Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Vladimir Putin Calls for More Weapons to Stop America Doing 'whatever It Wants'
Dec 30th, 2009
Times Online
Categories: Today's Headlines

Russia needs more weapons to punch through America’s new missile defence shield, Vladimir Putin said yesterday in blunt remarks that will complicate efforts to cut the nuclear arsenals of the former Cold War rivals.

The Russian Prime Minister, reasserting himself as the country’s real ruler, said that Moscow should press ahead with a new generation of weapons to stop the Americans doing “whatever they want”.

“To preserve the balance we must develop offensive weapons systems, not missile defence systems as the United States is doing,” he said during a visit to the naval port of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast.

Until now, it had seemed that Washington and Moscow were edging towards a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), despite failing to meet the original target of December 5.

Asked why the talks had failed to reach agreement on a new deal, Mr Putin said: “What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one.”

The Prime Minister was believed to be voicing the deeply held views of hardliners in the Russian military machine, but his forthright statement may also be linked to growing signs that he is preparing to announce his intention to seek a new presidential term in 2012.

International arms treaties are the remit of the president. Mr Putin, in staking out his position, was wading into the domain of Dmitri Medvedev, his chosen successor in the Kremlin after he stood down last year.

It has always been widely believed that Mr Putin was allowing President Medvedev merely to keep his seat warm while he was taking a break, as laid down by the Constitution. His return to the presidential office would signal a harder line.

President Obama’s reversal in July of plans to station the American missile defence shield close to Russia’s borders in Central Europe — and his vow to reset relations with Moscow — were warmly welcomed by Mr Medvedev. The thaw was expected to pave the way for an agreement on a new nuclear arms reduction package.

Now Mr Putin suggests that the American concessions are not enough. “If we are not developing an anti- missile shield then there is a danger that our partners, by creating such an umbrella, will feel completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want, disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately,” Mr Putin said.

He made it clear that Washington should share its missile defence plans — based on sea and land-based interceptors in Europe — with Moscow if it wanted to ease Russian concerns. “Let the Americans hand over all their information on missile defence and we are ready to hand over all the information on offensive weapons,” he said.

Mr Putin’s intervention was seen by observers as an attempt to extract more American concessions on the defence shield while also allowing him to demonstrate that he remains the paramount voice in Russian politics.

“This is not his sphere but Putin is showing he is not weaker than Medvedev,” the defence analyst Aleksandr Konovalov said. Some will see it as the latest issue on which differences are emerging between the two players in the leadership of Russia.

Mr Putin continues to steal the limelight, as illustrated by his high-profile tour around the Far East of Russia at a time when most of the country is winding down for 11 days of holiday at the start of the new year and Orthodox Christmas. Recently he was filmed flooring members of the Russian national judo team.

The Start treaty was signed shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union 18 years ago. It led to significant cuts in Russian and American arsenals but expired on December 5. Both countries agreed to extend it while talks on a replacement treaty continue.

Russia a Superpower Again
Dec 30th, 2009
YouTube
Categories: War

Rabbis to U.S. Ambassador: Time to 'go Biblical' With Arabs
Dec 30th, 2009
IsraelINN
Categories: Today's Headlines

(IsraelNN.com) A delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mr. James Cunningham, today and called for a reassessment of the entire U.S. policy vis-à-vis the Israelis and Palestinians. The rabbis told Ambassador Cunningham that it was time to try the Biblical approach to the dispute over the Land of Israel.

"The past 17 years have proven without a shadow of a doubt that every square inch ceded by Israel to the Palestinians was transformed into a platform of hatred and terrorism," RCP Director Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Lewin told the ambassador. "In other words, the 'land for peace' formula in the Israel-Palestinian context, besides being a formula that goes against the Divine will, is ineffective, obsolete, and an exercise in futility. Most of all it is a dangerous policy that only leads to bloodshed and instability in the region and harms vital American interests in the region as well," Lewin said.

'Land for peace doesn't work'
The delegation was headed by Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, Chairman of the RCP, who is also the Rabbi of Central Tel Aviv where the US embassy is located. Rabbi Gerlitzky presented the ambassador with the Halachic (Jewish legal) ruling signed by over 350 prominent rabbis in Israel that it is forbidden to give up even one inch of territory controlled by Israel today because it will bring bloodshed and instability to the region.

"In the name of the overwhelming majority of rabbis in Israel," he said, "we request of you Mr. Ambassador, to convey our Halachic message to President Barack Obama that it is time for a complete reversal and reassessment of U.S. policy in the Middle East. The 'land for peace' policy never worked and harms U.S. interests in the region and the world at large."

Left to right: Rabbi Sholom Gold, Mr. Marc Sievers of the US Embassy, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, Ambassador James Cunningham, Rabbi Moshe Havlin, Rabbi Avrohom S. Lewin. The Rabbis handed  the ambassador a Halachic Ruling signed by over 350 rabbis in Israel that forbids giving up land controlled by Israel today.   

The ambassador was visibly moved by Rabbi Sholom Gold, a leading rabbi in Jerusalem, who described the suffering that the Jewish People have endured ever since the implementation of the Oslo Accords and the agreements that followed. "It's all a play of words, there is no peace process," he said. "From the day that we started conceding and withdrawing we did not have one day of rest and peace. Why should our enemies want to make peace with us when they see that with terrorism they get what they want? Even the U.S., Israel's supposedly best friend, sides with them in demanding a freeze and evacuation of settlements. Is the triumph of Arab terror one of American interests?" Gold asked.

Rabbi Dov Lior, the Rabbi of Kiryat Arba-Hevron, said: "G-d gave the US the power and influence to affect the rest of the world and supporting Israel is the key to America's success."

Ambassador Cunningham told the rabbis that he does not see how the problem can be solved “without taking into consideration the Palestinians,” to which Rabbi Gold remarked: "Ever since we started taking the Palestinians into consideration the situation only worsened."

The ambassador asked the rabbis, "So what is your solution to the problem?"

Rabbi Gerlitzky replied: "You must switch the entire approach to the situation. We all believe in the Holy Bible and up until now we tried every formula except for that which is delineated in the Bible. Let's try it and who knows, Mr. Ambassador, maybe this is your defining moment, that G-d Almighty has placed you in this capacity in order to precipitate a new course which will bring a true peace to the entire region."

President Makes Top 10 List of Corrupt Politicians
Dec 30th, 2009
wnd
Categories: Today's Headlines

President Obama has been named to a "Top 10" list he'd likely be grateful to avoid: Judicial Watch's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians," for 2009.

"The Obama White House believes," said the report from the organization that monitors government for corruption, and sues when it chooses, "it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability."

The report released yesterday said Obama joined the likes of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; Attorney General Eric Holder; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., on the list.

"Even before President Obama was sworn into office, he was interviewed by the FBI for a criminal investigation of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's scheme to sell the president's former Senate seat to the highest bidder," the report said.

"Moreover, the Obama administration made the startling claim that the Privacy Act does not apply to the White House. The Obama White House believes it can violate the privacy rights of American citizens without any legal consequences or accountability," the report said.

President Obama boldly proclaimed that 'transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,' but his administration is addicted to secrecy, stonewalling far too many of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act requests and is refusing to make public White House visitor logs as federal law requires," the organization said.

The White House did not respond to a WND e-mail request for comment.

Judicial Watch also cited efforts by the Obama administration to use the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as the agency that runs the AmeriCorps program, as "propaganda machines" and use tax dollars to persuade "artists" to promote the Obama agenda.

Further, he's installed a long list of "czars" in the government.

"Too many of these individuals are leftist radicals who answer to no one but the president. And too many of the czars are not subject to Senate confirmation (which raises serious constitutional questions)," the report said.

"Under the president's bailout schemes, the federal government continues to appropriate or control – through fiat and threats – large sectors of the private economy, prompting conservative columnist George Will to write: 'The administration's central activity – the political allocation of wealth and opportunity – is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.'"

"Government-run healthcare and car companies, White House coercion, uninvestigated ACORN corruption, debasing his office to help Chicago cronies, attacks on conservative media and the private sector, unprecedented and dangerous new rights for terrorists, perks for campaign donors – this is Obama's 'ethics' record – and we haven't even gotten through the first year of his presidency," Judicial Watch said.

Chris Farrell, the chief of research for the organization, told WND the list is not just about wrongdoing – whether the actions are immoral, illegal or just fattening.

These are issues dealing with an abuse of office, or the abuse of the public trust, he said.

He said the Top Ten list is listed on the Judicial Watch website in alphabetical order because it is not intended to represent that one case among the "Top 10" would be worse than others.

"What they've done has broad repercussions," he said.

According to the report others on the list are:

• Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who also was on the list last year for his corrupt relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for allegedly accepting preferential treatment for himself. In 2009, the report said, the scandals kept coming. He faced an ethics complaint this year for undervaluing a property he owns in Ireland on his federal disclosure forms.
  
  
• Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who might be considered one of the year's worst offenders for admitting to an extramarital affair with the wife of one of his staff members, who then allegedly obtained special favors from him in exchange for his silence. "It looks as if Ensign misused his public office (and taxpayer resources) to cover up his sexual shenanigans," Judicial Watch said.
  
  
• Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is being investigated by Judicial Watch in connection with a $12 million TARP cash infusion into the Boston-based OneUnited Bank. He was the congressman who infamously in 2003 announced, "the two Government Sponsored Enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis." The comments came as he worked against GOP efforts to rein in the GSEs, which later created an economic tidal wave through the economy because of their financial losses.
  
  
• Another is Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, who admitted to failing to pay $34,000 taxes he owed on his lucrative salary at the International Monetary Fund.
  
  
• Attorney General Eric Holder also is on the list. His record includes obstructing an FBI investigation of the theft of nuclear secrets from Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory; rejecting multiple requests for an independent counsel to investigate alleged fundraising abuses by then-Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House; undermining the criminal investigation of President Clinton by Kenneth Starr in the midst of the Lewinsky investigation; and planning the violent raid to seize then-six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint in order to return him to Castro's Cuba, Judicial Watch said. He also has dropped a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party stemming from members' actions on Election Day 2008.
  
  
• Joining the others is Illinois State Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who was in the center of the scandal in which Blagojevich reportedly tried to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat. "According to the Chicago Sun-Times, emissaries for Jesse Jackson Jr., named 'Senate Candidate A' in the Blagojevich indictment, reportedly offered $1.5 million to Blagojevich during a fundraiser if he named Jackson Jr. to Obama's seat."
  
  
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is named for her "sense of entitlement," which is "at the heart of the corruption problem in Washington," Judicial Watch said. "Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel. Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2008 that suggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personal airline."
  
  
• Also, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who "made headlines in 2009 for all the wrong reasons." Judicial Watch said Murtha is under investigation for his relationship with the now-defunct defense lobbyist PMA Group. That was founded by a former Murtha associate and has been his largest campaign contributor.
  
  
• Also, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, who has been unable to explain how he forgot to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income, or how his congressional office was able to raise funds for his private Rangel Center by reportedly swapping a tax loophole for donations. Further, he's accused of making financial donations to other members of Congress who are assigned to investigate his actions.

Lutheran Leader Says Bible not Sole Authority
Dec 30th, 2009
Way of Life
Categories: Today's Headlines

LUTHERAN LEADER SAYS BIBLE NOT SOLE AUTHORITY (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Mark Hanson, president bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said on December 6 that the Bible is not the final word on homosexuality. In a meeting in Chicago he said, “The understanding we have of homosexuality today does not seem to be reflected at all in the context of the biblical writers,” but he thinks that is O.K. because “God is still speaking to us” (Lighthouse Trails Research, Dec. 7, 2009). Thus, according to this Lutheran leader, the Bible is clearly not the sole authority for faith and practice. So much for Martin Luther’s sola scriptura.

Canada Pastor Cleared of “hate Crime” After Seven Years of Harassment
Dec 30th, 2009
Way of Life
Categories: Today's Headlines

CANADA PASTOR CLEARED OF “HATE CRIME” AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF HARASSMENT (Friday Church News Notes, December 25, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - After seven years of harassment by the Human Rights Commission of Alberta, youth pastor Stephen Boissoin has been cleared of hate crimes against homosexuals by a civil judge (“Canadian Pastor Cleared,” Christian.org.uk, Dec. 8, 2009). As we first reported in Friday Church News Notes in September 2005, Boissoin was called before the Human Rights Commission for writing about the immorality and dangers of homosexuality. This appeared in a letter to the editor that was published in the Red Deer Advocate on June 17, 2002. Boissoin rightly lamented that “children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.” A civil rights complaint was filed by homosexual activist Darren Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Though threatened with a large fine, Boissoin said that he would not pay it nor would he apologize for what he wrote, even if he had to go to prison. He has stood by his convictions through the ordeal. In 2008, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal found Boissoin guilty of hate crimes. It banned him from expressing his views on homosexuality “in newspapers, by e-mail, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet,” ordered him to pay $7,000 for “damages for pain and suffering,” and demanded that he apologize to Lund. We are pleased that Justice Earl Wilson has overturned this totalitarian-style ruling, having determined that Boissoin’s letter does not constitute a hate crime. He also said that Lori Andreachuk, the civil rights lawyer that issued the ruling under the auspices of the Human Rights Tribunal, made many errors in her decision and had no power to impose a speech ban on Mr. Boissoin.