alestinian Authority activists have recreated the Third Intifada page that was banned by Facebook on Tuesday in response to thousands of member requests.
An Israeli Cabinet minister, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a massive Internet campaign were only some of the measures used to pressure the popular social networking site into removing the page, which promoted violence against Jews in Israel.
But the story doesn't end there, because angry Palestinian Authority sponsors of the page ensured the fight would continue.
Organizers have summoned millions of Arabs from across the Middle East to march into Israel and forcibly attempt to implement a de facto “Right of Return,” the Arab euphenism for the mass immigration of several million Arabs.
The date for this march has been set for May 15 – the anniversary of what the Arabs refer to as the “Nakba” or “Tragedy“ -- the date of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Although some of the pages promoting this campaign have warned its readers to maintain a peaceful demeanor, others do not bother with such niceties.
At least one is a complete re-creation of the original Third Palestinian Intifada page that was removed.
Third Palestinian Uprising – Persian Gulf
Within 24 hours, organizers created the same page under a new name: Third Palestinian uprising – the Persian Gulf answer join our mosque.
The page, written entirely in Arabic and listed under the Political Party category, was created at approximately 11:00 a.m. Jerusalem time.
“This page has been created after the Facebook page was closed after the uprising, the number of logged-in page to 350,000, at the request of Israel. Accordingly we set up a number of pages to spread news of the uprising. All pages have been created to spread news of the uprising in case the main page is closed once again...”
Under “Likes and Interests” on the page, organizers wrote, “One billion Muslims for the destruction of Israel. Billion Muslim to Exterminate Israel, a campaign one million pro-Aqsa Mosque, a campaign to write the date of the third Palestinian Intifada on the Egyptian currency... the historic march toward Palestine, 15.05.2011 – I am the first volunteer in the United Arab army in the event of a declaration of war on Israel and 5 more...”
Posted on the page are various messages, including the notice by the “Million campaign to advocate for the al Aqsa Mosque,” which tells readers, “Save al-Aqsa mosque from injustice, and aggression is our goal.”
Arab Revolt for Liberation of Palestine
Another notice was posted by the Arab Revolt for the Liberation of Palestine (listed under “Cause”).
It announced its “primary goal is to liberate our land, Arab Filistine (Palestine -ed.) and the defeat of the occupation in every inch of the land of Palestine, pure and simple. We call upon the Arab masses...
“This day will be a dawn of freedom for the liberated Arab peoples. Free Palestine and we will be released...” This page alone has garnered 27,379 “Likes.”
A number of other pages, all posted in Arabic, have also been created on the popular social networking site.
Two pages, Maseera 2011 and Palatora, are non-violent but nevertheless threatening to the Jewish State, supporting the call for a mass invasion by millions of Arabs. By noon Wednesday, Maseera 2011 had garnered 7,209 “Likes.”
Maseera 2011
Written in Arabic, a statement on the page announced, “Our goal is to carry out the march of the Right of Return in both word and deed to Palestine on May 15 2011 from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in order to penetrate the borders of Palestine and return to the homeland and validate the right of return in word and deed,” proclaims a statement on the page.
“This step is the first towards achievement of Resolution 194, to be followed by other steps such as recognition of the rights of returnees and compensation...
“If you are a refugee who wants to return, or you support the right of refugees to return, we hope that you publish this page everywhere on the Internet, in Facebook, Twitter, forums, email groups and all possible locations,” organizers wrote. “Copy our link and put it in your profile and publish it on all the pictures and videos and pages and everywhere... 63 years; it is time to return.”
Revolution for Palestinian Refugees - Palatora
The Revolution for Palestinian Refugees page – Palatora – is categorized under Media/News/Publishing and by Wednesday late morning had collected 5,805 “Likes.”
Organizers describe themselves as “sons of exiles” and vow to carry out a “March of Return” on May 15 to “restore our right to our land... we will not be denied and will not go back to where we were at all costs of blood or money, nor with a white flag. We will be flying the flag of Palestine... and we will stand with our heads held high.”
Also written completely in Arabic, one posting on this page vows enthusiastically, “We will enter Palestine in the millions!”
Another reminds readers, “March 30... Earth Day – Palestinians strong in our land and win!”
March to Palestine
The March to Palestine page, listed under the category of Political Party, proclaims the slogan, “May 15 is the date to march around historic Palestine.” As of Wednesday morning, 8,080 people had expressed their support for the page.
“Ready and on standby for the Liberation of Jerusalem,” wrote Mahmoued Abd Elwahed.
“O Jerusalem, coming, coming,” wrote Ala'a Yousef.
“Allah will chastise them at your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them...” promised Ghassan M. Ka'awach, who posted in response to a photo of a PA Arab woman hurling a rock, presumably at a Jew.
One of the posts on this page is a link to a page that is aimed at Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is Jewish.
Hatred Hurled at Zuckerberg
A new page was started as soon as Facebook removed the Third Palestinian Intifada to express the disappointment and in many cases, hatred of Facebook's Arab readers at being stymied. The page, Mark Zuckerberg is the next dictator to Go, proclaims as its slogan, “Reopen the Third Palestinian Intifada Page now!”
On that page, more than a few readers have issued ultimatums and warnings of their own.
“Do not be like the Israelis criminals,” wrote Mustafa Hashem Safi. “The state of Israel was built on the blood and the skulls of the innocent Palestinian people since 1948 .. Israelis stole our land and killed out sons and drove us out of our country under duress, a fact that Israel .. And you know that your money and billions of dollars owned are not worth a drop of blood for our son Palestinian.”
“Message to staff in the Department of facebook: You have 48 hours to return the official page Third of the Palestinian uprising, or boycott the province on facebook will be Thursday, 31/03/2011” wrote one.
“...you are a moron serving the Zionists...”
“Dear Mark... you can remove the page but the third intifada has already begun. Its the awakening of the global consciousness to the crimes of the zionist entity... its BDS.. You caved in to the ADL....your a puppet...”
Taunted another, “Why did you remove the page? ARE YOU AFRAID? :)”
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Israel waits for Argentina reply on bomb investigation
Talkbacks (5) Israel’s envoy to Buenos Aires has asked the Argentinean authorities for a response to a report that appeared in the press there Saturday, alleging that Iran suggested that Argentina “forget” about the two bombings there in the early 1990s in return for improved financial relations, Israeli diplomatic officials said Sunday.
According to the Argentinean tabloid Perfil, the Islamic Republic asked the South American country to drop the ongoing investigation into the bombings, which are believed to have been carried out by Hezbollah and Iran. The 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli Embassy and Jewish center in Buenos Aires killed 114 people and wounded hundreds.
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Foreign Minister spokesman Yigal Palmor said that so far Israel had no confirmation of the report, “and we are still waiting for an official comment from the Argentinean Foreign Ministry.”
Should the report prove to be true, Palmor said, “It would be a manifestation of cynicism and insult to the memory of the victims. But, as I have said, we are still waiting for the Argentine Foreign Ministry to issue an official reaction.”
Perfil, which is a vocal critic of Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez, said the offer was made to Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman during a recent visit to Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a close ally of Iran.
Timerman is the son of Jacobo Timerman, the Jewish journalist and publisher imprisoned and tortured during Argentina’s Dirty War from 1976-1983. After his release from prison in 1979, Timerman was exiled and immigrated to Israel, where he became an acerbic left-wing critic of the government’s policies. He returned to Argentina in 1984.
Pepe Eliaschev, the journalist who reported the story in Perfil, has been accused of having an anti-Fernandez bent, sources said.
Over the past several months, he has spoken out against the incumbent on several radio talk shows ahead of the October 2011 general elections.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=214089
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Egypt Air removes Israel from map
Jordan stretches to sea in online map by Egypt's largest airline, though it continues to fly to Israel
Egypt Air, the largest airline in Egypt, has removed Israel from the map – literally. On its website, Ynet has learned, Jordan's land reaches the Mediterranean Sea.
Tel Aviv flights were temporarily halted following the recent uprising that overturned the government, but were then reinstated.
Egypt Air, the largest airline in Egypt, has removed Israel from the map – literally. On its website, Ynet has learned, Jordan's land reaches the Mediterranean Sea.
The airline's subsidiary, Air Sinai, flies to Israel regularly, but customers seeking flights to Ben Gurion National Airport will have a hard time finding them. On the map are the names of the Mideast capitals – Amman, Beirut, and Damascus – but Israel is nowhere to be found.
Jordan stretches to sea in online map (Photo: Internet site)
Egypt Air is the first large airline to have omitted the state from its map of destinations. Other airlines based in Muslim countries, such as Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian, include Israel and Tel Aviv on its maps.
The omission is especially odd seeing as the company continues to fly to Israel four times a week. Cairo-
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There has also been an increase in passengers on Air Sinai's flights. According to the Airports Authority, the airline saw an increase of 27% in 2010 from the year previous.
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Escalating Palestinian missile-mortar fire on Israeli cities boosts tension
Palestinian missiles, rockets and mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip have rained down on Israeli towns and villages relentlessly for the past ten days. The mayor of the Negev city of Beersheba ordered schools to remain closed Wednesday, March 23, after the second heavy (Iran-supplied) Grad rocket in a month hit a residential district, injuring five people and causing heavy damage. As he spoke, another Grad exploded in Beersheba. Overnight, two Grads were aimed at the port towns of Ashkelon and Ashdod. The villages abutting on Gaza were told to stay close to bomb shelters Tuesday night after taking some 56 mortar rounds in three days. Wednesday morning, another seven exploded in the Eshkol farm region, finding the IDF Home Front Command unready for the proliferating attacks..
The Palestinians said they were punishing Israel for hitting back at the sources of previous Palestinian attacks, some admitted by Hamas, others by the Iranian surrogate Jihad Islami. Tuesday, one of four Israeli tank shells hit a Palestinian building near the source of mortar fire and accidentally killed three civilians, including a youth and a boy, as well as one of the shooters. Israel apologized for civilian deaths, stressing they were inadvertent whereas the Palestinian terrorists of Gaza deliberately targeted Israeli civilians.
Following this exchange, the leaders of the targeted Israeli cities and villages called loudly for another Cast Lead operation as limited military, responsive action was clearly of no use. Some urged the new chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz to lead a campaign to remove Hamas rule, saying it is at least as repressive, belligerent and dangerous to its neighbors as other Arab regimes currently targeted by Western armies.
However, the Netanyahu government has tied itself in knots.
Last Saturday, March 19, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview: "The Israelis should be negotiating peace with me." Brushing aside the fact that he only speaks for the West Bank segment of the Palestinian people – not the Gazans who overthrew his Fatah - he said: "Leave the Hamas to me."
Hamas responded to this claim by stepping up its attacks on Israel to underline its independence of PA chairman. Whereas Abbas' Fatah is seeking reconciliation with its rival in secret talks led by Nabil Shaat, Hamas much strengthened by the Muslim Brotherhood's successes in Egypt is playing hard to get. Hamas leaders in Gaza and Damascus are more interested in throwing their weight around for all fellow-extremists to see and show them an example by attacking Israel.
In addressing Israeli complaints, it suits Hamas to pin the blame for shooting heavy rockets on Iran's Palestinian surrogate Jihad Islami. However, debkafile's military sources report that the Jihad only strikes with Hamas' blessing.
Much harder to understand is the Netanyahu government's failure to smack down the authors of this relentless punishment which has been going on for almost a decade, except for the single limited Cast Lead operation of 2008-9, which too was interrupted prematurely under international pressure drummed up by the Palestinians and their backers.
Israeli leaders continue to pretend that "neither side seeks escalation" – which no one believes.
They still don't appreciate that the military attack staged by Western nations on Muammar Qaddafi's regime has changed the rules for dealing with harmful rulers. Rather than going for the top of the Hamas pyramid, Israel has just marginally sharpened its counter-attacks against its troops, only to bring forth heavier Palestinian missiles smashing into its cities.
Tuesday, an Israeli tank shell killed two Palestinian boys aged 11 and 16 and a man of 50, following a string of Palestinian mortar and missile attacks on their Israeli neighbors. Earlier that day, an Israeli air strike hit four members of a Palestinian team about to shoot a missile. Other Palestinian teams responded swiftly with attacks further afield on Beersheba and Israeli coastal cities using Grad rockets which have a range of at least 40 kilometers.
The latest escalation in a long Palestinian campaign against Israel from Gaza, boosted by the successful popular uprising in Egypt, was prompted by Mahmoud Abbas' interview to Israeli television – a public gesture that was accompanied by his secret wooing of Hamas.
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting Own Channel
The possibility that Glenn Beck will exit the Fox News Channel at the end of the year has prompted a big question in media circles: if he leaves, how will he bring his considerable audience with him?
Michael Dinneen/Associated Press
Glenn Beck already has his own media company, Mercury Radio Arts.
Two of the options Mr. Beck has contemplated, according to people who have spoken about it with him, are a partial or wholesale takeover of a cable channel, or an expansion of his subscription video service on the Web.
Reports this week that Joel Cheatwood, a senior Fox News executive, would soon join Mr. Beck’s growing media company, Mercury Radio Arts, were the latest indication that Mr. Beck intended to leave Fox, a unit of the News Corporation, when his contract expired at the end of this year.
Notably, Mr. Beck’s company has been staffing up — making Web shows, some of which have little or nothing to do with Mr. Beck, and charging a monthly subscription for access to the shows.
Were Mr. Beck to set off on his own, it would be a landmark moment for the media industry, reflecting a shift in the balance of power between media institutions and the personal brands of people they employ.
Mr. Beck, a conservative who often comes under criticism for his attacks on progressives and apocalyptic predictions, hosts a syndicated radio show in the morning and a Fox News show in the afternoon.
He has a “passionate media brand with a clear point of view,” said Larry Kramer, a media consultant and the author of “C-Scape: Conquer the Forces Changing Business Today.” Mr. Kramer compared Mr. Beck to Arianna Huffington and Howard Stern, two people who have spun their personalities into media empires.
It is possible that Mr. Beck and Fox could agree to a new contract. But his relationship with the channel has been fraught from its earliest days in 2009, and lately both sides have been anonymously sniping at the other.
Asked on Tuesday whether Fox News intends to renew his contract, a Fox spokeswoman said, “it’s not up until December” and declined to comment further.
Mr. Beck declined an interview request about his future plans, but through a spokesman, he provided a statement. “Roger Ailes has built the most important voice in America today — Fox News — and it is an honor to do my show there every night,” he stated. “I have no intention whatsoever of doing the show I am doing now on Fox anywhere else.”
Mr. Beck has been contemplating a cable channel of his own for more than a year, according to the people who have spoken with him about it, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr. Beck may not be able to actively pursue such an arrangement until his Fox contract is up.
Presuming he leaves, Mr. Beck could follow a road paved by Oprah Winfrey when she started OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in January. He could schedule his own talk show and the shows of others on one of the many cable channels seeking a ratings jolt. Or, following Martha Stewart’s road to the Hallmark Channel, he could start smaller, taking over a few hours of a channel’s schedule.
But a cable channel takeover, even in part, carries enormous risk, as Ms. Winfrey and Ms. Stewart can attest — they have more real estate now, but the ratings comparisons are not favorable. For Mr. Beck, the risk may be heightened by the fact that many advertisers have shunned him on Fox, in part because of a boycott that started after he called President Obama racist in 2009.
Furthermore, having cable channel turf may carry less importance in the future as more people access TV shows online.
Mr. Beck’s other option is to expand Insider Extreme, the subscription portion of his Web site, glennbeck.com, by hosting an exclusive show there and by adding other content.
Insider Extreme already simulcasts Mr. Beck’s three-hour radio show; shows a fourth hour hosted by his sidekicks; shows a daily show hosted by S. E. Cupp, a conservative commentator; and occasionally features documentaries.
Mr. Beck is also in business with Dr. Keith Ablow, a well-known psychiatrist; they sometimes co-host free webcasts.
Mercury Radio Arts, which is privately held, has not released any figures for the $9.95 subscription service. Last April, one month after Insider Extreme started, Forbes magazine estimated that the Web operations earned Mr. Beck $4 million a year, twice as much as the $2 million he earned from Fox.
On the Web, unlike on television, Mr. Beck owns the data about his subscribers.
People who have spoken to Mr. Beck say that neither option — a cable channel or what would essentially be an Internet channel — would be aimed at competing with Fox News, which is enormously popular on cable. Rather, it would try to extract more value out of Mr. Beck’s loyal fans. The comparison to Mr. Stern may be apt: his audience on satellite radio is smaller than it was on terrestrial radio, but the profits are higher.
Already, some of Mr. Beck’s fans have followed him to a news and opinion Web site, theblaze.com, and to stage shows.
Mr. Kramer noted that Mr. Beck did not necessarily have to choose between cable and the Internet — he could come up with “some form of hybrid.” That’s how Ms. Winfrey formed OWN — she contributed Oprah.com while her partner contributed the cable channel space. But Mr. Kramer cautioned, Mr. Beck is “not Oprah yet.”
Saturday, March 19, 2011
President 'Present' Obama dodges the big decisions to keep his approval ratings up.
One knock on Barack Obama in the 2008 election was his record as an Illinois state senator, where he repeatedly ducked tough issues by voting "present." It seems old habits die hard.
If you'd like to know where the leader of the free world stands on those NCAA rankings, just turn on ESPN. ("I think Kansas has more firepower," he explained as he filled out his bracket.) Wondering what the commander in chief thinks about gun laws? Don't worry—he's in favor of those already on the books, according to a recent op-ed.
If, however, you are curious about where the most powerful man in the universe stands on Libya, radiation, a possible government shutdown, the future of Social Security, or rising oil prices, don't look to the White House. Those issues are tough. Those issues risk mistakes. Those issues might mean unhappy voters. And right now, it's approval ratings the White House cares about.
Obama advisers are spinning their excuses for the president's absence (he needs to stay above the fray, he believes in international agreement). Conservatives, for their part, are beginning to argue the "incompetence" line. A combination of all is probably at work, along with an even greater impulse: political safety. Mr. Obama got a taste of falling approval ratings last year. The White House has worked hard to get those numbers back up and wants to keep them there until Mr. Obama has a GOP opponent and can go into campaign mode—where he's at his best.
And so as Moammar Gadhafi has visited a bloodbath on opposition forces, the White House has for weeks spun its wheels at the United Nations, waiting for someone else to go first. The White House has argued intervention might provoke an Arab backlash against the U.S., and it could be it actually believes such crazy talk. Yet it seems equally concerned that any U.S.-led military action in Libya—no matter how minor—will invite comparisons to the dreaded Bush warmongers and prove unpopular.
And as Congress lurches from one budget crisis to the next, President Obama leaves negotiations to Vice President Joe Biden. It has been clear for weeks the only way this gets settled is for Mr. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to find a fiscal 2011 spending-cut number that gets bipartisan support. But Mr. Obama worries that number will be too much for the left, and not enough for the right, and that means . . . controversy.
Today he instead leaves for a five-day Latin American tour. On that trip he will not be visiting Colombia or Panama, whose trade deals he's squelched since he took office. Trade deals, after all, don't always sit well with the public (and rarely with unions).
It took until yesterday for Mr. Obama to address Japan's nuclear problem, and only then to clarify that Americans should and should not be worried about radiation, while also knowing that U.S. power plants are and aren't safe. The president had been touting a new love for nuclear energy (to coax Republicans into a "clean-energy" deal), but the White House is now worried Japan is the hydrogen version of the BP oil spill, and thinking the safest short-term policy is incoherence.
Entitlement reform? Are you people nuts? Who ever won an election on entitlement reform?
The White House's greater interest right now seems to be throwing little bones to its left. A quip here about the Wisconsin labor dispute, a gun-control op-ed there. A promise to quit defending the Defense Against Marriage Act. Yet even these are tiny bones, designed not to hugely upset the broader public.
Careful is the word. Compare this to George W. Bush, who ordered an Iraq surge despite dismal approval ratings.
A "present" strategy didn't hurt the Illinois state senator, who went on to become president—and that may be what's guiding the president's team now. Then again, the White House is discovering there are greater consequences for a "present" president. The administration is realizing, for instance, that a victorious Gadhafi is not in fact to Mr. Obama's, or the world's, advantage—one reason it is now adopting a more aggressive posture.
It also hardly seems a winning strategy for the White House to keep the president's approval ratings below the 50% he needs for re-election. He in particular risks alienating congressional Democrats, who are wearying of being left to handle public criticism. If they start to believe the president is looking out only for himself, they'll do the same. Even if that means undermining pieces of his agenda.
There is another way, of course. The Americans who voted in 2008 didn't vote "present." They voted for a leader. They might even reward Mr. Obama for doing that job.
Write to kim@wsj.com
Move Aside Ethanol - Compressed Natural Gas is a Better Gasoline Replacement
Ethanol is finally getting the bad press (1) (2) it richly deserves. Cracks are even beginning to appear in its once-solid support on Capitol Hill. In April, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to hold hearings that are expected to skewer ethanol. The Committee is led by Democratic Chair Barbara Boxer and ranking Republican James Inhofe, both committed foes of burning food to run our cars.
However, whether or not Congress has the courage to cut ethanol subsidies, corn-based fuel faces a more fundamental challenge, this one from market forces. Although it has not been widely noticed, the one-two punch of the latest oil price spike and wider development of unconventional natural gas, including shales, tight sands, and coal-bed methane, have pushed the gap between the prices of oil and gas to a record high. Click through to this nice little graphic from The New York Times, and you will see that on an energy-equivalent basis, oil now costs four times more than gas. As recently as 2005, gas was actually the more expensive of the two fuels.
But run your car on natural gas? Isn't that one of those loony ideas from the inside back cover of Popular Science? No, not at all. Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fully proven, off-the-shelf technology in wide use around the world. Perhaps only its very simplicity and low-tech reliability have kept it from catching the public imagination in the United States.
I first encountered CNG as an automotive fuel several years ago when I was teaching in Bulgaria. You may associate Bulgarian transportation technology with horse-drawn carts and Soviet-era sidecar motorcycles, but in fact, Bulgaria is way ahead of us when it comes to inexpensive, low-emission automotive fuel. My wife and I rented a car from a neighbor to make a weekend getaway to nearby Greece. Very ordinary on the outside and far from new, the car turned out to have two fuel tanks, one for CNG and one for gasoline. In Bulgaria, all the filling stations had CNG pumps, self-service just like those for gasoline, distinguished only by funny-shaped nozzles. CNG was less widely available in Greece, so before the weekend was over, we finally filled up the gasoline tank (at more than twice the price). After doing so, we threw a switch under the dashboard and kept right on driving without noticing the difference.
So why don't we use CNG in the United States? Well, some people do. Fleets of buses and delivery trucks, including many UPS vehicles, are some of the biggest users. Honda sells a CNG-powered version of the Civic, the Honda GX, in the United States. Many major manufacturers sell CNG cars elsewhere in the world. Presumably, they could enter the US market quickly if there were a demand. In addition, several small companies make kits that will convert a variety of gas and diesel cars and trucks to CNG or dual fuel use. NGV America, an umbrella organization for promoting natural gas vehicles, maintains a useful business directory for anyone wanting to jump on the bandwagon.
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Of course, there must be a downside to CNG. Otherwise, with a potential fuel price advantage of 2:1 or better and cleaner operation, everyone would be using it.
Limited range is one disadvantage. CNG tanks are bulkier than gasoline tanks. The Honda GX has a range of about 200-250 miles, half that of the gasoline model, and the fuel tank takes up room in the trunk. Still, 200 miles is better than the range of all-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf.
Some consumers are also concerned about the safety of CNG, but the industry claims it is safer than gasoline. Gasoline, after all, is incredibly dangerous stuff. The only reason we are crazy enough to drive around every day with enough gasoline in our tanks to blow us to smithereens is that we are used to it. Anyone who is really safety conscious should stick to diesel.
Another barrier to wider use of CNG is a lack of filling stations. There are more than 1,000 CNG filling stations in the United States, but only about half of them are open to the public. There are clusters of public stations in California and New York, but elsewhere they can be few and far between. If you don't have a CNG station nearby, a company called FuelMaker sells a home fueling kit, which connects to the natural gas main in your home. However, unlike commercial filling stations, the home device takes several hours to fill your tank, and the device costs several thousand dollars to purchase and install. Of course, the scarcity of filling stations is much less of a problem for dual-fuel vehicles like the one I drove in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, although dual-fuel is a realistic option for converted vehicles, the Honda GX is CNG only. No one sells a road-ready dual-fuel vehicle in the United States.
Probably the biggest barrier to wider use of CNG in private cars is the high cost, up to $20,000 or more, of converting existing vehicles. At that rate, you might hope to pay off the conversion of a fuel-hungry pickup or SUV, if you drive a lot, but the cost can be prohibitive for a small passenger car.
It turns out that the high cost of conversion is one of the hottest controversies on CNG web sites and chat boards. Evidently, the biggest component of the cost of CNG conversion is compliance with strict EPA regulations and even stricter state regulations in California. Conversion kit makers must go through a complex certification process that costs $200,000 or more, and each certification applies only to a single engine type. Furthermore, you can't just buy a kit and install it yourself. Installers also have to be certified, adding another layer of cost. If you look around on the web, you can find a gray market in uncertified kits made elsewhere in the world. You can install one in your own driveway for as little as $1,000, but that is clearly a buyer-beware proposition. Considering how inherently clean CNG is, it is ironic that the EPA bans uncertified conversions on the grounds that they constitute tampering with an approved emission control system.
In the last Congress, Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Dan Boren, both of Oklahoma, introduced legislation that would have promoted CNG use by streamlining the certification process. Unfortunately, despite
attracting several co-sponsors and the support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the legislation failed to make it through the Congressional gridlock. Meanwhile, those wanting to pay the high up-front price for an approved conversion can get part of the cost back through the same clean-energy tax credit used to promote electric vehicles. However, first making it unnecessarily costly to convert to CNG and then partially subsidizing those same high conversion costs hardly seems like a shining example of optimal public policy.
That brings us back to market forces. The price gap between CNG and gasoline is now higher than it has ever been. Although the gap will always vary a little, depending on geopolitics and on the number of gas and oil wells drilled each year, it seems likely that a substantial cost advantage for CNG is here to stay. Given that reality, rather waiting for top-down legislation to open the door for wider use of CNG on the highway, a bottom up scenario seems more plausible. Continued low CNG prices will help spread use of that fuel for fleet vehicles and, at the same time, should steadily increase the user base of converted private cars and trucks. It is a classic case where the long-run supply and demand elasticities are greater than short-run elasticities. CNG users, kit manufacturers, installers, and fuel sellers will gradually become stronger as a political force. As they do so, the legislative and regulatory climate for CNG should become more favorable.
After all, our government can't be that inept, can it? Surely, it cannot go on spending billions on fuel-of-the-future pipe dreams like hydrogen fuel cells and budget-busting ethanol subsidies when a cheap, clean, made-in-America alternative is available right off the shelf, right now. Please, tell me it can't.
Austerity nation – 45 million Americans on food assistanc
From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program. Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009. Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns. The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter. The latest data we have is from December of 2010. However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP. If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program. We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.
One of the troubling aspects of this recession is the hidden aspect of the financial pain that it is causing. Many people have no idea their neighbor is in foreclosure until the home is taken back by the bank. It is hard to see this in action and people don’t speak up because of embarrassment. Also with the media thumping its chest about recovery many blame their own failings for their misery. And with the movement of food stamps from embarrassing paper coupons to debit cards, many have no idea how many of their fellow Americans are receiving food assistance. The debit cards blend in with most any other piece of plastic Americans carry in their wallets. The reality however is that 14 percent of our entire population (man, woman, or child) is on SNAP. There has been little stopping this trend. And this is something that has been going on for well over a decade but not many were paying attention because of the massive credit induced housing bubble and the lack of a voice for this group:
One of the troubling aspects of this recession is the hidden aspect of the financial pain that it is causing. Many people have no idea their neighbor is in foreclosure until the home is taken back by the bank. It is hard to see this in action and people don’t speak up because of embarrassment. Also with the media thumping its chest about recovery many blame their own failings for their misery. And with the movement of food stamps from embarrassing paper coupons to debit cards, many have no idea how many of their fellow Americans are receiving food assistance. The debit cards blend in with most any other piece of plastic Americans carry in their wallets. The reality however is that 14 percent of our entire population (man, woman, or child) is on SNAP. There has been little stopping this trend. And this is something that has been going on for well over a decade but not many were paying attention because of the massive credit induced housing bubble and the lack of a voice for this group:
Source: SNAP
This is the highest percent of Americans on food assistance since the Great Depression when there was no food assistance early on aside from local charities. Yet this is somehow an economic recovery. A Wal-Mart executive was quoted as saying:
“(NY Times) There are families not eating at the end of the month,” said Stephen Quinn, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Wal-Mart Stores, and “literally lining up at midnight” at Wal-Mart stores waiting to buy food when paychecks or government checks land in their accounts.”
Even in more affluent neighborhoods and in states like California where the impression is that everyone is flush with money food stamp usage is on the rise:
“(NC Times) More than 218,000 San Diego County residents were receiving food stamps as of mid-February, a whopping 70 percent increase from just two years ago.
Since January 2010, the number has gone up by about 49,040, county supervisors were told Tuesday as they adopted a 58-point blueprint to speed up delivery of food assistance.
The increase in recipients stems from a continuing sluggish economy and what managers of the county’s food stamp program and advocacy groups said are improvements in the application system that resulted from talks between the two.
“We’ve seen dramatic increases in demand,” said Dale Fleming, who oversees the food stamp program for the county. “We’ve also changed the way we do business.”
But despite the higher numbers, advocacy group representatives say the county still has a long way to go to make sure people aren’t going hungry.”
This trend hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. And this is also a reason dollar stores have done so well during this recession as people shift from wants to absolute necessities:
Family Dollar and The 99 Cent store are up 89 and 54 percent respectively in the last five years. These dollar stores have also shifted the inventory they carry from random plastic goods to having much more food to reflect the needs of the community. And many people who never thought about shopping frugally are now being forced to:
“(Sign on San Diego) John Sanchez had never stepped foot inside a dollar store until last April. That’s when he was laid off from his job and was forced to make some drastic budget cuts, including getting back to basics for a buck. Now, even though he’s returned to work, it’s hard to get him to shop anywhere else.
“I always thought dollar stores just sold junk and were for the really low-income (consumer). I was shocked when I saw that they sell a lot of the same stuff as the grocery store or drugstores. And it’s all just a dollar,” said the 61-year-old San Diego resident, as he exited the 99 Cents Only store in Clairemont pushing a cart filled with produce, bakery items, toiletries and a variety of cleaning products. “Why would anyone want to pay more for the same thing?”
Many working and middle class Americans are now confronting the realities of a shrinking middle class. Decades of complacency and Wall Street corruption and government assistance has allowed the core of our economy to be gutted out. When does the media ever bring up the fact that 45 million Americans are on food assistance? This is never brought up even though it truly reflects the health of our working class economy. In other words, the media does not care about working and middle class Americans. Many are owned by large corporations that want to continue selling the message that everything is fine and dandy. If you really look at the data this recession is still going on even though it ended officially a long time ago. Austerity is on the rise and it won’t be televised.
Hamas wins Cairo's recognition, strikes Israel with 50 mortars
Syria 
IDF shows Iranian arms bound for Gaza
Israeli civilians living around the Gaza border woke up Saturday, March 19, to the most massive mortar attack in years – 50 rounds fired in 15 minutes. Two civilians were injured and substantial damage caused to property. Hamas unusually claimed responsibility, emboldened by the support it has won from a new ally, the new rulers of Cairo, which have now lined up with Syria and Iran.
The Netanyahu government has not informed the Israeli public about the ominous new winds blowing in fromCairo although they are already in motion: Cairo has given Hamas rule of the Gaza Strip de facto recognition, is about to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip and is forging new understandings with Damascus and the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad radicals based there.
The Egyptian military which has taken over in Cairo also turned a blind eye to at least two or three Iranian arms ships which, prior to the capture of the A.S. Victoria last week, made it through the Israeli sea blockade and delivered weapons, including C-704 shore-to-sea missiles at El Arish. Hamas will be free to go out and collect them through the reopened Rafah crossing.
It is now obvious that Cairo's permission for two Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal on Feb. 22, knowing that at least one was laden with weapons for extremists, was in line with the new Egyptian policy.
Israel had earlier allowed two Egyptian mechanized infantry brigades to enter Sinai and deploy along its Mediterranean coast, although this opened up the demilitarization clause of the 1979 peace treaty. Israel expected these troops to guard the gas pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan and block the Iranian arms deliveries to Hamas. But this did not happen.
This week, spokesmen on behalf of the pipeline company announced that Egyptian gas was again flowing. It was not. After Israel appealed to the White House and the heads of the Senate and House foreign relations committees to intercede with Egypt, just a trickle of gas reached the pipeline on the pretext that the pipeline needed testing after it was blown up by Hamas on Feb. 5.
The Egyptian charade is ably supported by the Israeli government and its defense spokesmen, who keep on assuring everyone that nothing has changed in Egyptian-Israeli peace relations.
According to debkafile's Cairo sources, the live wire behind the Egyptian policy U-turn is the new foreign minister Nabil Alaraby. Only two weeks on the job, the first tasks he set himself were to lift the Egyptian-Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip, reopen the Fatah crossing to free passage of people and goods, downgrade relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, and open a new page with Syria.
During the two days US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent in Cairo (March 15-16), the Egyptian Supreme Military Council sent the Mahabharat (Secret Service) chief Gen. Mourad Mwafi to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad received him for a long conversation Friday, March 19, on the third day of his visit.
Thursday, the Egyptian general met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. He was not put off by Meshaal's participation in the Iran-backed Islamist radical summit in Khartoum in the first week of March and its approval of two missions – to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Cairo and to step up terrorist attacks on Israel.
So far, Israeli forces have had no success in tracking down the Hamas perpetrators of the vicious murders of five family members at Itamar on March 11. Considering the precipitous downturn in Israel's political and military situation and the ostrich-like reactions of its leaders, it looks very much as though Hamas is now dictating Israel's security agenda. Hamas, backed to the hilt by Iran, Syria and now Egypt, feels it can safely intensify its warfare on Israel without being slapped down.
Friday, March 18, 2011
BARACK OBAMA: THE WEAKEST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY?
NEFFECTUAL, invisible, unable to honour pledges and now blamed for letting Gaddafi off the hook. Why Obama’s gone from ‘Yes we can’ to ‘Er, maybe we shouldn’t’...
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/235196/Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-#ixzz1H0hwrBNX
Let us cast our minds back to those remarkable days in November 2008 when the son of a Kenyan goatherd was elected to the White House. It was a bright new dawn – even brighter than the coming of the Kennedys and their new Camelot. JFK may be considered as being from an ethnic and religious minority – Irish and Catholic – but he was still very rich and very white. Barack Obama, by contrast, was a true breakthrough president. The world would change because obviously America had changed.
Obama’s campaign slogan was mesmerisingly simple and brimming with self-belief: “Yes we can.” His presidency, however, is turning out to be more about “no we won’t.” Even more worryingly, it seems to be very much about: “Maybe we can… do what, exactly?“ The world feels like a dangerous place when leaders are seen to lack certitude but the only thing President Obama seems decisive about is his indecision. What should the US do about Libya? What should the US do about the Middle East in general? What about the country’s crippling debts? What is the US going to do about Afghanistan, about Iran?
What is President Obama doing about anything? The most alarming answer – your guess is as good as mine – is also, frankly, the most accurate one. What the President is not doing is being clear, resolute and pro-active, which is surely a big part of his job description. This is what he has to say about the popular uprising in Libya: “Gaddafi must go.” At least, that was his position on March 3.
Since then, other countries – most notably Britain and France – have been calling for some kind of intervention. Even the Arab League, a notoriously conservative organisation, has declared support for sanctions. But from the White House has come only the blah-blah of bland statements filled with meaningless expressions
and vague phrases. Of decisive action and leadership – even of clearlydefined opinion – there is precious little sign.
What is the Obama administration’s position on the protests in the Gulf island state of Bahrain, which the authorities there are savagely suppressing with the help of troops shipped in from Saudi Arabia? What is the White House view on the alarming prospect of the unrest spreading to Saudi Arabia itself? Who knows? Certainly not the American people, nor the leaders of nations which would consider themselves allies of America.
The President has not really shared his views, which leads us to conclude that he either doesn’t know or chooses, for reasons best known to himself, not to say. The result is that a very real opportunity to remove an unpredictable despot from power may well have been lost. Who knows when or if such an opportunity will come along again?
Every day for almost the last two months our television screens, radio broadcasts and the pages of our newspapers have been filled with the pictures, sounds and words of the most tumultuous events any of us can remember in the Arab world. The outcome of these events, once the dust has settled, could literally change the world. Yet Obama seems content to sit this one out. He has barely engaged in the debate. Such ostrich-like behaviour is not untypical of the 49-year-old President who burst through America’s colour barrier to become the first African-American to occupy the White House.
Two days after taking office in January 2009, he pledged to close down the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, which has become notorious for holding detainees for years without trial. Obama promised to lose the prison within 12 months and to abolish the practice of military trials of terrorism suspects. It was an important promise. America’s reputation had been severely tarnished by revelations about the conditions at Guantanamo, by reports of waterboarding and extraordinary rendition (transporting prisoners to a third country for torture) and by the appalling treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Closing Guantanamo was a redemptive gesture. Two years on, not only is the prison still in use but its future is as assured as ever. Ten days ago, the President signed an executive order reinstating the military commissions at the island prison. Human rights organisations were outraged. “With the stroke of a pen, President Obama extinguished any lingering hope that his administration would return the United States to the rule of law,” said Amnesty International while Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, declared the President’s action to be “unlawful, unwise and un-American.”
White House spokesmen insisted the President was still committed to closing Guantanamo, which currently has 172 detainees in custody. It was Congress, they said, that had refused to sanction the transfer of the prisoners to the US mainland for trial, leaving no option but to keep the prison open in Cuba. Very little has been achieved in the quest to secure peace in the Middle East. Under Obama, US foreign policy is founded on extreme caution. At first this cool-headedness was a welcome change from the naked aggression of George W Bush and his henchmen Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
It is also true that the President is constantly stymied by a hostile, Republican-ruled Congress. But Obama’s apparent reluctance to engage with momentous events is starting to look like more than aloofness. Some tempering of America’s role as the world’s No1 busybody may be no bad thing but under Obama the US appears to be heading towards isolationism. He is hardly doing much better at home. Economically, the US is in big trouble but the national debt is not shrinking.
Ditto the country’s ecological health; the American love affair with the car and oil remains undiminished despite any alleged commitment. But the White House appears to shy away from any tough action. The energy with which Obama entered the White House seems to have all gone in the push to bring in health care reform, which many Americans didn’t want (or still don’t realise they want).
All of which means that it is starting to look as if Obama and the Democratic Party have but one aim in mind for the rest of this presidential term: to get elected for a second. That means not doing anything that might upset any number of special interest or niche groups, which in effect means not doing very much at all. So, not too many harsh but necessary measures to tackle the financial deficit; no clear direction on where America goes with Afghanistan, even though the war there is going nowhere except from bad to worse.
The Obama government can’t even give clear direction on whether the American people are in danger of exposure to nuclear fallout from Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin advised San Francisco residents to stock up on radiation antidotes, prompting a run on potassium iodide pills, while the President said experts had assured him that any harmful radiation would have receded long before reaching the Western shores of the US.
Yes we can was a noble and powerful mantra which secured for Barack Obama the leadership of the free world. Those than can, do. It is time he started doing.
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/235196/Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-Barack-Obama-The-Weakest-President-in-history-#ixzz1H0hwrBNX
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Groupon Is Said to Discuss IPO Valuation of Up to $25 Billion
Groupon Inc. has held talks with banks about an initial public offering that would value the online-coupon company at as much as $25 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
The two-year-old startup’s IPO may happen this year and is unlikely to assign Groupon a valuation of less than $15 billion, according to the people, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its March 21 edition. They asked not to be identified because the talks were private.
Groupon, the top provider of online daily discounts, has pushed into hundreds of new cities and doubled its subscriber base over the past three months. That’s helped its valuation soar since December, when it turned down a bid from Google Inc. (GOOG) for $6 billion. The company now has 70 million users and reaches more than 500 markets, up from 300 when Google made its offer.
Groupon was valued at about $1.3 billion last April, when it raised $135 million from investors, including Digital Sky Technologies. It contemplated more funding at a $3 billion valuation in November, shortly before Google’s offer. An investment of $950 million, completed in January, pegged Groupon’s worth at $4.75 billion.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) have discussed handling an IPO for Groupon, a person familiar with the talks said in January. Those meetings focused on a $15 billion valuation for a future IPO, the person said.
Groupon, based in Chicago, offers daily discounts of as much as 90 percent from local businesses, such as restaurants, nail salons and clothing stores. It then keeps a portion of the revenue.
While Groupon leads the daily-deal market, it faces mounting competition from rivals such as LivingSocial. That company is close to raising as much as $400 million in funding that would value it at more than $2 billion, two people with knowledge of the talks said this week.
Julie Mossler, a spokeswoman for Groupon, declined to comment.
To contact the reporters on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Nevada's boom ends in record number of empty homes
They came to buy their retirement home. But the real estate bust took its toll, with a flood of short sales and foreclosures in the market, and last month the Ackerly's dream home was foreclosed on, too.
"I pretty much gave it back to them," said Alan Ackerly, a 57-year-old electrician who stopped paying his mortgage because he owed more than the house was worth.
The Ackerly's home is now among a swelling number of abandoned houses in Nevada. There were 167,564 empty houses in the state last year, according to newly released U.S. Census data, more than double the number in 2000. The number of vacant homes represents about one out of every seven houses across Nevada.
The figures are another striking example of how the housing crisis has pummeled Nevada, casting a new light on the severely weakened market after years of boom.
One result is an increase in code violations. In Clark County, home to Las Vegas, such complaints nearly doubled from 2008 to 2009 and the median price of resale homes dropped to $115,000 in January.
Neighbors call to complain of abandoned houses, stagnant pools, wild yards and unsecured doors, said Joe Boteilho, the county's code enforcement chief. But the neighborhoods of newly constructed homes are not facing the same blatant signs of disrepair seen in other foreclosure-ravaged states such as Florida, Michigan and California.
It has been a deep plunge for Nevada. Once a leader in job creation and construction, the state had the highest foreclosure rate in the country in January. Delinquent mortgages, meanwhile, are on the rise, with Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City all in the top eight cities per capita in a national real estate study published last month.
More than 16 percent of Nevadans relocated to new residences within the state in 2008 alone, the highest mobility rate in the nation, the Census data shows.
"We were the hottest market in the nation in terms of the shape of the bubble, how fast it went up," said Nasser Daneshvary, director of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "And, of course, when something goes up, it comes down hard, too."
The growth fueled by tourism and the gaming industry has yielded few winners. Short sales and foreclosures have slashed homes prices, ravaged neighborhoods and fueled unemployment in the construction sector, one of Nevada's primary industries. The jobless rate is 14.2 percent, and the state's estimated budget gap starts at $1.5 billion.
In Fernley, the fastest growing city in Nevada from 2000 to 2010, the only sign of construction in recent months was a new Walgreens and a Catholic church. One in 49 homes is in foreclosure.
"It was just very explosive," said Mayor LeRoy Goodman. "We hit bottom."
This in what was once the land of plenty. The expansion of glass towers and sprawling casinos on the Las Vegas Strip saw a 3.8 percent unemployment rate statewide in the beginning of 2000. Over the next decade, Nevada would grow by 35 percent, the fastest rate in the nation.
Men and women in hard hats carved homes into mountainsides, raised superstores from the dust and wedged plush golf courses into the desert. The state's residential properties grew by more than 40 percent to 1.17 million homes during those years, affording Nevada the youngest housing stock in the country in 2009, according to the Census data. In Clark County, the school district saw an average of 10 new schools a year at its peak growth.
As houses and condominium towers rose from the ground, so did prices. The median home price went from $150,000 to $300,000 between 2000 and 2007, according to a University of Nevada, Las Vegas study.
"It was a new town," said Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, a Las Vegas real estate firm. "There was money everywhere. Everyone wanted to invest in Vegas."
The state's growing wealth and relaxed lending practices allowed workers with limited incomes to gain home ownership. In many cases, these were the same people who later faced foreclosure. Most Nevadans who lost their homes earned between $24,000 and $72,000, according to a homeowners survey published by the Nevada Association of Realtors in January. Roughly 60 percent said they lost their jobs first, then their homes.
The crash came in 2008, when unemployment passed 7 percent for the first time during the decade.
Even so, nearly 74,000 new homes were built in 2010, according to Census data. Realty companies said there are still buyers who prefer newly-built houses.
A general recovery seems far away. The state's Foreclosure Mediation Program helped more than 4,200 homeowners since its creation in 2009. Nearly 2,000 of those owners were able to keep their properties.
More short sales and foreclosures are projected to further depreciate homes values across Nevada in 2011. Census data to be released starting in June was expected to highlight the state's robust renters' market.
"This year will be the worst," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, who co-chairs the Democratic Caucus Housing Stabilization Task Force in Washington. "The unemployment rate is not going down. The values of the homes keep going down and the ability to pay your mortgage is just not there."
The Ackerly family moved into a rental house after they defaulted on their mortgage. The value of their $240,000 North Las Vegas home was worth $80,000 by the time they left. Unlike some of their neighbors, they didn't take the new kitchen cabinets, or the palm trees they had planted in the yard, or any of the other improvements they lovingly made to the house after they moved in.
"We were done with it," said Alan Ackerly.
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