Black Panthers caught in fake hate-crime suit against whites

Black Panthers caught in fake hate-crime suit against whites

Black Panthers caught in fake hate-crime suit against whites

michaelsavage.com

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October 20, 2009

Megan Williams to recant Logan County sex-torture testimony

By Gary A. Harki

Staff writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Seven people pleaded guilty for their part in abusing Megan Williams -- but now Williams says that abuse never happened.

She will hold a press conference Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, to recant her claims of abuse, attorney Byron L. Potts, who represents Williams, told The Charleston Gazette on Tuesday night.

"She has decided she has been living this lie for approximately two years and she has decided to tell the truth," Potts said. "She fabricated the story and she did this in retaliation because she was having a relationship with one of them."

But former Logan County prosecutor Brian Abraham, who was in charge of the case, said no one ever went to jail because of Williams' statements.

Instead, Abraham said Tuesday night, he decided early in the case not to rely on Williams' statements, but on the physical evidence and the statements of the co-defendants.

"It's ironic to me that today she's saying she made all this up. At the time she was criticizing me for offering them plea agreements," Abraham said.

"This isn't to rejuvenate her 15 minutes of fame, but to regurgitate her 15 minutes of fame. Is she proposing to give back all the donations she got?"

State Police found Williams at the mobile home of Bobby Brewster and his mother, Frankie Brewster, on Sept. 8, 2007. She was in a relationship with Brewster.

According to the admissions of those eventually convicted, Williams was physically and sexually abused. She was beaten repeatedly, held against her will, burned with hot wax, stabbed in the leg, and forced to perform oral sex on at least two defendants.

"Each of them made statements incriminating themselves and others. When you sat back and looked at it in its entirety, there was a pretty clear picture of what had taken place," Abraham said.

"As she got hooked up with her family and with additional handlers joined in, she continued to embellish. But we had her original statements that she gave. For the most part, they were consistent with what the co-defendants said happened."

The Brewsters and Logan County residents George Messer, Alisha Burton, Karen Burton, Linnie Burton Jr. and Danny Combs each plead guilty to crimes for abusing Williams. The crimes ranged from simple battery to kidnapping, sexual assault and one hate crime charge.

Burton pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge for stabbing Williams in the ankle while saying, "This is what we do to niggers around here."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Seven people pleaded guilty for their part in abusing Megan Williams -- but now Williams says that abuse never happened.

She will hold a press conference Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, to recant her claims of abuse, attorney Byron L. Potts, who represents Williams, told The Charleston Gazette on Tuesday night.

"She has decided she has been living this lie for approximately two years and she has decided to tell the truth," Potts said. "She fabricated the story and she did this in retaliation because she was having a relationship with one of them."

But former Logan County prosecutor Brian Abraham, who was in charge of the case, said no one ever went to jail because of Williams' statements.

Instead, Abraham said Tuesday night, he decided early in the case not to rely on Williams' statements, but on the physical evidence and the statements of the co-defendants.

"It's ironic to me that today she's saying she made all this up. At the time she was criticizing me for offering them plea agreements," Abraham said.

"This isn't to rejuvenate her 15 minutes of fame, but to regurgitate her 15 minutes of fame. Is she proposing to give back all the donations she got?"

State Police found Williams at the mobile home of Bobby Brewster and his mother, Frankie Brewster, on Sept. 8, 2007. She was in a relationship with Brewster.

According to the admissions of those eventually convicted, Williams was physically and sexually abused. She was beaten repeatedly, held against her will, burned with hot wax, stabbed in the leg, and forced to perform oral sex on at least two defendants.

"Each of them made statements incriminating themselves and others. When you sat back and looked at it in its entirety, there was a pretty clear picture of what had taken place," Abraham said.

"As she got hooked up with her family and with additional handlers joined in, she continued to embellish. But we had her original statements that she gave. For the most part, they were consistent with what the co-defendants said happened."

The Brewsters and Logan County residents George Messer, Alisha Burton, Karen Burton, Linnie Burton Jr. and Danny Combs each plead guilty to crimes for abusing Williams. The crimes ranged from simple battery to kidnapping, sexual assault and one hate crime charge.

Burton pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge for stabbing Williams in the ankle while saying, "This is what we do to niggers around here."

At the time of the plea deals, Megan Williams, her adopted mother Carmen Williams, and her adviser Malik Shabazz criticized the plea agreements, claiming they were too light a punishment. Shabazz, co-founder of Black Lawyers for Justice and a member of the New Black Panther Party, gave Williams and her family legal counsel.

The Williams family, Shabazz and others criticized Abraham for only pursuing a hate crime charge for Burton.

Now Williams claims she wasn't abused at all, Potts said.

"They did plead guilty, I don't know why," he said of the defendants. "This is what she's telling me."

Potts said he contacted current Logan County Prosecutor John Bennett to tell him Williams was recanting her testimony. The prosecutor gave Potts contact information for the lawyers of the defendants. Potts said he plans to contact each of them.

"It sounds to me that there are innocent people held in jail for something they did not do," Potts said. "I have no idea what convinced them to plead guilty."

He said Williams knows that by recanting her testimony, she could be prosecuted for lying about the incident.

"She still wants to come forward. She's been fully advised that she could potentially be charged and end up in the penitentiary herself," he said.

Potts said Megan Williams was manipulated by Carmen Williams and others after she was found at the Brewster home. Carmen Williams has since died. Megan's adoptive father, Matthew Williams, could not be reached late Tuesday.

"I know for a fact she has been manipulated," Potts said. "People raised money for her, she never received that money."

Abraham also believes Williams has been manipulated.

Six days after Williams was found, Abraham met with NAACP and black church leaders to discuss hate-crime charges in the case.

"I remember specifically telling them, 'Look fellas, be careful how far you go out on this limb, you may get sawed off. Be careful of what she's saying and what her family is saying,'" Abraham said.

At the time of the plea deals, Megan Williams, her adopted mother Carmen Williams, and her adviser Malik Shabazz criticized the plea agreements, claiming they were too light a punishment. Shabazz, co-founder of Black Lawyers for Justice and a member of the New Black Panther Party, gave Williams and her family legal counsel.

The Williams family, Shabazz and others criticized Abraham for only pursuing a hate crime charge for Burton.

Now Williams claims she wasn't abused at all, Potts said.

"They did plead guilty, I don't know why," he said of the defendants. "This is what she's telling me."

Potts said he contacted current Logan County Prosecutor John Bennett to tell him Williams was recanting her testimony. The prosecutor gave Potts contact information for the lawyers of the defendants. Potts said he plans to contact each of them.

"It sounds to me that there are innocent people held in jail for something they did not do," Potts said. "I have no idea what convinced them to plead guilty."

He said Williams knows that by recanting her testimony, she could be prosecuted for lying about the incident.

"She still wants to come forward. She's been fully advised that she could potentially be charged and end up in the penitentiary herself," he said.

Potts said Megan Williams was manipulated by Carmen Williams and others after she was found at the Brewster home. Carmen Williams has since died. Megan's adoptive father, Matthew Williams, could not be reached late Tuesday.

"I know for a fact she has been manipulated," Potts said. "People raised money for her, she never received that money."

Abraham also believes Williams has been manipulated.

Six days after Williams was found, Abraham met with NAACP and black church leaders to discuss hate-crime charges in the case.

"I remember specifically telling them, 'Look fellas, be careful how far you go out on this limb, you may get sawed off. Be careful of what she's saying and what her family is saying,'" Abraham said.

Mass. Man Charged With Alleged Terror Plot to Attack U.S. Shopping Malls

Mass. Man Charged With Alleged Terror Plot to Attack U.S. Shopping Malls

Mass. Man Charged With Alleged Terror Plot to Attack U.S. Shopping Malls

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A 27-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with conspiring with others to support and plan violent jihad in and outside the United States, including terror plots to attack U.S. shopping malls and U.S. military in Iraq.

Federal officials in Boston say Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury worked with others from 2001 to May of 2008 to provide support and resources in a conspiracy to "kill, kidnap, main or injure" people in foreign countries and to kill prominent U.S. politicians.

Mehanna was charged in a complaint with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, according to the Department of Justice.

The complaint further alleges that the co-conspirators attempted to radicalize others and inspire each other by, among other things, watching and distributing jihadi videos.

The charges accuse the suspects of talking about their desire to participate in Islamist holy war and of their desire to die on the battlefield.

The case comes less than a month after an Afghan-born man, Najibullah Zazi, was accused of plotting a bomb attack against the United States.

Click here for Video.

Federal prosecutors say Mehanna and his conspirators planned the logistics of a mall attack — including the possibility of attacking emergency responders. However, authorities say the plot was not carried out because they could not get automatic weapons.

"Mehanna and the co-conspirators had multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in a shopping mall, and that the conversations went so far as to discuss the logistics of a mall attack, including coordination, weapons needed and the possibility of attacking emergency responders," the Justice Department said.

Mehanna's attorney J.W. Carney Jr. did not immediately return calls for comment.

If convicted on the material support charge, Mehanna faces up to 15 years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said.

Mehanna was arrested in November 2008 for allegedly lying to authorities about the whereabouts of a man who trained with Al Qaeda members with the goal of overthrowing the Somali government.

In December 2006, Mehanna got a phone call from American Daniel Maldonado, who urged Mehanna to join him in Somalia, where he was training for jihad.

But when interviewed by FBI a few days later, he told FBI that Maldonado was in Egypt working for a Web site.

The FBI also interviewed Mehanna about a trip he and two othes made to Yemen in 2004.

The Associated Press and Fox News' Mike Levine contributed to this report.

Click here to read more on this story from MyFoxBoston.com.

Cleric Indicted In Alleged NYC Terror Plot

Cleric Indicted In Alleged NYC Terror Plot

Updated: 8:21 AM Oct 21, 2009

Cleric Indicted In Alleged NYC Terror Plot

A Muslim cleric and funeral director from New York has been indicted on charges that he lied to federal agents about a Colorado man who has been charged with plotting a terrorist attack in the city.

Posted: 8:21 AM Oct 21, 2009

NEW YORK (CNN) - A Muslim cleric and funeral director from New York has been indicted on charges that he lied to federal agents about a Colorado man who has been charged with plotting a terrorist attack in the city.

Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, was indicted late Monday on four counts of making false statements to federal agents, according to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Afzali's attorney, Ron Kuby, confirmed the indictment, but said he had not yet received a formal copy.

Afzali was charged in September with lying to the FBI in its investigation of Najibullah Zazi, who has since been charged with plotting a terrorist attack. Afzali pleaded not guilty at that time.

Afzali, who is from the New York borough of Queens, was released a few days after his arrest on $1.5 million bail. He is allowed to travel to work and the mosque for worship, and is under electronic monitoring.

Zazi, 24, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, were arrested in September by federal agents in Denver, Colorado. The elder Zazi also was charged with making false statements to investigators.

Najibullah Zazi was indicted 10 days later by a federal grand jury in New York on one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction - bombs - against unspecified targets in the the United States.

The Zazis have pleaded not guilty.

Investigators have said that the younger Zazi plotted to make bombs from household chemicals, and planned to be in New York "with the intent of using" a bomb on September 11.

In the indictment against Zazi, investigators said he purchased large quantities of beauty supply products and had notes on his laptop computer that included formulas for making triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, a highly volatile, highly explosive compound.

TATP can be made from widely available chemicals, including hydrogen peroxide; acetone, the main ingredient in nail polish remover; and muriatic acid, a diluted form of hydrochloric acid.

Zazi arrived in New York from Denver on September 10, but became suspicious that he was being tracked by law enforcement, authorities said. He bought an airline ticket and returned to Colorado on September 12.

If convicted, he could face life in prison.

– CNN's Deb Feyerick, Kiran Khalid and Emily Anderson contributed to this report.

Left-wing hate group calls patriots dangerous!

Left-wing hate group calls patriots dangerous!

Left-wing hate group calls patriots dangerous!

michaelsavage.com

Link to the story

READY TO REVOLT: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States

Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful

By ALAN MAIMON

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia.

In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find.

Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution.

More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.

It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet.

"The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them.

"We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you."

That type of rhetoric has caught the attention of groups that track extremist activity in the United States.

In a July report titled "Return of the Militias," the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center singled out Oath Keepers as "a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."

The Patriot movement, so named because its adherents believe the federal government has stepped on the constitutional ideals of the American Revolution, gained traction in the 1990s and has been closely linked to anti-government militia and white supremacist movements.

The movement is blamed for spawning Timothy McVeigh, who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.

"I'm not accusing Stewart Rhodes or any member of his group of being Timothy McVeigh or a future Timothy McVeigh," law center spokesman Mark Potok said. "But these kinds of conspiracy theories are what drive a small number of people to criminal violence. ... What's troubling about Oath Keepers is the idea that men and women armed and ordered to protect the public in this country are clearly being drawn into a world of false conspiracy theory."

Oath Keepers got some unwanted attention in April when an Oklahoma man loosely connected to the group was arrested for threatening violence at an anti-tax protest in Oklahoma City. Rhodes called the man "a nut" who had no real affiliation with his group.

Nonetheless, Potok's group now monitors Oath Keepers on its Web site blog "Hatewatch."

Oath Keepers is not preaching violence or government overthrow, Rhodes said. On the contrary, it is asking police and the military to lay down their arms in response to unlawful orders.

The group's Web site, www.oathkeepers.org, features videos and testimonials in which supporters compare President Barack Obama's America to Adolf Hitler's Germany. They also liken Obama to England's King George III during the American Revolution.

One member, in a videotaped speech at an event in Washington, D.C., calls Obama "the domestic enemy the Constitution is talking about."

According to the law center, militia groups are re-emerging in this country partly as a result of racial animosity toward Obama.

It's the "cross-pollinating" of extremist groups -- some racist, some not -- that is of concern, Potok said. As evidence that the danger is real, he points to several recent murders committed by men with anti-government or racist views.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reached a similar conclusion in a report earlier this year about the rise of right-wing extremism. The report said the nation's economic downturn and Obama's race are "unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment."

The homeland security report added that "disgruntled military veterans" might be vulnerable to recruitment by right-wing extremist groups.

That warning was enough to make Rhodes feel paranoid.

"They're accusing anybody who opposes Obama of being a racist or a potential terrorist," he said. "What they're saying is, 'We're coming after you.'"

The motto of Oath Keepers: "Not on our watch!"

The message Rhodes hears from the government: We're watching you.

Las Vegas police Lt. Kevin McMahill said his department's homeland security bureau isn't overly concerned with Oath Keepers at this point, even though Rhodes says several active-duty Las Vegas officers are members of the group.

"I wouldn't classify Oath Keepers as no threat at all, but I wouldn't classify them as a threat either," McMahill said. "There's always a chance an individual can step outside the boundaries of what an organization stands for and do something wrong."

Rhodes, a former firearms instructor, said he easily could have started Oath Keepers during the Bush administration, but his focus during those years was first on getting his law degree and then volunteering on the 2008 presidential campaign of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican in whose office Rhodes worked during the 1990s.

What Rhodes terms "the rise of executive privilege" during the post-9/11 years of the Bush presidency will in his opinion only accelerate with Obama in office. What's worse, he said, is that "gun-hating extremists" now control the White House.

Two things have happened since the Homeland Security Department and Southern Poverty Law Center released their reports on extremism: Membership of Oath Keepers has spiked dramatically. And Rhodes has had to do a lot of explaining.

"We're not a militia," he said. "And we're not part and parcel of the white supremacist movement. I loathe white supremacists."

Oath Keepers doesn't offer paramilitary training; nor does it have a military command structure. It instead has board members, which include directors in seven states and outreach coordinators to currently serving local and federal law enforcement and military personnel. The group's state director in Montana, who goes by the name Elias Alias, has said Montana and other states should consider seceding from the United States in protest of the federal government's conduct.

Leaders of the group will come together in Las Vegas starting Oct. 24 for the inaugural national conference of Oath Keepers.

Among the group's other leaders is Dave Freeman, an Army veteran and former Las Vegas police sergeant who spent more than 30 years with the Metropolitan Police Department.

For Freeman, Oath Keepers has become something of a family affair. He recruited his niece, a former police chief, to serve as state director for Oath Keepers in Massachusetts.

"When you believe in something, you have to do more than just pay it lip service," said Freeman, the group's Southern Nevada director and national peace officer liaison. "This is a crusade I believe in."

Another prominent Oath Keeper is former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who has long been an outspoken government critic.

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Mack a "longtime militia hero" who helped weaken gun control laws.

An incident earlier this year in rural Iowa, not inside the Washington Beltway, motivated Rhodes to start Oath Keepers.

He questioned why the Iowa National Guard planned to use residents of a small town to participate in training on door-to-door searches for weapons.

The Guard said the training was to help soldiers who might be asked to carry out similar searches in Iraq or Afghanistan.

But for Rhodes, it looked like preparation for a future declaration of martial law. It reminded him of the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when police officers reportedly confiscated legally owned firearms. What the government called emergency response after the levees broke, Rhodes saw as the imposition of martial law.

If it hadn't been for April 19 of this year, Oath Keepers might not have gained the notoriety it now has.

On the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington Green, the Massachusetts battle that started the American Revolution in 1775, a group of Oath Keepers went to the battle site and reaffirmed their pledge to the Constitution.

The gathering was mentioned in the Southern Poverty Law Center report because April 19 is also the anniversary of the deadly end to the federal siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993; and of the retaliatory bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

Rhodes and Potok have never talked, but if they did, they might find themselves speaking a different language.

"Let them say what they want to say, but April 19 has very much become a day for the extreme radical right," Potok said.

Rhodes couldn't disagree more.

"There are thousands of Americans who go to Lexington to watch re-enactments of people shooting at troops," Rhodes said. "But if you're a group of military and police there, they somehow find this offensive."

Rhodes said he hopes Oath Keepers members think about the lawfulness of day-to-day orders they receive.

For example, if a police officer feels he is being asked to do an illegal search of a home or vehicle, he should stand down.

Rhodes eventually wants to create a legal defense fund for Oath Keepers who are disciplined by their employers for defying orders they deem unlawful or immoral.

"The message to law enforcement is not to become a tool of oppression," he said.

Rhodes, a husband and father of five home-schooled children, said he gets hundreds of e-mails a day, mostly from people interested in knowing more about his group.

He also gets a lot of questions from "birthers" wanting to know if he thinks Obama is really an American citizen and from "truthers" asking whether he believes the attacks of 9/11 were an inside job. The group doesn't have an official position on either issue, he said.

Some of his responses to questions have turned would-be allies against him.

"I've been accused of being a traitor or a CIA operative because I'm not coming out and declaring that the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine is a biological weapon," he said.

Contact reporter Alan Maimon at amaimon @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0404.

ObamaCare's Tax on Work

ObamaCare's Tax on Work

ObamaCare's Tax on Work

Middle-income families will face a big marginal rate increase.

None of the new distortions that the Senate health-care bill will layer onto the already-distorted tax code have received the attention they deserve, but in particular its effects on marginal tax rates could use scrutiny. Incredibly, for those with lower incomes, ObamaCare will impose a penalty as high as 34% on . . . work.

Central to Max Baucus's plan—assuming the public option stays dead—is an insurance "exchange," through which individuals and families could choose from a menu of standardized policies offered at heavily subsidized rates, provided that their employers do not offer coverage. The subsidies are distributed on a sliding scale based on income, and according to the Congressional Budget Office 23 million people will participate a decade from now, at a cost to taxpayers of some $461 billion.

Think about a family of four earning $42,000 in 2016, which is between 150% and 200% of the federal poverty level. CBO says a mid-level "silver" plan will cost about $14,700 in premiums, of which the family will pay $2,600—since the government would pay the other $12,100. If the family breadwinner (or breadwinners, because the subsidies are based on combined gross income) then gets a raise or works overtime and wages rise to $54,000, the subsidy drops to $9,900. That amounts to an implicit 34% tax on each additional dollar of income.

Or consider a single worker earning $20,600 and buying an individual "silver" policy with a premium at $5,000. Again according to CBO, if his income rises to $26,500, his subsidy plummets to $2,700 from $4,400 (including a cost-sharing subsidy that goes away). This is a 29% marginal tax; moving to other income levels yields increases in the neighborhood of 20% to 23% for both individuals and families. Jim Capretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, calculates that when combined with other policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit that also phase out, the effective marginal rate would rise to nearly 70% at twice the poverty level.

The incentives for low-wage workers are especially perverse. The exchanges give them a huge break and then take it away gradually as their income goes up. Usually such phase-outs are used to make sure "the rich" don't benefit from IRS dispensations, but here they will have a giant effect on decisions about whether and how much to work, since each additional hour worked reduces the subsidy.

As CBO noted in a July health brief, "Higher [marginal] tax rates also reduce people's incentive to raise their income in other ways, such as working harder in the hope of winning raises; accepting new positions or responsibilities with higher compensation; or investing in their future earning capacity through education, training or other means." This disincentive effect will be especially hard on workers in the middle of their careers and who may not see the same potential for upward mobility as younger workers, but who could earn more through work and effort.

These marginal rate "cliffs" are also a sneaky way for Congress to lower the "scorable" cost of the bill without appearing to do so, because diminishing these rate hikes would boost the total cost of the subsidy. For the same reason, the subsidy is only extended to certain favored people, making it deeply unfair to those not allowed into the exchanges. Families earning identical amounts of money could pay wildly different taxes—a family earning $42,000 and getting insurance through an employer wouldn't receive close to $12,100 from the current tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage—while some families earning more money than others will pay significantly lower taxes.

This is an equity catastrophe waiting to happen—and senior Democrats know it. They're laying a political booby-trap that will transfer even more health spending to government after ObamaCare passes.

A far better and cleaner alternative would be to extend the same tax exclusions to individuals that employees receive if they get coverage from their employers. The current bias for one type of insurance has persisted for decades despite its unfairness and irrationality. But ObamaCare will keep all that, while in the process creating many new problems.

Somali Hardliners Whip Women for Wearing 'Deceptive' Bras...

Somali Hardliners Whip Women for Wearing 'Deceptive' Bras...

Somali Hardliners Whip Women for Wearing 'Deceptive' Bras...

thereligionofpeace.com

Link to the story

October 16, 2009

Somali Islamist "Youths" Whip Women for Wearing Bras

"Somalia's hardline Islamist group al-Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said on Friday.

.....Residents said gunmen had been rounding up any woman seen with a firm bust and then had them publicly whipped by masked men. The women were then told to remove their bras and shake their breasts.

"Al-Shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts," a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters had been whipped on Thursday.

"They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women's chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat." SEE ARTICLE BELOW

So, according to breast obsessed muslim men (aka "youths"), a woman's wearing a bra is deception?

BUT THIS ISN'T?:

Men whipped for shaving, women made to shake breasts

Somali hardliners whip women for wearing bras

MOGADISHU (Reuters)

Somalia's hardline Islamist group al-Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said on Friday.

The insurgent group, which seeks to impose a strict form of sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia, amputated a foot and a hand each from two young men accused of robbery earlier this month. They have also banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer.

Residents said gunmen had been rounding up any woman seen with a firm bust and then had them publicly whipped by masked men. The women were then told to remove their bras and shake their breasts.

"Al-Shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts," a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters had been whipped on Thursday.

"They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women's chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat."

Officials of al-Shabaab, which Washington says is al-Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, declined to comment.

The group's hardline interpretation of Islamic law has shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims. Some residents, however, give the insurgents credit for restoring order to the regions under their control.

Al-Shabaab, which means "youth" in Arabic, control large swathes of south and central Somalia.

Abdullahi Hussein, a student in north Mogadishu, said his elder brother was thrown behind bars when he fought back a man who humiliated their sister by asking her to remove her bra.

"My brother was jailed after he wrestled with a man that had beaten my sister and forced her to remove her bra. He could not stand it," Hussein said.

Men were not spared the' moral cleansing'. Any man caught without a beard was been publicly whipped.

"I was beaten and my hair was cut off with a pair of scissors in the street," Hussein said.

"My trouser was also cut up to the knee. They accused me of shaving my beard but I am only 18. They have arrested dozens of men and women. You just find yourself being whipped by a masked man as soon as leave your house."

Muslim Teacher Beats Christian Girl with Stick...

Muslim Teacher Beats Christian Girl with Stick...

Muslim Teacher Beats Christian Girl with Stick...

thereligionofpeace.com

Link to the story

Christian Girl Attacked For Saying She’s Pakistani

Sunday, October 11, 2009 (8:49 am)

By Jawad Mazhar, BosNewsLife Special Correspondent reporting from Pakistan

DHAREMA, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)-- A Christian schoolgirl in Pakistan's Punjab province was recovering Sunday, October 11, after she was allegedly "ruthlessly beaten" with a bamboo stick by a Muslim headteacher for saying she is "a Pakistani" citizen.

The bedridden Nadia Iftikhar, 11, told BosNewsLife she was seriously injured when the teacher of the local evening coaching school 'Bright Future Academy' in the town of Dharema got angry because she challenged her views on Islam.

“Our teacher was teaching us about the culture of Pakistan and Pakistani people and quoted a sentence from the text book saying 'We are Pakistani and all of us are Muslims'," the girl recalled. "At this point I interrupted and said: "Madam, I am also a Pakistani, but not a Muslim instead I am a Christian."

The teacher, identified as Humaira Hassa, "got furious and grabbed a bamboo stick and started thrashing in a barbarian way and kept saying all Pakistanis are Muslim, you are not a Pakistani but a Christian," the girl said. "Your home land is some where in Europe or America," the teacher allegedly said.

Nadia added showed scars of the wounds at her back. Classmates said the girl briefly became unconscious, but was eventually brought home. The teacher could not be reached for comment.

NO POLICE

The girl's father, Iftikhar Masih, 45 said he did not went to local police. "I am an impoverished Christian man and am busy working for a daily wage to feed my family."

Local Christians in Punjab province have also complained of police complicity in attacks against Christian believers. “However I have taken her to the doctor and and we believe that her injuries will be healed and she will be able to return to her school.”

It was not immediately clear whether the 6th grade girl would be welcomed again by the Bright Future Academy where she said she has been studying for three years.

The attack is no isolated incident in the tense province, Christians said. There have been protests in Punjab province against attacks on churches and individuals and alleged persecution by authorities.

LEADER ATTACKED

Recently Muslim militants reportedly invaded the home of regional church leader Joseph Pervaiz. "They came and were stealing a jewelry and millions of rupees from me," he told BosNewsLife.

Christian workers in Punjab province have also complained about discrimination. In of the most recent incidents last month a radical Muslim transporter allegedly expelled his Christian bus conductor from his job for asking short leave of about two hours to offer Sunday Prayers in a local church."

Mushtaq Gill's said he had been working as a bus conductor in the transport company, Dadial Travels, owned by "a radical Muslim man" for the last five years.

Muslim drivers, conductors, bus attendants and cleaners are usually granted leave on Friday to offer "their Islamic Friday Prayers," Gill said. "At certain times due to the lack of staff Dadial Transport Service comes to stand still and travellers also get annoyed."

Gill said his family are very devoted to Christianity. "We can not imagine missing even a single Sunday service." He was apparently dismissed, without due payment, after attending the church service anyway. The transport company has denied wrongdoing, saying his absence undermined its operations.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Yet, receiving compensation through a court appears difficult, with rights groups saying the justice system often colludes with Muslim militants. "There are for instance many Christians held behind bars for bootlegging," said Ghulam Masih whose son was detained October 4.

Police said Noman Masih was carrying 20 bottles of alcoholic drinks to his slum. He father has denied the charges sating police tried to extort money from his son. "Christians are allowed to carry alcohol anyway, Muslims are not," he added.

Christians comprise a minority in mainly Islamic Pakistan where Muslim militants have increased attempts to impose Muslim laws in several areas and to influence authorities, rights groups say.

Pakistan's government says it is cracking down on extremism. On Sunday, October 11, officials said the siege near the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is over. Commando forces raided a building where militants were holding more than 30 hostages just before dawn Sunday. Four militants, two soldiers and three hostages were killed during the operation. Another wounded militant was captured.

Jesse Jackson to Headline CAIR Banquet...

Jesse Jackson to Headline CAIR Banquet...

Jesse Jackson to Headline CAIR Banquet...

thereligionofpeace.com

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October 17, 2009

Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson to headline CAIR banquet next week

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced on Friday that none other than Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson will be headlining their annual banquet next Saturday. He will be sharing the stage with 1993 World Trade Center bombing unindicted co-conspirator Siraj Wahhaj. (HT: hourglass1941)

It would sure be unfortunate if Shakedown Jesse and his CAIR conspirators were met with some kind of protest outside the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Virginia next Saturday, October 24th at 7pm where the banquet is being held (just a block away from the Crystal City Metro Station):

No doubt CAIR put down considerable cash to bring Shakedown Jesse to town after four members of Congress demanded an investigation this week in response to the release of a new explosive expose, Muslim Mafia, by Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry. No doubt that's what prompted Obama Muslim adviser Dalia Mogahed (who we reported on last week) to back out of the banquet at the last minute.

As Daniel Pipes explains, this new book is based on 12,000 internal CAIR documents secretly obtained through an undercover investigation and destroys the prevailing myths about the Hamas front group, which was itself and its founders named unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial last year (continued below the fold):

--

Claim 1: According to Ibrahim Hooper, the organization's communications director, "CAIR has some 50,000 members." Fact: An internal memo prepared in June 2007 for a staff meeting reports that the organization had precisely 5,133 members, about one-tenth Hooper's exaggerated number.

Claim 2: CAIR is a "grass-roots organization" that depends financially on its members. Fact: According to an internal 2002 board meeting report, the organization received $33,000 in dues and $1,071,000 in donations. In other words, under 3 percent of its income derives from membership dues.

Claim 3: CAIR receives "no support from any overseas group or government." Fact: Gaubatz and Sperry report that 60 percent of CAIR's income derives from two dozen donors, most of whom live outside the United States. Specifically: $978,000 from the ruler of Dubai in 2002 in exchange for controlling interest in its headquarters property on New Jersey Avenue, a $500,000 gift from Saudi prince al-Waleed bin Talal and $112,000 in 2007 from Saudi prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad, at least $300,000 from the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, $250,000 from the Islamic Development Bank, and at least $17,000 from the American office of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization.

Claim 4: CAIR is an independent, domestic human rights group "similar to a Muslim NAACP." Fact: In a desperate search for funding, CAIR has offered its services to forward the commercial interests of foreign firms. This came to light in the aftermath of Dubai Ports World's failed effort to purchase six U.S. harbors in 2006 due to security fears. In response, CAIR's chairman traveled to Dubai and suggested to businessmen there: "Do not think about your contributions [to CAIR] as donations. Think about it from the perspective of rate of return. The investment of $50 million will give you billions of dollars in return for fifty years."

Taliban Threaten to Take Christian Women as 'Sex Slaves'

Taliban Threaten to Take Christian Women as 'Sex Slaves'

Taliban Threaten to Take Christian Women as 'Sex Slaves'

thereligionofpeace.com

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BREAKING NEWS: Taliban Threatens To Kill More Christians

Saturday, October 17, 2009 (4:40 am)

By Worthy News Chief International Correspondent Stefan J. Bos

SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)-- Fighters linked to the militant Taliban group have threatened to kill Christians and burn their homes in Pakistan's Punjab province if they don't meet their demands.

In a letter sent to the Christian community in the northeastern city of Sargodha, Taliban militants said Christians should convert to Islam, pay an Islamic tax imposed on religious minorities, known as 'Jizya tax', or leave the country.

If Christians refuse to accept these choices, Christians “will be killed, their property and homes will be burnt to ashes and their women treated as sex slaves,” said the letter, which was distributed to Worthy News and its partner agency BosNewsLife by rights group International Christian Concern (ICC). The Christians “themselves would be responsible for this,” the letter added.

News of the statement emerged as Pakistan's army prepared for a ground offensive elsewhere in Pakistan, in South Waziristan, following a string of brazen attacks, believed to be part of a Taliban campaign, that killed more than 150 people in the last two weeks.

IN CROSS-FIRE

Christians have been in the cross-fire or directly targeted by Islamic militants with links to the Taliban and al-Qaida. Militants have accused them of representing an evil Western religion and of supporting the U.S.-led war on terror.

It was not immediately clear which faction within the Taliban sent the threatening letter, but local Christian leaders apparently took the statement seriously.

Reverend Zaheer Khan, pastor of Maghoo Memorial Church, Reverend Aamir Azeem, pastor of United Christians Church and Reverend Zafar Akhter, pastor of United Presbyterian Church apparently each received a copy of threatening letter.

Other Christian institutions reportedly included St Peter’s Middle School, the Sargodha Institute of Technology, Sargodha Catholic High School, St John's Primary School and Fatima Hospital.

Besides these Christian institutions, the letter was also sent to a key center of Shiite Muslims, the Immam-Bar-Gha, ICC said. Shiites are a minority Muslim group in Pakistan where the majority of the population is Sunni Muslim.

"SOFT TARGETS"

ICC representative Jonathan Racho told Worthy News in a statement that "Christians in Pakistan are soft targets for attacks by Islamic extremists. Over the past four months alone, 12 Christians have been killed by Muslims due to their faith."

Racho said ICC has been “alarmed by the increase in attacks against Christians in Pakistan. We urge Pakistani officials to take the threatening letters seriously and take measures to protect the Christians and their institutions from attacks.”

ICC said it had urged Christians around the world to contact Pakistani embassies in their countries and express concern about the situation.

Obama's deficit triples record, on path to $9 trillion

Obama's deficit triples record, on path to $9 trillion

Obama's deficit triples record, on path to $9 trillion

michaelsavage.com

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2009 federal deficit surges to $1.42 trillion

Oct 17, 7:29 AM (ET)

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON (AP) - What is $1.42 trillion? It's more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada's, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

It's the federal budget deficit for 2009, more than three times the most red ink ever amassed in a single year.

And, some economists warn, unless the government makes hard decisions to cut spending or raise taxes, it could be the seeds of another economic crisis.

Treasury figures released Friday showed that the government spent $46.6 billion more in September than it took in, a month that normally records a surplus. That boosted the shortfall for the full fiscal year ending Sept. 30 to $1.42 trillion. The previous year's deficit was $459 billion.

As a percentage of U.S. economic output, it's the biggest deficit since World War II.

"The rudderless U.S. fiscal policy is the biggest long-term risk to the U.S. economy," says Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor and former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund. "As we accumulate more and more debt, we leave ourselves very vulnerable."

Forecasts of more red ink mean the federal government is heading toward spending 15 percent of its money by 2019 just to pay interest on the debt, up from 5 percent this fiscal year.

President Barack Obama has pledged to reduce the deficit once the Great Recession ends and the unemployment rate starts falling, but economists worry that the government lacks the will to make the hard political choices to get control of the imbalances.

Friday's report showed that the government paid $190 billion in interest over the last 12 months on Treasury securities sold to finance the federal debt. Experts say this tab could quadruple in a decade as the size of the government's total debt rises to $17.1 trillion by 2019.

Without significant budget cuts, that would crowd out government spending in such areas as transportation, law enforcement and education. Already, interest on the debt is the third-largest category of government spending, after the government's popular entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare, and the military.

As the biggest borrower in the world, the government has been the prime beneficiary of today's record low interest rates. The new budget report showed that interest payments fell by $62 billion this year even as the debt was soaring. Yields on three-month Treasury bills, sold every week by the Treasury to raise fresh cash to pay for maturing government debt, are now at 0.065 percent while six-month bills have fallen to 0.150 percent, the lowest ever in a half-century of selling these bills on a weekly basis.

The risk is that any significant increase in the rates at Treasury auctions could send the government's interest expenses soaring. That could happen several ways - higher inflation could push the Federal Reserve to increase the short-term interest rates it controls, or the dollar could slump in value, or a combination of both.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that the nation's debt held by investors both at home and abroad will increase by $9.1 trillion over the next decade, pushing the total to $17.1 trillion decade under Obama's spending plans.

The biggest factor behind this increase is the anticipated surge in government spending when the baby boomers retire and start receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits. Also contributing will be Obama's plans to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone except the wealthy.

The $1.42 trillion deficit for 2009 - which was less than the $1.75 trillion that Obama had projected in February - includes the cost of the government's financial sector bailout and the economic stimulus program passed in February. Individual and corporate income taxes dwindled as a result of the recession. Coupled with the impact of the Bush tax cuts earlier in the decade, tax revenues fell 16.6 percent, the biggest decline since 1932.

Immense as it was, many economists say the 2009 deficit was necessary to fight the financial crisis. But analysts worry about the long-term trajectory.

The administration estimates that government debt will reach 76.5 percent of gross domestic product - the value of all goods and services produced in the United States - in 2019. It stood at 41 percent of GDP last year. The record was 113 percent of GDP in 1945.

Much of that debt is in foreign hands. China holds the most - more than $800 billion. In all, investors - domestic and foreign - hold close to $8 trillion in what is called publicly held debt. There is another $4.4 trillion in government debt that is not held by investors but owed by the government to itself in the Social Security and other trust funds.

The CBO's 10-year deficit projections already have raised alarms among big investors such as the Chinese. If those investors started dumping their holdings, or even buying fewer U.S. Treasurys, the dollar's value could drop. The government would have to start paying higher interest rates to try to attract investors and bolster the dollar.

A lower dollar would cause prices of imported goods to rise. Inflation would surge. And higher interest rates would force consumers and companies to pay more to borrow to buy a house or a car or expand their business.

"We should be desperately worried about deficits of this size," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "The economic pain will be felt much sooner than people think, in the form of much higher interest rates and much higher rates of inflation."

If all that happened rapidly, it could send stock prices crashing and the economy tipping into recession. It could revive the pain of the 1970s, when the country battled stagflation - a toxic mix of inflation and economic stagnation.

Paul Volcker, then the chairman of the Federal Reserve, responded by raising interest rates to the highest levels since the Civil War in a determined effort to combat a decade-long bout of inflation. His campaign pushed banks' prime lending rate above 20 percent in 1981 and sent the country into what would be the longest post-World War II downturn before the current slump. Unemployment jumped to a postwar high of 10.8 percent in December 1982.

The battle against inflation, though, was won.

Most economists say we have time before any crisis hits. In part, that's because the recession erased worries about inflation for now. In its effort to stimulate the economy, the Fed cut a key interest rate to a record low last December and is expected to keep it there possibly through all of next year. Demand for loans by businesses and consumers is so weak that low rates are not seen as a recipe for inflation.

Some hold out hope that Congress and the administration will act before another crisis erupts.

Robert Reischauer, a former head of CBO, said that in an optimum scenario, Congress will tackle the deficits next year. A package of tax increases and spending cuts could be phased in starting in 2013 and gradually grow over the next decade.

The administration has pledged to include a deficit-reduction plan in its 2011 budget, which will go to Congress in February.

Stanley Collender, a budget expert at Qorvis Communications and a former staff aide to House and Senate budget committees, cautions that unless investors show nervousness about the debt, the budget debate next year could feature more posturing between the two parties than any real action to fix the problems.

But Alan Greenspan, who led the 1983 commission that made changes to avert a crisis in Social Security, said in an interview that he was optimistic that politicians will eventually work out a solution.

"I have always been a great supporter of Winston Churchill's statement about the United States," Greenspan said. "The United States can be counted on to do the right thing, after having tried all other conceivable alternatives."

Firefighter suspended for American flag on his locker

Firefighter suspended for American flag on his locker

Firefighter suspended for American flag on his locker

michaelsavage.com

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Firefighter Suspended Over Flag Sticker

Policy Arose When Another Firefighter Hung Cartoon

CHESTER, Pa. - A Chester City firefighter is taking heat after he refused to take the American flag off of his locker.

The firefighter is trying to go back to work Friday night after being suspended without pay Thursday for refusing to take the flag sticker off his locker, Fox 29's Sharon Crowley reported.

James Krapf took a photo of his locker with the sticker on it at the Chester Fire Dept.'s station, and he said he doesn't understand why his supervisor wants him to take it off.

Krapf said he's patriotic and many American flags hang around the firehouse.

He said he was told displaying the sticker on the outside of the locker is a violation of department policy. Personal items can be posted inside the lockers.

The firefighters' union said 11 other firefighters were warned they should remove personal items from the outside of lockers or face similar suspensions, all without pay.

The order came after an incident over the summer, when some firefighters complained about a cartoon posted at the firehouse. They found it racially-offensive.

"Our guys took it hard on 9/11 because that could be anyone of us on any given day, and they take that seriously" said union leader Stacy Landrum.

Krapf was suspended Thursday, and so far he's the only one who has been suspended.

"I shouldn't have to remove the flag of the country I believe in. I love my country," Krapf said. "I love my job. I love helping people. I've been doing this 11 years in the City of Chester, so this is something I love to do."

Fox 29 News tried to get answers directly from the fire commissioner Friday. He told a local newspaper banning all materials from locker doors was the simplest way to avoid bickering among the staff.

When Crowley asked to talk with him, she got the run around, being repeatedly told he would be out to talk with her. Then, she was told he changed his mind and had no comment.

"Commissioner, hi. Can you tell us why you won't talk to us because we've been out here all day?" Crowley asked.

"Yes, m'am, and I appreciate that," the commissioner said, as he rose from his desk during a cell phone call. "Thank you very much. We have no comment, and I think it's very rude that you barge into my office in the middle of a conversation."

Krapf said he hoped to meet with the fire commissioner and the mayor to resolve the issue, though he still wants to be able to display an American flag.

Democrats fight among selves over who to tax for health care

Democrats fight among selves over who to tax for health care

Democrats fight among selves over who to tax for health care

michaelsavage.com

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House, Senate Dems at odds on health care overhaul

Oct 18, 4:11 AM (ET)

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON (AP) - You may think Democrats and Republicans are at odds over health care. Well, they've got nothing on House and Senate Democrats going after each other.

The intraparty disputes may prove the most grueling test of all as Congress tries to write a bill that fulfills President Barack Obama's goal of extending coverage to millions of Americans and reining in rising medical costs.

The disagreements extend well beyond whether or not to allow the government to sell insurance in competition with the private market, though fissures over the so-called public plan - preferred in the House, less so in the Senate - have drawn the most attention.

Some of the toughest fights loom over what requirements employers should have to shoulder to see that their workers are covered, and perhaps stickiest of all, how to make coverage affordable and pay for extending it to millions of uninsured.

Senators would tax high-value health insurance plans to pay for covering the uninsured, an approach supporters say would curb health costs because it would lead to employers offering less generous benefits. The more populist House would tax the highest-income people, placing the burden of caring for the neediest Americans on the backs of millionaires.

"I don't know how you split that difference," said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "It's not just about numbers. These are philosophical differences about how you pay for reform."

Any showdown between the House and Senate is a ways off, and will happen only if both succeed in passing their own health bills. Democratic leaders in both houses are working to finalize their legislation - a process that is itself fraught with difficulties - in time to hold floor debates within the next several weeks.

Presuming the House and Senate do pass bills, they will go to a conference committee made up of Democratic leaders and key committee chairs from both chambers. There, with plenty of input from the White House, the most powerful members of Congress will fight it out in private.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., put it mildly this past week: "There are different views in the House," he said.

Democrats are increasingly optimistic about the possibility of success on health legislation, and they're quick to point out the many areas where the House and Senate legislation overlap.

Both are expected to carry price tags of about $900 billion over 10 years. Both would require almost all Americans to purchase insurance, and contemplate subsidies for lower-income people. Both set up new marketplaces or exchanges where individuals and small businesses can shop for and compare insurance plans. Both put new requirements on insurance companies, barring them from dropping sick people or refusing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Even within these commonalities there are differences that will have to be worked out in what are sure to be tough and lengthy negotiations. But the big sticking points are these:

_Government insurance

House Democrats are adamant about allowing the government to sell insurance to people who don't have affordable care and are too young for Medicare or make too much money for Medicaid. The leading Senate bill contains no such public option and even if senators ultimately agree to some public plan variant, it's certain to be much weaker than the House version. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has staked out an uncompromising position on the issue. "I want to send our conferees to the table with the most muscle for America's middle class," she says.

_Employer responsibility

The House includes a requirement for employers to provide insurance coverage to their employees or pay a penalty. There's no such mandate in the leading Senate bill. Instead, employers would be required to pay a fee for any employee who obtains coverage with government subsidies. The distinction may seem subtle, but it makes a big difference to business groups and Democrats on both ends of the ideological spectrum.

_Paying for the bill

In recent weeks, the issue of affordability has become central to the health overhaul debate, in part because it's a critical concern for Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who has considerable leverage as the only Republican in Congress to have voted in favor of Democratic health care legislation. The House offers more generous subsidies to lower-income people than the Senate, and senators have already talked about adjusting their subsidies upward. That's where the cost of the bill and the different methods used to pay for it in the House and Senate come in.

Senators favor taxing so-called "Cadillac" insurance plans - those costing more than $8,000 annually for individuals and $21,000 for families. They argue that the cost of paying for health care legislation should come from within the health care system, and that the insurance plan tax has the benefit of nudging people to use fewer medical services, which would get at the problem of overutilization of care, a major factor in the country's spiraling medical costs.

The Cadillac plan tax faces major opposition in the House, where more than 100 Democrats oppose it. Some of the opposition stems from organized labor which fears its members could be subject to the tax. House members say their approach - a tax on individuals making more than $500,000 a year and households making more than $1 million - is a fairer way to go and would find more favor with the public.

Some senators share concerns about the high-value insurance plan tax and have already decided to adjust it so more plans are exempt, according to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. But some senators are skeptical about making a small group of the highest-income Americans pay for everyone else, and they're adamant about the need to use a financing mechanism that would have the benefit of keeping down health care costs.

In the end, there may be only one way to settle that dispute and others, according to the No. 2 Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois: "I think at some point a fellow named Obama is going to be in the room."