There was a possible resolution in the works Tuesday night in the debate surrounding the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center near ground zero.
CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer has learned it looks as if the developers of the mosque may be willing to budge and move away from the Park 51 location where they originally planned the construction.
So will the mosque be moving?
New York Gov. David Paterson plans to meet with developers of the controversial ground zero mosque as early as this week to offer them state land – at another location – for their cultural and religious center. Paterson told Congressman Peter King about the meeting, and King said the governor asked him to make it public.
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Paterson to discuss moving Ground Zero mosque
Obama boasts of his ‘progressive’ triumphs
President Obama told a Hollywood fundraiser Monday night that he and congressional Democrats have passed the most progressive legislation in decades.
“We have been able to deliver the most progressive legislative agenda — one that helps working families — not just in one generation, maybe two, maybe three,” Obama said.
Obama was joined by a number of lawmakers and celebrities at an event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that raised $1 million.
Bolton: ‘Israel has days to strike Bushehr’
Israel has only mere days to launch an attack on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor if Russia makes good on its plan to deliver fuel there this weekend, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton warned Tuesday.
He said that once Russia has loaded the fuel into the reactor — slated for Saturday – Israel would no longer be willing to strike for fear of triggering widespread radiation in an attack.
“This is a very, very big victory for Iran,” Bolton told The Jerusalem Post. “This is a huge threshold.”
Bolton, who also once oversaw US non-proliferation policy, said that when Russia announced the plans to load the fuel last Friday, “the element of surprise was essentially taken away” from Israeli calculations.
Bolton noted that he doesn’t “have a clue” as to whether Israel would actually attack, but he said, “If Israel was right to destroy the Osiraq reactor, is it right to allow this one to continue? You can’t have it both ways.”
Hamas insists on Ground Zero mosque
A leader of the Hamas terror group yesterday jumped into the emotional debate on the plan to construct a mosque near Ground Zero — insisting Muslims “have to build” it there.
“We have to build everywhere,” said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and the organization’s chief on the Gaza Strip.
“In every area we have, [as] Muslim[s], we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer,” he said on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on WABC.
“We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places.”
Chamber economist: Obama tax increase would be ‘bullet in the head’ of recovery
U.S. Chamber of Commerce economist Martin Regalia on Monday said the tax increases advocated by President Obama would essentially kill any chance for an economic rebound.
“That’s what you’re suggesting, is a corporate bullet in the head,” Regalia said. “That is going to be a bullet in the head for an awful lot of people that are going to be laid off and an awful lot of people who are hoping to get their jobs back.”
Regalia made the comment at an American Petroleum Institute event on the tax increases proposed by the Obama administration. Much of the discussion focused on tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush that are slated to expire at the end of the year.
Napolitano: We have enough border resources, time to move on with “immigration reform”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday said the administration has “enough” resources to secure the border now that President Obama signed into law a $600 million border security spending bill, and she said Congress must now act on a larger overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.
“This is what we asked for. And of course, what we asked for was what we thought would be enough,” Ms. Napolitano told reporters at the White House, hours after she joined Mr. Obama as he signed the bipartisan bill.
The law provides for 1,000 new U.S. Border Patrol agents, hundreds of border inspectors and interior enforcement personnel and two new aerial drones to patrol the remote Southwest.
Although it will take about eight months for the new agents to be hired and trained, Ms. Napolitano said the border is already secure enough that it should not be used by critics to “preclude discussions about immigration reform.”
N.Korea warns of ‘severest punishment’ over war games
AFP,
North Korea’s military threatened Sunday to launch the “severest punishment” against South Korea for staging massive joint war games with the United States this week.
The North’s army and people will “deal a merciless counterblow” to the allies “as it had already resolved and declared at home and abroad”, a spokesman for the country’s army General Staff said in a statement published by state media.
“The military counteraction of (North Korea) will be the severest punishment no one has ever met in the world,” he said.
How many “top priority” issues does Obama have?
After the Senate passed that $600 million Border Security Bill yesterday, President Obama issued a statement asserting that securing the southwest border has been “a top priority” since he took office.
But if you think Mr. Obama can have but a single “top priority,” you’d be wrong. He’s got a load of them.
In an Address to the Nation two months ago, Mr. Obama declared “our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American.”
More than any other issue, he has used the phrase “top priority” about digging the economy out of the recession and creating jobs. And on this issue, he drew a distinction between “a” top priority and “the” top priority.
Last Afghan WikiLeaks out in ‘couple of weeks’
AFP,
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed Saturday to publish the last batch of secret documents on the Afghan war in “a couple of weeks”, despite Pentagon pleas they would put further lives at risk.
Asked at a press conference in Stockholm when the final batch of 15,000 classified files on the Afghan war would be published, Assange said that “We’re about half way through, so a couple of weeks.”
The announcement at a seminar on the control of information came after the Pentagon on Friday renewed pressure on the whistleblower website not to release the documents, saying they posed greater risks than previously released files.
“We still are hopeful that WikiLeaks will not publish those documents and put further lives at risk,” said Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan.