THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS: 3/20/11

Saturday, March 26, 2011

AMAZING BIGFOOT VIDEO!?

HERE'S THE NEWEST VIDEO - FROM THE CAROLINAS...

HERE'S AN EARLIER SIGHTING IN ASHEVILLE... APRIL 24, 2010

HERE'S A CLOSE-UP:

BOTTOM-LINE: OBAMA'S SPENDING HAS BEEN TRULY SASQUATCHIAN.

“If we cut emissions today, global temperatures are not likely to drop for about a thousand years”: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS HOT AIR BY A DAY

HOT AIR TODAY.

TAB YESTERDAY.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE SCOOP THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME. SPREAD THE WORD.

Israel will not deal with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority if it brings Hamas into the government, a senior Israeli official said Saturday night, a few hours after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met in Ramallah with a senior Hamas delegation for conciliation talks.

"Abbas has to choose whether he wants peace with Israel or peace with Hamas," the official said. "He can't have both. ..."

C'EST VRAI!

IN UNRELATED NEWS: Hamas military wing says it won't guarantee Abbas' safety in Gaza

Senior members of Hamas' military wing told aides of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that it would not guarantee the Fatah leader's safety if he visited the Gaza Strip, Haaretz has learned.

PA officials interpreted these statements as a threat to Abbas. As of last night, an Abbas trip to Gaza for reconciliation talks with Hamas has been dropped from the agenda.

DESPITE THE FACT THAT ABBAS IS SAFER IN ISRAEL THAN IN GAZA, HE WOULD WOULD RATHER FELLATE HAMAS THAN MAKE A DEAL WITH ISRAEL.

WHY? TWO REASONS:

(1) FOLLOW THE MONEY: FATAH WANTS A PIECE OF HAMAS'S HUGE EXTORTION RACKET.

AND MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, GAZA IS MERELY AN EXTORTION RACKET THE ISLAMO-FASCISTS RUN TO EXTORT MONEY FROM THE UN, THE EU AND THE USA.

NOT UNLIKE THAT RUN BY KIM JUNG IL IN THE KOREAN PENINSULA.

AND (2), ABBAS DOESN'T FEAR ISRAEL AS MUCH AS HE FEARS HAMAS AND IRAN AND HIZBALLAH AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.

ESPECIALLY WITH OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

THERE WILL BE NO PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST UNTIL THE ISLAMO-FASCISTS IN TEHRAN ARE ERADICATED.

AND THAT WON'T HAPPEN WITH OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

OBAMA SEEMS TO BE FINISHING THE JOB JIMMY CARTER STARTED:

CARTER LET KHOMEINI BACK INTO IRAN AND FORCED THE SHAH OUT - TURNING IRAN FROM A FRIEND OF THE WEST AND THE USA AND EGYPT AND ISRAEL INTO AN ENEMY OF THE WEST AND THE USA AND EGYPT AND ISRAEL.

IN TWO SHORT YEARS, OBAMA HAS TURNED LEBANON INTO AN ALLY OF IRAN, AND IS TURNING EGYPT AND JORDAN AND BAHRAIN INTO ALLIES OR IRAN, TOO. EVEN LIBYA.

OBAMA MIGHT AS WELL BE WORKING FOR IRAN AND GLOBAL JIHAD.

ALLEGEDLY UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR SLAMMING TERRORISTS

Melanie Phillips tells on Big Peace how some trumped up news arose that she was under investigation for her commentary on the jihadist savages who murdered the Fogel family, but it seems this was all phony news, for what reason I have no idea:

Next thing I knew was that the Guardian ran a story saying I was being investigated by the UK Press Complaints Commission, which had received two complaints about my remarks – and I had also been reported to the Bedfordshire police for racism.

This came as something of a surprise. If I was indeed being investigated, no-one had seen fit to tell me about it. Indeed, at time of writing I still have not heard whether either of these bodies is investigating these complaints at all. Stranger still was the involvement of the Bedfordshire police. I do not live in Bedfordshire, an area north of London. I have never had anything to do with the place. What could my remarks about the Itamar massacre possibly have to do with Bedfordshire?

A clue lay in the involvement in the Guardian story of a prominent British Muslim activist named Inayat Bunglawala. It was he who had reported me to the Bedfordshire police – and he lives in Bedfordshire.

It would appear that having taken exception to my blog, Bunglawala went to his local police force to complain about my views and expected them to take action against me as a result.

His complaint was that I had made a ‘generalised racist outburst against Arabs as a whole’. But this was ridiculous. I was obviously referring specifically to the perpetrators of the Itamar massacre and to the Palestinian Authority which incites such deeds Bunglawala claimed that if anyone had referred to the ‘moral depravity of the Jews’ and described them as being ‘savages’ they would face prosecution for racist hate speech.

Clearly, the Guardian wrote all this without even confirming that an investigation was really underway. This paper, of course, is one of the most vile apologists for Islamofascism, and we can't be too surprised they'd do this. But we shouldn't be surprised if Phillips were taken to court for her commentary either. This is Britain today, after all, and there's no telling if they'll abolish their libel tourism laws either, despite what was reported earlier.

A disgusting man indeed, this Bungalawa is, if he's going to try and suppress free speech about the causes for terrorism, which include his so-called religion. These type of people, along with the vicious media in the UK today, are just what'll bring it down.

SPRING!

In honor of spring (hat tip to Leslie), even though we're going through a last blast of winter here in the D.C. area this weekend, and never mind the final words on the videotape:

I have a yellow tiger kitty, so I admit that this video touched my heart in a special way.

A break from politics helps us to regain perspective.

"Iraq's Maliki Says Bahrain May Ignite Sectarian War"... AND THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS HIM BY 3 DAYS

MALIKI IN THE NYTIMES TODAY.

TAB 3 DAYS AGO.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT NO OTHER BLOGGER HAS BEEN OUT FRONT WITH SPOT-ON SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY AS OFTEN AS ME.

SPREAD THE WORD.

IMMELT'S SUPPORT FOR OBAMA REWARDED

MORE PROOF THAT OBAMA IS A BREZHNEV SOCIALIST.

THE RULES DON'T APPLY TO "PARTY MEMBERS."

Update:

JOINED AT THE HIP TO OBAMA, G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.

UPDATE: Jeffrey Immelt: Looter, or Producer?

Posted at 12:21 pm by Glenn Reynolds

Yeah, we scooped him. WE SCOOPED HOT AIR, TOO:

Obama’s favorite CEO gets GE out from paying any US taxes

Mar 25, 2011 10:55 AM by Ed Morrissey
86 Comments » | 1 Trackbacks
Coincidences.

WE SCOOP ALL THE BIGGIES!

SPREAD THE WORD.

MORE PROOF THE AGW ALARMISTS FABRICATED THE WHOLE DAMN THING - AND COMMITTED FRAUD.

ALSO THIS: AGW ALARMIST ADMITS ALL CO2 REDUCTIONS REGIMENS ARE POINTLESS:

If we cut emissions today, global temperatures are not likely to drop for about a thousand years.

ERGO THERE IS NO REASON TO CUT CO2 EMISSIONS.

IOW: AGW = TFBS.

VICTIM OF BOMBING WAS SCOTTISH BIBLE TRANSLATOR

The UK Telegraph (via The Jawa Report) tells that Mary Jean Gardner, the women murdered by the terrorist bombing on Wednesday, was a bible translator from Scotland:

Mary Jean Gardner, 55, was caught in the bomb blast at the central bus station in Jerusalem.

She was the only person to die in the attack which left up to 30 others wounded.

Miss Gardner, who was a well-regarded Bible translator, came to Israel at the beginning of the year to study Hebrew and took courses at Hebrew University.

She had come to Israel to hone her Hebrew skills before embarking on a translation of the Old Testament into Ife, one of the languages spoken in Togo, West Africa[...]

Mrs Ronning said students were taken from and to the Hebrew University by bus every day for their own security, but that Miss Gardner had a day off and had gone into town to meet an Irish friend who had just arrived in the city with a tour group. Miss Gardner was heading to a restaurant to meet her friend and happened to be passing the bus stop on foot when the bomb exploded.

Our condolences must go to her and her family.

MORE CORRUPT CRONYISM FROM OBAMA: GORELICK ON SHORT LIST FOR DFBI

THIS IS INSANE: SHE'S A CROOK.

TRUMP TO OBAMA: "SHOW ME THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE!"

THE DONALD THINKS THERE IS A BIRTH CERTIFICATE BUT THAT IT HAS SOMETHING ON IT THAT OBAMA WANTS TO KEEP A SECRET.

Liz Taylor 's Uncensored Soap Opera Bloopers

1981:

Thousands of Syrians chanted "freedom, revolution" in the centre of the city of Daraa on Thursday despite a pledge by President Bashar al-Assad to consider reforms to Syria's authoritarian political system.

Syrian president offers reforms as death toll over 100:

The Syria government said on Thursday it may abolish an emergency law in place since 1963 following a week of deadly protests in the southern city of Daraa. Unofficial reports say some 100 people were killed in the riots.

"I am happy to announce to you the decisions made today by the Arab Baath party under the auspices of President Bashar al-Assad... which include... studying the possibility of lifting the emergency law and licensing political parties," the president's media adviser Buthaina Shaaban told a news conference.

Additionally, Al-Assad issued a decree on Thursday raising state employees' wages by 20 to 30 percent, state news agency SANA reported.

IT WOULD BE BETTER IF THEY OVERTHREW ASSAD AND INSTALLED A GOVERNMENT ORIENTED AWAY FROM IRAN AND THE SHIAS.

STAY TUNED...

UPDATE: SHOCKING VIDEO OF ASSAD'S THUG'S FIRING AT UNARMED SYRIANS.

TERROR ATTACKS MAKE ISRAELI HOSPITALS CRUCIAL

This article and video inside talk about why terrorist attacks make it important that all hospitals in Jerusalem be fully functioning to help aid victims of these barbaric acts.

UNBELIEVABLE NEW IMAGE OF THE CENTER OF THE MILKY WAY

CLICK TO EMBIGGEMMIT:

MORE HERE.

WASH POST/AP: U.S. new-home sales unexpectedly fall to lowest on record

Purchases of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in February to the slowest pace on record. March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Purchases of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in February to the slowest pace on record and prices dropped to the lowest level since December 2003, adding to evidence the industry is floundering.

WE TOLD YOU SO!

OBAMA'S POLICIES HAVE MADE A BAD SITUATION WORSE.

THE ONLY CURE IS A DRASTIC CHANGE IN COURSE.

EITHER THE GOP HOUSE TAKES CONTROL OR THE NATION - AND EVEN THE WORLD'S ECONOMY - WILL DOUBLE DIP,

AND THIS TIME (WITH MIDDLE EAST UNREST AND JAPAN'S ECONOMY SET TO DECLINE PERMANENTLY) THE STOCK MARKETS WON'T REBOUND SO FAST.

The Atlantic's Garance Franke-Ruta writes about Sarah Palin wearing a Magen David necklace during her trip to Israel, but not in a very flattering tone. They say:

The Star of David or Magen David is a symbol associated with Jewish texts far back as the 11th century and has been used by European Jews to symbolize their faith since the 17th century. As Zionism developed as a European philosophy, the Star of David came to represent the movement and later became the defining symbol on the flag of the state of Israel. In contemporary urban America, wearing a Star of David on a chain generally marks the wearer as Jewish.

So what was the most decidedly not-Jewish Palin doing wearing one in Israel? Not appealing to American Jews -- that's for sure. Most American Jews, being Democrats, can't stand her. And one visit to Israel, a nation many American Jews have mixed feelings toward, anyway, isn't going to change that.

Rather, by wearing the Star of David, Palin was reaching out to American evangelical Christians -- and also being one herself.

According to David Brog, the (Jewish) executive director of Christians United for Israel, "it is increasingly common" for evangelical Christian supporters of Israel -- who follow a fairly common Israel-centric strain of American biblical interpretation -- to wear Stars of David as symbols of solidarity with the Jewish state.

"A lot of the folks in my organization, they wear Stars of David," he noted. "Mainly the women."

That's certainly amazing to learn, but did it ever occur to Franke-Ruta that even some Israelis could be flattered by the sight? And why shouldn't it make some residents with USA citizenship ponder voting for her if she runs for the Senate? Franke-Ruta doesn't seem to have considered that idea.

Incidentally, if we were to make a pop culture reference here, Palin's wearing a Star of David even though she's not of Jewish descent herself isn't new: those with long memories of the 1980s may recall that Mr. T wore a Star of David necklace with all that other jewelry in The A-Team, alongside a Christian cross, and despite the badass image he sported at the time, he's known to be a devoted Christian (side note: I've seen all 97 episodes of the A-Team, including the guest role by a young Tia Carrere).

GLENN BECK DISCUSSES ITAMAR BLOODBATH

A relative recommended I post this video of Beck's report on the horrifying murder. At the end, he astutely observes that "evil is growing rapidly."

As today's terrorist bombing shows, that is sadly correct.

Update: I received the following condemnation of the bombing in the email from B'nai Brith Canada:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, March 23, 2011:

B'nai Brith Canada strongly condemns the terrorist bombing in the heart of the city of Jerusalem, Israel. As details emerge, the organization calls on the international community to echo this condemnation in the strongest of terms.

"The timing of the bombing clearly suggests that this was a thinly veiled attempt by Islamists to try to refocus the international community on Israel and away from the brutal attempts by Libya and Arab regimes to quell the struggle for democracy in the Middle East and Northern Africa," noted Frank Dimant, CEO of B'nai Brith Canada.

"While Israelis continue to face daily threats to their safety, this gruesome bombing is shocking as it comes after a lag of many years without any such attack in Jerusalem and just days after the slaughter in Itamar. Our deepest sympathies and ongoing support go out today to those families dealing most directly with the aftermath of this tragedy."

Our thanks in return should go to B'nai Brith for speaking out.

25 injured, 4 seriously in J'lem bus explosion

MDA says none dead; Police estimate that package at exploded next to Egged bus 74 outside Binyanei Ha'uma in central Jerusalem; Netanyahu delaying departure to Moscow.

THEY WANT WAR. LET'S GIVE IT TO THEM.

Film Legend Elizabeth Taylor Dies at 79
She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, publicist Sally Morrison said.
"All her children were with her," Morrison said.

GOOD BOOK HERE.

CHAVEZ BLAMES CAPITALISM FOR LIFELESSNESS OF MARS

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday.

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.
Chavez, who also holds capitalism responsible for many of the world's problems, warned that water supplies on Earth were drying up.

OY.

REASON # 4,958,726 THAT TURKEY SHOULD BE THROWN OUT OF NATO: WANTS UNSCR TO APPROVE BOMBING OF ISRAEL

THIS IS JUST MORE PROOF THAT TURKEY IS MORE A PART OF THE AXIS OF EVIL THAN NATO OR THE WEST.

IT'S LONG PASSED TIME THEY WERE THROWN OUT OF NATO AND TREATED THE WAY THEY DESERVE TO BE TREATED.

REUTERS: "Bahrain bans Lebanon travel, sectarian tension rises"

Bahrain warned its nationals on Tuesday not to travel to Lebanon for their own safety, after Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah came out in support of weeks of protests by mainly Shi'ite demonstrators.
The warning highlights growing tensions in the world's largest oil-exporting region between Sunni-ruled Arab countries and non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran, just across Gulf waters.

Bahrain has already withdrawn its top diplomats from Iran in a protest over the Islamic Republic's criticism of last week's crackdown on mainly Shi'ite protesters in the island kingdom.

(BACKGROUND ON THE SECTARIAN SPLIT HERE.)

TRUE ISLAM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH TRUE DEMOCRACY.

(ONLY A "BAD MUSLIM" CAN BE A GOOD CITIZEN IN A WESTERN DEMOCRACY.

NEED PROOF? HERE: WHAT KIND OF MUSLIM WAS MOHAMED, PBUH? WAS HE A SMALL "D" DEMOCRAT OR AN ISLAMO-TERRORISTIST LIKE BIN LADEN?)

UNTIL ARAB MUSLIMS OVERTHROW THEIR INNER ISLAMISTS, ARAB PEOPLE WILL NOT OVERTHROW THEIR TYRANTS, AND ARAB NATIONS CANNOT BECOME DEMOCRACIES.

UPDATE: VIA DINOCRAT:

Niall Ferguson:

a peaceful transition to Western-style democracy in the Arab world is, of all the scenarios, the least probable. The more likely outcomes are (a) 1848-style restorations of the old regimes; (b) a descent into protracted civil wars; (c) Islamist takeovers; (d) a regionwide Sunni-Shiite conflict. By the way, (b), (c), and (d) are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They may be a sequence of events.

There are reasons not to be surprised if Ferguson is correct, and BTW you can expect all sorts of silly explanations of same if chaos occurs.

EXACTLY!

ON SARAH PALIN'S VISIT, SHE ASKED AN AWESOME QUESTION

Following her visit to India, Sarah Palin came to Israel and paid a visit to the Western Wall, among other things, and surely the most amazing thing she could do was to ask why should we apologize to Islam?

Popular conservative politician Sarah Palin understands the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people, according to MK Danny Danon (Likud), who accompanied her on a visit to the Kotel Sunday.

Danon told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language service: "When we toured near the Kotel and in the tunnels near the Holy of Holies, she told me clear things without hesitating. She understands the importance of the place for the Jewish People and even asked me 'Why do you keep apologizing to the Muslims all the time?'"

"I explained to her the mistakes made by [then-Defense Minister] Moshe Dayan in 1967 and our mistakes in not fulfilling our rights in the Temple Mount and the Old City," Danon said. He was referring to Dayan's decision to hand back the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf immediately after the liberation of the Mount in the Six-Day War.

Danon noted that Israel has large-scale support in the Christian world but "we are afraid to take advantage of it. It's as if we are ashamed about ourselves. But there is great support and I felt it in the tour yesterday."

Palin was also welcomed by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the Kotel Rabbi, who told her that not just the prayers of Jews are more readily fulfilled when uttered at the Temple Mount, but those of Gentiles as well. The rabbi told Palin that he believes she will be an even better "ambassador" for Israel after her visit than she was before it.

The prominent freshman MK said that Israel needs to explain to Christians that it is in their interest, too, to let Israel have control of the holy sites. He noted that in places like Bethlehem, where Muslims are in control, Christians are humiliated.

Palin may have succeeded because the McCain campaign wasn't undermining her this time. And Danon is to be commended for citing Muslim persecution of Christians under Fatah's dictatorship. Thus, Palin's visit to Israel, just like India, is a very worthy occasion.

Just when you thought they couldn't stoop any lower, Marvel has published a story in their current X-Factor volume (issue #217) that's like an allusion to the Ground Zero mosque case. This rabid leftist site called Death and Taxes has come out in favor of this disturbing story featuring an anti-Muslim protest that depicts it pretty unflatteringly:

“America for Americans,” shouts one of the all white crowd, while another declares, “We don’t need more Muslim terrorists getting in here!” Yet another concurs, “They’re as bad as mutants!”

Wow. Did it ever occur to them how the Koran might look upon mutants, if they existed in real life? The Religion of Peace certainly considers non-Muslims inferior, and also women, as indicated in Sura 2:228, and any mutant who didn't practice Islam would be decreed as such too. On top of all that, they even resort to what's become a staple of how the leftist MSM depicts the Tea Party movements, for example: that they're allegedly all white, and no blacks, Latinos or Asians could possibly support them. They also don't care about how Islamic slave trade in Sudan has victimized many blacks.

The book in question also contains this peculiar panel:

It’s here that buxom hero Monet flies in with a special announcement, “I’m a Muslim and a mutant!” Girl knows how to make an entrance.

But the writer of this piece does not. What's absurd here is how it depicts a girl with cleavage, something forbidden in the most extreme Islamic regimes like Saudi Arabia, identifying herself as a Muslim (she's said to be of Algerian background not unlike Batman Inc's Nightrunner), shades of corrupt NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg's own knee-jerk blather. Though there are some Muslim women who don't dress in burqas/niqabs, there's still plenty of Muslim males, even in the west, who're willing to force women to wear those oppresive garments, and in many Islamic regimes, the more oppressive it is to the point where the death sentence can be given to those who don't wear them, and the Koran condones it. Thus, the irony is that not every Muslim male around the world, not even in the west, is going to be impressed with that scene in X-Factor 217. They could've made this a scene depicting a gay/lesbian identifying with the ummah, and given that many Muslims are violently hostile to gays and lesbians, you can be sure not every Muslim would be impressed with a scene like that either. Also, to use a phrase columnist Mark Steyn may have coined, there may be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam, and the extremists far outnumber any moderates.

The book also contains the following:

Shouts one protester, “All mutants want to take over the world,” as a cohort concludes, “And Muslims, too. It’s right in your sacred texts. You guys are at war with Christianity. And your mosques are really secret terrorist training camps.”

Yes it does, and another example of this is Sura 8:12 in the Koran, which says, "I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: you smite them above their necks and smite all their fingertips off of them." (via FaithFreedom) But this story, unfortunately, is unlikely to contain any such verses providing an understanding of that, and it appears to be structured so as to make the protestors look like the baddies. And they're clearly unconcerned about how the people involved in the mosque project have shady backgrounds and hire equally shady cohorts.

That aside, Marvel has really gone beyond the pale this time. It's bad enough if they took blame-America standings with Captain America in past years. Now they're even going so far as to desecrate the victims of 9-11 and offend those closest to them by implying it is democratic Americans opposed to violent ideologies, shariah, and also a building project that desecrates the memory of their loved ones who are the problem, not the jihadists themselves, and they refuse to distinguish between religion and race. Their current product is an offense to a lot of people I respect like Debra Burlingame and 9-11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Brigitte Gabriel and Steve Emerson.

And who wrote the X-Factor story here? Peter David, I'm afraid. The man who once wrote a story in the same named series back in the early 90s where they and the Hulk took down a Saddam Hussein-ish dictator now does 360, and explains why I don't think I'll want to read his writings anymore. Once, I thought he was smart enough to avoid this kind of propaganda, and he did once signal he respects Israel. Guess I was wrong. Now, he's plumbing new depths and suggesting he condones imposing sharia on America.

SOETORO LIES ABOUT AMERICA'S PAST INTERVENTIONS

President Soetoro contrasts his adventure in Libya with the wars waged when President Bush led the free world:

I think it’s also important to note that the way that the U.S. took leadership and managed this process ensures international legitimacy and ensures that our partners, members of the international coalition are bearing the burden of following through on the mission, as well. Because, as you know, in the past there have been times where the United States acted unilaterally or did not have full international support, and as a consequence typically it was the United States military that ended up bearing the entire burden.

With Soetoro, everything is part of his alinskyite attack against the United States, American history, and his predecessor.

But what a liar.

The fact is, the international coalition led by President Bush included TWICE AS MANY different countries as Soetoro's anti-qadhdhaffi coalition.

Coalition Forces / Iraq vs. Libya

Coalition Countries - Iraq - 2003

Afghanistan,
Albania
Australia
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Georgia
Hungary
Italy
Japan
South Korea
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Philippines
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Spain
Turkey
United Kingdom
Uzbekistan

[Source: US State Department]

Coalition - Libya - 2011

United States
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Canada
Belgium
Denmark
Norway
Qatar
Spain
Greece
Germany
Poland
Jordan
Morocco
United Arab Emirates

Nutcase Dennis Kucinich is right about one thing: Soetoro should be impeached and removed from office.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS:

BUSH ALSO GOT THE US CONGRESS TO APPROVE USE OF MILITARY FORCE IN BOTH CASES.

OBAMA SKIPPED CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL.

APPARENTLY OBAMA THINKS THAT HE AND OUR MILITARY WORK FOR THE UN AND THE "INT'L COMMUNITY."

SNOW RETURNING TO KILIMANJARO; THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS WATTS UP WITH THAT BY 2 DAYS

THE INVALUABLE WUWT TODAY.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SATURDAY.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE SCOOPS THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME. SPREAD THE WORD.

How RICO Can Be Used To Bring Down Our Two Greatest Enemies; the Left and the Islamofascists

First, let's look at how the corporation Sodexo is using RICO to fight back against the Service Employees International Union:

In a press release issued Thursday, Sodexo USA announced that the company has filed a civil lawsuit against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act., accusing the union of engaging in an “illegal campaign of extortion.” The lawsuit representing Sodexo is Hunton & Williams – the same firm SEIU and its allies have accused of launching a “dirty tricks” campaign against them in retaliation for their anti-Chamber of Commerce campaigns.

One of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world, Sodexo is the provider of choice for most schools, universities, companies, hotels, prisons and other facilities that outsource their cafeteria and food catering operations, and for those that outsource industrial cleaning services. SEIU has been incessantly battering Sodexo since 2007, in its desire to unionize some of its nearly 400,000 employees, many of them hotel and food service workers. Exacerbating the tensions was a longstanding turf war between SEIU and UNITE HERE over hotel and casino workers, which often spilled over into SEIU’s antics prior to the settlement the warring unions reached this past summer.
Sodexo USA has filed the lawsuit in an attempt to halt the over-the-top harassment from SEIU, alleging that many of the acts are very serious and outside of the normal realm of union tactics, including acts of ” SEIU blackmail, vandalism, trespass, harassment, and lobbying law violations designed to steer business away from Sodexo USA and harm the company.” [emphasis added]
Aside from some of its usual corporate smear campaign tactics, certain organizers in the SEIU subscribed to some especially nasty, and frankly repulsive, tactics:

The complaint alleges that the SEIU, in face to face meetings, threatened Sodexo USA’s executives that it would harm Sodexo USA’s business unless they gave in to the union, and then carried out its threats through egregious behavior, including:

throwing plastic roaches onto food being served by Sodexo USA at a high profile event;

scaring hospital patients by insinuating that Sodexo USA food contained bugs, rat droppings, mold and flies;

lying to interfere with Sodexo USA business and sneaking into elementary schools to avoid security;

violating lobbying laws to steer business away from Sodexo USA, even at the risk of costing Sodexo USA employees their jobs; and

harassing Sodexo USA employees by threatening to accuse them of wrongdoing.

So, what precisely is RICO?

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.

There is also a provision for private parties to sue. A "person damaged in his business or property" can sue one or more "racketeers." The plaintiff must prove the existence of a "criminal enterprise." The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise. A civil RICO action, like many lawsuits based on federal law, can be filed in state or federal court.[5]

Both the federal and civil components allow for the recovery of treble damages (damages in triple the amount of actual/compensatory damages).

Although its primary intent was to deal with organized crime, Blakey said that Congress never intended it to merely apply to the Mob. He once told Time, "We don't want one set of rules for people whose collars are blue or whose names end in vowels, and another set for those whose collars are white and have Ivy League diplomas."[4]

Under the law, racketeering activity means:

* Any violation of state statutes against gambling, murder, kidnapping, extortion, arson, robbery, bribery, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical (as defined in the Controlled Substances Act);
* Any act of bribery, counterfeiting, theft, embezzlement, fraud, dealing in obscene matter, obstruction of justice, slavery, racketeering, gambling, money laundering, commission of murder-for-hire, and several other offenses covered under the Federal criminal code (Title 18);
* Embezzlement of union funds;
* Bankruptcy fraud or securities fraud;
* Drug trafficking; long-term and elaborate drug networks can also be prosecuted using the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute;
* Money laundering and related offenses;
* Bringing in, aiding or assisting aliens in illegally entering the country (if the action was for financial gain);
* Acts of terrorism.

In the case of Sodexo, it seems the specific charges giving rise to the use of the RICO Statute would be Extortion and Fraud (having made Fraudulent claims against Sodexo's business.

This is all great.

But, I am even more interested in seeing Prosecuting Attorneys use RICO to bring down whole swaths of Mosques in the United States. If my sources are correct, nearly 80% of the Mosques in the United States are funded, at least in part, by Saudi Arabia. (Here's some information on the Saudi-funding of Wahabbist education and Mosques in the United States.)

So, what's the point? Why do I bring up the Saudi-funding of Mosques? What does this have to do with using RICO to prosecute Radical Islamists?

Simply this, I believe it is possible that one could show Criminal Conspiracy involving whole groups of Saudi-funded Mosques. Once again, this depends on whether one can prove that Imams and Directors of Mosques knowingly accept money gained from Organized Criminal Activity as Zakat. It would also help if one could prove that some of that Zakat was then used to promote terrorist organizations (such as the Holy Land Foundation), or for aiding or assisting aliens in illegally entering the country.

Does that sound far-fetched? Perhaps. Imams knowingly involved in Criminal Activity?

What do you think?

Have we not seen examples already, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here?

And, most of all, what about THIS?

TODAY, WE HAVE GREAT NEWS. PROOF THAT OUR ISLAMOFASCIST ENEMIES ARE WILLING TO CONSPIRE, AS A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION, TO PROMOTE ISLAM.

The proof comes from Islam Online, where a distinction is made between stolen money and money which is gotten through "unlawful means" such as gambling:

Question: Respected scholars, as-salamu `alaykum.

Our mosque was severely damaged by fire, and we needed to collect money to rebuild it. Many people have donated. The problem is that some substantial donations were received from people who are known to be drug dealers. Now, what should we do with that money?

Answer:
Dear questioner, thanks for your question. We earnestly implore Allah to guide us all to the best way.

It should be stated first of all that Islam forbids all kinds of unlawful means of gaining wealth. It urges people to work and be active and get money through lawful ways. As for the ill-gotten wealth, the ruling on it depends on it source.

... stolen wealth should not be used to build a mosque. If the people who are building the mosque know that the source of the wealth is stolen money, then they should not accept the wealth. Likewise, the misappropriated land should not be used to build a mosque. If the people building the mosque are given a piece of land, which they are sure about its being extorted from its right owners, they should not build the mosque upon that land.
As for the second kind of unlawful wealth (i.e., wealth that was earned through unlawful means, like the sale of pork, interest earnings, or gambling) this money is only unlawful to the person who actually earned it through unlawful means. It is lawful to other parties who later come to receive it.

In other words, if the money is outright stolen, then it is not to be used. But, if it is acquired in unlawful ways, such as gambling, then it is permitted for a Mosque to accept such funds as Zakat (Islamic Charity). Islam Online does not answer the question directly. But, because the questioner asked if it was ok to use money from drug dealers, then the implication is that, indeed, it is ok to use money from Drug Dealing to build Mosques.

We know that Mosques have been caught preaching Jihad.

If a Mosque is built with drug money, and it preaches Jihad, and it receives a large portion of it's initial funding from Saudi Arabia, then it could be shown that it is part of a ring of Mosques, tied together through Saudi-funding, which constitute an Organized Criminal Enterprise.

UPDATE: There is precedence for Western governments going after religions as, essentially, Racketeering Organizations. Check out this article on how France is handling Scientology:

The German domestic intelligence service keeps the Church of Scientology under surveillance as a potential threat to democracy. Belgian prosecutors have been building a blackmail case against it for 11 years.

Now the French have taken a more forceful step.
In a decision that could reverberate across Europe, a court in Paris Tuesday convicted the French branch of the church of “organized fraud” and said it had systematically tricked recruits out of their savings.
The two flagship Scientology outposts in Paris, a bookstore and an information centre, were ordered to pay €600,000 in fines. The head of the church in France was given a two-year suspended sentence for fraud and fined €30,000.
However, the court allowed the church to keep operating in France. In May, when the trial began, prosecutors asked that it be shut down as a criminal enterprise, only to discover that the law that might have allowed its banishment had just been deleted as part of an overhaul of the penal code.
The judges said they did not order the church offices closed because they did not want to drive Scientologists underground, where they could not be monitored.
They also said a paid notice of the church's conviction would be published in Time magazine and the International Herald Tribune so that news of the church's conviction would spread beyond France.
“The court told the Scientologists, in essence, to be very, very careful, because if you continue to use the same methods of harassment, you won't escape next time,” said Olivier Morice, the lawyer for the civil plaintiffs in the case.

A Pennsylvania woman who crashed her car after burglarizing a local inn had a sizable stash of drugs and cash hidden in her vagina.

According to a report in the Scranton Times-Tribune, police were called to the scene of a car crash on March 13 where Karin Mackaliunas was arrested for suspicion of theft.

During a search, police found three bags of heroin in her jacket. While police escorted the woman to the station, officers noticed her fidgeting in the back seat.

She then told police that she had hidden more drugs in her vagina.

A doctor who performed a search removed: 54 bags of heroin, 31 empty bags used to package heroin, eight prescription pills and $51.22 in cash and change

WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS IS THIS:

WHY DIDN'T SHE THROW AWAY THE 22 CENTS!?!?!?!?\

MORE HERE.

A MOST POTENTIALLY SHORT-LIVED VENTURE FOR MANGA IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

The Japan Times writes about manga's growing influence around the world. But there's one place where I'm not sure it'll be long lasting:

In October, Shueisha, whose manga "One Piece," "Naruto" and "Dragonball" have been hits in Europe and the United States as well as in Japan, ventured for the first time into the Islamic world. As part of Japan Year 2010 in Turkey, it held a "Discover Manga: The World of Shonen Jump" exhibition at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

It remains to be seen just how long that kind of exhibition will last, and if Turkey under cretins like Tayyip Erdogan will allow participants to display sans censorship: deeper into the Islamic world, female imagery - something the mangakas are very good at drawing - is heavily censored, ditto many references to the Jewish community, Israel, and even Christianity. Romance and sex are censored too. And Turkey could soon be following suit with many other Islamic regimes in terms of censorship and what books are allowed to enter the country. Thus, I wouldn't count on this having long lasting impact.

THOSE WHO LIVE BY THE SCIMITAR, SHALL DIE BY THE SCIMITAR

WIKI:

The flag of Saudi Arabia (Arabic: علم المملكة العربية السعودية) is the flag used by the government of Saudi Arabia since March 15, 1973. It is a green flag featuring in white an Arabic inscription and a sword. The script on the flag is written in the Thuluth script. It is the shahada or Islamic declaration of faith:
لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله
lā ’ilāha ’illa-llāh muḥammadun rasūlu-llāh
"There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah"

The sword symbolizes justice.

THE SAUDI FLAG:

THE ANTI-ISLAMIST FLAG:

YOU EITHER FIGHT UNDER ONE, OR YOU FIGHT UNDER THE OTHER...

Good video comparing Mein Kampf and Koran among other things.

NETANYAHU SLAMS STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

In the earlier post, it looked as though he didn't do this properly. Now, in the following post at The Blaze, and the accompanying videos from CNN's Piers Morgan interview, he's made an improvement by taking the European far left to task for their alliance with Islamofascism:

“This is the strangest union you could possibly contemplate,” he added, “because radical Muslims — they stone women, they execute gays, they are against any human rights, against feminism, against… what have you. And the far left is supposed to be for these things.”

“There’s a difference in the way that Europeans views Israel and Americans view Israel,” the prime minister said. While the United States maintains historically favorable views toward Israel, the Jewish state has become increasingly unpopular in Europe, the Washington Times adds. Most surveys across the continent show far greater support for Palestinians compared to Israelis.

This is an improvement if he didn't raise these issues at the funeral for the Fogels last week. I think the next up who's going to have to raise these issues in clear is Rabbi Meir Lau.

US GOVERNMENT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING - IN FRENCH MUSLIM NEIGHBORHOODS

Diana West discovered disturbing info from Wikileaks about how the US government has been interfering in another country's own problems, and while the Obama administration has been doing this, it actually began with the Bush administration. Galliawatch has more, and I think that, if there's anything as devastating as there is something angering here, it's the revelation that Sylvester Stallone acted as an "ambassador". When Michael Medved once spoke of how Hollywood stars are risking their popularity for this kind of junk, he sure wasn't kidding.

ISRAELI LEADERS FAIL TO CLEARLY ADDRESS KORANIC MOTIVATIONS FOR JIHAD

Andrew Bostom cites how Benjamin Netanyahu did not mention Islam when he addressed the Itamar massacre:

Saturday evening (3/12/11) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Itamar massacre. Netanyahu’s eloquent remarks included a demand

… that the Palestinian Authority stop the incitement that is conducted on a daily basis in their schools, mosques and the media under their control. The time has come to stop this double-talk in which the Palestinian Authority outwardly talks peace, and allows – and sometimes leads – incitement at home.

But Netanyahu failed to break a universally imposed, self-destructive taboo. He refused to identify the ubiquitous, if unnamed raw material for Palestinian Muslim “incitement”— the jihad and Jew-hating motifs from Islam’s mainstream, orthodox canon.

For the past 90 years, Palestinian Arab Muslim religious and political leaders, beginning with the founders of this jihadist movement, Hajj Amin el-Husseini and Izzad-Din al-Qassam, have imbued their rhetoric, unabashedly with the extensive jihadism and Jew-hatred—including apocalyptic, annihilationist themes—featured in Islam’s foundational texts: the Koran, hadith (words and deeds of Islam’s prophet Muhammad), and sira (the earliest pious Muslim biographies of Muhammad).

Sheikh Tayseer al-Tamimi, who currently heads the Palestinian Authority’s Sharia (Islamic Law) Courts, in 1994, then chairman of the PA’s Islamic Law Council, stated,

The Jews are destined to be persecuted, humiliated, and tortured forever, and it is a Muslim duty to see to it that they reap their due. No petty arguments must be allowed to divide us. Where Hitler failed, we must succeed.

Hamas cleric Wael Al-Zarad during a television program which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 28, 2008 intoned the following about the Jews of Israel: “By Allah, if each and every Arab spat on them, they would drown in Arab spit.” Wael Al-Zarad’s seemingly hallucinatory statement also included this allegation,

From the dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they proclaim that Ezra the Scribe is the son of God.

The reference to Ezra is actually a false, intentionally defamatory Koranic accusation (Koran 9:30) against Jews, citing a claim which Jews, in fact, have never made.

But the crux of Al-Zarad’s remarks explained that the Muslims’ blood vengeance against the Jews, “will only subside with their [the Jews] annihilation, Allah willing, because they tried to kill our Prophet several times.”

These allegations are part of a central antisemitic motif in the Koran which decrees an eternal curse upon the Jews (Koran 2:61/ reiterated at 3:112) for slaying the prophets and transgressing against the will of Allah. And Koran 3:112 is featured before the pre-amble to Hamas’ foundational Covenant—it is literally part of the very first statement of the document. [Here is the Arberry translation of 3:112: “Abasement shall be pitched on them, wherever they are come upon, except they be in a bond of God, and a bond of the people; they will be laden with the burden of God's anger, and poverty shall be pitched on them; that, because they disbelieved in God's signs, and slew the Prophets without right; that, for that they acted rebelliously and were transgressors.”]

This central motif is coupled to Koranic verses 5:60, and 5:78, which describe the Jews transformation into apes and swine (5:60), or simply apes, (i.e. verses 2:65 and 7:166), having been “…cursed by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary’s son” (5:78). The Muslim prophet Muhammad himself repeats this Koranic curse in a canonical hadith (Sunan Abu Dawoud, Book 37, Number 4322). And the related verse, 5:64, accuses the Jews—as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did in a January 2007 speech, citing Koran 5:64—of being “spreaders of war and corruption,” a sort of ancient Koranic antecedent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

You know what? I'm disgusted that still, even Israeli leaders continue to go the politically correct route and not cite how Islam is the problem. The end mentions Rabbi Meir Lau, and why do I get the feeling that he won't show any guts either? And you wonder why the war on terror is so difficult?

Update: related post from Betsy's Page, and Caroline Glick.