by Baron Bodissey
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2010Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/15/2010
A diplomatic crisis is brewing between Israel and Turkey. Tensions between the two countries were already high in the wake of a popular Turkish television series that features Jews as dastardly villains. More recently, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan criticized Israeli overflights of Lebanon and the bombardment of mortar-firing sites in Gaza. Dany Ayalon, the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, rebuked Turkey, and the Turks have demanded an apology. Mr. Ayalon issued an apology of sorts, but the Turks aren’t satisfied. The crisis continues.
In other news, the trial of Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani chemical and biological warfare specialist colloquially known as “Lady Al Qaeda”, is underway in New York. She insists that she will have no Jews on the jury. She also maintains that this requirement is not evidence of any anti-Semitism on her part.
Thanks to 4symbols, AA, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Sean O’Brian, TB,Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Allons, Citoyens De L’Europe
Yet another dubious provision in the Lisbon treaty: citizens’ initiatives
GIVEN the chance, would European Union voters ban minarets on mosques, copying the recent popular vote in Switzerland? Invite citizens to draft new EU legislation, and would they demand new rights for the disabled, cleaner rivers and more aid for the developing world? Or are Europeans in a sour, recession-struck mood: would they seek tighter curbs on immigration, protectionist tariffs on Chinese imports, or new hurdles to EU enlargement (bye-bye, Turkey)?
The guessing will soon be over. Thanks to a barely debated clause in the Lisbon treaty, the EU is about to embark on an experiment in direct democracy. Within a year, the European Citizens’ Initiative will come into effect. One million EU citizens from a “significant number” of countries will be able to ask the European Commission to put forward new draft laws.
As with so many bits of the Lisbon treaty, which came into force in December, it is not clear how the citizens’ initiative will work in practice, or even if it is a good idea. Euro-cheerleaders spent years banging on about the need for Lisbon, saying its new rules would make Europe simpler, more efficient and more democratic. Now they have the treaty, many of the same people are muttering and wailing about unresolved problems hidden in its leaden prose. Interview senior Brussels types about Lisbon, and the same phrases come up again and again: “we have no idea how this bit will work” and “of course, national leaders had no real idea what they were signing.”
So it is with the citizens’ initiative, an idea adopted in the final days of a grandiose convention drawing up what was then called an EU constitution (becoming the Lisbon treaty after many misadventures). It was embraced without enthusiasm by ministers, national parliamentarians and members of the European Parliament, as the third choice of direct-democracy advocates. Their real dreams were binding, EU-wide referendums or, failing that, Californian-style popular initiatives that could lead to binding referendums, recalls Alain Lamassoure, a French MEP behind the plans. The convention rejected the first two options out of hand—”it was a sort of corporatist reaction, as we would say in France. Members of parliaments don’t like direct democracy,” says Mr Lamassoure. The initiative seemed harmless: it can only place an idea on the agenda, not actually oblige the commission to do anything (nothing came from a million-plus signatures on a petition calling for an end to the parliament’s monthly meandering from Brussels to Strasbourg). — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian [Return to headlines] 
Economy, US vs. Europe
MEGAN MCARDLE REMINDS PAUL KRUGMAN OF The Difference Between The U.S. And Europe. “I had roughly the same reaction that Matt Welch did: having lived in London for intermittent (short) periods, I found it noticeably poorer than the United States. It is not noticeable to tourists, mind you.” Or high-paid former Enron advisers. Related thoughts here. This stuff is embarrassing. The New York Times ought to get an economist on its oped page now and then to offer informed opinions on these matters. — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
Obama to Hasten the Destruction of the Middle Class
It was announced today (Jan 14) that President Obama wants to levy a fee against the largest banks in the country with a “crisis responsibility fee” to be applied to financial organizations with assets greater than $50 Billion. This fee will be in effect for the next ten years and can be extended beyond that if necessary.
The expectation is that this will raise $90 Billion dollars over the ten years in an attempt to repay some of the money used to bail out the financial industry.
My immediate question is; does this administration and this President think we are stupid or is this administration and this President so inept that they think this is good for the American people?
I say that because they are either trying to totally bankrupt the middle class in this country or our ‘leaders’ are completely ignorant of the economy of this nation.
Simply put businesses do not pay taxes/fees the government assesses them with. As an example; if you own a burger joint and you have a 5% profit margin and the government levies a 5% tax increase on your business. Do you A) suck it up and decide you are going to run your business at a 0% profit margin or B) do you increase your prices by 5% to pay for your increased cost of doing business? — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
Fed purchase of debt like family using Visa to pay MasterCard
Statistics from the federal government document how the Federal Reserve over the course of 2009 bought some 80 percent of the $1.5 trillion borrowed by the U.S. Treasury — making the federal government like the family that uses Visa to pay down a monthly MasterCard bill.
Remarkable as that may seem, data make clear the Obama administration has been managing trillion dollar federal budget deficits by selling financial instruments to the Fed.
Even to sophisticated investment analysts, using the Fed to buy Treasury debt is the equivalent of simply printing money to pay for government-funded programs an increasingly bankrupt United States can no longer afford. — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines] 
Candidate Leads Protest of CAIR ‘Town Hall’
Islamic group with terror ties hosts session on profiling near Oklahoma City
Citing the group’s ties to terrorism, a Republican congressional candidate in Oklahoma is leading a protest of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ town hall tonight on airport profiling and security.
Kevin Calvey, a candidate for Oklahoma’s fifth district seat, points out the Washington, D.C.-based CAIR has been identified by several law enforcement sources as a front for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“Oklahomans should be outraged that a group like CAIR is operating in our midst,” said Calvey, a former state representative who prosecuted terrorists while deployed with the Army National Guard in Iraq. “I urge fellow Oklahomans to join me in peacefully protesting the CAIR meeting.” — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
Comptrol Freak’s a Real Liu-Liu
In New York City
Did you hear? The city is about to declare a new holiday. Actually, only part of the city. That would be the part under the sovereign jurisdiction of Comptroller John Liu. Among King Wacky’s first official acts was to order his staff to stand when he enters a room and to call him “Mr. Comptroller.” He also ditched casual Friday dress and wants everybody to get to work when he does. He bears close watching. If he starts printing his own currency and puts his face on it, I’m outta here.[Return to headlines]
Free Muslim Clinics for Poor Americans
CAIRO — Giving back to their country and showing the real image of their faith, a group of Muslim doctors are championing an initiative to help poor American patients in the northeastern state of Ohio.
“We want to do our best in helping out, especially in these economically challenging times,” Pediatrician Malika Haque told the Columbus Dispatch daily on Friday, January 15.
Haque is leading a group of 22 Muslim physicians and seven nurses to open a free clinic to provide medical help to uninsured poor Americans.
The Noor Community Clinic, set to open Friday, offers free medical check-ups and counseling for people without medical insurance or government help.
“We love our country, we love our nation and we love our community,” said Haque, who has spent most of her time from 1973 to 2005 working at a series of community clinics run by Children’s Hospital for underserved children.
The new clinic is part of a Muslim initiative in 2008 to open free clinics for helping uninsured Americans.
Under the initiative, Muslim clinics were opened in Cincinnati and Dayton.
Americans Muslims have launched similar initiative across the country.
More than a decade since its establishment, University Muslim Medical Association (UMMA) is now serving about 16,000 US patients of all religious backgrounds.
In 1996, a group of US Muslim students, dissatisfied with the lack of Muslim involvement in solving America’s social issues, launched the first full-time charitable clinic in the US.
The US is the world’s richest nation but the only industrialized democracy that does not provide health care coverage to all of its citizens.
The US spends more than double what Britain, France and Germany do per person on health care.
But it lags behind other countries in life expectancy and infant mortality, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Muslim Help
The free Muslim clinics are a new effort by American Muslims to portray a better image of their faith.
“Right now, the image of Muslims in general is kind of on the low side,” said Haque.
America’s Muslims, estimated at between six to seven million, have been in the eye of storm since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Though things have slightly improved after Barack Obama was elected president last year, US Muslims came again under the spotlight again after a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas and a foiled bomb plot on a US plane by a young Nigerian.
“We don’t want to push our faith,” said Saida Yassin, a Muslim doctor volunteer in the Noor Clinic.
“We just want to show society that, as Muslims, we are united as a group and want to help.”
Dr. Faozan Narvel, another Muslim volunteer, believes the mission will not be easy.
Changing the opinion “of someone who is ignorant is going to be tough,” Narvel said.
“That’s not what we’re trying to do.
“The main idea is patient care.” — Hat tip: TB [Return to headlines]
‘Lady Al Qaeda’ Cries Foul: Accused Terrorist Aafia Siddiqui Says Toss Jews From Jury Pool
Jury selection in the “Lady Al Qaeda” trial got off to a bizarre start Wednesday with the accused terrorist telling jurors she was “boycotting” — and demanding Jews be excluded from the panel.
“If they have a Zionist or Israeli background…they are all mad at me,” said Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist charged with attempted murder.
“I have a feeling everyone here is them — subject to genetic testing….They should be excluded if you want to be fair,” she told Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman.
Prospective jurors weren’t present for that outburst, but they were in the courtroom to hear her say, “I’m boycotting the trial…there are too many injustices.”
At another point, Siddiqui repeatedly refused to talk to her own lawyers, saying she didn’t trust them.
“I don’t trust you either,” she told Berman.
She even tried to toss a handwritten note to prosecutors requesting time each day to pray. Berman said time would be set aside.
Siddiqui, 37, is accused of picking up an M-4 Army rifle and firing two rounds at a team of Americans who tried to question her in Afghanistan on July 18, 2008.
Prosecutors argue she screamed, “Allah Akbar” and vowed to kill Americans before she was wrestled to the ground. She allegedly had two pounds of poisonous sodium cyanide and hundreds of pages of notes and documents on how to build chemical and biological weapons.
The terror guides featured targets including the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge, prosecutors said.
Berman ruled the jury can hear about the target list and other handwritten notes but tossed as evidence the chemicals and mass-produced documents from “how-to” terror manuals.
Prosecutors also are barred from bringing up Siddiqui’s alleged ties or sympathies with Al Qaeda because they would create a bias. — Hat tip: 4symbols [Return to headlines]
‘Lady Al Qaeda’ Trial: Suspected Terrorist Aafia Siddiqui Tossed From Courtroom After Outburst
A jury was chosen Thursday in the “Lady Al Qaeda” trial — but not before the defendant interrupted the process with more outbursts and was tossed from the courtroom.
A day after she demanded Jews be excluded from the jury, Aafia Siddiqui went to deliver more rants about Jews and the 9/11 terror attacks.
“I have nothing to do with 9/11,” she said when a potential juror who cited her personal experience on Sept. 11 was dismissed.
Siddiqui is on trial in Manhattan federal court for attempted murder.
She was arrested by Afghan police after being caught in July 2008 with two pounds of sodium cyanide, a list of New York targets, and instructions for chemical and biological weapons, prosecutors say.
When an American team tried to question her, she allegedly grabbed an unsecured M-4 rifle and opened fire.
Siddiqui has repeatedly said she is boycotting her own trial and has attempted to make her case directly to prospective jurors and the judge.
On the first day of jury selection, she asked Judge Richard Berman to exclude any panelists with “Zionist or Israeli background.”
A Daily News report of her outburst became an issue Thursday when the defense team said it could taint the jury pool.
Meanwhile, as Berman quizzed the jury pool on whether their 9/11 experiences would influence their deliberations, Siddiqui piped up from the defense table.
“The next question will be on anti-Semitism, Israel was behind 9/11. That’s not anti-Semitic,” she said before being escorted out.
Berman later said that anyone who disrupts proceedings will be removed, but that Siddiqui has a right to be present for her trial and would be allowed to return.
In the end, a jury of seven women and five men was chosen, with four alternate jurors, two men and two women. — Hat tip: 4symbols [Return to headlines]
Obama’s TSA Pick: U.S. Targeted for Ties With Israel, France
‘Our alliance means that we are subject to being attacked as well’
Errol Southers, President Obama’s nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, suggested that terrorists have attacked the U.S. because of the country’s alliances with Israel and France.
In a 2008 video interview with the VideoJug website, Southers was asked, “How high should the war on terror be on our list of national priorities?”
[…]
Despite a growing domestic Islamic threat, Southers during the interview stressed that white supremacists and anti-abortion groups are the greatest domestic terrorist danger. — Hat tip: JD
Saturday 16 January 2010
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