Second update: Announcement of future5 power Iranian talks IN SOLANA'S PRESENCE as announced by his aide, Cristina Gallach.Update: Activity today, per Der Spiegel. Read all about it by clicking here.
Tomorrow is a big day for the European Union. Its 27 heads of state doing business as the Council of Ministers of the European Union are to meet. Javier Solana is the Secretary General of that body as well as his other positions (Secretary General of the Western European Union; Office of the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy CFSP), etc. They are meeting to elect a President for the EU and even more importantly the "High Representative." It is clear from reading both the newly ratified Lisbon Treaty as well as its predecessor failed Constitution that the Foreign Minister holds the major trump cards in the new new European Union government formation. You may read a side by side comparison by clicking here. I have been following Javier Solana's career with no small degree of fascination since November 22, 1995, the date I first became aware of his growing global influence. The enabling acts giving him power were interesting too. Section 666 of the Europa official documents and Recommendation 666 in his Western European Union. Note particularly numbered paragraphs 12, 15, and 18 of the latter.
He has indicated in a recent Interfax interview that even if he has a successor he intends to remain active in all his present endeavors. Far and away his most active endeavor has been the promotion of "global governance."
Tomorrow will be an interesting day to watch. And to give a double meaning, we should all "watch and be ready." The wise shall understand, to quote the Prophet Daniel.
Stay tuned.
Constance
My profound thanks to JD for calling this very important story to my attention! He gets full credit for this one.
ReplyDeleteConstance
Constamce,
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate the gratitude, my reason for posting this story was a follow up to a post made by Anon 5:20 in the last thread. I was simply following through on info that had been presented. If that poster is around, I would like to see the source which they were looking at.
Continental Congress 2009
ReplyDeleteStreaming Live
The People Draw the Line in the Sand for America
Beyond Elections.
Beyond Petitions.
Beyond Tea Parties.
ST. CHARLES, IL - The first time free people assembled as a Congress of the People for such a critical point in the nation's history was in 1774 in Philadelphia. Over 230 years later 116 Delegates from 48 states have convened a modern day Continental Congress to exercise popular sovereignty and restore self-governance to the people of America.
The twelve day Congress is being broadcast live via streaming webcast at:
www.cc2009us.com, www.givemeliberty.org/cc2009, www.freedom.tv/live
from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CDT through Saturday Nov 21st.
http://www.cc2009.us/
Does anyone have any background on this? I just found this and am trying to play catch up to see where this group is coming from.
Here is a video I pulled from the Alliance of Civilizations site. It features Obama, Tutu, and many others proclaiming the AoC as the way forward.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/yd6mtg9
UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution on Alliance of Civilizations
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, November 10th, the UN General Assembly adopted by acclamation a resolution on the Alliance of Civilizations.
Co-sponsored by 96 member states, the Resolution highlights the work of the Alliance in the areas of youth, education, media and migration as well as its role in promoting greater understanding and respect among civilizations, cultures and religions. It draws attention to the successful Forums of the Alliance held in Madrid and Istanbul and to the growing network of support of the Alliance, including the Group of Friends community of over 100 countries and international organizations. The full text of the Resolution is available here.
http://tinyurl.com/yc6u8b8
I was linked to this via the UN website. It's called the Internet Governance Forum.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.intgovforum.org/cms/
Ok, so as I am browsing the UN web page, it comes as no suprise to me that climate change and the Copenhagen Summit are reappearing themes. What is interesting is, I keep coming across a reoccuring theme, womens reproductive education. Every single article I have come across heavily stresses this theme, and some come just short of stating they want to teach women in underdeveloped countries that they have a right to abortions. While this is never actually stated the theme and wording in some of these articles seem to imply such a desire. Maybe its just me, maybe I am reading too much into these statements. You guys may want to read through the link here, and tell me, is it just me?
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/yc77gs5
JD, if you poke around a bit you'll find that the group is associated with We The People and are hard core tax protesters. One of the men associated with the Congress is Jim Condit. Condit first came to my attention when he attempted to infiltrate the pro-life movement and was found out to be a hard core antisemite. His thing is to try to take over the government through precinct committeemen. There are a number of groups who are attempting to take advantage of the unhappiness of the general public.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.givemeliberty.org/
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/UPDATE/Update2009-11-12.htm
http://tinyurl.com/yb7zofw
Dorothy
Despite continuous exposure, some will just not go away. I decided to give the AoC global expert finder a whirl, just to see what names would pop up in geographical searches. When searching western europe, it came as little suprise to find Karen Armstrong listed.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/ycuw3eg
Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteThanks, given that most involved are career politicians, I immediately doubted the sincerity of the groups cause. Not to say that I am against returning this country to the constitutional priciples on which it was founded, just that I highly doubt anyone who claims to want to do such, all while cashing checks from lobbyists or special interest groups. Which pretty much puts any career politician on my list.
JD,
ReplyDeleteRe:While this is never actually stated the theme and wording in some of these articles seem to imply such a desire. Maybe its just me, maybe I am reading too much into these statements....
You are spot on in the way you are reading these statements!!!
Check out the following.
Contraceptive$ can reduce impact of climate change $ay$ Lancet???
The Lancet medical journal also critici$ed non-government organisations (NGOs) for ”working in silos” and avoiding the varied approach needed to change social attitudes.
A $tudy soon to be published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that 37 of the least developed countries appreciated the link between population growth and climate change. However, only six of them identified family planning as part of their adaptation strategy.
Earlier this month, research by the London $chool of Economics said contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies.
Telegraph Media Group Limited – 18 Sep 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
health/healthnews/6203364/Contraceptives-can-reduce-
impact-of-climate-change-says-Lancet.html
Thanks to the global expert finder, here is another group to watch. I don't remember this group being mentioned here, it is called Soliya. Their page reads as follows:
ReplyDeleteWe are proud to announce that – as of October 1, 2009 – Soliya has merged with the UN–established Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund. Our mission remains the same but our resources, networks, and capacity to achieve it have received a major boost. Added to our years of on-the-ground experience using new media technologies to foster cross-cultural understanding and the thousands of young alumni and volunteers who give life to our programs in 25 countries, we now have:
•A partnership with the United Nations,
•Augmented leadership reflected both on our Board and our Executive Team,
•A unique research-and-evaluation partnership with the Saxe Neuroscience Lab at MIT; and
•An ambitious plan to leverage our increased capacity to expand our university-based Connect Program and to launch a new and dynamic on-line network.
Soliya is proud to be a lead implementing partner of the United Nations: Alliance of Civilizations.
With the merger of Soliya and the Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund in October 2009, Soliya has established a partnership with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. The UNAOC is a project of the UN Secretary-General the goal of which is “to reduce tensions across cultural divides that threaten to inflame existing political conflicts or trigger new ones.”
Soliya will support the UNAOC’s efforts to engage young people in this effort – specifically by enabling and supporting them to use media and communications technologies to foster greater cross-cultural understanding within and between their societies.
For its part, the UN AOC has committed to:
•Supporting Soliya’s outreach to broader and more diverse youth populations globally,
•Facilitating Soliya’s access to other UN agencies that could support or help expand the impact of Soliya’s programs, and
•Extending the outreach of Soliya’s work by sharing our news and developments with the UN AOC’s vast global network of Governments, civil society organizations, donors, and activists committed to improving cross-cultural understanding, peace, and security.
http://soliya.net/?q=home
Still pouring through the expert finder, I am sure this group has been covered but thought some (like myself) may have missed it.
ReplyDeleteDr. Eboo Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit working to build mutual respect and pluralism among religiously diverse young people by empowering them to work together to serve others
http://tinyurl.com/yzu5w7f
JD,
ReplyDeleteAs you probably know, Karen Armstrong is an apostate Catholic as well as a former Catholic nun who has been quoted as saying that the afterlife is a "red herring" and now calls herself a "freelance monotheist."
Go figure.
http://www.salon.com/books/
int/2006/05/30/armstrong/
Here's another,
ReplyDeleteConnecting the Human Family Step by Step
The Abraham Path (Masar Ibrahim al Khalil) is a route of cultural tourism which follows the footsteps of Abraham / Ibrahim through the Middle East. The story of Abraham / Ibrahim's journey, which has been kept alive for some four thousand years in the landscape and memory of this region, records the origin of a spiritual tradition shared by more than three billion people in the world today.
By retracing this journey, the Abraham Path provides a place of meeting and connection for people of all faiths and cultures, inviting us to remember our common origins, to respect our cultural differences, and to recognize our shared humanity. The path also serves as a catalyst for sustainable tourism and economic development; a platform for the energy and idealism of young people; and a focus for positive media highlighting the rich culture and hospitable people of the Middle East.
http://www.abrahampath.org/about.php
Susanna,
ReplyDeleteI am far too familiar with Armstrong. Hence why I decided to post what may have been meaningless to some, however to those familiar with her, it was relative. Thanks for the link, as always you are on top of it!
List of Abraham Path partners:
ReplyDelete•Alliance of Civilizations – United Nations
•Association of Global New Thought
•Ben-Gurion University
•Bethlehem University
•ECODIT
•Engineers Without Borders International
•Harvard Arab Alumni Association
•Harvard Negotiation Project /Global Negotiation Initiative
•Ideal for Developing Cultural Tourism Routes in Jordan
•Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance
•Leeds Metropolitan University
•Middle East Initiative, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
•Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding
•Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University
•Purdue University
•Sabancı University
•United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
Letter of Support from Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the UNWTO
•World Heritage Alliance / United Nations Foundation
And the hits keep coming:
ReplyDeleteThe Appeal of Concience Foundation
The Appeal of Conscience Foundation (ACF), founded by Rabbi Arthur Schneier in 1965, has worked on behalf of religious freedom and human rights throughout the world. This interfaith coalition of business, religious and foreign policy leaders promotes peace, tolerance and ethnic conflict resolution. It also provides a voice of conscience to protect minorities at a time of increasing ethnic conflict in many regions of the world.
As a member of the United Nation's "Alliance of Civilizations" High Level Group, Rabbi Arthur Schneier has extended the ACF's work and reputation through his own participation, forging ties with political and religious leaders from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America - in conferences in Spain, Qatar, Senegal, and Turkey.
To uphold the principle of "live and let live" is the ACF's continuing goal. The ACF believes that freedom, democracy and human rights are the fundamental values that give nations of the world their best hope for peace, security and shared prosperity.
One of the primary ways in which the ACF carries out its mission, and disseminates its message of peaceful coexistence and religious freedom, is by bringing delegations of religious, business and government leaders from all over the world to meet with their counterparts in the United States. ACF delegations have met with government and religious leaders in Albania, Argentina, Bulgaria, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Germany, The Holy See, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Panama, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the former Yugoslavia. The ACF also hosts delegations from abroad to acquaint them with the diversity of American religious life and its contribution to a civil society.
The ACF has long held that "a crime committed in the name of religion is the greatest crime against religion". The struggle for human rights is ongoing and tolerance can be achieved by encouraging open dialogue and mutual understanding. The ACF is dedicated in reaching this endeavor by rallying religious leaders worldwide to take a stand, using their influence to halt violence and terrorism.
http://www.appealofconscience.org/
This thing is a gold mine! Sorry if I post a group that someone else has already covered.
ReplyDeleteAbout SFCG
Founded in 1982, Search for Common Ground works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. We work with local partners to find culturally appropriate means to strengthen societies' capacity to deal with conflicts constructively: to understand the differences and act on the commonalities
http://www.sfcg.org
This site has articles from some familiar names including Louise Diamond.
John Marks is the president and founder of Search for Common Ground, a non-profit conflict resolution NGO with offices in 18 countries. He also founded and heads Common Ground Productions.
ReplyDeleteMr. Marks wrote and produced The Shape of the Future, a four-part TV documentary series that was simulcast on Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab satellite TV, and executive produced the Nashe Maalo TV series (Macedonia); Africa: Search for Common Ground (South Africa); The Station dramatic series (Nigeria and Egypt); and numerous other TV and radio programs. Mr. Marks is also a bestselling, award-winning author.
Mr. Marks is a former US Foreign Service Officer and Executive Assistant to the late US Senator Clifford Case. He graduated from Cornell University and has been a Fellow of Harvard University's Institute of Politics, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, and an Associate of Harvard's Department of Psychology and Social. In 2006, he was named a Skoll Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship.
http://tinyurl.com/ykydm6d
All,
ReplyDeleteThere are way too many organizations for me to cover. For those interested though it looks like the UN did something they didn't expect when they created this expert finder, they created an up to date data base of the movers and shakers.
From The Orange County Register
ReplyDelete(11/15/09)
Teens help SWAT team practice
As part of a training exercise for SWAT personnel, about 70 students, including volunteers from El Dorado and Yorba Linda high schools, joined police officers from the North County SWAT Team at Yorba Linda High School Sunday.
Police posted signs in the immediate area notifying the public of the training exercise. They advised nearby residents they would be firing blanks from their weapons, which simulated the sounds of gunfire and noise-flash devices.
The North County SWAT team is comprised of about 50 officers from the Brea, La Habra, Placentia, Fullerton, La Palma and Cal State Fullerton police departments.
To keep the exercise realistic, SWAT officers were given little information about the staged scenario, which was a hostage situation involving shootings, ahead of time. The SWAT team had no idea what they are walking into nor how many casualties to expect in the training exercise.
The Association for Global New Thought
ReplyDeletePlanetary healing through self-realization and spiritually-motivated activism is the new promise of these teachings.
Once called the "religion of healthy-mindedness" by the philosopher, William James, the New Thought movement was born almost 150 years ago as a revolt against the negative dogmas so prevalent in the churches of that day. The early New Thought movement was driven by the discovery that physical healing was possible through the power of mind and spiritual awareness. As that initial idea unfolded into successful application, practitioners of New Thought began to see that the power of an uplifted consciousness could also bring healing to negative circumstances and conditions in one's personal life. As it evolves today, twenty-first century New Thought is driven by a far broader intention. Planetary healing through self-realization is emerging as the new promise of these teachings.
Out of a deep conviction and pure passion to give our movement a clear voice and commanding presence on the global stage, the Association for Global New Thought - AGNT - has been born. We invite you to learn more about this movement and its global initiatives for peace, justice and healing, and in the process discover your own spiritual calling. Welcome!
http://www.agnt.org/
Association of World Citizens
ReplyDeleteJoin in the worldwide movement to create a Global Community for the 21st century that is free from war and weapons of mass destruction; where disputes between nations and peoples are settled through the framework of world law, and where policy and resources are directed to human needs and securing a healthy and sustainable environment for present and future generations
The Association of World Citizens (AWC) is an international peace organization with World Citizen Centers established in 50 countries. NGO status with the UN, including consultative status with ECOSOC
http://www.worldcitizens.org/
This group has been covered before, however given that this is the group that has picked up where Planetary Citizens left off (by their own admission), I thought I would include them.
Susanna,
ReplyDeleteThanks again, I knew the terminology being used was leaning that way when they were refering to reproductive education. It's still nice to have an extra set of eyes affirm my suspicion over what I was reading.
All,
ReplyDeleteSorry for blowing up this thread with off topic info. I got on a roll and apparently couldn't stop! lol
Since the E.U President was supposed to be chosen last night, I thought I would have a look round to see if the news was out.
ReplyDeleteThere is still nothing apart from most news sources saying that Van Rompuy was the front runner.
One article stated that it was expected that the presidency would go to someone who is centre right and the foriegn policy job to someone centre left and that this job would possible have more power out of the two.
Van Rompuy might be the obvious candidate because he is unassuming, pliable in other words.
After all isnt this job a puppet position so that the real powers behind the presidency can work unfettered?
God bless
Pete
From Politico (11/18/09)
ReplyDeleteSenate bill weighs in at 2,074 pages
In the Battle of the Health Bills, the Senate wins out, bulk-wise – weighing in at 2,074 pages.
The House health reform bill was a mere 1,990 pages when introduced.
That means the Senate bill -- like the one in the House -- runs more pages than War and Peace, and has nearly five times as many words as the Torah.
The table of contents alone is 14 pages.
“Read the bill!” was a rallying cry of some health reform opponents over the summer. And if Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) gets his way, senators will get a chance to hear every word of it. He’s threatening to the read the legislation from start to finish, which by some estimates could take as long as 48 hours.
Don't know what is happening with EU FM negotiations today. We are all on pins and needles waiting. Massimo D'Alema is still being mentioned as a successfor Solana (if he is to have a successor, that is ). He is controversial to the USA and D'Alema was a Communist (as was Solana). Interestingly, D'Alema is very pleasing to Israel:
ReplyDelete"While Italian Foreign Minister in the 2006-2008 Romano Prodi center-left government, Massimo D'Alema took a very pro-active diplomatic stance during the 2006 Lebanon War. Italy led negotiations with the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and was proposed by Israel to head the multinational peacekeeping mission Unifil, although the dangers of the mission for Italian troops sparked warnings from the center-right opposition that it could prove a "kamikaze" mission, with the peacekeepers sandwiched between Israel and the well-armed Hezbollah[2]. D’Alema pledged Italy’s willingness to enforce the United Nations resolution on Lebanon and urged other European Union member states to do the same because the stability of the Middle East should be a chief concern for Europeans.[3]"
Quoting from Wikipedia article on Massimo D'Alema.
Constance
Please refresh your browser for updated editions and pictures on front page.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Constance
P.S. I just finished a 1 hour radio program with Dr. Monteith. I will do my own radio program from 8 to 9 tonight. From 11 to midnight Eastern Time I am again on a live radio program with Dr. Stanley Monteith. Lots of air time today, very little rest time! Pray for my stamina and that God be with my mouth through all of this.
Consta
SYRIA SUSPECTED OF CONCEALING NUCLEAR ACTIVITY
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wtop.com/?nid=778&sid=1816869
This is a tad unnerving given the 2008 reports about the weapons deal between Russia and Syria.
RUSSIA SYRIA WEAPONS DEAL ALARMS US
August 22, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news
/worldnews/europe/russia/
2604284/Russia-Syria-weapons
-deal-alarms-US.html
_________________________________
It was just this past September that President Obama announced the cancellation of the long range missile defense system which was to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic.
THE APPALLING TIMING OF OBAMA'S MISSILE DEFENSE DECISION
On the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland? Our staunch allies in Central and Eastern Europe have every right to feel disappointed.
September 20, 2009 - by Arthur Chrenkoff
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/
the-appalling-timing-of-
obmas-missile-defense-decision/
__________________________
Cont........
Our Texas governor's race is really starting to heat up . . .
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, November 17th, Dick Cheney officially endorsed Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is challenging two-term incumbent Rick Perry in next year's Republican Party primary.
However, it should also be noted that Kay is one of the few Americans on the steering committee for the Bilderberg Group.
So far, Rick is ahead of Kay in the polls.
cont.....
ReplyDeleteCALLING THINGS BY THEIR RIGHT NAMES
By Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Foundation for Constitutional Democracy
November 8, 2009
If you call a rat-infested slum as evil, you have a moral obligation to eliminate that evil—if not now, then when you are capable of doing so. Thus, when President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” he was obliged to take steps designed to eliminate that evil, and so he did.
First of all, calling the USSR an evil empire, Reagan punctured the bubble of conceit of Communism. By so doing he magnified the influence of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. He boldly jettisoned the relativism in the West that obscured the “evil empire.” He debunked the pretentions of Soviet Communism and put Kremlin leaders on the ideological defensive.
Reagan must also be credited for the Strategic Defense Initiative inaugurated in 1983—a multi-billion dollar project designed to protect the USA from a full nuclear missile attack by the Soviet Union. SDI (or the “star wars” program) was designed to end reliance on the offense-dominated deterrence strategy called “Mutually Assured Destruction,” the policy of détente and its balance of terror. Given SDI, enemy missiles would be attacked at several different stages of their trajectory, using advanced laser and particle-beam technology, thus increasing the chances of disabling them. Reagan despised détente and deemed it appeasement.
With America geared to SDI, the Soviet Union lacked the wherewithal to compete with the USA in this highly expensive project. Without ignoring the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan, it’s hardly an exaggeration to say that SDI pretty much signaled the beginning of the end of the “cold war” and the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union, which had wasted more than $100 billion in the previous decade in the so-called arms race.
Now the United States is faced by another “evil empire,” the Islamic empire, whose epicenter is Iran, with proxies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, real or potential allies in Syria, Turkey, and South America as well as sleeper cells in the United States. Nevertheless, the US, under Barack Obama, has reduced its military expenditures, has reneged on providing a “defensive shield” for Poland and the Czech Republic, and, most egregious, has betrayed the democracy movement in Iran by appeasing its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had sent tens of thousands of Iranian children to their death by having them walk across minefields in the Iranian-Iraqi war.
Ahmadinejad’s mass slaughter of children is a manifestation of the neo-paganism underlying the religion that induces Muslims to scream “Allahu Akbar.” Syrian-born Wafa Sultan calls the deity of this religion a “god of death,” but this Jihadic religion has yet to be called by its right name by the effete and overly civilized leaders of the democratic world.
cont....
cont.....
ReplyDeleteHere I am tempted to note the moral inversion of those nations that voted for the UN Human Rights Council report condemning Israel in its war of self-defense against the evil Hamas regime in Gaza. So many nations that call evil good, and good evil! They are digging their own graves...read entire article....
http://www.jewishindy.com/modules
.php?name=News&file=article
&sid=10904
_________________________________
Isn't this EU Human Rights Council that self-righteously inveighed against Isrel's war of self-defense the same EU Human Rights Council that just banned crucifixes in the public schools in Italy?????
Let's get one thing clear on the "evil empire" of our time which includes - but does not consist exclusively of - radical Jihadists.
While not all Muslims are radical Jihadists, all radical Jihadists are Muslims!
Many of them are also socialists - like those radical Jihadists who are also Syrian Ba'athists (a.k.a. Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party).
THE SYRIAN IRAQI BA'ATH PARTY AND ITS NAZI BEGINNINGS
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/baath.html
Originally anti-Communist, the Ba'athist Party eventually allied itself with the Communist Party.
The Baath would not remain in power long. In November of 1963, there was an army counter-coup. But the humiliation of the Arab leaderships in the Seven Day War with Israel in 1967 finally gave the Baathists their moment, and the movement definitively seized power in 1968. The Syrian Baath had already grabbed power in 1963.
Once in power, the nature of Baathism changed. Both in Syria and Iraq, economic and military necessity required an alliance with the Soviet Union, eroding the old anti-communism. The attractions of power resulted in personal corruption.
The late President Hafez al-Assad of Syria was listed by Forbes Magazine as the eighth-richest person in the world, worth $2.3 billion - an impressive accomplishment in a state where the economy is nationalised.
The biggest change was the transformation of the party into the machinery of government. As in the old Soviet Union with the Bolshevik Party, the lines between party, state and military became totally blurred and internal democracy was eroded. That paved the way for dictatorship and the cult of personality in the shape of Saddam Hussein.
Saddam added a twist not seen in Syria, and much against the original spirit of Baathism. Religious sentiment is taking over from the secularism that once defined Iraqi Baathism. Saddam's government has increasingly turned to Islam in its desperate search for legitimacy, playing down the Arab nationalism that once served as its ideology.
What of the Baath Party in other Arab countries? National rivalries mean pan-Arabism is dead and the supra-national Baath Party structure is now an obsolete shell. The Baathists in Palestine and Jordan have been liquidated. In Syria, power is now in the hands of Hafez al-Assad's son, who - despite his anti-Western rhetoric - has purged the old party hierarchy and is quietly moving Syria towards a market economy....read more...
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~
jkatz/baath.html
"....moving Syria towards a market economy......??????
Similar to the way in which the former Soviet Union moved towards a "market economy"?????
As in "free" black markets and other similar "entrepreneurial" schemes like the oil for food scam??????
Please.....
WSJ article disclosing a House Panel Approves Curbs on 'Too Big' Firms
ReplyDeleteBy MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN
WASHINGTON -- A key House panel voted Wednesday to give government the power to break up large financial firms whose collapse might threaten the broader economy, despite aggressive lobbying by major financial institutions to kill the measure.
The amendment illustrates how some lawmakers are willing to go beyond the authority sought by the White House -- which stopped short of giving regulators power to break up healthy firms -- in the redrawing of the financial world's regulatory framework.
A divided House Financial Services Committee voted 38-29 to approve an amendment offered by Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D, Penn.) that would allow a council of regulators to determine whether factors including the size or interconnectedness of an individual firm pose "a grave threat to the United States." Such a firm could be prohibited from merging with another firm or be required to sell business units or assets.
The measure still must be approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate before it could be sent to the White House for approval.
Democrats mostly supported the measure, though a few voted with Republicans against it. Republicans who opposed the proposal said it would give the government nearly unchecked powers to demand changes at otherwise healthy companies.
"This puts the 'D' in draconian," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas). Mr. Kanjorski said the position was a difficult one for him to take, but that "no firm should be considered to be 'too big to fail.' "
The amendment is part of a broader legislative overhaul of financial-sector rules pending in Congress. If enacted, the government would have the authority to act aggressively to deal with a systemically risky failure before problems become too unwieldy.
The amendment gives the government the ability to "preemptively disassemble a business, not because it's systemically injurious to the economy, but because it could be," said Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J.), who opposed the amendment.
Backers say it is needed to prevent the government from having to decide whether to bail out a faltering company, such as American International Group Inc., or let it descend into an uncontrolled bankruptcy, such was the case with Lehman Bros.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125858925917154669.html#mod=todays_us_page_one
ReplyDeleteForgot the source....
Lead Story
ReplyDeleteCulture of corruption: Holder, terrorists, Covington & Burling
By Michelle Malkin •
November 18, 2009 02:00 PM Update: 11/19 9am…
Holder hedges on GOP request for disclosure/recusal information…
If you’ve been paying attention, you already know all about AG Eric Holder and his DOJ staff’s national security conflict of interest as senior partner with Covington & Burling — the prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, which represents 17 Yemenis currently held at Gitmo.
I first mentioned it here in January and spotlighted the problem in chapter 4 of Culture of Corruption.
In fact, Holder and Covington & Burling have a lucrative niche in terrorist representation..read more....
http://michellemalkin.com/
http://euobserver.com/9/29024
ReplyDeleteEUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders have chosen Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to be the first president of the European Council, while UK trade commissioner Catherine Ashton will become the bloc's foreign policy chief.
Mr Van-Rompuy, from the centre-right political family, is a trained economist and has been running Belgium for less than a year. He writes Haiku (Japanese verse) and is known for his low-key style, which includes a line in self-deprecatory humour and caravan holidays.
http://euobserver.com/9/29024
ReplyDeleteEUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders have chosen Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to be the first president of the European Council, while UK trade commissioner Catherine Ashton will become the bloc's foreign policy chief.
Mr Van-Rompuy, from the centre-right political family, is a trained economist and has been running Belgium for less than a year. He writes Haiku (Japanese verse) and is known for his low-key style, which includes a line in self-deprecatory humour and caravan holidays.
Heads up, guys,
ReplyDeleteEU PRESIDENT: TONY BLAIR OUT OF RUNNING (Gordon Brown throws him under the bus)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news
/worldnews/europe/eu/6608375/
EU-president-Tony-Blair-out-
of-the-running.html
Brown is backing Catherine Ashton.
HERMAN VAN ROMPUY, THE CURRENT PRIME MINISTER OF BELGIUM IS SLATED TO BECOME THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION!
BELGIAN AND BRIT TO GET TOP EU JOBS
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/
artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&
format=1&artikel=3250964
HERMAN VAN ROMPUY, FRONT RUNNER FOR PRESIDENCY WANTS EU-WIDE TAX
The man tipped to be Europe’s first president is already considering new EU taxes to fund the rising cost of Brussels and the welfare state.
Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, broke his silence before Thursday’s summit to choose the president — but only at a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen.
Mr Van Rompuy’s contentious remarks were aired privately amid the grand surroundings of the Castle of the Valley of the Duchess near Brussels. The château hosted the talks on the Treaty of Rome in 1957 that launched the European Union.
His office released parts of his speech in which he talked of funding social welfare from new green taxes and went on to discuss “financing levies at European level”, which his spokesman said later was similar to Gordon Brown’s call for an international tax on financial transactions.
The funding of the EU was discussed further after his speech, according to Flemish newspapers, but his office refused to give more details. Mr Van Rompuy remains the favourite for the position of president of the European Council — other contenders include Tony Blair — to be chosen when the 27 EU leaders meet in Brussels in two days’ time.
Mr Van Rompuy’s Bilderberg intervention will alarm non-federalist countries such as Britain and Denmark, which have long opposed giving the EU tax-raising powers and breaking the link with national funding.
Newer member states, already angry at the opaque process of choosing a president, are unlikely to be impressed at the secretive forum used by Mr Van Rompuy to talk about his European vision.
“The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources,” Mr Van Rompuy told European and American guests, who included Henry Kissinger. The former US Secretary of State is cited as the inspiration for an EU president following his reported remark: “Who do I call when I want to call Europe?”
Mr Van Rompuy added: “The green fiscal instrument is one possibility although an ambiguous one: this type of regulatory tax should eventually become redundant. But the possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed and for the first time ever, the big countries in the Union are open to this.”
EU federalists were delighted to hear Mr Van Rompuy talk of European taxes..read more...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/world/europe/article6919380.ece
The Copenhagen Treaty would be the "green fiscal instrument" that would allow these clowns in Europe to levee taxes on American citizens!
By the way, just for the record, the description of Herman Van Rompuy as a "devout Roman Catholic" does not necessarily hold any water with me.
People like Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sibelius and other American politicians have also been described as "devout Roman Catholics" at one time or another, but if they are or ever were "Catholics," it was a "Catholicism" of their own devising, and not what I know to be the real deal.
HERMAN VAN ROMPUY AND BARONESS ASHTON LAND TOP EU JOBS
ReplyDeleteHerman Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton have been named the European Union's new president and foreign minister.
By James Kirkup and Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Published: 8:01PM GMT 19 Nov 2009
The little-known Belgian federalist and the Labour peer who has never held elected office were selected at a meeting in Brussels.
EU leaders chose the Belgian prime minister as the first President of the European Council. Britain's European Trade Commissioner was made the High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
The surprise combination emerged after Gordon Brown ended Tony Blair's hopes of becoming president, abandoning his support for his successor and proposing Baroness Ashton for the foreign job instead.
The Prime Minister's switch surprised European leaders, not least because of Baroness Ashton's lack of diplomatic experience.
A former health authority chairwoman made a peer in 1999, she held a string of low-key ministerial posts until last year when she was sent to Brussels as an interim replacement for Lord Mandelson on his return to the Cabinet.
Mr Van Rompuy is a poetry-writing economist almost entirely unknown outside Belgium until he emerged as EU leaders' choice for a president who could not possibly overshadow national leaders.
A staunch advocate of European integration, he has backed policies including a European-wide tax on all financial transactions to fund EU work.
The choice of two low-key candidates for the new posts reflected European leaders' reluctance to transfer too much power to Brussels-based officials. Originally, the two jobs created by the Lisbon Treaty were intended to give the EU strong and unified voice in global affairs.
But Baroness Ashton's lack of experience on the diplomatic stage was criticised last night. "She would be a first rate disaster," said Peter Ludlow, of the European Strategy Forum, a Brussels think-tank.
Andrew Duff, a Liberal Democrat MEP, described the peer as "reassuringly dull."
French diplomatic sources questioned Britain's seriousness over proposing Baroness Ashton for Europe's most senior foreign affairs post...read more...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
worldnews/europe/eu/6609229/
Herman-Van-Rompuy-and-
Baroness-Ashton-land-top-EU-jobs.html
"...this is the moment in the current crisis when the hero of the hour needs to appear."
ReplyDeleteClosing remarks from a speech by Catherine Ashton, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Washington DC, 18th March 2009
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/ashton/speeches_articles/spca008_en.htm
Sorry Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we were posting at about the same time because I didn't see your post on Van Rompuy when I hit the "publish" button beneath the comment box.
More on Herman Van Rompuy:
ReplyDeleteA year ago, Mr Van Rompuy was drifting towards retirement before he was plucked from obscurity by King Albert II in one the periodic crises that threatened to split the country's Flemish and French-speaking communities apart.
Even then as opportunity knocked, he was reluctant to step into the limelight as national premier and it took Belgium's monarch 90 minutes to persuade him.
Mr Van Rompuy remained almost completely unknown outside Belgium's frontiers until he was anointed as a candidate for President of the Council by Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President at a Brussels summit on October 29.
Since then, he has become best known for his camping holidays and his haikus, a form of Japanese poetry. One verse marks his increasing baldness: "Hair blows in the wind/after years there is still wind/sadly no more hair."
Politically, Mr Rompuy is more controversial. He has been described by Chris Bryant, the Europe minister, as having "a more federalist agenda than other prime ministers in Europe".
Just last week, speaking to a private dinner of industrialists, diplomats and politicians, he called for European taxes on financial transactions to fund the EU.
He is also a hard-line opponent of Turkey's bid to join the European Union because, he has warned, it is an Islamic country and would dilute Europe's Christian heritage.....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news
/worldnews/europe/eu/
6609129/Herman-Van-Rompuy-
the-reluctant-leader.html
From RUSSIA TODAY
ReplyDeleteJavier Solana: "I am Not a Revolutionary"
http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-11-19/solana-eu-russia-democracy.html
Here is a gem....
ReplyDeleteTHE PITY OF HERMAN VAN ROMPUY
http://www.economist.com/blogs/
charlemagne/2009/11/_normal_0_false_false_4.cfm