"Rangel Rule"

This ought to be interesting....

The National Review Online

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The "Rangel Rule" [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican, sent out a press release earlier today about his innovative new bill:

"Rangel Rule"

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

HT: Ace Of Spades HQ

Octuplets' mum 'already has six'

Children are the greatest blessing a person can have. It is their only true, lasting legacy; a person's "immortality." Everything else is much more temporary... even among the greatest. Yet, one has to wonder....

From the BBC News:

TV crews have descended on a house in Whittier, near Los Angeles

A Californian woman who gave birth to octuplets earlier this week already has six children, US media has reported. The eight babies were delivered nine weeks early by Caesarean section in a hospital near Los Angeles on Monday. The mother has not been named, but US media is quoting family members as saying she already has six other children, including twins. Doctors say the eight babies are making good progress and are expected to stay in hospital for several more weeks. Although the babies' mother asked doctors to keep her details confidential, a family acquaintance gave clues to her identity to the American CBS channel. Shortly afterwards, media camped outside a house in Whittier, near Los Angeles. 'Sibling excitement' The Associated Press news agency spoke to a man identified as the babies' grandfather, who was with two children. The children said they were excited to have eight new siblings, AP reported. The Los Angeles Times later carried an interview with a woman identified as the babies' grandmother, who said her daughter already has six young children and never expected fertility treatment she had received would result in eight more babies. A huge team was needed to deliver the babies successfully She said that doctors had given her daughter the option of reducing the number of embryos, but she had declined. "What do you suggest she should have done? She refused to have them killed. That is a very painful thing," she said. She added that her daughter expected a big challenge raising 14 children. The woman's husband is expected to return to Iraq where he works as a contractor, the LA Times reported. Officials at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, near Los Angeles, said the woman was already 12 weeks pregnant when she came to them. Despite media questioning, the hospital has declined to say whether the mother became pregnant through fertility treatments. The eight babies were delivered by a team of 46 doctors, nurses and assistants in the space of five minutes. The mother is the second person recorded in the US to have delivered a set of living octuplets. The last octuplets known to have survived birth in the US were born in Houston in 1998. One of the babies died one week later.

Obama Signs First Piece of Legislation Into Law

This may be good news for older, white, male employees who have been passed up because of policy preferences for women and minority advancements in corporations during the past decade. The problem here is not corporate conduct, but a Federal policy that is "damned if you do and damned if you don't."  If corporations don't actively give promotion preference to women and minorities, they are likely to be sued and denied lucrative government contracts.  Older, white, males who have been victimized by this policy have had virtually no recourse.  Let's see what are the unintended consequences of further Federal government intrusion into the workplace.

Lilly Ledbetter Act Makes It Easier for Workers to Sue for Pay Discrimination

VIDEO

Obama Signs Equal-Pay Bill

President Barack Obama signed an equal pay bill into law Thursday, declaring that it's a family issue, not just a women's issue.

» LAUNCH VIDEO PLAYER

By Debbi Wilgoren and Amy Goldstein

Washington Post Staff Writers 
Thursday, January 29, 2009; 11:21 AM

President Obama this morning signed a law that expanded the time frame in which workers can sue for discrimination they have experienced based on gender, race, national origin or religion.

The legislation -- the first he has signed since becoming president nine days ago -- is named for Lilly Ledbetter, who after years as a manager at Goodyear Tire & Rubber discovered she was being paid less than her male counterparts. She filed suit and won a jury verdict in 2003. But the lawsuit was deemed invalid, because it wasn't filed within six months of when the discrimination -- unknown to Ledbetter at the time -- began.

Ledbetter, now 70, became an icon for Obama during his campaign for the White House. Obama escorted her into the East Room this morning for the signing ceremony, and led a prolonged round of applause for her as they stood together at the podium.

"We are upholding one of this nation's first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness," Obama said before signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which effectively nullifies the Supreme Court decision and makes clear that workers may bring a lawsuit for up to six months after they receive any paycheck that they allege is discriminatory.

"While this bill bears her name, Lilly knows this story isn't just about her," Obama said. "It's the story of women across this country still earning just 78 cents for every dollar men earn -- women of color even less --which means that today, in the year 2009, countless women are still losing thousands of dollars in salary, income and retirement savings over the course of a lifetime."

The bill will not allow Ledbetter to claim lost wages or her original jury award. But at a reception in the State Dining Room hosted by Michelle Obama after the signing, Ledbetter said she was "honored and humbled" by her role in its creation and passage.

"Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of. In fact, I will never see a cent from my case," she said. "But with the president's signature today, I have an even richer reward."

The law is an early emblem of the more liberal tilt the federal government is likely to take now that Democrats control both houses of Congress as well as the White House.

Among those enthusiastically looking on were  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whom Obama praised for leading passage of the bill in the House; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose historic bid to become the first U.S. female president ended when Obama secured the Democratic nomination; first lady Michelle Obama and  Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

Ledbetter spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August and was one of 16 guests on the train that carried the president-elect from Philadelphia to Washington before his swearing-in. Hours after becoming president, Obama danced with her at the Neighborhood Ball.

Ledbetter worked for Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Gadsden, Ala., for 19 years. Several months before she retired in 1998 as an area manager, Ledbetter found an anonymous note in her mailbox at work, tipping her off that she was being paid less than the men who held the same job. That year, she filed an EEOC complaint and received a letter from the commission saying that she had grounds to sue.

She won a jury verdict in U.S. district court in 2003, but Goodyear appealed. Two years later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in a ruling that departed from those of nine other federal appellate courts, sided with Goodyear, saying Ledbetter's lawsuit was filed years too late.

She took the case to the Supreme Court, which upheld the appellate court's view in a 5 to 4 opinion written by its newest member, Justice Samuel A. Alito, a Bush appointee. At the time, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a rare oral dissent, saying she hoped Congress would reverse what the court had done.

The House passed a bill that year to do just that. But Senate Republicans blocked the legislation last spring on a close procedural vote.

Obama said he was signing the bill this morning not only in honor of Ledbetter, "but in honor of those who came before her. Women like my grandmother who worked in a bank all her life, and even after she hit that glass ceiling, kept getting up and giving her best every day. . . .

"And I sign this bill for my daughters, and all those who will come after us," Obama added, "because I want them to grow up in a nation that values their contributions, where there are no limits to their dreams and they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers never could have imagined."

Obama Says Not a ‘Moment to Spare’ on Stimulus Plan

Remember when the Bush Administration was saying there was no time to examine the details about the $700 billion bank rescue plan?  Then this should sound familiar.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

President Obama, with Sam Palmisano of IBM and other business leaders, spoke about the economy at the White House on Wednesday.

From the NY TIMES

By DAVID STOUT

Published: January 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — Declaring that “we don’t have a moment to spare,” President Obama on Wednesday pushed hard for passage of his economic stimulus plan, promising that it would be not just enormous in scope but run with a transparency and accountability not always associated with huge Washington projects.

“We’ll invest in what works,” the president said after what he called “a sober meeting” with prominent business executives at the White House to discuss not just the immediate economic crisis but the ability of America to compete in the global marketplace in the 21st century.

Hours before the House was expected to approve his program of well over $800 billion, largely along partisan lines and in the face of heavy criticism, Mr. Obama tried to convey his message far beyond the corridors of the Capitol and into boardrooms and living rooms. The future of the American economy rests less in his hands than it does “with American companies and workers,” Mr. Obama said.

“They are the ones whose efforts and ideas will determine our economic destiny, just as they always have,” the president said. “For in the end, it’s businesses, large and small, that generate the jobs, provide the salaries and serve as the foundation on which the American people’s lives and dreams depend.”

The numbers in the president’s program, while astronomical, seemed to defy precision. Accountants at theCongressional Budget Office recalculated the cost, putting it at $816 billion rather than the $825 billion often used. But in a voice vote on Wednesday, House Democrats added $3 billion for mass transit.

The White House meeting was part of an aggressive promotional campaign by the president and his top aides. Congressional leaders of both parties were invited to cocktails at the White House Wednesday evening. On Monday, Mr. Obama took the unusual step of going to the Capitol to try to win support for his program.

The president said on Wednesday that the country faces “times more trying than any we have seen in a long, long while” as he alluded to the latest staggering round of layoffs, announced on Monday by some of the nation’s biggest, and hitherto most profitable, corporations.

But in the face of the bad news, he sought to project a feeling of optimism as he confronts his first big challenge, one that could set the momentum for his first year in office and, perhaps, help determine his place in history.

“We left the meeting confident we can turn our economy around,” Mr. Obama said of Wednesday morning’s gathering, which included Sam Palmisano and David Cote, the chairmen and chief executives of I.B.M. andHoneywell, respectively. Richard D. Parsons, who was recently named chairman ofCitigroup, was also among the executives at the White House.

Mr. Obama said Americans were expecting, and had a right to expect, “bold and swift action” from their government, whose mission is to create an atmosphere in which “workers can prosper, businesses can thrive and the economy can grow.”

That kind of language is often embraced by business-friendly Republicans, and indeed Mr. Obama has reached out to Republican lawmakers in an effort to signal his willingness to compromise on some components of his plan, which he said on Wednesday would be sweeping enough to invest in areas as disparate as roads, alternative energy projects, better schools and new technology.

The president said, as he has repeatedly, that he envisions money going “out the door immediately,” once Congress acts, helping to create three million to four million jobs, most of them in private enterprise.

“Corporate America will have to accept its own responsibility to workers and the American public,” Mr. Obama said, after alluding to an “atmosphere of irresponsibility” on Wall Street and in Washington that he said had helped push the economy toward ruin. He said, too, that he understands the skepticism that some people feel about the prospect of spending astronomical sums of the taxpayers’ money efficiently. Therefore, he said, his administration will put in place “unprecedented measures,” including Internet postings, to allow the American people to see where the streams of dollars are flowing.

Mr. Palmisano and Mr. Cote spoke enthusiastically of the president’s plan. “Now is not the time to be timid,” Mr. Cote said with Mr. Obama beside him. “Thank God you are not a timid man.”

The president has been hoping for wide, bipartisan support for his program, but some Republicans have found fault with it, criticizing among other things a tax credit for the middle class that would also benefit workers who earn so little that they do not pay income taxes, even though they are subject to the payroll taxes for Social Security andMedicare.

Even if Mr. Obama’s plan meets stiff Republican opposition in the House, it is still expected to pass, given the Democrats 255-to-178 advantage. (There are two vacancies.) The Senate, where the Democrats’ advantage was also increased by the November elections, is expected to debate economic stimulus measures next week.

Despite the Democrats’ advantage in the House, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican minority leader, seemed unwilling to concede defeat. Many Republicans are worried about billions in domestic spending on programs that have “nothing to do with creating jobs or preserving jobs,” Mr. Boehner said in ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Moreover, the Senate’s Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has said that he and his colleagues will seek changes in whatever package comes over from the House.

But Mr. Obama said he was confident his recovery program would become reality. In promising that it would be run with openness and accountability, the president quotedSupreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Coincidentally, Brandeis was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson on Jan. 28, 1916.

Now we'll see how long it takes to clear out all of those Republican-appointed attorneys and how quiet the press will be about that.

From The Wall Street Journal

By EVAN PEREZ and BRENT KENDALL

WASHINGTON -- Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, won the backing of his toughest critic, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, virtually assuring that he will be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee at a vote scheduled for Wednesday.

Mr. Holder is expected to win approval by the full Senate later this week.

The 58-year-old corporate lawyer is set to take over a department that already is set on a path sharply different from that set during eight years under President George W. Bush. The Obama administration has announced changes in policies ranging from the Guantanamo Bay military prison to how it releases information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Sen. Specter followed through on Republican threats to grill Mr. Holder over controversies that date back to his time as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration. Critics raised questions about Mr. Holder's role in several last-minute pardons issued by Mr. Clinton. Sen. Specter questioned whether Mr. Holder fully explained how he allowed the Clinton White House to circumvent Justice Department procedures in granting a pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich.

Mr. Holder acknowledged making mistakes in handling the pardons, which generated months of investigations and hearings after he left office.

Sen. Specter last Wednesday blocked the committee from voting on Mr. Holder, saying he had needed answers to a new batch of questions he had submitted to Mr. Holder.

Sen. Specter said he was particularly influenced by the recommendation of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis Freeh, who said Mr. Holder was a man of integrity. "I think Mr. Holder is entitled to the benefit of the doubt," Sen. Specter said.

Obama Signals New Tone in Relations With Islamic World

Response to President Obama's conciliatory comments to the Muslim world quickly drew this reaction to the leader of the infidels.

From the NY Times:

By ALAN COWELL

Published: January 27, 2009

PARIS — In an interview with one of the Middle East’s major broadcasters, President Barack Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward the Islamic world, saying he wanted to persuade Muslims that “the Americans are not your enemy.” He also said “the moment is ripe” for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Enlarge This Image

Al-Arabiya, via Associated Press

President Obama was interviewed in Washington by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya cable network on Monday.

The interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language news channel based in Dubai, signaled a shift — in style and manner at least — from the Bush administration, offering what he depicted as a new readiness to listen rather than dictate.

It was Mr. Obama’s first televised interview from the White House and the first with any foreign news outlet.

In a transcript published on Al Arabiya’s English language Web site, Mr. Obama said it is his job “to communicate to the Muslim world that the Americans are not your enemy.”

He added that “we sometimes make mistakes,” but said that America was not born as a colonial power and that he hoped for a restoration of “the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.”

Mr. Obama spoke as his special Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell, arrived in Egypt to begin an eight-day tour that will include stops in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain. In Egypt, Mr. Mitchell planned to meet President Hosni Mubarak.

In discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Obama told Al Arabiya that “the most important thing is for the United States to get engaged right away.” He said that he told Mr. Mitchell to “start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating.”

“Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what’s best for them. They’re going to have to make some decisions,” Mr. Obama said. “But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people. And that, instead, it’s time to return to the negotiating table.”

Several hours after he spoke on Monday night, an explosion on the Israel-Gaza border killed an Israeli soldier and threatened new violence. The war in Gaza, which lasted three weeks, had stopped 10 days ago when both sides declared unilateral cease fires.

Mr. Obama said Israel “will not stop being a strong ally of the United States and I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount. But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side.”

He also said that although he would not put a time frame on it, he believed it was “possible for us to see a Palestinian state.” He described the state as one “that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.”

But he also said the Israel-Palestine conflict should not be seen in isolation. “I do think it is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what’s happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Mr. Obama said.

He spoke at length about America’s future relationship with the Muslim world, saying his “job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives.”

He drew a distinction between “extremist organizations” committed to violence and “people who may disagree with my administration and certain actions, or may have a particular viewpoint in terms of how their countries should develop.”

“We can have legitimate disagreements but still be respectful. I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians and we will hunt them down,” he said. “But to the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship.”

He also said it was “important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress.”

“As I said during my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us,” he said.

He was not asked whether he would continue the policy of former President George Bush in refusing to exclude military action in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards

Usually it is the conservatives who demand the preservation of states' rights. Now the Obama administration is ready to step in to allow states to set their own vehicle emission standards. Perhaps states should also set their own electricity voltage standards, too. How about the fat content of McDonalds hamburgers?

While it may be technically possible to get most vehicles' emission tailored to a specific state, the confusion and administrative costs to manufacturers, dealers, and the states themselves may be quite high. Imagine a Nevada dealership in Reno who has customers across the state line in California. If the Nevada requirements are different from California's, the dealer may not be able to sell vehicles to his customers anymore. If someone moves from Nevada to California, he may not be able to get his vehicle registered in that state.

Be careful what you wish for... you may get it.

From the NY Times:

The Clean Air Act allows California to seek a waiver from federal rules if it can demonstrate that its own regulations are more stringent and that they are necessary to address air pollution problems.

By JOHN M. BRODER and PETER BAKER

Published: January 25, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

The directive makes good on an Obama campaign pledge and signifies a sharp reversal of Bush administration policy. Granting California and the other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions would be one of the most emphatic actions Mr. Obama could take to quickly put his stamp on environmental policy.

Mr. Obama’s presidential memorandum will order the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration’s past rejection of the California application. While it stops short of flatly ordering the Bush decision reversed, the agency’s regulators are now widely expected to do so after completing a formal review process.

Once they act, automobile manufacturers will quickly have to retool to begin producing and selling cars and trucks that get higher mileage than the national standard, and on a faster phase-in schedule. The auto companies have lobbied hard against the regulations and challenged them in court.

Mr. Obama will use the announcement to bolster the impression of a sharp break from the Bush era on all fronts, following his decisions last week to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; tighten limits on interrogation tactics by Central Intelligence Agency officers; order plans to withdraw combat forces from Iraq; and reverse President George W. Bush’s financing restrictions on groups that promote or provide abortion overseas, administration officials said.

Beyond acting on the California emissions law, officials said, Mr. Obama will direct the Transportation Department to quickly finalize interim nationwide regulations requiring the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency standards to comply with a 2007 law, rules that the Bush administration decided at the last minute not to issue.

To avoid losing another year, Mr. Obama will order temporary regulations to be completed by March so automakers have enough time to retool for vehicles sold in 2011. Final standards for later years will be determined by a separate process that under Mr. Obama’s order must take into consideration legal, scientific and technological factors.

He will also order federal departments and agencies to find new ways to save energy and be more environmentally friendly. And he will highlight the elements in his $825 billion economic stimulus plan intended to create jobs around renewable energy.

The announcements, to be made in the East Room, will begin a week of efforts to get the stimulus plan through Congress. The White House hopes the Senate will confirm Timothy F. Geithner as Treasury secretary on Monday, and Mr. Obama plans to travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with both Senate and House Republican caucuses and lobby for his stimulus package. Mr. Obama’s aides expect the House to vote on its plan on Wednesday.

But the centerpiece of Monday’s anticipated announcement is Mr. Obama’s directive to the Environmental Protection Agency to begin work immediately on granting California a waiver, under the Clean Air Act, which allows the state, a longtime leader in air quality matters, to set standards for automobile emissions stricter than the national rules.

California has already won numerous waivers for controls on emissions that cause smog, as opposed to global warming.

The Bush administration denied the waiver in late 2007, saying that recently enacted federal mileage rules made the action unnecessary and that allowing California and the 13 other states the right to set their own pollution rules would result in an unenforceable patchwork of environmental law.

The auto companies had advocated a denial, saying a waiver would require them to produce two sets of vehicles, one to meet the strict California standard and another that could be sold in the remaining states.

The Bush administration’s environmental agency director, Stephen L. Johnson, echoed the automakers’ claims in denying California’s application, ignoring the near-unanimous advice of agency lawyers and scientists that the waiver be granted.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican, wrote to Mr. Obama last week asking him to swiftly reconsider Mr. Bush’s decision. The head of California’s Air Resources Board, Mary D. Nichols, also wrote to the new director of the environmental agency, Lisa P. Jackson, asking for a quick reversal of the Bush policy.

Ms. Nichols said Sunday night that she had not been formally notified that Mr. Obama intended to move toward granting the waiver. But she said, “Assuming that it is favorable to our request, we’re delighted that the president is acting so quickly to reverse one of the worst decisions by the Bush administration and to get the E.P.A. back on track.”

Ms. Jackson indicated in her confirmation hearing this month that she would “aggressively” review California’s application. The environmental agency has routinely granted California such waivers dozens of times over the past 40 years.

The California law, which was originally meant to take effect in the 2009 model year, requires automakers to cut emissions by nearly a third by 2016, four years ahead of the federal timetable. The result would be an increase in fuel efficiency in the American car and light truck fleet to roughly 35 miles per gallon from the current average of 27.

The emissions standards are part of an ambitious California plan to reduce emissions of the gases that are blamed for the heating of the atmosphere. Automotive emissions account for more than one-fifth of all such greenhouse gases.

Who Is Allah?

Have you wondered why Muslim terrorists seem to be a bunch of luna-tics? Perhaps this post from Pat Dollard explains it fully.

from Pat Dollard | Young Americans by Dan The Infidel

Dr Sami Alrabaa said: “If you say that Islam is a violent faith, you are accused of being anti-Islam and you are propagating Islamophobia.

There are more than one billion Muslims around the world, and I’m one of them. We are told that the Koran is the “word of God.” When you read the Koran, however – which over 90% of all Muslims have never read, according to a survey by Bielefeld University in Germany, and if they ever do, either they do not understand its archaic language or they do not ponder on what it says – you find out that it is full of passages that incite to hatred, killing, and discriminate against women. “ All of these passages are supposedly revelations to Mohammed by Allah.

If you do a Google search on the word “Allah”, you will find that in Western dictionaries, the word means “God”. But is Allah really God or something else? Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God as the History Channel would have us think? Or is Allah something other than God?

A little research reveals that Allah is not God. In fact he never existed at all; except in the minds of the Ishmaelite tribes that lived in Arabia at the time of Mohammed.

As we have discussed repeatedly, the pre-Muslim world worshipped 360 different gods one of which was Allah. Allah was the favorite god of the Quraysh tribe into which Muhammad was born. The literal Arabic name of Muhammad’s father was Abd-Allah. His uncle’s name was Obied-Allah. These names reveal the personal devotion that Muhammad’s pagan family had to the worship of Allah, the moon god.

The name Allah was well-known in the timeframe that Muslims call Jahilliya or pre-Islamic Arabia. Both the male and feminine form “Allat” are found in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam.

In pre-Islamic times Allah-worship, as well as the worship of Ba-al, were both astral religions in that they involved the worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars

The Arabians reversed the sex of their sun and moon gods from the way Egyptians had worshipped them. The sun god was viewed as a female goddess and the moon as the male god. The moon god was called by various names, one of which was Allah. Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun goddess. Together they produced three goddesses who were called “the daughters of Allah.” These three goddesses were called Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat.

Interesting that the Qu’ran is correct when it says that Allah had no son. (Sura 19 Aya 88-92). That’s because Allah had three daughters!!!!!

“The daughters of Allah, along with Allah and the sun goddess were viewed as “high” gods. That is, they were viewed as being at the top of the pantheon of Arabian deities.“

The origin of the word Allah comes from the compound Arabic word al-ilah. Al is the definite article “the” and ilah is an Arabic word for “god.”

“The word “Ilah . . . appears in pre-Islamic poetry . . . By frequency of usage, al-ilah was contracted to Allah, frequently attested to in pre-Islamic poetry.”

However, Allah is neither a Hebrew or Greek word for God; as found in the Bible. “Allah” is a pre-Islamic name . . . corresponding to the Babylonian’ Bel’.

“The origin of this deity goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is not a common name meaning “God” (or a “god”), and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity”

There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea, that the concept, or worship of, Allah somehow passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews. Nor should anyone accept that Allah is anything but a pagan non-entity whose worship is symbolized by the crescent moon. (which is the symbol of moon-god worship).

Semper Fi Bros

Dan (The Infidel)

Pakistan Hails Move to Shut Guantanamo

It appears that President Obama has been successful at improving relations with our greatest ally in fighting terrorism: Pakistan. The same country that has successfully crushed all remnants of al Qaeda and related terrorist groups within its borders has become the moral role model for our new administration.

By VOA News 24 January 2009

'Camp Justice' sign near the high-security courtroom in Guantanamo, Cuba, 08 Dec 2008

Pakistan says it supports U.S. President Barack Obama's order to close the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within one year.

A Foreign Ministry statement Saturday says the decision to shut the center adds, what it calls, "the much needed moral dimension in dealing with terrorism."

According to a list compiled by the Washington Post, there are currently six Pakistani nationals being held at Guantanamo. They include top suspects accused of planning the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Meantime, Malaysia' prime minister, Abdullah Ahman Badawi, says his government is seeking permission to meet with two Malaysians held at Guantanamo, and to have them serve their sentences in their home country. He also praised the decision to shut the facility.

Some U.S. lawmakers have voiced concerns that shutting Guantanamo may allow some dangerous detainees to be set free.

The U.S. Defense Department says as many as 61 former Guantanamo prisoners have returned to terrorism. On Friday, U.S. security officials confirmed that a man released from the facility in late 2007 has become the deputy leader of al-Qaida's branch in Yemen.

Mr. Obama has ordered a review of all 245 detainees at the center, to decide how to prosecute those that may have committed crimes.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.

Nashville voters reject 'English First' proposal

Hey, y'all... we speak Tennessee here, not that English stuff.

From MSNBC

By JUANITA COUSINS

updated 10:53 p.m. ET, Thurs., Jan. 22, 2009

NASHVILLE, Tennessee - Nashville voters rejected a proposal on Thursday that would have made it the largest U.S. city to require all government business be done in English.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, unofficial results showed the "English First" proposal was defeated on a vote of 41,752 to 32,144. Proponents said using one language would have united the city and saved money, but business leaders, academics and the city's mayor worried it could give the city a bad reputation. Similar measures have passed elsewhere.

It wasn't clear exactly how much translation would have been silenced had the measure passed. While it called for all government communication and publications to be printed in English, it would have allowed an exception for public health and safety.

The referendum's leader, city Councilman Eric Crafton, promoted it as a way to unite Nashville and prevent the kind of extensive translation services — and the associated expenses — provided by cities like New York or Los Angeles. He has pushed for English only since 2006 and got the issue before voters through a petition drive.

Business leaders, academics, religious leaders, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Gov. Phil Bredesen argued the measure would tarnish the city's welcoming image, harm tourism and business recruitment and endanger federal funding for many city services.

Supporter Glenda Paul, 35, said having one language is an important part of keeping government small as she exited a voting precinct Thursday.

"If I moved to France to start a business, I would be expected to speak French and that doesn't mean that I am not welcome there. It just means I need to respect the language."

But Claire King, 31, who lives in East Nashville, said Thursday that she voted against the amendment because "it sends a message of intolerance." She said she thought multiple perspectives and languages enrich to the city's culture.

Nashville's documented translation expenses have totaled $522,287 since 2004. By comparison, the special election cost $300,000.

Thirty states, including Tennessee, and at least a dozen cities have declared English their official language, said K.C. McAlpin, executive director of Arlington, Virginia-based ProEnglish, which donated money to support the referendum.

About 10 percent of Nashville's nearly 600,000 people speak a language other than English in their homes, according to census data. The city is 5 percent Hispanic and home to the nation's largest Kurdish community and refugees from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Islam film Dutch MP to be charged

If it looks like poop and stinks like poop and draws flies like poop, it is "hate speech" to call it poop... according to the Dutch judicial system.

From the BBC: A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.

Geert Wilders lives under police protection because of death threats

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

"In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to... draw a clear line," the court in Amsterdam said.

Mr Wilders said the judgement was an "attack on the freedom of expression".

"Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted," he said.

Not only he, but all Dutch citizens opposed to the "Islamisation" of their country would be on trial, Mr Wilders warned.

"Who will stand up for our culture if I am silenced?" he added.

'Incitement'

The three judges said that they had weighed Mr Wilders's "one-sided generalisations" against his right to free speech, and ruled that he had gone beyond the normal leeway granted to politicians.

"The Amsterdam appeals court has ordered the prosecution of member of parliament Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination, based on comments by him in various media on Muslims and their beliefs," the court said in a statement.

"The court also considers appropriate criminal prosecution for insulting Muslim worshippers because of comparisons between Islam and Nazism made by Wilders," it added.

The court's ruling reverses a decision last year by the public prosecutor's office, which said Mr Wilders's comments had been made outside parliament as a contribution to the debate on Islam in Dutch society and that no criminal offence had been committed.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that they could not appeal against the judgement and would open an investigation immediately.

Gerard Spong, a prominent lawyer who pushed for Mr Wilders's prosecution, welcomed the court's decision.

"This is a happy day for all followers of Islam who do not want to be tossed on the garbage dump of Nazism," he told reporters.

'Fascist book'

In March 2008, Mr Wilders posted a film about the Koran on the internet, prompting angry protests across the Muslim World.

Geert Wilders speaking on BBC Hardtalk in August 2008

The opening scenes of Fitna - a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife" - show a copy of the holy book followed by footage of the bomb attacks on the US on 11 September 2001, London in July 2005 and Madrid in March 2004.

Pictures appearing to show Muslim demonstrators holding up placards saying "God bless Hitler" and "Freedom go to hell" also feature.

The film ends with the statement: "Stop Islamisation. Defend our freedom."

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said at the time that the film wrongly equated Islam with violence and served "no purpose other than to offend".

A year earlier, Mr Wilders described the Koran as a "fascist book" and called for it to be banned in "the same way we ban Mein Kampf", in a letter published in the De Volkskrant newspaper.

Mr Wilders has had police protection since Dutch director Theo Van Gogh was killed by a radical Islamist in 2004.

Correspondents say his Freedom Party (PVV), which has nine MPs in the lower house of parliament, has built its popularity largely by tapping into the fear and resentment of Muslim immigrants.

..

You’re a grand O flag

Fast starts are often followed by poor finishes. The cult-like phenomenon associated with President Obama reminds one of other cult-like starts for other historical political figures. It's a danger to them and to their countries.

From Michelle Malkin: Remember the appearance of that schlocky Obama Flag of the United States at a Baltimore rally over the weekend?

Well, O-flags are now in full bloom in Washington. The new colors of patriotism are red, white, blue, and O. I recall when Hollyweird actress Gwyneth Paltrow once condemned the “over-patriotic” displays of Americans as “too weird.”

But now that the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and O-ld Glory have been redefined, it’s all cool. Or as the Obamedia puts it, uber-cool.

Fly it high (photo source: Yahoo News):

Bush Commutes 2 Border Agents’ Sentences

The War On Terror; The War On Drugs; The War On Good Sense. First the border guards are imprisoned for doing everyone a big favor. Then President Bush does a half-assed job of rectifying the situation. Can you spell P-A-R-D-O-N? Commuting a sentence is a nice gesture, but it skirts the heart of the matter: these officers should have been given a parade, not a prison sentence. As for the fines, how about taking it out in trade... dope from some drug dealer who has continued to do business now that the guards are looking the other way.

The New York Times WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former border patrol agents who had been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for shooting and seriously wounding a Mexican drug dealer in Texas in 2005.

With a day left in his presidency, Mr. Bush exercised his constitutional power to grant clemency — for the last time, according to a senior White House official — in a case that has touched off fierce debate in the Southwest. The two former agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, had attracted considerable support among advocates of tougher border security, who argued that the agents were just doing their jobs.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” the lead prosecutor in the case said in 2007, scoffing at the idea that the defendants were defending themselves. The agents said at trial that they had scuffled with the dealer, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila.

“These agents shot someone whom they knew to be unarmed and running away,” said the prosecutor, United States Attorney Johnny Sutton. “They destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and then filed false reports about what happened. It is shocking that there are people who believe it is O.K. for agents to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away.”

The incident touched off heated debate about law enforcement and illegal immigration. A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 2007 brought out the fact that Mr. Aldrete-Davila had crossed the United States-Mexican border illegally and driving a van containing 743 pounds of marijuana worth almost $1 million.

Nor did the furor over the case break along neat liberal-conservative lines, as demonstrated by statements made in 2007 by Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat of California who is considered moderate to liberal. “It is true that the bullet left Aldrete-Davila permanently injured and that what the agents did was wrong,” the senator said. “But it is also true that Aldrete-Davila was not likely a low-level wrongdoer who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Those who rallied behind the defendants were furious that Mr. Aldrete-Davila was granted immunity from some drug crimes in return for his testimony against the defendants.

The defendants were convicted of shooting Mr. Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande, away from the van. Not only did the defendants not report the shooting, but they tried to conceal what they had done by picking up spent cartridge casings, Mr. Sutton said.

Both agents were convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon and several other crimes. Mr. Compean was sentenced to 12 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised released, with a $2,000 fine. Mr. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years, with the same supervised release and fine.

Several members of Congress in both parties, including Senator Feinstein, have said they thought the sentences excessive.

The commutation granted by President Bush means the prison sentences of the men, both from El Paso, will expire on March 20, the Justice Department said. The supervised release and fines will still apply.

The leniency was granted to the former agents even though the Justice Department had not completed its review of the case, according to officials at the agency. A president’s constitutional power to grant pardons or commutations is unfettered, but Justice Department officials sometimes feel resentful if leniency without their full review.

A commutation is not as generous as a presidential pardon, which essentially erases a crime from a defendant’s record. There had been speculation that President Bush would grant clemency to some high-profile defendants, but the White House official said the two ex-agents would be the last to benefit.

I. Lewis Libby Jr., former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, could have been granted a pardon for his role in the leaking of a C.I.A. agent’s name and an attempted cover-up. In July 2007, Mr. Libby’s prison sentence was commuted. Nor was there any clemency for former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who in late October was convicted of ethics violations for not reporting gifts and services given by friends. Mr. Stevens would lose his bid for a seventh term.

In an interview with an El Paso television station two years ago, President Bush signaled that he would at least look at the case of the former border agents. “There are standards that need to be met in law enforcement, and according to a jury of their peers, these officers violated some standards,” Mr. Bush said.

But he went on to say that “people need to take a hard look at the facts” of the case and added, “I will do the same thing.”

Jim Rutenberg and Eric Lichtblau contributed reporting.