Obama Does 180 on Iraq

Without mentioning his name, Obama has effectively declared George Bush's Iraq policy a resounding success. Watch the below clip, notice how he declares that benchmarks that once seemed unreachable are have now been achieved. Then watch the follow-up clips of Bush, Biden and Obama. You make the call:

IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS: CNN investigates how to get Michelle Obama's "toned arms".

NYSE: Worst Trading Month Since 1933

My guess is that the economy is in far worse shape than anyone really wants to admit. Simply put, the world as we know it will not be the same when we finally come out of this mess years down the road.

Spanish Judge: Spain Can Sit In Judgement of Israel

The country that gave us the Spanish Inquisition, is now positioning itself to stand in judgement of Israel. If it wasn't real it would be a Monty Python comedy skit. Apparently the Spanish Judge isn't aware of a little thing called irony.

Deficit? It's OK Because It's Obama's

Remember the complaints about how Bush "exploded the deficit" in eight years? Now witness what has happened in a matter of days in the Obama administration:
Waiting for the protests... waiting... waiting... PS: The stock market has had its worst month since 1933, during the darkest days of the great depression.

Bye Bye Dubai

As people scramble for the exits in Dubai, there is no ‘key mail’, like in America, where people can often mail back their house keys and walk away from a mortgage without the immediate threat of jail. The jet-set crowd are literally fleeing this place for their lives, during the past few months leaving over 3000 cars stranded at the airport with keys still in the ignition. And the reason for this is that if you default on your Dubai mortgage during these tough economic times, you can end up in a debtors prison. I love this little YouTube of these German developers going down with the ship. German's never did seem to question the morality of a place like Dubai where Jews, and Christians, and sex, and alcohol and Israeli female tennis players, and just about everything else in life except money are frowned upon.

H/t: IBA

Worked to Portray Muslims in a More Positive Light... Then Beheaded His Wife

Muzzammil Hassan is the "moderate" founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004 amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light. But then his own wife started behaving in a "non-Islamic" way and that was too much to bare: ALLAH AKBAR and OFF WITH HER HEAD!

Here is a portrait of the couple during happier times by a gushing Brian Williams over at NBC:

Alternative to the RJC in the Works

Matt Brooks...

Swimming Pools, Movie Stars:

While living the high-life, RJC Dictator-For-Life Matt Brooks apparently has 9 lives, as it appears he has survived another coup attempt. A rumor is buzzing that key influential Jewish conservatives have concluded that removing Brooks would likely be both costly and bloody, and their political-establishment contacts believe that top RJC people do not have the stomach for either. So there has been a seismic strategic shift from the discontented Jewish Right that has left many in this recently crushed community quietly smiling. It appears that there is serious talk, for the first time, of the possible birth of a new rival Conservative Jewish political organization in the works. Platforms, structure, support staff, grassroots, legislative, fundraising, and even office location sites are being discussed, as well as a dynamic name being whispered to select people to test the waters. No one has ever challenged the RJC in head to head competition for fear of splitting an already minority movement. But insiders have been very quietly reaching out to two potential leaders in private meetings last week, and have been met with cautious interest. There appears to be an hunger for something completely different in order to compete with the new democratic dynamic. In anticipation of establishment resistance new untapped sources of support are bring recruited, as the old Bush financial whales appear to be either unaware the RCJ has become irrelevant, uninterested, or too busy with other matters to take the decline of the RJC standing up. The belief is that the RJC, whose performance in the 2008 election is now considered the blueprint of what not to do, has reached critical mass and that the price of the cure to repair is simply too high. The proposed new organization, which has ideas so fresh that Jewish Conservatism, let alone Conservatism itself, will do a double-take, believe they have an approach that can make them viable by 2010. Think the Reagan revolution meets facebook meets AIPAC. Their goal to "out-Obama Obama and the Democrats," and of doubling the RJC's numbers within a time-frame of 2 years, are ambitious but exactly what this down community wants and needs to be relevant and competitive in the future.
Brooks is, ironically, apparently the beneficiary of his own poor performance and is safe once again as the dynamic turn their attention away from him to the new ideas. Brooks will end up keeping his little personal empire to himself again, paid for by those that do not realize they are building upon sand.

Turkey Stands in Judgment of Israel?

Turkey, the country that murdered over one and a half million Armenians; the country that oppresses its Kurdish minority with extreme prejudice; the country that forcibly invaded and occupies almost half the country of Cyprus, thinks that it is in a position to lecture Israel on how to behave towards those firing missiles at it. "You are killing people" hot-head Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Israeli President Shimon Peres, without context, at the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland. When an Israeli General pointed out the glaring hypocrisy, the Truks freaked out, and the Israelis bent over backwards to appease them by reprimanding the General for stating the obvious. Sometimes truth is an ugly thing.

Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery

Another day, another outrage. No human rights organization press releases, no UN resolutions, no NOW press conference. It's just business as usual in the world of hypocrites.

Noble CEO: Gas Find off Israeli Coast is 61% Larger Than Initially Estimated

As I predicted a few days ago on this site, the CEO of Noble Energy is now willing to reveal that the Gas find off of the Israeli coast is 60% larger than initially announced. All indications are that when everything is said and done, it will be even much larger than that. While the media are focusing on the Israeli election results, and Hamas, and all the other usual stuff, the real news out of the Middle East is happening right under our noses. A real game changer is happening right now and will be felt three years from now in a big way.

Noble Energy Inc. said its Tamar natural-gas discovery off the coast of Israel is probably 61 percent larger than initially estimated when announced last month. Tamar’s potential is 5 trillion cubic feet, based on initial flow testing, Houston-based Noble Energy said today in a statement. Flow rate from the well was 30 million cubic feet per day, limited by the testing equipment, and production may reach 150 million cubic feet a day, the company said.... CEO Davidson also said: “The implications of this discovery to Israel cannot be overstated.”

Israel radio quotes geologists who confirm that the massive find greatly increases the likelihood that additional gas will be found in the vicinity and that drilling in at additional nearby locations are now underway.

Good News, RJC's Matt Brooks ONLY Paid Himself a Little More Than The President of the United States in 07

As promised, I am here to correct the record when wrong. in 2007, the Executive Director of the RJC "only" paid himself a combined $429,190, if I'm reading this correctly (it could be more). That's what the non-profits RJC/JPC 990's show from that year. Of course, I have no idea what was paid out in bonuses, perks, reimbursements, etc... on top of all that, and that's just from those two organizations. My guess is that we are still well over the half-million territory. 2008 was a big election year. I can't wait to see those numbers. In any event, my guess is that in 2007 he earned more than the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, and I know he earned more than the President of the United States, which is OK because we all know that being the head staffer for a small non-profit is a far more important job than being the leader of the free world. Good work Matt!

Click on Images to enlarge.

Now it could be much more than that because one document (see below) shows that he earned over $300,000 from the Jewish Policy Center. But that doesn't seem logical to me. I sure wish someone would correct the record.

Noble CEO: Gas Found off Israel Coast is "A Game Changer"

OK, now I'm willing to go out on a limb here and speculate that based on the words of Noble Energy CEO at the Credit Suisse Energy Summit in Vail, Colorado yesterday, they are already aware that this gas find off of the Israeli Coast is far, far larger then what they are letting on. And what they are letting on is already pretty big. People don't use words like "game changer" or "historic moment" unless they know something. Right now, the public reports are that the find will provide Israel with at least 15 years of energy independence. That's big, but not a total "game changer". A Game Changer would be enough Energy to supply Israel and export to Europe for the foreseeable future for hard currency. That would be a game changer, and my guess is that we are talking closer to the latter rather than the former.

"This is a game changer for the country of Israel; it's a game changer for our partners," Davidson said at the Credit Suisse Energy Summit in Vail, Colorado, on Wednesday. "There will be a lot more news coming out of Israel in the next coming months."

Noble CEO Charles Davidson.

Just look at that face in the photo. Is that not a face that every girl would love to take home to Mom? What's not to trust?

Now when he says "a lot more news" that's not just a hint, that's an admission that he knows things and is not at liberty to talk about it. You don't even have to read between the lines to get it. News? Game changer? Historic moment? Sounds to me like Israel is in for a huge bonanza. Let's see what happens.

Flashback from January 18th: "This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history," Charles Davidson, Noble's chief executive, said in a statement.

"Early indications are that the resources identified are very substantial, at least equal to our pre-drill estimated gross mean resources of over three trillion cubic feet. Subject to the collection of additional data, the resource estimate for Tamar could further increase," he said.

Notice the words "at least" and "could further increase". My guess is, and this is admittedly based on extrapolating from the words of Nobles CEO and not based in actual knowledge, that this find is indeed a "game changer" as described by Davidson (who unlike me, does have actual knowladge). I wonder if Israel will be accepted as a member of OPEC after it becomes an Energy exporting country? HA! Talk about a world turned upside down! The professional Israel-haters (read 'Jew haters') must be squirming. Just the rich irony and entertainment value of all this is almost worth as much as the gas itself.

More Quotes:

"It could solve the country's gas problems for many years and generations to come. We now won't be dependent on others for gas, and we'll even be able to make exports."
Yitzhak Tshuva, owner of Delek Group, a partner in the enterprise.

"We are witnessing an historic moment in Israel's energy market. If it turns out in a few weeks that the indicators received in recent days are true, then we are talking about the biggest find in Israel's history."
Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer.

The Fogoten Refugees: Jews Displaced From Arab Countries

In 1945 there were up to one million Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa outside the Palestine Mandate - many living in communities dating back more than three millennia, well before even the arrival of Islam. Today, there are only several thousand. Who are these Jews? What precipitated their mass-exodus in the 20th century? Where did they go? And why don't we know their stories?

This has been a cause of mine for many years. Most Westerners simply do not know that More Jews were displaced from Arab countries in the last 60 years, than Palestinians were ever displaced from Palestine. According to official Arab statistics, close to 1,000,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. Some 600,000 resettled in Israel. Their descendants, and those of Iranian and Turkish Jews, now number 3.06 million of Israel's 5.4 to 5.8 million Jewish citizens. WOJAC estimates that confiscated Jewish property in Arab countries would be valued today at more than $300 billion and Jewish-owned real-estate left behind in Arab lands at 100,000 square kilometers (four times the size of the State of Israel). Yet it is the Arabs who make claims.