In Spite of Obama Denial–Rift Between Germany and USA Widening

The New York Times reported on June 5 about a widening rift between Germany and the USA. Mr. Obama’s denial of this rift, when visiting Buchenwald, sounds less than credible in light of the following facts:

“A rift has quietly opened up between Germany and the United States, marked by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is not an outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions and disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to the future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay.

“On a more basic level, there is a sense that the Obama administration is ignoring the needs and counsel of longtime allies. Divided Germany was once at the center not only of the cold war, but of American foreign policy as well, which is no longer the case. Yet the United States can ill afford to alienate Europe’s largest economy and its most important intermediary in the strained relationship with Russia…

“Mr. Obama arrived in Dresden, in the former East Germany, on Thursday night for a visit… to Buchenwald… The German news media have questioned why Mr. Obama was not going to Berlin, suggesting the omission might have been intended as a snub to Mrs. Merkel…

“While Mr. Obama enjoys tremendous personal popularity among the German people, relations with Mrs. Merkel have been bumpy from the beginning. In Germany much symbolic weight is attached to Mrs. Merkel’s decision not to travel to Washington to meet with Mr. Obama in March, but to talk by video conference instead.

“But signs of discord were evident even last summer, when Mrs. Merkel rejected Mr. Obama’s request during the presidential campaign to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate, saying it was not an appropriate location for a candidate’s address. Mr. Obama drew more than 200,000 people to hear his speech at a nearby monument.

“The president’s high standing with the German public adds to the strain in his relationship with Mrs. Merkel… Angela Merkel is seen as the exact opposite of a charismatic leader like Obama, and that is difficult to accept… At the same time, Mr. Obama’s popularity with the left-wing Social Democrats, rivals to Mrs. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union in parliamentary elections in September, also helps amplify his and Mrs. Merkel’s differences…

“Relations were already frosty as the economic crisis deepened and the German government and Obama administration took sharply differing views on how far to push stimulus spending… Germans remain surprised that an ambassador to their country has not been named more than four months after Mr. Obama’s inauguration. There is a sense that, with his focus split between domestic concerns and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new president is taking his staunchest European allies for granted…

“German government officials were outraged that a low-ranking American official was sent for the negotiations to find a way to keep the traditional automaker Opel going despite the bankruptcy of its parent company, General Motors, in the United States. The potential failure of an important industrial employer before parliamentary elections is no laughing matter for German politicians, including Mrs. Merkel…”

One Way to “Spend” Money…

The Netzeitung reported on June 9:

“US President Barack Obama’s brief visit to Dresden last week cost the state of Saxony EUR 13 million… The steep price tag is mostly for heightened security measures before and after the 17-hour stay. There were a total of 6,000 policemen from across Germany in Dresden. But Obama’s Secret Service guarded the areas visited by the president.”

Obama and Merkel in Buchenwald

The Los Angeles Times wrote on June 5:

“It was one of the horrific sights of World War II, the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Germany, where more than 50,000 people, mostly Jews, were starved or gassed to death in deplorable conditions. Today, one day after a historic treach [sic] to Muslims, and with Nobel Prize laureate and camp survivor Elie Wiesel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at his side, President Obama toured the sight that still chills the memory… Obama told NBC that he has no patience for those who deny the Holocaust, like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who again this week called the murder of 6 million Jews ‘a great deception.’… ‘He should make his own visit,’ Obama said of Ahmadinejad…

“Noting that Germans have a special burden to never forget the mass murder of 12 million during the Holocaust, Merkel, thanking America for helping restore Germany after the war, pledged that Germany would fight anti-Semitism, racism and extremism in any quarter… Obama said he would not forget what he saw there today… More than 50 years later, he said… the perpetrators were also human, reminding us to ‘stand guard’ against the evil within us.

“Then Wiesel, who was liberated from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, spoke..”

We are setting forth below excerpts from Wiesel’s remarkable speech:

“… every war is absurd and meaningless… But the world hasn’t learned.  When I was liberated in 1945, April 11, by the American army, somehow many of us were convinced that at least one lesson will have been learned — that never again will there be war; that hatred is not an option, that racism is stupid; and the will to conquer other people’s minds or territories or aspirations, that will is meaningless… Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.

“Will the world ever learn?  I think that is why Buchenwald is so important… It’s enough — enough to go to cemeteries, enough to weep for oceans.  It’s enough. There must come a moment — a moment of bringing people together.”

65th Anniversary of D-Day

Deutsche Welle reported on June 6:

“The leaders of Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the US have reminded the world of the sacrifices that World War II heroes made on the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago… Earlier in the day, the French and US presidents met privately to talk about thwarting Iran’s disputed nuclear ambitions and bringing about peace in the Middle East… Sarkozy agreed with Obama’s call for Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank…

“The Allied attack at Normandy was the beginning of the end of Hitler’s Germany. More than 130,000 soldiers landed in Normandy and began the liberation of Nazi-occupied France. Estimates suggest that by the evening of that day more than 4,000 of the Allied troops had died. More than 110,000 soldiers are buried in the military cemeteries in Normandy…

“Britain’s Prince Charles also attended the event, defusing an embarrassing diplomatic tussle over whether Queen Elizabeth should attend or not. Amid reports that the queen had not received an invitation from France, British media lashed out at Paris for the supposed snubbing of the crown.”

Politico added on June 6:

“[President Obama] was accompanied by Michelle Obama. Also onstage were French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Britain’s Prince Charles and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“In Brown’s remarks, he referred to ‘Obama Beach,’ then corrected himself to ‘Omaha Beach’ a few words later, after a stir in the crowd. Brown may have been confused by the French tabloid Liberation, which marked the president’s visit by splashing an ‘Obama Beach’ on the cover of its weekend edition.”

Will US Government Control the People?

CNN reported on June 5:

“In a speech introducing Michael Reagan — the son of former President Ronald Reagan — to an audience in Anchorage, Palin warned that the government is planning to ‘bail out debt ridden states’ so it can ‘get in there and control the people. Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars of new debt?’ Palin asked.”

Newsmax added on June 9:

“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says the U.S. under President Obama is headed toward socialism… The problem is excess spending, she says… Others accuse Obama of leading the nation to socialism too. Newsmax columnist Dick Morris writes in TheHill.com, ‘President Obama’s vision of the future is, apparently, an economy guided, steered and — when the occasion demands — commanded by the federal government.’”

Cheney More Controversial Still

The Los Angeles Times wrote on June 2:

“Former Vice President Dick Cheney waded into another roiling public debate Monday, saying he supports same-sex marriage as long as the issue is decided by states rather than the federal government. Cheney, whose youngest daughter has a longtime lesbian partner, said at the National Press Club that ‘people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish’…

“Cheney also defended the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite faulty intelligence about its nuclear weapons program and links to the Sept. 11 attacks. He asserted that Saddam Hussein could have helped terrorists acquire nuclear weapons. Once the U.S. invaded, it could find no evidence of an active Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

“On Monday, Cheney disavowed intelligence reports he once cited suggesting that Hussein had collaborated with Al Qaeda on Sept. 11. The information ‘turned out not to be true,’ Cheney said. He added that a long-standing relationship existed between Hussein and terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, that justified the U.S. invasion… On whether Hussein helped Al Qaeda carry out the 2001 terrorist attacks, Cheney said, ‘I do not believe, and I have never seen any evidence, that he was involved in 9/11.'”

While US Moves Left, Most of Europe Goes Right

The Associated Press reported on June 7:

“Europe leaned to the right Sunday as tens of millions of people voted in European Parliament elections, with conservative parties leading or favored in many countries amid a global economic crisis… right-leaning governments edging the opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere. Conservative opposition parties were tied or ahead in Britain, Spain and some smaller countries…

“In Germany, the conservatives of German Chancellor Angela Merkel were headed for a center-right majority and her center-left rivals faced a crushing defeat, exit polls showed, less than four months before a national vote.

“With most votes counted in Austria, the main rightist party gained strongly while the Social Democrats, the main party in the governing coalition, lost substantial ground. But the big winner in Austria was the rightist Freedom Party, which more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13 percent of the vote. It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform, with posters proclaiming ‘The Occident in Christian hands.’

“In the Netherlands, exit polls predicted Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic party would win more than 15 percent of the country’s votes… Exit polls in Bulgaria showed the governing Socialist-led coalition facing defeat and the country’s right-wing opposition party winning most of the votes…

“In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party has steadily held the lead in polls… Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Freedom People’s Party held a two-digit lead over his main center-left rival in the most recent polling despite a deep recession and a scandal over allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old model…”

Der Spiegel Online added on June 8:

“The June 4-7 European Parliament elections delivered a setback for the European left and gains for center-right and right-wing parties across the continent…

“In Denmark, the right-wing populist, anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DVP) led the election. The party increased its share of the vote from 6.8 percent in the last EU election to 15 percent… In Hungary, the conservative opposition won a landslide victory…

“In Ireland, the incumbent conservative Fianna Fail party of Prime Minister Brian Cowen won only 24 percent, a loss of about 6 percentage points, which means it is no longer the strongest Irish political force in Brussels. Opposition party Fine Gael managed 29 percent. Observers see the results as a condemnation of the Cowen government’s domestic policies; the financial crisis has hit Ireland hard. The head of the Libertas party, Declan Ganley, who wants to build momentum for a euroskeptic movement across the entire EU, won just over 5 percent, leaving Libertas in sixth place. The businessman has said he would end his campaign against the Lisbon Treaty if it were to fail at the polls. A referendum planned in Ireland for the fall to ratify the Lisbon Treaty now has a better chance of success…

“In Poland, the center-right incumbent parties have maintained their edge. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) earned around 45 percent…

“In Spain, the conservative People’s Party won over 42 percent of the vote, gaining 23 seats…

“In Sweden the opposition Social Democrats came first, with 25 percent of the vote, while Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s conservative Moderate Party (MS) earned about 19 percent. The Greens doubled their support to about 11 percent. But the Pirate Party won the most spectacular victory — by earning its first seat in Brussels with an 8 percent share of the vote. The Pirate Party wants more rights for Internet users and free flow of data on the Web. Support for the party rose in polls after a court verdict against the Internet data-swap site The Pirate Bay, which is based in Sweden. The four men in charge were sentenced to a €2.7 million fine and one year in jail for abetting data piracy.

“Among the election’s biggest losers was the Labour party in the United Kingdom, which saw its support drop from 19 seats in 2004 to 11 and won just 15.3 percent of the vote — its worst post-war election result. It finished in third place behind the Conservatives (24 seats) and the euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party (13 seats). The vote is seen as a damning verdict on Labour, whose leader Gordon Brown is under increasing pressure to resign as prime minister amid an ongoing expense account scandal in the House of Commons…The far-right British National Party won four seats — the first time Britain has elected right-wing extremists to the European Parliament.”

Europeans Speak Out Against Big Government and Stimulus Measures

Bloomberg wrote on June 7:

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy led pro-business parties in defeating socialists in European Parliament elections, lessening the pressure for more stimulus measures to fight the deepest recession since World War II.

“Amid signs the economic slump is bottoming out, the continent’s top two leaders escaped the drubbing in European Union-wide elections that was handed to U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and socialists in smaller countries including Spain, Austria, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovenia.

“Overall, the center-right group known as the European People’s Party remained the strongest in the Parliament… ‘It is a very sad night for Social Democrats in Europe, we’re very disappointed, we had hoped for better results,’ Martin Schulz of Germany, the socialists’ floor leader, said. ‘It’s a very bitter evening’…

“Merkel resisted President Barack Obama’s pleas for additional pump-priming measures, criticized the European Central Bank for buying assets, and was the first to reflect publicly on rolling back the stimulus.”

These sentiments were echoed in several German papers.

Mass circulation Bild wrote: “… the majority of people don’t want more government, more taxpayers’ billions for ailing companies in this crisis. That’s the message of the European election — especially to the SPD [the Social Democrats of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier].”

Left-wing Die Tageszeitung wrote: “In the middle of the crisis the Germans are placing their trust in parties that stand for neo-liberal ideas rather than parties that defend big government… The crisis makes people conservative…”

Depression Is Quietly Deepening…

The Telegraph wrote on June 8:

“The establishment Left had been crushed across most of Europe, just as it was in the early 1930s… I still fear that this depression is quietly deepening… we may lose three or four governments in Europe in coming days or weeks — or even worse, they may survive. The drama is unfolding… Half way through the depression, we are facing… exactly the sort of political disintegration that occurs in times of profound economic rupture.

“Remember, the dangerous phase in the Great Depression was Stage II, after the collapse of Austria’s Credit-Anstalt in mid-1931 set off a disastrous chain-reaction that Autumn (until then, most people thought they faced no more than a bad recession, like today).”

Europeans Beware!–Fines for Non-Voters?

Der Spiegel Online reported on June 9:

“Across the 27-member bloc, just 42.9 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots [in the European elections]. That marks the lowest turnout since direct voting began in 1979. In a number of Eastern European countries, the total was well below even that…

“German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble repeated an idea he has voiced before of allowing Europeans to have a direct vote for a European Union president. ‘If the campaign included a race for a person at the head of Europe, that would clearly generate attention across Europe,’ Schäuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, told the tabloid Bild on Tuesday…

“Germany’s SPD parliamentarian Jörn Thiessen has an idea of his own to confront the problem: Fine voters who don’t cast their ballots. ‘We politicians are required to vote in parliament,’ he told Bild. ‘One can require the same of voters in an election. Those who don’t cast their ballots should be fined €50…’

“Thiessen’s idea is not quite as outlandish as it may sound. Australia has enforced compulsory voting since 1924 and fines people between 20 and 70 Australian dollars should they provide no good reason for not having cast their ballots. Argentina is also a member of the elite, mandatory voting club.

“There are also a few European members in that club, including Luxembourg and Belgium. Their turnouts in the European elections: 91 percent and 90.4 percent, respectively.”

Rising Tensions Between USA and Israel

The New York Times wrote on June 8:

“Under mounting American pressure to define his intentions regarding peace efforts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Sunday that he would make a major policy speech next week mapping out the government’s ‘principles for achieving peace and security.’

“The announcement came against the background of rising tensions with the Obama administration, which has demanded that Israel freeze all settlement construction in the West Bank. The Netanyahu government insists that construction within existing settlements should continue.

“In another point of contention, Mr. Netanyahu has refused to endorse explicitly the notion of establishing an independent Palestinian state, a cornerstone of American and European policy on the Middle East…

“Ben Caspit, a columnist, wrote Sunday in the newspaper Maariv that Mr. Netanyahu, ‘who opted to squander his period of grace on meaningless “reassessment” meetings, is now going to have to be particularly creative if he wants to renew trust between the United States and Israel.’

“Israeli officials say they expect the Obama administration to respect understandings they say were reached — some written and some oral — with the Bush administration on building within existing settlements. The Obama administration has bluntly dismissed Israel’s argument. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that ‘there is no memorialization of any informal and oral agreements’ on construction in settlements. ‘If they did occur, which, of course, people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States government,’ she said.”

“Supreme Leader of Iran: Muslim Nations ‘Hate America'”

The Washington Post wrote on June 4:

“Iran’s supreme leader dismissed President Obama’s speech at Cairo University Thursday, saying the Muslim world continues to ‘hate America.’… Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that ‘beautiful speeches’ could not remove the hatred felt in the Muslim world against America… ‘People of the Middle East, the Muslim region and North Africa — people of these regions — hate America from the bottom of their heart,’ Khamenei said… He added, ‘Even if [Obama] delivers hundreds of speeches and talks very sweetly, there will not be a change in how the Islamic countries perceive the United States’…

“Khamenei also denounced Israel as a ‘cancerous tumor in the heart’ of the Islamic world, and he accused the U.S. military of ‘bombing innocent civilians’ in Afghanistan…

“Regarding Iran’s nuclear program, the main issue of contention between his country and the United States, Khamenei reiterated Tehran’s assertions that it seeks only to generate electricity, and he referred to a religious edict, or fatwa, that he issued at least four years ago in which he declared that the production, stockpiling or use of nuclear weapons was prohibited under Islam…

“Khamenei, who served as president of Iran for eight years in the 1980s, succeeded Khomeini as supreme leader in 1989, becoming the nation’s highest-ranking political and religious authority. As such, he is more powerful than President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and appoints many key leaders, including the commanders of the armed forces and members of national security councils dealing with defense and foreign affairs.”

Israeli Reactions to Obama’s Cairo Speech

IsraelNationalNews.com wrote on June 4:

“As the Israeli government convenes to discuss the ramifications of U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo, other Israeli politicians have lost no time in responding to it. Excerpts:

“MK Danny Danon (Likud): ‘The president has crossed all lines. His implied comparison between the Israeli government and the Nazi regime said everything. He has made a covenant with the Arab world and rewarded it for more than 60 years of aggression.’

“MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union): ‘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’… Regarding Obama’s praise of Islam, Eldad said, ‘Obama spoke more from his own heart and less from genuine understanding of the direction Islam is taking around the world. Whoever thinks that the establishment of a Palestinian state will stop the war in Darfur, India, Chechnya, and Europe will apparently soon learn that Israel is not willing to be the “pound of flesh” that he wants to throw to the Muslims.’

“MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) said: ‘The Zionist vision of the rebuilding of the Land of Israel is stronger than any president or government. We outlasted Pharaoh, and we will outlast Obama’…

“MK Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home): “The speech arouses fears and concerns regarding the future of American relations towards Israel. I fear an erosion of the traditional American commitment to Israel’s security needs and its very existence and independence…'”

The Source for Obama’s Cairo Speech

On June 8, Der Spiegel Online published an interview with Dalia Mogahed, a Muslim, born in Cairo, who advises Barack Obama on Muslim affairs as a member of the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. We are bringing you the following excerpts from her statements in the interview:

“I suggested three main themes. One is to continue building on the theme of mutual respect. My recommendation was to recognize that Islam has made and makes a positive contribution to civilization. The second major theme was that of cooperation and the idea of equal partnership. A third theme that I referred to was empathy: Even if we do not share their opinion, we should try to understand their point of view…

“I really felt very satisfied, because much of what we recommended made it into his speech. The president tried to heal a deep wound that Muslims have. But at the same time, he didn’t deny what America stands for. His tone and his respect exceeded the expectations of most Muslims. He got a standing ovation in Cairo. People were yelling out: We love you, Obama. Actually, it reminded me of Obama’s inauguration in Washington. It was the same excitement… From the minute he came on stage, I knew that it was an historic moment, especially because he began the speech by saying (the Arabic greeting) ‘assalaamu alaykum.’ I knew that it has never happened before — and perhaps it won’t happen again — that an American president addresses the people like this…

“We have carried out the largest, most comprehensive survey on Muslim opinions ever and that research and the conclusions from that research were conveyed and were taken into account in the formulation of the speech. All of my recommendations were based on the polls and studies at Gallup. It was in some ways a response to what people have said. The messages and the concepts in that speech were targeted towards what people think, rather than dictating to them what we want them to think. It was very much the beginning of a dialogue with Muslims around the world.”

Iranians Vote Friday for Their New President

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 11:

“Iranians go to the polls Friday to elect a new president after an unusually heated election campaign. But even if reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi beats the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will it make any difference to the country’s nuclear ambitions?

“If the Israeli Air Force were to bomb Iran, it’s a safe bet that the top-secret Iranian nuclear facility near Isfahan would be at the top of its list of targets… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hardline government are already believed to have decided to attack Iran. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Netanyahu plans to give the new US government’s efforts to achieve a negotiated solution until the end of the year to produce results. If they are unsuccessful, the paper writes, the Israelis will strike — even without Washington’s approval, if necessary.

“Mohammed ElBaradei, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has warned that such an attack could ignite a catastrophic conflagration throughout the Middle East. US expert David Albright believes that it will be virtually impossible to wipe out Iran’s nuclear program militarily. The Israelis would have to bomb Iran for weeks, and yet would still not have eliminated a large number of facilities, according to Albright. Instead, he says, such attacks would only achieve one thing: They would unite Iranians behind their leadership and convince them, once and for all, of the need to build the bomb.

“Officials in the West are clinging to the remote hope that Holocaust denier and Israel-hater Ahmadinejad will be voted out of office in Friday’s presidential election. Nevertheless, the differences among the four candidates running for president are minimal when it comes to the nuclear issue… The Iranian economy and the morality debate — not the nuclear conflict that threatens world peace — is at the center of the challengers’ campaign platforms…”

More Hostile North Korean Moves

The Washington Post reported on June 8:

“A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained in March along North Korea’s border with China, received harsher sentences than many outsiders had expected. But several experts in South Korea predicted that talks will begin soon to negotiate their release.

“The U.S. government said it was ‘deeply concerned.’ The five-day trial of Ling and Lee was held in Pyongyang’s Central Court, the top court in North Korea. Outside observers were not allowed. ‘The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing,’ the official Korean Central News Agency said… The ‘grave crime,’ however, was not explained…

“The detention and sentencing of the two journalists has coincided with — and become entangled in — a series of provocative acts by North Korea that this spring have angered its neighbors, its historical allies and much of the world. The heavily armed, secretive state — in the throes of a succession process, as the country’s ailing leader prepares to hand power over to his youngest son — launched a long-range missile in April, detonated a nuclear bomb in May and has renounced the truce that ended the Korean War.

“On Monday, North Korea warned fishermen and boat captains to stay away from the country’s east coast, Japan’s coast guard said. The North is planning to launch several medium-range missiles from the region, according to reports in the South Korean press.

“The U.S. government, which last year lifted some sanctions against North Korea and delivered large amounts of food aid, has become increasingly exasperated by the North’s behavior… Led by the United States and Japan, the U.N. Security Council is considering new sanctions against North Korea for exploding a nuclear device in defiance of a U.N. resolutions. If the sanctions are approved, North Korea threatened Monday that it would retaliate with ‘extreme’ measures…

“The long prison term given the journalists adds a new complication… Ling and Lee were working for Current TV, a cable and Web network co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, when they were detained March 17 by North Korean soldiers along the border with China… There are believed to be about 200,000 political prisoners in North Korean camps, where former inmates say conditions are often brutal, hunger is widespread and attempts to escape usually result in a public execution.”

Air France Flight AF 447 — Did Terrorists Do It?

Sky News reported in June 10:

“Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31. Flight AF 447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.

“While it is certain there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out. Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure)… were dispatched to Brazil. It was there that they established that two names on the passenger list are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic… There is a possibility the name similarities are simply a ‘macabre coincidence’, the source added, but the revelation is still being ‘taken very seriously’.

“France has received numerous threats from Islamic terrorist groups in recent months, especially since French troops were sent to fight in Afghanistan. Security chiefs have been particularly worried about airborne suicide attacks similar to the ones on the US on September 11, 2001.”

The Sun added on June 10:

“An Air France long-haul pilot claims it is ‘highly likely’ the Airbus 330 was blown up as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris… Four days before the crash, a flight from Buenos Aires to Paris was delayed by two hours because of a bomb threat. And a pilot claimed… the way debris was strewn over a vast area, pointed to a bomb.”

Swine Flu Has Become Global Pandemic

The Wall Street Journal wrote on June 11:

“The World Health Organization has told its member nations it is declaring an H1N1 flu pandemic — the first in 41 years. The move came Thursday as infections climbed in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere. In a statement sent to member countries, WHO says it decided to raise the pandemic alert level from phase 5 to 6, meaning that a global outbreak of H1N1 has begun… The pandemic declaration will require all countries, including the dozens that haven’t yet reported any cases, to launch pandemic-prevention plans…

“On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of H1N1, including 141 deaths. About half the world’s confirmed cases, or 13,217, are in the U.S., including 27 deaths… In Australia, the number of the new disease, also known as swine flu, has more than tripled in the past week, reaching 1,263 on Thursday.”

Pigs Cause Sickness

Reuters wrote on June 4:

“Global health officials underestimated the risk that pig herds might be a source of new influenza strains, choosing instead to focus on the threat of bird flu, researchers in Mexico said on Thursday. They analyzed samples from people infected with the new H1N1 swine flu virus, which has been confirmed in more than 19,000 people in 64 countries, killing about 120. U.S. health officials say this number reflects only a fraction of the true number of cases.

“‘This virus most likely evolved from recent swine viruses,’ Gerardo Nava of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the online journal Eurosurveillance. ‘These findings indicate that domestic pigs in North America may have a central role in the generation and maintenance of this virus.’

“The global pork industry has rushed to defend pig products, saying pig meat is no danger to people. But health experts have also noted there is very little surveillance done to track influenza among pigs — even though the virus is very common in the animals and just as transmissible as it is among people. Flu viruses have also been shown to pass from pigs to people and from people to pigs. ‘These observations also reiterate the potential risk of pig populations as the source of the next influenza virus pandemic,’ Nava and colleagues wrote.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses–Ongoing Religious Discrimination in Germany

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 10:

“Several German states are trying to prevent the Jehovah’s Witnesses from gaining the same official status as the main church faiths… Followers of the religion, close to 166,000 in Germany, believe the end is near for this world of sin. But they also believe that there are only 144,000 places available in heaven for a few chosen ones who proved to be particularly pious and true to the bible in life…

“For years, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been seeking to obtain legal recognition as a church from the German government so that they can enjoy the same rights and privileges as the Catholic and Protestant churches. They have already had success in the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Lower-Saxony. But the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg have resisted the church.

“In Rhineland-Palatinate, Governor Kurt Beck of the center-left Social Democrats is dreading a situation in which the group would get church tax revenues in his state or set up businesses in which trade unions aren’t given a say. In Germany, tithing for religions recognized by the government is handled by the state in the form of a church tax.

“A few weeks ago, Beck called on all [divisions] of his state government to ‘intensively seek out arguments’ that could help hinder any official recognition of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Beck said he had ‘the most considerable doubts as to whether it could be defined as a religious community that is in keeping with Germany’s constitution.’ After all, the intellectual leaders of the centrally organized group discourage members from voting or participating in elections…

“Marc Ratajczak, an expert on sects for the conservative Christian Democratic Union party’s group in the state government in North Rhine-Westphalia, argues that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are ‘very clearly a sect’ who ‘damn’ and ‘suppress’ any other religions or attitudes about life as ‘Satan’s work’…

“Three years ago, Berlin became the first German state to be forced to award the organisation official recognition as a church…The Witnesses filed separate applications for recognition in Germany’s 15 other states immediately after that. They were able to point to the Berlin court decision as a precedent that gives the other states very little legal leeway… Recently even the government in Catholic Bavaria quietly recognized the Jehovah’s Witnesses, as did Saxony and Hamburg. In Baden-Württemberg, Culture Minister Helmut Rau had drafted a government document recognizing the church before Governor Günther Oettinger of the CDU stopped it…

“The head of the CDU parliamentary group in the Baden-Württemberg regional parliament, Stefan Mappus, went further. ‘A religious community that rejects democratic elections, looks down on individual freedoms and rejects blood transfusions for example, can’t be regarded as loyal to the constitution in our opinion.’ Oettinger now plans to discuss the matter with the big churches.

“The Jehovah’s Witnesses have so far reacted calmly to such announcements. The legal situation is ‘unambiguous,’ says Gajus Glockentin, lawyer for the German Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters in the Hesse town of Selters… The Witnesses’ policy of abstaining from voting wasn’t an effective argument either, Glockentin says. After all, declining to vote isn’t aimed at weakening democracy, he argues. It’s simply the result of an ‘apolitical attitude to life.'”

Darwin’s Evolution Theory–a Blessing for Mankind?

Welt-On-Line wrote on June 9:

“The theory of evolution and its author are of a popularity that is rare in the world of science… At the same time, the theory implies a view of the world that remains both fascinating and controversial… That the existence of complex life forms can be explained without the agency of an omnipotent creator… is deeply disturbing for every religious person, and remains so today.
 
“But the absence of an intentional God is only the most striking side effect of Darwin’s theory… It is indeed a wonderful world that Darwin’s argument unfolds. Suddenly, the beauty of flowers is no longer God’s gift to mankind and proof of his benevolence, but a device aiming to attract those insects that support their cross-fertilization. In other words, the flower’s colorful blossoms are the stimulant of an odd, insect-based sexuality…

“In Darwin’s view, all beings belong to one family tree. Humans, animals and even plants all stemmed from one common ancestor, he speculated, and the recent advance of genetics has supported this hypothesis… It is thus that Darwin’s work questions the very core of Victorian culture – and ours…”

The hypothesis of Evolution is an unproven and improvable human fantasy–the idle attempt of agnostic or atheistic scientists and other would-be intellectuals to “prove” a creation without a Creator. For more information, please read our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution–a Fairy Tale for Adults?”

GM Files for Bankruptcy, Costing Taxpayers $100 Billion

The Wall Street Journal wrote on June 2:

“General Motors Corp. became the second-largest industrial bankruptcy in history Monday as it filed its landmark case… The government-orchestrated shrinkage will cost taxpayers $30 billion, on top of $20 billion in U.S. funds already put into the company. In exchange, the U.S. will own 60% of the new GM. In all, the rescue of the car industry could cost taxpayers close to $100 billion.”

GM Bankruptcy Plans Would Extinguish Certain Auto Accident Claims

The Hill wrote on June 3:

“Consumer groups and trial lawyers are crying foul over the Obama administration’s bankruptcy plans for General Motors and Chrysler. Those plans would extinguish all ongoing auto accident claims that blame a death or serious injury on a defective GM or Chrysler vehicle… those claims must be made against the old GM company after bankruptcy, meaning people with the claims will need to stand in line with other unsecured creditors to seek compensation from the old company’s remains… The new GM that arises out of bankruptcy will not be liable for those claims.”

German Reactions to GM Bankruptcy–“Not Much Hope” for Obama’s America

Der Spiegel Online reported on June 2:

“The insolvency of General Motors shows America’s weakening industrial clout and poses major risks not just for the economy but for Barack Obama, write German media commentators. If the planned restructuring of the automaker fails, his economic policy will lie in ruins, they say…

“German media commentators say GM’s insolvency marks further proof of American’s waning economic influence in the world, and they express concern that Obama’s administration, despite its assurances that it won’t interfere in GM’s business, will distort competition by running the firm according to political rather than market principles.

“Business daily Handelsblatt writes: ‘America’s economy is losing power and influence in the world. It’s a creeping process… which began with the relocation of textile production to Asia and then pushed steel producers, tire plants and many other industries out of the country… [It] has plunged the country’s political leaders into increasing despair. How else can one interpret the gigantic rescue operation for GM that will end in the nationalization of the biggest auto company in a country that has always hailed itself as the paragon of capitalism?…’

“Business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes: ‘The restructuring of the group will turn into a political drama. That creates considerable risks for the entire US economy, but also for international competitors operating in the American auto market. The restructuring of GM will be extremely expensive for the American taxpayer, $50 billion could disappear into a black hole…’

“Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘If Obama fails in his attempt to save America’s automobile industry, his economic policy will lie in ruins… In the nationalized General Motors, serious conflicts of interest are unavoidable…’

“Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: ‘The insolvency of General Motors is a historic moment for America. June 1 also marks the day on which Barack Obama rewrote the rules of American capitalism. It’s an alarming development. The government’s insistence that it’s a reluctant shareholder which will play a largely passive role in General Motors doesn’t seem very credible. That’s already clear from the list of principles it has compiled for its handling of future stakes in private companies. The government says it will give companies leeway but at the same time cited a number of cases in which it would intervene in corporate management.

“‘In fact Barack Obama has shown in the case of General Motors and Chrysler that he’s prepared to play a very active role. He dictated very unattractive debt reduction terms for creditors and then labelled them as speculators. Who is going to lend a government-owned company money in the future if they’re treated like that?… General Motors mustn’t become a pawn of American political forces. Barack Obama’s actions so far don’t inspire much hope.'”

U.S. Nationalizations of Companies and Industries

The Associated Press reported on June 2:

“The U.S. assumption of a controlling interest in General Motors Corp. isn’t the first time the government has nationalized a company or an industry. It has taken shares in banks, railways, steel mills, coal mines and foreclosed homes. Most nationalizations were during wartime. But the current financial crisis has generated more than a few.

“Last year, the government took effective control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It stopped short of nationalizing insurance giant American International Group, but forced a major restructuring and leadership change with a $180 billion taxpayer bailout.

“… nearly 600 banks nationwide have received a total of $199.2 billion under the government’s $700 billion bailout fund… In 2001, the airport security industry was nationalized under the Transportation Security Administration as a response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“Under terms of a proposed bankruptcy agreement, the U.S. and Canadian governments will own nearly 75 percent of General Motors, with the U.S. holding a 60 percent controlling stake and Canada with 12.5 percent… Existing stockholders would be wiped out…”

Unprecedented U.S. Debt

USA Today reported on May 29:

“Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises… That’s the biggest leap in the long-term burden on taxpayers since a Medicare prescription drug benefit was added in 2003.

“The latest increase raises federal obligations to a record $546,668 per household in 2008… That’s quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined… Bottom line: The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in 2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion.”

Chinese Laugh at Geithner

BBC News reported on June 1:

“US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner… is on his first official visit to China, the biggest foreign investor in US treasury bonds… he said the US and China must work together to fix the global economic system [and]… that the US would move swiftly to get its debt under control.

“In a speech at Beijing University… Mr Geithner reassured his Chinese hosts that they need not worry about the estimated $770bn (£475bn) they have invested in US treasuries… ‘Chinese financial assets are very safe,’ he said, drawing laughter from the audience…”

California Bankrupt

The Chronicle Sacramento Bureau reported on May 22:

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s finance officials, faced with a growing budget gap, Thursday unveiled more ways to cut spending by doing away with a popular health care program for children, welfare payments to poor families and grants to university students. Funding for state parks also could end up on the chopping block, the officials said.

“The cuts were proposed as additional ways to save money after the governor said he is reconsidering his plan to borrow $5.5 billion in short-term loans from Wall Street to close what he estimates will be a $21.3 billion deficit through June 2010…

“Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, an advocacy group, called Schwarzenegger’s additional spending cuts ‘insanity’… Wright said eliminating programs such as Healthy Families, which provides health care to nearly 1 million children of poor families, would also result in California turning away billions of dollars in federal matching funds…”

British Catholic Adoption Societies Under Fire

Mail-On-Line wrote on June 3:

“Catholic adoption societies which refuse to offer children to gay couples face closure following a tribunal yesterday. Judges ruled in a test case that the charities, which find homes for hundreds of children each year, will be breaking the law if they refuse to accept same-sex couples as adoptive parents.

“The ruling means some Catholic agencies face a choice between abandoning their adoption services or their religious principles… In its appeal, the Catholic Care charity… said that the right to discriminate against homosexual couples was ‘a principle of a Catholic organisation.'”

Merkel and Obama Not Close Friends…

Der Spiegel wrote on June 3:

“Barack Obama is only passing through Germany on his trip to Europe later this week and does not plan to hold substantial talks with Angela Merkel. The White House views the chancellor as difficult and Germany is increasingly being left out of the loop…

“Even before his inauguration, Merkel made clear that Obama shouldn’t expect much by way of additional military aid from Germany for his theaters of war. Now the US is largely taking care of the deployment of troops in Afghanistan itself, and it is currently dispatching 21,000 additional soldiers… Berlin has categorically rejected missions in the dangerous south, where many British, Canadian and American soldiers are dying.

“… all the major German parties in Berlin want little to do with Pakistan, currently the hottest front in the battle against terror… In America’s view, Germany is opening up its pocketbooks in an attempt to buy its way out of the responsibilities it should be sharing with other Western countries… Nor can Obama hope for much help from Merkel in closing the controversial Guantanamo prison camp… Germany’s interior minister… is so far refusing to accept Guantanamo prisoners in Germany…

“In the eyes of the Americans, though, Merkel’s worst failure was during the early days of the financial crisis… Washington has not forgotten how [Merkel] thwarted the US Treasury’s attempts to solve the crisis within the forum of the G-20. The Chancellery instead used diplomatic channels to push for a meeting of G-8 states. The thinking in Berlin was that Germany would have had more influence over G-8 decisions. And that would have meant that China, the world’s third largest economy and the US’s biggest creditor, would not have been involved. However, the US regarded Germany’s stance as unacceptable both economically and politically. In the end Berlin had to back down.”

Germans Rediscover Sense of Patriotism–With Limits…

Welt On Line wrote on May 18:

“As Germany celebrates 60 years as a democracy and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germans are rediscovering a sense of patriotism and are no longer ashamed to wave their flag and sing the national anthem. They are even daring to discuss bringing back a bravery medal, unthinkable a decade ago in a country which rejected militarism and turned fiercely pacifist. This year, after six decades atoning for the crimes of the Nazis, a non-aggressive self confidence, also evident in a more assertive foreign policy, is increasingly manifesting itself as Germany…

“The nation startled itself during the 2006 soccer World Cup tournament, when millions of people painted flags on their faces, wearing red, gold and black hats and chanting the national anthem. Younger generations seem to be particularly relaxed…

“However, there are limits to the newfound pride. While Germans feel close to the fatherland, they lack a sense of duty towards it… only 14 percent of Germans are prepared to die for their country, far fewer than in such countries as the United States and Britain. And while Germans want their politicians to be more assertive, they are still nervous about flexing military muscle.”

Merkel and Sarkozy Want Strong Europe

Der Spiegel Online wrote on June 1:

“The German and French leaders issued a joint plea to voters to turn out this week for the European parliamentary elections. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy said they wanted a ‘strong Europe’ in order to weather the difficult times… The two conservative leaders emphasized the role the EU can play in regulating the financial sector…

“The pair also gave strong backing to the Lisbon Treaty… ‘Europe must play a leading role in the world,’ they wrote. ‘For that, it must have efficient institutions.’ The treaty aims to streamline Europe’s institutions and decision-making processes and could be ratified later this year if Ireland supports it in a second referendum expected to be held in the autumn.

“The two leaders, both known opponents to Turkey’s membership of the bloc, reaffirmed that stance, albeit without naming the country…”

European Elections Under Way

On June 4, Deutsche Welle reported the following:

“Voters in Britain and the Netherlands are heading to the polls on Thursday to kick off elections for the European Parliament. In four days of voting, about 375 million people will [be] eligible to cast their ballots across the 27 member states in what will be the world’s second-largest election after India’s… There are concerns however in Brussels over voters tending to focus on the performances of their national governments rather than on European issues…

“In the case of Britain this is likely to mean that the ruling Labour Party will suffer a serious setback. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is struggling to assert his authority amid a scandal over MPs’ expense claims and Labour is expected to bear the brunt of public outrage. Brown himself is under mounting pressure to step down. Several government ministers have already resigned over the issue… public outrage over the expenses scandal is also expected to boost the performance of fringe and extremist parties due to protest votes. The anti-EU UK Independence Party is expected to do well and the far-right British National Party could win its first seat in the European Parliament.

“In the Netherlands, the far right Freedom Party under Geert Wilders is also expected to increase its support. There are 736 seats up for grabs and each of the 27 EU member states sends a different number of MEPs to the parliament in Strasbourg. Germany, with the biggest population, gets the most – 99 – while Malta will have just 5. Each country is to hold its own elections for the parliament and near-complete results won’t be known until late on Sunday when the last polling stations close.

“Voter turnout has dropped steadily since the first European elections in 1979 and opinion polls suggest that this year will follow that trend with a new record low despite the increasing importance of EU legislation for the member states… Today approximately 75 percent of European Union legislation is decided by the European Parliament together with the council of ministers.”

Israel Prepares for War

CNN wrote on May 31:

“Israel started its biggest emergency drill in the nation’s history Sunday to prepare civilians, soldiers and rescue crews for the possibility of war… The five-day drill… comes amid the nation’s rising tensions with Iran…

“The Israeli government considers Iran’s nuclear program as the dominant threat facing the country… An Israeli poll released this month found that 74 percent believe that the U.S. policy of engagement with Iran will fail and 81 percent think Iran will develop a nuclear weapon capability.”

Obama’s Approach Unproductive

The Financial Times wrote on June 1:

“From North Korea to Guantánamo Bay, from Iran to Afghanistan, Mr Obama is confronting a range of vexing issues that cannot be charmed out of existence…

“In particular, there is chatter in official Washington that the Israelis may be gearing up to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before the end of the year. The Obama administration is against any such move and it is normally assumed that Israel would not dare to pull the trigger without the go-ahead from Washington – not least because the Israelis would have to fly across US-controlled airspace to get to their targets. But the Americans do not have a complete veto over Israel’s actions. One senior US official asks rhetorically: ‘What are we going to do? Shoot down their planes?’

“A conflict between Israel and Iran would scatter the Obama administration’s carefully laid plans for Middle East peace to the winds. It would also make talk of improving American soft power around the world seem beside the point. The immediate task would be to prevent a wider regional war…

“Mr Obama’s preferred tools of diplomacy, engagement and charm do not seem to be of much use with Kim Jong-il of North Korea, either. The North Koreans have just tested a nuclear weapon – leaving the Obama administration scratching its head about what to do.”

Obama’s Muslim Roots

ABC reported on June 2:

“Given widespread unease and prejudice against Muslims among Americans, especially in the wake of 9/11, the Obama campaign was perhaps understandably very sensitive during the primaries and general election to downplay the candidate’s Muslim roots. The candidate was even offended when referred to by his initials ‘BHO,’ because he considered the use of his middle name, ‘Hussein,’ an attempt to frighten voters.

“… then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his campaign did everything they could to emphasize his Christianity and de-emphasize the fact that his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born Muslim. The candidate’s comment at a Boca Raton, Florida, town hall meeting on May 22, 2008, was typical: ‘My father was basically agnostic, as far as I can tell, and I didn’t know him,’ he said…

“Back then, [Obama’s] campaign’s ‘Fight the Smears’ website addressed the candidate’s faith without mentioning his father’s religion… Since the election, however, with the threat of the rumors at least somewhat abated, the White House has been increasingly forthcoming about the president’s roots. Especially when reaching out to the Muslim world. In his April 6 address to the Turkish Parliament, President Obama referenced how many ‘Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim majority country. I know, because I am one of them.'”

“Obama’s Unfinished Speech in Cairo”

Der Spiegel wrote on June 4:

“With his address, US President Barack Obama offered an olive branch to the Islamic world. Whether his speech will go down in history will be determined by the mullahs in Tehran and the hardliners in Israel…

“He offered the prospect of a Palestinian state. But will he be able to convince Israel to take that step? He called for a dialogue with Islamic youth. But can the recruiting successes of the Taliban be stopped? He called on Iran to abandon its efforts to produce a nuclear bomb. But will the ayatollahs in Tehran even listen?

“The historic magnitude of a speech isn’t primarily determined by what is said. What is important is what happens after, that the words have an effect… In the Arab world… [some] want to negotiate, others want to build bombs. Some understand Obama’s speech as a prelude to peace, the others see it as a declaration of war — because they realize this peace won’t be achieved in full accordance with the word of the Prophet Muhammad.

“Obama has defined his mission but not accomplished it. The speech must now be followed up by policy proposals and everything that goes along with them — promises, deals and threats. And one can only hope that the day never comes when human lives must be lost in order to execute those threats. The road to peace has already led, many times, to war.”

Reuters added on June 4:

“U.S. President Barack Obama sought a ‘new beginning’ between the United States and Muslims in a speech on Thursday but offered no new initiative to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, an omission likely to disappoint many.”

Excerpts from President Obama’s Speech

“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 am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims…

“It was Islam… 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…

“Islam has always been a part of America’s story… 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.’… 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 let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America…

“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 cannot be denied. 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 sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, 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… 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…

“Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel’s right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine’s. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop…

“Too many tears have flowed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.

“… No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America’s commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation – including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty…

“It is easier to start wars than to end them… We have the power to make the world we seek…

“The Holy Koran tells us, ‘O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’ The Talmud tells us: ‘The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.’ The Holy Bible tells us, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’ The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God’s vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God’s peace be upon you.”

North Korea’s Missile Test–“As Powerful as Hiroshima Bomb”

The Guardian wrote on May 25:

“North Korea today risked further international isolation after it claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The test comes less than two months after the North enraged the US and its allies by test firing a long-range ballistic missile…

“Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion… [It] created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5…

“Today’s test will add to fears that the North is moving closer to possessing the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on long-range missiles that are capable, in theory, of reaching Hawaii and Alaska…

“Today’s test is a direct challenge to attempts by Obama to engage the North and stem the spread of nuclear weapons. Despite promising a fresh start to bilateral relations, Obama… has so far failed to persuade North Korea to enter into negotiations.

“Kim Myong-chol, executive director of the Centre for Korean-American Peace in Tokyo… said the test was a reminder that North Korea ‘is going it alone as a nuclear power. North Korea doesn’t need any talks with America. America is tricky and undesirable… We are not going to worry about sanctions. If they sanction us, we will become more powerful. Sanctions never help America; they are counter-productive … We don’t care about America and what they say.'”

North Korea Fires More Short-Range Missiles

Reuters wrote on May 26:

“North Korea, defiant in the face of international condemnation of its latest nuclear test, fired two more short-range missiles off its east coast on Tuesday and accused the United States of plotting against its government. In a move certain to compound tensions in the region, South Korea said it would join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, something Pyongyang has warned it would consider a declaration of war… North Korea fired off three short-range missiles on Monday…

“The U.N. Security Council condemned the nuclear test [on Monday] and is working on a new resolution… But analysts say North Korea’s giant neighbor China, one of five permanent members of the Council, is unlikely to support anything tough.”

No Nuclear Freeze for Iran?

Reuters reported on May 25:

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday rejected a Western proposal for it to ‘freeze’ its nuclear work in return for no new sanctions and ruled out any talks with major powers on the issue. The comments by the conservative president, who is seeking re-election in a June 12 presidential vote, are likely to further disappoint the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, which is seeking to engage Iran diplomatically…

“‘Our talks (with major powers) will only be in the framework of cooperation for managing global issues and nothing else…’, Ahmadinejad said. ‘The nuclear issue is a finished issue for us,’ he told a news conference.”

Iran Prepares for War

Reuters reported on May 25:

“Iran has sent six warships to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to show its ability to confront any foreign threats… putting Israel and U.S. bases in the area within reach…

“Iranian waters stretch along the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the world’s traded oil is shipped, if it were attacked over its nuclear programme… Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal. Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007…

“On May 20, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had tested a missile that defence analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, a move likely to fuel concern about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.”

No Settlement Freeze in the West Bank

Reuters reported on May 24:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rebuffed U.S. calls to impose a freeze on all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, setting the stage for friction with President Barack Obama… The note of defiance came less than a week after Netanyahu held talks in Washington with Obama, who wants Israel to halt all settlement activity, including natural growth…

“Half a million Jews live in settlement blocs and smaller outposts built in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War. The World Court says all are illegal. The United States and European Union regard them as obstacles to peace. Palestinians see the settlements as a land grab meant to deny them a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

Russia vs. EU

BBC News reported on May 22:

“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned the European Union not to turn a proposed partnership with former Soviet countries against Moscow. Mr Medvedev was speaking at the end of a Russia-EU summit held against a background of deep divisions over security, trade and energy supplies…

“The BBC’s Richard Galpin in Moscow says divisions between Russia and the European Union seem to be growing ever wider, and this latest summit, held in the far east of Russia, made that abundantly clear, with little sign of progress on any significant topic… Moscow has accused the 27-member bloc of creating new dividing lines in Europe by offering closer ties to six former Soviet republics…

“On the divisive issue of energy supplies, President Medvedev raised questions about whether Ukraine can afford billions of dollars to top up its gas stocks… Russia supplies 42% of EU gas imports. Its decision to cut all gas to Ukraine – a vital transit country – meant that many EU member states also lost their supplies of gas for two weeks in January… European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned there should be no more disruptions to gas supplies from Russia.”

The Future of Europe?

On May 25, Der Spiegel Online published the following article:

“The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), spoke out against Turkish membership in the European Union on Tuesday, two weeks before EU parliamentary elections are to take place. ‘It is my deep belief that — politically, culturally, financially and geographically — it would be too much to have Turkey as a member of the European Union,’ Pöttering said… At best, he said, he could imagine a ‘privileged partnership’ on an economic, environmental and security policy level.

“With his statements, Pöttering underscored one of the central demands being made during the European election campaign in Germany by the Christian Democrats and their sister party in the state of Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Both parties are calling for a “consolidation phase’ in the European Union and for Turkey not to be given full membership… The position puts the CDU on a direct confrontation course with its coalition partners in the German government, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). For years, the SPD has pushed for full membership for Turkey in the EU…

“Pöttering… regretted that the EU ‘does not always have a united position in foreign and security policy… Pöttering also called on the EU to use all its strength to help promote a solution to the Middle East conflict. One of the major subjects for the EU, he said, is to promote peace on the basis of a two-state solution, ‘with Israel in safe borders and a state of Palestine in safe borders as well’…

“The CDU politician also warned against allowing the European Union to become overly dependent on Russia for its energy supplies… Russia should just be one of the sources used by the EU…

“Commenting on the Treaty of Lisbon, the successor to the failed EU constitution that still hasn’t been ratified by every member state, the 63-year-old said: ‘I am confident that the Lisbon Treaty will come into force.’ He said he believed the Irish would also approve the treaty in a second referendum. ‘Ireland has no interest in a two-speed Europe which excludes other countries,’ he said. ‘We are a Union to which all 27 countries belong.'”

Germany Unhappy with USA Over Opel and GM

Der Spiegel Online wrote on May 28:

“Despite an entire night of non-stop negotiations in Angela Merkel’s Chancellery, there is still no plan in place to save Opel from following GM into bankruptcy…

“The talks, as quickly became clear, had failed… and… the flash of anger was likewise unmistakable — anger at Germany’s negotiating partners from the US. Roland Koch, governor of the state of Hesse, which plays host to Opel headquarters, complained that the American role in the negotiations ‘was not exactly helpful’…

“With the US automobile giant General Motors facing imminent bankruptcy in the US, Berlin is doing what it can to prevent its German subsidiary Opel from going down with the ship… But on Wednesday night, General Motors made a surprise demand for an additional €300 million ($415 million), catching German negotiators off guard. To make matters worse, the US had only bothered to send a low level representative who frequently had to confer with his superiors in Washington…

“The issue has attracted massive attention in Germany, first and foremost because of the risk that thousands of jobs could be lost. Opel employs 25,000 people in Germany with many thousands more dependent on the company for their livelihoods. All of the potential investors currently courting Opel and Berlin have said that some job cuts would be unavoidable.

“And they wouldn’t just be in Germany. GM’s Europe division employs a further 25,000 people elsewhere in Europe… The sports car icon Porsche, for example, is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and may need public help. The ball-bearing giant Schaeffler and the retail conglomerate Arcandor, both large employers in Germany, are likewise far from healthy. And with the economic crisis still in full swing, there may be more to come…

“For now, though, the US has managed to succeed where Berlin’s political elite has failed for months: getting the CDU and SPD to agree. Both parties are unified in their excoriation of America’s role in Opel negotiations thus far…”

US Economy–“Further Disaster to Come”

Haaretz wrote on May 25:

“Many Americans have been led to believe that the worst of the financial crisis is over, but last week the U.S. economy was dealt another heavy blow that may signal further disaster is still to come.

“The Financial Post reported last Wednesday that ‘…the U.S. dollar slid against most major currencies… hitting a five-month low of US $1.3775 against the euro…’ The day after, Florida’s Bank United FSB was seized by Federal regulators in the largest U.S. bank failure so far this year.

“The sudden dollar decline and seizure of Bank United is a flashback to the U.S. economic turmoil of late 2008, and a brutal reality check for many who thought the worst was over…

“As investors become more willing to play stocks again, they are taking money out of the U.S. dollar because it is losing its status as a safe-haven currency. Ashraf Laidi, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, recently cautioned that we are at the start of a ‘serious case of dollar damage,’ adding that his organization ‘long warned about the day of reckoning for the dollar emerging at the next economic recovery.’

“Laidi’s prediction may not be too far off. Russia has ditched the dollar in favor of the euro, Pravda reported last week… Other nations are apparently following suit. The Financial Times quotes top Brazilian officials as saying that Brazil and China are also working toward ‘using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the U.S. dollar…’ This scenario, says economic commentator Peter Schiff, is ‘not only a possibility, it’s inevitable.'”

Obama: “We Are Out of Money Now”

The Drudge Report wrote the following on May 23:

“In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: ‘We are out of money.’

“C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

“SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

“OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits.. we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem…

“SCULLY: States like California in desperate financial situation, will you be forced to bail out the states?

“OBAMA: No. I think that what you’re seeing in states is that anytime you got a severe recession like this… their demands on services are higher. So, they are sending more money out. At the same time, they’re bringing less tax revenue in. And that’s a painful adjustment, what we’re going end up seeing is lot of states making very difficult choices there…”

Two More US Banks Closed

Press TV wrote on May 24:

“Two Illinois banks have been closed by regulators, bringing to 36 the total number of US bank failures so far this year. The closure of Citizens National Bank and Strategic Capital Bank is estimated to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) around $279 million… The Wall Street Journal study published on Tuesday found that more than 900 small and midsized US banks could face losses of $100 billion by the end of 2010 if the economy continues its fast freefall.”

Biggest Federal Tax Revenue Drop Since 1981

USA Today wrote on May 28:

“Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion… the biggest April drop since 1981… 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago… Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years.”

Obama Nominates Supreme Court Judge

“President Barack Obama on Tuesday moved to place his imprint on America’s judiciary by nominating Sonia Sotomayor as the next Supreme Court Justice – the first Hispanic and only the third woman to be put forward for America’s apex court… Republicans issued a guarded response to her nomination, suggesting the party has yet to decide on how hard to oppose her nomination. Any filibuster of Ms Sotomayor’s nomination would require total Republican unity to be sustained.

“’The party is deeply split on this issue between the ideologues and the pragmatists and it’s unclear yet which will prevail,’ said Frank Luntz, a leading Republican consultant. ‘The conservatives want to use her appointment to rally their base but there will be others who want to show they can cooperate with the President’…

“Wendy Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, a conservative group which monitors judicial appointments, described Ms Sotomayor as ‘liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written.’ Democrats have a big enough Senate majority to override Republican opposition but conservatives could make it a bruising process for the nominee…”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on May 26:

“A judge’s job, Mr. Obama said, is ‘to interpret, not make, law’… Conservatives have said Mr. Obama’s emphasis on a justice with ’empathy’ would ensure that his nominee would be an activist, seeking judgments that favor underdogs without deference to the facts and law…

“Ms. Sotomayor was nominated to the federal bench by a Republican, President George H.W. Bush, and later elevated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York by a Democrat, President Bill Clinton. Her experience, as a lawyer, a prosecutor, a trial judge and an appellate justice, would make her more experienced in the law than any other sitting justice, the president said.

“But it is her life story – and the presence of her aging mother – that choked up much of the audience in the East Room. Her parents arrived in New York from Puerto Rico during World War II and took up residence in a public housing project in the shadow of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Her father, a factory worker with a third-grade education and no knowledge of English, died when Ms. Sotomayor was 9. Her mother worked two jobs as a nurse to raise her family, bought the only set of encyclopedias in the neighborhood, and helped her daughter win a scholarship to Princeton University and her son, Juan, to become a physician…

“She also acknowledged that her life experiences influence her judicial philosophy, a plus, she said, but a potential negative to Republicans…”

The Washington Times wrote on May 27:

“With Judge Sonia Sotomayor already facing questions over her 60 percent reversal rate, the Supreme Court could dump another problem into her lap next month if, as many legal analysts predict, the court overturns one of her rulings upholding a race-based employment decision…

“In 2002, in a speech in California, Judge Sotomayor said race or sex does affect a judge’s rulings, and said because of that, a minority woman is a better decider than a white man: ‘I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.’

“Three years later, at a panel discussion at Duke Law School, she seemed to endorse judicial activism on the appeals courts, telling students considering clerkships: ‘Court of Appeals is where policy is made. And I know – I know this is on tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know.'”

On May 27, USA Today published its opinion on the matter. We are quoting the following excerpts:

“The tougher question, the one likely to define the political fight over her nomination, is the degree to which her ‘life experience’ as a 54-year-old Latina divorcée who grew up [as a Catholic] in the Bronx projects should shape her legal opinions… Republican critics — who hardly need provocation to be skeptical of any Obama nominee, particularly one likely to align with the court’s liberal wing — quickly insisted that the Senate assure itself that Sotomayor would not make rulings based on her ‘personal politics, feelings and preferences.’

“To some extent, the entire argument is overblown. People inevitably are the product of their experiences, and they can hardly shed their history and character at the courthouse door. That is why the court is enriched by having an eclectic mix of justices who can bring differing perspectives to bear on the case at hand — but always in the context of the Constitution and court precedent.

“Earlier this year, for example, the court was asked whether school officials should be allowed to strip-search students — in this case a humiliated young girl — to make sure they weren’t bringing drugs to school. After the male justices argued the case with a lack of sensitivity that bothered the court’s only female member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg [said]… that it was obvious her colleagues ‘have never been a 13-year-old girl.’

“If experience can help illuminate legal questions, however, relying too much on life lessons risks distorting the impartial justice the court is expected to mete out. Sotomayor has given critics much to work with…”

What Could Have Happened in California…

The Wall Street Journal wrote on May 25:

“… what might have been had Arnold Schwarzenegger immediately pushed for reform upon taking office in 2003… Mr. Schwarzenegger did offer a plan to revamp state government during his honeymoon phase in 2004. But his approach — the ‘California Performance Review,’ or CPR — was a metaphor for his political failure. It involved a 275-member task force that produced a 2,500-page proposal. That report, which offered upwards of $32 billion in savings, never caught anyone’s fancy. It was dead on arrival because it was too complicated for voters to rally behind and legislators didn’t want to see it enacted…

“Instead of reform, the man who promised to ‘blow up the boxes’ of government nearly six years ago embarked on a crusade to save the planet in an attempt to win re-election in 2006. If Arnold’s political obituary were to be written today its narrative would turn on environmental issues, such as solar roof panels, hydrogen cars and curbing emissions. Missing would be the issues that got him elected in the first place — tax cuts, fiscal discipline and restoring dignity to Sacramento…

“Last year was supposed to be, according to a declaration from the governor, ‘the year of education.’ Before that, we were in the year of health reform.’ In 2005, his theme was ‘the year of reform.’ None of these slogans translated into tangible changes — 2005 culminated in a special election in which all four of the governor’s proposals… failed spectacularly…

“Where is Mr. Schwarzenegger’s core? Is he the free-market, antitax candidate of the recall? The right-of-center union buster of the 2005 special election? The humbled, bipartisan eco-warrior of the 2006 re-election campaign? The tax-and-spend-and-cut Sacramento insider?… Today, Republicans running for governor in California go out of their way to point out where they differ with Mr. Schwarzenegger. Maybe Mr. Schwarzenegger will be able to mount another political comeback. In the meantime, he must wish life could imitate art, and like the Terminator he too could go back in time.”

Religious Persecution in San Diego

WorldNetDaily reported on May 22:

“A  San Diego pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a county official and warned they will face escalating fines if they continue to hold Bible studies in their home. The couple… told their attorney a county government employee knocked on their door on Good Friday, asking a litany of questions about their Tuesday night Bible studies, which are attended by approximately 15 people. ‘Do you have a regular weekly meeting in your home? Do you sing? Do you say “amen”?’ the official reportedly asked. ‘Do you say, “Praise the Lord”?’ The pastor’s wife answered yes.

“She says she was then told, however, that she must stop holding ‘religious assemblies’ until she and her husband obtain a Major Use Permit from the county, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top tens of thousands of dollars. And if they fail to pay for the MUP, the county official reportedly warned, the couple will be charged escalating fines beginning at $100, then $200, $500, $1000, ‘and then it will get ugly’…

“[Attorney] Dean Broyles… [who] has been retained to represent the couple, told WND the county’s action not only violates religious land-use laws but also assaults both the First Amendment’s freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. ‘The First Amendment, in part, reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,”‘ Broyles said. ‘And that’s the key part: “prohibiting the free exercise.” We believe this is a substantial government burden on the free exercise of religion.’

“He continued, ‘If one’s home is one’s castle, certainly you would think the free exercise of religion, of all places, could occur in the home.’ Broyles confirmed the county official followed through on his threat. The pastor and his wife received a written warning ordering the couple to ‘cease/stop religious assembly on parcel or obtain a major use permit.’

“‘The Western Center for Law and Policy is troubled by this draconian move to suppress home Bible studies,’ said the law center in a statement. ‘If the current trends in our nation continue, churches may be forced underground. If that happens, believers will once again be forced to meet in homes. If homes are already closed by the government to assembly and worship, where then will Christians meet?’

“On a personal note, Broyles added, ‘I’ve been leading Bible studies in my home for 13 years in San Diego County, and I personally believe that home fellowship Bible studies are the past and future of the church…

“Broyles also explained to WND that oppressive governments, such as communist China or Nazi Germany, worked to repress home fellowships, labeling them the ‘underground church’ or ‘subversive groups,’ legally compelling Christians to meet only in sanctioned, government-controlled ‘official’ churches. ‘Therein lies my concern,’ Broyles said. ‘If people can’t practice their religious beliefs in the privacy of their own homes with a few of their friends, that’s an egregious First Amendment violation’…

“Broyles said the WCLP is nearly ready to file a demand letter with the county to release the pastor and his wife from the requirement to obtain the expensive permit. If the county refuses, Broyles said, the WCLP will consider a lawsuit in federal court. Broyles also told WND the pastor and his wife are continuing to hold the Bible study in their home.”

Religious Persecution in France?

The Independent wrote on May 25:

“The Church of Scientology in France went on trial today on charges of organised fraud. Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France and has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult. The group’s Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in the case. If found guilty, they could be fined €5 million ($7 million) and ordered to halt their activities in France. Seven leading French Scientology members are also in the dock. Some are charged with illegally practising as pharmacists and face up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines…

“In a trial that has revived a debate about religious freedom in secular France, the defence is expected to argue the court should not intervene in religious affairs. Scientology has faced numerous setbacks in France, with members convicted of fraud in Lyon in 1997 and Marseille in 1999. In 2002, a court fined it for violating privacy laws and said it could be dissolved if involved in similar cases.”

We don’t want to give any misimpression that we agree with much of the teaching of Scientology. Nevertheless, the issue is whether Europe’s treatment of this clearly religious group is tantamount to religious persecution. Regarding their rather weird teaching, notice the following news clip from Press TV, dated May 25:

“According to Scientology teachings, 75 million years ago, an evil galactic overlord named Xenu collected all the billions of people from 76 planets, brought them to earth and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their spirits now infest our bodies.”

“American Idol” Contest–Israel “More Tolerant” Than America

Haaretz wrote on May 25:

“If it had been up to Israelis, ‘American Idol’ runner-up Adam Lambert would have won. Not because he’s Jewish. Because he can sing…

“I should state at the outset that [this] is not a column about music. This is, at heart, about deviance, and how societies respond to the deviants in their midst… Seldom has a singing contest been so clear-cut a case of no contest. In a final duet alongside eventual winner Kris Allen, Adam Lambert sang him off the stage. And no one knew that better than Kris Allen.

“So what was it about Lambert that moved tens of millions of Americans to make sure that he would not win? Some, at least, decided to take a stand. It was time to cast a vote against deviant behavior… ‘The battle of good versus evil, dark versus light, played out in the context of a culture war,’ wrote Danielle Berrin in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. ‘The nation’s conservatives changed the game by voting their conscience, not their common sense…’

“Which brings us to Israel… the mass-circulation Maariv newspaper published an extensive article detailing how ‘Over the past decade homosexuals have turned from an exotic detour… to the kings of prime-time’… Say what you will about Israel, this place has developed an exceptional tolerance for behavior traditionally deemed deviant. One of the judges on Kochav Nolad (A Star is Born), Israel’s version of American Idol, is Dana International, a post-op transsexual singing star whose unapologetic exuberance persuaded Israelis to choose her as their representative to the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, in which she took first place…

“A recent online poll commissioned by Channel 2 Television showed that 52 percent of all Israelis (and 76 percent of secular Israelis) favor civil marriage for gays; 51 percent of all Israelis back full equal rights for gays and lesbians; and 80 percent of all Israelis would be willing to be neighbors to gays and lesbians. The military in Israel has also shown more openness to gays than its American counterpart. As one observer noted, ‘The policy in the IDF is, “Don’t ask, and nobody cares.”‘

No New Same-Sex Marriages in California–for the Time Being…

The Associated Press reported on May 26:

“The California Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage Tuesday, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed. The 6-1 decision written by Chief Justice Ron George rejected an argument by gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution’s equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature’s approval. The court said the people have a right, through the ballot box, to change their constitution…

“The announcement of the decision set off an outcry among a sea of demonstrators who had gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling… Gay rights activists immediately promised to resume their fight, saying they would go back to voters as early as next year in a bid to repeal Proposition 8…

“The state Supreme Court had ruled last May that it was unconstitutional to deny gay couples the right to wed. Many same-sex couples had rushed to get married before the November vote on Proposition 8, fearing it could be passed. When it was, gay rights activists went back to the court arguing that the ban was improperly put to voters. That was the issue justices decided Tuesday.

“‘After comparing this initiative measure to the many other constitutional changes that have been reviewed and evaluated in numerous prior decisions of this court, we conclude Proposition 8 constitutes a constitutional amendment rather than a constitutional revision,’ the ruling said.”

Church of Scotland Appoints Gay Minister

CNN reported on May 24:

“A gay minister at the center of a row about his appointment to a church in a Scottish city said he was ‘humbled’ after the Church of Scotland upheld his appointment. In a ground-breaking move, the church’s ruling body voted by 326 to 267 in support of [the appointment]… provoked opposition from traditionalist members of the church and has led to fears it could cause a damaging split…

“Papers lodged with the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly in Edinburgh claimed scriptures in the Old and New Testament describe same-sex activity as a ‘wrong choice,’ the British Press Association said. However… supporters [of the appointment] argued that the Bible does not directly address homosexual relationships, which are now ‘essentially a feature of modern society.'”

Financial Scandal in Britain and its Potential Consequences

The Financial Times wrote on May 15:

“After a week of lurid revelations, only a few brave MPs are still ready to stand up and defend the way they worked the Westminster expenses system… The mood among most MPs was one of shock and fear: a fear that the public will turn on them as individuals and against democratic politics in general… Political leaders were initially slow to realise the destructive potential of the leaked expenses data, first trying to blame the system and the Commons officials that authorised claims rather than MPs themselves…

“Nobody knows quite where the dust will settle… Labour, the party in power with the most sitting MPs, could suffer most… The June 4 local and euro-elections may give a taste of what the voters make of it all, if they can be bothered. All the signs are that many people are giving up on politics altogether.”

Reuters reported on May 18:

“The Sun said a general election due by the middle of next year should be held immediately after days of disclosures about MPs’ questionable and sometimes lavish expenses brought British politics into disrepute. ‘Voters have had enough of this Government, enough of greedy MPs, enough of a Commons Speaker who has turned the Mother of Parliaments into the mother of all shyster politicians,’ it said in an editorial headlined ‘Give Britain an election … now.’

“Prime Minister Gordon Brown is certain to resist calls for an election, with his Labour Party trailing the Conservatives in polls and the economy in its worst recession since World War Two… The support for parties beyond the main three had jumped nine points from the previous month, adding to speculation that fringe groups like the Greens, the anti-European Union UK Independence Party and far-right British National Party (BNP) will show big gains in European and local elections on June 4…

“The Daily Telegraph has got hold of a disc containing details of expense claims and has been publishing damaging reports of claims for moat cleaning, an adult film and dog food, as well as for mortgages that have been paid off. The image of all parties has suffered, but Labour has been worst hit because it has been in power for the last 12 years and was already on the ropes over the economic crisis. Labour has suspended two MPs and one of its junior ministers has stepped down pending an investigation into his finances.”

The Financial Times wrote on May 19:

“Michael Martin said on Tuesday he would resign as Commons Speaker after losing the confidence of many MPs and party leaders over his handling of the Westminster expenses furore… His announcement that he would step down on June 21 makes Mr Martin the first Speaker of the House to be publicly forced to resign since John Trevor was forced out in 1695 after being caught accepting a bribe.”

The New York Times added on May 19:

“In a terse statement, he told parliament he would step down on June 21, enabling parliament to elect a successor on June 22. He was the highest-ranking public figure to fall victim to the expenses affair. Political commentators depicted his announcement as a sign that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had caved to pressure, further damaging his political fortunes. The British leader is battling disastrous poll ratings in advance of elections that must be held within a year.

“For some, Mr. Martin was a scapegoat for the squirming embarrassment of legislators of all major political parties caught in a cascade of disclosures in The Daily Telegraph newspaper about their spending… But for others he was held responsible for blocking disclosures of financial abuse and for stonewalling reforms…

“The disclosures incensed many Britons, caught in a deep recession and angry at what they have seen as examples of their elected representatives exploiting their privileged positions to secure unwarranted financial support.

“Facing a possible no-confidence vote, Mr. Martin announced his decision Tuesday to a house he has presided over as speaker since 2000.”

Obama and Netanyahu Meet

The Associated Press reported on May 18:

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he is ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately, but any agreement is contingent on their acceptance of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Netanyahu and President Barack Obama met for more than two hours at the White House and focused on Mideast peace talks, Iran’s nuclear program and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
 
“Obama said he expects a positive response from his diplomatic outreach to Iran on stopping its nuclear program by the end of the year. The president said the United States wanted to bring Iran into the world community, but declared ‘we’re not going to have talks forever.’

“At the same time, Obama said bluntly that it was important that Netanyahu, a hard-liner on peace negotiations with the Palestinians, get back to the negotiating table. While his language was gentle, Obama’s words were notable nonetheless for being made in public.”

Haaretz.com wrote the following on May 18:

“Their meeting proceeded according to expectations. The president displayed reserved friendship, covering over the deep differences between the two leaders’ positions. As expected, Netanyahu described the meeting as ‘very good and friendly,’ while Obama praised the prime minister publicly for his political skills and awareness of history, saying he believed Netanyahu would make ‘strategic decisions for Israel’s security’ during his term.

“What about content? The meeting focused on Iran, the Palestinians and the link between them. Netanyahu said they reached complete understanding on the goal regarding Iran – ‘to prevent Iran from developing a military nuclear capability.’ Obama promised him that if the diplomatic effort fails to get results by the end of the year, the U.S. will reevaluate the situation and perhaps impose tougher sanctions. He also said that all options are on the table… Netanyahu said he hopes ‘Obama will succeed’ in his talks with Iran, but this is a diplomatic phrase. It is doubtful that he believes the Iranians will suddenly become nice and give up their nuclear program just because Obama talks with them.

“In practice, this means that Netanyahu agreed to give Obama until the end of the year. Then, if Iran’s nuclear program is still proceeding, Israel will consider ‘other options’…

“The differences on the Palestinian issue remain. Obama wants a Palestinian state, Netanyahu refuses to say ‘two states.’ He prefers to speak about how to prevent the Palestinians from establishing a second Gaza in the West Bank, requiring them to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and security arrangements. Obama said the settlements must stop, Netanyahu replied by demanding Palestinian ‘reciprocity.’

“Obama intends to launch a new American peace plan in his speech in Cairo on June 4. It will no doubt contain all the elements Netanyahu is uncomfortable with – two states, halting settlement construction and removing outposts.”

The Los Angeles Times added on May 18:

“Netanyahu said he was ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately but he also said any agreement depended on their acceptance of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. It was not immediately clear in the way he phrased the response whether Netanyahu was demanding that as a precondition for talks…

“The Israeli leader did not respond publicly to Obama’s demand on an end to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and refused again to say he was ready to negotiate a so-called two-state solution to the nearly 60-year dispute with the Palestinians. The plan, endorsed by the United States and other parties pushing for peace between the historic foes, calls for establishment of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel.”

“Persisting Rift between USA, Europe and Israel”

Deutsche Welle wrote on May 19:

“Benjamin Netanyahu’s first visit to the Oval Office did not bring about the easing of tensions that the international community had hoped for. The Israeli prime minister did not endorse a two state solution while in Israel itself, a new settlement in the West Bank is on the agenda. On both of those issues US President Barack Obama had hoped to sway the Israeli leader towards compromise…

“The two leaders tried to paper over their differences but it was obvious that there was considerably less agreement than Washington had hoped for… The persisting rift in US-Israeli relations comes as a disappointment to many in the international community. European leaders had hoped that the hard-line stance of the new Israeli government might be softened somewhat by pressure from Washington…

“Europe’s own first experience with Israel’s new leadership had been somewhat sobering. Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured the EU to a much disillusioning effect. The ultranationalist Lieberman has rejected the idea of a Palestinian state and has announced that Israel was no longer bound by the so-called Annapolis peace process which formed the basis of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in 2008… The EU’s external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner warned last month that a planned upgrade of bilateral relations between Israel and the EU could not come about until the government in Tel Aviv commits to the peace talks with the Palestinians.”

Welt-On-Line added on May 19:

“The two leaders tried to paper over their differences but the divisions were hard to ignore between Israel and its superpower ally… After two hours of talks, Obama offered no new remedies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has defied efforts by successive U.S. administrations. He has yet to formulate a detailed Middle East strategy… With Israeli leaders mostly skeptical of Obama’s efforts to engage Iran diplomatically, Netanyahu stressed Israel’s concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program. Israel… has not ruled out military strikes against Iran if diplomacy fails…

“If Netanyahu remains resistant to talks with the Palestinians on tough issues such as borders and settlements, it could cause friction in U.S.-Israeli relations… Netanyahu can ill afford the perception at home that he is alienating Israel’s chief ally. Neither can he be seen giving up too much if he wants to keep the right-wing core of his coalition intact.”

Further Reactions to Obama-Netanyahu Meeting

On May 19, Haaretz.com stated:

“An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heaped praise Monday on U.S. President Barack Obama for his ‘encouraging’ commitment to a two-state solution… while lambasting Netanyahu for his ‘disappointing’ remarks… Israeli opposition lawmakers also weighed in with criticism of Netanyahu, calling the meeting a waste of time [and ‘pointless’] and accusing the prime minister of ‘unintelligible chatter’…

“A politician on the right of the political spectrum, however, said that the meeting proved Obama was not committed to Israel’s security in the face of the threat from a nuclear Iran. ‘There is room for real concern since the U.S. is shirking its historical obligation to guarantee Israel’s safety,’ said MK Aryeh Eldad of the National Union party. ‘The U.S. is saying, in effect, that it is willing to accept a nuclear Iran, and Israel remains alone in the face of Iran. Israel will have no choice but to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities alone, using any means available, may the price be what it may’…

“Outside the White House, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters drew most of the police attention even though they were far outnumbered by protesters for other causes. A human divider of police officers separated protesters holding Palestinian flags and signs condemning Israel’s roadblocks in the Palestinian territories, and others holding signs comparing Obama and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler in 1939 and urging Obama to prevent the ‘Islamic takeover of the Holy Land.'”

The Jerusalem Post wrote on May 19:

“Hamas reacted with pessimism on Tuesday to the meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama, saying that while the comments made by the two leaders professed hope, they were really just meant to deceive the world.”

Iran Defies USA

The Wall Street Journal wrote on May 21: “Iran Tests Missile, Launching Pre-Election Show of Defiance.”

The article continued:

“Iran test fired what it said was its most advanced surface-to-surface missile, days after President Barack Obama laid out a rough timeline for assessing progress in diplomacy with Tehran and weeks ahead of Iranian presidential elections… Iran said the Sajjil-2 had a range of 2,000 kilometers, or about 1,200 miles. That would make it capable of reaching Israel and the Black Sea coast of European Union members Romania and Bulgaria… Iranians remain fiercely proud of their country’s technological prowess, especially amid United Nations and U.S. sanctions on the country.”

President Obama’s Unacceptable Speech at University of Notre Dame

On Sunday, May 17, President Obama gave his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame. Even though the Catholic University’s invitation to Mr. Obama and its decision to confer on him an honorary degree sparked protests by antiabortion advocates, most in attendance–reportedly overwhelmingly nominal, but not practicing Catholics–welcomed him warmly and gave him a standing ovation. The invitation to Mr. Obama amplified longstanding tensions between Catholic Church teachings — which see abortion as murder — and perceived academic freedom.

Mr. Obama spoke much about common ground, imploring all sides on the issue to “work together.” But how can this be done, if abortion is evil and the protection of life is good?–as the Bible clearly puts it. You might want to read Paul’s clear statements in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. It is interesting that in his speech, Mr. Obama operated from the backward premise that abortion was NOT WRONG, but he then pleaded for compassion and help for those mothers who would not want to have an abortion.

Also, since the Bible teaches that it is wrong to kill life for the purpose of allegedly saving the life of another, Mr. Obama’s argument in his speech that stem cell research (which involves the killing of human life) should be allowed to make it easier for children who suffer from juvenile diabetes, is simply unacceptable (In addition, there is really no current scientific data supporting the notion that stem cell research will in any way help cure Type 1 Diabetes).

Even though President Obama was correct that we must not demonize or reduce to caricature those who hold different opinions, this polemic political statement did not in any way get to the crux of the matter–whether according to GOD’S WORD–the BIBLE–abortion and stem cell research and other related issues are wrong or right. If they are wrong, then there CANNOT BE common ground with the concept that they ALSO may be right.

We are quoting the following excerpts from Mr. Obama’s speech, which he delivered at the University, addressing abortion and other related issues (as published by the Wall Street Journal on May 17):

“The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts. Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son’s or daughter’s hardships can be relieved.

“The question, then, is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side? Nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion…

“Because when we do that — when we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do — that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground. That’s when we begin to say, ‘Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions. So let’s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.’

“Understand — I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. No matter how much we may want to fudge it — indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory — the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature…”

Notre Dame’s Hypocritical Course of Action

The Wall Street Journal wrote on May 19:

“It was precisely the message President Obama wanted to send: How bad can he be on abortion if Notre Dame is willing to honor him? We cannot blame the president for this one. During his campaign for president, Mr. Obama spoke honestly about the aggressive pro-choice agenda he intended to pursue… and his actions have been consistent with that pledge. If only our nation’s premier Catholic university were as forthright in advancing its principles as Mr. Obama has been for his.

“In a letter to Notre Dame’s Class of 2009, the university’s president… John Jenkins, stated that the honors for Mr. Obama do not indicate any ‘ambiguity’ about Notre Dame’s commitment to Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life. The reality is that it was this ambiguity that the White House was counting on; this ambiguity that was furthered by the adoring reaction to Mr. Obama’s visit; and this ambiguity that disheartens those working for an America that respects the dignity of life inside the womb…

“Pro-lifers are used to this. They know their stand makes them unglamorous. They find themselves a stumbling block to Democratic progressives — and unwelcome at the Republican country club… At Notre Dame today, there is no pro-life organization — in size, in funding, in prestige — that compares with the many centers, institutes and so forth dedicated to other important issues ranging from peace and justice to protecting the environment. Perhaps this explains why a number of pro-life professors tell me they must not be quoted by name, lest they face career retaliation…”

President Obama’s Flip-Flops–and Pelosi Under Fire

The Financial Times wrote on May 15:

“President Barack Obama on Friday announced that he would use military commissions to try some of the 240 prisoners detained at Guantánamo Bay, angering civil rights groups for the second time in a week…

“Human rights groups that had welcomed Mr Obama’s campaign stance on the commissions and his January decision to close Guantánamo criticised the move. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which has filed legal cases on behalf of hundreds of detainees, said it was an ‘alarming development’. ‘President Obama was elected to restore the rule of law, not continue to reinvent it,’ the CCR said. ‘It will substantiate our allies’ ongoing loss of faith in the commitment of the United States to the rule of law, and undermine their willingness to help the Obama administration close Guantánamo.’

“Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, criticised Mr Obama for ‘backtracking dangerously on his reform agenda’, saying the commissions were ‘flawed beyond repair’. ‘There is no good reason why the Guantánamo cases shouldn’t be tried in federal court,’ said Mr Roth. ‘In the more than seven years since the military commissions were announced, only three suspects have been prosecuted. The federal courts, by contrast, have tried more than 145 terrorism cases during the same period.’

“Mr Obama was condemned by civil rights advocates earlier this week when he reversed his previous decision to release hundreds of photos of US soldiers abusing detainees at detention facilities other than Abu Ghraib, the notorious Baghdad prison…

“Separately, the Central Intelligence Agency on Friday hit back at claims by Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, that the spy agency lied to Congress during 2002 briefings about the use of harsh interrogation techniques. ‘There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business. It predates my service with this great institution, and it will be around long after I’m gone,’ said Leon Panetta, CIA director. ‘But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday [Thursday] when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress.’

“Mr Panetta said CIA records showed that its officers had accurately informed members of Congress in the 2002 briefing about the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’ ‘Our contemporaneous records from September 2002 indicate that CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing “the enhanced techniques that had been employed.” Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened,’ said Mr Panetta.”

The publication, “Political Intelligence,” reported on May 18:

“The CNN/Opinion Research Corp.survey released this afternoon found that the approval of how Pelosi is doing her job as speaker has dropped from 51 percent in January to 46 percent in March to 39 percent now…”

California’s Financial Nightmare

The Los Angeles Times wrote on May 20:

“Democratic leaders say everything’s on the table as they begin studying deep, painful cuts… to close an anticipated $21.3-billion budget gap… Chastened by voters’ angry roar, the architects of California’s special election pledged today to move quickly to solve the latest state budget crisis…

“There was a rare bit of good news: …the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the state remains eligible to receive another $8 billion in stimulus money for its Medicaid program… That still leaves a huge hole in the state budget, however, and Democratic leaders in Sacramento acknowledged that closing the deficit will result in painful cuts to even some of their most cherished programs… They also said yet another push for tax or fee hikes remains an option, despite staunch opposition from Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers…

“Reflecting the economic slide since the governor first laid out his spending plans earlier this year, Schwarzenegger announced plans to lay off 5,000 of the state’s 235,000 workers and proposed slashing education by up to $5 billion, selling state properties, borrowing $2 billion from local governments and potentially reducing eligibility for healthcare programs. Worst-case scenarios also call for the release from state prisons of up to 19,000 illegal immigrants, who would face deportation, and the transfer of up to 23,000 other prisoners to county jails.

“The governor also wants to borrow up to $6 billion, but awaits word on whether Washington would guarantee those loans. The White House has never done so for the state, but is considering the action as Wall Street expresses concern that California could become a deadbeat borrower.”

Earthquake in Los Angeles

The Associated Press reported on May 18:

“A magnitude-4.7 earthquake [according to other reports, the magnitude was between 4.8 and 5.0] rattled the Los Angeles area Sunday night… and experts say stronger quakes are on the way.

“The initial quake, which the U.S. Geological Society reported earlier as magnitude-5.0, struck at 8:39 p.m. Its epicenter was about one mile east of Lennox… The rumbling lasted about 10 to 15 seconds. Shaking was felt throughout the Los Angeles area and as far south as North County. NBCLA.com visitors reported feeling the jolt in Burbank, Pomona, San Bernardino and other areas [It was also felt in San Diego and surrounding areas.]…

“It was the strongest quake to strike the Southland since a magnitude-5.5 earthquake hit in Chino Hills last July…

“Officials at Los Angeles International Airport, which is near the epicenter, released a statement saying, ‘Operations are normal and there are no flight delays following preliminary inspections of terminals, the airfield, Sepulveda Tunnel and other areas of the LAX Central Terminal Area’…

“Earlier this year, scientists kept close watch on an earthquake swarm near the southern end of the San Andreas Fault that shook the desert…”

Mandatory Chemo Therapy of 13-Year-Old Boy Against Parents’ Objections?

The Associated Press reported on May 15:

“A Minnesota judge ruled Friday that a 13-year-old cancer patient must be evaluated by a doctor to determine if the boy [Daniel] would benefit from restarting chemotherapy over his parents’ objections. [The] District Judge… found that [Daniel] has been ‘medically neglected’ by his parents… and was in need of child protection services [and] if chemotherapy is ordered and the family still refuses, [Daniel] will be [taken away from the parents and] placed in temporary custody…

“It was unclear how the medicine would be administered if the boy fights it…

“Daniel’s court-appointed attorney, Philip Elbert, called the decision unfortunate. ‘I feel it’s a blow to families,’ he said. ‘It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children’s medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us’…

“Daniel was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and stopped chemotherapy in February after a single treatment. He and his parents opted instead for ‘alternative medicines’ based on their religious beliefs. Child protection workers accused Daniel’s parents of medical neglect; but in court, his mother insisted the boy wouldn’t submit to chemotherapy for religious reasons and she said she wouldn’t comply if the court orders it.

“Doctors have said Daniel’s cancer had up to a 90 percent chance of being cured with chemotherapy and radiation. Without those treatments, doctors said his chances of survival are 5 percent. Daniel’s parents have been supporting what they say is their son’s decision to treat the disease with nutritional supplements and other alternative treatments favored by the Nemenhah Band. The Missouri-based religious group believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians…

“Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist said Daniel’s tumor shrunk after the first chemotherapy session, but X-rays show it has grown since he stopped the chemotherapy… [The mother] told the New Ulm Journal newspaper that the family’s Catholicism and adherence to the Nemenhah Band are not in conflict, and that she has used natural remedies to treat illness.”

The Associated Press reported on May 21 about the bizarre twist of events in this case:

“A new arrest warrant was issued Thursday as the search continued for the Minnesota mother who fled with her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son to avoid chemotherapy treatments… the new warrant for the mother is for deprivation of parental rights. An earlier arrest warrant was based on a contempt of court charge. Brown County Attorney James Olson said the parental rights are those of Brown County family services, which has been granted custody of Daniel to get him to a pediatric oncologist…

“James Olson… originally asked the judge to cite the father [Anthony Hauser] for contempt of court, but later backed off and said he believed Hauser didn’t know where his wife and son had gone. An alert issued to police departments around the country said mother and son might be traveling with a California lawyer…”

France’s First Lady Criticizes the Pope

The Telegraph wrote on May 18:

“France’s First Lady… departed from her post’s traditional religious neutrality to accuse the Pope of ‘damaging’ countries like Africa with his stance on birth control. The Italian-born former supermodel risked angering believers in France and beyond by declaring that the Pontiff’s proclamations showed that the Church needed to ‘evolve’…

“Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said: ‘I was born Catholic, I was baptised, but in my life I feel profoundly secular. I find that the controversy coming from the Pope’s message – albeit distorted by the media – is very damaging…’

“The comments will cause Mr Sarkozy embarrassment in a country where, despite the separation of Church and State, a majority of the population was born Catholic. André Roux, a constitutional historian said: ‘It’s unprecedented for a first lady to criticise the Pope. Charles de Gaulle’s wife was very Catholic and would never had taken up position, remaining very discreet. The same was true of Bernadette Chirac, who never gave her opinion on religion or international affairs. Even Danielle Mitterrand, the wife of François Mitterrand who was not a believer and aired her political views, never attacked the Pope…’

“After becoming Mr Sarkozy’s third wife last year Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy has campaigned against the spread of Aids in Africa. The Pope’s stance against the use of contraceptives in Africa was roundly criticised in France – including by many Catholics. Some 43 per cent of them wanted the Pontiff to step down, according to one poll.”

“Catholic Church Shamed by Irish Abuse Report”

The Associated Press reported on May 21:

“After a nine-year investigation, a commission published a damning report Wednesday on decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools for Ireland’s castaway children. The 2,600-page report painted the most detailed and damning portrait yet of church-administered abuse in a country grown weary of revelations about child molestation by priests.

“The investigation of the tax-supported schools uncovered previously secret Vatican records that demonstrated church knowledge of pedophiles in their ranks all the way back to the 1930s. Wednesday’s five-volume report on the probe — which was resisted by Catholic religious orders — concluded that church officials shielded their orders’ pedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy…

“Ireland’s myriad religious orders, much like their mother church, have been devastated by 15 years of scandals involving past cover-ups of abusers in their ranks… A government-appointed panel has paid 12,000 survivors of the schools, orphanages and other church-run residences an average of $90,000 each — on condition they surrender their right to sue either the church or state. About 2,000 more claims are pending. Irish Catholic leaders cut a controversial deal with the government in 2001 that capped the church’s contribution at $175 million — a fraction of the final cost.”

Germany in Worst Post-War Recession

Bild Online wrote on May 19:

“The German economy is in its worst post-war recession… Gross domestic product (GDP) has crashed 3.8 per cent since the start of the year and 6.7 per cent since the beginning of 2008, with economic growth decreasing in every quarter. The decline from January to March is by far the biggest since 1970… Germany is considered as one of the strongest countries in the world in terms of exports – but investment has also declined compared with the last quarter…

“Economists are shocked – even the experts predicted a decline of just 3.2 percent… Jürgen Michels, the chief economist at Citigroup, said: ‘It is a dramatic crash and a poor start to the year. It can only get a little bit worse, but not much better. Whether the economy will grow this year is questionable.’”

Spread of Swine Flu on the Rise…

Reuters reported on May 18:

“The new influenza strain circulating around most of the United States is putting a worrying number of young adults and children into the hospital and hitting more schools than usual… The H1N1 swine flu virus killed a vice principal at a New York City school over the weekend and has spread to 48 states…

“‘We are now experiencing levels of influenza-like illness that are higher than usual for this time of year,’ [Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] added. ‘We are also seeing outbreaks in schools, which is extremely unusual for this time of year’…

“About half of all cases of influenza are being diagnosed as the new H1N1 strain, while the rest are influenza B, or the seasonal H1N1 and H3N2 strains. Flu season in the United States is usually almost over by May. CDC officials say around 100,000 people are likely infected with the new flu strain in the United States…

“Influenza is a factor in 36,000 deaths a year in the United States and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths globally, the CDC says.”

Swine Flu Created by Scientists in Lab?

Bild Online wrote on May 19:

“The deadly swine flu virus was created by scientists in a lab, according to a shock claim from one expert. Adrian Gibbs (75) believes the disease… may have been made accidentally in laboratories where vaccines were being developed.

“The Australian virologist was one of the first to analyse the genetic construction of the swine flu virus, and he was part of the team which developed anti-flu vaccines Tamiflu and Relenza. Gibbs has no concrete evidence, but he believes that scientists accidentally created the H1N1 virus while trying to create flu vaccines: ‘It is the simplest explanation.’

“He has not ruled out other possible explanations, but has handed over his research to state health organisations where it is being checked out by experts. But Nancy Cox, head of the Influenca Division in South America and Africa, believes swine flu probably originated in areas where it was was first discovered: ‘There is no proof that the virus comes from a lab.'”

Not Again–Scientists Believe “Missing Link” Between Man and Apes Found!

The Wall Street Journal reported on May 15 about the preposterous claims by scientists that they might have found the missing link between apes and men. The paper wrote:

“In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans. Anthropologists have long believed that humans evolved from ancient ape-like ancestors…

“The discovery has little bearing on a separate paleontological debate centering on the identity of a common ancestor of chimps and humans, which could have lived about six million years ago and still hasn’t been found. That gap in the evolution story is colloquially referred to as the ‘missing link’ controversy. In reality, though, all gaps in the fossil record are technically ‘missing links’ until filled in…

“Nonetheless, the latest fossil find is likely to ignite further the debate between evolutionists who draw conclusions based on a limited fossil record, and creationists who don’t believe that humans, monkeys and apes evolved from a common ancestor…”

In typical spectacular fashion of the boulevard press and mass media, Sky News Online wrote on May 19:

“Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution… The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years – but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York. The discovery of the 95%-complete ‘lemur monkey’ – dubbed Ida – is described by experts as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’… Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution…

“With her human-like nails instead of claws, and opposable big toes, she is placed at the very root of human evolution when early primates first developed features that would eventually develop into our own…

“Up until now, the most famous fossil primate in the world has been Lucy, a 3.18-million-year-old hominid found in Ethiopia in 1974. She was then our earliest known ancestor, and only 40% complete…”

If you want to learn more about this matter, including the truth regarding “Lucy,” please read our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution–A Fairy Tale for Adults?”

In addition, in spite of the “Ida Fossil Hype,” several scientists have voiced concern and dismiss the idea of Ida being a missing link. Der Stern Online reported on critical voices, seriously questioning the entire “interpretation” of the “discovery.” And as Live Science reported on May 20, “the public could be left with the impression that Ida is a rock-solid missing link in the human evolutionary chain… ‘It’s not a missing link, it’s not even a terribly close relative to monkeys, apes and humans, which is the point they’re trying to make,’ said Chris Beard, a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.”

The article continued:

“The debacle started to unfold when the finding, cloaked in secrecy while a media engine was being primed, leaked out in The Wall Street Journal, and then in London’s Daily Mail. Then The New York Times wrote about the media circus that was to ensue. All this was published before anyone but the research team (and its tightly controlled media team) knew the details of the finding… Ida’s unveiling was highly scripted (with some ‘Barnum and Bailey aspects,’ said paleontologist Richard Kay of Duke University). More important, it can now be said the findings may well have been significantly overstated… if this event causes the public to distrust science and media, that distrust is well placed.”

Amen to that!!!

The “Greatest Depression” Will Hit

The Trends Research Institute wrote on May 7:

“Field Marshall Ben Bernanke and his Green Shoot Brigade have fertilized the economic landscape with trillions of sweat equity dollars extorted from today’s public and the public of generations to come… But the fundamentals of the economy remain unsound…

“‘The Greatest Depression’… may have been postponed, but it has not been averted. When it does set in, it will do so with enhanced intensity and at a pace accelerated by complex financial finagling … all under the guise of nation-saving action. Rather than let the failing industries fail and the failed banks go bankrupt, the government is deliberately bankrupting the nation. The lesson to be learned from the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007, is that nothing succeeds like failure. The greater their failure, the bolder they become… The greater the chaos, the more control they exact. The bigger they fail, the harder we fall.

“No act is too unthinkable or measure too draconian for… Washington-Wall Street… to concoct in order to maintain power, make money and cover their losses. While it is impossible to second-guess what the government will do next, it is absolutely certain that they will stop at nothing. The ‘green shoots’ will wither and conditions will deteriorate. Those who are prepared for the worst will not have been taken by surprise.”

New Unprecedented Deficit Figures of US Budget

The Associated Press wrote on May 12:

“The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates…

“The unprecedented deficit figures flow from the deep recession, the Wall Street bailout and the cost of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill — as well as a seemingly embedded structural imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in. As the economy performs worse than expected, the deficit for the 2010 budget year beginning in October will worsen by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion…

“Just a few days ago, Obama touted an administration plan to cut $17 billion in wasteful or duplicative programs from the budget next year. The erosion in the deficit announced Monday is five times the size of those savings… The developments come as the White House completes the official release of its $3.6 trillion budget for 2010…

“A… poll last month gave Obama relatively poor grades on the deficit, with just 49 percent of respondents approving of the president’s handling of the issue and 41 percent disapproving… ‘Even using their February economic assumptions — which now appear to be out of date and overly optimistic — the administration never puts us on a stable path,’ said Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group that advocates budget discipline…

“[Under] Obama’s ‘cap-and-trade’ proposal… the government would auction permits to emit heat-trapping gases, with the costs being passed on to consumers via higher gasoline and electric bills.”

Taxpayer-Funded Abortions?

LifeNews.com wrote on May 7:

“President Barack Obama’s new federal budget calls for taxpayer funded abortions in the nation’s capital. Although Obama has promised Americans he wants to reduce the number of abortions, one pro-life group says he is violating that promise by calling for taxpayer-financed abortions in the District of Columbia. The budget Obama submitted to Congress urges the House and Senate to repeal a law sometimes called the Dornan amendment that has prevented tax-funded abortion in the District of Columbia for many years…

“Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com on Thursday that the Obama budget makes it clear that the president has little interest in reducing abortions.

“‘Some wide-eyed journalists and various political shills for the Obama Administration continue to write fairy tales about how President Obama wants to pursue policies that would reduce abortions,’ he said. ‘That is a political scam. In reality, President Obama is pursuing a step-by-step strategy to expand access to abortion… Today’s White House action is one more evidence that President Obama is trying to pull off a massive policy scam — he generates a smokescreen of soothing rhetoric about seeking “common ground” and “abortion reduction,” while step by step advancing concrete policies that will substantially increase the number of abortions — and pay for abortion on demand with everyone’s taxes,’ Johnson concluded.”

We Know It’s Bad When the U.S. Mail Is In Financial Trouble…

The Pasadena Star News wrote on May 11:

“The post office wants two more pennies for your thoughts. The price of a first-class stamp for mailing a letter – or paying a bill – climbed to 44 cents Monday, though folks who planned ahead and stocked up on Forever stamps will still be paying the lower rate.

“It’s the third straight year rates have gone up in May under a new system that allows annual increases as long as they don’t exceed the rate of inflation for the year before. While the increase will bring in added income, the post office continues to struggle financially… The Postal Service… lost $2.8 billion last year and is already $2.3 billion in the hole just halfway through this year… the rate increase is unlikely to cover the ongoing losses and the possibility remains that the post office could run out of money before the end of the fiscal year…

“While the new 44-cent rate covers the first ounce of first-class mail, the price for each additional ounce will remain unchanged at 17-cents… Other changes taking effect May 11: The postcard stamp increases 1 cent to 28 cents. The first ounce of a large envelope increases 5 cents to 88 cents. The first ounce of a parcel increases 5 cents to $1.22. New international postcard and letter prices are, for one ounce, 75 cents to Canada; 79 cents to Mexico; and 98 cents elsewhere.”

More Bad Developments

The Los Angeles Times reported on May 14:

“Bankrupt automaker Chrysler told a quarter of its car dealers this morning that it would sever its franchise contracts with them, effectively putting them out of business by June 9. The decision, which had been expected, will eliminate thousands of jobs and likely reduce tax revenue at municipalities around the nation.”

In a related article, the paper wrote on May 14:

“New jobless claims rose more than expected last week due partly to an increase in layoffs by the automobile industry, while the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits set a record for the 15th straight week.”

Obama Gay Activist Attacks Pope

On May 8, the Catholic News Agency, CNSNews, reported the following:

“A homosexual-rights activist whom President Obama appointed last month to a White House advisory council had–just three weeks before his appointment–posted a statement on the Web site of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s most prominent homosexual-rights organization, accusing Pope Benedict XVI… of ‘hurting people in the name of Jesus’… President Obama appointed the HRC activist, Harry Knox, to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships on April 6. Knox was then, and remains, director of the HRC’s Religion and Faith Program. The HRC describes itself as ‘America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality’…
 
“‘The Pope’s statement that condoms don’t help control the spread of HIV, but rather condoms increase infection rates, is hurting people in the name of Jesus,’ said Knox…
 
“Knox told the Bay Area Reporter on March 17 that the pope was a ‘discredited leader’… Knox was speaking… about efforts by the Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus to enact California’s Proposition 8, which prohibited same-sex marriage in the state… Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.) called on President Obama to withdraw Knox’s appointment in light of his comments to the Bay Area Reporter…

“Last month, CNSNews.com White House Correspondent Fred Lucas asked the White House in writing whether the president would withdraw the appointment as Pence requested, and whether President Obama agreed with Knox’s statement that the pope is a ‘discredited leader’ and, if not, did he believe Knox should apologize. On April 15, White House Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNSNews.com, ‘We don’t have a response to that. You can say we declined to comment,’ she added.

“At her press conference on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said she was ‘unaware’ that Knox had called the pope a ‘discredited leader. ‘I’m so sorry. I’m just totally unaware of that statement… I really don’t know about that. But certainly, his Holiness is the head of an organization that has done more to alleviate poverty, eradicate disease, and is now addressing climate change issue and the rest. I am just not familiar with the statement and the circumstance.'”

Nancy Pelosi also claimed during Thursday’s press conference (May 14) that she was not informed about the use of waterboarding, “accus[ing] the CIA and Bush administration of misleading her about waterboarding detainees in the war on terror and sharply rebutted claims she was complicit in the method’s use” (compare The Associated Press). But subsequent comments made by CNN reporters shed serious doubts on Pelosi’s representations.

Hate Crime Legislation

WorldNetDaily wrote on May 10:

“The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider Tuesday a hate crimes bill already approved by the House that, critics say, provides special protections for pedophiles and others with alternative ‘gender identities’ such as voyeurism and exhibitionism…

“[Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas] pointed out that if an exhibitionist flashes a woman, and she responds by slapping him with her purse, he has probably committed a misdemeanor while she has committed a federal felony hate crime… Critics also have expressed alarm because in committee hearings Democrats admitted that a Christian pastor could be prosecuted under the law if he spoke biblically against homosexuality, someone heard the comments and then committed a crime.”

Outrageous Jury Duty Debacle–“Only in Texas”?

The San Diego Union Tribune reported on May 10:

“A [Texas] man arrested for allegedly failing to appear for jury duty was released yesterday after spending 83 days in jail… Maupin, a masonry contractor, was arrested Feb. 15 after police pulled him over for speeding. Police then detained him on a 2003 warrant for failure to appear for jury duty. He wrote a letter to the newspaper about his lengthy jail stay, then said in a jailhouse interview that he, his friends and family could not afford his $1,500 bail.

“Maupin said his attempt to get a public defender was rebuffed by a jail clerk. District Judge Chris Oldner said he was unaware of Maupin’s detention until Friday, even though the case was assigned to his court. The judge who signed the original 2003 warrant had retired, and officials said the case was assigned to the court of his replacement but that the offense didn’t fall under that court’s responsibility.”

What Was Obama Thinking…?

Toby Harnden, U.S. Editor of the News Telegraph, wrote the following in that British paper, on May 10:

“What was Wanda Sykes thinking? Perhaps more to the point, what was President Barack Obama thinking when he laughed and smiled as the comedienne wished Rush Limbaugh dead? Although the Left is reporting her White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech as ‘taking shots’ at Limbaugh and mocking everyone, that’s a gross misrepresentation of what turned into a hateful and disgusting diatribe. I was at the dinner… There’s not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead…

“Obama’s reaction to it was astonishing… Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead? Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington.”

How Russia Sees It–Israel Without Jerusalem

The Russian paper, Pravda, wrote the following on May 8:

“The world’s leading countries are trying to solve the crisis in the Middle East against the background of yet another conflict between Palestine and Israel. Arab countries are about to convince Israel’s major ally – the USA – to approve the Saudi initiative, in accordance with which Israel will no longer have Jerusalem… No one expects any miracle to happen, of course. It is absolutely impossible to solve all problems, which Arabs and Jews have.

“Saudi Arabia suggests Israel should give the holy city of Jerusalem under external control and set its state borders in accordance with the map of 1967. The Arab districts of Jerusalem – the eastern part of the city – will have to become the capital of the Palestinian State, Arabian officials suggest…

“The Israelis traditionally believe that their capital is the city of Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv. Making the holy city become the capital of Palestine would be a disaster for the national mindset of Israel. In other words, it would mean a capitulation.”

US and Europe in Discreet Talks with Hamas?

Time On Line wrote on May 8:

“The idea that there can be no Israeli-Palestinian peace that bypasses Hamas has lately emerged as conventional wisdom among a broad range of Washington foreign policy experts — and it appears that the U.S. and some of its key European allies may be quietly in agreement. A senior Hamas official has told TIME that Western powers publicly committed to boycotting Hamas, which is officially designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, have nonetheless initiated discreet contacts with his organization. Osama Hamdan, the organization’s top leader in Lebanon, said in an interview in Beirut that Hamas had in recent weeks established ‘solid, direct contacts’ with four European Union countries, and that there had been unofficial talks between Hamas and the team of President Barack Obama’s Middle East special envoy, George Mitchell…

“Hamdan declined to identify the European countries with which he claimed Hamas has held talks, but said they were ‘significant’ nations, and described the discussions as substantial. ‘I think there is a shift in [the Europeans’] position [on boycotting Hamas],’ said Hamdan…

“While U.S. officials insist their stance on Hamas has not changed, hawkish pro-Israel legislators in Washington are concerned over what they see as the Administration’s eagerness to do business with elements officially designated as terrorists.”

President Obama vs. Israel?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on May 11:

“The Obama Administration is hoping to revive the peace process in the Middle East. Part of the strategy is to distance Washington from Israel… Obama makes repeated allusions to his own biography, which is not only rooted in the Christian world. ‘I have Muslims in my family. I have lived in a Muslim-majority country,’ is something he has said many times. His core message to the Muslim world, which he reiterated on his recent visit to Turkey, is that the US ‘is not at war with Islam’…

“The White House had already made it clear that it would be making demands on the Israelis… relations between the US and Israel have become decidedly frosty. Israeli Environment Minister Gilad Erdan even went so far as to say that ‘Israel does not take orders from Obama.’ The old friends have never seemed so far apart.

“Obama’s Middle East policy at the moment is much more focused on Iran than on Israel… Obama is offering the Tehran regime talks without any preconditions… There are, however, many who find it difficult to understand the harsh tone toward Jerusalem and the more indulgent one toward Tehran. US historian Jeffrey Herf, who has close ties to the US Democrats, says that the policy the White House is pursuing is both ‘naïve and potentially dangerous.'”

Haaretz added on May 14:

“U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with an Israeli military operation against Iran… The message from the American envoy to the prime minister reveals U.S. concern that Israel could lose patience and act against Iran. It is important to the Americans that they not be caught off guard and find themselves facing facts on the ground at the last minute.”

“The Last Opportunity”–“All Eyes Look to Washington…”

The Times reported on May 11:

“President Obama’s critical meeting with Binyamin Netanyahu next [Monday] has become the acid test for the Administration’s commitment to peace in the Middle East, King Abdullah of Jordan said yesterday. The monarch does not conceal his feelings about the Israeli leader. He described their last encounter – 10 years ago when he had just come to the throne – as the ‘least pleasant’ of his reign… ‘All eyes will be looking to Washington,’ he said. ‘If there are no clear signals and no clear directives to all of us, there will be a feeling that this is just another American Government that is going to let us all down.’

“If Israel procrastinated on a two-state solution, or if there was no clear American vision on what should happen this year, the ‘tremendous credibility’ that Mr Obama had built up in the Arab world would evaporate overnight. And if peace negotiations were delayed, there would be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12-18 months, with implications far beyond the Middle East.

“‘If the call is in May that this is not the right time or we are not interested, then the world is going to be sucked into another conflict in the Middle East,’ the King said… Emphasising again the urgency now felt by all Arab governments of making the most of Mr Obama’s commitment to a settlement, he said this was a final opportunity… The alternative was bleak — war, death and destruction. The King added: ‘This is a critical moment.'”

No Hostility Between U.S. and Iran?

The New York Times wrote on May 12:

“An Iranian-American journalist who was sentenced to eight years in jail on charges of spying for Washington was released Monday after an appeals court… turned down the original jail term and issued a two-year suspended prison term in its place… The court ruling meant that she can leave the country immediately if she decides to…

“Ms. Saberi, 32, has lived in Iran since 2003 and worked as a freelance journalist for National Public Radio and the BBC. She was arrested in late January for buying a bottle of wine, which is illegal in Iran. But the charges against her escalated to working without a press card and then spying for Washington. Her press card had been revoked in 2006.

“The sentencing had threatened to complicate political maneuvering between Iranian and American leaders over Iran’s nuclear program… The State Department called the charges against Ms. Saberi baseless and asked for her release… In the appeal, Mr. Nikbakht [one of Mrs. Saberi’s defense attorneys] argued that the espionage charge should be lifted because the foreign ministry and the judiciary had previously said that there was ‘no hostility between Iran and the United States.’ The judges accepted the defense, he said.”

Iran Prepares for Nuclear Attack

The Jerusalem Post reported on May 12:

“Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have begun deploying mobile launchers for surface-to-air and surface-to-sea missiles in the Strait of Hormuz and other areas in the Gulf… following secret reports that the United States and Israel were working on a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“… the missiles were deployed a few weeks ago. Iran is said to have informed Arab countries in the region of its activities and reassured its neighbors that the missiles were not aimed at states in the region, a reference to Sunni Arab states such as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which has a Shi’ite majority but Sunni government…

“The US has not ruled out the possibility of a military strike on Iran. Iran has threatened to retaliate to any aggression on its soil by closing down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which will disrupt global oil supplies… Gulf countries, including Iran, hold more than half of the world’s crude oil reserves and more than 40 percent of the world’s proven gas reserves.”

The Power of the Catholic Church in the Middle East

The Associated Press reported on May 8:

“Pope Benedict XVI said Friday he hopes the Catholic church can play a role in the Middle East peace process as he began his first trip to the region with a stop in Jordan, where he hopes to improve frayed ties with Muslims… Benedict expressed hope his visit and the power of the Catholic church could help further peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians…

“‘We are not a political power but a spiritual power that can contribute,’ Benedict told reporters on the plane before he landed in Amman. The pope was met at the airport by Jordan’s King Abdullah, Queen Rania and Muslim and Christian leaders. A Jordanian army band equipped with bagpipes and drums played the Vatican and Jordanian national anthems before the pope and the king inspected the honor guard.”

That the Catholic Church is NOT just a spiritual power was belied by the fact that the NATIONAL ANTHEM of the Vatican was played in Jordan upon the Pope’s arrival. The Vatican State is a POLITICAL state, sending its ambassadors to, and receiving ambassadors from the entire world. And the Bible predicts that the Catholic Church will play a POLITICAL role, as well as a spiritual role in the Middle East in the Church’s attempts to bring “peace” to that region. For more information, please read our free booklets, “The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord,” and “Is That in the Bible?–The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation.”

The Pope in Israel–At Odds With Netanyahu

The Los Angeles Times wrote on May 11:

“Pope Benedict XVI, arriving in Israel on a pilgrimage across the Holy Land, put himself at odds with the country’s new government today by calling for an independent Palestinian homeland alongside the Jewish state… The Roman Catholic leader did not mention the word ‘state,’ something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pointedly resisted promising the Palestinians. But the pope’s reference to two homelands within international borders was a clear assertion of the Holy See’s longstanding position in favor of a Palestinian state.

“By reaffirming that position in Netanyahu’s presence, at a welcoming ceremony televised in Israel and across the world, Benedict added to pressure from the United States and other allies on the Israeli leader to endorse a two-state solution as the goal of talks with the Palestinians.”

The Pope in Israel–“Disappointing” Speech at the Holocaust Memorial

The Associated Press reported on May 12:

“The Vatican defended the pope Tuesday from a growing chorus of Israeli critics who accused the German-born Benedict XVI of failing to express enough remorse for the Holocaust — a controversy that threatened to eclipse a papal pilgrimage aimed at building bridges between faiths… On Tuesday, the pope delivered messages of peace while visiting the holiest Muslim and Jewish sites in Jerusalem — the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall.

“But his speech Monday at Israel’s national Holocaust memorial attracted the most attention in Israel, with the parliament speaker accusing Benedict of glossing over the Nazi genocide. Newspapers lambasted him for failing to apologize for what many in Israel see as Catholic indifference during World War II and the pope’s own wartime actions — he served in the Hitler Youth corps and Nazi army — have also cast a shadow…

“Israeli newspapers Tuesday were filled with criticism. ‘One would have expected the Vatican’s cardinals to prepare a more intelligent text for their boss,’ columnist Tom Segev said.”

The Pope in Israel–His Speech Fell Flat

Der Spiegel Online reported on May 12:

“In the past, Pope Benedict XVI’s speeches have gotten him in trouble. Visiting the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem on Monday, it was what he didn’t say that irked his audience. Israel is disappointed, as are Jews in Germany… The pope’s speech… fell flat. Immediately following his visit, the Yad Vashem Council released a statement expressing disappointment with the pope’s comments at the monument. ‘He did not mention that it was the Nazis who did the murdering, nor a word of his personal participation in the feelings of pain and sorrow,’ said Yad Vashem Council Chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau immediately after the speech. ‘Even the phrase “6 million” wasn’t there. Not to mention that he didn’t say “I apologize.”‘

“Criticism didn’t just come from Israel, either. In Germany, the Central Council of Jews in Germany blasted the pope for failing to more clearly distance himself from the Society of St. Pius X and the Holocaust denial of SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson. ‘What should one think of a public call to fight against anti-Semitism when he himself doesn’t act and doesn’t take consequences,’ said Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council. Council President Charlotte Knobloch said ‘I expected clearer words from the pope at Yad Vashem’…

“[The pope’s speech included] powerful sentences, appearing in a manuscript that had been released in advance. Benedict remained true to his manuscript, reading it, word for word, in a quiet voice. But at the same time, he rattled off the sentences as if unaware of the impact of his words, swallowing and mumbling important words, as if he were reading a manuscript meant for someone else or, even more distressingly, as if he were unaware of what he was reading. It was not a powerful moment. There were no sparks…

“When Pope John Paul II spoke at Yad Vashem in 2000, he promised that ‘never again’ would the church permit the persecution of Jews. His successor has renewed the promise, but in a far more generalized form: ‘As Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, I reaffirm — like my predecessors — that the Church is committed to praying and working tirelessly to ensure that hatred will never reign in the hearts of men again.'”

The Pope in Bethlehem–Understands Suffering of Palestinians

On May 13, The Associated Press reported the following:

“Standing in the cradle of Christianity [in Bethlehem], Pope Benedict XVI told Palestinians on Wednesday that he understands their suffering and offered his strongest public backing yet for an independent Palestinian state… It was the third day of Benedict’s Holy Land pilgrimage meant largely to boost interfaith relations. But so far, it has been fraught with political land mines. Israelis have criticized the German-born pope for failing to adequately express remorse for the Holocaust, while the Palestinians are pressing him to draw attention to the difficult conditions of life under Israeli rule… In Bethlehem, Benedict delivered a special message of solidarity to the 1.4 million Palestinians isolated in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. He has no plans to visit Gaza.”

Deutsche Welle added on May 13:

“Speaking in Bethlehem after holding a mass in Manger Square, the pope pressed calls to remove the wall and watch towers that seal Bethlehem off from Jerusalem…

“The German-born pope’s week-long trip to the Middle East, his first visit to the region, has not been without controversy. On Tuesday, a row erupted over the pope’s membership as a teenager of the Hitler Youth, as he paid a historic visit to holy sites in Jerusalem. Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said the pontiff had ‘never, never, never’ belonged to the organization, but later changed his version, saying that he had been a member but his membership was compulsory. In his own 1997 memoirs, Pope Benedict had said he had been registered with the Hitler Youth while he was at a seminary.”

Lisbon Treaty Needed For Freedom of Religion in Europe?

The EUObserver wrote on May 12:

“Securing a stronger consultative role for European religions in EU policy making is another good reason to support the Lisbon Treaty, say two of the EU’s most senior officials. Speaking after a meeting with European religious leaders on Monday (11 May), European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering said such discussions in the future could not be guaranteed without the full ratification of the Lisbon Treaty… He added that it is the ‘responsibility of Ireland’ to ensure the treaty comes into effect…

“European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who co-chaired the meeting with Mr Poettering, told journalists the Lisbon Treaty would also re-inforce dialogue between non-confessional organisations. ‘One of the purposes of these meetings is to highlight how it is important in Europe to keep freedom of religion [and] also the freedom not to have a religion,’ he said. ‘[The Lisbon Treaty] is the first time ever that our churches and our religious communities are included in the law of the European union,’ Mr Pottering said…

“Also attending Monday’s meeting was the Catholic archbishop for Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Mr Martin has increasingly voiced his support for the Lisbon treaty in recent months ahead of a second Irish referendum on the document this autumn… One issue of concern to Irish religious groups is the possibility that Ireland could be forced to accept abortion under European law if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified. Abortion is not currently allowed under Irish legislation…”

The Fourth Reich–A Warning from the Past

On May 9, The Daily Mail published an article about the attempts of Nazis, at the end of World War II, to prepare for a FOURTH REICH, and how current developments in Europe might lead to a repeat of history. We are bringing you the following excerpts:

“The document, also known as the Red House Report, is a detailed account of a secret meeting… in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany’s post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis’ return to power and work for a ‘strong German empire’. In other words: the Fourth Reich… The industrialists included representatives of Volkswagen, Krupp and Messerschmitt. Officials from the Navy and Ministry of Armaments were also at the meeting and, with incredible foresight, they decided together that the Fourth German Reich, unlike its predecessor, would be an economic rather than a military empire – but not just German…

“The Third Reich was defeated militarily, but powerful Nazi-era bankers, industrialists and civil servants, reborn as democrats, soon prospered in the new West Germany. There they worked for a new cause: European economic and political integration…

“War had been extraordinarily profitable for the German economy. By 1948 – despite six years of conflict, Allied bombing and post-war reparations payments – the capital stock of assets such as equipment and buildings was larger than in 1936, thanks mainly to the armaments boom. [German Chancellor Ludwig] Erhard pondered how German industry could expand its reach across the shattered European continent. The answer was through supranationalism – the voluntary surrender of national sovereignty to an international body.

“Germany and France were the drivers behind the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the precursor to the European Union. The ECSC was the first supranational organisation, established in April 1951 by six European states… This set a vital precedent for the steady erosion of national sovereignty, a process that continues today.

“But before the common market could be set up, the Nazi industrialists had to be pardoned, and Nazi bankers and officials reintegrated. In 1957, John J. McCloy, the American High Commissioner for Germany, issued an amnesty for industrialists convicted of war crimes. The two most powerful Nazi industrialists, Alfried Krupp of Krupp Industries and Friedrich Flick, whose Flick Group eventually owned a 40 per cent stake in Daimler-Benz, were released from prison after serving barely three years…

“Like Krupp and Flick, Hermann Abs, post-war Germany’s most powerful banker, had prospered in the Third Reich… Abs joined the board of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, in 1937… Abs was one of the most important figures in Germany’s post-war reconstruction. It was largely thanks to him that, just as the Red House Report exhorted, a ‘strong German empire’ was indeed rebuilt, one which formed the basis of today’s European Union… By 1948 he was effectively managing Germany’s economic recovery. Crucially, Abs was also a member of the European League for Economic Co-operation, an elite intellectual pressure group set up in 1946. The league was dedicated to the establishment of a common market, the precursor of the European Union… When Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of West Germany, took power in 1949, Abs was his most important financial adviser…

“Next month, 27 European Union member states vote in the biggest transnational election in history. Europe now enjoys peace and stability. Germany is a democracy, once again home to a substantial Jewish community. The Holocaust is seared into national memory. But the Red House Report is a bridge from a sunny present to a dark past. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, once said: ‘In 50 years’ time nobody will think of nation states.’ For now, the nation state endures. But these three typewritten pages are a reminder that today’s drive towards a European federal state is inexorably tangled up with the plans of the SS and German industrialists for a Fourth Reich…”

Human Infects Pig with Swine Flu

The New York Times wrote on May 3:

“On Saturday, Canadian health officials said that the virus had been found in sick pigs on one farm in Alberta… Previously, there had been heated debate about whether the virus could infect pigs, even though its genetic makeup clearly points to its having originated in swine at some point.

“But people were infecting each other, and until Saturday, no pigs had been found with the virus… But researchers, busy with human cases, were not really looking for the disease in pigs.

“The news from Canada changes things. But it has a somewhat unexpected twist: a person appears to have spread the disease to the pigs, and not the other way around. A worker at the farm had traveled to Mexico, fallen ill there and unknowingly brought the disease back to Canada last month…

“’One of the reasons for watching this very closely is the potential for the virus passing back from the pigs to human beings,’ David Butler-Jones, the chief public health officer of Canada, said…

“Despite assurances from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadian agriculture officials [that eating pork is allegedly safe], some countries banned imports of pork and pork products from Canada even before Saturday’s announcement.”

The Associated Press added on May 3:

“Now that the swine flu virus has passed from a farmworker to pigs, could it jump back to people? The question is important, because crossing species again could make it more deadly.

“The never-before-seen virus was created when genes from pig, bird and human viruses mixed together inside a pig. Experts fear the virus that has gone from humans back into pigs in at least one case could mutate further before crossing back into humans again. But no one can predict what will happen…

“Canadian officials announced Saturday that the virus had infected about 200 pigs on a farm — the first evidence that it had jumped to another species… Experts say pork — even from infected pigs — is safe to eat…”

 

Will HIV and Swine Flu Virus Mix?

Reuters reported on May 2:

“People with HIV are at high risk from the new flu strain that the World Health Organisation said is on the verge of a pandemic… HIV and the new flu strain could also mix together in a dangerous way, as has occurred with HIV and tuberculosis, the WHO said… According to WHO estimates, there are 33 million people infected with immune-weakening HIV worldwide.”

Has Swine Flu Mutated More?

Reuters reported on May 6:

“A second strain of influenza, one of the seasonal strains, may have mutated and may be complicating the picture in Mexico, Canadian researchers reported on Wednesday. They have found a strain of the H3N2 virus that appears to have made a shift and could have complicated the flu picture in Mexico, epicenter of an outbreak of a new strain of the H1N1 swine flu virus.”

Beware of Politically Motivated Mass Immunizations Against Swine Flu

On April 28, 2009, salon.com published an interesting article about the governmental and pharmaceutical reaction to a perceived swine flu outbreak in 1976 (That outbreak never happened). It warns that we must not rush into producing vaccinations and advocate mass immunizations, which might do more harm than good. We are quoting the following excerpts:

“1976 was the year of the U.S. Bicentennial. 1976 was a presidential election year. 1976 was two years after Watergate caused Nixon’s resignation, and one year after the fall of Saigon. The U.S. government, both Republicans and Democrats, had never been held in such low esteem. Practically every elected official felt an overwhelming itch that patriotic year to do something to get the public thinking of them as good guys again. A swine flu pandemic was an opportunity on a plate. What better way to get into the good graces of the voters than to save them from a plague?

“Between March 13 and March 24, the U.S. government dealt with the perceived flu emergency at fever pitch. The vaccine request… reached the president’s desk in less than a week. On March 24, the day after he lost the North Carolina primary to Ronald Reagan, President Gerald Ford welcomed the top virologists in the nation to a meeting in the White House and asked them if the nation was facing a swine flu epidemic. Would mass vaccinations be necessary? The doctors all said yes…
 
“The president heralded the impending flu plague and asked Congress for $135 million to investigate the development of a swine flu vaccine, with the goal of vaccinating the citizenry… Congress, with few exceptions, raced to support the bill. Knowing the Republican president would not, could not veto a bill he requested, the Democratically controlled House attached $1.8 billion dollars in welfare and environmental spending to the flu bill. President Ford signed the bill on April 15, 1976, and incorrectly remarked to the press that the Fort Dix swine flu was identical to the deadly 1918 variety. He announced the immunization program would begin in October…

“The scientists began to come to their senses. By July, they were pretty much agreed that a flu pandemic in 1976 would not lead to 1 million U.S. dead… But the U.S. government was unstoppable. Congress began to pressure the drug companies to work faster toward development of a swine flu vaccine. The drug companies insisted that proper vaccine development required years of experimentation and clinical trials…

“President Ford went on television [on August 5] and delivered a speech to the nation, telling Americans that Congress will be to blame for your deaths when the flu season begins in October. Congress caved in, and on Aug. 15, President Ford signed the National Influenza Immunization Program (NIIP). This set as a goal the immunization of at least 80 percent of the U.S. population [and] indemnified the drug companies…

“On Oct. 1, 1976, the immunization program began. By Oct. 11, approximately 40 million people had received swine flu immunizations, mostly through the new compressed air vaccination guns… Three senior citizens died soon after receiving their swine flu shots [in Pittsburgh]… The government had long feared mass panic about swine flu — now they feared mass panic about the swine flu vaccinations.

“The deaths in Pittsburgh… were a strong setback to the program. The death blow came a few weeks later when reports appeared of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing neuromuscular disorder, among some people who had received swine flu immunizations. The public refused to trust a government-operated health program that killed old people and crippled young people; as a result, less than 33 percent of the population had been immunized by the end of 1976. The National Influenza Immunization Program was effectively halted on Dec. 16.

“Gerald Ford’s attempt to gain credit for keeping America safe was busted. He lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter that November. The 1976 to 1977 flu season was the most flu-free since records had been kept; a condition that was apparently unrelated to the vaccination program. The Great Swine Flu Epidemic of 1976 never took place.”

Many Americans Think Abortion Should Be Illegal in Most or All Cases

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported the following on May 1:

“In August 2008 only 41 percent [in the USA] believed abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while 54 percent [now] thought it should be illegal in most or all circumstances… In August 2008 53 percent of men generally supported legal abortion, while in April 2009 only 43 percent did. About 46 percent of men said abortion should generally be illegal… The percentage of women who believed abortion should be illegal in most or all cases remained steady at 42 percent, but the number of women supporting legal abortion declined from 54 to 49 percent…”

Unconstitutional Hate Crime Legislation–Is One Life More Valuable Than Another?

CNA reported on April 30:

“By a vote of 249-175, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to expand federal ‘hate crime’ laws to include sexual orientation, gender identity, or mental or physical disability. Current law limits federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to assaults based on race, color, religion or national origin. President Barack Obama asked Congress to pass the Federal Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, saying it would ‘protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance’…

“During debate on the bill, Rep. Lamar Smith argued the bill was discriminatory. ‘All violent crimes must be vigorously prosecuted,’ Rep. Smith said. ‘Unfortunately, this bill undermines one of the most basic principles of our criminal justice system — “equal justice for all.” Justice will now depend on the race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other protected status of the victim… It will allow different penalties to be imposed for the same crime’…

“House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said that all violent crimes should be prosecuted vigorously, but argued the legislation ‘places a higher value on some lives compared to others. That is unconstitutional, and that is wrong. Republicans believe that all life was created equally, and all life should be defended equally.’

“He said he was particularly concerned about the implications the legislation would have on religious groups expressing their beliefs. ‘Simply put, this bill is not only a threat to the constitutional principle of equal justice under the law, but to religious freedom of speech as well,’ he added.”

Responsibility Has Shifted to President Obama

The Los Angeles Times wrote on May 3:

“In the span of a single week — from the day Arlen Specter turned Democratic to the moment Congress passed the White House’s budget blueprint and on through the opening of a spot on the Supreme Court — President Obama crossed a fateful line: From now on, it’s his country. Every president inherits a tangle of problems from his predecessor. War and recession, natural disaster and foreign crises. And for some undefined interval, new presidents argue that they should not be accountable for the troubles that arose on another’s watch.

“But inevitably, responsibility shifts. And for Obama, that time came last week, bringing both greater opportunities and greater risks. On the economy, Obama won approval Wednesday of a $3.5-trillion budget plan that aims to help pull the country out of the worst recession in decades. It also smoothes the way for one of the president’s signature domestic priorities — overhauling the nation’s healthcare system. At the same time, the budget projects a whopping $1.2-trillion deficit in 2010, undercutting Obama’s ability to bemoan Bush-era red ink… As Obama’s imprint on the economy grows, so does his ownership of the issue.

“That ownership became almost literal as Obama moved more deeply into the banking and auto industry crises… on Thursday, Obama announced he was pushing Chrysler into bankruptcy. He may take another corporate icon, General Motors, down the same path. As a kind of shareholder in chief, the president now is responsible for guiding companies with thousands of union workers and investors — firms that remain vital to the economies of states that stretch across the nation’s industrial heartland, from Pennsylvania to Illinois and south into Kentucky and Tennessee. Though the auto industry was in crisis before Obama reached the White House, his team has been in charge of the rescue effort for the last four months…

“On the political front, the decision by Pennsylvania’s senior senator to join the Democrats moved Obama to the brink of a 60-vote majority in the Senate, which could prevent Republicans from blocking his initiatives by filibuster. One of the people instrumental in persuading Specter to abandon the GOP was Vice President Joe Biden, reinforcing the appearance of White House influence on Capitol Hill. All that raised expectations that Obama should be able to win congressional approval of his core agenda. Yet Specter insisted he would not be a rubber stamp for the president. He promptly voted against the Obama budget. And although Democrats have a strong majority in the House, their control of the Senate is still far from absolute…

“As for the Supreme Court, David H. Souter’s announcement Friday that he was stepping down gives Obama a chance to start putting his mark on the court, one of the most lasting elements in a president’s legacy… No matter whom he chooses, Obama will be judged by the selection. And there is no guarantee that his pick will turn out as planned. Souter was chosen by Republican President George H.W. Bush, and in the end he disappointed the GOP base.

“Throughout last week, Obama also had to cope with fears of a global swine flu pandemic…

“The public’s reaction to Obama’s assertive steps points up the potential gains and risks of being seen as clearly in charge… An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed that 47% of those surveyed believe ‘government should do more,’ compared with 46% who believe ‘government is doing too many things.'”

Will President Obama Give in to Gay Activists?

The New York Times wrote on May 7:

“President Obama was noticeably silent last month when the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. But now Mr. Obama — who has said he opposes same-sex marriage as a Christian but describes himself as a ‘fierce advocate of equality’ for gay men and lesbians — is under pressure to engage on a variety of gay issues that are coming to the fore amid a dizzying pace of social, political, legal and legislative change.

“Two of Mr. Obama’s potential Supreme Court nominees are openly gay; some advocates, irked that there are no gay men or lesbians in his cabinet, are mounting a campaign to influence his choice to replace Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring. Same-sex marriage is advancing in states — the latest to allow it is Maine — and a new flare-up in the District of Columbia could ultimately put the controversy in the lap of the president.

“Mr. Obama’s new global health initiative has infuriated activists who say he is not financing AIDS programs generously enough. And while the president has urged Congress to pass a hate crimes bill, a high priority for gay groups, he has delayed action on one of his key campaign promises, repealing the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule…

“Many [gay activists] are still seething over [President Obama’s] choice of… Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor who opposes same-sex marriage, to deliver the invocation at his inaugural, and remain suspicious of Mr. Obama’s commitment to their cause…

“The White House, aware of the discontent, invited leaders of some prominent gay rights organizations to meet Monday with top officials, including Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s deputy chief of staff, to plot legislative strategy on the hate crimes bill as well as ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Among those attending was Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, who said afterward that while the gay rights agenda might not be ‘unfolding exactly as we thought,’ he was pleased. ‘They have a vision,’ Mr. Solmonese said. ‘They have a plan’…

“If Mr. Obama were to embrace same-sex marriage, he would be seen as reversing a campaign position and alienating some moderate and religious voters he has courted. And if he appoints a gay person to the Supreme Court, he would be viewed by social conservatives — including many black ministers, another of his core constituency groups — as putting a vote for same-sex marriage on the highest court in the land. Two gay women, Kathleen M. Sullivan and Pamela S. Karlan, both of Stanford Law School, have been suggested as potential nominees…

“Mr. Obama has chosen a number of openly gay people for prominent jobs, including Fred P. Hochberg as chairman of the Export-Import Bank and John Berry to run the Office of Personnel Management. And he is the first president to set aside tickets for gay families to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll…

“In addition to calling for the repeal of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy in the military, Mr. Obama supports a legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that said states need not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states…”

President Obama’s Questionable Nomination of Liberal Judge to 7th Circuit Court of Appeals

On May 7, Newsmax published the following comments:

“Breaking tradition with President George W. Bush, the Obama administration declined to host an event celebrating the National Day of Prayer this year. This adds another snub to the pro-faith community, since President Obama continues to push his recent nomination of the anti-Christian, anti-Life Judge David Hamilton, the same judge who issued controversial rulings banning public prayers offered ‘in Jesus name,’ and hastening the abortion of unborn children. If confirmed by the Senate, Hamilton will soon be promoted to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that overruled his… liberal decisions for years…

“Judge Hamilton ruled in 2005 to ban the practice of opening the Indiana legislature with prayers mentioning Jesus Christ or using terms such as ‘Savior.’ He said that amounted to state endorsement of a religion… Judge Hamilton wrote: ‘The injunction orders the Speaker… that the prayers should not use Christ’s name or title or any other denominational appeal… If those offering prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives choose to use the Arabic “Allah” …the court sees little risk that the choice of language would advance a particular religion or disparage others’… [In 2007, the] Indiana Attorney General… appealed to the 7th Circuit Court [which issued a] 2-1 decision overruling Hamilton, restoring the right to pray ‘in Jesus name’ in Indiana…

“In 2003, Judge Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law on abortion [which…] had required abortion clinics to… give women information about alternatives to abortion in the presence of a physician or nurse, 18 hours before the procedure… [The] 7th Circuit Court… reversed Hamilton’s… decision in that case…
 
“Judge Hamilton is [one] of Obama’s 15 new liberal appeals court appointees. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals covers Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. Since most cases never reach the Supreme Court, the federal appellate circuits often provide the last word on cases affecting life and liberty.

“The Judicial Confirmation Network quickly opposed Hamilton’s nomination… He was nominated to the district court bench by President Clinton even though he had no judicial experience and was rated as ‘not qualified’ by the American Bar Association.

“On April 1st and… on April 29th, Senator Orrin Hatch led all Republicans to walk out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in protest against the Democrats’ ‘rush job’ to confirm Judge Hamilton.”

German Commentators Disappointed With President Obama

Der Spiegel Online reported on May 4:

“Many had hoped that US President Barack Obama would undo all the damage done by his predecessor. Now, it looks like he might continue the Bush-era practice of trying terror suspects in military tribunals. German commentators are disappointed.

“When US President Barack Obama entered office in January and promptly pledged to shut down the US prison at Guantanamo and suspended all further military tribunals of the kind used by his predecessor George W. Bush, human rights groups across the country and the world were relieved. Finally, they thought, America would cease locking away terror suspects without recourse to the justice system… Any return to using such military commissions would be a major disappointment to human rights groups who were hoping that Obama’s election signalled a new era in America’s handling of terror suspects. As German editorials show on Monday, frustration across the Atlantic is equally high.

“In an editorial entitled ‘Obama’s Great Mistake,’ the center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘… Obama is… discrediting both himself and the US…’

“The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

“‘The US government has asked Germany to accept former Guantanamo prisoners. Exactly the same government is apparently planning to continue the military commissions to try those prisoners. One could hardly be more contradictory. It is the same tactic that President Barack Obama has already used when it came to the torturers from the CIA — punish with one hand, stroke with the other. Whenever he takes a step forward, he stumbles backwards as well.

“That will likely be enough to disappoint all those Europeans who had expectations that Obama would be an almost messiah-like healer. It was expected that he would demolish all of the ugly monuments from the Bush era and then, together with Al Gore, plant a Garden of Eden over the top, through which he would drive fuel-efficient compacts from Chrysler. And now… [he] is no longer floating above the political lowlands, the swamps of compromise. He is walking directly through them and getting dirty in the process.'”

Highly Secretive Globalist Bilderbergers Meet

WorldNetDaily wrote on May 5:

“The 57th meeting of representatives from Western European and North American countries known as Bilderberg Group will be held next week at a five-star hotel in Greece, reports Daniel Estulin, an investigative author who has written a defining book on the secretive annual gathering. Estulin says his sources in Greece have confirmed the meeting will be held at the Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Vouliagmeni from May 14-17.

“The Bilderberg Group is an elite invitation-only conference of influential members of the business, media and political community. Past attendees have included Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Tony Blair.

“While the group claims its purpose is to facilitate discussion amongst western powers, many see the group as a means toward globalization. This year, according to Estulin’s sources, the meeting’s talking points will focus on finances, namely the future of the U.S. dollar, the economy and unemployment levels.

“Estulin also claims in a statement to have obtained a pre-meeting booklet sent out to attendees that presents a discussion of two economic options: ‘Either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty … or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.’

“The Bilderberg Group meets at luxury hotels and resorts throughout the world. Last year’s conference was held at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Va. Every four years the conference is held in the U.S. or Canada. The group has an office located in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands. The highly secretive meeting is off limits to press, but past reports from sources that have managed to penetrate the high-security meetings have stated that the meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and dismiss national sovereignty as regressive.

“The BBC declared it to be one of the most influential organizations in the world. ‘It’s officially described as a private gathering,’ BBC reported, ‘but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it’s one of the most influential organizations on the planet.’

“Attendees of the Bilderberg conference are not allowed to speak a word of what was discussed in the meeting outside of the group. The group has no website and no minutes are kept of the meetings to ensure secrecy. Last year, however, the Bilderberg Group made a press release available listing topics of discussion and providing a general overview of the gathering. ‘Approximately 140 participants will attend, of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America,’ the release stated. ‘About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds are from finance, industry, labor, education and communications. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion.'”

“How the German Catholic Church Protected a Pedophile Priest” for Years

Der Spiegel Online reported on April 24:

“The German Catholic Church has been sheltering a priest convicted of child abuse for years. Now the pedophile, who refuses to undergo therapy, has hired private detectives to try to get his former victims to retract their testimony… This is not just a surprisingly audacious course of action for a servant of God, whose sentence was most recently upheld by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice in 2001, but it also highlights a culture of looking the other way that still prevents the Catholic Church from effectively addressing the problem of child abuse within its ranks — and apparently even encourages a number of pedophiles to act out their proclivities under the protective cloak of the church.
 
“Until recently, Father Weiss could depend on the support of his fellow priests. Even though the Archdiocese of Würzburg had to assure the court that Weiss would never be allowed to come into contact with children again, he recently delivered sermons and celebrated mass with other Franconian priests who are friends of his — in services that included altar boys. Despite reports to the police, parents’ complaints and more convictions, Weiss was merely quietly transferred from one place to another…”

Violent “Demonstrations” in Germany

Welt Online wrote on May 2:

“Riot police fought with stone-throwing left-wing militants in Berlin for more than five hours in May Day clashes that stretched into the early pre-dawn hours on Saturday. The rioting in Berlin and Hamburg came after a long day of protests and scattered violence across Germany as thousands vented anger on the Labor Day holiday over the global financial crisis…

“Authorities had braced for violence with tension running high over the economic crisis and rising unemployment. More than 5,000 riot police from across Germany were deployed in Berlin…

“Rioting on the May 1 Labor Day holiday had been on the wane in the past three years… However, the economic crisis has aggravated public anger at the growing disparity in wages. Germany is facing its worst recession since World War Two with the economy forecast to contract by 6 percent in 2009.”

Czech Senate Approves Lisbon Treaty–“No More Concessions for Ireland”

The EUObserver wrote on May 6:

“The Czech Senate on Wednesday (6 May) approved the EU’s Treaty of Lisbon, a move that was greeted with relief in Brussels and that ups the pressure on Ireland, facing its second referendum on the document. Fifty-four of the 79 senators voted in favour of the new institutional rules, which introduce an EU foreign minister, a permanent president of the European Council and widely extend the powers of the European Parliament. The lower house passed the document in February. The vote, which was preceded by six hours of debate, opens up the possibility that the treaty could come into force by the beginning of next year, a timetable pushed by France and Germany…

“For the ratification process to be completed, the treaty still has to be signed by the country’s eurosceptic president, Vaclav Klaus. He has previously indicated he would not sign it no matter what the outcome of the parliamentary votes. In a reference to Mr Klaus, the commission president said he hoped the remaining ‘constitutional requirements’ would be completed as quickly as possible…

“The Czech move significantly ups the pressure on the Irish government, which is hoping to secure a Yes vote in a referendum in the autumn after Irish voters rejected the treaty last summer. Speaking earlier on Wednesday, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering said: ‘We’ve gone as far in our concessions to Ireland as we can…’ He indicated that member states’ ‘solidarity’ would run out if Ireland voted ‘no’ for a second time.

“Germany and Poland have also not finished ratification of the treaty, with the presidents in both countries not having signed the document. Germany’s Horst Koehler is waiting for the outcome of a legal challenge to the treaty, while Poland’s Lech Kaczynski has said he wants to await the outcome of the Irish vote before putting pen to paper.”

The German paper, “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” added the following remarks on or about May 6:

“Now it is up to the other member states of the EU to give the Irish a concrete plan, rather than just promises. The EU cannot wait until the cows come home. To be precise, the treaty must be approved by the end of October when the period of service of the current commission ends. The Irish vote will need to happen by mid-October. If that doesn’t materialize then the reforms will be put off for at least another five years — and that would mean the end of the treaty.”

The German financial daily, “Handelsblatt,” stated the following in its article, on or about May 6:

“Curiously, this breakthrough [in the Czech Republic] is partly due to the financial crisis. When a major storm rattles the global markets it becomes clear just how much security the EU offers its smaller members. The euro has protected Ireland from a powerful speculative attack on its currency. Hungary, Romania and Latvia, meanwhile, have benefited from extensive help from Brussels to deal with their balance of payments problems.

“This successful development does not mean, however, that the EU has won its battle against its opponents. In the forthcoming European elections, parties from both the right and the left are campaigning to push Europe’s emphasis back towards individual nations. They will not fail to criticize EU institutions in any way possible. In this light it is more important than ever that the national political elites stop their polemic tirades against Brussels and stand behind Europe.”

Israel Threatens the EU

Haaretz wrote on April 30:

“A Foreign Ministry official has been warning European countries that unless they curtail criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Israel will block the European Union from participating in the diplomatic process with the Palestinians. The main target of the offensive is EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner…

“Several days ago, the deputy director for Europe at the Foreign Ministry, Rafi Barak, began calling European ambassadors in Israel regarding the attitude toward the new government… Barak sharply protested the criticism by European ministers and senior EU officials about Israel’s government… Barak concluded by ‘warning’ that Europe’s influence in the area would be undermined by such behavior. ‘Israel is asking Europe to lower the tone and conduct a discreet dialog,’ he said. ‘However, if these declarations continue, Europe will not be able to be part of the diplomatic process, and both sides will lose’…

“A political source in Jerusalem noted that Ferrero-Waldner was sharply criticized by European officials, and one European foreign minister said in a private conversation that she ‘is causing damage to European foreign policy in her attacks on Israel.'”

War in the Gaza Strip

Press TV wrote on May 2:

“Israeli ground forces have launched an incursion into the Gaza Strip after the military jets bombed ‘tunnels’ beneath the border between the beleaguered sliver and Egypt… Earlier, Israeli warplanes bombed Gaza’s southern border with Egypt on Saturday after resistance fighters fired rockets at Israel in response to Israeli bombings of Gaza on Friday, Reuters reported.”

Peres Willing to Hand Over “Holy Sites” to the Vatican

The Irish Times wrote on May 5:

“A week before Pope Benedict arrives on a pilgrimage, President Shimon Peres urged Israel to relinquish control of six Christian holy sites to the Vatican… Interior minister Eli Yishai opposed the idea…

“Israeli and Vatican officials have been arguing about ownership of key holy sites since diplomatic relations were established in 1993 and the dispute is one of the obstacles preventing the upgrading of ties.”

Haaretz added on May 6:

“The Vatican’s longstanding demand that Israel transfer sovereignty of key Christian sites to the Holy See has created dissension among senior officials in Jerusalem. The Interior Ministry has vowed to retain control of the sites, calling relinquishment a ‘sacrifice’ of Israeli sovereignty… The dispute between Jerusalem and the Holy See threatens to cast a pall over next week’s visit to the Holy Land by Pope Benedict XVI. Vatican officials have made clear they intend to reiterate their demand during the visit that Israel hand over control of the Coenaculum, Army Radio reported.”

Could the Taliban Get the Bomb Before Iran Does?

Haaretz reported on May 2:

“Just when you thought you knew the unthinkable – now there’s this: ‘If the worst, the unthinkable, were to happen, and this advancing Taliban encouraged and supported by Al Qaeda and other extremists were to essentially topple the government [of Pakistan] for failure to beat them back,’ Hillary Clinton said at the weekend, ‘then they would have the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan’…

“The nightmare scenario of a nuclear Taliban was much in evidence in a Sunday editorial in The New York Times regarding the Pakistani military. ‘And – most frightening of all – if the army cannot or will not defend its own territory against the militants, how can anyone be sure it will protect Pakistan’s 60 or so nuclear weapons?’ the Times asked. Clinton was right, the Times continued, when she warned last week that Pakistan was ‘abdicating to the Taliban.'”

Most Israelis Support Attack on Iran

The Jerusalem Post reported on May 4:

“A vast majority (66%) of Israelis said they would support military action if diplomatic and economic efforts failed to get Iran to stop uranium enrichment, and of that number, 75% would support this action even if the Obama administration were opposed… Regarding the US president, most respondents have an overall favorable opinion of Barack Obama, but are skeptical about his Middle East policies… While a 60% approval rating for Obama among Israeli Jews is high, it is still significantly below the president’s popularity rating among American Jews, where tracking polls conducted through the new president’s first 100 days in office showed that 79% of Jews approved of Obama’s performance so far.”

Russia vs. NATO

The EUObserver wrote on May 1:

“Russia has taken official control of the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in a 10-year deal with the two Georgian breakaway regions. The move, made in a formal ceremony at the Kremlin on Thursday (30 April), comes as Nato moves forward with planned exercises in Georgia next week and only a day after Russia and Nato resumed official contacts following the Georgian war last August.

“The European Union alongside Nato and the United States have condemned the development as a breach of the 2008 Russia-Georgia peace agreement brokered by the EU. Under the new deal, Moscow extends its responsibility for patrolling the two republics’ effective borders with Georgia proper.

“The Czech Republic, which currently sits at the helm of the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, immediately criticised Russia’s actions… Nato called the move a ‘clear contravention’ of the ceasefire agreement, a characterisation echoed by the US… US State Department spokesman Robert Wood [said] that the deal ‘violates Georgia’s territorial integrity.’

“Russia, for its part, accuses Nato of its own provocation in the region for planning military exercises in Georgia next week. ‘The planned Nato exercises in Georgia, no matter how our Western partners try to convince us otherwise, are an overt provocation,’ said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. ‘One cannot carry out exercises in a place where there was just a war,’ he added.”

Will Russia Start Another War?

The Los Angeles Times wrote on May 1:

“Officials in Moscow lashed out bitterly at the West on Thursday, excoriating NATO for expelling two Russians suspected of spying and for pushing ahead with planned military exercises in Georgia. In sharp contrast to the Obama administration’s call for a ‘reset’ of U.S.-Russian relations and the recent thaw in Russian-NATO ties, it was a day of acrimony and veiled threats as Russian officials resorted to some of their toughest talk in weeks.

“Two high-ranking members of Russia’s permanent mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were stripped of their credentials and expelled from Belgium on accusations of espionage… The Russian Foreign Ministry called the expulsions ‘provocative,’ and issued a statement warning NATO to ‘think about the consequences of what happened. We will certainly make our own conclusions from this provocation…’

“Last summer’s war revolved around the fate of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another republic that has broken with Georgia. Moscow has since recognized the two areas as newly formed, independent countries. Only Nicaragua and the Islamic militant faction Hamas joined Russia in recognizing the rebel territories, but an undeterred Moscow continues to treat the two republics as independent, albeit client, states…

“The deals could further destabilize the already fragile cease-fire in the Caucasus, some Russian analysts warned. Skirmishes have already broken out between Georgian and rebel forces. ‘Now if there are any incidents on the cease-fire lines, it will be a direct confrontation between Russia and Georgia,’ Russian military analyst Pavel Felgengauer said. ‘Which, of course, would be a good pretext for resuming the war.'”

Is Russia Trying to Annex Georgia?

Press TV wrote on May 2:

“Russia might take provocative action when NATO war games start in Georgia next week, Georgian ambassador to the US, Batou Koutelia, has said.

“‘When we see at the highest political level, the president of the Russian federation (Dmitry Medvedev) declares that he views these exercises as a provocation directed against Russian interests and they are prepared to act, it raises concerns that there might be some provocations,’ Koutelia told a couple of journalists…

“Georgia launched a military operation in August 2008 against the breakaway region of South Ossetia to bring it back under Georgia’s control. This prompted Russia to send its troops to South Ossetia, where most of the residents hold Russian citizenship. The Georgian diplomat… said this time the Georgian reaction would be different.

“‘If it happens, we are determined to have reactions together with our partners and allies, NATO member countries, United States. And we will have a joint reaction on this,’ he said.”

Die Welt Online reported on May 5:

“Georgia sent tanks to a military base near the capital Tbilisi where it said a rebellion was under way on Tuesday and accused Russia of financing a coup. There was no official reaction from Moscow and it was unclear how many were involved in the uprising at the Mukhrovani base, home to several hundred soldiers, or what its aims were… A Reuters reporter saw around 30 tanks and armoured personnel carriers moving along the main road from Tbilisi towards the base. Police would not allow correspondents to get near the facility…

“Defence Minister David Sikharulidze said the plotters wanted to undermine NATO exercises beginning this week in Georgia… [He]said the commanders of the military base 19 km (12 miles) from the capital had been dismissed and the soldiers ordered to stay in barracks. He told Rustavi 2 television that the rebellion was also ‘an attempt at a military coup.'”

Cigarette Butts Toxic to Marine Life

This week, SDSU posted the following article, dated May 1, on their website:

“Everyone knows smoking cigarettes is hazardous to their health, but a new study shows that cigarette butts can be just as dangerous for the environment. SDSU public health researcher Richard Gersberg evaluated the effects left-over cigarette butts have on marine life and found that the chemicals from just one filtered cigarette butt had the ability to kill fish living in a one-liter bucket of water…

“‘Each year, billions of cigarette butts end up on our beaches, and in our oceans, lakes and rivers,’ said Tom Novotny, chair of CBAG and professor of public health at SDSU. ‘Based on this new research, we believe that cigarettes should be considered toxic waste and new requirements need to be established for how they are disposed.’ According to Novotny’s recent article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, an estimated 1.69 billion pounds (845,000 tons) of butts wind up as litter worldwide per year…”

Swine Flu–Deadly Pig Disease Reaches Humans

Reuters reported on April 24 that “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday it was too late to contain the swine flu outbreak in the United States.”

On April 27, the Huffington Post published an interesting article by journalist David Kirby about the swine flu. We are bringing you the following excerpts:

“Officials from the CDC and USDA will likely arrive in Mexico soon to help investigate the deadly new influenza virus that managed to jump from pigs to people in a previously unseen mutated form that can readily spread among humans. One of the first things they will want to look at are the hundreds of industrial-scale hog facilities that have sprung up around Mexico in recent years, and the thousands of people employed inside the crowded, pathogen-filled confinement buildings and processing plants.

“Industry calls these massive compounds ‘confined animal feeding operations,’ or CAFOs (KAY-fohs), though most people know them simply as ‘factory farms’… Within each confinement, thousands of pigs are restricted to indoor pens and grain-fed for market, while breeding sows are kept in small metal crates where they spend most of their lives pregnant or nursing piglets… Many of these CAFOs raise tens of thousands of pigs at a time…

“Pigs are nature’s notorious ‘mixing bowls’ for inter-species infections, and many swine flu viruses have long contained human influenza genetic components… So where did this new, virulent and highly infectious influenza emerge from? According to Mexico’s Health Minister, Jose Angel Cordova, the virus ‘mutated from pigs, and then at some point was transmitted to humans.’ It sure sounds like something happened on some farm, somewhere.

“For years, leading scientists around the world have worried that large-scale, indoor swine ‘factories’ would become breeding grounds for new pathogens that could more easily infect humans and then spread out rapidly in the general population – threatening to become a global pandemic… This new strain making headlines and killing people contains genetic components of human flu virus, avian flu virus and – for the first time ever – two types of swine flu virus: American and Eurasian…”

Egypt Slaughters Its Pigs, and Jordan Closes Its Pig Farms

The Associated Press reported on April 29:

“Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said… Egypt’s overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population…

“Pigs can be found in many places around [the] Muslim world, often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork. But they are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya.

“In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country’s five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations.”

Swine Flu Puzzles Experts

Deutsche Welle wrote on April 27:

“There is nothing unusual about swine flu, which is as commonplace among livestock as seasonal flu is among humans. But the latest outbreak of swine flu… has come as a complete surprise. 
 
“The new sub-variant of the H1N1 influenza virus, which killed an estimated 40 percent of the world’s population in the pandemic of 1918, has been deadly in Mexico, where it wasn’t recognized for quite some time. What’s puzzling is that the new viral strain is apparently milder in the US, Canada and Spain…

“Although the airborne virus is called swine flu, it is a recombinant mixture of DNA segments from pigs, birds and humans. The virus is a new genetic strain, which medical experts say could mutate into an even more dangerous variant of potentially pandemic proportions, since no one would have immunity to it…

“In the event of a pandemic, the stockpile of anti-virals in Germany is unusually low, compared with Britain and France, where more than half the population could be treated in an emergency. But… there is absolutely no data showing that anti-viral drugs will save a patient’s life… clinical studies… show that anti-virals only reduce the duration of the disease’s symptoms, but [do] not actually kill viruses, which keep mutating and become resistant to drug treatment over time…”

The Worst Case Scenario?

Der Spiegel Online reported on April 28:

“Germany’s health minister says the swine flu outbreak could turn global and that it’s impossible to predict whether it will or not… Bild commented that the German government’s 100-page emergency plan ‘reads like the script of a disaster movie.’ The plan assumes that a full-blown outbreak of a flu such as swine flu could cause up to 103,000 deaths in Germany alone within eight weeks… Around 30 percent of the population would be infected, the report estimates… ‘the virus being widespread… closing borders or restricting travel really has very little effects in stopping the movement of this virus,’ said Mr Fukuda of the WHO.”

How Swine Flu Panic Affects U.S. Economy

USA Today reported on April 28:

“For an ailing global travel industry, swine flu couldn’t have erupted at a worse time. ‘It has the potential to paralyze travel,’ says Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association… ‘Certainly if it gets out of hand,’ it will be catastrophic. There are signs the situation is speedily getting out of hand.

“The U.S. government Monday urged Americans to cancel travel to Mexico if not essential… ‘This is kind of the one-two-three-four-five punch,’ says Jan Freitag, a vice president at the hotel-tracking firm Smith Travel Research. ‘You have a global recession; business travel has been severely curtailed; leisure travel is curtailed because people are not sure they’re going to have jobs; you have a lot of new hotel supply in the pipeline; and oops, now we have the European Union suggesting that travel to the United States is a mistake.’

“Androulla Vassiliou, the European Union’s health commissioner, initially suggested avoiding all non-essential travel to Mexico and the United States. She later softened her warning, stressing she was speaking only for herself, not the entire 27-nation EU, and that it was an advisory, not a ban, that applied only to hot spots. Still, her comments added to fears that the outbreak would hit an ailing industry on the verge of the summer travel season.

“They also revived memories of the 2002-03 outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in Asia. SARS prompted a plunge in air travel and cost the global economy $33 billion in 2003… Airline stocks slid Monday, with shares of Continental falling $2.17, or 16.4%… Shares of AMR, parent of American, fell 72 cents, or 13.3%…

“Hotels had a bad day, too. Marriott fell $1.13 (5.1%)… American depositary receipts of InterContinental Hotels Group fell 55 cents, or 5.6%… The travel industry already is reeling under the weight of worldwide recession. Before flu broke out, the global airline industry was on track to lose $4.7 billion this year… In the USA, hotel occupancy was down 10.9% from a year ago, and rates were down 7.7%…”

Several Countries Ban Import of Pork and Isolate Travelers

ksl.com reported on April 26:

“Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors who came back from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined. China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival [from] an affected area had to report to authorities. A Russian health agency said any passenger from North America running a fever would be quarantined until cause of the fever is determined. Tokyo’s Narita airport installed a device to test the temperatures of passengers arriving from Mexico. Indonesia increased surveillance at all entry points for travelers with flu-like symptoms…

“Hong Kong and South Korea warned against travel to the Mexican capital and three affected provinces. Italy, Poland and Venezuela also advised their citizens to postpone travel to affected areas of Mexico and the United States…

“The virus is usually contracted through direct contact with pigs, but Joseph Domenech, chief of animal health service at U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome, said all indications were that the virus is being spread through human-to-human transmission. No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.

“Russia banned the import of meat products from Mexico, California, Texas and Kansas. South Korea said it would increase the number of its influenza virus checks on pork products from Mexico and the U.S. Serbia on Saturday banned all imports of pork from North America…”

Bank of America and Citigroup Fail “Stress Test”

The Associated Press reported on April 28:

“Bank of America… and Citigroup…, which have each received $45 billion in government bailout funds, have been told by regulators that ‘stress test’ results show they may need to raise additional capital… Bank of America is looking at a shortfall in the billions of dollars… Both banks plan to rebut the preliminary findings…

“Banks deemed to have enough capital may learn whether they’ll be permitted to repay billions of dollars the government injected into them last fall… Most large banks have said they want to repay the money to escape executive compensation limits and other obligations. Investors have grown more concerned about regional banks with many risky loans on their books. Defaults on those loans could skyrocket in a worsening economy. Banks that carry such loans are likely to be asked to improve their capital reserves.”

US Treasury “Needs” to Borrow Over $870 Billion

The Associated Press reported on April 27:

“The Treasury Department said Monday it will need to borrow $361 billion in the current April-June quarter, a record amount for that period. It’s the third straight quarter the government’s borrowing needs have set records for those periods. Treasury also estimated it will need to borrow $515 billion in the July-September quarter…

“The huge borrowing needs reflect the soaring costs of the $700 billion financial rescue program and the recession, which is nearing a record as the longest in the post World War II period…

“The administration is projecting the federal deficit for the entire budget year ending Sept. 30, will total a record $1.75 trillion. A deficit at that level would nearly quadruple the previous record of $454.8 billion set last year. To cover the government’s heavy borrowing needs, Congress in February boosted the limit for the national debt to $12.1 trillion as part of the legislation that enacted President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus program. The national debt now stands at $11.1 trillion…

“The $361 billion estimate for borrowing this quarter compared with borrowing needs of just $13 billion in the year-ago period. Normally the government’s borrowing needs shrink sharply in the April-June quarter because of all the tax revenue being collected…”

“That Wasn’t Me”

The Associated Press wrote on April 29:

“‘That wasn’t me,’ President Barack Obama said on his 100th day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One. It actually was him – and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years – who shaped a budget so out of balance. And as a presidential candidate and president-elect, he backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still.”

Mr. Obama’s First 100 Days–How the British “Times” Sees It

The Times wrote on April 25:

“As the White House prepares to reach the 100 days milestone since President Obama’s inauguration, it is being true to the form shown over the preceding 99: to exploit ruthlessly American politics while simultaneously asking that the President be judged by a different standard. The strategy is to swat aside any effort to reach an early verdict, on the ground that the Administration has faced unprecedented challenges, but to acknowledge nonetheless that Wednesday — on which the 100th day falls — may be a useful moment to reflect on how much has been accomplished…

“By any measure the pace has been frenetic. The President has ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the end of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ and for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq; recast military strategy in Afghanistan; travelled to nine countries and met the leaders of almost 60. On top of this he has signed legislation that makes it easier for women to sue for job discrimination and extends health coverage to millions of children; eased a ban on stem-cell research; sacked the head of General Motors; intervened in the housing and credit markets; reached out to the Muslim world; tried to improve relations with Cuba; drawn up a $3.6 trillion (£2.4 trillion) budget and forced a bitterly contested $787 billion stimulus Bill through Congress…

“The President is intensely aware of criticism that he is being overambitious… advisers acknowledge that Mr Obama’s reach may exceed his grasp… Nor is the President quite as infallible as he seemed before the inauguration… In the past week the contradictory statements coming out of the White House on the need to investigate or prosecute those responsible for CIA interrogations showed how swiftly a popular policy on banning torture or allowing transparency can unravel.

“Such episodes are symptoms of the difficulty in moving from campaigning — when all politicians can do is make speeches and promises — to governing, when words ultimately have to be judged by results… Having underestimated the scale of public anger over executive bonuses he then whipped it up by railing so hard against the insurance giant AIG that employees began getting death threats…

“His approval ratings, hovering in the low 60s, are almost identical to those of George Bush eight years ago. Aides say that Mr Obama’s popularity is neither unique nor permanent… Mr Obama is a politician grappling with enormous problems and making a slow descent to earth.”

Obama’s First 100 Days–How the German “Der Spiegel” Sees It

On April 30, Der Spiegel Online published an article, titled: “The Most Expensive President Since 1945.”

It continued:

“The new US president’s first 100 days in office were expensive, glamorous and often contradictory…

“[On the] subject [of communication], the new president is truly a world-class performer. In fact we Germans might like to send our chancellor, Angela Merkel, to the White House for a four-week internship under Mr. Obama.

“… the president has performed poorly when it comes to the central political issue of the day [that of managing the financial crisis]. Obama has ignited a dangerous time bomb in the US government’s budget. The economic stimulus program and the billions in bailout funds for Wall Street banks are being paid for primarily with borrowed funds. Obama’s first 100 days have been the most costly in American postwar history.

“… The bailout programs are not being paid for with ‘taxpayer money,’ as Obama claims. Instead, the money is coming from the savings of the frugal Japanese, Chinese and Europeans… Not only is this is costly, but it is also extremely risky. More important, it is not sustainable. By taking this approach, Obama is only leading his country more deeply into dependence on creditors from around the world. Before long, anyone who wishes to attack America will no longer need nuclear weapons, but merely sufficient dollar reserves. China already has close to $2 trillion (€1.5 trillion) stored away in its coffers…

“Things are not exactly adding up when it comes to Obama’s economic policy. The effects of economic stimulus packages are usually short-lived. For many people, the government’s programs will seem to herald a speedy end to the crisis, but the light at the end of the tunnel will be fueled by burning dollar bills. When the flames subside, darkness will return…

“Obama wants to help establish a modern healthcare system in America — at last. Fifty million people currently have no health insurance. Their situation is hardly better than it might have been during the Middle Ages… But there is one thing the president has neglected to tell his fellow Americans. A first-class medical system cannot be purchased at Walmart discount prices. His promises of further tax cuts and health-care reforms are mutually exclusive. He will have to break one of the two promises…

“The foreign policy motto of his predecessor could have been: ‘If you don’t want to be my brother, I’ll smash your skull.’ Obama clearly takes a different approach to foreign policy… In the coming years, people will start asking themselves: What does America get in return? Is it a soft or a hard currency to be open? The answer will most likely be found in Tehran, Beijing and Moscow…

“Commander-in-chief Obama is sending mixed messages. On the one hand, he is taking a dovish approach to the Arabs, extending his hand to Islam and offering a peace pipe to the Russians. On the other hand…, the US military is adding large numbers of troops to its forces in Afghanistan, while unmanned drones are being used to stage attacks in Pakistan’s border region… His strategy has already bred results, but they are not what he expected. Anti-American sentiment is growing in Pakistan… If Pakistan, a nuclear state, falls into the hands of fundamentalists, Obama will have handed the West more than just another defeat…

“The closing of the CIA prison in Guantanamo Bay and the ban on torture in interrogations brought the sinister practices of the Bush years to a necessary end. This deserves respect, but not applause. Obama’s America is merely returning to the normal state of a democratic nation governed by the rule of law. Although the torture practices have been abolished, no one is being called to account…

“Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is increasingly proving to be a weak point in Obama’s cabinet… This year, bank bonuses are likely to be twice as high as they were before the crisis. This may be a nuisance during normal times, but today — in light of the government’s bailouts of the banks — it is nothing short of scandalous…

“Vice President Joe Biden is… known for his charm as well as his wagging tongue. He embarrassed his boss, for example, when he said of the bailout plans in Washington: ‘If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong’…

“So far, the Obama presidency is as contradictory as reality. No one today can say whether he will end up being the president he wants to be… Many US newspapers speak admiringly of Obama, calling him ‘larger than life.’ But that too remains to be seen. Perhaps life will turn out to be larger than Obama.”

The Demise of the Superpower USA

Der Spiegel Online wrote on April 29:

“The severe crisis is affecting the United States, which is already in a weakened position, and it could accelerate the country’s relative demise as a superpower which already began a long time ago. American industry, or what is left of it, is already in a deplorable condition today… The history of the US auto industry… is the history of America as an economic superpower, from its brilliant ascent to its agonizingly slow demise…

“Never before has a country lived at the expense of the future with such reckless abandon. The United States today is an economy that sucks in the savings of other nations. America currently needs more than half of worldwide savings merely to avoid falling below the levels of previous years. The government and private households borrow roughly $1 billion (€760 million) on each business day… Even when adjusted for the size of today’s economy, the US’s current debts significantly exceed debt levels during the Great Depression. The superpower has become an empire of debt. The most dangerous element of President Obama’s crisis management program is that this debt is not being reduced, but expanded.

“… no one knows whether… all the money being thrown at the aggressive virus fueling this crisis will only make it worse. Debts are being fought with debts, meaning that not only banks but entire countries could end up bankrupt. Perhaps the efforts to combat the current crisis are merely laying the foundations for the next crisis, which will be bigger still.”

“Plane Stupid”

The Daily News reported on April 27:

“A perfect storm of idiocy led to a frightening 9/11 flashback for thousands of New Yorkers Monday when a jumbo jet and an F-16 fighter jet buzzed lower Manhattan without warning. A ‘furious’ Mayor Bloomberg denounced the dunces who dreamed up the stunt – and the NYPD officials and bureaucrats who never told him about it… Sources said the chief reason for the panic-inducing flight was to create souvenir pictures of Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty to be given out – like a presidential tie clip – to family, friends or supporters…

“The planes appeared on the horizon around 10 a.m. and sent a chill through the city. Flying in as low as 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet above New York City, they circled the Statue of Liberty before flying over Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey. Before they vanished, hundreds of frightened people had jammed emergency phone lines, and thousands of terrified people evacuated from buildings in the city and across the river in New Jersey… ‘The President was furious,’ a White House insider said.”

CBS wrote on April 28:

“Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay… But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out…”

According to Bloomberg, dated April 28, “The flight by the VC-25… and two F-16 fighter jets cost $328,835, Air Force spokeswoman Vicki Stein said.” 

It’s Politics–Specter Becomes a Democrat, Possibly Giving Democrats Full Control of the Senate

The Washington Post reported on April 28:

“Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch parties and run for reelection in November 2010 as a Democrat, he announced today, a decision that could have wide-ranging consequences for the Senate and President Obama’s agenda. Specter told reporters that he received a ‘bleak’ poll Friday from his advisers that showed virtually no chance of him winning in the GOP primary next spring against Pat Toomey, a former Republican House member…

“The move brings Democrats to 59 seats in the Senate, just one shy of the 60 they need to exert filibuster-proof control over the chamber. In Minnesota, Democrat Al Franken holds a 312-vote lead over former senator Norm Coleman (R), but Coleman has appealed the result to the state Supreme Court. Oral arguments in the case are expected to begin in June… Assuming the court sides with Franken in Minnesota, it will mark the first time since the 95th Congress — 1977 to 1979 — that Democrats have controlled 60 or more Senate seats.”

Pros and Cons of Global Warming

The Associated Press wrote on April 24:

“Former Vice President Al Gore, the leading American voice on climate change, urged lawmakers Friday to… take action to reduce greenhouse gases, but Democrats and Republicans sparred even more vigorously over the cost of dealing with global warming.

“Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work on climate change, told a congressional hearing that ‘the dire and growing threat’ of a warmer earth requires the parties to unite to deal with the environmental threat. He endorsed a House Democratic bill that would limit carbon dioxide and other pollution linked to warming… But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich… argued that the Democratic proposal to reduce greenhouse gases would ‘punish the American people’ by imposing higher energy costs and threatening jobs…

“The House bill calls for mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent by mid-century. It also would require utilities to produce a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and impose new efficiency requirements… Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the committee’s top Republican, argued that the proposed ‘cap-and-trade’ system would cost tens of billions of dollars a year… House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio denounced the draft bill as a ‘massive national energy tax on every American …. who drives a car, buys a product manufactured in the United States, or has the audacity to flip on a light switch’…

“While Republicans were critical, some Democrats expressed concern as well. ‘How do we protect our people?’ asked Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., whose state is reeling from the economic recession and is home to many energy-intensive industries, including the ailing auto industry. Dingell said he’s not convinced the bill will protect U.S. jobs, especially if China isn’t forced to take similar actions.”

How Democrats Suppress Global Warming Dissent

News Climate Depot reported on April 25:

“UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at a high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. Monckton told Climate Depot that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.

“‘The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,’ Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. ‘They are cowards.’… According to Monckton, House Democrats told the Republican committee staff earlier this week that they would be putting forward an unnamed ‘celebrity’ as their star witness Friday… The ‘celebrity’ witness turned out to be Gore. Monckton said the GOP replied they would respond to the Democrats’ ‘celebrity’ with an unnamed ‘celebrity’ of their own. But Monckton claims that when the Democrats were told who the GOP witness would be, they refused to allow him to testify alongside Gore… ‘The Democrats have a lot to learn about the right of free speech under the US Constitution’…, Monckton said from the airport Thursday evening.”

Soon Civil Unrest in Germany Over Bad Economy?

Netzeitung reported on April 26:

“The economic crisis is hitting the German psyche hard; a new survey says 72 percent of Germans are scared by the crisis and over 30 percent would demonstrate on the streets… In the last week, German politicians and union leaders have debated whether or not social unrest will arrive in Germany once companies are forced to lay off workers and the economy slows down further.

“The Sunday survey in Bild am Sonntag says 54 percent of Germans believe there will be unrest in the coming months. Eastern Germans are gloomier, with 61 percent percent believing that unrest is coming. West Germans are more likely to take to the streets than those from the east, the survey found, with 34 percent of westerners saying they would demonstrate compared to only 27 percent of easterners.

“The first big test of whether Germany’s social fabric is fraying comes… on May 1st, the annual day of work celebrated all over Europe, often with labor demonstrations. In Berlin, where the annual demonstrations often turn violent, with anarchists burning cars and clashing with police, the city is preparing for larger-than-usual rallies. ‘Attacks by extremists on police are rising,’ Konrad Freiberg, the head of the Union of Police, told Bild. ‘Already by May first, the violence threatens to escalate.'”

The Great Depression of 1929–Is History Repeating Itself in 2009?

Der Spiegel Online wrote the following on April 29:

“Is history repeating itself? The current global downturn has many parallels to the Great Depression. And if the current massive bailout packages fail, the effect on the world’s economies could be similarly drastic…

“More than 5 million people in the United States have lost their jobs since the crisis began. As if the country were undergoing fever convulsions, more than 650,000 were catapulted into the streets in the last month alone.

“Most experts are now convinced that Germany will follow the United States along this downward trajectory… Unemployment will rise sharply. It is expected to exceed 4 million by this fall and hit 5 million by next year. By then, at the latest, the crisis will have become reality for millions of people, as it reaches private households, forces more companies into bankruptcy and pushes countless loans into default, only making things worse for the country’s already ailing banks…

“In the wake of the economic crisis, Germany fell into the hands of the Nazis. The slogan, ‘Hitler – Our Last Hope,’ was plastered on campaign posters in the 1930s. Many agreed with the sentiment at the time… On May 2, 1930, Hitler, a man who had been ridiculed until then, was suddenly speaking to a packed house at Berlin’s Sportpalast hall. Now the people, or at least a significant portion of the people, were eager to hear Hitler speak.

“After the Reichstag election in the late summer of 1930, a splinter group had suddenly become a force to be reckoned with. The Nazi Party won 18.3 percent of the vote and 107 seats in the Reichstag, making it the country’s second-most powerful party. The economic crisis had catapulted the party to power within just a short space of time.

“Berlin is not Weimar. And the current economic crisis has not produced any noticeable political changes — at least not yet… This could change if the crisis worsens and unemployment rises significantly…”

Latin American Summit in Trinidad

The Los Angeles Times wrote on April 20:

“Rebuffing criticism of the warm greetings he exchanged with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, President Obama said Sunday that the United States, with its overwhelming military superiority and need to improve its global image, could afford to extend such diplomatic ‘courtesy’… A running theme of the summit was Obama’s cordial dealings with Chavez, who once called former President George W. Bush the ‘devil’ and who last month dismissed Obama as an ‘ignoramus.’ The two were photographed smiling and clasping hands.

“At one meeting, Chavez made a show of walking around the table as the cameras rolled and handing Obama a copy of ‘Open Veins of Latin America,’ a 1971 book by Eduardo Galeano chronicling U.S. and European imperialism in the region. Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, appearing on CNN on Sunday, said it was ‘irresponsible’ for Obama to be seen ‘laughing and joking’ with the Venezuelan president.

“Obama… said it ‘was a nice gesture to give me a book. I’m a reader’ [The book was in Portuguese, a language that Mr. Obama does not understand.]… The U.S. has nothing to fear from Venezuela, a large supplier of crude oil to the country, Obama said…

“Obama aides were not so charitable toward Chavez. In a background briefing earlier, one senior official accused Chavez of performing for the cameras… Apparently impressed with Obama, Chavez seemed ready to reevaluate relations with the United States. He announced that he was considering appointing an ambassador to Washington…

“Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s leader, gave a 50-minute speech at the opening ceremony Friday in which he denounced capitalism. At a news conference, Bolivian President Evo Morales alleged that the U.S. had been complicit in attempts to overthrow him. Morales also wanted Obama to repudiate an alleged attempt to assassinate him last week. In response, Obama said he wanted to ‘condemn any efforts at violent overthrows of democratically elected governments, wherever it happens in the hemisphere. That is not the policy of our government.'”

Latin American Leaders Derail USA in Mr. Obama’s Presence

Bloomberg wrote on April 18:

“Latin American leaders railed against the U.S. during President Barack Obama’s first trip to the region, turning what was intended to mark a new direction in relations into a history lesson that chastised ‘Yankee troop’ interventions and U.S.-dictated economic policies. Obama arrived at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday promising to ‘listen and learn’ from regional leaders. He got an earful.

“In the weekend’s first speeches, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner voiced grievances on issues ranging from the U.S. drug war to American support for counterinsurgency movements of the 1980s. Both urged Obama to end the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, the only country in the Americas excluded from the 34-nation summit…

“Nicaragua’s president said he was ‘ashamed’ Cuba wasn’t invited to participate in the summit and called Obama’s lifting last week of travel and remittance restrictions for Cuban- Americans ‘insufficient and unacceptable… Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Obama during a meeting today with leaders from the Union of South American Nations that another Summit of the Americas without Cuba was unacceptable.”

Gingrich: Obama’s Conduct Unacceptable

The Associated Press wrote on April 20:

“Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich charged Monday that President Barack Obama’s cordial greeting with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez sends a poor message to enemies of America. In a nationally broadcast interview, the Georgia Republican also accused the administration of being too slow to react to North Korea’s launching of a rocket test and said it has reached out too much to ease relations with Cuba… Gingrich complained that the simple act of a smiling Obama shaking Chavez’s hand caused a book Chavez has written to skyrocket on the best-seller lists in the United States.

“‘What I find distressing,’ he said, ‘is that the administration opposes opening up oil exploration,’ but yet Obama has ‘bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia’ and now reached out to Chavez, whom Gingrich said has been conducting ‘a vicious anti-American campaign.’ Gingrich… said, ‘How do you mend relationships with someone who actively hates your country… Cuba releases zero prisoners,’ he said, ‘yet we make nice with Cuba… I’m not for deluding myself about smiles and words.'”

Is the West Finally Waking Up to Iran?

Times on Line wrote on April 20:

“British delegates joined a dramatic diplomatic walkout today when President Ahmadinejad of Iran told a major UN conference against racism that the state of Israel had been founded ‘on the pretext of Jewish suffering’ during the Second World War. Around 20 delegates, including envoys from the UK, France, and Finland stood up and left the room at what was considered an anti-Semitic remark by the Iranian leader… Nine Western countries… had already decided to boycott the conference entirely…

“Earlier today, Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland in protest at a brief meeting yesterday between Mr Ahmadinejad and his Swiss counterpart, Hans-Rudolf Merz.

“The conference opened as Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day – which falls this year on the 120th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth. This morning the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told his Cabinet that while Israel commemorates the six million Jews slaughtered by the Nazis, ‘in Switzerland, the guest of honour is a racist and a Holocaust-denier who doesn’t conceal his intention to wipe Israel off the face of this earth…’

“The Obama administration announced at the weekend that it would boycott the meeting because its draft declaration makes reference to the text agreed in 2001 at the UN’s first anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa. That document was agreed after the United States and Israel walked out over attempts to liken Zionism – the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land – to racism. Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland joined the boycott…

“The major sticking points in the draft final declaration prepared for the current meeting concern its implied criticism of Israel and an attempt by Muslim governments to remove all criticism of Islam, Sharia law, the Prophet Muhammad and other tenets of their faith. The American decision to boycott the meeting has been given extra weight by the fact that it was taken by the country’s first black president.

“Speaking in Trinidad yesterday after attending the Summit of the Americas, Mr Obama said that he would love to be ‘involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe’ but wanted to avoid a reprise of the Durban conference during which ‘folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were oftentimes completely hypocritical and counterproductive.'”

Is the UN Doomed?

Der Spiegel Online reported on April 21 about President Ahmadinejad’s hateful speech and the West’s decision to boycott the UN summit:

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predictably lambasted Israel at the UN anti-racism conference, prompting a mass walk-out by Western diplomats. German newspapers on Tuesday praise Berlin for deciding to boycott the meeting… Over 40 diplomats representing Western nations walked out of the hall as soon as Ahmadinjad began to attack Israel… Meanwhile the Iranian delegates applauded their hard-line leader.

“Several Western countries, including the United States and Germany, had boycotted the conference before the event out of fear that it could become a platform for anti-Semitic sentiments and would be dominated by unfair criticism of Israel. The previous UN anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001 descended into chaos when the US and Israel walked out after some Arab states sought to equate Zionism with racism…

“The conservative Die Welt writes: ‘… Germany, along with a number of other nations, was criticized yesterday for not sending delegates to the UN anti-racism conference in Geneva. Why should one listen to a man who has denied the Holocaust repeatedly, at an anti-racism conference of all places, and on the very day that Israel commemorates the victims of the mass murder and on the 120th birthday of (Adolf Hitler), the man who was responsible for the crime?… The German government should be praised for its clarity and constancy’…

“In an op-ed piece for SPIEGEL ONLINE, Henryk M. Broder writes: ‘… The appearance by the Iranian president made clear what kind of racism he and his allies want to protect under the umbrella of the UN and what kind they want to fight. It’s not only large companies such as Opel, Saab and GM that are struggling to stay in business. The United Nations could soon file for bankruptcy too.'”

Israel Prepares for War with Iran

Times On Line wrote on April 18:

“The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government. Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control… aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack…

“Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tonnes of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium. The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles…

“The possible Israeli strike on Iran has drawn comparisons to its attack on the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad in 1981. That strike, which destroyed the facility in under 100 seconds, was completed without Israeli losses and checked Iraqi ambitions for a nuclear weapons programme. ‘We would not make the threat [against Iran] without the force to back it. There has been a recent move, a number of on-the-ground preparations, that indicate Israel’s willingness to act,’ said another official from Israel’s intelligence community… An Israeli attack on Iran would entail flying over Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, where US forces have a strong presence…

“Among recent preparations by the airforce was the Israeli attack of a weapons convoy in Sudan bound for militants in the Gaza Strip… Israel has made public its intention to hold the largest-ever nationwide drill next month… Israel will conduct an exercise with US forces to test the ability of Arrow, its US-funded missile defence system. The exercise would test whether the system could intercept missiles launched at Israel. ‘Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate the threat of a nuclear Iran. According to Israeli Intelligence they will have the bomb within two years … Once they have a bomb it will be too late, and Israel will have no choice to strike — with or without America,’ an official from the Israeli Defence Ministry said.”

North Korea Declares War

CNN wrote on April 18:

“North Korea said Saturday any sanctions or pressure applied against it following its rocket launch earlier this month will be considered a ‘declaration of war.’ In an announcement on state-run television, the country said it was ready to step up efforts to develop nuclear weapons and poised for a military response to any moves against it… On Monday the United Nations condemned North Korea… for launching a rocket… The U.N. statement says the rocket launch was ‘in contravention’ to a 2006 Security Council resolution that demanded that North Korea not launch any ballistic missiles. The 15-member council also voted unanimously for a statement by the council’s president demanding the country make no more launches…

“‘Now that the group officially declared confrontation and war against [North Korea], its revolutionary armed forces will opt for increasing the nation’s defense capability including nuclear deterrent in every way, without being bound to the agreement adopted at the six-party talks,’ [the statement] continued… Referring to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the statement added, ‘The Lee group of traitors should never forget that Seoul is just 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the Military Demarcation Line.’ That line was established by the 1953 Armistice Agreement between the two Koreas — which are still technically at war… ‘When a nuclear war will break out due to the war chariot of the “South Korea-U.S. military alliance” is a matter of time,’ it said…”

Kerry Criticizes Obama Over Pakistan

USA Today wrote on April 21:

“Just back from a visit to Pakistan, Sen. John Kerry says the Obama administration’s plan for that volatile country, rolled out last month with great fanfare, ‘is not a real strategy.’ ‘Pakistan is in a moment of peril,’ Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during a session with USA TODAY reporters and editors. ‘And I believe there is not in place yet an adequate policy or plan to deal with it.’

“In an interview after the session, Kerry advised the Obama administration to stop using the term ‘Af-Pak,’ to describe a unified strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, because ‘I think it does a disservice to both countries and to the policy…’ Kerry’s comments amounted to one of the most serious criticisms leveled by a Democrat at Obama on foreign policy…”

Beware of the GIVE Act and Its “Relatives”

WorldNetDaily wrote on April 11:

“In an era in which Congress can approve thousands of pages of legislation spending hundreds of billions of dollars without reading the proposal… there is enough in the ‘GIVE Act,’ now awaiting a conference committee in Congress after being approved by both the U.S. House and Senate, to cause critics to shiver. For example, it certainly imposes a requirement for public service on some people, even though its original much-feared study on mandatory service for all was moved to another bill during congressional debate.

“The latest version includes a ‘National Service Reserve Corps’ whose members have completed a ‘term of national service,’ ‘[have] successfully completed training’ and ‘completed not less than 10 hours of volunteering each year.’ It also raises First Amendment issues over its limitations on what various corps participants are allowed to do.

“For example, it states those in an ‘approved national service position’ may not try to influence legislation, engage in protests or petitions, take positions on union organizing, engage in partisan political activities, or, among other issues, be ‘engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization.’

“But probably the biggest red flag for many is how the proposal fits into the overall picture painted by President Obama when he described to a Colorado Springs audience a ‘National Civilian Security Force’ that he wants as big and well-funded as the U.S. military – a staggering suggestion that would involve hundreds of billions of dollars a year… [The bill’s] original language called for a study of how best to implement a mandatory national service program for citizens of the United States. Later the language was dropped from that bill, only to appear at the same time in another legislative proposal.”

The Associated Press reported on April 21:

“Calling on Americans to volunteer, President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college… Congress passed the bill last month with largely bipartisan support and Obama is seeking $1.1 billion to fund it next year… AmeriCorps offers a range of volunteer opportunities including housing construction, youth outreach, disaster response and caring for the elderly. Most receive an annual stipend of slightly less than $12,000 for working 10 months to a year…

“People 55 and older could earn $1,000 education awards by getting involved in public service. Those awards can be transferred to a child, grandchild or even someone they mentored. Students from sixth grade through senior year of high school could earn a $500 education award for helping in their neighborhoods during a new summer program.”

Beware of “Hate Crimes”

WorldNetDaily wrote on April 20:

“Julio Severo, a prominent Brazilian pro-family activist, has been forced into exile because of the ‘hate crimes’ laws that are being implemented in his native land, perhaps providing a preview of what Christians can expect in the United States should similar ‘hate crimes’ proposals be implemented. And several organizations are reporting Congress could begin adopting measures similarly draconian to Brazil’s as early as this week.

“‘It is imperative that we contact all members of the House and demand that they vote against this bill as it will not protect a pastor, Bible teacher, Sunday School teacher, youth leader or anyone else from prosecution if he or she teaches against homosexuality if an individual who hears their message then goes out and commits a crime against a homosexual,’ wrote Pastor Rick Scarborough of Vision America Action…

“Severo reports he was forced to flee his homeland after federal prosecutors there recently charged him with ‘homophobia’ for his statements about the nation’s ‘Gay’ Parade in 2006. Severo told WND that while Brazil does not criminalize Christianity, it does regulate what biblical principles can and cannot be preached, and it bans biblical citations that disapprove of the homosexual lifestyle… He said, ‘Today it is risky to preach a complete Gospel in Brazil. Because of the diversity politics, you cannot say anything negative about witchcraft, especially when such practices are from Africa’…

“Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission was among those raising the warning of impending ‘hate crimes’ legislation in the United States… ‘In other countries where these types of laws have been implemented, pastors and Christians have been jailed and fined for their faithful adherence to the Scriptures,’ he said…

“Also raising the alarm was the Traditional Values Coalition, where Executive Director Andrea Lafferty said, ‘the so-called hate crimes bill will be used to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, business owners, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, Christian counselors, religious broadcasters and anyone else whose actions are based upon and reflect the truths found in the Bible.’

“The organization warned based on a broad definition of ‘intimidation,’ even ‘a pastor’s sermon could be considered “hate speech” … if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on any “sexual orientation.”‘ The organization noted during markup of the plan in a 2007 committee hearing, Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., admitted that the law would not protect a pastor from prosecution.”

John McCain’s Top Adviser For Gay Marriages and Against Bible

FoxNews.com wrote on April 17:

“John McCain’s top adviser from the presidential campaign [Steve Schmidt] urged fellow Republicans on Friday to warm up to gay rights and warned that the GOP risks becoming the ‘religious party’ with its opposition to same-sex marriage… He urged Republicans, in the near-term, to endorse civil unions and stop using the Bible as rationale for gay-marriage opposition…

“Schmidt, whose sister is a lesbian and who supports same-sex marriage, said he understands the Republican Party probably won’t reverse its resistance to same-sex marriage anytime soon… President Obama also stops short of supporting gay marriage — he supports civil unions — but states across the country are moving toward extending such rights to gay couples. Schmidt predicted gay marriage will create a bigger and bigger divide between the GOP and the electorate in the years ahead. He said that as young voters age, they may adopt conservative views on the economy and national security — but they will not abandon liberal, social beliefs.”

How Miss California Was “Set Up” by a Gay Judge

FoxNews reported on April 20:

“Miss California Carrie Prejean made her controversial comments on Sunday night’s show… When asked by judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip blogger, whether she believed in gay marriage… Prejean, said ‘We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.’

“Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, tells FOXNews.com that he was ‘saddened’ by Prejean’s statement. ‘As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman,’ said Lewis in a statement. ‘I believe all religions should be able to ordain what unions they see fit. I do not believe our government should be able to discriminate against anyone and religious beliefs have no politics in the Miss California family.'”

Religious beliefs have no politics–or did he mean, place–in the Miss California family??? Also, would the likes of Lewis and Hilton have been equally saddened if Carrie Prejean would have answered that marriage should NOT be limited to a man and a woman? Of course not! But Prejan’s answer did not fit into the gay-agenda and was therefore condemned. What a shame! What an abomination!

Mr. Obama and His Torture Memos…

Die Welt wrote on April 22:

“President Barack Obama opened the door on Tuesday to possible prosecutions of U.S. officials who laid the legal groundwork for the torture of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration. That marked a shift for the Obama administration, which has emphasized it does not want to dwell on the past with lengthy probes into policies put in place after 9/11. Obama did not rule out charges against those who wrote the opinions justifying the methods used on captured terrorism suspects. Obama also said he would not necessarily oppose an effort to pursue a ‘further accounting’ or investigation into the Bush-era interrogation program that included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, forced nudity, shoving people into walls and other methods. But pressure in the U.S. Congress is growing for a full-blown investigation of the CIA interrogation program.

“Controversy has erupted across the political spectrum over last week’s release by the Obama administration of classified memos detailing the program to question al Qaeda suspects. Human rights groups say tactics such as waterboarding — a form of simulated drowning — constituted torture and violated U.S. and international laws. Conservative critics contend Obama has endangered the country by releasing CIA secrets. The New York Times reported that Dennis Blair, Obama’s national intelligence director, told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques yielded ‘high-value information’ that ‘provided a deeper understanding’ of the al Qaeda organization.”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on April 22:

“President Obama on Monday paid his first formal visit to CIA headquarters, in order, as he put it, to ‘underscore the importance’ of the agency and let its staff ‘know that you’ve got my full support.’ Assuming he means it, the President should immediately declassify all memos concerning what intelligence was gleaned, and what plots foiled, by the interrogations of high-level al Qaeda detainees in the wake of September 11…

“One major concern here is what Mr. Obama’s decision to release these memos says about his own political leadership. He claims that one of his goals as President is to restore more comity to our politics, especially concerning national security. He also knows he needs a CIA willing to take risks to keep the country safe. Yet Mr. Obama seems more than willing to indulge the revenge fantasies of the left, as long as its potential victims served a different President. And while he is willing to release classified documents about interrogation techniques, Mr. Obama refuses to release documents that more fully discuss their results.”

The Wall Street Journal added on April 23:

“Mark down the date. Tuesday, April 21, 2009, is the moment that any chance of a new era of bipartisan respect in Washington ended. By inviting the prosecution of Bush officials for their antiterror legal advice, President Obama has injected a poison into our politics that he and the country will live to regret… until now, the U.S. political system has avoided the spectacle of a new Administration prosecuting its predecessor for policy disagreements. This is what happens in Argentina, Malaysia or Peru, countries where the law is treated merely as an extension of political power…

“Just as with the AIG bonuses, he is trying to co-opt his left-wing base by playing to it — only to encourage it more. Within hours of Mr. Obama’s Tuesday comments, Senator Carl Levin piled on with his own accusatory Intelligence Committee report… and both Europe’s left and the U.N. are signaling their desire to file their own charges against former U.S. officials.

“Those officials won’t be the only ones who suffer if all of this goes forward. Congress will face questions about what the Members knew and when, especially Nancy Pelosi when she was on the House Intelligence Committee in 2002. The Speaker now says she remembers hearing about waterboarding, though not that it would actually be used. Does anyone believe that? Porter Goss, her GOP counterpart at the time, says he knew exactly what he was hearing and that, if anything, Ms. Pelosi worried the CIA wasn’t doing enough to stop another attack. By all means, put her under oath.

“Mr. Obama may think he can soar above all of this, but he’ll soon learn otherwise… The CIA will have its reputation smeared, and its agents second-guessing themselves. And if there is another terror attack against Americans, Mr. Obama will have set himself up for the argument that his campaign against the Bush policies is partly to blame.

“Above all, the exercise will only embitter Republicans, including the moderates and national-security hawks Mr. Obama may need in the next four years… And speaking of which, when will the GOP Members of Congress begin to denounce this partisan scapegoating? Senior Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Richard Lugar, John McCain, Orrin Hatch, Pat Roberts and Arlen Specter have hardly been profiles in courage.

“Mr. Obama is more popular than his policies, due in part to his personal charm and his seeming goodwill. By indulging his party’s desire to criminalize policy advice, he has unleashed furies that will haunt his Presidency.”

Global Economy Will Decline Further

BBCNews reported on April 23:

“The global economy is set to decline by 1.3% in 2009, in the first global recession since World War II, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says… It now projects that the UK will see its economy shrink by 4.1% in 2009, and by a further 0.4% in 2010.

“But other major economies are predicted to shrink even more, with Germany declining by 5.6%, Japan by 6.2%, and Italy by 4.4% in 2009. The prospects for the advanced economies are not much brighter in 2010, with an overall forecast of zero growth. The IMF says this represents ‘by far the deepest post-World War II recession’ with an actual decline in output in countries making up 75% of the world economy…

“The prospects for world trade are even gloomier, with the IMF now forecasting world trade volumes to decline by 11% in 2009, and barely grow at all in 2010. After 60 years as the engine of world growth, the sharp fall in trade is now hitting many of the leading exporting nations, particularly in Asia.”

Bloomberg added on April 22:

“Chancellor Angela Merkel stood firm in rejecting any new German economic stimulus program even as the International Monetary Fund said the recession is worse than previously thought and called for measures to spur demand… The chancellor’s comments echo statements today by her finance and economy ministers underlining unity in the coalition over not stretching the budget more to pay for new stimulus steps.

“Still, the government may be forced to ease its purse strings as the recession becomes steeper, pushing up unemployment and company closures, as Sept. 27 national election approach. ‘Companies going belly up, unemployment worsening — these are set to become more and more manifest,’ Hans-Juergen Hoffmann, managing director of polling institute Psephos GmbH, said in an interview today.”

“The American Dream Has Become a Nightmare”

Der Spiegel Online wrote on April 23:

“Good news from six US banks has raised hopes that an end to the financial crisis might be in sight. But German experts think the euphoria is wishful thinking. As they see it, things are going to get worse soon — and banks will be forced to make billions more in write-downs.”

The magazine added in a related article, dated April 23:

“The financial crisis in the US has triggered a social crisis of historic dimensions… the country has not experienced since the Great Depression early in the 20th century. In addition to bringing down stock prices and corporate earnings, the current crisis has deprived millions of people of their livelihood.

“Poverty as a mass phenomenon is back. About 50 million Americans have no health insurance, and more people are added to their ranks every day. More than 32 million people receive food stamps, and 13 million are unemployed. The homeless population is growing in tandem with a rapid rise in the rate of foreclosures, which were 45 percent higher in March 2009 than they were in the same month of the previous year…

“The government’s social safety net is insufficient to allow people who have lost their jobs to continue living their lives as if little or nothing had happened… In a recent speech, Obama said that he envisions ‘a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes.’ But these words seem empty in the current crisis. The president must now look on as the country comes apart at the seams…

“Many private corporations across America are withdrawing their funding for social welfare projects. Ironically, their generosity is ending just as mass poverty is returning to America. The government is also contributing to a worsening of the crisis…

“Criminologist James Alan Fox, who has long warned of a rise in crisis-related crime, says that more and more Americans are struggling today. ‘The American dream to them is a nightmare, and the land of opportunity is but a cruel joke,’ Fox recently told the Washington Post. Recent statistics confirm his predictions, as America begins to turn into a brutal place once again. April has already gone down as one of the bloodier months in American criminal history…

“‘This is the American way,’ New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes cynically. He points out that Americans have killed about 120,000 of their fellow Americans since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — nearly 25 times the number of Americans killed to date in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“More and more experts attribute the rise in crime in recent months to the dire state of the economy. ‘I’ve never seen such a large number (of killings) over such a short period of time involving so many victims,’ Jack Levin, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University in Boston, told the Washington Post…

“The crisis can disrupt everything, including Americans’ faith in the beneficial actions of their own government. The Obama administration has already pumped billions into the banking system, and additional billions have been earmarked for road and bridge construction. Nevertheless, the social situation has steadily deteriorated.

“The euphoria over the country’s first black president… has ebbed away considerably… He continues to point his finger at his predecessor, the unpopular George W. Bush, to remind people how it all began. We have inherited a budget disaster, a real mess, he has said time and time again. But his words are no longer capable of igniting passions, because Bush is now history… The crisis has become Obama’s crisis.”

Vice President Biden–Less Than Truthful?

Fox News reported on April 9:

“Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a ‘liar’ on Thursday, dramatically escalating a feud between Biden and aides to former President George W. Bush over Biden’s claims to have rebuked Bush in private meetings.

“‘I hate to say this, but he’s a serial exaggerator,’ Rove told FOX News. ‘If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop.’ Rove added: ‘You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States.’

“Biden’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although Biden spokesman Jay Carney told Fox on Wednesday: ‘The vice president stands by his remarks.’ Carney was referring to two controversial assertions by Biden, the latest coming Tuesday during an interview on CNN.

“‘I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office,’ Biden began, “Well, Joe,” he said, “I’m a leader.” And I said: “Mr. President, turn… around [and] look behind you. No one is following.”‘

“The exchange is purely ‘fictional,’ said Rove, who was Bush’s top political adviser in the White House. ‘It didn’t happen,’ Rove [said]… Rove’s skepticism was echoed by a variety of other Bush aides, including former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, chief of staff Andy Card and legislative liaison Candida Wolff…

“Throughout his career, Biden has often been accused of boasting about his accomplishments, embellishing his credentials and even stealing the words of others. He dropped out of the 1988 presidential race after being accused of plagiarizing British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

“Last July, Biden came under fire for telling a questionable story about being ‘shot at’ in Iraq. When questioned by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled by saying: ‘I was near where a shot landed’…

“In September, Biden again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones — this time on ‘the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where my helicopter was forced down.’

“‘If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me,’ Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. ‘Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.’ But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden’s visit to Afghanistan in February 2008…”

The White House–Less Than Truthful?

On April 8, 2009, the Politico reported about President Obama’s bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, as follows:

“The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets. ‘It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,’ said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“The Washington Times called the alleged bow a ‘shocking display of fealty to a foreign potentate’ and said it violated centuries of American tradition of not deferring to royalty. The Weekly Standard, meanwhile, noted that American protocol apparently rules out bowing, or at least it reportedly did on the occasion of a Clinton ‘near-bow’ to the emperor of Japan.

“Interestingly, a columnist in the Saudi-backed Arabic paper Asharq Alawsat also took the gesture as a bow and appreciated the move.”

Same Sex Marriage Bill in New York?

The Global News Coverage wrote on April 16:

“New York Governor David Paterson announced legislation this morning that would legalize same sex marriage in the state. The same bill passed the state Assembly, but was defeated in the state Senate in 2007… The New York state Senate is currently ruled by a slim 32 to 30 Democratic majority and many reports indicate that the bill’s passage in the Senate is unlikely. If the legislation is passed, New York would be the fifth state to permit same sex marriage in the United States after Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont.”

More Bank Failures–And no End in Sight…

The Associated Press reported on April 10:

“Federal regulators shut down two more banks Friday, raising the number of bank failures so far this year to 23. The first bank was Cape Fear Bank in Wilmington, N.C., the first North Carolina bank to fail in nearly 16 years. The other bank was New Frontier Bank of Greeley, Colo., the second Colorado bank this year to collapse… This year’s tally of 23 bank failures is nearing the total for all of 2008, when 25 U.S. banks were seized by regulators…

“A growing number of banks are becoming insolvent as home prices fall and unemployment rises, causing more individuals and businesses to default on their debt.

“The FDIC estimated that the closure of Cape Fear Bank will reduce the federal deposit insurance fund by $131 million, and that the closure of New Frontier Bank will lower it by another $670 million. As of the end of 2008, the insurance fund stood at $18.9 billion – the lowest level in nearly a quarter-century, and down from $52.4 billion at the end of 2007. The FDIC expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund about $65 billion through 2013… At the end of 2008, the FDIC had 252 banks and thrifts on its list of troubled institutions, up from 171 in the third quarter of last year.”

Military Blows Up Pigs and Rats To Test Armor

USA Today wrote on April 8:

“Military researchers have dressed live pigs in body armor and strapped them into Humvee simulators that were then blown up with explosives to study the link between roadside bomb blasts and brain injury. For an 11-month period that ended in December, researchers subjected pigs and rats to about 200 blasts, according to Pentagon documents and interviews. The explosions have ranged in intensity, wounding some of the pigs and killing others. Roadside bombs are the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The research on pigs has determined that body armor does not worsen brain injury, said Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which conducted the study. ‘If use of animal subjects in testing results in our ability to save lives or prevent injury to our troops, we’re confident this is the right thing to do,’ Walker said. Pigs without body armor died from blasts within 24 to 48 hours, while those with armor survived ‘significantly higher blasts,’ she said.

“Blasting pigs raises ‘red flags,’ said Martin Stephens, vice president for animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States… ‘I think the relevance of this is highly questionable’…

“DARPA declined to say where the tests had taken place. The next round of the testing is scheduled for later this year. Stephens called on the Pentagon to end testing on pigs. ‘Is this the best they can do after several years of losing soldiers to roadside bombs?’ he said. U.S. car companies used live animals, including pigs, for crash tests until the early 1990s. They stopped after protests from animal rights groups…”

America’s Betrayal of Its Allies

The Jerusalem Post wrote on April 9:

“Like it or not, the United States of America is no longer the world’s policeman. This was the message of Barack Obama’s presidential journey to Britain, France, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Iraq this past week.

“Somewhere between apologizing for American history – both distant and recent; genuflecting before the unelected, bigoted king of Saudi Arabia; announcing that he will slash the US’s nuclear arsenal, scrap much of America’s missile defense programs and emasculate the US Navy; leaving Japan to face North Korea and China alone; telling the Czechs, Poles and their fellow former Soviet colonies, ‘Don’t worry, be happy,’ as he leaves them to Moscow’s tender mercies; humiliating Iraq’s leaders while kowtowing to Iran; preparing for an open confrontation with Israel; and thanking Islam for its great contribution to American history, President Obama made clear to the world’s aggressors that America will not be confronting them for the foreseeable future…

“This news is music to the ears of the American Left and their friends in Europe. Obama’s supporters like billionaire George Soros couldn’t be more excited at the self-induced demise of the American superpower. CNN’s former (anti-)Israel bureau chief Walter Rodgers wrote ecstatically in the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday, ‘America’s… superpower status, is being downgraded as rapidly as its economy’…

“If Obama’s assertions that Israel must support the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state, his declarations of support for the so-called Saudi ‘peace plan,’ which requires Israel to commit national suicide in exchange for ‘peace’ with the Arab world, and his continuous and increasingly frantic appeals for Iran to ‘engage’ his administration weren’t enough to show Israel that Obama is sacrificing the US’s alliance with the Jewish state in a bid to appease the Arabs and Iran, on Tuesday Vice President Joseph Biden made this policy explicit.

“When Biden told CNN that Israel would be ‘ill-advised’ to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, he made clear that from the administration’s perspective, an Israeli strike that prevents Iran from becoming a nuclear power is less acceptable than a nuclear-armed Iran. That is, the Obama administration prefers to see Iran become a nuclear power than to see Israel secure its very existence.

“AMERICA’S BETRAYAL of its democratic allies makes each of them more vulnerable to aggression at the hands of their enemies – enemies the Obama administration is now actively attempting to appease…

“THE RISKS that the newly inaugurated post-American world pose for America’s threatened friends are clear. But viable opportunities for survival do exist, and Israel can and must play a central role in developing them. Specifically, Israel must move swiftly to develop active strategic alliances with Japan, Iraq, Poland, and the Czech Republic and it must expand its alliance with India…

“Obama’s similarly disastrous bid to denude the US of its military power under the naive assumption that it will be able to use its new stature as a morally pure strategic weakling to win its enemies over to its side will fail spectacularly…

“But to survive the current period of American strategic madness, Israel and the US’s other unwanted allies must build alliances with one another – covertly if need be – to contain their adversaries in the absence of America. If they do so successfully, then the damage to global security induced by Obama’s emasculation of his country will be limited. If on the other hand, they fail, then America’s eventual return to its senses will likely come too late for its allies – if not for America itself.”

France Unhappy with Obama

Times On Line wrote on April 15:

“Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama’s efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated… The American President’s call ‘to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare’ was hot air, Mr Sarkozy’s diplomatic staff told him in a report. ‘It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States,’ they said… ‘The President [Sarkozy] is annoyed by what he sees as the naivety and the herd mentality of the media,’ said a journalist who is privy to Elysée thinking…

“Mr Sarkozy has put out a version of the proceedings at the London G20 economic summit which casts him as hero… This is to counter last week’s reports of Mr Obama saving the day by persuading President Hu of China to accept Mr Sarkozy’s demands for naming tax havens. According to the leaks, Mr Sarkozy shamed Mr Obama into intervening: ‘You were elected to build a new world. Tax havens are the embodiment of the old world,’ he is quoted as saying…

“Again, according to the Sarkozy version, at the Nato summit in Strasbourg, Mr Obama was meekly yielding to Turkey’s refusal to endorse Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance’s new Secretary-General. It took pressure from Mr Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel of Germany to stiffen him up and change his mind, say the French…

“It sounded like old Franco-American business as usual this morning when Bruno Le Maire, Mr Sarkozy’s Europe Minister, accused Washington of backing the northern and eastern EU members by wanting to turn the union into a mere free-trade zone. France and Germany are sticking to their vision of the ‘political’ Europe that others do not want, he said.”

North Korea Plays Hardball

The Financial Times wrote on April 14:

“North Korea on Tuesday ordered international nuclear inspectors to leave the country as it vowed to restart its nuclear reactor in response to United Nations condemnation of its long-range missile launch. The Stalinist state threatened to reactivate its nuclear plant at Yongbyon and start reprocessing fuel rods, which would increase its stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium. It also declared that it would not return to the six-party talks aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula…

“‘In case anyone missed the Taepodong-2 shot, which they practically posted on YouTube, the North Koreans are reminding everyone that they can do nuclear weapons too,’ said James Shinn, a former top Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency official on Asia. ‘Pyongyang is announcing itself an officially declared nuclear state – this was the foreign ministry speaking, not some anonymous cadre on background. It is a mockery of all their previous commitments within the six-party talks.’

“Bruce Klingner, a former CIA expert on North Korea, said the situation was ‘a case of the UN dithering and North Korea blustering’, agreeing with critics who accuse the UN of failing to enforce sanctions imposed on North Korea after it tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. He said the latest North Korean moves underscored that relations would not improve just because the US has a new administration…

“North Korea has also expelled international food aid workers who were helping deliver 500,000 tonnes of food that the US agreed to provide last year.”

Are the USA and Europe Giving In to Iran?

Reuters reported on April 13:

“The Obama administration and its European allies are considering dropping a long-standing U.S. demand that Iran immediately shut down its nuclear facilities if it enters talks over its atomic program, The New York Times reported on Monday on its website. The proposal would also allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks and would be a sharp break from the Bush administration, which had demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities, the report said…

“The New York Times cited European officials as saying that in talks during Obama’s visit to Europe there was agreement that Iran would not accept the immediate shutdown of its facilities that the Bush administration had demanded.”

The Netherlands and Europe Threaten Israel

Haaretz reported on April 11:

“The Netherlands must impose economic sanctions against Israel if the new government in Jerusalem thwarts the peace process with the Palestinians, the Dutch Labor party said last week. Members of Labor, which is a member of government as the country’s second largest party, said they intended to write a manifesto on the matter to the foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, from the centrist ruling CDA party, who is largely seen as a staunch supporter of Israel.

“In an interview for Radio 1, Labor’s Martijn van Dam said his party insisted that Verhagen and the European Union take ‘concrete’ action that demands Israel accept Hamas as a partner for dialogue. Van Dam also lamented the Netherlands and the European Union’s decision to blacklist Hamas.

“Van Dam went on to call Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ‘an extremist who is on the brink of racism,’ adding: ‘This is not a government with much prospect for peace.'”

In a related article, Haaretz wrote on April 14:

“Spain’s foreign minister said Tuesday that Europe would not accept the evasion by Israel of previous commitments made in peace negotiations… [These] comments came after Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said… last week that Western-backed peace efforts with the Palestinians had reached a ‘dead end’ and that Israel intended to present new ideas for diplomacy.”

Jews Bless the Sun at Sunrise Around the World

CNN reported on April 8:

“At dawn Wednesday, Jews around the world celebrated the Blessing of the Sun, an event that happens once every 28 years. Jews in Tiberias, Israel, participate in the Blessing of the Sun at sunrise Wednesday. According to Jewish tradition, the sun was at the same spot in the sky when it rose Wednesday as it was when the world was created…

“Jews first celebrated Wednesday in New Zealand — the first place the sun rises… In Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported 50,000 people celebrated the event at the Western Wall in Jerusalem…

“At Temple Beth Torah in Tamarac, Florida, Rabbi Michael Gold began his service by singing ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ by the Beatles… The middle-aged rabbi said he chose the song because it’s one his generation can relate to and it talks about the power of the sun… Wednesday’s blessing was rarer than most — it fell on the eve of Passover [actually, the first Day of Unleavened Bread], the Jewish holiday [actually, the Holy Day of God] commemorating the release of Jewish slaves [actually, Israelite slaves] from Egypt in Biblical times.

“Only a few times in history has the Blessing of the Sun coincided with the eve of Passover… The next Blessing of the Sun will occur in 2037…”

Is Catholic German Bishop Re-Writing History?

Der Spiegel Online wrote on April 13:

“A Catholic German bishop has come under fire for his remarks condemning atheists. In a sermon given on Easter Sunday, the bishop of Augsburg, Walter Mixa, warned of rising atheism in Germany… He also said that ‘a society without God is hell on earth’ and quoted the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky: ‘If God does not exist, everything is permitted.’

“Most controversially, he linked the Nazi and Communist crimes to atheism. ‘In the last century, the godless regimes of Nazism and Communism, with their penal camps, their secret police and their mass murder, proved in a terrible way the inhumanity of atheism in practice.’ Christians and the Church were always the subject of ‘special persecution’ under these systems, he said.

“However, critics accuse Mixa of rewriting history… Although the Nazi movement included a wide variety of currents of religious thought, ranging from nihilism to neo-paganism to Teutonic mythology to Hinduism, atheism played no significant political role for the Nazis. Avowed atheists were not welcome in the Nazi party or the SS.

“The relationship of the Catholic Church to the Nazis was also an ambivalent one. Individual members of the clergy openly confronted the regime, which in some cases resulted in their persecution and murder. Others voluntarily collaborated with the dictatorship, while most simply did nothing. A systematic persecution of Christians did not take place in the Third Reich — let alone the ‘special persecution of Christians and the Church’ which Mixa spoke of.”

Humorous Addendum on Easter

The Local.de wrote on April 9:

“It turns out the Easter Bunny is a German invention, just like everyone’s favourite mythical beast – Santa Claus… The story’s been the same for four centuries – a bunny sweeps through in the night, pumping out coloured eggs… His nocturnal emissions complete, the rabbit hooks up with the Tooth Fairy for a quick beer and a smoke before returning to wherever it is he came from (according to the myth, the Tooth Fairy makes a hasty retreat after a single beer since she has to work the next day).

“The symbolism and timing of the holiday are hard to ignore. For Christians, Easter is about the resurrection of the second of their three gods… The Easter Bunny and eggs were added later but keep with the renewal theme of a time of year when trees blossom, seeds sprout and everyone’s eyes begin itching with hay fever. Easter Bunnies are perfect symbols because – as we know – they mate like rabbits and eggs, well, eggs are what egg-laying creatures get from mating like rabbits. Really, it’s a fertility holiday.”

The Week in Review

Our lead article deals with this week’s powerful earthquake in Italy, 70 miles northeast of Rome–just a day before this year’s Feast of Passover. Sadly, the Bible reveals that a most powerful earthquake will strike and utterly devastate Rome in the not-too-distant future.

Powerful earthquakes also struck this week on the political scene, even though some of them were not that clearly recognized. The G-20 summit was not only an utter failure for the USA, but its decisions could have set in motion worse things to come. Turkey’s blackmail approach and President Obama’s meddling have angered Europeans, including Germany and France.

In addition, Mr. Obama’s non-committal towards a U.S. missile defense system in Europe; his acknowledgment of Europe’s leadership role in the world; his paralysis regarding the North-Korean launch of a rocket; his inability to convince Europeans to play a more active role in Afghanistan; his hint that he might give in to Iranian demands; his talks on nuclear disarmament; and his statement of appreciation for Islam have further raised not a few eyebrows abroad and in the USA.

A German law authorizing nationalization of banks brought back painful memories of the Nazi era, and both Tony Blair and Angela Merkel have shown strong interest in becoming the first permanent EU President.

Turning our attention to the USA, governmental “scrutiny” is now directed towards compensation of nonprofit organizations’ executives, while the U.S. Taxpayer cost for bailout is much larger than first announced. The Iowa Supreme Court reinterpreted the Iowa Constitution regarding marriage, and the US is warned not to repeat Argentina’s embrace of socialism, which, as a consequence, went from being one of the richest to one of the poorest countries under the Perons.

We conclude with revealing quotations from widely-accepted sources regarding the origins and customs of Easter.

Powerful Earthquake Strikes Central Italy

Der Spiegel Online reported on April 6:

“A powerful earthquake struck central Italy early Monday morning. At least 90 bodies [on Wednesday, April 8, the number was reported as at least 250] have been recovered from beneath the rubble and authorities are warning that at least 50,000 may have been left homeless. [This estimated number was later reduced to about 17,000.] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has declared a state of emergency.

“A massive earthquake caught many in their sleep in Italy on Monday morning in the city of L’Aquila at 3:32 a.m. People scrambled in panic into the streets and buildings several stories tall toppled like houses of cards. Hours after the disaster, survivors wandered about in a trance-like state, covered in blankets as they made their way through streets that had been completely destroyed. Many have lost everything: relatives and friends, a roof over their head as well as their belongings…

“The earthquake hit around 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Rome, and the epicenter was reported to be near L’Aquila, a city in the mountainous Abruzzo region with a population of 70,000. The US Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 6.3 on the Richter scale, although Italian seismologists said it was 5.8.

“Thousands of buildings have been severely damaged or destroyed and many are believed to be at risk of collapsing… The earthquake didn’t last longer than 30 seconds, but it was still enough to completely destroy L’Aquila’s historic city center. Eyewitnesses said the sound of the buildings crumbling was like ‘a bomb exploding’… Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi… canceled a planned visit to Russia to focus on the crisis…

“The quake is Italy’s worst since a 1980 temblor in the south of the country which killed 2,735 people. Earthquakes in Italy often have particularly severe impacts due to the large numbers of centuries-old buildings.”

Several aftershocks occurred, including some with the magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter Scale.

Why the G-20 Summit Is Responsible for the Next Bigger Crisis

Der Spiegel Online wrote on April 3:

“The G-20 has agreed on plans to fight the global downturn. But its approach will only lay the foundation for the next, bigger crisis. Instead of ‘stability, growth, jobs,’ the summit’s real slogan should have been ‘debt, unemployment, inflation.’ Now they’re celebrating again. An ‘historic compromise’ had been reached, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the conclusion of the G-20 summit in London, while US President Barack Obama spoke of a ‘turning point’ in the fight against the global downturn…

“When the celebrations have died down, it will be easier to look at what actually happened in London with a cool eye. The summit participants took the easy way out. Their decision to pump a further $5 trillion (€3.72 trillion) into the collapsing world economy within the foreseeable future, could indeed prove to be a historical turning point — but a turning point downwards. In combating this crisis, the international community is in fact laying the foundation for the next crisis, which will be larger. It would probably have been more honest if the summit participants had written ‘debt, unemployment, inflation’ on the wall.

“The crucial questions went unanswered because they weren’t even asked. Why are we in the current situation anyway? Who or what has got us into this mess?…

“There are — even in the modern world — two things that no private company can do on its own: wage war and print money. Both of those things, however, formed Bush’s response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Many column inches have already been devoted to Bush’s first mistake, the invasion of Baghdad. But his second error — flooding the global economy with trillions of dollars of cheap money — has barely been acknowledged. No other president has ever printed money and expanded the money supply with such abandon as Bush. This new money — and therein lies its danger — was not backed by real value in the form of goods or services…The US had begun to hallucinate…

“The addiction to new cash injections was chronic. The US had allowed itself to sink into an abject lifestyle. It sold more and more billions in new government bonds in order to preserve the appearance of a prosperous nation. To make matters worse, private households copied the example of the state. The average American now lives from hand to mouth and has 15 credit cards. The savings rate is almost zero…

“The president and the head of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, knew about the problem very well. Perhaps the Americans even knew just how irresponsible their actions were — at any rate, they did everything they could to hide them from the world. Since 2006, figures for the money supply — in other words, the total number of dollars in circulation — have no longer been published in the US…

“Only on the basis of independent estimates can the outside world get a sense of the internal erosion of what was once the strongest currency in the world. These estimates report a steep rise in the amount of money in circulation. Since the decision to keep the figures confidential, the growth rate for the expansion of the money supply has tripled. Last year alone, the money supply increased by 17 percent… Barack Obama has continued the course towards greater and greater state debt — and increased the pace. One-third of his budget is no longer covered by revenues. The only things which are currently running at full production in the US are the printing presses at the Treasury.

“At the summit in London, delegates talked about everything — except this issue. As a result, no attention was given to the fact that the crisis is being fought with the same instrument that caused it in the first place. The acreage for cheap dollars will now be extended once again…

“The International Money Fund was authorized to double, and later triple, its assistance funds — by borrowing more. The World Bank is also being authorized to increase its borrowing. All the participating countries want to help their economies through state guarantees, which, should they be made use of, would result in a huge increase in the national debt.”

“With Obama’s Approval, Europe Has Done It”

On his Website, DickMorris.com, Dick Morris wrote on April 6:

“On April 2, 2009, the work of July 4, 1776 was nullified at the meeting of the G-20 in London. The joint communiqué essentially announces a global economic union with uniform regulations and bylaws for all nations, including the United States. Henceforth, our SEC, Commodities Trading Commission, Federal Reserve Board and other regulators will have to march to the beat of drums pounded by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a body of central bankers from each of the G-20 states and the European Union…

“The FSB is… charged with ‘implementing…tough new principles on pay and compensation and to support sustainable compensation schemes and the corporate social responsibility of all firms.’ That means that the FSB will regulate how much executives are to be paid and will enforce its idea of corporate social responsibility at ‘all firms’…

“Obama, perhaps feeling guilty for the US role in triggering the international crisis, has, indeed, given away the store. Now we may no longer look to presidential appointees, confirmed by the Senate, to make policy for our economy. These decisions will be made internationally.

“And Europe will dominate them. The FSF [“Financial Stability Forum”] and, presumably, the FSB, is now composed of the central bankers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States plus representatives of the World Bank, the European Union, the IMF, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“Europe, in other words, has six of the twelve national members. The G-20 will enlarge the FSB to include all its member nations, but the pro-European bias will be clear. The United States, with a GDP three times that of the next largest G-20 member (Japan), will have one vote. So will Italy.

“The Europeans have been trying to get their hands on our financial system for decades. It is essential to them that they rein in American free enterprise so that their socialist heaven will not be polluted by vices such as the profit motive. Now, with President Obama’s approval, they have done it.”

Obama Acknowledges Europe’s Leading Role in the World

USA Today reported on April 3:

“In office just over two months, Obama was in the midst of his first European trip as president as he sought to strengthen the United States’ standing in the world while working with foreign counterparts to right the troubled global economy. Obama said the United States shares blame for the crisis, but that ‘every nation bears responsibility for what lies ahead — especially now.’

“Back home, his administration was trying to weather the fallout of another dismal monthly jobs report that was announced as Obama spoke in France. The jobless rate jumped to 8.5%, the highest since late 1983, as a wide range of employers eliminated a net total of 663,000 jobs in March…

“Obama bluntly said the relationship between the United States and Europe has gone adrift, with blame on both sides. In America, he said, ‘there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. There have been times when America’s shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive,’ Obama said. Yet in Europe, he said, there is an anti-America attitude that seems casual but can also be insidious. He said America can be unfairly blamed for many problems.”

“Obama Fails to Win NATO Troops He Wants for Afghanistan”

The Times wrote on April 4:

“Barack Obama made an impassioned plea to America’s allies to send more troops to Afghanistan, warning that failure to do so would leave Europe vulnerable to more terrorist atrocities. But though he continued to dazzle Europeans on his debut international tour, the Continent’s leaders turned their backs on the US President.

“Gordon Brown was the only one to offer substantial help. He offered to send several hundred extra British soldiers to provide security during the August election, but even that fell short of the thousands of combat troops that the US was hoping to prise from the Prime Minister. Just two other allies made firm offers of troops. Belgium offered to send 35 military trainers and Spain offered 12. Mr Obama’s host, Nicolas Sarkozy, refused his request.”

Obama Intervenes at NATO’s 60th-Anniversary Summit–but at What Cost?

The Associated Press reported on April 4:

“The alliance risked arousing hostility in the Muslim world by choosing the prime minister of Denmark as secretary-general after overcoming Turkish objections over Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s support of a Danish newspaper’s right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad…

“Turkey said Obama was essential to negotiations that overcame its objections to Fogh Rasmussen and ended with all 28 NATO leaders unanimously approving the Danish Prime Minister as the new civilian leader of the alliance.

“Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government’s requests had included the closure of a Kurdish satellite television broadcaster based in Denmark; the establishment of contacts between NATO and Islamic countries; appointment of a Turk as an aide to Fogh Rasmussen and senior NATO command positions for Turkish generals.”

The EUObserver added on April 4:

“NATO on Saturday (4 April) named Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as its new secretary general, overcoming Turkish opposition during difficult talks which caused fresh tension in EU-Turkey relations… The stalemate saw EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn suggest to Finnish state broadcaster YLE that Ankara may be unfit to join the EU because it does not respect freedom of speech… Politicians in the circle of German Chancellor Angela Merkel also attacked Turkey. ‘Whoever puts Islamic propaganda above the future of NATO and our European system of values, has nothing to look for in the EU,’ Alexander Dobrint, the secretary general of Ms Merkel’s sister party, the Christian-Social Union, told German press.

“Turkish President Abdullah Gul did not take kindly to the remarks, calling the EU commissioner’s intervention ‘unfortunate’ and ‘unpleasant’ and warning that it would increase anti-EU sentiment in Turkey… The Turkish president explained that promises made by US President Barack Obama, rather than the veiled threats on EU accession, finally secured Ankara’s approval for the Danish appointment…”

Obama Angers Europeans By Pushing for Turkey Membership in EU

The Wall Street Journal wrote on April 5:

“President Barack Obama arrived in Turkey late Sunday, after riling the European Union by urging its leaders to accept the large and mainly Muslim nation as a member. Washington has long supported EU membership for Turkey, a prickly yet strategic U.S. ally. Mr. Obama said Sunday at an EU-U.S. summit in Prague that pushing forward with membership would ‘ensure we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe.’

“But coming just a day after Turkey forced a series of concessions from fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization before accepting their choice of a Dane to head the alliance, Mr. Obama’s appeal drew a sharp response from French President Nicolas Sarkozy. ‘I have been working hand in hand with President Obama, but when it comes to the European Union it’s up to member states of the European Union to decide’ on membership, Mr. Sarkozy told French television from Prague. ‘I have always been opposed to this entry, and I remain opposed.’

“Turkey has started membership talks with the EU, but the process has been partially frozen because of opposition from members including France, Germany and Cyprus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, otherwise effusive about Mr. Obama’s performance in Prague on Sunday, also said coolly that there were ‘different opinions’ on how to strengthen the relationship between Turkey, a nation of 70 million, and the EU…

“A European Union diplomat familiar with the talks said the attitude of EU members toward Turkish membership had darkened noticeably after the NATO dispute. Some EU countries’ leaders saw that as confirmation of their suspicion that Turkey wouldn’t act as a team player once inside the EU. ‘More and more EU countries have doubts about Turkish accession,’ said the diplomat. ‘The mood at the table was grumpy.'”

Deutsche Welle added on April 5 that “Obama hits French and German nerves over Turkey’s EU bid.” It continued: “The US stance that Turkey belongs firmly in the EU took some of the gloss off a largely harmonious EU-US summit in Prague with France flatly rejecting the idea and Germany voicing reservations about it.”

Germany Unhappy With Obama Over Turkey

Der Spiegel Online wrote on April 7:

“US President Barack Obama says Turkey’s future is in the European Union. Not everyone agrees. Numerous politicians in Germany have gone on the attack, and even French President Sarkozy is unimpressed. Turkey’s role at the NATO summit has soured the mood…

“On Monday, a number of politicians, particularly in Germany, went on the offensive. ‘It is a meddling in the internal affairs of Europe,’ Bernd Posselt, a member of the European Parliament from Bavarian’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), blustered in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. ‘The EU is not Obama’s plaything. … He should accept Turkey as America’s 51st state instead,’ he continued.

“Markus Ferber, the CSU’s lead candidate in European Parliament elections set for early June, echoed his party colleague. ‘There is no question that the US has a voice in NATO. But when it comes to membership in its own club, the EU decides by itself,’ he said. ‘We don’t need any tutoring from abroad.’

“Party head Horst Seehofer said that Europe’s ‘internal harmony’ is dependent on ‘common cultural and spiritual roots.’ He went on to say that ‘Turkey, as self-proclaimed representative of the Muslim world, clearly doesn’t fit in’…”

Obama’s “Turkey” in Turkey

The New York Post wrote on April 8:

“The real climax of President Obama’s Spring Apologies Tour wasn’t his photo op with our troops in Baghdad or even his ‘American Guilt’ concerts in Western Europe. While fans in the press cheered wildly at every venue, the real performance came in Turkey. And it was a turkey… the road to embassy takeovers and strategic humiliation is paved with good intentions — coupled with distressing naivete.

“On every stage, Obama draped Lady Liberty in sackcloth and ashes, drawing plentiful applause but no serious economic or security cooperation in return. Then, in Turkey, he surrendered our national pride, undercut our interests and interfered in matters that aren’t his business. On the latter point: Suppose the European Union president went to Cuba and insisted that the world’s sunniest concentration camp should be welcomed into NAFTA? That’s the equivalent of what our president did in Ankara on Monday when he declared that he supports Turkey’s bid for EU membership.

“The Europeans don’t want Turkey in their club. Because Turkey isn’t a European state, nor is its culture European. And it isn’t our business to press Europe to embrace a huge, truculent Muslim country suffering a creeping Islamist coup. The Europeans were appalled by Turkey’s neo-Taliban tantrum on-stage at last week’s NATO summit. The Turks fought to derail the appointment of a great Dane, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as the new NATO secretary general. Why? Because he didn’t stone to death the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Mohammed.

“Which brings us to the even bigger problem: Obama has no idea what’s going on in Turkey. By going to Ankara on his knees, he gave his seal of approval to a pungently anti-American Islamist government bent on overturning Mustapha Kemal’s legacy of the separation of mosque and state.

“Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, means headscarves, Korans, censorship and stacked elections. The country’s alarmed middle class opposes the effort to turn the country into an Islamic state. Obama’s gushing praise for the AKP’s bosses left them aghast. Obama’s embrace of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (now orchestrating show trials of his opponents) was one step short of going to Tehran and smooching President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“What was Obama thinking? He wasn’t. He relied on advice from State Department appeasement artists who understand neither Turkey, Islam nor the crises raging between the Bosporus and the Indus… Insisting that America’s always guilty, Obama omitted any mention of Turkey’s wartime betrayals of our troops, its continuing oppression of its Kurd minority or the AKP’s determination to turn a state with a secular constitution into a Wahhabi playground. When it came to the Armenian genocide, Obama bravely ducked…”

Obama Appreciates Islamic Faith

On April 6, The Associated Press reported the following:

“Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States ‘is not and will never be at war with Islam.’

“Calling for a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who did not represent the vast majority of Muslims… ‘America’s relationship with the Muslim world cannot and will not be based on opposition to al Qaida,’ he said. ‘… We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over so many centuries to shape the world for the better, including my own country,’ Obama said.”

Obama Might Give in to Iran

The Financial Times wrote on April 3:

“US officials are considering whether to accept Iran’s pursuit of uranium enrichment, which has been outlawed by the United Nations and remains at the heart of fears that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capability. As part of a policy review commissioned by President Barack Obama, diplomats are discussing whether the US will eventually have to accept Iran’s insistence on carrying out the process, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons- grade material.

“’There’s a fundamental impasse between the western demand for no enrichment and the Iranian dem­and to continue enrichment,’ says Mark Fitzpat­rick, a former state depart­ment expert now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. ‘There’s no obvious compromise bet­ween those two positions’…

“’There is a growing recognition in [Washington] that the zero [enrichment] solution, though still favoured, simply is unfeasible,’ says Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council. ‘The US may still have zero as its opening position, while recognising it may not be where things stand at the end of a potential agreement.'”

Nuclear Disarmament?

The Wall Street Journal wrote on April 6:

“What Mr. Obama wants to kill specifically is the Reliable Replacement Warhead, which the Bush Administration supported over Congressional opposition, and which Mr. Obama now opposes despite the support of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the military… The irony is that Mr. Obama’s opposition is making substantial reductions in the total U.S. arsenal that much riskier…

“The thinking here is that somehow the American example will get Russia, as well as North Korea, Pakistan and perhaps Iran, to reject nuclear weapons. In fact, a U.S. nuclear arsenal that is diminished in both quantity and quality would be an incentive for these countries to increase their nuclear inventories, since the door would suddenly be opened to reach strategic parity with the last superpower. Mr. Medvedev, for one, recently announced Russia would pursue ‘large-scale rearmament’ of its army and navy, including nuclear arsenals. France also plans to deploy new sea-based nuclear missiles next year, even as it reduces the overall size of its arsenal.”

USA and EU Condemn North Korea’s “Provocative Act”

Deutsche Welle reported on April 6:

“North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket has drawn a ‘strong condemnation’ from the European Union. The UN Security Council ended an emergency session without agreeing to an immediate response to the missile launch… The EU called on Korea to ‘immediately suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program and abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner…’

“The North Korean rocket launch will test US President Barack Obama, who announced soon after his arrival in France on Friday that he wanted to move towards ‘a world without nuclear weapons’… Obama blasted the rocket launch on Sunday morning and promised he would push for action at the upcoming Security Council meeting. ‘With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations,’ Obama said.”

Russia and China Prevent Sanctions Against North Korea

On April 8, RIA reported:

“Moscow is concerned by Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch, but believes that imposing sanctions against North Korea would be counterproductive, the Russian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“North Korea launched a multistage rocket that it said was carrying a communications satellite on Sunday morning, defying pressure from the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, which suspect the launch was a cover for a test of a Taepodong-2 long-range missile…

“The 15-member Security Council convened for an emergency meeting late on Sunday at Japan’s request, to discuss sanctions against Pyongyang following the launch, but strong opposition from Russia and China prevented the adoption of even a preliminary statement of condemnation…

“The U.S. and other countries argued for sanctions against Pyongyang, saying that the launch violated Security Council Resolution 1718, which was passed after North Korea’s 2006 nuclear test, but Russia and China called for restraint on the grounds that the resolution does not prohibit the launch of satellites.”

No Clear U.S. Commitment for Missile Defense System in Europe

The EUObserver reported on April 5:

“US President Barack Obama gave no clear commitment to building missile defence bases in Europe… The US leader thanked a ‘courageous’ Poland and Czech Republic for agreeing with the previous White House administration to host US anti-missile facilities despite Russian opposition. But he repeated doubts over the value of the multi-billion dollar scheme and linked construction to the evolution of a ballistic threat from Iran.

“‘As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defence system that is cost effective and proven,’ Mr Obama said. ‘If the Iranian threat is eliminated …the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe at this time will be removed.'”

Why Obama’s Policies Won’t Work

The Guardian wrote on April 6:

“History may one day record it as a stark irony… that on the very day that Barack Obama was sketching out to an adoring throng in Prague his vision of a post-nuclear world, North Korea launched a rocket that may one day give it the capacity to fire a nuclear warhead as far as 3,700 miles. This means, to get down to brass tacks, that it could hit Alaska…

“Many people want to believe… that Obama can change the world dramatically in the next four years. It’s been a long time since a US president has been so admired. And it’s never been the case that a president so admired has directly succeeded a president so reviled. So the idea has taken root, in America and to a considerable extent elsewhere, that the rest of the world should be so grateful to be dealing with Obama and not Bush that they’ll at least come to the table and see reason…

“North Korea, like any state, has national interests… the North Koreans are going to do what they think they need to do… they couldn’t care less who the American president is.

“Neither could the Iranians, and neither, probably, could the Syrians… Neither [could] the Pakistanis and the Indians. Nor [could] Likud and Hamas. And we learned last week that adoration has its limits even among the closest of friends. Europe is not helping out much militarily on Afghanistan. This isn’t because Obama wasn’t persuasive enough. It’s because nations have interests as they perceive them, and they will act to protect those interests (and because democratic societies have public opinion, which is strongly against such assistance across Europe)…”

Tony Blair–the Next European President?

The Independent wrote on April 5:

“Tony Blair has emerged as the leading candidate to become the first permanent president of the European Union after Gordon Brown gave his grudging blessing to the plan. The former prime minister has stepped up his campaign for the job, which he wants to use to build a bridge between Europe and the new Obama administration. His return to the global stage would be a shock to his critics over the Iraq war and dismay many in Europe… Other European leaders are also broadly supportive because they want a high-profile figure to represent the 27-nation bloc in the new alliance with the US administration. Mr Blair remains a popular figure in the US.

“After initially trying to block Mr Blair as a possible candidate last year, the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has thrown his weight behind the former prime minister. As the eyes of the world were on London’s G20 summit last Wednesday, Mr Blair held private talks with the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in Brussels. The talks focused on his work as Middle East envoy to the quartet of world powers, but it is almost certain that the two men discussed his candidacy. The former premier also visited Sweden last week, where he shared a platform with Bill Clinton at a climate change conference.

“The presidency job is dependant on Ireland voting ‘yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty, which creates the position. The Irish referendum will take place in the autumn. But Mr Blair’s plans could still be scuppered if Angela Merkel loses the German general election in September. She is thought to have a strong desire for the job in the event of defeat.”

Painful Memories of Nazi Seizures

Thelocal.de reported on April 3:

“Germany adopted a highly controversial emergency law on Friday allowing the government to nationalise stricken banks by seizing investors’ shares if necessary. It was passed by the Bundesrat, the country’s upper house of parliament after being passed last month by the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house…

“Berlin has stressed it would only forcibly seize… shares ‘as a last resort’ and would compensate investors based on the share’s stock market value, but some critics say the legislation has stoked painful memories of Nazi seizures of Jewish property in the 1930s and communist moves following World War II.”

And Now–Compensation of U.S. Nonprofit Executives Under Scrutiny

The Wall Street Journal wrote on April 6:

“An Internal Revenue Service official warned nonprofits to be mindful of executive-compensation practices amid public ire over large bonuses at insurer American International Group Inc. and other Wall Street firms that have received federal aid.

“Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of tax-exempt organizations, told a gathering of lawyers representing charities Monday that scrutiny of nonprofits’ pay practices is likely to increase. Nonprofit leaders should be sure to practice due diligence in making sure their executive pay can be justified through data on comparable practices at similar organizations, she said…

“Nonprofit pay packages pale in comparison to some of those doled out to Wall Street executives. But a series of charity scandals in the past few years has focused attention on executive pay… Ms. Lerner of the IRS said the agency’s redesign of charities’ annual tax form – known as Form 990 – will make it easier for people to find information on executive pay… The new form, redesigned for the first time in some 20 years, triggers detailed disclosures of various compensation perks under certain circumstances, such as when an employee makes more than $150,000. Among the compulsory disclosures: First-class air travel, expense accounts, housing allowances and the use of bodyguards, chauffeurs and personal lawyers.

“Ms. Lerner urged charities to make certain governance practices public, to assure Americans they’re using their tax-exempt money appropriately. Ms. Lerner added that the IRS’s exempt organizations division is about to get more staff, who will provide guidance to nonprofits on complying with new regulations, among other things. The staff… also decides whether to grant tax-exempt status to organizations. Critics have long pointed to staff shortages at the IRS as one reason some charities fail to comply with various rules.”

“Estimated U.S. Taxpayer Cost for Bailout Jumps”

Reuters wrote on April 4:

“U.S. congressional budget analysts have raised their estimate of the net cost to taxpayers for the government’s financial rescue program to $356 billion, an increase of $167 billion from earlier estimates… The additional cost, which applies to TARP spending for fiscal years 2009 and 2010, was included in the CBO’s March projection of a $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009, which ends September 30.”

Marriage Not Limited to One Man and One Woman in Iowa

The Des Moines Register reported on April 3:

“The Iowa Supreme Court this morning unanimously upheld gays’ right to marry. ‘The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution,’ the justices said in a summary of their decision. The court rules that gay marriage would be legal in three weeks, starting April 24… The decision makes Iowa the first Midwestern state, and the fourth nationwide, to allow same-sex marriages.”

Is America Copying Argentina’s “Disastrous Path”?

The Washington Times wrote on April 4:

“The disastrous path on which America is currently embarked was tried in another country. A fact not well known is that Argentina, prior to World War II, was an economic powerhouse. Beginning in the 1880s and continuing through the 1920s and 1930s, it was regarded as one of the most prosperous and advanced nations in the world. Then Juan Peron and his wife, Eva, took control in the 1940s until a coup in 1955 ousted them from power.

“Argentina had a strong industrial base, thriving agricultural exports, huge cattle ranches, and a broad and expanding middle class. Like America, it served as a magnet for immigrants from all over the world, especially Italians. Within 15 years under the Perons, Argentina, however, went from being one of the richest to one of the poorest countries. To date, it has never fully recovered.

“Upon coming to office, Peron, along with his popular beautiful wife, Eva, created a state characterized by lavish social spending, elaborate welfare programs, protectionism, confiscatory taxation, and runaway deficits. Juan Peron used class warfare rhetoric. He attacked big business, the banks, the private corporations, and the propertied class. He gave the labor unions power and made them pivotal allies of his regime. Then Peron expanded the bloated government bureaucracy to intervene in every aspect of business and life, which led to internal corruption.

“Peron’s central socialist economic planning destroyed industrial productivity and growth. The world’s investment capital fled. Taxes, inflation, unemployment, and interest rates soared and the middle class was wiped out. Finally, an independent judiciary and media ceased to exist. Eva’s cult of supporters fostered a climate of violence and political enemies of the regime were exterminated. Argentina degenerated into the typical debt-ridden Latin American country that it still is today.

“The failure of Argentina under Peron should serve as a warning to us. Socialism and a sky-rocketing debt can permanently impoverish even the  wealthiest of nations and America is not immune from the laws of economics. Obama is taking the first dangerous steps toward an American version of Peronism. His followers see him as a political messiah and a revolutionary change agent. He and the Democrats are plundering the country, using it as a vehicle to reward supporters and punish foes. They plan to confiscate wealth by taxing the rich and successful business class. Obama’s plan to do away with secret ballets will strengthen the labor unions. His wife, Michelle, is the Eva Peron of our time, a glamorous, chic, socialist fashion trend-setter who is beloved by the media.

“Just remember, ‘Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.'”

Interesting Facts on Easter and Its Customs

The Encyclopedia Britannica wrote in its 27th edition, 1959, volume 7, about Easter:

“The English word, ‘Easter’… corresponding to the German Ostern, reveals Christianity’s indebtedness to the Teutonic tribes of central Europe. Christianity, when it reached the Teutons, incorporated in its celebrations of the great Christian feast many of the heathen rites and customs which accompanied their observance of the spring festival… The customs and symbols associated with the observance of Easter have ancient origins, not only in the Teutonic rites of spring but also far back in antiquity… the conception of the egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Persians, who also had the custom of colouring and eating eggs during their spring festival… Like the Easter egg, the Easter hare… came to Christianity from antiquity… 

“And those families who, by custom, eat ham on Easter Sunday are unwittingly following an old practice of the Roman Catholics of England, who ate a gammon of bacon on Easter to show their contempt for the Jews, to whom pork is forbidden…

“In England… the Puritans… refused to celebrate Easter. Thus at first in the U.S… Easter was not observed. It was not until the latter part of the 19th century, particularly during the Civil War, that the Protestant churches, other than the Lutheran and the Episcopalian, began to mark this day by special services… The Protestant churches also followed the [pagan] custom of holding sunrise services on Easter morning.”

The Reader’s Digest Publication, “Why in the World,” copyright 1994, states the following about Easter and its customs, on pages 199-201:

“Originally, Easter had nothing to do with the Christian calendar. Our word for the festival comes from Eastre or Ostara, the goddess of spring among Germanic tribes of northern Europe. Pagan tribes rejoiced at the coming of spring, which is why many of our Easter customs, such as the giving of eggs, have pagan not Christian origins…

“Hares are born with their eyes open and are nocturnal. Because of this, the Egyptians made them sacred to the Moon. Later, ancient Britons gave the hare magical powers, using it in rites such as fortune-telling. Some villagers in Ireland refused to kill or eat hares, believing that they carried the souls of their grandparents. Later, Germanic tribes who worshipped Eastre (or Ostara), associated the fecund hare with her, their goddess of life and spring…

“Just as pagan customs figure in our Christmas festival, so too they have become associated inextricably with Easter. Long before the beginnings of Christianity, Egyptians and Romans gave gifts of eggs as symbols of life. Easter was originally a pagan festival to celebrate the coming of spring, which marked the rebirth of life in plants, a time when many birds mated and produced young. The hen’s egg, from which new life could spring, was a potent sign of regeneration. Often its shell was decorated with colours representing certain flowers and aimed at encouraging their regrowth…

“Traditionally, hot cross buns are eaten on Good Friday, but their origins, like many Eastertide and Christmas customs, go back to pagan times… The baking of special bread, flavoured with spices, was part of pagan celebrations to greet the spring and worship the sun. The ancient Greeks stamped their festival bread with a horned emblem in honour of Astarte, their goddess of love and fertility. The word ‘bun’ comes from ‘boun,’ an ancient word for a sacred ox. Cakes stamped with horns became buns marked with a cross.”