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Another Terrorist Meets His Maker. And It Ain't Allah.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 1:53:26 AM
He most likely got sent to the smoking section of eternity. From www.newstrackindia.com

Pakistani Taliban leader dead: Report

Islamabad, Oct 1 (DPA) Baitullah Mehsud, leader of Pakistan's Taliban militants died from illness, news reports said Wednesday.

Mehsud, believed to be in his 30s, suffered from high blood pressure and kidney disease, the Geo TV said.

The leader of a united front of smaller Taliban groups called the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban Movement, Mehsud was blamed for the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December.

He reportedly denied the charge.

According to other news reports, Taliban leaders denied the death of the ethnic Pashtun guerilla commander, who was based in South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold on the border with Afghanistan.

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"CAIR Tries to Censor California Politicians"

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 1:42:22 AM
From www.familysecuritymatters.org

Steve Emerson

The Investigative Project on Terrorism is among those who are critical of new guidelines discouraging the use of terms like "Islamist" and "jihad" when discussing terrorism and extremism that were issued earlier this year by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center.
 
While the agencies argue that the words may boost the popularity of terrorists among Muslim radicals, it's a bad idea to hide the motivations behind those who seek to attack the United States, or innocent people around the world. Another weakness was exposed last month, when the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attacked California Congressman Ed Royce (R-Orange County) for using the term "Islamist terrorism."
 
In an article posted on its website September 10th, CAIR engages in the kind of hyperbolic rationalization it routinely accuses others of using against it. The article describes a letter to Royce from 22 religious leaders of various faiths and community activists. The website article quotes Sharaf Mowjood, identified as CAIR-Los Angeles Government Relations Coordinator, claiming that the DHS language is meant to prevent future terrorist attacks. "So if Royce cares about preventing the next terrorist attack, maybe he should follow what the DHS says," Mowjood said.
 
Even by CAIR's standards, Mowjood's comment is inane. Stop calling people names and they'll stop attacking you? That might work on the third-grade playground, but hurt feelings aren't driving Osama bin Laden or those attracted to his cause. When he declared war on the United States in 1998, our nomenclature wasn't mentioned. Rather, he listed a series of grievances that he saw justifying his Jihad against America, including the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. He also provided religious justification for his fight:
 
"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, ‘and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and ‘fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God.'" (Emphasis added)
 
By the same token, charters for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad draw heavily from religious texts and interpretations. And all three vow to impose Sharia – Islamic law – once they ascend to power. Somehow, it's supposed to be good policy not to discuss that in polite company.
 
In the article, CAIR-Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush says religious motivations behind terrorist attacks shouldn't be considered.
 
"The fact remains, we don't describe extremist Israeli settlers who target Palestinian civilians as ‘Jewish terrorists' nor abortion clinic bombers as ‘Christian terrorists' – and rightly so. No faith should be falsely associated with the criminal behavior of a few. Not Islam, not Judaism, not Christianity."
 
Such a sensitive man, Hussam Ayloush. He says he doesn't describe Israeli settlers who target Palestinian civilians as "Jewish terrorists." But he does call Israelis "zionazis." In a 2002 email, Ayloush wrote, "Indeed, the zionazis are a bunch of nice people; just like their nazi brethren! It is just that the world keeps making up lies about them! It is so unfair."
 
The bottom line is, once you think your God sanctions the murder of innocents, your terrorism is wed to your faith, no matter what it may be. So while we're on the subject, Baruch Goldstein, who slaughtered 29 Palestinians at prayer before he was killed, was a Jewish terrorist. He was a member of Meir Kahane's Kach party, which President Clinton labeled as terrorist organization in 1995.
 
Would those sending Congressman Royce the letter disagree? Noting Royce's seat as ranking Republican on the House Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the letter suggested he should yield to the DHS guidelines. They are "more effective at isolating extremists and removing the false claim of religiosity they seek to justify their barbaric actions."
 
Meanwhile, the folks at Anti-CAIR report that Ayloush's paranoia hunt continued this week, when he sent a letter to Irvine, Cal. City Council member Steven Choi. The letter accused Choi of slurring CAIR during a recent candidate forum in a manner "tantamount to public defamation."
 
Choi's sin? He called CAIR a "dangerous Islamic organization."
 
In an interview Friday afternoon, Choi said he made his remarks after researching CAIR's history and seeing a number of other public officials express concern about the group. One of the candidates for Irvine's council, Todd Gallinger, is an attorney who has represented CAIR, Choi said. That made CAIR's radicalism relevant at the forum.
 
However, he said CAIR and others are twisting his comments to make it appear he condemned Muslims in general and not the organization. He said he has no intention of responding to CAIR's letter.
 
If a national political organization was founded by members of a secret committee created to help a terrorist group, if their officials admit the need to lie to Americans about their true objectives, does that make them dangerous?

 

California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore rallied to Choi's defense with a posting of his own in which he details why CAIR's denials about a link to Hamas aren't credible.
 
There is no dispute that CAIR's founders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad participated in a secret meeting of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee in 1993. It was called to discuss ways to "derail" the Oslo peace effort. Ahmad, now CAIR's chairman emeritus, actually called the meeting to order (page 10). And, in that meeting, Ahmad and others discuss the need to mislead Americans (page 14):
 
Omar Ahmad: We've always demanded the 1948 territories. I mean, we demanded …
 
Unidentified Speaker: Yes, but we don't say that publicly. You cannot say it publicly. In front of the Americans…
 
Omar Ahmad: No, we didn't say that to the Americans.
 
These transcripts have been in the public domain for more than a year. CAIR has yet to answer to them. Instead, its representatives like Ayloush lash out at those who have read them and use them as a basis to draw conclusions about the organization.
 
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is documented to have duck DNA, pasting a tail and whiskers on it won't make it a cat. CAIR can call itself a "prominent Islamic civil rights organization" all it wants, it's still part of the Palestine Committee for the Muslim Brotherhood with major ties to Hamas.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Steven Emerson is an internationally recognized expert on terrorism and national security and heads the Investigative Project on Terrorism.


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"The enemy of my enemy is my friend". Islamist And The Hard Left.

Posted by InchDeep on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 1:38:42 AM
Sub-Head: Why Terrorist want Obama to win the White House.

Here is a pull quote.

The old rule that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" seems to be shaping the relationship between the hard left and Islamists in Britain today. By having a common foe in western capitalism, which they conveniently blame for all of the world's ills, they have developed a marriage of convenience against the odds.

Here is the whole story from www.guardian.co.uk

An unlikely alliance

Islamists and the radical left have little in common apart from a hatred of the west and western capitalism

What do the far left and Islamists have in common? Not a lot, you may say, but you would be wrong. Despite being ideologically at the extremes of the political spectrum, they in fact share one worrying trait.

The old rule that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" seems to be shaping the relationship between the hard left and Islamists in Britain today. By having a common foe in western capitalism, which they conveniently blame for all of the world's ills, they have developed a marriage of convenience against the odds.

This alliance can also be seen on the international stage as Hugo Chávez holds hands with Iran's Ahmedinejad while our own Ken Livingstone hugs Yusuf al-Qaradawi. It was also evident at anti-Iraq war rallies where CND, the Socialist Workers Party and RespectMuslim Association of Britain (MAB) and the British Muslim Initiative which are schismatic offshoots of radical Islamism. shared platforms with the likes of the

Azzam Tamimi (spokesman for MAB) when asked by BBC Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian if he was prepared to blow himself up in Palestine, replied: "If I can go to Palestine and sacrifice myself I would do it. Why not?"

Now don't get me wrong – I'm all for people of different backgrounds coming together and working in harmony. But it worries me slightly when the only thing that's really binding these divergent factions is not their love for all humanity or their desire to see a totalitarian state, but their common hatred of the west which can be called "westophobia". There, I've used it, the one word that can actually sum up all the various groupings that are ideologically driven to view the west and western capitalism as "the enemy".

Westophobia can be defined as a form of prejudice against the west, and hatred of the west, its values and peoples. This form of prejudice is commonly found in the Arab world and increasingly in today's Kremlin, not to mention amongst Islamists and the hard left. Symptomatic of this prejudice is a mindset that blames world poverty, disease, internal conflicts and in some cases even natural disasters on western foreign policy or intervention.

This is not to say that any opposition to western foreign policy, including the Iraq war or silence on Israeli aggression, should be deemed westophobic – just as support for western policy should not open one up to "neocon" or "Zionist" name-calling. I am referring to those instances where the blame game takes on a nihilistic and exaggerated element, often motivated by ideological opposition to western capitalism.

In many cases such an attitude can appear to provide a political justification for violence. For example, on July 8 2005, Robert Fisk wrote an article in which he claimed: "The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush – and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives – while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali."

He went on say: "[What] we are confronting here is a specific, direct, centralised attack on London as a result of a 'war on terror' that Blair has locked us into."

What such commentators fail to understand is that terrorists inspired by al-Qaida are not reactionary; rather they are pro-active and have a homegrown agenda, one not just of defence but one of conquest, destruction and subjugation.

In Islamist thought the west is viewed as the very embodiment of evil itself, the great satan to be opposed and fought at all costs in the struggle of good versus evil. The west is presented as one great unified body whose sole purpose is to destroy Islam and humiliate Muslims. According to the former global leader of the extremist Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, the late Abdul Qadeem Zalloom: "... when the discerning and sincere people say that the British are the head of kufr [unbelief] among all the other kufr states, they mean exactly that, for they are indeed the head of kufr and they are the arch-enemies of Islam. The Muslims should indeed harbour hatred for the British and a yearning for revenge over them ..." (How the Khilafah was Destroyed, page 186).

Perhaps the greatest embodiment of this unique westophobia-inspired relationship is the Respect coalition which is an eclectic cocktail of Islamists and Leninists. This is a unique party indeed, in that it throws together secular and theocratic advocates of totalitarianism. The hard left's and the Islamists' struggle against the west is coupled with the Soviet nostalgia of the former and the latter's caliphate mythology.

Can these two groupings really work on a common agenda? Well, for a start they both promote bizarre James Bond-villianesque conspiracy theories, and a westophobic world view, but their visions of the future are quite different. For how long will they continue to tolerate each others' views? How do people who believe that homosexuals should be thrown off high buildings build coalitions with those who promote gay rights? How do people who believe in strict gender segregation and face veils work with people who support women's lib? These schisms are sometimes apparent when gay leftists get too close to conservative Islamists and they yell "Islamophobe" and "homophobe" at one another. Rarely do they concede that they bond on another phobia: westophobia




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Why Whales Like Global Warming. They Can Make More Long Distance "Phone Calls"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 1:08:22 PM
whale talk
Sounds Travel Farther Underwater As World's Oceans Become More Acidic

ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2008) — It is common knowledge that the world's oceans and atmosphere are warming as humans release more and more carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere. However, fewer people realize that the chemistry of the oceans is also changing—seawater is becoming more acidic as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves in the oceans.

Read The Rest>>>
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080929144116.htm
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"Curious swoop to reveal life of boy Obama" The Story Of "Fat Little Barry"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 12:37:45 PM
From www.theage.com.au Here are the pull quotes.

One woman, 66-year-old grandmother Djoemaiti, remembers "fat little Barry" (as he was called then). "When he ran he looked like a duck."

At first Obama was a shy "momma's boy", Mr Dasaad said, but he gradually embraced Indonesia and its culture as his language skills grew. "He was curious; he wanted to learn everything about Indonesian life."

He remembers buying Obama a notebook and pencils for his 10th birthday, as he loved to draw. "He liked to draw superheroes; it was always Batman or Superman."

Seems to me there was another Fascist Dictator who liked to draw.


  • Mark Forbes, Jakarta
  • October 1, 2008

PAST a large mosque and a park, on a rundown side-street in the upscale Jakarta suburb of Menteng, the pilgrimage has started. The curious, the journalists, the entrepreneurs — they're all searching for traces of Barack Obama, the chubby little boy who spent two years living at number 22 Jalan Taman Amir Hamzah and who may be poised to become America's next president.

Along the street, few old-timers recall the boy who moved in with his American mother and Indonesia stepfather in 1970. They find it difficult to believe that a one-time neighbour could lead the Western world.

One woman, 66-year-old grandmother Djoemaiti, remembers "fat little Barry" (as he was called then). "When he ran he looked like a duck."

Inside the old, narrow, art-deco house sits Obama's former landlord, Abu Bakar, a chain-smoking 78-year-old, who saw no sign of the sparkling future for the nine-year-old he once taught table tennis.

"I treated Obama as the son of the man who rented this house," Abu Bakar said. "To me he was just an ordinary boy. I did not give him much attention of course, because I did not imagine he would become an important person."

His only abiding memory is of the morning Jenngo, Obama's pet poodle, escaped and failed to return, leaving Obama in tears.

Abu Bakar shows us through the narrow, two-bedroom home, pointing out the couch where Obama sat for a family portrait and the room he shared with his nanny.

He pulls out a list of the dozen journalists who preceded us, shaking his head at the questions and the thought of many more to come.

Here too has come the colourful, Dutch-born Jakarta bar-owner, Bart Bartelle, wanting to turn the home into a tourist attraction — the "Sweet Home Obama" bar — with merchandising, T-shirts, his chocolate-dipped black-and-white stroop waffles and an "Obama blend" coffee (mixing beans from Kenya and Java), and plans to hire his former primary schoolteacher to entertain visitors. He spent several days searching Menteng's streets for the home, with locals laughing at his suggestion that the next American president could be a black man who lived nearby.

Mr Bartelle opened his Bugils (local slang for crazy foreigner) bar in 1990, and now has seven establishments across Jakarta. He hopes to strike a deal with Abu Bakar and open the Obama bar on November 1, four days before the presidential poll.

"It's a bit of gamble," Mr Bartelle said. "If he doesn't get elected we are stuffed." Abu Bakar also needs to be persuaded that the bar would not disturb the neighbours, and to agree on a price.

An Obama bar would attract locals and tourists. As his presidential campaign gathered steam, enthusiasm for Obama in Jakarta and appropriation of his Indonesian background has grown.

When a whispering campaign began in Washington that Obama had attended a radical Islamic school, it galvanised his former classmates from the nearby Besuki Primary School. Photographer Rully Dasaad formed an Obama Fan Club and almost all of his 24 classmates joined, dismissing suggestions Obama was educated as a Muslim.

"The claims it was madrassa (Islamic school) were unfair," Mr Dasaad said.

"In our time we had Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists all mixed in one class. Every morning we would recite the state ideology of Pancasila (promoting unity in diversity)."

Mr Dasaad has watched Obama's campaign speeches, and claims his promotion of unity and equality was born from those early lessons.

At first Obama was a shy "momma's boy", Mr Dasaad said, but he gradually embraced Indonesia and its culture as his language skills grew. "He was curious; he wanted to learn everything about Indonesian life."

Coming from one of Indonesia's wealthiest families and with an American aunt, Mr Dasaad spoke English well and took "chubby Barry" under his wing. They joined the boy scouts together and every lunchtime would play "tak gebok", an Indonesian version of dodgeball.

He remembers buying Obama a notebook and pencils for his 10th birthday, as he loved to draw. "He liked to draw superheroes; it was always Batman or Superman."

Mr Dasaad also saw no signs of greatness. "He was just a humble, cheerful kid. He never did anything wrong."

The one clue of Obama's ambitions came in his grade 3 writing class. Asked to list his goal in life, Obama simply wrote "the presidency".

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Women In Saudi Arabia Strive For Equality To Cause Car Accident Just Like They Do In The U.S.

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 12:23:30 PM


RIYADH (AFP) A young woman in Saudi Arabia who defied ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on women driving was injured when the car span out of control and plunged into a stream, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The unnamed woman in her 20s "stole" her brother's car on Sunday, picked up a female friend and drove at high speed through a town in the Eastern Province before losing control of the vehicle, Al-Riyadh said.

The car hit an electricity pole and plunged into an irrigation channel. Both the driver and her friend were taken to hospital in serious condition, the paper said.

There have been several incidents reported in recent years of women being killed in accidents when they were driving in defiance of the ban -- which is just one of a host of restrictions imposed on women in Saudi Arabia.

Women's rights campaigners have petitioned King Abdullah twice in the past year urging him to lift the ban.

Women in the Muslim Gulf kingdom are legally obliged to cover up from head to toe in public, and cannot travel without written permission from a male guardian.

© 2008 Agence France-Presse



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"Man fishes for underwear"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 12:04:03 PM
From www.news24.com

Tokyo - Tokyo police said on Tuesday they had arrested a man with a passion for women's underwear who used a fishing rod to reel them in.

Akira Hino, 51, was arrested last week for stealing a pair of knickers from a laundry pole on a second-floor balcony, a police spokesperson said.

He stretched out a three-metre rod and caught the underwear on a hook, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.

Called to his house, police found more than 500 pairs of women's underwear inside. He reportedly told investigators he had got into the habit of stealing undergarments when he was 18.

It was not known for how long he had been using a fishing rod.




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"Brilliant Ok May Be Not."

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 11:17:41 AM
Iran minister admits holding fake Oxford degree

From www.metimes.com

TEHRAN (AFP) Iran's Interior Minister Ali Kordan has admitted to holding a fake Oxford University degree which he thought was valid, coming clean after weeks of controversy, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"In a letter to the president on Saturday, Ali Kordan said he had pressed charges against the person who claimed to represent Oxford University in Tehran as soon as he realised his degree was fake," the government daily Iran said.

Pressure has been mounting on Kordan after Britain's prestigious university denied awarding him any qualification through a representative.

"Over the past eight years, I never doubted the validity of the degree and that's why I presented it in the course of the confidence vote," Kordan wrote in his letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The minister, who was appointed in August, said he approached Oxford University after MPs cast doubt on his degree, but "to my utter disbelief, the university did not confirm (the degree) when my representative went there".

The degree had been issued for his "managerial and executive experience and for submitting a thesis to Oxford University via a person who had opened an affiliate office in Tehran in English-language affairs," the minister said.

Kordan said his search for the intermediary had proven fruitless and that he had filed a complaint against the unnamed person on September 14.

© 2008 Agence France-Presse





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"Dennis Prager Discusses Homosexuality at Focus Chapel Service"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:47:40 AM
Good stuff. Take a listen.

Talk-show host Dennis Prager recently spoke at the monthly Focus on the Family all-staff chapel. Dr. James Dobson asked him to talk about homosexuality in the Old Testament as it relates to today’s culture.

Dr. Dobson called it "one of the best chapel programs of the year" and is offering Prager's presentation to his radio audience. Part 1 aired today; Part 2 airs Tuesday.


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"Odor of pot led to bust of priest, parishioner"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:38:16 AM
D'oh

From dailymail.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- South Charleston Patrolman S. W. Miller was on duty with his police drug dog, Vader, when the odor of marijuana filtered into his police cruiser.

It was the odor that eventually led to the Sunday night arrest of a local priest, shocking a congregation and a community.

As Miller recounted in a telephone interview with the Daily Mail, strange smells can make their way into vehicles through windows and air vents, but the odor of marijuana is distinct.

With no other cars around except for the silver Chrysler mini-van in front of him, Miller turned on his lights and siren at Kanawha Turnpike and Elm Street. It was 10:35 p.m.

The mini van pulled over, and inside were Jim O'Connor, the pastor at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in South Charleston, and one of the parishioners, Michael Joseph Deegan, also well-known in the community as a substance abuse counselor.

Miller said the two were smoking marijuana while driving with the windows of the van rolled down. That's why the smell had been so prevalent, the officer said.

Miller wrote in a criminal complaint later filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court that he could still smell marijuana as he approached the van. The officer says he searched the mini-van with O'Connor's permission and found a black bag in the back of the van containing 73 grams, or about 2.5 ounces, of a leafy material that wound up testing positive as marijuana.

The officer says he also found about 10 grams of marijuana on Deegan, rolled up in a white towel. That's about a third of an ounce.  

O'Connor was arrested, and his mini-van was towed, Miller said. Deegan was written a city citation for having the small amount of marijuana on him and then released. He walked back to his vehicle, which was parked at Blessed Sacrament.

Miller encountered Deegan again a short time later. The officer said O'Connor had given permission for his home, the rectory on E Street, to be searched, and that's where Miller was headed when he spotted Deegan.

He asked Deegan if he could search the car, and Deegan refused. So Miller got out Vader, his K-9 partner who always rides with him, and sent the dog to the vehicle. Vader indicated drugs were present, Miller said.

That gave him probable cause to search the car. Miller said he found 152 grams of marijuana, more than 5 ounces, there. So he took Deegan to jail, too.

O'Connor and Deegan were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. State law says possession of more than 15 grams is a felony.    

When pictures of the two men popped up Monday morning on the South Central Regional Jail Web site, word spread and the community reacted in disbelief.

O'Connor has served at Blessed Sacrament since transferring there in 2006. He previously served for 15 years at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Madison and St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Whitesville. He was raised in a Methodist family in Wellsburg and was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1982.

Deegan is a counselor and once served as president of the West Virginia Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.

By Monday afternoon, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston had suspended O'Connor while investigating the situation.

O'Connor hasn't been reached for comment, but Deegan apologized in comments made to The Associated Press.


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"Obama's ACORNs Grow Votes, Not Oaks"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:31:04 AM
From www.thebulletin.us Here is the pull quote.

As late as August 2008, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported criminal investigations against at least six ACORN workers who tried to add dead, imprisoned or imaginary people to the voter rolls. The ACORN effort is part of a massive national voter registration drive aimed at the fall presidential election. Democrats have opposed any measures requiring photo identification to register to prevent fraud. In the current financial bailout negotiations going on in Washington, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are trying to include ACORN as a recipient of federal funds as part of this program.

Here is the whole story.

Barack Obama's Campaign is using ACORN, a national organization representing the poor, to register new voters to vote for him. The senator's familiarity with ACORN began in Chicago when he was a community organizer and worked with ACORN staffers. ACORN's history is marked by acts of voter fraud and subsequent criminal convictions arising from these frauds, embezzlement, violent protests and union busting,

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is ostensibly a community organization that addresses housing, schools, neighborhood safety, health care, job conditions and voter registration. With a membership of more than 350,000, ACORN is organized into more than 850 neighborhood chapters in more than 100 cities across the United States.

The organization was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke, George Wiley and Gary Delgado. Wade Rathke's brother embezzled $948,607 from the group and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000, but ACORN executives did not inform law enforcement. A whistleblower revealed the fraud in 2008, leading to the departure of both Dale and Wade Rathke. The National Labor Relations Board also found that ACORN attempted to thwart union organizing efforts within its own organization by firing two workers attempting to unionize ACORN.

In Ohio, in 2004, four ACORN employees were indicted by a federal grand jury for submitting false voter registration forms. In January 2005, two Colorado ACORN workers were sentenced to community service for submitting false voter registrations. On Nov. 1, 2006, four part time ACORN employees were indicted in Kansas City, Mo., for voter registration fraud. Prosecutors said the indictments are part of a national investigation. ACORN was investigated in 2006 for submitting false voter registrations in St. Louis, Mo. Fraudulent voter registrations numbered 1,492.

In 2007, five Washington state ACORN workers were sentenced to jail. ACORN agreed to pay King County $25,000 for its investigative costs and acknowledged that the national organization could be subject to criminal prosecution if fraud reoccurred. In 2008, the Michigan Secretary of State office told the Detroit Free Press that ACORN had been submitting a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications to vote. On Sept. 17, the Bernalillo County clerk in New Mexico notified prosecutors that the office had received fraudulent registration cards.

ACORN receives significant funding by "persuading" local business owners to contribute to it. Its main source of funds, however, is the federal government. It receives federal funds for various community organizing efforts. The revenues from these programs are in the tens of millions of dollars. There is little government oversight over its use of the funds, which is why the founder's brother was able to embezzle almost a million dollars without detection.

Mr. Obama's connection to ACORN began in Chicago. Madeleine Talbot, the leader of Chicago ACORN was so impressed by Mr. Obama's organizing skills that she invited him to help train her own staff. Ms. Talbot was a key leader in an attempt by ACORN to storm the Chicago City Council during a living-wage debate. According to the Chicago Daily Herald, ACORN demonstrators pushed over the metal detector and table used to screen visitors, backed police against the doors to the council chamber, and blocked late-arriving aldermen and city staff from entering the session. Ms. Talbot was led away handcuffed, charged with mob action and disorderly conduct. This was the woman who first drew Mr. Obama into his alliance with ACORN and whose staff Mr. Obama helped train.

Mr. Obama served on the boards of two charitable foundations in Chicago, the Woods Fund and the Joyce Foundation. According to The New York Times, Mr. Obama's memberships on those foundation boards, "allowed him to help direct tens of millions of dollars in grants" to various liberal organizations, including the Chicago ACORN, "whose endorsement Mr. Obama sought and won in his state Senate race."

As late as August 2008, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported criminal investigations against at least six ACORN workers who tried to add dead, imprisoned or imaginary people to the voter rolls. The ACORN effort is part of a massive national voter registration drive aimed at the fall presidential election. Democrats have opposed any measures requiring photo identification to register to prevent fraud. In the current financial bailout negotiations going on in Washington, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are trying to include ACORN as a recipient of federal funds as part of this program.

Mr. Obama's repeated calls for reform and integrity in government obviously excludes the street politics and hooligan tactics of ACORN. His campaign and the Democratic Party have adopted an "anything goes to win the presidency" attitude. The absence of major news media coverage of Mr. Obama's relationship with ACORN is equally distressing.

 Abe Bernstein is a retired business executive. He can be reached at abebernstein@e-datasend.com

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"Is Everything Already Determined by God?"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:21:23 AM
Yes, yes it is. Even if Obamination gets elected. Sometime we need to be punished. And it looks like we are about to get spanked.

By Billy Graham
Christian Post Guest Columnist
Mon, Sep. 29 2008 09:21 AM EDT

Q: Is everything that happens already determined by God, and it's going to happen no matter what we do? Or do we have the ability to carry out plans on our own, regardless of what God hoped would happen? I have a real struggle understanding this. - G.N.

A: You aren't alone in your struggles about this question; theologians have struggled with it for centuries! Some have stressed God's absolute control over everything, while others have emphasized our freedom to act on our own.

The reason they haven't agreed is because the Bible teaches both God's sovereignty and our human responsibility. In other words, God is absolutely in control of everything - but at the same time, we also are responsible for our actions. I know this sounds like a contradiction, and from our human viewpoint it is. But from God's viewpoint it isn't - and someday God will make it clear to us when we get to heaven.

What difference does this make? First, never forget that because God is in control, He is working behind the scenes to accomplish His purposes - and because He is, we can have hope. What if it were all left up to us? What hope would we have then? But God is at work - and that should give us great comfort. The Bible says, "It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). The last chapter of history will be written by God, not Satan!

Second, because we aren't puppets, we have a choice: to believe in Christ and serve Him, or to reject Him and go our own way. Which will it be for you? Submit your life to Jesus Christ and serve Him alone - beginning today.




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Bowing To The Overlords Comes To America.

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 10:14:09 AM

US publisher of Muslim book closes office

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer
Published: Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:10 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:10 p.m.
NEW YORK -

The U.S. publisher of a controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad closed its offices as a "precautionary action," but emphasized that no threats had been received and that "The Jewel of Medina" would be released as planned.

"We were out of the office for a meeting today, and we felt it was unfair for the employees to be back there without management," Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort Books, said Monday. The publisher took on Sherry Jones' novel after it was dropped by Random House Inc. over security concerns.

In London, police said they arrested three men Saturday on suspicion of terror links, relating to a fire at the home and office of publisher Martin Rynja, whose Gibson Square announced earlier this month that it would issue "The Jewel of Medina," a fictionalized version of Muhammad and his child bride, Aisha.

Beaufort, the publisher that issued O.J. Simpson's reviled, once-rejected "If I Did It," plans to release "Jewel of Medina" on Oct. 15, with a first printing of 50,000.

As of Monday afternoon, the book was No. 204 on Amazon.com. Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc. will both stock the book in stores, according to spokeswomen for the superstore chains.

Kampmann said he has discussed possible security arrangements with the FBI and New York City police, but added that nothing was planned and that there were no immediate worries about safety.

Random House was supposed to publish Jones' novel in August, but pulled it after determining that Muslims would be offended by its subject matter. The publisher acknowledged that it received no specific threats, saying in a statement that "credible and unrelated sources" had warned that the book "could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

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"Male Teachers 'Are Key Role Models'"

Posted by InchDeep on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 2:23:22 AM
Pretty simple don't you think. Boys need a male role model. I know from personal experience that this need is even more pronounced for boy's who have no such role model at home. Either in a broken home or if little Johnny has to mommies. Broken homes are harder to avoid, but Johnny having two mommies is completely avoidable. A boy without a male role model will always struggle to be the man he is supposed to be. Pretending that two mommies can replace the role a father plays in a boys life is a pipe dream. Think about it.

From news.sky.com

3:27am UK, Tuesday September 30, 2008

Male primary school teachers appear to be a vital role models for many boys, with half of men quizzed in a survey saying a male teacher had been a fundamental role model in their life.

Male primary school teacher in classroom

Men account for just 13% of primary school teachers in the UK

The poll for the Training and Development Agency (TDA) of more than 800 men looked at the impact of male primary teachers in boys' development.

It found that more than a third (35%) felt that having a male primary teacher challenged them to work harder at school.

Those questioned also said that male teachers were more approachable.

Half (50%) said they were more likely to have asked a male teacher for help over bullying, a similar proportion (49%) were more likely to have approached them about problems with school work and 24% were more likely to have asked them them questions about puberty.

The survey was commissioned to tie in with a new TDA campaign urging men to consider teaching.

Potential primary teacher trainees have less than nine weeks left to apply for postgraduate training courses next year.

Figures recently released by the General Teaching Council for England show that men currently account for just 13% of registered primary school teachers.

And data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency last week showed a widening gulf between the numbers of men and women gaining teaching qualifications from higher education institutions.

In 2006-07, men accounted for less than a quarter of teaching qualifications obtained, the statistics revealed.

TDA chief executive Graham Holley said: "It is telling that more than one in 10 men would consider a teaching career if they felt they could improve the life chances of young boys, or if they heard positive things about male teachers from friends, family or the media.

"Not everyone can be a sports star or TV star, but they can be a 'star' in the classroom and help inspire thousands of young minds.

"We need to celebrate the important roles both male and female teachers play in schools, and work to redress the gender balance to ensure the healthy development of children today."

:: The ICM survey questioned 1,032 men between September 19 and 21. Of those 837 had a male teacher when they were at primary school.



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The rumors of Our demise have been greatly exaggerated

Posted by InchDeep on Monday, September 29, 2008 5:58:42 PM
From www.guardian.co.uk: A shattering moment in America's fall from power

The global financial crisis will see the US falter in the same way the Soviet Union did when the Berlin Wall came down. The era of American dominance is over

Our gaze might be on the markets melting down, but the upheaval we are experiencing is more than a financial crisis, however large. Here is a historic geopolitical shift, in which the balance of power in the world is being altered irrevocably. The era of American global leadership, reaching back to the Second World War, is over.

You can see it in the way America's dominion has slipped away in its own backyard, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez taunting and ridiculing the superpower with impunity. Yet the setback of America's standing at the global level is even more striking. With the nationalisation of crucial parts of the financial system, the American free-market creed has self-destructed while countries that retained overall control of markets have been vindicated. In a change as far-reaching in its implications as the fall of the Soviet Union, an entire model of government and the economy has collapsed.

Ever since the end of the Cold War, successive American administrations have lectured other countries on the necessity of sound finance. Indonesia, Thailand, Argentina and several African states endured severe cuts in spending and deep recessions as the price of aid from the International Monetary Fund, which enforced the American orthodoxy. China in particular was hectored relentlessly on the weakness of its banking system. But China's success has been based on its consistent contempt for Western advice and it is not Chinese banks that are currently going bust. How symbolic yesterday that Chinese astronauts take a spacewalk while the US Treasury Secretary is on his knees.

Despite incessantly urging other countries to adopt its way of doing business, America has always had one economic policy for itself and another for the rest of the world. Throughout the years in which the US was punishing countries that departed from fiscal prudence, it was borrowing on a colossal scale to finance tax cuts and fund its over-stretched military commitments. Now, with federal finances critically dependent on continuing large inflows of foreign capital, it will be the countries that spurned the American model of capitalism that will shape America's economic future.

Which version of the bail out of American financial institutions cobbled up by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is finally adopted is less important than what the bail out means for America's position in the world. The populist rant about greedy banks that is being loudly ventilated in Congress is a distraction from the true causes of the crisis. The dire condition of America's financial markets is the result of American banks operating in a free-for-all environment that these same American legislators created. It is America's political class that, by embracing the dangerously simplistic ideology of deregulation, has responsibility for the present mess.

In present circumstances, an unprecedented expansion of government is the only means of averting a market catastrophe. The consequence, however, will be that America will be even more starkly dependent on the world's new rising powers. The federal government is racking up even larger borrowings, which its creditors may rightly fear will never be repaid. It may well be tempted to inflate these debts away in a surge of inflation that would leave foreign investors with hefty losses. In these circumstances, will the governments of countries that buy large quantities of American bonds, China, the Gulf States and Russia, for example, be ready to continue supporting the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency? Or will these countries see this as an opportunity to tilt the balance of economic power further in their favour? Either way, the control of events is no longer in American hands.

The fate of empires is very often sealed by the interaction of war and debt. That was true of the British Empire, whose finances deteriorated from the First World War onwards, and of the Soviet Union. Defeat in Afghanistan and the economic burden of trying to respond to Reagan's technically flawed but politically extremely effective Star Wars programme were vital factors in triggering the Soviet collapse. Despite its insistent exceptionalism, America is no different. The Iraq War and the credit bubble have fatally undermined America's economic primacy. The US will continue to be the world's largest economy for a while longer, but it will be the new rising powers that, once the crisis is over, buy up what remains intact in the wreckage of America's financial system.

There has been a good deal of talk in recent weeks about imminent economic armageddon. In fact, this is far from being the end of capitalism. The frantic scrambling that is going on in Washington marks the passing of only one type of capitalism - the peculiar and highly unstable variety that has existed in America over the last 20 years. This experiment in financial laissez-faire has imploded.While the impact of the collapse will be felt everywhere, the market economies that resisted American-style deregulation will best weather the storm. Britain, which has turned itself into a gigantic hedge fund, but of a kind that lacks the ability to profit from a downturn, is likely to be especially badly hit.

The irony of the post-Cold War period is that the fall of communism was followed by the rise of another utopian ideology. In American and Britain, and to a lesser extent other Western countries, a type of market fundamentalism became the guiding philosophy. The collapse of American power that is underway is the predictable upshot. Like the Soviet collapse, it will have large geopolitical repercussions. An enfeebled economy cannot support America's over-extended military commitments for much longer. Retrenchment is inevitable and it is unlikely to be gradual or well planned.

Meltdowns on the scale we are seeing are not slow-motion events. They are swift and chaotic, with rapidly spreading side-effects. Consider Iraq. The success of the surge, which has been achieved by bribing the Sunnis, while acquiescing in ongoing ethnic cleansing, has produced a condition of relative peace in parts of the country. How long will this last, given that America's current level of expenditure on the war can no longer be sustained?

An American retreat from Iraq will leave Iran the regional victor. How will Saudi Arabia respond? Will military action to forestall Iran acquiring nuclear weapons be less or more likely? China's rulers have so far been silent during the unfolding crisis. Will America's weakness embolden them to assert China's power or will China continue its cautious policy of 'peaceful rise'? At present, none of these questions can be answered with any confidence. What is evident is that power is leaking from the US at an accelerating rate. Georgia showed Russia redrawing the geopolitical map, with America an impotent spectator.

Outside the US, most people have long accepted that the development of new economies that goes with globalisation will undermine America's central position in the world. They imagined that this would be a change in America's comparative standing, taking place incrementally over several decades or generations. Today, that looks an increasingly unrealistic assumption.

Having created the conditions that produced history's biggest bubble, America's political leaders appear unable to grasp the magnitude of the dangers the country now faces. Mired in their rancorous culture wars and squabbling among themselves, they seem oblivious to the fact that American global leadership is fast ebbing away. A new world is coming into being almost unnoticed, where America is only one of several great powers, facing an uncertain future it can no longer shape.

• John Gray is the author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (Allen Lane)


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