DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Iran has significantly stepped up its output of low-enriched uranium and total production in the last five years, which would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons if refined much further, a US security institute said. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think-tank which closely tracks Iran's nuclear program, made the analysis on the basis of data in the latest quarterly UN watchdog report which was issued on Friday.
... Iran began enriching uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent in 2010, saying it needed this to fuel a medical research reactor. It later expanded the work sharply by launching enrichment at an underground site, Fordow. It alarmed a suspicious West since such enhanced enrichment accomplishes much of the technical leap towards 90 percent - or weapons-grade - uranium.
A nationwide real estate downturn, stalling exports and declining consumer confidence have produced what a Chinese cabinet adviser, quoted on the official government Web site on Thursday, characterized as a “sharp slowdown in the economy.”AND THE CRASH OF THE EURO WILL BRING CHINA'S HOUSE OF CARDS CRUMBLING DOWN.
More and more Israelis are coming to see Judea and Samaria (Shomron) as important to Israel thanks to residents’ efforts to educate the public. Confirmation of their success came from none other than the left-wing Peace Now group, which recently expressed concern over a “revolution” in public perception.And it sends some hope that there's light at the end of the tunnel in getting European politicians to embrace Zionism.
At a conference for left-wing groups held recently in Tel Aviv, Peace Now handed out pamphlets warning of a change in public sentiment, and calling to fight back.
“Without us noticing, the Right is creating a real revolution in public opinion regarding the territories,” the group said. “A bloated right-wing network is working on a few fronts: tours for the media, bloggers and influential figures in Judea and Samaria, a complete takeover when it comes to explaining diplomacy in pre-army programs... “
“We are bringing the Left back to the playing field!” Peace Now declared. “Peace Now invites you to join… and be part of a front to explain the Left’s diplomatic stance.”
A previous attempt by Peace Now to counter Samaria leaders’ efforts was unsuccessful. The group tried to host its own tour of Judea and Samaria for parliamentary aides, but ended up cancelling the tour due to lack of interest.
Judea and Samaria activists were unconcerned by the latest Peace Now endeavor.
“We’re not in competition with the extreme Left,” said Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika. “It doesn’t matter what the extreme left organizations say, what matters is what believers do. We will keep on building the land of Israel… and strengthening Jewish and Zionist awareness in the country.”
The Samaria Regional Council declined to respond directly to Peace Now, but issued a general statement. “Unlike extreme-Left groups, which try to drown the state of Israel in millions of euros in funding from the European Union and anti-Israel funds, we come without money, but with heartfelt intentions,” said advisor Yossi Dagan.
“While the extreme Left primarily spreads hate of Israel and discord, we are busy teaching about the Zionist enterprise, love of Israel and building the land of Israel. Therefore, the people of Israel connect to settlement and distance themselves from the left,” he added.
The Samaria Regional Council has brought more than 50 MKs and ministers and thousands of writers, journalists and broadcasters to visit the region. In total, more than 20,000 people have visited Samaria under the council’s programs, including a tour program open to the general public under the name “Samaria – Nice to Meet You.”
The council has begun reaching out beyond Israel’s borders as well. Mesika recently became the first Israeli leader from Judea or Samaria to speak at the European Union Parliament in Brussels. His speech at the parliament was well received.
Writing at RealClearPolitics, the delightfully named Sean Trende reformulates the rule and carries it back a century:
"There are only seven sitting presidents who have ever received less than 60 percent of the vote in any primary: Taft in '12; Coolidge, '24; Hoover, '32; LBJ, '68; Ford '76; Carter, '80; and Bush '92. All of these presidents, with the exception of Coolidge, were not re-elected."
One of Coolidge's challengers, Robert LaFollette, ran a third-party challenge. He ended up with 16.5% of the nationwide popular vote and carried his home state, Wisconsin....
... actually, there's an eighth sitting president who received less than 60% in a primary--in more than one, in fact. That would be Obama in '12, who, as Trende points out, received just 58.4% in Arkansas, 57.9% in Kentucky, 57.1% in Oklahoma and 59.4% in West Virginia. In Kentucky, his main opponent was "Uncommitted," another name for Nobody.OBAMA GOT LESS THAN 60% IN 4 PRIMARY CONTESTS - AND NONE WERE AGAINST A CANDIDATE OF ANY RENOWN.
We examined the 28 OECD countries defined as "advanced" by the IMF between 1965 and 2010. Using regression analysis to control for the growth rates of the factors of production (physical capital, labor and human capital) and initial GDP, our results suggest that reducing the ratio of taxes or spending to GDP by five percentage points increases the growth rate of GDP per capita by 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points per year...
... Our findings add to the already significant body of economic literature that suggests that small-government countries grow more quickly after accounting for other characteristics. It also shows that there appears to be little correlation between government size as a proportion of GDP and some key outcomes in health and education. The implication is that in the medium term, constraining the size of the state is good for growth, and can also provide social outcomes that are at least as good as those in big-government countries.RTWT.
Convicted Bomber Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, Ron Brynaert, and Their Campaign of Political TerrorismFiled under: Brett Kimberlin,Neal Rauhauser,Ron Brynaert,Scum,Velvet Revolution—
Patterico @ 12:54 am
You’re about to listen to one of the most bone-chilling pieces of audio you will ever hear. At least, it was to me when I first heard it.
It’s a phone call that could have gotten me killed.
It asked them to be suspended ahead of a board meeting this afternoon to reformulate its accounts for 2011 and submit a plan to shore up its finances. The bank is reported to be due to ask the government for a bailout of more than 15bn euros ($19bn; £12bn).
Bankia, which is Spain's fourth-largest bank, was part-nationalised two weeks ago because of its problems with bad property debt. Any extra government money would be on top of the 4.5bn euros in state loans that the government converted into shares in the group in the part-nationalisation process.THE EURO AND ITS BANKS ARE FAILING.
Germans have become increasingly hostile to the state of Israel in recent years, with 59 percent describing the country as “aggressive,” according to a new poll published in the national Sternmagazine on Wednesday.Why are we supposed to consider what others think of us when acting in self-defense and safety?
The figures emerged as President Joachim Gauck prepares for an official state visit to Israel, from May 28-31, and in the midst of a recent wave of anti-Israel incidents across the country.
The figures showed a sharp rise from the 49% of Germans who replied to a similar poll three years earlier.
Furthermore, 70% of those polled answered that, “Israel pursues its own interest without consideration for other nations.”
Earlier this month, a group of suspected neo-Nazis attacked a booth distributing pro-Israel material in the west German city of Siegen, injuring two women and a man.I thought they were the ones causing most of the trouble with the Euro currency these days. In any case, if they can't accept that the cultural mindsets they're still going by are the problem, and not Israel, then for the millionth time, I see little reason for Jews to waste time there. Germany's failed in its efforts to establish a civilized education system, and come to think of it, even most of the world failed to ensure that they'd do so too. It's very sad.
“The boundaries between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel are shrinking rapidly. In Germany, this is becoming apparent,” said Shacha Stawski, the chairman of the pro-Israel initiative "I Like Israel," which had sponsored the booth.
German intelligence chief Heinz Fromm also claimed in an interview with German newspaper Bild on Tuesday that “the danger for (Jews in) Germany has not decreased."
Fromm raised concerns regarding the possibility of further anti-Semitic attacks in the country, due to increasing tension between extremist Salafist muslims and police forces.
“With their intensive propaganda over the internet, in the streets, in mosques and also at so-called Islam seminars, Salafist preachers are reaching especially young people who are more sensitive to this ideology,” he said.
He continued to state that, “almost all Islamist terrorists from Germany have been radicalised in this way”.
German novelist Gunter Grass sparked outrage last month, when he published a poem titled, “What Must Be Said,” in which he claimed that Israel, not Iran, is the biggest threat to world peace.
Although his statements were widely criticized by German politicians and Israeli officials, a number of commentators suggested that his views might gain increased recognition and acceptance from the German public.
Former German central banker Thilo Sarrazin also stirred controversy when he claimed in his new book that Germany has allowed itself to become the eurozone’s “hostage” as penitence for the Holocaust. The extreme-right National Democrat Party congratulated Sarrazin for “saying openly what most Germans think”.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the special treatment given to the filmmakers “outrageous.”Judicial Watch has more. One of the biggest problems is that Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal are also likely to have promised favors for the Obama administration like giving them the lion's share of all the credit for the raid, and not so much to any of the people involved, not even bold informants like Afridi. It amounts to sensationalizing the whole story and even cheapening the impact. Rep. Peter King has also stressed that a lot of security issues are at stake because of this movie.
“If these filmmakers got access that trained national security and military reporters did not, then it’s telling the public: ‘We are not going to allow trained journalists to tell this story. If you want to know what happened, go buy a ticket to a movie,’” she told The Daily Beast in an interview.
Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists said, “The whole interaction with the filmmakers appears to be self-serving and self-aggrandizing [attempts] in an election year to glorify the administration.”
International Capital Seeks Safe Haven
Russia's capital flight is intensifying under a threatened international economic crisis and collapse of the global oil & gas price bubble
Russia, which relies on oil and gas exports for half of its budget revenue and Europe as a market for more than 50 percent of its exports, may suffer a worse recession than in 2009 if energy prices plunge, according to Dmitriev.
..."There is large-scale capital flight from Russia, despite the economic recovery," Dmitriev said. "And this capital is flying into the epicenter of the global financial crisis, which is in Europe. That is actually the same as creating a food supply in the center of an atomic explosion." _SFGate
China's rich elites are unnerved by the twin political and economic situations popping up in the middle kingdom, and are looking for a safe place to stash their cash and valuables.
The two China crises are entwined, although the China bubble had been looking for an excuse to deflate for a few years.
The Eurozone is beginning to feel the stress of the building chaos and fiscal crises in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. An underswell of capital flight is starting to build, even in Europe.
The world is watching the US for any sign that the former global economic bulwark is willing to turn away from its mindless and wasteful spending spree of the last few years that has occurred for no better reason than support for political cronies and a suicidal green energy starvation.
If November elections in the US provide reassurance of a long needed change in US fiscal and monetary policies, global markets may be reassured before the bottom completely erodes.
Economists say business confidence in Europe has been hit by worries over Greece
Activity at European businesses hit a near three-year low in May, according to a survey by Markit. Its index, based on a survey of purchasing managers in the manufacturing and service sector, fell to 45.9 in May, a 35-month low. In response, the euro fell to $1.2515 against the dollar, a 22-month low.
... Thursday's economic reports show that concerns over Greece are having a broader economic impact, according to economists.
Markit's chief economist, Chris Williamson, said his firm's research indicated that the European downturn "gathered further momentum in May".
"The survey is broadly consistent with gross domestic product falling by at least 0.5% across the region in the second quarter, as an increasingly steep downturn in the periphery infects both France and Germany," he said in the report.
Activity at French and German factories fell to the lowest level in almost three years, according to the Markit survey.IT'S GETTING WORSE.
The campaign announced that the president “[would] headline a reception for 700 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center ... only 550 people showed up.
Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription "Bethlehem," the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday, in what experts believe to be the oldest artifact with the name of Jesus' traditional birthplace. The tiny clay seal's existence and age provide vivid evidence that Bethlehem was not just the name of a fabled biblical town, but also a bustling place of trade linked to the nearby city of Jerusalem, archaeologists said.
Eli Shukron, the authority's director of excavations, said the find was significant because it is the first time the name "Bethlehem" appears outside of a biblical text from that period. Shukron said the seal, 1.5 centimeters (0.59 inches) in diameter, dates back to the period of the first biblical Jewish Temple, between the eighth and seventh century B.C., at a time when Jewish kings reigned over the ancient kingdom of Judah and 700 years before Jesus was born.
The seal was written in ancient Hebrew script from the same time. Pottery found nearby also dated back to the same period, he said.
A Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency pin downOsama bin Laden's location under cover of a vaccination drive was convicted on Wednesday of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison, a senior official in Pakistan said.IF IT WAS TREASON TO HELP US GET BIN LADEN, THEN PAKISTAN IS ADMITTING THEY ARE OUR ENEMY AND AN ALLY OF AL QAEDA, THE PERP'S BEHIND 9/11 - AND THAT MAKES THEM A LEGAL TARGET UNDER THE 2001 AUMF.
.. the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.THIS MEANS WE CAN ATTACK PAKISTAN AT WILL IN RETALIATION FOR 9/11.
After a two-week lull, the Palestinian Authority has resumed its crackdown on Palestinian journalists and bloggers in the West Bank.Some caution is going to be needed regarding that last bit there - would that part suggest they still support segregation from Israel? If they do, that's only going to guarantee they'll have more and more troubles like what Abbas' gang is now brewing for them. On the other hand, what if that resumption meant reconnecting with the rest of Israel? They'd be strongly advised to support that idea.
The crackdown, which began three months ago, has targeted journalists and bloggers who reported about corruption cases in PA institutions or posted critical comments on Facebook.
The ongoing campaign comes despite promises by PA leaders to stop arresting and harassing Palestinian journalists and bloggers, especially those who post critical comments on Facebook.
At least nine journalists and bloggers have been arrested or interrogated by various branches of the PA security forces. The PA has also blocked a number of news websites belonging to Palestinians who are critical of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
On Tuesday, the PA's General Intelligence Service detained Shadi Zamara, a 27-year-old journalist and blogger, and questioned him about his work and comments he had posted on Facebook.
Zamara said he received a phone call from a man who identified himself as an officer for the General Intelligence Service asking him to report for questioning.
"When I went there, I was interrogated about my journalistic work and activities on Facebook," Zamara said. "The interrogation focused mainly on articles I had published and which included criticism of the Palestinian Authority."
After two and a half hours of questioning, Zamara was released and asked to report again for further interrogation next week.
But half an hour after he left the offices of the General Intelligence Service, he received another phone call asking him to return immediately for questioning.
"When I arrived, they put me inside a room and closed the door," Zamara recounted in a statement to the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. "I started shouting, demanding that they release me. I told them that I came voluntarily and there was no need for this kind of treatment. Then one of the interrogators entered the room and demanded to know why my case was already on Facebook."
Zamara told the interrogator that because he was a journalist he saw that there was a need to inform the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the PA's Government Press Office of the decision to summon him for questioning.
"I believe that that there is a campaign against journalists and that the Palestinian Authority is following all our activities," he said. "This is a clear violation of freedom of media."
In a related development, 88% of Palestinians believe that the recent arrest of journalists and bloggers in the West bank is unjustified, a public opinion poll published Wednesday showed.
The poll, which was conducted by the independent research center AWRAD, covered some 1200 Palestinians.
More than 60% of respondents in the Gaza Strip and 27% in the West Bank believe freedom of speech has diminished compared to 10 years ago, the poll found.
An overwhelming majority of Palestinians [about 80%] said that the two Palestinian governments were censoring freedom of expression, the survey showed.
According to the results, 84% of Palestinians support the immediate conduct of elections in the Palestinian territories, while another 55% are in favor of the resumption of peace talks with Israel.
Coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin (Likud) on Wednesday sent a letter to Beit El mayor Moshe Rosenbaum saying Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will allow a vote on the "regulatory law" proposed by MK Yaakov Katz if an administrative solution is not found.I think Netanyahu had better hurry up on his own part and cooperate more willingly with the coalition for Ulpana, if he wants to make a good impression here.
Elkin wrote, "The coalition leadership today met and decided, in light of the agreements with the prime minister, to enforce party discipline and reject ministers voting their own conscience on the regulatory law for two weeks.
"According to the agreement, the coalition is allowing two weeks for the Prime Minister to find a solution for the Givat Ulpana neighborhood without the need for legislation. If no such solution is found within a fortnight, coalition members will be granted the freedom to vote according to their conscience when the bill is reintroduced in two weeks time.
“If a solution is not found within two weeks, the Prime Minister does not reject a legislative solution.
"Meanwhile, the government today "froze" all the preparations for the destruction of the neighborhood.
"This prevents the government from being 'hijacked,' and stops the destruction of the neighborhood, so that should the matter be brought to a vote, the legislative process can run its course," Elkin concluded.
With 12 senior colleges, 6 community colleges, several graduate schools and about 260,000 students in degree-granting programs, CUNY is one of the largest systems in the country. Unlike most public and private universities, its admissions are race-blind, based entirely on grades and test scores.
... The changes at CUNY mimic, to some extent, changes in the city’s top public high schools, which admit students solely on the basis of an entrance exam and have become steadily more Asian and less black in recent years. The shift is evident in the faces at Baruch College in Manhattan, where the enrollment is almost half Asian and about 10 percent black.ASIANS ARE INHERENTLY SMARTER AND THEY WORK HARDER IN SCHOOL.
On May 21, 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations sued the Obama administration over its ridiculously narrow idea of how a “religious institution” can be defined under their ObamaCare law. Never has the Catholic Church – or any order, for that matter – undertaken something of this magnitude. It’s truly jaw-dropping that ABC and NBC completely ignored this action on their evening newscasts, while “CBS Evening News” devoted just 19 seconds to this historic event.MUCH MORE HERE.
The Facebook mystique is so powerful today that in our minds Facebook truly is too big to fail. Facebook will never fail, Facebook will just keep growing indefinitely at rates that would remind us of the old dot-com mindset of 1999, hail Facebook, you are too big to fail and nothing will change our minds. And paradoxically, that’s exactly why Facebook is the ultimate economy-killer.
Could our friendly Facebook really bring down the economy?
Global economy-killer? Yes, Facebook has now been added to my list of global macroeconomic triggers (deadly unpredictable Black Swans like the dot-coms in 2000, subprimes in 2008) that the denial system driving the collective brain of American investors will simply tune out, till it’s too late. Till a crash takes the economy down again.TAB IN JUNE 2011:
And, yes, it may take years, or trigger in 2012. We watched the same kind of buildup to the 2008 crash for a few years in advance, as credible warnings were ignored. Yes folks, Facebook is that dangerous to our economy and to the global economy. You think I’m kidding? Not one bit. In fact Facebook is now one of my top-12 economy-killing triggers, any one of which could ignite a firestorm.
TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2011
IS THE FACEBOOK BUBBLE ABOUT TO BURST?
THIS IS A REAL BUBBLE IN MY OPINION, JUST LIKE THE NASDAQ BUBBLE AND THE NEW ECONOMY BUBBLE - BOTH IF WHICH BURSTED ON CLINTON'S WATCH.
I THINK GOLDMAN SACHS IS BEHIND FACEBOOK, TOO - WHICH ONLY MAKES ME MORE SKEPTICAL ABOUT IT.
(BACKGROUND HERE.)
STAY TUNED - IT COULD BE A ROCKY RIDE: OBAMA'S BUBBLE IS BURSTING, SO IS CHINA'S. AND MAYBE FACEBOOK'S TOO.
OY.AND AGAIN LAST WEEK:
MORE PROOF FACEBOOK IS A FAD WORTH BUPKUS
GM DUMPS THEM. AND THEY'RE NOT THE FIRST.
AND THE DOMINOES MAY BEGIN TO FALL...
BOTTOM-LINE: FACEBOOK IS A TIME-WASTER, NOT A BUSINESS.AND AGAIN:
FACEBOOK FLOP PRESAGES STOCK BUBBLE BURSTING AND A TRUE BEAR MARKET
FACEBOOK'S 1ST DAY IF TRADING WAS A FLOP. THE STOCK PRICE WAS PROPPED UP BY THE UNDERWRITERS.
THE MASSES KNOW IT'S A POTEMKIN BUSINESS.
AND THAT'S JUST THE START OF THINGS TO COME...REGULAR READERS KNOW WE SCOOP THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME.
European stocks and the euro fell on Wednesday, as European Union leaders began converging on Brussels for yet more talks on how to address the intensifying Greek crisis and the existential threat to the common currency.
The fear in the market is palpable, leading investors to move euros out of the struggling periphery countries and toward the central economies of Germany and France. In a debt auction Wednesday, Germany sold almost €4.6 billion, or $5.8 billion, of its two-year Schatz notes priced to yield 0.07 percent — the lowest ever; at that yield, investors are essentially handing their euros to Germany for safekeeping, expecting nothing in return.ASIAN AND EUROPEAN MARKETS ARE DOWN ALMOST 2% ON THE DAY, SO FAR...
A UK-Swiss team will use DNA testing to investigate the origins of remains claimed to be from yeti and bigfoot. The project will examine hair, bone and other material from a collection amassed by a Swiss biologist - and will invite submissions from elsewhere.
Many cultures relate legends of hairy, humanoid creatures that lurk in the wilds, rarely seen. But material claimed to be from such creatures have never been subjected to modern scientific techniques.
The US ambassador to Afghanistan is to step down this summer due to ill health, the state department has said, one day after Nato's Chicago summit reaffirmed plans to exit the country....
... Other senior US officials are also expected to step down soon.
The ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter has announced he is leaving his post, while Gen John Allen, the most senior US military official in Afghanistan, is expected to leave his position towards the end of the year.
... The BBC's Kim Ghattas says that it is not unusual for diplomats and officials to move on, especially during the last year of a presidential administration.
But the departure of several diplomats in key strategic areas could lead to some drifting in implementing policy while replacements are found, our correspondent adds.PROTEST? LEAVING A SINKING SHIP? SPLITTING BEFORE IRAN IS ATTACKED?
BREITBART: The Los Angeles Times refuses to disclose the contents of a video tape in its possession that reportedly shows Barack Obama lavishing praise on his friend Rashid Khalidi, a close associate of Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat, at a 2003 Chicago dinner party sponsored by the Arab American Action Network and attended by Bill Ayers.
The Times does, however, have all kinds of time to vet Ann Romney, going so far as to dig into a lawsuit she was part of involving a horse...
... federal royalties from the Bakken Fields in North Dakota and Montana could equal $18 trillion, which could also pay off the national debt.
... promoting coal production could generate $300 billion in potential royalties to the federal government from coal mined on federal landsTHAT'S PAY-OFF THE DEBT AS IN WIPE IT EFFING OUT!
On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, he adopted the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, its Arabic translation roughly "generous/noble (Kareem), servant of (Abdul) the mighty/stern one (Jabbar) [i.e., of God]."THIS ACTUALLY TURNS HISTORY AND THE TRUTH ON IT'S HEAD.
The relationship means the People's Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.
The other central banks, including the Bank of Japan, which has a large appetite for Treasuries, place orders for U.S. debt with major Wall Street banks designated by the government as primary dealers.
Those dealers then bid on their behalf at Treasury auctions. China, which holds $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, still buys some Treasuries through primary dealers, but since June 2011, that route hasn't been necessary. The documents viewed by Reuters show the U.S. Treasury Department has given the People's Bank of China a direct computer link to its auction system, which the Chinese first used to buy two-year notes in late June 2011.
China can now participate in auctions without placing bids through primary dealers. If it wants to sell, however, it still has to go through the market. The change was not announced publicly or in any message to primary dealers.UNEFFINREAL. OBAMA GAVE HIS FELLOW SOCIALISTS A SWEET AND SECRET DEAL.
Unfortunately for some futures contract holders and those who think they can sell anything to the, ahem, “COMMUNIST” Chinese government, er, companies, this rude awakening has hit them in the face with a two by four:
China buyers defer raw material cargos
(click on the link to read the story in full- Subscription required)
In this story from the UK’s Financial Times, the story by Javier Blas in Singapore and Jack Farchy in the London bureau hits a massive strike of reminiscent terror with this extract:
The deferrals and defaults have only emerged in the last few days, traders said, and have contributed to a drop in iron ore and coal prices.
“We have some clients in China asking us this week to defer volumes,” said a senior executive with a global commodities trading house, who warned that consumers were cautious. “China is hand to mouth at the moment.”THE CHINESE HOUSE OF CARDS IS ABOUT TO COME CRASHING DOWN.
Obama, who has put the draw-down of combat troops at the heart of his foreign policy, declared that "the world is behind the strategy" of giving Afghans control over their own security, but stressed that "now it's our task to implement if effectively."
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat criticized a former Jerusalem mayor, ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert, over Olmert’s failed plan to split Jerusalem with the Palestinian Authority. The plan stalled when the PA left talks without signing an agreement.Amen. That's how to handle things.
“Olmert makes a bitter mistake in thinking that separation, not unity, is the solution. His words are demagoguery,” Barkat said on Sunday.
“He lost his faith in Jerusalem when he was mayor,” he continued. “He wants to run from conflicts in Jerusalem and give in to them, instead of coping with them and directing them. That is not the way.”
Most Israelis, most Jerusalem residents, and even most Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem, are not interested in splitting the city, Barkat added.
Olmert said over the weekend, “I came to very sad conclusions regarding the future of Jerusalem as a united city when I saw that governments were not able, or maybe did not want, to invest the necessary resources so that unity would be more than a slogan.”
During his time as mayor, Olmert led toward division in the city by neglecting eastern Jerusalem, said Barkat. “In my time in office,” he said, “hundreds of millions are invested – with support from the Prime Minister and his cabinet – in an unprecedented campaign to shrink the gaps in the eastern part of the city.”
“I have no doubt that the right thing to do in Jerusalem is to continue to invest and to unify instead of running away and hiding our heads in the sand – as was done in the past,” he concluded.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday urged Israeli leaders to relinquish the idea of a unified Jerusalem if they truly want peace, contending in a pair of interviews that years of government neglect have kept the Jewish and Arab sectors irreparably divided.I thought the Religion of Peace did!
The comments, made as Israel marked the 45th anniversary of capturing east Jerusalem, were nearly unprecedented for a mainstream Israeli leader and put Olmert at odds with his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Celebrating Israel's control of the city on the Jewish state's "Jerusalem Day," Netanyahu declared his government was committed to keeping it the country's undivided capital.And look how the AP is intent on making it sound as though Israel poached. No, they did not "capture", they liberated and freed the east end of the city from the grip of tyranny, oppression and hostility. And they brought some prosperity to it as well, something most of the Muslim population sure isn't bringing.
"No Israeli government since 1967 has done even a smidgen of what was needed in order to unify the city in practical terms. That is a tragedy that is going to lead us, for want of another choice, to making inevitable political concessions," Olmert told the Maariv daily.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and immediately annexed the area, home to sensitive Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites as well as a large Arab population. The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of an independent state including the neighboring West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Speaking Sunday evening from the site of a Jerusalem battle from that war, Netanyahu said the city will not be partitioned.Well gee whiz, if he'd only consider that it's the followers of Islam who refuse to integrate, and that it's their fault and they have to take responsibility for being so negative, maybe he'd understand the problem. In reality, Olmert is one of the people whom Netanyahu speaks of who take a role not unlike a 9-11 truther.
"Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart. And our heart will never be divided again," he said.
The future of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues at the core of the conflict. Jerusalem's old city is home a compound sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Jews revere it as the site of their two biblical Temples and Muslims regard it as Islam's third-holiest site.
"There are those who believe that if we only divide Jerusalem, and that means giving up the Temple Mount, they believe we will have peace," Netanyahu said. "I am doubtful, to say the least, that if we deposit that square of the Temple Mount with other forces, that we won't quickly deteriorate to a religious sectarian war."
"I know that only under Israeli control is accessibility and religious freedom is ensured, and will continue to be ensured to all the religions. Only under Israel will the quiet be preserved, only under Israel will the peace between the religions be ensured," Netanyahu said.
Olmert said the notion of a united Holy City is unrealistic. He pointed to a number of Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, saying they have not been integrated into the rest of the city.
"We can't unite them and connect them to the real fabric of life in Jerusalem, and except for grief, we haven't gotten anything from them," he said.
In honor of Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, Israeli news site Ynetnews made the curious editorial decision to carry a weeks-old Associated Press story about the Muslim connection to the city. The story left out many details suggesting that Muslim ties to the city were not as historically strong as the Palestinian Authority argues.Elder of Zion has more on this atrocity. It's just like Yediot Achronot and the AP to be so negative and hostile to a celebration day.
The article states that Muslims visited Jerusalem on the way to Mecca “for centuries,” but that the pilgrimage route was disrupted when Israel “captured” much of Jerusalem in the Six Day War. However, as historian Daniel Pipes has shown, historical sources have largely described Jerusalem in the centuries of Muslim rule as a backwater with few visitors, suggesting that pilgrimage to the city was not comparable to that to Mecca.
The writer also claims that the first Muslims “prayed toward Al-Aqsa and only later turned their prayers east to Mecca.” While Muhammad’s followers did initially face toward Jerusalem in prayer, the site known as Al-Aqsa was only constructed many decades later, after Muhammad had instructed them to face Mecca instead.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel will continue to build and develop the capital city of Jerusalem.A shame that those leftards just have to try and spoil everything, and good if the marchers didn't allow that. This is supposed to be a day for joy, and they have to act so nasty? Thank goodness it hasn't been that way so far.
Speaking a Jerusalem Day ceremony at Ammunition Hill, Netanyahu said that "Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart."
"The people who say that we should split Jerusalem believe that this would bring peace," he said. "They believe it, but they are wrong... Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish people and it will not be divided."
"Only under Israel is there quiet. Only under Israel will the peace between the nations be kept," Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, the annual Jerusalem Day Dance of the Flags march to the Old City encountered a group of Palestinians and left-wing activists demonstrating against the Israeli holiday on Sunday, raising tensions during an event that has seen clashes in the past.
Several police officers mounted on horses road through the crowd of at least 100 Palestinian protesters as hundreds if Jewish men poured down the hill towards the Damascus Gate, a portal to the Old City at the Muslim Quarter. Some of the men chanted "the nation of Israel lives," and "revenge against Palestine."
Hundreds of police officers stood nearby, expecting an escalation in tensions as the two sides met.
A small group of left-wing activists stood near the Palestinian activists, holding signs which read "Jerusalem Day, not my holiday."
