Why having a strong President and strong Government is so important. America is strong for several reasons, we are Independent, we are Capitalistic and most of all we love this Nation. Too many times over the years we have heard negative sentiment about this country. It sickens me. Outfits like Code Pink who has nothing but hate filled sentiments, have been allowed to grow and fester like mold on cheese in this country. We should never bend to International Law, the UN or any other entity because we are the Greatest Nation in the World.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - When Venezuelans tune to Globovision, they see protests against faulty public services or a talk show guest saying Hugo Chavez could be executed by his opponents, just like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.  Now Chavez seems to be gearing up for a final showdown with Globovision, Venezuela's only remaining opposition television station on the open airwaves.  Broadcast regulators are investigating the all-news channel for inciting "panic and anxiety" during a minor earthquake when it criticized the government for slow response. 

"We've been subject to dozens of investigations, but this one is undoubtedly the most absurd," said station director Alberto Federico Ravell, a bespectacled, tough-talking man who relishes poking fun at the president.  Chavez has called Ravell "a crazy man with a cannon."

"There is a crazy man with a cannon in Venezuela, but it's not me," Ravell quipped in response. There is little neutral ground left in polarized Venezuela, and the media reflect this—either championing the government or touting the opposition.

What Chavez intends to do with the TV station remains unclear. But he seems to be building to a confrontation, demanding sanctions against Globovision again on Thursday in a speech in which he labeled TV executives "white-collar terrorists." Earlier this week, he threatened severe measures against any media inciting unrest: "You are playing with fire, manipulating, inciting hatred and much more. All of you: television networks, radio stations, newspapers."

Many newspapers and radio stations that remain fiercely critical of the government. But television is a different matter. Two formerly critical stations, Venevision and Televen, have held their tongues to avoid sanctions since they were accused of supporting a 2002 coup attempt. Another anti-Chavez channel, RCTV, was booted off the airwaves in 2007 and now draws a much smaller audience of paid viewers on cable. About a fifth of Venezuelans subscribe to cable. Globovision is the remaining counterweight to state television, which airs only praise for Chavez while attacking opposition politicians on a late-night talk show called "The Razorblade."

In one recent broadcast, newspaper editor Rafael Poleo saying Chavez should be careful or he could end up "hanging" like Mussolini. The Fascist leader was shot dead, then hung upside down and stoned by his detractors. "If Globovision is closed it would show that Chavez is crossing the line from an authoritarian government to a dictatorship," Ravell said. Its studios already have the feel of a bunker under siege. An 18-foot wall topped with an electric fence and barbed wire surrounds the Globovision building—a reminder that it's a favorite target for rowdy Chavez supporters, who have repeatedly tossed tear gas canisters and covered the walls with graffiti. Video cameras are trained on the street outside.

Carlos Lauria of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said he is disturbed by Chavez's moves against Globovision. "The consequences of a shutdown would be very damaging for Venezuela's democracy," Lauria told the AP. "The government would be consummating its effort to restrict criticism." The latest Globovision investigation comes after Chavez easily won a February referendum that ended term limits and empowered him politically. His popularity remains high—at about 59 percent, and opponents say he's using it to sideline dissent and push through controversial laws and economic measures.

Last month, opposition leader Manuel Rosales fled to Peru and was granted asylum after being charged with corruption. Others face similar charges, including the jailed former Defense Minister Raul Baduel—now a prominent Chavez critic. Venezuela's television and radio regulatory agency, Conatel, now is determining whether Globovision violated a strict law against "broadcasting messages provoking, supporting or inciting disturbances of public order."

The station couldn't reach the head of Venezuela's seismological agency for comment after the May 4 earthquake, which rattled Caracas but caused no deaths or damage. So Ravell went on the air and appealed for calm, while criticizing what he called a sluggish government reaction. The channel initially broadcast information about the 5.4-magnitude quake from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Ravell said regulators could fine Globovision or shut it down for 72 hours. If they're found to have broken the law again, the station could face a permanent shutdown. Pro-Chavez lawmaker Augusto Montiel said "the time has come to act and apply the law." Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro also demanded sanctions, saying: "One thing is reporting on a quake and another is using it to try to create anxiety and terror ... or trying to take advantage of it politically." Chavez urged authorities last month to impose sanctions on Venevision, Globovision, RCTV and Televen for allegedly backing a short-lived 2002 coup. Most of those stations broadcast cartoons and movies instead of protests that aided his return to power.

Enrique Santos, president of the Miami-based Inter American Press Association, said he fears Globovision will be forced to air only on cable like RCTV. "There is no doubt that we are seeing a similar strategy at play," Santos said. Chavez, who views the stations as mouthpieces of the wealthy, puts it another way:

"You oligarchs, your time is up."   

Barack Obama was confronting a looming international crisis just hours after his White House election triumph. The U.S. President-elect faced a triple threat with Russia, Israel and Afghanistan all threatening to test his mettle. Locked away in his Chicago home, Mr Obama received his first national security intelligence briefing yesterday as he wrestled with appointments for his Cabinet. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was first to lay down a challenge to America's new leader  -  by increasing tension in a stand off reminiscent of the Cold War. In a provocative speech from the Kremlin, he threatened to base warheads along the Polish border if Mr Obama goes forward with a Bush administration plan to create a missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Then Israel warned last night that the new U.S. Commander-in-Chief's campaign claim that he was ready to open talks with Iran could be seen in the Middle East as a sign of weakness. After eight years of staunch support from President Bush, the Israelis are now watching Mr Obama closely  -  even though he does not take power until January  -  looking for indicators as to how he will handle the nuclear threat from Tehran.

Ahmadinejad congratulated the Democrat on 'attracting the majority of voters in the election'.  He said he hoped Obama will 'use the opportunity to serve the (American) people and leave a good name for history' during his term in office.

Iran and the U.S. have had no formal diplomatic relations since 1979 when militant Iranian students held 52 Americans captive 444 days.

President Bush has repeatedly clashed with Tehran over its nuclear program and its opposition to the U.S.-led invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai demanded that Mr Obama 'put an end to civilian casualties' by changing U.S. military tactics to avoid airstrikes in the war on the Taliban.  He spoke out after seven wedding party guests were accidentally killed by an American airstrike in the southern Kandahar province. Afghan officials said last night 13 gunmen were killed in the attack.

Well he has already said and you can see VIDEO here that he will cut our missile defenses. We are fighting a war against terrorism and he wants to cut our defenses. Seriously doesn't make any sense to me. It makes us look weak and inexperienced...oh wait that's right! He is inexperienced!

Stop sharia law in Britain

China’s propaganda officials are experimenting with a revolutionary new policy to manage their message in the age of the internet: reporting the news as it happens. The move marks an important shift for the ruling Communist Party, which is accustomed to deciding what will be reported and when.

However, far from being a move towards freedom of the press, the aim is to maintain control of the information available to China’s 1.3 billion people. The order came straight from the desk of China’s propaganda chief, Li Changchun, one of the nine members of the all-powerful Politburo standing committee who, faced with a bewildering array of media now available to the public, is finding it increasingly difficult to keep control of information.

“Let us use the method of providing news as the way to control news,” a well-placed source quoted Mr Li as saying in his recently issued directive. The new approach is aimed at ensuring that ultimate control of at least the most sensitive information remains in party hands. The source told The Times: “The principle is to report an incident as soon as possible without the need to inform the leaders in advance.” Already this has streamlined official reporting of some events.

In the past, major news would be allowed into the public eye only after careful vetting by senior officials. The source said: “In the past, when something happened the usual practice was that a senior person would hold off and say he would report to the leadership. And once something was reported to the leadership then they would issue an order for a media blackout.” When a provincial television station reported the discovery of slave labour in brick kilns last year the main government television station was allowed to air the story, but was silenced after a few days.

Restrictions remain in place, with the goal of ensuring that sufficient information is released to satisfy a hungry public while holding back details that could prove incendiary in a country whose leaders are deeply fearful of public unrest.

The source said that the propaganda chief had indicated that the new approach to news would reduce wild gossip, particularly on the internet, where rumours and speculation are rife and wildly inaccurate reports gain credence in the absence of an official version, given the low credibility of state-run media. Mr Li’s directive is intended to keep the news in party hands by ensuring the news agenda is set by propaganda organisations rather than investigative reporters. LINK

A new president will soon begin to make critical decisions about Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic crisis at home, and countless other matters. While the Iraq war began, then boiled, and finally cooled before President-elect Obama will be sworn into office on January 20, 2009, the Afghanistan-Pakistan spectacle is just getting started. He was always a fierce opponent of our involvement in Iraq. And, as with so many Democrats in the Senate, he argued frequently, during the campaign, that we should have been focused on Afghanistan all along, because it is the real incubator of the international terrorist threat. Timing being everything, our new president will get his wish. Afghanistan now moves to center stage. The conflicts in Afghanistan and between Afghanistan and Pakistan have the simmering potential to overshadow anything we’ve seen in Iraq. Here are a few things I hope he understands:

Our enemies are winning. The enemies know it. We know it. Who are they? The Taliban, with its deep local roots, is enemy number one. Al-Qaeda is hanging around to make trouble. Some Paks, who don’t want to see a thriving Pushtun state on their border, are our enemies. They fund and shelter the Taliban even though we rely on them to help us defeat it. Nothing is straightforward in this part of the world. We have other enemies in Afghanistan who hate the Taliban.

Most of our allies are not very helpful. With the exception of the British, Canadians, Dutch, and a few others such as the Aussies, we are not fighting this with an “A-team” of international allies. With a few exceptions, our allies on the ground are comprised of several dozen countries that mostly refuse to fight. The bulk of NATO amounts to little more than a “Taliban piñata.” The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is proving nearly worthless and provides no credible threat to armed opposition groups (AOGs) in Afghanistan. Most of the NATO member countries seem to break out in a cold sweat at the mere mention of “Taliban.” They piled in when the war looked easy and largely humanitarian. But now that it’s getting harder and more dangerous, they would like to pile out. LINK

"Everybody's watching what's going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics , Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure.  Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a coporation deciding where to do business you're starting to think, "Beijing looks like a pretty good option."

I suppose so.  Provided you don't mind de minimus pollution controls, employing people under Chinese labor conditions, and you don't mind construction standards in the countryside that allow the collapse of thousands of buildings including schools when the earthquake hits, killing tens of thousands.

Obama has said a lot of stupid things recently, but the idea that totalitarian eye-candy engineering proves Beijing is the better than America is near the top of the list.

For more on Obama's very bad day, see ExUrbanLeague's diagram of the Battle of Elitisma.

UPDATE: From an e-mail:

hundreds of millions of chinese live in the countryside WITHOUT REGULAR
ACCESS TO UTILITIES, EDUCATION OR CLEAN WATER and modern farming
equipment....

about half of the Chinese hover right around malnutrition and no
education...

But Obama finds a way to condemn the U.S. by comparison. LINK 

Islamic sharia law courts in Britain are exploiting a little-known legal clause to make their verdicts officially binding under UK law in cases including divorce, financial disputes and even domestic violence.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1055764/Islamic-sharia-courts-Britain-legally-binding.html

This is what happens when you become a too liberal of a country. When you become too politically correct, you let Muslim's in, they start demanding things in the name of Sharia law and before you know it, they want laws changed to benefit them. People cry and whine because they think that Roe V Wade is going to be overturned and that it will infringe on a woman's right to choose. (IT'S NOT EVER GOING TO BE OVERTURNED!) What do you think is going to happen if it happens over here?

Women in Iran before we got rid of Saddam were nothing but chattel. They couldn't talk to a man that was not family without being beaten. Adultery? Stoned to death for women but the guy gets away. Rape gangs! Lord help us all. Saddam's sons were vicious animals that would stroll around the streets with their army and pick young girls and rape them. Then send them back home where they were dishonored or he killed them. The women used to have degrees, they were doctors, lawyers, scientists. Saddam came into power and stopped it all. He wanted them backwards so no one would rise up against him. Our troops liberated that country from that horror and what happens here? Our heroes get vilified by celebrities who call them murderers. Code Pink the commie fascist group of hippies call our brave Marines murderers. Obama says that our men go in the night murdering civilians. The list of salacious remarks just go on and on.

A clip from al-Qaeda's message

The second-in-command of Islamic militant network al-Qaeda has called on Muslims to harm "criminal" America. In a message purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda deputy accused US President-elect Barack Obama of betraying his Muslim roots.

He likened him to a "house slave" - who had chosen to align himself with the "enemies" of Islam.  Mr Obama has said stamping out al-Qaeda "once and for all" will be a top priority during his administration. On Sunday, he said capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden was "critical" to US security. He has also promised to bolster the US presence in Afghanistan - a policy that would fail, said the al-Qaeda deputy. The US said the message did not signal any increased threat against America.

This is undoubtedly a message aimed at sustaining anti-American sentiment among Muslims in the face of Barack Obama's election, says the BBC's defence correspondent Rob Watson. But it is a risky approach, our correspondent says. Barack Obama is hugely popular world-wide and his colour and background make him a much tougher target to attack than President George W Bush in the eyes of a global audience, he says.

'Trespassing crusader'

Zawahiri, an Egyptian by birth, is often referred to as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man and the chief ideologue of al-Qaeda. The audio message, which ran with photographic stills and some video footage, appeared on militant websites. Mr Obama's election did not mean that US policy towards the Muslim world had changed, Ayman al-Zawahiri said, according to the 11-minute message. He warned Mr Obama of failure if he followed the policies of the Bush administration. The change of leadership in the US did not mean that America should be perceived differently, he added. "America, the criminal, trespassing crusader, continues to be the same as ever, so we must continue to harm it in order for it to come to its senses," he said. Zawahiri also criticised Mr Obama - whose father is Muslim - for betraying the Islamic world.

"You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America," he said. Mr Obama was not an "honourable black American" like Malcolm X, he said, but an "abeed al-beit" - a word that translates as house slave but was rendered "house negro" in the message's English subtitles.

The audio was accompanied by footage of a speech by Malcolm X in which he distinguished between "field negroes" who hated their white masters and "house negroes" who, he said, were loyal to them. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack described the message as "more despicable comments from a terrorist". Mr Obama visited Israel in July and expressed his "abiding commitment" to its security. On Sunday, in his first television interview since his 4 November election win, he reiterated his commitment to shift more US troops to bolster the military presence in Afghanistan. The last message purporting to be from Zawahiri emerged on 8 September. He is thought to be in hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area.

WASHINGTON: In Al Qaeda's first response to the American election, Osama bin Laden's top deputy condemned President-elect Barack Obama as a "house Negro" who will continue a campaign against Islam begun by President George W. Bush. Appealing to the "weak and oppressed" around the world, Ayman al Zawahiri sought in a video to dampen enthusiasm for Obama's election around the globe by saying that the "new face" of America only masked a "heart full of hate."

American officials dismissed the new video as spin control and a desperate tactic by a terror group that suffered a defeat in the global war of ideas when the United States elected a black president with a Muslim name. The Al Qaeda leader described the victory by Obama, who has called for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, as the American people's "admission of defeat in Iraq." But he warned the president-elect that the United States risked a reprise of the Soviet Union's failures in Afghanistan if Obama followed through on pledges to deploy thousands more troops to the country.

And in a blunt personal attack on the new president, Zawahiri painted Obama as a hypocrite and traitor to his race, unfavorably comparing him to "honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s black Muslim leader. The Qaeda video drew extensively on archival footage of Malcolm X, and much of the message juxtaposes a still picture of Obama wearing a yarmulke during a visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem with a photo of Malcolm X kneeling in prayer at a mosque.

The video shows Malcolm X speaking about the docile "house Negro," who he said "always looked out for his master," and the "field Negro," who was abused by whites and was more rebellious. The video by Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician who has long been Al Qaeda's second-ranking operative, contains no specific warning of an attack against the United States. But the Qaeda leader tells his followers that America "continues to be the same as ever, so we must continue to harm it, in order for it to come to its senses."

The message on the video, bearing the logo of As Sahab, Al Qaeda's media arm, appears to be read by a younger man than Zawahiri. But American officials said they believed that the video was authentic.

Lawrence Wright, the author of a book on Al Qaeda, "The Looming Tower," called the tape an attempt by Al Qaeda at "spin control" as it struggles to assimilate an election that challenges its worldview. Wright said both radical and mainstream Muslim commentators had predicted that Senator John McCain would win the presidential election and that little would change. "I'm sure Al Qaeda has been struggling over how to react to the Obama election, and this is the result," he said.

Wright said that for more than a year, messages from Qaeda leaders had included positive messages about Malcolm X in what he described as "a desperate and ineffective strategy" to appeal to African-American Muslims.

Wright, who has long followed the Egyptian terrorist's career, said Qaeda leaders closely followed Western news and polling, and he said he believed they might be reacting to a Pew Research Center poll last year showing that African-American Muslims are the subset of American Muslims least hostile to Al Qaeda. The poll showed that 63 percent of foreign-born Muslims in this country had a "very unfavorable" view of Al Qaeda, compared with 36 percent of African-American Muslims.

The high quality of the English subtitles and the references to Malcolm X in the tape may reflect the influence of Adam Gadahn, an American-born Qaeda spokesman who has appeared in past productions as Sahab under the name "Azzam the American." Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, said he wondered whether Al Qaeda was responding to the aggressive tone of Obama's campaign pledges to go after Al Qaeda and kill bin Laden.

Walters said that if the tape was an attempt to reach black Americans or the Third World, it was "ham-handed" and futile. "You're talking about someone who looks like the rest of the world, and that's got to be threatening to them," he said. "On 9/11, Al Qaeda didn't make any racial distinctions in who it killed, and people remember that." LINK

WASHINGTON: President Nicolas Sarkozy of France left the summit meeting of 20 nations on the financial crisis last weekend in Washington declaring that it had changed the world. Then he went home and announced that he was holding another summit meeting in a few weeks on the same topic. Sarkozy did not tell President George W. Bush or other leaders about his plans while he was here, according to European and American officials.

A senior European diplomat said that he found the whole exercise "amazing," while an American official said "amazing" was a charitable description. French officials said the Paris meeting, which is scheduled for Jan. 8 and 9 is to be co-hosted by the former British prime minister Tony Blair, was merely a conference - one intended to bring together political leaders and prominent thinkers to discuss issues like globalization and the values of capitalism.

But the dispute epitomizes what has become an increasingly tense trans-Atlantic contest over summitry and the global economy. While much of this is posturing and preening by ambitious leaders, it also reflects an underlying debate about how to fix a fractured world economy. "Sarkozy claimed he put a bell on the American cat," said Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. "He said the U.S. had agreed to a whole range of negotiations. But he didn't come in and negotiate these things. Then he went home and claimed victory."

Sarkozy has made clear that he is determined to keep the initiative on what the French regard as a long-overdue discussion of American-style capitalism and its excesses. After the meeting concluded on Saturday, he was not shy about proclaiming that the era of American hegemony in world finance was over. "America is the No. 1 power in the world," he declared. "Is it the only power? No, it isn't. We are in a new world." On the other side is Bush, playing out his final weeks in power but unwilling to allow the Europeans, particularly the French, to dominate the debate over how to respond to the crisis. After the summit meeting, Bush made a point of stating that he did not think any one meeting was likely to change the fundamentals of the global economy. LINK

"We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us" in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, IAF commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday.

Nehushtan told the magazine that whether a military strike is eventually decided upon is a political question and not an issue of Israel's military capabilities.

A strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commander said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table… The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."

When asked by the paper whether the Israeli military was able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which are spread around the country and partly located underground, Nehushtan said, "Please understand that I do not want to get into details. I can only say this: It is not a technical or logistical question."  LINK

AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring of the internet under plans put forward by the Federal Government.

The revelations emerge as US tech giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and a coalition of human rights and other groups unveiled a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy. The government has declared it will not let internet users opt out of the proposed national internet filter. The plan was first created as a way to combat child pronography and adult content, but could be extended to include controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia. Communications minister Stephen Conroy revealed the mandatory censorship to the Senate estimates committee as the Global Network Initiative, bringing together leading companies, human rights organisations, academics and investors, committed the technology firms to "protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users".

Mr Conroy said trials were yet to be carried out, but "we are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material." The net nanny proposal was originally going to allow Australians who wanted uncensored access to the web the option of contacting their internet service provider to be excluded from the service. Human Rights Watch has condemned internet censorship, and argued to the US Senate "there is a real danger of a Virtual Curtain dividing the internet, much as the Iron Curtain did during the Cold War, because some governments fear the potential of the internet, (and) want to control it"

Groups including the System Administrators Guild of Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia have attacked the proposal, saying it would unfairly restrict Australians' access to the web, slow internet speeds and raise the price of internet access. EFA board member Colin Jacobs said it would have little effect on illegal internet content, including child pornography, as it would not cover file-sharing networks. "If the Government would actually come out and say we're only targeting child pornography it would be a different debate," he said.

The technology companies' move, which follows criticism that the companies were assisting censorship of the internet in nations such as China, requires them to narrowly interpret government requests for information or censorship and to fight to minimise cooperation. The initiative provides a systematic approach to "work together in resisting efforts by governments that seek to enlist companies in acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards", the participants said.

In a statement, Yahoo co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang welcomed the new code of conduct. "These principles provide a valuable roadmap for companies like Yahoo operating in markets where freedom of expression and privacy are unfairly restricted," he said. "Yahoo was founded on the belief that promoting access to information can enrich people's lives, and the principles we unveil today reflect our determination that our actions match our values around the world."  LINK