• Very Few Agree With Obama’s Rodney King Approach
• North Korea Moves Anti-aircraft Missiles Forward
• U. S. Retreats Back To Guam
• Politics In Auto Dealership Closings.
• Russia’s Plan to Load Uranium in Iran Reactor Means Attack
• Obama Tries Flim Flam On Ground Zero Mosque
• Economy On Brink: Fortune
• 100-yrar Old Booze Found in Antarctica
• More Bell Boondoggle
• “Let Them Eat Cake” Doesn’t Even Work
• Waters Husband’s Bank’s Troubling Past
• Laura Schlesinger’s “N-word” Kafuffle
• Social Securities 75^th Anniversary
• Short Arm of the Law in France.
• Iran Backed Lebanonese Forces Confronting Israel.

Contrary to Obama’s Rodney King foreign policy seventy-seven percent believe the U.S. nuclear weapon arsenal is important to the country’s national security, including 51% who say it is Very Important. Just 15% think it is not important including four percent (4%) who think it is Not At All Important.

Most adults (57%) also say the United States should not reduce the number of nuclear weapons in its arsenal. One-in-four adults (27%) disagree, saying the country should reduce its number of these weapons. Another 16% are not sure. 

55% of Americans think it is unlikely that other countries will reduce their nuclear weapons arsenals and development if the United States does so. Only 37% think other countries are likely to follow America’s example. This includes 13% who say other countries are Very Likely to cut back on nuclear weapons and 14% who say they are Not At All Likely to do it. 

Bed bugs are infesting Manhattan Island prompting high-end New York  city retailer Bergdorf Goodman to hire a beagle to hunt for the blood sucking insects. The beagle has been on the prowl for several weeks, working at night after the store closes and when the nasty critters prowl.

Retailers that have reported cases of bedbugs include Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister

As the U. S. announced a step backward (see related Guam article below)  North Korea took another step forward shifting long-range anti-aircraft missiles near the border with South Korea as tensions continued to rise over the sinking of one of Seoul’s warships that killed 46 sailors.

The North has moved some SA-5 missiles from the southwestern province of Hwanghae to areas near the border, where they can pose a threat to South Korean jet fighters, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, citing a military source in Seoul.

The SA-5 has the longest range of anti-aircraft missiles deployed warfare-ready in the world. With a range of 250 kilometers (150 miles), the missiles pose a threat to South Korean aircraft operating far south of Seoul.

Just  minutes after the South Korean military concluded five days of large-scale naval drills with the U. S. North Korea fired 110 artillery rounds on Aug. 9 near a disputed western sea border where the Cheonan warship was exploded. About 10 shells landed near the South Korean border island of Byeongryeong, followed by an additional 100 rounds falling near another border island, Yeonpyeong

Britain’s advertising watchdog said on Wednesday it had banned a police advertisement encouraging people to report neighbors whose activities raised “suspicions,” saying it could offend innocent citizens.

The radio advert for the Anti-Terrorist Hotline listed as suspicious behavior activities which could also describe law-abiding people, the Advertising Standards Authority said. ASA is often controversial for what many see as autocratic behavior.

The U.S. military is moving ahead with plans for a major military buildup on the Pacific island of Guam. The strategic U.S. territory is playing a major role in the Pentagon’s strategy of hedging against China’s threatening buildup of forces and efforts to expand its hegemony over large areas of the region. But, it is literally another step backward - another is positioning forces on Diego Garcia in the middle of nowhere.

Some 8,500 Marines are being deployed to Guam from Okinawa and U.S. Air Force bombers and Naval warships also are being sent to the island.

The problem is Guam is 2- to 5-hours by air and two days by ship from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and other key western  Pacific locations.

But, Obama officials insist it is “From bases here, our forces can ensure the security of our allies, quickly respond to disaster and humanitarian needs, safeguard the sea lanes that are so vital to the world economy and address any military provocation that may occur.” 

No mention is made of China and the growing concerns about Asian states over China’s aggressive military posture in such regions as the South China Sea and Yellow Sea.

The buildup on Guam will increase the island’s population by 14,500 people by the end of 2011 and by 41,000 by 2016.

It puts almost all U. S. forces in the “western Pacific” squarely in the bullseye.

Seventy-six percent (76 percent) of Americans say it is at least somewhat likely that a terrorist group will detonate a nuclear weapon in the next 25 years, and that includes 45 percent who say it is Very Likely.

Of the 789 automobile dealerships closed by the federal government, 788 had donated money, exclusively to Republican political causes, while contributing nothing to Democratic political causes. The only “Democratic” dealership on the list was found to have donated $7,700 to Hillary’s campaign, and a bit over $2,000 to John Edwards. This same dealership, reportedly, also gave $200.00 to Obama’s campaign.

 Obama car czar appointee Steve Rattner is the guy who put the list of closures together. He happens to be married to Maureen White.

Maureen happens to be the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As such, she has access to campaign donation records from everyone in the nation- Republican or Democrat. But of course, this is just a wacky “coincidence.” The odds against that happening are at least 300 to 1.

The whole things seems just a bit too coincidental.

58% oppose automatic citizenship for a child born in this country to an illegal immigrant. That number has not changed since early June. A third of adults (34%) believe those children should become U.S. citizens. 8% are fence sitters.

If  Russia loads nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian reactor that touches off a countdown to a point of no return, a deadline by which Israel would have to launch an attack on Iran’s Bushehr reactor before it becomes effectively “immune” to any assault, says former Bush administration U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton. 

Once the fuel rods are loaded, Bolton told Fox News on Friday afternoon, “it makes it essentially immune from attack by Israel. Because once the rods are in the reactor an attack on the reactor risks spreading radiation in the air, and perhaps into the water of the Persian Gulf.” 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared in March that Russia would start the Bushehr reactor this summer. But the announcement from a spokesman for Russia’s state atomic agency to Reuters Friday sent international diplomats scrambling to head off a crisis. 

The story immediately became front-page news in Israel, which has laid precise plans to carry out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities while going along with President Obama’s plans to use international sanctions and diplomatic persuasion to convince Iran’s clerics not to go nuclear. 

Bolton made it clear that it is widely assumed that any Israeli attack on the Bushehr reactor must take place before the reactor is loaded with fuel rods.

“If they’re going to do it that’s the window that they have,” Bolton declared. “Otherwise as I said before, once the rods are in the reactor, if you attack the reactor you’re going to open it up and radiation will escape at least into the atmosphere and possibly into the waters of the Persian Gulf. 

“So most people think that neither Israel nor the United States, come to that, would attack the reactor after it’s been fueled.”

Bolton cited the 1981 Israeli attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor outside Baghdad and the September 2007 Israeli attack on a North Korean reactor being built in

Syria. Both of those strikes happened before fuel rods were loaded into those reactors.

 

It was on this day in 1887 that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, which is what people used to listen to music before music was all garbage.-Craig Ferguson

Less than 24-hours after Obama said at an Islamic Ramadan White House dinner last Friday he “supports the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York “, saying that opposing the project is at odds  with American values” he was backing and filling.

“Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” he said at a White House ceremony marking the traditional breaking of the daily Ramadan fast, according to prepared remarks. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.

On Saturday during a one day, taxpayer paid family sojourn to the Florida coast Obama said he was “not endorsing the project, but simply trying to uphold the broader principle that government should “treat everybody equally,” regardless of religion.

“I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” Mr. Obama said. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.”

Obama failed to mention that Islam believes building mosques is a symbol of conquest.

The group 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America blasted Obama saying it was “stunned” by his remarks.

Obama “has abandoned America at the place where America’s heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see,” the group said.

“Now this president declares that the victims of 9/11 and their families must bear another burden. We must stand silent at the last place in America where 9/11 is still remembered with reverence or risk being called religious bigots.”

How much difference new polls showing 71% of Americans oppose building a mosque beside Ground Zero to Obama’s tucking tail is unclear. His Friday statement drew intense criticism causing the White House to issue “clarification.”

Regardless of what side you’re on this qualifies Obama at the least for a first class Bronx cheer.

The U. S. Navy’s plan to buy Russian made MI17 (HIP) helicopters for use in Afghanistan has sent U. S. based Sikorsky helicopters into orbit. The Navy says its buying the Russian helicopters because the Afghans are familiar with the Russian ships; Sikorsky’s says bunk it will train Afghans and objects to being cutout of the bidding and wants bidding reopened. It is ironic that Sikorsky was founded by a Russian immigrant. There will be a decision by mid-September.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to expand its quantitative easing by purchasing more Treasuries is a dangerous one,  It could lead the country to the brink of collapse,” says an article in Fortune magazine.

The premise is that government debt in excess of 90 percent of GDP pulls down economic growth. “It’s a point from which it’s almost impossible to return,” the Fortune economist said.

Government debt will reach 62 percent of GDP by Sept. 30, the Congressional Budget Office predicts.

On July 2^nd, Fortune reports third quarter 2010 and full year 2011 GDP estimates for the U.S. to 1.7 percent, Now it says that’s too high as long as debt-financed-deficit-spending continues to be the solution politicians and central bankers turn to as a fix to our financial crisis.

Others have been critical of the Fed’s latest easing move too, comparing it to the Bank of Japan’s futile fight against deflation in 2001-06.

“I don’t think anyone in the market is fooled” by the distinction between Fed policy now and BOJ policy then, Stephen Stanley, a former Fed researcher who is now chief economist at Pierpont Securities, told Bloomberg. 

“That is a problem, both substantively and also from a perception standpoint.” 

President Obama told a crowd in Austin, Texas that if you want to go forward, you put your car in “D,” and if you want to move backward, you put your car in “R.” But the economy is still “F-ed.” - Leno

Eleven  bottles of Mackinlay’s Scotch whisky crated and wrapped in paper and straw to protect them from the rigors of a rough trip to Antarctica for Shackleton’s 1907 Nimrod expedition.were found in Antarctica in 2006.

Antarctica’s minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the 45% alcohol liquor, dating from 1896 or 1897 and described as being in remarkably good condition.

This Scotch is unlikely ever to be tasted, but master blenders will examine samples of it to see if they can replicate the brew. The original recipe for the Scotch no longer exists but the label has existed continuously since 1847.

The Irish like to say Scots have been trying but fao;ing to make a good whiskey since the 6^th century

Personally I want to know what happened to that twelfth bottle.

The ever more puerile Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, now list his birthplace as the fictitious and the incorrectly spelled Corey Rawson, Ohio. There is no such place.  Roethlisberger apparently dropped his real birthplace of Findley, Ohio because he was displeased with unflattering comments made about him by some residents of hometown following a March incident in which he was accused of sexual assault.

Every time someone turns over a rock in Bell something slithers out.

Now comes news that voting in the town with a population of fewer than 40,000, most of them relatively poor Latinos and few of whom are or can even register to vote simply do not vote. 

In fact just 400 voted to elect the present City Council, and those council candidates reportedly went door-to-door getting and collecting absentee ballot and filling out the ballots - actions that are unlawful.

A nincompoop Democrat New Hampshire state Rep. Timothy Horrigan resigned on Thursday after “joking” about Sarah Palin’s death.

Bread is a life staple so its increasing cost has disproportionate impact on people especially the poorest. Rising grain prices due to Russia’s drought and fires will pressure populations already hit by the financial crisis and could stoke unrest - particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe.

Wheat prices have risen by nearly 70 percent since June after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years and are at their highest since 2008, when the last major food price rally sparked protests and riots in a string of emerging nations.

Analysts warn that if prices stay high then the threat of street violence will increase .

Cities that provide officials with excessive pay would be subject to significant financial penalties, including a 50% income tax on city council members, under a proposal considered by state lawmakers Wednesday in response to the salary scandal in Bell. Nobody is even talking about fact that studies now show government employees make twice what private sector employees do.

OneUnited Bank, the financial institution at the center of a congressional ethics investigation involving Rep. Maxine Waters, paid for a luxurious lifestyle for its chairman, including a Porsche and a house on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica despite his having a record that includes arrests and allegations of drug use.

The bank has been criticized by regulators in Florida for having an unusually poor record of lending to people in low-income neighborhoods. It also has failed to pay back $12 million in federal bailout funds.

The bank chairman, Kevin L. Cohee, assembled one of the country’s largest African American-owned banks, with more than half a billion dollars in assets, in a coast-to-coast acquisition spree unusual for a bank focused on lower-income customers.

Yet although the bank touts itself as an institution for the underserved, its directors approved paying a reported $26,500 monthly lease for Cohee’s beach house in Santa Monica and providing him the all-expenses-paid luxury sports car - until regulators ordered a halt to such corporate largesse. Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, served on the board of the bank from January 2004 through April 2008 and owns 3,500 shares of the bank’s stock, according to the House Ethics Committee’s report of alleged violations.

Cohee’s high-flying perks came despite his having been charged in 2007 with felonies after his arrest by the Santa Monica Police Department on suspicion of possessing cocaine, crack cocaine and concentrated cannabis, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The case was dismissed the next year after Cohee completed a drug diversion program.

He was also arrested in 2007 after a woman filed a complaint alleging that Cohee had forcibly sodomized her, according to public records. Prosecutors did not pursue the assault charge. The Boston Herald quoted Cohee as saying that the arrest was “utter and complete nonsense that went nowhere.”

Accusations that Waters, who represents a heavily minority district in South L.A., dispensed special favors to OneUnited Bank are just the latest controversy for the closely held Boston bank that has faltered in recent years. The bank has lost more than $30 million since 2008, and has seen deposits plummet.

Five of OneUnited’s 10 branches are in the Los Angeles area, all in neighborhoods with large African American populations.

Unlike its peers that have typically expanded in their local markets, OneUnited set its sights across the country. It grew by acquiring two of L.A.’s black-owned financial institutions, Founders National Bank and Family Savings Bank, and a troubled Miami bank.

In the Florida market, OneUnited’s last two reviews by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. produced ratings of “substantial non-compliance” with federal laws that require financial institutions to lend to local communities - the lowest rating possible.

OneUnited has made just three home loans over the last 31 months in economically hard-hit Miami-Dade and Broward counties, said Kenneth H. Thomas, an independent banking consultant.

He said that of the deposits raised at OneUnited’s two Florida branches, less than 10% has been loaned back to the community. Typically, 50% is needed to meet the federal requirements.

OneUnited has argued that it is only being cautious in one of the most overinflated real estate markets in the country. But Thomas accused the bank of using its Florida branches as a “deposit outpost” while concentrating on lending in other markets under the direction “of heavy-hitters from Boston, L.A. and D.C.”

“They’re red-lining our communities here in Florida,” Thomas said.

The connection between Waters and Cohee dates back to at least 2002, when the congresswoman lobbied heavily for Family Savings to remain black-owned when it put itself up for sale.

Family Savings ultimately backed out of a deal with a white-owned banking firm from Illinois and accepted a slightly better offer of about $12 million from Cohee’s bank.

In creating one of the nation’s largest African American banks, Cohee assembled a powerful board that includes a number of wealthy Bostonians and Washington lobbyist Leander J. Foley, a White House advisor during the Carter administration.

Cohee added glamour to power when he acquired Founders, which was owned in part by former Lakers great Earvin “Magic” Johnson. A spokesperson for Johnson said he retains an investment interest in the bank but is not involved in day-to-day operations.

At a Friday presser Maxine Waters professed her innocence and inferred the investigation of her is racially tinged, etc. etc. Saturday she released documents she claims  clears her.

The whole thing smells really badly.

Most Americans (71%) want to at least temporarily extend the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, including the wealthy, until the economy recovers, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey has found.

The same poll showed a continued sour mood among voters toward the direction of the country (58 percent called the nation “on the wrong track”), the state of the economy (64 percent predicted the economy hasn’t hit bottom yet and will continue to decline), and the performance of Congress (72 percent disapprove).

These results are all the more remarkable since NBC is notorious for over sampling Democrats.

Santa Barbara based talk radio ’shrink’ Dr. Laura Schlessinger has apologized after launching into a racially charged rant, during which Schlessinger, in her own words, “articulated the ‘n’ word-more than once   Critics were quick to point out that Schlessinger’s rant followed her attacks on homosexuality as “deviant” and “dysfunctional behavior,” for which she also apologized.

Schlessinger’s fame and audience is attracted by her plain spoken approach to personal counseling and she does not lack in self-confidence even though she sometimes lacks tact, political correctness and can be abrasive.

The most recent kafuffle started on August 10^th when a self-described black woman called for advice on how to deal with her white husband who wouldn’t challenge his white friends when they made racial comments, and gave an example.

Dr. Laura said, No, no, no. I think that’s-well, listen, without giving much thought, a lot of blacks voted for Obama simply ’cause he was half-black. Didn’t matter what he was gonna do in office, it was a black thing. You gotta know that. That’s not a surprise. Not everything that somebody says-we had friends over the other day; we got about 35 people here-the guys who were gonna start playing basketball. I was gonna go out and play basketball. My bodyguard and my dear friend is a black man. And I said, “White men can’t jump; I want you on my team.” That was racist? That was funny.

Then the CALLER asked: How about the N-word? So, the N-word’s been thrown around

SCHLESSINGER answered: “Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nigger, nigger, nigger.”

That’s when the defecation hit the impeller. Anyway that’s the facts-you decide.

Donald Duck’s character at EPCOT Center is accused of copping a feel and a lawsuit has been filed by the allegedly groped woman demanding $200,000 for severe emotional distress and physical injury. This is likely a copycat lawsuit following other complaints against Tigger and Daffy. Those were dismissed as baseless. Donald Duck’s accuser waited two years to file her lawsuit. Apparently it took that long to find a lawyer who discovered Disney’s deep pockets. Disney says it will fight,

France has ended restrictions barring people under 1.6 meters (5 ft 3 in) from joining the police force. Years ago when I took the Ohio Highway Patrol physical the height and weight was 5′ 9.5″ and 165 pounds. That was changed after it was ruled it discriminated against women applicants.

Likewise the French height rules - that went into effect in 1900 — have come to be seen as discriminatory.

According to France’s national statistics office INSEE, the average French man stands 1.75 meters ( 5′ 7″)and the average woman 1.63 meters (5′ 3.5″), compared to 1.66 (5′4″)  meters and 1.54 meters (5′), respectively, in 1900.

How much this has to do with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s height being around 1.65 meters (5′4″) , roughly the same size as French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is not known.

San Francisco wants to ban Happy Meal-like toy promotions reasoning  they contribute to childhood obesity demanding new caloric and nutritional standards for any meal containing a toy.

Lebanon’s Hizbullah-dominated government with Iranian proxies in control of much of the country; a helpless UN peacekeeping force scared to leave headquarters, and a jittery Israel worried over a U.S. arms embargo should war erupt.

The sole difference now is that Hizbullah has now found a much better way to attack Israel - through the U.S.-trained and financed Lebanese Army. An opening round was the August 3^rd attack on Israeli forces killing a well respected Lt. Colonel. Lebanon and Hizbullah forces fired on the Israeli using U. S. supplied weapons.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has long boasted of close ties with the Lebanese military.

Israel’s military has determined that the Lebanese Army was being directed by the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah to destabilize the border with the Jewish state.

Military sources said Hizbullah has thoroughly infiltrated the 75,000-man Lebanese military, particularly in the area south of the Litani River. They said Hizbullah has placed members or supporters in key field Army positions, including those of brigade and battalion commanders.

“It is fair to say that the Lebanese military, particularly the Army, has become subservient to Hizbullah,” a military source said.