Red China on the move…

(Daily Mail)- China has said it is willing to bail out debt-ridden countries in the euro zone using its $2.7 trillion overseas investment fund.

In a fresh humiliation for Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said it was one of the most important areas for China’s foreign exchange investments.

The country has already approached struggling European countries with financial aid, including offering to buy Greece’s debt in October and promising to buy $4billion of Portuguese government debt.

Today Portugal had its credit rating downgraded by the Fitch Ratings agency amid mounting concerns over the country’s ability to raise money in the markets to finance its hefty borrowings.

Fitch said it was reducing its rating on the country’s debt by one notch to A+ from AA- and warned that further downgrades may be in the offing by maintaining its negative outlook.

‘To have any discernible effect China will have to buy a lot more than 5billion euros if they expect to have any impact on the negative sentiment surrounding Europe,’ said Michael Hewson, currency analyst at CMC Markets.

China’s astonishing economic growth has put it on track to overtake America as the world’s economic powerhouse within two years, a recent report claimed.

But experts believed still be some years before America’s leadership role is really challenged – largely because Beijing has given no indication it is ready to take on the responsibility of shepherding the world’ economy.

This foray into the future of the euro could be a signal from Beijing that it is ready to change that perception.

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Obama’s TSA Stormtroopers rack up another victim…

(kvue.com) — Early Wednesday morning, a computer glitch shut down a security checkpoint for a couple of hours at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The line snaked out the door as many travelers waited for more than an hour and some missed their flights. One of the first people in line after that shutdown never made it through. She was arrested and banned from the airport.

Claire Hirschkind, 56, who says she is a rape victim and who has a pacemaker-type device implanted in her chest, says her constitutional rights were violated.

She says she never broke any laws. But the Transportation Security Administration disagrees.

Hirschkind was hoping to spend Christmas with friends in California, but she never made it past the security checkpoint.

“I can’t go through because I have the equivalent of a pacemaker in me,” she said.

Hirschkind said because of the device in her body, she was led to a female TSA employee and three Austin police officers. She says she was told she was going to be patted down.

“I turned to the police officer and said, ‘I have given no due cause to give up my constitutional rights. You can wand me,’” and they said, ‘No, you have to do this,’” she said.

Hirschkind agreed to the pat down, but on one condition.

“I told them, ‘No, I’m not going to have my breasts felt,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you are,’” said Hirschkind.

When Hirschkind refused, she says that “the police actually pushed me to the floor, (and) handcuffed me. I was crying by then. They drug me 25 yards across the floor in front of the whole security.”

An ABIA spokesman says it is TSA policy that anyone activating a security alarm has two options. One is to opt out and not fly, and the other option is to subject themselves to an enhanced pat down. Hirschkind refused both and was arrested.

Other travelers KVUE talked to say they empathize with Hirschkind, but the law is the law.

“I understand her side of it, and their side as well, but it is for our protection so I have no problems with it,” said Gwen Washington, who lives in Killeen.

How dare he try and secure the border! Those are potential Democratic voters*…

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) – Sheriff Paul Babeu has announced he plans to use deadly force, if necessary, to drive smugglers and border bandits out of his part of the desert.

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office has recently been in the spotlight for sniffing out smugglers and their drug loads. Sheriff Babeu told KGUN9 News he’s about to go on the offensive with a massive show of force to stop smugglers and bandits.

“We’re sending out three different teams of eight to fifteen deputies in each that are heavily armed, even with sniper teams, out to the desert at all hours of the day and night,” Babeu said.

Typically, deputies would sneak up on smugglers before arresting them, but Babeu says not this time.

“We’re going to wait until these cartel members come on through and we’re going to announce ourselves in Spanish in this known drug smuggling corridor. That this is the Sheriff, drop your weapons, you’re under arrest,” Babeu said.

In the week following the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent, the Sheriff admits the chances of having a gun fight in the desert are extremely high. After all, it’s the same desert where one of his deputies was shot and where they’ve seized thousands of pounds of drugs. Babeu says deadly force will be used if his deputies confront dangerous cartels.

“I’ve given specific instruction, no less than lethal force is going to be used. It’s all lethal force only and we go into that environment knowing that we’re likely expecting an armed threat from these people,” Babeu said.

*Conversation overheard at the White House.

HT: Brian B.

Here’s a pic of Splash

Oops, wrong pic, this is him.

(Boston Herald)- The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s cuddly, curly-coated canine companion, Splash, has gone to Doggy Heaven.

Kennedy’s widow Vicki announced the death of the 13-year old Portuguese Water Dog to friends and family earlier this week.

“At Teddy’s side, Splash became a world- class fetcher of tennis balls and a meeter and greeter of Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and even foreign dignitaries,” Kennedy wrote. “I like to think that he and his master are playing tennis ball fetch again tonight.” (errr, I wouldn’t count on it -ed.)

Kennedy, who died last year after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, was rarely seen without the black and white, high-energy pooch whether he was on Cape Cod or Capitol Hill.

“They all had a rollicking good time together,” said Phil Johnston, former state Democratic party chairman and friend of the Kennedy family. “Splash hit the lottery when it came to owners. It was so sad when the dogs lost their master.”

It’s almost like they’re trying to shut him up…

SACRAMENTO, CA – An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.

The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit.

He is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia.

Three days after he posted a series of six video clips recorded with a cell phone camera at San Francisco International Airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff’s deputies arrived at his house to confiscate his federally-issued firearm. The pilot recorded that event as well and provided all the video to News10.

At the same time as the federal marshals took the pilot’s gun, a deputy sheriff asked him to surrender his state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A follow-up letter from the sheriff’s department said the CCW permit would be reevaluated following the outcome of the federal investigation.

The YouTube videos, posted Nov. 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the aircraft are able to access secure areas simply by swiping a card.

“As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce. It’s only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here,” the pilot narrates.

Video shot in the cockpit shows a medieval-looking rescue ax available on the flight deck after the pilots have gone through the metal detectors. “I would say a two-foot crash ax looks a lot more formidable than a box cutter,” the pilot remarked.

A letter from the TSA dated Dec. 6 informed the pilot that “an administrative review into your deputation status as a Federal Flight Deck Officer has been initiated.”

According to the letter, the review was directly related to the discovery by TSA staff of the YouTube videos. “The content and subject of these videos may have violated regulations concerning disclosure of sensitive security information,” the letter said.

HT: MmmPolitically

Gotta hand it to Bloomberg, he takes his dhimmitude quite seriously…

(NYDN) — Mayor Bloomberg’s top deputies went to great lengths to help the developers of a planned mosque near Ground Zero — even drafting a letter to the community board for them.

A flurry of emails released by City Hall yesterday revealed the coaching Hizzoner’s brass gave to the imam pushing to build the mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf.

At one point, Community Affairs Commissioner Nazli Parvizi even drafted a letter for Rauf’s wife, Daisy Khan, to send to Community Board 1, which was voting on the project.

“As a Muslim-American and a New Yorker, I take my role in keeping New York the greatest City in the world serious,” the draft said. Parvizi also provided the contact information for the board.

Another email shows that Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Fatima Shama expedited a temporary public assembly permit for the group to conduct prayers in January at the site, known as 51 Park.

Rest here>>>

Of course the victims being Christian and the perpetrators being Muslim has nothing to do with Pelosi’s decision…

(The Hill)- The 111th Congress adjourned Wednesday without bringing up the latest incarnation of legislation that would have recognized the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Lobbying groups were on alert over the weekend on reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would bring the resolution to the floor in the final days of the lame-duck session.

But lawmakers went home for the holidays without passing Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) resolution, angering Armenian groups and leaving Turkish groups breathing a sigh of relief.

“[Pelosi's] decision to not move this legislation forward during her four years as Speaker represents a failure of Congressional leadership on human rights and, sadly, a setback to America’s standing in the struggle to end the cycle of genocide,” Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, said in a statement.

A similar resolution was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2007. Just like this time around, the White House came out against the resolution, fearing it would damage relations with Turkey, and Pelosi did not bring the measure to the floor.

Schiff said that he and co-sponsors had launched a “full-press effort” to get the resolution to the floor in the past weeks.

“We believed that Turkey’s burgeoning alliance with Iran, its support for Hamas, and its insincere promise to seek reconciliation with modern Armenia would finally serve to offset Turkey’s shameful campaign of denial,” Schiff said in a statement.

The Blue Dog Democrat said he was “deeply disappointed” that Congress recessed without taking up the measure.

“To my many thousands of Armenian-American constituents and friends, I pledge to you that I will continue to press for recognition of the Armenian Genocide until the memory of those who perished from 1915-23 is formally and forever preserved in our national consciousness,” Schiff said.

Reverse honor killing?…

Dhaka, Dec 22: A 46-year-old man, who kept his multiple marriages a secret from his four wives, was beaten up to death in Bangladesh, local media reported on Wednesday, Dec 22.

According the sources, the victim, namely Yunus Bepari, an auto-rickshaw driver, attended a marriage party with two of his wives. Co-incidentally, he had an encounter with his third wife and situation revealed that the victim had another wife (fourth) in another village.

The four wives, who were unaware of their husband’s multiple marriages, beat him up mercilessly and when Bepari was taken to the near by hospital, he was declared dead.

According the Islamic Shariah (law), a Muslim man is allowed to take up to four wives, but that should be with the consent of his existing wives.

Redistribution of wealth meets affirmative action…

Via The Blaze

Yes, that Pat Robertson. I couldn’t agree more, the amount of money and time that is wasted prosecuting marijuana users is absurd. The government should be focusing on drugs that actually ruin people lives like opiates and cocaine.  Coming from someone who in a previous life smoked a shitload of grass, I can testify that it’s pretty harmless and putting people in prison for it is overkill at its finest…

“I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it’s just, it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing.”

On the flip side, if it was to be legalized I would want it tightly regulated so we don’t have weed shops on every corner as you see in parts of California.

Barack Obama last seen nodding in approval…

(Daily Caller)- Abortion may soon be more readily available than ever before, thanks to a new requirement from Planned Parenthood that more of its centers nationwide offer the service. At least one local chapter so far has decided to withdraw from the network rather than comply.

A local office of Planned Parenthood in South Texas is dropping out of the nationwide network of “America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care” starting January 1.

According to local news reports, Planned Parenthood is planning on standardizing all of its agencies, which includes requiring that every single one offer abortion services. The CEO of the Coastal Bend office, however, said in a media interview that her center has never provided abortions in the past, and doing so now is unnecessary.

“Our position is that if that is a need in your community, fine,” said CEO Amanda Stukenberg. “There are far greater needs in our area than abortion. We feel that women here have options. We don’t need to duplicate services.”

When contacted by The Daily Caller, Lisa David, senior vice president of Health Services Support for Planned Parenthood, said that the organization is implementing a broad “new patient services initiative.”

Rest here>>>

Like I said yesterday, you can’t rebrand evil…

(Hollywood Reporter)- Despite a report from ‘The Washington Post,’ director’s publicist, Mavin Levy, says Spielberg will continue to “direct actors, not political figures.”

Steven Spielberg’s spokesman,Marvin Levy, has responded to a Dec. 22 Washington Post report that the Oscar-winning director may soon advise Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on a planned political PR campaign. Levy denied his client’s involvement in a press statement, saying:

“Today’s story regarding Nancy Pelosi made a reference to Steven Spielberg that requires a response. I can say as a long-time spokesman for Steven that he has made it his career to direct actors, not political figures.”

C’mon Pope Benedict, be a dhimmi, all the cool kids are doing it…

Madrid - The United States initially saw Pope Benedict XVI as a ‘eurocentric’ pontiff who was ‘unlikely to cut a prominent figure on the world stage,’ according to WikiLeaks documents published Thursday.

The confidential US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblower website were quoted by the Spanish daily El Pais.

German-born Benedict XVI would face a ‘steep learning curve’ on international issues, US diplomats wrote after the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005.

Some of the cables focus on a 2006 academic lecture given by the pope, who quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor saying that the Muslim prophet Mohammed had brought ‘only evil and inhuman things.’ The quote sparked furious criticism in the Muslim world.

‘It taxes the imagination’ to suppose that such a reference by the pope ‘would pass unnoticed,’ a US diplomat wrote.

According to his assessment, the pope made the reference on purpose, but without foreseeing the consequences, which were followed by apologies by the Vatican.

The pope’s ‘approach toward Islam and toward inter-religious dialogue is cooler than that of his predecessor’ John Paul II, the diplomat observed.

‘The Holy See does not believe theological agreements with Islam are possible, but is convinced that better mutual knowledge will allay suspicions and facilitate peaceful co-existence,’ US diplomats wrote in 2009.

HT: Spencer

And as Jill Stanek points out, TIME is wrong, her birth control did not fail because she wasn’t using any (unless you consider abortion a method of birth control, which most of the left does)…

How that’s “unclenched fist” working out for you, Obama?…

(LWJ)- Coalition and Afghan special operations teams have captured a Taliban commander who doubles as an Iranian Qods Force operative and helped ship weapons from Iran into Afghanistan.

The Taliban/Qods Force operative, who was not named, was detained during a Dec. 18 raid in the Zhari district in Kandahar province, the International Security Assistance Force reported in a press release. ISAF and Afghan forces are currently working to secure Zhari and the neighboring districts of Panjwai and Arghandab from the Taliban.

“The joint security team specifically targeted the individual for facilitating the movement of weapons between Iran and Kandahar through Nimroz province,” ISAF stated. “The now-detained man was considered a Kandahar-based weapons facilitator with direct ties to other Taliban leaders in the province.”

In the initial press release, ISAF did not identify the Taliban commander as a Qods Force operative. But, in response to an inquiry by The Long War Journal, ISAF confirmed that the target of the raid was indeed a member of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

“According to intelligence reports, the targeted insurgent is a member of the Qods Force,” a public affairs official at the ISAF Joint Command press desk told The Long War Journal.

This is the first reported instance of the capture of a Qods Force operative in Afghanistan. US forces in Iraq captured several senior Qods Force commanders and operatives during operations in that country from 2006 to 2008.

Rest here>>>

Cry baby…

(Daily Caller) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appealed to the press Wednesday to defend him from prosecution for leaking thousands of US documents and secrets, claiming that publishers who advanced WikiLeaks’ data were likely to be targeted also. “We have seen these statements, that The New York Times is, you know, also being looked at in terms of whether they have engaged in what they call ‘conspiracy to commit espionage,’” he said.

In an interview during the Dylan Ratigan Show, being conducted by fill-in host Cenk Uygur, Assange also addressed the suggestion that he be considered a “high tech terrorist,” an expression used by both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden.

Assange rejected the idea, and instead claimed that terrorism was being conducted by Republicans, Democrats, and Fox News:

“So it’s clear that whoever the terrorists are here, it’s not us.

“But we see constant threats from people in the Re — you know, Republicans in the Senate trying to make a — a name for themselves, the people like Sarah Palin, top shock jocks on Fox and, unfortunately, some members, also, of the Democratic Party, calling for my assassination, calling for the illegal kidnapping of my staff.

“There is no fun in Islam” -Ayatollah Khomeini

(Telegraph)- Saad Haroon has been accused of mocking Islamic values prompting bloggers to call for him to be stoned to death.

The video follows his tongue-in-cheek efforts at serenading a “sexy ninja” or “mystery prize” hidden beneath a black niqab, with only her dark eyes visible through a narrow slit.

“Burka woman, in your black sheet,” he sings, “Burka woman, with your sexy feet, “Burka woman my love for you it grows, every time I see your toes.” He even describes going home to “practise flirting with my living room curtain”.

However, the video has caused a storm in Pakistan, the cradle of the Taliban, where conservative religious leaders hold considerable influence.

Earlier this year, access to YouTube, Wikipedia and Facebook was blocked after cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were published online.

“You should be stoned to death Saad Haroon Hell to You,” reads one comment on YouTube, where the video has been posted. Others have chastised him for giving the West a chance to laugh at Islam.

He has also been deluged with threats sent by email.

Mr Haroon said that he had simply set out to make people laugh.

“I don’t know if I’m brave or not. I’m a comedian. It’s my job to make jokes about things,” he said.

But he added that he was pleased his video had received supportive comments and started a debate about whether the burka had any place in Muslim society.

RINO MVP…

(Politico) — Lisa Murkowski isn’t gunning down caribou on national TV like that other famous Alaskan, but the Republican lawmaker is going rogue in the Senate just weeks after staging the most stunning back-from-the-dead political win of the 2010 cycle.

Murkowski is already showing a fierce independent streak, becoming the only Republican to cast votes on all four items on President Barack Obama’s wish list: a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a tax-cut compromise, the START deal and cloture for the DREAM Act.

The lame-duck votes capped a strange political odyssey for the Alaska Republican — one that started Aug. 31 when she conceded the GOP primary to tea-party-backed Joe Miller, continued when she resigned her leadership job in September and ended when she waged Alaska’s first successful statewide write-in bid to retain her seat. (See: The ABC’s of Murkowski’s write-in bid)

Now, she heads back to the Senate with a fresh six-year term without owing much to either her home state party establishment or her Washington leadership.

Murkowski’s willingness to defy Republican top brass after a bitter fight to keep her seat may mark a pivotal point in her career as she emerges as a real maverick foil to Sarah Palin, the conservative idol who put Alaska politics on the national map. And while conservatives who helped oust Murkowski from the GOP ticket in Alaska may howl about her being a “Republican In Name Only,” Murkowski could enjoy a powerful perch as a much-sought-after moderate in an almost evenly divided Senate.