18:49 15/08/2008	U.S. missile shield in Europe targets Russia - Medvedev
22:04 20/08/2008	Russia says U.S. missile shield in Europe prompts arms race
19:04 26/08/2008	Russia not seeking new Cold War, but not afraid - Medvedev

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Recently I was invited to attend a weekend meeting that included elected officials and leaders of organizations concerned about radical Islam.

During that time I had the opportunity to meet with the producers of a documentary entitled “Karachi Kids.” “Karachi Kids” chronicles how children from around the world, including Americans and Canadians, are being sent off to a Pakistani madrassa run by the Taliban, to be brainwashed and sent back to their home countries as jihadists.

The school claims that it has already “graduated” over 100 American children.

Please read the press release below and click on www.karachikids.com to view the trailer.

Then, I urge you to click here to contact your Member of Congress and two U.S. Senators and ask them to support legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX).

McCaul’s bill, H.Res 1336, calls for an accounting of how many American children are in radical Islamic madrassas in Pakistan. H.Res 1336 encourages "the United States Secretary of State to work with the government of Pakistan to secure the return to the United States of all American children being educated in madrassas in Pakistan."

Brigitte Gabriel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	News@KarachiKids.com
Thursday, July 10, 2008	(404) 524-2244

STATEMENT OF IMRAN RAZA
REGARDING RELEASE OF
AMERICAN CHILDREN FROM
PAKISTANI TALIBAN MADRASSA

(Atlanta, GA) - Imran Raza, the director and executive producer of the documentary "Karachi Kids" who discovered up to 80 American children in a Taliban-backed madrassa in Pakistan released the following statement regarding the return of two American children to Atlanta:
I am grateful for the safe return of the two American children from Atlanta from a Taliban- backed madrassa but the mullah claims to have up to 78 more in his institution. The headmaster comes to the United States once a year and personally recruits American children to enroll in his madrassa.
The remaining 78 children must be returned to the United States. This pipeline to jihad must be closed.
Let me be clear - these children do not learn math, or science, or liberal arts. They learn one thing - they memorize over the course of seven years every verse of the Koran coupled with the radical interpretation of their teachers.
This is just the first step in integrating these children back to American society. I am proud we did our part so we could say "Welcome Home."
It is imperative that Members of Congress and the State Department undertake an accounting of just how many Americans are in the other 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan. Hundreds remain behind.

The Karachi Kids is a documentary about American children in the Jamia Binoria madrassa in Karachi Pakistan. A trailer of the film is available at www.karachikids.com.

Facts About the Binoria Madrassa

• Located in Karachi, Pakistan, the Jamia Binoria madrassa was founded by Mufti Muhammed Naeem and espouses Deobandism -- the religion of the Taliban.
• The institution houses over 3,000 students including children from the United States and Canada.
• Selig Harrison, the Director of the Asian Program for the Center for International Policy recently gave a speech reafng the link between the Jamia Binoria and the Taliban: "In Karachi, the Jamia Binoria, withsome 10,000 students enrolled in eight afted madrassas, displays a banner at its main gate urging Muslims to join the Taliban."
• A large number of graduates from the Binoria have become senior es in the Taliban.
• Right before 9/11, Osama bin Laden addressed the students emphasizing the importance of jihad.
• Mufti claims to have graduated over 100 Americans from his institution and asked what they teach the children, Mufti relied, "Islam, not math or anything else, only Islam."

Coalition Forces Detain, Kill Militants in Afghanistan
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:54:00 -0500

Coalition Forces Detain, Kill Militants in Afghanistan American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2008 - Coalition and Afghan security forces detained four militants and killed more than a dozen others in separate operations yesterday and Aug. 25, military officials reported. Four militants were detained, including a targeted individual, during a coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Paktika province yesterday. Coalition forces searched a compound in Barmal district, targeting a militant facilitating the movement of foreign fighters and weapons from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Afghan and coalition forces killed several militants during a combat patrol in Sangin district, Helmand province, Aug. 25. The combined force spotted a large number of heavily armed militants gathering in small groups and preparing to attack the soldiers. The troops engaged the militants with small arms, machine guns, and close-air support, killing more than a dozen of them. In other developments, Afghan and coalition forces conducted a medical civil action program in Qalat district, Zabul province, Aug. 24-25. During the two-day program, coalition forces medical personnel treated 728 children, 373 women and 89 men for various ailments ranging from stomach pains to broken bones. Medics also taught preventive care by distributing handouts advising Afghans to boil water before drinking to prevent illness. Educational supplies, Korans and Afghan national flags also were distributed to the local populace. (Compiled from Combined Joint Task Force 101 news releases.)

Related Sites: Combined Joint Task Force 101 NATO International Security Assistance Force

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You Can see many more great pictures here. They are taken by Chuck Holton

I don’t even know how this is possible but Barack Hussein Obama is strong arming media to prevent an anti-BHO ad from hitting the national and local air waves.

 

Anti-BHO ad is not even from the McCain campaign camp. It is from a “conservative non-profit group” called American Issues Project (AIP). AIP does not have a direct connection to McCain but in fairness to BHO its conservatism and anti-BHO campaign definitely benefits McCain. And the thing that is glorious is that McCain cannot be held accountable for anything AIP does that may cross the line.

 

This AIP ad is definitely a Swift Boat kind of ad that will haunt BHO. There are very few ways to dodge the content of the ad for it is a matter of public record which the MSM will undoubtedly avoid reporting on at this stage of the Presidential race. It is surprising that Fox has backed away from running AIP ad though. I wonder what the threat BHO is using to squelch this First Amendment right to air the truth.

 

Are you ready to read what the heck I am talking about?

 

It is the fact that Barack Hussein Obama and Bill Ayers are buddies. In fact they are such buddies that BHO began the initial stages of planning a campaign at Ayers home.

 

If you have never heard of Bill Ayers you might ask, “So what?”

 

Bill Ayers was a member of the murderous Left Wing (pro-Communist) Weatherman home grown terrorist organization. There purpose was to target government employees because the U.S. military were “murdering” 2000 Vietnamese every day. That means Ayers was one of those unpatriotic people of the Left during the Vietnam War era that called American troops coming home from war “baby killers, butchers, and murderers” and more.

 

You know what? According to a Fox News interview (yep one of the networks not running the anti-BHO ad) Bill Ayers is totally unrepentant the violence he was involved in perpetrating on Americans. It is no wonder that Barack Hussein Obama was against invading Iraq and the later Surge. By association with Ayers BHO has to be one of those Lefties that would rather see America submerged in foreign violence rather than actively preempting foreign violence. Why? Because it might kill innocent people who support violent acts against America.

 

That is a bunch of Slanted Left utopian drivel!

 

Catch this Bill Ayers is now a tenured Professor at University of Illinois, Chicago.

 

Here is an example the Left spin and justification of Bill Ayers today: A Washington Post (alleged) Fact Finding Blog.

 

Here Michael Dobbs remarkably paints a picture of a “distinguished” Professor involved in good works (such as anti-poverty – every Communist collective’s favorite charity) and a tribute to society. Dobbs proceeds to mush through an Ayers pedestal saying the old Weatherman murderer was never convicted of any crime. O MY GOD! He wasn’t convicted because a moronic judge allowed a technicality about FBI surveillance not to be used against Ayers.

 

You can view the ad and read about BHO attempts to squelch the First Amendment at GetLiberty.org.

 

JRH 8/27/08

 

 

When I first committed my life to Christ, I was 11.  I had very powerful experiences not affirmed by that church.  Dry, dry.   So when we moved to California again we didn't seek out a new church.  It was many years later before I allowed myself to be talked into church again at the age of 31.  Recently, I discovered a video of a comedian giving a serious speech. Its offensive to liberals because (in my view) its entirely true but the message is very critical of liberal ideology.    I used to be remotely liberal, meaning I wasn't interested in politics and international affairs. So when I did go to church I discovered I could not get enough of the Bible.  I bought reference books and learned how to use them.  I bought various versions of the Bible.  I spent hours on hours studying by topic and by chapter and by word.  I learned that everything I'd been sold by the liberals was a pile of horse hockey. My own lifestyle made me my own worse enemy.  As I applied the wisdom of the Bible to my life I began having the powerful experiences again.  I began to see prayer answered and unanswerable questions answered.  I learned by study and by experiential evidence the more I aligned my life with God's will as described in the Bible the better my life was.  The church I was attending believed very seriously in personal relationship with a living God and this was supported in what I was learning and in what I was experiencing.  Then the church seemed to just go as dry as the original church was.  I learned something new.  My experience with God is dependent on my relationship with other worshipers.  God still answered prayer, but where was that, that experience?  

I am a collector of allegories.  One of my favorites is the story of the parishioner who began to stay home on Sunday's.  The preacher being a good shepherd went out to visit the man.  When he got there, the man was sitting on the porch.  Without saying a word, the man stood up and motioned the preacher an invitation to come inside.  Both men knew why he was there.  They sat down near the wood burning stove and both were staring into the fire through its little open door, yet neither had spoken a word.  Pretty soon the preacher reached over and took the fireplace tongs and pulled a single glowing coal out of the fire and set it on the ash keep just below the door.  It didn't take but a couple of minutes and the coal's fire had completely died.  The preacher reached back over with the tongs and put the now dead coal back into the fire and it soon was glowing with the rest.  He looked back over to the man and said, "We'll see you in church on Sunday."

He'd made his point.  Away from fellowship with the worshipers, the faith begins to dry up.  Relating that to my experience, I began to understand that even though the church was still meeting every Sunday, something had either separated me from them or else the presence of God was lifting from that congregation.  I have yet to figure that out.  I am beginning to think its me, because it doesn't seem to matter which church, I feel separate in a way I can't fathom much less describe.  I still hear the voice of God, I still have prayer answered, I still am able to minister the heart of God to others, and be ministered to by others.  But something has changed somewhere.  My church home cannot be duplicated.  I have long since moved from that area and still visit that church when I go visit family and friends.  Its still the same as when I left though there are new board members and support staff.  I'm thinking, I'm not the same person I was when I moved into the faith.  I  have been called to something else.  I have been led a different path than most church members, but I haven't been very faithful in that calling.  I need the encouragement that kind of fellowship brings to follow through with that calling, though the call itself is separate from that fellowship. 

Today, it hit me that I have been soundly blessed.  My job has afforded me ample time to solidify my purpose in blogging.  I have been able to formulate the rudimentary thesis I am now working on and develop in my articles.  Some days I work as little as 45 minutes and yet retain my salary which allows me to live comfortably.  A long day entails a physically and emotionally light 6 hours with relatively little pressure.  For 20 months I've been able to do this and new developments seem to be formulating for me to be able to work on my thesis as the inspiration strikes.  We'll have to see how that goes, but... well, wow!!  Who gets to work between 1 and 6 hours a day and still have a decent pay check?  So, I think I'm acting within God's will because I'm being blessed so which allows this kind of focus.  All these 20 months and I've both been worried that the boss is somehow displeased that he has to pay what he pays for the little that I do, but he isn't.  All this time I've wondered if I should be hunting for a real job.  No, I'm actually being promoted to a more responsible and LESS active job. 

This must be answer to prayers I'd prayed way back, way back when I asked God to bless my employers even though they don't believe in the God I do, bless them so that I could please Him with my compensation.  I think I am, now.  I think I'm on the right track because so much stuff is out here in the ethereal digitized land of information that is just plain wrong,  I'm not referring to the facts of science and finance.  I'm referring to understanding what we do that defeats what we want (both collectively and individually) and changing our hearts from this self defeating ignorance to think through what we want and evaluate the cost and to make rational decisions whether to pursue those wants or to shoot those wants in the head and get on with living the life we can.

Just as I was finishing up this article, Ruth sent me this Stumbled upon opinion piece.  It relates the epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism running through the American population for many decades now.  I do not suppose that I can single handedly turn the tide of this epidemic, but maybe I can entice a few people in my little corner of the information age to get interested in discovering the pertinent parts and applying them enough to make some good life choices.

KABUL, Aug 24 (Reuters) - A NATO-chartered helicopter crashed on Sunday in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar near the border with Pakistan, causing one death, a spokesman for the alliance said.

The civilian helicopter crashed soon after taking off from a military base in an area of the rugged province, the spokesman said, ruling out any hostile action.

He had no details about the type of the helicopter, number of people on board or identity of the casualties.

NATO in a statement said the helicopter was an Mi-8 supply helicopter, contracted by the alliance's International Security Assistance Forces.

It was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from an ISAF base, the statement said, but did not say what caused the problem.

"One person on board the aircraft died and three were wounded during the incident," it added without elaborating on the nationality of the casualties.

Kunar is part of the main bastion for Taliban Islamists who lead the insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign troops backing it.

 (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)

 

Posted on Liveleak by jdischord

Raw video:Denver August 26/08,During protests at the DNC today an officer takes action against Code Pink - She got in his face threatening - And he gave her what she asked for!!!

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Cross posted from All American Blogger

By Duane Lester • Aug 25th, 2008

Barack Obama has a plan for fixing the American health care system. Posted on his website, he has laid his plan out for everyone to review. Only, he has left out a few details.

Obama starts by naming three distinct issues with American health care. First, there are a lot of people who are without insurance. According to Obama’s website, there are “47 million Americans” without insurance, including about 9 million children.

But there are a few details he forgot to mention. Out of that 47 million people, about 10 million of them are not Americans. According to page 29 of the Census Bureau report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005 (pdf),” 9.487 million people in America without insurance are “not a citizen.”

Out of the 37 million Americans without insurance, the same page of the report shows 8.3 million who are uninsured make between $50,000 - $74,999. Another 8.74 million make over $75,000 or more. Is it fair to say that these folks should be able to afford health insurance? Understand there are different costs of living across the country, but if you make $50,000 in Newark, New Jersey, that’s like making $35,000 in Des Moines, Iowa. There are people in Des Moines making less than that with health insurance.

I know. I was one of them.

After dropping those 17 million people, we are left with 20 million people without health insurance, or 6.66%. That is no small number, but it is a detail that needed to be pointed out. Also worth pointing out is that means 93.34% of Americans are insured in some manner.

Obama’s second issue is “Health insurance premiums have risen 4 times faster than wages over the past 6 years.” An article from Reuter’s supports that claim. How will Obama’s plan address this problem? He will simply create “a new national health plan” with “affordable health coverage” and “affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles.”

The question is how?

According to The Cato Institute, Obama’s plan is similar to the law Mitt Romney signed in Massachusetts, which called for “increased regulation, a government-designed standard benefits package, and a new pooling mechanism.” Obama calls his the “National Health Insurance Exchange.” Romney’s was called The Connector:

The Connector is not actually an insurer. Rather, it is designed to allow individuals and workers in small companies to take advantage of the economies of scale, both in terms of administration and risk pooling, which are currently enjoyed by large employers. Multiple employers are able to pay into the Connector on behalf of a single employee. And, most importantly, the Connector would allow workers to use pretax dollars to purchase individual insurance. That would make insurance personal and portable, rather than tied to an employer-all very desirable things.

These are things mentioned in Obama’s plan. According to his website, the “National Health Insurance Exchange” will:

• act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible.
• require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and have the same standards for quality and efficiency.
• evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, public.

When you see the similarities between the two plans, it is distressing when you see what has happened with The Connector:

the Connector’s board has seen itself as a combination of the state legislature and the insurance commissioner, adding a host of new regulations and mandates.

For example, the Connector’s governing board has decreed that by January 2009, no one in the state will be allowed to have insurance with more than a $2,000 deductible or total out-of-pocket costs of more than $5,000. In addition, every policy in the state will be required to phase in coverage of prescription drugs, a move that could add 5–15 percent to the cost of insurance plans. A move to require dental coverage barely failed to pass the board, and the dentists-along with several other provider groups-have not given up the effort to force their inclusion. This comes on top of the 40 mandated benefits that the state had previously required, ranging from in vitro fertilization to chiropractic services.

Thus, it appears that the Connector offers quite a bit of pain for relatively little gain. Although the ability to use pretax dollars to purchase personal and portable insurance should be appealing in theory, only about 7,500 nonsubsidized workers have purchased insurance through the Connector so far. On the other hand, rather than insurance that “fits their needs,” Massachusetts residents find themselves forced to buy expensive “Cadillac” policies that offer many benefits that they may not want. (Emphasis mine.)

This is just the opposite of what is needed to solve the problem with high insurance premiums. The Wall Street Journal shows how different states have created insurance mandates and how those mandates affect the cost of coverage:

New York requires every insurance policy sold there to cover podiatry. Acupuncture coverage is mandated in 11 states, massage therapy in four, osteopathy in 24, and chiropractors in 47. There are an estimated 1,800 or so such insurance “mandates” across the country, and the costs add up. “It is always the providers asking for the mandate; it is never the consumer,” says health policy guru John Goodman, who has testified before legislatures considering such rules.

What’s more, states like New Jersey and New York add two more ultra-expensive requirements: “Guaranteed issue” allows people to wait till they are sick and then buy insurance; “community rating” prevents insurers from charging different prices to people of different ages and health status.

It’s important to note that Obama’s plan features “guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions.” It is features like this that make “insurance so expensive that millions of people are exposed to financial ruin because they aren’t allowed to buy basic policies focused on catastrophic costs.”

How expensive? A 2004 study by eHealthInsurance.com found that a typical insurance policy ($2,000 deductible, 20% co-insurance) for a family of four could be had for as little in as $172 per month in a reasonably regulated locality like Kansas City, Missouri. But in New York that family’s only option–managed care–would run $840 per month, and in New Jersey family policies run a whopping $1,200-plus.

Rather than break down the barriers between the states and foster competition between the companies, Obama’s plan threatens to abolish the barriers and create a universal mandate, which would not lower premiums, but raise the cost to the taxpayer, as seen in Massachusetts.

According to MedicalNewsToday, the cost of the plan rose from an expected $472 million in the first year to $625 million. This was because of “higher than expected enrollment in government-sponsored programs.” Governor Deval Patrick has asked for “$869 million for the program for fiscal year 2009, compared with previous estimates of $725 million.”

How does this affect the Massachusetts taxpayer?

Costs also have increased for residents. Monthly premiums for partially subsidized coverage increased by an average of 9.4% going into the second year of the program, according to state figures. Premiums for people purchasing private coverage without a subsidy increased by an average of 5.1%.

And they don’t even have everyone covered yet. Obama’s plan is estimated to cost “$50 billion to $65 billion a year, when fully phased in.” His campaign said “the revenues from rolling back the tax cuts were enough to cover it.” He is going to raise taxes to fund it. He has also added that savings from implementing the plan will help fund it. It is impossible to predict how much they have underestimated the cost, but the government rarely comes in under budget, especially with new programs. This one will be no different.

Obama’s third issue tackled in this plan is the lack of emphasis “on prevention and public health.” Ironically, there is very little in his plan concerning this problem. Aside from initially mentioning that “less than 4 cents of every health care dollar is spent on prevention and public health,” the plan doesn’t really address this issue in detail.

When initially reviewed, the Obama plan seems well thought out, but when closely examined, it doesn’t get into the details on how the plan will be implemented. There are words such as “require” and “force,” which should cause even liberals to stop and consider the power of such terms when wielded by the federal government.

But what it boils down to is huge federal bureaucracies attempting to control the price of health care. And as I have written before, when you have price controls, you will have shortages, followed by rationing.

We already have health care rationing in America, though it is currently limited to one state. With Obama’s plan, it could easily spread across America like a virus.

Duane Lester is an ex-Navy journalist turned blogger and podcaster. He is the lead writer and editor for All American Blogger. You can also find him on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog Talk Radio and Newsvine.