Cost Savings or Boondoggle?

Morristown, New Jersey is installing a significant solar power array at its sewage treatment facility to power the facility and to reduce costs. At least that's how they're selling it to the public. The reality isn't quite as sunny.

The project cost $4.6 million, and state taxpayers kicked in a $1.5 million incentive, bringing the cost down to $3.1 million (the story notes the cost was reduced to $3.2 million).

Rows of solar panels lined what had been unused space next to several buildings at the facility. More panels also soon will be put on the roofs of four buildings, with a total of at least 640,000 kilowatt hours of power to be produced annually by the solar farm, officials said.

That should provide at least 40 percent or more of the energy needed to run the sewer operation, saving the town a minimum of $90,000 to $130,000 a year, according to town engineer Jeffrey Hartke.

Total cost of the project is $4.6 million, but the town has received a $1.5 million New Jersey Clean Energy Program rebate, bringing its cost down to $3.2 million, said Cresitello. In addition, he said other improvements are being done at the sewer plant to make it more energy and cost-efficient.

The solar project, said Cresitello, was the idea of town sewer superintendent John Dean and the plant's supervising laboratory technician, Manu Patel.

So, is this a cost effective project? It certainly would fit the whole notion of green energy and reducing carbon footprint by using alternative energy sources instead of standard power generating facilities.

The problem is that the costs and the savings don't justify the project.

Assuming that the project cost $3.2 million (as per the article) and assuming an even greater cost savings of $150,000 per year, it would take more than 20 years to recoup the initial investment. The problem is that it actually would take longer than that to break even once you realize the true cost to taxpayers was $4.6 million and it would take 30 years if the cost savings from the solar power was $150,000 per year.

If the power generated falls short of the high end, it would take far longer than that - decades longer if they reach only $90,000 per year. It would take 51 years if the savings totaled $90,000 a year, and that doesn't begin to cover carrying costs and lost opportunity costs resulting from using money on other projects. These systems generally have a lifespan of 20-30 years, which means that this project makes little sense.

So, why is this seen as a good way to spend money? It might make people feel good, but it isn't good for the wallet, at least in this application and in this instance. New Jersey isn't the optimum location for power generation, and the costs for the solar systems still haven't come down to where they need to be to really generate the cost savings people are looking for.

Green Lights and Rockets' Red Glare

It's being reported that the US has green-lighted talks between Fatah and Hamas.

The new US Administration has given the Palestinian Authority a "green light" to talk to Hamas about the possibility of forming a Palestinian unity government, a PA official in Ramallah said over the weekend.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas...

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh appeared together prior to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Photo: AP
Slideshow: Pictures of the week

The official said that Washington has also given Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the go-ahead to resume his efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

"The new administration has a different policy than that of [former US President] George W. Bush," the official told The Jerusalem Post. "The administration of President Barack Obama believes that a Hamas-Fatah government is good for stability."

The Egyptians have issued invitations to representatives of Hamas, Fatah and several other Palestinian groups to attend reconciliation talks that are due to begin in Cairo on February 25.

Fatah and Hamas officials confirmed that the Egyptians had invited them to the talks.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said that in order for the talks to succeed, the PA must first release all "political prisoners" it is holding in its West Bank jails.

Why? What's changed in the situation with Hamas or Fatah? Both still would love nothing better than to toss the other off rooftops. Both still seek Israel's destruction.

In other words nothing has changed with these two terrorist groups. The only thing that's changed is who is in the White House, and President Obama thinks that there's something to be gained from making diplomatic gestures that benefit terrorist groups.

This is bad news for Israel, but Gaza is not the only front on which Israel has to remain concerned. Terrorists fired several rockets towards Israel from Southern Lebanon, and one landed inside Israel injuring several Israelis. Israel returned fire at the launching pads, but it shows that the terrorists are clearly probing Israel's resolve to attack the terrorists.

Demands on Israel remain that they release Palestinian terrorists, and Hamas is threatening to send them to Syria as part of a deal to release Gilad Shalit. That includes eight big name terrorists, and Hamas would demand that four of them be sent to Syria.

On Monday the leading pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Israel has accepted Hamas' demand to free eight "heavyweight" prisoners, but insists that four of them be deported to Syria.

The four prisoners slated for expulsion are: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary-General Ahmad Saadat; Ibrahim Hamed, Hamas' military commander in the West Bank; bomb-maker Abdullah Barghouti and Abbas el-Sayed, who orchestrated the terror attack on Netanya's Park Hotel in 2002.

Al-Zahar said Israel has issued fresh demands in the ongoing Egyptian-mediated ceasefire negotiations, including tying the truce to a prisoner exchange deal that would see Shalit returned to Israel.

"The Israelis are in the midst of a major crisis regarding the establishment of the new coalition," he told Al-Akhbar. "In any case, we are not desperate to reach a ceasefire agreement, and the prisoner swap has its own special price tag."

That would put the terrorists ostensibly beyond Israel's reach should they be once again involved in terror attacks against Israel.

As I repeatedly note, any prisoner swap only serves to undermine Israel's security, and this latest report doesn't change my opinion one iota. If anything, it strengthens my feeling that Israel's security is further undermined by any such deal.

So, where do we find US Senator John Kerry? Syria. He's in search of better ties with the terror-sponsoring regime that has served as a home for Hamas and Hizbullah terror masters and a conduit for Iranian influence in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. More to the point, Syria and Iran's close ties continue to undermine US efforts in Iraq as Syria has been a conduit to the Iraqi insurgency.

The terrorists and the terror masters both are seeing weakness in Obama's diplomatic positions and are looking to take full advantage of the situation, which not only undermines US long term strategic interests, but pulls the rug out from under our closest allies in the region - Israel and the developing Iraqi democracy.

Blagojevich's Gift Keeps On Giving

Pass the popcorn. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) says Sen. Roland Burris (D-Blagojevich) should resign from the US Senate after continued revelations about Burris and his relationship with disgraced, impeached, and removed former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Quinn is calling for a special election to fill the seat.

Good luck with that.

A-Roid's Story Falling Apart?

No one should be surprised by any of this. Alex Rodriguez's story isn't holding up to scrutiny according to the New York Daily News, which finds that he has had a cozy relationship with a trainer who has been banned from MLB clubhouses because of his steroid taint.

Embattled Yankee Alex Rodriguez has had a long relationship with a steroid-linked trainer who's been banned from major league clubhouses, four independent sources told the Daily News.

Angel Presinal, who was banned from private areas of every MLB ballpark after an October 2001 incident involving an unmarked gym bag full of steroids, has been tight with the Yankee slugger dating back to his time with the Texas Rangers, several sources said.

A former New York-area scout says Presinal, whose named surfaced in the Mitchell Report, was with Rodriguez in New York and Miami as recently as this past fall.

MLB has warned players to stay away from him.

He has been thrown out of clubhouses in Cleveland, Anaheim and Texas.

"He's an unsavory character," said a source.

Meanwhile, the drug A Rod claims could have been obtained over the counter in the Dominican Republic courtesy of his cousin could only be obtained with a prescription according to officials in the Dominican. At his presser, Rodriguez claimed that his cousin (who was unnamed, but has since been revealed as Yuri Sucart by the press) had obtained Primobolan in the Dominican over the counter and was widely available.

Sucart has been unavailable for comments, but has been a constant presence around Rodriguez and is apparently his driver and personal assistant and was in and around the Yankee clubhouse in 2008.

NJ Gov. Corzine Preparing To Gut Property Tax Relief

Just as I've been warning for some time, the Democrat is looking to can the property tax relief plan because it's the last thing not nailed down to the floor and is discretionary spending. Never mind that it was supposed to be paid for via the increase in the sales tax rate, but now that money is so tight in the state, property tax relief is about to go into the circular file.

The governor has repeatedly said all options, including rebates, are on the chopping block as he tries to balance New Jersey's finances, though he has so far declined to discuss rebates specifically. But behind the scenes, discussions on how to trim the rebates are occurring daily, the sources said, because there are very few budget areas left to cut that could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

Corzine spokeswoman Deborah Howlett declined to provide details on the rebate changes today, but said "all options are on the table."

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) said he would prefer to see the rebates left intact, but "in these times, I think nothing's sacred and nothing should be."

"That has to be on the table like everything else, but I would advocate retaining that senior rebate. They depend on it so much that it would disrupt their financial life," Codey said. "The rest of them you take a look. I'm not saying you do it, but it's a big chunk" of the budget.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), one of the leading advocates of the rebates, declined to comment.

The rebate program, which provides relief in a state notorious for high property taxes, was already cut by $382.5 million in the $32.9 billion budget Corzine signed in June. That reduced rebates for households earning $100,000 to $150,000 to an average of $665 and eliminated them for households making over $150,000. Households earning up to $100,000 received checks averaging $1,115. Tenant rebates also shrank, from as much as $350 to $80.

When checks were mailed out last fall, Corzine said that despite the cuts, "we were able to preserve rebates for 90 percent of last year's recipients." That was before it was clear the state had a $3.6 billion deficit in its current budget.

The governor has since proposed $1.3 billion in emergency mid-year cuts -- $812 million last month and $472 million this week -- to deal with a dramatic drop-off in revenues.

Think of this as not a tax rebate, but a tax hike of more than $665 or $230 for renters. That's tax relief that was supposed to come from sales tax revenues that is now going to other purposes to shore up the state's bloated budget. It's taking still more money out of your pocket to fund the state's operations.

This is an ongoing shell game in Trenton, and the state still refuses to deal with cutting spending, and instead looks at tax hikes as the solution. All this does is further cause revenues to drop because the state becomes ever more unaffordable and residents have a bigger bite of their pay go to the state in taxes, which could have otherwise been spent on businesses and items that bolster a wide range of other taxes - including payroll tax, corporate income tax, sales tax, and real estate transfer taxes. This is yet another sign that the Democrats can't understand basic economics and that the only way to solve this mess is to encourage economic development, not stifling it with taxes.

NYCLU Files Another Suit To Stop Subway Searches

A man of South Asian descent and the NYCLU is suing the city to stop searches of bags in the subway system.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Jangir Sultan, 32, says he is of Kashmiri descent and has dark eyes and brown skin and looks Middle Eastern.

Sultan says he was stopped at subway stations around the city after the NYPD implemented a search program in response to the 2005 London bombings.

Courts have already ruled that those searches are constitutional, but the NYCLU is backing this as a matter of course.

I am a regular rider on PATH and the NYC subways and the Port Authority police have a baggage check policy that is probably far more intrusive than that of the NYC subway system. I am regularly asked to stop and have my bag checked. When I used to use the Christopher Street station (one of the most dangerous stations in the City due to its single narrow winding entrance and staircase), I was stopped repeatedly, but didn't consider it a reason to file suit. I continue to be stopped when using the WTC station.

These police officers are trying to keep all of us safe from people who wouldn't think twice of carrying a bomb on to a subway car or platform and murder as many people as possible.

I have no sympathy for this guy, primarily because the courts have already ruled the searches are legal. Also, the NYPD and law enforcement in general, is having its hands tied by civil libertarians who have no problem extending constitutional protections to terrorists, but don't think much of protecting all of us from the threats that those terrorists pose and the methods they use. After all, the ACLU require bags be checked when entering their offices, but that's okay because they're a private entity. A public service, like mass transit is afforded less protection.

Rewarding Deadbeats, Punishing Responsibility

In a nutshell, that's exactly what President Obama's mortgage relief program will do for homeowners. It also stands to further nationalize the mortgage industry, giving still more power to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which are at the heart of the mortgage industry meltdown, and yet which both have escape serious scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

Who benefits from this plan?

Homeowners who wrote checks for a significant down payment won't benefit as much as those who took 100 percent financing. Homeowners in states without significant foreclosures will subsidize those in states like California, Arizona, and Florida. And borrowers who initially had affordable mortgages -- but then refinanced during the housing bubble and used their homes as ATMs -- stand to benefit.

So, if you put little or no money down, you'll get a bailout assist, but if you put 20% down in a traditional mortgage, you'll see little benefit. In fact, your tax dollars will be going to prop up those who made the far more risky mortgage choices.

This removes the risk of loss from business decisions that have more risk associated with them. In fact, it would force people to conclude that it makes more sense to make the riskier decisions rather than tried-and-true methods that contain less risk because the government will come and bail them out at the first sign of trouble.

Never in our history has anyone provided the kind of foreclosure relief that Obama has proposed and there are good economic reasons that hasn't happened before.

The economic theory behind this isn't to help those in foreclosure, but to prop up the real estate market. By curtailing the foreclosures, or stringing the foreclosures out over a longer timeframe, the belief is that the home prices will not drop as fast or as far as they have. That's a benefit only to those who have to sell their homes, but actually makes buying a home far more unaffordable than if the market corrections were allowed to take place without the government intrusion.

The real estate markets around the nation are not uniform by any stretch as the Case Shiller reports indicate, and some markets are doing far better than others. Around the NYC metro area, there's a wide range in sales and home price changes year over year. The market is factoring this in when prices come on the market, and Obama's plan will short circuit the correction in prices to where they would be more reasonably priced in the current market.

The correction in prices means the homes become more affordable. The use of foreclosures makes homes more affordable. Obama is engaging in a policy that distorts the market to make homes less affordable all while claiming he's pushing affordable housing.

This is precisely how the markets entered the real estate bubble in the first place - by distorting the market through government intervention and pressuring lenders to provide mortgages to those who should not have been given mortgages on properties they sought.

Indeed, why should someone making $80,000 with no money down be able to buy a home worth $500,000? That's insane, given that they'd be putting 50% of their income to mortgage and carrying costs and most guides suggest that you put no more than 38% of your income or 31% of net income to home costs. Things are tight enough as they are when you put 20% down on a home within your means, and yet these people were busy buying homes far above their means with other people's money without caring for the consequences of being unable to repay. When times were flush, they could simply flip the home and bank the difference (if any). Those times are over. Banks aren't going to simply hand out mortgages as they did in the past, but if Congress keeps pushing for lenders to give loans to the undeserving (based on credit history and ability to repay), then we'll be in this mess for years to come.

Then, there's the whole notion that the terms on some mortgages can be renegotiated. That's been an abject failure. 50% to 60% of readjusted mortgages under the last bailout have resulted in redefaults. These people simply should not be rewarded yet again for having made bad business decisions. And yes, it is a reward to get a renegotiation of their mortgage without having to pay refinancing fees and costs. Having just gone through a refinancing myself, I know that there are costs associated with one that can be several thousand dollars.

That's free money to people who have already shown that they can't afford these homes, and a further refinancing will not help someone who has lost their job keep a home. Downsizing is the option - renting is the option - not keeping a home they have no ability to pay for. Someone will eventually buy the home at a more affordable price, because the inventory of homes in some areas has grown and demand has not yet come back.

Michelle Malkin breaks out how people in the nation live - whether they rent, own, or if they're in default or are in foreclosure. Renters are getting the worst of it since they would see little benefit from this at all, particular those people who would contemplate buying a home and transitioning from a rental to ownership because affordable housing becomes less affordable under Obama's plan.

It's instructive to note that the overwhelming majority of the nation is living in homes they own outright, rent, or are current on their mortgages. Only 7% are in default or are delinquent. Those percentages are high for recent history, but are not a reason to gut the entire real estate mortgage industry by rewriting the rules to benefit those who made the riskiest of decisions.

UPDATE:
David Brooks calls this money for idiots. Apparently, they're not idiots since they've found a way to profit from passing on the risk to the rest of us. Those of us who have done the responsible thing are the idiots, which stands the whole basis of the real estate market and economics in general on its head.

UPDATE:
The White House is busy criticizing Rick Santelli who slammed the Obama mortgage relief plan yesterday on CNBC. White House flack Robert Gibbs says that Santelli ought to read the plan first.

Instapundit notes that Gibbs criticizing Santelli over not reading the Obama mortgage bailout plan is rich considering that Congress didn't read the $879 billion porkfest that Obama signed into law (without reading).

Santelli's response is also classic.

We know Wall Street's grade for President Obama since taking office. It's an F. The stock market has shed nearly 10% of value since the inauguration, and Obama has done little to show optimism in a rebound. Instead, he keeps talking down the economy further so as to propose still more government stimulus packages.

Comings and Goings In Israel

Israel's President Shimon Peres has given the task of forming the new Israeli government to Binyamin Netanyahu of Likud. He garnered more support in the Knesset than Livni's Kadmima, despite losing the election by one seat. Since governments are formed on a coalition basis, Netanyahu has a better chance of forming a coalition of 60+ seats.

Netanyahu, who met with Peres shortly before Livni, said that Kadima would be the first party he turns to after receiving the nod from Peres. "I am willing to go to great lengths in the negotiations needed to establish such a government," the Likud leader said after his meeting with Peres, echoing assessments that he would be willing to give Kadima several senior portfolios in his cabinet.

Netanyahu said repeatedly during the campaign that not forming a national-unity government when he was prime minister from 1996-99 was his worst-ever political mistake. But Livni left him no choice but to repeat it when she vowed to remain in the opposition.

"Today, the foundations of a right-wing extremist government under Netanyahu were set," Livni wrote in a cellular phone text message sent to some 80,000 Kadima members Thursday. "The path of such a government is not our own and we have nothing to look for there. You didn't vote for us in order to provide a kosher certificate for a right-wing government, and we need to provide an alternative of hope from the opposition."

Livni and Kadima mishandled Israel's national security in the Hizbullah War and by calling off Operation Cast Lead far too soon before Israel's security objectives were reached. The Israeli public doesn't trust them to handle Israel's security affairs, which is why the right wing parties benefited greatly from the situation.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry is on his way out of the Middle East, but not without accepting a letter from the Islamic terrorist group Hamas, courtesy of the UNRWA, which received the letter at one of its offices.

"A letter addressed to Obama was left at the gate of our offices in Gaza; it is believed to be from Hamas," said Christopher Gunness of UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees.

Asked about the contents of the letter, Gunness said: "We are very polite at UNRWA, we don't open other people's mail."

Kerry did not meet any Hamas representative and stressed that his trip to the impoverished territory, which no US official had visited for years, did not indicate a shift of policy towards Hamas.

He's going to play messenger boy for Hamas to give a letter to President Obama. The group is on the State Department's terror list and has regularly attacked Israel for years on end in an unending war against Israel's existence.

I can't begin to imagine what is in that letter. Oh wait. I can.

It will probably demand that the US lean on Israel to make still more concessions, including but not limited to: releasing hundreds of terrorists from Israeli jails, an end to airstrikes that kill Hamas terrorists attempting to attack Israel or who have just carried out mortar or rocket attacks on Israel; targeted airstrikes against Hamas leadership; and opening up the border crossings between Israel and Gaza and ensuring that Hamas terrorists free passage, and that's just for starters.

It's nothing that we haven't heard before, but the claim that Kerry had no contacts with Hamas is misleading. Kerry had to have had contacts with Hamas thugs to gain entry to Gaza for his day-trip, including visits to various locations in the Strip. An intermediary could have arranged the trip on Kerry's behalf, but they had to coordinate with Hamas, who controls Gaza. Nothing gets done in Gaza without Hamas having their hands on it.

Within hours of the Kerry visit to Gaza, Hamas rockets and mortars fell on Israel. That includes grad rockets that hit near Netivot. Oh, and a rocket fell short and slammed into Gaza too.

Hamas is a menace to everyone, not just Israelis.

Israel has continued to attack the smuggling tunnels across the Philadelpi corridor, and this has put a crimp on that underground industry. I'm not going to shed a tear for it one bit. Hamas has created the conditions under which the Gazans live, and they are to blame for the situation. But for the rocket attacks and incessant calls to jihad against Israel, the border crossings would have been opened long ago. Instead, Hamas uses the situation to gin up a crisis and to destroy the economy to force still more reliance on Hamas.

The Revolt Against Obama's Massive Mortgage Plan Begins

And not with a whimper, but with the financial gurus on Wall Street.

Buying real estate has always been a risky endeavor. There's no guarantee that you'll make money on the purchase, but it was seen as more stable than other investments, primarily because you couldn't quickly buy and sell the properties and that some property was more coveted than other real property.

Along comes President Obama and his plan to remove the risk of moral hazard from decisions made by lenders and borrowers. In fact, he's attempting to take the risk out of the transactions entirely - limiting the downside risk from foreclosures (and the benefit of foreclosures resulting in more affordable housing in those areas), while screwing those who managed their housing risks by not buying more than they could afford.

It's a theme I've hit upon before when it comes to the prior bailouts, whether they're for the automakers - corporate welfare in an earlier era when Democrats hated federal money going to businesses they didn't like or for the last homeowner bailout plan, which didn't solve anything since many of those who had mortgages renegotiated found themselves right back in the same mess just months later.

Economics is about supply and demand and managing risks. Eliminating risks or inflating demand distorts the markets and causes bubbles. That's what got us into the current real estate mess, and expanding the bubble further will only result in additional problems down the road. It is not a solution.

It's a band aid that allows the problems to fester for years to come.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 59

Hallelujah. Maybe.

It appears that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has finally set a timetable for the demolition of the ill-fated former Deutsche Bank building.

Decontamination is expected to be complete by the end of March. Work will start in late April on tearing down the remaining 26 floors.

Among new safety measures is an alarm on the standpipes and special emergency exits. Two firefighters were killed in a 2007 blaze because the standpipe had been cut.

This, along with Fiterman Hall on the North side of Ground Zero, are the two remaining buildings that the City, State, and development agencies have been unable to demolish since the 9/11 attacks because of multiple problems.

Of course, the LMDC has set timetables before, and the criminal acts of those involved in the demolition process led to the death of two firefighters when a fire broke out in the upper floors and the standpipes in the basement were severed at some point prior to the fire breaking out. Concerns over contamination, along with the discovery of additional remains led to delays.

The Deutsche Bank building site is slated to become the security center for vehicles entering the site, along with what would have become a building for JP Morgan Chase and include a trading floor. Those plans are still up in the air.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Tower continues growing, with the core continuing to rise out of the pit.

Sen. Kerry, Reps. Ellison and Baird Visit Gaza; Sderot

Sen. John Kerry has gone into Gaza and a separate delegation of Reps. Brian Baird and Keith Ellison visited as well. It's the first time US officials have gone into the Hamas stronghold since Hamas took over Gaza. Kerry says that they haven't spoken with Hamas leadership but we know that doesn't mean a hill of beans given that even Jimmy Carter has repeatedly met with Hamas leadership. These appearances and their border crossings had to be choreographed and coordinated with Hamas thugs who control the territory.

At least Kerry visited Sderot and saw the thousands of kassams piled up there - collected from all the rocket attacks originating from Gaza during years of Hamas' war against Israel. Oh, and FM Livni was also there. The Israeli press notes that the visit to Gaza was a harbinger of what Israel expects to be a new US approach to the conflict, and not in a good way.

Rep. Ellison, the only Muslim in the US Congress, was photographed, not at Sderot with those rockets fired by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but in Gaza, looking like he's distributing food.

That's par for the course. He wouldn't want to be seen showing even the slightest bit of support for Israel by showing his mug alongside all those rockets fired by the terrorist groups.

Zimbabwe's New Solution To the Economic Nightmare: Use US Dollars

Government workers and the military will start receiving their salaries not in Zimbabwean currency, which is worthless, but in US dollars in an attempt to revive the economy.

Robert Mugabe's economic and social policies have resulted in a complete implosion of the economy, with unemployment above 80% and inflation now running as high as 10 sextillion percent. The country can't keep up with printing money in denominations large enough so the last desperate gasp is to try and peg salaries and currency to the US dollar.

Zimbabwe's new finance minister says soldiers and civil servants have started to be paid in US dollars to help revive the shattered economy.

Tendai Biti, a member of the opposition party, said some 130,000 government employees were receiving $100 (£70) a month tax-free.

The state had enough foreign currency to pay the wages for February and March, Mr Biti told a news conference.

Hyperinflation has left Zimbabwe's local currency almost worthless.

Soldiers were paid in vouchers redeemable at selected banks on Tuesday, while teachers were to be paid on Wednesday and other civil servants on Thursday.

This is a concrete move in the right direction, but the problem is having enough currency on hand to last more than just the next few months. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangerai's opposition party is making inroads in this area, as it is his policy people who have made this move, which includes pegging the Zimbabwean currency to the US dollar on a $1 to 1 Zimbabwean dollar by knocking 12 zeros off the Zimbabwean dollar.

Breaking Out the Pitchforks Over Tax Hikes

Things got testy in Hoboken, New Jersey last night when the elected officials came under withering attack from homeowners who were just hit with a massive 47% hike on property taxes.

That's right folks. 47% tax hike.

The story says that the folks didn't break out pitchforks, but they should have.

For someone owning a home worth $250,000, that's a $625 to $650 increase per quarter. President Obama's tax "relief" wont even cover a quarter's worth of additional taxes in Hoboken. So, how did things get to this point in Hoboken?

Organized by taxpayer advocacy group Hoboken Revolt, several members of the public spoke in front of the crowd. They called for deep cuts in Hoboken's expenditures, to reduce Hoboken's budget, and for more transparency in Hoboken politics. Several people also demanded Hoboken stop issuing PILOTs, or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes plans for Hoboken's newest apartment buildings.

"We're upset with the fact that money is being spent but nobody seems to know where it's going. Nobody is held accountable," said Hoboken newcomer Toby Rofsky, as cries of "Show me the money!" filled the air.

Hoboken's municipal tax levy skyrocketed when the city was taken over by the state of New Jersey because it failed to pass a 2008 municipal budget. To fill budget gaps and a deficit, the state doubled Hoboken's tax levy, from $34 million in fiscal year 2008 to $65 for fiscal year 2009. That sent the property taxes skyrocketing up 47 percent.

Hoboken's political disaster became compounded by the state's fiscal mismanagement, which sent taxes skyward. Reductions in spending were never even considered. It was all about hiking taxes. That's also on Democrat Gov. Corzine and the state legislature.

And here's the thing; there are many people who are on fixed income or who have already paid off their homes. These tax hikes are what will drive many into contemplating bankruptcy or foreclosure because they cannot afford to remain in their homes as a result of the tax hikes.

RIP Shea Stadium

At 11:21AM today, the last bit of Shea Stadium was brought down.

You'll note that in New York City, they do not allow explosive demolitions, so the stadium was broken apart by crews using heavy machinery and rigging.

Bleak Outlook For Gaza Zoo?

I'm wondering if the BBC cares to acknowledge that it may be better off closing the Gaza zoo than letting some of the Gazans anywhere near the place.

Here's the BBC report, which is designed to illicit feelings of sorrow for Gazans and anger towards Israel.

Hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren used to come to the Gaza Zoo every week, but not now.

Tanks rolled through the area during the Israeli offensive. Much of the zoo was badly damaged, most of the animals died.

Cage after cage lies empty. Ostrich feathers are strewn close to a crater in the ground, beside the mangled steel bars of what was the birds' pen.

The burnt carcass of a camel by its former enclosure is one of the few sets of remains that have yet to be taken away.

"Some were killed in air strikes," says the zoo's manager, Emad Qassim, "but some of the animals were shot dead."

Let us ignore the fact that Hamas rigged the zoo with explosives set to detonate not only inside the zoo, but a nearby school during Operation Cast Lead.

Let's also not forget this unforgettable video of Gazans displaying their ethical treatment of animals:


In case you're wondering, the annoying cartoon character is Nahoul the Bee, and he was "killed off" by his Hamas writers by Israelis. That's part of a Hamas agitprop program to indoctrinate kids into hating Israel and joining the jihad.

UPDATE:
Rusty at the Jawa Report links. Thanks!

The Next Obama Economic Failure Awaits: Homeowner Assistance

Government actions to distort markets helped get us into the current mess, and new government action isn't going to improve matters. It will just prolong the agony even longer.

President Obama is unveiling his latest plan, a $75 billion plan to "assist" homeowners, including those who are upside down on their mortgages.

Now, one has to wonder why this wasn't included in the porkfest just passed since it is a "stimulus" for the economy since it is alleged to provide assistance to homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages and would allegedly assist banks who have these delinquent accounts on their books.

This too follows last year's homeowner assistance program which turned out to be a stunning failure because 60% of those who had mortgage terms renegotiated found themselves right back in default within six months.

So, where does the $75 billion come from? $50 billion will come from unused TARP 1 funds, with the rest to be funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Freddie and Fannie are also culpable for the real estate market collapse through their awful accounting practices and demands on lenders to increase lending to those who had little, no or bad credit.

Throwing millions of people into a marketplace with bad credit meant taking bad risks and when the real estate bubble burst, these people were in the worst shape of all.

That doesn't mean that they should get assistance because their mortgages are underwater or upside down (they owe more than the property is worth). If these people have the capacity to repay, it shouldn't matter that the property value has declined. Real estate isn't a short term investment, and shouldn't be seen as such.

If you've bought a home, it should be a long term investment, and over that longer time frame, the market will start to come back and prices will once again rise (as they are in some areas of the country).

Flipping is extremely risky proposition despite what the home improvement shows typically televise.

Flippers and speculators should not receive a single dollar from the government for making bad business decisions, although that concept has gone out the window as government looks to plow billions into the failed auto companies and other industries and businesses that would fail but for government action to prop them up and avoid the consequences of being in a market governed by supply and demand.

There are only a few times that this causes trouble is when the person has to sell the home (to relocate for another job, illness, or death of a homeowner). If they are underwater, that means the person has to come up with more money to sell to meet the mortgage obligation in order to buy the next property or cash out. Refinancing homes could be more difficult because the loan to value of the property might require purchase mortgage insurance (PMI) or force higher interest rates to cover the higher risk to the bank. Having recently refinanced my home, I worried about the valuation of my home, but we still were able to refinance based on the new appraisal but others may not be so lucky in hard hit real estate markets like Las Vegas or South Florida or parts of California.

If you don't have to sell, being underwater will not affect your economic situation unless you're looking to use a line of equity or want to leverage your home to take out loans for other items. It actually forces the homeowner to prioritize their expenses.

The flip side to the drop in home prices is that they have become tremendously more affordable to those who are in the market to buy a home. If you are coming from a rental and looking to buy a home, this is a great opportunity in many markets to get into a home after the massive runup for the past decade.

Yet, Obama's economic plan would attempt to stabilize the home prices in many areas still well above what the market prices would dictate. That means that those homes will remain unaffordable directly as a result of government meddling in the marketplace.

Speaking of the markets, they didn't take too kindly to this latest government 'plan.'

Scare Tactics

New York City Mayor Bloomberg spent $30 million of taxpayer money to fund a study of the impacts of global warming on the city.

To say that this study takes a more extreme position on climate change and its effects is an understatement.

It's like the IPCC report on steroids, and that report was seriously flawed.

The Daily News reports:

New York will be hotter, rainier and more likely to flood in the coming decades - with sea levels possibly rising more than four feet, a panel of scientists said Tuesday -

"All of the evidence from the science community is that the seas are going to rise," said Mayor Bloomberg as he unveiled the panel's report.

"It's pretty hard to not understand something's going on, very worrisome and scary, on this planet.

"The planet is changing, and we have to do what we can to make sure we can accommodate it," he added. "Did we, 10 years ago, think about water rising?

"Only a few people talked about it, and it was considered a communist plot. So by that standard, I suppose we have made some progress."

Academic experts and insurance executives on the panel concluded that average temperatures could rise up to 7.5 degrees by 2080, rainfall could increase by 10% and sea levels will rise two feet.

Some studies predict the polar ice caps will melt much more quickly, which could raise New York's sea level by 55 inches by the 2080s - more than 4-1/2 feet.

That likely means heavier and more frequent flooding from rainstorms and coastal flooding, the panel concluded, as well as heavier demands on all city infrastructure from electric power to sewers.

Weather experts say New York is due for a hurricane, and the city's Office of Emergency Management has drawn up evacuation plans that assume huge swaths of lower Manhattan and low-lying areas of the outer boroughs will be underwater during a moderate hurricane.

If you cherry pick your data and choose only the most extreme outcomes, you can say whatever you want. That's exactly what's happened here. The IPCC report didn't even produce as extreme results.

Now, note how many people involved in setting up that infamous report were climatologists: 20%. That's right folks, 80% of the hundreds of scientists involved were not climatologists. Many weren't even scientists at all and had no dealing with climate at all in their academic endeavors. The head was an economist, which was really the goal of that endeavor in the first place - it was to lay the groundwork for economic changes and redistribution of wealth through taxing carbon emissions.

Now, there are real concerns about hurricanes in the New York metro area. The region has been largely spared a devastating hurricane for decades, and it's a matter of time before such a storm comes ashore here. The Long Island Express did tremendous damage in 1930 - well before the notion of global warming - and such storms had happened in the past. They will happen again - without the scaremongering of global warming.

It is a good idea for localities to prepare for such occurrences, but Bloomberg's efforts aren't just to get emergency management to prepare for these scenarios, but to demand urgent economic and social policy changes.

Syria's Chemical Weapons Problem and Ours

Jane's Defense Weekly, a highly respected military affairs center, has reported that Syria is furiously working to build a chemical weapons plant. As per the Jane's report:

Satellite images from several commercial sources gathered from 2005 to 2008 have shed light on activity at the chemical weapons facility identified as Al Safir in northwest Syria. Imagery obtained by DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1 satellite indicates that the site contains not only a number of the defining features of a chemical weapons facility, but that significant levels of construction have taken place at the facility's production plant and adjacent missile base.

Image: A newly constructed possible missile loading building at the adjacent missile support facility.

View Larger Map

That's a map of the general location in question and is believed to be a command and control facility and the missile testing grounds. The chemical weapons facility is just to the northwest. This is an area Syria uses to test its Scud missiles, so the development of chemical weapons facilities next door brings ominous signs. Syria is believed to have three locations dedicated to developing chemical weapons, including near Damascus, Hama, and Safira (the facility in question).

That comes just a day after Syria's Bashar Assad stated that he wanted President Obama to consider doing business with Syria and to let go of its ties to Israel in the name of peace. The AP phrases this as Assad seeking better relations with the US, including reposting an ambassador and full diplomatic relations, but ignores that Assad wants the US to hang Israel out to dry. What exactly does the US get out of this? US Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) was in Syria to hear the latest spewage from Assad, and I doubt he asked any tough questions about Syria's support for Hamas and Hizbullah, including the provision of comfortable residences in Damascus where Hamas and Hizbullah thugs can sip tea and take visitors such as Iranian officials to discuss their war aims against Israel and the West, or the longtime support for the insurgency in Iraq that resulted in dead Americans.

Where's the mutual respect? There isn't any. Syria sees the incoming administration as weak and one that can be bullied and engage in appeasement rather than stand for freedom, liberty, and standing against those regimes that perpetuate terrorism.

Syria may want people to believe that he's a moderate state and open to negotiation, but the fact is that he supports and condones Islamic terrorism and jihad, and such support may lead to his own downfall as the Islamists grow tired of his inability to seal the deal.

Our problem is that the Obama administration looks like they're going to engage in appeasement rather than stand firm against these regimes, and the dictators are rushing to press forward with their agendas, including expanding their chemical weapons and missile development programs. They're busy testing Obama, and he isn't even in office six months.

Roland Burris: The Blagojevich Gift That Keeps Giving

The fun in Illinois politics hasn't ended now that Rod Blagojevich was impeached and removed from the governorship. Nope. Not by a longshot.

The effects of his stint in office will be felt for a long time to come.

Right now, his choice to replace Barack Obama in the Senate looks like he's going to go down in flames of his own after lying about whether he had contacts with Blagojevich's office over who would replace Obama. He's also lied about whether he raised money for Blagojevich; he did. He's got multiple versions of stories, and each one calls into question his credibility.

It's to the point that even the Chicago Tribune is calling for Burris to resign.

Let’s see if we have it right: Burris had zero contact with any of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s cronies about his interest in the Senate seat being vacated by President Barack Obama— unless you count that conversation with former chief of staff Lon Monk, and, on further reflection, the ones with insiders John Harris, Doug Scofield and John Wyma and, oh yeah, the governor’s brother and fund-raising chief, Robert Blagojevich. But Burris didn’t raise a single dollar for the now ex-governor as a result of those contacts because that could be construed as a quid pro quo and besides, everyone he asked refused to donate.

The story gets worse with every telling.

Enough. Roland Burris must resign.

His protests that he had nothing to hide just don’t square with his obvious attempts to hide something, as evidenced by the evolving truths in three sworn statements to the House impeachment panel. His Jan. 8 testimony before that panel contradicted the affidavit he’d filed three days earlier. On Feb. 5 he submitted a “clarification” detailing the contacts he’d failed to mention on the stand.

Now he has admitted that the governor’s brother hit him up to raise campaign cash, and in at least one conversation, Burris raised his prospects for being appointed to the Senate.

Rob Blagojevich’s attorney has acknowledged that the feds likely have at least one of those conversations on tape. Burris told reporters Monday night that he “talked to some people about trying to see if we could put a fund-raiser on,” but “they said ‘We aren’t giving money to the governor.’”

The hole just gets deeper and deeper, and Burris keeps digging. He has no credibility.

That's not a good way to start your career in the US Senate. Yet, this is completely par for the course in Illinois politics where being governor goes hand in hand with an indictment and conviction in Club Fed. His backers have no credibility either as they sat on evidence of Burris' wrongdoing themselves. That includes Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Perjury and obstruction of justice charges are just the beginning for Burris, who may have to have the stone masons carve in another line on his gaudy mausoleum - criminal. And while he would like to think of himself as a trailblazer, his current actions are little different than Blagojevich's - lying and obstructing justice and the investigations into whether there was wrongdoing in who would get Obama's seat.

Questions are being raised on how to solve the Burris problem. The concern is that even a successful perjury case against Burris might not be enough to unseat Burris.

More to the point, the problem with Illinois politics, and indeed politics across the country is that the corruption we see is pervasive and systemic. A starter might be to clean up the corruption at the local level and work all the way up through the ranks. The corruption is so pervasive that everyone thinks that this is the way politics gets done. Of course, the reality is that none of this will change because the voters keep sending back the same people who are responsible for the mess they're in. In fact, they're already making excuses and offering up a ready tolerance for such actions.

For now, we're left with knowing that the US Senate has opened an ethics investigation into Burris' actions. If it's anything like a House investigation, Burris has nothing to worry about; they're still not quite sure whether Charles Rangel broke the law and/or multiple ethics violations by cheating on his taxes, violating House ethics rules and disclosure rules, and breaking NYC housing rent control/stabilization guidelines for years on end.

Travel Hypocrisy Watch

CNN writes with all earnestness that people should travel to see the following five destinations before they disappear as a result of global warming: Great Barrier Reef, Australia, New Orleans, Louisiana, Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Colorado, Alpine Glaciers, Switzerland, and Amazon rain forest, Brazil.

How exactly does one get to these destinations without expending the very gasses that the eco-leftist believe causes global warming (COx)? Carbon trading schemes don't cut it either. Isn't it destructive to contemplate visiting such locales (eco-footprint)? Shouldn't one avoid extraneous travel if they want to save the planet?

Seriously, there are plenty of reasons to go visit these locations because of their stunning beauty, but the global warming rationale is wearing thin. Reports suggest that rain forests are rebounding nicely because more people are giving up subsistence living by slash and burn farming, which is allowing jungles to retake the former farmlands. Reefs and glaciers are transient in nature, and bug infestations are likewise natural phenomenon.

After all, it wasn't all that long ago in the Earth's history that New York City (and most of North America) was buried beneath a huge glacier. Glacial deposits can be found all over New York. And that followed a period when much of what is now North America was a shallow sea teeming with all manner of sea life, including reefs.

Part of the beauty of the world is that it is always changing. It's why going to many of these places is worthwhile - they never appear the same way twice. These kinds of reports play on the notion that there was some ideal temperature profile for the planet and that we're heading towards disaster, even though the history of the planet shows that it is forever changing - swinging like a pendulum between periods of cold and warmth.

You Don't Say: NYS Beheadings May Have Been Honor Killing

Chalk one up to the blatantly obvious. There's nothing honorable about honor killings, and yet they continue all over the world on a regular basis. They are far more uncommon in the United States, but from time to time such criminal acts do make headlines.

In this case, it's a particularly brutal honor killing where the man beheaded his wife.

The gruesome death of Orchard Park resident Aasiya Zubair Hassan — who was found decapitated — and the arrest of her estranged husband are drawing widespread attention, as speculation roils about the role that the couple’s religion may have played.

Muzzammil Hassan, 44, was arrested Thursday and charged with second- degree murder after telling police his wife was dead at the office of their television station in the Village of Orchard Park.

While Muslim leaders have urged against applying cultural stereotypes to the crime, advocates for women linked the killing to attitudes in Muslim societies.

“This was apparently a terroristic version of honor killing, a murder rooted in cultural notions about women’s subordination to men,” said Marcia Pappas, New York State president of the National Organization for Women.

She decried the scant national media attention paid to the story, which broke the same day as the commuter plane crash that killed 50 people in Clarence.

While domestic violence affects all cultures, Muslim women find it harder to break the silence about it because of a stigma, she said.

“Too many Muslim men are using their religious beliefs to justify violence against women,” she said.

Women are treated little better than chattel under Islamic law, and misogyny is part and parcel of Sharia. Offenses that could trigger honor killing include appearing in the presence of other unrelated men or behaving in a way that Islamists deem inappropriate.

In this case, Aasiya Zubair Hassan may have been brutally murdered because she was seeking a divorce from her abusive husband, Muzzammil. There had been numerous reports of domestic violence, so it is also possible that she was murdered simply because she disobeyed her husband.

What makes this all the more egregious is that Muzzammil Hassan is the founder of Bridges TV, a Muslim agitprop broadcast network funded by the Saudis to spread the message about Islam. I guess Muzzammil knew what to do about his wife since Sharia allows husbands to beat their wives for being disobedient.

It is also good to see that the National Organization of Women and other womens rights groups are finally starting to speak out against the honor killings and violence against women in the Muslim community. Faster please.

The story is also starting to generate international press and more media coverage as details of the brutal murder come to light.

Women on Women reports the details, but seems to get the concept of honor killings and who is actually shamed wrong.

Indeed it’s not, but often times these beheadings and other such crimes are often also ironically referred to as "honor killings" when linked to the Muslim culture. The irony? They bring dishonor upon the perpetrators, their families, their communities and their religion.

The perpetrators, families and their communities do not feel any dishonor from murdering those who have violated the Islamic laws - disobeying the husband being a prime example. They believe they have done nothing wrong. It is wishful thinking and projection to write that they are somehow dishonored.

If honor killings truly brought dishonor to those who committed the acts, the families involved, and the greater community, you would see more outreach and outspoken opposition to the practice, but for much of the world, this is a way of life that is not going to change because it comes from the Koran itself and if it is written in the Koran, any attempts to alter the definitions or meanings can lead to being threatened with apostasy (itself punishable by death).

UPDATE:
AP reports that Muzzammil Hassan was a gentle sort of guy and dismisses the idea of this being an honor killing because it is uncommon in the US. Sadly, the AP doesn't quite follow the growing trend of honor killings in the US and that the victims aren't always wives, but the daughters and girlfriends - but the brutal deaths are no less horrific. Charles at LGF highlights a very damning portrait of honor killings, the motivations, and the rising numbers in the West and how Islam plays a strong role in a report by Phyllis Chesler.

Taxing Times in New York

Democrats in the state legislature are planning to soak the "rich"? Check.

Are they considering imposing tolls on East River Bridges and/or raise payroll taxes considerably to finance the MTA which faces a budget hole? Check.

Meanwhile, Governor Paterson has gone ahead and given raises to quite a few people on the Second Floor despite directives to state agencies to curtail raises. It's funny how that works, despite the huge gaping budget hole that New York faces.

This should come as no surprise then: Andrew Cuomo is looking like he'd crush Paterson in the latest polling. In fact, Cuomo looks like he'd crush anyone in the upcoming elections, including Rudy Giuliani.

Still, Paterson has to govern for the moment, and he's been dealt a rough hand by the recession which has battered the golden goose for state revenues: Wall Street and those bonus babies that get huge bonuses on an annual basis for their work. Now, with the revenues gone because of the 2008 toxic paper crisis and the meltdown of multiple financial companies, the state's answer is to tax many of these same people even higher than before to make end's meet.

Paterson is busy blasting the misleading union ads decrying budget cuts in health care. Has anyone in the media bothered to call out both the governor and the unions for their misleading statements regarding budgets - the state's budget is an increase over last year, and yet the unions are screaming that they're cutting the budget by billions and the governor proclaims that he's cut the budget.

In fact, he took his case before the annual Black and Puerto Rican Caucus banquet where he slammed the unions in gloriously un-PC fashion:

And I must tell you in all honesty, I have to go home and ask myself that every night. … I am trying as are all of you to balance this budget fairly. But we’ve been dealt a bad hand. … This is a difficult time, and we will work this out, and we will work it out together.

And listen: I don’t care how many commercial how many commercials you all pay for, I don’t care how many points you all make me lose in the poll, and I don’t care how many blind people you roll out in wheelchairs, I’m going to get this budget balanced, and I’m going to get it balanced by April 1.

It's all nonsense; the state is spending more money than last year, but just not as much as they had hoped to spend. It's that difference that is called a budget cut and far too many New Yorkers will fall for the fear and loathing by those effective union ads and push the legislature to "restore the cuts" when there was no such thing. If the state really sought to cut the budget and restore fiscal sanity, they would not impose a budget larger than last year. It would not only save billions of dollars, but would avoid new taxes and fees to make up the shortfall in revenues anticipated by the increase in state spending in the governor's proposed budget.

The MTA is a morass of fiscal irresponsibility and the state will sooner impose the payroll taxes, sending businesses fleeing than to impose tolls on the East River bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and the Harlem River bridges.

If you're wondering where your Obama tax cuts are about to go, there's your answer. It's just going to end up in the state tax coffers. You've just witnessed the tax shell game.

UPDATE:
And how could I have forgotten Paterson's call to impose and collect taxes on porn.

Cart Before the Horse

Hamas is demanding that the deal to Israel release hundreds of terrorists for Gilad Shalit must precede any ceasefire deal. Well, Hamas is consistent.

They have no intention of ever honoring a ceasefire, which is truly a hudna - a strategic pause to regroup and rearm in their unending war against Israel, so obtaining the release of hundreds of terrorists bolsters their numbers preceding the next battle. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that a swap is bad news for Israel.

Pakistan Caves To Taliban; Islamists Win Again

Pakistan is busy turning itself over to the Taliban in bits and pieces and Sharia will be the law of the land before long.

Pakistan simply couldn't defeat the Taliban after six months of fighting in Swat, so they've decided that it's just not worth the fight to stop the Islamists and the supporters of al Qaeda from using Pakistani territory from which to carry out their attacks against Afghanistan or the rest of the region and beyond.

The Taliban aren't going to be satisfied with just their corner of the country (frontier provinces and Swat). They're going to want more, sensing weakness from the Zardari government. That bodes poorly for the US/NATO operations in Afghanistan as the Taliban and al Qaeda use Pakistan's frontier provinces for refuge, even as the US UAV airstrikes continue to take out top leaders and al Qaeda thugs much to the chagrin of the Pakistani government in Islamabad.

Mullah Dastagir, the shadow governor of Badghis province, was killed in the Sunday night airstrike in the Balamurghab district along with his brother Mullah Nabi Jan, another known Taliban commander named Mawlawi Hayatullah, and five other Taliban fighters. US and Afghan Army forces called in the airstrike after surrounding Dastagir's compound. Dastagir commanded more than 300 full-time Taliban fighters and another 300 part-time fighters.

Dastagir's rise to power in Badghis was facilitated by an order issued last year by President Hamid Karzai. Dastagir was released from National Security Directorate custody after the Directorate received an order from Karzai in September 2008. Karzai was responding to the appeals of local tribal leaders in Badghis, who appear to have been coerced by the Taliban.

Dastagir was nominated as the shadow governor for Badghis by a Taliban shura in October 2008. The Taliban appoint a shadow government in the provinces when it is determined the Taliban presence is sufficient. He quickly exacted revenge for his capture with the deadly November ambush on an Afghan Army resupply column north of the Balamurghab district center. The attack, which was purportedly led by Dastagir, led to a three-hour battle that resulted in 13 Afghan Army soldiers killed, 11 soldiers wounded, and 16 others missing. Scores of vehicles were torched and destroyed and others were stolen by the Taliban raiders.

The Taliban are sensing weakness and disarray in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and in the US and are hoping to exploit this to their own ends.

India is right to be concerned, especially after the Pakistani government admitted that the Mumbai bombings/attacks were planned from inside Pakistan.

Photo of the Day

Fish at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey.

 

Hamas Continues War Against Israel; Ceasefire Still In Works?

The BBC continues its assault on media credibility by framing the latest incidents in Gaza as follows:

Israeli jets have bombed tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt, after two rockets were fired at southern Israel.

The Israeli military said the air attack targeted a tunnel used for smuggling arms into Gaza.

A little-known militant group called Hezbollah Brigades Palestine claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, which caused no casualties.

For starters, Hamas controls all actions ongoing in Gaza and the creation of another alphabet terrorist group doesn't diminish the fact that Hamas is in control of Gaza. The creation of "another" terrorist group is meant to obscure the fact that Hamas is behind the attacks so that Hamas can claim and get a hudna with Israel all while continuing its war on Israel.

More to the point, the BBC first notes the Israeli reprisal strikes, rather than the precipitating act - the ongoing rocket fire against Israel from Gaza. It's a pattern that the international media has replayed for years on end, and it provides Hamas and the terrorists with a media voice.

Then, there's the whole notion that there has been a ceasefire since the end of Operation Cast Lead. As I've repeatedly pointed out, Hamas and the other terrorists in Gaza have continued firing rockets and mortars at Israel nonstop since Operation Cast Lead. In fact, barely a day goes by without a mortar or kassam fired into Israel by these terrorists. Terrorists continue plotting and planning for attacks, and Gazans continue dying as a result of terrorist mishaps.

Meanwhile, the Jordanians, with whom Israel has a peace treaty, is contemplating filing war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court, despite the fact that Hamas has openly and overtly engaged in war crimes with every single kassam fired on Israel, with every utterance calling for the destruction of Israel and with every use of human shields to protect terrorists. Even human rights groups have been forced to admit that there is little evidence of Israel committing human rights violations during the war, but that Hamas' actions are so substantial that it doesn't even require investigation. Jordan has not recommended bringing charges against Hamas.

The outcry over Israel killing civilians reached dizzying heights during Operation Cast Lead but the facts show that fewer civilians died than the Palestinians ever claimed. In fact, many, if not most were terrorists. Less than one-third of the 1,200 claimed killed were civilians. Among those killed was one thug who was portrayed as a civilian, but a Hamas poster reveals his true nature as a terrorist. Israel has long claimed that the overwhelming majority of those killed were terrorists, all while the Palestinians claim that most were civilians. Again, this goes back to the fact that the terrorists hid behind cribs of children and the skirts of women in order to fire their mortars and rockets at Israel. Israel inevitably hit civilians, but their deaths and injuries are the fault of no one but Hamas, who initiated the conflict by firing their rockets and mortars at Israel with the express purpose of killing and maiming Israeli civilians.

At the same time, the Olmert government is now trying to cover for the fact that they're working on a deal to swap terrorists for the release of Gilad Shalit. As I have repeatedly written, any such deal undermines Israel's national security and provides incentives for the terrorists to take more Israelis for use as bargaining chips. In fact, some of the reports indicate that Israel is requiring that any terrorists released be sent to Syria or Lebanon. That's bad news for those countries and opens yet another front in the war against Israel; it undermines the fragile situation in Lebanon and it allows the terrorists to operate freely and openly in Syria.

Obama Plans On Lifting Stem Cell Research Funding Limitations?

Via Hot Air, it's being reported that President Obama is looking to lift a restriction on federal stem cell research funding. The headline, like most coverage of President Bush's actions in this area omits key information by claiming that Bush banned stem cell research.

President Bush didn't ban stem cell research. In fact, President Bush was the first to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He just set limits as to how much federal funding could go and limited the amount of lines that could be funded by the federal government to only those that were then in existence.

There were, and there continue to be, no such limitations on private research into embryonic stem cell research or any other stem cell research technique, including on adult stem cells or cord blood stem cells.

President Bush considered the ethical and moral issues relating to how the embryonic stem cells were gathered and put together a compromise, wherein only a set number of lines would be funded.

Obama looks to eliminate any such limitations and allow federal funds go to embryonic stem cell research despite the fact that other areas of stem cell research have proven to be much more successful and less susceptible to problems.

States Seek Revenues Through Taxing Booze and Porn

When the economy goes in the tank and economic illiterates in legislatures need to balance budgets, the first thing they think of is not cutting spending, but how to raise revenues on people without them realizing it or on hitting groups that have no real organized method of opposing the tax plans.

In New York, they're contemplating taxing online porn. The AP notes:

The state Division of Budget confirmed to The Associated Press that the tax would apply to skin flicks, whether they are downloaded online or purchased through pay-per-view on television.

``By taxing it you're legitimizing it,'' said Michael Long, chairman of New York's Conservative Party. ``You're sending a message to the children, you're sending a message to the teenagers, if you're taxing it _ how can it be wrong? I don't know how you can sink much deeper.''

And because of recent court decisions over the relatively new area of taxing Internet transactions, the sales tax would apply only to pornographers who are located in the state. It's a break for out-of-state Web sites that wouldn't have to collect from New Yorkers.

Governor David Paterson has already tried to broach the subject of imposing taxes on carbonated beverages before being reproached by people who couldn't warm up to that subject. The porn tax probably wont generate much in the way of income, but it shows the desperation of governments to raise revenues without angering all taxpayers.

In Oregon, they're looking to tax booze.

Lawmakers are considering a bill that would raise taxes on beer. The current excise tax is about $2.60 and the new bill would raise it to $49.61 for a barrel of beer.

There are two kegs in a barrel of beer, so the new tax would be almost $25 per keg -- which works out to around 20 cents per pint in a 128-pint half-barrel keg.

Money generated would create the Alcohol Impact Remediation fund, which would distribute funds to various agencies that address treatment and recovery programs.

Oregon is far from alone in looking to the sin taxes for revenues. Many other states are looking to raise taxes on alcoholic beverages, including loosening restrictions that would enable sales on more days and/or raising the tax rates.

Every year, you see legislatures around the country look to obscure taxes and those taxes that aren't paid all the time - like real estate transfer taxes - for additional revenues. This year is going to be especially difficult given the economic situation, but that's not going to deter these states from increasing spending over last year.

Even the federal government has gotten into the sin tax game; they're hoping to fund the massive expansion of the S-CHIP program with a huge increase in cigarette taxes. Seeing how cigarette tax revenues haven't exactly matched projections, it's likely to come up short and all taxpayers will be left holding that bag too.

Outgoing Olmert Government Opening Pandora's Box

Not only are they contemplating some kind of a deal that ties Gilad Shalit's release to a hudna with Hamas, but they're contemplating the release of another major terrorist so as to bolster the terrorist group Fatah. Fatah is no friend of Israel and seeks Israel's destruction no less so than Hamas, but are more likely to see Israel destroyed by paper cuts than through suicide bombers at present.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to negotiate a last-minute deal with Hamas under which Israel would release 1,000 or more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

To help Fatah, one idea under discussion was the possibility of releasing Barghouti ahead of the prisoner swap with Hamas, according to Israel's Channel 10 television. An Israeli source told Reuters this option was under consideration but that no decisions have been taken.

"There will not be a Shalit deal without the release of Marwan Barghouti," Barghouti's lawyer, Hader Shkirat, told Israel's Channel 10 television.

The inept and ruinous Olmert government is now contemplating releasing Marwan Barghouti to bolster Fatah even as they're looking to deal with Hamas - releasing more than a thousand terrorists to secure the release of Gilad Shalit or the possibility of reopening the Gaza crossings in exchange for Shalit.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It's the same kind of nonsense we've been hearing ever since Shalit was taken by Hamas thugs in a terror operation that killed two other Israeli soldiers. Israel releasing prisoners in exchange for freeing its own soldiers is a disastrous policy and one that only spurs the terror groups to proclaim victory and seek out still more Israelis to be used as bargaining chips. It undermines Israel's national security, and yet this is the path taken by Olmert and Kadima, which runs counter to the very way that new Kadima head, Foreign Minister Livni has sought to portray herself. Kadima will continue down this route, despite the multiple failings of this policy.

Hamas probably considers this changed stance a breakthrough since they're not being forced to make any concessions at all. Israel is the one conceding without getting anything in return.

Israel is not getting improved security.

Israel is not getting a cessation of the kassam rockets and mortar attacks, which have continued ever since the end of Operation Cast Lead. Rockets continue slamming into Israel today.

Hamas is going to use this time to regroup and rearm.

Hamas will continue attacking Israel, hoping to ratchet up the violence over time just as it has done in the past. IED attacks will continue.

Hamas will continue using civilian areas to rebuild its terror infrastructure and consolidate its grip on Gaza for the inevitable next round of its war against Israel's existence.

Hamas will use the latest discussions to claim victory over Israel, despite the toll on its terror infrastructure when Israel did use its military force to strike at Hamas for just about three weeks.

Hamas is also claiming that they hold the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in Operation Cast Lead as a bargaining chip to release still more terrorists from Israeli jails. Israel has no comment about the claim.

Fatah is playing its part in the charade by claiming it will fire a bunch of pro-Hamas mullahs in the West Bank. These people were on the payroll - spreading their message of hate and venom against Israel, but Fatah needs to show that they can play along with Israel to the barest minimum so you get displays such as this. They haven't fired them, despite the fact that Oslo and all the successive peace process documents call on the PA to eliminate acts of incitement against Israel.

This once again exposes the PA failings; they choose to ignore the incitement to violence against Israel, allowing the extremists within to spread their message of hate and destruction and only when the money is on the line do they take the bare minimum action. It bears watching to see whether they actually do fire them or just use this story as proof they're doing something about it.

There are also reports that terrorists "escaped" from a PA facility in the West Bank. That's mighty convenient. It's revolving door justice - Fatah rounds up Hamas and makes a big show of it, and then turn around and release them or "allow" Hamas to break out.

A PA security officer, Majid Faraj, who heads the PA’s military intelligence service in Judea and Samaria, previously stated that the escaped prisoners had been held for non-terror related crimes. He, however, admitted that four of the prisoners are “wanted by Israeli intelligence.”

PA security is presently on a wide-scale manhunt to attempt to recapture the fugitives, who had escaped from prison on Friday from the PA-controlled city of Jericho. According to some reports, some of the fugitives are former terrorists who signed “amnesty” papers in which they agree to spend time in PA prisons in lieu of extradition to Israel for imprisonment.

Last March, the Arab terrorists who murdered two young Jewish men at Nahal Telem in the Hevron area in January reportedly escaped a PA prison. Israeli security experts expressed doubts about the veracity of the March prison escape story, which has been used repeatedly to cover the PA’s release of terrorists in its custody.

You Don't Say: Obama Tempers Expectations Over Porkfest Fixing Economy

So, now that President Obama is set to sign the multi-trillion dollar porkfest into law on Tuesday, he's already attempting to manage expectations that the porkfest will not turn around the economy right away.

He's already laying the groundwork for another porkfest package just in case the economy doesn't improve even modestly under the weight of the current porkfest.

That's the Democrats' solution to all problems. Throw massive amounts of money at the problem and pray that something sticks. Oh, and just hours after saying that this bill needed to be passed by Congress to save the economy, President Obama will now not sign it until Tuesday? I guess he realizes he needs to get the press coverage that a weekday brings, not simply signing it into law on a holiday weekend when fewer people are paying attention. It was a hurry up and pass the bill without reading the damned thing so it can sit until such time that the press coverage will be maximized. Since it wasn't going to be signed until Tuesday at the earliest, Congressional Democrats - Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi rammed through this bill with a minimum of debate that would have exposed the extent of this fiscally irresponsible and foolish legislation.

Even the New York Times was forced to admit yesterday that the tax cuts in the bill hold out the only hope for a modest boost in the immediate future; the rest of the porkfest may generate jobs years into the future.

The $787 billion plan — a combination of fast-acting tax cuts and longer-term government spending on public works projects, education, health care, energy and technology — was smaller than Democrats first proposed.

Yet, Obama and the Democrats cut the level of tax cuts to trim the massive bloated porkfest down below $800 billion initial outlay, to amounts that Democrats like Michelle Obama had previously derided as being insufficient to stimulate the economy when President Bush offered them up last year.

Meanwhile, the economic illiterates in Congress are now looking to take over the banking industry and the carmakers are now claiming they need yet another multi-billion dollar bailout because they can't make ends meet and agree with the unions on a modification of contracts that would save jobs. Providing the bailout to the automakers was the height of folly, and Congress will again bail out Chrysler and General Motors in a futile attempt to curry favor with automakers and unions that cannot and will not adapt to current economic realities. Ford has thus far avoided taking any federal monies, and if I were in the market for a car, I would seriously consider them on that basis.

Shades of Heinlein?

Service brings citizenship?

Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.

Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.

Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

“The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the Army, which is leading the pilot program. “There will be some very talented folks in this group.”

The program will begin small — limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year, most for the Army and some for other branches. If the pilot program succeeds as Pentagon officials anticipate, it will expand for all branches of the military. For the Army, it could eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year, or about one in six recruits.

About 8,000 permanent immigrants with green cards join the armed forces annually, the Pentagon reports, and about 29,000 foreign-born people currently serving are not American citizens.

Robert Heinlein wrote about themes including service, citizenship, and voting in his science fiction works, including Starship Troopers. There, a person could not vote unless they had completed federal service.

Here, the reasons extend to the fact that the military continues to look for qualified people in a wide range of disciplines and will use a path to citizenship as a benefit to be accrued by those wishing to join the all-volunteer military.

Afghan Court Upholds Sentence In Koran Translation Case

The publication of a Koran that doesn't include the original Arabic will result in a lengthy prison sentence for two men in Afghanistan. This is just wrong, but this is how Islamic law rolls:

The controversial text is a translation of Islam's holy book into an Afghan language without the original Arabic verses alongside. Muslims regard the Arabic Quran as words given directly by God. A translation is not considered a Quran itself, and it is believed a mistranslation could warp God's word.

A host of Muslim clerics in this conservative Islamic state have condemned the translation - which was published in 2007 and handed out for free - as blasphemous and accused its publishers of setting themselves up as false prophets.

Critics have said the trial illustrates the undue influence of hard-line clerics in Afghanistan's fledgling legal system.

The appeals court found the men guilty of modifying the Quran - a crime punishable by death. However, the three-judge panel reiterated a lower court ruling giving the men 20 years each.

The prosecutor had asked for the death penalty for the two men - Ahmad Ghaws Zalmai, a former spokesman for the attorney general, and Mushtaq Ahmad, a Muslim cleric who signed a letter endorsing the translation.

Chief judge Abdul Salam Qazizada invoked Islamic Shariah law when reading out the sentence, saying death would not have been an extreme punishment.

The death sentence was considered an appropriate treatment for the crime since both men were accused of apostasy and leading other Muslims to consider apostasy.

Here's the thing.

Despite making the Koran more approachable and understandable for the people reading it - those that can read it in a country that has an incredibly high illiteracy rate - it is deemed a crime because the original Arabic was not included (even when most people don't know how to read it or understand it either).

The freedom of speech runs headlong into Islamic law and Islamic law wins again.

These two men are lucky that they didn't get a death sentence.