• Defeating Obama The Top Issue
• Homes For Heroes Gives New Home to Quadruple Amputee
• Half Of Senate writes Obama about ‘military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait’
• Gates signals ‘Chinese sensitivities’ taking priority over Taiwan Relations Act
• Midwest Academy “Nut Jobs” LinkTo Public Employee Unions
• Is Tea Party New Ross Perot?
• Majority Must Work Until 80-years old
• Hillary May Quit To Head World Bank
• New Yorkers Tell Weiner He Can Stay
• Arab Protest “Nuclear Weapon”
• Russia Charges U. S. With Hypocrisy.
• Wonder Bread’s 90^th Birthday
• Madoff Not Contrite
• Obama by the Numbers

New York City Democrat Congressman Tony Weiner reportedly is examining taking a leave of absence. which has to be approved by the full U. S. House of Representatives and that could become ugly,  Weiner says he will enter treatment all resulting from his sexting scandal or more specifically lying about emailing nude photographs of himself to several women including a minor girl (a 17-year-old) Exactly where one gets treatment for stupidity is unclear. A Marists College Poll found 56% of those in his district saying he should NOT resign.

The top inference to be  drawn from a June 2-4 CNN Poll is that 75% of Republicans and intendments now saying the top decision point for President is not individual agreement but to “unelect” Barrack Obama as the most important element in decided who to vote for. A subtext is who can beat Obama and those results find: 85% picking Romney; 56% saying Giuliani; 44% Sarah Palin; 43% Newt Gingrich, mad 27% Rand Paul all other usually mentioned candidates are far less.

The hazard in these conclusions is making them without seeing all the cross tabs or even the full questionnaire.

58% of Likely U.S. Voters think election ballots should be printed only in English.  Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree and feel ballots should be printed in both English and Spanish.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Republicans and 60% of voters not affiliated with either major party support ballots only in English. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats prefer bilingual ballots.

The 2003 California ballot used to recall Gray Davis was printed in 7 languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Tagalong.

Saturday Homes for Heroes turned over a new handicap accessible maintenance free home to Brenden Marrocco, 25, a former Army specialist is the first U.S. soldier to survive a quadruple amputation. He has spent the past two years in military hospitals.

Marrocco was injured on Easter Sunday 2009 as he and fellow soldiers were returning to their base from a night mission in northern Iraq.

A direct hit on the vehicle in which he was riding ripped apart his arms and legs, severed his carotid artery and damaged his left eye.

Marrocco has undergone 18 surgeries and is wheelchair-bound.

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, Building Homes for Heroes, Northfield Bank and local builders constructed the home. The foundation is named for Firefighter Stephen Siller, killed responding to the Sept. 11, 2001. terrorist attack. 

The Siller Foundation raised more than $650,000, which included contributions from more than three dozen organizations and fund-raisers, along with thousands of personal donations, said Frank Siller, the foundation’s chairman and Stephen Seller’s brother. That total included $200,000 raised by the Firefighters for Wounded Veterans.

The FBI and U. S. State Department are fingering China over major cyber attacks on high level Google Gmail and Locked Martin accounts, There have been discussion about such cyber attacks being an act of war

A block of nearly half the U.S. Senate have urged President Obama to break the deadlock on arms sales to Taiwan and permit sales of F-16C/D aircraft to the island, a move that would surely disrupt newly blossoming U.S.-China military relations.

Taiwan is seeking to buy 66 newer model F-16s to upgrade its existing fleet of F-16s, which were sold in the 1980s.

The State Department has been blocking the F-16 sale to avoid upsetting China.

The letter was made public by Sen. Robert Menendez during a congressional hearing May 28.

The 45 senators who sighned the letter said “we are writing to express serious concern about the military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait. To maintain peace and stability in the Strait, it is critical that your administration accept Taiwan’s Letter of Request and move quickly to notify Congress of the sale of the 66 F-16C/D aircraft that Taiwan needs in order to modernize its air force.”

“Taiwan desperately needs new tactical fighter aircraft,” the letter said. “We are deeply concerned that further delay of the decision to sell F-16s to Taiwan could result in closure of the F-16 production line, and urge you to expedite this export process before the line closes. Without new fighter aircraft and upgrades to its existing fleet of F-16s, Taiwan will be dangerously exposed to Chinese military threats, aggression and provocation, which pose significant national security implications for the U.S.”

Taiwanese officials have said that Taiwanese pilots are dying in crashes caused by older jets that are becoming more difficult to maintain.

By contrast, China’s air forces are increasing in power and numbers, with new F-10s and Russian-design Su-27s and Su-33s.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Caterpillar Corp are threatening to move out of Illinois because of already high and increasing taxes.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, making his final visit to Asia, said last week that China’s military is developing asymmetric weapons and he avoided answering a question about whether the U.S. should send urgently needed F-16s to Taiwan to address the rapidly growing imbalance of air power across the Taiwan Strait in Beijing’s favor.

Enroute to Singapore for a security conference, Gates said “We are not trying to hold China down. China has been a great power for thousands of years. It is a global power and will be a global power.”

On China’s military buildup, Gates said the “modernization is proceeding apace.”

“They are clearly working on capabilities that are of concern to us in terms of denial of access, particularly with respect to our aircraft carriers, the development of long-range accurate cruise and ballistic anti-ship missiles,” he said.

He also mentioned China’s rollout of the new stealth J-20 jet and cyber warfare and anti-satellite weapons, as well as efforts to build long-range naval power projection systems.

“I think the Chinese have learned a powerful lesson from the Soviet experience and they do not intend to try and compete with us across the full range of military capabilities,” Gates said. “But I think they are intending to build capabilities that give them considerable freedom of action in Asia and the opportunity to extend their influence.”

Gates said under that circumstance, “there is value in a continuing dialogue by the two sides of just exactly what our concerns are, what our issues are, and how we might alleviate the concerns on both sides.”

Gates also ducked a question about whether the United States will provide Taiwan with new F-16s that the island says are urgently needed to counter China’s buildup of air forces and air defense along the 100-mile wide strait.

“Well, we do have obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act, and we have this discussion in virtually every meeting that we have with the Chinese,” he said.

“I would say that I think under both the Bush and Obama administrations, we have tried to thread the needle pretty carefully in terms of Taiwan’s defensive capabilities, but at the same time being aware of China’s sensitivities.”

The comment indicates that political concerns about offending China have taken precedence over U.S. law, the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act that allows U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Asked “what is your judgment about the F-16 sale,” Gates replied: “I don’t have a view on that at this point.”

The State Department has been holding up the F-16 sale in order to avoid another rupture in U.S.-China military ties. China twice in the last two years cut off military relations after the Pentagon announced arms sales to Taiwan.

A report by McKensey Group predicts that unemployment will stay at 9% for ten more years.

 The founders of a radical group that teaches tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation were among the main speakers at a union convention at which one leader called for opposing “right-wing threats to dismantle the Middle Class.”

Heather Booth, director of a Saul Alinsky-style community organizing group, the Midwest Academy, was among the main speakers at the “2011 State Battles Summit,” held this week at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington, D.C.

 Booth’s husband, Paul, also was a speaker at the union summit. Paul Booth is a co-founder of Midwest Academy. The four-day summit, which ended last weekwas organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, with participation from the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union.

Sixteen of Newt Gingrich’s campaign staff jumped ship last week claiming dissatisfaction with the Former Speaker and vice-a-versa. Newt vows to tough it out.

A new Rasmussen Poll  paints a picture reminiscent of the 1992 three way contest among Clinton, Bush and Perot when Perot wrecked Bush and elected Clinton by filching away 18.91% of the popular vote, mostly from Bush who got 37.45% against Clinton’s 43.01%.

If Rasmussen’s data is right Tea party candidates could undermine Republicans in congressional races so severely that Democrats could win many of those contests, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national survey.

In a three-way congressional contest with a tea party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat could pick up 40 percent of the vote. The Republican would get 21 percent support, while 18 percent would opt for the tea party candidate. Just over 20 percent remain undecided.

Not surprisingly, Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more likely to be undecided than Democrats, according to the June 9 telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters.

This is a slightly improved picture for Democrats from early February of last year. In a three-way matchup at that time, the Democrat earned 36 percent to the Republican’s 25 percent, while the tea party candidate won 17 percent of the vote.

In a two-way race, Republicans continue to hold a modest advantage over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

In the new survey, the tea party candidate draws 28 percent support from GOP voters, while 85 percent of Democrats back their party’s candidate. Just 45 percent of Republicans support the Republican candidate in the three-way matchup. Among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties, 15 percent like the Republican, 29 percent the Democrat and 25 percent the tea party candidate.

Sixteen percent of all voters now consider themselves members of the tea party movement, down from 21 percent at the end of last year. Nearly 70 percent say they are not members, while another 15 percent are not sure.

California’s Reidstricting Commission maps for Assembly, Senate and Congressional Districts can be viewed at http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/. There is still a lot of wiggling going on to gain political advantage.by tweaking, and tugging here and there.

Most Americans won’t be able to clock out for the last time until around age 80, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Americans earning between $31,200 and $72,500 will need to work to age 72 just to have a 50 percent chance of retiring, and those earning more than $72,500 can expect to reach age 65 to have a 50-50 shot of funding retirement, MarketWatch reports.

Many who are unable to retire will be forced to look for second jobs to make ends meet.

“Even those older Americans who are still working are looking for ways to make additional monies,” says Art Koff, founder of RetiredBrains.com, which seeks to find work for older workers.

President Obama’s top economic adviser, a man named Austan Goolsbee, is stepping down: He will be replaced by something a little more effective, the magic 8-ball. — Leno

Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady, Senator for New York and rival to President Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary race, is said to be eager to become the first female president of the World Bank should the post become vacant next year.

“Hillary Clinton wants the job,” a source close to Mrs Clinton told Reuters, which broke the news of the possible move.

Robert Zoellick, a former Bush administration official, is believed to be ready to step down as president at the end of his term in the middle of next year.

Mrs Clinton has made clear she does not want to remain US Secretary of State, a gruelling job demanding months of world travel each year, beyond Mr Obama’s first term.

Another source told Reuters that Mr Obama supported her taking the helm at the World Bank, which is traditionally led by an American.

Once formally nominated for the post by Mr Obama, Mrs Clinton’s appointment would require approval by the 187 member countries of the World Bank.

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs Clinton, issued a strong denial, releasing a statement saying: “Secretary Clinton has not had any conversations with the president, the White House or anyone about moving to the World Bank. She has expressed absolutely no interest in the job. She would not take it if offered.”

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, also denied that Mrs Clinton was interested in the role.

Taking over the World Bank could be seen as an end to Mrs Clinton’s domestic political ambitions.

If she served out a five-year term, that would take her beyond the 2016 election, when she would be 69.

On the other hand, if she stepped down early from the World Bank she could enter the 2016 race for the White House with historically unparalleled experience in foreign policy, economic policy, on Capitol Hill and as First Lady.

Congressman Weiner has admitted that he did carry on explicit online relationships with six different women. Well, he thought they were women. Turns out three were woman, one was a guy pretending to be a woman, and the other two were congressmen– Leno

Democrats, especially the New York brand can stomach almost anything to stay in control.. Under growing pressure to quit, Rep. Anthony Weiner insisted again Thursday that he won’t resign, and a new poll showed a majority of voters in his district agreed he should stay in office.

A new Marist poll released Thursday found 56 percent of registered voters in his 9th Congressional District in Queens and Brooklyn don’t think he should quit over revelations of his salacious social-media life. But the poll also included troubling news for Weiner: Only 30 percent said they definitely would vote for him again.

Weiner has found little support among congressional Democrats since he admitted he lied repeatedly when denying the sexting revelations.

When Charlie Rangel came a cropper New York Democrats just griner, nodded and forgot it. It is happening again abetted by Ma9in Stream Media that would have lite the fire around Joan of Arc to keep a seat.

“So, he’s a scum bag - but, he’s our scom bag - they reason.

An earless rabbit allegedly born near Japan’s severely-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has become the latest poster child for the side-effects of radiation exposure.

The bunny — purportedly captured on video just outside the crippled plant exclusion area and posted on YouTube on May 21 — has become big news in Japan and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere, stoking fears that contamination from the damaged facility could cause genetic mutations.

But both rabbit experts and radiation researchers told AOL Weird News the bunny’s bizarre looks could have a less sensational explanation.

On May 15 Palestinians marked  “Nakba Day” to mourn the establishment of the Jewish State. This year June 5, “Naksa Day,” was also a day of protest. On this day, Palestinians remember what they call the great “setback” of the Arab loss of the 1967 War. Sabri Saidam, a senior advisor to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, labeled the recent Arab protests a “nuclear weapon.”

Since Israel’s inception the Arab world has tried every possible way to destroy the Jewish State. After losing successive wars on the battlefield they turned to terrorism to ensure Israel’s demise as a Jewish State. Seeing that terrorism alone could not defeat the Jewish people, they have added propaganda, diplomatic warfare, economic warfare (e.g. boycott and divestment campaigns), and law-fare (filing claims of war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against Israeli officials in international courts) to their arsenal of weapons.

Israeli forces successfully held back protesters from crossing into Israel this past Sunday, but the Nakba Day protesters, who came out in even greater numbers than on Naksa Day, did manage to breach Israel’s borders. The question that Israelis are now asking is what will happen if hundreds of thousands or even millions of protesters march towards Israel’s borders.

Adding fuel to Israel’s concern over the border demonstrations are the approximately five million Palestinian refugees - if you include descendants of refugees - living in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza, West Bank, and even Iraq. The status of Palestinian refugees has long been debated. Israel claims that the majority of Arabs who fled their homes in Israel did so on their own accord - either out of fear that Israelis would take revenge on them for the massacre of Jewish communities by Palestinians before 1948, or to move out of the way of invading Arab armies preparing to “liberate” Palestine and liquidate its Jewish inhabitants.

These refugees have not been granted citizenship in their host Arabic countries for the sole reason of perpetuating the conflict with Israel. Now the Palestinian Authority sees a new function for the refugee - as the PA’s “nuclear weapon” against the Jewish State. If these refugees start marching towards Israel in large numbers, we will be facing a new and lethal threat the likes of which we have never faced before.

“How can you explain that somebody can be so smart but so stupid?”

Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) commenting on the Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) scandal (hat tip to Political Wire):

Russia is opposed to any UN Security Council resolution on Syria,”  Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told journalists at a briefing in Moscow Thursday, June 29, after the UK, France, Germany and Portugal moved to condemn Syria’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, and demand humanitarian access to the situation there.

The new resolution demands that President Bashar Assad end the violence and lifts the siege of protest cities. It also calls for an arms embargo on Syria.US Ambassador Susan Rice, who did not co-sponsor the draft, dismissed the comparison between Syria and Libya.

Wednesday, June 8, the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels failed to agree on the expansion of operations against Muammar Qaddafi or persuade more alliance members to join.

Military sources add:

• 1. The cost of the war in Libya is constantly rising and beginning to weigh heavily on the defense outlay and state budgets of the US, Britain and France, all of which are battling deep economic crises. Our sources learn that the three governments are contemplating dipping into the frozen funds of Muammar Qaddafi’s regime estimated at over $45 billion - possibly $34 billion in American banks alone - to defray some of the costs.
• 2. The relentless air strikes over Tripoli alone cost about $25 million per day.

The use of those funds will be presented as necessary to relieve the hardships of the Libyan population living under rebel rule and suffering attacks from Qaddafi’s forces.

In a statement issued on Thursday morning, June 9 (Wednesday night in the US), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Tim Johnson said, “The ongoing violence in Libya has disrupted the economy and left far too many innocent Libyan citizens struggling to simply put food on the table.”

Military and intelligence sources say the coalition ran into financial difficulties because they missed realistically evaluating Qaddafi’s financial, military and political strength before launching operations against him in March. They are therefore running out of steam after four months without removing him from power. Some Western capitals and NATO circles are talking about prolonging the war until the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.

In March, we reported that the Libyan ruler had stashed most of his financial assets in cash, estimated at nearly $1 trillion, in underground hiding-places in the Libyan desert. The war’s planners, especially in London and Paris, declined to take this into account because they were sure they could topple him in days or, at most, weeks. His private fortune would then have been invested in building the New Libya.

This plan has faded from view.

Even now, under the continuous pressure of NATO bombardments, Qaddafi has a plentiful cash flow to fund his operations. The tribal chiefs in areas where his money is hidden remain loyal to the Libyan ruler and take good care of his money because it keeps them in funds and buttresses their own tribal power.

The West, in contrast, is struggling against a shortage of funds which has become one of the main obstacles to sustaining the war effort against him.

Wednesday, June 8, NATO tried ratcheting up the war effort in two ways:

• 1. Air assaults on the government compound in Bab Al Aziziya, Tripoli, were intensified to some 80 strikes in two days, a pitch unprecedented so far. Its object was to trigger a mutiny in the army units still loyal to Qaddafi and an uprising among the capital’s more than 3 million inhabitants.

This did not happen: The rockets landed mainly on empty buildings and bunkers, long evacuated after the first bombardments. The people who paid with their lives, therefore, were a few guards and passersby.
The thunderous assault on Tripoli formed the background to the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels Wednesday.

• 2. The twenty member-governments which have stayed out of the military action so far refused to be drawn in, in the face of the strong pitch made by NATO Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Sweden, a non-NATO participant, announced it was scaling down its involvement.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his last appearance at an alliance meeting, pointed to five countries that Washington would like to see play a greater part in the war: Germany, Poland, Turkey, Holland and Spain. But their defense ministers turned him down too.

Diplomats who took part in the meeting said that some of the participants openly admitted a “certain fatigue” beginning to set in among the eight NATO states committed to the war. Yet the Brussels meeting left those eight governments, led by Britain, France and Italy, to soldier on unaided in the drive to overthrow Qaddafi.

Despite US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s confident assertion that Qaddafi’s days were numbered, the downbeat atmosphere in Brussels infected the meeting in Abu Dhabi Thursday, June 10, when coalition foreign ministers committed to the Libyan operation met to discuss the fate of post-Qaddafi Libya.

While the participants were voluble in their support for the rebel cause, very little financial aid was put on the table.

Egypt was invited to join the group but declined: Cairo has its hands too full with grave domestic difficulties to be available for any role in the war on Qaddafi.

All the same, military sources report that this week saw a noticeable decline in Qaddafi’s military and political situation. Heavy NATO bombardments are managing to knock out some of his armies’ military and logistical supplies, while Russia and the countries of the African Union which backed him until now are now saying openly that it is time for him to go. They have embarked on diplomacy for ending the conflict and removing him from power.

Moscow has its own fish to fry: it is in the process of teaching the West a lesson that it will not be allowed to go off on its own and bomb an Arab capital like Tripoli without a UN Security Council mandate, which Russia says NATO has long overstepped. As holder of a Security Council veto, Russia has cited NATO’s  “inclusive bombing of Tripoli” as grounds for blocking the new Western draft resolution condemning another Arab government, Syria, and any Western intervention against the Assad regi

The violence on the U. S.-Mexican border and for many miles inside continues. An ominous new development is the discoverey of a DRUG CARTEL factory to build armed and armored assault vehicles. Both the Mexican and U. S, government have been more complicit than concerned over what is now the longest running of Americans Wars the 2^nd Mexicans-American War .Uncountable thousands have died in what is a slow motion shooting war.

Ninety years ago this year WONDER BRAD went on sale in Indianapolis, Indiana by Taggart Bakeries. The one a one half pound loaf of white bread with its white wrapper and red, yellow and blue balloons soon became ubiquitous as the first sliced loaf in America. It has remained so except for a brief period in World War II when the razor sharp slicing blade became too precious to disvert from the war effort.

The World War II and then Vietnam generations grew up clutching grilled cheese and PBJ sandwiched  with cups of Campbell ’s Soup. At least two generations have been raised on Wonder Bread. Despite a handful for new owners and changing tastes 150 million loaves a years are still baked by the now Hostress Brand headquartered in Texas.

A 13 year-old Florida boy is accused of “poisoning” his teacher by putting Clonidine in her coffee because she yelled at him in class. The teacher felt sleepy and sick at her stomach and went home. The prescription drug is used to treat night sweats - she is not reportedly suffering further ill effects.

Bernie Madoff’s stuff is being sold in an auction to raise money to pay back those he swindled. His underwear and shoes among a lot of other stuff have been sold. The swindler now age 71 has been sentenced to 150-years for cheating “investors” out of $65 billion in a Ponzi scheme.

Other inmates says Madoff is not apologetic and -s reportedly have said ” “F**K Them” when referrimg tos hisvictims.

A company is making an iPhone shoulder holster for the super nerds who like the idea of wearing a Dick Tracy-like get-up to quick draw their iPhone lashup.

 The Royal Canadien Mounted Police have arrested four Quebec men for counterfeiting hubcaps for Cadillacs, Audis, BMWs, Volkswagens and other GM products. 3,000 bogus bubcaps were seized.

When President Obama first took office, 39% of voters nationwide expected the economy to be stronger in a year. By July 2009, confidence that the economy would be stronger peaked at 45%. By the middle of 2010, just 37% expected the economy to be stronger in a year. Now, just 31% hold such optimism.

Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. Fifty-three (53%) at least somewhat disapprove.