Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. Amelia Earhart
From Fox News:
By George Russell
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top lieutenants on Monday are convening the first meeting of the U.N.’s Task Force on the Global Food Crisis. Ban says it will “study the root causes of the crisis,” and propose solutions for “coordinated global action” at a summit of world leaders in June. Sphere ItFrom BREITBART.com:
Nuclear missiles and tanks paraded Friday across Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era but new President Dmitry Medvedev warned other nations against “irresponsible ambitions” that he said could start wars.
Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across the square, followed by a huge display of heavy weapons including Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks, and a fly-by of warplanes.
Reviewing his first parade as commander in chief, Medvedev warned against “irresponsible ambitions” that he said could spark war across entire continents.
Sphere ItFrom FT.com:
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Chinese companies will be encouraged to buy farmland abroad, particularly in Africa and South America, to help guarantee food security under a plan being considered by Beijing.
A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would make supporting offshore land acquisition by domestic agricultural companies a central government policy. Beijing already has similar policies to boost offshore investment by state-owned banks, manufacturers and oil companies, but offshore agricultural investment has so far been limited to a few small projects.
Sphere ItFrom BREITBART.com:
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s junta seized U.N. aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last week’s devastating cyclone, prompting the world body to suspend further help on Friday.
The U.N. said the aid included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits and arrived in Myanmar on Friday on two flights from Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates.
“All of the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,” U.N. World Food Program spokesman Paul Risley said. “For the time being, we have no choice but to end further efforts to bring critical needed food aid into Myanmar at this time.”
Sphere ItFrom Yahoo! Finance:
By John Wilen, AP Business Writer
Gas pushes above $3.67 a gallon, while oil passes $126 on Venezuela supply concerns
NEW YORK (AP)—Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump, following oil’s recent path higher.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that suggested closer ties between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and rebels attempting to overthrow Colombia’s government. Chavez has been linked to Colombian rebels previously, but the paper reported it had reviewed computer files indicating concrete offers by Venezuela’s leader to arm guerillas. That appears to heighten the chances that the U.S. could impose sanctions on one of its biggest oil suppliers.
“If we put on sanctions, I’m sure Chavez would threaten to cut off our oil supply,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. “Obviously that would have a major impact on oil prices.”
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
TEHRAN (AFP) — Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that Iran’s arch-foe the United States was the main obstacle to resolving both the crisis in Iraq and the Palestinian question.
“Your presence in the Persian Gulf is the source of insecurity in this very sensitive region of the world,” Khamenei said to the Americans during a speech in the southern city of Shiraz carried by state television.
“The security of this region has to be restored by regional countries,” he insisted, adding that in the case of Iraq “the very presence of US forces is enough to provoke Iraqi people.”
“In Palestine, American intervention has only worsened the situation,” said the all-powerful leader, condemning US support for the Jewish state which Iran does not recognise.
“The situations in Iraq and in Palestine will be sorted out, but when these are resolved there will not be anything left of America’s prestige and identity,” the state broadcaster’s website also quoted Khamenei as saying.
Washington accuses Iran of supporting terrorism and fomenting sectarian violence in Iraq. Tehran vehemently denies the charge and blames the presence of US-led opposition forces for the bloodshed in its western neighbour.
The two states are also at odds over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, which the United States says is cover for an atomic weapons drive. Iran denies it wants the bomb and insists that its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
United Press International
ImageTEHRAN, May 8 (UPI)—Iran recalled its ambassador to Iraq in protest of Baghdad’s support for a move by the United Arab Emirates to take ownership of three Persian Gulf islands.
The Emirates News Agency, WAM, said April 28 that the Iraqi government expressed “unconditional support” for the Emirates’ sovereignty over the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands, which lie at a key access point to the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran claimed control over the islands following the departure of British forces in 1971. UAE officials say Iran is an illegal occupier of the islands.
The official Emirates news agency said “Iraq supports all procedures” for the UAE to reclaim the islands.
Iran summoned Ambassador Majid al-Shaikh to Tehran in protest, The Tehran Times said.
“The Iraqi government was also asked to correct its position,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said.
Iran plans to take the matter to the international court at The Hague.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
ImageWASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Thursday ruled out sending a US envoy to Tehran to present a new offer from the big powers to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment.
“Once we have this all wrapped up in terms of some final details, then we’ll be happy to talk about it more. Until that point, I will say that we are not going to be going to Tehran,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
“We have laid out our conditions… for having discussions with the Iranians,” he said, referring to the demand that Iran halt of all its enrichment and processing of uranium.
The six powers involved in the nuclear talks—the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany—decided May 2 in London to present a new offer to the Iranian government.
The six did not say how and when they would present the package to Tehran but diplomatic sources said negotiations are underway with Iran to send foreign ministry political directors from the six countries to Tehran.
They said the United States would not join the group led by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana who would probably leave next week.
Asked about the rumors, the State Department’s acting political director, Daniel Fried, did not rule out that such a delegation would travel to Tehran, but said he would not be part of it.
“No way will I go with them. Never was in the cards,” Fried told AFP.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
The Washington Times
THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL
ImageAs President Bush enters his final months in office, there are mounting signs of disarray when it comes to current U.S. policy towards Iran and North Korea. The three remaining plausible candidates to succeed him — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain — have yet to explain how thier policies will differ from the current administration. Regarding Iran, for example, senior administration officials are continuously disavowing their own administration’s National Intelligence Estimate, produced late last year, which suggested that Iran had halted a critical component of its nuclear weapons program. But the damage to American credibility has already occurred, and the administration appears to have decided that the Iranian nuclear program will be left for its successor to deal with.
It hasn’t always been this way. During Mr. Bush’s first term, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton was particularly energetic about urging Moscow not to supply fuel for Iran’s light-water nuclear reactor at Bushehr. The Department of Energy studied how much plutonium could be extracted from the facility and concluded that a middle-range estimate would be enough to build 50 to 60 nuclear weapons. But after Mr. Bush was re-elected, the administration, under intense pressure from Europe, made a regrettable bargain in an effort to bolster its diplomatic case against Iran: accept the premise that Tehran has every right to go forward with purportedly “civilian” nuclear energy programs even if such programs could be diverted to military use. This has led to the absurd situation (spotlighted in hearings held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year), in which the White House is supporting an Energy Department budget that includes $4 million for two Russian institutes that are helping Iran complete the Bushehr reactor.
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
At least 11 people were killed Friday, May 9, Day 3 of fierce clashes between Hizballah and pro-government forces, the worst since the 1975-90 civil war. At noon, Syrian Social Nationalist Party’s units entered Beirut to support Hizballah’s advancing occupation of Sunni West Beirut districts.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that Thursday night, army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman refused to obey prime minister Fouad Siniora’s order to declare a state of emergency for the crisis created by Hizballah’s declaration of war against the government. The general warned that if the government enacted an emergency, he would order the troops to return to barracks.
The SSNP is a Greek Orthodox arm of Syrian military intelligence.
Hizballah and fellow Shiite Amal fighters were thus able to seize control of most of pr-government Sunni West Beirut in clashes that have spread to other parts of the Lebanon while the government was left unprotected.
The urban warfare shut down Lebanon’s port and all but closed the international airport, with burning barricades on major highways in Beirut.
The army has only interfered in extreme situations. Friday, soldiers rescued the anti-Syrian majority leader Saad Hariri and allied Druze leader Walid Jumblatt when their mansions were surrounded and attacked by Shiite forces, but they did not make the assailants move out. The Lebanese army, half of whose members are Shiites, thus permitted Hizballah and Amal clinch their control of the Sunni neighborhoods.
The Lebanese army also took over the pro-government Future TV station and newspaper owned by Hariri after they were blown up. The army agreed to keep the station off the air.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the United States, France and Israel are watching passively as Lebanon falls to Iran’s surrogate terrorist group Hizballah. Since the 2006 Lebanon war, prime minister Ehud Olmert has insisted improbably that the conflict had left Hizballah seriously weakened.
Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday night that the only way to stop the violence was for the “black gang” ruling the government to withdraw its decisions to close his military telecommunications network and restore Hizballah loyalists to key positions at Beirut international airport.
Sphere ItBY: FERN SIDMAN
As Jews around the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel as a modern state, the annual Yom Ha’Atzmaout (Israeli Independence Day) festivities in New York took place amidst a backdrop of controversy and protest outside of Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday evening May 7th.
At a gala, star studded musical event sponsored by the UJA-Federation, thousands of supporters of Israel filed into the landmark edifice to hear a historic mix of all star talent including Israeli stars David Broza, Idan Raichel, Rami Kleinstein, Habanot Nechama and Yael Naim. Also appearing on the bill were top American performer and Hasidic reggae phenomenon Matisyahu, recent MacArthur Genius Award winner John Zorn and “Late Show With David Letterman” bandleader Paul Shaffer. The event also included a moving tribute to Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror as part of Israel’s Memorial Day.
Outside the hall, a vitriolic cadre of anti-Israel protestors staged a boisterous demonstration; excoriating both Israel and the United States for their ostensible “oppression” of the Palestinian people. An organization called “Palestinian Action – Union Square East” sponsored the protest along with members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, an anachronistic Maoist organization who saw its heyday back in the 1960s as an agitating force behind the Vietnam war protest movement. The 75 demonstrators expressed their opprobrium for the Jewish State by chanting such slogans as “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” and “Not a Nickel, Not a Dime, No more Money for Israel’s Crimes” while drawing parallels of the plight of the Palestinian people to the “racist” verdicts in the Sean Bell case in which several New York City detectives were exonerated of the shooting in April 25th.
“We are calling for the absolute right of return of the Palestinian people to their homeland”, said Myka Abramson, 23, a protestor representing the Palestinian cause. Abramson, who identified herself as Jewish added that, “a two state solution to the Middle East conflict is not acceptable. We are rallying our forces to demand a one state solution, a secular democracy in which the Palestinians are masters of their own fate.” None of the protestors addressed the issue of incessant rocket attacks launched against southern Israel by Hamas in Gaza, but rather chided the IDF for committing “genocide” against Palestinians living in Gaza. Another demonstrator who was selling copies of the Revolutionary Communist Party newspaper, formerly titled “The Revolutionary Worker” said, “from Harlem to Palestine to Haiti we call for a revolutionary struggle for freedom for all oppressed peoples and we call for an end to the Israeli apartheid regime.”
The Palestinian contingent was also joined by 15 members of the notoriously anti-Zionist Chareidi movement, “Neturei Karta” whose members held signs calling for the “Peaceful Dismantlement of Israel” and claimed that “Jews in Exile are Forbidden to Have Their Own State”.
As the anti-Israel and patently anti-Semitic protestors spewed forth their vituperative railing and overt canards against Israel and the United States, directly across the street, members of “Stand With Us” a pro-Israel campus organization gathered. “Stand With Us” was established to counter the vociferous anti-Israel propaganda that has become a permanent part of and endemic to the American university campus scene.
Although greatly outnumbered by the anti-Israel protestors, the members of Stand With Us proudly hoisted an Israeli flag and held signs saying, “Stop the Hamas Terror” and “End the Hamas Bloody Occupation of Gaza”.
An African-American woman named Coretta James joined the members of Stand With Us to express her unwavering support for Israel, “Israel is the only viable democracy in the Middle East and a loyal ally of the United States”, she said, adding that, “As a member of Christians United For Israel, I am here today to tell the world that Israel has every right to exist as a clearly identifiable Jewish state. Every nation of the world that has risen up to attack the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has eventually become extinct and so too, these demonstrators who dare attack G-d’s chosen people and their claim to their G-d given land will also eventually disappear. The establishment of Israel as a Jewish nation is extolled in the Bible and those who curse the Jewish people and Israel will be cursed and conversely those who bless the Jewish people and the Land of Israel will be blessed by G-d. That is why I am here today.”
Another pro-Israel demonstrator said, “the fact that Israel is celebrating its 60th year since its formation is testimony to the fact that the G-d of Israel continually provides protection and succor to His people. In many ways, it is purely illogical that Israel should still be in existence. After five major wars and unceasing terrorism, the continued existence of tiny Israel, outnumbered by adversarial forces much mightier than herself is nothing short of a Divine miracle of mammoth proportions.” He added, “I feel and I fear that the times ahead will not portend well for Israel, as a Jewish State. The entire world is turning against Israel and she is becoming more isolated and reviled. As the global influence of radical Islamists continues to dramatically escalate, our only hope lies with our return to the G-d that saved our ancestors, to the G-d that will save us, if only we will beseech Him.”
Sphere ItTrust me when I say you absolutely have to get this book! Clintonisms – The Amusing, Confusing, and Suspect Musing of Billary which is edited by Julia Gorin and is a proud product of the vast right-wing conspiracy, is raucously funny, eye-opening, sobering, and at times, enough to make blood shoot out of your eyes as Glenn Beck would say…
When I sat down to read this small book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I started reading, I started laughing and insisted that my husband sit down and listen to me read it out loud so we could share the fun and wit within. By the end of the book, we had learned many things about the Clintons that made a lot of sense and just made us furious at the sheer arrogance and elitism that surrounds them. However, in the midst of all that, the wit and presentation in this book is incredibly funny and insightful.
The author, Julia Gorin, is described as follows:
Julia Gorin is among the most recognized names in conservative comedy. In 2004, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution ran Julia’s jokes and photo alongside those of Jon Stewart and Jay Leno in a special election humor feature. She was profiled in the 2005 book South Park Conservatives and her jokes are among the “1,500 Best Jokes Ever Told” in Penguin Group’s newly released Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jokes. She has appeared on Politically Incorrect, Hannity & Colmes, Fox ‘n Friends, as well as on ABC, CBS and NBC news programs. Her articles frequently get her invited on talk radio, and have been objected to by the offices of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (whoever that is), and his future successor Bill Clinton, aspiring “President of the World,” as she calls him.
I was so thrilled with this book, I may just buy it in bulk. EVERY conservative, independent or semi-sane individual should have a copy and I sincerely recommend that you do not drink ANYTHING while reading it – that is unless you like snorting liquids. Here’s a taste:
Happy F—-ing Flag Day
“Where is the G—damn f—-ing flag? I want the G—damn f—-ing flag up every f—-ing morning at f—-ing sunrise.”- Hillary Clinton, to her staff at the Governor’s Mansion Labor Day, 1991
Viva La Revolucion
“We just can’t trust the American people to make those types of choices. Government has to make those choices for people.”- Hillary Clinton, to Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert about health care, 1993
and one more…
Constitution, Shmonstitution
“We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles.”- Bill Clinton, March 1993
“The purpose of the government is to rein in the rights of the people.”
- Bill Clinton, on MTV, 1993
You can get this priceless book at Amazon for about $10.
ISBN 10: 0-9787213-3-0.
I want to sincerely thank Tim Woods at Sterling & Ross – Cambridge House Press for sending me a copy. Their site is at www.SterlingandRoss.com. Tim – one of the best books I have EVER had the privilege of reading, laughing and crying over!
Sphere Itcomment by Jerry Gordon
JudyW over at Refugee Resettlement Watch has got it exactly right. The call for Palestinian “refugees”, who fled during the 1948-1949 War for Independence , to converge on Israel tomorrow, its Independence day, is nothing more than a sham to put on the bargaining table their alleged ‘rights of return”. [...]
John Bolton: US should bomb Iranian camps
comment by Jerry Gordon
When we posted on the revelations by a US intelligence officer that Iran’s IRGC Al Quds force was using Hezbollah cadres to train Iraqi Shia insurgents at a camp near Tehran, the question naturally came into our minds, when was someone going to suggest the obvious: bombing the camps? That’s exactly [...]
comment by Jerry Gordon
I couldn’t think of three better sponsors of “Rachel’s Law” at the national level- The Free Speech Protection Act of 2008: Sens. Specter, Lieberman and Rep. King. When we posted on NYS Governor David Patterson signing the Libel Terrorism Protection Act of 2008, passed unanimously by both houses of the New York [...]
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
News reports during the past 24 hours reveal that a 46-year-old stubborn streak running through the hearts of government leaders in Myanmar closely resembles one that’s been embedded in the bleeding hearts of Congressional Democrats for nearly three decades.
Myanmar Rulers Stubborn
Members of the ruling junta in Myanmar (a.k.a., Burma) have refused the vast majority of disaster relief that’s been offered by the United States following a cyclone that struck the Southeast Asia nation May 2-3.
Sphere ItFrom American Forces Press Service:
By Navy Seaman William Selby
Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2008 – The Defense Department is developing a proposal to finance university research on national security-related issues, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday.
The Minerva Consortia, as it’s called, would have the academic and intellectual communities focus on certain physical and social sciences, Thomas Mahnken, deputy assistant secretary of defense for policy planning, said in a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers.”
“We, as a Defense Department, don’t have the expertise that we really need,” Mahnken said. “We, as a nation, need to cultivate that expertise.”
While DoD already researches both basic and applied physical sciences, Mahnken said, research in social science needs beefing up.
Though some issues surround research of social sciences, Mahnken said, funding should not be one of them.
“One of the virtues of social science research, as opposed to the physical science research, is it’s relatively inexpensive,” Mahnken said. “This is an area where 2 or 3 million dollars actually goes a long way.”
Mahnken said that although the government already uses organizations such as the National Security Agency for social-science research, the goal in the DoD proposal is to bridge a fundamental gap between academia and the government in social sciences.
That gap, he explained, puts the government at a disadvantage in understanding some of the challenges the United States faces worldwide and as a nation, Mahnken said.
Mahnken said another motive is to help college students receive more funding for their education.
“We see this as being able to fund kind of a new generation of scholars,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot of letters of support from the university community.”
To get the Minerva Consortia project to move forward, solid funding is a must, Mahnken said.
“This is the type of research that you don’t just turn the crank and produce something overnight,” he said. “So we want to provide a stable funding base.”
(Navy Seaman William Selby works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service.)
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman says the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been arrested in the northern city of Mosul.
Spokesman Mohammed al-Askari says the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed to him by the Iraqi commander of the province.
There was no immediated confirmation or comment from U.S. forces on the arrest.
Al-Askari did not say Thursday when the Al Qaeda leader was arrested. News of the arrest was also reported by Iraqi state television.
Sphere ItFrom the Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media:
By: Phyllis Chesler
Dear Readers:Greetings! I am recovering rather slowly from a non-life threatening surgical procedure but will begin posting new material together with the ongoing retrospective of some of my writing.
The distinguished editor and author, Leo Haber, asked me to contribute an article about my memories of Israel for the venerable magazine Midstream’s lead section “Israel at Sixty: Reminiscences and Reflections.” I joined Elie Wiesel, Itamar Rabinovich, Edward I. Koch, Ram Belinkin, Vera Stern and Leo Haber. Here is part of what I said. The entire issue will appear online in the near future at www.midstreamthf.com.
ISRAELI MEMORIES. THE PRICE FOR SUPPORTING ISRAEL GROWS HIGHER BY THE MINUTE. By Phyllis Chesler
I can’t remember a time when Israel was not central to my imagination both as a model for heroism and as a transcendent, miraculous, reality. From childhood on, Zionism was an ever-evolving example of political, theological, historical, and personal liberation.
I was born in 1940 and grew up in an Orthodox family in Borough Park. In 1946, I started learning Hebrew. And, in 1948, I “rebelled.” I joined Hashomer Ha’Tzair, a left-wing socialist Zionist youth group. Within a few years, I joined Ain Harod, a group to the left of Hashomer. In the early 1950s, I packed machine gun parts for Israel. Both Hashomer and Ain Harod shared a vision of Jews and Arabs living together in the Holy Land. This utopian, agrarian vision, this defiant form of idealism, got me embroiled in dangerous adventures in the Islamic world but in Israel too.
In 1972, after having wrestled with anti-Semitism on the left and among feminists, I traveled to Israel for a long overdue, first-time visit. I was newly famous-and I needed to go “home,” live anonymously, without having to give a speech or an interview. I instantly loved the land. I reveled in the beaches and cafes of Tel Aviv, the mountain-down-to-the-sea views of Haifa, the mystical desert of the Negev, the hot coral colors of Eilat, the radiantly golden Jerusalem.
Sphere ItFrom the US Dept. of State:
Fact Sheet
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Washington, DC
May 7, 2008
Campaign of Terror Unleashed in Zimbabwe
In the aftermath of the March 29, 2008 elections, President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has unleashed a wave of political violence designed to cow opposition members and supporters into submission and deter them from participating or voting their conscience in a possible runoff election. Soldiers, police, war veterans and youth militia loyal to the ruling party have been deployed in rural areas throughout Zimbabwe to systematically intimidate voters through killings, beatings, looting of property, burning of homes and public humiliation. Women, children and the elderly have not been spared. Civil society groups, particularly those involved in election monitoring, and humanitarian organizations charged with providing desperately needed food assistance also have been targeted.
Victims (below statistics are as of May 5, 2008)
From Fox News:
By Todd Connor
An influential Muslim cleric, instrumental in reaching out to law enforcement after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, arrived at a federal immigration courthouse in Newark, N.J., Thursday to fight deportation.Imam Mohammad Qatanani, accompanied by his wife and six children, had little to say as he walked past several hundred supporters holding signs and American flags on his way to court.
The imam, who is expected to take the stand in his defense, prayed with his attorney inside the courthouse before the hearing got underway.
Sphere ItHeh… This pretty much says it all folks… 
From Fox News:
By Jana Winter
Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up the number of its supporters protesting Berkeley’s controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center.The women’s anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for “Witches, clowns and sirens day,” the last of the group’s weeklong homage to Mother’s Day.
“Women are coming to cast spells and do rituals and to impart wisdom to figure out how we’re going to end war,” Zanne Sam Joi of Bay Area Code Pink told FOXNews.com.
Sphere ItFrom the Jerusalem Post:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that the state of Israel is a “stinking corpse” that is destined to disappear, the French news agency AFP reported.
“Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as having said.
“Today the reason for the Zionist regime’s existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation.”
Ahmadinejad further stated that Israel “has reached the end like a dead rat after being slapped by the Lebanese” – referring to the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.
Sphere ItFrom ZombieTime:
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the “Nakba” (Arabic for “Catastrophe,” the Palestinian name for the founding of Israel in May of 1948), the U.C. Berkeley group “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) set up a mock “security checkpoint” at Sather Gate on the U.C. campus, on May 7, 2008.
The purpose of the checkpoint was, in theory, to give otherwise blasé Berkeley students a taste of so-called “Israeli oppression”—to force them to experience waiting in line at an Israeli-manned checkpoint in the West Bank.
The last time SJP tried a similar stunt (in 2004), they originally tried to force everyone passing through Sather Gate to go through the mock oppression, but this time around they were told to stay off to the side and let traffic pass by normally. As a consequence, this year’s demonstration was more like a bit of street theater on the periphery of the plaza, and didn’t have the same disruptive effect. Members of SJP, portraying Palestinians trying to enter Israel or pass through a security checkpoint, sat on the ground in a line, watched over by mock Israeli soldiers with guns.
Guns, did you say? Yes, guns.
Sphere ItFrom Citizen Outreach:
By: Chuck Muth
SO LET IT BE WRITTEN, SO LET IT BE DONE
In formally announcing the creation of the James Commission to look into ways to make government more efficient and less expensive, Gov. Jim Gibbons said yesterday, “My first goal is if we can get government so efficient that it does not take as much revenue to run government, we are going to look at cutting taxes.”
Vunderbar! However, maybe we should cut taxes FIRST and THEN find ways to force government to operate with the lower revenue. As my friend Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform would say, “starve the beast.” Yeah, that’s the ticket.
MEANWHILE, ON PLANET TAXUS
While Gov. Jim Gibbons and Bruce James were meeting in Carson City yesterday to launch a new private commission to reduce government, representatives of the gaming industry and the teachers union were meeting to figure out a mutually agreeable scheme to raise taxes for more money for higher teacher salaries. After all, just look at the bang-up job our public schools are doing!
The proposal under discussion would raise the hotel room tax rate by some 3 percentage points, jacking up the room tax to around 12 to 16 percent in various parts of the state. This tax hike is seen as politically painless since it will be born primarily by tourists.
Make no mistake, this compromise proposal should be DOA - Dead On Arrival. Regardless of whose taxes are being increased, it’s still a tax increase. And it would have to be approved by the Legislature. Which means even if passed it would be vetoed by Gov. Gibbons who has clearly and steadfastly told everybody who will listen and understands plain English: “NO NEW TAXES.”
This proposal itself is just plain foolish. You simply cannot keep raising the cost for visitors to come to Nevada endlessly. Sooner or later visitors will find less expensive places to go. We will take our tourism industry to death…literally. And a tax hike on people who don’t live here is absolutely “taxation without representation.” And that…dare I say it…un-American.
I’m against any and all tax hikes, but if the gaming industry is going to keep playing this “don’t tax me, tax the guy behind the tree” game I might just have to reconsider. The problem in Nevada isn’t that taxes aren’t already high enough…
It’s the spending. Bring on the James Commission!
WHO THE HELL IS WALLY EDGE?
If you haven’t discovered the new online political newspaper “Politicker Nevada” yet, do yourself a favor and surf on over and add it to your list of favorite places. And while there, make sure to read the column titled “Ron Paul Circus” by “Wally Edge” concerning the recent Nevada GOP convention in Reno.
There are a number of “Politicker” e-newspapers in a number of states. And at each of them, I believe, there is a reporter dubbed “Wally Edge” who reports anonymously on the state’s political scene. In this report, Wally Edge quotes a GOP insider describing what transpired at the convention, noting that it started off great. However, this person notes that “a small minority of Ron Paul delegates somehow thought this was a UFC match rather than a state convention.”
“They fed off of Mike Weber who always tries to rile things up but this time had a group of people willing to follow blindly,” the insider continued. “The whole process is a shame because it unfairly lumps normal Ron Paul supporters in with a small few who fail to bathe, treat others with respect, follow rules, understand politics or care about the results of their actions. What should have been a great day…turned into an embarrassment for anyone who can complete a sentence and supports Ron Paul. What a shame.”
Took the words right out of my mouth. Heck, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
In any event, Wally Edge continued to investigate the convention fiasco and came across the brouhaha that has developed between myself and Ron Paul operative Jeff Greenspan. Regarding the exchanges the Arizona Agitator and I have had on my Muth’s Truths blog, Wally Edge writes that he “honestly did not believe that any political operative would be so stupid as to actually put the things into an e-mail that” Greenspan has posted on my blog. So he contacted Greenspan directly.
Wally Edge reports that he and Greenspan “had exchanged lengthy and civil e-mails until I asked him about the dust-up with Muth. All of a sudden Mr. Greenspan turned from passionate defender of Dr. Paul and the Constitution into the green-pea soup spewing demon from The Exorcist.”
Yep, that’s Jeff Greenspan all right. But it gets worse. Get a load of what Greenspan actually wrote to Wally Edge shortly thereafter:
“By the way. Wally Edge = Chuck Muth. Hi Chuck. Only you can come up with ‘this is taking on a life of its own.’ You did it on your blog. What a coward going ‘undercover.’ Nice try.”
Yep, you read that correctly. Apparently the tin-foil antenna on Greenspan’s headgear went off and this paranoid conspiracy fruitcake suddenly came to the conclusion that I am the anonymous “Wally Edge” and was trying to set him up. Talk about a wingnut.
Then again, maybe I AM Wally Edge. Only The Shadow knows for sure (cue the Twilight Zone theme music: do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do…).
Wally Edge (or I) concludes that Greenspan’s response “erased any doubt in my mind as to whether Mr. Greenspan is capable of putting stupid, paranoid, conspiracy-crazy things in writing. His open and unabashed megalomania is amazing.”
You may remember a few days ago I reprinted an email from someone who worked with Greenspan in the past. And that person said ol’ Jeff was “a total conspiranoid. If there is a whacked-out idea, he believes it.” That person also said Greenspan “has acceptable people skills only as long as you agree with him. But if you disagree, you become the devil incarnate.”
Based on my experience with Greenspan, and now Wally Edge’s experience with Greenspan (unless he and I ARE one and the same), I’d say that initial assessment is, in the immortal words of Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny, “dead-on balls accurate.”
Oh, and there’s more coming. A LOT more. If you think Greenspan came unglued on me at Muth’s Truths, wait’ll you read more of what he wrote to Wally Edge. Which, of course, raises the question of how I know what Jeff wrote to Wally. AM I really Wally…or did Wally share with me Jeff’s on-the-record email rantings? Good Lord, that’s enough to make a paranoid’s head explode!
But that’s it for today. The ol’ home-school school bell is ringing and today’s lesson for my kids is “The Use of Spies” from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” with particular focus on “covert operations.” Shhhhh.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“The decision to divorce in the middle of his first term was the governor’s ill-advised and very public decision. The idea that he has sought to have the fallout from his public decision sealed from the public view ought to generate jeers throughout the press. . . . If Gov. Gibbons wanted to keep his divorce private, he should have resigned from public office.”
- Columnist John L. Smith
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said it would be possible to see a price of $200 per barrel for crude if existing conditions in the market continued, an Iranian news agency reported on Thursday.
“If current conditions continue, reaching a period when oil is supplied at $200 a barrel is not out of reach,” Nozari told the official IRNA news agency.
Nozari said the reasons behind the surge in oil prices, which this week hit a record high above $123 a barrel, were the weak U.S. dollar and supply concerns from Nigeria.
Iran and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, source of two in every five barrels of oil, have blamed factors other than supply and demand for oil’s record high prices.
“In fact, the U.S. dollar has weakened … Another reason is related to problems in Nigeria’s crude production,” Nozari said.
Oil has risen from below $20 in early 2002 and is widely predicted to continue its climb.
OPEC oil supply fell in April to 31.64 million barrels per day, its lowest this year, as a strike cut Nigerian output and top OPEC exporters Saudi Arabia and Iran trimmed production, a Reuters survey showed last week.
(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari, writing by Zahra Hosseinian; editing by James Jukwey)
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
ImageTwo Iranian men have been detained in Afghanistan in separate incidents on suspicion of spying near NATO and Afghan military installations.
Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of Afghanistan’s southwestern province of Nimroz, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that one of the detained men was captured with documents and photographs that prove he had links with militants.
Azad said the man was captured trying to enter the city of Zarang, on the border with Iran. “He had a camera that had photographs of weaponry indicating clear ties with [Afghanistan’s] enemies,” Azad said.
In a second incident, near Afghanistan’s southeastern border with Pakistan, authorities say they detained an Iranian man who was preparing information for what they believe was an attack against NATO and Afghan security forces.
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
President George W. Bush accused Syria of “supporting terrorism…pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs including the recent revelation of illicit nuclear cooperation with North Korea.” He said Syria was also undermining US and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq.” Syria’s actions were held to be “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.”
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
Pro-Western Siniora government and Iran-Syria-backed Hizballah forces exchanged fire in the streets of Beirut Wednesday, May 7. DEBKAfile’s sources report both have ordered a general call-up of their adherents.
Hizballah fighters clad in national army and police uniforms are infiltrating government party strongholds in the capital to seize control. In the north and the western Beqaa Valley region of Kharoub, government forces are mobilizing. First units have been sighted heading for Beirut.
During the day, Hizballah blocked the roads leading to the airport and vowed to keep it under siege until the Siniora government goes back on the decision announced Tuesday, May 6, to shut down the private telecommunications network Iran installed for the group and reinstate the pro-Hizballah airport director Gen. Wafiq Shuqeir. To pile up anti-government pressure, Hizballah called labor unions out on strike.
General Shuqeir was removed after Druze Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt accused Hizballah of installing spy cameras at the airport to monitor the movements of Lebanese and foreign leaders. Jumblatt said incoming flights were bringing the Shiite militia supplies of weapons from Iran.
On August 9, 2007, DEBKAfile first revealed that Iranian military engineers were installing a secret underground telecommunications system to support Hizballah’s missile unit. The network runs through south Beirut, the Beqaa Valley’s Yohmor region near the Syrian border – where Hizballah and the Palestinian Popular Front-GC keep their training facilities – and connect the southern towns of Tyre on the Mediterranean with Abassieh, seat of Hizballah’s southern headquarters.
For the ten months during which this military telecommunications network was being installed, the Beirut government did not dare touch it.
Prime minister Fouad Siniora finally decided enough was enough when satellite images provided by Western agencies showed work on connecting Hizballah’s network with the communications and eavesdropping systems set up by the Syrian army along the Lebanese border.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the two networks and their linkage are part of military preparations by Iran, Syria and Hizballah for a possible new flareu-up of hostilities with Israel.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
ST. ANTHONY, Idaho — A suspected illegal immigrant has been charged with raping a 10-year-old girl who later gave birth in eastern Idaho.
The girl gave birth less than two weeks ago by caesarian section at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg, Fremont County Sheriff Ralph C. Davis and other authorities said. Officials would not disclose the gender, date of birth or paternity of the baby.
“I wouldn’t have believed a 10-year-old could conceive in the first place,” Davis said.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
A German court ruled Wednesday that a Muslim student cannot skip co-ed swimming lessons because her religion prohibits form-fitting clothes that do not cover her body, The Local reported.The 12-year-old girl’s parents sued a school the northern city of Remscheid after it refused to let the girl skip the lessons. The court sided with the school, saying that the state’s responsibility to educate the girl outweighed an infringement on her religious freedom.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
MEXICO CITY — Mexican official says acting federal police chief shot to death
From Local6.com:
OCALA, Fla.—U.S. Air Force officials were searching for a unmanned spy air craft that vanished in the Marion County sky Tuesday.
The Air Force was conducting training with the UAV Raven at about 4 p.m. Tuesday when the aircraft was launched from an open field in the 500 block of Southeast 25th Avenue in Ocala.
Upon launch, the Raven immediately turned eastward and failed to respond to all commands from the controllers, Ocala police said.
Sphere ItJust had a call from a buddy of mine in Vegas – Frank Galloway – who says at 9 pm last night there was a series of huge explosions out way west of Spring Mountain. No concussions, but it felt like multiple casinos imploding. He called the tv and news stations – they had no idea what he was talking about and acted totally disinterested. Hundreds of people were outside and heard it. Anyone know what it was?
Sphere ItFrom Townhall.com:
By Austin Bay
Michael Yon is one of those unusual Americans who emerge in wartime to do the jobs that need to be done. The job he is doing is covering combat in Iraq at the gritty, confusing and valiant level of close combat, and doing so with honesty, passion and professional expertise. His new book, “Moment of Truth in Iraq,” testifies to that.Yon isn’t World War II’s Ernie Pyle, he’s the Global War on Terror’s Michael Yon. This is a different war with a very different media environment. Yon “self-embedded” with U.S. combat units in 2005—paying his own way and getting donations through his Website michaelyon-online.com. Given the Internet and digital technology, it isn’t really surprising that emails and Web logs (blogs) have been the richest sources of detailed, day-to-day combat reporting. Yon is part of this new media environment.
Sphere ItFrom Citizen Outreach:
By: Chuck Muth
ANOTHER DUMB DEMOCRAT JOKE
An old, blind man wanders into a 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.”
THE JAMES COMMISSION…IT’S ON!
I watched Gov. Jim Gibbons as he signed an Executive Order (EO) in his office this morning establishing the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission and introduced to reporters his choice to head that commission, Bruce James. As the U.S. Public Printer in Washington, DC, for a number of years, Mr. James has extensive experience in just this sort of exercise.
But as we know, the devil is in the details. I’ve been championing a Nevada version of Ronald Reagan’s old Grace Commission for many years now. Is the