• Obama Hosts Palestinian-Israel Talks In WDC This week.
• Backdoor Amnesty To Almost All Illegals By Obama
• USS Cole Bomber To Get Civil Trial After November Elections
• Council Foreign Relations Predicts Middle East War.
• N. Korea’s Third Nuke Test Looms: WMD Gear From China
• Al Qaida Steps Up Attacks As U. S. Combat Troops Leave Iraq.
• Secret Obama / IRS Crusade Against Pro-Israel Groups
• Newsome Leads Maldonado by 9% in Vote: Has 2:1 Fund Raising edge.
• North Korea and Iran Top U. S. Enemies List
• Observations About Beck Rally

Obama’s conviction that he can talk anybody into anything appears to be at the root of this week’s very high risk Israeli-Palestinian talks in Washington DC under his personal sponsorship. The Israelis have little choice as they strive to convince Obama they are not the enemy and the Palestinians see participation as their ticket to even more U. S. deference.

Obama’s advisors have questioned the wisdom of linking the president so visibly with such an intractable conflict. But the president stepped up his personal involvement over the summer, holding face-to-face meetings and follow-up phone calls with Abbas and Netanyahu.

Few believe the announced goal of completing a peace deal within a year is realistic, but Abbas resisted joining the talks until the White House and the Israelis agreed to the one-year goal.

Obama will hold individual meetings with Abbas and Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Wednesday, followed by a White House dinner that will include Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves as Middle East envoy for the so-called quartet of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.

After 20 months without a face-to-face meeting, Netanyahu and Abbas will begin direct talks the next day at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In just two weeks last month ten people died in murder suicides in Las Vegas due to economic pressures they could not cope with, says Las Vegas police.

If Obama has ordered it not to do its jobs why do we need the Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE) any more?

• 1. Obama is giving amnesty to any illegal alien who has not been arrested in two years–no congressional authorization.
• 2. ICE has found 700,000 illegal alien students–Obama has given them amnesty–no congressional authorization.
• 3. Obama has stopped the building of a fence to keep illegal aliens out of this nation–congress demanded it be built–BO says NO and has stopped building it..
• 4. ICE holds raids on firms hiring dozens to hundreds of illegal aliens. Obama has ordered no arrest of these criminals
• 5. E-Verify shows tens of thousands of illegal aliens holding jobs Americans and honest people should have. Obama refuses to arrest and deport these people found by ICE

“On Aug. 20, Obama’s man at ICE, John Morton, wrote a memo stating that being in the U.S. illegally is no longer sufficient reason to deport anyone. An illegal immigrant now has to be a security threat or else commit a crime and a violent one at that. To everyone else, ICE turns the blind eye.

Director Morton says it’s a matter of priorities. But make no mistake: This is amnesty by another name.

Adding insult to injury, ICE will empty its costly, just-built detention centers of 17,000 existing deportation cases as long as an illegal can show that he or she has applied to become legal.”

These polices by President Obama are criminal. Period.  He, using his office is demanding that foreign born criminals who sneak into our nation should be protected by the White House.

Now you know why he is a Democrat, rules, regulations and laws mean nothing to them.  This is why we have over 12million illegal aliens in this nation.

Cajones Cuisine is the feature in a remote Serbian mountain village where teams of chefs are cooking up bull, boar, camel, ostrich and even kangaroo testicles at the Annual Testicle Festival.

Obama’s Justice Department has quietly abandoned the long-delayed prosecution before a military tribunal of suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, signaling that a civilian trial is in the works - but not to be revealed until after the November elections.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that “In a filing this week in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department said that ‘no charges are either pending or contemplated with respect to al-Nashiri in the near future.’”

The Post quoted a “military official” anonymously, who charged, “It’s all politics at this point,” adding that “he thinks the administration does not want to proceed against a high-value detainee without some prospect of civilian trials for other major figures at Guantanamo Bay.”

Appearing in National Review’s The Corner, former U.S. attorney Andrew McCarthy, who successfully prosecuted the 1993 Twin Tower terrorists, provided a conjecture: “If I were Attorney General Holder and President Obama, and I were hell-bent on giving the top al-Qaeda terrorists civilian trials,” McCarthy said he would “add the terrorists involved in both the 9/11 and Cole attacks” to the civilian prosecution of Ahmed Ghailani, charged in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, a case being handled by Manhattan Federal District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan.

Kaplan earlier this year dismissed a Ghailani motion to have the charges against him thrown out on the basis that he was denied the constitutional right to a speedy trial. This tough judge, appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994, could be the key to the Obama administration successfully diverting accused terrorist into the civilian legal system.

The issues of what city will suffer the ignominy and perhaps even danger of such a political, public show trial.

17 American sailors were killed, plus the two attackers, and 39 were injured. In the 2000 terrorists attack on the U. S. warship in Aden, Yemen.

The average federal government worker makes almost $125,000 a year. Letter carriers are set to be paid six figure salaries in 2012.  In case you’re wondering that is now more than twice what the average private worker is paid.

The Council on Foreign Relations has asserted that the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah could provoke Israel into a war that could spread throughout the region. In a report by a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, the council said a major war could erupt by 2012 with participation by Iran and Syria.

“Israel could decide that the security threat posed by Hizbullah has reached intolerable levels and take pre-emptive military action,” the council, in a report titled “A Third Lebanon War,” said. “Hizbullah, while outwardly showing no interest in confronting Israel at this time, may for various reasons choose or be pressured by Iran to flex its new military capabilities.”

The report, released last month, said Hizbullah, with an estimated 50,000 missiles and rockets, has been building its military arsenal.

Author Daniel Kurtzer, a former career diplomat, said Hizbullah could decide to strike Israel as a means to resolve strife within the Shi’ite movement. In 2006, Israel and Hizbullah fought a 34-day war in Lebanon.

In what is believed to be the first successful use of an international DNA database a southern California man accused of serially raping women in the greater LA area as early as 2004 was tracked down and arrested in Austira. He has been extradicted back to California where he is in jail held on a $1 million bail pending a hearing and trial. He is charged with a score of felonies and if convicted could be sentenced to life in prison.

As intelligence experts expect a third nuclear test by North Korea comes news it used  forged documents to disguise purchases as innocent industrial equipment but, secretly bought banned materials that can be used for rocket and missile launches from China.

The imported materials are banned under the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874 that prohibits all countries from purchasing arms, missile technology, and other sensitive items from North Korea.

The imported equipment could be used for long-range rocket or missile according to the report.

Seoul’s Munhwa Ilbo newspaper also said North Korea has been smuggling banned materials and luxury items by way of China and other countries.

South Korea has secured evidence that materials related to weapons of mass destruction were exported to the North through China and other countries.

North Korea now favors Mongolia and Russia to smuggle banned goods because of tightened regulations in China, according to the report.

In what is believed to be the first successful use of an international DNA database and southern California man accused of serially raping women in the greater LA area as early as 2004 was tracked down and arrested in Austira. He has been extradicted back to California where he is in jail held on a $1 million bail pening a hearing and trial. He is charged with a score of felonies and if convicted could be sentenced to life in prison.

As Obama tunes up for his Iraqi “victory” speech this week Al Qaida, exploiting the departure of U.S. combat troops, has launched one of its biggest attacks ever on Iraqi security forces.

In a series of coordinated attacks, the Al Qaida network struck dozens of targets around Iraq on Aug. 25. At least 75 people were killed in what officials acknowledged was one of the largest operations against Iraq’s military and security forces since the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003.

“This was a remarkable combination of intelligence and operational skills,” a Western diplomat said.

The AQI offensive took place in wake of the departure of all U.S. combat forces from Iraq. The United States has reported that its military presence contained fewer than 50,000 troops, all of whom were assigned to training, logistics and administration.

“They want to shake the confidence of the people in the security forces,” Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said. “They [Iraqi security forces] are ready to assume the responsibility after U.S. [combat] forces withdraw at the end of August.”

In the Aug. 25 operation, AQI struck at least 25 targets throughout Iraq. More than half of the casualties consisted of Iraqi soldiers and police officers, with the bloodiest attack reported in the Shi’ite city of Kut.

Officials said the attacks included suicide bombings as well as ambushes. The Kut operation, in which about 20 people were killed, was conducted by a suicide car bomber who penetrated a security barrier near the city’s police station.

“The situation is under control,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.

But later Zebari acknowledged that the political vacuum in Baghdad, which has prevented the establishment of a new government nearly six months after March 2010 elections, has harmed security. He said AQI was trying to exploit political tension and generate chaos throughout the country.

Angst has spread nationwide as Iraqis face up to the reality of the U. S. pullout and the expected chaos and killing that most expect to follow. Iran stands shoulder to shoulder with AQ to exploit the situation.

Anthem Blue Cross will raise health insurance rates - by an average  of 14% and as high as 20% -effective Oct. 1 for nearly 800,000 individual California policyholders. Regulators also allowed one of Anthem’s nonprofit competitors, Blue Shield of California, to move ahead with rate increases - averaging 19% and as high as 29% - for 250,000 individual policyholders. California small businesses are being hit with increases of up to 70% for some group policies..

The Obama administration has been overseeing an IRS unit that is examining non-profit groups including board members that support Israel.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service

was operating a unit assigned to examine the positions and board members of pro-Israeli non-profit groups. The unit was said to have denied tax-exempt status to at least one organization, called Z Street, on grounds that it opposed Obama’s policy toward Israel.

“Z Street was informed explicitly by an IRS Agent on July 19, 2010, that approval of Z Street’s application for tax-exempt status has been at least delayed, and may be denied because of a special IRS policy in place regarding organizations in any way connected with Israel,” the suit, filed in U.S. district court in Philadelphia, said. “And further that the applications of many such Israel-related organizations have been assigned to ‘a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the administration’s public policies.’ ”

Z Street, established in 2009 as a non-profit educational group, has sued the IRS for refusing an application for tax exemption. Z Street, quoting an IRS agent, said the refusal was based on the group’s advocacy of Israel that differed with administration policy.

Lobbyists said this marked the first time since the 1950s that pro-Israeli non-profit organizations were being threatened with denial of their tax-exempt status for their political positions. Neither the IRS nor the White House has acknowledged the existence of the special unit.

“We don’t know if there are other organizations that have received the same treatment or even if this is a new policy,” Z Street president Lori Lowenthal Marcus said. “People don’t talk about this. But I can guarantee you that they didn’t establish this unit just for Z Street.”

The suit, filed on Aug. 25 and which lists IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman as defendant, has demanded tax-exempt status as well as full public disclosure of what Z Street termed “the application of Israel special policy.” Z Street, established in 2009, said it was a non-profit organization that supported Israel’s right to refuse to “negotiate with, make concessions to, or appease terrorists.”

“These statements by an IRS official that the IRS maintains special policies governing applications for tax-exempt status by organizations which deal with Israel, and which requires particularly intense scrutiny of such applications and an enhanced risk of denial if made by organizations which espouse or support positions inconsistent with the Obama administration’s Israel policies, constitute an explicit admission of the crudest form of viewpoint discrimination, and one which is both totally un-American and flatly unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” the suit said.

In January 2010, Z Street applied to the IRS for tax-exempt status, granted to non-profit organizations that engage in educational activities. Five months later, the suit said, IRS agent Diane Gentry requested additional information on Z Street, including personal information on each board member. Z Street said Ms. Gentry refused to respond to several inquiries regarding the group’s application.

“On July 19, 2010, Z Street’s corporate counsel called again, and this time spoke with IRS agent Gentry who advised Z Street’s counsel that she had two concerns regarding the application,” the suit said. “One: the advocacy activities in general; and 2. the IRS’s special concern about applications from organizations whose activities are related to Israel, and that are organizations whose positions contradict the U.S. administration’s Israeli policy.”

IRS said Z Street could be termed an “action organization” dedicated to lobbying rather than education, the suit said. The suit quoted Ms. Gentry as saying that IRS would examine “the method used by the organization to develop and present its views.”

“Agent Gentry also informed Z Street’s counsel that the IRS is carefully scrutinizing organizations that are in any way connected with Israel,” the suit said.

Z Street, which acknowledges that its positions on Israel have differed from the administration, said other organizations that agree with the White House were quickly granted tax-exempt status. The suit did not identify the organizations but a leading Washington-based consultant, Lenny Ben-David, cited J Street, which has been invited to the White House for consultations on Israel.

“Plaintiff [Z Street] further seeks injunctive relief mandating complete disclosure to the public regarding the origin, development, approval, substance and application of the special policy,” the suit said.

A statement on Z Streets website says. “Astounding - our first reaction was horror and fear that this is happening here in the US, our second reaction was: “No way are we going to let this go unchallenged!”

Buried in the FBI Report on Hate Crimes, an official category since 1990 Federal Hate Crime legislation passed is a eerie fact that nearly 2/3rds are directed against Jews and 7% against Muslims.

1.7% of all Americans are Jewish; 0.6 are Muslim while 78.1% are Christian.

A July 10, 2010 Field poll found SF Mayor and Democrat Lt. Governor candidate Gavin Newsom getting the support of 43 percent of respondents. Maldonado, who has served as lieutenant governor since April, had 34 percent support, the poll found. The poll found 23 percent of voters remain undecided.

In the fund raising “poll” Newsom with a 2-1 fundraising advantage bagging $1.4 million to Maldonado’s $620,000. As of August 3, 2010 Newsom had $495,000 in the bank compared with Maldonado’s $91,000, but that doesn’t include unpaid bills on both sides. Newsom had $42,000 in outstanding bills, while Maldonado’s camp owed $262,000, leaving his campaign about $171,000 underwater, filings show.

Each candidate has significant support from their own political parties: Newsom is backed by 67 percent of Democrats and Maldonado is supported by 70 percent of Republicans, the poll found.

Macerate (MAS-uh-rayt) verb tr., intr.: 1. To soften by soaking or steeping in a liquid. 2. To separate into parts by soaking. 3. To weaken or to become thin; to emaciate. Etymology  from Latin macerare (to make soft, weaken). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mag-/mak- (to knead, to fit) that is also the source of make, mason, mass, match, among, mongrel, mingle, and maquillage. USAGE: “The plastic rubbish has been macerated by marine forces and is composed of small particles that float just below the surface, killing fish that mistake it for food.” John Maxwell; Boojum Hunting in the Caribbean; Jamaica Observer (Kingston); Jan 24, 2010.

Most Americans see just two countries as enemies of the United States - North Korea and Iran. No one else is even close.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of Adults view North Korea as an enemy. Just five percent (5%) regard the communist dictatorship as an ally, while 12% see it somewhere between an enemy and an ally.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters think it is at least somewhat likely that there will be war between North Korea and South Korea in the near future, and 47% say the United States should provide military assistance to South Korea if it is attacked by its neighbor to the north.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Americans view Iran an enemy of the United States. Seven percent (7%) say the Islamic nation is an ally, and 15% rate it as somewhere in between.

 Iran’s first nuclear plant went online next week, and many suspect that it is intended not to provide energy for the country but to help develop nuclear weapons aimed first at Israel. Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters in this country believe the United States should help Israel if it attacks Iran.

 Only three other countries - Iraq, Afghanistan and Venezuela - are viewed more as enemies than as an allies or as somewhere in between the two. The numbers and the order they fall in also remain unchanged from last year.

Sward (sward) noun: The grassy surface of land: turf. Etymology from Old English sweard (skin, rind). Esage: “While one man’s six might bring cheers from the crowd, it brings fear for Mike Robins and his neighbours. They live next to the green sward of Alphington Cricket Club.” Neighbours ‘Under Siege’ From Cricket Club’s Hard And High Balls; Express & Echo (Exeter, UK); Aug 5, 2010.

                                                       —-EDITORIAL—                                                        -                                                         

Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally at the Lincoln Memorial Saturday certainly had a feeling of accomplishment to all but the most ardent boo-birds and bigots. To begin according to the Washington DC PD it was very peaceful. It inspired more than it depressed.  It was definitely reverential irritated agnostics and atheist terribly.

Most remarkable it was almost entirely non political despite efforts by at least one notorious race baiter who staged a competing if much smaller “Reclaiming the Dream” rally nearby to brand it otherwise.

Sunday’s Chris Mathews Show included Time magazine’s Joe Klein accusing Beck’s boss Rupert Murdock of co-nefarious intent with Beck not the least symbolized by Murdock contributing $1 million to the Republican Party as if that were an epithet.

Plus, a snarky Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s Democratic delegate to Congress, called Beck’s rally a pale imitation of the gathering where King’s father spoke.

Her smirking criticism is silly, and if you will contentious while underscoring the flaccid bugaboo argument — that of low attendance.

CBS commissioned a crowd estimate from an outfit called AirPhotosLive.com that put the count at a paltry 87,000.That’s all fine and dandy except the company makes no claim that it has any kind of expertise whatsoever in crowd counting and makes you wonder if CBS is trying to diminish the event for its own biases. 

Google Earth has a wildly different estimate of about 223,000. It explains that the enclosed area was about 223,000 square meters and the reflecting pool about 26,000 square meters. By applying only the least bit of advanced math, we get a total area for the crowd of about 197,000 square meters. The Park Service considers a “dense crowd” to be around 10 square feet per person, or about 0.93 square meters per person - call it 1.1 people per square meter.  If the whole area were packed that densely, we’d have about 215,000 people.

NBC figures there were 250,000 in attendance yesterday but it’s unknown how it arrived at that number.

If you compare photographs of the Martin Luther King March on Washington DC where he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech on the same site  47 years ago with yesterday’s photo accepting  that King had about 500,000 there then, and eyeballing yesterday’s photo as I did there were about half as many in the area yesterday. So, Google and NBC and likely about right and CBS’s full of it again.