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Citing recent internal memos, Department of Homeland Security employees complain their boss Michael Chertoff is hamstringing counter-terror operations with pro-Islamic political correctness. They say headquarters has cautioned officials not to describe Islamic terrorism as Islamic and to respect Islam as a "religion of peace." "It's constantly drilled into us that Islam is not the enemy, and that the terrorists are merely a minority of 'extremists' distorting Islam," said one official who wished to go unnamed.
"It's ridiculous. 'Extremists' could mean anyone. Who are we talking about here? Neo-Nazi extremists? Environmental extremists?" another DHS official said. "It's so politically correct. If the head of Homeland Security can't say it, who can?" He noted that as a Jew, Chertoff is especially sensitive to charges of bigotry leveled by Muslim-rights groups. In a press conference on the sky-terror plot, President Bush called the British terrorists and their ilk "Islamic fascists" but quickly backed off the remark after the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups complained.
- JJ Commentary: If you study Islam, you see that jihad and violence is not only condoned but commanded against all non-Muslims in order to take over the entire world. It’s not a peaceful religion. Political correctness and tolerance lead to apathy, complacency and ultimately death.
Globalization long has been regarded as a made-in-America phenomenon, driven by Silicon Valley's technology, Hollywood's movies and Wall Street's cash. But suddenly, countries formerly on the periphery of world events seem poised to challenge American dominance of this age of global integration. It's not only that developing countries are proving to be white-hot investment opportunities, though they are: the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets index gained 242% the past four years. It's also that emerging markets, once known dismissively as the Third World, are now central to Americans' lives. Not long ago, these countries were of interest only to the Peace Corps. Now, everything from the financial lifeline that makes possible the modern American lifestyle to the identity of your next boss, customer, competitor or cultural trendsetter likely can be found in the developing world.
"We're in the middle of the biggest shift in 200 years — since the Industrial Revolution. It's really that big," said Antoine van Agtmael, the investment manager credited with coining the term "emerging markets" in 1981. The new prominence of emerging markets represents a sharp departure from the flurry of financial crises that tore through Mexico, Asia and Russia in the 1990s. Since then, scores of developing countries have cleaned up their balance sheets, slashed inflation rates and accumulated enormous stockpiles of hard-currency reserves. China alone sits atop a $1 trillion mountain of cash. Russia, Mexico, India and South Korea also are swiftly building their cash hoards, according to Treasury Department data.
Developing nations have gone from beggar to banker. The U.S. must borrow enormous sums each day to finance the gap between its anemic national savings rate and its consumption. Increasingly, those funds — largely raised by selling Treasury securities — come from poorer nations. Through November, the most recent data available, more than 29% of the $806 billion in net securities purchases came from developing countries compared with just 5% in 1998, according to Bank of America. The river of capital flowing into the U.S. economy enables Americans to continue consuming beyond their means. But some analysts find it worrisome that the world's wealthiest nation now depends on loans from some of the globe's poorest countries.
- JJ Commentary: Worrisome? Our debt-ridden ways are coming home to roost. Our financial future is in the hands of those countries who despise us. Worrisome? Nay, disastrous.
Pro-abortion Democrats control Congress, Nancy Pelosi is House speaker, many disaffected voters are veering left, Hillary Clinton may be the next president – and 34 years after Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court still has a pro-Roe majority. Moreover, since that fateful 1973 ruling, almost 50 million unborn babies have been aborted, and millions of mothers hurt physically, psychologically and spiritually. So, why are pro-lifers smiling?
They're smiling because “the availability of abortions is diminishing because fewer doctors are willing to perform the procedure,” according to the Washington Post. “Unless drastic changes are made, American women will lose the right to abortion and the [U.S.] Supreme Court won’t be the cause of it ... the reason will be that physicians either can't or won't perform this essential service." – Barbara Radford, former director, National Abortion Federation.
- JJ Commentary: This is the mark of a true grassroots movement, where people change things at the ground level before politicians respond with laws the people want
Texas has become the first state in the nation to require schoolgirls to be vaccinated with Merck & Co.'s human papillomavirus vaccine in order to be allowed in school, and one Christian organization leader says that's not a lot different from requiring those girls to carry a condom. "The purpose of vaccinations in children at schools was to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. There's nothing wrong with doing that kind of thing," Debi Vinnedge, executive director for Children of God for Life told WND. "But this is a disease that is not spread any other way other than direct sexual intercourse."
She said the state doesn't mandate other treatments that are available for sexually transmitted diseases, and adding Gardasil to the list of state-required vaccinations "brings out a whole slew of problems." She said it requires parents to address with their children sexual issues they may not want to detail at that particular age, and if they go through the special requirements of a religious exemption process, it pinpoints the family – and children – in the school atmosphere as "those" people.
- JJ Commentary: As the New World (Dis)Order rolls on, we will see more and more of forced behavior in an effort to control the masses, culminating in the “mark of the beast.”
With heads bowed reverently, Democrats were led in prayer yesterday by a Muslim imam who essentially asked Allah to assist in converting the party members to Islam, according to a scholar and author. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Truth about Muhammad," took note of the invocation given at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting by Husham Al-Husainy, imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich. According to a transcript of the prayer, which can be seen on a video clip provided by HotAir.com, the imam said: In the name of God the most merciful, the most compassionate. We thank you, God, to bless us among your creations. We thank you, God, to make us as a great nation. We thank you God, to send us your messages through our father Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad. Through you, God, we unite. So guide us to the right path. The path of the people you bless, not the path of the people you doom. Help us God to liberate and fill this earth with justice and peace and love and equality. And help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation. Ameen.
- Spencer, in a post on his Jihad Watch website, said he found it interesting to see the Muslim leader praying, "in veiled terms to be sure, for their conversion to Islam, and, oh yes, for the destruction of Israel ("And help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation")."Imagine if a Christian priest or minister had prayed at a DNC meeting that those attending be guided away from the path of those doomed by God," Spencer said.
CAMBRIDGE, Minn. (AP) — A farmer accused of chasing down a suspected thief and holding him at gunpoint until authorities arrived now faces a more serious charge than the alleged thief himself. Kenneth Englund, 74, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony. Englund's target, who the sheriff said admitted stealing about $5 worth of gasoline from Englund's neighbor, was charged with misdemeanor theft.Sheriff Mike Ammend said people can't take the law into their own hands, and that Englund's actions were "an invitation to a shootout. There's so many things that could have gone wrong here."
- JJ Commentary: There’s something very wrong with this scenario. Government has taken away our rights to defend ourselves and our property. Laws intended to protect the innocent now favor the guilty.
For all 2006, people spent more than they earned, making the savings rate the worst since the Great Depression. Commerce said Thursday that the savings rate for 2006 was a negative 1%, meaning that not only did people spend everything they earned but they also dipped into savings or increased borrowing to finance purchases. The 2006 figure was lower than a negative 0.4% in 2005 and was the poorest showing since a negative 1.5% savings rate in 1933 during the Depression.- JJ Commentary: With consumer borrowing continuing to rise, as well as government debt and trade deficits, and with the dollar falling precipitously against the Euro, the U.S. is in prime position for severe disruption, especially if China and Arab countries continue to sell of their large stockpile of dollars. Osama Bin Laden has stated that his goal is to bankrupt America – this could be the year
