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September 2012

JONATHAN KARL: THE STEELWORKER FEATURED AT THE DNC DID NOT WORK FOR BAIN…..

http://news.yahoo.com/steelworker-featured-dnc-didnt-bain-165325041–abc-news-politics.html

Steelworker Featured at DNC Didn’t Work for Bain

By Jonathan Karl | ABC OTUS News – 3 hrs ago

CHARLOTTE, NC – SEPTEMBER 05: Former employee at companies controlled by Romney’s Bain Capital David Foster speaks during day two of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner …more Cable Arena on September 5, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The DNC that will run through September 7, will nominate U.S. President Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) less

The Democratic National Convention on Wednesday featured three speakers billed as “former employees of companies controlled by Bain Capital.”

They each told compelling stories about jobs lost, allegedly because of the actions of Bain under Romney’s leadership.

But it turns out one of those employees never actually worked for a company controlled by Bain Capital. David Foster was supposedly one of those former employees on the convention schedule. He told the story about 750 steelworkers who lost their jobs when the Bain-controlled company GST steel filed for bankruptcy in the early 1990s.

“In 2001, with GST bankrupt and Romney still CEO of Bain, I stood in front of hundreds of steelworkers in their 50s and 60s, and retirees in their 70s and 80s, and told them Romney and Bain had broken their promises. Jobs, vacation pay, severance, health insurance and pension benefits that were promised – they were all gone,” he said. Read his full speech here

But Foster, according to a former spokesman for GST Steel, never actually worked for the company. “David Foster was never an employee of GST Steel’s Kansas City plant. He was employed by the United Steelworkers of America as their regional union director to represent GST Steel, but was not employed at our facility,” according to BC Huselton, who was head of HR at GST. Instead, Foster was a union organizer, who negotiated for workers that did work for the company. Foster explained in his remarks that he was an organizer during his dealings with GST Steel.

MICHAEL ORDMAN: GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/time-and-place-everything

Much can be said for being in the right place at the right time. After five years of life in the Jewish State, I certainly feel this is the country that is central to the future of this planet. The speed of development of Israeli innovations is simply unbelievable. With medical and scientific breakthroughs announced on a daily basis, we live in a time of miracles.
Take for instance the case of the Russian with a ruptured aorta in the heart. Moscow’s doctors had given up on him but realised that transporting him to Israel might save his life. 24 hours after highly complex surgery at Beersheba’s Soroka hospital, the 50-year-old medical tourist was disconnected from most of the devices keeping him alive, except for his iPod on which he was watching films.

Many of Israel’s medical research discoveries will only bear fruit towards the end of this decade, but we have much to look forward to. A cure for diabetes is likely, thanks to researchers at Israel’s Technion and Ben-Gurion University who have engineered insulin-producing tissue. They have found that transplanting the tissue into animals, lowers blood sugar levels. By 2020 we may also witness the paralysed being able to speak. Three Israeli professors have recorded neurone patterns during speech attempts and converted these into computer-generated synthesised speech. I’m certain this could help “locked in” syndrome sufferers such as Stephen Hawking take a more articulate place on the world’s stage.

One Israeli hi-tech device is literally “out of this world”. Israel’s Ricor Cryogenic & Vacuum Systems manufactures the K508 Integral Stirling 1/2W Micro Cooler. This neat little device is currently optimising the temperature of NASA’s vital CheMin chemical analyser on the Red Planet.

Many of Israel’s clean-tech developments have certainly come just at the right time. The residents of New Orleans re-settled following Hurricane Katrina will appreciate their new modern neighborhood being heated by the advanced solar panels supplied by Israel’s Solaredge. Meanwhile, Israel’s aptly named “Better Place” electric car infrastructure broke a world record when one of its battery-switched cars travelled 1172 miles on electric power over the course of 24 hours.

DERSH BLAMES THE DEBACLE ON “ROGUE DEMOCRATS”….SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/09/06/exclusive-dershowitz-blames-rogue-democrats-for-dnc-jerusalem-debacle-calls-on-president-obama-to-do-more/

I’ve really had enough. He is not stupid…but will fully blind. Any self-respecting Jew who heard the loud and decisive “boos” at the DNC when Israel and Jerusalem were mentioned and still finds excuses for them is no longer self-respecting or respectable…..period…..rsk

Exclusive: Dershowitz Blames “Rogue” Democrats for DNC Jerusalem Debacle, Calls on President Obama to do More

As President Obama prepares to accept the Democratic nomination for his second term in the White House on Thursday night in North Carolina, one of the United States’ most vocal supporters of Israel is calling on Obama to reaffirm his party’s entire platform language on Israel from 2008, and vowed to fight “rogue elements” within the Democratic party who seek to end the positive relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

After failing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city in their initial 2012 platform, which prompted a sharp rebuke from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the Democrats reinstated language on the issue from their 2008 and 2004 versions, however Dershowitz told The Algemeiner that his party did not go far enough. Isolating Hamas until it renounces terrorism, solving the Palestinian refugee crisis through a Palestinian state alone, and affirming that a two-state solution could not realistically force Israel back to its borders of 1949 should be publicly endorsed by President Obama within the coming weeks, after statements on these issues were also left out of the Democratic platform this year.

DAVID SINGER: PALESTINE….NARROWING THE GREAT DIVIDE

The political rift between Hamas and Fatah arising from their struggle to control the minds and the hearts of the Palestinian Arabs has continued unabated and unresolved for the last six years.
DAVID SINGER IS A PROMINENT LAWYER AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS ANALYST IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA….AND “DOWN UNDER” HE’S REALLY ON TOP AND ONE OF MY BEST E-PALS…..RSK

Gaza and the West Bank have become two separate and distinct political fiefdoms that have materially contributed to making the attainment of the “two-state” solution envisaged in the Oslo Accords and the Bush Road Map impossible to achieve. The divide is so wide that the areas themselves have been dubbed “Hamastan” and “Fatahland” – signifying the utter hopelessness of reconciliation between two very polarized forces.

Political commentators Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff have succinctly summed up the position in their recent article – “Palestinian unity can wait – discord still growing between Hamas and Fatah”-

“Both entities – the West Bank (Fatahland) and the Gaza Strip (Hamastan) – continue their bizarre dance: endless negotiations on the need for unity with zero actions or results, and a reality that only proves how wide the internal Palestinian divide is.”

The results of a recent survey indicate that there is also deep division between the “1948 Arabs” – those who did not flee the 1948 War between the Jews and six invading Arab armies – and those Arabs who did – identified as the “1967 Arabs.”

The survey was undertaken by Professor Shifra Sagy, director of the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev – with funding from the German research foundation DFG.

The study came at the initiative of some of Professor Sagy’s Palestinian students. It was co-directed with her postdoctoral student Dr. Adi Mana, and PhD students Anan Srour and Serene Madjali.

The survey was taken among 1104 Israeli Arabs and 948 West Bank Arabs – who were all personally interviewed.

Views were expressed by each group on the following matters – and commented on by Professor Sagy:

1. Loyalty to the land:

“We asked Arabs of ’48 about their narrative, which is that they were loyal to their land when they didn’t desert it and stayed. The ’67 people look at the same issue, and they say the ’48 Arabs stayed on their land because they gave up and succumbed to the occupation without any resistance,”

2. The relative well-being of the 1948 Arabs as compared to the 1967 Arabs

“The ‘48 Arabs say this is our right as citizens of Israel, but in the West Bank, the popular narrative is that this relative affluence is because Israel coopted them into being loyal,”

3. On marrying each other

60 percent of Israeli Arabs surveyed said they would not want their daughter to marry a West Bank Arab, while 41% of West Bankers had the same attitude to their daughter marrying an Arab with Israeli citizenship.

JULIA GORIN: MURDER AND CORRUPTION IN KOSOVO? YOU DON’T SAY

http://www.juliagorin.com/wordpress/?p=2899

It Still Won’t Keep Maddie Albright from Getting her War-begotten Goodies

No sooner did I blog about the multiple-stabbing “suicide” of Kosovo’s privatization czar, and no sooner did I read that “Albright Capital Management has bid for the privatisation of Kosovo’s most profitable company PTK” (note: “The telecoms infrastructure that PTK today owns was initially funded by the citizens of all of Serbia before it was seized without any reparations”), than I was forwarded the following update:

Firm Eyes Kosovo’s Contested State Telecom (Aug. 30)

Kosovo is preparing to sell a majority stake in its state-owned post and telecom company PTK, a deal that could yield as much as €600 million ($753 million) for Europe’s newest and poorest country.

The bidding, set to begin next month [September], has attracted interest from European and Turkish phone operators, as well as from an investment company headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was a major backer of Kosovo in its war against Serbia. Already, however, the sale process has been clouded by corruption allegations, legal challenges, and the death of the state privatization agency’s chief, Dino Asanaj. In June, his body was found in his apartment in Kosovo’s capital city of Pristina, with 11 stab wounds. Authorities say he committed suicide.

Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, is an economic basket case. National unemployment stands near 45 percent, and per capita income hovers around $7,000, the lowest in Europe. The International Monetary Fund this year approved a $134 million bailout for the country and urged its government to raise more money by selling a stake in profitable PTK. “We expect big impacts on the economy and the telecommunication sector on the one hand, and at the same time we want to signal foreign investors that Kosovo is an attractive country to invest and do business [in],” Economy Minister Besim Beqaj says.

The government has tried, and failed, to privatize PTK before. An attempt launched in 2010 fell apart last year following a corruption investigation at the company. And earlier asset sales were tainted by accusations of wrongdoing: At the time of his death, privatization chief Asanaj faced investigation for allegedly demanding a bribe from purchasers of a privatized hotel property.

WES PRUDEN: GOD, JEWS AND GOOD OLE BUBBA

http://www.prudenpolitics.com/newsletter?utm_source=P&P%20Auto%201&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4425 Bill Clinton did what he set out to do, and did it well. He brought the attention and focus of the Democrats, if only briefly, squarely back to his favorite person: “Don’t you wish I was the man at the top of the ticket?” Nobody honks, wonks and bonks quite like the ravisher-in-chief. The […]

CLIMATE DEPOT: OBAMA GOES FULL WITCHCRAFT BY TELLING VOTERS THEY CAN “DO SOMETHING” ABOUT WILDFIRES, DROUGHTS AND FLOODS

http://www.climatedepot.com/a/17370/Obama-goes-full-witchcraft-by-telling-voters-they-can-do-something-about-droughts-and-floods-and-wildfires–Climate-Depot-Responds

Obama goes full witchcraft by telling voters they ‘can do something about’ droughts and floods and wildfires — Climate Depot Responds

Climate Depot’s Morano reminds voters: ‘Acts of the UN and the U.S. Congress or EPA, cannot control the weather’

President Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech declared that American voters can “do something about” extreme weather by supporting his re-election.

Obama: “And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet – because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future. And in this election, you can do something about it.” (For full Obama speech text see: President Obama’s Speech: Full Text From the Democratic National Convention – September 6, 2012)

Climate Depot response:

“President Obama — who once declared his presidency would result in ‘the rise of the oceans beginning to slow’ — now wants us to believe voters can help regulate the weather by supporting his re-election. Obama’s declaration that “you can do something about” droughts and floods and wildfires is akin to medieval witchcraft. For any confused voters out there, Climate Depot reminds them that acts of the United Nations and the U.S. Congress or EPA, cannot control the weather. The president of the United States may be able to command great armies, but he cannot control the climate or command better weather. (For more on global warming activists seeking to control the weather, see here.)

Even Nancy Pelosi recognizes Obama cannot control the weather. (See: Nancy Pelosi: Obama can’t control the weather — ‘Whether it rains or not is not in the president’s control’ – ‘The Democratic leader said the weather is ‘a higher power’ that the president can’t control. ‘There are some decisions that are made from a different place and whether it rains or not is not in the president’s control.’)

Amen! Pelosi clearly has more scientific acumen than President Obama.

Despite President Obama’s claims, Co2 is not controlling temperatures and current global temperatures are well within natural variability. In addition, the latest scientific studies and data reveal that droughts, floods and wildfires and extreme weather are not currently unusual or unprecedented.”

DAVID GOLDMAN: GOD…THE AFTERTHOUGHT PLEASE READ ****

God, the Afterthought http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/09/06/god-the-afterthought/2/ The Democratic Party didn’t quite succeed in banning God from its platform, but it did its best to ensure that no-one would listen to him by putting a liberal clergyman who talks about anything except God in front of a deserted stadium. That checked the God box without allowing the Maker […]

SETH J. FRANTZMAN : A REVIEW OF RUTHIE BLUM’S BOOK “TO

The Islamification of Middle Eastern governments was helped along by the White House and the State Department, writes Ruthie Blum. www.jpost.com/ On the night of April 24, 1980, American special forces gathered in the cold desert of Iran waiting to be joined by other American forces that were being helicoptered in. A combination of bad […]

CAROLINE GLICK: GOD, JERUSALEM AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2012/09/god-jerusalem-and-american-for.php?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=God%2C+Jerusalem+and+American+foreign+policy&utm_campaign=20120907_m113448193_God%2C+Jerusalem+and+American+foreign+policy&utm_term=Continue+Reading___

Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama and his supporters have been dogged by criticism of his position on Israel. From the very outset of his tenure in office, critics and supporters alike have not been able to shake the sense that Obama is deeply hostile to the Jewish state.
Obama and his supporters have responded to every criticism of his treatment of Israel by pulling out a list. Every time his record on Israel is criticized, Obama and his supporters pull out a list of the things he has done for Israel. Just this week, in an op-ed in The New York Times, Democratic donor Haim Saban pulled out the list to justify his support for Obama.