The SEC recently nailed an abysmal little company called Pegasus Wireless. The charges are so serious that they make one wonder (perhaps prematurely), why isn’t this case being criminally prosecuted?
Remember angry Grandma? The one who last year was saying she didn’t appreciate the “rumors” being spread about her step-grandson, Barack Obama, namely that he is secretly a Muslim?
If you’ve had it with worrying about North Korea, Iran or what’s becoming of our country, here’s a suggestion for a pleasant diversion, especially if you’re a baseball fan.
Earlier this week, two of the defendants in the Holy Land Foundation case were sentenced to 65 years in prison for funneling twelve million dollars to Hamas, listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. which prohibits even humanitarian aid from such support. Although I’m pleased that the men were convicted of breaking the law, I’m confused by the fact that the U.S. government itself is guilty of the same offense. Last year, this country gave 575 million dollars to Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza, distributed through USAID (Agency for International Development) and UNRWA (United Nations Relief & Works Agency.
One can disagree with everything the new Israeli prime minster says and does and still admit that he raised an important question during his recent visit to the White House. Benjamin Netanyahu stated “I want to make it clear that we don’t want to govern the Palestinians. We want to live in peace with them. We want them to govern themselves, absent a handful of powers that could endanger the state of Israel.” The same issue was addressed by two leading foreign policy mavens not suspected of a pro-Israeli bias, to put it mildly, namely Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft. Both favor pushing a two state solution on Israel, as they see it as the way to turn around the Middle East (which they define as including Afghanistan and Pakistan). Three elements of the plan the US is to push are well known (no refugee return, a divided Jerusalem, and redrawn 1967 borders), but the fourth is much less often explored. Namely that the Palestinian state be disarmed and that US or NATO troops be stationed along the Jordan river. They pointed to this condition in a new book America and the World, composed of interviews with Brzezinski and Scowcroft, conducted by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. In the book both authors agree that “they [Israel and the Palestinians] need a heavier hand by the United States than we have traditionally practiced” (87). Furthermore, Brzezinski suggests “an American line along the Jordan river” and Scowcroft favors putting a “NATO peace keeping force” on the West Bank. That is, they do not want the Palestinians to have what most people consider a true state, one that is free to arm itself.
While advocating “conversations” with sworn enemies the new administration neglects allies. Gibbs disses the entire British press, once again Obama fails to include Israel in his PRESIDENTIAL visit to the Middle East, Buchenwald is an unsettling substitution, to say the least, relations with Germany are poor and disillusioned Indians see “Hazardous days ahead.” Former Democratic defense secretary, Bill Cohen could not agree more
South Korea and the U.S. have put their troops on the peninsula on high alert after North Korea renounced the truce that ended the Korean War. They’ve also asked Alan Alda to keep his calendar open for awhile.
President Obama met with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority at the White House today, but all the pressure was on Israel, as The New York Times notes:
By all conventional standards, Sonia Sotomayor is an intelligent, disciplined, hard-working woman who has accomplished a great deal in 54 years. Not only has she overcome the difficulties of growing up poor, raised mainly by a widowed mother, but she has also conquered the challenge of juvenile diabetes, a disease requiring careful monitoring and daily injections of insulin. She has performed exceedingly well in our best schools (Princeton, Harvard Law) and has reached the pinnacle of her profession with her current nomination to the Supreme Court. This story is impressive on its own merits but has been hijacked for political purposes into a singular blueprint for compassion, empathy and identification with the downtrodden.
Drew Peterson called a Chicago radio show from prison Wednesday morning because he says humor helps him deal with stress. And crowbars help him deal with marital disputes.
Are you one of those who worries that the internet will kill the print media by rendering it unprofitable? Believe it or not, for decades publishers worried that t Andrew Carnegie’s efforts to build a public library in every American town would render books and magazines unprofitable. Why would people buy a book or a magazine if they can read it for free at their local public library? Asked some. The libraries create a new market for books, responded the others.
As she accepted President Obama’s offer to ascend to the United States Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s compelling life story was on proper display.
Immediately after President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court this morning, you couldn’t escape references to her “great American story.” We have been (and will continue to be) regaled with stories of her humble beginnings: of poverty in the South Bronx, of a deceased father when she was young, of a young life on public assistance, of a poor but devoted mother who valued education. And then we’ve heard (and will be hearing) about how Sotomayor hyper-achieved: of scholarships to Princeton and Yale, of high-profile judicial appointments, of reaching the Supreme Court.
UN call for Sri Lanka war probe: I knew it. I just knew it is going to happen. There is only one thing more damaging to the reputation of a country than seriously fighting (as opposed to appeasing) terrorists and that is successfully defeating them. The only way such a country can recapture it’s good name is by removing, discrediting and even prosecuting the leader who dared to do the “vile” act. Making the world safe for terrorists has become the top priority of the morally bankrupt so called “humanitarians” organized around the UN. Their basic strategy is to make fighting terrorists illegal under “international law” by demanding that it be done without any collateral damage and terrorists be treated as common criminals. Consider the words of UN’s Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes as reported by the BBC:
The consumer confidence number came out this morning showing a huge increase. Just two months ago, the number was falling faster than Jay Leno’s tenure on the Tonight Show. It is now at the highest levels in 8 months and according to the consumer confidence board, the public believes that the worst is behind us.
As America approaches another debate on health care reform, politicians and pressure groups will not doubt point to the Canadian system as a model for reform. In Canada, after all, everyone has access to health care. While that is true to some extent, it’s important to pay attention to the statistics.
A question for Colin Powell, Tom Ridge, Newt Gingrich and all the other so-called “big tent” or “moderate” Republicans: have you all been in a coma for the last two elections?
What may be the final follow-up to the Valentine’s week massacre of 2007 got local coverage only — in the Salt Lake Tribune and by Salt Lake City radio station KSL. But at least a couple of the findings in this recently released FBI report on the incident go unmentioned by either news organization. Here are the significant findings in the report about Bosnian-Muslim murderer Sulejman Talovic, who killed five Americans and wounded four:
Poll shows partisan divide on Middle East conflict: “80 percent of likely Obama voters were in total agreement with the phrase, ‘It’s time for the United States to get tough with Israel.’” The other 20 percent were the Dumb Jews who voted for him. [End.]
I’m one Republican who is tired of being demonized because of my party affiliation. A recent poll showed that only 21 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans, but just because there are apparently fewer of us doesn’t mean we have to stay on the ropes. I’ve had it with taking it on the chin because I refuse to participate in the national orgasm over Barack Obama.
The margin was “razor-thin,” but a Democratically-controlled Senate (59-40, awaiting the Coleman/Franken result which will likely make it 60-40 Democrat) rejected the Obama administration’s plan to bring Gitmo terrorists to the United States. The vote was 90-6.
Scientists have finally discovered a 47-million-year-old fossil, named “Ida”, that they say is the species that “bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs.” Which is very odd. I thought we found the missing link 1400 years ago and his name was Muhammad. [End.]
The first U.S. jihadi cell of 2009 was just busted by the FBI and New York City Police Department. Four Muslim men were arrested in connection with alleged plots to blow up synagogues and shoot down military aircraft en route Iraq and Afghanistan.
Many cell phone companies now provide applications that help parents comfort fussy babies. The most used is one that allows dad to pretend he’s got an important call so Mom has to deal with the child.
On his second day in office and with great fanfare, President Obama announced that he was ordering the closure of the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by January of next year.
Since the deadly attacks in Mumbai, counter-terrorism experts worldwide, particularly those based in democracies in the crosshairs, have been drawing long-term conclusions as to the forthcoming type of operations which may hit cities and interests on more than one continent. Today, we are in the post-Mumbai era where the expectation of recidivism and copycats is eerily high. Indeed, the jihadists who seized a few buildings in India’s financial centre and who wreaked havoc at several locations in the city have brought to the attention of national security analysts a concept for the future: Urban jihad. I have predicted these scenarios of mayhem perpetrated by determined terrorists in chapter 13 of my first post 9/11 book, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against the West, published in 2005.