Obama Jugend

The exact details of this seemingly paramilitary force are unclear but an Obama Civilian National Security Force is in the offing.

The Department of Defense Directive (Number 1404.10) establishes a “DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce” and rescinds a prior directive dealing with the emergency use of civilian personnel.

The new 1404.10, 23 January 2009 is effective immediately, and cancels the prior directive of the same designation (”Emergency-Essential (E-E) DoD U.S. Citizen Civilian Employees”), that was issued in 1992 under Clinton. One significant difference is that the 1992 directive specifically deals with overseas deployments of civilian personnel, and mentions the term “overseas” no fewer than 33 times.

The new directive does not mention the term “overseas” in the body of the directive. Only indirectly is “overseas” even mentioned.

The key seems to be deployment of civilians in the United States mainland.

The previous Directive does not mention “restoration of order” or “stability operations.” The new guidelines feature these operations. In fact, these functions are central to the mission of Obama’s new DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce:

Members of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce shall be organized, trained, cleared, equipped, and ready to deploy in support of combat operations by the military; contingencies; emergency operations; humanitarian missions; disaster relief; restoration of order; drug interdiction; and stability operations of the Department of Defense.

While the directive suggest that the DoD will seek volunteers, Section 4 (d), subsection {e} paragraph 2 states: "Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilians either voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission."

There are two clips, a short excerpt first, then a fuller statement available from 2 July 2008 where the service was announced.

The new directive seems to be in line with campaigner Obama's statements on 2 July 2008 to establish a paramilitary “civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded as our military."

Perhaps more to the point, and perhaps adding the appropriate details, are from Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel who wrote (in his 2006 book, “The Plan: Big Ideas for America”):

“It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.”

Emmanuel described his mandatory civil service plan to NY Daily News reporter Ben Smith in 2006.

Contemporary models for organizing a cadre of personal, civilian national security forces currently exist at fifteen centers.

Public Allies has an impressive list of donors.

Champions

Atlantic Philanthropies
Helen Bader Foundation
Cisco Systems
Fannie Mae Foundation
Ford Foundation
William C. Graustein
Greater Milwaukee Foundation
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Microsoft Corporation
Omidyar Foundation

Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, and his wife, Pam, established Omidyar as a philanthropic investment firm. A typical program is Comat which is bridging the digital divide by bringing access to Internet and basic government and educational services to rural India.

Procter & Gamble Corporation
Rockefeller Brothers
Surdna Foundation
Woodcock Foundation

Top Allies

ABC/Capital Cities
ABN/Amro (LaSalle Bank)
Advanta Foundation
Amoco Foundation
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
Badger Meter, Inc
Bank of America
Bank One
Booth Ferris Foundation
Brico Fund
Butler Family Fund
Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
California Endowment
California Wellness Foundation
Carnegie Corp. of NY
Castellini Family Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Charles Young
Chicago Community Trust
Community Foundation of Greater New Haven
Community Technology Foundation of CA
Arie & Ida Crown Memorial
Daniels Fund
Deutsche Bank
DeWitt Wallace
Discover Bank
Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Duke Power
Duke University
DuPont Company
Echoing Green
Empowerment Corporation
Entertainment Industry Foundation
First 5 California Public Education Team
Firstar Milwaukee Foundation/US Bank
Forrest County Potawatomi Community Foundation
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Fund for the City of New York
David Geffen Foundation
The Gill Foundation
GO SERV
Greater Cincinnati Foundation
Haas Foundation
Luke B. Hancock Foundation
Harnischfeger Industries Foundation
Harris Bank Foundation
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Richard & Ethel Herzfeld Foundation
Honkamp Family Foundation
IBM
Inbusch Foundation
Intel Foundation
Henry Jackson Foundation
Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation
Jones Foundation
Joyce Foundation
JP Morgan
Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Knight Foundation
Laffey-McHugh Foundation
Levi Strauss & Co.
Longwood Foundation
Henry Luce Foundation
Marquette Medical Foundation
Mayerson Foundation
MBNA America
Faye McBeath Foundation
Mead Family Foundation
Meyer Foundation
Miller Brewing Company
New York Community Trust
Northern California Grantmakers
Northwestern Mutual Life Foundation
Open Society
David & Lucile Packard Foundation
Ralph M. Parsons Foundation
John Pepper
Daniel & Susan Pfau Foundation
Albert Pick, Jr. Fund
Pinkerton Foundation
Points of Light Foundation
Polk Bros. Foundation
Private Industry Council
Public Welfare Foundation
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
Rockefelller Foundation
Jack & Lucile Rosenberg
Sallie Mae
Sara Lee Foundation
Murray & Agnes Seasongood Foundation
Louise Taft Semple
Smart Family Foundation
A.O. Smith Foundation
Sobrato Family Foundation
The Otho S.A. Sprague Memorial Institute
Sprint
Steans Family Foundation
Sidney Stern Memorial Trust
Texaco
Times Mirror Foundation
Tow Foundation
Triangle Community Foundation
University of Delaware
Van Ameringen Foundation
Verizon
Wachovia Foundation, Inc.
D. Michael Warner Foundation
Weingart Foundation
Welfare Foundation
WGN-TV Children's Charities
William Blair & Company
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Wilmington Trust Company
Wisconsin Energy Foundation
Woods Fund of Chicago
William T. Grant Foundation

Government Sources

Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps)
City of Cincinnati, Dept. of Neighborhood Services
City of San Jose
City of San Jose BEST
City of Wilmington CDBG
Delaware Dept. of Health & Social Services
Delaware Dept. of Labor
State of California
US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development

Obama has called to “change America.” American youth will be a part of “The Movement,” and part of the United States of America.”

A massive, organized, youth political action force, a personal paramilitary organization on behalf of a president, has never existed before: in America.

Pakistanis Cede Territory to Sharia

Graphic source: The Long War Journal

The Pakistani government has negotiated an agreement with the Taliban in the war-torn district of Swat to end the fighting in exchange for the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law in a large region of the Northwest Frontier Province.

Negotiations on the five-point agreement have been conducted between the government of the insurgency-infested Northwest Frontier Province and Sufi Mohammed, the spiritual leader of the Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law, and Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of the Swat Taliban and Sufi's son-in-law.

The provincial government agreed to allow for the implementation of sharia law the entire Malakand Division, a large region in the Northwest Frontier Province made up of the districts of Malakand, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Dir, and Chitral.

Other parties have been advocating for the implementation of sharia. Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, or the Pakistan Movement for Justice, called for the government to allow for sharia law not just in the tribal areas and the northwest, but throughout the country. Khan and his party are considered moderate by some observers of Pakistan.

Cf. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/pakistan_to_end_mili.php

Obama: Half Way Measure in Afghanistan

Obama has approved adding about 17,000 U.S. troops for the war in Afghanistan.

About 8,000 Marines are expected to go in first, followed by about 9,000 Army troops.

The additional forces only partly answer a standing request from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, who has sought as many as 30,000 additional U.S. forces.

The United States has slightly more than 30,000 troops in Afghanistan now.

More importantly, Obama seemed to be unaware of recent developments in Pakistan now that the government there has conceded ground to the Taliban.

Indonesian Muslim Women Tell Hillary to Go Home

Graphic source: REUTERS/Stringer

Muslim women hold placards during a protest outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta to protest against the upcoming visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

I suppose this is the improved view of America under an Obama administration.

Obama Needs a Tele-Prompter Writer

Michael Hammer, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, confirmed to WND Obama did not authorize the migration of any Palestinians to the U.S. A State Department spokesman provided the same comment.

Perhaps the text of Obama's executive order left the matter open for interpretation.

The order stated the money was to be used for the "purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs."

Sounds like someone needs a Tele-Prompter writer who can write.

Obama Dissed by Afghans

Afghan President Hamid Karzai sparred with Obama, saying he hopes the president shows better judgment in his plans for Afghanistan once his administration has "put itself together."

In his first major interview since Obama assumed the presidency, Karzai was asked by CNN host Fareed Zakaria on his show "GPS" to respond to charges made by Obama that the Afghan president has demonstrated a "bunker mentality."

"I was surprised to see that statement," Karzai said. "Perhaps it's because the administration has not yet put itself together. Perhaps they have not been given the information yet. And I hope as they settle down, and as they learn more, we will see better judgment."

I guess this was the respect from the rest of the world that Obama has described will be characteristic of his administration.

Karzai added that Obama has a tough act to follow, calling former President George W. Bush "a great person."

Obama Against Democracy, Free Speech, Opposes Counter-Terrorism

Representatives of the United States will take part in discussions for the first time in years which is the strongest indication yet that the Obama administration could end up participating in the Durban Review Conference, also known as “Durban II.”

Doing so would undercut a campaign calling on democracies to boycott the event, undermine Western counter-terrorism initiatives, and endanger free speech.

Israel and Canada have formally announced they will not take part.

U.S. representatives attending the inter-governmental working group discussions will possess a draft agenda that equates references to racism impacting on counter-terrorism efforts, and calls for governments to act against “negative stereotyping of religions and defamation of religious personalities, holy books, scriptures and symbols.”

Arguing that “Islamophobia” is a “contemporary form of racism,” the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is using Durban II to further its campaign to have religious “defamation” outlawed-–a drive which critics say is designed to prevent criticism of Islam and practices associated with it.

The Bush administration walked out of the last U.N. racism conference, held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001.

The chief planners for Durban II are a 20-strong panel, chaired by Libya, and comprising a group that includes countries hostile to America, among them Iran, Pakistan, and Cuba.

Anne Bayefsky, editor of Eye on the U.N., a project of the Hudson Institute, said Obama’s decision to take part in the preparatory discussions “sends a terrible signal.”

“Durban II is a cover for an assault on free speech, the demonization of the Jewish state, and an effort to undermine anti-terrorism activities by labeling them all racist,” she said.

The United States will legitimize the undercutting of free speech and anti-Western policies.

Bayefsky noted “Now Obama has handed fascists pretending to be interested in human rights a victory without anything in return,” she said. “He’s legitimized a process designed to defeat democracy, a process which the U.S. has refused to legitimize since September 2001.”

Obama's `Welfare Spendathon'

Clinton's economic adviser, Robert Rector, a prominent welfare researcher who was one of the architects of Clinton's 1996 reform bill, warned last week that Obama’s stimulus plan was a “welfare spendathon” that would amount to the largest one-year increase in government handouts in American history.

Douglas Besharov, author of a big study on welfare reform, said the stimulus bill passed by Congress and the Senate in separate votes on Friday would “unravel” most of the 1996 reforms that led to a 65% reduction in welfare caseloads and prompted the British and several other governments to consider similar measures.

Obama is most adept at bread and circuses.

"Well, a little state control wouldn't hurt anybody."

Jerry Brown, California's Democrat attorney general, remarked in on air comments yesterday about the possible reinstatement of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine." He stated about the Doctrine: "Well, a little state control wouldn't hurt anybody."

The Doctrine has been called for by numerous liberal politicians. Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., expressed support about introducing legislation to bring "accountability" to the airwaves. Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told Albuquerque radio station KKOB last year. "I think the country was well-served. I think the public discussion was at a higher level and more intelligent in those days than it has become since." Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., told WYNC's Bryan Lehrer Show in 2007, "I think the Fairness Doctrine ought to be there and I also think equal time doctrine ought to come back." In June of last year, John Gizzi reported in Human Events a conversation with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in which she personally supported revival of the "Fairness Doctrine." And as recently as December, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. – who serves on the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee – told the Palo Alto Daily Post she still believes in the "Fairness Doctrine" and will work on bringing it back. The debate heated up again recently, however, when Obama singled out Rush Limbaugh, the king of talk radio, for criticism: "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

The "Fairness Doctrine" is an assault on First Amendment liberty.

The Fairness Doctrine, abolished in 1987, was a policy of the Federal Communications Commission that required the holders of broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of public importance in a manner the agency considered "balanced." Reagan vetoed the Doctrine and since then, right wing commentators, and free speech liberty flourished, something which apparently the left in this country is not comfortable with.

Congressman Burton on China, Carter, and Inflation

Representative Dan Burton describes the current situation in regards to China, the hyperinflation of Carter, and how the next generation will pay for the present mistakes.

The One for Children to Worship

Obama book display: Borders Bookstore in Dallas, Texas, in the Children's Reading section, displayed as "Religion."

Obama's Islamic Agenda Progresses

The 18 February 2009 edition of Geostrategy Direct is reporting:

DOSSIER: Ehud Barak
‘Change’ the mullahs can believe in: Obama to drop sanctions on Iran

But “Change” is taking place, Barak has intimated, originating not in the Mideast but in Washington, D.C. in the form of a U.S. reconciliation with Iran.

Such a process could result in U.S. acceptance of Teheran’s nuclear weapons program and the downplaying of its threats against Israel.

Obama entered office facing a massive economic crisis beyond the scope of his experience.

The United States has abandoned its policy of sanctioning companies that aid Iran’s nuclear and missile program, they said.

The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran’s missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy.

“We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of dialogue with Iran,” an official said.

Barak confirmed the new U.S. policy. In an address to the Herzliya Conference on Feb. 3, Barak said Washington did not say whether it would resume sanctions against Iran.

Obama decided to end sanctions against Iran after determining that the U.S. measures had failed to block Teheran’s missile or nuclear weapons program, officials said. Under the administration of former President George Bush, the United States accelerated sanctions on Iran in 2008.

In his address, the Israeli defense minister indicated that Obama had forged an entirely new approach toward Iran. He said the Israeli government has sought a briefing from the new U.S. administration.

A U.S. defense source said the White House would no longer enforce sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. The source said the decision has already been relayed to Iran.

“The administration has abandoned sanctions entirely,” the U.S. source said. “It is a completely new ballgame.”

Similarly, Obama has decided on a new U.S. ambassador to Syria and is expected to lift sanctions against a nation charged with aiding Al Qaida in Iraq and secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance.

Diplomatic sources said Obama, in consultation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has asked Frederic Hof to become the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005. The sources said Hof, a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Middle East Policy Council, agreed to take the post.

The sources said the Obama administration was expected to suspend U.S. sanctions on Syria’s military and energy programs.

They said Hof would be authorized to facilitate an expansion of U.S. relations with Syria, which deteriorated under President George Bush.

In 2005, the United States withdrew its ambassador to Damascus in wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria was blamed for the car bombing in Beirut in which Hariri and many of his bodyguards were killed.

The sources said Obama sent emissaries to Syria in September 2008 and pledged that if elected he would reconcile with the regime of President Bashar Assad. After his election victory, they said, Obama sent another message that promised to appoint an ambassador within the first weeks of his administration.

Obama's Islamic agenda continues.

Update on Kanjorski: Additional 9/11 Attack

Kanjorski states that there was a closed meeting of Congress on about the 15th of September. This would be a Monday. But he then lets it slip out that the financial meltdown occurred on a Thursday of the previous week. Thursday was September 11th. The markets were under attack on the anniversary of 9/11.

"The Federal Government Is Bankrupt"

As the Obama administration shoved down the unread $800 billion deficit-spending boondoggle, the true deficit of the federal government should be grasped. The $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.

The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the U.S. government in bankruptcy, even before new continuing social welfare obligation embedded in the massive spending plan are taken into account.

The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government" as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

The difference between the $455 billion "official" budget deficit numbers and the $5.1 trillion budget deficit cited by "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government" is that the official budget deficit is calculated on a cash basis, where all tax receipts, including Social Security tax receipts, are used to pay government liabilities as they occur.

But the numbers in the 2008 report are calculated on a GAAP basis ("Generally Accepted Accounting Practices") that include year-for-year changes in the net present value of unfunded liabilities in social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Under cash accounting, the government makes no provision for future Social Security and Medicare benefits in the year in which those benefits accrue.

"As bad as 2008 was, the $455 billion budget deficit on a cash basis and the $5.1 trillion federal budget deficit on a GAAP accounting basis does not reflect any significant money [from] the financial bailout or Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which was approved after the close of the fiscal year," economist John Williams, who publishes the Internet website Shadow Government Statistics.

"The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fiscal year 2009 budget deficit as being $1.2 trillion on a cash basis and that was before taking into consideration the full costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, before the cost of the Obama nearly $800 billion economic stimulus plan, or the cost of the second $350 billion in TARP funds, as well as all current bailouts being contemplated by the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve,"

stated Williams.

"The federal government's deficit is hemorrhaging at a pace which threatens the viability of the financial system," Williams added. "The popularly reported 2009 [deficit] will clearly exceed $2 trillion on a cash basis and that full amount has to be funded by Treasury borrowing."

"It's not likely this will happen without the Federal Reserve acting as lender of last resort for the Treasury by buying Treasury debt and monetizing the debt," he said.

"Monetizing the debt" is a term used to signify that the Federal Reserve will be required simply to print cash to meet the Treasury debt obligations, acting in this capacity only because the Treasury cannot sell the huge of amount debt elsewhere.

The Treasury has been largely dependent upon foreign buyers, principally China and Japan and other major holders of U.S. dollar foreign exchange reserves, including OPEC buyers purchasing U.S. debt through London.

"The appetite of foreign buyers to purchase continued trillions of U.S. debt has become more questionable as the world has witnessed the rapid deterioration of the U.S. fiscal condition in the current financial crisis,"

Williams noted.

"Truthfully," Williams pointed out, "there is no Social Security 'lock-box.' There are no funds held in reserve today for Social Security and Medicare obligations that are earned each year. It's only a matter of time until the public realizes that the government is truly bankrupt and no taxes are being held in reserve to pay in the future the Social Security and Medicare benefits taxpayers are earning today."

Calculations from the "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government" also show that the GAAP negative net worth of the federal government has increased to $59.3 trillion while the total federal obligations under GAAP accounting now total $65.5 trillion.

The $65.5 trillion total federal obligations under GAAP accounting not only now exceed four times the U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, the $65.5 trillion deficit exceeds total world GDP.

"In the seven years of GAAP reporting, we have seen an annual average deficit in excess of $4 trillion, which could not be possibly covered by any form of taxation," Williams argued.

"Shy of the government severely slashing social welfare programs, federal deficits of this magnitude are beyond any hope of containment, government or otherwise," he said.

"Put simply, there is no way the government can possibly pay for the level of social welfare benefits the federal government has promised unless the government simply prints cash and debases the currency, which the government will increasingly be doing this year," Williams said, explaining in more detail why he feels the government is now in the process of monetizing the federal debt.

"Social Security and Medicare must be shown as liabilities on the federal balance sheet in the year they accrue according to GAAP accounting," Williams argues. "To do otherwise is irresponsible, nothing more than an attempt to hide the painful truth from the American public. The public has a right to know just how bad off the federal government budget deficit situation really is, especially since the situation is rapidly spinning out of control."

"The federal government is bankrupt," Williams stated. "In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in federal penitentiary."

Maxmimus Porkulus Passes: Bipartisan, Or, American Taxpayers Optional

House Republican leader Congressman John Boehner noted: "Not one" member of the House has read the $787 Billion Stimulus Bill, yet, it passed, with 7 Democrats opposing the boondoggle. "They loaded every big government idea of the last 40 years into this bill," Rep. Jeb Hensaring, R-Texas stated.

Muslim TV Exec Beheads Wife

Graphic source: The Buffalo News

Muzzammil S. Hassan, President & CEO of Bridges TV, founded the first-ever American
Muslim television network in English. The show had a specific intent:

"Every day on television we are barraged by stories of a 'Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist, or insurgent.' But the stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence that Bridges TV hopes to tell."

That was then; this is now. Hassan, founder of Bridges TV, is charged with murder in the beheading of his wife, Aasiya Hassan.

PA Declares Independence

From the DailyPaul.com, Pennsylvania State Rep. Samuel Rohrer is planning to introduce a resolution reasserting State’s rights:

In an attempt to proclaim and reassert Pennsylvania state government’s independence and sovereignty from the federal government, I plan to introduce a House resolution reminding federal authorities about the constitutional limitations on their powers and calling on them to cease and desist with all activities that infringe on the powers reserved to the state of Pennsylvania and its citizens.

This is an issue that is currently being addressed by more than 20 other states across our nation. Like our sister states, Pennsylvania must draw a line in the sand and reassert its sovereignty.

I am currently circulating the resolution among my peers in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Please encourage your family members, friends and acquaintances who live outside our legislative district to contact their House member and urge them to support this measure to protect Pennsylvania’s independence.

Rushdie Still Sentenced to Death By Islamic Fatwa

"It was twenty years ago today" and yet the West still fails to effectively respond to censorship. Twenty years ago Iran ordered the death of British author Salman Rushdie and his publishers for blaspheming Islam. The verdict still stands.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s fatwa (religious edict), issued on February 14, 1989, sent Rushdie into hiding under 24-hour police protection, and triggered attacks on bookstores and assassination attempts-–at least one successful-–against the publishers of his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said this week Khomeini’s death sentence stood. Unlike a political decree, he said, a fatwa remains valid unless nullified by the cleric who issued it.

Khomeini died four months after issuing the decree, but not before declaring in an official statement that “even if Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to hell.”

Over the years since then, various Iranian leaders have reiterated that the fatwa remains valid, and rewards worth millions of dollars have been offered for Rushdie’s murder.

No other fatwa had played as crucial a role in awakening the Islamic world, said one lawmaker, Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh.

“I call on all zealous Muslims to execute [Rushdie and his publishers] quickly, where they find them, so that no one will dare to insult the Islamic sanctity, “he said. “Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, Allah-willing.”

The Rushdie affair has generated considerable debate over the years about freedom of expression, intolerance, Islamic law (shari’a) and Islamic-inspired violence.

For some free speech advocates, the United Nations’ low-key response to the Rushdie death sentence paved the way for Islamic states and organizations to become increasingly forceful in their response to what they view as insults to Islam, and strengthened their continuing campaign for a global ban on religious “defamation.”

Historian and veteran U.N. observer David Littman noted later that it took four years for the world body’s then top human rights watchdog, the Commission for Human Rights, to include a reference to the case in a resolution.

“This attitude of indifference emboldened member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) sympathetic to the enhancement of the shari’a and they proceeded to try to introduce Khomeini-style restrictions on freedom of speech about certain political aspects of Islam to the United Nations itself,” he wrote in the Middle East Quarterly in 1999.

“Thus did the ‘Rushdie rules’ begin affecting U.N. bodies, and especially the Commission on Human Rights, eating away at international norms.”

A year after the fatwa was issued, OIC member states adopted the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, which says all human rights and freedoms must be subject to shari’a.

Over the ensuing years, the issues raised by the Rushdie fatwa emerged again in more recent controversies involving Islamic sensitivities, such as the furor over the publication in European newspapers of cartoons satirizing Mohammed, and Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders’ provocative documentary linking the Koran and terrorism.

Rushdie and other critics have accused non-Muslim governments, publishers and corporations of practicing self-censorship and appeasement in the face of Muslim threats.

This week alone, an Indian newspaper editor and publisher appeared in a Kolkata court accused of hurting Muslims’ religious feelings after reprinting an opinion piece from a London newspaper that argued for the right to criticize religion; and the British government barred Wilders from entering the country, charging that his beliefs “would threaten community harmony and therefore public security.”

In a recent interview with The Times of London, Rushdie said the West should have realized that the Iranian fatwa was the beginning of a new era.

“There was a tendency from everybody to believe that it was an isolated incident rather than an indicator or something wider, to believe that it was all my fault,” he said.

Where's the Proof Barry?

WorldNet Daily is reporting that attorneys representing Obama in his effort to conceal his birth certificate, college records, and passport documents threatened "monetary sanctions" against a lawyer whose clients have brought a complaint alleging Obama doesn't qualify for the Oval Office.

The suggestion came in an exchange of e-mails and documents in a case brought by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others in California. Since Obama's inauguration, their case has been amended to seek a future requirement for a vetting process, in addition to the still-sought unveiling of his records.

In the case, handled largely by Gary Kreep of the U.S. Justice Foundation, records were subpoenaed documenting Obama's attendance at Occidental College.

The lawyer for the college, Stuart W. Rudnick of Musick, Peeler & Garrett, urgently contacted Fredric D. Woocher of Strumwasser & Woocher.

"In order to avoid the needless expense of our bringing and litigating a Motion to Quash the subpoena, I am writing to ask whether you would be willing to agree voluntarily to cancel or withdraw the subpoena."

Woocher warned, "Please be advised, in particular, that in the event we are forced to file a motion to quash and we prevail in that motion, we will seek the full measure of monetary sanctions provided for in the Code of Civil Procedures."

Kreep, out of town for a business trip, did not respond immediately, and the motion eventually was filed. It states that the records, which could reveal on what name Obama attended classes at Occidental and whether he attended on scholarship money intended for foreign students, "are of no relevance to this moot litigation."

The motion also claims the petitioners failed to serve the subpoena properly.

"The subpoena directed to Occidental College should therefore be quashed. Alternatively, this court should issue an order directing that the deposition of the custodian of records of Occidental College not take place," the firm working on Obama's behalf stated.

"The central issue in this lawsuit … is whether any Respondent had a legal duty to demand proof of natural born citizenship from Democratic Party's nominee," the motion said. "None of the documents sought by petitioners could possibly assist in answering this question."

The motion then cited a precedent from a case involving a "former law firm client who brought malpractice action against firm claiming unconscionable rates was not entitled to discovery regarding amount paid by law firm to contract staff attorney because such information is irrelevant to unconscionability claim."

Kanjorski Comment Suggests Manipulation

Why is no one explaining to us what happened? What has this got to do with the bailout, now, plural bailouts? Who is manipulating the stock market?

Representative Kanjorski (D-PA) stated:

“On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two. Money was being removed electronically.

The Treasury tried to help, opened their window and pumped in $105 Billion but quickly realized they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. So they decided to closed down the accounts.

Had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon. Within 3 hours. $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawn and the entire economy of the United States would have collapsed, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed."

Kanjorski also explains why Paulson spent the bailout money differently than he originally proposed.

Some other gems from the recording:

"It would have been the end of our economic and political system.

We would have had to spend 3 to 4 Trillion dollars to buy up all the toxic assets. But we didn’t have that much we only had 700 Billion.

Without a banking system you don’t have an economy.

We are no better off now than we were three months ago.

Someone threw us in the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life raft. We are trying to determine which is the closest shore and whether there is any chance in the world to swim that far. We don’t know.”

Government Primer

A primer on government is brief but a helpful summary of various systems.

Obama's Selective Service Form Problems

SELECTIVE SERVICE FORM PROBLEMS (regarding Obama, were reported earlier in the year):

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (source: Debbie Schlussel):

Did President-elect Barack Hussein Obama commit a federal crime in September of this year? Or did he never actually register and, instead, did friends of his in the Chicago federal records center, which maintains the official copy of his alleged Selective Service registration commit the crime for him?

It's either one or the other, as indicated by the release of Barack Obama's official Selective Service registration for the draft. A friend of mine, who is a retired federal agent, spent almost a year trying to obtain this document through a Freedom of Information Act request, and, after much stonewalling, finally received it and released it to me.

But the release of Obama's draft registration and an accompanying document, posted below, raises more questions than it answers. And it shows many signs of fraud, not to mention putting the lie to Obama's claim that he registered for the draft in June 1979, before it was required by law.

The official campaign for President may be over. But Barack Obama's Selective Service registration card and accompanying documents show that questions about him are not only NOT over, but if the signature on the document is in fact his, our next Commander-in-Chief may have committed a federal crime in 2008, well within the statute of limitations on the matter. If it is not his, then it's proof positive that our next Commander-in-Chief never registered with the Selective Service as required by law. By law, he was required to register and was legally able to do so until the age of 26.

But the Selective Service System registration ("SSS Form 1") and accompanying computer print-out ("SSS Print-out), below, released by the Selective Service show the following oddities and irregularities, all of which indicate the document was created in 2008 and backdated:

* Document Location Number Indicates Obama Selective Service Form was Created in 2008

First, there is the Document Location Number (DLN) on the form. In the upper right hand corner of the Selective Service form SSS Form 1, there is the standard Bates-stamped DLN, in this case "0897080632," which I've labeled as "A" on both the SSS Form and the computer printout document. On the form, it reflects a 2008 creation, but on the printout, an extra eight was added in front of the number to make it look like it is from 1980, when it was actually created in 2008.

As the retired federal agent notes:

Having worked for the Federal Government for several decades, I know that the standardization of DLNs have the first two digits of the DLN representing the year of issue. That would mean that this DLN was issued in 2008. The DLN on the computer screen printout is the exact same number, except an 8 has been added to make it look like it is from 1980 and give it a 1980 DLN number. And 1980 is the year Senator/President Elect Obama is said to have timely registered. So, why does the machine-stamped DLN reflect this year (2008) and the DLN in the database (which was manually input) reflect a "corrected" DLN year of 1980? Were all the DLNs issued in 1980 erroneously marked with a 2008 DLN year or does the Selective Service use a different DLN system then the rest of the Federal Government? Or was the SSS Form 1 actually processed in 2008 and not 1980?

It's quite a "coincidence" . . . that is, if you believe in coincidences, especially in this case.

Far more likely is that someone made up a fake Selective Service registration to cover Obama's lack of having done so, and that the person stamping the form forgot (or was unable to) change the year to "80" instead of the current "08". They either forgot to fake the DLN number or couldn't do so.

And guess where the Selective Service registrations are marked and recorded? Lucky for Obama, it's his native Chicago. From an article entitled, "Post Office Registration Process", on the Selective Service website:

When a young man reaches 18 he can go to any of the 35,000 post offices nationwide to register with Selective Service. There he completes a simple registration card and mails it to the Selective Service System. This begins a multi-step process which results in the man's registration.

Each week approximately 6,000 completed registration cards are sent to the Selective Service System's Data Management System (DMC) near Chicago, Ill. At the DMC these cards are grouped into manageable quantities. Each card is then microfilmed and stamped with a sequential document locator number. The processed microfilm is reviewed to account for all documents and to ensure that the film quality is within strict standards. After microfilming, the cards are keyed and then verified by a different data transcriber.

The Document Locator Number (DLN) is an automatic function (Selective Service record-keeping, specifically the DLN is described on pages 7-8 of this Federal Register document), with the first two digits comprising the year, and it was not changed to "08" in error. So if the form was filed and processed in 1980, how did it get a 2008 DLN?!

* Obama's Selective Service Registration Form is Apparently 1990 Form Altered to Appear Like 1980 Form

On the SSS Form 1, in the lower left hand corner is the form number (SSS Form 1) and the month and year version of the form, labeled as "B". On this particular Form 1, it clearly shows the month as "FEB" (February), and the year is either "80" or "90". The retired federal agent investigated further:

Magnification of the form both physically (with a 10x glass) or with different image software does not reflect a clear cut result of either a "80" or a "90".

But, checking the history of SSS Form 1 (see http://ww w.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=198002-3240-001#), it's apparent that in February 1980, the Selective Service agency withdrew a "Request for a new OMB control number" for SSS Form 1 (see also, here)-- meaning the agency canceled its previous request for a new form, and one was never issued in "FEB 1980".

Since under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, Pub. L. No. 96-511, 94 Stat. 2812 (Dec. 11, 1980), codified in part at Subchapter I of Chapter 35 of Title 44 a federal agency can not use a form not approved by OMB (Office of Management and Budget), it's nearly impossible for Senator/President-Elect Obama's SSS Form 1 to be dated "Feb 1980." And since that makes it almost certainly dated "Feb 1990," then how could Barack Obama sign it and the postal clerk stamp it almost ten (10) years before its issue?! Simply not possible.

The lower right hand corner reflects that the Obama SSS form 1 was approved by OMB with an approval number of 19??0002, labeled as "C". The double question marks (??) reflect digits that are not completely clear.

* Barack Obama's Signature is Dated After Postal Stamp Certifying His Signature

Barack H. Obama signed the SSS Form 1's "Today's date" as July 30, 1980, labeled "D". But the Postal Stamp reflects the PREVIOUS day's date of July 29, 1980, labeled "E". Yes, Obama could have mistakenly written the wrong date, but it is rare and much more unlikely for someone to put a future date than a past date. (Also note how Barry made such a "cute" peace sign with the "b" inside the "O" of his signature. Touching.)

* Postal Stamp is Incorrect, Discontinued in 1970

Then, there is the question as to whether the Postal Stamp is real. The "postmark" stamp--labeled "E"--is hard to read, but it is clear that at the bottom is "USPO" which stands typically for United States Post Office. However, current "postmark" validator, registry, or round dater stamps (item 570 per the Postal Operations Manual) shows "USPS" for United States Postal Service. The change from Post Office to Postal Service occurred on August 12, 1970, when President Nixon signed into law the most comprehensive postal legislation since the founding of the Republic--Public Law 91-375. The new Postal Service officially began operations on July 1, 1971.

Why was an old, obsolete postmark round dater stamp used almost ten (10) years after the fact to validate a legal document . . . that just happened to be Barack Obama's suspicious Selective Service registration form?

* Form Shows Barack Obama didn't have ID

The SSS Form 1 states "NO ID", labeled "F". Since that's the case, then how did the Hawaiian postal clerk know that the submitter was really Barack H. Obama, who may have been on summer break from attending Occidental College in California. How would they determine whether the registrant was truly registering and not a relative, friend, or other imposter?

* The Selective Service Data Mgt. Center Stonewalled for Almost a Year on Obama Registration, Until Right Before the Election.

The retired federal agent who FOIA'd Barack Obama's Selective Service Registration Form notes:

Early this year, when I first started questioning whether Obama registered I was told:

Sir: There may be an error in his file or many other reasons why his registration cannot be confirmed on-line. However, I did confirm with our Data Management Center that he is, indeed, registered with the Selective Service System, in compliance with Federal law.

Sincerely,

Janice L. Hughes/SSS

Then, they suddenly found the record on September 9, 2008 (prior to my October 13, 2008 request), and stated that his record was filed on September 4, 1980. Did they temporarily change the date on the computer database?

On the previous FOIA response, they stated that it was filed on September 4, 1980. In my second request I mentioned that Obama could not have filed it in Hawaii on September 4, 1980 as he was attending Occidental College in California, the classes of which commenced August 24, 1980.

* Other Questions: Missing Selective Service Number, FOIA Response Dated Prior to FOIA Request, Missing Printout Page

Where is Obama's Selective Service number (61-1125539-1) on the card?

And the retired federal agent notes that the Selective Service Data Management Center prepared its response to his FOIA request prior to the request having been made:

The last transaction date is 09/04/80 [DS: labeled "G"], but the date of the printout is 09/09/08 [DS: labeled "H"]. My FOIA was dated October 13 so why did they prepare the printout BEFORE I submitted my FOIA? I gave them no "heads up" that I was sending it. In fact it was not mailed until late October--around the 25th.

Also, notice the printout was page 1 of 2 [DS: labeled "I"].

Hmmm . . . where is the other page, and what's on it?

A lot of questions here. And a lot of huge hints that this government-released, official Barack Obama Selective Service registration was faked. Either he signed the fake backdated document, or someone else faked his signature and he never registered for the draft (and lied about it).

Which is it?

It's incredible that our impending Commander-in-Chief either didn't register for the draft or did so belatedly and fraudulently.

The documents indicate it's one or the other.

UPDATE 11/14/08: Retired Federal Agent Source Reveals Himself:

The recently retired federal agent has requested that I disclose his identity so that there is no question as to the source of the information.

His name is Stephen Coffman. He retired last year from the position of the Resident Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Galveston, Texas office. He has over 32 years of government service and has held a Secret or higher security clearance for the majority of those years.

He filed the FOIA with Selective Service and has the original letter and the attachments. He first notified the Selective Service of his findings and they ignored the questions.

He can be reached via email.

Biden, Being Biden, on Iraq

Biden being Biden of course is always a danger and he managed to annoy the Iraqis now. Maliki, the Iraqi PM, stated that Biden's criticism is "out of date."

Biden chided Baghdad for failing to settle disputes over the city of Kirkuk and to enact a law dividing oil revenue, among other issues.

Maliki fired back.

"I believe talk about applying pressure on the Iraqi government or taking hard measures against it no longer works."

He added: "Such speech is out of date, because the government of Iraq knows its responsibilities and acts accordingly in a strong way."

"It was we who launched national reconciliation," he said.

Biden has had a prickly relationship with Iraqi leaders since 2006 when, as head of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he proposed dividing Iraq into self-governing Sunni Arab, Shi'ite and Kurdish regions.

Iraqi leaders were furious at that proposal, known as the "Biden plan," which the Senate backed in 2007 but which has since quietly, and rightfully been mothballed.

Would You Like a Little Socialized Medicine with that Pork Stimulus America?

The new pork bill includes the development of a new agency to enable the government to "guide" physicians in their decision-making process. I hope no one was expecting to have Grandma or Grandpa around longer than the Federal Government approves of though.

This morning, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter--one of three turncoat Republicans--made an appearance on Fox News Channel during which a discussion with network anchor Megyn Kelly. He backpedaled as much as possible, even admitting the bill is a "rush to judgment," he lamented the possible "harmful effects" of the provision, and he called the legislation a "bitter pill to swallow." He noted the bill included poor features that need to be "clarified." Yet, he already committed to the bill so his goose is cooked. Oh, and by the way, so are Keystoners and the Americans.

Several of the provisions in the boondoggle arose from disgraced tax evader Tom Daschle. Moreover, a 9 February 2009 Bloomberg piece effectively dissected the porkulus maximus:

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time.”

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

Hidden Provisions

If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.

The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).

Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”

Euthanasia is here.

Obama No-Show

Obama is handling the first natural disaster of his presidency--an ice storm that has claimed the lives of at least 59 people--from the White House, and so far has not visited the affected region.

Obama is disengaged and unemotional and his response to disaster is tepid.

Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Nancy Ward did not arrive in Kentucky until Feb. 4 – 10 days after the Jan. 26 storm struck.

In a campaign speech in New Orleans on Feb. 7, 2008, then-candidate Obama promised not to repeat the George Bush administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

“Across the city, we see the evidence that George Bush’s promises were empty,” Obama said.

“If catastrophe comes,” Obama said, “the American people must be able to call on a competent government. When I am president, the days of dysfunction and cronyism in Washington will be over.”

Bush was harshly criticized in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the Louisiana coast on Aug. 29, 2005, including his decision to fly over the devastated region two days later on Aug. 31.

Obama is a no-show.

Netanyahu Warns Obama

Netanyahu warns Obama although I thought this was the guy who was going to get the U.S. respected again. Netanyahu, even before he may be Israel’s next prime minister, is sending a message to Obama that he won’t be pushed around.

Netanyahu has a different outlook on the Muslim world than Obama does.

If Netanyahu has a solid right-wing majority, there are going to be major disagreements.

Netanyahu -- popularly known by his nickname, Bibi -- was born in Tel Aviv and attended high school in suburban Philadelphia where his father, a historian, went to teach. After serving in the Israeli army as a commando, Netanyahu returned to the U.S. to study management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Obama Be Thy Name

In the more Kool-aid to drink department come the signs announcing the new Messiah.

Former Commanding Officer of U.S.S Cole

The former commanding officer of the USS Cole, retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold, "expressed disappointment" when he first learned of the decision to drop the charges and remained skeptical, faulting Obama for not consulting the families ahead of time.

Obama Gerrymander Attempt

According to law, the Commerce Department normally oversees the U.S. Census Bureau, but now the Obama administration is wresting control to the White House which seems to be an attempt to manipulate the redistricting of congressional seats.

The decennial census, taken every 10 years, generates maps and numbers then used to draw congressional districts. Ideally the census director conducts the count in a non-partisan manner under the authority granted by U.S. code to the secretary of Commerce.

Thomas Jefferson in 1802

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Trouble in Paradise

Joe upstages Hussein. At the oath ceremony Biden knows Hussein is upset and he turns his back on him. Hussein is shocked and he can not hide his emotion. At least for once he seems engaged: anger, frustration, sadness, and at the end his day is ruined. Someone with a big ego is raining on his parade.

Obama's Muslim Agenda

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, welcomed Obama’s use of a quote from Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in his remarks at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast.

Obama quoted the prophetic tradition, or “hadith,” which states: “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself. There is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being.”

This taqiyya implies that, although there is no religion whose central tenet is hate, there is no religion that teaches that the most important thing one must do in this world is hate someone or something else. Islam harshly considers others. The Qur’an intends ultimately that believers wage war against and kill or subjugate others. It states:

“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.” — Qur’an 5:51

“O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).” — Qur’an 9:123

“Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures.” — Qur’an 98:6

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29

No one can change the words: they are pointed, and scary during a conflict.

Testy Press Testing Administration

The press is growing restless with the administration's obfuscation. The tone is getting more tense. Jake Tapper as a reporter is simply asking questions that Robert Gibbs is demonstrating that he is ill-equipped to handle at today's briefing.

Obama Is "AWOL"

Senator Graham states that Obama is "AWOL." He is against the process and how the bill is not receiving input.

"I Voted For Obama, I Think I Made The Wrong Decision"

Diane McDaniels lost her son James in the terrorist bombing of the U.S.S Cole in October 2000. 17 American sailors died in that terrorist attack. Ms. McDaniels refused an invitation to the White House to meet with President Obama today.

Obama requested that the charges against terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, being held in Guantánamo, be dropped. Judge Susan J. Crawford followed Obama's wishes.

Obama Invites Palestinians to the U.S.: Allocates $20.3 Million for Move

On the horn first to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas?

Apparently this was the first call to a world leader that Obama made in office.

“The spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr. Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign statesman since taking office.” (TimesOnLine, Jan. 22, 2009).

Seven days later on 27 January, Obama signed Presidential Determination No. 2009-15, which allocates $20.3 million for Palestinian migration and refugee assistance.

Today a memo sent by Obama to Secretary of State Clinton notes the presidential determination which covers the “Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Gaza.”

“By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the “Act”), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2 (c) (1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. (Italics CFP’s).

There is no mention of security measures to keep Hamas terrorists from gaining free access into the U.S.

Stimulus "Considerable Uncertainty"

The largest selling point to Obama’s boondoggle is the claim that it will create or save at least 3 million jobs. But the source for that number is a report produced by Obama’s top economic adviser who repeatedly stated that the jobs estimate carried “considerable uncertainty.”

The estimate for the number of jobs the stimulus would create, the report said, is based on the “rule of thumb that a 1% increase in GDP (gross domestic product) corresponds to an increase in employment of approximately 1 million jobs or about three-quarters of a percent.”

The report, published on Jan. 10, was co-authored by Christina Romer, who was then the nominee to become chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, who then worked in the office of the vice president-elect. On Jan. 28, the Senate confirmed Romer as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Bernstein now serves as an economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

Jefferson Opposes Deficit Spending

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

Russia Against Bail-Out

Following several days of protests the Russian government has chosen a tack against a bail-out.

Moscow plans huge budget cuts in an attempt to limit its fiscal deficit-–rejecting pressure to follow the U.S. to try to stimulate the economy with a big boost in public borrowing.

The proposals suggest that Moscow is losing hope it can stave off the crisis with public spending and is instead battening down the hatches for what might be a prolonged recession.

The plans also indicate that the authorities are not giving in to a quick-fix response and are ready to resist pressure.

Obama Apology to Muslims

I had hoped that this speech was just a nightmare of the psychotic lunatic fringe on the right but it looks like the Obama speech in a Muslim country may happen after all. Its appalling, America is down on its knees apologizing for supposed sins and mistakes of the past. Its pathetic.

Iraqi Security Progress

Ordinarily, at this time of month, I post the Iraqi Order of Battle. However, this graphic time line seems to illustrate better how the Iraqis have been rising to the challenge of their own security.

Obama Orders Charges Dropped Against Terrorist

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri got what he wished for, the charges against him were dropped pending the review ordered by Obama. Although he should remain incarcerated, and charges may be filed subsequently, the message to the world is clear. Americans are weak and do not even prosecute terrorists. Al-Nashiri is the alleged "mastermind" behind the deaths of 17 U.S. sailors on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000.

Al-Nashiri was scheduled to go to trial on Monday. Prosecutors had asked for a continuance in the trial but Judge James Pohl had denied the request.

Pohl found the government's "argument for continuances were unpersuasive," according to a copy of his opinion. Pohl noted there had been no previous requests for a delay, and that the public's interest in a speedy trial would be harmed by further delay.

However, the convening authority for the Military Commission, Susan Crawford, withdrew the charges on her own Thursday night.

Security and Obama

A worthwhile article by the nonpartisan Center for Security Policy is well worth reading: Cf. http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p17860.xml

S.U.B.M.I.S.S.I.O.N.

Center for Security Policy | Feb 02, 2009
By Frank Gaffney, Jr.

How appropriate that Barack Obama featured Aretha Franklin in his inaugural festivities since her signature song is "Respect." Literally from the moment she finished belting out "My Country Tis of Thee" on January 20, the new President has been conveying his "respect" the Muslim world. Unfortunately, the way he practices it seems to be spelled S.U.B.M.I.S.S.I.O.N.

Several observers have noted in recent days that Mr. Obama's outreach to the Muslim world is not only defensive and apologetic. It explicitly embraces a narrative that is factually erroneous and deprecating to his own country.

For example, in his inaugural address, the President spoke of seeking "a new way forward [with the Muslim world], based on mutual interest and mutual respect." He amplified this idea during his first post-inaugural interview which was granted to a Saudi-owned network, al-Arabiya: He is determined to "restore" the "same respect and partnership America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago."

The problem with this formulation is that it misrepresents the more distant as well as the recent past, even as it panders to those (abroad and at home) who would blame the United States for the ills of the Muslim world. As Charles Krauthammer put it in his syndicated column last week, over the past 20 years, "America did not just respect Muslims, it bled for them….It is both both false and injurious to this country to draw a historical line dividing America under Obama from a benighted past when Islam was supposedly disrespected and demonized."

The President also told al-Arabiya that: "My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries." Lest there be any doubt about the priority he attaches to this messaging, Mr. Obama repeated the point. "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."

For good measure, the new President described America as a country of "Muslims, Christians, Jews" and others-- a presumably intentional upgrading of adherents to the faith of his father, Islam, from the second place position he accorded them in his State of the Union address several days before. (The rankings of both orderings obviously reflect something other than demographics; there are far fewer Muslims than Christians in the United States and, according to independent estimates, only half as many-- or less-- than Jews.)

Mr. Obama has also seriously mischaracterized our enemy as "a far-reaching network of violence and hatred," averring "We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence done in that faith’s name." Such statements deliberately ignore the animating and unifying role in jihad of authoritative Islam's violent and hateful theo-political-legal program: Shariah.

What is really worrying is that Mr. Obama’s actions and rhetoric are almost certainly being perceived by his target audience as evidence not of respect but of subservience-- precisely what Islam (literally, "submission" in Arabic) requires of all of us, Muslims and non-Muslims, alike. Consider the following:

* Mr. Obama has made no secret of his desire to cultivate improved relations with the mullahs of Iran, who have repressed their people and threatened ours for thirty years. It appears that he started to do so months before his election, as a senior campaign advisor, former Clinton Secretary of Defense William Perry, met repeatedly with a representative of Iran's genocide-supporting president, Mahmoud Ahamadinejad. In recent days, Obama special envoy for Afghan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, hired as a senior advisor Professor Vali Reza Nasr – an Iranian expatriate with an appalling record of shilling for the Islamic Revolutionary Iranian regime.

* According to GeostrategyDirect.com, a newsletter published by ace national security reporter Bill Gertz, "Diplomatic sources said Barack Obama has engaged several Arab intermediaries to relay messages to and from al Qaeda in the months before his elections as the 44th U.S. president. The sources said al Qaeda has offered what they termed a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. 'For the last few months, Obama has been receiving and sending feelers to those close to al Qaeda on whether the group would end its terrorist campaign against the United States,' a diplomatic source said. 'Obama sees this as helpful to his plans to essentially withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq during his first term in office.'"

If surrender in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran were not enough, upcoming opportunities for Mr. Obama to exhibit American submission to Islam include: ordering U.S. participation in the UN’s "Durban II" conference-- thereby legitimating its Iranian-dictated, rabidly anti-Israel, anti-American, Holocaust-denying and "Islamophobia"-banning agenda; adopting the program for undermining Israel promoted by longtime Friends-of-Barack Rashid Khalidi and Samantha Power (the latter just appointed a senior National Security Council official); and reversing the FBI’s long-overdue decision to end its association with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent front organization of the Muslim Brotherhood (whose stated mission is "to destroy America from within.")

Whatever Barack Obama’s intentions, the kind of "respect" he is exhibiting towards Shariah-adherent Muslims will surely be seen by them as submission. And that spells only one thing: D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R.

Eight States Re-Assert Sovereignty Questioning Obama

Eight states have submitted bills claiming sovereignty which is an intriguing development from the Obama issues have surfaced. They seek to restore the constitutional republican nature of the U.S.

Lobbyist Panetta Paid More Than $700,000

The nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008; in addition, some of his payments came from the troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies.

Panetta received $56,000 from Merrill Lynch & Co. for two speeches and $28,000 for a speech for Wachovia Corporation.

Tomorrow there is a scheduled Senate hearing on Panetta's nomination.

Both Merrill and Wachovia reported big losses last year and were acquired by larger firms.

Retired politicians commonly make money giving speeches and consulting for prominent companies with significant interests before the government which was an important factor in the withdrawal of cabinet nominee, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Panetta also received a $28,000 honorarium from the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that owns companies doing business with national-security agencies of the U.S. government. Carlyle holds a majority stake in the government consulting arm of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which works for the CIA and other agencies.

Panetta also reported receiving a $60,000 "Governmental Advisor Fee" from the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping industry. The group lobbies the federal government regarding terrorism laws that affect shipping.

Fleishman Hillard, a large public affairs and lobbying firm, also paid Panetta $130,000 in director's fees.

Another source of income for Panetta was California State University, Monterey Bay, which hosts the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit foundation run by Panetta and his wife. The school paid Mr. Panetta $150,000 in "consulting fees."

Its business as usual in Washington.

Iran Rebuffs Obama's Open Hand

It just doesn't get any better. After opening his hand, and looking for an unclenched fist, Obama planned to send a sports team to his new found friends, the Iranians. Yet, Iran refused to issue visas for U.S. Women's Badminton Team because of their late application. So much for the openness to the world for Obama.

Top Democrat Questions Ballooning China Debt

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that he is concerned about the fact that much of the money that will be used for the $800-billion-plus stimulus bill under consideration in Congress must be borrowed from foreign sources, including the Peoples Republic of China.

Although I have been following the story closely this is really the first I have heard any Democrat questioning the source of the money. Obama certainly has not breathed a word of it.

Emanuel, White House chief of staff, Treasury Secretary Geithner, Office of Management and Budget chief, Peter Orszag, and Obama’s economic counselor, Larry Summers, have been mum as well.

As of November 2008, the People’s Republic of China was the largest single holder of U.S. debt at $681.9 billion, according to figures released by the U.S. Treasury Department. China, in fact, holds 10.8 percent of all publicly held federal debt.

The communist nation has increased its share of U.S. federal debt by $223 billion since November 2007 and by $95 billion since September of 2008.

If China loaned the U.S. 10 percent of the money for the stimulus bill, the U.S. debt it held would climb another $80 billion to $90 billion, depending on the size of the final bill.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is still in denial: Frank told CNSNews.com, “I don’t think it would give them any undue influence over us."

Government Announces Next Crisis (But Hey, We Are Still Working On That Economy and Bank Thingie: Really)

As noted before, the next "crisis" will be the environment and true to form, the L.A. Times reports that California's farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, according to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

As the one-world agenda progresses, the current administration will be announcing the new crisis, which will only be solved if we transition to international control and regulation. Already in place is Carol Browner, former hack of Clinton, whose recent resignation from the Socialist International did not hide the fact that as energy czar she is committed to a one-world government and second-rank status for the U.S.

Military Historian Evaluates Obama: And, It Could Get Worse

Writing in the National Review, His Excellency (an esteemed military historian) speaks:

The Impending Obama Meltdown Victor Davis Hanson

Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the U.S. media to have deified rather than questioned Obama, especially given that they tore apart Bush, ridiculed Palin, and caricatured Hillary. And now we can see the results of their two years of advocacy rather than scrutiny.

We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.

First, there were the sermons on ethics, belied by the appointments of tax dodgers, crass lobbyists, and wheeler-dealers like Richardson—with the relish of the Blago tapes still to come. (And why does Richardson/Daschle go, but not Geithner?).

Second, was the "stimulus" (the euphemism for "borrow/print money") that was simply a way to go into debt for a generation to shower Democratic constinuencies with cash.

Then third, there were the inflated lectures on historic foreign policy to be made by the clumsy political novice who trashed his own country and his predecessor in the most ungracious manner overseas to a censured Saudi-run press organ (e.g., Bush is dictatorial, the Saudi king is courageous; Obama can mend bridges that America broke to aggrieved Muslims (apparently Tehran hostages, Rushdie, serial attacks in the 1990s, 9/11, Madrid, London never apparently occurred, and neither did feeding Somalis, saving Kuwait, protesting Chechnya, Bosnia/Kosovo, billions to Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians, help in two Afghan wars, and on and on).

Fourth, there was the campaign rhetoric of Bush shredding the Constitution—FISA, Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, renditions, etc.—followed by "all that for now stays the same" inasmuch as we haven't ben hit in over seven years and can't risk another attack.

Fifth, Gibbs as press secretary is a Scott McClellan nightmare that won't go away, given his long McClellan-like relationship with Obama (McClellan should have been fired on day hour one on the job). Blaming Fox News for Obama's calamities is McClellan to the core and doesn't work. He already reminds me of Rev. Wright's undoing at the National Press Club—and he will get worse.

Six, Biden is being Biden. Already, he's ridiculed the chief justice, trashed the former VP, bragged on himself ad nauseam in Bidenesque weird ways, and it's only been two weeks.

And the result of all this?

At home, Obama is becoming laughable and laying the groundwork for the greatest conservative populist reaction since the Reagan Revolution.

Abroad, some really creepy people are lining up to test Obama's world view of "Bush did it/but I am the world": The North Koreans are readying their missiles; the Iranians are calling us passive, bragging on nukes and satellites; Russia is declaring missile defense is over and the Euros in real need of iffy Russian gas; Pakistanis say no more drone attacks (and then our friends the Indians say "shut up" about Kashmir and the Euros order no more 'buy American").

This is quite serious. I can't recall a similarly disastrous start in a half-century (far worse than Bill Clinton's initial slips). Obama immediately must lower the hope-and-change rhetoric, ignore Reid/Pelosi, drop the therapy, and accept the tragic view that the world abroad is not misunderstood but quite dangerous. And he must listen on foreign policy to his National Security Advisor, Billary, and Sec. of Defense. If he doesn't quit the messianic style and perpetual campaign mode, and begin humbly governing, then he will devolve into Carterism—angry that the once-fawning press betrayed him while we the people, due to our American malaise, are to blame.

Cf. http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDA1MTkzYTc4NjA5MWQxOGNjMzU3YmZiYTJhZDQ5YTY=

Historic Times: Car Sales

For the first time in history, U.S. car sales slipped below China’s.

American Heartland Emergency, American Heartless: No-Show Obama

When Hurricane Katrina hit Bush was roundly criticized for showing up late and not doing enough. However, in last week's massive ice storm which struck the heartland of America, leaving at least 42 dead, and millions without power or water, there was a no-show: Obama. The situation got worse and yet Obama still didn't show up. Where has he been?

On Thursday, Obama hosted a cocktail party at the White House and served up fancy martinis and an appetizer menu that featured mouthwatering wagyu steak costing $100 a pound.

On Saturday night, as the governor of Kentucky called up the entire National Guard in his state to deal with the ongoing crisis, Obama attended the exclusive Alfalfa Club dinner, where lavish cocktails and fine dining were the order of the evening.

And on Sunday, when millions still lacked the basic necessities of power and water-— Obama threw an extravagant Super Bowl party.

In addition, the devastating storm has been virtually ignored by the MSM. Five days after the storm, he still has not traveled to the area to provide aid and comfort to the victims.

Americans Retaliate Against Killing: Badminton

I wish my creativity extended to politics but I can not make these things up; I'm just not that bright. In Iraq, the ratline of insurgents leaves Iran to kill American troops. And, this fact is ignored by Obama who has announced plans to send an American badminton team, a woman's team no less, on a cultural exchange trip. And you wonder why Americans are under threat in the world? Who would respect a country who ignores the clear evidence that the Iranian government is sending its agents into Iraq, and the U.S. responds by sending a woman's badminton team in response?

Goodbye to Daschle

Daschle will not be around to kick any more since he had neglected to pay the nearly $140,000 in taxes. I guess he just plumb forgot about it.

New Hampshire: Nullification?

First Oklahoma, now New Hampshire, reaffirmed their states rights. Although there are only states it is significant that states feel the need to proclaim their independence at all. Tagged with an unfortunate association with the Confederacy, States Rights long seemed to be beating a dead horse. Of course States Rights is affirmed in the Constitution but it long lost out to the prevailing dominance of the Federal government. But this statement by the NH legislature is intriguing on several levels in the scope of liberties reaffirmed and the obvious countering points which begs the question: what do they know that I need to know?

The statement mutes Federal drug and crime bills along with a counter to recently resurrected "hate-crime" statutes. But the legislature enumerated additional cautions.

"I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually."

The legislature is wary of martial law being declared, involuntary servitude, surrendering power to a corporation or foreign government, limitations on the press, right to bear arms, and opposes powers not previously and duly delegated already.

A reasonable question, in light of this heightened rhetoric, is what do they think may happen? It does not bode well.

Bolton Urges Military Action

John Bolton, former U.S. envoy to the UN, stated that the U.S. has been defeated by Iran. Bolton said Washington has suffered a humiliating defeat in its drive against Iran’s nuclear activities.

In an interview with BBC Persian, Bolton stated the obvious, efforts to curb Tehran’s nuclear achievements have come to naught as Tehran has successfully managed to defend its national interests.

Bolton claimed that if Washington had settled on a military option against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure beforehand, “the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons would not have existed in the world today”.

The former US diplomat said that he seriously advises US President Barack Obama to opt for a military attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment, should three months of direct negotiation with Iran prove to be a failure.

Of course, the new administration will not listen and begun the process of submission to the Islamic Republic.

The former diplomat quit his UN job in 2006 after failing to win Senate confirmation and worked as a senior foreign policy adviser to former president George W. Bush.

Representative Proposes Civilian Camps

Alcee Hastings (D-FL) is proposing, now in his 8th term, H.R. 645 which seeks to allocate $360 million for developing the emergency centers. We do not need camps to be built in the U.S. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and to the Committee on Armed Services. I would be calling my Representative now to urge a no vote if this makes it out of committee.

I hear camps for civilians has been tried before and things did not go too well.

Iraqis Believe in Democracy: Inspire Americans to Vote?

The results of participation in local elections all over Iraq is 51% according to the IHEC, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission.

The number of Iraqis who cast their votes 7.5 million.

Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces started at 07:00 a.m. Baghdad local time on Saturday (Jan. 31) to receive 15 million eligible voters who are electing their candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils.

On the other hand, the closet equivalent, American off-year elections, run around 37%, the "normal" modern midterm voter participation rate. In pointed contrast, the lowest rate--40%--was in Anbar, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad. The sprawling desert area was dominated in 2005 by al Qaeda in Iraq. Thus, in four years, the Americans succeeded in pushing out AQ in Iraq and Iraqis responded by voting with more confidence and a higher percentage of them voted than the average American.

Apparently the Americans are better at exporting democracy than they are at practicing it.

The defeatism of American leaders would be laughable if it were not so dangerous to American's security to have these people in positions of power. In December 2006, those purveyors of pessimism, The Iraq Study Group, concluded: "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating (p. xiii)." And again they concluded that the situation in Anbar, one of worst four provinces cited, was "highly insecure (p. 6)."