Victorious Lebanese Cage Fighter Brandishes Hizbullah Flag in the U.S. - Naharnet

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W460
Social networking websites were buzzing Wednesday with supportive and critical comments about a video showing Lebanese cage fighter Mohammed Ali victoriously brandishing a Hizbullah flag after delivering the knockout punch to his foe in the 11th Cage Fighting Championship held in the U.S.
Ali shouted “Ya Hussein (O Hussein)”, invoking the blessings of 7th century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein, before serving the final blow.
The video then shows the Lebanese warrior’s entourage jubilantly entering the cage and one of them handing him the flag of Hizbullah, which is classified as a “terrorist organization” by Washington.
Afterwards, Ali triumphantly raises the flag and waves it to the cheering spectators present at the arena.

Why is anyone shocked? Hezbollah is the government in Lebanon. It is only the West that pretends otherwise so that they can spend tax dollars on giving these guys weapons.

feminist perspectives skew libidinal nature in correlation to rape

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Another crazy feminist blogger... the claims are outlandish and are expected to be swallowed without any response... or of course Washington State will come and getcha:
stalked woman(oforganon.tumblr.com) 6% of college-aged men, slightlyover 1 in 20, willadmitto raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word “rape” isn’t used in the description of the act—and that’s the conservative estimate. Other sourcesdouble that number(pdf).
A lot of people accuse feminists of thinking that all men are rapists. That’s not true. But do you know who think all men are rapists?
Rapists do.
They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again.
Virtually all rapists genuinely believe thatall men rape, and other men just keep it hushed up better. And more, these people who really are rapists are constantlyreaffirmedin their belief about the rest of mankind being rapists like themby things like rape jokes, thatdismiss and normalize the idea of rape.
bet you thought I was too smart to comment on this one. well... you would be wrong. I'm smart enough to know that if I don't say anything the feminists will continue to dominate this dialog. I'm tired of these comments coming from feminists. What the studies show is what most men know... (and this does not make me a rapist, so stop the bullshit)... women want a guy who takes control. There is actually a libidinal desire for women to be "manhandled". Does this make it right? no... does it make it something I'd do? no! ...but I'm tired of not being able to express this element of female sexuality.... and also I'm not very succesful with women, so maybe there is something I'm doing wrong. I've never forced myself on any woman... not ever... and I'm not slick probably because I talk about these issues, but I do not believe for one second that this blogger is right. yes... men think that it is something that is part of nature, and for a reason. The women reinforce the perception. It isn't women's fault either. This is sexuality! but imagine being judged in an academic institution that denies nature and goes out of it's way to attack men in a paranoid manner. The burden lies on men... see? and yet these people call themselves strong feminists. A real strong man knows that a real relationship can not be made with libidinal women... however it is stupid to deny the libidinal element. and what the feminists are doing is denying our ability to avoid these situations by denying human nature. where ever feminism grows... rape grows. I can only think of my freshman year at Carnegie Mellon... the faces of paranoid feminists all over the place holding rape night candle vigils... and it did nothing! NOTHING! NOTHING... damn it... to stop the rapes. Because we can't talk about why men have the need to take control of the sexual element... why? BECAUSE WE DENY GENDER!!!!!! the solution the feminists have is the cause of the problem. If we can't stop accusing men of being singularly responsible then the situation will not improve. When you see women out there that you don't know... and they start running and screaming on the street and giggling at the same time... that is part of the rape culture. No, they are not pulling the trigger, but if academia can not recognize the bizarre libidinal nature of feminists then the rapes will just increase.

Will the real LIBYA please stand up?

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Hillary Clinton stands with
The Muslim Brotherhood
in Libya?

(Libya: New Threat in the Middle East :: Hudson New York) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was... greeted by "revolutionaries" in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, where the head of the LIFG and ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate, Abdul Hakim Belhadj, is presently the commander of the Tripoli Military Council, and another Islamist, Osama al-Juwaili, is the head of the Libyan Defense Ministry. Essentially, the entire military apparatus for Libya is, today, controlled by Islamists. (Hillary Clinton Meets With New Libyan Leaders in Tripoli - NYTimes.com)“I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya,” Mrs. Clinton said at an Islamic conference center in the capital after meeting with the country’s interim leaders, including the chairman of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil.

Zimbabwe militants seek restaurant boycott over ad showing leader as “last dictator standing”

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Media_httpstr8talkchr_ipiiiIt is an offense under Zimbabwe law to insult Mugabe or undermine the authority of his office. HARARE, Zimbabwe (Washington Post) A militant youth group loyal to Zimbabwe’s president is calling for a boycott of a restaurant chain whose latest advertisement depicts the aging, authoritarian president as “the last dictator standing,” state radio reported Tuesday.The radio quoted the head of the group calling for South Africa-based Nando’s to withdraw the ad that depicts President Robert Mugabe or face punitive action. Jimu Kunaka, the head of group known as Chipangano, said the restaurant chain risked action including a boycott. Chipangano is a “brotherhood” of Mugabe loyalists.The commercial that touts chicken shows Mugabe dining alone at Christmas, his empty table set for departed dictators including Moammar Gadhafi.To the soundtrack of Mary Hopkin’s hit song “Those were the days, my friend,” the commercial shows an actor playing Mugabe reminiscing about his times with former dictators. It portrays him and Gadhafi engaging in a water-pistol fight, with Gadhafi wielding a golden AK-47 water pistol.The ersatz Mugabe also makes sand angels with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, sings karaoke with Chairman Mao, and holds overthrown Ugandan dictator Idi Amin astride a tank in a scene parodying Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the hit movie “Titanic.” (Details)

Israelis save drowning Iranians

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(YNET)(h/t Israel Matzav)Last week the father-son team went out on their daily rowing course. "The weather here is tropical," Shimshon explained. "Things can change in a second. And indeed, on the way back, the weather changed all at once. The winds got stronger and the waves grew tall."
Suddenly, they noticed two swimmers who were crying out for help. "Their Kayak had overturned in the storm and was swept away, they were left alone in the water," said Shimshon. "They didn't have much of a chance."
The two lifeguards rowed towards the drowning men. "When we reached them they were already at the point of exhaustion," nimrod noted. " "We loaded them on to the surf boat and kept rowing towards the shore, a kilometer away."
For 45 minutes the two battled against the winds and the waves with the swimmers on board. "When they came around and started talking among themselves I noticed they were speaking in Persian. I was born in Iran and speak the language. I told them in Persian: 'Don't be scared, you're in good hands," Shimshon recalls.
When they reached the shore the two, who introduced themselves as Mundar and Ali, hugged and kissed their rescuers and thanked them.
"When we told them we're Israelis they just got up and fled," Nimrod noted.

Russia slams US criticism of 'gay propaganda' bill

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Media_httpwwwmontreal_fwyif
(Montreal Gazette / Photograph by: Alexander Natruskin, Reuters )
With the Arab Spring evolving into an Islamic winter, the Obama administration tries foreign policy one more time... nonintervention... yeah... Obama... right. wink wink...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Police detain a gay rights activist holding a puppet of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov during an unsanctioned protest in Moscow September 21, 2010.

MOSCOW - A top Russian diplomat reacted angrily on Tuesday after the United States strongly criticized a controversial bill backed by the ruling party that calls for a ban on "homosexual propaganda."
"We view with bewilderment the American side's attempts to interfere, what's more, publicly, in the lawmaking process," foreign ministry representative for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, told the Interfax news agency.
He dismissed as "inappropriate" comments by the US State Department last week that it was "deeply concerned" by the bill, proposed by the ruling United Russia party at the legislature of the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg.
The vaguely worded bill would introduce fines of up to 50,000 rubles ($1,598) for "public acts" promoting homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgender identity.
Gay activists warn that it could be used to ban any campaign for gay rights.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, although day-to-day homophobia is still rife and attempts to hold gay pride marches have been dispersed roughly by riot police.
Legislators passed the bill in its first reading earlier this month and was expected to have its crucial second reading on Wednesday. If passed, it would then need to be approved in a final reading seen as a technicality.
But the bill's author told Russian news agencies on Tuesday the second reading was likely to be postponed until after parliamentary polls on December 4.
"Tomorrow they will not look at second readings (of bills)," Vitaly Milonov of United Russia told Interfax.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based campaign group, condemned the bill in a statement released late Monday as "draconian."
Arkhangelsk, a city in northern Russia, has already enacted similar legislation.
in 2003 much of the left pointed out that Russia did not support our involvement in Iraq. What we forget is what Russia really was irked about was our invasion in the Balkens. Ah... the web those liberals weave for the Conservatives when the government crashes and burns

UPDATE - UN: Syrian troops killed, "sexually tortured" children, "shot indiscriminately at unarmed protesters"

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Add caption
(h/t eye) There could be a Nobel Peace Prize in Bashar Assad's future. Think Yasser Arafat.
GENEVA (CBS/AP) - A U.N. probe has found that Syrian troops killed hundreds of children and committed other "crimes against humanity" since the government crackdown began in March.
A panel of independent experts says at least 256 children were killed by government forces as of early November, with some boys sexually tortured and a 2-year-old girl shot to death just to prevent her from growing up to be a demonstrator.
The panel's report to the U.N. Human Rights Council says government forces have used excessive force to "shot indiscriminately at unarmed protesters" while snipers targeted others in the upper body and head.
Their report, released Monday, said Syrian security forces along with militias were given "shoot to kill" orders to crush demonstrations.
More...
...or at the very least a visit from Angelina Jolie and some of her Hollywood pals. Maybe Oliver Stone will make a movie... Springtime for Assad.
(UK Guardian) Syrian security forces have committed "crimes against humanity" since widespread anti-government protests began in March, according to a damning UN report (pdf) that will add to the mounting pressure on the president, Bashar al-Assad.
It said that least 256 children had been killed by government forces.
no wait... bring back Angelina Jolie and the U.N. to kiss his ass again... just for the entertainment value... then be sure to condemn Israel for defending it's citizens from Syrian supported rocket fire from Gaza. come on... let's do the hypocrisy again.

Libyan Justice. 7,000 detainees, some kids. and the ICC trusts the rebels

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((Samson Blinded)(AFP) ...(Seif) deserves a fair trial and he will get one. I am sure," said Salam Ali Ahmed, a shopkeeper in Zintan whose grocery shop overlooks the town's main square, packed with pictures of citizens killed in the fight to overthrow the former regime...
According to the UN, former Libyan rebels are holding 7,000 detainees, some of them teenagers. They are being kept in inhumane conditions and some have been tortured.
We have yet to see condemnations from the White House or the threat of a new humanitarian intervention in Libya...

It took a week, but J Street now regrets its board member's meeting with Hamas

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(Israel Matzav) A week ago, the Washington Jewish Week reported that J Street founder and board member Kathleen Peratis met with Hamas.
That J Street board member is Kathleen Peratis (also an initial founder of the group), a partner at the New York law firm of Outten & Golden LLP. She also co-chairs the Middle East and North Africa Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch.
Peratis recounted her time exploring Gaza's illicit smuggling operation in a recent article for The Forward.
While Peratis was not in the Gaza Strip at J Street's behest, I can't help but wonder why a prominent member of the American Jewish community was canoodling with Hamas - a known terrorist group that you might recognize from its previous appearances in "The Bombing of Israeli Citizens" and "The Violent Kidnapping of an Israeli solider." (J Street did not officially sponsor Peratis' trip, but it was happy to circulate her article to members of the J Street family -- as well as reporters and others -- via the group's daily news round-up.)
Asked what to make of Peratis' eyebrow-raising article, a J Street official said that Peratis does not speak for the group on this issue.
J Street spokesperson Jessica Rosenblum, in fact, went on the record to say that "J Street believes that Hamas' consistent opposition to the peace process, its support for terror against Israeli civilians, its use of violence for political purposes and its denial of the Holocaust are reprehensible."
Peratis, however, recounts her experience as a fun-filled joy fest spent with friends. She quotes one smuggler as saying: "Please tell your friends that Hamas people are ordinary people. We are not barbarians."
Right. "Ordinary people" who routinely murder innocent men, women, and children -- and assassinate their own political adversaries. (Though not every resident of Gaza, of course, is a terrorist. Far from it.)
It took a week of handing out her article but J Street has finally decided that Peratis' meeting wasn't a good idea.
J Street strongly regrets the recent meetings by its Board member Kathleen Peratis with members of Hamas and the articles that she has written about her visit to Gaza.
J Street’s policy clearly states our belief that “Hamas’ consistent opposition to the peace process, its support for terror against Israeli civilians, its use of violence for political purposes, and its denial of the Holocaust are reprehensible.”
In our view, J Street leaders – directors and staff – should not meet with Hamas.
...
Ms. Peratis was advised prior to her trip of J Street’s view that its leaders should not meet with Hamas[1]. We deeply regret that she chose to meet with Hamas representatives anyway.
She did not represent J Street in the meetings she did have, and her writings do not in any way reflect the views of J Street.
But of course, they're not going to kick her off their board or something even though J Street leaders 'shouldn't meet with Hamas.' Think of all the money she's given them. I mean, what's important in life?
the blond next to Puff Daddy is the J Street spokes-bimbo?
...I took your story in a low key way... and then I ran across a name... just a name. I was wondering what about it struck me as familiar. Jessica Rosenblum,.... Jessica Rosenblum,.... who is that? why do I know the name. so I did a google image search. It is hard to believe that a serious spiritual organization would choose someone who has the lifestyle of Paris Hilton as a spokesperson. I know it is J Street... and I know most of us are no longer fooled or angered by what they say, but it is hard to believe that these people are taken seriously by even the most left wing of publications. It's beyond reason... it really is insane to imagine that a woman like her is considered a spokesperson for anything. I wouldn't trust her with a public relations job for a hair salon, let alone a religious ahem ...excuse me secular political elitist snobs... or whatever. whatever. whatever. whatever.

Yes Obama Wants to Win

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(FROM THE SULTAN) Using leftist occupations of public spaces in major cities as the kickoff to a campaign. How many people saw that coming and how many expected it to work? But it worked well enough to engage the younger voters who helped boost him last time around. And it's not the end of the show.
It's tempting to see Obama as another Carter or Dukakis, a malaise ridden liberal, but while he has a good deal in common philosophically with them, his image and his campaign have little in common with theirs. And it's also worth remembering that Reagan's defeat of Carter was not nearly as easy as some would make it out to be.
Reagan's victory might not have been nearly so decisive without the involvement of an independent candidate who drew votes from Carter. And even that victory was not always inevitable. Before the debate, Reagan was polling behind Carter. Had Carter avoided debating Reagan and avoided challenges from the left, it's not inconceivable that he might have pulled off a second term. (YES HE CAN?)

At least 4 Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, IDF returns fire

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(h/t eye)(INN) At least four Katyusha missiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel overnight Monday.
Kol Yisrael Radio reported that the missiles exploded in two communities near the border with Lebanon. There were no reports of physical injuries but damage was caused to a chicken coop in one of the communities.
The IDF Spokesman said that IDF forces returned fire and said in a statement, “The IDF is treating this is a serious incident and wishes to emphasize that it sees the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army as responsible for the prevention of fire at Israel.”
The statement said that the IDF’s Northern Command is conducting ongoing assessment in light of the events.
Channel 2 News reported that residents from the communities of Ma’a lot and Kfar Vradim reported hearing explosions in the area.
According to the report, a preliminary investigation indicated that the explosions came from the Lebanese side of the border.

Image shows Iranian missile site was destroyed by massive November 12 explosion

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(h/t eye)(WaPo) Two weeks after a mysterious explosion at an Iranian missile base, a Washington-based research group has released a satellite image showing extensive damage to the site.
The image of the compound, near the city of Malard, doesn’t provide any clues as to what caused the Nov. 12 explosion, which Iranian authorities described as an “accident” involving the transport of ammunition. But it does make clear that the facility has been effectively destroyed.
Paul Brannan, a senior analyst for the Institute for Science and International Security, which specializes in the study of nuclear weapons programs, said it’s impossible to tell from the image whether the blast was caused by sabotage, as has has been speculated in this explosion and others at transport facilities, oil refineries and military bases in Iran.
When performing work with missiles, there are a variety of “volatile processes” that could cause an explosion, Brannan said.
Brannan said ISIS had recently learned from “knowledgable officials” that the blast had occurred just as Iran had achieved a milestone in the development of a new missile and may have been performing a “volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site.”
As with the cause of the blast, the nature of that milestone is unclear.
What a waste of money

Is Morocco Immune to Upheaval?

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Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2012, pp. 87-93 (view PDF)
http://www.meforum.org/3114/morocco-upheaval
(h/t docs talk) The uprisings that swept across the Middle East and North Africa during 2011 have largely bypassed Morocco. The absence of tumult and the loudly trumpeted package of constitutional reform measures endorsed in a July 2011 national referendum[1] further strengthened Morocco's favorable image in the West as a country that has mixed tradition with modernity and an openness to foreign cultures, and which is both politically stable and steadily evolving toward greater pluralism. Morocco's success in having thus far dodged upheaval warrants explanation for the country suffers from many of the same underlying ills that have driven the protests elsewhere—corruption, poverty, and unemployment; the overwhelming concentration of wealth in the hands of a small stratum of elite families intertwined with the authorities;[2] the absence of real democracy; and closed horizons for its large, youthful population, suffering from disproportionately high rates of unemployment and underemployment. But Morocco's starting point, in terms of its political institutions and political culture, is different in ways that provide some comparative advantages. Moreover, unlike other Middle East, autocratic regimes during this tumultuous year of popular intifadas,[3] the Moroccan authorities, led by King Mohammed VI, have been sufficiently proactive in their responses to the rumblings from below so as to render them manageable, at least for the time being.
Moroccan Exceptionalism
A closer look at state-society dynamics in Morocco during 2011, against the backdrop of the country's deeper currents, reveals the extent and limits of Moroccan exceptionalism. The country possesses considerable assets: a political and societal center within a distinct geographical core stretching back more than 1,200 years; a ruling dynasty more than 350 years old whose legitimacy is based on claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad; religious homogeneity of 98 percent Sunni Islam; and a particular material and popular culture, modes of religious practice, and linguistic configuration, much of which stems from Morocco's large Berber population (approximately 40 percent of the total) and heritage. Of course, these factors alone cannot be said to provide immunity to social and political upheaval. If anything, Tunisia and Egypt both possess an even greater degree of social and political cohesion, which did not prevent the latest revolutions there.
Is it the legitimacy provided by Morocco's monarchical institution that explains the lack of a massive, popular uprising thus far? To even suggest so would have been ridiculed a generation ago. Morocco in the 1960s and 1970s was wracked by political instability and attempted coups d'état. But by the 1990s, Middle East monarchies began to be viewed in a more favorable light as resilient institutions that often functioned as vital social and political anchors in times of rapid change.[4] Moreover, the last years of Morocco's late King Hassan's 38-year reign (d. 1999) were marked by what he liked to call "homeopathic democracy," namely, measured, incremental steps toward political liberalization. However numbingly slow, it eventually resulted in the ending of some of Morocco's most notorious human rights abuses, an expansion of the space for civil society organizations, and an agreement by opposition political parties to reenter the political game.
Liberal circles hoped that Hassan's son and successor, Mohammed VI, would move toward establishing a Spanish-style constitutional monarchy, à la King Juan Carlos. Although this did not occur, the new king moved quickly to make Morocco a significantly more relaxed place, politically, socially, and culturally by combining economic modernization, political liberalization, expanded social welfare, and a tolerant Islam that employed the tools of reason sanctioned by Islamic law on behalf of the general good. These measures stood in sharp contrast to the political stagnation and retrogression that marked the Tunisian and Egyptian political landscapes and, thus, set the stage for their 2011 revolutions.
Part of Mohammed VI's ruling formula was to allow a certain degree of Islamist political activity. The Party for Justice and Development, an Islamist party that was first brought onto the scene by his father in 1997, was allowed to grow into one of the leading political parties in Morocco's fragmented political system (no party holds more than 14 percent of the seats in parliament, rendering them malleable for co-option into coalition governments dominated by the palace). Another part of the new king's strategy was to balance Islamist and conservative forces by strengthening the country's liberal current. The centerpiece of his approach was the scrapping of the country's long-standing, Islamic-based Personal Status Code in favor of a new family law in 2003-04, which brought women significantly closer to legal equality with men.[5] Liberalizing public life also included the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, an unprecedented act in the region, which enabled public acknowledgment of the abuses committed by his father's minions.[6] In addition, the palace embraced and legitimized the increasingly visible Amazigh (Berber) culture movement as an integral part of the Moroccan fabric.
Real power in the kingdom, however, stayed in the hands of the palace and its affiliate circles while parliament remained emasculated and political parties mainly competed for the patronage the king was willing to bestow. Moreover, the security forces' response to the 2003 Casablanca suicide bombings and subsequent smaller incidents of homegrown terror called the regime's professed commitment to human rights into question as did the incarceration of Sahrawi (Saharan) activists challenging Morocco's control of the Western Sahara.[7] In addition, the country regressed in terms of press freedom and human rights. Finally, by the end of the decade, a new political party, Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), headed by one of the king's close associates, Fouad Ali Himma, appeared on the scene, apparently being groomed for power and thus rendering empty the promise of genuine political liberalization. Alongside this, economic growth failed to reduce the high rate of unemployment while the illiteracy rate remained over 40 percent.[8]
The Challenge…
The events in Tunisia and Egypt at the beginning of 2011 were keenly watched in Morocco. Like-minded Facebook protest groups quickly sprang up among Morocco's Internet-savvy, mostly politically unaffiliated twenty-something generation. Unlike their counterparts to the east, their target was not the "regime," i.e., the monarch, but the corrupt elites who benefited from the existing state of affairs. A more poignant type of emulation came in the form of a number of self-immolations, following the lead of 26-year old Mohamed Bouazizi, whose ultimately fatal act triggered the overthrow of Tunisia's president. At least two of these Moroccans died from their burns. Fadwa Laroui, a poverty-stricken, single mother of two who lost her shantytown home to builders, was unable to acquire government allocated land because as a single mother she was not "the head" of a household. She set herself on fire after repeated complaints to local officials proved useless and recorded her last words on a cell phone camera, which were later uploaded to YouTube. Would her sacrifice, she wondered, inspire people to "take a stand against injustice, corruption, and tyranny?"[9]
By mid-February, the atmosphere became increasingly charged, and the Moroccan protest movement gained a bit more form with the establishment of the "February 20th Movement," a cross-section of young activists running the gamut from previously unaffiliated Facebook users, members of Amazigh associations and various leftist groups, to members of the officially banned but reluctantly tolerated Islamist movement, al-Adl wa'l-Ihsan (Justice and Benevolence). Its inaugural February 20 protests sent tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets across the country[10] and were followed by smaller, ongoing, weekly protests. The atmosphere on that day was mostly festive as participants called for bringing the country's political and moneyed elite to account: Prime Minister Abba al-Fassi, PAM's Himma, and Mounir Majidi, the king's private secretary, who oversees royal business interests, were particularly targeted with corruption allegations.[11] Amazigh activists, for their part, prominently displayed their movement's flag and advocated full linguistic and cultural recognition within a genuinely democratic state. The most delicate subject, of course, was the king's status; slogans calling for a "parliamentary monarchy" indicated that the protesters sought a clearer, more limited definition of the king's sweeping powers in favor of their elected representatives.
…and Response
While mild compared to upheavals in the rest of the region, the February protests raised the specter of Morocco going down the same road as so many other Arab states and unnerved the authorities. From the beginning, and right through the first half of 2011, the government adopted a multi-pronged strategy: proactive measures designed to appease popular frustration with economic conditions (e.g., increasing state subsidies on basic goods, raising salaries for civil servants, promising government jobs for recent university graduates); proclaiming the right of peaceful protests to go forward while simultaneously working to discredit the protesters; and using occasional police violence to intimidate demonstrators.[12]
Most importantly, though, was Mohammed VI's very public promise of sweeping reforms in an effort to quell the protests. Speaking to the nation on March 9, the king outlined what he called "a package of comprehensive constitutional amendments," centering on the strengthening of the powers of the government and the parliament.[13] Details were to be worked out over the following three months by a blue-ribbon commission headed by 67-year old Abdellatif Mennouni, a constitutional law expert and veteran of Moroccan public affairs, with the changes to be submitted to the public for approval by referendum. In so doing, the palace gained control of the public discourse of reform, enabling it to manage it better and to contain the currents of unrest. Ironically, but not surprisingly, even as the proposed reform package trumpeted the strengthening of political institutions and the implied devolution of some powers by the monarchy, the political parties themselves were, as usual, relegated to secondary status: Their assigned role was essentially to endorse the final text after a brief consultation with the king's advisers and then to offer revisions to the commission's recommendations.
An analysis of the new constitution reveals that while the powers of the prime minister and parliament were somewhat enhanced—the prime minister would henceforth be called the president of the government and chosen from the party that won the greatest number of seats in parliament—preponderant power remained in the hands of the king. While no longer defined as "sacred," he remained the amir al-mu'minin (commander of the faithful), both the religious and political head of the state, the symbol of the nation's unity, guarantor of the state's existence, supreme arbiter between institutions, and personally beyond reproach.
A comparison between the commission's draft text[14] and the final version illustrates the thinking of those who want to transform Morocco into a more genuine constitutional monarchy with liberal democratic underpinnings and the obstacles they face. To be sure, the final version contained specific language emphasizing a commitment to an independent judiciary, the protection of human rights, and the ensuring of equality between women and men. Nonetheless, the commission's draft was considerably more explicit in emphasizing liberal, universal values as underpinnings of the Moroccan state while downplaying the state's Islamic and Arab components.
These initial, more liberal formulations were altered in the final version. For example, clause two of the draft preamble declared Morocco to be a "unitary sovereign state"; the final version[15] replaced "unitary" with "Muslim," and the country's Arab-Islamic heritage was now referred to explicitly. In the same vein, the final version of clause three now included the goal of "deepening the sense of belonging to the Arab-Islamic umma [nation]." Article three of both the draft and final versions declared that Islam is the religion of the state but the draft version included stronger language guaranteeing the protection of religious freedom for all faiths. Clause two of article 25 in the draft constitution that guaranteed the "freedom of conscience" was dropped entirely.
Similarly, with regard to the king's powers and prerogatives, the draft text implied certain limitations that were removed or substantially altered in the final version. For example, the final version added an additional article at the very beginning of the section treating the king's status, which restored the traditional emphasis on his being the religious as well as the political head of the community. As "commander of the faithful," he remained in charge of ensuring respect for Islam and would preside over the Higher Council of Ulema (religious jurists), responsible for all religious rulings (fatwas). The king's explicit right to dismiss government ministers, inserted in previous constitutions but not in the draft text of the new version, was also restored. Overall, the king would continue to be the supreme authority on just about everything of significance: defense, religion, government (he is officially the chairman of the Council of Ministers, with the prime minister filling that role only in his absence), justice (chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council) and security (president of a newly created National Security Council).[16]
Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the new Moroccan constitution was its explicit recognition of Tamazight, the language of the country's Berber-speaking populations, as an official language. Moreover, it required the passage of an "organic law" to translate that status into reality in education and other spheres of public life. It further emphasized that the Amazigh people and culture constituted an integral component of Moroccan identity, which had been forged over the course of history alongside the Arab-Islamic and Saharan-Hassanian components and enriched along the way by African, Andalusian, Hebraic, and Mediterranean currents.[17]
To be sure, some Amazigh activists failed to be excited by the new constitution. The language equalizing the status of Tamazight and Arabic had been more forceful in the commission's draft text. This confirmed their deeply-ingrained cynicism regarding the authorities' true intentions. For these activists, the constitutional upgrade was just the latest in a series of the state's pseudo-embrace of the Amazigh movement in order to co-opt and neutralize it.[18] Nonetheless, from a broader perspective, the institutionalization of Tamazight, along with the explicit recognition of Amazigh identity as central to the Moroccan historical and social fabric, was nothing short of historic. The demand for official recognition has been the central tenet of their movement for decades, ever since its inception.[19] Morocco would become the only North African state, and the only core Arab League member state, in which Arabic was not the sole official language.[20]
An Uncertain Future
Having been disseminated, the adoption of the new constitution was now fast-tracked to adoption via a nationwide referendum on July 1, 2011, just three weeks after its publication. The state mobilized considerable resources in its public campaign for a "Yes" vote and allowed almost no space, physical or in the media, for opponents of the new constitution. Not surprisingly, 98.5 percent of Moroccan voters (73 percent of those eligible) voted "Yes" according to official figures.[21] While these numbers were most likely inflated, they, nonetheless, indicate that the Moroccan authorities had for the time being gained control over the pace and manner of political change.
To conclude the process, nationwide parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for fall 2012, were moved up to November 25, 2011. Voter turnout in the last general election in 2007 had been only 37 percent, indicating a general apathy with the process. Whether or not this year's election will produce more interest remains to be seen. As for the likely results, expectations are widespread that the elections will produce a coalition government led by a member of one of the parties traditionally close to the palace, such as the National Rally of Independents (RNI). Of course, under the new constitution, the RNI would first have to win the most votes in the election, but few observers expect the authorities to abjure traditional practices of influencing the vote-counting.
Despite these apparent moves toward reform, the February 20th Movement sought to reenergize itself with a new round of protests beginning in mid-September. It had, however, clearly lost steam. Internally, divisions between secular activists and the increasingly visible and assertive members of the Islamist al-Adl wa'l-Ihsan were taking their toll, affecting the capacity to mobilize. More generally, Moroccan society, with an eye on the upheavals elsewhere in the region and with the Algerian horrors of the 1990s still fresh in its mind, appeared reluctant to rock the boat too hard. The bombing of a popular café in Marrakesh in mid-April by Islamist terrorists[22] was, for many, a chilling reminder of the consequences of disorder and instability.
Overall, then, Morocco's new constitution reflects the country's dual and often contradictory nature—a hereditary, Islamic-based, absolute monarchy, ruling over a modernizing, multicultural, and politically pluralist social and political order. Mohammed VI has bought more time with his latest measures. But staying ahead of the rising curve of demands for more meaningful reform, which is likely to be based on some of the more potentially innovative language of the new constitution, will demand much skill and wisdom from the country's political elite, beginning with the king himself.
Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, the Marcia Israel Principal Research Fellow at the Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, is author of The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States (University of Texas Press, 2011) and co-editor of Contemporary Morocco: State, Politics and Society under Mohammed VI (Routledge, 2012).
[1] National Public Radio, July 1, 2011; Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo), July 7-13, 2011.
[2] Aboubakr Jamai, "Morocco: After the 'Benalization,' the 'Tunisation?'" bitterlemons-international, Jan. 27, 2011.
[3] Intifada (shaking off) is the term widely used in the Arab world for "uprising."
[4] Joseph Kostiner, "Introduction," in idem, ed., Middle Eastern Monarchies (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 2000), pp. 1-12; Lisa Anderson, "Absolutism and the Resilience of Monarchy in the Middle East," Political Science Quarterly, no. 1, 1991, pp. 1-25; Michael Herb, All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999), pp. 1-18; Owen H. Kirby, "Want Democracy? Get a King," Middle East Quarterly, Dec. 2000, pp. 3-12.
[5] The Guardian (London), Oct. 12, 2003.
[6] For an account and critique of the process, see Susan Slymovics, The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).
[7] See, for example, "Morocco/Western Sahara," Amnesty International, London, accessed Oct. 6, 2011.
[8] See Paul Rivlin, "Morocco's Economy under Mohammed VI," in Bruce Maddy-Weitzman and Daniel Zisenwine, eds., Contemporary Morocco: State, Politics and Society under Mohammed VI (London: Routledge, forthcoming 2011).
[9] Rachel Newcomb, "One Moroccan Woman's Fiery Protest," The Huffington Post, Feb. 28, 2011.
[10] BBC News, Feb. 20, 2011.
[11] The Economist (London), Feb. 24, 2011.
[12] Al-Arabiya News (Dubai), May 16, 2011; "A Brave Feb. 20 Young Woman Featuring Selma Maarouf," Moroccans for Change, May 16, 2011.
[13] The New York Times, July 20, 2011.
[14] The text has not been published; the author obtained a copy from a commission member.
[15] For the French-language text of the new constitution, see Sidi Slimane City.com, Morocco, June 19, 2011.
[16] Ali Mrabat, "La nouvelle constitution octroie de nouveaux pouvoirs au roi," Demain online, Oct. 7, 2011.
[17] Jewish Telegraphic Agency (New York), July 6, 2011; Arab Reform Bulletin, Carnegie Endowment, Washington, D.C., July 6, 2011.
[18] Interviews with various Moroccan Amazigh activists, Rabat, al-Hoceima, Nador, Sept. 2011.
[19] Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, "Morocco's Berbers and Israel," Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2011, pp. 79-85.
[20] Non-Arab Somalia and ethnically-divided Sudan (which has just seen a part of its territory secede), Djibouti, and the Comoros Islands are excluded from the notion of "core" Arab states but are, nevertheless, Arab League members.
[21] Al-Arabiya News, July 2, 2011.
[22] The Guardian, Apr. 28, 2011.
Related Topics: North Africa | Bruce Maddy-Weitzman | Winter 2012 MEQ To receive the full, printed version of the Middle East Quarterly, please see details about an affordable subscription. This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
here is an analysis of something that works in the Muslim world. Repression light. it's an improvement over the hard core real deal.

Freddie & Fannie protector Barney Frank to retire

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(campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com) Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., plans to announce today that he will retire from the House of Representatives after over 30 years. As the top Democrat on the House Financial Services committee, Frank helped protect campaign contributor Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from tougher oversight as they were pumping up the housing bubble that led to the financial collapse.
Media_httpcampaign201_cdakd''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' the New York Times quoted Frank as saying in 2003. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''
Frank received $42,350 in campaign contributions from Fannie and Freddie between 1989 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
yeah, but then who will we have to laugh at?

Italy: Islam denied income tax revenue

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(h/t docs talk)Rome, (AKI) - Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah's Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament.
Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income tax revenue for Italy's established churches. The great majority of these funds go to the Catholic Church, although if they wish, individual tax payers may elect to give the money to charities and cultural projects instead.
The head of COREIS, one of Italy's largest Muslim groups, Yahya Pallavicini, said he was bitter that Islam had been denied the revenue from Italian income tax. "Work should be begun on legally recognising those moderate Muslims who have for years shown themselves to be reliable interlocutors who are free of and fundamentalist ideology," he said.
Islam is not an established religion in Italy and there is only one official mosque in the country, Rome's Grand Mosque (photo). Politicians from the ruling coalition cite radical imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women's rights by Muslims immigrants as obstacles to recognising Islam as an official religion in Italy.
Until now, only the Catholic Church, Judaism and other established churches including Lutherans, Evangelists, Waldensians and 7th-day Adventists have received the income tax revenue from the Itallain government.
There are between one million and 1.5 million Muslims in Italy and 130 mosques linked the Muslim umbrella organisation UCOII across the country.
that is the way you do it.

CBS News : Angelina Jolie: Behind the camera

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dictatorswith:
Angelina Jolie with Asma al-Assad, wife of the Syrian dictator, 2009
As bona fide ambassadors for the United Nations, Jolie and Pitt travelled to Syria and met with Asma and Bashar al-Assad. The meeting is narrated, extensively, in a Vogue article called Asma al-Assad, A Rose in the Desert in which we can read:
Asma likes to say, “You’re safe because you are surrounded by  people who will keep you safe.” Neighbors peer in, drop by, visit,  comment on the furniture. The president doesn’t mind: “This curiosity is  good: They come to see you, they learn more about you. You don’t  isolate yourself.”
Once again, the myth of the good and beloved King and Queen. This is already odd enough since the Human Rights Watch report for Syria is called A Wasted Decade but maybe Jolie and Pitt did wonderful ambassador job and things got better, right?
Here are some of the last news coming from Syria:
Thirty die in protests across Syria
Syria: dissolving illusions of reform
Syrian troops shoot dead protesters in day of turmoil
Bloodliest day in Syrian uprising as Assad troops kill ‘at least 75’ 
Six killed at Syria funeral processions
Good job Angelina, good job Brad
 Assad... who is Assad? how come CBS doesn't report her political relationship to tyrants who commit genocide. Could it be that it would scare the funding for her movie about Bosnia? Jolie has consistently shrouded totalitarian regimes. Her relationship to the United Nations has me questioning her film dollars. (CBS 60 Minutes) Not one mention of her relationship to the Syrian regime of Assad. One wonders how she gets the funds for her film making ventures.  Angelina Jolie with Asma al-Assad, wife of the Syrian dictator,  2009. As bona fide Asma al-Assad,  The meeting is narrated, extensively, in a Vogue article called A Rose in the Desert in which we can read: ambassadors for the United Nations, Jolie and Pitt travelled to Syria and met with Asma and Bashar al-Assad.
Asma likes to say, “You’re safe because you are surrounded by people who will keep you safe.” Neighbors peer in, drop by, visit, comment on the furniture. The president doesn’t mind: “This curiosity is good: They come to see you, they learn more about you. You don’t isolate yourself.”
Once again, the myth of the good and beloved King and Queen. This is already odd enough since the Human Rights Watch report for Syria is called A Wasted Decade but maybe Jolie and Pitt did wonderful ambassador job and things got better, right? of course HRW isn't much better then Angelina Jolie... but... you get the idea.

Greek Relationship between the NYTimes and Palestine: Marina Tatiana Ladas,

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Cyrus Leo Sulzberger II (1912-1993) was a U.S. journalist and author, and a member of the family which owns the New York Times. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was that newspaper's correspondent in France... The son of Leo Sulzberger, he was a nephew of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The Times from 1935 to 1961. He was also a first cousin of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Sr.. He married Marina Tatiana Ladas, a Greek woman whose brother, Alexis Ladas, was a UN official in Palestine in the 1940s and 1950s. (Arab Source)...Alexis Ladas (1920-2000) ... as a member of the Greek resistance movement he was captured by the Italians and spent two years in gaol[1] ... political officer at UN mission in Jerusalem in mid-1950s ... succeeded John Gaillard as UNCCP Liaison officer in Jerusalem in January 1954, ... in 1955, he married Theamaria Ackermann Husayni, the widow of Musa Husayni, whom the Jordanians had executed for complicity in the murder of King Abdullah ... Ladas was the brother of Marina Sulzberger, the Greek wife of C. L. Sulzberger  (Arab Source) ... Musa Husayni aka Dr. Musa Abdullah el-Husseini ... in his late 30s in 1941 ... cousin of the Mufti of Jerusalem .. studied medicine in London .... also studied in Berlin - he moved to Germany at the outbreak of WW2[1] ... after WW2 he was detained in Belgium and exiled to the Seychelles ... after his release, he taught at Beirut university and soon after moved to Amman ... failed to be elected to Jordanian parliament in 1949 and opened a travel agency in East Jerusalem, working with an Israeli travel agency to organize pilgrims' tours of both sides of the city ... hung for conspiracy in murder of King Abdullah in 1951 ... his widow, Theamaria Ackermann Husseini, married Alexis Ladas in 1955 ...Events involving Musa Abdullah el-Husseini: King Abdullah of Jordan assassinated (21 Jul 1951) (Arab Source)

November 27, 1947: Arabs plan to divide Palestine

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From the Palestine Post, November 27, 1947:
Even on the eve of the partition vote, Arab nations had no interest in an independent Palestine, but rather they wanted to grab whatever pieces they could get.
Transjordan's king had his own ideas. From the same date:
Isn't that sweet?

When art breeds success in the bedroom

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A couple in bed: researchers wanted to know whether successful artists have more lovers
  • (guardian.co.uk)
    Researchers wanted to know whether successful artists have more lovers.
    Photograph: CTK/Alamy
If you thought the UKGuardian's coverage of Operation Cast Lead and the resulting Goldstone Report based on anonymous witnesses was absurd... this story is going to convince you of the stupidity of this newspaper. The claim is that they can predict how much sex people have based on math.

Yeah... it's pretty funny that no one is there to question them... and I sure as hell wouldn't leave a comment to get trolled by some wannabe cultural elitist.

Ok... get this: The UK Guardian's math supposedly expects people in cultural institutions like art schools to be honest about the sex they are participating in. As an artist myself (oh and yes I was)... and someone who has been on the inside of these systems I can tell you my reputation was horrible. I'm sure many of my classmates had me pegged as someone who didn't have sex at all... but the truth is there were a lot of repressed women who did sleep with me, and could not talk about it... because admitting that they slept with a divisive fellow like myself would hurt their reputation.  (When you  lie with dogs you wake up with fleas! I'm not boasting about this, because I was looking for a public relationship... in an effort to improve my public image.)  Further... I don't know why this newspaper would take the word of people who were sleeping around. It's like as if there would be no social friction that could occur as a result of rejecting one mate and moving on to the next.  That social friction being a very large variable that would make any study impossible.

I can understand the need to prove this. Many grumbling persons have looked in envy at public figures who have met with public acceptance and have complained that they have become dominant to the pool of sexual prey,... dominant to the point where someone wonders why they would be respected... (I suppose we could ask a guy like Jullian Assange what happens when you become way too respectable to the cultural elite).  My point is that there are simply some things that are common sense... and if you reach a situation where the other party doesn't want to believe something as obvious as what this study was trying to prove then you probably shouldn't be around that other person or you have got to accept if you stay around that there are benefits of being around someone who is obviously hostile.  As someone who has had the unfortunate experience of looking into the private records of an artistic institution and suffered the result of the institution and it's sexual environment (yes I was in jail... actually if I had known there were University records I would of not been in jail at all.  Some people out there are still censoring this blog... the state of Washington really thinks they can get away with censorship)... I can say that this kind of conjecture sells newspapers, but it has no substance. If the people around you don't agree to your analysis... it's probably best to just take the abuse or get the hell out of there. Trying to prove what kind of sexual acrobatics go on in a public forum is a messy business. When you dig up dirt you are liable to fall into a hole.
....To deal with their realisation that some artists get a lot of sex while others get little or none, Helen Clegg, Daniel Nettle and Dorothy Miell made use of an ancient tool – a tool that mathematicians count among the sexiest of mankind's inventions. The logarithm.
The trio had joined forces, as they later described it, to "investigate the relationship between mating success and artistic success in a sample of 236 visual artists".
Clegg is a University of Northampton senior lecturer in psychology, Nettle a professor of behavioural science at Newcastle University and Miell the head of the College of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh.
Their report, called Status and Mating Success Amongst Visual Artists, appears in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
The study gives us barely any numerical detail. It says only this: "The distribution of number of sexual partners for these participants was highly skewed with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 250 (M=10.67). Therefore, the data were converted to a log scale and [we performed our analysis] using this scale."
That "M=10.67" is the median. Half of the 236 artists had had, each of them, fewer than 10.67 lovers. The other artists each had had in excess of 10.67 bedmates. Or so they told the researchers.
Two lovers. Twenty lovers. Two hundred lovers. They seem almost to be from different universes, the collections of five or six lovers, versus the serial harems of 100 or 200. How to talk coherently about a hodgepodge of small and big numbers?
You do it with logarithms. Roughly speaking (I don't have room here to go into much detail), the logarithm of a particular number tells – measures, really – how many extra digits that number has.
The number 1 has no extra digits. Its logarithm is zero. The number 10 has one extra digit. Its logarithm is 1. The number 100 has two extra digits; its logarithm is 2. The logarithm of 101 is ever-so-slightly bigger than 2 (it's about 2.0043). The logarithm of 250 is bigger still (about 2.3979).
The logarithm is a concise, rough way to compare things across vast scales of bigness and smallness. That painter who's got a new girlfriend every few months? About log 2. That lonely graffiti gal whom everyone shuns? Log zero, it seems.
The researchers used logarithms also when they tried to understand a related set of numbers.
They had computed what they call the "mating strategy index" of the various artists. "Each one-night stand gained one point, each relationship up to a month two points, and soon up to each relationship 10 years or over, which gained eight points. The total number of points for each person was added up and divided by their total number of relationships."
After tiptoeing through all their data and computations, the artists-and-sex researchers decided that "more successful male artists had more sexual partners than less successful artists, but this did not hold for female artists".
• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize
My grandmother died when I was in college. She told me to turn my tongue three times before saying anything. That was her advice to me. I never took her advice. It isn't my nature. Besides I benefit too much by acting like I know the answer. I can't help who I am, but I know she was smart enough on her deathbed to see that I was falling. She had the funniest personality. At first glance she seemed like Betty White or Victoria Jackson. She never had any presumption of intelligence or knowing things. She knew how to not appear smart... oh did she fool us all. She had all the answers... you had to pry it out of her. She plaid stupid all the time.

Powell: Tea Party presidential candidate can't win in 2012

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"Compromise is how this country was founded," he said, offering as an example the issue of slavery. "Can you imagine more difficult compromises today?" he asked. "We have a Congress now that can't even pass an appropriations bill."
Who does that sound like? Oh yeah... that is what Obama keeps on talking about. The compromise on slavery argument is completely out of context, unless we are talking about... a guy who is listening to what Obama believes.

An Originalist Argument for the Unconstitutionality of Sex Discrimination

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Posted Image
(volokh) It is generally accepted that the Supreme Court’s sex discrimination jurisprudence cannot be reconciled with an originalist interpretation of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment.   Originalists and non-originalists alike accept that the original intent of Section One was to preclude racial discrimination against blacks, and that there was no intent to prevent sex discrimination by state entities.  Nor did the original public meaning of Section One embody a rule that would prevent state governments from engaging in sex discrimination.
In an important new paper, forthcoming in the Texas Law Review, Northwestern law professor Steven Calabresi and Julia Rickert argue that the conventional originalist view on sex discrimination is wrong, and that the Supreme Court’s sex discrimination decisions (if not their rationales) are largely consistent with a true originalist understanding of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Specifically, they argue that Section One is best understood as a prohibition on caste legislation and that the meaning of the Amendment must be considered in light of subsequent constitutional amendments, the Nineteenth Amendment in particular.  Thus understood, Section One prohibits state-sponsored gender discrimination and can even justify the Court’s decision in the VMI case.
This article is Lawrence Solum’s “Download of the Week,” and with good reason, as it is sure to prompt significant discussion and debate.  As Solum would say, “Download it while it’s hot!” 

Cairo rally: "One day we'll kill all the Jews"

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(h/t EOZ Yoel)(YNet) A Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo's most prominent mosque Friday turned into a venomous anti-Israel protest, with attendants vowing to "one day kill all Jews."
Some 5,000 people joined the rally, called to promote the "battle against Jerusalem's Judaization." The event coincided with the anniversary of the United Nations' partition plan in 1947, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state.
Speakers at the event delivered impassioned, hateful speeches against Israel, slamming the "Zionist occupiers" and the "treacherous Jews." Upon leaving the rally, worshippers were given small flags, with Egypt's flag on one side and the Palestinian flag on the other, as well as maps of Jerusalem's Old City detailing where "Zionists are aiming to change Jerusalem's Muslim character."
Propaganda material ahead of Egypt's parliamentary elections was also handed out at the site.
Spiritual leader Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb charged in his speech that to this day Jews everywhere in the world are seeking to prevent Islamic and Egyptian unity.
"In order to build Egypt, we must be one. Politics is insufficient. Faith in Allah is the basis for everything," he said. "The al-Aqsa Mosque is currently under an offensive by the Jews…we shall not allow the Zionists to Judaize al-Quds (Jerusalem.) We are telling Israel and Europe that we shall not allow even one stone to be moved there."
Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen, as well as Palestinian guest speakers, made explicit calls for Jihad and for liberating the whole of Palestine. Time and again, a Koran quote vowing that "one day we shall kill all the Jews" was uttered at the site. Meanwhile, businessmen in the crowd were urged to invest funds in Jerusalem in order to prevent the acquisition of land and homes by Jews.
Throughout the event, Muslim Brotherhood activists chanted: "Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, judgment day has come."
Egyptian media reported about the rally but did not mention the anti-semitic chants.

THE MUFTI’S DIARY ON HIS MEETING WITH HITLER

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“We have more detailed scholarly accounts today of Husseini’s wartime activities, but Husseini’s C.I.A. file indicates that wartime Allied intelligence organizations gathered a healthy portion of this incriminating evidence,” a CIA report says. “This evidence is significant in light of Husseini’s lenient postwar treatment.” He died in Beirut in 1974.
The British and the French were the rulers in this region and had a relationship with Husseini (Americans also had a relationship ...The Americans shielded lots of Nazis.). ...
(Atlas) From the Berlin headquarters of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, uncle of Yasser Arafat. Copies of the pages of the Mufti Diaries of the Hitler meeting
Mufti diary 1 ...
Something went terribly wrong in the aftermath of the defeat of evil. The face of Hitler's soulmate, the Grand Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini, should be seared on the conscience of man as powerful an evil icon as Hitler. The Gran Mufti should be as large and as powerful a symbol of evil as Heil Hitler. And yet he is not. Worse, his responsibility is little known and where he is known, he is celebrated, exalted in the Islamic world. ... Read the Mufti's perosnal recollections of his time with Hitler. The [Ed.] in brackets is not me but the orginal document, THE ARAB HIGHER COMMITTEE ITS ORIGINS, PERSONNEL AND PURPOSES, submitted to the UN in 1947:
...
Mufti diary
... THE MUFTI’S DIARY ON HIS MEETING WITH HITLER
Haj Amin El Husseini, recording in his own handwriting his meeting with Hitler in his diary, says:
The words of the Fuehrer on the 6th of Zul Qaada 1360 of the Hejira (which falls on the 21st of November 1941) Berlin, Friday, from 4:30 P.M. till a few minutes after 6.
The objectives of my fight are clear. Primarily, I am fighting the Jews without respite, and this fight includes the fight against the so-called Jewish National Home in Palestine because the Jews want to establish there a central government for their own pernicious purposes, and to undertake a devastating and ruinous expansion at the expense of the governments of the world and of other peoples.
It is clear that the Jews have accomplished nothing in Palestine and their claims are lies. All the accomplishments in Palestine are due to the Arabs and not to the Jews. I am resolved to find a solution for the Jewish problem, progressing step by step without cessation. With regard to this I am making the necessary and right appeal, first to all the European countries and then to countries outside of Europe.
It is true that our common enemies are Great Britain and the Soviets whose principles are opposed to ours. But behind them stand hidden Jewry which drives them both. Jewry has but one aim in both these countries. We are now in the midst of a life and death struggle against both these nations. This fight will not only determine the outcome of the struggle between National Socialism and Jewry, but the whole conduct of this successful war will be of great and positive help to the Arabs who are engaged in the same struggle.
This is not only an abstract assurance.* A mere promise would be of no value whatsoever. But assurance which rests upon a conquering force is the only one which has real value. In the Iraqi campaign, for instance, the sympathy of the whole German people was for Iraq. It was our aim to help Iraq, but circumstances prevented us from furnishing actual help. The German people saw in them (in the Iraqis – Ed.) comrades in suffering because the German people too have suffered as they have. All the help we gave Iraq was not sufficient to save Iraq from the British forces. For this reason it is necessary to underscore one thing: in this struggle which will decide the fate of the Arabs I can now speak as a man dedicated to an ideal and as a military leader and a soldier. Everyone united in this great struggle who helps to bring about its successful outcome, serves the common cause and thus serves the Arab cause. Any other view means weakening the military situation and thus offers no help to the Arab cause. Therefore it is necessary for us to decide the steps which can help us against world Jewry, against Communist Russia and England, and which among them can be most useful. Only if we win the war will the hour of deliverance also be the hour of fulfillment of Arab aspirations.
*This is a reply to the insistent request of the Mufti for an Axis declaration to the Arabs. See Mufti’s drafts in following pages
The situation is as follows: We are conducting the great struggle to open the way to the North of the Caucasus. The difficulties involved are more than transportation because of the demolished railways and roads and because of winter weather. And if I venture in these circumstances to issue a declaration with regard to Syria, then the pro-de Gaulle elements in France will be strengthened and this might cause a revolt in France. These men (the French) will be convinced then that joining Britain is more advantageous and the detachment of Syria is a pattern to be followed in the remainder of the French Empire. This will strengthen de Gaulle’s stand in the colonies. If the declaration is issued now, difficulties will arise in Western Europe which will cause the diversion of some (German – Ed.) forces for defensive purposes, thus preventing us from sending all our forces to the East.
Now I am going to tell you something I would like you to keep secret.
First, I will keep up my fight until the complete destruction of the Judeo-Bolshevik rule has been accomplished.
Second, during the struggle (and we don’t know when victory will come, but probably not in the far future) we will reach the Southern Caucasus.
Third, then I would like to issue a declaration; for then the hour of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. Germany has no ambitions in this area but cares only to annihilate the power which produces the Jews.
Fourth, I am happy that you have escaped and that you are now with the Axis powers. The hour will strike when you will be the lord of the supreme word and not only the conveyer of our declarations. You will be the man to direct the Arab force and at that moment I cannot imagine what would happen to the Western peoples.
Fifth, I think that with this Arab advance begins the dismemberment of the British world. The road from Rostov to Iran and Iraq is shorter than the distance from Berlin to Rostov. We hope next year to smash this barrier. It is better then and not now that a declaration should be issued as (now) we cannot help in anything.
I understand the Arab desire for this (declaration – Ed.), but His Excellency the Mufti must understand that only five years after I became President of the German government and Fuehrer of the German people, was I able to get such a declaration (the Austrian Union – Ed.), and this because military forces prevented me from issuing such a declaration. But when the German Panzer tanks and the German air squadrons reach the Southern Caucasus, then will be the time to issue the declaration.
He said (in reply to a request that a secret declaration or a treaty be made) that a declaration known to a number of persons cannot remain secret but will become public. I (Hitler) have made very few declarations in my life, unlike the British who have made many declarations. If I issue a declaration, I will uphold it. Once I promised the Finnish Marshal that I would help his country if the enemy attacks again. This word of mine made a stronger impression than any written declaration.
Recapitulating, I want to state the following to you: When we shall have arrived in the Southern Caucasus, then the time of the liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. And you can rely on my word.
We were troubled about you. I know your life history. I followed with interest your long and dangerous journey. I was very concerned about you. I am happy that you are with us now and that you are now in a position to add your strength to the common cause.
Source: [1] THE ARAB HIGHER COMMITTEE ITS ORIGINS, PERSONNEL AND PURPOSES ...
I will be uploading and posting more, much more, in the coming days of the tight partnership between Islam and the Reich. And the original owner os the Auschwitz blueprints.
... ... ...
Palestinian leader meets Hitler, and they agree on their common enemy: The Jews.
Hitler: We're natural allies - we have the same enemy, namely the Jews. When we win, the Mufti will be Fuehrer of Muslims.
Himmler_mufti_b
The photo is inscribed by Himmler: ... "To his eminence the Grand Mufti, 4 VII 1943, in remembrance H Himmler"
Seiner Eminenz dem Grossmufti 4 VII 1943 zur erinnerung H Himmler
... ... ... ... It is almost impossible to believe that after the genocide of over six million Jews, the political committee of the General Assembly met (without a dissenting vote) to invite the Arav Higher Committee to testify before it on the Palestine [actually Israel] question. ...
"Moreover, a special sitting of the General Assembly, was convened under pressure of the Arab states, in order to issue the invitation in a form which would invest the Arab Higher Committee with the same diplomatic status as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the internationally recognized representative of the Jewish people.: [source;[1] ... THE ARAB HIGHER COMMITTEE ITS ORIGINS, PERSONNEL AND PURPOSES: The Documentary Record submitted to the United Nations May 1947. NY: Nation Associates, 1947}
It is hard to believe that the rag we know of today, "The Nation," was fierce in its pursuit of the truth and assembling an incredible document - an extraordinary collection of documents and photos showing collusion ... of the Arab League with the fascist governments and Nazis during the ... War, background of the Mufti's aides, documents in Arabic, French and ... German are translated. Includes for instance Hitler's pledge to the ... Mufti for help in Iraq revolt of 1941, other material on Iraq, Italians ... pledge to abolish Jewish National Home, letters from Mufti to ... discourage Jewish emigration from Germany. Mufti was head of the Arab ... Higher Committee. This document is a real indictment of the Arab ... Committee and the Mufti for abetting the destruction of European Jewry ... during the Shoah. ... The head of the Arab Higher Committee was the Mufti Haj Haj Amin el-Husseini, a brutal jihadi responsible for repeated massacres of the Jews prior to the Holocaust. ...
... ... ... The Arab Higher Committee of Palestine is a creature of the Arab League comprising Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The head of the Arab Higher Committee is the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, a full partner of the Axis before and during World War II, an escaped prisoner of war who has found asylum in the Palace of the King of Egypt.
... The Arab Higher Committee, representing the six Arab parties of Palestine, came into existence in 1936. A year later it was established that the Mufti and his associates in the Arab Higher Committee were responsible for the 1936 riots which took a toll of hundreds of British, Jewish, and Arab lives. Accordingly, the Palestine government in 1937 declared the committee illegal and ordered it disbanded. Some of its members were arrested and sent to Seychelles. Others, including its chairman, the Mufti of Jerusalem, escaped to Syria whence they continued to direct Arab operations. During his exile in Syria, the Mufti even succeeded in liquidating most of the Arab leaders of Palestine who opposed him and his policies.
... Until 1943, the Arab Higher Committee had no formal existence. The Mufti, in the interval, had moved from Syria to Iraq where he organized the revolt against the British in 1941. When that failed, he fled to Germany and there played his role as Axis ally in the war against the United Nations.
... In 1943, a number of prominent Palestinian Arabs made an effort to establish an Arab Higher Committee but were prevented from achieving their purpose by followers of the Mufti who had remained in Palestine during the war and who feared that, in the absence of the Mufti, the new body would oust them from leadership.
... In 1944, however, the effort to establish an Arab Higher Committee was given stimulus when the Arab states, under British incentive, began to form what has now become known as the Arab League. In September of that year, political leaders from the neighboring Arab countries came to Palestine to urge Palestinian Arabs to agree among themselves on the composition of an Arab Higher Committee. These attempts again met with failure, due in every instance to the opposition of the followers of the Mufti who were hopefully awaiting his return from Germany and his resumption of leadership.
... A temporary truce was established in 1944 when Musa el Alami, a mild supporter of the Mufti, was recognized by the Arab league as the sole representative of Palestinian Arabs, pending the formation of a Palestine Arab Higher Committee.
... A few months after V-E Day, when the Husseini family, to their great astonishment, found that the British were reluctant to try the Mufti as a war criminal, they were emboldened openly to demand the return of the Mufti and his aides to Palestine. In this they were joined by the Arab states and the Arab League. ...
The League was the culmination of more than four years of effort which had been encouraged by Anthony Eden, then, Foreign Secretary of Great Britain [1]. Sadly, we will see this Jew hatred repeatedly in the Brits. Time and again, they sided with the annihilationists. It is no small wonder their country today is overrun by the very evil they empowered. Karma. ... Back to the Mufti's early and pre-eminent role in the Third Reich. ...
Mufti nazis eating
Mufti Amin al-Husseini and ... friends ( Mile Budak cooling soup)
The captured files of the German High Command in Flansburg at the war's end reveal that the Arab [Muslim] riots of 1936 in Palestine [Israel] were carried out by the Mufti with funds supplied by the Nazis. The report states: "only through funds made available by Germany to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was it possible to carry out the revolt in Palestine." [source 1 page 5] ... ... ... ... ... ...
The Muslim riots of 1936 were merely a continuation of the 1929 riots that led to the massacre of 133 Jews, 239 wounded. It is apparent, early on, that the Grand Muslim Mufti meant to wipe the Jews off the map. ...
Haj Amin al-Husseini has a long-time record of complxity with terrorism, responsible for the Arab riots in Palestine in1920, he fled to transjordan to escape a ten year sentence of imprisonment, returning only after complete amnesty had been granted. [page 4] ...
Mufti 1920 ...
1920 - Jerusalem. Amin Al Husseini inciting the riots that pitted Muslem against Jew (photo) ...
Mufti Rashi ali ...
Mufti Amin al-Husseini with Pro-Nazi Iraq ... coup leader Rashid Ali. ...
... The Shaw Commission, appointed by the British Government to investigate ... the 1929 riots, attributed to the Mufti a share in responsibility for ... these riots, in which 133 Jews were killed and 239 wounded. No action ... was taken to curb his activities, with the result that in 1936 he again ... was responsible for new attacks upon the Jews of Palestine. At the same ... time, he caused the assassination on hundreds of prominent Arabs, ... including 24 leading Palestine Arabs who refused to accept his ... leadership.
The captured files of the German High Command in Flansburg at ... the war’s end reveal that the Arab riots of 1936 in Palestine were ... carried out by the Mufti with funds supplied by the Nazis. The report ... states: “Only through funds made available by Germany to the Grand ... Mufti of Jerusalem was it possible to carry out the revolt in ... Palestine.”
Following his excape from Palestine to Syria and later to ... Iraq, he and his henchmen were directly responsible for the anti-Jewish ... pogrom in which almost four hundred Jewish men, women, and children ... were stabbed or brutally clubbed to death in the streets of Bagdad. An ... investigating committee appointed by the legitimate Iraq Government, ... following its restoration after the revolt in 1941, declared that the ... causes of disturbance, “are, in the opinion of the investigating ... committee, Nazi propaganda emanating from the following sources: (1) ... the German League; (2) the Mufti of Jerusalem and his henchmen who ... followed him to Iraq. This man was accorded enthusiastic reception in ... Iraq and has turned it to his own use to disseminate many-sided Nazi ... propaganda. His influence on government and army circles became so ... strong that he could give orders to his group to set to work to spread ... anti-Jewish and anti-British propaganda among all classes of the ... population.”
In Iraq, the Mufti’s first undertaking was to organize the ... Iraqi revolt with Jamal el Husseini, now Vice-Chairman of the Arab ... Higher Committee, as his Chief of Staff.
After the failure of the Iraqi revolt, the Mufti escaped to ... Teheran and found refuge in the Japanese Embassy. From there he escaped ... to Italy. In October of 1941, he conferred with Mussolini, Ciano, and ... Dino Alfieri. From Rome he communicated with Balkan Moslems under ... Italian rule in Yugoslavia and Albania.
In November 1941, he went to Berlin. The Nazis established a ... special office for him in Berlin entitled, “Buro des Grosmufti,” with ... branches organized later in other parts of Germany and Italy. His ... activities included propaganda, espionage, organization of Moslem ... military units in Axis-occupied countries and in North Africa and ... Russia, establishment of Arab legions, of an Arab brigade and ... organization of fifth-column activities in the Middle East, including ... sabotage and parachutist expeditions.
In the course of his propaganda work, the Grand Mufti had at ... his disposal not only the German-controlled radio, but radio stations ... in Bari, Rome, Tokyo and Athens. In addition, he was responsible for ... sending to the Middle East various propaganda publications in Arabic.
His espionage service extended throughout the Middle East. He ... had a sub-office in Geneva linking him to Egypt and Turkey, and another ... in Istanbul, branching out all along the Syrian-Turkish frontier in ... Mersine, Alexandretta, Antioch, Adana and Diarbekr. These stations ... received information directly from the Mufti’s agents in Palestine, ... Syria, and Iraq, and maintained close contact with members of the ... German Intelligence in Turkey.
... In Athens, the Mufti established a parachutist and sabotage school for Arabs.
In The Hague, under his direction, Arab students were trained ... in wireless transmission, high explosives and demolitions. The Mufti’s ... agents were parachuted into Palestine, Syria and Iraq. A number of them ... were caught by the British. On a number of occasions these agents, with ... the help of local Arabs, cut telephone and pipe lines in Transjordan ... and Palestine and sabotaged railways and bridges in Iraq.
Another of the Mufti’s accomplishments was the organization ... of Moslem military units. He attempted to recruit for the German ... military command some 500,000 soldiers from Morocco, Tunisia, and ... Algeria. In Asiatic Russia, he collaborated with Moslem Russian ... Quislings and White Russian traitors whom he helped to form pro-Axis ... legions.
In 1942, he started to organize Axis Arab legions from among ... Arab students in Germany and Arab prisoners of war who followed him to ... Germany. His Legionnaires wore the German uniform with “Free Arabia” ... patches on their shoulders.
After the Jewish Brigade had been recognized by Winston ... Churchill in 1944, the Mufti, on November 2, with the consent of ... Ribbentrop called upon all Arabs in Germany hailing from Palestine, ... Iraq, Egypt, and Syria to join the Arab Brigade.
Accepting a proposal of the Japanese that he broadcast to ... Moslems in the South Pacific and India, the Mufti recorded numerous ... broadcasts which were beamed to India, Indonesia and Java.
Mufti broadcast
The Mufti at Berlin Broadcast
On September 3, 1941, Major General Erwin Lahousen, one of the ... top officials of the Abwehr, whose secret diary was among the captured ... German documents, wrote: “The Grand Mufti, who left Iraq to go to Iran, ... is currently in connection with the Abwehr II (Sabotage division of the ... Abwehr). According to reports from Teheran he is safe with the Japanese ... envoy.”
A year later, on June 2, 1942, Lahousen wrote in his secret ... diary: “The Italian national, Captain Simen, took part in discussions ... with the Grand Mufti concerning the utilization of the connections with ... the Grand Mufti for the purpose of Abwehr II, in order to demonstrate ... the solidarity of the Axis powers.”
A month later, on July 13, 1942, Lahousen made the further ... entry in his secret diary: “A meeting between the chief of the Abwehr” ... (Admiral Canaris, who was also Hitler’s representative in arranging for ... the Franco revolt against the Spanish Republican government) ; “and the ... Grand Mufti of Jerusalem took place in the apartment of the chief. I ... (Lahousen) took part in the discussion. The Mufti made an offer to the ... chief that the followers of the Arabian Freedom Movement, which was led ... by him as well as the followers of the former Iraq Prime Minister, ... Kailani (leader of the Iraqi revolt against Britain), were to be used ... for purposes of sabotage and sedition in the Near East in accordance ... with the purposes of Abwehr II.”
It' s important to note that the Mufti's weekly fireside chats were broadcast to Tokyo as well. The Mufti had warm relations with Oshima and I will have those documents posted as well. ...
... THE MUFTI'S WWII FATWAH ... AGAINST BRITAIN ...
... In the name of Merciful and Almighty God. I invite all my Moslem brothers throughout the whole world to join in the Holy War for God, for the defense of Islam and her lands against her enemy. O Faithful, obey and respond to my call. O Moslems! Proud Iraq has placed herself in the vanguard of this Holy Struggle, and has thrown herself against the strongest enemy of Islam ... The English have overthrown the Ottoman Empire, have destroyed Moslem rule in India, inciting one community against another; they stifled the Egyptian awakening, the dream of Mohammed Ali, colonizing Egypt for half a century. They took advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire to stretch out their hands and use every sort of trick to take possession of many Arab countries as happened to Aden, the 9 Districts, the Hadramut, Oman, Masqat and the Emirates of the Persian Gulf and Transjordan. The vivid proof of the imperialistic designs of the British is to be found in Moslem Palestine which, although promised by England to Sheriff Hussein has had to submit to the outrageous infiltration of Jews, shameful politics designed to divide Arab-Moslem countries of Asia from those of Africa. In Palestine the English have committed unheard of barbarisms; among others, they have profaned the el-Aqsa Mosque and have declared the most unyielding war against Islam, both in deed and in word. The Prime Minister at that time told Parliament that the world would never see peace as long as the Koran existed. What hatred against Islam is stronger than that which publicly declares the Sacred Koran an enemy of human kind? Should such sacrilege go unpunished? ... I invite you, O Brothers, to join in the War for God to preserve Islam, your independence and your lands from English aggression. I invite you to bring all your weight to bear in helping Iraq that she may throw off the shame that torments her. O Heroic Iraq, God is with Thee, the Arab Nation and the Moslem World are solidly with Thee in Thy Holy Struggle!
it wasn't just Adolph Hitler who was enamored with the Mufti. Britain and France were also fans (Hat Tip: Daled Amos). ...
The report details how Mr. Husseini himself was allowed to flee after the war to Syria — he was in the custody of the French, who did not want to alienate Middle East regimes — and how high-ranking Nazis escaped from Germany to become advisers to anti-Israeli Arab leaders and “were able to carry on and transmit to others Nazi racial-ideological anti-Semitism.” ... ... “You have an actual contract between officials of the Nazi Foreign Ministry with Arab leaders, including Husseini, extending after the war because they saw a cause they believed in,” Dr. Breitman said. “And after the war, you have real Nazi war criminals — Wilhelm Beisner, Franz Rademacher and Alois Brunner — who were quite influential in Arab countries.” ... ... In October 1945, the report says, the British head of Palestine’s Criminal Investigation Division told the assistant American military attaché in Cairo that the mufti might be the only force able to unite the Palestine Arabs and “cool off the Zionists. Of course, we can’t do it, but it might not be such a damn bad idea at that.”

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