Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. Amelia Earhart
From Bob McCarty Writes:
Perhaps Barack Obama needs to bloat his hands, too. That’s the conclusion I reached after reading about the latest tell-all book written by someone who knows O.J. Simpson and after reading Richard Baehr’s latest blog post about the Democrat presidential front-runner.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
BOGOTA, Colombia — The onus is now on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to explain evidence of his apparently intimate ties to Colombia’s main guerrilla army.
Interpol on Thursday endorsed the authenticity of computer files seized in a rebel camp, announcing that Colombia did not tamper with documents indicating Chavez sought to finance and arm the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
Venezuelan officials set up contacts with Australian arms dealers and arranged for missile training in the Middle East, according to the documents, which were on computer hard drives seized by Colombia and obtained by the Washington Post.
Yet Chavez responded sarcastically to Interpol’s conclusions.
Sphere ItFrom Bloomberg.com:
By Christopher Anstey and Steve Matthews
May 15 (Bloomberg)—The Federal Reserve’s direct loans of cash to commercial banks climbed to the highest level on record in the past week as money-losing lenders increasingly turn to the central bank for funds.
Funds provided through the so-called discount window for banks rose by $2.8 billion to a daily average of $14.4 billion in the week to May 14, the central bank said today in Washington. Separately, the Fed’s loans to Wall Street bond dealers rose by $75 million to $16.6 billion.
Policy makers have increased the attractiveness of direct loans as they seek to alleviate the impact of the credit crunch. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said two days ago that while markets have improved, they remain ``far from normal,’’ adding that the central bank is prepared to increase its twice monthly auctions of funds to banks.
Sphere ItFrom The Washington Times:
By Bill Gertz
The State Department will soon begin production of an electronic passport card that security specialists and members of Congress fear will be vulnerable to alteration or counterfeiting.
The agency has contracted with L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. to produce electronic-passport cards as a substitute for booklet passports for use by Americans who travel frequently by road or sea to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
About the size of a credit card, the electronic-passport card displays a photo of the user and a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip containing data about the user. The State Department announced recently that it will begin producing the cards next month and issue the first ones in July.
Sphere ItFrom Reuters:
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The United States and Israel agree on the need for “tangible action” to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman said after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.
“We are on the same page. We both see the threat … And we both understand that tangible action is required to prevent the Iranians from moving forward on a nuclear weapon,” Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said on Friday.
Regev described diplomatic efforts so far to exert pressure on Iran as “positive”, but added: “It is clearly not sufficient and it’s clear that additional steps will have to be taken”.
Sphere ItFrom Reuters:
By Lin Noueihed
DUBAI (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape to mark Israel’s 60th anniversary to continue to fight the Jewish state and its allies in the West.
The al Qaeda leader, who has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said it was at the heart of the Muslim battle with the West and an inspiration to the 19 bombers who carried out the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001.
“We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies … and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on Earth,” he said in the message, posted on an Islamist website on Friday.
Sphere ItFrom Yahoo! Finance:
By Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press Writer
Oil prices briefly rise to record above $127 a barrel in volatile trading
Oil prices soared more than $3 a barrel, surpassing $127 for the first time Friday and putting more pressure on already lofty gasoline and diesel prices ahead of the summer driving season in the northern hemisphere.
Also pushing oil prices up were speculation that China’s demand for diesel needed to fuel its power plants would rise due to reconstruction efforts after this week’s earthquakes and an upward revision of an oil price forecast by investment bank Goldman Sachs from $107 to $141 a barrel for the second half of the year.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States has warned Beijing over reported use of Chinese weapons by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Asian giant’s continued sale of arms to Iran, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said.
He said he conveyed the concerns personally to Chinese officials during his visit to Beijing this week.
“Just the other day, Monday, when I was in Beijing, this was one of the issues I raised—concern about Chinese weapons or Chinese-designed weapons showing up in some of these battle areas, be it Iraq or Afghanistan,” he told a congressional hearing on US-China ties.
The US military in Iraq had said its troops had found Chinese-made missiles which they believe were smuggled in by groups in Iran aiming to arm militants fighting US-led forces.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
Tehran, Iran, May 15 – Iran’s Foreign Ministry has warned the United States to recognise Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and not to create an “unwise political atmosphere”, state media reported on Wednesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said, “The U.S. government had better pay attention to realities instead of making pre-judgments”. His remarks were carried by the official news agency IRNA.
In relation to a new package offered to Tehran by the world’s major powers in return for a halt to its uranium enrichment activities, Hosseini said, “We have not received any package from the group yet”.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman added, “Iran’s inalienable rights to use peaceful nuclear energy such as enrichment and producing fuel are not negotiable”.
The comments pour cold water on the new incentives package being offered to Tehran by the UN Security Council’s Five Permanent Members and Germany. Uranium enrichment and the production of nuclear fuel are seen as integral parts in the process of acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
By Matt Spetalnick
ImageJERUSALEM, May 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush heads for Saudi Arabia on Friday to renew his appeal to help tame record oil prices and try to shore up Arab support for containing Iran’s growing regional clout.
After a three-day trip to Israel, Bush will fly to Riyadh to see King Abdullah, who for the second time this year is expected to rebuff the president’s face-to-face call to get OPEC pumping more oil to world markets.
Since Bush’s last visit in January, oil prices have jumped nearly $30 to around $126 a barrel, adding to U.S. recession fears and boosting political pressure on the White House in a year when voters will pick Bush’s successor.
Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser, said the president would tell Abdullah that oil suppliers must, for their own interests, “take into account the economic health of their customers who pay these prices”.
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
It was obvious that US president George W. Bush’s denunciation of those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” had put the Democratic candidate, Senator Barack Obama, on the spot. Minutes after the words had been spoken on Thursday, May 16, in a special 60th anniversary session of the Israeli parliament, Obama shot back with an attack on the president: “George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists.”
Some of the flak which landed on the senator was directed against his lobbyists, whose arrival to woo Israeli and Jewish support was timed to coincide with the presidential participation in Israel’s anniversary celebrations.
Bush felt that his gesture to honor Israel had been used for internal American political sparring and he struck back.
Sphere ItFrom the Business and Media Institute:
Inhofe, Sessions blast massive costs of global warming legislation.
By Jeff PoorWorried about gas prices hitting $4 a gallon and beyond? Imagine if they were $6, $7 or even $8 a gallon. Those levels are a certain possibility should Congress pass cap-and-trade legislation, which could face a vote in early June.
Oil is trading at record levels, in excess of $120 a barrel. Leading Republican Sens. James Inhofe (Okla.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.) both told the Business & Media Institute (BMI) energy prices would drastically increase if the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191) is signed into law. Sphere ItFrom WorldTribune.com:
An FBI presentation states that China has counterfeited Cisco Systems network routers and may be using the equipment to penetrate U.S. government and private sector computer networks.
Federal authorities in February seized some 400 counterfeit Cisco Systems knockoffs worth $76 million. The equipment included routers, switches, gigabit interface converters and WAN interface cards.
Sphere ItFrom The Blotter:
A radical jihadist Web site has announced that a new message from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is forthcoming.
A banner announcing the message says he will address the 60th anniversary of Israel. His message is titled, “The reasons for the struggle in the remembrance of the 60th anniversary of the rising of the occupier nation of Israel.”
Developing…
Sphere ItFrom Family Security Matters:
Ben Shapiro
Barack Obama is all about unification.
There’s only one problem: the people who comprise his staff are some of the most extreme Leftists in the country.
There’s his legislative counsel, Ian H. Solomon, who wrote in 2004 that John Kerry lost Florida due to voter fraud, repeating the kook theory that computer voting machines were rigged for Bush. Obama paid him $49,499.94 for the six months from April 1, 2007 to September 30, 2007.
There’s Jennifer Mason, Obama’s Correspondence Coordinator, who, according to columnist Debbie Schlussel, is a member of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. During the same period, she was paid $30,749.95 by the Obama campaign.
Sphere ItFrom Family Security Matters:
Peter Brookes
New information continues to chip away at Iran’s rock-like insistence that its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes – and not a nuclear weapon effort as many suspect.
The latest news is that Tehran continues to put more centrifuges online at its Natanz uranium enrichment facility, which could lead to the production of low-enriched uranium for reactor fuel or highly enriched uranium for weapons.
While enriching uranium is the proverbial ‘long pole in the tent’ in developing nuclear weapons, Iran may also be working on another important aspect of a military programme: a long-range delivery system.
Sphere ItFrom the Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media:
By: Phyllis Chesler
New York Timespeak:”Militants,” (not Islamist terrorists), Only “60 Lightly Wounded in Ashkelon,” (Nothing Compared to the numbers dead in Burma and China), And a Good Time Was Had By President Bush and other Western Celebrities in Jerusalem.
It occurs to me that I ought to have a running commentary on the anti-Israel bias in the contemporary New York Times. It is my home town newspaper and I do read it everyday. Sharing rather than silently swallowing my frustration will be an excellent tonic, and good for my blood pressure.
In today’s edition (May 15th), here is how the Gray Lady summarizes what happened in Israel yesterday.
ATTACKS DURING BUSH VISIT
“President Bush’s trip to Israel to celebrate the country’s 60th birthday was marred by violence. Four Palestinians were killed, including two militants, and nine were wounded in a series of Israeli Army strikes and incursions into Gaza said medics and witnesses there. In Israel, a rocket that the police said was launched from northern Gaza badly wounded four people, including a two year old girl.”
Before we even get to the piece itself which was located at the very bottom of page 6, lemme vent. The first “violence” noted above was that caused by “Israeli Army strikes.” Absolutely no background or context are given in terms of why Israel would strike Gaza. Hundreds, maybe thousands of non-stop Kassam rockets launched against Israeli civilians, children, schoolhouses, hospitals? Could that be it? The Times isn’t saying. And why-oh-why does TimeSpeak keep identifying Hamas terrorists and Islamists as “militants?”
Sphere ItFrom Global Security Newswire:
A laptop computer apparently abandoned by the sister of a Canadian terrorism suspect contained information on the biological toxin ricin, other potential weapons materials and establishment of an al-Qaeda base in Myanmar, the Globe and Mail reported today.
Pakistan sent suspected al-Qaeda operative Abdullah Khadr to Canada in 2005. His sister, Zaynab Khadr, voluntarily returned to Canada from Pakistan earlier that year.
Canadian authorities say Zaynab Khadr left “two large metal containers” in Pakistan that in June 2005 were sent to Canada for inspection, according to court records.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators uncovered a hard drive containing “material dealing with bomb making, ricin, techniques of assassination, chemicals, poisons, silencers, etc.,” court records say.
Also found were “some sort of military operational plan to infiltrate Burma and establish an al-Qaeda base … techniques to invade prisons, contract for immoral acts; administrative letters from (Osama bin Laden),” according to an August 2005 RCMP memo.
No charges have been filed against Zaynab Khadr.
“We don’t have any knowledge about the provenance of this material,” Nathan Whitling, an attorney representing the Khadr family, told the newspaper by e-mail. “We note that no prosecution has resulted from any of this.”
Abdullah Khadr reportedly told investigators that the hard drive had belonged to his father. He said that he had asked his sister to put some of the jihadist information on the computer (Colin Freeze, Globe and Mail, May 15).
Ahmed Said Khadr, father of Abdullah and Zaynab, was a friend of bin Laden and reportedly a financier for al-Qaeda. He died during a 2003 shootout in Pakistan, Reuters reported.
The Bush administration is seeking Abdullah Khadr’s extradition to the United States on charges that he provided al-Qaeda with rockets and other weapons and was involved in efforts to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
Pakistan apparently received $500,000 from the United States for Abdullah Khadr’s capture in 2004, the Canadian Federal Court said this week.
The United States has also detained his brother, Omar, at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He is the only Canadian citizen being held at the facility (Reuters/Yahoo!News, May 12).
Sphere ItWay too funny – you just have to go for it… 
Blogger, Plum Crazy (http://www.houseofplum.com/plumcrazy/), “said my test “has aptly been called the world’s funniest political quiz.” Blogger, Michael J. Totten (http://michaeltotten.com/), called my test, “The funniest political quiz I’ve seen yet, and blogger GM’s Corner (http://www.gmroper.com/) referred to my test as “The Political Test of the Decade!” And finally blogger, Hard Astarboard (http://hardastarboard.mu.nu/) said my test was “a masterpiece, if ever I saw one!”
Currently, over 145,000 people have taken my web test.
I believe my test instructs the reader about the virtues of conservatism in a humorous way and demonstrates how conservatism is the only logical solution to solve today’s serious political issues.
Below is the pertinent info about my test.
===========================================
Test Title:
A SATIRICAL POLITICAL BELIEFS ASSESSMENT TEST: A Humorous Political Party Quiz to Test If You’re an Archconservative, Leftwing Wacko, Antigovernment Libertine or a Commie Sympathizer
Five Sample Test Questions Follow:
===========================================
Key to abbreviations in test questions that follow:
CONS: Conservative (Archconservative)
LIBL: Liberal (Leftwing Wacko)
LBRT: Libertarian (Antigovernment Libertine)
COMM: Communist (Commie Sympathizer)
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1: Government’s practice of stealing from the rich to give to the poor is…
LIBL: a brave, generous and heroic deed.
LBRT: a foolish, misguided attempt at social engineering.
COMM: an inspiration to us all.
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7: The Center for Public-Health Dietary Self Control releases a study that says eating just one jelly donut is as harmful to human health as smoking 10,000,000 cartons of cigarettes. Do you…
CONS: keep eating jelly donuts.
LIBL: demand that jelly donuts be removed from vending machines, and public school cafeterias.
LBRT: hoard jelly donuts before they are regulated off grocer’s shelves.
COMM: hoard jelly donuts so you can sell them on the black market.===========================================
10: What techniques are best for maintaining discipline in the classroom?
CONS: If just one student misbehaves, severely punish the entire class.
LIBL: Force boys who refuse to settle down to take psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalin and Prozac.
LBRT: Anyone who doesn’t want to be in class can leave.
COMM: Anyone who doesn’t want to be in class can be made an example of.
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20: What’s the best way to stop people from illegally crossing our borders?CONS: Seal the borders so no one can get in.
LIBL: Do nothing to beef up security at the borders, and offer illegal aliens a wide array of free services.
LBRT: Allow unrestricted passage across the borders.
COMM: Seal the borders so no one can get out.
===========================================
21: How would you define the word “profit”?
CONS: What business owners earn by selling a quality product at a competitive price.
LIBL: What business owners RIP-OFF from their customers.
LBRT: What business owners are rewarded with for risking the loss of their own money.
COMM: What business owners RIP-OFF from their employees.
===========================================
Click on the Web Link below to read my entire test:
http://www. geocities.com/donaldjhagen/humoroustest.html
Thanks, I hope you get a kick out of it!
Also if you mention my test in your blog or add a link to my test, please, email me and I will be happy to add a link back to your web page to my test
Don Hagen
dsthagen@verizon.net
P.S. Please, feel free to forward this email this to anyone you think might enjoy my test
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
Assuming the text of Republican John McCain’s speech would be available at his campaign web site soon after it was delivered in Columbus, Ohio, this morning, I opted to put my pen down and listen as the presidential candidate spelled out his vision for the first four years of his presidency. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
Surprising to many, news of today’s storm-related roof collapse at M & B Metal Products in Leeds, Ala., could result in a more-wrinkled U.S. workforce as prices climb ever higher at dry cleaning shops across the nation. Why? Because, as I reported in a post April 11, M & B is the nation’s sole remaining source of wire hangers. Who is first? China. To learn more, see China, Feds Take Industry to the ‘Cleaners’.
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
There have been a lot of news reports and feature stories published about the wife of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama during the past year or so, but I have yet to come across many insightful details about how the wannabe first lady and her husband get along in private. In short, I haven’t seen any reports yet that answer the question, “Is Michelle Obama a nagger?”*
Sphere It“Iran says mosque bombers also planned Russian consulate attack”: Sure!
comment by Jerry Gordon
Looks like the Mosque Blast in Shiraz, last month that killed 14 and wounded 200, wasn’t an ‘industrial accident’, as originally reported by the Iranian press. Could it be the work of dissidents backed by US, Israeli or British covert operatives? As Iran is paranoid about such events, it immediately seized [...]
Yemen: Is this the worst place on earth to be a woman?
In Yemen, women belong to men. Most are illiterate. They are arrested in the street. They die in childbirth. In this special report, Rachel Cooke meets the brave few who are campaigning for midwives and against early marriage
‘My daughter deserved to die for falling in love’
Guardian U.K., May 11, 2008
Two weeks ago, The Observer revealed how 17-year-old student Rand Abdel-Qader was beaten to death by her father after becoming infatuated with a British soldier in Basra. In this remarkable interview, Abdel-Qader Ali explains why he is unrepentant – and how police backed his actions. Afif Sarhan in Basra and Caroline [...]
by Jerry Gordon
President Bush lands in Israel today to celebrate its 60th ‘birthday’. Israel is America’s only steadfast democratic ally in the Middle East. Israel is the literal ‘canary in the mines of Islamist terrorism seeking to destroy it and the center of Western values. On Friday President Bush goes to Riyadh, [...]
comment by Jerry Gordon
Well, Judge Cohn in the Detroit Federal District Court let Hezbo sister, marriage fraudster and former CIA and FBI translator, Nadia Nadim Prouty go without not much of a slap on the wrist. Either he doesn’t get it, or more likely there was a deal cooked up with Federal prosecutors to [...]
ACT makes terrorist website Ekhlass. What!
by Jerry Gordon and Joseph Shahda
Our colleague Joe Shahda was surfing the terrorist websites late last month, when he came across a post about a campaign on our sister ACT! for America website. It appears to us that our message may be getting through not just to people concerned about radical Islam here in America [...]
“Shackled Warriors”: an interview with Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post
by Jerry Gordon, Israpundit, May 13, 2008
I participated in a One Jerusalem bloggers interview with Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, this afternoon. It was synchronized with the launch of her new book, “Shackled Warrior”. Glick was in Washington, DC on the road show promotion of the book and meeting with colleagues there. “Shackled [...]
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Misunderstanding Islamic Antisemitism
by Andrew Bostom, The American Thinker, May 13, 2008
Last year, nearing completion of the final manuscript version of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, I took a brief hiatus and posed the following two questions, based upon my research, to a cadre of academics, independent scholars, theologians, journalists, and activists who opine, in writing and speech, [...]
‘PA cozying up to America’s enemies’: Palestine Media Watch to Congress
Herb Keinon , Jerusalem Post, April 16, 2008
President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority is snugly in bed with the United States’ worst enemies, according to a report presented in Washington on Tuesday by Palestinian Media Watch. “There is ample evidence that the contacts between the Palestinian Authority and the enemies of the United States have the characteristics [...]
by Edward Luttwak, New York Times, May 12, 2008
BARACK OBAMA has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires. The resulting emotional intensity adds greatly to the more conventional strengths of the well-organized Obama campaign, and it has certainly sufficed to overcome [...]
Sphere ItFrom Joel C. Rosenberg:
Bush, Obama, and Dobson are riveted on Israel and Iran. They’re not alone.
By Joel C. Rosenberg
(Washington, D.C., May 15, 2008)—The eyes of the world are riveted today on Israel, the epicenter of the momentous events that are shaking our world and shaping our future.
President Bush delivered an important and controversial address to the Israeli parliament this morning. A few excerpts worth noting: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” the President noted. “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you. America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Sen. Barack Obama—sounding quite defensive, in my judgment—quickly fired back, though the President did not mention the junior Illinois Senator by name, and may very well have been thinking more of former President Jimmy Carter.
“It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack,” Sen. Obama replied. “It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power—including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy – to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.”
Meanwhile, Dr. James Dobson—the most-listened-to evangelical Christian on radio anywhere on the planet, with more than 9 million listeners a week in North America alone—begins the first of two programs on God, evangelicals and Israel. Today, he, author Tom Doyle and I explore the Biblical theology of the miraculous and prophetic rebirth of the modern State of Israel 60 years ago this week, God’s everlasting and unconditional love and plan for the Jewish people and all the people of the epicenter, and the prophecies concerning Israel’s future.
Tomorrow, we will focus on the work of The Joshua Fund, Tom’s organization, and some of the ways that evangelical Christians can pray for the people of the epicenter and bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus. Please tune in on your local Christian radio station, or go to our weblog for a link to listen on-line.
At the same time, hundreds of churches, conferences and radio stations around the country are also focusing on Israel over the next few weeks.
This weekend, for example, more than 500 radio stations will be airing the “Epicenter Radio Special,” a two-hour broadcast of the major speeches and key moments from the Epicenter Conference we held in Jerusalem last month. Please check local listings, or listen on-line at www.epicenter08.com.
On Saturday, May 17, Tim LaHaye and I will address the Southern California Strategic Issues Conference in Los Angeles. My subject will be, “All Eyes on the Epicenter: Russia, Iran and The Future of Israel.”
On Sunday, May 18, I will will speak on God’s plan and purpose for the nation of Israel at Calvary Chapel of Chino Valley, California.
On Saturday, May 24, I will have the privilege of serving as the closing night speaker at the “Past, Present & Future Conference” at the Tucson Convention Center in Arizona, before an expected audience of some 10,000 people. The event has been organized by pastors from all over the Tucson metro area. Randy Travis is the headlining musical act. Pastors Skip Heitzig and Robert Furrow will speak the first two nights. I will talk about Bible prophecy, Israel, and how we can know the God who knows the future.
For details on any of these events, please check on our weblog. Please keep my family, my team, and me in your prayers, if you would, as we have these remarkable opportunities to help millions of people to better understand God’s heart for the Israel and her neighbors at this critical moment in world history. Thanks so much.
Sphere ItFrom Human Events:
by Ann Coulter
On the very day of a special election to fill a vacated congressional seat this week in Mississippi, The New York Times accused the Republican candidate of running racist ads against his Democratic opponent.
Talk about dirty tricks! By The New York Times, that is.
The Republican thus accused of racism narrowly lost the election the night the Times article appeared, so I guess the Times can proclaim: “Mission Accomplished.”
Sphere ItFrom BREITBART.com:
Palestinians protested across the occupied territories on the 60th anniversary of the “catastrophe” of the birth of Israel on Thursday as the Jewish state’s army went on high alert.
The commemoration of the Naqba, or “catastrophe”—the defeat of invading Arab armies and the expulsion or flight of about 760,000 people—came as US President George W. Bush was to mark the creation of the Jewish state with an address to the Israeli parliament.
Thousands gathered in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah, waving Palestinian flags and demanding the “right of return” for some 4.5 million UN registered refugees scattered in camps across the Middle East.
Sphere ItFrom the ‘It’s All About Me’ department… Good for Bush… From BREITBART.com:
By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a “false political attack” with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals.
The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush’s words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran’s leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue.
In a speech to Israel’s Knesset, Bush said: “Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.
Sphere ItFrom ABC News:
ABC News’ Ed O’Keefe Reports: The Obama campaign is taking issue with a comment President Bush made while speaking to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s statehood.
“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” the President said to the country’s legislative body, “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to ca
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
JERUSALEM, May 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush will tell Israel’s parliament on Thursday that letting Iran acquire nuclear weapons would be an “unforgivable betrayal of future generations”.
“America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions,” Bush will tell Israeli legislators on the second day of his visit to the Jewish state, according to an advance copy of a speech he was due to deliver later in the day.
Bush was in Israel to celebrate the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary and try to shore up the faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In his speech to the Knesset, he planned to hammer home his view that democracy could prevail against extremism in the Middle East, where he has struggled to push his “freedom agenda”.
His strongest criticism will be aimed at Iran, Israel’s main foe in the region.
“Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Bush will say.
Bush has led an international campaign to isolate Tehran diplomatically over its nuclear ambitions. He says there is a danger that Iran will use nuclear technology to build a bomb. Tehran says its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.
Bush has accused Iran of fomenting violence against Israel by Palestinian militants, of using Hezbollah to try to destabilise Lebanon’s elected government and of arming and training Shi’ite militias in Iraq. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
The Grad (Katyusha) rocket was aimed at the town of Netivot east of the Gaza Strip, the day after a rocket wrecked the Ashkelon shopping mall and injured 100 people. This time it fell short and exploded on open ground.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israeli ground and air forces are on their highest alert for further Palestinian attacks on towns and villages within range of their missiles and rockets. Israeli forces fired in the air to ward off hundreds of Palestinians ordered by Hamas to crash the Gaza-Israel border crossings and level the border fence Thursday, May 15. The Israeli air force struck Hamas sites overnight.
DEBKAfile reports Hamas targeted the Erez crossing through which Palestinian sick are still evacuated to the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon.
The Ashkelon rocket carried a message from Tehran to visiting US president George W, Bush that Iran’s arm was long enough to reach an American presence anywhere.
Our military sources also disclose that the Grad rocket was in fact fired by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command headed by Ahmed Jibril. A team of this terrorist group reached the Gaza Strip in the last few days via Sinai after attending a special course in the precise targeting of rockets at an installation near Tehran. The team arrived already armed with the Grad manufactured in Iran which hit the Ashkelon mall. The PFLP-GC spokesman declared openly that the attack was ordered from Iran.
The Ashkelon rocket also bore a warning to prime minister Ehud Olmert that the truce plan Egypt presented to Israel was a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum and not open to negotiation.
Sphere ItI awoke this morning to the not-so-dulcet tones of John McCain and his latest speech… I am too conservative for McCain and I cannot see my way clear to ever voting for him. Which leaves me in a quandary on how to carry out my voting duties next time up. Still pondering that one… But it may well be: none of the above.
Fox News went on about what a great speech this was and that the American people would be hugely surprised and delighted by the determination and changes expressed within. Instead of shock and awe, I came away with meh and nuance…
The good, the bad and the meh… On the good side McCain wants transparency for bids and earmarks. I’m all for that. He wants judges who will enforce the law, not dictate it – who will support the constitution, not change it. Another great idea. He is also in favor of a flatter tax – I love less taxes and a flatter tax rate but I want the real details before I’ll swoon.
On the bad side… He figures that Russia and China will diplomatically handle Iran. In your wildest and most horrific dreams Senator. That’s a formula for nuclear catastrophe… He waxes poetic on healthcare/medicare/social security and it sounded like a strange mix of socialistic programs and pipe dreams. He all but demands amnesty for illegal aliens while saying that employers will be punished for hiring them. Not fooled Senator – you have not changed one bit on that issue and the American public won’t stand for your force-feeding this crap to us.
Now onto the meh which is actually just as bad. McCain has this strange idea of associating global warming with national security. That is just plain stupid… Sorry, no away around that one or his love of a fake science that is intended to a) tax Americans massively and b) control our daily lives even more. And one last thing – if McCain truly believes we won’t be hit again during his presidency, he has already reached senility… You can read the transcript here...
Sphere ItFrom Citizen Outreach:
By: Chuck Muth
MASTERS OF DISASTER
“Last night, Republicans lost their third special election in a row in districts they had easily carried in the 2004 presidential election. Should the voting patterns found in those districts be repeated in November, it would be a disaster for the GOP.”
- John Fund, Political Diary, 5/14/08
OLD GRAY MARE
“I’m puzzled by the optimism of so many commentators and Democratic functionaries who are prophesying Hillary’s graceful withdrawal by mid-June. Is there anything in the Clintons’ tawdry history to support such a thesis? Why wouldn’t they play smiley-face rope-a-dope now and smash-mouth alley-and-ambush fisticuffs right to the bitter end—meaning the convention in August? It’s now or never for Ms. Hill. Even if Obama loses this fall, there’s no guarantee whatever that she would win the Democratic nomination in 2012. That hoss will have been around the rodeo way too many times.”
- Feminist author Camille Paglia
OBAMA-CLINTON TICKET?
“(T)his is what some people close to the Clintons are talking about: Is there a way to negotiate a settlement with Barack Obama to have Sen. Clinton on the ticket…? Can he get over the bitterness of this campaign? Can he be convinced that it’s the strongest ticket? Third, of course, would Sen. Clinton take it? I think if it was offered in the right way, yes.”
- ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos
IF HILLARY IS B.O.’S #2
“If Hillary were the vice president you would have Bill rattling around the West Wing and Obama would need a food taster for four years. No way.”
- Unnamed Democrat super-delegate to Political Diary’s John Fund
TOO SMART BY HALF
“Most of all, [Hillary Clinton] was too late in understanding how much the Democratic Party’s mania for ‘fairness,’ as mandated by liberals like her, has, by forbidding winner-take-all primaries, made it nearly impossible for her to overcome Obama’s early lead in delegates…. If even, say, Texas, California and Ohio were permitted to have winner-take-all primaries (as 48 states have winner-take-all allocation of their electoral votes), Clinton would have been more than 400 delegates ahead of Obama before Tuesday and today would be at her ancestral home in New York planning to return some of its furniture to the White House next January.”
- Columnist George F. Will
ANOTHER CPS NIGHTMARE
“He is angry, misses his family and is losing his reddish-brown hair. His dad says his ‘spirit’s broken.’ The 11-year-old Hamilton boy, who has leukemia, was seized by the Children’s Aid Society last week and is being forced to undergo chemotherapy against both his and his family’s wishes.
“...At a hospital appointment for routine tests last Thursday, the Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton took the boy, who cannot be identified under youth-protection laws, into its temporary custody. Chemotherapy treatment was then commenced. His family can visit him only under the watchful eyes of CAS workers and security guards; his father was evicted from the hospital in handcuffs after reacting in anger when his son was seized.
“...The father called the ordeal ‘awful, hell on wheels.’ He said he will fight to regain custody of his son, saying the boy has suffered enough. ‘The best thing for him to do would … be home with us so that if he did pass away, at least it would be home with us and we could take care of him and we could make sure that he’s sent away the way he deserves to be, not poked and prodded and treated like a criminal,’ he said.”
- Jill Mahoney, Globe & Mail, 5/12/08
ILLEGAL DEMANDS
“A lot of Americans can’t get their head around the concept of illegal immigrants demanding civil rights from a country whose laws they’ve broken. After all, these are people who have chosen to live outside our system. And now they want to come inside, but only to ask for this and demand that, without admitting they did wrong or acknowledging their responsibility to make it right.”
- Columnist Ruben Navarrette
BREAK OUT THE VETO PEN
“HR 5830 the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Housing Stabilization and Homeowner Retention Act would allow the FHA to guarantee as much as $300 billion worth of refinanced home loans for those facing threat of foreclosure. HR 5818 the Neighborhood Stabilization Act, would provide $15 billion in loans and grants to localities to purchase and renovate foreclosed homes with the object of then selling or renting out those homes. Thankfully, President Bush has vowed to veto both of these bills. It is neither morally right nor fiscally wise to socialize private losses in this way.”
- Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Texas Straight Talk, 5/12/08
ANOTHER DUMB DEMOCRAT JOKE
An old, blind man wanders into a Democrat bar in Washington, DC, by mistake. He finds his way to a barstool and orders a beer. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, “Hey, you wanna hear a Dumb Democrat joke?” The bar immediately falls absolutely silent. In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says,
“Before you tell that joke, sir, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things: One, the bartender is a Democrat with a baseball bat. Two, the bouncer is a Democrat. Three, I’m a 6-foot-tall, 175-pound Democrat with a black belt in karate. Four, the woman sitting next to me is a Democrat and a professional weightlifter. And five, the lady to your right is a Democrat and a professional wrestler. Now, think about it seriously, Mister. Do you still wanna tell that joke?”
The blind man thinks for a second, shakes his head and finally mutters: “Well, no; not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.”
ROOTING AGAINST KIDDIE PORN
Unbelievably, Mary Ruwart, a candidate for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination – to be decided in Denver at their convention in a couple of weeks – is out defending her position that children should be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to participate in child pornography. This has set the LP’s grassroots on fire, pitting the anarchist wacko wing against the rational limited-government wing of the party which resulted in the resignation of the party’s national executive director. And now fellow presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root has thoughtfully rips Ruwart and her ridiculous position a new one in a column you can read in its entirety HERE on the Muth’s Truths blog.
THE UNION LABEL
Of course, no one could expect less of organized labor but to attack Republicans, even John McCain. But the amount of money proposed to be spent to destroy McCain really makes one wonder if every last union member would approve of such vast expenditures of their dues money?
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) suffered a stinging rebuke when nearly 47% of the nurses at three St. Rose Dominican hospitals in Nevada voted to join a rival union this week. It wasn¹t enough to decertify the SEIU - 50% was necessary – but with nearly half of the members voting against the union, this shows quite a widespread dissatisfaction with the SEIU.
The Dept. of Labor (DOL) has announced that it is changing the requirements for internal financial disclosures of unions requiring more details on finances and spending. Read more HERE on The Union Label.
Sphere ItFrom Citizen Outreach:
By: Chuck Muth
MASON VS. JAMES
“SAGE Chairman Bruce James calls incendiary allegations being made by former state Chairman John Mason ‘a complete fabrication on his part.’ Says he has no intention of stepping down from cost-cutting commission unless governor asks him to. Gov. Jim Gibbons is standing by James, his spokesman said.
“What I have verified—no speculation here, folks—is that Mason made sure at the time that the White House knew about his charges of improper personal conduct and that then-Counsel Alberto Gonzales called James. James says he told Gonzales that the allegation was spurious and says he never heard from anyone else again. So what evidence does Mason have, or is this just part of a longtime personal grudge? We’re waiting.”
- Jon Ralston’s Flash, 5/12/08
GOVERNOR VS. MASON VS. JAMES
“This is a dispute between Mr. (Bruce) James and Mr. (John) Mason in which the Governor has no role. About five years ago when he was a member of Congress, the Governor heard a rumor that Mr. James had been involved in some type of inappropriate incident. He does not recall whether he initially heard this through the Washington D.C. rumor mill or directly from Mr. Mason. The Governor vaguely recalls a brief conversation with Mr. Mason about it following a meeting on a different subject. The Governor assumed that if there was any truth to the allegation it would have been handled by the appropriate authorities.
“This rumor disappeared five years ago just as quickly as it surfaced, and it did not surface again when considering the appointment of Mr. James as Chairman of the SAGE Commission. As a member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Gibbons didn’t feel as though he had any role in whether Mr. James remained Public Printer since he was a Presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate.”
- Official statement by Gov. Jim Gibbons, Jon Ralston’s “Flash,” 5/12/08
OF TREE MONKEYS AND REPUBLICANS
Republicans unhappy with both their presidential nominee this year and Republican elected officials in general will likely have their thoughts mirrored in THIS excellent musing by Nevada conservative blogger Elizabeth Marie Crum. In fact, I’m starting to think she and I may have been separated at birth.
THE YUCCAFICATION PROCESS
What do Guantanamo Bay and Yucca Mountain have in common? The conservative National Review’s Jonah Goldberg explains, noting that Yucca’s “biggest shortcoming is that its designers can’t promise that in 10,000 years a passerby who digs up waste won’t be exposed to much more than a few chest X-rays’ worth of radiation.” An important read for Nevadans wanting to understand how out-of-staters view the notion of putting the nation’s nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. Read the full column HERE on the Center for Yucca Facts blog.
AN EMBARRASSING REVOLT
“(Q)uietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul have been organizing across the country to stage an embarrassing public revolt against Sen. John McCain when Republicans gather for their national convention in Minnesota at the beginning of September. . . . In the last three months, Paul’s forces, who donated $34.5 million to his White House effort and upward of a million total votes, have, as The Ticket has noted, been fighting a series of guerrilla battles with party establishment officials at county and state conventions from Washington and Missouri to Maine and Mississippi. Their goal: to take control of local committees, boost their delegate totals and influence platform debates.”
- Andrew Malcolm, Los Angeles Time, 5/12/08
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Haley Barbour has quickly gained a reputation as one of America’s most effective governors. . . . (H)e has held budget growth to below the inflation rate, so Mississippi is not in dire fiscal shape like many states today.”
- Stephen Moore, Political Diary, 5/14/08
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
Despite being surrounded by petroleum-rich neighbors, Egypt is suffering the effects of record-high oil prices that have touched off deadly riots over the simplest of commodities: bread.Since the beginning of April, at least 10 people have been stabbed to death while waiting in Cairo bread lines — others have died from exhaustion.
Sphere It