October 2008 Archives

Journalists from three major newspapers that endorsed John McCain -- the Washington Times, the New York Post and the Dallas Morning News -- have been booted from Barack Obama's campaign plane for the final leg of the presidential race.

The Washington Times reported Friday that it was notified of the Obama campaign's decision Thursday evening -- even though the paper has covered Obama from the start.

Executive Editor John Solomon told FOXNews.com that the Obama campaign said it didn't have enough seats on the plane, but "I don't think the explanation makes sense to us."

"We've been traveling since 2007 with him. ... We're a relevant newspaper -- every day we break news," Solomon said. "And to suddenly be kicked off the plane for people who haven't covered it as aggressively or thoroughly as we are ... it sort of feels unfair."...

Barney Frank (D, if you didn't know) opined:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies receiving public money under a U.S. government financial rescue program must use it for lending or they will be violating the law, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee said on Friday.

"I am deeply disappointed that a number of financial institutions are distorting the legislation that Congress passed at the president's request to respond to the credit crisis by making funds available for increased lending," Rep. Barney Frank said in a statement.

"Any use of the these funds for any purpose other than lending -- for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc. -- is a violation of the terms of the Act," he added."

Liar.

The EESA says nothing about the uses to which the funds may (or may not) be put. If you claim that such a restriction exists, show me the language where it is stated in the legislation that the funds provided must be used for lending.

You can't, because such language does not exist...

Motorcycle accidents have killed more Marines in the past 12 months than enemy fire in Iraq, a rate that's so alarming it has prompted top brass to call a meeting to address the issue, officials say.

Twenty-five Marines have died in motorcycle crashes since last November -- all but one of them involving sport bikes that can reach speeds of well over 100 mph, according to Marine officials. In that same period, 20 Marines have been killed in action in Iraq.

The 25 deaths are the highest motorcycle death toll ever for the Marine Corps...

WASHINGTON, DC - In a shocking reversal, the Alien has switched his endorsement from Barack Obama to John McCain.

With major implications for the U.S. presidential election, political kingmaker the Alien has changed his endorsement amid furor. Both political camps are buzzing about the implications, as the Alien has correctly predicted the winning president in every election for the past 28 years.

Ongoing investigation points to Cindy McCain as being the cause for this historic shift in allegiances.

Uncovered photos suggest that in a last ditch effort to help her husband's failing campaign, Cindy McCain seduced and then blackmailed the Alien for his endorsement.

At a recent McCain rally, inside sources say Cindy McCain disappeared with the Alien after sharing several champagnes with the notorious intergalactic lightweight...

...It is worth explaining what it meant to be "deeply involved in politics in Beirut" during the civil war in Lebanon. It was not at all like community organizing in Chicago. The Lebanese state had ceased to function; the political actors were all armed militias, Lebanese and Palestinian. Every individual needed to be affiliated with such an organization, if not for bread then at least for protection. Khalidi was known to be affiliated with, and protected by, Arafat's Fatah. A 1979 New York Times report (by Youssef Ibrahim) described Khalidi as "a professor of political science who is close to Al Fatah." In Beirut, to be "close" to an organization meant you enjoyed its protection in return for loyalty and services rendered. Khalidi's wife also worked as an English translator for the PLO's press agency, Wafa. So savvy journalists knew that if they wanted the Fatah spin, they could get it from Khalidi...

...it seem far-fetched that the sense of "kindred spirit" felt by Khalidi toward Obama was mutual. One particularly striking parallel deserves mention. Obama, it will be recalled, was born to a nominally Muslim father (a Kenyan bureaucat) and an American Christian mother, which has created some confusion as to the religious tradition in which he was raised. Khalidi's father, a nominally Muslim Palestinian (and a bureaucrat who worked for the United Nations) married his mother, a Lebanese Christian, in a Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, where Khalidi would later attend Sunday school. For such people caught between traditions, Third Worldist sympathies often serve as ecumenical substitutes for religion. (Obama himself allows that as an undergraduate, "in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism and patriarchy." One wonders how Israel fared in those conversations.)

Were we to see the videotape, it might give us some sense of how far down the road Obama went in that direction -- and not all that long ago...

On my way to lunch recently, I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama; I need the money." I laughed. In a restaurant my server had on an "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed. Just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came, I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Barack-Obama-redistribution-of-wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment, I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

--A. Hart, Forest Park

Hello, that's me Rashida Moghrabi, and I would like to say that beside the honorable fact that am the sister of heroine Dalal Moghrabi, am also a strong believer in fighting to free Palestine and in wiping out the zionist state. I did mean what I said in the interview, I salute the soul of every Palestinian martyr who died fighting the occupation no matter how.

Do not expect us to accept occupation and the suffering and injustice, which my people are enduring. A generation after generation we will continue the struggle and be sure Palestine will be free. If the Israelis claim Palestine was their land three thousand years ago, well it is our 'Land of the Canaanite' long before and it will remain ours long after. And if the jews were clever enough they would have chosen America or England instead of Palestine to claim. It will be just wise if they go out of our homeland Palestine the easy way. Oh yes, May I get my wished-for martyrdom soon...but make sure I sincerely wish too that I'll take as many of my oppressors with me.

Imagine if a speechwriter for John McCain had switched sides and announced she was going to vote for Barack Obama. Would she not be featured bigtime in the mainstream media complete with new thrills running up Chris Matthews leg? Well, this did happen except that it was an Obama speechwriter, Wendy Button, who became disillusioned with The One and switched to supporting McCain...

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I'm a woman writing in the election of 2008, "very emotional."...

...The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn't "a real plumber," and "They're fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager," and the patronizing, "I've got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber."

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as "hooker lines" -- a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they're reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with "erratic" and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It's not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me."...

...He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying "Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine" plus there's been "genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis."...

Verified Information

Location:
Burbank Manor, 6312 W 79th St., Burbank, Illinois

Time:
Friday, August 1, 2003
6pm - Reception
7pm - Dinner and Reception

Those who attended:
1. AAAN (Arab American Action Network)
2. Not In My Name
3. Ali Abunimah (a Palestinian rights activist in Chicago who helps run Electronic Intifada, who met Obama in 2000)
4. Bernadine Dorhn and Bill Ayers
5. Barack Obama
6. Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley
7. Rashid Khalidi
8. Mona Khalidi
9. Gihad Ali, a Palestinian spoken word poet
10. NPR Worldview host Jerome McDonnell (not McDonald as written in the e-mail)
11. Camilia Odeh (director of SWYC Southwest Youth Collaborative)
12. Sanabel debka troupe (traditional Palestinian dance group)
13. Hatem Abudayyeh
14. Others - Up to 50 to 500 guests

...The Israeli government and its military killing machine has again attacked Lebanon as they did in 1982, one of the most brutal invasions in the long history of their aggression against the Palestinians and Arabs...But the Lebanese resistance is bravely fighting back, defending its nation and its people from this massive aggression...

...The ad hits Murtha for his repeated smears of the Marines in Haditha. Rather than wait for an investigation and a court-martial to determine what happened, Murtha pronounced the accused Marines of war crimes, as the clip shows. Why? He opposed the war and tried to exploit the Haditha tragedy for political purposes. That's about as craven as it gets, and the collapse of the charges against the Marines involved demonstrate Murtha's culpability...

"Time-Out" appeals to the sports fanatic who wonders what "Torah" can offer him, the "Torah" scholar who questions whether sports can teach positive lessons, and everyone in-between. Whether it's learning about consistency from Cal Ripken, Jr, developing a work ethic from Michael Jordan, or striving to reach beyond your potential from the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, each chapter keeps you at the edge of your seat cheering for the "Torah" concept with no less enthusiasm than for the against-all-odds touchdown. Every entry is a winner and each one conveys a priceless lesson in an unforgettable metaphor.

It's a sweeping novel with an alluring mixture of historical fiction, present-day realities, and deep, intricate suspense. A Mossad operative makes his way to Iraq, and his life--and his country, Israel--will never be quite the same again. The prestigious Lavian family in Iran lives in daily terror from the radical regime, but the tension spills over when they must undergo a traumatic change that throw them into a vast abyss of fear and uncertainty. And in a prison cell in Israel, a terrorist faces a terrible fate with a chilling twist that has long-reaching ramifications for himself and for his enemies. The multi-faceted plot, well-drawn characters, and richness of this spell-binding novel make it a superior read to savor.

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a one-time rising star in state politics who has been plagued with legal troubles during her 15-year legislative career, appeared today in federal court to face charges that she allegedly accepted eight bribes worth $23,500.

The Democratic lawmaker, arrested this morning after an 18-month undercover investigation by Boston Police and the FBI, allegedly accepted cash payoffs that ranged from $500 to $10,000 to help a nightclub secure a liquor license and to assist a private developer who wanted to build on state land.

Wilkerson allegedly tried to influence legislation in the state Senate as recently as last week to help the developer in the Crosstown section of Roxbury, near the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.

Wilkerson made an initial appearance this afternoon before US Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hillman. Prosecutors did not ask for bail; she was released on $50,000 unsecured bond. But prosecutors did ask that Hillman order her not to destroy any documents that may relate to the case.

"There is substantial concern on the part of the government that records will be -- quote -- 'lost,'" said Assistant US Attorney John S. McNeil said, noting her past federal and state legal troubles. "She has a long history of acting as if she was above the law."...

...Wilkerson faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the charges of attempted extortion and theft of honest services, with more potential charges pending.

Wilkerson has represented Roxbury since first winning election in 1992, but lost the Democratic primary to Sonia Chang-Diaz last month. Wilkerson has been mounting a write-in campaign to retain her seat.

In her early years at the State House, Wilkerson, a lawyer who is the first black woman elected to the state Senate, was seen as a rising star who might even have a shot at Congress. But she has gotten entangled in a series of legal scrapes.

She is currently facing the loss of her license to practice law. The Board of Bar Overseers has alleged that she lied under oath at a 2005 Suffolk Superior Court hearing in a murder case, an allegation she has denied...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Palestinian cleric Muhsen Abu 'Ita, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 13, 2008

Muhsen Abu 'Ita: "Naturally, the Koran chapters conveyed to Muhammad in Mecca only rarely deal with the Jews - like in 'those who incur Allah's wrath,' which appears in the Al-Fatiha chapter.

"Hence, it is strange to find an entire chapter bearing the name of the Jews, or Bani Israil. It is even more peculiar that this chapter does not talk about the Jews of the Qaynuqa, Nazir, or Qurayza tribes.

"It talks about the Jews of our times, of this century, using the language of annihilation, the language of grave digging. Note that in this chapter, the Jews were sentenced to annihilation, before even a single Jew existed on the face of the earth. This Koranic chapter talked about the collapse of the so-called state of Israel, before this state was even established. From here stems the importance and oddity of this chapter...

"The blessing of Palestine is dependent upon the annihilation of the pit of global corruption in it. When the head of the serpent of corruption is cut off here in Palestine, and its octopus tentacles are severed throughout the world, the real blessing will come.

"The annihilation of the Jews here in Palestine is one of the most splendid blessings for Palestine. This will be followed by a greater blessing, Allah be praised, with the establishment of a Caliphate that will rule the land and will be pleasing to men and God."

The future of the American war on terror.

After five years and six months during which Syria has been an active accomplice to the insurgency in Iraq, the U.S. has finally struck back. Historians will be left to ponder how the course of the Iraq war might have changed if President Bush had acted sooner.

U.S. military sources are confirming that on Sunday U.S. special forces raided a location in eastern Syria that was being used by a network of Syrian military officials and al Qaeda-connected groups to smuggle foreign jihadists into Iraq. The Syrians, predictably, denounced the raid as "an outrageous crime" and an "unprovoked" attack on a "sovereign country."

The Syrians have an interesting definition of unprovoked and a curious notion of sovereignty. Even before U.S. troops took Baghdad, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explicitly warned that Syria was shipping military equipment to help Saddam Hussein, including night-vision goggles and antitank weapons. Only days after Baghdad fell, Mr. Bush warned Damascus against becoming a safe haven for top Iraqi Baathist officials. "We expect cooperation," he said, "and I'm hopeful we'll receive cooperation." Siding with Secretary of State Colin Powell over Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Bush dispatched Mr. Powell to Damascus in a show of postinvasion diplomatic goodwill.

President Bashar al Assad did not reciprocate, and Damascus soon became the capital in exile from which the Sunni insurgency was financed, organized and directed...

...There's a lesson in these Bush Administration mistakes for the next President, particularly if he is Barack Obama. The Syrians interpreted diplomatic accommodation in the face of their anti-American acts as a sign of weakness to exploit. Mr. Obama has promised he'll engage Syria diplomatically as part of an overall effort to end the conflict in Iraq. If he really wants to end the war faster, he'll pick up on Syria where the Bush Administration has now ended.

Let's try a thought experiment. Say John McCain attended a party at which known racists and terror mongers were in attendance. Say testimonials were given, including a glowing one by McCain for the benefit of the guest of honor ... who happened to be a top apologist for terrorists. Say McCain not only gave a speech but stood by, in tacit approval and solidarity, while other racists and terror mongers gave speeches that reeked of hatred for an American ally and rationalizations of terror attacks.

Now let's say the Los Angeles Times obtained a videotape of the party.

Question: Is there any chance -- any chance -- the Times would not release the tape and publish front-page story after story about the gory details, with the usual accompanying chorus of sanctimony from the oped commentariat? Is there any chance, if the Times was the least bit reluctant about publishing (remember, we're pretending here), that the rest of the mainstream media (y'know, the guys who drove Trent Lott out of his leadership position over a birthday-party toast) would not be screaming for the release of the tape?

Do we really have to ask?

So now, let's leave thought experiments and return to reality: Why is the Los Angeles Times sitting on a videotape of the 2003 farewell bash in Chicago at which Barack Obama lavished praise on the guest of honor, Rashid Khalidi -- former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat?...

...The party featured encomiums by many of Khalidi's allies, colleagues, and friends, including Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator, and Bill Ayers, the terrorist turned education professor. It was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), which had been founded by Khalidi and his wife, Mona, formerly a top English translator for Arafat's press agency...

A graveyard of former Nazis bent on creating a 'foreign Fatherland' in the Amazonian rainforests from which to spread Hitler's maniacal beliefs has been discovered in Brazil.

The relics betray a madcap plan back in the 1930s to create a master race thousands of miles from Germany.

The graveyard and other ruins that fanatical Nazis left behind are chronicled in a new book.

Entitled 'The Guayana-Projekt. A German Adventure on the Amazon' it says die-hard Nazis believed they were destined to settle the world like pioneers of the wild west in America.

It has long been known that Nazis wandered post-war into the remote regions of South America, befriended by fascist governments and military dictatorships.

The 1978 film Boys From Brazil told a of a bizarre plot to clone Hitler that was hatched by Joseph Mengele in his jungle hideout.

But the harshness of the Amazonian jungle was a strange choice of destination.

Historical Nazi 'footprints' are found in grave markers with swastikas, photos found in archives back home and the remains of dwellings.

On an island on a tributary of the River Jary in Brazil author Jens Gluessing found a nine-foot high wooden cross decorated with swastikas that testified to one of the explorers who never made it back to Berlin...

...The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was "a writer", because I couldn't bring myself to admit to a stranger that I'm a journalist...

...I watched with disbelief as the nation's leading newspapers, many of whom I'd written for in the past, slowly let opinion pieces creep into the news section, and from there onto the front page. Personal opinions and comments that, had they appeared in my stories in 1979, would have gotten my butt kicked by the nearest copy editor, were now standard operating procedure at the New York Times, the Washington Post, and soon after in almost every small town paper in the U.S.

But what really shattered my faith - and I know the day and place where it happened - was the War in Lebanon three summers ago. The hotel I was staying at in Windhoek, Namibia only carried CNN, a network I'd already learned to approach with skepticism. But this was CNN International, which is even worse. I sat there, first with my jaw hanging down, then actually shouting at the TV, as one field reporter after another reported the carnage of the Israeli attacks on Beirut, with almost no corresponding coverage of the Hezbollah missiles raining down on northern Israel. The reporting was so utterly and shamelessly biased that I sat there for hours watching, assuming that eventually CNNi would get around to telling the rest of the story . . .but it never happened.

But nothing, nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in the current Presidential campaign. Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass - no, make that shameless support - they've gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don't have a free and fair press. I was one of the first people in the traditional media to call for the firing of Dan Rather - not because of his phony story, but because he refused to admit his mistake - but, bless him, even Gunga Dan thinks the media is one-sided in this election...

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli peace activists participating in the weekly demonstration in the village of Ni'lin threw a Molotov cocktail at soldiers attacking the protesters, according to Israeli sources.

Israeli troops responded to the cocktails by opening fire on the usually peaceful demonstration, and launching tear-gas canisters on the Israeli, international and Palestinian activists.

If you've been listening to BBC Radio 3, you'll probably know that this week's "composer of the week" has been Aaron Copland. To hear the name is to pull up your mental Google page of standard information an American grows up with: Copland was, pre-eminently, the composer ready to say it loud, "I'm American and I'm proud" - the would-be or maybe achieved creator of an indigenous American concert style that didn't look to Europe; composer of scores for choreographers Martha Graham and Agnes de Mille; incorporator of American folk tunes (never mind that the tunes probably came from the British Isles or that the idea of so using folk music seems likely to have come from Hungarian Bela Bartok or Czech Anton Dvorak). His achievement remains. I personally may have gone to Quaker camp, where we sang "'Tis a gift to be simple", but that the hymn is no longer the province of such a specialised milieu is because of "Appalachian Spring", the Graham score that makes it a theme.

But, from the BBC, it took probably less than 90 seconds to learn what I'd never heard in all my years listening to classical music in America, living with a composer, or taking Graham-technique dance classes, and what it had never occurred to me to wonder about: that Copland was "of Lithuanian Jewish descent".

That was the first thing they needed to mention about Aaron Copland? Jesus Christ Almighty.

But why was I surprised? Hadn't they begun their biography, several years ago, of Gerald Finzi with words along the lines of "born to a British mother and a Jewish father"? And to think at the time I just thought they couldn't tell the difference between religion and nationality.

But that must have been before I heard the Radio 3 announcer refer to "the Jewish composer Mendelssohn". I had to tell my New York friends about that one. But because they couldn't believe anyone would use such a locution on the revered BBC, I eventually found an example in print, from our own Guardian Review section, in which Craig Raine wrote "the Jewish poet Max Jacob", though the man's religion or ethnicity had no relevance whatever to the portraits being discussed...

PITTSBURGH -- A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, apparently because of her political views, police said.

According to WTAE's news exchange partners the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Ashley Todd, of College Station, Texas, was using an ATM at Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street in Bloomfield just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday when a man approached her and put a knife to her throat.

Police spokeswoman Diane Richard said the robber took $60 from Todd, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim's car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using the knife to scratch the letter "B" into her face, Richard said...

ACORN, yes! American soldiers...not so much.

That's the message from Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin to local members of the US military.

The same Secretary of State who has thus far refused to even investigate ACORN's activities here in Massachusetts--and who supports giving tax dollars to a group committing election fraud- -- won't do his job to protect the right to vote for men and women fighting for our nation abroad.

One of the problems uncovered during the 2000 Florida fiasco is that American military personnel deployed abroad often don't get their chance to vote. Ballots arrive too late, aren't processed when they return, are disqualified on technical grounds without the soldiers ever knowing, etc. So Congress passed a law in 2002 mandating that election officials like Secretary of State Galvin track track how many soldiers and overseas voters request a ballot, have one sent to them, and how many come back and are actually counted.

Pretty basic stuff, for a very profound cause: protecting the right to vote of people getting shot at while defending ours. But Bill Galvin told the soldiers to get stuffed. Galvin refused to obey the law and make sure Massachusetts military members got their ballots and had their votes counted.

Think there were any guys in Iraq who wanted to vote on Bush vs. Kerry in 2004? Well, tough luck if they lived in Massachusetts. Galvin refused to to his job. The 2006 Congressional election? Same thing. Guys who may have wanted to vote against "Surrender Now!" Massachusetts congressman James McGovern never got the chance.

And that, of course, is the point. Secretary of State Bill Galvin can read the polls...

Gov. Deval Patrick, a national co-chairman of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, teamed up with the Illinois senator to represent the controversy-plagued activist network ACORN in a 1993 case and secured money for the group in this year's state budget, the Herald has learned.

Patrick secured a $33,000 grant for the Springfield branch of ACORN's housing program in April. ACORN Housing New England Regional Director Theresa Naylor said the money was used for "foreclosure prevention."...

...before today's show, my producer called and emailed Secretary Galvin, inviting him to tell his side of the story. "He's too busy and will not have time to come on," Galvin's spokesflak said. But after the show started, and Galvin began hearing from angry military family members, he suddenly found time to call the show.

Not for a conversation, but for a threat. Secretary of State Bill Galvin's spokesflak called my producer while I was on the air to complain about the content of my show. Then we were informed that the Secretary was filing a complaint against me with the Federal Communications Commission because he didn't like what I was saying. Galvin was apparently hoping that such a threat to my livelihood would shut me up.

This posting shows how well that worked.

How can a politician who doesn't have the guts to pick up the phone and call me complain to the FCC about the content of my show? Galvin was welcome at any time to be part of our conversation. Instead, he went to the government to try and end the conversation altogether.

That's today. Now, imagine this same story six months from now with President Obama in the White House, Nancy Pelosi overseeing a supermajority in the House and the latest version of the "Fairness Doctrine" working its way through the liberal-dominated Congress...

...U.S. consul General Jake Walles says Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad asked for the additional assistance last month to help with the Palestinian budget.

A statement from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem says American aid to the Palestinians in 2008 now totals over $700 million and exceeds the amount the U.S. pledged at a donors conference in December 2007...

Dr. Ephraim Kam, deputy director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), told Israel National News that the entire incident could easily have been a fiction -- or not. "Nothing is impossible in this region," said Kam, an IDF Colonel (res.) and former deputy director of the Research Division in the IDF's Military Intelligence, "but logically [the report] doesn't seem to be very reliable."

The reason, he said, is that such an attack on Israel would cost the Iranians dearly -- and he said they know it...

ONLY kismet could have led me to a tiny restaurant-tavern on the bank of the Barada River. The place was native, but the customers were largely non-Arab...Here I struck a friendship with Stefan Meyer, which opened strange new vistas for me. A thin, colorless youth, with watery eyes and hollow cheeks, Stefan was drinking native beer, and complaining to the proprietor in English.

...The oily one [the waiter] brought the beer. "Bring another glass, sadiqi, my friend, and join us in our toast: "To the great German people! To the great Arab people!"

When Stefan had finished his bottle and was in an expansive mood I plied him with questions. By this time I had made sure he "knew" about me: that I had been a member of the German-American Bund, an American Nazi and Jew-hater. "Now tell me about yourself," I said casually.

He had been caught by the English on a submarine off Italy and imprisoned in various camps. Finally, he and another German, a captain in the Wehrmacht, had escaped. They had been fighting with the Arabs since then. He and other Germans had fought in Katamon in Jerusalem (confirming Israeli disclosures that instructions had been found there in German). I noted that Stefan was well-dressed and smoked expensive cigarettes.

"I don't receive money from any Arabs. Someone else gives it when I need it," he said. "You will meet many Germans here. We have headquarters here and in Beirut. There are also many Yugoslav Moslems here. Some of them are living in a mosque. I will introduce you to them. Yugoslavs and Germans are everywhere in the Syrian army. Ach, we had a bloody time. These Arabs think you cn win a war by talking instead of by discipline and sacrifice."

"I've been with them. I know. Have you been hurt fighting?"

"I've just come out of the hospital. My body is still full of shrapnel. Here, feel this." Stefan rolled up his sleeve. His arm was lacerated with healing flesh wounds. "Thirty-two days in the hospital!"

"Tonight let's celebrate," I said. "Let's go to a night-club."...

...I made sure all my Arab credentials were with me before turning around. I could not make out the three men.

"We have met before in Jerusalem. Do you remember?" the voice said.

...I wose and walked over to the table cautiously. When I saw who it was, I broke out in a delighted exclamation: "Fadhil Rashid Bey, my dear brother! What are you doing here?"

It was the former military commander of Jerusalem, whom I had photographed with Moustafa. Fadhil Bey had told me I was the finest photographer in the world. "Sit down with us, please," he said.

He was on his way to Baghdad. I introduced Stefan.

"Ahh, a German. Finest of the Europeans. Let us drink to the Germans."

We raised our glasses of arak...

"Let us drink to the few good Americans like our friend here," Stefan said. "I met him only today, but he's one hundred per cent."

"I know him from Jerusalem. He's two hundred per cent -- one hundred Arab, one hundred German," Fadhil Bey put in, raising his glass.

"We leave Truman out of this toast. He's a Zionist," I said.

"Let's wish him the first place in hell," Fadhil Bey roared. "Ahh, how Hitler was misunderstood in Europe," he resumed, after the arak had scorched its way down our throats. "He was a great man, a very great man. He was an enemy of our enemies, therefore our friend. He died, unrecognized, misunderstood."

"He should have been born Moslem. Then he would have been appreciated," I said.

"Heil Hitler," Stefan burst out, sentimentally.

"A toast to the memory of the great German fuehrer," Fadhil Bey said.

"Heil Hitler!"

"May he come to rule again!"

"Heil Hitler!"

My head reeled. Where was I -- in Berlin? What year was this -- 1938? Was Hitler really dead? I recalled that the Arab with whom I was sitting had taken part in the abortive 1941 Nazi putsch in Iraq. Caught by the British, he had been imprisoned in South Africa, had escaped, and eventually had been made military commander in Jerusalem by the Grand Mufti, with whom he had conspired in Baghdad..."Heil Hitler!"

I felt the breath of the beast for the first time over dinner with a group of colleagues recently.

Before I tell this story, I should explain as background that I was on the last PATH train into the World Trade Center out of New Jersey on Sept. 11, 2001.

We were headed into Tower One either as or just after the first plane hit. As I left the train, I smelled jet fuel. I exited the building by walking out under the gaping hole the first plane made. I was walking up Church Street when the second plane hit. I turned around just in time to see the side of Tower Two blow out.

One would think I would have felt the breath of the beast that day. I didn't. I knew Islamists had been trying to nail us for a long time and that this time they succeeded...

...My vote for John McCain would be a vote against Barack Obama the socialist, I explained. I practically spit the words. I think I said: "I hate 'em all" as I was on my second martini.

Then a fellow reporter across the table said: "I think a president with roots in the Koran would be a good thing. I'm sick and tired of Christians ... well maybe I should stop there."

I said: "Yes you should stop there. I'm not a Christian but I am sick and tired of liberals' kneejerk demonization of them."

Then the conversation mercifully shifted...

In early September, I began noticing a string of news stories about scientists rejecting the orthodoxy on global warming. Actually, it was more like a string of guest columns and long letters to the editor since it is hard for skeptical scientists to get published in the cabal of climate journals now controlled by the Great Sanhedrin of the environmental movement.

Still, the number of climate change skeptics is growing rapidly. Because a funny thing is happening to global temperatures -- they're going down, not up.

On the same day (Sept. 5) that areas of southern Brazil were recording one of their latest winter snowfalls ever and entering what turned out to be their coldest September in a century, Brazilian meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart explained that extreme cold or snowfall events in his country have always been tied to "a negative PDO" or Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Positive PDOs -- El Ninos -- produce above-average temperatures in South America while negative ones -- La Ninas -- produce below average ones.

Dr. Hackbart also pointed out that periods of solar inactivity known as "solar minimums" magnify cold spells on his continent. So, given that August was the first month since 1913 in which no sunspot activity was recorded -- none -- and during which solar winds were at a 50-year low, he was not surprised that Brazilians were suffering (for them) a brutal cold snap. "This is no coincidence," he said as he scoffed at the notion that manmade carbon emissions had more impact than the sun and oceans on global climate.

Also in September, American Craig Loehle, a scientist who conducts computer modelling on global climate change, confirmed his earlier findings that the so-called Medieval Warm Period (MWP) of about 1,000 years ago did in fact exist and was even warmer than 20th-century temperatures...

...This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor -- which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house -- along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them...

...Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie --- that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad -- even bad weather -- on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth -- even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do...

...While it may not be surprising that Young Digerati, who form the core of Obama's base, are strong contributors to his campaign, it is interesting that the "Upper Crust" segment, the wealthiest lifestyle in America, are also strong Obama supporters.  The Upper Crust, a haven for empty-nesting couples between the ages of 45 and 64 with a high concentration of residents who earn more than $100,000 a year and possess a postgraduate degree, gave 59% of their 2008 campaign contributions to Obama...

No this is not right. But now name is changed! I fight for free middle earth but it not free :(

1. Nob is everywhere. It is on radio, on tv, it is volume. But best is corn on the NOB. Home in Panama it is favorite food (maize), and I am hobbit, and hobbit love food.

2. Gobbler it is easy. It eat the food like turkey, gobble gobble. Yes turkey love corn too.

3. The name is ryme so yes is funny.

4. People say me, nob is *****. I say no. If yes, then ***** is running around Bree, yes really, look and see.

5 LOTRO has drink and smoke, this kill people. Eat corn is healthy. If you are Nobgobbler you can be most healthy too.

So, can my name come back?

Even Americans unschooled in the history of the Middle East know that Iraq comprises Sunni, Shia and Kurdish Muslims, thanks to the Bush administration's much-publicized effort to promote reconciliation among those groups. Often overlooked is the fact that Iraq has an ancient Christian population that has suffered grievously from the instability that followed the U.S. invasion.

More than 1,300 Christians recently fled the city of Mosul after 14 were killed -- perhaps by Al Qaeda in Iraq -- following a protest about an election law that didn't provide Christians with fair representation on provincial councils. But that is only the latest exodus of Christians from Mosul, which served as a refuge for those driven out of Baghdad, and from Iraq as a whole. A Chaldean Catholic archbishop has warned that Christians in his country face "liquidation."...

...The religious cleansing of Christians in Iraq is part of a larger pattern in which a faith with origins in the Middle East is being driven out of its native region. From Iraq to Lebanon, which once claimed a Christian majority, to Bethlehem, the West Bank town revered as the birthplace of Jesus, intra-Muslim violence and the Arab-Israeli struggle have combined to persuade (and in some cases force) Christians to relocate to Europe or North America.

This is a tragedy not only for Christianity but also for the long-term goal of ensuring Middle Eastern societies that are pluralist as well as democratic. Christians in the Middle East haven't always promoted such virtues. Maronite Catholics in Lebanon sought to deny Muslims a proportionate role in the governance of that country, and some Arab Christian leaders have been outspokenly anti-Israel. That attitude was reflected in the opposition of Arab bishops to a Vatican Council declaration absolving Jews of collective responsibility for the death of Jesus...

A 33-year-old gay Palestinian man petitioned the High Court of Justice on Sunday, asking it to grant him permanent residency in Israel so that he may live with his partner, who lives in the central Israeli city of Bat Yam.

The man, a resident of the northern West Bank village of Tamon, further claimed to fear for his life, since his family refuses to accept his sexual orientation and may try to harm him.

Attorneys Yohanna Lerman and Maya Yatziv, for the plaintiff, told the court that the man and his partner met nine years ago, and have been domestic partners ever since.

According to the brief, the Palestinian's family found out about his gay relationship in early 2000 and subsequently warned him that if he did not "reform" he will be killed to save face.

The man chose to continue living with his lover in Israel, unbeknown to his family, but unfortunately, relatives residing in Jaffa informed his father that he was "still hanging out with homosexuals."...

...If it's meta-memes and meta-meta-narratives these media headlice want, so be it. I hope you will join me in expressing a simple bit of solidarity with this guy, Spartacus style. I AM JOE. I am a Wal Mart schlub in flyover country who changes my own oil and unclogs drains without a license. I smoke and drink beer and toss the football in the front yard with my kid, and I figure I can fend my way without handouts from some Magic Messiah's candy bags. Most everyone in my family and most everyone I grew up with is another Joe, and if you screw with them, you screw with me.

Are you a Joe? Say it proud. Leave it on every goddamn newspaper comment section and online forum. Let these pressroom and online thugs know you won't stay silent when they try to destroy the life of a private citizen for speaking his mind -- because for every one of them, there are a million Joe Wurzelbachers. And for that we should all be thankful...

...The Great Schlep was launched to considerable fanfare after an accompanying video made by the comedian Sarah Silverman was watched seven million times on the internet.

Around 20,000 people signed up as Great Schlep fans on Facebook but the big push last weekend saw only one in 200 of them actually make the trip.

Even Silverman stayed away and doesn't actually have any grandparents in Florida. The closely-contested state has a large Jewish population, much of it made up of retirees from New York, and Democrats fear most will back John McCain.

To heap further embarrassment on the project, financed by the Jewish Council of Education & Research, many who did make the schlep discovered their grandparents were intending to vote for Mr Obama anyway...

...There may be some difference in nuance among the candidates, especially with regard to negotiations with Iran, but supporters of Israel should not base their voting decision on which party or which candidates support Israel more enthusiastically. In the United States, Israel is not a divisive issue, and voting for President is not a referendum on support for Israel, at least among the major parties.

I want to keep it that way. I want to make sure that support for Israel remains strong both among liberals and conservatives. It is clear that extremists on both sides of the political spectrum hate Israel, because they hate liberal democracies, because they tend to have a special place in their heart for tyrannical regimes, and because they often have strange views with regard to anything Jewish. The extreme left, as represented by Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Norman Finkelstein and, most recently, Jimmy Carter has little good to say about the Jewish state. But nor does the extreme right, as represented by Pat Buchanan, Robert Novak, Joseph Sobran and David Duke. When it comes to Israel there is little difference between the extreme right and the extreme left. Nor is there much of a difference between the centrist political left and the centrist political right: both generally support Israel. Among Israel's strongest supporters have always been Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The same is true of the centrist political right, as represented by Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, Orrin Hatch and John McCain.

Why then do I favor Obama over McCain? First, because I support him on policies unrelated to Israel, such as the Supreme Court, women's rights, separation of church and state and the economy. But I also prefer Obama to McCain on the issue of Israel. How can I say that if I have just acknowledged that on the issues they both seem to support Israel to an equal degree? The reason is because I think it is better for Israel to have a liberal supporter in the White House than to have a conservative supporter in the oval office. Obama's views on Israel will have greater impact on young people, on Europe, on the media and on others who tend to identify with the liberal perspective. Although I believe that centrists liberals in general tend to support Israel, I acknowledge that support from the left seems to be weakening as support from the right strengthens. The election of Barack Obama - a liberal supporter of Israel - will enhance Israel's position among wavering liberals...

...if the two previously known factors of energy and taxes weren't bad enough, the third -- one I didn't anticipate -- has been brutal. It can be traced largely to Barack Obama and others with his equal-results-regardless-of-merit mindset.

You see, thanks to blockbuster research done by Ragnar Danneskjold at the Jawa Report, we know that Obama was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against banking behemoth Citibank in 1994, ultimately settled out of court in 1998. In essence, the suit demanded that the bank approve an equal percentage of minority and non-minority mortgage loan applicants. Danneskjold writes: "The net result of this sort of litigation was, of course, that banks like Citibank started approving more subprime loans in the 1990s."

Lawsuits like this fueled the explosive growth of these high-risk loans to minority borrowers who could not qualify for conventional mortgage financing. Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (a.k.a. Fanron and Fredron) also responded to these legal pressures by lowering credit score thresholds for subprime and conventional loan approvals.

The high default and foreclosure rates that followed ultimately led to the crackups at Fan and Fred. Those failures in turn contributed to liquidity problems in the banking system that were apparently so serious that Congress rammed through a $700 billion bank "bailout" package. Despite such supposedly corrective measures, equity markets have steeply dived.

All of this likely makes Barack Obama the first U.S. presidential candidate in history to cause an economic downturn even before the general election has been held...

Obama Campaign Withdraws From Two Jewish Debates - Will they duck debates in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York and Cleveland?

Washington, D.C. (October 16, 2008) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Executive Director Matt Brooks issued the following statement today:

Now that the Presidential debates are over, the Obama campaign is trying to cancel all remaining debates in the Jewish community that include the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Claiming they do not like recent RJC advertisements, the Obama campaign has formally instructed all of its representatives to cancel their scheduled appearances with any representative of the RJC. Former Congressman Mel Levine (CA) yesterday informed the Valley Cities Jewish Community Center that he would no longer show up for his scheduled debate this Sunday against RJC California Director Larry Greenfield. State Representative Josh Shapiro (PA) informed Temple Sinai that he would not participate in a forum with RJC Philadelphia Director Scott Feigelstein.

"The RJC is deeply troubled by this effort on the part of the Obama campaign to stifle and limit a debate on the important issues facing our country," said Brooks. "More than anything the Jewish community values dialogue. What is the Obama campaign afraid of? Why is the Obama campaign afraid to have this conversation?"

"With their recently enacted policy of not debating representatives of the RJC, the Obama campaign has underscored Senator Obama's problems in the Jewish community. It is unfortunate that the Obama campaign is unwilling and afraid to have a candid conversation in the Jewish community on the issues of great concern to Jewish voters," said Brooks.

"Throughout this campaign, the RJC has highlighted the truth about Obama's positions, his statements and his advisers. Every point raised in our ads is sourced, cited and has previously been reported in the media. We ask legitimate questions about Obama's policies towards Israel, the Middle East and Iran. Our ads have raised legitimate concerns over Obama's associations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Malley, Tony McPeak and David Bonior. If the Obama campaign is unhappy with our ads, then Senator Obama should never have associated with these individuals in the first place," Brooks added.

"Currently, the RJC is scheduled to participate in 29 debates between now and the election. In keeping with the long-standing tradition of Jewish dialogue, we look forward to these opportunities to engage the Jewish community on the critical issues," said Brooks.

A group of Arabs and Israeli collaborators attacked a home in a Jewish startup neighborhood in Samaria Wednesday morning, killed a dog and burned holy books, while the residents were away protecting a nearby olive orchard.

The neighborhood that was attacked is called Chursha and is located next to the community of Adei Ad which was established ten years ago. The residents number about a dozen.

According to Evyatar Karo, one of Chursha's residents, the Arabs and Israeli anarchists carried out a successful ruse before their attack when they told police that they had come to harvest olives. The police then notified Chursha's residents that officers and soldiers were escorting the Arabs to pick olives. This apparently caused the neighborhood's residents to leave their homes without guards - except for their dogs - and go off to guard a nearby olive grove planted by Jews several years ago, which Arabs claim is on their land.

The attack took place at around 8 a.m., under the cover of fog. Karo estimates that the attackers numbered at least 20 Arabs and a few Israeli anarchists. The perpetrators parked their car in the nearby village of Turmus-Ayah, north of Jerusalem, and reached Chursha by foot. They then proceeded to burn and destroy the living quarters and meager furnishings, and to kill Kacha, a mixed-breed female Caucasian Shepherd puppy. Kacha's carcass bears signs of violence, and she seems to have been beaten or bludgeoned to death...

The United States has new intelligence indicating Iran is reorganizing in an effort to assert its influence inside Iraq and may be behind several recent attacks, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke with CNN Monday.

The information underscores a view by Gen. David Petraeus, who assumes command of U.S. Central Command later this month, and Gen. Raymond Odierno that progress in Iraq remains fragile and that it is too soon for a major additional U.S. troop drawdown.

The senior official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the intelligence, said the U.S. military had recently arrested an Iraqi general who says he was paid by Iran to derail a pending agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after the end of the year.

The general was arrested a few weeks ago at the Iranian border carrying large sums of cash, according to the source. The man has known ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the U.S. official said.

The United States believes the IRGC has ties to terrorist operations and Iran's programs to develop chemical and biological weapons...

"It has come to our attention that the Obama campaign has instituted a new policy of not debating representatives of the RJC at community candidates' forums. Forum organizers are being asked to provide surrogates not from the RJC. Temple Sinai, in suburban Philadelphia, was told that Obama surrogate state Rep. Josh Shapiro would not participate with RJC Philadelphia Director Scott Feigelstein. The synagogue was instructed to find someone else. This is not the first time the Obama campaign has made such a demand of Jewish forum organizers. We find it a curious paradox that Obama would engage Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad without preconditions, but the Obama campaign will not engage the RJC," said Brooks. "Given how troubling Senator Obama's record is on Israel, I guess he's afraid to have a fair debate."

I AWOKE with a start: it was early dawn. As I looked at my watch, I heard the familiar roar of crashing bombs and the whirring of motors. Surely not in Damascus, one hundred and fifty miles from the battle zone! Through the window I saw a low flying plane about a half mile away, silhouetted faintly against the sun along the rim of the mountains fencing Damascus on the south. A small metallic object dropped from its belly; a powerful cloud of dust and timbers shot into the air. I became aware of two planes, not one. The one at my left was dropping bombs while moving toward the open desert, followed by the other...Hastily I dug out my camera, and from my window photographed history in the making -- the first Jewish bombing of Damascus -- catching two sets of dust clouds above the wreckage.

Ten minutes after the planes -- four-engine American bombers -- had disappeared into the desert, anti-aircraft guns shook the waking city. Shouting police halted traffic, shoved pedestrians into doorways, and helped spread panic, long after the planes had vanished...

...It was noon when I ventured out, heading in the direction of the Parliament, which obviously had been the target...Near by I saw a policeman guarding what seemed to be a garbage can. I went over to him, curious.

"This is an unexploded Jewish bomb!" he explained.

The bomb was, in fact, a garbage can, probably filled with scrap metal and dynamite and its lid soldered down. I saw no fuse. I had no idea what detonated these homemade affairs. I knew what I had seen: the ashcans hurtling to the ground became lethal block-busters when they struck. It occurred to me suddenly that this "dud" might well be a time bomb. I had no means of telling this to the policeman, so I got quickly away from there.

Psychologically, this terror raid by the Jews on Damascus had a more devasdtating effect than that on Amman. It have an entirely exaggerated view of Israel's strength. It cowed the Syrians, who had been given the impression they were winning decisively in Palestine. Had not their touted chieftain, Fawzy Bey el Kawoukjy, with a home in Damascus, proclaimed his personal victories? Arabs in the street couldn't get over the fact that the once lowly Jew -- four thousand of whom were cooped up in their Damascus ghetto, afraid to venture out -- had used four-engine bombers!

...the organization's real genius is getting American taxpayers to foot the bill. According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been on the federal take since 1977. For instance, Acorn's American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Its American Environmental Justice Project received 100% of its revenue from government grants in the same years. EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007. Only recently, Democrats tried and failed to stuff an "affordable housing" provision into the $700 billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more to Acorn.

All this money gives Acorn the ability to pursue its other great hobby: electing liberals. Acorn is spending $16 million this year to register new Democrats and is already boasting it has put 1.3 million new voters on the rolls. The big question is how many of these registrations are real...

...Which brings us to Mr. Obama, who got his start as a Chicago "community organizer" at Acorn's side. In 1992 he led voter registration efforts as the director of Project Vote, which included Acorn. This past November, he lauded Acorn's leaders for being "smack dab in the middle" of that effort. Mr. Obama also served as a lawyer for Acorn in 1995, in a case against Illinois to increase access to the polls.

During his tenure on the board of Chicago's Woods Fund, that body funneled more than $200,000 to Acorn. More recently, the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate. The campaign initially told the Federal Election Commission this money was for "staging, sound, lighting." It later admitted the cash was to get out the vote...

...Further igniting the voter fraud/voter registration debate was the news that a national community organizing group is being investigated in at least 14 states and several swing states for massive irregularities. This news would make headlines anyway, but what made it worse was that Barack Obama was a key player in this organization, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, in the past. Obama trained its local leaders, represented the organization in court, and worked to funnel funds to the organization. The Obama campaign also donated $800,000 this year to an ACORN affiliate...

While not a big fan, the career of Senator Trent Lott was ended because he had the audacity to praise an aging Strom Thurmond at a retirement dinner. The career of Senator George Allen was ended because he uttered one word, macaca - and is rumored to have had a Confederate Flag in his room at college.

Yet, as the edited video below makes clear, the same ideology that demanded those results have nominated a man who praised and embraced a vile racist for twenty years because it worked to his political advantage back in Chicago. Barack Obama knew precisely what was going on in his church and others within Chicago's black community. He's praised such churches for their ability to "fire people up" in the past...

...Some analysis of recent events and an anniversary of a pivotal moment in history can help clarify the fine line between dialogue and appeasement. By any yardstick, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's trip to New York last month was a triumph for Ayatollah Khamenei and a debacle for the cause of human rights in Iran. At the rostrum of the U.N. General Assembly, President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann gave Mr. Ahmadinejad a public embrace usually reserved for a Nobel Prize laureate, not for the president of a country under heavy U.N.-led sanctions. His speech also generated warm applause from scores of ambassadors in the hall. But did anyone actually read his lips?

Mr. Ahmadinejad might as well have been reading from the genocidal "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." It was the Jew-hater's valedictory address. Having already threatened to wipe Israel off the map, Mr. Ahmadinejad graduated to the next level of hatemongering. Deploying rhetoric not heard in the international arena since the days of Hitler and using imagery usually reserved for the rants of the KKK and neo-Nazis, he came after all Jews. In the midst of the unprecedented global economic meltdown, Mr. Ahmadinejad pointed to a network of "Zionists" and their lackeys as scheming, "materialistic" villains responsible for the world's ills.

The mullahs must have taken smug satisfaction that their frontman paid no price for his tirade. No one stormed out of the General Assembly. American interviewers let him evade the tough questions, surrendering to his clever retorts by presenting the warm, human side of the person who recently pushed for the death penalty for Muslim converts to Christianity. And respected religious leaders, including the representatives of 550 million Protestants from the World Council of Churches, still lined up for a gala evening with Mr. Ahmadinejad. Hailed by the Mennonite and Quaker organizers as "the dialogue dinner," the only dialogue available to the distinguished leaders was with the waiters. Despite his earlier promises, Mr. Ahmadinejad took no questions. Instead he spoke, feasted on the propaganda bonanza, and departed...

PREPARE for a new America: That's the message that the Rev. Jesse Jackson conveyed to participants in the first World Policy Forum, held at this French lakeside resort last week.

He promised "fundamental changes" in US foreign policy - saying America must "heal wounds" it has caused to other nations, revive its alliances and apologize for the "arrogance of the Bush administration."

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

"Obama is about change,"...

What of Obama's promise to withdraw by 2010? Jackson believes that position will have to evolve, reflecting "realities on the ground."

"We should work with our allies in Iraq to consolidate democratic institutions there," he says. "We must help the people of Iraq decide and shape their future in accordance with their own culture and faith."...

The US and its allies are discussing a "coalition of the willing" that would impose sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors without United Nations backing as concerns increase about Tehran's accelerating nuclear programme and a possible Israeli military response.

A foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, recently helped to write a re-port that warned: "The Europeans make war more likely if they do not strengthen sanctions against Iran."

The September report was produced by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think-tank, with the co-operation of Dennis Ross, perhaps Mr Obama's most influential adviser on the Middle East. While backing an intensive diplomatic effort, it calls for immediate military steps to deal with Iran, such as "pre-positioning additional US and allied forces, deploying additional aircraft carrier battle groups and minesweepers [and] emplacing other war mat-eriel in the [Gulf] region"...

Noel Ignatiev is one the last people you would expect to be authoring an entry on Zionism for an encyclopedia published under a well-known, trusted imprint. But open Volume 3 of the "Encyclopedia of Race and Racism," which carries the names of both Macmillan Reference USA (now owned by the Michigan-based Gale, Cengage Learning company) and the Macmillan Social Science Library, and you will see that he has done just that [link is to PDF of encyclopedia entry]...

Big Media is pushing the narrative that the crowds at John McCain's rallies are angry and getting angrier as a final act of desperation. But that is not why McCain rally attendees are angry.

The anger displayed at the McCain rallies is the same anger and for the same reason that could be seen at Hillary rallies during the primaries. Recall that pedestrian statements by Bill Clinton were labeled "racist" and Bill Clinton himself was attacked as a "racist".

The anger comes from the blatant display of Big Media bias in favor of Obama. The anger comes from the shouts of "racist" at any criticism of Obama. The anger comes from the many unanswered and often simply unasked questions about Barack Obama. The anger comes because voters are aware of the Obama/Big Media bamboozlement and protection and voters expect John McCain, as in any political campaign, to raise the questions and demand the answers regardless of Obama/Big Media/Dimocrats false charges...

...McCain's "Angry Crowds" are angry because there are so many unanswered and even unasked questions about Barack Obama and because in many cases Obama/Big Media attack when the possibility merely arises that questions might be raised...

Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem will be speaking at UC Berkeley on Wed. October 29th at Wheeler Hall at 7:15 pm. Doors open at 6:45 pm and tickets are free on a first come first served basis. Limited advance tickets are available by emailing me at leekaplan@dafka.org

Shoebat and Saleem are both former PLO terrorists who left the PLO and have become peace activists who support America and Israel in the War on Terror. Both men have appeared at all major campuses in the USA and were recently recommended by the FBI to speak on terrorism to the United States Marine Corps Academy.

UC Berkeley is an important venue as it is the starting campus for the boycott campaign against Israel and has a large MSA and Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

...Rub your eyes in disbelief in the face of the economic boom taking place in tunnel city: Stock markets are crashing and the world is facing a crisis, yet in Gaza 500 supermarkets flourish. A mega-store underground. Each tunnel has a manager, smuggler, diggers who travel from one site to another, merchants, intermediaries, a driver, and customers who provide a shopping list. If you ask for something today, you'll get it two days from now.

They dig at night and pull out the merchandize during the day. Hamas charges a $200-dollar fee per bag. They smuggle very few weapons (no need, they have too much as it is.) Drugs and alcohol are also rarely smuggled, for fear of Hamas' watchful eye. They do smuggle plenty of computers and cellular phones, jeans, sneakers, cement, furniture, medicine, food, and mostly chocolate.

The record took place two weeks ago: An Egyptian bride who got sick and tired of waiting at the Rafah border crossing passed through one of the tunnels. The "boss" was generous and only demanded $150 for the "goods." Meanwhile, Hamas forfeited the tunnel tax that was supposed to be paid by the groom's family and rushed to inform the media about it.

Overnight, Gaza's tunnels were connected to the local electricity grid. Welcome to the ungrounded Palestinian mall system. If you walk into the living room, you will see a smuggler carrying a pile of laptops. If you visit the Egyptian Rafah, you will see a bag containing jeans and canned goods behind lowered into the backyard. Yesterday, a new glasses boutique was opened. Prada and Gucci frames arrived all the way from the Dubai, and prices are sky-high.

Now, top Hamas leaders in Gaza are formulating new rules for this game. Boys below 18 years of age must not be used for digging tunnels. Those who are caught violating this regulation will be fined. Moreover, smugglers must not be employed more than 10 consecutive hours. Minimum wage will be introduced. Should a tunnel collapse, the tunnel manager will pay compensation to the victim's family. The exact sum is open for bargaining between attorneys and tunnel managers...

The FBI took a new slap at the Council on American-Islamic Relations today at the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.

FBI Special Agent Lara Burns was going over more transcripts from the Philadelphia meeting -- the 1993 gathering of Holy Land officials and Hamas sympathizers that the government contends was meant to brainstorm ways to downplay the Foundation's extremist ties -- when talk turned to a passage from defendant Shukri Abu Baker.

He is quoted on the wiretap transcript talking about how it would be beneficial to have more traditional, secular American organizations to help spread the Islamist message.

He and others envisioned an "alternative" organization "which can benefit from a new atmosphere, one whose Islamic hue is not very conspicuous," he said according to the transcript.

Prosecutor Barry Jonas asked Burns whether any groups formed after the Philadelphia gathering fit this mold. "CAIR," she said.

CAIR is one of about 300 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case, and testimony has shown that its founder, Omar Ahmad, and current executive director, Nihad Awad, both participated in the Philadelphia meeting...

A FISH swam the wrong way when it leapt upstream into a boy's PENIS and ended up in his BLADDER.

The 2cm daredevil caused all kinds of medical problems when it swam through the teenager's urethra.

The unfortunate lad was taken to hospital with complaints of pain, dribbling urine and acute urinary retention.

He claimed the fish slipped into his penis while he was cleaning his aquarium at home in India.

Professor Vezhaventhan and Professor Jeyaraman, who treated the boy and later wrote a paper on the case, said: "While he was cleaning the fish tank in his house, he was holding a fish in his hand and went to the toilet for passing urine.

"When he was passing urine, the fish slipped from his hand and entered his URETHRA and then he developed all these symptoms."

After finding the fish in the boy's BLADDER, the medics insert a special set of forceps down the patient's penis in a technique known as cystourethroscopy.

But the fish was too slippery, so the professors used a rigid ureteroscope with a tool attached - normally used for removing bladder stones.

The fish, which is thought to be a small member of the Betta genus, measured 2cm long and 1.5cm wide.

The patient was later offered counselling.

...One of the signatories is Professor Jacqueline Bhabha of Harvard Law School, Obama's alma mater and my own school. Prof. Bhabha is Executive Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies and teaches human rights law.

An international human rights scholar supports an unrepentant terrorist. Why am I not surprised?

"...Those who say 'speak the truth' are the first liars of Damascus. Those who say 'keep pure' are the first to go to bad women...The men here are hungry for women," he went on earnestly. "I myself would like to meet one. But it is very difficult to meet one when she wears a veil: she is afraid to speak to a stranger. It is haram. It is not pure, and she can be punished for it. And every woman is hungry for man. When I see a woman my eyes say: 'I am dying to meet you.' And the girl shows the same picture in her face, but I don't dare speak to her, and she does not dare speak to me...Damascus is a small city. There are no secrets. When I see a man talking to a strange woman, I tell my friends: 'I saw this man talking with this woman ion secret.'"

"Why do you bother to do that?" I asked, curiously.

"Because I am hungry for the woman myself. I am proud to talk against her before my friends. I am hungry, very hungry, and because I cannot have her I do not want them to have her for themselves."

"But they may be talking innocently. Why condemn them both?"

"It is true they may not speak evil the first time. But they will meet again. No man would want to marry a woman who had been touched by another. I would not marry such a girl. Therefore I tell my friends that I saw such a girl talking to such a stranger to warn them against marrying the girl."

The Moslem code of perverted morality is so sever that hand-holding among teen-agers on the street or in the movies is frowned upon. It would be unthinkable for an Arab to be seen walking with his arm around a lady's waist. Innocent kissing in public would instantly land both parties in jail, charged with gross immorality. On the other hand, no odium and no penalties are attached to similar homosexual demonstrations in public.

"Do you think this code of relationship between men and women is normal?" I asked.

"No, it is not normal. It is wrong. But it is custom. The young men here try to change the custom, but the old ones are against every new thing. They say: 'We were raised without these pleasures. Why should we allow you to have them?"...

...an explanation of what I meant by Muslims who "support militant Islam": these are Islamists, individuals who seek a totalistic, worldwide application of Islamic law, the Shari'a. In particular, they seek to build an Islamic state in Turkey, replace Israel with an Islamic state and the U.S. constitution with the Koran.

As with any attitudinal estimate, however, several factors impede approximating the percentage of Islamists.

- How much fervor: Gallup polled over 50,000 Muslims across 10 countries and found that, if one defines radicals as those who deemed the 9/11 attacks "completely justified," their number constitutes about 7 percent of the total population. But if one includes Muslims who considered the attacks "largely justified," their ranks jump to 13.5 percent. Adding those who deemed the attacks "somewhat justified" boosts the number of radicals to 36.6 percent. Which figure should one adopt?...

...Negatively, 10-15 percent suggests that Islamists number about 150 million out of a billion plus Muslims - more than all the fascists and communists who ever lived. Positively, it implies that most Muslims can be swayed against Islamist totalitarianism.

Documents seized during Israeli army raids on Hamas offices and Islamic charities linked to the terror group over the past year show that Hamas has been taking in so much money from abroad that it is now funding Israeli Arab Islamic groups.

Hamas has for years been partially funded by Israeli Arab groups such as the Islamic Movement, but with the Palestinian terror group so successfully raising funds across the Muslim world following its seizing of the Gaza Strip, the direction of cash flow has begun to shift.

Israeli officials who have analyzed the documents told Ha'aretz that Israeli Arab organizations and even municipalities have been requesting funds from Hamas to build mosques and community centers.

The phenomenon raises concerns that in return for its financial aid, Hamas will require Israeli Arabs to sharply increase terrorist activity against their Jewish countrymen.

Following are excerpts from a sermon by Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, former dean of Islamic law at Qatar University, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on September 5, 2008.

Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi : People are plagued by epidemics, they are stricken by tragedies, they are ruled by their enemies, they are defeated by [those who should be] the losers, they are treated with impudence by the cowards, and they are confronted with the insolence of the wretched, just as we see in the case of our nation in these times. The Jews, who were stricken with humiliation and misery, "thou shall surely find them to be the most covetous of life of all people." Those cowards have begun to tyrannize the Muslims, to rule the Muslims, and to do whatever they like in the land of the Muslims. Is there a catastrophe greater than this?

The teachers union has been handing out thousands of Barack Obama campaign buttons to its members, sparking a clampdown by education brass.

The Department of Education - which has a long-standing policy barring teachers from wearing campaign buttons in schools - is set to send out an e-mail this week from Schools Chancellor Joel Klein laying down the law.

"Schools are not a place for politics and not a place for staff to wear political buttons," said department spokeswoman Ann Forte...

...United Federation of Teachers official LeRoy Barr told his members in a recent e-mail that union chief Randi Weingarten is fighting the DOE decision.

Officials of the union - which has endorsed Obama - said they didn't know of any schools where button-wearing teachers were told to zip it, but they said they were exploring the matter "to ensure members' rights to free speech and expression."

While department officials said the courts are on their side in the matter, many city teachers say their right to wear partisan buttons is a matter of free speech.

Several cited a landmark 1969 Supreme Court ruling involving students who planned to wear black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. It affirmed that constitutional rights don't get dropped "at the schoolhouse gate." [For STUDENTS you idiots.]

"It's not teaching kids to vote for Obama; rather, it's showing them the democratic process in action," said Patrick Compton, a social-studies teacher at Lafayette HS in Brooklyn, who said he has been wearing an Obama button handed out by the union.

"It is shocking to me, truly, that in this day and age, the school system wants to diminish, rather than increase, participation in our democratic system."

A local imam who pleaded guilty to immigration fraud charges has been sentenced to probation and will leave the country.

Muhammad Masood, the former spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of New England's mosque in Sharon, was sentenced Thursday in federal court. Judge Douglas Woodlock agreed to sentence him to three years probation, following a joint recommendation from his defense attorney and prosecutors.

Masood's lawyer, Norman Zalkind, said Masood had faced deportation proceedings but reached an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave the United States on Friday and return to Pakistan.

Masood has lived in the U.S. for about 20 years. He admitted lying to immigration officials after he applied to become a permanent U.S. resident in 2002.

...U.S. District Judge George Daniels said the 2004 lawsuit on behalf of victims and their families can proceed toward trial. It seeks up to $3 billion in damages from attacks between January 2001 and February 2004.

Daniels rejected the PLO's argument that two machine-gun attacks and five bombings were acts of war. The Jerusalem-area attacks killed 33 people and wounded hundreds, including scores of U.S. citizens.

Daniels said the attacks targeted public places -- not military or government personnel or interests. Two bombings were on downtown streets; others occurred at a crowded bus stop, a cafeteria at the Hebrew University and a passenger-filled civilian bus.

The use of bombs in these circumstances indicates an intent "to cause far-reaching devastation upon the masses," the judge said, with a "merciless capability of indiscriminately killing and maiming untold numbers in heavily populated civilian areas."

Such attacks "upon non-combative civilians, who were allegedly simply going about their everyday lives, do not constitute acts of war," he said.

Daniels also said the violence meets the legal definition of "international terrorism."...

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted "the exact same way" as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.

3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, "Drill we must." But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to "raping" the Outer Continental Shelf."

Following are excerpts from a sermon by Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Arifi, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on September 12, 2008.

Muhammad Al-Arifi: Studies conducted in Tel Aviv and in the Palestinian lands occupied by the Jews showed that they plant Gharqad tress around their homes, becase the Prophet Muhammad said that when the Muslims fight the Jews, each and every stone and tree will say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." The only exception is the Gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews, and if they hide behind it, it will not reveal their presence. According to reports of people who went there and saw it with their own eyes, many Jews plant Gharqad tress around their homes, so that when the fighting begins, they can hide behind them. They are not man enough to stand and fight you.

Following is an excerpt from a press conference held by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on September 7, 2008:

Fathi Hammad: The approaching victory, about which we are talking, is not limited to Palestine. You are creating the ethos of victory for all Arabs and Muslims, and Allah willing, even on the global level. Why? Beacause Allah has chosen you to fight the people he hates most - the Jews. Allah said: "You shall find the worst enemies of the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists." In other words, the Jews, who number 15 million all over the world, are equivalent to 4.5 billion infidels in their corruption and their struggle against the religion of Islam. Therefore, our heroic prisoneers who were arrested for killing Jews should know that by the grace of Allah, killing a single Jew is the same as killing 30 million Jews. Therefore, the reward of our martyrs is great, and your reward is also great.