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HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010
HERMANN MISSOURI OKTOBERFEST 2010 - CLICK ON PHOTO FOR THIS YEARS SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
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Semi Lift Fail on Highway
The only person that didn't figure out what was about to happen was the tow truck operator.
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Broadcaster silent as "Judgment Day" hours tick by
May 21, 2011
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By Gabrielle Saver
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – With no sign of Judgment Day arriving as he had forecast, the 89-year-old California evangelical broadcaster and former civil engineer behind the pronouncement seemed to have gone silent on Saturday.
Family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was playing recorded church music, devotionals and life advice unrelated to the apocalypse.
Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.
In his latest pronouncement, he had said doomsday would begin in Asia, but with midnight local time come and gone in Tokyo and Beijing and those cities already in the early hours of May 22, there was no indication of an apocalypse.
The Oakland, California, headquarters of the network of 66 U.S. stations was shuttered with a sign in the door that read "This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!"
Family Radio officials, with the help of supporters, had posted over 2,000 billboards around the country warning of a May 21 Judgment Day.
The headquarters, which appears to be normally closed on Saturday, was also shuttered on Friday.
Camping, whose deep sonorous voice is frequently heard on his radio network expounding the Bible, could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
The shades were drawn and no one answered the door at his house in Alameda, California.
Sheila Doan, 65, who has lived next door to Camping since 1971, said he is a good neighbor and that she is concerned about Camping and his wife, because of the attention his pronouncement has received.
"I'm concerned for them, that somebody would possibly do something stupid, you just don't know in this world what's going to happen," she said.
Atheists in different parts of the country were planning celebrations and get-togethers to mark the failure of Camping's May 21 prediction to come true.
In Oakland, the same city where Camping's network is based, over 200 people gathered at an atheist convention at a Masonic lodge where speakers jokingly took note of the Judgment Day pronouncement.
"It's kind of crazy, but there's actually a dark side to it too," said Stuart Bechman, national affiliate director of a group called American Atheists.
"There are a lot of silly and even unfounded beliefs that go on in the religious community that cause harm," he said.
Tom Evans, a spokesman for Camping, said earlier this week that at least several tens of thousands of people listen to Family Radio's message.
The network is heard in more than 30 languages through international affiliates, according to Family Radio.
In New York, at least one of Camping's followers continued to hold out hope Judgment Day would come.
Retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker Robert Fitzpatrick, 60, said he spent more than $140,000 of his savings on subway posters and bus shelter advertisements warning of the May 21 Judgment Day.
"God's people are commanded to sound the warning, to sound the trumpet so to speak so people know," Fitzpatrick said of his advertising blitz.
He said Camping led him to believe Judgment Day would be May 21, but added that he disagreed with the broadcaster's prediction it would begin in Asia.
In Fitzpatrick's view, from his reading of the Bible, Judgment Day would begin around 6 p.m. Eastern Time. He said on Saturday he still had no doubt Judgment Day would come this day.
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May 21, 2011
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It's perhaps the very definition of Red Tape. Four years ago, Congress decided that the IRS should get into the banking business, authorizing it to give out no-interest loans to first-time homebuyers. That put the agency in the position of both collecting loan payments and issuing tax refunds to the roughly 1 million taxpayers who took advantage of the program.
This year, the odd arrangement overwhelmed IRS systems, and an unspecified number of taxpayers have been forced to wait four months or more for their tax refunds. In fact, many are still waiting.
"This is frustrating for taxpayers, and it's frustrating for us," said IRS spokesman Terry Lemons. "We deeply apologize."
Making matters worse, taxpayers caught up in the vortex say they've been promised delivery dates for their refunds repeatedly, only to be disappointed or to discover their returns have been placed back into "error" status.
One of those taxpayers who's been tantalized by repeated promises of a refund check is Tia Littlejohn, who lives in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. She and her husband are planning to use their expected $6,800 refund to pay for in vitro fertilization. She's had to postpone the procedure twice because promised tax refund dates have come and gone without payment.
"At this point, I may have to just cancel it," she said. "It's really affecting our household. It's very stressful."
Her litany of hope and disappointment is typical.
"Our return was processed February 19 with a refund date of March 4. Well, March 4 came and went. Since then we have been waiting, every other week we have a different error code and the date of a possible direct deposit," she said. "On April 27 they told me they told me my return was done and 'out of error.' Last week they told me I should receive it May 20. Then (Wednesday) I looked and it's gone back into error again."
Lemons said the IRS has devoted a lot of extra labor toward solving the problem and began manually processing the returns after the problem was discovered in February. The number of victims has been whittled to "a few thousand taxpayers," he said. More on the First Time Homebuyer tax credit
That's cold comfort to people who have been waiting months for thousands of dollars. A Facebook group devoted to taxpayers caught up in the mess now has more than 3,000 members; they write daily about their mind-numbing frustrations. Many are now being told their returns won't arrive until mid-June.
"I had a date, and a second date ... and now I'm back at 1201 (error). My advocate said that it's just sitting there. WTF IRS?" Jannae Leonard Powell wrote Thursday.
The Facebook page has become a support group for some, a place where taxpayers share tips on the best time to call , the best number to call and how to reach the most helpful phone agents. Littlejohn said many in the group have received frequent rude treatment, so they just hang up repeatedly until a "nice" agent answers.
"Some are very nice, but some are very nasty and basically say, 'I don't know what else to tell you. You are just going have to wait,'" she said.
All the taxpayers involved in the glitch took advantage of a one-time, misnamed First Time Homebuyer tax “credit” offered during the 2008 tax year, a program that turned out to be a meager effort by Congress to prop up the then-imploding housing market. Homebuyers who took advantage didn't actually receive a credit — they were granted what was essentially an interest-free loan of up to $7,500, to be paid back in $500 increments starting in 2010. Subsequent versions of the program granted homebuyers an outright tax credit, so the 2008 users already have something to moan about.
Lemons said IRS systems weren't set up to handle the many variables that ultimately came from the program, such as how to calculate repayment of the loans if buyers got divorced, or ended up in foreclosure. One particularly vexing and unexpected problem: Many taxpayers are paying more than the minimum $500 annual payment in an effort to pay off the loan early.
"That has complicated matters," he said. "These are well-intentioned homeowners, but our initial programming was that payments would be spread out equally over 15 years." Programmers of complex systems will understand this as a typical problem of "unexpected input."
Stephanie Vega used the tax break loan to buy a house in 2008 and accommodate her growing family shortly after she had twins. The family bought a foreclosure property that needed major cosmetic repair at the time — and still does. They planned to use this year's refund to repair their master bathroom, which has been essentially unusable since the purchase.
"When I called at the end of March, they said they were going to get everyone who was affected by this their money by April 5th," Vega said. "That came and went, and obviously no money. … They all contradict what the one before them say. You just don't know who to believe."
Vega, like many of the other taxpayers, has been assigned an agent in the IRS Taxpayer Advocate's Office, but she said that hasn't helped much.
"Normally, I am not a pushy person, and so usually I just sit back and wait. I don't like to be a pain or a bother, but we are needing our money now," Vega said. "I just feel like the complete lack of communication, along with the IRS seemingly just sweeping this problem under the rug, is so unfair and unjust."
Amy Royer, 37, had to wait more than three months, but she just received her $4,700 refund last Friday. Even so, she still feels angry about her interactions with the IRS.
"The whole thing was a pretty bad experience," she said. "Most of the frustration came because of the inconsistency, the different stories we got about the status of our refunds. It was a fiasco, really."
Royer had also planned to use her refund to take care of a medical procedure. Because she was promised a refund on March 8, she went ahead with sinus surgery on March 1 and paid with credit, assuming the refund money would arrive and cover the bill. The refund's tardiness caused her to pay high interest and set her blood boiling.
"The whole time, I was saying, 'I would have a different feeling about things if we were getting real answers,'" she said. "It's our money, not their money."
With the problem having shrunk to a few thousand taxpayers, it might be hard to understand why the IRS hasn't been able to manually overcome its computer issues and issue refunds. Lemons said that the agency is trying but that the problem arose at the worst possible time.
"This time of year, we have tens of millions of tax returns coming in. It's all hitting at the busiest time of year," he said. "Our people have been hustling for weeks to get this thing squared away, but the bottom line is there are people who have not gotten refunds yet, and we deeply apologize." RED TAPE WRESTLING TIPS
Many consumers enjoy the rush of a large tax refund check and use their regular payroll deductions as a kind of forced savings plan. That's a bad idea.
This Red Tape tale is a good reminder to all that now is a good time to double-check your regular payroll deduction. There is no good reason to overpay federal taxes during the year in order to build up a large tax refund. That amounts to no-interest loan to the government, and you are better off keeping that money throughout the year and putting it in the bank yourself. Obviously, it's better for you to receive the interest, rather than Uncle Sam. But perhaps more important, in an economy where even Standard & Poor's is beginning to doubt Washington's ability to pay its bills and where the federal government faces threatened work shutdowns annually, it's bad to trust your money to the whim of Uncle Sam. In the past, state governments have delayed issuing refunds to help close budget gaps — it's not unthinkable that Congress could try that someday.
If you received a large refund this year, that's nothing to celebrate. You should adjust your payroll withholding accordingly, ASAP.
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RUSSIA has conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile test in less than a month as it stepped up its campaign against a US-backed interceptor system for Europe.
News reports said the Sineva missile was launched from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea and later successfully hit its target on the opposite side of the country on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
"The launch was conducted from a submerged position," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.
"The warheads hit the test range on schedule," he added.
The Sineva submarine-launched missile is one of the most recent additions to Russia's nuclear arsenal and was only fully tested for the first time in 2008.
Each missile carries up to 10 warheads and has a range of more than 11,000 kilometres.
It was the second submerged missile launch conducted by Russia since April 26.
Russia occasionally tests its heavy nuclear missiles as it upgrades outdated models with new features and capabilities.
But the tests are also often seen as a show of force that coincide with diplomatic tensions with the US.
Russia had scaled back its testing programme as it negotiated a new nuclear disarmament treaty with the United States that went into effect after nearly a decade of tortuous negotiations earlier this year.
Yet Moscow is currently furious with Washington for pushing ahead with plans to deploy a missile defence system for Europe - a shield that Russia fears could one day be transformed into an offensive weapon that targets its soil.
Russia has demanded an equal say in how the system works and also sought formal security safeguards from the United States confirming the shield's peaceful long-term intent.
But both the United States and NATO have refused to let Russia have an equal say in the system's construction and operation.
Moscow diplomats said Washington has also refused their safeguards request.
President Dmitry Medvedev warned earlier this week Washington's failure to address Russia's concerns could lead to a new Cold War and his comments were echoed overnight by the chief of the military's general staff.
General Nikolai Makarov said the system could pose a direct challenge to Russia's security once it becomes more powerful in 2015 and force Moscow to channel funds on new weapons development that could lead to "a mad arms race".
"No one needs a new round of the arms race," Makarov said.
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This undated image made available by NASA on Friday, May 20, 2011 shows a damaged thermal tile on the space shuttle Endeavour's underbelly. The crew is planning to use a laser-tipped boom early Saturday, May 21, 2011 to inspect the gouge which is about the size of a deck of cards. (AP Photo/NASA)
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May 21, 2011
Astronauts inspect gouge on space shuttle's belly
By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Space shuttle Endeavour's astronauts took a close, detailed look at a small gash in the belly of their ship Saturday, to ensure their safety when they return to Earth in 1 1/2 weeks.
NASA ordered the inspection during the next-to-last shuttle flight, even though managers said there was no reason to be alarmed by the damage generated by Monday's liftoff.
The 3-D survey - normally not needed on a shuttle's underside - was carried out just a few hours before an unprecedented VIP call to the orbiting shuttle-station complex.
Pope Benedict XVI was set to make the first papal call to space, phoning the 12 astronauts from the Vatican. Two Italians are on board: one is a member of the shuttle Endeavour crew, while the other is close to ending a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Working from inside, the astronauts used the shuttle robot arm and an extension boom, tipped with lasers and cameras, to hone in on the damage to the thermal tiles. The combined instruments stretched 100 feet and hovered 7 feet from the damage.
The gouge - spanning two tiles - measures just 3.2 inches by 2.5 inches. It's the depth that flight controllers hoped to ascertain with Saturday's survey, to make certain no repairs were needed. The images were beamed down to Mission Control for analysis; the entire inspection lasted an hour.
Space station cameras actually detected several areas of damage on Endeavour's underside, right before the shuttle docked to the International Space Station. Only one spot posed concern, between the main landing gear door and the external fuel tank door.
Similar damage was seen on a flight by Endeavour in 2007. That gash turned out to be just an inch deep, and no repair was necessary.
By coincidence, that 2007 mission was commanded by the identical twin brother of Mark Kelly, the astronaut in charge of Endeavour's present flight. Kelly is married to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who received a skull implant this past week in Houston. She was shot in the head in January during a political event in Tucson, Ariz.
NASA established the shuttle safety checks following the 2003 Columbia disaster. A hole in the left wing led to Columbia's destruction during re-entry. All seven astronauts were killed.
Endeavour is making its final voyage before being retired to a museum in Los Angeles.
Still ahead for Kelly and his crew are three more spacewalks, the next one on Sunday. On the fourth and final spacewalk of the mission Friday, the astronauts will attach the inspection boom used Saturday to the outside of the space station. Its laser sensors will no longer function, but the pole itself could prove useful for possible repair work.
Landing is scheduled for June 1.
The 30-year shuttle program will end in July with the launch of Atlantis.
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Headquarters: FBI Releases Preliminary Statistics for Law Enforcement Officers Killed in 2010
According to preliminary statistics released by the FBI, 56 of our nation’s law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty during 2010. By region, 22 victims were killed in the South, 18 in the West, 10 in the Midwest, three in the Northeast, and three in Puerto Rico. The total number of officers feloniously killed in 2010 was eight more than the 48 officers slain in 2009. Full Story
Miami: Six Charged in Florida for Providing Material Support to the Pakistani Taliban
Six individuals located in South Florida and Pakistan were indicted on charges of conspiring to provide and providing material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim, and kidnap persons overseas and conspiring to provide material support to the Pakistani Taliban. Full Story
Los Angeles: 75 Members and Associates of the Black P-Stones Street Gang Charged with Narcotics Violations
As part of a task force investigation and community-focused initiative known as Operation Red Dawn, over 900 officers and agents participated in the execution of pre-dawn arrest and search warrants targeting members and associates of the Black P-Stones street gang, a faction of the notorious Bloods street gang. Full Story
Phoenix: Man Indicted for First-Degree Murder in New Year's Eve Slaying on the Tohono O'odham Nation Jalen Montana was indicted on one count of first-degree murder. The indictment alleges that on or about January 1, 2010, Montana killed another man by stabbing him in the chest. Full Story
New York: Genovese Family Soldier Extradited from Italy to Face Racketeering Charges for His Alleged Role in Two Murders and Other Crimes Emilio Fusco was extradited from Italy to face racketeering and other charges in connection with his role as a made member of the Genovese organized crime family. Full Story
Baltimore: Former County Executive Pleads Guilty in Maryland to Federal Extortion and Bribery Former Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson pled guilty to his role in an extortion conspiracy relating to the performance of his official duties to and tampering with a witness and evidence. Full Story
Newark: New Jersey Business Owner Sentenced for Defrauding Clients of $10.2 Million Arthur Piacentini was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution for defrauding the clients of his payroll services company. Full Story
Washington Field: Former Title and Escrow Agent Indicted in D.C. for Mortgage Fraud
Ronald Johannes Sneijder, a former owner of a title and escrow company based in the District of Columbia, was indicted on federal charges relating to mortgage fraud. The total amount of loans was approximately $1,829,000. Full Story
Atlanta: Two Georgia Residents Charged in Sex Trafficking Ring That Used Internet to Recruit Women
Soloman Manasseh Mustafa and Kalandra Annette Wallace were indicted for their alleged roles in a sex trafficking ring operating in the Atlanta area. Both defendants face charges of sex trafficking, kidnapping, transporting women across state lines for prostitution, and document servitude. Full Story
Springfield: Illinois Businessman Indicted in Investment Fraud Scheme Edward Lynn Moskop was indicted on mail fraud and money laundering charges. It is alleged that from 1991 to 2010, Moskop obtained by fraud approximately $2.4 million from 25 victims. Full Story
Residents go to extreme measures to save their homes
Flooding claims its first death
We've all undertaken home improvements but these residents in flood-stricken Mississippi have had to embark on major construction projects just to protect their houses and livelihoods. These homes in Vicksburg are all situated along the Yazoo River, a tributary of the overflowing Mississippi River, and their owners have surrounded themselves with tons of earth and sand. With questions over whether the main levees that protect the area from floods would hold, these farmers took no chances and have so far saved their homes and crops from destruction.
Vicksburg has seen the worst of the floods with the Mississippi River's height swelling to 56.3 feet at its highest point, eclipsing the record set in 1927. Employees at Dirt Works, Inc, a cement production business in South Vicksburg, built a makeshift levee to protect the business but it burst on Monday. The Yazoo River's Backwater Levee connects with the main Mississippi River levee, and with the Mississippi River overflowing the Yazoo River has been forced to top its banks where they meet, near Vicksburg. With heavy rains having left the ground saturated there has been widespread flooding along three million acres of farmland from Illinois to Louisiana along the Mississippi. Around 15 miles of the Mississippi River, which had been closed since Tuesday, has now been reopened with the region and the nation absorbing huge financial losses from the closure.
Some 600 boats use the river every day, transporting 500m tons of cargo, keeping the river closed for any length of time would potentially cripple local industries and dent the American economy. Economic experts had warned earlier this week that the closure of the river could cost $300m a day. The 15-mile stretch at Natchez in Vicksburg had been closed because waters were near the very top of the levee and it was feared wake from passing ships may cause the levee to breach. But on Wednesday, forecasters lowered their expectation for how high floodwaters will get. They are now predicting that the Mississippi River will crest at Vicksburg at 57.1 feet tomorrow, lower than recent predictions, and that if the water does go over the Yazoo Backwater Levee, it will be only a trickle.
Leaking: This homeowner sealed off the driveway to their house but water has crept in over the back of the makeshift levee - not surprising when the Mississippi River's height has swollen to 56.3 feet - a record high
Braced: The flooding is expected to reach its highest point in Vicksburg tomorrow
Built up: This homeowner has turned their house into an island in the 300 acres of flooded farmland around the Mississippi River
The Yazoo River is a relatively thin tributary of the Mississippi River but their connection has led to the flooding of around 300 acres of farmland
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Al Allen believed the world would end in 1994. It didn't. He was disappointed.
This time, he's more certain that Judgment Day will arrive at 6 p.m. today.
"There is so much more information in the Bible since 1994. This thing is a certainty. It's going to happen," said Allen, 68, a retired chemist. "The whole world is going to be scared out of its wits."
Allen, of Winter Haven, Fla., is a follower of radio preacher Harold Camping, who miscalculated Judgment Day in 1994 but has recalibrated the end of the world to a precise day and time. The end, he claims, will come exactly 7,000 years since the flood and Noah's Ark, the last time God decided to wipe the slate clean and start all over again.
Camping comes from a long line of seers, sages, preachers and prophets — all of whom time has proved wrong. What makes Camping different is the precision of his prognostications — an exact date and time — which provides a reassuring sense of certainty in uncertain times.
Doug Weaver, associate professor of religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, said: "It's not a new thing. What is interesting about this is he thinks he has the exact time. The attraction is his certainty, the lack of ambiguity."
Camping's precise prediction of the Rapture feeds the very human desire to know the unknown, said Mark Koltko-Rivera, a New York-based psychology consultant. The human brain is wired to find patterns even among random data in its natural instinct to understand the world, he said.
Yet some things are meant to be forever mysterious, including the biblical end of the Earth.
"The New Testament does say in black and white that no man and no angel in heaven — only God — knows when this is going to happen," said Koltko-Rivera, who taught psychology of religion at the University of Central Florida before moving to New York. "It's very, very clear, yet people want to believe there is a specific time they can find out about."
Camping's message of imminent doom is spreading through the Internet, but his proselytizing is decidedly old school: radio, billboards and pamphlets. The billboards advertise his radio program and his website at FamilyRadio.com. His followers have spread across the country in vans, handing out fliers that proclaim: "The end of the world is almost here! HOLY GOD will bring on Judgment Day on May 21, 2011."
"He's 89," Weaver said. "He's going to use tried-and-true methods, but it's a mixture of old and new media."
Though it might be easy to dismiss Camping's followers as naive, misguided or delusional, those who are living, planning and praying like there is no tomorrow after Saturday are risking a future they don't believe exists.
"We can laugh at it or dismiss it or believe it, but there is a danger to this," said Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. "How many people have disposed of all their possessions, quit their jobs they can't afford to quit or sent in their money to spend on more billboards to spread the message? It should not be taken lightly."
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As the Nuclear emergency in Japan enters into its 10th week The Children of Fukushima now find themselves exposed to yearly radiation levels rivaling those set by the German Government for its power plant workers. LINK
Hermann Mo News Video Poll: Are you concerned over radiation fallout from Japan?
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A crazed naked man seen menacing New York City subway passengers on a scary new viral video was handcuffed and transported to a Bronx hospital last week, but not charged in connection with the bizarre incident, according to police. READ MORE:LINK Hermann Mo News Video Poll:
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In an effort to satisfy those arguing he needs to seek congressional authorization to continue US military activity in accordance with the War Powers Resolution, President Obama wrote a letter to congressional leaders this afternoon suggesting that the role is now so “limited” he does not need to seek congressional approval.
“Since April 4,” the president wrote, “U.S. participation has consisted of: (1) non-kinetic support to the NATO-led operation, including intelligence, logistical support, and search and rescue assistance; (2) aircraft that have assisted in the suppression and destruction of air defenses in support of the no-fly zone; and (3) since April 23, precision strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles against a limited set of clearly defined targets in support of the NATO-led coalition's efforts.”
A senior administration official told ABC News that the letter is intended to describe “a narrow US effort that is intermittent and principally an effort to support to support the ongoing NATO-led and UN-authorized civilian support mission and no fly zone.”
“The US role is one of support,” the official said, “and the kinetic pieces of that are intermittent.”
From the beginning of the U.S. military intervention in Libya, the Obama administration has cited the 1973 War Powers Act as the legal basis of its ability to conduct military activities for 60 days without first seeking a declaration of war from Congress. The military intervention started on March 19; Congress was notified on March 21. Those 60 days expire today. . . Click Here to Read More.
President Obama's Libya Intervention Hits 60-Day Legal Limit
The legal license President Obama used to justify U.S. military intervention in Libya expires today, and there's little sign the White House is working quickly to get it renewed.
Exactly two months ago, Obama notified Congress of his unilateral decision to engage in "limited military action" to help defend the Libyan people from attacks by their leader, Moammar Gadhafi.
But under federal law -- the War Powers Resolution of 1973 -- Obama is only allowed to keep U.S. forces engaged in hostilities for 60 days, unless Congress declares war, authorizes funding for the effort or extends the deadline.
Congress has not enacted legislation authorizing military involvement in Libya, and the White House has not made a public effort to comply with the rule.
Experts say this is the first time an American president has defied the War Powers Resolution's deadline for participation in combat operations without any concurrent steps by Congress to fund or otherwise authorize the role.
While every administration since 1973 and some lawmakers have questioned the constitutionality of the resolution's infringement on executive power, it has not been successfully challenged in court and remains the law of the land.
Now some members of Congress from both parties want answers.
"As recently as last week your administration indicated use of the U.S. armed forces will continue indefinitely. Therefore, we are writing to ask whether you intend to comply with the requirements of the War Powers Resolution," six Republican senators wrote Wednesday in a letter to Obama. "We await your response."
Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, did not co-sign the letter but has been pressing the administration to seek Congressional authorization on Libya for weeks.
"Extended engagements in military action abroad, and the costs and risks they entail, must be undertaken only with the full support of the American people," Lugar said last week.
U.S. involvement in the Libya operation is estimated to have cost taxpayers at least $750 million so far, according to the Pentagon. U.S. drones and military aircraft, including refueling tankers and surveillance planes, remain actively involved in enforcing a no-fly zone above Libya.
White House press secretary Jay Carney has said that the administration plans to continue "consultations" with Congress on Libya but would not comment when asked recently about the passing of the 60-day deadline.
But Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told a Senate panel last week that Obama remains "mindful" of the War Powers Resolution and seeks to abide by it.
"He will continue to do so, and we look forward to continuing to consult with Congress on our role in the coming days," he said.
With the House of Representatives on recess and Obama headed to Europe next week, many observers don't see a speedy resolution to the issue and expressed disappointment at the impasse.
"They're making a mistake on the War Powers Act," said Brookings Institution foreign policy fellow Michael O'Hanlon. "Congress does deserve a role in this and making the case to Congress for continued military action in Libya shouldn't be hard."
Tom Donnelly, director of Center for Defense Studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, speculated that Obama has tried to avoid the issue of extending operations in Libya given public sentiment on the conflict.
"There's been rising domestic and political discontent about it," he said. "Maybe he [Obama] can get away with it because of the Osama bin Laden killing. But it's difficult to say in the games of chicken between the White House, Capitol Hill and all over town."
"This is a war entirely at our disposal to bring to a conclusion given our military power. If we really cared about it, it could have been over and done with by now," Donnelly said.
Recent polls show a strong majority of Americans approve of Obama's handling of national security issues and foreign affairs. But on Libya he has not had significant support from either side of the political spectrum.
Forty percent of Americans oppose U.S. military involvement in Libya, and among those, 65 percent disapprove of his handling of the situation so far, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted last month. Some conservatives think Obama should have been more aggressive in using force to oust Gadhafi.
For his part, Obama has sought to take a backseat in the Libyan intervention, stressing the U.S. holds a support role as part of an international coalition led by NATO.
"We cannot prevent every injustice perpetrated by a regime against its people, and we have learned from our experience in Iraq just how costly and difficult it is to impose regime change by force -- no matter how well-intended it may be," Obama said Thursday in a speech on Middle East policy.
"But in Libya, we saw the prospect of imminent massacre, had a mandate for action, and heard the Libyan people's call for help. Had we not acted along with our NATO allies and regional coalition partners, thousands would have been killed." Still, nearly four years ago, it was then-candidate Obama who suggested an end didn't justify the use of any means. "No more ignoring the law when it's inconvenient. That is not who we are," Obama said, referring to his predecessor President George W. Bush. "We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers."
Late today US and British cruise missiles joined with French and other NATO combat aircraft in Operation Odyssey Dawn/Operation Ellamy, a neo-imperialist bombing attack under fake humanitarian cover against the sovereign state of Libya. Acting under UN Security Council resolution 1973, US naval forces in the Mediterranean on Saturday night local time fired 112 cruise missiles at targets which the Pentagon claimed were related to Libya’s air defense system. But Mohammed al-Zawi, the Secretary General of the Libyan Parliament, told a Tripoli press conference that the “barbaric armed attack” and “savage aggression” had hit residential areas and office buildings as well as military targets, filling the hospitals of Tripoli and Misurata with civilian victims. Zawi accused the foreign powers of acting to protect a rebel leadership which contains notorious terrorist elements. The Libyan government repeated its request for the UN to send international observers to report objectively on events in Libya.
The attacking forces are expected to deploy more cruise missiles, Predator drones, and bombers, seeking to destroy the Libyan air defense system as a prelude to the systematic decimation of Libyan ground units. International observers have noted that US intelligence about Libya may be substandard, and that many cruise missiles may indeed have struck non-military targets.
Libya had responded to the UN vote by declaring a cease-fire, but Obama and Cameron brushed that aside. On Saturday, France 24 and al-Jazeera of Qatar, international propaganda networks hyping the attacks, broadcast hysterical reports of Qaddafi’s forces allegedly attacking the rebel stronghold of Bengazi. They showed a picture of a jet fighter being shot down and claimed this proved Qaddafi was defying the UN by keeping up his air strikes. It later turned out that the destroyed plane had belonged to the rebel air force. Such coverage provided justification for the bombing attacks starting a few hours later. The parallels to the Kuwait incubator babies hoax of 1990 were evident. Qaddafi loyalists said Saturday’s fighting was caused by rebel assaults on government lines in the hopes of provoking an air attack, plus local residents defending themselves against the rebels.
At the UN vote, the Indian delegate correctly pointed out that the decision to start the war had been made on the basis of no reliable information whatsoever, since UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon’s envoy to Libya had never reported to the Security Council. The bombing started shortly after a glittering Paris summit “in support of the Libyan people,” where Sarkozy, Cameron, Hillary Clinton, Stephen Harper of Canada and other imperialist politicians had strutted and postured.
Token contingents from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia were supposed to take part in the attack, but were nowhere to be seen, while some Arab states were expected to provide financial support. The minimum estimated cost of maintaining a no-fly zone over Libya for one year is estimated in the neighborhood of $15 billion – enough to fund WIC high-protein meals for impoverished US mothers and infants for two years.
From no-fly zone to regime change
The alleged purpose of the bombing was to establish a no-fly zone and to protect a force of CIA-sponsored Libyan rebels composed of the Moslem Brotherhood, elements of the Libyan government and army subverted by the CIA (including such sinister figures as former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil and former Interior Minister Fattah Younis), and monarchist Senussi tribesmen holding the cities of Benghazi and Tobruk. But twin Friday ultimatums by President Obama and British premier Cameron, plus a speech by Harper, made clear that the goal was the ouster of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi and regime change in the North African oil-producing nation, whose proven reserves of crude are the largest on that continent.
Prospects for military success are uncertain, despite the apparent NATO preponderance. No clear military objective has been articulated, and disagreements about the scope of the war are likely. If Qaddafi’s tanks and infantry are engaged in house to house battles with the rebels in cities like Bengazi and Tobruk, it will be hard for NATO to bring its air superiority to bear without massacring large numbers of civilians.
Interference in Libyan internal affairs violates UN Charter
Diplomatic observers were shocked by the sweeping resolution passed by the Security Council, which allows “all necessary measures” to be used against Libya. The United Nations Charter strictly limits Chapter 7 military actions to threats to international peace and security, which Libya has never represented, but rules out interference in internal affairs of member states. The pretext cited in this case was the protection of defenseless civilians, but it is clear that the rebels constitute an armed military force in their own right. Since no state can be an aggressor on its own territory, the Security Council resolution stands in flagrant violation of the UN Charter. Russia, China, Brazil, Germany, and India abstained. The resolution contains an arms embargo against Libya which the US is already violating by arming the rebels through Egypt. . Click Here to Read More.
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