Islam, the religion of peace....

Nigeria: Thirteen-year-old forced to watch Pastor hacked to death in Boko Haram deadly violence
05/08/2009

A thirteen-year-old Nigerian Christian has told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) sources how she was forced to watch her pastor’s murder, and has also spoken of her four-day ordeal as a prisoner in the besieged compound of Islamist group, Boko Haram.

On 26 July, Mary was in church with her pastor, his brother and an older Christian woman when a group of fifty militants broke in. She and her pastor hid as the group killed the pastor’s brother and dragged the older woman out of the room. On discovering their hiding place, the militants cut off her pastor’s hand to stop him holding on to her, then hacked him to death with machetes before setting him on fire.

The girl and the woman were dragged to Boko Haram’s compound in Maiduguri’s Railway district, and were placed in a room with around 100 other Christian women and girls. They were all asked to renounce their faith or face continued imprisonment, while Christian men were given the choice of renouncing their faith or dying.

Mary vividly describes how she was forced to wash the blood stained clothing of Boko Haram fighters. She was in the camp for four days, but managed to escape with a few others when military forces intensified their attack on the compound.

Mary’s pastor was one of three Christian ministers targeted and killed by Boko Haram during last week’s violence. Photographs showing the corpse of one murdered pastor from the Church of Christ in Nigeria, Rev Sabo Yakubu, indicate that his heart may have been ripped out.

Stuart Windsor, CSW’s National Director said: “CSW is deeply saddened by the appalling nature of the crimes committed by this sect against innocent civilians. Local Christians have also expressed disappointment that some western media have disregarded the targeted nature of attacks on their community, and the brutal murders of Christian pastors. Unless this aspect of the violence is recognised by all and dealt with effectively, people in Northern Nigeria will continue to suffer because of their religious beliefs”.

Notes: 1. The name Mary is a pseudonym used for security purposes.

So, what is Obama's take on Islam?

Text: Obama’s Speech in Cairo
Published: June 4, 2009
NY Times

Excerpts:

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country [But apparently not him!]to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end. [Yeah, let us end it by killing the "small but potent minority of Muslims" who are rammimg planes into skyscrapers, blowing up hotels and hacking Christian minister into pieces and burning their bodies.]

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect[Mutual respect of animals who hack people to death? Who strap bombs on their children? These people know nothing but death. Let's kill them, before they kill us.] ; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

I could go on, but why? You get the point....

Yeah, that and the fact it's all a hoax....

Psychological barriers hobble climate action
Yesterday, 09:04 pm
Reuters UK

Psychological barriers like uncertainty, mistrust and denial keep most Americans from acting to fight climate change, a task force of the American Psychological Association said on Wednesday. [Yeah, that and the fact it's all a hoax...]

While most Americans -- 75 percent to 80 percent in a Pew Research Center poll -- said climate change is an important issue, it still ranked last in a list of 20 compelling issues such as the economy or terrorism, the task force said. [No kidding...? Who would have thunk?]

Numerous psychological barriers are to blame, the task force found, including: uncertainty over climate change, mistrust of the messages about risk from scientists or government officials, denial that climate change is occurring or that it is related to human activity. [Wow. That is great! People are finally beginning to wake up!!!!]

Remember when.....

Congress Members Criticize Auto Executives’ Corporate Jet Travel

Well, apparently whats good for the goose is not good for the gander....

House Orders Up Three Elite Jets
August 5, 2009
By Paul Singer
Roll Call Staff

Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies.

But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress.

The Air Force had asked for one Gulfstream 550 jet (price tag: about $65 million) as part of an ongoing upgrade of its passenger air service.

But the House Appropriations Committee, at its own initiative, added to the 2010 Defense appropriations bill another $132 million for two more airplanes and specified that they be assigned to the D.C.-area units that carry Members of Congress, military brass and top government officials.

Because the Appropriations Committee viewed the additional aircraft as an expansion of an existing Defense Department program, it did not treat the money for two more planes as an earmark, and the legislation does not disclose which Member had requested the additional money.

Um, and, "Why is it again we should take congress seriously?"

Babs Boxer gets it right...

We are trying to change congress....!!

Oh, and thanks for calling us "well dressed". I wish we could say the same for your ACORN/SEIU renta mobs....

Hmmm.... Maybe Americans are as ill informed I thought...

71% Say Obama’s Policies Have Driven Up Deficit
Rasmussen Reports
Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. voters say President Obama’s policies have increased the size of the federal deficit, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Ok, well I knew there had to be some ignoramuses in the poll:

Only five percent (5%) say the president’s policies have cut the deficit, and 10% say they have had no impact. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.

Big Brother is watching.....

No more facts! No more facts! No more facts! No more facts!

Here is a Congressman who will likely lose his seat over this bill...

Lloyd Doggett's meeting on Obamacare in south Austin, TX, 1 Aug 2009

It would be good for you to go to YouTube & read what the person posting said about the gathering... This is what is happening to all Congressmen & Senators across America. Finally, we can unite against the government over something and beat them back (or replace them).

It seems at least one U.S. Senator has some testicular fortitude….

Read the entire letter from Darrell Issa (R) CA to Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff.

Excerpts:

Dear Mr. Emanuel:

As you know, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) recently raised questions about the failure of the stimulus and suggested on a national television show that stimulus money scheduled to be spent in future years ought to be returned to the American taxpayers. Following Senator Kyl's remarks, according to Politico, you coordinated an "assault" on Senator Kyl and other critics of your policies by directing four cabinet secretaries to write to Jan Brewer, the Governor of Arizona, asking pointedly if, in light of Senator Kyl's remarks, Governor Brewer wished to forfeit taxpayer money directed to Arizona by the stimulus. These tactics have been characterized as "a hit to the nose" and a message to "Back off." While this type of scare tactic may work in Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other Members of the United States Congress.

And later in the letter...

Since I represent a district in the great state of California, I hope that you will not take this letter as an indication of Governor Schwarzenegger's position on stimulus funds dedicated to California nor his position on any other public policy issue. I can assure you that any attempt to intimidate me or silence my criticism of the stimulus through such Chicago-style tactics will be futile.

That's right Congressman Issa: Attack, Attack, Attack!

Finally, someone standing up to the Chicago style thuggery going on in Washington D.C. since the election of BHO....

Arlen Spector (D) PA & Kathleen Sebelius (D) KS get a little feedback in a "Healthcare Townhall" meeting

Note the look of sheer disdain on Sebelius' face as this mere mortal, a simple serf, peon, CONSTITUENT dares to question the "smartest people in the room".

No. No one is talking about a government run healthcare system. (Except for our Barack Hussein Obama & Co.)

According to Andrea Mitchell (wife of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan) we are too stupid to know what is good for us.

Of course, Andrea Mitchell (and her husband, Alan Greenspan) will NEVER have to have government healthcare....

These are "The smartest people on the room?"

Bernanke ought to be run out of town on a rail!

It's not my fault! He started it! GROW UP! YOU ARE THE POTUS!

Obama still cashing in on Bush's failings
By Joseph Curl
Originally published 04:45 a.m., July 29, 2009, updated 06:36 p.m., July 29, 2009

Facing the first real rough patch of his presidency, President Obama and his supporters are once again resorting to a tried-and-true tactic: attacking George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

In his White House press conference last week, Mr. Obama referred to the Bush era at least nine times, three times lamenting that he "inherited" a $1.3 trillion debt that has set back his administration's efforts to fix the economy.

With the former president lying low in Dallas, largely focused on crafting his memoirs, Mr. Obama has increasingly attempted to exploit Mr. Bush when discussing the weak economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the difficulty closing the military prison at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As he took power, Mr. Obama promised a "new era of responsibility" that would transcend partisan politics.

"For a guy who campaigned on taking responsibility and looking forward, he spends an awful lot of time pointing fingers and looking backward," said former Bush deputy press secretary Tony Fratto, who has begun defending the previous administration.

But Democrats think Mr. Obama would be remiss if he did not point out what he inherited. [Imagine that!]

This man/child president is not nearly up to the task. I guess in some ways we should be thankful there are enough life-long zombified bureaucrats in D.C. to make sure we don't step too deep into it, in spite of the incompetence of the BHO.

Given BHO's recent foray into the race issue, maybe there ought to be an investigation?

EXCLUSIVE: No. 3 at Justice OK'd Panther reversal
Case involved polling place in Philadelphia
By Jerry Seper (Contact) | Thursday, July 30, 2009

Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, the No. 3 official in the Obama Justice Department, was consulted and ultimately approved a decision in May to reverse course and drop a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party of intimidating voters in Philadelphia during November's election, according to interviews.

Questions about how high inside the department the decision to drop the case went have persisted in Congress and in the media for weeks.[Really? Then where has the coverage in the MSM?]

While the Obama administration has vowed a new era of openness, department officials have refused to answer questions from Republican members of Congress on why the case was dismissed, claiming the information was "privileged, according to congressional correspondence with the department.

Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee who has raised questions about the case, said he also was prevented from interviewing the front-line lawyers who brought the charges. [So much for "transparency".]

This all stinks to high heaven. If this were a Bush or Palin administration and the Justice Department had dismissed charges against a group that intimidated people at the polls, the state-run MSM would be calling for impeachment!

Did CNN not get the memo? What are they doing? Oh, the horror...

5 freedoms you'd lose in health care reform
If you read the fine print in the Congressional plans, you'll find that a lot of cherished aspects of the current system would disappear.
By Shawn Tully, editor at large
July 24, 2009: 10:17 AM ET

1. Freedom to choose what's in your plan
2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs
3. Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage
4. Freedom to keep your existing plan
5. Freedom to choose your doctors

There are more of course. These are more like the 5 "lite" freedoms you will lose.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Health care reform: 'This is going to happen'

Quotes by San Fran Nan:

"If nothing is done now, health care for them will increase in cost. There are two words that should describe what we're trying to do: lower cost. Lower cost for the families, lower cost for businesses so they can be more competitive, lower cost for our economy so health care doesn't take such a big chunk, and lower cost for our budget because health care reform is entitlement reform. We have to take that spiral down or otherwise, it's endless in terms of growing the deficit. So, lower cost."

Does anyone REALLY beleive this? Name ONE thing the government has made CHEAPER!

We should be able to squeeze as much as we possibly can out of the current system. [Squeeze who? Squeeze what?] If [IF? IF? Is she admitting they don't have a clue?] it's a trillion dollars, over half of that has to come from savings and then half from a revenue stream, a co-pay, something else ["SOMETHING ELSE? WHAT IS SOMETHING ELSE?]. When you say taxing the wealthy, you have to see what you're comparing it to. What is the choice that is to be made? The Senate started out by saying they were going to have to tax people's health insurance benefits. That is a tax largely on the middle class. So where do you go get that much money? ["That much money" that's government spoeak for a lot of money.] Well, at the high end, which has been enjoying quite a fiesta [Does anyone feel like they are in a fiesta?] the last eight years in terms of tax cuts in the Bush administration. If the Senate comes up with a potpourri of further cuts or other sources of revenue that don't hurt the middle class, then that's something we should all be looking at. But this (reform) is going to happen [In other words, "We don;t give a rip what the U.S. Taxpayers think, WE are going to make this decision for you stupid little people!]. And those who oppose it are mainly just opposed to health care.

Yes, we would certainly like to have bipartisan support [But they don't have to have ANY Republican support to pass it] . But understand that we have differences of opinion as to the role of government, and in public policy, as it relates to health care. If there are ways that Republicans want to participate, that's fine. By and large, the Republicans (in the House) don't believe in doing that, the government role. Now, perhaps in the Senate, they will be able to come to some agreement. This is one of those things where everything is on the table.

President Obama has been completely committed to bipartisanship [LIE. Name one item where he yielded to Republicans. He doesn't need to and hasn't. This is HIS economy. It is the OBAMA STIMULUS package that is failing] . What I think he's finding out, but what we hope to change, is that there is not a shared value when it comes to expanding health care for Americans [THANK YOU, SO FAR REPUBLICANS. STAND FIRM IN OPPOSITION!] , that there wasn't any interest in reversing climate change [THANK YOU, SO FAR REPUBLICANS. STAND FIRM IN OPPOSITION!] and reducing our dependence on foreign oil and on fossil fuels [THANK YOU, SO FAR REPUBLICANS. STAND FIRM IN OPPOSITION!] . But I think that as we go along, we have a responsibility to strive for finding our common ground. If we don't have it, though, we have to stand our ground.

First of all, I was not briefed that waterboarding was being used. I know that there's confusion about that. They told us that there were those in the administration who thought it was legal [LIE] .

The fact is, after 9/11 until this new president came in, we really had no major initiative in Afghanistan [Tell that to the FORMER Taliban government] . It's a tragedy. It was a missed opportunity for years. And now we have to do something about it.

I don't know that there's a will in the United States to send 300,000 troops to Afghanistan. And that's what some have suggested [WHO?]. You may not know this, but in Congress, one of the hardest votes I had this year wasn't stimulus [I'll bet] . It wasn't the budget [I'll bet] . It wasn't the energy bill [I'll bet] . It was the supplemental (spending bill) for Iraq and Afghanistan [I'll REALLY bet] . The appetite has just gone out.

And yet, that is the war on terrorism. Afghanistan is the place where the terrorists sprang from [partially funded by Sadam Hussein]. That is where they have safe harbor. That's where we need to be to deal with it. But, again, there isn't a big appetite — public appetite — for that. So that's why getting out of Iraq was very, very important [WAS? Are we out already?] .

Cheney has Secret Meetings with Oil Execs! Opps.. I mean: White House declines to disclose visits by health industry executives

What happened to being the most transparent administration ever?

White House declines to disclose visits by health industry executives
Los Angeles Times | National
By Peter Nicholas
July 22, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Invoking an argument used by President George W. Bush, the Obama administration has turned down a request from a watchdog group for a list of health industry executives who have visited the White House to discuss the massive healthcare overhaul.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.

So where is the stimulus money going...?

Where Is Obama’s Stimulus Money Going?
July 10, 2009 05:09 PM ET
By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT (not exactly a right-wing website)

Major legislation is being pushed unread to President Obama's desk by the Democrats who control the House and Senate. Legislation that is signed, again one can believe unread, by the president and left for the bureaucracy to implement. No one, least of all the American people—whose money it is that is being spent—seems to know what is going on.

.... one about .64 cents of every stimulus dollar going to a county that voted for Obama in 2008 vs. .36 cents to every county that McCain won, so maybe the lack of transparency in the stimulus spending is no accident. It's certainly true that each item that appears to dribble out produces further embarrassment for the congressional leadership.

Let's stimulate my voter base to make sure I get re-elected. That's what this is about. Payoffs like the one to Rep. Kaptur (D-Ohio) who sold out her coal based state for $3,500,000,000.

This is sleazy Chicago politics at its worst. The more you learn about this administration you realize they are trying to cram as must of their liberal social engineering agenda down our throats before the average U.S. citizen knows what has happened to them; how much liberty they have lost.

"Working as intended.."

Obama Says Economic Stimulus Worked as Intended, Urges Patience
By Edwin Chen
Bloomberg.com

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended”

Just imaging how bad it would be without my "stimulus":

Were it not for the stimulus program, the president said, “state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens of thousands of additional layoffs -- layoffs that would affect police officers, teachers, and firefighters.”

Maybe he has been trying to get double digit unemployment all along...

True unemployment rate already at 20%
Posted Jul 06 2009, 01:16 PM by Anthony Mirhaydari
MSN

Not to scare you, but the situation is actually worse than it seems. Over the years, the government has changed the way it counts the unemployed. An example of this is the criticized Birth-Death Model which was added in 2000. The model is designed to account for the birth and death of businesses and the resultant lag in survey data. Unfortunately, the model doesn't work that well during economic contractions (like we have now) and consistently overstates the number of jobs being created each month.

John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics specializes in removing these questionable tweaks to the government's statistical data to better align current numbers with the methodology used to gather historical data. After reviewing the data, Williams believes that "the June jobs loss likely exceeded 700,000." David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff notes that the fall in the number of hours worked in June (to a record low of 33 per week) is equivalent to a loss of more than 800,000 jobs.

There are similar issues with the way the unemployment rate is measured. The headline rate only jumped from 9.4% to 9.5% because of a drop in the number of people in the workforce. The more inclusive "U-6" measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers, jumped from 16.4% to 16.5%. But even this doesn't adequately capture the situation on the ground: Back in the Clinton Administration, the definition of discouraged worker was changed to only include those that had given up looking for work because there were no jobs to be had within the last year.

By adding these folks back in, William's SGS-Alternate Unemployment Measure rose to a jaw-dropping 20.6%. Separately, the Center for Labor Market Studies in Boston puts U.S. unemployment at 18.2%. Any way you cut the numbers, the situation is very bad. According to David Rosenberg, one-in-three among the unemployed have been looking for a job for more than six months and still can't find one.

Or how about:

America's Effective Unemployment Rate at 18.7%?

So if the stimulus is working the way it was intended, does that mean Obama intended for unemployment to skyrocket? Maybe that is what he needs in order for him the create a crisis to pass his other socialist nanny state agenda items like government-run-healthcare, cap-and-tax, and the complete control of our lives....?

"One World Government", says the Pope

And all this time I thought the Pope's job was to lead people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, our lord, savior and mankind's only hope...

Pope proposes new financial order guided by ethics
July 7, 2009 4:38 PM ET

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI called Tuesday for a new world financial order guided by ethics and the search for the common good, denouncing the profit-at-all-cost mentality blamed for bringing about the global financial meltdown.

There is urgent need (for) a true world political authority" that can manage the global economy, guarantee the environment is protected, ensure world peace and bring about food security for the poor, he wrote.

And then we get to the real crux of the story:

The pope's focus on world finance raised questions about the state of the Vatican's own books.

The Vatican was implicated in the 1980s collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, in which the Vatican's bank was the major shareholder, and it agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano's creditors, while denying any wrongdoing.

At the start of the meltdown in October, a top Vatican bank official assured that its deposits were safe and had no liquidity problems, saying the bank had stayed away from derivatives, the financial instruments blamed in part for the crisis.

Other officials have said 80 percent of the Vatican's investments are in low-yield government bonds and 20 percent in stocks and that the Vatican does not invest in companies that produce arms or contraceptives.

The Vatican in its annual financial statement issued Saturday said it ran a deficit in 2008 for the second straight year, posting a euro900,000 ($1.28 million) loss, compared with a loss of euro9.06 million a year earlier.

Maybe this is why they want reform. Are they running out of money for gas for the Pope-mobile?