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Ruth King

ROBIN SHEPHERD: WILL WE HAVE THE GUTS TO BACK A MILITARY STRIKE ON IRAN

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/889/will_we_have_the_guts_to_back_a_military_strike_on_iran_

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that, “In the coming days the world will witness Iran’s announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements.”
In dealing with fanatical, potentially genocidal, Islamist extremists (not a word you will now be allowed to hear from the BBC, we recently learned) it is always difficult to determine what counts as bluster and what counts as something we should truly be worried about.

So when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday – the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution – that, “In the coming days the world will witness Iran’s announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements,” there will be some who will tell us not to be overly concerned.

Ahmadinejad was merely playing to the gallery, they will say. He simply delivered the kind of goading, aggressive rhetoric that would be appreciated by people who responded with chants of “Death to Israel”, and “Death to America”.

But as Larry Haas recently argued in these pages, one of the lessons the world should have learned from the 1930s is that when ideologically driven fanatics issue threats, we’d be well advised to take them at their word:

“Hitler ranted, but the world scoffed,” said Haas. “Few imagined that Hitler could be serious about his plans, even as the Third Reich increasingly institutionalized Jew hatred in law; later, few believed the reports emanating from Germany in the 1940s that Hitler was systematically slaughtering the Jews.

“Today, Iran’s leaders are pursuing nuclear weapons while threatening to wipe out Israel, referring to the Jewish state in the vilest terms. Most recently, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, endorsed a doctrine that explains why it’s “legally and morally justified” to eliminate Israel.”

KELLY O’DWYER, AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATOR ON IRAN AND ISRAEL AND THE “GREENS”: BRAVO!!! ****

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

“This Despicable Vitriol Is Left Unchallenged”: Aussie Parliamentarian Highlights The Greens’ Moral Bankruptcy Regarding Israel and Iran
Clearly, O’Dwyer is Golden, while Silence is Green. For what a magnificent speech by Australian legislator Kelly O’Dwyer, Liberal member for Higgins, in yesterday’s debate in the House of Representatives concerning Human Rights (or rather, the lack of them) in Iran.

All praise to to her for highlighting so ably and comprehensively the unconscionable hypocrisy of the Greens:

“In Australia during this time one must ask the questions ‘Who stands conspicuously quiet? Who stands silent while these human rights are abused?’ …. It is … the Greens, those people who suggest that they are the champions of human rights and the keepers of the moral chalice, those professed keepers of all that is right and ethical. Where, I ask you, is Senator Brown in condemning these actions? Where is Senator Hanson-Young on her soapbox demanding justice? Where is the member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, in this chamber supporting this motion? Where are the Greens protests in the streets? Most importantly, given all that we have learned about the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions scheme that grew from the Greens’ local council movement in Marrickville, where are the calls for the boycotts of Iranian companies or even of Syrian ones, to be truly consistent? No, all that is simply reserved for Israel.

TURKEY’S SIREN SONG ON IRAN: KENNETH TIMMERMAN

Turkey’s Siren Song on Iran Posted By Kenneth R. Timmerman URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/15/turkeys-siren-song-on-iran/ Turkey’s foreign minister came to Washington on Friday, trying to push another fake “peace in our time” deal with Iran. Given the Obama administration’s track record with Iran to date, they may take it – with disastrous consequences. Ahmed Davotoglu hectored […]

DANIEL GREENFIELD: DEMOCRATS RICHER THAN ROMNEY

Democrats Richer Than Romney Posted By Daniel Greenfield

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/02/15/democrats-richer-than-romney/

Democrats who have been a bit too obscenely eager to damn Mitt Romney as Mr. Moneybags may want to reconsider. The media has spent a great deal of time touting the claim that Romney would be the richest president in half a century. But Romney’s net worth of approximately 200 million dollars would not even make him the richest senator. Senators Kohl, Warner and Kerry all beat out Romney in the wealth sweepstakes. And they’re all Democrats. For all the news stories about his wealth, if Romney ran for Congress, he wouldn’t even make it as the wealthiest member of the House of Representatives.

If the Democrats really believe that wealth is a disqualification for public office, why do they keep selecting some of the wealthiest senators in the country? If Romney wins then he may become the wealthiest president in half a century, but if Kerry had won the honor would have gone to him.

WIND TURBINES: HOT AIR GREEN TECHNOLOGY GONE WITH THE WIND?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21468-hurricanes-deliver-fatal-blows-to-wind-turbines.html?full=true&print=true

* Updated 11:38 14 February 2012 by Chelsea Whyte

Gone with the wind? Hurricanes could destroy the offshore wind farms the US is planning to build in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

The US Department of Energy set a goal for the country to generate 20 per cent of its electricity from wind by 2030. One-sixth is to come from shallow offshore turbines that sit in the path of hurricanes.

Stephen Rose and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, modelled the risk hurricanes might pose to turbines at four proposed wind farm sites. They found that nearly half of the planned turbines are likely to be destroyed over the 20-year life of the farms. Turbines shut down in high winds, but hurricane-force winds can topple them.

In 2007, Texas granted a multimillion-dollar lease for a wind farm site near Galveston, Texas. Rose found it was “the riskiest location to build a wind farm of the four locations examined”.

Each wind farm may cost $175 million. “We want these risks to be known now before we start putting these wind turbines offshore,” says team member Paulina Jaramillo. “We don’t want any backlash when the first one goes down and it costs a lot to replace.”

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1111769109

RON RADOSH: OBAMA’S DILEMMA HOW TO “MANAGE” ISRAEL AND IRAN

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2012/02/13/obamas-dilemma-how-will-it-deal-with-the-differences-with-israel-over-what-the-u-s-will-do-to-stop-iran-getting-a-nuclear-bomb/?singlepage=true

At present, foreign policy is not playing a part in the campaign. But with a looming crisis coming with Iran over the state of its nuclear capabilities, it will not be on the back burner for long. Soon, both President Obama and the Republican candidates for the nomination will have to make clear specifically how they would handle events. There is simply no escaping that formidable task.

In the important dispatch that is the cover of Newsweek International this week (but not the American edition of the magazine, whose editors evidently think it is too serious and will not sell copies), reporters Daniel Klaidman, Eli Lake, and Dan Ephron discuss the various impediments that might interfere with Barack Obama dealing meaningfully with the mullahs’ program to give Iran a nuclear weapon. The major problem remains differences on the issue with Israel, for whom an Iranian bomb is a real existential threat, not one that can easily be overlooked on the belief that if Iran gets the bomb, it will adhere to the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, as did the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: MILLIONS OF DEAD VOTERS BROUGHT TO YOU BY ERIC HOLDER

Millions of Dead Voters, Brought to You By Eric Holder Posted By J. Christian Adams
URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/02/14/millions-of-dead-voters-brought-to-you-by-eric-holder/

Over a year ago, I first warned that the Obama administration adopted a policy of refusing to enforce federal laws which require states to purge dead and ineligible voters from the rolls. I discuss at length the details of this policy as revealed to me when I worked at the Justice Department in my book Injustice. Today we learn that American voter rolls are infested with millions of dead and ineligible voters heading into the presidential election.

Eric Holder and his Leftist political appointees at the Justice Department have gotten exactly what they wanted.

The Pew Center on the States estimates nearly 2,000,000 dead voters are on the rolls, and 2,800,000 people are registered in more than one state. This is precisely the mess that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) was designed to prevent.

Last Thursday, Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, announced that it is teaming up with me and True the Vote for an election integrity project to get the voter rolls cleaned up before November. We will do what Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez refuse to do.

The Justice Department refuses to enforce Section 8 of the NVRA because, as political appointee Julie Fernandes revealed in a Voting Section meeting in 2009 that I attended, removing dead people from the rolls “doesn’t increase turnout. It stops people from voting.” Seriously.

In the meantime, DOJ has vigorously enforced Section 7 of NVRA, the welfare agency voter registration provision. Judicial Watch has determined through FOIA litigation that the aggressive Section 7 enforcement policy at DOJ had its genesis in the lobbying of Estelle Rogers, of ACORN fame. (Read her emails at the link.) One wonders if Rogers was registered as a lobbyist, or if she just lobbied the White House without registering.

Rogers also made ACORN-blessed job recommendations for attorneys applying to the Voting Section. DOJ refuses to release the names of the lawyers Rogers pushed, and whether or not they were hired to enforce election law this fall.

Instead of enforcing Section 8 and cleaning up the voter rolls, the Justice Department is shaking down states to wring out every possible welfare agency voter registrant before November.

In doing so, it has resorted to unprecedented investigative tactics that no media outlet has yet reported before today.

NEWS AND BUZZ 24/7

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U.S. concerned about spike in Iran-Israel ‘shadow war’
Guy Taylor

The “shadow war” between Israel and Iran is escalating, Middle East analysts say, as a wave of terrorist incidents in far-flung corners of world unsettles U.S. officials. Read more…

Read more at: http://times247.com/

A NEW SUPER PAC? DEADS FOR OBAMA

http://news.investors.com/Article/601209/201202141851/voter-registration-flaws-expose-elections-to-fraud-.htm

Suffrage: A new study finds that nearly 2 million dead people remain on voter registration rolls. So tell us again why Democrats oppose voter ID laws that would help prevent these errant registrations from being exploited?

The Pew Center on the States study found that our country’s voter registration system is “plagued with errors and inefficiencies.” That’s putting it mildly.

As many as 24 million registrations are invalid or contain significant errors, including almost 3 million who are registered in two or more states and 1.8 million dead people still listed as active voters.

Obviously this is a problem states must fix, and the sooner the better. As Pew notes, most states still use antiquated and enormously expensive paper systems ill-equipped to handle a mobile society. In an age when direct mail companies can easily keep track of you through several moves, this is entirely unacceptable. READ IT ALL AT SITE

OBAMA’S MIDEAST CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST IN EGYPT

http://news.investors.com/Article/601206/201202141851/muslim-brotherhood-extorts-washington-over-peace-deal.htm?
Obama’s Chickens Come Home To Roost In Egypt

Mideast: As the president sneaks more money in the budget for Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood thugs he helped install in Cairo show their gratitude by threatening to attack Israel.

For three decades, the U.S. essentially paid Egypt not to attack our closest ally in the region. The policy worked to maintain peace. But Obama nullified that deal by backing Islamist revolutionaries against reliably pro-U.S. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Now the bribe has lost its effect.

The new Egyptian leadership, led by the virulently anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood, this week issued a warning to Washington that it should understand that “what was acceptable before the revolution is no longer.” It made clear that this includes the peace treaty with Israel…..READ IT ALL AT SITE