5.3 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Israel

5.3 earthquake felt in areas from northern Israel to central Israel. No injuries. Epicenter believed to be in Cyprus.

 

By Elad Benari, Canada

Earthquake preparedness drill

An earthquake rocked Israel on Friday evening, shortly before 10:00 p.m. local time, and was felt in areas from northern Israel to central Israel.

According to a Channel 10 News report, the police in the Northern, Central and Tel Aviv Districts said they received hundreds of phone calls from citizens who felt the earthquake. Local residents reported feeling objects and buildings move for about 15 to 20 seconds. There were no reports of injuries or damages.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured 5.3 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was in Cyprus.

More than a 100 calls by concerned citizens were received in the northern city of Tzfat alone, the report said. The quake was felt even in Bat Yam, Kfar Saba, Ramat Hasharon, Ra'anana and other areas in central Israel.

Magen David Adom has sent reinforcements to its stations in northern Israel and is preparing for the possibility of secondary tremors, Channel 10 reported.

In February, a 3.1 magnitude tremor shook Israel's north. There were no injuries or damage following the earthquake. The epicenter of that earthquake was east of Lake Kinneret, and a number of communities in the area reported having felt the quake.

Experts have warned that Israel is expected to be hit by a major earthquake. Dr. Ephraim Laor, who headed the National Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness, told Arutz Sheva recently that each Israeli must prepare himself for a major earthquake that could hit Israel.

In February, school children around the country, from kindergarten age and up, participated in earthquake drills in their schools, practicing safe steps to take when the ground starts shaking.

Racists For Obama 

by Chip Wood / Personal Liberty Digest

STAFF PHOTO BY SAM ROLLEY

Blacks supported Barack Obama over John McCain in 2008 by a margin of almost 24-1.

I wondered how long it would take for someone to raise the issue of racism in this year’s Presidential election. The answer came sooner than I expected. Last week, The New York Times ran the story “4 Years Later, Race Is Still Issue for Some Voters.”

In case you thought the story might be an exposé of the virulent hatred of America by some of President Barack Obama’s more extreme supporters (such as his longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright), forget about it. That’s old news and obviously not worth discussing any more. Heck, for the mainstream media, it was hardly worth discussing four years ago.

Nor was the story about the near unanimity of black voters to support a member of their own race worth discussing. Obama is expected to receive 95 percent of the black vote this year, just as he did in 2008 — no matter who his opponent is or what the issues are. Of course, there’s nothing racist in that.

No, the emphasis of the story was on how a tiny minority of white voters –especially those in “economically depressed regions with high proportions of white working-class residents” — said they wouldn’t vote for Obama because he is black.

So it’s OK for blacks to vote for Obama specifically because he is black. But it’s racist if a white votes for another white because of his skin color. Does anyone see a bit of a double standard here?

Of course, such bias (dare I say prejudice) has been around for a long time. Many liberals believe the only way to make up for decades of discrimination is to go overboard the other way. “Equality” wasn’t enough; we needed affirmative action and a new kind of discrimination.

Thus, it has become perfectly OK for this country to commemorate Black History Month. And, of course, every college that wants to keep its professors happy better offer a bunch of courses celebrating black achievements. But can you imagine the furor that would erupt if anyone dared propose teaching a class on white achievements?

What got the Times reporter so rattled was her concern that Obama’s race could keep him from being re-elected this year. As Sabrina Tavernise explained, “As Mr. Obama braces for what most signs suggest will be a close re-election battle, race remains a powerful factor among a small minority of voters.”

Of course she means a “small minority” of white voters. Had she broadened her survey to include blacks, she could have written that race mattered to “a large majority.” In fact, it matters to a very large majority. Blacks supported Barack Obama over John McCain in 2008 by a margin of almost 24-1. But of course there’s nothing racist about that.

The Obama campaign is doing everything it can to make sure that this particular history repeats itself. There is even a special section on the campaign website on “The Obama Administration’s Accomplishments for the African American Community.” Click here to see what I am writing about.

Then Tavernise hits her audience with the zinger:

“Given Ohio’s critical importance as a swing state that will most likely be won or lost by the narrowest of margins, the fact that Mr. Obama’s race is a deal-breaker for even a small number of otherwise loyal Democrats could have implications for the final result.”

Now that is a bunch of baloney. What are the odds that someone who voted for Obama four years ago (when he carried Ohio by a comfortable margin) will vote for his opponent this year because Obama is black? Does she really think this is something the voters didn’t know in 2008? Her argument that anti-black bigotry could cost Obama the election this year is ridiculous.

If Obama loses, it won’t be because a majority of voters reject his race. It will be because they reject his policies.

What Republicans Should Do

Faced with the fact that blacks will once again overwhelmingly vote for Obama this year, what should Republicans do?

The most absurd argument I’ve heard is that they should select Condoleezza Rice as Mitt Romney’s running mate. Sure thing. And how much of the black vote will go to Romney because he has a black female on the ticket?

Let’s face facts: If Romney got four times as many black votes as McCain did four years ago, that would still be as insignificant as a mosquito biting the Hulk. In 2008, the black vote came to 12.1 percent of the total.

Obama captured 95 percent of it. Does anyone think there is anything Romney could do to keep Obama from getting the overwhelming majority of it again?

Nominating Condoleezza as Vice President to fragment the black vote makes as much sense as choosing a union leader to make inroads in the union vote. Or a bureaucrat to get the government worker vote.

If Romney is to have any kind of chance this year, he must select someone who will get potential voters to work like crazy for his election. Those dedicated doorbell pushers and yard-sign displayers aren’t going to come from the liberal side of the ledger.

To use a phrase you’ve heard hundreds times before (and will hear a thousand more times before this November), Romney has to choose a candidate — and stake out positions — who will motivate the base. That isn’t Rice.

Heck, I suspect it isn’t even a black whose views I do support, such as Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell or Representative Allen West. Although any of those three articulate defenders of American principles would sure add some fire to the race. Could you see any of the three debating Joe Biden? Now, that’s a confrontation I’d pay good money to see.

I hope the left will continue to bang on the “if you oppose Obama you must be a racist” drum because the more they do, the more votes it will cost them. This one just doesn’t play in Peoria anymore. In fact, the only place it does work is the Obamas’ former church. Oh, and maybe Al Sharpton’s congregation.

Until next time, keep some powder dry.
–Chip Wood

Op-ed:

Class warfare...Obama style  

By: Diane Sori

Class warfare has been given its own unique twist when it comes to Barack Hussein Obama for he has taken it to a whole new level of hypocrisy.

We all know what a hypocrite ‘Mr. Hope and Change’ is; we all know how he says one thing then does another.  We know his actions usually belie his public statements. 

We know his re-election campaign theme of the 1 percent versus the 99 percent has been cleverly crafted and manufactured to create a sense of class warfare that few with even one working brain cell are buying into.

We know he’s manipulating supposed inequality and playing the race card when he says in our country today “there’s a shrinking number of people who do exceedingly well while a growing number struggle to get by...or are we better off when everyone gets a fair shot?" 

We know his hatred of the rich has NOTHING to do with his wanting to help the poor or the middle class but has EVERYTHING to do with petty jealousy that he is NOT one of the 1 percent.

We know all this but now the hypocrisy of it has come full-circle as those very wealthy people he condemns are the ones he panders to, parties with, and takes money from to feed his campaign war chest.

BTW, Mr. Obama, spending a BILLION dollars on a campaign is NOT running for office but is trying to buy yourself the office, just in case you didn’t know.  But I digress...

Last night’s over the top party/fundraiser at actor George Clooney’s house was hypocrisy like none ever seen before from Mr.’ I'm Jealous of Rich People’.  Obama raised, or should I say bamboozled, nearly $15 million from those rich people, including the $40,000-a-plate admission charge, as well as the proceeds from a contest for two "average Americans" to join the Hollywood crowd.

The man who constantly berates the wealthy, who constantly criticizes them for NOT paying their fair share in taxes was more than willing to take their money for his narcissistic, ‘it’s all about me, me, me ’ over inflated ego driven campaign.

While it’s true that these were the most liberal of the Hollywood elite Obama hangers-on and butt-kissers (gag, gag), the fact remains that he gladly took their money to use on his re-election campaign.  Hey ‘bama...here’s a novel idea, why don’t you donate that $15 million to a charity that helps the poor instead of adding it to an already ridiculous billion dollar war chest, after all your charitable donations last year kind of sucked.   Ooops, silly me...helping the poor was NEVER part of your agenda; helping yourself was and still is!

So, Mr. Obama, while you and your minions, including the media whose strings you pull, continue orchestrating and feeding into your manufactured class warfare game to try and divert ‘We the People’ from the real issues (like your pretending the past three years' dismal economy is everybody else's fault but your own), I revel in the fact that you are not likely to fool the voters for much longer, because your hypocrisy can only be hidden from view for so long.  Eventually, even the ‘sheeple’ won’t be able to ignore it.

A Romney Landslide

By Dick Morris

Published on TheHill.com 

If the election were held today, Mitt Romney would win by a landslide.

The published polls reflect a close race for two reasons:

1. They poll only registered voters, not likely voters. Rasmussen is the only pollster who tests likely voters, and his latest tracking poll has Romney ahead by 48-43.

2. As discussed in previous columns, a study of the undecided voters in the past eight elections in which incumbents sought a second term as president reveals that only Bush-43 gained any of the undecided vote. Johnson in ’64, Nixon in ’72, Ford in ’76, Carter in ’80, Reagan in ’84, Bush in ’92 and Clinton in ’96 all failed to pick up a single undecided vote.

So when polls show President Obama at 45 percent of the vote, they are really reflecting a likely 55-45 Romney victory, at the very least.

Gallup has amassed over 150,000 interviews over all of 2011 and compared them with a like number in 2010. It finds that Obama has a better than 50 percent job approval in only 10 states and the District of Columbia. And his approval has dropped in almost every single state. Even in California, it has fallen from 55 percent in 2010 to 
50.5 percent in 2011.

Over the period of May 4-6, I completed a poll of 400 likely voters in Michigan and found Romney leading by 45-43! And Michigan is one of the most pro-Democrat of the swing states.

I also found that Obama’s personal favorability, which has usually run about 10 to 20 points higher than his job approval, is now equal to his job rating. In Michigan, his personal favorability among likely voters is 47-47, while his job rating is 50-48. Romney’s favorability is 49-42.

Obama’s crashing personal favorability reflects the backlash from his recent speeches. In substance, their focus on class warfare and their bombastic, demagogic style are not playing well with the voters. They do not seem in the least presidential.

Nor does his message of attacking Big Oil seem constructive. Voters all distrust Big Oil and would rather see them get punished, but they do not see in repealing their tax breaks a way of lowering prices at the pump or of increasing the supply of oil.

Obama’s trip to Afghanistan looks like grandstanding, and his insinuation that Romney would never have launched the strike looks like a low partisan blow.

Obama cannot summon the commitment he got in 2008 by negatives or partisanship. It was precisely to change the “toxic” atmosphere in Washington that he was elected. To fan it now is not the way to regain the affection of those who have turned on him.

If the election were held today, Obama would lose by at least 10 points and would carry only about a dozen states with fewer than 150 electoral votes.

And the Republicans would keep their Senate seats in Arizona, Texas and Nevada while picking up seats in Virginia, Florida, Indiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and Montana. The GOP will also have good shots at victory in the Senate races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and — if Chris Shays wins the primary — Connecticut. Only in Maine are their fortunes likely to dim.

The journalists in the mainstream media, who are not politicians and have never run campaigns, do not realize what is happening. The Democrats, as delusional in 2012 as they were in 2010, are too much into their own euphoria to realize it. But America is sharply and totally rejecting Obama and all he stands for and embracing Romney as a good alternative. While few are saying these words, they are the truth.

WND EXCLUSIVE

Sheriff Joe to Holder: 'Clean your own house first!'

Arizona lawman remains steadfast despite lawsuit threat

by Jerome R. Corsi / The Western Center for Journalism

A defiant Sheriff Joe Arpaio is preparing to tell President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder later today there is “no way” he will turn over the management of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to the Justice Department despite the threat of a federal lawsuit.


“Clean your own house, Eric Holder, before you come trying to clean mine,” Arpaio said today in a telephone interview with WND.

As WND reported, the Justice Department informed Arpaio yesterday it plans to take him to federal court on allegations of systematic violations of the civil rights of Hispanics. Holder has sought an agreement
 to establish a court monitor in Arpaio’s office to clear his decisions.

Arpaio has scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. local time today at his office in downtown Phoenix.

‘I won’t surrender’

The sheriff charged that the Obama administration is attacking him in an effort to gain Hispanic votes in November for the Democratic Party.

“This is a coordinated effort directed from the White House to deflect attention from Eric Holder’s failure to cooperate in the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious,” he said.

Arpaio accused Obama of wanting to make him the “poster boy” in the administration’s public relations effort to deflect attention from Holder.

Phoenix today will be the site of dueling press conferences, with the Justice Department scheduling a late afternoon event. In addition, Randy Parraz, the radical agitator with a union-trained background as a Saul Alinsky “organizer,” also plans to hold a press conference today. Parraz moved to Phoenix to launch an effort demanding the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors order Arpaio to resign.

However, Arpaio, who is near the end of an unprecedented fourth term as Maricopa County sheriff, is an elected official who cannot be dismissed by the county overseers.

Arpaio cautioned that Holder should think twice about joining forces with activist operatives like Parraz.

“I won’t surrender,” Arpaio insisted, referring to the Justice Department’s demand to put federal monitors within the MCSO. “I intend to fight back.”

In November, Arpaio faces re-election for a fifth term.

‘Prove it!’

Repeatedly, Arpaio has charged the Justice Department has nothing against him but anecdotal evidence of isolated instances in which Hispanics have complained of MCSO activity.

As WND has reported, the Justice Department has refused to produce evidence substantiating the allegations against Arpaio, insisting that the allegations themselves are sufficient to demand a remedy.

“It’s ironic, don’t you think,” Arpaio said, “that Eric Holder refuses to comply with congressional subpoenas to deliver to Congress the information about his management of the Justice Department, but the Justice Department has no hesitation to make public their complaints about me despite the fact those allegation have never been proved to be true?”

Obama eligibility investigation to continue

Arpaio also told WND he will not abandon his volunteer team’s investigation into Obama’s eligibility for the Arizona presidential ballot
.
“The Obama investigation remains ongoing,” he confirmed. “I have no intention of abandoning the Obama investigation until the Cold Case Posse has done its job.”

Arpaio’s office has announced the sheriff is preparing for a second press conference to update findings of the Cold Case Posse.

At a press conference in Phoenix March 1, Arpaio announced his team had found probable cause that Obama’s long form birth certificate and his Selective Service draft registration form were forgeries.

Arpaio contended it was no coincidence Holder decided to sue his office immediately after the government’s lawyers were grilled by the Supreme Court in oral arguments over the constitutionality of Arizona’s tough immigration law, SB 1070.

“I’ve had a 50-year career in law enforcement, including many years with the Justice Department in senior positions. Now, Eric Holder’s Justice Department is turning on me just because I’m doing my job enforcing immigration laws.”

5 Ways Obama Is A Dictator

By Doug Book / The Western Center for Journalism

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When power is placed in the hands of a usurper like Barack Obama, all thought of accepting authority from the other branches of government as delegated by the Constitution is rejected. Three years in office, we have seen Obama use the various agencies of the executive branch to break countless federal statutes, rob states of their legislative prerogatives, and flout the authority of Congress and the courts.

Obama’s Department of Justice has actively prevented South Carolina, Arizona, Texas, and other states from implementing voter ID laws designed to prevent the widespread incidents of fraud so instrumental to the success of the Democrat Party in elections for the past 50 years. The Department has filed suit in federal court to prevent implementation of those state laws in spite of a 2008 Supreme Court ruling which found Constitutional an Indiana voter ID law whose various requirements were mirrored in the Texas and Arizona legislation.

The EPA imposed water quality rules in Florida which would have led to “…billions of dollars in compliance costs, significant spikes in utility bills and the loss of thousands of jobs.” In February, the Florida Attorney General prevailed in a lawsuit against the EPA in which the presiding judge found “…the EPA’s rules were not based on sound science…”

Moreover, the judge declared the EPA had even failed to prove its scheme would prevent any harm to the environment.

Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) threatened suit against South Carolina “for guaranteeing a secret ballot in union elections.” The NLRB eventually backed down, but then turned its attention to the Boeing Company, telling Boeing it could not relocate its plants. Once again, the Board backed down “but only after the company and the union worked through an agreement.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) demanded that the Hosanna Tabor Lutheran School rehire a minister discharged for her disagreement with the religious doctrines of the church. So outragious was EEOC involvement in this case that the Supreme Court UNANIMOUSLY found in favor of the School in a January 2012 ruling.

Health and Human Services mandated Jewish, Catholic, and Baptists schools and churches provide abortion services to their employees. Seven state Attorneys General have filed suit after Barack Obama made an “accommodation in name only that required insurance companies…provide the services for free…”

In the Constitution, the Founders created an overlap of authority, based on the view that “…liberty can only be effectively preserved by having not only separate branches…but also by mixing in each branch aspects of all the forms of power—legislative, executive and judicial…” The argument as to which branch—the executive or the legislative– has the final authority to declare and engage in war, for example, has especially raged in recent years.

But Barack Obama and his thuggish Regime desire the exercise of absolute control over all aspects of existence in the United States. It is anathema to this would-be dictator that authority even be shared with the people he was elected to govern, much less that all authority to govern be DERIVED of their consent.  The system of federalism upon which this nation and its Constitution are based is systematically being destroyed by a Manchurian Candidate bent on absolute rule over a free people.

Op-ed:
Panderer...thy name is Obama 
By: Diane Sori 

First Barack Hussein Obama favors gay marriage (February 1996), then he doesn’t (June 2004), now he does again (May 9, 2012)...talk about flip-flopping or better yet, talk about a desperate man desperately pandering for votes!

“I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages,” he wrote in February 1996.

Flip...

“What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman … What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it’s not simply the two persons who are meeting,” he said when running for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Flop...

"Over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," he said last night on ABC TV.

Major flip-flops here with all sorts of flipping in between.

Hmmmmm...serious quandary here, Mr. Obama.  You claim to be a Christian yet Christian theology does NOT condone homosexuality. (“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22, King James Bible, Cambridge Ed.)

Now we all know you really are a muslim, and as such islam does NOT condone homosexuality either, at least so says the qur’an.  ("We also sent Lut : He said to his people : "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." Qur'an 7:80-81.)

So, Mr. Obama, whether you are a Christian or even if in reality you are a muslim, how can you condone same sex marriage when homosexuality itself is condemned by both faiths.  BOTH have a differing opinion than you have publically now taken, so, Mr. Obama, you have gone against your professed religious beliefs no matter WHICH religious tag is placed on you!

This, sir, goes beyond mere flip-flopping...it goes all the way into out and out heresy and pandering on your part!  If you believe in the Bible as Christians do OR if you believe and follow the qur’an as muslims do, your stance is contradictory to both, and sadly, you just don’t care as long as your stance will get you the gay support.

This is about as low as one can go for you are using the gay community NOT to help them but to help yourself to their votes!  The equal rights issue for gays concerning domestic partnerships, marriage, or whatever one chooses to call it, should be up to the individual states and the voters to decide NOT be up to you to put your two sense in to use these people and this hot button issue for your political fodder.

Also, Mr. Obama, why is it OK for you to flip-flop on the gay marriage issue but it is NOT OK for your rival, Mitt Romney, to change his mind on abortion.  As a Christian, if you really are a Christian that is, isn’t it your obligation to try and bring pro-choice individuals over to your professed Christianity’s pro-life side...I always thought it was.  I thought that as a Christian, as you claim to be, that you’d put politics aside and be happy that Romney has become even more pro-life than he was before.  But NO, all you and your minions do is defame Romney’s stance on this issue while you pander to the gay community for their votes, and you do so with that big stupid smile on your face that you always wear while on your, ‘ME, ME, ME...It’s All About ME’ Tour!

I just hope and pray that the gay community sees through your phony façade, and sees how they are being used just for their votes for we all know you will stab them in the back just as you will do to all the minorities you are pandering to.

Mr. Obama, the only flipping that will be done in November is flipping you right out of a job!