World News

Today (Tuesday in China) is “Hawai‘i Day” at the USA Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.  Governor Linda Lingle, legislative leaders, representatives from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, the visitor industry and entertainers will officially kick off “Hawai‘i Week” at the Expo.  The Expo is expected to attract more than 70 million visitors, 86 percent of whom will come from China.

Yesterday (Monday in China), Governor Lingle spoke to over 300 members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai (AMCHAM) at its Distinguished Speakers Series.  The Governor covered a wide range of topics including Hawai‘i's progress in promoting clean energy, the status of direct flights from China to Honolulu, and the steps her Administration has taken to improve travel visa issuance procedures with the assistance of U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman.

This morning on MSNBC, former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL) pressed prominent Keynesian economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs on whether it was too early to declare President Obama's stimulus a failure. Scarborough had to ask the question twice, but Sachs finally relented: "Obama’s stimulus failed."

VIDEO: On the boat, the “peace activists” chant the popular Islamic battle cry, "khaiber khaiber ya yahood jaish muhammed saya'ud".

Khaibar was the last Jewish village defeated by Muhammad's army in 628. The battle marked the end of Jewish presence in Arabia.

Remember, they’re just piece activists.  Some are two-pieces activists, and others are many-tiny-little-pieces activists.

Any doubt that this week's "Freedom Flotilla" to Gaza was about politics – and not about providing aid to needy Palestinians in Gaza – was erased Wednesday when Hamas leaders refused to let the flotilla's cargo in.

Early Monday morning in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea, helicopters lowered Israeli Commandos onto a Turkish-flagged ferry carrying 600 passengers determined to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Beset by activists armed with poles, knives and guns, the Israelis defended themselves, and the resulting violence left at least nine dead. Hours later, the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report claiming that Iran now has enough nuclear fuel, with further enrichment, to make two nuclear weapons. These two stories are not unrelated. And they ought to serve as a signal to the Obama administration that it is time to change its approach to the region.

Was it, as some suggest, the plan of flotilla organizers all along?

It's worth remembering why the aid was being transported by sea in the first place. A convoy led by then-British MP George Galloway (Bought and paid for by Saddam Hussein via oil for food scam--AW) ended in violence at the Egyptian-Gaza border in early January after authorities delayed their entry into Gaza.

An Egyptian police officer was shot and killed by Hamas gunmen. Egypt deported Galloway, made it clear he was unwelcome there again, and told the convoy it could no longer enter through its crossing. Galloway's partner in that convoy was the Turkish-based International Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which helped lead the flotilla.

A fudgelike goo coating Louisiana's marshes. A thick oil slick stretching across the Gulf of Mexico. A plume of oil miles below the ocean surface. A tragic loss of life. Reverberating economic consequences. Throw in a poll that shows that 53 percent of Americans rate President Barack Obama "poor" or "very poor" in his handling of the Gulf oil spill, and it's no wonder the President yesterday broke his 308-day self-imposed press conference moratorium in hopes of conveying some semblance of leadership amid an environmental, economic and human catastrophe that has spiraled out of his control.

It isn't easy being Arizona these days, especially when President Barack Obama puts politics before Americans' interests, a foreign head of state before the United States, and an agenda of apology before much-needed, sensible reforms.

But that's just what happened this week when Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited Washington, DC. President Obama extended a warm hand to Calderon and demagogued Arizona’s illegal immigration law all in the name of politics.

The final tally will become clearer later this month, when Bank of Scotland, now part of Lloyd's Banking Group PLC, completes an auction for the debt on the property on the west side of Hawai'i, or, as it is known to locals, the Big Island. The price is expected to be in the $50 million-to-$100 million range, according to people involved in the process.

In 2006, at the height of the real-estate boom, a private appraiser valued the property, known as Hokuli'a, at between $600 million and $800 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The owner, Lyle Anderson, a Phoenix-based developer, has sold about one-third of the lots. But in early January, he defaulted on its debt, which was in the form of a $1 billion Bank of Scotland mortgage on Hokuli'a and five other less-valuable properties, according to people involved in the project's sale.

How this happened: Hokuli’a Settlement Exposed

“This trip to China is another important component in our ongoing effort to expand long-term economic development and business opportunities for Hawai‘i in the emerging China market,” said Governor Lingle.  “It is vital that our state continue to build and strengthen relationships in Asia, especially China, that will position Hawai‘i businesses and residents to capitalize on future economic and investment opportunities and strengthen our cultural and educational partnerships.”

On March 26 the White House released a fact sheet on the New START Treaty. It claimed that the agreement signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev "does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs."

But the Russians seem to have a different interpretation of the document they signed.

On March 15th, appearing with labor and environmental leaders, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a new alternative energy plan that he said would ensure the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power would meet his goal of securing 20% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar by December 31st. At the time, he claimed it would create 16,000 jobs and only raise consumer electric bills between 8.8% and 28.4%. But less than two weeks later those energy rate hike estimates had skyrocketed with the DWP saying it needed to raise rates by 37% in order to meet the renewable energy standards. Los Angeles' already shrinking business community revolted and by April Mayor Villaraigosa's plan had been soundly defeated.

Complete details for Hawaii military and overseas voters....

For five and a half years, the US has hunted for Ahmed Hashim Abed--code-named "Objective Amber."  Abed is the alleged ring-leader of an Islamist mob which murdered four US military contractors--including Pa`auilo resident Wesley Batalona--in Fallujah, Iraq on March 31, 2004....After being tracked for five and a half years by US personnel, Ahmed Hashim Abed was captured by Navy SEALS at the beginning of September....Then the complaining began. 

A recent study has found that global warming has impacted the nature of symptoms experienced by obsessive compulsive disorder patients. Climate change related obsessions and/or compulsions were identified in 28% of patients presenting with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Approximately 200 Soldiers assigned to Headquarters, Headquarters Company (HHC) and Bravo Company, 307th ESB, are deploying to Afghanistan for one year to provide signal support as part of the Operation Enduring Freedom surge.

Keynote speakers are scheduled to include Hawaii's Lt. Governor James R. "Duke" Aiona and Major General Susan S. Lawrence, Commanding General, United States Army Network Enterprise Technology Command and 9th Signal Command.

 Twenty years ago, the liberal intelligentsia in Europe and the United States rallied around Rushdie and denounced the murder threat. That took real courage. One of Rushdie's translators was murdered and another stabbed. Several Norwegian bookstores were bombed, a British hotel was attacked by a suicide bomber, and more than 50 people were killed in anti-Rushdie rioting around the world.

Despite the danger, Berman writes: "A good many intellectuals reached out to their endangered Arab and Muslim counterparts and colleagues, and celebrated the courage of everyone who refused to be intimidated."

In contrast, today, the intellectuals' reaction often is to target the victim.

Dennis Gonsalves, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, Hawaii, and professor emeritus of plant pathology at Cornell, detailed to the 63rd annual meeting of the Western Society of Weed Science in Hawaii how Hawaiian agriculture has done what no other ag sector has; win approval to market a genetically modified food crop in the U.S. and Japan.

Whether Saturday's failed attack turns out to be connected to Islamic radicalism or is the work of a lone wolf, there have now been 31 foiled terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11, eleven in New York City alone. Yesterday's plot was foiled by sheer luck and quick-thinking civilians. But luck is not an adequate strategy for protecting a nation.

By targeting the Hawaii assets of foreign citizens as subject to seizure to satisfy the Death Tax, the State’s land grab takes on whole new dimensions.  How many residents of Japan, Canada, or other countries—owning Hawaii property--are aware of the details of American Estate law?  Probably not very many.  But starting this week, if the Governor’s veto is overridden, their assets could be subject to seizure to satisfy a 55% death tax.  Properties or businesses worth more than $3.5 million would be taxed.

Back in the 70s, President Barack Obama's Director for Science and Technology Policy John Holdren even came up with a formula to measure capitalism's evil impact on the environment: I=PAT, which means that environmental impact is equal to population multiplied by affluence multiplied by technology. Thus according to the left, protecting the planet requires fewer people, less wealth and simpler technology. But this is just flat wrong. In fact, studies clearly show that important indicators of environmental quality actually improve as incomes and levels of consumption go up.

At the close of this week's nuclear summit, President Barack Obama told a press conference: "Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them."

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) responded to these comments, calling President Obama's remark a "direct contradiction to everything America believes in." McCain went on to tell Fox News:

That's one of the more incredible statements I've ever heard a president of the United States make in modern times. We are the dominant superpower, and we're the greatest force for good in the history of this country, and I thank God every day that we are a dominant superpower.

They waited six years for a chance to hear him in person on American soil. Now that they have, many are walking away frustrated from their encounters with Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna.

"For nearly 50 years, Hawai‘i has been at the forefront of pioneering programs in astronomy, planetary geosciences, broadband satellite communications, space-based environmental monitoring, and deep-space surveillance," said Lt. Governor James R. "Duke" Aiona, Jr., who represents Hawai‘i as a vice chairman of the national Aerospace States Association. "This new agreement builds upon a dynamic partnership with NASA that over the next three years will substantially increase Hawai‘i's competitive advantages and help to enhance our long-term economic prosperity."

President Obama's policy goals are just like President Reagan's. So why is anyone criticizing the White House's nuclear strategy? Because how we get to a nuke-free world matters.

Reagan knew that to eliminate the need for large nuclear arsenals, you must first start to eliminate the dependence -- both ours and others' -- on massive nuclear attack as the guarantor of security. That is why Reagan's first priority was to build up U.S. conventional forces and introduce missile defense. That allowed his negotiators to approach arms control agreements from a position of strength.

Just hours before President Barack Obama unveiled his Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that the Kremlin maintained the right to withdraw from the new START agreement if the United States pursued its missile defense program....

Unfortunately for Americans, President Obama’s new strategy will have the exact opposite result of its intended effect. Instead of incentivizing countries to give up nuclear ambitions, it creates new incentives for them to maintain or develop their own nuclear programs.

The New York Times reports: "Administration officials describing the draft treaty said its preamble recognized the relationship between offensive weapons and missile defense, but that the language was not binding." But the Times goes on to quote retired major general Vladimir Dvorkin who says Moscow will scrap the treaty if the U.S. pursues missile defense: "If, for example, the U.S. unilaterally deploys considerable amounts of missile defense, then Russia has the right to withdraw from the agreement because the spirit of the preamble has been violated."

Federal courts are slowly becoming a new battlefield in the war on terror, with combatants setting aside traditional weapons and arming themselves instead with domestic and international laws. Responding to this phenomenon, the inaugural meeting of The Lawfare Project convened last week in New York to discuss The Use of the Law as a Weapon of War.

Despite as many as 100 explosions which killed at least 38 people in Baghdad, Iraqis defied a desperate insurgency yesterday and turned out in strong numbers to choose a new Parliament. According to The New York Times, "turnout was higher than expected, and certainly higher than in the last parliamentary election in 2005. ... Sunnis who largely boycotted previous elections voted in force, and an intense competition for Shiite votes drove up participation in Baghdad and the south." The NYT went on to describe the election as "arguably the most open, most competitive election in the nation’s long history of colonial rule, dictatorship and war."

CBS News: U.S.-Born al Qaeda Arrest News Incorrect--Confusion Over Militant's Identity Sparked Reports of Gadahn Arrest; Some Media Say It is Another U.S.-Born Terrorist 

The latest attempt to force the U.S. economy to turn away from readily available, affordable fuels and leaving it to the tender mercies of untried, experimental and expensive technologies is a bipartisan effort by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). A legislative package from them, according to The Washington Post on Saturday, would individually cap how much traditional energy the main pillars of the American economy would be able to use. This would of course cripple our economy....

Big Island elected officials arriving to meet with Army representatives at Pohakuloa Training Area got a eye-opening surprise Wednesday morning  In addition to the usual gaggle of anti-Semites and 9-11 trooothers protesting against the military, they were greeted at the front gate by a dozen Big Island residents rallying to support the troops.

Previous Chilean earthquakes have produced deadly tsunami on the Big Island.  A 1960 Chile 9.6 magnitude quake caused a 30-foot wave in Hilo while a magnitude 8.0 quake in Chile in 1946 prompted 60 foot wave that devastated Laupahoehoe, sent wreckage into downtown Hilo, and destroyed the railroad along Hawaii’s east shores.

Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.  And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.

  ‘LAVA DOGS’, the 1st Battalion 3rd MARINES, and other forces deployed into Helmand Prov. AFG.  Lava Dogs are from Marine Corps Base, Hawaii and trained for Afghan combat at Pohakuloa last July. 

Holder replied: "Well, I mean, it's hard to interrogate him at this point now that he has a lawyer and now that he is here in the United States. But to the extent that we can get information from him, I think we should."

After a year of fairly steady criticism from the right, the Obama foreign policy received a second look--and a wave of rather favorable consideration--after his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, in which he acknowledged the existence of evil, the importance of America in sustaining peace, and the occasional necessity to wage war. This led to some enthusiastic talk about a new Obama Doctrine variously described as a kind of Christian realism, Niebuhrian tragic-mindedness, or a fusion of realism and idealism.

I hate to rain on this parade, but I find it hard to join the general swooning over this newfound foreign policy sophistication. It's good that we have a President who says publicly that Gandhi would not have done very well against Hitler, but is this really a great philosophical advance? For a President of the United States? It's the kind of issue that you dispose of in your first bull session in the freshman dorm.

VIDEO: “When we see what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I’m sayin’?”

The impoverished nation of Haiti needs your help.  Text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.  Yele Haiti Wyclef Jean's grassroots org  --  Text Yele to 501 501 to donate $5 via your cellphone

  A victim of Global Cooling lies on the frozen soil of South Florida.

Zazi, 24, an Afghan national was nabbed after sweeping raids on Queens apartment buildings in September. The raids turned up evidence of bomb-making materials, and Zazi was charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

 The President promised he would direct “our intelligence community immediately begin assigning specific responsibility for investigating all leads on high-priority threats so that these leads are pursued and acted upon aggressively — not just most of the time, but all of the time.” And he added: “In addition to the corrective efforts that I’ve ordered, I’ve directed agency heads to establish internal accountability reviews, and directed my national security staff to monitor their efforts.”

But this failure of our intelligence system was not just about lack of accountability. It was about empowerment - or more specifically the lack thereof. The system simply moved too slowly because there was a lack of urgency about the war on terror. Intelligence personnel were not empowered to employ their ingenuity and resourcefulness to connect the dots. Adding layers of “internal accountability reviews” will only make the bureaucratic stupor worse.

Mansor Mohammad Asad, 43, has been charged with threats against a public servant, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after the incident aboard Delta Airlines flight 2485, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Witnesses told investigators that Asad yelled anti-Semitic references such as, "I'm Palestinian and I want kill all the Jews," in Arabic. The pilot turned around as the plane was taxiing for take-off at 6:35 p.m., according to police.

Airport security--How the Israelis do it.

September 30, 2005 cartoon drawn by Westergaard became focal point of manufactured controversy starting in February, 2006.

The one church in Hawaii with which Obama does have a family connection is unlikely to be the place where the First Family would worship on Christmas Eve. As a child, Obama occasionally attended Sunday school classes at the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, and his family held a memorial service there for his grandmother last Christmas. Conservative critics were quick to point out that the First Unitarian Church has a controversial history — in 1969, the church offered sanctuary to servicemen who refused to go to Vietnam. The refuge was brief, however, as military police invaded church grounds to arrest the soldiers.

Yet despite the facts that PETN is easily detected and Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father warned the U.S. embassy in Nigeria about his son this November, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had the audacity to go on television yesterday and say “the system worked” and that the suspect was properly screened. The “system worked?” The 278 passengers on flight 253 could be dead today but for a faulty syringe and the Obama administration considers that a success? That is pure idiocy. Idiocy that is a direct threat to the security of this country and that goes to the heart of the Obama administration’s approach to the war on terror.

WASHINGTON — In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.  A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent several of its top field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.