Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from Полнотекстовые фиды для блогофермеров

Holy Cow What a Day!	Top
We were going to hit the farmers market this morning but when the alarm went off we realized that the joy of turning the alarm off and going back to sleep far outweighed the joy of cheap delicious strawberries. Instead we got up at a more reasonable hour and headed to the realtors office. House #1 - Geographically closest to our house. Same exit off 95, but on the other side of the highway by 5 or 10 minutes. This has since been deemed the "old lady house" because the lady who lived there (she's 72!) was there when we came and gave us the tour. The house is really nice. It's a colonial w/ a 2 car garage and 3 bedrooms. Lots of room on the main level and upstairs. The basement is huge but unfinished. There's a big, nice looking deck and a not-as-nice looking patio, but her son in law is in the process of replacing it with landscaping rocks because over the years the patio has become wavy bricks. The lot slopes down to a tiny stream. (I imagine it gets REALLY tiny because it wasn't very big today and all it's done lately is rain.) Beautiful neighborhood, middle sized and priced for the neighborhood. I worry about the reptilian creatures we will share the property with due to the stream, but it's a nice yard. House #2 - This one turned out to be a short sale, so we can't try anyway because we don't have the time to wait for the bank to hem and haw. Doesn't matter cause it didn't make the list anyway. House was cute in its heyday but it's empty and falling apart. The deck was GINORMOUS and the neighborhood was great. I feel bad for the neighbors watching it fall apart. The front door was broken, the key goes in the lock and it just spins and spins and spins. We had to call their realtor for the garage door code to get in. It only took a few minutes to decide it was a no. (Of course then with the short sale thing it didn't matter.) House #3 - On the other side of the bypass, 15-20 minutes off 95. Another colonial with 3 bedrooms and 1 car garage. It was quite nice, decorated for the day (which helps my darling husband who really had issues seeing past the old lady's decor.) Finished basement, nice area down there, useable space on the main level. A little smaller than the old lady's house in general, but with the finished basement it winds up being a little bigger. The door from basement to outside was the "wizard of oz" garage style door. We weren't sure how we felt about that, or the fact that it's on the corner of a court and the neighborhood's main road. The back yard is fenced, but we're not sure how we feel about being on that main road. House #4 - Right around the corner from #3. Literally. It's HUGE. And empty. And it's been on the market for awhile. They recently finished the basement, so more people may consider it. It has an above ground pool and a really nice yard. Not sure how we feel about the yard. Almost all hardwood floors. 2 car super awesome nice garage. 4 bedrooms and the laundry is on the same level as the bedrooms. Bonus of that is that the laundry is right there - no carrying stuff up and down. Negative side is that if there is ever a problem, the water goes EVERYWHERE. Down side of this one is that the water is turned off and someone (possibly someone looking at the house?) used the toilet in a stinky way and so they couldn't flush. That bathroom smelled terrible. Hopefully their realtor can do something about that. We loved the house until that point. The big thing with #4 and #3 is their distance from 95. House #5 - This was a rancher built by some big name builder around here. I forget his name, but apparently he's some big fancy dude whose name alone gets big bucks. It was like a tiny little bungalow in the midst of mansions. Very cute inside, but super small. Just a kitchen and a great room with a bedroom on either side. The 3rd bedroom was down around the corner downstairs with the other great room. Giant dining room tucked off on one side that was wasted space. It was nice to see but we were in and out pretty quickly. House #6 - When we left this one, we told everyone we thought we found our house. Brick colonial on a great street in a great neighborhood. Same problem as #4 - really far from 95. Same exit off 95 as us, but 20 minutes in the other direction instead of 1 minute in our direction. 3 bedrooms, all very nice. One had dark and light pink stripes from the chair rail to the floor which made me giggle because we all know how much Mike likes painted stripes! It had tan stripes in the living room on the accent wall. I appreciate the effort, Mike rolled his eyes. :) Basement is finished except for the carpet which they will credit for at settlement. Nice backyard without being huge. It had a fence. It's been on the market for awhile, but it's already listed below what they paid for it in 2007 so we don't know if we could undercut them in the way we want to. House #7 - We drove for a Loooooonnnnnggg time to see one out in the country. Fantastic kitchen and with the views of grass out the back with the giant deck (possibly the size of our whole living/dining room now) it was beautiful. They redid the whole downstairs. The basement was finished but with tile instead of carpet. That was kind of a downside. The upstairs bedrooms were ok and the 2nd bath was ok, but the master bath was insane. I imagine there are bigger bathrooms in studio apartments in Manhattan. And it was old, cruddy, and yucky. If we were DIYers or rich, we could have turned the small 4th bathroom next door into a super bath, but we're not. :) The money for this house was all in the land. We are not .75 acre people. I don't even like to weed the flowerbed! House #8 - When we walked in, we knew it was the one. The price was not helpful, and it hasn't been on the market terribly long, but we knew that nothing else in the neighborhood was close to that price and that would help us. They have put so much money into updating it and we know why they want to get it all, but I really don't think it would appraise that high. It's one of the nicer houses inside probably due to the updates, but it is comparable to others on the outside. Nice neighborhood, in fact my carpool mate lives in there. 5 bedrooms because 2 of them are small. Finished basement with a bar (Mike was drooling.) I didn't feel the need for a bar, but this one is more just counters and a small fridge in the entertainment zone, not the full built in fancy bar like other houses we saw. Nice counters and cabinets and floors. (This is the one we're currently waiting on an offer response for.) House #9 - The only split level we saw today, it very nearly won at the end due to location. Who knows, it may be reconsidered if our offer doesn't get accepted. It's super cheap and they recently took it off the market to update the bathrooms and kitchens before putting it back on the market. It's priced great and has a lot of space. There is a huge rec room in the lower level with a built in bar that Mike liked. I personally don't see the need but hey what do I know. This bar was a true bar that took up tons of space. He liked it. The guy who lives there must own a liquor store or bar or something because he had every piece of alcohol paraphernalia that exists. Neon lights, umbrella on the deck table, jack daniels barrel for decoration, you name it, it's in there. The down side here was the age. The windows and doors are all realllllly old. It's move in condition, but there's a lot of things that would need to get done in the coming future. Source

The Good Soldier	Top
So.... at 10:45 Thursday night I got a PM from someone on the NIN forums if I was still interested in going backstage for the NIN Meet and Greet in Camden. Ummmmm. Yes. Yes please. Spazzing ensued. Squee'ing ensued. OMG'ing happened at well. SO........ Friday, 11:30am, I set out for the Susquehana center. In the rain. It never stopped raining at any point. The rain, it was made of fail. But I did not care. I was gonna meet God.... Trent. Get a decent parking spot and procede to the line to meet up with the wonderful person who hooked me up, and to stand in the rain. For three hours. I was going to wear my new, kick ass corset... but you know... rain. Miserable, cold rain. I ended up in blue jeans, heeled boots, a black waist cincher, and a white dress shirt... and a white push up bra. I made a LOT of friends btw.... Fast foward to 5pm, they let us in in groups of twenty five to get our stuff signed and a group photo. disclaimer... the promised photos, they never said HOW Dissapointing, but will not complain, because HEY! There's Trent and band sitting at the table RIGHT THERE. Yes, my inner fangirl made noises only dogs could hear. 35 year old Jen managed to stay coherent and sane. Yes kids... Trent looked up and right down my blouse woth a little eye pop. HEH! Got My Year Zero signed and assembled for the group photo. The parapelegic in the motorized wheel chair got next to him for the photo, wasn;t even going to try and compete with that. Stood next to Robin the guitarist though. Now we are being shoo'ed out so the next group could come in, BUT!!!!! Crafty Jen made sure she was at the back of the group... so she could be the last one by Trent. So she could ask him for a hug. And I got one. Not only was he gracious about it, but it was NOT a quick, arm around the shoulder deal, it was a full on body contact hug. Arms around the waist, face in my hair, boobs pressed against his chest HUG. Life. Is. Beautiful . Oh wait.... there's more. Next comes soundcheck. Our group was the first in, so I was on the rail, dead center in front of the mike. They played "The Good Soldier" (one of my favorites!) and "Dead Souls" . I have video and photo. And yes, everytime Trent looked down, Jen cleavage. The concert was great, hopefully my video is okay, and I had an AMAZING time. Trent and Co. were gracious and really just a pleasure to be around. Really down to earth and friendly, and...... It was wonderful. And I get to see them in concert again Tues!!!! For all that listened to me babble, whine, cry and squee.... thanks and sorry. * okay.... my pc will not let me upload a photo atm.... will try again when not exhausted* Source

bank	Top
June 6, 2009 Day 3, Saturday, June 6, 2009 Friends, family and loyal readers, Before we outline the day’s adventures, we must make a Post Script to yesterday’s entry. Yesterday Cono rode past the exact spot where he sustained his injury. What he failed to note was a “sign” from a higher power. What you are about to read is not an exaggeration or an apocryphal story-it is “as it happened”. In that “fateful exact spot” at the side of the road there was the carcass of a long dead possum. It was gnarled and as awful looking as you can imagine –being dead at the side of the road. As Cono in a stunned state looked on he thought, “My God, that could have been me if Eileen and Bill weren’t there last year to save me.” After pausing at not having been left and abandoned like the possum, Cono pedaled on giving thanks for not being a possum or playing possum. Now to today’s ride. Per yesterday’s entry, because we could not find accommodations near where we ended due to the road closure, we had to drive forward a few small towns. We are being liberal when we call these communities towns-they are hamlets at best and more often than not just a cluster of very old and mostly abandoned buildings. After inquiries at the Walnut Grove Community bank , (market cap greater than Citi bank ) we almost had accommodations at The First Christian Church. However there was a Church event last evening so we ended up at The Running Springs where we had stayed last year. We started the day by driving back a fair ways to the prior days ending point to start. Last night we had also learned that there was at least one more road closure ahead “on route”. So, Bill dropped me off and drove on ahead to find the road closure and determine if the road was closed to bikes as well as cars. The ride was fairly rugged for the first @2/3 of the day. The terrain continued to be rolling with big ups and downs-notice the absence of the adverb “gently”. There was nothing gentle about these hills. The first part of the ride was a "three turtle save"-Cono got three turtles that were crossing the road to safety before they were hit by cars. Not long after these acts of kindness to animals, Cono had a three dog attack. They were all mangy, vicious, nasty (probably turtle haters), appeared to be very hungry and appeared to be intent on taking a bit or two from Cono's leg! After trying to discourage them with squirts of water in the snout, Cono had to get off the bike -no more water. They pursued him on foot for about 500 feet when they finally lost interest. In all his prior riding this was the closest he had come to being bitten. (So much for kindness to animals.) At the 1/3 point in scenic Ash Grove Cono needed more sustenance to steady his nerves after the attack-time for a second breakfast. Fully fueled and composed he rode on and after an hour or two Bill came along. Bill had determined that the bikes could get across the bridge under repair but Betsy could not. She was parked on the other side about a mile up the road. When we got to Betsy Bill called it a day. Cono on the other hand promptly took out a blanket and took a nap under the shade of a big tree. After a half hour, he awoke completely refreshed and he set off down the road with Bill ahead. All day long there had been a vicious cross wind from the south. It was constant but not as painful as it could be if it were a head wind. Somewhere after Cono left Bill the terrain started to change. The hills were getting smaller and smaller and further apart. Cono made good time on this stretch in spite of the strong cross winds. The hills of MO were fading fast and the flats of KS were beckoning ahead. Another 15 miles and we were in Golden City, home of the world famous Cooky’s Pie Emporium. We stopped to refuel even though we were almost done for the day. Cono rode another bit and called it a day after 63 miles. We had to drive forward about 28 miles to Pittsburg KS where we had been last year in a vain attempt to get Cono rehab. Tomorrow we will have to double back to where we stopped today. Mileage today 63. Source

Let the Play begin.	Top
In the book "Art is the Way of Knowing" by Pat B. Allen. She had a dream about a dead baby bird, then went for a walk and came upon a dead baby bird, and remembered being little and finding a dead little bird in the alley. She went back to the dead bird and took its picture and put it in a frame and put it in her studio. The little dead bird ended up representing to her the lost little girl of her childhood. She had been robbed of being one when she had to be a mother too early since her mother was sickly and died when she was young. That struck me as being similar to me, although my mother did not die, she needed me to mother instead of being a little girl. And then my father didn't treat me as a little girl, but abused me sexually. I wasn't anyone's little girl or even able to be my own little girl. She says to go back and remember what your dreams and wishes when you were 5 or say 7. I have nothing there? I can't remember dreaming, surely I had to, she says to think of childhood toys and favorite activities, places, foods, toys or clothes. My memory bank seems empty. I had just said to my husband the other day, "I don't want to be a mother no more, I have been a mother forever." And it made me sad. How interesting this all is! I felt anxious and crowded and overwhelmed and that my house was so full of mom duties. Fear arose, then anger. There was way too much mom roles to be done leaving little time to nurture my little girl. It gives me great relief it isn't my kids that I resent. I do have control over how much time I do the Mom thing and it is up to me to set time aside. To set aside time for all little girls to play, to put down the mother hat or ratty housedress and step into the space of play, in the land of dreams and wishes, of doing what you love, immersed in activities where you forget all the grown-up drudgery, careless of cleanliness and order, playing and experimenting with ideas, childlike. My little girl inside is sighing a happy sigh, quite a worthy opponent for the mother lady. What a juxtaposition there is inside of me, a weary mother girl and the newly found excited ready to play girl! What do little girls do? What do they dream and wish, how do they relax and let go, dare to dance like no one is watching, sing loud and out of tune, dress in fashions that suit their fancy regardless of size or shape. How to escape the critical eye of a nonsensical mother? How to slip away from jobs, duties and daily structure? Can we send the Mother on vacation, like an extended one? Isn't it time for her to runaway, like far far away? What I feared the most has happened, the kids will take over this house! My little girl may just be leading the charge. As I look backwards from here, I can see my anxiousness for them to grow up so I could retire being a mom and commence with being alone and learning how to play and be me. Now I can do both. When I feel myself getting stressed, when I feel myself getting way uptight, we will send the old bat of vacation! I am so overly thankful that I don't have to be the mom all the time, its darkness was filling up my world, the weight alone was breaking my spirit! The difference in being a mom with the spirit of little girl, compared to just being a Mother, is beyond what words can carry. I am years and years behind in playing and way ahead on the responsibility scale, so it is time to balance things out, it is time to let me learn to play. Learn to be like a child again. Begin to dream and plant some wishes, try new things and seek new friends, go new places, the world is my playground, dare I play on it? How fun to teach play instead of responsibility! I think I have drilled that one to the death! Let the Play begin! Source

Drama (and other things)	Top
In court yesterday, I ran into a woman I used to work with. I don't see her very often now that she's in private practice, so we sat and gabbed and said, "we must get together". Then she said, "what are you doing tonight?" "Going to see my neighborhood community players." "What time?" "Seven-thirty." Upshot was, her daughter is on the board of another (professional) theatre company that was having a benefit at the National Museum of Mexican Art at 5:30 and would I like to go before I went to the play? Sure, said I. What company is it? "Teatro something," said Gloria. "Not Teatro Vista ?", said I. And it was. I know one of the founders and current artistic director, because I worked with him at my last job (and also with another member of the company)! So I went, surprised Eddie and Jon, and generally had a very good time. I left early to get to the other event. The Hyde Park Community Players are a new group, and this was their first production. "Productions", actually, as they did two one-act plays: Riders to the Sea , by John M. Synge, and The Bear , by Chekhov. The first was not very good, primarily because the actors talked too softly and too fast, and did not enunciate well, so I missed a lot of the dialogue. The second, however, was much better done. I started today by going to the bank , the dry cleaners, the shoe repair shop, and a few yard sales, all before 10:00. Around 11:00, I stashed the car over at the shopping center and then walked over to the 57th Street Art Fair. It was a bit cool and overcast, but that's actually not a bad thing when you're doing a lot of walking. As usual, there were also a few yard sales and rummage sales going on, so I visited a couple more. (You will not be surprised to learn that I bought books. Also picked up a couple of books at "20% off for Members" day at 57th St. books.) Also as usual, there were lots of kids selling lemonade and the like: I always like the art fair, especially the crafts, and of those, I particularly like the textiles, pottery and woodworking. Much of it is way too expensive for me (there's one woman who does the most gorgeous woven jackets, but they run several hundred dollars - so unless I win the lottery . . .), but I often buy a small bit of pottery or wood. There's a guy there who makes really nice rocking chairs, which I don't need, as I have one, but I was admiring a bench he had, a beautifully-grained, polished piece of wood with a lovely curve to it, and rough-cut legs. "I'll give you a good price for that", he said. "Oh? What's your 'good price'?" I asked, fully expecting it to be a lot. "$35", he answered. I didn't even stop to think, and blurted out, "Is that all ?" He offered to charge me more, but I would have none of it, and whipped out my wallet. (In fact, I've been wanting a bench for my bedroom, but haven't done any serious looking as it's just a "want", not a "need".) He had a second piece of wood, the twin of the first, and suggested I get two benches! I would have, too, except that I haven't any place for another. He held it for me while I finished browsing the fair and went and got my car. Anyway, here it is: I got home just before it started to rain, although it was a pretty light rain and didn't last. There was an organ concert in honor of Albert Schweitzer at Rockefeller Chapel that I had thought of going to, but I was feeling a mite headachey, so decided to stay home. I made fried green tomatoes for dinner, with ham. Tomorrow, I may go to the Printers' Row Lit Fest if the weather is halfway decent. It will be no great tragedy if I don't go; it's not as though I don't have any books! Source

The UN Investigations on Israeli "War Crimes"	Top
Here we go, folks. The anti-Semitic UN is preparing to investigate possible war crimes against Israel regarding their offensive against Gaza earlier this winter. Apparently, it's time to punish the "mean ole Israelis" for daring to defend themselves against a constant barrage of missiles that are launched into their country by the "angelic peace-loving Palestinians", which are aimed at innocent Israeli citizens . Read from Atlas Shrugs : Emboldened by Obama, UN hearings to be held on 'war crimes' by Israel "When will the UN's war crimes be addressed? When will the child rape, the human trafficking, the violence perpetrated by UN 'peacekeepers' be addressed? When will UN Jew hatred be addressed? When will the enormous theft, pillaging and stealing be addressed? When will the victims in Darfur and Rwanda and the abject failure of the UN be addressed. When will perpetrators of female genital mutilation, honor killings, stonings, hangings of gays be put on trial? When will the Islamic war crimes against Christians, Jews, and non-believers be put on trial? This is international law. This is what Obama wants and why he has nominated transnationalist Harold Koh for legal adviser at the State Department . SAY NO TO KOH . This action by the 'international community' at the UN is the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) driven and it is Jew hatred -- plain and simple . The UN team, led by Mr Goldstone (R), has been visiting sites hit in the war ' A UN team investigating possible war crimes in Gaza says it will hold public hearings with victims of the conflict in Gaza and Geneva later this month . The team has spent the week interviewing witnesses and visiting sites damaged in Israel's three-week offensive, which ended on 18 January. Richard Goldstone, who is heading the team, said it had hoped to hold hearings in Israel and the West . But Israel has refused to co-operate in the inquiry, accusing it of bias. Israel charges the UN Human Rights Council - which has a record of criticising Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians - with singling it out unfairly . Mr Goldstone said his 15-member team had visited 40 sites in Gaza and spoken to some 70 witnesses and relatives of victims. It had hoped to visit southern Israeli towns hit by Palestinian rocket fire, but was not allowed access. Mr Goldstone said he hoped Israel's refusal to co-operate would not weaken the report, due for publication in September. "If we haven't dealt with facts that Israel would like us to deal with, I think we can hardly be blamed for that," he added, according to news agency AP. Previous inquiries Several investigations into alleged violations of international law during Israel's 22-day operation in Gaza, which ended on 18 January, have now reported back.'" Prepare for the propaganda campaign. If there's one thing the Palestinians are good at, other than committing acts of terror, it's PR against Israel, especially when the hate-Israel media laps up their lies . Source

FACTBOX-Facts on Lebanon's economy	Top
Sat Jun 6, 2009 5:48am EDT June 6 (Reuters) - The economy of Lebanon, which holds a parliamentary election on Sunday, has shown what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described as "remarkable resilience" in the face of the global financial crisis. Following are some of the economy's main features: GROWTH The economy grew more than 8 percent in 2008 according to the IMF, despite a first half marred by the worst internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war and the onset of the global financial crisis. Policymakers project growth of 4 percent or more in 2009. HEFTY PUBLIC DEBT Lebanon's public debt burden is one of the heaviest in the world at around 162 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), much of it incurred as a result of reconstruction after the civil war. The debt was measured at $47.21 billion in February, around 44 percent of it in foreign currency, according to the finance ministry. The government has cited progress in reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 162 percent from around 180 percent in 2006. Moody's recently upgraded Lebanon's sovereign ratings, citing a substantial improvement in its external liquidity and the proven resistance of public finances to shocks. The state's deficit for 2009 is projected at around 12 percent of GDP. REMITTANCES Expatriate remittances account for around a fifth of Lebanon's economy. Some economists predict transfers will fall because of the global economic slowdown, though policymakers have pointed at a balance-of-payments surplus in the first quarter as proof that Lebanon is still reaping a capital inflow. FALLING INFLATION, STABLE INTEREST RATES Year-on-year consumer price inflation fell to 2 percent in April from double digits last year, according to central bank data. Lower fuel and commodity prices have helped curb inflation. The central bank has repeatedly stated its aim of keeping interest rates stable to preserve liquidity levels. The IMF has urged a cautious approach to interest rates to support deposit inflows and de-dollarisation of bank deposits. Source

Caroline Glick on Obama's Cairo Speech	Top
Diogenes is absolutely correct when he states that "Obama is President of the United States, not Prime Minister of Israel. It's not his job to 'protect Israel's interests'." However, Obama has made it a point to protect the interests of the Muslim world, and that is not his job either. Israel has been an ally to the United States for a long time, and his hostile rhetoric and actions toward the Jewish nation are shameful . Read what Caroline Glick, the senior contributing editor of The Jerusalem Post has to say about Obama's Cairo speech to the Muslim world, via National Review Online : The End of America's Strategic Alliance with Israel ? [Caroline Glick] "From an Israeli perspective, Pres. Barack Obama's speech today in Cairo was deeply disturbing. Both rhetorically and programmatically, Obama's speech was a renunciation of America's strategic alliance with Israel. Rhetorically, Obama's sugar coated the pathologies of the Islamic world — from the tyranny that characterizes its regimes, to the misogyny, xenophobia, Jew hatred, and general intolerance that characterizes its societies. In so doing he made clear that his idea of pressing the restart button with the Islamic world involves erasing the moral distinctions between the Islamic world and the free world . In contrast, Obama's perverse characterization of Israel — of the sources of its legitimacy and of its behavior — made clear that he shares the Arab world's view that there is something basically illegitimate about the Jewish state . In 1922 the League of Nations mandated Great Britain to facilitate the reconstitution of the Jewish commonwealth in the Land of Israel on both sides of the Jordan River. The international community's decision to work towards the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in Israel owed to its recognition of the Jewish people's legal, historic, and moral rights to our homeland . Arab propaganda finds this basic and fundamental truth inconvenient. So for the past 60 years, the Arabs have been advancing the fiction that Israel's existence owes solely to European guilt over the Holocaust. As far as the Arabs are concerned, the Jews have no legal, historic, or moral right to what the Arabs see as Islamic land . In his address, while Obama admonished the Arabs for their pervasive Jew hatred and Holocaust denial, he effectively accepted and legitimized their view that Israel owes its existence to the Holocaust when he said, 'the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied,' and then went on to talk about the Holocaust. Just as abominably, Obama compared Israel to Southern slave owners and Palestinians to black slaves in the antebellum south. He used the Arab euphemism 'resistance' to discuss Palestinian terrorism, and generally ignored the fact that every Palestinian political faction is also a terrorist organization . In addition to his morally outrageous characterization of Israel and factually inaccurate account of its foundations, Obama struck out at the Jewish state through the two policies he outlined in his address. His first policy involves coercing Israel into barring all Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria (otherwise known as the West ), and Jerusalem . Obama claims that this policy will increase prospects for peace. But this is untrue. As Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas made clear in his Washington Post interview last week, Obama's trenchant campaign against Jewish construction in these areas has convinced the Palestinians they have no reason to be flexible in their positions towards Israel . Indeed, Obama's assault on Israeli construction and his unsubstantiated, bigoted claim that the presence of Jews in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem impedes progress towards peace ensures that there will be no agreement whatsoever between Israel and the Palestinians. After all, why would the Palestinians make a deal with Israel when they know that Obama will blame Israel for the absence of a peace agreement ? Even more strategically devastating than his castigation of Israel as the villain in the Arab-Israel conflict is Obama's stated policy towards Iran. In Cairo, Obama offered Iran nuclear energy in exchange for its nuclear-weapons program . This offer has been on the table since 2003 and has been repeatedly rejected by the Iranians. Indeed, they rejected it yet again last week. Obama must know that his policy will not lead to the hoped for change in Iran's behavior. And since he must know this, the only rational explanation for his decision to adopt a policy he knows will fail is that he is comfortable with the idea of Iran becoming a nuclear power. And this is something that Israel cannot abide by . The only silver lining for Israelis from the president's speech in Cairo and his general positions on the Middle East is that Obama has overplayed his hand. Far from bending to his will, a large majority of Israelis perceives Obama as a hostile force and has rallied in support of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the administration. This public support gives Netanyahu the maneuver room he needs to take the actions that Israel needs to take to defend against the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran and to assert its national rights and to defend itself against Palestinian terrorists and other Arab and non-Arab anti-Semites who wish it ill ." Source

"No More Dictating to Other Countries", Except Israel	Top
President Obama has been in attack mode for months blasting Bush's foreign policy and accusing him of forcing American ideals on other nations. For all the rhetoric of "not dictating to other countries", he seems to forget that he is doing just that when he orders Israel to stop the growth of its settlements . Read from Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post : The Settlements Myth "President Obama repeatedly insists that American foreign policy be conducted with modesty and humility. Above all, there will be no more 'dictating' to other countries. We should 'forge partnerships as opposed to simply dictating solutions,' he told the G-20 summit. In Middle East negotiations, he told al-Arabiya, America will henceforth 'start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating.' An admirable sentiment. It applies to everyone -- Iran, Russia, Cuba, Syria, even Venezuela. Except Israel . Israel is ordered to freeze all settlement activity. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton imperiously explained the diktat: 'a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions.' What's the issue? No 'natural growth' means strangling to death the thriving towns close to the 1949 armistice line, many of them suburbs of Jerusalem, that every negotiation over the past decade has envisioned Israel retaining. It means no increase in population. Which means no babies. Or if you have babies, no housing for them -- not even within the existing town boundaries. Which means for every child born, someone has to move out. No community can survive like that. The obvious objective is to undermine and destroy these towns -- even before negotiations. To what end? Over the past decade, the U.S. government has understood that any final peace treaty would involve Israel retaining some of the close-in settlements -- and compensating the Palestinians accordingly with land from within Israel itself. That was envisioned in the Clinton plan in the Camp David negotiations in 2000, and again at Taba in 2001. After all, why expel people from their homes and turn their towns to rubble when, instead, Arabs and Jews can stay in their homes if the 1949 armistice line is shifted slightly into the Palestinian side to capture the major close-in Jewish settlements, and then shifted into Israeli territory to capture Israeli land to give to the Palestinians? This idea is not only logical, not only accepted by both Democratic and Republican administrations for the past decade, but was agreed to in writing in the letters of understanding exchanged between Israel and the United States in 2004 -- and subsequently overwhelmingly endorsed by a concurrent resolution of Congress . Yet the Obama State Department has repeatedly refused to endorse these agreements or even say it will honor them. This from a president who piously insists that all parties to the conflict honor previous obligations. And who now expects Israel to accept new American assurances in return for concrete and irreversible Israeli concessions, when he himself has just cynically discarded past American assurances . The entire 'natural growth' issue is a concoction. Is the peace process moribund because a teacher in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem is making an addition to her house to accommodate new grandchildren? It is perverse to make this the center point of the peace process at a time when Gaza is run by Hamas terrorists dedicated to permanent war with Israel and when Mahmoud Abbas, having turned down every one of Ehud Olmert's peace offers, brazenly declares that he is in a waiting mode -- waiting for Hamas to become moderate and for Israel to cave -- before he'll do anything to advance peace. In his much-heralded 'Muslim world' address in Cairo yesterday, Obama declared that the Palestinian people's 'situation' is 'intolerable.' Indeed it is, the result of 60 years of Palestinian leadership that gave its people corruption, tyranny, religious intolerance and forced militarization; leadership that for three generations rejected every offer of independence and dignity, choosing destitution and despair rather than accept any settlement not accompanied by the extinction of Israel. That's why Haj Amin al-Husseini chose war rather than a two-state solution in 1947. Why Yasser Arafat turned down a Palestinian state in 2000. And why Abbas rejected Olmert's even more generous December 2008 offer . In the 16 years since the Oslo accords turned the West bank and Gaza over to the Palestinians, their leaders built no roads, no courthouses, no hospitals, none of the fundamental state institutions that would relieve their people's suffering. Instead they poured everything into an infrastructure of war and terror, all the while depositing billions (from gullible Western donors) into their Swiss bank accounts . Obama says he came to Cairo to tell the truth. But he uttered not a word of that. Instead, among all the bromides and lofty sentiments, he issued but one concrete declaration of new American policy: 'The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,' thus reinforcing the myth that Palestinian misery and statelessness are the fault of Israel and the settlements. Blaming Israel and picking a fight over 'natural growth' may curry favor with the Muslim 'street.' But it will only induce the Arab states to do like Abbas: sit and wait for America to deliver Israel on a platter. Which makes the Obama strategy not just dishonorable but self-defeating ." Source

Obama's Long Awaited Speech to the Muslim World	Top
Another day of kissing up to the Muslim world. President Obama, on his second apology tour since his coronation, wowed his liberal base and much of the Islamic world as he lavished praised on Muslims and quoted the "holy" Koran. He conveniently overlooked those passages in the Hadith regarding the killing of infidels, Jews and Christians, and characterized the Islamic faith as one of tolerance. What a crock! So tolerant that Christians are fleeing for their lives because of the persecution . But, I think the most outrageous statement was when he drew a moral equivalence between the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust to Palestinians in refugee camps. Somehow, dead Jews and living Palestinians are not a fair comparison . Read from Israel Matzav : Obama's moral equivalence of the day "Then we have President Obama's moral equivalence of the day (text also here (Hat Tip: Memeorandum )): ' Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were enslaved, tortured, shot and gassed to death by the Third Reich. Six million Jews were killed - more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today . Denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful. Threatening Israel with destruction - or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews - is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve. On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people - Muslims and Christians - have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West , Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations - large and small - that come with occupation. So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own .' Denying the Holocaust is equivalent to denying that the 'Palestinians' have been held in 'refugee camps' by their own people for the last 60 years? Six million systematically murdered Jews is equivalent to people waiting in 'refugee camps' for 60 years because their own people deny them citizenship and land ownership in their own countries? Concentration camps and 'refugee camps' are equivalent? Really? The picture above is the entrance to Auschwitz. The picture below was taken inside Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's house in a 'refugee camp' in Gaza during the Hamas-Fatah civil wars a couple of years ago. Does anyone really believe the two are equivalent? By the way, if one accepts Obama's formulation, one could legitimately ask the question the 'Palestinians' ask: The Europeans murdered Jews 60 years ago. Why should the Jewish state come from 'Palestinian' lands and not from European lands? But Obama's formulation is wrong. Jews are in Israel because this is our historic homeland and has been for more than 3000 years. Our rights to this land have nothing to do with the Holocaust and everything to do with our Jewish heritage and the fact that God gave this land to the Jewish people 3000 years ago (Christians share the same Bible that we do - at least for the first half and know this is true). This is not a 'Palestinian' land . Does anyone doubt that Obama is going to apologize in Dresden tomorrow and draw a moral equivalence between the Holocaust and the allied bombing that brought about Germany's surrender at the end of World War II?" Read from Atlas Shrugs : Obama to Ummah: "America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam" Usama: Called for "Long War Against Infidels" " 'Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality .' And it only got worse. It was terrible. My heart is heavy for my country and the free world. The media can spin their subjugation and adulation a million different ways, but America did not vote for a 'Muslim presidency,' which is what this is. Obama deceitfully hid his Muslim background and schooling and his agenda. Little did America know that Obama's objective would be a conversion of this nation to 'the largest Muslim country in the world'. From the moment he spoke as President, in the inaugural address, Islam was falsely given a preeminent place in the creation of America . In this speech, he quoted from the Koran three times. Why doesn't anybody comment on this? Why doesn't anyone ever comment on what he projected vs. what he is? Why won't all those talking heads state the obvious? The 'Asia Times' said Obama made a mistake by speaking in Cairo. 'Why should the president of the United States address the "Muslim world"?,' it asked. 'What would happen if the leader of a big country addressed the "Christian world"? Half the world would giggle and the other half would sulk.' 'To speak to the "Muslim world" is to speak not to a fact, but rather to an aspiration,' the paper stated, 'and that is the aspiration that Islam shall be a global state religion as its founders intended. To address this aspiration is to breathe life into it. For an American president to validate such an aspiration is madness. ' He quoted extensively from the Koran. In his typically anti-Semitic fashion, Obama came down very hard on the Jews in his speech today to the Muslim world. MK Aryeh Eldad in Israel said, ' Obama makes a shocking parallel between the destruction of European Jewry and the suffering that the Arabs of Israel brought upon themselves when they declared war on Israel .' 'If Obama does not understand the difference between them, perhaps he will understand it better when he visits the concentration camp in the comings days. And if he doesn't understand it even there, then Islam will once again teach it to him, just as it taught his predecessor on 9/11 .' The moral equivalence did not end there. Obama equated 'the two peoples': ' America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own. For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security .' There has not been a day, not one day, since the birth of modern Israel when she was not under attack by the Arabs. Not one. There are 25 Arab/Islamic countries, one tiny Jewish state . There is already a 'two state solution' in place. Jordan is Palestine. Muslims in Gaza were given whole industries, factories (a way to make a living) and billions and billions in aid, to what end? Jewish genocide. 'Israel must also live up to its obligations to ensure that Palestinians can live, and work, and develop their society.' Who is stopping them? They live to hate the Jews, and yet Obama insists the Jews be responsible for their executioners - this is rich. I say, NO MORE LAND FOR ISLAM. NO MORE ISLAMIC COLONIALISM! Obama's speech was a lesson in taqiya (lies to advance Islam). He called Islam a force of religious tolerance and racial equality ..... in the face of all the barbarism. He stated that 'Muslims have enriched the U.S. and have won Nobel prizes.' They have, in fact, received less than a handful of the international Nobel prizes. It is an interesting point to make, considering the glaring omission of the Jews contribution to humanity. Here are the facts: The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000, or 20% of the world population . They received the following Nobel Prizes: Literature 1988 - Najib Mahfooz. Peace : 1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat 1994 - Yaser Arafat Physics : 1999 - Ahmed Zewail Medicine : 1960 - Peter Brian Medawar [UPDATE:Atheist/agnostic, not Muslim, and only half Arab] 1998 - Ferid Mourad The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000, or about 0.002% of the world population . They received the following Nobel Prizes: Literature 1910 - Paul Heyse 1927 - Henri Bergson 1958 - Boris Pasternak 1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1966 - Nelly Sachs 1976 - Saul Bellow 1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer 1981 - Elias Canetti 1987 - Joseph Brodsky 1991 - Nadine Gordimer 2001 - Imre Kertesz 2005 - Harold Pinter World Peace 1911 - Alfred Fried 1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser 1968 - Rene Cassin 1973 - Henry Kissinger 1978 - Menachem Begin 1986 - Elie Wiesel 1994 - Shimon Peres 1994 - Yitzhak Rabin 1995 - Joseph Rotblat Chemistry 1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer 1906 - Henri Moissan 1910 - Otto Wallach 1915 - Richard Willstaetter 1918 - Fritz Haber 1943 - George Charles de Hevesy 1961 - Melvin Calvin 1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz 1972 - William Howard Stein 1977 - Ilya Prigogine 1979 - Herbert Charles Brown 1980 - Paul Berg 1980 - Walter Gilbert 1981 - Roald Hoffmann 1982 - Aaron Klug 1985 - Herbert Hauptman 1985 - Jerome Karle 1989 - Sidney Altman 1992 - Rudolph Marcus 1998 - Walter Kohn 2004 - Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose 2006 - Roger Kornberg Economics 1970 - Paul Samuelson 1971 - Simon Kuznets 1972 - Kenneth Arrow 1973 - Wassily Leontief 1975 - Leonid Kantorovich 1976 - Milton Friedman 1978 - Herbert A. Simon 1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein 1985 - Franco Modigliani 1987 - Robert M. Solow 1990 - Harry Markowitz 1990 - Merton Miller 1992 - Gary Becker 1993 - Robert Fogel 1994 - John Harsanyi 1997 - Myron Scholes 2001 - Joseph Stiglitz 2001 - George A. Akerlof 2002 - Daniel Kahneman 2005 - Robert Aumann 2007 - Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin & Roger Myerson 2008 - Paul Krugman Medicine 1908 - Elie Metchnikoff & Paul Ehrlich 1914 - Robert Barany 1922 - Otto Meyerhof 1930 - Karl Landsteiner 1931 - Otto Warburg 1936 - Otto Loewi 1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser 1944 - Joseph Erlanger 1945 - Ernst Boris Chain 1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller 1947 - Gerty Cori* 1950 - Tadeus Reichstein 1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman 1953 - Hans Krebs & Fritz Lipmann 1958 - Joshua Lederberg 1959 - Arthur Kornberg 1964 - Konrad Bloch 1965 - Francois Jacob & Andre Lwoff 1967 - George Wald 1968 - Marshall Nirenberg 1969 - Salvador Luria 1970 - Julius Axelrod & Bernard Katz 1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman 1975 - David Baltimore & Howard Temin 1976 - Baruch Blumberg 1977 - Rosalyn Sussman Yalow & Andrew V. Schally 1978 - Daniel Nathans 1980 - Baruj Benacerraf 1984 - Cesar Milstein 1985 - Michael Stuart Brown & Joseph Goldstein 1986 - Stanley Cohen & Rita Levi-Montalcini 1988 - Gertrude Elion 1989 - Harold Varmus 1994 - Alfred Gilman & Martin Rodbell 1997- Stanley B. Prusiner 1998 - Robert Furchgott 2000 - Paul Greengard & Eric Kandel 2002 - H. Robert Horvitz & Sydney Brenner Physics 1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson 1908 - Gabriel Lippmann 1921 - Albert Einstein 1922 - Niels Bohr 1925 - James Franck & Gustav Hertz 1943 - Otto Stern 1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi 1945 - Wolfgang Pauli 1952 - Felix Bloch 1954 - Max Born# 1958 - Igor Tamm & Il'ja Mikhailovich Frank 1959 - Emilio Segrè 1960 - Donald A. Glaser 1961 - Robert Hofstadter 1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau 1963 - Eugene Wigner 1965 - Richard Feynman & Julian Schwinger 1967 - Hans Bethe 1969 - Murray Gell-Mann 1971 - Dennis Gabor 1972 - Leon Cooper 1973 - Brian David Josephson 1975 - Benjamin Mottleson 1976 - Burton Richter 1978 - Arno Penzias & Pyotr Kapitsa 1979 - Stephen Weinberg & Sheldon Glashow 1988 - Leon Lederman & Melvin Schwartz & Jack Steinberger 1990 - Jerome Friedman 1992- Georges Charpak 1995 - Martin Perl & Fredrick Reines 1996 - Douglas D. Osheroff & David M. Lee 1997 - Claude Cohen-Tannoudji 2000 - Zhores I. Alferov 2003 - Vitaly Ginzburg & Alexei A. Abrikosov 2004 - H. David Politzer & David Gross 2005 - Roy Glauber Please read it all . Source

Let Go!	Top
To be attentive, involved and inspiring without being overbearing, directive and threatening, how to navigate the tender waters of your children's lives? Slipping in with a question can cause tidal waves of distress or just stress and confusion, asking it seems is enough to stir up currents in peaceful waters. They are still like calm lazy rivers flowing slowly in a direction unknown to all, steadily moving along in inches, small tiny little inches in a month! My task it seems is to move the river along, yet is it? My mothering buttons seem to engage as I watch the non-action. I see no movement and I wonder out loud. My asking seems to disrupt the peaceful river, like a cannon ball onto the glass surface! The river is indignant, and it splashes on to me! In the end the river settles back down to its unmoving silent water. I sit near its bank s in total befuddlement! Is it possible that there are rapids up ahead to this river, is there something around the bend that I am unaware of? What is my role here and how can I approach the river that is beneficial for both of us? Do I stand silently in patience? Patience, yikes that is so hard for me, silence is another, and non- directing I way fail at. Be like a large weeping willow tree hanging over the lazy river. What moves the river, what tells the river to go quickly and to make that bend? Is the Universe using the parents to help move the river? It seems that the line gets fuzzy as the children turn into young adults the landscape changes, expectations shift, space gets crowded in their lives. Or is it crowded in mine? Do I feel the weight of their inner tubes riding along on my back? I am the lazy river? Oh I see, I can be the lazy river and let them ride, or I can be the rapids or the waterfalls that kicks them off the tube! I love that I am the river I am the one that I am waiting for again. It is me, I do have the right to ask how long are you planning on floating along? There is peace in having them all here under our roof, enjoyment in seeing them daily, to hear their laughter as they re-connect, like a prolonged family reunion. It has been a month long vacation for some, a nice respite from college studies, but for the rest of us this is life. Life as a Mother, it is me that allows them to be as they are, it is me that is the common denominator of how much they contribute or don't, it is up to me as to how many floating inner tubes I allow on my surface. I am hanging on, when I should be letting go! Or I let them hang on when they are unsure of where it is that they should go. It seems as parents we are always the ones that have to let go, to stop being the training wheels, the hands that forever hold on to the bike. Let go and kick them out of the nest. I remember watching on Planet Earth, the video of teeny little birds floating down many yards and flopping on the ground, some didn't even survive the fall, being amazed at nature! That was what was required to learn how to fly! The nest way up there and in order to get back they had to learn to use their wings. In order for them to use the wings, they have to leave the nest! Letting go is harder than holding on! Letting go frees both sides! A successful mother lets go, drops her hands and lets the child steer the bike! We know that there may be falls mixed in with successful minutes of staying on, and in the end with practice the child learns how to balance on its own! Learns to be independent and knows self-confidence. Ironically we teach them to leave us, to set forth on their own. Letting go as a child to become an adult. We were all shaky at first until we learned balance and with practice before long we get the lesson, we successfully navigate a new stage in life. As long as we are willing to get back on the bike called life! Where this bike will take us, what roads will we travel down, what bumps with toss us off, what sights will thrill us, that is all unknown, what we have to do is just be willing to shove off and balance the best we can! Let go! Source

President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo, Egypt	Top
The following text is of United States President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world, titled "A new beginning," which he delivered in Cairo on Thursday. "I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum. We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world - tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam. Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust. So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end. I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles - principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust, nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." That is what I will try to do - to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart. Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam - at places like Al-Azhar University - that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers -Thomas Jefferson - kept in his personal library. So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. But that same principle must apply to Muslim perceptions of America. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words - within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one." Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores - that includes nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average. Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it. So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. And I believe that America holds within her the truth that regardless of race, religion, or station in life, all of us share common aspirations - to live in peace and security; to get an education and to work with dignity; to love our families, our communities, and our God. These things we share. This is the hope of all humanity. Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all. For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings. This is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes subjugating one another to serve their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared. That does not mean we should ignore sources of tension. Indeed, it suggests the opposite: we must face these tensions squarely. And so in that spirit, let me speak as clearly and plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together. The first issue that we have to confront is violent extremism in all of its forms. In Ankara, I made clear that America is not - and never will be - at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people. The situation in Afghanistan demonstrates America's goals, and our need to work together. Over seven years ago, the United States pursued al Qaeda and the Taliban with broad international support. We did not go by choice, we went because of necessity. I am aware that some question or justify the events of 9/11. But let us be clear: al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with. Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan. We seek no military bases there. It is agonizing for America to lose our young men and women. It is costly and politically difficult to continue this conflict. We would gladly bring every single one of our troops home if we could be confident that there were not violent extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan determined to kill as many Americans as they possibly can. But that is not yet the case. That's why we're partnering with a coalition of forty-six countries. And despite the costs involved, America's commitment will not weaken. Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists. They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths - more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam. The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind. The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace. We also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is why we plan to invest $1.5 billion each year over the next five years to partner with Pakistanis to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and hundreds of millions to help those who have been displaced. And that is why we are providing more than $2.8 billion to help Afghans develop their economy and deliver services that people depend upon. Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: "I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Today, America has a dual responsibility: to help Iraq forge a better future - and to leave Iraq to Iraqis. I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases, and no claim on their territory or resources. Iraq's sovereignty is its own. That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. That is why we will honor our agreement with Iraq's democratically-elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all our troops from Iraq by 2012. We will help Iraq train its Security Forces and develop its economy. But we will support a secure and united Iraq as a partner, and never as a patron. And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter our principles. 9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year. So America will defend itself respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer. The second major source of tension that we need to discuss is the situation between Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world. America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that

America: "One of the Largest Muslim Countries in the World"	Top
Let me get this straight. First, President Obama stated that America was not a Christian nation. Now, he states that we are "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world". Oh, really? Perhaps, in his dreams. The kowtowing to the Muslim world is beyond unbelievable. He may be winning the favor of the Arab community, and polls show that he is, though they still strongly dislike America. So, where exactly, will that get us as a nation? Perhaps, the Muslim world suspects, as I do, that he may be a closet Muslim . I cannot forget the comment made by his sister to the NY Times in April, 2007, " My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim ." And isn't it interesting that he now admits that his father was not an agnostic after all, but a Muslim ? I guess that means he out-and-out lied to the American people during his campaign for president . Of course, based on a recent poll of Americans regarding their view of Muslims, in which only one in five had a favorable view of Muslim countries , he had reason to do so. If Bill Clinton earned the nickname "the first black president" because of his empathy for the black community, Barack Obama should certainly earn the title "the first Muslim president", regardless of where his real religious beliefs lie, because of his bending over bowing down to the Islamic community . Read from Atlas Shrugs : ABC NEWS DISCOVERS...THE MUSLIM PRESIDENT! BHO: "The United States is One of the Largest Muslim Countries on the Planet " " 'The United States and the Western world must learn about Islam, and indeed if we count the number of American Muslims, we see that the United States is one of the largest Muslim countries on the planet ,' he said. Interview with French LaMonde. (hat tip Boquisucio): As Obama embarks on his much lauded (compliments of a dhimmi press) trip to address the Muslim world from Egypt, select members of the mainstream media are surprised by Obama's pre-election deceit about his Muslim background and family . When I started posting about Obama's religious Muslim background in January of 2007 , every epithet was hurled at me from the left and mainstream circles. Islamophobe! Right wing nut! Racist? What race? He is really more Arab American than African American, but the racist charge was for his religion (Islam is a race?). I continued to post through 2007 and 2008 evidence of his Islamic religious birth , his extremist Muslim family and his Islamic schooling. Terrorists supported him . There were the phone bank s in Gaza . Oodles of jihad money from a Hamas controlled refugee camp in Gaza . Mosques in the US were preaching for Obama . Khalid Al Mansour sponsored Obama for Harvard. crickets chirped" Read it all . Source

	Top
By Carlos Latuff • Jun 2nd, 2009 I dedicate this artwork to a Palestinian elderly woman called Mrs. Zarefa, 95 years old, grandmother of the artist and good friend Mohammed Abo Afefa, whom I had the honour of meeting in Marka/Shnillar refugee camp, Jordan. She was expelled from Zakrea village to West by Israeli forces in 1948, and again after 1967 to Jordan. She can't go back to homeland. ~ Her right of return was denied by Israel. Source

In Gaza, women filmmakers find strength behind the camera	Top
Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, 1 June 2009 Young women learning to become filmmakers at the Women's Affairs Center in Gaza City. "My career has always been a challenge for me -- simply 'to be or not to be' -- especially under such very difficult circumstances," says Etimad Wshah. Wshah lives in the Jabaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, and is one of a small number of women filmmakers in Gaza. Since 1994 she has trained other women filmmakers at the Palestinian Women's Affairs Center in Gaza City. "In 1998 I was the first woman director to train both men and women and carry a camera in the streets of Gaza," she explains. Wshah was trained by Canadian filmmaker Christine Necier, Arab filmmaker Imtiaz Diab and the Reuters news agency. Recalling a six-month stint studying filmmaking in Geneva, she states that "It was an interesting experience for me and it was rather a challenge for a girl from a refugee camp." Wshah has directed a series of films depicting various issues affecting women, including the topic of rape. Among the almost 50 women filmmakers she has helped train, eight were recently selected for an upcoming film festival in the West and Gaza Strip. "During the last Israeli war on Gaza I was impressed by the experiences of Gaza women during the war, so I was determined to produce films, portraying their situations. I directed four separate films called 'War stories,'" she explains. Wshah adds that "A woman in the Zaitoun neighborhood in eastern Gaza city, who lost her husband, her children and her house was one of the most miserable situations I put a spotlight on." A woman trainee practices filming at the center. Wshah admits that women's creativity can face some challenges: "One of the most notable obstacles I have faced is the fact of being a woman in a conservative society. Shooting at night, for example, has been so difficult for us." She adds that "the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza makes it difficult to obtain essential equipment." Wshah's dream is to become an internationally-known Palestinian female director, so that she can create more at an international level beyond Gaza's borders. Nour al-Halabi trained with Wshah from 2005 to 2006 before producing her own short documentaries. Al-Halabi echoes some of the difficulties her mentor spoke about including the difficulty of filming at night and the disapproval from some quarters about women being directors. But, she says, Gaza's filmmakers are persistent: "Though we are few and we face many difficulties including financing and movement throughout the Gaza Strip, if we have an idea, we keep searching for professional screenwriters or cameramen, who are rare in Gaza." Currently Wshah is training is training eight filmmakers with the assistance of a colleague. One of the trainees, Nelli al-Masri explained that "I am here to learn how to be a director, despite all the circumstances and obstacles. Lighting a candle is much better than cursing darkness." All images by the Women's Affairs Center. Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip. ~ Source

Lebanon's Palestinian refugees	Top
Palestinian refugees do not have access to state education and healthcare in Lebanon [ITN] In 1948 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from or forced to flee their homeland in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel. While some were forced out by armed Israeli militias - perhaps the most notorious being the Stern Gang - others fled in the belief Arab armies would defeat those Jewish forces fighting for independence and that they would then be able to return home. There are thousands of Palestinian refugees across the globe, many of whom settled in neighbouring Arab countries including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Not to mention those Palestinians classed as refugees within the West and the Gaza Strip. However, of all the Palestinian refugees in the Arab world, it is those who have taken shelter in Lebanon who have suffered the most. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) the international body set up to ensure the welfare of Palestinian refugees, the highest percentage of Palestinian refugees who are living in abject poverty reside in Lebanon. There are about 400,000 officially registered Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, or approximately 10 per cent of the population. Just under half of the refugees continue to live in camps. The issue of "naturalisation" of Palestinian refugees has often been used as a political card in Lebanon, a small country built on a delicate confessional balance. Due to the sensitivity of the issue, there has been no official census in Lebanon since 1932 that could determine the number of Christians and Muslims of various sects. Mostly Sunni Muslims, the Palestinian refugees are seen as a potential boon to Lebanese Muslim political aspirations, especially Sunni ones. Civil war And indeed, when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was based in Lebanon between 1972 and 1982, it threw its lot behind the Muslim-dominated leftist forces that were engaged in civil war against the Christian-led right. However, the PLO, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, resolutely rejected the idea of Lebanon becoming a state for the dispossessed Palestinians. Between May and September of 2007, Nahr al-Bared was the scene of a brutal conflict between the radical Fatah al-Islam group and the Lebanese army. However, Nahr al-Bared was an exception to the rule, with the major refugee camps such as Ain al-Helweh falling under a shared sphere of influence among Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups with strong grassroots support. Indeed, the Palestinians themselves point out that their own security fears and a history of violence - including wholesale massacres - perpetrated in the camps is a major reason why Palestinians continue to bear arms. In 1976, Lebanese Christian militiamen overran the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp in East Beirut and massacred or expelled all of its residents. Six years later, Israeli forces facilitated the entry of Lebanese Christian militiamen into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut. That massacre claimed the lives of about 800 residents of the camps. Camps War Between 1985 and 1989, Lebanon was the scene of what became known as the Camps War, when Pro-Syrian militiamen from Amal, a Lebanese Shia movement, and anti-Arafat factions laid siege to Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and the South. Palestinian refugees suffered grim atrocities, and according to journalist Robert Fisk, the Camps War was worse than the Sabra and Shatila massacre . Today, on the eve of parliamentary elections, Palestinians in Lebanon are conveniently forgotten. The battle lines have been drawn and they are along strictly Lebanese lines, with each political faction hurling accusations at each other and bringing into play the regional and international influences of Washington, Tel Aviv, Tehran and Damascus. But many analysts point out that Lebanon ignores the plight of the Palestinians on its territory at its own peril. Walk into Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Helweh, at midday and you are struck by the number of school age children in the streets, many going to and from their UNRWA schools as they cannot attend state schools. Palestinians in Lebanon are also banned from seeking state healthcare, owning property and even bringing in building materials into the refugee camps. However, the future of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will be among the first items on the agenda of Lebanon's new parliament. The Sabra Shatila Foundation, after consultation with human rights organisations including International Lawyers Sans Frontieres and members of Lebanon's legislature, will table a draft law in parliament which promises, in the words of the foundation, to: "erase, in one vote, decades of illegal and immoral treatment of more than 10 per cent of Lebanon's population". The draft text reads: "Be it enacted by the Chamber of Deputies ... that all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon shall immediately acquire, receive and enjoy the full faith and credit of all civil rights possessed by Lebanese citizens except citizenship or naturalisation." The alternative can only mean that Lebanon's refugee camps will be a hotbed for further frustration and disappointment for their residents, and could well prove to be a fertile breeding ground for future extremism. ~ Source

Minuets, Sonatas and Politics in the West Bank	Top
Dear Friends, Don't miss the accompanying photos at: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/22/arts/20090522_DALIA_SLIDESHOW_index.html I also note that my daughter Areen is a 5th year piano student at the the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, which is mentioned. Music in Palestine...should not be an international story, Sam June 1, 2009 Minuets, Sonatas and Politics in the West bank By DANIEL J. WAKIN RAMALLAH, West bank — The shy Palestinian teenager raised her flute and dispatched the courtly melodies and cascading runs of an 18th-century concerto with surprising self-assurance. Over just three years of study the flute had become a near obsession for Dalia Moukarker, 16. She was practicing so hard — sometimes retreating to a bathroom in her crowded apartment, sometimes skipping meals — that her wrist filled with pain, limiting her to two hours a day. But in a classroom here recently, the discomfort was nowhere to be seen. For she had earned an almost surreal reward: a master class with her hero, Emmanuel Pahud, a major international soloist. Mr. Pahud circled, studying her intently. Then he took her instrument and sent out stunning roulades of notes to demonstrate. Dalia gaped in wonder and gave a soft laugh of amazement. The flute, she said later, "takes me to another world that is far away from here, a more beautiful world. Because it is not a beautiful place here. It is an ugly place." Dalia is one of a new generation of Palestinians who have been swept up in a rising tide of interest in Western classical music in the last several years here in the Palestinian territories, but especially the West bank . The sounds of trills and arpeggios, Bach minuets and Beethoven sonatas, are rising up amid the economic malaise and restrictions of the Israeli occupation. But as with many endeavors in this part of the world, the pursuit of classical music is fraught with tensions and obstacles, including a desire not to be seen as working with Israelis. A small effort to teach violin at a refugee camp in Jenin, north of Ramallah, was banned in March when camp authorities heard that the students had played for Holocaust survivors in Israel, saying the concert "served enemy interests." A lack of detailed knowledge about the Holocaust is widespread among Palestinians, who view that chapter of history as a catalyst to the creation of Israel and thus a source of their suffering. But the music teacher, Wafaa Younis, an Israeli Arab, scoffed at the complaint. "I don't think it should be a problem," she said. In another incident a music school in Jenin was heavily damaged by arson. Because of financial hardships, most students rely on donated instruments and a rotating cast of European teachers. Since traditional Palestinian culture frowns on the mingling of the sexes, parents are sometimes reluctant to send their children to music schools, administrators say. And politics are never far away. Some Palestinian teachers couch the instruction in propaganda, calling it a means of "resisting the occupation." Across the border in Israel, which has a mother lode of classical music talent, there is little awareness that Palestinians are pursuing the same artistic tradition. That is perhaps no surprise in a conflict where mutual ignorance is prodigious. "We cannot perceive them as people who have their own cultural lives," said Noam Ben-Zeev, a music critic for the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz. Despite the opposition of some, many Palestinians see the study of Western classical music — part of a broader cultural revival in the West bank — as a source of hope, a way to connect to the outer world from a hemmed-in and controlled existence, particularly at a time when hope for a Palestinian state seems ever more distant. "Deep inside, it's to demonstrate we are alive, that we deserve to be alive and have our culture," said George Diek, a partly self-taught Palestinian oboe teacher in Bethlehem. The presence of classical music is still tiny among a West bank population of 2.5 million. But concerts pop up more and more. A Baroque festival took place across the West bank in December. A piano competition for Palestinians attracted 50 entrants to East Jerusalem in January. Sounding Jerusalem, a chamber music festival, will take place in the area for the fourth year this month. Music schools are booming and sending students off to study in Europe and the United States. An influx of money from foreign governments, local foundations and the Palestinian Authority has fueled the music revival. Even in Gaza, pummeled by a 22-day war with Israel that ended in January, Palestinian authorities are trying to reopen a small music school that was heavily damaged. One of the major players in the nurturing of classical music is the Barenboim-Said Foundation, established by Daniel Barenboim , the Argentine-born Israeli conductor and pianist, who is a forceful advocate for Palestinian rights, and Edward W. Said , the Palestinian-American intellectual, who died in 2003. It opened a center in Ramallah in 2006 to provide lessons here and coaching in nearby towns and villages. Dalia is one of the foundation's students. She lives in Beit Jala, a village close to Bethlehem, where she shares a room with a sister, Roudy, 11, a budding clarinetist. She is the eldest of five children in a Christian family. Her father, Sulieman, is a security guard at Bethlehem University, and the family survives on money sent by two of her father's expatiate brothers. Posters of the French-Swiss Mr. Pahud are taped to Dalia's bedroom window, which overlooks Bethlehem and a tumble of white houses. She can also see a wall that is part of the lengthy barrier built by Israel in response to attacks. Hundreds of Israelis were killed in suicide bombings emanating from the area. Dalia said that she felt "in prison" because of travel restrictions. "Every time we look at this wall, we feel suffocated," she added. Friends at first made fun of her flute playing, saying music was not a serious endeavor. Some teachers supported her. "But the most important thing was the feeling the music gives me," she said. "You feel as if you are flying." She now hopes to gain a foundation scholarship to study in France, she said, and dreams of being a conductor. At the master class, Mr. Pahud told her to lighten her hold on the flute to release tension. "Gentle fingers, small fingers," he said. Later, in an interview, he pronounced her a real talent. Mr. Pahud, 39, was personally invited here by Mr. Barenboim. In addition to its own activities, the Barenboim-Said Foundation also assists a group called Al Kamandjati (the Violinist) , founded in October 2002 by Ramzi Aburedwan, a Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp and studied viola in France. Having started with 90 students, the program now has 400, Mr. Aburedwan said. Among its students is Sondos Samarn, 12. Her teacher, Benjamin Payen, 28, of France, said she was one of the most talented violin students in Ramallah. Al Kamandjati's Jenin branch was the school struck by arson. No one claimed responsibility, and suspicion fell on an array of forces: Islamists (although religious authorities are said to have given their blessing to the school), social conservatives, people jealous of the school's success, collaborators with Israel. Classes were immediately moved to the garden, and the small stone school reopened within two weeks. On a day in late April children came bearing ouds, flutes and violins. The smell of smoke lingered despite the whitewashed walls. Iyad Staiti, the director, asked visitors to stay inside, to avoid drawing attention from the school's enemies. Across town Al Kamandjati is renovating a building that will be a much larger home. Just how complicated things can become is made obvious by the third classical music presence, the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. Affiliated with Birzeit University, it began in the mid-1990s and has more than 650 students and a curriculum of theory, ear training, music history and performance, as well as an Arabic music program. It has ambitions to sponsor a Palestine national orchestra. The conservatory is putting up a modern glass-and-concrete building in Bethlehem about twice the size of its quarters there. Though they share Mr. Said's name, the conservatory and the Barenboim-Said Foundation no longer work together. A joint youth orchestra fell apart. Suhail Khoury, the conservatory's general director, said Barenboim-Said was siphoning off the best musicians for the Arab-Israeli orchestra it sponsors, the West-Eastern Divan. He accused Mr. Barenboim of effectively supporting the Israeli occupation by not using the orchestra to oppose Israeli policies. "The fact on the ground is that Israel occupies Palestine," he said. "If one guy's foot is on the neck of another, you can't sing together." Mr. Barenboim said that the orchestra was "not a political project" and does not endorse the Israeli occupation. Music, Mr. Barenboim said, is the best weapon the Palestinians have "against violence and ugliness." "If you go to a violin lesson for an hour," he added, "in that hour you are not in contact with violence or with the occupation." Near Ramallah, hours after teaching Dalia's master class, Mr. Pahud played a solo concert at a boys' school. The call to prayer from a nearby mosque mingled with the notes coming from his gleaming golden flute. Dalia sat in the third row, beside her main teacher, Ilia Karadjov, 40, from Germany. The two bent their heads over the score of each piece. At the end Dalia presented Mr. Pahud with a bouquet. She said her flute was like a friend she could not live without. But it is borrowed, from an amateur musician in her village. Dalia will give it back when she gets her own and goes off to a university. "This way," she said, "I can give an opportunity for someone else." Source

Israeli official: U.S. has changed policy, not Israel	Top
THAT'S RIGHT - AND IT WAS ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By Yuval Azoulay and Nadav Shragai , Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service The Obama administration is considering a series of symbolic measures to force Israel to halt all construction in West settlements, the New York Times has reported. Administration officials said that measures under discussion include dropping the U.S.' near uniform support of Israel in the United Nations and withholding its usual veto on resolutions critical of Israel, according to the New York Times. Among other pressure points, Washington could review loan guarantees to Israel, diplomats said, or share and coordinate with less alacrity on security matters, while the European Union could get tough on trade terms for produce from settlements. "There are things that could get the attention of the Israeli public," The Times quoted a senior administration official as saying. Nevertheless, the official also said, "Israel is a critical United States ally, and no one in this administration expects that not to continue." Deputy Prime Minister Danny Ayalon, who is currently in New York, told Haaretz that the discussion did not represent an official Israeli stance and that the outcome of such debate was unclear as of yet, Other Israeli officials confirmed that the U.S. has made no mention of any such plans for sanctions. The Obama administration has insisted on a total settlement freeze, but Jerusalem has balked at this demand claiming that existing communities in the West deserve continued government attention. Talk of possible sanctions prompted one senior Israeli official to complain: "The Netanyahu government is acting the same as its predecessors. The one who has changed policy is the American administration. The new administration is trying to get out of understandings achieved under the Bush administration." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday declared that Israel would not put life in West settlements on hold, despite the United States demand that Israel completely halt construction in existing settlements. "There are reasonable demands and demands that are not reasonable," Netanyahu told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He was referring to a request made by U.S. President Barack Obama during a recent meeting in Washington with the premier. Netanyahu, however, did pledge that Israel would not build any new settlements. The prime minister's comments came after Israeli security forces evacuated the northern West outpost of Nachalat Yosef on Monday. The site, near the settlement of Elon Moreh, contained three caravans and had been described by its residents as a farm, Army Radio reported. Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said structures that were destroyed would be rebuilt. "The nation of Israel elected a government that is supposed to care for the settlements and not destroy them, using hypocritical legalities as an excuse," Mesika said. A senior defense official said earlier on Monday that the government does not intend to destroy any of the 26 outposts slated for evacuation. The official added that the evacuation will take place only after discussion with the settlers. Monday's evacuation came after renewed calls by the United States for Israel to honor past commitments to remove the outposts. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, however, said last week that Israel was not bowing to U.S. pressure in evacuating the sites. One of the caravans was moved into Elon Moreh during the evacuation, which took place without incident, according to Army Radio. Last week, the Civil Administration yesterday released the full list of West outposts where occupants of some buildings will be told they will be considered illegal residents if they do not leave the site within three days of the order. Source

Obama's Anti-Gun History	Top
Like most conservatives, I oppose President Obama's choice for Supreme Court. Her racial comments are disturbing , as well as her comment about making law from the bench, but we all knew the president would choose a justice who would be a judicial activist as the following video suggests about Sonia Sotomayor: Nevertheless, I am deeply concerned about having a judge who opposes the Second Amendment. Once again, we should not be surprised because Barack Obama also is anti-gun. I happened to come across this little gem from before the election and thought it was worth reviewing once again: Pajamas Media reports on Obama's disdain for the Second Amendment : "As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama must demonstrate executive experience, but he remains strangely silent about his eight years (1994-2002) as a director of the Joyce Foundation, a billion dollar tax-exempt organization. He has one obvious reason: during his time as director, Joyce Foundation spent millions creating and supporting anti-gun organizations . There is another, less known, reason. During Obama's tenure, the Joyce Foundation board planned and implemented a program targeting the Supreme Court . The work began five years into Obama's directorship, when the Foundation had experience in turning its millions into anti-gun 'grassroots' organizations, but none at converting cash into legal scholarship. The plan's objective was bold: the judicial obliteration of the Second Amendment. Joyce's directors found a vulnerable point. When judges cannot rely upon past decisions, they sometimes turn to law review articles . Law reviews are impartial, and famed for meticulous cite-checking. They are also produced on a shoestring. Authors of articles receive no compensation; editors are law students who work for a tiny stipend. In 1999, midway through Obama's tenure, the Joyce board voted to grant the Chicago-Kent Law Review $84,000, a staggering sum by law review standards. The Review promptly published an issue in which all articles attacked the individual right view of the Second Amendment . In a breach of law review custom, Chicago-Kent let an 'outsider' serve as editor; he was Carl Bogus, a faculty member of a different law school. Bogus had a unique distinction: he had been a director of Handgun Control Inc. (today's Brady Campaign), and was on the advisory board of the Joyce-funded Violence Policy Center. Bogus solicited only articles hostile to the individual right view of the Second Amendment, offering authors $5,000 each. But word leaked out, and Prof. Randy Barnett of Boston University volunteered to write in defense of the individual right to arms. Bogus refused to allow him to write for the review, later explaining that 'sometimes a more balanced debate is best served by an unbalanced symposium.' Prof. James Lindgren, a former Chicago-Kent faculty member, remembers that when Barnett sought an explanation he 'was given conflicting reasons, but the opposition of the Joyce Foundation was one that surfaced at some time.' Joyce had bought a veto power over the review's content. Joyce Foundation apparently believed it held this power over the entire university. Glenn Reynolds later recalled that when he and two other professors were scheduled to discuss the Second Amendment on campus, Joyce's staffers 'objected strenuously' to their being allowed to speak, protesting that Joyce Foundation was being cheated by an '"agenda of balance" that was inconsistent with the Symposium's purpose .' Joyce next bought up an issue of Fordham Law Review. The plan worked smoothly. One court, in the course of ruling that there was no individual right to arms, cited the Chicago-Kent articles eight times. Then, in 2001, a federal Court of Appeals in Texas determined that the Second Amendment was an individual right. The Joyce Foundation board (which still included Obama) responded by expanding its attack on the Second Amendment. Its next move came when Ohio State University announced it was establishing the 'Second Amendment Research Center' as a think tank headed by anti-individual-right historian Saul Cornell. Joyce put up no less than $400,000 to bank roll its creation. The grant was awarded at the board's December 2002 meeting, Obama's last function as a Joyce director. In reporting the grant, the OSU magazine Making History made clear that the purpose was to influence a future Supreme Court case: 'The effort is timely: a series of test cases - based on a new wave of scholarship, a recent decision by a federal Court of Appeals in Texas, and a revised Justice Department policy-are working their way through the courts. The litigants challenge the courts' traditional reading of the Second Amendment as a protection of the states' right to organize militia, asserting that the Amendment confers a much broader right for individuals to own guns. The United States Supreme Court is likely to resolve the debate within the next three to five years .' The Center proceeded to generate articles denying the individual right to arms . The OSU connection also gave Joyce an academic money laundry. When it decided to buy an issue of the Stanford Law and Policy Review, it had a cover. Joyce handed OSU $125,000 for that purpose; all the law review editors knew was that OSU's Foundation granted them that breathtaking sum, and a helpful Prof. Cornell volunteered to organize the issue. (The review was later sufficiently embarrassed to publish an open letter on the affair). The Joyce directorate's plan almost succeeded. The individual rights view won out in the Heller Supreme Court appeal, but only by 5-4. The four dissenters were persuaded in part by Joyce-funded writings, down to relying on an article which misled them on critical historical documents. Having lost that fight, Obama now claims he always held the individual rights view of the Second Amendment, and that he 'respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms.' But as a Joyce director, Obama was involved in a wealthy foundation's attempt to manipulate the Supreme Court, buy legal scholarship, and obliterate the individual right to arms. Voters who value the Constitution should ask whether someone who was party to that plan should be nominating future Supreme Court justices ." Source

Hay festival: Tutu calls for urgent solution to Israel-Palestine conflict	Top
Alison Flood Thursday 28 May 2009 23.37 BST The Israel-Palestine crisis is the most urgent problem for the world to solve, according to Desmond Tutu , archbishop emeritus of Cape Town who said tonight that if it remains unresolved, no other issues – from the war on terror to nuclear disarmament – will ever be resolved. The Nobel peace laureate , who said that in some ways the situation in Palestine was worse than it was in apartheid South Africa , told a packed audience of more than 1,000 – including Rowan Williams , archbishop of Canterbury – that the west "feels a deep, deep shame for what it did – or didn't do – during the Holocaust ". And that was right, he said. "You jolly well ought to feel that shame, but then the penalty, the penance, has been paid, not by the west, but paid by the Palestinians." Speaking at the Guardian Hay Festival , where he received two standing ovations, Tutu said if the problems of Israel-Palestine weren't solved, "you can give up on all other problems. You can give up on nuclear disarmament, you can give up on ever winning a war against terror , you can give it up. You can give up any hope of our faiths ever working really amicably and in a friendly way together. This, this, this is the problem, and it is in our hands". Dressed in deep pink robes, Tutu spoke of the trips he has made over the years to Israel , to Gaza , to Jerusalem , to the West – most recently to Gaza on a UN human rights fact finding mission, where he met a mother who had seen in the space of minutes the death of her baby, her husband and her son. "Her son was on the floor, struggling to push back his bowels, which had been disembowelled, trying to shove them back into his abdomen, and she said that she said to him 'no, my son, go and join your brother and your father'." Passing through checkpoints in the country, he said, "brought back memories of what things had been like at home" in South Africa under apartheid – "the arrogance of the police or the soldiers. You depend on their whim whether they'll allow you through or not." But things happen in Israel that never happened in apartheid South Africa, Tutu said, pointing to the " collective punishment ", which sees the home of a suspected terrorist destroyed. But Tutu was clear that he doesn't believe "ordinary Israelis would want to have supported something of this nature if they knew the effects of policies", and said that there were "some incredible people in Israel … have felt it was something that was contrary to the best in their faith", as well as women "who stand by at these check points who try to shame the soldiers into good behaviour". He still believes a two-state solution for the region can be viable, "a solution that says Israel is a sovereign state, and there would be a sovereign Palestinian state and Israel's existence would be guaranteed". Despite this he "can't quite understand how a people with this history could get to agree". But then again, "we do in fact have short memories", and he believes that one of the reasons that apartheid ended – that "God put the South African example as a small success" -was "to give the world some tangible notice of the fact that no situation is ultimately totally intractable – that the world would have to say 'if they could do it in South Africa, they could do it anywhere'." A by turns serious and jovial Tutu was also critical of those "who have glibly said because of September 11 that Islam is a violent faith". "One has to keep saying that Christians are the last people to say that. We burned witches, we burned those we said were heretics, and more recently the Holocaust – it wasn't pagans, it was Christians," Tutu said. "The people who proposed apartheid were not heathens – they said they had the support of the Bible." God, he said with another roar of laughter, "is not a Christian". guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/28/hay-festival-tutu-israel-palestine-solution Source

CREATE MORE ALERTS:

Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted

Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope

Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more

News - Only the news you want, delivered!

Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more

Weather - Get today's weather conditions

You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.

0 коммент.

anticrisys

Categories

Recent Readers

Comments

Archives

Live Traffic Feed

Y! Alert: ÐŸÐ¾Ð»Ð½Ð¾Ñ‚ÐµÐºÑÑ‚Ð¾Ð²Ñ‹Ðµ Ñ„Ð¸Ð´Ñ‹ Ð´Ð»Ñ Ð±Ð»Ð¾Ð³Ð¾Ñ„ÐµÑ€Ð¼ÐµÑ€Ð¾Ð²