Blog Heap of Links for the day 12 June 2009

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. [HELP! HELP! WON'T SOME GEORGE BUSH INVADE AMERICA AND TOPPLE THIS CREEP!]

There are a number of unanswered questions today about President Obama's abrupt decision to fire the inspector general of the AmeriCorps program... Inspectors General Reform Act... [co-sponsored by] then-Sen Barack Obama... requires the president to outline the cause for his decision to remove an IG. Beyond saying that he did not have the "fullest confidence" in Walpin, Obama gave no reason for his action.... Republican Sen. Charles Grassley... suggests that the White House first tried to muscle Walpin out of his job without having to go through the 30-day process. It was only when Walpin refused to resign that the White House then notified Congress of the president's intention to fire Walpin....

Too many analyses of the speech have ignored the fact that it was addressed primarily to the Muslim world, and was delivered in Egypt. And in that setting, Obama insisted that the US-Israel relationship could not be upended. He mentioned the Holocaust, (implicitly) berated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his Holocaust denial, quoted the Talmud and called on Hamas to recognize Israel and abandon violence. Not bad. To be sure, it was not the speech that many Israelis would have written. Obama's articulated position on Iranian nuclear power is unacceptable, just as an absolute freeze on natural growth in "settlements," even in places where settlements are essentially cities, is both unfair and thoroughly unrealistic. And linking Israel's right to exist to the Holocaust is a significant intellectual and moral mistake.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that civilian casualties in Afghanistan must be reduced as every casualty is a defeat for NATO and the U.S. troops fighting in the country. [A DEFEAT?!?!!? THIS IS THE US DEFENSE SECRETARY SAYING EVERY CASUALTY BY NUTBALLS IS SOMEHOW A DEFEAT FOR THE GOOD GUYS?? Not even barely good hyperbole! What an abysmally defeatist thing to say. What a maroon! What a poltroon! What about charging him with GIVING AID AND COMFORT TO THE ENEMY?]

I apologize to the Jewish community and all others who were offended by the way in which I framed my comments. I misspoke. [Translation: He spoke at all]

Trash collectors in San Francisco will soon be doing more than just gathering garbage: They'll be keeping an eye out for people who toss food scraps out with their rubbish.... Mandatory composting part of city's plan to eliminate landfill waste by 2020... [Ah, the People's Wacky Republic of Califunny!]

The head Iraq's main Sunni parliamentary bloc is killed at a mosque in Baghdad, leaving at least four others dead... Harith al-Obaidi, a human-rights advocate... teenager carried out the attack.... shot dead by a guard as he tried to escape... Mr Obaidi was the leader of Iraq's Accordance Front. A university professor with a doctorate in Islam, he had just finished delivering the sermon at Friday prayers....

Despite China's claims that Green Dam Youth Escort... is merely a porn filter, it's now clear that the software filters a whole bunch of political content.... [OH, WHAT A SURPRISE!] ... The documents related to political stuff are very big — much, much bigger than those related to pornographic content... software also appears to communicate with a centralized server...

...250 homeless victims of a tornado that killed 21 persons in a residential district here and roared off "whistling like 10,000 devils."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is putting the brakes on a guardrail at Lake Optima in Texas County, after hearing criticism from city and state leaders who call the project a waste of money.

The security guards who returned fire when a white supremacist allegedly gunned down their colleague at the Holocaust museum Wednesday were a recently retired D.C. police officer and a former Marine, both of whom had worked at the museum only a few weeks.... Von Brunn was struck once in the face and remains in critical condition...

The European Commission has issued a statement that seems to side with Opera's position. The EU said: "The Commission had suggested to Microsoft that consumers be provided with a choice of Web browsers. Instead, Microsoft has apparently decided to supply retail consumers with a version of Windows without a Web browser at all. Rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less."

A 14-year old German boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized meteorite that scared the bejeezus out of him and left a scar. [bejeezus?]

A headquarters is being built for his foundation, which raises scholarship funds for families of killed or disabled military personnel.

... continues to be offended by David Letterman's joke "about the statutory rape of my 14 year-old daughter.... " referred to Letterman as a "so-called comedian..." Letterman made one joke in his opening monologue about the ongoing controversy, saying, "I think everything's fine now: She called and offered to take me hunting...." [Actually a good idea. Let's take Cheney along! And take this writer, who says,] suggests she still doesn't get the idea that Letterman's self-admittedly "cheap" joke... had nothing to do with rape...