The Peanut Gallery

Statements, comments and forecasts that have no substance, but just might turn out to be relevant. 


1.Egypt's top reformist leader Mohammed el Baradei said Sunday the liberal youth behind the country's uprising have been "decimated" in parliamentary elections dominated by Islamists and expressed concern about the rise of hard-line religious elements advocating extremist ideas such as banning women from driving. "The youth feel let down. They don't feel that any of the revolution's goals have been achieved," ElBaradei told The Associated Press. PG: He is absolutely correct. He is in good company together with Obama, Hillary and CNN. 


2.Hamas in Gaza also came to power via "democratic" elections. So did Hizbullah in Lebanon. According to Poodle Panetta, US Secretary of Defence, Israel is responsible for its isolation. Obama initiated this Islamic Spring shaking hands with the same snake and then beat a hasty retreat (note that he hasn't taken the same track with the Saudi's and the Gulf States).  Now he expects Israel to shake hands with the snake. 


3.Growing panic in Iran? International schools in Iran have shut their doors after hardline students stormed the British embassy last week, stoking ordinary Iranians' fears that foreigners are about to pull out of the Islamic Republic ahead of a US or Israeli-led attack. Closure of foreign schools in Tehran prompts fears among Iranians; 'I and all my friends have stockpiled goods at home,' local resident says. PG: Ahminedejad threatened Israel with an atomic bomb and might have thought that Israel was terror-stricken. He needs to think twice before threatening the holocaust generations with another holocaust.


4.OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian imams plan to condemn the "misguided notion" of so-called honor killings in their Friday sermons this week, responding to the high-profile trial of a father accused of murdering his three teenage daughters, allegedly because they shamed his Afghan family.  Sikander Hashmi: honor killings have absolutely nothing to do with Islam," PG: Then please explain why are there no laws against honour killings in the majority of Islamic countries? For example in the West Bank and Gaza, supposedly the most educated arabs in the Middle East? Save this fiction for the naive.


5.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-chaired a "High-Level Meeting on Combating Religious Intolerance" with the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Mrs. Clinton invited the OIC to Washington for a conference to build "muscles of respect and empathy and tolerance." Its charter commits it "to combat defamation of Islam," and its current action plan calls for "deterrent punishments" by all states to counter purported "Islamophobia". PG: This from the champion of woman's rights. Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that the Saudi's donate tens of millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. 


6. Hillary is on a roll. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Thursday, openly admitted the US had encouraged protests in Russia after Vladimir Putin's United Russia party held on to power in the most recent elections. "Human rights is a part of who we are. And we expressed concerns that we thought were well founded about the conduct of the elections," she said. PG: Obviously Hillary has learnt from her boss. She runs to the press at every opportunity. One would have thought that by now she would have understood the old maxim "Choose your wars carefully" . As for "human rights is a part....", that's correct but only applied by a selective flapping of the lips.


7.SELIGER, Russia -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday accused the United States of acting as a "parasite" on the world economy by accumulating massive debts that threaten the global financial system. "The country is living in debt. It is not living within its means, shifting the weight of responsibility on other countries and in a way acting as a parasite," Putin told a group of pro-Kremlin youth in central Russia. PG: The lips are a-flapping.


8..George Friedman on Egypt: The most interesting thing that came out of this election is the fact that the Western media’s candidate for power in Egypt really lost, which were the secular democrats. The street protesters did not represent all of Egypt. They were a few hundred thousand. So the idea that that crowd spoke for Egypt, as was frequently said, was fairly preposterous. Right now I am still betting very much on the military holding power. PG: Time to say it out loud and clear. This US administration, supported by the Western media  misinterpreted the situation in Egypt and are the direct cause of misery and hunger for untold millions. Applying leftist western ideology to this part of the world has unleashed the forces of darkness.


9.A senior Hamas source told the London-based Arabic-language al-Hayat newspaper on Saturday that the Palestinian organization has joined the global movement of the Muslim Brotherhood. PG: Clearly they have a better understanding of the "Islamic Spring" than do the the western media.


10.Japan intensified its rhetoric against China's military, accusing Beijing for the first time of "assertiveness" and saying it needs to keep a closer watch on how China views the contested waters between the two countries. China has bumped heads with Vietnam and the Philippines over territorial claims in the South China Sea. PG: Interesting to note that the US, Philipines and Vietnam are holding joint military exercises in the South China sea.


It is not enough to conquer; one must know how to seduce - Voltaire