Dow To Begin Promoting Thin Film Solar Shingles

Solar power is one of the ways that the nation can reduce its dependence on petroleum products, but a problem has always been cost and the ability to retrofit structures to accept the solar systems.

Dow appears to have figured out how to make thin film solar shingles that could be installed by a roofer just as they would asphalt shingles. An electrician would be required to hook up the array to an inverter and the household power, but that's a significantly lower cost than having to bring in a specialized company to install a solar system.

The solar shingles will begin test marketing in 2010.

Dow plans to begin test-marketing the solar shingle in mid-2010, initially targeting new-home construction. Ms. Palmieri said the market could be worth $5 billion by 2015 and noted that 90 percent of homes in the United States use asphalt shingles.

Dow designed the shingles, which will initially be manufactured at the company’s Midland, Mich., facility. Global Solar of Tucson, Ariz., is supplying the thin-film solar cells.

Thin-film has generally not been used for residential systems because of its relatively low efficiency – Global Solar’s cells are 10 percent efficient. That means a larger array is required generate the same of amount of electricity as conventional solar panels.

But Dave Parrillo, the senior research and development director for Dow Solar Solutions, said the solar shingles can offset between 40 percent and 80 percent of a home’s electricity consumption.

I think this has serious potential, although I wonder how it would hold up to repeated impacts caused by falling branches and other tree debris. Another potential issue would be weight, particularly on older homes; if the weight is comparable, then solar could gain wider adoption.

In parts of the country where there is ample sun, this could be a significant source of alternative energy and reduce energy consumption from utility companies. At the same time, as more people convert to such systems, tax revenues from utility taxes and fees will decline, meaning that states will find themselves in a bind to come up with new revenue sources.

Egypt Cuts Ties With The Louvre

Egypt has cut ties with the Louvre in Paris over the museum's refusal to return artifacts that Egypt considers stolen from the country by archeologists.

Egypt said Wednesday its antiquities department severed ties with France's Louvre museum because it has refused to return what are described as stolen artifacts, one of the country's most aggressive attempts yet to reclaim relics from some of the world's leading Egyptology collections.

The Louvre's communications office said the museum is open to returning the artifacts demanded by Egypt, though the decision has to be taken by a special committee.

The Egyptian ruling means that no archaeological expeditions connected to the France's premier museum will be allowed to work in Egypt. Already Egypt has suspended an excavation sponsored by the Louvre at the massive necropolis of Saqqara and canceled a lecture in Egypt by a former curator of the museum.

"The Louvre Museum refused to return four archaeological reliefs to Egypt that were stolen during the 1980s from the tomb of the noble Tetaki," near the famed temple city of Luxor, said a statement quoting Supreme Council of Antiquities head Zahi Hawass.

The museum houses antiquities from around the world, and Egypt's move is the most aggressive to date to demand the return of priceless artifacts that were taken in various archeological expeditions through the decades.

Egypt's antiquities officials have been waging a more aggressive campaign to secure the return of artifacts taken from the country as a way to preserve the nation's heritage.

Obama Rules Out Large Reduction in Afghan Force

Read the headline carefully. President Obama has ruled out a large reduction in US forces in Afghanistan. It doesn't say that President Obama has ruled out any reduction of forces. It also doesn't say that President Obama will increase forces as requested by those on the front lines, including Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Meeting with leaders from both parties at the White House, Mr. Obama seemed to be searching for some sort of middle ground, saying he wanted to “dispense with the straw man argument that this is about either doubling down or leaving Afghanistan,” as White House officials later described his remarks.

But as the war approached its eight-year anniversary on Wednesday, the session underscored the perilous crosscurrents awaiting Mr. Obama. While some Democrats said they would support whatever he decided, others challenged him about sending more troops. And Republicans pressed him to order the escalation without delay, leading to a pointed exchange between the president and Senator John McCain of Arizona, his Republican opponent from last year’s election.

Mr. McCain told the president that “time is not on our side.” He added, “This should not be a leisurely process,” according to several people in the room.

A few minutes later, Mr. Obama replied, “John, I can assure you this won’t be leisurely,” according to several attendees. “No one feels more urgency to get this right than I do.”

Still, compared with the harsh debate over health care, the tone was civil and restrained during the 75-minute meeting in the State Dining Room as Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and about 30 members of Congress gathered around a large table with only glasses of water and notebooks in front of them.

Mr. Obama summoned the lawmakers to assure them that he would keep their concerns in mind as he considered the request of his commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, for as many as 40,000 more troops. The president plans to meet with his national security team on Wednesday to talk about Pakistan and on Friday to talk about Afghanistan. Aides plan to schedule one more meeting before he decides on General McChrystal’s proposal.

President Obama is in a tough position, and continued support for the Afghanistan operations is coming from Republicans, as Democrats' support is clearly wavering.

A significant number of Democrats want to see the American commitment in Iraq curtailed; they want to bring the troops home. In fact, 98 have signed on to a House bill calling for an exit strategy for Afghanistan.

Walz, for instance, has signed onto a bill by Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the most vocal critic among House Democrats of the Afghan war, calling on Obama to develop an “exit strategy” for getting U.S. forces out of the troubled country. The McGovern bill has 98 co-sponsors, including more than two dozen freshman and sophomore Democrats.

McGovern also released a bipartisan letter to Obama last week, urging the president to “reject any recommendation for a further escalation of U.S. military forces” in Afghanistan.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who like Walz was opposed to the Iraq war, said he signed onto the McGovern letter because boosting the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan isn’t the right solution.

Again, read this carefully; they say that the US squandered an opportunity to go after the Taliban by focusing on Iraq, and yet when the opportunity presents itself to go after the Taliban (with more troops - since that's what was diverted by Iraq according to this line of thinking), they're opting to curtail operations further.

Sen. Carl Levin makes a nonsensical argument that increased US presence in Afghanistan is counterproductive because it looks like the US is an occupying nation. Has Levin looked over to Iraq? The US troop presence is slowly declining from its peak during the surge, and Iraqis now have political and civil control over most of the country, even if they're still dealing with a tenuous security situation because of insurgents that want to kill and maim Iraqis at every opportunity.

The US presence in Afghanistan (troop authorization is 68,000) is nearly half of the number that we've seen in Iraq (which was more than 120,000), and the reason that the Taliban have been resurgent is because US, Afghan, and NATO forces have not been able to shut down the cross-border Taliban operations and the NATO forces have largely taken defensive positions, rather than striking out offensively against the Taliban to thwart their slow creep back into positions of control around the country. The US isn't seen as an occupying nation unless the US makes that its goal; and that was never the goal. It was to get the nation on its feet and set a course to being a functional state.

There is a long way to go before that happens, but cutting forces is going to severely undermine that goal. Moreover, it will give the Taliban a chance to spread, and with it bring al Qaeda back into prominence.

At the same time, you've got Democrats complaining that the war in Afghanistan didn't start until this year, a clear slam at the Bush Administration, which is playing things too cute by half given the Democrats reluctance to send troops to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban and to thwart the Taliban and al Qaeda from regaining a safe haven there.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 81

It's about damned time. The former Deutsche Bank building demolition will finally resume its work after a two-year delay resulting from a deadly fire that killed two FDNY firefighters because standpipes were cut and other safety issues that were discovered in the aftermath.

Now, three and a half years after demolition of the 41-story tower began, workers next week will start the arduous job of dismantling its 26 remaining stories and removing 15,750 tons of concrete and 11,000 tons of steel.

Crews have already replaced the black plastic netting shrouding the building with blue, fire-retardant netting; removed all the walls, glass, plumbing and work sheds from the interior; and erected a plywood perimeter around the top three floors. The construction manager, Bovis Lend Lease, expects to get a permit from the city’s Buildings Department early next week to resume demolition.

In the coming months, ironworkers, operating engineers and laborers will go floor by floor, smashing the concrete into rubble, cutting the steel beams and lowering the debris to the ground under the watch of a small army of fire guards, inspectors and regulators. Sometime next spring, the star-crossed building will cease to exist.

“We believe we have developed a plan utilizing the latest techniques and best practices to safely and efficiently deconstruct 130 Liberty Street,” Steven H. Sommer, a senior vice president of Bovis Lend Lease, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Demolition work is also progressing on the nearby Fiterman Hall that was plagued by political indecision and an inability of the City and State to get the demolition work underway. Fiterman Hall will eventually be rebuilt for the Borough of Manhattan Community College, but plans for a new structure on the site of the former Deutsche Bank building are up in the air. It will be the site of a vehicle security center for vehicles entering Ground Zero, but beyond that, it isn't clear what will happen.

What we do know is that the delays in demolition have delayed reconstruction efforts throughout Ground Zero since that building was to provide access to the rest of the site.

UPDATE:
The WTC Memorial Plaza continues to be built out; construction of the SW portion of the site is now underway. There are 694 pieces of steel involved in this section, and after this work is done, only a small section adjacent to the PATH station will need to be erected. The SW corner has been exceedingly difficult to build because of foundation work and the close proximity to the PATH tracks. When the work is done, the PATH tracks will be nearly completely enclosed but for that one area adjacent to the station.

Rangel Brings Home Bacon To CCNY

Imagine a politician managing to get $3 million in grant money for a program that the Pentagon doesn't even want. Now, imagine the uproar over such wasteful spending.

Where's the outrage when this politician happens to be none other than Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), who happened to steer the $3 million grant to the City College of New York (CCNY), where he's already directed millions of dollars to his namesake program:

Two years after creating a center in his own name at City College, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel has come through with a $3 million defense grant for the school -- for a project the Pentagon doesn't even want, The Post has learned.

The $3 million cash infusion is going to an existing academic department, rather than to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at CCNY, a $30 million project that will immortalize Rangel's name and house his papers when he retires. Rangel had previously arranged $2 million in taxpayer funds for the center.

The latest piece of congressional pork is to fund research into new composite materials that could be used to protect Army trucks from attack. The grant is tucked into the massive Defense Appropriations Bill moving through Congress.

Word of the funding comes as the House is set to vote today on a Republican-backed resolution to strip Rangel of his Ways and Means Committee chair pending an ethics investigation, after revelations that he didn't disclose income on multiple properties, as well as failure to pay taxes and other issues.

The Pentagon doesn't want the research money, but Rangel got the funding anyway by getting the Appropriations Committee to direct the cash to CCNY.

A Long Island company hired a lobbyist to push for this spending, and Rangel obliged, even though the Pentagon wasn't interested.

How exactly is that fiscally responsible?

UPDATE:
House Republicans again attempted to get rid of Rangel as chairman of the Ways and Means committee, but fell short in their latest effort.

Despite the expected defeat Wednesday, the GOP did keep the spotlight on the New York Democrat's ethical problems, although the matter will be turned over to the House ethics committee for a long-term investigation. The House voted 246-153 to refer the resolution to remove him to that panel in a partisan vote that had no meaning except to revisit Rangel's problems.

This whole mess has been in the hands of the ethics committee for months now. They've dragged their feet on the matter, and Pelosi has demurred in taking action.

House Democrats are protecting a corrupt fellow Democrat; they'd much prefer swimming in the corruption instead of draining the swamp.

Unintended Consequences Of Fast Food Calorie Counts

New York City implemented a mandatory requirement that fast food restaurants offer calorie counts for their food items sold at their restaurants throughout New York City in July 2008. Well, things haven't exactly worked out as the so-called health experts thought.

Instead of reducing caloric intake, a study found that people actually consumed more (via Gothamist).

Influence of labeling on the nutrient content of purchased food. People in New York City purchased a mean number of 825 calories before menu labeling was introduced and 846 calories after labeling was introduced (Exhibit 2). The number of calories purchased in Newark before and after labeling also did not appreciably change (823 calories before labeling and 826 calories after). Similar results were found for saturated fat, sodium, and sugar, with no appreciable or significant differences before or after labeling was instituted.23

Caloric intake increased regardless of age and gender among those studied in New York City. The original law was imposed after a cursory study claimed that those consumers of Subway stores where the calorie counts were voluntarily posted consumed less calories.

This is actually the first rigorous study of the calorie count, and the results suggest that the law didn't exactly work out as intended. In fact, it suggests that those who were affected by the calorie counts ate 36 calories more than had they ignored the counts.

The study's authors suggest more education of consumers is needed.

So, what's the answer for the nanny staters in New York City? As the NY Times reports, the proponents are not sure what they can do, but they're looking into it.

The findings, to be published Tuesday in the online version of the journal Health Affairs come amid the spreading popularity of calorie-counting proposals as a way to improve public health across the country.

“I think it does show us that labels are not enough,” Brian Elbel, an assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine and the lead author of the study, said in an interview.

New York City was the first place in the country to require calorie posting, making it a test case for other jurisdictions. Since then, California, Seattle and other places have instituted similar rules.

Calorie posting has even entered the national health care reform debate, with a proposal in the Senate to require calorie counts on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants.

This study focused primarily on poor black and Hispanic fast-food customers in the South Bronx, central Brooklyn, Harlem, Washington Heights and the Rockaways in Queens, and used a similar population in Newark, which does not have a calorie posting law, as a control group. The locations were chosen because of a high proportion of obesity and diabetes among poor minority populations.

So, if labels are insufficient, what else can be done that doesn't constitute coercion or banning of food items? That's clearly where the nanny-staters are looking since this move didn't work out as intended. Increased education may not result in any changes as the authors of the study note. That leaves few options.

George Will Gets It Wrong On Obamas' IOC Copenhagen Speeches

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama may bea malignant narcissists, but their speeches before the IOC in Copenhagen don't prove the claim. George Will seems to think that it does, but he gets it wrong.

What the Copenhagen speeches show is an abject failure to persuade the IOC that Chicago had a superior bid to other cities in the competition combined with a failure to understand the IOC and how they chose cities to host the Games.

It also exposed yet another failure of the Administration officials to recognize no-win situations and put the President in a bind no matter how he responded to the challenge.

If Obama didn't go and Chicago didn't win, Obama loses.
If Obama goes and Chicago doesn't win, Obama loses.

Obama would only claim partial credit if Chicago wins the bid, and it is all too apparent that the Chicago bid was wanting even without Obama stepping in. Obama went because other cities had their respective national leaders go and promote the cities involved in the competition.

If you actually read the speeches, as oppose to read the punditocracy, you'd see that the speech was wanting on that very issue - the Obamas were supposed to be selling Chicago, and they didn't make the sale.

Here's the text of the speeches.

The speeches were supposed to persuade, but they do nothing of the sort. They are completely devoid of any reason to actually vote for Chicago over any of the other cities. That's the primary failure of the speeches.

Read Michelle and President Obama's speech, and it's all about the family and their attachment to sports; it was not about how the Bears or the Cubs and the White Sox make Chicago a huge sports town where the fans will make the Olympics commercially successful. After all, this is about the Olympics making money and being a successful operation.

It's about their personal connections to the city - not about the City itself and what it can do for the Olympics. That was a huge mistake. I'm not sure who thought that the Obamas' personalizing Chicago would help it win over the IOC, but it was a failed gambit. It would have been better had they not spoken at all since they completely missed the point of why they were there in the first place.

Had they instead spoken of the fans' devotion to teams despite failure to achieve for decades (Cubs fans!) they might have seen how the City could embrace all manner of sports that don't normally garner the kind of respect that basketball, swimming and gymnastics usually gets. I'm talking about the secondary sports that could use a boost from a fanatic crowd that would come out to cheer. None of this came across in the speeches.

NYS Pension Pay To Play Scandal Nets A Plea Deal

Ray Harding entered a guilty plea to taking $800,000 in pay to play fees in connection with New York's pension mess.

Ray Harding, who quietly registered as a financial broker several years ago, admitted in Manhattan Supreme Court he got the money as a "reward" for his support of former state Controller Alan Hevesi.

Harding said Hank Morris, Hevesi's political guru, made him a middleman on some deals so he could reap the fees.

"This is a fatally flawed system and it is a corrupted system," said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who noted there have been pension fund abuses for 30 years under a number of controllers.

"The old adage is, 'Follow the money.' The money in New York state is the pension fund. If you're looking for corruption, follow the money. It will lead you to the ... state controller's office."

Harding, 74, who faces up to four years in jail, has agreed to cooperate in Cuomo's ongoing probe of the pension system.

Prosecutors said he could be spared jail time and keep his law license if he cooperates fully.

Sorry, but I think Harding would get off lightly if he's able to continue practicing law and avoid jail time if he cooperates with authorities. At a minimum, he should lose the law license, precisely because he violated state ethics and criminal law. Harding is expected to turn state's evidence on Hank Morris and other figures involved in the huge scandal that began during Alan Hevesi's turn as comptroller. Another person implicated in the scandal, investment adviser Saul Meyer also pleaded guilty to paying Morris $300,000 in kickbacks.

Iran Seeking Upgrades To Qom Enrichment Facility

Iran is looking to upgrade the enrichment centrifuges at Qom.

Tuesday's Kayhan daily quotes the head of Iran's nuclear agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, as saying the country has carried out research and development for a new generation of centrifuge to be made domestically.

The machines would be more advanced than the decades old P-1 type centrifuges acquired on the black market and in use at Iran's other enrichment facility in Natanz.

That's a curious situation, given that it has been believed that Iran has been operating IR-2 centrifuges for some time. The IR-2 centrifuges are based on the Pakistani P-2 centrifuges, which are a vastly more efficient system than the large number of P-1 (IR-1) centrifuges that Iran currently operates.

Iran is already well past the threshold level of enrichment necessary for industrial production of enriched uranium; they've gone well past experimental installation of centrifuges, and are now working on full-scale production with one goal in mind; nuclear weapons.

As others note, when will the Obama Administration admit the painfully obvious fact that Iran is intent upon developing a nuclear weapons infrastructure and that the upgraded centrifuges are part of that process?

But For Palestinian Terror, Operation Cast Lead Would Not Have Occurred

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is considering taking the severely flawed and biased Goldstone Report to various international bodies in a bid to bring Israeli officials before their jurisdiction in charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity. As YnetNews reports:

The move appeared to mark a change in position, as the Palestinian delegation on Friday backed a move at the UN Human Rights Council to defer a vote on whether the report should be passed on.

Erakat said Abbas' decision came "in light of the controversy that has arisen" around the report, which accused Israel of committing war crimes during its three-week Gaza war that erupted December 27.

"We want to discuss the report in international bodies so they will take decisions on what emerged in the report, in order to insure that the crimes committed by Israel against our people are never repeated," he said.

That's a serious situation, particularly because if they're going to claim that Israel violated Palestinian human rights, they better bring Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders before the same bodies to convict them of war crimes as well - for precipitating the Operation Cast Lead in the first place.

But for kassam and mortar attacks, Israel would not have engaged in Operation Cast Lead.

But for kassam and mortar attacks, Israel would not have engaged in restricting humanitarian aid that was repeatedly hijacked by Hamas to further their war goals (reequiping Hamas at the expense of the civilian population).

But for Palestinian terror attacks, Israel would not need to maintain security checkpoints to thwart suicide bombers.

Without the thousands of rockets and mortars fired at Israel, each with the deadly intent to murder and maim Israelis with range of those mortars and rockets, Israel would not have engaged in an operation that was meant to stop the terrorists from firing on Israel in the first place. That civilians were inadvertently killed in the process is lamentable, but Hamas purposefully put civilians in harm's way by commingling with civilians, wearing civilian clothes, and firing rockets and mortars from civilian areas, including in close proximity to UN facilities.

The Palestinians are hoping to use the Goldstone Report to further undermine Israel's ability to defend itself from future attacks along the same lines.

As others have noted, the overwhelming number of those killed in Gaza were not civilians as the Palestinians propagandize, but were Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. They were counted as civilians primarily because they were wearing civilian garb, even if their longstanding ties to the terror groups were well known. In fact, Israel went above and beyond established international law and the Geneva Conventions to minimize civilian casualties by attempting to contact those individuals personally and directly to get them out of harm's way even as Hamas was engaging in all manner of war crimes to purposefully put civilians in harm's way.

Louisiana ACORN Embezzlement Investigation Continues

According to a review of documents provided to the Louisiana Attorney General's office based on an internal review, $5 million was embezzled by ACORN employees in the New Orleans office, and not $1 million. Where did the money go, and more importantly, who took it?

The new amount was reported in a subpoena released Monday from an investigation by Attorney General Buddy Caldwell. It is unclear if the money was taken from state, federal or private funds, according to the subpoena.

ACORN Chief Executive Officer Bertha Lewis said the new embezzlement allegation is "completely false." She said she would comment further after she and ACORN attorneys have a chance to review the subpoena.

Caldwell issued subpoenas in August seeking documents related to ACORN International then-President Wade Rathke and his brother, Dale Rathke, who kept the group's books. Those subpoenas targeted possible violations of state employee tax law, obstruction of justice and violations of the Employee Retirement Security Act.

The attorney general made inquiries in June into alleged embezzlement within ACORN that happened 10 years ago. The group last year dealt with an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke made nearly $1 million in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. Rathke's brother and a donor repaid the money.

Bertha Lewis of course is going to claim that the charges are false (and that's even without seeing the charges or other information relating to the case), but she also claimed that the O'Keefe and Giles videos were isolated cases, right before 5 videos showing substantially similar illicit responses made by ACORN employees at offices all across the country.

Curiously, this New York Times article notes that Lewis admits that Dale Rathke did embezzle some unidentified sum of money from ACORN coffers, but disagrees that the amount of money involved was $5 million. That amount apparently comes from two members of the Board of Directors of the national ACORN group that were voted out of office.

The subpoena, part of an investigation into accusations of state tax violations and obstruction of justice at Acorn, said the internal review was raised in a board meeting in October 2008 that was attended by Bertha Lewis, the chief executive.

“Current high-ranking members of Acorn have publicly acknowledged that the embezzlement did in fact occur, but the exact amount of the embezzlement was unknown,” the subpoena said. “It is still unclear if some of the monies embezzled are from state, federal or private funds.”

In a phone interview, Ms. Lewis acknowledged that the internal review found that Dale Rathke, brother of Wade Rathke, the founder of Acorn, had embezzled money from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000. But she said that the review had found that the amount embezzled was a little less than $1 million, a figure that has already been publicly disclosed and acknowledged.

She said the $5 million figure came from two former directors who had since been voted off the board.

So, based on the aforementioned information, it appears that the AP wire report left out critical information that identifies that Lewis admits that embezzlement did occur, and that Lewis was merely questioning the $5 million sum, which is a figure that links back to two former board members.

Intel Officials Report Zazi's Al Qaeda Connections

How did Najibullah Zazi come to the attention of the FBI in the first place? This article sheds little light, but what it leaves out is key:

The CIA learned about Najibullah Zazi through one of its sources and alerted domestic agencies, including the FBI, the officials said.

US intelligence first became aware of Zazi in late August, a senior administration official said. Interest in Zazi surfaced just weeks before prosecutors claim he was planning to strike on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The intelligence and administration officials declined to offer more details on the operative.

The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on the government's claim that the charges against him are part of a broader, international case.

It would appear that Zazi's communications were intercepted at some point, whether he was outside the US at the time or not isn't clear. If he was inside the US and someone from al Qaeda was communicating with him, that means that FISA and the Patriot Act as amended by Congress was invoked; in particular it relates to the interception of foreign communications into the US, which was one of the areas that civil libertarians were so concerned with. It would also explain why Congress was alerted to the investigation and subsequent arrest of Zazi.

So how is the Obama Administration handling this particular terror plot and investigation? Well, they want to distinguish themselves from the methods used by the Bush Administration, and that's primarily a media tactic. They want to show that the Adminnistration is engaged without hyping the threat, but using all the tools at their disposal, including the very kinds of tactics that the left lambasted the Bush Administration over:

In interviews, senior Obama officials stressed their efforts to set a different tone than the previous administration; the White House says it avoided trumpeting either the elevated threat level or the averted crisis, while portraying Obama as highly involved in monitoring developments. As Zazi drove across the country under heavy surveillance, John O. Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, briefed the president three to four times a day on Zazi's activities .

Shortly after taking office, Obama discarded the term "global war on terror," along with some of its most controversial tools, and aides describe a president who has been deliberative in implementing his own security policy. He has come under fire for not abandoning some of George W. Bush's policies, such as warrantless wiretapping and rendition, and faced criticism for jettisoning others, including enhanced interrogation techniques and secret prisons.

At the same time, the Obama administration is pressing Congress to move swiftly to reauthorize three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire in late December. They include the use of "roving wiretaps" to track movement, e-mail and phone communications, a tool that federal officials used in the weeks leading up to Zazi's arrest.

For all of the vilification of the Patriot Act, it appears that it has been tweaked sufficiently to find itself getting reauthorization support from the President.

Moreover, while law enforcement has Zazi in custody, it is all but clear that the terror plot has been fully exposed, along with his coconspirators. The CIA and other national security agencies have to track down Zazi's contacts overseas, which involves rolling up a terror cell that may lead back to top al Qaeda terrorists operating in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

UPDATE:
Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Zazi plot was one of the most serious terror plots disrupted since 9/11.

Palestinian Authority Ratcheting Up Terror Quotient

If the first three intifadas ended in failure, what are the chances that a fourth being suggested by the Palestinian Authority will succeed? That's precisely the course of action that the so-called partners in peace in Fatah are pursuing.

They are lying about Israel to their brethren. They are lying about Israel's intentions to somehow Judaize what is already Jewish - the 3,000+ year connection to Jerusalem.

And they are more than willing to engage in violence to pursue their ideological goals.

The Palestinian Authority on Monday evening condemned Jerusalem's decision to restrict entrance to the Aksa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount, calling on Palestinians to confront Israel in light of the "Israeli aggression."

"We call on the Palestinian public to confront Israel and its plans, that are intended to prevent the Palestinian people from fulfilling their aspirations of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied territories," read a statement issued by the government of PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad in Ramallah.

The PA government publicly decried "Israel's attempts to conduct Jewish prayer services in the Aksa compound" and urged the world "to force Israel to halt is efforts to Judaize the city."

Palestinians have been stockpiling rocks on the Temple Mount to pelt Jewish parishioners praying at the Western Wall (Kotel) just below. The Israeli authorities have limited access to the Temple Mount precisely because they want to head off a violent confrontation, and that is now being treated as an act of violence, or somehow claiming that it is Israeli aggression.

Moreover, this most recent violent outbreak occurred because a group of Jews went onto the Temple Mount to pray; a location that is considered so sacred by Orthodox Jews that they don't dare step foot on the Temple Mount for fear of walking on the Holy of Holies - where inner sanctum of the Holy Temples once stood because they are ritually impure. These Jews who went on to the Temple Mount had the audacity to actually pray in a location that Arabs have attempted to rewrite history to eliminate the historical connection of Jews to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and Israel.

Abbas and the other Fatah thugs are continuing to push the nonsense that housing projects are an impediment to peace, when the only impediment is the fact that Israel doesn't have a honest partner in peace that actually wants a 2-state solution. Fatah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority have one goal in mind; the elimination of a Jewish state of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state over all else.

Where Efficiencies Run Into Reality

Instapundit points out that Oregon is once again considering mileage taxes and that a national mileage tax is coming under consideration in Congress.

I've discussed the subject of mileage taxes and the fact that they would be a poor substitute for existing motor fuel taxes, but the problem is much more than just fuel taxes and declining revenues as vehicles become more efficient. It creates a taxing feedback loop where revenues fall short of expectations and the taxing jurisdiction needs to raise revenue in some fashion - either by increasing existing taxes, or finding other items to tax in its stead.

The same problem exists wherever efficiencies drive the marketplace. We see it with home heating oil, electricity, natural gas, and other utilities that provide power for home and business usage. A significant portion of those utility bills goes to pay various taxes and fees. As homes and businesses upgrade to more efficient HVAC, fixtures and appliances, the less energy is used, causing a declining revenue per capita.

This is yet another fundamental problem with the tax base as currently construed. If you intend to raise a set amount of revenue from a given item, if the consumer's use of that item becomes more efficient, they will not need nearly as much of it, causing a shortfall in usage. The state's response to the shortfall is either to raise the fee or tax or to incur a shortfall in revenues.

NYC Dept. of Education Severely Limiting Bake Sales

The nanny state kicks in once again, and now they're severely limiting bake sales in New York City public schools on grounds that so many students are obese.

The change is part of a new wellness policy that also limits what can be sold in vending machines and student-run stores, which use profits to help finance activities like pep rallies and proms. The elaborate rules were outlined in a three-page memo issued at the end of June, but in the new school year, principals and parents are just beginning to, well, digest them.

Parent groups and Parent-Teacher Associations are conspicuously given an exception: once a month they are allowed to sell as many dark fudge brownies and lemon bars as they please, so long as lunch has ended. And after 6 p.m. on weekdays, anything goes. But at that hour, most students are long gone, and as far as the Education Department is concerned, stuffing oneself with coconut macaroons and peanut butter cookies at that hour is one’s prerogative.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has made both public health and public education centerpieces of his tenure, and the changes in the schools’ food are an outgrowth of his efforts to curb trans fats, salt and other unwanted additives.

Roughly 40 percent of the city’s elementary and middle school students are overweight or obese, according to the Education Department. The department also found a correlation between student health and performance on standardized tests, according to a survey it released in July.

The previous regulations limited sales to once a month and allowed them at any time during that day, but they were loosely enforced. Officials say they will do more to monitor the new regulations.

The bake sales are a critical part of fundraising in schools, which means that after school activities, including sports and recreation will be adversely affected.

In other words, the very programs that can improve health and wellness are going to be adversely affected by the curbs on bake sales.

It's all about the unintended consequences.

Why Corzine Is Creeping Closer To Christie In the Polls

Jennifer Rubin wonders why Jon Corzine is creeping up on Chris Christie in the polls. There's a real simple reason. Money. The incumbent governor, Democrat Jon Corzine, is spending three times as much money on retaining his job as Republican Chris Christie is spending to win the job.

Corzine is likely going to put up $35 million of his own money to hold the job, and that's not counting the millions that the Democrats are funneling into the state so that this bellweather state can help lead Democrats into 2010. That's because Corzine eschewed public financing.

Christie is accepting public financing, which limits how much money he can spend to $11 million. The various Republican PACs can spend more on his behalf, but it will have to make up a significant gap because Corzine can spend so much personally.

That's why you see so many Corzine attack ads; they're effective even if they're blatantly and fundamentally dishonest because it can smear Christie in a way that Christie can't respond to every attack. Corzine can't use his Wall Street resume to bolster his policy credentials because the state's economy is such a mess and because of his ties to Goldman Sachs.

Corzine was originally elected because voters saw him as a solution to the state's financial woes. The problem is that four years later and the state's budget situation is in even worse shape; the state's economy and business climate is among the worst in the nation, unemployment is at historic highs and the state's tax burden is among the worst in the nation.

Now, with the economy in the crapper, Corzine is busy attacking Christie and Christie can't focus on the one issue that is paramount to voters; the state of the economy. Money may trump policy yet in New Jersey, despite the fact that Corzine's policy has been an unmitigated disaster for New Jersey.

UPDATE:
Will there be a backlash from the fact that so many counties in New Jersey rank prominently among the highest property taxed in the nation? After all, Gov. Corzine claimed that he provided property tax relief in the form of an increase to the state sales and use tax. One year after imposing the sales tax hike, he cut the property tax relief program significantly, all while property taxes continued rising. His original budget proposal in 2009 was to eliminate the property tax relief program altogether, but the outcry over that forced him to reconsider and limit the relief program.

Corzine did nothing to reduce the property tax burden; he simply attempted to shift the tax burden and resulted in higher taxes all around without any measurable effect. Taxpayers pay more, and get less in return. Throw in the governor's statements calling on municipalities to reduce pension payments in fulfillment of their obligations, and you've got a ticking time bomb that is waiting to go off.

The only way to get the situation under control is to seriously cut state spending, not just around the fringes. That means making serious cuts to programs that are cash cows for the entrenched interests. But only then will the state be put on a fiscally responsible path.

IAEA: Iran Testing Nuclear Warhead Designs

So much for Iran claiming that they're interested solely in peaceful uses of nuclear power. The IAEA admits that Iran is working towards nuclear weapons and missile technologies enabling the regime to fire nuclear weapons at Europe, Israel, and much of the Middle East.

Iran has the capability to produce a nuclear bomb and has tested how to make a warhead capable of striking Israel and parts of southern Europe, according to a secret report by the UN's atomic energy watchdog.

The report, a secret annex to the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual report, is based possibly on evidence smuggled out of Iran by the wife of a spy working for the Germans.

The report, excerpts of which were posted on the Internet over the weekend, concludes that Iran already "has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device."

It presents evidence that Iran has done extensive research and testing on how to make components of a nuclear payload to be delivered by the medium-range missile known as Shahab 3.

The finding goes beyond America's official stance and could complicate talks in Geneva to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

In 2007, American intelligence agencies reported that Iran had suspended its research into making a nuclear warhead in 2003. That assessment was rejected by Britain and France, whose position mirrors that of the IAEA secret report.

Iran never gave up the ghost of obtaining nuclear weapons and the means to attack its enemies throughout the region and into Europe. They are hellbent on nuclear blackmail, and it once again points out that the Bush Administration was right to indicate Iran's intentions to pursue nuclear weapons even as the CIA and the media lambasted the administration over similar claims that turned out to be wrong in the case of Iraq.

Every day that Iran goes without sanctions and investigators scouring the country for more signs of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, is another day that Iran continues to operate its centrifuges in pursuit of the very materials necessary to build the nuclear weapons that would be used to fulfill the regime's ideological and religious obligations.

That Iran has allowed inspectors to see the facility at Qom just goes to show that they're playing for time. Observers have been noting for some time now that Iran has more than a dozen suspected nuclear weapons development sites, and Iran must expect that showing a second facility (the first being the already recognized at Natanz) would give them the opportunity to have the world look at a dog and pony show while work continues unabated elsewhere.

NY Lt. Gov. Clashing With Gov. Paterson Over Budget Cuts

Governor David Paterson can't win, even when he gets the Court of Appeals to rule on his behalf. The court recently ruled that he had the right to appoint a Lieutenant Governor under state law. It's not a ruling I can agree with, but they are paid to make the decision, so Paterson's choice of Richard Ravitch is the legitimate and legal Lieutenant Governor.

The problem now is that Ravitch is slamming Paterson for not doing more to slash the state budget, which is already hemorrhaging $3 billion in the fiscal year 2009-2010 budget.

Ravitch, allied with state Budget Director Robert Megna, wants the governor to lay out specific plans for slashing the projected $3 billion deficit, but Paterson is resisting for fear that the sure-to-be-unpopular cuts would drive down his in-the-basement popularity even further, administration insiders said.
Richard Ravitch
Richard Ravitch

The insiders described Ravitch, whose controversial appointment by Paterson was challenged by lawmakers before being sanctioned in a 4-3 vote by the Court of Appeals last month, as increasingly frustrated over his inability to get the governor to focus on the state's worsening fiscal situation.

"Ravitch wants more time to get to the governor, to talk to him about what should be done, and he's not been able to get it. He's being blocked," said an administration source.

"The governor is avoiding Ravitch, doing a lot of other things, like going to California to hang out with the governor there," the source continued, referring to Paterson's trip late last week for an event with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and for what is believed to have been at least one political fund-raiser.

Paterson's refusal to take a tough stand on slashing the budget is being blamed on his secretary and chief of staff, Lawrence Schwartz, a longtime political operative and former top aide to Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano.

A source close to Paterson described Schwartz's decision-making style as, "politics first, government second."

Paterson has been over his head as governor and his political choices have been awful, and he's made all kinds of enemies in a very short time, antagonizing Democrat party leaders from President Obama on down. He's now ignoring the key reason that New York is in dire fiscal shape - a state budget that the state cannot afford. State spending rose at a time when revenues fell sharply, and the state isn't likely to see Wall Street recover its record profits (and hence tax receipts) anytime soon. That means we're talking a structural deficit that will not be solved unless receipts and expenditures are brought into line with each other.

A Worrisome Trend

Friday's failure of Chicago to win the bid to host the 2016 Olympics may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Chicago as Mike Lupica notes, but it clearly exposed problems with the Obama Administration and its worldview.

It also revealed a naivete and inexperience that extends to foreign policy and basic diplomacy.

Presidents do not attend major events unless their underlings have prepped the situation on the ground so that it favors the President to use his political capital to achieve success. It is all too apparent that the Administration did not understand the IOC and its byzantine politics. That's unforgivable precisely because they should have known what to expect from the USOC and Chicago 2016 committee. They admitted that much when they expressed those sentiments on Air Force One on the trip home from Copenhagen.

If the Administration knew that it was going to attend the IOC meeting, where was the preparation to insure the President would not get embarrassed if things didn't work out? It appears that it was wholly inadequate.

And that's going to get the US in trouble in the next three years. The President wants to rush headlong into talks with Iran, a totalitarian repressive regime that regularly lies, obfuscates, and alternates between secrecy and bold aggressive statements calling for the destruction of Israel, death to the US and is sitting on a vast nuclear program that is geared towards the production of nuclear weapons. Underestimating the politics of the IOC is one thing; to forge ahead and not understand the base rationale for Iran's pursuit of those nuclear weapons and missile technology is unforgivable.

Yet, that's the path we're apparently on. The President doesn't quite understand that talking, or the appearance of talking with the illegitimate leaders of Iran, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, actually legitimizes the regime and undermines the opposition that has been fighting to make sure their voice is heard despite a violent crackdown against the regime. The regime in Tehran wants nuclear weapons, and missteps in understanding the nature of the problem means that this Administration is falling into needless mistakes; mistakes that threaten US national security and the security of our allies throughout the world.

Everyone watched and saw the Administration's inability to seal the deal at the IOC. The best thing you can say is that he was in a no-win situation because had he not gone and Chicago lost, he would have been blamed for not going to support the bid, but he did go and Chicago still came in fourth.

That speaks to fundamental weaknesses in the Chicago bid or to the IOC's reaction to the Administration's efforts in Copenhagen. I suspect it's a bit of both.

The problem is that these issues keep cropping up all over the place with this Administration, whether it's the failure to properly vet candidates for top policy positions or fundamentally misreading the state of the economy.

That's the worrisome trend; the on the job training isn't working fast enough and the repercussions are going to linger.

IOC Voting Eliminates Tokyo and Chicago From Hosting 2016 Games; Rio Gets It

Tokyo and Chicago are out. That leaves Rio and Madrid. I think the odds favor Rio, primarily because Europe is already hosting the 2012 Games in London. The IOC tends to spread out the Games geographically, and it would be the first time a South American country hosted the Games.

Apparently all the last minute efforts by the Obamas went for naught. It just wasn't in the cards.

UPDATE:
The Chicago Sun Times calls the outcome shocking. Really? Was Chicago really the frontrunner for the Olympic bid? I didn't really think it was. I always thought that Rio had the inside edge on this one.

Some reports suggest that President Obama only came to lobby the IOC after other national leaders did the same to bolster their own national efforts. Boosterism couldn't hurt, but it didn't help Obama land Chicago the 2016 games.

The US efforts to land Olympic games is coming up against stronger bids elsewhere; the NYC 2012 bid failed when the West Side Stadium deal collapsed a month before selection, thrashing any chances. Maybe that's why the Obamas couldn't seal the deal; they didn't have the strongest bid no matter how much support they could throw their way.

And that's the fault of no one but the Chicago 2016 committee.

UPDATE:
Rio wins in the third round of balloting.

UPDATE:
Apparently for some it was a foregone conclusion that Chicago would win that we have stunned disbelief from the CNN reporters covering the announcement:



That's not covering the news. That's cheerleading, and realizing that your team lost.

Israel Carries Out Prisoner Swap For Shalit Video

I've warned about this kind of move for years, but Israel has gone ahead and has swapped 20 Palestinian women for a video that purporting to show that Gilad Shalit is still alive. The 20 women include terrorists, including one that attempted to use her pregnancy to hide explosives.

So who was released? Well, 14 of the 19 were convicted of attempted murder. The discrepancy in the number of Palestinians released is due to the fact that a 20th woman was added to the release.

The released women include those who attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, attempted suicide bombings while pregnant, and various other acts of violence. Israel's only possible reason for carrying out this swap is that many of these prisoners would have been released when their sentences were up within the year. That's the only possible justification, and Israel's leadership must have been convinced that cutting short their sentences slightly to get proof of life was more than justified.

The video purportedly shows that Shalit is still alive and holding a newspaper from September of this year.

Palestinian news agency, Maan, reported that Gilad Shalit read sections from the Gaza-based "Falasteen" newspaper from September 14 on his video transferred to Israel is exchange for the release of female Palestinian prisoners. Maan also reported that the video showed Gilad Shalit standing on his feet for a few seconds in order to prove that he is in good health. According to the report, the soldier is shown dressed in an IDF uniform with a yellow background behind him.

The news agency Palestine Today reported that Shalit appeared on the video reading a recent news item in Arabic from one of the Palestinian newspaper, according to Palestinian sources in the know.

A source that watched the video said a clean-shaven Shalit can be seen talking to the camera, and that he looks healthy and sounds coherent. The source said it was clear that his captors had prepared him for the video and went to great lengths to make sure he looks well and healthy.

I'm surprised that Shalit has managed to stay alive in the clutches of Hamas, but he's worth that many more terrorists alive than dead. After all, Hamas must realize that they can swap Shalit for hundreds of terrorists held in Israeli jails, but would get far fewer had he died in captivity.

Hamas has done all it can to pry as many terrorists from Israeli jails as possible, and it's been an excruciatingly painful situation for the Shalit family to endure. There has been little international pressure on Hamas to release Shalit as a humanitarian gesture, and instead most of the pressure has been on Israel to make concessions to release prisoners in exchange for a video.

It's also quite telling that Hamas feels that a video is worth 19 people, or that Shalit alive is worth 1,000 Palestinians. That's telling as to how much they value life. It's also telling just how much Israel wants to reunite Shalit with his loved ones that they'd even consider an offer to get a video showing proof of life in exchange for 19 prisoners.

Hamas is busy cheering the release of the 19 - yet another propaganda victory for Hamas and Ismail Haniyeh.

Daylife has photos of Haniyeh cheering alongside family members of the released.

Shalit has been in captivity for 1,194 days.

UPDATE:
Added a photo still from the video posted at the Jerusalem Post.

Video added:

World's Largest Wind Farm Goes Live In Texas

The world's largest wind farm has gone live in is producing energy in the heart of Texas. It's capable of producing enough power to run 230,000 homes. It is comprised of 627 wind turbines, each of which standing at least 350 feet tall and spread over nearly 100,000 acres.

The Roscoe Wind Complex, which began construction in 2007 and sprawls across four counties near Roscoe, is generating its full capacity of 781.5 megawatts, enough to power 230,000 homes, the German company E.ON Climate and Renewables North America said.

"This is truly sign milestone for us," said Patrick Woodson, the company's chief development officer. "In three years to be able to take this project from cotton fields to the biggest wind farm in the world is something we're very proud of."

The complex is about 220 miles west of Dallas and 300 miles south of the land where billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens had planned an even larger wind farm before he scrapped the idea in July.

Texas leads the nation in wind power production, and this wind farm tops the capacity record of 735.5 megawatts set by another West Texas farm southwest of Abilene.

Bear in mind that this massive wind power project produces a fraction of the needs of Texas. Current load requirements in Texas average 46,000mw. In fact, it provides 1.6% of the power needs (781 of 46,000). It's not nearly as reliable as other power sources, and it requires more land than other power sources to produce that power.

It is only an intermediate solution to the nation's energy needs; one that can be satisfied only through a commitment to pursue nuclear power that not only results in fewer emissions and pollutants, but doesn't have the land use issues that wind power has.

Economic Data Roundup Shows Continuing Tough Times Ahead

Today all kinds of economic data and reports were released. There are a few bits of good news, but most of it is indifferent or just outright bad.

Pending home sales are up, but that's because of the homebuyers tax credit that expires in November. People were rushing to buy homes to take advantage of the credit that was equal to 10% of the home value up to $8,000. 30 year mortgage rates are actually testing historical lows, but with tight credit restrictions and more scrutiny, fewer people will find themselves eligible for the best rates. Home prices are still down 30% or more from highs nationally and many are underwater since all too many people bought into the peak, meaning that they'd owe money when they went to sell - making such propositions all the more difficult (and further reducing the number of potential buyers).

Unemployment figures came in worse than expected, but retail sales for the 3d quarter were up 1.2%, pretty much entirely due to the cash for clunkers goosing of the auto sales for July and August.

Ford announced that its September sales plummeted 37.2% from August. CNN notes that Chrysler's September auto sales tumble 42%, but manage to beat analysts' expectations (which were already low to begin with). The cash for clunkers effect has quite a bit to do with that, and I expect sales to continue to slow in the auto sector for the foreseeable future as concerns over job stability and the poor economic climate mean that demand for big ticket items will remain below average.

Saturn is already toast, but with a further slump in sales, even the resuscitated GM and Chrysler will face a down market with little upside. The numbers were also down 5% from last August.

I don't expect the figures to be any better at GM, which didn't see the kind of sales boost that Ford did from the cash for clunkers program. In other words, sales figures from the auto sector are going to be dismal in the fourth quarter, dashing hopes of a rebound.

Saturn's demise also means that unemployment is going to rise, the manufacturing base is going to further decline, and the number of people relying on government benefits is going to rise.

Death Toll From Pacific Rim Quakes and Tsunami Rise

A second quake in Indonesia piled on the damage caused by the first earthquake, and the death toll there is well above 500, with the toll likely to rise into the thousands as thousands of structures collapsed.

The 6.8 magnitude quake came on the heels of a 7.6 magnitude temblor the day before.

The worst hit was the West Sumatra capital of Padang, where at least 376 people perished, officials said.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the Ministry of Health's crisis center, said thousands of people may be trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings and houses.

Rescuers used hammers, chisels and their hands to claw through debris in a desperate search for survivors. Health care workers treated the injured in a semi-collapsed hospital. Makeshift morgues were overflowed with dead dead.

State-run Antara news agency cited reports that part of a hospital had collapsed, burying people under debris.

The earthquakes caused widespread power failures, making it difficult for authorities and aid organizations to evaluate damage.

Meanwhile the death toll from the tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa continues to rise. Scientists who issue the warnings have scant minutes to figure out whether a tsunami is likely, and they issued warnings within 15 minutes of the quake, but for those closest to the epicenter of the quake that was not enough time. Tsunami waves travel 500 miles per hour.

Rep. Grayson Denigrates Memory of Holocaust

Being a politician means never having to say you're sorry. Sure, you can "apologize", but you aren't actually saying you're sorry and mean it. It means only that you're caught. In Rep. Alan Grayson's (D-FL) case, he not only doesn't apologize for his odious comments, but then attempts to compare the failure to bring about health care reform to the Holocaust.

Just now on the floor, he called on members of the House to pass health care reform in the most extreme terms possible:

"I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America," Grayson said.

The Holocaust?

Health care reform isn't going to stop people from dying; it may prolong life in many cases. But people are going to die regardless of how medical care is paid for. That inalienable fact is why so much is spent on health care - it is spent precisely to delay the inevitable.

The Holocaust was the purposeful slaughter of millions of innocents - particularly Jews - precisely because they were Jewish. This isn't just an imperfect analogy, but an odious one that denigrates the memory of the Holocaust and undermines the very meaning of the Holocaust and all that is associated with the word.

Rep. Grayson deserves to be fully rebuked for his comments.

On My Nightstand: Inside the Gas Chambers

Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz by Shlomo Venezia is a timely read. Shlomo Venezia is a Holocaust survivor from Hell on earth. He was a sonderkommando at Auschwitz, where he survived on his wits, luck, and eventually by working at the crematoria in the death camp.

He had a first hand look at the Nazi mass murder of millions of people - primarily Jews. His is a gripping tale of how he came to work at the crematoria, preparing it for the next arrivals who were dispatched immediately because they were unable to be worked to death.

His is one of the few tales of survival among the group of Jews who did that awful and evil task, because all too many of them were murdered when they were incapable of working, and when the Nazis shut down the camps, most were eliminated to cover their tracks and eliminate the witnesses to the crimes committed there.

All too frequently people call political opponents Nazis or make wanton comparisons to the Holocaust, and in doing so, they dishonor the memories and the historical fact of the Holocaust and all the horror that the Holocaust truly was. It was the mass deportation, murder and genocide of millions of Jews all across the European continent by the Nazi regime.

End of the Line For Saturn As Penske Kills Deal

Roger Penske, who had been seen as the guy who could save Saturn and turn around the company's fortunes after GM destroyed the brand's value, has withdrawn his bid to buy the company. Saturn will wind down its business after opening with such fanfare and hopes in 1985.

Saturn’s 350 dealerships across the United States will close because of the development. The Saturn stores are known for their no-haggle, low-pressure sales approach and focus on customer service. None of the stores sells vehicles made by another G.M. brand.

Saturn dealers said Wednesday that they were blindsided by the news of Penske Automotive’s reversal.

“We’re all stunned,” said Mary McHugh, an executive with Saturn of Schaumberg near Chicago. “We didn’t get any communication from Saturn. We just heard it on the news.”

Under the proposed deal with Penske Automotive, the dealers were to continue selling three vehicles: the Aura sedan, Outlook crossover vehicle and Vue sport utility vehicle. Two models, the Astra compact car and Sky convertible, were being discontinued. Penske Automotive had already sent the dealerships new two-year franchise agreements to sign.

G.M., with the Penske deal now off the table, said it planned to stop building all Saturn models at the end of the 2009 model year, meaning almost immediately. Sales of the brand were down 58 percent this year, through August.

Penske Automotive, which owns a chain of dealerships and already distributes Daimler’s Smart car brand in the United States, had been in exclusive talks with G.M. for Saturn since June, beating out proposals from several other bidders, including a private equity firm tied to a Saturn dealer in Oklahoma.

Auto analysts had predicted that Penske Automotive could succeed in selling Saturns where G.M. had failed, mostly because of Mr. Penske’s reputation. The 72-year-old former race car driver is considered one of the savviest businessmen in the industry, and a specialist in turning around troubled automotive operations.

But Mr. Penske’s plans for Saturn depended on attracting another manufacturer to supply vehicles after G.M. cut off production.

“I don’t think he could find anybody who could give Saturn a competitive product line within two years,” said Joseph Phillippi, a principal in the firm Auto Trends Consulting. “It’s not surprising that a foreign automaker would not want to be entering the U.S. market now.”

It's a stunning development, and apparently Penske couldn't get another unidentified automaker to build the vehicles that would be sold under the Saturn nameplate.

It means that the 350 dealers nationwide will close, throwing still more people onto the unemployment rolls around the nation, to say nothing of reduced advertising revenues for media outlets including newspapers, added real estate inventory that is exceedingly difficult to move, and the shuttering of more manufacturing base in the nation.

For GM, three other brands will be axed by the end of the year, including Pontiac which is being discontinued, Opel is being sold to Magna and a Russian bank, and Hummer is being sold to a Chinese automaker.

UPDATE:
This report indicates that 13,000 people will be out of jobs by the end of the year if Saturn closes as GM indicates. That includes those building the vehicles and the dealerships, but doesn't include all those who depend on the dealers continued operations. There will be a ripple effect from the closure, just as the shuttering of dealerships around the country has resulted in blighted commercial areas suffering from closures and lost job opportunities that aren't going to rebound anytime soon. In fact, it is feared that the job market will not rebound to 2007 levels until 2017 at the earliest.