Lawsuit Challenges Dubious 'Tea Party' Candidate in Nevada

I can't believe this guy is still around. He's been ostracized by any legitimate Tea Party representatives in Nevada, and considering his dubious history, that's a wise move. Basically, he's been told to get lost, yet persists with the fantasy he somehow win a Senate seat. Oh, and he may want to hire a proofreader.

Both Reid and Angel are career politicians that attack each other on TV offering no solutions to the 163,000 Nevadans out of work.

How can you think Harry Ried or Sharron Angle will be able to create private sector jobs? They have never created any private sector jobs and they have never run a business, all they know how to do is spend YOUR hard earned money!

Now that's he's steamrolled his way to an amazing 250 names in support of his candidacy, some adults are looking to pull the plug. No doubt Dingy Harry will be dismayed his plant is wilting.

A new lawsuit is challenging the U.S. Senate bid of Tea Party of Nevada candidate Scott Ashjian.

The suit filed Tuesday in Carson City argues Ashjian was required to submit signatures totaling 1 percent of votes cast in Nevada's last U.S. House elections to qualify for the November ballot.

Ashjian collected names of 250 registered voters under another provision in the law, but the suit claims he was still obligated to comply with the larger signature requirement.

The suit was filed by members of Citizen Outreach, a group headed by conservative activist Chuck Muth. Other plaintiffs are Independent American Party director Janine Hansen and Debbie Landis, head of a tea party group.

Seems to be a lot of these plants popping up.

'It Was More Fun Than I Imagined'

Who knew tickling pussies with feather-tipped sticks would become a tourist draw?

A rundown former coal mining town in Taiwan is carving out a new future as a tourist resort - because of its huge stray cat population.

Cat lovers are reportedly flocking to Houtong to photograph the cats, tickle them with feather-tipped sticks and buy cat-related souvenirs.

The number of stray cats in the town is said to outweigh the human population by a ratio of two-to-one, reports Metro.

Houtong had undergone a seemingly irreversible economic decline as coal became less important to Taiwan's economy.

But the tiny, 200-strong community is reinventing itself as a cat lover's paradise.

"It was more fun than I imagined," said one visitor from Taipei. "The cats were clean and totally unafraid of people. I'll definitely return."

Palestinian Activist Celebrates Ramadan, Kills Four Israelis

Maybe he was frustrated by the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque. After all, our moral superiors have told us such an affront to the delicate sensibilities of Muslims is fueling extremism. It's apparently driven someone crazy enough to go on a murder spree during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The Israeli military says a Palestinian gunman has killed four Israelis in an attack in the West Bank.

The shooting comes just a day ahead of a White House summit relaunching Mideast peace talks.

Police say the gunman opened fire at a vehicle near Hebron — a volatile city that has experienced heavy violence in the past.

There has been no claim of responsibility. But Israeli authorities are concerned that militants might try to sabotage the U.S.-led peace efforts with violence.

ACLU Sues Obama on Behalf of Terror Kingpin Awlaki

Maybe some day the ACLU headquarters will get blown up and these America-haters will snap out of it. Though I doubt that will happen. Why would terrorists attack their most ardent supporters?

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government over an alleged policy of killing American citizens who are suspected of terrorism.

The lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Washington, argued that such targeted assassinations by the government are unconstitutional.

“A program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens, without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement announcing the filing of the case against U.S. President Barack Obama, the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The New York-based group, together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, brought the case on behalf of Nasser al- Awlaki, father of a U.S.-born Islamic cleric in Yemen, Anwar al- Awlaki, who is accused of having ties to al-Qaeda.

The younger al-Awlaki, who was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been marked for death by the U.S. Defense Department and the CIA, according to the organizations.

U.S. forces are trying to find al-Awlaki, saying he has been linked to plots against American targets including the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate an explosive device aboard an airliner approaching Detroit in December.

Needless to say, these jokers have impeccable timing. As this story was released a couple of terror suspects of Yemeni origin were arrested.

Monday's arrests of two suspects of Yemeni descent are another example of what federal officials and observers say is a growing problem with extremism and terrorist threats emanating from Yemen.

During the past year, a number of high-profile terrorism cases -- especially those involving Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim-American cleric of Yemeni descent -- have caused concern among government officials and others concerned about anti-American threats. The CIA says it now believes that a branch of al-Qaida in Yemen is a greater threat than al-Qaida in Pakistan, the main focus since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a report last week in the Washington Post.

With his fluent English, al-Awlaki has become popular over the Internet among some radical Muslims living in the West. U.S. intelligence officials found e-mails between al-Awlaki and Nidal Malik Hasan, the Muslim man accused of going on a shooting rampage on a military base in November that killed 13 people. Al-Awlaki also is believed to have inspired the Dec. 25 bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound airplane. The suspect in that case is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a native of Nigeria.

Surely the ACLU will be representing them in court.

The Boy From Brazil seems very concerned over Al-Awlaki's rights, such as they are.

It's an authoritarian scene out of some near-future dystopian novel, yet it's exactly what is happening. This is precisely the reaction of a substantial portion of the population which has been trained to believe every unproven government accusation of Terrorism. The mere utterance of the accusation -- Terrorist -- sends them into mindless, fear-driven submission, so extreme that they're willing even to endorse a Presidential-imposed death penalty on American citizens with no due process: about the most tyrannical power that can be imagined, literally.

Get a grip.

Gaddafi Resurrects Barbary Pirates Tactics

This sounds like a resurgence of the golden days of the Barbary Coast pirates. Libya's grand leader follows up his handing out of Korans after getting off his jet in Italy with an extortion demand to Europe.

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi says the EU should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a "black Europe".

Speaking on a visit to Italy, Col Gaddafi said Europe "could turn into Africa" as "there are millions of Africans who want to come in".

This is exactly the kind of protection money that Europeans and Americans were forced to pay in the 18th and 19th century to Libya until Thomas Jefferson said enough is enough and built a real Navy with some good Marines and solved the problem.
Now you know where the line "to the shores of Tripoli" in Marine Corps Hymn comes from.

It seems that Italy has ruffled some feathers by *gasp* enforcing their immigration laws. I guess we can expect our State Department to immediately report them to the United Nations Human Rights Council much the same as they did Arizona.

Italy has drawn criticism for handing over to Libya migrants it intercepts at sea, without screening them first.

Far fewer now reach Italy from Libya.

European Commission figures show that in 2009 the number of people caught trying to enter Italy illegally fell to 7,300, from 32,052 in 2008. The data was collected under the EU's Eurodac fingerprinting system.

Wow who knew that deporting people trying to enter your country illegally could have such a positive effect?

I wonder what is prompting such a rise in Qadaffi's craziness? Maybe he senses that he friends in low, er high places.

Figures: Obama to Spend Labor Day With Communist Union Thug Pal

In honor of the bang-up job Obama has done with the economy maybe we should call it Unemployment Day.

President Obama will spend Labor Day alongside AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the union announced Monday.

Obama, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Trumka will all participate in a Labor Day "celebration and rally" in Milwaukee on Monday, an appearance confirmed by the White House this afternoon, which separately announced the president would travel to Wisconsin for the Laborfest.

The appearance is another recent sign of unity between Obama and Trumka — the pair had sometimes had an adversarial relationship over the past year on issues like stimulating the economy and healthcare reform. (Trumka had pushed for a heftier stimulus and the inclusion of a public option in the healthcare bill.)

Maybe Trumka will puke on someone. I know he makes me want to hurl.

Like his fellow triumvirs, Trumka favors radical approaches to resuscitate a dying labor movement. One of their first projects after winning election was "Union Summer," an effort "to recruit and train hundreds of young people as organizers and political activists."

The agenda of Trumka and his fellow "New Voice" leaders is to promote "class-based organizing." According to labor economist Michael Yates, research shows that "those unions which mobilize rank-and-file workers around a program of aggressive solidarity and conflict with their employers have the best chance of winning union elections, bargaining good contracts, and resisting decertification."

The "Union Summer" indoctrination materials endorsed by Trumka use explicit class warfare rhetoric. Young participants are told to recite a pledge called "Working Class Commitment" that includes the Marxist dogma "that we produce the world's wealth, that we belong to the only class with a future, that our class will end all oppression."

Unlike their more moderate predecessors, Trumka and his fellow AFL-CIO bosses see free market capitalism not as essential to worker prosperity but as something to be despised and destroyed. "Union Summer" seeks to spread ideological hatred of capitalism, as well as love for "progressive" government, throughout the union movement. The ultimate aim is not to boost members' wages, but to radically transform society.

Hmm. Radically transform society. That sounds so familiar.

Ready for some projectile vomiting?

In February 2009, President Barack Obama named Trumka to his Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

Just the other day Trumka was doing Obama's dirty work for him by attacking Sarah Palin. I suspect she might have something to say come Unemployment Day.

Shhh: Rich Democrats Are Getting Richer

Seemingly forever we've heard Democrats play the class warfare card about the "rich getting richer" while simultaneously trying to gouge more tax money out of the evil rich. Well, as it turns out it's those same liberal Democrats who are getting richer, even during this down economy. Making matters worse, two of them never even earned the money in the first place: One married the money while the other inherited it, yet they're two of the biggest demagogues in Washington.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tops the list for the second year in a row. His minimum net worth was $188.6 million at the end of 2009, up by more than $20 million from 2008, according to his financial disclosure form.

While the economy struggled through a recession during much of 2009 and the nation’s unemployment rate soared to 10 percent, the stock market rebounded, helping lawmakers with large investments.

No wonder Kerry was able to afford a $7 million yacht that he was trying to avoid paying taxes on.

Meanwhile, the soon-to-be retired Patches Kennedy is also living large.

There were a few other new faces in the Top 50, including Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), who received an inheritance after his late father, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), died in 2009.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) also made the list.

Twenty-seven Democrats along with 23 Republicans make up the 50 richest in Congress; 30 House members and 20 senators are on the list.

The bulk of Kerry’s wealth is credited to his spouse, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who inherited hundreds of millions of dollars after her late husband, the ketchup heir Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), died in a plane crash in 1991.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), with a net worth of $160.1 million, is the second-richest member of Congress under The Hill’s formula, even though his wealth declined by more than $4 million in 2009.

He is followed by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who saw her net wealth leap to $152.3 million, a jump of more than $40 million from a year ago.

The rest of the top 10 are Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), McCaul, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

But don't forget the GOP is the "party of the rich" according to the Democrats and their media enablers.

A slideshow of all the fatcats is here. Be sure to note Darrell Issa is on the list, but he actually earned his money.

Poll: Seven in 10 New Yorkers are Islamophobic Bigots

Good luck spinning this, Mikey Bloomberg.

Move the mosque!

Seven in ten New Yorkers say the proposed mosque/Islamic community center near Ground Zero should be relocated because of opposition from 9/11 families — and an equal number want state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to probe the group’s finances, a new statewide poll released today found.

“Overwhelmingly — across party and regional lines — New Yorkers say the sponsors ought to voluntarily move the proposed mosque to another location,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

The survey of 1,497 of New York residents found:

54 percent agree that “freedom of religion” gives Muslims the legal right to build the mosque on Park Place, while 40 percent disagreed and the rest were undecided.

But 53 percent also said Muslim developers should not be allowed to build the mosque near the World Trade Center site in deference to sensitivities of 9/11 relatives, with 39 percent opposed and the rest undecided.

A whopping 71 percent then said the organizers should voluntarily move the mosque elsewhere because of opposition from 9/11 family members. Only 21 percent were opposed, with the rest undecided.

And 71 percent also said that AG Cuomo should probe the finances behind the building of the mosque, also known as 51Park. The concerns over who bankrolls the mosque comes as developer Sharif el-Gamal just announced the launch of the facility’s fundraising campaign and he collected $10,000 last week from supporters.

A sizable number of New Yorkers have negative views of Islam. Nearly one-third — 31 percent have an unfavorable opinion and about one-quarter were undecided. Less than a majority – 45 percent – had a favorable opinion.

Amazing how people would have a negative view of Islam. I mean all that happened was Islamists murdered 2800 people in Lower Manhattan for all the world to see.

About one-quarter of New Yorkers think “mainstream Islam” encourages violence against non-Muslims, while 54 percent consider it a peaceful religion. About one in five had no opinion.

There were partisan differences. Republicans were most strongly against the mosque: 72 percent of GOPers said Muslims should not be allowed to build it there, and 85 percent said planners should voluntarily relocate the facility.

Democrats were more divided – with 49 percent opposed to government blocking the project because of objections from 9/11 families. But even 61 percent of Democrats said organizers should voluntarily move it.

So even six out of 10 Democrats agree the mosque should be moved, yet their own leaders considers them bigots. Seems like a great strategy to win over voters.

Meanwhile as some reporters finally investigate these very shady developers more and more disturbing details arise.

Run-ins with the law and tax troubles are a family affair for two brothers developing the mosque near Ground Zero.

Sammy El Gamal, a partner in the firm that purchased the former Burlington Coat Factory at 45 Park Place and one of four directors of a nonprofit created to build the mosque, owes the state $22,400 in taxes. State records show three warrants issued to him, including a $19,895 bill in 2007.

Asked about the taxes, he said, "I don't think that it concerns you. Have a nice day."

Some way to reach out and build bridges, Sammy.

El Gamal is among the directors listed on an application to the state Attorney General's Office to create a charitable organization that would build and run the Islamic cultural center.

Also on the board is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and the three directors -- including El Gamal's older brother, Sharif -- of Soho Properties, which paid $4.85 million for the Park Place site slated to house the center.

The Post reported Sunday that Soho Properties is in arrears to the city for $224,270 in property taxes on the site.

Sebelius Calls for 'Reeducation' on ObamaCare

Perhaps she should first start out by educating Democrats on what's in the law since they were so hesitant to read it before they shoved this crap sandwich down our throats. Considering the dire straits Democrats are in two months out of the impending November bloodbath, a surly electorate isn't quite going to like hearing it's time for reeducation.

With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats’ health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration has “a lot of reeducation to do” heading into the midterms.

While some surveys – namely the Kaiser Family Foundation monthly tracking poll – have suggested an uptick in support for the reforms, most other surveys continue to show a steady level of opposition to the new law that remains higher than the favorable opinions of it.

“Unfortunately, there still is a great deal of confusion about what is in [the reform law] and what isn’t,” Sebelius told ABC News Radio in an interview Monday.

With several vulnerable House Democrats touting their votes against the bill, and Republicans running on repeal, Sebelius said “misinformation given on a 24/7 basis” has led to the enduring opposition nearly six months after the lengthy debate ended in Congress.

“So, we have a lot of reeducation to do,” Sebelius said.

I just hope the Purple People Beaters from the SEIU won't be running the camps.

Independent Investigation Slams IPCC Climate Scammers

The Great Global Warming Hoax took another one on the chin today. Not much left to this scam as their credibility has been close to zero since the ClimateGate emails first came to light late last year. Now that the clowns at the IPCC have een ordered to disclose their outside financial interest, expect a lot of sudden retirements.

An independent investigation into the UN’s climate change body has warned it to stop lobbying and to restrict its role to explaining the science behind any changes in global temperature.

Senior officials at the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have also been ordered to disclose their outside financial interests to avert any allegations that they may have profited from policies to tackle global warming.

New controls should also be introduced to ensure that the scientific claims made in influential international reports are robust in future.

The independent inquiry which delivered the rebuke was ordered after the IPCC admitted it had exaggerated the pace at which Himalayan glaciers were melting. Several other errors in its recent report were also uncovered.

The admission threatened to undermine the scientific basis used by Governments around the world to justify spending billions of pounds tackling climate change.

A more blunt assessment:

Independent climate scientist Peter Taylor said last night: “The IPCC’s credibility has been deeply dented and something has to be done. It can’t just be a matter of adjusting the practices. They have got to look at what are the consequences of having got it wrong in terms of what the public think is going on. Admitting that it needs to reform means something has gone wrong and they really do need to look at the science.”

Climate change sceptic David Holland, who challenged leading climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia to disclose their research, said: “The panel is definitely not fit for purpose. What the IAC has said is substantial changes need to be made.”

NYC Teacher Rewarded For Allowing Use of 'Street Slang' in Class

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'When You Are Black, You Are Subjected To a Different Reality, and We Are Not Going To Be Quiet'

So said noted racial healer Al Sharpton, way back in February 2008. Indeed, Sharpton very much is subjected to a different reality. In fact just Saturday he drew a few thousand people to see him whine about Glenn Beck's massive rally and he was accorded preferential treatment by the Washington Post. But we're used to seeing an alternate reality when it comes to Sharpton. Over two decades after pushing the Tawana Brawley hoax, inciting riots in Brooklyn and the Freddie's massacre in Harlem, Sharpton is greeted by the media as a political kingmaker. In fact, he's been reinvented, according to one rapidly fading weekly.

So it's interesting today to revisit his comments from 2008.

The Rev. Al Sharpton says federal investigators probing Roger Clemens' alleged steroid use must hold the hurler to the same standards applied to slugger Barry Bonds.

"When I see a contrast between how you treat a Clemens and how you treat a Bonds, that is a civil rights issue," Sharpton said Saturday on his weekly radio show.

Sharpton - who seemed to downplay the harsh questioning of Clemens by several members of Congress - assailed those who "treated Roger Clemens like they were at a fan club meeting."

Clemens, in his appearance before a House committee last Wednesday, repeatedly denied using performance-enhancing drugs - echoing the claims of Bonds, baseball's all-time home run leader.
...
But Sharpton said Clemens' celebrity, his sterling statistics and his off-field endeavors shouldn't affect the decision to prosecute him.

"You have prosecuted Barry Bonds, and you did not say, 'Don't prosecute Bonds because he made the sport a lot of money,'" Sharpton said.

"You did not say, 'Don't prosecute Bonds because he gives a lot to charity,' which he does.

"When you are black, you are subjected to a different reality, and we are not going to be quiet."

Thanks to Phil Mushnick for noticing the media's amnesia when it comes to this.

Last week, after Clemens was indicted by the federal government for perjury, Sharpton appeared on MSNBC. But his irresponsible, inflammatory allegations about Bonds and Clemens were never even mentioned. Sharpton was brought on to shout "racism!" at something else.

Sharpton never has been held accountable for his wishful-thinking claims about sports, but those claims sure make big news when he first makes them. That's what happens when the news media can't distinguish -- or chooses not to distinguish -- an activist from an arsonist.

Clemens is being arraigned today. Al Sharpton is unavailable for comment.

Update: Check out all the hate on display at the Sharpton rally. Funny how the media's ignoring this.

Obama Claims Special Prize at World Testicle Cooking Championship

Ever since we noted the Serbian testicle festival a few weeks ago we know you've been waiting breathlessly for the big event. Well, everyone had a ball, it seems. As with most events, they couldn't keep politics out of it.

In a remote Serbian mountain village, they're cooking up delicacies to make your mouth water — or your stomach churn. At the seventh annual World Testicle Cooking Championship, visitors watch — and sometimes taste — as teams of chefs cook up bull, boar, camel, ostrich and even kangaroo testicles.

"This festival is all about fun, food and bravery," said Ljubomir Erovic, the Serbian chef and testicles gourmand specialist who organizes the bizarre cooking festival and has published a testicle cookery book.

The food — politely called "white kidneys" in Serbian — is believed to be rich in testosterone. In the Balkans, it is considered to help men's libido.

"The bulls' testicles are the best, goulash style," said last year's winner Zoltan Levai, stirring a metal pot heated by a wood fire and filled with vegetables and large testicles that he said were provided from a state-run slaughter house.

The festival — which includes dishes like testicle pizza and testicles in bechamel sauce flavored with a variety of herbs found in the region.

Visitors eat the dishes with plenty of wine or beer, and cool themselves in a small mountain river that flows beside the makeshift cooking stands blasting folk music. The stalls also sell roasted pig or lamb, "as a side dish".

As for Obama, it appears the organizers aren't quite up to date on American politics.

The festival also gives prizes to to those who have made the news for being "ballsy". This year one of the unsuspecting winners is U.S. President Barack Obama.

"He's the bravest man in the world," said Erovic. "Obama took over the world at the most difficult economic and political times," Erovic said. "He showed he has balls."

The owner of Obama's balls, Michelle Obama, was unavailable for comment.

Maybe Obama can attend next year rather than going to Martha's Vineyard. Then he can tell reporters "Hey, I'm just trying to buy some balls".

God knows he needs them.

Obama Comes Out of the Closet

No, not as a Muslim. He's officially declaring himself a pantywaist. Seriously, can the guy look any lamer?

That photo was from Martha's Vineyard the other day, in between one of his 37 rounds of golf.

Sure reminds us of this from two years ago:

Heh: Chuckles Johnson Now Relying on CBS as a Source In Desperate Attempt to Discredit Glenn Beck

Can it get any more pathetic?

Having implicitly admitted that the crowd appears “eleventy gazillion” strong, Johnson turns to a trusted source for a far lower estimate. That source? Former Johnson target CBS.

The fat slob just can't handle the fact people like Glenn Beck and don't like him.

Ground Zero Mosque Imam a Deadbeat Slumlord: 'All He Likes Is Money'

These Ground Zero Mosque developers are sure looking good these days. On one hand we have a guy who's been arrested at least seven times and who owes New York City $224,000 in back taxes. Now we find out the "spiritual leader" traipsing around the world on our dime raising money for this abomination is a slumlord, according to tenants of his apartments in New Jersey.

Is it any wonder Michael Bloomberg and Barack Obama loves this guy? He sounds like a typical liberal.

He's the religious leader of the planned, controversial Ground Zero mosque -- but across the Hudson, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is known as an alleged slumlord.

At buildings in Union City and Palisades Park, where Rauf reportedly got tax dollars to renovate low-income apartments, tenants yesterday said their gripes about their lousy housing conditions have been ignored.

"Why doesn't he help the tenants he has before he builds a new place, claiming he wants to help people?" said a disgusted Jamie Barillas, who lives in a Rauf-owned apartment at 2206 Central Ave. in Union City.

"Nothing gets done. We have to go through City Hall to get things done. . . . He doesn't care about his tenants," she said.

Barillas said that bedbugs plague the building -- but that when she tried to get building managers to respond, they claimed they didn't have the money to hire an exterminator.

Tenant Vilma Then chided Rauf as greedy.

"All he likes is money," she said. "Nothing ever gets fixed. I complain to the super, and all he says is that he has the same problem."

Vilma Then said she lived at Rauf's building around the corner until a fire forced her to move to 2206 Central Ave. She said her current situation is similar to her old digs, where she had a stove that was more like "a roach den."

She also complained that Rauf's wife, Daisy Khan -- who has been the imam's spokesperson while he is touring overseas -- "listens to what you have to say and writes things down and leaves -- and nothing gets done."

"She gives nothing but false promises," the resident said.

The Record newspaper of Hackensack reported that Rauf won taxpayer-funded support for his New Jersey buildings from powerful politicians in the state, including Sen. Bob Menendez when he was the mayor of Union City.

The projects were plagued by financial problems as well as tenant complaints, the paper said.

A spokesman for Menendez said the senator did not have a close working relationship with Rauf.

Sure, Bob, run and hide. What a man.

Cynthia Balko, 48, of Union City — a longtime tenant of Rauf’s — said she’s had to live with rats, leaks and no heat: “I don’t have anything nice to say about the man.”

She finds it hard to believe Rauf’s going to build a world-class Islamic community center, with fitness facilities, auditorium, restaurant, library, culinary school and art studios, as well as a Sept. 11 memorial and space for Muslim prayer services.

“He can’t even repair the bells in the hallway. He doesn’t take care of his properties. But he’s going to take care of a mosque?”

'All Over This Country These Things Are Happening'

Indeed, one of the biggest problems facing this country is wealthy people scamming their ways to four rent-controlled apartments and skipping out on their taxes.

This plague must stop!

Rep. Charles Rangel played the race card yesterday as he entered the final stretch of his renomination campaign before the Sept. 14 primary.

Speaking to scores of supporters at an outdoor celebration organized by church leaders in Harlem, the embattled Democrat described himself as a "foot soldier" in African-Americans' struggle for equality, and urged everyone to vote for him to keep the fight alive.

"All of you remember that this fight is never, never going to end. I'm just one of the foot soldiers; just one of those [who] fought in the march so that one day our kids [will] be able to say, 'Do you remember when there was bigotry and prejudice in this country? Do you remember when there wasn't fairness?'

"This is not Charlie Rangel's struggle. All over this country these things are happening," Rangel said.

Rangel faces five opponents as he battles a slew of ethics charges in Congress, including failing to pay taxes on property he owns in the Dominican Republic and not declaring investments on his tax returns.

A House panel has charged him with 13 violations, and he is likely to face a trial shortly after the primary.

Another problem facing the nation, accoridng to Rangel, is the utter lack of patriotism shown by the left toward the commander-in-chief. Oh wait, he was silent back when Bush was under daily assault. Now, apparently, he's swept up in patriotic fervor.

"It's very difficult to understand . . . when the commander-in-chief is leading our great nation involved in two wars for people to be so overtly critical of him knowing, knowing, that the enemies of democracy are listening to that -- it's just not right," Rangel said after the rally.

Funny, but I don't have any recollection of Rangel tut-tutting his own party when they excoriated Bush for eight years.

Comparing African-Americans' gains in politics to being allowed into a meeting, Rangel said, "It won't be long now before they'll be telling our president, 'You can't attend the meeting.' "

Who is this they he says won't be letting Obama into a meeting?

Jeremiah Wright: People Who Think Obama's Muslim are 'Sycophants'

Maybe the media can borrow some of those ebonics translators from the DEA and have them available for stories on the loony Jeremiah Wright. Here you have the AP releasing a story where they claim the nutty Wright called people who believe Barack Obama is a Muslim are psychopaths.

Oops.

The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright referred to people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim as "sycophants," not psychopaths.

A corrected story will be sent shortly.

Here's a corrected version, and Wright isn't making much sense either way.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, accused people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim of catering to political enemies during a fiery speech Sunday in Arkansas.

In his sermon at New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Wright criticized supporters of the Iraq war and defended former state Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen for speaking out against it. Griffen serves as the church's pastor.

Wright's only reference to Obama came when he compared Griffen's opponents to those who incorrectly think Obama is Muslim. The president, whose full name is Barack Hussein Obama, is Christian.

"Go after the military mindset ... and the enemy will come after you with everything," Wright told the packed church.

"He will surround you with sycophants who will criticize you and ostracize you and put you beyond the pale of hope and say 'you ain't really a Baptist' and say 'the president ain't really a Christian, he's a Muslim. There ain't no American Christian with a name like Barack Hussein,'" he added.

What the hell is he talking about?

The Hill put up an item a few hours ago and it still uses psychopaths in the headline

Obama, meanwhile, remains very thin-skinned about it and the dreaded "birther" issue.

Shocker: Ground Zero Mosque Developer Owes $224K in Back Taxes

Oh well, all he'll need is for his new BFF Mikey Bloomberg to provide an interest-free loan and this minor little inconvenience will just go away.

The mosque developers are tax deadbeats.

Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.

El-Gamal's company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its half-yearly bills in January and July, according to the city Finance Department.

The delinquency is a possible violation of El-Gamal's lease with Con Edison, which owns half of the proposed building site on Park Place. El-Gamal owns the other half but must pay taxes on the entire parcel.

The lease agreement, obtained by The Post, specifies that El-Gamal's company pay taxes on the property and submit receipts to Con Ed.

The utility said it would have to review any possible lease violations.

The late taxes are the latest wrinkle in the controversial plan to put the 15-story mosque near the World Trade Center site.

Before any building can go forward, the developers also must get approval from the MTA because the 2 and 3 subway lines run under a portion of the Park Place property, The Post has learned.

El-Gamal's spokesperson insisted to The Post that the taxes had been paid and that the "subway lines do not pose a problem."

El-Gamal plans to tear down the two buildings on the Park Place site, which housed a Burlington Coat Factory store but have been empty since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when one was damaged.

The Post revealed this month that El-Gamal owned only half the site. Gamal purchased the lease to the Con Ed property for $700,000 last year when he bought the other building on the site for $4.8 million.

Yesterday we discovered El-Gamal has been arrested at least seven times, today we find out he's a tax deadbeat. Again we ask: Where has the media been to investigate this guy? They're seemingly more interested in demonizing opponents of the mosque that they are looking into these very dubious developers.

When Hoarding Turns Deadly: Pack-rat Missing For Four Months Turns Up Dead Under Pile of Junk

This is even more ironic than the dude who got hit by a train while waiting on the ghost train. Here a woman is missing since April and search teams scoured everywhere for her. So where do they find here? Under a massive pile of junk in her own home.

A four-month search for a missing Las Vegas woman came to a ghastly end this week when her husband found her corpse in their home amid a labyrinth of squalor that had been impassable even to search dogs.

Bill James apparently had no idea that the body of his pack-rat wife, Billie Jean, was under the same roof as he helped police scour the home and the Nevada desert for any sign of her. Then he spotted the feet of the body poking out of a floor-to-ceiling pile of junk Wednesday, revealing in shocking detail the woman's penchant for hoarding.

Police say they searched the home several times — even using dogs from a unit that helped locate bodies at ground zero after Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina. But they were unable to find the body of amid the piles of clothes, knickknacks, trash and other junk.

"For our dogs to go through that house and not find something should be indicative of the tremendous environmental challenges they faced," police spokesman Bill Cassell said.

Clark County Coroner's office spokeswoman Jessica Coloma said it could take weeks to determine when and how the 67-year-old woman died. The husband has been cooperative throughout the investigation and quickly notified police of his discovery.

One thing is not in doubt about the case: Billie Jean James loved to hoard. It's a behavior that has received new attention this year with two popular reality TV shows — "Hoarding: Buried Alive" and "Hoarders" — that chronicle the lives of people who live in absolute squalor because they cannot bring themselves to throw anything away.

A similar situation could be seen at the James' home in a desert-front cul-de-sac near the Las Vegas Strip. In the driveway sits two huge trash bins that require industrial-sized trucks to haul them away. The front patio is filled with knickknacks including old chairs, smaller trash bins and a 10-foot basketball hoop.

Inside, Cassell said James' piles of clutter left just small pathways to walk and strong odors that hindered their search — generated by animals, decomposing garbage, food, clothes and other stuff.

"If there had been any indication that there was a remote possibility that somebody was back underneath that stuff we would have taken the appropriate action," Cassell said.

Sari Connolly, who walked dogs with James and her husband daily at a nearby park with a group of friends, said the woman bought things at thrift stores each day and accumulated them in the house.

"She became this hoarder person and she wouldn't let anyone come in her house," Connolly said.

Connolly said one of Billie Jean James' closest friends once asked to use the bathroom at the home after a camping trip, but James wouldn't let her in.

"It sounds like it was beyond control," said Connolly, who had a big banner made to help find James during the search.

Make Believe Media: WaPo Claims Al Sharpton Brings Thousands to DC

Hundreds of thousands of Americans showed up in Washington today to see a rally held by Glenn Beck. So what does the Washington Post report? That Al Sharpton drews thousands to Washington.

Unreal. Most notable quote they can find about Beck, who outdrew Sharpton by about 100 to 1?

Jaime Contreras, president of SEIU-32BJ, said those gathered at the Mall with Beck "represent angry white people and hate-mongering." He added: "We will not let them stand in the way of the change we voted for!"

Meanwhile, they make sure to remind readers that Beck and Sarah Palin drew an overwhelmingly white crowd. They failed to note Sharpton's sparse gathering was overwhelming black, naturally.

Claiming the legacy of the nation's Founding Fathers and repeatedly evoking civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., Beck, Sarah Palin and other speakers at the "Restoring Honor" rally exhorted a sprawling and overwhelmingly white crowd to concentrate not on the history that has scarred the nation but instead on what makes it "good."

Update: Via Ian Schwartz, it looks like CBS was also playing the race card.

CBS News: "I'm noticing that there are not a lot of minorities here today, why do you think that is?"

Black woman at Glenn Beck rally: "They're probably over there with Al Sharpton."

Plus, even more nonsense.

'I Have Not Always Led a Perfect Life'

We're about three months into the debate over the Ground Zero Victory Mosque and just now the media is checking up on the people behind it?

Years before his latest real-estate project ignited an uproar, Sharif El-Gamal racked up at least seven run-ins with the law, including a bust for patronizing a prostitute.

"I regret many things that I did in my youth. I have not always led a perfect life," El-Gamal, 37, said in a statement to the Daily News.

His most recent arrest was for a Sept. 10, 2005, assault on a barber who sublet a Manhattan apartment from El-Gamal's brother, Sammy.

The brothers and another man went to the apartment that afternoon to retrieve back rent from Mark Vassiliev, criminal and civil court records show.

El-Gamal allegedly cursed at Vassiliev, called him the Arabic curse word "sharmouta" and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and cheekbones.

When he was arrested, El-Gamal denied he socked Vassiliev, but conceded, "[Vassiliev's] face could have run into my hand," court papers say.

"I am in real estate. I'm rich. Why would I do this? Why would I jeopardize my career? I'm not a thug," he told cops.

He was charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment. Charges were dropped in 2007 after Vassiliev sued.

El-Gamal eventually settled the civil case for $15,000 - and the 2008 negotiations provided a glimpse into his finances.

Vassiliev's lawyer, Erik L. Gray, said there was no indication El-Gamal had assets beyond a $1.1 million upper West Side pad he owned with his wife.

Even after El-Gamal inked the deal, he was slow to pay and the matter ended up in mediation - where his lawyer, Marshall Isaacs, told Gray there were money problems.

"He had told me [El-Gamal] was struggling financially and was having trouble coming up with the payment," Gray said. "It was based on the fact that he was in real estate and the real estate market was depressed."

El-Gamal agreed to fork over $1,360 in interest and fees but paid up in installments, Gray said.

If his 2008 cries of poverty were genuine, El-Gamal experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune a year later, scoring a $39 million mortgage to buy a W. 27th St. commercial building.

He had a partner, Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who co-signed the loan. Elzanaty denied to discuss his dealings with El-Gamal.

Maybe eventually some intrepid reporters may even look into the very shady Elzanaty.

The son of a bank executive, El-Gamal has said he turned to Islam after 9/11 and that his religious awakening followed a troubled youth.

He pleaded guilty in 1994, 1998 and 1999 to disorderly conduct in Manhattan.

He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in 1990, DWI in 1992 and attempted petit larceny in 1993, Nassau County prosecutors said.

Details were unavailable, but a source confirmed a 1994 arrest for patronizing a prostitute.

El-Gamal says he's a different man now.

Sure he is. He's got Little Mikey Bloomberg to vouch for him.

Left-wing Darling Castro Starting to Sound Like Nutroots Blogger

This decrepit tool really needs to stop reading Daily Kos and Think Progress.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has claimed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent.

The country's former president has said that the world's most wanted terrorist always popped up when former US President George W Bush needed to scare the world, and argued that recently published documents on the internet prove it.

Castro told state media: 'Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do.

'Bush never lacked for bin Laden’s support. He was a subordinate.'

Castro said documents posted on the controversial WikiLeaks website 'effectively proved he (Bin Laden) was a CIA agent.' He did not elaborate further on the claims.

The comments were published today in the Communist party's daily newspaper, Granma.

They were the latest in a series of bold and provocative statements by Castro, who has emerged from exile to warn the planet is on the brink of a nuclear war.

Bizarrely, Castro even predicted that global conflict would mean cancellation of the final rounds of the World Cup in South Africa. He later apologised.

And last week, the 84-year-old began highlighting the work of Lithuanian investigative journalist Daniel Estulin, who he was meeting with when the Bin Laden comments came to light.

During the meeting, Estulin told Castro that the real voice of bin Laden was last heard in late 2001, not long after the September 11 attacks.

He said the person heard making warnings about terror attacks after that was a 'bad actor.'

Mr Estulin, is a well-known conspiracy theorist and wrote a trilogy of books highlighting the Bilderberg Club, whose prominent members meet once a year behind closed doors.

ObamaCare's Retroactive Calorie Mandate

Another mandate has been discovered in the ObamaCare legislation and it's totally unenforceable. Get a load of this piece of socialist insanity.

A mandate buried in the health-care bill President Barack Obama signed in March is now confounding not only the vending-machine operators who are supposed to follow it but also the federal regulators who are supposed to enforce it.

The Food and Drug Administration has ruled that the provisions in Obamacare that mandate that restaurant owners and vending-machine operators disclose the calorie contents of the foods they sell retroactively took effect on the day Obama signed the bill.

The FDA, however, has not been able to give vending-machine operators complete and final guidance on how they should make their machines comply with the law, thus causing “confusion” and “frustration” in the industry, and leading the agency to refrain for now from enforcing the provision.

Section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) says companies with 20 or more restaurants or vending machines must disclose nutrition content for standard menu items, and that for vending machines in particular, the company “shall provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button that includes a clear and conspicuous statement disclosing the number of calories contained in the article.”

The FDA has ruled that this section of the law went into effect on March 23, 2010, when President Obama signed it, and has laid out detailed instructions for how chain restaurants should display the calorie counts of each menu item, along with definitions of each term involved in the regulation. The FDA has not managed to give similarly detailed guidance to vending machine operators. In fact, the FDA guidance produced on the question thus far has only reiterated the law’s mandate that companies that operate 20 or more vending machines must “immediately disclose, in a clear and conspicuous manner,” the number of calories contained in each snack item or drink.

Yep, you got that right. These far left wackos enacted a law that required immediate compliance by vending machine operators but provided no guidelines or procedures for companies to follow in order to comply with.

That's like my passing a law that requires you to jog around the world now. The only fly in the ointment is that you have to figure out how to do it, but do it now anyhow.

Also, notice how calorie counting of food is included in a piece of legislation that was supposed to be about health care coverage?

Why not also legislate what kind of meal you can have for dinner, what kind of cereal you can have for breakfast, or how many beers you can have a month?

And then these nut jobs wonder why businesses do not want to try to expand nor hire anybody. They have no idea what overreaching legislation is going to be passed next, nor what will be found buried in existing legislation.

Do you really trust these guys with your health care?

Czechs Tell Norks To Get Serious

Don't be surprised if this decision ends up being smeared with either the 'racists' or 'bigots' label by the angry, intolerant, piss-ignorant Left.

North Korean ginseng offer refused
Ginseng is said to have libidinous and energizing qualities.

But the herbal root from the Orient did not have the same effect on trade negotiations between Czech and North Korean authorities.

At issue was a 186 million Kc [US$9,574,650 ed.] debt outstanding from a late 1980s deal for Czechoslovak trucks, trams and heavy machinery.

"We can confirm that a negotiation regarding the North Korean debt was held in July," Radek Ležatka, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry, told The Prague Post. "Representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea came with an official proposal to forgive 95 percent of the debt."

Ležatka said the ministry found this proposal "unacceptable."

Ministry officials then suggested that the cash-strapped North Koreans pay the debt in goods rather than hard currency. Less formal talks followed, and North Korean officials apparently suggested making part of their debt payment in ginseng - a plant that grows naturally in cooler Asian climates and is now a common ingredient in energy drinks or an additive in green tea.

North Korea's military controls much of the country's exports. Ginseng sales are controlled by a highly secretive branch of the Army known as "Bureau 39," according to The Financial Times. The North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Ležatka said the offer came during informal discussions and that "the Finance Ministry will wait for the official proposal of the North Korean authorities."

Czech negotiators were reportedly considering other commodities as part of any deal, including zinc ore. The Finance Ministry would then plan on selling the zinc to recoup the North Korean debt.

The debt dates from the rule of Kim Il Sung, the communist dictator who ran North Korea from 1948 through his death in 1994. He was succeeded by his eccentric son Kim Jong Il, who is known for enjoying among other things fine liquors and James Bond films despite the grinding poverty that has engulfed his country. He has driven the country into increasing international isolation, due largely to continued work on a nuclear weapons program.

Kim's health has become the subject of much speculation since late 2008, when he reportedly suffered a stroke. In public appearances since, he has appeared frail, and in July 2009, The New York Times reported he is suffering from pancreatic cancer. Earlier this year, the United Kingdom's Telegraph cited a South Korean intelligence official in reporting that Kim had $4 billion stowed in numbered bank accounts in Luxembourg.

Pyongyang owes an estimated $12 billion to the world in unpaid debts, two-thirds of that to former communist states like the Czech Republic. International sanctions have tightened further in recent years, depriving the North Korean regime of its key source of hard currency: arms sales.

"We have finished the official negotiations on this position, and informal discussions about different possibilities have followed," Ležatka said.

It is not known what other commodities Kim - who before a previous round of sanctions in 2007, formerly imported an estimated $800,000 worth of Hennessy cognac each year, according to the brand's manufacturer - and his government are considering to offer for paying off the debt.

"Negotiations will continue," Ležatka said.

Members of the UN Human Rights Commission were unavailable for comment.

Via The Prague Post

'We Will Not Take Money From Organizations That Have Un-American Values'

Well, I guess that rules out taking money from the Democrat National Committee.

Plans for the mosque near Ground Zero took a big step forward yesterday.

With controversy over the project still raging, the developer kicked off fund-raising for the Islamic center and mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center by raising $10,000 from a congregation of Muslim worshippers.

Sharif El-Gamal announced the start of the fund-raising drive at yesterday's prayer sessions, which have been taking place since last year in the vacant Burlington Coat Factory that's to be torn down to make way for the new center.

Conceptual plans for the mosque and center were made public last year, but its backers have long acknowledged they hadn't begun raising the estimated $100 million needed for construction and the additional millions needed to fund operations.

Wow, a whole $10,000? Only $99,990,000 to go. They should have that money together in no time.

The questions about financing fueled worries in some quarters that the backers might turn to foreign, anti-American sources for money.

Recently, a spokesman for the mosque created a stir when he refused to rule out taking funds from Iran or Saudi Arabia, and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the mosque, has spoken about the possibility of raising money from Arab states.

But El-Gamal told CBS's "60 Minutes," however, that the money will not come from sleazy sources.

"We will not take money from Iran. We will not take money from Hamas. We will not take money from organizations that have un-American values," he told the news program in an excerpt from an interview released yesterday.

El-Gamal said a new nonprofit group had been formed to guide and control the project -- a formal step required before the fund-raising campaign could begin.

But he ran into a hitch this week filing paperwork to create the charity because a key requirement -- that he first obtain federal IRS tax-exempt status -- was not met.

This lowlife's past comments continue to bite him in the ass, but I guess it doesn't matter since his biggest supporters (we're looking at you, Mikey Bloomberg) are oblivious.

Meanwhile, records show Rauf has called for a "one state" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem -- an outcome some say could lead to Israel's disappearance.

The view, expressed in a 2005 speech in Australia, is contrary to the US government's long-standing "two state" solution of Israel and Palestine living "side by side in peace and security."

Is Kazakhstan Really That Terrible?

Here I thought Borat had improved their image. Seriously, what might lie in store for a prisoner being extradited that a guy would chop off his manhood to avoid going home?

A Kazakh man cut off his penis at Madrid's Barajas airport to avoid being extradited home and was hospitalized in serious condition, Spanish media reported Friday.

The 52-year-old man had finished serving a five-year prison sentence in Spain for a violent crime and was due to be extradited back to Kazakhstan overnight Monday.

Despite being escorted by several police officers, the man was able to slip a knife out of his clothing and sever his penis.

DOJ Arrests State Department Leaker

No not the one who leaked information on anything during the Bush years but rather someone who gave information to James Rosen of Fox News on North Korea's nuclear program. I don't have much yet, just the report that Bret Baier gave on air a few minutes ago.

I found this article on Yahoo news.

The Obama administration on Friday accused an analyst who worked at the State Department of leaking top secret information about North Korea to a reporter. He is pleading innocent. It was the latest move in an aggressive campaign to crack down on leaks, even as the administration has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources.

Steven Kim, who worked at State as an employee of a contractor, was named in a federal indictment unsealed Friday. He was charged with illegally disclosing national defense information, which carries a top penalty of 10 years in prison, and with making false statements to the FBI, which has a maximum five-year sentence.

The Justice Department said in June 2009 Kim knowingly passed information about U.S. intelligence concerning a foreign country to a national news organization and in September of that year falsely denied to the FBI having had recent contacts with a reporter from that news organization. The material was classified top secret/sensitive compartmented information because it concerned the military capability of the foreign country and related to U.S. intelligence sources and methods.

It sounds like the DOJ's case is weak since as Mr Kim's lawyers contend it was nothing more then a conversation between the man and the reporter which contained no information not known to anybody who was more then a casual observer and the judge released him with no bail.

Amazing how this Department of Justice works isn't it. After passing on the New Black Panther's voter intimidation case, screwing up who knows how many trials of Gitmo detainees and today turning a blind eye to the USS Cole bomber they have plucked some guy out of thin air who gave information to Fox News.

Talk about sending a message.

I wonder how the left will treat this news. Will they run to his defense like they did the asshat Army private who worked with Julian Assange of Wikileaks or march with pitchforks demanding his head on a pike because he leaked to Fox News instead of one of their favored liberal news sources like the New York Times or Time magazine?

D'oh! Man Waiting for 'Ghost Train' Gets Hit By Real One

Oops.

As a dozen amateur ghost hunters in North Carolina waited for a "ghost train" before dawn Friday, a man in the group was killed by a real one, WCNC reported.

The group gathered on the 119th anniversary of the Bostian Bridge train wreck, an accident that has sparked well-known ghost stories, according to the local news channel.

But they did not hear the eastbound Norfolk Southern train barreling toward them until it rounded a nearby bend.

Christopher Kaiser, 29, was struck by the train and killed at about 3:00 am, Iredell County Sherriff Phil Redmond told WCNC.

Several incident reports alleged that Kaiser pushed a woman out of the train’s path before he was hit. She was seriously injured and airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center.

The ghost hunters were apparently caught on a trestle near the site of the old Bostian Bridge, and all but Kaiser were able to run to safety.

Deputies reportedly found his body under the trestle at the bottom of a steep ravine.

"They say on the anniversary that it replays in front of you or you hear the accident or you hear the train wrecking," a witness told WCNC.

Good News NYC, GZM Funding Problem Solved

After it was revealed that the folks that want to build the Islamic Victory Tower in the shadow of the Ground Zero crater only had about $18,000 on hand questions started to arise about the funding. Good news, New Yorkers. Your Democrat governor and comptroller, John Liu, have come up with an idea to make you pay for it.

The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.

The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.

"If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters.

I remember during the Cold War that there was quote attributed to some Soviet big wig saying they would beat America with it's own freedoms and it certainly seems we have plenty of people nowadays willing to make that become a reality.

But I also remember a Supreme Court Justice saying that the Constitution wasn't a suicide pact.

Some people ask how far away from Ground Zero is appropriate to build a Muslim Center. My answer is anywhere outside of the radius of where that dust settled.

Summer of Hate: Gunshot Fired at GOP Office

I blame the extremist rhetoric of the left-wing media and Democrats for spreading the hate. They keep stirring the pot with their extremist rhetoric and it's only a matter of time before one of their deranged followers takes matters into their own hands.

A gunshot shattered a glass door Wednesday at a Salisbury office of the Maryland Republican Party, according to a party statement.

The party published the statement on its website, indicating that a single gunshot shattered the front door at the office early in the morning.

Salisbury police officers discovered the shattered glass after midnight and reported that the office had been vandalized.

The statement indicated that a party staffer found a bullet in the office.

H/T.

Unlike when Democrats mascots are allegedly attacked, no motive was reported.

"Thankfully no one was hurt during this incident and the Maryland Republican Party is cooperating with the Salisbury police department to get to the bottom of this very disturbing situation," Scott said. "No motive has been established but whatever the reason may be, it is very troubling that someone would do this to our volunteer field office."

Were it a Democrat office the Tea Party would no doubt be to blame, even if it turned out to be a lefty blogger.

Michael Bloomberg was unavailable for comment.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Bummer of Recovery: GDP Revised Down to 1.6%

I guess this was unexpected.

The U.S. economy grew at a 1.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than previously calculated as companies reined in inventories and the trade deficit widened.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who addresses central bankers from around the world today in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, may shed more light on policy makers’ outlook in the wake of reports that signaled a growing risk of a renewed U.S economic slump. Slowdowns in housing, business investment and consumer spending are prompting economists to cut second-half growth forecasts.

Somehow we must be bigots or racists for noting this.

Meanwhile, the stooge causing this mess went golfing again yesterday.

President Obama declared yesterday Women’s Equality Day, then went golfing with three men.

The Leader of the Free World - not exactly filled with the spirit of the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment - teed off at Farm Neck Golf Club with his fairway BFFs White House trip director Marvin Nicholson and Dr. Eric Whitaker. Broker bigwig Cyrus Walker, a cousin of senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, was the fourth.

NYDN Moonbat: Rush Limbaugh Should Give Money to Cabbie Slashed By Crazy Liberal

The lengths these people will go to to spew their hatred is just amazing. Some loony liberal slashes a Muslim cabbie and Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich are to blame? And in the fevered mind of this wacko columnist, since he projects his hatred onto Rush Limbaugh, then Limbaugh should give money to the cabbie?

What planet are these people living on?

Rush Limbaugh sure lived up to his name. He was in such a rush to leave the city he helps make more dangerous that he left the furniture when he unloaded his apartment.

Limbaugh pocketed $6 million profit on his Fifth Ave. penthouse even as he was fanning the bigotry and hate aroused by the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

So, maybe Limbaugh could spare a few dollars to help out the Muslim cabbie who fell victim to the kind of attack that was sure to come in such a climate.

As Limbaugh and such other self-promoting panderers as Newt Gingrich shamelessly sowed, so did Ahmed Sharif undeservedly reap.

Not that Limbaugh and his ilk are likely to take responsibly for helping to spread a sickness that infected an already unbalanced mind to flare into violence.

Limbaugh has donated more money to charity than this jerk will ever make in his miserable life and for all we know may have already cut the guy a check. Thing is he does it privately without looking for publicity. If Michael Daly and his ilk, who are busy helping to spread a sickness that infected an already unbalanced mind to flare into violence, really want to help they can open their own wallets. Has Michael Bloomberg given the guy any money?

Charles Krauthammer has a look inside the minds of these liberals who are completely unraveling.

The intelligentsia is near unanimous that the only possible grounds for opposition is bigotry toward Muslims. This smug attribution of bigotry to two-thirds of the population hinges on the insistence on a complete lack of connection between Islam and radical Islam, a proposition that dovetails perfectly with the Obama administration's pretense that we are at war with nothing more than "violent extremists" of inscrutable motive and indiscernible belief. Those who reject this as both ridiculous and politically correct (an admitted redundancy) are declared Islamophobes, the ad hominem du jour.

It is a measure of the corruption of liberal thought and the collapse of its self-confidence that, finding itself so widely repudiated, it resorts reflexively to the cheapest race-baiting (in a colorful variety of forms). Indeed, how can one reason with a nation of pitchfork-wielding mobs brimming with "antipathy toward people who aren't like them" -- blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims -- a nation that is, as Michelle Obama once put it succinctly, "just downright mean"?

The Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November. Not just because the economy is ailing. And not just because Obama over-read his mandate in governing too far left. But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them.

Bloomberg to Host Fundraiser for Bigot Dingy Harry

According to Michael Bloomberg you're a bigot for opposing the Ground Zero Victory Mosque. So why is he helping raise money for the odious Harry Reid?

Mayor Bloomberg will host a fund-raiser for embattled Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Sept. 20 -- just weeks after the Nevada incumbent bucked Hizzoner by opposing a mosque near Ground Zero.

The Nevada lawmaker announced last week that he preferred placing the mosque elsewhere, distancing himself from President Obama, who ignited a backlash after speaking out in support of the project.

The only thing that could make this worse is if Chuckie Schumer was there. Oh, wait.

From the invitation: "Michael R. Bloomberg invites you for breakfast at his home with special guest Senator Charles E. Schumer in honor of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Monday September 20th, 2010, 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m." Make checks payable to "Reid Victory Fund" and mail to 150 Broadway, Suite 1011.

Price points: a "chair" contributes or raises $10,000. A "co-chair" contributes or raises $5,000. A "host" contributes or raises $2,400. A "friend," the entry-level ticket, is $1,000.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg continued to lecture the overwhelming majority of Americans last night who oppose the Victory Mosque.

“This is plain and simple people trying to stir up things to get publicity and trying to polarize people so that they can get some votes,” Bloomberg added. “And I don’t think that most of these people who are yelling and screaming really care one way or another.”

Since the beginning I never saw a single politician trying to use the mosque issue as a means of "polarizing" people to get votes. In fact the most outspoken politician on the issue has been Bloomberg himself, and he's been the most derisively sneering and polarizing person on the issue, by far. Now how hypocritical can he be when he's raising money for a certain senator from Nevada who actually has used the issue as a cheap way to pander for votes?

Yawn: Angry Civil Rights Fossil Calls Tea Partiers Klansmen or Something

Some guy few have ever heard of babbles incoherently and apparently it's news to ABC. Really, this is some sad stuff. You'd think someone with a conscience close to the poor man would intervene and prevent him from sounding like an idiot.

A civil rights activist and former congressman equated the Tea Party with the Ku Klux Klan today as he blasted a conservative rally planned in Washington, D.C., this weekend.

The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the non-voting delegate who represented the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991, called on African-Americans to organize a "new coalition of conscience" to rebut the rally scheduled for Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial featuring Fox News pundit Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux -- I meant to say the Tea Party," Fauntroy told a news conference today at the National Press Club. "You all forgive me, but I -- you have to use them interchangeably."

Fauntroy attempted to explain the comparison to white supremacists by saying that organizers behind the "Restoring Honor" rally are the same people who cut audio cables from a sound system the night before the historic March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

"The same people who cut the cables on the night before the march, that we paid $66,000 for a sound system, they cut it," Fauntroy said. "Now from Fox News and elsewhere, they are seeking to turn the world back."

So glad our Golfer-in-Chief has brought us all together in racial harmony.

Paterson Could Face Charges Over ... Yankees Tickets

He'll be out of office in four months, has been in over his head since assuming office from Client Number 9 and probably looks forwarding to getting away from the mess that is New York state government. And he could be prosecuted for going to a Yankees game and fibbing about it? On the outrageous outrage over government corruption scale this merits about a minus 5.

Gov. David A. Paterson misled investigators for the state ethics commission when he testified that he had intended to pay for free tickets he obtained to last year’s World Series, according to a report issued on Thursday by an independent counsel investigating the matter.

But the independent counsel, Judith S. Kaye, said it was up to the local district attorney in Albany, P. David Soares, to decide whether Mr. Paterson, a Democrat, should be prosecuted for perjury.

Aides to Mr. Paterson obtained five tickets to the first game of the 2009 World Series, which Mr. Paterson attended along with two aides, his son, Alex, and a friend of his son.

The tickets eventually came under the scrutiny of the state’s Commission on Public Integrity, which found that Mr. Paterson had never intended to pay for his own ticket and paid for his son and son’s friend only after the news media inquired about the matter.

The commission also concluded that Mr. Paterson had lied during his testimony about the tickets, a matter the commission referred last spring to Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who in turn asked Ms. Kaye to investigate.

Ms. Kaye’s findings largely back up the commission’s own report.

“Evidence developed in the investigation indicates that, contrary to the governor’s testimony, he had not formed an intent prior to the game that the tickets other than his own would be paid for,” Ms. Kaye found.

“Evidence indicates that his decision to pay for the tickets for his son and his son’s friend was made following a press inquiry the day after the game. In addition, evidence indicates that, contrary to the governor’s testimony, he did not partially prepare and bring a check for $850 to the game to pay for tickets for his son and his son’s friend.”

At a minimum, portions of Mr. Paterson’s testimony “were inaccurate and misleading,” the report concluded, and “warrants consideration of possible criminal charges by the district attorney, who will make the ultimate decision regarding whether or not charges should be brought.”

Spy Comes in From the Cold

Oh, yes. You knew this was inevitable.

Glamorous Russian agent Anna Chapman has posed provocatively for a Russian magazine shoot in her first public appearance since she was deported from the United States in a major spy swap.

The tabloid-style lifenews.ru site on Thursday showed film footage of the 28-year-old redhead being photographed for an upcoming edition of glossy magazine Zhara, Russia’s version of Heat, in a VIP room in the upscale Balchug hotel near the Kremlin.

In the 1 minute 43 second clip, Chapman struts about in two figure-hugging dresses.

“Clearly enjoying showing off her curves, Chapman shows that women’s secrets mean more to her than those she kept at the secret service,” the popular website wrote, in a clear jibe at the fact Chapman and nine other Russian spies were caught.

Yeah, whatever. Just get us some more photos, OK?

H/T.

Send Allen West To Congress Florida

LTC (Ret) West won his primary battle to be the Republican representative for Florida's 22nd congressional district. His opponent in the general election will be the current incumbent Ron Klein.

For some reason when I visited Mr Klein's web site I had trouble figuring out which political party he belonged to, even though I already knew. It appears to be another case of a Democrat running away from the brand. If you snoop around a little you will find a reference to him being a Democrat, but the real enlightening part is all the information he has up touting his bona fides to the military community. It is almost as if he knew who his opponent would be and went to work trying to improve his street cred in the military and veteran community.

I want Allen West to win this seat so bad. He is just the sort of guy we need in Washington. He is a leader not a manager. He doesn't run from anything he has done and unless you want the truth don't ask the question.

So Florida, please pull your collective heads out of your fourth point of contact and send Allen West to congress.

And if you don't know the story of LTC (Ret) Allen West do a little snooping around the intertubes. I think you will find yourself learning about a man that you would follow through hell with gasoline soaked underwear.