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Israel Could Almost Certainly Devastate Iran’s Nuke Program But It Would Need Help to Keep It That Way

A new report titled “Can Military Strikes Destroy Iran’s Gas Centrifuge Program? Probably Not,” by The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) says the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program would require a sustained air combat campaign by the United States presumably because Israel couldn’t sustain it after its initial attacks. .

ISIS’s premise is that Iran’s nuclear program has been dispersed, concealed, and protected and this would rule out a limited air strike on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities. Destruction it says “would need multiple strikes against many sites.”

ISIS said because Teheran’s uranium enrichment program is based on gas centrifuges, they could be dispersed throughout Iran. Conversely Iraq and Syria had sought to develop nuclear weapons based on reactors it made both vulnerable to pinpoint strikes.

ISIS thinks that “Following an attack, Iran could quickly rebuild its centrifuge program in small, easily hidden facilities focused on making weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons,” the report, dated Aug. 7, said.

The two leading Iranian nuclear facilities were identified as Isfahan and Natanz. ISIS said the destruction of these two facilities would require “far more military ordinance than that used” to bomb Iraq’s Osirak reactor or Syria’s Al Kibar. Israel destroyed Osirak in 1981 and Al Kibar in 2007. ISIS does not describe how or if Israel could wipeout Isfahan and Natanz.

Absent ISIS opinion on that subjects it is very likely that Israel has sophisticated ordinance that it could almost certainly deliver spot on target with devastating results.

Further ISIS infers that Israel has likely mapped Iran’s nuclear facilities in detail it, most probably with on-ground agents as it did in Syria last fall. It does not discuss what would be “ball bearing plant equivalent” for Iran’s or where it is making precision centrifuge parts. Once know that becomes equivalent to destroying Nazi Germanys ability to make ball bearings for it was those steel balls that literally propelled Hitler’s war machines - so it is with the centrifuge parts factories.

The report says Isfahan was said to contain more than 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, a feeder gas that could facilitate the production of more than 30 nuclear weapons. Clearly destroying that would create a significant contamination problem for Iran and set Iran back many months and it a priority.

ISIS’s contention that Iran can somehow establish a cottage industry of thousands of centrifuges and effectively serialize the sequential refinement of purer and purer uranium 235 feels far fetched.

Whether ISIS’s report is spot on, flawed or of limited efficacy it does underscore the complexities involved.

ISIS said Western intelligence remains uncertain of the precise locations and vulnerabilities of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Personally I have little doubt Israel has and can apply the tactics necessary to badly damage Iran nuclear ambitions, and unless Iran suddenly shows a hitherto unseen willingness to be reasonable it is going to be proved, and sooner than later.

Edwards “Anti-Poverty PAC” and finance Chair Paid $114,000 and $15,000 or so a month to mother of Edwards alleged bastard daughter. Andrew Young and wife move into her exclusive Santa Barbara home.

Records indicate that an Edwards PAC, the One American Committee, which was set up to fight poverty, spent $114,000 for the production of several short Web-based videos. The videos were produced in 2006 by Rielle Hunter; the same woman with whom Edwards has belatedly admitted committing adultery.

A key question is, Why would Edwards direct his “anti-poverty” PAC to pay an arguably inflated price to a relatively inexperienced individual for three third rate videos?

Additionally, according to Fox News, Fred Baron, a Dallas lawyer and former campaign finance chairman for Edwards, gave money in the $15,000-a-month range to Hunter.

In addition to denying the adulterous sexual affair, the later night visit to Hunter and her bastard daughter at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Edwards is doing his best Sergeant Schultz routine claiming he had no knowledge of Baron’s payments and that he learned about the cash given to Hunter from the press. Hunter now lives in a rented multimillion dollar home in a gated section of Montecito, an exclusive area near Santa Barbara, Calif.

In a bizarre twist Andrew Young (a top Edwards aide who claimed to be the father of Hunter’s child) and his wife are reportedly roommates of Hunter at the Montecito home.

Hunter and business partner Mimi Hockman apparently set up Midline Groove Productions in 2006 to produce the Edwards Web videos. Its website has disappeared but the Edwards videos have resurfaced via an anonymous posting on YouTube.

Hillary Clinton supporters are now claiming it was Edwards who cost her the Democrat nomination, and had he emerged as the party nominee to have this scandal surface he could have eviscerated the Democratic Party. It is a bitter irony that Bill Clinton’s impeachment was for perjury over his sexual tryst with White House fellatrix Monica Lewinsky.

Hypocrisy of obstructionist minority, egotists and “nimbyism” harming everyone else.

Fifty-one percent of Californians support drilling off its coast bringing to 49 states that do support it. Some want to pursue only alternatives and most say do it all.

The Electric Power Research Institute estimates enough wave power can be extracted from coastal waters to account for about 15 percent of California’s electricity production. Wind could provide up to 110 percent, according to a Stanford University study published last year. Wind and Wave generated electricity could replace 125% of California’s electricity.

Offshore wind and wave technologies are promising, but untried. But, current wave technology is mature enough for demonstration testing.

Even before there are concrete plans to do either obstructionist are swarming all over the idea. Speculating about potential damage to the coast’s prized vistas and fish industry.

Northern California’s biggest utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., would connect such wind and wave produced electricity to the power grid.

The Recreational Fishing Alliance is skeptical. concerned wave power may interfere with fisheries as the buoys bob up and down in the waves. Their biggest complaint right now, however, is that local fishermen and residents have had no say in the planning. Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics, or FISH is battling for a role in the planning.

Both group frittered for months and missed a federal deadline has passed for gaining an official voice in the legal planning for the wave projects, alongside PG&E and federal energy regulators.

A 1982 paper predicted lack of potable water will be fighting words in 21st Century. Vancourver BC and its 117 inches of annual rainfall is one of largest fresh water sources on Earth. But, Canadian law forbids pipeline into U. S.

Los Angeles in a bid to cut down on water use by residents and businesses will quadruple fines for businesses and double them for residents and put 16 water police on patrol who will first hand out warnings, then cite people don’t listen and respond. Among other restrictions, lawns may not be watered between nine a.m. and four p.m., and restaurants won’t be offering free water anymore.

A decade ago “Water Police” roamed Santa Barbara streets tagging leaky water bibs, threatening residents with the temerity to wash their car in their own driveway, and a man names “Doctor Dirt” painted lawns green with vegetable dye. The Santa Barbara City Council spent $35 million on a reverse osmosis desalination plant that was immediately mothballed and now may spend $200,000 to “study” whether it can be brought back on line.

San Diego wants to build a $300 million desalination plant. Environmental Science and Technology on line points out desalination’s very high costs. Electricity. It says, accounts for 44% of the typical costs of producing drinking water with plants that use reverse osmosis. An energy rate hike of 25% pushes up water prices. Also, desalination can have environmental consequences. The discharge of the highly salty waste brine-often laced with chemicals and metals-can harm fish populations and accumulate in the food chain, the report points out.

Water will return as a planning issue. In Cambria, near San Simeon’s Hearst Castle, water meter’s were granted on a lottery system when the tiny tourist town opted out of the Colorado River water pipeline. All over water became and will again become a tool to limit growth and restrict development.

Governor Schwarzenegger is using the drought to promote a $12 billion bond issue that would fund new dam projects. The scheme is opposed by Democrats, who predictably argue that conservation is more important.

California has suffered drought-like conditions for several years, this winter was one of the driest on record. Rainfall in the Golden State during the winter months was 1.2 inches, or 22 per cent of the average for the 114 years since records began.

California and the West experienced periodic drought in 1987-89, 1976-1979, 1934 that created the fabled dust bowl as well as lesser droughts in the 1950s, and the devastation of the 1880s. What many people don’t recognize, however, is that over the past 400 years droughts have occurred several times per century (Priest et al., 1993; NOAA Paleoclimatological Program, 2000).

The politically correct explanation is this drought, the recent wildfires are a consequence of anthropomorphically induced climate change. What is certain is Californians are running out of potable water, nothing was done since the last drought and all sorts of harebrained schemes will be reintroduced. Then it will rain.

Conversely Voters Say (in other polls) They Still Don’t Know What Obama Stands For Or Who He Is.

Forty-eight percent told the Pew Research Center they’re heard too much about the Democratic candidate, Obama according to a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan center. Just 26 percent said the same about his Republican rival, John McCain.

According to an ongoing Pew study, Obama has appeared in more news stories this year and more people say they have heard more about him than McCain, the longtime Arizona senator who also ran for president in 2000.

Two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents said they’ve heard too much about Obama, as did a third of Democrats, a significant number.

Nearly four in 10 said they’ve been hearing too little about McCain _ about four times the number who said so about Obama. About half of Republicans, four in 10 independents and even a quarter of Democrats said they’ve not heard enough about the GOP candidate.

Forty-eight percent told the Pew Research Center poll say they’re hearing too much about the Democratic candidate, according to a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan center. Just 26 percent said the same about his Republican rival, John McCain.

According to an ongoing Pew study, Obama has appeared in more news stories this year and more people say they have heard more about him than McCain, the longtime Arizona senator who also ran for president in 2000.

Two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents said they’ve heard too much about Obama, as did a third of Democrats, a significant number.

Nearly four in 10 said they’ve been hearing too little about McCain _ about four times the number who said so about Obama. About half of Republicans, four in 10 independents and even a quarter of Democrats said they’ve not heard enough about the GOP candidate.

How much such media bias and resulting voter fatgue is contributing to tightning polls is uncertain.

Despite Obama’s most vociferous denials and explanation about religion and patriotism - as recently as Monday - issues still haunt him and concern many voters

During a “town hall” meeting this week at Baldwin Wallace College near Cleveland, Ohio a man wearing press credentials asked Barack Obama why he had not opened the meeting by leading the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance. Obama countered by asking the man to do it himself and he did.

Asked why he had interrupted the event, the man said: “He (Obama) said it was a town-hall meeting” and open to the public. He expressed dismay that Obama hadn’t called for the pledge himself, saying, “You all learned the pledge in the first grade.”

Obama’s staff said they did not know the man who was equipped with a “press badge” and carrying a professional looking telephoto lens and did not know what news organization he represented, if any.

In addition to reopening the “flag” issue raised earlier when Obama muffed his response as to why he was not wearing a flag lapel pin and later started wearing one.

The “reporters” question raises the question of whether or not Obama, who attended a Muslim and for two years a Catholic elementary schools from the time he was six in Jakarta, Indonesia, learned the Pledge of Allegiance to the United State flag. His step father was a Muslim and mother an avowed atheist or agnostic. His mother sent Barack back to the United States when he was 11 or 12 although that is unclear.

In 1988 Dukakis was defeated in part because he vetoed a bill requiring students to say the Pledge of Allegiance so the issue shouldn’t be dismissed. This incident is almost certain to resurrect a video clip of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) in which Obama did not place his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem at a campaign event in Indianola, Iowa.

Monday in Independence, Mo. Obama went out of his way to make a point he will not permit criticism or even questioning of his patriotism and then inexplicably left the door wide open a day later in Ohio.

There is no evidence that the “reporter” was sent by anyone and Obama’s camp has not alledged that.

Its Unanamous Americans In Every State Support Offshore Oil Drilling - But Congress Goes On Vacation.

At the same moment oil companies announced the biggest profit in world history - exceeding the gross domestic product of Canada — Californians who have been the lone holdouts to allowing oil drilling off its shore for the first time favor it. According to a new Public Policy Institute of California a statewide survey finds 51-46% demanding it be allowed. That makes it unanimous from coast-to-coast that Americans want more offshore drilling.

But, Congress remains out of touch, and deadlocked in petty partisan bickering. A Democratic proposal to counter oil market speculation fell victim to the drilling dispute, failing 276-151 — nine votes short of the two-thirds needed for approval because the measure had been offered under expedited rules imposed by the Democrats to avoid GOP attempts to attach an offshore drilling provision.

A Senate bill, also aimed at curbing abuses in the oil markets, has been stalled for two weeks as Republicans have insisted it be opened to votes on a variety of other energy issues, principally offshore oil and gas drilling in areas long under development bans because of environmental concerns.

“This is no substitute for a real bill on drilling,” declared House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio, who accused Democrats of using the oil market speculation measure to “divert attention” from their refusal to allow a vote on offshore oil drilling.

The House bill would have given new authorities to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to oversee oil markets, increase the agency’s staff and set new requirements on certain trading. Market critics have argued that excessive speculation has contributed to the soaring oil prices.

At the White House, President Bush for the second time in two days called for lifting the offshore drilling bans, saying the Democratic-run Congress was letting down the American people by refusing to allow votes on the matter which the consensus is that the ban on offshore oil drilling would be lifted.

Instead of acting on oil independence Congress hypocritically voted to go on vacation leaving Americans to twist slowly in the wind and suffering from extortion at the hands of our enemies, exploited by oil companies, and ignored by their “representatives.”

What do you think about Obama’s comments and what did he mean about Alabamans?

The resurrection and reexamination of a then largely unnoticed New York Times interview is again making ripples and raising questions about Barack Obama.

“I was a little Jakarta street kid,” Barack Obama told the New York Times a year ago, and he said he once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school. He said as president he is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics - and more likely to be aware of their nationalism - since he once studied the Koran with them.

Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent according to the New York Times article by Nicholas Kristof who also reported Obama saying “It’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks.”

Obama also described the call to Islamic prayers as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Sean Hannity discussed Kristof’s article today, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 on his afternoon radio program. What do you think?

Change Means Different Not Better

The German magazine Der Spiegel says of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin: “Huge Crowds Left with Mixed Feelings.” CNN’s Candy Crowley reported an “absence of euphoria” at the event. A huge crowd showed up to see what all the falderal is about and to hear substance left scratching their heads. His kumbaya-like message: “The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down” didn’t ring true. His comparison to the Berlin Wall was vbery shallow — the Berlin wall was a political wall that divided one people. It separated Germans from other Germans, a far cry from distinctions between nations and religions that Obama apparently wants to obliterate. A “World government” thesis reflected in Obama’s desire and even plans to shovel a trillion dollars to a gigantic U. N. world plan.

For Obama, differences seem to be what cause the world’s problems. We endlessly hear the story of his mixed-race background and his translation of his personal history into a message of the meaninglessness of difference. There are vast differences and strong nationalism between the French, English and Germans who do not share common language or cultures unlike the U. S. For instance efforts for a European Union constitution that would establish links in Europe going beyond economics and extending to politics have thus far failed.

It may come as a surprise to Obama, but for Christians, for Muslims, and for Jews, their differences do not amount to barriers to a better world but sources of meaning that define themselves and the world, says Star Parker in a Monday article. That contradicts with Obama’s idea that a homogeneous, tan colored America. A politician with a unification agenda is the penultimate of arrogance believing he/she knows best.

Parker says, what Americans “should demand from Obama is clarification of what, if anything, he sees unique about the America that he claims to loves so much. For a man whose ideal seems to be the global village, with no barriers or differences, is there anything special about the United States that makes it distinct from other nations.” For two centuries diversity has been viewed as one of the greatest strengths of America. Obama seems to assert that was and is wrong.

What is the distinction between the “proud citizen of the United States” and the “fellow citizen of the world?” Those in Berlin heard none and many went home legitimately confused. So am I.

Mundus vult decipi ergo decipiatur translated means “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.”

It is no small irony that this Latin phrase appears in the bottom right corner of the JOKER in a deck of bicycle playing cards.

Congressional hypocrites are reportedly having secret meetings about increasing domestic oil production because they are under increasing pressure to act. At the same time they are spreading increasing rations of manure mis and disinformation. Here’s a summary of basic facts to help you sift the wheat from chaff.

A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. Domestically produced oil amounts to 41 % of the oil we consumed in March of this year. Canada supplies 12% of our nation’s oil and 20 percent of all the oil we import.; Saudi Arabia (7 percent and 13 percent); Venezuela (6 percent and 11 percent); Nigeria (6 percent and 10 percent); and Mexico (5 percent and 8 percent).

All Persian Gulf countries account for only 16% of our foreign oil imports each year from 2005 to 2007. In fact, our Persian Gulf imports declined most of this decade, from a 15-year high of a little more than 1 billion barrels in 2001 to 791.9 million barrels in 2007.

One barrel of crude oil (which is 42 gallons), yields about 19.6 gallons of gasoline. The other 22.4 gallons go into the products like: diesel and jet fuels, heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas, lubricants, asphalt, plastics, synthetic fibers, detergents, fertilizers, ink, crayons, bubble gum, deodorant, tires, and heart valves.

We consumed about 390 million gallons of gas a day last year in our cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, boats, farm implements, and construction and landscaping equipment. Back when crude was $68 a barrel (that was just last year), it accounted for about 58 percent of the price of a gallon of gasoline. The rest of the price came from refining costs (17 percent), federal and state taxes (15 percent), and distribution and marketing (10 percent).

By the way, the price of crude accounts for about 77 percent of the cost of gas at $4 a gallon.

Californians pay 63.9 cents a gallon in state and federal fuel taxes, the most in the nation. plus an additional 6% state sales tax, with some paying another 1.25% county sales tax plus applicable local sales taxes. Same in Illinois , where Chicago motorists pay 12.75 cents per gallon on top of the 57.9 cents per gallon in state and federal taxes. Some Illinois motorists also pay a 6.25-percent sales tax. It’s ironic that in such states higher per gallon gasoline prices literally shovels tons of tax money to the treasury.

Politicians, pundits, and other TV talking heads don’t like to provide these answers, because facts get in the way of positions that pander to the mob. We don’t point fingers at Canada , because it’s de rigueur to paint the Saudis with the broad brush of blame. Folks float the idea of a moratorium on state and federal gasoline taxes without explaining its minimal impact on gas prices, or without mentioning the $3 sales tax some motorists pay on top of a $50 fill up. Policymakers don’t explain that oil trades in the dollar, which is weak vis-Ã -vis the Euro, because that would require solutions for strengthening the greenback.
And, it’s easier for simple minds to convince simpler minds to impose windfall-profit taxes on pension funds and owners of Individual Retirement Accounts who invest in oil companies than to take on credit card issuers charging double- and triple-digit interest rates to the millions of people using plastic to pay for food and fuel. Talk about irony.

And, we sure wouldn’t want to impose a windfall-profit tax on someone who goes from making $56,000 a year as, say, an Illinois legislator, to $165,000 a year as, say, a U.S. senator, an increase of nearly 200 percent (not counting book deals or real-estate related loans).

Edited from an article by John Davi