http://newmediajournal.us/ NewMediaJournal en-us contact@newmediajournal.us Copyright 2011 webZine 2012-02-10T11:00:06+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4518 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4518#When:10:59:49Z Without former Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, President Barack Obama wouldn’t have gotten his healthcare overhaul in 2010 passed through Congress. But Stupak, a pro-life Catholic who voted for the healthcare reform after being promised that federal dollars wouldn’t fund abortions, now isn’t happy with Obama. Appearing Wednesday night on FOX News, Stupak made clear he opposes the Obama administration’s insistence that religious-affiliated organizations are not exempted from the law’s requirement that health insurance plans cover contraceptives. “I’m disappointed that the administration would put forth such a rule,” Stupak told host Greta Van Susteren. The law does allow churches that oppose contraception for religious reasons to be exempt from the law. Culture Wars 2012-02-10T10:59:49+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4520 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4520#When:10:58:14Z House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (P-CA) might have run afoul of congressional ethics rules at a Capitol press conference on Thursday when she made a statement that could be construed as a solicitation for campaign contributions. The Democrat leader was holding a briefing to promote a campaign finance disclosure bill when she said she was “asking people to contribute to us, if they want to elect more reformers to Congress.” House ethics rules prohibit members of Congress from soliciting campaign donations in House office buildings, including the Capitol Visitor Center, where Pelosi was speaking. A section of the US criminal code also prohibits fund-raising in federal buildings. A Pelosi spokesman said her statement was describing her pitch to supporters, and was not an actual solicitation for donations. Government and Politics 2012-02-10T10:58:14+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4517 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4517#When:10:57:27Z Lawmakers led by congressional Republicans are pushing a proposal that would halt what amounts to an IRS-administered entitlement that provides "free-funds" to low-income illegal immigrant filers who take advantage of a child tax credit to receive government payments that average about $1,800. The proposal would require people filing tax returns to prove they're legal workers. The effort has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democrat lawmakers. But it's being offered as a way to help pay for extending the payroll tax cut and is projected to trim federal spending by about $10 billion over a decade. The IRS checks average about $1,800. The debate addresses a quirk in US law. Illegal immigrants have been barred from other cash-paying tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit for lower-income workers. Government and Politics 2012-02-10T10:57:27+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4522 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4522#When:10:56:25Z Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don't qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone. Last summer, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story shed some light on a government program that relatively few Americans knew existed. The Lifeline program provides low-income Americans with free cell phones and covers up to 250 free minutes each month. National and Local 2012-02-10T10:56:25+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4519 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4519#When:10:55:43Z US missiles on Thursday killed the most senior Pakistani in al Qaeda, one of the Americans' main targets in the country and wanted for attacks that killed scores of people, officials said. Badar Mansoor, who reputedly sent fighters to Afghanistan and ran a training camp in North Waziristan, was killed in a drone strike near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials and a member of his group told AFP. His death was confirmed by one of his loyalists and intelligence officials in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said Mansoor had been killed. Four militants were reported killed in the pre-dawn drone strike, which targeted a compound in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan. It was only the second such attack in Pakistan since US President Barack Obama confirmed the secret drone program late last month. Islamist Terrorism 2012-02-10T10:55:43+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4516 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4516#When:10:54:32Z The head of Iran's elite Quds force is reportedly visiting Syria to advise the regime on repressing protests and the armed resistance, as consternation grew in Western capitals on Thursday about Iranian and Russian meddling in the crisis. Members of the opposition Syrian National Council said they had reliable intelligence that Qassem Suleimani was intimately involved with President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling coterie. "It is his second visit at least," said Radwan Ziahdeh, an executive member of the council. "The Quds force is working mainly with training, helping militias and snipers." The Quds, or Jerusalem, brigade, is a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for external relations that reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Islamist Terrorism 2012-02-10T10:54:32+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4515 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4515#When:10:53:44Z A former US Marine sentenced to death in Iran for allegedly spying for the CIA could be saved if the Obama administration would consider a prisoner swap, his Iranian attorney said. Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, who was sentenced in January to be hanged, could face execution immediately after an appeals court has reviewed his sentence, said lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghassi. The court’s decision was expected Jan. 25. Aghassi stressed that it was essential for the Obama administration to do anything within its means to reach out to Iran -- including offering a possible prisoner exchange -- to save Hekmati, a US citizen of Iranian descent. Iran has repeatedly asked for the release of an Iranian American sentenced for involvement in an attempt to export night-vision equipment to Iran. International 2012-02-10T10:53:44+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4514 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4514#When:10:52:18Z Russia says a new radar will begin operating this month near St. Petersburg as part of the country's missile early-warning system. The Voronezh-class radar comes as Russia overhauls its missile defenses in part because of what state-run news service RIA Novosti calls "new strategic challenges" posed by the U.S.-led missile shield plans in Europe. The Voronezh-class radars are more advanced than previous Dnepr- and Daryal-class radars. The radar in the St. Petersburg area was built in 2006 and had operated on a test basis until recently, said Col. Alexei Zolotukhin, spokesman for the missile defense troops in the Russian Defense Ministry. Two other Voronezh-class radars are operating in a test mode in Armavir in the Black Sea area and in Pionersky near Kaliningrad. International 2012-02-10T10:52:18+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4504 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4504#When:11:00:07Z A congressional committee on Wednesday took up what it calls an issue of economic freedom -- one that pits unions against a number of governors and even some fellow workers. The issue is simple: should workers, in private industry or government, have union dues automatically subtracted from their salaries -- whether they like it or not? And voluntary or not, how much power should they have to keep the unions from spending their money on political campaigns they don't agree with? Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman of the committee, said this is not an anti-union issue -- but rather one of workers' rights. "Do workers and unionized organizations have a right to know more than they currently know?" he asked. "What it's being used for, and whether in fact it has to be taken from them." The Fifth Column 2012-02-09T11:00:07+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4503 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4503#When:10:59:28Z In-home healthcare workers in Connecticut, like their counterparts in Michigan, may see so-called union dues deducted from paychecks they receive through a state subsidy for the poor, but two free market groups are trying to stop it. The SEIU is trying to unionize in-home healthcare workers, based on the theory that they qualify as public employees because the money paid to them is subsidized by the state. "The only notice home healthcare workers receive concerning a union election is a nondescript mailing asking them if they wish to join the union," says the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The SEIU achieved this goal in Michigan, with the result that even low-income families who receive a Medicaid subsidy to take care of their adult, disabled children are losing $30 a month to the union. The Fifth Column 2012-02-09T10:59:28+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4509 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4509#When:21:50:52Z Unless you are an inside-the-beltway campaign consultant or you have been living an oblivious life, you most likely stand with the rest of the American electorate in being increasingly disgusted with the negative tone that the Republican candidates for President have employed over the last few months. The opportunity for the GOP candidates to coalesce behind a common goal – the “de-transformation of the United States of America” – is slowly passing. The opportunity for them to embrace a teachable moment so as to explain, in layman’s terms, why the country has suffered under the current administration’s policies, and why their proposed platforms bring relief to individuals and business owners across the political ideological divide, is slowly fading into the history books as “what could have been.” It doesn’t have to be this way, but, then, the proprietary minions of the inside-the-beltway GOP establishment don’t much care for the notions of we “fly-over” types. They know all about campaign strategy. Just ask them. Editorials 2012-02-09T21:50:52+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/3800 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/3800#When:11:56:02Z Those hoping Press [1] for English is a piece on immigration or English as an official language may find themselves disappointed, however, the title of this article accurately portrays the subject matter contained within. That said...This morning, I waited on hold for about 20 minutes listening to a computer generated monotone Muzak version of Beethoven’s Fur Elise while in queue to speak with a live person at a bureaucratic agency. The entire time I was forced to endure this sound -- a noise which was intended to pass for music -- the audio loop was intermittently broken by a voice recording stating that callers could choose to conduct their business on the agency’s Internet site or to continue holding. Of course, if I could have accomplished my business that way, I would not have continued to wait. This experience is not unique to me and readers of this commentary can probably cite many instances of computer generated assistance which they found completely impersonal and annoying. I know of very few people who enjoy responding to a series of screening questions designed to determine how best to direct a call. Editorials 2011-12-09T11:56:02+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4513 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4513#When:10:00:10Z In this critically important election, therefore, the first demand made of conservatives is that they courageously, meticulously, and effectively maintain a focus on principles. To shed light on the profound nature of what is at stake regarding those principles, one could offer up a lengthy commentary about grave problems liberal ideologues have created over decades (at times with help from false and lying Republicans) and which Chicago Machine liberal Obama has mightily aggravated. But a long commentary is not necessary, for the only thing that needs to be said about the country's desperate need for Emerson's "triumph of principles" in the coming election is this: If the laws enacted, policies instituted, appointments made, money spent, debt accumulated, and national vision set forth over the past three years by the most liberal, most divisive president ever to occupy the Oval Office don't convince conservatives of the profound responsibility they bear to lead a principled charge against a man and a party devoted to destroying the gift that is America of the Jeffersonian ideal, then that ideal is destined to continue on the path to its grave. Analysis 2012-02-10T10:00:10+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4510 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4510#When:09:59:16Z Three years ago, we elected for president, a man showing no loyalty to this nation. We had a congress with no concern for anything but their own lifestyle, their pension. For the first time in my life, lots of people rose up and voted differently in the interim election, and the Tea Party emerged promising to take charge and end the debt. Having achieved the remarkable; getting enough supposed conservatives in office at one time to stand firm on the debt, the masters of the rat farm managed to twist enough arms and bully that what should have been an open and shut door was left open with only a threat, and the words: “we really mean it this time.” With what has been tried, what has been done to blunt it and with our debt much greater than our GNP, logic would suggest those paying the bills, and seeing the cost put on themselves, it should be easy to see we taxpayers have to do something totally different than we have during the debt, something which un-does what was done. Analysis 2012-02-10T09:59:16+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4512 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4512#When:09:58:22Z This week's meeting between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal highlighted their common strategic goal, despite their bitter rivalry in recent years: The PLO's Phased Plan aimed at the establishment of a Palestinian state in all of what was Palestine within the Ottoman/British Mandate borders. Abbas (who is both the chairman of the PLO, established in 1964, and Fatah, established in 1959) told the U.N. General Assembly last year that the highest Palestinian authority was the PLO, and that the "occupation” began in 1948 and not in1967. On August 14, 2009, Mahmoud Abbas concluded the Sixth Convention of Fatah, which ratified its platform, calling for the continued struggle -- through peaceful and armed means -- to eradicate the Jewish state. Fatah's policy is founded on the claim of return for the1948 Arab refugees, self-determination, an independent state and the PLO's 10-point Phased Plan, formulated by the PLO's Palestinian National Council in June, 1974. Analysis 2012-02-10T09:58:22+00:00 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4511 http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/4511#When:09:57:21Z We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway -- an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm. The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries. Analysis 2012-02-10T09:57:21+00:00 http://www.newmediajournal.us/mobile/nmjradio.htm