• Obama’s Islamic Past Increases His Problems.
• Obama Endorsee Loses California Senate Race
• Why Bolton Says Bomb Iran Before August 21.
• Israel Is In Mortal Danger
• Age Of American Optimism Has Ended
• China Pushes Military Buildup
• Iran’s Open Support For Terrorists
• Gallup’s Annual Confidence in Institutions Survey
• Illegal Alien Kills Nun: ICE Failed To Deport Twice
• Bell + Maywood + Oxnard = Crooks Cubed.

A new Pew Research Center survey, drawn from interviews done before the president’s comments about the construction of an Islamic “cultural center” near Ground Zero, suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues because more Americans think Obama is at the least a Muslim sympathizer.

The president’s religion, like his place of birth, has been the subject of rumors since before he began his presidential campaign, and the poll indicates that those rumors have gained currency since Obama took office. The number of people who now say  Obama is a Christian has dropped to 34 percent, down from nearly half when he took office.

White House officials expressed dismay over the poll results. But, critics have gained currency as Obama has waffled on Islamic issues, because he refuses to release his borth certificate and passport information, and because of his mistreatment of Israel while supplying weapons to Lebanon and other Islamic states.

A federal jury in Chicago convicted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich of one count of lying to the FBI but deadlocked on 23 corruption counts Tuesday, a setback for prosecutors who spent years pursuing the voluble and theatrical Democrat.

Jurors almost immediately appeared on television and the internet explaining that one woman juror deadlocked the jury 11 of who reportedly voted to convict the ever verbose former Governor. Who said one thing he has learned is he talks too much.

Prosecutors vowed to retry Blagojevich on the 23 deadlocked counts. For his part Blagojevich says he will appeal the one count conviction. He could face 5-years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Not even Obama’s endorsement could get Santa Cruz Democrat John Laird elected Tuesday to the California Senate. Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee (R) SLO defeated Laird 48.8 to 44.1% for the Senate seat vacated by appointed  Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado. The balance of the votes were snagged by two 3^rd party candidates.

Laird pride fully featured Obama’s picture on his campaign literature.

 The district stretches from the Bay area into northern Santa Barbara County and Democrats had a 30,000 voter edge 187,000 to 157,000 making the defeat all the more stinging.

Blakeslee and Laird each raised more than a million dollars.

After 30-years the Santa Barbara based, sometimes ascerbic, radio shrink Dr. Laura Schlessinger is ending her radio show before this yearend amid criticism for repeatedly saying “nigger” 11 times on her show a week ago. An unconfirmed local report is that sponsors and some stations pressured her.

Her syndicated radio show had 9 million daily listeners.

Former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, John Bolton, asserted that Israel has until Aug. 21 to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. He said from that point on Bushehr would become an operating nuclear reactor and effectively immune to any air strike.

“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,” Bolton said.

Other estenuating factors include the Aug. 16 announcement by Iranian Vice President Ali Salehi that a second uranium enrichment facility would be built in 2011. Salehi said the enrichment facility would be one of 10 nuclear sites.

It is not known if Obama is still embargoing U. S. bunker buster bombs at Diego Garcia if they have been delivered to Israel. Even is not Israel likely does not have access to a warplane large enough to carry the massive munitions, and Obama is not signaling that U. S. warplanes will be made available.

The Hamas terror organization’s co-founder and its chief on the Gaza Strip. Mahmoud al-Zahar chimed in on the 9-11 Mosque brouhaha saying Muslims “have to build everywhere” so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews build their places of worship.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) NY says Al-Zahar’s comments don’t carry any weight because Hamas is a terrorist organization. Schumer has ducked a stand on the mosque. Rep. Peter King, (R) NY who opposes the mosque, says he won’t respond to Hamas.

George Will writes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s belief that stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program is integral to stopping the worldwide campaign to reverse 1948. It is, he says, a campaign to “put the Jew back to the status of a being that couldn’t defend himself - a perfect victim.”

Today’s Middle East, he says, reflects two developments. One is the rise of Iran and militant Islam since the 1979 revolution, which led to al-Qaida, Hamas, and Hezbollah. The other development is the multiplying threat of missile warfare.

Now Israel faces a third threat, the campaign to delegitimize it in order to extinguish its capacity for self-defense.

After two uniquely perilous millennia for Jews, the creation of Israel meant, Netanyahu says, “the capacity for self-defense restored to the Jewish people.” But note, he says, the reflexive worldwide chorus of condemnation when Israel responded with force to rocket barrages from Gaza and from southern Lebanon. There is, he believes, a crystallizing consensus that “Israel is not allowed to exercise self-defense.”

From 1948 through 1973, he says, enemies tried to “eliminate Israel by conventional warfare.” Having failed, they tried to demoralize and paralyze Israel with suicide bombers and other terrorism. “We put up a fence,” Netanyahu says. “Now they have rockets that go over the fence.” Israel’s military, which has stressed offense as a solution to the nation’s lack of strategic depth, now stresses missile defense.

That, however, cannot cope with Hamas’ tens of thousands of rockets in Gaza and Hezbollah’s 60,000 in southern Lebanon. There, U.N. resolution 1701, promulgated after the 2006 war, has been predictably farcical. This was supposed to inhibit the arming of Hezbollah and prevent its operations south of the Litani River.

Since 2006, Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal has tripled and its operations mock resolution 1701. Hezbollah, learning from Hamas, now places rockets near schools and hospitals, certain that Israel’s next response to indiscriminate aggression will turn the world media into a force multiplier for the aggressors.

Obama’s wasted year of “engaging” Iran led to sanctions that are unlikely to ever become sufficiently potent. With Russia, China, and Turkey being uncooperative, Iran is hardly “isolated.” The Iranian democracy movement probably cannot quickly achieve regime change. It took Solidarity 10 years to do so against a Polish regime less brutally repressive than Iran’s.

Hillary Clinton’s words about extending a “defense umbrella over the region” imply, to Israelis, fatalism about a nuclear Iran. As for deterrence working against a nuclear-armed regime steeped in an ideology of martyrdom, remember: In 1980, Ayatollah Khomeini said: “We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.”

You say, that was long ago? Israel says, this is now:

Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, says Israel is the “enemy of God.” Tehran, proclaiming that the Holocaust never happened and vowing to complete it, sent an ambassador to Poland who in 2006 wanted to measure the ovens at Auschwitz to prove them inadequate for genocide. Iran’s former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is considered a “moderate” by people for whom believing is seeing, calls Israel a “one-bomb country.”

If Iran were to “wipe the Zionist entity off the map,” as it vows to do, it would, Netanyahu believes, achieve a regional “dominance not seen since Alexander.” Netanyahu does not say Israel will, if necessary, act alone to prevent this. Or does he?

He says CIA Director Leon Panetta is “about right” in saying Iran can be a nuclear power in two years. He says 1948 meant this: “For the first time in 2,000 years, a sovereign Jewish people could defend itself against attack.” And he says: “The tragic history of the powerlessness of our people explains why the Jewish people need a sovereign power of self-defense.” If Israel strikes Iran, the world will not be able to say it was not warned.

According to U.S. and Iraqi commanders, if the U.S. pulls out of Iraq, their borders will be vulnerable and they won’t be able to stop anyone from entering their country. Well, join the club. — Leno

Billionaire Mort Zuckerman says American optimism has met its end.

“We have had the greatest fiscal and monetary stimulus in modern times,” Zuckerman writes in The Wall Street Journal. “We have had a whole series of programs to pay people to buy cars, purchase homes, pay off their mortgages, weatherize their homes, and install solar paneling on their roofs.”

“Yet the recovery remains feeble and the aftershocks of the post-bubble credit collapse are ongoing.”

Zuckerman observes that there seems to be a structural change in the American economy. 

“The relationship of household debt to income has proven unsustainable. The ratio is normally established somewhere below 100 percent, but in 2007 the debt ratio hit 131 percent of income,” he notes. “It has now fallen to 122 percent, but at this pace it would take another five years to bring it under 100 percent.” 

Estival or aestival (ES-ti-vuhl) adjective: Relating to or occurring in summer. Etymology via French from Latin aestivus (of or relating to summer). Usage: “Ms. Croghan confides that she is sometimes known as a battle ax, both to locals and estival visitors.” Joanne Kaufman; Prep Work; The New York Times; Apr 25, 2008.

China’s official military newspaper PLA Daily on Aug. 1 published an editorial defending the large-scale forces buildup and said more forces would be needed to deal with a “complicated” international threat environment.

The editorial coincided with the 83rd anniversary of the founding of the communist PLA, a military force beholden to the Communist Party of China and not the Chinese nation.

“Currently, the international trend is experiencing deep and complicated changes, and competitions have become fiercer regarding the international order, national strengths and geopolitics,” said the editorial, noting both conventional and unconventional threats to the country’s security.

“Modernization is the core of the construction of the PLA army… it should strengthen preparations for warfare and focus on boosting the core capacity of fighting regional battles under the information background,” the article said.

The editorial is a thinly disguised warning to the U. S. Clearly China sees Obama’s presidency as maybe only a 4-year opportunity to greatly advance its international interest, and it is doing so.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has been discussing the acquisition of advanced Russian-made military systems from Belarus. Assad hopes that Minsk would provide the combat and other platforms officially denied by the duplicitous Russians but, supplied through surrogates.

To no ones surprise the U. S. has identified leading Iranian officers assigned to help such proxies as the terrorist Hamas and Hizbullah groups.

The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on four senior officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The department said the officers were deployed in IRGC’s Quds Force and served as liasions with Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Taliban.

There has never been much doubt of Iran’s official sponsorship of terror and this latest information simply underscores that its theocracy is diametrically opposed to the idea of free democracies worldwide.

I never met a bitter person who was thankful and I never met a thankful person who was bitter.

Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news — with no more than 25% of Americans saying they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in either. These views have hardly budged since falling more than 10 percentage points from 2003-2007.

Gallup’s annual Confidence in Institutions survey, which found the military faring best and Congress faring worst of 16 institutions tested. Americans’ confidence in newspapers and television news is on par with Americans’ lackluster confidence in banks and slightly better than their dismal rating of Health Management Organizations and big business.

The decline in trust since 2003 is also evident in a 2009 Gallup poll that asked about confidence and trust in the “mass media” more broadly. While perceptions of media bias present a viable hypothesis, Americans have not over the same period grown any more likely to say the news media are too conservative or too liberal.

No matter the cause, it is clear the media as a whole are not gaining new fans as they struggle to serve and compete with growing demand for online news, social media, and mobile platforms. The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual report on the State of the News Media, released in March, found for a third straight year, only digital and cable news sources growing in popularity, while network news, local news, and newspaper audiences shrink. These findings align with a similar 2008 Gallup poll that found cable and Internet news sources growing in popularity while all others held steady or declined.

A labor-backed coalition supporting Jerry Brown for Governor is going on the airwaves with a new television ad attacking Republican Meg Whitman over pricey legal settlements in which Whitman was involved as a top executive of two companies.

The Virginia man charged with driving drunk in the crash that killed a Catholic nun in Prince William County a week ago is an illegal immigrant and repeat offender who was awaiting deportation and whom federal iCE authorities had released pending further proceedings, police said.

The man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving, and had been arrested two other times on drunken-driving charges, and on at least one of those occasions county police reported him to federal authorities. No action was taken.

 The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was notified at the time of one of those arrests. “At the time of fatal incident he was in the deportation process and was out on his recognizance for court proceedings.”

 The crash at around 8:30 last Sunday morning killing Sister Denise Mosier and injured two other nuns as they were driving to a retreat at the Benedictine Monastery.

 The lapse appears to link to a June 30 memo by John T. Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE, directing agents to focus their capture and deportation efforts on illegal immigrants who were suspected of terrorism, had been convicted of violent crimes or were repeat offenders, gang members or “aliens who otherwise pose a serious risk to public safety.” He did not define what rose to the level of serious risk.

What is clear is this nun would be alive today had this illegal immigrant been incarcerated or deported.

 The incident comes at a thorny time for the Obama administration and the immigration issue and has ignited a furor across the nation.

“This administration believes that the only way to deal with immigration is to do it comprehensively, to do it through Congress with Democrats and Republicans working together,” White House ninny press secretary Robert Gibbs told Fox News in an interview last week. 

Janet  ’Big Sis’ Napolitano, the erstwhile director of homeland security says she is “investigating.” I’ll bring the tar you bring the feathers.

 Massachusetts Democrats are touting Ted Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, as its best chance of beating newly elected Repulican Senator Scott Brown in November 2012 - his term expires January 03, 2013 - 12:00pm. Brown won election and was sworn in February 4, 2010 to fill the unexpired term of Ted Kennedy who died last year.

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, officially MMR,  has demonstrated consistent interception skills through an advanced mobile radar. The multi-mission radar, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, facilitated the tracking and interception of missile and rocket salvos conducted in trials in July 2010.

 The gadget detected and tracked a salvo of 10 missiles and rockets fired during the latest test of Iron Dome on July 19. All ten were destroyed.

Israeli Aerospace Industries, IAI, described MMR as an advanced portable ground radar that could rapidly identify and track incoming threats. Officials said the radar relays data to a command and control system for a response to enemy missile and rocket launches. Iron Dome also consists of launchers and a C2 component.

Officials said the radar along with the rest of Iron Dome would be interoperable with other elements of Israel’s missile defense umbrella. They cited the new David’s Sling, and Arrow anti-missile systems among other elements.

Iron Dome has been criticized for its prohibitive cost. The estimated cost of the Tamir intercept missile is $35,000-$50,000, whereas a crudely manufactured Qassam rocket cost just a few hundred dollars. Conversely allowing civilians to be bombarded with impunity not unacceptable.

A federal appeals court Monday put same-sex marriages in California on hold at least until December, freezing the effect of U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s historic overturning of the voter approved Proposition 8 while the case is on appeal. Walker, himself an openly homosexual, ruled the Proposition unconstitutional delaying his ruling until Wednesday.

In what looks ever more like a collection of crooked chumps just months after the City of Maywood opted to layoff all its city employees and contract with Bell to run its city services. Then Bell blew up.

Now, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Maywood is under “inspection” by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies over city deals with ties to City Councilman Felipe Aguirre and other matters not relating Aguirre.

In an apparently unrelated matter the FBI and local authorities raided Oxnard City Hall locking it down while they searched and seized. Reportedly the raid resulted after request for documents were ignored. Ventura DA Tooten said the probe involves possible misappropriation of public dollars involving public works and other city projects, and potential conflicts of interest.

Oxnard sources said it may have been triggered by allegations of misspending on a massive city water project partly funded by the federal government.

A $250-million project known as GREAT — the Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment program — has been publicly criticized for massive cost overruns, self dealing, and spending more than $20,000 in city funds on a grand-opening party.

The LA Times says, “one of the (Maywood) deals involves a $95,000 federal grant that Aguirre and a business partner received from the city in 2007. They used it to refurbish the facade of a property where the business - a community advocacy group - is located. Aguirre’s business received the grant despite concerns from the city’s planning director over a possible conflict of interest.”

Last week, officials from Maywood began the process to fire Bell as the city that runs all their municipal operations. 

Former Maywood Interim City Manager Angela Spaccia, who was part of the decision to outsource to Bell, stepped down when it became known she was also being paid $376,288 a year as Assistant City Manager in Bell.

Now comes word that Bell city employees and at least two Bell city council members took nearly $900,000 in loans from the city over the last several years.

Tuesday Los Angeles County supervisors said that they were seeking state legislation to return $2.9 million in property tax overcharges to Bell property owners.

Bell city officials illegally raised its property taxes in 2007,imposing a “retirement tax” to cover rising pension costs for city employees, state controller John Chiang found last week. 

Eighty-one percent (81%) of American adults know someone who is out of work and looking for a new job. Only 14% now believe the labor market is stronger than a year ago. One-out-of six American workers (16%) consider themselves to be among the working poor.