Thursday, December 27, 2007

Costco's new line




I accidentally came across this link while searching for furniture on the Costco website...Only in America can you buy your peanut butter and jelly, boombox and pajamas under the same roof as you buy your COFFIN!!!! (you can even order expedited shipping if need it in a hurry!)

http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=20595&eCat=BC|20595&lang=en-US&whse=BC&topnav=

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Shame!

What ever happened to the Israel that can defend Jews around the globe? What happened to the Israel that coordinated the emigration of Ethiopian Jewry, blew up the Iraqi nuclear reactor and rescued the passengers in the raid on Entebbe? Now they can't even protect a Synagogue in their back yard? SHAME!

Barak: Move Synagogue, We Can't Defend It

(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak informed MK Rabbi Meir Porush (UTJ) that the IDF cannot protect the Yad Yair Synagogue in Samaria, and told him the synagogue needs to be relocated.

"The congregation which prays at Yad Yair Synagogue in the Binyamin area faces security risks and it is hard to secure it in a permanent and continuous manner," Barak wrote Rabbi Porush. "Therefore, the IDF recommends relocating the synagogue into the Talmonim Bloc, and thus prevent a situation in which human lives are at risk," the Defense Minister added.

Porush had asked Barak for explanations regarding the latest attack on Yad Yair Synagogue in October, in which Torah scrolls, prayer books and other books of Jewish law were completely burnt. In addition, the attackers also defaced the memorial to Yair Mendelson, who was murdered by Arabs at the beginning of the first intifada in the 1980's, after whom the synagogue is named. The synagogue has been burnt down three times in the past two years.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/138768

Only in Israel - Instead of getting a court-martial, they give him a medal!

Israeli Army Chief Who Resigned Over Lebanon Gets Medal -AFP

JERUSALEM (AFP)--Dan Halutz, the Israeli army chief who resigned over perceived failures of last year's Lebanon war, was decorated on Monday for his role in the conflict, the army said.

Halutz received a medal along with all other military leaders in office during the 34-day war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, as well as the present military brass led by his successor, Gabi Ashkenazi.

A wave of public criticism erupted in Israel following the war, which is widely perceived as a failure here for having failed to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets into the Jewish state and for having failed to retrieve two Israeli servicemen whose capture by the Shiite militia sparked the conflict.

Halutz became the most senior head to roll over the conflict when he resigned in January 2007, without waiting for a report by a government commission established to examine government and military conduct during the war.

In April the commission published an interim report in which it blasted Halutz, along with ex-defence minister Amir Peretz who resigned in the following weeks, for having failed in their duties.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was responsible for "serious failure," it said.

The final report of the Winograd Commission is expected to be issued within months.


http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20071224%5CACQDJON200712241110DOWJONESDJONLINE000161.htm&

Monday, December 24, 2007

Only in Israel...What will they blame us for next?

Heb. U. Paper Finds: IDF Has Political Motives for Not Raping

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.

The abstract of the paper, authored by doctoral candidate Tal Nitzan, notes that the paper shows that "the lack of organized military rape is an alternate way of realizing [particular] political goals."

The next sentence delineates the particular goals that are realized in this manner: "In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."

The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.

The paper was published by the Hebrew University's Shaine Center, based on the recommendation of a Hebrew University professors' committee headed by Dr. Zali Gurevitch.

"I do not have the entire text in front of me," Gurevitch said, when contacted by Arutz-7, "and I don't think we can jump to conclusions based on partial sentences, but I can say the following: This was a very serious paper that asked two important questions: Is the relative lack of IDF rapes a noteworthy phenomenon, and if so, why is it that there are so few IDF rapes when in similar situations around the world, rape is much more common?"

Observers and Academia
Arutz-7: "Can't it just be that Israeli soldiers come from a culture that very much condemns rape? And why not mention the much-touted 'purity of arms,' i.e., the high moral conduct, of the Israeli Army?"

Gurevitch said that observers do not have the right to demand a particular explanation to a given phenomenon. He said that the researcher had done a serious job, based on interviews with 25 soldiers and other accounts, and that the right-wing should not jump to the conclusion that this was simply another "secular, left-wing" generality.

Makor Rishon editor Amnon Lord, who first publicized the story, wrote that not only did researcher Nitzan not consider Jewish tradition as an explanation, but neither did she "raise the possibility that her initial assumption - namely, that the situation in Judea and Samaria is just like any other situation of conquest - may be wrong."

Demographic Fears
Nitzan's paper did, however, give much space to the explanation that the Israeli soldiers refrained from rape out of demographic considerations. She explained at length how fearful the Jewish population is of the growing Arab population, and how in cases of wartime rape, the baby is generally assumed to be of the mother's nationality.

"It is noteworthy," Lord concludes, "that Palestinian propaganda around the world frequently accuses Israelis of murder and rape. Such that this situation is unique: An army is found blameworthy of rape, and is also blameworthy of not raping."

Sunday, December 23, 2007

FBI to collect biometric information on Britons


FBI to collect biometric information on Britons

By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 23/12/2007

British visitors to the US will have details of their physical characteristics added to a new billion dollar database under plans drawn up by the FBI.

Fingerprints, iris scans and even details of the way people walk, their scars and the size and shape of their ear lobes will be collected.

British intelligence agencies and police will also be able to access the information – giving them potentially more biometric data on British citizens than the Government collects at home.

Under the plans, revealed by the Washington Post, the FBI database will include details on everyone who applies for a visa to enter the US.

Fingerprint information on British tourists is already collected and held by the US Department of Homeland Security.


But the FBI database will also include iris identification, which is being slowly introduced at some ports of entry.

Researchers at West Virginia University are working on technology for the FBI that will let them capture images of people's irises at distances of up to 15 feet, and of faces from as far away as 200 yards, without them even knowing.

The database will allow the FBI to check all entrants to the US against the faces, fingerprints, palm prints and irises of known terrorists and wanted criminals.

More than 900,000 American police and law enforcement officials will be able to access the data.

A contract to develop the database will be awarded next month. Critics say that peoples’ bodies will effectively become their international identity card – with the downside that if criminals steal your identity and were able to, for example, mimic your iris with a contact lens, you can’t just go and get a new eyeball like you would a new credit card.

Civil liberties campaigners criticised the plans. Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union said: "It's enabling the always-on surveillance society."

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=VMEA40Q0XNRXZQFIQMGCFFWAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/22/wfbi122.xml

Monday, December 17, 2007

Technion releases first ever nano-Bible

Technion releases first ever nano-Bible
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

This is not an attempt to make the holy book more portable, but an exercise meant to arouse public interest in nanotechnology. It was part of an educational program developed at the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at Haifa's Technion-Israel Institute of Technology aimed especially at young people.

The idea to inscribe the whole biblical text using a focussed-ion device was that of Prof. Uri Sivan, director of the Berrie Institute, and the project was carried out by Ohad Zohar, the center's physics education adviser, along with Dr. Alex Lahav, formerly lab director of the Wolfson Center for Microelectronics.

The device shoots gallium ions toward a solid object, causing atoms to erode and thus creating an inscription, the way holes are formed in the ground when a rubber hose splashes water on it with great force.

When the ions are shot at the surface, gold ions are removed from a 20-nanometer-wide spot to expose the darker silicon substrate underneath. A nanometer is equal to one billionth of meter or one millionth of a millimeter. The resulting letters can be observed only with a scanning electron microscope.

The nano-Bible was produced at the Technion with a special computer program that can create any text on a tiny surface.

The question of "How small can the Bible be?" is really about the larger question of how to store data in a very small space. In the future, nanotechnology experts hope to inscribe data on DNA or other bio-molecules.

The fact that the Bible contains a large amount of text - about 10 million bits - was a major factor in choosing to store it at high density on silicon, the researchers said. "The nano-Bible project was aimed at displaying the miniaturization ability we have," said Sivan.

The nano-Bible will be photographed and expanded 10,000 times, and still be able to fit into a seven-by-seven-meter frame, to be hung in the Technion's physics faculty. The photograph will make it possible to read the entire Bible with the naked eye, and the height of each letter will be three millimeters.

Zohar said the original nano-Bible, the size of a crystal of sugar, would be displayed next to the photograph.

Beware the Jerusalem Syndrome

Police Ready for Christians With 'Jerusalem Syndrome'

(IsraelNN.com) With an increase in the number of tourists arriving for the Christian holiday season, a special unit of the Israeli police department is gearing up to deal with the small number of visitors who will develop 'Jerusalem Syndrome.' The mental affliction causes certain people to believe that they are or have seen the Messiah, or are characters from the Bible. The unit was established in 1986, and says there are spikes during Christmas and Passover.

Around 30 to 40 visitors are hospitalized every year with symptoms of Jerusalem Syndrome, though 'true' Jerusalem Syndrome can only be diagnosed in people with no pre-existing psychiatric problems, according to Dr. Gregory Katz, head of the emergency unit at Givat Shaul Mental Health Center in Jerualem. The doctor said the phenomenon usually occurs on the person's first trip to Israel, and is diagnosed in middle-aged patients with strong religious foundations, hailing from small towns in the United States or Scandinavia. In an article published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2000, Katz said the syndrome may progress from agitation and an urge to visit Jerusalem alone, and inevitably ends with the patient needing to dress in robes and deliver a sermon at a holy site. The episode lasts a few days, after which the person usually does not remember what happened, Katz said.

Jerusalem Syndrome has been dated as far back as the Middle Ages.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

The new Facebook/Myspace?

A couple of facts...

1) Facebook makes over $8 million a MONTH from advertising alone.
2) Myspace makes almost $25 million.

WE, the users, don't get any of this, even though WE are the ones making the pages, writing the blogs and uploading the pictures!

There's a brand new social networking site called Yuwie, which actually pays it's members just to use it!

The site has all of the features of facebook, but here's the best bit, the more you use it, the more you get paid!

You think Facebook has everything you need - That's fine! I love facebook, and only use Yuwie to make money. Simply join Yuwie with this link,

http://r.yuwie.com/jwander

and then you can do the same!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Dr. Avraham Schwartzbaum Z"L


In memory of Dr. Avraham Schwartzbaum Z"L.

His amazing wit and humor will always be remembered!

Boruch Dayan Emet.


Thursday, November 29, 2007

Global Warming

November 29, 2007
Everything is Caused by Global Warming (600+ links)
Christopher Alleva
Dr. John Brignell, a British engineering professor, runs a website called numberwatch. He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links to media stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global warming. He has already posted more than six-hundred links.

The site's stated mission is to expose all the "scares, scams, junk, panics and flummery cooked up by the media, politicians, bureaucrats and so-called scientists and others that try to confuse the public with wrong numbers" Professor Brignell's motto is "Working to Combat Math Hysteria."

This exercise is not merely a lark to show the abject absurdity of this global warming nonsense. Brignell wrote a great book titled Sorry Wrong Number, The Abuse of Measurement on this very subject.

Dr. Brignell is accepting additions to the list so if you have any send them along.

Agricultural land increase, Africa devastated, African aid threatened, Africa hit hardest, air pressure changes, Alaska reshaped, allergies increase, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), ancient forests dramatically changed, animals head for the hills, Antarctic grass flourishes, anxiety, algal blooms, archaeological sites threatened, Arctic bogs melt, Arctic in bloom, Arctic lakes disappear, asthma, Atlantic less salty, Atlantic more salty, atmospheric defiance, atmospheric circulation modified, attack of the killer jellyfish, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, bananas destroyed, bananas grow, beetle infestation, bet for $10,000, better beer, big melt faster, billion dollar research projects, billions of deaths, bird distributions change, bird visitors drop, birds return early, blackbirds stop singing, blizzards, blue mussels return, bluetongue, boredom, bridge collapse (Minneapolis), Britain Siberian, British gardens change, brothels struggle, bubonic plague, budget increases, Buddhist temple threatened, building collapse, building season extension, bushfires, business opportunities, business risks, butterflies move north, cancer deaths in England, cardiac arrest, caterpillar biomass shift, challenges and opportunities, childhood insomnia, Cholera, circumcision in decline, cirrus disappearance, civil unrest, cloud increase, cloud stripping, cockroach migration, cod go south, cold climate creatures survive, cold spells (Australia), computer models, conferences, coral bleaching, coral reefs dying, coral reefs grow, coral reefs shrink , cold spells, cost of trillions, cougar attacks, cremation to end, crime increase, crocodile sex, crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems, cyclones (Australia), damages equivalent to $200 billion, Darfur, Dartford Warbler plague, death rate increase (US), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, dermatitis, desert advance, desert life threatened, desert retreat, destruction of the environment, diarrhoea, disappearance of coastal cities, diseases move north, Dolomites collapse, drought, drowning people, ducks and geese decline, dust bowl in the corn belt, early marriages, early spring, earlier pollen season, Earth biodiversity crisis, Earth dying, Earth even hotter, Earth light dimming, Earth lopsided, Earth melting, Earth morbid fever, Earth on fast track, Earth past point of no return, Earth slowing down, Earth spinning out of control, Earth spins faster, Earth to explode, earth upside down, Earth wobbling, earthquakes, El Niño intensification, erosion, emerging infections, encephalitis, equality threatened, Europe simultaneously baking and freezing, evolution accelerating, expansion of university climate groups, extinctions (human, civilisation, logic, Inuit, smallest butterfly, cod, ladybirds, bats, pandas, pikas, polar bears, pigmy possums, gorillas, koalas, walrus, whales, frogs, toads, turtles, orang-utan, elephants, tigers, plants, salmon, trout, wild flowers, woodlice, penguins, a million species, half of all animal and plant species, not polar bears, barrier reef, leaches), experts muzzled, extreme changes to California, fading fall foliage, famine, farmers go under, fashion disaster, fever,figurehead sacked, fir cone bonanza, fish catches drop, fish catches rise, fish stocks at risk, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, flesh eating disease, flood patterns change, floods, floods of beaches and cities, Florida economic decline, food poisoning, food prices rise, food security threat (SA), footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frostbite, frosts, fungi fruitful, fungi invasion, games change, Garden of Eden wilts, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, gingerbread houses collapse, glacial earthquakes, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, god melts, golf Masters wrecked, Gore omnipresence, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, greening of the North, Grey whales lose weight, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, hazardous waste sites breached, health of children harmed, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes (Australia), heat waves, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late, homeless 50 million, hornets, high court debates, human development faces unprecedented reversal, human fertility reduced, human health improvement, human health risk, hurricanes, hurricane reduction, hydropower problems, hyperthermia deaths, ice sheet growth, ice sheet shrinkage, illness and death, inclement weather, infrastructure failure (Canada), Inuit displacement, Inuit poisoned, Inuit suing, industry threatened, infectious diseases, inflation in China, insurance premium rises, invasion of cats, invasion of herons, invasion of midges, island disappears, islands sinking, itchier poison ivy, jellyfish explosion, Kew Gardens taxed, kitten boom, krill decline, lake and stream productivity decline, lake shrinking and growing, landslides, landslides of ice at 140 mph, lawsuits increase, lawsuit successful, lawyers' income increased (surprise surprise!), lightning related insurance claims, little response in the atmosphere, lush growth in rain forests, Lyme disease, Malaria, malnutrition, mammoth dung melt, Maple syrup shortage, marine diseases, marine food chain decimated, marine dead zone, Meaching (end of the world), megacryometeors, Melanoma, methane emissions from plants, methane burps, melting permafrost, Middle Kingdom convulses, migration, migration difficult (birds), microbes to decompose soil carbon more rapidly, monkeys on the move, Mont Blanc grows, monuments imperiled, more bad air days, more research needed, mountain (Everest) shrinking, mountains break up, mountains taller, mortality lower, mudslides, National security implications, new islands, next ice age, Nile delta damaged, no effect in India, Northwest Passage opened, nuclear plants bloom, oaks move north, ocean acidification, ocean waves speed up, opera house to be destroyed, outdoor hockey threatened, oyster diseases, ozone loss, ozone repair slowed, ozone rise, Pacific dead zone, personal carbon rationing, pest outbreaks, pests increase, phenology shifts, plankton blooms, plankton destabilised, plankton loss, plant viruses, plants march north, polar bears aggressive, polar bears cannibalistic, polar bears drowning, polar bears starve, polar tours scrapped, porpoise astray, profits collapse, psychosocial disturbances, puffin decline, railroad tracks deformed, rainfall increase, rainfall reduction, rape wave, refugees, reindeer larger, release of ancient frozen viruses, resorts disappear, rice threatened, rice yields crash, riches, rift on Capitol Hill, rioting and nuclear war, rivers dry up, river flow impacted, rivers raised, roads wear out, rockfalls, rocky peaks crack apart, roof of the world a desert, Ross river disease, ruins ruined, salinity reduction, salinity increase, Salmonella, salmon stronger, satellites accelerate, school closures, sea level rise, sea level rise faster, seals mating more, sewer bills rise, sex change, sharks booming, sharks moving north, sheep shrink, shop closures, shrinking ponds, shrinking shrine, ski resorts threatened, slow death, smaller brains, smog, snowfall increase, snowfall heavy, snowfall reduction, societal collapse, songbirds change eating habits, sour grapes, space problem, spiders invade Scotland, squid population explosion, squirrels reproduce earlier, spectacular orchids, stormwater drains stressed, street crime to increase, suicide, taxes, tectonic plate movement, teenage drinking, terrorism, threat to peace, ticks move northward (Sweden), tides rise, tourism increase, trade barriers, trade winds weakened, tree beetle attacks, tree foliage increase (UK), tree growth slowed, trees could return to Antarctic, trees in trouble, trees less colourful, trees more colourful, trees lush, tropics expansion, tropopause raised, tsunamis, turtles crash, turtles lay earlier, UK Katrina, Vampire moths, Venice flooded, volcanic eruptions, walrus displaced, walrus pups orphaned, war, wars over water, wars threaten billions, water bills double, water supply unreliability, water scarcity (20% of increase), water stress, weather out of its mind, weather patterns awry, weeds, Western aid cancelled out, West Nile fever, whales move north, wheat yields crushed in Australia, white Christmas dream ends, wildfires, wind shift, wind reduced, wine - harm to Australian industry, wine industry damage (California), wine industry disaster (US), wine - more English, wine -German boon, wine - no more French , winters in Britain colder, wolves eat more moose, wolves eat less, workers laid off, World bankruptcy, World in crisis, World in flames, Yellow fever.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

How Ironic...

Is it only me or is it extremely ironic that today's summit in Annapolis falls exactly 60 years to the week from the original UN partition plan? This much have a deeper meaning than can be seen at first glance...

Thursday, November 22, 2007

and I thought we had trouble with our mayor...

POTEET, Texas (AP) -- The mayor of this Texas town pleaded guilty to indecent conduct toward two girls and is barred from going to City Hall because it is near a youth center. But he still doesn't plan to resign.

Mayor Lino Donato entered the pleas October 31 to three counts of indecency, cutting short a trial on accusations that he exposed himself to two girls between 1996 and 2000 and improperly touched one of them.

He planned to resign at a meeting a week later, but he changed his mind, saying he wasn't guilty.

As a registered sex offender, Donato is required to stay more than 1,000 feet from places where children congregate, and the Atascosa Boxing Club and Youth Center is less than that distance from City Hall, City Attorney Frank Garza said. Probation officers checked the distance with a tape measure, officials said.

The mayor did not attend Tuesday's council meeting, saying it was the first meeting he's missed in five years. But Donato reiterated Wednesday that he wouldn't resign.

His term doesn't expire until May 2009. He can't be forced from office because he received "deferred adjudication" of his case, which technically isn't a conviction. There's also no rule in Poteet requiring a mayor to attend meetings, Garza said.

Poteet, population around 3,500, is about 30 miles south of San Antonio in South Texas.

"It's a huge issue," said former assistant district attorney Brandon Hudson. "The mayor of the city cannot attend city business because of his status as a registered sex offender."

Councilman Larry Cantu said the mayor needs to resign, although the council can maintain a quorum if Donato misses the meetings.

"The people elected us to conduct business for the city," Cantu said. "It's not right for the citizens of Poteet."

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

GOP Jewish group polls on Iran strike

JTA

Published: 11/20/2007

A U.S. conservative group led by major Republican Jews is testing for reactions to a potential Israeli strike on Iran.

FreedomsWatch recently tested three questions with a focus group of Americans, the liberal investigative journal Mother Jones reported Monday.

The questions, recalled by a focus group participant, were: "How would you feel if Hillary [Clinton] bombed Iran? How would you feel if George Bush bombed Iran? And how would you feel if Israel bombed Iran?"

Martin Focus Groups in Alexandria, Va., polled at least two such groups, the magazine reported.

FreedomsWatch was established over the summer to promote support for President Bush's Iraq war policy. It is led by, among others, Bradley Blakeman, a former senior White House official; Ari Fleischer, the former White House spokesman; and Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition's executive director. Lead funders include Sheldon Adelson and Mel Sembler, two top Republican Party donors.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Chutzpah!

Tibi: Livni Like Rabbi Kahane

(IsraelNN.com) MK Ahmed Tibi said Sunday that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's statement regarding Israel's Arabs "expose her extremist face and the true background for the chutzpah of demanding that the Palestinian delegation accept Israel as a Jewish state."

Tibi said Livni is preparing the ground for the eviction of as many Arab citizens as possible so as to leave Israel "a Jewish state with no Arabs."

Tibi called Livni's statement "a shameful and dangerous utterance from the schools of thought of Avigdor Lieberman and Rabbi Meir Kahane," adding ominously that "the Arabs were here before Mrs. Livni and will remain here after her."

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Monday, November 12, 2007

Are we living on the same planet?

Sometimes I wonder...are we living on the same planet? Is it not OBVIOUS that one needs to recognize your 'partner' before negotiating with them??? Will someone please enlighten me?

Lieberman: Recognition of Israel a Precondition

(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman sent a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday asking him to demand that the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel as a Jewish state before continuing with negotiations. Recognition of Israel as Jewish should be a precondition for any agreement, he said.

PA negotiators said Monday that they would not recognize Israel as Jewish. Recognition could be seen as weakening the PA’s demand that Israel grant citizenship to millions of foreign Arabs descended from those who fled Israel during the War of Independence.

Lieberman said the issue showed that “the dispute isn’t territorial, but rather about the image of the state of Israel: will it be a Jewish democratic state or a state of all of its citizens?” He asked Olmert to raise the issue in the next government session.

As Mark Silverberg put it,

"How's this for an Israeli position at Annapolis:

"Tell you what, if you recognize Israel as a sovereign state in the Middle East, prove you are dismantling your terrorist infrastructures, stop sending your suicide bombers into our cities, towns and marketplaces, stop inciting hatred and spreading blood libels through your media, your mosques, your educational system and throughout your society, stop
Annapolis represents a grave threat to Israel.
brainwashing your children into believing that the fast track to virgins in Paradise requires them to become human grenades, and stop firing missiles at us, then we'll come to the table with a settlement offer that will bring both our societies peace and prosperity."

The establishment of the Islamic States of America

If this doesn't scare you, nothing will...
(HINT: they are not in Saudi Arabia or Iraq---They are in DC!)

http://www.sabiqun.net/imam_musa.html


Friday, November 9, 2007

Too little too late...






Tell that to the 10,000 lives you ruined!!! (not to mention the creation of Hamasastan) We will not forget...





Labor Minister: Disengagement a Very Big Mistake

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Infrastructure and former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) is the latest senior politician to admit that the 2005 Disengagement was a mistake.

Speaking in an interview with Radio L’lo Hafsaka, a regional radio station, Ben-Eliezer dropped the bombshell: "I admit and I confess that I was among those who strongly supported [former PM] Ariel Sharon [and the Disengagement]. Today I say, with my head held high, ‘We erred, we made a very big mistake.’”

Ben Eliezer did not say it was the withdrawal itself and abandonment of parts of the Land of Israel that was the problem, but rather the nature of the recipients of the territory. "Withdrawals can only work when the areas are handed over to responsible hands and rotted in agreements and international guarantees,” he explained. “Here we have a precedent - a territory we left turns into a base for terror - period."

Ben Eliezer also called for a wide scale counter-terror offensive in Gaza, complaining that Israel’s fear of harming civilians was harming its own populace instead. "Israel continues to say we bind ourselves to these ethical obligations that no other country in the world is bound by. We are facing a conflict here between two disciplines. One nation is prepared to commit suicide and sees it as a religious imperative and an honor, the other wants to spare every ounce of blood."

MK Reuven Rivlin, an opponent of the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria from the outset, responded to MK Ben Eliezer’s about-face with alarm. “It is horrifying that someone who pushed for the Disengagement and saw in it a ‘window of opportunity’ can now simply say such a thing while his colleagues in the government are signaling that they once again see it as proper to give up the essential interests of the State of Israel,” Rivlin said.

Ben Eliezer is but the latest in a parade of Disengagement-regretting politicians and public figures, including:

* Maj.-Gen (ret.) Yiftah Ron-Tal, IDF ground forces commander at the time of the Disengagement
* Left-wing journalist Ilana Dayan
* Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, Chairman of the National Security Council and one of the Disengagement’s chief architects
* Avri Gilad, broadcaster and TV personality who supported Disengagement
* Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff at the time the government decided to carry out the Disengagement
* Yoel Marcus, left-wing commentator for Haaretz and ardent Disengagement supporter
* Yehoshua Sobol, author and prominent left-wing spokesperson and proponent of left-wing refusal to serve in the IDF
* IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh
* Yair Lapid, popular TV personality and commentator
* Senior TV news anchor Dan Margalit, a strong supporter of Disengagement
* Maj.-Gen. Gershon HaCohen, who commanded the Disengagement and expressed his public agreement with it prior to implementation
* Several others

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Jerusalem Arabs Clamor for Israeli Citizenship



A Palestinian State??? What else needs to be said?


(IsraelNN.com) Arabs in eastern Jerusalem are flooding Interior Ministry offices to apply for citizenship out of fear of becoming residents of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and losing Israeli benefits, according to government sources. Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon has outlined a plan to divide the capital and surrender Israeli sovereignty over massive areas in Jerusalem.

Despite PA demands for a new state to include all of Israel that was restored to the Jewish state in 1967, Jerusalem's Arabs stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in monthly payments for child support and other benefits. Only 12,000 of eastern Jerusalem's 250,000 Arabs are citizens, but 3,000 new applications were registered in the past four months. Their status is defined as permanent residents but not citizens of the state.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

THANK YOU MARK!!!

I really appreciated your sincere positive attitude even to the very end, unfortunately I do not see the near future of this city through such rosy glasses. I am extremely disappointed. Not in you and not in your campaign, but in the residents of the city of Pittsburgh. Here they had a chance...a chance to finally remove themselves from the downward spiral that is spinning out of control here in Pittsburgh. And what do they choose? They choose to just stay on the course (sounds like a pro-Iraq War slogan!)!

It reminds me of a joke:

A man jumped from the 100th floor of a building. On the way down, someone saw him out the window and asked him how he was doing. His response was, "So far so good!"

This election has proven to me that Pittsburghers, at this junction, are totally apathetic and in complete denial of their dire situation. I bemoan the fact that this disease called complacency has thoroughly taken over the city and I am afraid that it will be 'too little, too late' by the time they awaken to reality and figure out that they are in a nose dive...

On a positive note, I have come to appreciate Mark's talents capabilities and I hope that he will take the lessons learned from this experience and run for higher office. Even if the city of Pittsburgh doesn't appreciate the incredible opportunity that they have lost, I believe that the State or the Country could benefit from it.

Mark, please stay active in public life. The people need you! Remember what Lincoln went through before succeeding in office (http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/education/failures.htm).

Finally - Thank you for allowing me the privilege and honor of campaigning on your behalf!

[BTW- I have confirmed that all remaining money from Mark's campaign will be donated to the Santorum Foundation and to sending more troops to Iraq. God bless America!]

FINAL NOTE: I can't help wondering how Mark would have faired would he have run as an Independent. If anyone thinks they have an answer, feel free to contribute it...

Monday, November 5, 2007

Ravenstahl vs. DeSantis for Dummies

Let's make this simple for all those Pittsburghers that are still having difficulty figuring out whom they should vote for:




(Thanks again to the Burgh Report!)

I just hope the city's Democrats will not be hypocritical on election day. Just look at he issues, not the party affiliation. DeSantis is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-environment. How can a true liberal vote for Luke??? Not to mention their qualifications, or lack thereof!
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
See: http://askalesbian.blogspot.com/2007/11/vote-for-mark-desantis.html

http://democratsfordesantis.blogspot.com/

http://republicansforravenstahl.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Where's Luke?

Beware: Poll Watchers

PITTSBURGH -- They went to the polls and their votes were counted even though they’d been dead for years.

Target 11 investigator Rick Earle pored through mounds of data and discovered that thousands of dead voters are still on the Allegheny county election rolls.

There are nearly a million people registered to vote Allegheny County, but we discovered that thousands of them aren't even living. So what's the big deal?

Well, someone could walk into a precinct and cast a ballot in that person's name and we discovered that it has already happened.

Charles Beck voted in the May primary.John O’Donnell and Patricia Deltondo cast a ballot in the general election last year, according to results from Allegheny county election board. But Target 11 discovered it was impossible for any of them to go to the polls.

Target 11 spent weeks looking through voter registration rolls, comparing them with the Social Security master death index.

There were more than a few glitches. Earle discovered more than 9,000 deceased voters were still registered to vote. Even more shocking, more than 16 of them voted in recent elections.

The disturbing part, is that election workers at the polls aren't catching the problem. Mark Wolosik, head of the Allegheny County board of elections, blames the problems on clerical errors.

Wolosik said, “With that many records sometimes you have mismatches. People make mistakes. I hate to admit it, but we do, too.”

Apparently relatives with similar names are voting for their deceased loved ones.

Wolsik said, “The important thing is only person voted.”

Maybe true -- but voting in place of a deceased family member has led to criminal charges in other states. Here in Allegheny County, these voters had no idea they had been voting for their dead relatives.

Since 2002 all of Charles Beck's votes were tallied under his grandfather's name, even though Beck said he alerted poll workers shortly after his grandfather passed away.

Charles Beck said, “I told that lady, my grandfather's deceased at this address. He's gone. So can you cancel out his voter registration and she said she would take care of it. And that was the end of that.”

Wolosik says the county is now working to remove deceased voters from the registry.

Wolsik said, “I think the thing to keep in mind is, when you look at it percentage-wise it's not a very big number.”

Marybeth Kuznik is the executive director of Vote PA. She said voters need to take their own precautions. “One of the best things we can do to combat this is if every voter would check his or her registration during the off season.”

To cut down on the potential for voter fraud, a state senator recently introduced legislation requiring voters to show a photo identification.

After Target 11 brought the mistakes to the election board, they immediately contacted the voters in question, and corrected the errors.

Luke Ravenstahl with Bush and Santorum




Check out the third guy in line to great the president at the 911 Air Force base. Thanks to the Burgh Report for uncovering this footage. Pretty amazing seeing Luke sucking up to the president that has 'ruined Pittsburgh'! LIES, MORE LIES!!!




http://kdka.com/local/President.George.W.2.389032.html


Here's another one that I found on townhall.com...Now who did you say was more buddy buddy with these guys?

Saturday, November 3, 2007

My Opinion - DeSantis vs Ravenstahl

After almost eighty years of single party rule in the city of Pittsburgh, this election has become an historic one. What is at stake is much greater than just the candidate's race. It is essentially a referendum to the residents of Pittsburgh as to whether they desire a democratic two-party system or a one party authority. This republic was founded on the principle that we would not accept a oligarchy. The founding fathers instead chose to lay out multiple democratic options for the citizens to choose from. Let us now rise up and show that party affiliation is not the sole quality that makes a good representative but their credentials. This is not about two individuals, but supporting a just system that gives the electorate choice. If Pittsburgh chooses to continue with its one party rule, it will have abandoned the fundamental principles of this great nation. Vote for DeSantis, not only because he is the better candidate, but because it will send out a clear message that we don't want to relinquish our basic right to choose.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

I was going to try and do this, but I have no time...Mark DeSantis vs Luke Ravenstahl


If anyone can assist in creating this, I think it would be really cute.

I thought of making a parody of the mac vs pc ads with DeSantis vs Ravenstahl...I just don't have the time and technical ability to play with it. If you do, please let me know ASAP!

Here's the script I wrote:

1- I’m Mark

2- And I’m Luke

1- I have loads of experience, advanced degrees, worked for the president and the senator. I’ve owned and run a successful business, helping others throughout the region. I’ve taught in major universities and I am an expert in public policy and management.

2- I played football. I was put into the position of president of city council as a compromise and then I accidentally became mayor when the last guy died….oh, yeah a got a Bachelor’s degree from college. Did I mention that I played football?

1- Well I believe in honesty and integrity. I think there should be complete transparency in government and we need to hold our elected officials to the highest standard.

2- I accepted questionable gifts from parties doing business with Pittsburgh. I used a FEMA SUV to get to the concert and I crashed the tiger woods match…I must stress that the whole incident with the police at the stadium happened BEFORE I became mayor…Oh, the whole deal with fixing the online poll was just part of the fun...

1- I was endorsed by all the major Pittsburgh Media. The Post Gazette, The Tribune, Pitt News and the Currier. As well as the FOP.

2- I was endorsed by my mom.

1- I love Pittsburgh and I know that we can rise above petty partisan politics and smear campaigns and elect the best man for the job.

2- George Bush, B-A-D/Santorum, B-A-D… Luke, G-o-o-d. I LIKE LUKE. I like beer.

1- Vote intelligently, vote DeSantis for mayor on November 6th.


JUST TO BE CLEAR THIS IS A PERSONAL PARODY AND IS NOT SPONSORED BY, OR CONNECTED TO, THE DESANTIS CAMPAIGN.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

UPMC, Please don't take my organs while my brain is still functioning!


UPMC to try ER donor organ idea
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
By Joe Fahy and David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

UPMC Presbyterian is developing a program aimed at obtaining donor organs from emergency-room patients who cannot be revived.

Dr. Michael DeVita, a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine professor of critical care and internal medicine, yesterday said he knew of no similar U.S. program operating, though some had been attempted elsewhere.

The program, to be called Condition T, could be in place by next summer, he said after a news conference.

Under Condition T, when efforts to revive patients fail, doctors would contact the local organ recovery organization, the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, to determine whether the patient was a registered donor. If so, family members would be notified, he said, and a team separate from the professionals that attempted to resuscitate the patient would be summoned to recover the organs.

Initially at least, plans call for recovering livers and kidneys, the organs that have the longest waiting lists nationally.

Pitt doctors estimate that an additional 40 kidneys and 20 livers could be recovered annually.

Transplant experts in Michigan are working with Pitt to determine whether the program can be replicated, Dr. DeVita said.

Pitt doctors obtained a nearly $1 million, three-year grant for the local program from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees transplant programs.

The initiative will focus on patients who suffer cardiac deaths, which occur when the heart, circulatory and respiratory systems cease to function.

The vast majority of organs now come from hospitalized donors who have suffered brain death -- that is, they were pronounced dead when meaningful brain activity ceased, the Institute of Medicine noted in a report last year.

But far more people in the United States are pronounced dead each year when their hearts stops beating, and they offer "a largely untapped source of potential organ donations," the institute said.

The group urged action on the plan but said a number of ethical and practical issues remained, such as how best to work with family members whose loved one has just died unexpectedly.

"Obviously, the organ donor shortage needs to be addressed in every way possible," said Dr. James Burdick, director of transplantation for the Health Resources and Services Administration.

More than 90,000 people are on waiting lists for organ transplants.

In 2003, the federal agency began a nationwide effort, known as the Breakthrough Collaborative, to challenge medical centers to find ways to increase organ donation. Concerns have been raised, however, that the efforts have been too aggressive in some cases.

Dr. Arthur Caplan, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania's department of medical ethics, said Pitt's plan to separate patient care from organ procurement in its new initiative is "a great idea" but does not resolve all issues.

In any emergency room, family members hoping for good news likely will protest when told that their loved one's organs are being removed, Dr. Caplan said. And while Pittsburgh has personnel trained in organ removal, he said other communities without trained personnel won't be able to adopt such a program.

People also might question the medical center's ability to keep emergency room and transplant personnel separate, he said.
First published on October 31, 2007 at 12:00 am
Joe Fahy can be reached at jfahy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1722. David Templeton can be reached at dtempleton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07304/829780-114.stm?cmpid=news.xml

Pittsburgh City Worker Rigs Mayoral Poll

(AP) PITTSBURGH - A city employee developed a computer program that let him rig a radio station’s online poll in favor of the mayor, who is seeking re-election.

But Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s office said the worker, who was not named, would not be disciplined because he rigged the unscientific poll on his own time.

"As far as I’m concerned, it was all in good fun," Ravenstahl said.

The poll, posted last week, showed 86 percent of listeners believed the media was too harsh in its coverage of Ravenstahl, compared with 14 percent who didn’t.

The mayor’s office later acknowledged that the employee found a way around restrictions on repeat voting, allowing him to bombard the site with votes favoring the mayor.

"He did it as a private citizen. He’s well within his rights as a person," Ravenstahl spokeswoman Alecia Sirk said. "People do it privately all the time for ’American Idol,’ and nobody investigates that."

Ravenstahl, 27, became the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city last year following the death of the incumbent. He faces a challenge by Republican Mark DeSantis in Tuesday’s election.

KDKA Radio program director Marshall Adams said that the station is investigating the poll, and that the station has reason to believe the other polls were affected by the same city worker or others.

"Online polls are unscientific surveys," Adams said. "They can easily be manipulated, but this is all fun to watch."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

LIES: Yeshiva Dinner Discrepancy




I just went back to listen again to the KDKA debate (kdka.com) from yesterday to make sure I heard the mayor correctly, and yes, he said that he was given a $1000+ ticket to the Yeshiva dinner for the Jewish community.[21:25] (I will not address now that the Yeshiva is one institution and does not represent the entire Jewish community or even the Orthodox Jewish community!) What amazes me, is that the dinner's tickets were only $180 each.

Then I saw an article in the Pittsburgh City Paper that says that Mayor Ravenstahl claimed the tickets were between $3000-$9000 for he and his family!!!

(http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A34957)

What is he talking about???

This all comes after the mayor's comments in his last debate in which he distorted all the facts, as reported by the Burgh Report: http://burghreport.blogspot.com/2007/10/ravenstahls-amazing-debate-remark.html

Bloggers for DeSantis



Just picked up this banner (Thanks Char). I encourage all DeSantis supporters to prominately display it on your site.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Condi is getting advice from who???? AAARRRGGHH!


Rice Looks to History for Peace Effort

By MATTHEW LEE – 3 days ago



WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is looking to the past for lessons on how to make next month's Mideast peace conference a success.

As she prepares to host the international meeting in Annapolis, Md., Rice has delved into the history of U.S. attempts to mediate peace in the region, plunging into the diplomatic annals and seeking out the major players responsible for both successes and failures.

"She's trying to draw on the historical record and the experiences of others to see what she can glean and how that may be applicable to the current day," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday, ahead of Rice's Nov. 4-6 trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, her second in three weeks to organize the Annapolis gathering.

Most recently, she met this week with Jimmy Carter, sitting down in her office on Wednesday for a talk with the former president who brokered the 1978 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, the first between the Jewish state and an Arab nation.

Carter has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration's Middle East polices and wrote a recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," that some believe is anti-Israeli. McCormack said the differences in approach were not a subject of her conversation.

Rice has also spoken by phone with former President Clinton about his work on the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace deal. She discussed with both Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the unsuccessful 2000 attempt in Shepherdstown, W.Va., to mediate an Israeli-Syrian agreement and their bid later that year at Camp David to forge an Israeli-Palestinian pact.

Others she has reached out to include former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and James Baker, and to one-time U.S. peace negotiators like Dennis Ross, who played a key role in the Clinton administration and the administration of former President George H.W. Bush.

In addition, Rice, whose background is in Soviet studies, asked the State Department historian's office to prepare a voluminous, and classified, compendium of its records on the U.S. role in Middle East peacemaking.

McCormack declined to offer details of her private readings and conversations or discuss any conclusions she may have drawn from them. But he noted that Rice, especially given her background as an academic, has intense interest in studying past diplomacy for clues about what might work as the Annapolis meeting approaches.

"We view the situation as qualitatively different than it has been, the history moves on, people change roles, situations," McCormack said.

"That said, you can take the lessons of history and apply them," he said. "She is a student of history and has a keen appreciation for how we can apply the lessons of history, what we can learn from those who have gone before us."

Rice faces serious obstacles in organizing Annapolis, with both Israel and the Palestinians far apart on a joint statement to be presented to the meeting that she and President Bush hope will launch the start of formal peace talks.

The two sides have fundamental differences over how detailed the document must be and whether it should contain a timeline for progress in the eventual negotiations.

The Israelis want the statement to be as vague as possible while the Palestinians are pushing for deadlines and specific references to the key issues in the conflict, among them the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Rice's last trip to the region, a furious four-day shuttle diplomacy mission earlier this month, produced little apparent progress on bringing the two sides together.

However, she did win at least public support for the Annapolis conference from Egypt and Jordan, two critical Arab allies of the United States that had both expressed skepticism about the utility of the meeting.

Must Stop Funding Saudi Arabia Now!


Funding an Enemy

By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com



Last Friday, President Bush certified Saudi Arabia as a cooperative anti-terrorism ally and released U.S. financial aid to Riyadh. This occurred despite charges leveled against the “Kingdom” by Stuart Levey, the U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, who one day after the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, declared that Saudi Arabia had failed to prosecute terrorism financiers.

Levey voiced frustration that not a single terrorist supporter identified by Washington had been prosecuted by the Saudis.

“If I could snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” a frustrated Levey told the press. “When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terror organizations . . . then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is.”

Levey leads an office which marshals the Treasury Department's policy, enforcement, regulatory and intelligence functions to sever the lines of financial support to international terrorists, weapons of mass destruction proliferators, narcotics traffickers, and other threats to our national security. Yet, the United States blithely ignored the very person with the best information whose job is to help stop terrorism and safeguard our country.

Instead, we are providing U.S. aid to the world’s top oil-producing country which is also coincidentally the main financial and ideological sponsor of Wahhabism or Islamic extremism. This austere form of Islam insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran and spreads the belief that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. In effect, we are funding our enemies. Even more outrageous, we are funding wealthy enemies: a resource-rich country that is the largest source of financing for Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists who have murdered hundreds of Americans and Israelis.

The extent of Saudia Arabia’s wealth frequently makes headlines. Recently, Prince Al-Walid bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family, sold a 5% share of the Kingdom Holding Company, one of the largest investment companies in the world, for more than two and a half times its initial public offering valuation. As a member of the Saudi royal family, Al-Walid holds assets estimated at $20.3 billion and is deemed by Forbes Magazine as the 13th wealthiest person in the world. The prince’s major holdings include Citibank, AOL, Apple, Inc., Worldcom, Motorola, News Corp, Planet Hollywood, and numerous other companies. He alone is the largest foreign investor in New York and his extensive real estate holdings including upscale hotel chains and resorts. In July of 2005, Talal donated $20 million to the Louvre in Paris, the largest donation ever received by the museum, for the construction of a wing to house Islamic art.

In recent years, Talal has used his financial clout to influence American foreign policy, shape media portrayals and promote Islamist ideology. Following the 9/11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, Al-Walid offered a $10 million donation to New York City toward relief efforts and suggested that the U.S. should reexamine its allegedly pro-Israel policies in the Middle East as the root cause of the attacks. The donation was turned down.

Prince Talal gave $500,000 to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an un-indicted co-conspirator in the funding of Hamas, for distribution to American public libraries of books that sanitize Islam and terrorist organization activities. One book declares that terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah were placed on the U.S. government’s terrorist list, not because of their well-documented terrorist operations, but because of the pro-Israel bias of American leaders.

During the 2005 Muslim riots in France, Prince Talal, the fifth largest shareholder of the parent company of Fox News, called network chief Rupert Murdoch and demanded that a screen banner identifying the unrest as “Muslim riots” be changed to “civil riots.” The Prince maintained that the U.S. media is too pro-Israel and he encouraged the Arab world and media to do more to counter this tendency.

Further, Prince Talal has tried to influence U.S. Middle East policy by donating $20 million each to Harvard University and Georgetown University, among the largest university donations in history, to finance Islamic studies and create a pro-Islamic environment among future and current policy leaders. From a country that ironically routinely punishes practitioners of Christianity, he declared that his primary reason for bestowing the gifts was the promotion of “Muslim-Christian” understanding.

Of grave concern is another donation by the Prince to the Saudi Committee for the Support of the al-Quds Intifada for $27 million given in 2002. Although committee leadership attempted to portray the gift as assistance for Arab-Palestinian families resisting the “occupation,” documents captured by the Israel Defense Forces indicated that the funds were payoffs for suicide bombings used as enticements to murder by Hamas. A Saudi-government cleric, Sheikh Saad al-Buraik, stated to television audiences viewing the 2002 fundraising telethon, “I am against America until this life ends…She is the root of all evils and wickedness on Earth…” He further urged listeners to pillage the Jews, enslave their women and wage all-out jihad.

The travesty of U.S. funding for a wealthy terrorist-sponsoring nation is further demonstrated by a 2005 study, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques” by Freedom House, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to advance the worldwide expansion of political and economic freedom. Freedom House researchers found that over 80% of U.S. mosques had been radicalized by Saudi-appointed, Wahhabist imams and ideology. These Saudi-trained clerics, the ideological arm of the royal family, advocate the rejection of Christianity and Judaism, the full application of the Sharia or Islamic law in America, hatred of non-believers, renunciation of allegiance to America and the waging of jihad by all Muslims against infidels.

It is indeed troubling that U.S. leaders overlook the role that the Saudi government plays in supporting terrorism worldwide and the spreading of extremist ideology within America. It is the height of irony that while Saudia Arabia bans churches and arrests Christians praying in private homes, it is also freely funding a fifth column inside America in the form of “religious” instruction. For President Bush to praise Saudi Arabia as an “anti-terrorism” ally while Saudi-funded efforts within our borders are undermining and threatening our very existence as a free nation, nullifies American counter-terrorism measures and ignores the warnings of those charged with protecting us. Such a decision dangerously ignores reality and courts our own destruction.

Muslim Minister Stopped And Searched


Muslim Minister Stopped And Searched

Updated: 10:31, Monday October 29, 2007



International Development Minister Shahid Malik, the MP for Dewsbury, said he was annoyed at being singled out, especially as the same thing happened to him in the US last year.

Mr Malik - and two other Muslim passengers - were taken aside at Dulles Airport in Washington DC.

His hand luggage was analysed for traces of explosive materials.

He was searched and detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - the same department whose representatives he had been meeting during his visit.

Mr Malik said: "After a few minutes a couple of other people were also taken to one side. We were all Muslims - the other two were black Muslims, both with Muslim names."
Advertisement

Mr Malik said he was particularly annoyed as a similar thing happened to him last year, when he was detained for an hour at JFK airport in New York by the DHS.

This was despite the fact he was a keynote speaker at an event organised by the department, alongside the FBI and Muslim organisations in New York.

The theme of that speech was tackling extremism and defeating terrorism.

Mr Malik said he received numerous apologies and assurances from US authorities after that incident.

After his second detention, which lasted about 40 minutes, he said: "I am deeply disappointed.

"The abusive attitude I endured last November I forgot about and I forgave.

"But I really do believe that British ministers and parliamentarians should be afforded the same respect and dignity at US airports that we would bestow upon our colleagues in the Senate and Congress.

"Obviously, there was no malice involved, but it has to be said that the US system does not inspire confidence."

SKY NEWS

Sunday, October 28, 2007

EXTRA, EXTRA: Post Gazette Endorses DeSantis!!!

For mayor: Mark DeSantis is the choice for a new Pittsburgh
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburghers are living in a unique time. There has never been an election for mayor in which the incumbent has served for 14 months, in which the winner will get only two years and where the future of the city, now under strict oversight from the state, hangs in the balance.

Unusual times call for more than the usual leadership. For Pittsburghers on Nov. 6, that means voting for Mark DeSantis, the first Republican the Post-Gazette has endorsed for mayor since John Tabor in 1969.

•

Why should a city dominated by Democrats consider a Republican for mayor? Because one-party rule has failed Pittsburgh and failed it repeatedly. It has failed to prevent population loss and business erosion. It has failed to head off the city's near-bankruptcy and job loss. It has failed to generate the big ideas that should be propelling Pittsburgh into the 21st century.

A Democratic mayor and a nine-member Democratic council have robbed the city of the robust political competition that renews the state and keeps the federal government in check. We see the invigorating value of shifting party control in Harrisburg and Washington, but on Grant Street we see rust, cobwebs and a city bravely trying to manage its own decline.

The latest mayor challenged with the task is Luke Ravenstahl, 27, of the North Side. As everyone knows, the incumbent was the council president who became mayor in September 2006 upon the death of Bob O'Connor, an outgoing salesman for the city who won election on the basis of charm, enthusiasm and a determination to clean every neighborhood.

Mr. Ravenstahl moved into the mayor's chair and, out of respect for the memory of his predecessor, pledged to push Pittsburgh in the same direction. But it was soon apparent: The new mayor may have adopted the O'Connor agenda, but he was no Bob O'Connor.

Call it youth, inexperience or simply lack of judgment, Mayor Ravenstahl began treating the city to a series of well-publicized disappointments, embarrassments and outrages, and he was slow to accept responsibility for some of his actions.

On the substance of governing, too, Mayor Ravenstahl has left much to be desired. Sure, he has continued his predecessor's "redd-up" campaign, stepped up the tear-down of abandoned buildings, sworn off new borrowing and submitted two balanced budgets.

But he is unable, despite his fresh arrival and the promise of generational change, to think big enough to break with the past. Instead of privatizing a service like trash collection, he extends it to Wilkinsburg -- not because it saves Pittsburgh money but because it's created a few more city jobs while helping a municipal neighbor. Instead of initiating action to combine services with the county, he's merely open to discussion and waiting to see a blueprint "put in front of me" (translation: not really interested).

He can't get the city's own parking authority to cut rates to reflect the lower parking tax. He (and the city school superintendent) can't get more than the teachers union to contribute to the Pittsburgh Promise, an otherwise good program to help students pay for college. And he says he's pressed rich nonprofits to boost their municipal aid, and they've said they'll give again, but no one knows if they'll get off with a paltry sum like the last time.
•

This is not an election, though, about who should not be mayor. It's a campaign about who can muster the vision and leadership to modernize city government. In this four-way race, Tony Oliva, 28, of Oakland is the Libertarian nominee and Ryan Scott, 24, of Friendship represents the Socialist Workers Party. None of them holds the promise of Mark DeSantis.

The 48-year-old former aide to the late Sen. John Heinz is a high-tech businessman and consultant. With a Ph.D. in public policy, he is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, but he's no ivory-tower geek.

Five years ago, he co-founded Citizens for Democratic Reform, a group that championed the successful drive to consolidate county row offices, saving taxpayer dollars. He was chosen by Jim Roddey, the first county chief executive, to lead his economic development transition team, the New Idea Factory. With such a reformist pedigree, a Republican mayor like Mr. DeSantis will be able to add to the Democratic support the city already gets from Harrisburg and Washington the GOP backing that has eluded Pittsburgh for so long.

He is tired of a city that puts up new buildings and sunny facades without adding net new jobs and businesses. He's heard enough talk and seen too little action on city-county consolidation, especially when both entities are led by Democrats. He's grown impatient with the sacred cows preserved by one-party rule, whether it's the number of fire stations, the size of the city budget or a lax approach to ethical behavior.

He wants to approach long-standing problems in a different way. Besides extracting more voluntary contributions from tax-exempt institutions, Mr. DeSantis says Pittsburgh should look beyond cash and, for instance, negotiate a deal with UPMC, the region's most profitable nonprofit, to provide health care for city retirees. He wants an ethics policy for city officials and employees that prohibits all freebies and uses an ethics compliance officer for enforcement. He wants city departments not just to operate well but to be judged against other cities' performance.

Mr. DeSantis, who lives Downtown and works on the South Side, is articulate, forceful and persuasive in his goals for change. As a self-proclaimed nonpolitician, he is refreshing and even chafes at the notion that mayoral politics expects him to "pound my chest and say I'm great." That's not him, he said. "I'll tell you what I don't know." Yet, in reality, there's not much he doesn't know.
•

One thing we do know is the Republican, this year, can win. With $285,000 raised in cash and in-kind contributions, more than any recent mayoral candidate from his party, the DeSantis challenge has a shot.

If the number of Post-Gazette readers reading this editorial agree he should win, then he will win. These readers, these voters, have that kind of power, even though some of them may have voted for few or no Republicans in the past. Other "Democratic" cities, after all, have had successful Republican mayors -- New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, to name a few. In Pittsburgh, plenty of disaffected Democrats and others have been waiting for a credible candidate to return two-party democracy, debate and decision-making to the city.

That would be the first big change under Mark DeSantis. For Pittsburgh, it should be the start of many more.
First published on October 28, 2007 at 12:00 am

Will Israel Attack Iran?

Friday, October 26, 2007

Putin compares U.S. missile shield to Cuban crisis


GET READY TO HIDE UNDER YOUR DESKS!!!

Putin compares U.S. missile shield to Cuban crisis
Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:46am EDT

MAFRA, Portugal (Reuters) - Russia's President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel on Friday between U.S. plans for a missile shield in Europe and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, widely regarded as the closest the world came to nuclear war.

"I would remind you how relations were developing in an analogous situation in the middle of the 1960s," he said when asked at a news conference about Washington's plans to station elements of a missile defense shield in eastern Europe.

"Analogous actions by the Soviet Union when it deployed rockets on Cuba provoked the Cuban missile crisis," Putin said after an EU-Russia summit in Portugal.

"For us, technologically, the situation is very similar. On our borders such threats to our country are being created.

"Thank God, we do not have any Cuban missile crisis now and this is above all because of the fundamental way relations between Russia and the United States and Europe have changed," Putin said.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Palestinian Militant Use of Google Earth

Palestinian Militant Use of Google Earth
By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

The Guardian reports that Palestinian militants have relied on Google Earth for their attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets:

Members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a group aligned with the Fatah political party, say they use the popular internet mapping tool to help determine their targets for rocket strikes. "We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas," Khaled Jaabari, the group's commander in Gaza who is known as Abu Walid, told the Guardian. Abu Walid showed the Guardian an aerial image of the Israeli town of Sderot on his computer to demonstrate how his group searches for targets. The Guardian filmed an al-Aqsa test rocket launch, fired into an uninhabited area of the Negev desert, last month. Despite the crudeness of the weapons, many have landed in Sderot, killing around a dozen people in the last three years and wounding scores more.

Google's response to this revelation was predictable. In a statement, the company said: "We have paid close attention to concerns that Google Earth creates new security risks. The imagery visible on Google Earth and Google Maps is not unique: commercial high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world is widely available from numerous sources. Indeed, anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property can obtain similar information."

This is not the first time that militant use of Google Earth has been alleged. Back in January, the Telegraph reported that in raids of insurgent homes in Iraq, British soldiers found printouts and photographs taken from Google Earth. From these finds, the soldiers concluded that insurgents were using Google Earth "to pinpoint their attacks." It is quite obvious how terrorists could find Google Earth a useful tool, as it contains an enormous amount of information about such appealing targets as nuclear reactors, military bases, government installations, and much more. Other countries have voiced their concerns about the possible security implications. DMEurope.com reported in late 2005 that Dutch politicians were "concerned that certain locations in the Netherlands, such as the port of Rotterdam, the royal palace in the Hague and Amsterdam Airport, already potential terrorist targets, could be made more vulnerable to terrorists thanks to the detailed images created from satellites and aircraft within the last three years available via Google Earth." The operators of Australia's nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights were so concerned that they asked Google to censor images of the reactor.

As has often been the case with Google, the company's defense of the images is fatuous. Google's statement that "anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property can obtain similar information" is true enough, but most people can't just hop in a plane and fly over a nuclear reactor. Those who stop to scope out likely targets will often attract authorities' attention. In the Guardian's latest story, Palestinian militants themselves speak of Google Earth's utility to them.

This highlights one of the tensions of the information age, between freedom of information and security. Google Earth is a useful tool for many people, terrorists among them. Terrorists have been adept at exploiting the West's liberties and technology in their war against us, and Google Earth is no exception. There aren't easy answers to the conflict between freedom of information and security, but to pretend that no problems exist -- as Google does -- is not helpful.
October 26, 2007 07:58 AM

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

CNN: Police seize 'world jihad' team

Police seize 'world jihad' team
From CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Six suspected Islamic militants were Wednesday arrested in northern Spain on suspicion of using the Internet to recruit for and plot a 'world jihad,' a Ministry of Interior statement said.

The arrests came in Burgos province, a few hours' drive north of Madrid.

The six, allegedly linked to international Islamic terrorist activity, were seized in an operation involving U.S., Danish and Swedish intelligence agencies, the statement said.

"A large part of the activity was carried out on restricted Internet 'chats' and forums, which shows that the cell arrested was the first one detected and dismantled in Spain that promoted 'world jihad' through the Internet," the statement said.

Police were searching the homes of the six suspects and also a butcher shop run by one of them. Documents and computers were seized, the statement said.

Some of the money raised by the group allegedly was sent to Islamic terrorist convicts or suspects in prison, it said.

The alleged ringleader is Abdelkader Ayachine, an Algerian, and his top aide, Wissan Lotfi, a Moroccan. They were allegedly preaching violent jihadi ideology to promote an international "holy war," especially in Iraq, the statement said.

Spain has detained 250 suspected Islamic terrorists since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 others.

Spain's defense minister recently told radio network SER. But most of those arrests have been in Madrid, Barcelona, and coastal areas.

A verdict in the Madrid bombing trial is expected next week. The trial earlier this year involved 28 defendants, mostly Islamic terrorist suspects.

Last week in Madrid, another terrorism trial began with 30 defendants, mostly Algerians, charged in what prosecutors said was a failed suicide truck bombing plot against the National Court in central Madrid.


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/24/spain.arrests/index.html

© 2007 Cable News Network.

Ahmadinejad Proposes Relocating the 'Zionist State'

THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Special Dispatch Series - No. 1748
October 25, 2007 No.1748

Iranian President Ahmadinejad Reiterates Proposal for 'Zionist State' in Canada or Alaska, Suggests International Committee of 'Truth-Seekers' Examine Holocaust, 9/11


The following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, on October 6, 2007.

To view this clip visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1585.htm.

To view more clips of Iranian President Mahoud Ahmadinejad visit: http://memritv.org/subject/en/358.htm

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "The Western governments that bear the standard of secularism, anti-religion, and lack of respect for the rights of the peoples, and for the followers of all Abrahamic religions, themselves consider the defense of the Zionist regime to be the most sacred value in the world. Zionism and the existence of the Zionist regime are so important to them that they do not even allow the raising of questions about the preparations and pretexts that led to the establishment of this regime."

[...]

"In some of these superpowers, anyone who runs for president must first officially declare that he is committed to supporting Zionism and the Zionist regime, and he must prove this by his actions."

[...]

"If any country in Latin America, Africa, or Asia wants to sign an agreement with any Western country, it must first recognize the Zionist regime, support it, and maintain economic ties with it."

[...]

"They have created a certain organization, something sacred, a sacred phenomenon no one can oppose. They have all committed themselves to supporting this. This [Zionism] is the axis around which they unite. As a result, all the wars, animosity, and crimes of the Western countries have moved to other countries. They have moved these wars away from themselves, and by uniting around this [Zionist] regime, they have transferred the wars to other peoples."[...]

The Leaders of Several Western Superpowers "Created Something Called Zionism" and "Invented the So-Called 'Genocide of the Jews'"

"The leaders of several Western superpowers comprise the Zionist party. They are the ones who pull the strings. They created something called Zionism, and invented the so-called 'oppression' of the Jews. They themselves created the background for this, and today as well, it is they who are running the show."

[...]

"After World War II, they invented the so-called 'genocide of the Jews.' Throughout Europe, and in countries under the control of the Western superpowers, they established an anti-Jewish movement. By means of propaganda and a certain psychological atmosphere, and by using the issue of the so-called 'crematoria,' they created the sense that the European Jews were oppressed. They used the pretext that some Jews were oppressed and were harmed during World War II and by the wave of anti-Judaism in order to lay the foundations for the establishment of the Zionist regime. Later, of course, they called it 'the massacre of the Jews,' and only after World War II did they call it 'the Holocaust.' They made this issue more sacred than all the sacred things in the world."[...]

"You Have Turned This Phenomenon... Which You Yourself Invented After The War, And Which You Began Calling 'Holocaust' Only In 1975 – Into Something So Sacred...?"

"How can it possibly be that you have turned this phenomenon – a phenomenon which you yourself invented after the war, and which you began calling 'Holocaust' only in 1975 – into something so sacred that nobody is permitted to even raise questions about it? In World War II, there were several incidents similar to a plane crash. Later, under the pretext of these incidents, they have been perpetrating an ongoing genocide of historic proportions in Palestine. They have been perpetrating an ongoing crime in Palestine."

[...]

"They permit themselves, under the pretext of the Holocaust, to commit every type of crime. They even built secret prisons in Europe, and they kidnap people and publicly announce that they would kill them."

[...]

"Why don't you allow the deciphering of the code of the World War II 'black box?' Why don't you permit this? We want to help you. Let's open that 'black box,' and see what is happening there and who caused it. If people were killed there, who were they? Who was responsible? Who supported this? Let's examine the role played by other peoples in all of this. If the leaders of the Western countries are not members of the Zionist party, they should enable an international team of truth-seekers to unlock the mysteries of this phenomenon. What really happened there? Under the pretext of what happened, crimes are still being committed, and the [Nobel] Peace Prize is awarded to the Zionist criminals."

[...]

"It happened in Europe, so we proposed allocating them a place in Europe. They might say, as some of them already did: 'Oh really?! We worked so hard to drive those Jews out of Europe, and now you want us to take them back?' We say: 'Fine, you can't bear the presence of these Zionists in your region, but you want to impose them upon the peoples of this region? You have vast territories. Give them part of Canada or Alaska, so they can establish a state. After all, you give them $30 or 40 billion in aid every year – so give them that money in order to establish their state there.'"

[...]

"An Incident Occurred on September 11, and Look What They Did Afterwards... They Are Creating Another Incident Like the Holocaust"

"Politicians who dream at night of reconciliation with the Zionist regime should know that the Palestinian people is steadfast, the Iranian people and the free peoples of the world are steadfast, and they will not rest for a day until the entire land of Palestine is liberated."

[...]

"An incident occurred on September 11, and look what they did afterwards. They used this pretext to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, they killed dozens of thousands of peoples, and they want to continue to kill. They are creating another incident like the Holocaust. We advise them not to create something sacred, not to fabricate another sacred lie, and to allow a group of truth-seekers to get to the bottom of things, to identify and expose those behind it, and get it over with."