The Mideast today is different since the Arab Spring.

The leadership is more representative of their people. The extremist violence groups are now taking their places within their government structure, many for the first time.

I also believe there are power vacuums since the transition of the powers in these newly governed and long standing allies of the USA.

There won't be a caliphate. There simply won't be although the Salafists would seek that as a goal. The new leadership must bring their people together in an understanding of tolerance. Egypt's President is off to a good start, but, here again he is in this capacity for the first time. He has set a precedent to bring the people of Egypt together in tolerance. He is attempting to be the President of Egypt, not just the Muslim Brotherhood and he has a lot of interesting folks in his Parliament to get along with while attempting policies that will work for Egypt.

Israel is a political pawn. It is debatable as to the final outcome to these politics, but, they can't be taken lightly. Iran rejected peace with the USA once the Shah was removed. The Shi'ites of Iran cling to their faith while seeking to protect their interests everywhere on the planet.

Iran has made Israel a political pawn within the country and to that end the leadership is backed into a corner of inflammatory rhetoric with no way of actually making amends to The West to remove the sanctions. I believe Iran has to stop any advance to nuclear weapon capacity. If anything the people of the USA know while rhetoric might be dismissed as political volleys, it isn't necessarily and definitely can have negative impacts.

The Salafists have emerged as the baseline populous of al Qaeda. If anything al Qaeda grew out of this extremist faith. I believe they are very dangerous, involved in destroying cultures to insure their own domination and I believe  they were involved in the death of Ambassador Stevens and his three colleagues. I also believe it is convenient for the Salafists to hold on to their extremist ideology because it gives permission for violence. The Salafists have also proven when their ideologies don't work for them, as recent as 2000, they discard these priorities for more modern approaches.

We are witnessing the rise of the oppressed in the Middle East. The trend has lasted for decades and is finally taking its final form. 

There are many educated people with these new administrations across Arabia. They are interested in the future and the well being of their countries. While sorting through the extremist agendas of the current collection of leaderships, eventually it will be worth the tolerance of their changing paradigm.

The only aspect to the Arab Spring that concerns me are the Salafists and their direct influence on growing al Qaeda. Now that they are among those elected and able to make policy there is no clear understanding they are seeking tolerance so much as indulgence. The Salafists have to move into the year 2012 with expediency before war results and they are again victimized for their beliefs.

See, that is what had them trapped in oppression in the first place. Retaliation as oppressors themselves will not achieve the goals they are looking for.

And leave the Shi'ites of Iraq alone. They have long had exceptional leadership and until the marshes were drained lived under the Southern No Fly Zone. They will be stable far sooner than any other populous in the region. They'll be fine and they have their marshes back, happiness knows no end with the Iraqi Shi'ites.

I didn't discuss the Kurds as they are well on their way to autonomous regions where they can finally raise their children without fear. The Kurds have always turned to the USA for support and lived happily under the Northern No Fly Zone.

Turkey will become an invaluable ally to many of these transitioned countries. The region has yet to stabilize due to Assad, but, that won't last all that much longer.

The Arab Spring erupted. It wasn't a coupe, it was a transition.

Maria Al-Massani

The women activists (click here) of the Arab Spring converge in Cairo for the first Yahoo Change Your World Summiton the Arab Spring, opened by Mona Al-Tawhary, Egyptian Activist, Manal al Sharif, reknown Saudi activist leader on the campaign for women’s right to drive, Maria Al-Mansani of Yemen Right Monitor, Nobel Prize Nominee Asma Mahfouz of Egypt’s April 5 movement, Maryam al-Khawaja of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, and Darya Mohammed of Libya....

The impetus to this movement were women. In Egypt, it was a woman with a cell phone calling in her peers of both genders to stand up for their freedom. They were oppressed by the regimes placed there by external forces. 

This is a report written by "The Combat Terrorism Center of West Point" in December 2008.

More than likely it was prepared for the transition of President Obama to the White House.

A - Campaigns or Waves - (click here) 

For the Nation or from the Movement. The truck bomb A ‐ Campaigns or Waves – For the Nation or from the MovementThe truck bomb attack against the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in August1998 that killed 213 individuals, including twelve American and thirty‐two local employees of the embassy, and injured 4,000 others was undertaken by Sunnijihadi terrorists hailing from Arab countries. They were encouraged and abetted by senior members of al‐Qa’ida, with extensive organizational capacity still resident in Khartoum, Sudan.between Sunni and Shi’a radicalism manifest themselves in Salafi‐jihadistterrorism’s wave‐like ebbs and flow, while Shi’a terrorism appears as campaigns in support of Iranian national objectives or the organizational objectives of Hezbollah.

The Salafi‐Jihadist variant of Sunni terrorism pursues the broad ideological aims of reactionary Sunni Islam. Its orientation is toward a stateless, Sunni Islamic caliphate stretching from Morocco to Indonesia and even the Philippines. Its methods tend to feature boundless violence and terror, while its declared approach since Usama bin Ladin’s 1998 fatwa has been to drive out the western“far enemy” from Muslim lands in order to expose and topple the corrupt “nearenemy” of Islamic state leaders from power....

The report is 75 pages in length. It is plainly obvious the terrorist groups of today post Arab Spring have been around for a very long time.

It is also apparent these groups are transitioning into political groups now that the Arab Spring has occurred. 

There are also stark differences between the underlying reasons for Sunni and Shi'ite violence. The Shi'ites seek to defend their land and their right to practice their faith upon it. The Sunnis are definitely more aggressive to other faiths and ethnicities. It is the Sunnis that have yet to prove their are interested in peace and international relationships.

Why is it the earliest photos of these Bubbas are always behind bars?

"I am not the first person to be imprisoned for my faith, nor will I be the last."

Oh, no way of knowing who that is? He is blind. 

SHEIKH OMER ABDER-RAHMANE 

He has an address. Why anyone would open up correspondence with him knowing they would become stalked by others seeking his release, is beyond my understanding of sane.

Please write Sheikh Omer Abderrahmane, giving him your messages of support at MCFP-PO Box 4000, Springfield, MO, 65801-4000, USA. 

He has been a long standing member of Gama'a al-Islamiya (IG). He is a very bad man. IG was the largest militant group in Egypt. In the 1990s, IG conducted armed attacks against Egyptian security and other government officials and Coptic Christians. IG claimed responsibility for the June 1995 assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Today they are more loosely associated with 13 members in the Egyptian newly elected parlimentary. If there has been talk of the Shiek's release it would be instigated by these members, more than likely. I sincerely don't believe the President of Egypt has a desire for anything else but peace among the varied members of the government. 

The Salafists are long standing terrorists. It was Germany that first told the USA about Atta.

The Bush / Cheney administration did nothing with that information, no different than the PDB stating, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" (click here)

Reyhana with her children in Bonn. Her husband is in pretrial detention in Stuttgart, after having been accused of being a member of a criminal organization and of having recruited Germans to serve as combatants for the jihad.

The Lives Of Salafists' Wives (click here)

09/27/2012

By Özlem Gezer and Barbara Hardinghaus

Saliha and Reyhana stop at a kebab shop on the Bornheimer Strasse in the Bad Godesberg. "Can we pray here?" Saliha asks.

"Sure, okay," says an employee.

The two women walk into the shop and unroll a makeshift prayer rug on the floor. The employee continues putting away chairs. It's 9 p.m., and he wants to close. Saliha uses the compass on her iPhone to determine the direction of Mecca.

It points in the direction behind the kebab shop, where the ICE high-speed trains pass through Bonn. The two women kneel down on the floor to pray. They are wearing gloves and the niqab, a veil with narrow slits for the eyes. Cars pass by in the darkness outside. For the people out there, these women are the brides of terrorists....

While the investigation is on going, it is becoming strongly suspicious a Salafist organization was plotting against the Libyan government and its strongest supporter, the USA. It is probably safe to say, the rise of the Salafists are a threat to any government in the Mideast or otherwise.


RT – Hundreds of Libyan pro-government (click here for video) demonstrators have stormed the HQ of a radical Salafist group, driving the militiamen out of their last major stronghold in Benghazi. At least four people were killed and 20 wounded in the fighting.

The Giant Buddhas (trailer) - Click title for website, thank you.

In case anyone doesn't recall, this is Afghanistan in 2001. One might say, this was a precursor to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Now we are witnessing the Salafists doing the same thing. They are the equivalent to the Taliban and it could be said they have ties to al Qaeda considering al-Zawahiri's bother in Egypt.

During the destruction, Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal lamented that, "this work of destruction is not as simple as people might think. You can't knock down the statues by shelling as both are carved into a cliff; they are firmly attached to the mountain."

To be as honest as I can be I sincerely believe we are seeing the rise of the fundamentalists behind al Qaeda in the Salafists.

The rising Sunni Islamist named Salafist otherwise known as Wahhabism.

The Salafist is the ultraconservative Sunni whom are literalists. They believe in the extreme beginnings of the faith, however, they somewhat pick and choose that extreme belief system, because they adhere to the violent definition of Jihad to further Islam.

Jihad originally was never about promoting Islam through violence, it was about defending a tribe. It was a defense strategy with the understanding the defense is a good offense. The true teachings of the Muslim faith does not treat Islam as a method of confrontation to eliminate all others. As a matter of fact many definitions of faith existed in the Mideast and so did tolerance. Jihad was about survival, not about killing in the name of Mohammad.

The Salafist adhere to the teaching in the mid to late 20th century when it comes to carrying out violence for the sake of Islam.

To say being selective about the definition of Jihad is self-serving is an understatement. Suddenly, sacrificing angry, young Muslim men is okay to promote Islam. 

The Salafists have made their cameo political drive in Egypt this past election.

Published: 13:55 October 14, 2012

GAZA CITY: A leader of a Salafist group (click here) that has claimed a spate of rocket attacks on Israel in recent days was among three Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza, sources said on Sunday.

Shaikh Hesham Al Saedini, 43, also known as Abu Al Waleed Al Maqdisi, one of the founding members of Salafist group the Mujahideen Shura Council, was killed in a strike late on Saturday on the north Gaza town of Jabaliya, Palestinian security sources said.

Fellow Salafist Fayek Abu Jazar, 42, died with him as they rode a motorbike. Two other people, one of them a 12-year-old boy, were wounded.

A second air strike early on Sunday killed Yasser Mohammad Al Atal, 23, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the sources said. One other person was wounded.

Born in Egypt but a Jordanian national, Al Saedini was considered one of the most important Salafist leaders in Gaza. Al Saedini was detained by Hamas following the kidnap and murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni last year but was released in August following Jordanian intervention....

If anyone disputes the involvement of el-Zawahri's bother in planning the 911 attacks is crazy. The point is these people have existed for a long time, but, the world is only being introduced to them now since the Arab Spring.

...Wearing the traditional Muslim attire (click here) (white short galabiyya and white skullcap) Ayman el-Zawahri’s brother claimed in an exclusive interview with Al-Gomhuria newspaper on October 9 that propelled by the burning desire to fulfil his hobby he went to the United Arab Emirates. Being already a construction engineer he received the necessary training to pilot passenger planes.

   Ayman el-Zawahri’s brother is now the uncontested leader of Salafiyya Jihadiya (Salafist champions of the holy war) accused of fighting the Egyptian army in Sinai after the revolution. Moreover , during his imprisonment by Egyptian Intelligence after 9/11, Mohamed el-Zawahri claimed that he had the hunch that an airplane had destroyed a ‘tower’.

   He denied having had any role in the attack on the US, in which about four thousand people were killed. He claimed that the Cairo Tower first leapt to his mind when an investigator came to his cell and asked whether a passenger plane could destroy such a tower.

   The Salafist leader, who was released from prison after the January 25 Revolution, said that a prison guard corrected his wrong information about the results of the attack and the destruction of the two World Trade Center towers in New York.  He told the newspaper that the prison guard informed him that passenger planes rammed into the twin towers, which led to their collapse.

   In his stunning revelations to Al-Gomhuria, Ayman el-Zawahri’s brother also said that he has strong connections to militant groups in Sinai, which are fighting the Egyptian army for the first time in more than 60 years.

   He said that he was ready to intervene and broker a ceasefire between the Egyptian army and the militant groups (belonging to Salafist Jehaddiya, Al-Jihad and Geishul-e-Islam), but only if the Egyptian government officially appealed for his help.

   This entails that, in his view, the government in post-Revolution Egypt is inferior and comes second to the authority of Islamists and Salafists....

We have witnessed this type of violence and oppression before and while they weren't called Salafists they share the same ideology and are called al-Qaeda.

Libyans watching a bulldozer razing the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman near the center of Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 25, 2012. According to media reports, Salafists attacked the Sufi landmark because the group considered it to be heretic. (STR / EPA / Landov )

Sep 4, 2012 10:44 AM EDT

...The flyers and Salafist websites (click here) —some headquartered in Saudi Arabia—chillingly warn female students on Libyan campuses to avoid tight-fitting clothes, insisting that they must cover up and wear the hijab. The surging attacks on Libya’s Sufi mosques and libraries—the most brazen came on Aug. 25 when a well-known Tripoli mosque was bulldozed—have been encouraged by a prominent Saudi imam. Sheik Muhammad Al-Madkhalee has issued a fatwa praising the desecration of Sufi graves and urging Libyan Salafists to do more to clear the North African country of any taint of Sufi worship....

The violent regimes in the Mideast are not all Shi'ites.

The Muslim Brotherhood has a branch of their Sunni philosophy throughout the Mideast, Africa, in the West, Russia and the Indian subcontinent. 

Zawahiri is a Sunni Isalm (Qutbism). Qutbism is a theology of activism written by Sayyid Qutb (click here). Sayyid Qutb was the former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is he believed to change the definition of jihad within the teachings of Mohammad. Qutb promoted the idea of jihadism, in particular, armed jihadism to promote the advance of Islam.

Zawahiri, (click here) however, has now bested bin Laden in an important category: He has survived. Zawahiri has certainly been through the fire before. He was imprisoned and tortured by the Egyptians in the early 1980s for his involvement in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. After his release, he fled to Pakistan and then survived repeated threats in Sudan, Afghanistan, and finally Pakistan again. Meanwhile, he has become one of the chief architects of al Qaeda's mergers-and-acquisitions strategy, supporting a formal relationship with al-Shabab and encouraging al Qaeda to exploit the Arab Spring.

To list all the organizations is nearly impossible, but, the USA State Department has listed those viewed as a direct threat to our national security.

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)  (click here) are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). FTO designations play a critical role in the fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities.

Legal Criteria for Designation under Section 219 of the INA as amended:

1. It must be a foreign organization.
2. The organization must engage in terrorist activity, as defined in section 212 (a)(3)(B) of the INA (8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3)(B)), or terrorism, as defined in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. § 2656f(d)(2)), or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism.
3. The organization's terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States.

The USA invasion into Iraq was a turning point with the Shi'ites.

The Bush statement at the Korean DMZ about "The Axis of Evil" was taken seriously by those in North Korea, Iraq and Iran. The invasion into Iraq sealed the deal for all those now a target of the Bush/Cheney administration.

The people of Iraq had longed for their freedom for a very long time. Their holy men no longer wanted oppressive governments. 

The Shi'ites had survived in violent regimes across the Middle East and they wanted it all ended. In Iraq, much to the credit of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, considered the peace Ayatollah, he ministered to his people in ways that held them in religious piety while living within the oppression they faced daily.

Their land was everything to them. Their holy cities were places of pilgramage and with that came local economies of tourism. But, their resolve with the end of Saddam was cemented. The Shi'ites would no more be held captive by any power. 

Out of the ashes of Iraq rose a Phoenix. A Shi'ite Cleric little known to the world until the power vacuum of the USA occupation.

...The youngest son of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq Sadr (click here) - who was assassinated in 1999, reportedly by Iraqi agents - Moqtada Sadr was virtually unknown outside Iraq before the March 2003 invasion.

But the collapse of Baathist rule revealed his power base - a network of Shia charitable institutions founded by his father.

They also changed the name of the Saddam City area to Sadr City.In the first weeks following the US-led invasion, Moqtada Sadr's followers patrolled the streets of Baghdad's Shia suburbs, distributing food, providing healthcare and taking on many of the functions of local government.

Moqtada Sadr also continued his father's practice of holding Friday prayers to project his voice to a wider audience....

For all the oppression, the USA believed it should be the center of gratitude in Iraq. The USA believed its presence was all important and the people should rejoice. I remember the second day of USA presence in Iraq there was a elder stating, "I am grateful for removal of Saddam, but, what are all these troops still here for?" See, the Shi'ites had been living in a parallel universe for a long time and never needed anything except the removal of Saddam. They were ready to get on with life.

It wasn't long before we weren't making friends at all.

March 29, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Several thousand Iraqis (click here) protested the closure of a newspaper Sunday, chanting anti-U.S. slogans and burning American flags outside the newspaper's office in Baghdad.

 

The U.S.-led civil administration in Iraq closed the Baghdad newspaper Al Hawsa for 60 days, accusing its publishers of inciting violence against coalition troops.

 

The paper is published by followers of prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

 

"If the Coalition forces are going to keep on presenting us with such messages... they can just dream about any sort of end to terrorism," a statement from the newspaper said. "And they can also dream that we will stay quiet and step down from what we believe."

 

The Coalition Provisional Authority accused the paper's editors of printing articles that incited violence against U.S. and other coalition troops -- a violation of coalition regulations....

Saddam sought to destroy the Shi'ites of Southern Iraq.

The invasion into Iraq, the death of Saddam Hussein all changed the outcome for the Shea. They had sustained assaults and deaths of their Holy Men, the lose of 50,000 of their people and they were ready to live free of oppression.

...The marsh Arabs (click here) lived in singular harmony with their watery environment, building elegant boats and elaborate houses out of reeds.

But Hussein considered the swamps a haven for Shiite opponents of his regime. So in the mid-1990s, he drained the marshes, broadcast pesticides to kill the fish and wildlife, and attacked the villages of the ma'dan. Today, the once verdant network of reed beds and waterways is mostly a sere and lifeless plain.

"It is just another example of the complete ruthlessness of the regime," said Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi exile and civil engineer. He is also a leading advocate for restoration of the marshes, and sits on the board of the Iraq Foundation, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization "working for democracy and human rights" in Iraq.

"Everyone is harping about Saddam's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons of mass destruction," said Alwash, "but here he used water as a mass destruction weapon. He used it to destroy a culture that has lasted 5,000 years. And I'm afraid it has made me somewhat cynical that the international community stood by and did nothing while it was happening."...

The rise of the Shia.

The overthrow of the Shah of Iran was not the beginning of the Iranian Revolution it was the middle.

To the west Iran was known as Persia for most of its existence. It played an invaluable role during WWII in North Africa. The Iranian Railroad linked the Persian Gulf with Russia to facilitate a supply route for Russia's victory over Hitler. But, it didn't come without consequences. The King of Persia, as he was known to the British, was the Shah';s father, Reza Shah. Reza demanded Iran/Persia remain its neutrality with all the powers. He maintained a relationship with Nazi Germany. That didn't go over well with the Allied Powers and Reza Shah was deposed and exiled to South Africa. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was then made king.

King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a secular Muslim. He carried out The White Revolution which was to create Iran into a global power. He nationalized industries, granted women suffrage, recognized Israel and alienated most if not all the Shia clergy. Eventually, Iranian oil would lose an internal coupe of nationalization and bring back foreign oil firms. Go figure. At any rate, the Shia clergy was not sincerely happy, had the loyalty of the people and overthrew the Shah.

A dear friend was working as a USA military adviser at the time and stated, "When your boss (meaning the Shah) doesn't show up for work, you don't wait to find out why or how and know it is time to leave." Unfortunately, not all Americans saw the opportunity as necessary and what followed was the occupation and hostage taking of the USA embassy.

In 1969, (click here) the Shah sent one of 73 Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages to NASA for the historic first lunar landing. The message still rests on the lunar surface today. He stated in part, "...we pray the Almighty God to guide mankind towards ever increasing success in the establishment of culture, knowledge and human civilization." The Apollo 11 crew visited the Shah during a world tour.

Shortly after his overthrow, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi wrote an autobiographical memoirRéponse à l'histoire (Answer to History). It was translated from the original French into English, Persian (Pasokh be Tarikh), and other languages. However, by the time of its publication, the Shah had already died. The book is his personal account of his reign and accomplishments, as well as his perspective on issues related to the Iranian Revolution and Western foreign policy toward Iran. The Shah places some of the blame for the wrongdoings of SAVAK and the failures of various democratic and social reforms (particularly through the White Revolution) upon Amir Abbas Hoveyda and his administration....

It is Sunday Night

(Click here for Models and Muslim Fashion)

Islamic Songs,nasheed "Forgive me"..English.byAhmed Bukhatir

Today, upon a bus,
I saw a girl with golden hair.
And wished I was as fair.
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg and wore a crutch.
But as she passed, she smiled.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two legs the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I `d go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I'd know.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have blessed indeed, the world is mine.

I stopped to buy some candy.
The lad who sold it had such charm.
I talked with him, he seemed so glad.
If I were late, it `d do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me,
"I thank you, you've been so kind.
You see," he said, "I `m blind"
Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two eyes the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I `d go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I'd know.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have blessed indeed, the world is mine.

I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play.
He did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
"Why don't you join the others, dear?"
He looked ahead without a word.
And then I knew. He couldn't hear.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two ears the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I `d go.
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I'd know.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have blessed indeed, the world is mine (less)
Added: February 07, 2007

This is the way the USA employment infrastructure was destroyed.

Harvesting (destroying infrastructure, literally) hidden assets through leveraging and creating the 1% and 0.1%. Those are USA dollar bills being harvested, so The Fed has to be cautious in creating jobs with it.

Uniquely American

Maybe it just needs to be stated.

The Republican Party policies of the past decades has destroyed local small businesses, draining the economic life of the USA economy, destroying GAINFUL employment and family life while protecting Wall Street and seeking to bias the religious basis of the people reflected in government endorsement.

We have an entire generation out of the reach of employment despite their higher education to prove it.

Yes, the Republican economic strategy has destroyed family life. When parents have to each work two to three jobs to support their children, that is destruction of family life. There is no quality time with children, just proprietorship.

Why would a woman's right to choose and a woman's right to contraception be an issue?

What I find appalling is the reality economists actually covet population growth as an imperative. Below is a Wiki article which covers the basics.

The demographic-economic paradox (click here) is the inverse correlation found between wealth and fertility within and between nations. The higher the degree of education and GDP per capita of a human population, subpopulation or social stratum, the fewer children are born in any industrialized country. In a 1974 UN population conference in Bucharest, Karan Singh, a former minister of population in India, illustrated this trend by stating "Development is the best contraceptive."...

Church service attendance and number of offspring according to the World Value Survey 1981–2004

Church service attendance	Number of offspring
never	1.67
only on holidays	1.78
once per month	2.01
once per week	2.23
more frequently	2.5

For the longest time I was being studied for my ability to be manipulated for economic benefit for Wall Street while I thought it was a free market system where either a product had demand or not. Go figure. 

The "World Value Survey." Amazing. A survey to attempt to assess the value of the world.

Mitt Romney's Cheap is better than employment universe.

Big Box stores like Staples cause the destruction of the USA infrastructure. Not just employment but the USA employment infrastructure.

Tom Stemberg (click here) is exactly right. Instead of going to a store for computers and software, another for office supplies another for office furniture and yet another for copying services it is a one stop shop. That is exactly the point. 

Mr. Stemberg is so sold in the idea that he went from being a founder of this destructive trend to Managing General Partner - Highland Consumer Fund. 

The destruction of the USA economy by Staples and Sports Authority has closed American manufacturing jobs. There were manufacturing plants producing basketballs and footballs and bats and baseballs,now they are imported from China. 

Mr. Stemberg points out how much cheaper goods are at Staples. That is
exactly correct.

The Big Box Universe in the USA has not only destroyed SMALL INDEPENENT BUSINESSES, but, they have impoverished the people of the USA. It is already known Walmart employees rely on Food Stamps (SNAP) to feed their families. Employment in the USA has never been worse and now we are seeing the end of housing subsides for the working poor because of the Republican policies that have allowed such destruction of our economy in the name of free enterprise.

In China the free enterprise where workers are producing cheap goods they are intractably poor. Now, the USA Middle Class is melting away to create an intractable Poor Class that is ever expanding.

Not only that, but, given higher education is the answer today of moving out of poverty, the Republicans want to destroy programs like Pell Grants so the Poor can never move out of the impoverishment they created. Add to that the fact the public education system is being destroyed and what does Wall Street have? That's right a Chinese economy where people are intractably poor. The Americans have a little more glamous housing facility than China, it is called a shelter where a single women working for poverty wages can keep her children.

It is amazing to realize the Venture Capitalists actually 'image' themselves as saintly wonderful people as if the saviors of the American Dream.

What is the company Mr. Stemberg entrenches his expertise now?

The Highland Consumer Fund (click here) applies Highland’s proven model of venture investing to the underserved consumer sector (consumer products, services and retail). Our professionals have extensive experience founding, growing, operating and investing in successful businesses. We excel at utilizing decades of operating experience to attract top management teams and provide the resources and counsel to help companies succeed.

Mr. Stemberg loves Mitt Romney so much he became Mitt Romney at Bain Capital. Perhaps Stemberg will be the next president of the USA, too.

The impoverished parents working for low wages without healthcare except for CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) (click here) a part of the Medicaid program.

Impoverished parents can take heart though, if they work for an employer with a child care program it is more convenient and perhaps cheaper than paying Grandma. 

Bright Horizons is another Romney invention to capitalize on parents that work two and three different jobs to make ends meet.

From the Bright Horizons' website: "We help employees succeed, personally and professionally, by providing the right solution at every stage of life." (click here)

So, the children in the country won't be raised by communists, but, instead capitalists. Capitalists that can provide perfection in growing up right up to the point where they need to find a public school system and funding for higher education.

The "USA under Wall Street" is a corporate management dream come true. Cheap and impoverished labor, an ever eager to accept any crumb thrown their way.

Now. That is what I call certainty to encourage Wall Street to do more of the same under any Republican majority and Executive Branch administration.

Come on people, why has China and India become the place for Wall Street manufacturing? It isn't moral and no one can make it moral. Hello, America!

Local industry, local economies and out of the reach of Wall Street. Local governments need to work with local investment entities to create good paying jobs in American manufactured goods with high quality and REASONABLE prices. 

Then people wonder why all the money in the country is sequestered at the top of the food chain in the 1%. The people are trusting their vote to candidates bought and paid for by the 1% who don't even stop to care that they are destroying their own consumer base.

Morals for this morning.

Don't expect anyone to understand your journey, especially if they have never walked your path.

Below is from the Dalai Lama.

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they are not on your road doesn't mean they have gotten lost."

New Orleans is now an open book to deteriorated neighborhood properties.

October 12, 2012 By Sarah Rich

When New Orleans (click here) became partnered with fellowship program Code for America this year, the city had one goal: develop a system that focuses on the city’s blighted properties. 

And the Code for America fellows are on the job, spending this year working with the city to improve data transparency on those blighted properties. 

When the city declares a property as blighted, steps to determine a resolution — whether it’s to be demolished or sold at auction, for example — are taken....

"Blight Status" (click here)

New Orleans voters to decide Nov. 6 now at-large City Council members are elected (click here)

When Orleans Parish voters decide Nov. 6 whether to amend the City Charter to change the way at-large members of the City Council are elected, they will write the final chapter in a strange political saga. If the amendment passes, the two at-large seats would be voted on independently starting in 2014....

...Under the current system, in effect since the 1950s, candidates for both at-large, or citywide, seats run in the same field, with voters allowed to cast ballots for any two. The top two finishers are elected, provided they each get more than 25 percent of the total votes cast. If two candidates do not get 25 percent, a runoff for one or both seats is held.

The proposed change would have the at-large members elected separately, though at the same time, with all candidates having to declare which seat they are seeking when they qualify. The winners would need to get more than 50 percent of the votes for that seat in a primary or runoff....

The New Orleans Film Festival needs assistance in completing its roster of films.

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper star in director David O. Russell's dramatic comedy 'Silver Lining's Playbook.' (Photo by The Weinstein Co.)

...A silver lining has emerged (click here) for New Orleans Film Festival attendees unable to score a ticket to Monday night's (Oct. 14) screening of the eagerly anticipated "Silver Linings Playbook." A second screening of the film has been revealed as a late addition to the festival schedule.
David O. Russell's crowd-pleasing dramatic comedy -- which emerged last month from the Toronto International Film Festival as an instant Oscar contender -- will fill one of two "TBA" slots on the festival's closing-night schedule, according to festival artistic director John Desplas. So in addition to the previously announced Monday screening, it will now also play Thursday (Oct. 18) at 8:15 p.m. at the Theatres at Canal Place.
The festival's other closing-night "TBA" slot has yet to be filled....

• Will these people be voting in November? Will they have a picture id?

• OCTOBER 13, 2012
• BY: KAREN GRO

A new group (click here) of homeless people have been found living under the New Orleans Pontchartrain Expressway between Camp Street and LaSalle in New Orleans, La. The group is reported to be quite large with the homeless people bringing all of their belongings to the site and settling in.

WWLTV reports that mattresses, bags of clothing, boxes and tents have popped up under the expressway with multiple families and communities of homeless people. Neighbors living close by have complained to the city and have now taken their complaints to Governor Bobby Jindal in hopes that the situation can be resolved.

Stacy Horn Koch, the mayor's liaison for the homeless, is working to move the homeless to shelters and then into transitional housing. They will then be moved to permanent supportive housing. Koch is now working with the group under the expressway on a daily basis to get them off the streets and out from under the expressway....