Friday, September 27, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 27, 2013


So... hope you all read yesterday's newsbite #5.

 And now... on to today's newsbites!
(FOUND IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!)

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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/27/a-global-slaughter-of-christians-but-america-s-churches-stay-silent.html

Christians in the Middle East and Africa are being slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the birthplace of Christianity. One would think this horror might be consuming the pulpits and pews of American churches. Not so. The silence has been nearly deafening.

As Egypt’s Copts have battled the worst attacks on the Christian minority since the 14th century, the bad news for Christians in the region keeps coming.

On Sunday, Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 85 worshippers at All Saints’ church, which has stood since 1883 in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan.

Christians were also the target of Islamic fanatics in the attack on a shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya, this week that killed more than 70 people. The Associated Press reported that the Somali Islamic militant group al-Shabab “confirmed witness accounts that gunmen separated Muslims from other people and let the Muslims go free.” The captives were asked questions about Islam. If they couldn’t answer, they were shot.

In Syria, Christians are under attack by Islamist rebels and fear extinction if Bashar al-Assad falls. This month, rebels overran the historic Christian town of Maalula, where many of its inhabitants speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The AFP reported that a resident of Maalula called her fiancé’s cell and was told by member of the Free Syrian Army that they gave him a chance to convert to Islam and he refused. So they slit his throat.

Nina Shea, an international human-rights lawyer and expert on religious persecution, testified in 2011 before Congress regarding the fate of Iraqi Christians, two-thirds of whom have vanished from the country. They have either been murdered or fled in fear for their lives. Said Shea: “[I]n August 2004 … five churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. On a single day in July 2009, seven churches were bombed in Baghdad … The archbishop of Mosul, was kidnapped and killed in early 2008. A bus convoy of Christian students were violently assaulted. Christians … have been raped, tortured, kidnapped, beheaded, and evicted from their homes …”

Lela Gilbert is the author of Saturday People, Sunday People, which details the expulsion of 850,000 Jews who fled or were forced to leave Muslim countries in the mid-20th century.

(The title of her book comes from an Islamist slogan, “First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People,” which means “first we kill the Jews, then we kill the Christians.”)

Gilbert wrote recently that her Jewish friends and neighbors in Israel “are shocked but not entirely surprised” by the attacks on Christians in the Middle East. “They are rather puzzled, however, by what appears to be a lack of anxiety, action, or advocacy on the part of Western Christians.”

As... they... should... be.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

September 27, 2013 at 11:40 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

It is inexplicable. American Christians are quite able to organize around issues that concern them. Yet religious persecution appears not to have grabbed their attention, despite worldwide media coverage of the atrocities against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

It’s no surprise that Jews seem to understand the gravity of the situation the best. In December 2011, Britain’s chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, addressed Parliament saying, “I have followed the fate of Christians in the Middle East for years, appalled at what is happening, surprised and distressed … that it is not more widely known.” “It was Martin Luther King who said, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ That is why I felt I could not be silent today.”

Yet... so many Western Christians are silent.

In January, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) penned a letter to 300 Catholic and Protestant leaders complaining about their lack of engagement. “Can you, as a leader in the church, help?” he wrote. “Are you pained by these accounts of persecution? Will you use your sphere of influence to raise the profile of this issue — be it through a sermon, writing or media interview?”

There have been far too few takers.

Wolf and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) sponsored legislation last year to create a special envoy at the State Department to advocate for religious minorities in the Middle East and South-Central Asia. It passed in the House overwhelmingly, but died in the Senate.

(Imagine the difference an outcry from constituents might have made.)

The legislation was reintroduced in January and again passed the House easily. It now sits in the Senate. According to the office of Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the sponsor of the bill there, there is no date set for it to be taken up.

Wolf has complained loudly of the State Department’s lack of attention to religious persecution, but is anybody listening? When American leaders meet with the Saudi government, where is the public outcry demanding they confront the Saudis for fomenting hatred of Christians, Jews, and even Muslim minorities through their propagandistic tracts and textbooks? In the debate on Syria, why has the fate of Christians and other religious minorities been almost completely ignored?

In his letter challenging U.S. religious leaders, Wolf quoted Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed for his efforts in the Nazi resistance: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

That pretty well sums it up.

September 27, 2013 at 11:40 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/seiu-unionists-strike-over-obamacare-related-cuts/article/2536458

Members of the Chicago-based Service Employees International Union Local 1 have gone on strike over recent job cuts by a janitorial company called Professional Maintenance.

The reason for the cuts?

The employer says it is because of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

This is ironic since SEIU is a major supporter of the law.

At the AFL-CIO's convention in Los Angeles earlier this month, Loretta Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, said... "We are seeing employer after employer cut hours so as to avoid the 30-hour definition of a full-time job," Johnson said.

(The AFL-CIO passed a resolution demanding either Congress or Obama fix the law to stop it from hurting union members.)

SEIU enthusiastically backed ObamaCare when it passed and remains a booster of the law today.

* THE SEIU BIG SHOTS AT LEAST! NOT SO SURE ABOUT THE SEIU NEWLY UNEMPLOYED OR UNDEREMPLOYED...

(*SHRUG*)

Earlier this month, SEIU announced that it was sending nurses, doctors and other health care professionals out to promote the law in 30 cities over the coming months.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

September 27, 2013 at 11:50 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/second-clinton-aide-got-special-status-at-state-97474.html

A longtime adviser and confidante of Hillary Clinton had “special government status” while the former Secretary of State was at Foggy Bottom, allowing her to work on a targeted project about women’s issues while she maintained her own business, officials told POLITICO.

* THAT'S OUR FRIGGIN' MONEY, PEOPLE! ANOTHER HIGHLY PAID CIVIL SERVANT WHO IN ACTUALITY WAS A CLINTON SERVANT! HOW CAN THIS EVEN BE LEGAL?! SURELY THIS IS MISUSING GOVERNMENT RESOURCES THE SAME AS IF HILLARY SENT THE STATE DEPARTMENT CLEANING CREW TO CLEAN HER WASHINGTON TOWNHOUSE!

Maggie Williams, who has been in Hillary Clinton’s orbit for years and who took over her campaign after a shakeup in the 2008 presidential race, was granted “SGE status” to work with the Global Women’s Issues office, officials said.

“Maggie Williams joined the State Department in May 2011 to develop an actionable plan combining communication, policy development and implementation and other dynamic tools and strategies to focus public attention on issues threatening the lives of women and girls,” said a State Department official. “She stayed on to help implement that ambitious plan.”

* WHILE MAINTAINING HER OWN BUSINESS...???

The subject of SGE status during Clinton’s tenure has gained attention since POLITICO first reported that Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, had received the status after working as the Secretary’s deputy chief-of-staff. It allowed the New York City-based Abedin, post-maternity leave with her son with Anthony Weiner, to consult for outside clients and simultaneously work at State.

* THESE CLINTONS ARE AS CROOKED AS THE DAY IS LONG! (OR AS THE NIGHT IS LONG HERE IN NEW YORK IN THE WINTER!)

Another official familiar with SGE workers said it is often granted to attract people to government work who might otherwise take a pass. Williams, the source suggested, fell into that category. Clinton’s State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, retained a role at State as an “SGE” after departing full-time work because of her involvement with Haiti relief (Officials say Mills' SGE status since leaving State is completely uncompensated).

* EXCEPT FOR THE PERKS! (JUST IMAGINE THE PERKS OF HER POSITION!)

The current number of SGEs at State is about 100 people, said one source familiar with the matter, adding that across federal government agencies there are many thousands.

* GEEZUS...

In the case of Williams, who’s worked with the Children’s Defense Fund and who has a master’s degree from the Annenberg School for Communication, she had never worked full-time at State, and the department essentially became a client of hers for a specific project on moving “women and girls into the consciousness of key audiences,” said one soure.

* YOU'VE... GOTTA... BE... FRIGGIN'... KIDDING... ME...!!!

The initiative involved interviewing roughly two dozen people, including officials in the department, and then putting it into effect. “It was confined, it was focused, it was around a particular expertise” that Williams had, the source said.

* WTF DOES ANY OF THAT MEAN...?!?!

Williams’ SGE status was renewed in about July 2012, one source said, but she stopped submitting time sheets in January, around the time Clinton stepped down from State.

(*SNORT*)

September 27, 2013 at 7:37 PM

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