Watchman Newsletter

Bernanke Blames Lawmakers for Economic Woes

Christian Post (Link) - Joseph Perkins (August 26, 2011)

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today that the weakened state of the U.S. economy is attributable, in large part, to the dysfunctional process by which the nation’s lawgivers make fiscal decisions.

“The quality of economic policy-making in the United States will heavily influence the nation’s long term prospects,” he told an audience of central bankers, economists and academics attending an economics conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., hosted annually by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

The Fed chief’s remarks were much anticipated by the financial communities here and abroad, which wondered whether Bernanke would offer a hint of a major new Fed initiative, as he did at last year’s conference.

But there was no such hint today, which signaled to conference attendees that there will be no third round of bond-buying by the Fed, which purchased more than $2.5 trillion in longer term securities during two previous rounds of “quantitative easing,” the most recent of which ended this past June.

Ahmadinejad: Iran is determined to eradicate Israel

Haaretz (Link) - DPA (August 25, 2011)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran was determined to eradicate Israel, ISNA news agency reported Thursday.

“Iran believes that whoever is for humanity should also be for eradicating the Zionist regime (Israel) as symbol of suppression and discrimination,” Ahmadinejad said in an interview with a Lebanese television network, carried by ISNA.

“Iran follows this issue (the eradication of Israel) with determination and decisiveness and will never ever withdraw from this standpoint and policy,” the Iranian president added in the interview with the Al-Manar network.

The remarks by Ahmadinejad came one day before the annual anti-Israeli rallies named Qods (Jerusalem) Day, which are held nationwide in Iran on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Ahmadinejad on Monday said that Iranians and Muslim nations worldwide should hold Qods rallies and show their willingness to dispose of this “infectious tumor and this regime full of rascality.”

The Iranian president provoked international condemnation in 2005 when he said that Israel should be eliminated from the map of the Middle East and transferred to Europe or North America. †

Steel On Steel Persecution Update

Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (August 24, 2011)

1. Christian Accused of ‘Blasphemy’ in Pakistan Granted Rare Bail

2. Many of Pakistan’s Christian Flood Victims Still Homeless

3. Motives for Church Burnings in Indonesia Questioned

4. Insurgent Blast Ravages Church Building in Iraq

5. Christians in Bangladesh Cleared of Charge of Offending Muslims

6. Mayor in Indonesia Again Balks at Granting Church Permit

7. Girl in Uganda Loses Use of Legs after Leaving Islam for Christ

8. Coptic Christian Killed in Attack on Village in Upper Egypt

Quake rocks Washington area, felt on East Coast

Yahoo! News (Link) - AP - Bob Lewis (August 23, 2011)

The most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years shook buildings and rattled nerves from South Carolina to Maine on Tuesday. Frightened office workers spilled into the streets in New York, and parts of the White House, Capitol and Pentagon were evacuated.

There were no immediate reports of deaths, but fire officials in Washington said there were at least some injuries.

The National Cathedral said its central tower and three of its four corner spires were damaged, but the White House said advisers had told President Barack Obama there were no reports of major damage to the nation’s infrastructure, including airports and nuclear facilities.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 5.8 and was centered 40 miles northwest of Richmond, VA.

Obama set to beat Bush debt-aggregation record

Hot Air (Link) - Ed Morrissey (August 23, 2011)

In 31 months of Barack Obama’s presidency, according to the Treasury and CBS News, the US has added $4 trillion to its national debt. That approaches the presidential record set by George W. Bush of $4.9 trillion, but there’s a catch to that. Bush set that record in two terms — in 96 months:

The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4 trillion on President Obama’s watch.

The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion.

It’s the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.

The national debt increased $4.9 trillion during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. The debt now is rising at a pace to surpass that amount during Mr. Obama’s four-year term.

Let’s cast this by month rather than by year. Bush added an average of $51 billion a month to the national debt. In his 31 months in office, Obama has added to the national debt at an average monthly rate of $129 billion. That is 152% more per month than Obama’s predecessor.

Why this is the moment Libya’s Islamic extremists have prayed for

Daily Mail (Link) - John R. Bradley (August 23, 2011)

As Tripoli fell to anti-Gaddafi rebel forces, the euphoria that erupted in some parts of the city was matched only by that which broke out among Middle East pundits in the West.

The fall of the Libyan capital represents a clear victory for freedom over tyranny, they tell us, and a new country — defined by an enthusiastic embrace of democracy, pluralism and representative government — will emerge.

However, we have been here twice before in the Middle East in recent months. First, when Tunisia’s strongman, Zine El-Abidene Ben Ali, fled Tunis, and then when Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak vacated the presidential palace in Cairo.

Seven months on, both countries are as authoritarian as ever. The Islamists have hijacked the popular uprisings there. And little evidence of a popular thirst for democracy can be found.

In Tunisia, a paltry 16 per cent of eligible voters had bothered to register before an initial deadline for doing so passed last month.

Israeli-Arab Crisis Approaching

Stratfor Global Intelligence (Link) - George Friedman (August 22, 2011)

In September, the U.N. General Assembly will vote on whether to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state with full rights in the United Nations. In many ways, this would appear to be a reasonable and logical step. Whatever the Palestinians once were, they are clearly a nation in the simplest and most important sense — namely, they think of themselves as a nation. Nations are created by historical circumstances, and those circumstances have given rise to a Palestinian nation. Under the principle of the United Nations and the theory of the right to national self-determination, which is the moral foundation of the modern theory of nationalism, a nation has a right to a state, and that state has a place in the family of nations. In this sense, the U.N. vote will be unexceptional.

However, when the United Nations votes on Palestinian statehood, it will intersect with other realities and other historical processes. First, it is one thing to declare a Palestinian state; it is quite another thing to create one. The Palestinians are deeply divided between two views of what the Palestinian nation ought to be, a division not easily overcome. Second, this vote will come at a time when two of Israel’s neighbors are coping with their own internal issues. Syria is in chaos, with an extended and significant resistance against the regime having emerged. Meanwhile, Egypt is struggling with internal tension over the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the future of the military junta that replaced him. Add to this the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the potential rise of Iranian power, and the potential recognition of a Palestinian state — while perfectly logical in an abstract sense — becomes an event that can force a regional crisis in the midst of ongoing regional crises. It thus is a vote that could have significant consequences.

Signs of the Times: Ezekiel’s Prophecies Set to Unfold?

CBN News (Link) - Chris Mitchell & Julie Stahl (August 22, 2011)

Last year, an international crisis exploded when Israel stopped a flotilla of ships from breaking its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The incident left Israel feeling more isolated, but some Jews saw the pages of scripture coming alive through the crisis.

When Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-owned flagship, Mavi Mamara, leading the flotilla, things quickly turned deadly. Pro-Palestinian activists attacked the soldiers, who then defended themselves. Nine activists died in the melee.

Israel acted to keep weapons out of Hamas-controlled Gaza, but that didn’t stop an international rush to judgment.

The U.N. Security Council condemned Israel and called for an investigation.

Sweden, Ireland and other nations planned boycotts against the Jewish state.

European ‘No-Go’ Zones for Non-Muslims Proliferating

Hudson New York (Link) - Soeren Kern (August 22, 2011)

Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of “no-go” areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.

Many of the “no-go” zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.

The “no-go” areas are the by-product of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged Muslim immigrants to create parallel societies and remain segregated rather than become integrated into their European host nations.

In Britain, for example, a Muslim group called Muslims Against the Crusades has launched a campaign to turn twelve British cities – including what it calls “Londonistan” – into independent Islamic states. The so-called Islamic Emirates would function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Islamic Sharia law and operate entirely outside British jurisprudence.

EU—Power to the President!

The Trumpet (Link) - Ron Fraser (August 22, 2011)

There’s a profound leadership gap in Europe.

At a time of increasing crisis, commentators are crying out for someone to step up and take the lead in stemming the spread of the euro crisis:

“Investors have little if any confidence in eurozone leaders’ ability to stick together in the face of mounting calamity …” (Wall Street Journal, August 9; emphasis added throughout). “Markets can adjust to a downgrade of global growth, but they cannot cope with a spiraling loss of confidence in leadership and a growing sense that policymakers are disconnected from reality” (Financial Times, August 8). “In a sane world, the German chancellor and the French president would sack their economic advisers who clearly lack an understanding of basic economics or national accounting principles” (EU Observer, August 17). “A poll released Friday indicates Germans know little about the current euro crisis—but are overwhelmingly opposed to the way it is being handled by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the two leaders spearheading efforts to solve the crisis” (Spiegel Online, August 19).

As the European Union fragments into what will ultimately comprise 10 leading nations, the rest enslaved politically—if not in the fullest sense of the word—to one centralizing power (Revelation 17), the leadership gap is becoming most glaring.

Henry Kissinger during the 1970s famously asked the question, “If I want to call Europe, who do I call?”

EU elites moved to begin solving that dilemma by creating the office of president of the European Council within the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution ratified in December 2009. Appointments to that presidency are for a period of 2½ years, renewable once. That position is currently held by Belgian Herman Van Rompuy. The European Council comprises all EU member nations’ heads of state. It sets strategy and direction for the European Union.

Syria mobilizing troops for conflict with U.S., NATO

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Aaron Klein (August 21, 2011)

Syrian President Bashar Assad is taking military measures to prepare for a possible U.S.-NATO campaign against his regime, WND has learned.

While Assad struck a conciliatory tone in an interview today with his state-run television network, he also instructed the Syrian military to be prepared for an air or ground campaign if the international community determines his pledges of reform are not enough.

Last week, WND first reported Turkey secretly passed a message to Damascus that if it does not implement major democratic reforms, NATO may attack Assad’s regime, according to Egyptian security officials.

The Egyptian security officials said the message was coordinated with NATO members, specifically with the U.S. and European Union.