Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

Thursday 07.29.2010

Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger - NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I'm about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level. You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else.
As bizarre as it sounds, laws restricting property owners from "diverting" water that falls on their own homes and land have been on the books for quite some time in many Western states. Only recently, as droughts and renewed interest in water conservation methods have become more common, have individuals and business owners started butting heads with law enforcement over the practice of collecting rainwater for personal use.

SILENCE OF THE SHEEP
by John Hinderaker - PowerLine.com
Andrew Klavan wrote a book called Empire of Lies. It was slated to be published in France by Seuil Policiers, but the editor who bought the book left that firm, and the new editor decided not to publish Klavan's book. This wasn't because she thought it wouldn't sell; it wasn't an economic decision at all, as Klavan had already been paid. Rather, the editor explained that "she can not publish . . . because of the political and religious aspects of the story." That is, the book's protagonist is a conservative Christian. Not only that, the liberal media is a sort of collective villain.
Klavan applies this experience to recent headlines here in the U.S., and contrasts liberals with conservatives:
[E]verywhere, the Left favors fewer voices and less information, and conservatives favor more. Everywhere, the Left seeks to disappear its opposition, whereas the Right is willing to meet them head-on. ...

The New American: A Rebirth Of The Old Guard
By Giordano Bruno - Neithercorp Press - 07/26/2010
.... The primary threat, not just to the New American but to every living person, is Elitism. There is nothing more vile than an elitist: they demand fealty from the masses even though they hate and despise the common man. They are fully aware of their conscience, but see it as a hindrance to their pursuit of dominance and so ignore it. They fancy themselves as "godlike" and imagine themselves to be intellectually superior to the rest of us, even though they have proven on numerous occasions to be rather foolish. Their ego-mania is so immense that they are virtually incapable of recognizing the fallibility of their philosophies. And, they are willing to sacrifice anything and anyone accept themselves to get what they want, meaning they are the worst kind of cowards exacting the worst kind of oppression.
As horrifying as elites are, the New American is unphased. He knows that an uncompromising sense of despotism can only be met with an uncompromising sense of liberty. He knows that because he is confident in his values and refuses to negotiate them away, elitists fear him. They recognize that men who are defending their home, who are wise, who hold the moral high ground, and who are unafraid, are difficult if nearly impossible to defeat. More than anything else, the elites quake at the thought of the New American Guard.

Economic Warnings From Niall Ferguson and Nassim Taleb
By: Gary North - MarketOracle.co.uk
Two widely respected economic commentators, Harvard's Niall Ferguson and Nassim "black swan" Taleb, have offered highly pessimistic assessments of what lies ahead for the American economy.
Information like this is widely ignored by investors in weeks when they have decided that nothing can stop them: they will get rich by investing in the American stock market, no matter what. On July 21, Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking committee that "the economic outlook looks unusually uncertain." Stocks fell sharply as soon as he gave his testimony. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered at the opening bell the next day, and then rose by almost 400 points over the next three business days. There was no news that countered Bernanke's assessment. Investors simply shrugged it off.

US Treasury Running on Fumes, Down to the Last Trillion in Red Ink
By: Paul Craig Roberts - MarketOracle.co.uk
The White House is screaming like a stuck pig. WikiLeaks' release of the Afghan War Documents "puts the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk."
What nonsense. Obama's war puts the lives of American soldiers at risk, and the craven puppet state behavior of "our partners" in serving as US mercenaries is what puts their troops at risk.
Keep in mind that it was someone in the US military that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks. This means that there is a spark of rebellion within the Empire itself.

China Tells America to Mind Its Own Business
From theTrumpet.com
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invoked a heated response from Chinese officials last Friday. Clinton stated that America might step in to referee a long-simmering territorial dispute between China and its smaller neighbors in the South China Sea.
Speaking at a forum of Southeast Asian countries in Vietnam, Mrs. Clinton surprised Beijing by saying America had a "national interest" in mediating the dispute of the Spratly Islands between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia.
The islands and surrounding sea floor supposedly contain large oil and gas deposits.
Clinton's assertion may have evoked an abnormally heated response due to the fact that 20 U.S. and South Korean warships and 200 aircraft are currently conducting war games in seas between Korea and China.

George Soros' gold ownership is a classic hedge
By Michael J Kosares - CommodityOnline.com
The hubbub started when hedge fund guru George Soros proclaimed gold to be in a bubble, and it is still roiling nearly six months later. Gold advocates jumped to its defense, while critics took the offensive. As it turns out though, Soros was not really issuing a warning so much as he was explaining why he was making a considerable investment in gold bullion. Only days after calling gold the "ultimate asset bubble," the financial press reported Soros had doubled his holdings of physical metal. Both the advocates and the critics had misinterpreted what Soros was trying to say.

Gold Counting Down to Assault on $1300
By: Bob Kirtley - MarketOracle.co.uk
Sam Kirtley writes: We remain convinced that gold has yet to make its high for the year, and expect an assault on $1300 to begin in about a month from now.
Despite our bullishness, we are not convinced that buying more call options on gold is the right move for now, since we expect action to the upside to be fairly limited over the next few weeks.
Our reasoning for this is partially due to the fact this is a seasonally weak time of year for gold, but also since we saw heavy selling in 'out of the money' gold call options and futures this week, whenever the yellow metal showed some strength. This indicates that there could be a lot of trapped speculative longs that will be looking to exit their positions as soon as the price turns just slightly in their favour, creating a dampening effect on the price.

Short sellers drive down gold again
Short selling ahead of the August options expiry date seems to have contributed to a nearly 2% sell off in gold yesterday before the price steadied at the $1,160 level
Author: Lawrence Williams - MineWeb.co.za
LONDON - Belief that the economic downturn is ending and August options expiry has led to gold and other precious metals being caught in a wave of short selling, with prices slipping sharply. The big question facing investors is does this indicate the end of the 10-year gold bull market and if so, will the other precious metals decline in its wake, or will they be supported by the presumption that their industrial usage will see demand hold up?
In truth this is probably far too early to call. The northern summer months normally suggest a weak time for gold with holidays meaning that smaller trading volumes can have an undue influence on the overall market. And have we really exited the economic mire yet?

2011: The Year Of The Tax Increase
Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Unless the U.S. Congress acts, there is going to be a massive wave of tax increases in 2011. In fact, some are already calling 2011 the year of the tax increase. A whole host of tax cuts that Congress established between 2001 and 2003 are set to expire in January unless Congress chooses to renew them. But with Democrats firmly in control of both houses that appears to be extremely unlikely. These tax increases are going to affect every single American (at least those who actually pay taxes). But this will be just the first wave of tax increases. Another huge slate of tax increases passed in the health care reform law is scheduled to go into effect by 2019. So Americans that are already infuriated by our tax system are only going to become more frustrated in the years ahead. The reality is that the U.S. government will soon be digging much deeper into our wallets.
The following are some of the tax increases that are scheduled to go into effect in 2011....

America's Quiet Banking Collapse
From theTrumpet.com
Seven more banks fade into history.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (fdic) announced that it had seized the assets of seven additional banks, on Friday. During 2010 so far, 103 banks have gone bankrupt, putting the nation on pace for the most bank failures since the Savings and Loan crisis during the 1990s.
America's quiet banking collapse may be one of the most underreported stories of the year.
If the rate at which banks continue to fail continues, 175 institutions will become wards of the state by the end of December. In 1992, during the height of the banking crisis, 179 banks were shut, so this year could be a record - of the bad kind.

Bank reforms to pinch consumer credit
By Patrice Hill - The Washington Times
Will raise fees elsewhere
Call it the law of unintended consequences.
That's what many finance experts are saying will be the result of Congress' latest attempt to micromanage the world of consumer credit through the financial-reform measure President Obama signed into law last week.
Many are predicting that well-meaning provisions to force banks to lower their fees for debit card services will boomerang once again and result in less credit available for consumers - the same phenomenon seen when Congress enacted a law a year ago to rein in credit card fees.

Don't Lose Sleep over Deflation
By: Michael Pento - MarketOracle.co.uk
After hearing the dire warnings of deflation that have become the standard talking points of most economists, American investors may be reaching for a bottle of Prozac. I believe that their anxiety is misplaced. Unfortunately, modern economists don't understand what deflation is or why, in reality, we have much more to fear from inflation.
Moderate deflation is actually the natural trend of a productive economy. If a producer can increase his output per unit of input, then he can afford to expand his market by lowering prices while still increasing profits. In that way, deflation allows consumers to buy items that they may not have previously afforded. It also promotes savings, which is essential for investment and capital development.

CBO Warns of Increased Risk of U.S. Fiscal Crisis
By Philip Klein The American Spectator
The Congressional Budget Office today released a new report on the risk of a fiscal crisis occurring in the United States due to our long-term debt, and its conclusions largely echo points that I've been trying to make repeatedly.
The bottom line is that the longer we prolong dealing with our debt problem, the greater the risk of a fiscal crisis, and the more unattractive the options become for digging ourself out of the mess.

Warren seen gaining key consumer protection post
By Ronald D. Orol and Greg Robb, MarketWatch
Surviving doubts inside and outside the White House
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- An increasing number of Washington observers see improving odds that Elizabeth Warren will become the head of the important new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, surviving mixed feelings from the Obama administration and determined opposition from bank lobbyists and Republicans.
Speculation about Warren's nomination has captivated Washington since the president signed into law earlier this month historic regulatory changes for the banking and financial industries.
Consumer advocates and a group of Democrat lawmakers in recent days have expanded their campaigns to seat the Harvard Law School professor.

Are the Rich Just Lucky?
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
[read the blog guest posts and comment yourself]
Christopher Bergin, the president and publisher of Tax Analysts, makes an interesting observation about the rhetoric the Obama administration has been evoking in its efforts to end some of the Bush tax cuts:
When talking about the rich, Treasury Secretary Geithner and President Obama refer to them as "fortunate," insinuating - if not just stating it outright - that the rich are lucky. That's why they're rich. This is a point of view I'd expect from a couple of liberal arts college professors, not from those in charge.

Consumer confidence retreats further in July
By Anne D'Innocenzio - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans' confidence in the economy eroded further in July amid worries about a job market that has proved stubbornly stagnant. The report raised concerns about the overall economy and the back-to-school season.
The Conference Board, a private research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 50.4 in July, down from the revised 54.3 in June. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 51.0. The decline follows last month's nearly 10-point drop, from 62.7 in May, which marked the biggest drop since February, when the measure also fell 10 points.
The second straight month of declining confidence follows three months of increases.

Cities threaten to cut 500,000 jobs
By Hibah Yousuf, staff reporter
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Cash-strapped cities and counties have been cutting jobs to cope with massive budget shortfalls -- and that tally could edge up to nearly 500,000 if Congress doesn't step up to help.
Local governments are looking to eliminate 8.6% of their total full-time equivalent positions by 2012, according to a new survey released Tuesday by the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and United States Conference of Mayors.

Pain, but no gain: local governments face budget doom
By Darius Dale, contributor - CNNMoney.com
FORTUNE -- State and local governments are facing a vicious cycle thanks to our financial crisis. Since home prices haven't really recovered, tax revenues are down. Since tax revenues are down, governments are cutting jobs, which means cutting services to homeowners. That means governments are spending less money in their communities, and employing less people, perpetuating the decline in property values that caused tax revenues to decrease in the first place.
Indeed, the first sentence of the executive summary of the latest National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) Fiscal Survey of State Budgets reads: "Fiscal 2010 presented the most difficult challenge for States' financial management since the Great Depression and fiscal 2011 is expected to present states with similar challenges."

U.S. durable-goods orders sink 1.0%
June's decline comes as a surprise for economists expecting a solid gain By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Weakness in many categories of built-to-last products drove orders for new U.S.-made durable goods down by 1.0% in June, the second straight monthly decline and the biggest drop in 10 months, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Excluding a 2.4% decrease in transportation goods, orders fell 0.6%, the second decline in the past three months.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been looking for 1.0% growth in durable-goods orders last month. See economic calendar and forecasts for all major indicators.

At 'Old GM,' Unwanted Assets Linger
Disposal of Hundreds of Properties, Some Decrepit or Contaminated, Drags On Amid Bankruptcy
By MIKE SPECTOR - WSJ.com
A year into the process of shedding GM's "bad assets," only one former factory and a few other properties have found a second life.
The vast majority of the auto maker's closed offices, decrepit plants and parts depots that were left behind in bankruptcy court remain on the market or are slated for demolition. Some of the properties are contaminated with toxic waste; others are cavernous structures way too big for alternative uses. Few sport good locations.
It could take years to dispose of the 200 remaining properties, the detritus of one of the country's biggest-ever bankruptcies.

Dr. Housing Bubble blog
Banks cherry picking individual foreclosures that show up on the MLS in Culver City and Pasadena with proof:
Southern California lenders pushing out properties in Culver City with an average price tag of $300,000.
Median sale price for city is $600,000. Shadow inventory average price is $443,000 with loans at an average of $552,000. 141,000 homes in Southern California are distressed yet MLS only reflects 83,000 total properties.
Party like its 1999. The U.S. homeownership rate is now down to levels last seen in 1999. In essence, every effort to push homeownership rates upwards with absurd Wall Street gimmicks (the entire toxic mortgage disaster) but also the government backed implosions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have basically been one giant waste of time and money for the public (many became filthy rich). Why? These efforts focused on quick and easy money at the expense of long-term sustainability. For many decades, we were doing well with large down payments and the vanilla flavored 30 year fixed mortgage. It is no coincidence that the entire game collapsed when Wall Street lobbyist bought out government plutocrats and turned our entire economy into one giant housing casino. Southern California is still very much in a housing bubble phase. Prices even today are disconnected from market fundamentals. Inventory is still growing and the shadow inventory figures remain elevated. Why? The government took a bazooka of easy money, tax credit gimmicks, and other financial shenanigans to hide the fact that people don't have stronger wages to support current prices. We went into bubble 2.0 here in SoCal in many areas. That bubble will burst.

Residential Housing Market is Still Burning Down
MadHedgeFundTrader
Today, the Commerce Department reported that June new home sales, at 330,000, were up a blistering 24%. So is the crash in residential real estate over? It's off to the races, right? Wrong! Much of the gains were cancelled out by whopping great downward revisions which caused April to shrink from 504,000 to 422,000, and May to shrivel from 300,000 to an unbelievable 267,000, a 60 year low. Every time I update my prediction that home prices are either going south or nowhere for a decade, my inbox gets flooded with angry emails from real estate agents around the country and other industry apologists screaming that I am missing record home affordability and historic low 30 year mortgage interest rates.

More Men Make Harassment Claims
By DANA MATTIOLI
Since the start of the recession, a growing number of sexual harassment complaints have come from men. Some 16.4% of all sexual harassment claims - or 2,094 claims - were filed by men in fiscal 2009, up from 15.4%, or 1,869 claims, in fiscal 2006, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
While male victims sometimes experience behavior like groping and unwanted sexual advances, employment lawyers say increasingly "locker room" type behavior like vulgar talk and horseplay with sexual connotations have been the subject of claims.
Ron Chapman, an attorney with employment law firm Ogletree Deakins in Dallas, says in most cases the man suing is someone who has been fired or laid off.

People Begin Living Without Electricity and Water in California

Unemployment rises in most metro areas
AP - MSNBC.com
Tuscaloosa, Champaign, Alexandria some of areas hit hardest
WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate in about three-quarters of the nation's largest metro areas rose last month as nearly one million teenagers entered the work force looking for summer jobs.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that the unemployment rate rose in 291 of 374 areas in June from May. It fell in 55 areas and was flat in 28. That reverses the trend of the previous three months, when joblessness fell in most metro areas.

Why Doesn't Job Retraining Work?
Despite billions spent and the best of intentions, the American workforce resists reinvention.
By James Ledbetter - WashingtonPost's TheBigMoney.com
Health care reform or no health care reform, we don't have enough doctors in this country. A Harvard economist, writing in the New York Times Magazine, has declared: "Today, the shortage of doctors in the United States is worse than at any time in the last fifty years. This is not to say that the total number of doctors has decreased; actually, the total is now higher than ever. I speak of the increased gap between our doctors and our total population."
It's an odd finding to contemplate - that at a time of massive unemployment, a critical, well-paying field like medicine should go wanting for workers. Perhaps odder still: The words cited above were written when the country was coming out of a recession and the economy was actually growing. I'm not, however, referring to 2010, but to 1950.

As Unemployment Extentions Run Out,
Social Serices Agencies Begin To Take Children

Toyota delays Prius production in U.S.
SILICON VALLEY / SAN JOSE BUSINESS JOURNAL
Toyota is holding off on a Prius plant in the U.S. until 2016, according to reports late Wednesday, and the company is still undecided on where the cars will be built.
In 2008 Toyota said it would begin building the cars at a Mississippi plant, but now the weak economy and slower than expected hybrid sales in the U.S. have contributed to a change in plans.
Reuters, citing an unidentified executive of the carmaker, said the Corolla model will be built at the Mississippi plant instead, and the Prius will probably only begin U.S. production after a remodel.

GM to sell electric car Volt for $41,000
AP - WashingtonTimes.com
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Co. said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt electric car will cost $41,000 when it goes on sale in November.
While the price is about $8,000 more than its closest rival, the Nissan Leaf, GM said it will offer a $350-per-month lease deal that's essentially equal to the Leaf's. That will put the battery-powered Volt within reach of many people, GM said.
Both cars also are eligible for a federal tax credit that will cut their prices by $7,500. The Volt would fall to $33,500 while the Leaf's would drop to $25,280 from nearly $33,000.
Some states, such as California, Georgia and Oregon, offer additional tax breaks that lower the price further.

Furlough Fridays Back On in California as Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Emergency
By GIL RUDAWSKY - DailyFinance.com
Faced with a $19.1 billion deficit and no hope for digging out, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday declared a fiscal emergency.
Under the rules of the emergency, Schwarzenegger ordered three furlough days per month for all but essential state employees. State offices will be closed three Fridays a month.
The closures and furloughs will remain in place until a budget is enacted. California government workers are used to the so-called "furlough Fridays," living with them for 12 months, ending this past June.
"Every day of delay brings California closer to a fiscal meltdown," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Our cash situation leaves me no choice but to once again furlough state workers until the Legislature produces a budget I can sign."

"Top Secret America": The Rest Of The Story
Dr. Chuck Baldwin
The Monday, July 19, 2010, edition of The Washington Post featured an investigative report entitled "Top Secret America," with the subtitle, "A hidden world, growing beyond control." The report begins, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
"These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

A Federal Judge Blocks Parts of Arizona's Immigration Law
By JONATHAN BERR - DailyFinance.com
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton threw a monkey wrench into the deeply contentious debate over illegal immigration by declaring parts of Arizona's controversial immigration law to be unconstitutional. She based her decision on the bedrock legal principal that federal laws preempt state laws. Arizona's law was scheduled to go into effect on July 29.
"The Court by no means disregards Arizona's interests in controlling illegal immigration and addressing the concurrent problems with crime including the trafficking of humans, drugs, guns, and money," she wrote. "Even though Arizona's interests may be consistent with those of the federal government, it is not in the public interest for Arizona to enforce preempted law."

FEDS OBTAIN INJUNCTION AGAINST ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW
John Hinderaker - PowerLine.com
A federal judge in Arizona has issued a preliminary injunction blocking key enforcement provisions of the new Arizona immigration law from taking effect until the legality of these provisions is fully litigated. The judge, Susan Bolton (a Clinton appointee), found that the Justice Department's preemption argument is likely to prevail at trial.
I haven't had time to analyze the opinion. Andy McCarthy has, and finds it unpersuasive .
It's clear to me that the Arizona law doesn't conflict or interfere with immigration legislation Congress has passed. If there is any interference or conflict, it is with the way the Obama administration wants to enforce such legislation -- i.e., passively at best.

Ariz. Sheriff: I'll Jail Immigration Protesters
By Staff, Associated Press
Washington (AP) - The sheriff of the most populous county in Arizona says he's "not going to put up with any civil disobedience" when the state's new immigration law takes effect.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that if protesters want to block his jail, he'll put them in it.

----- oil crisis is NOT over -----

Majority of spilled oil in Gulf of Mexico unaccounted for in government
data By David A. Fahrenthold and Leslie Tamura - Washington Post
Back in May, BP's chief executive told a British newspaper that "the Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," and the vast amounts of oil and chemical dispersants dumped into it were small by comparison. After he said that, BP's well leaked for two more months. Hayward's upbeat assessment was cast as one of many gaffes committed on his way to resignation.
Now, 14 days after the well was closed and 100 days after the blowout, U.S. government scientists are working on calculations that could shed some light on Hayward's analysis (even if they can't shed light on why he said it). They are trying to figure out where all the oil went.

Is Matt Simmons Credible?
by Robert Rapier - OilPrice.com
I am going to address a touchy subject in this essay, but I simply can't ignore it any longer. I have noticed that a lot of people are finding my blog through keyword searches of "Debunking Matt Simmons." About two and a half years ago, I did write an essay called Debunking Matt Simmons. Because of Matt's recent claims about the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, there has been a spike in interest over whether his claims related to the disaster are actually credible. So now seems like a good time to revisit the subject.
The topic is touchy because Matt Simmons has long been revered in the energy business, and some of his fans will be upset with me for writing this.

BP's Blueprint for Emerging From Crisis
By JAD MOUAWAD and CLIFFORD KRAUSS - NYTimes.com
BP said on Tuesday that it had set aside $32.2 billion to pay for the biggest offshore oil spill in United States history.
But the company acknowledged that its costs might be much higher - especially if it was found grossly negligent, criminally liable or was faced with a huge jury award for punitive damages in connection with the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people and sent millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

'BP Has to Change Its Entire Culture'
Spiegel.de
British oil giant BP presented its new CEO on Tuesday after announcing that Tony Hayward was stepping down. The fresh face at the helm may help improve public relations, but German papers on Wednesday argue that the company really needs to rethink its entire strategy.
It was the worst-kept secret in business. On Tuesday BP announced that Tony Hayward, its gaffe-prone CEO, is to make way for Bob Dudley, who will be the American to lead the British oil giant. It will be hoping that a fresh face at the helm will help it turn a new page. But with the company also announcing huge losses as it faces the bill for a massive clear-up operation in the Gulf of Mexico, it may be some time before it puts the disaster behind it.

On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay
By JUSTIN GILLIS and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON - NYTimes.com
The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20 oil rig explosion are largely gone, though sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil continue here and there.

Millions Of Fish Wash Ashore In Gulfport
Not Yet Known If Oil Spill Was Factor - WDSU.com
GULFPORT, Miss. -- Something besides oil washed ashore along a section of beach in Gulfport this week.
Millions of small dead fish have washed ashore just east of Jones Park. The fish are believed to be menhaden.
Low oxygen levels in the water are typically to blame when large numbers of the tiny fish wash up dead, experts said. Harrison County leaders said it's too soon to tell if the fish-kill is related to the oil spill.
"If it's oil-related, the BP contractors will have to pick it up," Harrison County Sand Beach Director Bobby Weaver said. "If not, we'll dispatch a county crew to come down here and get it."

Deep undercurrents stir in the Middle East
By Victor Kotsev - ATimes.com
On the surface, the Middle East is so still it is almost unbelievable. Not that nothing is happening, on the contrary, but the comparison with just a few weeks ago is enough to raise an eyebrow. Back then, amid military maneuvers and loud threats, every other analyst (including this one, though with some caution was predicting an imminent flare-up.
So far, not only has the cataclysm not happened, but the voices have quieted down somewhat. "Plainly I was wrong," writes Bret Stephens for the Wall Street Journal, discussing his earlier prediction of an Israeli strike on Iran.

Russia Plans A Share Sale To Investors
By ANDREW E. KRAMER - NYTimes.com
MOSCOW - The Russian government, which just a few years ago was salting away billions of dollars in oil revenue, is now confronting such a gaping budget deficit that ministers approved a wide-ranging plan on Wednesday to sell off state property, senior officials said.
It would be, by some estimates, the largest privatization program in Russia since the post-Communist sell-off of the 1990s. Still, the government plans to sell only minority stakes in the companies, retaining control while letting private investors share a larger part of the risks and profits.

US goes fishing for trouble
By Peter Lee - ATimes.com
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton roiled China at the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' meeting in Hanoi by stating that the United States had "a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia's maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea".
She also expressed support for a "collaborative diplomatic process" on the matter of disputes in the South China Sea - anathema to China, which is committed to a series of separate bilateral negotiations with the various nations with claims on the Spratly (called Nansha by Chinese) and Paracel (Called Xisha by Chinese) Islands.

North Korea Exposes America's Weak Will
By Richard Palmer - theTrumpet.com
Far from being a show of strength, America's joint military exercises with South Korea show that it will not stand up for its allies.
North Korean despot Kim Jong Il is threatening the United States with nuclear war over joint naval drills with South Korea.
The exercises, coming four months after a torpedo sunk the South Korean ship ChonAn, are intended to be a show of force and unity by the U.S. and South Korea. They include the uss George Washington, a nuclear-powered supercarrier that hosts 70 aircraft and 5,000 personnel.
The U.S. also levied new sanctions against North Korea on July 21. It froze the assets of North Korean leaders and imposed travel bans on some of them.
Titled "Invincible Spirit," the military exercises involve 8,000 sailors, 200 aircraft and 20 ships. They began on Sunday, lasting till Wednesday. The lead-up to these exercises, however, shows that the spirit behind America's alliance with South Korea is far from invincible.

'War Logs Could Shatter Hopes of Success in Afghanistan'
Spiegel.de
The uncovering of almost 92,000 United States military war logs by WikiLeaks provides further evidence that the US and its allies are failing to make headway in Afghanistan, write German commentators. The logs may contain few surprises, but their gruesome illustration of the scale of operations over years has the potential to wreck any hopes that the war can be won.
The 91,731 war logs uncovered by WikiLeaks and provided to SPIEGEL, the Guardian and the New York Times are likely to fan public opposition to the mission in the West because they outline in compelling detail how the allies are failing to bring peace to Afghanistan, German media commentators write.

Washington's Hidden Enemy
Logs Suggest Pakistani Intelligence Controls Course of War
By Matthias Gebauer, John Goetz, Hans Hoyng, Susanne Koelbl, Marcel Rosenbach and Gregor Peter Schmitz - Spiegel.de
Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, appears frequently in the war logs obtained by WikiLeaks. They suggest that even as Pakistan served as an ally to the United States, it was still secretly helping the Taliban in its insurgency in Afghanistan. The documents also suggest a major role is played by former ISI chief Hamid Gul.
Editor's note: The following article is an excerpt from this week's SPIEGEL cover story. The facts in the story come from a database of almost 92,000 American military reports on the state of the war in Afghanistan that were obtained by the WikiLeaks website. Britain's Guardian newspaper, the New York Times and SPIEGEL have all vetted the material and reported on the contents in articles that have been researched independently of each other. All three media sources have concluded that the documents are authentic and provide an unvarnished image of the war in Afghanstan -- from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground.

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