Family calls… We have had a situation come up that I have to attend to – I will be absent for approx. 30 days or more. My apologies folks, but family comes first… Take care and watch the news and your so-called leaders very carefully.
Sphere ItCourage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. Amelia Earhart
Family calls… We have had a situation come up that I have to attend to – I will be absent for approx. 30 days or more. My apologies folks, but family comes first… Take care and watch the news and your so-called leaders very carefully.
Sphere ItFrom American Congress for Truth:
comment by Jerry Gordon
We consider Katherine Kersten, columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune among the most courageous journalists in America. We have posted on her columns throwing a ‘klieg’ light on dhimmitude in the American heartland. Last fall it was about a sex segregated quiet room turned into a Mosque at the Normandale Community [...]
Sphere ItFrom American Congress for Truth:
by Jerry Gordon
We have sent letters to both Business Week and Fortune magazines regarding placement of the fraudulent Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation ad that conflated the brass Vatican Pontifical medal-that any visitor to the Vatican City gift shop could purchase into a honor from His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. The ad misrepresented that and [...]
Sphere ItFrom Muth’s Truths:
By: Chuck Muth
The un-COLA Special Session
by Chuck Muth
June 15, 2008
In order to trim an additional $60 million from current government spending, all manner of governmental special interests are clamoring for exemptions. Don’t cut education. Don’t cut social services. Don’t cut public safety. Don’t cut transportation. And whatever you do, don’t cut government worker pay raises.
OK, let’s just concede for argument’s sake that there isn’t a dime in any of those areas to spare – a ridiculous assumption, to be sure. But let’s play along. Can we come up with $60 million of government spending cuts from non-essential government services, programs or departments which aren’t giving taxpayers much bang for the buck? Let’s give it a shot using information gleaned from the official Nevada Legislative Appropriations Report for the 2007-09 biennium.
Here’s a good one. We already spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make K-12 education available to every citizen of Nevada (and quite a few non-citizens as well; but that’s a different argument for a different day). Now, if someone doesn’t take advantage of those 13 years of free education and fails to get a high school diploma, whose fault is that? Should taxpayers be on the hook for an additional $20 million-plus per year for “adult high school diploma programs for the general public and for the state’s prison inmates”? I don’t think so.
CUT! There’s $40 million-plus right off the bat.
How about the $7 million-plus per year program of paying newly-hired teachers “signing bonuses?” Signing bonuses? This isn’t the NBA, the NFL or MLB. I’m betting not one of those teachers can slam-dunk a basketball over Kobe or hit a Roger Clemens fastball.
CUT! There’s another $15 million.
One of my favorites: The Department of Cultural Affairs. We’re talking about a savings of some $20 million per year alone just by x-ing out this non-essential department completely. Of course, that means taxpayers wouldn’t be spending $120,000 to restore an antique railroad car or a half million dollars to buy some old slot machines, but I’m willing to make that sacrifice.
CUT! There’s another $40 million-plus.
The anti-Yucca Mountain nuclear waste office hasn’t accomplished much of anything other than slowing down the process a bit. The repository is still on track and has entered the final approval stage before construction begins. In other words, the office is not only non-essential (fighting Yucca, after all, is the job of our members of Congress), but totally ineffective. This office gets more money than the state Controller’s office and is nothing more than a rest home for under-qualified high-priced bureaucrats.
CUT! There’s $10 million.
How about $2.5 million a year to publish “Nevada Magazine”? Exactly how is that an essential expense for taxpayers, especially during these tough budgetary times?
CUT! Another $5 million saved.
Now, I don’t have a calculator handy, but I’m pretty sure that if you add those few items up we’re looking at way more than $60 million in savings. So the idea that we can’t trim $60 million without hurting the poor, the infirm, the elderly or, God forbid, “the children” is ludicrous. Hand me that meat cleaver.
Now let’s briefly address the idea being floated to temporarily delay a scheduled 4 percent cost-of-living (COLA) pay increase for government workers in order to save $60 to $100 million. Here’s the thing: Delaying the COLA would be quick and simple despite the howls of protest which would inevitably come from those government workers. And knowing how much I viscerally dislike government, you’d think I’d be in favor of delaying the COLA’s, as well.
Not.
Delaying the COLA’s is a gimmick. It’s smoke-and-mirrors. It’s just another scheme to kick the government-thinning can down the road yet again.
Not every government worker is non-essential. Not every government worker is a water-cooler slacker. And not every government worker treats the taxpaying public like the “soup Nazi” on the old Jerry Seinfeld show. The fact remains, there ARE legitimate functions of government and we need conscientious, talented workers to make the government trains run efficiently and on time.
You can’t blame the government worker who is hired to do a job which is non-essential or performs a “service” the government shouldn’t be providing in the first place. For example, why is the government providing taxpayer-funded roadside automobile services when we have private companies and AAA already providing that exact same thing?
If we’re ever going to get government pared down to its leanest, most basic level; where it’s only providing legitimate government services – such as fire, police, courts and road construction (NOT education, but that’s another topic for another day) – then it’s time to start laying off some government employees rather than delaying the 4 percent pay raises the Legislature, probably foolishly, promised government workers in the 2007 session.
In the private sector during tough economic times, you rarely penalize the essential, productive workers just to save the jobs of non-essential and non-productive workers. You first trim your workforce from the bottom up. You clear out the dead wood. Only THEN do take a look at more drastic measures if the revenue problem doesn’t improve.
Delaying the COLA’s is a cop-out. It once again – like tapping the rainy day fund and delaying capital construction projects (which, ironically, actually DO stimulate the economy by providing real jobs) or eliminating one-shot pork expenditures – puts off the VERY hard task of setting government spending priorities and slaying some sacred, non-essential cows.such as the Equal Rights Commission and the totally useless Ethics Commission.
Politically-speaking, if Gov. Gibbons and Republican legislators would completely get rid of some non-essential government programs or departments, they’d hear some screaming from a few government employees who would be forced to go out and get “real” jobs like the rest of us. But if he delays the COLA, he’s gonna hear screaming from ALL of the government employees, including those whose jobs are not only legitimate, but whose performance has been stellar and meritorious.
What to cut: the COLA.or the Nevada Arts Council? This one is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the Legislature will be making this decision. Yikes! Talk about a no-brainer.
Sphere ItFrom Citizen Outreach:
By: Chuck Muth
EXCITING DOUBLE ISSUE!
For reasons explained better below, I’ve been away from my computer for much of the past week. Will try to make up for the deficiency with this “fun-filled, star-studded, action-packed” special Saturday double-issue of Nevada News & Views…
DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
This Internet thingy Al Gore invented still has some bugs in it. For reasons I neither understand nor can explain, all emails sent to me yesterday from around 9 a.m. to about 6 p.m. disappeared into cyber-space. So if you sent me something important during those hours, please resend.
COMING FULL CIRCLE
Way back in 2002, the Muth clan loaded up the truck and moved from Las Vegas to Washington, DC. But living in and around the nation’s capital wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. So we moved back to Nevada in the fall of 2005, but opted to try out northern Nevada. So we set up camp in Carson City.
And while living in our state capital has been an absolutely wonderful experience, my business interests now primarily lie in Las Vegas. In addition to moving the annual Conservative Leadership Conference to there this fall, I recently signed on to do political commentary/analysis for Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV-Channel 13 for the duration of the 2008 election season.
Plus…I just don’t like cold weather.
So this past week Gia, the kids and I drove down to Las Vegas and bought a house in Henderson. With any luck at all, we should close and be back “home” by the end of July. I can’t wait to invite Francis Allen and Garn Mabey over for margaritas!
TUBE TIP
Jon Ralston, Dean of Nevada Political Punditry, discussed the Gibbons vs. Gibbons divorce battle this week on his “Face-to-Face” television program with former Nevada GOP executive director Ryan Erwin and liberal blogger Hugh Jackson.
Erwin turned in a masterful performance, refusing to “spin” and leveling some candid and legitimate criticisms of Gov. Gibbons for how the matter has been handled to date. This is the kind of frank and honest commentary which often gets me in trouble with Republican Party pooh-bahs, but if you’re going to have any credibility with the media you have to call it straight even when it involves political allies. And to his credit, Erwin did exactly that.
If you missed it, catch it HERE on the web.
ABOUT THE GUV’S POLL NUMBERS
A Las Vegas Review-Journal poll this week showed that only 3 percent of those surveyed in Nevada think Gov. Jim Gibbons is doing a “great” job. However, if you drop Gibbons’ co-chiefs-of-staff Diane Cornwall and Mike Dayton from the survey group, that number drops to…well, um…zero. But look on the bright side. Things can only get better from here. I think.
ABOUT THE BUDGET SHORTFALL
Media reports on the special session of the Legislature which Gov. Gibbons has called to address the growing revenue shortfall may be confusing a number of Nevadans.
It’s often reported that there is a $1 billion hole to plug, but that’s a little misleading. While the overall shortfall is approaching $1 billion when compared to the budget the Legislature passed in 2007, we’re really only looking at about $60 million now. That’s because the governor has already filled about $914 million of that shortfall – and as his press secretary has pointed out, “without firing an employee, raising taxes or providing any truly large cuts into state services.”
The special session called for June 23rd won’t be trying to make up a $1 billion revenue shortfall. It’ll be trying to make up a $60 million revenue shortfall. That’s a BIG difference.
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
By the way, Lorne Malkiewich of the Legislative Counsel Bureau estimates that the cost of convening a special five-day session of the Legislature will be about $300,000. Newly-minted Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford says this is a “waste (of) taxpayer dollars.”
Sen. Horsford must be using public school math. You see, it will cost taxpayers $300,000 to call a special session in which AT LEAST $60 million will be cut from what taxpayers are currently being forced to spend. So rather than “costing” taxpayers $300 thousand to hold the special session, the special session will actually result in a net SAVINGS to taxpayer of AT LEAST $59.7 million.
With a return on investment like that, maybe we should have special sessions every month!
THE TWO FACES OF BARBARA BUCKLEY
Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-ACLU), had a veritable conniption over Gov. Jim Gibbons calling for a special session to address the ongoing budget challenges.
“So, the governor is saying he believes we have a budget crisis, but is proposing no solutions to deal with the budget crisis,” Buckley whined yesterday afternoon. “I find that ludicrous. To now just abdicate his responsibility to come up with suggestions to ensure a balanced budget just defies logic. It shows an incredible lack of leadership not to have identified a problem, proposed a solution and reached out to all legislators to get buy in for that solution.”
Folks, that’s pure, unadulterated political bullspit, with more than a pinch of hypocrisy thrown in for seasoning. This is a potential future gubernatorial candidate trying to have her cake and eat it, too.
When the state’s budget problems first hit radar screens last December, Gov. Gibbons proposed a number of measures to address the problem, including instructions to government department heads to prepare recommendations for across-the-board reductions in spending increases of 4 percent. Upon taking that bull by the horns and exhibiting leadership on the problem, Barbara Buckley and a number of Democrats howled like scalded dogs over not being involved in the decisions. And they’ve been yelping at the governor’s heels ever since.
But now that the governor has called the Legislature back into session, Barbara Buckley suddenly wants to have no part of the process. Apparently she would rather continue sitting up in the peanut gallery throwing spitballs. She doesn’t want to be part of finding a solution to a serious problem. She just wants to lay blame. THAT is irresponsible. THAT is a lack of leadership. THAT is Barbara Buckley.
CHEAP SHOT ARTISTS
A little reality check here. This budget problem in Nevada has been ongoing for several months now. It’s nothing new. We’ve all seen the possibility of a special session coming for weeks. And if delaying cost-of-living increases for state workers is to be considered as a means of addressing the problem, it (a) has to be done by the Legislature and (b) has to be done before the raises are scheduled to take effect on July 1st.
So calling a five-day special session to begin on June 23rd is exactly what has to be done and when it needs to be done. But that didn’t stop Speaker Barbara Buckley (D) and her “mini-me” from Reno, Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie (D), from using the special session to take some cheap, personal and undignified partisan shots at Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons.
“I’m convinced the only reason the special session is being called is to change the subject,” Buckley is quoted today as saying to the Nevada Appeal’s Geoff Dornan. “He’s tired of stories about his text-life.”
My, how clever. ROTFLMAO. How long did it take you to come up with that one, Madame Speaker?
“Clearly (calling the special session is) an attempt to change the conversation from his disastrous personal life,” bawk, bawk, bawked Leslie to Anjeanette Damon of the Reno Gazette-Journal. “He’s almost acting like one of our bipolar clients. He swings from being rational and reasonable to completely erratic behavior.”
Nice. Denigrating folks suffering from bipolar disease for political purposes. What a class act.
Buckley and Leslie should be ashamed of themselves for sinking to this level of political dialogue. This is the kind of childish, unhinged, cheap-shot rhetoric one would expect from the likes of Hugh Jackson over at the Las Vegas Gleaner, not the Speaker of the Assembly or the Chairwoman of the Committee on Health and Human Services.
Actually, no. It is EXACTLY the kind of behavior I’ve come to expect from this pair of very partisan, very liberal legislators. Democrats should be so proud.
SPEAKING OF BEING FULL OF CRAP
It didn’t take long for the teachers union to weigh in on the upcoming special session and the possibility that an expected 4 percent pay hike for teachers may be delayed to ease the budget crunch. Claudia Briggs, Director of Communications & Special Projects for the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA) released a statement late yesterday afternoon which included this asinine accusation:
“(Gov. Jim Gibbons is) trying to solve the problem he has created on the backs of educators.”
Considering how divorced from reality these union people are, combined with their willingness to say absolutely anything without regard for truthfulness, is it any wonder public education in this state is in such dismal shape?
First, Gov. Gibbons didn’t create the revenue shortfall problem. He had no control over the rising price of gasoline nationally. He had no control over the national problem of bank foreclosures. He had no control over the fact that fewer people can afford to take a Vegas vacation and spend as much money at the blackjack tables as before. To suggest that Jim Gibbons “created” this problem is patently absurd.
Secondly, Gov. Gibbons has already “cut” $914 million dollars to fill the budget shortfall. But now it might be necessary to delay a pay increase for all government employees to make up an additional $60 million. And this equates to solving the problem “on the back of educators”? How do these people sleep at night?
SPEAKING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Nevada Board of Education has determined that answering 36 out of 60 multiple-guess general science questions correctly constitutes “passing” for the new science proficiency test. So getting a score of 60 – which in the old days was considered a failing grade – is now considered passing by the Nevada Board of Education. So much for vigorous standards.
Nevertheless, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that 41 percent of high school sophomores STILL flunked the test…and this was reported as “good” news! Richard Vineyard, an education department bureaucrat, actually had the stones to tell the paper that the results “were much better than I hoped.”
His expectations must not have reached curb level.
TIME TO PULL PLUG ON PAULTARD CONVENTION
As you already know, Ron Paul “officially” pulled the plug on his presidential campaign this week. In a prepared statement, the Republican congressman from Texas wrote:
“Now what about the Republican Convention in St. Paul? Our delegates will attend, of course, and I expect our contingent to have a visible presence there. Without disruption, we will do whatever we can to influence the party and its platform, and return the GOP to its limited-government roots.”
Sure hope Wayne Terhune and the small band of fringe Paul supporters trying to conduct their own rogue convention in Nevada got the memo. The key words in Paul’s letter, of course, are “Without disruption.” That means attending the official Nevada Republican Convention in Reno on July 26th and participating “to influence the party and its platform,” not conducting a separate and unauthorized “convention” of their own in an effort to…well, disrupt things.
Any bets on whether or not the Nevada Paultards heed their leader’s words and pull the plug on their rogue confab?
THE CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY
“Amid reports that (Ron) Paul would formally end his presidential campaign, the iconoclastic Texas Republican congressman instead told supporters Thursday night that he intended to lead a ‘Campaign for Liberty’ movement to give libertarians a bigger say within the GOP. . . . Chuck Muth, a libertarian Republican activist in Carson City, Nev., welcomed Paul’s move. He said the Republican Party needed to find ideological room for libertarians or lose them to the independent Libertarian Party, whose presidential candidate is Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia.”
- Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times, 6/13/08
(Correction: I’m a FORMER Republican; I’m now registered independent, like Nevada)
EMBRACE THE WASTE
“Nevada’s lawmakers continue to blast a plan for a waste repository – not dump – in our state. I think it should be (Sen. Harry) Reid and (Sen. John) Ensign panting for air, not this project. It is not a project whose time has passed; rather it has become a fear-mongering issue for Reid and Ensign. As much as this project has been scrutinized, they have not proven to me it is not a valuable resource for Nevada. Perhaps our elected officials need as much scrutiny. Wake up, Nevada. This valuable commodity is here. Let it work for this great state.”
- Bill Strickland of Elko, Reno Gazette-Journal, 6/12/08
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Most public employees get a step increase of 4-1/2 % already. The 4% COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) is in addition to that. Again, the 4% COLA is on top of the 4-1/2%.”
- Republican Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert in a memo to GOP caucus members yesterday
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
Despite death threats and an organized campaign to prevent him from speaking publicly, Larry Sinclair (right) says in a news release earlier today that on June 18 at 2 p.m. (Eastern) he will, for the first time, reveal the corroborating evidence for his claim that on Nov. 6 and 7, 1999, he met Barack Obama at a gay bar where Obama arranged for the purchase of federal Schedule II drugs which he and Obama thereafter ingested before engaging in high-risk, homosexual activities.
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
Gay and lesbian couples in California will be allowed to exchange wedding vows legally today, beginning at 5:01 p.m. (Pacific), as a result of a California Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage. Before exchanging vows, however, those couples might benefit from the down-home farm logic contained in the Come on Down to the Farm video below, courtesy Lewis and Lewis:
Sphere ItFrom The Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media:
For years now I have maintained that the hottest and most important war is the war of ideas or rather the propaganda war unleashed by ideologues in both the East and the West. The Arab and Islamist world is canny, strategic, and clever; they are also unbelievably bold liars. (Remember the Al Dura Affaire and the alleged massacre in Jenin). The politically correct West falls for the lies and treats them as sacred political truth.
Here are some recent examples of how the West is actively and foolishly collaborating in Big Lies to its own disadvantage.
Today, the BBC has defended the “grisly beheading of a Muslim by a Christian zealot in a new drama. The beheading scene comes in an episode dealing with the excavation of medieval soldiers from the time of the Crusades. It leads to the hunt for the cross on which Jesus was crucified which the Crusaders may have brought back from the Holy Land. Also keen to find the cross are right-wing Christian fanatics who also want to use violence to drive Muslims out of Britain.”
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
My fellow St. Louis-area blogger Gateway Pundit reports today that Al-Qaeda has opened a children’s camp to teach suicide bombing. That news comes as no surprise to me. Fourteen months ago, I published a post, Top 5 Signs Your Neighbors Might Be Terrorists, which mentions the existence of these camps. I even designed a poster about it. Take a look below:
Sphere ItFrom Bob McCarty Writes:
About two months ago, I began receiving robo-calls from Michael E. Carter, a candidate for Missouri’s lieutenant governor post who is exploiting the average Joe’s immense dislike of automated phone calls (a.k.a., “robo-calls”) by — you guessed it — using the very tactic he purports to dislike. Below is a chronological review of my communications with Carter:
Sphere ItDomestic ‘honour’ Violence Cost Britain 25.3 Billion Pounds
comment by Jerry Gordon
The cost of legal migration to the U.K. just grew by more than $50 billion (23.3 billion pounds). It’s all about ‘domestic honor violence’ perpetrated by South Asian immigrants, especially Pakistani and Bengladeshis. Muslim sectarian support for such domestic violence, including ‘honor killings’ is appalling in a country prized for its [...]
Dhimmis are “Mad For Saudi Madrassas” in Virginia
comment by Jerry Gordon
Those of you who read our post this morning on the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in northern Virginia may have clicked on the link and watched the duplicitous hearing of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors hearing on May 19th concerning the renewal of the ISA lease during which several members [...]
The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: FrontPageInterview with Andrew Bostom
comment by Jerry Gordon
My buddy Dr. Andrew Bostom, Andy, as many of us who know him personally, call him is interviewed by Jamie Glazov in this FrontPage Magazine article about the subject of his latest book: “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism.” Andy’s first volume, ‘The Legacy of Jihad’ set a standard for historiographic analysis [...]
3 Jihadis in Toledo, Ohio guilty of plot against US troops in Iraq
comment by Jerry Gordon
For once a US court has reached an appropriate verdict for home grown Jihadis bent on fighting our troops in Iraq. As this AP report reported: Mohammad Amawi, 28, Marwan El-Hindi, 45, and Wassim Mazloum, 27, face maximum sentences of life in prison. Prosecutors said the men were learning to shoot guns and [...]
“What Virginia’s Islamic Saudi Academy Doesn’t Want You to Know:” plenty
Comment by Jerry Gordon
This revelation by Patrick Poole in today’s Pajamas Media report of a cover up of sexual abuse at the embattled Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in McLean, Virginia is one more indictment of why the Saudi embassy-backed institution has to go under intense public scrutiny at both the local and Federal [...]
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
MANILA, Philippines — Suspected Al Qaeda-linked militants have set a Tuesday deadline for the payment of a ransom for the release of a popular TV news anchor and her cameraman, who were kidnapped in the southern Philippines, a negotiator said.
Alvarez Isnaji, the mayor of Sulu province’s Indanan township, said suspected Abu Sayyaf militants phoned him Monday morning and said talks to secure the release of ABS-CBN anchor Ces Drilon would be called off if the ransom were not paid before Tuesday. Isnaji is one of the negotiators in the talks.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Hundreds of Taliban fighters took over several villages in southern Afghanistan on Monday just outside the region’s largest city, and NATO and Afghan forces were redeploying to meet the threat, officials said.
Mohammad Farooq, the government leader in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, said around 500 Taliban fighters moved into his district and took over several villages.
Arghandab lies just north of Kandahar city — the Taliban’s former stronghold — and a tribal leader from the region warned that the militants could use the cover from Arghandab’s grape and pomegranate orchards to mount an attack on Kandahar itself.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia plans to increase its oil production by 200,000 barrels a day next month, the kingdom’s oil minister told U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday, according to Ban’s spokesman.
The U.N. secretary-general met with Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi in the port city of Jiddah during a one-day trip to the world’s largest oil producer.
Sphere ItFrom Reuters:
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iranian police have launched a more extensive crackdown on “social corruption” such as women flouting Islamic dress codes, the Farhang-e Ashti newspaper reported on Monday.
“In its wider crackdown which has started from Saturday, police will confront those who appear in public in an indecent way and will also seal off shops selling un-Islamic dress,” the newspaper said, quoting an unnamed police official.
Sphere ItWe’ve absolutely lost our minds – this court is the worst ever to rule in the US… From Yahoo! News:
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for some foreigners who overstay their visas to seek to remain in the United States legally.
The court ruled 5-4 Monday that someone who is here illegally may withdraw his voluntarily agreement to depart and continue to try to get approval to remain in the United States.
The decision essentially embraced a proposed Justice Department regulation governing the treatment of similar cases in the future.
Sphere ItFrom BREITBART.com:
A US citizen was charged Monday with insulting a Singapore judge in his blog by saying she was “prostituting herself”, a court document said.
In the blog, Gopalan Nair criticised a recent legal hearing at which Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, testified in a defamation case they filed against an opposition party.
Nair, 58, is charged with insulting Justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean by saying she was “prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders,” a court document said.
Justice Ang presided over the hearing.
Sphere ItFrom FT.com:
By Krishna Guha in Washington
Published: June 15 2008 22:22 | Last updated: June 15 2008 22:22
The US is concerned that the illicit network set up by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan may have distributed designs for nuclear warheads as well as uranium enrichment technology.
Stephen Hadley, US national security adviser, told reporters on Sunday: “We are very concerned about the A.Q. Khan network, both in terms of what they were doing by purveying enrichment technology and also the possibility that there would be weapons-related technology associated with it.”
Sphere ItFrom IHT:
By David E. Sanger
Published: June 15, 2008
WASHINGTON: American and international investigators say that they have found the electronic blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon on computers that belonged to the nuclear smuggling network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist, but that they have not been able to determine whether they were sold to Iran or the smuggling ring’s other customers.
The plans appear to closely resemble a nuclear weapon that was built by Pakistan and first tested exactly a decade ago. But when confronted with the design by officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year, Pakistani officials insisted that Khan, who has been lobbying in recent months to be released from the loose house arrest that he has been under since 2004, did not have access to Pakistan’s weapons designs.
In interviews in Vienna, Islamabad and Washington over the past year, officials have said that the weapons design was far more sophisticated than the blueprints discovered in Libya in 2003, when Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi gave up his country’s nuclear weapons program. Those blueprints were for a Chinese nuclear weapon that dated to the mid-1960s, and investigators found that Libya had obtained them from the Khan network.
Sphere ItFrom the Washington Post:
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 15, 2008; A01
An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.
The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.
The computer contents—among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data seized—were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which is investigating the now-defunct smuggling ring previously led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Sphere ItFrom BREITBART.com:
He’s been described as Hitler and a member of the Klu Klux Klan by Hispanic critics and immigrant rights groups, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio prefers to see himself as an equal opportunities advocate. “We lock everybody up,” he says.
Arpaio, the self-styled “toughest sheriff in America” has ruled his fifedom in Arizona’s Maricopa County with a steely, zero-tolerance that has enraged human rights activists but delighted headline-writers the world over.
Demonstrations and picket lines follow his sweeps of largely Hispanic neighborhoods. He’s been criticized by mayors and the governor of Arizona.
Sphere ItFrom Yahoo! Finance:
LONDON (Reuters) – Oil surged to a new record high on Monday of nearly $140 a barrel, propelled by weakness in the U.S. dollar which offset the bearish impact of plans by Saudi Arabia to boost output.
U.S. light, sweet crude for July delivery was up $3.74 at $138.60 a barrel by 1317 GMT, after falling as much as $1.40 a barrel, or about 1 percent, earlier in the session.U.S. crude set a record high of $139.89 a barrel.
London Brent crude was up $3.05 at $138.16.
Sphere ItFrom the Jerusalem Post:
Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from European banks to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Teheran’s disputed nuclear ambitions, Reuters reported Monday, quoting an Iranian weekly.
The report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz stated that “About $75 billion of Iran’s foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad’s order.”
“Part of Iran’s assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks,” Mohsen Talaie, Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
The Pakistan foreign ministry summoned the Afghan ambassador to Islamabad Monday, June 16, to hear a formal protest and a warning that his government would retaliate if Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack. Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country would brook no interference in its affairs.
In his strongest language yet, President Hamid Karzai threatened Sunday, June 15, that Afghanistan would send troops into Pakistan to kill insurgents.
Karzai spoke two days after Taliban fighters freed 1,000 inmates from Kandahar’s main jail, including 400 of their members.
He warned that by seeking out Taliban leaders wherever they were, his troops would be exercising self defense against militants who cross in from Pakistan to kill Afghans and coalition troops. He specifically named Baitullah Mehsud, “who should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house.” Karzai was referring to the Taliban leader based in the Pakistani tribal territory of South Waziristan. “Mullah Omer can expect the sa
same,” he added.
The Pakistani prime minister responded to AP: “We want a stable Afghanistan. It is in our interest. How can we go to destabilize our brotherly country?”
DEBKAfile: The hundreds of jailed Taliban fighters now at large will inject new life into the insurgent campaign. According to Afghan officials, 15 of the escapees have been killed and 20 recaptured.
Our sources reported June 13: In a striking switch in tactics, Afghanistan’s Taliban have chalked up a series of successful operations against US-led coalition forces climaxing Friday night, June 13, in a blow-out which emptied the main jail of the southern Afghanistan town of Kandahar.
Thirty men on motorbikes and two suicide bombers used a bomb truck and rockets to blow out the Sarposa jail’s entrance, killing all nine officers at the police post.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report each bike had two riders, one driving and the second firing anti-tank RPGs and automatic guns. This style of attack is practiced by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards elite squads and the Lebanese Hizballah.
This was the most brazen Taliban operation since its attempt to assassinate President Hamid Karzai at a public ceremony on April 27 – also in Kandahar.
The Afghan insurgents’ change of tactics was clearly apparent in the last ten days. Instead of head-on engagements with US, British and other NATO troops, the Taliban have switched to suicide attacks, often using bomb cars and roadside bombs, which aim for maximum fatalities when used against military convoys and foot patrols. These tactics are commonly employed by al Qaeda in Iraq.
The attacks came a day after US defense secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan had exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
Israeli forces shot dead 5 armed Palestinians carrying a powerful explosive device in before they reached the Gaza-Israeli border early Monday, June 16. While Hamas bargained over Gaza truce terms in Cairo, three Palestinians were sighted lugging a heavy bag near a border route patrolled by a Givati Brigade border detachment. The soldiers crossed the border and shot them dead and detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion.
In addition to the bomb, the gunmen carried side-arms and video cameras to record their planned multi-casualty cross-border attack. Two more armed Palestinians were killed later near the Sufa crossing.
For the second day running, Israeli residents from locations targeted by Hamas missiles and mortars are blocking roads to convoys bringing fuel and other commodities to the Gaza Strip. They are protesting the Israeli government’s failure to tackle the Palestinian offensive disrupting life in the western Negev. This traffic is routinely held up by Palestinian terrorist assaults on the border crossings.
Sphere ItFrom the DEBKAfile:
Some Western military and intelligence were shocked to learn that Iran had the blueprints for making a nuclear warhead that could fit onto its Shehab-3 missiles. The discovery was released by the former UN weapons inspector, David Albright, Sunday, June 16, ahead of the report on his investigation of the nuclear smuggling ring run by the father of the Pakistan nuclear bomb Abdul Qadeer Khan. He alleged that the nuclear blueprints passed to Libya, Iran and North Korea included “previously undisclosed designs for a compact warhead that could fit on Iran’s medium-range ballistic missiles.”
On May 22, Swiss President Pascal Couchepin, disclosed that, last December, the destruction had been ordered of a batch of 30,000 documents detailing construction plans for nuclear weapons, gas ultra-centrifuges to enrich weapons-grade uranium and guided missile delivery systems , evidence in a criminal case of a Swiss family of three engineers involved in the Khan ring.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
A draft report released by a former U.N. weapons inspector found that the international smuggling ring that supplied nuclear designs to Iran, Libya, and North Korea also obtained the blueprints for an advanced nuclear warhead, The Washington Post reported Sunday.David Albright, a well-known nuclear weapons expert, said that designs for a nuclear device small enough to fit on a ballistic missile were found on computers belonging to the now-defunct smuggling ring of rouge Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Khan — who remains under house arrest in Pakistan for selling nuclear technologies — supplied secret nuclear blueprints to Libya, North Korea and Iran, according the Post. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been conducting an on-going investigation into what other secrets may have sold by A.Q. Khan.
Albright’s report said what is troubling about these electronic blueprints — discovered in 2006 on the computer of a Swiss businessman — is that it shows the existence of another, more sophisticated design than the one sold to Libya — better suited the missile capabilities of countries such as Iran.
Swiss authorities, under the direction of the IAEA reportedly destroyed the computer contents, said the Post.
Sphere ItFrom The Independent:
IoS returns confidential documents to Treasury as officials promise to tighten procedures
By Simon Evans and Margareta Pagano
Secret government documents detailing the UK’s policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a London-bound train and handed to ‘The Independent on Sunday’.
The government papers, left on a train destined for Waterloo station, on Wednesday, contain criticism of countries such as Iran that are signed up to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body created to combat financial crime and the financing of terrorism.
The confidential files outline how the trade and banking systems can be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran. They spell out methods to fund terrorists, and address the potential fraud of commercial websites and international internet payment systems. The files also highlight the weakness of HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) IT systems, which track financial fraud.
Sphere ItFrom the Guardian:
President tells UK to avoid rushing into troop withdrawals
Ned Temko
George Bush flies into London today with a warning for Gordon Brown not to announce a timetable for a British pull-out from Iraq, and expressing deep scepticism about the Prime Minister’s high-profile strategy for bringing down world oil prices.
The stern message to the Prime Minister was delivered during an exclusive interview with The Observer, and contrasted with praise for Tony Blair whom Bush is scheduled to meet for breakfast tomorrow ahead of talks in Downing Street. Bush said Blair had never been his ‘poodle’, but a leader who shared his view that the world is in an ‘ideological struggle’ and that ‘ultimately freedom has to defeat the ideology of hate’.
Sphere ItFrom ABC News:
The Italian government has defended its decision to use soldiers to patrol cities in an effort to curb crime, rejecting criticism that it will “militarise” the streets.
“There is a strong call from citizens for better control of the streets, for improved safety,” Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told Sky Italia television.
“My hope is that particularly in the evening, in the cities, these troops can ensure greater safety.”
Sphere ItFrom TimesOnline:
Sarah Baxter
President George W Bush has enlisted British special forces in a final attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden before he leaves the White House.
Defence and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt was on for the leader of the September 11 attacks. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source.
Bush arrives in Britain today on the final leg of his eight-day farewell tour of Europe. He will have tea with the Queen and dinner with Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah before holding a private meeting with Brown at No 10 tomorrow and flying on to Northern Ireland.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
PARIS — President Bush said Saturday that Iran has isolated its people and put the world in danger by rejecting a deal aimed at halting Tehran’s uranium enrichment program.
In Tehran, European Union diplomat Javier Solana presented Iran a modified package of economic, technological and political incentives on behalf of the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China. Iran immediately rejected the deal because it requires suspending uranium enrichment, a program the West fears could be part of a nuclear weapons program.
“I’m disappointed that the leaders rejected this generous offer out of hand,” Bush said. “It’s an indication to the Iranian people that their leadership is willing to isolate them further. Our view is we want the Iranian people to flourish and to benefit.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the same approach as Bush at a joint news conference. He said the Iranian people “deserve better than the impasse into which some of their leaders are leading them.”
Iran says it is enriching uranium to generate electricity, not to build nuclear weaponry — a claim the West doubts is true.
Sphere ItFrom Iran Focus:
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran rejected on Saturday any suspension of its nuclear enrichment program, after the EU’s top diplomat handed Tehran a world powers’ offer of economic benefits to try and persuade it to stop such work.
“If the package (from six major powers) includes suspension it is not debatable at all,” government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told reporters.
(Reporting by Hashem Kalentari and Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Fredrik Dahl)
Sphere ItFrom the Jerusalem Post:
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, WASHINGTONMembers of Congress criticized the Bush administration’s nuclear pending cooperation deal with Russia on Thursday, in part out of concern that it could hurt efforts to prevent Iran from getting nuclear arms.
Representatives on both sides of the aisle assailed Russia for not doing more to isolate Teheran and worried that the new pact might strengthen Iran’s nuclear program.
Although announcement of the US-Russian agreement on civilian nuclear power last month provoked swift criticism from lawmakers, it remains unclear whether opponents have sufficient votes to block it.
Sphere ItFrom Fox News:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Militants attacked the city’s main prison with a suicide car bombing and rockets late Friday, killing police and setting hundreds of prisoners free, Afghan officials said.
“All the prisoners escaped. There is no one left,” said Wali Karzai, president of Kandahar’s provincial council and also the brother of President Hamid Karzai.
A car bomber blew up his vehicle at the prison’s gates in the southern Afghan city, Justice Minister Sarwar Danish said.
Danish said he did not have immediate details on how many prisoners might have escaped. But a prison official at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said most prisoners escaped.
Sphere ItFrom Blogs 4 Borders:
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