Antarctic sea ice more than 1.3 million Km above average.

Antarctic sea ice more than 1.3 million Km above average.HT: IceAgeNow.

“We’ve just had the 4th greatest anomaly of the Antarctic sea ice,
with more than 1.3 million Km^2 above average,” says reader F. Guimaraes.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png
And ~ 19 months straight above average of the sea ice in the S. Pole.
All the four greatest records since 1979 happened in the last 6 years.
The cooling of the climate is happening in both hemispheres simultaneously as we see here,
http://iceagenow.info/2013/06/arctic-sea-ice-greatest-extent-mid-june-years/
and
http://iceagenow.info/2013/06/coldest-start-arctic-summer-record/
“Just at the beginning of the new solar grand minimum, ultimately proving that solar radiations drive the climate,” Guimaraes points out.

Exposing the global warming con job.Hmmmm.......BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!Read the full story here.

President Obama’s Climate Initiative — The Bad News and Good News.

President Obama’s Climate Initiative — The Bad News and Good News.HT: WhattsUpWithThis.By Steve Goreham.

Originally published in The Washington Times
In his speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, President Obama announced, “So today…I’m directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants and complete new pollution standards for both new and existing power plants.” This is the first proposal in the President’s new climate initiative. The President also called for expanded efforts to use “clean energy” and for the US to lead the world in bold actions to “combat climate change.”
For the last decade, an obsession with global warming has dominated a wide array of US government policies. Climatism, the belief that man-made greenhouse gases are destroying Earth’s climate, skews federal automobile, transportation, energy, and infrastructure policies. Billions are spent in the ongoing effort to fight climate change.

Today, US policies toward the automobile industry are “driven” by Climatism. In his speech, the President praised new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that rise to 54.5 miles per gallon by year 2025 and that are designed to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Plug-in electric vehicles are promoted and subsidized as a solution to global warming.

Transportation is shaped by climate policy. Ethanol mandates result in the consumption of 40 percent of the US corn crop in vehicle fuel. Biodiesel is promoted as a way to reduce emissions. Even high-speed rail is proposed as a solution to move citizens from airplanes to trains to reduce emissions.

US energy policy is dominated by Climatism. Earlier this week, Dr. Daniel Schrag, an advisor to the president on climate, stated that “a war on coal is exactly what’s needed.” Despite the fact that more than 30 percent of US electricity is produced from coal today, regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency will make it impossible to build a new coal-fired plant. At the same time, the Obama administration provides loans and subsidies that promote wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy.

At Georgetown, the President addressed the proposed Keystone Pipeline, which has been delayed for almost five years, stating, “…the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determine whether this project will be allowed to go forward.” When operating, the Keystone Pipeline can replace 45 percent of Persian Gulf oil imports with oil from Canada and the northern United States. But our President considers emissions to be a larger issue than reducing OPEC oil imports.

US infrastructure policies are heavily impacted by global warming fears. Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is at the core of LEED building standards. Urban planning aims to reduce emissions by replacing private automobile transit with public transit. The current administration proposes tens of billions for a “smart electrical grid” to promote renewable energy and residential “smart meters” to promote energy efficiency, both pushed forward by the ideology of Climatism.

The bad news is that US citizens pay twice for the President’s war on climate. First, taxpayers subsidize green energy. The Production Tax Credit for wind energy will cost over $12 billion this year. Department of Energy loan guarantees to more than 20 bankrupt renewable energy companies, including Abound Solar, Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Solar Trust, and Solyndra have cost taxpayers billions. Taxpayers also pay for US military efforts to make biofuel out of algae at exorbitant prices.

Second, citizens pay higher costs for electricity, automobiles, and housing from green policies. The Department of Interior offshore wind program will deliver electricity to homeowners at three times the price of conventional power. Fuel economy mandates will raise the price of automobiles. Consumers must pay for smart meters that can curtail electricity usage.

The good news is that, despite fears, man-made emissions have very little effect on Earth’s climate. Water vapor, not carbon dioxide, is Earth’s dominant greenhouse gas. Emissions from human industry cause only about one percent of Earth’s greenhouse effect. And contrary to predictions by all 73 of the world’s top climate models, global temperatures have failed to rise over the last 15 years.
Someone needs to inform the president.
Steve Goreham is Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of the new book The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania.

Obama’s “Case for Action” on Climate Change Doesn’t Cut It.

Obama’s “Case for Action” on Climate Change Doesn’t Cut It.HT: Heritage.By Katie Tubb.

Yesterday, President Obama announced his climate action plan to drastically cut carbon dioxide emissions and mandate greater energy efficiency. This four-paragraph “case for action” on climate change does not legitimize the next 15 pages of federal overreach into the energy sector (and by extension the homes, businesses, and pocketbooks of anyone who uses energy).
“Climate change is no longer a distant threat—we are already feeling its impacts across the country,” according to the White House’s plan. The climate is always changing—that’s what it does. So how do we know this is a problem? President Obama gives us four reasons that don’t quite pass muster:

1. “Last year was the warmest year ever in the contiguous United States and about one-third of all Americans experienced 10 days or more of 100-degree heat.” Since global warming is a global phenomenon, it makes more sense to look at global temperatures. Last year didn’t even make it into the top three hottest years since accurate data have been collected. In fact, for the past 16 years, global temperatures have plateaued. And though 2012 had many days with record-high temps in the U.S., the 1930s were a whole lot hotter.
2. “Asthma rates have doubled in the past 30 years.” Asthma incidences have, it seems, increased, but the National Institute of Health (NIH) doesn’t know why, nor has it been able to explain why rates have leveled off in the U.S. over the past few decades. The NIH has identified this puzzle as an area where more research is needed, so the most that can be said is that is that we simply don’t know—hardly a recipe for regulatory action.
3. “And increasing floods, heat waves, and droughts have put farmers out of business, which is already raising food prices dramatically.” Droughts and floods in fact have not increased. Whether in South Korea, the United States, or globally, droughts and floods continue as they always have. Further, there doesn’t seem to be any correlation between the U.S. Climate Extremes Index and carbon emissions—the third highest-ranking year on the index was 1934. A better explanation for high food prices than climate change: the ethanol mandate.
4. “Last year alone, there were 11 different weather and climate disaster events with estimated losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States.” The last time America suffered a hurricane greater than category 3 was Hurricane Wilma in 2005. We’ve been experiencing a hurricane “drought” of sorts. New York has been hit by large hurricanes before; the difference now is that millions of people and billions of dollars of infrastructure cover the same ground. The annual occurrence of strong tornadoes also hasn’t increased over the past half-century. But now the stories and images of human suffering in the wake of such a storm are pretexts for political blustering and maneuvering in Washington.

This isn’t heel-digging denial; the President is simply wrong. Though almost no one denies that the earth has warmed, there is no consensus on climate sensitivity, the role carbon dioxide plays or doesn’t, whether global warming is a problem, or how data fit into the broader climate context. Obama cannot solve a problem if we don’t know what it is or even if there is one. And it’ll certainly take more than four paragraphs to explain why.

Related: The Whitehouse releases a laughable state by state climate impact report

Uproariously laughable now, the White House state climate impact report claims there are 31 counties in Hawaii, when there are actually 5, see post.

The President’s Climate Action Plan – the good, the bad, and the ugly (with full documents)

The President’s Climate Action Plan – the good, the bad, and the ugly (with full documents).HT: WattsUpWithThat.

Summary:
I’m not impressed at all with the Obama plan. It lacks real vision, and seems written mainly to appease activist groups. While there are some glimmers of positive things in it, the lack of a real way forward (solar, biofuels, and wind aren’t it) combined with new restrictions can only mean higher energy prices in our future, most of it due to government meddling in the free market.
Like most everything from this president, it is likely to be mostly lip service and tied up in legal battles for years. By that time Obama will no longer be President, and we’ll be left to wrestle with the consequences.
The documents: (Thanks to Marc Morano of CFACT for getting access to these documents.)

Fact Sheet(PDF)
President’s Climate Action Plan (PDF)

Read and see the full story here.

The President’s Climate Action Plan: Intervention Where It Isn’t Necessary

The President’s Climate Action Plan: Intervention Where It Isn’t Necessary.HT: Cato. By Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger.

In his speech today, President Obama laid out his plan—formulated around executive action—to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of mitigating future climate change.
Funny thing is, absent his Climate Action Plan, the U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have been on the decline for a decade, and now are at about the same level as our emissions in the early 1990s. In fact, the decline in emissions is taking place at a rate faster than the one sought by the president.
So why mess with a good thing? There is no way that introducing a bunch of new government regulations is going to improve the situation. If the Great Recession is any indication, the outcome of government involvement in the energy industry will be a poor one.
And to what end? As I have repeatedly shown, reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions has no significant impact on the future course of climate change.
On top of that, new science is accumulating that indicates that the future course of climate change is likely to be less steep than our current climate model-based estimates.
And despite the president’s long list of supposed climate wrongs that are consistent with human-caused climate change, there is an equally long list of climate wrongs that have been averted for reasons “consistent with” climate change.
Taken together, declining U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and declining estimates of climate change, should have been enough to convince the president that things were already on the proper track—no government intervention necessary.

But this administration is characterized by intervening where it is not necessary. The president’s Climate Action Plan is more of the same. 

Snowfall changes in Antarctica

Obama’s “for the children” climate change video announcement.

Obama’s “for the children” climate change video announcement.HT: WattsUpWithThat

AP: Obama says he’ll unveil climate plan in Tuesday speech ‘for the sake of our children’. It seems though, that the world is making a collective yawn (consensus?) so far given the views.

The video has been up for nearly a day and has only 12.000 views and has 546 “likes” as of this writing.
This quote from the video makes me laugh and angry at the same time:

“We’ll need scientists to design new fuels and farmers to grow them,” he said. “We’ll need engineers to devise new sources of energy and businesses to make and sell them.”

The hell with “new fuels and farmers to grow them”, biofuels are low return on investment and raise the cost of our food supply; just get a Thorium reactor program started. The technology has been around for years, and the Chinese are already headed down that path.

Boehner: Obama’s climate plan ‘absolutely crazy’

Boehner hits the nail on the head

President Obama’s soon-to-be-revealed second-term climate change proposal is “absolutely crazy,” Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

The Ohio Republican was incredulous when asked to react to reports that the White House plans to regulate carbon emissions from power plants as part of its climate change strategy.
“I think this is absolutely crazy,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference. “Why would you want to increase the cost of energy and kill more American jobs at a time when American people are asking, ‘Where are the jobs.’ “

Meanwhile: 

UCLA pulls a “children aren’t going to know what snow is”

As one comment points out:

Apparently they cannot do web searches:

“This is the first time snow has fallen in the state of Arkansas during the month of May. …May 4, 2013 will go down in the record books as the latest snowfall in Arkansas.”
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tsa/?n=weather-event_2013may2
“Even though it is now May, the brutal, never-ending winter of 2012-13 obstinately refuses to relent, and has dumped heaps of snow from Denver to southern Minnesota. Single-day record May snowfalls have likely fallen in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/05/02/historic-snow-and-cold-strike-rockies-and-upper-midwest/
Blizzard Of 2013 Reaches Top 5 Snowstorms In New England History
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/09/snowfall-nearing-record-levels-several-more-inches-coming/

Obama Climate Change Push Begins Tuesday.

Obama Climate Change scam Push Begins Tuesday. HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By KeithKoffler.

President Obama will begin his attempt to make the waters recede with an address on global warming Tuesday afternoon at Georgetown University in Washington.

He announced the speech in a carbon-friendly tweet this afternoon.The tweet contained a video.


As you may be aware, the push will come by executive fiat, Congress having been unwilling to concur with the wisdom of The One.

“This Tuesday, I’ll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go — a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change, and lead global efforts to fight it,” the president said. “This is a serious challenge — but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths.”

Hmmmmm.....New Zealand: Mt Hutt ski area closed – Too much snow - Obama this week "We must act on global warming before it's too late'.As Anthony and others have pointed out, even the New York Times has at last been constrained to admit what Dr. Pachauri of the IPCC was constrained to admit some months ago. There has been no global warming statistically distinguishable from zero for getting on for two decades.

Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years

Damn.........IT'S TOO LATE FOR THE SCAM TO WORK !

21 June 2013 New Zealand: Mt Hutt

Obama Quietly Raises 'Carbon Price' as Costs to Climate Increase

Obama Quietly Raises 'Carbon Price' as Costs to Climate Increase. (Bloomberg).

Buried in a little-noticed rule on microwave ovens is a change in the U.S. government’s accounting for carbon emissions that could have wide-ranging implications for everything from power plants to the Keystone XL pipeline.

The increase of the so-called social cost of carbon, to $38 a metric ton in 2015 from $23.80, adjusts the calculation the government uses to weigh costs and benefits of proposed regulations. The figure is meant to approximate losses from global warming such as flood damage and diminished crops. 

With the change, government actions that lead to cuts in emissions -- anything from new mileage standards to clean-energy loans -- will appear more valuable in its cost-benefit analyses. On the flip side, environmentalists urge that it be used to judge projects that could lead to more carbon pollution, such as TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone pipeline or coal-mining by companies such as Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) on public lands, which would be viewed as more costly.

“As we learn that climate damage is worse and worse, there is no direction they could go but up,” Laurie Johnson, chief economist for climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview. Johnson says the administration should go further; she estimates the carbon cost could be as much as $266 a ton.

Even supporters questioned the way the administration slipped the policy out without first opening it for public comment. The change was buried in an afternoon announcement on May 31 about efficiency standards for microwave ovens, a rule not seen as groundbreaking.

“This is a very strange way to make policy about something this important,” Frank Ackerman, an economist at Tufts University who published a book about the economics of global warming, said in an interview. The Obama administration “hasn’t always leveled with us about what is happening behind closed doors.”

Industry representatives are equally puzzled.

“It’s a pretty important move. To do this without any outside participation is bizarre,” said Jeff Holmstead, a lawyer at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (1222L) representing coal-dependent power producers and other industry groups. A legal challenge to the determination would be difficult, but could be tried by itself or in a challenge to a specific rulemaking that uses the cost, he said.Read the full story here.

Meanwhile :

 Hmmmm.......No significant warming for 17 years 4 months.

By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley.

As Anthony and others have pointed out, even the New York Times has at last been constrained to admit what Dr. Pachauri of the IPCC was constrained to admit some months ago. There has been no global warming statistically distinguishable from zero for getting on for two decades.

Contrary to the Numerous prophet’s assertions, the Earth has been cooling for 2000 years.

Contrary to the Numerous prophet’s assertions, the Earth has been cooling for 2000 years.HT: IceAgeNow.

“Thoroughly debunks the claim that temperatures on the planet today are in any way historic or unprecedented.”

A new study of tree-ring data has concluded that not only has our climate often been noticeably hotter than today, temperatures have actually been on a falling trend for the past 2,000 years.

Measurements stretching back to 138 BC prove that the Earth is slowly cooling -0.3°C per millennium due to gradual changes to the position of the sun and an increase in the distance between the Earth and the sun.

The climate was HOTTER in Roman and Medieval times than it is now.

Despite the absence of any significant amounts of human-released carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the climate was HOTTER in Roman and Medieval times than it is now.

“We found that previous estimates of historical temperatures during the Roman era and the Middle Ages were too low,” says Doctor Jan Esper of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, one of the scientists leading the study. “Such findings are also significant with regard to climate policy.”

Orbital shifting on climate up to four times as powerful as AGW (human-caused warming)

The cooling effect of orbital shifting on the climate has been up to four times as powerful as anthropogenic (human-caused) warming pressures, the study concluded.Read the full story here.

Obama's Energy Secretary says Climate Change not Debatable.

Carbon tax hallucinations.

Carbon tax hallucinations.(WUWT).By Paul Driessen.

Average planetary temperatures haven’t budged in 16 years. Hurricanes and strong tornadoes are at or near their lowest ebb in decades. Global sea ice is back to normal, Arctic ice is nearly normal, and the Antarctic icepack continues to grow. The rate of sea level rise remains what it was in 1900.

And yet, President Obama and many politicians, newscasters and alarmist scientists continue to insist that carbon dioxide emissions are changing Earth’s climate, and we need to take immediate action to prevent storms like Hurricane Sandy and avert catastrophes predicted by IPCC computer models and alleged “scientific consensus.” Not surprisingly, polls show public support for controlling CO2 output and taxing hydrocarbon use – to “ensure climate security” and “save vital federal programs” from budgetary axes.
As the liberal lobby Think Progress put it, people “overwhelmingly” prefer a carbon tax on “big polluters” versus cuts in favorite programs “like education, Social Security, Medicare and environmental protection.”
Five-alarm climate claims, skewed polling questions and phony taxes-versus-grandma budget alternatives will almost always ensure support for carbon taxes – especially among Bigger Government and Ban Fossil Fuels constituencies. More rational analysis reveals that dreams of hundred-billion-dollar windfalls from slapping regressive new taxes on job creation and economic growth are nothing more than dangerous tax revenue hallucinations. They would bring intense pain for no climate or economic gain.
Employing Energy Information Administration data, a recent Heritage Foundation study by economists David Kreutzer and Nicolas Loris found that a tax starting at $25-per-ton of CO2 emitted and increasing by 5% per year would cut a family of four’s income by $1,400 annually, raise their utility bills by $500 a year, and increase gasoline fill-ups by up to 50 cents per gallon. That’s $2,000 a year chopped from their budget for food, vacations, home and car payments and repairs, college and retirement savings, dental and medical care, and overall quality of life.
Even “millionaire” families making $200,000 a year would find such a hit painful. While the poorest families might get some offsetting tax relief, most would get nothing – nor would employers.
Carbon taxes would thus increase the likelihood that many breadwinners will end up unemployed, since the tax would raise business energy costs dramatically, force companies to trim hours and/or employees, and result in an aggregate loss of at least 1 million jobs by 2016, Heritage notes. That would bring more home foreclosures, greater stress, reduced nutrition, and more strokes and heart attacks, especially for older workers whose odds of finding new employment are increasingly bleak.

No small businesses or energy-intensive manufacturing companies would get a rebate for their soaring carbon taxes. Nor would any mall, hospital, school, church, synagogue or charity group.
Hydrocarbons provide over 83% of all the energy that powers America. A carbon tax would put a hefty surcharge on everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do. It would put the federal government in control of, not just one-sixth of our economy as under Obamacare, but 100% of our economy and lives. It would make the United States increasingly less productive, less competitive globally, less able to provide opportunities for our children.
But it gets worse, because this tax on America’s energy and productivity is not being promoted in a vacuum. It would be imposed on top of countless other job and economy strangling actions.
President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has already issued 2,071 new rules and dispensed a regulatory burden of over $353 billion per year – equal to all wealth generated annually by Virginia’s private sector. It is now preparing still more rules, the most crushing of which would regulate the same CO2 emissions that some in Congress want to tax, from both moving and stationary sources. Most, if not all of its punitive rules, are based on exaggerated risks, fear mongering, junk science, and illusory health, welfare, “environmental justice” and “sustainability” benefits.
Other agencies are inflicting still more rules, and more crushing paperwork burdens. Obamacare alone will add 127,602,371 more hours per year to the federal paperwork burden for American businesses and families. That’s enough time to carve 1,039 Mount Rushmore monuments, says the Washington Examiner. Even at $25 per hour, that’s $32 billion a year. On top of that, there are the Dodd-Frank financial requirements and myriad other costly, time-consuming, economy-sapping, job-killing rules.

Meanwhile, federal “discretionary” spending skyrocketed another $129 billion annually in just four years under Obama. That’s comparable to what carbon tax snake oil salesmen claim a $25-per-ton tax would raise each year, several years into a steadily escalating tax, using static analyses that ignore all these “concrete lifesaver” effects.

And for what? The Kyoto Protocol is dead. Japan and many other countries are rejecting any new binding emission targets. China, India, other rapidly developing nations, and even Germany and Europe are burning more coal, emitting more carbon dioxide, and sending atmospheric CO2 levels higher.

And yet, average planetary temperatures show no trend up or down, and global hurricane activity stands at a near-record low. There’s no change in big tornadoes, droughts or rains averaged over the USA for the past century. Polar sea ice is down slightly in the Northern Hemisphere, but up in the Southern. And sea levels show no measurable deviation from trends over the last hundred years.

The only thing that will happen if carbon taxes are inflicted on the US economy is that American jobs, economic growth, living standards, health, dreams and lives will be sacrificed for nothing. 

We need to stop basing laws and policies on hallucinations – and start basing them on reality.Read the full story here.

Related : ShoreBank - Obama - CarbonTrading.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229805/shady-shorebank-bailout/michelle-malkin

http://knowledgecreatespower.blogspot.com/2010/05/shore-bank-obamas-mother-and-geithners.html

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/shorebank.php

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan today 7.1  ! More info here.

• Volcanic Activity : Mount Hekla -Situation Update No. 5  - On 09.07.2011 at 19:05 GMT+2

A glacial flood affected South Iceland last night, likely caused by draining of geothermal melt water from underneath the east side of the Myrdalsjokull glacier. Scientists have been speculating that the glacial outburst may have been caused by a very small volcanic eruption; but no visual or seismic evidence to confirm that theory has yet come to light. The flood peaked last night and engineers are already working on repairing damage to local roads. The sudden outburst knocked out a bridge on the Route 1 highway, leaving the road closed. Icelandic interior minister, Ogmundur Jonasson told reporters that fixing the road is his top priority and the Icelandic Roads Administration is already working to build a temporary replacement bridge. It is hoped the road will open again in two to three days’ time. A spate of small earthquakes under the glacier is now subsiding and seismic activity was not recorded in mainland Scandinavia; unlike the three most recent eruptions in Fimmvorduhals, Eyjafjallajokull and Grimsvotn. This indicates that the eruption under the Myrdalsjokull glacier is either extremely small or not actually happening at all. Glacial outbursts caused by geothermal melt water are common in South Iceland. As the Katla volcano lies partly under Myrdalsjokull, all activity in the area is closely monitored and naturally generates international attention. “This is a very similar occurrence to June 1955. Then glacial outbursts came from two craters in the 1918 volcano site and lasted for ten hours. That was a very intense flood,” says seismologist Bryndis Brandsdottir. She told RUV that last night’s earthquakes were not particularly unusual. “We would expect large-scale seismic activity before a Katla eruption and this activity the Met Office was tracking last night was small; it was not unusual in any way,” Brandsdottir said. Residents of a small area near the glacier have been evacuated to the town of Kirkjubaejarklaustur. Nobody was hurt in the flood.Source.

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

• Think Tank To Obama: The Military’s Budget Is Not Your Fucking Welfare ATM.(TheHill).The conservative Heritage Foundation is taking umbrage with President Obama’s statement that Defense dollars can be used to finance domestic programs.At issue is a comment the president made in response to a question during his Wednesday Twitter town hall about Defense cuts.“The nice thing about the defense budget is it’s so big, it’s so huge, that a 1 percent reduction is the equivalent of the education budget,” Obama said, immediately noting he was “exaggerating” the exact numbers.“But it’s so big that you can make relatively modest changes to defense that end up giving you a lot of head room to fund things like basic research or student loans or things like that,” the president said. But pro-defense conservatives like the military analysts at Heritage are fearing even bigger national security spending cuts in a debt-ceiling deal than Obama’s already ordered $400 billion by 2023.And they did not like Obama’s comment one bit.“Think again, Mr. President,” Mike Brownfield, Heritage’s assistant director of strategic communications, wrote on the think tank’s The Foundry blog. “Contrary to Obama’s belief, the defense budget is not an ATM from which he can pull cash to pay for other projects. And he certainly can’t do it without causing ... damage to U.S. military readiness.“Contrary to his wildly exaggerated statement, a 1 percent reduction to the Pentagon’s proposed fiscal year 2012 base budget would be $5.5 billion—or 7 percent of the Department of Education’s proposed FY 2012 budget,” wrote Brownfield.The Heritage writer faults Obama for wanting to “take those dollars and apply them to pay for his pet projects at home,” adding that it appears “the President is proposing those cuts irrespective of the military’s needs.”Read the full story here.

• John Boehner Rejects Obama's Grand Bargain On Debt Ceiling.(HuffingtonPost).House Speaker John Boehner is rejecting President Obama's offer to make historic cuts to the federal government and the social safety net, saying in a statement Saturday evening that he can not agree to the tax increases Democrats insisted on as part of the bargain. Boehner made his decision after speaking with the president by phone on Saturday afternoon, a day ahead of a major White House meeting with Democratic and GOP leadership, a Republican source familiar with situation said. Obama had proposed to Republicans a "grand bargain" that accomplished a host of individual things that are unpopular on their own, but that just might pass as a huge package jammed through Congress with default looming. Obama offered to put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts on the table in exchange for a tax hike of roughly $100 billion per year over 10 years. Meanwhile, government spending would be cut by roughly three times that amount. It's no small irony that the party's dogmatic opposition to tax increases is costing the GOP its best opportunity to roll back social programs it has long targeted. Republicans are now banking on a smaller deficit reduction deal that would still make major cuts, somewhere in the range of $2 trillion. "Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," Boehner said in a statement. "I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."While taxes are being put forward as a major cause of the collapse of the grand bargain, a Republican familiar with the discussions said that the two parties couldn't come to an agreement on cuts to entitlements. "The White House would not agree with the core elements of tax reform proposed by the Speaker," said the official. "A gulf also remains between the Speaker and the White House on the issue of medium and long-term structural reforms." When word leaked out this past week that Obama was proposing cuts to entitlements, Democrats in Congress and outside advocates kicked their opposition into high gear, making it clear that no bargain would win their support if it contained any cuts to Social Security or Medicare beneficiaries. That opposition may have broken the back of the bargain.

UPDATE: White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer issued the following statement:

"The President believes that solving our fiscal problems is an economic imperative. But in order to do that, we cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts. We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree."Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington. The President believes that now is the moment to rise above that cynicism and show the American people that we can still do big things. And so tomorrow, he will make the case to congressional leaders that we must reject the politics of least resistance and take on this critical challenge." Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released the following statement:This decision to reject the President's offer means as much as a trillion-dollar gulf remains between the two sides on a debt limit deal, and Republicans should be put on notice that no matter how hard they try, their plan to end Medicare as we know it will never fill in that gap. Hmmmm........There go's the Sunday Golf.Read the full story here.More here from Politico.

Related - Statement by Speaker Boehner on Debt Limit Discussions

Washington (Jul 9)

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released the following statement today regarding ongoing debt limit discussions with the White House:

"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."Source.

• Obama's Animus Toward Israel and Jews.(DocsTalk).By Eileen F. Toplansky.Lists have a way of coalescing important ideas into a clear and easy-to-remember format. What then is the track record of Barack Hussein Obama with regard to Israel and Jews? Listing the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel, as a terror sponsor. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency maintains a list of countries that "have shown a tendency to promote, produce or protect terrorist organizations of their members." Recently Israel has been placed on this list. This equivalence with such nations as Syria and Iran is breathtaking. Nothing like blaming the victim of unrelenting terrorism and including her with the world's "leading perpetrators of terrorism."Pursuing a policy of "limited contacts" with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, a member of the House Committee on Armed Services, denounced this policy and stated that it was "unfathomable that this Administration is reaching out to an extremely violent Islamic fundamentalist group...which has declared holy war on the U.S. and Israel." This calculated move by Obama emboldens the jihadists. Stating that the Israeli action to stop the flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip in June of 2010 was "tragic." In essence, Obama did not decry Hamas' actions to attack Israel; instead Obama refused to recognize Israel's right to protect herself. In 2009 directing the expenditure of $20.3 million of U.S. taxpayer money for "the urgent refugee and migration needs...related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza." These are the same Palestinian residents in Gaza who celebrated the brutal murder of an Israeli Jewish family by handing out "candy and sweets" while rejoicing at the massacre of yet another Jewish family.Abetting the United Nations in its desire to carve out and eventually destroy Israel all under the guise of the euphemistic gibberish known as "even-handedness." When Obama stated that "America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton called "it the most radical anti-Israel speech [he recalled] any president making."Demanding that Israel withdraw to 1967 borders which would put Israel at the mercy of terrorists bent on wiping out every Israeli man, woman, and child which would include Arab Israeli citizens as well.Coercing Israel to join a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which would, again, weaken Israel's retaliatory powers against her enemies.Continually blaming Israel as an obstacle to peace and scapegoating Israel for the region's ills.Appointing people who have deep ties with the enemies of America and Israel and who publicly show their disdain for Israel. They include:

o Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who targets Israel.

o Lee Hamilton who wants to pressure Israel to surrender the Golan Heights and leave the West Bank.

o Samantha Power who advocates ending all U.S. military aid to Israel.

o Robert Malley, a Hezbollah and Hamas sympathizer and supporter of jihadists.

o Hannah Rosenthal who served on the board of J Street which is harshly critical of Israeli anti-terror military actions.

o Dalia Mogahed and Azizah al-Hibri who believe that sharia law is superior to the American Constitution.

Obama's mentors are well-known for their implacable loathing for Jews and Israel. They revile the U.S. Constitution and embrace a mindset of Israel and America as colonial occupiers. Despite the typographical errors in this YouTube video, the genesis of Obama's anti-Jewish attitudes becomes clear. Rashid Khalidi, an important influence on Obama, has called Israel a "racist state" and affirms that the founding of Israel is a "catastrophe." Obama is a clever, manipulative individual. Unlike Hitler who wildly screamed his antisemitic screed, Obama is far more genteel. He constantly speaks with forked tongue. Thus, "while outwardly courting Jews, [Obama's] people have been "quietly shoving Jewish organizations into a corner." For those readers who have accessed this article's hyperlinks, it is striking how prescient the writers have been. What becomes even more frightening is the speed with which their deep concerns have actually come to fruition. From such prophets as Pamela Geller to Aaron Klein, Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson, and Ed Lasky, we see that Obama deliberately keeps moving in the direction of those who hate America, Israel, and Jews in general. The noose keeps tightening.Yet, there are still those Americans, particularly Jews, who do not comprehend the depth of Obama's revulsion of Israel. They continue to shield themselves from the reality of an American president actually pursuing actions that could affect the very existence of an ally and ultimately the United States as well.The destructive forces that seem an integral part of Obama's makeup must be highlighted. As Brigitte Gabriel has written, "[w]e are summoned to wake up the apathetic and inspire the despaired, to silence the liars and educate the patriots. For if we fail to inform the ignorant, we will fail to save the informed." Read the full story here.

• Supreme Court Justice–Elena Kagan–is Pro Sharia Law!(DocsTalk).Just when you thought all the talk about Barack Obama usurping the Constitution to bring the United States into compliance with the UN and the Sharia-dominated New International Order was little more than right-wing conspiratorial propaganda—Think Again! The “Appointed One,” in cunning Islamic style, is covering all the bases by laying the foundation, including placing an ally in the United States Supreme Court! Why is it always after the fact, after the elections and after critical appointments that the real vetting of candidates finally takes place? Simple. When you have a clueless, apathetic and disengaged American populace, coupled with a leftist liberal media that’s already in the tank for the “Messharia,” you take the fast track to confirmation and worry about the repercussions later. After all, it’s a lot easier to select than it is to eject a political appointee.Elena Kagan’s views render her the first Supreme Court Justice who actively favors the introduction of Sharia law into national Constitutions and legal systems. It’s unprecedented in American history. We now have a liberal, pro-Sharia justice sitting on the highest court in the land. And is it any wonder? After all, as Obama’s Solicitor General, it was Kagan who blocked as many as nine lawsuits from being heard by the Supreme Court. Although the nine cases listed on the high court’s docket had nothing to do with Obama’s eligibility issues, there is no arguing Kagan’s advocacy for Islamic rule and Sharia Law as evidenced below. What do you want to bet that she refuses to recuse herself on any Sharia-related decision and instead leads the charge to legitimize Sharia law in America?

Christine Brim of the Center for Security Policy summarized Kagans’ 2003-2009 career as Dean of Harvard Law School in the following five points. They tell the story of Elena Kagans’ “deep appreciation” of Sharia law.

1. PRO-SHARIA MISSION:

With Kagan’s direction, Harvard’s Islamic Legal Studies Program developed a mission statement dedicated “to promote a deep appreciation of Islamic law as one of the world’s major legal systems.” That mission statement guided her actions and those whom she directed as Dean.

Under Kagan’s direction, her chief of staff at the Islamic Legal Studies Program aggressively expanded non-critical studies of Sharia law – fulfilling her mission “to promote a deep appreciation of Islamic law.” In 2003, the year Kagan became Harvard Law School Dean, Islamic Legal Studies Program Founding Director Frank Vogel and Associate Director Peri Bearman founded the Massachusetts-based International Society for Islamic Legal Studies. In 2007, Bearman and Vogel founded the Islamic Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools.

2. PRO-SHARIA MONEY:

When Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered $10 million to New York City’s Rudy Guiliani on October 11, 2001, Guiliani refused to accept it, because the prince insisted that U.S. policies in the Middle East were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Guiliani stated, “There is no moral equivalent for this act.” But, when Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered $20 million to the Islamic Legal Studies Program in December 2005 – Kagan accepted it; after all, the Saudi royal family had funded the program since its inception to establish the moral and legal equivalency between Sharia law and U.S. Constitutional law. As presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, has noted, Harvard Law School currently has three chairs endowed by Saudi Arabia, including one dedicated to the study of Islamic sharia law.In 2001 Guiliani made a decision not to accept Talal’s blood money. But in 2005, Kagan made a decision not just to accept it, but to implement Talal’s policies at Harvard.Not only there, but as reported earlier this year, “Kagan is the main reason why the Supreme Court ruled against the 9/11 families” in a suit filed by thousands of 9/11 family members that traced funding for the 19 hijackers to certain Saudi royals, along with banks, corporations and Islamic charities. Kagan, as Obama’s Solicitor General, said in her brief “that the princes are immune from petitioners’ claims” and that the families’ claims that the Saudis helped to finance the plots fell “outside the scope” of the legal parameters for suing foreign governments or leaders.So Kagan actively solicited Saudi financing to promote Sharia law in the U.S., and she actively protected Saudi financial backers for terrorism against the U.S., as being immune from claims by 9/11 families.

3. PROMOTING THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND SHARIA CONSTITUTIONS:

In December, 2006, Kagan hired Noah Feldman, architect of Iraq’s Constitution requiring Shariah, as a star faculty member at Harvard Law School. On March 16, 2008, Feldman published his controversial article “Why Sharia” in the New York Times Magazine, which promoted “Islamists” – the Muslim Brotherhood – as a progressive democratic party, and promoted Sharia as a model not just for Muslim-majority countries but for all: “In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world…” The article was adapted from his book The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, which was published in late March, 2008.On September 16, 2008, Kagan whole-heartedly endorsed Feldman’s promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia Law by honoring him with the endowed “Bemis Chair” in International Law. Feldman’s speech on receiving the award was revealing: he advocated for an international, “outward interpretation” of the Constitution that could “require the U.S. to confer rights on citizens of other nations,” and allow for an “experimental Constitution.”As to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist worldwide political organization that Feldman and Kagan support? Their motto is as revealing as Feldman’s speech: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”Given that slogan, you could well ask if Feldman really meant the Muslim Brotherhood when he wrote about “Islamists” in the book Kagan so admired that she gave him an endowed chair. And he anticipated that question; in the second footnote in his book he states,“Throughout this book, when I refer to Islamists or Islamism, I have in mind mainstream Sunni Muslim activists loosely aligned with the ideology of the transnational Muslim Brotherhood (MB)…the Brotherhood broadly embraces electoral politics, but without eschewing the use of violence in some circumstances, notably against those whom it defines as invaders in Iraq and Palestine.”In summary, Kagan made the decision to honor Feldman, author of “big-lie” forms of pro-Sharia propaganda, supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, with an endowed chair. Feldman states flatly that the Muslim Brotherhood, whom he admires, does not “eschew the use of violence against those whom it defines as invaders in Iraq and Palestine.” Kagan’s financial backer, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, insisted that the U.S. policies in the Middle East (specifically in Israel and Palestine) were a cause of the 9/11 attacks. Like the Muslim Brotherhood, the prince did not “eschew the use of violence” against the U.S. And when 9/11 families sued the Saudi royals who funded the September 11, 2001 “use of violence” against the U.S., Kagan used her power as Solicitor General to protect the group that had been her financial backers at Harvard.It gets better . . .

4. PROMOTING SHARIA IN CONSTITUTIONS WORLDWIDE:

On May 1, 2007, Kagan initiated a lecture series on Sharia Law, named for Abd al-Razzaq al-Sanhuri, a legal scholar who had drafted constitutions throughout the Middle East between the 1930s and 1960s. There are literally dozens of legal reformers throughout the Muslim world that she could have chosen; but she chose al-Sanhuri. Sanhuri’s career consisted primarily of making sure that the civil and criminal legal codes throughout the Middle East were Sharia-compliant. He drafted the laws that ensured Sharia law took precedence over secular laws. As much as any single individual, he was responsible for the legal drafting for the “Constitutionalization” of Sharia in previously secular Muslim-majority nations in the 20th century, in concert with the political pressure for Sharia by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the financial pressure for Sharia by the Saudi Royal Family.As legal scholar Enid Hill wrote in her biography of al-Sanhuri,

“The outlines of the future dialectic are thus able to be detected if al-Sanhuri’s specifications are followed: Islamic legal theory versus Western legal rules, and when the Western rules reflect a different underlying theory they are to be eliminated and new rules put in their place, rules that are reflective of Islamic legal theory.”

Or as al-Sanhuri states himself in his book The Arab Civil Code,“The goal towards which I am striving is that there will be an Arab civil code derived primarily from the Islamic Shari’a.”Kagan presided over four of the al-Sanhuri lectures before her departure to become Obama’s Solicitor General

5. PROMOTING SHARIA IN THE JUDICIAL COUP IN PAKISTAN

Kagan consistently used her position at Harvard to promote and legitimate the introduction of Shariah provisions into national constitutions, and indeed into Supreme Courts of other nations. In Pakistan however, her influence is having dire consequences . . .On November 19, 2008, Elena Kagan presented the Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom to Iftikhar Chaudhry, the controversial Chief Justice of Pakistan. Chaudry had been deposed from his post in 2007 by President General Pervez Musharraf in a complex dispute that included the issue of independence of the judiciary. Musharraf later resigned, and on March 16, 2009, the Prime Minister Gilani re-appointed Chaudhry as Chief Justice.As noted by Department of Defense attorneys from the Clinton and Reagan eras, Kagan’s honoree has mounted a Sharia judicial coup:

“Contrary to the constitution of Pakistan, Chaudhry usurped the right of appointment of vacancies in the court from the elected prime minister and president…In a previous ruling, Chaudhry reaffirmed the right of the court to disqualify members of Parliament, the president and all ministers of the cabinet from serving if they violate “Islamic injunctions,” or do not engage in ‘teaching and practices, obligatory duties prescribed by Islam. “

Given the fact that Elena Kagan is only fifty years old, she could easily serve on the Supreme Court until she’s eighty or beyond. Coupled with Obama’s Muslim upbringing, his anemic support for Israel, his lack of desire to secure the southern border, the ramrodding of Obamacare against the peoples will, joining an international lawsuit against the state of Arizona, his allegiance to Saudi oil magnates, his support of the UN’s Small Arms Treaty, his cosponsoring of a UN bill with Egypt to restrict free speech, the recent corrupt— Operation Fast & Furious, the appointment of his personal minions (czars) and rash of executive orders to circumvent the Constitution, and his latest gaff—resuming talks with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban terrorist organization, is it even a question that the “appointed” one, the “Messharia” to America is laying the groundwork for gradual socialist reform and a syncretism of the Constitution of the United States with the Constitution of Sharia Law? I rest my case!Until next time . . . Wake Up America!Hmmmm......"I Will stand with My muslim Brothers"?Anyone keeping track when he went to church the last time?Kevin A. Lehmann. Source.

• Mexico sends extra 1,800 agents for drugs war.(Al-Jazeera). Reinforcements in Michoacan state backed by Black Hawk helicopters, as officers battle Knights Templars drug cartel.Mexican authorities have deployed an extra 1,800 federal agents in their battle with drug cartels, as at least 41 people were killed over the weekend, including ten who were beheaded.The agents were sent to Michoacan state to take part in a battle there mainly with the Knights Templars, a splinter group of the La Familia cartel.The reinforcements were backed by 170 vehicles, 15 ambulances and 4 MI and Black Hawk helicopters, the Public Safety office announced.Alejandro Poire, a national security council spokesman, called it a "reinforcement operation faced with the possibility of greater mobilisation by organised crime groups"."They are waging an absurd war, to the death, for control of criminal turf and drug trafficking routes to the United States," he said.The federal government already has about 50,000 army troops and thousands of federal police in its fight against drug cartels.It blames the groups for most of the 37,000 people killed since it started a military offensive against the cartels in December 2006.Many of the dead have been killed by the cartels as a form of intimidation or for refusing to co-operate with drug traffickers.Officers in the northern city of Torreon said on Saturday that they had found the headless bodies of seven men and three women in the back of an abandoned pick-up truck.Police chief Guillermo Flores told the AFP news agency that only one head, belonging to a woman, was found on site, and that the killers had placed it on the truck's hood.The vehicle was parked on a road that goes around Torreon, a city of about 650,000, where two major roads heading north to the United States converge.The victims had apparently been executed "several days ago" in disparate locations, and their bodies were piled up in the abandoned pick-up truck "in an attempt to sow terror among the citizens of Torreon," the city municipal police said in a statement.Police have not said if they have suspects.Coahuila state, where Torreon is located, is a battleground for two powerful Mexican drug cartels: the Zetas, founded by former Mexican special forces soldiers, and the Pacific cartel, headed by Joaquin "Chapo" [Shorty] Guzman.The decapitated bodies were discovered hours after 20 people were killed late on Friday when gunmen attacked a local bar in Monterrey, located in the north and the country's second richest city.The attackers, who arrived in two pick-up trucks and a car, stormed into a bar in Monterrey's busy nightlife district and opened fire on the patrons.Separately, 11 people were shot dead on Friday afternoon in Chalco, a town on the outskirts of Mexico City.Hmmmmm.........Now why would you reinforce the US border?Read the full story here.

• "Tirez les premiers, Messieurs les Taliban"? A.k.a.‘courageous restraint’ got this British Soldier killed.(Dailymail).A widow revealed how her soldier husband was blown up in Afghanistan days after senior officers had apparently ‘laughed off’ his complaints that insurgents were being allowed to plant explosive devices unchallenged.Sergeant Peter Rayner, 34, phoned his wife in a ‘highly stressed’ state four days before his death and was upset that his fears were not taken seriously.She said he and his men had watched the enemy, using night-vision goggles, plant improvised explosive devices and were not allowed to attack them. He was allegedly told by one officer: ‘I am an Army Captain and you will do your job.’Sergeant Rayner was serving with the 2nd Battalion Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment and was leading a ten-man patrol in Helmand when he was killed in an explosion last October. The father-of-one received ‘catastrophic’ head injuries.Yesterday Sergeant Rayner’s widow Wendy told an inquest in Bradford that the Army had promised that her concerns would be dealt with, but she said: ‘I have been fobbed off.’Mrs Rayner told Bradford Coroner's Court her husband, who joined the Army at 17, had feared his own death. She said: ‘He was concerned about the number of explosive devices being planted in the area they were patrolling and had told higher ranks because he feared one of them would be killed.‘He said they could see people planting these devices but could do nothing about it.‘I feel that maybe if a bit more had been taken on board about what he had said then things might have been different.’ Mrs Rayner said her husband was ‘highly stressed’ when he called her, claiming that officers had ‘laughed off’ his concerns and he had been told to do his job.‘He loved his job and I believe he deserved more respect,’ she said.‘I know it was a routine patrol, but I believe that if he had been given a bit more respect and not just laughed off maybe they could have done something about it, we are losing too many men out there.’ Sergeant Rayner told his wife that officers told him that he and his men could not open fire on insurgents planting bombs or make contact with them.His complaints were rejected by a Sergeant Major and a Captain, the inquest heard.‘I think that if more notice had been taken of him, then he might not have died,’ she said. ‘Peter loved his men and would have done anything to stop them being killed.’ Outside Bradford Coroner’s Court Mrs Rayner fired a further broadside at the Ministry of Defence, calling for rules of engagement to be changed to protect soldiers.‘They are not allowed to return fire unless they are fired upon. But all the lads have expressed concern because the patrol area was filled with IEDs. ‘They can shoot at us and take us out but the lads can’t do that to them.These terrorists and Taliban can do what they want yet our soldiers try to do their job and get persecuted by the law.A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘The whole point of a counter insurgency operation is to protect the civilian population.’ He said soldiers had to go through a series of stages before opening fire and were sometimes asked to exercise ‘courageous restraint’ even when shots had been fired.‘It is all about winning hearts and minds and using the least force possible,’ the spokesman said.Hmmmm......Using the Marquis of Queensberry rules in a back alley fight will get you killed each time.Read the full story here.

• Son of Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, who was recently assassinated Sues American Airlines.(Ndtv).San Francisco: A Pakistani couple is suing American Airlines after they were escorted off a plane in handcuffs based on a telephone hijacking threat that turned out to be a hoax.The lawsuit, transferred to federal court on Tuesday, also names the San Francisco Police department.Maheen and Shahbaz Taseer say they were held for several hours after being pulled from the flight on August 19, 2010. Shahbaz is the son of Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, who was recently assassinated by an Islamic extremist.Authorities had been notified of a telephone threat that the plane would be hijacked. The threat was later determined to be a hoax.The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.A call to American Airlines was not immediately returned. San Francisco police declined to comment.Read the full story here.

• Israel sets maritime borders.(Ynet).Cabinet ratifies agreement with Cyprus setting borders around area thought to contain natural gas, oil reserves. Lieberman slams Lebanese rejection of borders: 'Hezbollah looking for friction, but we won't give up what is rightfully ours'.The Cabinet on Sunday ratified an agreement with Cyprus which sets Israel's maritime borders. Lebanon has rejected the borders set by the two countries, claiming the state is impinging on its naval territory, but Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would not cede "one centimeter". Lieberman also denied reports that the US supports Lebanon's claims, calling them "nonsense". "We have already concluded an agreement on this issue with Cyprus... Lebanon, under pressure from Hezbollah, is looking for friction, but we will not give up any part of what is rightfully ours," he said in a radio interview. The borders delineate an area thought to contain natural gas as well as oil reserves. Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said the Lebanese government was being petty. "If they have complaints with nothing but goodwill and neighborly desire for coexistence they must take steps just like any other civilized country – and hold clarifications and negotiations with us," he said. Landau added that Israel had constructed a professional agreement by working with "international law experts and experts from the Cypriot government"."The border between us and them has been unequivocally set – this is our legally and professionally-based opinion that will be placed on the table of the UN," he said.Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the economic benefits that could come from setting the borders. "The border delimits the state's economic rights, including the right to make use of natural resources at sea. The border Lebanon achieved in the UN is set significantly southward of the one offered by Israel, it conflicts with the borders set by Israel and Cyprus and, surprisingly, the borders Lebanon itself has set with Cyprus. Our goal is to set the lines in keeping with the principles of international law," he said.Hmmmmm......How long before Obama slams Israel on these borders?Read the full story here.

• Assad the "Reformer" - Activist: Syrian regime has arrested 60,000 people.(Ynet).Human rights activist decries 'revolving door' arrest policy, says prisons severely overcrowded.Syrian security forces have arrested some 60,000 people since the anti-government protests began in the country, a human rights activist told the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat.The report published Sunday quotes Yassin al-Haj Saleh, a political dissident who was himself imprisoned between 1980-1996, as saying that 11,000 people – most of whom were arrested at random – are still in jail as part of a "message of fear to the people"."If we gather up all the people who were arrested in Syria over the past four months, who were detained by one of the intelligence branches, their number will assumedly reach more than 60,000," Saleh said. Most were detained for just a few days, he said, and then released to make room for others detained at random. "The Syrian regime is using a 'revolving door' policy in order to arrest civilians. It is releasing dozens in order to arrest hundreds, and then releasing hundreds to make room for thousands," he told the paper. Saleh added that the prisons had become so severely overpopulated that the regime was "using warehouses belonging to loyalist businessmen as camps for thousands of detainees" and turning athletic facilities into detainment cells.Read the full story here.

• Afghan Guard kills 2 NATO Troops.(Fox).An Afghan guard opened fire and shot dead two NATO troops accompanying a reconstruction convoy traveling in a northern province on Saturday, the Afghan police said.The shooting took place in the Darah district of Panjshir province, about 62 miles (99 kilometers) north of the capital, Kabul, according to provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh.The police chief said the guard, who goes by the name Amanullah, was standing outside his home when the convoy passed by. He stopped the convoy, started arguing with the NATO troops and then opened fire, Jangalbagh said. A third coalition service member was wounded in the shooting.Jangalbagh said another NATO service member fired back and killed Amanullah.NATO said it was investigating the incident and did not confirm any casualties from the Panjshir shooting.NATO has earlier said that 283 service members died in Afghanistan this year and 12 this month.Shootings of NATO personnel by Afghan security forces have plagued the war effort for years.The causes of the shootings have ranged from suspected infiltration by insurgent sleeper agents to spontaneous arguments between Afghan security personnel and NATO troops that turned violent.According to Jangalbagh, the police chief, Amanullah worked as the bodyguard of the second-ranking official in Afghanistan's intelligence service -- Gen. Assam Din Assam, the deputy director for National Directorate for Security.Assam was not at the scene of the shooting.Hmmmm.......Afghanistan another 'succes story'.Read the full story here.

• 50 Turkish users of a discussion forum arrested for insulting the'Prophet'.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey’s Ekşi Sözlük (“Sour Dictionary”) has been one of the country’s favorite web repositories of frequently witty, occasionally irreverent user-generated knowledge for the past 12 years. But the country’s largest collaborative discussion platform and hypertext dictionary made headlines last week when 50 of its members were taken in by the police and charged with insulting religion.“The police found my IP address and I was suddenly taken in from my home. I was charged for my comments on religion,” said one of the writers who wanted to remain anonymous.A discussion topic last week on the prophet Muhammad caused some tension among the writers of the Ekşi Sözlük; according to reports, somebody filed a complaint to the police accusing some writers of insulting the Prophet.“Everyone on the site has a nickname and we all write anonymously. Therefore, I might have written casually but I didn’t write anything insulting,” said the anonymous source.The detention sparked varied reactions among the website’s writers and administrators. While some criticized the site “admins” for giving the police the users’ IP addresses, site officials said not doing so would have been against the law.“Some of the writers are furious and have accused us of giving the police their IP address,” Ekşi Sözlük’s founder and owner, Sedat Kapanoğlu, told the Hürriyet Daily News this week. “Yet, according to the laws, if we don’t give their IP addresses, it is a crime.”“Our writers write their opinions on the web site anonymously, but by taking them in, the police exposed their identity,” the website’s lawyer Başak Purut told the Daily News.This is not the first time that Ekşi Sözlük writers have been taken in by the police – Kapanoğlu said he has to testify at least four times a year. But, according to Yaman Akdeniz, a professor who specializes in Internet law, more stringent legal measures must take place before people are taken from their homes on such charges.“This could have been done through a notice from the police. The strange thing here is that the police come and take people from their homes as if they are guilty. There needs to be a court decision to take people in like that,” Akdeniz told the Daily News.But such a process is already commonplace, says lawyer Gökhan Ahi who runs Bilişim Hukuk, an online journal of Cyber Law.“Whenever there is a complaint, the prosecutors have to investigate it and then work with the police,” Ahi told the Daily News. “Yet we might question whether we need the same procedure for every case.”Akdeniz said the nature of the procedures created fear among the people.“We are talking about a crime realized by thought or writing, and this is a right of freedom,” Akdeniz said. “There are no guns here. Therefore, they should have been more cautious in interfering with people’s private lives. The current procedures only make people more scared.“It is like a witch hunt,” he added.Currently there are about 1 million banned websites in Turkey. Among the previously blocked and re-opened sites are YouTube, Google Groups, WordPress, and Dailymotion.“According to Turkish Law, if a person disrupts the public peace, then it constitutes a crime,” said Purut. “In the Ekşi Sözlük case, there was nothing like that.”Still, the case may affect the behavior of Ekşi Sözlük’s contributors. “Some people have quit writing for Ekşi Sözlük because they don’t want their names in the police files,” Kapanoğlu said. “We won’t apply any censorship but we will try and be more cautious for what may happen again.”Begun as a small community in 1999, Ekşi Sözlük (www.eksisozluk.com) has gained substantial popularity, hosting 34,000 registered and anonymous writers who aim to present their material wittily and creatively. The dictionary also prizes entertainment over accuracy.Topics covered in the dictionary range from sex to politics to specific people, from the mundane (why mosquitoes never get full) to the profound and personal (what it means to be a black Turk). The mix of user-generated content attracts 8 million hits a month.Hmmmmm......Welcome to Turkey .....Iranian style?Read the full story here.HT:IslamVersusEurope.

• Erdogan's "My way or the Highway"?'Israel-Turkey talks to resume in NY'.(Ynet).Turkish diplomat tells Hürriyet daily that despite failure to resolve differences, countries' representatives will hold another round of negotiations in late July.After failing to resolve their differences during three-day talks this week, Israel and Turkey will resume negotiations later this month in New York, Özdem Sanberk, the Turkish member of the UN panel investigating the Israeli raid on the aid ship Mavi Marmara, told the Hürriyet daily on Friday. Jerusalem and Ankara have been trying to solve the crisis in the past few months ahead of the publication of the UN report, but to no avail. The report's release has been postponed to July 27.The next round of talks between Israel and Turkey is also expected to be held in New York, although an exact timetable has yet to be set. Turkey is demanding that Israel apologize for the death of nine activists onboard the Marmara ship during the IDF raid, a demand Israel has refused to accept. But this isn't the only problem. Sources in Turkey say Ankara won't have the report authorize the blockade on the Gaza Strip and insists on the siege being defined as "illegal", as determined by the UN Human Rights Council.Israeli sources said the report would include the conclusion that Israel acted prematurely against the flotilla activists last year and used excessive power, but that its actions were legal and that the blockade on Gaza was legal. The report will also criticize Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan said on Friday it was "unthinkable" to normalize ties with Israel unless the Jewish state apologized for the killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists aboard the Gaza-bound Turkish ship.Hmmmmm........There is nothing more 'revolting' than the naked truth.Read the full story here.

• Madame Rage - Marine Le Pen's Populism for the Masses.(Spiegel).French politician Marine Le Pen is attracting new voters to the National Front, the right-wing populist party founded by her father, by railing against immigration and globalization. With France's elections a year away, Le Pen is already polling ahead of President Nicolas Sarkozy.When Marine Le Pen walks into a room, she dominates it physically. She is slim, wears tight jeans and blazers and has dyed blonde hair, and yet she seems as if she were walking into a ring, tense and ready to lash out.The 42-year-old French politician has inherited her father's broad shoulders and wide face. She is unmistakably the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, but she is also very much her own person. She fascinates people because she both resembles and contrasts with the man who was the bête noire of French politics for decades.She also has her father to thank for a powerful voice that booms even when she is speaking normally. It sounds deep and hoarse. It is the voice of a woman who has been smoking for years, but most of all it is the voice of a fighter. There is aggression in her voice, and even a hint of vulgarity. Marine Le Pen bills herself as someone who comes from the bottom and is determined to stick it to those whom she calls "the caste" -- France's political elite.On a sunny afternoon in Metz, a city in the Lorraine region of eastern France, Le Pen is speaking in a tiny, jam-packed conference room at the Hotel Technopole, a shabby concrete box of a building in an industrial area. The venue seems at odds with the larger-than-life image Le Pen has acquired through countless cover stories and television appearances. But despite the surroundings, her words are full of raw energy, and it quickly becomes clear that she is an extremely talented politician.Using her notes instead of a prepared speech, she speaks in short, hard-hitting sentences. She talks about issues like the loss of buying power, and about people who have no more than €50 or €100 ($71.50 or $143) left over at the end of each month. She warns against refugees from Tunisia, and against immigrants in general. She demands social welfare systems for the French instead of for immigrants. And then she finally gets to her central issue: the fight against globalization, which Le Pen says is destroying France.She wants to leave the euro, reintroduce customs borders and nationalize banks. Her vision is the antithesis of a Europe that hardly anyone, even in France, believes in anymore. "What are the others, the conservatives and the socialists, proposing? Nothing! They are busy fighting the National Front!" She rants and she is audacious, unlike the well-trained spin doctors normally seen on television, and she appeals to many people."Elections are sexual affairs," the author Christine Angot wrote recently in the daily newspaper Libération. "Marine Le Pen appeals to 20 percent of us and fascinates 80 percent. A mannish woman, phallic, we like that. A woman who dominates her father and gets better results."Hmmmmm......And we know from French History what happens when a woman leads in France.Read the full story here.

• The German parliament has granted its approval for testing carbon capture and storage technology.(Spiegel).The German parliament has granted its approval for testing carbon capture and storage technology, which enables coal-fired power plants to liquify their pollutants and store them underground. Critics claim the potential dangers of the technology have been inadequately addressed.It may be akin to the Earth wrapping its lips around a tail pipe and inhaling deeply, but it also viewed as one of the most promising technologies for curbing emissions of climate-killing gases. On Thursday, the German parliament voted to approve testing of controversial carbon capture and storage technology in Germany, which allows power plants that emit environmentally unfriendly carbon dioxide into the air to instead liquefy the pollutant and pump it into underground cavities. The Bundestag voted 306-266 on the issue. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has been heralded by many politicians and researchers as one of the most promising technologies available today for eliminating carbon dioxide emissions. Many see it as one of the best means available to buy time while also emitting less pollution into the environment until renewable energy sources become more affordable and feasible. The decision to test CCS in Germany is highly controversial, with many residents contesting the technology, which they believe is dangerous. Leaders of local citizens' initiatives who fear it will present a threat to humans, animals and the environment have been conducting a not-in-my-backyard campaign against the technology for several years now. Jens Koeppen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats in parliament, complained of an environment of scaremongering and "German angst" against CCS. In Germany, more than 40 percent of electricity is derived from fossil fuels, and without CCS, Koeppen warned, the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius would be unachievable. "There are few risks associated with this technology," he added. Matthias Miersche, a prominent member of the opposition center-left Social Democrats, however, warned that potential dangers posed by CCS, such as the risk that carbon dioxide could contaminate ground water, had not been adequately addressed.The legislation, which is the German implementation of a European Union regulation, still requires the approval the Bundesrat, Germany's second legislative chamber, which represents the interests of the states. Most of the testing is expected to take place in the eastern state of Brandenburg, where Swedish utility giant Vattenfall plans to construct a 250-megawatt demonstration power plant. The plant is expected to cost €1.5 billion, with €180 million of that price tag coming from the European Union subsidies. A few weeks ago, the company also began a pilot test of CCS at a plant in Ketzin. The German government plans to test CCS through 2017. Berlin is hoping the technology will not only help to reduce emissions, but will also prove to be an export hit.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Iran 'fired two long-range missiles into the Indian Ocean'... right under the noses of the U.S.(DailyMail).A senior Revolutionary Guard commander has revealed Iran secretly conducted missile tests earlier this year as 'American spy planes' turned a blind eye.Speaking on state TV Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guard's aerospace force, claimed Iranian rockets hit targets at the 'mouth of the Indian Ocean'.It was an apparent reference to areas near the Strait of Hormouz at the southern end of the Gulf.Hajizadeh said two missiles with ranges of 1,140m were fired from Semnan province in northern Iran during the Iranian month of Bahman, which runs from January 21 to February 19.He added: 'This took place with the Americans present in the area ... We allowed the American spy planes to be in the area but so far they have not said anything about it.'The commander gave no further details, but at maximum range the missiles could have reached deep into the Arabian Sea.Hajizadeh also threatened U.S. aircraft carriers saying the 'moving targets' would be fired at if Iran came under attack.In April, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard said Iran's arsenal is capable of striking 'remote regions outside the Persian Gulf'.Iran says its longest-range missiles, Shahab-3 and Sajjil-2, can travel up to 1,240m - putting Israel, U.S. bases in the Gulf region and parts Europe within reach.Meanwhile, Iran has tried to project its military might outside the Gulf, where the U.S. has several air bases and the home port of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain.Iran has said its missiles can reach Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.Hmmmmm..........Why is Obama giving Iran 'carte blanche'?Read the full story here.

• Slaughter of the lambs: Thugs use hunting rifles to wipe out farmer's entire flock.(Dailymail).A farmer’s flock of sheep has been wiped out after armed thugs gunned down a field full of lambs. Barbaric thieves used hunting rifles to kill Vernon Phipps' animals, before throwing 26 of the lambs' lifeless bodies into a van.The gang raided Mr Phipps’ field near Chipping Warden, in Northamptonshire overnight on 29 June, armed with hunting rifles.They blasted the terrified animals with execution-style shots to their necks after storming the isolated field.Following their brutal killing spree they piled up the bloody carcasses into a van, leaving ten sheep mutilated. One lamb was found dead in the field and another seven had to be put down due to their serious injuries.Only three sheep survived the bloody slaughter, just two lambs and a ewe who are currently being cared for by a vet.The motive for the killings is unknown although police believe the gang targeted the animals for their meat.It was Mr Phipps and his partner Jayne Kingdon who discovered the carnage after spotting just one dead sheep. The 53-year-old farmer, who has kept sheep for 20 years, went to investigate further and was met with horrific scenes.Lambs were hobbling around with gunshot wounds surrounded by bloody carcasses scattered across the field. Speaking of their ordeal, Ms Kingdon said: ‘As Vernon started driving across the field it was like a horror movie because there were injured lambs walking around with gunshot wounds.‘It is horrific and heart breaking because we brought these lambs into the world and we care so much about our sheep.’ Following the attack, a local gamekeeper inspected the gunshot wounds and claimed rustlers had used a rifle powerful enough to hunt deer.A spokesman for Northamptonshire Police said there were no witnesses but are appealing for information.Officers are liaising with other forces to see if there have been any similar thefts in the surrounding areas.Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here,more here.

• And now for something completely different ! They call him The Moose': 16 lb 1oz = 7.32 Kg boy could be biggest ever born in Texas.(DailyMail).For the Brown family his arrival was big news...really big news.But the birth of JaMichael Brown, who weighed a whopping 16lbs 1oz - just over a stone - may also be big news for Texas.He's certainly the biggest baby to have been born in Longview hospital, but officials now believe he may be the largest in the state too.His father, Michael Brown, looked rather shell-shocked as revealed his son was now known around the hospital as 'The Moose.''(The Dr) told us he was going be about 12lbs, but when he pulled him out it was as different story,' Mr Brown said.His exhausted mother, Janet Johnson, had been booked in for a Caesarean section on Friday morning.She knew JaMichael was going to be a big baby, but had never imagined he would weigh four pounds more than doctors had predicted.He was also 24" long, his head measured 15" and chest 17" - those are measurements of the average three to six-month-old.'We’re just amazed,' Ms Johnson told the News-Journal. 'I can’t believe he’s that big. A lot of the baby clothes we bought for him will have to be returned. They’re already too small for him to wear.'Not-so-little JaMichael also came out with a full head of hair and the hospital did not have diapers big enough to fit him.Mr Brown said he had high hopes his son would become a footballer.Read the full story here.