Reelecting Obama
by Victor Davis Hanson:
We are beginning to see the contours of the upcoming 2012 reelection campaign of Barack Obama. Whether always officially sanctioned or not, Obama’s campaign will focus on three general themes: a) the 2008 meltdown of the economy on Bush’s watch; b) conservative heartlessness in gutting cherished entitlement programs; and c) racial bias behind any criticism of Barack Obama.
[...]
Journalists on board Gaza-bound flotilla will be active participants in illegal act
Journalists on board Gaza-bound flotilla will be active participants in illegal act
The Netherlands to Abandon Multiculturalism
by Soeren Kern:
The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.
A new integration bill (covering letter and 15-page action plan), which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: “The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society.”
[...]
Contrary to CBC Reporter Neil MacDonald, Israel Sees Assad’s Regime as a Brutal Destabilizing Force
Contrary to CBC Reporter Neil MacDonald, Israel Sees Assad’s Regime as a Brutal Destabilizing Force
Former defence chief questions political timing of Obama’s troop withdrawal
By Emily Gosden, Alex Spillius and Andy Bloxham:
Mr Obama announced last night that he would order the withdrawal of 10,000 US troops from Afganistan by the end of this year and the remainder of the 33,000 “surge” forces by no later than September 2012 – two months before he stands for re-election.
Lord Stirrup said: “The concern I have about what was announced last night is that the date of summer next year does seem on the face of it to be more closely related to political and electoral timescales than actually to phased handover to the Afghan security forces.”
[...]
Google Suddenly Values Privacy – Their Own
by Capitol Confidential:
News today that the FTC is preparing to issue civil subpoenas as part of a broad anti-trust inquiry into Google’s business practices comes on the heels of a similar—and perhaps more in depth– threat from Congress.
In a letter sent to Google on June 10, the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT) requested the company provide one of their top two executives to testify at an oversight hearing exploring Google’s business practices.
But so far Google has refused and offered to send their legal counsel instead prompting the Senate subcommittee to threaten subpoenas to compel either Larry Page or Eric Schmidt to appear.
[...]
Ex-CIA Spy: Obama Administration is delusional, it’s weak, and it’s confused.
Joshua Lipana:
The importance of preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons is made clear in the interview, not to mention the Obama administration’s incompetent and misguided policy on Iran. Excerpt:
We lost the biggest opportunity in 2009, when, unfortunately, President Obama was wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, sending letters to Ayatollah Khamenei assuring him that America wouldn’t interfere with Iran’s internal matters, giving the regime the green light to suppress and kill — all with the hopes of negotiations at the October meeting in Geneva…
They now have over a thousand ballistic missiles, including missiles that can hit every capital in Europe, and they’re working with North Korea to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Once they get the bomb, all bets are off. It’s checkmate. They will arm Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Venezuela, and others. Every U.S. ally in the region and throughout the world will be a possible target. Israel will be destroyed. America will either be hit or live in constant fear of it… Whether we help the Iranian people end the regime or whether we take the regime out ourselves, the regime must go — now…
I’m sorry to say that the Obama administration is delusional, it’s weak, and it’s confused. Apparently nobody in the administration understands the consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran.
[...]
The Flotilla of Fools off to Gaza
by Phyllis Chesler:
The flotilla is coming, the flotilla is coming.
European and North American activists, journalists, and mercenaries have set sail—or are about to do so—on fifteen boats with passengers from twenty-two mainly Western countries to “break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.” Spurred on by the anti-Potemkin Village images of Palestinian Arabs living in wretched refugee hovels, fenced in by an allegedly “apartheid” Israeli wall, oppressed by “Nazi” Israeli soldiers for “racist” reasons (and not because the Palestinian leadership practices both Islamic gender and religious apartheid as well as terrorism)–the Good People are sailing to the rescue.
[...]
An Obama Foreign Policy
by Caroline Glick:
Reprinted from Jerusalem Post.
Outgoing US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is worried about the shape of things to come in US foreign policy. In an interview with Newsweek over the weekend, Gates sounded the warning bells.
In Gates’ words, “I’ve spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower, and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. It didn’t have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. This is a different time.
“To tell you the truth, that’s one of the many reasons it’s time for me to retire, because frankly I can’t imagine being part of a nation, part of a government… that’s being forced to dramatically scale back our engagement with the rest of the world.”
[...]
The Patrons of Anti-Israelism
by Nichole Hungerford:
Last week, a troubling article appeared in The Jerusalem Post on the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), a shady student organization run primarily through the University of California, Irvine that is rapidly spreading. The subject of intense criticism, the OTI has been infiltrated by (among others) activists from the terrorism-supporting International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and has sent students to meet with a leader of Hamas. Even so, what appeared in the Post does little to hold the organization accountable — or its powerful supporters in the Jewish Federation of Orange County (JFOC).
[...]
Muslim Propaganda View of Jihad For Gullible Westerners
WALID SHOEBAT:
This is the real view of Jihad in the Muslim world and just one example of the thousands one can find on the internet from “mainstream” imams in the middle east. This is typical of the general double speak from Muslims trying to pull the wool over your eyes.
Israel served as ‘main course’ at EU dinner, official says
By HERB KEINON:
Worry in Israel that EU wants Quartet concessions to PA in return for dropping UN bid; J’lem frustrated EU dinner lacked Israeli presence.
Quartet envoys are expected to meet in Brussels at the end of the week amid increasing concern in Jerusalem that the EU hopes to avert a Palestinian statehood bid at the UN in September by, as one senior Israeli official said on Wednesday, “giving something” significant to the Palestinians.
According to the official, the concern was that the EU is pushing for the adoption of US President Barack Obama’s formula of restarting negotiations using the pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps as a baseline, but without pressing the Palestinians to elaborate on security arrangements of any future accord with Israel.
[...]
Private emails detail Obama admin involvement in cutting non-union worker pensions post-GM bailout
By Matthew Boyle – The Daily Caller:
President Barack Obama addresses workers about the economy, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009, during a visit to the Lordstown Complex General Motors Plant in Warren, Ohio. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
New emails obtained by The Daily Caller contradict claims by the Obama administration that the Treasury Department would avoid “intervening in the day-to-day management” of General Motors post-auto bailout.
These messages reveal that Treasury officials were involved in decision-making that led to more than 20,000 non-union workers losing their pensions. (General Motors not eager to be political talking point in 2012)
Republican Reps. Dan Burton and Mike Turner say that during the GM bailout, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner decided to cut pensions for salaried non-union employees at Delphi, a GM spinoff, to expedite GM’s emergence from bankruptcy.
[...]
The Persecution & Prayer Alert
The Persecution & Prayer Alert
The Voice of the Martyrs, Canada
http://www.persecution.net
Thursday, June 23, 2011
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.
He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and
prayerless religion.
He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we
pray.”
– Samuel Chadwick
Sign up now to receive our free Monthly Newsletter at
http://www.persecution.net/nlorder.htm
.
***********************************
In this week’s edition: reports from Indonesia, Iran, Laos and
Pakistan
***********************************
Dear VOM supporters,
With Canada’s postal delivery service currently suspended, we wish to
inform you of the other options available to financially support
persecuted Christians around the world.
- Visit us in person or contact us by phone or email during our office
hours, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.
- Safely donate or order resources online at
http://www.persecution.net
.
- Transfer money via email through participating financial
institutions. Kindly contact our office for further information.
Donations and orders will continue to be processed during the postal
suspension and we will mail items as soon as delivery resumes. If you
require immediate service, please contact our office for other
delivery options.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter. May God
bless you!
***********************************
1. Mission training school attacked in Indonesia
(Source: VOM-USA)
A mission training school was recently attacked by a mob of Muslims
following a prayer meeting in Jonggol, West Java, Indonesia.
Approximately 85 Muslims rushed into the school and raided each class
and dorm room, removing pictures of Jesus. They told the staff that
the school must be closed. No students were on the premises, as school
was not in session that day. Several police officers and soldiers
accompanied the mob from a nearby military base and neighbours did not
recognize them as locals. The school, which was established in 1999
with the purpose of training evangelists in Indonesia, has reportedly
always maintained a good relationship with its neighbours. At last
report, mission leaders said that they were attempting to follow up on
the incident in the hopes of helping to prevent further violence. The
leaders also urged Indonesian Christians not to retaliate, but to
remain calm and to pray.
Pray that God will touch the hearts of the attackers, leading them to
repent and recognize Christ as Lord. Pray that a spirit of trust and
peace will govern the hearts of Indonesian Christians and guard them
against fear. Pray that Christians in Indonesia will be a bold
testimony of Christ’s love to those around them.
To learn more about the trials facing Indonesia’s Christians, go to
http://www.persecution.net/indonesia.htm
.
***********************************
2. Iranian Christian held in solitary confinement
(Sources: Release International, Mohabat News)
Friends and family of a detained Iranian Christian are calling for
clarification of his case more than five months after he was sent to
Tehran’s notoriously brutal Evin prison. Farshid Fathi (32) was one of
several believers detained by government security officials in
December 2010 during a series of raids on Christians’ homes in Tehran
(see http://www.persecution.net/ir-2011-02-17.htm
for more). He has endured months of solitary confinement even though
no court orders or instructions have been issued in his case.
Interrogators have reportedly used psychological torture in attempts
to force Farshid to reveal details of Christian contacts. Farshid’s
wife and two young children — Rosana and Barbod — have been allowed
to speak to him only once a week. Farshid’s family was forced to sell
his father-in-law’s home in order to survive financially and have not
been able to pay the bail to secure his release.
Pray that God will strengthen and console Farshid as he suffers for
his faith. Pray that his family will trust in the Lord for provision
and comfort. Pray that the steadfast faith of Iranian believers will
encourage other Christians in the country who are suffering
persecution. Pray that the Word of the Lord will continue to go forth
in Iran and that many will come to embrace Him as Lord.
To learn more about the suffering of Iranian Christians, go to
http://www.persecution.net/iran.htm
.
***********************************
3. Missionary charged with human trafficking in Laos
(Source: VOM-USA)
A missionary to youth in Laos was recently charged with human
trafficking, an offense that carries a hefty fine and a prison
sentence of five to 50 years. Brother K was arrested and charged with
human trafficking in May after he went to a police station to seek the
release of 24 young people. The youths had been detained while
travelling to a Christian training conference, where Brother K was
serving as a leader. Brother K denied involvement in human trafficking
and invited the officers to visit the conference centre to see what
the students were being taught. Taken aback by his boldness and
concerned that the offense would become known as a persecution case,
police released the 24 students but detained Brother K. After bail was
set, Brother K bargained to reduce the amount and police agreed on a
sum equal to three months’ wages. The youth later held their training
session at a hastily convened new location.
Thank God for His protection of the students and for the boldness of
their leader. Pray that Brother K will continue to persevere in the
faith. Pray that Christian youth in Laos will continue to passionately
share the gospel with their neighbours. Pray that freedom of religion
will truly become a reality in Laos. You can post a prayer of
encouragement for Brother K and the Christian youth in Laos on our
Persecuted Church Prayer Wall at http://www.persecution.net/prayerwall
.
You can learn more about the mistreatment of Christians in Laos at
http://www.persecution.net/laos.htm
.
***********************************
4. Update on imprisoned Pakistani Christian
(Source: VOM-USA)
The Voice of the Martyrs was recently able to visit with the family of
Imran Masih, a Pakistani Christian man who has been imprisoned since
early 2010 on charges of blasphemy (see
http://www.persecution.net/pk-2010-01-21.htm
for more). Imran Masih’s family said that he is in good health and
that they are able to visit with him once a week. The visits are
limited to 25 minutes, however, and they are only able to sit behind a
window and speak with him by intercom. Imran is only allowed to leave
his cell twice a day for a head count. His windowless, cement cell is
26 x 20 feet with two small vents and can reach brutally hot
temperatures in the summer.
Pray that Imran will be acquitted and released. Pray that he will know
the presence and encouraging comfort of Jesus in prison. Pray that his
family will continue to rely on the care of the Lord. Pray that the
blasphemy laws will be abolished in Pakistan.
To find out more about the persecution Christians face in Pakistan, go
to http://www.persecution.net/pakistan.htm
. The August edition of the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter features
testimonies of Pakistani Christians serving the Lord with faithful
perseverance. You can subscribe to this timely and powerful resource
today at http://www.persecution.net/nlorder.htm
.
***********************************
The Persecution & Prayer Alert is a ministry of The Voice of the
Martyrs, Canada. (Mailing address: P.O. Box 608, Streetsville,
Ontario, L5M 2C1)
Tel. (905) 670.9721. Website: http://www.persecution.net
Hostile Rhetoric Turns Up Heat on Iranian Christians
CDN:
Increased public statements against Christianity in Iran have intensified pressures on Christians, sources said, but at their core they reflect Islamic leaders’ dismay with the growth of house churches and may signal dissension within Iran’s leadership.
“The reality is most of the house churches are so hidden that the government can’t do anything, and they know it,” said a regional expert who requested anonymity. “They just see how the house churches are still growing.”
The source said that since mass arrests at the beginning of this year, Christians have been more cautious.
Another Iranian Christian, a pastor, said the comments likely foretell more arrests.
“I believe that a new wave of persecution is underway,” he said. “The authorities are in the process of evaluating the situation.”
[...]
Canada says documents clear troops of wrongdoing
Reuters:
Canada released thousands of pages of declassified documents on Wednesday, which it said supported its claims that its soldiers played no role in the mistreatment of prisoners in Afghanistan.
The Conservative government has been dogged for years by allegations that military and political officials ignored evidence that Afghan authorities were torturing detainees handed over by Canadian troops stationed there.
The more than 4,000 pages of documents showed that Canada had met its international obligations on the treatment of prisoners, Foreign Minister John Baird told reporters in Ottawa.
[...]
The Metaphysics of Contemporary Theft
by Victor Davis Hanson:
Watching the tastes, the behavior, the rhetoric, the appointments, and the policy of this administration suggests to me that it is not really serious in radically altering the existing order, which it counts on despite itself. Its real goal is a sort of parasitism that assumes the survivability of the enfeebled host. That does not mean it has not done a lot of damage and will not do even more in the next two years; only that it never quite wanted to see cap-and-trade legislation enacted, blanket amnesty, Guantamo shut down, or Predators ended; these were simply crude slurs by which to demonize Bush, ways of acquiring power and influence, but not a workable plan of living. Note that Obama is now zealous on just those issues which he could have easily rammed through his Democratically controlled Congress in 2009-10 when he had large majorities, such as amnesty and cap and trade.
You cannot fly to Costa del Sol on solar panels. The light switches might not go on at Vail without coal burning somewhere. The Holder or Obama children might not be safe in the Stockton or Parlier city schools. Some right-wing nut in the Dakotas is still necessary to pump the oil to refine the gas for Air Force One [10]; there is no golf without an irrigation system and a supply of either ground or surface water.
In short, the currently insulted class is necessary and Obama knows it.
[...]
An American Versailles
by Victor Davis Hanson:
Editor’s Note: What follows is a collection of recent Corners from VDH.
The Shape of 2012 to Come
The outburst from Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the so-called Shanghai Cooperation Organization should close the chapter on the much bandied about “outreach” to Iran voiced by candidate Obama in 2008. Events in Syria, despite the administration appellation of Assad as a “reformer,” likewise ended another chapter in the supposed reset diplomacy of reaching out to illiberal Middle East regimes that might not have been so illiberal had Bush & co. just given them a chance.
[...]
Watching the Charity Regulators
Thomas Lifson:
The nonprofit sector the American economy is big and important, and, regrettably, many nonprofits are dominated by liberals. It is also a sector that is highly regulated at both the state and federal levels. The character — and expense — of charity regulation is an important topic.
In today’s Washington Times, former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray takes on Media Matters for America, the George Soros-financed attack dog that has virtually declared war on Fox News and other conservative media (American Thinker has been attacked by them as well).
Gray writes:
[...]
CBO Report On Long-Term Federal Debt Warns of Economic Doom For America
by Jeff Dunetz:
America is about to be handcuffed. No, we didn’t collectively break some law leading to us being arrested and having to suffer through the traditional “perp walk.” The latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projection of our long term debt indicates it will be so burdensome that it will limit lawmakers’ ability to adopt tax and spending priorities in good times and reduce flexibility to deal with recessions. The report says that our high debt will make financial crises more likely and long term growth less likely.
[...]
Hard times are here
We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression
The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment.
Sanctioning Jewish Deaths
by Giulio Meotti:
Reprinted from Ynetnews.com.
Alan Riding’s new book, “And the show went on”, brilliantly dissects the behavior of French intellectuals under the Nazi occupation: Names that became famous icons such as Gide, Claudel, Romains, Picasso, Malraux and Piaf. But above all, Jean-Paul Sartre, the incarnation of cultural engagement, the humanist guru who turned down a Nobel Prize for literature and founded left-leaning newspaper Liberation.
During the German occupation of Paris, Sartre was a cynical profiteer concerned exclusively with his own literary career and ready to compromise with the authorities. Sartre worked for “Comoedia”, a magazine financed by the Nazis; his work “The Flies” got the blessing of the German censors; his companion, the literary goddess Simone de Beauvoir, worked for the national pro-Germans radio.
After the war, Sartre rebuilt his image of grand-resistant. He already was familiar with the horrors of the Soviet Gulag, but did not reveal as “not to discourage the moral of the Billancourt’s workers,” while French intellectuals organized a solidarity rally in Paris in support of the official Soviet position that Jewish doctors had assassinated communist leaders.
Much less known is Sartre’s praise for Arab terrorism. When 11 Israeli athletes were butchered at the 1972 Munich Olympics in, Sartre wrote: “Terrorism is a terrible weapon, but the oppressed poor have no others.”
The lesson from Sartre’s story is urgent for our time; namely, the appeal of Jihadi totalitarianism and Palestinian terrorism to Western intellectuals and their silence on it. It reveals how deeply Jew-hatred devoured the minds of the intellectual elite. In his recent book, Theodor Darlymple has called it “The New Vichy’s Syndrome.”
[...]
Allen West: Palestinians do NOT deserve a state
by The Right Scoop:
West gives a quick history of the region noting that there has never been a state of Palestine and continues:
There’s always been a state of Israel. After 1948 we have a modern day state of Israel. So we need to respect that and the people who call themselves Palestinians need to have a right and a respect of that state of Israel. Until then, until there’s a willing peace partner there really can’t be peace.
[...]
The biggest schoolyard bully: The ACLU
By Robert Knight & Rick Hecker:
The schoolyard has always been prime turf for bullies. But these days it’s not just students who are victims. School administrators and the taxpayers who foot the bill for municipal legal costs are prime targets as well.
The ACLU is demanding that Maryville, Missouri schools end a program that encourages students to wear seatbelts by giving them free pizzas if they do and Dum-Dum lollypops if they don’t. The program piggybacks on a statewide campaign, Battle of the Belt. Students report seatbelt use to their resource officers, who then give out prizes.
Enter the nattering killjoy. After learning about the program on the radio and receiving an alleged complaint, the ACLU of Kansas’s chief counsel, Doug Bonney, sent a letter to Keith Wood, the Maryville public safety director. In the letter, Bonney asked Wood to kill the program because it “violates the Fourth Amendment … and Article I, Section 15 of the Missouri Constitution.” Wood responded by explaining that “We are not stopping people at random to check seatbelts. We monitor on the high school campus and that’s where we do all this.”
[...]
Congressman blasts reporters at Obamacare waivers presser: ‘I don’t know why your profession isn’t outraged’
By Matthew Boyle – The Daily Caller:
Freshman Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh ripped mainstream media reporters at a press conference Wednesday morning for their failure to adequately cover the Obamacare waivers imbroglio.
“This is an outrage,” Walsh said of the Obamacare waivers program. “I don’t know why your profession isn’t outraged. If this were any other president or any other administration, you would be investigating this tooth and nail every single day.”
[...]
Taxpayers’ subsidization of war on Fox News
By The Washington Times:
David Brock, the conservative turned liberal advocate, has recently garnered a considerable amount of press coverage for his attacks on Fox News for, among many other things, allegedly taking over leadership of the Republican Party. What the news coverage has ignored is his use of tax-free funds for his organization, Media Matters for America (MMA), for these attacks — a form of government support for activities that clearly do not merit tax-exempt status and that as a result infringe on Fox News’ First Amendment rights.
[...]
Canadian Human Rights Commission Goes After Free Speech
by Adam Daifallah:
One of the greatest protections Americans have against Islamists, and the threat they pose, are the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment. Never take them for granted, for most countries, even some Western allies, do not benefit from such a bulwark against illiberal forces.
In Canada, for instance, freedom of speech is not constitutionally guaranteed to the same degree it is in America. And those wishing for a glimpse into how forces sympathetic to Islamism will try to influence (read: stifle) public debate about the Muslim faith should be aware of recent Canadian experiences.
[...]
Runaway Agency
NRO:
The Obama administration’s takeover of the health-insurance system stands out in many Americans’ minds as the distillation of its radicalism, but even more remarkable is its radicalization of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), part of its tireless campaign to aggrandize the cartels known as labor unions. Now the NLRB plans to rewrite the rules for union elections in a way that further strengthens the hand of the unions and undermines the freedom of employers to keep from having collective-bargaining contracts imposed on them against their will.
[...]
Liberal-Progressives Teaching America’s Students To Think
by Thomas E. Brewton:
Liberal-progressives, beginning with John Dewey’s progressive education in the 1920s and 30s, have opposed students’ learning specific subject matter. Students are supposed to have “experiences” working in groups, being conditioned for the future socialist society that is rapidly replacing our nation’s original constitutional individualism. This is what Dewey called education for democracy
Dewey specifically wrote that history is a dead subject that has no place in a modern, progressive school curriculum.
Read Pat Buchanan’s recap of how well socialistic teachers’ unions and Federal guidelines have imposed Dewey’s dicta.
[...]
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