JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)
LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
New Europe's return to the Dark Ages By Dalibor Rohac-OCT 22,15-EUOBSERVER
WASHINGTON D.C., Today, 17:39-The widely expected victory of Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Poland Sunday (25 October) will mark the end of an era in the history of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia - or "New Europe", to use a term coined by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.After the fall of communism, political elites in the four countries were long united in their commitment to European integration and the strengthening of transatlantic ties.That time is over now. Some of the most significant pro-Western personalities have passed away, including Václav Havel and more recently, Árpád Göncz.Others, including Slovakia’s reformist ex-prime minister, Mikuláš Dzurinda, or the former foreign minister of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, have left politics. And the remaining ones, including the Czech Republic’s former presidential candidate Karel Schwarzenberg, are on their way out.So who is replacing them? In Hungary, power is firmly in the hands of Viktor Orbán, a pariah of European politics. And, in the 2018 election, Orbán’s challengers will be coming from the far right - namely from the neo-Nazi Jobbik party.Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, nominally a Social Democrat, has learned quite a few tricks from Mr Orbán’s book. Like his Hungarian counterpart, Mr Fico never misses an opportunity to appeal to radical cultural conservatism, xenophobia, or anti- American sentiments in order to boost his popularity at home, even if it alienates Slovakia from its western partners.In the Czech Republic, the political parties formed along traditional ideological divisions are being replaced by amorphous populist groupings, sometimes created by local oligarchs, such as the agro- tycoon-turned-finance-minister Andrej Babiš, with the sole purpose of bringing their founders to power.And in Poland, this weekend’s election will, in all likelihood, result in the PiS’ nominee Beata Szydło taking over as prime minister from the ailing Civic Platform.But nobody epitomises the new version of Central European politics better than PiS’ leader, Mr Kaczyński.Deep-rooted prejudices-Just last week, in one of several controversial pronouncements on the refugee crisis, Kaczyński warned against migrants bringing tropical diseases to Europe, citing cholera, dysentery, and protozoan infections as examples.It would be easy to dismiss these as the ramblings of an old man, if they did not reflect deep-rooted prejudices shared widely across the societies of Central Europe.The platform of populist political groups in the region, including PiS, can be best described as a revolt against the modern world, which is becoming increasingly globalised, integrated and mobile.Their rejection of immigration resonates with extremely homogenous, insular societies. In the economic realm, a complete lack of responsibility is the trademark of the new Central European politics.Mr Kaczyński’s party promises more welfare spending and lower taxes, all of it financed by levies targeted on the financial industry and large, foreign-owned, corporations - not dissimilar to those used by Mr Orbán’s government in Hungary.Needless to say, populism tends to go hand in hand with high-level corruption, siphoning away resources from public budgets and EU funds into the pockets of oligarchs loyal to the party.Corruption not new to New Europe-Corruption and populism are not new to Central Europe. What makes the problem so acute is the international situation and the fact that Central European countries are increasingly expected to be responsible stakeholders within the geopolitical structures that they joined over a decade ago.The EU in particular is under unprecedented stress. To keep the Eurozone going, European leaders need to complete its fiscal and political integration. If the freedom of movement is to survive the current refugee crisis, the EU will have to agree on a common immigration, asylum, and border protection policy.And the West, including the EU, will have to think carefully about how to deal with the Russian threat, extending from the Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean.One of the characteristics distinguishing the brand of politics embodied by Messrs Orbán, Kaczyński, and Fico, is its ruthless and narrow-minded pursuit of what they perceive as 'national interest.'They see neither the euro, nor the refugee crisis, nor Russia’s war against Ukraine, as their problems nor as European problems. The EU is there to supply financial assistance to infrastructure spending and to guarantee our access to European markets. NATO is there to protect us. But heaven forbid either asks for anything in return!-Hope prevails-There is hope. The region has stronger institutions of civil society, better journalists, and more pro-Western intellectuals than ever before.Countless organizations and individuals lambast the region’s corruption, government waste, and bad policy.And there still remain a handful of political leaders - such as Slovak President Andrej Kiska - who are using their positions to do the right thing.Unfortunately, as the looming PiS victory in Poland suggests, things will probably have to get worse before they get better.Dalibor Rohac is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Twitter: @daliborrohac.
OPEC nations plan to join U.N. climate drive-By Alister Doyle | Reuters – OCT 22,15-YAHOO NEWS
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - OPEC members Iran and Saudi Arabia, the top greenhouse gas emitters yet to submit national strategies for tackling climate change, say they will do so before a U.N. summit in December in a sign of widening participation even by oil producers.More than 150 governments of almost 200 nations worldwide have issued plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions - mainly from fossil fuels - and adapt to changes such as more heatwaves, floods, or storms, meant as the building blocks for a deal at the summit in Paris from Nov. 30-Dec. 11.At a final round of U.N. talks in Germany to prepare the deal, delegates from OPEC members Iran, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, as well as other outsiders including Pakistan and Egypt, told Reuters they would all submit plans before the Paris meeting.Those submissions would push the global total of emissions covered by national plans to more than 90 percent from 87 percent by an informal U.N. deadline of Oct. 1, and calm concern that OPEC will stay on the sidelines of a plan that threatens fossil fuel use."There is a sense that everybody is on board. I think that's a major shift and bodes quite well for Paris," said David Waskow of the World Resources Institute (WRI) think-tank.Even so, many national plans for action beyond 2030 are vague."There's no agreement among OPEC to be slow on this - no common position," said Emmanuel Oladipo, a member of the Nigerian delegation. He said Nigeria, which has worked to curb gas flaring, would soon issue a plan.On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates became the third OPEC member, after Algeria and Ecuador, to submit a plan, saying it would initially raise the share of nuclear and renewables in its energy mix to 24 percent by 2021 from 0.2 percent in 2014.Iran, the world's number 10 greenhouse gas emitter and the biggest not to have submitted, said it would be able to do far more to curb emissions if Western powers quickly lift sanctions imposed over its nuclear program."The lifting of these unjustifiable and unjust sanctions would have a significant impact on what we are likely to achieve," said Majid Shafie-Pour, head of Iran's delegation in Bonn, Tehran aimed to issue the plan in mid- November. Saudi officials also confirmed that their country, the number 14 emitter on an WRI ranking, would submit a plan before Paris. They declined to give details."The wide participation is very encouraging," said Elliot Diringer of the U.S. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.An Egyptian delegate said the country was planning increased use of renewable energies, a phase-out of fossil fuels and improved public transport.(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Balkan summit highlights Juncker-Tusk leadership gap By Eric Maurice-OCT 22,15-EU OBSERVER
Madrid, Today, 09:09-By calling a mini summit on Sunday (25 October), European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has decided to push forward the Commission's role in addressing the migrant crisis.By doing so, he has also highlighted an apparently widening gap with the president of the European Council Donald Tusk, a fellow member of the centre-right EPP party.The Commission announced on Wednesday that "Jean-Claude Juncker has called a leaders' meeting to discuss the refugee flows along the Western Balkans route.""The objective of the meeting will be to agree common operational conclusions which could be immediately implemented," the Commission's statement said.Leaders from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia will participate in the meeting. They should be joined by Tusk and Luxembourg's foreign affairs and migration minister Jean Asselborn, who holds the EU Council rotating chair. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, and the heads of the EU Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Frontex, the EU border agency, are also invited."We have been in contact with leaders of the Balkan route countries for days and we thought we had to meet and try to go further," an EU official told EUobserver. "We wanted a smaller, more operational format."Protocol-In Madrid, where Juncker and Tusk arrived on Wednesday evening to participate in the EPP congress with EU leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel, party members pointed out that such a summit should have been organised by Tusk.As president of the European Council, Tusk convenes regular EU summit and "special meetings of the European Council when the situation so requires", the EU treaty says.Juncker's summit will gather only 8 out of 28 EU member states and 2 non-EU countries, an unusual formal which is, of course, not anticipated by the texts.But Juncker's initiative demonstrates the high political profile he has maintained since taking office last year, during the Greek crisis in the spring and in the migrant crisis since the summer, sometimes at the detriment of the more discreet Tusk.For some in the EPP, the urgency of the situation can justify Juncker's initiative."Juncker is sincere, he certainly has been touched by the images of thousands of refugees stranded in Slovenia," former commissioner Michel Barnier told EUobserver."The protocol is not important in these moments, there is an emergency to address".But the differences between Juncker and Tusk on style and often on substance is now resented within their own EPP party."Tusk is too floppy," a top party MEP told EUobserver."The European Council doesn't work well. We have a real problem in decision-making," the MEP said. "Juncker is right to take the bull by the horns"Not an export product'An EPP official admitted it would not be the first issue between the two institution presidents.Since he took his position almost a year ago, Tusk has been criticised for being too remote, compared with Juncker and some EU national leaders.His uncertain command of English has sometimes been cited as a reason for this low profile position. Others say he is too focused on issues which are of interest to Poland, his home country, like energy union or the war in Ukraine, and that there is not enough focus on other major issues such as Greece or the migrant crisis.But some in the EPP see the problem as a more personal one.Although Tusk was a strong Polish PM before becoming Council president, "he's not an export product," the MEP said. "We had the same problem with Prodi. He was a great Italian PM but a weak Commission president."Tusk's two-and-a-half-year mandate runs until 31 May 2017. The question of whether to give him a new mandate has not yet been raised. But "seen from the European Parliament, there a general feeling inside the EPP... We think we have a Tusk problem," the MEP told this website.In a speech at the congress on Wednesday evening, Tusk's predecessor Herman Van Rompuy tried to put on a display of party unity.Juncker and Tusk are "both strong men of action", he said.
Erdogan's EU victory wins fans among Turks in Germany By Dave Keating-OCT 22,15-EUOBSERVER
BERLIN, Today, 09:22-When Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged from last week's EU Council with major concessions from the EU in hand, it did not come in a political vacuum.Turkey is holding a general election on 1 November, its second this year. The vote was called after Erdogan's AKP party failed to secure a majority in an election in June.The Turkish president, known for his strongman tactics and populist appeal, desperately needs to shore up his support in order to cross the majority threshold this time around, and the 5 percent of Turkish voters living outside the country may be crucial to this effort.For the sizeable Turkish community in Germany, which makes up about half of the expatriate voting bloc, Erdogan's aggressive diplomacy last week in Brussels may win him new fans.He was able to extract major concessions on Turkey's long-stalled EU integration in exchange for an agreement to stem the flow of migrants leaving Turkey for EU countries.These include up to €3 billion in aid, new EU visa privileges for Turkish citizens, and a restart of talks on Turkey's accession to the EU.Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, travelled to Ankara last week to affirm this commitment, despite the fact that, just a few weeks earlier, she had reiterated her strong opposition, shared by France and most other EU states, to Turkey ever joining the bloc.Early voting has been taking place at the Turkish embassy in Berlin for several weeks, and the turnout appears to be high."I'm voting for AKP because Erdogan is making Turkey stronger," says Burak, a Turkish immigrant who works in a small store in Berlin."He stands up for Turkey."This is the sentiment of many Turkish emigrants around Europe, who tend to be fairly religious and conservative. They were only given the right to vote in Turkish elections three years ago, after the Turkish parliament passed a new law.-Calculated move- Many saw it as a calculated political move by Erdogan, at that time the country's prime minister, because his AKP party enjoys majority support among Turks abroad. In the June election, it won just under 50 percent of the vote.But the Turkish community in Germany is not politically homogeneous. It shares many of the deep divisions now present back home. The centre-left Kurdish minority party, the HDP, stunned observers in June by coming second in the expatriate vote with 21 percent.Back home, the party for the first time passed the threshold to enter the Turkish parliament, which was the decisive factor in AKP losing its majority."Most of the people that live here in Germany want to have a democratic Turkey, and see democratic values develop in Turkey," says Hakan Tas, a member of the German parliament from the leftist Die Linke party who is part of the country's Turkish minority."But people from Turkey living in Europe have voted extensively for Erdogan's party, so they have a majority in Europe. The people from Turkey living in Europe, most of them are conservative. This group of people see Erdogan as a strong leader and that's why they follow his lead. The other group of people, who didn't vote for the AKP party, they see Erdogan's policies as authoritarian and dictatorial and they do not support him."Erdogan's strongman persona is not appreciated by all. Many are concerned over the Turkish president's crackdown on democratic freedoms, such as freedom of the press.After his party failed to win a majority in June, he warned that it would lead to instability. The country then suffered a series of politically-motivated bombings, and the various political factions are blaming the bombings on each other.The latest incident came earlier this month, when a bomb killed at least 102 people attending a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara. It was Turkey's deadliest-ever terrorist attack.The government blames Kurdish separatists or Islamic militants. But many pro-democracy advocates, who dislike Erdogan's increasingly autocratic rule, think the AKP allowed the bombings to happen in order to increase the feeling of insecurity in Turkish society.Erdogan's opponentsThose Turkish citizens in Germany who are strongly opposed to Erdogan tend to come from middle class, educated backgrounds.Emre Yesilbas, a Turkish student studying in Berlin, says he is voting for the HDP, even though he is not Kurdish. He sees it as the only party that can knock Erdogan's AKP from absolute power."Most of the people who vote for Erdogan's party who live in Germany, they would vote for left parties here because they have the immigrant identity and they know that they shouldn't vote for conservative parties," he says." But when they vote in Turkish elections, they choose Erdogan's party knowing it’s a conservative party.""The HDP is the only party that embraces all of Turkey's different ethnicities, sects, women and the LGBT community as well," he adds."They project a different understanding of democracy in Turkey that people in Turkey aren't used to. Also, it’s the only party right now that is speaking of peace. All the other parties are not even talking about it in those terms. Lots of my friends are voting for HDP as well. For the young generation it is a new hope for Turkish democracy, so there are lots of [ethnic] Turks willing to vote for the party as well."In this context, could Erdogan’s recent manoeuvres in Brussels, which could restart the Turkish accession process and bring benefits to Turkish citizens in the EU, win over some of those younger, educated Turkish expatriates? "I think that’s very unlikely because people who are critical of Erdogan, they don’t buy into that," says Yesilbas."They don’t see him as a person who is good at diplomacy. So, even the idea that Turkish people would get a visa to the EU more easily, that wouldn’t be as convincing for them. Right now, Turkish society, both people living here and in Turkey, they are very decisively separated, pro- Erdogan and against Erdogan."-High tension-Tensions are running high ahead of the 1 November election, which observers are saying could be one of the most pivotal in recent Turkish history.For his part, Yesilbas believes the theory the Turkish government may have allowed the recent bombings to take place because the feeling of insecurity plays into its hands.But many Erdogan supporters believe the official line the Kurdish guerrillas did it to undermine the government.Because the issues at stake are so serious, few in Germany’s Turkish community are unhappy about being asked to vote again just five months after the last election."I don’t think anyone's annoyed by that because everyone is very frustrated because of the bombings and lots of people dying in Turkey right now," says Yesilbas."People are looking forward to voting again and to show what they are supporting."Whether or not Turkey’s EU accession is actually about to speed ahead, there is no denying that the situation in Syria has thrust Erdogan’s Turkey into a pivotal place in European politics.For the large Turkish community living in Germany, the international issues at stake in this election could have significant long-term implications, but it remains to be seen whether it will change their voting habits.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe quits after election performance-By Julien Arsenault, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
MONTREAL - Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois' first-ever MP and the man who dominated the party for nearly 15 years, stepped down as leader Thursday after a less than stellar performance in this week's election.Duceppe's departure comes four months into his second spell as head of the sovereigntist party following a 14-year stint between 1997 and 2011."I am turning the page, the last page, of a passionate political adventure," he said at party headquarters.The Bloc won 10 out of Quebec's 78 ridings on Monday, leaving it two short of the 12 seats required for official party status.Compounding its woes was another double whammy — Duceppe losing his Montreal riding for the second election in a row and the party garnering just 19.3 per cent of the popular vote in Quebec.After stating earlier this week that the numbers weren't good enough, Duceppe said Thursday the 10 MPs will provide the party with stability until the next election."This time the Bloc's future was on the line," he said. "And my return (last June) was aimed at saving this party, which is important for the 817,000 Quebecers who voted for us."With the election of 10 MPs, the future of the party is guaranteed for the next four years."I obviously would have liked more and to have won my riding. But overall, I'm leaving with the feeling of a sense of accomplishment."Duceppe will be replaced on an interim basis by Rheal Fortin, who was elected in a riding north of Montreal on Monday.Duceppe first stepped down in 2011 when the party won just four seats and he lost his Montreal riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie after holding it since 1990.He became leader again this summer when language-activist Mario Beaulieu stepped aside to make way for the more widely known and respected politician.Parti Quebecois Leader Pierre Karl Peladeau said Wednesday he wanted Duceppe to stay on, saying the BQ leader had a handle on federal issues as well as a good knowledge of federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction.The Bloc also announced that Louis Plamondon, who has been a Bloc MP since 1993, will be caucus chair, while Beaulieu will remain president and Luc Theriault will become house leader."We ended the election with a slight surplus, which will allow us to maintain a central office (in Montreal) at least until March," said Plamondon."We'll then organize fundraising drives."
Justin Trudeau's team begins transition to power-CBC – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
Still basking in the glow of victory, Justin Trudeau and his inner circle have already begun the complex business of transitioning to power.The prime minister-designate was making the rounds on Parliament Hill Wednesday, accepting congratulations and holding meetings, including one with his former chief rival and the man he will succeed, Stephen Harper.Extending courtesy and gaining guidance are crucial to the Liberal transition period.Don Boudria, a longtime cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien and an expert in parliamentary procedure, expects some of the groundwork has already been done behind the scenes. But the transition team will be working long hours to get it right, because the early days of a mandate are critically important to set the tone and shape public perception."No one in the early days wants to see the government drop the ball," he said.Creating cabinet, hiring staff-Boudria said the transition team — led by Peter Harder and said to include trusted campaign advisers Gerry Butts, Katie Telford and Cyrus Reporter — will work out a detailed strategy for the days ahead, from crafting the structure and mandate of the cabinet and proposing a date to recall Parliament and deliver a throne speech, to listing off names of potential senior staff.This will all be planned around a busy series of international meetings including for the G20 and Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) scheduled for the fall."The government is a train that's moving. The transition team is the way to get these passengers on board the moving train without them falling off," he said. "The train slows down a bit, but it doesn't stop."Former Liberal deputy prime minister Sheila Copps, who is travelling in Asia, said the Liberal win is being celebrated across Canada and abroad. She believes "big change" is on the way."We will start talking about citizens again, instead of simply taxpayers," she told CBC News. "The team will be young, as Trudeau has succeeded in recruiting a great number of new faces, and some terrific women from across the country."Trudeau's vision is very inclusive, and I think the Paris climate change meeting will send a strong message to the world that Canada is getting serious about sustainability in the environment."Conservative strategist Geoff Norquay, who served as a senior adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, said the biggest challenge for Trudeau is facing expectations that are "enormous and unmeetable.""The Liberals won a huge and resounding mandate for change, and that means that not only regions but cities and different sectors of the economy are going to be lining up saying, 'Here's what you promised — where is it? And how quickly will you make me happy?'"As one of the first orders of business, Trudeau will need to "seize the agenda" by mapping out which policy promises to deliver on fast, which to phase in, and which from the Conservative government to revoke.Fresh faces-Monday's historic election that led to Trudeau's majority mandate brings many fresh faces to the House of Commons.There are 215 new MPs, including 15 who are returning to office after serving in the past but not the last Parliament. That's the highest number in 22 years, when 205 new MPs arrived on Parliament Hill after the 1993 election. An orientation session has been set for Nov. 3, which will be administrative in focus. Another session geared to procedural matters will be held closer to the return of Parliament.There is much on the to-do list for the outgoing MPs and prime minister, too.Norquay said that aside from the necessary business of tendering an official resignation to the Governor General, sorting out cabinet documents and vacating official residences at 24 Sussex Drive and Harrington Lake, Harper will likely hold one last meeting with his cabinet and another with his caucus."That will be a difficult and emotional final goodbye," he said.
With stakes high, Clinton meets face-to-face with Republican-led Benghazi committee-By Matthew Daly And Bradley Klapper, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton firmly defended her actions on Benghazi as she came face-to-face Thursday with the Republican-led special investigation of the 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in the Libyan city, hoping to put to rest the worst episode of her tenure as secretary of state and clear an obstacle to her presidential campaign.Democrats have assailed the investigation as a ploy to derail Clinton's White House bid, noting that it is the eighth congressional investigation into the attacks.The hearing comes at a moment of political strength for Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. On Wednesday, a potential rival for the nomination, Vice-President Joe Biden, announced he would not join the race. Clinton also is riding the momentum of a solid debate performance last week.Contentious moments during the hearing included questions and accusations about the Obama administration's shifting early public account of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks, which killed four Americans including the first ambassador in more than three decades.Republicans pressed for answers on her record in the lead-up to the attacks on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and a nearby CIA compound, and how engaged she was on the deteriorating security situation in eastern Libya. The atmosphere remained mostly civil until a fiery back-and-forth with Rep. Jim Jordan, who accused Clinton of deliberately misleading the public by linking the violence to an Internet video insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.Clinton said only that "some" people had wanted to justify the attack based on that video and that she rejected that justification. The argument went to the origins of the disagreement over Benghazi and how President Barack Obama and his top aides represented the attack in the final weeks of his re-election campaign."There were probably a number of different motivations" for the attack, Clinton said, describing a time when competing strands of intelligence were being received and no clear picture had yet emerged. Speaking directly to Jordan, she said: "The insinuations that you are making do a great disservice."Beyond that exchange, however, there were no gaffes for Clinton and few contentious exchanges. She never raised her voice as she did at a Senate hearing on Benghazi in January 2013.Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina started the hearing with a series of questions that he said remained unanswered: Why was the U.S. in Libya, why were security requests denied, why was the military not ready to respond quickly on the 11th anniversary of 9-11 and why did the Obama administration change its story about the nature of the attacks in the weeks afterward? She stressed a need for diplomats to advance U.S. interests in the world, even in dangerous places, and said perfect security can never be achieved.The U.S. military campaign against Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 helped prevent "genocide," Clinton asserted, noting the Libyan dictator's threat to hunt down opponents like "cockroaches." The American-led intervention came after requests for assistance from allies in Europe and the Arab world, and extensive study and discussion by the U.S. government, she said.The Republican criticism has included contentions by some lawmakers that Clinton personally denied security requests and ordered the U.S. military to "stand down" during the attacks, or that her agency was engaged in an elaborate gun-running scheme in eastern Libya. None of these were substantiated in an independent ordered by Clinton after the deadly incident, and seven subsequent congressional investigations.Gowdy is engaged in his own balancing act, portraying the panel as focused on the facts after comments by fellow Republicans describing the inquiry as an effort designed to hurt Clinton's presidential bid.On Thursday, Democrats on the panel immediately focused on several, long-debunked allegations regarding the response of Clinton and the Obama administration to the series of attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and a nearby CIA compound. Although Republicans pressed for answers, there were no confrontations with Clinton in the early rounds of questioning.The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, described the entire probe as a partisan campaign replete with implausible conspiracy theories.The hearing was expected to last the whole day, with breaks. Clinton was certain to face questions about her use of a private email account and server while serving as President Barack Obama's chief diplomat, another issue that has beset her campaign.A new Associated Press-Gfk poll shows the public mixed on Clinton and Benghazi. Four in 10 say they neither approve nor disapprove of how she has answered questions about the attack, while 20 per cent approve and 37 per cent disapprove.Americans also are divided on Clinton's email practices, which have raised security concerns. More than half of those polled view her use of a private server as a minor problem or no problem at all, compared with 1 in 3 who think it is a major problem. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans call it a major problem.In the weeks after Benghazi, Clinton took responsibility for the incidents. In recent months, she has said her use of a private email server was a mistake.___Follow Matthew Daly: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC
Clinton defends her Benghazi record in face of Republican criticism-By Jonathan Allen and John Whitesides | Reuters – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday deflected harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, and urged her questioners in Congress to put U.S. national security ahead of politics.At a sometimes bitter day-long hearing, Republicans accused the front-runner in the 2016 Democratic presidential race of misinforming the public about the cause of the attack by suspected Islamic militants that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.Clinton, 67, calmly avoided the fray during the most heated exchanges between Republicans and her Democratic allies, and stayed composed under sometimes hostile and aggressive questions from Republican lawmakers.But hours of questioning uncovered no new revelations in a deadly incident that has been the subject of a half-dozen other congressional investigations and an independent inquiry.In one of the most pointed exchanges, Republican Representative Jim Jordan said Clinton had misleadingly implied after the attack that it was a reaction to an anti-Muslim video. Clinton, who denies suggesting the video was the cause, called Jordan's accusation "personally painful.""I've thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she told the Republican-led panel. "I've lost more sleep than all of you put together. I've been racking my brain about what could have been done, should have been done."The appearance before the Benghazi panel was a political test for Clinton, who has been on a hot streak with a strong performance in last week's first Democratic debate and the news on Wednesday that her strongest potential challenger, Vice President Joe Biden, will not seek the Democratic nomination for the November 2016 election.The hearing also follows weeks of political brawling over whether the House committee's real goal was to puncture her front-running presidential prospects. The committee is made up of seven Republicans and five Democrats.Clinton told the panel the attacks must not discourage U.S. action globally and said the incident already had been thoroughly investigated."We need leadership at home to match our leadership abroad, leadership that puts national security ahead of politics and ideology," Clinton said in her only early reference to the political controversy that has dogged the panel.Opinion polls show Americans deeply split along partisan lines over the probe. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found 35 percent of respondents viewed the Benghazi hearings as mostly or completely valid. The percentage among Republicans was 67 percent, independents 39.6 percent, and Democrats 16.5 percent.17-MONTH-OLD PROBE-The panel has spent 17 months looking into the attacks that killed J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the U.S. mission compound.At one point, Clinton impassively stacked papers while Republican Chairman Trey Gowdy and senior Democrat Elijah Cummings argued loudly over Cummings' request that the closed-door testimony of Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal be publicly released.Clinton listened intently, head in hand, as Gowdy heatedly questioned her about the constant emails she received from Blumenthal. Republicans noted that ambassador Stevens did not even have Clinton's email address."You didn't need my email address to get my attention," Clinton said.Cummings said congressional Republicans set up the panel for a partisan witch hunt."They set them loose, Madame Secretary, because you're running for president," he told Clinton, calling for an end to the "taxpayer-funded fishing expedition." He said the committee had spent $14.7 million of taxpayer money over 17 months. Clinton defended her leadership in Libya as America's top diplomat and denied longstanding Republican allegations that she personally turned down requests to beef up security in Benghazi."He did not raise security with me. He raised security with the security professionals," Clinton said of Stevens.Republican Representative Peter Roskam told Clinton she was the chief architect of U.S. policy in Libya and that "things in Libya today are a disaster," but Clinton said President Barack Obama made the final call on U.S. Libya policy.Clinton's long-awaited appearance before the panel follows months of controversy about her use of a private home email server for her State Department work, a set-up that emerged in part because of the Benghazi committee's demand last year to see her official records.GOWDY ON THE DEFENSIVE-Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has been on the defensive over a series of comments from his fellow Republicans implying the committee's real aim was to deflate Clinton's poll numbers."Madame Secretary, I understand some people - frankly in both parties - have suggested this investigation is about you. Let me assure you it is not," Gowdy told Clinton."Not a single member of this committee signed up for an investigation into you or your email system."Clinton refrained from questioning the panel's motives, which she has done in recent public statements on the campaign trail."Despite all the previous investigations and all the talk about partisan agendas, I’m here to honour those we lost and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still," she said.She said the emails being made public and examined by the committee did not encompass all of the work she did as secretary of state."I don’t want you to have a mistaken impression about what I did and how I did it," she said. "Most of my work was not done on emails with my closest aides, with officials in the State Department, officials in the rest of the government."She cited communications through secure phone calls, in-person conversations and top-secret documents.The committee's Democrats, who may discuss abandoning the inquiry after Clinton's appearance, say they think there is little left to unearth on Benghazi.A 2012 report by a government accountability review board sharply faulted State Department officials for providing "grossly" insufficient security in Benghazi, despite upgrade requests from Stevens and others in Libya.(Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson, Alana Wise and Megan Cassella; Editing by Howard Goller)
DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)
LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
New Europe's return to the Dark Ages By Dalibor Rohac-OCT 22,15-EUOBSERVER
WASHINGTON D.C., Today, 17:39-The widely expected victory of Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Poland Sunday (25 October) will mark the end of an era in the history of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia - or "New Europe", to use a term coined by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.After the fall of communism, political elites in the four countries were long united in their commitment to European integration and the strengthening of transatlantic ties.That time is over now. Some of the most significant pro-Western personalities have passed away, including Václav Havel and more recently, Árpád Göncz.Others, including Slovakia’s reformist ex-prime minister, Mikuláš Dzurinda, or the former foreign minister of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, have left politics. And the remaining ones, including the Czech Republic’s former presidential candidate Karel Schwarzenberg, are on their way out.So who is replacing them? In Hungary, power is firmly in the hands of Viktor Orbán, a pariah of European politics. And, in the 2018 election, Orbán’s challengers will be coming from the far right - namely from the neo-Nazi Jobbik party.Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, nominally a Social Democrat, has learned quite a few tricks from Mr Orbán’s book. Like his Hungarian counterpart, Mr Fico never misses an opportunity to appeal to radical cultural conservatism, xenophobia, or anti- American sentiments in order to boost his popularity at home, even if it alienates Slovakia from its western partners.In the Czech Republic, the political parties formed along traditional ideological divisions are being replaced by amorphous populist groupings, sometimes created by local oligarchs, such as the agro- tycoon-turned-finance-minister Andrej Babiš, with the sole purpose of bringing their founders to power.And in Poland, this weekend’s election will, in all likelihood, result in the PiS’ nominee Beata Szydło taking over as prime minister from the ailing Civic Platform.But nobody epitomises the new version of Central European politics better than PiS’ leader, Mr Kaczyński.Deep-rooted prejudices-Just last week, in one of several controversial pronouncements on the refugee crisis, Kaczyński warned against migrants bringing tropical diseases to Europe, citing cholera, dysentery, and protozoan infections as examples.It would be easy to dismiss these as the ramblings of an old man, if they did not reflect deep-rooted prejudices shared widely across the societies of Central Europe.The platform of populist political groups in the region, including PiS, can be best described as a revolt against the modern world, which is becoming increasingly globalised, integrated and mobile.Their rejection of immigration resonates with extremely homogenous, insular societies. In the economic realm, a complete lack of responsibility is the trademark of the new Central European politics.Mr Kaczyński’s party promises more welfare spending and lower taxes, all of it financed by levies targeted on the financial industry and large, foreign-owned, corporations - not dissimilar to those used by Mr Orbán’s government in Hungary.Needless to say, populism tends to go hand in hand with high-level corruption, siphoning away resources from public budgets and EU funds into the pockets of oligarchs loyal to the party.Corruption not new to New Europe-Corruption and populism are not new to Central Europe. What makes the problem so acute is the international situation and the fact that Central European countries are increasingly expected to be responsible stakeholders within the geopolitical structures that they joined over a decade ago.The EU in particular is under unprecedented stress. To keep the Eurozone going, European leaders need to complete its fiscal and political integration. If the freedom of movement is to survive the current refugee crisis, the EU will have to agree on a common immigration, asylum, and border protection policy.And the West, including the EU, will have to think carefully about how to deal with the Russian threat, extending from the Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean.One of the characteristics distinguishing the brand of politics embodied by Messrs Orbán, Kaczyński, and Fico, is its ruthless and narrow-minded pursuit of what they perceive as 'national interest.'They see neither the euro, nor the refugee crisis, nor Russia’s war against Ukraine, as their problems nor as European problems. The EU is there to supply financial assistance to infrastructure spending and to guarantee our access to European markets. NATO is there to protect us. But heaven forbid either asks for anything in return!-Hope prevails-There is hope. The region has stronger institutions of civil society, better journalists, and more pro-Western intellectuals than ever before.Countless organizations and individuals lambast the region’s corruption, government waste, and bad policy.And there still remain a handful of political leaders - such as Slovak President Andrej Kiska - who are using their positions to do the right thing.Unfortunately, as the looming PiS victory in Poland suggests, things will probably have to get worse before they get better.Dalibor Rohac is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Twitter: @daliborrohac.
OPEC nations plan to join U.N. climate drive-By Alister Doyle | Reuters – OCT 22,15-YAHOO NEWS
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - OPEC members Iran and Saudi Arabia, the top greenhouse gas emitters yet to submit national strategies for tackling climate change, say they will do so before a U.N. summit in December in a sign of widening participation even by oil producers.More than 150 governments of almost 200 nations worldwide have issued plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions - mainly from fossil fuels - and adapt to changes such as more heatwaves, floods, or storms, meant as the building blocks for a deal at the summit in Paris from Nov. 30-Dec. 11.At a final round of U.N. talks in Germany to prepare the deal, delegates from OPEC members Iran, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, as well as other outsiders including Pakistan and Egypt, told Reuters they would all submit plans before the Paris meeting.Those submissions would push the global total of emissions covered by national plans to more than 90 percent from 87 percent by an informal U.N. deadline of Oct. 1, and calm concern that OPEC will stay on the sidelines of a plan that threatens fossil fuel use."There is a sense that everybody is on board. I think that's a major shift and bodes quite well for Paris," said David Waskow of the World Resources Institute (WRI) think-tank.Even so, many national plans for action beyond 2030 are vague."There's no agreement among OPEC to be slow on this - no common position," said Emmanuel Oladipo, a member of the Nigerian delegation. He said Nigeria, which has worked to curb gas flaring, would soon issue a plan.On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates became the third OPEC member, after Algeria and Ecuador, to submit a plan, saying it would initially raise the share of nuclear and renewables in its energy mix to 24 percent by 2021 from 0.2 percent in 2014.Iran, the world's number 10 greenhouse gas emitter and the biggest not to have submitted, said it would be able to do far more to curb emissions if Western powers quickly lift sanctions imposed over its nuclear program."The lifting of these unjustifiable and unjust sanctions would have a significant impact on what we are likely to achieve," said Majid Shafie-Pour, head of Iran's delegation in Bonn, Tehran aimed to issue the plan in mid- November. Saudi officials also confirmed that their country, the number 14 emitter on an WRI ranking, would submit a plan before Paris. They declined to give details."The wide participation is very encouraging," said Elliot Diringer of the U.S. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.An Egyptian delegate said the country was planning increased use of renewable energies, a phase-out of fossil fuels and improved public transport.(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Balkan summit highlights Juncker-Tusk leadership gap By Eric Maurice-OCT 22,15-EU OBSERVER
Madrid, Today, 09:09-By calling a mini summit on Sunday (25 October), European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has decided to push forward the Commission's role in addressing the migrant crisis.By doing so, he has also highlighted an apparently widening gap with the president of the European Council Donald Tusk, a fellow member of the centre-right EPP party.The Commission announced on Wednesday that "Jean-Claude Juncker has called a leaders' meeting to discuss the refugee flows along the Western Balkans route.""The objective of the meeting will be to agree common operational conclusions which could be immediately implemented," the Commission's statement said.Leaders from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia will participate in the meeting. They should be joined by Tusk and Luxembourg's foreign affairs and migration minister Jean Asselborn, who holds the EU Council rotating chair. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, and the heads of the EU Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Frontex, the EU border agency, are also invited."We have been in contact with leaders of the Balkan route countries for days and we thought we had to meet and try to go further," an EU official told EUobserver. "We wanted a smaller, more operational format."Protocol-In Madrid, where Juncker and Tusk arrived on Wednesday evening to participate in the EPP congress with EU leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel, party members pointed out that such a summit should have been organised by Tusk.As president of the European Council, Tusk convenes regular EU summit and "special meetings of the European Council when the situation so requires", the EU treaty says.Juncker's summit will gather only 8 out of 28 EU member states and 2 non-EU countries, an unusual formal which is, of course, not anticipated by the texts.But Juncker's initiative demonstrates the high political profile he has maintained since taking office last year, during the Greek crisis in the spring and in the migrant crisis since the summer, sometimes at the detriment of the more discreet Tusk.For some in the EPP, the urgency of the situation can justify Juncker's initiative."Juncker is sincere, he certainly has been touched by the images of thousands of refugees stranded in Slovenia," former commissioner Michel Barnier told EUobserver."The protocol is not important in these moments, there is an emergency to address".But the differences between Juncker and Tusk on style and often on substance is now resented within their own EPP party."Tusk is too floppy," a top party MEP told EUobserver."The European Council doesn't work well. We have a real problem in decision-making," the MEP said. "Juncker is right to take the bull by the horns"Not an export product'An EPP official admitted it would not be the first issue between the two institution presidents.Since he took his position almost a year ago, Tusk has been criticised for being too remote, compared with Juncker and some EU national leaders.His uncertain command of English has sometimes been cited as a reason for this low profile position. Others say he is too focused on issues which are of interest to Poland, his home country, like energy union or the war in Ukraine, and that there is not enough focus on other major issues such as Greece or the migrant crisis.But some in the EPP see the problem as a more personal one.Although Tusk was a strong Polish PM before becoming Council president, "he's not an export product," the MEP said. "We had the same problem with Prodi. He was a great Italian PM but a weak Commission president."Tusk's two-and-a-half-year mandate runs until 31 May 2017. The question of whether to give him a new mandate has not yet been raised. But "seen from the European Parliament, there a general feeling inside the EPP... We think we have a Tusk problem," the MEP told this website.In a speech at the congress on Wednesday evening, Tusk's predecessor Herman Van Rompuy tried to put on a display of party unity.Juncker and Tusk are "both strong men of action", he said.
Erdogan's EU victory wins fans among Turks in Germany By Dave Keating-OCT 22,15-EUOBSERVER
BERLIN, Today, 09:22-When Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged from last week's EU Council with major concessions from the EU in hand, it did not come in a political vacuum.Turkey is holding a general election on 1 November, its second this year. The vote was called after Erdogan's AKP party failed to secure a majority in an election in June.The Turkish president, known for his strongman tactics and populist appeal, desperately needs to shore up his support in order to cross the majority threshold this time around, and the 5 percent of Turkish voters living outside the country may be crucial to this effort.For the sizeable Turkish community in Germany, which makes up about half of the expatriate voting bloc, Erdogan's aggressive diplomacy last week in Brussels may win him new fans.He was able to extract major concessions on Turkey's long-stalled EU integration in exchange for an agreement to stem the flow of migrants leaving Turkey for EU countries.These include up to €3 billion in aid, new EU visa privileges for Turkish citizens, and a restart of talks on Turkey's accession to the EU.Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, travelled to Ankara last week to affirm this commitment, despite the fact that, just a few weeks earlier, she had reiterated her strong opposition, shared by France and most other EU states, to Turkey ever joining the bloc.Early voting has been taking place at the Turkish embassy in Berlin for several weeks, and the turnout appears to be high."I'm voting for AKP because Erdogan is making Turkey stronger," says Burak, a Turkish immigrant who works in a small store in Berlin."He stands up for Turkey."This is the sentiment of many Turkish emigrants around Europe, who tend to be fairly religious and conservative. They were only given the right to vote in Turkish elections three years ago, after the Turkish parliament passed a new law.-Calculated move- Many saw it as a calculated political move by Erdogan, at that time the country's prime minister, because his AKP party enjoys majority support among Turks abroad. In the June election, it won just under 50 percent of the vote.But the Turkish community in Germany is not politically homogeneous. It shares many of the deep divisions now present back home. The centre-left Kurdish minority party, the HDP, stunned observers in June by coming second in the expatriate vote with 21 percent.Back home, the party for the first time passed the threshold to enter the Turkish parliament, which was the decisive factor in AKP losing its majority."Most of the people that live here in Germany want to have a democratic Turkey, and see democratic values develop in Turkey," says Hakan Tas, a member of the German parliament from the leftist Die Linke party who is part of the country's Turkish minority."But people from Turkey living in Europe have voted extensively for Erdogan's party, so they have a majority in Europe. The people from Turkey living in Europe, most of them are conservative. This group of people see Erdogan as a strong leader and that's why they follow his lead. The other group of people, who didn't vote for the AKP party, they see Erdogan's policies as authoritarian and dictatorial and they do not support him."Erdogan's strongman persona is not appreciated by all. Many are concerned over the Turkish president's crackdown on democratic freedoms, such as freedom of the press.After his party failed to win a majority in June, he warned that it would lead to instability. The country then suffered a series of politically-motivated bombings, and the various political factions are blaming the bombings on each other.The latest incident came earlier this month, when a bomb killed at least 102 people attending a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara. It was Turkey's deadliest-ever terrorist attack.The government blames Kurdish separatists or Islamic militants. But many pro-democracy advocates, who dislike Erdogan's increasingly autocratic rule, think the AKP allowed the bombings to happen in order to increase the feeling of insecurity in Turkish society.Erdogan's opponentsThose Turkish citizens in Germany who are strongly opposed to Erdogan tend to come from middle class, educated backgrounds.Emre Yesilbas, a Turkish student studying in Berlin, says he is voting for the HDP, even though he is not Kurdish. He sees it as the only party that can knock Erdogan's AKP from absolute power."Most of the people who vote for Erdogan's party who live in Germany, they would vote for left parties here because they have the immigrant identity and they know that they shouldn't vote for conservative parties," he says." But when they vote in Turkish elections, they choose Erdogan's party knowing it’s a conservative party.""The HDP is the only party that embraces all of Turkey's different ethnicities, sects, women and the LGBT community as well," he adds."They project a different understanding of democracy in Turkey that people in Turkey aren't used to. Also, it’s the only party right now that is speaking of peace. All the other parties are not even talking about it in those terms. Lots of my friends are voting for HDP as well. For the young generation it is a new hope for Turkish democracy, so there are lots of [ethnic] Turks willing to vote for the party as well."In this context, could Erdogan’s recent manoeuvres in Brussels, which could restart the Turkish accession process and bring benefits to Turkish citizens in the EU, win over some of those younger, educated Turkish expatriates? "I think that’s very unlikely because people who are critical of Erdogan, they don’t buy into that," says Yesilbas."They don’t see him as a person who is good at diplomacy. So, even the idea that Turkish people would get a visa to the EU more easily, that wouldn’t be as convincing for them. Right now, Turkish society, both people living here and in Turkey, they are very decisively separated, pro- Erdogan and against Erdogan."-High tension-Tensions are running high ahead of the 1 November election, which observers are saying could be one of the most pivotal in recent Turkish history.For his part, Yesilbas believes the theory the Turkish government may have allowed the recent bombings to take place because the feeling of insecurity plays into its hands.But many Erdogan supporters believe the official line the Kurdish guerrillas did it to undermine the government.Because the issues at stake are so serious, few in Germany’s Turkish community are unhappy about being asked to vote again just five months after the last election."I don’t think anyone's annoyed by that because everyone is very frustrated because of the bombings and lots of people dying in Turkey right now," says Yesilbas."People are looking forward to voting again and to show what they are supporting."Whether or not Turkey’s EU accession is actually about to speed ahead, there is no denying that the situation in Syria has thrust Erdogan’s Turkey into a pivotal place in European politics.For the large Turkish community living in Germany, the international issues at stake in this election could have significant long-term implications, but it remains to be seen whether it will change their voting habits.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe quits after election performance-By Julien Arsenault, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
MONTREAL - Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois' first-ever MP and the man who dominated the party for nearly 15 years, stepped down as leader Thursday after a less than stellar performance in this week's election.Duceppe's departure comes four months into his second spell as head of the sovereigntist party following a 14-year stint between 1997 and 2011."I am turning the page, the last page, of a passionate political adventure," he said at party headquarters.The Bloc won 10 out of Quebec's 78 ridings on Monday, leaving it two short of the 12 seats required for official party status.Compounding its woes was another double whammy — Duceppe losing his Montreal riding for the second election in a row and the party garnering just 19.3 per cent of the popular vote in Quebec.After stating earlier this week that the numbers weren't good enough, Duceppe said Thursday the 10 MPs will provide the party with stability until the next election."This time the Bloc's future was on the line," he said. "And my return (last June) was aimed at saving this party, which is important for the 817,000 Quebecers who voted for us."With the election of 10 MPs, the future of the party is guaranteed for the next four years."I obviously would have liked more and to have won my riding. But overall, I'm leaving with the feeling of a sense of accomplishment."Duceppe will be replaced on an interim basis by Rheal Fortin, who was elected in a riding north of Montreal on Monday.Duceppe first stepped down in 2011 when the party won just four seats and he lost his Montreal riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie after holding it since 1990.He became leader again this summer when language-activist Mario Beaulieu stepped aside to make way for the more widely known and respected politician.Parti Quebecois Leader Pierre Karl Peladeau said Wednesday he wanted Duceppe to stay on, saying the BQ leader had a handle on federal issues as well as a good knowledge of federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction.The Bloc also announced that Louis Plamondon, who has been a Bloc MP since 1993, will be caucus chair, while Beaulieu will remain president and Luc Theriault will become house leader."We ended the election with a slight surplus, which will allow us to maintain a central office (in Montreal) at least until March," said Plamondon."We'll then organize fundraising drives."
Justin Trudeau's team begins transition to power-CBC – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
Still basking in the glow of victory, Justin Trudeau and his inner circle have already begun the complex business of transitioning to power.The prime minister-designate was making the rounds on Parliament Hill Wednesday, accepting congratulations and holding meetings, including one with his former chief rival and the man he will succeed, Stephen Harper.Extending courtesy and gaining guidance are crucial to the Liberal transition period.Don Boudria, a longtime cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien and an expert in parliamentary procedure, expects some of the groundwork has already been done behind the scenes. But the transition team will be working long hours to get it right, because the early days of a mandate are critically important to set the tone and shape public perception."No one in the early days wants to see the government drop the ball," he said.Creating cabinet, hiring staff-Boudria said the transition team — led by Peter Harder and said to include trusted campaign advisers Gerry Butts, Katie Telford and Cyrus Reporter — will work out a detailed strategy for the days ahead, from crafting the structure and mandate of the cabinet and proposing a date to recall Parliament and deliver a throne speech, to listing off names of potential senior staff.This will all be planned around a busy series of international meetings including for the G20 and Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) scheduled for the fall."The government is a train that's moving. The transition team is the way to get these passengers on board the moving train without them falling off," he said. "The train slows down a bit, but it doesn't stop."Former Liberal deputy prime minister Sheila Copps, who is travelling in Asia, said the Liberal win is being celebrated across Canada and abroad. She believes "big change" is on the way."We will start talking about citizens again, instead of simply taxpayers," she told CBC News. "The team will be young, as Trudeau has succeeded in recruiting a great number of new faces, and some terrific women from across the country."Trudeau's vision is very inclusive, and I think the Paris climate change meeting will send a strong message to the world that Canada is getting serious about sustainability in the environment."Conservative strategist Geoff Norquay, who served as a senior adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, said the biggest challenge for Trudeau is facing expectations that are "enormous and unmeetable.""The Liberals won a huge and resounding mandate for change, and that means that not only regions but cities and different sectors of the economy are going to be lining up saying, 'Here's what you promised — where is it? And how quickly will you make me happy?'"As one of the first orders of business, Trudeau will need to "seize the agenda" by mapping out which policy promises to deliver on fast, which to phase in, and which from the Conservative government to revoke.Fresh faces-Monday's historic election that led to Trudeau's majority mandate brings many fresh faces to the House of Commons.There are 215 new MPs, including 15 who are returning to office after serving in the past but not the last Parliament. That's the highest number in 22 years, when 205 new MPs arrived on Parliament Hill after the 1993 election. An orientation session has been set for Nov. 3, which will be administrative in focus. Another session geared to procedural matters will be held closer to the return of Parliament.There is much on the to-do list for the outgoing MPs and prime minister, too.Norquay said that aside from the necessary business of tendering an official resignation to the Governor General, sorting out cabinet documents and vacating official residences at 24 Sussex Drive and Harrington Lake, Harper will likely hold one last meeting with his cabinet and another with his caucus."That will be a difficult and emotional final goodbye," he said.
With stakes high, Clinton meets face-to-face with Republican-led Benghazi committee-By Matthew Daly And Bradley Klapper, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton firmly defended her actions on Benghazi as she came face-to-face Thursday with the Republican-led special investigation of the 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in the Libyan city, hoping to put to rest the worst episode of her tenure as secretary of state and clear an obstacle to her presidential campaign.Democrats have assailed the investigation as a ploy to derail Clinton's White House bid, noting that it is the eighth congressional investigation into the attacks.The hearing comes at a moment of political strength for Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. On Wednesday, a potential rival for the nomination, Vice-President Joe Biden, announced he would not join the race. Clinton also is riding the momentum of a solid debate performance last week.Contentious moments during the hearing included questions and accusations about the Obama administration's shifting early public account of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks, which killed four Americans including the first ambassador in more than three decades.Republicans pressed for answers on her record in the lead-up to the attacks on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and a nearby CIA compound, and how engaged she was on the deteriorating security situation in eastern Libya. The atmosphere remained mostly civil until a fiery back-and-forth with Rep. Jim Jordan, who accused Clinton of deliberately misleading the public by linking the violence to an Internet video insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.Clinton said only that "some" people had wanted to justify the attack based on that video and that she rejected that justification. The argument went to the origins of the disagreement over Benghazi and how President Barack Obama and his top aides represented the attack in the final weeks of his re-election campaign."There were probably a number of different motivations" for the attack, Clinton said, describing a time when competing strands of intelligence were being received and no clear picture had yet emerged. Speaking directly to Jordan, she said: "The insinuations that you are making do a great disservice."Beyond that exchange, however, there were no gaffes for Clinton and few contentious exchanges. She never raised her voice as she did at a Senate hearing on Benghazi in January 2013.Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina started the hearing with a series of questions that he said remained unanswered: Why was the U.S. in Libya, why were security requests denied, why was the military not ready to respond quickly on the 11th anniversary of 9-11 and why did the Obama administration change its story about the nature of the attacks in the weeks afterward? She stressed a need for diplomats to advance U.S. interests in the world, even in dangerous places, and said perfect security can never be achieved.The U.S. military campaign against Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 helped prevent "genocide," Clinton asserted, noting the Libyan dictator's threat to hunt down opponents like "cockroaches." The American-led intervention came after requests for assistance from allies in Europe and the Arab world, and extensive study and discussion by the U.S. government, she said.The Republican criticism has included contentions by some lawmakers that Clinton personally denied security requests and ordered the U.S. military to "stand down" during the attacks, or that her agency was engaged in an elaborate gun-running scheme in eastern Libya. None of these were substantiated in an independent ordered by Clinton after the deadly incident, and seven subsequent congressional investigations.Gowdy is engaged in his own balancing act, portraying the panel as focused on the facts after comments by fellow Republicans describing the inquiry as an effort designed to hurt Clinton's presidential bid.On Thursday, Democrats on the panel immediately focused on several, long-debunked allegations regarding the response of Clinton and the Obama administration to the series of attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and a nearby CIA compound. Although Republicans pressed for answers, there were no confrontations with Clinton in the early rounds of questioning.The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, described the entire probe as a partisan campaign replete with implausible conspiracy theories.The hearing was expected to last the whole day, with breaks. Clinton was certain to face questions about her use of a private email account and server while serving as President Barack Obama's chief diplomat, another issue that has beset her campaign.A new Associated Press-Gfk poll shows the public mixed on Clinton and Benghazi. Four in 10 say they neither approve nor disapprove of how she has answered questions about the attack, while 20 per cent approve and 37 per cent disapprove.Americans also are divided on Clinton's email practices, which have raised security concerns. More than half of those polled view her use of a private server as a minor problem or no problem at all, compared with 1 in 3 who think it is a major problem. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans call it a major problem.In the weeks after Benghazi, Clinton took responsibility for the incidents. In recent months, she has said her use of a private email server was a mistake.___Follow Matthew Daly: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC
Clinton defends her Benghazi record in face of Republican criticism-By Jonathan Allen and John Whitesides | Reuters – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday deflected harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, and urged her questioners in Congress to put U.S. national security ahead of politics.At a sometimes bitter day-long hearing, Republicans accused the front-runner in the 2016 Democratic presidential race of misinforming the public about the cause of the attack by suspected Islamic militants that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.Clinton, 67, calmly avoided the fray during the most heated exchanges between Republicans and her Democratic allies, and stayed composed under sometimes hostile and aggressive questions from Republican lawmakers.But hours of questioning uncovered no new revelations in a deadly incident that has been the subject of a half-dozen other congressional investigations and an independent inquiry.In one of the most pointed exchanges, Republican Representative Jim Jordan said Clinton had misleadingly implied after the attack that it was a reaction to an anti-Muslim video. Clinton, who denies suggesting the video was the cause, called Jordan's accusation "personally painful.""I've thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she told the Republican-led panel. "I've lost more sleep than all of you put together. I've been racking my brain about what could have been done, should have been done."The appearance before the Benghazi panel was a political test for Clinton, who has been on a hot streak with a strong performance in last week's first Democratic debate and the news on Wednesday that her strongest potential challenger, Vice President Joe Biden, will not seek the Democratic nomination for the November 2016 election.The hearing also follows weeks of political brawling over whether the House committee's real goal was to puncture her front-running presidential prospects. The committee is made up of seven Republicans and five Democrats.Clinton told the panel the attacks must not discourage U.S. action globally and said the incident already had been thoroughly investigated."We need leadership at home to match our leadership abroad, leadership that puts national security ahead of politics and ideology," Clinton said in her only early reference to the political controversy that has dogged the panel.Opinion polls show Americans deeply split along partisan lines over the probe. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found 35 percent of respondents viewed the Benghazi hearings as mostly or completely valid. The percentage among Republicans was 67 percent, independents 39.6 percent, and Democrats 16.5 percent.17-MONTH-OLD PROBE-The panel has spent 17 months looking into the attacks that killed J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the U.S. mission compound.At one point, Clinton impassively stacked papers while Republican Chairman Trey Gowdy and senior Democrat Elijah Cummings argued loudly over Cummings' request that the closed-door testimony of Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal be publicly released.Clinton listened intently, head in hand, as Gowdy heatedly questioned her about the constant emails she received from Blumenthal. Republicans noted that ambassador Stevens did not even have Clinton's email address."You didn't need my email address to get my attention," Clinton said.Cummings said congressional Republicans set up the panel for a partisan witch hunt."They set them loose, Madame Secretary, because you're running for president," he told Clinton, calling for an end to the "taxpayer-funded fishing expedition." He said the committee had spent $14.7 million of taxpayer money over 17 months. Clinton defended her leadership in Libya as America's top diplomat and denied longstanding Republican allegations that she personally turned down requests to beef up security in Benghazi."He did not raise security with me. He raised security with the security professionals," Clinton said of Stevens.Republican Representative Peter Roskam told Clinton she was the chief architect of U.S. policy in Libya and that "things in Libya today are a disaster," but Clinton said President Barack Obama made the final call on U.S. Libya policy.Clinton's long-awaited appearance before the panel follows months of controversy about her use of a private home email server for her State Department work, a set-up that emerged in part because of the Benghazi committee's demand last year to see her official records.GOWDY ON THE DEFENSIVE-Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has been on the defensive over a series of comments from his fellow Republicans implying the committee's real aim was to deflate Clinton's poll numbers."Madame Secretary, I understand some people - frankly in both parties - have suggested this investigation is about you. Let me assure you it is not," Gowdy told Clinton."Not a single member of this committee signed up for an investigation into you or your email system."Clinton refrained from questioning the panel's motives, which she has done in recent public statements on the campaign trail."Despite all the previous investigations and all the talk about partisan agendas, I’m here to honour those we lost and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still," she said.She said the emails being made public and examined by the committee did not encompass all of the work she did as secretary of state."I don’t want you to have a mistaken impression about what I did and how I did it," she said. "Most of my work was not done on emails with my closest aides, with officials in the State Department, officials in the rest of the government."She cited communications through secure phone calls, in-person conversations and top-secret documents.The committee's Democrats, who may discuss abandoning the inquiry after Clinton's appearance, say they think there is little left to unearth on Benghazi.A 2012 report by a government accountability review board sharply faulted State Department officials for providing "grossly" insufficient security in Benghazi, despite upgrade requests from Stevens and others in Libya.(Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson, Alana Wise and Megan Cassella; Editing by Howard Goller)
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