[WAR: Well, since Edmund Stoiber is leaving, then I'm leaving! ... ;-) I'm flying out to Arizona today (sitting at the Albuqueque airport) and will be gone from 2-4 weeks. At this point, I don't know if I will be conducting the WAR or calling a temporary cease fire. There a number of factors at play, so I just won't know until I get out there. I may not have a good cell signal, but you can try reaching me at 214-734-3279.]
Here is a text published today by the Vatican of a message sent to Muslims by the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The message was sent on the occasion of the end of Ramadan.
Bavaria's conservative leader Edmund Stoiber won thunderous applause in his farewell speech on Friday for saying mosques were getting too big. Stoiber told Bavarians to be proud of their state and delegates cheered loudest when he homed in on Christian values. "When the mosques in our cities are bigger than cathedrals and churches, then we must tell our Muslim fellow citizens: 'No, that is going too far.' Church towers, not minarets, should be what you see when you look out across the state."
Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber likely imagined that his career would end differently. Instead of riding gracefully into the sunset, his road to the rocking chair has been paved with scandal, infighting and backbiting.
The ruling conservative Christian Social Union of Bavaria Saturday designated Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein to replace its retiring leader Edmund Stoiber as state premier. Beckstein received 96.6% of the vote from the delegates attending a 2-day congress in Munich. In a valedictory speech on Friday, Stoiber appealed to supporters to uphold his legacy by keeping Turkey out of the EU.
(DW: CSU picks new leader)
Balkan states bordering Serbia saw scant hope of a breakthrough in New York talks between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians on Friday and were bracing for a rough ride whatever the next move on the breakaway province. Whether independence is recognized or blocked, the risks are so serious either way that no neighboring government wants to speculate openly on how severe, long-lasting or widespread the repercussions might be.
Hundreds of passport photos, human hairs laid out in circle, an endless amount of requests to God, a prayer shawl, and an Israeli flag were found scattered at Solomon's Pillars in Timna National Park near Eilat Thursday night. Park officials speculated that a Christian group visited the site and, thinking it was a sacred site, preformed a head shaving ceremony, and left offerings to God.
Israel has already made a decision to attack Syria and was just mulling over where to land its first strike, Ahmad Jibril, leader of the PFLP claimed in an interview published Friday by Arabic newspaper Al Hadat. Jibril estimated that Israeli action, several weeks after an alleged IAF foray into Syria, would likely be a wide-scale operation, and would probably be answered with attacks by Iran, Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Palestinians of Syria. "I believe Israel has prepared all likely scenarios for war with Syria, but they are still considering where they will land the first strike, which will come very soon. They are weighing whether to attack on one front or on multiple fronts. There is an American Israeli plan, backed by silent agreement from the Arab world, to change the balance of power in the Middle East."
Finally the Imperial Senate calls for Iraq's partition. The proposal came from Senator Joseph Biden, who heads the chamber's foreign relations committee and is running for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination. A few months ago, Sen. Biden, interviewed by Shalom TV, an American mainstream Jewish cable television network, called Israel "the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East". "I am a Zionist," stated Senator Biden. "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
A basic rule of history is that the inevitable eventually happens. If you keep on smoking in the powder magazine, you will at some point blow it up. No one can predict the specific event or its timing, but everyone can see the trend and where it is leading.
On a trip to strengthen ties with leftists in Latin America and roll back U.S. influence, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has pledged to invest $1 billion in Bolivia and reaffirmed relations with the Venezuelan president with a declaration that "no one can defeat us."
The world's major powers will delay until November a decision on whether to impose tougher sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. The 5 permanent UN Security Council members and Germany said they would wait until they saw reports from the UN and EU before drafting a resolution.
A decision by major powers to delay sanctions against Iran will be welcomed by German politicians worried about their impact on Germany's vast trade ties with Tehran. Business helps keep alive dialogue, they say.
In a sign that UN Security Council-based diplomacy is losing steam, a number of sources are reporting that a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities may be imminent. Like most stories in the French paper, the article was based on unnamed sources who said that in order to reduce casualties, the attack against Iran is planned for October 15, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
[WAR: How 'bout that. As soon as I saw the headline, I was already going to comment that it would be interesting if war starts on Trumpets (which could very well be the breaking of the 2nd seal and the start of the Red horseman's ride) - and then I saw the above date, which is Trumpets ... and also the start of a domestic military exercise mentioned in a previous issue of the WAR. So will it be war - or just a rumor of war? . . .]
Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he is so concerned about what he sees as the Bush administration's push for a war with Iran that he is considering using a parliamentary measure to force the House of Representatives to vote on impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney. "We're preparing for another war, and they're going to destroy America."
Can it be that we have just witnessed Red Alert – the serious book on which the farcical movie Dr. Strangelove was based - in reverse? Can it be that a lowly "airman" has thwarted one or more paranoids in the White House?
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has consistently led the way in telling the story of what's really going on in Iraq and Iran. Spiegel spoke to him about America's Hitler, Bush's Vietnam, and how the US press failed the First Amendment.
The American government has come to resemble the characters in The Wizard of Oz. We have the Cowardly Congress, a president without a brain, and a foreign-policy establishment without a heart. Our politicians are still trying to play the empire game long after the age of empires has ended. Blinded by arrogance, they cannot see that with every passing day, the world needs us less and less and hates us more and more. We are passing through that phase when the grandeur of the empire exists only in the minds of politicians who have insulated themselves from reality.
The republic is dead. Not sick, not dying, not failing, or in a gradual decline, not waiting to be resuscitated, but already stone cold dead.
America is now poised for an event that has happened elsewhere in the world but never, for living Americans, here on US soil. That event is a hyperinflation that will destroy our savings, milking Americans dry. After the inflation we will be facing a new world, now being created to control us by the same people who are harvesting the hive of American wealth as I write. To survive and provide the softest landing possible for Americans we need to take action as follows...
The price of oil jumped to record levels as the weakening dollar drew investment funds into the commodity market to hedge against the falling greenback. In London, Brent crude for November delivery rose more than a dollar to an all-time intraday high of $81.05. Fresh violence in Nigeria and storms in the Gulf of Mexico also supported the price, but analysts said it was the currency markets that were driving the price higher.
EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he was concerned by the dollar's fall and urged the US to match its stated support for a strong dollar with action. "It's true that the fall in value of the dollar worries us."
Sales of new homes in the US plunged in August at the fastest rate since modern records began, prompting fears the economy is sliding into a full-blown recession.
Home prices are headed lower and they will stay that way for years. Recession and weaker employment will put pressure on income and debt, the days of open-ended consumption expenditures are at an end.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been formally named as the new head of the International Monetary Fund. The appointment of the former French Socialist finance minister to the helm of the organisation had been widely expected. He was backed by Europe and the US, which dominate the IMF.
The Hallelujah Diet answers the question: "What would Adam and Eve eat?" The program consists almost entirely of raw fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts. Under the Hallelujah plan, only 15% of the vegetables are supposed to be cooked.
Church and state issues continue to be the source of many conflicts among Christians today, resulting in a massive confusion in what exactly a Biblical theology of the state and public policy entails. The confusion often prompts awkward answers to important questions regarding the relationship of Christians to government.
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