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2012-10-09T10:52:00.002-04:00

This is your brain on music: Researchers to create tunes written by body’s emotional responses

MONTREAL — If raw, unbridled emotion is behind some of the world’s best music, then researchers may be on to something with a musical performance drawn directly from nerve activity in the brain.

An artist at Montreal’s Concordia University and a neuroscientist in Australia have collaborated on a project that records emotional response in the body and turns it into music.

Vaughan Macefield, a professor at the University of Western Sydney, came up with a way to measure nerve activity through a single neuron, painting an electronic picture of the subject’s emotions.

His research team injects a very fine microelectrode needle into a peripheral nerve in the body that allows researchers to record electrical signals emitted from the brain. Blood flow, heart rate, sweat release and respiration levels are also recorded.

“Of course we are not the first to have thought of this, but this is the first attempt to use direct recordings of sympathetic nerve activity,” Macefield said in an email.

These signals are compiled as data — and sent by email to Montreal as a raw collection of numbers.

Our bodies possess intrinsic rhythms, each at different frequencies, that can be utilized to generate music

That’s where the art comes in.

Erin Gee, a master’s student in fine arts at Concordia, is creating a computerized system that uses experimental musical instruments to turn the numbers into music.

The software converts the data into a chorus of bells, producing music literally composed by feelings.

“What’s unique to this project is that it’s all about bodies,” Gee said in an interview.

“It takes these tiny bodily physical performances that happen when one is emotional and transfers these tiny beating hearts and fluctuations in breathing and nerve activity — and amplifies it through technology.”

Gee has already done a trial run using her own emotional measurements.

Played over the phone, it sounded like a choppy series of church bells. It wasn’t quite Mozart — there wasn’t even a clear melody to the rhythmic chiming — but it did successfully reflect the anxiety she felt from having a needle tapped into her nerve.

Gee’s end goal is more ambitious.

She wants to create a symphony of bells played by tiny robotic machines that reflects the emotions experienced by a group of performers in real time.

“The idea is that it’s going to be a live show, featuring live subjects,” she said.

A performance is planned for next fall in Montreal.

Method actors — trained to feel emotion on demand — will be attached to sensors that monitor their bodies’ reactions.

On stage, the actors will perform a score that will require them to summon a broad range of feelings.

It may be possible to use these amplified responses to train autistic children to recognize emotions

The project could eventually bring practical benefits.

Individuals with autism, for example, often struggle to understand the emotions of others. Gee’s robotic technology could be used to teach them how to identify feelings, Macefield said.

“We know that our emotions are the product of the physiological responses our bodies produce,” Macefield said.

“So… it may be possible to use these amplified responses to train autistic children to recognize emotions.”

More broadly, Macefield said the project hints at the profound connection between music, emotion, and the human body.

“It tells us that our emotional selves are the products of our physiological responses, and that our bodies possess intrinsic rhythms, each at different frequencies, that can be utilized to generate music,” he said.

“Perhaps some of our appreciation of music is related to the fact that some of the musical rhythms do fit our own physiological rhythms.”

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2012-10-09T10:17:00.003-04:00

Nazi flags, furious protests greet Angela Merkel as German leader arrives in Greece

ATHENS — Greek riot police fired stun grenades, pepper spray and tear gas to push back protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs during rallies this morning against visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel arrived in Greece on her first visit since Europe’s debt crisis erupted here three years ago, braving protests to deliver a message of support — but no new money — to a nation hammered by recession and fighting to stay in the euro.

Thousands of Greeks defied a ban on protests, gathering in Syntagma square in central Athens as Merkel’s plane touched down. Two protesters dressed in German military uniforms waved a red-black-and-white swastika flag and held out their arms in the Nazi salute. Merkel was meeting Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras only a few hundred metre away from the clashes, where austerity-weary Greeks are taking to the streets in one of the biggest protests in months.

Many Greeks blame Merkel for forcing painful cuts on Greece in exchange for two EU-IMF bailout packages totaling over 200 billion euros.

Police have readied 6,000 officers, including anti-terrorist units and rooftop snipers, to provide security during the six-hour visit. German sites in the Greek capital, including the embassy and Goethe Institute, are under special protection.

Merkel was given the red carpet treatment and full military honors at Athens airport. Samaras greeted her with a handshake as she exited the German air force jet. A band played the German and Greek national anthems.

In the centre of Athens, the reception was less warm. On Syntagma square, banners read “Merkel out, Greece is not your colony” and “This is not a European Union, it’s slavery.”

“We don’t want her here. Merkel go home!,” said Maria Dimitriou, a 40-year-old unemployed woman who travelled to Athens from southern Greece to protest. “They’ve turned our lives into hell.”

REUTERS/Yannis BehrakisPeople hold a banner saying "Frau Merkel get out" ahead of a demonstration against the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in central Athens, October 9, 2012.

After steering clear of Greece for the past five years, Merkel decided to visit for several reasons.

She wants to show support for Samaras, a fellow conservative, as he struggles to impose more cuts on a society fraying at the edges after five years of recession.

At a joint appearance before the press in the afternoon, she is expected to confirm her desire to keep Greece in the euro zone, after members of her government flirted with the idea of an exit earlier this year.

With a year to go until Germany holds an election, Merkel also hopes to neutralize opposition criticism that she has neglected Greece and contributed to its woes by insisting on crushing budget cuts.

“Her visit to Athens is primarily about political positioning, and the opportunity to clarify her position on Greece,” said Alex White, an analyst at J.P. Morgan.

REUTERS/Yannis BehrakisDemonstrators, dressed as Nazis, wave a swastika flag as they ride in an open-top car in Syntagma Square in Athens as they protest against the visit of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, October 9, 2012.

RISK OF VIOLENCE

Teachers, doctors and other public employees stopped work on Tuesday in a gesture of protest, while trade unions and opposition political parties took to the streets, risking confrontation with police.

Demonstrations in Athens have a habit of turning violent, hijacked by radicals armed with petrol bombs and rocks ripped from the streets.

Greece is in talks with its “troika” of lenders — the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — on the next tranche of a 130-billion-euro ($170-billion) loan package, its second bailout since 2010.

Without the 31.5-billion-euro tranche, Greece says it will run out of money by the end of November.

Many Greeks say they cannot take more of the wage cuts and tax hikes that have left a quarter of the workforce jobless and slashed the country’s economic output by a fifth.

SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP/Getty ImagesA man in chains and carrying a wooden cross marked "Greece wake up" walks during a protest against the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Thessaloniki on October 9, 2012.

Ties between the Germany and Greece run deep. Thousands of Greeks came to Germany after World War Two as “guest workers” to help rebuild the shattered country and more than 300,000 Greeks currently reside there.

But relations are also clouded by the atrocities Greeks suffered at the hands of the Nazis during World War Two.

Samaras’ own great grandmother committed suicide when she saw Nazi tanks rolling down the streets of Athens after Germany occupied Greece, flying the swastika flag from the Acropolis.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias, whom Merkel will also meet on Tuesday, fought against the German Wehrmacht as a teenager, before fleeing to Cologne to escape persecution by the Greek military dictatorship.

BOTTOMLESS PIT

The crisis has revived long-dormant animosities, with Greek protesters burning effigies of Merkel in Nazi gear and German media playing up images of lazy Greeks keen for German cash.

Relations hit a post-war low early this year when Merkel’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, likened Athens to a “bottomless pit” and proposed imposing a European “Sparkommissar” on Greece to control its finances.

In addition to her meetings with Samaras and Papoulias, Merkel is also due to meet with Greek business representatives.

The timing of the visit, showing Merkel very publicly with the new premier, suggests growing trust in the Greek leadership under Samaras, after a litany of broken promises and stalled reforms under the previous administration.

But she is not expected to offer him any concrete promises of aid or other concessions before the “troika” publishes its latest assessment of Greece’s reform progress by early November.

“The average German voter is irritated at the thought of dispatching more taxes or savings to feckless southerners, yet is desperate for the respect and goodwill to Germany that comes from public displays of magnanimity,” said David Marsh, chairman of think tank OMFIF. “When Merkel flies to Athens, she’s showing she’s in charge, and she cares.

REUTERS/Grigoris SiamidisDemonstrators gather in front of the Greek parliament in Syntagma Square during a demonstration against the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in central Athens, October 9, 2012.

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2012-10-09T10:04:00.002-04:00

Israeli air force shoots down mysterious drone aircraft

JERUSALEM — The Israeli air force shot down a drone after it crossed into southern Israel on Saturday, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from.

The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean in the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich.

It was kept under surveillance and followed by Israeli air force jets before it was shot down above a forest in an unpopulated area near the border with the occupied West Bank.

Leibovich said it was shot down at about 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), after it travelled east some 35 miles across Israel’s southern Negev desert.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak praised the interception as “sharp and effective”.

“We view with great severity the attempt to compromise Israeli air space and will consider our response in due course,” Barak said in a statement.

AP Photo/Israeli Defense Forces via AP videoThis image made from video released by the Israeli Defense Forces shows the downing of a drone that entered Israeli airspace in southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012. Israeli jets scrambled to intercept a drone that crossed into Israeli airspace Saturday from the Mediterranean Sea, bringing it down without incident in the south of the country, a military spokeswoman said.

Soldiers, assisted by helicopters, were searching the area for the remains of the drone, which security sources said most likely did not originate from the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Army Radio reported the drone was not carrying any explosives.

Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an “Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah”, referring to the Lebanese Shi’ite group that fought a war with Israel in 2006.

Defence officials would not confirm Hezbollah’s connection to the drone.

On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has launched a drone into Israel. And in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country’s Dimona nuclear reactor.

The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was Saturday’s mid-air interception. In the video, a small, unidentified aircraft is seen moments before being destroyed by a missile fired from a fighter jet.

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2012-10-09T00:35:00.003-04:00

The State Department Agrees to relinquish your Free Speech Rights under UN edict.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/08/secretary-of-state-clinton-says-state-department-will-coordinate-with-oic-on-legal-ways-to-implement.html

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2012-10-08T19:06:00.001-04:00

Chuck Norris Column: Make No Mistake, Gun Rights Are On the Line This Election
by Chuck Norris

It's time to take stock of where we stand as a nation. The election of 2012 offers us a stark contrast, between candidates who are looking to protect our Second Amendment rights and those who seek to restrict those same freedoms. Over the past month, I've been alerting you to some dangers on the horizon. As we consider the path we are about to embark upon, it's good to recall what's at stake.

We need to prevent the next president from appointing a Supreme Court that would reverse the two landmark Second Amendment cases — Heller and McDonald. In those decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that all American citizens, no matter where they live, have the right to legally possess a firearm as a means of self-defense. These decisions were a tremendous accomplishment, and they finally ratified what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they drafted the Second Amendment.

As much as I wish this issue were solved once and for all, it is not. The Heller and McDonald cases were decided by the razor-thin majority of 5-4 in the Supreme Court. Those who want to overturn these decisions are betting on at least one of the five Supreme Court justices who voted for these laws to retire or otherwise leave service during the next four years. It's possible that the next president will have three vacancies to fill on the high court.

Every plan needs a backup, and this one is no different. We also need to make sure we have a U.S. Senate that is supportive of our fundamental freedoms, because the Senate votes to confirm new judges and justices alike. Several of the key 2012 Senate races are in highly competitive "battleground" states, which may tip the balance of power in this country. If you live in one of these states, it's important for you to make your voice heard.

Having the right president and Senate is also essential when we are dealing with the United Nations. This past summer, the U.N. debated a global arms trade treaty, and we came dangerously close to the treaty's actually passing. This would be disastrous for gun owners in the USA. The focus of the treaty would demand that governments regulate the sale and possession of firearms worldwide — all of them, including yours and mine.

The goal was to disgorge a treaty in time for the Obama administration to sign it before Election Day. The draft treaty would have required the United States to "maintain records of all imports and shipments of arms," register the identities of the "end users" of those firearms and then report the users' information to a U.N.-based gun registry. In several drafts, the treaty would have mandated that every round of ammunition be tracked globally. The treaty may have stalled this summer, but the negotiations are ongoing. We must ensure it never gets ratified by the Senate or signed by the president.

On Election Day, we must ensure that we have confidence in our leaders and their objectives. One issue that has troubled me for nearly two years now is Operation Fast and Furious. The Department of Justice's inspector general released a report last month about the bungled "gunwalking" operation, and most of the media accepted the findings without questions. For me, there are still lots of critical questions unanswered. Who on earth decided that facilitating the smuggling of guns to drug cartels was an appropriate law enforcement mission to begin with? Thousands of guns walked into Mexico are still on the loose. Where are they, and how many are out there? Does the U.S. government have a plan to recapture them, or will we simply spend years wondering how many more victims they are being used to kill? And who will make sure that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives admits it if and when these guns surface at crime scenes here in the U.S.? It is my dual hope that these questions will be answered soon and that we will elect a government that has the foresight never to let this happen again.

I have stood up for justice my entire life. This election is too important for you to sit home and not vote. I urge you to register to vote in this election, because you truly can make a difference. The deadline to register is fast approaching in most states.

Visit http://www.TriggerTheVote.org today; all the information you need to register is there. Together we can build a brighter, safer future in which we know our fundamental constitutional rights are preserved by our national leaders — not threatened and undermined.

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2012-10-08T14:05:00.000-04:00

BOMBSHELL: OBAMA.COM OWNED BY BUNDLER IN SHANGHAI WITH BUSINESS TIES TO CHINESE GOVERNMENT

by WYNTON HALL

In an explosive report set to send shockwaves through official Washington, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) released a 108-page GAI investigation into the threat of foreign and fraudulent Internet campaign donations in U.S. federal elections(visit campaignfundingrisks.com to download the full report).

Breitbart News obtained an advance copy of the bombshell report which reveals that the Obama.com website is not owned by the president’s campaign but rather by Obamabundler Robert Roche, a U.S. citizen living in Shanghai, China. Roche is the chairman of a Chinese infomercial company, Acorn International, with ties to state-controlled banks that allow it to “gain revenue through credit card transactions with Chinese banks.”

There’s more.

The unusual Obama.com website redirects traffic directly to a donation page on the Obama campaign’s official website, my.barackobama.com, which does not require donors tob enter their credit card security code (known as the CVV code), thereby increasing the likelihood of foreign or fraudulent donations. The website is managed by a small web development firm, Wicked Global, in Maine. One of Wicked Global’s employees, Greg Dorr, lists on hisLinkedIn page his additional employment with Peace Action Maine and Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights. According to the GAI report, 68 percent of all Internet traffic to Obama.com comes from foreign visitors.

And still more.

In 2011, Mr. Roche obtained one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate in Washington, DC: a seat at the head table for President Obama’s State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao. How Roche—a man whose infomercial company hawks fitness equipment, cell phones, and breast enhancement products—landed a seat alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, former President Jimmy Carter, and Chinese President Hu Jintao remains unclear.

Since 2009, White House Visitor Logs list the name Robert Roche at least 19 times, despite the fact Mr. Roche’s primary residence is in China.

Mr. Roche, who is originally from Chicago, is a co-chair of the Technology Initiative for the Obama campaign.

According to Acorn International’s prospectus, the success of Mr. Roche’s company hinges on maintaining access to state-run media and “preferential tax treatments and subsidies” doled out by the People’s Republic of China (PRC):

Our business depends on our access to TV media time to market our products and services in China….PRC law is vague and is subject to discretionary interpretation and enforcement by PRC authorities…Loss of these preferential tax treatments and subsidies could have material and adverse effects on our results of operations and financial conditions.

In addition to the Obama.com redirect revelation, the Government Accountability Institute report—America the Vulnerable: Are Foreign And Fraudulent Online Contributions Influencing U.S. Elections?—exposes myriad gaping online security holes that stand to threaten the integrity of House, Senate, and presidential elections.

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2012-10-08T12:59:00.005-04:00

Obama has 18 MILLION "OBAMAPHONE" Users according to the Government!

"Fully one six of American's qualify for these free phones."

)What does THAT say about Obama's failed economy and absent jobs plan?-ED)

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-311775A1.pdf

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2012-10-07T20:37:00.000-04:00

Obama Timeline: Too Ma

ny 'Coincidences'

10/05/12

Don Fredrick, over at his Facts Not Fantasy blog, put together a great piece on Obama's timeline. Here is just a snippet:

In the four years I have been gathering information about—and evidence against—Barack Hussein Obama, I have encountered hundreds of coincidences that strike me as amazing. Taken as a whole it is almost impossible to believe they were all the result of chance.
Obama just happened to know 60s far-left radical revolutionary William Ayers, whose father just happened to be Thomas Ayers, who just happened to be a close friend of Obama’s communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, who just happened to work at the communist-sympathizing Chicago Defender with Vernon Jarrett, who just happened to later become the father-in-law of Iranian-born leftist Valerie Jarrett, who Obama just happened to choose as his closest White House advisor, and who just happened to have been CEO of Habitat Company, which just happened to manage public housing in Chicago, which just happened to get millions of dollars from the Illinois state legislature, and which just happened not to properly maintain the housing—which eventually just happened to require demolition.

Valerie Jarrett also just happened to work for the city of Chicago, and just happened to hire Michelle LaVaughan Robinson (later Obama), who just happened to have worked at the Sidley Austin law firm, where former fugitive from the FBI Bernardine Dohrn also just happened to work, and where Barack Obama just happened to get a summer job.

Bernardine Dohrn just happened to be married to William Ayers, with whom she just happened to have hidden from the FBI at a San Francisco marina, along with Donald Warden, who just happened to change his name to Khalid al-Mansour, and Warden/al-Mansour just happened to be a mentor of Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and a close associate of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and al-Mansour just happened to be financial adviser to a Saudi Prince, who just happened to donate cash to Harvard, for which Obama just happened to get a critical letter of recommendation fromPercy Sutton, who just happened to have been the attorney for Malcolm X, who just happened to know Kenyan politician Tom Mboya, who just happened to be a close friend of Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.,who just happened to meet Malcolm X when he traveled to Kenya.

Obama, Sr. just happened to have his education at the University of Hawaii paid for by the Laubach Literacy Institute, which just happened to have been supported by Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, who just happened to be a friend of Malcolm X, who just happened to have been associated with the Nation of Islam, which was later headed by Louis Farrakhan, who just happens to live very close to Obama’s Chicago mansion, which also just happens to be located very close to the residence of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who just happen to have been occasional baby-sitters for Malia and Natasha Obama, whose parents just happen not to mind exposing their daughters to bomb-making communists.

He goes on but here is how he closes.

On election night in 2008 in Chicago’s Grant Park, Obama just happened to wear a black suit and a red tie, and his older daughter just happened to wear a red dress, and his younger daughter just happened to wear a stark black dress, and his wife Michelle just happened to wear an arguably unattractive black dress that appeared to have a giant red X design, which just happened to prompt some to wonder if their clothing just happened to denote black power, communism, and Malcolm X.

Read more at http://www.reagancoalition.com/articles/2012/20121005003-obama-coincidences.html#3Rk0guGqIaYg7Kj8.99

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2012-10-06T17:36:00.003-04:00

So now the Obamagate Libya murder cover-up starts to unravel: The Letter from Congress to Hillary...

http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/10.2.12-Issa-Chaffetz-to-Clinton.pdf

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2012-10-04T13:25:00.001-04:00

Obama shows he's just a glorified community organizer, and certainly not the smartest guy in That room... Zogby Show Romney wins big.

( Genius? Well, we know now why no one's ever released his college transcripts-ED)
____
10-3-12
Mitt Romney won big tonight. President Obama got digs in on the former governor over the lack of detail of his proposals, but Romney clearly came out to play hard. The other big winner was the American people. This was a real debate with real differences, real clarity. Too bad voters have had to be assaulted by attack ads and hyper-emotion.

Romney displayed a mastery of the economy, of small business, of health care, of taxes -- of all issues. He was aggressive, something that was deemed risky beforehand, but he did not get personal or mean. He was respectful to the sitting President, but in no way awed by his presence.

While Obama took it to the GOP candidate (Where's the beef? Where are details on tax cuts, on health care?), Romney handled it deftly -- this debate was about principles and style. Romney reminded the President and voters that he was a bipartisan leader who sought and achieved consensus and legislation by working with the other side in Massachusetts.

Romney also showed his differences on Obamacare. This was a difficult task because this could have opened him up to charges of hypocrisy. He is a seasoned debater and this was the discussion on health care we should have had all along.

Obama scored a major point on pre-existing conditions. But Romney came right back to argue that no insurance company would deny service. We will have to see how that plays out but at least the discussion was held and it was civil.

Finally, I had said before the debate that Romney would have to show a command of the economy and put it in personal terms -- a tough task. He did that tonight. The President was uncomfortable, stammering at times. Romney won.

By John Zogby

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2012-10-03T11:14:00.002-04:00


View Wanted Poster \| Press Release

Help Us Catch a Terrorist
U.S. Citizen Wanted for Supporting Al Qaeda

10/03/12

The FBI today announced a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of Ahmad Abousamra, a U.S. citizen from Massachusetts charged with traveling to Pakistan and Yemen to seek military training so he could kill American soldiers.

“Knowing that the public is the FBI’s best ally in finding fugitives, today we’re requesting your assistance to locate Abousamra,” said Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of our Boston office.

	Listen - Ahmad Abousamra Voice Clip - Podcast: Investigator Discusses Case

Abousamra is charged with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to al Qaeda. He was indicted in 2009 for taking multiple trips to Pakistan and Yemen in 2002 and 2004 to seek jihad training. He also traveled to Iraq with the hope of joining forces fighting against Americans overseas. Abousamra left the U.S. in 2006 and may be living in living in Aleppo, Syria with his wife, at least one daughter, and extended family.

Abousamra’s co-conspirator, Tarek Mehanna, was convicted of terrorism charges by a federal jury in December 2011 and sentenced last April to 17.5 years in prison.

“Both men were self-radicalized and used the Internet to educate themselves,” said Special Agent Heidi Williams, a member of our Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Boston who has been working the case since 2006. “They came to it independently, but once they found each other, they encouraged each other’s beliefs,” Williams said, adding that both Abousamra and Mehanna were inspired by the 9/11 terror attacks. “They celebrated it,” she said.

Abousamra is of Syrian descent and has dual U.S. and Syrian citizenship. He is 31 years old, 5’11” tall, and at the time of his disappearance weighed about 170 pounds. He has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He is fluent in English and Arabic, has a college degree related to computer technology, and was previously employed at a telecommunications company. Abousamra last lived in the U.S. in a prosperous Boston suburb and has family members in the Detroit, Michigan area.

One of his distinguishing characteristics is his higher-pitched voice, which can be heard on our website.


Transcript \| Download

Today’s announcement is part of a publicity campaign employing traditional and social media to seek the public’s assistance. We are using social media to reach an overseas audience—information about Abousamra such as photos and audio clips can be found on the website and our Facebook, You Tube, and Twitter pages.

“Combining the reach and power of multiple media platforms is a powerful way to inform the public about our search,” DesLauriers said. “We believe publicizing Abousamra’s photo and characteristics will lead to a tip about his whereabouts and, ultimately, to his arrest.”

Thomas Daly, a sergeant with the Lowell Police Department in Massachusetts and a task force officer on the Boston JTTF since 2002, said catching Abousamra “will close the chapter on this story. We had two people who were planning to harm U.S. soldiers overseas,” Daly said, referring to Abousamra and Mehanna. “These two were actively radicalizing others. We can only assume Abousamra is still on the same path and remains a threat to our soldiers overseas.”

We need your help. If you have any information regarding Ahmad Abousamra, please contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. You can also submit a tip electronically on our website.

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2012-10-03T11:11:00.000-04:00

A laundry list of broken promises

Rick Moran

As Mitt Romney pivots his campaign toward a discussion of budget and fiscal issues, the Republican National Committee has trotted out the tried and true weapon to use against incumbents; a list of broken promises.

Fox News:

The tally sheets on President Obama's campaign promises are nearly complete as Republicans try in the final months of the election season to hold the president's feet to the fire for whatever broken pledges they can find.

The Republican National Committee and Mitt Romney campaign are both focusing sharply on those pledges, not the least of which was the president's 2009 vow to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Romney and his aides have been mentioning that broken promise regularly in recent days.

As the campaign veers from side issue to side issue -- be it Romney's tax returns or Obama's fiddling with welfare reform -- expect Republicans to return focus when possible to several of these pledges as they try to cast the president as a leader who has not lived up to the rhetoric of his 2008 race.

Other campaign promises that are on the list of broken pledges to the American people:

1. Fix the economy. Yes, it's a slam dunk.

2. Close Gitmo. We forget that, after campaigning by viciously criticizing President Bush's actions in fighting terrorism, in the end, Obama embraced almost the entire Bush regimen on the War on Terror, including maintaining the prison at Guantanamo, rendition, and military tribunals.

3. Televise health care debate. Forgot about that one. And remember Obama's pledge to post bills online for 5 days before voting on them?

4. Increase transparency. This sums up the administration's claim to "transparency":

"President Obama has run one of the least transparent administrations in American history," Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said recently. "Whether hiding lobbyists in coffee shops, cutting back-room deals on ObamaCare, or concealing the records of Fast and Furious, President Obama's pledge to be transparent has turned out to be just another broken promise."

This attack is always good because what else do the voters expect except that politicians do what they say they will do? Highlighting Obama's broken promises is just one more device to make voters think about the choice they will have in November.

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2012-10-03T11:04:00.001-04:00

Islamic SUPREMIST and Jihadist supporter/ Journalist arrested with multiple charges.

Islamic supremacist journalist Mona Eltahawy was arrested last Tuesday and charged with criminal mischief after spray painting a defender of freedom who caught her in the act of vandalizing one of the pro-Israel ads my organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), had placed in the New York subway stations.

AFDI’s ad reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.” This again proves Islamic supremacist and leftist thugs are dedicated to shutting down free speech. Anti-Israel ads ran all over the country without a murmur of protest; but this pro-Israel ad was hardly up an hour before fascist thugs like Eltahawy went to work to deface it.

At 12:42 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 25, Eltahawy tweeted: “Meetings done; pink spray paint time. #ProudSavage #F–kHate.” Shortly thereafter, she was about to spray paint over AFDI’s pro-Israel ad in a subway station when longtime pro-freedom activist and blogger Pamela Hall stood between her and the ad. Eltahawy thereupon sprayed Hall with paint; the vandal was arrested and charged with criminal mischief.

This criminal behavior and fascism was immediately lauded in leftist circles. Eltahawy’s thuggish behavior is a telling indication of how relentlessly opposed the left and Islamic supremacists are to the freedom of speech, and how desperate they are to keep any pro-freedom, anti-jihad message from getting out.

Eltahawy’s behavior is all the more ironic in light of the fact that she was viciously sexually assaulted by “protesters” in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last year and subsequently wrote a searching piece about the misogyny that is inherent in Islamic law. But she was roundly attacked by her fellow Islamic supremacist writers for that article and made a full retreat. Now, in a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome, she is defending the same savages who brutally attacked her in Tahrir Square.

Eltahawy is carrying water for those who advocate a new genocide of the Jews and celebrate the murders of innocent civilians. She sprayed our ad because she objected to the word “savages” being used of Islamic jihadists who murder Israeli civilians and celebrate their murders by passing out candy. Eltahawy describes herself as a “liberal Muslim,” and everyone assumes that that means that she is worlds away from the Muslims who commit such savagery, and only “Islamophobes” would consider them to be in the same camp. But now Eltahawy has retained Jewicidal leftist lawyer Stanley Cohen, who represents the Hamas savages, as her attorney in the criminal case against her for destroying my ad.

Six degrees of separation? This is no degree of separation. Eltahawy hates that I called the jihadis “savages” and then retains the savages’ lawyer. Cohen says: “If I don’t support the politics of political clients, I don’t take the case.” So Eltahawy is a “liberal Muslim” who is outraged that I called jihadi “savages,” and she has a lawyer who supports jihad terror against innocent Israeli civilians, the bloody murder of the Fogel family, the mass murders of Israeli civilians in buses and restaurants, etc.

Cohen said in 2001, “If Osama bin Laden arrived in the United States today and asked me to represent him, sure I’d represent him.” Mona Eltahawy will have to do for now.

Meanwhile, the media are fetishizing the destruction and defacement of our anti-jihad ads. They call our accurate ads “controversial” or “inflammatory” – but they offer no such criticism of the criminals destroying them. This is the morally inverted state of the world. Truth is inflammatory. Destroying private property? Not so much.

The vandalism, of course, validates my ad, yet again. The destroying of our ads is nothing more than criminal activity. In a rational society, it would be looked down upon, but more importantly, the defacement is a metaphor for this entire conversation. Hundreds and hundreds of anti-Israel posters ran all over the country. Not one was defaced. One anti-jihad poster goes up, and it’s defaced within an hour, while its creator faces defamation, smears and libel.

This is a physical manifestation of the entire conversation, or lack thereof. Anyone who speaks about jihad and Shariah is attacked, defamed, destroyed – just like these ads. This is exactly what’s happening in the media regarding jihad coverage in general. Anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-Shariah hate is all over the airwaves, but anyone who dares to speak the truth about Islam and jihad in the media is immediately smeared and defamed. You can’t have this conversation in the media, any more than I can present these pro-Israel ads and receive any semblance of fair treatment.

Then the MTA held a hearing to revise its ad guidelines. I went and spoke up for free speech and was physically menaced by howling, raging, leftist Occupy goons. The media then trumpeted the new guidelines as a restriction of my ads, since they included a provision about rejecting ads that incite to violence.

But my ads don’t incite to violence. I am going to extend the buy in New York, and if the ads are refused, I will sue again. (I’ve already won one free-speech case against the MTA; maybe they want to go for double or nothing.) The MTA may have injected an ambiguous, unconstitutional and thoroughly reckless revision into their ad policy to appease a lawless mob, but it will not stand. It’s the same as it was before. If they block us, we’ll sue again.

I hope that Eltahawy will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and that the NYPD will guard the pro-Israel ads from further leftist/Islamic supremacist vandalism. But whatever happens, I will neversacrifice my freedom so as not to offend savages. And neither should any other American.

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2012-10-02T15:40:00.001-04:00

ERIC HOLDER NEEDS TO ACCOUNT FOR HIS ROLE IN FARM SETTLEMENT FRAUD

by LEE STRANAHAN

With Romney and Ryan both calling on Obama Attorney General Eric Holder to resign amid new revelations about operation Fast & Furious, it’s important to also keep in mind Eric Holder’s key role in a multi-billion dollar fraud scheme that he has called "a top priority": the bogus farmer settlements announced one week ago that are poised to give billions to people who claim that they "attempted to farm."

Eric Holder’s Justice Department has been central to pushing a “farmer settlement” agenda that few Americans are aware of. The mainstream media has ignored stories about the Pigford settlement for years, despite the fact that there are farmers, lawyers, and even ex-USDA employees who have gone on the record to say that the black farmers' settlement was rife with fraud because it was so easy to collect a $50,000 check by stating that you had "attempted to farm."

While most Americans are not aware of the Pigford fraud, the Obama administration has made it a prime concern. Not only was then-Senator Obama the sole Senate sponsor for a bill that extended the Pigford fraud to 70,000 additional claimants, but when Obama took office, it became a focus for Tom Vilsack’s USDA and Holder’s DOJ. In an official press release in 2011, Eric Holder said

"Accomplishing this settlement has been a top priority of

this Administration and I am pleased that the court has

approved it."

Holder and Vilsack were able to push this idea without a court mandate, either. As Steve King said in an address on the House Floor on November 10, 2010:

There was no congressional directive that sent Eric Holder and Tom Vilsack to sit down with John Boyd of the (National Black Farmers Association) and make a new deal and come to this congress and say “Appropriate $1.15 Billion additional dollars to fund Pigford II.”

Holder’s promotion of farm settlement fraud didn’t end at Pigford, however. The DOJ went on to work with the USDA to create two more settlements for women and Hispanic farmers using the same faulty framework as Pigford. As legal blog Main Justice pointed out in 2010, the idea of the deal worked on by the DOJ and USDA involved giving $50,000 settlement checks “without having the government question the evidence they offer.”

This new, multi-billion dollar settlement was announced just last week.

This is not old news or water under the bridge; it’s an active government program that is about to fleece taxpayers for billions of dollars, and it was built by Obama, Vilsack, and Holder.

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2012-09-28T16:21:00.002-04:00

Jay-Z Wants Less Government, But Supports Obama Because He’s Black

BERT ATKINSON JR. SEPTEMBER 28, 2012 3:17 PM

Frustrating. Jay-Z likes Barack Obama as the leader of the United States not because of his policies, but because he’s black.

“I support Barack because I gotta respect that sort of vision. I gotta respect a man who is the first black President ever,” he said. “To have that sort of vision and dream, I have to support that.”

I get what he’s saying: Obama becoming the first black president of the U.S. is monumental, and the man who first accomplished this feat deserves respect from anyone.

…and then Jay-Z said this:

“To be honest with you I think a lot of people are serving their own agendas, so they just argue back and forth and they think about their next term,” Jay-Z said. ”And it’s more about themselves than about the people. They’re servicing the people, but we rarely get anything done because they’re going back and forth with whatever they’re doing, so I’m not really into politics.”

He also mentioned that he doesn’t “even like the word politics” and that he thinks we “need less government,” but he supports Obama?

The part that is frustrating is that Jay-Z is judging Obama not by the content of his character, but by the color of his skin (heard this before?), because all signs point to a more conservative or libertarian rap mogul and not a guy that a large percentage of the country thinks is about to fall over to the socialist side of the fence

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2012-09-28T10:07:00.001-04:00

Obama Campaign’s New Buzzword: Economic Patriotism?

KYLE BECKER SEPTEMBER 29, 2012

There’s a new kind of patriotism in town, one exactly antithetical to everything our Founding Fathers railed against and millions of Americans fought and died for: economic patriotism.

What is this new kind of patriotism? It’s essentially a euphemism for wealth redistribution and central planning.

A mild-mannered and extremely reasonable Barack Obama explains in a new campaign ad how everything that made American great, and especially economic freedom, has been a failure. Now it’s time for those smart and honest guys in the Democrat Party to fundamentally transform our nation.

Here’s Obama’s “plan” for what he’d like to do in the next four years that for some reason he hasn’t done so far.

1. “First, we create a million new manufacturing jobs and help businesses double their exports. Give tax breaks to companies that invest in America, not that ship jobs overseas.”

What has stopped the president from creating those manufacturing jobs here? Could it be the environmental and financial regulations? Maybe one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world (nearly twice the OECD average)? And what about tax breaks to companies that invest in America, not ship jobs overseas? You mean like GE and GM?

2. “Second, we cut our oil imports in half and produce more American-made energy, oil, clean-coal, natural gas and new resources like wind, solar and bio-fuels — all while doubling the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks.”

This is hardly serious coming from a president who put the kibosh on the Keystone pipeline andviolated a court order to reimpose an offshore drilling moratorium. The administration has also fought “fracking” for natural gas and has carried out a war on coal. This is not to mention that the president’s big plans for government-subsidized “alternative energy” are being tried in Europe and are a miserable failure. About improving gas efficiency, three words for you: “cash for clunkers.”

3. “Third, we insure that we maintain the best workforce in the world by preparing 100,000 additional math and science teachers, Training 2 million Americans with the job skills they need at our community colleges. Cutting the growth of tuition in half and expanding student aid so more Americans can afford it.”

Now where have I heard that 100,000 math and science teachers line before? Oh yeah, the 2011 State of the Union address. And about training 2 million Americans with the job skills they need in the workplace at community colleges, the specifics about the $8 billion fund that would supposedly achieve that can be found here.

But how does government know what job skills people will need for the future job market? Because the government is subsidizing millions of students to get useless skills at colleges across the country, which explains why 53% of new college graduate won’t get jobs in their field under this administration. As for cutting the rate of tuition growth in half, it is absurdly obvious that the tuition rate explosion of three decades has paralleled increased government subsidies. And moregovernment funding of education is this administration’s track record.

4. “Fourth, a balanced plan to reduce our deficit by four trillion dollars over the next decade on top of the trillion in spending we’ve already cut, I’d ask the wealthy to pay a little more. And as we end the war in Afghanistan let’s apply half the savings to pay down our debt and use the rest for some nation-building right here at home.”

Whenever the president uses the word ‘balanced’ conspicuously in this context, he means doing something radically different, whether one agrees with him or not. The risible bit about the deficit is not even worth anyone’s time to seriously address, since the president sustains more than trillion dollar deficits on a yearly basis and feigns to not even know how much is the national debt. But about ending the War in Afghanistan, Barack Obama promised to end the war in July 2011, but timeframe estimates have us at least until 2014.

“It’s time for a new economic patriotism. Rooted in the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong, thriving middle class. Read my plan, compare it Governor Romney’s and decide for yourself. Thanks for listening.”

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2012-09-28T09:53:00.002-04:00

Pathetic: Anti-Romney Protesters Picked Up Off the Streets and Paid $11 Per Hour

SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 9:16 AM

It seems the democrats have recently created jobs, but not as a result of an ‘Obama recovery’. In fact, the ‘jobs’ they’ve created are a result of questionable campaigning practices. Wednesday, Mitt Romney had a campaign event in Ohio, and the protesters present were folks endorsing Obama, wearing purple, pro-Obama SEIU t-shirts, reading “SEIU for Obama 2012″. So, they must have been apart of the SEIU (a union) and must want Obama to be reelected, if I’m reasoning through this correctly. The Blaze has the story:

The video, posted to YouTube on Wednesday, showed protesters carrying a variety of signs including “SEIU for Obama 2012.” Some wore T-shirts in the labor union’s signature purple.

The article also states:

One woman said the SEIU picked people up from around the community to come protest and that a lot of activists just “go door to door.”

But are these real protestors …who showed up, because they wish to selflessly engage in exercising their freedom of speech, standing in the rain, because they love their country, and would never take a paycheck to do so (like most protestors in these United States)?

No.

Actually, they were being paid $11 per hour. How nice. The Blaze:

“We rode down here today,“ one man with an ”SEIU for Obama” sign said on camera. “They’re paying $11 an hour.”

And…

She said there were paid canvassers picketing as well as community activists.

And…

Another man confirmed on camera he was with the SEIU and was being paid, though declined to say how much. A woman next to him said it was $11 an hour.

However, it wasn’t long before The Blaze was discovered, and the protestors were no longer allowed to take any more questions. I suppose they were just busy.

It remains to be seen if they will go on strike in the event that the SEIU does not give them steady pay increases. If not, they would likely go on strike, picketing the anti-Romney protest picketers.

Unions are confusing, to say the least.

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2012-09-28T09:47:00.001-04:00

Victory: Federal Appeals Court Rejects ACLU ‘Racial Profiling’ Suit vs. Arizona’s SB 1070

by John Hill on SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

The last barrier to Arizona’s enforcement of its landmark immigration law has been swept away – and by a left-leaning court to boot.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday rejected the ACLU and its allies, by denying the coalition’s emergency motion for an injunction to block the key provision of S.B. 1070′s. That provision, Section 2B, requires state and local police officers to attempt to determine the immigration status of any person stopped under state or local law if “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is unlawfully present in the United States.

Section 2B – the heart of 1070 – was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in an 8-0 vote on June 25th, and it went into effect Sept. 18 after Federal Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix ruled it could be enforced. The pro-illegal groups then filed an emergency motion to stop it, which now has failed.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said she was under “no illusion that opponents of SB 1070 will stop their baseless allegations and call off their teams of lawyers.”

“Know this: They will not succeed. The State of Arizona stands firmly in support of the rule of law, in defense of our citizens and together with our brave men and women in uniform,” she added.

One ACLU attorney told SWA “we are assessing our next step”. But they have none. It is over. They have lost. S.B. 1070 is now the law of the land, with full judicial endorsement.

The only “next step” is to spread this law to other states, which now do not have to worry about activist lawyers threats to sue them. When Arizona passed the law, more than 100,000 illegal aliens fled the state. Alabama had a similarly dramatic response to their law, HB 56, passed in 2011.

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2012-09-28T09:40:00.000-04:00

Soros Donated $1M Because He Is ‘Panicked’ Romney Could Win

Friday, 28 Sep 2012 09:29 AM

By Patrick Hobin

Liberal billionaire George Soros finally donated big to the Super PACs he had sworn off because he was “panicked” that Mitt Romney could win the election, Mother Jones magazine reported.

Soros is giving $1 million to a "super" political action committee backing President Barack Obama. Soros' contribution to the super PAC Priorities USA Action comes as the group raised a record $10 million last month. It has launched television ads highly critical of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Soros had a change of heart about Super PACs after seeing Romney pull even in national polls and in battleground states, Mother Jones reported, and seeing Republicans rake in tens of millions of dollars to hammer Obama in TV and radio ads.

A friend of Soros who asked to remain anonymous told the magazine "I was really dumbfounded when I heard his voice on the other end of the phone. He was the last person I ever expected to hear from, given how antithetical he was to the big money slopping around the system. But he said that he was panicked about the fact that Romney could win this."

Soros also plans to give $500,000 to two super-PACs devoted to electing Democrats to the House and the Senate, according to Mother Jones.

Soros said in an email, according to the New York Times, that he was "appalled by the Romney campaign, which is openly soliciting the money of the rich to starve the state of the money it needs to provide social services.”

A Democratic strategist who learned of the news of Soros’ change of heart and of his donation, told Mother Jones, "What I find amazing about liberals and progressives is that they always wait till the last minute. It hadn't dawned on this group of people before that this was a tight race. It stupefies me."

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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2012-09-27T09:27:00.003-04:00

MEDIA POLLS: THE NEWEST NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN AD

by MIKE FLYNN

Over the years, I've generally had little patience when partisans make the "polls are wrong" argument. I've usually found it to be the last refuge of campaigns which were clearly struggling. Sure, individual polls can be wrong, and some can occasionally produce a crazy outlier, but a collective average of polling produces a roughly accurate snapshot of the state of a race. This year, however, is different. The overwhelming majority of media polling this election employ such absurd assumptions about turnout this November that they not only misrepresent the presidential race, they are actively distorting it. I also believe it is intentional.

In 2008, the electorate that elected Barack

Obama was 39% Democrat, 32% GOP and

29% Independent. This is what we call a D+7

electorate. Obama defeated McCain by 7

points, the same margin. In 2004, the

electorate was 37% Democrat, 37%

Republican, and 26% Independent, in other

words D/R +0. Bush defeated John Kerry by 3

points nationally.

Yet, virtually every big media poll is based on a model in which Democrats equal or increase their share of the electorate over 2008. Beyond simple common sense, there are many reasons this won't happen.

The Dem vote in '08 was the largest in

decades. It came after fatigue of eight years of

GOP control, two unpopular wars, a charming

Democrat candidate who was the Chauncy

Gardner of politics, a vessel who could hold

everyone's personal dreams and hopes for a

politician. It was a perfect storm for

Democrats.

None of the factors driving Democrat turnout

in '08 exist today. Recent polls from AP,

Politico and the daily tracking polls from

Rasmussen and Gallup, all of which assume

relatively lower Democrat turnout in

November, show the race essentially tied.

Only those polls showing an electorate with

equal or greater numbers of Democrats show

Obama with any sizable lead.

Yet, it's these polls that are driving the

political narrative. Every day the media

launches a number of stories about Romney's

"struggling" campaign. They cite anonymous

GOP sources who wring their hands that the

campaign is losing ground. The only real

evidence of this, however, are the polls which

heavily over-sample Democrat voters. Without

these skewed polls, the media's narrative

would be untenable.

Quite simply, and apart from past years, the

media have decided to weaponize the polls.

The heavy D polls aren't just meant to reassure

them that everything is okay in ObamaLand,

but to actually hit the Romney campaign. The

constant drumbeat echoed by unrealistic polls

is designed to dampen fundraising, tap down

on GOP enthusiasm and create a false

narrative that Obama is pulling away with the

race.

In recent days, a number of pollsters have

pushed back against criticism about the

sampling in their polls. They argue that they

are just picking up a big swing in the

electorate towards the Democrats. If that were

true, though, wouldn't we see signs of it

outside the polls. Obama's speaking to much

smaller venues than he did in 2008. There are

far fewer signs and bumper stickers supporting

Obama. Obama's main support bases, young

voters and minorities, all show less enthusiasm

for voting this year. None of this is dispositive,

but if we were really seeing a return to the '08

Democrat wave wouldn't we, well, see it?

Every election features something new, an

evolution from past campaigns. This year's

development is troubling. Polls are now being

used, not simply to gauge the state of the race,

but to impact the race. We're not far off from

the day that the New York Times or CBS will

have to file their polls as in-kind contributions

to the Democrats.

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2012-09-26T10:34:00.001-04:00

We need and must have DEATH PANELS for Obama care- Obama -Treasury Dept. Advisor.

NYTimes Sept. 26,2012

Obama's Treasury Staffer: "WE need death panels."

Steven Rattner, a contributing opinion writer, was a counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration.

Well, maybe not death panels, exactly, but unless we start allocating health care resources more prudently — rationing, by its proper name — the exploding cost of Medicare will swamp the federal budget.

But in the pantheon of toxic issues — the famous “third rails” of American politics — none stands taller than overtly acknowledging that elderly Americans are not entitled to every conceivable medical procedure or pharmaceutical.

Most notably, President Obama’s estimable Affordable Care Act regrettably includes severe restrictions on any reduction in Medicare services or increase in fees to beneficiaries. In 2009, Sarah Palin’s rant about death panels even forced elimination from the bill of a provision to offer end-of-life consultations. (See, She WAS right.-ED)

Now, three years on, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Paul D. Ryan, has offered his latest ambitious plan for addressing the Medicare problem. But like Mr. Obama’s, it holds limited promise for containing the program’s escalating costs within sensible boundaries.

The Obama and Ryan plans are not without common ground; both propose an identical formula for capping the growth in Medicare spending per beneficiary. And both dip into the same toolbox (particularly lower payments to providers) to achieve a reduction of nearly $1 trillion in Medicare expenditures over the next decade from projected levels.

That’s where the agreement ends. Mr. Ryan believes that meeting the goal over the long term requires introducing more competition into Medicare through vouchers to purchase private insurance.

But Ryan’s approach was rendered toothless when the issue’s brutal politics forced him to retreat from his initial tough plan to simply cap the growth in government spending on Medicare and stick the inevitable overage onto beneficiaries. Under his revised plan, private insurers would be required to offer the same level of benefits as traditional Medicare, meaning that any savings would have to come from unidentified efficiencies (the ever-popular “waste, fraud and abuse”).

If the cap was breached — as it almost certainly would eventually be — Mr. Ryan blithely says, “Congress would be required to intervene.” Fat chance; Congress regularly does the opposite when it rolls back caps on payments to doctors and hospitals.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama’s hopes for sustained cost containment are pinned on a to-be-determined mix of squeezing reimbursements, embracing a selection of the creative ideas that have spewed forth from health care policy wonks and scouring the globe for innovations.

To Mr. Obama’s credit, his plan has more teeth than Mr. Ryan’s; if his Independent Payment Advisory Board comes up with savings, Congress must accept either them or vote for an equivalent package. The problem is, the advisory board can’t propose reducing benefits (a k a rationing) or raising fees (another form of rationing), without which the spending target looms impossibly large.

That’s the view of the bipartisan Medicare trustees, whose 2012 report stated: “Actual future Medicare expenditures are likely to exceed the intermediate projections shown in this report, possibly by quite large amounts.”

To be sure, health care cost increases have moderated, in part because of the recession and in part because Medicare has been tightening its reimbursements. But those thumbscrews can’t be tightened forever; Medicare reimbursement rates are already well below those of private providers.

Let’s not forget that with the elderly population growing rapidly, even if cost increases for each beneficiary can be contained, Medicare would still claim a rising share of the American economy.

Medicare needs to take a cue from Willie Sutton, who reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. The big money in Medicare is not to be found in Mr. Ryan’s competition or Mr. Obama’s innovation, but in reducing the cost of treating people in the last year of life, which consumes more than a quarter of the program’s budget.

No one wants to lose an aging parent. And with price out of the equation, it’s natural for patients and their families to try every treatment, regardless of expense or efficacy. But that imposes an enormous societal cost that few other nations have been willing to bear. Many countries whose health care systems are regularly extolled — including Canada, Australia and New Zealand — have systems for rationing care.

Take Britain, which provides universal coverage with spending at proportionately almost half of American levels. Its National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence uses a complex quality-adjusted life year system to put an explicit value (up to about $48,000 per year) on a treatment’s ability to extend life.

At the least, the Independent Payment Advisory Board should be allowed to offer changes in services and costs. We may shrink from such stomach-wrenching choices, but they are inescapable.

Steven Rattner, a contributing opinion writer, was a counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration.

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2012-09-25T22:25:00.001-04:00

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PAVES THE WAY FOR SHARIA LAW

from our collegues at Breitbart

The most terrifying danger Americans face from a second Barack Obama term isn’t the economy, which is scary enough.

The most harrowing prospect is the Obama Administration’s passivity in the face of attempts to introduce aspects of sharia law into our legal system. Now there is strong and open evidence of the Obama administration collaborating with Islamist activists to ensure the path toward sharia law is accelerated.

Just last week, Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, was asked this question by Trent Franks (R-AZ), a member of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution: "Will you tell us here today that this Administration's Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?"

Perez refused to answer. Four times.

And why would Franks target Perez?

Here’s why:

Last October, at George Washington University, there was a meeting between DOJ officials, including Perez, and Islamist advocates against free speech. Representatives from the Islamist side included Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding trial in 2008, as well as functioning as a Muslim Brotherhood Front. The leader of the Islamist attack was Sahar Aziz, an Egyptian-born American lawyer and Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Muslim advocacy group based in Michigan. At the meeting, the Islamists lobbied for:

Cutbacks in U.S. anti-terror training
Limits on the power of terrorism investigators
Changes in agent training manuals
A legal declaration that criticism of Islam in the United States should be considered racial discrimination

Aziz said that the word “Muslim” has become “racialized” and, once American criticism of Islam was silenced, the effect would be to "take [federal] money away from local police departments and fusion centers who are spying on all of us.”

And what was the response from Perez and the DOJ officials?

Nothing.

That’s right: no objection, no defense of our first amendment right to free speech.

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2012-09-25T22:16:00.002-04:00

You Can Never Awaken a Man Who Is Pretending to be Asleep

The White House and media response to the events in the US embassies in Egypt and Libya can be characterized by the fact they speak like they have never seen Sharia mob justice before in their lives. Or, at least, you would think that from the knowledge and wisdom they display in their analysis.

For the last 11 years since 9/11, we have watched the same events unroll in the Islamic world and the same response come from our so-called leaders in the government, media, schools and the pulpits. The establishment view: Those Muslims are extremists, not real Muslims. We should be careful not to offend the religion of peace. When Muslims are offended by movies, Koran burnings and Mohammed cartoons, it is our fault.

The clue phone is ringing, pick it up. Here are the clues:

The murder of intellectuals and artists who criticize Mohammed is Sunna. Sunna is the perfect example of Mohammed’s life. When Mohammed captured Mecca, he first prayed, then he destroyed all religious art and then he issued death warrants for the artists and intellectuals who had opposed him. There are only two new facts in the Koran, a derivative work. The first new fact is that Mohammed is the prophet of Allah, and the second new truth is that if you don’t believe he is prophet of Allah, you can be killed.

Violence is what brings Islam success. In Mohammed’s life, he preached the religion of Islam for 13 years and garnered 150 new followers. When he went to Medina and became a politician and a warlord, when he died every Arab was a Muslim. Jihad violence was what made Islam successful. If Mohammed practice jihad, Muslims must use the technique of jihad.

Hello establishment experts, the black flag is not an Al Qaeda flag. The black flag with the Shahada, “There is no god, but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet” and the swords goes back to the Golden Age of Islam in Baghdad in the 9th century. (The establishment professors never tell you about this jihad aspect of the Islamic Golden Age.) This jihad flag is ancient.

Current news is that Ambassador Stevens was raped before he was killed. If so, then this is pure jihad doctrine. The rules for rape of captured Kafirs (unbelievers) are Sunna. At the conquest of the Jews in Khaybar, the Hadith are explicit that captured Kafirs can be raped.

The mob is a manifestation of the Sharia and the umma (the Islamic community). Notice that when a fatwa is issued, such as the famous fatwa by Khomeini against Salmon Rushdie for his artistic work The Satanic Verses, the fatwa is not to be fulfilled by the Islamic police. No, the murder is to be carried by any member of the umma. This is vigilante justice, Sharia justice, mob justice. Pay attention to how often Muslims riot to make political gain.

The shortest hadith is: war is deceit. So here come all of the “good” Muslims to explain how the murder and riots are not real Islam. And they are so upset about what Arabs are doing at the US embassies. But, they still can tell us that Islam is the religion of peace, without a single trace of irony.

The idea that we should not blaspheme Islam, Mohammed or Allah is pure Sharia and the position of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation). It seems that none of the establishment experts have the foggiest idea of what Sharia blasphemy entails. Not believing that Mohammed is the prophet of Allah, that a woman is a second class citizen, that jihad is part of Islam is all blasphemy. Critical thought is blasphemy. The Golden Rule is blasphemy. Any well-founded religion can survive blasphemy, except Islam, and that is the reason it is forbidden. But the worst part of this travesty is the refrain from Obama and Hillary that we should subvert our freedom of speech to the demands of the Sharia. The Sharia is Allah’s law and our Constitution is a document of ignorance to be removed from the world. So say the imams and Obama and Hillary.

And now for the last tired response from the apologists: those violent people are an extremist fringe. NO! The mobs are main-line Islam.

You can awaken a man who is asleep, but you will never awaken a man who is pretending to be asleep. That is the reason that we find our experts in the government, media, education and the pulpits to be such dhimmis. They have refused to learn a single thing about Islamic doctrine and history since 9/11. But, cheer up! When the dhimmis write about the beauty of Islam and how the Kafirs are wrong, read the comments. You will find that the common man knows far, far more about Islam than the experts. The higher you go, the less they know.

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2012-09-25T22:03:00.001-04:00

Mona Eltahawy arrested for assaulting pro-freedom blogger while defacing AFDI pro-freedom ad

Pamela Geller has the blockbuster story:

Islamic supremacist journalist Mona Eltahawy was arrested today after assaulting a defender of freedom who caught her in the act of vandalizing one of AFDI’s pro-Israel ads in the New York Subway Stations.
This again proves the Islamic supremacists and the Leftist thugs are dedicated to shutting down free speech. Anti-Israel ads ran all over the country without a murmur of protest; but this pro-Israel ad was hardly up an hour before fascist thugs like Eltahawy went to work to deface it.

At 12:42PM on Tuesday, September 25, Eltahawy tweeted: “Meetings done; pink spray paint time.#ProudSavage#FuckHate.”

Shortly thereafter, she was about to spray paint over AFDI’s pro-Israel ad in a subway station when freelance journalist and pro-freedom blogger Pamela Hall stood between her and the ad. Eltahawy thereupon sprayed Hall with paint; Eltahawy was arrested and Hall is pressing charges.

The attack was witnessed by Georgette Roberts of the New York Post. We look forward to the Post’s full report, since Roberts witnessed this entire incident.

This criminal behavior and fascism will be lauded in Leftist circles.

Eltahawy’s thuggish behavior is a telling indication of how relentlessly opposed the left and Islamic supremacists are to the freedom of speech, and how desperate they are to keep any pro-freedom, anti-jihad message from getting out.

AFDI’s ad reads: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”

Eltahawy’s behavior is all the more ironic in light of the fact that she was viciously sexually assaulted by “protesters” in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last year, and subsequently wrote a searching piece about the misogyny that is inherent in Islamic law. But she was roundly attacked by her fellow Islamic supremacist writers for that article, and made a full retreat. Now, in a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome, she is defending the same savages who brutally attacked her in Tahrir Square.

AFDI calls upon the NYPD to prosecute Eltahawy for her assault on Pamela Hall to the fullest extent of the law, and to guard the pro-Israel ads from further Leftist/Islamic supremacist vandalism.

Related: Left rejoices at vandalism of pro-freedom, pro-Israel ads

UPDATE: Eltahawy's Islamic supremacist anti-free speech thuggery caught on film:

New York Post story here. Now Mona Eltahawy has made up for her getting off the reservation a few months ago and criticizing Islamic supremacist mistreatment of women -- in this she has appeased her masters.

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