[This happens one day after the deadline to respond to the Phillip Berg lawsuit claiming Obama is ineligible to run for POTUS because of citizenship ineligibility
(http://obamacrimes.com/)--
Obama has not produced an authentic US birth certificate( we know the one posted is fraudulent with his name photoshopped over his indonesian half sister's name....the plot thickens. Read below...the post just published tonight, draw your own conclusions]
Obama Admits Dual Citizenship September 25, 2008 by texasdarlin
Dual Citizenship Makes Obama Ineligible Under Article II By Judah Benjamin, Guest Author So, at long last, Senator Obama admits that he was born with Dual Citizenship:
From “Fight the Smears”
“When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire.
As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948.
That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.‘s children.
Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.”
Now nice Anti-Pumas, please admit that the Senator has been selling snake oil and you have been buying it.
I said he was probably born with Dual Citizenship under the 1948 Act at the outset, and I wasn’t wrong.
Likewise, I wasn’t wrong about the Kenyan Constitution and his Kenyan Citizenship.
Don’t take any bets that I’m wrong about Indonesia. Or the US Constitution and what it means.
Please note that I, once again, state that I, personally, believe Obama was born in Hawaii and that it doesn’t affect my opinion on his Eligibility for the Office of POTUS at all.
In my understanding Article II Requires that one be a “Natural Born Citizen”, and in terms of the Law as understood by the Framers, anyone with Dual Citizenship could not be “Natural Born”.
It does not matter that they no longer hold that Citizenship, they fall into the same bracket as a “Naturalized Citizen” because they have/had Divided Allegiance. That is my view and I haven’t moved an inch on it.
However, the Kenyan Citizenship Issue may not be the main point here, WAS HE, OR WAS HE NOT, an INDONESIAN CITIZEN?
The Senator isn’t saying, isn’t mentioning it, is trying to avoid producing any Paperwork at all. Why?
If he is/was an Indonesian Citizen, too, the Senator’s entire narrative is a fiction and he should be ashamed of himself.
He’s lied about Kenya, at least by omission, for months/years, so why should I assume he isn’t lying about Indonesia?
Note Kenyan Citizenship automatically lapses if it isn’t renewed at age 21, Indonesian Citizenship doesn’t. If he was an Indonesian Citizen he would have to actively repudiate that Citizenship. Did he? Has he?
Because if he hasn’t, Senator Obama is Dual National Indonesian at this moment, subject to the Laws of BOTH Countries, equally.
That is true under US Law, Indonesian Law and International Law and until LAST YEAR Indonesia DID NOT Recognize Dual Citizenship and the USA did not Recognize that one could be a Dual US/Indonesian Citizen.
It does not matter that the Senator was not Responsible for the change of Citizenship because he was a child when it happened.
Governor Schwarzenegger was not Responsible for the fact that he was born in Austria, or that under Austrian Law he is not a US Citizen, or under the US Law and Rules he is not a Citizen of Austria.
Senator Obama needs to produce his Paperwork, all of it, not just a Certification of Live Birth from the State of Hawaii, but all his other Paperwork too.
So, the Senator WAS a Dual National. That is now an admitted fact, admitted by his own Campaign and by Annenberg.
The Senator is a Constitutional Lawyer which means that he knows, and has always known, that he is probably Ineligible to Hold the Office of POTUS, or that, at the very least, there is a strong Legal Argument that that is the case.
In turn, that means that as he lied about his Kenyan and British Citizenships he is probably lying about his Indonesian Citizenship.
I do not suppose that it was ever his intention to give up his US Citizenship and it does not matter to me one bit. It doesn’t matter to Indonesia either.
If Lolo Soetoro adopted him he ceased to be a US Citizen in the mid 1960s, BY INDONESIAN LAW. He also ceased to be a Kenyan Citizen, BY INDONESIAN LAW.
By Kenyan and US Law he retained his Original Citizenships, until his 21st Birthday. By Indonesian Law he could have given up Indonesian Citizenship at age 18, but did he?
If he didn’t he was, albeit accidentally, displaying a Legal Intention to void his US Citizenship, since he knew he could not Legally hold both Citizenships.
Please don’t tell me that the US doesn’t have to concern itself with the Laws of Indonesia because, in this case, the US does have to do so.
By the way, under US Law of another time the Senator would not have been a US Citizen at all, and he knows that.
If a Naturalized Citizen cannot hold the Office of POTUS because they previously held another Citizenship it is egregious, so far as I am concerned, that a Dual Citizen/Former Dual Citizen should claim to have a Legal Right to do so.
I refer the reader to my Articles on Dual Citizenship and ask you to read the quotes from Blackstone. [TD NOTE: I will be re-posting all of Judah's work shortly].
This new material at “Fight the Smears” displays arrogance, hubris and bad faith, in my opinion. It is the Senator’s reaction to Phillip Berg’s Law Suit, and, basically, it amounts to an open admission of mens rea.
He is flaunting his bad faith and in so doing destroys his own case.
UPDATED FULL ARTICLE
http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/breaking-obama-admits-dual-citizenship/
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
BAKKEN FORMATION IN DETAIL
Well, there are some misconceptions and misstatements in that commentary on the Bakken to set straight. Here goes...
We have been drilling the Bakken for roughly 50 years, usually on the way to another producing formation (a layer of rock which can be mapped) deeper within the Williston Basin (a geological basin which covers parts of North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan, and smaller parts of Alberta, South Dakota, and Manitoba).
There are over a dozen different rock formations (mappable layers) which may produce oil in the Williston Basin, among dozens more formations which do not produce oil, forming a stratagraphic stack (think pancakes in a bowl) some 15,000 feet thick at the deepest part of the Basin.
The Bakken Formation is one of the layers about two thirds of the way down from the top of that stack, and it is a smaller 'pancake', in that it is only found in the subsurface, it does not outcrop along the edges.
The oil which formed from the organics trapped in the crust of that pancake, the shales, is now mostly in the porous layer in the middle, or has escaped along faults or fractures to other rock layers.
Since the 1980s, the ability to drill horizontal wells has become refined to the point where the Middle portion of the Bakken Formation (the porous layer) can be more widely economically produced using this technology. An increase in prices makes this economically feasible while the technology makes it technically possible.
In a few areas the Bakken already had produced oil from vertical wellbores, but it is a formation which is difficult to test in open hole (before running casing), and few would gamble on the expense to run pipe through it in a vertical well unless they were anticipating producing enough oil from a deeper formation to make a profit on the well. Often, the Bakken would not be produced as the deeper zones took precedence and the oils from formations of different geological ages are not comingled during production as a matter of practice (and by law).
With horizontal drilling, though, instead of producing from a few feet of wellbore running vertically through the formation, you can put a few thousand feet of wellbore through the zone horizontally, which allows for far more rapid and efficient recovery of the oil there, often the deciding factor in whether a well will pay for itself (not just how much oil you can get out of the well, but how fast you can get it).
No oil company ever gives up on finding a big play, not unless the auction was yesterday...
'Big oil', (the major companies whose reach is international in scope), commonly looks for very large plays where very large investments have very large returns.
If they can find fields which will produce on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day, it is much more cost-effective than hundreds of small fields which produce a few hundred to a few thousand barrels of oil per day, and that also justifies the sort of infrastructure investments which convert that crude, ultimately, to fuel and so much more.
Enter an alien concept to the American press: 'Small' oil. The 'little' oil companies out there looking for wells and fields which will make the sort of R.O.I. which will give them an opportunity to grow, and whose size makes such smaller plays a winner.
These are the companies often on the cutting edge, quietly investigating new ideas and rolling profits back into investment in acreage (leases) and more drilling to capture a larger share of their new finds as they grow before the word gets out, and they are always looking for new finds.
In the meantime, new technologies are often developed by service companies working with the 'Big' oil companies on major projects (often offshore) where the expense can be justified because of the scale of the returns if the effort is successful.
However, the real Bakken development (ongoing) did not take place at 16 dollars a barrel, it really did not get rolling until after oil hit $30-40, and then took off when oil got past $80. Keep in mind, too, that rig costs have gone up, as have fuel prices, and prices for services as well, so I'd say the sixteen dollar figure is off by a factor of 4 or more.
Keep in mind the Bakken oil is not 'shale oil', even though there is at least one shale layer associated with (probably the source of) the oil, but oil found in a tight conventional porus rock reservoir layer in the Bakken Formation.
Oil Shale, like the Mahogany Beds of the Green River Formation (CO, UT, WY) is another thing, and the extraction of that oil is more subject to environmentalists' objections because it is not so readily extracted from the relatively impermeable shale as is oil in conventional porous reservoirs, and most of the area is under Federal Land.
Work was done on the oil shales back in the last 'oil boom' in the late '70s and early '80s, and it is fairly safe to say that even with a green light from all concerned it would cost more than $16/bbl to extract as well, otherwise the Unocal project at Parachute, CO might have remained viable.
No arguments from me with the concept that we need to develop our own resources, but short of a deflationaly cycle, it will not be as cheap as it was, though changes in policy can help make it cheaper.
Even at a few dollars more, we are not funding our enemies while shelling out the expense in money, personnel, and materiel to maintain some semblance of order in a region halfway around the globe. Which is not to say we should not seek to stop terrorism, but that our dependence on foreign energy sources means we also pay an additional hidden premium on 'cheaper' foreign oil in tax dollars for their national security as part of our own.
We have been drilling the Bakken for roughly 50 years, usually on the way to another producing formation (a layer of rock which can be mapped) deeper within the Williston Basin (a geological basin which covers parts of North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan, and smaller parts of Alberta, South Dakota, and Manitoba).
There are over a dozen different rock formations (mappable layers) which may produce oil in the Williston Basin, among dozens more formations which do not produce oil, forming a stratagraphic stack (think pancakes in a bowl) some 15,000 feet thick at the deepest part of the Basin.
The Bakken Formation is one of the layers about two thirds of the way down from the top of that stack, and it is a smaller 'pancake', in that it is only found in the subsurface, it does not outcrop along the edges.
The oil which formed from the organics trapped in the crust of that pancake, the shales, is now mostly in the porous layer in the middle, or has escaped along faults or fractures to other rock layers.
Since the 1980s, the ability to drill horizontal wells has become refined to the point where the Middle portion of the Bakken Formation (the porous layer) can be more widely economically produced using this technology. An increase in prices makes this economically feasible while the technology makes it technically possible.
In a few areas the Bakken already had produced oil from vertical wellbores, but it is a formation which is difficult to test in open hole (before running casing), and few would gamble on the expense to run pipe through it in a vertical well unless they were anticipating producing enough oil from a deeper formation to make a profit on the well. Often, the Bakken would not be produced as the deeper zones took precedence and the oils from formations of different geological ages are not comingled during production as a matter of practice (and by law).
With horizontal drilling, though, instead of producing from a few feet of wellbore running vertically through the formation, you can put a few thousand feet of wellbore through the zone horizontally, which allows for far more rapid and efficient recovery of the oil there, often the deciding factor in whether a well will pay for itself (not just how much oil you can get out of the well, but how fast you can get it).
No oil company ever gives up on finding a big play, not unless the auction was yesterday...
'Big oil', (the major companies whose reach is international in scope), commonly looks for very large plays where very large investments have very large returns.
If they can find fields which will produce on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day, it is much more cost-effective than hundreds of small fields which produce a few hundred to a few thousand barrels of oil per day, and that also justifies the sort of infrastructure investments which convert that crude, ultimately, to fuel and so much more.
Enter an alien concept to the American press: 'Small' oil. The 'little' oil companies out there looking for wells and fields which will make the sort of R.O.I. which will give them an opportunity to grow, and whose size makes such smaller plays a winner.
These are the companies often on the cutting edge, quietly investigating new ideas and rolling profits back into investment in acreage (leases) and more drilling to capture a larger share of their new finds as they grow before the word gets out, and they are always looking for new finds.
In the meantime, new technologies are often developed by service companies working with the 'Big' oil companies on major projects (often offshore) where the expense can be justified because of the scale of the returns if the effort is successful.
However, the real Bakken development (ongoing) did not take place at 16 dollars a barrel, it really did not get rolling until after oil hit $30-40, and then took off when oil got past $80. Keep in mind, too, that rig costs have gone up, as have fuel prices, and prices for services as well, so I'd say the sixteen dollar figure is off by a factor of 4 or more.
Keep in mind the Bakken oil is not 'shale oil', even though there is at least one shale layer associated with (probably the source of) the oil, but oil found in a tight conventional porus rock reservoir layer in the Bakken Formation.
Oil Shale, like the Mahogany Beds of the Green River Formation (CO, UT, WY) is another thing, and the extraction of that oil is more subject to environmentalists' objections because it is not so readily extracted from the relatively impermeable shale as is oil in conventional porous reservoirs, and most of the area is under Federal Land.
Work was done on the oil shales back in the last 'oil boom' in the late '70s and early '80s, and it is fairly safe to say that even with a green light from all concerned it would cost more than $16/bbl to extract as well, otherwise the Unocal project at Parachute, CO might have remained viable.
No arguments from me with the concept that we need to develop our own resources, but short of a deflationaly cycle, it will not be as cheap as it was, though changes in policy can help make it cheaper.
Even at a few dollars more, we are not funding our enemies while shelling out the expense in money, personnel, and materiel to maintain some semblance of order in a region halfway around the globe. Which is not to say we should not seek to stop terrorism, but that our dependence on foreign energy sources means we also pay an additional hidden premium on 'cheaper' foreign oil in tax dollars for their national security as part of our own.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
DAILY ALERTS
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
IAEA Info Suggests Iran Worked on Nuclear Missile - George JahnThe UN nuclear monitoring agency shared new photos and documents purporting to show that Iran tried to refit its main long-distance missile to carry a nuclear payload, said diplomats who attended the IAEA meeting Tuesday in Vienna.
Iranian officials say the missile has a range of 1,250 miles, enabling a strike on Israel and most of the Middle East. The presentation "showed board members for the first time photographs and documents of work undertaken in Iran on the redesigning of the Shahab-3 missile to carry what would appear to be a nuclear weapon," said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA. He said the senior IAEA official doing the briefing "told us that information they have is very credible." (AP)
See also France Pushing for More Sanctions Against Iran -
Jamey KeatenThe Security Council should impose more sanctions on Iran over its stonewalling of a UN investigation into allegations that Tehran tried to make nuclear weapons, France said Tuesday. "We have no other choice than to work in the days and weeks to come toward a new Security Council sanctions resolution," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.
However, Russia and China would likely resist a fourth round of sanctions against Iran. (AP/Washington Post)
See also Iran Boasts Its Forces Can Control the Gulf
Iran has the power to control the Gulf as no vessel can cross the vital seaway without coming in range of its sophisticated weaponry, a top aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday. Gen. Rahim Yahya Safavi, the former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, told the official n ews agency IRNA:
"Responsibility for defending the Persian Gulf has been handed over to the naval forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps." Their missiles can cover the entire width of the Gulf and "no ship can cross it without being within range." (AFP)
CIA: Strike on Syria Reactor a Joint Spy Victory - Randall MikkelsenThe destruction of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor last year was the result of an intelligence collaboration that included a "foreign partner" who first identified the facility's purpose, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said on Tuesday. The reactor at Al-Kibar was flattened in an air strike on Sep. 6, 2007, that senior U.S. intelligence officials have said was carried out by Israel on its own initiative.
"We were able last year to spoil a big secret, a project that could have provided Syria with plutonium for nuclear weapons," Hayden said. Hayden said a report from the unnamed foreign partner first identified the facility as a reactor similar to one in North Korea. (Reuters)
See also A Year On, Israel Still Won't Discuss Syria Strike - Dan Williams
A year after its jets bombed a Syrian facility which U.S. officials openly described as a secret nuclear reactor, Israel still refuses to formally confirm the raid ever happened. "Any discussion of what happened in Syria carries the danger of divulging information on tactics we may have to reuse," said one Israeli official. (Reuters)
Retrial of Hamas-Linked Holy Land Foundation Begins in Dallas - Josh GersteinProsecutors are set to take a second run at convicting officers of a Texas-based charity that the government contends was a Hamas beachhead in America, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The first trial, last year, ended in a muddle of partial acquittals and mistrials.
Prosecutors contend that the Holy Land Foundation was part of a web of groups set up on behalf of Hamas, a Palestinian Arab political movement that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks in recent years. The indictment claims that the foundation, which once billed itself as America's largest Muslim charity, funneled $12 million to local Palestinian relief groups which were under the control of Hamas. (New York Sun)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Assad: "Syria Will Stand with Iran on All Major Strategic Issues"Syrian President Bashar Assad said during an interview on Tuesday, "Syria will stand with Iran on all the major strategic issues," Israel's Channel 10 TV reported. "Only one situation would distance Syria from Iran, and that is if Tehran sided with Israel, and if America sided with the Arabs," he said, laughing. Commenting on negotiations with Israel, Assad said, "What's happening today is not negotiations, but they are called 'negotiations' in the media." (Jerusalem Post)
Kidnappers of Foreigners in Gaza Killed in Clan-Hamas Fighting - Khaled Abu ToamehThree of the Palestinian gunmen who kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston and dozens of foreign nationals in Gaza over the past three years were killed by Hamas security forces, Hamas officials said on Tuesday.
Hamas forces assaulted the compound of the notorious Dughmush clan early Tuesday, sparking a fierce exchange that killed a dozen people. At least 40 others were wounded and another 15 arrested. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Myths about Islam in Europe - Justin VaisseThe riots in France in November 2005 had nothing to do with Islam, and everything to do with the social and economic conditions of largely immigrant communities. Muslim groups, who tried to play a mediating role, discovered themselves to be irrelevant and powerless. The 15 to 17 million persons of Muslim background currently in the EU-27 countries (population: 500 million) are anything but a cohesive group.
To speak of "a Muslim community" is simply misleading. True, European birthrates are generally low, and birthrates among immigrant groups are often high. But in the latter group, they actually fall rapidly after their arrival and among subsequent generations, as they tend to conform to the national norm.
In some countries like France or Ireland, general fertility rates are comparable to that observed in the U.S., around 2 children per woman. Finally, immigration to the EU is more tightly controlled. It is doubtful that from about 3 to 4% today, potential Muslims could number more than 6% in the coming decades. (Brookings Institution)
Egypt: Will the Dam Burst?In the Smart Village, a campuslike technology park on Cairo's western outskirts, construction cranes glint in the mirrored glass of office blocks bearing multinational logos. Beyond its perimeter stretch thousands of acres of new suburbs, complete with gated communities, golf courses and private schools.
Lush fields now line the crowded, six-lane route from Cairo to Alexandria, many planted with drip-irrigated garden crops for lucrative European markets. But a glance down one of the alleyways of brick tenements where half of Cairo's people actually live may reveal a crowd of head-scarved housewives pushing and cursing in an early-morning queue for government-subsidized bread. The fact is that most of Egypt's 75m people struggle to get by.
Since his appointment in 2004, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and his team of technocrats have enacted long-delayed economic reforms. The overall growth rate has risen from below 4% to above 7%. Exports have more than doubled, from $9 billion in 2003 to $24 billion last year. Sales of private cars have quadrupled since 2004. The rate of population growth has slowed, from 2.3% a year in the 1980s to 1.9% today. Bread is still widely available at a subsidized price equal to one American cent a loaf. And despite a recent hike in petrol prices, a liter still costs one-eighth of its average price in Europe. (Economist-UK)
Observations:
Jordan's Outreach to Hamas: The Politics of Distress - Pinhas Inbari (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Until recently, Jordan was the only Arab country that had boycotted the fundamentalist Hamas movement. However, in 2007 Jordanian intelligence held a series of meetings with Hamas leaders to end hostile relations and start afresh.
Jordan's greatest fear is that it be considered the "alternative homeland" for the Palestinians.
That is why all political formulas that Jordan is ready to consider are based on the "two-state solution" - a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and a Jordanian state in the East Bank. Jordan would only consider confederation arrangements with the Palestinians after a Palestinian state is declared west of the Jordan River.
Israel's regional policies have thrown Jordan off balance. The tahdiya (calm) agreement with Hamas caused great embarrassment to moderate Arab countries and exploded the policy of isolating Hamas.
In addition, in its prisoner deal with Hizbullah, Israel agreed to hand over to Hizbullah the bodies of Jordanians. If Israel, for pragmatic reasons, finds it appropriate to engage with Hamas, why shouldn't Jordan do the same?
Traditionally, Jordan has cooperated closely with Israel to maintain the status quo in Jerusalem, and Israel has formally recognized Jordan's role as the sole custodian of the Holy City's Muslim shrines, in line with the 1994 "Arava agreement."
However, Israel's preference to work with UNESCO as opposed to Jordan regarding repairs to the Al Aqsa staircase was seen to be aimed at ending Jordan's exclusive role as sole custodian of Jerusalem's Muslim shrines.
There is a virtual consensus in the Arab media that Russia has been the winner in its bloody attack on Georgia, while the U.S. and its Western allies failed to protect their Georgian ally. Following the Russian invasion of Georgia, King Abdullah II flew to Moscow and indicated an interest in buying Russian weapons, with all of the implications such a move entails.
Hamas influence in Jordan and the West Bank is rising.
Iran and Russia are moving to reshape the Middle East. At the same time, Jordan fears it cannot trust the political will of its traditional allies as Israel has diplomatically engaged Jordan's adversaries - Syria and Hamas. Jordan's current policy can best be categorized as a "distress call" - one that should be heeded by Israel and the West before it is too late.
The writer is a veteran Palestinian affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar.
IAEA Info Suggests Iran Worked on Nuclear Missile - George JahnThe UN nuclear monitoring agency shared new photos and documents purporting to show that Iran tried to refit its main long-distance missile to carry a nuclear payload, said diplomats who attended the IAEA meeting Tuesday in Vienna.
Iranian officials say the missile has a range of 1,250 miles, enabling a strike on Israel and most of the Middle East. The presentation "showed board members for the first time photographs and documents of work undertaken in Iran on the redesigning of the Shahab-3 missile to carry what would appear to be a nuclear weapon," said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. representative to the IAEA. He said the senior IAEA official doing the briefing "told us that information they have is very credible." (AP)
See also France Pushing for More Sanctions Against Iran -
Jamey KeatenThe Security Council should impose more sanctions on Iran over its stonewalling of a UN investigation into allegations that Tehran tried to make nuclear weapons, France said Tuesday. "We have no other choice than to work in the days and weeks to come toward a new Security Council sanctions resolution," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said.
However, Russia and China would likely resist a fourth round of sanctions against Iran. (AP/Washington Post)
See also Iran Boasts Its Forces Can Control the Gulf
Iran has the power to control the Gulf as no vessel can cross the vital seaway without coming in range of its sophisticated weaponry, a top aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday. Gen. Rahim Yahya Safavi, the former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, told the official n ews agency IRNA:
"Responsibility for defending the Persian Gulf has been handed over to the naval forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps." Their missiles can cover the entire width of the Gulf and "no ship can cross it without being within range." (AFP)
CIA: Strike on Syria Reactor a Joint Spy Victory - Randall MikkelsenThe destruction of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor last year was the result of an intelligence collaboration that included a "foreign partner" who first identified the facility's purpose, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden said on Tuesday. The reactor at Al-Kibar was flattened in an air strike on Sep. 6, 2007, that senior U.S. intelligence officials have said was carried out by Israel on its own initiative.
"We were able last year to spoil a big secret, a project that could have provided Syria with plutonium for nuclear weapons," Hayden said. Hayden said a report from the unnamed foreign partner first identified the facility as a reactor similar to one in North Korea. (Reuters)
See also A Year On, Israel Still Won't Discuss Syria Strike - Dan Williams
A year after its jets bombed a Syrian facility which U.S. officials openly described as a secret nuclear reactor, Israel still refuses to formally confirm the raid ever happened. "Any discussion of what happened in Syria carries the danger of divulging information on tactics we may have to reuse," said one Israeli official. (Reuters)
Retrial of Hamas-Linked Holy Land Foundation Begins in Dallas - Josh GersteinProsecutors are set to take a second run at convicting officers of a Texas-based charity that the government contends was a Hamas beachhead in America, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. The first trial, last year, ended in a muddle of partial acquittals and mistrials.
Prosecutors contend that the Holy Land Foundation was part of a web of groups set up on behalf of Hamas, a Palestinian Arab political movement that has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks in recent years. The indictment claims that the foundation, which once billed itself as America's largest Muslim charity, funneled $12 million to local Palestinian relief groups which were under the control of Hamas. (New York Sun)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Assad: "Syria Will Stand with Iran on All Major Strategic Issues"Syrian President Bashar Assad said during an interview on Tuesday, "Syria will stand with Iran on all the major strategic issues," Israel's Channel 10 TV reported. "Only one situation would distance Syria from Iran, and that is if Tehran sided with Israel, and if America sided with the Arabs," he said, laughing. Commenting on negotiations with Israel, Assad said, "What's happening today is not negotiations, but they are called 'negotiations' in the media." (Jerusalem Post)
Kidnappers of Foreigners in Gaza Killed in Clan-Hamas Fighting - Khaled Abu ToamehThree of the Palestinian gunmen who kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston and dozens of foreign nationals in Gaza over the past three years were killed by Hamas security forces, Hamas officials said on Tuesday.
Hamas forces assaulted the compound of the notorious Dughmush clan early Tuesday, sparking a fierce exchange that killed a dozen people. At least 40 others were wounded and another 15 arrested. (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):
Myths about Islam in Europe - Justin VaisseThe riots in France in November 2005 had nothing to do with Islam, and everything to do with the social and economic conditions of largely immigrant communities. Muslim groups, who tried to play a mediating role, discovered themselves to be irrelevant and powerless. The 15 to 17 million persons of Muslim background currently in the EU-27 countries (population: 500 million) are anything but a cohesive group.
To speak of "a Muslim community" is simply misleading. True, European birthrates are generally low, and birthrates among immigrant groups are often high. But in the latter group, they actually fall rapidly after their arrival and among subsequent generations, as they tend to conform to the national norm.
In some countries like France or Ireland, general fertility rates are comparable to that observed in the U.S., around 2 children per woman. Finally, immigration to the EU is more tightly controlled. It is doubtful that from about 3 to 4% today, potential Muslims could number more than 6% in the coming decades. (Brookings Institution)
Egypt: Will the Dam Burst?In the Smart Village, a campuslike technology park on Cairo's western outskirts, construction cranes glint in the mirrored glass of office blocks bearing multinational logos. Beyond its perimeter stretch thousands of acres of new suburbs, complete with gated communities, golf courses and private schools.
Lush fields now line the crowded, six-lane route from Cairo to Alexandria, many planted with drip-irrigated garden crops for lucrative European markets. But a glance down one of the alleyways of brick tenements where half of Cairo's people actually live may reveal a crowd of head-scarved housewives pushing and cursing in an early-morning queue for government-subsidized bread. The fact is that most of Egypt's 75m people struggle to get by.
Since his appointment in 2004, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and his team of technocrats have enacted long-delayed economic reforms. The overall growth rate has risen from below 4% to above 7%. Exports have more than doubled, from $9 billion in 2003 to $24 billion last year. Sales of private cars have quadrupled since 2004. The rate of population growth has slowed, from 2.3% a year in the 1980s to 1.9% today. Bread is still widely available at a subsidized price equal to one American cent a loaf. And despite a recent hike in petrol prices, a liter still costs one-eighth of its average price in Europe. (Economist-UK)
Observations:
Jordan's Outreach to Hamas: The Politics of Distress - Pinhas Inbari (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Until recently, Jordan was the only Arab country that had boycotted the fundamentalist Hamas movement. However, in 2007 Jordanian intelligence held a series of meetings with Hamas leaders to end hostile relations and start afresh.
Jordan's greatest fear is that it be considered the "alternative homeland" for the Palestinians.
That is why all political formulas that Jordan is ready to consider are based on the "two-state solution" - a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and a Jordanian state in the East Bank. Jordan would only consider confederation arrangements with the Palestinians after a Palestinian state is declared west of the Jordan River.
Israel's regional policies have thrown Jordan off balance. The tahdiya (calm) agreement with Hamas caused great embarrassment to moderate Arab countries and exploded the policy of isolating Hamas.
In addition, in its prisoner deal with Hizbullah, Israel agreed to hand over to Hizbullah the bodies of Jordanians. If Israel, for pragmatic reasons, finds it appropriate to engage with Hamas, why shouldn't Jordan do the same?
Traditionally, Jordan has cooperated closely with Israel to maintain the status quo in Jerusalem, and Israel has formally recognized Jordan's role as the sole custodian of the Holy City's Muslim shrines, in line with the 1994 "Arava agreement."
However, Israel's preference to work with UNESCO as opposed to Jordan regarding repairs to the Al Aqsa staircase was seen to be aimed at ending Jordan's exclusive role as sole custodian of Jerusalem's Muslim shrines.
There is a virtual consensus in the Arab media that Russia has been the winner in its bloody attack on Georgia, while the U.S. and its Western allies failed to protect their Georgian ally. Following the Russian invasion of Georgia, King Abdullah II flew to Moscow and indicated an interest in buying Russian weapons, with all of the implications such a move entails.
Hamas influence in Jordan and the West Bank is rising.
Iran and Russia are moving to reshape the Middle East. At the same time, Jordan fears it cannot trust the political will of its traditional allies as Israel has diplomatically engaged Jordan's adversaries - Syria and Hamas. Jordan's current policy can best be categorized as a "distress call" - one that should be heeded by Israel and the West before it is too late.
The writer is a veteran Palestinian affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar.
Monday, September 15, 2008
OBAMA THE HYPOCRITICAL LIAR
WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.
Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."
"However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open." Zebari says.
Though Obama claims the US presence is "illegal," he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the "weakened Bush administration," Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.
While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a "realistic withdrawal date." They declined.
FULL ARTICLE click here
According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.
Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."
"However, as an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open." Zebari says.
Though Obama claims the US presence is "illegal," he suddenly remembered that Americans troops were in Iraq within the legal framework of a UN mandate. His advice was that, rather than reach an accord with the "weakened Bush administration," Iraq should seek an extension of the UN mandate.
While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a "realistic withdrawal date." They declined.
FULL ARTICLE click here
Alan Note:
Iraqi Foreign Minister says Obamessiah tried to interfere with negotiations about the status of forces agreement and impending US troop withdrawals to try to push everything later..... he claims he wants troop withdrawals but he interfered to try to prevent any progress before the election.
This is exactly like the deal Jimmuh 'the idiot' Carter had going with the Mullahs over the American Tehran Embassy hostages.
Report is that Obama tried to derail impending decisions on troop withdrawals and status-of-forces agreement, obviously to benefit his own political prospects!!!!
If this is not treason it is the first cousin of treason. Working privately to try to derail official US govt. negotiations in a WAR zone over such highly sensitive and important matters.....
Saturday, September 13, 2008
OBAMA PARTISAN TAMPERS WITH PALIN INVESTIGATION
Note red comments of photo
A Friday hearing revealed that an Obama partisan has manipulated an independent investigator’s subpoena list of a controversial inquiry against GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The investigation is intended to determine whether Palin abused her office by firing Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin says she fired him over budget issues.
Her foes believe the firing was due to Monegan’s unwillingness to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law State Trooper Mike Wooten, a man who has admitted to “tasering” his stepson, illegally shooting a moose and has been accused of threatening his former father-in-law with violence and drinking in his police car.
Investigator Steven Branchflower (circled in photo above) admitted he had ceded control of his subpoena list to Sen. Hollis French (D.) during Alaska’s Joint Judiciary Committee September 12 hearing that was scheduled to approve subpoena requests.
French is a partisan who has endorsed Palin’s Democratic presidential ticket rival Barack Obama for president and is actively supporting his candidacy.
Lawmakers approved 13 of Branchflower’s subpoena requests that day, which included one for Palin’s husband, Todd. Four other subpoenas were approved for aides Branchflower believes participated in a meeting called by Palin’s former chief of staff Mike Tibbles where Wooten’s firing was allegedly discussed.
Rep. David Guttenberg (D.) asked Branchflower why he was requesting subpoenas for only those people attending the meeting and not Tibbles himself.
Branchflower said he would “have to defer that question to Mr. French.”
“I put the list together with, talking to Mr. French,” Branchflower added.
Sen. Gene Therriault (R.) told Branchflower, “I don’t understand why you would have to defer that question to Sen. French. If it’s your list you’re in complete control of the list, then why can’t you answer the question?”
Branchflower had no explanation. He only offered, “I’m not sure why his name was removed. My initial request was to have him on the list.”
At that point, French interjected. “It appeared to me there wasn’t the political will to subpoena Tibbles.”
“Something’s fishy here,” Therriault replied. “I mean either Mr. Branchflower conducts his investigation without direction, and now we know he’s been directed on the date and changing what he’s doing and how he’s doing it because of the time pressure he is feeling.
And now we’re hearing that people that he’s trying to get information from, there’s direction going on on that, too.”
Indeed.
Although the investigation is far from concluding, French has suggested it may culminate in an “October surprise,” perhaps even Palin's impeachment as Governor-- a game-changing outcome that would certainly increase the Democrats chances of winning the White House in November.
The final report, which French has already described as “damaging,” is set to be released on October 31, four days shy of the presidential election.
Since the investigation began last August, there have been disputes over the timing over the report’s release, as Therriault mentioned.
Although there’s been general agreement that Branchflower should conduct his investigation in a “timely” fashion, some Democratic politicos, like French, have been pushing for an October deadline.
French, who is “project director” of the inquiry against Palin, and investigator Branchflower are two of three main players in this investigation Republicans say have been tainted by partisan politics.
The other is Democratic Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of Alaska’s Legislature’s Legislative Council that’s overseeing the investigation. Both French and Elton are strong Obama backers.
Branchflower, who currently resides in South Carolina, was appointed by French to conduct the actual investigation. He worked with French several years ago when both were members of Alaskan law enforcement.
Palin’s lawyer Thomas Van Flein said the entire investigation is “unlawful and unconstitutional.” He recently wrote a terse letter to Branchflower, blasting the investigator’s “seemingly biased conduct of the investigation in recent weeks.”
Alaskan Republicans have asked Chairman Elton to replace French with someone less partisan, but Elton denied their request.
According to campaign finance data available on http://www.opensecrets.com/ Elton has donated at least $2,000 to Obama’s campaign.
Three other Democrats on the Elton’s 14-member council are also supporting Obama for president, as identified on Obama’s presidential website.
Further fueling the GOP’s fire is the fact that former Commissioner Monegan and state trooper Wooten are surprisingly mild-mannered about this “scandal” that’s blown into a national news story after Palin’s vice presidential appointment.
Monegan told the Anchorage Daily News on August 30 that he was never pressured to dismiss Palin’s former brother-in-law.
“For the record,” he said, “no one has ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff.”
Wooten, for his part, has reportedly turned down at least $30,000 from tabloids hungry for his side of the story. His union, however, the Public Safety Employees Association, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office, to find out if Wooten’s personnel file had ever been illegally disclosed.
The same week PSEA filed their complaint, CNN reported that Obama campaign officials had been contacting Wooten’s union, although Obama spokesmen have vehemently refuted CNN’s report as well as one from the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund that said more than 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researches had been deployed to Alaska to dig up dirt on Palin.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
THE MULLAHS LEGISLATING WOMEN INTO THE DARK AGES
by Amir Taheri
In one of his last sermons before his death, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini warned of "three threats" to his vision of Islam: the US, the Jews and women.
Two decades later, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has the United States and the Jews in hand - and is moving on the third "enemy."
Women were the first to demonstrate against Khomeini's regime with a mass rally in Tehran on March 8, 1979 - less than a month after the mullahs had seized power.
Over the next decade, the authorities imprisoned hundreds of thousands of women for varying lengths of time, and executed thousands.
Alan note: on one clamp down, about 120,000 women were arrested in the space of THREE days, using converted 18-wheeler container trucks as mobile prisons.
Crammed inside like cattle, full containers were offloaded into open spaces around the city or town and empty ones put on to round up more women. All over the country.
But women continued to fight a regime that deemed them subhuman. Their resistance prevented the mullahs from abrogating pre-revolutionary laws limiting gender discrimination.
Thus, women succeeded in keeping their right to vote and win public office.
They also retained a veto, granted by the shah, on their husbands' Islamic right to take up to four permanent wives and countless temporary concubines.
Last June, Ahmadinejad sought to remove that veto, launching a campaign with quotations from the Prophet and the 12 Imams of Shiite Islam to prove that men who took many wives would have a fast track to paradise.
To make polygamy practically impossible, a law predating the revolution required men seeking added wives to prove that they're financially capable of running more than one household.
Since few can meet that condition, the number of Iranian men with more than one wife had fallen to a few hundred before the mullahs seized power.
And most of those polygamists were mullahs or wealthy bazaar merchants associated with them.
Last month, Ahmadinejad presented a draft bill designed to "re-Islamicize" the status of women. He claimed that the shah had used laws inspired by "Zionist-Crusaders" to deal with women's issues.
His new law would restore men's Islamic right to divorce their wives without even informing them. Men would also be absolved from paying alimony.
In exchange, they'd be required to pay a mahrieh (a severance payment, whose amount is set in the marriage contract) to a wife they wish to divorce.
But the draft law also plans a hefty government tax on the mahrieh. So a divorced woman left with no alimony and no resources except her mahrieh could end up losing most of that to the government.
"This text is designed to return women to the dark ages," says Sousan Tahmaspi, a spokesperson for the campaign against the law.
To prevent the law's passage, women have been holding meetings nationwide, and launched a campaign to collect a million signatures in support of gender equality.
This week, their campaign seemed to have produced some results: The speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Iran's ersatz parliament, opted to delay formal debate on the measure.
"The text has not been withdrawn," a spokesman for Ahmadinejad said Monday. "It will be debated when we have a calmer atmosphere." To get that "calm," the regime has launched a crackdown against women's-rights groups.
This week, four leading campaigners (Pari Ardalan, Nahid Keshavarz, Maryam Hussein Khah and Zhaleh Javaheri) got sentenced to six months in prison in what their lawyers call "kangaroo courts."
A fifth campaigner, Zeinab Bayazidi got a four-year sentence.
And at least five women's-rights advocates have gone missing. One, Solmaz Igdar, was abducted on her way home in Tehran, her family says.
The Khomeinist propaganda machine seeks to portray the women's movement as part of a plot by "Zionists and Crusaders" to undermine Islam.
In recent days, government media have published claims linking Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has spoken in support of the women's movement, to the Bahai faith, a religion banned by the regime.
This is a deadly threat: To abandon Islam for another faith carries a death sentence.
(Alan note: before you feel too sorry for Ebadi, she has been a Mullah shill and was given the"women's movement" platform as a smokescreen to show they allowed dissent. Clearly, they now want to remove even the pretense they set up).
"Free people everywhere should speak out in support of Iranian women," says Tehran feminist Haydeh Karimi.
"The proposed law is the thin end of a wedge.
Ahmadinejad wants women out of universities and public life. He thinks he can curb mass unemployment by forcing women out of work, giving their jobs to men."
In one of his last sermons before his death, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini warned of "three threats" to his vision of Islam: the US, the Jews and women.
Two decades later, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he has the United States and the Jews in hand - and is moving on the third "enemy."
Women were the first to demonstrate against Khomeini's regime with a mass rally in Tehran on March 8, 1979 - less than a month after the mullahs had seized power.
Over the next decade, the authorities imprisoned hundreds of thousands of women for varying lengths of time, and executed thousands.
Alan note: on one clamp down, about 120,000 women were arrested in the space of THREE days, using converted 18-wheeler container trucks as mobile prisons.
Crammed inside like cattle, full containers were offloaded into open spaces around the city or town and empty ones put on to round up more women. All over the country.
But women continued to fight a regime that deemed them subhuman. Their resistance prevented the mullahs from abrogating pre-revolutionary laws limiting gender discrimination.
Thus, women succeeded in keeping their right to vote and win public office.
They also retained a veto, granted by the shah, on their husbands' Islamic right to take up to four permanent wives and countless temporary concubines.
Last June, Ahmadinejad sought to remove that veto, launching a campaign with quotations from the Prophet and the 12 Imams of Shiite Islam to prove that men who took many wives would have a fast track to paradise.
To make polygamy practically impossible, a law predating the revolution required men seeking added wives to prove that they're financially capable of running more than one household.
Since few can meet that condition, the number of Iranian men with more than one wife had fallen to a few hundred before the mullahs seized power.
And most of those polygamists were mullahs or wealthy bazaar merchants associated with them.
Last month, Ahmadinejad presented a draft bill designed to "re-Islamicize" the status of women. He claimed that the shah had used laws inspired by "Zionist-Crusaders" to deal with women's issues.
His new law would restore men's Islamic right to divorce their wives without even informing them. Men would also be absolved from paying alimony.
In exchange, they'd be required to pay a mahrieh (a severance payment, whose amount is set in the marriage contract) to a wife they wish to divorce.
But the draft law also plans a hefty government tax on the mahrieh. So a divorced woman left with no alimony and no resources except her mahrieh could end up losing most of that to the government.
"This text is designed to return women to the dark ages," says Sousan Tahmaspi, a spokesperson for the campaign against the law.
To prevent the law's passage, women have been holding meetings nationwide, and launched a campaign to collect a million signatures in support of gender equality.
This week, their campaign seemed to have produced some results: The speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Iran's ersatz parliament, opted to delay formal debate on the measure.
"The text has not been withdrawn," a spokesman for Ahmadinejad said Monday. "It will be debated when we have a calmer atmosphere." To get that "calm," the regime has launched a crackdown against women's-rights groups.
This week, four leading campaigners (Pari Ardalan, Nahid Keshavarz, Maryam Hussein Khah and Zhaleh Javaheri) got sentenced to six months in prison in what their lawyers call "kangaroo courts."
A fifth campaigner, Zeinab Bayazidi got a four-year sentence.
And at least five women's-rights advocates have gone missing. One, Solmaz Igdar, was abducted on her way home in Tehran, her family says.
The Khomeinist propaganda machine seeks to portray the women's movement as part of a plot by "Zionists and Crusaders" to undermine Islam.
In recent days, government media have published claims linking Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has spoken in support of the women's movement, to the Bahai faith, a religion banned by the regime.
This is a deadly threat: To abandon Islam for another faith carries a death sentence.
(Alan note: before you feel too sorry for Ebadi, she has been a Mullah shill and was given the"women's movement" platform as a smokescreen to show they allowed dissent. Clearly, they now want to remove even the pretense they set up).
"Free people everywhere should speak out in support of Iranian women," says Tehran feminist Haydeh Karimi.
"The proposed law is the thin end of a wedge.
Ahmadinejad wants women out of universities and public life. He thinks he can curb mass unemployment by forcing women out of work, giving their jobs to men."
Saturday, September 06, 2008
TALE OF THE TAPE PALIN v. Obama
Tale of the Tape: Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama
Sarah Palin (red)
Barack Obama (green)
Vice President
President of the United States and Leader of the Free World
Full name
Sarah Louise Heath Palin
Barack Hussein Obama II (anybody certain?)
Nickname
Sarah Barracuda
Barry Obama; "The One"
Public opinion
Smoking hot in a "naughty librarian" sort of way
May be The Messiah
Age
44
48
Children
5: two sons, three daughters
2: two daughters
Religion/Church attendance
Evangelical Christian;attends Juneau Christian Center when in Juneau and grew up attending Wasilla Assembly of God
Attended Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years, a "black liberation theology" church formerly led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright and governed according to the Black Value System
Current Job
Governor of Alaska
Junior Senator from Illinois
Previous Public Jobs
Mayor of Wasilla, AK (1996-2002); President of Alaska Conference of Mayors;City Council member (1992-1996)
State Senator (1997-2004);Community Organizer
Executive Experience
Governor for 2 years;Mayor for 10 years
NONE
Foreign Relations experience
Governor of state that borders two foreign countries (Canada and Russia)
Chaired Senate subcommittee on Europe but never called it into session; once gave a speech to 200,000 screaming Germans who were attending a ROCK CONCERT that was "Paid for" by the Democratic Party.
Military Affairs experience
Commander in Chief of Alaska National Guard;Son is enlisted Infantryman in U.S. Army
NONE
Private Sector Experience
Sports reporter;Salmon fisherman
Associate at civil rights law firm
Speaking ability
Beautifully executed initial stump speech in Dayton, OH hockey arena without a teleprompter
An enter...wait--did you say without a teleprompter??
Spouse's name
Todd Mitchell Palin
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama
Spouse's occupation
Salmon fisherman;Former North Slope production supervisor for BP Oil
Vice President for Community and External Affairs at University of Chicago Hospitals;former Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago;former Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies;former Assistant to the Mayor of Chicago;former associate at Sidley Austin law firm
Reaction to spouse's political success
Quit 17-year BP oil job when BP became involved in natural gas pipeline negotiations with wife's administration
Promoted and given 160% pay raise by UofC hospitals within months of husband's election to U.S. Senate; Employer received $1,000,000.00 federal earmark, requested by husband, after her promotion
Coolest thing about Spouse
Tesoro Iron Dog Snowmobile race champion (longest snowmobile race in the world);In 2008, while defending his championship, was injured when he was thrown 70 feet from his machine. He was sent to the hospital but still finished in fourth place
Sister of Oregon State University head basketball coach Craig Robinson
Most Courageous Moment in Public Service
Resigned in protest from position of Ethics Commissioner of Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in order to expose legal violations and conflicts of interest of Alaska Republican leaders, including the former state Attorney General and the State GOP Chairman (who was also an Oil & Gas Commissioner), who was doing work for the party on public time and supplying a lobbyist with a sensitive e-mail.
Gave an anti-Iraq war speech to a crowd of anti-Iraq war demonstrators in Hyde Park in 2002
In Current Office Because...
Upset sitting Governor in GOP primary due to public support for her efforts to clean up corrupt government establishment
Republican opponent, who was leading in the polls, was forced to leave race after unsealing of divorce records exposed a sex scandal
Theme:
Change and Clean Government
Hope and Change;"Bringing Change from Outside Washington"
What they've done to live that theme:
Replaced entire Board of Agriculture and Conservation because of conflict of interest; Resigned from position of Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in order to expose corruption among members of own party
Selected 36-year incumbent Senator as running mate
Family Affairs
May have removed State Public Safety Commissioner as part of effort to protect sister in messy divorce and child custody battle
Often says, "I am my brother's keeper"; Brother lives in a hut in Nairobi on $12 per year
Union affiliation
Union member, married to Union member
Endorsed by a union
Iraq and Troop Support
Formerly (pre-surge) critical of apparent lack of long-term strategy for Iraq; Visited wounded U.S. soldiers in Germany;visited AK National Guard soldiers deployed to Kuwait; Son deploying to Iraq on 9/11/08 as Army infantryman
Gave an anti-Iraq war speech to a crowd of anti-Iraq war demonstrators;. ALMOST visited wounded troops in Germany, but decided to go shopping in Berlin instead
Bipartisan/"maverick" credentials
Married to a non-Republican; Exposed corruption within own party;Campaigned for Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell against corrupt GOP congressman Don Young; Called out Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) to "come clean" about financial dealings that are under fed investigation
Talks about bipartisanship
Legislative Record
Passed a landmark ethics reform bill; Used veto to cut budgetary spending; Prevented "bridge to nowhere" that would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars.
Voted "present" over 100 times as IL state senator
How they dealt with corrupt individuals in home city/state
Exposed legal violations and conflicts of interest of Alaska Republican leaders; Campaigned against corrupt GOP Representative; Ran against and defeated corrupt incumbent governor in GOP primary
Launched political career in home of unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (and still refers to him as a part of "mainstream Democratic Chicago"; Purchased home with help of convicted felon Tony Rezko
Guns
Lifetime member of NRA and avid hunter;video can be found on YouTube of Palin firing an M4 at a military firing range
Worked to pass legislation in Illinois that would prevent all law-abiding citizens from owning firearms
Earmarks
Opposed "Bridge to Nowhere" project;Said Alaska should avoid relying on federal money for projects;Campaigned against porker Don Young (R-AK) in 2008 primary
Secured federal earmarks for wife's employer and for campaign bundlers
Abortion
Pro life;gave birth to 5th child knowing that he would have Down's syndrome
Pro-choice;only IL state sen. to speak against the Born Alive Infant's Protection Act, which required medical care to be given to live infants who survived abortions
Energy
Believes energy independence is a matter of national security;For drilling in ANWR, which is in her state
Says Americans should "get tune-ups" and "check tire pressure"; Says "we can't expect the world to be okay with" our use of heating and air conditioning
Environment
Chair of Alaska Conservation Commission (2003-4); Announced plans to create sub-cabinet group of advisors to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in AK
Talks about the environment a lot
Athletic prowess
Runs marathons
Has reporters tailing him to the gym
NOW - YOU TELL ME WHICH ONE OF THESE TWO CANDIDATES IS ETHICAL, NOT AFRAID TO GO AGAINST PARTY LINES, WORKS HARD, ACCOMPLISHES THINGS, AND IS A POLITICAL LEADER OF WHOM WE COULD BE PROUD?
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
FORCED MARRIAGES
PAKISTAN MOSLEMS BURY FIVE WOMEN ALIVE FOR WANTING TO HAVE A SAY IN THE CHOICE OF THEIR FUTURE HUSBANDS. BRUTAL! BUT IT'S MOSLEM PAKISTAN'S VERY HARD LINE BALUCHI TRIBESMEN.
Now the lack of choice has spread to Londonistan and terrifying Britain's Members of Parliament who dare not discuss it.
Ann Cryer said politicians in areas with high Muslim populations, many of which are Labour heartlands, should be at the forefront of the campaign to stop young couples being made to wed against their will by their families.
But she claimed that some politicians are afraid to speak out on the issue in case they alienate Muslim voters. The forced marriage unit at the Foreign Office deals with an estimated 300 cases every year, most of them involving teenage girls from Pakistani or Bangladeshi families.
Mrs Cryer, who is stepping down as MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire at the next general election, added that local Muslim leaders are not doing enough to encourage integration and accused them of trying to keep immigrants who move to Britain "in the backwoods".
It comes just days after Gordon Brown praised her "brave" campaign against forced marriage, and said her understanding of her constituency was "second to none".
Mrs Cryer, 68, said: "There still is a nervousness to talk about this, especially those MPs in constituencies affected by these issues.
"They should be fighting on the front line, but they are the ones keeping quiet on the issue because they don't want to lose votes.
"Some of the Muslim leaders in my area are doing their communities a disservice and trying to keep them in the backwoods. They don't seem to have any understanding about the importance of having integration and cohesion, or to promote women to leadership roles in the community."
Mrs Cryer has been at the forefront of efforts to ban forced marriages and honour killings.
A law that she backed, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act, which will come into effect this month, will help by giving women the right to apply for an injunction in court and prevent a ceremony going ahead. Her campaigning has also led to the Government raising the minimum age for a marriage visa from 18 to 21.
When Mrs Cryer announced her retirement last week, the Prime Minister said: "She knows every inch of her constituency and her understanding of its communities is second to none.
"After encountering a number of forced marriages among her constituents, she mounted a brave campaign to highlight the sometimes appalling mistreatment of women forced to be brides."
However Mrs Cryer's claims have been dismissed by Khalid Mahmood, the Muslim Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr.
He claimed that MPs would not be so easily swayed by the perceived opinions of their constituents, and pointed out that many politicians supported the war in Iraq despite opposition from Muslim voters.
Mr Mahmood said: "In terms of being scared, I think that's complete nonsense. Most MPs will speak their minds because that's what they're there for and most of them are strong enough characters.
"People do things because they believe in them, not because of this cynical reason. If that was the case, MPs would have stood up against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars."
He added: "I've been adamantly against forced marriage and people have supported me in that. We've also got a rigid system with the embassy in Islamabad now and although it is an issue, it's not an epidemic as Ann sometimes makes it out to be."
Now the lack of choice has spread to Londonistan and terrifying Britain's Members of Parliament who dare not discuss it.
Ann Cryer said politicians in areas with high Muslim populations, many of which are Labour heartlands, should be at the forefront of the campaign to stop young couples being made to wed against their will by their families.
But she claimed that some politicians are afraid to speak out on the issue in case they alienate Muslim voters. The forced marriage unit at the Foreign Office deals with an estimated 300 cases every year, most of them involving teenage girls from Pakistani or Bangladeshi families.
Mrs Cryer, who is stepping down as MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire at the next general election, added that local Muslim leaders are not doing enough to encourage integration and accused them of trying to keep immigrants who move to Britain "in the backwoods".
It comes just days after Gordon Brown praised her "brave" campaign against forced marriage, and said her understanding of her constituency was "second to none".
Mrs Cryer, 68, said: "There still is a nervousness to talk about this, especially those MPs in constituencies affected by these issues.
"They should be fighting on the front line, but they are the ones keeping quiet on the issue because they don't want to lose votes.
"Some of the Muslim leaders in my area are doing their communities a disservice and trying to keep them in the backwoods. They don't seem to have any understanding about the importance of having integration and cohesion, or to promote women to leadership roles in the community."
Mrs Cryer has been at the forefront of efforts to ban forced marriages and honour killings.
A law that she backed, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act, which will come into effect this month, will help by giving women the right to apply for an injunction in court and prevent a ceremony going ahead. Her campaigning has also led to the Government raising the minimum age for a marriage visa from 18 to 21.
When Mrs Cryer announced her retirement last week, the Prime Minister said: "She knows every inch of her constituency and her understanding of its communities is second to none.
"After encountering a number of forced marriages among her constituents, she mounted a brave campaign to highlight the sometimes appalling mistreatment of women forced to be brides."
However Mrs Cryer's claims have been dismissed by Khalid Mahmood, the Muslim Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr.
He claimed that MPs would not be so easily swayed by the perceived opinions of their constituents, and pointed out that many politicians supported the war in Iraq despite opposition from Muslim voters.
Mr Mahmood said: "In terms of being scared, I think that's complete nonsense. Most MPs will speak their minds because that's what they're there for and most of them are strong enough characters.
"People do things because they believe in them, not because of this cynical reason. If that was the case, MPs would have stood up against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars."
He added: "I've been adamantly against forced marriage and people have supported me in that. We've also got a rigid system with the embassy in Islamabad now and although it is an issue, it's not an epidemic as Ann sometimes makes it out to be."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
