While Some "Leaders" Are Wasting Time (and Money) On The Bailout - Others Are Trying To Make A Real Difference

Brand new push in Congress to prevent Shariah invasion -

Bill intended to assure citizens they won't be governed by Islam

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., introduced a bill to the House of Representatives that seeks to prevent Islamic law from gaining a foothold in the U.S. legal system, as it has in other countries.

Tancredo introduced HR 6975, the Jihad Prevention Act, last week. If made into law, the bill would allow American authorities to prevent advocates of Islamic law, or Shariah, from entering the country, revoke the visa of any foreigners that champion it and revoke naturalization for citizens that seek to implement it in the U.S.

The radical form of Shariah includes several statutes objectionable to Western minds, including stoning for adulterous women, amputation for thieves and the death sentence for converting from Islam.

"When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims," Tancredo said in a statement, "you are also importing their radical ideology – an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of Western democracy – such as gender equality, pluralism and individual liberty.

"The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place," Tancredo said.

As WND reported, large Muslim populations in Canada seeking to live out their faith have convinced the Canadian government to permit the enforcement of Shariah.

The journal of the American Bar Association reported last week that Islamic court rulings are now enforceable in the United Kingdom as well.

Tancredo said he "moved quickly" to prevent similar legal entanglements in the U.S.

"We need to send a clear message that the only law we recognize here in America is the U.S. Constitution and the laws passed by our democratically elected representatives," he concluded.

"If you aren't comfortable with that concept, you aren't welcome in the United States."
WND contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations for comment on the bill but received none.

HR 6975 has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary for review.

-------------------------

Ex-Muslim Reveals Secret Goal of Islam

An Egyptian who fled Islam and now lives under that religion's sentence of death says the goal of global jihad simply is the takeover of the world.

The man, who now is a pastor in the U.S. and uses the pseudonym Muhammad Kemel, recently was interviewed by Joel Richardson, co-editor of "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out."

Kemel said Islamic tradition teaches that those who leave Islam should be killed, and Muhammad taught, "Whoever leaves his religion (Islam) kill him." And while the U.S. is not governed by Islam's Shariah religious law, many fundamentalist Muslims do not see Shariah as being limited by national boundaries.

Kemel said the truth is that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were the actions of those who were following the Quran closely.

"Sadly, I heard some of our American leaders and church pastors state that Islam is a peaceful religion, and what happened on 9/11 was done by fanatic Muslims," Kemel said. "These individuals ignore the fact that the main goal of Islam is to rule the world."

He said such instructions are clear in the Quran and Islam's hadiths, or sayings that have been handed down from generation to generation.

"Muslims all over the world are working hard to achieve [the] goal of submission of the entire world to Islam. They are particularly committed to the indoctrination of youth in madrassas, special Islamic schools, particularly in Pakistan and Indonesia," Kemel said.

He said the goal is to have at least 40 million Muslim youths who have memorized the entire Quran.

He said the "average peaceful Muslim and moderate western Muslim" are that way "because they have not studied the Quran."

"If a Muslim begins to study the Quran, understands the true religion of Islam, and what true Islam requires a true Muslim to do, he will either reject Islam or he will become a Muslim committed to violence," Kemel said.

Those who hijacked airplanes on 9/11 and killed thousands "are not extremists from a Quranic viewpoint; only a Western viewpoint," he said.

Kemel told Richardson he was born into a prominent Muslim family in Egypt and considered himself dedicated to Islam. He said he discovered his own faith in Jesus Christ simply through reading the Bible.

Immediately, he was arrested and held for eight months in solitary confinement in jail.

"I was given no bed to sleep on. I slept on the rough cement floor with no cover, no blanket, even through the winter. I was not even supplied with the basic necessities other prisoners were given. … Soldiers came to the cell door and threatened me with death if I would not renounce my belief in Jesus Christ. The secret police warned my family, who eventually learned that I was in prison, not to help me," he told Richardson.

Eventually, he was able to flee Egypt for the U.S., where he's serving a Christian church.
Kemel said he senses a massive conflict developing between hard-line Islam and the rest of the world.

"It was reported by very trusted missionary sources in Algeria that 170,000 Muslims had the same dream of Jesus and many of them became Christians. … Thanks to God, sincere Muslims are rebuking the spiritual forces of darkness that are holding them captive, and that held me captive," he said. "In addition, never witnessed in the past, many Muslim converts, despite the threats on their lives, are sharing their testimonies publicly through the media, through books such as 'Why We Left Islam,' YouTube and television. These are among the reasons why millions of Muslims are coming to know the Lord from many Islamic countries and nations."

Kemel also said on the leading edge of the Islamic aggression are individuals such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who speaks frequently about the Imam Al-Mahdi, Islam's coming messiah figure.

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to use this Islamic theology to brainwash Iranian youth, to transform them into jihadists, those willing to kill in the name of Islam. By killing and creating chaos in the world, Ahmadinejad and others that hold this viewpoint believe that the coming of Imam Al-Mahdi can be hastened," Kemel said.

"There is a fierce war that is raging between Islam and Christianity in the spiritual realm and this conflict has become more and more evident on the earth," Kemel said. "I believe we will see a dramatic clash between Islam and most of the world sometime in the future, but that the power of Islam will ultimately fail. Jesus Christ and his church will be victorious."

Richardson joined fellow Islamic expert Susan Crimp to create "Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out."

It includes gripping personal accounts of men and women who risked their lives by abandoning the Quran and talking about it at the risk of their own lives.

The Observer

32 Little Reasons The Bailout MUST Fail!

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act (the Great Bailout of 2008) are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

HT: Wheatington

- meanwhile, a window of opportunity to kill it!

Bailout Talks Disintegrate Into Verbal Brawl; Fate Uncertain

The fate of the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout package was thrown into doubt Thursday evening, after congressional leaders left a landmark White House summit on the economy hurling accusations at each other and declaring there was no deal.

Congressional leaders continued into the evening negotiating the proposed bailout of the financial industry with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's participation, but the negotiators ended the night without a deal.

The summit at the White House, which included Barack Obama and John McCain, was intended to be a consensus-building exercise — one of the final stops on the rocky road to approving the controversial rescue package. Congressional leaders just hours earlier had announced they had reached an agreement in principle on the rescue package.

But as Obama and McCain left, officials and aides who had attended the meeting said the summit ended on a very low note.

"This meeting ended bad — real bad," one source told FOX News. Others described the tone as "angry" and "heated," saying Democrats were upset with House Republicans in particular who would not drop their opposition to the administration's proposal.

"We may have gone backward," another source said.

Some Democratic leaders said as much publicly, laying the blame partly on McCain, whom they accused of destabilizing the talks by calling for the candidates to enter the economic negotiations

"The next thing we know, he's in a position frankly where he's making it harder to get things done, rather than help us negotiate differences," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said.

Obama said more work needs to be done to resolve differences, but he didn't see a need for the candidates' direct involvement in negotiations.

"Here’s my observation and I think this may have been confirmed at the meeting today — when you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, sometimes it’s not helpful. The cameras change things,” Obama told FOX News. “It's not clear to me that having presidential candidates in a high-profile way in the negotiating process is useful.”

Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said, "It was a photo op for John McCain. ... It was a rescue plan for John McCain."

Bush called Thursday's emergency meeting with lawmakers the night before, after Sen. McCain announced he was suspending his campaign activities to deal with the rescue package.

Though McCain and Obama exited without making any comments, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama emerged from the meeting to declare there was no agreement.

"I don't believe we have an agreement," said the ranking minority member of the Senate Banking Committee. "There's still a lot of different opinions."

The top two Republican leaders in Congress, House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, issued statements saying there was not yet an agreement.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said after the high-stakes meeting that "there is a clear sense of urgency and agreement on the need to stabilize the financial markets and prevent a massive financial crisis from affecting everybody in America."

But as to the substance of the meeting, she said, "members of the administration and the congressional leaders pledged to continue working together to finalize a bill that will address concerns and solve the problem as soon as possible."

Both McCain and Obama are expected to stay in the Washington, D.C., area Thursday night.
McCain has also requested that the presidential debate scheduled for Friday night be postponed, an option Obama and the debate's organizers have dismissed. Obama still plans to travel to the debate site in Mississippi Friday.

McCain's campaign earlier expressed optimism that negotiations over the financial rescue plan were progressing, but aides still had concerns about the complaints of House Republicans.

Bush said Thursday at the top of the meeting that he hopes to reach a financial bailout agreement with Congress "very shortly," as he greeted Obama and McCain for the summit.

“All of us around the table take this issue very seriously and we know we’ve got to get something done as quickly as possible," Bush said. "And this meeting is an attempt to move the process forward. My hope is that we can reach an agreement very shortly.”

The tentative accord reached earlier in the day would give the Bush administration just a fraction of the $700 billion it had requested up front, according to an outline obtained by FOX News, with half the money subject to a congressional veto.

Under the plan, the Treasury secretary would get $250 billion immediately and could have an additional $100 billion if he certified it was needed. The last $350 billion could be blocked by a vote of Congress under the arrangement, designed to give lawmakers a stronger hand in controlling the unprecedented rescue.

The agreement would also set up standards to prevent excessive executive compensation. It would require most profits to be used to reduce the national debt, and establish an oversight board and require regular status reports to Congress. The measures, however, are subject to change and appeared to be in flux after the close of the White House meeting.

There were lingering concerns Thursday afternoon, especially among House Republicans, about whether the package included enough protection for taxpayers.

Despite the hand-wringing, Dodd and Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, among others, said earlier that negotiators from Congress and the administration had arrived at a deal that could win approval. Other key lawmakers said that after days of bare-knuckles negotiations there was little of note left to resolve.

Wall Street showed its pleasure cautiously. The Dow Jones industrials closed some 196 points higher, though that was down from larger gains earlier in the day.

The plan's centerpiece is for the government to buy the toxic, mortgage-based assets of shaky financial institutions in a bid to keep them from going under and setting off a cascade of ruinous events, including wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, closed businesses, and lost jobs.

The Bush administration has made concessions almost daily to demands from the right and the left from its original three-page proposal, including agreeing to limit pay for executives of bailed-out financial institutions and give taxpayers an equity stake in rescued companies.

The White House timed the extraordinary meeting to fit the candidates' schedules — and to convene after the close of stock markets.

It was somewhat upstaged nearly three hours before various motorcades deposited the meeting participants and their entourages, when Capitol Hill leaders reported their deal. Despite the national prominence of Bush, McCain and Obama, none has been deeply involved in this week's scramble to hammer out a package.

KILL THE BAILOUT - ITS JUST A POWER GRAB !!!

The Observer

McCains Numbers Are Going Down - Wanna Know Why?

Garner - Washington Times

The Observer

Garner - Washington Times

The Observer

Quote of the Day

A Conservative Voting For Obama is Like Saying; "I'm very disappointed that Republicans have been worshipping evil all these years, so ... I'll go directly to Satan!"

Tiger's response after a "conservative" friend of a conservative friend said he would be voting for Obama.

The Observer

Lemmings Leaping

Let's Get Out of Debt By Increasing Our Debt!

Then, We Can Leap Off the Cliff!

One Can Only Assume They're Destroying America On Purpose

Dow Plummets 373 as Markets Rethink Rescue - The euphoria that swept Wall Street late last week evaporated Monday as the Dow plummeted 370 points, crude oil prices spiked $25, an all-time record, and the greenback suffered its worst day ever against the euro.

Today's Market (Monday the 23rd)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 372.75 points, or 3.27%, to 11015.69. The broader S&P 500 Index closed down 47.96 points, to 3.82%, to 1207.12 while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 94.92 points, or 4.17%, to 2178.98. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 Index fell 28.21 points, or 3.13% to 873.24.

Turbulence continues to reign on Wall Street as the Dow closed with a triple-digit move for the sixth consecutive trading session. Monday's losses halve what was the largest two-day percentage jump for the S&P 500 since October 1987.

“Uncertainty breeds volatility. Until there is more clarity on the status of the U.S. financial system, there is going to continue to be volatility in both directions," said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities.

... meanwhile ...

Immigration to U.S. Slows Dramatically as Economy Falters - WASHINGTON — The wave of immigrants entering the United States slowed dramatically last year as the economy faltered and the government stepped up enforcement of immigration laws.

The nation added about a half million immigrants in 2007, down from more than 1.8 million the year before, according to estimates being released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

"The U.S. is still a beacon for many people who want to come here for all kinds of reasons," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the numbers. "But what this shows is that the economy plays a big part in it."

The U.S. has added an average of about a million immigrants a year since 1990, including those in the country legally and illegally.

At more than 38 million, the number of immigrants in the U.S. is now at an all-time high. Immigrants made up 12.6 percent of the population in 2007, the largest share since 1920, when the U.S. was nearing the end of its last immigration boom, one that brought millions of people from Europe to the United States.

That wave of immigrants ended with the Great Depression and the onset of World War II.


... all this occurs as ...


We Continue To Deny GOD,


U.S. Mint Releases New Penny Designs - "In God We Trust" is noticebly missing - again!

Old Design Vs. New

The Observer

Is The Beast Beginning to Grow Another Head? Tony Blair Helps To Build A House For 666

Tony Blair Foundation and Yale University

Faith and Globalization

Tony Blair will teach his first class at Yale today marking the start of the "Faith and Globalisation Initiative," a three-year collaboration among Yale's Divinity School, School of Management and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

The course will explore a set of issues concerning the public roles of religious faiths in the context of globalisation. The potential of religious faith to bring the world's people together rather than drive them apart will be explored through the seminar and made available to a world audience through a multi-media website.

... listen to the video. You can almost feel the evil oozing from your screen ...

The Observer

Obama Chavez

ARLINGTON, Va. — Today, McCain-Palin 2008 released its latest Spanish television ad, entitled "Obama-Chavez." The ad highlights Barack Obama's pledge to meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez without precondition during the first year of his presidency. The ad will be televised in Florida.

View the Spanish AD here

and an English one here

Script For "Obama-Chavez:

ANNOUNCER: Did you see who Obama wants to talk with?

CHAVEZ: Go to h*ll, you filthy Yankees!

ANNOUNCER: Barack Obama says that he would meet Chavez without conditions.

CHAVEZ: Filthy Yankees, go to h*ll hundred times!

ANNOUNCER: He said he would meet in his first year in office.

CHAVEZ: The United States which is behind every conspiracy against our country.

ANNOUNCER: He said it was a disgrace that we haven't spoken with them.

CHAVEZ: If any aggression were to come against Venezuela, then there will be no oil for people or the government of the Unites States!

ANNOUNCER: Do you believe we should talk with Chavez?

CHAVEZ: We, you filthy Yankees, know that we are resolute to be free, no matter what happens, and at any cost!

ANNOUNCER: In November, you decide.

JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.

ANNOUNCER: Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008. Approved by John McCain.

AD FACTS:

At A July 2007 Debate, Barack Obama Announced He Would Personally Meet With Rogue Leaders, Including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, "Without Precondition." QUESTION: "[W]ould you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?"...

OBAMA: "I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration - is ridiculous. And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them." (CNN/YouTube Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate, Charleston, SC, 7/23/07)

[To watch Barack Obama say "I would meet unconditionally with rogue leaders, including Chavez, go here


In October 2007, Barack Obama Told CBS' Harry Smith He Would Talk With Hugo Chavez Among Others "Without Preconditions." CBS' Harry Smith: "You said, 'I will talk to so and so and Hugo Chavez and etc., etc.'" Obama: "Exactly, and without preconditions." (CBS' "The Early Show," 10/15/07)


In November 2007, Barack Obama Confirmed That He Would Meet With Rogue Leaders, Including Hugo Chavez, His First Year In Office. NBC's Tim Russert: "In July, you were asked if you were willing to meet separately without pre-condition during your first year with Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il, Hugo Chavez. You said yes. You stand by that?" Obama: "I do." (NBC's "Meet The Press," 11/11/07)

Der Kommissar; The Community Organizer

The opening chapters of Genesis make clear Satan was the first community organizer. He convinced Adam and Eve that the man put them down. To empower them, Satan encouraged them to eat the apple. The results speak for themselves.

Community Organizer As Commissarr

A political commissar, or politruk, is an officer appointed by a government to oversee a unit of the military. They are used by the government (usually after a revolution) to ensure that previously appointed officers and troops are loyal to the new regime.

The term "political commissar" does not actually exist in the Russian language. The correct term is "military commissar" (Russian: военный комиссар).[citation needed]

While the institution of military commissars came to be associated with the Soviet period, in reality military commissars were introduced in the Russian Army by the Provisional Government in 1917.

After the October Revolution, the institution of military commissars was adopted by the newly formed Red Army, where it lasted (with interruptions) until 1942.

It is important to understand the distinction between two different types of military commissars, who are related to each other in name only. The first type is not a political officer, but a territorial representative of the military authorities, responsible for registering males eligible for military service as well as organizing their conscription in a given territory. Such officer is commonly called "voenkom" (Russian: военком) in Russian, which is an abbreviation for "voennyi komissar" (Russian: военный комиссар), translated simply as "military commissar".

However, the institution of military commissars actually refers to the second type of military commissars -- the political officers. It is also important to understand that while all commissars in the Red Army were political officers, not all political officers were commissars. A commissar is a political officer whose position is equal to that of the commander of a given military unit and has the authority to countermand the orders of the commander. During the periods when political officers were completely subordinated to regular commanders, the institution of military commissars did not exist in the Red Army.

The position of military commissar was introduced in all units and formations from company (or equivalent) to division level, including naval vessels. Revolutionary Military Councils (RVS) were established at army and front (as well as fleet and flotilla) level, which consisted of at least three members -- the commander and two political workers assigned to him, but could be bigger as well.

The political workers were referred to as "members of the RVS", rather than "commissars", even though they were a part of the institution of military commissars.

In 1919, the title of "politruk" (Russian: политрук -- political leader) was assigned to military commissars at company (or equivalent) level. While politruks were also a part of the institution of military commissars, they were not referred to as "commissars".

Starting in 1925, the course toward "edinonachalie" (Russian: единоначалие) (roughly, "single command") was set and the institution of military commissars was gradually abolished.

Edinonachalie was introduced in two ways -- either the commander joined the Communist Party and also became the political officer, or the position of "pompolit" (Russian: помполит) (assistant commander for political work) was created under him. The pompolit was subordinated to the military commander and had no authority over him. In 1924, RVS's were renamed into Military Councils (political officers at that level became known as ChVS, short for Chlen Voennogo Soveta -- Member of the Military Council), and in 1934 they were completely abolished.

On 10 May 1937 the institution of military commissars was once again restored. Military Councils were created as well. This was connected with the purges that started in the armed forces. In August 1940 the position of military commissars was once again abolished. Military Councils remained and continued functioning throughout the war and after. Below army level the same system of "edinonachalie" was restored. In July 1941, following the defeats suffered by the Red Army in the beginning of the Great Patriotic War commissars appeared once again, as a move of desperation. As the war continued, it became apparent that they weren't helping, and the institution of military commissars was finally and for the last time abolished in October of 1942. Instead of the position of "pompolit", the position of "zampolit" (deputy commander for political work) was created from company (or equivalent) to regiment (or equivalent) level. Military Councils remained, but the final authority once again rested with the commander of the formation.

In 1943, the position of political officers at Company or equivalent level was eliminated, to be restored only after the end of the Great Patriotic War.

To summarize, while political officers existed in the Red (and later the Soviet Army) throughout its history, commissars existed only during the periods of 1918–1928, 1937-1940, and 1941-42.

Now, They Are To Be Recreated

Most people have not heard of Saul Alinsky. He was a radical of the first order. His tactics, strategies, and thinking influenced a number of modern leftist politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

According to the Washington Post, a group of Alinsky’s “disciples hired Barack Obama, a 23-year-old Columbia University graduate, to organize black residents on the South Side, while learning and applying Alinsky's philosophy of street-level democracy.” In 1990, an article Obama had written on community organizing appeared in the book "After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois."


..... Video Showing Barry's Intentions of Creating the New Class of Commissars .....


What frequently is ignored in all of this is Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals.

The book is an instruction manual for left wing agitators and breaks down the core components of community organizing. Both Clinton and Obama were students of the book. Clinton wrote a college thesis on the book. Obama lived the book, applying its principles to organizing communities in Illinois.

At a time when the left’s new slogan is “Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor,” it is helpful to remember that Alinsky dedicated Rules for Radicals to Lucifer -- that is, Satan. Alinsky considered Satan the first radical.

The opening chapters of Genesis make clear Satan was the first community organizer. He convinced Adam and Eve that the man put them down. To empower them, Satan encouraged them to eat the apple. The results speak for themselves.

Is ACORN Using Barry’s Lessons?

During Barack Obama’s stint as a community organizer, he worked for ACORN, the radical group that directly applies Saul Alinsky’s tactics to agitate for a more socialist America.

In 1996, when Obama received the communist New Party’s endorsement, a local Chicago socialist writing in New Ground, the newsletter of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, noted, “As the single 800 pound gorilla in the Chicago New Party, it doesn't leave a lot of room for newcomers to participate except on ACORN's terms. This will make it difficult for the New Party to have a life apart from ACORN.”Barack Obama had, at the time, a very tight relationship to ACORN. That makes this story from the Detroit Free Press all the more interesting.

It turns out ACORN has been turning in “fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications.” The article quotes Kelly Chesney, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office, saying, “There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications . . . . And it appears to be widespread.”

This is not the first time ACORN has done this. Back in 2006, ACORN got caught on tape actively engaging on behalf of Claire McCaskill’s campaign in Missouri. With Barack Obama refusing to release his bar application, his college transcripts, and a host of documentation relating to his past, it is a fair question to ask if Obama ever encouraged ACORN to engage in nefarious voter registration schemes.

It fits with Saul Alinsky’s advice and it fits with ACORN’s pattern and practice.

The Observer

An Election Betrayed - UPDATED!

McCain Tries to Head "Right" While Bush Desperately Runs Left!

McCain calls for Bush to fire SEC's Chris Cox

Sen. John McCain on Thursday called for President Bush to fire the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, while he and his campaign charged that Sen. Barack Obama is using the current economic crisis as a political opportunity.

McCain, distancing himself from the Bush administration, said heads should roll, starting with SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, appointed by the president in 2005.

"The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino," he said. "The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and has betrayed the public's trust. If I were president today, I would fire him." (should we believe him? - Tiger)

McCain said the SEC allowed "naked short selling," which means that traders were selling stock without ever owning it. He also said federal regulators last year eliminated the "uptick rule" that regulates short selling and has protected investors for 70 years.

With Wall Street mired in meltdown mode, the Republican presidential nominee slammed the Democrat-controlled Congress for doing nothing and, pushing the unpopular president aside, demanded the administration take swift and severe action.

"We cannot wait any longer for more failures in our financial system," McCain said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Today we need a plan that doesn't wait until the system fails."

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, address supporters during a town hall meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Meanwhile, top aides to the Republican said Obama and his advisers are exploiting Wall Street's financial problems for political gain.

Aide Steve Schmidt, who worked for the Bush-Cheney team in 2004, told reporters Thursday aboard McCain's plane that Obama is "cheerleading this crisis."

The Arizona senator said Wall Street greed and corruption was to blame for the crisis. "There was no transparency into the books of Wall Street banks. Banks and brokers took on huge amounts of debt and they hid the riskiest investments. Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch," he said.

He called for the creation of a mortgage and financial institutions trust -- the MFI -- to "work with the private sector and regulators to identify institutions that are weak and take remedies to strengthen them before they become insolvent."

"This will get the Treasury and other financial regulatory authorities in a proactive position instead of reacting in a crisis mode to one situation after the other. The MFI will enhance investor and market confidence, benefit sound financial institutions, assist troubled institutions and protect our financial system, while minimizing taxpayer exposure," he said.

McCain raked his Democratic rival, saying he "didn't lift a hand to avert this crisis."

"Senator Obama has never made the kind tough reform we need today. His idea of reform is what his party leaders in Congress order him to do. We tried for bipartisan ethics reform and he walked away from it because his bosses didn't want real change," he said.

"Those same congressional leaders who give Senator Obama his marching orders are now saying that this mess isn't their fault and they aren't going to take any action on this crisis until after the election. Senator Obama's own advisers are saying that crisis will benefit him politically," McCain said. "My opponent sees an economic crisis as a political opportunity instead of a time to lead.

... Bush, the Liberal Bastard! Will Bush React To McCain's Admonitions, Being the Political Robot He Is? - No, Because Bush Is Actually A Liberal, Loved By Republicans; the Ultimate Liberals. A Man who waits to do the job, waits for an emergency, and waits longer ... And McCain? - A Pretender trying to get elected; that's all.

The Observer

George W. Bush; a man who has suffered the realization he's screwed up completely. The rest of us might have done worse, but this man will be judged by history as the worst President ever. ... GOD Bless him and all of us. Remember, ALL Republicans are Socialists and ALL Democrats are MARXISTS. - Tiger

Now the Update! McCain Takes Another Swipe At Bush!

McCain to Fed: Stop Bailouts, Protect Dollar

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin — U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain admonished the Federal Reserve on Friday to get out of the business of bailouts and get back to managing money supply and protecting the purchasing power of the dollar.

"The Federal Reserve should get back to its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation," the Arizona senator told a group of business leaders in Wisconsin, an electoral battleground state.

"It needs to get out of the business of bailouts."

... full story

What Do Many Failed Corporations Have In Common? - Democrats! (With Republican Support)

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac execs now offering advice to Obama

Senator's links to mortgage giants also include campaign contributions

Campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made to Barack Obama may backfire if the Democratic presidential hopeful wages an aggressive campaign to cast blame on rival John McCain and the Republicans in Congress for the mortgage-related losses that forced the U.S. Treasury to take over the quasi-governmental mortgage giants.

A review of Federal Election Commission records back to 1989 reveals Obama in his three complete years in the Senate is the second largest recipient of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae campaign contributions, behind only Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the powerful chairman of the Senate banking committee. Dodd was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

According to OpenSecrets.com, from 1989 to 2008, Dodd received $165,400 in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions, including contributions from PACs and individuals, followed by Obama, who received $126,349 in such contributions since being elected to the Senate in 2004.

In contrast, McCain warned of the coming mortgage crisis as he pressed in 2005 for regulatory reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – known as government-sponsored entities or GSEs – and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market," McCain said on the floor of the Senate in 2005, speaking in favor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005.

McCain pointed out Fannie Mae's regulator had stated the company's quarterly reports of profit growth over the past few years were "illusions deliberately and systematically created" by the company's senior management, which resulted in a $10.6 billion accounting scandal.

The bill passed the House but was never brought up for a vote in the Senate, largely because of Democratic opposition to change in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulatory structure that remained in place until the Treasury takeover two weeks ago.

As evidenced by the failure to pass the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, the Democrats in Congress have repeatedly fought back Republican Party efforts to reform the two mortgage banking giants.

Instead, Democrats in Congress have sought to preserve the quasi-governmental status of the mortgage giants, seeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as places to locate former top Democratic Party operatives, where they have earned millions in compensation, despite a continuing series of financial scandals. Enron-like accounting manipulation, for example, boosted earnings to a level at which massive executive bonuses could be paid.

In the aftermath of the U.S. government takeover, attention has focused on three Democrats with close ties to Obama who served as Fannie Mae executives: Franklin Raines, former Clinton administration budget director; James Johnson, former aide to Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale; and Jamie Gorelick, former Clinton administration deputy attorney general.

All three Obama-related executives earned millions in compensation from Fannie Mae.

Johnson earned $21 million in just his last year serving as Fannie Mae CEO from 1991 to 1998; Raines earned $90 million in his five years as Fannie Mae CEO, from 1999 to 2004; and Gorelick earned an estimated $26 million serving as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1998 to 2003, according to author David Frum, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

All three have been involved in mortgage-related financial scandals.

In 1998, according to the Washington Post, Gorelick, as Fannie Mae vice chairman, received a bonus of $779,625, despite a scandal in which employees falsified signatures on accounting transactions to manipulate books to meet 1998 earning targets. The moves, in turn, triggered multi-million-dollar bonuses for top executives.

Gorelick was embroiled in another controversy over an alleged conflict of interest when a 1995 memo she authored as deputy attorney general surfaced while she was a member of the 9/11 commission.

The memo, which became known as the "Gorelick Wall," appeared to establish barriers that barred federal anti-terrorist criminal investigators from accessing various federal records and databases that may have assisted them in their criminal investigations.

According to the Associated Press, Raines and several other Fannie Mae top executives were ordered in a civil lawsuit to pay nearly $31.4 million for manipulating Fannie Mae earnings over a period of six years to trigger their massive bonuses.

Raines was also forced in the settlement to give up Fannie Mae stock options valued at $15.6 million.

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Freddie Mac had engaged in accounting fraud from 2000 to 2002, imposing a $50 million fine on the company and on four executives fines for amounts ranging from $65,000 to $250,000.

Raines currently advises Obama on housing policy.

Johnson was appointed to head Obama's vice presidential selection committee, until a controversy concerning an alleged $7 millions in questionable real estate loans he received on favorable terms from failed sub-prime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial surfaced and forced him to step down.

WND previously reported a panel chaired by Elena Kagan, dean and professor of law at Harvard Law School, speculated at the June two-day meeting of the American Constitution Society that Gorelick was a possible attorney general cabinet appointment if Obama should be elected president.

The decision by the U.S. Treasury to take over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could end up costing the U.S. taxpayer as much as $100 billion, although the extent of losses at the two giant mortgage companies remains to be determined.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Freddie and Fannie own or guarantee about $5.2 trillion worth of mortgages.

The riskiest loans held by Freddie and Fannie are known as "Alt-A" and sub-prime mortgages, worth about $780 billion, or about 15 percent of the total portfolio.

The federal government takeover of Freddie and Fannie passes to U.S. taxpayers the contingent liability for failures in the entire $5.2 trillion loan portfolio held by the two mortgage giants.

Over the past four quarters, Freddie and Fannie have suffered losses of about $14 billion, as the mortgage market has been hit by a wave of defaults and foreclosures not seen in the U.S. since the 1930s.

... the problem is that George W. 'Effing" Bush doesn't understand he SHOULD'NT BAIL THESE LIBERALS OUT! What an IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!! - Tiger

The Observer

The Asylum

England is often referred to as; "The Asylum" - a place where the inmates are running the show - a place where, if you live there, you're simply contributing to the overall madness of the experience. May GOD bless the few sane ones trying to regain control!

Sharia Courts Operating in Britain

Sharia courts have been operating in Britain to rule on disputes between Muslims for more than a year, it has emerged.

Five sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court. Previously, the rulings were not binding and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.
Lawyers have issued grave warnings about the dangers of a dual legal system and the disclosure drew criticism from Opposition leaders.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so."

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, added: "I think it's appalling. I don't think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state."

Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.

It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said that sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals under a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.
The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

The disclosures come after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (can you say, ANTICHRIST? - Tiger), sparked a national debate and calls for his resignation for saying that the establishment of sharia in the future "seems unavoidable" in Britain.

In July, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice agreed that Muslims in Britain should be able to live according to Islamic law to decide financial and marital disputes.

Mr Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of "smaller" criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

"All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases," said Mr Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.

There are concerns for women suffering under the Islamic laws, which favours men.

Mr Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.

The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Mr Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.

In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

Mr Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.

The Observer

Garner - Washington Times

Dear Mr. Obama

On This Day, 9-11, We Still Aren't Fighting the GWOT Properly

Terror Expert: WMD Attack on U.S. Inevitable

A major terrorist attack on the United States, probably featuring a weapon of mass destruction, is inevitable during the next four to five years, says Marvin J. Cetron, the futurist who predicted 9/11 with alarming insight.

During an exclusive interview with Newsmax, Cetron said the attack could come in as little as two and a half to three years.
Cetron, who startled and embarrassed the intelligence community with his study “Terror 2000,” has let the genie out of the bottle again with his latest report, “55 Trends Now Shaping the Future of Terrorism.”

When Newsmax asked how the expert and founder of Forecasting International Inc. (FI) can be so sure of the impending disasters, he said he needed to guard his classified sources.

“Let me put it this way: We have so many good sources of signals intelligence and human intelligence that lets us know what doesn’t show up in the press,” he said.

FI, which produced “55 Trends” has conducted an ongoing study of the forces changing our world for almost half a century in support of clients ranging from General Motors to the YMCA, and from the Central Intelligence Agency to the White House.

“Terror 2000,” another FI project that was done for the Department of Defense in 1994, warned that terrorists were planning to use commercial aircraft as guided bombs to strike against a major landmark in the New York City area. It also warned that terrorists could hijack a commercial airliner, fly it down the Potomac, and crash it into the Pentagon.

Tragically, the report was filed and forgotten.

Cetron hopes this will not be the case with “55 Trends,” a 252-page treatise that is very short on any good news and includes the disturbing conclusion that worldwide terror networks are stronger today than at the time of 9/11. It also contends that the cells are not taking orders but are free to attack when, where, and how they want.

“We’re not talking about al-Qaida running these operations,” Cetron says. “We’re talking about cells and they are self-invigorated, if you will. They run on their own. The second thing that’s a real problem in this is that they don’t take orders. They do what they think is going to be good in their own local sphere.”

Cetron is not talking only about cells overseas.

The Terrorists Are Already Here

He estimates that there are “a dozen or more cells in the United States and they don’t get orders from overseas. They just know what to do. They get what they need.”

Lurking in the homeland are small groups of less than five and some between five and 20, Cetron tells Newsmax.

“They get their funding from drug funds, they get it from money laundering, they get it from kidnapping, I can throw a whole list, but those people can give us a lot of grief,” he says.

“There are two different groups – those that cost less than a quarter of a million to attack a target and then those that cost more than a quarter of a million. So you have to break them into separate areas and see what they are capable of doing and that’s what you got to take a look at.”

Cetron provides some detail about these ready-to-pounce cells: “They want to make two or three or four or five operations all at the same time and shoot up a whole bunch of strip malls.

They will have already planted – about 50 yards back from those malls – bombs inside cars, so when the police set up their area that they want to cordon, they will blow up the police and the people watching to see what is going on.”

As to where such zealots are coming from, Cetron notes, “Only 7 percent of the Muslim population agreed with what al-Qaida is doing, but if you take a look at 7 percent of 1.1 billion people, you are talking about over 1 million people running around here. That’s a hell of a lot of people who will be sympathizers.”

A multiple mall attack, however, could just be a warm-up, says Cetron, whose new report takes a hard look at WMD scenarios.

“But the biggest thing is that they could be using weapons of mass destruction. For instance, if anybody got into a printer where they print dollars or Euros, and they put pathogens on there, we could end up with literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, getting ill from that – and you wouldn’t even know where the hell where it came from.”

Another likely scenario, Citron says, is cyber war. “The Russians just used that in Georgia. You can literally turn off the electronics. Airplanes in the air wouldn’t be able to fly, you wouldn’t be able to communicate, you can turn off alarm systems. … They are actively looking to get into our systems…”

The Issue of Terrorists and Nukes

Cetron’s band of experts in “55 Trends” concludes that, if Muslim extremists cannot lay hands on a stolen weapon from the former Soviet Union, they soon may be able to obtain them from Islamabad. Tehran remains a more distant possibility.

This is not a guarantee that terrorists will use nuclear weapons against the United States or other potential targets, Citron’s latest report notes. The fabled “suitcase nuke” may be a terrorist’s dream weapon, but it is technology that no one who would share is likely to possess.

Instead, al-Qaida or some future equivalent will receive bulky, low-yield devices that will be much harder to smuggle to their target. They may well try anyway, but it will be some time before this becomes an immediate possibility. During that interval our detection and intercept capability should improve significantly.

Other WMDs will be much more practical, the report says. If mushroom clouds do not appear over Manhattan or Washington, clouds of toxic gas or weaponized bacteria easily could.

As Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult that released sarin gas in the Tokyo subways in 1995, demonstrated, chemical weapons are available to essentially anyone who wants them enough to put in a modest effort to make them.

Biological weapons suitable for military use take considerably more effort to prepare, but there are practical purposes for which all-out weaponization is not required. And even if radiological dirty bombs are not traditionally considered WMDs, they could be equally disruptive if employed with skill in a major city, the report says.

The distinguished panel of experts and consultants behind “55 Trends” makes some grim predictions:

- International terrorism will grow as veterans of the Iraq War return to their native lands, train sympathizers in the tactics of terror, and spread across the world.

- Among the Western lands, Britain and France (owing to their large Muslim populations) and the United States will be at the greatest risk of attack, in that order. Further attacks on the scale of 9/11 are to be expected in all three countries over the range of five to ten years.

- These attacks will combine mass bloodshed and economic impact. Now that the World Trade Center is gone, Grand Central Station at rush hour would be an obvious target for Manhattan. Coordinated attacks on shopping malls, tourist attractions, casinos, schools, churches and synagogues, and sports events also are possible.

For those who still minimize the risk of attacks, Cetron notes that the proof is in the pudding:

Many foiled attempts have never reached the public domain because of concerns that intelligence sources will be compromised.

“We’ve stopped a lot of attacks,” Citron tells Newsmax. “This is all classified, but the truth is that they have stopped a lot of stuff because we’ve gotten hold of computers. We’ve had a lot of people on the ground with human intelligence.

“If you want to put it properly, we’ve been damn lucky.”

Citron fears that Britain and France are in a worse position than the U.S. and it all has to do with demographics.

“By 2025 they are going to have more Muslims than non-Muslims,” he says. “That’s a problem. In Britain they have to take people from all of the old Commonwealth countries. And it’s not those people who come in the first generation. It’s the second one, the brighter ones that can pass as being Brits or Europeans or French that are going to give us grief.”

For anyone who thinks that the startling conclusions of “55 Trends” are the brainchild of one overly paranoid think-tanker, Cetron sets them straight.

“We had some 170 of the best people in the United States – not only the United States but all over the world,” he says.

It was a case of taking the talents of futurists and combining that with the raw knowledge of folks out in the field.

“We sent it out to all of these people all over the world and said look here is what we think is going to happen in the future, now you tell us where we’re wrong, and where we’re right,” Cetron says.

“We even had a bunch of flight officers and senior colonels and commanders in the Navy, etc., who sent us back information and said don’t use my name but let me tell you what’s really going on – and we used all of that information.”

Disturbing Trends

If talking to Citron is an eye-opener, reading the great detail of the “55 Trends” report may be even more so. At every other page is the grim news that we may be traveling backward rather than forward in our war on terror.

Case in point: In deposing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and depriving al-Qaida of a safe haven there, the United States struck a major blow against the terrorist movement as it existed five years ago. Yet by failing to follow up on that success effectively, the report concludes, we have squandered much of the benefit that should have been gained from that first step in the counterterrorist war.

The Iraq War has supplied al-Qaida and its sympathizers with a cause around which to rally their existing forces and recruit new ones, the report says. As a result, the terrorist movement is now growing stronger, the report reveals.

Up to 30,000 foreign fighters are believed to have gravitated toward Iraq, where they are now gaining contacts and experience that will serve them well in future campaigns against the U.S. and its allies.

In this, Iraq is now serving the function that Afghanistan provided in the 1980s. The war in Iraq is building a skilled and disciplined terrorist cadre that will fan out across the world.

Saudi Arabia even has been forced to build a major program aimed at keeping young men from going to Iraq. The Wahhid, the dominant Muslim sect in that country, is teaching that joining the jihad is the Muslim man’s second-greatest duty, after going to Mecca. They must fight in Iraq, then come back and be available to fight for fundamentalist Islam in Saudi Arabia.

Thus are terrorist cells built, independent of al-Qaida but firmly committed to its goals and methods.

... do ya think McCain/Palin have a clue? How 'bout Obama/Biden? No ... I don't think so ... - Tiger

The Observer

Why Would Anyone Watch CNN ? For Laughs I Suppose !

CNN Comes Up Short On Reporting Palin Bikini Photo Fraud and Other Rumors

A CNN reporter this week didn’t seem to know or care that a fake photo showing a bikini-clad, rifle-toting Sarah Palin had been widely debunked days earlier as a fraud, the latest in series of incidents involving apparent misstatements or inaccurate reporting by the news network.

“(John) McCain has been really good about painting (Barack) Obama as this lightweight … They don’t want that to come back on Sarah Palin, and people say, yes, she looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?” [That's Not An AK-47 - She Even Got That Wrong! - Tiger] CNN’s Lola Ogunnaike said in response to a question on the network’s “Reliable Sources” show, which aired Sunday.

Ogunnaike’s remarks, which came in response to a question by host Howard Kurtz about whether Palin’s status as a political celebrity might undercut Republican efforts to portray the vice presidential nominee as a serious, reform-minded governor, were posted on CNN’s Web site and have since been reported and discussed on numerous other independent sites.

CNN correspondents and analysts have also recently misrepresented Palin’s stance on incorporating creationism into Alaska’s school curriculum and falsely reported that she cut funds for people with special needs in the state budget.

Regarding the doctored “bikini” photo, neither Kurtz, a “Washington Post” columnist, nor anyone else on the “Sources” discussion panel ever corrected Ogunnaike by pointing out that the picture was a fake.

Speaking about Ogunnaike and the doctored photo, Kurtz told FOXNews.com on Wednesday that he figured everyone knew the photo was a fake.

“I thought that Lola was joking around since the bikini was so obviously fake,” Kurtz said. “I thought she was making a lighthearted reference to it.

“Lola is a very sharp former New York Times reporter so I seriously doubt that she bought into the notion that the governor of Alaska had in fact posed in a bathing suit carrying an assault rifle,” he added.

“Lola’s comments were made in the context of the tabloid rumors that have emerged since Sarah Palin’s nomination to the ticket,” a CNN spokeswoman said. “She regrets that she didn’t make it more clear that the photo was not only a rumor but a hoax.”

The infamous fake bikini shot first appeared during the early days of the Republican convention. But it was widely debunked within 24 hours, with bloggers and others quickly exposing the fraud by finding the original shot, reportedly taken in 2004 in Athens, Ga., by an amateur photographer of his then-girlfriend.

FOXNews.com was among the news outlets to report the fake.

During the show, Ogunnaike went on to compliment Us Weekly’s coverage of Palin, which has been widely attacked as unfair by critics and reportedly thousands of Us Weekly readers.

“I have to say,” Ogunnaike said, “I read the ‘Us Weekly’ story, and they were actually pretty good. They actually did some pretty good journalism there. … And this is a bigger story here. … They can’t afford to ignore this story because this story drives magazine sales. And that’s the bottom line, that’s what they care about. So if you throw Palin on the cover and you have the words ‘Baby Scandal,’ they know that’s going to sell magazines.”

Ogunnaike’s remarks are among several apparent misstatements made recently by CNN reporters.

On Monday night, senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Palin wants “to have creationism taught in public schools.” But numerous stories –- including CNN’s own reporting from last week — have noted that Palin has made no effort to try and include creationism in the state school curriculum.

“I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class,” Palin has said. “It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”

The morning after Toobin’s remarks on creationism, CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin reported that Palin vetoed funds not only for so-called “earmarks,” but “even for people with disabilities.”

This was an apparent reference to a charge discussed during a Sept. 4 interview, in which CNN’s Soledad O’Brien pressed a McCain spokeswoman on another accusation brought by Palin critics.
O’Brien twice referred to the charge that while governor, Palin cut the state’s special needs budget by 62 percent.

“Those advocates have said, as a woman who is now a mother of a special-needs child, she’s not fighting — she’s cut the budget by 62 percent since she came into office, and doesn’t that show a contradiction?” O’Brien asked McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace, according to transcript available on CNN’s Web site.

But Factcheck.org, a non-partisan group affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, is among those that have reported that Palin “did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent.”

In fact, the group said in a posting published on Newsweek’s Web site, “She didn’t cut it at all. She tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.”

Click here to read the FOXNews.com story on lies about Sarah Palin.

The Observer

Meanwhile, Back In The Real World ... Christians Brave Horrifying Massacres

Despite brutal and horrifying persecution that has left countless dead and an estimated 50,000 homeless, Christians in India's Orissa state are determined that God will have the victory in their violence-torn homeland.

Since the assassination of anti-Christian Hindu leader Swami Laxamanananda Saraswat on Aug. 22, mobs of Hindu fanatics that blame Christians for the leader's death have been roving the Orissa state on the eastern shore of India, torching churches and homes, brutalizing Christians and burning the bodies of those they kill.

Reports from missions organization Gospel for Asia (GFA), however, tell of courage and determination in the face of violence.

One story reported on Christian Newswire told of a missionary beaten multiple times by a Hindu mob demanding he leave a village where he had been working.

"Even if you kill me, I will not make a vow that I will never come back," the missionary is reported to have answered. "That depends not on me but on the Lord. If he wants to send me here, then I will come," he told his attackers.

Simon John, a GFA regional leader in India, said, "Christians will stand together in this nation, in love and to lift up the people, even if persecution or death comes. We will not stop doing good for the people."

Persecution and death, however, have come, and they have come by horrifying means.

United Kingdom newspaper The Times reports several cases of brutality over the last two weeks alone: a nun was gang-raped; a worker at a church-run orphanage was burned alive; and a woman seven months pregnant was cut to pieces along with her one-year-old son when she refused to denounce Christianity and convert to Hinduism.

Ravindra Nath Prahan, 45, told the Times he and 113 others, warned by a text message, fled to the jungle, living off rainwater and foraging food for a week. His paralyzed brother, however, couldn't take to flight.

"They doused him with petrol and taunted him; we could hear him screaming," Prahan told The Times. His brother was burned alive.

"I could have tried to save him. But we had to save ourselves," Prahan said.

An estimated 50,000 Christians have been forced to run for their lives, while the Hindu radicals have torched more than 3,000 homes and over 100 churches. The Vatican records 36 deaths, but warns an accurate account is impossible since the mobs are burning their victims.

Orissa made headlines last Christmas when 95 churches were razed and at least five people were murdered, The Times reports, but the current massacre reflects the country's worst persecution of Christians since gaining its independence in 1947.

"It's a national shame," India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has reportedly said.
As WND reported earlier, the Indian Supreme Court last week ordered additional police forces into the Kandhamal district, the worst region of violence, and also ordered state officials in Orissa to do more to protect Christians. Reports had come from the region that the police were permitting the attacks.

Citizens have petitioned India's president and rallied in the country's capital city to seek a stop to the violence.

GFA reports, however, that even though 24 of their missionaries have been attacked and 27 GFA-related churches have been destroyed, the Indian Christians still believe God will have victory.

"The encouraging thing is that the attackers themselves acknowledge that Orissa used to be only 2 percent Christian, and now it's 28 percent Christian," reports Juria Bardhan, GFA's state leader in Orissa. Pointing to Christianity's historical growth during times of persecution and the dramatic rise of Christianity among India's lowest, despised caste of people, Juria added, "They don't understand that by doing this, the church will grow by leaps and bounds, and this will cause thousands to come to Christ."

The Observer

Obama’s Muslim Past Dogs Campaign

Accompanying Article

Brother Confirms Obama Was Muslim, and Has Photo to Prove It

Barack Hussein Obama, the Muslim?

Dems Trash U.S. Flags at DNC Convention

Following their national convention in Denver last week, Democratic organizers heaped up thousands of unused U.S. flags, allegedly to throw them away, but the McCain campaign has since salvaged the Star-Spangled Banners for reuse at a rally in Colorado Springs.

A Denver Post blog reports that a vendor at Denver's Invesco Field discovered the discarded flags following Barack Obama's nomination speech at the mile-high stadium last week.

Democratic organizers have claimed that the flags were not meant to be thrown in the trash, but according to a Fox News report, McCain supporters claim the vendor found the bagged flags in and around garbage bins following the Democratic National Convention.

A group of Boy Scouts brought 84 garbage bags full of the discarded flags to the site of a Republican rally in Colorado Springs today, where veterans distributed them throughout the assembled crowd. McCain supporters waved the recycled flags and chanted "U.S.A." as they welcomed Republican candidate John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin.

The Post blog reports an estimated total of 12,000 small flags and one, full-size 3'x5' flag were discarded.

Damon Jones, spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, released a statement claiming that McCain supporters has swiped leftover bundles of flags from the stadium "to play out a cheap political stunt" calling into question Democrat patriotism.

Patriotic symbolism has been a thorn in the side of the DNC and Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama throughout the campaign. As WND reported earlier, credentials for the national convention drew attention for portraying the elements of the U.S. flag upside down.

Earlier in the campaign, Sen. Obama was photographed with Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin at a steak fry for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin during the playing of the national anthem. Richardson, Clinton and Harkin placed their hands over their hearts, but Obama is standing casually with his fingers laced in front of him.

He also previously said he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for "true patriotism."

To an Iowa television station, the Illinois senator explained he stopped wearing a flag pin following the 9/11 attacks.

"I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest," he told the station. "Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great."

The Observer