Crisis in Greece: Anarchists in the Birthplace of Democracy

Despite having consigned most members of Greece’s most violent anarchist groups to prison since 2010, there are new concerns amongst Greek authorities that the June 27 car-bombing of the Athens headquarters of Microsoft could mark a resurgence in anarchist political violence, a resurgence fuelled by the ongoing Greek economic crisis (Capital.gr, June 28, 2012). In a statement carried on anarchist websites, a new group called “Deviant Behaviors for the Expansion of Revolutionary Terrorism International Revolutionary Front” claimed it had carried out the Microsoft attack in support of imprisoned anarchists in Greece (Ekathimerini.com, June 30). Failure to bring many of the anarchist detainees to trial within the specified 18 month pre-trial detention period means that some detainees are now emerging from prison on conditional release. The disappearance of two leading members of the anarchist Revolutionary Struggle organization earlier this month after the Justice Department failed to bring them to trial in the 18-month period was an ominous development with many other prisoners coming up for release.

Modern Greek anarchism and terrorism can be directly correlated to major political events and socio-economic conditions that have fomented extremism. Social tensions that gave rise to the anarchist ideology in the 1970’s have emerged once again. The European sovereign debt crisis has created another perceived threat for anarchist groups, the neo-liberal order.

Greek terrorist groups first appeared after the fall of the military junta dictatorship in 1974. Resentment against the junta and the United States for its perceived backing of the regime led to the emergence of the fanatically nationalistic, Marxist-Leninist, and anti-Western 17 November Revolutionary Organization (Epanastatiki Organosi 17 Noemvri), responsible for the assassination of CIA Chief of Station Richard Welch on December 23, 1975 as well as various foreign diplomats and Greek officials. The organization was named for the date that the junta crushed a student rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973, resulting in the death of 23 people. To this day, the event is still commemorated by an annual march on the U.S. embassy by many of Greece’s anarchist groups that claim their legitimacy from that uprising.

Since the group was dismantled by Greek security services in 2002, three prevalent anarchist terrorist groups have emerged: Revolutionary Struggle, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, and Sect of Revolutionaries. All three groups have been sanctioned by the U.S. State Department and seem to have utilized the European sovereign debt crisis, the dismantling of 17 November, and the death of a 16-year-old protestor to fuel their political violence.

The economic storm in Europe has resulted in Greece’s GDP contracting by 15% since 2008, and a 52.8 percent unemployment rate for young adults between the ages 15-24 (Ekathimerini.com, June 7). Neo-liberal policies and corrupt domestic political parties are regarded by many within Greece as the cause of the current predicament. Anarchist groups have capitalized on the climate of social unrest to renew attacks on financial institutions, businesses, the state and foreign targets (Reuters, May 19, 2010).

It may be no surprise that Greek youths make up the majority of the anarchist terrorist groups in Greece. According to Mary Bossis, a former government advisor on counterterrorism, unpopular austerity measures have resulted in unprecedented anti-state sentiment and social unrest. “There are plenty of very young people who feel they have no prospect for the future and who see in front of them unemployment and a lot of social, political and economic problems. Recruitment over the past few years is being done within universities targeting young people.” (Athens News, November 7, 2010).

Revolutionary Struggle

Revolutionary Struggle (Epanastatikos Agonas) is seen as a direct offshoot of 17 November. The U.S. State Department designated Revolutionary Struggle as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2009 for various terrorist acts, including a 2007 RPG attack on the U.S. Embassy in Athens. [1] Its members, similar to 17 November, seem to come from the lower socio-economic status of Greek society; their alleged leader, Nikos Maziotis (one of the two suspects who disappeared after his 18 month pre-trial detention period expired), is an unemployed construction worker. [2] Among many other violent crimes against the state, Maziotis tried to bomb the Ministry of Industry in 1998. When caught, he said, “The only thing I regret is that there was a technical error, the bomb did not explode, they found my fingerprints, and I was arrested” (Ekathimerini.com, July 8). Revolutionary Struggle has shot and wounded a riot police officer guarding the Culture Ministry and has used bombs to target foreign companies such as Royal Dutch Shell in 2008 and Citibank branches and the Athens Stock Exchange in 2009 (Reuters, November 3, 2010). What is of grave concern is the timing of the disappearance of Maziotis and fellow Revolutionary Struggle leader Panagiota Roupa and the fact that they likely still have an extensive and very well organized underground network of supporters. There is a real possibility that the relative calm of the organization in the last two years will cease to exist now that their leaders are again amongst them.

Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei

The Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei (CFN - Synomosía Pyrínon tis Fotiás) transformed in 2006-2007 from gazakides, youth that placed gas bombs under cars, to a “new generation of terrorists” that do not care about the public’s opinion of them. [3] From 2008 they became much more sophisticated, and adopted a nihilistic attitude following the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy by a Greek police officer during demonstrations. [4] The event hardened the young group’s preexisting rejection of the state’s authorities, institutions and symbols.

The U.S. Department of State implemented a terrorist designation and sanctions on the CFN on October 13, 2011. [5] Targets of the group have included banks, government institutions, and foreign leaders. After a 2010 attack on Athens’ main prison, the group noted that the strike was meant to weaken the Greek government as it attempted to implement new austerity measures (Reuters, May 19, 2010). In 2010 two of the group’s members, Alexandros Mitrousias, and Gerasimos Tsakalos, mailed a series of parcel bombs to foreign leaders and embassies within Greece. [6] After their arrest the suspects proclaimed “We are rebels with a cause, we will continue our struggle, and the abuse that the system has given us has motivated us. Do not see us as small children, but as patriotic rebels, we have a war going on, and we will make sure that we will continue to fight” [7]

In February, 2011, the group sent a letter bomb to the office of Justice Minister Haris Kastanidis to show “solidarity” with its imprisoned members (Athens News, February 3, 2011). A new group, the “Zero Tolerance Organization,” emerged in December, 2011 in solidarity with the CFN by carrying out firebomb attacks on the offices of three prominent Greek politicians. The new group argued that Greeks should “do away with the system” because “the economic and political crisis and the occupation of the country by the troika – the ECB, the EU and the IMF – were proof of its failure” (Ekathimerini.com, December 22, 2011). As of late 2011, the group had conducted about 200 attacks using artisan bombs that were always accompanied by nihilistic and anarchist proclamations. [8]

The trial of Greek anarchist Theofilos Mavropoulos and several members of the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei on charges of “inciting criminal acts” began on June 27. The accused are charged with issuing an October, 2011 statement that included the slogan “Not 1 Millimetre Back; 9mms in Cops’ Heads.” [9] Mavropoulos is facing other charges after being wounded and arrested in a gunfight with Greek police in 2011, an incident which he clothed in revolutionary rhetoric: He and a comrade did not stop at a police control point “because we had made the conscious choice of revolutionary illegality… wanting to get us out of this situation I made the choice, the political choice of armed conflict… The condition of illegality involves a life on the edge of the razor, where the choices get tougher since the risk goes sky high.” [10]

Sect of Revolutionaries

The Sect of Revolutionaries emerged in February 2009 a few weeks after the police shooting of a 16-year-old boy. The group attacked an Athens police station with grenades. While there were no causalities in that incident, in June 2009 the group killed Nektarios Savvas, a counter-terrorism officer. [11] More recently, in July 2010, they assassinated Socrates Giolios, a prominent Greek journalist who had covered the group (Tovima.gr, July 19, 2010). In a statement claiming responsibility for the murder, the group promised to turn Greece into a “war zone,” declaring:

We in the Sect of Revolutionaries believe that only through the complete destruction of the state and the current structures will a new perspective of life be able to dawn. A life of new human relationships, without authority, without borders, without religion, without divisions. A life that money does not govern; neither will property rule. A life away from false idols, compulsions and conventions. [12]

On February 24, 2011, the U.S. Secretary of State designated the Sect of Revolutionaries as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization, citing the group’s “indiscriminate terrorist activities” that “threaten the national security of the United States.” [13]

Conclusion

While these anarchist groups have little popular support, the evidence seems to suggest that there has been a gradual modification of the values of these terrorist organizations from the nationalism and anti-Americanism of 17 November to the anti-establishment and anti-capitalist ideology of Revolutionary Struggle and the Sect of Revolutionaries and the total nihilism of the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.

With a shrinking economy, rising unemployment and social tensions, the rise of anarchy in Greece may continue for the long-term. The key question is whether the Microsoft attack signifies the beginning of yet another spike in domestic terrorist activity in Greece. It may be no coincidence that the Microsoft attack in Athens occurred after the recent disappearance of the leaders of Revolutionary Struggle.

George Papadopoulos is currently a research intern at the Hudson Institute Center for Political-Military Analysis.

Notes

1. See www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/05/123590.htm.

2. “Terrorists, ‘Old’ and ‘New,’” Research Institute for European and American Studies, April 18, 2010, www.rieas.gr/research-areas/editorial/1196-terrorists-qoldq-and-qnewq.html.

3. See http://folders.skai.gr/main/theme?id=123&locale=el

4. Mary Bossis,”The Dimensions of the ‘New’ Greek Terrorism: The Spill-over Effect,” Journal of Counter Terrorism & Homeland Security International. 17(3), Fall 2011.

5. See www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/10/175362.htm. 

6. Tassos Symeonides, “Another Spike in Domestic Terrorism?” Research Institute for European and American Studies, July 1, 2012, www.rieas.gr/research-areas/editorial/1798-another-spike-in-domestic-terrorism.html

7. Alpha News Channel, 2010, www.youtube.com/watch.

8. Bossis, op cit.

9. “Letter from CCF and T. Mavropoulos in Solidarity to Anarchit Steki Nadir in Thessaloniki-Greece,” October 11, 2011, actforfreedomnow.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/letter-from-c-c-f-and-t-mavropoulos-in-solidarity-to-anarchit-steki-nadir-in-thessaloniki-greece/. 

10. Letter of anarchist political prisoner Theofilos Mavropoulos who is imprisoned in Koridall, July 18 2011, actforfreedomnow.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/letter-of-anarchist-political-prisoner-theofilos-mavropoulos-who-is-imprisoned-in-koridallos-prisons/ 

11. NET News Channel, 2010, www.youtube.com/watch .

12. Sect of Revolutionaries, Announcement no.4, July 28, 2010, actforfreedomnow.blogspot.com/2010/08/sect-of-revolutionaries-claims.html.

13. See athens.usembassy.gov/pr-2011-7.html.

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Market Savior? Stocks Might Be 50% Lower Without Fed

CNBC:

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests that the bulk of equity returns for more than a decade are due to actions by the US central bank.

Theoretically, the S&P 500 [.SPX Loading... () ] would be more than 50 percent lower—at the 600 level—if the bullish price action preceding Fed announcements was excluded, the study showed.

Posted on the New York Fed’s web site Wednesday, the study sought out to explain why equities receive such a high premium over less risky assets such as bonds.

What they found was that the Federal Reserve has had an outsized impact on equities relative to other asset classes.

For example, the market has a tendency to rise in the 24-hour period before the release of the Fed’s statement on interest rates and the economy, presumably on expectations Chairman Ben Bernanke and his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, would discuss or implement a stimulus measure to lift asset prices.

The FOMC has released eight announcements a year at 2:15 ET since 1994. The study took the gains in the S&P 500 from 2 pm the day before the announcement to 2 pm the day of the statement and subtracted that market move from the S&P 500’s total return over that time span.

Without the gains in anticipation of a positive Fed action, the S&P 500 would stand at just 600 today, rather than above 1300.

“I would conclude that correctly analyzing Fed moves is much more important than stock picking,” said Brian Kelly of Shelter Harbor Capital. “If you want to generate alpha, you should trade the stock market 24 hours before an FOMC meeting. Simply follow the trend for that 24 hours and you will outperform.”

The chart shows the effect to be significantly pronounced in the aftermath of the tech bubble when Greenspan re-inflated stock and housing prices by slashing rates. It widens even further in the period since the financial crisis of 2008 as the market became beholden to the Fed’s use of its balance sheet to add liquidity to the market.

“Blame Greenspan for this S&P 500 effect… it’s his free put,” said Robert Savage, chief executive of research site Track.com and formerly managing director of FX Macro Sales at Goldman Sachs. “Since 1994, the battle of central banks hasn't been to fight inflation, but rather to smooth out the business cycle and credit. The convergence of global rates and inflation left the decisions of the FOMC as the key variable for S&P 500.”

The market is down six days in a row currently on the concern that the Federal Reserve will not embark on its third round of so-called quantitative easing anytime soon. Minutes from the central bank’s last meeting, released Wednesday, reinforced the concern that the economy is muddling along enough to keep the Fed on the sidelines.

To be sure, one cannot look at these Fed actions in a vacuum and conclude the S&P 500 would plummet 50 percent if the Fed were to undue all of its supportive measures of the last two decades. But that doesn’t mean this exercise can’t be instructive.

For example, proponents of index funds will often argue their case by using data that shows a significant drop in S&P 500’s yearly returns if you took out the five best days of that particular year. The point: you need to always be fully invested so you don’t miss one of those days, which account for the majority of the market’s annual return.

The Fed’s next announcement is due August 1st and it would seem by this study, one would want to make sure they are invested in the market by 2pm on July 31st,

“It's a QE world,” said Josh Brown, an investment advisor and popular author of The Reformed Broker blog. “We're all just trading in it.”

Dems back health coverage for feds’ gay spouses

WaPo:

More than 130 House Democrats have filed a legal brief saying employer-sponsored health benefits should be allowed to cover the same-sex spouses of federal employees.

The amicus, or friend of the court, brief was filed in the case of Karen Golinski, a federal court employee in California. She won at the district court level and her wife can now be covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

The district court found unconstitutional Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Golinski’s lower court victory, however, did not extend coverage to other same-sex spouses and the decision is being appealed by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG). Despite its name, BLAG, in this case, represents the House Republican leadership.

“The brief makes it clear that the House is not united on DOMA’s validity, that the BLAG lawyers do not speak for the entire institution, and that there is no legitimate federal interest in denying married same-sex couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that federal law provides to couples who are married under state law,” said a statement from the office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Lambda Legal, a legal organization that represents Golinski, said the Democrats’ brief was one of 13 filed on her behalf this week. Most Washington-area Democrats signed on to the brief.

“What these briefs make clear is that DOMA is both discriminatory and burdensome, unjustly stigmatizing one segment of the population while at the same time increasing the cost of doing business,” said Shelbi Day, a Lambda staff attorney. Clearly, it is time to put DOMA out of its — and our — misery.”

The office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) did not have immediate reaction to the Democrats’ brief.

Dogs, dead people get election docs from nonprofit

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- The voter registration form arrived in the mail last month with some key information already filled in: Rosie Charlston's name was complete, as was her Seattle address.

Problem is, Rosie was a black lab who died in 1998.

A group called the Voter Participation Center has touted the distribution of some 5 million registration forms in recent weeks, targeting Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as unmarried women, blacks, Latinos and young adults.

But residents and election administrators around the country also have reported a series of bizarre and questionable mailings addressed to animals, dead people, noncitizens and people already registered to vote.

Brenda Charlston wasn't the only person to get documents for her pet: A Virginia man said similar documents arrived for his dead dog, Mozart, while a woman in the state got forms for her cat, Scampers.

"On a serious note, I think it's tampering with our voting system," Charlston said. "They're fishing for votes: That's how I view it."

Every presidential election cycle brings with it a variety of registration drives targeting people who typically are underrepresented at the polls, and Republicans have long seized on sloppy or questionable registrations as a sign of potential fraud on the part of Democrats.

It's an issue that is particularly sensitive this year GOP political leaders have used fears of fraud to successfully push laws across the country that could make voting more difficult by requiring voters to show identification. Democrats have fought the laws, arguing that they can disenfranchise citizens, minorities in particular.

The group at the root of the questionable mailings - the Voter Participation Center - acknowledges that the databases it uses to contact possible voters are imperfect because they are developed from commercially collected information. The group also says it expects people who receive misdirected mail to simply throw it away.

Several election officials said they believed the voter registration systems were secure enough to catch people who might improperly submit the misdirected documents.

But administrators in New Mexico, a potential swing state in the 2012 presidential race, warned that ineligible voters who complete the documents could make it onto the rolls.

New Mexico is one of two states in which noncitizens can qualify for a driver's license by simply proving residency - not necessarily legal residency - and state elections officials have no way of verifying the legal status of those who file registration documents.

Ken Ortiz, the chief of staff at the New Mexico secretary of state's office, said some noncitizens have contacted the state asking why they received the forms when they'd previously been told that they could not vote.

"We fear that some of these individuals who receive this mailing may feel that they are being encouraged to vote by our office or county government," Ortiz said.

The mailings appear official, arriving in privacy envelopes with the headline "VOTER REGISTRATION DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED." Some information is already completed on the voter registration papers, and recipients also get an envelope to send completed forms to local elections officials.

The Voter Participation Center works with a vendor that has access to multiple commercial databases that could include people who subscribe to magazines or junk mail using names of their pet, said Page Gardner, the group's president. She said the nonprofit tries its best to target only eligible and unregistered voters but that some other names inevitably get on the final list.

"Is it a perfect process? No," Gardner said. Ultimately, she said they rely on the integrity of people and the security of the system and notes that the same forms are available to anyone at county offices or on the Internet.

The Voter Participation Center says it is trying to increase participation among minorities, unmarried women and people under the age of 30, with Gardner saying that those groups have historically been underrepresented in the election process.

The group says it has helped register 1 million people since 2004 and some 300,000 people in the current election cycle.

The center conducted one mailing distribution last year and another earlier this year before its biggest mailing, which went out in June. It is planning one more for later this year.

Voter registration drives of all types can create a small subset of problems. An active voter, for example, may sign up again after encountering a registration drive at an event. Some registration workers at the community activist group ACORN were accused in past years of submitting false forms with names like Mickey Mouse - filings the group said were done by workers to increase their pay.

What makes the Voter Participation Center's work challenging is that the group is identifying voters based on data, instead of during in-person interactions. The mailings include pre-filled information that creates further confusion and concern, said Katie Blinn, a co-director of elections in Washington state.

Blinn said it appeared that many of the mailings were going to people who are already registered to vote. They have heard about a "handful" of pet-related forms in the state of the past few weeks and fielded calls from people wondering whether their registration was canceled.

Julie Anderson, the auditor in Pierce County, Wash., estimates that about two dozen residents have contacted the county about registration forms arriving for dead relatives.

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Black Scholars Give Obama an “F”

Under the policies and leadership of the Obama administration, the economic lives of struggling blacks are now worse, not better, than they were three years ago. ”If the president were to give an account of his administration’s advancement of African Americans he would be hard pressed to describe anything significant beyond funneling redistributed wealth into government bureaucracies, a traditional path to the middle class for blacks,” says Anthony B. Bradley in this week’s Acton Commentary (published July 11). The full text of his essay follows. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publications here.

Black Scholars Give Obama an “F”

by Anthony B. Bradley

At this week’s NAACP convention in Houston, one prominent black leader will not be addressing this historic group: the nation’s first black president. President Obama’s absence from major NAACP events could be called a pattern, as he has not addressed the group since 2009, during the honeymoon phase of his presidency. His absence is turning out to be wise because he can avoid answering this question, “Are blacks better off since he took office?” If the president were to give an account of his administration’s advancement of African Americans he would be hard pressed to describe anything significant beyond funneling redistributed wealth into government bureaucracies, a traditional path to the middle class for blacks. His policies have done nothing to improve the economic standing of people of color on the margins.

Here are the facts: In November 2008, the black unemployment rate was 11.1 percent. By June 2012, the number had risen to 14.4 percent. In the same period the overall unemployment rate increased from 6.5 percent to 7.4 percent. As such, under the policies and leadership of the Obama administration, the economic lives of struggling blacks are now worse, not better, than they were three years ago.

Even with the economic failure, the “African Americans for Obama” section of the President’s campaign website lists his “accomplishments” in the black community noting increased government-backed bank “lending for low-income Americans,” the passing of Obamacare, and increased government-funded education programs. Also, through government welfare programs Obama “doubled” funding for Pell Grants, secured $2.55 billion in tax payer funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, “awarded nearly $300 billion in federal contracts to small businesses,” and so on. In other words, the President has helped blacks by redistributing the taxes collected from American workers and using government to provide race-based preferential treatment opportunities yet has not fostered the conditions favorable for broadly increasing black wealth through market-based economic growth.

Perhaps the economic lapses explain why prominent black scholars, like Dr. Cornel West of Princeton University and Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University, are so openly critical of Obama. Sustained unemployment is not the change many black Americans expected back in 2008. When recently asked about the upcoming 2012 presidential race, Cornel West, a self-proclaimed Marxist, said, “Mitt Romney is a catastrophic response to a catastrophe, whereas Obama is a disastrous response to a catastrophe.” West has accused Obama of pandering to the lobbying special interests of large corporations calling the president “another black mascot” of “Wall Street oligarchs” who is not doing enough for black people.

Joining West in highlighting Obama’s economic inadequacy, Boyce Watkins finds that “black American enthusiasm for President Obama is dead.” Watkins explains, “Obama was not skilled enough, nor strong enough to meet the high expectations in front of him” when he took office. As a frustrated former supporter, Watkins laments, “defending President Obama is like demanding a better grade for your child when you know that your baby has been lazy in class.” The Obama administration seems only interested in “the black community around election time (when they need us to show up to the polls).” In the end, Watkins centers recent criticisms on his belief that “white folks are experiencing an economic recovery, while black unemployment remains at levels that would never be acceptable to the rest of America.”

The critiques of West and Watkins are important, but they do not fully articulate the damage done by stratospheric unemployment levels. What is so unconscionable about black unemployment rates, which were as high as16.7 percent in 2011, is that unemployment has moral as well as financial implications. InLaborem excercens, Pope John Paul II stressed that work allows us to realize our humanity, “to fulfill the calling to be a person.” The high black unemployment rate is robbing thousands of blacks of their dignity.

The Obama administration must go beyond even what many of his black critics envision by radically removing regulatory and legislative barriers that interfere with entrepreneurs doing what they do best—namely, creating jobs. If black unemployment remains at these record numbers Obama may find himself snubbed at the polls in November, just as he snubbed the NAACP this week.

Obama's Interior Department Still Going Rogue

Michelle Malkin:

The Obama administration's loathsome cowboy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, won't take no for an answer. He's been smacked down repeatedly by federal courts for imposing a draconian, junk science-based moratorium on the oil and gas industry. Yet, the job-killing zealot and his boss just introduced another ruinous offshore drilling ban two weeks ago.

The White House rationale for the renewed crackdown? Because we said so.

Thomas Pyle of the D.C.-based Institute for Energy Research reports that the Salazar scheme "reinstitutes a 30-year moratorium on offshore energy exploration that will keep our most promising resources locked away until long after President Obama begins plans for his presidential library." Instead of working to enhance our energy independence and free up abundant natural resources, the Obama administration has worked tirelessly to close off access to nearly 86 billion barrels of oil on America's Outer Continental Shelf alone.

The latest plan involves the interior secretary's authority to auction oil and gas leases and to oversee oil and gas research and exploration on the OCS. Pyle explains that the "2012-17 plan leaves out the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the vast majority of OCS areas off Alaska. It cuts in half the average number of lease sales per year, requires higher minimum bids and shorter lease periods, and dramatically reduces lease terms."

The official Obama for America slogan may be "Forward," but the Salazar-Obama anti-drilling regime leaves America behind. National Ocean Industries Association President Randall B. Luthi told the Oil and Gas Journal (an industry publication): "This deeply disappointing 'no new access' plan does not reflect the comprehensive, 'all of the above' energy policy touted by the administration, nor does it keep pace with the energy policies of foreign nations that are expanding their offshore access to develop badly needed oil and gas."

No surprise. Salazar is an unrepentant glutton for punishment -- of America's energy producers. He's had the unwavering support of President Obama ever since the aftermath of the BP oil spill in 2010, when the administration implemented a radical six-month freeze on America's entire deepwater drilling industry. Republicans must forcefully counter the campaign fables being spun by Team Obama with the truth about these rogue overlords.

When the president's Chicago flacks boast of their noble commitment to transparency, remember: The overbroad drilling ban was stuffed into a technical safety document in the middle of the night by Obama's unaccountable green extremists.

When White House operatives tout their miraculous economics, remind them: The cost of the original Obama-Salazar edict is an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in lost wages. The new ban takes both coasts off the table and throws Alaska oil and gas sales into uncertain delay.

When Democrats tout their adherence to sound science, don't forget: The administration's own expert panel disavowed Salazar and former eco-czar Carol Browner's claims that they had secured a scientific consensus for the drilling ban. In fact, Salazar and Browner completely perverted the experts' consensus against the sweeping offshore drilling ban.

When Vice President Joe Biden takes to the stump to tout the "character of his (boss's) convictions," make it known: Louisiana federal judge Martin Feldman rebuked the Obama Interior Department for its "determined disregard" for the law.

And the stench deepens. In May, the House Natural Resources Committee released e-mails quoting a senior whistleblower who directly contradicted Salazar's claim that doctored support for the ban was unintentional. Where is the Interior Department inspector general to look out for taxpayers' best interests? She's knee-deep in ethics problems herself.

A federal panel that oversees government watchdogs took up a conflict-of-interest complaint against Interior Department Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall this week. USA Today first reported in May "that Kendall had attended meetings where top Interior officials discussed drafts of a peer-reviewed report on deepwater drilling." Later, she was enlisted to investigate how White House officials cooked up the scientifically manufactured report that resulted from those very meetings.

Instead of haranguing GOP opponent Mitt Romney with questions about his offshore bank accounts, this search-and-destroy White House should start accounting for its offshore drilling obstructionism. Salazar's reign has been a shady, secretive and rotten deal for America

Obama: My biggest failure is not giving enough speeches ... or playing enough golf.

To paraphrase him just a bit, Barack Obama explains to Charlie Rose that his policies are great, just great. He just hasn’t told the American people enough stories about how great he and his policies are. And the people, those hapless boobs, can’t figure it out for themselves.

Now he’s going out into flyover country where the bitter clingers live to tell them how great he is. How his policies are going to make everything that’s wrong with America right. The planet is healing, the seas are receding and the economy is just fine. All we need now is a good bedtime story told by Barack Obama and we will all be able to sleep soundly.

Jim Treacher asks why the media lets him get away with that.

I realize it’s only Charlie Rose, but this is just another example of the journalistic negligence of the last half-decade. With the exception of Bret Baier and the occasional local guy from St. Louis or wherever, Obama’s interviewers never call him on this stuff. He babbles the same stale crap over and over, and it’s obviously not true, and they just… let him.

Maybe they think they’ve helping him. Maybe they’re scared of being called racists. Maybe they’re just too stupid to know any better.

I realize none of these things are mutually exclusive.

Obama Losing Independents

Townhall:

As President Obama jets around the country trying to sell his class warfare to distract away from dismal jobs numbers and a terrible economy, independent voters are sitting by watching and they aren't impressed. They're looking for a strong economic plan and economic results, which President Obama hasn't provided and doesn't seem to plan on providing. From a new ABC/Washington Post poll:

Digging into the crosstabs of this week’s ABC News-Washington Post poll it’s clear that Obama has a significant problem with independent voters.

On every measure, independents are significantly more disappointed with the President and more open to a Romney message. http://abcn.ws/Mhf8QD

On the economy, while 45 percent of voters overall say they approve of Obama’s handling of the economy, just 37 percent of independents believe that. Obama has a twelve point advantage among all voters on the issue of “who has presented a clearer plan for dealing with the economy — Obama or Romney.” But, among independents that flips to an eight point advantage for Romney.

Even on the issue of Romney’s record in business, independent voters are more sympathetic to the Republican. Among all voters, more thought that Romney, in his work as a corporate investor, did more to cut jobs than create them, 42 percent to 36 percent. But among independents, that flips to a six point advantage for Romney, 43 percent to 37 percent.

ABC asked its analysts why Romney isn't ahead in the race with these numbers. The answer was because Democrats are more enthusiastic than Republicans about the election. The best hope for Obama to keep his position in the Oval Office is for that lack of enthusiasm to continue.

If Republican enthusiasm and participation increases, Obama has some very serious problems. Even with universal support among Democrats, Obama can’t win if he’s losing independent voters by these significant margins.

Real Talk: Romney Dared to Talk to Black People as Americans

Townhall

Kira Davis is an actress, blogger, mother wife, black and conservative. She has a few words for the NAACP and Rep. Clever, who said Mitt Romney shouldn't have criticized ObamaCare during his address to the NAACP Convention yesterday and that he wasn't sure who was advising Romney from the "African-American perspective."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that white people needed advisers before they address black people."

"Heaven forbid Mitt Romney go into a room full of black people and address them as...Americans!"

"I'm just checking because I thought the NAACP was dedicated to fighting racism, not perpetuating it."

Sodomy, the new jihadi training method?

OTTAWA - Being sodomized is acceptable in Islam if the goal is to carry out jihad, according to a cleric on a new video making the rounds online.

In a video posted on YouTube last month, and as reported by the New York-based think-tank Gatestone Institute more recently, cleric Abu al-Dema al-Qasab's instructions include details on how to carry out a successful suicide bombing mission by hiding explosives in the bomber's anus.

"However, to undertake this jihadi approach you must agree to be sodomized for a while to widen your anus so it can hold the explosives," al-Dema al-Qasab tells followers in the video.

There is no indication where or when the video was recorded, but appears by the screen to have been aired on Fadak TV, a Shia-based satellite television station. The background of al-Dema al-Qasab is also unknown.

Author Raymond Ibrahim, who wrote the article for Gatestone, denies claims the video is a hoax intended to insult Islam.

The Gatestone Institute's homepage indicates it specializes in international policy and the Middle East.

Sodomy is forbidden in Islam but according to al-Dema al-Qasab's video, everything is permissible if the objective is in the best interests of the jihad.

In 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, attempted to blow up a plane bound for Detroit by igniting a bomb planted in his underwear. That led to the introduction of body scanners at airports worldwide which can see through clothing.

The scanners, however, cannot see inside body cavities, and authorities expressed fear at the time that terrorists would likely try to evolve their attacks to avoid detection.

5 Ways Liberalism Destroys Virtue

Townhall:

The more completely a person, group, or organization embraces liberalism, the less virtuous it becomes. It's almost like a mental sickness in that respect. People or groups who are lightly infected can soldier on without having it eat them alive. However, the deeper the sickness goes, the more it changes them. Eventually the liberal disease inside of people can grow so much that it warps their morals, their religious beliefs, and their way of thinking until they can no longer tell right and wrong. This destruction of virtue is a natural consequence of the fundamental beliefs that go along with liberalism.

5) "When one becomes a liberal, he or she pretends to advocate tolerance, equality and peace, but hilariously, they’re doing so for purely selfish reasons. It’s the human equivalent of a puppy dog’s face: an evolutionary tool designed to enhance survival, reproductive value and status. In short, liberalism is based on one central desire: to look cool in front of others in order to get love. Preaching tolerance makes you look cooler, than saying something like, 'please lower my taxes.’" -- Greg Gutfeld

Doing the right thing is often tough. It's hard to take money you could use yourself and give it to charity. It's difficult to hold to a position that you think is best for the country even though some people will think it's "mean." It takes self-denial to ask that the government spend less today so that future generations will still be able to enjoy the American Dream.

Liberals don't have that sort of moral courage. They advocate giving away other people's money and call it being charitable. They take positions that are terrible for the country because they're afraid of criticism and call it bravery. They're willing to sell future generations of Americans into debt bondage so they can have a little more comfort now and they pat themselves on the back for their compassionate "investments."

Liberals aren't actually charitable, courageous, or compassionate; they just claim to be those things by virtue of the fact that they're liberal. In fact, that's one of the major selling points of liberalism: being able to think of yourself as moral and good without the trials and sacrifice that go along with actually being moral and good.

4) "There are no bad guys on the left. There are only people who’ve been driven to desperation by conservative evil." -- Allahpundit

Liberals begin with the proposition that conservatives are unwitting dupes at best and evil at worst while other liberals are on the side of the angels. This leads them to excuse just about any and every behavior from killing cops (Muhammad Abdul Jamal), to terrorist bombings (Bill Ayers), to treason (Jane Fonda) as long as the perpetrator has the right beliefs and is useful to the movement. When you think that the only real crime is disagreeing with your ideology, you can make a hero out of a drunken, disreputable coward who left a woman to die in a tidal pool or even come up with justifications for why it's fine for the Department of Justice to help Mexican cartels get weapons they used to kill more than 300 people as part of some misguided political stunt to encourage gun control.

3) "Liberals have created, and the minority leadership has exploited, a community of dependent people, unaware of the true route to prosperity and happiness: self-reliance and self-investment. Instead, people are told that America is unjust, unfair, and full of disadvantages. They are told that their only hope is for government to fix their problems. What has happened is that generations of people have bought into this nonsense and as a result have remained hopelessly mired in poverty and despair — because the promised solutions don’t work. And they will never work — they never have." -- Rush Limbaugh

Individuality is a necessary condition of morality. When you embrace tribalism based on race, gender, and sexual orientation as the Left does, you inevitably end up embracing a tribal mentality as well. Everyone in your tribe is on "your side” and other people are viewed as "enemies." Most people don't apply the same ethical standards to their enemies as they do to their tribe. That's why we're fine with sending Predator Drones to kill terrorists in Pakistan, but we would riot in the street if the same policy were put in place to target people accused of murder in New Jersey. The more liberals split us into groups, the more hatred and situational ethics inevitably occur as a result.

"Indiscriminateness of thought does not lead to indiscriminateness of policy. It leads the modern liberal to invariably side with evil over good, wrong over right and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success. Why? Very simply if nothing is to be recognized as better or worse than anything else then success is de facto unjust.

2) There is no explanation for success if nothing is better than anything else and the greater the success the greater the injustice. Conversely and for the same reason, failure is de facto proof of victimization and the greater the failure, the greater the proof of the victim is, or the greater the victimization." -- Evan Sayet

For the most part, success isn't random. Most rich people deserve their wealth just as poor people deserve their poverty. There's a reason a bank CEO is where he is and a dirty hippy with empty pockets is impotently protesting him in the street. Most people who fail deserve to be failing just as most people who succeed deserve to be succeeding. There is such a thing as right and wrong and, no, there isn't a different standard depending on whether you're white or black, Israeli or Palestinian, straight or gay, liberal or conservative. Liberals can't bear to be "mean" to people who are losing at life by telling them that truth; so they'd rather pretend there are no rules, no standards, and no morals that matter. Once you embrace that kind of indiscriminateness, there is no degeneracy from Palestinian suicide bombers to Occupy Movement rapes that you will not excuse under the right circumstances.

1) "That is one reason 'feelings' and 'compassion' are two of the most often used liberal terms. 'Character' is no longer a liberal word because it implies self-restraint. 'Good and evil' are not liberal words either as they imply a moral standard beyond one’s feelings. In assessing what position to take on moral or social questions, the liberal asks him or herself, 'How do I feel about it?' or 'How do I show the most compassion?' — not 'What is right?' or 'What is wrong?' For the liberal, right and wrong are dismissed as unknowable, and every person chooses his or her own morality." -- Dennis Prager

Liberals are completely indifferent to whether the programs they advocate work or not. It's all about how they make them feel. A liberal will prefer a completely non-functional government program that makes them feel good about themselves over a program that works, but doesn't inflate their egos, 10 times out of 10. The same goes for morality. The standard isn't, "Is it right or is it wrong?" -- it's whether it makes them feel nice or mean. "Nice and wrong" is always preferable to "right and mean." As most non-liberals over the age of 12 have long since discovered, feelings are an extremely poor replacement for logic, decency, and common sense.

Tilting at the UN Windmill

Townhall:

Those of us who believe the United States would be best served by pulling out of the United Nations and starting up a more morally and politically serious clubhouse for morally and politically serious nations are often accused of tilting at windmills.

The phrase "tilting at windmills" was inspired by Cervantes' novel "Don Quixote," and it means to fight something that doesn't really deserve to be fought. Quixote mistook the windmills of the Spanish countryside for ravenous giants and set out to vanquish them. ("Tilting" is a jousting expression, in case you didn't know).

Well, let's review some recent evidence.

The U.N. has been working hand-in-glove with the Chinese government to make the Chinese one-child policy as efficient and ruthless as possible. "Our conclusion is that the (United Nations Population Fund) is directly responsible for forced abortions and forced sterilizations in China," Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, recently told Congress in prepared testimony.

Of course, not everyone dislikes the one-child policy. Vice President Biden has supported it, and President Obama restored UNFPA's funding when he took office. So let's move on.

Lots of people like the Internet, right? Well, good news! The U.N. wants to take it over. The International Telecommunications Union, a U.N. organization, is secretly debating proposals to claim jurisdiction over the Web and take it out of America's hands. The major forces behind this push: authoritarian regimes eager to censor their domestic Internet and monitor their citizens. Russia and some Arab countries, reports the Wall Street Journal's Gordon Crovitz, want the power to read private email. Others want to tax cross-border Web traffic. And countries like China are working hard to bribe, bully or barter votes in favor of the U.N. takeover.

You see, that's what dictatorships do at the U.N.: work to make the world safe for dictatorships. The most brutal regimes on the planet are constantly trying to get on or game the Human Rights Council so they can spend all of their time condemning Israel and blocking any attempts to censure their own regimes.

Not everything the U.N. does is evil. Some of it is just incompetent. The whole of what passes for the "international community" has been trying to enforce sanctions on Iran and North Korea. But nobody at the U.N.'s intellectual property agency told them so, it was revealed earlier this month, so they went ahead and gave North Korea and Iran computers and IT equipment.

A few days later, the invaluable human rights group UN Watch reported that Iran was elected to the U.N. Conference of the Arms Trade Treaty, despite having just been declared guilty -- in a U.N. Security Council report! -- of illegally shipping guns and bombs to Syria.

Speaking of Syria, which is currently violating agreements to not murder its own people, it recently had a big victory at the Human Rights Council. Syria co-sponsored and passed a resolution pushed by Cuba (and supported by the usual Legion of Doom nations) to establish a "Right to Peace." The document is a lot of boilerplate until you get to the part where it says "all peoples and individuals have the right to resist and oppose oppressive colonial, foreign occupation." This is Middle East-speak for "It's OK to blow up Israelis."

Now these are all just recent news items. But you can play this game any time you want because the U.N. always provides fresh hells for us to marvel and laugh at.

For example, the United Nations website tells us that there is something called the Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group of the General Assembly on the Integrated and Coordinated Implementation of and Follow-up to the Major United Nations Conferences and Summits in the Economic and Social Fields. Who among us doesn't sleep better knowing the OAHWGGAICIFMUNCSESF is working for us?

Alas, the U.N. website notes, "The Ad Hoc Working Group was last active during the 57th session of the General Assembly in 2003." In other words, the ad hoc open-ended working group is so open-ended it hasn't met in nearly a decade.

But that's the great thing about the U.N.: It never fails to surprise us with its predictability.

I'm beginning to think the U.N.'s defenders are the Don Quixotes, only in reverse. Where the critics see the reality of the ravenous giant, the U.N.'s defenders can only see a harmless windmill converting hot air for the good of all mankind.

Politicians barred from speaking at this year's 9/11 ceremony in New York

New York (CNN) -- Politicians will be barred from speaking at this year's commemoration ceremony on the anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks, according to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

According to Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the foundation "is focused on honoring the victims and their families in a way free of politics, and this ensures that continues."

In a letter sent to victims' families Wednesday, Daniels said that the reading of victims' names by family members will be "the exclusive focus of the program" during this year's ceremony.

Ground zero has a decorative history of politicians' speaking at anniversary ceremonies, ranging from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is chairman of the memorial foundation's board of directors. Politicians such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are honorary trustees.

At last year's ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center, President Barack Obama read a psalm.

It's been a tradition for victims' family members to lead a solemn reading of the names of their lost ones during commemorations at the memorial site.

The reading of the names "individualizes the masses of people who were killed. Those people were individuals who had individual lives," said Charles G. Wolf, who lost his wife, Katherine, who had been working at the World Trade Center that day.

But Bloomberg had publicly considered ending the tradition.

"Some people have said change is good, and the subject's come up a couple times, and I think we've said the foundation board will talk about this," he said during a radio show in August 2011.

His comments brought much heat from some of the victims' families, who have blamed politicians for delays in construction of the memorial museum.

The museum was originally scheduled to open this year, marking the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but has been held up because of "disagreements" with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Bloomberg said in a news conference last year.

Bloomberg's office declined to comment Thursday. Cuomo's office could not be reached for comment.

More than 3 million people have visited the memorial since its opening on September 11, 2011.

"We're still dealing with this. Eleven years later, and we're still talking about it," Wolf said.

The ceremony includes six moments of silence, representing crucial moments during the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, and the crash of United Flight 93 in rural Pennsylvania.

Smoking Banned Inside Santa Monica Residences

The city council voted 4-2 on Tuesday to expand a smoking prohibition in the coastal city

A 4-2 vote during Tuesday's city council meeting made Santa Monica's already restrictive smoking rules even tighter. New tenants of the coastal city will not be allowed to smoke in their residences unless they designate them smoking. Some residents say the ordinance goes too far but consumer protection groups say it's a step toward better public health. Lolita Lopez reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on July 11, 2012.

Republicans' Discontent With High Court Drives Down Its Poll Numbers

Negative opinions of the Supreme Court jumped in the wake of its ruling on the constitutionality of the 2010 health care law, according to a new Pew Research Center poll released on Thursday that shows the percentage who have an unfavorable opinion of the Court is higher than at any point since Pew began tracking it in 1985.

Meanwhile, President Obama leads Mitt Romney in the poll, as voters now narrowly see Obama as the candidate who would do the best job of improving economic conditions, a significant change from last month.

Fifty-one percent of all adults have a favorable opinion of the Court, statistically unchanged from April, when a Pew survey showed the Court's favorability rating at 52 percent. But the percentage holding an unfavorable view jumped to 37 percent, an 8-point increase from April, and a new high for Pew surveys.

Democrats have a slightly-improved view of the Court: 64 percent view it favorably, compared to 52 percent in April. But the Court's standing among Republicans has plummeted, accounting for the overall decline.

Now, 51 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of the Court, while just 38 percent have a favorable opinion. In April, 56 percent of Republicans viewed the Court favorably.

The percentage of independents who view the Supreme Court unfavorably ticked up, from 31 percent in April to 38 percent now. But the percentage who have a favorable opinion in the recent survey, 51 percent, is unchanged from April.

The poll was conducted June 28-July 9, beginning the night of the Court's decision to uphold most of the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act.

Public opinion about the health care law has only changed slightly since the Court's decision, the poll shows. Now, 47 percent approve of the law, while 43 percent disapprove. That is slightly better than in a Pew poll from earlier in June, when 43 percent approve and 48 percent disapproved.

Eighty percent of Democrats approve of the law, while 83 percent of Republicans disapprove. Independents are split: 43 percent approve, compared with 46 percent who disapprove.

The poll shows Obama leading Romney among registered voters, 50 percent to 43 percent, a single-digit, statistically significant advantage. Six percent of voters prefer another candidate or are undecided. Support for Romney has declined modestly since earlier in June, when Obama led, 50 percent to 46 percent.

Obama wins 88 percent of Democrats, while Romney captures 89 percent of Republicans. Among independents, the two candidates are neck-and-neck, with Obama at 46 percent and Romney at 45. Democrats have a 6-percentage-point party-identification advantage among the poll's registered voters, accounting for Obama's overall advantage.

Male voters are split: 47 percent prefer Obama, while 46 percent choose Romney. But Obama leads by 13 percentage points among women, 53 percent to 40 percent. That includes a wide lead among unmarried women, 64 percent to 30 percent.

Among white voters, Romney leads 54 percent to 40 percent. Obama actually holds a scant, 3-point edge among white voters who have a college degree, 50 percent to 47 percent. As in other surveys, Obama struggles among blue-collar whites: Romney romps among non-college white voters, 58 percent to 35 percent. Black (91 percent) and Hispanic (65 percent) voters heavily favor the president.

Obama's support is also firmer than Romney's. Overall, 32 percent of voters say they "strongly" support Obama, along with the 18 percent who support him "only moderately." Romney earns the strong support of just 15 percent of all voters, combined with 28 percent who say they are more tepid supporters.

Romney supporters generally are more engaged, however. Seventy percent of those voters choosing Romney on the ballot test say they have given "quite a lot of thought" to the November election, compared with just 62 percent of Obama supporters. Romney has had a slight advantage on this measure since the spring.

On the 12 issue areas Pew tested, Romney only has a significant advantage on one: reducing the federal budget deficit. Half of voters say he would do the best job of cutting the debt, compared to just 36 percent who pick Obama.

But Obama leads on eight of the 12 issues, including reflecting voters' views on abortion and gay rights (Obama +14 points), defending against terrorist attacks (Obama +12), energy (Obama +12), health care (Obama +8), foreign policy (Obama +8), taxes (Obama +8), and improving economic conditions (Obama +6).

Now, 48 percent of voters say that Obama would do the best job of improving economic conditions, versus 42 percent who choose Romney. Earlier in June, Romney held an 8-point advantage on this question, 49 percent to 41 percent.

Neither candidate has a significant advantage on the issues of jobs (Romney +4), immigration (Obama +4), or selecting Supreme Court justices (Obama +5).

Pew surveyed 2,973 adults, for a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. That includes 2,373 registered voters; those results carry a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

D.C. officer allegedly made threatening comments about first lady

WaPo:

A D.C. police officer who worked as a motorcycle escort for White House officials and other dignitaries was moved to administrative duty Wednesday after he allegedly was overheard making threatening comments toward Michelle Obama, according to several police officials.

The police department’s Internal Affairs Division is investigating the alleged comments and notified the U.S. Secret Service Wednesday, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give details of the investigation.

The motorman allegedly made the comments Wednesday morning as several officers from the Special Operations Division discussed threats against the Obamas. It was not immediately clear where the alleged conversation took place or exactly how many officers took part in the conversation.

During that conversation, the officials said, the officer allegedly said he would shoot the First Lady and then used his phone to retrieve a picture of the firearm he said he would use. It was not immediately clear what type of firearm was allegedly shown.

An officer overheard the alleged threat and reported it to a police lieutenant at the Division, who immediately notified superiors, the officials said.

“We received an allegation that inappropriate comments were made. We are currently investigating the nature of those comments,” D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said in an e-mail. She declined to discuss the matter further.

Police officials declined to identify the officer. Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s office declined comment.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, police union chief Kristopher Baumann said he did not have details on the matter.

There was no indication of a legitimate danger to Michelle Obama. A Secret Service spokesman declined to provide further details, saying in an e-mail that the agency was aware of the incident and “will conduct appropriate follow-up.”

Police officials immediately reassigned the officer to other duties, the police officials said.

The police escorts the Special Operations Division performs for the First Family are dignitary escorts. Police escorts for non-dignitaries drew attention in April 2011 when District officers accompanied actor Charlie Sheen from Dulles Airport to DAR Constitution Hall when Sheen was running late to a concert.

The propriety and cost of that run — which was reimbursed by a concert organizer — was debated later at a District Council hearing and reviewed by the District’s Office of the Inspector General which concluded, among other findings, that the department needed clearer guidelines on conducting escorts.

Jay Carney sneers at reporter’s request for Obama’s college records

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney derided a reporter today for asking whether President Obama would release his college records in the campaign, to serve as an example of transparency.

"This is the Donald Trump question," said Carney referring the reporter to the Obama campaign.

"This is preposterous," Carney continued. "This is from the guy who insisted that the president wasn't born in the United States."

Carney reiterated that Obama was an “open book” and had an "extremely sound" record of transparency.

Once a Social Media Star, Digg Sells for $500,000

WSJ:
Digg Inc., a social-media pioneer once valued at more than $160 million, is selling for the deeply discounted price of about $500,000, three people familiar with the matter said.

The buyer is New York technology development firm Betaworks, which is attempting to revive a news-sharing site that was outmaneuvered by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

Digg confirmed Thursday it sold its brand, website and technology to Betaworks. The price is a pittance for a company that raised $45 million from prominent investors including Facebook investor Greylock Partners, LinkedIn Inc. founder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

Digg received higher offers from bidders that included technology and publishing companies and start-ups but ultimately decided Betaworks had the best plan for reviving its brand, these people said. In May, Washington Post Co. hired 15 members of Digg's engineering team—more than half of the company's overall staff—for its SocialCode digital media subsidiary.

Betaworks is acquiring a website that still has a well known brand and sizable audience of more than 7 million visitors per month as of May, according to comScore.

Digg was once one of the most promising start-ups in Silicon Valley. The website was founded in 2004 as a way for consumers to put together their own collections of news and other Internet content, rather than relying on the choices made by newspaper editors.

Digg users would post links on the site's home page, then others would vote on their choices, determining the prominence of the stories they posted.

"They were one of the first social media sites," says Kristina Lerman, an assistant research professor at the University of Southern California who has studied Digg and other social-news sharing sites. "They introduced social components like having friends and followers."

The site quickly rose to prominence, in part due to telegenic founder Kevin Rose, a former cable television talk show host. In 2006, Mr. Rose landed on the cover of BusinessWeek with the now infamous cover line, "How This Kid Made $60 Million in 18 Months," referring to the company's valuation at the time.

In the fall of 2008, Digg raised nearly $29 million in venture capital from Greylock Partners, Highland Capital Partners and other financiers in an investment valuing the company at around $164 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Over the years, the company was rumored to be in negotiations to sell itself several times, including to Google Inc. in 2008 for a reported $200 million. The deal was never completed.

For early employees with equity stakes in the company like Owen Byrne, the site's first lead engineer, the failure to sell the company was a huge disappointment. Mr. Byrne, who left the company in 2007, said in an interview he never got to "cash out and go live on the Riviera."

But the audience started to drift away in early 2010 when services such as Facebook and Twitter exploded in popularity, as users preferred getting article recommendations from their friends or people they followed.

A series of redesigns, some of which weren't well-received by users, also hurt the company. A site relaunch in the summer of 2010 triggered a backlash, with most users saying they preferred the old Digg. By the end of 2010, Digg's audience had fallen by more than half, according to ComScore.

Newer social-news website Reddit Inc. also stole some of Digg's thunder. Last December, Reddit drew more visitors than Digg for the first time, according to comScore, and since then it has maintained that lead.

In March of last year, Mr. Rose, the founder, resigned from the company. He is now a venture capitalist with Google Ventures.

Betaworks intends to fold Digg into News.me Inc., a digital media start-up that Betaworks launched in April 2011. News.me sends users links to news articles that their connections on Twitter and Facebook are reading and talking about. News.me, which uses an iPad and iPhone app and daily email newsletter, has about 10 employees.

Digg shareholders also received a very small amount of warrants in the combined Digg and News.me company worth a few percent of the new entity, said a person familiar with the matter. Digg investors are not receiving any equity in Betaworks, said the person.

The new combined company is very young and unproven and hard to value, but internally Betaworks values it around $5 million to $10 million, making the warrants worth a few hundred thousand dollars on paper.

None of Digg's remaining employees will join Betaworks as part of the acquisition. Chief Executive Matt Williams will join venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

Betaworks CEO John Borthwick will become Digg's new chief.

Americans Will Work Over 7 Months to Pay for Govt Spending in '12

CNS:

– This year, Americans have to work until July 15 to pay for the burden of government, more than six months.

In a new report, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has calculated that Americans will spend a total of 197 days toiling to pay for the cost of government.

"Cost of Government Day is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal, state and local levels," reads the report.

The report, Cost of Government Day, shows that Americans will work 88 days to pay for federal spending; 40 days for state and local spending; and 69 days for total regulatory costs.

"From a different perspective, the cost of government makes up 54.0 percent of annual gross domestic product (GDP)," reads the report. "What's more, the largest tax hike in the nation's history is scheduled to take place at the end of 2012 unless Congress acts to protect taxpayers. If this tax increase is allowed to hit, COGD [Cost of Government Day] could permanently be pushed back into August and beyond."

(Correction: This news story initially stated that the time needed to pay for total federal spending -- not all costs -- would exceed 7 months in 2012 when, in fact, the report shows that the cost of government day is July 15, approximately 6.5 months into the year.)

Allen West targeted by new Soros-backed SuperPAC

I have mentioned before how Allen West is on the top 10 target list for Democrats this year, Dem SuperPAC targeting “Tea Party 10″.

For that reason, among others, West is on the Operation Counterweight list, and we have a separate Focus Page with his website and other links.

Now a SuperPAC has been formed specifically to get rid of West, as reported by The Shark Tank:

Top national Democratic operative Charles Halloran has been retained by a new George Soros-backed super-PAC to target Congressman Allen West for defeat this November. Halloran is a former aide to President Bill Clinton and is one of the most respected voter targeting/turn out experts in the Democratic Party. Halloran ran the successful campaign of Democrat Tim Mahoney that won the seat of former Republican Congressman Mark Foley.

The Super PAC has been christened “Dump West” and is expected to file with the Federal Election Commission early next week. Sources have told The Shark Tank that a website along with a targeted web advertising campaign will soon be launched. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked former Congressman Larry Smith, who’s now working as a lobbyist, to help line up initial funding for the group. West is said to be at the top of Pelosi’s hit list.

Sources have also us that left wing billionaire George Soros is among those who committed to a $5 million war chest to defeat West.

You can donate to West here.

Reid calls for officials to 'burn' China-made Team USA Olympic uniforms

Fox News:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the U.S. Olympic Committee Thursday over reports that the Team USA uniforms were made in China, saying officials "should burn" them.

Reid, D-Nev., made the remarks following reports that China has already taken gold from America by manufacturing the uniforms Team USA will wear during the opening ceremonies.

“I think the Olympic Committee should be ashamed,” Reid told reporters on Capitol Hill. He said they should "burn" the current uniforms, and would rather America's athletes wear shirts with "USA" hand-painted on them.

In a statement to FoxNews.com, the U.S. Olympic Committee said it was “proud” of its partnership with the company.

“Unlike most Olympic teams around the world, the U.S. Olympic Team is privately funded and we’re grateful for the support of our sponsors," the statement read. "We’re proud of our partnership with Ralph Lauren, an iconic American company, and excited to watch America’s finest athletes compete at the upcoming Games in London.”

House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also responded to the growing controversy on Thursday.

"We take great pride in our Olympic athletes and try to watch them through as many of the trials as possible,” Pelosi told reporters during a congressional briefing. “I can’t wait to stay up all night to see as much as possible of them. We take such pride and they work so hard. They represent the very best and they’re so excellent, it’s all so beautiful.

“And they should be wearing uniforms made in America,” Pelosi said.

Boehner, meanwhile, said: “You’d think they’d know better.”

With corporate sponsor Ralph Lauren designing the duds, the job of making the red, white and blue uniforms falls to its apparel contractors in China, the New York Daily News reports. Every item in the uniforms that the U.S. athletes will wear at the opening ceremony in London will carry an overseas label.

The company, in a statement, said the outfits aim to embody "the spirit of American athleticism and sportsmanship."

But fashion designer Nanette Lepore said she was shocked that none of the uniforms had been made stateside, telling ABC News that it was “absolutely” possible that the Olympians could have been fitted in U.S.-made clothing for the opening ceremony.

Ralph Lauren also is dressing the Olympic and Paralympic teams for the closing ceremony and is providing casual clothes to be worn around the Olympic Village. Nike, meanwhile, has created many of the competition uniforms for the U.S. and outfits for the medal stand.

Prices for the apparel range from $55 for a beret to $795 for the men’s blazer.

In 2008, Ralph Lauren took criticism for an oversized logo on the opening ceremony uniform that some said overshadowed the Olympic rings, as well as reports that Chinese tailors worked overtime to finish the uniforms at the last minute.

"Lauren — and most likely his son David — celebrated not the spirit of athletic competition, but themselves and their brand, morphing our athletes into unpaid billboards for the "Polo™" pony and rider that has helped bring the Laurens great ... riches," The American Politics Journal wrote.

FoxNews.com's Joshua Rhett Miller contributed to this report.

Michael Savage No. 2 in shows streamed on Web

The new Talk Stream Live “Power 50,” which ranks the top talk-radio shows streaming on the Web, has Michael Savage in the No. 2 spot.

Talk Stream Live says it sampled more than 1.2 million listeners during the first six months of the year to produce “The Power 50 Report” – the 50 most influential talk show hosts on the Internet and on mobile devices.

“We are proud to report that Rush Limbaugh is No. 1 and Michael Savage is No. 2,” said TSL. “These are the most listened to talk show hosts in the world.”

Savage has noted that he’s succeeded without appearances on major media and even Fox News.

Savage says that “when people listen to you online, through streaming, you don’t get credit for that in the traditional ratings system.”

“I’ve always known my audience was bigger than most people think, and this streaming radio study proves it now,” he said.

“You get the unvarnished truth from me. The way most people think is the way I talk.”

Savage said that “if America ever heard me in every major market, like Rush Limbaugh, they wouldn’t know what hit them.”

Savage’s show airs live Monday through Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern. Listeners can find stations that stream the show via Talk Stream Live.

NOTICE: TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

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Clinton-era Environmental Rules Increased Wildfire Risks in Colorado

Environmental regulations restricting the construction of forest access roads have limited the ability of the Forest Service to clear combustible brush and trees, adding dangerous fuel to the wildfires that have ravaged Colorado this summer. The so-called “roadless rule,” which was first implemented in 2001 by President Clinton shortly before he left office, restricts and in many cases prohibits local and federal officials from building and maintaining roads that allow firefighters to clear out growth that could instantly become tinder for a new fire...

France, Germany tax evasion inquiries target Swiss bank clients

French and German authorities raid the offices and homes of Credit Suisse and UBS bank officials and their wealthy customers as part of an investigation...

New Homeland Security Laser Scanner Reads People At Molecular Level

CBS DC - The Department of Homeland Security will soon be using a laser at airports that can detect everything about you from over 160-feet away...

Some California towns may cease to exist...

L.A. Times:

Rising costs push California cities to fiscal brink
Throughout the state, local governments are slashing services to avoid bankruptcy. For some, it's too late....

SALES TAX IN SPAIN JUMPS TO 21%

CNBC:

Spain Deepens Austerity Under European Pressure

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced a swathe of new taxes and spending cuts on Wednesday designed to slash 65 billion euros from the budget deficit by 2014 as recession-plagued Spain struggles to meet tough targets agreed with Europe...

The Islamist president’s power grab

Chicago style rules on the Nile

Washington Times:

The Arab Spring is over; the Egyptian Revolution has begun. Egypt’s new president Mohammed Morsi issued a decree Sunday reconvening the country’s recently dissolved parliament. Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court disagreed, saying its finding that the parliamentary election was unconstitutional was final. The stage is set for a conflict that will define Egypt’s future and the course of stability in the Mideast region.

Mr. Morsi claims he isn’t defying but rather affirming the will of the Supreme Constitutional Court. He says his decree only nullifies the parliament’s dissolution last month by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The Egyptian high court quickly responded that its ruling was binding, final and not subject to appeal. The SCAF was merely acting as the court’s executive agent. There is no cause to reassemble a body that was unconstitutionally formed in the first place.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been trying to slow the pace of political change in Cairo. It seeks to preserve the power and status of Egypt's military while waiting for the results of the November elections in the United States. Mr. Morsi, however, seems intent on speeding things up, particularly while the Muslim Brotherhood has a solid supporter like Barack Obama in the White House. He issued his decree the same day he met privately with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns, so absent a White House condemnation, the power grab will be interpreted in the region as either having President Obama’s blessing, or being his idea. Call it Chicago style on the Nile.

Liberal parties in parliament are boycotting Mr. Morsi’s call since attending would affirm the power of the Islamist president over the Supreme Constitutional Court and SCAF. The military council issued a statement affirming the importance of the constitution and the rule of law. It denied Mr. Morsi’s move was part of a behind-the-scenes deal, and that any such allegation “shakes the pillars of patriotism” in the country. What concrete steps it will take remain to be seen.

The political crisis in Egypt is reminiscent of the events in France in June 1789 when the members of the Estates General were locked out of their meeting hall by command of King Louis XVI. They repaired to the king's tennis court and swore an oath not to disperse until they had reformed the French constitution. The National Assembly was born, and with it the French Revolution and the downfall of the monarchy. There followed the mass-murdering Reign of Terror, Napoleon’s dictatorship and global war. It’s important to remember that revolutions have blood-soaked dark sides.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which sold itself to the civilized world as a voice of moderation, seems intent to create a clash of powers that could unleash chaos in the Middle East. “Somewhere in sands of the desert,” William Butler Yeats wrote in 1919, a nightmarish creature with “gaze blank and pitiless as the sun” began to stir. To paraphrase the poet, what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Cairo to be born?

The Washington Times

Obama’s ATF Targeting Hispanic Gun Buyers

pgnh.org:

[Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2012, at 6:50 p.m.]
By Evan F. Nappen, Attorney at Law

A new, controversial question now appears on the most recent “Firearms Transaction Record Part I – Over-the Counter” (A.K.A. Form 4473), which must be filled out by anyone purchasing a firearm from a Federal Firearm Licensee, meaning a gun shop or other licensed dealer. According to the ATF, this new Form 4473 must be used after July 9, 2012 and previous editions are obsolete. (See: http://www.atf.gov/forms/download/atf-f-4473-1.pdf)
Every person completing this form must now, under a new question “10.a,” either confirm or deny whether they are Hispanic/Latino. Failure to do so will cause potential criminal prosecution and a denial of Second Amendment Rights. The Form 4473 has been around since 1968, but never before has one ethnic group been singled out where individuals have to affirmatively state whether they ARE or ARE NOT a member.

What if the “ethnicity” question demanded “Jew or Not a Jew”? Would that “ethnicity” question be acceptable? Like the Hispanic/Latino question, it is offensive and not necessary. It has nothing whatsoever to do with one’s qualification to purchase a gun.
Race and ethnicity should not be asked at all on the Form 4473. The race and ethnicity question is not specifically authorized under the U.S. Code (federal law). Ethnicity and race are not needed for identification purposes, as government issued identification (e.g. Driver’s License) is already required by law for any gun transfer. Additionally, a National Instant Check is conducted before any such transfer.

The Obama Administration has covered up and exercised “Executive Privilege” to block information about the “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scheme which has killed federal agents and hundreds of “Hispanics/Latinos.” Given that debacle, here is a much better question for the Form 4473 instead of race and ethnicity: “Are you buying this firearm with U.S. Government permission to provide it to death-dealing members of international drug cartels?”

Prominent Missouri Democrat Wants To Know: How Come No Jews Died On 9/11?…

Weasel Zippers:

Here’s a shocker, he’s also a Muslim.

Via Free Beacon:

A Democratic Party caucus chairman vying to become Missouri’s next secretary of state is a 9/11 Truther who has associated with a radical Muslim cleric and trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

MD Rabbi Alam is an Obama campaign ally and Missouri-based Democratic activist who chairs the National Democratic Party Asian American Caucus (NDPAAC), a Democratic National Committee-sponsored organization that liaises with Asian minorities.

Alam, who was born in Bangladesh, served as a “satellite campaign manager” for then-candidate Barack Obama and the Democratic Party during the 2008 elections, and has since been invited to the White House.

Alam has speculated about Jewish involvement in the September 11th terrorist attacks and participated in an event with a Muslim cleric who has accused Israel of terrorism and alleged that the U.S. invented the HIV disease.

“Why [was] 9/11 was a official holidy [sic] for all jewish [sic] people worked in the the [sic] WTC?” Alam asked in an Internet discussion titled, “Was 9/11 a conspiracy??”

“My question was, ‘What’s the reason not a single Jew was killed on that day,’” Alam said, maintaining that his inquiries are based on facts, rather than a bias against Jewish people. “Was there a single Jew killed on that day?”

Keep reading…

Study: EPA’s Probe Into Fracking’s Effect on Drinking Water Isn’t So Clean

PJMedia.com:

PLUS: Celeb anti-frackers to descend on D.C. to demand Congress end the shale extraction technique altogether.

An industry-funded independent investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s long-running probe into the effects of hydraulic fracturing found numerous flaws in everything from the EPA’s scope to its lack of consultation with oil and gas companies.

“The study released today by Battelle—a highly respected independent science and technology organization—identifies numerous concerns with EPA’s ongoing hydraulic fracturing study,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

The 166-page Battelle study, submitted to the American Petroleum Institute and America’s National Gas Alliance, focused on the 2010 urging of a House conference committee that the EPA “carry out a study on the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water using a credible approach that relies on the best available science, as well as independent sources of information.”

According to Congress, the study was to be conducted through “a transparent, peer-reviewed process that will ensure the validity and accuracy of the data. The Agency shall consult with other federal agencies as well as appropriate state and interstate regulatory agencies in carrying out the study, which should be prepared in accordance with the Agency’s quality assurance principles.”

The industry groups commissioned the nonprofit research organization to review the EPA’s “Plan to Study the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources.”

“Battelle’s comprehensive technical review found widespread problems with EPA’s study design, implementation, and quality control processes,” Harris said. “The Battelle report provides many constructive recommendations that EPA can undertake to improve the transparency, quality and ultimate value of its study.”

The report found that the EPA broadened its scope of the investigation beyond the congressional intent “to require study of more peripheral elements related to generic oil and gas exploration and production, such as various upstream and downstream stages of the water lifecycle as well as standard site development and production activities.”

The researchers also found that standards of a “highly influential scientific assessment,” which would have “raised the level of rigor, funding, timing and transparency of all stages of the study,” were not implemented by the EPA.

The broad scope into other oil and gas production activities, including environmental aspects already addressed by regulations and industry standards, Battelle wrote, risks “weakening and obscuring the significance of the research findings and their relevance with respect to the central question about the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water.”

“Additionally, ambitious schedules, driven by various 2012 reporting goals, may undermine the robustness of data collection and analysis as well as the soundness of scientific conclusions. Also, the site data collected from the companies are from 2006-2010, and the final report will be in 2014,” Battelle found. “The changes occurring at these sites in the intervening years will likely render the data obsolete for purposes of the study.”

The study also found problems with the quality control of the EPA’s probe and its collaborative efforts.

“EPA’s approach, in a number of areas, is not consistent with this congressional request,” Battelle wrote. “…Given industry’s extensive experience with production of oil and gas from unconventional reservoirs, its unique expertise in the process of hydraulic fracturing and associated technologies, and its wealth of relevant data and information available to inform this effort, it is a weakness of the study plan, and its implementation, that significant industry collaboration is not envisioned.”

The EPA protested that its investigation is designated as a “highly influential scientific assessment” and said it will include all stakeholders, including industry reps, at some point in the process.

The American Petroleum Institute’s senior policy adviser told reporters this morning that the study reinforced previous industry concerns about the EPA study and raised new ones.

“A robust, thorough, careful study is important because it has the potential to affect the future course of shale energy development, which has enormous potential for improving our energy security and economy for decades to come,” said API’s Stephanie Meadows. “We’re not calling on EPA to stop its study. We’re calling on them to do it right.”

Though opponents of fracking will dismiss the study for the fact that it was requisitioned by the industry, a Duke University study released today highlights just how its mixed findings can be spun either way.

The headline on Businessweek was “Pennsylvania Fracking Can Put Water at Risk, Duke Study Finds,” while the New York Times headline was “Fracking Did Not Sully Aquifers, Limited Study Finds.”

Researchers found that natural pathways in the rock bed can carry contaminants into the groundwater, but found no direct link between such contamination and shale-gas drilling operations in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Regardless, fracking opponents are getting ready to descend on Washington later this month to protest the drilling technique that they say causes all manner of calamities from health risks to earthquakes.

The “Stop the Frack Attack” rally on July 28 will call on Congress to stamp out fracking while pursuing clean-energy alternatives.

The event in the nation’s capital sprang from protests by environmental activists and celebrities upset with fracking proposals in New York.

In Washington will be actor Mark Ruffalo, who got upset over his upstate N.Y. neighbors leasing their land to gas companies. “I realized if I didn’t do something, it would destroy the place I live. I’d rather be doing other things with my free time, but when I learned about what is going on with fracking, it really challenged me – like, am I a phony or not?” Ruffalo told Rolling Stone.

“Then I went to Dimock, Pa., which is the epicenter of the fracking disaster,” Ruffalo continued. “I saw people who were suffering, whose lives have been ruined by this. I also saw the total failure of our political system, our social system. The fact that something like this can happen in America is unbelievable.”

Others expected at the Washington rally include Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr., and Margot Kidder. Eighty groups are said to be banding together for four “days of action” including lobbying, which will culminate in the march on the Capitol.

“We need to share our concerns about fracking with President Obama, Congress, and the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the frack attack,” wrote Sarah Hodgdon at Treehugger. “If drillers can’t extract natural gas without destroying landscapes and endangering the health of families, then we should not drill for natural gas.”

Rep. Harris, however, sees the Battelle study as the next step forward in proving that fracking is a safe and reliable extraction method.

“I hope and expect that EPA will work hard to address Battelle’s recommendations, and I look forward to following up with EPA on the status of this effort in the coming weeks,” he said.


Bridget Johnson is a career journalist whose news articles and opinion columns have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe. Previously the managing editor at the American Enterprise Institute, Bridget came to Washington to be online editor at The Hill, where she wrote The World from The Hill column on foreign policy. Previously she was an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. She has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Politico and more, and has myriad television and radio credits as a commentator. Bridget is Washington Editor for PJ Media.