2 Days until Inauguration - A Dream Come True

President-elect Barack Obama looks out from the back of a train at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station, Jan. 17, 2009, as he embarks on his inaugural whistle stop train trip to Washington. (Photo: AP)

A New National Scripture (click here)
By ANTHONY LEWIS
Published: January 16, 2009
Barack Obama’s election as president had a thousand fathers in the long history of the struggle against American racism. But three events stand out as decisive in creating the possibility of an African-American president....

Israel agrees to unilateral peace. Why do I believe it will not hold?

An image from the video "Day of wrath in Gaza against Israel" from Al-Jazeera. (click here)

Israel declares ceasefire but Hamas rockets continue (click here)
Britain last night welcomed Israel's unilateral declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza, saying that it would come as a "huge relief".
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that too many lives had already been lost in the 22-day conflict and that it was now "imperative" that Hamas stopped its rocket attacks on Israel.
"There will be huge relief at the announcement by Prime Minister Olmert of the end of Israeli military operations in Gaza," he said in a statement....


Israeli tanks return to Israel as they accompany troops.

Last update - 21:04 18/01/2009
Sarkozy at Gaza summit: Sole solution to peace is no rockets, IDF out of Gaza (click title to entry - thank you)
By News Agencies
European and Arab leaders racing to consolidate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas pressed Sunday for an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza and for the opening of the territory to desperately needed humanitarian aid. The summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik was jointly chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak. It was held amid separate truce declarations by both Israel and Hamas....

Things get stranger by the minute. I mean, who 'vets' these people?


Ingrid Mattson

Obama prayer leader from group US linked to Hamas (click here)
By MATT APUZZO – 20 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Muslim scholar chosen to speak at President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural prayer service Wednesday is the leader of a group that federal prosecutors say has ties to terrorists.
Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, is one of many religious leaders scheduled to speak at the prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral.
Mattson has been the guest of honor at State Department dinners and has met with senior Pentagon officials during the Bush administration. She also spoke at a prayer service at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Mattson, who was elected president of the society in 2006, is a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn.
But in 2007 and as recently as last July, federal prosecutors in Dallas filed court documents linking the Plainfield, Ind.-based Islamic society to the group Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.
Neither Mattson nor her organization have been charged. But prosecutors wrote in July that they had "a wide array of testimonial and documentary evidence expressly linking" the group to Hamas and other radical groups.
Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for Obama's inaugural committee, would not discuss the case or say whether the committee knew about it....