PRES. OBAMA, DO WHAT IS RIGHT, CONDEMN KING KHALIFA OF BAHRAIN FOR TYRANNICAL SUPPRESSION OF PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS

More violent protests in Bahrain as a result of the killing of a 15-year old protesting the harsh rule of the Sunnis and King Khalifa.

Why does the United States refuse to condemn the suppression of a democratic wave in Bahrain?

Two answers:

1.  the protests are Shia-led.  Iran, predominantly Shia, is just across the bay from Bahrain; and

2.  the U.S. bases its naval Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and doesn't want to be kicked out.

Pres. Obama, condemn the suppression in Bahrain.  To heck with the Fifth Fleet.  To hell with American dislike of Iran and Iranians.  Do what is right!

HOW CAN ANY WOMAN IN THE U.S. VOTE REPUBLICAN?

How could any woman in the U.S. vote for someone like Republican Todd Akin, running for U.S. Senate in Missouri?

First, he defines some rapes as "legitimate," casting doubt on all other violent assaults on women which are not "legitimate."

Then, a few days ago, he says that his female opponent, Claire McCaskill, has not acted 'ladylike."

Here's a report by Karen McVeigh in The Guardian online.  Writes McVeigh:

"The furore caused by Akin's now infamous and much-criticised "legitimate rape" comments – suggesting that victims of rape can "shut down' potential pregnancies – shows little sign of abating. Despite signs of a U-turn from the Republican party who abandoned him over the comments, Akin, who believes abortion should be banned even in cases of rape, has become associated with bad science and an anti-woman agenda.

Akin did nothing to overcome that perception on Thursday, when he said that his Democratic opponent Claire McCaskill had not acted "ladylike" during a recent debate. Patty Murray, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, described the remark as "demeaning to women and offensive to all".

Let me ask the question again, but this time extend it to all Republican candidates, including Mitt Romney.  How could any woman in the U.S. vote for any Republican candidate anywhere in the country?

NETANYAHU CLAIMS PALESTINIAN CHARGE OF ETHNIC CLEANSING IS WITHOUT BASIS, YET AT THE SAME TIME ACCUSES IRANIANS OF TRYING TO BUILD NUCLEAR BOMBS

For sheer exaggeration and hyperbole, Bibi Netanyahu has outdone Ahmadinejad of Iran and Morsi of Egypt.  Bibi claims the end is near.  Any nuclear bombs made by Iran will be equivalent to nuclear weapons in the hands of Al Qaeda.

Forget for a minute that Al Qaeda and the Shiites of Iran have nothing in common.  Al Qaeda is Sunni, Iranians are Shia.  Even more importantly, the Arabs of Al Qaeda despise the Iranians for being Persian, not Arabic.

Bibi's statements are inflammatory and wild.

Tom Clancy reports on Netanyahu's speech today in The Guardian online.  Writes Clancy:

"Netanyahu's bomb drawing was like a crude, almost a spoof, version of Colin Powell's notorious presentation of Iraqi WMD in 2003, but for all its crudity and questionable assumptions, it without doubt succeeded in distracting almost all attention from Mahmoud Abbas's plaintive description of 'ethnic cleansing' in occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has for decades been centre stage at the UN General Assembly, but not this year, in the febrile atmosphere around the Iranian nuclear programme."

Note that, as Tom Clancy reports, Mahmoud Abbas charges Israel and Netanyahu with "ethnic cleansing," and Bibi facilely dismisses the objection, according to The Daily Beast, "We won't solve our conflict with libelous speeches."  The irony is thick.  Bibi accuses Iran of making nuclear weapons, contrary to the evidence and the protestations of the Iranians.  Yet he tries to avoid the charge by the Palestinians by claiming that the objection is without basis.

SUPPORT PEOPLE OF GREECE AND SPAIN IN REJECTING BANKRUPT POLICY OF AUSTERITY

If I were in Spain or Greece today, I would be joining the protesters against any further implementation of the crazy and discredited Germanic-inspired economic policy of "austerity." 

Helena Smith reports on Greek demonstrations for The Guardian online.  Writes Smith:

"Hundreds of thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of Greece on Wednesday as the country was paralysed by a general strike in the first mass confrontation with Athens's three-month-old coalition government.
In one of the biggest demonstrations in the capital in recent years, as many as 200,000 marched on the Greek parliament, according to unions in the public and private sector, which called the strike to oppose new wage and pension cuts – the price of further rescue funds from international lenders."

No economists, other than maybe crazy Republicans in the U.S., would subscribe to a policy of cutting government jobs and pensions in an attempt to foster economic growth and prosperity.  Spain and Greece are mired in a deep recession, maybe even a depression.  Now is not the time to impose cuts on people's salaries and benefits.  Now is not the time to put government workers out of their jobs.

Stop this insane and cruel policy of austerity.  Enough of this madness!

OBAMA DEFENDS FREE SPEECH AT THE U.N., REJECTS CALL TO MAKE MOCKERY OF PROPHET A CRIME

At last Pres. Barack Obama has come out with a strong defense of free speech.  In his speech today at the meeting of the General Assembly of the U.N. in New York, Obama rejected the call from some Islamic leaders that the U.S. establish a law to punish those who mock the Prophet Mohammad or Islam.

Helene Cooper reports for the on-line The New York Times on Obama's speech.  Writes Cooper:

"While condemning the “crude and disgusting” video that prompted the protests in Libya and throughout the Muslim world, the president worked to explain — before a sometimes skeptical audience that has never completely bought into the American idea that even hateful speech is protected — why the United States values so highly its First Amendment.

"“We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics, or oppress minorities,” Mr. Obama said. “We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.”

"Americans, he said, “have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their view.”

"And he said pointedly that “there is no speech that justifies mindless violence.”

“"There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents,” Mr. Obama said. “There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon, or destroy a school in Tunis, or cause death and destruction in Pakistan.” "

MANY IRANIAN UNIVERSITIES BAR WOMEN FROM TAKING COURSES

This is an outrageous day for women's education in Iran.  Today, rules prohibiting women from taking over 80 courses take effect in many Iranian universities.

Prohibited classes include English literature and nuclear physics.

Fariba Sahraebi writes in today's BBC online:

"With the start of the new Iranian academic year, a raft of restrictions on courses open to female students has been introduced, raising questions about the rights of women to education in Iran - and the long-term impact such exclusions might have.

More than 30 universities have introduced new rules banning female students from almost 80 different degree courses.

These include a bewildering variety of subjects from engineering, nuclear physics and computer science, to English literature, archaeology and business."

ROMNEY NEEDS TO RELEASE LAST 10 YEARS OF TAX RETURNS

That Mitt Romney has released his 2011 federal tax return means little if nothing.   When Romney filed his taxes this past April, he was already the de facto Republican nominee.  We can consider everything in the tax return, such as the amount of taxes paid, to be self-serving.

What Romney really needs to do is to release the rest of the last 10 years returns.  Romney himself has made an issue of the 47% who, he claims, pay no taxes.  Let's see exactly what he himself has paid over this period.

NETANYAHU MEDDLES IN U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

I find it disconcerting and inappropriate that Israel's prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, is inserting himself into the American presidential election.

Everyone knows that Bibi wants Mitt Romney to win.  And that Netanyahu doesn't like Obama because Obama refuses to go along with the stupid "red line" demand of bully Netanyahu.

Netanyahu badly wants to start a war against Iran in order to divert the world's view from the miserable state that Israel has forced upon the Palestinians.

Harriet Sherwood writes in today's online The Guardian:

"The political TV advertisement featuring Binyamin Netanyahu and the slogan "The world needs American strength, not apologies" is likely to fuel claims that the Israeli prime minister is interfering in the US presidential election in support of Republican candidate Mitt Romney."

Additionally, the Democrats have conveyed to Netanyahu that his meddling is unwelcomed.

Writes Sherwood:

"But, according to Yossi Verter writing in Haaretz recently, US officials had relayed to a "very senior Israeli figure" that "in the eyes of the Democratic administration, Netanyahu is perceived as campaigning on behalf of Mitt Romney." To the president and his aides, the Israeli prime minister's actions look like "crude, vulgar and unrestrained intervention in the US election campaign".

"Joe Klein of Time magazine described Netanyahu's recent behaviour as "an unprecedented attempt by a putative American ally to influence a US presidential campaign".

"The editor of the New Yorker, David Remnick, said Netanyahu seemed "determined, more than ever, to alienate the president of the United States and, as an ally of Mitt Romney's campaign, to make himself a factor in the 2012 election"."

STOP TRANSFER OF PUSSY RIOT TO FAR-OFF JAIL

News that Russian authorities are planning to transfer convicted members of Pussy Riot to a remote jail hundreds of miles outside Moscow.  Anna Nemtsova writes for the Daily Beast the latest update on the situation of the three young ladies who staged the Pussy Riot satire in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

Writes Nemtsova:

"The three members of Pussy Riot sentenced to two years in prison in a trial that attracted worldwide attention are asking the warden of their pretrial detention center to let them serve out their time in Moscow instead of at a remote penal colony hundreds of miles away.

"More than 2,000 prisoners have died in or en route to Russian prisons in just the last six months, according to Russia’s prosecutor general. And the young women’s lawyers, who do not expect an Oct. 1 appeal of their August sentence for hooliganism to be successful, have received threatening messages from prison employees."

ROMNEY PUTS ALL THE BLAME ON PALESTINIANS - HAS HE BEEN FOLLOWING THE ISRAELI CRUELTIES ON THE NEWS?

Ewen Mac Askill writes in The Guardian online about Mitt Romney's comments blaming the Palestinians for not wanting peace with Israel.  Writes Mac Askill:

"The latest clip shows Romney dismissing the chances of peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not an unusual view, but he then goes on to firmly put the blame solely on the Palestinians.

"He contentiously described the the Palestinians as "committed to the destruction and elimination" of Israel and indicated he was unlikely to pursue, as president, the creation of a Palestinian state, warning that Iran would use it as a base for attacks on Israel."

I guess that Romney, in putting the blame on the Palestinians, has never heard of Israeli soldiers firing tank shells at Palestinian civilians, or Israeli warplanes wantonly destroying essential infrastructure in Gaza, or Israeli hardliners cruelly forcing Palestinian families off their land, so that Jewish settlers can illegally and immorally move in.

NETANYAHU TRIES TO PRESSURE OBAMA ON WAR WITH IRAN

Bibi Netanyahu, Israel's warmongering prime minister, now appeals to the American public after being rebuffed by Pres. Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on "setting a red line" in the case of Iran's nuclear development.

Harriet Sherwood reports for The Guardian:

"The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has renewed his demand that the US set out clear "red lines" for Iran over its nuclear programme, in remarks likely to put further strain on his relationship with Barack Obama in the runup to the presidential election.

"In interviews on American television networks to mark the Jewish New Year, Netanyahu repeated his call for the US to clarify the point at which it would take military action rather than allow the Iranian nuclear programme to advance."


Netanyahu is a bully who would like nothing better than to drag the United States into a disastrous war with Iran.

OBAMA LEADS ROMNEY IN FLORIDA, OHIO AND VIRGINIA

Pres. Barach Obama leads Mitt Romney in Florida, Virginia and Ohio.  That according to a recent NBC poll, reports Bloomberg News.

Jonathan D. Salant writes from Washington:

"An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released yesterday of likely voters in the swing states of Florida, Ohio andVirginia showed Obama ahead in each race. Recent national polls by CNN and Gallup following last week’s Democratic National Convention also put Obama in the lead.

"The NBC/Journal poll gave Obama a 49 percent to 44 percent edge over Romney in both Florida and Virginia, and a 50 percent to 43 percent edge in Ohio. No Republican has ever won the White House without carrying Ohio."

ENLIOGHTENMENT CHANGES WESTERN WORLD IN 18TH CENTURY

The western world was never the same after the French Enlightenment in the 18th Century.  Religion no longer was the absolute font of wisdom and sexual morality.  People began to think outside the box of theological construction.  Thinkers such as Diderot and Montesquieu pursued secular humanism with their La Religieuse and Lettres Persanes.  Liberty of speech and thought acquired supremacy.  Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world never had their own Enlightenment.

PRES. OBAMA, RESIST NETANYAHU'S PUSH TO BOMB IRAN

Pres. Obama, I support your reelection and I contribute to your campaign.

In return, I do ask that you not let that bully Benjamin Netanyahu throw his weight around regarding the policy of the United States towards Iran.

David Sanger and Isabel Kershner write in today's The New York Times online.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel inserted himself into the most contentious foreign policy issue of the American presidential campaign on Tuesday, criticizing the Obama administration for refusing to set clear “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear progress that would prompt the United States to undertake a military strike. As a result, he said, the administration had no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action of its own.

 

"Mr. Netanyahu’s unusually harsh public comments about Israel’s most important ally, which closely track what he has reportedly said in vivid terms to American officials visiting Jerusalem, laid bare the tension between him and President Obama over how to handle Iran. They also suggested that Mr. Netanyahu is willing to use the pressure of the presidential election to force Mr. Obama to commit to attack Iran under certain conditions. "

We all know that Bibi is angling for a American military strike against Iran.  That means untold death and destruction.

I am tired of U.S. wars in Islamic countries or anywhere else.  Pres. Obama, continue to resist that warmonger, Netanyahu.

STOP AMERICAN SANCTIONS AGAINST IRANIAN PEOPLE

Stop the cruel economic warfare against the people of Iran.   American sanctions hit the ordinary Iranian.  They have little effect in changing policies of the Iranian government. 

Inflation is around 100% in Iran today.  There is shortage of essential medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.  Products of daily life are hard to come by. 

This is the effect of American sanctions against the people of Iran.

ISRAEL IS BIGGEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE

The government of Canada, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has terminated all diplomatic relations with Iran.  But something here is strange.

Why did the Canadian foreign minister repeat the mantra of Israeli PM Netanyahu that Iran is the greatest exporter and threat of terrorism in the whole wide world?  I suspect that Netanyahu and Harper are buddies, and this was a favor to Bibi on some account or for some unknown reason.

I would argue that the biggest threat to world peace is Israel.  Under Netanyahu, it is clear that the Israeli government is looking to start a war against Iran.

CANADA MAKES HUGE MISTAKE BY BREAKING DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH IRAN

In ending diplomatic relations with Iran, the government of Canada has made a huge mistake.  Breaking off contact harkens back to the cold war, when the solution to political disagreements was to declare war.

Can any good come to Canada by saying that it no longer wants to engage in diplomacy with Iran.  What is the next step.  Rain bombs down on Tehran?

HUGE INJUSTICE: BAHRAINI SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS LIFE SENTENCES AGAINST PROTESTERS DEMANDING HUMAN RIGHTS

The Bahrain Supreme Court upheld life sentences for some of those found guilty of protesting against the Sunni-dominated regime of the Khalifas.

This is the same King Khalifa who regularly comes to Washington and holds talks with his ally, the United States.

I call upon the president, Barach Obama, to come out firmly against the injustice handed out against those protesters, most of whom happen to be Shia.

GEORGE OSBORNE CUTS GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND PAYROLLS, CASTS U.K. INTO STEEP RECESSION

Prime Minister David Cameron reshuffles his cabinet, but he keeps George Osborne as chancellor of the Exchequer.  The same Osborne who has forced thousands of cuts in public employment, at whose door we can lay Britain's double-dip recession.

This same tactic is what mindless Republicans in the United States wish to do with the American economy.  The mantra of cutting spending harks back to the days of Herbert Hoover when the same opponents of public debt took charge. 

Fortunately, there are some smarter economists in the U.S. today, like Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who refuse to go along with cutting government spending when the economy is in danger of going back into recession.  But imagine the chaos and economic turmoil if that faker, Mitt Romney, and his side-kick, Paul Ryan, win the coming election!

PAUL RYAN CLAIMED HE RAN MARATHON IN UNDER THREE HOURS! RIDICULOUS!

Paul Ryan, vice presidential candidate picked by Mitt Romney, claims he once ran a marathon in less than three hours. That's means Ryan would have to run a sub-seven minute mile each and every mile of the 26-mile race.

Runners World investigated his claim and found no evidence of his boast. Subsequently, Paul Ryan was forced to apologize for his exaggeration and withdrew his claim.

Lawyers have a saying, "false in one thing, false in all things."  So when Paul Ryan says that he will safeguard Medicare by making it into a voucher system, his listeners should suspect this too is a wild boast without any substance in reality.