Israelated Blogs

"Israelated - English Israel blogs" - 28 new articles More on the Obama "Funky" Campaign Donations Scandal :: Yid With Lid Why is the Daily Kos surprised? :: FresnoZionism.org Happy Birthday UN--NOW GO HOME !! :: Yid With Lid Obama Citizenship Lawsuit Filed in Cincinnati-Now a Total of NINE Lawsuits :: Yid With Lid Preparing the party for whom? :: O C C U P I E D Expert Witness: Social Support a Staple of Terrorist Groups :: Docstalk Testing Obama's mettle :: Docstalk What the financial markets look like :: Treading the VC waters From Radarsite to Real Clear Politics: Hello? Anybody Home? :: RADARSITE Swedes cave to 'international pressure,' fire 'Palestinians' :: Israel Matzav Porush Meets the Srugim :: Cosmic X Canadians Covet Visits to Holy Land :: Canada's Israel Snakes on the Massage Table :: Canada's Israel A Time for Everything under Heaven :: in the land of milk and honey Simchat Torah Suggestions :: A Mother in Israel Fatah Vs. Hamas :: BraveJeWorld - Israel Counter-Terrorism Blog Thoughts on UN Day, Dhimmitude, and Bereshis :: APRPEH Things Worth Noting :: Mystical Paths Yesterday's Victim :: Israellycool Killing virtual reality husband - big deal? :: Simply Jews Elect Obama, Or Else: Police Prepare For Unrest :: RADARSITE Indecision 2008 Jerusalem: Meet the Candidates :: the big felafel Can Heroes Be Saved? :: Israellycool The Internet and terrorism: a week after AqsaTube was removed from the Internet, it returned in a similar format and with suppor :: Docstalk Shimon Peres To Be Put to the Sword :: Israellycool Mort Klein and the No-State Solution :: Tikun Olam: Make the World a Better Place Expensive real estate? :: Israel Matzav Is she bluffing? :: Israel Matzav More Recent Articles Search Israelated - English Israel blogs More on the Obama "Funky" Campaign Donations Scandal :: Yid With Lid Read this article on the community site National Journal does a good job in explaining the "funky" Campaign Donations Given to the Obama Campaign: FEC Rules Leave Loopholes For Online Donation Data Reports Of Irregularities In Donations Under $200 Raise Questions Of Who Bears The Burden Of Filtering Out Improper Money by Neil Munro Friday, Oct. 24, 2008 The increasing use of online financial tools, debit cards and prepaid credit cards to make political contributions has created technological loopholes in federal and public oversight of campaign donations. The result has been a recent spate of news stories raising questions about apparently implausible or suspicious donations to the presidential campaigns. Right-of-center activists also claim that Barack Obama's campaign has collected tens of millions of dollars from suspect overseas donors. Their complaints spurred the Republican National Committee on Oct. 6 to ask the Federal Election Commission for an investigation of the Obama donations. To test the campaigns' practices, this author bought two pre-paid American Express gift cards worth $25 each to donate to the Obama and McCain campaigns online. As required by law, the campaigns' Web sites asked for, and National Journal provided, the donor's correct name, location and employment. The cards were purchased with cash at a Washington, D.C., drugstore, and the campaigns' Web sites were accessed through a public computer at a library in Fairfax County, Virginia. The Obama campaign's Web site accepted the $25 donation, but the McCain campaign's Web site rejected it. Rebecca Donatelli, president of Campaigns Solutions of Alexandria, Va., which processes donations for John McCain, said her system rejected the donation because American Express could not verify that the donor lived at the address given with the online contribution. The McCain campaign does accept normal credit card donations because staffers can easily check whether the owner of the credit card shares the same billing address as the listed donor, she said. That address-check process costs the campaign about 12 cents, she said. "We could lower our standards and accept more money... but this is John McCain's campaign, and he wants to root out fraud in fund raising and have everything open and as honest as possible," said Donatelli. Obama campaign spokesman Nick Shapiro said, "We review our contributions to ensure that the information donors provide is complete and verifiable. We would only accept a contribution from a pre-paid credit card if the donor provides complete and verifiable information, consistent with FEC guidelines." FEC spokesman Robert Biersack said, "The committees are responsible for providing accurate information about the identifying characteristics of their donor.... Click Here for the rest of the story. Please email me at yidwithlid@aol.com to be put onto my mailing list.Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com • Email to a friend • Related • Why is the Daily Kos surprised? :: FresnoZionism.org Read this article on the community site Daily Kos headline: No one could've ever predicted that Jewish voters would support Obama… Why not? They have traditionally voted Democratic. Even when Ronald Reagan got his huge landslide in 1980, he only got 35% — Jimmy Carter got 45% and independent John Anderson 14. In 1972, 65% of Jews voted for McGovern when he was massively trounced by Nixon. In fact, since 1916 (the earliest election listed in the source linked above), the only times the Democratic candidate got less than a majority of the Jewish vote were in 1980 and in 1920, when it was split between the Democrat, James M. Cox (ever heard of him?) and Socialist Eugene V. Debs! So why is Markos surprised? The great majority of Jews in the US are secular or at least non-Orthodox. Many Orthodox Jews, interestingly, do support McCain, but they comprise only a small percentage of all American Jews. Non-Orthodox Jews are overwhelmingly liberal, and most of their political opinions closely align with those of Obama. The only issue about which one might expect there to be a divergence is — Israel. It is very, very difficult to predict what a candidate's policy will be in office. Especially about hot-button issues, they are all very careful to say all of the right things to avoid alienating important constituencies, and for Obama the Jews — with large populations in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and other important states — are such a constituency. But you can make guesses based on the advisors a candidate chooses (even when he sometimes fires them), his associations and his supporters. In terms of his likely Israel policy, Obama does not look especially good in this respect. And Kos and others recognize this. So he is surprised that Jews are apparently ignoring this issue. He shouldn't be. The bad news is that most liberal American Jews have long since lost any special feeling for Israel. For most, it is "just another country". Unfortunately for those of us who do care about Israel, there's little reason to believe that the Republican policy — if it is anything like the Bush Administration's — will be any better. See my previous post ("expensive futility") for why. And there are plenty of other good reasons not to return the Republican party to office. Now I've irritated everyone. Technorati Tags: Obama, McCain, Daily Kos, Jewish vote • Email to a friend • Article Search • Related • Happy Birthday UN--NOW GO HOME !! :: Yid With Lid Read this article on the community site Today is the 62nd Birthday of the United Nations. In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization to draw up the United Nations Charter. Those delegates deliberated on the basis of proposals worked out by the representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States at Dumbarton Oaks, United States, in August-October 1944. The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and a majority of other signatories. United Nations Day is celebrated on 24 October each year. The charter of the UN Begins with these words: WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, AND FOR THESE ENDS to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples. So Happy Birthday UN, you began with such a noble purpose....you failed so miserably. It is time for you to go away---you are no use to anyone except for terrorist supporting nations. Its time for your building and all of those illegally parked ambassadors to just pack up and get the hell out and close your doors. Save us all some money and move your anti-American, anti-Jewish bull crap back home. You get no cake, no candles, no lifetime supply of Rice-a-Roni, no take home version of the Jihad Game. All you deserve is our contempt. Please email me at yidwithlid@aol.com to be put onto my mailing list.Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com • Email to a friend • Related • Obama Citizenship Lawsuit Filed in Cincinnati-Now a Total of NINE Lawsuits :: Yid With Lid Read this article on the community site The number of Obama Citizenship Lawsuits is up to NINE. Today a man from Warren County Ohio filed a suit. It will be heard on Thursday. Hey Senator, if all IS kosher with your "Certificate of Live Birth" then why don't you tell Hawaii to release your Official Document?. The story below is from the Cincinnati Enquirer. Suit challenges Obama's birth place By Janice Morse jmorse@enquirer.com TURTLECREEK TWP. – A Warren County man is taking the long-simmering dispute over Barack Obama's birthplace – Hawaii or Kenya? – to court. David M. Neal of Turtlecreek Township plunked down a $200 fee to file a lawsuit Friday in Warren Common Pleas Court in Lebanon. The suit seeks to force state and federal officials to take more steps to settle, once and for all, the question of Obama's legitimacy as a potential president. The U.S. Constitution requires presidents to be natural-born citizens who are at least 35 years old. "Mr. Obama has failed to demonstrate that he is a 'natural-born' citizen," Neal declares. He asserts that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein all ought to be held responsible for verifying that Obama meets the constitutional requirements for president. Various fact-checking groups and journalists have investigated a Hawaiian birth certificate that they conclude appears to be valid. Images of the document are available on various Internet sites. But Neal and others say doubt lingers. This is the second politically charged lawsuit to be filed in Warren County in recent weeks. Another suit, filed Oct. 14, was filed by two Warren County residents seeking to dissolve the community organizing group ACORN under the Corrupt Activity Act. In a phone interview, Neal told The Enquirer he's a retired businessman, "an ordinary guy," and not a lawyer. He says he has informally worked with a lawyer through an unnamed "grass-roots group" of people who e-mail each other. The group expects to file similar actions in other states, Neal said. In fact, much of the wording in Neal's suit mirrors language in a similar Obama birth challenge filed in August in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania, by attorney Philip Berg. Neal said mainstream national media organizations have refused to listen to his claims. Asked why he filed the suit, he said, "It's not about me. It's about our country." A magistrate is scheduled to conduct a hearing on Neal's complaint Thursday. For all the background information on the Obama lawsuits CLICK HERE Please email me at yidwithlid@aol.com to be put onto my mailing list.Feel free to reproduce any article but please link back to http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com • Email to a friend • Related • Preparing the party for whom? :: O C C U P I E D Read this article on the community site Chinese construction workers are frantically running around, while Russian speaking carpenters are assembling the hardwood deck and fences surrounding the building. A huge tent has been erected and electricians prepare light fixtures outside. A gorilla-sized guy from a private security company sits idle on a small chair, overlooking the sea. Small children play in the little public sports play ground that has been prepared just outside the Peres Center for Peace. The kids are the only locals in the immediate area. No one from Jaffa seems to be employed here. I sneak inside the compound to have a look at things. My eyes catch sight of a pig-ugly statue of an anorectic looking grotesquely long-necked woman releasing iron doves upward into the sky. It looks straight out of the fifties and is heavy on symbolism. The sort of statue used in shopping malls; not offensive to anyone, sort of "pretty" and "pleasing" but not carrying any weight. With the money spent here, they could have done better. But then, the whole building is such a colonialist mis-fit. And very symbolic of what is happening in Jaffa, in the country, in the Middle East. Inside , the building is more or less empty, unfinished. Natural light, but very stuffy. There are no windows to be seen (except for the top floor, facing the sea), there is a lot of glass, but not one window which can be opened to let in fresh air. Weird, because close to the beach there is almost always a nice wind, even on hot days. Just open the windows on the shadow side of the building to let in the breeze, and you will not need air-conditioning. Not so in this building, they'll either be cooking or waste much electricity on keeping cool, i guess. The inauguration ceremony is a few days away and the building is far from ready. The beach surrounding it has been cleaned, the road towards the beach, which has been coming apart over the last several years, has been repaired as well and newly asphalted. The area surrounding the huge pipe passing underneath the center and ending on Ajami beach (the rain overflow from Pardes Dake) has been cleaned, amazing what they're wiling to do in order to impress the foreign guests. That area of Jaffa hasn't been so clean for ages. Now and then kids from the neighborhood pass by to have a lok. I have finally deteced the entrance of the building. It faces the sea and when arriving from the street you need to go all around in order to find it. "Most welcoming". The building could be used as a shelter for many of Jaffa's homeless and poor families. That would be a great use for it. Then maybe it would turn into something that could become part of the community. One could also operate an art center for kids in it. A community center. Although not inviting nor pleasant, i can think of a few uses for it. Obviously more entrances should be made into it. To let the neighbors in. Ad windows, for a fresh breeze. • Email to a friend • Related • Expert Witness: Social Support a Staple of Terrorist Groups :: Docstalk Read this article on the community site IPT News October 23, 2008 http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/795 DALLAS – Successful terrorist organizations throughout history have used social wings as a means of building popular support, an internationally-recognized terrorism expert said Thursday. Bruce Hoffman, a professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a former Scholar-in-Residence at the CIA, testified in the trial of five men accused of funneling millions of dollars to social support organizations controlled by Hamas. Hoffman's testimony did not delve into specific charges or evidence against the former officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Rather, Hoffman was a prosecution expert, outlining the structure of terrorist movements like Hizballah in Lebanon and the Irish Republican Army. Terrorist organizations that do not have a social arm, said Hoffman, historically are the "least consequential." "Is charity in the hand of a terrorist organization a good thing or a bad thing?" asked federal prosecutor Barry Jonas. "Absolutely a bad thing," said Hoffman, author of Inside Terrorism. Charity by terrorist organizations is different from those of truly charitable organizations because a terrorist organization's deeds are "self-serving." In other words, Hoffman said, terrorist organizations perform charitable work in order to "exercise control over the population." For example, most terrorist groups with social arms run or support schools and hospitals. That allows them to indoctrinate the local population and gain their support. The five HLF defendants are accused of conspiring to provide material support to Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1995 and in a separate designation two years later. HLF routed millions of dollars to Palestinian charities, known as zakat committees that prosecutors say were controlled by Hamas. Defense attorneys argue that the men were merely offering supplies – financial support for widows and orphans, medical supplies and school needs – to needy Palestinians. Defense attorneys all passed when given a chance to cross examine Hoffman. Earlier, attorney Nancy Hollander, who represents former HLF Executive Director Shukri Abu Baker, asked FBI agent Lara Burns on cross examination whether she had seen evidence that the Palestinians receiving HLF support were in desperate need of assistance. At another point, Burns was asked about book bags HLF sent to Palestinian schoolchildren. Hoffman's testimony offered a stark contrast to the defense's arguments, by demonstrating how HLF's charitable work fit into a larger perspective. Viewed in this context, HLF could be seen as part of the "social wing" of Hamas, which was designed to win the hearts and minds of the people for Hamas. While Hamas purports to be divided into social, political and militant wings, U.S. law prohibits providing support to any of them. Burns' cross examination followed her second stint on the witness stand for this trial. In her second testimony, she helped summarize dozens of prosecution exhibits, trying to show how they tie the defendants and the zakat committees to Hamas. Her cross examination lasted a day and a half and often was tedious. Unlike Burns' testimony, Hoffman's was free of exhibits and moved faster. A mistrial was declared a year ago after jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts on most counts against the defendants. Some jurors indicated there was not enough evidence to show the men did anything but provide charity. Hoffman did not testify in that trial. His testimony marks another adjustment in the prosecution's case since then. Burns' return to the stand is another. Last week, jurors heard from a former HLF insider, who testified that he was sure money he routed to HLF would ultimately benefit Hamas. The trial is in recess until Monday. For The Record - The IPT Blog Jasser's Righteous Stand by IPT News Wed, 22 Oct 2008 at 4:57 PM http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2008/10/jassers-righteous-stand... He wages a sometimes lonely battle against voices on extremism and intolerance within the American Muslim community. But M. Zuhdi Jasser has again demonstrated why his voice so important with comments about - of all things - a video game. On Monday, Sony announced a delay in the much-hyped release of the Playstation 3 game Littlebigplanet after realizing some background songs contained Quranic expressions. The game's release was delayed out of a concern the music might offend and anger some Muslim players. Littlebigplanet is a game involving a fantasy world of limitless imagination and a character known as Sackboy. Jasser gave a statement to Edge magazine, which focuses on the burgeoning gaming industry, to say the company over-reacted: "Muslims cannot benefit from freedom of expression and religion and then turn around and ask that anytime their sensibilities are offended that the freedom of others be restricted. The free market allows for expression of disfavor by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive. But to demand that it be withdrawn is predicated on a society which gives theocrats who wish to control speech far more value than the central principle of freedom of expression upon which the very practice and freedom of religion is based." (Emphasis added) He's not necessarily happy that the "the words of God" are being used in such a manner, but Jasser made a point of saying he couldn't judge the song until he heard it and saw its context. At once, Jasser, a devout Muslim and physician who founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, is able to defend free speech without compromising his religious convictions. It's an example to emulate. RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss • Email to a friend • Related • Testing Obama's mettle :: Docstalk Read this article on the community site Caroline Glick , THE JERUSALEM POST In a week and a half, American voters will elect the next US president. Their decision will impact the entire world. Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama now enjoys a significant lead in the polls against Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. For McCain to win, a lot of Obama supporters will need to reassess their choice for president. This week, Obama's running-mate Senator Joseph Biden gave Obama supporters a good reason to change their minds. In much-reported remarks to campaign donors in Seattle on Sunday, Biden warned that if Obama is elected to the White House, it will take America's adversaries no time at all to test him. In his words, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama…. The world is looking…. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate." Biden then continued, "And he's gonna need help….We're gonna need you to use your influence…within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right." Many commentators have minimized the importance of Biden's remarks by claiming that all new leaders are tested. But this is not exactly correct. World leaders test their adversaries when they perceive them as weak. When Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected US president in 1952, the Soviet Union did not move quickly to test the man who had led Allied Forces in World War II. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, the Iranian regime released the US hostages it had held for a year and a half. In speaking as he did, Biden essentially acknowledged three things. First, he recognized that Obama projects an image of weakness and naiveté internationally that invites America's adversaries to challenge him. Second, by stating that if Obama is tested a crisis will ensue, Biden made clear that Obama will fail the tests he is handed as a newly inaugurated president. After all, when an able leader is tested, he acts wisely and secures his nation's interests while averting a crisis. Finally, Biden made clear that Obama's failure will be widely noted, and hence, "it's not gonna be apparent that we're right." IN LIGHT of Biden's dire warning about his running-mate, the central question that Americans ought to be asking themselves is whether or not Biden is correct. Is it true that Obama projects a posture of weakness and incompetence internationally and is it likely that this posture reflects reality? Unfortunately, it appears that Biden knows exactly what he is talking about. Take Iran for example. Obama has stated outright that if he is elected US president he will offer to conduct direct negotiations with his Iranian counterpart President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Yet two weeks ago, the Iranians made clear that their dispute with America is not about who occupies the White House, but about the nature of the US. Speaking to the official Iranian news service IRNA, Iranian Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor stipulated that Iran will only agree to meet with a US leader after America has bowed to Teheran's will. In his words, Iran will refuse to hold such high-level talks "for as long as US forces have not left the Middle East region, and [the US] continues its support for the Zionist regime." Kalhor explained, "It is stupidity to hold talks without any change in US attitudes." After naming its price, Iran has since done its best to make its preconditions palatable for an Obama administration. This it has done by claiming that it will not attack the US, it will only attack Israel. Just after Kalhor's interview, Seyed Safavi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told a diplomatic audience in London that Iranian leadership circles are now debating the option of attacking Israel without attacking US forces in the region. Safavi added that chances for direct negotiations between the US and Iran will increase if Obama is elected. Alluding to Kalhor's remarks, Safavi claimed that sanctions against Iran have failed and that if the US expects Iran to stop enriching uranium, it will have to take "firm and significant" steps in Iran's direction. Then on Wednesday, in a visit to US-ally Bahrain, the speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani gave Obama the regime's official endorsement. Larijani said, "We are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and rational." Iran's pre-US election behavior indicates that Iran will waste no time testing Obama's mettle. Iran is behaving as if it fully expects Obama to do what his supporter Rev. Jesse Jackson expects him to do. That is, like Jackson, Iran expects Obama to end "Zionist control" of US foreign policy. And to aid the process, the Iranians are willing to leave US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan alone as they attack Israel with their nascent nuclear arsenal shortly after Obama is inaugurated. In his remarks on Sunday Biden made clear that he does not believe that Obama will agree to use the US military to confront Iran or any other enemy. His rejection of the use of force is not due to a sense that force is not necessary. Rather it is due to his dim assessment of America's military capabilities. In his words, "We do not have the military capacity, nor have we ever, quite frankly, in the last 20 years, to dictate outcomes. … It's so much more complicated than that. And Barack gets it." Given the Democratic ticket's belief that the US military is too weak to protect American interests, it could be expected that Obama and Biden would support strengthening the US military. But the opposite is the case. Obama has called for slashing the US military budget, cutting back the US's anti-missile programs and scaling back drastically the US nuclear arsenal. That is, although Obama has claimed that he will never take the option of the use of force off the table, by refusing to strengthen the US military which he perceives as weak, he is making certain that the US military option is ineffectual. IN CERTAIN respects, if Americans elect Obama to lead them on November 4, they will be repeating the decision of Israeli voters who elected Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to lead them in March 2006. Like Obama, Olmert ran on a platform of appeasing Israel's enemies. In addition to his plan to curtail US military options by decreasing US military budgets, Obama's appeasement platform includes his pledge to abandon the Bush administration's sole foreign policy success in its second term by pulling US forces out of Iraq. He has also promised to exacerbate Bush's second term policy failures by expanding the outgoing administration's penchant for courting US adversaries. In 2006 Olmert's electoral platform included a naïve and defeatist pledge to unilaterally withdraw Israeli civilians and military forces from Judea and Samaria. As for Iran, Olmert's policy was to abdicate Israel's responsibility to prevent its own destruction by relying on the Americans and the Europeans to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Biden's warning that Obama will be tested and found wanting by America's adversaries almost immediately after entering office echoes warnings by politicians and commentators in the lead-up to Olmert's electoral victory in 2006. As subsequent events showed, Olmert's critics were correct. Olmert was tested and found wanting when in July 2006 Iran's Hizbullah proxy went to war against Israel. Just as Olmert's political opponents warned, and Israel's enemies expected, Olmert's naïve perception of international affairs, his strategic incompetence and his exaggerated view of his own importance caused him to fail abjectly when his country needed him. Largely due to Olmert's weakness and poor judgment, Israel was defeated by Hizbullah. And Israel's defeat fomented a radical reordering of the regional balance of power in Iran's favor. Hizbullah took over Lebanon. Hamas took over Gaza. Syria is being feted by the Europeans. Iran stands in the doorway of the nuclear club. Olmert's failure not only strengthened Israel's enemies, it caused its own allies to reassess its value. After the war, the Bush administration embraced Europe's failed strategy of appeasing Iran and the Palestinians. Washington eschewed confrontation with Teheran and has renewed its push to compel Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem despite the certainty that any territory Israel vacates will fall under the control of Hamas and Iran. Iran will likely be the first US adversary to test Obama. And Obama will have no idea what to do. While Obama has stated repeatedly that a nuclear-armed Iran is a "game-changer," Obama's own rule book for international relations has no relevance for dealing with Iran's game. Obama views international relations as a creature of American will. If America is nice to others, they will be nice to America. But the fact of the matter is that regimes like Iran hate the US regardless of how it behaves. The only question with strategic relevance for Washington is whether the Iranians also fear the US. And Obama has given them no reason to fear him. To the contrary, he has given them reason to believe that under his leadership, the mullahs can defeat America. AMERICA STANDS to elect its new president in times of nearly unprecedented dangers. Iran is on the threshold of nuclear weapons. Thanks to the Bush administration, North Korea now feels free to vastly expand its nuclear proliferation activities. Oil rich states like Venezuela, Russia and Iran recognize that with global oil prices decreasing, now is the time to strike before they are impoverished. And the international economic turmoil will cause Western nations to recoil from international confrontations and so embolden rogue states to attack their interests. For Israel, this state of affairs could not be more dire. As these threats mount, we find ourselves bereft of political leadership. Although Olmert has finally resigned, he remains in office as the caretaker prime minister until someone forms a new government. In the best case scenario, elections will be called and Olmert will remain in office for the next four to six months. In the worst case scenario, he will be replaced by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Like Obama and Olmert, Livni is perceived as weak and incompetent by Israel's enemies. Unlike Obama, Livni is judged not only by her words, but by her deeds. As foreign minister, Livni was an architect of the cease-fire with Hizbullah under which Hizbullah has taken control of Lebanon and rearmed. She is an architect of Israel's current policy of expanding the Hamas terror state to Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. She is an architect of Israel's policy of doing nothing to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The prospect of an Obama-Livni partnership in policy failure is enough to keep men and women of good faith up at night. Certainly it should suffice to convince some Obama supporters to reconsider their options. caroline@carolineglick.com ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017613212&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss • Email to a friend • Related • What the financial markets look like :: Treading the VC waters Read this article on the community site Red.... Here's a great map showing the performance of various stocks by sectors, with a strong red for the major declines. What is the big island of green on the right? Try to guess Technorati Tags: Map of the market,Red,Green,Gold (Answer: Nothing to do with green technology of course... rather gold) • Email to a friend • Article Search • Related • From Radarsite to Real Clear Politics: Hello? Anybody Home? :: RADARSITE Read this article on the community site Most Voted in Last 7 Days 8 Lawsuits Filed on Obama Birth Certificate Issue It is my understanding that this article was unfairly removed by RCP. I am therefore reposting it under Radarsite's banner. We shall see... Submitted By Dodgerg - Oct 23, 8:03 pm 62 votes re: An Open Letter to RCP: More Complaints Radarsite has received additional complaints on this subject, but as of now no replies from RCP. Submitted By Dodgerg - Oct 23, 5:44 pm 38 votes ----------------------------------------------------- From Radarsite: What could be more ironic than the fact that the article we posted to Real Clear Politics to protest their suspect editorial procedures should presently be the Most Voted article at RCP with 62 votes? And note that the original complaining article is also on the Most Voted page with 38 votes. What can we infer from this inexplicable response from RCP? They adamantly refuse to answer all of our email inquiries, then grant our complaining articles the highest status at Reader's Articles. Does the left hand know what the right hand is up to? Could RCP have at least acknowledged receipt of all these individual emails from their contributors? Could RCP have at least responded with a "We recognize the problem and we are working to solve it"? But no such acknowledgement is given. We are just ignored. As I have stated before, Real Clear Politics is a vital link in our chain of communication. It can represent the difference between an article having only a few readers, or an article making a major impact around the blogosphere. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that we need RCP and we enjoy the relationship we have earned at RCP. However we must trust RCP. And for whatever reasons RCP has, by its continuing refusal to respond to our legitimate questions, undermined its own credibility. Are there actually hackers at work here? Is there really an Obama censor behind the scenes at RCP, deciding what gets posted and what does not, what stays up and what comes down? The political term for what you are doing is stonewalling. And by stonewalling us you are letting the rumors continue to grow and proliferate. I cannot believe that you have judged this to be in your best interest. You can put an end to this whole speculative business with one response, one simple email. But, alas, so far you have chosen to simply continue ignoring us. But there is a problem with this choice. We are tenacious, and we will not just go away. If anything, this story has become bigger. The first day Radarsite ran this article we had a little over 5,000 readers; the second day, 7,503 -- the vast majority of whom were reading that particular story about RCP. And that is from just one of our blogs. Do you really not care about these numbers? about all these people? It is my best hope that this is all some big misunderstanding and it will be quickly resolved and we can go back to business as usual. But this can only be resolved if you will talk to us. Below I have reposted a sampling of the comments Radarsite has received so far on this issue. There are many more. Respectfully, Roger W. Gardner ------------------------------------------------------------- Anonymous said... Yes, someone has removed my posted info about 8 states suing for Obama birth documents -- 5 times in 2 hours, and even removed from the 'over 10' list. User accounts are also deleted -- am on my third account now.The first questionable incident I noticed occurred when a pro-Obama video was listed for several hours on the front page of RCP in the Reader Article section -- a post that had received only 4 votes.Who is responsible, do you know? Thanks, independentvoter October 23, 2008 2:54 PM Findalis said... And if they really don't like what you wtite they will fool around with your account so you can't sign in. I'm on my third handle there now. But for how long? October 23, 2008 3:13 PM Roger W. Gardner said... I just deleted an anonymous comment critical of RCP. Radarsite will not be accepting anonymous comments on this subject. RCP is an essential part of our blogging network and I do not take pleasure in challenging their integrity. If I can put my name on my comments to or about RCP, then you can too.Roger G. October 23, 2008 3:14 PM M said... Thanks Roger. Heard another had his front page post removed today - Berg lawsuit - and his account was deactivated.The stories are mounting.I appreciate your bringing the issue to light. October 23, 2008 3:16 PM October 23, 2008 3:18 PM S. Roberts said... About 3AM central time, I captured a PDF of the Webpage for the Most Voted Last 7 Days list where I held 2nd place. I am AmericanUnclassified on the RCP. Go look at that page now, mine and several below it are deleted. I have several days worth of captures showing this problem and I also reported this to the Webmaster at the RCP Website, but have had no response. This is the second time that a series of hackings of this site has gone on in October that I am aware of. I have also seen polling results not be reflected on the home page or electoral page accurately. I am an Internet services provider and I have identified several potential vulnerabilities with the Website design there. The link here is to the Most Voted PDF as of 3:00 AM CT on Oct 23.http://64.37.107.199/rcp/mostvotedlast7days.pdfI feel given these frequent problems, we cannot rely on the RCP Website for an accurate forcast or reflection of reader reactions.Thanks for posting this. October 23, 2008 3:35 PM Faultline USA said... Thank you for keeping us posted about this problem. I certainly hope that RCP will provide an answer as it doesn't look too good. October 23, 2008 3:39 PM Paul N Marston said... As you know, few pro-Obama posts ever get ten votes and make it to the front page. Lately I have seen pro-Obama posts make it to the front page with only two or three votes. I thought it was RCP trying to provide some balance, but given the other posts, I would say that a hacker has gotten into the RCP website. They need to get on this pronto. October 23, 2008 3:39 PM MariAnne said... Wow! I noticed this earlier today when I went looking for the articles I read yesterday in order to get the links so I could get an update today. I thought I was going crazy...Do we still live in America?? October 23, 2008 3:43 PM thinkinboutstuff said... I had a few posts deleted. Sent an email asking if it was something I said.. no response. They were all on the same subject (API) so I just don't try to post those articles on RCP anymore. I figure it's their site, their rules. October 23, 2008 3:44 PM M said... We know now that this is just not aimed at a couple of us.I think hacking is a probability. I noticed that at least one of the articles with only 4 votes on the front page was courtesy of "gadfly," and it was a very anti-American, anti-military video. October 23, 2008 4:05 PM not a dem anymore said... I just had my account took away at RCP. My password would not work. I tried to get new one from RCP, got it, it wouldn't work. I had to get a new account under different name and e-mail address. October 23, 2008 4:17 PM Gerard said... didn't Time-Warner buy RCP a while back? If so, does anyone wonder why anti-Obama posts would be delted October 23, 2008 4:29 PM October 23, 2008 4:39 PM S. Roberts said... not a dem -- try deleting the cookie for the RCP Website. Then create a new account. Here is instruction for Microsoft Internet Explorer:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835/You should find a cookie with a name that includes realclearpolitics in it. October 23, 2008 4:50 PM S. Roberts said... Found other references as far back as a year ago where restrictive and biased content allegations against RCP surfaced but they were resolved a few days later. The contact at RCP is the same one I have communicated to this year, David Russell email address on the Website is webmaster@realclearpolitics.comHe gets a lot of mail, so re-send the request if you don't hear back. Also if you use the same or similar email address to try to create accounts, they may get automatically blocked. October 23, 2008 5:09 PM jbjd said... This explains everything. October 23, 2008 5:23 PM Roger W. Gardner said... Wow. Seems like we have a lot of company, doesn't it?Thanks for your comments. Radarsite will stay on this as long as necessary, or until I am deleted.To S. Roberts: I sent that first email to David Russell. That was yesterday. I'll resend it. Thanks.rg October 23, 2008 5:27 PM No Sheeples Here! said... Roger,On October 11th I posted an article entitled, "Ten Minutes And Fifty-Two Seconds Of DAMNING Truth About Obama: The Game Changer" at 4:29 PM. Between 10:30 and 11:00 PM, after garnering 38 votes at RCP, the article was scrubbed. I posted another article entitled, "Real Clear Politics Scrubbed Article About Obama Birth Certificate Lawsuit" shortly after I discovered the removal. In the wee hours of the morning that article was also scrubbed.My blog has been under attack by an Obama troll named "Gerald" whose IP address indicates "he" is located in Centreville, VA.What in God's name is Obama hiding? What are the PODS afraid of?Thanks for staying on this, Roger. You're a great American! October 23, 2008 5:48 PM Ace Tomato said... Oh crappers. RCP is the one place I found where I was picking up news that isn't kissing Obama hiney from posters with consistent integrity.I wondered what was up with the Pro Obama articles floating up with only 3 votes. I don't care if there are pro Obama articles that get genuine reader attention and response, but something is very weird.Stay on it guys. The games are getting crazier by the minute!! October 23, 2008 5:49 PM Angela said... I'm brand new to this blogging thing, but my experience with RCP is a little curious. The very first article I posted got 10 votes pretty quickly. I thought that was pretty cool for my first time out, not knowing anyone. The next three got no traction and disappeared by the next day. Could certainly be coincidence - I don't think I'm particularly controversial, and there's been a lot of fiery stuff lately. Or maybe I'm just a really crappy blogger.Just thought I'd add my two cents. (If anyone is interested in what they may have missed coming from me, it's at http://nokoolaidjustgoldwater.blogspot.com/) October 23, 2008 8:04 PM Facts Are said... Thank you for posting all of this information, Roger. I'm quite new to RCP, so I certainly don't know how everything is really supposed to work yet. I've had a couple of posts deleted, also, but thought they somehow violated RCP policy. I wasn't sure how that could be, as they weren't salacious and I always put many links in my posts so I'm not just spouting off without facts to back me up. I can't remember what the first post was that disappeared, it was a couple of weeks ago. I do know that the post I put up about API definitely got deleted. The dumb part is, it wasn't an outright blast or swallowing of API's claims, it was more of questioning of that organization's legitimacy and a straight summary of the article with links to it and a couple of other skeptical bloggers' posts on the subject. I just find it odd that another person here posted that they had API articles deleted as well. I didn't have the wit to think to take a screen shot of that article posted, so I can't prove it. Does anyone know if RCP archives any Reader Articles after seven days? I did a search of my most recently popular article, which was #3 in the last seven day period and the article summary comes up at the top of the search results, but when it's clicked on, I'm taken to the recent seven day most popular, not the article itself. S. Roberts' screen shots shows my article (Lynn De Rothschild) in the #3 spot when she took that shot. My article may have disappeared because it was the seventh day (it was posted Oct. 16). If anyone else knows the ins and outs of when these things are deleted, that would help track it down. I know that both the API story and the Lynn de Rothschild posts were very popular, and quite honestly most of the readership came in off users' google searches or tag words on Wordpress and elsewhere, not RCP. It would interest me, though, if that de Rothschild article should have stayed up there for the rest of today. It would help me to know whether I should also contact the webmaster. For now at least, I'm going to take screen shots whenever I post an article in case it disappears. This whole thing is just another in a long line of creepy censorship and foul play that seems to be multiplying exponentially. Thanks again, S. October 23, 2008 9:30 PM jim.carroll said... As a former librarian, all I can say is Thank G_D for Special Collections and Archives! These incidents prove how easily a Ministry of Truth can change the truth. I've heard time and time again in different fields, "If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen." What happens when the paper you write it on (the blogs) can be changed or removed without your knowledge or permission?I've noticed a couple of the articles regarding Obama's past mention that "such-and-such a newsletter by this-and-that socialist/communist organization at this time isn't available on the web." It's because these newsletters were printed/ xeroxed/ mimeographed (try explaining a "mimeo" to anyone under age 19) and were then sent to different people and organizations. Some of the organizations were libraries, who preserved them for later research. We need to work out a way to have these blogs and online newsletters converted to hard copy, something that cannot easily be tampered with or altered.I hope all of you are keeping MULITIPLE printed copies of your blogs and seeing that they get archived with some organization, such as a local library or historical society. If you can arrange to have about 20 copies in geographically separate locations, there is almost 100% guarantee that at least one copy will survive any purging effort. Two examples of that:1. We know about the discussions surrounding the implementation of the Final Solution as proposed at the Wannsee Conference, because of a copy of the Wannsee Protocol was found after the war. Of the 15 copies that were made, the other 14had been destroyed by the participants, but this one copy was overlooked.2. The destruction of the Library of Alexandria was a cultural disaster. It was one that did not have to happen. Rather than having different books and scrolls copied, the Library bought entire collections. They saved money this way, but it often meant that sole copies of some works were only available at the Library. If their purchases included works the Library already owned, the extra copies were destroyed. When the Library was destroyed, so were the works.Keep up the good work, people. And remember ... be careful out there.<>October 23, 2008 10:58 PM Stanford Matthews said... For the second time in as many years I have been what equates to banned from RCP as my account has been rendered inactive for the 2nd time and two recent 'Obama' posts have been removed from RCP.The first was 'Obama and DNC Fight Citizenship Inquiry' and the second was 'Worth Repeating: Obama Citizenship Still in Dispute'Some have attributed these actions to hacking and others to RCP and now I see the Obama agent allegation. I simply view it as intentional. I also lay the responsibility on RCP to which I add it is their site and they can do what they want but silence on the matter annoys me to no end. A fellow blogger has encouraged me to continue posting through a new registration et.,, but I have not decided.I'll monitor this site to keep up with the news on this topic as well as other places.Just thought I'd add my two cents. Okay there's a financial crisis, would you take a CDO aka, collateral debt obligation. October 24, 2008 8:53 AM Susan Duclos said... Hey Roger, great piece.I also had a piece removed from RCP, and when I tried to resubmit it, I recieved a message saying it was submitted by two others and was waiting moderator approval...it was never put back up.http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/10/not-all-blacks-are-voting-for-obama.htmlSeems that RCP does have someone using their own agenda in deciding what can and what cannot be shown. October 24, 2008 10:40 AM • Email to a friend • Related • Swedes cave to 'international pressure,' fire 'Palestinians' :: Israel Matzav Read this article on the community site Just a reminder that I am in Boston and not in Israel, so while it's still before the Sabbath in Israel now, if you see things going up today after the Sabbath starts in Israel, it's because it hasn't started in Boston yet.The Swedish company Assa Abloy, which acquired the Israeli Mul-T-Lock company in 2000, has caved into 'international pressure' from the Jewish kapos of Gush Shalom, the • Email to a friend • Related •

  ...

[Message clipped]