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THINGS THE CANDIDATES DIDN’T TELL YOU
By Avi Davis
 As we enter the final days of the American presidential campaign, voters should feel entitled to have their issues addressed by the men who would lead us. Certainly the two candidates have clocked thousands of hours and spent millions of dollars in addressing health plans, economic stewardship, energy policy, the Iranian nuclear threat, border control and the pursuit of al Qaeda. To be sure, they are all vital to the future of the United States and the safety and welfare of its citizens.
But I have been compiling my own list of issues, that neither candidate, nor their many opponents in the primaries, have dared to broach:
- No candidate in this electoral season mentioned the cauterizing affect of multiculturalism and its impact on social cohesion
- None mentioned the continued penetration of Jihadist influence into our key governmental and academic institutions
- None observed the gravity of the civil war(s) raging in Mexico between the government and massive drug cartels –and, of course, the struggles between the cartels themselves- which have already spilled onto American soil, threatening to embroil the border states in prolonged urban warfare
- Not one candidate mentioned the infusion of international humanitarian law into the American legal system and its manipulation by special interests to hamper American sovereignty
- No candidate has had the courage to declare that global warming doomsayers might have a political agenda other than saving the world and that some of the radical environmentalists whom the movement has embraced, are far more concerned with constraining capitalism and free markets than with addressing man made climate change
- Little attention was paid to the rise of rampant anti-Semitism in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia – which is beginning its own migration to the United States
- No one targeted the culture of denial in government, particularly in the ranks of the State Department and the CIA, where obfuscation and obliviousness, have facilitated a willingness to embrace enemies committed to this country’s destruction
- Very little reference was made to the collapse of civic education and the failure of most Americans to recognize that a democracy is not just a grab bag of rights and privileges but a place where fulfillment of duties and responsibilities should be both expected and required
- No mention was made of the cultural depravity that comes from unfettered entertainment industry celebrations of mobsters, prostitutes and porno stars - a low threshold of acceptability which is represented by the recent hit, Zack and Miri Make a Porno
The first years of the 21st Century have brought new and unexpected threats to liberal democracy and the survival of the West. But you would not know this from any of the statements of the candidates. That is largely because both candidates seem to currently view the American presidency as an office that operates solely in the service of the American people. That is a mistake. The American presidency also stands as the most powerful international symbol of freedom and the key defender of Western values and principles. The defense of those ideals necessitates a recognition that the greatest threats to our survival do not presently come from beyond our borders but from within them. Recent polls reveal that nearly 80% of Americans believe the country to be on the wrong track. That might easily be assumed by liberal pundits to refer to the disappointments of the Iraq War, the financial meltdown, or the governmental incompetence displayed in addressing the ravages of Hurricane Katrina But my guess is that if you probed deeper, those concerns would prove of only superficial relevance to most Americans. The more likely reality is that Americans sense that their country’s moral balance has been upset; that ideological forces inimical to the continuity of freedom and liberty are penetrating our governmental system and institutions and that the appearance of excesses of all kinds – financial, political and social - is a cause for deep anxiety about the American future.
On November 5th the American people will awake to the election of a new President. It is an article of faith among the citizens of this country that the American experiment in liberal democracy will continue indefinitely into the future. But as the recent financial crisis has revealed, there are no guarantees of anything in this world. The new President will not only be confronted with very real external threats to American survival but a far more dangerous internal corrosion that threatens to weaken our resistance and compromise our resolve. The President should therefore begin his administration by urging the American citizenry to commit itself to a review of the nation’s moral purpose direction; he should excoriate excesses of all kinds and offer his people a model of restraint, temperance and humility that behooves others to emulate.
Certainly he should understand, and make the American people understand, that the future of Western civilization is dependent on a willingness to accept that nothing is certain and nothing is assured without hard work, dedication to task and unflinching confidence in the rightness of one’s cause. But the recognition of the very real threats to social cohesion, moral direction and internal security must begin with the President. He has the power, through the dignity and influence of his office, to alter the moral course of the country and assure its future.
Let us hope that either of the two men running for election are capable of meeting the challenge.
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance.
He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
Et tu U.S.? American government considering Shariah banking
Sell Off or Sell Out?-Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
News item: On Sunday, Arab News reported, “The U.S. government is currently studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis, Robert M. Kimmitt, US deputy secretary of the Treasury, said at a press conference held at the US Embassy here yesterday.” The newspaper went on to note that “[Kimmitt] said that experts in the US Treasury Department are currently learning the important features of Islamic banking.” As it happens, for the better part of a year, we at the Center for Security Policy have spent a fair amount of time trying to teach U.S. Treasury Department and other government “experts” about what is euphemistically called “Islamic banking,” but better known as Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). In meetings with Secretary Kimmitt and other top Treasury officials, my colleagues and I have presented them with all they really need to know about the “important features” of this growth industry. Specifically, we shared with them a detailed legal memorandum written by one of our experts – David Yerushalmi, an attorney specializing in securities law who is deeply knowledgeable about the comprehensive theo-political-legal code that authoritative Islam calls Shariah. Mr. Yerushalmi’s memo makes a compelling case that there is both civil liability and criminal exposure associated with SCF. This is so because, at its core, Shariah is sedition: It explicitly espouses the violent overthrow of all secular governments and constitutions – including those of the United States – in favor of a global Islamic theocracy. The Yerushalmi memo makes clear that Shariah advisors – who play a central role in this industry as it falls to them to determine whether transactions are Shariah-compliant or not – and/or the companies that employ them appear to be involved in one or more of the following: racketeering, anti-trust violations, consumer and securities fraud or material support for terror. (frontpagemag)
Somalian aid worker beheaded for converting to Christianity
 Anti-Christian violence spills into Kenya as Somali Muslims attack in Nairobi.
NAIROBI, Kenya, October 27 (Compass Direct News) – Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness. Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a World Food Program (WFP) worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa. The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a WFP driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.
The eyewitness, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the militants that afternoon gathered the villagers of Manyafulka, telling them that they would prepare a feast for them. The people gathered anticipating the slaughter of a sheep, goat or camel according to local custom. Five masked men emerged carrying guns, wielding Somali swords and dragging the handcuffed Mohammed. One pulled back Mohammed’s head, exposing his face as he scraped his sword against his short hair as if to sharpen it. Another recited the Quran as he proclaimed that Mohammed was a “murtid,” an Arabic term for one who converts from Islam to Christianity. The Muslim militant announced that Mohammed was an infidel and a spy for occupying Ethiopian soldiers. (Compassdirect.org)
"I have explained the Danish point of view, which is that we cannot accept that religion be conflated with racism.”
Danish foreign minister threatens Western boycott of Durban II-Jette Elbaek Maressa
Jyllands-Posten Jerusalem: Either the Organisation of Islamic Conference withdraws its proposal to make criticism of religion equivalent to racism, or the Western countries shall stay away from the UN conference on racism, Durban II. This is the message of the Danish foreign minister Per Stig Møller to his Arab partners during a round trip to the Middle East. "If the OIC pushes through this draft resolution, they shall not expect European or Western countries to be present at the table", said the minister of foreign affairs at a press conference in Jerusalem this evening. According to Per Stig Møller, he has given the same message to, amongst others, the Syrian minister of foreign affairs Walid al-Moualem and the Egyptian minister of foreign affairs Ahmed Aly Ahmed Abul Gheit, both of whom the Danish minister has met on his round trip to Syria, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian areas on the West Bank. Durban II was also discussed Sunday evening in Cairo during a dinner with Amr Moussa, chairman of the League of Arab States. "I have explained the Danish point of view, which is that we cannot accept that religion be conflated with racism. You can be a Muslim no matter your race," said Per Stig Møller. The Durban II conference, a follow-up to the United Nations' conference on racism in 2001, is scheduled to take place in April 2009. Advance criticism has been hard, and intellectuals as well as many politicians have openly demanded a boycott of the conference. (Europenews.dk)
Bali bombers praised as ‘holy warriors’ by Islamic Students
Islamic students praise Bali bombers-AFP
FOR the skullcapped students of the Darusy Syahadah Islamic school there is no question that the three radical jihadis behind the 2002 Bali bombings are heroes.
Sheltering from the equatorial sun on the steps of the school's mosque, the students crowd to offer their approval of bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra. Authorities say the three bombers will face the firing squad by early November for their role in the attack, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. "They're holy warriors, that's how I respond, they're holy warriors,'' said Sir Muhammad Royhan Syihabuddin Ar-Rohmi, a slight 18-year-old. His friend Nawawi, also 18, leaned forward in agreement: "They are like us, they wanted to do good deeds.'' With its peeling buildings, stray sheep and low-hanging mango trees, Darusy Syahadah in Central Java has long been a key hub for recruitment and indoctrination in the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant network, experts say. (Heraldsun.au)
Scotland Yard being briefed by experts to reduce tension between police and Muslims due to the London games clashing with Ramadan
Police are warned of Ramadan tensions during Games-Richard Kerbaj and Ruth Gledhill
Specialist advice is being given to Scotland Yard on how to reduce tensions between police and Muslims during the London Olympics because of growing concerns about the Games clashing with the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day, The Times has learnt. Experts will also warn the Metropolitan Police to ensure that the planned commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Games does not offend local and travelling Muslims. The recommendations have been made by inter-faith advisers to Scotland Yard, where antiterrorism police are preparing to combat any possible Islamic terrorist threat to the Games. Community tensions in the lead-up to the games have already been raised by a controversial Muslim movement, Tablighi Jamaat, which plans to build Britain’s largest mosque and Islamic complex near the 2012 Olympic stadium site. Michael Mumisa, an Islamic scholar, and one of four experts hired by Scotland Yard who began training the police this week on inter-faith issues, said that the commemoration of the 11 Israeli athletes, killed by Palestinian militants from the Black September Organisation at the 1972 Munich Games, could become a national security threat if it was not managed properly and was perceived by Muslims to be “hijacking” the Games. Edward Kessler, executive director of the Woolfe Institute, which deals with inter-faith dialogue, teaching and research, said that police needed to have a “minimum level of faith literacy” to help them deal with religious issues during the London Games. Dr Kessler said: “During Ramadan you’re going to have a lot of tired, hungry, less evenly tempered people because they haven’t eaten for 18 hours.” (TimesOnline.co.uk)
"If there was ever a single event in modern history that exacerbated "racist and xenophobic trends" in the world, it's Durban itself."
Jonathan Kay on the creepy, illiberal patchwork of weirdness that is Durban II
Earlier this month, a UN committee stacked with dictatorships (Libya, Iran, Cuba, etc.) produced a provisional blueprint for the Spring, 2009 "Durban Review Conference," an international confab organized to promote the "Programme of Action" that came out of the original, disastrous 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
Since Durban I has become a byword for anti-Semitism and anti-Western extremism, the forthcoming Durban II confab is widely expected to be a farce (Canada and Israel have already announced they won't be attending). And so relatively few pundits seem to have bothered wading through the UN's characteristically turgid pre-conference planning documentation.
But faced with a slow news day, I decided to take a crack.
Four hours later, I don't recommend the exercise. The five-part "Draft Outcome Document" contains 88 pages and 646 provisions. Most of it consists of boilerplate repetition of the same small handful of themes (encapsulated well in this UN Watch report): (1) Racism is everywhere, (2) The fault for this lies with the West, because of its "genocidal" legacy of slavery and colonization, (3) "Islamophobia" and discrimination against "people of African descent" are especially prevalent and pernicious, and (4) Israel is a blight upon nations (Paragraphs 114-117 of Section 1, for instance, are dedicated exclusively to bashing the Jewish state. No other country comes in for singling out in the whole document). In many cases, whole paragraphs are repeated several times over (such as a lengthy Jimmy Carteresque screed about Israel promoting "a new kind of apartheid").
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
“Paternalistic schools create a culture of achievement that is the antithesis of street culture”
Real Educational Equality for Black Students-David Whitman
By the time youngsters reach high school in the United States, the achievement gap is immense. The average black 12th grader has the reading and writing skills of a typical white 8th grader and the math skills of a typical white 7th grader. The gap between white and Hispanic students is similar. But some remarkable inner-city schools are showing that the achievement gap can be closed, even at the middle and high school level, if poor minority kids are given the right kind of instruction. Over the past two years, I have visited six outstanding schools. (For a list of schools, see sidebar.) All of these educational gems enroll minority youngsters from rough urban neighborhoods with initially poor to mediocre academic skills; all but one are open-admission schools that admit students mostly by lottery. Their middle school students perform as well as their white peers, and in some middle schools, minority students learn at a rate comparable to that of affluent white students in their state’s top schools. (For one impressive example, see Figure 1.) At the high school level, low-income minority students are more likely to matriculate to college than their more advantaged peers, with more than 95 percent of graduates gaining admission to college. Not surprisingly, they all have gifted, deeply committed teachers and dedicated, forceful principals. They also have rigorous academic standards, test students frequently, and carefully monitor students’ academic performance to assess where students need help. “Accountability,” for both teachers and students, is not a loaded code word but a lodestar. Students take a college-prep curriculum and are not tracked into vocational or noncollege-bound classes. Most of the schools have uniforms or a dress code, an extended school day, and three weeks of summer school. Yet above all, these schools share a trait that has been largely ignored by education researchers: They are paternalistic institutions. By paternalistic I mean that each of the six schools is a highly prescriptive institution that teaches students not just how to think, but also how to act according to what are commonly termed traditional, middle-class values. These paternalistic schools go beyond just teaching values as abstractions: the schools tell students exactly how they are expected to behave, and their behavior is closely monitored, with real rewards for compliance and penalties for noncompliance. Unlike the often-forbidding paternalistic institutions of the past, these schools are prescriptive yet warm; teachers and principals, who sometimes serve in loco parentis, are both authoritative and caring figures. Teachers laugh with and cajole students, in addition to frequently directing them to stay on task. The new breed of paternalistic schools appears to be the single most effective way of closing the achievement gap. No other school model or policy reform in urban secondary schools seems to come close to having such a dramatic impact on the performance of inner-city students. Done right, paternalistic schooling provides a novel way to remake inner-city education in the years ahead. (Frontpagemagazine)
The role of liberal arts on politics in the mainstream media
The College Backgrounds of America's Talking Heads-Tom Wood
(1) As the American political season crescendoes towards November 4, I have started wondering about the role of the liberal arts in American political commentary in the mainstream media (MSM, as it now called).
In my last posting, I made a case for the liberal arts. This week, I thought it might be interesting to investigate the extent to which the liberal arts figures in the college backgrounds of America's most prominent TV news anchors, reporters, and commentators. I was not the ideal person to engage in this project, as I get almost all my news, political and otherwise, from the Web. I therefore had to find some way to go about the matter systematically. Fortunately, between the main TV network and cable news sites and Wikipedia, I was able to get a reasonably comprehensive listing of the major talking heads with their bios at CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, ABC NEWS, and CBS NEWS. What I offer here is hardly definitive, but I hope that readers will find it of interest.
(2) There was more information on the TV network and cable news web sites about the college backgrounds of the talking heads than there was for their majors or graduate degrees. Consequently, what turned out to be an investigative project focused on the liberal arts broadened into an inquiry about the college backgrounds of the talking heads. However, major fields of study, both undergrad and grad, are noted when they were available using the sources mentioned above.
(3) I wanted to find background information about some of the leading political analysts who are used by the major networks and cable channels as well. When I looked for background information on political analysts that came to mind as I thought about the matter, I found that the information was generally available on the Web. However, I did not pursue this line of inquiry because I have found no systematic way of identifying these analysts, as the web sites usually gave only the bios for the staff of the various programs.
(4) Most of the information in the listings below was garnered from the various network and cable channel web sites. I have provided all the links I used for the information given. When I had to resort to Wikipedia (or when Wikipedia supplemented information available on the web site), that fact has been noted.
(5) I plan in a future posting to provide similar information about the CEOs for, say, the top 25 companies in the Fortune 500. This investigation is of some interest, too, because, if one can believe what they say, businesses and corporations do want well-trained people with liberal arts backgrounds--it's just that these days they have a hard time getting them (well-trained graduates, that is).
(6) Here are some brief impressions of my own about the findings below:
(a) The overwhelming majority of the talking heads have college degrees; many of them have advanced degrees. The social sciences are well-represented, but undergraduate degrees in the social sciences are somewhat less common than humanities majors. Degrees in journalism are also common, although in the case of many of the talking heads, the degrees in journalism are advanced degrees rather than undergraduate degrees. (NAS)
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
“Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around and ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted.”
 Video Game Dispute Underscores Muslim Divide-David J. Rusin
How far should private entities go to avoid offending the most sensitive Muslims? This question has arisen once again as the soundtrack for a virtual world sparks controversy in the real one. LittleBigPlanet, a new video game that lets children lead characters through various locales, was recently delayed by Sony due to its use of a song whose lyrics contain snippets from the Koran. The pre-release modification and apology came on the heels of a letter claiming that the mixture of music with Koranic verses would upset some Muslims. (Side note: a Muslim actually wrote and recorded the tune.) Two influential members of the U.S. Islamic community have offered very different responses to the uproar — and thus contrasting answers to the question that opened this post. In his group's typical fashion, Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), effectively argues that companies should extend to Muslims the power to veto products before they even hit the shelves. Personally, I find the song to be beautiful and touching. But I respect the views of those who have taken offense and I appreciate that Sony has as well. To be fair, I believe Sony is under no obligation to recall the game given that the song was not of their own making, but that of a devout Muslim who allowed them to use it. However, I think they made an admirable decision to respect the sensitivities of their customers who were offended, which is a wise decision from both a marketing and community relations perspective. (Islamist-watch.org)
Robert Spencer on facing the MSA at his talk at Suny-Stony Brook
SUNY-Stony Brook: Manufactured outrage-Robert Spencer
Last Thursday night when I spoke at SUNY-Stony Brook, the new tactics about which I have written here, here and here were not as much in evidence as they had been at other campuses: students did not try to disrupt my remarks, but the MSA did show up in force, and were ready with hostile and contemptuous questions. The fireworks began with the first question. Sister Sanaa Nadim, the chaplain of the Stony Brook MSA, stood up to declare how incredibly offended she was by my taking Qur'anic verses out of context in order to portray all Muslims as extremists. She launched into full-bore counter lecture mode (despite requests from me and the student organizers not to try to hijack the lecture during the question period, but to ask a brief question), repeatedly attempted to talk over my answers, and only retreated a bit when I pointed out what a splendid example of courtesy and fair play she was giving to her students. When I did get a chance to speak again, I listed some of the Islamic authorities who taught that offensive jihad warfare against unbelievers was the final and lasting stage of jihad, including Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Qayyim, Ibn Kathir, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, etc., and asked her to save her offense for those people if she truly opposed this point of view, but not to pretend that I had originated this perspective. But of course, it is likely that she, like most of her coreligionists in the U.S., has never expressed any outrage toward any of them or their modern exponents, allowing bland condemnations of an undefined "terrorism" to suffice. I think it that the outrage she was directing at me seemed manufactured, perhaps to give gullible audience members the impression that she had never heard before of this interpretation of Islam -- as none other than Mahdi Bray once claimed during a Q-and-A after a talk I once gave in Boston. (Jihadwatch.org)
Muslim clerics issue edict against tomboys in Malaysia
Malaysia bans tomboys saying girls with short hair who act like boys 'violate Islam'-Daily Mail Reporter
Clerics have issued an edict banning tomboys in Muslim-majority Malaysia, saying that girls who act like boys violate the tenets of Islam. Under the 'fatwa', girls are forbidden to have short hair and dress like boys. Harussani Idris Zakaria, who attended the meeting of the National Fatwa Council, said an increasing number of Malaysian girls behave like tomboys, and some of them engage in homosexuality. He said the council's ruling was not legally binding because it has not been passed into law, but that tomboys should be banned because they are 'sinful'. He said: 'It doesn't matter if it's a law or not. When it's wrong, it's wrong. 'God created them as girls, they must act like girls.' It was not immediately clear what punishment awaited those who violate the fatwa. Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said the ruling was prompted by recent cases of young women behaving like men and indulging in homosexuality. Harussani and other muftis urged Muslims not to watch the movie, arguing that the actress had violated Islam by making herself look like a man. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Media Bias
“But nothing, nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in the current presidential campaign.”
Media's Presidential Bias and Decline-Michael S. Malone
The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game -- with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates. The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer. But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was "a writer," because I couldn't bring myself to admit to a stranger that I'm a journalist. You need to understand how painful this is for me. I am one of those people who truly bleeds ink when I'm cut. I am a fourth-generation newspaperman. As family history tells it, my great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kan., during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian). My hard-living -- and when I knew her, scary -- grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. And my father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. I've spent 30 years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And my oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national byline before he earned his drivers license. So, when I say I'm deeply ashamed right now to be called a "journalist," you can imagine just how deep that cuts into my soul. Now, of course, there's always been bias in the media. Human beings are biased, so the work they do, including reporting, is inevitably colored. Hell, I can show you 10 different ways to color variations of the word "said" -- muttered, shouted, announced, reluctantly replied, responded, etc. -- to influence the way a reader will apprehend exactly the same quote. We all learn that in Reporting 101, or at least in the first few weeks working in a newsroom. But what we are also supposed to learn during that same apprenticeship is to recognize the dangerous power of that technique, and many others, and develop built-in alarms against them. But even more important, we are also supposed to be taught that even though there is no such thing as pure, Platonic objectivity in reporting, we are to spend our careers struggling to approach that ideal as closely as possible. (abcnews.go.com)
MSNBC criticised for its unfair liberal coverage of the presidential election
Both sides of aisle rip MSNBC:Keith Olbermann also criticized at media luncheon-Paul Bond
In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election. The cable news channel is "completely out of control," said writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat. She added that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News star Sean Hannity over left-leaning MSNBC star Keith Olbermann. Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was dubbed "Hollywood, America and Election '08." Bloodworth-Thomason and others seemed especially critical of the way MSNBC -- and other media -- has attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while demeaning her supporters. "We should stop the demonizing," she said, adding that Democrats have been worse than Republicans as far as personal attacks on candidates are concerned. "It diminishes us," she said of her fellow Democrats. She stressed, though, that it's Palin's small-town American roots she wishes to defend and not her politics or policies. Bloodworth-Thomason even suggested a defense of Palin and her supporters should be written into TV programming, just as she went out of her way to portray Southern women as smart in her hit TV show "Designing Women." Attendee Michael Reagan, the radio talk-show host and son of President Ronald Reagan, said he no longer will appear as a guest on MSNBC because "I actually get death threats." (Hollywoodreporter)
ANTISEMITISM
"The blessing of Palestine is dependent upon the annihilation of the pit of global corruption in it.”
Hamas Cleric Muhsen Abu 'Ita: "The Annihilation of the Jews in Palestine is The Most Splendid Blessing for Palestine"
Following are excerpts from an interview with Palestinian cleric Muhsen Abu 'Ita, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 13, 2008:
To view the clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1877.htm
To view the MEMRI TV page for Al-Aqsa TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/content/en/tv_channel_indiv.htm?id=175
Muhsen Abu 'Ita: "Naturally, the Koran chapters conveyed to Muhammad in Mecca only rarely deal with the Jews - like in 'those who incur Allah's wrath,' which appears in the Al-Fatiha chapter.
"Hence, it is strange to find an entire chapter bearing the name of the Jews, or Bani Israil. It is even more peculiar that this chapter does not talk about the Jews of the Qaynuqa, Nazir, or Qurayza tribes.
"It talks about the Jews of our times, of this century, using the language of annihilation, the language of grave digging. Note that in this chapter, the Jews were sentenced to annihilation, before even a single Jew existed on the face of the earth. This Koranic chapter talked about the collapse of the so-called state of Israel, before this state was even established. From here stems the importance and oddity of this chapter.
[...]
"The blessing of Palestine is dependent upon the annihilation of the pit of global corruption in it. When the head of the serpent of corruption is cut off here in Palestine, and its octopus tentacles are severed throughout the world, the real blessing will come.
"The annihilation of the Jews here in Palestine is one of the most splendid blessings for Palestine. This will be followed by a greater blessing, Allah be praised, with the establishment of a Caliphate that will rule the land and will be pleasing to men and God." (MEMRI)
“The Palestinians have the inalienable right to indoctrinate their kids to blind evil and hate, but Norway and the West have the moral obligation to stop paying for it.”
 Why is West funding Abbas' hate TV?-Itamar Marcus
Would you sign a check for $120 million and hand it over to a former terrorist without carefully supervising what he was doing with your money? That's exactly what Norway, chair of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee that co-ordinates international funding to the Palestinian Authority, is doing with its taxpayers' money. In response to extensive documentation by Palestinian Media Watch about the hate promotion on official Palestinian Authority-Fatah TV, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre recently made a series of statements defending PA TV that indicate he is totally ignorant of its content. Then, to put his money where his misinformed mouth is, he wrote another check for 85 million kroner to the PA under Mahmoud Abbas, whose office controls PA TV. The Norwegian foreign minister is certainly not evil. Neither are other Europeans. Neither are the Americans, whose recent agreement to give the PA an additional $150 million puts their 2008 aid to the PA at more than $700 million - more than the US pledged at a donors' conference in December 2007. But these countries throw money at Abbas's feet with such infatuation you'd think he was a clone of Mother Teresa. Unfortunately, if his messages to Palestinian children are any indicator, Abbas seems far more like the clone of his predecessor, the terror lord Yasser Arafat, than a peacemaker. Defending his Abbas spending spree, Støre said: "This [PA-Fatah TV] channel cannot be said to engage in indoctrination of children or denying Israel's right to exist..." and he added his objection to TV being used for "spreading hate or inciting terrorism," which he indicated is not being done by PA TV. UNFORTUNATELY HE is completely wrong. During the 11 years of PMW's existence, there has never been a period of such intense demonization of Israel, continuous hate promotion and denial of Israel's existence by the PA (Fatah)-controlled media as during the 11 months since the Annapolis Conference. Jews and Israelis are being demonized by the PA through malicious libels - including the lies that Israel intentionally spreads AIDS and drugs among Palestinians, conducts Nazi-like medical experiments on Palestinian prisoners, took Palestinian babies in 1948 to bring up as Jews and is planning to destroy the Aksa Mosque. A PA TV "historical" documentary featured hateful fabrications, including videos of dead bodies filmed in Lebanon in 1982 that PA TV falsely presented as evidence of a so-called Israeli "massacre" in 1948. Israel is even said to be breeding supernatural rats to chase Arabs who live in Jerusalem. As far as recognizing Israel, Abbas's TV is no different than Hamas TV - unequivocally denying Israel's existence and right to exist. Note these recent TV examples in which young Palestinian children were given scripts repeating that Israel from Metulla to Eilat is "occupied Palestine," eventually to be "returned." (Jpost)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
How Britain’s liberals are out of touch with fighting Islamic terror
Has Britain Lost Its Marbles on Fighting Terror?-Carol Gould
The “[1] 42-day rule” will mean nothing to readers outside the United Kingdom but the issue has been an intense element of the public discourse for several months, coming to a head last week with the [2] rejection of the statute by the House of Lords. Every talking head, pundit, phone-in maven, and liberal newspaper — of which there are many — in Britain is registering varying levels of ire over what is seen as a contentious law that should be dead and buried once and for all. The 42-day rule is an eminently sensible provision in British law allowing the police to keep a suspect in custody for 42 days, an increase on the present 28 days. There has been unprecedented anger in the country and indeed the House of Lords, these days packed with an increasing number of liberal life appointees replacing now-abolished hereditary peers, has expressed its displeasure. Those of us who live in the real world, headed by the brave Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, feel this is a gift to the unending stream of Muslim radicals whose names are paraded across our screens in the context of a plethora of plots. Some of us actually believe that 42 days is a short time in which to investigate the peregrinations of suspects. Now, journalist Andrew Gilligan, a household name in Britain but perhaps not as well known in other climes, has taken it upon himself to write a rant in the Evening Standard of October 16 condemning the “police state” and making assertions that some observers could say border on treason. Gilligan, who shot to fame in 2003 when he “outed” the “sexed-up” government dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, a national crisis that ended with the death of world biological weapons expert Dr. David Kelly and the resignation of BBC Director-General Greg Dyke, is actually asserting that in 2008 the financial crash will at last liberate us from spending money on preventing terror attacks. I have now thrice reread Gilligan’s editorial, on which the paper provides the heading, “[3] Banking Excess May Save Us from the Police State,” and must conclude that he reflects the level of foolhardy liberal insanity that has been increasingly pervading the British social discourse in the past decade. What is so alarming is that with the exception of Home Secretary Smith every person in a public forum is self-flagellating over the reduction in personal freedoms that the battle against Islamic radicalism has engendered in Her Majesty’s Kingdom. (pajamasmedia)
‘Humanitarian Aid’ in Gaza used to build underground bunkers for war against Israel
Hamas Uses 'Humanitarian Cement' to Prepare for War-Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNN.com) The de facto Hamas government in Gaza is exploiting Israel's allowing shipments of cement to build underground tunnels, ammunition bunkers and command centers. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai is thinking about reducing the amounts of cement, which began to flow through Gaza crossings in July.
The government allowed cement to cross into Gaza after Hamas reduced the number of rocket attacks on Israel. Gaza residents complain about the small quantities of cement, but one of the reasons is that Hamas controls the distribution of humanitarian shipments and diverts much of them for their own use. It also controls the destination of goods transported through smuggling tunnels. Hamas's underground city copies the system used by Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War against Israel. IDF intelligence sources have told the Defense Ministry that an entire tunnel network has been built underneath major cities in Gaza to allow the Hamas terrorists army to move freely in the event of an Israeli invasion. Many of the tunnels are filled with explosives that can be detonated by remote control devices and cause the collapse of roads over which IDF convoys might use. Hundreds of Katyusha and Kassam rocket launchers also have been placed underground, safe from aerial attack, the Hebrew newspaper Ma'ariv reported. Arab and Western media published dozens of articles earlier this year, blaming the Israeli "siege" on Gaza for causing shortages of cement, and preventing new construction and even the erection of new gravestones. (INN)
How terrorists could use the latest blogging platforms for suicide attacks
 Twit or Tweet-Roderick James
The Army’s 304th Military Intelligence Battalion recently produced a presentation entitled, “ al Qaida-Like Mobile Discussions & Potential Creative Uses”. The presentation has some interesting information regarding, ‘Pro Terrorist Propaganda Cell Phone Interfaces”, mobile phone target surveillance, “Voice Changers for Terrorist Telephone Calls” and finally, “Potential for Terrorist use of Twitter”. This last topic has received some commentary having been seized upon by Wired’s Danger Room Blog. As usual with discussions centered on the terrorist potential use of any new technology, negative comments focus on the, “ why don’t they just use the telephone” argument. However, this as ever misses the wider point.
Twitter has been around since July 2006 and is billed as a micro-blogging service with a social networking aspect - it is a highly fluid platform that can be meshed with a variety of other online tools. As with many innovations in this space its full utility is simply unknown - therefore, it is useful to speculate on both the potential negative and positive uses. As a society we now have a pretty good idea of how the telephone works. The military intelligence report highlights three scenarios relating to how Twitter could be used - terrorist command and control, terrorist real-time targeting for suicide operations and pre-operational research on terrorist targets who use Twitter. Of these scenarios it is the latter that is so far potentially the most ‘negative’ use of Twitter. It is possible to produce an unnerving amount of information relating to specific Twitter users based on their social patterns and individual entries. As a rule of thumb it seems that it is never the primary functions of these platforms, which are the most revealing but their secondary and tertiary applications. Twitter along with its competitor Jaiku continues to develop and as it does so will its impact on society. It is worth noting that the LA Fire Department is making good use of Twitter as a real-time incident information platform. Perhaps the terrorist use of Twitter will be the revival of alhesbah as a micro-blog sending ideological updates to followers as well as including LAFD style incident updates - I would add this as, potential use scenario 4. (Counterterrorismblog)
Radical ENVIRONMENTALISM
Crown Prosecutor calls animal rights advocate ‘a renowned self-proclaimed activist - a fanatic.'
 Animal rights fanatic 'planted home-made petrol bombs at Oxford university', court hears-Nick Britten
Mel Broughton was behind two devices that ripped apart a sports pavilion owned by Queen's College and a further two unexploded bombs which were found beneath a Portacabin, used as an office at Templeton College, it was alleged. A jury was told that Broughton, 48, a self-proclaimed fanatic and leading figure of the group SPEAK, which campaigned against Oxford University's plans to build an animal testing laboratory, left his DNA on one of the unexploded devices. He is standing trial at Oxford Crown Court where he denies charges of conspiracy to commit arson, an alternative charge of possession of articles with intent to destroy property and keeping an explosive substance with intent namely a quantity of sparklers. John Price, prosecuting, said police who searched his home also discovered items used in the home-made explosives and a hidden notebook containing a list of targets for direct action - along with a university security pass. "There is no dispute that he has dedicated his adult life to issues of animals rights," Mr Price said. "He is a renowned self-proclaimed activist - a fanatic. "He has made public demonstrations at meetings to protest against the laboratory. It is one thing protesting, quite another, inciting others to commit criminal acts." (Telegraph.co.uk)
Prince Charles views the global credit crunch as temporary, while climate change is irreversible if action is not taken
Prince Charles says climate the real crisis
TOKYO (AFP) – Prince Charles urged the world Tuesday to fight climate change, saying that while the global credit crunch will be temporary, the effects of the "climate crunch" were irreversible. The heir to the throne issued his appeal on a visit to Tokyo, where he and his wife Camilla are marking the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Britain. "Given the current turbulence in the international financial system and the immediate and damaging effect it is having on the whole world, the credit crunch is rightly a preoccupation of vast significance and importance," Charles said. "But we take our eye off the 'climate crunch' at our peril," he said in a speech at Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.
"While we hope and pray that the underlying strengths of the global economy will once again enable it to bounce back, the effects of climate change will be far from temporary and will, indeed, be irreversible," he said. Global markets have been battered in recent weeks by a global crunch in credit as some of the world's top financial institutions crumble under the weight of toxic subprime housing loans. Charles, who has long championed environmental causes, cited predictions by UN scientists that temperatures could rise by more than six degrees Celsius by 2100 if no action is taken. Charles called it a "level unprecedented in human experience." "The scale of the challenge is clear, nothing less than an urgent, full-scale transformation to a low-carbon society is needed," he said. (AFP)
Society and CULTURE
How technology, TV and games are killing bright teenagers
Dimming down: How the brainpower of today's 14-year-olds has slipped 'radically' in just one generation-Laura Clark
Bright teenagers are a disappearing breed, an alarming new study has revealed. The intellectual ability of the country's cleverest youngsters has declined radically, almost certainly due to the rise of TV and computer games and over-testing in schools. The 'high-level thinking' skills of 14-year-olds are now on a par with those of 12-year-olds in 1976. The findings contradict national results which have shown a growth in top grades in SATs at 14, GCSEs and A-levels. But Michael Shayer, the professor of applied psychology who led the study, believes that is the result of exam standards 'edging down'. His team of researchers at London's King's College tested 800 13 and 14-year-olds and compared the results with a similar exercise in 1976. The tests were intended to measure understanding of abstract scientific concepts such as volume, density, quantity and weight, which set pupils up for success not only in maths and science but also in English and history. One test asked pupils to study a pendulum swinging on a string and investigate the factors that cause it to change speed. A second involved weights on a beam. In the pendulum test, average achievement was much the same as in 1976. But the proportion of teenagers reaching top grades, demanding a 'higher level of thinking', slumped dramatically. Just over one in ten were at that level, down from one in four in 1976.In the second test, assessing mathematical thinking skills, just one in 20 pupils were achieving the high grades - down from one in five in 1976. (Dailymail.co.uk)
"Throughout U.S. culture, and particularly in mainstream media, women and girls are depicted in a sexualized manner."
 Little girls' Halloween costumes are looking more like they were designed by Victoria's Secret every year. Are we prudes or is this practically kiddie porn?-Matthew Phillips
Apparently, witches aren't ugly anymore; they're sexy. So are pirates and pumpkins and princesses--traditional little girl Halloween costumes that used to say, Isn't she cute? now scream, That's hot! with an increasing array of halter tops, bare midriffs and miniskirts. Costume catalogs and Web sites, filled with images of pouty preteens modeling the latest in Halloween fashion, seem almost to verge on child pornography, and ooze with attitude. Witches are "wayward" and grammar-school pirates are "wenches." A girl isn't an Army cadet, she's a "Major Flirt," and who knew female firefighters wore fishnet stockings? Even Little Bo Peep comes with a corset, short skirt and lacy petticoat.
And while complaints about "slutty" kids' costumes may seem like a yearly parents' lament, the industry has been ramping up the sex appeal to ever younger groups of girls. It's not just 10- and 12-year-olds who have gone Halloween trampy. Now 6- and 7-year-old models are featured in catalogs wearing child-sized versions of skimpy costumes that used to be reserved for adult boudoirs. If you think we're exaggerating, note that they're actually selling something called a "Child's Chamber Maid Costume." And, many of the tween girls in the photographs are wearing more make-up than Christina Aguilera on awards night. More disturbing may be their expressions--they look as if they've been told to give the camera their best "sexy" gaze.
Tack on all the licensed outfits from popular TV shows and toy lines like Cheetah Girls, Bratz and Hannah Montana, and parents are having to search farther a field for something that won't make their little trick-or-treater look like a lady of the night. But with adolescent girls parading around in short-shorts that say JUICY across the bottom, and every younger girls aspiring to be a diva of some sort, is it any wonder that their Halloween costumes have gotten racier? "No, but it is distressing," says Joe Kelly, founder of the advocacy group Dads and Daughters. He sees the trend as symptomatic of a deeper issue. "The hypersexualization of younger and younger girls only serves to reinforce gender roles. When an 8-year-old girl can't find a doctor costume because all they have are nurse outfits, that's a problem." Celia Rivenbark, author of the 2006 parental manifesto "Stop Dressing your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank," has noticed it too, and says that Halloween has become "just another excuse for little girls to dress like sluts." (Newsweek)
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