Archive for the ‘International’ Category
BBC had “massive bias to left”
by breitbart.com, 9/02/2010
The director general of the BBC admitted Thursday that his organisation had been guilty of a “massive bias to the left” but said “a completely different generation” of journalists now works at the broadcaster.
Mark Thompson told the right-of-centre Spectator magazine that there was an institutional bias when he joined the organisation, reinforcing the findings of a 2007 internal report which concluded that greater efforts were required to avoid liberal bias.
“In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people’s personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left,” Thompson said.
Read more at http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.91cc350cfed23f483b23ec44acc183c7.201&show_article=1
Shocked I tell you, I’m shocked.
Both Obama and Hamas give nod for Ground Zero mosque
Terror group’s leader: ‘Have to build it’
By S.A. MILLER in Washington and TOM TOPOUSIS in New York, NY Post, August 16, 2010
A leader of the Hamas terror group yesterday jumped into the emotional debate on the plan to construct a mosque near Ground Zero — insisting Muslims “have to build” it there.
“We have to build everywhere,” said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and the organization’s chief on the Gaza Strip.
“In every area we have, [as] Muslim[s], we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer,” he said on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on WABC.
Read more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hamas_nod_for_gz_mosque_cSohH9eha8sNZMTDz0VVPI
Obama’s Mosque Remarks Reverberate
By VICTORIA MCGRANE And SIOBHAN GORMAN, Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2010
President Barack Obama’s weekend remarks supporting the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero reverberated across the country, nationalizing a debate over the New York City project.
A number of Republicans on Sunday folded the president’s remarks into their election-year narrative that Mr. Obama, a former constitutional scholar, is out of touch with the American citizenry.
Read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382304575431862521820780.html
Watchdog panel cites global impact of US bailout
By Marcy Gordon, apnews.myway.com, 8/12/2010
WASHINGTON (AP) - The $700 billion U.S. bailout program launched in response to the global economic meltdown had a far greater impact overseas than other countries’ financial rescue plans did on the U.S., according to a new report from a congressional watchdog.
Billions of dollars in U.S. rescue funds wound up in big banks in France, Germany and other nations. That was probably inevitable because of the structure of the Treasury Department’s program, the Congressional Oversight Panel says in a new report issued Thursday.
The U.S. program aimed to stabilize the financial system by injecting money into as many banks as possible, including those with substantial operations overseas. Most other countries, by contrast, focused their efforts more narrowly on banks in their nations that usually lacked major U.S. operations.
But the report says that if the U.S. had gotten more data on which foreign banks would benefit the most, the government might have been able to ask those countries to share some of the cost.
“There were no data about where this money was going,” panel chair Elizabeth Warren said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “The American people have a right to know where the money went.”
Read more at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100812/D9HHSM180.html
Immigration Agents’ union disavows leaders of ICE, says US Immigration Agency favors amnesty
By Jerry Seper, The Washington Times, August 9, 2010
The union that represents rank-and-file field agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has unanimously passed a “vote of no confidence” for the agency’s leadership, saying ICE has “abandoned” its core mission of protecting the public to support a political agenda favoring amnesty.
The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 7,000 ICE agents and employees, voted 259-0 for a resolution saying there was “growing dissatisfaction and concern” over the leadership of Assistant Secretary John Morton, who heads ICE, and Phyllis Coven, assistant director for the agency’s office of detention policy and planning.
The resolution said ICE leadership had “abandoned the agency’s core mission of enforcing U.S. immigration laws and providing for public safety,” instead directing its attention “to campaigning for programs and policies related to amnesty and the creation of a special detention system for foreign nationals that exceeds the care and services provided to most U.S. citizens similarly incarcerated.
Read more at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/9/agents-union-disavows-leaders-of-ice/print/
U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers
Federally-backed program aims to help outsourcers in South Asia become more fluent in areas like Java programming—and the English language.
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, August 3, 2010
Despite President Obama’s pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $36 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia.
Following their training, the tech workers will be placed with outsourcing vendors in the region that provide offshore IT and business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent’s low labor costs.
Under director Rajiv Shah, the United States Agency for International Development will partner with private outsourcers in Sri Lanka to teach workers there advanced IT skills like Enterprise Java (Java EE) programming, as well as skills in business process outsourcing and call center support. USAID will also help the trainees brush up on their English language proficiency.
Read more at http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/integration/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226500202
UPDATE: InformationWeek has learned that USAID just launched a similar campaign in Armenia.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/disaster_recovery/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=226600094
This move by the Obama administration is truly making war on the American people.
Arizona Sheriff: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’
by Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer, CNS News, August 2, 2010
(CNSNews.com) – Pinal County (Ariz.) Sheriff Paul Babeu is hopping mad at the federal government.
Babeu told CNSNews.com that rather than help law enforcement in Arizona stop the hundreds of thousands of people who come into the United States illegally, the federal government is targeting the state and its law enforcement personnel.
“What’s very troubling is the fact that at a time when we in law enforcement and our state need help from the federal government, instead of sending help they put up billboard-size signs warning our citizens to stay out of the desert in my county because of dangerous drug and human smuggling and weapons and bandits and all these other things and then, behind that, they drag us into court with the ACLU,” Babeu said.
The sheriff was referring to the law suits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Department of Justice challenging the state’s new immigration law.
“So who has partnered with the ACLU?” Babeu said in a telephone interview with CNSNews.com. “It’s the president and (Attorney General) Eric Holder himself. And that’s simply outrageous.”
Last week, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton placed a temporary injunction on portions of the bill that allowed law enforcement personnel during the course of a criminal investigation who have probable cause to think an individual is in the country illegally to check immigration status. The state of Arizona filed an appeal on Thursday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Our own government has become our enemy and is taking us to court at a time when we need help,” Babeu said.
Read more at http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/70324
White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi
by Jason Allardyce and Tony Allen-Mills, The Australian July 26, 2010
THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be “far preferable” to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.
Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.
The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.
The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama’s claim last week that all Americans were “surprised, disappointed and angry” to learn of Megrahi’s release.
The Russian Agents, Obama, and the Cover-up
By Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy In Media, July 16, 2010
Fortunately, some people are paying critical attention to what has transpired.
Our media do not seem to be interested in the curious matter of why the Russian agents accused of trying to acquire sensitive nuclear information from the U.S. Government were so quickly released. Why were they were sent back to Moscow less than two weeks after they were arrested?
It is certainly the case that a continuing spy scandal threatened to undermine U.S.-Russia business “opportunities” and “cooperation.” It is also true that there is evidence that the Russian agents targeted the Obama Administration and former Clinton Administration officials.
Just before the scandal broke, a $4 billion deal had been announced between Boeing and a Russian firm. During the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the U.S., Cisco Systems had announced it was going to spend $1 billion in Russia, in part to develop a Moscow version of Silicon Valley. The United States Export-Import Bank had also announced a new deal to underwrite, with U.S. taxpayer dollars, U.S. business exports to Russia.
Plus, Obama had submitted a U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation agreement, backed by powerful business interests, to the U.S. Congress.
All of this was clearly in jeopardy if the Russian spy scandal led to additional revelations of Russian spying on the American government and businesses. So the scandal had to go away—and quickly.
The exchange was hammered out so quickly and was so advantageous to the Kremlin, however, that it should have become apparent to some journalist somewhere that there was much more to the story. But the issue was just as quickly dropped by the media, liberal and conservative alike.
Fortunately, some people are paying critical attention to what has transpired.
Read more at http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-russian-agents-obama-and-the-cover-up/
US Credit Rating Downgraded - by Chinese Credit Rating Agency
By Ian Cooper, wealthdaily.com, July 13th, 2010
After years of warnings — from our own “waste of time” credit raters —- the seemingly untouchable US AAA rating was just cut by China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating Company to AA. This, after repeated Geithner promises that the US would never lose its credit ratings, despite outrageous budget deficits and our raised $14 trillion debt ceiling.
It’s not as if US credit rating agencies have been credible these past few years. The China firm just did what Moody’s and S&P could never even dream about doing… unless orchestrated by the Fed. How these credit raters still have a job after the housing disaster is beyond me.
Read more at http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/us-credit-rating-downgraded/2594
The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the writer.
Organizations in Kenya recieved U.S. aid include labor unions, theatre groups
By Amanda Carey, The Daily Caller, 7/15/2010
A list of Kenyan organizations receiving U.S. government aid reveals interesting insights into the lobbying campaign for a new constitution in the East African nation. As The Daily Caller previously reported, U.S. federal funds have been used to essentially lobby for a new proposed Kenyan constitution that includes a provision legalizing abortion for the first time in the country’s history.
At the request of three Republican congressmen – Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida — the Office of Inspector General of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released a report detailing the Kenyan groups it supports.
Among them is the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance, which received $56,953.33 in funds from the U.S. government to contribute to the “overrepresentation of the YES voters at the next referendum.” The group organizes programs that “facilitate acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable the Muslim youth cope with demands of the changing world without compromising Islamic values.”
The Amani Peoples Theatre (APT) is a non-profit that employs volunteers in a similar manner to community organizers in America’s own urban districts. Focused on “peacebuilding,” APT volunteers facilitate activities such as training sessions for conflict resolution and art and drama therapy. Recently, however, it got $41,000 from the U.S. government to organize the registration of roughly 20,000 Kenyans to vote “yes” on the proposed new Kenyan constitution.
Read more at http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/15/organizations-in-kenya-recieved-u-s-aid-include-labor-unions-theatre-groups/
We’re spending what? Where? No wonder “We’re Broke”!
How Foreign Nations Now Pay For All Of America’s Defense And Education
Vincent Fernando, CFA, Business Insider, July 12, 2010
Hope they don’t cut the credit line.
Here’s an ugly dose of perspective. America is so dependent on foreign financing for its budget, that things like defense, homeland security, education, and unemployment benefits are pretty much funded by foreign nations such as China.
Why?
According to former Republican senator and committee co-chairman Alan Simpson, federal revenue is, already, completely chewed up by the three nasties: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. “The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans — the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries.”
Foreigner creditors truly hold America by the neck these days. They effectively finance everything beyond the three programs above.
Read more at http://www.businessinsider.com/us-debt-disaster-2010-7
Obama at odds with Petraeus doctrine on ‘Islam’
By Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times, Sunday, July 11, 2010
The White House’s official policy of banning the word “Islam” in describing America’s terrorist enemies is in direct conflict with the U.S. military’s war-fighting doctrine now guiding commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
John O. Brennan, President Obama’s chief national security adviser for counterterrorism, delivered a major policy address on defining the enemy. He laid out the White House policy of detaching any reference to Islam when referring to terrorists, be it al Qaeda, the Taliban or any other group.
But Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the man tapped by Mr. Obama as the new top commander in Afghanistan, led the production of an extensive counterinsurgency manual in December 2006 that does, in fact, tell commanders of a link between Islam and extremists.
The Petraeus doctrine refers to “Islamic insurgents,” “Islamic extremists” and “Islamic subversives.” It details ties between Muslim support groups and terrorists. His co-author was Gen. James F. Amos, whom Mr. Obama has picked as the next Marine Corps commandant and Joint Chiefs of Staff member.
Read more about http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/11/obama-at-odds-with-petraeus-doctrine-on-islam/
Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world
By: Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent, Washington Examiner, 7/05/2010
In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.
In the same interview, Bolden also said the United States, which first sent men to the moon in 1969, is no longer capable of reaching beyond low earth orbit without help from other nations.
Bolden made the statements during a recent trip to the Middle East. He told al-Jazeera that in the wake of the president’s speech in Cairo last year, the American space agency is now pursuing “a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.” Then:
When I became the NASA Administrator — before I became the NASA Administrator — [Obama] charged me with three things: One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.
Later in the interview, Bolden discussed NASA’s goal of greater international cooperation in space exploration. He said the United States, more than 40 years after the first moon mission, cannot reach beyond earth’s orbit today without assistance from abroad . . .
Terror — and candor in describing the Islamist ideology behind it
By Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, Friday, July 2, 2010
The Fort Hood shooter, the Christmas Day bomber, the Times Square attacker. On May 13, the following exchange occurred at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee:
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.): Do you feel that these individuals might have been incited to take the actions that they did because of radical Islam?
Attorney General Eric Holder: There are a variety of reasons why I think people have taken these actions. . . .
Smith: Okay, but radical Islam could have been one of the reasons?
Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people —
Smith: But was radical Islam one of them?
Holder: There are a variety of reasons why people do these things. Some of them are potentially religious-based.
Potentially, mind you. This went on until the questioner gave up in exasperation.
A similar question arose last week in U.S. District Court when Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attacker, pleaded guilty. Explained Shahzad:
“One has to understand where I’m coming from . . . I consider myself a mujahid, a Muslim soldier.”
Well, that is clarifying. As was the self-printed business card of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, identifying himself as SoA: Soldier of Allah.
Holder’s avoidance of the obvious continues the absurd and embarrassing refusal of the Obama administration to acknowledge who out there is trying to kill Americans and why. In fact, it has banned from its official vocabulary the terms jihadist, Islamist and Islamic terrorism.
Read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070104542.html
Obama: Being American is ‘not a matter of blood or birth’
NY Post, July 1, 2010
President Barack Obama said Thursday that being American “is not a matter of blood or birth,” but said that “no matter how decent” the 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. are, they should be held accountable for breaking the law.
Speaking at the American University School of International Service in Washington D.C., Obama expressed an understanding for why states would pass individual anti-illegal immigration laws, but said taking such action is “ill conceived.”
The president said laws, such as the one signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in April, are “divisive,” put pressure on local law enforcement, burden state and local budgets and could potentially violate the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents.
The Obama administration has come out against Arizona’s immigration law, which requires police officers to question a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally. The law takes effect July 29.
Read more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obama_being_american_is_not_matter_GNtpkvIMqG8AEztZLtl0aK
This explains a lot.
U.S. agency’s action may kill Bucyrus deal, cost 1,000 jobs
Export-Import Bank denies loan guarantees for coal project in India
By Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel, June 26, 2010
Up to 1,000 jobs at Bucyrus International Inc. and its suppliers could be in jeopardy as the result of a decision by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, funded by Congress, to deny several hundred million dollars in loan guarantees to a coal-fired power plant and mine in India.
About 300 of those jobs are at the Bucyrus plant in South Milwaukee, where the company has 1,410 employees and its headquarters. The remaining jobs are spread across 13 states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana.
On Thursday, the Export-Import Bank denied financing for Reliance Power Ltd., an Indian power plant company, effectively wiping out about $600 million in coal mining equipment sales for Bucyrus, chief executive Tim Sullivan said.
The fossil fuel project was the first to come before the government-run bank since it adopted a climate-change policy to settle a lawsuit and to meet Obama administration directives.
Read more at http://www.jsonline.com/business/97225544.html
Thanks Obama! First, V.P. Biden calls a business manager a “smart-ass” for asking a question, now this!
AZ Gov. Brewer to Obama: Warning Signs Are Not Enough
“Washington is broken, Mr. President, Do Your Job!”
youtube.com, 1:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzDlN7VLmXQ
Russia to drop capital gains tax to attract investment
BBC-UK, 6/18/2010
Russia will scrap capital gains tax on long-term direct investment from 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev has said.
Mr Medvedev said that in terms of improving Russia’s investment climate “we, I hope, are moving forward”.
He also said the number of “strategic” firms, in which foreign investment is restricted and which cannot be privatised, would fall from 280 to 41.
Mr Medvedev has been promoting the idea of “modernisation”, including diversifying the Russian economy.
Also, many investors have been wary of coming to Russia because of corruption and the dominant role the state plays in Russia’s business life.
Mr Medvedev told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that long-term direct investment was “necessary for modernisation”.
He also said that he would ask the government to create a special investment public-private fund.
“Such an idea should be implemented within a year,” he said.
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10349679.stm
Can pay, won’t pay
America’s most profligate states do not owe as much, proportionately, as Greece. But their politics are just as problematic
economist.com, 6/17/2010, Washington, D.C.
THE state of Illinois has a rather crude way of coping with its ballooning budget deficit. It stops paying bills. Already, it has failed to pay more than $5 billion-worth. State legislators are paying their own office rent to avoid eviction. Schools and public universities are having their budgets cut.
Illinois owes Shore Community Services, a non-profit agency in suburban Chicago, some $1.6m for services to the mentally disabled. The agency has had to lay off a dozen staff. Jerry Gulley, the executive director, says his outfit’s line of credit could be exhausted soon. The bank will not accept the state’s IOUs as collateral. “That’s how sad it is,” shrugs Mr Gulley.
Comparisons between incontinent American states and Greece are all the rage. Though this is an exaggeration, credit-default-swap spreads, which measure investors’ expectations of default, are wider for some American states than they are for some of the euro zone’s other peripheral economies (see chart).
There are other similarities. Like members of the euro zone, American states may not declare bankruptcy, cannot be sued by creditors and, thanks to America’s federal structure, cannot be forced to behave by a higher level of government. They also do not issue their own currency, so inflating away their debt is not an option. And, like many European governments, state legislatures and governors are reluctant to impose the necessary pain. The Illinois legislature recently passed a budget for the next fiscal year, starting on July 1st, which leaves a $13 billion deficit to be closed.
Read more at http://www.economist.com/node/16379740
Obama’s Speech Raises Question: Where Does He Get the Authority to ‘Inform’ a Private Company That It Must Surrender Its Money?
Commentary by Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief CNSNews.com, 6/15/2010
(CNSNews.com) - In his first-ever address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said he was going to “inform” the chairman of BP that he must surrender the company’s money to an independent party that will distribute it to people and businesses determined to have been harmed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The president’s declaration raises a serious constitutional question about his authority: Where does the president get the lawful power to order any private-sector company—BP or any other—that it must surrender its money? Should not courts and normal legal proceedings determine who is responsible, who has been harmed, and who owes what to whom in regards to the Gulf oil spill?
Leaving aside BP’s relative popularity or lack of it today, if President Obama, on his own initiative, can tell a corporation to surrender its money because he has determined its culpability in an oil spill, under what other circumstances can Obama or any future American president tell a corporation or a private citizen to surrender money?
Read more at http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/67814