Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Libya: Cameron proposes no-fly zone to protect Libyan people from attacks by Gaddafi loyalists
Hillary "met with her counterparts from Europe and Russia on the sidelines."
The U.K. is taking the lead on Libya while the U.S. is on the sidelines.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
‘Fascists Go Home!’: Tea Partier Injured in Assault by ‘Teamster’ at Sacramento Protest
The MoveOn.org “American Dream” rally in Sacramento produced one of the day’s more volatile moments. A man wearing a Teamsters Local 439 jacket launched major body-check action on a Tea Party member.
Here is the moment in question:
And here is KXTV-TV’s full report:
Bill Greene runs a group called RightMarch.com. His exclusive interview with SecularStupidest.com is revealing on a number of fronts — including the account of the police officer‘s reaction to Greene’s entreaties. Greene says the officer not only declined to arrest the attacker, he allowed him to leave the scene while preventing the conservative activists from pursuing him.
John Quincy Adams and Winston Churchill on Islam
John Quincy Adams, on Islam, is revealing. From The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) by Robert Spencer, page 83:
John Quincy Adams on Islam:
"In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, [.....] Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST.- TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.... Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant ... While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men."
(Capitals are in the original)
Winston Churchill on Islam:
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
-- Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
John Quincy Adams on Islam:
"In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, [.....] Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST.- TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.... Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant ... While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men."
(Capitals are in the original)
Winston Churchill on Islam:
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
-- Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Decline of Unions
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals intriguing trends.
In 2010, the BLS said union membership fell by 617,000, to 14.7 million. A decade ago, 16.3 million people were in unions.
Union members now make up 11.9 percent of the workforce. A decade ago, that figure stood at 13.4 percent.
The BLS offers an interesting tidbit about union members.
* The occupations with the highest union membership rate included education, training and library jobs.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Assembly Dems Yell "Shame" After Budget Vote
The state's Assembly passed a bill that would limit the bulk of Union collective-bargaining rights. The measure would require workers -- with the exception of police and firefighters -- to cover more of their health care premiums and pension contributions.
Collective bargaining would be limited to wages, though any pay increases beyond the inflation rate would be subject to voter approval.
An interesting note on the current public union battles was written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in an Aug. 16, 1937 letter to Luther Steward, the president of the National Federation of Public Employees
[M]eticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.
Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of pubic employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
Analysts: More Libyan bloodshed could prompt U.S., NATO intervention
Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, stated military force remains a possibility: "In my opinion, it's still premature to talk about U.S. military intervention in Libya at this point, but we should not eliminate it completely."
Europe is most dependent on the oil exported from Libya and yet the U.S., again, is considering military action?
On Thursday, Obama spoke with the leaders of France, Italy and the United Kingdom on coordinating an international response to the crisis in Libya, the White House said.
There are no geographical boundaries. There are soft demographic, cultural and tribal boundaries. To get enmeshed in that without understanding the local culture is foolhardy but the most significant factor is our overstretched military.
Europe needs to step up to the plate and handle their own security affairs. The Muslims in the region seem likely to support intervention and if this is the case then they should handle their own internal affairs.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Mr. Clean Car Wash - Economic Report on Franchising
A recent Economic Report with Greg Gumbel featured a spotlight on Mr. Clean Car Wash. With 15 locations (and counting) in Georgia and Ohio, this concept from the Procter & Gamble family of companies is now franchising across the country. Visit MrCleanCarWash.com/franchising for more information.
Okla. Police Captain Transferred for Refusing to Attend Muslim Event
A Tulsa, OK police captain has filed a lawsuit against a superior after he was transferred following his refusal to attend a Muslim event. According to him, ordering him to attend the event was a violation of his religious convictions, and transferring him was religious retaliation.
Capt. Paul Fields is currently under internal investigation for refusing an order to send officers to the Islamic Society of Tulsa’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day held at a local mosque:
“It is my opinion and that of my legal counsel that forcing me to enter a Mosque when it is not directly related to a police call for service is a violation of my Civil Rights,” Fields wrote in an internal police department memo obtained by Fox News.
“I have no problem with officers attending on a voluntary basis; however, I take exception to requiring officers to attend this event,” Fields wrote in an e-mail to his superior officer again obtained by Fox News. “I believe this directive to be an unlawful order, as it is in direct conflict with my personal religious convictions.”
KOKI-TV in Tulsa obtained a memo from Deputy Chief Daryl Webster to Captain Paul Fields explaining that the order to send officers had nothing to do with religion.
“Since you are not required to participate or assist in any religious observance, make any expression of belief, or adopt any belief system, this meeting is a secular law enforcement function that happens to take place at a venue associated with a religious belief,” Webster writes.
“Were we to pick and choose which belief systems we would associate ourselves with as an agency or which religious venues we would enter for secular or ceremonial purposes and which we would not, then I believe there would be an issue of disparate treatment that would reflect dishonor upon us all and possibly subject the Police Department to liability,” he adds.
An Islamic Society of Tulsa spokesperson told KOKI that the event was meant to say “thank you” to the police for investigating a threat made to the establishment.
“We wanted to have this opportunity to simply say thank you. I know its’ at the mosque but that was the address given as the target as the threat and it only made sense to have it at the mosque,” spokesperson Sheryl Siddiqui.
But complicating Webster’s claims that the event was non-religious is a promotional flyer saying the event would include “presentations” on “beliefs, human rights, and women.” Attendees would also be able to watch a Muslim prayer service and take a tour of the mosque.
Still, the flyer did note such elements were voluntary: “It’s up to you.”
“This was not religious,” Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan told KOKI. “I would never assign a police officer to participate in religious service.”
He went on to compare the event to any other community gathering: “Its just like a neighborhood association, Alert Neighbor meetings, there are lots of concerned groups that are concerned about crime. The fact that it is in a religious facility is not that significant we go to churches all the time. We don’t go to the sanctuary and we are not going to the sanctuary this time.”
Tea Party Congress Candidate Roughed Up by Union Goons at Mass. Rally
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/tea-party-congress-candidate-roughed-up-by-union-goons-at-mass-rally/
The guy getting knocked down in the video is Marty Lamb, an attorney, Tea Party activist, former candidate for Congress (Massachusetts 3rd district).
Lobbyists: White House sends meetings off-site to hide them
It allows the Obama administration to keep these lobbyist meetings shielded from public view — and out of Secret Service logs kept on visitors to the White House and later released to the public.
Carney: It Is "Routine" For The White House To Meet With Lobbyists
Carney: It Is "Routine" For The White House To Meet With Lobbyists
TSA Harasses 9-year old Boy and Other Train Passengers After Their Trip
http://gizmodo.com/#!5768805/tsa-harasses-9+yo-boy-and-other-train-passengers-after-their-trip
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Alleged SEIU Protesters Heckle ‘Uneducated’ Black Tea Partier, Ask if He Has Children He ‘Claims’
During a pro-union rally at Colorado’s State Capitol yesterday, some alleged SEIU union supporters got into a shouting match with a black Tea Partier. But the conversation wasn’t just a loud, heated exchange. It got very personal when two union supporters ganged up on the conservative, one of them calling him “uneducated” and another asking him if he has any children “that he claims”:
According to RedWhiteBlueNews.com, the woman in red was later asked what she meant by her comments about the man’s children. “She said the black conservative was such a ‘free spirit’ that she assumed he would possibly not own up to the responsibility of being a father,” the site says.
Just so you know, the man admitted on camera he was gay.
SEIU’s involvement in the protest is supported by a schedule on the union’s website that names Denver, CO as a rally site.
Union Protester Whacks Young FreedomWorks Activist
Members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) took their labor union protests to the Washington, D.C. offices of FreedomWorks, a conservative activist organizations.
One of the young conservatives at the scene was Tabitha Hale, a tea party activist, blogger and FreedomWorks employee.
One of the young conservatives at the scene was Tabitha Hale, a tea party activist, blogger and FreedomWorks employee.
Hale was not seriously injured in the altercation.
"Bad Jew" Union Anti-Semistism
A member of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union was harassing an employee about his religion at a protest outside FreedomWorks’ Washington, D.C. offices.
As employees engaged with the lively group of protesters, one stepped forward out of the crowd to point her finger, calling the male employee a “bad Jew.”
Congressman Michael Capuano Get Out on the Streets and Get a Little Bloody
The Congressman was endorsing violent behavior and criticism of his statements was followed by a formal statement that basically allowed him to re-state his position in a less offensive manner:
“I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech,” he said in a statement. “I wish I had used different language to express my passion and I regret my choice of words.”
First Trust Chief Economist Brian Wesbury on the impact of higher prices at the pump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heCMMk3mb4s
Reagan Bombing Libya
President Reagan's Address to the Nation on U.S. Air Strike against Libya - 4/14/86, 7:18
President Reagan's Address to the Nation on United States Air Strike against Libya on 4/14/86.
Ronald Reagan Airstrike Libya, 1:58
Address to the Nation on the Air Strike Against Libya
April 14, 1986
Reagan bombs Libya, 3:50
BBC news report of the US air strike against Colonel Gaddafi's outlaw régime.
Operation El Dorado Canyon, 7:46
After years of occasional skirmishes with Libya over Libyan territorial claims to the Gulf of Sidra, and years of vulnerability to Libyan-supported terrorism, especially the Abu Nidal group behind the Rome and Vienna airport attacks of December 27, 1985, the United States contemplated a military attack to send a message about support for international terrorism. In March 1986, the United States, asserting the 12-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) limit to territorial waters recognized by the international community, sent a carrier task force to the region. Libya responded with aggressive counter-maneuvers on March 24 that led to the destruction of Libyan radar systems and missile attack boats. Less than two weeks later on April 5, a bomb exploded in a West Berlin disco, La Belle, killing two American servicemen and a Turkish woman and wounding 200 others. The United States claimed to have obtained cable transcripts from Libyan agents in East Germany involved in the attack.
After several days of diplomatic talks with European and Arab partners, President of the United States Ronald Reagan ordered the strike on Libya on April 14. Eighteen F-111F strike aircraft of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying from RAF Lakenheath supported by four EF-111A Ravens of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, from RAF Upper Heyford in England, in conjunction with twenty-seven A-6, A-7, F/A-18 attack aircraft and EA-6B Prowler Electronic Warfare Aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga, USS America and USS Coral Sea on station in the Gulf of Sidra struck five targets at 02:00 on April 15, in the stated objective that their destruction would send a message and reduce Libya's ability to support and train terrorists. Commander TJ Coughlin and his strike group of A-6 Intruders caused considerable damage to the Libyan Navy by sinking 2 Combattante missile boats. Cdr. Coughlin is credited with the sinking of both of these ships.
The United States was denied overflight rights by France, Spain and Italy as well as the use of European continental bases, forcing the Air Force portion of the operation to be flown around France, Spain and through the Straits of Gibraltar, adding 1,300 miles (2,100 km) each way and requiring multiple aerial refuelings. The attack lasted about ten minutes. Several targets were hit and destroyed, but some civilian and diplomatic sites in Tripoli were struck as well, and the French embassy was reportedly only narrowly missed, when a number of bombs missed their intended targets.
Dearborn, MI, Acts 17, Arab Fest, Honor Killings Suit Filed
A lawsuit by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of four Christians whose speech and other civil rights were restricted by official city action at several recent city-sponsored Arab Fest events has been filed.
Among other things, the suit alleges that honor killings (p. 61, #267) have been "overlooked" in Dearborn.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Barratt Says Oil May Extend Gains if Iran Unrest Worsens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGy1LoagCw
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty, talks about the impact of political upheaval in the Middle East on oil prices. He speaks from Sydney with Linzie Janis on Bloomberg Television's "Global Connection."
Megyn Kelly Confronts Milwaukee Union President Over ‘Sick’ Teachers
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/megyn-kelly-confronts-milwaukee-union-president-over-sick-teachers/
FBI: Muslim Brotherhood deeply rooted inside U.S.
Terror-support group controls most Islamic groups, mosques in America.
Names were entered into evidence as "co-conspirators" during a federal trial which ended in 2008 with the convictions of several Muslim Brotherhood leaders on terrorism charges. The "list of unindicted co-conspirators" implicated these otherwise mainstream Muslim groups in a criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Palestinian terrorists under the guise of charity.
The 11-page document, submitted by federal prosecutors as "Attachment A" in court filings, has not been widely distributed or reported by the national media.
After 9/11, federal and local authorities identified more than 110 suspected shell companies, cut-outs and other fronts associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and its hub in Northern Virginia, known collectively as the "Safa Group. Their ongoing investigation of the Herndon-based Safa Group, which allegedly funneled money to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups, generated a separate list of suspected Brotherhood entities. The 13-page document, submitted by federal investigators as "Attachment C" among court filings, includes known al-Qaida charitable fronts as well.
A first big break came several years ago with the search of one of the Brotherhood leaders' homes in Annandale, Va., following his arrest on suspicion he had cased the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and other bridges for possible terrorist attack. There, in a sub-basement of suspect Ismail Elbarasse's basement, FBI agents uncovered a stash of secret manifestos, charters and other documents revealing the depth of the conspiracy.
One secret document found during the raid of Elbarasse's home lays bare the Brotherhood's ambitious plans for a U.S. takeover, replacing the U.S. Constitution with Shariah, or Islamic law.
Under the heading, "The role of the Muslim Brother in North America," it states:
The Ikhwan [Arabic for brothers was the Islamic religious militia which formed the main military force of the Arabian ruler Ibn Saud and played a key role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Qaradawi Issues Fatwa to Kill Gaddafi
any Libyan soldier who can shoot dead embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi should do so 'to rid Libya of him.'
Foreign Policy, a major international affairs journal, ranks al-Qaradawi as the third most important public intellectual in the world as the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood and the most popular weekly preacher on al-Jazeera satellite television.
Sheik Qaradawi ´s "Victory Speech" at Tahrir Square
In a partial translation by the Middle East Media Research Center MEMRI "Al-Qaradhawi asked the Egyptian army to open wide the Rafah crossing and to pray for the re-conquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims, so that he and the Muslims could pray in security at Al-Aqsa Mosque. This part of his sermon was cheered and applauded by the crowd.
Links to MEMRI's extensive research on Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, the Muslim Brotherhood, and "moderate" Islamic preachers.
British "moderates" advocate the release of Aafia Siddiquiover the Dead Body of Barack Obama
Aafia Siddiqui
Aafia Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted after a jury trial in a U.S. federal court of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. In September 2010, she was sentenced by the U.S. judge to 86 years in prison. She is now being held in Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.
She disappeared with her three young children in March 2003, shortly after the arrest of her second husband's uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief planner of the September 11 attacks. It was reported that Khalid Mohammed mentioned Siddiqui's name while he was being interrogated. When found and arrested in July 2008 in Afghanistan the Afghan police said she was carrying in her purse handwritten notes and a computer thumb drive containing recipes for conventional bombs and weapons of mass destruction, instructions on how to make machines to shoot down U.S. drones, descriptions of New York City landmarks with references to a mass casualty attack, and two pounds of sodium cyanide in a glass jar. Siddiqui was shot and severely wounded at the police compound the following day when she grabbed the unattended rifle of one of her American interrogators and began shooting at them.
At MIT, she graduated in 1995 with a B.S. in biology where she was active in the Muslim Students' Association (MSA). At Brandeis University she received her Ph.D. in 2001.
Average Madison, Wisconsin Public Schools Compensation Tops $100k!
And, to add to the insult, the school system has underperformed for the past four years.
Obama's Image in Foreign Lands, Overseas
CNN's Candy Crowley mystified by Donald Rumsfeld's ignorance of Obama's good global image. Where has she been? The lamestream media is out to lunch entirely.
California Reporters Attacked at Funeral
FOX 40 News journalists John Lobertini, Rebecca Little, attacked by angry mourners.
The reporters were assaulted after approaching a group of people standing near a memorial for 27-year-old Chester Jackson set up on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. I like the fact that some mourners have their soft drinks in their hands and continue the barrage against the reporters while drinking their cokes. Several local news outlets were present at the time and captured the incident on video from different points of view.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
US Gov. Software Creates 'Fake People' on Social Networks to Promote Propoganda
Government Contract to create fake people.
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage "fake people" on social media sites.
Union Thugs Try to Shut Down Tea Party Speakers in Wisconsin
Madison police detain union operative who tried to destroy Tea Party sound system. Chicago Tea Party leader Steve Stevlic was among those that witnessed union thug tactics at Madison rally.
Ronald Reagan-Remarks on the Air Traffic Controllers Strike (August 3, 1981)
Ronald Reagan-Remarks on the Air Traffic Controllers Strike (August 3, 1981)
President Ronald Reagan speaks about the air traffic controllers strike. He states very clearly that if the striking union workers do not report to work in 48 hours, they will be fired from their jobs. 3:12
Remarks and Q & A with reporters on the Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike, 10:53
President Reagan's remarks and Q & A session with reporters on the Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike on 8/3/81.
Update: John Wheeler, Pentagon Aide Killed
Pentagon aide 'was killed by hitman' claims widow.
The investigation has centered around a dispute Wheeler had with a neighbor. However, Delaware police confirmed that a smoke bomb was placed under the same neighbour’s house last week but have not released any more details.
While working at the Pentagon Mr Wheeler wrote a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons and recommended that the US should not use biological warfare.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Ray McGovern Confronts Rumsfeld, 2006
Ray McGovern vs. Donald Rumsfeld, 2006, 3:16
Ray McGovern, an anti-war activist, verbally confronted then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asking him why he lied about WMD’s. As security approached McGovern, Rumsfeld stopped them and engaged the Veteran.
Of the different exchanges, McGovern says,
“When Clinton started talking about how people beat up and arrested people in Iran, it gave some poetic justice, a great irony, to my standing there and what happened to me then, when she's talking about what happened in other countries and there I am being handled in a vicious way...God knows what would happen next. Maybe some senior would ask her questions (she doesn't take questions). As bad as Donald Rumsfeld was, he let me speak. He let me speak and engaged me in dialogue.”
“At the same (Rumsfeld) speech, there was a courageous guy who stood with his back to Rumsfeld the entire speech. They left him completely alone and he walked out at the end, unbothered. Four years later, things have changed.”
About the first five minutes show the interaction between McGovern and Rumsfield with Oberman, the stupid commentator interjecting himself.
MEMRI: Egyptian Journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal: "The US Will Be Transformed into an Islamic Republic"
MEMRI: Egyptian Journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal: "The US Will Be Transformed into an Islamic Republic"
#2735 - Egyptian Journalist 'Ata Abd Al-Aal: "The US Will Be Transformed into an Islamic Republic" Al-Rahma TV (Egypt) - December 12, 2010 - 02:20
MEMRI: British Salafi Abu Waleed: Aafia Siddiqui Will Be Released over the Dead Body of Barack Obama
MEMRI: British Salafi Abu Waleed: Aafia Siddiqui Will Be Released over the Dead Body of Barack Obama
#2757 - British Salafi Abu Waleed: Aafia Siddiqui Will Be Released over the Dead Body of Barack Obama The Internet - 2010 - 11:55
Friday, February 18, 2011
FDR vs. Wisconsin Teacher's Collective Bargaining
Aug. 16, 1937 letter to Luther Steward, the president of the National Federation of Public Employees
[M]eticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.
Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of pubic employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
Vet manhandled for silent protest
VETERAN’S GROUP DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM SEC. OF STATE CLINTON
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protesters and do not allow free expression - and lauding freedom of speech on the Internet - 71-year-old military veteran Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes and hustled out of the building and, according to McGovern and his supporters, was “brutalized and left bleeding in jail.”
What McGovern did was simply remain standing silently in the audience and turned his back on her as Secretary Clinton began her speech.
That was it.
McGovern, a veteran Army officer who also worked as a C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, was wearing Veterans for Peace t-shirt.
Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon him, McGovern remarked, as he was hauled out the door, "So this is America?"
According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, “For this peaceful expression of dissent, he ended up bruised, bloodied, arrested, and jailed. Secretary Clinton never paused, continuing her speech lecturing other countries about the need to allow freedom of expression and dissent, while Mr. McGovern was hauled out in front of her.”
McGovern was later found to have his arm covered with bruises. The metal handcuffs were fastened so tightly that his wrists were cut and some blood flowed from the cuts.
After being held by local police, McGovern was told he was being charged with disorderly conduct.
The First Amendment says:
Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Geithner Admits: Obligations in President's Budget "Unsustainable"
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today admitted under questioning from Sen. Sessions that the president's own budget, submitted Monday, calls for interest payments and obligations that are "excessively high" and "unsustainable." The president's plan accumulates $13 trillion in new gross debt, with interest payments on the debt rising to $844 billion a year by 2021.
Additionally, the Obama's budget ignores the recommendations of his own fiscal commission, causing the Democrat Co-Chair of the Commission, Erskin Bowles, to remark that the budget "goes nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare."
Under Obama's budget, total federal spending will increase another 65% by the end of the decade. In fact, accumulated deficits under the president's budget are greater than those in the Congressional Budget Office baseline, which assumes we essentially do nothing.
WH's Jay Carney: Stimulus "Goals Have Been Met"
RealClearPolitics - Video - WH's Jay Carney: Stimulus "Goals Have Been Met"
White House press secretary Jay Carney says the Recovery Act added several million jobs and lowered the unemployment rate. According to Carney, the "goals" of the stimulus package "have been met."
A reporter asked Carney why unemployment is at 9% and not 7%, the percentage projected if the stimulus worked. Carney dismissed the question. "We've said repeatedly that we don't want to relitigate the battles of the past," Carney told the reporter.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146147/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-Mid-February.aspxWe are now at 10% unemployment.
Wisconsin
Protests swell to 25,000 people at Wis. Capitol
"Budget Repair" Bill Protest in Madison, WI Capitol Rotunda Feb 16, 2011
Walker takes broad swipe at public employee unions
At yesterday's demonstration against Scott Walker's budget plan, this video was made of a woman with a sign portraying the Governor with a Hitler mustache. Thereafter, a young man with a bullhorn explains that we need to tax the rich.
Madison schools, others closed amid call for demonstrations.
State Democrats absent for vote as Wisconsin budget protests swell.
Obama: 'Assault'...
Cf. http://realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/02/17/obama_on_wisconsin_collective_bargaining_law_an_assault_on_unions.html
The Wisconsin Republican Party put together a video using evidence from this week‘s liberal protests against the governor’s emergency budget bill that uncovers angry rhetoric from the left. The video juxtaposes the evidence with accusations and calls for civility from the left.
Rep. Paul Ryan On Wisconsin Protests: "Like Cairo Moved To Madison"
Cf. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/02/17/rep_paul_ryan_on_wisconsin_protests_like_cairo_moved_to_madison.html
Unions want to overturn election result.
Walker calls for Senate Dems to end their boycott and vote.
Budget Battle: Democrats Who Left State are Located.
Tea Party Activist Corners Dems Who Fled State
Teachers Union Has Stranglehold on Wisconsin Schools
Cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AADcf2E6myI
Violent Left
Cf. http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/02/17/video-from-wisconsin-protest-reveals-the-violence-and-hatred-of-the-left/
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Qaradawi advocates establishing a "United Muslim Nations" as a contemporary form of the caliphate
Qaradawi advocates establishing a "United Muslim Nations" as a contemporary form of the caliphate.
The Voice of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Iran Calls For a Unified Muslim World Coalition
Iran has called for a Unified Muslim World Coalition, or a Caliphate.
The term caliphate "dominion of a caliph ('successor,')," (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa, Turkish: Halife ) refers to the first system of government established in Islam, and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation).
10th-12th Centuries, Shia Caliphate
New York Stock Exchange: Shah Calls Deutsche Boerse-NYSE Accord a `Great Deal'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUqzpA6ZF_0
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Sachin Shah, a special situations and merger arbitrage strategist at Capstone Global Markets LLC, talks about Deutsche Boerse AG's agreement to buy New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext in a $9.53 billion all-stock deal. Shah, speaking with Betty Liu, Jon Erlichman and Sheila Dharmarajan on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses the prospects for more consolidation of exchanges. (Source: Bloomberg)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ilzetzki Says U.S. Budget Must Address Long-Term Costs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Ei9YFGBP0
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Ethan Ilzetzki, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, talks about the proposed fiscal 2012 budget that Barack Obama will present today as his administration and Congress negotiate boosting the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. He speaks with Maryam Nemazee on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse".
Spending Restraint, Part I: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
Spending Restraint, Part I: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, 6:58
Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both reduced the relative burden of government, largely because they were able to restrain the growth of domestic spending. The mini-documentary from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity uses data from the Historical Tables of the Budget to show how Reagan and Clinton succeeded and compares their record to the fiscal profligacy of the Bush-Obama years.
Harvard's Niall Ferguson Schools Her on Muslim Brotherhood and Caliphate
Harvard's Niall Ferguson Schools Her on Muslim Brotherhood and Caliphate
Egypt: How Obama Blew It, Niall Ferguson, Newsweek
An army in control is not a democratic, liberal, revolution. Moreover, Obama was taken completely by surprise. The only organized organization is the Muslim Brotherhood advocating sharia law and the restoration of the Caliphate. Any appearance of a liberal, peaceful, democratic revolution is extremely unlikely. The Egyptian revolution is most similar to the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979. Almost all revolutions are characterized by internal chaos and foreign aggression.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmr1uUZae6Q
Obama's FY2012 Budget
Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes
Tax hike lowlights include:
* Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%. This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike
* Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%
* Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike
* Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate. This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A new means-tested phaseout of itemized deductions limits them even more. This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike
* New bank taxes totaling $33 billion over ten years
* New international corporate tax hikes totaling $129 billion over ten years
* New life insurance company taxes totaling $14 billion over ten years
* Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years
* Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years
* Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income. This is a tax hike of $15 billion over ten years
* A giveaway to the trial lawyers—not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement. This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years
* Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing. This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.
Add it all together, and this budget is a ten-year, $1.5 trillion tax hike over present law. That’s $1.5 trillion taken out of the economy and spent on government instead of being used to create jobs.
The “tax relief” in the budget is mostly just an extension of present law, and also some refundable credit outlay spending in the tax code. There is virtually no new tax relief relative to present law in Obama's budget.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Investigative Project on Terrorism
Wikipedia
The Global Mufti: The Phenomenon of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Bettina Graf, Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (Editor), Columbia University Press
An outstanding legal scholar, an Islamist activist and a renowned host of al-Jazeera's most popular religious program, 'Sharia and Life', Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the best-known and most controversial figures of contemporary Islamism. Indeed, it is difficult to think of another Muslim scholar-activist whose global influence matches, let alone exceeds, that of Qaradawi Born in 1926 in a poor village in the Egyptian Delta, as a young man he attended a lecture by Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and immediately joined the organisation's youth wing. In the late 1940s, Qaradawi studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo, excelling in theology, while running the Brotherhood's student wing. When in 1954 Nasser cracked down on the Brotherhood, Qaradawi was gaoled twice, but was released in time to obtain his degree from al-Azhar. In 1961 Qaradawi settled in the Gulf state of Qatar where he played a pivotal role establishing its Islamic higher education system. He eschewed any formal position in the Muslim Brotherhood when the movement was forced underground and instead developed into a major writer and ideologist of contemporary Islamist thought. From the mid-1970s Qaradawi became one of a handful of Islamist ulama (Muslim scholars) that became accepted as authorities on doctrinal and political matters, both by Islamists and within the wider Islamic resurgence. Since the 1990s Qaradawi has reached a global audience by cleverly exploiting new media: he was one of the first Sunni scholars to launch his own website, is involved with Islam Online and just celebrated ten years hosting his weekly religious affairs programme on al-Jazeera. Qaradawi's standing - among ulama, Islamists and the Arab (if not the Muslim) public at large - is such that he is undeniably considered the most important Sunni religious figure in the world today. This volume is the first book-length treatment of Yusuf al-Qaradawi in any European language.
Wikipedia
The Global Mufti: The Phenomenon of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Bettina Graf, Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (Editor), Columbia University Press
An outstanding legal scholar, an Islamist activist and a renowned host of al-Jazeera's most popular religious program, 'Sharia and Life', Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the best-known and most controversial figures of contemporary Islamism. Indeed, it is difficult to think of another Muslim scholar-activist whose global influence matches, let alone exceeds, that of Qaradawi Born in 1926 in a poor village in the Egyptian Delta, as a young man he attended a lecture by Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and immediately joined the organisation's youth wing. In the late 1940s, Qaradawi studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo, excelling in theology, while running the Brotherhood's student wing. When in 1954 Nasser cracked down on the Brotherhood, Qaradawi was gaoled twice, but was released in time to obtain his degree from al-Azhar. In 1961 Qaradawi settled in the Gulf state of Qatar where he played a pivotal role establishing its Islamic higher education system. He eschewed any formal position in the Muslim Brotherhood when the movement was forced underground and instead developed into a major writer and ideologist of contemporary Islamist thought. From the mid-1970s Qaradawi became one of a handful of Islamist ulama (Muslim scholars) that became accepted as authorities on doctrinal and political matters, both by Islamists and within the wider Islamic resurgence. Since the 1990s Qaradawi has reached a global audience by cleverly exploiting new media: he was one of the first Sunni scholars to launch his own website, is involved with Islam Online and just celebrated ten years hosting his weekly religious affairs programme on al-Jazeera. Qaradawi's standing - among ulama, Islamists and the Arab (if not the Muslim) public at large - is such that he is undeniably considered the most important Sunni religious figure in the world today. This volume is the first book-length treatment of Yusuf al-Qaradawi in any European language.
Friday, February 11, 2011
San Diego WMD
Reporter: Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponised device?
Mr Hallor: At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things.
Reporter: So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device?
Mr Hallor: Correct. Weapons of mass effect.
Reporter: You ever found one?
Mr Hallor: Not at this location.
Reporter: But they have found them?
Mr Hallor: Yes.
Reporter: You never found one in San Diego though?
Mr Hallor: I would say at the port of San Diego we have not.
Official Suggests WMD Intercepted at U.S. Entry Point Glo
Federal agencies have intercepted a "weapon of mass effect" entering the United States, San Diego's 10News last week quoted a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official as saying.
Asked if authorities have intercepted chemical agents or other weapons at U.S. ports, San Diego Assistant Port Director Al Hallor said: "At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things."
Asked if authorities look for radiological "dirty bombs" or nuclear weapons, he said: "Correct. Weapons of mass effect." Hallor then appeared to again confirm that such a device had been located at a U.S. point of entry.
The interview was brought to a halt before Hallor could elaborate. Customs and Border Protection later said in a statement it had "not specifically had any incidents with nuclear devices or nuclear materials at our ports of entry."
Hallor could likely have had undisclosed knowledge of an intercepted weapon, former Secret Service agent and airline security head Glen Winn said (10News, Feb. 9).
Daily Mail has this: 'A weapon of mass destruction was found in the U.S.': Shock confession of Customs officer
A port official has admitted that a 'weapon of mass effect' has been found by 'partner agencies' in the U.S., raising major questions over a possible government cover-up.
The disturbing revelation came in an interview with San Diego's assistant port director screened by a television channel in the city.
The Customs and Border Protection Department tried to dampen speculation over his remarks, but doubts remained over whether he had inadvertently revealed a dirty bomb plot to attack the U.S. mainland.
Concern over a secret WMD bust came after U.S. cables made public by the Wikileaks whistleblower website revealed terror groups were plotting a 'nuclear 911.'
In the interview screened by San Diego’s 10News, Al Hallor, assistant San Diego port director, said ‘weapons of mass effect’ had been found, although he did not specify exactly where or what they were.
Reporter Mitch Blacher asked Mr Hallor: ‘Do you ever find things that are dangerous like a chemical agent or a weaponised device?’
‘At the airport, seaport, at our port of entry we have not this past fiscal year, but our partner agencies have found those things,’ the customs official replied.
‘So, specifically, you're looking for the dirty bomb? You're looking for the nuclear device?’ asked Mr Blacher.
‘Correct. Weapons of mass effect,’ said Mr Hallor.
‘You ever found one?’ asked Mr Blacher.
‘Not at this location,’ Mr Hallor said.
‘But they have found them?’ asked Mr Blacher.
‘Yes,’ said Mr Hallor.
‘You never found one in San Diego though?’ Mr Blacher asked.
‘I would say at the port of San Diego we have not,’ Mr Hallor said.
‘Have you found one in San Diego?’ Mr Blacher asked.
The interview was then interrupted and cut short by a public relations official before Mr Hallor was able to answer the question.
San Diego's Customs and Border Protection agency was unavailable for comment today.
Earlier, Mr Hallor told Mr Blacher: ‘Potentially every city in America is a target. Given the waterways and the access to the Navy fleet here, I’d say, absolutely, San Diego is a target.
He was explaining how the port checks cargo ships arriving at the port. He suggested the customs ‘partner agencies’ may have found the 'weapons of mass effect.'
Former Secret Service agent and airline security director Glen Winn told 10News Mr Hallor’s comments appeared to be credible.
‘This person was, I believe, knowledgeable, has a very important position with the port and the government and as such has that knowledge,’ he said.
‘You posed some very serious questions as to security gaps and discoveries that perhaps have taken place in this area.
'I want to know how many and where did you find them so if I'm in that area, driving around and I see something that is out of place, I make a phone call,’ he added.
But 10News said a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told them Mr Hallor was 'just nervous' in the interview and 'mis-spoke'.
The spokesman denied officials said weapons of mass destruction had never been found in the U.S.- but would not answer questions about dirty bombs or chemical weapons.
After the interview, the Customs and Border Protection department in San Diego issued a statement denying it had dealt with any nuclear-related smuggling attempts.
‘CBP has not specifically had any incidents with nuclear devices or nuclear materials at our ports of entry,’ it said.
‘CBP is an all-threats agency. The purpose of many security measures is to prevent threats from ever materializing by being prepared for them.
'And, we must be prepared to stop threats in whatever form they do materialise at the border, whether it’s an individual or cargo arriving by land, air, or sea.
'Regardless of what the contraband or threat is, we’re being smart, evaluating, and focusing in on anything or anyone that is potentially high-risk.’
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