from Gateway Pundit:

The Salahis say that the truth will come out eventually.

We will see. So far the state-run media has been pretty quiet about their radical associations.

The Washington DC couple denied Tuesday on “The Today Show” that they were gatecrashers. Said and Michaele Salahi insisted that they did not party-crash the White House.

Maybe the truth is on their side? Maybe the party-goers were invited to the White House on purpose? But so far their Pentagon contact denies she gave them invites to the event.

As reported earlier… American Power discovered this on the White House party crashers- They belong to a radical anti-Israeli group:

Tareq Salahi, the polo-playing intruder, is a Palestinian nationalist with ties to the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) , a pro-Palestine lobby demanding the “right of return” for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The “right of return” has long been considered the backdoor to Israel’s destruction. But not only that: ATFP President Ziad Asali is an America-basher who blamed 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Asali was a lead U.S. official to PLO terrorist Yassir Arafat’s funeral in 2004. And in a position paper in 2007, the ATFP called for a power-sharing agreement at the Palestinian Authority, which would have included the State Department’s designated-terrorist group, Hamas.

And, there’s more…

Canada Free Press reported that the American Task Force for Palestine (ATFP) has airbrushed references to Salahi from its website:

We do know for a fact that among the slew of memberships on charitable boards, Tareq Salahi is a former member of The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP). The only way to know for a fact is because even though ATFP scrubbed all references to Salahi as a board member, he can still be found on Google cache. (Canada Free Press)

Sad that White House Secret Service are looking like Keystone Kops in the aftermath of Obama’s very first state house dinner in the tent.

While the media is fixated on the hitch in Michaele Salahi’s git-along, there can be no doubt that these recently minted “party crashers” really get around.

American Power has more on the Salahi’s leadership role with the the American Task Force on Palestinian, the “moderate” rights groups pushing a thinly-veiled program of Palestinian nationalism and the “right of return” (the backdoor destruction of Israel).

According to Discover the Networks, ATFP’s former vice president is Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University Middle East Studies professor and militant Palestinian rights activist. Khalidi cites the late Edward Said as his major influence, and according to the entry cited, “As with Said before him, Khalidi’s involvement with the Palestinian cause goes beyond mere support.” And, “Khalidi so strongly identified with the aims of the PLO, which was designated as a terrorist group by the State Department during Khalidi’s affiliation with it in the 1980s, that he repeatedly referred to himself as ‘we’ when expounding on the PLO’s agenda.” Also, according to Campus Watch, ATFP remains in full support Kahlidi, for example, during charges of academic misconduct in 2005, at the time of Senator Barack Obama’s meeting with Tareq Salahi. See, “ATFP EXPRESSES FULL SUPPORT FOR COLUMBIA PROFESSOR RASHID KHALIDI.

Note too that Obama’s ties to the Palestinian community became something of an issue during the 2008 campaign. See, the Los Angeles Times, “Allies of Palestinians See a Friend in Obama.” Plus, from Andrew C. McCarthy and Claudia Rosett, “In Obama’s Hyde Park, It’s All in the Family: Passing Anti-American Radicalism From Generation to Generation.

As you may recall. The LA Times hid the tape of Barack Obama attending a 2003 Jew-bash where he praised and toasted the former PLO operative Rashid Khalidi.

Maybe the Salahis were just the latest radicals to be invited to the Obama White House?

They weren’t the first. And won’t be the last.

from The Times Online:

Taking the private jet to Copenhagen

Any celebrity flying the green flag needs glittering eco-credentials. But how do they justify the fleet of customised planes, the luxury homes and the posse of servants?Hypocrisy is the vice we find hardest to forgive, but it’s also the one we most enjoy discovering in others. And nothing piques our interest more than eco-hypocrisy as practised by the “green” celebrities who have been spouting green virtue but spewing out hundreds of tons of carbon from their private jets or multiple holiday homes around the globe.

James 1:8: A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

from der Speigel:

But in this case, the public was more disturbed than entertained. Indeed, one could see the phenomenon in a number of places in recent weeks: Obama’s magic no longer works. The allure of his words has grown weaker.

It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives — their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.

Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners — particularly those with a talent for oration — are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called “Hope.”

In his speech on America’s new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.

The American president doesn’t need any opponents at the moment. He’s already got himself. . . . . .

from Canada Free Press:

A 15-year-old Egyptian girl, Dina el-Gohary, has written an emotional appeal to President Obama asking him to use his influence to save her father, Maher el-Gohary, who is being persecuted for his beliefs. “Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt,” Dina writes, according to a report from the Assyrian International News Agency. “We are treated very badly. … We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country.”

Dina and her father are Christian converts in a part of the world where conversion can mean death.

The Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East are among the world’s greatest offenders against freedom of conscience. Religious liberty does not exist or is severely curtailed based on Shariah supremacy. Egypt is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits signatories to respect a variety of liberties, including religious freedom, but a court considering whether Mr. el-Gohary could legally change his religious affiliation ruled that Egypt was only bound to honor those provisions that did not contradict Islamic law, and “in the event of a contradiction, Shariah takes precedence.”

An interesting if not disturbing parallel to what we see happening in the western nations today is the dying days of the Western Roman Empire. I highly recommend purchasing the abridged version of Edward Gibbon’s “The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire”.

Rome was an apostate Christian nation when it fell, and its fall was gradual, As Rome expanded as an empire it took in many different ethnic groups, and all these ethnic groups adopted & integrated themselves into Roman Society, except for the “barbarian” Germanic tribes from the north: The Franks, Goths, Visigoths, & the Lombard’s.

As the Western Roman empire weakened, instead of trying to do direct battle with these tribes, it instead invited them in and settled them on lands within the empire. Hoping that this would integrate them into Roman Society and into the Roman Legions. However the Germanic tribes never did integrate, they kept with them their own traditions and as their numbers grew they took a leading role in the manning of the Roman Legions which were supposed to defend the Roman Empire.

And as the history of the Roman Empire reveals. Those who led the Roman Legions were the king makers. And as the composition of the legions became mainly Germanic “barbarians” they became the power behind the throne. Yes those with Roman sounding names continued to be named emperor but they were nothing more than pawns in the hands of the controlling Germanic “Barbarian” “Roman” legions.

The last of the “Roman” emperors held their throne only as long as their “Germanic” patron remained head of the strongest Roman Legion. The Germanic tribes were fractious and hence could not keep the Legions a united force, the head of each legion wanted to be a King in his own right and drew “Barbarians to his legion by offering more “plunder” or rewards.

The last “Roman” emperor was a teenager named Romulus Augustulus, his Germanic patron Odoacar decided to finally do away with the position of “Roman Emperor” of the West as it was costly to maintain a puppet emperor, and Odoacar wanted to rule Italy in his own name with his own legions. Odoacar forced Augustulus to abdicate and the Roman Empire in the west ceased to exist.

A lesson for the west perhaps? On the wisdom of inviting in groups that refuse to integrate themselves into western society. However I have no doubts that western leaders are aware of the history of the decline & fall of the Roman Empire and they most likely see the parallels with today’s western societies struggles with Islam and they do not care and want to just get elected for their own selfish ambitions or they actually believe they can avoid the disintegration of their own societies or lastly they are in fact believers in evolutionary theory and the taking over of western societies by Islam is a natural “evolution” of human existence.

from Jihad Watch: 

The track record of the two appointees, taken together with the administration’s own ability to distinguish “moderates” from “extremists” inspires anything but confidence. After all, the Fort Hood jihadist was himself a member of a panel advising the incoming Obama administration.

At the heart of this issue are the politically correct articles of faith that few dare blaspheme, which insist that there is nothing problematic about Islam’s core texts and teachings regarding warfare and the rights of women and unbelievers, and that there exists a well-defined “moderate” Islam that the West can work with. The problem is, no one ever stops to define “moderate,” for fear that articulating actual standards may cause offense.

“Devout Muslims In Key Homeland Security Posts,” by Judicialwatch via Right Side News, November 22:

Days after a devout Muslim terrorized a U.S. Army base in Texas several news reports remind that two key Homeland Security posts are occupied by equally devout Muslims, one of them a former Los Angeles deputy mayor who eliminated a crucial program that tracked terrorist activities in the city.

Earlier this year President Obama appointed Arif Alikhan to be the nation’s Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the Department of Homeland Security and Kareem Shora to the agency’s influential advisory council, which provides recommendations and advice directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Alikhan, who leads a Homeland Security team responsible for developing policy issues to secure the country against terrorism, has referred to the renowned terrorist organization Hezbollah as a “liberation movement” and was responsible for killing a Los Angeles Police project that monitored terrorist activities in the city’s notoriously radical mosques. The defunct Muslim terror tracking plan was designed to identify hotbeds of extremism in an area where several locals offered the September 11 hijackers support.

Shora was the head of a well-known Arab organization whose officials refer to anti-U.S. jihadists as heroes. As executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Shora had close ties to radical Ivy League professor Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian terror supporter who has reportedly worked on behalf of the extremist Palestine Liberation Organization….

from CNN:

Unless lawmakers make big changes, the interest Americans will have to pay to keep the country running over the next decade will reach unheard of levels.

Here’s a new way to think about the U.S. government’s epic borrowing: More than half of the $9 trillion in debt that Uncle Sam is expected to build up over the next decade will be interest.

More than half. In fact, $4.8 trillion.

If that’s hard to grasp, here’s another way to look at why that’s a problem.

In 2015 alone, the estimated interest due – $533 billion – is equal to a third of the federal income taxes expected to be paid that year, said Charles Konigsberg, chief budget counsel of the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group.

On the bright side – such as it is – the record levels of debt issued lately have paid for stimulus and other rescue programs that prevented the economy from falling off a cliff. And the money was borrowed at very low rates.

But accumulating any more interest on what the United States owes at this point is like extreme sport: dangerous.

All the more so because interest rates will rise when private sector borrowers return to the debt market and compete with the government for capital. At that point, the country’s interest payments could jack up very fast.

“When interest rates rise even a small amount, the interest payments go up a lot because of the size of the debt,” Konigsberg said.

The Congressional Budget Office, which made the $4.8 trillion forecast, already baked some increase in rates into the cake. But there is always a chance those estimates may prove too conservative.

And then it’s Vicious Circle 101 – well known to anyone who has gotten too into hock with Visa and MasterCard.

The country depends heavily on borrowing to fund what it wants to do. But the more debt it racks up, the more likely it becomes that creditors could demand a higher interest rate for making new loans to the government.

Higher rates in turn make it harder to pay off the underlying debt because more and more money is going to pay off interest – money, by the way, which is also borrowed.

And as more money goes to interest, creditors may become concerned that the country can’t pay down its principal and lawmakers will have less to fund all the things government is supposed to do.

“[P]olicymakers would be less able to pay for other national spending priorities and would have less flexibility to deal with unexpected developments (such as a war or recession). Moreover, rising interest costs would make the economy more vulnerable to a meltdown in financial markets,” the CBO wrote in its most recent long-term budget outlook.

So far, that crisis of confidence hasn’t happened. And no one can predict with any certainty whether or when it could occur.

But should it occur, the change could be abrupt.

That’s because the government frequently rolls over – or refinances – the debt it has issued as it comes due.

In other words, when a Treasury bond or note matures, the government must pay the investor the face value on that debt. In order to do that, the Treasury borrows money to pay back the investor, which means the debt would be refinanced at whatever the going interest rates are at the time.

Just how much churn is there? Of late, a fair bit it seems. A Treasury borrowing advisory committee reported in early November that “approximately 40 percent of the debt will need to be refinanced in less than one year.”

Since rates may well stay low over the next year, it’s possible that debt could be refinanced at the same or even lower rates. But that situation won’t last forever. . . . .

from Canada Free Press:

I’m not very good at being hustled and rushed into insane situations. I like to think for myself. Which is why I originally began to investigate the fast-rising green movement. Only a while ago, greenies were people with woollen hats, gumboots and long hair. They hugged trees, drooled over flowers, and generally messed about on the very edge of polite society. They were on the fringe, like weird cults and folks who love to be frightened by conspiracies.

Now, in the space of less than a decade, these same weird people have become the major, if not only, force driving society in every country in the West, though what they say is really insane and off the wall! Why is this? Why have the inmates taken over the asylum? And why do people follow?

Green Hotels

For the past few years I have enjoyed a sideline, writing about hotels and tourism destinations for the industry. I quickly found out that hotels were suddenly ‘going green’ and wondered what was going on. I discovered that hotels, always watching the bottom-line, latched-on to the green movement immediately following the release of Al Gore’s infamous film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.

At the same time, the UK and US governments were harassing citizens to ‘act fast’, ‘do it now’ before ‘it is too late’!  Suspicious, I began to look deeper. I used to teach research methodology; and now my whole day is spent on research. That is how I recognised the tell-take signs of propaganda. What I was hearing wasn’t science, but pseudo-science. The words gave it all away… general terms of supposed certainty were built upon guesswork and absurdity.  Indeed, what was being said was so absurd, I could not believe that intelligent leaders of industry or thinking people could possibly fall for the hype. But they did, big time.

It was more profitable for hotels to rebuild their premises along ‘green’ lines, at a cost of millions, than to remain as they were, giving good service. Now, the same hotels, riding on the wave of green, rake in massive money just for pretending to be environmentally friendly. If the next fashion turned out to be the exact opposite, the hotels would change again, because they care about profit, not green.

But, it is going well beyond mere profiteering. Now, supposedly ‘green’ hotels will not do business with suppliers who do not themselves become green. Hotels and suppliers must now pass a pseudo-test to obtain a licence proving they have reached green standards… like teenagers who do something stupid to become a member of an insignificant gang. And people who have been duped by environmentalism pay big bucks to stay at these havens of Gaia.

No, I am not quite telling the truth – most people who follow the green mantra do it because it is the latest ‘in thing’; it is fashionable to ‘save the planet’ even when they know nothing about what green is talking about. (In my book, I relate how two famed TV magicians sent a girl to a greenie festival. She got attendees, and even the organiser, to sign a petition against an awful liquid found everywhere on the planet. What they signed was a petition to get rid of ordinary water, but it was disguised by its scientific name! That’s how much greenies know about their own movement! The event was filmed – follow the link in the book – it is hilarious).

When I pointed out that when hotels go green they are not environmentalists at all, but simply practising good management, the dogs of war were unleashed and irate greenists wanted my articles to be erased from all of humanity for all time! The underbelly of green is fascist, you see. And even the best of scientists simply assume green ‘science’ is genuine, without checking the facts; lemmings chasing lemmings.

What’s Going On?

That was just the start. I never give in to threats and blackmail, and decided to do more research, this time on a wider scale. That was when the really interesting stuff came out!

As far as the public is concerned a number of things are going on that have no apparent link. The trouble is, they are ALL linked. For example, the so-called ‘credit crunch’ came along, when banks failed. At the same time, costs of electricity, natural gas, and oil rose dramatically. At the beginning of this year, my household gas and electricity bill shot up to over £600 for just three months. The bill before that was just over £100! Same supplier, same energy. Plenty of oil, coal and gas in the ground, with no shortages!

Blame for bank failures was put on the shoulders of banks themselves. This was fair… but how many people know why the banks got to that position? (No, I’m not talking about those TV programs that came up with superficial answers). We know bankers are greedy and unscrupulous… but that isn’t why they failed.

Both the Democrats in the USA and the Labour Party in Britain are outright socialistic. So are most governments in Europe, and that is how the EU gets its own way. Obama is the epitome of Marxist pride. So, his running-mates, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair (egged-on by the French tin-pot dictator, Sarkozy), are well suited to each other. Each is a consummate liar intent on ruining their respective countries. The one thing that alerted me to all three’s danger to the public is their glaringly obvious arrogance. It comes from knowing they will get away with it, because a great lumbering socialist machine is behind their every move. . . . . . .

read the full article here.

from Sultan Knish:

The first year of Obama has seen America retreating on all fronts. The country that once pressed back the Russian bear, has instead pulled up the missile shield and sent the signal to Moscow that the former Soviet Republicans can no longer count on US aid to insure their independence. On China, Obama has switched to a policy of “Strategic Reassurance”, which is a fancy way of retreating and saying “Nice Doggie”, without actually even bothering to hunt for the stick. Not only has Obama become the first President not to meet with the Dalai Lama, but what “Strategic Reassurance” really does is hang out Taiwan and Japan on the line, assuring China that America will not interfere with its expanding sphere of political and military dominance.

Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal, two prominent foreign policy analysts, described the policy as follows.

“‘Strategic reassurance’ seems to chart a different course. Senior officials liken the policy to the British accommodation of a rising United States at the end of the 19th century, which entailed ceding the Western Hemisphere to American hegemony. Lingering behind this concept is an assumption of America’s inevitable decline.”

That assumption is of course the engine behind the White House’s policymaking that consists of selling out allies to enemies in the hopes of stability. This was the sum total of British foreign policy before and after WW2, a policy that gave us an Arab Socialist Middle East, a Southeast Asia in turmoil and Africa under the boots of murderous dictators. And Obama is now working to replicate that same policy on a far larger scale.

Obama’s international tour of bowing only highlights his weakness. His global popularity is as shallow as that of any celebrity, and only serves to signal America’s weakness. Each of Obama’s fumbling speeches has failed to achieve any tangible result except to express America’s helplessness and willingness to concede on every front. Buzzwords like “New Relationship”, “Multilateralism” and “Strategic Reassurance” are the ways in which Obama and his foreign policy minions phrase their “New Incompetence”. . . . . .

read the full article here.

from The Trumpet:

Although Wall Street jived its way upward last week at news the economy had expanded healthily in the third quarter, Main Street America refuses to dance in the streets.

Part of the reason for America’s shortfall in hope, explains Peggy Noonan, is that people no longer trust their leaders, and the numbers and facts that flow from them. “Among the things swept away in 2008 was public confidence in the experts,” she writes.

This is not a minor problem.

The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.

When crises occurred in the past, explains Noonan, Americans always felt there was a path through the problem. They might have disagreed over which solution was best—Democrat or Republican—but there was always a solution. Today Americans are growing hopeless because they don’t see anyone, Republican, Democrat or otherwise, with a clear path through our troubles.

[Our leaders] are not offering a new path, they are only offering old paths—spend more, regulate more, tax more in an attempt to make us more healthy locally and nationally. And in the long term everyone—well, not those in government, but most everyone else—seems to know that won’t work. It’s not a way out. It’s not a path through.

America’s leaders are out of touch with reality. They are calloused to the worries of the American people. The people see it, and they’re disheartened—even scared. It truly is a terrifying state to be in. Not only are major crises besieging the United States—the soaring debt, the unraveling economy, the increasingly hostile world—but America’s leadership, Democrat and Republican, is impotent and solutionless. The United States today, as the Prophet Isaiah wrote about, is a headless nation.

To appreciate the importance of quality leadership in national success, read “The Death of Churchillian Leadership.”

Americna Politicians could care less about the specifics of the Isreali / Arab conflict. They just want their initiatives to pass so they do not look like a failure!

News from Jerusalem:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a lengthy meeting with US President Barack Obama Monday night which addressed the Middle East peace process, Iran and Israeli security.

The one-hour-and-forty-minute parley was accompanied by an unusual news blackout, as the standard photo op and press availability were not held. In addition, Netanyahu canceled a scheduled briefing with Israeli reporters and Defense Minister Ehud Barak scrapped plans for radio interviews following the talks.

Instead, both sides referred to a brief statement put out by the White House after the Monday evening meeting, about half of which was one-on-one and half of which included four members of staff on each side.

Barak, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, National Security Council head Uzi Arad and PMO adviser Yitzhak Molcho joined Netanyahu.

“The president reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel’s security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues,” said the White House readout. “The president and prime minister also discussed Iran and how to move forward on Middle East peace.”

The White House deflected questions earlier in the day about why the Obama-Netanyahu meeting would be held without the usual TV cameras or statements to the media. In response, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs first said that “our schedule since late last week has been up in the air,” as Obama has shifted his schedule to participate in Tuesday’s memorial service in Fort Hood among other events.
 
Pressed on the issue, as it is highly unusual for the president to see an Israeli prime minister without any media presence, Gibbs said that “the President wanted to have a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. That’s what we’re doing.”

He added, “The contents of the meeting generally seem to be well read out and I trust that this time will be no different.”

However, after the leaders’ evening conversation, the White House did not provide more information than its brief statement.

Earlier in the day, Obama met with about 60 senior representatives of Jewish federations following the cancellation of his appearance at the federations’ conference Tuesday.

Speaking at a White House reception, Obama urged the group to address health care legislation making its way through Congress, a major priority of the president.

He also thanked them for the “countless hours of tzedakah [charity] performed every day of every week,” according to a statement put out after the event by the Jewish Federations of North America.

Participants told The Jerusalem Post that Obama did not address the issue of Israel or the wider Middle East during his very short remarks, but that several members of the crowd raised the issue with him during his brief appearance in the room.

from HHS.gov:

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced plans to establish the nation’s first national resource center to assist communities across the country in their efforts to provide services and supports for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. 

Experts estimate that as many as 1.5 to 4 million LGBT individuals are age 60 and older.   Agencies that provide services to older individuals may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the needs of this group of individuals. The new Resource Center for LGBT Elders will provide information, assistance and resources for both LGBT organizations and mainstream aging services providers at the state and community level to assist them in the development and provision of culturally sensitive supports and services. The LGBT Center will also be available to educate the LGBT community about the importance of planning ahead for future long term care needs.

The LGBT Resource Center will help community-based organizations understand the unique needs and concerns of older LGBT individuals and assist them in implementing programs for local service providers, including providing help to LGBT caregivers who are providing care for an older partner with health or other challenges. 

The Administration on Aging will award a single Resource Center grant at approximately $250,000 per year, pending availability of funds.  Eligible entities will include public-private nonprofit organizations with experience working on LGBT issues on a national level.

Governments know that the claim of Human induced Climate Change is a farce! But it is a convenient ruse to allow them to implement the long desired goal of a world without national boundaries!

from the New York Times:

Every country must do its utmost to reduce emissions from all major sources, including from deforestation and emissions from shipping and aviation. Developed countries must strengthen their mid-term mitigation targets, which are currently nowhere close to the cuts that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says are needed. Developing countries must slow the rise in their emissions and accelerate green growth as part of their strategies to reduce poverty.

A successful deal must strengthen the world’s ability to cope with an already changing climate. In particular, it must provide comprehensive support to those who bear the heaviest climate impacts. Support for adaptation is not only an ethical imperative; it is a smart investment in a more stable, secure world.

A deal needs to be backed by money and the means to deliver it. Developing countries need funding and technology so they can move more quickly toward green growth. The solutions we discuss cannot be realized without substantial additional financing, including through carbon markets and private investment.

A deal must include an equitable global governance structure. All countries must have a voice in how resources are deployed and managed. That is how trust will be built.

Can we seal a comprehensive, equitable and ambitious deal in Copenhagen that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rise to a scientifically safe level? Can we catalyze clean energy growth? Can we help to protect the most vulnerable nations from the effects of climate change? Can we expect the United States to play a leading role?

The best answer to all these questions was given last week by Senators Kerry and Graham: “Yes, we can.”

before reading this article read this: Drop in Foreclosures Called “Very Scary”

from Miller-McCune:

It’s been almost a year since Horatio Bernard effectively lost his Baltimore row house to foreclosure and roughly 15 months since he last made a payment on his primary mortgage.

And yet to his amazement and those following his story, Bernard continues living in the home with his ailing mother without any sign of an eviction notice or word from his lender, in this case JP Morgan Chase and then US Bank.

“I haven’t paid a dime,” Bernard told me, sounding gleeful over the phone.…

There’s even a chance Bernard could get to stay in his home a lot longer. That’s because like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners in America these days, Bernard falls into what real estate experts call a shadow market, the growing backlog of foreclosures and bank-owned properties yet to reach real estate markets.

For various reasons, banks have slowed down the foreclosure process causing a reprieve for homeowners like Bernard while at the same time building a swell of foreclosed homes delayed from hitting the market. If they were to flood real estate markets at once, banks would suffer under a glut of inventory drawing down overall prices. So the banks have held back, in effect drawing out the nation’s recovery.

The shadow market today – those in distress or in some stage of foreclosure — represents roughly 14 percent of existing mortgages, says Rick Sharga, senior vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide data on foreclosures.

“Right now what we’re seeing is delays in the entire process,” Sharga said. “It started in the fourth quarter of last year where we saw a spike in delinquencies that didn’t match a corresponding spike in foreclosures. What that suggested to us is it was taking the banks longer, for whatever reason, to execute on the foreclosure process. So we’re getting a buildup of properties that normally would have been in foreclosure but weren’t. That has continued to escalate. We’re now at record levels of delinquencies. Probably 10 percent of active mortgages are delinquent, and another 4 percent are in foreclosure.”

No Obama is definitely not a Christian, he is the consummate politician. In his speech he was just playing to his constituency!

from La Shawn Barber’s Corner:

“Christian” Barack Obama believes the Christian worldview is inferior to the worldview he espoused in his recent Human Rights Campaign speech. The whole thing smells really bad, but I’ll post this excerpt: (emphasis added):

“My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians — whether in the office or on the battlefield. You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman. You will see a nation that’s valuing and cherishing these families as we build a more perfect union — a union in which gay Americans are an important part. I am committed to these goals. And my administration will continue fighting to achieve them.”

“Gay Americans” who wish to be married have the same rights as the rest of us Americans. What they want, something I’ll always speak out against, is the right to render absurd the very idea of marriage, which is the God-ordained union of one man and one woman. They want to shift the very foundation of the nation in general and families in particular, and some have the shameless gall to equate sex between two men with blacks’ rights to equal treatment.

In a stunning display of irony, Obama signs off with this: “God bless you. God bless America.”

Got it, professing Christians who voted for this man? Obama asked God to bless that which God calls an abomination. To echo Dr. James White, Reformed Christian pastor, apologist, debater, author, webcaster, and blogger, Obama wants us to honor that which sent Christ to the cross. Christians cannot honor it.

I can’t post the video. To watch this “Christian” assuring those in rebellion against God that he hopes their rebellion will be glorified is stomach-churning. Watch at your own risk.

Dr. White offers a wonderfully edifying assessment of Obama’s speech. Download the 60-minute MP3. Follow him on Twitter at DrOakley1689.

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First; I am somewhat enamored with Teddy Roosevelt as a man, I am opposed to the redistribution of wealth by means of the 16^th amendment: and while I cannot forgive this perpetrated fraud and the gross misappropriation of our liberty, I can find some wisdom in the man and respect for his adversarial response to the trials of life.

“No Man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expediency.” The Strenuous Life by Theodore Roosevelt

 Expediency seems to be the strategy of the Obama administration; the evil is being propagated by current progressives in numerous ways, found among Health Care and Financial/Stimulus regulation and legislation.  It’s all right to have your agenda but to foist it upon Americans is evil. 

Teddy’s progressive agenda was openly promoted, a necessity to gain support for “Manifest Destiny”. Public debate and review was welcomed and deemed necessary to the success of Teddy’s goals, and he waged his battles on the philosophical front to gain the hearts and minds of engaged and knowledgeable supporters. Contrary to Teddy’s methodology we find today politicians trying to cram legislation down the public throat, in secret, or by obfuscation in massive bills full of legalese and Liberty robbing language. And while Teddy’s goals were the expansion and growth of the United States, economically and in world influence, the current obama-fuscation has but one goal, the mediocritization of Americans and the United States; a process to bring our financial system and economy, production capabilities and education system under the harness of the socialist agenda, co-opting American individualism, competitiveness and capitalistic values into the world socialist status quo. And while Obama may not be the originator of the progressive-izing process he is the latest and certainly most blatant propagator.  It is not a broad intuitive leap to conclude that the progressive agenda is the normalization of world powers on the same plane and the ultimate unification thereof.  Regardless of whether it is for the establishment of a One World Government or many governments with leaders unified for their personal growth in wealth and power, it is an evil excused by the political demon of expediency which ultimately over-shadows the invective motivations and realities of these authors of socialization. The motivation is the control of an ignorant citizenry, the rape of their liberties and confiscation of their individual and collective products and potentials. 

 A word of warning: Be careful in your use of the word obamafuscation in heated discussions, you just might slip in its use, saying obamination or obamafication (about the same thing really) or worse Obamafuc*ination (Obama is screwing the nation over).  Be especially careful because your reaction to the socialization of the United States, regardless of who is at the helm,  might be interpreted or labeled as racially motivated hatred and found worthy of white house scrutiny (maybe that should be spelt screw-tiny as in the tiny peons) or worse, retaliation. Beware of the evil!

The tradition of the wedding ring came about when Married Christians in the Roman Empire wanted to show their Christian based commitment to each other in a society that violated marriage much as ours does today.

Its time in our day that Married Christians stopped worrying or needing the state to recognize their commitment to one another. Especially since the state is bent on destroying that commitment.

As always our witness is our testimony. For far too long Christians have abused the Christian definition of marriage while still demanding it be recognized by the state!

from The View From 1776:

Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, proposes to abolish traditional marriage as a state-sponsored institution.

As many feared, same-sex marriage may become the wedge to destroy the religious and political institutions of marriage and family.

from Fox News:

Visit most public school libraries and you’ll find an array of books that address the subject of homosexuality. Many include sexually explicit content, and some even include graphic images.

But if you’re looking for a book that refers to the possibility that homosexuality can be “reversed,” a Chicago-based group says your best bet is the banned books list.

Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) says there’s an entire community of people across the world who say that their sexual orientation changed from gay to straight. But they’re not getting their message out, the group says, because libraries across the country refuse to carry literature that describes these experiences or any studies that support them.

So a book like “My Genes Made Me Do It!: A Scientific Look at Sexual Orientation” — which argues that sexuality is shaped by a variety of factors, not just biological — can’t get a spot on the school library shelf.

Neither can “You Don’t Have to Be Gay,” which describes author Jeff Konrad’s struggle to overcome his unwanted same-sex attractions.

But “Baby Be-Bop,” the coming-out story of a gay teen, which includes descriptions of his sexual encounters in bathroom stalls with men he never talks to, makes the stacks. . . . . .

from Fox News:

To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to a must-pass $680 billion defense policy bill the Senate approved 68-29.

Senate Democrats used a must-pass military spending bill to push through a controversial measure Thursday extending hate-crime protection to gays.

The bill, known as the Matthew Shepard Act, named for the gay Wyoming college student murdered 11 years ago, was opposed by conservatives because of language they said targets clergy and others who oppose homosexuality on religious grounds and who might express those beliefs publicly.

“The inclusion of the controversial language of the hate crimes legislation, which is unrelated to our national defense, is deeply troubling,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the bill was a “dangerous step” toward thought crimes. He asked whether the bill would “serve as a warning to people not to speak out too loudly about their religious views.”

But Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said “nothing in this legislation diminishes an American’s freedom of religion, freedom of speech or press or the freedom to assemble. Let me be clear. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act targets acts, not speech.”

To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to a must-pass $680 billion defense policy bill the Senate approved 68-29. The House passed the defense bill earlier this month.

Hate crimes law enacted after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 centered on crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The expansion has long been sought by civil rights and gay rights groups. Conservatives have opposed it, arguing that it creates a special class of victims.

Some 45 states have hate crimes statutes, and the bill would not change current practices where hate crimes are generally investigated and prosecuted by state and local officials.

But it does broaden the narrow range of actions — such as attending school or voting — that can trigger federal involvement and allows the federal government to step in if the Justice Department certifies that a state is unwilling or unable to follow through on an alleged hate crime.

The measure also provides federal grants to help state and local governments prosecute hate crimes and funds programs to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles.

“As we learned in the civil rights era, sometimes communities need assistance and resources from the federal government when they have to confront the most emotional and dangerous kinds of crimes,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

The bill also creates a federal crime to penalize attacks against U.S. service members on account of their service.

Attorney General Eric Holder said nearly 80,000 hate crime incidents have been reported to the FBI since he first testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill 11 years ago. “It has been one of my highest personal priorities to ensure that this legislation finally becomes law,” he said.

The FBI says more than half of reported hate crimes are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias, at around 18 percent, and sexual orientation, at 16 percent.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, said the measure was “part of a radical social agenda that could ultimately silence Christians and use the force of government to marginalize anyone whose faith is at odds with homosexuality.”

from The Dayton Daily News: 

Lenders’ actions show they think properties are not worth pursuing.

Nobody is sure exactly how many bank walkaways are occurring. For various reasons, they can’t be identified in searches of public real estate and court data without individually pulling case files, experts say.

But nobody questions that they are on the increase.

David Rothstein, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, summarized the way they occur like this:

• The lender files a foreclosure, gets the foreclosure judgment in court, takes the property to sheriff’s auction but doesn’t bid on it if no one else does.

• The lender files as above, gets the judgment, sets the sheriff’s auction, then cancels the sale at the last minute.

• The lender files as above but then never requests a sheriff’s auction.

• The lender doesn’t even bother to file foreclosure.

All of these actions leave the foreclosed property in the hands of the original owner who, in many cases, has moved out and is unaware the lender hasn’t taken it.

One indicator of the trend in walkaways is the gap between the number of foreclosure filings by lenders and the number of properties actually sold at sheriff’s auction.

A Dayton Daily News analysis of Montgomery County records found that, through September, foreclosure filings are on a pace this year to decrease by 8 percent. Meanwhile, foreclosed properties sold at sheriff’s sale will be down more than 21 percent. Over the three years an average of 2,500 foreclosure filings have not made it to sale at auction.

A foreclosure filing may not make it to auction for a number of reasons, including owners coming up with the money or lenders working out deals with them. But, Rothstein said, the growing difference between filings and sales suggests walkaways are playing an increasing role.

“When we look at the numbers, it’s not like thousands of people are getting loan modifications that would lift them out of the foreclosure process,” he said. “So what’s happening to those other properties?”

Another indicator is the falling number of properties that banks are repossessing, said Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac, Inc. Data from RealtyTrac shows that bank repossessions, called REOs, have been steadily declining in Montgomery County over the last three years. The 2009 monthly average for repossessions is only 43 percent of what it was in 2007, a newspaper analysis of the data show.

“There’s something happening once the properties enter foreclosure that is at the very least slowing down the process,” Blomquist said. “Maybe not to that (Montgomery County’s) extreme, but we’re seeing a similar pattern nationwide.”

Another indicator is the number of canceled sheriff’s sales, said Chuck Rodersheimer, a Dayton attorney who specializes in bankruptcy and foreclosure cases. ZIP codes like 45405 and 45406 northwest of downtown Dayton illustrate the problem, he said.

A newspaper analysis of sheriff’s sale data found that 45406 had 721 cancellations since 2006, by far the most of any county ZIP code. The 45405 ZIP was second with 594 cancellations.

Some of those neighborhoods have a lot of old, deteriorating housing stock, many of which are for sale or vacant, and accumulating unpaid taxes. The cost to the bank for taking responsibility for those properties, he said, is going to far outstrip anything they could hope to get out of selling the homes.

The sheriff’s sale cancellations in those neighborhoods, Rodersheimer said, are unlikely to be a result of negotiations between the owner and lender. “It’s going to be the fact that the bank didn’t want the property any more.”

In some instances, lenders don’t even bother to file a foreclosure. Figures by RealtyTrac released this week show foreclosure filings in the greater Dayton area are down almost 21 percent.

John Carter, housing inspector with the city of Dayton, finds the decline in foreclosures “very scary,” because houses are continuing to go vacant.

For every 100 houses that he orders boarded up, he said, 40 to 50 properties have a mortgage but no foreclosure filed. When he contacts the banks, they sometimes tell him they have no plans to foreclose.

“That makes it look like the foreclosure numbers are going down, but in actuality the banks are not even starting foreclosure,” Carter said. “So there’s no number to track now.”

I have always been perplexed as to how people can consider the word Entertainer a synonym for Intellectual.

from Big Hollywood:

Over at HuffPo, Russell Simmons has let go of the wheel and bounced off a guard rail. His apocalyptic melodrama sounds like the typical Hollywood cliche of a Christian right-winger. But these lefties are all about projection, so that’s to be expected.

A normal celebucrat post has a pull quote or two you can highlight and make sport of, but Simmons is all pull quote — a bonanza of crazy — so where to begin? Hey, I know, let’s play a game. Here are ten quotes, nine are from Simmons, one is not. Can you pick out the lunacy that doesn’t belong? 

1. The president’s honest attempt to promote world peace through the same methods taught by Jesus Christ are met with contempt by a country whose collective consciousness is extraordinarily fearful and at times, sacrilegious.

2. Remember, they killed Mahatma Gandhi. They killed John F. Kennedy. They killed Martin Luther King. They killed Malcolm X. They killed Robert F. Kennedy. They killed Yitzhak Rabin. They killed many of the great dreamers. With all of the fearful men running our media, we no longer have to kill the dreamer, it is possible just to kill the dream.

3. Sometimes I’m amazed that we are still breathing. With horrible abuses of animals, the planet and human kind, it’s amazing that we are still here.

4. Our lack of compassion and love could actually consume us. However, we are still being given signs from the universe, glimpses of hope and opportunities to rise up and live up to our promise.

5. Hey, man, you don’t talk to Colonel. You listen to him. The man’s enlarged my mind. He’s a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean sometimes he’ll… uh… well, you’ll say “hello” to him, right? And he’ll just walk right by you. He won’t even notice you. And suddenly he’ll grab you, and he’ll throw you in a corner, and he’ll say, “do you know that ‘if’ is the middle word in life? If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you”… I mean I’m no, I can’t… I’m a little man, I’m a little man, he’s… he’s a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas…

6. America, our country is under indictment. And we will be found guilty if we don’t act. If we allow these nasty, malicious people, who harbor so much hate with views that separate us from the rest of world, to continue to tell us how to think, we will be found guilty of charge one.

7. If we allow leaders of a political party that only know one word, and that is “no,” to work against the best interests of our country, we will not only be found guilty of charge four, we will be sentenced by God to self-destruction.

8. And we have allowed hurtful, spiteful and small-minded people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to scare the love out of us.

9. In one of the most telling moments of the past nine months, the skepticism that the President was met with after his compassionate speech in Cairo was shocking. He conceded nothing in that speech but love. This is the route that is prescribed to us by all of the great prophets in the Bible, Qur’an and the Torah.

10. Before the president even had time to wish his dog a happy birthday and kiss his daughters on the cheek as they left for school, the vicious, hate-filled and at times, racist, attacks began.

If you’re still having trouble choosing, read through them once more and take note of the only quote that doesn’t give you the heebie-jeebies.

“Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit”

More signs of the Anti-Christ System (Political Babylon)!

Daniel 8:23-25:

In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise.  He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men and the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3:

Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

from msnbc

President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

Speculation had focused on Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai a Colombian senator and a Chinese dissident, along with an Afghan woman’s rights activist.

The Nobel committee praised Obama’s creation of “a new climate in international politics” and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama’s predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

NBC News reported that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called Obama with the news just before 6 a.m. Aides said the president felt “humbled” by the committee’s decision.

‘Captured the world’s attention’

Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee said. “In the past year Obama has been a key person for important initiatives in the U.N. for nuclear disarmament and to set a completely new agenda for the Muslim world and East-West relations.”

He added that the committee endorsed “Obama’s appeal that ‘Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.’”

President Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson won in 1919. . . .

from Media Matters:

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn’t the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn’t mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it. So, view the following through military eyes:

Officers swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Unlike enlisted personnel, they do not swear to “obey the orders of the president of the United States.”

Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.

They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.

They can see that the economy — ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation — is financially reliant on foreign lender governments.

They can see this president waging undeclared war on the intelligence community, without whose rigorous and independent functions the armed services are rendered blind in an ever-more hostile world overseas and at home.

They can see the dismantling of defenses against missiles targeted at this nation by avowed enemies, even as America’s troop strength is allowed to sag.

They can see the horror of major warfare erupting simultaneously in two, and possibly three, far-flung theaters before America can react in time. They can see the nation’s safety and their own military establishments and honor placed in jeopardy as never before.

So, if you are one of those observant military professionals, what do you do? Wait until this president bungles into losing the war in Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s arsenal of nuclear bombs falls into the hands of militant Islam?

Wait until Israel is forced to launch air strikes on Iran’s nuclear-bomb plants, and the Middle East explodes, destabilizing or subjugating the Free World?

What happens if the generals Obama sent to win the Afghan war are told by this president (who now says, “I’m not interested in victory”) that they will be denied troops they must have to win? Do they follow orders they cannot carry out, consistent with their oath of duty? Do they resign Or do they soldier on, hoping the 2010 congressional elections will reverse the situation? Do they dare gamble

the national survival on such political whims? en masse? . . . . .

BREAKING NEWS VIDEO: shows people PRAYING TO PRESIDENT OBAMA AS GOD and replacing the Sacred Liturgy words of “Hear Our Cry Lord,” by instead saying “Deliver Us Obama” and “Hear Our Cry Obama.”