MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON – With its pomp and glitter, a White House state dinner is a symbol as much as a meal — social evidence of the central leadership role that America plays in world affairs.

 But as President Barack Obama prepares to host his first such dinner — for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — I have a nagging sense that all of that grandeur has become a little deceiving.

 I’m not sure the rest of the world sees the White House as “the place to be” any more. And that will have unsettling consequences for all of us.

 Obama’s role as the elegant, path-breaking, intercultural celebrity is not enough to reverse a steady erosion of our global dominance — especially not if he’s seen merely as a new hood ornament on an economic clunker.

 My concern is merely anecdotal. But I have been collecting anecdotal evidence for decades. It’s what I do for a living.

 I was in London and Paris last week while Obama was making his first trip to Asia. I kept paging through the local papers for stories about the trip. They were only few — almost none. He was all but invisible, except when bowing deeply to the emperor of Japan. There weren’t many stories about the United States, either.

 In the business world of London, the talk last week was all about the money pouring into China, India, and Brazil, and to a lesser extent, Russia.

 The cash under discussion wasn’t from American investors, but rather Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe — and even trickles from one BRIC to another.

 Every fund manager who was living in or passing through London bragged about just having been to — or about to leave for — China.

 I never thought the glitter of Regent Street could match Manhattan, but it does.

 In Paris, the headlines and the political talk I heard and read did not focus on our president or our prospects, but on the selection of a new — and no longer merely symbolic — leader for a United Europe. Europeans were talking to each other directly; Americans were not, as far as I could tell, very much a part of the conversation.

 Even in matters of science and technology, I saw cause for concern. Europe is now pressing ahead successfully with its CERN supercollider, the largest experiment in the history of physics. The open-source management of the project is itself something new — and, like the World Wide Web, a non-U.S. invention.

 Now, I know that one can never — should never — sell the U.S. short. Our economy, as inequitable and capricious as it is, remains the largest if not the strongest of them all. And our military, over-extended as it is, is the only one that can keep peace on the planet.

 I’m not a “declinist.” I have faith in our special destiny and re-generative powers. And the U.K. and Europe have their own fiscal problems — it still isn’t clear whether the BRICs can contain the explosion they’ve unleashed.

 Still, my trip made me ask two questions: why and so what?

 After rivers of cash poured into the U.S., a “flight to safety” induced — ironically, thanks to our own profligacy. Now the world’s trillions are being shipped elsewhere in search of better returns. And the hoard is no longer being counted solely in dollars.

 Much of that money is piled up in China and the Gulf — two places where business is increasingly being done without Wall Street as the middle man.

 For one thing, it’s more efficient. For another, there are fewer cultural and security concerns.

 When Osama Bin Laden attacked New York City, he meant to assault the central switching station for capital assets and direct them elsewhere.

 To some extent, it has worked. In London I met Arab and Muslim moneymen who left the U.S. after 9/11 — and have not been back. “The security is just too much of a hassle,” said one Dubai-based investor. “It’s not worth it.”

 And now New York — the erstwhile center of the financial action — is about to become paralyzed by the emotions of reliving Sept. 11 by the courtroom ravings of Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

 Washington may not prove to be an attractive a place for investors, either. We’re busy here trying to figure out how to deal with a national debt of $12 trillion — which could double in a decade.

 Other countries are just as heavily leveraged as we are — or even more so — including the UK and Japan. But they don’t have the world’s reserve currency, or our colossal global military commitments.

 Meanwhile, the growth rate in the BRICs for the most part re-mains strong. You can’t overstate smart money’s obsession with China even as our own global brand has been damaged.

 Right now, we seem to be known abroad primarily for war, debt and dirt in the air — and not as the beacon and example of humanity at its best. The wars and borrowing of the Bush administration are a good part of the reason why — and it’s a grim reality Obama confronts every day.

 And so what?

 The “so what” is about the American standard of living, but, more importantly, the standard of thinking. We are built on faith in the future. Our narrative has always been upward and outward.

 So now, we may have to turn inward for a while, and turn the microscope on ourselves. How do we renew and restore ourselves?

 Maybe the prime minister of India has some ideas.

So much to look forward to from the dude who brought you, “Change you can believe in.”   So how’s that “change” working for you now?

This is what happens when Americans pick Presidents like their “American Idol” winners!

AMERICAN THINKER

August 31, 2009

By Geoffrey P. Hunt

Monti Says: Don’t you just love what lawyers do for a living?

Associated Press

November 23, 2009

By KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK — The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said.
Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said Sunday the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but “would explain what happened and why they did it.”
The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.
Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain “their assessment of American foreign policy,” Fenstermaker said.
“Their assessment is negative,” he said.
Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He has not spoken with the others but said the men have discussed the trial among themselves.
Fenstermaker was first quoted in The New York Times in Sunday’s editions.
Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try the men in a New York City civilian courthouse have warned that the trial would provide the defendants with a propaganda platform.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said Sunday that while the men may attempt to use the trial to express their views, “we have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disruption, as federal courts have done in the past.”
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Holder for hours about his decision to send the five 9/11 suspects to New York for trial.
Critics of Holder’s decision — mostly Republicans — argued the trial will give Mohammed and his co-defendants a world stage to spout hateful rhetoric. Holder said such concerns are misplaced, and any pronouncements by the suspects would only make them look worse.
“I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is,” Holder told the committee. “I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial — and no one else needs to be, either.”
The attorney general said he does not believe holding the trial in New York — at a federal courthouse that has seen a number of high-profile terrorism trials in recent decades — will increase the risk of terror attacks there.

Just another development for the Obameister to delay or fail to make a decision on and thus to further endanger the free world and to usher in the destruction of our only real ally in the Middle East…

DEBKAfile Special Report

November 19, 2009

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the UN inspectors’ October visit to Iran turned up dual-track progress in support of its nuclear weapons program: Feverish activity was registered in the production of plutonium at Isfahan as an alternative to the Fordo enriched uranium plant near Qom which starts up in 2011.

The IAEA experts discovered 30 metric tons-IS of heavy water hidden in 600 tanks, each holding 13 gallons, according to the report they handed in last week to agency headquarters in Vienna.

From the shape of the tanks and other indications, the experts concluded that this stock had not come from the heavy water plant at Arak but was imported.

Metric tons-IS measure the amount of energy a given quantity can release. The force and types of nuclear bombs are gauged in kilotons or megatons. The American nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II was equal to 20 kilotons of TNT. By this standard, the amount of heavy water discovered at Isfahan would be enough to make at least one plutonium bomb when the plutonium reactor under construction near the Arak heavy water facility is finished.

Other than its civilian uses, heavy water may be used to produce tritium, which intensifies the explosive force of nuclear warheads. The discovery of quantities of heavy water at Isfahan confirms the suspicions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program in three respects.

1. The long concealment of the Fordo site suggested to the UN inspectors that Iran has more hole-in the-corner nuclear facilities in the country. The discovery of a stock of heavy water further confirmed that Tehran is working hard to attain a nuclear weapon capacity on more than one track and at additional covert sites.

2. The IAEA wants to know who is selling Iran heavy water in violation of Security Council resolutions banning the sale or export of nuclear materials to Iran.

The very fact that some government or outside entity is willing to flout UN resolutions demonstrates that any further international sanctions would be ineffective for halting Iran’s nuclear drive, even assuming that President Barack Obama gained Russian and Chinese backing for such penalties. This backing has so far been withheld.

DEBKAfile’s sources report from Vienna that on November 10, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei sent a request to the Iranian Nuclear Energy Committee asking it to confirm the presence of the heavy water and document its origin with a full explanation. Tehran has yet to reply.

3. The presence of the heavy water tanks at Isfahan is additional proof that the reactor at Arak is designed for military purposes, not a peaceful installation as Tehran claims.

Washington, D.C. (November 17, 2009) — Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matthew Brooks commented today on a post-election poll done by McLaughlin & Associates in New Jersey on November 3 and 4, 2009:

“Recently released post-election poll results from New Jersey show that Republican Chris Christie won 38% of the Jewish vote this year in his run for governor. We are pleased by Christie’s strong showing in the Jewish community in a very close race. [Click here to download a memo of the poll results.]

“The Jewish community was a key battleground in this election, with both Republicans and the Democrats actively campaigning for Jewish support. In past elections, when a New Jersey gubernatorial race was close, the Jewish community made an important difference. This year, as in 1993 and 1997, it is clear that the strong Jewish turnout for Chris Christie helped put the Republican candidate over the top.

“We believe that the 2009 election in New Jersey was not just a referendum on the job Jon Corzine has done as governor, but also on the larger national question of whether voters approve of the policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress. There is a definite sense of ‘buyers’ remorse,’ especially among independents, about the higher taxes, higher deficits, and higher spending that Obama and Corzine represent.

“New Jersey is a state in serious economic crisis. Given the choice for four more years of Corzine/Obama policies, a large segment of the Jewish community voted for Republican Chris Christie and real change.”
###

Take the PC test: Nidal Hasan, victim or terrorist?  If you say, “terrorist” you just failed the PC test. So fail the damn test and listen to brave American patriot Brigitte Gabriel rightfully blast political correctness:

ACT! FOR AMERICA

Did you know that, from November 5^th to November 10^th, 85% of the news stories about the Ft. Hood attack produced by ABC, CBS and NBC did not mention the words “terror” or “terrorist”?

Did you know that investigators found personal business cards belonging to Nidal Hasan that had the initials “S.O.A” — “Soldier of Allah”?

Only now are more and more news reports and commentators acknowledging, some very grudgingly, that Hasan was a jihadist. There simply is too much evidence to ignore — even for the most stubborn politically correct apologists for radical Islam.

Brigitte Gabriel has, of course, been following the Ft. Hood terrorist attack very closely, conducting numerous interviews since it happened.

Today she gives her take on how this happened, why it could have been prevented, and what this means for the future.

Click here, or the image below, to watch this very important message from Brigitte Gabriel. Then forward this email to everyone you know so we can take Brigitte’s message viral!

And if you haven’t yet signed our petition calling for a government investigation of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, click here to do so today. As of Friday morning, November 13^th, nearly 19,000 people have added their names to this petition. How about you?

Monti Says: Another correct Monti prediction! I’m getting good at this.

New York Post

November 5, 2009

By GEORGE A. KING III

Baseball’s penthouse is again decorated with hand-painted silk Yankees pinstripe wallpaper.
Nine years after their last World Series title, the Yankees earned No. 27 last night when they spanked the defending champion Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium before a record crowd of 50,315 that didn’t include George Steinbrenner.
Tomorrow morning the Yankees will celebrate with a ticker-tape parade up lower Broadway.
“Right where we belong,” Derek Jeter bellowed from a stage in the middle of the $1.5 billion Stadium.
And they looked very comfortable. Alex Rodriguez, who doesn’t have to answer any more questions about choking in the postseason, let loose with a river of victory tears and promised the parade will be a huge party.

Mariano Rivera held a copy of The Post’s front page with the No. 27 on the cover.
Hideki Matsui, who went 3-for-4 with a homer and six RBIs that tied the single-game Series record, was named the MVP and took the occasion to lobby for a return.

“I hope so,” when asked if he would be back. Matsui can become a free agent in 15 days. “I hope it works out. I love New York and I love the fans.”
From 1996 to 2000 the Yankees won four Series titles and three straight (1998-2000). They came within two outs of winning in 2001, were bounced from the 2003 Series in six games and didn’t make it back until this year when they spent almost a half-billion dollars of Steinbrenner’s fortune to import CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira to successfully plug gaping holes in the rotation and lineup.
When the subject of money surfaced, general manager Brian Cashman was ready with an answer.
“You can call us anything you want. You’re also going to have to call us world champions,” said Cashman, who didn’t join the Steinbrenner family on the stage to accept the World Series trophy.

Monti Says: This is a vote against Obama, Reid and Pelosi more than anything. Guess what? The three of them are next! Great job New Jersey voters!

The Associated Press

November 3, 2009

TRENTON — Chris Christie, an aggressive former prosecutor who racked up a perfect conviction rate in public corruption cases and became the darling of New Jersey’s Republican Party establishment, has unseated the deep-pocketed but unpopular Gov. Jon Corzine.

Christie, 47, on Tuesday became the first member of his party in a dozen years to win a statewide contest in heavily Democratic New Jersey. President Barack Obama invested heavily in the race, campaigning with Corzine five times on three separate visits.

With 75 percent of precincts reporting, Christie had 50 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for Corzine. Independent candidate Chris Daggett, who at one point had been feared as a potential spoiler, had about 5 percent.

Christie accepted public financing in the race against the wealthy incumbent and was outspent by more than $12 million. He did get financial help from the Republican Governors Association and other national Republican groups, which bought television time in the pricey New York and Philadelphia media markets.

Christie ran on a platform of smaller government and relentlessly criticized Corzine for what he called poor economic stewardship — unemployment was 9.8 percent in October and property taxes averaged $7,045 per household, the nation’s highest. But he was criticized during the campaign for remaining vague about how he would solve New Jersey’s chronic fiscal problems.

The physically robust Christie endured an onslaught of personal attacks from the Corzine campaign; his weight even became a central issue at one point.

Christie made a reputation for himself as a hard-charging U.S. attorney who locked up 130 officials without losing a single corruption case.

However, his image as an ethics champion was questioned when revelations emerged that he had lent a subordinate money but failed to report it, and that he’d been involved in a traffic accident but was not ticketed.

In the final days of the campaign, while Corzine was campaigning with Obama and former President Bill Clinton, Christie hit all 21 counties aboard a bus, campaigning with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean.

Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who was sharply criticized when he yelled, “You lie,” during Obama’s health care speech to a joint session of Congress, stumped for Christie in the campaign’s final weekend.

All brought to you by the “religion of peace.”  Watch how CAIR tries to spin this debacle…

October 29, 2009

by Ed White

AP – Detroit Police enter the temporary home to the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. …

• Slideshow: Radical Islamic leader killed in Detroit raid

DETROIT – A leader of a radical U.S. Sunni Islam group killed in a shootout with federal agents near Detroit repeatedly told followers that the government was the enemy and they must be willing to take on the FBI — even if it meant death, authorities said.

“You cannot have a nonviolent revolution,” Luqman Ameen Abdullah said, according to a 2008 conversation secretly recorded by a confidential FBI source.

Abdullah, 53, was killed Wednesday at a warehouse in Dearborn, where agents were attempting to arrest him on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. He was one of 11 people named in a criminal complaint after a two-year investigation.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents.

The 43-page complaint described Abdullah as an extremist who believed the FBI bombed New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 and the Oklahoma City federal building two years later. Abdullah beat children with sticks at his Detroit mosque, the complaint claimed, and was trained with his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords.

Neither Abdullah nor his co-defendants were charged with terrorism. But he was “advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States,” FBI agent Gary Leone wrote in an affidavit filed with the complaint.

The FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the U.S.

Abdullah told followers that it was their “duty to oppose the FBI and the government and it does not matter if they die” and to “simply shoot a cop in the head” if they wanted the officer’s bulletproof vest, Leon wrote.

The affidavit also said bombs, guns and even the recipe for TNT were among Abdullah’s regular topics with his allies. Group members and former members said they were “willing to do anything Abdullah instructs and/or preaches, even including criminal conduct and acts of violence,” the FBI agent wrote.

But that description doesn’t match what Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, said he knew of Abdullah.

“He would open up the mosque to homeless people. He used to run a soup kitchen and feed indigent people,” Walid said. “I knew nothing of him that was related to any nefarious or criminal behavior.”

Walid said Abdullah had a wife and children. A phone number for the family had been disconnected.

Ummah believes that a separate Islamic state in the U.S. would be controlled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Colorado for shooting two police officers in Georgia in 2000, Leone said.

Al-Amin, a veteran of the black power movement, started the group after he converted to Islam in prison.

“They’re not taking their cues from overseas,” said Jimmy Jones, a professor of world religions at Manhattanville College and a longtime Muslim prison chaplain. “This group is very much American born and bred.”

Abdullah’s mosque is in a brick duplex on a residential street in Detroit. A sign on the door in English and Arabic reads, in part, “There is no God but Allah.” The mosque was located elsewhere in the city until the property was lost in January because of unpaid taxes.

When the eviction took place, a search turned up empty shell casings and large holes in the concrete wall of a “shooting range,” Leone said.

Seven of the 10 people charged with Abdullah were in custody, including a state prison inmate, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Three were still at large. Another man not named in the complaint also was arrested.

The FBI built its case over two years with the help of confidential sources close to Abdullah who recorded conversations and participated in undercover operations involving the sale of furs, laptop computers, televisions, energy drinks and power tools.

Abdullah received at least 20 percent of any profit and claimed the “Prophet Muhammad said that it is okay to participate in theft; as long as that person prays, they are in a good state,” Leone wrote in the affidavit.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, said the FBI briefed him about the arrests.

“We know that this is not something to be projected as something against Muslims,” Hamad said.

___

Monti Says: What goes up, must come down. I stand by my prediction in Monti’s Corner, this clown hack is a one term president.

Telegraph.co.uk

October 23, 2009

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April.

His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.

The bad polling news came as Mr Obama returned to the campaign trail to prevent his Democratic party losing two governorships next month in states in which he defeated Senator John McCain in last November’s election.

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup explained: “The dominant political focus for Obama in the third quarter was the push for health care reform, including his nationally televised address to Congress in early September.

“Obama hoped that Congress would vote on health care legislation before its August recess, but that goal was missed, and some members of Congress faced angry constituents at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform. Meanwhile, unemployment continued to climb near 10 per cent.”

Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey is in severe danger of defeat while Democrats are fast losing hope that Creigh Deeds can beat his Republican opponent in Virginia. Twin Democratic losses would be a major blow to Mr Obama’s prestige.

Campaigning for Mr Corzine in Hackensack on Wednesday night, Mr Obama delivered a plea that almost seemed as much for himself as the local candidate: “I’m here today to urge you to cast aside the cynics and the skeptics, and prove to all Americans that leaders who do what’s right and who do what’s hard will be rewarded and not rejected.”

Mr Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs executive and multi-millionaire, is currently running even in New Jersey, which is normally comfortably Democratic, while Mr Deeds is trailing badly in Virginia, a swing state that was key to Mr Obama’s 2008 victory.

Mr Obama is also facing widespread criticism for his drawn-out decision-making process over what to do next in Afghanistan.

Republicans sense Mr Obama is in a vulnerable position and this week saw the return to the public stage of his perhaps most vehement opponent – Vice-President Dick Cheney.

In a blistering speech on Wednesday night, he accused Mr Obama of failing to give Americans troops on the ground a clear mission or defined goals and of being seemingly “afraid to make a decision” about Afghanistan “The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger,” Cheney said at the Center for Security Policy in Washington.

“Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

He hit out at Obama aides who suggested that the Bush administration had failed to weigh up conditions in Afghanistan properly before committing troops.

“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.”

Monti Says: I can’t wait until this disgrace of a news service is permanently out of business!

New York Post

October 19, 2009

PAUL THARP

The New York Times today said it was cutting 100 newsroom jobs, as the struggling newspaper continues to make cuts in the face of a declining advertising market.

The round of cuts marks the second time this year that the Times has slashed jobs. In March, the company eliminated 100 positions and imposed a 5 percent pay cut that lasts through the end of the year.

According to a memo distributed to employees by Executive Editor Bill Keller, the company hopes to make all the cuts through voluntary buyouts, though he didn’t rule out involuntary cuts if too few people step up.

The fresh round of cuts come amid signs the ad picture is starting to show some signs of improvement.

USA Today publisher Gannett reported a better than expected results, even though profit sank by more than 50 percent.

Shares in the Times jumped nearly 5 percent to $8.90 as of 3:30 p.m.

Could they possibly be that stupid?  Let’s hope so, as this will open the door to wholesale destruction of their nuclear sites!

DEBKAfile Special Report

October 19, 2009

Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammed Ali Jafari

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafary, Monday, Oct. 19, threatened “crushing” retaliation against the US, UK and Pakistan including the invasion of its eastern neighbor. Tehran links all three to the suicide bombing attack in Sistan-Baluchistan Sunday, Oct. 18, which killed 42 people including seven senior Guards officers. One was Gen. Nur Ali Shoustari, Jafari’s deputy, who was identified by DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources as commander of the al Qods clandestine terror bases in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Jafary said: “Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them.”

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources note that is the first time in Iran’s 30-year Islamic revolution that a military leader has gone to the extreme lengths of threatening to strike US and British military targets, a measure of the damage the regime and Guards suffered from the suicide attack, which has since been condemned and denied by Washington.

Jafari expanded on his charge by saying: “New evidence has been obtained proving the link between yesterday’s terror attack and the US, British and Pakistani intelligence services.” He spoke of evidence showing that all three supported the group. “A delegation would soon travel to Pakistan to present it,” he said.

A military official in Tehran then suggested Iran might launch a military thrust into Pakistan against the group blamed for the attack. Lawmaker Payman Forouzesh said: “There is even unanimity that these operations (could) take place in Pakistan territory.”

Tehran accuses the Sunni secessionist terrorist group Jundallah of Baluchistan, which is fighting for the predominantly Sunni province’s independence, of carrying out the suicide bombing in provincial town of Pisheen near the Pakistan and Afghanistan borders. In the past, Tehran has charged the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence agency and the CIA of supporting the group. It has carried out a string of terrorist attacks on regime and Shiite targets including in 2007 a failed assassination attempt on president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that Tehran will have to make good on its threats without too much delay or lose face among the political and ethnic minority dissidents plaguing on the regime, especially those who rose up in protest against the tainted June 20 presidential election. Hesitation will be seen as weakness.

Past Iranian reprisals were usually carried against the US or Britain indirectly in the Persian Gulf or by local Islamic surrogates like Hizballah in Iraq. Jafari’s words point to a more direct showdown this time by the IRGC or its terrorist arm al Qods.

IT’S TIME FOR A NEW THIRD PARTY

80% of Americans identify themselves not as Liberals or Conservatives, but as Moderates.   And these Moderates want fiscal conservatism- something the D’s and R’s can’t deliver on.  They want term limits on all elected officials.  And they want a progressive attitude w/r/t social issues.  It’s way past time for a NEW THIRD PARTY in this country- a fiscally conservative/socially progressive platform with the pledge of term limits FOR ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS NATIONWIDE!  Only then can the gridlock, corruption and malfunctions of government be addressed.  Only then can we begin to rebuild our great nation.  This happened before- in 1860, when a relatively unknown lawyer from Illinois ran for President with an upstart third party-  Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party!
IT’S TIME FOR A NEW THIRD PARTY.
You will see it, despite what conventional wisdom tells us- that the vested parties are too rich and powerful to let it happen.  Nope, here’s a place where “follow the money” will not ultimately work.  Follow the hearts and minds of Americans that were sick of the same old Republican Party of George Bush and took a chance and lost on a Democratic powerbroker with a hidden, now blatant, socialist agenda.  No, Americans do not want another Bush and they do not want Obama.  Both parties have failed miserably and have no ability to recover.
IT’S TIME FOR A NEW THIRD PARTY!
Trust me, it’s coming and it’s bigger than Tea Parties.
Spread the word, my friends!

 Up until now I thought this was all a big joke… now I’m sure that it is!

TIMES ONLINE

October 9, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6867711.ece

Big whoop.  If Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat can be winners, why shouldn’t Obama be one, too!  What a disgrace and what a joke.  This award is less than meaningless, it is absurd and irrelevant.  So who cares, especially since this year’s winner (the Obameister) refuses to meet last year’s winner, the Dalai Lama.

PAJAMAS MEDIA

October 9th, 2009

MANCHESTER OCTOBER 10th. 2009  !!!

THE ENGLISH DEFENSE LEAGUE  in the spirit of St. George presents,

THE DAY OF RECKONING

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=RKgK-0HwN30

Fellow MCM patriots, please don’t overlook these two insightful articles:

MINISTRY OF TRUTH, OBAMA STYLE

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/ministry_of_truth_obamastyle.html

INTERNET SECURITY IN THE AGE OF OBAMA

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/internet_security_in_the_age_o.html

Be sure not to miss this gem,  fellow MCM patriots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3KDmEvNmJ0

No good can come from this holocaust denying nuclear nutjob,  whether or not he is a Jew!

Telegraph.co.uk

Octobwer 3, 2009

By Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.

Ahmadinejad showing papers during election.  It shows that his family’s previous name was Jewish

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad’s birthplace, and the name derives from “weaver of the Sabour”, the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia .  The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran ’s Ministry of the Interior.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad’s track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: “This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad’s background explains a lot about him.

“Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.

“By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections.  He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society.”

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that “jian” ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.

“He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had,” said the Iranian-born Jew living in London .  ”Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran .”

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said it would not be drawn on Mr Ahmadinejad’s background.  ”It’s not something we’d talk about,” said Ron Gidor, a spokesman.

The Iranian leader has not denied his name was changed when his family moved to Tehran in the 1950s.  But he has never revealed what it was change from or directly addressed the reason for the switch.

Relatives have previously said a mixture of religious reasons and economic pressures forced his blacksmith father Ahmad to change when Mr Ahmadinejad was aged four.

The Iranian president grew up to be a qualified engineer with a doctorate in traffic management.  He served in the Revolutionary Guards militia before going on to make his name in hardline politics in the capital.

During this year’s presidential debate on television, he was goaded to admit that his name had changed but he ignored the jibe.

However, Mehdi Khazali, an internet blogger, who called for an investigation of Mr Ahmadinejad’s roots was arrested this summer.

Mr Ahmadinejad has regularly levelled bitter criticism at Israel , questioned its right to exist and denied the Holocaust.  British diplomats walked out of a UN meeting last month after the Iranian president denounced Israel ’s ‘genocide, barbarism and racism.’

Benjamin Netanyahu made an impassioned denunciation of the Iranian leader at the same UN summit.  ”Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium,” he said.  ”A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of six million Jews while promising to wipe out the State of Israel, the State of the Jews.  What a disgrace.  What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations.”

Mr Ahmadinejad has been consistently outspoken about the Nazi attempt to wipe out the Jewish race.  ”They have created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets,” he declared at a conference on the holocaust staged in Tehran in 2006.

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited  2009

Monti Says: You knew it was only a matter of minutes before some political hack like Burris; not elected I might add, would put the blame on President Bush. Enjoy your “cup of coffee” term in Washington DC Rowland because the people will be firing you in November 2012. You did make the Monti Hack List though.

CMR

October 2, 2009

Senator Rowland Burris of Illinois, the Senator who was appointed to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, blames George Bush for Chicago not getting the Olympics in 2016. Burris stated in an interview, shortly after the announcement, that the image of the U. S. has been so tarnished in the last 8 years that, even Barack Obama making an unprecedented pitch for the games could not overcome the hatred the world has for us as a result of George Bush. Wow! When will the Democrats in Congress ever get off this “Blame Bush” syndrome. Burris even went on to say that this is just another way Bush is now hurting Chicago. Yes blame Bush, don’t mind all the crime and corruption that has come out of Illinois over the last year. This “Blame Bush” strategy is getting pretty old.

Author’s Note: While I do think it is commendable for the Obama’s to have made the effort to bring the Olympics to Chicago, I find comments like Burris made reprehensible. I applaud our President for trying. Sen. Burris is the one who should be criticized here and not the President. Agree or disagree with President Obama’s intentions, but he is NOT the one who made such an IDIOTIC statement of blame. All comments on this post should be related to Burris and the discussion of blaming Bush and please keep them civil. Thank you.  -PM

Monti Says: This is further proof that Barack Obama has no world influence. The self proclaimed “Citizen of the World” has failed.

Reuters

October 2, 2009

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s politically risky Olympics gamble failed to bring home the gold on Friday, with the Olympics committee’s refusal to grant the 2016 Summer Games to his hometown Chicago.

The president, whose even-tempered personality has earned him the nickname “No Drama Obama,” broke from that mold to make an overnight dash from Washington to Copenhagen to personally lobby for Chicago.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, had taken their star power to the Danish capital to make Chicago’s case, ignoring the carping from Republican opponents who charged it was a bad time to go with foreign policy challenges in Iran and Afghanistan and the U.S. Congress bogged down in a domestic healthcare debate.

“I’m asking you to choose Chicago. I’m asking you to choose America,” Michelle Obama told committee members.

Her husband said, “If you do, if we walk this path together, then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud.”

All that was for naught as Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting, a decision that brought gasps from the Chicago contingent at the Copenhagen meeting.

The Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, was unsparing in his criticism in a statement issued before the decision was announced and on a day when the U.S. jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high.

“As President Obama travels to Copenhagen to bring the Summer Olympics to his hometown seven years from now, Americans back home are increasingly concerned they won’t have a job seven months from now as they see more and more of their neighbors and friends lose jobs today,” Steele said.

BAD NEWS

Obama had originally planned not to go but changed his mind when it was clear that other leaders wanting their countries to host the 2016 Games would be there.

The Democratic president got the bad news as Air Force One flew him back to Washington, where just about every move he makes goes under a partisan microscope.

While more Republican criticism was likely, it was unclear whether the failure would have a lasting impact on Obama’s political image. His job approval rating has stabilized at slightly above 50 percent after dropping about 10 points over the summer.

University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said he believed the issue would not linger.

“It’s a classic political hullabaloo that will fade quickly,” he said. “I think it actually points up a problem the Republicans are having, which is focusing the unhappiness and disagreement they have with Obama. In politics you have to be able to complain about the right things.”

(Editing by Howard Goller)

Monti Says: Don’t worry. All you liberals believe this is part of the Right Wing Conspiracy, right? You’re pathetic if you don’t recognize the corruption right in front of your face.

New York Post

September 30, 2009

Michelle Malkin

When government officials play the Olympic lottery, tax payers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world. So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback.

Bringing the games to the Windy City is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s “vision.” The entrenched Democratic powerbroker — in office since 1989 — would like to cap off his tenure with a glorious $4 billion bread-and-circuses production. The influential Daley machine backed Barack Obama in the presidential primaries. Obama lavished praise on Daley’s stewardship of the city. Longtime Daley cronies helped pave Obama’s path to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Now, they’re returning the favor for their hometown boss.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, a Daley loyalist, served as vice chair of Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympics bid committee before moving to the White House, where she has helmed a new “White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport” with an undisclosed budget and staff.

It’s not just Chicago taxpayers who should be worried about this field of schemes. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Jarrett and Chicago 2016 committee member Lori Healey met this month with federal officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development “to discuss financing options” for the estimated $1 billion Olympic Village.

The door is open, and the administration is “willing to meet and listen” to any federal subsidy proposals, Jarrett said. Hey, what happened to Obama’s tough rules on interest-conflicted lobbying by his administration officials?

A majority of Chicagoans who live in pay-for-play-plagued Cook County oppose public funding for the Olympics. The city has more than a half-billion-dollar deficit — and just received word that its Olympic insurance policy will cover only about $1.1 billion of the $3.8 billion operating budget drawn up by Daley. Cost overruns, fraud and union-inflated contracts are inevitable.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended Obama’s all-out campaign for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid by claiming America will see a “tangible economic benefit.” But, as is always the case with corporate welfare disguised as “economic development,” an elite few will benefit far more than others.

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod has been a Daley loyalist since 1989, when he signed up as a political consultant for the mayor’s first run. Axelrod’s public relations firm, Chicago-based AKPD Message and Media, has pitched in work for the Chicago 2016 committee. It is unknown how much AKPD has received for its services — or how much it will make in future income if the bid is successful.

The head of the Chicago 2016 bid committee is Patrick Ryan, chairman of the Aon Corp. and a co-chair of Obama’s presidential inaugural committee. Also on both of those committees: Obama confidante Penny Pritzker, who, in addition, chairs the Olympic Village subcommittee and is president of Pritzker Realty Group — a mega-developer in Illinois that could reap untold millions in project work if the Daley machine/White House campaign succeeds. Former Pritzker executive and Obama campaign treasurer Martin Nesbitt is also on the bid committee — and serves as Daley’s chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.

Another bid committee member, Michael Scott Jr., is “trying to develop a for-profit real-estate project that would sit within feet of the cycling venue if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

It takes a crony-filled White House to raise a Chicago Olympic village. Daley and Obama will get the glory. America will get stuck with the bill.

Monti Says: Check out this low-life wing nut.

JTA

September 11, 2009

By Eric Fingerhut

James Traficant has come out of prison spewing conspriacy theories about Israel. The former Ohio Democratic congressman — who was released last week after serving seven years for racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion — told Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren that Israel has a “powerful stranglehold on the American government.” From a transcript of the interview, where Traficant is charging that he’s being targeted (although it’s not clear by whom) for defending accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk:

TRAFICANT: … But I believe that Israel has a powerful stranglehold on the American government. They control both members of the House, the House and the Senate. They have us involved in wars in which we have little or no interest.

Our children are coming back in body bags. Our nation is bankrupt over these wars. And if you open your mouth, you get targeted. And if they don’t beat you at the poll, they’ll put you in prison.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, two quick things. One is the Israelis have released Demjanjuk back to the United States, right?

TRAFICANT: The Israeli supreme court. And I give them credit.

VAN SUSTEREN: Give them credit for that.

TRAFICANT: I give them credit, big-time.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. The second thing is, is Israel is a democracy and is our ally, right?

TRAFICANT: Yes, they are.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, you have no…

TRAFICANT: And they should be our ally. They are our friends over in that troubled part of the world.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. So, explain to me what you see as — you know, why you target or why you have a grudge against the Israelis.

TRAFICANT: The grudge is not necessarily a grudge. It’s an objective assessment that no one will have the courage to speak about.

They’re controlling much of our foreign policy. They’re influencing much of our domestic policy.

Wolfowitz as undersecretary of defense manipulated President Bush number two back into Iraq. They’ve pushed definitely, definitely to try to get Bush before he left to move into Iran.

We’re conducting the expansionist policy of Israel and everybody’s afraid to say it. They control much of the media, they control much of the commerce of the country, and they control powerfully both bodies of the Congress. They own the Congress.

VAN SUSTEREN: Are you an anti-Semite?

TRAFICANT: No, I’m not. And that’s exactly what they’re going to say. And I expect that.

What I am is an American. You see, I think America comes first. And we have a one-sided foreign policy in the Mideast, and we’ve alienated Arabs who have no way of fighting.

So, what they’ve done — and I predicted this on the House floor — is they would export violence to America. And they have. They have no other way to fight.

I think President Obama knows this. I think he sees this. I think he wants to do something. I think his hands are tied, and I think he’s dancing between the raindrops, trying to figure how I can politically machinate some scenario to mitigate these problems.

Greta, I’m saying this. America is in danger if America doesn’t take back their government without foreign influence, interference.

Traficant says a lot of people have been telling him to run for his old congressional seat –although he says he hasn’t decided yet.

Law enforcement authorities and many in the news media are going to great lengths to assert that there is no “connection” between the three recent terrorist plots uncovered in New York, Dallas and Springfield, Illinois. This, once again, reveals how unprepared America’s political, law enforcement, and media leadership is to combat the threat of jihadist, radical Islam. Frank Gaffney connects the dots…

CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY

September 28, 2009

By Frank Gaffney, Jr.

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18189.xml

A Denver airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan who plotted to blow up subway trains in New York City. A Jordanian who tried to destroy one of Dallas’ tallest skyscrapers. An American who thought he was detonating a truck bomb aimed at a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.

Maybe it will prove to be the case that the three men at the heart of these interrupted plots – Najibullah Zazi, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi and Michael Finton (also known as Talib Islam) – had no connection in a tactical or operational sense.

Still, it is absurd, and extremely dangerous, to insist that they are not connected in at least one way: What apparently animated all three of these suspects (and perhaps a number of others believed to have been involved in the New York plot who are still at large) is the seditious, supremacist theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls “Shariah.”

Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad – the struggle to bring about the triumph of Islam worldwide through whatever means are available. Shariah explicitly calls for the use of violent techniques designed to instill terror in those who stand in the way of a global Muslim theocracy.

Lethal truck-bombs, pellet-laced explosive vests and backpacks and bombs or hijackers aboard aircraft have already been used for this purpose. It is a matter of time before vastly more destructive weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear) become available to jihadists who believe that, pursuant to Shariah, they are fulfilling Allah’s will when they kill “infidels” or otherwise force them to submit to Islam.

Even more insidious, though, is what Robert Spencer calls “Stealth Jihad.” This practice involves using myriad non-violent measures to insinuate Shariah into non-Muslim societies. Adherents demand such concessions as special treatment for them and their faith in public spaces, private corporations, schools, communities and government at every level.

The prime-mover behind these demands is the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that shares the violent jihadists’ commitment to advance Shariah’s end-state of a global caliphate, but seek (for the moment, at least) to do so non-violently. The successful prosecution last year of one Brotherhood front, the Holy Land Foundation, established that the organization’s mission is “to destroy Western civilization from within…by its own miserable hand.” (In the course of the trial, the government also identified virtually every prominent Muslim-American group as Brotherhood affiliates or “friendly” to its purposes.)

What happens as tolerant democratic societies try to accommodate themselves to the stealthy form of jihad, backed by the persistent threat of the violent form – if not its actual occurrence, can be seen in much of Western Europe. For example, France now has 751 zones urbaines sensibles – Muslim-only areas that amount to “no-go” zones for French authorities. In these zones, Shariah rules instead of the laws of the host government, at the expense most notably of women’s rights, due process and public order (especially for Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims).

To be sure, accommodations to date to Shariah have not metastasized in the United States to nearly this extent. There are, however, numerous worrisome examples of concessions that have been made here, too. To cite a few: taxpayer-financed footbaths for Muslims installed at state universities; corporations providing Muslim-only prayer rooms and time off for prayers; government-sanctioned discrimination by taxi drivers against passengers deemed “impure” (haram) because they have alcohol or dogs; unhygenic practices in food plants to accommodate the preferences of Muslim workers; government-offered Shariah-compliant mortgages; Islamic proselytizing in public school curricula; etc.

The failure by U.S. and other governments’ officials to recognize the connection between Shariah and jihad (of either the violent or stealthy kind) is like refusing to acknowledge that there is a common virus causing an outbreak of swine flu. How could the medical community hope to identify appropriate prophylactic measures (for instance: Keep kids in school or shut the schools down? Take antibiotics or not?) if it were not permitted to understand the nature of the virus. There would certainly be little chance of developing effective vaccines under those circumstances.

We face approximately the same problem if we require our law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security and military personnel to behave as though there is no toxic virus – think of it as the “anti-swine flu,” since pork is the ultimate in haram under Shariah – animating those seeking to destroy us, our government and our freedom-loving way of life. At best, we will be able to stop some of the attacks the jihadists are plotting against us. We certainly will not be able to defeat the disease and thereby protect Western civilization from its potential for truly pandemic virulence.

Our natural allies in taking such a stance against Shariah are the many millions of Muslims around the world whose practice of their faith does not involve adherence to this medieval, barbaric and totalitarian program. Indeed, most Muslim immigrants in America came here to get away from Shariah in their native lands. Only by differentiating such Muslims from the carriers of this lethal virus can we hope to inoculate them against the spread of the disease – and enlist their help in protecting the rest of us by keeping American Shariah-free.

Monti Says: The only reason I posted this is because it happened in my hometown. Even the bulls give the cops all they can handle!

Associated Press

September 28, 2009

PATERSON, N.J. — Police say a 1,400-pound bull that escaped from a northern New Jersey slaughterhouse dragged officers with a lasso down a street and ran 10 blocks before being captured and sedated.

Chief John DeCando, spokesman for Paterson Police’s animal control division, says the bull was being unloaded at ENA Meat Packing Inc. when it broke loose just before 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Police tried to corral the bull by lassoing a rope around the animal’s neck, but it dragged officers down the street instead.

DeCando says traffic was light during the bull run. He says the area where the officers were dragged was not residential or near a school.

Officers finally corralled the animal and DeCando was able to sedate it.

No injuries were reported. The bull was returned to the slaughterhouse.

Monti Says: With all of the sensitive issues going on around the world, this hack has to go pitch Chicago’s Olympic bid? What a disgrace!

AP

September 28, 2009

By ANDREW GREINER

President Obama will travel to Copenhagen to make a pitch for Chicago’s Olympic bid, White House officials have confirmed to NBC News.

Obama will leave for Denmark Thursday night, hours after his wife Michelle departs for the vote. The president made the final decision Saturday night after returning from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

“The President decided over the weekend that he wanted be a part of the final push as we enter the home stretch,” Jarrett told Politico.com

“He did not want to leave any stone unturned. He is very excited about joining the First Lady for both the final presentation and the question and answer session. The Olympic spirit is about giving it your very best down to finish line and not taking anything for granted. That’s what his presence in Copenhagen will demonstrate.”

The announcement ends months of speculation of whether the president would lend his considerable fame to the pitch. The president has dropped hints all monthlong that he may attend the event.

Last week he sent an advance team to Copenhagen just in case he could make it and a letter he wrote to select IOC members seemed to hint that he would be there.

His attendance could help catapult Chicago past Madrid, Tokyo and Rio to win the 2016 Summer Games. International Olympic Committee members will vote on which of those four cities should receive the games on October 2. NBCChicago.com will be streaming live coverage of the vote.

The president “hopes to make a strong case for Chicago and America’s bid for the Olympics in 2016,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told White House reporters during a briefing on Monday morning.

“Obviously, the Olympics showcases the country that those Olympics are in and there’s a tangible economic benefit to those games being here,” Gibbs said.

Obama will round out a team of heavy-hitting supporters including Oprah, Valerie Jarrett, Michelle Obama and Arne Duncan.

The president called Mayor Richard Daley, who left for Copenhagen Friday, at 6:55 a.m. Eastern time to say that he was indeed going to Denmark.

“President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolize the hope, opportunity and inspiration that makes Chicago great, and we are honored to have two of our city’s most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen,” Daley said in a statement.

“Who better to share with members of the International Olympic Committee the commitment and enthusiasm Chicago has for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement than the President and First Lady.”

Patrick Ryan, CEO of Chicago 2016 is equally enthused.

“There is no greater expression of the support our bid enjoys, from the highest levels of government and throughout our country, than to have President Obama join us in Copenhagen for the pinnacle moment in our bid,” Ryan said. “We are honored that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be with us to extend a hand of friendship on behalf of our nation and the City of Chicago as we seek to welcome the world for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Perhaps the Obameister, lacking a set of real cahones, will have to secretly give these munitions to the Israelis for the inevitable!

September 27, 2009

Estimated location of Qom enrichment plant

The Pentagon has brought forward to December 2009 the target-date for producing the first 15-ton super bunker-buster bomb (GBU-57A/B) Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which can reach a depth of 60.09 meters underground before exploding. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that top defense agencies and air force units were also working against the clock to adapt the bay of a B2a Stealth bomber for carrying and delivering the bomb.

The Pentagon has ordered the number of bombs rolling off the production line increased from four to ten – a rush job triggered in May by the discovery that Iran was hiding a second uranium enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom – a discovery which prompted this week’s international outcry.

Congress has since quietly inserted the necessary funding in the 2009 budget.

All this urgency indicates that the Obama administration has been preparing military muscle to back up the international condemnation of Iran’s concealed nuclear bomb program, its sanctions threat and his willingness to join the negotiations with Iran opening on Oct. 1 in Geneva. Tehran may have to take into account a possible one-time surgical strike against its underground enrichment facility as a warning shot should its defiance continue. In particular, the world powers this week demanded that Iran open up all its nuclear facilities and programs to full and immediate international inspection. Failure to do so could bring forth further US military action.

According to our military sources, the earliest date for the accelerated Pentagon program to produce a super bunker buster bomb mounted on a stealth bomber is December 2009 or January 2010. This too is three years ahead of its original schedule.

Pressed into service are two US Air Force research centers for work on adapting the radar-evading stealth bomber to the giant bomb: the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the Munitions Directorate and Air Armament Center, both headquartered at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

Last month, DEBKAfile quoted Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford as disclosing that the Pentagon had decided to accelerate the production of 10-12 giant bunker buster bombs in response to intelligence received of Iranian and North Korean underground nuclear plants.

Wake up, America, your day has come!  They’re here, there and everywhere.  You have only two choices:  embrace shariah or destroy your enemy.

STAR-TELEGRAM

September 24, 2009

by Mitch Mitchell

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi

DALLAS — Federal agents arrested a Jordanian Thursday suspected of trying to blow up the 60-story Fountain Place building in downtown Dallas.

Undercover agents with the FBI tricked Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, into thinking that he was detonating a bomb placed in an SUV parked outside the 60-story skyscraper at 1445 Ross Ave., before they arrested him, according to court documents. The explosive device was inert and inactive, the Justice Department said in a news release.

“The identification and apprehension of this defendant, who was acting alone, is a sobering reminder that there are people among us who want to do us grave harm,” U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks said in the news release announcing the arrest.

Undercover agents posing as members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell met with Smadi several times while the terrorist suspect hatched his plot to commit jihad, or holy war, against the “Romans (Christians) and Jews,” an arrest warrant affidavit says.

The affidavit says Smadi made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and to conduct violent jihad. But it says he was interested in “self-jihad” because it is “the best type of jihad.”

The investigation by the FBI and members of the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force determined that Smadi was not associated with other terrorist organizations.

The FBI said Smadi was in the United States illegally and lived and worked in Italy, Texas, about 45 minutes south of Dallas.

Federal agents said they discovered Smadi within a group of online terrorists, and added that he stood out because of his willingness to conduct terrorist attacks inside the United States.

“This is not related to any other investigation,” said Mark White, an FBI spokesman. “This is a standalone terrorist. A lone individual who did whatever it is that he did.”

There is an ongoing investigation in New York and Colorado into a possible terrorist strike.

Smadi told undercover officials that he wanted to blow up a credit card center in the United States.

“Millions of people will incur losses,” the arrest warrant affidavit quotes Smadi saying. “Unemployment, poverty, hunger, and a strike to the head of the government. Don’t forget the psychological impacts on the loss of this beautiful building.”

Fountain Place, a 1.2 million-square-foot building, is home to a Wells Fargo Bank branch, Avanti Restaurant, the French bakery café Au Bon Pain, a newsstand, cleaners and other restaurants. A pedestrian tunnel connects the building to the Fairmont Hotel, and a YMCA is across the street.

Smadi is expected to make his first court appearance at 11 a.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in Dallas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma C. Ramirez.

Only two?  Keep looking!  Let’s start the music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKuMVqht4U

Monti Says: Hey Barack! Benjamin Netanyahu gets it. You have No CLUE!

No doubt, a London or Madrid-style attack of cataclysmic proportions is on the horizon.  When will America wake up and finally begin to face the fact that we have had outright war declared upon us by the Islamofascists?

ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 22, 2009

By DEVLIN BARRETT and EILEEN SULLIVAN

DENVER  — Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists’ desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels — the latest in a flurry of such internal warnings as investigators chase a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York.

In the two bulletins – sent to police departments Monday and obtained by The Associated Press – officials said they know of no specific plots against such sites, but urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant. These two bulletins followed on the heels of a similar warning about the vulnerabilities of mass transit systems.

The bulletin on stadiums notes that an al-Qaida training manual specifically lists “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin… and attacking vital economic centers” as desired targets of the global terror network.

A joint statement from DHS and FBI said while the agencies “have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity.”

Kiichiro Sato, AP

A bulletin issued about possible terrorist plots notes that an al-Qaida manual calls for “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin.” That, authorities said, would include stadiums, like Chicago’s Soldier Field, seen here on Sunday.

Officials noted the law enforcement bulletins are not intended for the public. Bulletins – particularly about hotels as possible targets – are common, and often don’t make news. However, a half-dozen alerts issued in the last week have received increased attention amid the ongoing investigations in New York and Denver. The first of these, about hydrogen peroxide-based explosives, specifically referred to the investigation in New York.

Separately, law enforcement officials said a Colorado man may have been planning with others to detonate backpack bombs on New York City trains in a terrorism plot similar to past attacks on London’s and Madrid’s mass-transit systems.

The investigation and the earlier warning about mass transit system have already prompted officials around the nation to step up patrols.

Two law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation told The Associated Press late Monday that more than a half-dozen individuals were being scrutinized in the alleged plot.

In a statement, the FBI says that “several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere” are being investigated.

Investigators say Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghanistan-born immigrant who is a shuttle van driver at the Denver airport, played a direct role in the terror plot that unraveled after an overnight 1,600-mile trip from Denver to New York City around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He made his first court appearance Monday and remains behind bars.

Zazi and two other defendants have not been charged with any terrorism counts, only the relatively minor offense of lying to the government. But the case could grow to include more serious charges as the investigation proceeds.

Backpacks and cell phones were seized last week from apartments in Queens, where Zazi visited.

Zazi has publicly denied being involved in a terror plot, and defense lawyer Arthur Folsom dismissed as “rumor” any notion that his client played a crucial role.

Publicly, law enforcement officials have repeatedly said they are unaware of a specific time or target for any attacks. Privately, officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case said investigators have worried most about the possible use of backpack bombs on New York City trains, similar to attacks carried out in London in 2005 and Madrid in 2004.

Backpack bombs ripped apart four commuter trains and killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004. On July 7 the next year, bombing attacks in London killed 52 subway and bus commuters.

In a bulletin issued Friday, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned that improvised explosive devices are the most common tactic to blow up railroads and other mass transit systems overseas. And they noted incidents in which bombs were made with peroxide.

In that bulletin, obtained by The AP, officials recommended that transit systems conduct random sweeps at terminals and stations and that law enforcement make random patrols and board some trains and buses.

Investigators feared Zazi may have been involved in a potential plot involving hydrogen peroxide-based explosives, according to two law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The FBI said they found notes on bomb-making instructions that appear to match Zazi’s handwriting, and discovered his fingerprints on materials – batteries and a scale – that could be used to make explosives. He also made a trip to Pakistan last year in which he received al-Qaida explosives and weapons training, the government said.

Zazi, a legal resident of the U.S. who immigrated in 1999, told the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes on bomb-making as part of a religious book and that he deleted the book “after realizing that its contents discussed jihad.”

A strange sequence of events began to unfold nearly two weeks ago when Zazi – already under surveillance by federal agents – rented a car in Colorado and made the 1,600-mile trek across the heartland to New York. He told reporters that he went to New York to resolve an issue with a coffee cart he owned.

He went to his friend’s place in Queens. Once there, his car was towed and authorities confiscated his computer. He was told by an NYPD informant that detectives were asking about him, and decided to cut the trip short and fly back to Colorado, authorities said.

Their surveillance blown and their main suspect flying back to Colorado, officials speeded up the investigation and launched raids on several Queens apartments in a search for explosives, but found none.

Zazi and his 53-year-old father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, were arrested Saturday in Denver. Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, was arrested in New York, where he is an imam at a mosque in Queens. The three are accused of making false statements to the government. If convicted, they face eight years in prison.

Associated Press Writers Ivan Moreno, P. Solomon Banda, and Catherine Tsai in Denver, and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.

The Lord works in mysterious ways…

DEBKAfile

September 23, 2009,

Up above a big military parade in Tehran on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as Iranian president declared Iran’s armed forces would “chop off the hands” of any power daring to attack his country, two air force jets collided in mid-air. One was Iran’s only airborne warning and control system (AWACS) for coordinating long-distance aerial operations, DEBKAfile’s military and Iranian sources disclose.

The proud military parade, which included a march-past, a line of Shehab-3 missiles and an air force fly-past, was planned to give Ahmadinejad a dazzling send-off for New York and add steel to his UN Assembly speech Wednesday.

Dubbed “Simorgh” (a flying creature of Iranian fable which performs wonders in mid-flight), the AWACS’ appearance, escorted by fighter jets, was to have been the climax for the Iranian Air force’s fly-past over the parade. Instead, it collided with one of escorting planes, a US-made F-5E, and both crashed to the ground in flames. All seven crewmen were killed.

Eye witnesses reported that the flaming planes landed on the mausoleum burial site of the Islamic revolution’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini, a national shrine. According to Western observers, no distress signals came from either cockpit indicating that the collision and explosions were sudden and fast.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say the disaster was a serious blow to the Iranian Air Force not long after its first and only AWACS went into service in April 2008. It was a renovated version of the Russian Ilyushin 76, part of Saddam Hussein’s air force before it was transferred to Iran in 1991 during the first Gulf War.

Tehran hired Russian technicians to carry out renovations and install up-to-date radar. At the launching ceremony of the upgraded AWACS, Air Force commander Brig. Gen. Ahmad Miqani boasted its new radar systems were made in Iran and able to spot any airplane or missile at a distance of 1,000 kilometers from Iran’s borders.

The loss of this airborne control system has left Iran’s air force and air and missile defenses without “electronic eyes” for surveillance of the skies around its borders.

KUDOS TO GEORGE STEPHANOPOULIS FOR HAVING THE CAHONES TO STAND UP TO THE OBAMEISTER AND RECOGNIZE THAT IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK AND TALKS LIKE A DUCK, THEN IT MUST BE A DUCK!

AMERICAN THINKER

September 21, 2009

Rick Moran
President Obama appeared on television yesterday 5 times and it is interesting that very little, if any news, came out of any of them.

The guy is worse than a broken record. At least there, we can take the needle off the disc and make it stop. We are not so lucky with Obama. There’s nothing we can do but turn off the TV when he repeats the same things over and over again about health care reform the same things he has been saying for months. Every speech, every townhall, every interview he makes the same points, tells the same lies, and repeating the same mischaracterizations of what he is trying to do.

George Stephanopoulos bored in on one lie the president has been spreading; that people who don’t have mandated health insurance will be taxed. This exchange as reported by Carol Lee of Politico is indicative:

Obama spent much of his ABC interview denying that his health care plan breaks his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. He insisted that requiring everyone to have health insurance, or face a fine of up to $3,800 per family, is “absolutely not a tax increase.” Host George Stephanopoulos pressed Obama so much on the issue that, after Obama accused him of making things up, Stephanopoulos read the definition of “tax” from Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. “George, the fact that you looked up [in] Merriam’s dictionary the definition of ‘tax increase’ indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now,” Obama replied.

We on the right are quite familiar with this tactic from the left; their bold as brass ability to simply change the definition of terms when they are losing an argument. Of course the “fine” is a tax – as are “fees,” and other ways that the Democrats are seeking to raise revenue. The liberals believe that simply because they call a tax something else, it is not a tax. Who they think they are trying to fool is a mystery – unless, it is perhaps themselves.

A Wall Street Journal editorial sums up this dishonesty:

If you can follow this reasoning, then you probably also think that a new entitlement is the best way to reduce entitlement spending. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Senate’s individual mandate will result in new revenues of some $20 billion over 10 years because some people will choose to opt out of ObamaCare-or because they can’t afford to buy in, given that other taxes and regulation will make health care more expensive. If that $20 billion doesn’t count as tax revenue, then what is it?And for that matter, what doesn’t count as a nontax under Mr. Obama’s definition? All taxes can be justified in the name of providing some type of service, however wasteful. Mr. Obama complains that “My critics say everything is a tax increase,” as if that is his political problem. His real problem is that the individual mandate really is a tax, but the President doesn’t want voters to think of it that way, because taxes are unpopular.

Ordinary Americans are not fooled by this shell game with terms. They know a tax when they see one and Obama can gloss over the truth all he wants and it still won’t change the fact that his plan will raise taxes on the Middle Class for no other reason than they wish to opt out of his big government takeover of health insurance.

Here is the list of the corrupt and moronic members of Congress – all Democrats- who voted to preserve ACORN’s federal funding.  Each has now committed political suicide and should be cast out by the fair minded voters across the nation.  May they all rot in hell along with the crooks at ACORN. Don’t miss the glaring fact that the fat bastard himself, Barney Frank, didn’t even have the cahones to vote!  Throw him out on his ear, too!

WASHINGTON EXAMINER

September 17, 2009

by David Freddos

The House of Representatives just voted overwhelmingly to de-fund ACORN, 345-75. The vote came on a Republican motion to recommit the educational loan bill. As a result, the anti-ACORN provision made it into the House-passed bill.

Below are the names of all 75 congressmen who voted to preserve ACORN’s stream of funding.

The biggest surprises on the list: Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., and the two Democrats from West Virginia, Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall.

Notable for not voting: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a staunch defender of ACORN.

ACORN’s defenders:

Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.
Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.
Robert Brady D-Pa.
Corrine Brown, D-Fla.
G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C.
Mike Capuano, D-Mass.
Andre Carson, D-Ind.
Kathy Castor, D-Fla.
Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.
James Clyburn, D-S.C.
Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y.
Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
Danny Davis, D-Ill.
Diane DeGette, D-Colo.
Bill Delahunt, D-Mass.
Mike Doyle, D-Pa.
Donna Edwards, D-Md.
Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
Chaka Fattah, D-Pa.
Bob Filner, D-Calif.
Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio
Al Green, D-Tex.
Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.
Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.
Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii
Rush Holt, D-N.J.
Mike Honda, D-Calif.
Jesse Jackson, Jr. D-Ill.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Tex.
Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex.
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich.
Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio
Rick Larsen, D-Wash.
Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
John Lewis, D-Ga.
Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.
Markey, D-Mass.
Betty McCollum, D-Minn.
McDermott, D-Wash.
McGovern, D-Mass.
Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.
Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va.
Gwen Moore, D-Wisc.
Jim Moran, D-Va.
Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
Richard Neal, D-Mass.
John Olver, D-Mass.
Frank Pallone, D-N.J.
Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.
Donald Payne, D-N.J.
Jared Polis, D-Colo.
David Price, D-N.C.
Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.
Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif.
Bobby Rush, D-Ill.
Linda Sánchez, D-Calif.
Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
David Scott D-Ga.
Bobby Scott, D-Va.
Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.
Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
Albio Sires, D-N.J.
Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
Pete Stark, D-Calif.
Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y.
Niki Tsongas, D-Mass.
Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y.
Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
Diane Watson, D-Calif.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Robert Wexler, D-Fla.
Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

Monti Says: The more this bitter, guilt-ridden, anti-Semitic fool opens his mouth, the more he proves that electing him President of the United States was one of the biggest mistakes ever made in our history. Hey Jimmy! You are a disgrace!

CNN

September 16, 2009

(CNN) — Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that racial politics played a role in South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s speech to Congress last week and in some of the opposition the president has faced since taking office.

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American,” Carter told “NBC Nightly News.” “I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that shares the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans.”

“That racism inclination still exists, and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people — not just in the South but around the country — that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply,” Carter said.

Michael Steele, who is the first African-American to chair the Republican National Committee, denied Wednesday that race is fueling protests.

“President Carter is flat-out wrong,” Steele said in a statement. “This isn’t about race. It is about policy.”

Carter made similar remarks at an event at his presidential center in Atlanta, Georgia, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, pointing to some protesters who have compared Obama to a Nazi. “Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care,” the former president said at the Carter Center, according to AP. “It’s deeper than that.” Video Watch Carter link animosity toward Obama to racism »

He grouped Wilson’s shout of “You lie!” during Obama’s speech in that category, according to AP. “I think it’s based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” he said.

“The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state. And no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect.”

The House voted Tuesday to formally disapprove of Wilson’s behavior during the joint session of Congress. The resolution was approved largely along party lines, with Republicans calling the measure unnecessary partisan politics.

Wilson apologized to the White House last week, but congressional Democrats said he owed the chamber a similar statement of regret.
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Steele said Democrats are just trying to divert attention from what he called the president’s “wildly unpopular government-run health care plan.”

“Injecting race into the debate over critical issues facing American families doesn’t create jobs, reform our health care system or reduce the growing deficit. It only divides Americans rather than uniting us to find solutions to challenges facing our nation,” he said.

Monti Says: Never bet against the WWE, a Monti Love List favorite Go Linda!

The Hill – Blog Briefing Room

September 16, 2009

By Aaron Blake

Saying she will largely self-fund her campaign and won’t accept individual contributions above $100, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon officially entered the GOP primary to face Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) this morning.

“I have spent the past 30 years growing what began as a 13-employee small business into a publicly traded, global entertainment company that now provides over 500 jobs here in Connecticut. I understand what it takes to balance a budget, create jobs and grow the economy,” McMahon said in a statement. “Washington is out of control, and sadly, Sen. Chris Dodd has lost his way and our trust. I can’t sit by on the sidelines anymore knowing that I have both the experience and the strength to stand up to special interests and bring badly needed change to Washington.”

McMahon has resigned her position at the WWE.

McMahon will also not accept PAC money, making her fundraising a virtual non-factor. Now it will be up to her to see how much she will put in.

Dodd probably wishes he had the Millionaire’s Amendment about now. If McMahon is the nominee and dumps the tens of millions of dollars into the race that is rumored, Dodd’s individual contribution limits won’t go up as they have in past cycles. That could have been big for Dodd.

Monti Says: Hannah and James are Great Americans who we all should be incredibly grateful for helping expose ACORN for what they are. Thanks to both of you!

Duo who turned this trick

New York Post

September 15, 2009

LACHLAN CARTWRIGHT and JEREMY OLSHAN

The two conservative activists who captured ACORN employees giving advice on the sex trade and money-laundering only play a pimp and prostitute on video.

In real life, Hannah Giles, 20, isn’t a lady of the night. She’s a minister’s daughter studying journalism at Florida International Uni versity.

And James E. O’Keefe III, 25, a Fordham MBA student from New Jersey, isn’t a pimp so much as a provocateur — determined to expose what he sees as the hypocrisies and moral lapses of liberals by employing their own tactics against them.

The pair met last year on Facebook after O’Keefe posted his own gotcha videos, showing Planned Parenthood employees agreeing to his request to earmark his donations for the abortions of African-American babies.

After Giles proposed the ACORN video-sting idea, O’Keefe — who started making the videos while a stu dent at Rutgers University — pounced on it. “Why go after ACORN?” Giles asked. “Because I love America, I love God, and corrupt institutions don’t help that.”

After six weeks of research, Giles said they scavenged together their costumes from friends, except for the pimp coat, which was on loan from O’Keefe’s grandmother.

In total, the project cost them $1,300.

They did the job entirely on their own and paid for it themselves, they said.

The two never became romantically involved, Giles said. “We’re too good as business partners for that — and besides, he has a girlfriend,” she said.

O’Keefe contends their tactics are “the future of activism and investigative reporting.”

“This is now my full-time job,” he said.

These 7 morons should be on AMERICA’S MOST WANTED!   They are either corrupt or seriously stupid.  Either way they all must go.  And they will.  Each has now committed political suicide as  most fair minded Democrats, Independents and Republicans across the land and in their states will certainly not let this stand.  Nor should they! Let’s dump all this trash at the next election!

Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Roland Burris (D-IL)

Robert Casey (D-PA)

Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)

Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Monti Says: To all Jews who voted for Obama, look in the mirror with a clear conscience and ask yourself, “What have I done?”

The Wall Street Journal

September 15, 2009

Bret Stevens

Events are fast pushing Israel toward a pre-emptive military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, probably by next spring. That strike could well fail. Or it could succeed at the price of oil at $300 a barrel, a Middle East war, and American servicemen caught in between. So why is the Obama administration doing everything it can to speed the war process along?

At July’s G-8 summit in Italy, Iran was given a September deadline to start negotiations over its nuclear programs. Last week, Iran gave its answer: No.

Instead, what Tehran offered was a five-page document that was the diplomatic equivalent of a giant kiss-off. It begins by lamenting the “ungodly ways of thinking prevailing in global relations” and proceeds to offer comprehensive talks on a variety of subjects: democracy, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, “respect for the rights of nations,” and other areas where Iran is a paragon. Conspicuously absent from the document is any mention of Iran’s nuclear program, now at the so-called breakout point, which both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his boss Ali Khamenei insist is not up for discussion.

What’s an American president to do in the face of this nonstarter of a document? What else, but pretend it isn’t a nonstarter. Talks begin Oct. 1.

All this only helps persuade Israel’s skittish leadership that when President Obama calls a nuclear-armed Iran “unacceptable,” he means it approximately in the same way a parent does when fecklessly reprimanding his misbehaving teenager. That impression is strengthened by Mr. Obama’s decision to drop Iran from the agenda when he chairs a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sept. 24; by Defense Secretary Robert Gates publicly opposing military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities; and by Russia’s announcement that it will not support any further sanctions on Iran.

In sum, the conclusion among Israelis is that the Obama administration won’t lift a finger to stop Iran, much less will the “international community.” So Israel has pursued a different strategy, in effect seeking to goad the U.S. into stopping, or at least delaying, an Israeli attack by imposing stiff sanctions and perhaps even launching military strikes of its own.

Thus, unlike Israel’s air strike against Iraq’s reactor in 1981 or Syria’s in 2007, both of which were planned in the utmost secrecy, the Israelis have gone out of their way to advertise their fears, purposes and capabilities. They have sent warships through the Suez Canal in broad daylight and conducted widely publicized air-combat exercises at long range. They have also been unusually forthcoming in their briefings with reporters, expressing confidence at every turn that Israel can get the job done.

The problem, however, is that the administration isn’t taking the bait, and one has to wonder why. Perhaps it thinks its diplomacy will work, or that it has the luxury of time, or that it can talk the Israelis out of attacking. Alternatively, it might actually want Israel to attack without inviting the perception that it has colluded with it. Or maybe it isn’t really paying attention.

But Israel is paying attention. And the longer the U.S. delays playing hardball with Iran, the sooner Israel is likely to strike. A report published today by the Bipartisan Policy Center, and signed by Democrat Chuck Robb, Republican Dan Coats, and retired Gen. Charles Ward, notes that by next year Iran will “be able to produce a weapon’s worth of highly enriched uranium . . . in less than two months.” No less critical in determining Israel’s timetable is the anticipated delivery to Iran of Russian S-300 anti-aircraft batteries: Israel will almost certainly strike before those deliveries are made, no matter whether an Iranian bomb is two months or two years away.

Such a strike may well be in Israel’s best interests, though that depends entirely on whether the strike succeeds. It is certainly in America’s supreme interest that Iran not acquire a genuine nuclear capability, whether of the actual or break-out variety. That goes also for the Middle East generally, which doesn’t need the nuclear arms race an Iranian capability would inevitably provoke.

Then again, it is not in the U.S. interest that Israel be the instrument of Iran’s disarmament. For starters, its ability to do so is iffy: Israeli strategists are quietly putting it about that even a successful attack may have to be repeated a few years down the road as Iran reconstitutes its capacity. For another thing, Iran could respond to such a strike not only against Israel itself, but also U.S targets in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

But most importantly, it is an abdication of a superpower’s responsibility to outsource matters of war and peace to another state, however closely allied. President Obama has now ceded the driver’s seat on Iran policy to Prime Minister Netanyahu. He would do better to take the wheel again, keeping in mind that Iran is beyond the reach of his eloquence, and keeping in mind, too, that very useful Roman adage, Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Monti Says: Let’s see how long it takes before the Williams camp introduces race as the punishment from the tennis world unfolds.

Associated Press

September 14, 2009

NEW YORK — Serena Williams’ profanity-laced, finger-pointing tirade at a U.S. Open linesperson drew a $10,000 fine Sunday, and more punishment could follow from a broader investigation into what the head of the tournament called her “threatening manner.”

The fine — not quite 3 percent of the $350,000 in prize money Williams earned by reaching the semifinals — is the maximum on-site penalty that can be issued for unsportsmanlike conduct at a Grand Slam tournament.

“The average individual would look at that and say, ‘A $10,000 fine for what she did? What are you guys, crazy?’ The answer is: the process isn’t over,” tournament director Jim Curley said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Bill Babcock, the top administrator for Grand Slam tournaments, will review what happened Saturday night, when Williams yelled at a linesperson who called a foot fault with the defending champion two points away from losing to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals.

If Babcock determines Williams committed a “major offense,” the rules allow for a fine as high as all of a player’s prize money from the tournament — and a suspension, although Curley did not mention that as a possibility.

Williams also was docked $500 for smashing her racket after the first set of the match. Because she was issued a warning then, her later actions resulted in the loss of a point.

The foot fault resulted in a double-fault, which moved Clijsters one point from victory. Williams then was penalized a point for her outburst; because it happened to come on match point, it ended the semifinal with Clijsters ahead 6-4, 7-5.

Clijsters won the championship Sunday night by beating Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3.

Babcock did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But Curley said the inquiry probably would include reviewing TV footage, checking additional audio feeds from courtside microphones and interviewing Williams, the linesperson, the chair umpire and possibly spectators.

“What she did was unacceptable. It’s unacceptable behavior under any circumstances. When you’re on the court, and you are waving your racket toward a linesperson and using profanity, it’s just simply unacceptable,” Curley told the AP. “When you look at the tape, it’s pretty clear that the way she approached the linesperson, with her racket and in that manner, it was a threatening manner. It certainly was.”

The names of linespersons are not disclosed as a matter of practice at the tournament.

He also said the tournament considered — and decided against — preventing Williams and her older sister Venus from participating in the women’s doubles final Monday. Venus put in some work on a U.S. Open practice court Sunday; Serena wasn’t with her.

Serena Williams did make an onstage appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York on Sunday night, where there was no mention of what happened 24 hours earlier. She did release a statement through a public relations firm, acknowledging that “in the heat of battle I let my passion and emotion get the better of me and as a result handled the situation poorly.”

She did not apologize for the outburst, which made the “most viewed” page of YouTube with four different versions that totaled more than half a million clicks as of Sunday night.

After what may be recalled as the most significant foot fault in tennis history, Williams paused, retrieved a ball to serve again and then stopped. She stepped toward the official, screaming, cursing and shaking the ball at her.

“If I could, I would take this … ball and shove it down your … throat,” Williams said, according to a tennis official who watched a replay Saturday night.

The official also said Williams used the word “kill.” The official declined to be identified because the tape was still being reviewed.

Fans began booing and whistling, making it difficult to hear the entirety of what Williams said — and she refused to discuss specifics afterward at a news conference. An AP reporter — provided access to replays — could not verify Williams used the word “kill.”

When Williams turned her back, the line judge went over to the chair umpire to report what was going on. The line judge then returned to her seat, and Williams pointed and began walking toward her. The line judge then headed back to the chair umpire’s stand. By now, tournament referee Brian Earley was on the court, too.

Earley could be heard asking the linesperson what Williams said.

That’s when Williams walked over and said to the line judge: “Are you scared? Because I said I would hit you? I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of people who’ve said way worse.”

Earley again asked the linesperson what Williams said. Whatever the linesperson said, her reply seemed to startle Williams, who said: “I didn’t say I would kill you. Are you serious? Are you serious? I didn’t say that.” The line judge then said, “Yes.”

The episode dominated conversation at the U.S. Open on Sunday, including whether the line judge should have made the call in the first place. Foot faults are rarely called at this level, particularly in possibly the final moments of such a significant match.

“In my opinion, you can’t call a foot fault there. Just out of question. Can’t do it. It was so close. Not as if it was an obvious foot fault — it was minuscule,” TV commentator John McEnroe said. “I’ve seen Serena come back from that position a dozen times against top-flight opponents. The match was not over.”

The chairman and CEO of the women’s tennis tour, Stacey Allaster, issued a statement calling Williams’ conduct “inappropriate and unprofessional.”

“No matter what the circumstances, no player should be allowed to engage in such behavior without suffering consequences,” Allaster said. “I have spoken with the USTA about this matter and I agree with the action they have taken.”

Monti Says: Kanye West and Serena Williams is a match made in heaven, don’t you think?

MailOnline

September 14, 2009

Kanye West gave a performance that will never be forgotten at the MTV Video Music Awards, but unfortunately for him, it had nothing to do with his music.

The rapper stormed on stage to unleash an astonishing rant during an acceptance speech by country starlet Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards last night.

The 19-year-old singer, who was collecting Best Female Video for You Belong To Me, was left humiliated as West snatched the microphone from her hands.

He turned to the audience and shouted that the gong should have gone to his big friend Beyonce, for Single Ladies.

The hip hop star, who had been swigging Hennessy cognac on the red carpet earlier in the night, was booed roundly by the celebrity-packed audience of thousands.

And it was only the first category of the night.

Swift had breathlessly began her speech with the words, ‘I always wondered what it would be like to maybe win one of these some day, but never actually thought it would happen’.

But before she could continue any further, West leaped from his seat in the audience, ran onto the stage and rushed to grab the microphone as a bemused Swfit struggled to take in what was happening.

West told the stunned star: ‘Yo Taylor. I’m really happy for you, I’m going to let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.’

Cameras cut to Beyonce in the crowd who looked shocked and mortified.

As West shrugged his shoulders and handed back the microphone, a shell-shocked Swift stood in the centre of the stage seemingly unable to continue.

However, she was given another chance to say her piece when Beyonce did win an award for Single Ladies, in the Best Video category.

First she told the audience about her first VMA win as a 17-year-old with Destiny’s Child and how much it meant to her and then she sportingly brought the teen singer back on stage to huge applause.

The pair, both dressed in bright red, embraced before Beyonce passed the microphone to Swift.

Wes was ejected from the awards show at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

He apologised for his outburst on his blog later.

He wrote: ‘I’m sooooo sorry to Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom.’

He added: ‘I’m in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment. Beyonce’s video was the best of this decade . . . I’m sorry to my fans if I let you guys down . . . I’m sorry to my friends at MTV . . . I will apologise to Taylor.’

It is not the first time he has made his feelings known at award ceremonies.

At the 2007 MTV VMAs, he was caught on camera ranting backstage because he had not won for the second year in a row and in 2004, he stormed out of the American Music Awards for losing the best new artist category.

And at the MTV Europe awards in 2006, Kanye jumped onstage after losing out on the Best Video award for Touch The Sky to Simian.

Grabbing a microphone during their speech, he claimed his video should have won because it ‘cost a million dollars, and Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons.’

He later admitted to having a ’sippy sippy’ before the performance.

For her part, Swift called the evening ‘interesting.’

‘I was standing on stage and I was really excited because I’d just won the award and then I was really excited because Kanye West was on stage,’ Swift recalled after the show. ‘And then I wasn’t excited anymore after that.’

She later told MTV that she felt indebted to Beyonce for giving up her moment to allow her to speak.

‘It was just so wonderful and so incredibly classy of her and just gracious and wonderful to let me say something.

‘She’s just been my hero and one of my idols ever since I was little. She’s a great person.’

According to a tweet on Twitter from Jay-Z’s DJ, Neil Armstrong, the singer and her mother were deeply upset by his outburst and were seen crying backstage.

Other celebrities have lashed out against West on Twitter, including Pink, who had to be escorted away from the rapper by security.

She tweeted: ‘Kanye West is the biggest piece of s*** on earth. Quote me.

‘My heart goes out to Taylor Swift. She is a sweet and talented girl and deserved her moment.

‘She should know we all love her. Beyonce is a classy lady. I feel for her, too. It’s not her fault at all, and her and Taylor did their thing. And douche bag got kicked out.’

Katy Perry wrote ‘F*** u Kanye. It’s like you stepped on a kitten’ on the social microblogging site while still at the awards.

The rapper has never disguised his admiration of Beyonce, and last year described her as more influential than Tina Turner.

‘Nobody really wants to recognize that Beyoncé is a f****** living legend and that she is just as great, if not greater, than the artists that we had in the past…that she’s probably greater than Tina Turner.’

Click here to read the full story and watch the video:

Monti Says: This woman is an absolute disgrace to the game of tennis. Not only does she exhibit poor behavior on the court, she’s pompous and arrogant in the press conference. Notice how she lacks the integrity and class to even apologize for what she did. For you non-tennis followers, she’s been a poor sportsman all of her career. It’s just gotten out of hand now. Hey Serena, you have been added to Monti’s Hack List. The sooner you retire from the sport, the better off we will all be!

Associated Press

September 13, 2009

NEW YORK — Serena Williams walked toward the line judge, screaming, cursing and shaking a ball in the official’s direction, threatening to “Serena Williams” her throat.

On match point in the U.S. Open semifinals Saturday night, defending champion Williams was penalized a point for unsportsmanlike conduct — a bizarre, ugly finish that gave a 6-4, 7-5 upset victory to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters.

The match featured plenty of powerful groundstrokes and lengthy exchanges. No one will remember a single shot that was struck, though, because of the unusual, dramatic way it ended.

With Williams serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, she faulted on her first serve. On the second serve, a line judge called a foot fault, making it a double-fault — a call rarely, if ever, seen at that stage of any match, let alone the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament.

That made the score 15-40, putting Clijsters one point from victory.

Instead of stepping to the baseline to serve again, Williams went over and shouted and cursed at the line judge, pointing at her and thrusting the ball toward her.

“If I could, I would take this … ball and shove it down your … throat,” Williams said.

She continued yelling at the line judge, and went back over, shaking her racket in the official’s direction.

Asked in her postmatch news conference what she said to the line judge, Williams wouldn’t say, replying, “What did I say? You didn’t hear?”

“I’ve never been in a fight in my whole life, so I don’t know why she would have felt threatened,” Williams said with a smile.

The line judge went over to the chair umpire, and tournament referee Brian Earley joined in the conversation. With the crowd booing — making part of the dialogue inaudible — Williams then went over and said to the line judge: “Sorry, but there are a lot of people who’ve said way worse.” Then the line judge said something to the chair umpire, and Williams responded, “I didn’t say I would kill you. Are you serious? I didn’t say that.” The line judge replied by shaking her head and saying, “Yes.”

Williams already had been give a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set. So the chair umpire now awarded a penalty point to Clijsters, ending the match.

“She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported to the chair, and that resulted in a point penalty,” Earley explained. “And it just happened that point penalty was match point. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.”

When the ruling was announced, Williams walked around the net to the other end of the court to shake hands with a stunned Clijsters, who did not appear to understand what had happened.

“I used to have a real temper, and I’ve gotten a lot better,” Williams said later. “So I know you don’t believe me, but I used to be worse. Yes, yes, indeed.”

Lost in the theatrics was Clijsters’ significant accomplishment: In only her third tournament back after 2 1/2 years in retirement, the 26-year-old Belgian became the first mother to reach a Grand Slam final since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon 1980.

“The normal feelings of winning a match weren’t quite there,” Clijsters said. “But I think afterwards, when everything kind of sunk in a little bit and got explained to me about what happened, yeah, you kind of have to put it all in place, and then it becomes a little bit easier to understand and to kind of not celebrate, but at least have a little bit of joy after a match like that.”

Clijsters hadn’t competed at the U.S. Open since winning the 2005 championship. Now she will play for her second career major title Sunday against No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 in the other rain-delayed women’s semifinal.

Williams came into the day having won three of the past four Grand Slam titles, and 30 of her previous 31 matches at major tournaments.

She was playing fantastically at the U.S. Open, not losing a set before Saturday and having lost her serve a total of three times through five matches.

But Clijsters — who beat Williams’ older sister, No. 3 Venus, in the fourth round — was superb, matching strokes and strides with as strong and swift a woman as the game has to offer.

Williams, meanwhile, kept making mistakes, and two backhand errors plus a double-fault contributed to a break at love that put Clijsters ahead 4-2.

When Williams netted backhands on consecutive points at 5-4, Clijsters had broken her for the second time and taken the opening set. The last backhand was the 14th unforced error made by Williams to that point — twice as many as Clijsters — and the American bounced her racket, caught it, then cracked it against the blue court, mangling the frame.

When Williams walked to the changeover, she clanged it against the net post and was given a warning for racket abuse by the chair umpire.

That would prove pivotal about an hour later, at match’s end.

“I mean, the timing is unfortunate, you know,” Clijsters said. “To get a point penalty at the time, it’s unfortunate. But there are rules, and you know, like I said, it’s just unfortunate that it has to happen on a match point.”

Monti Says: What goes up, must come down.

Associated Press

September 11, 2009

By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Census Bureau on Friday severed its ties with ACORN, a community organization that has been hit with Republican accusations of voter-registration fraud.
“We do not come to this decision lightly,” Census director Robert Groves wrote in a letter to ACORN, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

In splitting with ACORN, Groves sought to tamp down GOP concerns and negative publicity that the partnership will taint the 2010 head count.

“It is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with the 2010 census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 census efforts,” Groves wrote.

Stephen Buckner, a census spokesman, confirmed the letter, but declined additional comment.

ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson did not immediately return a request for comment.

In recent months, Republicans have become increasingly critical of the census’ ties with ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The group, which advocates for poor people, conducted a massive voter registration effort last year and became a target of conservatives when some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as “Mickey Mouse.”

ACORN has said only a handful of employees submitted false registration forms and did so in a bid to boost their pay.

Partly citing ACORN’s role, Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and David Vitter, R-La., earlier this year blocked a full confirmation vote of Groves for several weeks. Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn., also has been calling for a census boycott because of her concerns about whether the group would tamper with the high-stakes population count.

Up to now, the Census Bureau had defended ACORN’s involvement, explaining it was one of 80,000 unpaid volunteer groups that the bureau hoped would be able to raise local awareness. But in his letter, Groves said it no longer had confidence that ACORN was effectively managing its partnership.

ACORN fired two employees who were seen on hidden-camera video giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman who pretended to be a prostitute. Fox News Channel broadcast excerpts from the video on Thursday. On the video, a man and woman visiting ACORN’s Baltimore office asked about buying a house and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. An ACORN employee advised the woman to list her occupation as “performance artist.”

In a statement, ACORN Maryland board member Margaret Williams said the video was an attempt to smear ACORN, and that undercover teams attempted similar setups in at least three other ACORN offices. Williams said no tax returns were filed and no assistance was provided.

Could have been hurt while in prison?  Too bad he wasn’t!   Seven years in prison and this neo-Nazi sympathizing knucklehead criminal is still a stooge.  His anti-Semitic rhetoric is all to familiar to us by now.  Hopefully the fair minded  Ohio electorate will prevail and keep this piece of trash out of office!  Another wonderful Democrat to toss on the dungheap…  When will the liberal Jews in America wake up and realize that this is no longer the party of choice for them or for Israel? And that poor excuse for a hairpiece, YIKES!!! This guy is a poor excuse for a human being.

go here to watch and listen to this moron as he appeared on Greta Van Susteren’s show last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=0scNGzWfv8A#t=539

ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 11, 2009

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A former Ohio congressman who was freed after seven years in federal prison said he was put in jeopardy behind bars because of his views.

James Traficant spoke in an interview broadcast Thursday night on the Fox News show “On The Record With Greta Van Susteren.”

Traficant said life behind bars was “tough,” and that it wasn’t long before he was in “the hole.” He said he was “put in a position to be hurt” at the federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., because it had many illegal immigrants unhappy with his idea of patrolling the Mexican border with troops.

The nine-term Democrat from Youngstown was released from a medical prison in Rochester, Minn., last week after serving time for racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.

Traficant said his days at Allenwood were followed by time at the upstate New York Ray Brook prison, which he refers to as a “medium-high” security prison nicknamed “The Gladiator School.”

“There’s a lot of violence. … Most political figures go to some camps in country clubs. I didn’t,” he said.

The government considers the New York facility medium security; the Allenwood prison has low, medium and high security areas.

The Bureau of Prisons said Traficant was treated like any other inmate, and that prison assignments are based on several factors. There also are a number of reasons why an inmate might be placed in a special housing unit, the bureau said, and privacy polices prevent the release of information on inmates’ disciplinary records.

Traficant said he spent the bulk of his time in Rochester with a “lot of good guys.”

“I understood the dynamics of prison life,” he said. “And now what you have is, they want to keep the prisons open, keep the jobs going. They’re putting 20, 30 years on some of these young people, and it’s out of hand.”

Traficant said he hasn’t decided yet whether he will run again for Congress, and that he forfeited his future. He also said he doesn’t care about anyone did to him or does to him in the future.

“I’m going to say what I think is right, I’m going to do what I think is right,” he said. “And if it offends some people, then so be it. You see, because I’m still, I guess, the same jackass I was.”

At a weekend “welcome home” event for Traficant in suburban Youngstown. the Democrat said the government had to “cheat” to convict him, reiterating his trial defense that the government was out to get him.

In the interview aired Thursday, he said he holds some grudges.

“I want to go at them,” he said “They came to me and said if I said I was guilty, I might even get a pardon. And I told them to shove the pardon up their derriere sideways.”

In the interview, Traficant also denies that he is anti-Semitic and argues that “Israel has a powerful stranglehold on the American government,” controlling members of the House and Senate and involving the U.S. in wars in which it has little or no interest.

He says he predicted another economic depression and people just laughed at him.

“Stevie Wonder could see this coming,” he said. “Stevie Wonder could see America’s troubles now.”

Watch the full-length documentary The Third Jihad online now, free of charge at www.thethirdjihad.com

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Here’s the key question:  “What do Washington and Jerusalem propose to do now in the face of Iran’s aggressive nuclear and diplomatic offensives? Will the foot-dragging continue until Iran conducts its first nuclear test?”   My guess is that the Obameister will drag his lame ass while Netanyahu is forced to be proactive…

DEBKAfile Special Report

September 5, 2009

Iran’s IAEA delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh

Barack Obama has been in the White House for nine months and Binyamin Netanyahu in the Israeli prime minister’s office six months. Both have spent precious time batting the numbers of settlement apartments to and fro instead of taking resolute steps to thwart Iran’s spectacular advances on the road to a nuclear weapon. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources note that Tehran has made good use of this time for the longest strides towards its objective than at any time since its program was surreptitiously launched.

The progress confirmed by our sources consists of four major steps:

1. Iran has succeeded in secretly combining uranium processing, airborne high-explosive tests and work on designing a missile cone to fit a nuclear warhead, according to Western intelligence updates.

2. The conflicting reports on the amount of uranium enriched and number of fast centrifuge machines in operation obscure the following hard facts: The Iranians have doubled the number of ever faster centrifuges that are working at their enrichment plants.

They are moreover completing tests on a more advanced homemade centrifuge, the IR4, which will halve the time taken for converting low-grade enrichment uranium into weapons-grade material.

3. By February 2010 – and some say sooner – Tehran will have stocked enough high-grade enriched uranium for two nuclear bombs.

4. Iran has also gone into home production of nuclear fuel rods for plutonium.

Barack Obama’ repeatedly held up his plan to engage Tehran in dialogue – first until the June 12 presidential election (hoping a more rational president would replace Mahmoud Ahmedinejad); then, until the popular unrest following the disputed poll died down (for fear of being accused of interfering); and finally on the assumption that the turmoil would divide and weaken the Islamic regime and make it easier to engage constructively.

The six world powers, US, Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany accordingly gave Iran until Sept. 15 to start talks.

It turned out that these delays, instead of weakening Iran’s rulers, hardened their position.

Reacting to the new intelligence presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran’s delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Friday, Sept. 4: “The government of the United States has not handed over the original documents to the agency since it does not in fact have any authenticated documents and all it has are forged document”

An anonymous US official in Vienna said Soltanieh’s accusations were baseless and the IAEA itself “had accepted the material as credible.”

But by then, the Iranian delegate had come up with a new self-serving initiative: a proposal for the agency’s board of governors to ban member states from attacking the nuclear facilities of other nations.

Then on Saturday, Sept 5, Soltanieh, made it clear that Tehran was virtually scrapping the Western powers incentives offer which has been gathering dust since last year as the basis for talks and was about to put forward its own “comprehensive package on issues, including nuclear and economic cooperation as well as concerns about the proliferation of atomic weapons.”

The Iranian package will be handed in this week.

What do Washington and Jerusalem propose to do now in the face of Iran’s aggressive nuclear and diplomatic offensives? Will the foot-dragging continue until Iran conducts its first nuclear test?

Four years ago, prime minister Ariel Sharon said Israel must meet US demands on containing West Bank settlement “because we would need the Americans on the Iran issue.”

His successor, Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni held off Israeli action by reiterating it was up to the “international community” to stop Iran’s advance toward a nuclear bomb.

Has anything changed in Washington and Jerusalem?