Sunday, November 2, 2008

Salafism, a Conservative Strain of Islam, Gains Ground in Algeria

ALGIERS, Algeria — "The Taliban are among us!"

The recent headline in one of Algeria's leading newspapers was designed to shock. It also spoke volumes about fears that an austere, conservative strain of Islam is gaining ground in this North African nation, prized by the West for its oil and gas wealth and its help in fighting Al Qaeda-linked terror.

Algeria is worried about Salafism, an extreme branch of Islam that is a concern for authorities across North Africa. Imported from Saudi Arabia and backed by Saudi oil money, Salafism has gained a significant following not only in Algeria but in neighboring Morocco, and has grown dramatically across the Middle East in recent years.

The latest alarm came when authorities in a Sahara Desert town, Biskra, rounded up people who failed to fast during the holy month of Ramadan and sentenced six of them to four years each in prison.

The arrests caused an outcry — and El Watan's headline — because Algeria has traditionally taken a more relaxed attitude to religious observance than places like Saudi Arabia. No law in Algeria explicitly bars people from drinking, smoking or otherwise breaking the daytime fast during the holy month, which this year fell in September. ....

Obama Promises San Francisco Audience He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry!!

from Gateway Pundit

OBAMA TOLD A SAN FRANCISCO AUDIENCE THAT HE WILL BANKRUPT THE COAL INDUSTRY!!!

ATTN: Coal states Virginia , Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Indiana, guess what Obama told San Francisco about you?

OBAMA TELLS SAN FRANCISCO HE WILL BANKRUPT THE COAL INDUSTRY:

Hat Tip Über
Here's the transcript via Free Republic from his talk to San Francisco Gate in January 2008:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I've said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It's just that it will bankrupt them."
This goes hand-in-hand with what he's said about nuclear energy.
His preconditions make it impossible to expand nuclear energy at this time.
From The Wall Street Journal:

On nuclear power, Sen. Obama says he's open to expanding nuclear energy, which now provides 20% of the nation's electricity, as part of an effort to increase power sources that emit little or no carbon dioxide. But he also has said there is no future for expanded nuclear energy until the U.S. comes up with a safe, long-term solution for disposing of nuclear waste. He opposes the Bush administration's plan for storing waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
No wonder Rupert Murdoch is worried about an Obama presidency.

Nuke plant faulted for using janitors as guards

For a week in early October, members of a contract cleaning crew stood guard along sections of the plant’s perimeter fencing during repairs to the plant’s alarm system.

Sweden’s Radiation Safety Authority (Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten – SSM) criticized OKG, the plant’s operators, for violating its own internal safety practices by using untrained workers to guard the facility and for failing to document the break with standard operation procedures. ....

Global meltdown to have a negative impact on food security

by ASHOK B SHARM

Food security usually becomes the casualty in the event of any crisis, be it financial or political. It is not unusual for the recent global financial crisis to invite concerns from ogranisations like FAO and other food policy groups.

The global meltdown in the financial and equity markets follows hard on the heels of soaring food price and energy crisis caused primarily on account of intensified bio-fuel programme. The global commodity prices, though still ruling high, has marked a dip due to good harvest in the current season. According to the latest issue of FAO’s Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, global grain production this year is forecast to increase 4.9% to a record 2,232 million tonne. However, some 36 countries are still in need of external assistance as a result of crop failures, conflict or insecurity or continuing local high prices, the report noted. ....


Terrorists try to infiltrate UK's top labs

(Compiler's note: This wmd warning must be taken very seriously!)



by Mark Townsend

The security services have intercepted up to 100 suspects posing as postgraduate students who aim to acquire weapons material and expertise
A British scientist wears a protective suit in a lab

A British scientist wears a protective suit in a laboratory. MI5 has warned that al-Qaida is seeking to recruit scientists who develop deadly viruses. Photograph: Alamy

Dozens of suspected terrorists have attempted to infiltrate Britain's top laboratories in order to develop weapons of mass destruction, such as biological and nuclear devices, during the past year.

The security services, MI5 and MI6, have intercepted up to 100 potential terrorists posing as postgraduate students who they believe tried accessing laboratories to gain the materials and expertise needed to create chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, the government has confirmed.

It follows warnings from MI5 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that al-Qaeda's terror network is actively seeking to recruit scientists and university students with access to laboratories containing deadly viruses and weapons technology.

Extensive background checks from the security services, using a new vetting scheme, have led to the rejection of overseas students who were believed to be intent on developing weapons of mass destruction. A Foreign Office spokesman said the students had been denied clearance to study in the UK under powers 'to stop the spread of knowledge and skills that could be used in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery'.

He added: 'There is empirical evidence of a problem with postgraduate students becoming weapons proliferators.' The overseas students, a number of whom are thought to be from 'countries of concern' such as Iran and Pakistan, were intercepted under the Academic Technology Approval Scheme, introduced by universities and the security services last November.

The findings raise questions over how many terrorist suspects may have already infiltrated the UK's laboratory network. Rihab Taha, dubbed 'Dr Germ', who worked on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons programme, studied for her PhD in plant toxins at East Anglia University's School of Biological Sciences in Norwich.

In addition, a number of well-educated Iraqi scientists - funded by Baghdad - infiltrated several British microbiology laboratories in the run-up to the Gulf war of 1990-91. Britain has about 800 laboratories in hospitals, universities and private firms where staff have access to lethal viruses such as Ebola, polio and avian flu or could acquire the technology and expertise to develop deadly weapons. Whitehall sources remain concerned about the number of countries intent on acquiring the materials and knowledge to develop a nuclear or biological warfare capability.

John Wood of the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control said: 'Any scientist would say it's important that we know who is working in our laboratories, and also why they are working there.'

The trial of two NHS doctors, Mohammad Asha, 27, a Jordanian national, and Bilal Abdulla, 29, from Iraq, who allegedly plotted widespread carnage through car bomb attacks in London's West End and Glasgow airport last year, has intensified scrutiny on the radicalisation of students. Named in the plot is 27-year-old Indian PhD student, Kafeel Ahmed, who drove a Jeep laden with gas canisters into Glasgow Airport's main terminal building but died several weeks later from severe burns. Ahmed studied for his PhD in the technology department of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

A spokesman for Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said the security scheme had so far proved effective. He added: 'It is important to protect the UK from people who may wish to use technology and materials here inappropriately.'

Michael Stephens, head of security at the Medical Research Council, which runs some of Britain's most sensitive laboratories, said they took the issue of biosecurity 'extremely seriously'.

Concern that al-Qaeda is intent on developing a more sophisticated weapons capability moved the former director-general of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, to warn publicly that terror attacks in Britain could involve weapons of mass destruction. She said: 'We know that attempts to gather materials are there, we know that attempts to gather technologies are there.'

Extremist groups are known to have targeted students, offering to fund courses in return for using their newly acquired expertise. It is unclear if any of those denied 'clearance' to study in the UK during the past year were funded by grants from host governments such as Tehran.

A Foreign Office spokesman said 'efforts' on scrutiny of foreign postgraduate students would continue with only a few of the 20,000 applications rejected for security reasons. In the US, draft legislation advocates banning all non-Americans from laboratories which possess potentially dangerous bacteria and viruses, a measure the UK government believes is too draconian.

Professor George Griffin, chairman of the advisory committee on dangerous pathogens, has warned of the lack of a national standard required for people to work in high-security laboratories.

The move comes as the government considers plans to build a new pathogen research facility in central London, between King's Cross station and the British Library. Experts have warned that a terror attack would prove catastrophic to the surrounding area.

Why Isn’t ACORN’s Voter Fraud A Bigger Story?

(Compiler's note: Must read. You're not hearing this from the standard media. This "ice berg" leading to voter fraud is a national security issue.)

from Nice Deb

You would think that with ACORN being investigated in at least a dozen states for voter fraud, this close to an election, the media would be a little more interested in the story. It’s an important one with major ramifications if the election is a close one, as many think it will be. It should be front page news in every newspaper, and topping the nightly newscasts.

What could possibly account for the media’s silence on so important an issue? This goes beyond the ordinary bias we see every day in the MSM. This is a major scandal, and the only thing that could account for the silence, may be that many of the big wigs in the media, are also fellow travelers.

Consider the Robin Hood Foundation, a group funded 100% by donations, but with George Soros as a major benefactor.

Just as the name implies, their goal is to take from the rich and give to the poor by funding community organizing groups. Groups like ACORN.

Some names on the board of the Robinhood Foundation include Tom Brokaw who is considered the “conscience” of NBC/MSNBC news, and Jeff Immelt, Chariman of GE which owns NBC, as well as Harvey Weistein, ultra lefty movie producer (Fahrenheit 911).

Newsbusters reports:

Brokaw sits on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity that, according to its website, targets poverty in New York City by applying “sound investment principles to philanthropy.” The foundation awarded ACORN a $456,000 grant in 2003 and a $365,000 grant in 2004. Brokaw does not appear to have played a role in the grants because he didn’t become a member of the board until 2005 according to the guidestar.org database, but these are nevertheless the left-wing circles in which he travels.

The Soros Fund Charitable Foundation, as in George Soros, a major bankroller of the left, gave the Robin Hood Foundation a $9,859,453 community development grant in 2000.

It seems clear that many in the media aren’t just sympathetic to the ACORN zombies, they are active participants in its leftist philosophy, and that’s why so few are talking about it.

This McCain/Palin ad sums up nicely what is being underreported by the MSM:



Miami County Suspects Possible Voter Fraud In Absentee Voting

by Steve Baker

Miami County Sheriff’s Department is looking into the possibility of voter fraud involving absentee ballots. Deputies have in their possession 70 sealed absentee ballots. The suspected voter fraud was brought to the attention of the Miami County Board of Elections, said Election Board Director Steve Quillen, after those who requested absentee ballots be mailed to them claimed they never received the ballots and notified the election board. “They are clearly fraudulent,” said Miami County Prosecutor Gary Nasal, who attended a special election board meeting Friday.

Those attending that meeting along with the Board of Elections and county prosecutor and his staff, included the sheriff’s department and postal inspectors from Cincinnati. The election board in Miami County had mailed out approximately 10,000 absentee ballots for this presidential election, said Quillen. As of Friday, 14,603 of Miami County’s 71,373 registered voters have cast their ballots. Of those 14,603, early voters accounted for 4,133 and mailed-in absentee ballots accounted for 9,160.

Those who still want to vote early can do so Monday at the Board of Elections on the ground floor of the Miami County Courthouse in downtown Troy from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.Polls on Election Day will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The election office in Miami County is predicting a record 80 percent voter turnout on Tuesday.

Voter fraud can be a real problem

from the FresnoBee

ERIC PAUL ZAMORA/THE FRESNO BEE
Julia Faller, 20, an au pair from Germany who arrived in July to work for a Fresno family, holds a voter identification card she received in the mail after being solicited to register.



Julia Faller is a serious person. She's honest, too. She would make a good voter.

In fact, she even has a Fresno County voter identification card.

But she can't vote -- not legally. She's not a U.S. citizen.

The story about how she got that card provides a sobering lesson about why voter fraud is a problem to take seriously.

It provides a glimpse into the shady dealings of professional signature gatherers and the risks posed by them. And it illustrates why Gov. Schwarzenegger was wrong to veto legislation two years ago that clamped down on bounty hunters who are paid up to $10 per signature.

Faller, 20, moved to Fresno in July from Heide, a small town north of Hamburg in Germany, to work as an au pair. Among her goals: improving her English.

After her English class at Cesar Chavez Adult School, Faller walks to Courthouse Park to board the bus that takes her back to northwest Fresno, where she lives with Peter and Renee Kinman.

At the park bus station, Faller became the object of unwanted attention.

"Every day this woman asks me to sign up to vote," Faller says, her words wrapped in an unmistakable German accent.

"I told her that I think I wasn't allowed because I had come here just a few months ago."

But the woman persisted, Faller says, and so did others at the park pushing voter registration cards.

Faller finally caved on Sept. 26 after the signature gatherer told the au pair that she would be helping her because she got money for every card.

Says Faller: "She said to sign, and she would check if I can vote."

Faller also says that the woman didn't tell her that she had to be an American citizen to register.

Nor did she mention that it was a felony to sign if she wasn't an American.

After registering, Faller says, the bounty hunter rewarded her with a candy bar.

Faller says she forgot about it until a voter identification card arrived at the Kinmans' home.

The card, proclaiming her a registered Republican, alarmed Renee Kinman because she knew that Faller wasn't eligible to vote.

"I'm worried that this is just the tip of the iceberg" with registration problems, says Kinman, who notified The Bee about Faller's experience.

This time, the safeguards worked.

According to Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar, the card sent to Faller acknowledged her registration pending verification by the Secretary of State's office.

But, because Faller's card wasn't completely filled out -- lacking either a driver's license or Social Security number -- the state rejected it.

Had she supplied a number, she might be allowed to vote on Tuesday.

Paid signature gatherers, Salazar says, "are one of the major problems in voter fraud because they often misrepresent what they're doing. They'll say, 'Do you want to sign a petition and then get people to sign a registration form.' "

Salazar says that one of the best ways to prevent fraud is to take money out of the process. But political parties, as well as interests trying to qualify state ballot propositions, rely on bounty hunters to drum up signatures.

Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation by Assembly Member Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, in 2006 that would have banned payment on a per-signature basis and tightened rules for proposition signatures.

"The prohibitions on per-signature payments will make it more difficult for grass-roots organizations to get the necessary signatures in the time allotted," Schwarzenegger said at the time.

Maybe the governor disagrees, but stricter oversight of voter registration is needed to protect against fraud.

And, as Salazar points out, it's a bad idea to risk identity theft by giving personal information to a stranger.

"Unless you know who the circulators are, voters should be cautious filling out a form that asks for your name, address, date of birth, phone and Social Security number," Salazar says.

He recommends registering at government venues such as the elections office, fire stations and libraries -- or downloading a form on-line and mailing it in.

Salazar says that while Faller shouldn't have signed the registration card, she did the right thing by telling what happened: "Usually people don't come forward. She can be helpful to ensure that appropriate action is taken."

He says that the case, including the name of the signature gatherer, has been forwarded to the Voter Fraud Unit of the Secretary of State's Office. Salazar declined to identify the woman, citing privacy laws.

At the least, this bounty hunter is on notice: Gaming the system could cost you a lot more than $10.

ACLU Supports Fraudulent Voting in Georgia

(Compiler's note: Must read. This sort of thing appears to be rampant throughout the our nation. If we don't get control of our ILLEGALs in this nation we will loose it. Come on America, we can do better than this. rca)

A federal appeals court in Georgia is the latest venue where the ACLU is fighting to keep illegal "voters" on the rolls. The requirement to use Social Security and drivers license records to confirm that new registrations are what they claim to be, legitimate voters, comes from a federal law. The effort to keep illegal "voters" on the rolls comes from Democrat officials and their supporters.

The facts for this article, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Augusta Chronicle on 23 October, 2008. The ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund are asking a federal Circuit Court in Atlanta to prevent Georgia from removing apparent aliens from its "voter" rolls.

The state has used Social Security and drivers license records to identify 4,538 "voters," 3,821 of them newly registered, as noncitizens. Election officials sent letters to all apparently illegal voters, informing of them of the data mismatches, and giving them an opportunity to clear up the discrepancies.

The lead plaintiff in the case is one former alien who claims to have become an American citizen in November, 2007. However, he did not respond to two letters asking him to confirm his citizenship. The ACLU and the Mexican group claimed that the very sending of such letters are "a form of intimidation."

The article refers to these two organizations in its lead sentence as "voters rights groups." From the evidence of this case, now on appeal, these are "NON-voters rights groups." They are willing to have a close election in Georgia, at the local, state or national level, decided by "voters" who are not citizens, or for other reasons including death or multiple voting, have no right to vote as currently registered.

The same issue of using Social Security and drivers license information to verify the legitimacy of "voter" registrations have arisen in many states, because the use and comparison of such data are required in the Help Americans Vote Act passed by Congress. The opposition to using such data is coming almost entirely from Democrats and their ideological supporters, who apparently believe that the illegal voters they are protecting, will vote for Democrats if given the chance.

Source of original story on the Net:

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/102308/met_480491.shtml

Pentagon Unveils New Unmanned Spokesperson

On a lighter note:


By Stable Hand

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Obama: Spike energy costs to make people go 'green'

(Compiler's note: Must read. We need to hear and read this BEFORE the upcoming election. rca)

By Drew Zahn

JOHNSTON, Iowa – In a recently publicized video from the Democratic primaries, Sen. Barack Obama said the government should drive energy bills up though "price signals" in order to force Americans into more environmentally friendly choices.

In the Nov. 9, 2007, interview on Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Press," Obama said Americans like driving SUVs and leaving the lights on, but since "it is undisputable that the climate is getting warmer," consumers would have to change their habits.

When asked what would make consumers change, Obama said government-created "price signals" would make people more mindful of energy costs and compel them to start changing light bulbs and turning off light switches.

Watch the video documentary, "Global Warming or Global Governance? What the media refuse to tell you about so-called climate change"

Associated Press reporter Mike Glover asked, "How do you convince people to change their lifestyle, to live differently?"

Obama's answer, viewable in the video below, was, "I think it is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior. You know, if electricity goes up, people start becoming more mindful of their electricity bill."


When Des Moines Register reporter David Yepsen asked Obama what part of his campaign Americans may not like to hear, the candidate returned to the theme of price signals.

"Number one, we're going to have to start doing a better job of conserving on energy," Obama said. "Americans like to drive their big SUVs. They like to leave all the lights on in their house. We're going to have to change our habits."

He then clarified how the government could implement the kind price signals that change consumer habits.

"We're going to have to cap the emission of greenhouse gases," Obama said. "That means that power plants are going to have to adjust how they generate power. They will pass on those costs to consumers. … A lot of us who can afford it are going to have to pay more per unit of electricity, and that means we're going to have to change our light bulbs, we're going to have to shut the lights off in our houses."

The full context of Obama's comments about driving up electricity prices to bring about consumer change can be viewed in a second segment of the interview below:

Internet bloggers that began circulating the video earlier today also lent their opinion on Obama's plan for consumer change.

"Is that the function of government — to fix prices as a punitive measure to change consumer behavior?" asked the Hot Air Blog. "It will be in an Obama administration. He and a few elites will decide which consumer behaviors are bad and penalize it with price signals."

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, however, commented in a May editorial on the issue of government-created price signals, arguing that a federal gasoline tax would be just the kind of energy "price signal" that would finally persuade Americans to give up their SUVs.

"We need to make a structural shift in our energy economy," Friedman wrote. "The only way to get from here to there is to start now with a price signal that will force the change.

"Barack Obama had the courage to tell voters that the McCain-Clinton summer gas-giveaway plan was a fraud. Wouldn't it be amazing if he took the next step and put the right plan before the American people? Wouldn't that just be amazing?" Friedman wrote.

U.S. border police arrest Mexican troops in Arizona

PHOENIX (Reuters) - U.S. border police arrested seven Mexican soldiers after they accidentally strayed over the international boundary into Arizona, authorities said.
The U.S. Border Patrol said agents encountered the troops in a Humvee a short distance north of the border near Yuma, in far west Arizona, early on Friday.
"The Border Patrol agents on scene established a dialogue with the subjects, who identified themselves as members of the Mexican military," the Border Patrol said in a news release.
"The ... agents informed them of their presence within the United States. Upon notification, the subjects were peaceably taken into custody," it added.
The soldiers, who were assigned to the 23rd Regiment Motorized Cavalry of the Mexican Army, said they had become disoriented while on patrol and had accidentally crossed the international boundary, the Border Patrol said.
After relieving them of their arms, agents took the soldiers to the San Luis, Arizona, port of entry where they were processed and repatriated to Mexico, along with their weapons and vehicle.
The incursion was the second by Mexican troops in recent months.
In August, a group of four Mexican soldiers briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint in a remote stretch of the Arizona desert after they mistakenly strayed north across the border.
(Reporting by Tim Gaynor, editing by Eric Beech)

Murtha scrambles against GOP rival

(Compiler's note: No John, you did NOT "get blindsided." You were just to arrogant to see what was going on in your own area for the past year. Keep after him Bill!!!! Semper Fidelis, rca)

BY MIKE FAHER

It would have been considered unthinkable just a few weeks ago: U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a 17-term congressional stalwart, forced to fight for his political life.

But that’s what appears to be happening just days before 12th district voters decide whether to send the powerful Johnstown Democrat back to Washington.

In the past week, Murtha’s campaign has shifted from cruise control to top speed in the face of a surprisingly strong challenge from Republican opponent William Russell.
And while polling data are scarce, it is clear that the veteran congressman and his supporters – both locally and nationally – are concerned.

"I got blindsided," Murtha acknowledged Friday after an event at Pitt-Johnstown. "I should never have waited as long (to campaign) as I did," he said. "I just thought nobody would vote for a guy who has never lived in this district."

For most of this year, the 12th district race – pitting Murtha against a political newcomer who moved here to challenge the incumbent – was attracting no attention from election operatives or the national press.

But that changed in mid-October, when Murtha called western Pennsylvania a "racist area" and later used the term "redneck" to describe his district’s history – both during media interviews.

The controversy prompted a Murtha apology, but also spurred a Murtha parody on NBC’s "Saturday Night Live."

Whether those comments have led directly to the significant tightening of this race is up for debate. Russell has for months attempted to paint his opponent as an out-of-touch liberal, leaning heavily on Murtha’s opposition to the war in Iraq.

"Our internal (polling) showed three weeks ago that this was a race – even before Jack called his constituents racist," said Peg Luksik, Russell’s campaign manager.

‘It is urgent’

Still, it is clear that the last seven to 10 days have dramatically changed the tenor of the race:

• On Oct. 23, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that a poll conducted for the newspaper showed Murtha with only a four-point lead, within the survey’s margin of error.

• On Oct. 25, Murtha’s campaign sent its first press release attacking Russell directly. Several more were issued over the following days.

• Financial contributions to Murtha’s campaign – which had lagged behind Russell in fund- raising and spending – in-creased dramatically in the past seven days.

• Murtha advertisements have been running frequently on local TV stations and are appearing in this newspaper this weekend.

Forms filed with the Federal Election Commission show Murtha having raised $570,750 this week. And those reports account only for donations of $1,000 or more.

In contrast, Murtha reported $457,340 in contributions from July 1 through Sept. 30.
The Hill, a Washington newspaper, on Thursday reported that Murtha "has sent out a last-minute plea for $1 million to save his hotly contested seat."

And on Wednesday, Murtha put out a fundraising plea to members of the liberal group MoveOn.org.

"When I ask for help, it is because I really need it," he wrote. "It is urgent."
‘Helping with advertising’

To further highlight that sense of urgency, national political groups this week made their presence felt in the 12th district race for the first time.

Sensing Murtha’s vulnerability, the National Republican Congressional Committee went on the attack with television ads. "After four decades in Congress, John Murtha has grown out of touch," said Ken Spain, the GOP congressional committee’s spokesman.

"By calling his own constituents racists and rednecks, he has brought national embarrassment upon himself and to the district he claims to represent."

Meanwhile, a campaign organization representing House Democrats bought television time to defend Murtha. And state Democrats also are chipping in. "We’re helping with advertising, we’re helping with mailers," said Abe Amoros, state Democratic Party spokesman.

As they did in 2006, when Murtha’s Iraq stance led to a relatively tough re-election campaign, fellow Democratic politicians are stepping forward to back the congressman.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner called The Tribune-Democrat this week to offer his support. Wagner, along with Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, is scheduled to appear in Johnstown today at a 9:45 a.m. rally for the congressman at 647 Main St.
Wagner, who like Murtha is a Vietnam veteran, said he has supported the congressman since his first campaign in 1974.

"Pennsylvania, especially western Pennsylvania, doesn’t have a more effective person in government than Congressman Murtha," Wagner said.‘We feel ... confident’
As it became clear this week that Murtha had a fight on his hands, many local leaders have expressed similar sentiments.

For the most part, they are effusively praising Murtha’s well-documented ability to bring cash and jobs to the district. "He has led us to a diverse economy, a vibrant economy," said P.J. Stevens, Cambria County president commissioner. "And going forward, nobody is in a better position than the congressman to see that the growth continues."

On Friday, Murtha received Pitt-Johnstown’s distinguished alumni award. In a speech at the ceremony, university President Jem Spectar discussed the congressman’s support for the educational system.

Amoros said Democrats believe Murtha’s constituents are "more worried about their pocketbooks" than the congressman’s recent controversies.

"We feel quite confident that, at the end of the day on Tuesday, Jack Murtha will be re-elected," he said.

But where some see a temporary aberration, Russell’s supporters believe they’re witnessing a sea change.

"If you disconnect from the people you represent," Luksik said, "eventually they’re going to notice."

Intelligence Head Says Next President Faces Volatile Era

(Compiler's note: Must read. rca)

By Joby Warrick

NASHVILLE, Oct. 30 -- The next U.S. president will govern in an era of increasing international instability, including a heightened risk of terrorist attacks in the near future, long-term prospects of regional conflicts and diminished U.S. dominance across the globe, the nation's top intelligence officer said Thursday.

Competition for energy, water and food will drive conflicts between nations to a degree not seen in decades, and climate change and global economic upheaval will amplify the effects, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said in a speech here.

McConnell, who has given security briefings to both major-party presidential candidates, said the list of worries will soon drown out the euphoria as the next occupant of the White House settles into the job.

"After the new president-elect's excitement subsides after winning the election, it is going to be dampened somewhat when he begins to focus on the realities of the myriad of changes and challenges," he said.

He added that, besides the predictable conflicts and threats, "there is always surprise." McConnell said that the first months of a new presidency are a "period of most vulnerability," noting that major terrorist attacks occurred during the first year of the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.


The sobering assessment was in part a reflection of a months-long analysis McConnell's agency is preparing for the next administration, highlighting security challenges the country will face in the next two decades. Elements of that forecast have been described by intelligence officials in recent weeks, and some highlights have been shared with the presidential candidates in briefings that have occurred since the August conventions.

In the near term, the focus remains largely on al-Qaeda and its global network, which remains "very lethal" despite dramatic setbacks in Iraq and elsewhere, McConnell said. But in spite of progress against Osama bin Laden and his followers, the terrorist threat is not likely to disappear in the next 20 years. Instead, absent major economic and political improvements in the Middle East, "conditions will be right for growing radicalism and recruitment of youths into terrorist groups," many of which will be descendants of established movements such as al-Qaeda, he said.

These groups will probably be more dangerous than their predecessors, because new technology will place dangerous weapons within their grasp, he warned. "One of our greatest concerns continues to be that a terrorist group or some other dangerous group might acquire and employ biological agents or, less likely, a radiological device, to create casualties greater than September 11," McConnell said.

Meanwhile, population growth will create instability by increasing the strain on natural resources -- not only energy but also fresh water and food supplies, he said. At the same time, large swaths of the planet will struggle to find reliable supplies of fresh water, because of urbanization and climate change. By 2025, 1.4 billion people in 36 countries will face water shortages, McConnell said. The scarcity of basic necessities will "create significant tensions on the globe," he said.

Other intelligence officials in recent weeks have forecast declining U.S. dominance in the near future, but McConnell described the coming change in starker terms. Intelligence analysts see China, India and perhaps Russia ascending to new positions of power, a shift being driven by a massive transfer of wealth and manufacturing capability from the West to Eastern countries, particularly China.

"China is poised to have more impact on the world over the next 20 years than any other country," he said. "China will also start becoming a major military power by 2025 [and] will likely be the world's largest importer of natural resources and the largest contributor to pollution."

Former Top Cyber Official at Center of World Bank Scandal

In 1997, Mohamed Vazir Muhsin, a Sri Lankan accountant, was chosen by then-World Bank President James Wolfensohn as the first chief information officer in the institution's history. Eight years later, Muhsin was unceremoniously thrown out the door, and the bank's information security headaches reached migraine stage. ....

Also click here for additional information

Yes, Barack Obama really is a Manchurian candidate

by David Kupelian

"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." – Abraham Lincoln

As Election Day rapidly approaches, many Americans are wondering why so many of their countrymen reject a genuine war hero with decades of experience, one whose pro-life, limited-government values pretty much reflect those of Middle America. Instead, these same countrymen are enthralled with a man who not only has no experience or qualifications for the job, but who is, in fact, the most radically left-wing major-party presidential candidate of our lifetime, having been mentored and supported for decades by terrorists (Ayers), communists (Davis), America-hating racists (Wright) and criminals (Rezko).

Doesn't make much sense, does it?

After all, in past presidential contests, Americans have flatly rejected ultraliberal candidates like McGovern, Mondale and Dukakis – and those guys weren't nearly as radicalized as Obama, who the nonpartisan National Journal rates as having the most left-wing voting record in the entire U.S. Senate – even more so than socialist Bernie Sanders! Moreover, recently it's been proven, despite his campaign's denials, that Obama was indeed a member of the socialist "New Party." And Obama himself confesses that during his college days he intentionally sought out Marxists as friends.

So, how do we explain all this? Why are so many of us eager to turn our nation, the greatest and noblest on earth, over to an angry-at-America, hardcore left-wing "change agent" who will – with the help of a like-minded, Democrat-dominated Congress and a liberal-activist federal judiciary – bring about radical "change" to every area of our lives? Just consider:

So again, the question: Why, despite a mountain of evidence utterly proving his profound unworthiness to be president, do so many millions of Americans worship Barack Obama? Let's take a closer look.

The magic of envy

In recent decades, more and more Americans have been conditioned by politicians to depend on government to solve their problems. This is how demagogues have long operated. They demonize "the rich," implying they obtained their wealth by exploiting the downtrodden; they stir up racial hatreds at every opportunity; they endlessly bash business and CEOs as evil exploiters; they promise "social justice" and universal happiness if only we will elevate them to power over us.

They do all this by appealing to anger and envy. They know instinctively that if they can stir up and ignite these dark, addictive passions in all of us, they will create a large voting bloc of people dependent on them, and thus be rewarded with great power. In its purest form, this phenomenon is called Marxism, communism, socialism – the spiritual core of which is raw envy. This philosophy of cradle-to-grave security and "wealth redistribution" exerts a powerfully seductive grip on people who have not discovered true inner "government." As William Penn famously said, "Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants."

Communism, of course, is atheistic – where the government is the only true god, the giver of blessings, the solver of problems, the dispenser of justice and mercy. This envy-based, class-warfare-fueled revolutionary system talks always of justice, fairness, progress – but the only progress it delivers is from freedom to slavery.

This is the appeal more and more Americans have been conditioned over the years to respond to, as we have progressively fallen away from the Judeo-Christian values that once animated our culture and institutions. The envy-based system Marx unleashed on the world is alive and well, and in different forms it still dominates large parts of the world. In America, it has taken root in the Democrat Party. Ronald Reagan may have destroyed the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union, but you cannot destroy evil itself. Evil remains, and continues to do its job of tempting and, if possible, corrupting the souls of men.

Even the encouragement of immorality – free sex, abortion, homosexuality, easy divorce and so on – is all part and parcel of the socialist modus operandi, because immoral, dysfunctional people who have crossed the moral line and thus become estranged from God now need the "god" of socialist government.

All of this, my friends, is what we're poised to elect as president in the person of Barack Obama.

This has been coming for quite awhile. Americans, many of us anyway, have become increasingly corrupted over the years. We've been conditioned by our leaders into voting for lying, unprincipled, seductive candidates. We almost elected certified wacko Al Gore as president – someone who seriously wants to outlaw the internal combustion engine. Then we almost elected John Kerry – a super-ambitious, unprincipled and thoroughly unlikable man who first achieved notoriety by betraying his Vietnam soldier colleagues, scandalously maligning them as baby-killers before Congress and the nation.

Now, we're very close to electing an even worse candidate – and the reasons for this tell us much about ourselves.

The power of guilt

If you've ever studied disasters like the explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle or the sinking of the Titanic, you'll find there was not just one reason, but a whole series of factors that seemingly conspired to cause the catastrophe.

One of the "aiding and abetting" factors in the current election is the fact that Obama is black. Let's talk about race.

Americans – even though slavery and segregation are long gone from the national scene – still have a large and understandable reservoir of collective guilt over its past exploitation and mistreatment of blacks.

Guilt is a fantastically powerful factor in all of our lives. It is a very uncomfortable, nagging pain in our conscience, this thing we call guilt. When we're guilty we try to relieve this inner conflict, and this is often a good thing. If we're guilty toward God, for instance, then we naturally want to make up for that guilt by finding reconciliation and obedience to Him. If we've wronged our neighbor and our conscience bothers us, that guilt is the valuable, redeeming factor that prods us to apologize and make restitution if appropriate. Without being able to experience a guilty conscience, we'd all be amoral psychopaths – literally oblivious to whether or not we had done anything wrong.

However, there's another side to guilt. Manipulative and unprincipled humans soon discover how to use our guilt to get their way. They can even make us feel guilty when we haven't done anything wrong – for instance, by way of false accusation, a tactic the left has perfected.

Now, Barack Obama obviously is not to blame for being black – or more to the point, for how people feel about him because of his race. But the fact is, his being black pushes the guilt button in most of us and we simply see him differently than we would if he were white. (Imagine voting for a white guy with such flimsy credentials and ominous associations.) With white voters in particular, there is a strong urge to finally move beyond our collective guilt over slavery and to prove, once and for all, that we're not a nation beset by racism – by electing a black president.

It's not an exaggeration to call this guilt-induced way of looking at Obama, this conditioned attitude, a type of trance. We hold him to a different standard, we see and feel differently about him, than we would if he were white. We have a kindliness, a desire for his success, a form of love and admiration and well-wishing toward Obama, all based on guilt. But love based on guilt is not real love. It's just an unconscious attempt to rid ourselves of guilt. Shelby Steele, author of "White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era," puts it this way: "[Americans] struggle, above all else, to dissociate themselves from the past sins they are stigmatized with."

Yet this guilt phenomenon is also why craven race-baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton still command media respect as "black leaders." We see them through the "white guilt trance," part of which means we're really afraid of being regarded as racists, so we don't criticize these men for their blatant serial demagoguery. Likewise with Obama, there is a great deal of hesitancy to criticize him out of fear of being thought a racist.

You might respond to this by saying: But I don't have any guilt over slavery or segregation. Fine, but it gets much subtler than that.

Did you ever get angry at your kids – and then find yourself "being nice" to them to make up for the guilt of having been impatient? With that in mind, consider just one of many ways guilt (in this case, racial guilt) can find its way into you: Let's say you're walking down the street and a group of black men are walking toward you, and you become fearful (very similar to the story Obama famously told about his white grandmother). That fear has a little resentment attached to it, for that's the nature of fear. But when you become resentful for any reason at all, you automatically incur guilt, because resentment is a wrong, failing way for mature human beings to respond to the stresses of life. Now, saddled with this new guilt associated with black people, a compulsion rises up from within you to make up for that guilt – which you do by discovering a mysterious affinity for black people that wasn't there before. But that "love" isn't real love – it's all rooted in guilt and resentment (just like when you got impatient with your kids, then suddenly became "nice" to them to compensate for your anger). Although my example here centers on race, this guilt principle is universal. Indeed, guilt-based false love is the basis of the ubiquitous "love-hate relationship" that so vexes the human race; hate easily turns into false love, to make up for the guilt of hating. Do you get it?

It's subtle, but this is exactly the kind of dynamic that leads to self-destructive relationships – from personal relationships to electing tyrants.

The Obama News Network

A third factor, shaped powerfully by both the secular love of government and the white guilt factor just discussed, is the incomprehensibly unprofessional way the news media have behaved during the 2008 election.

In my estimation, we basically don't have a free press in America any more, other than the "New Media" – that is, talk radio, the Internet and some cable TV. Most of the rest of the establishment media have pretty much committed suicide this year.

Get David Kupelian's best-selling exposé, "The Marketing of Evil," autographed, from WorldNetDaily.

Just imagine that radical activist groups like the ACLU or the strident abortion outfit NARAL decided to start up their own "news organizations," complete with broadcast "anchor people," "reporters" and "correspondents," as well as newspapers and news websites and so on – and with a straight face they called their output "news." Everybody would laugh. Why? Because, while it would have the familiar form of news, it would of course just have the substance of their radical propaganda. No one would take it seriously.

This is exactly what we have in the so-called "mainstream press" today. The New York Times and NBC News, for example, are not true news organizations any more. They've become political and cultural activist organizations pretending to do news. And after having dropped all pretense at fairness this year, everyone knows it. This is why they're more concerned about Joe the plumber's tax bill than about the election being stolen by ACORN – because the elite media have become nothing more nor less than the propaganda ministry and attack dogs for Barack Obama.

Obama, the Manchurian candidate

In the classic 1962 movie thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," a man was programmed by communist handlers, and then emerged into the public arena as a hero, with a largely manufactured history, large parts of which were either obscured or changed. Then he was planted into a position of great influence, having been programmed to usher in tremendous change at the appointed time.

Barack Obama was programmed for years by his atheist, Muslim father, by the communist sex pervert Frank Marshall Davis, by con man Tony Rezko, by domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and others – most of all by black liberation theology screamer Jeremiah Wright. Obama's resume is largely manufactured. There is a total blackout on his college years. His campaign obscures what he did as a "community organizer." All his radical associations are denied or minimized. His miserable legislative record (voting "present" over 100 times to avoid taking a stand), his lack of achievement, his radical views and so on – all have been laundered through the magic of public relations into the near-sacred saga of "The One" who has been sent to serve, and to save, America.

Yet, as I have documented previously, John McCain rendered more genuine service to his country each and every day of those five-and-a-half years he endured in a North Vietnamese prison than Barack Obama has in his entire life.

In "The Manchurian Candidate," several war heroes came back to America from abroad. But one of them harbored a dark agenda, lying in wait, secretly, until it could emerge and transform America.

America has a choice Tuesday between a genuine war hero and a genuine Manchurian candidate.

Choose well.

Al-Qaida sites show support for Obama

By Ryan Mauro

The call this week by an al-Qaida leader for Allah to "humiliate" President Bush and the Republican Party in Tuesday's election was not the first tacit endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama by the terrorist network.

A contributor to a major al-Qaida website last week said the terrorist group will "let the Democrats win the presidential elections, and Obama will take it," according to Joseph Shahda, an Arabic translator

who monitors radical Islamic websites.

Obama's "goal is to withdraw from Iraq" over a period of time, but "he will be forced to withdraw his forces from Iraq at a much earlier time," said the Oct. 23 post, written under the name "Wissam" on the Al-Hesbah website. Shahda first posted his translation on the popular forum FreeRepublic.com.

Shahada told WND the Al-Hesbah website is one of four main al-Qaida-related forums.

"Overall there are many more posters on these forums who want McCain defeated, because they want Obama to withdraw the U.S. troops from Iraq so the terrorists will claim victory," Shahda said.

The Oct. 23 post also called for launching a "crushing strike" after the election.

Shahda explained that all al-Qaida press releases, videos, audios and speeches are first posted on the terrorist forums.

He noted that a Q&A session in January with al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was based on questions posed by contributors to the four major websites.

In the video released Thursday, an al-Qaida leader believed to be living in Afghanistan or Pakistan, Abu Yahya al-Libi, declared, "O Allah, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him."

Libi also called for the wrath of Allah to be brought against Bush, equating him with past tyrants, according to Reuters.

The title of a Washington Post story Oct. 22 suggested the forums indicated significant al-Qaida support for John McCain.

But the story, "On Al-Qaeda Web Sites, Joy Over U.S. Crisis, Support for McCain," cited only one posting declaring a Republican victory would benefit the terrorist network.

"Al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming election," the Post quoted from the website posting, which also stated an attack around the time of the election could help McCain win.

"It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida will then succeed in exhausting America," it said.

But Shahda said many postings on the Al-Hesbah website mocked the Washington Post article.

"Members were making fun of the Washington Post for not distinguishing between a member's opinion and an al-Qaida official statement," he said.

Shahda said that in addition to the Oct. 23 post stating al-Qaida will let Democrats win, there have been previous comments on al-Qaida-linked Internet forums speaking in favor of Obama that the media has not covered.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

A Marriage of Convenience: Obama, the Left and Radical Islam

As we enter the home stretch of the 2008 presidential election, new revelations about Barack Obama’s harshly critical views of the U.S. Constitution for not providing for wealth distribution have again raised concerns as to whether the American people may be about to elect the first radical Leftist if not outright socialist president in the republic’s history. This hugely troubling possibility, were it to happen, would mark yet another historical watershed that’s mentioned less often – the de facto alliance between the Left and radical Islam in American politics.
The discussion of Islam, to the extent that is mentioned at all in the campaign, has mostly been limited to a rather inconclusive debate in the blogosphere as to whether Obama is a Muslim or not, and a more substantive, if suppressed by the mainstream media, discussion of Senator Obama’s questionable ties to radical Islamists and anti-Semites. The latter has provided more than enough empirical evidence to at least give a pause to a dispassionate observer as to Obama’s pious assertions of his dedication to the struggle against Islamic extremism and friendship for Israel. Without going into too much detail, these connections include well-documented close ties with Black Panther mentor-turned-radical Muslim and Wahhabi stooge, Khalid al-Mansour (nee Don Warden); Nation of Islam hate-spewing, anti-white racist, Louis Farakhan; Columbia professor and apologist of Palestinian terrorism, Rashid Khalidi; and last, but not least, Salam Ibrahim, an alleged Taliban sympathizer and chairman of the defunct Chicago Shariah-finance company Sunrise Equities, who appears to have absconded with $80 million of his clients’ funds.
What all of these unsavory men have in common, apart from friendship with and admiration for Barack Obama, is their passionate dislike for the United States and their virulent anti-Semitism. This may not prove that Obama himself is an Islamist, an anti-Semite or an anti-American, it but it does show that, throughout his career, he has willingly associated with, and been mentored by, people who are. ....

Port of L.A. buys Chinese X-ray scanning system with U.S. taxpayer money

or the first time, a major U.S. port has purchased a sophisticated high-energy X-ray scanning system from a Chinese manufacturer, and it is paying for it with a $1.7 million port security grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, has procured a mobile X-ray scanning system, mounted on a Mack truck chassis, which was manufactured by a Chinese company called Nuctech Company Limited, headquartered in Beijing, whose president happens to be the son of the President of the People’s Republic of China. The Nuctech equipment will be used by the port police to inspect trucks delivering food, groceries and other supplies to cruise ships that are scheduled to depart from the busy West Coast port. ....

Erica Jong Tells Italians Obama Loss 'Will Spark thQaeda wants Republicans, Bush "humiliated": Web video

DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda leader has called for President George W. Bush and the Republicans to be "humiliated," without endorsing a party in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to an Internet video posting.

"O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him," Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet. ....

Voter machine erratically switches selection

By Chelsea Schilling

A new video showing a W. Va. voting machine erratically switching votes is getting international attention – with nearly 400,000 hits on YouTube.

A Berkeley, Calif., organization, Video The Vote, recently recorded Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright attempting to illustrate the reliability of voting machines, saying he was unable to reproduce a reported vote-switching problem.

"We are totally transparent around here," he said. "We welcome anyone who would like to see how the machines operate and how the machines function."

The organization was attempting to prove Democratic Party votes automatically switch to Republican candidates, but the video showed something entirely different.

Waybright began with an uncalibrated machine to prove his point. When he selected Barack Obama, the machine jumped to Chuck Baldwin. He tried again, and it took him to a screen for voters to write in a candidate. The same selection took him to Chuck Baldwin again.

When he selected a straight Democratic Party ticket, the machine chose John McCain. He selected a straight Republican ticket, and it voted for John McCain.

Such problems were to be expected on uncalibrated equipment. ....

Supremes asked to halt Tuesday's vote

(Compiler's note: This is a must read if there ever was one!! rca)

from WorldNetDaily

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to help the nation avoid a constitutional crisis by halting Tuesday's election until Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama documents his eligibility to run for the top office in the nation.

Democratic attorney Philip Berg had filed a lawsuit alleging Obama is ineligible to be president because of possible birth in Kenya, but as WND reported, a federal judge dismissed the complaint claiming Berg lacks standing to bring the action.


Philip J. Berg

The 34-page memorandum that accompanied the court order from Judge R. Barclay Surrick concluded ordinary citizens can't sue to ensure that a presidential candidate actually meets the constitutional requirements of the office.

Instead, Surrick said Congress could determine "that citizens, voters, or party members should police the Constitution's eligibility requirements for the Presidency," but that it would take new laws to grant individual citizens that ability.

"Until that time," Surrick says, "voters do not have standing to bring the sort of challenge that Plaintiff attempts to bring."


Berg has maintained that uncertainty about how the U.S. does enforce the requirements of presidency may result in a constitutional crisis should an ineligible candidate win the office.

In a statement today, Berg said he is applying to Justice David Souter for an "Immediate Injunction to Stay the Presidential Election of November 4, 2008."

"I am hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will grant the injunction pending a review of this case to avoid a Constitutional crisis by insisting that Obama produce certified documentation that he is or is not a "natural born" citizen and if he cannot produce documentation that Obama be removed from the ballot for president," Berg said.

"We must legally prevent Obama, the unqualified candidate, from taking the office of the presidency of the United States," Berg said.

The issue of Obama's eligibility first got traction among Internet bloggers and later was heightened when several campaigns were launched to determine whether a "certificate of live birth" posted on the Internet by the Obama campaign was valid.

The issue gained more attention when Berg told radio talk show icon Michael Savage he had an admission from Obama's grandmather that she was at his birth – in Kenya.

"This is a question of who has standing to stand up for our Constitution," Berg told Jeff Schreiber of America's Right blog. "If I don't have standing, if you don't have standing, if your neighbor doesn't have standing to ask whether or not the likely next president of the United States

– the most powerful man in the entire world – is eligible to be in that office in the first place, then who does?"

As WND reported, Berg filed suit in U.S. District Court in August, alleging Obama is not a natural-born citizen and is thus ineligible to serve as president of the United States. Berg demanded that Obama provide documentation to the court to verify that the candidate was born in Hawaii, as Obama contends, and not in Kenya, as Berg believes.