Shmuley Boteach
I waited my whole life to turn 40 because of the Talmud's promise of wisdom. I was tired of being a flawed man of promise, an imperfect composite of seriousness and some silliness, insight and ignorance. I wanted to live life in the illuminated spaces, immunized against folly and resistant to error. I waited for wisdom to cover me like a shield, to finally provide me with as much guidance in my own life as I tried to provide others in theirs.
Only, it didn't come. As I turn 41 next week, I look back at the year that passed and remain amazed (ashamed?) that so many of my inbred flaws remain so tightly fastened to me. Wisdom has not pried them loose.
What went wrong? If the pinnacle of wisdom is the discernment that life must be dedicated to a cause higher than oneself, than I have fallen short because I have not transcended a desire for recognition. To be sure, I devote my life to healing shattered hearts and mending broken spirits. But, as Harry Truman said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. " Alas, I ...   more »

By Jonathan Tobin
Who cares about a South African cleric's false charges? Maybe we all should!
Later this month, representatives of Israel's government are slated to attend a new peace summit at Annapolis, Md., sponsored by the Bush administration.
Desperate not to be seen as obstructing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's goal of creating a Palestinian state before her boss's term expires in January 2009, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has enthusiastically endorsed the conference. Given the fact that the history of Mideast "peace" summits shows that such conclaves are as likely to increase violence as they are to engender reconciliation, the stakes for Israel's future at Annapolis are enormous.
Placed in this dramatic context, can there be anything more inconsequential than arguments among American Jewish groups over the rights and wrongs of responding to Israel's foes?
POINTLESS FEUDING
On first glance, the answer to that question is a definite "no."
Last month, the Anti-Defamation League and the Zionist Organization of America engaged, for what only seems like the umpteenth time, in a tit-for-tat dust-up of duelling quotes between their respective leaders Abraham Foxman and Morton Klein. The focus of their dispute was whether or not it was a good idea ...   more »

The Palestinian negotiating team has rejected the option of referring to Israel as a Jewish state in the Annapolis Declaration. Jerusalem is worried that the Palestinians will renege on their commitment to fight terror after the conference.
A meeting between the two negotiating teams set for Sunday evening was cancelled when the lead Palestinian negotiator, Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) was delayed at a military checkpoint on his way to Jerusalem. It now appears that the groups will meet on Monday. (Roni Sofer)
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by (IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday that the planned Annapolis conference on the Middle East will be over in one day. The United States has not yet announced the date of the meeting, which media have reported will take place during the least week of November. He added that the meeting will provide the basis for further negotiations with international backing.
However, official invitations to Annapolis have not yet been sent out by American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is trying to marshal more support among Arab nations as well as working on framework on which both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel can agree.
Original Source
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Opposition leader arrives at Shas spiritual leader's Jerusalem home in bid to create united front against peace conference, warns him, 'Olmert government is giving away everything and getting terrorists in return.' Rabbi says some of his opinions similar to those presented by Netanyahu
Attila Somfalvi
The Olmert government is giving away everything and getting terrorists in return, opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday in a meeting with Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.  
Netanyahu arrived at the rabbi's home in Jerusalem along with Knesset Member Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) in a bid to boost the campaign against the upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace conference and create a united front alongside the Shas party.    
The opposition leader told Rabbi Yosef that the Annapolis conference was dangerous for Israel, adding that things were conducted in the same way before the 2000 Camp David summit.  
"They are giving away everything and getting nothing," Netanyahu explained.  
Rabbi Yosef settled for biblical discourse, gave his blessing to Netanyahu and said that he had discussed the issue with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He noted that some of his opinions were similar to those presented by Netanyahu, and said that Shas had ...   more »

By David R. Sands - Can the Law of the Sea restrain the race to the Pole?
An old-fashioned, flag-planting, claim-staking fight for the Arctic has broken out just as the Senate prepares for a difficult ratification vote on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty.
The North Pole knockdown, featuring the U.S., Russia and three other Arctic states, adds fresh fuel to the heated debate over a treaty that has languished in Congress for more than a decade.
"We are an Arctic nation because of Alaska," said Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who broke from fellow conservative Republicans to back the Law of the Sea treaty last month at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
"It's incredibly important to us to be sitting at the table with the Russians and others when the decisions about the Arctic are being made," she said.
Some 155 nations have ratified the treaty since it was signed in 1982. President Reagan refused to sign the pact, objecting to provisions for the international regulation of deep-sea mining. President Clinton sent an amended version of the treaty to the Senate in 1994, but it repeatedly has failed to win approval, most recently in ...   more »

By John Glover
 Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Losses from the falling value of subprime mortgage assets may reach $300 billion to $400 billion worldwide, Deutsche Bank AG analysts said.
Wall Street's largest banks and brokers will be forced to write down as much as $130 billion because of the slump in subprime-related debt, according to a report today by Mike Mayo, a New York-based analyst. The rest of the losses will come from smaller banks and investors in mortgage-related securities.
Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley led more than $40 billion of writedowns of assets as record U.S. foreclosures plundered asset prices. About $1.2 trillion of the $10 trillion of outstanding U.S. home loans are considered to be subprime, Mayo said in the note.
``We're not out of the woods yet,'' said Mondher Bettaieb- Loriot, who helps manage the equivalent of about $58 billion at Swisscanto Asset Management in Zurich. ``There are more losses to be taken and there's more negative news to come. At some point it will be a buying opportunity but we're not there yet.''
Deutsche Bank expects 30 percent to 40 percent of subprime debt to default. Losses on loans to people with ...   more »

Claire Keeton  
Exact copy: Dolly, the first cloned sheep. Picture: AP   
I’m surprised [human] cloning hasn’t happened. This is not science fiction   
There are maverick scientists who continue to experiment    
UN report calls for action to prevent human rights crisis
Unless the world bans human cloning it may be just a matter of time until we share the Earth with exact copies. This is according to a major UN policy analysis released this morning.
The report’s authors propose outlawing human reproductive cloning while allowing restricted therapeutic cloning as the most viable “compromise” option for the international community to adopt.
South Africa’s proposed regulations on cloning are in line with this compromise: permitting the use of human eggs to create stem cells for therapeutic and research purposes — but still prohibiting reproductive cloning.
Professor Jacquie Greenberg, the associate professor with the Human Genetics Research Group at UCT, says: “The guidelines are specifically for stem cell use which is what the debate pivots around.”
The Health Department is expected to finalise its regulations on therapeutic cloning, which are governed by the National Health Act, by the end of this year.
A deadlock over cloning at a UN General ...   more »

By PAMELA HESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering.
The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people's private e-mails and phone calls without a court order between 2001 and 2007.
Some lawmakers, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appear reluctant to grant immunity. Suits might be the only way to determine how ...   more »

by Chana (Jenny) Weisberg
The secret power of Jewish mothers: creating and nurturing life in the face of death.
Twelve years ago I spent a few months temping as a secretary at the Jewish National Fund. I was a college graduate with high hopes for a rewarding and high-powered career. But I was terrified that as a new immigrant to Israel who was still unsure of my Hebrew and the ins and outs of Israeli culture, that this four-month stint was a confirmation that I would spend the rest of my life at the bottom of the professional ladder.
I have never felt as humiliated in my whole life as I felt that summer. I thought over and over about how everyone was looking at me, and thinking that I was a secretary - that my potential and my intelligence were such that I had found my true calling in answering phone calls, photocopying, and editing inane form letters.
It did not help my mood that I was an extremely poor secretary, saving letters to wannabe tree-planters in Uruguay in random computer folders titled "XL2m7," totally overwhelmed by the modest list of tasks I had to complete, and growling, "I ...   more »

Emergency dig finds tower built by Bible's Nehemiah
Present-day wall of Jerusalem
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may want to see Israel wiped off the map and its Jews sent to Europe or Alaska, but an archaeological discovery announced this week marks an event recorded in the Bible when his country – Persia, at the time – literally helped put the Jewish people back on the map in their capital city of Jerusalem.
Dr. Eilat Mazar, one of Israel's top archaeologists, ended her presentation Wednesday to the 13th Annual Conference of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies on "New Studies on Jerusalem," with a surprise announcement. She had discovered remnants of the fifth century B.C. wall built by Nehemiah, the account recorded in the Old Testament book of the same name.
According to the biblical account, Nehemiah served as cupbearer for the Persian King Artaxerxes in the city of Susa. The Persians had conquered the Babylonian empire that had destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and taken most of the inhabitants of Judah into captivity in what is now modern Iraq.
The account reads:
In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, ...   more »

Should Syria make a terribly miscalculated strike such as this, all bets are off. Not only could the response from Israel be overwhelming and calamitous for Syria, other dominoes throughout the middle-east may begin to fall as a result.
The final outcome… It’’s probably not to much of a reach to suggest this could lead to a cataclysmic event involving many others including the United States and Iran.
The defensive missile shield around Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor was placed on red alert 30 times last week amid fears of an airstrike by Syria.
A battery of American-made Patriot antiaircraft missiles has been moved to Dimona in the Negev desert following intelligence that a strike may be launched in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of a suspected nuclear site in Syria two months ago.
In a highly unusual move, the officers in charge of the missiles were permitted to talk to Israeli state television about their preparations. “We’re ready to launch the missiles in seconds, once we’re on full alert,” said First Lieutenant Adi, a young female officer who is the deputy commander of the battery.
Tension with Damascus has heightened since September 6 when Israeli fighters destroyed the suspected nuclear installation ...   more »

By The Associated Press   
Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Israel poses no military threat to Iran, adding that any aggression on Israel's part would spark retaliation and accusing Israel of trying to sabotage relations between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The Zionist regime [Israel] is less than nothing to pose any kind of threat to Iran," ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters Sunday when questioned about recent comments on Tehran's nuclear program made by Israeli officials.
It was not clear what Israeli threat Hosseini was referring to, but his statement came as Iran continues to defy international demands that it suspends uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.  
The United States has said it is pursuing diplomatic angles with Tehran for now, but has not ruled out military action as a way to halt Iran's nuclear enrichment, claiming it is using it as cover for weapons development, a charge Iranians deny.
Israel has said it views Iran as a strong threat, but most analysts think any Israeli military operation is unlikely at this point Hosseini warned Israel not to consider military action. ...   more »

By Reuven Koret    
Iranian enrichment plant 
With no alternative but to fight fire with fire, the Israel Air Force is training for a tactical nuclear strike on Iranian nuclear production facilities. As hope fades for a diplomatic solution to Iran's development of enriched uranium for production of weapons with the primary purpose of destroying Israel, the IAF is practicing for a mission to destroy key Iranian facilities, at least one with low-yield nuclear munitions, the Times of London reported.
Citing "several Israeli sources," the Times said that two IAF squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using a combination of precision laser bombs and low-yield nuclear "bunker-busters". The Times report was supplemented by one from Fox News.
The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb, the Times said.
Under the plans, the report said, conventional laser-guided bombs would open shafts into the targets. Then the "mini-nukes" would then be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout. ...   more »

Israel and the United States have agreed to appoint two working committees in order to hone a joint strategy against Iran's nuclear ambitions, public radio reported on Friday.
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz headed discussions on the matter in the United States this week, it said.
One committee will deal with intelligence on Iran's nuclear drive and the other with international sanctions, the chief weapon in an effort to convince Tehran to halt uranium enrichment.
The next formal discussions between Israeli and US officials on Iran will be in two months in Israel, the radio station reported.
On Thursday, Mofaz called for Mohamed ElBaradei to be removed as head of UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying he had turned a blind eye to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Public radio quoted unnamed Israeli officials as saying the Mofaz delegation to Washington fed precise intelligence to the United States, alluding to satellite photographs.
Israel and the United States are leading the campaign against Iran's nuclear programme, believing it to be a cover to develop an atomic bomb.
Tehran insists its activities are aimed solely at producing electricity for a growing population once fossil fuels run out.
Israel considers Iran its ...   more »

JERUSALEM (AFP) — An Israeli deputy prime minister said on Saturday after a US visit that "all options are on the table" to halt Iran's nuclear drive , which Israel considers a threat to its existence.
"The strategy for now is one of sanctions, of a united front of nations in that context, and the strategy of declaring without any doubt that all options are on the table," Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told public radio.
Israel and the United States accuse Iran of pursuing atomic weapons under the guise of a peaceful nuclear energy programme, charges Tehran has repeatedly denied.
"I think like others that the option of using military force is the last resort," Mofaz said.
But "it's clear that the opportunity for a negotiated solution is diminishing if by the diplomatic path we should not succeed to stop the advancement of the Iranian nuclear programme," he added.
Israel and the United States agreed to appoint two working committees to hone a joint strategy against Iran's nuclear ambitions, public radio reported on Friday, following the talks which Mofaz held in Washington this week.
Israel -- the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power -- has been pressing the UN ...   more »

More than 100 police investigators raided government buildingsand private offices Sunday, searching for evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The probes — all related to actions that took place before Olmert became prime minister — have threatened to weaken the Israeli leader at a time of growing momentum in peace efforts with the Palestinians.
The early-morning raid targeted more than 20 locations, including the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Postal Authority and Jerusalem's City Hall, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.
"Police investigators are searching a number of government and private offices in connection with three ongoing investigations" into Olmert, Rosenfeld said.
Investigators were still collecting evidence on Sunday afternoon, and the search was expected to possibly continue into early evening, he said.
He said authorities were expected to confiscate documents and other materials. He gave no further details.
Officials in Olmert's office declined comment. In the past, the prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has dismissed the investigations as a political witch hunt.
In one case, Olmert is suspected of buying a luxurious Jerusalem home at a substantial discount from a developer in exchange for arranging construction permits for the builder. Olmert ...   more »

At the beginning of 2008 there will be another international conference similar to the one which will take place in Annapolis in the coming weeks, except with a focus on Syria and Israel, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan reported on Saturday.
The report also quotes Palestinian sources as saying that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas convinced US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of the importance of Syrian participation in the upcoming Mideast summit, and that she in turn convinced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The report went on to say that on Friday Abbas sent an envoy to Damascus to discuss the developments.
However, Israel Radio reported that Syrian officials insisted that they would only participate in the Annapolis conference if the issue of the Golan Heights was to be discussed. They added that they would not object to the Palestinian participation in the conference.
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GAZA CITY, 10 November 2007 — Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, said yesterday that it would take over the West Bank if Israel pulled out of the territory.
The comments by Mahmoud Al-Zahar contradicted remarks by Ismail Haniyeh, who serves as prime minister of a Hamas-led government dismissed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Haniyeh said earlier this week that Hamas had no intention of replicating its Gaza takeover in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where Abbas’ Fatah faction remains dominant.
“Israel says the party in Ramallah (Fatah) serves Israel, and if Israel quits the West Bank, Hamas will take it over. And we say this is true,” Zahar said at a rally for Hamas supporters in Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after routing forces loyal to the Western-backed Abbas. Israel and the United States are trying to bolster Abbas, who dismissed the Hamas-led government and formed his own Cabinet in the West Bank.
Israel declared the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip an “enemy entity” and closed its borders with the coastal territory, allowing only humanitarian aid to enter.
“We say to those in the West Bank take a lesson from what ...   more »

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Sunday Israel’s recent military exercises near the Lebanese border were intended to prepare for a new war on Lebanon.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah added that Hezbollah had recently held military maneuvers in southern Lebanon in response to the Israeli drills and to send a clear message’ to the Jewish state that his fighters were ready to defend Lebanon if it was attacked again.
The (Israeli) enemy has been conducting military maneuvers for months. The latest maneuvers occurred a few weeks ago near the Lebanese border in which 50,000 Israeli officers and soldiers participated,’ Nasrallah told a Hezbollah rally in south Beirut.
These maneuvers are to prepare for an attack on Lebanon,’ he said.
The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al Akhbar reported that thousands of unarmed Hezbollah fighters took part in the organization’s own maneuvers, which was later confirmed by a senior Hezbollah official who would not give further details.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora downplayed the event as just a simulation and UN peacekeeping force patrolling a zone along the border in southern Lebanon said no maneuvers were observed in their area of operations.
The newspaper said Nasrallah personally supervised the maneuvers, which ...   more »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - For the first time in 70 years, the US Supreme Court may decide next week whether to examine the question of the right to bear arms, something which is fiercely upheld by millions of Americans.  
The US capital of Washington, which is trying to stem a wave of violence in its seedier neighborhoods, has lodged a case with the nine Supreme Court judges seeking to maintain its three-decade ban on individuals carrying handguns.
The judges were due to have an initial discussion on Friday, and their decision on whether or not to examine the question could be announced as early as Tuesday.
The case goes right to the heart of the American constitution, which in its second amendment declares that: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
Washington, which is also home to the president and the government, has interpreted the amendment to mean that there is a collective right to bear arms for those who are part of a police force or a security force.
But since 1976, it has banned residents from carrying handguns, ...   more »

By MATTHEW HICKLEY
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
Uninvited guest: A Chinese Song Class submarine, like the one that sufaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a ...   more »

By Eric Gorski, Associated Press
Following last month's Values Voter Summit in Washington, conservative Christian power-broker Gary Bauer sent an e-mail to supporters.
He ticked off the issues dear to activists in attendance. Opposition to "abortion-on-demand" and preservation of traditional marriage led the way.
Then the one-time presidential hopeful turned his attention to a different threat, one social conservative leaders hope will shake their constituents from their apathy about the 2008 presidential race.
"The war against Islamofascism is in many respects a 'values issue,"' Bauer wrote. "That may seem like an odd statement at first glance, but, as I have often said, losing Western Civilization to this vicious enemy would be immoral."
From one perspective, branding "radical Islam" as a family values issue is yet another example of the broadening of the evangelical agenda. But next November, it also could energize one of the Republican Party's key voting blocs, much like anti-gay marriage measures did in 2004.
"It's the ultimate life issue," said Rick Scarborough, president of the Texas-based conservative Christian group Vision America. "If radical Islam succeeds in its ultimate goals, Christianity ceases to exist."
That might sound alarmist, but Scarborough's words illustrate how many conservative Christian leaders view ...   more »

WASHINGTON - U.S. defense officials have signaled that up-to-date attack plans are available if needed in the escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear aims, although no strike appears imminent.
The Army and Marine Corps are under enormous strain from years of heavy ground fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, the United States has ample air and naval power to strike Iran if President Bush decided to target nuclear sites or to retaliate for alleged Iranian meddling in neighboring Iraq.
Among the possible targets, in addition to nuclear installations like the centrifuge plant at Natanz: Iran's ballistic missile sites, Republican Guard bases, and naval warfare assets that Tehran could use in a retaliatory closure of the Straits of Hormuz, a vital artery for the flow of Gulf oil.
The Navy has an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf area with about 60 fighters and other aircraft that likely would feature prominently in a bombing campaign. And a contingent of about 2,200 Marines are on a standard deployment to the Gulf region aboard ships led by the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship. Air Force fighters and bombers are available elsewhere in the Gulf area, including a variety of warplanes in Iraq and ...   more »

Washington-based cleric working toward 'Islamic State of North America' by 2050
By Art Moore
Logo of D.C. imam's movement
A Washington, D.C., imam states explicitly on the website for his organization that he is part of a movement working toward replacement of the U.S. government with "the Islamic State of North America" by 2050.
With branches in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Philadelphia, the group As-Sabiqun – or the Vanguard – is under the leadership of Abdul Alim Musa in the nation's capital.
Musa's declaration of his intention to help lead a takeover of America was highlighted by noted Islam observer Robert Spencer on his website Jihad Watch.
Spencer told WND that figures such as Musa should not be ignored, "Not because they have the power to succeed, but because they may commit acts of violence to achieve their purpose."
Musa's website declares: "Those who engage in this great effort require a high level of commitment and determination. We are sending out a call to the believers: Join with us in this great struggle to change the world!"
Musa launched the group in the early 1990s at the Al-Islam mosque in Philadelphia. His group says it is influenced ...   more »

Venezuela's leader had called former Spanish prime minister a fascist
The Associated Press
updated 4:28 p.m. CT, Sat., Nov. 10, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile - The Ibero-American summit ended on an unusually heated note Saturday, when an angry verbal spat culminated with the king of Spain telling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up."
Chavez, the outspoken leftist leader who called President Bush "the devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."
Aznar, a conservative and a close Bush ally who backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech to leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."
Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.
"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.
Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was ...   more »

Texas congressman takes shots at the Federal Reserve during Chairman Bernanke's testimony.
 By Jeff Poor
     Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee on November 8, but had to face criticism from Republican presidential candidate and Texas congressman Ron Paul.
     Paul made accusations the Federal Reserve was stealing people’s money.
      “There is a dollar crisis out and people’s money being stolen,” Paul said. “People who have saved, they’re being robbed. I mean, if you have a devaluation of the dollar at 10 percent, people have been robbed of 10 percent.”
     Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke attempted to dispel the notion people were being “robbed” of their money by explaining the relativity of the dollar in a local economy.
     “If somebody has their wealth in dollars and they’re going to buy consumer goods in dollars, then as a typical American … then the decline in the dollar – the only effect it has on their buying power is that it makes imported goods more expensive,” Bernanke replied.
Original Source



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