MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• NASA Plans 'Deep Impact' Mission.Nasa could land probe on asteroid hurtling towards Earth.Nasa is considering plans to land a probe on an asteroid that is on a potential collision course for Earth.Asteroid 1999 RQ36, which has a one-in-1,000 chance of hitting the Earth before the year 2200, would cause an explosion equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs detonating at once.An analysis of its orbit has predicted that it is most likely to hit us on September 24, 2182 but scientists want to collect a sample of the rock to help forecast its trajectory more accurately.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Obama Regime: Taliban is Not a Terrorist Organization.What more do they need? The Taliban are Islamic supremacists, aided al-Qaeda during 9/11 plot, allowed Bin Laden to set-up shop and use Afghanistan as a base to wage global jihad, kills American troops on a near-daily basis, has foreign fighters in its ranks etc.“It is hard to imagine this agency can see fit to issue a report that doesn’t include the Taliban groups,” Fred Gedrich, a foreign policy analyst and former State Department employee, told The Daily Caller. “They have killed more Americans and conducted more terror attacks on innocent civilians during the past 12 months than any other terror group.“On who's side is Obama really?

• Conservative humorist/provocateur Greg Gutfeld has announced that he intends to build a gay bar next door to the planned Islamic center on Manhattan's Park Place that's become known as the Ground Zero mosque.It seems there is already a bar there "The Dakota Roadhouse"Some of the reviews Speak for itself."Great bartenders, huge burgers, and cold beer!" HAMBURGER, CHEESEBURGER -W/ FRIES, RINGS, BACON -VEGGIEBURGER, TURKEYBURGER -W/ FRIES, RINGS, BACON - Lots of Bacon around!

• House passes $600M border-security bill.The $600 million bill will fund more than 1,000 additional federal agents for the southern border, and allow the dispatching of unmanned aerial drones to help monitor border crossings.

• For Obama, All Politics Is Local . . . Except When It’s Not.I noted a few days ago that the Obama administration claimed to be taking no position on the Ground Zero mosque, with Robert Gibbs explaining that the president would not want to meddle in local affairs.Now it emerges that the Obama State Department is not only footing the bill for Imam Feisal Rauf’s fling to the Persian Gulf region; it has also posted Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s speech in vigorous support of Rauf’s Ground Zero project on its website.

• Latest Symptom of Global Warming: Oyster Herpes.New strain can kill 80 percent of an oyster bed in a week, experts say.Don't worry—oyster herpes isn't a new side effect of eating "the food of love."The incurable, deadly virus is, however, alarming fishing communities in Europe, where oyster herpes seems to be spreading—and could go on spreading as seas continue to warm, experts say.

• A private plane carrying a former head of NASA and, possibly, former Sen. Ted Stevens crashed Monday night in a rugged stretch of Alaska. The crash left at least five people dead, and crews have arrived to help survivors."Local authorities are reporting that there are survivors and a rescue operation is under way," said Guy Hicks, a company spokesman "No other details are available at this time."

• Russian nuclear fear as 557 wildfires rage dangerously close to top secret facilities.Russia has admitted to new fears over wildfires engulfing the capital of its nuclear research industry, the highly sensitive town of Sarov, so secret it remains closed to foreigners as in Soviet times.Two soldiers were killed on Tuesday fighting blazes dangerously close to atomic complexes, despite claims these were under control or even extinguished by officials in recent days.One, rifle battalion commander Vasily Tezetev, 22, 'died the death of a hero', stated the local emergency centre.Both perished while tackling the blazes in forests surrounding the town, 230 miles east of Moscow and known during the Cold War as Arzamas-16, which is still ringed by high fences and military checkpoints.

• Video shows woman smashing window over McNuggets. A security video from a McDonald’s in Ohio shows a woman punching two restaurant employees and smashing a drive-thru window because she couldn’t get Chicken McNuggets.

• U.S., BP Near Deal on Fund.Gulf of Mexico Oil Production Would Secure Company's $20 Billion Recovery Plan.The Obama administration and BP PLC are close to a deal to use future revenues from the oil giant's Gulf of Mexico operations to guarantee its $20 billion cleanup and compensation fund, a move that would give both sides an incentive to continue production in the Gulf, scene of the U.S.'s worst-ever offshore oil spill.

• Video:French Imam Sheik Hassen Chalghoumi in Support of the French Ban on the Niqab: "As Muslims, It Is Our Duty to Blend into French Society".

• Fire destroys prisoners' shoes at death camp.Polish firefighters struggle for hours as fires damage Majdenak huts; thousands of shoes burned.

• Iran 'digging graves' for US troops if they attack.(Video) .Former Revolutionary Guards commander says mass graves used for burying Saddam's soldiers prepared again for American troops.This will save the US Army a lot of work thanks guys at least it’s dugg in the Islamic way ,don’t want to deny your guys a decent burial!

• Hillary for Vice President?The movement is gaining traction.By way of contrast, Mr. Wilder says that Hillary Clinton has excelled in her role. "Clinton has been nothing but a team player who has earned good marks since being asked to serve as secretary of state." Having Mrs. Clinton join the 2012 ticket, he said, would revive the Democratic Party and reestablish the party's working-class voters who found her appealing during the 2012 primaries against Mr. Obama.

• Airlines grounds overweight staff: paper.Turkish Airlines has grounded 28 flight attendants for being overweight and given them six months to slim down or face reassignment, a newspaper said on Saturday.Izzet Levi, head of a cabin attendants' association who was among those furloughed, told Haber Turk he must drop 10 kilos (22 pounds) to reach 96 kilos if he is to return to his post.Talk about a "lean and mean"management.

• Iran offers to support Lebanese army.Islamic Republic offers aid after US suspends military funding to Lebanon over fatal border incident with Israel.

• Iran's gas export increases.Iran's gas exports have increased by more than 50 percent in the first four months of Iranian calendar year, compared to the same period last year.Turkey said in April Iran may export gas to Switzerland via Turkey in exchange for a transit fee.Those sacntions really work well!

• US officials: 5 believed dead in Alaska crash!A U.S. government official says former Sen. Ted Stevens is believed to have been aboard the airplane that has crashed in Alaska.

• Ground Zero Mosque: Name will forever taint the building, religion and followers."The supposed goal of those building the center is to bring people together. Clearly this goal is not being achieved. So why continue? Furthermore, the "hellbent" idea of building this center gives some evidence that perhaps that is, in fact, not their goal after all."

• Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims pray for rain as people died from smog in Moscow.The city's morgues are full, hospitals overcrowded, not enough gas-masks in pharmacies and the mortality rate has doubled. Demands for the resignation of the mayor of the capital. Campaigns of prayer and support for people affected by fires.Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Russia are now united in prayer for victims of fires that have brought the country to its knees and in the hope that rain will soon arrive. "We have been praying for rain for weeks and for families who have lost their homes in the disaster this summer," Fr Kirll Gorbunov head of Communications for the Diocese of the Mother of God in Moscow.And while the Kremlin is trying to disclose as little information as possible about the consequences of the extraordinary heat wave and forest fires in Russia, they have begun to face losses in economic terms which could reach 1% of 2010GDP, 15 billion dollars.

• In pictures: Container ship collision sends 2 tons of oil pouring into the Arabian sea every hour.Indian coast guard vessels and helicopters are engaged in a frantic attempt to contain oil spilling from a stricken container ship that has collided with another vessel in the Arabian Sea, India's defence ministry have announced.As mentioned on MFS already yesterday.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Court rejects attempt to stop destruction of fake graves.On Monday, an Israeli court rejected an attempt by the Muslim Waqf to stop the fake graves' destruction. The Jerusalem Magistrates Court prevented an attempt by the Waqf Muslim authority on Monday to expand the Muslim graveyard next to Independence Park (Gan Ha'atzmaut), not far from the Old City of Jerusalem.Anyone want to bet how long it will take before this comes up at the UN 'Human Rights Council?'

• Rancher claims Mexican cartels takeover Texas ranch -Police blotter confirms story is not a hoax.After 16 days of denials by Laredo law enforcement and local officials regarding a Mexican drug cartel takeover of a Laredo area ranch, a Texas police blotter proves the alleged incident did in fact happen and that multiple agencies responded to the scene of a seized U.S. ranch.

• Obama’s hidden past is beginning to burst at the seams--contradictions abound.Another Obama puzzle: 3rd grade in 2 countries?Photo at Hawaii school doesn't line up with State Department info, registration.Laughably Obama’s published biography is slowly beginning to unravel. The birther’s who are bashed as crazy by the White House are beginning to gain some headway toward their journey to the truth. Nothing published about this President in his own books or the mainstream press ever holds water.

• The Mosque, the Masks, and the Mayor.By modern standards, Cordoba was not all that tolerant even at its harmonious zenith, as Dr. Andrew Bostom's impeccably-researched compendium, The Legacy of Jihad, makes clear. Ibn Abdun (d. 1134) called Jews and Christians "confederates of Satan's party," while Ibn Hazm of Cordoba (d. 1064) wrote that Allah has established the infidels' ownership of their property "merely to provide booty for Muslims." In other words -- and this may come as hard news for certain "symbologists" -- there is more evidence for Muslim intolerance than there is for murder by associates of Opus Dei. Dan Brown says "albino assassin," I say "reconquista."Perhaps they -- we -- can help Cordoba House backers extricate themselves from the mother of all faux pas.

• The Ground Zero Mosque &Our Government's Mishandling Of "Islamic Radicals".Having said all of that, it is surprising that Feisal Abdul-Rauf, the man driving the Cordoba Initiative, is nominally a Sufi Muslim. Sufism is a mystical sect of Islam and largely benign. But Rauf certainly shows attitudes unusual for a Sufi, including his embrace of Hamas, his belief that America was to blame for 9-11, and a long association with Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is all the more surprising since Sufis are hated by ideologically pure Salafists and, indeed, were recently the subject of brutal attacks at the hands of Salafists in Pakistan. Author Steven Schwartz, himself a Sufi Muslim, noted in a recent article in the NY Post that none of these traits displayed by Rauf are in keeping with Sufism.So who or what is he?Perhaps a Jihadist?

• HT:AmericanThinker.Desperate Economic Action Ahead?The economic condition of the country continues to decline toward its rendezvous with an, as yet, unknowable catastrophe. Speculation regarding this outcome is natural because self-interest, if not self-preservation, is at stake. Here is but one possibility. It is not a prediction, but a look at a series of not improbable events that could develop. Any similar government desperation would change our economic world overnight.It is mid-year 2012. The country has officially been in recession since the end of 2010. Many believe that it never recovered from what began in 2008. The word depression is now almost commonplace.President Joe Biden (in office for six months after former President Obama resigned "to spend more time with his family") issues a short, terse message.

• How Does Stoning Work in Iran?From the size of the stones to who gets first throw."Let the Mullah he who is without sin cast the first stone!"

• Real Blog War: CAIR Goes After Robert Spencer.It reminds me a great deal of the old debate about legalizing the Communist Party back in the fifties. Should the CP be legal when communism calls for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government? Sharia, similarly, calls for a world united under the caliphate, with those of us who do not accept Islam subject to dhimmi law or worse, depending on our status. Essentially, it’s the end of Western civilization. Is this grounds for outlawing sharia? It’s an interesting and complex free speech/civil rights question, but only if you know what sharia is and have some idea what it intends. Most — including, I am almost certain, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg — do not.Frankly, I was pleased to hear the FBI was welcoming the likes of Spencer, especially since our Department of Justice (as has been reported at PJM and elsewhere) has gone out of its way to ignore radical Islam as a motivation for terrorism even when it couldn’t be more obviously so. From Ft. Hood to Times Square, it hasn’t been just the thousand pound gorilla in the room, it has been every gorilla in every room from here to Beijing and back.

• Obama won't pull trigger on 'August surprise,' here's why.The bottom line? Panic over this stalled economy may be setting in.Thus the news lat week that Obama is thinking of forgiving mortgages of whatever amount each is underwater. As Ed explains, "This explains James Pethokoukis’ warning about the rumored write-off at Fannie for underwater mortgages. That will either drop a bomb on Wall Street or on the national debt, which has already hit the crisis stage. Kudlow hears the same rumors (although it’s not clear whether he heard them from Pethokoukis’ column), and more."My opinion he might just do it to get their votes and stay in power.