Israel Approves Community Construction Project

Nowhere in the world does the construction of homes get at much scrutiny as in Israel and the territories in the West Bank. Israel approved construction of 455 homes. That's got top billing at Drudge Report for the moment, and it also has significant coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other major outlets.

Why?

The construction of new Israeli communities is not now, and has never been, a stumbling block to a peace deal.

Let's start with the basics. Note that the media reports call these settlements, even if they are nothing more than homes approved by the government to expand existing communities. They are also homes. Nothing more.

Homes can change ownership. Israel has proven that twice - and the lessons have not apparently been learned by the media covering such instances.

In the first, Israel withdrew from major communities in Sinai as part of the comprehensive peace accord between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Israel forcibly removed its citizens from those communities in the name of peace.

In the second, Israel again forcibly removed Israeli citizens from communities located in Gaza, as part of the 2005 Gaza disengagement plan. That too was in the name of peace, but the Gazans instead turned those communities into terror training camps, rocket and mortar launching platforms, and generally destroyed the infrastructure that remained.

Yet, the media and the Obama Administration are trying to get Israel to curtail the construction of these homes to restart the peace process. The problem remains, as it has been, that Israel lacks a partner in peace. The Palestinian Authority has refused to accept two comprehensive offers for peace - without even the courtesy of a counterproposal. Arafat refused to accept a deal in 2000. Abbas refused to accept a similar deal from Olmert last year. Both would have led to a 2-state solution, but neither would have given the Palestinians what they want most - the ability to resettle in Israel and fundamentally alter the demographics to an extent that it would destroy Israel's very character within a matter of years.

When Israel finally has a partner for peace that accepts a two-state solution with Israel as a Jewish state alongside the Palestinians, then the peace process will actually move forward. The whole kerfuffle over home construction is a sideshow designed to confuse and obfuscate the true nature of the ongoing conflict, which at its core boils down to the fact that the Palestinians refuse to accept Israel's existence at all. Hamas and Fatah both refuse to accept this; both refuse to accept the goals of Oslo.

Hamas has no intention of relinquishing control over Gaza, where they're under assault from terrorists who are even more extreme than they are. Those terrorists want to turn Gaza into an Islamic emirate and are aligned and affiliated with al Qaeda. There's no incentive for them to moderate their views, all while they keep Gazans impoverished and have such a reckless disdain for human life. Hamas sees Gazans as nothing more than cannon fodder and propaganda opportunities.

Fatah maintains a veneer of legitimacy, but that's only when compared to Hamas. They maintain a grip on the West Bank only because the West continues to support the regime, while many on the ground are more radical and support Hamas. The occasional outbreak of violence between Hamas and Fatah shows that the deep divisions among the Palestinians remains, and the fact that Hamas and Fatah leaders manage to live a comfortable existence while keeping many of their fellow Palestinians in refugee camps in the hopes of resettling them inside Israel (beyond the Green Line) shows the delusional nature of the Palestinian aspirations and goals.

The Obama Administration's push to move forward on the peace process shows that he sides with Palestinian aspirations and engages in the pseudoreality that diplomats have labored under for years. They ignore the rhetoric and propaganda spewing forth from Palestinian and Arab media sources calling for Israel's destruction, while playing up the few ambivalent words calling for a 2-state solution. It's the words spoken by Palestinian leaders to the Palestinians that carry the real weight. When Palestinian leaders have called for Israel's destruction for generations, it becomes ingrained and part of the very psyche of the Palestinian polity. A Palestinian leader who pursues peace under those circumstances is facing a death sentence. He will not last long in the face of pressure from his own group, let alone the more extremist terrorists. They will not labor to fulfill a peace deal, because that too would mean confronting terrorists within their midst who consider anyone who isn't pursuing Israel's destruction openly and overtly to be an appeaser and sellout of Palestinian nationhood.

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Housing Market Still Reeling From Gov't Intervention

The housing market is still reeling from the government intervention and distortion of the lending market, but the only consolation from proponents of that policy is that they contend things could have been even worse had the federal government not moved to prop up the collapsing credit market.

While this made it possible for many borrowers to keep getting loans and helped protect the housing market from further damage, the government's newly dominant role -- nearly 90 percent of all new home loans are funded or guaranteed by taxpayers -- has far-reaching consequences for prospective home buyers and taxpayers.

The government has the power to decide who is qualified for a loan and who is not. As a result, many borrowers among both poor and rich are frozen out of the market.

Nearly one-third of those who obtained home loans during the boom years of 2005 and 2006 couldn't get one today, according to mortgage industry analysts. Many of these borrowers were never really able to afford their homes and should not have gotten loans. But many others could, and borrowers like them are now running into tougher government standards.

At the same time, taxpayers are on the hook for most of the loans that are still being made if they go bad. And they are also on the line for any losses in the massive portfolios of old loans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or back more than $5 trillion in mortgages.

There is growing evidence that many loans being guaranteed by the government have a significant risk of defaulting. Delinquencies are spiking. And the Federal Housing Administration, another source of government support for home loans, is quickly eating through its financial cushion as losses mount.

All the efforts to increase the percentage of Americans who were homeowners has been a failure. Lax lending standards allowed the rate to rise to 69.3%, but that was a bubble of epic proportions, since many of those who were borrowing to buy homes had no way to pay for them once terms on adjustable rates rose above their initial teaser rates. With the shakeout in the real estate market, the homeownership rate sagged back to 67.4%, which is little different than had the lenders utilized more conservative and traditional lending terms.

The tighter lending standards chafe at those who wanted to expand homeownership, and those who thought that expanding homeownership among minorities was a laudable goal. Of course, the economics of such moves were never considered, let alone the fact that these people lacked a way to pay for the homes and couldn't meet even reduced lending standards.

The move to higher lending standards will infuse the markets with a dose of fiscal realism and safer lending and credit.

Still, there are huge problems, including the fact that taxpayers are on the hook if even a small percentage of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans go bad. The taxpayer hit? You don't want to know:

Taxpayers could be hit with a staggering tab even if a small proportion of loans go bad. Fannie and Freddie now own or guarantee more than $5 trillion in home loans. (That equals two-thirds of the debt the U.S. government owes.)

And many could be in trouble. Mortgages owned and backed by the companies often required down payments of no more than 10 percent. With housing prices down sharply, many borrowers are underwater, owing more than their home is worth, so they cannot sell or refinance to pay off troubled loans.

As the economy has deteriorated, delinquencies are spiking and losses are mounting. In the past year and half, the companies have posted more than $150 billion in losses.

Similar risks threaten to engulf FHA. Nearly 8 percent of FHA loans at the end of June were either 30 days late or in the process of foreclosure, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That compares with 5.4 percent of such loans a year ago.

As a result, FHA has been exhausting much of its loss reserves, which are funded by premiums paid by borrowers. The reserves currently stand at an estimated 3 percent of all outstanding loans, half of what they were just a year ago. If the reserves fall below the 2 percent threshold set by Congress, they could require a taxpayer bailout.

The push to increase affordable housing by distorting the mortgage lending business economics was anything but affordable. It's been an unmitigated disaster.

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The Gaza Terror Incubator Hatches al Qaeda Spinoff

It looks like an al Qaeda spinoff in Gaza is busy claiming that they attempted to assassinate Jimmy Carter and Tony Blair. The group is a spinoff of Hamas, who figures that Hamas isn't sufficiently Islamist enough. Hamas has been hunting these guys down, but these are the most militant of the former Hamas terrorists -

Mahmoud Taleb, a former commander of Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, also threatened that his supporters were planning to launch attacks on Hamas.

Taleb, who is wanted by Hamas's security forces, has been in hiding for more than two years. Several attempts by Hamas to arrest him have failed, prompting the movement to detain many of his friends and relatives.

A veteran journalist in the Gaza Strip described Taleb as the Palestinian Osama bin Laden. The journalist said that Taleb's group was seeking to establish an Islamic "emirate" in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has been dealing with other al Qaeda affiliated groups too, such as Jund Ansar Allah. This is just the most recent example, but perhaps signals that there is much worse to come.

That's because this group, Jaljalat (Thunder), is a spinoff and so closely tied to Hamas and is so knowledgable in its methods, operations, and tactics, to say nothing of manpower, that it poses a serious threat to Hamas.

They've carried out a string of attacks against Hamas in response to Hamas crackdowns against Jund Ansar Allah.

So, it was as a result of Hamas going after terrorists even more extreme than themselves that they thwarted assassination attempts against former US President Jimmy Carter and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

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90 Arrested in British Riots

Peace and tolerance were in short supply in Birmingham, England. A riot broke out when a group protesting Islamic extremists were attacked by counter protesters.

Authorities arrested 90 people after racially charged violence erupted between a group protesting Islamic extremism and counter-demonstrators in the central English city of Birmingham, police said Sunday.

The clashes erupted Saturday when a rally by the English Defense League ran into counter-demonstrators including anti-fascists and youths of South Asian descent, West Midlands Police said.

About 200 people were involved in the clashes in downtown Birmingham, police said.

Television footage showed masked or hooded youths throwing projectiles and running from riot police through the diverse city's downtown area.

Police said the 90 people detained -- all males aged 16 to 39 -- were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and violent disorder.

Some reports indicate that the Muslim counter protesters were urged to counterprotest at the behest of their leaders.

Muslims were encouraged by the Birmingham Central Mosque to counter-demonstrate during Saturday’s protest in the city, which was organised by the right-wing English Defence League (EDL). It is understood that Muslims were encouraged to confront the protest against the advice given by the West Midlands Police to community leaders to stop their followers from attending.

Mohammad Naseem, Birmingham Central Mosque’s chairman, considered to be the most senior community leader in the West Midlands region, told The Times yesterday that he encouraged members of his congregation to attend the rally, at which about 80 people were arrested, to express the Islamic community’s solidarity.

Dr Naseem’s advice came less than a month after Muslims of predominantly Asian heritage clashed with the EDL in Birmingham at another antiIslamic rally that led to 35 arrests.

The problems aren't just confined to Birmingham.



The Muslim leaders have to be held accountable for their incitement to violence as well.

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Gordon Brown Has a Libya Problem

On top of revelations that the British government basically traded a convicted terrorist to fulfill their end of a bargain to have a major oil contract with Libya, we now learn that current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vetoed Libyan reparations for victims of IRA terror attacks that utilized Libyan explosives.

Documents passed to The Sunday Times reveal how the prime minister took a close interest in a campaign to secure payouts for the 2,500 families of those blown up by the Libyan-supplied Semtex explosive used by republican bombers.

However, Brown refused to help the victims because of government concerns that putting pressure on Gadaffi might lead to Libya withdrawing co-operation over trade and the war against Islamic terrorism.

The documents will cause embarrassment for Brown as he faces new questions over the early release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

In a further damaging twist, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, was last night accused by the Tories of misleading the public over the prime minister’s role in talks about the decision to free the terminally ill Libyan terrorist.

The Sunday Times has established that Straw wrote to Brown warning the Libyans might block a multi-million-pound BP oil deal unless the bomber was released. The disclosure contradicts remarks Straw made in a newspaper interview published yesterday in which he insisted there had been “no paper trail” to No 10.

Campaigners claim the official letters about IRA compensation highlight the government’s preoccupation with trading relations with Libya at the expense of bomb victims.

A letter from Bill Rammell, then the Middle East minister, sent on November 6, 2008 to Jonathan Ganesh, who was injured in the 1996 Docklands bomb and now campaigns for IRA victims, states that oil contracts were a factor in the government’s failure to act.

There is a mountain of evidence linking Libyan explosives to IRA bombings that killed and wounded British citizens, and Brown did all he could to thwart efforts to compel Libyan compensation to those terror victims. That compares poorly with US efforts that led to compensation of American victims of IRA terror attacks by Libya.

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Van Jones Quits Amid Controversy

Good riddance to bad rubbish. I have little doubt that Van Jones' 9/11 troofer angle contributed heavily to his quitting from the post, but it was his crank science links and radical left positions that were truly troublesome, even as they fit in with the Administration's overall outlook perfectly.<

Mr. Jones issued an apology on Thursday. When asked the next day whether Mr. Obama still had confidence in him, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said only that Mr. Jones "continues to work in the administration."

The matter surfaced after news reports of a derogatory comment Mr. Jones made in the past about Republicans, and separately, of Mr. Jones's name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

That 2004 petition had asked for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level government officers had allowed the attacks to occur.

The reports of his resignation generally focus on the 9/11 troofer petition, and that he once made derogatory comments about Republicans, but ignore his links to the Communist Party and crank science links. It also ignores the fact that he was a supporter of cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal, who organized marches to demand his release.

The Rhetorican also tracks Jones' resignation.

It is entertaining to see Jones bail (or be pushed) on a holiday weekend to minimize news coverage and get outside the news cycle. At least the Administration did that part right.

UPDATE:
Don Surber notes that Powerline Blog found statements Jones made just days after 9/11 blaming the US for the terror attacks. I don't think they are proof of trooferism, but are typical of the leftist thought that blames the US for all evil in the world.

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Teenage Unemployment Rate Reaches Record Levels

Unemployment among teenagers is at record levels. It's at the highest levels since the statisticians began tracking that metric.

This August, the teenage unemployment rate — that is, the percentage of teenagers who wanted a job who could not find one — was 25.5 percent, its highest level since the government began keeping track of such statistics in 1948. Likewise, the percentage of teenagers over all who were working was at its lowest level in recorded history.

“There are an amazing number of kids out there looking for work,” said Andrew M. Sum, an economics professor at Northeastern University. “And given that unemployment is a lagging indicator, and young people’s unemployment even lags behind the rest of unemployment, we’re going to see a lot of kids of out work for a long, long, long, long time.”

Recessions disproportionately hurt America’s youngest and most inexperienced workers, who are often the first to be laid off and the last to be rehired. Jobs for youth also never recovered after the last recession, in 2001.

The Times appears mystified as to why this is the case and only notes higher minimum wages in passing. They note that the economy is in bad shape, so there are fewer jobs to be had.

Here's a clue.

When Democrats raised the minimum wage, I warned that it would lead to increased unemployment. Guess what - it did. Employers have to increase the amount of money paid to entry level workers, which means that there's no incentive to bring on additional workers in a down economy when it costs more. Moreover, higher costs get passed on to the consumer, so higher prices are another outcome of this policy. The reason there are fewer entry level jobs is because employers have to pay more for those jobs, so they'd rather keep existing entry level workers and make them work more (improving efficiencies, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes in their most recent report), rather than hiring new workers, which costs more in training and other related costs.

In other words, the Times gets it backwards.

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UK Admits Oil Played Big Role In Release of Libyan Terrorist

You could see this coming a mile away, but the British Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, admitted that the possibility of oil contracts with Libya played a big role in the release of a Libyan terrorist convicted in the murder of 270 people bombed out of the sky on Pan Am Flight 103.

The Justice Secretary told The Daily Telegraph his decision to include Abdelbaset al Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) with Libya two years ago was influenced by commercial interests.

He cited a lucrative deal which was being sought by British oil giant BP at the time Megrahi was included in the PTA, adding of the trade consideration: "I'm unapologetic about that.

"Libya was a rogue state," Mr Straw told the newspaper.

"We wanted to bring it back into the fold. And yes, that included trade because trade is an essential part of it and subsequently there was the BP deal."

His comments risk reigniting the row over Megrahi's release, after Gordon Brown insisted earlier this week there was "no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double-dealing, no deal on oil."

Commercial interests trumped justice and law and order. Despite the photos that make Megrahi appear sympathetic, he should have served out his sentence in prison, rather than be released to a heroes welcome in Libya.

This had been in the works for more than two years - a prisoner transfer agreement had been made part of a comprehensive deal with Libya, that included a £550m oil deal with BP.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had claimed that there was no link, and that oil deals were not part of the bargain. Right.

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The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 78

The Freedom Tower (1WTC) continues rising slowly from the surrounding work at Ground Zero. There are now three major cranes working at the site; two tower cranes that will be jacked up over time and eventually build out the tower, and a ground level heavy lift crane that is assisting the erection the heavy steel columns that will ring the exterior of the tower.

 

This view shows the already erected ground level exterior columns along the South side of the Freedom Tower. These massive beams are being connected to the core through a variety of heavy steel supports and stringers, which transfer the stresses and weight between the exterior columns and core. This view also shows the expansive street level platform that will eventually form the ground level 9/11 Memorial plaza. Concrete pours are taking place throughout the site.

 

This section of the tower hasn't gotten the massive steel beams yet, each of which is 60-70 feet tall and weigh 70 tons. However, you can see the complex form work and concrete pours necessary to transfer the weight from the tower down into the ground, which is 70-90 feet below the surface.

 

Close up of concrete pours that will form the ground level for the Memorial plaza

 

Diagonally across from the Freedom Tower, 4WTC is taking shape. Concrete pours and street level work is progressing. The sites directly to the North have finally been finished out so that Larry Silverstein can begin construction of 2WTC and 3WTC, although the completion date on those projects isn't assured because of financial and credit market constraints.

 

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Ecoterrorists Strike Again in Washington

Two Washington State radio transmission towers were destroyed in an attack credited to the ELF. This eco-leftist group has been behind major terrorist incidents up and down the West Coast, and has done millions of dollars in damage to property in the past.

A sign bearing the letters ELF was found near the towers, said Andy Skotdal, general manager of KRKO Radio in Everett, about 25 miles north of Seattle. The group is a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s.

The towers were torn down because of health and environmental concerns, according to an e-mail to The Herald of Everett from the North American ELF Press Office, which has represented the shadowy group in the past.

"We have to weigh our priorities, and the local ecosystem in Everett, along with the local residents, do not need additional sports news radio station towers that come at the expense of reduced property values and harmful radio waves," ELF press office spokesman Jason Crawford said in an e-mail.

The group's Web site featured a picture of one of the towers lying on its site with the caption "Earth Liberation Front Topples Two Radio Station Towers in Snohomish County, WA," followed by the words "Details coming soon."

Reports indicate that the terrorists used bulldozers to knock down the radio towers. The towers belonged to a radio station seeking to increase its transmission capacity. It had been fighting for more than a decade to get those towers built, and opponents threw everything and the kitchen sink to thwart them - trumpeter swan habitat was threatened to potential health hazards to humans.

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The Troof Behind the Van Jones Story

President Barack Obama selected a guy named Van Jones to head up his green policies. He's your typical lefty, but then came word that he may have associated with the 9/11 troofer movement - he's a conspiracy monger who was pushing that the government was behind the 9/11 terror attacks.

Jones was forced to respond yesterday, and he issued a too cute by half denunciation of the statement. He says that he didn't review the statement he was signing closely enough.

Now, there is additional evidence that he was involved in planning a march in San Francisco. That site claims that Jones was an organizing member of a march to demand the truth as to what happened on 9/11. It was populated with all your typical leftist groups, and anti-war groups that had sprung up to protest the war in Afghanistan (from where al Qaeda sprung and plotted the terror attacks). Jones also worked on an underground anti-war publication.

Also, Ben Smith contacted other people named in the 9/11 Troofer statement, and while they said that they signed something that was more narrow than what finally appeared on the Troofer site, it generally matched their preferences for a government-involved conspiracy.

He does not know how his name came to be on the petition. Okay then. It's nice that he's denying that he is now not a troofer, and that he was never a troofer, but how'd that name get on there in the first place.

The problem isn't that he's a troofer, which I find absolutely repugnant, but that he's not into details - like reading comprehension. It's a damning indictment of his inability to pay close attention to detail - a key character trait for someone who is supposed to be helping switch the economy over to something that is more environmentally sustainable (taking his assumed position in government on the most favorable terms).


This also goes to his ability to read for comprehension and understanding what he's doing. If you assume that he didn't know what he was signing, then it's a damning argument against his character and judgment. If you assume that he knew what he was signing and that he signed it anyways, that too is a damning indictment of his character and judgment.

We have tax cheats confirmed by Congress to head the Treasury. We have all manner of corruptocrat in Congress and the Administration. This guy's a weasel. He might even be a closet troofer. Why shouldn't he be in this Administration? He fits in perfectly with this Administration and the Democrats in general. After all, multiple polls have found that a significant portion believe in a 9/11 conspiracy. So, Jones' position isn't that far out of mainstream Democrat party thought. His philosophy fits in perfectly with the Administration, and Obama has filled other slots with tax cheats. Trooferism isn't going to dissuade the President here.

Still, if President Obama is going to send Jones packing, he's going to do it today - on a Friday before a long weekend. What better way to send Van Jones under the bus?

UPDATE:
Jammie notes that Jones is a Mumia supporter. Why am I not surprised?

UPDATE:
Howard Zinn was one of the people contacted to see whether they had signed on to the troofer petition, and he said that the 9/11truth.org people lied to him and that the statements provided to him didn't go nearly as far as what the organization ended up releasing. Okay. If that's the case, why then is Zinn still associating with this organization if they misled him and distorted his position? Birds of a feather and all that.

It's an interesting sidebar to the matter at hand, that Van Jones, who also happens to be a self-declared Communist, has no place in the Administration because of his crank science connections and I have to believe that the Secret Service and FBI both made a stink about his support for cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal.

Jones is a serial conspiracy theorist - jumping from one to the next.

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Unemployment Rate Surges To 9.7%

Well, this isn't exactly the way that the Obama Administration wanted to head into the Labor Day weekend, is it? The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 9.7%. It had been at 9.4% and experts had expected it to rise to only 9.5%. It's the highest figure in 26 years. Since the NLRB said that the recession started in November 2007, 6.9 million people have lost their jobs.

There are several factors at play here. First, the adjusted rate doesn't take into account those discouraged workers who have given up looking for jobs. It also doesn't take into account those workers whose unemployment benefits have run out.

It undercounts those numbers such that a more comprehensive tally of unemployment, which the Department calls the U-6 rate, is actually 16.8%.

The U-6 is Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers. Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job.

The number of discouraged workers has doubled over the past 12 months, which is a sign that the economy isn't exactly hitting on all cylinders. The only glimmer of good news is that the number of new jobs lost this past week declined to its lowest levels in months.

Note too that the media reports don't do much to indicate the number of jobs lost since President Obama took office, nor when the porkfest was passed in the hope to save or create millions of jobs. That simply hasn't materialized.

Then again, the bad jobs data given right before a holiday weekend is good news since most people aren't really paying attention to it in any event.

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UN Warns of Gaza Sewage Troubles

The United Nations is calling on Israel to immediately lessen its restrictions on the movement of parts and equipment so that Gaza can maintain and upgrade its sewage infrastructure.

That sounds great in theory, but the Gazans have other ideas for the equipment. They've repeatedly used pipes meant for sewage and water transport as kassam missile components, and have had no problem seeking to blame Israel for Gazans' ignoring their infrastructure at every turn.

This isn't a new problem, but an old one. Hamas has no interest in providing basic services to the Gazans. It has used, and will continue to use, equipment and materials provided on humanitarian grounds for terror purposes. The claims of imminent problems are little more than propaganda efforts to continue pressure on Israel.

And while the left brays at Israel's restrictions on Gaza and has made unfounded claims of starvation in Gaza, the facts are quite different. In fact, prices for Halal meat in Gaza is no higher than meat found in the US. If starvation was anywhere near as bad as claimed, the price for meat would be far higher (supply and demand folks). If Gazans were starving, would they be able to get mass quantities of freshly made felafel and other delicacies on streets in Gaza City?

Meanwhile, Hamas is busy claiming that the UNRWA is stealing medicine from Hamas.

At the same time, the AFP is busy breaking bread with the smugglers operating the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Those tunnels allow Gazans to bring in weapons and equipment and all other manner of contraband.

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Rangel Staffers Show Symptoms of Rangel-itis

Rangelitis: It's defined as a disregard for tax laws and ethics codes all while imposing far harsher restrictions on everyone else.

The syndrome, which has been widely observed, but now named after notorious Democrat New York Congressman Charles Rangel, has spread to his staffers. They too seem to have forgotten to claim income on Congressional filings and are now rushing to correct the record.

Two of his top aides are among about a dozen highly paid staffers on the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who have filed a flurry of amendments correcting their financial-disclosure statements since 2002.

Jim Capel, chief of staff for Rangel's personal office, failed to file any such statements for six years.

On the afternoon of July 14, Capel filed five years' worth of delinquent reports.

Capel told The Post yesterday it was a simple oversight.

"I am sorry for not making these filings in the timely manner as required," he said. "My failure was not done for no other reason than I just forgot to do so."

Another serial mis-filer working for Rangel is George Dalley, who is legal counsel in Rangel's personal office. Dalley has amended his statements four times since 2002.

In his 2007 statement, he failed to disclose as much as $150,000 in rental income on two properties in DC.

The House Ethics Committee also discovered that Dalley had failed to report as much as $45,000 in business transactions he made in 2006.

On his 2004 statement, he failed to report as much as $47,000 in income.

There's no easy way to crack down on those who make these kinds of filings and then lie about income earned. One has to wonder whether these individuals also failed to report income to the IRS, but as we've seen, the IRS isn't too keen on cracking down on Rangel either. In fact, the House Ethics Committee isn't keen on acting either. Apparently several members of that panel got campaign fund boosts from Rangel (who as I noted yesterday is among the top Democrat fundraisers in the House).

There may be a reason for Rangel's arrogance. CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

Charlie's "angels" on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.

It's little wonder then that, Rangel is now claiming that race is playing a role in the investigations.

Embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel is pulling a David Paterson and playing the race card amid new allegations he gave campaign money to three Democrats on the ethics panel investigating him, according to published reports.

A few weeks ago, Gov. Paterson got slammed for blaming poor media coverage on "racial" stereotypes. He said President Obama would be under the microscope next.

And despite the flak the governor took for his comments, Charlie Rangel upped and did the same thing.

Rangel said yesterday that "bias" and "prejudice" toward Obama are spurring opposition to health-care reform, according to The New York Post.

Right Charlie. That asinine line of attack worked so well for NYS Gov. David Paterson? You refuse to accept fault for your actions, which are criminal and would have been treated as such if you were in any other position.

The whole situation stinks to high heaven, but for Congress and Rangel in particular, it's business as usual.

UPDATE:
Don Surber links. Thanks! He lays into the Congressmen who were supposed to be taking Rangel to task for his ethics flaps, noting that they were getting themselves into one of their own for even accepting the money in the first place. Only one of the three members who got money from Rangel on the panel have returned it. He should never have taken it in the first place.

UPDATE:
Hot Air also notes that Rangel appears to have paid off committee members, and that the Washington Post has called for Rangel to go (which is to say step down from the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship).

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Democratic Party Fundraiser Sought to Defraud Bank To Repay Fraudulent Loan

The hits keep on coming for Hassan Nemazee, the Democratic party fundraiser who was arrested last week on attempting to defraud Citibank out of $74 million. He's now being implicated in a scheme to defraud another bank in order to raise the funds necessary to repay the fraudulent Citibank loan.

In a letter filed this week in Federal District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors said that Mr. Nemazee borrowed the money to repay Citibank from another bank, using a similar scheme that involved fake documents and forged signatures.

On top of that, they said, Mr. Nemazee defrauded a third bank using “similar false and fraudulent information.” In that case, they said, the outstanding loans to Mr. Nemazee totaled more than $100 million.

In the letter, the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York did not identify the two other banks that it said were defrauded, and no new charges have been filed.

Mr. Nemazee, 59, a New York investor, has been a major player in Democratic fund-raising circles, with ties to President Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He was one of several national finance chairmen for Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and was a prodigious fund-raiser for her. And the Obama campaign credited him with raising more than $500,000 on its behalf.

In accusing him of lying about his assets to obtain the Citibank loan, prosecutors said he used fake documents to show he had collateral worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Nemazee has not entered a plea to the sole charge against him, bank fraud, and his lawyer, Marc L. Mukasey, had no comment on the new allegations. Mr. Nemazee was released on $25 million bond and ordered to be confined to his apartment and subjected to electronic monitoring.

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Monkeys Appreciate Monkey Music... and Metallica

It has a calming effect (HT: Killgore Trout at LGF).

I'd say, having seen them a few times (most recently earlier this year):





UPDATE:
This is a pretty remarkable video, and if you listen carefully, you'll hear the orchestra doing a version of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters:

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They Should Have Named Him Sue

A German court affirmed two lower courts in finding that a family had the right to name their son Djehad.

German authorities who register births had objected to the name, saying it could be harmful for the child given the associations with Islamic terrorism.

But the court said in a ruling Tuesday that the name's meaning is rooted in the requirement to spread the Muslim faith, although it has recently become linked - especially since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks - with radical Islam.

German law restricts parents from giving their children names that could be interpreted as harmful.

German law, and European law, is littered with restrictions such as this to prevent against hate speech, Nazi propaganda, and the like, and yet the court upheld the ruling allowing the parents to name their son after the jihad, which is their sworn obligation to spread Islam. Also, bear in mind that several of the 9/11 hijackers and other members of al Qaeda lived in Hamburg, Germany prior to coming to the US.

Still, they would have been better off naming the kid Sue.

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Sadists Run Iran; Rape Is Acceptable Means Of Extracting Information

Once again, the pure evil of the Iranian regime is on display for all the world to bear witness. Iran's mad mullahs hold court and provide guidance. One such mullah, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, has determined that rape is a perfectly acceptable means of securing confessions and is okay for interrogation. In fact, it's one of the best things that a Muslim can do - akin to going on Haj:

At the Jamkaran gathering, Mesbah-Yazdi and Ahmadinejad answered questions about the rape and torture charges. The following text is from a transcript alleged by Iranian dissidents to be a series of questions and answers exchanged between the ayatollah and some of his supporters.

Asked if a confession obtained "by applying psychological, emotional and physical pressure" was "valid and considered credible according to Islam," Mesbah-Yazdi replied: "Getting a confession from any person who is against the Velayat-e Faqih ("Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists", or the regime of Iran's mullahs) is permissible under any condition." The ayatollah gave the identical answer when asked about confessions obtained through drugging the prisoner with opiates or addictive substances.

"Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?" was the follow-up question posed to the Islamic cleric.

Mesbah-Yazdi answered: "The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it's acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed."

Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual guide. He's the one who's telling Ahmadinejad what's acceptable conduct. He's apparently got no trouble with raping people in its custody.

Combine that with reports that the opposition has been assaulted and violated by the regime's thugs, and you get a systemic and entrenched system of violence to maintain power.

UPDATE:
Despite the illegitimacy of the regime and the fact that Ahmadinejad and Supreme Ali Khamenei are busy trampling on the rights of Iranians, President Obama is still trying to extend a lifejacket to the regime. He sent another letter to the regime, addressed to Khamenei, although the content of the letter is not known. This is a regime that engages in torture and rape. It's about torture - real torture, not the waterboarding and nitpicking over whether a few seconds of discomfort equals torture that the left faints over at here in the States, and yet the Administration has no problem holding its hand out to give the regime a pick-me-up when they engage in systemic and systematic rape of prisoners to fulfill political and religious goals.

And even when the Administration engages in the "unclenched" foreign policy, the regime in Tehran shows its utter disdain for the Administration.

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Suicide Bomber Kills Afghan Intel Deputy

A suicide bomber managed to infiltrate Afghan security and killed 23 people, including the deputy chief of intelligence when they visited a mosque in Kabul.

The bombing, which occurred in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, struck at the heart of Afghanistan's intelligence service and underscored the Taliban's increasing ability to carry off complex and targeted assaults.

The explosion ripped through a crowd in Laghman province just as Abdullah Laghmani, deputy chief of Afghanistan's National Directorate for Security, and other officials were leaving the main mosque in Mehterlam, 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Kabul. Laghmani died at the scene, according to Sayed Ahmad Safi, the spokesman for the local governor.

A Taliban spokesman said a suicide bomber on foot targeted Laghmani, a key figure in Afghanistan's security services. President Hamid Karzai and the United Nations condemned the attack.

Laghmani was the former intelligence chief for Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold. In his most recent post, he directed intelligence operations, especially in eastern Afghanistan, and appointed local defense officials throughout the area.

He was an ethnic Pashtun, along with nearly all the Taliban, but fought with a Tajik-led faction during the war against the Taliban that preceded the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

That suggests that the terrorists knew Laghmani's itinerary and were able to be in a position to attack. It isn't unlike a similar penetration of security in Saudi Arabia, where an al Qaeda terrorist managed to board a plane with that country's deputy security chief.

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The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 77

The Deutsche Bank building demolition is once again being delayed. What a shocker.

Now, its demolition seems likely to take longer than was expected just months ago.

In June, officials said they expected the black building down by next spring, some eight-and-a-half years after it was damaged. But last month, deconstruction contractor Bovis Lend Lease filed a plan with the city that is considerably lengthier than it initially expected, and one person briefed on the filing said the plan would likely add an additional six months to the deconstruction schedule.

While the plan has not yet been approved—a Bovis spokeswoman said “discussions continue” over the deconstruction filing—an even longer deconstruction would come as a major symbolic and functional blow for Lower Manhattan. At almost every turn, the healing of this gigantic wound from 9/11 (which faces the southern edge of the World Trade Center site) has been prolonged. Since the fatal fire in August 2007, the project has been tripped up by an extraordinary level of regulation, and schedules seem to be pushed every few months.

After an accord in 2004 over the deconstruction, it was initially expected to be down by 2005, costing about $45 million. But since, the costs have risen constantly as the job proved more difficult than expected and regulation piled on after the fire. The total could come closer to $300 million (including the building purchase and other related costs), paid for by the federal government, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (which said in July it would need another $30 to $35 million in additional money to finish the job), and various contractors and insurers. All sides expect more lawsuits, to recover costs, once the building is down.

The delays have a domino effect on construction in Ground Zero, and on the neighboring buildings, which continue to have this hulking wreck sit as a stark reminder of the failure of the various city and state agencies to finish the deconstruction work for years.

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Pelosi Lets Rangel Continue Overseeing Cesspool of Scandal

Once again, Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shows that nothing will get between her agenda, not even the tax cheat Charles Rangel. She will take no action to depose him from his post as the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, even though he's engaged in egregious tax dodging - failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars of investments, real estate transactions, and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of House ethics violations or the rent stabilization laws he broke in New York.

No, Pelosi is keeping Rangel on as lifeguard of the cesspool of scandal. You see, he's a reliable vote and she knows that he'll see the agenda through, regardless of the dings he's taking from his failure to adhere to the very laws that his committee has written over the years.

She's got her flacks out claiming that they wont take action until the House Ethics Committee reports, but this is the same person who did nothing against fellow Democrat William Jefferson when he was found with $90,000 in bribes stuck in his freezer. She wants people to think that she'll take action if and when the committee reports or a prosecutor brings charges.

Given that the ethics committee isn't likely to bring charges anytime soon, and they're still busy considering only the tip of the iceberg - the rent stabilization racket Rangel ran (being one of several items), it's all too likely that he'll get a slap on the wrist for something that would have sent many others to jail.

Meanwhile, the NY Post says what I've been saying for a while - that Rangel should be fired - and at least removed from the chairmanship. The problem is that his constituents will vote him back into office. It goes back to the old adage of hating Congress but loving your representative. Rangel is beloved by his district, where he can do no wrong in their eyes. It doesn't matter how many tax dodging schemes are uncovered, the graft, corruption, or anything else he's done. They'll continue to reelect him.

UPDATE:
Here's a scoresheet of what Rangel has done to date that violates various state and local tax laws, House ethics violations, New York State rent stabilization laws, and other sundry matters. One of the reasons that there are ranges on many of these items is that Congressional filings allow the reporting of income and various business transactions to be done in ranges:

1. Failed to reveal more than $3 million in business income;
2. Failed to report income from sales of real property;
3. Failed to report income from Punta Cana hacienda;
   
4. Failed to pay property taxes on Glassboro, New Jersey property for several tax quarters ($159.39 is most recent tax due for 2Q and 3Q 2009);
5. Failed to report $430,000 in stock transactions;
6. Had to dramatically revise House filings to show hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions - unreported assets that concealed anywhere from $38,000 to $116,000 in income for 2007 alone;
7. Failed to report a checking account that was worth between $250,000 and $500,000.
8. Failed to report income to the IRS; paid $10,000 in back taxes but no penalties or interest was apparently assessed (Rep. John Carter (R-TX) introduced the Rangel rule to codify the IRS treatment of Rangel, but it was defeated by House Democrats);
9. Pay to play with AIG and CCNY over the financing of the Charles Rangel Center for Public Service;
10. Broke House rules on reporting trips;
11. Broke New York State Rent Stabilization laws by owning four units and using one as an office (anyone else in that situation would have been booted from the properties);
12. Alternatively broke New York State Rent Stabilization laws or lied on mortgage application documents claiming primary residence status for either the rent stabilized apartments in Harlem, or other properties - the outcome of which is that he received better mortgage terms, or enabled himself to unjustly enrich himself over the span of decades by obtaining a rent stabilized apartment at a time when there's a regular shortage of affordable housing in Manhattan;
13. Fails to meet New York State Rent Stabilization income guidelines with new revelations that he's making more than $175,000 - and quite likely much more than that based on hidden income over the years (rent stabilization means that he's saving nearly $4,000 a month over market rates for same property - a perk that means he's saving $48,000 a year or more than the gross income of many of his constituents);
    
14. Paid lawyers hired to unravel Rangel's tax situation $121,000 from his campaign committee funds, which violate federal election laws (Rangel claims that he got a waiver from FEC; FEC says otherwise);
    
15. Unjustly received a homestead property tax deduction on a D.C. property (again claiming primary residence status);
    
16. Gave contract to his son's company worth nearly $80,000 for building websites that were non-functional and whose value experts believe cost no more than $100; and
    
17. Failed to report imputed income from long term use of House parking lot to store vehicles, which was also a violation of House ethics guidelines.
    

His constituents will continue voting for him, even if he misses more time than practically anyone else in Congress and that's with him being the chair of one of the most important committees in Congress. One other reason that Rangel remains untouchable? He's a top fundraiser for Democrats.

UPDATE:
To further show the disparity in treatment between Rangel and the rest of us, a New York printing company owner was sentenced to jail and forced to pay penalties for failing to report nearly $190,000 in income.

The owner of a New York City printing business was sentenced today to one year and one day in federal prison for not reporting about $189,520 in tax returns, authorities with the Internal Revenue Service said.

David Waxtel, of Westfield, must also pay a fine of $5,000 and serve two years on supervised release after prison. Waxtel plead guilty last October before U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan on charges of tax evasion.

As president of Quantum Printing Company, Inc., Waxtel failed to report a number of payments in 2003 from customers that he deposited into the business bank accounts and then diverted to his personal checking account or his personal investment accounts. He also didn't report income from two rental properties, each with multiple rental units, that he owned in Brooklyn, New York.

It's funny, but that fact pattern is quite like that of Rangel - who failed to report income from rental properties over a period of years, and yet has skated on the penalties that the IRS can and should be imposing.

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Your Representation In Action

Say hello to the fine members of the Connecticut Legislature. They're all so busy working on the people's business. In fact, they were supposed to be discussing the state budget, which is a financial black hole complete with a multibillion dollar deficit:

The bill was approved, largely along party lines, by 22 to 13 shortly before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Sen. Joan Hartley of Waterbury was the only Democrat who voted against the budget - joining all 12 Republicans. Sen. Andrew Maynard of Stonington was traveling out of the country and missed the vote.

Republicans complained that the two-year, $37 billion budget would increase spending by more than $800 million over two years, while Democrats said they had cut $3.1 billion from the "current services'' budget that counts lower-than-expected increases as cuts. Those spending cuts represent 35 percent of the state's projected $8.5 billion deficit, according to the legislature's nonpartisan fiscal office. Despite those figures, Republicans said that the budget had "no real cuts'' and simply had accounting maneuvers and money transfers.

One shots and sleight of hand to get a balanced budget? Connecticut has learned those lessons from Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, where it is taken to high art. Of course, the solution will come soon enough in the form of higher taxes and fees, because reducing spending is not on the agenda.

That said, there's probably one reason why the solitaire and tv was streaming on those laptops - the vote was most likely already assured and everyone knew that this was simply window dressing. It is nice, however, that someone noticed the "work" going on in the Connecticut legislature.

UPDATE 9/2/2009:
Michelle Malkin notes the Connecticut Democrats in action, and gets a response that essentially boils down to what I noted above:

Our members have discussed and debated the state budget for seven months, culminating in yesterday’s marathon, 13 hour budget session. With little new ground being broken, and the results of the upcoming vote a reasonable certainty, a momentary diversion is understandable. Both representatives insist there was no intent to disrespect the minority leader during his presentation.

Regards,
Doug Whiting
Communications Director
Connecticut House Democrats

Classy. Then again, I regularly saw members in the New York legislature playing crosswords and reading newspapers during session, mostly because all the hard work was done behind closed doors where members were told how they would vote on items. It appears that little changes depending on the setting.

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Memo to Reuters: Hamas Does Not Shun Israel

Reuters reported today that Israeli forces repelled a Palestinian attack, killing two Palestinian terrorists. It's the first major incident between Israelis and Hamas since a truce was brokered in January, ending Operation Cast Lead. The problem is that Reuters characterizes Hamas' position regarding Israel as merely shunning:

Hamas shuns Israel but has signaled interest in a long-term truce. Egypt and Germany are trying to broker Hamas's release of an Israeli soldier seized in a 2006 border raid, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israel's jails.

The gunmen killed Tuesday had been deployed in night-lookout positions east of the town of Jabalya, close to the Israeli border, Hamas said. Medical officials said their bodies bore injuries from heavy ordnance.

Sorry to break it to Reuters, but Hamas does not shun Israel.

Hamas seeks Israel's destruction. Its leaders call for the annihilation of Israel on a regular basis. Its leaders indoctrinate fellow Gazans into hating Israel's very existence. They treat Israel's independence day as a day of mourning and the Naqba - because Israel exists. Their maps do not show Israel alongside a Palestinian state. In Hamas (and Fatah's view), Israel doesn't exist except as a map for coordinating attacks against civilian targets. These groups will not accept any mention even remotely mentioning Israel and Jewish claims to the region, on grounds that it would "Judaize" the education of the Palestinians. Moreover, any territory evacuated by Israel in favor of Palestinians will become Jewish-free - ethnic cleansing of a sort that the world seems to have no problem with, even though there has been a Jewish presence for thousands of years in the land between the Jordan River and the Med - a fact that Palestinian and Arab commentators repeatedly try to disavow at every opportunity.

Meanwhile, Hamas maintains and operates smuggling tunnels through which it gains access to weapons shipments, including one such shipment that was caught by the Egyptians in Sinai. Hamas gets a piece of the action on everything that goes on in Gaza. The terrorists also don't like it when other terror groups encroach on their iron grip in Gaza, and target them for attack, just as they did with al Qaeda affiliated Jund Ansar Allah three weeks ago.

But media mendacity isn't solely confined to Reuters.

UPDATE:
Dave at Israellycool notes that the Hamas terrorists killed along the Gaza fence were killed when the explosives they were placing along the security fence went off. Israeli forces had nothing to do with the incident.

Moreover, he notes that Reuters didn't seem to notice that Hamas and the Gazans had been busy violating the ceasefire several times in the past month, but Israeli reprisal counts as a violation. Curious.

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Beslan Massacre Five Years Later

There are times when evil is so omnipresent that it hits you in the gut the moment you see it. 9/11 was one such time. Another was the Beslan school massacre, where 334* people were murdered by Chechen Islamist terrorists. They captured an entire school in Beslan on its opening day in 2004, holding more than 1,200 people against their will in the process. A three-day standoff ensued, and on the third day, a running gun battle began between Russian forces and the terrorists.

The terrorists had brought many of the children and adults accompanying them on their first day of school into the gymnasium, which was rigged with explosives. The terrorists themselves were rigged with explosives and suicide vests.

The terrorists then detonated the explosives in the gym, and within moments, hundreds of people were dead. 187 children were murdered by the group, led by unrepentant terrorist, the Butcher of Beslan, Shamil Basayev.

He would meet his end in July 2006, when Russian forces killed him in a raid. Basayev would have been eliminated much sooner had ABC News provided the Russians with details of their earlier meeting with the terrorist.

Others remembering the massacre include Michelle Malkin.

*wiki says that 334 people were murdered in the Beslan School #1 massacre, although the numbers vary according to sources. At least 10 Russian special forces were killed in the operation as well. Nearly 800 people were injured in the attack. It was one of the largest terrorist attacks in history, and the scope of the attacks showed that terrorists will continue targeting anyone and everyone in their paths - and that no where is safe.

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Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Arsenal

I'm sure this will not make me sleep better at night. Pakistan is busy expanding and enhancing its nuclear arsenal, much of which is directed at neighboring India.

[video removed because it automatically played - still available at link above]

The report states that Pakistan is readying a new nuclear capable ballistic missile for deployment and two nuclear capable cruise missiles.

It also says that Pakistan is building two new plutonium production reactors and a second chemical separation facility.

The nuclear weapon facilities that are being expanded are located in Chasma, Khushab and Dera Ghazi Khan in southern Punjab.

Pakistan, according to the report by top strategic experts, is renewing work on a partially built separation plant at Chasma, and is also planning to build three more nuclear reactors at Chasma.

The details of three separate nuclear facilities at Khushab, Chasma and Dera Ghazi Khan have not been available in the public domain till now, and expose Pakistan’s secretive attempts to build up a substantial arsenal, likely to target India.

With regard to Khushab – the report says the country is building two heavy water reactors at the site which will more than triple the nation’s plutonium production and processing capability. Plutonium is one of the main fuels for nuclear weapons. The nuclear reactor will thus become a source while the under construction separation facility nearby, a means to purify the plutonium.

Keep in mind that Pakistan has a major problem with terrorists, particularly the Taliban and al Qaeda, both of which were involved in multiple attacks against Pakistan's nuclear infrastructure over the past two years. Estimates of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal have been all over the map though all fall short of 100 weapons, although the newest estimates now suggest that Pakistan has 70 to 90 weapons and has the capability to bring that firepower to bear with a new class of missiles, including cruise missiles and intermediate range ballistic missiles.

Pakistan is clearly pursuing a strategy that has the effect of further destabilizing South Asia and promoting an arms race between rival India and Pakistan.

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Tax Cheat Proposes Taxing Penalties In Health Care Bill

For those who have been following along with the saga of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), who has repeatedly failed to report income, failed to pay income tax, and made numerous other ethical and legal breaches of epic proportions, and who have been following along with my coverage of the health care bill (HR3200 - ObamaCare), the revelation that Rangel looks to sock tax cheats and all taxpayers in general should come as no surprise.

So what does Rangel want to do to tax cheats under ObamaCare. I've outlined some of the tax ramifications here, but the Post today includes the following:

The changes approved by the House Ways and Means Committee that Rangel chairs would strip away legal defenses and pile higher penalties on corporate and individual taxpayers facing IRS proceedings for what they claim are unintentional mistakes, experts said.

Rangel's bill would:

* Punish those who fail to alert the IRS to potentially questionable tax exemptions.

* Bar the IRS from waiving penalties against taxpayers who clearly erred in good faith.

* Double fines in certain circumstances.

"The bill raises penalties and eliminates many of the reasonable defenses that taxpayers have always been able to use when honest mistakes are uncovered," one lawyer told The Post.

In fact, the bill increases fines "in some cases even for honest mistakes," the expert added.

Proponents of the legislation claim that the harshest penalties are only meant to go after flagrant violations, but the strict language of the bill makes no such distinction.

Still, all this points to the fact that Rangel is insistent upon two separate tax codes - one for him, and one for the rest of us. It's past time that he be sacked as chair of the committee that writes the tax law when Rangel flaunts it openly and capriciously for years on end.

It's also past time that Democrats did something about this situation, but as I've noted, they have no interest in seeing him gone either. They wont do anything to remove Rangel, even though the situation would have resulted in civil penalties far earlier.

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On My Nightstand: Atomic Awakening

I've started reading Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power, by James Mahaffey and it's already looking like a real page turner. It's a fascinating look at the past, present, and future of nuclear technologies for power generation written in easy to understand language despite the subject matter, which is the ins and outs of nuclear technologies. The title is a wink and nod to the fact that we're not actually talking about atomic technologies, but nuclear technologies.

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