• Time To Lobby Senate Against Amnesty: Last Chance
• Russia Moves To Be Top Dog In Middle East
• Organ Harvesting Plot Has U. S. Links
• Obama’s Halftime Shuffle
• ACLU On Anti-Christmas Campaign
• Red Light Camera’s Have No Safety Component May Make Things Worse.
• Americans Support Tax Cut Deal
• 150-year-old A & P Bankrupt
• Iran Nukes Advance: Saudi To “Get” Paki Nukes
• Happy Meal Lawsuit Filed

The Obama administration has sued units of BP Plc and four other companies, for violated environmental laws in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, according to a court filing. The lawsuit seeks damages under the Clean Water Act and to declare four of the defendants liable under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to the environment, according to a Justice Department statement.

Harry Reid (D) Nevada says he could call Senate back between Christmas and New Years for vote on Amnesty bill. He may try to bury it in a massive lameduck spending bill. So far leftists have failed to wedge lame duck Democrats with huge earmarks for their pet projects. If it doesn’t get done before the new Congress is seated in January it will not get done and Reid knows it. The pressure is from Obama who is desperate to gain big among Hispanics since he appears to have permanently lost favor among “independents” so his reelection chances and even nomination will be heavily dependent upon Hispanics.

You can lobby your or any Senator by calling 202-224-3121.

Targets tight now include: MAINE Sen. Collins (R) Sen. Snowe (R) MONTANA Sen. Baucus (D) NORTH CAROLINA Sen. Hagan (D) and NORTH DAKOTA Sen. Conrad (D).

Call and urge their “no” vote. Calls are working.

An English fireman has admitted causing the death of a farmer who was crushed to death by a herd of cows after they were startled and stampeded by his fire engine’s sirens.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s first visit to Israel in mid-January, part of a Middle East tour, is intended to signify a major switch in Kremlin Middle East policy to warmer relations with Israel and correspondingly less intense ties with Iran, Syria and the radical Palestinian Hamas. This will be the second visit by a Russian president to Jerusalem. Vladimir Putin’s was the first when he was president in 2005.

the Kremlin has watched the bumbling Obama administration Israel-Palestinian peace diplomacy run out of steam and sees its chance for a more active role on this diplomatic track.

Furthermore, the Russians have got two bids in play for a slice of the as-yet untapped Mediterranean gas. While offering to partner Lebanon in exploring the oil and gas potential opposite its shores earlier this month, the Russian energy giant Gazprom sent secret envoys to Tel Aviv at the same time. They came to discuss investment opportunities with the Israeli firms holding the concessions for the Tamar, Dalit and Leviathan Mediterranean gas fields off the Israeli shore and a possible partnership in Israel’s Ashkelon-Eilat oil and gas pipelines.

According to our sources, Russian energy experts calculate that Israel’s offshore gas reserves, currently  estimated at about 25 trillion cubic feet, are in fact much bigger and maintain they could be better explored with Russian professional assistance. Leviathan is seen as the most promising of the three strikes.

Do you believe those numbers all across the country? Five in Iowa, 13 in Wisconsin, 22 in Washington. And that’s just President Obama’s approval ratings. — Leno

European investigators have disclosed chilling new details of organ trafficking in Kosovo and Albania, corroborating allegations raised in a 2009 investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the BBC. 

It alleges a criminal network linked to Kosovo’s current prime minister summarily executed prisoners and harvested their kidneys to sell for illicit organ transplant operations abroad.

The organ trafficking was part of a broader web of organized criminal activity including assassinations and drug dealing. The “boss” of the criminal network, according to the report, was Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s current prime minister and the former political director of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Kosovo enjoys strong diplomatic and financial support from the United States, and Thaci has visited with Vice President Biden in the White House. Thaci has repeatedly denied links to organized crime. In a 2009 interview he dismissed reports that Kosovo Liberation Army operatives ran secret detention camps and engaged in organ trafficking in Albania.

The executions and organ extractions occurred at two locations north of the Albanian capital, Tirana. Medical personnel who conducted the operations in a makeshift clinic arranged to ship the organs abroad for what’s known as “cadaver transplantations.”

“The signs of collusion between the criminal class and the highest political and institutional office holders are too numerous and too serious to be ignored,” the report states.

All sides deny knowledge of or participation in the organ harvesting scheme.

Liberals’ support for Obama is dropping, according to a new Marist U. poll that also shows he has not won back independents despite his recent tax-cut deal with Republicans. The poll numbers might not be large enough yet to suggest Obama will face a re-nomination fight. Most liberals still support him and until that changes there will be no meaningful primary battle for 2012.

Obama has delayed the most significant staff shuffle of his presidency until after New Year’s - but the changes may be more sweeping than anticipated and could include the hiring of high-profile Democrats defeated in the midterms.

David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, who will become a senior adviser to the president as early as the first week of January, is perhaps the most significant addition to Obama’s staff. He is expected to take an expansive new role including running the embattled White House press and messaging operations, people with knowledge of the situation told POLITICO.

White House staffers hope the organization-minded Plouffe - combined with the steadying hand of interim chief of staff Pete Rouse - will professionalize an improvisational and, at times, chaotic organizational chart centered on former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a domineering figure during the administration’s first two years.

Obama’s thinking on other specifics of his reconfigured West Wing - as well as a new campaign operation and Democratic National Committee structure - is largely unknown. But changes are expected across the administration, with familiar faces moving into new roles, both inside and outside the White House, and some unfamiliar ones joining the ranks.

“The president has talked to a bunch of different people throughout this process on how to do the reorganization,” one official said. “You’ll definitely see faces that are new.”

Santa Barbara’s DA have taken two men to court for allegedly tearing down ‘Yes on S’ campaign signs before last Springs election. The DA, Sheriff and some local judges supported ‘S’ to add a half cent sales tax to build a second jail. Voters shouted ‘No.’ The defendents are alleging political persecution.

137 school superintendents across the state of Tennesee were admonished by the ACLU last week that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter, addressed to 137 public school leaders across the state, stated that it was responding to a number of complaints from families about school party activites this Christmas season. 

Hedy Weinburg, ACLU executive director in Tennessee, cited several U.S. Supreme Court decisions about the matter.  

But several area citizens, like Jim Brown, think that such admonitions are misguided and potentially dangerous.  Brown commented on the news, saying “We are a Christian nation.  Let’s act like it.”  and said that he hopes that the teachers and administration will celebrate the Christmas season.

Said one area teacher (name withheld), “I respect people of different faiths, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to eliminate my own from my work and and my classroom.   I can enjoy Christmas as Christmas without worrying that I’m going to offend someone.   My money still says that I trust in God.   Are they going to stop me from using that, too?” 

The letter was sent from the ACLU to the top administrators across the state.  What those administrators do with the information is yet to be seen. 

 Ironically the ACLU’s offices there and elsewhere will be closed for a Christmas holiday as will all state and federal offices.

President Obama lit the national Christmas tree, a 40-foot Colorado Spruce. Republicans don’t believe it’s really from Colorado, and they want to see a birth certificate — Leno

Originally sold as a way to reduce accidents and improve traffic safety nothing could be farther from truth for the infamous redlight cameras.” While California and other states collects millions of dollars from red-light cameras at intersections, a few California cities are questioning whether the safety benefits are worth the high cost to their own coffers.

Loma Linda is the latest city to drop their red-light camera program.

Over the last five years, Loma Linda brought in around $200,000 from the project. But the bulk of the ticket fines went to the state or to Redflex, the Australia-based company that operates the cameras. “For that  $200,000, we took $15 million out of the local economy” in ticket fines.

Whittier shuttered its program in November, choosing not to renew its contract with Nestor Traffic Systems, citing no improvement in traffic safety and declining revenue.

Anaheim voters have also turned off their red-light cameras, voting in November to ban them and other automated systems. The measure passed by an overwhelming 73 percent.

Other cities have rejected automatic ticketing programs as well, including Union City near San Jose, Yucaipa and Costa Mesa, Cupertino, Compton, El Monte, Fairfield, Fresno, Fullerton, Indian Wells, Irvine, Maywood, Montclair, Moreno Valley, Paramount, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Roseville, San Carlos, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa and Upland.

The backlash is not just in California. Recently, Houston also passed a ballot initiative putting an end to red-light cameras. The Houston Police Department and many city council members support using the cameras, but they’re in the minority.

Studies found no improvement to traffic safety due to the program.

Studies in Arizona, New Mexico, and Canada have gone further, finding that red-light cameras can actually cause accidents because drivers often stop abruptly to avoid a ticket, leading to rear end collisions.

Back in Loma Linda, similar statistics proved the demise of the program. Eighty percent of the traffic tickets produced by the cameras were for legal right turns on red.

A Catholic nun with a reputation for gambling trips to Atlantic City is accused of embezzling more than $850,000 from a college where she oversaw the school’s finances, officials said last week.

Americans are inclined to support the tax-cut deal negotiated by President Obama and congressional Republicans, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, but the compromise hasn’t boosted optimism about the prospects for bipartisan action to address the nation’s problems.

Even as leaders in both parties predict the package will pass Congress, the public apparently views the process that reached it with some skepticism.

Forty-nine percent of those surveyed support passage of the deal - a plurality but not quite a majority - while a third oppose it and nearly one in five say they’re not sure.

By an overwhelming 51%-20%, they say the handling of the tax issue has made them more pessimistic rather than more optimistic about the ability of the government to address the biggest problems facing the country.

The deal hasn’t had much of an impact on Obama’s image. His job-approval rating remains a relatively steady 46%. Those surveyed are almost as likely to say his actions on the tax-cut package have made them respect him less as those who say they respect him more, 20%-22%.

Bank of America Corp has put up for sale at least $1 billion worth of toxic mortgage assets, the New York Post said on Monday.

Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.’s ( A & P) filing for bankruptcy protection may prompt Dutch competitor Royal Ahold NV to bid for the U.S. retailer’s Pathmark stores to add to grocery operations in the country, analysts said.

A&P, which operates 400 supermarkets under the Waldbaum’s, Food Emporium and Pathmark brands, filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Dec. 12. Amsterdam-based Ahold owns the Stop & Shop grocery chain and acquired a 25-outlet retailer in Richmond, Virginia, a year ago. The Dutch company had 2.4 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in cash at the end of September.

Nearly 150 years ago, The Great American Tea Company opened a store on Vesey Street in New York City and began selling tea, coffee and spices at value prices. Soon stores sprung up all around the metropolitan area and salesmen took their wares to the road in horse-drawn carriages bound for New England, the mid-west and the south. A & P has been unable to compete with big box stores like: WalMart, Sam’s Club and Costco.

For the first time in decades the Santa Barbara City Couincil hadsshifted to the right by a 4-3 margin. With the November election of leftists Das Williams to the California Assemly his surprise replacement, a well known local businessman, shifts the marjority right - if only by a little. Heretofore City Council has been overwhelmingly liberal.Four dozen people applied to replace Williams.

Nuclear Energy Commission Director Ali Akhbar Salehi was appointed Iran’s new foreign minister on Monday, Dec. 13 in midstream of resumed nuclear diplomacy - to make sure the Six World Powers headed by the United States understood that Tehran was determined to go full speed ahead with its nuclear weapon program without given Washington an inch on any related issue.

Iranian sources expect that after Manoucher Mottaki’s sacking as foreign minister was announced Monday, Tehran’s campaign against the Obama administration will be more aggressive than ever before and it drive even harder hard to axe every American position of influence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

Production of Iran’s first batch of uranium yellowcake marked just one of Tehran’s two nuclear leaps forward ahead of the resumption of its nuclear talks with the Six Powers in Geneva Monday, Dec. 6. The second breakthrough is Iran’s accumulation of 23.5 kilos of 19.75 percent enriched uranium. This can be topped by January to the full 28.2 kilos needed for weapons-grade production. So Tehran sat down for talks in a strong bargaining position. 

The Stuxnet worm, a Windows-specific computer worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems.  Iran has acknowledged that its nuclear program - the target of the worm - has been damaged significantly.  In fact, some speculate that the worm may take a year for Iran to work through. Recently Irans top Stuxnet expert was killed.

After three other of its top nuclear scientists were killed a special unit for providing nuclear scientists, their homes and families with the same level of security as heads of the regime is being set up jointly by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry (MOIS).

Saudi Arabia paid for up to 60% of the Pakistani nuclear programme, and in return has the option to buy a small nuclear arsenal (’five to six warheads) off the shelf if things got tough in its neighborhood. It is uncertain if the Saud’s already have the nuke warheads but it is almost a certainty that they will as soon as Iran is revleaed to have its.

A protégé of jailed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange — Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who was previously involved with German hacker group the Chaos Computer Club, said Openleaks would begin trials in early 2011 and turn to bigger media later. It currently has 10 members. “We are already drowning in applications,” he said.

Domscheit-Berg plans to publish a book “Inside WikiLeaks” detailing multiple years inside the controversial whistle-blower organization.

A UK Judge granted WikiLeak founder Julian Assange release on $31,500 bail as he continues to fight extradition to Sweden on sex charges. But, Sweden objected keeping him in jail.

A Sacramento mother and the Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a lawsuit Wednesday against McDonald’s Corp., alleging that its practice of giving toys with children’s meals is deceptive to children.

The organization had been threatening to sue McDonald’s since last summer, claiming that the Happy Meals toys constitute a method of circumventing parental control and teach children unhealthy eating. The complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, also accuses the company of false advertising.

The lawsuit alleges that “McDonald’s exploits very young California children and harms their health by advertising unhealthy Happy Meals with toys directly to them” and that “children 8 years old and younger do not have the cognitive skills and the developmental maturity to understand the persuasive intent of marketing and advertising.”

McDonald’s marketing has been facing increased scrutiny amid First Lady Michelle Obama’s crusade for better nutrition that has resulted in multi-billion mandated changes to school lunches dumped ointo local taxpayers/

Earlier this year, McDonald became the focus of an effort by Corporate Accountability International to retire its Ronald McDonald clown character. McDonald’s also came under scrutiny in California, as Marin County and San Francisco passed laws that will ban toys with kids’ meal purchases at fast-food restaurants if the food fails to meet the nutritional criteria.

Washington DC PD hired a former law enforcement professional to oversee its drunk driving test equipment. Now that expert has raised serious questions about the “breathalyzer’s” inaccuracy casting doubt over thousands of cases. The gadgets have to be carefully cleaned and maintained as well as constantly calibrated and if not they can produce bogus results.