MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan 4.8 , Indonesia 5.2! More info here.

• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• UNION MEMBERS OUTRAGED After White House Hires Non-Union Crew For Obama’s Birthday Bash.(GatewayPundit).Somebody’s Having a Birthday Party and You’re Not Invited......That is, if you belong to a union.In case you live under a rock and haven’t heard, Barack Obama turns 50 today. And, the place to be tonight is the Aragon. The party starts at 7:00. But don’t bother to show up if you’re a union member. The White House hired a non-union crew for the event tonight. A confidential and trusted union source contacted me today to report that the crews called in to work Obama’s birthday bash are non-union. Union members are OUTRAGED that Obama would turn his back on them. Curiously, my source added that the day rate is actually higher for the non-union members to do the work. It’s not a money issue. What gives?UPDATE: Here is my source’s response to why they would go non-union for the bash:“I honestly don’t think they thought about it. It may just be the hassle of the unions no meal penalties… Or maybe not factoring in health care and 401k plans.”If POTUS is late, and party goes late, they would face MASSIVE overtime if they do not feed the crew enough meals on time.Read the full story and updates here.

• "The Super Congress strikes back".Can Our Gun Rights Survive Boehner and Reid’s New ‘Super Congress’?(BigGovernment).It appears the Boehner/Reid debt fix, which was really no fix at all, did what most legislation does nowadays: it extended the power of the government while doing very little to solve the problems for which it was designed. Thus, while Obama was doing “victory laps” around the White House following the bill’s passage in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of his comrades were trying to figure out how to load the new “Super Congress” in their favor.What is the “Super Congress” you ask? It’s a creation of the Boehner/Reid plan: a Congress-within-a-Congress which the Senate cannot filibuster nor the Speaker of the House control.In other words, by design it is superior to either legislative body set forth in the Constitution (which means it is but one loony Democrat away from being a rogue congress, bent on usurping every right Americans have enjoyed since our Founding).If you think I’m engaging in hyperbole here, consider this – once the debt bill had passed and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was trying to calm conservative nerves about the limited scope of the newly created congress, Reid was standing at a microphone saying: “[On the ‘Super Congress’] there are no constraints….They can look at any program we have in government, any program. … It has the ability to look at everything.”Did you catch that folks? The “Super Congress” can look at any program and “at everything.”(Unless you’ve been living under a rock, your gut reaction to the news that the “Super Congress” can look “at everything” should make you want to stockpile guns and ammo, so you have plenty to hide when they come looking for both.)No wonder Gun Owners of America (GOA) was sounding an alarm as the debt bill moved toward a final vote on Tuesday. They warned us that the “Super Congress” could pass gun control where there is neither filibuster nor Speaker of the House to intervene, and then “22 liberal Republicans can join the Congressional Democrats and the President in closing the gun show ‘loophole,’ banning semi-automatic weapons, creating a national handgun registration, or ordering state gun laws moot.” (Keep in mind there are plenty of John McCain’s out there in the Republican Party who’d cross the aisle in a heartbeat to shut down gun shows.)The “Super Congress” will be comprised of six Democrats and six Republicans. And according to Reid, it’s important that these twelve come “with minds willing to consider every option” (which is political-speak for “Republicans need to shut up and get with the Democrat program”).Added Reid: “Cooperation is the only way forward. Compromise is the only way forward.”I couldn’t disagree more. Compromise is what got us in this mess in the first place. I’d rather see the House, led by the Tea Party, stand up and say “this far and no further.”As for the rest of us, if the “Super Congress” does indeed turn their attention toward our guns, I believe the late Charlton Heston put it best when he held up his rifle over his head and uttered the words, “from my cold dead hands.”Hmmmm......First there were Tsars ,then came the Super Sovjet ....Finally the Gulags were filled?The day America turned in to a communist dictatorship .Read the full story here.

• China: Obama Has Failed To Defuse ‘Debt Bomb’,Chinese Govt downgrades the United States’ credit rating from A+ to A, with a negative outlook.(BigPeace).BEIJING: China warned Wednesday that tortured efforts to raise the US debt ceiling had failed to defuse Washington’s “debt bomb”, and that it would further diversify its currency holdings away from the dollar.US President Barack Obama finally signed an emergency austerity bill on Tuesday that averted what would have been a catastrophic debt default for the world’s biggest economy.But a failure to rein in US borrowing could “jeopardise the well-being of hundreds of millions of families within and beyond the US borders”, the official Xinhua news agency said in a blistering commentary on the deal.“The months-long tug of war between Democrats and Republicans…failed to defuse Washington’s debt bomb for good, only delaying an immediate detonation by making the fuse an inch longer,” the commentary said.“Meanwhile, the madcap farce of brinkmanship has disclosed yet another ticking bomb in the heartland of the sole superpower in the world — the crippling tendency to politicise the economics while trivialising the politics.”China, sitting on the world’s biggest foreign exchange reserves of around $3.20 trillion as of the end of June, is the largest holder of US Treasuries.Xinhua’s comments came as China’s central bank said it would continue to diversify its foreign currency investments, signalling growing concerns in Beijing over the US debt crisis and economic downturn.“China’s foreign exchange reserves will continue following the principle of diversified investment, enhancing risk management,” People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in a statement.“Large fluctuations and uncertainty in the US treasury bond market will affect the stability of international monetary and financial systems, which will hurt global economic recovery.”The statement, in which he also welcomed the plan, was the first official response to the deal to raise to the limit on US borrowing and enact at least $2.1 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.“We will further study and pay close attention to the details of the plan in hopes the US government and Congress adopts responsible policy measures to properly deal with the debt problem,” he added.Also Wednesday, Xinhua said Chinese rating agency Dagong, which has links to the government through its chairman, had downgraded the United States’ credit rating from A+ to A, with a negative outlook.Dagong has made a name for itself by hitting out at its three Western rivals — Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poor’s — saying they caused the financial crisis by failing to properly disclose risk.Hmmmm........Confucius say: Man with head up ass, can't see for shit. Read the full story here.

• Ten Questions Ambassador Ford Should Have Been Asked.(WeeklyStandard).By Elliot Abrams).The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s confirmation hearing of Robert S. Ford, a first rate foreign service officer now serving as ambassador to Syria under a recess appointment, was held Tuesday, August 2nd. If the United States is to have an ambassador in Damascus, Ford is an excellent man for that post. But the senators should use the confirmation process to extract a far better understanding of U.S. policy toward Syria. Because most of the Senate left town immediately after the debt limit vote, only one actually attended the Ford hearing—meaning that it was not a serious examination of American policy toward Syria and Ford's role in it. Here are a few questions worth posing, in writing, before the committee votes on Ford's nomination.

1) Why does the United States not call for Assad’s departure, given that we did call for that of our long-time ally Hosni Mubarak? Doesn’t the refusal to call for an end to the Assad mafia’s rule in Syria convey the wrong message to Syrians—a message of uncertainty, wavering, and indecision? Is it not clear to you that the Assad family must have zero role in Syria’s future if the country is ever to emerge from the current nightmare? If that is clear, why not say it?

2) Doesn’t it seem that the longer the violence goes on the greater the chance of sectarian conflict? If that is so, isn’t the obvious conclusion that Assad must go sooner rather than later? Again, then why not say so?

3) What is the United States doing at the United Nations, with Turkey, and with Arab countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Iraq to support a regime change in Damascus now?

 4) As your movements in Syria are restricted, should the United States not immediately impose equal limits on the movements of the Assad ambassador here, Imad Mustapha? What ability do you now have to get out of Damascus?

5) Can you think of a symbolic action the United States might realistically take that would more clearly demonstrate our break with Assad and his clan, and would more clearly show that we want him out, than recalling our ambassador?

6) Your visit to Hama was the most effective action you’ve taken in the few months you have been at post. If the Assad government is now going to prevent you from repeating that visit, why should you stay in Syria?

7) As we assume your every movement is covered by the Syrian secret police and every visitor to the embassy is noted by them, can you actually engage with the opposition to the Assads? Has it become too dangerous for them to meet with you? If that is so, why should you stay in Syria?

8) Whether you are confirmed or not, you are now stationed in Damascus and don’t believe you should be recalled. Tell us when an ambassador should be recalled. Your movements are limited and your embassy has been attacked. Isn’t that enough? If they attack the embassy again, would that do it?

9) According to news reports in late April, an American diplomat was detained, hooded, and “roughed up” despite his diplomatic immunity. How did the United States respond to this? Another demarche? Again, given that the embassy has been attacked and a member of its staff has been illegally detained and assaulted, when do we rightly say, “enough is enough,” and pull the ambassador? If we do not, isn’t the lesson that such conduct may be conducted with impunity?

10) The president justified the NATO military effort in Libya by saying, “we saw the prospect of imminent massacre . . . Had we not acted along with our NATO allies and regional coalition partners, thousands would have been killed.” But in Syria we are seeing such massacres, now at about 2,000 people and climbing very fast. What can the United States do to prevent Assad from provoking sectarian violence? What can we do to reassure Christians, Druze, Kurds, and Alawites that they will not be targeted if a Sunni-led government wins power, or persuade Sunni groups to offer many more and more persuasive reassurances?Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration.Read the full story here.

• Police are trying to defuse a 'Collar bomb' that has been strapped to a teenage girl in Sydney's exclusive Mosman.(DailyTelegraph).THE investigation into a Mosman bomb incident is now being headed by the robbery and serious crimes squad, which also deals with extortion attempts. Assistant police commissioner Mark Murdoch did not confirm whether the 18-year-old girl was a victim of an extortion attempt - instead he said police were still unsure what they were dealing with."We don't know what we are dealing with...we are working very hard to find out exactly what it is, and equally important, what it isn't," Mr Murdoch said.He said the girl was extremely calm despite the ordeal, with specialist officers with her.Assistant police commissioner Mark Murdoch described the situation as a "very serious and sensitive matter"."We are still treating the suspicious package as live," he said."I can't confirm whether it is strapped to the woman involved but she is still in the vicinity of the device."When asked whether the girl could move away from the bomb, Mr Murdoch said: "No, she can't get away from it."Mr Murdoch said police had to "hasten slowly" in a situation as delicate as this.The drama unfolded at 2.40pm Wednesday afternoon when an 18-year-old girl called police to the mansion in Burrawong Avenue, Mosman 'following discovery of a suspicious device'.It was not clear how the device came to be strapped to the girl but it is understood she did not place it there herself.A senior police police officer described the device as an unusual 'collar bomb' which has never been seen before in Australia.He said they believed it was an extortion attempt and that the initial details of the situation were being conveyed to police via the girl's father.The girl, who is part of one of Sydney's wealthiest families is understood to be 'absolutely petrified'.Police believe the ransom note is attached to her neck but bomb experts have been unable at this point to read its contents.Police cordoned off the house and a command post has been set-up on the corner of Burrawong Ave and David Street.Police Bomb Squad officers are currently examining the device, while other emergency services are in support at the scene with the teen's parents.A third police rescue vehicle has entered the crime scene, as well as a number of detectives.The girl is only in Year 12 and is believed to be studying her HSC this year. She celebrated her 18th birthday three weeks ago.Her parents are outside the home comforting each other. Police said they could not elaborate except to say a 'delicate operation' was in progress. Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch described the operation as a "very painstaking" one."The device we are examining is proving a tough nut to crack and we are trying to determine what it is and what it isn't," he said.Four police officers, including specialist negotiators, were with the girl all afternoon.Not even the panic-stricken parents have been able to talk to their daughter."The officers with her are doing their utmost to keep her calm," Mr Murdoch said."It is extremely tough for her but she's holding up very well."The parents are doing it even tougher than she is...they are certainly parents who care a great deal about their daughter."Read and see (Video).the full story here.

• Updated - Heiress, 18, safe after ten-hour battle to remove collar bomb 'balaclava-clad intruder locked around her neck'.(DailyMail).An Australian schoolgirl who spent more than 10 hours with a bomb strapped to her by a hooded intruder who broke into her house was reunited with her parents tonight after a dramatic rescue.Police bomb disposal experts, who had sought advice from British military authorities as they delicately worked to free Madeleine Pulver from the explosive package that had been attached to her, finally freed her from her terrifying ordeal - into the arms of her relieved mother and father. The 18-year-old girl had been startled by the balaclava-clad intruder who left the device attached to her - as well as leaving, it is believed, a ransom note for her wealthy parents. Her father, William, is the CEO of an internet share dealing company, called Nielsen Net Ratings and is said to be one of the richest men in Australia.Her mother, Belinda, 51, has a top-notch landscaping company. The family has recently moved back from New York.Today's drama was played out in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Mosman - home of multi-millionaires, sports figures, stockbrokers and bankers.Police assistant commissioner Mark Murdoch admitted last night in the minutes after the girl was released from the device that bomb squad officers still did not know how dangerous it was.But he indicated that it was not a fake device. 'It was examined right away for explosives and the delicate action we have taken in regard to it shows how serious the situation was,' he said.Mr Murdoch said neither he nor the trained bomb squad officers had seen a device like it before.'It is a very elaborate device and remains so. Our bomb technicians are one of the best in the world and it has taken them more than 10 hours to remove it.'The tension that had been on Mr Murdoch's face throughout the afternoon and evening in Australia fell away last night when he announced at midnight that 'minutes ago we have secured the release of the young lady and she is safe and sound. She has been reunited with her parents.'The privately-schooled girl, who had just returned home from a family trip to New York, was due to be examined by doctors overnight.'She's in good hands, with mum and dad,' Mr Murdoch told a press conference today.'They're the most important people for her to be with right now.'The family has endured something no one needs to endure and, as a parent, something I could never contemplate.'There was speculation that the intruder entered the house, attached the explosives to the girl and left a ransom note, but there was no official confirmation of this as the operation to establish just how dangerous the device was continued into the evening in Australia.Burrawong Avenue, Mosman, where the drama is being played out, is home to Australian racing identity Gai Waterhouse and ex-Wallaby rugby players Phil Kearns and John Eales.The young woman's parents were outside the house comforting one another.Police were scouring other 'items' inside the house while they moved Miss Pulver to the front part of the building.There were some suggestions that the drama mirrored a scene from the horror movie Saw and an episode of the CSI crime show.Read the full story here.

• Obama Regime Wants Changes to Arms Export Licensing Process… To Export More Arms.(BlacklistedNews).The Obama administration is proposing to shift tanks, trucks and other military vehicles currently controlled on the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the less-restrictive U.S. Commerce Control List (CCL) by year’s end as part of a broader effort to reform the U.S. arms export licensing process.The licensing process governs foreign sales of sensitive U.S. technologies to other countries, including commercial communications satellites. Under a proposed federal rule issued July 15, the Commerce Department would implement a new regulatory framework for the transfer of defense articles that the president determines no longer warrant control under the Arms Export Control Act, which governs the State Department-administered USML.As a first step, a rewrite of an initial tranche of items — U.S. tanks, trucks and other military vehicles contained within Category VII of the USML — is to be complete by year’s end, according to a senior administration official.Hmmmm.......Muslim Brotherhood and Al-qaida orderbook adapted to the new rules?Read the full story here.

• "Blasphemy"?U.S. Move to Create Envoy for Religious Freedom Seen as Meddling by Islamists.(CNSNews).A vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to establish a special envoy to promote religious freedom in parts of the Middle East and South Asia is causing ripples in Egypt, where a Muslim Brotherhood leader says the decision amounts to more U.S. “interference” in Egypt’s affairs.Concerns about the plight of Egypt’s Christian minority – along with those in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular – featured prominently in hearings leading up to the passage of the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act on Friday.The Senate has yet to vote on a related measure, but passage is considered likely. The Senate bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) and co-sponsored by a Republican and two Democrats.The legislation calls for the president to appoint an envoy, serving within the State Department at the ambassadorial level, to promote religious freedom for minorities in specified countries in the Middle East and South and Central Asia, recommending appropriate responses to violations.The envoy will also be expected to support minority communities, to work with governments abroad to address discriminatory laws, and to represent the U.S. government in contacts with foreign governments and organizations including the United Nations.Since the toppling of former President Hosni Mubarak, Coptic Christians and churches have come under attack and faced harassment and threats, prompting fears for the future as elections draw nearer.On Tuesday, the vice president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Freedom and Justice Party,” Rafiq Habib, criticized the plan to appoint an envoy.The Muslim Brotherhood Web site cited him as saying that U.S. lawmakers’ concerns for the safety of Copts and other minorities in Egypt were uncalled for and that Egyptians were “capable of handling their affairs without external interference.”Habib was quoted further as saying that “the people will no longer accept meddling in their affairs and will not accept other entities to dictate for them how to decide for their future.”Passage of the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act followed hearings of the congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in January and March focusing on persecution of Christians in Egypt and Iraq as well as other religious minorities including Baha’is and Ahmadis in Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere.The legislation names 31 mostly Muslim-majority countries – 18 in the Near East and 13 in South and Central Asia – where the envoy should focus his or her attention, but calls for priority to be given to four countries – Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.The text also refers briefly to anti-Semitism, citing “Holocaust glorification” in Middle East media.Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who authored the bill, said persecution of Christians was rampant in Afghanistan and Pakistan – “countries where the United States has invested its treasure and the lives of countless brave American soldiers.”Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) called the fate of Egypt’s Christian minority “the bellwether of the rights for religious minorities in the Middle East.”Lead Democratic sponsor Rep. Anna Eshoo (Calif.), a Chaldean Catholic, said that “as the daughter of Assyrian and Armenian immigrants who fled the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East, it’s terrifying to see history repeating itself in today’s Iraq. I'm hopeful that the special envoy created by this legislation will elevate the crisis of the Middle East’s religious minorities, giving them the diplomatic attention they so badly need and deserve.”The 31 countries identified in the religious freedom legislation are:In the Middle East – Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, as well as the West Bank and Gaza; and in South and Central Asia – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.Many of those countries are considered by religious freedom advocates to be among the most dangerous places to be a Christian or other religious minority.On the 2011 Open Doors USA’s World Watch list, 12 of the top 20 countries named are among those cited in the legislation. They are – in descending order of the assessed level of persecution – Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Turkmenistan, Qatar and Egypt.Of Christian Freedom International’s list of the top 10 countries where persecution takes place, seven are named in the measure – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.Hmmmm.......Good luck with that, let us know how 'interfaith dialog' works out..Read the full story here.

• AG Holder wants to keep secrets in FBI lawsuit.(Forbes).LOS ANGELES -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has invoked state secrets rules to prevent information from being released in a lawsuit filed by Southern California Muslims who claim the FBI monitored their activities solely because of their religion.In a legal declaration filed late Monday, Holder makes a rare assertion of the state secrets privilege, arguing that it could cause significant harm to national security if the government is forced to reveal the subjects of a mosque-surveillance operation in 2006 and describe how the monitoring was carried out.The key informant in the case, Craig Monteilh, turned against the FBI and described how his agency handlers taught him to ingratiate himself into the Orange County Muslim community then secretly gather cell phone numbers, email addresses and record conversations.Monteilh claims the FBI even told him to talk openly about jihad in an attempt to solicit terrorist sentiments from community members. But instead of responding to his violent rhetoric, mosque-goers called the FBI to say they were worried about his statements.Holder's declaration came in a motion to dismiss the bulk of a lawsuit filed against the FBI in February by the ACLU of Southern California and the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Many of the allegations were based on Monteilh's claims.The FBI has said it does not initiate counterterrorism operations based solely on a group's religion.In its filing, the agency said a range of details Monteilh provided for Operation Flex remain properly protected counterterrorism investigative information."This includes ... precisely what that investigation entailed and why it was undertaken, the identity of particular subjects, and the reasons they were investigated," the document states.Holder goes on to argue that if individuals knew they were under surveillance, they could "anticipate the actions of law enforcement and intelligence officers, possibly leading to counter-surveillance that could place federal agents at higher risk."The Department of Justice said in a statement Tuesday it conducted a thorough review "to provide greater accountability for the use of privilege" by invoking it only in seeking dismissal of Monteilh's claims of illegal electronic surveillance."Officials specifically looked for a way to allow this case to proceed while carving out national security information, and concluded that some information about the allegations could be made available without compromising sensitive national security information," the statement said.ACLU attorney Peter Bibring said it was extremely unusual for the government to invoke the state secrets privilege, especially in a domestic case being investigated by a domestic law enforcement agency. The secrecy rules are usually only requested in extraordinary matters overseas, such as the targeted killing by drones or extraordinary rendition."The government's position here is the FBI's conduct should be beyond the review of the courts, which would render the protections of the constitution meaningless," Bibring said. "Following the government's argument, any domestic law enforcement operation deemed to effect national security would be beyond review."Bibring said the ACLU would oppose the government's motion.Read the full story here.

• How US Muslims feel about America.(Politico).The overwhelming majority of American Muslims say they are not sympathetic with terror groups like al Qaeda, but they identify less strongly with the United States than other religious groups in the country, according to a new poll on Tuesday.While 69 percent of American Muslims identify either very strongly or extremely strongly with the U.S., that compares with about 90 percent of Christians and Jews in the U.S. who hold those views, the Gallup survey found.A full 91 percent of Protestants, 89 percent of Catholics, 86 percent of Jews and 92 percent of Mormons say that they identify either very strongly or extremely strongly with the U.S.American Muslims and Mormons tend to identify with their faith and the U.S. equally, but Catholics, Protestants and Jews all said that they identified more with their country than with their religion, Gallup said.Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, American Muslims have been in the spotlight for a variety of reasons, many of them associated with prejudice toward Muslims as supporters of terrorism.An overwhelming number – 92 percent – of American Muslims said that Muslims in this country are not sympathetic toward al Qaeda, but that number was significantly lower among other religious groups with 56 percent of Protestants, 63 percent of Catholics and 70 percent of Jews saying that American Muslims do sympathize with the organization.And Tuesday’s poll echoed that experience, with nearly half of American Muslims saying they had experienced religious or racial discrimination within the past year. About one-third of Mormons said that they had faced discrimination, compared to only one-fifth of Jews, Catholics and Protestants.American Muslims also overwhelmingly said that they opposed military attacks on civilians, with 78 percent saying that such attacks are never justified and 21 percent saying they are sometimes justified. In other religious groups – except Mormons – the proportion saying such attacks are sometimes justified is twice that.The poll found that Muslim in the U.S. were broadly critical of American foreign policy, with 83 percent of American Muslims saying the war in Iraq was a mistake, which, except for Jews and atheists, was about twice as high a number than other religious groups.Unlike other religious groups in the U.S., Muslims said that widely unfavorable views of the U.S. in predominantly Islamic countries was caused by U.S. actions and not misinformation spread by those countries’ governments. Two-thirds of Muslim Americans said they believed that U.S. actions had tarnished its reputations, while about 70 percent of Protestants, Catholics and Mormons blamed the unfavorable views on misinformation.Hmmmm.......So much for 'outreach to Muslims'.Read the full story here.

• Punishing Success.Why Obama’s economy won’t improve.(NatReview).By Mona Charen.It’s not that the president wants to hurt the country, it’s that he believes the government accomplished the best things this country has ever done. “We do big things,” he said in his State of the Union address in January. But when enumerating those things, he focused on the things government has done — building the interstate highway system, setting up the Internet, funding education (oh, do we ever fund education!). And that’s what he wants more of.The president is dazzled by the vision of those shiny high-speed trains — and by solar panels, electric cars, and other pet projects that have caught his imagination. What he has been unwilling to do is permit the vast private sector to make its own decisions — to follow its own ideas. Instead, the administration has been saddling the private sector with a stifling load of regulations. The burden of Obamacare, most of which does not take effect until 2014, is mostly in the realm of fear and uncertainty. Employers do not know how much each new hire will cost under the new health-care regime. Nor can they estimate how the 129 new boards, commissions, and agencies will affect the business world. Meanwhile, the EPA is regulating carbon dioxide as an air pollutant. The National Labor Relations Board is attempting to prevent the Boeing Corporation from opening a new plant in South Carolina. The FCC is seeking to exert control over Internet commerce through the deceptively named “net neutrality” policy. The Department of Labor is strictly enforcing racial and gender quotas. And the Federal Reserve, along with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (created by the Dodd-Frank law) is practically freezing small-business lending. This president has spun fantasies about the industries of tomorrow, while punishing the industries of today. His fulminations against “millionaires and billionaires” and his wrath about “corporate jets” betray a fundamentally childish urge to punish success. Under his economic stewardship, there is less and less of that around.Hmmmmm.........Oh look a unicorn!Read the full story here.

• Fogel family murderer convicted.(Ynet).Hakim Awad confesses in court to murder of five members of Fogel family, says threatened to commit another murder to get family members to help conceal weapons, clothes.The Samaria District Military Court on Tuesday convicted Hakim Awad, 18, in the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar five months ago.Awad was also convicted in a series weapons-related and security offences. The trial of second defendant Amjad Awad is still ongoing separately as the two are testifying against each other.Awad corrected the presiding judge several times as he read out the details of the indictment to which he confessed. The defendant noted that the Fogel children looked at him and Amjad through the house blinds, and not the other way around.Awad also said that his relatives were initially outraged to learn of the murders, and even beat him and Amjad before they helped them conceal the weapons. He noted that when their uncle refused to help the two, he threatened to go back to Itamar to commit another murder.Only then did the uncle agree to help conceal their weapons and blood-soaked clothes, Awad said. He did not show any emotion during the arraignment and confession. Despite the confession, the judges decided to examine some of the prosecution's evidence, primarily forensic evidence such as as finger prints and DNA, before announcing the conviction, in order to verify that the confession matches the findings.Presiding Judge Menachem Lieberman explained: "The reason behind the decision is that the event in question caused shock both in Israel and abroad and there is an element of suspicion – however ludicrous this may sound – that a person will claim responsibility for an act he did not commit for the sake of 'glory'."The judges eventually convicted Awad in five cases of murder after examining the evidence. The defendant's attorney Raed Erda said that after receiving the evidence and in light of his client's confession he had no choice but to plea a confession in court.The court will discuss sentencing arguments in September and will hear testimonies from the Fogel family. The prosecution has mentioned in the past that it will not seek the death penalty.Hmmmmm........May God have mercy on his victims and a swift justice for their killer.Read the full story here.

• "Does seize matter?"Kingdom Tower to pip reigning champ Burj Khalifa by 173m.(Emirates24/7).The US-headquartered architectural practice Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has revealed the design for the Kingdom Tower, which is to be the world’s tallest building at 1 kilometre height.Construction of the 1km-high building in Jeddah to start soon.It will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world’s current tallest building, Dubai’s 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). At over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million-square-meter site in north Jeddah.The developer, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) selected the scheme after a lengthy competition process, which included SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster+Partners. Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently, said a statement from AS+GG. Foundation drawings are complete while the piling is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion. AS+GG’s design is both highly technological and distinctly organic, said the practice.“With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it,” said Smith in a statement. The sleek, streamlined form of the tower was inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth. “The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology," added Gordon Gill.In addition, each of the tower's three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea. The complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions.AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 23-hectare Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall and other amenities. Kingdom Holding Company is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company along with Jeddah businessmen Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). SBG is also the contractor for Kingdom Tower.Read the full story here.

• Egypt's Hosni Mubarak appears in court.(Al-Jazeera). (Video).Former president and sons plead not guilty to charges including corruption and murder.Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, has appeared in court to face charges of corruption and the unlawful killing of protesters during the revolution that forced him from power."I categorically deny all the charges," Mubarak said at the trial, held in the capital Cairo, on Wednesday. The ousted president spoke from a hospital stretcher where he lay inside a cage for defendants in the court.His two sons, Gamal and Alaa, who are also on trial for corruption, denied the charges against them as well. They accompanied their father in the defendants' cage during the trial.Mubarak was flown to Cairo for the trial from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where he has lived since his removal from power.Wednesday marks his first public appearance since he was toppled in the popular uprising on February 11. The former president's trial, in a temporary court at the police academy in Cairo, is being screened live on Egyptian state television."This is the first time that an Arab leader ousted by his own people is being put on trial by his own people," Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reported from outside the court in the capital."Mubarak is looking very alert," Tadros said."He has dyed his hair black as we normally see him. He is in a bed of course, but I think it will come as somewhat of a surprise to everyone - especially given the reports of his deteriorating and ailing health - that he does look so well and alert at this trial."With the case still in its procedural stages, "the senior judge Ahmed Refaat is trying to keep everyone calm and trying to maintain a semblance of authority," Tadros said."He is known as a very authoritative senior figure in the judicial system, he is known also for being very fair and not tied to the old regime."Read and see the full story here.

• UK - Muslim Boys gang are 'planning massive attack' at Belmarsh prison in revenge for Osama bin Laden killing.(Mirror).Governors at Britain’s top terror jail believe al-Qaeda extremists are planning a major attack as payback for Osama bin Laden’s death.Security has been stepped up to “unprecedented” levels at Belmarsh prison after warnings that the Muslim Boys gang is plotting a revenge mission. A 15-strong riot squad in stab-proof vests has hidden around the jail’s chapel during Muslim prayers on Fridays in case of an attack.Another team of officers has been on standby ready to assist.Prisoners on House Block One, which includes 39 terror suspects, added to the tension by staging a mass show of defiance on Friday.Inmates refused to return to their cells and a source says “staff very nearly lost control of the jail”.The standoff was only ended when officers brandished batons and demanded a retreat as they marched towards the prisoners.The source said: “It’s a powder keg waiting to go off.“There are concerns it will take an officer’s death before the Muslim Boys are tackled seriously.“The levels of security being employed are unprecedented.Management are worried the Muslim Boys are planning an incident in Bin Laden’s honour on a scale never seen before.“Security around the past three Friday prayers has been massive.”The prayers at the Category A prison in South-East London are attended by high profile terror figures including hook-handed preacher of hate Abu Hamza.The Muslim Boys, a splinter group of al-Qaeda, are thought to have been plotting since Bin Laden was killed by US troops in May.Read the full story here.

• Lenient Courts?German Justice Slammed in Honor Killing Study.(Spiegel).What drives families to commit 'honor killings?' Who are the killers and where do they come from? A new study commissioned by the German police has found that the killers are almost always first-generation immigrants from poor backgrounds, that cases aren't increasing and that courts are making mistakes in their handling of them.In March 2009, 20-year-old Gülsüm S. was killed by her father and her brother. The men hit her in the face with branches and pieces of wood in an assault so brutal that it was difficult to identify her body. The Kurdish woman had to die because she was no longer a virgin. Because she had had an abortion. Because the family felt dishonored by her actions.In 2005, Hatan Sürücu was killed with several shots to the head -- fired by her brother.Who are the killers? Why do they kill? How does the German justice system punish them?

A study by the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, which has been obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE ahead of its release, provides the most comprehensive overview yet of so-called "honor killings" in Germany. The researchers investigated 78 cases with 109 victims and 122 perpetrators.Commissioned by the German Criminal Police Office (BKA), criminologists Dietrich Oberwittler and Julia Kassel spent three years researching "honor-related homicides in families and partnerships between 1996 and 2005."The 250-page document outlines crimes of staggering brutality, such as the 22-year-old Turkish man who killed his younger sister by stabbing her 46 times because she had separated from her husband. Or the Jordanian whose underage daughter had to die because she rejected her boyfriend.The researchers pored over court documents and BKA files, and combed through newspaper archives. "There has never been such an empirical overview of honor-related killings in Germany," said Oberwittler, the head of the research team.

The study refutes a widely-held view that the number of honor killings in Germany is increasing. While the numbers vary from year to year -- there were two in 1998 and 12 in 2004 -- the average has remained at between seven and 10 cases per year. The huge spike in media coverage of such cases has created the false impression that they are on the rise, the researchers say.Virtually all such homicides are linked to the "lack of female submission to the control of a patriarchal family will," the study says. The woman's choice of partner is supposed to be a matter for the family. If she resists, she is seen as besmirching the "honor" of her parental home.

 The researchers distinguish between four types of cases:

■The victim's failure to stay in a "legitimate" partnership by being unfaithful, planning to separate or actually separating. In 43 of the cases examined, this was the motive for the killing.

■An "illegitimate" partnership by the victim such as a premarital sexual affair or pregnancy. Or a partnership with the "wrong" person. This was the motive in 25 of the 78 killings investigated.

■A victim's desire for independence. An excessively "western lifestyle," or a refusal to adhere to family traditions regarding family and marriage. This was the motive cited behind 20 killings.

■Other reasons that don't fit in the above three categories, such as the rape of a woman which is seen as having brought shame on the family. The researchers looked into eight such cases.

In many cases several people, mostly family members, committed the killings together. At first sight, the large number of male victims is surprising. A total of 43.1 percent of honor killing victims were men. However these were in most cases "additional" victims that were killed alongside the "actual," female victims. That means that the killers were targeting a woman and killed her friend/partner/lover at the same time.Most of the victims were young. More than half were aged betweem 18 and 29. Seven percent of victims were underage, the remainder were 30 and over.The killers tend to be older, with 32 percent aged 40 and over. Most of them -- 76 of 122 -- were of Turkish descent. People from Arab states and from the former Yugoslavia come a distant second and third.Fewer than 10 percent of the killers were born in Germany and only 7.6 percent had German citizenship. Honor killings are hardly ever committed by second or third-generation immigrants. This, says Oberwittler, is a sign "that integration is working in Germany. The problem of honor killings is serious, but limited."More than a third of the killers were unemployed. Most of the remainder were poorly educated and in manual jobs.The study says German courts are in many cases failing to adhere to the ruling by the Federal Court of Justice that honor killings be treated as having "base motives," which tends to lead to more severe sentences. But in fact, base motives were only determined for 28 out of the 87 people convicted. In around 40 percent of cases, the honor killing aspect wasn't even addressed. In 15 cases, the judge even deemed the "honor" motive as a cause for leniency. "Those are mostly cases in which the family environment exerted a lot of pressure on individuals. Younger perpetrators have been influenced in that way. They are often people who haven't been in Germany long," said Oberwittler. The research team based its study on strictly empirical research. But Oberwrittler is aware that the results could fan prejudice against immigrants in Germany. That is why he stresses: "Such crimes are almost exclusively committed by a small, poorly integrated underclass. The 'honor killing' is in no way typical behavior for the Turkish community in Germany."Hmmmmm........Then why are there so many DIShonor killings in Turkey?Read the full story here.

• Turn It Down! Ex VP Jusuf Kalla Urges Volume Control for Noisy Indonesian Mosques.(theJakartaGlobe).A relatively quieter Ramadan may be in store this year after former Vice President Jusuf Kalla called on the Indonesian Council of Ulema to help control the volume of mosques’ call to prayer.“There is no other country in the world except Indonesia where the call to prayer is deafening,” he said in a speech on Saturday addressed to the council, also known as the MUI, that was broadcast by local television stations.“If [mosques] want to compete, they should do so based on the quality of the call to prayer, not the volume of their speakers.”Umar Shihab, one of the chairmen of the MUI, told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday that the council responded positively to Kalla’s advice.“We have to admit that there are many complaints about the loud calls to prayer during Ramadan, as if there is a competition,” Umar said.“Apart from that, some of them start calling for prayers an hour or two hour before the schedule, when it it’s better to be done just 30 minutes before,” he said.Umar said the MUI would ask mosques to heed the call and be more orderly.“It should not be about which one is the first or the loudest to call for prayer,” he said. “It should be about the quality of the prayer, because Islam is an orderly and beautiful religion.”Last December, the Praya District Court in West Nusa Tenggara sentenced an American man to five months in jail for blasphemy for pulling the plug on a mosque’s loudspeaker during a prayer reading during Ramadan last year.Read the full story here.

• Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon: We Are Willing to Assist in Oil Drilling.(Memri).The Lebanese daily Al-Jumhuriya has reported that in a meeting with the Lebanese energy and water minister, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon said that Iran is willing to assist Lebanon in oil drilling.It should be mentioned that on July 17, Lebanon approved a memorandum of understanding between the energy ministries of both countries, which enables Iran to assist Lebanon in oil and natural gas drilling.Hmmmm......"It's a zionist plot"?Read the full story here.