The Pay Czar's Power Grab

By: Michelle Malkin
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, August 20, 2009

Pay czar Kenneth Feinberg's official government title is "Special Master for Compensation." You'll be happy to know that he's really getting into the confiscatory spirit of his role. Asked by Reuters whether his powers include reaching back and revoking bonuses awarded to financial industry executives before his office was created earlier this year, Feinberg asserted broad and binding authorities — including the ability to "claw back" money already paid out.

Regulations governing his office explicitly limit his jurisdiction over contracts signed before Feb. 11, 2009. But the fine print is no obstacle to Obama's czars. "The statute provides these guideposts, but the statute ultimately says I have discretion to decide what it is that these people should make and that my determination will be final," Feinberg claims. "Anything is possible under the law."

Yes, he said "anything." It's not just senior executive officers who fall under Feinberg's purview. "These people" also includes "the next 100 most highly paid employees" of all bank bailout recipients, who must file compensation proposals with their pay overlord by Friday.

But why stop there? The Troubled Asset Relief Program has morphed from a toxic asset buy-up to a capital injection plan and back to a toxic asset buy-up. The money has been doled out to auto supply companies and life insurance companies. Congress wants to siphon off more of it to bail out bankrupt California and create a "national housing trust fund" to bail out low-income renters. Grabby-handed politicians have used TARP as a crowbar to pry open new areas for command-and-control meddling under the guise of saving the economy.

How much longer until the pay czar is determining all corporate pay he wishes to deem "inappropriate, unsound or excessive"? House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank has yapped all year long about extending pay curbs to all financial institutions and perhaps to all U.S. companies.

Let's remember that the Beltway hysteria over bonuses served as a convenient distraction from the responsibility of subprime meltdown-enabling lawmakers like Frank and Obama's crony economic team. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner landed his previous job as head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York thanks to heavy lobbying by his Wall Street mentors Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, both of whom sat on the New York Fed's selection committee. Their cronyism had multibillion-dollar consequences for taxpayers.

Rubin was also an executive at New York-based Citigroup, which Geithner regulated. Or was supposed to regulate. Instead, he helped foster Citi's spending binge and engineered the teetering company's $52 billion federal bailout. This makes the Obama administration's recent protestations about one Citi employee's $100 million compensation package look like the very kind of manufactured outrage of which it incessantly accuses its political opponents.

Geithner also had a hand in the $30 billion Bear Stearns bailout and the multilevel AIG bailouts ($85 billion and $38 billion under President Bush and another $30 billion in March 2009 under Obama). Massive sums of that taxpayer money went to major financial institutions that had employed Obama's moneymen and their closest confidants. Goldman Sachs, for example, raked in nearly $13 billion in December 2009 from AIG in federal TARP funds — and reported record profits this quarter with a bonus pool of more than $11 billion.

The "solution" isn't to empower a pay czar to curb bonus payouts ex post facto. The solution is to stop dumping billions into failing companies in the first place.

As for private businesses (what's left of them, anyway), this is a teachable moment, to borrow one of the president's favorite phrases. Government strings are like sexually transmitted diseases: They attach forever. If a basket-case company is willing to take bailout money, it will pay an interminable price. The long arm of regulators can and will reach back and open sealed deals and signed contracts on a whim. The Obama campaign chant is the czars' chant, too: "Yes, we can!"

Drop in world temperatures fuels global warming debate

(Analyst's Note: This McClatchy article shows the debate over global warning is not yet completely quiet. Still, the administration's action is swift on this issue, regardless if it costs America astronomical amounts. How is it we can legislate the planet's climate but can not yet pay the car dealers for their "clunker rebates"; because we "never let a good disaster go to waste?"

Lets' fix the current failing government programs and our national economic crisis before we buy into fixing more new supposed "disasters".)

By Robert S. Boyd | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Has Earth's fever broken?

Official government measurements show that the world's temperature has cooled a bit since reaching its most recent peak in 1998.

That's given global warming skeptics new ammunition to attack the prevailing theory of climate change. The skeptics argue that the current stretch of slightly cooler temperatures means that costly measures to limit carbon dioxide emissions are ill-founded and unnecessary.

Proposals to combat global warming are "crazy" and will "destroy more than a million good American jobs and increase the average family's annual energy bill by at least $1,500 a year," the Heartland Institute, a conservative research organization based in Chicago, declared in full-page newspaper ads earlier this summer. "High levels of carbon dioxide actually benefit wildlife and human health," the ads asserted.

Many scientists agree, however, that hotter times are ahead. A decade of level or slightly lower temperatures is only a temporary dip to be expected as a result of natural, short-term variations in the enormously complex climate system, they say.

"The preponderance of evidence is that global warming will resume," Nicholas Bond, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, said in an e-mail.

"Natural variability can account for the slowing of the global mean temperature rise we have seen," said Jeff Knight, a climate expert at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, England.

According to data from the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville, Ala., the global high temperature in 1998 was 0.76 degrees Celsius (1.37 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for the previous 20 years.

So far this year, the high has been 0.42 degrees Celsius (0.76 degrees Fahrenheit), above the 20-year average, clearly cooler than before.

However, scientists say the skeptics' argument is misleading.

"It's entirely possible to have a period as long as a decade or two of cooling superimposed on the long-term warming trend," said David Easterling, chief of scientific services at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

"These short term fluctuations are statistically insignificant (and) entirely due to natural internal variability," Easterling said in an essay published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in April. "It's easy to 'cherry pick' a period to reinforce a point of view."

Climate experts say the 1998 record was partly caused by El Nino, a periodic warming of tropical Pacific Ocean waters that affects the climate worldwide.

"The temperature peak in 1998 to a large extent can be attributed to the very strong El Nino event of 1997-98," Bond said. "Temperatures for the globe as a whole tend to be higher during El Nino, and particularly events as intense as that one."

El Nino is returning this summer after a four-year absence and is expected to hang around until late next year.

"If El Nino continues to strengthen as projected, expect more (high temperature) records to fall," said Thomas Karl, who's the director of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville.

"At least half of the years after 2009 will be warmer than 1998, the warmest year currently on record," predicted Jeff Knight, a climate variability expert at the Hadley Centre in England.

John Christy, the director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who often sides with the skeptics, agreed that the recent cooling won't last.

"The atmosphere is just now feeling the bump in tropical Pacific temperatures related to El Nino," Christy said in an e-mail. As a result, July experienced "the largest one-month jump in our 31-year record of global satellite temperatures. We should see a warmer 2009-2010 due to El Nino."

Christy added, however: "Our ignorance of the climate system is still enormous, and our policy makers need to know that . . . We really don't know much about what causes multi-year changes like this."

In addition to newspaper ads, the Heartland Institute sponsors conferences, books, papers, videos and Web sites arguing its case against the global warming threat.

The skeptics include scientists such as Richard Lindzen, a meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who thinks that climate science is too uncertain to justify drastic measures to control CO2. He calls the case for action against global warming "silly" and "grotesque."

Others go further. For example, Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University in Bellingham, thinks the world is in a 30-year cooling phase.

"The most recent global warming that began in 1977 is over, and the Earth has entered a new phase of global cooling," Easterbrook said in a talk to the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco in December.

Government scientists strongly disagree. "Claims that global warming is not occurring . . . ignore this natural variability and are misleading," said NOAA's Easterling.

In reality, global warming "never ceased," said Karl, the climate data center director.

Lockerbie bomber flies home to a hero's welcome

(Analyst's Note: Click Here to access an extensive article article from the UK about the recent release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the only person ever convicted in the Lockerbie bombing. Of the 270 people who died on that flight, 189 were Americans. The article includes photos and videos of the story. It raises many questions of the message that mercy represents to those who are shown celebrating the man on his return to Libia. Do we reduce the threat to our nation by showing mercy? Can mercy rob justice?)

Buffett: U.S. economy recovering but debt an 'ominous' threat

(Analyst's Note: Mr. Buffett has been a strong supporter of Obama from well before the election. He now expresses strong concern about US debt progression. Is this timed to aim at health care proposals or just at more spending in general? Eight months into his term Obama is frightening financial expert supporters with his spending to date? It would appear the US is near danger! )

From the Baltimore Business Journal:

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has the ear of President Barack Obama, says the U.S. economy is improving, but the financial price of the stimulus and other big spending bills are looming as a new threat.

Buffett, chairman of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK), wrote a guest op-ed for the New York Times in Wednesday's issue titled "The Greenback Effect" and said that while mistakes were made in the attempts to end the recession and restart the lagging economy, a meltdown of our economy was avoided by a "gusher of federal money."

"The United States economy is now out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery. But enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects," Buffett wrote in the op-ed. "For now, most of those effects are invisible and could indeed remain latent for a long time. Still, their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself."

He said that the country's "net debt" - that which is publicly held - is mushrooming and that it is growing at one percentage point per month. And while much of the driving force behind the economic recovery plans lies with the executive branch in the form of Obama, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, Buffett said the ultimate solution to the debt problem lies with Congress.

"Our immediate problem is to get our country back on its feet and flourishing — 'whatever it takes' still makes sense," Buffett wrote. "Once recovery is gained, however, Congress must end the rise in the debt-to-G.D.P. ratio and keep our growth in obligations in line with our growth in resources."

In July, Buffet told cable TV network CNBC that it's a good time to invest in stocks, even with the Dow having recovered to back over 9,000. He said in that interview that investors shouldn't wait until businesses turn around before investing in stocks again.

"If you wait until you see the robin, spring will already be over," he said then.

Weiss Global Forum - Expert Economic Insight

Analyst's Notes: A Must Read Article: You could not do better than follow Dr. Martin Weiss and friends as they watch investments and other economic trends. Recently, they fielded a "Weiss Global Forum" that has better insight and advice on our current economic times and trends than I have ever seen, bar none.

Here are some notes I took:

* Investment capital is moving from the West to the East. China is the major center of economic activity in the East. Over recent years, despite the economic crisis in the West, China has continued strong growth with little in the way of hesitation. That government has cleared its debts and become a storehouse of capital from commercial activity with the west.

* Some of the former "Third World" nations have overcome their debts, inflation, and economic troubles and become stable. Their national management of debt and relaxation of oppressive regulation of commerce have yielded huge profits for investors that are not available in America or Europe. Nations like Brazil, China, and Indonesia are strong candidates for investment by private individuals and public organizations.

* China has moved ever more aggressively toward national investments in foreign natural resources (Oil, iron, gold, etc.) to support their ever growing manufacturing activities. China has begun to invest in its own rural development and opened access to its huge rural population to projects, products, and growth. Demand is great and needs are great. The economic growth potential is huge. The Chinese government is making the business environment very favorable for growth and investment. China has become the world's largest car manufacturer.

* European economic troubles and EU advancing business regulations mirror American problems except they may be worse. Weiss people recommend avoiding investment in Europe, including Eastern Europe (who have "swallowed the Koolaid" along with all other European countries.)

* National demographics (Percentages of citizens by age group, birth rates, etc. affecting economic performance both in production and in purchases.) strongly favor business in China, other eastern nations, Brazil, and several former "3rd World" nations. They are exactly opposite those of the US and Europe.

Readers who want to know the economic outlook for the next few years and who want to avoid blackhole investment would do well to watch the video of this Forum broadcast. It speaks volumes to those of us who have great concern about US national security and current economic decisions/stimulus and our national debt issues. The consequences of these observations and predictions should be drivers to analysts seeking a strong national economy.

The Forum video is available for a few days only... if you click here. Please do!

Counterterrorism in Obama's Washington

Barack Obama's assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, John O. Brennan, conveniently outlined the administration's present and future policy mistakes in a speech on August 6, "A New Approach for Safeguarding Americans."

To start with, his address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, has an unusual tenor. "Sycophantic" is the word that springs to mind, as Brennan ninety times in five thousand words invokes either "President Obama," "he," "his," or "the president." Disturbingly, Brennan ascribes virtually every thought or policy in his speech to the wisdom of the One. This cringe-inducing lecture reminds one of a North Korean functionary paying homage to the Dear Leader.

Specifics are no better. Most fundamentally, Brennan calls for appeasing terrorists: "Even as we condemn and oppose the illegitimate tactics used by terrorists, we need to acknowledge and address the legitimate needs and grievances of ordinary people those terrorists claim to represent." Which legitimate needs and grievances, one wonders, does he think Al-Qaeda represents?

Brennan carefully delineates a two-fold threat, one being "Al-Qaida and its allies" and the other "violent extremism." But the former, self-evidently, is a subset of the latter. This elementary mistake undermines his entire analysis.

He also rejects any connection between "violent extremism" and Islam: "Using the legitimate term jihad, which means to purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal, risks giving these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek but in no way deserve. Worse, it risks reinforcing the idea that the United States is somehow at war with Islam itself."

This passage regurgitates a theory of radical Islam that, according to Lt. Colonel Joseph C. Myers of the U.S. Air Command and Staff College, "is part of a strategic disinformation and denial and deception campaign" developed by the Muslim Brotherhood. Discredited in 2007 by Robert Spencer, the theory distinguishes between good jihad and bad jihad and denies any connection between Islam and terrorism.

It's a deeply deceptive interpretation intended to confuse non-Muslims and win time for Islamists. The George W. Bush administration, for all its mistakes, did not succumb to this ruse. But Brennan informs us that his boss now bases U.S. policy on it.

The speech contains disquieting signs of ineptitude. We learn that Obama considers nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists to be "the most immediate and extreme threat to global security." Fine. But how does he respond? With three feeble and nearly irrelevant steps: "leading the effort for a stronger global nonproliferation regime, launching an international effort to secure the world's vulnerable nuclear material …, and hosting a global nuclear summit."

Nor can Brennan think straight. One example, requiring a lengthy quote.

"Poverty does not cause violence and terrorism. Lack of education does not cause terrorism. But just as there is no excuse for the wanton slaughter of innocents, there is no denying that when children have no hope for an education, when young people have no hope for a job and feel disconnected from the modern world, when governments fail to provide for the basic needs of their people, then people become more susceptible to ideologies of violence and death."

Summary: Poverty and a lack of education do not cause terrorism, but a lack of education and a job make people more susceptible to the ideas leading to terrorism. What is the distinction? Woe on us when the White House accepts illogic as analysis.

Further, let's focus on the statement, "when governments fail to provide for the basic needs of their people, then people become more susceptible to ideologies of violence and death," for it contains two stunning errors. First, it assumes the socialist fiction that governments provide basic needs. No. Other than in a few commodity-rich states, governments protect and offer legal structures, while the market provides.

Second, every study on the subject finds no connection between personal stress (poverty, lack of education, unemployment) and attraction to radical Islam. If anything, massive transfers of wealth to the Middle East since 1970 contributed to the rise of radical Islam. The administration is basing its policy on a falsehood.

Where, as they say, is the adult supervision? Implementation of the inept policies outlined by Brennan spells danger for Americans, American interests, and American allies. The bitter consequences of these mistakes soon enough will become apparent.

Iran still won't agree to talks with Obama & Israel's Concerns

(Analyst's Notes: Jerome Corsi of WorldNetNews updates us on Iran's resistance to Obama's pleas to talk. Israel prepares for the worst: "flying death camps". Time is getting shorter and the risks to Israel are real and near. Must read, click the link.)

NEW YORK – Iran's state television reported Tehran was ready to engage in direct talks, only to retract the statement within hours in a move that appears to diminish the probability of any action before the White House's September deadline.

If Iran does not accept by next month the Obama administration offer to engage in direct talks, the White House has threatened to seek increased U.N. economic sanctions.

White House Disables "e-tip" Mailbox

Analyst's Notes: The WH electronic mailbox collecting "rat-out" information sent by anyone who chooses to tell the President their neighbor or friends/enemies have said something they deem incorrect -- has been shut down. This closure is due to outcry from Americans who saw privacy threats in the "service". Many point out collecting such information without making public its reason, use, distribution, and archive practices could become a threat to privacy, or worse.

The Real Idea Man and Source or Obamacare

(Analyst's Notes: You may not know this but the legislation awaiting approval in Congress that establishes ObamaCare actually fathered by a bioethicist named Ezekiel Emmanuel according to Chuck Norris. You may find the clearest insight to the thinking within the plan inside Emmanuel's own writings. These disturbing ideas are reviewed by Norris here. Control over life and health for all Americans is definitely a national security matter.)

Mexican Army takes over customs on US border

This AP article reports that Mexico's Army took control of customs Sunday on the busy US border, as federal authorities pulled Mexican customs agents off the job in a massive anti-corruption shakeup. This action merits US law enforcement attention.

$8 billion - just for 'cap-and-trade' staffing

(Analyst's Note: Funny how the billions add up! All the new jobs are in the Federal Government. This "administrative cost" will be small compared to the management of health care for millions of Americans. )

A senior policy analyst with The Heritage Foundation believes "cap-and-trade" legislation will increase an already bloated federal government.

David Kreutzer tells OneNewsNow that if cap-and-trade legislation -- sometimes referred to as "energy ration and tax" by opponents -- passes the Senate, it will add more than $8 billion in additional government staff.

"This is not the cost to the economy from the higher energy prices -- that's much, much higher; that will be thousands of dollars per family...$9.4 trillion over the first 24 years," Kreutzer explains. "The eight billion [dollars] is just for the staff in Washington to handle the paperwork."

Obama seeks to track visits to .gov websites

(Analyst's Notes: Must Read. Not long ago there was a massive outcry over NSA tapping national telephones. Lets see how much concern there is when the White House itself is spying on Americans. The only motives for the WH also to be involved have to be POLITICAL - not national security. That is a big difference! Where is it stored? Where is it shared?)

WASHINGTON – The Barack Obama administration has announced plans to lift a government ban on tracking visitors to government websites, and potentially, collect their personal data through the use of "cookies" – an effort some suspect may already be in place on White House sites.

A ban on such tracking by the federal government on Internet users has been in place since 2000, however, the White House Office of Management and Budget now wants to lift the ban citing a "compelling need."

In fact, according to the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, federal agencies have already negotiated agreements and contracts with social networking sites like Google, YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and VIMEO to collect information on visitors for federal web sites. All of these private companies are known to have agreements with federal agencies, but the public has never seen them.

In public comments submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, EPIC notes it has obtained documents that show federal agencies have negotiated these contracts with the private sector in violation of "existing statutory privacy rights." Those agencies include: Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the National Security Agency.

There are suspicions the White House is already involved.

When White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was recently asked by Fox News reporter Major Garrett why Americans who had not signed up to receive any e-mails from the White House, were now receiving e-mails from White House adviser David Axelrod promoting President Obama's health care plan, Gibbs refused to answer the question.

"The Obama administration's favorite book seems to be '1984' by George Orwell," said Brad O’Leary, publisher of The O'Leary Report monthly newsletter and author of "Shut Up, America: The End of Free Speech." "Only they don't see '1984' as a warning, but rather a blueprint for spying on every American who visits a government website – something that has been banned for nearly a decade."

According to Obama "technology czar" Vivek Kundra, the "compelling need" driving this major policy reversal is the administration's desire to create "more open" government and to "enhance citizen participation in government."

O'Leary finds serious fault with Kundra's rationale.

"According to the new technology czar, there is a 'compelling need' to do this," said O'Leary. "The only compelling need I can think of is for a failing Obama administration to compile an enemy list of gun owners, pro-lifers, tea-party participants, those opposed to illegal immigration, and anyone opposed to the Obama-Pelosi agenda of government control over Americans' lives."

Spy cookies can do more than merely recall the user names and passwords of visitors who return to their favorite web sites. They can also track, retrieve and report selected movements someone makes on the Internet. Through the use of cookies, the federal government could have the power to create an individual profile of anyone who visits a government website – right down to a person's recent online purchases, or even race, gender and income level.

"No matter what the Obama administration says, a 'cookie' is a spy device," said O’Leary. "No matter how inoffensive the administration says their spy devices will be, once you open the door to the federal government spying on every American who visits a government website, it can't be closed – it can only be expanded."

According to O'Leary, if the Obama administration is successful in lifting this ban on federal privacy invasion, the lives of many Americans could become open books for bureaucrats.

"What if a harmless trip to the State Department's travel website or the White House's health care site, the Census Bureau's web site results in the Obama administration's discovery that you are someone who recently visited Cabela's, Smith and Wesson, or a tea party or pro-life web site?" asked O'Leary. "Is this all mundane information that political animals in government don't care about? Of course not. You might sooner expect a visit from Obama's IRS or Homeland Security than a pat on the back for 'participating' in government."

O'Leary says that it is time for Congress to step in and pass legislation to protect the privacy rights of Americans who could fall victim to White House spy cookies.

"Because of the lack of transparency from the Obama White House, we are filing FOIA requests to determine exactly how these agencies are using spy cookies," said O'Leary.

Shocker: Sharia fails to deliver equality, accountability in northern Nigeria

(Analyst Note-LC: Here are some practical examples of how sharia law works in the real world.)

"Equality," of course, can only mean the equal accountability of Muslim men before the law, because Sharia is not designed to provide the same for women or unbelievers. And by their nature, theocracies do not lend themselves to accountability due to the sense of entitlement to rule, and the paternalistic "government knows best" attitude that clerics and politicians can invoke holy writ to support.

Aside from that, two themes in this article are worth noting: The first is that it is the poor implementation of Sharia that is the root of the problem. Sharia's legitimacy cannot be questioned: It is "good" because divine law has to be good (otherwise, one has crafted a deity worthy of being portrayed on screen by John Malkovich), and of course, the deity in charge has the last word on goodness.

In a related vein, there is the unshakeable belief among Muslims in this article-- one that is widely transmitted to naïve multiculturalists in the West -- that the "good" Sharia has to be out there, somewhere. And maybe, if we try it here, this time will be the one that works; that assessment is always subject yet again to the circular reasoning described in the preceding paragraph.

The alternative, and more realistic assessment of the situation in Nigeria is that any implementation of Sharia -- even a supposedly diluted, de-fanged version -- is a slippery slope toward the rest of the package: Theocratic systems do not lend themselves to partial implementation, and despite the fact that its supporters act as though there is nothing inherently wrong with the system, any Sharia is a ticking time bomb for civil rights and liberties -- because after all, the people in power are in agreement that it is "good."

And at the end of the day, power corrupts. So it should be no surprise that Sharia has only shifted around corruption in northern Nigeria rather than solving it.

"In Nigeria, Sharia Fails to Deliver," by Karin Brulliard for the Washington Post, August 12:

KANO, Nigeria -- As military rule ended in Nigeria a decade ago, an Islamic legal system was swept into place on a wave of popular support in the country's desperately poor and mostly Muslim northern states. It has turned out in a way few expected.

The draconian amputation sentences warned of by human rights activists and the religious oppression feared by Christians have mostly not come to pass. But neither has the utopia envisioned by backers of sharia law, who believed politicians' promises that it would end decades of corruption and pillaging by civilian and military rulers. The people are still poor and miserable, residents complain, and politicians are still rich.

Mostly? Some would beg to differ. How much violent intolerance is trivial?

How the battles over sharia play out could have effects beyond Nigeria, a nation pivotal to West Africa's stability and viewed by the United States as key to stopping the spread of religious extremism in Africa. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to discuss the issue with Nigerian leaders on a visit to the country this week.

"People want sharia. But not this kind of sharia," said Ahmad Al-Khanawy, 41, a reed-thin filmmaker, adding that the most visible signs of Islamic law are new censorship rules banning dancing and singing in movies made in Kannywood, as this city's film industry is known. Sharia-promoting politicians, he said, "want to cover their failure by making noise about fighting immorality. That is it."

Nigeria's moderate form of sharia may not have delivered a Muslim revolution, but it has fueled a growing disillusionment that analysts say has weakened public faith in democracy -- and could, if unchecked, spark religious militancy. That prospect was highlighted last month when a radical Islamist sect called Boko Haram attacked security forces in northern Nigeria, triggering violence that killed more than 700 people. The group draws its members from the ranks of frustrated youths.

Hence the slippery slope: Partial Sharia is a foot in the door, creating an opening for the rest of it -- or else.

"Sharia is about justice. Where you have sharia, you have development," said Salisu Saidu, 32, standing amid the leather bags he sells in Kano's labyrinthine market. "Nothing has changed. If one relied on tap water, one would die of thirst. We don't even talk of electricity."

Islam has dominated in this region on the edge of the Sahara for centuries, in a tenuous coexistence with the Christianity that is prevalent in more prosperous southern Nigeria. When Kano and 11 other northern states that had long applied Islamic law to civil cases adopted sharia for criminal matters, clashes broke out between Christians and Muslims. Early on, several sentences of death by stoning for female adulterers -- never carried out -- and the amputation of two men's hands for theft drew international condemnation.

This is a pattern we have seen across the Islamic world. International scrutiny and bad press have a way of causing a temporary softening of Sharia for public consumption.

Obama Administration’s Decision to No Longer Wage War with Jihadists is a Dangerous Mistake

(Analyst's note: I recommend you read and consider this absolutely must read editorial. I agree with changing the name of "war on terrorism" - but lets at least identify the enemy. Politically correct speech simply does NOT cut it in a war do matter which political party engages in it. We all know it, so lets clearly state problem and get on with it. We shut them down in the early days of our country and we can must do it again.)

The Editors @ Family Security Matters

How can you be at war with al Qaeda and not state what al Qaeda's ideology is? It sounds like the architects of the new narrative have created a doctrine that doesn't add up.”

.... “They say the doctrine is ‘to safeguard the American people from the transnational challenge that poses one of the greatest threats to our national security – the scourge of violent extremists who would use terrorism to slaughter Americans abroad and at home.’ What does that mean? Nothing. It is as if they speak in abstract. Which ‘transnational challenge is posing the greatest threat to U.S. national security?’ It is the global Jihadist threat, with its two networks, the Salafists and the Khomeinists, not the Nazis, the Soviet Communists or militaristic regimes. Why is the Obama administration regressing into a level way below what most educated Americans understand?”

For additional clarity simply click here and listen to the audio.

National Guard preps for 'swine flu riot'

(Lewiston Sun Journal, Maine) The drill is to prepare for a worst-case scenario should the serum have to be transported from Augusta, Ga., and people rush to get it ...

Congressman: 'Socialistic elite' looking for excuse to declare martial law

(Athens Banner-Herald, Georgia) "This is a stinking, rotten fish, and they don't want you to smell it" ...

American Workers Replacing Illegal Workers at Poultry Plant

from NumbersUSA

You might remember this story about the Columbia Farms poultry plant in South Carolina that was convicted of not only hiring illegal aliens, but also of providing illegal aliens with false or forged identity documents. The plant owners, House of Raeford of Raeford, North Carolina, have not been charged with any crimes relating to the Columbia Farms plant, but they appear to have gotten the message that hiring illegal aliens is not only wrong, it's also illegal.

According to workers at a House of Raeford plant in Raeford, North Carolina, illegal workers have slowly been let go by the plant and have been replaced by unemployed Americans. Foreign (mostly illegal) labor once accounted for more than 80% of the labor at the poultry processing plant. Now, more than 70% of the employees are American.

Peter Anderson, a Charlotte attorney and candidate for U.S. Attorney in western North Carolina, said, "It's a smart decision for the company – even though they've been indicted – to do whatever they can … to comply with the law.... It sends the right message, that they've gotten the wake-up call." ....

No sex? No chow

.... Won't Sharia in the West be grand? ....

Unwinnable war in Afghanistan? Pat Buchanan: 'We shall pay a hellish price for the hubris of the nation-builders'

Pennsylvania Senate race: Toomey 48% vs. Specter 36% Voter opinion on Obamacare driving support for candidates

(Analyst's note: If you're up for reelection, you're out.)

Smooth-talking charlatans – then and now

(Analyst's note: Listen to your elders -- please. Absolutely must read and consider.)

by Bill Rouchell

I am 81 years old, and I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children and grandchildren as I am now.

This apostle of Machiavelli, this Obama a man who speaks with forked tongue. This charlatan campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure! We could then be call the United Union of Socialist States. God help us. Change is indeed coming, and when it comes, America will never be the same again!

Even when my wife and I lived in Germany for five years, I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking demagogue rabble-rouser from the streets of Munich, not too unlike the man from Chicago at the helm of our country today. The average German knew next to nothing about him. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and without a teleprompter. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. People, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission.

Are we headed for a Nazi-style totalitarian abyss? Find out in "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie: A Former Hitler Youth Warns America"

Then when he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic crisis at hand (the Great Depression). Slowly but surely he seized the controls of German state power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids were forced to join a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think and how to behave. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating and installing gun control to disarm the folks, health care for all, better wages, better jobs and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe and across the world – none of which he could have done with out compliant media, just like what we are suffering through now! Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" would be a good place to begin.

Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at and made fun of. When Winston Churchill

pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s, while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet prime minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. Please keep in mind that at that time Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, science laboratories and universities. And in less than six years, a shorter time span than just two terms of the U.S. presidency, it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course

– the road to hell is always paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust, and it does!), I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong, close my eyes, have one more latte and ignore what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid of "Veritas" or to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe – and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong, but I do not think I am. I firmly believe that history is man's best guide if only people will study it. Since many of you enjoy senior citizen status or will sometime in the not too distant future, I thought you might be interested in this. Let me add that we seniors have a target on our backs; the powers to be feel we are not cost effective. So it would be in the nations best interest to let us fade away even with help if found necessary. I sincerely hope time will prove me wrong.

CNN finally 'fires' Lou Dobbs! Bill Press has mixed feelings about network's new ban on talk-radio hosts

What conspiracy theory? Exclusive: Joseph Farah says it's the mockers of 'birthers' who lack evidence

Unhealthy for liberty Exclusive: Alan Keyes urges Americans to resist president's socialized medicine

Plan B: Go negative on health care reform Drug, insurance companies preparing to fight Obamacare

Join nearly 500,000 seeking eligibility proof Americans demand Obama live up to U.S. Constitution

Obama's environmental czar started group targeting Beck Attacks follow Fox News host's reporting of White House adviser's radical activism

New FCC official: 'Fairness Doctrine never repealed' Seeks $250 million fines from radio stations, money to go to National Public Radio

(Analyst's note: Absolutely must read item. This is extremely troubling. We can see clearly the intent to control free speech here within these United States. Remember - if you're up for reelection, you're out. And take your Czars with you.)

Is Obama constitutionally eligible to serve? WND's complete archive of news reports on the issue

Cap and trade's unlikely critics: Its creators Economists behind original concept question system's large-scale usefulness

Hezbollah waiting for orders to attack Sleeper cells in South, Central America ready for action

Audio - Michigan congressman: Moving Gitmo inmates 'bad idea' President's plan to house terrorists 'ill-advised strategy'

Audio - Obama plan needs '$13,000/family' tax hike President's deficits are going to continue 'as far as eye can see'

Obama criticizes media coverage of town halls Tells Montana gathering none of claimed insurance nightmares will come true

Senators exclude end-of-life provision from bill

WASHINGTON – Key senators are excluding a provision on end-of-life care from health overhaul legislation after language in a House bill caused a furor.

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement Thursday that the provision had been dropped from consideration because it could be misinterpreted or implemented incorrectly. ....

Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President

Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama, especially as the debate over health care intensifies and a pattern of threats emerges. ....

EMPTY CRADLES, DEMOGRAPHIC DESTINY & THE DEATH OF THE WEST

(Analyst's note: These facts are more than a little troubling. Our radical Islamic enemy will soon simply over-run us, if these trends continue. History shows this to be a very hard lesson indeed.)

By Selwyn Duke

While the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding was good cinema, it was also a big fat Hollywood fiction. With Greece’s fertility rate of 1.36 children per woman — well below the replacement level of 2.1 — “big” is not a modifier demographers would associate with today’s Greek families. In fact, a more accurate film might be called My Big Fat Muslim Wedding.

Worse still, Greece is no anomaly. Long ago the cradle of Western civilization and more recently one of its backwaters, it’s now part of a phalanx of Western demographic failures. In fact, while it may seem counterintuitive to those weaned on the stuff of Malthusian nightmares, the West is facing a population implosion of historic proportions. And the statistics are staggering. As I wrote when reviewing the documentary Demographic Winter last year:

. . . the number of children in the world is already declining . . . . Birthrates are now below replacement level . . . in approximately 70 countries; in Western Europe, the figure is 1.38, and in northern Italy and parts of Spain it is below 1. As a result, Europe's 65-year-olds now outnumber her 14-year-olds, and one German province had to close 220 schools in 2006. Children were present in 80 percent of U.S. households a century ago; that number is now 32 percent.

Although pondering demographic malaise conjures up the image of sterile Western swingers, note that this phenomenon is, in a measure, manifesting itself worldwide. Take Eastern Europe, for example. Russia, with its birthrate of 1.4 children per woman, is experiencing a population decrease of 700,000 a year. With an even lower birthrate of 1.22, some Lithuanian officials are concerned about the eventual disappearance of their population. And this is mirrored in other Eastern European nations; Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and the rest are all turning in similar numbers. ....

.... When I ponder our materialism, promiscuity, frivolity and selfishness, our abortion-mill archipelago that churns with Nazi-like efficiency, it occurs to me that perhaps the leftists are right — just not for the reasons they think. It’s not sins of our past that haunt us but those of our present, and maybe the euthanizing of Western civilization is, after all, our comeuppance.

The “Second American Revolution”

(Analyst's note: It seems to me that this article is "spot on." Mr. Celente has tied the dots together and is reporting what our politicians will learn either the hard way (if you're up for reelection, you're out) or the easy way (they understand before it is too late. The American people will not be denied. Yes, this is an absolutely must read article.)

By Gerald Celente

America is seething. Not since the Civil War has anything like this happened. But the protests are either being intentionally downplayed or ignorantly misinterpreted.

The first shot was fired on April 15, 2009. Over 700 anti-tax rallies and “Tea Parties” erupted nationwide. Rather than acknowledge their significance, the general media either ignored or ridiculed both protests and protestors, playing on “tea bagging” for its sexual innuendo.

Initially President Obama said he was unaware of the tea parties. The White House later warned they could “mutate” into something “unhealthy.”

Shot #2 was fired on the Fourth of July, when throngs of citizens across the nation gathered to again protest “taxation without representation.” And as before, the demonstrations were branded right-wing mischief and dismissed.

The third volley, fired in early August, was aimed point blank at Senators and House members pitching President Obama’s health care reform package to constituents. In fiery town hall meetings, enraged citizens shouted down their elected representatives. It took a strong police presence and/or burly bodyguards to preserve a safe physical space between the politicians and irate townspeople.

The White House and the media have labeled protestors “conservative fringe elements,” or as players in staged events organized by Republican operatives that have been egged on by Fox news and right-wing radio show hosts.

In regard to this latest wave of outbursts, health industry interests opposed to any reform are also being blamed for inciting the public. But organized or spontaneous is not the issue. While most protestors exhibit little grasp of the complex 1000 page health care reform document (that nary a legislator has read either), their emotion is clearly real and un-staged.

Rightly or wrongly, the legislation is regarded as yet another straw on the already overloaded camel’s back. A series of gigantic, unpopular government-imposed (but taxpayer-financed) bailouts, buyouts, rescue and stimulus packages have been stuffed down the gullet of Americans. With no public platform to voice their opposition, options for citizens have been limited to fruitless petitions, e-mails and phone calls to Congress … all fielded by anonymous staff underlings.

Now, with Congress in recess and elected representatives less than a stone’s throw away, the public is exploding. The devil is not in the details of the heath care reform, the devil is the government mandating health care. Regardless of how the plan is pitched or what is being promised, to the public the legislation is yet another instance of big government taking another piece out of their lives and making them pay for it; again telling them what they can or cannot do.

Though in its early stages, the “Second American Revolution” is underway. Yet, what we forecast will become the most profound political trend of the century – the trend that will change the world – is still invisible to the same experts, authorities and pundits who didn’t see the financial crisis coming until the bottom fell out of the economy.

Trend Forecast: Conditions will continue to deteriorate. The global economy is terminally ill. The recession is in a brief remission, not the early stages of recovery. Cheap money, easy credit and unrestrained borrowing brought on an economic crisis that cannot be cured by monetary and fiscal policies that promote more cheap money, easy credit and unrestrained borrowing.

Nevertheless, Washington will continue to intervene, tax and exert control. Protests will escalate and riots will follow.

Fourth Shot of the “Second American Revolution”: While there are many wild cards that could light the fuse, The Trends Research Institute forecasts that if the threat of government-forced Swine Flu vaccinations is realized, it will be the fourth shot. Tens of millions will fight for their right to remain free and unvaccinated.

Publisher’s Note: The power of the Internet and new technologies is inexorably fermenting the “Second American Revolution.” However widespread and emotionally charged, had the tax rallies, tea parties and healthcare reform protests occurred in years past, they might have been covered by the local media, but might not have made national headline news and thus would have died stillborn.

Now, with the ubiquitous camera-equipped cell phone, universal access to YouTube, and millions of twitters and tweets, the uprisings cannot be ignored, contained, managed, spun or edited down. The revolutionary fervor will prove contagious.

Can anything stop it?

Trend Forecast: Before the momentum of the “Second American Revolution” becomes unstoppable, it could be derailed through some false flag event designed to deceive the public, or a genuine event or crisis capable of rallying the entire nation behind the President. In a worst-case scenario, according to Trends Research Institute Director, Gerald Celente, “Given the pattern of governments to parlay egregious failures into mega-failures, the classic trend they follow, when all else fails, is to take their nation to war."

A false flag attempt, a genuine crisis, or a declaration of war, may slow the momentum of the “Second American Revolution,” but nothing will stop it.

Please learn more about The Trends Research Institute by visiting the www.TrendsResearch.com Website.

N.J. Law Would Require Monthly School Homeland Security Drills

... A bill that is expected to enter the New Jersey Senate, would mandate that all public and nonpublic schools in the state of New Jersey to conduct monthly school security drills. If passed by the Senate, students and faculty would be required to practice emergency response procedures such as non-fire evacuation, lockdown and active shooter response drills. ....

Feds try to detect 'lone offenders'

By Kevin Johnson

Federal authorities have launched an effort to detect lone attackers who may be contemplating politically charged assaults similar to the recent murders of a Kansas abortion doctor and a Holocaust museum security guard.

The effort, known as the "Lone Wolf Initiative," was started shortly after President Obama's inauguration, in part because of a rising level of hate speech and surging gun sales.

READ: U.S. v. Rudolph

READ INDICTMENT: U.S. v. Von Brunn

READ COURT ORDER: Sale of Ted Kaczynski's personal items

"Finding those who might plan and act alone, the so-called lone offenders ... will only be prevented by good intelligence, the seamless exchange of information among law enforcement at every level, and vigilant citizens reporting suspicious activity," said Michael Heimbach, the FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism.

Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said the FBI is sharing information with his agency.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Barack Obama | American Civil Liberties Union | Federal Bureau of Investigation | The Holocaust | Southern Poverty Law Center | Michael Chertoff | Theodore Kaczynski | Eric Robert Rudolph

Agents from all of the FBI's 56 field offices have been dispatched on a range of assignments, said two U.S. law enforcement officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about details of the program. Among the duties:

• Reviewing records in domestic terrorism investigations that may point to more suspects.

• Analyzing records for suspicious purchases at fertilizer or chemical suppliers whose materials could be used in bombmaking.

• Checking rolls of prisoners scheduled for release or who have been recently released for past links to extremist groups.

One of the goals, FBI officials said, is to develop more comprehensive information on possible lone attackers to disrupt plots before they are launched. ....

Five Things Congress and the President Are Doing to Bring Back Sky-High Gas Prices

(Analyst's note: This is troubling to contemplate.)

by Ben Lieberman

Gasoline prices are up since the start of the year, but the summer of 2009 has thus far been a bargain at the pump compared to a year ago when prices exceeded $4 a gallon. However, the respite from sky-high prices is likely temporary.

A return to $4 a gallon gas--or higher--will be made even more certain if Congress and the President succeed in enacting a host of proposals to crack down on domestic energy supplies. Instead, the federal government should support several pending pro-domestic energy measures that would help meet the nation's growing demand in the years ahead.

1. Pump price-boosting global warming legislation. ....

2. Regulation of hydraulic fracturing....

3. Increased red tape and costs on domestic drilling. ....

4. Raising energy taxes ....

5. Administrative delays on drilling.

What to Do Instead ....

Town halls burst with Obama 'plants' Campaign donors, health care lobbyist, SEIU members, fake doctor

National Guard reveals 'internment' job sites overseas

CNN: "Humiliation" causes jihad terrorism

by Robert Spencer

Jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism? Pah!

Of course, this is the kind of thinking that leads Obama to believe that if he reaches out with enough flattery and concessions, the jihad will end. He is in for a surprise.

"Experts: Many young Muslim terrorists spurred by humiliation," by John Blake for CNN, August 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] People often assume that Muslim youth who turn to violence are ill-educated fanatics inspired by visions of meeting virgins in paradise. But that portrait is rarely true, terror experts say.

Actually, they're well-educated fanatics. Studies show that jihadists are generally better educated than their peers.

"They are not crazy people," says James Jones, author of "Blood That Cries Out From the Earth," a book that examines the psychology of religious terrorism.

"They [terrorist groups] won't recruit psychotic people," Jones says. "Crazy people are unstable. That's exactly what you don't want."

Indeed. They're not crazy. They're driven.

Then who are these Muslim men and women who turn to violence? Terror experts say they are shaped by several common factors.

They see no way up or out

Fathali M. Moghaddam, director of the conflict resolution program at Georgetown University in Washington, says some Muslim youth may embrace violent causes because they believe they have no chance for upward mobility in their country.

"Imagine if you're a 20-year-old and you want to get on in Egypt or Saudi Arabia," Moghaddam says. "You better be connected by family or know somebody important."

That explains why there are so many Haitian suicide bombers.

Many don't view politics as a plausible vehicle for social change, Moghaddam says. Their countries are often run by dictators who crush secular opposition groups -- with the tacit support of the U .S. government, these youth believe, Moghaddam says.

The only opposition groups that these Middle East dictators dare not attack are those based in the mosque, Moghaddam says. Those mosque-based groups, though, tend to be open to the influence of fundamentalists.

"There's no opportunity for voice, no opportunity to express yourself," Moghaddam says. "Politics is out of the question for the secular opposition -- you're either dead or go to jail."

Politics, though, is part of the answer for Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist group that rules Gaza. The group, which has admitted responsibility for attacks against Israel soldiers and civilians, won a landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.

"Some young people are inevitably attracted to the more risky positions and actions taken by a group such as Hamas because Hamas is critical of corrupt and inept dictators in the Arab world," Moghaddam says. "This resonates with Arab youth."

They're driven by a sense of humiliation

Some Muslim youth may turn to violence for another reason: revenge.

Basel Saleh, an assistant economics professor at Radford University in Virginia, recently studied the socioeconomic factors that helped shape 82 Palestinian suicide bombers and 240 militants.

He says he knows those factors firsthand.

Saleh's father's village was razed by the Israelis in 1948 and is now an Israeli settlement. He says he grew up in the West Bank where he once considered using violence to vent his anger after a group of Israeli soldiers came to his family's home unannounced and interrogated him while his younger sister cried.

"But I was on the verge of getting there," he says. "I almost crossed that line."

Most Palestinian youth who did cross that line weren't driven by religion, Saleh says.

"Many weren't motivated by Islamic fundamentalism," Saleh says of the Palestinian militants in his study. "They were motivated primarily by personal grievances. They had been arrested, shot or seen family arrested."...

Arrested, shot -- for what? For participating in the...jihad against Israel.

But it's all because Palestinians are oppressed, you see:

Saleh says if Israel did more to help improve Palestinians' living conditions, fewer Palestinian youths would turn to violence.

"You have to open a new path for them [Palestinians]," he says. "They want freedom of movement. Give them an airport, a port. Don't demolish their schools and their universities. Pay attention to basic human rights."...

Propaganda. For the facts, see here.

Jones says the appeal of terrorist groups taps into an even deeper yearning in many youth, no matter their religion or culture: the desire to give one's self to a transcendent cause.

Jones, who joined civil rights demonstrations in the South during the 1960s, says he knows how exhilarating it can be for young people to join a cause that they believe demands some form of sacrifice.

Any effort to turn Muslim youth away from violent groups must make a similar appeal, and come from fellow Muslims, Jones says.

"We need something that has an equal amount of passion and moral seriousness that makes them believe they are making the world better," he says. "We need something with those elements but something that's more constructive than blowing yourself up."

You'll never get that without addressing the roots of the jihad violence in a serious manner.

Fighting Fraud in Afghanistan's Elections

By ANAND GOPAL

KABUL -- Afghanistan's presidential election next week is proving to be a complicated exercise in democracy. A raging insurgency threatens to close voting centers. Some of the 38 candidates maintain ties to armed militias. Others have threatened violence if they lose. And reports of widespread fraud endanger the poll's credibility. ....

Border Guard plan has hit a roadblock

By Lolita C. Baldor

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A government plan to use National Guard troops to help stem Mexican drug violence along the Southern border is stymied by disagreements over who will pay for the soldiers and how they would be used.

Ordered by President Obama in June to help secure the border with Mexico, the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department drafted a $225 million plan to deploy temporarily 1,500 Guard troops to supplement Border Patrol agents.

The agencies are wrangling over how to structure the deployment, but the primary sticking point is the money, senior administration officials say.

The funding stalemate lingers even after Obama renewed his commitment to Mexican officials Monday to reinforce the border and to help Mexico battle the drug cartels. Fierce battles between Mexican law enforcement and the cartels have left as many as 11,000 people dead and fueled concerns about violence spilling into this country.

"The United States will also meet its responsibilities by continuing our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs and continuing to strengthening the security of our shared border," Obama said.

Meanwhile, state leaders are getting antsy. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is still waiting for a response to his request for 1,000 more troops. "It's a federal responsibility but a Texas problem," Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.

Early drafts of the Pentagon's plan seek reimbursement for its costs of the program, which is slated to last one year, giving the Border Patrol time to build up its force of agents. The Homeland Security Department, which expects to get roughly $44 billion in its 2010 budget compared with the Pentagon's $636 billion, is also reluctant to bear the costs.

Military officials have also balked at having a highly visible uniformed presence at border crossings. An initial Pentagon draft was rejected by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates because it suggested that Guard troops could be used to help screen commercial vehicles at the border. Defense leaders have insisted the United States avoid any appearance of militarizing the border, and they are opposed to using the soldiers at entry points to openly inspect vehicles.

Defense officials have been uneasy about the Guard plan from the start, insisting the effort be temporary and not tied to any program that could be extended or made permanent. They are also concerned that while the program would be federally funded, Guard members would be under the control of the border states.

Pentagon officials have grumbled that the latest demands come as the United States is still fighting two wars, including an escalation of fighting in Afghanistan, and that Guard units are still needed for battlefield duties

A new draft that drops those border inspections from the list of Guard missions has been prepared, and a senior official said Gates and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano agreed on that move. Other debates have involved where the soldiers would be stationed and what tasks they would perform.

"The two agencies are resolving a handful of issues that remain," said Paul Stockton, the Pentagon's assistant secretary for homeland defense.

One senior official said a resolution to the matter was still some weeks away. There are about 19,500 border patrol agents, with roughly 17,200 on the Southern border.

Taliban, Foes Clash In Pakistan

By REHMAT MEHSUD and MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Taliban fighters attacked rival militants backed by the government in Pakistan's tribal areas, sparking clashes that intelligence officials and tribal elders said left dozens dead.

There were few details of Wednesday's fighting, on the edge of the isolated South Waziristan tribal area, a key Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold.

Two intelligence officials in the area said it began when the region's dominant Taliban faction -- whose leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was believed to have been killed last week in a U.S. missile strike -- attacked a tribal faction backed by the government. The two sides battled in and around the village of Sura Ghar with assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, the officials said. One official said Pakistani forces tried to help the government-backed militants repel the Taliban, but gave no details.

One intelligence official put the death toll near or above 70 while the other put it at less than 30, all of them fighters. Both acknowledged that authorities didn't yet have a clear reading of the situation. The fighting raged for five hours, an intelligence official told the Associated Press.

The leader of the government-backed faction, Turkistan Bitani, said 90 fighters were killed and more than 40 houses destroyed after Mehsud loyalists attacked his men, the AP reported.

The fighting came as the Pakistan Taliban try to stem infighting among their ranks following Mr. Mehsud's apparent death. He was instrumental in uniting a number of competing militant groups in 2007 to form the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban. Government officials and tribal elders in South Waziristan said members of Mr. Mehsud's faction may have attacked their government-backed rivals in an effort to keep the group united.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say they are almost certain that Mr. Mehsud was killed a week ago by a missile fired from a U.S. pilotless drone. The Taliban have denied he is dead.

US military team in Syria for security talks

(AFP)

DAMASCUS — A senior American military delegation arrived in Syria on Wednesday for talks on regional security, the second such visit in nearly two months, a US diplomatic source said.

Major General Michael Moeller of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) is heading the delegation which also includes Frederic Hof, the deputy to US Middle East special envoy George Mitchell who was in Damascus on July 26.

"The focus is on continuing dialogue concerning opportunities for cooperation on regional security matters," the US source said, without elaborating.

A US military delegation held talks with Syrian officials in Damascus in June -- the first visit of its kind since 2004 -- pro-government media and the American embassy said at the time.

Al-Watan newspaper said the June 13 visit came "at the request of the Americans" and focused on "ways to begin cooperation on security matters between the two parties in Iraq." However, the US embassy did not mention Iraq. ....

NIST publishes final version of new cybersecurity recommendations for government

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the final version of ‘NIST Special Publication 800-53, Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations’. The document was released in draft form for public review in June.

“This final publication represents a solidification of the partnership between the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and NIST and their efforts to bring common security solutions to the federal government and its support contractors,” said Ron Ross, of NIST’s computer security division. “The aim is to provide greater protection for federal information systems against cyber attacks.”

Comments received from the public since June did not result in any major changes in the final publication.

Historically, information systems at civilian agencies have operated under different security controls than military and intelligence information systems. When complete, the unified framework will result in the defense, intelligence and civil communities using a common strategy to protect critical federal information systems and associated infrastructure.

A copy of the publication is available here as a PDF.

GOP congressional hopeful says post-9/11 intelligence efforts have fallen way short

By Dan Popkey

Republican congressional candidate Vaughn Ward on Wednesday criticized the Bush administration and a Congress then controlled by Republicans for failing to consolidate intelligence services earlier this decade.

Ward, a former CIA employee and Marine officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is seeking the nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick in 2010.

Ward said turf battles between the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Agency and other agencies compromise the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence.

"There's no sharing of information," Ward told the Rotary Club of Southwest Boise. "Why? They don't get along. There's these fiefdoms, their ideas of separate entities. They need to work more together."

"What should we do? Force them to work together, have one person in charge of intelligence, not four or five," Ward added.

Ward said battles between former Bush officials — including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet — frustrated efforts at reform that should have been made after 9/11. Instead, President Bush and Congress created the Department of Homeland Security.

"It was terrible, it's been a terrible experience with DHS," Ward said. "It is getting better, but only because there's legislation now trying to figure it out. And yes, it will get better, and I hope that it will be a more effective resource."

Report forecasts need for more Defense Department budget cuts

(Analyst's note: Wonder how all this will wash with the obvious requirement to replace hardware after years of war?)

By Megan Scully

Facing the prospect of several lean years after a decade of rapidly expanding budgets, the Defense Department will need to make difficult spending decisions, potentially including more cuts to weapons systems in FY11 and beyond, according to a report.

Today's report from the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments concluded that an expected flat-line in defense spending - combined with anticipated growth in personnel costs - will restrict growth in research and development and in procurement accounts.

The Army, for instance, is enlarging its troop strength by 22,000 soldiers over the next three years, with an annual price tag around $1 billion. Meanwhile, healthcare costs across all the services, which total $47 billion next fiscal year, are expected to nearly double in the next 10 years, according to the report.

"Options for dealing with the tightening budget situation are limited," the report says. "In the coming years, pressure will likely continue to grow for DOD to scale back its plans, including both major modernization efforts and force structure plans."

The Defense Department's budget request for FY10 totals $668 billion, which includes $130 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the $538 billion base budget marks a 3.4 percent real increase in spending over the amount appropriated this year for the department, future budgets are expected to grow only slightly more than the rate of inflation.

Projections of more cuts to military hardware come as Congress continues to grapple with changes Defense Secretary Gates proposed to dozens of procurement programs for FY10, including the termination of some high-profile programs such as the manned ground vehicle portion of the Army's Future Combat Systems.

Pentagon officials are reviewing their budgetary options during the congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review of military capabilities and requirements. Already, officials estimate that they need $50 billion to $60 billion worth of technological "enhancements" over the next five years - meaning cuts will have to come in other areas.

Todd Harrison, author of the CSBA report, says he expects programs that have limited missions or purposes - such as the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle -- to become targets for cuts. More versatile programs needed for conventional and unconventional warfare are more likely to be safe from the budgetary ax, he said.

"Whatever path is selected, effectively addressing the growing cost of DOD's plans and the growing size of the federal deficit will require making some hard decisions," the report says. "And the sooner those decisions are made the less painful they will be to carry out."