FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Apparently, the federal government is reserving for itself the right to harass, grope and fondle the American flying public. The Screening Partnership Program, which allowed airports to hire private contractors who worked under TSA oversight rather than using Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners, is being stopped just a month after the TSA said its position on the program was "neutral." Last Friday, TSA chief John Pistole announced that he didn't see any advantage to the program and so will not expand it, although the 16 airports that currently use the program will be allowed to continue.




The "opt out" program started making headlines in December after the TSA sprung its strip search machines and "enhanced pat down" procedures, or "sexual assault" if done by anyone else, on an unsuspecting public. Rep. John Mica (R-FL) encouraged the opt-out program, saying private contractors are more responsive to the public than impossible-to-fire federal employees. At the time, the TSA didn't oppose the program, with a spokesman saying, "If airports choose this route, we are going to work with them to do it."



When told of the new TSA stance, Mica indicated he would launch an investigation, saying, "It's unimaginable that TSA would suspend the most successfully performing passenger screening program we've had over the last decade. The agency should concentrate on cutting some of the more than 3,700 administrative personnel in Washington who concocted this decision, and reduce the army of TSA employees that has ballooned to more than 62,000." No doubt preserving that bloated 62,000 number is one of the reasons the TSA made this move.



Senate Report on Fort Hood

"A new Senate report on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting blames the FBI and Department of Defense for failing to recognize or act on alleged shooter Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan's extremist views," ABC News reports. It took a Senate report to figure that out? The report said, "DOD possessed compelling evidence that Hasan embraced views so extreme that it should have disciplined him or discharged him from the military, but DOD failed to take action against him." Now, if Hasan had been associated with the Tea Party rather than Islamic jihad...



News of the Bizarre

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned an attack in Moscow on New Year's Eve and her night ended with a bang -- just not the one she expected. According to Russian authorities, the woman received an unexpected text message on her cell phone, which caused her suicide belt to detonate prematurely, killing her in the privacy of her safe house. No one else was injured. Around here, we call that a "self-solver." By the way, the text was a spam message from her phone service provider wishing her a Happy New Year.

FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Those who believe that justice wasn't quite served in the 2008 Black Panther voter intimidation case were right according to panelists sitting on the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights. A synopsis of their conclusions was released earlier this week, and the key finding was that the case was "meritorious on the law and the facts." Commission member Todd Gaziano notes, "Three eyewitnesses ... provided powerful and convincing testimony that the former defendants had engaged in intimidating conduct, and that voters had turned away from the polling place rather than walk within a billy-club swing of the entrance." Sounds pretty open-and-shut to us.




Other remarks by commissioners about the performance of the Department of Justice were nearly as damning, including the administration's reticence to enforce the purging of voter rolls as states are mandated by existing law. On the other hand, Democrat appointees to the civil rights body excused the department's actions, blind to the impact it could have on future elections. With the prospect of Republican oversight, at least in the House of Representatives, flouting the law by selective prosecution may become vastly more difficult.



Unfortunately, justice delayed is truly justice denied in this case. A voter intimidated on Election Day doesn't get a second chance to cast a ballot. Of course, holding on to power by any means possible will certainly be the objective of Obama and his allies next year.





National SecurityWarfront With Jihadistan: Egyptian Uprising

It has been an extraordinary few weeks in the Middle East, to put it mildly. First, following riots by protesters demanding "freedom," Tunisia's President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali was forced to flee the country after 23 years in power. Two weeks later came the biggest bombshell, as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets, demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt under "emergency" law since 1981.



The hated Egyptian security forces showed up to quash the protesters but were themselves brushed aside by crowds that wouldn't back down. Next came the Egyptian Army, which had it in its power to gun down as many protesters as needed to restore order, but chose instead to do nothing. After arriving at key locations around Cairo, the Army made no attempt to suppress the protesters, even mingling with them for pictures and joyous conversation in some places. Finally, thousands of Yemenis openly protested their repressive government, demanding the ouster of 30-year President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his notoriously corrupt regime.



Why, after so many years suffering under the iron fist of their rulers, have these Arab populations finally had enough? Why were Iranians willing to take on the regime's security forces in 2009, following yet another rigged election, when so many previous rigged elections had gone by with hardly a notice?



There are doubtless different reasons for each nation that has recently experienced a popular uprising, but one common factor has had some influence on each of them: that of watching Iraqis slowly but resolutely building a truly democratic nation for themselves. Arabs in the region no doubt began to ask why they should live under tyranny when their neighbors in Iraq are free. Iranian Shia began to ask why they should live under a medieval clerical regime when their Iraqi Shia neighbors are free. Persians and Arabs, Sunni and Shia, all are human beings who share the same desire for liberty, and Iraq is proving that such a life is possible even where repressive tyranny has been the norm for generations. Contrary to the thinking of those on the Left, might there have been something to the Middle East "domino principle" that George W. Bush and his administration put forth in the run-up to the Iraq War?



This is not to say that the outcome in Egypt or Tunisia is sure to be a good democratic government. Palestinians were allowed free elections and chose Hamas, a Muslim mafia more devoted to destroying Israel than to building a Palestinian state. In Egypt, along with the usual entrenched interests and cronies in any dictatorship, there is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood of which Hamas is an offshoot. While Egypt's security services have succeeded in largely driving the Brotherhood underground, it is still a powerful force there, and, like Hamas, it's more interested in killing Israelis than in raising Egyptians. If allowed to hijack Egypt's transition from Mubarak to a new government, another Arab-Israeli war could follow. Celebrate the imminent ouster of a dictator in Egypt -- but be very attentive to what comes next.

FROM THE PATRIOT POST

The Foundation


"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." --Thomas Jefferson



Government & PoliticsA Major Victory Against ObamaCare

ObamaCare ruled unconstitutionalIf you watch only the network evening news, you might not have heard that on Monday, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled the obvious: ObamaCare violates the Constitution. Twenty-six states had filed suit over the law, specifically arguing that the mandate that individuals purchase health insurance violates the Constitution by granting Congress too much power under the Commerce Clause. Vinson, a Reagan appointee, agreed and struck down the entire law.



"Never before has Congress required everyone buy a product from a private company (essentially for life) just for being alive and residing in the United States," wrote Judge Vinson. "It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. ... Surely this is not what the Founding Fathers could have intended."



There is little doubt the Founders purposefully denied the Legislative Branch such broad powers, but leftists have long asserted that Congress can do whatever a majority votes to do. When asked about the constitutionality of ObamaCare, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) snorted, "Are you serious? Are you serious?" She is now the minority leader.



Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) was similarly smug when congressional power was questioned, explaining, "I think that there are very few constitutional limits that would prevent the federal government from rules that could affect your private life." He continued, "The federal government, uh, yes, can do most anything in this country."



Judge Vinson's ruling was a strong rebuke to such thinking. Notably, he struck down the law in its entirety because the individual mandate didn't include a severability clause, which would have allowed the removal of the provision while leaving the rest of the law intact. Even the Obama administration argued that the individual mandate is so integral to the legislation that the law would be impotent without it.



Vinson wrote, "Regardless of how laudable its attempts may have been to accomplish these goals [of universal health care] in passing the [Affordable Care] Act, Congress must operate within the bounds established by the Constitution." He added, "[T]his case is not about whether the Act is wise or unwise legislation, or whether it will solve or exacerbate the myriad problems in our health care system. In fact, it is not really about our health care system at all. It is principally about our federalist system, and it raises very important issues regarding the constitutional role of the federal government."



As Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, observed, "This case could define federalism for the next 100 years. If the Obama administration prevails in its view, it's hard to see what's left of federalism."



Typical of its disdain for Rule of Law, an administration official called the originalist ruling "odd and unconventional," and the White House promised to continue implementation of the law, despite its being ruled unconstitutional. Several states aren't waiting around, however. Many are ceasing efforts to comply with the mandates and regulations of the law. Virginia is asking the Supreme Court to expedite its hearings on the law.



In Congress, Senate Republicans tried but failed in a vote for full repeal, 47-51. They did succeed, however, in once again putting all Senate Democrats on record as supporting ObamaCare, a status that will no doubt plague many of those who are up for re-election in 2012. In addition, Senate Republicans succeeded, 81-17, in repealing the onerous requirement that businesses file 1099s for goods purchased from vendors that total $600 or more in a year. That mandate would have been a back-breaker for small businesses. Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also introduced legislation allowing states to opt out of any part of ObamaCare.



At the risk of "inciting violence" with fighting metaphors, we hope the continued onslaught against ObamaCare continues to see success, and that this battle to preserve Essential Liberty will eventually be won.

Dear Friend of Liberty,



I hope you join me in my firm conviction that now is the time to fight back against the out of control Federal Reserve and continued Wall Street plundering of our tax dollars.



The threat isn’t hard to see -- just look all around us. Our constitutional principles and freedoms are being assaulted at every turn. More bailouts, trillion dollar “stimulus” plans, huge new debt burdens for our children, simply printing money to cover our failed policies -- I could go on and on. You and I both know that President Obama is going to keep going and going unless someone puts a stop to the madness.



But the good news is there is a way to fight back. And that fight starts today -- by “Auditing the Fed” and showing the American people just how the Fed has abused its power, debauched the dollar, and helped strangle our economy.



Because I know you are a friend in Liberty, I wanted you to be among the first people contacted by Campaign for Liberty for the vital fight against the out of control Federal Reserve.



Please read the enclosed letter from my friend and Campaign for Liberty’s President, John Tate. John isn’t just a friend of mine. He’s also a patriot with years of experience getting things done in politics. Now he’s agreed to take up the fight in a way I cannot -- by leading the fight for Liberty on the outside, while I do battle in the halls of Congress.



I trust you’ll find this battle to expose the out of control Fed worth your support.



For Liberty,



Congressman Ron Paul









Dear Friend of Liberty,



The American people have spoken. In one fell swoop, they have sent packing scores of politicians who carried the water for the Fed's "pump priming."



Trillions of Dollars were printed, and no one has any idea where they went.



But the election was just the first step towards you and me putting a stop to it all.



With your help (including submitting the petition linked below to your Congressman and Senators) today, Representative Ron Paul, Senator Jim DeMint and Campaign for Liberty are ready to fight back, by taking the battle straight to the heart of the problem – by forcing a 100% public audit of the Federal Reserve itself.



The massive, outrageous amount of dollars committed to the economic bailouts totals:



More than the socialist New Deal ... More than the entire Iraq War ... More than the 1980’s savings and loan mess ... More than the Korean War ...



COMBINED.



When will it all end?



It’s time you and I put a stop to the out of control Federal Reserve. And Ron Paul's Audit the Fed Bill will do just that.



The election results have the politicians in Washington running scared! They saw their colleagues sent packing and the survivors don't want to be next.



Now is the time to turn up the heat on all members of Congress to support Audit the Fed. That’s why it’s vital you click here to submit your “Audit the Fed” petition in support of Congressman Paul’s bill.









If you and I don’t act today, I’m afraid this crisis will end with the economic ruin of every man, woman and child in America.



Today, nearly 13 TRILLION in taxpayer dollars in bailouts and loans has been agreed to by Congress, the Bush and Obama Treasury Departments, and the out of control Fed.



So is it really any wonder more and more folks are starting to realize the Washington, D.C. establishment is hurtling us toward complete economic disaster?



Whether it’s watching a phony “stimulus” package get rammed into law or watching Congress pass a $700 BILLION bank “bailout” under threat of martial law, the American people are agitated and increasingly angry.



That means it’s a perfect time to unleash the pressure of MILLIONS of outraged Americans on the out of control Fed!



So please click here to sign the petition linked below urging your Congressman and Senators to cosponsor and seek roll call votes to pass the Audit the Fed Bill!









As I know you’re aware, the Federal Reserve is shrouded in secrecy. Their meetings are off-limits to the public. Their inner workings are off-limits to the public.



And just recently, the Federal Reserve announced they are purchasing $600 billion in government bonds to pump even more "stimulus" into the economy!



$600 billion in money that does not exist, to buy bonds for spending we cannot afford.



It's more vital than ever we know what they are up to and who they are funneling money to.



They know coming clean with Congress and the American people on how they doled out that two TRILLION dollars would result in an anti-Fed firestorm.



So can you imagine the impact of a full-scale audit? You and I will finally be able to show the American people that the Federal Reserve System leads to:

*** Constant economic crises -- the housing crisis and the resulting chaos is just one example of an economic bubble created by centrally-planned interest rates and money manipulation;



*** The destruction of the middle class -- as fuel, food, housing, medical care and education costs soar, everyone who is NOT on the government dole is forced to make do with less as the value of their money slowly decreases;



*** Currency destruction -- history shows us that riots, violence and full-scale police states can result when people finally realize our money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and REFUSE to accept it.

And unless you and I do end the madness in Washington, D.C., we may be closer than we’d like to think to learning that history lesson firsthand -- right here in our own streets.



That’s why your commitment to helping pass the Audit the Fed Bill –- and helping Campaign for Liberty fight this battle -- is so vital.









Just a few months ago, there was no chance of passing any legislation like the Audit the Fed Bill. So I guess there has been one “CHANGE.”



The American public was fed up with bailouts and "stimulus" and an out of control fed and fired politicians who backed the fed's economy-wrecking policies.



They are demanding Congress audit the Federal Reserve to account for the trillions stolen from the U.S. taxpayers?



It's up to you and to hold the politicians feet to the fire and send a clear message that anyone who does not support auditing the Fed will be out of a job -- in fact, 39 opponents of Audit the Fed were defeated in November.



You and I must be ready to fight.



And, it's both a bill we CAN pass Audit the Fed, and it's vital we expose the massive corruption and dollar manipulation at the Federal Reserve.



You see, after regulating, taxing, spending, borrowing and printing us into what is the worst recession in decades, establishment politicians and power brokers are assuring us they’re working hard to “fix” our economic woes. What is their solution? You guessed it. More of the same!



If you thought this november was a "shellacking," imagine what the next election will be like when you and I tell the American people their Congressman ignored their demands for accountability for the Fed ruining our economy?









Now we just need to show the new Congress the American people haven't let their guard down and that they demand action on the Audit the Fed Bill. Here’s how we plan to do that.



First, we’re already busy contacting up to five million activists nationwide through mail, phones and email to generate petitions to the U.S. Congress demanding action on Ron Paul's Audit the Fed Bill.



But that’s just the beginning. We’ll work the talk radio stations and grant local media interviews to ratchet up the pressure even further on Congress.



And a few days before the vote, if we have the resources, we’d also like to run hard-hitting targeted radio, TV and newspaper ads.



This entire program is designed to send this one, CLEAR message to Congress: Any politician who votes against the Federal Reserve Audit should look for another job.



But such a massive effort won’t be easy -- or cheap.



So in addition to submitting your petition, I also hope you’ll agree to chip in a contribution of $10, $25 or even $50 to Campaign for Liberty.



Every dollar will help, and every dollar will go to this vital fight.









I know times are hard, but if we don’t take action, the America we see in just a few years could look far worse than even the one we see today.



Can I count on you to join the fight to AUDIT THE FED by clicking here to sign the petition, and by chipping in a generous contribution of $10, $25, $50 -- or whatever you can afford -- to Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty?



Sincerely,



John F. Tate

President



P.S. Please submit the petition urging your Congressman and Senators to cosponsor and seek roll call votes on Rep. Ron Paul's Audit the Fed Bill TODAY!

What Liberals Don't Know About Guns, Chapter 217


Ann Coulter
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Sign-Up Fresh off of blaming Jared Loughner's killing spree in the Tucson mall on Sarah Palin, liberals are now blaming it on high-capacity magazines. They might as well imprison everyone named "Jared" to prevent a crime like this from ever happening again.



During the presidential campaign, Obama said: "I don't know of any self-respecting hunter that needs 19 rounds of anything. You don't shoot 19 rounds at a deer, and if you do, you shouldn't be hunting." It would have been more accurate for him to end that sentence after the word "hunter."



It's so adorable when people who wouldn't know a high-capacity magazine from Vanity Fair start telling gun owners what they should want and need.



In fact, high-capacity mags put a predator like Loughner at a disadvantage because they are so long, unwieldy and difficult to conceal. This may be why the Tucson shooting appears to be the first spree killing involving a high-capacity magazine. It would have been easier for Loughner to bring two guns.



On the other hand, for a homeowner who is a poor marksman, a large-capacity clip could be a lifesaver.



But after every multiple murder, liberals come up with some crackpot idea to "do something" that invariably involves infringing on some aspect of our Second Amendment rights.



The ACLU won't let us put nuts in mental hospitals and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik wouldn't lock up Loughner even after he had broken the law several times.



In an open society that includes Sheriff Dumbnik and the ACLU, deranged individuals may explode into murder and mayhem now and then. The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when these acts of carnage occur.



There's only one policy of any kind that has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry laws. In a comprehensive study of all public, multiple-shooting incidents in America between 1977 and 1999, the highly regarded economists John Lott and Bill Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any beneficial effect.



And the effect was not small. States that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.



When there are no armed citizens to stop mass murderers, the killers are able to shoot unabated, even pausing to reload their weapons, until they get bored and stop. Some stop only when their trigger fingers develop carpal tunnel syndrome.



Consider just the school shootings -- popular sites for mass murder because so many schools are "gun-free zones." Or, as mass murderers call them, "free-fire zones."



At Columbine High School, two students killed 12 people before ending the carnage themselves by committing suicide. They didn't need high-capacity magazines because they were able to stop and reload.



At the Amish school shooting in 2006 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the deranged killer murdered five little girls and then committed suicide.



In 1998, two students in Craighead County, Arkansas, killed five people, including four little girls, before the killers decided to stop and attempt an escape.



And in 2007, a deranged student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech -- 30 of them in a very short period of time in one building. He didn't need high-capacity magazines because he had two guns and reloaded.



There was no one to stop him.



School shootings that have been halted were almost always stopped by the happenstance of an armed citizen on school property.



In 2002, an immigrant in Virginia started shooting his classmates at the Appalachian Law School in Grundy. Two of his classmates retrieved guns from their cars, forcing the killer to drop his weapon and allowing a third classmate to tackle him.



Three dead.



In Santee, Calif., in 2001, when a student began shooting his classmates, the school activated its "safe school plan" -- as the principal later told CNN -- by sending a "trained campus supervisor" to stop the killer.



Possibly not realizing that he was in a gun-free zone, the killer responded by shooting the trained campus supervisor three times. Fortunately, an armed off-duty San Diego policeman happened to be bringing his daughter to school that day. With a gun, he stopped the killer and held him at bay until more police could arrive.



Two dead.



In 1997, a student at Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., had already shot several people at his high school and was headed for the junior high school when assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45 pistol from his car and pointed it at the gunman's head, ending the slaughter.



Two dead.



In 1998, a student attending a junior high school dance at a restaurant in Edinboro, Pa., started shooting, whereupon the restaurant owner pulled out his shotgun, chased the gunman from the restaurant and captured him for the police.



One dead.



See the pattern?



In response to Columbine, schools adopted "anti-bullying" policies; in response to Virginia Tech, eBay ceased selling magazines online; in response to the Tucson shooting, liberals want to ban the particular magazine Loughner used.



And then the next killer will come along with a different arsenal and a different motive, and the only way to stop him will be with an armed citizen with a gun.

FROM ISRAEL

Why did Obama legitimize terrorist rule of Egypt?


Thursday, February 03, 2011
Ryan Jones

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A few weeks ago, the Obama Administration very publicly warned against a Lebanese government controlled by the terrorist militia Hizballah. Whether or not Washington carries through on its threats now that Hizballah has in fact installed its man as prime minister remains to be seen.



But in Egypt, US President Barack Obama appears to be taking a totally contradictory approach. On Monday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs legitimized future control of Egypt by radical Islamists when he said the next government in Cairo will have to include “important non-secular actors.”



Of course, the only significant non-secular actor on the Egyptian stage is the Muslim Brotherhood, and it is not only “non-secular,” but is in effect the godfather of Middle East Islamic extremism.



Gibbs tried to qualify his remarks by stating that the US will want those future rulers of Egypt to reject violence and recognize democratic values, but few are still naive enough to believe Washington will stop treating with Cairo if the Brotherhood takes over and maintains its current goals.



The Muslim Brotherhood that the White House accepts as the possible future power broker in Cairo is the forerunner of groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and counts among its former members Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s second in command.



The group has previously vowed to annul the peace treaty with Israel if it ever came to power, and would be expected to severely curtail the freedoms of Egyptian Christians. The Muslim Brotherhood lists as one of its goals the total subjugation of the entire world to Islam and the establishment of an Islamic empire.

FROM PHPHECY WATCH

Is the world's largest super-volcano set to erupt, wiping out two-thirds of the U.S.?




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/





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The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004



It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980.



Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.



Two-thirds of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave their homes.



This is the nightmare that scientists are predicting could happen if the world’s largest super-volcano erupts, as it could do in the near future.



Yellowstone National Park’s caldera is believed to have has erupted three times in the past and researchers monitoring it say we could be in for another eruption.



They said that the super-volcano underneath the Wyoming park has been rising at a record rate since 2004 - its floor has gone up three inches per year for the last three years alone, the fastest rate since records began in 1923.



But hampered by a lack of data they have stopped short of an all-out warning and they are unable to put a date on when the next disaster might take place.



When the eruption finally happens it will dwarf the effect of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which erupted in April last year, causing travel chaos around the world.



The University of Utah's Bob Smith, an expert in Yellowstone's volcanism told National Geographic: ‘It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high.



But he added: ‘Once we saw the magma was at a depth of ten kilometres, we weren't so concerned.



‘If it had been at depths of two or three kilometre we'd have been a lot more concerned.’



Robert B. Smith, professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, who has led a recent study into the volcano, added: ‘Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock.



‘But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again’.



The Yellowstone Caldera is one of nature’s most awesome creations and sits atop North America’s largest volcanic field.



Its name means ‘cooking pot’ or ‘cauldron’ and it is formed when land collapses following a volcanic explosion.



In Yellowstone, some 400 miles beneath the Earth’s surface is a magma ‘hotspot’ which rises to 30 miles underground before spreading out over an area of 300 miles across.



Atop this, but still beneath the surface, sits the slumbering volcano.



Scientists monitoring it believe that a swelling magma reservoir six miles underground may be causing the recent uplifts.



They have also been keeping an eye on a ‘pancake-shaped blob’ of molten rock he size of Los Angeles which was pressed into the volcano some time ago.



But due the extreme conditions it has been hard to work out what exactly is going on down below, leading researchers unable to say with certainty what will happen - or when.



Since the most recent large blast there have been around 30 smaller eruptions.



They filled the caldera with ash and lava and made the flat landscape that draws thousands of tourists to Yellowstone National Park every year.



‘Clearly some deep source of magma feeds Yellowstone, and since Yellowstone has erupted in the recent geological past, we know that there is magma at shallower depths too,’ said Dan Dzurisin, a Yellowstone expert with the U.S. Geological Survey at Cascades Volcano Observatory in Washington State.



‘There has to be magma in the crust, or we wouldn't have all the hydrothermal activity that we have.



‘There is so much heat coming out of Yellowstone right now that if it wasn't being reheated by magma, the whole system would have gone stone cold since the time of the last eruption’

FROM PHOPECY NEWS WATCH

Seismic fault beneath us is ‘fully loaded’ after 311 years




http://heraldnet.com/





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As if you didn’t have enough worries, here is one more to add to that massive list:



“It’s been 300 years,” Bill Steele said Tuesday. “We have a fully loaded subduction zone.”



Actually, it’s been 311 years since the Great Cascadia Earthquake of 1700.



Steele, a University of Washington seismologist and spokesman for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, said scientists have determined the monster quake occurred Jan. 26, 1700 — 311 years ago tonight.



It happened off the Northwest coast, and created huge tsunamis that devastated shorelines here and in Japan.



What’s amazing is how much is known, considering that in 1700 there were no Europeans in the Northwest. British Capt. George Vancouver wouldn’t find his way here until 1792. The Lewis and Clark Expedition to the West didn’t start until 1804. Historians have no original account of the 1700 quake written from a Western perspective.



“There’s quite a detective story of how we know all that. It’s fantastic,” Steele said.



First, a quick explanation of what happened from the online encyclopedia HistoryLink:



“The earthquake ruptured what is known as the Cascadia subduction zone — the area of overlap between two of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s surface, the Juan de Fuca plate and the North American plate.” The 2003 HistoryLink essay by Greg Lange, citing scientists who studied the quake, said the event dropped the whole Pacific Northwest coastline 3 to 6 feet, and that the tsunami was as high as 33 feet.



Knowledge of all that comes from both recent science and long-ago legends and tales of American Indians. Ruth Ludwin, a former University of Washington geophysics professor, has studied and published evidence of the quake found in native lore, Steele said.



“There are a large number of Native American legends and tales of meadows reclaimed by the sea, of great shaking and landslides, and of whole villages wiped out with canoes found in the trees,” he said. “It may have killed tens of thousands of people, but there is no written record of that.”



Scientific evidence of the 1700 earthquake comes from Dr. Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey, Japan’s Kenji Satake and other researchers. Their work identifying “ghost forests” and an “orphan tsunami” is no less compelling than the Native legends.



“Brian Atwater uncovered a layer cake of soils,” Steele said. At Willapa Bay on the southwest Washington coast, he said, there are five layers where scientists see transitions from marshy tidal estuary to woody soil, indicating trees, all covered by layers of sand and bay mud.



The layers show places where land levels rapidly changed. And studies of the roots of trees in what Steele called “ghost forests” showed that trees died between the growing season of 1699 and before their sap would have come in 1700.



Steele said Kenji Satake, of the Geological Survey of Japan, found records of samurai lords, who kept track of rice harvests. Those detailed records, Steele said, showed that an “orphan tsunami” — a giant wave without any shaking in the area — hit the coast of Japan on Jan. 27, 1700. “It did kill a number of people in Japan,” Steele said.



By working with those records and wave speed, he said, scientists determined that the quake hit the Northwest coast about 9 p.m. Jan. 26, 1700.



“It’s quite a marvelous story, what happened and the impact. No one wrote about it in the West,” he said.



It’s fascinating, but frightening, too.



Steele said it takes hundreds of years to build up the strain that causes a subduction zone earthquake. “The toe of North America, the edge, is being shoved downward. It’s like bending a ruler back,” he said, adding that the 1700 quake was the last one known to have occurred on the Cascadia subduction zone.



Remember — it’s “fully loaded.”



“It could produce another one tomorrow, or maybe a century or more away,” Steele said. “Certainly geologically, in the not too distant future we’re going to have another one.”



Steele is all for being prepared — whether it’s keeping supplies on hand at home, making sure homes and public buildings are up to withstanding big quakes, or assuring that people who live on the coast have evacuation routes.



It takes money, and recognizing the risks.

FROM PHOHECY

Muslim Brotherhood: Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States




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The leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood warned Saturday that unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States.



Hammam Saeed's comments were made at a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman, inspired by massive rallies in neighboring Egypt demanding the downfall of the country's longtime president, Hosni Mubarak.



About 100 members of the fundamentalist group and activists from other leftist organizations and trade unions chanted "Mubarak, step down" and "the decision is made, the people's revolt will remain."



Elsewhere, a separate group of 300 protesters gathered in front of the office of Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai, demanding his ouster. "Rifai, it's time for you to go," chanted the group.



Jordan's protests have been relatively small in size, but they underline a rising tension with Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally who has been making promises of reform in recent days in an apparent attempt to quell domestic discontent over economic degradation and lack of political freedoms.



But as a monarch with deep support from the Bedouin-dominated military, Jordan's ruler is not seen as vulnerable as Mubarak or Tunisia's deposed leader. Even the Brotherhood - a fiery critic of Jordan's moderate government - has remained largely loyal to the king, who claims ancestry to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.



Many believe it's unlikely King Abdullah will bow to demands for popular election of the prime minister and Cabinet officials, traditionally appointed by the king.



Saeed said Arabs have grown disgruntled with U.S. domination of their oil wealth, military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for "totalitarian" leaders in the region.



"The Americans and (President Barack) Obama must be losing sleep over the popular revolt in Egypt," he said. "Now, Obama must understand that the people have woken up and are ready to unseat the tyrant leaders who remained in power because of U.S. backing."



Saeed did not specifically name King Abdullah. But he said Jordan's prime minister "must draw lessons from Tunisia and Egypt and must swiftly implement political reforms."



"We tell the Americans 'enough is enough'," he said.



Rifai has in the last two weeks announced a $550 million package of new subsidies for fuel and staple products like rice, sugar, livestock and liquefied gas used for heating and cooking. It includes a raise for civil servants and security personnel.



Still, Jordan's economy struggles, weighed down by a record deficit of $2 billion this year, rising inflation and rampant unemployment and poverty.

FROM ISRAEL TODAY

Egypt's next leader a 'stooge of Iran?'


Monday, January 31, 2011
Ryan Jones

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Egypt could soon go the way of Lebanon in becoming a satellite or close ally of Iran if the current street demonstrations succeed in toppling the government of President Hosni Mubarak.



Until now, the week-long protests have lacked a clear leader, someone to take over should Mubarak fall. But Mohammed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is busy setting himself up as just such a leader.



ElBaradei openly backed and took part in the demonstrations over the weekend, quickly earning him the support and admiration of most of the protestors.



ElBaradei is a clean-cut diplomat with extensive ties to the international community. But Malcom Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations warned everyone not to be fooled.



In an interview with Yeshiva World News, Hoenlein accused ElBaradei of being a “stooge of Iran.” Hoenlein noted that during his years as head of the IAEA, ElBaradei worked tirelessly to oppose Western sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. ElBaradei adopted and championed the Iranian line that its nuclear program was purely civilian in nature.



His successors later acknowledged that ElBaradei’s reports were not accurate.



The kind of leader ElBaradei would be was further revealed on Sunday when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the forerunner of the Palestinian Hamas, publicly endorsed him as the next president of Egypt.



Meanwhile, Egyptian protestors on Monday began to express great frustration over the lack of an international response to their uprising, especially from the US.



Many Egyptians noted that the Mubarak regime is deeply entrenched, and without the help of international pressure, they are unlikely to be able to dislodge it. They accused Washington of supporting a repressive dictator because doing so serves American interests in the region.