Now that the dust has settled, the political pundits have responded, and the world has watched in wonder at our strange democratic system of government, where do we go from here? As for me, I don't believe the politicians from either party nor the national news media and their preoccupation with generating revenue.
The Republicans didn't win, and the Democrats didn't lose. Obama might have been stung by the results and the Tea party certainly did rock the Obama agenda to it's core. Yet as the couple of hundred newly elected officials take office, what does the scorecard show?
On the domestic front
We still have the unfunded Obama agenda with up to $3 trillion in unanticipated cost
The deficit is still $1.4 trillion a year
The debt ceiling will pass $14 trillion this year and $15 trillion next year
The housing and foreclosure crisis remains untouched and unresolved
Financial reform forgot to crack down on hedge funds that brought about the economic collapse
Campaign reform is forgotten as record campaign costs passed $2.5 billion in 2010
Our aging infrastructure needs about $2 trillion to fix what is broken
Health care and insurance premiums continue to spiral up in costs
The more we spend on education the dumber our kids get
We still have no energy independence or alternative energy policy
In foreign affairs
The world economy continues to struggle because of US dominance
In Iraq 50,000 troops can't stop the bloodshed
The new Iraq government was influenced more by Iran than the USA
Sanctions did not stop Iran's nuclear program
Afghanistan remains loyal to Iran in spite of over 100,000 troops and billions a week cost
Obama embraced India while shunning Pakistan our other ally
The Federal Reserve infuriated the world with the $1 trillion "quantitative easing" policy
Germany, UK and France all condemned the Obama backed Fed policy
With the Fed driving down the value of the dollar, America gains at everyone else's expense
Israel and the Palestinians are light years from peace
Israel continues to build settlements
Over 2 million American troops remain overseas but only 150,000 are fighting
China and America remain at odds over currency valuations
America can't even get a trade agreement with our strongest ally in Asia, South Korea
Mexico lost 30,000 lives to America's drug war
South America feels more ignored than ever by the USA
As you see, we have a huge and largely unfulfilled agenda and where action was taken the result was not what we sought. However, you will never be informed of the true problems we face if you do not understand the issues and if you rely on the media and their news in a nutshell attitude. The problems we face require a lot more than 30 second sound bites to solve.
In the days ahead I will review the pros and cons of these issues. Where I can I will offer solutions to the problems or attempt to identify the path to success. If we do not embrace this agenda we will never be the shining light to the world we should be and that the world so desperately needs to survive. .
Did you ever wonder how a nation as powerful as America could be dependent on only two political parties to the exclusion of anyone who disagrees with them? Well it was not always that way. In fact there were no political parties back when we tossed out the English. Perhaps this history of the two party system will help you understand why it evolved and how it might have failed to meet the needs of today.
Following the publication of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and before the successful resolution of the War for Independence (1783), the American colonies decided it would be best to "confederate," at least for the purposes of entering into strategic alliances with European powers and perhaps waging war again with the mother country. This gave the U.S. the Articles of Confederation (1781), the first constitution of the "United States.” But the Articles were soon deemed inadequate and another Constitutional Convention was called (1787) which resulted in the U.S. Constitution (1789). But not without a fight.
The “Federalists” were of course instrumental in the movement for the new U.S. Constitution and for a stronger Federal role. The so-called Anti-Federalists were concerned that this new Federal government might over-power the states' sovereignties and abridge individual citizens' rights (most states had a long and proud history of individual rights). The passage of the Bill of Rights, as a permanent limit to the powers of the Federal government, answered much of that argument. Nonetheless, the struggle between a strong Federal government and state sovereignties has been an important thread in the play of our two-party system from the very beginning.
From that beginning in 1789, the U.S. didn't have a two-party system; it had George Washington, a President without a party. During his two terms, a rivalry grew between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both Federalists. Jefferson challenged Adams under the banner of the Democratic-Republican party. Interesting that this first real party, alone, should contain the nominal seeds of the present two-party system. The word Democratic implies will of the people, the word Republican implies rule of law (protection from a potential tyranny of the majority). The (mostly aristocratic and Virginian) Democratic-Republicans kept the Presidency from 1800 through 1828.
In 1828, the popular war-hero Andrew Jackson became the first President from a new party, the Democrats, the true party “of the people." With the exception of one term when the Whigs (a party whose name more clearly identified itself as the party of privilege than the Democratic-Republicans whom they replaced) won the Presidency, the Democrats held the White House until 1860.
The Northern Abolitionist Movement gave birth to a new party (1856), the Republicans. Abraham Lincoln was their first successful candidate for President (1860). The Northern, anti-slavery and pro-business Republicans held the White House thru 1912, with the exception of the Democrat Grover Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms. 1864 really marks the beginning of the two-party system of Democrats and Republicans. From the beginning, the Republicans have been Northern and pro-business, the Democrats Southern and more populist. Woodrow Wilson was the only other Democratic President besides Cleveland before the Great Depression. So, for all intents and purposes, the Republicans held Presidential power for 72 years but for 16 Democratic years.
The Great Depression (1929 and forward) changed all that. As business had so completely failed the people, the party of the people, the Democrats, under Franklin Roosevelt, won the support of the majority of the voters. Indeed, they kept power through 1968 except for the two terms of Dwight Eisenhower, who won his elections not for his politics but for his stature as a war-hero. Pretty much the Democrats (FDR, JFK, LBJ) successfully defined themselves as the party of the people, of the poor and middle class, and of the large and growing labor movement.
The Republicans were pretty much forced to redefine themselves, not as the party of privilege but as the party of individual and states’ rights, and of tax cuts and reduced government spending. But this didn't win them elections (nor did it represent their real values). Most Americans since FDR have identified themselves as Democrats, a natural thing as most Americans are not wealthy. Ever since 1932, the Republicans have only won the Presidency when their candidate was more personable and more “Presidential,” not because of his positions on the issues. Poll after poll for the last 70 years show Americans identify with Democratic positions even when they elect a Republican. TV has been a potent force in this phenomenon, as has the increasing role of religion and ignorance in the American political scene.
The nature of the parties' differences has altered dramatically, if not fundamentally, since 1864. The initial differences were over slavery and industrialism and the dominance of the South (poorer and less populous) by the North. The differences in the 1890's, following a Depression, were over a Gold standard and whether debts were to be repaid by cheaper or more dear money. In the 1910's, party differences centered around isolationism and fighting World War I. In the 1930's, again following the start of a Depression, the Democrats became the party of the people and of the Labor Movement while the Republicans were seen as the party of the Wealthy.
Since Franklin D. Roosevelt, then, the parties have divided the electorate, for better or for worse, along economic class lines. How then, you ask, have the Republicans been able to win any national elections at all, as they are the party of the Sheriff of Nottingham, not the party of Robin Hood? The reason is not hard to see. The rise of the Independents, now larger than the registration of either major party, began during the Viet Nam era and has accelerated ever since.
Both parties have lost their identity and lost their commitment to principles long held sacred. As the voter had a more difficult time distinguishing between the two, neither party could dominate as split power between the parties provided a viable check and balance for the people.
While the more aggressive conservatives in the Republican party, Liberals in the Democratic party, and Libertarians in the loose confederation of the Tea party get all the media attention, in truth all three are fighting it out for control of the middle ground in political philosophy.
Today America can be found where the conservative and liberal philosophies blend in the middle, where fiscal responsibility and limited federal government embrace certain social obligations while rejecting other social issues. America is not about class separation and philosophical polarization, it is about individual freedom and equal opportunity. Neither party holds the key to such a goal.
No Republican wants to starve the poor or cut benefits for the elderly any more than a Democrat wants to wipe out the upper class or take over big business. The very concept of such thought is promulgated by the news media to increase TV ratings, sell advertising or sell newspapers. Oh yeah, and also to help all the news "contributors" and political pundits sell their latest book telling us what is wrong with our country but only from their perspective.
So that is an entirely over-simplification of the history and evolution of the two party system and it will hopefully give you some insight into how we got in our current mess. Getting out may take a lot more work than we hoped. .
The United Nations has condemned the brutal attacks against Iraqi Christians by Islamic militants.
In the past 10 days, the Christian community has been targeted by a series of bombings and an attack on a Baghdad Catholic church. More than 60 people have been killed.
The U.N. Security Council said it's appalled by the acts of violence, calling them a blow against religious diversity and democracy.
The council added that it condemned all attacks in Iraq, "particularly those motivated by religious hatred."
French ambassador Gerard Araud also told reporters that Iraq's Christians are "on the frontline of the fight for democracy."
Meanwhile, 37 survivors of October's deadly Baghdad church attack and their families arrived in France on Thursday. The French government has offered them asylum and will also welcome another 90 Iraqi Christians to their country in the next few days.
"France supports their desire to remain and live in peace on their land, where they have lived for centuries," French Immigration Minister Eric Besson said.
Bessen explained that the move is part of France's program for Iraqis belonging to "vulnerable religious minorities."
Pakistan Court Sentences Christian woman to death for blasphemy
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – A Pakistani court has sentenced to death a Christian mother of five for blasphemy, the first such conviction of a woman and sparking protests from rights group Thursday.
Asia Bibi, 45, was sentenced Monday by a local court in Nankana district in Pakistan's central province Punjab, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) west of the country's cultural capital of Lahore.
Pakistan has yet to execute anyone for blasphemy, but the case spotlights the Muslim country's controversial laws on the subject which rights activists say encourages Islamist extremism in a nation wracked by Taliban attacks. .
Move over college football jocks and fans, because after decades of outright bias against those who are too smart to play football fisticuffs, we at the Coltons Point Times are calling for the establishment of the NCAA BCS National Digital Football Championship to be fought out among the top two colleges or universities in America in terms of the combined poll standings in computer science, engineering and overall quality of education.
Today we are prepared to release the first BCS National Digital Football top 25 Poll of those hallowed academic institutions whose brains far outweigh their brawn. Our poll is loaded with the most scientifically revered colleges in America whose endowment funds exceed that of the top jock shops. No one else can make such a claim.
Now, I do have a confession to make. Ever since I realized as a child that a terrible mistake had been made when I was dropped off by the stork in Iowa City, Iowa and not Boston, Massachusetts where I was supposed to go, I have suffered greatly. You see, I was created with Ivy League or MIT DNA and the corn fields of the Midwest are no place to create Microsoft or Facebook like I was bred to achieve.
I mean you know you are in the wrong place when your family laughs at your genetic tendencies. Like when I ordered lobster at the local cafe, put an Italian opera on the stereo, declared the Yankees (New York) and Red Sox (Boston) instead of the Cardinals (St. Louis) or Cubs (Chicago) my favorite team.
You most certainly would have agreed that I was odd. Don't get me wrong, I was a pretty good jock in all sports and that ran contrary to my DNA but I did get good at chess and croquet. In school I did most everything from get good to bad grades, being a jock yet a member of the speech and debate teams, playing in a rock 'n roll band and the school non-marching band.
If I had been delivered safely back at birth to the Rothschild family my name would have been a lot longer, I would have the name suffix III I fully expected to have, and in time I would have possessed all the alphabetical scholastic titles like B.A., M.B.A., J.D. & Ph.D. Knowing you were switched at birth and being helpless to correct this huge celestial mistake is a terrible cross to bear.
So I hung out with the freaks, geeks and misfits so I could at least assimilate my lost breeding if not experience it up close and personal. Thankfully I was well received. And later in life it helped me in understanding and relating to the powerful East Coast establishment who were products of the Ivy League and other educational institutions of higher learning than the other schools.
It even helped me survive working for people from Harvard, Yale and Princeton and working with people from MIT, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon. In spite of being part of groups like Marvin Minsky's Society of the Mind (MIT Media Lab) and other intellectually challenging groups, without the proper breeding you are never really one of them.
I never got to make my supreme contribution to the elite and I hope this BCS National Digital Football Championship helps pay back what I felt I owed. Perhaps I can get the ascot out of storage if we are a huge success?
As for the BCS NDFC it is time we make a statement, show the world that eggheads and geeks have as much to offer to Main Street as we (oops, a Freudian slip) you do to Wall Street and Washington. We want a playoff of the top 8 BCS NDFC teams at year end, meaning New Year's Eve, for the right to be the first of many future national champions of the National Digital Football playoffs.
Teams of four players with two alternates will be eligible from each school in the top 8 standing at year end. They will collectively agree as to the version of digital football to be played throughout the competition. The winner will be crowned, a trophy presented for the school, and whatever other prizes we can get from sponsors will be given. Oh yes, we are searching for a title sponsor like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft or whoever.
Now, for the official unveiling of the first BCS NDFC poll, here are the standings.
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology--Cambridge, MA 2. Stanford University--Palo Alto, CA 3. University of California, Berkeley, CA 4. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 5. University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, IL 6. Cornell University--Ithaca, NY 7. University of Texas--Austin (Cockrell) Austin, TX 8. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 9. California Institute of Technology--Pasadena, CA 10. University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 11. Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech)--Atlanta, GA 12. University of California--Los Angeles (Samueli) Los Angeles, CA (UCLA) 13. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 14. University of Maryland-College Park, MD 15. University of California--San Diego (Jacobs) La Jolla, CA 16. Harvard University Cambridge, MA 17. Columbia University (Fu Foundation) New York, NY 18. Purdue University--West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN 19. University of Washington--Seattle, WA 20. University of Southern California (Viterbi)--Los Angeles, CA 21. Brown University--Providence, RI 22. University of Massachusetts--Amherst, MA 23. Rice University--Houston, TX 24. University of Pennsylvania--Philadelphia, PA 25. University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, NC
That's it folks. We have a Beaver, Tree, Bear, Scottish Terrier, Abe Lincoln, Big Red Bear, Longhorn, Tiger, another Beaver and Badger for mascots for the top ten. It gets better down the list.
If you know any students at these schools you should let them know they are in the top 25 poll of computer scientists, geeks and engineering freaks and we will be tracking the hits from each college town because in two weeks the number of hits from each college will be factored into the poll. Until the end of the season, year end, it will be the only way a college can move up through the ranks.
Marvin again?
The top 8, if sponsorship can be found, will play for the 2010 BSC National Digital Football Championship and full bragging rights to being the Other BCS National Football Champion. I want to see if anyone can knock off MIT and their Media Lab where Marvin Minsky should be coach. .
As the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton peace initiative seems to fade into the land of lost dreams in the Middle East, where it can join the graveyard of dead peace initiatives of former presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2, a sense of futility is spreading through the peace participants.
I said "Right seems to be Right" and what I meant is the political reality of right leaning politics, both in America and Israel, are driving the failure. Perhaps it is the same wave of conservatism that has swept Communism from most nations and left the liberal socialists in Europe gasping for breath. Whatever it is, there can be no doubt of the impact.
Here in America Obama got clobbered in the Midterm elections because his agenda was too far left, too liberal, and too big government driven for the people he governs. The same was true in nation after nation across Europe the past few years as the socialist agenda was drowning the world in red ink.
Perhaps the most astute observers and practitioners of all special interests in America is the powerful Israeli lobby, the groups solely dedicated to the preservation of Israel. There are three main elements of the Israeli lobby groups, the Christians United for Israel, is the "largest" pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which directly lobbies the United States Congress, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which "is the main contact between the Jewish community and the executive branch" of the US government according to informed insiders.
Since the founding of Israel in 1948 no other lobbyists have dominated our nation's capitol like the Israelis. So complete is their power and control that Israel has unlimited access to arms and weapons systems, has over 200 nuclear warheads though it refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, has many ways to acquire American funds and dominates the American media.
Anyone who believes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the saber rattling with Iran has no relationship to Israel is living in fantasy land and if I were Jewish I would not want it any other way. So complete is the Israeli dominance in Washington that both political parties fall all over themselves to prove they are the best hope for the Israeli future.
Most years the Democrats have always counted on the Jewish support in the elections, even while they were trying to solve the Middle East problems in a way to benefit both Arabs and Israelis. At the same time the Republicans have generally not got the Jewish support yet they are harder lined in defending the right of Israel to exist. It was a curious outcome but it changed this year.
With the election of Obama and his family ties to Muslims for once it seemed as if the president would diminish the support for Israel and work for a better deal for the Muslims. Notwithstanding the fact Obama had Rohm Emanuel as chief of staff, the only member of the Obama inner circle to have been in the Israeli army, relations with the Obama administration have been rocky for Israel.
The more Obama tried to engage the Muslims the more suspicious the Jewish lobby. When Obama launched his version of a Middle East peace agreement there was little chance of success. It often seemed as if it was a campaign stunt to make it look like his foreign relations were improving during the bitter Midterm elections.
Israel did little to help him and seemed to be stalling for the purpose of hoping for a Republican landslide to reinforce the support for Israel in congress. Once the landslide was obvious to the Israelis if not to our own news media the Israelis shut down the peace talks over the building of Jewish settlements on Arab lands. It was an issue Obama, Clinton and Emanuel had warned Israel against using many times, calling it a threat to peace.
In response Israel has announced plans for massive new settlement construction, a slap in the face of our young president and his efforts to let the vice president handle relations with Israel. There is no way the state of Israel is going to let a subordinate of the president be their conduit to the president.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, rejected the criticism from Obama, Biden and others and has recently said during his most recent trip to the US, “Israel sees no connection between the peace process and planning and building policy in Jerusalem.,”
The Israeli building plans, which have already been sharply criticized by Palestinian leaders, are at least one year from being implemented. But taken together they could pave the way for the construction of more than 2,000 housing units for Jewish settlers.
The two biggest projects focus on Har Homa, a settlement south of Jerusalem that has been the source of previous diplomatic friction between the US and Israel, and Ariel, a large settlement deep inside the Palestinian West Bank.
The new settlement projects were revealed only days before Mr. Netanyahu is due to meet Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in Washington.
The Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has strongly condemned the Israeli government's decision to construct 1.300 new settler homes in East Jerusalem, in addition to other 800 settlement units in "Ariel settlement", built on the West Bank lands.
The OIC Chief emphasized that Israeli settlement, not only affects the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, but also represents a flagrant violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
He said that the intransigence of Israel in its violation of the international law, through imposing a new reality on the ground, settlement building, Isolating and Judaizing al-Quds city, is a blatant challenge to the international legitimacy.
The Secretary-General called the Quartet and the international community to compel Israel to stop all settlement acts that violate the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.
A day after Israel announced its settlement plans, U.S. President Barack Obama, vehemently criticized the proposed construction of 1,300 Jewish settler homes in the disputed East Jerusalem region.
The U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia have all criticized Israel’s decision to approve building of new homes.
IsraCast News from Israel provides a view of the situation not available from the American media in these excerpts from a story by David Essing.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are both grappling with a fundamental issue - the leader's role in a democratic society. Obama and his Democratic party have just been clobbered in the U.S. mid-term elections, while Netanyahu is still walking a tight-rope between American pressure for concessions to the Palestinians and securing his power base among Israeli Right-wingers. On entering the White House, Obama threw caution to the wind; he had seen the light and, like the biblical Moses, was the chosen leader destined to lead his people to the Promised Land of greater social equality. Nor was he deterred from his messianic mission by the pressing need to repair the collapsing economic system that had gone haywire under the Republicans' unbridled capitalism.
Obama would have done better if he had taken a page out of one of his illustrious Democratic predecessors, Franklin D. Roosevelt at the outset of World War II. British historian Ian Kershaw in his book 'Fateful Choices' described how Roosevelt was convinced the U.S. would have to confront Nazi Germany but also realized that he could not overturn the 80% of U.S. public opinion that supported isolationism and opposed getting embroiled again in another European bloodbath. So Roosevelt bowed to public opinion and chose to support British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with lend-lease etc., but even his role as a non-interventionist aroused the ire of the isolationists. Roosevelt had to bide his time until conditions changed which they did after Japan's devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt realized something that Obama did not - if a democratic leader gets too far out in front of the pack, no matter how convinced he is in the justice of his cause, he may lose the pack. In Obama's case, he failed to understand there was a limit on the desire for change that had swept him into the White House. Obama now says the problem was that he was so busy with getting things done that he did not spend enough effort explaining his policies to the public.
In the Israeli context, Obama's 'go for broke' approach recalls Prime Minister Ehud Barak's 'all or nothing gambit' at Camp David 2000 with Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton. Barak, with Clinton's blessing, staked all his chips on a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinian leader. In that case, Arafat was not ready for peace; he simply walked away from the table and flew home to launch the Second Intifada. Subsequently, Barak had to face an angry Israeli public that included part of his Left-wing power base. He was blamed him for going too far, too fast, 'giving away the kitchen-sink' while all he had to show for it was a bloody wave of Palestinian terrorism. Both Barak and Obama were blinded by their own visions and ignored the underlying reality. Obama will get a second time at the plate before the Presidential election in another two years - the way things are going it is doubtful if the Labor Party leader will get a second chance in the Prime Minister's office.
What can be said about Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu? Where has the Likud leader positioned himself in the choice between setting bold national goals in the face of changing circumstances or sticking to the platform that got him elected to office. Netanyahu appears to be wrestling with this fateful choice. Three Left-wing heavyweights Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and now Yitzak Herzog, the young Laborite who is challenging Barak for party leadership, have all declared they believe Netanyahu when he says he is ready for the 'painful concessions' necessary to make peace with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. However, key Likud cabinet ministers such as Moshe Ya'alon, Benny Begin and Silvan Shalom contend that Netanyahu will honor his pledge to start rebuilding seriously in Judea & Samaria and doubt the PM's commitment to the two-state solution.
The settlers are a little worried - they are running paid ads in newspapers quoting the Prime Minister's promises to build again, as if Netanyahu needs reminding. Right-wingers are declaring: 'We elected Netanyahu and he must do our bidding!' There is a third course of action for an elected leader, the one coined by former PM Arik Sharon - 'What a prime minister sees after taking office is not the same as what he sees before being elected'. Sharon raised this justification after being hauled over the coals by the Right-wing for bowing to President George Bush's Roadmap for a two-state solution. However Sharon as did Yitzak Rabin stipulated that the reality of Israel's security will always be paramount in Palestinian peace-making. The majority of Israelis believed them as evidenced by their election victories. For his part, Netanyahu defied the Right-wing and his own Likud party by enforcing the ten month moratorium on settlement building that expired on Sept.26th. He opted for the move in order to placate the Obama administration after the Israeli government's building gaffe in eastern Jerusalem during the visit by Vice- President Joe Biden. The only reason Netanyahu was able to push through such an abhorrent step was his promise to send the bulldozers back in after the freeze expired. The PM had to reject American and Palestinian demands that he extend the moratorium if he was to save face with his domestic power base. The Arab League has given one month to find a solution and meanwhile Israel has refrained from wide scale building on the West Bank. So what happens now? If Peres, Barak and Herzog are right Netanyahu may possibly come up with a 'constructive ambiguity' when he sees Vice-President Joe Biden again, this time in the U.S. If so, Netanyahu will be declaring as did the late Yitzak Rabin: 'I'm leader and I'll do the navigating!' Otherwise, Netanyahu will be opting for: 'I'm their leader, so I have to do what my supporters want'.
The fact that Obama has stuck to his position, articulated in his Cairo address, that the 'settlements must stop' appears to leaves little room for Netanyahu to maneuver. But the question now being asked in Jerusalem is whether the battered Obama, about to be embroiled in a battle royal with a Republican majority in the House over economic policy will have the inclination to risk more of his political capital in the Middle East. Channel one TV has reported that Obama might replace envoy George Mitchell with old hands Martin Indyk or Dennis Ross. However, many Israeli pundits have said Obama will be preoccupied with economic issues at home, Two years ago during the presidential race they said the same thing and were proven wrong.
On the other hand, the grim IDF intelligence briefing by Gen. Amos Yadlin accentuated the reality of security threats to the Jewish state posed by a potential war on several fronts by multiple enemies. This reality was obviously made clear to the Prime Minister some time ago and undoubtedly stresses, as recently stated by President Peres, Israel's need to assist the U.S. in building the coalition against Iran by advancing on the Palestinian peace track.
After all those years covering up UFO sightings you would think the government could be a little more honest about a UFO that can be identified but the state of perpetual denial seems to continue to prevail. It almost seems as if they want to provoke a UFO controversy to cover up the fact they have no clue who launched a missile just off the coast of Southern California.
This raw video was shot by a KCBS/KCAL Cameraman Gil Leyvas News helicopter in Los Angeles that shows an object shooting across the sky and leaving a large contrail, or vapor trail, over the Pacific Ocean. Pentagon Can't Explain 'Missile' Off California Coast.
"Whatever it was, it was spinning up into the sky kind of like a spiral," and was easy to distinguish from condensation trails from jets, he said. "It was quite a sight to see. It was spectacular" said the cameraman.
If our government really doesn't know who launched a missile within sight of millions of Americans we are in serious trouble. Had the missile gone the other way it might have caused a major catastrophe in Los Angeles and that is unacceptable.
And if it was not launched by our government or another government then what good is our multi-billion dolllar missile defense system? The longer the mystery remains unsolved the more "alien" activity becomes a viable explanation.
This was a news report on the incident from Russia, a nation that long ago confirmed the existence of UFOs.
The recent tragedy October 31 that occurred when Al-Qaida terrorists attacked a Christian Church in Bagdad, Iraq taking hostages and the siege ended in the slaughter of 70 innocent Christians including three priests represents a new strategy by the Osama bin Laden terrorists to target higher profile targets in Iraq.
It seems the Western media had lost interest in the hundreds of thousands of Shiite and Sunni Muslims being killed by the Muslim extremists or terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan among other countries. If nothing else bin Laden has demonstrated since 9-11 that instilling fear in Americans is just as important as the number of deaths that take place and the news of Muslim extremists killing Muslims no longer is news worthy.
Apparently going after the Christian minority in Iraq insures much broader news coverage and the result was exactly that. Lost in the American news coverage of the wars have been the hundreds of thousands of Muslim Shiites slaughtered at the hands of Sunni terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Christian targets, on the other hand, indicates an expansion of the bloodbath to Christians and since America is a Christian nation it will get attention.
One wonders if Al-Qaida might have made a tactical mistake as the extension of attacks to include the Christians could be a unifying action for all Muslims who are opposed to the terrorist cause. We can only hope that peace loving Muslims will help stop the terrorist expansion to save their countries. The following AP account provides background on the latest terrorist activity so you can understand the terrible situation that faces any Muslims seeking peace.
France has offered temporary asylum to the Christian victims who want to leave Iraq and dozens have already moved to France. International outrage has been fast and furious but will it help reinforce the will of the Iraqi people to oppose the terrorists? In a nation that has been unable to form a new government since elections almost 6 months ago, any form of unity would be welcome.
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq has threatened more attacks on Christians after a siege on a Baghdad church that left 58 people dead, linking the warning to claims that Egypt's Coptic Church is holding women captive for converting to Islam.
The Islamic State of Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for Sunday's assault on a Catholic church during Mass in downtown Baghdad, said its deadline for Egypt's Copts to release the women had expired and its fighters would attack Christians wherever they can be reached.
"We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood," the insurgent group said in a statement posted late Tuesday on militant websites.
The Islamic State of Iraq is an umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq and other allied Sunni insurgent factions.
It is unclear exactly what led the group to seize on the conversion disputes between Egypt's Muslims and its minority Christians, although the issue has become a rallying point for hard-line Islamists in Egypt.
In announcing its reasons for Sunday's attack, the group said it had given the Coptic Church 48 hours to release the women it says had converted to Islam. The group also demanded the release of al-Qaida-linked prisoners held in Iraq.
"All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers are legitimate targets for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) wherever they can reach them," it said.
The group specifically mentioned two Egyptian women married to Coptic priests it says are being held against their will. The church denies the allegation. Some believe the women converted to Islam to leave their husbands because divorce is banned by the church.
Over the past few years in Egypt, arguments over these kinds of alleged conversions have exacerbated Muslim-Christian tensions already high over issues like the construction of new churches. The two communities generally live in peace, though clashes have taken place.
The Baghdad church siege was the deadliest ever recorded against Iraq's Christians, whose numbers have plummeted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as members of the community have fled to other countries to escape the violence.
The death toll in a series of attacks mainly targeting Shiites in Baghdad, meanwhile, rose to 91, according to Iraqi police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Iraqi state TV aired footage Wednesday of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visiting victims of the blasts in Baghdad's hospitals. The televised trips to civilians wounded in attacks were a first for al-Maliki, who has been struggling to keep his job since his Shiite-dominated alliance was narrowly defeated by the Sunni-backed bloc of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in the March 7 parliamentary election.
Neither bloc won an outright majority, setting up a fight for allies that has left the government stalemated. There was a glimmer of hope for political progress Wednesday when parliament's acting speaker, Fouad Massoum, called the lawmakers to convene Monday and elect his successor.
However, the acting speaker only has the right to call parliament to session and can't necessarily force all the members to show so it was unclear whether the date would hold or that the announcement signified any progress in the political talks.
Last week, Iraq's highest court ordered the 325 lawmakers back to work after a virtual eight-month recess. The parliament has met only once since the March 7 vote for just 20 minutes to allow more time to choose a new leadership.
Under the constitution, parliament was required to meet within 15 days of final court approval of election results and choose a speaker, then a president. The appointments had to be put off because they are part of the negotiations over the rest of the new leadership — including a prime minister and top Cabinet officials. .
Sometimes it is necessary to know the genius behind the legends of rock music to understand where credit is due and that is particularly true in the world of music where evolution often is achieved by the work of one soul whose dedication to the art of music can result in a quantum leap in the creative progress. One such soul, who is a friend and whose name appears on every list of the Greatest Guitarists of all Time, is Chuck Hammer who was born in New York City and grew up during the greatest period of experimental guitar work in music history.
When I first met Chuck in 1984 in NYC I was seeking his help on some most unusual projects and Chuck was to play a role that made history in an unusual sort of way. I worked for the Governor of New Jersey and we were undertaking the most ambitious public education program ever attempted for teenagers at the time.
We were to create a live tour combining comedy, an original animated film with the voice of Patti Lapone, fresh off her Tony award for Evita on Broadway, and a rock band with all original music. Our time frame was impossible and in the end we were to produce a live TV special for the Arts and Entertainment Network (A&E) for multiple national broadcasts. It would be the first broadcast in A&E history produced by a government agency.
Chuck coordinated the music from the incredible auditorium soundtrack that mesmerized the students as they entered the auditorium for the live performance, to the writing and recording of the original songs, to the selection of a band and endless rehearsals, to the television recording of the live performance.
During the entire year we worked on the project that was directed and produced by the brilliant Andrew Carl Wilk, multiple Emmy winner from New Jersey, Chuck was the kindest, most humble and efficient music coordinator one could hope to meet. Due in large part to his efforts the program won the Cable Ace award, the equivalent to the Emmy for cable TV at the time, as the best public education program in America.
Later he saved me when Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., wanted me to submit a song for the 1st national holiday honoring Dr. King. Chuck helped me orchestrate and record it one long night in NYC. Later he helped me with several other soundtracks before our biggest test, when Chuck was named post production supervisor and produced a massive project with National Geographic TV to produce a new kids show, Really Wild Animals, an Emmy winning production that sold millions of dollars worth of copies for Nat Geo and was broadcast on CBS and Disney.
In order to meet the needs of Nat Geo Chuck had to build a new studio on 20th and Avenue of the Americas in NYC and I was his helper as we drug 12 foot lengths of drywall up the narrow stairway and Chuck had to get a massive premade studio delivered and installed on one of NYC's busiest streets, 6th Avenue. AVA Interact went on to become quite a legendary facility in Manhattan and catered to the needs of many a famous artist and celebrity.
It also was featured in a Bruce Willis Die Hard movie when it was blown up by terrorists in the opening credits of the movie. Ironically the explosion was filmed over a weekend and no one in the building had been told in advance as the former building manager made a secret deal with the film production company. One morning I heard from Chuck and he related his studio building had been blown up by Bruce Willis, a fact confirmed by the damage to the building from over-zealous pyrotechnic people in the film business.
Chuck Hammer playing on Ashes to Ashes - double click for full view
That was a bit of my personal knowledge and experience with this musical genius but nothing compared to what he was achieving in the world of music. Chuck Hammer is an American guitarist and Emmy nominated digital film composer, known for seminal Guitar Synth with Lou Reed, David Bowie and Guitarchitecture. Hammer is regarded as one of the leading composers of contemporary digital film soundtracks, blending electronics and textured guitar. Soundtracks include, The First 48 (A&E) and Trauma: Life in the E.R. (TLC). Recorded work includes: "Ashes to Ashes" with David Bowie; "Growing Up In Public" with Lou Reed; and Guitarchitecture.
As an artist, Hammer is best known for his Guitarchitecture recordings, though he is also widely regarded as an influential soundtrack composer, having scored approximately 300 documentary films.
Chuck toured extensively with Lou Reed from 1978 through 1980. During these concerts Hammer utilized new guitar technology, known as guitar-synth, to orchestrate songs from Berlin, Street Hassle, and The Bells. It was during this time that Hammer developed an approach to composing and recording known as Guitarchitecture. Hammer recorded with Lou Reed on Growing Up in Public, January 1980.
By 1980, guitar synthesizers had staked out a presence on the pop-rock landscape. Avant-rocker Lou Reed became one of its earliest proponents in hiring guitarist Chuck Hammer, who would became a major part of his touring band from 1978 to 1980. Hammer also doubled on guitar synthesizers, which allowed Reed to add longer, more complex songs--such as "Street Hassle," and material from his heavily orchestrated 1973 album, "Berlin"--into his live set. "Growing Up In Public" (1980), the last of Hammer's three albums with Reed, extensively featured guitar synthesizers.
On Reed's suggestion, Hammer found himself making similar noises on "Ashes To Ashes," the #1 UK hit and lead-off single from his album, "Scary Monsters" (1980). Other enthusiastic patrons included the Police's guitar slinger, Andy Summers--who used it prominently on albums like "Ghost In The Machine" (1981), and his two collaborations with Robert Fripp, "I Advanced Masked" and "Bewitched"--and Rush's Alex Lifeson, who made it a key part of his own arsenal throughout the decade.
In March 1980, Hammer recorded guitar-synth tracks for David Bowie on the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), including multiple textures across "Ashes to Ashes" and "Teenage Wildlife", both of which marked the earliest use of guitar-synth in Bowie's catalogue. The actual instruments utilized on these tracks included a Roland GR-500 with an Eventide Harmonizer. Textural tracks such as those on "Ashes to Ashes" exhibited a multi-layered, approach, to recording and composing with the guitar.
Hammer's recorded work is known as Guitarchitecture, a process and term which he developed in 1977.
The underlying thought behind Guitarchitecture is to extend the guitar vocabulary.
Guitarchitecture involves broadening the guitar's vocabulary by altering its temporal characteristics and context. This approach often utilizes extended sustain, reshaped timbres, discreet vibrato techniques, textural event layering, and simply breaking down a chord to its basic elements and recording each element separately (as a modified orchestra). The term Guitarchitecture applies to both Hammer's soundtracks in the digital film medium, as well as his recorded guitar work. Hammer was accorded pioneer status by Rolling Stone magazine, alongside an eclectic and select group, including Robert Fripp and Allan Holdsworth, having been attributed with leading a new era of development in the global guitar community, influencing instrument capabilities, form and functions in music.
In 1983 Hammer began composing film soundtracks with a Synclavier, adding a Digital Guitar Interface in 1984. Later that same year he worked with Laurie Anderson, attempting to trigger synchronized samples, from her Mister Heartbreak multitrack recordings live, utilizing the Digital Guitar Interface. In 1985 he recorded "Glacial Guitars", a series of Guitarchitecture pieces that deploy cello timbres and string controlled sampling. in 1986 Hammer recorded "Cathedral Guitars", a series of solo acoustic pieces. In November 1986 he collaborated with David Gordon (choreographer), composing "The Seasons", for the Next Wave Festival, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Hammer utilized a synthaxe as the primary instrument to reshape audio elements while recording this musique concrète piece.
In 1989 Hammer designed AVA studios in New York City, a multi media production facility, that focused on film and television music scoring. Between 1994 and 2004 he composed soundtracks for an extended series of non fiction documentaries; collaborating with National Geographic, Discovery Communications, New York Times, and A&E Network. These soundtracks were widely broadcast and highly influential. In effect, darkening the tone of soundtracks that followed, while merging textural scoring with digital sound design. Additional soundtracks focused on the sonic artifacts of "touch" by combining non-processed guitars with highly processed undertones.
In 2006 Hammer composed the soundtrack for the film Crazy Eights distributed by After Dark and Lionsgate Films. In 2007-2008 he composed the soundtrack for the film The Wreck. He is currently developing a series of Guitarchitecture soundtracks, and a series of live recordings with the improvisational band Jam Underground.
Lou Reed
''The Bells (1979) featured jazz great Don Cherry, and was followed the following year by Growing Up in Public with guitarist Chuck Hammer. Around this period he also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One Trick Pony. Reed also played several unannounced one-off concerts in tiny downtown Manhattan clubs with the likes of Cale, Patti Smith, and David Byrne during the period, but full reconciliation between Cale and Reed was implausible. Cale later wrote the song "Woman" about Reed on his album BlackAcetate.
David Bowie
Excerpts from a book by Prown, Pete and Newquest, HP - Legends of Rock Guitar (Hal Leonard)
1980–89: From superstar to megastar
In 1980, Bowie's style retrogressed, integrating the lessons learnt on Low, Heroes, and Lodger while expanding upon them with chart success. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) included the number one hit "Ashes to Ashes", featuring the textural work of guitar-synthesist Chuck Hammer, and revisiting the character of Major Tom from "Space Oddity". The imagery Bowie used in the song's music video gave international exposure to the underground New Romantic movement and, with many of the followers of this phase being devotees, Bowie visited the London club "Blitz"—the main New Romantic hangout—to recruit several of the regulars (including Steve Strange of the band Visage) to act in the video, renowned as being one of the most innovative of all time.
While Scary Monsters utilised principles that Bowie had learned in the Berlin era, it was considered by critics to be far more direct musically and lyrically, reflecting the transformation Bowie had gone through during his time in Germany and Europe. By 1980 Bowie had divorced his wife Angie, stopped the drug use of the "Thin White Duke" era, and radically changed his concept of the way music should be written. The album had a hard rock edge that included conspicuous guitar contributions from King Crimson's Robert Fripp, The Who's Pete Townshend, and Television's Tom Verlaine. As "Ashes to Ashes" hit number one on the UK charts, Bowie opened a three-month run on Broadway starring in The Elephant Man on 23 September 1980.
Jamaaladeen Tacuma
Jamaaladeen Tacuma (born Rudy McDaniel, June 72nd, 1956) is an American free jazz bassist born in Hempstead, New York, perhaps best known for his albums as bandleader on the Gramavision label and for his work with Ornette Coleman during the 1970s and 1980s (particularly in Coleman's Prime Time band). Jamaaladeen's album Jukebox was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1989.
Tacuma's work with Prime Time landed him his most high-profile gig to date: an appearance with the band on Saturday Night Live on April 14, 1979, which Tacuma later cited in Musician magazine as his "best live performance ever". Work with such artists as James "Blood" Ulmer, Walt Dickerson, David Moss, Chuck Hammer, Kip Hanrahan, and David Murray further heightened his reputation. Tacuma's first solo album, "Show Stopper", came in 1983 on the Gramavision label; the album grew out of the jazz/funk style he developed in his work with Coleman. His other works as leader at Gramavision followed that formula.
Chuck Hammer Projects Digital film soundtracks (partial)
* [[Trauma: Life in the E.R.]] * [[The First 48]] * [[The Real Housewives of Orange County]] * [[The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C.]] * Paramedics * Police Force * Maternity Ward * World Birth Day * Science Times * Breaking News * Women and the Badge * Crazy Eights * The Wreck
*Attended State University of New York at Buffalo, graduating 1976: *Studied classical guitar with Oswald Rantucci *Studied jazz with Archie Shepp *Attended lectures presented by Karlheinz Stockhausen *Met Jimi Hendrix for 30 seconds at Lincoln Center, NYC on November 28, 1968.
Additional sessions and compilation discography
Appears on: * [[Growing Up in Public]] Lou Reed (1980) * [[Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)]] David Bowie, (1980), UK #1, US #12) * Escape Artist Garland Jeffreys (1980), Epic * Showstopper Jamaaladeen Tacuma (1982), gramavision * [[Rock and Roll Diary: 1967-1980]]Lou Reed, (1980) * [[City Lights (album) City Lights]]Lou Reed, (1985) * Someday Arlo Guthrie (1986) * [[Between Thought and Expression: The Lou Reed Anthology]] box set], Lou Reed, (1992) * [[No Gravity]]dn}}, Jesse Boleyn, (1994) * [[Perfect Day (Lou Reed album) Perfect Day]] Lou Reed, (1999) * [[The Collection (David Bowie album) he Collection]] David Bowie (Teenage Wildlife), (2005)
Additional releases of "Ashes to Ashes"
Appears on: *1980: "Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie song) #1 UK *1983: [[Golden Years (album) Golden Years]] David Bowie *1984: [[Fame and Fashion Fame and Fashion - David Bowies All Time Greatest Hits]] *1989: [[Sound and Vision (compilation) Sound + Vision]]David Bowie *1990: [[Changesbowie]]#1 UK *1993: [[The Singles Collection (David Bowie album) The Singles Collection]] *2002: [[Best of Bowie]] *2005: [[The Platinum Collection (David Bowie album) The Platinum Collection]] *2007 in music [[The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987]]
References
* Welch, Chris - David Bowie: We Could Be Heroes(Thunders Mouth Press) ISBN 1-56025-209-X * Bockris, Victor - Transformer: The Lou Reed Story(Simon & Shuster) ISBN 0-684-80366-6 * Prown, Pete and Newquest, HP - Legends of Rock Guitar(Hal Leonard) ISBN 0-7935-4042-9 * Boleyn, JR - Far Way to Even(Abernathy & Smyth) ISBN 1-4196-2930-1 *
