Barack Obama: A Composite Kenyan

The Breitbart Crew has done the world a very valuable service infinding a 1991 biography of Barack Obama from his literary agent claiming he was “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”

Our own Jeff Emanuel also pointed out a 2004 Associated Press article that began, “Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations.”

I do not believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. I don’t think it matters even if he were born overseas because his mother was an American citizen. I’m not going to debate it with the cult of birtherism.

But the Breitbart Crew has, only a few days after the Obama White House was caught editing the biographies of other Presidents on the White House website to insert Barack Obama into their Presidential legacies, done an invaluable service in highlighting two very important issues.

First, as someone who has written a book, I find Barack Obama’s literary agent’s explanation not very credible. The literary agent explains, “This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me — an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii.”

It was a fact checking error based on . . . no facts? Barack Obama never gave any information . . . suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii? Well where the hell did this very huge extrapolation come from? It’s like the virgin birth of a legend — some lady and God alone were involved.

That’s laughable. Miriam Goderich had to have gotten the idea from somewhere. But what is more laughable is that Barack Obama did not know and did not approve. When I wrote my book, I had to approve my biography multiple times. But more damning, this biography went to the press in 1991 and it circulated for more than a decade.

Even the Associated Press picked it up and I cannot find anywhere suggesting Barack Obama tried to have the AP correct its reporting.

The point is not that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The point is that Barack Obama has repeatedly been perfectly okay embellishing and having others embellish his qualifications and biography to make himself someone unique instead of just another Chicago politician. The pattern goes back to his job as a “financial reporter”. A former colleague of his and Obama fan, way back in 2005, claims Barack Obama really embellished his resume describing his financial related reporting.

Second, and the largest point, however, is that the media is yet again caught flat footed, claiming the story is no big deal, irrelevant, or that somehow the Breitbart Crew is in the wrong and peddling Birtherism.

They are not peddling Birtherism. The Breitbart Crew are kind of like illegal immigrants — doing reporting Columbia journalism grads won’t do. And doing it quite well. In 2008, the New York Times ran a big story on John McCain having an affair with a lobbyist. It got picked up all over the place. Reporters were on the trail. There was no *there* there.

It took most of the month of August in 2004 for the media to pay attention to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — men who served with John Kerry and had real problems with both his conduct in Vietnam and his conduct after he left Vietnam. The media did not want to cover the story. For a while, it was just Fox News. The clear demonstration of bias finally forced the New York Times and the big three nightly newscasts to play catch up as dismissively as possible.

This story has been out there since Barack Obama ran for the United States Senate. Even now the media is dismissing it as frivolous. If it turned out Mitt Romney had not actually been a missionary in France, it would be headline news.

Barack Obama embellishing his biography to make himself look unique? Hardly worthy of press attention. In fact, nothing Barack Obama has done suggesting serious character flaws — and that’s what this is about — is ever worth the media’s collective attention. Why? Because some people think Barack Obama was born in Kenya, but much of the press corps is pretty damn sure he was born in Bethlehem.

One last point — a friend raised this on email. Could this be why the campaign screams bloody murder about racists and birthers every time someone asks about Barack Obama’s college transcripts? This would explain why Obama is so squirrely about the issue and waited until Donald Trump caused him measurable damage in the polls on this issue before responding. He’s not embarrassed that people will find out he lied about being born in Hawaii;he’s embarrassed they’ll find out he lied about being born in Kenya.

OBAMA'S LITERARY AGENT IN 1991 BOOKLET: 'BORN IN KENYA AND RAISED IN INDONESIA AND HAWAII'

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/The-Vetting-Barack-Obama-Literary-Agent-1991-Born-in-Kenya-Raised-Indonesia-Hawaii

Verizon Raises 4G Rates

Verizon will begin to end its unlimited data plan for existing subscribers. As customers upgrade to super fast 4G LTE service, Verizon will use the opportunity to take away something many consumers thought was routine pricing. 4G networks carry larger amounts of data than 3G ones. Verizon will make the case that the expense of customers who use these networks is high.

Verizon has a strong enough lock on the American market to hold most customers to such a plan. So does AT&T (NYSE: T). Sprint (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile are in another class. They cannot alienate their smaller pools of customers, and need to try to take subscribers from their larger rivals. Their one point of leverage could be to keep 4G unlimited plans and promote them as superior for heavy users of data on 4G networks.

Read more: Verizon Raises 4G Rates - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2012/05/17/verizon-raises-4g-rates/#ixzz1v7abATPr

Ho-Hum: iPhone to Get Larger Screen

The 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may be elegant, but it’s also puny compared with the 4.5-inch screens available from other smartphone makers. A report in The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is revving up manufacturing for a revamped iPhone that will have a screen that measures “at least 4 inches diagonally.” The latest revision to the iPhone is rumored to be set for October or November, and that’s when the new and larger device will become available.

Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF.PK) recently introduced a 4.8-inch screen on its Galaxy S III, half-an-inch larger than the 4.3-inch screen on the company’s existing Galaxy S II model. The new device is scheduled to launch in the US this summer.

The larger iPhone screens are being manufactured by several suppliers, including LG Display Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LPL), Sharp Corp. (OTC: SHCAY.PK), and Japan Display Inc.

Apple is reported to be considered making a smaller version of its iPad tablet as well. Like the iPhone, the tablet’s screen size has remained unchanged since the iPad’s introduction. Other tablets, including the Kindle Fire family from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and the Nook from Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) have had success with smaller screens.

Apple and Samsung currently account for more than 50% of all smartphones sold, and Apple’s iPad really has no serious competition yet in the tablet market. The issue for Apple is whether or not it wants to get out in front of the mobile device market with a new product that raises the bar for everyone else. A “me-too” smartphone with a larger screen or a similar shrinking of the iPad screen is not the sort of change a leader makes. Especially when the evidence (i.e., sales) indicates that consumers can’t get enough of the products you already have.

Apple’s strength has always been to build a product that none of us knew we wanted because we don’t have the vision. Anybody can make screens bigger or smaller. Apple should be doing something else. Like building a cheaper phone that would appeal to the half of the world that can’t afford to buy the current iPhone.

Paul Ausick

Read more: Ho-Hum: iPhone to Get Larger Screen - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2012/05/16/ho-hum-iphone-to-get-larger-screen/#ixzz1v23CLRbo

Iran drills first large-scale paratroop drops for offensive action

Special operations units of the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Tuesday, May 14, began a two-day practice of offensive tactics, for the first time dropping large-scale forces from the air deep behind enemy lines. The many war games Iran has conducted until now focused on defenses of strategic and nuclear locations and repelling invaders. This drill displayed its aggressive capabilities. Codenamed Ja’far Tayyar, it was staged in remote Khorasan near the Afghan border, so as not to expose the commando tactics it employed.
In announcing the exercise, Gholam-Ali Gholamian, Dep. Commander for Operations for the IRGC Ground Forces, cagily called it another routine exercise for “maintaining the preparedness and promoting the combat capability of units stationed in the region.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that there was nothing routine about it. The units taking part were not stationed in the region but flown in especially.
Western intelligence sources observing the exercise report that its offensive nature was evident: Air transports coming in from the rest of the country dropped large numbers of paratroopers and special forces; Air Force fighter-bombers practiced intense bombardments of small targeted locations; and helicopters drilled rapid transfers of forces between points and air cover for the units reaching the ground.
Monday, the Persian Gulf rulers invited to Riyadh by Saudi King Abdullah for a summit on the Iranian threat dwelt long and hard on the exercise and concluded the threat had been exacerbated and that Tehran had more in store for them than closing the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic in the event of war. They saw special forces being prepared by Iran to strike deep inside their countries up to and including their oil-producing regions.
The exercise also served the ongoing trade of war signals between Washington and Tehran. Staging a special forces exercise not far from the US military presence in Afghanistan was meant as a rejoinder to US-led special forces maneuver taking place in Jordan across the border with Syria with the participation of 17 nations.
Iranian and Syrian media made much of the fact that the US-led war game was named Eager Lion 12 as a deliberate insult to Bashar Assad, whose name is the Arabic for Lion.  

Court rules Judaism, not place of birth, is grounds for Israeli citizenship

Israeli court denies petition by anti-coercion activist to be recognized as Israeli without connection to Judaism, says citizenship is solely determined by law of return.

By Revital Hovel | May.15, 2012 | 7:05 PM |  1

'Olim' (new immigrants) to Israel from the United States step off the plane for the first time. Photo by JINI

The Haifa District Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal submitted by Professor Uzzi Ornan, who sought to compel Israel's Interior Ministry to recognize his citizenship based on the fact that he was born in Israel, rather than on the grounds that he was Jewish.

Ornan, a linguist and member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, who is also the founder of the League against Religious Coercion in Israel, petitioned the Interior Ministry in 2010 to recognize him as an Israeli, not on grounds of being Jewish but because he was born in Israel.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Judge Daniel Fisch said that it was without a doubt that the petitioner, Prof Uzzi Ornan, was born to a Jewish mother, and was therefore Jewish, which the law of return states as the source of his citizenship.

"While the legislator's definition of 'Jew' was only added to the Law of Return in 1970," Fisch wrote, "the turn to the accepted Jewish halakhaic law is not a novelty, and an overview of the ruling preceding the amendment shows that any time that a man's Judaism needs to be determined, that source has not been overlooked."

The judge also referred Ornan to two rulings from 1962 and 1968, prior to the 1970 amendment that stipulated that "a Jew is anyone born to a Jewish mother or that has converted and is not of another religion."

Speaking to Haaretz, Ornan said that, while he was very disappointed by the ruling, he intended to continue and appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

"A judge appeals to Jewish law, and the ruling shows that Israel is a Jewish community and not a civilian state," Ornan added.

In response to the petition, the State Prosecutor's Office, responding in the Interior Ministry's name, said, "Ornan is allowed to hold the opinion that the laws in question are racist legislation, but he cannot impose his personal opinion on the Authority and force it to act against the letter of the law."

The State Prosecutor's Office rejected Ornan's claim that he is "of another religion" and thus exempt from being classified as a Jew according to the Law of Return. "The fact that the petitioner is listed in the Population Registry according to his declaration as a person with no religion does not affect his being a Jew according to halachic test determined in the Law of Return," the state replied.

"Accepting the petitioner's interpretation would bring about a far-reaching and unacceptable result that the sons of Jewish mothers living abroad who declare to population registries abroad or in other ways that they have no religion, would be denied the right to make aliyah to Israel."

Ornan, 89, was born and grew up in Jerusalem, and lives today in the Galilee village Nofit. During the British Mandate, he fought in the Etzel and in 1944 was exiled to Eritrea after being informed on to the British.

When he returned to Israel in 1948, he registered in the country's first census and insisted that he not be listed as a Jew. In the religion box, he wrote that he has no religion and in the "nationality" box, he wrote "Hebrew." In those days, the Interior Ministry tended to accept what people wrote without asking too many questions.

"In '48, it wasn't an issue," said Ornan. "The general atmosphere was that this is a free and democratic country. There was force then too, but nobody tried to change my 'nationality' to Jew."

Apple: Barclays Sees $800 MacBook Air, 7-In. iPad

Barclays Capital’s Ben Reitzes today reiterates an Overweight rating on shares of Apple(AAPL) and a $750 price target, writing that despite some soggy data on Mac sales — NPDyesterday said Apple’s laptop sales fell 13% in April in the U.S. — nevertheless the company should benefit from international growth, and that a release of new models in June, including an$800 MacBook Air, means the current slump is just a “pause.”

Reitzes also thinks it’s increasingly likely there will be a smaller iPad model later this year, “in the 7″ range,” and that it may boost Apple’s presence in the textbook market and in video games.

“We do not feel that a smaller, lower priced tablet will dilute the quality of the iPad brand and iOS ecosystem, either, despite prior comments by the company.”

A report from research firm iSuppli today also endorses the notion of the smaller iPad.