Obama Calls for Increasing Payroll Taxes on ‘Households’ Earning Less Than $250,000 Per Year

Obama Calls for Increasing Payroll Taxes on ‘Households’ Earning Less Than $250,000 Per Year

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Read His Lips: Obama Calls for Increasing Payroll Taxes on ‘Households’ Earning Less Than $250,000 Per Year

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

(CNSNews.com) - President Obama presented a new health care plan on Monday that calls for raising the Medicare payroll tax on some households earning less than $250,000, an apparent breach of his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on families earning less than that amount. The president’s plan also calls for increasing taxes on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.

In a Sept. 12, 2008 campaign speech in Dover, N.H, Obama said: “And I can make a firm pledge: Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase—not your income taxes, not your payroll taxes, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

But the new health care plan released in summary form yesterday by the White House specifically calls for increasing the Medicare payroll tax on “households with incomes exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.”

Unless President Obama is prepared to say that the only type of “family” that qualifies as a “family” under his tax pledge is one that is formed around a "married couple filing jointly," then his new health care proposal violates his 2008 tax pledge on its face. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, makes clear that the “head of household” tax filing status is for “unmarried” taxpayers. A definition of the term “head of household” on the IRS Web site says: “Generally, you may claim head of household filing status on your tax return only if you are unmarried and pay more than 50% of the costs of keeping up a home for yourself and your dependent(s) or other qualifying individuals.”

The White House posted the president’s tax increase proposal as part of the summary of the new health-care reform bill he is proposing.

“Under current law, workers who earn a salary pay a flat tax of 1.45 percent of their wages to support the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund, but those who have substantial unearned income do not, raising issues of fairness,” says the summary of Title IX of the president’s proposal. “The Act will include an additional 0.9 percentage point Hospital Insurance tax for households with incomes exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. In addition, it would add a 2.9 percent tax for such high-income households to unearned income including interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents (excluding income from active participation in S corporations).”

Last August, after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers appeared on Sunday talk shows and seemed to float the possibility that Obama would violate his campaign promise by raising taxes on people earning less than $250,000, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs repeatedly and emphatically said that they president had made a commitment not to do so. At that time, Gibbs did not speak of the president’s tax pledge as if it applied only to “families,” but said the president had made a commitment not to raise taxes on “those making less than $250,000 a year.”

“Let me be precise: The president's clear commitment is not to raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year,” Gibbs said at the Aug. 3 White House press briefing.

When reporters pressed him on the issue, Gibbs said: “I am reiterating the president's clear commitment in the clearest terms possible, that he’s not raising taxes on those who make less than $250,000 a year.”

Obama-obsessed lef-wing prof kills 3 other profs;media buries story

Obama-obsessed lef-wing prof kills 3 other profs;media buries story

Obama-obsessed lef-wing prof kills 3 other profs;media buries story

michaelsavage.com

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Survivor Recalls Panic as Ala. Professor Opened Fire in Meeting

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Seconds after faculty members at an Alabama university forced their colleague out of the cramped conference room where police said she opened fire, the survivors huddled together and braced for what they feared would come next.

All that stood between them and disgruntled professor Amy Bishop — now charged with killing three University of Alabama in Huntsville faculty members and wounding three others — was a locked door and a table they used to barricade it shut. One of the survivors said he expected Bishop to shoot her way through their meager defenses at any moment.

"I didn't think I'd come out of the room alive," said Joseph Ng, an associate professor who was one of 12 people at the meeting when the shooting broke out Friday. "I don't think any of us thought we'd come out alive."

Killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and professors Adriel Johnson and Maria Ragland Davis. Two were wounded — professor Joseph Leahy remained in critical condition and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo was in serious condition Tuesday. The third, Luis Cruz-Vera, was released from the hospital.

Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, was arrested and charged with capital murder and attempted murder. She could face the death penalty, although the local prosecutor said he has not yet decided whether to pursue capital punishment.

Students say they complained to administrators about an Alabama professor accused of killing three colleagues and wounding three others in a shooting rampage during a faculty meeting.

The students upset with biology professor Amy Bishop told The Associated Press they went to University of Alabama in Huntsville administrators at least three times, complaining she was ineffective in the classroom and had odd, unsettling ways.

A petition signed by dozens of students was sent to the department head. But students said the complaints made a year ago didn't result in any changes in the classroom.

Bishop was denied tenure last year and was in her final semester when she was accused of shooting her colleagues to death Friday.

Since she was arrested on Friday, Bishop's case has taken several surprising twists as alarming details about her past were revealed, including that she fatally shot her brother in 1986 — a shooting that was ruled accidental at the time. On Tuesday, it was also revealed she was charged with assault in 2002.

The Alabama shootings erupted in the middle of a regular monthly faculty meeting on a quiet afternoon. Another attendee said the meeting was tranquil enough to allow him to focus on other work as he sat in the conference room that felt cramped with a dozen faculty members sitting elbow-to-elbow.

"It was an ordinary faculty meeting," said Robert O. Lawton, an ecology professor who was writing a manuscript on trees when the gunfire erupted. "And then it became unordinary."

That's when Bishop drew a gun and opened fire, Ng said. He heard a "pop-pop-pop" of a 9-millimeter handgun — it sounded like a Chinese firecracker, he'd later say — just before the room descended into a panic.

Bishop was targeting faculty members sitting closest to her, Ng said. As his injured colleagues went down, he and other survivors dived under the conference room table.

Then, within seconds, the shooting stopped, because her weapon had apparently jammed.

The lull gave the survivors an opportunity. Debra Moriarity, a biochemistry professor, scrambled toward Bishop and urged her to stop shooting, Ng said. Bishop aimed the gun directly at her and pulled the trigger, but it failed to shoot, he said.

Moriarity then led the charge that forced Bishop out the door.

"Moriarity was probably the one that saved our lives. She was the one that initiated the rush," Ng said. "It took a lot of guts to just go up to her."

The faculty members propped up the conference room table against the door and called authorities. Then they braced for her to return, but Bishop never came back — and Ng still isn't quite sure why.

"She could have killed everyone in the room," said Ng. "It could have been much worse."

The shootings in Alabama aren't the first time Bishop has been part of a criminal investigation. Authorities in Braintree, Massachusetts, said that in 1986 she killed her 18-year-old brother with a shotgun at their home. She told police she had been trying to learn how to use the gun when it accidentally discharged, and the killing was ruled an accident.

The current district attorney, William Keating, said Tuesday that newly found police reports show there was probable cause to arrest Bishop in 1986 on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of ammunition. But, Keating said, the reports do not contradict accounts that the shooting was an accident.

Bishop and her husband, James Anderson, were also questioned in 1993 by investigators looking into a pipe bomb sent to one of Bishop's colleagues, Dr. Paul Rosenberg, at Children's Hospital Boston. The bomb did not go off, and nobody was ever charged.

Then in 2002, Bishop was charged with assault, battery and disorderly conduct after a tirade at the International House of Pancakes restaurant in Peabody, Massachusetts. Peabody police Capt. Dennis Bonaiuto said that Bishop became incensed when she found out another woman had received the restaurant's last child booster seat. Bishop hit the woman while shouting, "I am Dr. Amy Bishop," according to the police report.

Bonaiuto said Bishop admitted to the assault in court, and the case was adjudicated — meaning the charges were eventually dismissed.

Some victims' relatives have questioned how Bishop was hired in 2003 after she was involved in previous criminal investigations, but university President David B. Williams and others defended the decision to hire her. He said a review of her personnel file and her hiring file raised no red flags.

Police ran a criminal background check Monday, he said, after she was charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder.

"Even now, nothing came up," Williams said.

Five Muslim Soldiers Arrested at Fort Jackson in South Carolina

Five Muslim Soldiers Arrested at Fort Jackson in South Carolina

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CBN Exclusive: Five Muslim Soldiers Arrested at Fort Jackson in South Carolina

CBN News terrorism correspondent Erick Stakelbeck has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas and are in custody. The five men were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base.

The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.

A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators the "Fort Jackson Five" may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, D.C.-area Muslims that traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops in December. That group was arrested by Pakistani authorities, also just before Christmas.

Coming as it does on the heels of November's Fort Hood jihadist massacre, this news has major implications.

College aquaintance: Obama was 'pure Marxist socialist'

College aquaintance: Obama was 'pure Marxist socialist'

College aquaintance: Obama was 'pure Marxist socialist'

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Obama, like Stalin, to seize mines, timber, coal

Obama, like Stalin, to seize mines, timber, coal

Obama, like Stalin, to seize mines, timber, coal

michaelsavage.com

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United States Forest Service

Modoc Plateau, located in the northeast corner of California and parts of Oregon and Nevada, is one site being considered for a new national monument (United States Forest Service).

William La Jeunesse

- FOXNews.com

- February 18, 2010

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Eyes Western Land for National Monuments, Angering Some

More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval.

More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval.

According to internal Department of Interior documents leaked to a Utah congressman and obtained exclusively by Fox News, the mostly public lands include Arizona deserts, California mountains, Montana prairies, New Mexico forests, Washington islands and the Great Basins of Nevada and Colorado -- totaling more than 13 million acres.

Sources say President Obama is likely to choose two or three sites from the list, depending on their size, conservation value and the development threat to each one's environment.

"Many nationally significant landscapes are worthy of inclusion in the NLCS (National Landscape Conservation System)," according to the draft report stamped NOT FOR RELEASE. "The areas listed below may be good candidates for National Monument designation and the Antiquities Act."

Click here to view a list of the sites and a brief description of each one.

Presidential use of the Antiquities Act is highly controversial because the White House, with the stroke of a pen, can lock up thousands of square miles of federal lands used for timber, ranching, mining and energy development without local input or congressional approval. The Act is generally interpreted to commemorate or protect a specific historical landmark, not prohibit development or deprive local communities of jobs and tax revenues.

"Any federal action that could lead to limited access should be done in an open and public manner using extraordinary caution," said Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., upon seeing the leaked report. "The fact that this administration is already circulating internal memos to bypass Congress and the public process is troubling."

In 1996, President Clinton turned 1.3 million acres of southern Utah into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument without telling the Arizona or Utah congressional delegation. Highly controversial at the time, the designation has withstood numerous legal challenges to the president's authority, and the national monument remains one of Clinton's boldest environmental accomplishments.

While Western politicians are still digesting the report, several properties stand out.

-- Otero Mesa, New Mexico: The area stretches over 1.2 million acres and is home to 1,000 native species. Gov. Bill Richardson has sought protection for Otero Mesa for years, but the Bush administration targeted it for oil and gas development.

-- Heart of the Great Basin, Nevada: Researchers call it a "globally unique assemblage of cultural, wildlife and historic values" that includes thousands of petroglyphs and stone artifacts dating back 12,000 years.

-- Owyhee Desert, Oregon: Called one of the most remote areas of the United States, the Owyhee is home to the largest herd of California bighorn sheep.

-- Bodie Hills, California: Located in the fast growing eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, Bodie contains the Golden State's best preserved ghost town. But the area is also loaded with gold, and several mining permits are pending.

-- The Modoc Plateau, California: Spanning close to 3 million acres in the northwest corner of California, the Modoc Plateau is "laden with biological and archeological treasures." Interior officials call it the second largest unprotected landscape in the state.

The list contains a number of political land mines for the president, according to a former Bush Interior Department appointee familiar with the document who asked to remain anonymous.

"Right now a number of senior officials are going over the report," he told Fox News. "When Clinton did it, most of the West was red states and he didn't have any blowback. Obama has to ask himself, if he chooses a Nevada location, will it hurt (Senator Harry) Reid's re-election. The same is true in almost every (Western) state where Democrats have made serious inroads."

The list was leaked just days after a story appeared in the New York Times outlining the administration's plans to use executive power to advance his agenda in the face of congressional opposition. "We are reviewing a list of presidential orders and directives to get the job done, across a front of issues," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told the newspaper.

Western representatives are planning a full-fledged assault on the report when Congress returns from its break next week.

Congressman Rob Bishop, R-Ut., co-founder of the Western States Coalition and now Chair of the Congressional Western Caucus, has also seen the leaked memo.

"We are taking this seriously. The tar is warming up. The pitchforks are ready. We will do what ever we need to make sure Congress is fully informed and fully aware of this action. This process should be open and transparent and President Obama should go though Congress and do it this the right way, not by presidential fiat," said Bishop.

"Outrage. In a country as dependent on foreign oil as this one, this kind of action on public lands is simply unacceptable."

Interior Department spokesman Craig Leff told Fox News late Wednesday the leaked document "reflects some brainstorming discussions within [the Bureau of Land Management], but no decisions have been made about which areas, if any, might merit more serious review and consideration."

OBAMA TO OUTSPEND FDR...

OBAMA TO OUTSPEND FDR...

OBAMA TO OUTSPEND FDR...

drudgereport.com

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Obama Defeats FDR (in Spending Other People’s Money)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

By Terence P. Jeffrey

Listen to Commentary Podcasts

After he signed a law last week authorizing the U.S. Treasury to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion, President Barack Obama delivered a characteristically sanctimonious speech. It was about his deep commitment to frugality.

“After a decade of profligacy, the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility,” he said. “It’s easy to get up in front of the cameras and rant against exploding deficits. What’s hard is actually getting deficits under control. But that’s what we must do. Like families across the country, we have to take responsibility for every dollar we spend.”

To put Obama’s Olympian hypocrisy in perspective, one need only examine the federal budget tables posted on the White House website by Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget.

They reveal these startling facts: When calculated by the average annual percentage of the Gross Domestic Product that he will spend during his presidency, Obama is on track to become the biggest-spending president since 1930, the earliest year reported on the OMB’s historical chart of spending as a percentage of GDP. When calculated by the average annual percentage of GDP he will borrow during his presidency, Obama is on track to become the greatest debter president since Franklin Roosevelt.

Obama will outspend and out-borrow the admittedly profligate George W. Bush, a man Obama and his lieutenants routinely malign for fiscal recklessness and who, when in office, was often hailed even by his allies as a Big Government Republican. Obama will even outspend—but not quite out-borrow—his fellow welfare-state liberal FDR, who had to contend with both the Depression and World War II.

In determining this was the case, I credited the presidents prior to Obama with the federal spending and borrowing that occurred during the fiscal years that started when they were in office. I credited Obama with the spending and borrowing that his own OMB estimates will occur during the fiscal years from 2010 to 2013, which are the four fiscal years starting during Obama’s four-year term. (Before fiscal 1977, fiscal years ran from July 1 to June 30. Since then, they have run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.)

FDR was inaugurated in March 1933 and died in April 1945. He is thus responsible for the 12 fiscal years from 1934 to 1945. During those years of depression and world war, according to OMB, federal spending averaged 19.35 percent of GDP. During Obama’s four fiscal years, OMB estimates spending will average 24.13 percent of GDP. That is about 25 percent more than under FDR.

In the first eight fiscal years of FDR’s presidency, before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, federal spending as a percentage of GDP never exceeded 12 (despite the Depression). During those years, it averaged only 9.85 percent. Under Obama, annual spending as a percentage of GDP will average almost two-and-a-half times that much.

In fiscal 1942, when the U.S. started dramatically ramping up expenditures to fight World War II, federal spending equaled 24.3 percent of GDP. In 2010, the first full fiscal year of the Obama era, spending will reach 25.4 percent of GDP.

Under current estimates, Obama will not beat FDR’s overall record for borrowing, although he will nearly double FDR’s pre-World War II rate of borrowing. From 1934-41, FDR ran annual deficits that averaged 3.56 percent of GDP. Obama, according to OMB, will run average annual deficits of 7.05 percent GDP. When you include the war years of 1942-45, FDR ran average annual deficits of 9.76 percent of GDP. Even without a world war, Obama’s overall prospective borrowing is at least competitive with FDR’s.

And Obama and FDR share one historic debt-accumulating distinction. By OMB’s calculation, they are the only two presidents since 1930 to run up annual deficits that reached double figures as a percentage of GDP. Obama will run up a deficit this year of 10.6 percent of GDP. The last time the deficit hit double digits as a percentage of GDP was 1945 -- when Germany and Japan surrendered.

The U.S. won the Cold War without ever running a double-digit deficit. President Reagan’s highest deficit was 6 percent of GDP in 1983 -- and he bankrupted the Soviet Union not the United States.

So how does Obama compare with the much-maligned George W. Bush? In Bush’s eight fiscal years, annual federal spending averaged 20.43 percent of GDP, significantly less than Obama’s estimated 24.13 percent of GDP.

Bush ran annual deficits that averaged 3.4 percent of GDP—and that includes fiscal 2009, when the deficit soared to 9.9 percent of GDP and Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus bill (some of which was spent in fiscal 2009) after Bush left office. Obama, according to OMB, will run deficits that average 7.05 percent of GDP—or more than twice the average deficits under Bush.

The bottom line on Obama: He puts our money where his mouth is.

Shopping Essentials ... Scam?

Shopping Essentials ... Scam?

Ok I wanted to share this with everyone…

Apparently I ordered something online and my credit card number was given to Shopping Essentials and my credit card was charged $19.95. I never signed up for this… I did some research and most of the people were complaining that they ordered something from well known websites and the same thing happened to them.

I called Shopping Essentials and asked the operator on the phone what her company does and she forgot the word “gift-cards”… Apparently this “company” does exclusive offers with gift cards??

Below is the phone number in case you need to get a hold of this company. They do ask you again for your credit card number to look up your customer number…Obviously don’t give that to them. One more thing she said I ordered this in October 2009 and it was just charged this past week.

Phone # 877-442-5774

Link to the website…
http://www.shopping-essentials.com/SSA/(rtgzghfiudxkr545v20oxgzv)/Page/PL_Home.aspx


Link to discussions about the scam…
http://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/tLOuD2dKBABnoQjKIaqHXw
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/shopping-essentials-c32320.html

Crippled boy, 4, forced to remove leg braces by TSA!

Crippled boy, 4, forced to remove leg braces by TSA!

Crippled boy, 4, forced to remove leg braces by TSA!

michaelsavage.com

link to the story

Posted on Mon, Feb. 15, 2010

Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill

By Daniel Rubin

Inquirer Columnist

Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.

Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.

Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.

The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.

Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.

The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.

The alarm went off.

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.

They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn't be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.

By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.

"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "

The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said.

Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.

A Philadelphia police officer approached and asked what the problem was. Thomas said he identified himself and said he was a Camden officer. The Philadelphia officer suggested he calm down and enjoy his vacation.

Back home in Glassboro a week later, Bob Thomas called the airport manager and left her what he calls a terse message.

He was still angry enough last week to call me after I'd written a couple of columns about travelers' complaints of mistreatment by screeners at the airport.

"This was just stupid," he told me.

At the very least, it was not standard procedure.

On Friday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.

TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials.

She said she wished Thomas had reported the matter to TSA immediately. "If screening is not properly done, we need to go back to that officer and offer retraining so it's corrected."

Davis also said TSA's security director at the airport, Bob Ellis, called Thomas last week to apologize. He gave Thomas the name of the agency's customer service representative, in case he has a problem at the airport in the future.

Afterward, Thomas said he appreciated Ellis' call. He said he had no interest in pursuing the matter further or in filing a lawsuit.

"I'm just looking for things to be done right," he said. "And I just want to make sure this isn't done to anyone else. Just abide by your standard operating procedures."

Iran's Hitler declares: 'We're a nuclear state'

Iran's Hitler declares: 'We're a nuclear state'

Iran's Hitler declares: 'We're a nuclear state'

michaelsavage.com

link to the story

Iran is now a 'nuclear state' says Ahmadinejad as thousands take to the streets

By Mail Foreign Service

Iran is now a 'nuclear state', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced this morning.

As Gordon Brown warned that the world's patience is wearing thin, Ahmadinejad told scores of cheering Iranians that the Islamic Republic is capable of producing weapons-grade uranium.

He spoke as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Despite fears of violence, opposition supporters found themselves largely overwhelmed by the clerical regime and pro-government demonstrators.

The massive security clampdown appeared to succeed in preventing protesters from converging into a cohesive demonstrations.

Large numbers of riot police, members of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militiamen, some on motorcycles, deployed in back streets near key squares and major avenues in the capital to move against protesters.

He said it had produced its first batch of 20 per cent enriched uranium - and had the capability to enrich to far higher levels at its Natanz plant.

Enriching uranium produces fuel for a nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons.

The international community has warned Iran against further enrichment activities, threatening new UN sanctions.

Today Gordon Brown again reiterated the threat of sanctions.

'I believe the mood around the world is now increasingly one where, patience not being inexhaustible, people are turning to look at the specific sanctions we can plan on Iran,' Mr Brown said.

'This is a critical time for Iran's relationship with the rest of the world.'

MrBrown said the international community did not want to impose sanctions but would do so if Iran did not cooperate more fully over its nuclear plans

The Iranian leader insisted the material was not intended to produce an atomic bomb, however.

'We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent (the level needed to create an atomic bomb),' he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

'But we don't enrich (to this level) because we don't need it...

'When we say we do not manufacture the bomb, we mean it, and we do not believe in manufacturing a bomb,' he told the crowd. 'If we wanted to manufacture a bomb we would announce it.'

Thousands of supporters had been brought in on buses to hear Ahmadinejad speak as security forces threatened to crush any opposition protests.

Witnesses say security forces fired paint balls to disperse anti-government protesters in one of the first clashes of the day's ceremonies.

The unrest began after protesters began to chant opposition slogans in Sadeqieh Square, which is about a half-mile (one kilometer) from a huge pro-government gathering where President Ahmadinejad delivered his speech.

Witnesses say there were no apparent injuries among the several hundred protesters.

Internet speeds around the capital dropped dramatically this morning as the government tried to foil demonstrations against the regime.

State television showed live footage of crowds carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei making their way to Azadi (freedom) Square in central Tehran, where the main gathering is being held.

Opposition members went on rooftops late Wednesday and shouted Allah-u-Akbar ('God is greatest') in protest - echoing similar cries after the disputed June election as well as anti-shah protests more than three decades ago.

'There is a heavy presence of security forces everywhere. Police trucks are at every major intersection,' said a witness in central Tehran. Police helicopters were flying over the city.

An opposition website, Iran Green Voice, reported large numbers of opposition supporters gathering in several cities, including Tehran and the northern city of Tabriz.

'In some parts of Tehran, opposition supporters are chanting 'Death to the Dictator'' the website said.

Security forces are equipped with water cannon to disperse opposition protests, the opposition website Jaras reported.

Other opposition websites spoke of groups of protesters in the hundreds, compared to much larger crowds in past demonstrations

One protester told The Associated Press she had tried to join the demonstrations but soon left in disappointment.

'There were 300 of us, maximum 500. Against 10,000 people,' she told an AP reporter outside Iran. She said there were few clashes.

'It means they won and we lost. They defeated us. They were able to gather so many people,' she said. 'But this doesn't mean we have been defeated for good. It's a defeat for now, today. We need time to regroup.'

Another protester insisted the opposition had come out in significant numbers, but 'the problem was that we were not able to gather in one place because they (security forces) were very violent.'

'Maybe people got scared,' he said. 'The idea wasn't to lose or win today ... But what is certain, today was not a good day.'

The opposition leaders have promised to join street rallies, including the Green movement founder and former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam said on Wednesday the Revolutionary Guards and Basij Islamic militia were ready for any incident.

'In case of any riots, public disturbance and disorder ... police will detain and keep rioters in prison until April 9,' an unnamed official told the semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday.

The Islamic state is facing its worst domestic crisis in three decades as opposition supporters have rallied round reformists who lost to Ahmadinejad in the election.

In recent months, the opposition has built its street protest strategy around days of important political or religious significance in attempts to embarrass authorities.

The tone of the rallies, however, has shifted from outrage over alleged fraud in President Ahmadinejad's re-election to wider calls against the entire Islamic system, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Neither side has shown much appetite for compromise in the eight months since the disputed June presidential vote, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Iran faces growing Western calls for targeted sanctions against it after Ahmadinejad ordered production of higher-grade uranium, stirring fears that Tehran aims to make nuclear bombs, not just fuel for civilian use as it says is the case.

The authorities, who say the poll was fair, have struggled to suppress the protests, and opened trials in recent weeks of people charged in connection with bloody riots on December 27.

Opposition leaders have said the trials were an attempt to deter people from taking part in protests today.

Iranian authorities again tried to squeeze off text messaging and Web links in attempts to cripple protest organisers. The opposition has used internet and text messaging as its main communication channels.

Internet service was sharply slowed, mobile phone service widely cut and there were repeated disruptions in popular instant messaging services such as Google chat.

But several Iranians reached by The Associated Press said some messenger services, including Yahoo!, and mobile phone texting were still sporadically accessible. Many Internet users said they could not log into their Gmail account, Google's e-mail service, since last week.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei yesterday promised Iran will deliver a ‘punch’ that will stun the West to mark today's celebrations

'We have heard from users in Iran that they are having trouble accessing Gmail,' said Google in a statement. 'We can confirm a sharp drop in traffic and we have looked at our own networks and found that they are working properly.'

An Iranian opposition website claimed today that security forces attacked opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi when he attended a rally.

'Karoubi was attacked by security forces in central Tehran... they shattered his car's windows ... Karoubi was not seriously injured,' Jaras website reported. The same website said security forces also attacked former president Mohammad Khatami.

The Islamic Republic has survived many challenges, not least a 1980-88 war started by Iraq's Saddam Hussein, whose forces were propped up by Gulf Arab oil money and Western weaponry.

But the national unity forged in that trauma has long given way to rifts within clerical and political elites that widened after the June election. Street protests have flared periodically ever since, sometimes around official rallies.

Attending February 11 events is a tradition for many in the country of 70 million, over half of whom have only ever known the Islamic Republic established by the revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

'If we all stay at home, our youngsters will be left alone on Bahman 22 (February 11). We should support them,' said Laleh, a 67-year-old housewife. 'I have nothing to lose.'

Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Wednesday her country faced a catastrophe that would wreck peace in the whole Middle East if what she called government repression of the people were not halted.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karoubi say the reform movement is alive despite pressure from the hardline rulers to disband. Karoubi predicted last month that Ahmadinejad would not be able to complete his four-year term.

'Even if he stays in power until the end of his term, he will be the weakest president since the revolution,' an Iranian analyst who did not want to be named said this week.

Security guards stand by as girl brutally attacked

Security guards stand by as girl brutally attacked

Security guards stand by as girl brutally attacked

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First on KING5: Guards stand by during brutal attack

by SUSANNAH FRAME / KING 5 News

Posted on February 9, 2010 at 10:19 PM

Updated yesterday at 9:33 AM

SEATTLE - The KING 5 Investigators have uncovered a disturbing video-tape captured on five different security cameras underneath downtown Seattle.

It shows the graphic beating of a teenage girl in Seattle's Metro bus tunnel, while uniformed security guards simply look on.

The trouble started above ground around 7 p.m. on January 28.

According to police reports, a group of teenagers approached a 15-year-old girl they knew inside Macy’s. The encounter turned antagonistic and moved on to the downtown Nordstrom. The group of 10 teenagers allegedly surrounded the girl and gave her a bad time about what she was wearing. According to police, one in the group threatened her by stating, “Bitch, I’ll kill you.”

The security camera video picks up the scene as the group of teenagers are seen heading into the Metro tunnel at the Westlake Station, apparently following the girl who had been threatened. One of the girls in the group, a 15-year-old who attends McClure Middle School in Seattle, approaches and within a few seconds, without warning, she pushes the victim off the platform and into the bus lanes.

The video shows the two girls hitting each other for a few seconds. Then, the scene gets vicious. The young attacker punches the victim in the head and face 10 times.

"It looks like a very egregious assault, which in fact it was," said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the case along with Metro Transit Police. "The two were acquaintances, and there probably is some teenage stuff going on (before the attack) but it certainly doesn’t warrant an assault like this by any stretch of the imagination."

The video clearly shows that all of this is taking place right in front of three security guards. They are well marked with bright yellow jackets that have SECURITY written on the back. While the victim is on the ground getting punched, the guards immediately reach for their radios and call for help, but they do little else.

After the victim is punched, the attack gets worse. The suspect then kicks the girl’s face and stomps on her head six times. The guards make no attempt to get in the middle of the girls or to pull the attacker away. One guard is seen in the distance looking on. He never approaches the scene. Another guard turns his back on the assault. The third stands just inches from the girls, looking on.

And the beating isn’t over. The attacker comes back without anyone trying to restrain her and stomps on the motionless girl’s head one final time.

The attacker and her crew of 10 others - eight boys and young men, and two girls - run up the tunnel escalators.

One of them is clutching the purse he stole from the unconscious teen. Two others have stolen her cell phone and iPod.

A woman who witnessed the entire ordeal from her seat in a bus parked in the tunnel talked to KING 5.

"All of the passengers, we were all up against the side looking, like, who is going to do something? Do something, do something!" said the witness. "Why on earth are there three security guards standing there watching it? And actually allowing her to come back and kick her in the head again!"

When the beating is over, you see on the tape that not one guard bends down to see if the victim is breathing or needs help.

"Really? You've got three male security guards and there's a young girl getting kicked in the head, lying on the ground, motionless? And they couldn't do anything? Doesn't seem like security," said the witness.

The guards are not trained police officers or Metro Transit employees. They're contract workers from Olympic Security Services out of Tukwila. KING 5 attempted to reach them today but didn’t receive a return phone call.

According to their contract, the guards are to "observe and report" problems, not to get involved. Metro Transit General Manager Kevin Desmond says that policy is now out of date.

"You look at what's happening to the victim and you say something got to be changed," said Desmond. "That's just not going to be acceptable. We've had that ‘observe and report’ for years in our contract and this incident clearly shows that we need to change that."

Metro Transit has launched a review to see what powers they should give the guards. They’re working with the King County Sheriff's Office to figure out how best to change the protocols.

"You don't see that kind of thing in Seattle. But it does happen. The question is how do we respond and how do we prevent it from happening in the future?" said Urquhart.

People who’ve seen the tape say common decency, not contract language, should have prevailed in this case.

"If you're not there to help out in these circumstances, then why are you there?" said the witness.

Metro Transit Police and King Co. Sheriff’s deputies worked around the clock to track down the suspects. School yearbooks, MySpace pages and Facebook helped lead them to those involved. Four people have been arrested so far, including the female attacker. A 17-year-old male is still at large.

Police say that amazingly the victim is going to be OK.

Dem popularity at historic lows

Dem popularity at historic lows

Dem Popularity At Historic Lows

February 10, 2010 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (37) | Share This

By Reid Wilson

For the first time since '02, GOPers lead the Washington Post's generic congressional ballot, giving Dems reason to worry about their electoral prospects this Fall.

48% of registered voters picked the GOP candidate when asked who they would cast a ballot for this year, while 45% said they would choose a Dem. That's the first time a GOP candidate has led among likely or registered voters since Oct. 27, '02, when the GOP sported a 49%-47% lead among likely voters.

Two years ago, just days before the '08 elections when Dems picked up 21 GOP-held seats, Dems led the generic ballot by 10 points among registered voters and by 6 points among likely voters. Voters still trust Dems to do a better job solving problems the country faces, by a 43%-37% margin, but that's well below even the margin by which the public backed Dems in Nov. '09, when they picked Dems by a 47%-31% margin.

A paltry 36% of voters said they would vote to re-elect their own members of Congress, while 56% said they would "look around" for someone new. That's the lowest level of support incumbent members of Congress have had since '97. And just 26% approve of the way Congress is doing its job, up from the 23% who said they like what Congress is doing in Jul. '08 but on par with how Americans felt about the Dem-controlled Congress just before they lost the majority in '94. That year, days before Election Day, only 21% of Americans viewed Congress favorably.

And, like '94 and '06, both years in which the party out of power picked up enough seats to caputre the majority, voters say they are becoming anti-incumbent. 48% now say they are against those who hold office at the moment, 6 points short of the percentage who felt that way in '94 and 5 points short of the mark in '06.

Voters have a 50% favorable/46% unfavorable view of the Dem party, its lowest rating in the same poll since '84, when Ronald Reagan won 49 states in a record-breaking landslide. Voters actually have a worse opinion of GOPers -- only 44% view the party favorably, compared with 52% who see them unfavorably. But the GOP has added 8 points to their popularity since the last time the question was asked, in Jun. '09.

Dems have done their best to characterize the convince their members to make the election a choice between the 2 parties, and voters would still pick Pres. Obama's agenda over the GOP's. A plurality say they trust Obama more than GOPers to handle the economy, health care reform, the federal budget deficit, the threat of terrorism and to create jobs.

But voters overwhelmingly see checks and balances in DC as a good thing. 57% said it is a good thing that GOPers now have 41 seats in the Senate, enough to sustain a filibuster and block controversial nominees and legislation. Just 36% said it was a bad thing the GOP could obstruct legislation.

'Imam' who served 14 years for murder caught smuggling razors into prison

'Imam' who served 14 years for murder caught smuggling razors into prison

'Imam' who served 14 years for murder caught smuggling razors into prison

michaelsavage.com

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Prison imam released without bail

By LAURA ITALIANO

Last Updated: 5:05 PM, February 9, 2010

Posted: 10:43 AM, February 9, 2010

He's out the door, but still on the hook.

A Correction Department chaplain with a murderous past was released without bail this afternoon, after Manhattan prosecutors failed to meet a deadline for winning a felony indictment on charges he smuggled three razor blades and a pair of scissors into a downtown lock-up where he works.

Imam Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, 58, can now remain free pending his next court date, April 27, by which time a grand jury may have voted on his case.

Abdu-Shahid had been incarcerated -- in a Suffolk County jail, to avoid his mingling with local inmates -- since his arrest last week, unable to post $50,000 bail.

Officials say they found the sharp objects in his duffel bag when he arrived at work at the Manhattan Detention Complex -- also known as "The Tombs."

The items were found after an X-ray machine alerted correction officers to the presence of metal in the bag, according to prosecutors.

His lawyer, James McQueeney, insisted the blades are not the kind of straight razors found in barbershops. Instead they are "some kind of small little razor things," as the lawyer described it to reporters this morning.

Abdu-Shahid intends to testify before the grand jury, and tell them that he had no idea the blades were in his bag, McQueeney said this morning.

While still not indicted, he remains charged with four counts of first-degree promoting prison contraband -- a felony carrying a maximum seven-year prison term. He served 14 years for a murder he committed during a robbery in the '70s.

Correction officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking information on Abdu-Shahid's work status.

D.C. snow will continue 'until Gore cries uncle'

D.C. snow will continue 'until Gore cries uncle'

D.C. snow will continue 'until Gore cries uncle'

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 Sen. Jim DeMint twitters: D.C. snow will continue 'until Al Gore cries uncle'

By Jordan Fabian - 02/09/10 01:24 PM ET

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Tuesday used the D.C. snowstorm to make a political jab, saying that it provides evidence for global warming skeptics.

The conservative senator took to Twitter on Tuesday amid reports that the area is due to receive another 10 to 20 inches of snow this week:

It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries "uncle"

Some conservatives have echoed DeMint's sentiments that the snowstorm should poke holes in evidence backing global warming.

DeMint took direct aim at the former vice president, who is one of the foremost proponents of government action to counter global warming.

Reports of more snow caused the House of Representatives to call off the rest of its votes scheduled for this week. The Washington, D.C. area was blanketed with about two feet of snow last weekend, causing the Senate to adjourn Thursday earlier than expected on Thursday.

The South Carolina senator was not the first Republican to use the snowstorm to make a political point. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas) said that absence of votes in the House is a plus for taxpayers.

Money for victims disappears from politicians' Katrina charity

Money for victims disappears from politicians' Katrina charity

Money for victims disappears from politicians' Katrina charity

michaelsavage.com

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AP

DOESN'T WASH: An appeal on behalf of '05 New Orleans flood victims by Gregory Meeks (left) and Malcolm Smith remained on the Web last week -- even though they can't account for cash they've already raised.

Updated: Mon., Feb. 8, 2010, 5:16 PM

Queens pols stiffed Katrina victims

By MELISSA KLEIN and ISABEL VINCENT

Last Updated: 5:16 PM, February 8, 2010

Posted: 3:27 AM, February 7, 2010

It's the Big Sleazy.

Devastated Hurricane Katrina survivors from New Orleans were left high and dry by a charity set up to help them by state Sen. Malcolm Smith and Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens.

Only $1,392 of at least $31,000 raised to help Katrina families was paid, tax records show, and just about everybody involved with the charity -- including the two Democratic pols -- claim ignorance as to where the rest of the money went.

Meeks said in a statement that "the funds were utilized to help sustain displaced evacuees," but refused to provide further detail. He said money was administered by an unidentified director and that "a committee of community representatives functioned as advisers to the fund."

SLOTS BIG A TAX DEADBEAT

HEFTY $1M TAKE FOR FLAKE

But three of those advisers said they had no idea whether cash was given out by the group, New Yorkers Organized to Assist Hurricane Families, or NOAH-F.

"I had nothing to do with any disbursement of any funds," said the Rev. Edward Davis, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of St. Albans in Queens. "I can't tell you. I don't know."

Another advisory board member, Candace Sandy, said she volunteered to help Katrina refugees living temporarily at a hotel near Kennedy Airport, but did not distribute money.

Sandy, who works for Meeks, said another advisory board member, Claude Stuart, was in charge of the money. Stuart did not return phone calls for comment.

Pamela Moore, chief-of-staff to Assemblywoman Barbara Clark, was listed as a member of the advisory board but said that it was a position in name only.

"I never attended any board meetings," she said, adding that she did not know if board meetings were even held.

Clark, a Queens Democrat, said she was upset about the charity's lack of accountability. "I'm very, very disturbed and disheartened," she said.

The lawmaker said she helped set up a gospel concert that raised $11,210 after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

"We turned this money over to the congressman [Meeks]," Clark said. "I don't know exactly how it was given out."

A source familiar with the charity's operation and books in 2005 said he was unaware of any money going to Katrina victims that year, and called the failure to help victims "disgusting."

"How could they take money that was supposed to go to those poor people?" the source said.

The NOAH-F group sprung up after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people -- 1,577 of them in Louisiana. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless. Some ended up in New York, holed up in hotels or with relatives.

Montiec Sizer, head of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, which is still helping Katrina victims, said charities that don't do what they're supposed to do make it harder for legitimate groups to raise money. "It makes the general public that much more skeptical when resources are not applied to their intended purpose," he said.

The Post reported last week that NOAH-F was under the auspices of a charity called New Direction Local Development Corp., based in Springfield Gardens, Queens, which was started with the help of Meeks and Smith.

The New Direction Web site says the mission of NOAH-F was to raise $270,000 for hurricane evacuees. Donations were directed to the offices of Meeks, Smith or Clark, whose photos still appeared on the site last week.

"NOAH-F plans to provide up to 30 families with full rent and utility payments for six months," it says.

The organization raised at least $31,000 and perhaps more.

The money included a $10,000 donation from the Hindu Temple Society in Queens and $5,000 from the Rent Stabilization Association of New York. The rent group made the donation after its director received a letter from Smith asking to help displaced families.

Meeks' congressional campaign gave NOAH-F two $5,000 donations in 2005, but canceled one of those contributions the next year.

The only accounting of any money spent on Katrina is a $1,392 grant paid in 2006 for "hurricane victim expense," according to New Direction's tax return.

Smith, through his spokesman, Austin Shafran, also washed his hands of any distribution of money to Katrina victims.

"He wasn't involved in any of the day-to-day operations of the group," Shafran said.

The Post revealed last week that Smith attempted to direct at least $105,000 in pork-barrel money to New Direction, whose mission was community development in the Far Rockaway area. Of that, the charity received $56,500 in state money from 2001 to 2006, according to the state Comptroller's Office. Most of those funds also are unaccounted for.

The charity's federal tax forms provide scant information on how it spent its money. No details were reported on who received grants and the only expenses listed were items such as funding for a senior appreciation week, basketball and double-dutch tournament -- plus $11,000 for "meals and entertainment."

The group also paid $9,004 in IRS penalties for late filing.

melissa.klein@nypost.com

U.N. 'global warming' report filled with even more errors

U.N. 'global warming' report filled with even more errors

U.N. 'global warming' report filled with even more errors

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New errors in IPCC climate change report

The United Nations panel on climate change is facing fresh criticism today as The Sunday Telegraph reveals new factual errors and poor sources of evidence in its influential report to government leaders.

By Richard Gray and Ben Leach

Published: 9:00PM GMT 06 Feb 2010

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report is supposed to be the world’s most authoritative scientific account of the scale of global warming.

But this paper has discovered a series of new flaws in it including:

The publication of inaccurate data on the potential of wave power to produce electricity around the world, which was wrongly attributed to the website of a commercial wave-energy company.

Claims based on information in press releases and newsletters.

New examples of statements based on student dissertations, two of which were unpublished.

More claims which were based on reports produced by environmental pressure groups.

They are the latest in a series of damaging revelations about the IPCC’s most recent report, published in 2007.

Last month, the panel was forced to issue a humiliating retraction after it emerged statements about the melting of Himalayan glaciers were inaccurate.

Last weekend, this paper revealed that the panel had based claims about disappearing mountain ice on anecdotal evidence in a student’s dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

And on Friday, it emerged that the IPCC’s panel had wrongly reported that more than half of the Netherlands was below sea level because it had failed to check information supplied by a Dutch government agency.

Researchers insist the errors are minor and do not impact on the overall conclusions about climate change.

However, senior scientists are now expressing concern at the way the IPCC compiles its reports and have hit out at the panel’s use of so-called “grey literature” — evidence from sources that have not been subjected to scientific ­scrutiny.

A new poll has revealed that public belief in climate change is weakening.The panel’s controversial chair, Rajendra Pachauri, pictured right, is facing pressure to resign over the affair.

The IPCC attempted to counter growing criticism by releasing a statement insisting that authors who contribute to its 3,000-page report are required to “critically assess and review the quality and validity of each source” when they use material from unpublished or non-peer-reviewed sources. Drafts of the reports are checked by scientific reviewers before they are subjected to line-by-line approval by the 130 member countries of the IPCC.

Despite these checks, a diagram used to demonstrate the potential for generating electricity from wave power has been found to contain numerous errors.

The source of information for the diagram was cited as the website of UK-based wave-energy company Wavegen. Yet the diagram on Wavegen’s website contains dramatically different figures for energy potential off Britain and Alaska and in the Bering Sea.

When contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, Wavegen insisted that the diagram on its website had not been changed. It added that it was not the original source of the data and had simply reproduced it on its website.

The diagram is widely cited in other literature as having come from a paper on wave energy produced by the Institute of Mechanical Engineering in 1991 along with data from the European Directory of Renewable Energy.

Experts claim that, had the IPCC checked the citation properly, it would have spotted the discrepancies.

It can also be revealed that claims made by the IPCC about the effects of global warming, and suggestions about ways it could be avoided, were partly based on information from ten dissertations by Masters students.

One unpublished dissertation was used to support the claim that sea-level rise could impact on people living in the Nile delta and other African coastal areas, although the main focus of the thesis, by a student at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, appears to have been the impact of computer software on environmental development.

The IPCC also made use of a report by US conservation group Defenders of Wildlife to state that salmon in US streams have been affected by rising temperatures. The panel has already come under fire for using information in reports by conservation charity the WWF.

Estimates of carbon-dioxide emissions from nuclear power stations and claims that suggested they were cheaper than coal or gas power stations were also taken from the website of the World Nuclear Association, rather than using independent scientific calculations.

Such revelations are creating growing public confusion over climate change. A poll by Ipsos on behalf of environmental consultancy firm Euro RSCG revealed that the proportion of the public who believe in the reality of climate change has dropped from 44 per cent to 31per cent in the past year.

The proportion of people who believe that climate change is a bit over-exaggerated rose from 22 per cent to 31per cent.

Climate scientists have expressed frustration with the IPCC’s use of unreliable evidence.

Alan Thorpe, chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, the biggest funder of climate science in the UK, said: “We should only be dealing with peer-reviewed literature. We open ourselves up to trouble if we start getting into hearsay and grey literature. We have enough research that has been peer-reviewed to provide evidence for climate change, so it is concerning that the IPCC has strayed from that.”

Professor Bob Watson, who chaired the IPCC before Dr Pachauri and is now chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, insisted that despite the errors there was little doubt that human-induced climate change was a reality.

But he called for changes in the way the IPCC compiles future reports.

“It is concerning that these mistakes have appeared in the IPCC report, but there is no doubt the earth’s climate is changing and the only way we can explain those changes is primarily human activity,” he said.

Mr Watson said that Dr Pachauri “cannot be personally blamed for one or two incorrect sentences in the IPCC report”, but stressed that the chairman must take responsibility for correcting errors.

Another row over the IPCC report emerged last night after Professor Roger Pielke Jnr, from Colorado University’s Centre for Science and Technology Policy Research, claimed its authors deliberately ignored a paper he wrote that contradicted the panel’s claims about the cost of climate-related natural disasters.

A document included a statement from an anonymous IPCC author saying that they believed Dr Pielke had changed his mind on the matter, when he had not.

Obama caves, Iran Hitler raves

Obama caves, Iran Hitler raves

Obama caves, Iran Hitler raves

michaelsavage.com

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Visiting enrichment laboratory

Limp Western- Israeli response to Iran's uranium enrichment hike

DEBKAfile Special Report February 8, 2010, 10:52 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tehran's decision to raise its uranium enrichment level to 20 percent - taking it weeks away from weapons-grade production - in the teeth of international objections, has raised no cries of outrage in Washington or Jerusalem. Asked Monday, Feb. 7, whether president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement brought military action any closer, US defense secretary Robert Gates said noncommittally: "If the international community will stand together and bring pressure to bear on the Iranian government, I believe there is still time for pressure and sanctions to work."

Gates pretended not to notice that the "international community" is deeply divided on this issue, with China and some European governments rooting against sanctions and Russia likely to join them. Tehran can therefore safely move forward without fear of the international community standing together on pressure.

The reaction from Jerusalem was even more flaccid: The Prime minister's office stated that that when Binyamin Netanyahu travelled to Moscow next week, he would raise the Iranian nuclear issue and sanctions and ask the Russians to continue to withhold the S-300 defense missile from Iran.

No comment was heard on Tehran's leap onto a higher level of uranium enrichment, or the fact that the fuel rods Moscow delivered two years for Iran's atomic reactor at Bushehr enabled the Islamic Republic to go into home-production of high-grade uranium fuel.

The West had plenty of time to do - or at least, say something, because Ahmadinejad gave advance warning of the enrichment hike three weeks ago. On Jan. 14, he promised "good news" about 20 percent enriched uranium to mark the celebrations of Iran's revolution Feb. 1-11.

Not only was nothing done to deter the Iranian president, but he was allowed to infer that Washington, Jerusalem and the Western powers no longer stand in the way of Iran's progress step by accelerated step towards a nuclear weapon, or challenge its president's posture as nuclear hero of the Muslim world, brave enough to defy America.