10 days of Israel News 8/29 to 9/9
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"Palestinians using Obama speech in new
pro-statehood media blitz

In a new advertising campaign encouraging the world to vote for Palestinian statehood, the Palestinian Authority is using President Obama’s UN speech last year as the centerpiece. The President said then, “When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that can lead to a new member of the United Nations, an independent, sovereign state of Palestine living in peace with Israel.” The ad then features PA President Mahmoud Abbas saying, “If he said it, he must have meant it.”

The Palestinians are continuing their push for world recognition of their claim to the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants forever. I stood in Jerusalem at the Kotel, the Western Wall, just a few days ago. The division of the Holy City, the city my dear old friend Menachem Begin rightly called the “eternal capital of Israel,” would be a tragedy of unspeakable scope. Not only would it place Israel in terrible military and economic peril, but it would bring down the judgment of God on every nation that supports it.

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Turkey Expels Israeli Ambassador;
Suspends Military Ties

In a dramatic demonstration of worsening tension and anger toward Israel in the Middle East, Turkish officials have expelled the Israeli Ambassador from their country and suspended all military agreements with Israel. Turkey was once one of Israel’s closest allies in the Middle East, but the new government has been playing to radical Muslim sympathies in the country and taken a harder line against the Jewish state.

The current dispute goes back to last year’s attempt to break the Israeli security blockade of Gaza. Israeli troops boarded a Turkish-flagged ship carrying “peace activists” who attacked them with knives and clubs. Turkey is demanding that Israel formally apologize for the incident and lift the blockade. Israel has refused, saying that while it is sorry for the death of nine people who attacked the Israeli military contingent, the blockade is legitimate, and Israel will not stop enforcing this effort to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of Hamas terrorists. This is just one more reminder that the world is turning against Israel.

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is correct!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is right! No, not about Israel being a cancer on the Middle East. Not about the forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, being an accurate description of a Jewish plot to rule the world. Not that a bloody war will reveal the “twelfth imam” and usher in Islamic rule over the whole world. But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is right when he says, “World opinion is changing to favor the Palestinians.”

In an interview with a top Hamas political leader, Ahmadinejad pledged Iran’s unfailing support to the Palestinian cause. Iran has given Hamas hundreds of millions of dollars in weaponry, military supplies, and training to aid in their ongoing war of terror against Israel. And as Ahmadinejad points out, the world is standing with the Palestinians. When the vote for statehood is held in just a few days, it is expected to pass overwhelmingly. Israel is increasingly isolated and alone, bereft even of former allies like the United States and England. You and I are the last line of defense for the Chosen People as the world turns against them.

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Clinton Aide behind Protests against Netanyahu

News reports surfaced over the weekend that former top Clinton strategist Stan Greenberg has been working to coordinate and grow the protests against the Netanyahu government in Israel. It is unclear whether this effort is being directly supported by the Obama Administration. This is a repeat of events from the late 1990’s when President Clinton sent his strategists, including Greenberg to Israel to work on the election campaign of Ehud Barak in an ultimately successful effort to end the first term of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

The Obama Administration has made no secret of their contempt and frustration with my old friend’s refusal to give up control of Jerusalem and the Bible lands of Judea and Samaria to Israel’s sworn enemies. They would be delighted to see Netanyahu replaced by a more “reasonable” leader who would make such damaging and dangerous concessions. Today America is becoming an enemy of Israel rather than a friend—and the implications of that are frightening to anyone who knows the Word of God.

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“If the Christians make problems, I will
exterminate them”

Sheikh 'Adel Shehato, a senior official in Egyptian Islamic Jihad, told an Egyptian newspaper that though his group is running a slate in the Egyptian elections, he doesn’t believe in democracy. “It is not the faith of Muslims, but the faith of Christians and Jews. Once Allah's law is applied, the role of the people will end, and Allah will reign supreme,” he said. He further promised that if the terrorist organization gains power, they will launch a worldwide armed campaign to institute Islamic sharia law. “The Christian is free to worship his God in his church, but if the Christians make problems for Muslims, I will exterminate them.”

Shehato, along with many other Egyptian candidates, has called for the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel to be revisited. Israel shares a 150-mile border with Egypt, and recent terrorists have taken advantage of the desert regions of Sinai to infiltrate Israel. Israeli troops and warships have been assigned to the region, and tension between the two nations is rising. Israel faces this looming threat at the same time it is facing the crucial UN vote on Palestinian statehood in just a few days.

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Israeli warships move near Egyptian border in response to new terror threats

Reacting to growing threats of new terrorist attacks from Egypt, like the one that killed eight Jews two weeks ago, Israel has moved several warships closer to the southern border with Egypt in the Red Sea. In addition, IDF forces have beefed up security along the 150-mile border. Tension between Israel and Egypt is higher than it has been in more than 30 years. The leading candidates for office in Egypt’s upcoming elections are running on campaign platforms of overturning the peace treaty with Israel.

Reports surfaced last week that Hamas had purchased next generation anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles from the Gadhafi regime in Libya just before it collapsed. The opening of the Gaza border by Egypt has made it possible for Hamas to obtain more advanced weaponry, greatly increasing the threat against Israel’s civilian population. And we are now just a few days away from the UN vote on Palestinian statehood and the anti-Israel Durban III Conference being held in New York City.

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Jerusalem police find suicide vests; State Department issues warning
As we celebrate Labor Day in America, the Jerusalem police are on high alert. The recent discovery of three suicide vests in the Holy City, apparently placed there for use in yet another attack on the Chosen People, proves there is no sign of a letup in the increased terror campaign by Israel’s enemies. Things have gotten so bad that the State Department has issued an advisory warning of the danger.

In a few days, the battlefield will shift to New York City. The UN vote on Palestinian statehood and the violently anti-Semitic Durban III Conference are a direct spiritual—as well as physical—attack on Israel.

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Iran sends 15th Fleet to Red Sea

Iran has announced it is sending its 15th Fleet, including at least one submarine, to the Red Sea. The move heightened tensions in Israel, as Iran has the missile capacity to strike Israeli targets from offshore. Though Iran’s naval commander described the news as conveying a “message of peace and friendship to all countries,” the presence of this new threat so close to Israel does not build confidence in a nation that has been repeatedly threatened with being “wiped off the map” by Iran’s leader.

This latest escalation follows a blistering attack on Israel by President Ahmadinejad on Qods (Jerusalem) Day in Teheran. Ahmadinejad described Israel as a “cancer” that needed to be removed from the region and declared the creation of a Palestinian state just the “first step” to reaching the goal of destroying Israel completely. The world is turning a blind eye to these real and credible threats and pushing Israel to concede to their enemies.

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Major wave of terror sweeps across Israel

Over the past two weeks, a major wave of terror has swept over the nation of Israel. At least ten Jews have been killed and dozens more injured in a series of carefully planned and coordinated terrorist attacks. In addition, the Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have dramatically increased their rocket, missile, and mortar attacks on Israel. Perhaps most disturbing of all, Egypt appears to be allowing (if not outright helping) these attacks. The most deadly attack—the one that hit a bus with an anti-tank missile—was carried out by terrorists who came into Israel not from Gaza, but from the Sinai border controlled by Egyptian forces.

Keep in mind that the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital would place these terrorists a few feet away from Israel. In addition to being a direct attack on God’s prophetic word, and creating an economic and humanitarian crisis in Israel, the plan supported by the Obama Administration and UN would place every Jew living in Israel in even greater immediate and imminent danger of death from terrorist attack.

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Another outrageous lie about the Jews

Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqi accused Israel this week of “harvesting organs” from Palestinian prisoners. This outrageous lie hearkens back to the blood libel of the Middle Ages when Jews were accused of celebrating Passover with the blood of Christian babies. Keep in mind that this is not some random radical saying these things; it is a high official in the Palestinian government…the same sort of people President Obama and the UN want to put in charge of Jerusalem!

Falsehoods like this are published and broadcast across the Arab world every single day. The governments of the region routinely blame all problems on the Jews and promote a virulent strain of anti-Semitism. It rarely gets covered in the Western media; Arab oil dollars have bought huge stakes in all the major media companies, and it definitely influences their coverage. Today, as the world prepares to vote to divide Israel, we must never forget that most of the Middle East does not oppose Israel; they want the Jewish nation utterly destroyed.

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Netanyahu asks, “Will the Western Wall be occupied territory?”

In a series of meetings with top European diplomats this week, my old friend Prime Minister Netanyahu has been trying desperately to highlight the folly of creating a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. He asked, “Will the Western Wall be occupied territory?” I stood at the Kotel last week, the famous Wailing Wall that is the last remnant of Herod’s Temple where Jesus taught, and prayed for Israel and for you.

The thought that this ancient and sacred place could soon be placed in the hands of radical Islamic terrorists who hate both Christians and Jews both saddens and angers me. I know the burden the Jewish people are facing right now. They feel abandoned by the world and are living with the constant threat of attack. At least ten Jews have been killed in the last two weeks by terrorists. Yet the world still wants to hand Jerusalem to the killers! It’s an outrage.

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Israeli nightmare

With less than three weeks left until the UN meets in New York City, Palestinian President Abbas continues his campaign for world recognition. “We want to fulfill our dream of achieving official recognition of our Palestinian state with full sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967 and a full membership in the UN,” Abbas said to a group of Muslim religious leaders. “We want to put an end to the occupation.”

The PA president also offered to skip asking the UN for recognition if Israel would agree to retreat to the 1967 borders and stop all construction in Jerusalem—demands that would be suicidal if accepted. Today Israel has few friends and many enemies. As the world prepares to vote to hand over Jerusalem to the terrorists who have spent decades killing every Jew they can (Abbas provided the funding for the Black September attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, but claims he didn’t know what they money was for!), those of us who believe the Scriptures must stand with the Chosen People. We need a miracle—but God is in the miracle business!

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The grave threat to Israel you haven’t heard about


A frightening report from Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren raised the specter that the tottering Assad regime in Syria might lose control of its extensive stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons to Hezbollah terrorists. The Assad government is believed to have killed at least 3,000 of its own people and tortured and injured tens of thousands more in its desperate attempt to cling to power.

The Syrian stockpiles are missile-ready—and Hezbollah already has highly accurate D-class Scud missiles capable of striking any city in Israel. They would simply need to put the two together—a matter of a couple hours of work, and they could launch an attack using deadly Sarin nerve gas, mustard gas, or one of the other illegal chemical weapons Assad is known to possess. As you read the news reports from the Middle East, keep in mind that in many cases, a brutal dictator is being overthrown but replaced by even more radical enemies of Israel.

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Palestinian Terrorist Carjacks Taxi, Attacks Club
for Israeli Teens

Early Monday morning, a Palestinian terrorist got into a taxi, then stole it at knifepoint after stabbing the driver in the hand. The terrorist drove to a club for Israeli teens where nearly 1,000 teens were attending an end of summer party and rammed a police barricade. He then jumped out and began stabbing people. Eight were injured in the attack, though none of the injuries is believed to be life-threatening. This is just the latest in a string of violent escalations of attacks directed at Israeli civilians.

The Palestinians give lip service to peace on one hand while continuing to murder and maim every Jew they can. Yet the world continues to push Israel to give them control of much of Jerusalem and the Bible lands of Judea and Samaria. In just a few days, the UN will consider creating a Palestinian state, placing these terrorists closer than ever to their intended targets.

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Israel’s top UN diplomat says Palestinian vote will pass overwhelmingly

Ron Proser, Israel’s top UN diplomat, has issued a gloomy assessment of the upcoming vote on Palestinian statehood. He estimates that more than 130 of the 193 members of the UN will vote in favor, and that most nations that oppose the plan will not have the courage to vote against it but will instead abstain. Proser’s conclusions are drawn from meetings with more than sixty other diplomats and the extensive talks Israel has been conducting to attempt to lessen support for the plan.

Proser wrote, “Only a few countries will vote against the Palestinian initiative.” At a time when the nations of the world are turning against the Chosen People, we must stand with them more than ever. The destinies of countries will be set by their choice to either curse Israel or bless Israel in this vote.

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Ahmadinejad says Israel based on
“big lie”—the Holocaust

In a bitterly anti-Israeli speech at Friday prayers in Teheran, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued to ramp up his rhetoric against the Jewish state. He called Israel the center of “the global axis of thieves and murderers” and said Israel’s very existence is based on a lie. "The Zionist regime's establishment was based on numerous deceptions and lies, and one of the biggest lies was the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad said. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini designated the last Friday of Ramadan as Qods (Jerusalem) Day and called for annual rallies to be held opposing Israel.

Ahmadinejad further declared Iran’s continuing desire to see Israel destroyed, saying Iran would “never ever withdraw from this standpoint and policy.” This demonic leader desires to be the next Hitler—to finish the job Hitler failed to finish in the Holocaust. I confronted him last year in New York City, personally arranging the Fox News interview that exposed his radical hatred of Israel.

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Ahmadinejad calls Palestinian statehood “one step” toward destroying Israel

On Friday, President Ahmadinejad of Iran made a public declaration that the creation of a Palestinian state was “only one step forwards toward the goal of liberating the whole of Palestine.” Ahmadinejad, who has called repeatedly for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” flatly rejected a two-state solution, saying that the entire land of Israel should be a Palestinian state. Please read these words carefully. They are not hyperbole. They are not rhetoric. This is the true revelation of the heart of evil hatred against Israel—a hatred Ahmadinejad told me personally last year was based on the forgery called The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

Ahmadinejad said, “The Zionist regime is a center of microbes, a cancer cell, and if it exists in one iota of Palestine, it will mobilize again and hurt everyone. It is not enough for them to have a weak, powerless state in a very small piece of Palestine. They should unite to establish a state, but the ultimate goal is the liberation of the whole of Palestine. I urge the Palestinians never to forget this ideal. Forgetting this ideal is equal to committing suicide. It would be giving an opportunity to an enemy which is on the verge of collapse and disappearance.” "


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quick flashback 2007



http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=849241&ct=3925481



Home > Media Center > Press Releases


AJC Applauds Ruling on Use of Koran in Courts June 1, 2007 – New York –

The American Jewish Committee has welcomed the ruling that witnesses and jurors sworn in at North Carolina courthouses can take their oath on the Koran or any other religious text. “The court’s decision underscores the diversity of our society and helps foster religious liberty and the democratic values of pluralism and nondiscrimination,” said Jeffrey Sinensky, AJC’s general counsel. Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway’s recent decision in Wake County, North Carolina follows a legal challenge by a Muslim American who argued that limiting the oath to the Bible favored Christianity over other religions and was unconstitutional. “To require pious and faithful practitioners of religions other than Christianity to swear oaths in a form other than the form most meaningful to them would thwart the search for the truth. It would elevate form over substance,” wrote Judge Ridgeway in his decision. Sinensky observed that “America is an increasingly multi-religious environment where citizens in their roles as witnesses and jurors in court proceedings must be free to take their oaths on the Holy Book of their choice, or none at all.” AJC recently supported the right of Congressman Keith Ellison to use the Koran when taking the private, ceremonial oath of office that follows the official oath in the House of Representatives. Rep. Ellison’s choice to use the Koran at his personal swearing-in ceremony “celebrated the religious liberty embodied in our Constitution,” said AJC.--

"Early this year we introduced legislation titled “American Laws for American Courts” in over two dozen states. The bill prohibits state courts from using foreign laws, and by implication sharia law, in court decisions in areas such as family law.

"We succeeded in getting the bill passed in Tennessee and Arizona and came close to passage in several other states.
"This is a GIANT step in erecting a firewall against sharia law in America. How do I know? Because of the intensity, ferocity, and dishonesty of the push back coming from the opposition.

"Muslim Brotherhood front organizations and their enablers are pulling out the stops in a desperate, fever pitch effort ..."

• "For instance, they have put out at least five so-called “reports” in just the past five months that claim to document a rising “Islamophobia” in America. What these reports amount to is a slick disinformation, name-calling propaganda campaign designed to intimidate..."
  
  
• "A state representative in Michigan, a Muslim, went so far as to preposterously and falsely claim that support for “American Laws for America Courts” is “racism at its core.”"

here's an "exception", the 1%:


American Muslims speak out against the enforcement of shari‘ah law in America


Islamic Coalition announces support for Michigan legislation that will bar state courts from enforcing ‘foreign law’ above U.S. and state constitution
Washington, DC (August 31, 2011) – A coalition of diverse American Muslim leaders has announced support for a proposed bill in the Michigan State Assembly, HB 4679, that is intended to bar Michigan courts from enforcing any foreign law, if doing so violates any rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and/or the state of Michigan’s constitution.

Like many Americans, members of the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) have been observing the efforts of a growing number of state legislatures, which are seeking to address the incompatibility of various shari‘ah court systems around the world with the principles and foundations of our Constitutional republic and its laws. As American Muslims, we believe that the law should treat people of all faiths equally, while protecting Muslims and non-Muslims alike from extremist attempts to use the legal instrument of shari‘ah (also known as Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh) to incubate, within the West, a highly politicized and dangerous understanding of Islam that is generally known as “Islamism,” or “radical Islam.”

We see no evidence that statutes like HB 4769 will adversely impact the free exercise of our personal pietistic observance of Islam, which is not in conflict with the U.S. or Michigan constitutions. We recognize that not only Muslims, but also Jews, Christians and all people of faith need the government to protect their right to peaceful assembly, mediation and arbitration free of coercion, but also within the bounds of American constitutional principles. Therefore, we stand together as a diverse coalition in support of any legislation that serves to protect and integrate our communities into the fabric of this great nation, by strengthening our accountability to the laws of the land, and the constitutions of the various states in which we live.

As American Muslims we are conscious of the fact that Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups and other Islamists and their surrogates in the U.S. are trying their best to portray any opposition to manifestations of shari‘ah law as “racism” and “discrimination against Muslims.” However, as a coalition of traditional, liberal and secular Muslim Americans, we denounce this fear-mongering and playing of the race card, which only serves to mask the Islamists’ highly politicized agenda. According to AILC member C. Holland Taylor, “the Islamist agenda threatens not only the well-being of the United States and its inhabitants, but also undermines and distorts the highest principles of Islam itself.”

“Michigan House Bill 4769 seeks to ensure that American Muslims can live in freedom and safety, in accordance with our constitutional principles, and not be enveloped by the tentacles of medieval, man-made laws that have been falsely accorded divine status,” said the AILC.

“To equate Bill 4769 to racism is not only dishonest, but is a poor and clumsy attempt at making ordinary Muslim Americans feel alien in their own homeland, while creating a rift between Muslims and the rest of our country,” said AILC member Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser.

Michigan House Bill 4769 states:



“[To] ...limit the application and enforcement by a court, arbitrator, or administrative body of foreign laws that would impair constitutional rights; to provide for modification or voiding of certain contractual provisions or agreements that would result in a violation of constitutional rights; and to require a court, arbitrator, or administrative body to take certain actions to prevent violation of constitutional rights.”


The AILC statement reinforces the American Muslim community's commitment to the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and the separation between religion and state. Unfortunately, Islamist groups would like to compromise this separation and provide cover to medieval, misogynistic and homophobic laws that no Muslim is obligated to demand as public law.

“Shari‘ah law, wherever it has been applied in the public domain, be it in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, has resulted in untold misery and oppression of Muslims, in particular Muslim women, by Islamists and dictators who invoke shari‘ah law to justify their rule,” said AILC member Manda Ervin. “Many of us fled the Muslim world to escape shari‘ah law and to practice Islam in our personal lives, by moving to the USA and other western countries. We do not wish these laws to follow us here,” she concluded.

The Michigan state senators are not alone in expressing concern about foreign laws creeping into North America under the guise of religious freedom. Many Muslim academics, religious scholars and human rights activists have voiced their concern.

The contrast between what has occurred in Britain and in Canada provides a roadmap for how the U.S. may address these legal issues. In Britain, shari‘ah arbitration courts have been allowed to assume virtually unchecked control of legal arrangements in many Muslim communities. This is creating a ghettoized, medieval and separatist state within Britain. In Canada, however, local Muslims led strong opposition to the Islamists’ shari‘ah agenda and were successful in preventing its implementation, thereby sparing our Northern neighbor the fate of so many Muslims in the United Kingdom, where women are commonly subjected to forced marriage and the denial of basic human rights.

“We Muslims in Canada defeated an attempt by Islamists to sneak shari‘ah law into Ontario,” said AILC member Tarek Fatah, who has been on the front lines of this struggle for many years. “We recognized the damage shari‘ah had inflicted on Muslims in the UK, and its oppressive nature in Muslim-majority countries, and decided to oppose it. We urge American Muslims not to succumb to the Islamists’ propaganda, and to back the Michigan Bill, which will protect Muslims and non-Muslims alike from the impact of foreign laws that violate the U.S. or Michigan constitutions.”

About the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC)


The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) is a diverse coalition of liberty-minded, North American Muslim leaders and organizations. AILC’s mission advocates for defending the US Constitution, upholding religious pluralism, protecting American security and cherishing genuine diversity in the faith and practice of Islam. AILC provides a stark alternative to the Islamist organizations that claim to speak for what are diverse American Muslim communities. For more information on AILC, please visit our website at http://www.americanislamicleadership.org/.

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here pictured with Kenneth Lay...er, I mean Chris Gronet.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/09/fbi-raids-obamas-535-million-funded-failed-solar-company-solyndra/


FBI RAIDS SOLYNDRA – Obama’s Funded & Failed Green Boondoggle Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, September 8, 2011, 11:42 AM



In this May 26, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama, with Solyndra Chief Executive Officer Chris Gronet, looks at a solar panel, during a tour of Solyndra, Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility, in Fremont, Calif. Solyndra received a $535 million loan from the U.S. government has announced layoffs of 1,100 workers and plans to file for bankruptcy. (WaPo) The FBI raided Solyndra this morning. The Top Obama bundler George Kaiser, a principle investor in Solyndra, made multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was granted a $535 million loan from the government.

NBC Bay Area reported: FBI agents armed with search warrants descended this morning on bankrupt solar company Solynrda this morning.
The investigation comes after a request by the Department of Energy’s inspector general, FBI spokesman Peter Lee told NBC Bay Area News.

Agents arrived at 7a.m. and are examining the factory. Solynrda has a skeleton crew of 100 workers on the scene, closing the factory down. A CNBC photographer on the scene says the FBI has promised a press conference. An agency spokesperson at its San Francisco headquarters says he’s unaware of any such plans.

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup hundreds of millions of dollars in low interest loans. Congress has demanded a hearing into the matter.

There are no reports of any arrests at this time.

Solyndra officials made numerous visits — 20 — to the White House, according to logs and reporting by The Daily Caller. Solyndra officials in the logs included chairman and founder Christian Gronet and board members Thomas Baruch and David Prend, according to the Caller.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last week, shocking both workers and the Obama administration, which had given the startup hundreds of millions of dollars in low-interest loans. Congress has demanded a hearing looking into that loan.

They went to the wrong address.

They should have raided the White House.


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http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/09/fbi-raids-obamas-535-million-funded-failed-solar-company-solyndra/

Wow! Speaker Boehner Invites Business Leaders – All Who Got Jacked Around By Obama Administration

– To Obama’s Speech Tonight Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, September 8, 2011, 12:16 PM


Brilliant!
He should have them deliver the GOP response, too!

Tonight Speaker John Boehner invited a respected group of American private sector business leaders to President Barack Obama’s jobs speech. Each one of these business leaders has been jacked around by the Obama Administration.

You may remember Rock Katschnig.

Rock Katschnig confronted Barack Obama at Wyffels Hybreds in Atkinson, Illinois last month. Rock was upset with the increase in the amount of burdensome rules and regulations under the Obama regime. He told Obama, “Please don’t challenge us with your rules and regulations from Washington DC. We would prefer to start our day in a tractor cab or combine cab rather than filling out forms and permits to do what we like to do.”Rock will be at the speech tonight along with Henry Juszkiewicz from Gibson Guitar and Lisa Ingram from White Castle among others.
From the Speaker’s Website:Following is a brief look at each of the Speaker’s guests:
Spencer Weitman is the President of National Cement, which recently suspended construction of a new $350 million cement kiln in Ragland, AL due to regulatory obstacles. The construction project would have created more than 1,500 construction jobs and 20 new full-time operational positions, but was determined too costly and unpredictable because of proposed changes to EPA Clean Air Act regulations. The obstacles encountered by National Cement are on the list of “http://majorityleader.gov/blog/2011/08/memo-on-upcoming-jobs-agenda.html” identified in Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) August 29 memo outlining the legislative agenda for the remainder of the year.


Rock Katschnig is a corn and soybean farmer of 32 years from Prophetstown, IL. Hurt by a stream of harmful federal regulations, Katschnig appealed to President Obama at an Atkinson, IL town hall last month, pleading, “Please don’t challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington D.C. that hinder us.” The president replied, “Don’t always believe what you hear.” Despite President Obama’s statement, one proposed regulation on “particulate matter” (dust) would devastate Katschnig’s industry and destroy many farming jobs. The obstacles encountered by Mr. Katschnig are on the list of “Top 10 Job-Destroying Regulations” identified in Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) August 29 memo outlining the legislative agenda for the remainder of the year.


Eric Treiber is the CEO of Chicago White Metal Casting, a third-generation family-owned die casting company employing 250 workers in suburban Chicago. Jobs at White Metal Casting are being threatened by increased costs associated with excessive federal regulations, in particular Clean Air Act and utility MACT regulations. White Metal Casting has also been forced to dedicate multiple employees to the task of complying with existing federal regulations.


Lisa Ingram is the COO of White Castle, a 90-year old family-run company that serves signature “slider” hamburgers. Excessive federal regulations – current and proposed – have put a strain on White Castle, contributing to a plant closure in New Jersey and slowing the company’s ability to create new jobs. The new health care law, for example, has not only jeopardized White Castle’s ability to provide health benefits to its employees, but one provision alone could increase costs so dramatically that it would destroy hundreds of jobs.

Jim Plante is CEO of Pathway Genomics, a 100-person San Diego-based biotech startup that developed a genetic testing product for consumers. Last year, Pathway partnered with a major drugstore chain to help market their product – a move that would have enabled Pathway to hire 100 additional workers. Despite being in compliance with all available FDA regulations, the FDA attacked Pathway in the media following the announcement of the partnership. The drugstore chain consequently backed out, and Pathway was unable to create those 100 new high-paying jobs.


Ignacio Urrabazo is president of Commerce Bank of Laredo, Texas, a small community bank with $450 million in assets. Urrabazo would like to lend more money to local businesses to help create more jobs in Laredo, a border community with an unemployment rate nearly 10 percent higher than the state of Texas as a whole. Unfortunately, current FDIC regulations have kept him from lending to qualified businesses. Urrabazo believes excessive federal regulations will soon put community banks out of business.


John “Jack” Earle is the Managing Partner of Earle Enterprises LP and is a multi-unit franchisee of McDonald’s restaurants in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. Mr. Earle also serves as the Chairman of the International Franchise Association. Excessive regulations imposed by the health care law and Dodd-Frank, the ongoing threat of tax hikes, and regulatory overreach by agencies like NLRB, have hamstrung Earle and other franchisers with uncertainty and stifled their ability to create new jobs.


Glenn Rieger is a General Partner at NewSpring Capital, a private equity fund in suburban Philadelphia that provides capital for growth and expansion-stage businesses. A lead investor in more than 50 mid-Atlantic businesses of all sizes, NewSpring’s ability to support job creators is being hampered by excessive regulations from Sarbanes-Oxley, which is costing them millions of dollars annually.


Safi Bahcall is the CEO of Synta, a biopharmaceutical company focused on creating new drugs for treating cancer. Hampered by an increasingly uncompetitive American business environment, Bahcall is advocating for the research and development tax credit to be made permanent. More favorable tax incentives in France and Canada have encouraged Synta to out-source work to Canada and the company is currently weighing the potential of moving American jobs to France.


Kaleil Isaza Tuzman is the CEO of KIT Digital, a 1,200-employee publicly traded video technology company. KIT faces considerable costs as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance regulations. A first generation American with Colombian heritage and fluent in Spanish, Isaza Tuzman was a U.S. special trade representative in Colombia and Mexico under the Clinton and Bush administrations, and is a strong proponent of passing the U.S. -Colombian Free Trade Agreement that the president has yet to submit to Congress.


Chris George is the CEO of CMG Finance, a mortgage company in the San Francisco Bay area employing 370 people. Hurt by increased health care costs and higher taxes from the new health care law, CMG Finance says the uncertain business environment created by the Obama Administration is preventing them from hiring an additional 15 to 20 workers.


Henry Juszkiewicz is CEO of the Gibson Guitar Company. Armed federal agents have twice raided Gibson Guitar’s facilities. Why? Unelected Washington bureaucrats won’t say. No charges have been filed and federal regulators have not explained to the company what may have been done wrong or how to rectify the situation.


Gordon Logan is CEO of Sport Clips, a hair salon chain with over 800 stores. If not for the environment of uncertainty created by Washington, Logan estimates he would have opened 50-100 new stores over the past three years. Instead of hiring new workers, Sports Clips franchise owners are struggling with the new health care law’s burdensome costs and mandates, and considering canceling existing health coverage for current employees. Logan also struggles with access to capital, complicated by government-created uncertainty.

The Speaker’s guests are all employers who have run into unnecessary Washington-made barriers as they’ve tried to create jobs – barriers that will be addressed by legislation scheduled for action in the House this fall as part of the House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators. Learn more at http://jobs.gop.gov/.

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http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/09/retired_portland_police_and_fi.html

Retired Portland police and firefighters sue city to keep pension overpayments