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Palestinians preventing Middle East peace deal, says Israeli deputy PM

Harriet Sherwood
Guardian UK
Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:41 UTC
Image
© Jim Hollander/Associated Press
Moshe Ya'alon Moshe Ya'alon said without Palestinian recognition of Israel there could be no resolution of the Middle East conflict.
Moshe Ya'alon says Israel is 'fed up of giving and giving' while Palestinians refuse to recognise Jewish nation state

An agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not happen in the next "one or two years", Israel's deputy prime minister said today, blaming the Palestinians for the lack of progress.

"We're fed up with giving and giving and giving, and not getting any real substance [in return]," said Moshe Ya'alon, the minister of strategic affairs, after this week's leak of secret documents on the peace talks. He dismissed the extensive concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, revealed in the documents, saying they were insignificant compared to the "core of the conflict - our right to exist".
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Green Light

US Supreme Court overturns lower court in record time! Rahm Emanuel CAN run for Chicago mayor


Ha'aretz
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:41 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Am I not charming?
Court reverses ruling by a lower court that had ordered Emanuel's name removed from the February 22 ballot, declaring he had not lived in Chicago long enough to qualify for the race.

United States President Barack Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is eligible to run for mayor of Chicago, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The court reversed a ruling by a lower court that had ordered Emanuel's name removed from the February 22 ballot, declaring he had not lived in Chicago long enough to qualify for the race.
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Cut

Republican senator favors cutting US aid to Israel

Donna Cassata
Tricity Herald
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 05:43 UTC
Image
© Associated Press
From left, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del. and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. sit on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011, prior to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
Wasington - Tea party-backed Republican Sen. Rand Paul favors cutting U.S. aid to Israel as part of a deficit-driven effort to slash government spending by $500 billion this year, drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans who argue the U.S. must be unwavering in its support for the longtime Mideast ally.

The freshman Kentucky lawmaker unveiled his budget proposal this week that would make significant cuts in education, housing and energy while reducing money for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by $16 billion. Paul's plan also would cut some $20 billion in overseas aid, and he said he wants to eliminate the $3 billion the United States provides to Israel annually in foreign military assistance.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with Senator Paul - our current fiscal crisis makes it impossible to continue the spending policies of the past," Paul spokesman Gary Howard said in a statement responding to the criticism. "We simply cannot afford to give money away, even to our allies, with so much debt mounting on a daily basis."
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Cookie

Kuwait ruler gifts money and food coupons to all his subjects!


Al Bawaba
Sat, 29 Jan 2011 05:40 UTC
Image
© Al Bawaba
Kuwait emir
Kuwait's ruler is giving 1,000 dinar ($3,559) grants and free food coupons for every citizen of his nation. The state news agency KUNA reported Monday that Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah has decided to hand out the gifts for all the 1 million Kuwaiti citizens.

According to the AP, the decision covers newborns until Feb. 1. It excludes 2.2 million foreigner workers. The food program is expected to offer free staples such as rice, eggs and milk until March 2012.

Kuwait will next month mark the 50th anniversary of independence, 20th anniversary of liberation from Iraqi occupation under Saddam Hussein and the fifth anniversary of the emir's ascendance to power.
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USA

Egypt Protests: America's Secret Backing for Rebel Leaders Behind Uprising

Tim Ross
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:23 UTC
Image
© The Telegraph
Thousands of protesters continue to march on the streets of Egypt's cities and towns demanding the removal of Egyptian dictator Mubarak
The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning "regime change" for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.

On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.

The secret document in full

He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.
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MIB

Egypt protests: secret US document discloses support for protesters


UK Telegraph
Sat, 29 Jan 2011 04:50 UTC
Here is the secret document sent from the US Embassy in Cairo to Washington disclosing the extent of American support for the protesters behind the Egypt uprising.

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 002572 SIPDIS FOR NEA/ELA, R, S/P

AND H NSC FOR PASCUAL AND KUTCHA-HELBLING E.O. 12958: DECL:

12/30/2028 TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, EG SUBJECT: APRIL 6 ACTIVIST ON HIS

U.S. VISIT AND REGIME CHANGE IN EGYPT REF: A. CAIRO 2462 B.

CAIRO 2454 C. CAIRO 2431 Classified By: ECPO A/Mincouns
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Laptop

Mubarek Tries to Cut Off His People from the World

Johnny Punish
Veterans Today
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:23 UTC
Mubarek internet graphic
© Veterans Today
20th Century Mubarek Commits 21st Century Sin

Will U.S President Obama Take Action and Demand Mubarek Open his Net Borders?

"The whole dam thing has been shut down!" screamed a mad as hell Egyptian in the massive protest crowd today! Large parts of the Internet essentially went dark about midnight Egypt time after the government of President Hosni Mubarak, a longtime ally of Washington, ordered service providers and cell phone companies to shut down. "Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it," Vodafone, one of the largest cell phone carriers, in Egypt, said in a statement.

The oppressive Mubarkek has committed a cyber-mortal sin in trying to cut people off from what has become their personal cyber lives. Facebook and Twitter have become personal extensions of the 21st century citizen. But Muburek, being that he is over 80 years of age, does not seem to understand what century he's living in and thus will pay the ultimate price for this cyber-sin. He's done!

After all, this is about social networks that are beyond the reach of Mubarak and Mubarek doesn't get it.
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Chess

Ayn Rand Fanboy Paul Ryan Used Social Security "Hammock" to Put Himself Through College

Blue Texan
firedoglake
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:40 UTC
Image
© Unknown
John Galt would be outraged at his complacency and dependence.
Here's what fiscal fraud Paul Ryan (R-WI) said about Social Security in his State of the Union rebuttal.
This is a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency.
Turns out, when Ryan was an able-bodied young lad, he used that hammock to pay for his college education. (h/t Gottalaff)
On the day Paul Davis Ryan was born in 1970, President Richard Nixon unveiled his record-setting $200.8 billion federal budget proposal for the upcoming year - a budget that included a large increase in Social Security payments. [...]

One day as a 16 year old, Ryan came upon the lifeless body of his father. Paul Ryan, Sr. had died of a heart attack at age 55, leaving the Janesville Craig High School 10th grader, his three older brothers and sisters and his mother alone. It was Paul who told the family of his father's death. [...]

With his father's passing, young Paul collected Social Security benefits until age 18, which he put away for college.
College costs have skyrocketed since Ryan entered Miami University in 1988, yet Ryan wants to slash the very system that he benefited from because it produces "dependency."

Figures. This is a guy who requires his staffers to read Atlas Shrugged, and we now know that Ayn Rand was a big welfare queen herself.
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Cow

Full Deregulation of Roundup Ready Alfalfa Announced by USDA


Western Farm Press
Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:31 UTC
scorpiocarrot
© Treehugger
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced its decision to grant non-regulated status for alfalfa that has been genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide commercially known as Roundup.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced its decision to grant non-regulated status for alfalfa that has been genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide commercially known as Roundup.

"After conducting a thorough and transparent examination of alfalfa through a multi-alternative environmental impact statement (EIS) and several public comment opportunities, APHIS has determined that Roundup Ready alfalfa is as safe as traditionally bred alfalfa," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. "All of the alfalfa production stakeholders involved in this issue have stressed their willingness to work together to find solutions. We greatly appreciate and value the work they've done so far and will continue to provide support to the wide variety of sectors that make American agriculture successful."

After releasing a final EIS in December 2010, USDA took another step to ensure that this issue received the broadest examination before making its final decision. USDA brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss feasible strategies for coexistence between genetically engineered (GE), organic, and other non-GE stakeholders. The stakeholders helped to identify areas of consensus; issues where the group disagreed and opportunities for further dialogue exist; and areas where USDA could - or should - play an important and helpful role.
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Star of David

Israel Fears Regime Change in Egypt

Gil Yaron
Spiegel
Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:26 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Riot police in Cairo
Concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood

Israel is watching developments in Egypt with concern. The government is standing by autocratic Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, out of fear that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood could take power and start supplying arms to Hamas.

Israel is usually a country where politicians have an opinion on any topic, and vociferously so. But in recent days, Israel's leadership has been unusually silent on a certain question. No one, it seems, is willing to make an official comment on the ongoing unrest in Egypt, where protesters have been holding anti-government rallies. It's not because Israel does not care about the riots ravaging its southern neighbor -- on the contrary, Israeli news channels, normally prone to parochialism, have been closely following recent events in the Arab world, from Tunisia to Lebanon.
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