a computer for their home too. He changed the way we listened to music, talked on the phone, read a book and communicated with the whole world.

In fact, without Steve Jobs our world would be a poorer one.

G-d bless the man and be with his family.

P.S: Now all your Apple appliances will shut down in memory.

Obama: This Guy Doesn't Like Us

2011-10-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

Back in the 1990s, as I was nearing retirement from DEA, we had an administrator (head of the agency or director) named Tom Constantine. He was appointed administrator out of the New York State Police. When he left the State Police, they reportedly held a retirement party for him, a party to which he was not invited. As administrator of DEA, Constantine presided over an agency with poor morale. The reason for the poor morale? Constantine. It seems that Constantine brought with him an unfavorable attitude about federal law enforcement agents. Reports said that he often told his underlings at DEA Hqs, "You feds......." (fill in the blank.)

Shortly before I retired, I was having a few drinks with a DEA colleague who had attended a meeting between Constantine and a few ordinary agents who were on TDY in HQs. I asked him what his impression of Constantine was. His answer?

"He doesn't like us."

I think the same can be said at this point about President Obama. He doesn't like us. Not all of us, of course, but a significant part of the population of this country. In truth, we should have figured this out a long time ago.

Was it when we first heard about Reverend Jeremiah Wright, he of "God damn America fame"? Obama spent 20 years sitting in Wright's church, yet claimed never to have heard him condemn this country.

Was it when we learned of his association with William Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn?

Was it when we learned of the influence on Obama of Frank Marshall Davis and Saul Alinsky?

Was it when we read his two autobiographies, written before he even became famous? Should we have seen a red flag when he wrote of identifying more with the black father who abandoned him than the white mother and grandparents who raised him?

Was it when Michelle Obama told a campaign audience that America in the 21st century was a really mean country or when she said that she was proud of her country for the first time in her life-because her husband was running for president?

Was it when we came to know Joe the Plumber, when Obama told him that he wanted to "spread the wealth around"?

Was it when we realized that he had no idea of how to hold his hand over his heart when reciting the Pledge of Alliance or the National Anthem was playing?

Was it when he started apologizing for America during his overseas trips?

Was it when he showed utter contempt for Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu during a White House visit?

Was it when, after becoming President, he accused the Cambridge, Massachusetts police of acting stupidly when they arrested Henry Louis Gates?

Was it when he started appointing radicals like Van Jones to positions in his government?

Was it when he made Eric Holder attorney general or in any of the instances in the succeeding 3 years that Holder made it plain that he was running a race-based, radical Justice Department?

Was it during the last 9-11 ceremony in New York when he and Michelle appeared to be treating the flag-folding ceremony with contempt?

This is man who we had hoped would bring us together-even if we had voted against him. In contrast, he has driven us further apart. He has widened the divide between whites and blacks, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats. He blames our problems on anyone he can other than himself. He does not understand what drives Americans to love their country and to respect our traditions. He has no great appreciation for the capitalist system, free enterprise, and the inalienable right for people to keep what they earn. That is because he is a socialist-if not an out and out Marxist.

How ironic that in less than one generation after the collapse of the Soviet Union and their satellites in Eastern Europe, we have a president that has more in common with that failed ideology than he does with the system that made America the winner of the Cold War.

President Obama doesn't like us.

It Is NOT Your Money!

2011-10-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Could be screamed at every person in Congress, the President, etc. But this time I am screaming it at ~~Mahmoud Abbas~~ Abu Mazen and the Fakistinian people.

The United States Congress reportedly blocked the transfer of $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority in what a Palestinian official called "collective punishment" for the PA's bid for membership in the United Nations, UK daily The Independent reported on Saturday.

The unconfirmed report says that an unpublicized block on the transfer of funds, less than one third of the aid sent to the PA annually, has been in place since August.

The United States is opposed to the Palestinian bid to seek full UN membership and has vowed to veto such a move in the Security Council.

PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib told The Independent that cutting aid to the PA is "unjustified. These are mainly humanitarian and development projects - it is another kind of collective punishment which is going to harm the needs of the public without making any positive contribution."

In mid September, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee began debating cutting off US aid to the Palestinian Authority for breaking ranks with the American-brokered peace process. In her opening statement, Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), credited former President George H.W. Bush in 1989 with “stop[ping] dead in its tracks” attempts by former Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat to seek recognition from various UN agencies after statehood was declared a year before. Ros-Lehtinen called upon President Obama to do the same in 2011 “to stop Abu Mazen’s [PA President Abbas] dangerous unilateral scheme” by suspending funds to any UN agency “that granted membership or any upgraded status to the PA.”

In July, a key Congressional committee considered a foreign aid bill that threatened funding to the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon, and would codify in law the George W. Bush letter to Ariel Sharon.

The bill, drawn up by Ros-Lehtinen, would also end by 2014 the president’s ability to waive the law that requires him to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as well as mandate that official American documents list Jerusalem as part of Israel. The State Department would also have to report on its diplomatic activities on behalf of Israel to end efforts at isolating it.

Furthermore, it conditions aid to the PA on its recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and ending all anti-Israel incitement in state-owned media, among other measures; while aid to Lebanon includes a stipulation that no member of Hezbollah serve in the government.

Source

Americans are the most generous people on the planet Earth. When a disaster strikes it is the generosity of the average American that sends millions of dollars to help those affected. The US government has given trillions of dollars to various nations to help them grow, prosper and expand into viable democracies.

But the PA forgets one little fact:

It is not the funds of the PA. This is money that belongs to the citizens of the United States. If those citizens (through their representatives) decide that they do not wish to fund terrorists, then they will withhold the funds.

I suggest that the PA ask Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Libya, etc...for the funds they need.

Who is "Getting Soft", Mr President?

2011-10-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

So President Obama thinks we are getting soft, does he?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-29/obama-pushes-for-jobs-plan-during-2-swing-state-tv-interviews.html

And perhaps a bit of malaise too?

If we are getting soft, it is because many Americans have bought into Obama's ideal of a socialistic society with bailouts and extended unemployment benefits, union give-a-aways and such designed to increase the dependence of people on Big Government.

In Obama's world view, everyone would be dependent on central government to provide the basic necessities of life and more. Those who have succeeded through their own talents and hard work are excoriated as being rich and selfish people who need to pay more taxes so wealth can be evenly distributed to others.

We have already seen this in Europe, haven't we? In Western Europe, ever since the end of the Second World War, Europeans have built a socialist society built around vacations every August and protected by American military might. Meanwhile, Eastern Europeans lived under the thumb of big central governments, while said governments lived under the thumb of Moscow. Both experiments failed miserably as the Western Europeans are just learning.

A few years ago, a German friend told me that the old, stereotyped fleissige Deutscher (industrious, diligent German) was a thing of the past. That is what socialism has accomplished.

That is also what Obama's ideal world view is doing to America. Do you see what is happening to American can-do and initiative? That is what Obama is working to make a thing of the past. What's the point of being industrious, diligent or having initiative if government is going to provide you with everything and take away any "excess" money you make?

Aside from the obvious example of our military, what is the biggest force that is not getting soft? That would be the much excoriated Tea Party that the Obamanites love to condemn.

Obama's latest statement is another example of how he refuses to accept any blame for his actions. He blames others. He blames the opposition.

He blames us.

You Can Run But Not Hide

2011-09-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

Especially if your name is Anwar al-Awlaki.

Born in the United States to parents of Yemeni origins. His parents returned to Yemen when he was 7. He lived in Yemen for 11 years then returned to the United States to attend university. He graduated Colorado State University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and was the President of the University's Muslim Students Union. He was a leader in al-Qaeda and took over leadership of the organization when Bin Ladin was killed.

al-Awlaki was the English voice of al-Qaeda.

The U.S.-born terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed, Fox News confirms.

The government of the Republic of Yemen officially announced the death, saying Awlaki was targeted and killed about 5 miles from the town of Khashef in the Province of Jawf.

The operation was launched earlier today at around 9:55 AM, local time.

Yemeni security and tribal officials said an air strike thought to have been carried out by U.S. aircraft on Friday targeted a convoy of cars traveling in the eastern province of Marib but could not say whether al-Awlaki was in the convoy.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki is believed to have inspired and even plotted or helped coordinate some of the recent attacks on the U.S., including the failed Christmas Day 2009 bombing of an airliner heading for Detroit, Michigan, and the also unsuccessful plot to send mail bombs on planes from Yemen to the United States in October.

The American-born son of Yemeni parents rose to prominence as Al-Qaeda's English-speaking voice and electronic messenger, spreading its terrorist credo via a blog, social media posts and email exchanges with such people as the U.S. Army major accused of a murderous shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

The Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square failed car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet. Al-Awlaki was further believed to have had a hand in mail bombs addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, packages intercepted in Dubai and Europe in October 2010.

Yemen had in the past reported the deaths of Al-Qaeda leaders who were later found to be alive. Al-Awlaki was last reported to have been killed in December 2009.

Al-Awlaki is on a U.S. kill-or-capture list and is accused by Washington of inspiring several attacks in the United States.

The Yemeni officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.

Yemen is the Arab world's most impoverished nation and has become a haven for Al-Qaeda militants.

Source

Yemen has claimed this kill. The US claims it was done by a drone. All that matters is this scumbag is dead and getting his just reward.

Piece of candy anyone?

And The World Is Suppose To Be Scared Of These Guys?

2011-09-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Last year the Iranians decided that Star Wars was the look for them. This year it is a cross between Lady Gaga and a Bad Hair Day. But once again the Iranian Army has trotted out their "New Look" for the year:

I guess a new hairstylist would help these guys.

Did anyone tell these guys that American Gladiator is no longer on the air?

The badges on their sashes are for not wetting the bed.

Once again the Iranians have shown us that good taste is not needed in their military.

Hat Tip to SimplyJews

OMG! Obama said what?

2011-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

We cannot make these things up. But a Freudian Slip of the tongue by the President tells more about what is really on his mind than the class warfare he is doing.

Hat tip to a12iggymom

Let That Light Be The Light Of Peace

2011-09-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

The Full Text of Bibi Netanyahu's speech to the United Nations

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, innovators, apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland — it was then that this was braided — branded, rather — shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn’t praised; it was denounced! And it’s here year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel — the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the U.N. institution. It’s the — the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the U.N. Committee on Disarmament.

You might say: That’s the past. Well, here’s what’s happening now — right now, today. Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world’s security.

You couldn’t make this thing up.

So here in the U.N., automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide — they have decided that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson
And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the Great Rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me — and ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people serving their nations here. But here’s what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is — the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.

That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.

Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents — in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday — can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it’s too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter. That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It’s determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It’s poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times — if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don’t worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there’s only one problem with that theory. We’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn’t calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and make it stronger.

Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn’t defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and UBAM (ph) in Gaza didn’t stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn’t freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don’t think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of — out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even — we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day — in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What’s to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Would any of you — would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israel is prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we’re not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that’s why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel’s critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it’s as if nothing happened — just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel’s security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you’re all in the city. That’s about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It’s the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don’t forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel’s neighbors.

So how do you — how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can’t defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that’s exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn’t require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an airspace in Cyprus or rather an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they’re not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace. Again, Israel’s small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel’s tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It’s not merely the West Bank, it’s the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel’s population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?

I bring up these problems because they’re not theoretical problems. They’re very real. And for Israelis, they’re life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel’s security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won’t be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.

The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.

And there’s one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.

They haven’t given even one Red Cross visit. He’s held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the — in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to — if you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that’s the resolution you should pass.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don’t you think it’s about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1 million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day — in fact, I think they made it right here in New York — they said the Palestinian state won’t allow any Jews in it. They’ll be Jew-free — Judenrein. That’s ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That’s racism. And you know which laws this evokes.

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don’t want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. (Applause.) We want to give up — we want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that’s odd. Our conflict has been raging for — was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the — I guess that the settlements he’s talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be’er Sheva. Maybe that’s what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn’t say from 1967; he said from 1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict. (Applause.)

The settlements have to be — it’s an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it’s time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in 1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they’re ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel’s security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called “Jews”? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem, there’s a — there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin — Binyamin — the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I’ve worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn’t respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn’t respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again — no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again — you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn’t like. There were things there about the Jewish state that I’m sure the Palestinians didn’t like.

But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.
President Abbas, why don’t you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations.

Let’s just get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you’ve dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we enable our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That’s what we should aim for, and that’s what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I’ll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We’ve both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we’re in the same city. We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today in the United Nations. Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let’s listen to one another. Let’s do as we say in the Middle East: Let’s talk “doogli” (ph). That means straightforward. I’ll tell you my needs and concerns. You’ll tell me yours. And with God’s help, we’ll find the common ground of peace.

There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand — the hand of Israel — in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah — (speaks in Hebrew) — “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” Let that light be the light of peace.

Let it be the light of peace. Right before Bibi spoke those words, Abu Mazen spoke words of war. Words of hatred. Words of evil. And the world gave him a standing ovation.

Go figure!

Corporate Social Responsibility & Going Green

2011-09-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

A great article by Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center. This man knows his stuff when it comes to Agenda 21 and all things green:

Why Private Industry Keeps Telling Us to “Go Green”

I’ve sounded the alarm over the dangers of Sustainable Development and the agenda for top-down control through what proponents call the “Three Es,” which includes the Environment, the Economy, and Social Equity. A fourth rail to imposing Agenda 21 is called Corporate Social Responsibility. It is the direct result of the merging of the Three Es. CSR is the map to understanding why corporations are actively promoting the “green” agenda – even to the detriment of their own business.

Picture, if you will, an Isosceles triangle. And label each point: 1.Government Power 2. Corporate Money 3. NGOs Agenda

The truth is, corporations aren’t always willing players in the partnerships – neither is government, for that matter. Many times both are answering to pressure from activists with a specific agenda.

Those activists come in the form of Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). They are determined, dedicated and radical. They mean business and they have the means to force their will on companies. It’s almost masochistic to watch how they treat companies.

Perhaps you’ve heard the term Corporate Social Responsibility. The idea is that corporations must not conduct their affairs merely to achieve profits for their stockholders – or even to just provide products and services for their customers. According to the doctrine, businesses must also help further the “well-being of society.” You know, “like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” To many businesses the term means treating customers, employees and suppliers with respect and integrity, while making sure you aren’t damaging the environment. It’s just good business.

But something much more sinister has control over the force of corporate social responsibility. As Niger Innis, president of the Congress on Racial Equality, points out, the ideological environmental movement is a powerful $4 billion-a-year U.S. industry. On the international level it’s an $8 billion-a-year gorilla.

Many of its members are intensely eco-centric, and place much higher value on wildlife and ecological values than on human progress or even human life. They have a deep fear and loathing of big business, technology, chemicals, plastics, fossil fuels and biotechnology. And they insist that the rest of the world should acknowledge and live according to their fears and ideologies.

They are masters at using junk science, scare tactics, intimidation and bogus economic and health claims to gain even greater power. These people, with their radical political agenda are now succeeding in forcing Corporate Social Responsibility on more and more companies.

They assert the right to dictate corporate social responsibility by declaring themselves stakeholders, even though their only stake is philosophical. In most cases, they have no economic interest in the companies.

They place ever-increasing demands on business to take ever more radical measures in the name of protecting the environment or in the name of social equity. Products have been banned. Even whole industries have been destroyed.

Here’s an example of the power of this force tied to Sustainable Development policies is an incident that took place in Ireland. There, McDonalds applied to build a new restaurant in a community. The government demanded an environmental impact study for the project. Now, that’s not so unusual. Only this environmental study wasn’t concerning the building of the restaurant. Rather, it was to study the effects of the food to be served on the health of the residents of the community.

McDonalds has been beaten to a pulp over the issue of obesity, human health and animal rights. The leading NGO in this fight is a radical nut-group called the Center for Science in the Public Interest which openly advocates that people eat next to nothing. No meat, no farm animals at all, no dairy, just basically some pre-selected vegetables. They are a constant thorn in the side of the Food and Drug Administration, constantly filing law suits to control food choice. They are the leaders of the infamous food police. And they hate McDonalds as much as they hate letting you decide what you want to eat.

As a result of these attacks, today McDonalds is in the forefront of promoting the green agenda. Now you may understand why the city of San Francisco recently targeted McDonald’s Happy Meals to be banned. CSR is rampant in public schools where zealots are busy working to control what children eat. Never mind that a child may go hungry because he/she refuses to eat tofu. Meanwhile, to make the controls work, corporate monsters like McDonalds must also be kept from tempting children with something they might like. All for the common good, of course.

Another example of corporate masochism comes from Caterpillar, the equipment giant that provides machinery for the mining industry. A few years ago, Caterpillar announced it was joining the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), which is lobbying for caps on carbon dioxide emissions.

If USCAP reaches its goal for mandatory federal restrictions on the emissions, the cost of energy will be driven up, hurting Caterpillar’s customers and shareholders. When asked if he had done a cost analysis on this policy before joining USCAP, the Chairman of Caterpillar said he had not and would not. Therefore, he was blindly endorsing a policy that could put his own company out of business.

Why? Because he has been forced to accept a political agenda over business sense. To do otherwise would mean possible government sanctions, regulations or fines. It’s the new way to do business in America. It’s the force of the triangle. That’s Corporate Social Responsibility. It isn’t responsible at all. And it’s not very corporate. It’s enforcement of a political agenda.

Many times these issues begin with what appears to be completely absurd press releases by obscure fringe groups. But businesses must not ignore the source of their rants. Once they begin to give sanction to small demands in an attempt to put on a good face – the bar will be continually raised until the business becomes merely a tool for a political agenda that is in direct opposition to their ability to stay in business as the mantra of “Go Green” results in higher prices, sacrifice and fewer choices for consumers.

Well said. But every corporation knows that the moment profits (dividends) drop to a certain level, is the moment this nonsense stops. The main business of business is to make profits, not to help the world. In some cases they do both, and that is good. Not just for the communities they are in, but also for their image in the public. But let the profits, the dividends drop below a certain level, every CEO knows he/she will be out of a job and a new man/woman taking the helm instead.

Dear Attack Watch....

2011-09-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Hat Tip to TexasFred

I found this at Texas Fred's. 20 simple questions to ask AttackWatch or #AttackWatch. The questions will never be answered with the truth, for Barack Hussein Obama doesn't want you to know the truth.

Let’s a play a little game of 20 QUESTIONS…

1. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THAT STIMULUS MONEY?? AND YOU EXPECT US TO FALL FOR IT AGAIN?!?!?!

2. Is it okay for you to have members of the New Black Panthers standing outside voting centers in full camouflage gear threatening whites with baseball bats and night sticks?

3. Is it also okay for you to have ACORN register dead people to vote and automatically submit them as democrat voters?

4. Is it also okay for you to flat out LIE to the American people 7 TIMES in the first two minutes of your acceptance speech the night that you was so-called “elected”?

5. Is it also okay for you to have Congress vote on and pass a healthcare bill IN THE DARK OF NIGHT that over half the country DIDN’T want shoved down their throats? You need to know that this WILL ultimately be proven unconstitutional…..maybe you didn’t hear, but government CANNOT FORCE it’s citizens to purchase a government subsidized good or service.

6. Is it also okay for you to push California to pass the Dream Act so that he has more voters on his side for the election next year because he bought them all off with FREE healthcare, FREE housing, FREE food, FREE education, FREE EVERYTHING?

7. Is it also okay that you failed to acquire, let alone EVEN ASK FOR, congressional approval for a meaningless one-sided war in Libya? By the way, Bush asked for and received congressional approval for the war in Iraq….his request WAS met with some differences of opinion, but HE DID ASK…..YOU DID NOT.

8. While we’re on the subject, why do you continuously run to the UN every time you have a problem? This country is NOT run by the UN….we are a SOVERIEGN NATION that governs itself…..maybe they didn’t teach you that in American History. OH, MY BAD!! I forgot….you went to school in INDONESIA!!

9. Is it okay that when a UNION THUG like Jimmy Hoffa literally threatens a group of people in a warm-up speech for the President, that President (YOU) remains silent and doesn’t strike that UNION THUG’S comments down in some kind of response? Pardon me, but I’ve lived in this country my ENTIRE LIFE….I’m pretty darn certain that EVERYTHING in Hoffa’s speech was gone over with a fine tooth comb…do you REALLY think we are THAT STUPID?

10. Why is it that you can’t simply produce your actual long form birth certificate? Anybody that applies for a job in this country needs to provide several different forms of ID. I would think that someone who wants to be PRESIDENT would be scrutinized down to the very last letter of the alphabet.

11. Where are the college transcripts from Harvard and Occidental? They were probably burned right along with the B.C., huh?

12. How can you call yourself a Christian when you don’t celebrate Christmas or Easter, but yet you recognize and celebrate the MUSLIM holy month of Ramadan?

13. Why is that you CONTINUOUSLY apologize for our status as a Superpower Nation?

14. Why do you bow down to foreign leaders?

15. Why do you try and make a toast when God Save The Queen is being played?

16. Why did you REALLY close that Boeing plant in South Carolina?

Let’s talk about your wife for a moment…..

17. Is it okay that she goes on vacations left and right on the taxpayers dime, of which she spent $10 MILLION??

18. Is it also okay that your wife can eat burgers and fries, while at the same time, telling us Americans to eat more veggies and make their portions smaller?

19. Is it also okay for that same UNPATRIOTIC wife to disrespect the American flag at Ground Zero on 9/11/11?

20. Is it also okay for YOU to ask AMERICAN CITIZENS to rat out their own neighbors if they happen to say something negative about the President?

I have NEVER supported you from day one and do not have even a bit of an inkling of support for you now….nor will I ever. I will say though, that I recognize and have full respect for the OFFICE that you currently hold. That doesn’t mean that I need to respect the person that holds the office of POTUS. Remember, they are two VERY different things. You will NEVER have my respect for you as a person. How can I be expected to respect someone that disrespects our Constitution?

Trust me when I say that we Conservatives do NOT fear this new “snitcher site” of yours one tiny bit. This site has now made you THE laughingstock of the internet and believe me….WE ARE ROLLING ON THE FLOOR & LAUGHING OVER THIS!! It’s actually quite humorous, if you haven’t figured that out by now when taking in all of the Twitter posts that have been made since your little site started up. You are only giving us MORE firepower against you every single day.

We are not a people of violence….unless YOU DECIDE to make us resort to such. This site you’ve created only proves just how desperate and paranoid you really are. Why don’t you just give it up and surrender already? Just sayin.

SIGN THE PETITION FOLKS: ATTACKWATCH.COM Petition2Congress

It is time to tell the POTUS that these Gestapo tactics are not respectable in this nation!

Feel free to "steal" this post. The more Conservatives who read this means the more who will fight this.

Hope and Change? "We Hope You Change Your Testimony, General"

2011-09-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

"Gen. William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command, told House members in a classified briefing earlier this month that he was pressured to change prepared congressional testimony in a way that would favor a large company funded by Philip Falcone, a major Democratic donor, congressional sources told Fox News."

-Fox News byline

Remember the heady days of President Obama's campaign when he kept promising "Hope and Change"?

~~We all figured~~-You all figured there would be no more politics as usual, pay to play and government favors for those who contributed big bucks, right?

Oh yee suckers.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/15/general-reportedly-said-was-pressured-to-change-testimony-on-white-house-backed/

Let us remember one thing-especially you folks who say, "They all do it." When you testify before Congress, you do so under oath. If what General Shelton says is accurate, we are talking about subornation of perjury. And for you UC Santa Cruz Community Studies majors, that is a crime. Take it from one who has testified under oath hundreds of times-and always did so honestly. There should be no tolerance for this.

If this keeps up, the Obama administration will catch up with the Clinton administration in scandals.

Barack Obama's Continuing Jewish Problem

2011-09-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Poor Barack Obama. He is losing almost every core group he had. Now he will lose not only a core group, but a major fund-raising group: The Jews.

United States President Barack Obama enjoyed the support of an estimated 80% of U.S. Jews in the 2008 elections. However, recent polls indicate he will be receiving far less Jewish support in 2012.

Polls taken before the GOP upset in New York’s 9th District showed that Obama’s treatment of Israel was a crucial issue for many voters in the heavily Jewish area – and only 22% were satisfied with the way he had been relating to Israel.

Their dissatisfaction is thought to have been a crucial factor in the victory of Republican candidate Bob Turner, who became the first member of his party to win a seat in the traditionally Democratic district in 80 years.

Another poll showed Obama losing ground even among his strongest supporters, those who had donated to his 2008 campaign. Of those Jews who invested in an Obama victory three years ago, just 64% plan to donate to his re-election campaign, according to a recent McLaughlin & Associates survey.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Obama campaign is stepping up its efforts to win back Jewish support. The campaign has hired a Jewish outreach director, and has sent senior Jewish officials like former White House aide David Axelrod to meet with Jewish donors.

Writer Dan Senor expressed skepticism over the chances that the new campaign push would succeed. Obama’s advisors believe the president has a “messaging problem,” he said. However, in truth, “he doesn’t have a ‘messaging’ problem. He has a record of bad policies and anti-Israel rhetoric,” opined Senor, who listed several of the many occasions on which Obama’s treatment of Israel was seen as hostile.

Obama’s loss of popularity among those who support Israel has not been accompanied by gains in Arab support. Instead, Pew Research Center surveys show steadily declining support for the U.S. in almost all Arab or Muslim countries, and the Palestinian Authority has openly snubbed Obama in recent weeks, continuing with plans to ask the UN to recognize it as a state despite U.S. disapproval.

Source

Now for the $64,000 question: Will Barack Hussein Obama have Susan Rice veto the PA resolution due to come before the Security Council on Friday Sept. 23, only to apologize to the Muslim world right afterwords in an attempt to appease both Muslims and Jews? Obama had her do that the last time the Security Council wanted to condemn Israel for some idiotic lie. Or will he realize that he is a lame duck and withhold the US veto and allow the PA to become the nation of Palestine? It would be in Obama's character to do so. If he does, not only does he lose the Jewish vote and money, but the Democrats will lose the Jewish bloc forever.

This next week will be interesting to watch.

Can You Read Lips?

2011-09-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

I am asking for lip readers to make out what Michelle Obama is saying to her husband, the President during this 9-11 flag-folding ceremony at Ground Zero. This video has also appeared on the Baltimore Sun's blog, as well as numerous other sites. Maybe one of my readers can help.

Could she be saying, "All this for that flag"?

The Terror We Have Not Experienced

2011-09-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Imagine this:

You enter your favorite pizza parlor with your family on an early Saturday night. The place is packed with families, with teens, with people. Wall to wall with a wait to be seated. Suddenly a person enters the building, goes to the middle of the place and detonates a bomb. The shrapnel rips through your body. The last thing you see is your children shredded to bits. This is not fiction. It happened here.

Imagine this:

You leave your home to go to work, get on the bus and this happens:

It happened here.

Imagine this:

You are attending a religious function with your family. A person walks in, detonates a bomb. You and your family are killed.

It happened here.

This is reality in Israel. Not the big attacks as we experienced on 9/11, but the small single person attacks on a single, smaller target. You never know when it will happen, where it will happen, if you or your loved ones will be involved, injured, killed. When it is discovered that the Muslim community is behind these actions, the world insists that you do nothing to stop these attacks, in fact you have to import more terrorists into your country. You have to surrender to everything the terrorists demand. If you don't expect more attacks, in any city, at any time.

You set up metal detectors and security guards at the entrances of every supermarket, shopping mall, restaurant. You have armed guards outside every school, every hospital. Special precautions are taken with bulldozers and backhoes. And still there is more.

The terror escalates to warfare when terrorists start firing rockets into the United States from Mexico. Cities and towns on the border have been struck with these "homemade" rockets. The world tells the US to ignore them. The rockets aren't powerful and do very little damage. Every day, every night the nation is under attack. You are told that the rockets will stop when you give into the terrorists demands. Obama gives in.

The US Constitution is removed and Shar'ia Law and Islam reigns.

This is the new reality that we could be living under.

9/11 wasn't a true terror attack. It was an act of war like Pearl Harbor was. The Fort Hood Massacre, the Arkansas Military Attack, the Times Square Bomber, and the rest of the failed attacks are the harbinger of things to come.

There will come a time in the near future when we will experience terror on the scale that Israel has. The only hope we can have as a nation is that we have a leader who will fight back and not surrender.

VIDEO: Civilian Executed At Point Blank Range in Syria

2011-09-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

If one thought that keeping the press out of a nation will mean you can get away with anything including murder, guess again. Assad of Syria has been trying this since the protests started. But he forgot that people have cell phones, those cell phones have video cameras. The people of Syria are becoming the reporters. Thus the truth is emerging, slowly but emerging.

The following video is extremely graphic. The name of the victim is unknown. But his murder his documented.

Please pass this on to others. On death among 30 that day.

Hat tip to Elder of Ziyon

Gibson Guitar vs. The Obama Regime

2011-09-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Since 2009 Gibson Guitars, one of the leading manufacturers of guitars has been persecuted by the Obama Administration over "tainted wood". It seems that some of the wood that Gibson uses is manufactured in a way that violates India's laws. Yes I did write INDIA. The country. Not Indiana, the state.

Last week, heavily armed federal agents raided two guitar manufacturing facilities in Tennessee owned by Gibson — one in Nashville, another in Memphis. The feds were not acting on a tip that an al Qaeda cell was holed up in the buildings; or that Mexican drug cartel gangs were lurking inside. It was actually something far more serious; far more serious, that is, to a bunch of federal bureaucrats with nothing better to do.

The raids were carried out because the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claim that parts of the iconic guitars manufactured in the plants contained the wrong kind of imported wood. And, although the feds have not made clear to Gibson just what it has done wrong, the government appears also to be claiming the guitar parts might have been exported to the U.S. contrary not to American laws, but to certain domestic laws of the countries exporting the parts to the United States!

One of the laws at play here is the hundred-year old Lacey Act, passed during the “Progressive Era,” and intended to promote conservation and as a crackdown on illegal trafficking in wildlife. The law also makes it a crime for a company to violate the laws or regulations of other countries. In this particular case, Gibson’s attorneys surmise it may be the law of India they are charged with misinterpreting or violating.

The Justice Department apparently believes the wood in question, used to construct fret boards for Gibson’s popular instruments, was imported from India without having first been “finished” by Indian workers; actions that could be considered a violation of that country’s byzantine legal code.

According to a press release from Gibson, the agents “seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars.” Juszkiewicz estimated the loss of raw materials alone to be $1 million; obviously not including financial losses due to the inability to produce guitars from those materials.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Gibson has been subjected to the overreaching, punitive arm of the federal government. In 2009, the Nashville facility was raided in similar fashion, based on accusations that rosewood imported from Madagascar and used in guitars, came from illegal logging. And, despite the fact that to this day, the government has not filed formal charges against Gibson, it has refused to return the company’s property.

Gibson has engaged in extensive and costly efforts to recover its property from that raid two years ago; including the filing of a civil lawsuit. In the civil proceedings, the company presented proof, including statements from the Madagascar government, that the wood was obtained legally. Still, the federal government refuses to budge; and now, with these second and third raids, appears intent on trying to put Gibson out of business completely.

These highly publicized actions by the federal government have ramifications for any musician owning a guitar made out of certain woods by overzealous federal agents of having been obtained illegally at some point in the manufacturing process (even if years ago and by a prior owner or manufacturer). The Wall Street Journal notes that owners of vintage guitars made out of now-banned or regulated woods had “better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent – not to mention face fines and prosecution.”

Gibson’s obviously frustrated CEO, who noted during a press conference the day of the raid that every guitar his company builds could possibly be considered criminal in nature, given the widely disparate countries from which the various woods are imported and in various states of manufacture; and considering the difficulty – if not impossibility – of correctly interpreting every relevant law of every one of those countries.

The government’s treatment of this American company – one of the few bright spots in domestic manufacture of musical instruments – is disgraceful, counterproductive, and mean-spirited.

In 2000, Charlton Heston, then serving as president of the National Rifle Association, and fighting gun control proposals, held a flintlock rifle over his head and declared famously, “from my cold dead hands.” Gibson’s CEO needs to rally freedom-loving Americans similarly; raising a Les Paul Gibson guitar over his head. All Americans who believe in freedom and limited government should come to Gibson’s defense; not just those who are guitar players.

Source

It is just coincidental that Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has been a donator to Republican candidates and not to Barack Obama's election or now his reelection. Mr. Juszkiewicz was informed by the government that they would drop all the charges against his company and return the property that was seized if he moved his production plants to Madagascar. That means 500 American jobs destroyed and lost to an overseas company. Thus we witness Obama's jobs program in true action. Creation of jobs not here at home, but abroad. Just don't take my word for it, but listen to Henry Juszkiewicz himself:

DTRT Radio Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz 09/02 by CP n Annieb | Blog Talk Radio

During the Clinton Administration this type of investigation and misuse of power was a regular occurrence. To Barack Hussein Obama this is just normal Chicago Politics. To the American people this is just wrong. It is time to call your Congressman, your Senator. How many more American jobs will Sheik Obama send overseas?

Operation Fast and Furious-An Open Letter to Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa

2011-09-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

The below letter was sent to the addressees this morning.

September 2, 2011

Dear Senator Grassley
Dear Representative Issa

Re: Operation Fast and Furious

I am writing to you as a retired Drug Enforcement Agent. For 25 years, I served as a US Customs agent and DEA agent from 1970-1995. I was and still am very proud to be associated with both agencies. During my career, I also had opportunities to work with the ATF, an agency I had great respect for. Yet, I am very disturbed over the allegations set forth in regards to Operation Fast and Furious. I feel that this scandal has brought disgrace to federal law enforcement. Though I have no personal knowledge of the matter, as a retired federal agent, I would like to share my perceptions with you both as you strive to do your job.

First of all, were DEA to conduct an operation that involved monitoring the purchase and shipment of large quantities of drugs into the traffic without intercepting those drugs and making arrests, such an operation would never have originated at the field level. It would surely have originated and been approved at the highest levels in Washington and most likely within the US Justice Department. Common sense tells me that the inspiration for this operation came at the highest political levels of the Justice Department.

For what insane reason would such an operation be carried out involving enforcement agents performing what was essentially an intelligence operation? Keep in mind, I am no NRA member or Second Amendment fanatic. I no longer even possess a firearm. Yet, common sense once again tells me that this had to do with a political intent of corroborating the claim that 80% of guns involved in Mexican shootings originated in the US and reining in guns in general. That buttresses my belief that this goes all the way to the Attorney General and even the White House, but I’ll leave it at that. You have already uncovered White House knowledge of Fast and Furious.

As a retired agent, I can tell you that when a DEA agent is killed in the line of duty, the entire DEA family comes together from the Administrator on down. The agent’s family and their wishes are taken care of. That is why I find the reactions of DHS Director Janet Napolitano and Border Patrol head Alan Bersin so hard to fathom. Where is their outrage that two of their agents have been killed with weapons connected to Fast and Furious? Why are they not pounding on the Attorney General’s desk and President Obama’s desk demanding answers? Where is their outrage that the US Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, which was clearly connected to the operation, refused to grant victim status to Agent Terry’s family? Why have they not come to the family’s aid in this matter? Why are they not publicly speaking out and protesting about this entire mess?

In addition, I served two tours of duty with DEA overseas (Thailand and Italy). I can tell you that this case represents a major diplomatic incident between two countries. In this case, Mexico is clearly the aggrieved party. How many of their own people and agents have been killed with these weapons? For that reason, I question why our Secretary of State isn’t making any statements and demanding answers. If any of these people had any honor, they would resign in protest and go public demanding answers. Indeed, it appears that several government agencies had their hands in this operation including, regrettably, my own DEA.

It is for that reason that I am writing to express support for your efforts to uncover the truth and not allow this matter to die. No less than the honor of our federal law enforcement agencies is at stake. The ATF agents who have come forth must be saluted and protected, for they represent the true face of federal law enforcement.

I am writing this letter to you both as an open letter, which I am posting on my blog (Fousesquawk-http://garyfouse.blogspot.com), on which I have been following developments in this case. I thank you for your attention and congratulate you on pressing on with this investigation.

Sincerely,

Gary Fouse
(DEA Retired)

More Fast and Furious Coverup

2011-09-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

According to the latest news today from Fox, there was an internal e-mail sent within the US Attorney's office in Phoenix between an asst US Attorney and the then US Attorney, which talked about concealing the connection between the death of a US Border Patrol agent and ATF's Operation Fast and Furious. One of the guns found at scene of the agent's murder was involved in the above operation, purchased through a straw dealer under ATF surveillance but never seized.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/02/demand-for-more-answers-in-fast-and-furious-scandal/

"Not only do congressional investigators want to "make sense" of details of the operation that allowed more than 2,000 guns to "walk" and later turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, but they want to known why Hurley -- who knew almost immediately the guns found at Terry's crime scene belonged to Fast and Furious -- tried to "prevent the connection from being disclosed."

In an internal email the day after the murder, Hurley, and then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, decided not to disclose the connection, saying " ... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."

-Fox News

Keep in mind that this is the same US Attorney's office in Phoenix that refuesed to extend victim status to the family of the murdered Border Patrol agent. This is the same Dennis Burke, whose testimony before Congress recently had to be suspended when he became ill during testimony.

Once again, as a retired federal agent, I must ask-where are DHS Director Janet Napolitano and BP head Alan Bersin? Why are they not leading the charge to uncover the facts? Why are they not speaking out and demanding answers from the Justice Department? It was their (2) agents who were killed with guns involved in Fast and Furious. Why are they not standing up for Agent Terry's family? Why have they not resigned in protest? Why should they not resign in disgrace?

In addition, this is a major diplomatic incident between two countries- the US and Mexico. Where is the voice of our secretary of state, Hillary Clinton? We have heard nothing from her. Shouldn't the press ask for a statement?

It is maddening that so much of the public doesn't even know about this scandal because the media wants to sweep it under the rug in order to protect the Obama administration. As the old saying goes, we get the government we deserve.

The 10-Year 9-11 Commemoration and Mayor Bloomberg

2011-08-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http:garyfouse.blogspot.com

I never have been able to figure out this mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. Not being a resident of the Big Apple, I am not qualified to comment on his overall performance, but this ten year anniversary of 9-11 is causing a lot of anger. Bloomberg has announced that there will be no religious services or clergy involved with the event and further that first responders also will not be invited to participate (due to space issues.)

Given the number of VIPs who will be invited to participate, it would seem proper for them to give up their invitations in favor of the true heroes of 9-11. As we know, so many first responders also died in the attack while trying to save others. I am not saying President Obama should not be there-he should as well as family survivors of those who died. Yet, this is nothing less than a slap in the face of those who risked their lives and survived.

As for the second issue, it is obvious that Bloomberg is trying to avoid the difficulty in inviting Christian and Jewish clergy while not inviting Muslim clergy-which would infuriate many in itself. The obvious escape hatch is to take out any religious aspects. Yet, what is a ten-year commemoration of this tragedy without anyone praying?

It comes down to this; is it appropriate for Muslim officials or clergy to attend this event since 9-11 was carried out largely in the name of Islam and Allah?

Remember when German chancellor Willy Brandt went to the Warsaw ghetto in 1970 to participate in a commemoration there?

For Germany, this was a public gesture of atonement for the crimes committed by Germany in World War II. Brandt was never a Nazi. He was an opponent of the Nazis who fled to Norway and Sweden and stayed there during the war years. In addition, Germany regularly makes gestures of contrition for what happened in the Nazi years. I have written about what the city of Erlangen does to commemorate the night of Kristallnacht. The commemoration is held at the local Jewish cemetery. Other cities also recognize their responsibility in this regard. In my view, Germans like Brandt have performed beautiful gestures in the years since World War II. The nation has also striven to educate its youth about the events of the past in the hope that such acts will never be repeated

Is this even a valid comparison?

Does that mean that all Germans today, born after the war, are responsible? No. It must also be said that millions of Germans in the Nazi years committed no crimes. Yet the stain is there. Horrible acts were committed in the name of Germany.

That leads me to ask; who would represent the Muslim faith at a 9-11 commemoration and what would such person say? Would he or she say that the people who carried out 9-11 were not following the teachings of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed? (They thought they were.) Would a Muslim speaker say that the people who carried out 9-11 had misinterpreted Islam? Would they say that 9-11 was not carried out on behalf of American Muslims? Would they point out that Muslims also died on 9-11? Would they state that Islam is a religion of peace? Would the speaker(s) say that they felt shame over 9-11 and wanted to atone and stand with America in its fight to prevent further attacks? Would they disown the words of hateful speakers like Yusuf al Qaradawi, who is the spiritual mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood and considered one of the leading Islamic scholars in the world? Would the speaker(s) state that too much hate is being preached in many American mosques and that it has to stop? Would any of the speakers proclaim that Islam requires a Reformation to rid itself of its violent and elements?

Please understand that these are not rhetorical questions and I am not presupposing any of the above. I think they are legitimate questions. Were any Muslim representatives to speak, the reception they received would depend on much on what they said.

Another issue would be who should represent Islam at the 9-11 commemoration. There are a host of so-called moderates to whom the government has reached out to since 9-11 to represent the Islamic faith. Sadly, some of these people have proven to be wolves in sheep's clothing like Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who is now in prison. Others enjoy a reputation as "bridge-builders" who travel the interfaith circuit yet have been known to have questionable associations with radicals and to have made questionable statements.

Were I to invite a Muslim speaker, it would be one who I have full confidence in as a true American moderate, someone like Zuhdi Jasser or Stephen Schwartz. Yet these are figures that our government leaders are reluctant to reach out to because they tell the truth about the threat we face.

Mayor Bloomberg apparently has chosen to avoid all of these questions by excluding any religious aspect to the commemoration. That still leaves unanswered whether we will see representatives of organizations like CAIR present. Undoubtedly, millions of peaceful American Muslims would like to see some Muslim representation at the commemoration. In my view, CAIR would be a huge mistake.

Bloomberg understandably has a "sticky wicket" on his hands, as I believe the British expression goes.

He might still consider Jasser and Schwartz.

If You Ever Wondered How Sick British Society Is, This Proves It!

2011-08-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

I have enjoyed British Comedy for many decades. The hilarious satire of Monty Python, Benny Hill and Dave Allen has brought me out of the blues. Mr. Bean and The Black Adder have got me laughing. Most British Humor is funny, some in bad taste, but nothing offensive. Until now.

A controversial film about Muslim suicide bombers is to be screened as part of a season of programmes to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 on Channel 4.

It will show Four Lions by comedian Chris Morris days before memorials take place for the terrorist outrages in New York.

Insiders at the broadcaster say Morris wanted to air the 2010 film on the anniversary itself, but bosses refused.

In the comedy, a group of British terrorists bungle a plan to kill thousands of people at the London Marathon in a terror attack.

Channel 4 will premiere it alongside documentaries about heroes from the emergency services and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The plans were revealed at the Edinburgh Television Festival by chief creative officer Jay Hunt.

Speaking at a session called No Risk Please, We’re Prime Time, she said: “I’ve just had a robust conversation with Chris Morris about Four Lions and the scheduling of that and how close it is to 9/11. I think we should absolutely continue to push those boundaries.

“It is going out in the next week and a half or so. It is not going out on 9/11 itself. But it is around then because it speaks to that issue.”

Referring to Morris, who presented a paedophile special for TV satire Brass Eye that received a record number of complaints, she said: “He felt strongly that it was an important flavour in the mix, and I think it is.” - Daily Mail

Source

This is so sick, in such bad taste that words cannot describe the feelings I have. It reminds me of when The Daily Kos decided that this bit of humor was appropriate on 9/11:

I wonder how the British would feel if we Americans did a comedy skit in bad taste about 7/7? Or Princess Diana's Death? Or any tragedy that they have experienced?

It would be in bad taste and show our utter contempt for the British people. Just as the British people are showing towards us.

The Latest Islamophobia Report

2011-08-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

The Center for American Progress is a progressive organization (they label themselves as "non-partisan") founded by John Podesta, one of President Clinton's closest advisors. It has just published a booklet on the topic of Islamophobia, which is linked below.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html

My reactions to this are many. First of all, this is a political document designed to discredit the American right. You will note the repeated use of adjectives such as "right-wing" and "Christian". You should also note that this report received financial funding from George Soros' Open Society.

Look at the people who are singled out for criticism. Not only do they go after Steve Emerson, Robert Spencer, Pam Geller, Brigitte Gabriel, and David Horowitz, they also mention Republicans like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Peter King, Newt Gingrich, Sue Myrick and Michele Bachmann. They also attack true moderates like Zuhdi Jasser, a practicing Muslim and former Muslims like Nonie Darwish. In fact, the authors try to drag in virtually every conservative figure or organization they can including, naturally, the Tea Party. And of course, Fox News and the "well-developed right-wing echo chamber" are mentioned. Is this really about defending innocent Muslims or just about making liberal/Democratic talking points?

In attacking these figures, they repeat many of the statements that their targets have made about the Islamic threats of violence, intolerance and aspects of sharia law. Yet, they cannot effectively refute them. They want to make the reader believe that talk of Islamic radicalism in American mosques, Islamic supremism, and the threat of sharia to the West are overblown and have no validity.

The writers also want you to think that the people they are singling out for blame have attacked all Muslims as people. That is a canard. Yes, I have read many comments about Muslims on the Internet that are totally intolerant, but not from the people that this report singles out.

This is not even an attempt to suppress Muslim worship, yet certain aspects of Islam-especially as a political ideology- should be open for discussion when they conflict with American values, laws, and our Constitution. This is nothing less than another left-wing attempt to smear conservatives and stifle any critical discussion of Islam. Are we also supposed to cease any critical discussion of pedophilia by Catholic priests-even though such discussion has never been accused of damning Catholics in general?

To try and discredit the critics is to say that there is no Islamic terrorism in the world, that there is no intolerance toward non-Muslims in the world, that there is no wish to implement sharia in the West, that no Muslim has ever acted out an honor-killing in America, that there is absolutely no hate and subversion being preached in any American mosque. They might as well deny 9-11 ever happened. They might as well deny Ft Hood and all the intended terrorist attacks that have been thwarted here in America-not to mention those not thwarted that happen regularly in Pakistan, Aghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, and so many other places.-all spurred by the hate that this article purports to condemn.

Anyone who is not living in a shell knows better. It doesn't apply to all Muslims and certainly not to all Muslims in America, but it applies to many-including several very prominent Islamic clerics whose hateful messages are documented in video and/or audio. Have you ever heard the sermons of Yusuf al Qaradawi? He is the number one cleric of the Muslim Brotherhood, and make no mistake, he is a virulent anti-Semite. I could list so many others, some right here in America.

Read this report carefully. If you buy into it, you must accept that there is no Islamic terrorist threat. There is no intolerance of other religions within Islam even though it is documented in the Quran and the hadith. You must accept that there are no radical Islamists in our midst who preach hate against the US, Israel, Jews and non-Muslims. You must ignore the parts of sharia law that dictate death for apostates, stoning for women who commit adultery, dhimmitude or death for non-Muslims and all the rest. You must say that we have no right to challenge that.

My impression of this report is that the true purpose is not to defend innocent, peaceful Muslims (which I also support) but to make political points against the conservative right. However, it does remind us that we must always differentiate between those Muslims who have a radical, fundamentalist agenda and those simply trying to lead their lives as best they can. To point out the legitimate concerns that we have is not to preach hate against an entire group of people. To this end, I bring up Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who recemtly committed mass murder over this issue. This report tries to make the point that he drew his inspiration from the same people the report condemns. Yet none of those people or anyone else I am aware of has applauded his act. They have universally condemned it.

The very language of the report gives it away. It has a purely political agenda.

A Prayer

2011-08-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

For those in the Path of Hurricane Irene.

May G-d protect you and your family from harm.
May you endure this storm safely,
May you discover that you have a home to return to.

Stay safe and dry.

Good Night Irene by the Weavers