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.”
