I will post a couple of the videos here but The Blaze has a great detailed explanation of events from start to finish over at their web site linked here.
Then:
Category Archives: U.S.A.
Use of Islamic law OK in civil case, judge rules
Published: October 25, 2011
A state appeals court has ruled that a Hillsborough County Circuit judge can consider Islamic law to decide a civil case between a mosque and its former trustees.
The decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland to decline the appeal of the Islamic Education Center of Tampa sends the case back to Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Richard A. Nielsen. Nielsen’s decision in March to allow the case to proceed under “ecclesiastical Islamic law” drew national attention when the ruling was criticized by conservative bloggers.
The case has its roots in 2002, when the mosque ousted four of its founding members; those founding members later sued the mosque. One of the main issues of dispute was who would be responsible for how to spend $2.5 million Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise had paid the mosque for 3.4 acres needed to widen Veterans Expressway.
When he made his March ruling, Nielsen said courts have ruled “that ecclesiastical law controls certain relations between members of a religious organization, whether a church, synagogue, temple or mosque.”
The uproar over the ruling went overboard, said Lee Segal, a Clearwater attorney representing the ousted trustees. He said the ruling follows established legal precedent and does not mean Nielsen is allowing Islamic law to trump U.S. law.
“When the parties agree (before the trial that) they are bound to Islamic law, they can be bound to Islamic law,” Segal said. “As long as what you are agreeing to doesn’t violate the constitution of the United States, you can apply any type of law.”
Though the issue of Islamic law has garnered attention, the legal fight over the lawsuit is complicated, with much of it revolving around the arbitration process.
On Monday, Paul Thanasides, the attorney for the mosque, filed a new motion to dismiss the case because of lack of jurisdiction.
jp*****@*******ib.com (813) 259-7659
World Power swings back to America
This is a partial article from…
The Telegraph:
H/T Richard
The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.
The making of computers, electrical equipment, machinery, autos and other goods may shift back to the US from China. Photo: AP
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
5:53PM BST 23 Oct 2011
Assumptions that the Great Republic must inevitably spiral into economic and strategic decline – so like the chatter of the late 1980s, when Japan was in vogue – will seem wildly off the mark by then.
Telegraph readers already know about the “shale gas revolution” that has turned America into the world’s number one producer of natural gas, ahead of Russia.
Less known is that the technology of hydraulic fracturing – breaking rocks with jets of water – will also bring a quantum leap in shale oil supply, mostly from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas, and other reserves across the Mid-West.
“The US was the single largest contributor to global oil supply growth last year, with a net 395,000 barrels per day (b/d),” said Francisco Blanch from Bank of America, comparing the Dakota fields to a new North Sea.
Total US shale output is “set to expand dramatically” as fresh sources come on stream, possibly reaching 5.5m b/d by mid-decade. This is a tenfold rise sinc
A refreshing view on Blacks in America and their role in politics.
Muslims throw shoes and mock Christian preacher. In Dearborn Mi.
Islam. The religion of peace and tolerance where Jesus is an important prophet!
Muslims on a plane. In Texas.
The Blaze has this story. Below is a slightly sanitized version:
Plot Foiled? 3 Moroccan Muslims Caught Sneaking Inside TX Courthouse at 2 A.M.
From The Blaze:
What were three French-Moroccan Muslims in their twenties doing with photos of infrastructure and high tech camera equipment inside the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio at almost 2 o’clock this morning?
Nobody has given any good answers yet, and concerns about a possible terrorism plot remain high.
Officers of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Department of Homeland security have the three suspicious individuals in custody and are trying to find out if a terrorism-related plot was disrupted. The men apparently entered the building by sneaking through a window.
The men appeared to have entered the country on legal visas from Heathrow airport and had traveled extensively throughout the U.S. According to WOIA radio, officials say the men had “photographs of infrastructure” including photos of shopping malls, water systems, courthouses and other public buildings which they say were taken in cities nationwide.”
In response to the possible threat early this morning, police cordoned off two square blocks of downtown San Antonio and bomb-sniffing dogs were deployed throughout the courthouse. After a couple of hours, police reopened the streets as no danger was detected.
US forces ‘massing on Afghanistan-Pakistan border’
The Telegraph:
US forces are massing on the Pakistan border in eastern Afghanistan amid reports of an imminent drone missile offensive against fighters from the feared Haqqani Network, a Taliban faction which operates from safe havens in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency, Pakistan Army sources have confirmed.
A US soldier stands guard in the Turkham Nangarhar region of Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor and Javed Siddiq in Islamabad
2:19PM BST 18 Oct 2011
The scale of the American build-up, including helicopter gunships, heavy artillery and hundreds of American and Afghan troops, caused panic in north Waziristan where tribal militias who feared they could be targeted gathered in the capital Miranshah to coordinate their response.
Local officials in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) warned that Pakistan’s armed forces would repel any incursion across the border by American forces, but military sources in Islamabad and Afghan officials suggested the build-up was part of a coordinated operation.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have deteriorated dramatically in recent months as American officials increased pressure on Pakistan to launch an offensive against the Haqqani Network, which mounts attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan from bases in North Waziristan.
Islamabad has fiercely resisted American pressure, claiming its forces are overstretched and stating its priority is to fight Taliban factions which have declared war on Pakistan, rather than those, like the Haqqanis, who focus on cross-border attacks on Nato forces.
Last month Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently accused Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service of plotting the attack on the US embassy in Kabul with Haqqani network fighters and claimed the militant group was a “veritable arm” of the ISI. Continue Reading →
Military Force an Option Against Iran, Rogers Says
This is a part of the article. Please click the link below for the whole thing.
From Business Week
October 16, 2011, 1:56 PM EDT
By Alan Bjerga and Susan Decker
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Military force shouldn’t be ruled out as a response to an Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil, the top House Republican on intelligence issues said.
“I don’t think you should take it off the table,” said Representative Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on ABC’s “This Week.” Rogers said other options would include rallying the international community against Iran or taking action against Iranian operatives in Iraq.
U.S. officials are considering what action to take following the Justice Department’s Oct. 11 accusation that Iran sponsored a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. The conspiracy involved a secret Iranian military unit and a citizen of the Islamic Republic with a U.S. passport.
President Barack Obama said this week that there were “direct links” to Iran’s government, which has rejected the allegation. Continue Reading →
Iran ‘Directed’ Washington, D.C., Terror Plot, U.S. Says
From ABC News
The United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. is pictured at night, in this undated file photo. (Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images)
Oct. 11, 2011
FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States” tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.
The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in an announcement today that the plan was “conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran” and called it a “flagrant” violation of U.S. and international law.
“The U.S. is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions,” Holder said. He said the White House will be meeting with federal agencies before announcing “further action” in regards to Iran.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said the arrest of a suspect in the plot shows the U.S. will “bring the full weight of [the] law to bear on those responsible” and that “any attempts on American soil will not be tolerated.”
The stunning allegations come against a backdrop of longstanding tensions between Iran and the United States and Saudi Arabia. In the last year, Saudi Arabia has attempted to build an anti-Iran alliance to push back against perceived aggression by Iran in the region.
The State Department has listed Iran as a “state sponsor” of terror since 1984. Officials in Argentina have said Iran was behind an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992. Continue Reading →
Mitt Romney Oct 7 Foreign Policy speech The Citadel 2011
Text of speech below the crease
Continue Reading →
Occupy Sacramento Protesters Lash Out at Local Media
This might be the stupidest thing I have ever seen. It is most certainly the stupidest thing this year. A large group of political activists that had to form a committee to determine what exactly it is they are being active about. They even admit that their demands for protesting are vague and that they “have an answers committee working on formulating the reasons they are there”.
I think there is a lesson in this for all of us. Please, as a public service, remember to spay and neuter your college students.
Egyptian veteran of the Arab Spring uprising
Group defends anti-Islamic flier given near schools
CLAIREMONT, CA (KGTV/CNN) – A religious organization in San Diego County has come under fire for passing out fliers near high schools that have a distinct anti-Muslim theme.
The two page flier is headlined “Ayatollah Khomeini Had Sex With a 4 Year Old Girl!” and blasts Islam for its beliefs.
Zac Patchett found the flier after his sister, a sophomore at Clairemont High School, took it home.
“I was just personally offended,” Patchett said. “It goes against being an American.”
But Gary Cass, a member of Defend Christians, the group behind the fliers, does not see anything wrong with the handout’s sharp tone.
“This isn’t racist at all,” Cass said. “All it’s doing is telling the truth about a group of people that are organized around a religious ideology. It transcends race.”
Hertz Suspends Muslim Shuttle Drivers for Praying on Company Time
It is about time that someone in the real world started to treat Muslims equally, instead of giving them special rights and privileges, taxing the rest of us for it, and calling that equality. Someone needs to give HRTZ an award for rationality.
From FOX news:
Published October 07, 2011
SEATAC, Wash. – Hertz has suspended 34 Muslim shuttle drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for praying on company time.
The company says the drivers are required to clock out, under terms of a settlement two years ago with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Drivers told The Seattle Times they were sent home last week for praying. Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, is trying to get them back on the job.
The union represents about 79 drivers at Hertz who earn between $9 and $10 an hour. About 70 percent of them are Muslims. Observant Muslims pray five times a day.