Mel Gibson's Insane Racist Rantings Caught On Tape

Mel Gibson, the immensely talented actor and director who can't get out of his own way because he's such a disgusting person who spews racist and anti Semitic rantings at the drop of a hat, is back in the news after allegedly attacking his girlfriend. One of his latest racist rantings were caught on tape.

We broke the story that Mel told Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of his love child, "You're an embarrassment to me. You look like a f***ing bitch in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n***ers, it will be your fault." RadarOnline.com had heard the tape.

He's under investigation in California on domestic violence charges.

This is hardly his first run in with racist rantings, and I doubt it will be the last. He has serious anger issues and I wouldn't be surprised if charges are filed against him on the domestic violence claims.

The Obligatory LeBron James Wrapup

LeBron James, the NBA player who commanded pretty much all the attention in the NBA off-season, will be going to the Miami Heat, rather than New York, Chicago, or the Newark (NJ) Nets.

Whatever shall we do? Well, if you're in Cleveland, you're probably wondering what you did to deserve this fate.

After all, Cleveland used to rock:



James didn't think it rocked, so he rolled on down to South Beach to join up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Wade's won a championship with the Heat; Bosh and James have done nothing despite James' tremendous talent and abilities to fill the seats of arenas around the NBA. The guy is a phenomenal talent, but he hasn't exactly won anything.

New York was hoping for James to come to be their savior; same with the Nets. Can't blame them given that both franchises cleared cap space to attempt to make this happen, but their offers fell short.

The best revenge for those cities would be to win one before the Heat (and James) do. I can only hope that the Cavaliers win first - that would be the sweetest revenge for Cavs' owner Dan Gilbert, who wrote a stinging rebuke of the James departure. Moreover, he promised the Cavs would win the championship before the "...self-titled former "king" wins one."

Right now, the Heat are the biggest winners of the offseason, namely because with the James signing, they've now sold out all games as of this afternoon (except for the withheld seats for single game purchases). Sales of his jersey will start flying off shelves pretty quickly too.

Hizbullah Pissed CNN Sacked Pro-Hizbullah Journalist

Let me get out the wahambulance for Hizbullah. Hizbullah is busy complaining that CNN sacked this disgraceful "journalist".

The Lebanese militant Hezbollah has denounced CNN's decision to fire a Middle East editor for posting a note on Twitter expressing admiration for the country's late top Shiite cleric.

Octavia Nasr later apologized for her tweet in which she described Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah as "one of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot." But CNN officials said her credibility had been compromised.

Hezbollah's spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi says CNN's decision amounts to "intellectual terrorism" and reflects the West's "double standards" in dealing with the Mideast.

That Twitter posting was a glimpse into the mindset of Nasr and was all too revealing. It showed where her true interests lied.

They benefited from the fact that a CNN journalist who was responsible for setting the tone of reporting from the Middle East and on the Arab-Israeli peace process was a Hizbullah-loving sympathizer who found that Hizbullah's spiritual leader was someone who was praise-worthy when he died, even though Hizbullah is a terrorist group, is dedicated to Israel's destruction, and refuses to comply with UNIFIL disarmament.

CNN had no choice but sack Nasr because it revealed a bias that was all too prevalent in CNN reporting and the organization had a media mess on its hands if it didn't take action. Hizbullah loses a propaganda mouthpiece in the process, which is why they're pissed.

Rangel Again Calls For Draft

Charles Rangel (D-NY), the one trick pony whose domination of Harlem politics is in jeopardy for the first time in decades because of multiple allegations of legal and ethical malfeasance, and admissions of nonpayment of taxes (all while as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee that oversees the nation's tax law), was at it again.

He's repeatedly called for the imposition of a draft, and was at it again.

Never mind that the military doesn't want a draft because it would dilute the resources needed for a professional military. Rangel is doing it because he thinks his constituents want it - or at least enough of them to retain his House seat.

Do Svidaniya Russian Spies (You Too Anna Chapman?!)? UPDATE: All 10 Plead Guilty

It looks like the rumored deal to swap the 10 Russian spies captured in the US for a US spy that the Russians had incarcerated for six years is underway.

The advocate, Ernst Chyorny, said Mr. [Igor V.] Sutyagin – who has served 10 years of a 14-year sentence for espionage — had called his father from Vienna, where he was met by a British officer. Family members who met with Mr. Sutyagin this week in Moscow said he had been informed he would be transported through Vienna to Britain, where he would be freed. Mr. Sutyagin’s mother, a chemical engineer in a scientific community outside Moscow, rushed home from work when she heard the news.

“So far I don’t know what happened,” said the mother, Svetlana Y. Sutyagina. “I am in a state of suspense.”

The reported exchange was not confirmed by Russian or American officials on Thursday, though anticipation had built throughout the day.

The scientist’s lawyer, Anna Stavitskaya, said Mr. Sutyagin had verbally agreed to an exchange during a meeting with Russian officials who he believed were from Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, or S.V.R., and that Americans had also been present at the meeting.

Her comments followed reports from Washington on Wednesday that just days after the F.B.I.’s sensational dismantling of a Russian spy ring, the American and Russian authorities were negotiating an exchange of some or all of the 10 espionage suspects for prisoners held in Russia, including Mr. Sutyagin.

The deal may involve guilty pleas from the 10 Russian spies, including the honey pot Anna Chapman. MSNBC is reporting that this is going to end up being an 11 for 11 swap.

Relatives of Sutyagin, a nuclear researcher serving a 14-year sentence for spying for the United States, said he had told them he was going to be one of 11 convicted spies in Russia who would be freed in exchange for 11 people charged by the United States with being Russian agents.

Speculation swirled around the possible swap even as Russian and U.S. officials refused to directly comment on any possible exchange.

UPDATE:
The various Russian spies are being moved to New York for what appears to be final disposition in the case - entering guilty pleas and sentencing. Those spies arrested in Virginia and Boston are being transferred to New York, joining Chapman and the others.

Federal judge Kimba Wood had signed an order yesterday requiring El Diario columnist Vicky Pelaez, Juan Lazaro's wife and fellow codefendant, remain detained until the judge can hear an appeal by the prosecutors over the $250,000 bail package approved last week (the other defendants were denied bail and considered flight risks after an 11th alleged spy jumped bail in Cyprus). It's not clear whether how the pending spy swap will handle Pelaez's situation.

UPDATE:
Prosecutors have announced that all 10 alleged Russian spies will plead guilty to charges that they were unregistered agents in the US. That includes the hyperventilating Vicky Pelaez and her husband Juan Lazaro. However, that doesn't mean that all of them want to return to Russia - and that includes the NJ couple that had two kids (a further complication).

The criminal penalty for that charge is up to 5 years in prison.

UPDATE:
We now know the true identity of four of the 10 Russian spies.

In entering their guilty pleas, five of the 10 revealed their real Russian names publicly for the first time. The couple known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy gave their names to the court as Vladimir and Lydia Guryev, and the couple who called themselves Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley said their real names were Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova. The defendant known as Juan Lazaro said he was Mikhail Anatonoljevich Vasenkov.

The interesting thing about this case is how quickly the feds got guilty pleas and how quickly the defendants admitted to their guilt. That would seemingly indicate that the case against them was quite strong, which makes one wonder just how much more intel could be gleaned from further inquiry. At least one Russian expert thinks that the catch and turnover was too quick to do a thorough debriefing of the spies to get as much intel as possible about tactics and methods.

Newark Executioner Facing Life Sentence In School Yard Triple Murder: UPDATE: Life Without Parole

Rodolfo Godinez, one of six people on trial for the execution style murder of three Newark college students, is being sentenced today in the 2007 triple murder of Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, both 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18. Godinez was found guilty of all charges in May.

Rodolfo Godinez, the first defendant to be convicted in the Newark schoolyard triple killings, faces life in prison when he is sentenced this morning in Superior Court in Newark.

In May, a jury convicted Godinez on all 17 counts against him including murder, felony murder, attempted murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and weapons charges for the Aug. 4, 2007, attack behind Mount Vernon School.

Prosecutors said Godinez, 26, and five others confronted the four friends that night armed with a gun and a machete. The jury deliberated for about three hours before reaching a verdict.

The victims, Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, both 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18, were set upon, lined up against a wall and fatally shot, execution-style. Terrance's sister, Natasha, was also shot, but survived and testified for the prosecution.

Aeriel, now 22, is expected to give a victim impact statement before Godinez is sentenced, as is Shalga Hightower, Iofemi’s mother; James Harvey, Dashon’s father; and Troy Bradshaw, who is Terrance and Natasha’s father. Other relatives may also speak, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Godinez and his cohorts were likely engaging in an MS-13 gang initiation. Godinez shouldn't even have been in the US since he was an illegal alien. Among the others charged were illegal alien Jose Lachira Carranza who had been facing criminal charges, including the rape of a 5-year old and was out on $150,000 bail at the time of the triple murder.

The five other defendants, Carranza, Melvin Jovel, Alexander Alfaro, Shahid Baskerville, and Gerardo Gomez are to be tried separately, with the first of these trials to begin in September.

UPDATE:
He was sentenced to life without parole.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 105

Leave it to the New York Times to sound downcast over how the Port Authority had selected the Durst Organization to operate and market the Freedom Tower (1WTC). Let's not forget that the Times is a real estate venture as much as it is a newspaper publication, and its midtown skyscraper headquarters competes with the construction at Ground Zero. The paper had repeatedly downplayed the viability of office space at Ground Zero.

The authority’s board met Wednesday and selected Durst over the other finalist, the Related Companies, one of the city’s most prolific developers. The authority and the Dursts plan to negotiate a final agreement over the next 30 days. If the deal is completed, the Dursts will invest at least $100 million for an undisclosed stake in the project and take over leasing and management of the building.

The authority figured that it was good at building but would need an expert to lure top-notch tenants from the United States and abroad. In one of the more intriguing possibilities, the publishing giant Condé Nast has expressed interest in moving to 1 World Trade Center from a Durst building in Times Square.

“We’re extremely pleased that some of the most prominent developers in the country saw market value in this world-class office tower, and engaged in an extremely competitive process for a stake in it,” said Anthony R. Coscia, the authority’s chairman. “What is most important is that we reach an agreement that is good for the building, for the World Trade Center site and for the region.”

So far, the Beijing Vantone Industrial Company, a Chinese real estate firm that signed a lease for the 64th through 69th floors, a total of about 190,000 square feet, is the sole private tenant. The authority has preliminary agreements with the state and federal governments for one million square feet.

The authority had explored selling the building in 2007 to a private equity firm, but the recession quickly wiped out that possibility. In January, the authority solicited interest from a select group of developers who might be interested in a partnership deal. Six responded: the Durst Organization; Steven Roth, chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, a national real estate company; Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chairman of Boston Properties and the owner of The Daily News; Brookfield Properties, one of the largest landlords downtown; Hines, an international developer based in Texas; and Stephen M. Ross, chief executive of the Related Companies.

Well, the naysayers were wrong - as I'd been saying all along. There was strong competition for the right to manage the site and have a stake in the construction project. That belies the claims that the tower would be a white elephant and remain empty even with a poor real estate market.

That there was such strong competition for the rights shows the folly in forcing Larry Silverstein out of the project in the first place. He was in a position to get the tower built quicker and yet the Port Authority dragged its feet, leading to delays throughout the site.

But that's all water under the bridge now as the Freedom Tower is now about 25 stories tall.

So, who is the Durst Organization? It's one of the City's largest real estate family ventures, and among its holdings is the nearly completed environmentally friendly Bank of America tower at Bryant Park in NYC and 4 Times Square.

UPDATE:
The Daily News further points out that Doug Durst had a turnaround of his own on the feasibility of the Freedom Tower - he had questioned the feasibility of the project just a few years ago.

A Norwegian Connection In Subway Bomb Plot In US and UK

In addition to the indictment handed down yesterday against Adnan Shukrijumah, it looks like authorities in Norway have arrested three people in connection with a plot that appears to have links with the US subway bomb plot led by Najibullah Zazi and a similar plot in Britain.

The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year. Officials believe they were planning attacks with portable but powerful bombs like the ones at the heart of last year's thwarted suicide attack in the New York City subway.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that one of the most serious terrorist plots since 9/11. On Wednesday, prosecutors revealed the existence of a related plot in Manchester, England.

Officials believe the Norway plan was instigated by Salah al-Somali, al-Qaida's former chief of external operations, who was in charge of plotting attacks worldwide until he was killed in a CIA drone airstrike last year.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. The Norwegian Police Security Service said only that the three were arrested on suspicion of "preparing terror activities."

Al-Somali has been identified in U.S. court documents as one of the masterminds of the New York subway plot. Two men have pleaded guilty in that case, admitting they planned to detonate explosives during rush hour. A third man awaits trial.

Officials said it was not clear the men had selected a target for the attacks but they were attempting to make peroxide bombs, the powerful homemade explosives that prosecutors say were attempted in both New York and England.

U.S. and Norwegian counterterrorism officials worked closely together to unravel the Norwegian plot, officials said. Janne Kristiansen, the head of the Police Security Service, traveled to the U.S. this spring to discuss some of the closely held intelligence that been gathered in the case.

So why was Norway chosen? Well, Norway has a contingent of 500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO ISAF.

Much more likely is that it is yet another outgrowth of the cartoon jihad sparked by the publication of a series of Mohammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten, which caused riots in many Islamic countries and embassies of several nations were torched, including the Norwegian embassy in Syria, primarily because the Scandanavian countries were seen as being of a similar mind about the publication and freedom of speech that it represents.

UPDATE:
So how did Shukrijumah get implicated? Well, it looks like Zazi cooperated with federal authorities to the extent that they're even considering putting him and fellow terrorist Zarein Ahmedzay into witness protection.

Federal Judge Raymond Dearie agreed yesterday to unseal the cooperation agreements. Medunjanin's co-defendants - Zazi, who was the New York plot's pointman, and Ahmedzay - both apparently may get a sweet deal.

Zazi and Ahmedzay could have their life sentences reduced and enter the witness protection program if the Justice Department agrees with prosecutors' recommendations. Zazi could also receive the "S" visa.

Osama's Chef Enters Guilty Plea At Gitmo Tribunal

Score one for the tribunal system. Osama bin Laden's chef/bodyguard, Ibrahim al-Qosi, entered a guilty plea before the tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.

Osama Bin Laden's former cook and driver has pleaded guilty at a Guantanamo Bay tribunal to conspiracy and providing support for terrorism.

In a plea deal, Sudanese-born Ibrahim al-Qosi also admitted working as Bin Laden's bodyguard Afghanistan and helping him avoid capture by US forces.

Mr Qosi, 50, has been held at the US naval base on Cuba for eight years.

His plea represents the first conviction for the Obama administration at the controversial war crimes court.

The terms of the deal have yet to be made public.

UPDATE:
Thomas Joscelyn has background on Qosi.

New Charges Announced in NYC Subway Bomb Plots Against Adnan Shukrijumah

New charges are being announced against Adnan Shukrijumah in connection with the plot to blow up New York City subways.

Law enforcement officials say Adnan Shukrijumah will be named in an indictment in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.

Shukrijumah has eluded the FBI for years and remains at large. He is among the top candidates to be al-Qaida's next head of external operations, the man in charge of planning attacks worldwide.

Authorities believe Shukrijumah met with a would-be suicide bomber in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since 9/11.

This is in connection with the terror plot involving Najibullah Zazi and his cohorts.

The U.S. citizens were arrested in September 2009 before, prosecutors said, they could carry out a trio of suicide bombings in Manhattan. Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay have pleaded guilty and admitted planning to detonate homemade bombs on the subway during rush hour. A third man, Adis Medunjanin, awaits trial.

Counterterrorism officials believe Ahmedzay, and perhaps the other two men, met Shukrijumah at a terror camp in Pakistan.

After 9/11, Shukrijumah, 34, was seen as one of al-Qaida's best chances to attack inside the U.S. or Europe, captured terrorist Abu Zubaydah told U.S. authorities. Shukrijumah studied at a community college in Florida but when the FBI showed up to arrest him as a material witness to a terrorism case in 2003, he already had left the country.

In 2004, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft called Shukrijumah a "clear and present danger" to the United States. The U.S. is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

UPDATE:
The NYC subway plot is also being connected to a similar plot in England.

Iran Commits To Stoning Another Woman For Adultery

The death penalty in Iran for many crimes is stoning, and it is frequently carried out against women who have committed adultery. They are buried up to their neck, and then stoned by a crowd of people. The grisly scene can play out for a half hour or more until the woman is brutally killed.

Men who are to be stoned are buried up to their waist - and suffer even more pain and brutality before succumbing.



Iranian judges found that one such woman should be stoned to death:

Convicted of adultery in 2006, Ashtiani has been sentenced to be stoned to death for her alleged crime.

Originally sentenced to 99 lashes for her alleged "illicit relationship outside of marriage," Ashtiani endured that punishment in front of her then 17-year-old son.

"The authorities asked if I wanted to wait outside. I said no. I could not leave my mother alone."

Sajjad says it is a day he will never forget. But, he says, that day he thought the worst was over.

"I was thinking, OK, they hit her, now it's finished. They told me this process was finished. She's done. She's free to go. "

But then a judges' panel in Tabriz suspected Ashtiani of being involved in her husband's murder and re-opened her case.

She was cleared of the murder charges, but the panel re-examined Ashtiani's adultery sentence, and based on unspecified "judges' knowledge," decided she should be put to death for the alleged affair.

All that is despite evidence that she was coerced into confessing to a crime she didn't commit.

Welcome to the Baked Apple

After cooking at 103 yesterday in Central Park and triple digits throughout the area, the NYC metro area is only supposed to simmer at around 98 (though it will again hit 100 in many parts of the area). Some weather people here were saying that an onshore flow and some clouds will keep temps down a little, but that only means that the humidity will be pumped up to unconscionable levels. If anything, the higher humidity will make it feel even worse outside than yesterday.

Demand for power is hovering near all time record demand. Power lines are sagging with some scattered outages, but no widespread blackouts to report. Con Ed and PSE&G are calling on customers to reduce their demand. Amtrak and NJ Transit are dealing with power and rail issues as the temps are causing problems with both the overhead lines sagging and the rails expanding and coming out of alignment (causing a possible derailment hazard) primarily on the NJ Coast Line, Morris and Essex, and the Northeast Corridor. That means fewer trains running and those that are are doing so slower. The MTA has had to deal with reduced power in some parts of the subway system so signals and elevators/escalators are off inconveniencing commuters.

More importantly, people must check on the elderly, infirm, and children. One person died yesterday from the sweltering heat. Cooling centers and pools are open all over the area, and it's a good idea to limit outside exposure.

Prosecutors Looking To Cut Deals In Russian Spy Case? UPDATE: Spy Swap?

Prosecutors may be looking at the political fallout and the possible revelations of classified intel techniques used to discover and arrest the 10 alleged Russian spies.

The proposed resolution could lead to a series of relatively quick guilty pleas, allowing the defendants to receive some kind of legal benefit and the government to avoid a series of protracted trials.

All 10 defendants who are in custody have been charged with conspiring to act as unregistered agents of a foreign government, and eight were also charged with conspiring to commit money laundering. The eight could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Another defendant is at large.

Prosecutors have not accused the defendants of passing classified information to their Russian handlers. But a resolution would allow the United States government to avoid a long legal battle in which sensitive information about intelligence techniques could be exposed.

Such a deal would also eliminate the possibility that a high-profile case would serve as an irritant to relations between the United States and Russia. Although both countries have made clear they do not expect the charges to damage relations, the case has dominated worldwide news accounts in the past week, and indictments and potential trials could keep the case on the front pages for months to come.

Neither defense lawyers nor the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan would comment on any such talks, and the talks may end up going nowhere. But court documents made public last week by the government show that some defendants were freely discussing their ties to Russian intelligence and perhaps that will ease the way to negotiated pleas.

Watch for some kind of plea deal where the alleged spies enter guilty pleas on some counts and face reduced sentences so as to avoid a protracted legal battle in court and the possible fallout on US-Russian foreign relations.

UPDATE:
It looks like a deal may involve a spy swap.

Relatives said a researcher convicted in Russia of espionage has told them he'll be released. They claim Igor Sutyagin will be sent to Britain in a swap for Russians recently arrested for spying in the United States, which include two Montclair residents and a Seton Hall student.

The Russian Foreign Ministry had no comment.

Sutyagin's brother, Dmitry, spoke to reporters today. He said his brother was told of the arrangement by Russian officials who met him Tuesday at a prison.

Sutyagin said he was made to sign a confession. He maintains his innocence and does not want to leave Russia.

San Francisco Moves To Ban Sugared Beverages From Sale On City Property

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome has moved to ban sales of soda and other sugared beverages from city property (HT: Arley Ward). How long before the City rethinks this asinine policy when it loses the revenue it gets from soda sales from vending machines on its property?

The San Francisco policy, the result of an executive order from Mayor Gavin Newsom, dictates vending machines on city property can no longer dispense Coke, Pepsi and other calorically sweetened beverages. Sports drinks and artificially sweetened water also are included in the ban.

Juices must be 100 percent fruits or vegetables with no added sweeteners.

Like others pushing bans or so-called "fat taxes," Newsom's goal is a thinner, healthier citizenry.

But is government the solution? Despite a soda-tax bill still pending in the Michigan Legislature, momentum seems weak, at best.

This is nanny statism in action.

And the motives are always pure - to improve the health of the citizenry, even though sodas by themselves aren't the problem. It's that people simply choose to eat more and don't engage in portion control and opt to super size their portions. That's a personal choice they've made.

The nanny state response is to tax items that they deem as being bad, and when the revenues fall short (and harm the programs funded by these revenues), they demand tax hikes to keep those programs going.

Obesity is a big problem in some parts of the country, but taxing soda isn't going to stop it. Getting people out of their damned couches and exercising will. Portion control will help. Taxing food items isn't (and most parts of the country exempt food from sales and use tax). After all, you get more calories from a steak than you do soda.

Pushing Israel Into A Corner?

Don't think that the New York Times' timing on the release of a report about US tax exempt donations going to the construction of housing in the West Bank wasn't purposeful on the eve of President Barack Obama's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu. There are some reports that indicate that Obama will try to pressure Israel into making some kind of apology to Turkey over the flotilla raid, even though the backers of the flotilla were intent on creating a violent incident for propaganda purposes and Israel was within its sovereign rights to defend itself from terrorists who would use running the blockade as a means to regroup, resupply, and rearm.

For starters, the tax exempt donations don't only include the West Bank - but Jerusalem as well. And as I keep pointing out ad nauseum, the construction of housing is not an impediment to peace. Housing can always be sold or transferred. It's been done before by Israel - twice. Israel withdrew from Sinai and returned thousands of houses built for settlers there in multiple communities. Israel again withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and transferred those communities to the Gazans, who promptly used them as terror training camps and destroyed the infrastructure, including greenhouses donated by US businessmen for providing an incubator for Gazan economic development.

Other reports indicate that the US will demand that Israel move to a two-state solution immediately. Such reports deny reality and again show the folly of diplomats trying to invent facts instead of taking the situation as it truly is - psuedoreality.

The fact is that Hamas and Fatah continue to refuse Israel's existence and deny a 2-state solution. That is the impediment to peace. When you have Fatah honoring a mass murderer who killed Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972 as conquering hero, your priorities are wrong.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has euologized Abu Dauod, the mastermind of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munch Olympics in 1972 and who died Saturday. “He is missed. He was one of the leading figures of Fatah and spent his life in resistance and sincere work as well as physical sacrifice for his people's just causes,” said Abbas.

Dauod's life's work was focused on murdering Israelis.

Focusing on housing is a distraction from the real problems - that Israel simply does not have a partner in peace. It doesn't matter how many concessions Israel makes, it will never be sufficient and the Palestinians will not accept any such deal because they will always demand more.

Mind you that the PA never even bothered with counterproposals to the two Israeli peace deals made - one with Arafat in 2000 and later with Abbas.

Now, who exactly is Israel to make peace with when the Palestinians themselves can't agree on who is their representative - Hamas that continues to seek Israel's destruction openly and obviously, or Fatah, which is content to let other terror groups do their dirty work while continuing to indoctrinate another generation to hate Israel's very existence. Neither terror group can dominate the other, and each has its own territories to operate from.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 104

While the hearing for the controversial Cordoba House is scheduled for next week, there are plenty of other happenings in and around Ground Zero that include a couple of lawsuits and even a little bit of positive construction news.

Let's start with the good news. Here's an updated panoramic photo from one of Ground Zero's twin memorial pools as it nears completion.

Now for the lawsuits: 

The mess with the former Deutsche Bank building demolition continues as lawsuits are again threatened over costs for the demolition. Bovis and the LMDC had agreed to wait until after the building was demolished before suing each other, but with the building now only a dozen stories tall, the lawsuit talk is again coming to the forefront. The demolition costs grew along with the delays as Bovis and other companies involved negligently operated the site and the deaths of two firefighters exposed serious problems with oversight on safety on the site.

Then, a group of victims' families are applying for certiorari to the US Supreme Court to hear their case that the City of New York must remove more than a million tons of World Trade Center debris from the Fresh Kills landfill where it was disposed following the attacks because it may still contain remains of their loved ones. They are demanding the city give it their loved ones a proper burial.

Charging that their constitutional due process and religious freedom rights have been violated, a group of families of 9/11 victims have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to force New York City to move more than a million tons of World Trade Center debris from atop a garbage heap at the Fresh Kills landfill.

The group, known as the WTC Families for Proper Burial, says it is unacceptable that even the unidentified remains of victims, mingled with the Trade Center debris, should remain atop household trash. After being rejected by a federal judge and appellate court in a lawsuit seeking to force the city to move the debris, the WTC Families filed the necessary petition for a writ of certiorari on June 1, asking the Supreme Court to decide on the case.

The city has rejected the WTC Families’ assertions as untrue, and says it intends to file a voluntary response to the petition by the Aug. 5 deadline, laying out for the justices why they should not hear the case.

While I feel for the victims' families, there is no way that the City or anyone else can move the 1 million tons or more of debris and find an acceptable location. All manner of heroic measures were taken to find the victims - nearly all of whom were pulverized by the collapsing towers and then consumed in fires that lasted for weeks following the attacks.

In one last bit of Ground Zero related news, the Queen of England will be here today. She will be stopped at Ground Zero to pay her respects along with a stop at the UN and to visit with rescue workers who were at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Hope she likes Baked Apple since the temps in New York are going to top 100 degrees today.

And This Is a Bad Thing?

Low interest rates aren't spurring home sales because of stringent lending requirements. I don't see bad news in all that. It means that people are being checked to see whether they have the capacity to repay their obligations and banks are doing the job they should have been doing all along.

An odd scene has been playing out lately in the offices of mortgage brokers and bankers around the country.

Mortgage rates have sunk to levels not seen in more than a half-century — a seductive 4.58 percent for an average 30-year fixed loan. Yet brokers and lenders report not a flood but a trickle of customers.

So what's going on?

Call it a tale of the haves and have-nots.

The haves are those who stand to save money from refinancing and have the financial standing to do so. Since mortgage rates have been low for so long, most of them already have refinanced in the past 18 months. Doing so again wouldn't be worth the cost for most.

The have-nots? Those are the millions of Americans pummeled by the housing collapse. They have little or no home equity or no money for down payments. Or they lack the credit or steady income to get or refinance a mortgage.

The result is that brokers like Ginny Ferguson are filling their days doing something other than handling a stampede of customers buying homes or refinancing.

Ferguson, CEO of Heritage Valley Mortgage in Pleasanton Calif., has managed to stay busy: She's archiving files, reviewing marketing plans and calling previous clients and agents to try to drum up business.

It means that home sales aren't recovering to their pre-boom levels, which is continuing to cause consternation among the so-called experts who want to see home sales recover as part of the leading edge of the economic recovery.

The situation also means that people can't afford to refinance because their properties remain underwater and/or can't afford to move even if it is downsizing because their liabilities exceed their assets.

Some of the experts think that the strict lending requirements have gone too far and limited economic growth. The solution to the ongoing real estate market isn't to revert to the very ways that led us down the path to a real estate bubble. The market needs time to recover in an orderly fashion and that just takes time.

The homeowner tax credit accelerated sales among qualified buyers from one fiscal quarter into another. It didn't create additional demand and additional sales. Allowing homeowners who were already in the process to obtain the credit even after the June 30 deadline isn't going to spur additional sales - it's merely going to spread money around among those who are already spending it.

Oil Continues Gushing From BP Well as BP and Government Struggle With Spill's Effects

What's billed as the world's largest oil skimmer is currently being tested in the Gulf near the spill site - and we may know today whether the Coast Guard and other government agencies and BP will sign off on the A Whale going into full operation.

The ship, which swallows water with oil then separates it, can skim about 21 million gallons of oil a day. That's at least 250 times the amount that modified fishing vessels currently conducting skimming operations have been able to contain, according to Taiwanese company TMT shipping, which owns the vessel.

Meanwhile, BP said Monday that the cost of its response to the Gulf oil disaster now totals approximately $3.12 billion. That includes containment, relief well drilling, grants to Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs, the oil giant said.

A total of about 550 skimming vessels were out in the Gulf on Sunday, according to a spokeswoman for the Unified Command Joint Information Center in Houma, Louisiana. But with oil still pouring into the sea at a rate of tens of thousands of barrels a day, federal authorities closed a new section of the Gulf off Louisiana to fishing on Sunday.

The A Whale could do in a day what an entire fleet of skimmers has been able to accomplish in weeks. So what's the holdup? Well, the ship doesn't separate all oil from the water. A small percentage does get through. That should be no excuse for the skimmer to go in operation since the sheer volume of this disaster demands using extraordinary means to help control the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that have harmed the Gulf.



BP says that it's spent more than $3 billion trying to contain the spill and to shut down the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. That is a fraction of the cost to the economy around the Gulf Coast effected by the destruction of sensitive wetlands and ecosystems, and the loss of jobs and livelihoods throughout the Gulf Coast.

Lockerbie Bomber Should Never Have Been Released

It was a travesty of justice when a Scottish judge ruled that the convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103 was allowed to be released back to Libya. The judge had enabled his release for health reasons - taking into account that he had prostate cancer. It is even more so when you have reports that his health situation is such that he might now live another 10 years.

Professor Karol Sikora, who assessed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi for the Libyan authorities almost a year ago, told The Sunday Times it was "embarrassing" the bomber had outlived his three-month prognosis.

Megrahi, 58, is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, which left 270 dead.

The Scottish government provoked outrage from the United States when it released him from prison in August 2009 on compassionate grounds because he dying of metastatic prostate cancer.

In Scotland, prisoners are eligible for release on compassionate grounds if they have fewer than three months to live.

A report in the Sunday Times said Libyan authorities, keen to secure Megrahi’s release, asked several experts to put a three-month estimate on the bomber’s life but Professor Sikora was the only one to agree.

Professor Sikora, the dean of medicine at Buckingham University and medical director of CancerPartnersUK in London, was paid for his medical assessment of Megrahi at Greenock prison on July last year.

Sikora is embarrassed that he got this terrorist's prognosis wrong. Thanks for that. His misguided decision enabled a convicted terrorist to go free. Scotland should seriously reconsider its "compassionate" release program.

The decision to release this terrorist was made in part because of oil and gas deals between the British government and the Libyan government. The compassionate release program enabled all this - and in the process the only convicted terrorist involved in the murder of 270 people got just a few days in prison per each victim.

Accused Russian Spy Embarrassed About Photos?

If you're an accused Russian spy living in the US, whose father was apparently a member of the Russian intel service and espionage may run in the family, the thing you worry about is all those photos of you showing up online?

Are you kidding me?

Anna Chapman's lawyer says his client is embarrassed about all those photos making the rounds. Excuse me, but Chapman posted those photos and videos online herself and she has no one else to blame for becoming infamous by being arrested as part of a Russian spy ring (and which several members have admitted to using aliases to hide their true identities.

UPDATE:
The NY Post is revealing that Chapman took topless photos and her ex-husband has made them public. The ex-husband also told of her sexual prowess and exploits - and while Chapman may not want it known that she was skilled in all manner of sexual pursuits, none of this would have become public had she not been arrested and charged as a spy.

If anything, her sexual prowess and skills were further tools to use and exploit her contacts for information as a honey trap.

2% Property Tax Cap In New Jersey's Future

That the New Jersey legislature and Gov. Chris Christie could come to an agreement on a property tax cap wasn't all that surprising given the all too apparent need to deal with locality spending and its effect on property taxes. The size and scope is. I had expected that Gov. Christie would accept a statutory cap with a severely limited set of exemptions that was in the range of the Democrats' proposal of 2.9% versus the 2.5% constitutional cap that Christie proposed.

Instead, the agreement was for a 2% cap with four exceptions, down from the 14 proposed by the legislature. The exceptions are pretty significant, but marks a significant departure from the way localities prepared their budgets (and imposed tax hikes).

The agreement represents a series of compromises from both parties. It would limit property tax increases to 2 percent a year, lower than the current 4 percent cap and lower than previous proposals from Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

It would also decrease the number of expenses exempted from the cap, from 14 to four. Those four exemptions are pension benefits, health benefits, capital expenditures and certain emergencies. An exemption for spikes in school enrollment will remain in place.

A key feature of the proposal is allowing local residents to vote on whether to increase taxes higher than the cap allows. Currently this is handled by a local finance board, but if the proposal is adopted, the only way the cap could be exceeded would be with the approval by a majority of local residents.

"This reaches all the core principles everyone has been talking about," Christie said.

Standing with Christie at Saturday's press conference in the governor's outer office were Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, R-Union, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Morris, and Sweeney.

"They said it couldn't be done," Sweeney said. "Well, we proved them wrong, Governor."

Notably absent was Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, whose support remains in doubt.

"The speaker has not been part of any closed-door deal," spokesman Tom Hester said in a statement. "As the speaker has said repeatedly, we will thoroughly vet any proposal."

Still, Christie remained confident about the plan's prospects in the Legislature.

Happy Fourth of July!

And what would the Fourth be without the Boston Pops:

Honoring Terrorists

The mastermind of the Munich Olympics terrorist attack, Mohammed Oudeh, not only gets a heroes burial in Syria where he'd lived for decades, but honorifics from rival terrorist organizations.

Mr. Oudeh oversaw the plans of the raid, in which eight Palestinian militants belonging to the Black September group broke into a dormitory at the Olympic village where Israeli athletes were sleeping and took them hostage in the early morning of Sept. 5, 1972. Two of the athletes, a weightlifter and a wrestling coach, tried to overpower the militants, and were shot and killed.

The militants ended up with nine hostages, whom they said they would release in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.

Israel refused to negotiate and a standoff ensued for 20 hours, while static television images of an empty balcony on a gray, modern dormitory transfixed the world. The Israeli hostages and their Palestinian captors were eventually transported by helicopters to a military airfield, where they had been promised to be flown to Cairo. Instead, West German sharpshooters tried to rescue the Israelis, setting off a gun battle in which five Palestinians, a German police officer and the nine hostages were killed.

“I am proud of my father,” Mr. Oudeh’s daughter, Wafa Oudeh, said in a phone interview from Damascus, shortly after his burial in the section of a cemetery reserved for martyrs to the Palestinian cause. “As a father he was a special person. He was emotional and generous. He was devoted to his family and to Palestine. His death is like a mountain collapsing.”

In addition to Ms. Oudeh, he is survived by his wife, four other daughters, and a son.

Amin Maqboul, secretary general of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization faction to which Mr. Oudeh belonged, praised him as “a fighter of the highest order.”

Hamas, Fatah’s rival, released a statement mourning Mr. Oudeh.

The Islamists and terrorists just love to honor mass murdering terrorists. He was responsible for murdering athletes at the Olympics in images that are an indelible image of those Olympics.



Note too that this was a terrorist associated with Fatah and the PLO as one of its offshoots. Not only does Fatah recognize and memorialize this murderer, but Fatah's rival Hamas also takes time out from their internecine conflict to honor the murderer.

Meanwhile, a CNN reporter in Lebanon not only notes the death of a Hizbullah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allah, but mourns the loss. Classy.