(Arutz Sheva) — Britain and the United States have issued special travel warnings for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next Monday, and even chewing gum may be a problem for tourists.

“All Mission employees and family members are advised to exercise extra vigilance and avoid large crowds during the upcoming month of Ramadan,” advised the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem.”

The British Foreign Office told its citizens to be sensitive to Muslim customs during Ramadan and singled out the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a target for terrorists.

“You should be aware that levels of observance of Ramadan will vary in different countries and cultures, but most Muslims will conform to some extent with the requirements of the fast — that they fast between dawn and sunset,” The Foreign Office stated,

“This means they can’t eat, drink, smoke or even chew gum during daylight hours. Muslims use this time of abstention for prayer, contemplation and charitable work.”

However, Ramadan does not stop terrorists — and may even encourage them.

The U.S. State Department said there is a high potential for revenge of the death of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden in May. It advised to take “extreme caution” when traveling by sea near the Horn of Africa or in the southern Red Sea “as there has been a notable increase in armed attacks, robberies and kidnappings for ransom by pirates.”

That would be the big blank check for Obama that Boehner insisted was not a blank check.

(Roll Call) — As Speaker John Boehner was rewriting his deficit reduction proposal Tuesday night because the Congressional Budget Office said its cuts were smaller than advertised, the Ohio Republican got some support from an unusual source: the White House.

Jacob Lew, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, argued in a blog post that the spending cuts in Boehner’s measure should be tallied as $1.2 trillion over the next decade, not the $850 billion that the CBO cited. Lew said that’s because all of the deficit reduction discussions so far have been working off of the CBO’s January baseline, not the most recent version, which reflects cuts already made in the continuing resolution funding the government and other laws.

Using the up-to-date baseline would be “confusing,” Lew wrote.

“Don’t get me wrong: there is a lot in Speaker Boehner’s plan that we do not like and actively oppose. But, as this debate continues and intensifies in the coming days, it’s important that we compare apples to apples, and make sure that we are all understanding the facts,” he wrote.

The White House appears to be worried that using the newer baseline would make all of the packages of cuts on the table look significantly smaller. It could also raise the bar for cutting in the short term as lawmakers and the White House struggle to strike a deal on a deficit reduction package that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

Boehner’s proposal, according to the CBO, cuts the deficit next year by just $1 billion and $16 billion in fiscal 2013, much less than many conservatives want.

Pravda or bust.

(NYT) — Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences — it’s increasingly obvious that what we’re looking at is the destructive influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political system.

And no, I don’t mean the fanaticism of the right. Well, OK, that too. But my feeling about those people is that they are what they are; you might as well denounce wolves for being carnivores. Crazy is what they do and what they are.

No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure is the cult of balance, of centrism.

So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent — because news reports always do that.

What all this means is that there is no penalty for extremism; no way for most voters, who get their information on the fly rather than doing careful study of the issues, to understand what’s really going on…And yes, I think this is a moral issue.

HT: Noel Sheppard

You stay classy, Steny Hoyer.

“I think we’re playing Russian roulette with the nation’s credit-worthiness. Unfortunately, all the chambers seem to be loaded on the House side. They want to shoot every bullet they have at the president.”

HT: Jim Geraghty

A brief rundown of the main pre-conditions. The Palestinians can’t seek UN statehood recognition or allow Hamas into the government, Egypt would forfeit U.S. aid if they elect the Muslim Brotherhood into power.

WASHINGTON — A US House subcommittee unveiled a foreign assistance package Tuesday that fully funds aid to Israel but gives money to its neighbors on conditions, including a provision that would bar the Palestinian Authority from receiving aid if it seeks statehood at the UN or includes Hamas in a unity government.

The bill, which will be reviewed by the US House Appropriations Subcommittee for Foreign Operations on Wednesday, includes $3.075 billion for Israel as part of the 10-year memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

It also contains $513 million for the Palestinian Authority, though in order to receive any of the money dedicated for security assistance, the secretary of state must certify that the PA “is not attempting to establish or seek recognition at the United Nations of a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.”

The Palestinians have announced they plan to seek unilateral recognition at the UN for a state this September, a move opposed by Israel as well as the US.

In addition, the Palestinians would forfeit the American economic assistance should “any power-sharing government of which Hamas is a member or that results from an agreement with Hamas” come to power.

Earlier this year, Hamas and Fatah signed such a deal, but it has yet to be implemented.

Egypt, for its part, is due to receive $1.55b., roughly consistent with allocations in previous years, but that money is conditioned on its keeping its peace treaty with Israel, among other measures. The $250m. in economic assistance that comprises that funding would be additionally put on condition that no foreign terrorist organization heads the government.

Though whether the Muslim Brotherhood qualifies as a terrorist organization is a matter of debate.

Subcommittee chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) told The Jerusalem Post that language would apply to a parliament in which the brotherhood held the majority. She said the description was vague at this point because elections had yet to be held in Egypt.

Here’s hoping for Pompeii.

(National Journal) — President Obama’s job approval rating in the latest national polls has been in the danger zone, ranging from 42 percent (Gallup) to 47 percent (ABC News/Washington Post), with every survey showing him with higher unfavorables than favorables. Needless to say, it’s not a good place for a president to be, especially since his numbers have worsened over the past two months.

The race for president isn’t a national contest. It’s a state-by-state battle to cobble an electoral vote majority. So while the national polls are useful in gauging the president’s popularity, the more instructive numbers are those from the battlegrounds.

Those polls are even more ominous for the president: In every reputable battleground state poll conducted over the past month, Obama’s support is weak. In most of them, he trails Republican front-runner Mitt Romney. For all the talk of a closely fought 2012 election, if Obama can’t turn around his fortunes in states such as Michigan and New Hampshire, next year’s presidential election could end up being a GOP landslide.

Take Ohio, a perennial battleground in which Obama has campaigned more than in any other state (outside of the D.C. metropolitan region). Fifty percent of Ohio voters now disapprove of his job performance, compared with 46 percent who approve, according to a Quinnipiac poll conducted from July 12–18.

Among Buckeye State independents, only 40 percent believe that Obama should be reelected, and 42 percent approve of his job performance. Against Romney, Obama leads 45 percent to 41 percent — well below the 50 percent comfort zone for an incumbent.

The news gets worse from there. In Michigan, a reliably Democratic state that Obama carried with 57 percent of the vote, an EPIC-MRA poll conducted July 9–11 finds him trailing Romney, 46 percent to 42 percent. Only 39 percent of respondents grade his job performance as “excellent” or good,” with 60 percent saying it is “fair” or “poor.” The state has an unemployment rate well above the national average, and the president’s approval has suffered as a result.

In Iowa, where Republican presidential contenders are getting in their early licks against the president, his approval has taken a hit. In a Mason-Dixon poll conducted for a liberal-leaning group, Romney held a lead of 42 percent to 39 percent over the president, with 19 percent undecided. Even hyper-conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann ran competitively against Obama in the Hawkeye State, trailing 47 percent to 42 percent.

The July Granite State Poll pegs the president’s approval at 46 percent among New Hampshire voters, with 49 percent disapproving. A separate robo-poll conducted this month by Democratic-aligned Public Policy Polling shows him trailing Romney in the state, 46 percent to 44 percent.

Keep reading. . .

Via Drudge

The truth shall set us free.

(JPost) — The Palestinian Authority spends more than $5 million a month paying salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons, according to a Palestinian Media Watch report presented to congressmen in Washington on Tuesday.

According to the report, written by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, such payments contravene US law, which prohibits funding of any person who “engages in, or has engaged in terrorist activity.

“The US funds the PA’s general budget,” the document reads. “Through the PA budget the US is paying the salaries of terrorist murderers in prison and funding the glorification and role modeling of terrorists.”

Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, met with Republican lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss the report, amid efforts to get US congressmen — on the eve of the Palestinian move to gain statehood recognition at the UN in September — to cut US funds to the PA, not because of the Hamas and Fatah reconciliation, but because of the PA’s support and glorification of terrorists.

According to the report, “A law signed and published in the official Palestinian Authority Registry in April 2011 puts all Palestinians and Israeli Arabs imprisoned in Israel for terror crimes on the PA payroll to receive a monthly salary from the PA.”

He’s joking, right?

HT: Town Hall

Six minutes of assploding hypocrisy, as ZIP would say.

New tone?

Can’t We Do This Right? — NY Times, Thomas Friedman

. . . Alas, that is the Tea Party. It is so lacking in any aspiration for American greatness, so dominated by the narrowest visions for our country and so ignorant of the fact that it was not tax cuts that made America great but our unique public-private partnerships across the generations. If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission. No American politician was more allergic to debt or taxes than Thomas Jefferson, but he also appreciated the need to have the resources to make the Louisiana Purchase and insisted that on his tombstone it be written that he founded the University of Virginia.

HT: GWP

Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s foreign minister on Tuesday criticized U.S. conservatives for what he called “extremist” stances against President Hugo Chavez’s government.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro condemned what he called actions by the “U.S. far right.” He did not give details.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week backed an amendment to slash the $48.5 million that the U.S. provides for the Organization of American States. U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican who supported the measure, said it was targeted at an organization that he feels backs a U.S. foe in Venezuela.

“We strongly reject these steps that the far right is taking, and which in its steps drag along a good part of . . . the United States Congress and the United State government with an absurd, extremist policy against Latin America and against our homeland,” Maduro said after a Cabinet meeting.

He accused the U.S. “far-right” of trying to “meddle in the affairs of our country and maintain a policy of permanent aggression.”

A couple of examples over the last week:

Al Gore: GOP “Encouraging Ideological Extremists To Construct Their Own Alternative Version Of Reality” On Deficit Debate

Far-Left Dem Rep. Barbara Lee: Debt Crisis “Manufactured By House Republicans” Who Are “Attempting To Advance An Extremist Agenda”

NYT’s Nicholas Kristof: Republican “Domestic Extremists Are The Biggest Threat To National Security”

Dem Congressional Committee: Allen West Has “Riled Up His Extremist Right-Wing Base”

No, it was a logical conclusion considering the fact that 99% of all recent terror strikes have been carried out by jihadists.

(CNSNews.com) — A United Nations human rights expert Tuesday waded into the debate over the media’s early response to last week’s Norwegian terrorist attack, saying that the assumption Islamists were responsible exposed anti-Muslim prejudice.

“The way in which some public commentators immediately associated the horrifying mass murder in Norway last Friday with Islamist terrorism is revealing and indeed an embarrassing example of the powerful impact of prejudices and their capacity to enshrine stereotypes,” said Heiner Bielefeldt.

“Proper respect for the victims and their families should have precluded the drawing of conclusions based on pure conjecture,” Bielefeldt added in a brief statement released by the U.N.

Bielefeldt, a German philosopher and theologian, is an expert investigator (“special rapporteur” in U.N. jargon) on freedom of religion, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to his unpaid post last August.

From mainstream news organizations to wire services to social media, much of the breaking news and early commentary on last Friday’s bomb blast in Oslo and subsequent mass shooting at a youth summer camp pointed to a strong suspicion that Islamists were behind the attacks.

Every single point she makes in this interview is on the money.

Nice try, Mitt.

(NY Post) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney treated supporters at a fundraiser in Virginia to a sneak peek of his inclinations regarding his vice presidential shortlist should he become the Republican nominee in 2012, according to a new report.

At the Virginia Beach home of State Sen. Jeff McWaters Monday, Romney praised three up-and-coming stars of the GOP, saying his shortlist included Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the Bearing Drift blog reported Tuesday

While all three are regularly on 2012 VP shortlists compiled by media pundits, this is the first time a candidate has openly speculated about a running-mate this cycle.

In a nod to Virginia supporters at the $1,200 per plate fundraiser, Romney specifically praised McDonnell, calling him an “incredible governor” and said he would be on “any candidate’s shortlist” according to the conservative Virginia blog.

That’s interesting, why would a Mexican-American choose Canada over Mexico?

Someone break the bad news to Mr. Lopez, Canada’s PM Stephen Harper is a conservative and their Parliament also has a conservative majority.

“The Tea Party doesn’t exist. . . . Anybody that thinks the Tea Party exists is smoking crack cocaine in America. It’s nothing more than the far right wing of the Republican party and they’re wagging the dog’s tail right now.”

Via Mediaite

(Park City) — First lady Michelle Obama encouraged about 250 Utah supporters to help finish the work her husband started during his first term, telling the cheering crowd, “I want you all fired up.”

“We need your help to finish what we’ve started and we need all of you to be with us for that next phase of the journey,” she said. “It’s going to be long and it’s going to be hard, because there’s nothing easy about what Barack Obama is trying to do.”. . .

The event brought in about $420,000, according to Wayne Holland, the former Utah Democratic Party chairman who helped organize the fundraiser.

During her remarks to the group, Obama listed what her husband has accomplished during his first term: turning “an economy that was on the brink of collapse to an economy that is starting to grow again,” cutting taxes for middle-class families, extending a child-care tax credit, signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and passing health care reform.

“And today, because my husband ended ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ our troops will never again have to lie about who they are to serve the country they love,” she said. There are now three women on the Supreme Court for the first time — two appointed by President Barack Obama — and “the man behind the 9/11 attacks and so many other horrific acts of violence has finally been brought to justice.

“I think it is fair to say we have made some significant progress over these last couple of years, and we should be proud of what we’ve accomplished,” she added. “But we should never be satisfied because we know we still have so much work to do.”

Children don’t have what they need to succeed, the first lady said, and too many people are struggling to pay the bills. “‘Michelle, it’s not right,’” Obama recounted her husband telling her. “‘We have to do more, and we have to fix this.’”

“Are you in? Are you ready for this?” she urged the crowd amid loud cheers. “Because I am in this. I am in this. I want you all fired up. I want you working like nothing else.”

Keep reading. . .

How so much stupid could be packed into one man is beyond me.

(CNS News) — When speaking to the nation in a primetime television address on Monday, President Barack Obama said that because less money was “coming in” during the recession, the federal government had to “spend even more.”

“The deficit was on track to top $1 trillion the year I took office,” said Obama. “To make matters worse, the recession meant that there was less money coming in, and it required us to spend even more — on tax cuts for middle-class families to spur the economy; on unemployment insurance; on aid to states so we could prevent more teachers and firefighters and police officers from being laid off. These emergency steps also added to the deficit.”

Obama then went on to make his argument for a “balanced approach,” with tax increases as part of a deal to increase to debt limit.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), known as the economic stimulus, was passed by the Democrat-led Congress in February 2009 and has cost the taxpayers $821 billion.

The CBO projects that the federal budget deficit will reach $1.5 trillion by the end of the fiscal year 2011. The current national debt limit is $14.29 trillion.

Can you imagine the cries of “homophobia” if this happened on Fox News?

“One person is controlling the agenda of the United States of America and his name is Grover Norquist. Grover Norquist was Newt Gingrich’s butt-buddy, he was Jack Abramoff’s close friend, he laundered money from Native Americans, he charged people $25,000 a pop to go to a Bush White House signing ceremony. He’s a petty criminal and made just about every single member of the House Representatives on the Republican, not the Tea Party, the Republican side and almost all Republican Senators sign a pledge saying they will never ever, for the rest of their lives, raise taxes. I need to know, first of all, do we on the Left have a Grover Norquist?”

Via The Blaze’s Mike Opelka

“We Norwegians consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel.”

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Norway’s Ambassador to Israel drew distinctions between the Oslo and Utoya massacres and Palestinian terrorism.

Svein Sevje said in an Israeli newspaper interview Tuesday that while the Norwergian bomb and gun rampages that killed 76 people and Palestinian attacks should both be considered morally unacceptable, he wanted to “outline the similarity and the difference in the two cases.”

Palestinians, the ambassador told Maariv, “are doing this because of a defined goal that is related to the Israeli occupation. There are elements of revenge against Israel and hatred of Israel. To this you can add the religious element to their actions.”

“In the case of the terror attack in Norway, the murderer had an ideology that says that Norway, particularly the Labor Party, is forgoing Norwegian culture,” Sevje said, referring to suspect Anders Breivik, a Christian nativist who is opently anti-Islam and anti-immigration.

Unlike European Union states, Norway has engaged Hamas and often been fiercely critical of Israel, to Jerusalem’s dismay.

While Sevje voiced sympathy for Israeli terror victims, having experienced “the inferno” of such attacks during his posting, he saw little chance of Norway reviewing its Middle East policies.

“We Norwegians consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel,” he said. “Those who believe this will not change their mind because of the attack in Oslo.”