New Mexican fish species discovery

From Wildlife Extra:

New fish species has hooks on genitalia

Fishing hooks aren’t the only hooks found in east-central Mexican waters.

September 2012. A new species of freshwater fish, described by a North Carolina State University researcher, has several interesting – and perhaps cringe-inducing – characteristics, including a series of four hooks on the male genitalia. Females of the new species – the llanos mosquitofish, or Gambusia quadruncus – also have distinguishing characteristics, including a colourful anal spot. …

A paper describing the new species, which lives in a diversity hotspot and seemingly branched off from its closest relative more than one million years ago, appears in the Journal of Fish Biology.

See also here.

British wetlands help birds in harsh winter

This video from England is called Slimbridge in Winter.

From Wildlife Extra:

Record numbers of birds used Britain’s wetlands during severe 2010/11 winter

Waterbirds in England respond to cold winter

October 2012. Latest counts collected by Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) volunteers show the internationally important numbers of wildfowl and waders that use English wetlands in winter.

Severe winter of 2010/11

The severe conditions experienced in the 2010/11 winter, described in the latest Waterbirds in the UK report, show that wetlands in the UK can be especially important during harsh winters. During such winters, sites both inland and on the coast act as a refuge for birds forced out of frozen continental Europe.

Top 5 sites contained 1.2 million waterfowl and waders

At the five most important sites (The Wash, Ribble Estuary, Morecambe Bay, North Norfolk Coast, and Thames Estuary), WeBS volunteers counted 1.2 million wildfowl and waders. These numbers indicate how important it is that these coastal areas and others receive suitable protection and that the important waterbird communities continue to be monitored effectively.

Inland wetlands

The two largest inland wetlands, the Somerset Levels and the Ouse Washes, attracted especially large numbers of birds in the 2010/11 winter. At the Somerset Levels, over 50,000 Wigeon and 70,000 Lapwing were both exceptional peaks – tangible evidence of the importance of these sites as cold weather refuges, and the benefits of inland wetland habitat creation and management.

Not all species have thrived

Some waterbirds continue to flourish in the UK – winter populations of Gadwall, Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit have never been higher! But among the 60 waterbird species wintering in the UK for which population trends are produced, eight native species have declined by more than a quarter in the last 25 years:

European White-fronted Goose-79%
Purple Sandpiper -52%
Pochard -50%
Mallard -39%
Bewick’s Swan -32%
Goldeneye -28%
Dunlin -28%
Ringed Plover -25%

…

David Stroud, Senior Ornithologist at Joint Nature Conservation Committee, said: “The events of the 2010/11 winter were a reminder that we need to co-operate internationally to ensure the effective conservation of these mobile waterbirds. Neighbouring countries are just a short flight away, and the UK needs to continue to work to ensure common approaches for waterbird conservation and management throughout their migratory ranges. Continued support for international treaties such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the European Union’s Birds Directive and the Agreement on the conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, is especially important.”

Allan Drewitt, Senior Ornithologist at Natural England said: “The evidence from the Wetland Bird Survey is invaluable. Results show the exceptional importance of England’s coasts and estuaries to birds and the vulnerability of wintering species to weather conditions. Information about bird numbers and how they are faring on our protected sites is essential, if we are to continue to look after them.”

Richard Hearn, Head of Monitoring at Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, said: “The Wetland Bird Survey and other waterbird monitoring schemes have again demonstrated their worth by producing results that remind us of the continued importance of Britain and Ireland as a cold weather refuge for migratory waterbirds. It is essential that internationally important wetlands such as the Severn Estuary continue to provide the disturbance-free habitat that these species need to survive the harsh winters that some predict may become more frequent in the future.”

October 2012. RSPB Scotland has expressed serious concern about the latest plan that could lead to the destruction of a protected, nationally important, wildlife site at Hunterston in North Ayrshire: here.

Indonesian workers fight for their rights

This video is called Organon Indonesia Nationwide Strike (1).

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Millions strike for pay and agency rights

Wednesday 03 October 2012

Nearly three million Indonesian factory workers downed tools for a one-day strike across the country to demand higher wages and protest against the hiring of contract workers.

Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union chairman Yoris Raweyai said the striking workers are calling on the government to increase the minimum wage, health insurance and social security for all employees and revise government policies that allow companies to hire temporary staff on one-year contracts without benefits.

“We warn the government that we can do worse to the country’s economy if they continue ignoring our three main demands,” said Said Iqbal, a protest organiser from the Indonesian Workers Assembly.

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled in January that the hiring practice was unconstitutional and violates workers’ rights but so far little has been done to redress the balance.

Trade unionists have continually denounced agency work as exploitative and illegal, depriving workers of benefits such as pensions, social security and other basic rights.

“Outsourced workers get nothing,” said United Federation of Indonesian Metalworkers shop steward Ridwan Pandjaitan.

“Too many companies don’t want to take on permanent employees because they have to pay pensions and give workers other rights.”

Over 200,000 workers marched in the industrial city of Bekasi, just outside Jakarta, waving flags and chanting “Workers unite. We can’t be defeated.”

Many thousands of workers marched through Jakarta itself in the afternoon, and around 11,000 police and 4,000 military personnel were deployed around the rally.

Jakarta police said that hundreds of thousands of labourers from more than 700 companies in 80 industrial estates around the capital had taken to the streets.

Trade unions and other sources put the national figure as high as 2.8 million on strike in 34 cities.

Factory workers in Indonesia earn an average basic salary of less than £100 a month.

The economy grew 6.5 per cent last year, the fastest pace since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, but the cost of living has been increasing, making it harder for workers to pay for food and basic necessities.

Eight new mammals discovered in Peru

This video is called Manu Park, Peru.

From Wildlife Extra:

New monkey, marsupial and shrew amongst 8 new mammal species found in Peru

New night monkey discovered in Peru

‘One of the largest and most important discovery for decades’

October 2012. As Curiosity searches for evidence of life on Mars, discoveries of new life on our own planet are still being made. Often nowadays they include some new inse[c]t species, or some fish; perhaps even a couple of frogs, and very occasionally a new mammal.

Eight new mammal species

A team of scientists from Peru and Mexico, led by Gerardo Ceballos of the Institute of Ecology (IE) of the UNAM (National University of Mexico), and Horacio Zeballos of the Natural History Museum of Arequipa, have made a series of discoveries, including potentially eight new mammal species, that may be one of the most important findings for biodiversity in recent decades in the Peruvian Andes.

These new species of mammals including a porcupine (Coendou), a night monkey (Aotus), possibly a gray fox (Urocyon), a marsupial (Caenolestes), a shrew (Cryptotis), various rodents (Oecomys, Oligoryzomys, Chilomys, Thomasomys) and a new species of olingo (Bassaricyon), along with frogs (Pristimantis bustamante), and other animals. The relevance of this finding is enormous. “We found large mammals, it is still relatively common to find new species of small animals such as mice or bats, but large ones, like a porcupine, a monkey or a marsupial, which is very rare in South America, is remarkable”, said the university.

This discovery provides several lessons. “Tabaconas-Namballe National Park, where the discoveries were made, is surrounded by farms where the destruction of the ecosystem is severe. This means that without active conservation and the national park, these species would have become extinct without ever being discovered.” As happens in many other parts of the world.

More discoveries waiting to be made

Ceballos said that there is still much undiscovered biodiversity, but it is seriously threatened, as the rates of environmental destruction, both aquatic and terrestrial, are soaring. Ceballos considered the loss of species as part of the collapse of environmental systems, with has important implications for humans and their welfare, as the flora and fauna depend on the same environmental services and free benefits that nature provides; the quantity and quality of water and air, soil fertility, crop pollination, and providing products such as wood, fodder and honey.

Ceballos adds “Tabaconas-Namballe National Park, which lies in northern Peru close to the border with Ecuador, is threatened by deforestation, hunting and mining, but we want to conserve the area. It is a very special, but small, area of just 32,000 hectares. Because there is a wide range of altitude (2000 to more than 3,500 meters), the vegetation is very diverse.

At lower altitudes there is tropical rainforest, and cooler montane forests dominate the higher slopes, where it is cooler but dominated by very diverse flora, full of epiphytes, orchids, bromeliads and mosses. At the highest altitudes, grasslands and shrubs dominate and snow and frost are frequent in winter.

New mammals

Part of the scientific exploration of the area was to list the species present, and during the inventory, many new species were found. One of the most surprising appears to be a grey fox, similar to the grey fox of Mexico. The nocturnal marsupial shrew is also very unusual, as there are only three species in America.

Microendemics

Most, if not all of these new species are ‘microendemic’ species, which means that they only exist in a very small region and are therefore very vulnerable to extinction. Following the discoveries, a further expedition to the sanctuary, which is also home to other notable species such as the mountain tapir and the spectacled bear (South America’s only bear species), will be run as part of the Second International Course at Machu Picchu, to held in November.

New sanctuary

The Peruvian government has taken note of the importance of the discoveries, and is looking at the possibility of creating a 100 hectare wildlife corridor to join Tabaconas-Namballe to a second reserve. Actions are also being undertaken to strengthen local conservation initiatives, and further studies will continue to recognise the importance of the region for biodiversity.

Ceballos said that he will continue the research. “We will study the fox and other species, including an[o]ther porcupine with orange skin that could prove to be new to science.”

“If there are this many new large species, imagine what we might find from the insect world” said Ceballos.

The description of each species will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Finally, the university felt that this project is an example of the importance of collaboration between scientists from the National University, other countries in Latin America, and the world.

The study was undertaken by staff from the Institute of Ecology of the National University of Mexico, including: Academic coach Jesus Pacheco, PhD student Lourdes Martinez, and Dr. Andrés García, researcher of the Institute of Biology, specializing in reptiles and amphibians.

February 2013. A report leaked to British newspaper, The Guardian, has revealed secret plans by Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol to explore for natural gas in Peru’s Manu National Park World Heritage site and an area inhabited by uncontacted tribes in southeast Peru: here.

Related articles

• Lesula Monkey – Most Recent Mammal Discovery (lifeforaforest.com)
• Good South American tapir news (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Gas company targets protected Manú park in Peruvian Amazon (climate-connections.org)
• Gas company targets protected Manú park in Peruvian Amazon (guardian.co.uk)
• Docs Reveal World’s Most Biodiverse National Park Targeted by Gas Company (commondreams.org)
• Australian wildlife news, good and bad (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Scientists reveal humans are descended from a shrew (itv.com)
• Ancestor of All Placental Mammals Revealed (news.sciencemag.org)

Georgian dictator Saakashvili can’t even win rigged election

This video is called The police tortured prisoners in Georgia.

By Clara Weiss:

Incumbent President Saakashvili’s party defeated in Georgian election

3 October 2012

Incumbent Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili conceded defeat Tuesday in parliamentary elections held the previous day, paving the way for a transfer of power to a coalition headed by the richest man in the country, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Saakashvili’s National Movement suffered substantial losses in a clear vote against the man who came to power in 2003 at the head of the US-backed “Rose Revolution.” Shortly before Georgians went to the polls, the largest anti-government protests since 2003 took place in Tbilisi, involving an estimated 100,000 people.

According to the latest figures, Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream alliance won 53 percent of the vote. His party was founded only in April of this year and has no parliamentary representation. Saakashvili’s party received just 41.7 percent nationally and fared much worse in the capital city of Tbilisi.

The figures suggest that Ivanishvili’s party will get about 93 of the 150 seats in parliament, with Saakashvili’s National Movement taking around 46 seats. Some 11 seats are still unclear.

Saakashvili will remain as president until presidential elections set for next year, and Ivanishvili will become prime minister.

Saakashvili’s policies in recent years made clear that the so-called “Rose Revolution” had nothing to do with genuine democracy. Rather, the political overturn was driven by the efforts of the United States to extend its influence in the Caucasus and other former Soviet territories at the expense of Russia by engineering a realignment within the ruling elite in Georgia.

Saakashvili was openly anti-Russian and pro-American, and promoted a combination of free market economics and anti-Russian Georgian nationalism. Today, the country is in deep social and political crisis.

The elections themselves were far from democratic. According to the testimony of observers, there were grave irregularities in the vote count at several polling stations. Special forces stormed some polling stations to intimidate observers and falsify ballot papers in favor of the government. Even the web site of the Election Commission was attacked by hackers early Tuesday morning.

Even opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili himself did not vote as a protest against Saakashvili’s election rigging.

The country’s political future is now uncertain. Saakashvili will not be able to contest next year’s presidential election. Like his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Saakashvili had intended to assume the post of prime minister. Now his plans have been thrown into disarray by the election victory of Ivanishvili’s party.

The candidacy of Ivanishvili, who first announced his intention to run a year ago, revealed the divisions within the ruling elite in the face of increasing social polarization and growing conflicts between the great powers.

With a personal fortune of $6.4 billion—more than half the gross domestic product of the entire country—Ivanishvili is one of the 200 richest people in the world. Like most of the nouveau riche in the former Soviet Union, he made his fortune in the 1990s by buying state property cheaply and reselling it at a huge mark-up.

Since then, he has been linked closely to Russian oligarchs. In 2003, he supported the “Rose Revolution” and for some time was a major financier of the Saakashvili government. He claims to have fallen out with Saakashvili in 2007.

Both Ivanishvili and Saakashvili represent the tiny financial elite of the country and both support further cuts in social spending. Both support Georgia joining NATO and extending the country’s strategic relationship with the United States. However, unlike his rival, Ivanishvili also wants a rapprochement with Russia.

Relations between the two countries have remained tense since the Russian-Georgian war in the summer of 2008. Both Putin and Saakashvili repeatedly seek to aggravate tensions to divert attention from the social crisis in their respective countries. In the election campaign, Saakashvili once again adopted an aggressive posture towards Moscow.

For his part, Ivanishvili declared, “We have to talk to Russia to normalize our relations.” He indicated that the issue of relations with Russia was the main cause of his clash with Saakashvili in 2007.

The United States has notably distanced itself from Saakashvili in recent months while maintaining its strategic support for his government.

One reason for the deterioration of US relations with Saakashvili is Georgia’s close relations with Iran, one of Georgia’s most important economic partners. Saakashvili has sought to mediate between the US and Tehran. In the spring of this year, Saakashvili even invited an official from the Iranian Ministry of Defence to take part in a military exercise involving Georgian and US troops.

The outcome of the elections clearly shows the social and political discontent within broad layers of the population. The economic impact of the five-day war with Russia and the post-2008 economic slump are still clearly felt. Saakashvili has sought to recover the billions paid to foreign creditors by imposing massive cuts in already meager welfare and social benefits.

According to official sources, a third of Georgia’s 4.5 million inhabitants live below the poverty line which is set at an income of €70 per month. Almost two-thirds of the population (61 percent) earns less than $240 a month.

The average pension is €37, well below the poverty level. Unemployment is very high and is currently the single biggest social problem. It officially stands at 16 percent, but unofficial sources put the figure at 30 percent. In many agricultural regions, fifty percent of the population is unemployed.

Just weeks before the election, the Saakashvili government was rocked by a major scandal involving abuse in the prisons, which once again underlined the undemocratic character of the regime and outraged much of the population. On September 18, two television channels close to the opposition showed video footage of torture and the sexual abuse of a number of prisoners by their guards in the Gdani-8 prison in Tbilisi.

Thousands of people protested against the government in the ensuing days. According to reports, members of the families of prisoners stormed the Gdani-8 prison and demanded to see their friends and relatives. One woman had seen her son on the video and said, “He told me, ‘Say nothing, otherwise they will kill me’.”

Georgia has one of the highest per capita prison populations in the world, with 531 inmates for every 100,000 inhabitants—a figure even higher than in neighboring Russia.

The interior minister of the country, Bacho Akhalaia, was forced to resign over the scandal, and President Saakashvili dismissed the justice minister, Khatuna Kalmakhelidze.

Three days before the election, around 100,000 people, including many students, demonstrated in Tbilisi. The protest was led mainly by the opposition parties and student organizations.

Many of the protesters, however, spoke out against both political parties. David Parulava, a student who had protested against the ill treatment in prisons, told the online media outlet Eurasianet that the choice between Saakashvili and Ivanishvili was “a choice between bad and worse, and I’m not even sure who’s bad and who’s worse. I trust neither side.”

Is Georgia the «Beacon of Democracy» or an oasis of neoliberal dictatorship? Here.

Related articles

• Georgia, Russia to hold diplomatic talks (bigpondnews.com)
• Georgian tycoon Ivanishvili confirmed as country’s PM (panarmenian.net)
• Georgia, Russia tiptoe toward partial restoration of ties (news.terra.com)
• Georgian PM Says Tbilisi Will Not Restore Russia Ties Soon (rferl.org)
• Bidzina Ivanishvili does not want to meet with Georgian President in private (en.trend.az)

Greek workers keep fighting austerity

From daily News Line in Britain:

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Greek Finance Ministry occupied

WORKERS at the Greek Finance Ministry early on Tuesday morning occupied the Finance Ministry building in central Athens.

They are protesting against huge wage cuts and mass sackings planned by the Greek government under orders from the EC-IMF-ECB troika.

The decision to occupy was taken at a joint meeting of three trades unions federations, the civil servants, the inland revenue, and customs.

They are to hold a general meeting where future action will be debated.

…

On Monday night Athens Metro workers decided on rolling 48-hour strikes to start when the government announces the new austerity measures package.

…

At the same time, the Coordination of Trades Unions held its own meeting with over 70 trades unions delegates present including executive members from the local government workers’ union, the railway workers’ union, ship repairs and ports trade unions.

It was decided that delegates should attend the meeting at the GSEE today initiated by the powerful YENOP (energy and mines) trades union.

The YENOP executive is calling on the GSEE bureaucrats to decide ‘a programme of strike action’ otherwise YENOP will call on all trades unions federation to organise it themselves.

GSEE and ADEDY have responded with a call to the government for dialogue and have set up a rally in central Athens next Monday evening.

This is regarded as completely inadequate by several trades unions federations and the meeting at GSEE today will be stormy.

The Greek Communist Party (KKE) is campaigning for another one-day strike and is calling a rally for today while the Coordination of Trades Unions will be holding a rally this Saturday evening.

On Monday the troika representatives met with the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and once again differences were apparent.

The essence was expressed by the Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Sournaras who stated after the meeting, according to the Greek bourgeois press, that if the government fully obeys the troika demands then it will fall.

Samaras is flying to Paris tomorrow and he hopes that at the Euro summit on 18 October a ‘political solution’ to the new austerity measures package can be reached.

The latest Eurostat figures showed that Greek youth unemployment, in the 15-25 age group, has now reached 55.4 per cent.

This is the highest in Europe, while dairy products in Greece were the dearest in Europe last year.

Eurostat reported that the price of some foodstuffs is 31.5 per cent higher than the European average.

In recent days, the Greek and Spanish governments have agreed to austerity measures that far exceed the emergency measures implemented by the Brüning government in 1930s Germany: here.

Dutch island Terschelling, panoramic video

After the big panoramic painting Panorama Mesdag about the dunes near Scheveningen in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century, this time a panoramic video about Terschelling island and its dunes, more to the north in the Netherlands, now.

The video was recorded at the vantage point Sneijderspad, in the west of the island.

Anti-Semitic preacher in US presidential elections

This video from the USA is called Hagee – ‘Hitler Was Fulfilling God’s Will For Israel’.

By Bill Berkowitz in the USA:

Tuesday, 02 October 2012 15:04

The Pastor Who Said God Sent Hitler to Hunt the Jews Warns America of Obama’s “Absolute Socialism”

The pastor who was deep-sixed from McCain’s campaign in 2008 after a tape was found that had him bellowing about God sending Hitler to hunt the Jews so they would go to Palestine, is trying to creep back into this election cycle.

In 2008, Pastor John Hagee was a much sought after “get” for Republican Party presidential candidates. After a long courtship, Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, which was trying to gain some credibility with Religious Right leaders, finally nailed down the pastor’s endorsement.

Three months later, disaster struck.

A video, first posted at the Web site Talk to Action, had Hagee — the Pastor of the San Antonio, Texas-based Cornerstone Church, the overseer of a multi-million dollar evangelical empire, and the founder of the Christian Zionist group, Christians United for Israel — bellowing that God had sent Adolph Hitler to hunt the Jews, chase them from Europe, and drive them to Palestine.

When the dust settled, McCain tossed the pastor to the curb.

“Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible,” McCain said in a statement. “I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee’s endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well.”

Now, four years later, Hagee is aiming to once again insert himself into presidential politics by issuing a call for 40 days of prayer over the presidential election.

Hagee has a number of platforms from which he operates. In early July, People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch reported that he had launched Global Evangelism Television (GETV) “a new internet endeavor … which seems to be a one-stop destination for all your John Hagee Ministries-related needs. The website features live events along with music videos, short messages, looks behind the scenes, and current and archived sermons.”

One of Hagee’s recently produced videos is titled The Agenda to Destroy America, during which he “spent a half-hour talking directly to the camera about how Communists have succeeded in taking over America,” Right Wing Watch noted.

According to Charisma News, Hagee recently sent an e-mail to all Christians and people of faith in America:

“First, I want to express my profound appreciation to President Barak Obama for doing what all of the Republican candidates have not been able to do for months: he unified the Bible-believing church in America in one week over the issue of abortion.

“When the president ordered the Catholic Church to provide contraceptives to prevent the birth of new life, he hit a nerve in the heart of every true Catholic and evangelical.

“Being a politician, he will attempt to compromise his position until after the election and then release the full power of government to force the church to obey the state. Think about this! If he made this bold statement before the election, consider how brutal he will be if he is re-elected!

“I have said it before and I will say it again: the election on Nov. 6, 2012 for the office of president is the day of decision for America. Four more years of Obama will bring absolute socialism to America. Our children and grandchildren will never know the greatness of America that we have experienced.

“This must not happen! … I am asking the Christians of America to join us in 40 days of prayer for this presidential election. These 40 days of prayer will begin on Sept. 28, 2012. You can do it individually or in groups, but prayer is the most powerful force God has given us to bring our nation back to righteousness. I’ll be saying more about this as the year progresses, but mark it on your calendar and start telling your family, friends, and church members now about the 40 days of prayer.”

Hagee was recently included on a list compiled by Foreign Policy of the 50 Republicans who have the greatest influence on the GOP’s foreign policy. The list included such folks as Sen. John McCain; Bill Kristol, editor of Weekly Standard; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz, who heads up a group called Keep America Safe; Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas casino magnate and owner of the free daily newspaper in Israel, “Israel Hayom” or “Israel Today”; John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Dan Senor, the former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and a Romney foreign policy advisor; Karl Rove, Bush’s brain and the founder of American Crossroads; Matt Drudge, creator and editor of Drudge Report.

According to Foreign Policy, Hagee’s Christians United for Israel is the “largest pro-Israel group in the U.S. … claim[ing] more than one million members and has done more than just about any other organization to make Israel a defining foreign-policy issue for evangelical Christians in the United States.”

Foreign Policy’s list notwithstanding, researcher and writer Rachel Tabachnick believes that Hagee’s power has declined over the past few years. In an email she told me that: “When CUFI was founded, its D.C. summit drew American Jewish leaders from across the spectrum, including Democratic politicians and organizations. As it has become clear that CUFI is about promoting rightwing politics, Jewish participation has become limited to leaders with a history of working with the Christian Right. CUFI’s most recent keynote speakers at the annual summit were Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann, neither popular with the American Jewish community. Beck spoke in 2011 following his departure from Fox network amid accusations of anti-Semitism and Bachmann spoke in July during the controversy over her conspiratorial claims that figures in the Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton’s aide, are working for the Muslim Brotherhood.”

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Hagee re-lived the founding days of CUFI. He proudly pointed out that “Today, we have more than 1.1 million members; we hold an average of 40 pro-Israel events in cities and towns across America every month; we meet in Washington every year to remind our elected officials that there are Christians who stand with Israel. We have been welcomed with open arms by the American Jewish community and successive Israeli governments (regardless of party).”

For several years Hagee, a strong supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been advocating that the U.S. take a more muscular approach to the Middle East in general and Iran specifically.

Talk2Action’s co-founder Bruce Wilson recently pointed out that Hagee’s 2006 book Jerusalem Countdown, was “devoted to the premise of an inevitable and imminent military confrontation between America, Israel and the West, and militant Islam.” In a chapter titled “World War Three Has Begun,” Hagee wrote: “The new revelations shared in this chapter and the next make it clear; America is now engaged in a bloody battle with religious fanatics on a mission from their God to kill Christians and Jews. America is stumbling in the fog of political correctness, lacking the intellectual honesty to admit that radical Islam has every intention of conquering Western civilization.’”

According to Wilson, Hagee also “appears to blame the Holocaust on Jews themselves, writing, ‘How utterly repulsive, insulting and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing his blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the see[d] of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come.’”

Will Hagee’s electoral emergence have any effect the outcome in November?

Rachel Tabachnick pointed out that “Where Hagee and other Christian Zionist leaders still have clout is with Israeli politicians, some of whom have failed to recognize changing attitudes in the United States. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, apparently believes Hagee’s claims that he represents tens of millions of American evangelicals (he doesn’t) and that they share Hagee’s enthusiasm for the next war (they don’t).”

“The reality is that Americans, including the Religious Right, are war weary. Consider the lack of enthusiasm or discussion of war at the Republican Convention in Tampa. This same war weariness permeates most of the Religious Right with results that are visible in changing activism and narratives, even in end times prophecy media. John Hagee, a tireless cheerleader for the next war, is becoming increasingly irrelevant, but some Israeli politicians have not yet figured that out.”

Rob Boston, Senior Policy Analyst with Americans United, told me in an email that “At this point, I think pastors like Hagee are trying to ensure that right-wing evangelicals show up on Election Day. There is still some residual fear that the base is not energized over Romney, or that his Mormonism may put some off. Because Romney isn’t the type of candidate to inspire much genuine enthusiasm among the Religious Right, the approach of Hagee and others has been almost exclusively anti-Obama, seeking to capitalize over fears of his alleged “socialism.”

Boston added: “It’s hard to say if Hagee will have an impact. He still has a following, but I think we all know that this race is going to boil down to a handful of swing states. If the results are close in those states, lots of groups will try to take the credit – no matter who wins.”

Saving Morocco’s lions

By Jalal Al-makhfi:

Morocco mission to rescue last of the Atlas lions

October 3, 2012

Almost a century after a French colonial hunter put a bullet in what came to be viewed as the last Atlas lion living in the wild, a Moroccan zoo is struggling to claw the fabled subspecies back from the brink of extinction.

The majestic animal, also known as the Barbary lion and once common across north Africa, was eventually declared extinct after the 1922 hunt that saw it vanish from its natural environment. But, remarkably, a few dozen individuals survived in captivity, and the newly opened Rabat zoo is fighting to save the bloodline and raise numbers to a viable population. “For a long time, it was thought that the species had disappeared. But it turned out that Sultan Mohammed V (the current king’s grandfather) had some Atlas lions in his private park,” said Abderrahim Salhi, the zoo’s head of operations. The exotic park of the sultan, who became king at independence, had been supplied by tribesmen who hunted the mountain predators and offered them to their ruler as a tribute and proof of allegiance. “After Morocco’s independence (in 1956), the Atlas lions from the royal park formed the nucleus of the zoo and became a symbol of pride,” Salhi said. The newly opened Rabat zoo is fighting to save the bloodline and raise numbers to a viable population.

… Today, this symbolism appears on the monarch‘s coat of arms, which depicts two lions protecting a crown, and the Moroccan football team carries their name, Atlas Lions, along with the hopes of the football-loving nation. The male Atlas lion is distinguished by its long dark mane, which extends down its back and under its belly, and by its muscular build and dexterity, thought to have evolved from its life of hunting and climbing in the mountains. Some observers say it is larger than its sub-Saharan relatives, weighing 225 kilos (500 pounds) or more, though the claim is disputed. The newly renovated Rabat zoo opened earlier this year, an event followed by the birth of three lion cubs at the facility. Staff described their arrival as a “joyous event.” “These cubs are the direct descendants of the Atlas lions, because like most of the cubs and lions here, they are a pure breed. They are not mixed,” said Salhi, who personally supervised the birth of the three cubs. The zoo itself “now has 32 lions, which is around half of the number remaining worldwide,” he added, the rest being found in zoos elsewhere in Morocco and in Europe.

But for all they represent, the future of Morocco’s mightiest predator is far from assured.

Various factors drove the north African lions to extinction in the wild, notably the deforestation of the Atlas mountains and the influx of firearms throughout the 19th century, with people hunting the big cats for their fur and for sport. They had already vanished in large numbers many hundreds of years earlier, captured and shipped to ancient Rome, where they provided grisly entertainment in the Colosseum and other amphitheatres around the empire. Starved and angry, the lions were unleashed on combatants and condemned criminals, as depicted in the 19th-century French Orientalist painting “Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer”, which shows a Barbary animal emerging from a pit to attack a group of Christians. A less disturbing image meets visitors to the 50-hectare (125-acre) zoo outside Rabat, where the adult lions rest in the shade as the cubs romp nearby. The park is home to nearly 1,200 animals, made up of around 120 separate African species, including white rhinos, elephants, hippos and cheetahs. There are also plans to open a “night zoo” for nocturnal creatures including panthers. But the task of preserving the Atlas lion and boosting its numbers, in collaboration with other zoos around the world, remains a key objective for the park officials. “It is a big challenge,” Salhi said. “Our priority is their protection.”

Irish solidarity with persecuted Bahraini doctors

This video is called Bahraini Doctor Tortured.

By Dr Noreen O’Carroll from Ireland, in a letter to the Irish Times:

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Supporting medics in Bahrain

Sir, – However bad things are in the health service in Ireland at this time, at least Irish doctors and surgeons know they would not be imprisoned without trial, tortured and convicted as criminals for providing medical care to wounded protesters during a period of political unrest. This is what happened last year in the Kingdom of Bahrain to doctors and surgeons, some of whom studied, trained and worked in Ireland. One of those doctors stood with his children in Dame Street every St Patrick’s Day to watch the parade go by during the years he lived here.

On October 1st, the convictions of nine of them were upheld by Bahrain’s highest appeals court and they are now facing imprisonment and very likely, more torture while incarcerated (World News, October 2nd). Yet the Bahraini judicial system which confirmed these convictions was found to be flawed by the international commission set up to investigate human rights abuses in the wake of the Arab Spring in the Kingdom of Bahrain. It recommended that the judiciary and prosecutorial personnel themselves required training to ensure that their own activities contributed to the prevention and eradication of torture and mistreatment in the future (par.1255, Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report accessible at www.bici.org.bh).

All legal avenues have now been exhausted and the sentences can be commuted only by the King of Bahrain. Through your letters page, I appeal to all Irish people who uphold the rights of doctors to provide medical care for the wounded in times of crisis as guaranteed by the Geneva Convention, to write directly to the King of Bahrain, asking him to correct the injustice committed by his country’s legal system by commuting the prison sentences of the Bahraini doctors and other healthcare professionals. I also appeal to the Irish Medical Council, to the heads of all medical schools in Irish universities and to medical students in Ireland, to speak out loudly and clearly, for justice for the Bahraini doctors by writing directly to the king. There is no point in having hand-wringing discussions among themselves about the fate of their medical colleagues in a faraway country. – Yours, etc,

‘Bahrain buys favorable CNN content’: here.

Bahrain’s Cat and Mouse Games: here.

BAHRAIN: Ongoing judicial harassment and arbitrary detention of Nabeel Rajab, as criminalisation and threats against human rights defenders go unabated: here.

Bahraini security forces continued to use the internationally banned weapon, birdshot pellets, on Sunday which had resulted in killing the child Ali Neama last Friday when he was targeted at close distance. He was then left to bleed to death: here.