Floatin' Powa News Service: Fifteen Jugglers & Five Believers...

The Prophet Zimmy
Obviously Five Believers

Fifteen jugglers
Fifteen
Jugglers
Five believers
Five
Believers
All dressed like men
Tell yo' mama not to worry cause
They're just my friends.

ALL HAIL GLOW BALL DHIMMING:

US officials are considering whether to accept Iran’s pursuit of uranium enrichment, which has been outlawed by the United Nations and remains at the heart of fears that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capability.

As part of a policy review commissioned by President Barack Obama, diplomats are discussing whether the US will eventually have to accept Iran’s insistence on carrying out the process, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons- grade material.

A high-level Iranian official said that Iran will not dialogue with the United States until Iran has a nuclear bomb:

Remarks by the secretary general of Iranian Hezbollah were reported in Berlin from a March 26 symposium on "Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah: Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial."

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Kharrazi reportedly told the Iranian state news agency Shabestan that Iran "will arrange contacts to America as soon as we build our own bomb."

"If one is not allowed to build an atom bomb, then no contacts are allowed. And if there are to be contacts, then it will be necessary to build the atom bomb," Kharrazi said, according to a translation from the original Farsi, reported by Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a senior research fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy.

Left-wing groups calling on Obama to attend Durban II:

The group of 40 progressive organizations and more than 90 individual activists said in a letter delivered Friday to the White House that a boycott of the United Nations-sponsored conference "would be inconsistent with your policy of engagement with the international community," noting that "given the brutal history of slavery and Jim Crow in the United States, your Administration has much to contribute to that discussion." Signers include the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and Ramsey Clark's radical and anti-Israel International Action Center.

Russia's Medvedev hails 'Comrade' Obama

Erdogan Auditions as Obama Broker With Mideast Ties

Palestinian Woman fires on police station in Israel

Hamas says it recruited double intelligence agents with Israel

Palestinian Authority forbids selling land to Jews

Israel FM: 'If You Want Peace, Prepare for War'

Police quiz new Israeli foreign minister

Lieberman is suspected of using a Cypriot bank account registered under the name of his daughter to launder funds, authorities said.

NYPD sees threat in Israel-Iran tensions

UN names South African to lead Israel-Gaza probe

Pakistan wants $50 billion in Jizya

Protests and Political Tensions Mar NATO Meeting

NATO leaders name new secretary-general

Berlusconi call puts NATO on hold

Iran, Russia, Georgia 'Threaten Internet Freedom'

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan lead U.S. list of countries that severely violate religious freedoms
Yet they are all "partners for peace"...

Joining the "Countries of Particular Concern" cited by the State Department are Burma, Eritrea, North Korea, the People's Republic of China and Uzbekistan.

Cuba Ready to Welcome Back US Oil Companies If Embargo Ends

Who Wanted To Kill Sulim Yamadayev and Why?

Russian TV says US spying at Kyrgyzstan air base

Kazakh Monument To Soviet Repression Demolished

Prominent Rights Activist Savagely Beaten In Moscow

Moscow Regional Journalist Dies Mysteriously

Belarusian Activist Detained Over Pro-Europe Leaflets

Europe's New 'Pragmatism' On Belarus

EU Parliament Postpones Vote On Turkmen Treaty

Tajikistan's New Religion Law

Athens appeals court acquits a well-known Greek neo-Nazi of Holocaust denial

The five-member court on Friday found Kostas Plevris not guilty of "incitement to racial hatred and violence against the Jews" over his 1,400-page book "Jews -- The Whole Truth," which denies the Holocaust and is blatantly anti-Semitic.

Nazi camp guard wins right to stay in USA

Nazi death camp guard accused of helping to kill some 29,000 Jews during World War II has won the right to remain in the United States for now, an immigration judge has ruled.

A Virginia judge said late Friday that John Demjanjuk, 89, who faces expulsion to Germany on war crimes charges, can remain at his Ohio home while the case is further examined.Demjanjuk's defense team has argued his imminent expulsion to Germany and near-certain arrest on arrival would constitute torture given his age.

Financial Crisis Fueling The Ressurection of Euro-Fascism:

In early March, a captain of the far-right Magyar Garda, or Hungarian Guard, addressed his followers about the worsening worldwide financial crisis that had brought Hungary to the brink of bankruptcy. “Jews run the world,” Draskovics Andras said in remarks that were recorded by a camera crew from Hungarian state TV. Jews “need only 2 billion people for their tricks, and the rest of the mankind will be executed,” he said, according to a Hungarian news Web site, Hvg.hu.

Brazil oil strike could prove menacing

North Korea: 'Satellite will be launched soon'

Economy Slumps, but It's a Bull Market for Protesters

Activists protest bailouts near Wall Street

Members of worker rights, healthcare and anti-war groups gathered...

Oh. Ya mean Commies. Manufactured Populist Anger Akbar!

Fannie, Freddie Plan to Pay $210 Million in Bonuses

Text of Bernanke’s speech at the Fed Reserve Bank of Richmond 2009 Credit Markets Symposium

With conventional monetary policy having reached its limit, any further policy stimulus requires a different set of tools. The Federal Reserve has been a global leader in developing such tools.

The Political Risk of Toxic Assets

Financial Industry Paid Millions to Obama Aide

U.S., Chinese Leaders Pledge Closer Ties 'At All Levels'

Obama and Hu, a US-China Luvfest

Obama & His 500 Traveling Companions

Senators Propose Federal 'Cyber Czar'
Bipartisan Exigency!

Sen. John Rockefeller (D) introduced the legislation with Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican.

Intelligence chief replaces inspector general
Any guesses on how long it will take till political assassinations begin to become "normal" here?

The Director of National Intelligence is replacing the agency's inspector general just days after the public release of a blistering report critical of the DNI's office.

DNI head Dennis Blair announced Friday Justice Department official Roslyn Mazer will replace Inspector General Edward McGuire as the DNI's internal watchdog. The inspector general's role is to examine the operations of the office and investigate any allegations of waste, fraud or misconduct.

Earlier this week, Maguire testified before Congress about his report on the state of the DNI's office, outlining rampant communication problems, continuing turf battles within the intelligence community and financial mismanagement.

Report Outlines Weaknesses at Intelligence Agencies

The Colossal Failure of The Office of The Director of National Intelligence

Centralized intelligence production simply does not work and, in fact, increases the opportunities for politicized intelligence. When CIA director William Casey wanted to politicize intelligence for President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, he appointed Robert Gates to the key positions of deputy director of intelligence and chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

Gates Planning Major Changes In Programs, Defense Budget

FBI Fact Sheet: Efforts to Combat Mexican Drug Cartels

Times threatens to shut down Boston Globe

Coast Guard to move oil from near Alaska volcano

Largest Hawaiian island expands into ocean as lava forms new land

6.4 in the Philippines

6.1 & 6.5 in Indonesia

6.5 in North Sulawesi & 5.1 in West Papua

Dave Brubeck Quartet
Take Five

Floatin' Powa News Service: Gnu Whirled Odor

Weird Al Yankovic
Smells Like Nirvana

IRAN's HEADLINE: Syria offers Israel chance to avoid war

BASHIR: "There is no escaping the fact that the day will come when we will free the Golan, through peace or through war," he explained.

Guess what? Also not new and also all part of the BAKER PLAN:

12/6/06: Baker report: Israel must withdraw from Golan


5/31/07: Olmert: Israel Willing to Give up Golan for Peace with Syria

5/23/08: Syria, Israel and the Golan Heights

Iran urges haste on Syrian gas deal

Israel FM rules out any withdrawal from Golan

"There is no cabinet resolution regarding negotiations with Syria, and we have already said that we will not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights," Lieberman told the Haaretz daily.

Haneya: Hamas accepts statehood in Gaza, West Bank, E Jerusalem

"The establishment of the Palestinian statehood on the borders of the territories occupied in June 1967 is a joint national goal and Hamas will not be an obstacle on its way," Haneya said, adding that "Hamas movement was seeking to achieve it."

UN: Judge Goldstone to Investigate Alledged Israeli Crimes in Gaza

Q&A With the Head of Iran's New America's Desk

Last year, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered Iran's foreign ministry to create a separate desk for the Americas. Until then, affairs related to the continent of America were lumped together with Europe. The desk was mainly created in anticipation of expanding economical and political ties with both North and South America.

This week, top diplomats from Iran and the U.S. met in Hague to discuss security and stability in Afghanistan. It was the first such high profile meeting in 30 years. Deputy foreign minister Alireza Salari heads the Americas desk in Iran's foreign ministry. He is a career diplomat who served as Iran's ambassador to United Arab Emirates. In December he sat down for an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal's Farnaz Fassihi at his office in Iran's foreign ministry.

UK~ ACTUAL HEADLINE:
Only Obama can save Iran from Israeli bombs

Use Iran and Turkey’s strength, says OIC leader

Khatami to come to Turkey summit

OIC Chief Praises Positive Outcome Of Doha Arab Summit

Clinton Reveals Small Contacts With Iran

Iran Denies US Reports Of Warm Exchange At International Conference
STFU or I'll hit you with my shoe again...

Venezuelan President Visits Iran

Chavez to Inaugurate Development Bank With Iran’s Ahmadinejad

Meeting on allegations Arafat poisoned postponed

Jordanian heart surgeon Abdullah al-Bashir said Thursday that due to the short notice, most of the doctors could not attend.Al-Bashir, who heads the committee launched last week by the Yasser Arafat Foundation, said the meeting will be rescheduled soon, but gave no date.

CNN: NEW WORLD ORDER ~ IT'S NOT JUST FOR CONSPIRACY LOONS NO MO':

The U.S. and Europe, who have dominated the G-8, now have little option too but to accept a new world order.

Obama hails the new world order

Last night British ministers said the real significance of yesterday's agreement was not the $1trn package but the enhanced role it gave to world institutions like the IMF, whose budget will triple to $750bn. "A new world financial order has been born, almost by accident, because of this crisis," one cabinet minister said. "These bodies have been revamped; now they need to raise their game."

Glow Ballin' State of Delusions:
Based on his public statements, one has to conclude that Koh believes in a world government financed by global taxes.

With the nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, the Dean of Yale Law School, as the Legal Adviser for the State Department, President Barack Obama is putting a world government team in place under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The other key appointment was Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as Director of Policy Planning at State. Slaughter wrote the 2004 book, A New World Order, and believes in an international system dominated by the U.N. and other global institutions and networks.

Concert of Democracies: Same Old Globalism

The bipartisan support of the idea is indicative of it becoming a serious reality at some point in the future. From the establishment right's John McCain and prominent neocons like Robert Kagan to liberal internationalists like Slaughter and Daalder, there are ardent promoters of the idea very close to our nation's centers of power.

While in the past, the UN served as the vehicle for globalists to achieve their desired goals, it would now appear that some very influential individuals are seeking a new and more effective strategy in the effort to achieve a "global covenant."

Whether the globalists achieve their goals or not, one can rest assured that America will find itself pulled further into costly, deadly, and unnecessary foreign interventions in the process.

New world order emerges from chaos

G20 leaders begin talks to bury 'free' markets

G-20 Shapes New World Order With Lesser Role for U.S., Markets

Russia and China back currency study

The Drive to Abolish National Currencies

MORAL CAPITALISM ALERT:
G20 summit: Nicolas Sarkozy threatens to walk out

He wants to style himself as a "pioneer" of a new moral capitalism

Violence Breaks Out at G-20 Protest in London

In an act of international populist anger, thousands of people took to London’s streets today.

(emphasis mine ~ bz)

Morris: Obama a 'Disaster' at the G20 Summit

Well, it depends on what you want to achieve. I think it was a disaster, but it's probably a disaster he likes. Literally from April 2nd of this year -- that is, today -- it's a whole new world of financial regulation in which, essentially, all of the U.S. regulatory bodies and all U.S. companies are put under international regulation, international supervision. It really amounts to a global economic government.

President Obama Holds Press Conference at G-20

OBAMA: All right. Here, I'm going to call on this gentleman right here. He's -- he's been very persistent.

QUESTION: Ray Chi Gou (ph) of China Central Television. It seems the world leaders have been talking about increasing the voice and voting rights of developing countries. I would like to ask two questions instead of just one. First one, on behalf of China...

OBAMA: I may choose which one I want to answer.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Oh, of course.

OBAMA: That's always the danger of asking two questions.

G20 leaders claim summit success, tout NEW WORLD ORDER:

Gordon Brown, host of the summit, said the meeting marked the emergence of a “new world order”, as he unveiled what leaders claimed was a $1,100bn package of measures to tackle the global downturn, including support for lower income countries and a $250bn plan to boost the international money supply.

China exporters potential beneficiaries of G20 plan

The GLOWBALL Islamo-Socialist Stimulus Plan:

“Islamic finance now extends beyond the traditional predominantly Muslim economies to become an increasingly important part of the international financial system.”

“Islamic finance implicitly embraces strong core values and universally beneficial characters.”

“The Islamic financial system derives its strength and stability from its faculty to uphold Shariah principles. The Islamic financial system thus has an in-built dimension that promotes financial soundness and stability, as it resides within a financial trajectory underpinned by the forces of Shariah injunctions.”

These are the words of Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, a prominent Bank Governor in Malaysia who has been an outspoken advocate of the Islamic financial system as an alternative to Western capitalism. Aziz has given speeches at Islamic finance summits pointing out the success of Malaysia’s Islamic-based economy and laying out a clear mission: “positioning Islamic finance as an integrated component of the International Financial System.”

12-year-old protester: 'Death of capitalism'

Testimony of Director Robert Riegle, State and Local Program Office, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, before the Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment:
[gasps for air]


"The Future of Fusion Centers: Potential Promise and Dangers"
SAY IT TEN TIMES, FAST!

Fusion Centers Should Be Dismantled, Expert Says

ACLU Calls For Internal DHS Investigations On Fusion Centers

Unlikely pair on same civil liberties side

Storm Clouds Gather Over Obama Nominees
Though April showers may come your way....
they bring the Comrades that bloom in May...

The Latest Corporate Social Responsible News: Investing in...Genocide?

This past week, TIAA-CREF upped the ante in its anti-genocide activism by pledging to push companies supporting the genocidal Darfur regime to reverse this complicity -- or face divestment. This applies immediately if invitations to meet with TIAA-CREF go unanswered by "target" companies that provide most support to the regime: PetroChina, CNPC Hong Kong, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Sinopec, and PETRONAS. Seven other companies have nine months to publicly announce "significant progress" before TIAA-CREF yanks them from its portfolios.

They would have to go out of business entirely to sever all links to investments in genocide.
"Like all my American colleagues, I love Sudan," he said, speaking partly in Arabic...

US envoy wants friendship, cooperation from Sudan

"I come here with my hands open. And it will be up to the Sudanese government to determine how they want to continue with the relationship. Hopefully it will be with hands of friendship and cooperation," envoy Scott Gration told reporters in Khartoum.

"Like all my American colleagues, I love Sudan," he said, speaking partly in Arabic on his first visit as special envoy to the country, which has faced heavy criticism from Western powers over the Darfur crisis.

Bush’s bailout plan is now Obama’s

The Paulson Plan was — as many suspected at the time — just the first step in a larger expansion of government power. Now Geithner proposes additional powers, discretionary and open-ended expansion of the government’s authority. How many more such steps will be necessary in the next few years? Where will this end?

Meanwhile Congress watches as our freedoms drain away, content to passively agree to each new rip in the Constitution.

Both Left and Right have warned about loss of freedoms, usually to jack-booted government thugs. Is it better or worse that this happens quietly, in tiny steps, though the growing power of well-dressed and mild-mannered bureaucrats?

MrsOC's Feral House of Bongos Presents: EXPIATE

MUSE
Sing For Absolution

EXPIATE:

Ex"pi*ate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Expiated; p. pr. & vb. n. Expiating.]
[L. expiatus, p. p. of expiare to expiate; ex out + piare to seek to appease, to purify with sacred rites, fr. pius pious. See Pious.]

1. To extinguish the guilt of by sufferance of penalty or some equivalent; to make complete satisfaction for; to atone for; to make amends for; to make expiation for; as, to expiate a crime, a guilt, or sin.

To expiate his treason, hath naught left. ~ Milton.
The Treasurer obliged himself to expiate the injury. ~ Clarendon.

2. To purify with sacred rites. [Obs.] Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire
~ Deut. 18:10 (Douay version)

If you chew tobacco
Don't spit on the floor
Expiate in the cuspidor
~ Q the Lone Deranger

Expiate
repudiate
the modern state
hallucinate.
Expiate
exfoliate
we only hate
what may seem great.
Expiate
ruminate
It's getting late
we meet our fate.
Expiate
detonate
go home it's late
unlock the gate.
~ Battlestar PKactica

The recipe for Creamed Seagull
served on old Meissen China
That grandpa bought for grandma
post some Boer War Campaign
Which calls for gutted snails
and snippets of a fresh killed myna
And entrails of a carriage horse
without the tail or mane

It’s in the soup pot cooking now,
I’m warming the tureen
And I am dressing in a gown
of antique tatted lace.
I have to say with no small pride
I think ‘twill take between
A year or two to expiate the sin of pride I face.

For I have planned a dinner party for my close relations
They’ll dine upon the finest linen and the silver plate
I hope that they (for all they’ve done for me)-enjoy their rations
Their comfort and their kindnesses have gained them this grand fate.
~ mrsoc

It's not too late,
To expiate,
Those sins
That have
No sell-by date!
Repentance time,
It needs no rhyme,
In every clime,
Mankind's crimes,
Against each other,
Against my brother,
Need expiation,
Every Nation,
It's not too late,
Pray G-d, it's not to late,
To expiate,
What once went wrong,
This is my song.
~ TalkinKamel

"I expiate that D.C. has less crime than other cities, 'cept for the murders",
said Marion Barry
~JEHU


To unlearned ears expiate
Sounds like the opposite of its meaning
ex - away from
pia -- piety, devotion to god
ate -- some kind of ending;
Also, the aftermath of eat
Though not the ultimate aftermath
It would seem, thus
Logically, at first
To mean moving away from faith
And towards the more carnal things
Of eating (perhaps I wax absurd)
Or at least of assuming a state
(The significance of the "ate")
Implying leaving piety behind
In fact it means something different
But I wonder how many folk
In their desire to "expiate"
Their guilt of sin and offense
Despair in the end of grace
And come to believe their sin
Too great to be expiated
By means human or Divine
And thus, in despair of expiation
They ex-piate, and abandon faith
Which leads me to fear too many
Expiatory acts carry not the certainty
Of return to the Church's bosom
But to the abandonment of faith
For pride in the heinousness
The inestiminable greatness
Of their petty little offense
~ Lucius Septimius


Tonight I decided, since the wife was out
To cook pheasant, browned in butter and braised in sauerkraut
Seasoned with Juniper berries piquant
And garlic-scented sausages puissant
Baked in a medium hot oven in a casserole
Until the gamier, more sour aspects console
And turn to tender sweet, a dish sublime
Over an hour and a half of cooking time.
The dish comes at the end of a damp depressing day
Where I could feel my self slowly slipping away
From the companionship of my friends and peers
Who, after voicing sentiments most insincere
In an interminable meeting where the one moment I found soothing
Was when a colleague said, "you can tell he's lying -- his lips are moving."
Only minutes before entering that hideous place
I had been teaching my students about penance and grace
Expounding -- and how was this for fate!
Upon differing meanings of the term "expiate."
Whether in the eastern mold it refers to the soul's ascent
According to the Orthodox Platonic bent
Or whether, in the Western manner juridical in form
It is about the relationship between confession and penance perform'd
And I thought that there was in that airless room
The participants in the drama might contemplate their doom
And think about how to expiate their sin
Before leaving their pathetic remains to grieving kith and kin
So that, like the pheasant and kraut braising away
They might contemplate, their petty life and manners fey
And expiate the bitter, raw, and gamy flavors
That mark them as undeserving of men's or God's favors
Or rather, clinging to to their wild courses
And then be dragged into the pit by demonic forces
And for all eternity experience a different sort of treatment
As they into the ovens of Hell, trussed and seasoned, are sent.
~ Lucius Septimius

At the Glow Ball Convention,
Without further pretension,
We proudly present Your World Peace:
All War Will Now Cease
from the West to the East
And we're just the right guys to foment this!
We'll kill all the Jews,
and burn all their shoes ~
and loot till our hearts are contented
Their houses we'll raze,
They've seen their last days
for the Jews are the cause of our tensions!
To thunderous applause,
he outlined their cause
with solutions too final to mention.
Our sins expiated!
Our darkness abated!
Our best and last hope for redemption!
Through the roar of the crowd
it was heard and quite loud
an anonymous voice of dissension
The problem you face
Oh great masters of race
must have slipped from your memory's retention,
But from ancient of days
Juden shock and amaze
with powers beyond comprehension
Recall if you will
any others we've killed
who've managed so much.....
resurrection.
~ BabbaZee

Apocalyptica
The Unforgiven

WFRL: This is Not My Beautiful Frog

Kermit the Frog
Once in a Lifetime

WFRL: California Earthquake Dreamin'

Mama Cass
California Earthquake

CLICKABLE, ME.

I heard they exploded the underground blast
They say its gonna happen - gonna happen at last
That's the way it appears
They tell me the faultline runs right through here
So that maybe that may be
What's gonna happen gonna happen to me
They tell me the faultline runs right through here
Atlantis will rise, Sunset Boulevard will fall
Where the beach used to be won't be nothing at all
That's the way it appears
They tell me the faultline runs right through here
So that maybe that may be
What's gonna happen's gonna happen to me
They tell me the faultline runs right through here...

The Mamas & The Papas
California Dreaming

WFRL: April in Paris

Thelonius Monk
April in Paris

Yeah, yeah, it was June, not April, I know all about it.
ACHTUNG! CLICKEN ZEE ME!

WFRL: April, Come She Will

Simon & Garfunkel
April, Come She Will

Floatin' Powa News Service: Waltzing Fools at the Glow Ball

Queen
The Millionaire Waltz

Lieberman: Israel not bound by Annapolis understandings

Avigdor Lieberman said the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis declaration of 2007 "has no validity," confirming a shift in stance toward the Palestinians under new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lieberman, a Soviet immigrant denounced as a racist by many Arabs, did stress however that Israel was obliged to follow the course charted by a U.S.-backed peace "road map" of 2003. That obliges Palestinian leaders to curb attacks on Israel before any negotiations on the final shape of a statehood deal take place.

Lieberman was effectively confirming that Netanyahu's new administration has withdrawn from its predecessors' commitment to negotiate on borders and issues like the status of Jerusalem before the two sides are satisfied road map pledges are met.

OIC Secretary General: Amp it up or Arabs may lose Jerusalem forever

Arab countries should launch a campaign to liberate Jerusalem from Israeli occupation and return the city to the Arab world, AlJazeera quoted Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

"If we do not continue to insist on return of Jerusalem, the Arabs can lose this sacred city," he said.

The 21st summit of the League of Arab States (LAS) began in the capital of Qatar on March 30 to last for two days

Launch a campaign? That is "Moderate Muslim" speak for CALL TO JIHAD right there. Read that whole piece ~ it is short, full of triplespoking doublespeak, and very revealing as to what they wish to achieve.

NOW, Dig this: OIC Sec-Gen Cautions Against Judaisation Of Al-Quds

Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) secretary-general Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has cautioned against a "fierce judaisation" campaign targeting Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Speaking at the opening of the 21st Arab Summit in Doha, he said the initiative sought to obliterate its Arab and Islamic character by demolishing houses.

The situation in Al-Quds called for a strong and sober stand, he said in remarks made available here

OIC wants Iranian/Turkish help on regional issues

OIC lauds Turkey for Gaza donation

Guyana's delegation in Qatar for Arab-South American Summit

Backgrounder: Arab League and Arab League summit

Arab League decries Israel at summit start
In other news, when night falls it gets dark out there.

Palestinian unity talks resume in Cairo

EU: Summit with Israel unlikely soon

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose nation currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told his country's Lidove Noviny newspaper that the union was "not happy with some of the steps of the Israeli government, namely construction works close to Jerusalem but also access to Gaza, which is today very limited."

Obama Plans to attend conference seeking Islamic interests

Concern has been mounting over President Obama's scheduled participation in the U.N.'s Alliance of Civilizations summit in Turkey next month, with some critics painting the organization as anti-Western and advocating Iranian interests.

"The Alliance might more appropriately be called a U.N.-approved Slush Fund for Advancing Iranian and Other Islamic Interests," wrote Claudia Rosett, a Forbes contributor and journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Rosett is exactly correct.

In Reversal, US Seeks Election to UN Human Rights Council

The Obama administration will seek a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, announcing Tuesday that it believed working from within was the most effective means of altering the council’s habit of ignoring poor human rights records of member states. The policy reverses the stance of the Bush administration, which viewed the Geneva-based council as irredeemable for its almost exclusive focus on human rights violations by Israel.

US seen strengthening UN rights council

Tajik FM holds talks with OIC Secretary General and Turkish FM in Moscow

SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL

FOX News has learned that U.S. diplomat Patrick Moon, who covers South and Central Asia for the State Department, exchanged pleasantries with Mehdi Akhundzadeh during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit -- a six-member regional security group that includes Russia, China and Central Asian states.

US meets Iranian delegate, delivers letter

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday an American diplomat had met Iran's delegate at an international conference in the Hague

Iran's Foreign Ministry denies Iran, US meeting in Moscow
Naturally!

Iranian diplomat to join US at meeting

Minnesota: Muslim workers receive $1.35 million under a religious discrimination settlement

California’s Shariah-Compliant Newspaper

The Stages of Anti-Semitism: An "avant-garde" play revives an ancient hatred:

Here's a sketch for a racist play about "moral decline" in black America since the civil rights era.

Act I: Heroic protestors gather at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965 to march in defiance of a segregationist state. Act II: The scene moves to San Francisco in the early 1970s, where the radical politics of the Black Panthers quickly give way to robbery and murder. Act III: A New York City crack house, circa 1985. Act IV: the trial of O.J. Simpson. Act V: The present, in which a black man on a prison furlough goes on a murder spree.

Appalled? I hope so.

Now substitute the word "Jewish" for "black" and change the scene to Europe and Israel and you have, roughly, the plot of celebrated British playwright Caryl Churchill's "Seven Jewish Children," which debuted last month to some controversy and much acclaim at London's Royal Court Theater. It is now in the U.S., playing in small but respectable venues to sophisticated audiences that -- judging from the performance I attended in New York last Thursday -- are overwhelmingly disposed to like it.

Waltzing at the Glow Ball

As President Obama was holding one-on-one meetings Wednesday with the leaders of Russia and China, thousands of protesters marched in the streets of London, and there were several violent clashes with police.

BRICs to demand a bigger say at G20 meet

ON MSNBC: American Capitalism To Blame For Financial Crisis

"In some ways, capitalism itself is on trial, people will really be looking at hard at some of the free market principles that have really governed the day up till now"

Russia, Germany Have Similar Expectations From G20 Mtg

Franco-German demands upsets G20 unity

Transcript: Obama, Medvedev Deliver Remarks on Nuclear Weapons

OBAMA: Let me just make a brief comment. I am very grateful to President Medvedev for taking the time to visit with me today. I'm particularly gratified because prior to the meeting our respective teams had worked together and had developed a series of approaches to areas of common interest that I think present great promise.

Obama: Today is progress in US-Russian relations

Obama agrees to visit China

China, US to set up 'economic dialogue' group

China, France to Restore High-Level Contacts

China Petroleum's Earnings Almost Double

TURKMENISTAN-CHINA PIPELINE ON TARGET FOR 2009

Italy, Turkmenistan to discuss energy cooperation

Italy: Secretary Mantica in Turkmenistan

Kazakh President to visit Turkmenistan

Bulgarian foreign minister on working visit in Turkmenistan

Ambassador of Lebanon gets accreditation in Turkmenistan

DUBAI: Another Enemy of the Kremlin Gets Whacked:
A former general in Chechnya and foe of the republic's Kremlin-backed president was shot over the weekend in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, and the police there said Monday that he had died.

The Disorder of Conferring With Russia

Kremlin energy comes to Hungary

Personally I think he should shove his Nobel Prize right up their asses, I would have refused it in the first place anyway if I were him:

Lech Walesa, the anti-communist leader who once championed the cause of Polish freedom, has threatened to quit Poland and return his Nobel peace prize after fresh allegations surfaced that he once collaborated with the country's communist-era secret services.

If he does not shove it right up their asses then I say that telegraphs maybe there is some truth to the rumors.

FORBES: In The Teeth Of The Economic Storm: Globalize!

Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

Buffett's favorite banker leaving Goldman Sachs

High-Level Departures Beset Goldman Sachs

The Real Cost of the Geithner Plan

For GM Bondholders, Time Is a Weapon

Bondholders can gain more confidence by their successful battle over the government's $6 billion rescue of GMAC. That bailout went largely unnoticed in those last, chaotic days of 2008.

At the time, GMAC was rushing to convert to a bank-holding company, which would allow it access to the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Federal Reserve set a number of conditions along the way. Chief among them was that 75% of existing bondholders would agree to take a loss by tendering into a new bond plan. The hope was to lessen GMAC's indebtedness and improve its capital, much as is the case with GM.

Only about 59% of bonds were tendered in the final flurry in late December. The Fed's board waived GMAC through anyway, explaining its decision "in light of unusual and exigent circumstances." That set an uncomfortable negotiating precedent: The Feds fold.

Hundreds of Iowans thrown out of public hearing:

More than 500 people who are upset with a plan to change Iowa's tax laws were cleared from a hearing tonight at the Iowa House after they interrupted multiple times. House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, cleared the crowd at about 8:30 p.m. The decision brought about loud protests as the crowd was escorted from the chambers by Iowa State Patrol officers.

“This is the most atrocious thing I’ve seen in the history of the 15 years I’ve been a lobbyist. Pat Murphy has acted like a jack-booted Nazi,” said Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, a conservative taxpayers’ rights group from Muscatine with 50,000 members..

Failor Jr. was escorted from the House chambers after Murphy overheard him speak with the media.House rules say that no protesting or advocating can be done in the House.

Matt Blunt: FUSION CENTERS never profiled political thought under my watch:

Blunt, a Republican who left office in January, issued the following statement today through a spokesman:

"I certainly do not plan on responding to every false charge or false news report, but recent assertions regarding the offensive MIAC report warrant a response. Let me be clear about the recent, offensive MIAC report that profiled Missourians that hold conservative political views. While I did create the Missouri Information Analysis Center to act as a fusion center to gather and disseminate tactical intelligence about specific crimes I did not create MIAC to profile citizens based upon political views - liberal or conservative. To my knowledge, MIAC never issued anything similar to the recent report while I was governor. If they had, I would not have defended it. I would have taken corrective action immediately and certainly held those responsible accountable for their actions. The assertion that I am somehow responsible for an offensive report that was issued more than a month after I left office and that profiles conservatives is so absurd that one would not think it requires a response from me, but evidently it does."

AT THE AMERICAN THNKER ~ Coming Soon: Neighborhood Fusion:

There are now an estimated 70 Fusion Centers similar to Missouri's throughout the country. Since 2004, an estimated $254 million dollars has been spent to create these offices. According to an article at foxnews.com, these offices use data mining, the military and excessive secrecy in conducting their investigations.

Are Fusion Center Agents Working Public Forums?
Naturally. Why wouldn't they be?

RAYTHEON AKBAR!

House Kills Effort to Investigate Lobbyist-Lawmaker Ties: The proposal would have forced the House Ethics Committee to launch a probe into ties between the source and timing of campaign contributions by lobbyists and subsequent legislator requests for special projects or earmarks.

Raytheon inks Saudi Arabia missile deal

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will purchase Raytheon Co.’s guided air-to-air missile, in a U.S. government supervised agreement.

Raytheon Submits Final Proposal for U.S. Air Force Global Broadcast Service Transition Contract

GBS is a worldwide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support system providing military forces with high-speed, high-volume multimedia broadcasts of intelligence and situational awareness data. The Air Force Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., will transition GBS broadcast functionality to centralized Defense Information System Agency computing centers and position the system to meet and support the evolving needs of the warfighter.

IBM Hires as of yet Unidentified Top Ex-Bush Aide for Lobbying

IBM, one of the nations largest employers, will announce today that it is bringing on a longtime official from President George W. Bushs administration as a top lobbyist with the company. An IBM spokesman declined to openly discuss the hire

Dems could use controversial 'fast track' for Obama legislation

A key Democratic senator said Tuesday that he's not ruling out a controversial budget procedure to speed passage of President Obama's health care and global warming legislation.

Ho-hum. Yet another Obama nominee doesn’t pay taxes

Obamas arrive at Buckingham Palace
[insert your own jokes here]

NO CIGARETTES FOR YOU, PROLES!

President Barack Obama strongly supports legislation that would give the US Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate cigarettes, the White House said on Wednesday.

Hitchens on getting his ass kicked by Arab Nazis In Lebanon:

Well, call me old-fashioned if you will, but I have always taken the view that swastika symbols exist for one purpose only—to be defaced.

4,000 Year Old Temple Discovered on Cyprus

"Hidden" Planet Found in Old Hubble Image

Alaska volcano spews 25000 feet-high ash plume

6.1 in Indonesia

6.3 hits Papua New Guinea coast

5.0 & 4.1 in northern Nicaragua

China detains man compiling list of quake victims

Itzhak Perlman & The Klezmatics
Flatbush Waltz