President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed a controversial plan to build a mosque and Islamic center just blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan, despite the strong objections of conservatives, civic groups and those who lost loved ones in the September 11 attacks.“Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. “But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”Having steered clear of the controversy for weeks, Obama took on opposition to the mosque directly — a move that many other Democratic lawmakers had been hesitant to do in the face of highly emotional appeals against its construction.
But polls indicate the issue could be a high-voltage third rail for politicians who support the project: a recent CNN poll found that 68 percent of those surveyed did not approve of building a mosque so close to where the World Trade Center towers fell, killing more than 2,000 people.
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Hilarious: Corruptocrat Rangel wants Dems to pay his court fees
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) expects Democratic leaders to help pay his legal bills, but that appears unlikely.
Several times during his meandering 37-minute speech on the House floor on Tuesday, Rangel complained about the mounting costs of defending himself against a two-year ethics investigation. He claims the bill has already reached $2 million.
At one point during the remarks, he said his main attorney on his legal team has said she might be able to continue working on a pro bono basis. He also said he “expects” Democratic leaders to help him pay his legal bills.
“So my lawyer — I can understand how financially this thing can go on longer than I can afford — but she is willing to assist me in working out something in pro bono, and I’ll expect the leadership to help me,” Rangel said.
Greg Gutfeld seeks to build gay bar next to Ground Zero mosque
So, the Muslim investors championing the construction of the new mosque near Ground Zero claim it’s all about strengthening the relationship between the Muslim and non-Muslim world.
As an American, I believe they have every right to build the mosque – after all, if they buy the land and they follow the law – who can stop them?
Which is, why, in the spirit of outreach, I’ve decided to do the same thing.
I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space.
Forget START: Russia to provide Iran with nuclear material next week
AP,
Russia announced Friday it will begin the startup next week of Iran’s only atomic power plant, giving Tehran a boost as it struggles with international sanctions and highlighting differences between Moscow and Washington over pressuring the Islamic Republic to give up activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.
Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21, beginning a process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said.
“From that moment, the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear energy installation,” said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian nuclear agency.
Fed president: Keeping rates too low ‘dangerous gamble’
CNBC,
The Federal Reserve is undertaking a “dangerous gamble” by keeping rates at near zero for so long, and must start raising rates or risk damaging the nascent U.S. recovery, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday.
“To be clear, I am not advocating a tight monetary policy,” Kansas City Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig said in the text of a speech to the Lincoln, Nebraska, Chamber of Commerce. “I am advocating a policy that remains accommodative but slowly firms as the economy itself expands and moves toward more balance.”
Hoenig has been the lone dissenter on the Fed’s policy-setting panel, which on Tuesday repeated the U.S. central bank’s pledge to keep interest rates extraordinarily low for an “extended period.”
Disasters undermine Russians’ faith in the state
FT,
Outside the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery in eastern Moscow, Muscovites hawking books and trinkets are still in shock from the scorching heat and choking smog that filled the Russian capital and made it hell on earth for nearly a week.
“People couldn’t breathe,” said one. “The authorities did nothing,” said Nadezhda, a pensioner selling flowers.
Inside the cemetery gates, gravediggers are taking respite from a surge in funerals that first grew as temperatures reached record levels and then climbed, as toxic smog from forest and peat bog fires shrouded the city. Death rates doubled in recent days, according to a senior Moscow health official, as the elderly and those suffering from bronchial and heart problems were hit.
Facing ethics charges, Rep. Waters points finger at Bush
Embattled Rep. Maxine Waters on Friday blamed the Bush administration for her ethics problems — saying she had to intervene with the Treasury Department on behalf of minority-owned banks seeking federal bailout funds — including one tied to her husband — because the Treasury Department wouldn’t schedule its own appointments.
The California Democrat said in a Capitol Hill news conference — an event rarely held during a congressional recess — that she reached out to then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in late 2008 when his department failed to respond to the National Bank Association’s request for a meeting.
“The question at this point should not be why I called Secretary Paulson, but why I had to,” she said. “The question at this point should be why a trade association representing over 100 minority banks could not get a meeting at the height of the crisis.”
Obama eliminates transparency czar
President Obama has abolished the position in his White House dedicated to transparency and shunted those duties into the portfolio of a partisan ex-lobbyist who is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians.
Obama transferred “ethics czar” Norm Eisen to the Czech Republic to serve as U.S. ambassador. Some of Eisen’s duties will be handed to Domestic Policy Council member Steven Croley, but most of them, it appears, will shift over to the already-full docket of White House Counsel Bob Bauer.
Bauer is renowned as a “lawyer’s lawyer” and a legal expert. His resume, however, reads more “partisan advocate” than “good-government crusader.” Bauer came to the White House from the law firm Perkins Coie, where he represented John Kerry in 2004 and Obama during his campaign.
Obamas take 4 vacations in 1 month
While many Americans are cutting back on their vacation plans or eliminating them altogether, Barack Obama is setting an aspirational example for all of us. Sure, times are tough, but perhaps we can enjoy a life of leisure vicariously through our betters.
On July 16-18, the Obamas enjoyed their first summer vacation in beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine. The idyllic town has long been favorite summer getaway for the rich and powerful going back to the Gilded Age. Truly a resort fit for a king public servant.
Anticipating exhaustion from two long weeks in Washington, D.C., Michelle Obama is hosting her eldest daughter and several family friends on a “private vacation” to Spain, August 4-8. Staying at the luxurious Villa Padierna, Americans can rest easy knowing the accomodations will “pamper guests with elegance, spaciousness and a comforting array of amenities.” With three golf courses on the property, it’s quite a shame Barack must attend a party thrown in his honor by one of his billionaire friends. Despite this hardship, I’m sure Michelle will sing “Don’t Cry for Me, America”. Or at least hum a few bars. (After the spa’s Chakra Balancing treatment with Hot Stones.)
Arizona sheriffs call ICE chief’s visit a ‘stunt’
Two key sheriffs along the Arizona-Mexico border on Tuesday called a planned visit by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton a “political stunt” and described as “pathetic” Obama administration attempts to “cover up its inaction in protecting our borders.”
“The administration blew past their promised Aug. 1 deadline to send 524 National Guard troops to Arizona, and now they are trying to appear concerned by sending the ICE director, who recently received a vote of ‘no confidence’ by ICE’s union,” Arizona Sheriffs Paul Babeu of Pinal County and Larry Dever of Cochise County said in a tersely worded statement.
Noting that Mr. Morton’s planned visit Wednesday follows an aggressively litigated lawsuit by the Justice Department against Arizona over a tough new state immigration law, they challenged President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, to visit the border themselves. A separate case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union charges that the law involves racial profiling and names the sheriffs in all 15 Arizona counties as defendants.
10 Christian medical workers executed by Taliban
The Christian Science Monitor,
The execution-style killings of 10 people working for a Christian medical team in a remote region of northern Afghanistan fit into Taliban insurgents’ stated shift in tactics: Target Western civilians, especially Christians, as “foreign invaders.”
The Taliban took credit for one of the deadliest attacks yet on aid workers in Afghanistan, saying the Christian charity workers were proselytizing to poor villagers – a charge that the International Assistance Mission, which dispatched the team, denies.
The bodies of six Americans, a Briton, a German, and two Afghan interpreters were discovered Friday in a forested part of Badakhshan Province in remote northern Afghanistan – until now considered a relatively peaceful region known mostly to adventure travelers. The only person in the party not killed was a local translator who offered proof he was a Muslim by quoting the Koran, according to the Associated Press.