Unstated Embarrassment; US to Buy Own Debt; Moscow Protecting Nuclear Sites; Fed Workers Paid Twice as Much; Taliban Not a Terrorist Organization Now; More Global Warming Myths Exposed; and Imam to go to Middle East on our Dime

 

 

 

 

 

 

By FOUAD AJAMI http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421363005578460.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion

_LEADTop

There is a widespread sense of unstated embarrassment that a political majority, if only for a moment, fell for the promise of an untested redeemer [Barack Hussein Obama]—a belief alien to the temperament of this so practical and sober a nation. 
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By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Despite the failure of the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus plan to move unemployment below 9.5 percent, the White House has a new idea – maybe the United States should just begin once again buying its own debt.
Remarkable as the concept seems, reputable news agencies are beginning to telegraph the concept.
"With interest rates already close to zero, the Fed will have to execute any monetary stimulus through the management of its balance sheet," the Financial Times in London said today.
What this means is that the Obama administration, through the auspices of the Federal Reserve, is about to resume buying Obama administration debt issued through the U.S. Treasury Department to finance what is likely to be a $1.5 trillion federal budget deficit in fiscal year 2010. http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=188885
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MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud shrouded over Moscow.
Two soldiers were killed by blazing trees as they worked to put out a fire dangerously close to Russia's main nuclear research centre, while workers were also mobilised to fight blazes near a nuclear reprocessing plant.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100810/ts_afp/russiaheatwavefires_20100810101712
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Federal News Radio reports: When it comes to pay, federal workers receive benefits that averaged about $41,791 in 2009. When you factor in salaries and those benefits, which include pensions, federal civil servants earned about $123,049 in 2009. By comparison, private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, tells USA TODAY the data are not useful in a direct public to private pay comparison.
Public union employees say the gap reflects the growing skill and education levels needed for most federal jobs, while the government farms out lower paid jobs to the private sector.  http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2023582
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From the Daily Caller: A new State Department report designating terrorist organizations notably excludes one group: the Taliban. The U.S. has been fighting a war in Afghanistan for almost a decade aimed at “defeating the Taliban,” Taliban members repeatedly have threatened and killed American citizens and lawmakers have increased pressure on State to add the Taliban to the list.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/10/state-department-taliban-is-not-a-terrorist-organization/#ixzz0wEU6k1RW

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American Thinker opines: The theory that the minute amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere have an outsize influence on climate was dealt another serious blow by the publication in a peer-reviewed journal of a study showing that the climate about 460 million years ago was similar to that of today, even though atmospheric carbon dioxide was at least 4 or 5 times the level of today. From Watt's Up with That?: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/08/another_blow_to_warmist_claims.html

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And from the New York Post: The imam behind a plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero is set to depart on a multi-country jaunt to the Middle East funded by the State Department -- raising concerns that taxpayers may be helping him with the controversial project's $100 million fund-raising goal. Feisal Abdul Rauf is taking the publicly funded trip to foster "greater understanding" about Islam and Muslim communities in the United States, the State Department confirmed yesterday. "He is a distinguished Muslim cleric," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley  [I can't figure out how his trip to the Middle East will help us have greater understanding about Islam in the US, can you?]  http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/feds_funding_zero_imam_mideast_trip_OTq9dmoHpxbaKvJbB4VLGM