Dreams Into Lightning 2

Morning Report: 2012-11-27

Libya: Muslim group kidnaps, threatens to kill alleged gays. Libya Herald:

Extremists say they will execute a dozen men they allege are homosexuals, whom they abducted last Thursday at a private party in Tripoli’s Ain Zara district.

A body calling itself the ‘Private Deterrent Force’, which is believed to be part of the extremist Nawasi brigade, one of Tripoli’s largest militias, has posted images of the men on their Facebook page. One picture (above) shows them, heads covered, standing with their hands against a wall. ...

Tajikistan: Government blocks Facebook to stifle critics. Reuters: 'Tajikistan has blocked access to Facebook in response to a slew of comments spreading "mud and slander" about veteran President Imomali Rakhmon and officials in the Central Asian republic. The ban on the popular social networking site is the latest crackdown on dissent in Tajikistan a year before an election that could extend Rakhmon's two-decade rule. ...'
Hungary: Far-right leader demands lists of Jews. Also from Reuters: 'A Hungarian far-right politician urged the government to draw up lists of Jews who pose a "national security risk", stirring outrage among Jewish leaders who saw echoes of fascist policies that led to the Holocaust. Marton Gyongyosi, a leader of Hungary's third-strongest political party Jobbik, said the list was necessary because of heightened tensions following the brief conflict in Gaza and should include members of parliament. ...'
Mexico: Ex-mayor found dead. Breitbart: 'Former Mexican Mayor Maria Santos Gorrostieta was found dead on the side of the road. Gorrostieta previously survived two assassination attempts. ...' She was known for her fearless activity against drug cartels in Tiquicheo.
Brazil: São Paulo police chiefs replaced. Miami Herald: 'The chiefs of police in Sao Paulo were replaced on Monday as Brazil's largest city emerged from a bloody weekend and authorities struggled to contain a wave of violence that has doubled the murder rate in recent months. Sao Paulo state security chief Fernando Grella, who took over the job four days ago, replaced the chiefs of the civil and military branches of the police and vowed to work closely with police, put more officers in the streets of Sao Paulo and investigate every murder. ...'

Morning Report: 2012-11-26

USA: New Obamacare challenge. Breitbart:

The Supreme Court has now reinstated a major challenge to Obamacare. Liberty University is challenging both the Individual Mandate and the Employer Mandate of the Affordable Care Act. (Of those two, the latter is even more damaging to the economy and job creation.) A liberal panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit had thrown out the case last year, saying that the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) does not permit any federal court to rule on the merits of challenges to the Individual Mandate until that requirement goes into effect in 2014.

In its Jun. 28 opinion in NFIB v. Sebelius, the justices unanimously rejected this AIA argument. So Mat Staver, who is both dean of Liberty's law school and chairman of the law firm representing the university, filed a petition for rehearing.

The Supreme Court granted that petition today. ...

Israel / international: Jewish self-defense, widespread anti-Semitism. Tablet: 'Despite the ability of Israel to cobble together a pretty impressive base of international support for its recent operation in Gaza, there were places where, almost by routine, the Israeli efforts were met by a surge of anti-Semitic reactions. ...' Atlas Shrugs has more.

Nigeria: Muslims blow up church, killing 11. Also from Atlas:

Two suicide attacks on a church in an army barracks in the northern Nigerian town of Jaji on Sunday left eleven people dead and 30 injured, the army said.

"Eleven people, mostly worshippers, were killed while 30 are in the hospitals with various degrees of injuries," national army spokesman Brigadier General Bola Koleosho told AFP.

A military officer who did not want to be named said the Protestant church was hit by two explosions.

"The first blast caused no casualties and curious worshippers gathered around the scene looking at the debris... and that was when the second blast happened," he said. ...

Egypt: Morsi becomes new Pharaoh. Michael Totten:

It makes no difference that he was elected. Democracy isn’t just about getting elected. A democratic election is not a one-time plebiscite on who the next tyrant is going to be. Democracy requires individual and minority rights and the separation of powers. Winners cannot oppress losers, nor do losers get to wage war on the winners.

Some of us are more surprised than others by this development, but the Muslim Brotherhood was never a democratic political movement. It's not even a close call. You don't have to be a cheerleader for Hosni Mubarak to recognize its inherent authoritarianism. ...

Read the rest for the experiences of some genuine liberals, who are isolated and outnumbered in this revolution.

Morning Report: 2012-11-08

Sudan: Rebels say they've shot down government bomber. 'Rebels in Sudan say they have shot down a government military aircraft after it had bombed rebel targets. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) says the Antonov bomber crashed on Wednesday in the Jau area, South Kordofan state,' the BBC reports.

Iran: Government bans some imports. Reuters: 'Iran has temporarily banned the import of some "luxury goods" including foreign-made cars and mobile phones, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday, to save billions of dollars for essential products in the face of worsening sanctions.'

India: Women banned from Hajj Ali shrine. Telegraph: 'A 15th century mausoleum in the heart of Mumbai has attracted controversy after women were banned from visiting an iconic shrine inside. The move by the Haji Ali mausoleum, less than half a mile from the shoreline of the Arabian sea, has caused outrage on Twitter with men and women condemning the move. ...'

Libya: Benghazi suspects include Egyptians. Catherine Herridge at Fox:

The list of suspects in the Libya terror attack now extends to a handful of suspected militants aligned with an Egyptian group known as the Jamal Network, Fox News has learned.

A U.S. official said the Jamal Network is committed to violence to attain its political ambitions, adding they are "hard-core, violent extremists in Egypt who are trying to develop a relationship with Al Qaeda."

Fox News is told that there are between two- and three-dozen suspects actively being investigated at any one time in connection with the Benghazi attack. The suspect list is fluid, drawn from intelligence ranging from intercepts to witness accounts, with new names being added and dropped on a regular basis. ...'

Jennifer Rubin: What Republicans can do. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post:

What do Republicans do about this? Well, seriously, nothing is more important than educational reform to teach each generation of Americans some basic U.S. history, simple economics and even ethics. The long-term solution to the problem of a clueless electorate rests with clergy, teachers and parents. (Let’s not kid ourselves that the mainstream media will enlighten the public.)

Now since educating future generations is a long-term undertaking, what do conservatives do in the short run?

First, they must find candidates who are both intellectually sound conservatives and culturally adept. I don’t mean they can play the sax on TV or listen to rap music but rather that they are seen as in tune with modern America, not an idealized America from our childhood or our parents’ childhood. It is more than likability; it is a matter of relatability. If voters, especially in the presidential election year, can’t relate, they’re not going to listen.

Second, therefore, is the need to explain policies in everyday terms rather than in abstract, intellectual terms ...

Read the rest at the link.

Morning Report: 2012-10-14

Mauritania: Shooting hospitalizes President Aziz. Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is undergoing treatment for a gunshot wound in a military hospital in the capital Nouakchott. Aziz was "lightly wounded" after a military patrol accidentally fired on his convoy, the government said on Saturday. No details yet on how the patrol accidentally fired on its own president. Reuters adds that 'Mauritania launched numerous military operations on Islamist bases in neighboring Mali before a rebellion in that country split it in two, placing its vast desert in the hands of heavily-armed groups linked to al Qaeda.'

Israel: Air force strikes Gaza, kills one. 'IAF jets struck three terrorist targets in northern and central Gaza Saturday morning in retaliation for a Grad missile attack on the Israeli town of Netivot Friday night. The IDF Spokesman's Unit said that accurate hits on target were identified. On Saturday evening, AFP reported that one person was killed, in what seems to be a separate IAF strike. The IDF issued a statement saying that members of the Shura Council / Global Jihad were eliminated but did not specify how many had been killed or give further details. ...' The BBC, quoting Palestinian sources, says 'Hisham al-Saedni, the leader of a jihadist Salafist group, was killed as he rode a motorcycle in the town of Jabaliya on Saturday.' Reuters: 'An Israeli air strike killed the Palestinian leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated group in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Hamas and medical sources said. ... The group, rival to Hamas, has an Islamist ideology shared by al Qaeda and sources have said that Saedni joined al Qaeda in Iraq at the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.'

Israel / Terrorism: Hezbollah CFO flees to Israel. Al-Arabiya: 'Hezbollah’s CFO has fled to Israel taking with him large sum of stolen money, classified documents and maps, local news media reported on Friday. The news website, Now Lebanon, cited Hezbollah officials saying that the 29-year old telecommunication engineer, Hussein Fahs, has crossed to Israel carrying with him $5 million in embezzled money from the group. Fahs is also head of Hezbollah’s operational communications network. ...'

California: Voters to ease "three strikes"? 'More than a decade after California set a national trend toward longer sentences for habitual criminals with its three-strikes law, crime in the Golden State is down, prison costs are up - and voters are poised to soften the hardline stance. ... Proposition 36 also is a relatively narrow adjustment to 1994's Proposition 184, known as Three Strikes and You're Out, which lengthened sentences for repeat offenders. The new proposition would let some criminals who have been in jail twice (two strikes) avoid a 25-years-to-life sentence for a third crime if it is judged to be nonviolent and nonserious. ...'

Morning Report: 2012-10-12

Egypt: Cairo protest turns violent. 'Clashes erupted in Cairo on Friday after Egyptian political forces called on President Mohamed Morsy to take a stand for justice after his first 100 days in office. Shops and streets at Tahrir Square were closed as Morsy supporters and critics threw rocks at one another. At least 110 people were injured, state-run Nile TV reported, citing health ministry officials. ...'

Africa: Golden age? Walter Russell Mead:

There’s no denying that Africa has huge potential. In general, the security situation across the continent has improved: wars and coups are less common than in past generations. Across the continent, growth rates have skyrocketed. That’s more an indication of how poor most African countries were to begin with (like Sierra Leone, 2012 projected growth rate: 34 percent). But between natural resources and the growth of vast new markets, Africa is booming. In fact, the boom is picking up such pace that “migration flows are beginning to reverse, with thousands of construction workers from Europe flocking to Africa to find jobs in the boom.” Europeans are coming to Africa for jobs! About 100,000 Portuguese live now live in Angola (formerly a Portuguese colony), more than three times the number of Angolans living in Portugal. (h/t Marginal Revolution)

The obvious question is how will African governments handle the boom? By and large, most African governments unfairly distribute natural resource wealth and foreign investment. Dutch disease looms darkly on the horizon. Friction between local communities and foreign farms and mines is a constant problem. It’s possible that all this good news is just another false dawn. ...

Read the rest for one more trend that is shaping Africa.

Morning Report: 2012-08-22

Nigeria / Senegal: Goodluck Jonathan visiting Dakar. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is visiting Dakar to meet with Senegalese President Macky Sall.

UK: Galloway asserts sex with a sleeping woman is not rape. Breitbart:

During a recent guest spot on a British radio program, Galloway revealed his belief that a woman who has sex with a man after a night out, really has no grounds to complain if he takes sex from her again the next morning: with or without her consent.

Using WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange as an example, Galloway said: "Let's take woman A. Woman A met Julian Assange, invited him back to her apartment, gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him. Claims that she awoke to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know. I mean not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion." ...

Morning Report: 2012-08-21

Ethiopia: PM Meles dies. 'Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died, Ethiopian state television said on Tuesday. Meles had not been seen in several weeks. The government said in July that he was taking a break to recover from an unspecified condition. State television said Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn will be acting prime minister. ...'

Syria: FSA bans torture, prisoner killings. 'The Free Syrian Army issued new orders Aug. 20 forbidding the torture and killing of prisoners following criticism by U.N. investigators, Reuters reported. ...'

Russia / Israel: Gazprom eyes Leviathan. 'Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom is studying opportunities to participate in the development of Israel's Leviathan offshore natural gas field, Bloomberg reported Aug. 20 ...'

Turkey: Gaziantep bombing kills 8. CNN: 'Eight people were killed in a bombing in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, an official in the Interior Ministry said Monday. A spokesman for the Gaziantep governorship said 66 people were wounded in the blast. ...' Bianet - English: 'An explosion that took place near the Karşıyaka Police Station in the southeastern province of Gaziantep killed eight people and injured 61 at around 20:00 on Monday. The blast occured after someone detonated the explosives loaded inside a vehicle, Gaziantep Governor Erdal Ata told the broadcasting station NTV. The victims of the blast were passengers inside a nearby automobile and a minibus, according to reports. Two buses also caught fire in consequence of the explosion ...'

Gaziantep, previously and still informally called Antep; ʻayn tāb [ʕajn tæːb] is a city in southeast Turkey and amongst the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city is located 185 kilometres (115 miles) northeast of Adana and 127 kilometres by road north of Aleppo, Syria. The city has two urban districts under its administration, Şahinbey and Şehitkamil. It is the sixth most populous city in Turkey.

USA / terrorism: Hezbollah funds seized. BBC: 'The US authorities say they have seized $150m (£95m) from a bank allegedly linked to a money-laundering scheme of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Last year, US officials accused the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) of helping the group launder profits from drug trafficking and other crimes. The funds were allegedly used to ship cars from the US to West Africa, with the proceeds smuggled back to Lebanon. ...'

Analysis: Benjamin Kerstein on Chomsky, NPR. Michael Totten interviews Benjamin Kerstein on Noam Chomsky:

Benjamin Kerstein: There are a couple of main points that should be made. First, Chomsky is an absolutely shameless liar. A master of the argument in bad faith. He will say anything in order to get people to believe him. Even worse, he will say anything in order to shut people up who disagree with him. And I’m not necessarily talking about his public critics. If you've ever seen how he acts with ordinary students who question what he says, it's quite horrifying. He simply abuses them in a manner I can only describe as sadistic. That is, he clearly enjoys doing it. I don't think anyone ought to be allowed to get away with that kind of behavior.

Second, Chomsky is immensely important to the radical left. When it comes to American foreign policy he isn't just influential, he's basically all they have. Almost any argument made about foreign affairs by the radical left can be traced back to him. That wasn't the case when he started out back in the late '60s, but it is now.

Third, he is essentially the last totalitarian. ...

Go read the rest. Now via a Facebook friend here's Kerstein in 2010 on NPR:

Put simply, NPR is for coastal liberals what Rush Limbaugh is for heartland conservatives: a means of relating to the world from within the confines of a specific subculture. The difference, of course, is that Limbaugh’s admirers do not force others to pay for it.

Nor, I imagine, are Limbaugh’s listeners laboring under the same illusion as NPR’s. Most of them probably understand that Limbaugh is giving opinions based on his political point of view, which is, to say the least, well known to his listeners. NPR’s listeners, on the other hand, are quite convinced that they are receiving nothing less than the pure, unvarnished, objective truth from the network. They believe themselves to be smart and informed, and thus the network they love must also be, perhaps by definition, smart and informative. ...

Morning Report: 2012-08-05

Israel: No recognition, no entry. Arutz Sheva: 'Israel is getting tough with Arab [sic] countries that do not recognize Israel and bars them from crossing Jordan to Ramallah. The Foreign Minister explained that diplomats from Cuba, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh are not being allowed to attend a mini-Non-Aligned Movement conference in the Palestinian Authority headquarters because their governments do not have diplomatic ties with Israel.' (The A7 article is incorrectly worded, as the countries named are not Arab nations.) Full article at the link.

Nigeria: Bombing in northeast kills soldiers. BBC: 'A suicide bombing in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Damaturu has killed several soldiers, reports say. According to an eyewitness, the suicide bomber rammed a car into a military vehicle that was part of a convoy. ...' Reuters: 'A suicide car bomber on Sunday attacked a military checkpoint in Nigeria's northeastern city of Damaturu, killing six soldiers and two civilians, police said. Suspicion will fall on Islamist sect Boko Haram, which is waging an insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government across the north with the aim of carving out an Islamic state in a country split evenly between Christians and Muslims. ...'

Morning Report: 2012-08-01

India: Muslim journalist charged in attack on Israeli. 'Nearly five months after an Israeli diplomat's car was bombed in New Delhi, the Delhi Police on Tuesday indicted Indian journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi of conspiring with foreign elements and others for the terror strike.' Tal Yehoshua-Koren and her Indian driver were wounded in the February 13 attack.

Somalia: Suicide bombers strike as constitution finalized. 'Two suicide bombers attacked a conference in Somalia on Wednesday but failed to stop delegates agreeing a new draft constitution that is meant to help the violence-torn East African country return to stability. One bomber killed six security officers, while the other was shot and killed before he could detonate his bomb, police said. Al Shabaab, Somalia's al Qaeda-linked group, said it was behind the attack and that it had succeeded in killing Somali and African Union troops. ...'

Syria: Agreement on post-regime future to be signed. Stratfor: 'Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the Syrian Kurdish National Council and the Syrian National Council will sign an agreement on the future of Syria after President Bashar al Assad's regime.'

Turkey: Army holds exercise near Syrian border. NOW Lebanon: 'Turkey's military on Wednesday tested its tanks' speed and maneuverability during an exercise in Turkey's southeastern border near Syria, reported the Anatolia news agency. The exercise comes after Turkey sent a convoy of tanks, weapons and ground-to-air missile batteries to the border with Syria, strengthening its defenses there as intensified on the other side of the border. ...'

Morning Report: 2012-07-17

Conflicts in Damascus and around Africa.

Syria: Damascus showdown looms. Al-Arabiya: '“Machinegun fire was heard in the Sabah Bahrat square, and members of the security forces, armed with Kalashnikovs, ran across the square,” site of the country’s Central Bank, witnesses told AFP. ... Syria’s military deployed armored vehicles near central Damascus on Monday as troops battled rebels around the capital in what activists said could be a turning point in the 16-month uprising. Rebels late Monday announced the launch of a full-scale attack operation.' NOW Lebanon:

The rebel Free Syrian Army said on Tuesday that the "battle for the liberation of Damascus has begun," as fighting raged in the capital.

"Victory is nigh," said the central Homs-based spokesperson for the FSA's Joint Command, Colonel Kassem Saadeddine, adding that the fighting will not stop until the whole of the capital has been conquered.

"We have transferred the battle from Damascus province to the capital," said Saadeddine. "We have a clear plan to control the whole of Damascus. We only have light weapons, but it's enough." ...

Nigeria: Rocket fired at Muslim school kills boy. 'A rocket fired at a Muslim school in the central Nigerian city Jos on Tuesday killed a boy aged about 10, a military spokesman said. ...'

Africa / Israel: Study says millions of Africans identify as Jews. Dr. Shalva Weil of Hebrew University says there has been a sharp rise in the number of Africans identifying as Jews in the past 15 years. 'Weil, from the Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is an anthropologist and expert on Ethiopian Jewry who has spent years studying the Ethiopian community and its acclimation into Israeli society. Weil recently gave a series of talks throughout South Africa and took part in a conference on African Jews hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, where she spoke about racism toward Ethiopian Jews in Israel. ...' She cites communities among the Lemba of southern Africa and the Igbo of Nigeria. 'Weil says that from an academic perspective, Black Judaism is a varied and exciting field. But she feels that the Israeli establishment is not aware of the phenomenon or its ramifications.'

Niger: EU to train security forces to fight al-Qaeda. The European Union will send experts to Niger to train security forces to fight al Qaeda, beginning in August at Niamey.