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Sweet Tammy's Macaroons get reported on in Pittsburgh and eaten.
You can order on line - Sweet-Tammys.com (See 1 below.)
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Is it getting to be the time that Lebanon might have to be destroyed all over again?
If it were my call I would have planes in the air already.
The U.N. is feckless and their stationed troops even more so.
Why does Israel have to endure such provocations and death to its military? If that is what S Korea wants to tolerate so be it. Israel should retaliate with overwhelming force.
But then I am a hawk with talons.(See 2, 2a and 2b below.)
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Sovereign Debt crisis - next one will be here according to this professor. (See 3 below.)
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Ralph Peters believes Obama is quite capable of and is about ready to lose Iraq. (See 4 below.)
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White House Press Room curtain backdrop sends a message? Sent to me by a friend and fellow memo reader. (See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1)Pittsburgh Cheap Eats
By Deborah McDonald
Sound's like a 1950s movie, looks like a giant snowball, tastes like something from Wonka' s Factory for Grown-ups. Certified kosher and non-dairy, oversized coconut macaroon's from Sweet Tammy's (www.SweetTammy's.com) in Squirrel Hill are now being sold in Giant Eagle (6 for $4.99), which is where I first saw them. I couldn't get my brain around their perimeter.
And while I didn't buy them at first sight, I thought about them all night long. So, I invited a friend on a trek to eat lunch from the "hot bar" that is challenging Whole Foods down the street. The fried chicken, pizza and potato salad were good, but all through lunch I was obsessed with sinking my choppers into the snowball-sized macaroons.
"Get them and share one" says Tammy's husband Daniel Berkowitz, who says that the macaroons have been the dark horse seller ever since the "Iggle (Pittsburgh-ese for Giant Eagle)" put them on display. "And there is something endearing about the sharing part," comments Berkowitz.
I have to agree. I instinctively broke mine apart and gave half to my partner, who initially scoffed at the idea of a healthy macaroon. "Sounds like zero percent fun" he said, reading "zero trans fats, zero preservatives..." And then he bit in. I hadn't told him about the thin layer of chocolate on the bottom, a perfect zing to match the the rich, chewy, high-cholesterol treats of yore.
Sweet Tammy's, 2119 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill. 1-877-800-6335.
Anybody try the chocolate chip or snickerdoodles? Sign in and tell me what you think.
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2) The Lebanese army emerges as Israel's new pro-active foe
By launching a cross-border sniper attack on Israeli forces Tuesday, Aug. 3, and provoking a major clash, the 9th Brigade of the Lebanese Army laid down a new fact of life in the Middle East: The next war against Israel will be fought - not by the Hizballah militia, but by the Lebanese army, whose mission is henceforth merged into the radical objectives of the Iran-backed terrorist group.
By taking on Israeli forces, the Lebanese Army assumed responsibility for the volatile Lebanese-Israeli border and showed it was prepared to take the consequences of aggression. Never seen as capable of anything more than substandard police work and inclined to run a mile from combat situations, this army was described by military sources as having astonished military observers by its performance against the IDF.
1. Its commanders proved capable of catching the Israeli military unawares, in exactly the same way as Hizballah did when it kidnapped and murdered three Israeli soldiers in 2000 and, again, when it snatched another two Israeli officers in a cross-border raid in 2006.
In both cases, the terrorists stole across the border into Israel. Tuesday, the Lebanese army showed itself to be not only an apt pupil of Hizballah's tactics, but capable of going "one better." Its snipers shot Lt. Col. (Res.) Dov Harari, 45, from Netanya, in cold blood as he stood well inside the Israeli border, and seriously injured Capt. Ezer Lakiya from Kfar Harif. Doctors are fighting to save his life by removing a piece of shrapnel from his heart.Both were watching Israeli troops carrying out routine tasks on the Israeli side of the border fence.
2. The Lebanese army was able to hoodwink Israeli military intelligence border scouts and keep its plan of attack dark. The fact that Hizballah was also out of the picture would have been cold comfort for the Israeli high command.
3. Its commanders were not deterred by Israeli retaliation and rather than backing down raised the pitch of violence.
4. Israel commanders judged that, by exacting a painful price, they could silence the enemy's guns. They therefore bombed the Lebanese Army's regional command center at Taybeh, torched an APC and left three soldiers dead. The enemy kept on shooting.
5. The day's combat ended with the Lebanese army's 9th Brigade established as a new threat to the Israel Defense Forces from positions abutting the border.Its presence in South Lebanon is moreover legitimate, unlike Hizballah, which moved men and weapons into the south although prohibited from doing so by the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006.
6. The Lebanese army may decide to follow up on its attack, using one flimsy pretext or another. After all, the UN peacekeepers stood by idly when the snipers opened fire into Israel under the world body's flag.
8. The IDF's response was disproportionately mild given the loss of two high commanders in an act of unprovoked aggression. But it was enough to allow Hizballah's Hassan Nasrallah to pose as Lebanon's great national unifier.In the speech he delivered Tuesday night, he capitalized on the incident by saying he had ordered his militiamen not to interfere in the clash with Israeli forces, commended the Lebanese Army for its bravery in taking on the Zionist foe and let it be understood that his rockets and missiles would be made available for the next round of fighting with Israel.
2a)Nasrallah threatens to retaliate against Israel
Hezbollah leader speaks following exchange of fire between IDF, Lebanese Army, says organization is prepared to help military, takes opportunity to accuse Israel of assassinating al-Hariri
BY Roee Nahmias
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah spoke on Tuesday in Beirut in honor of four years passing since the Second Lebanon War. His speech was made just hours after a skirmish between the IDF and the Lebanese Army on the border claimed four lives.
Though Hezbollah apparently was not involved in the exchange of fire, the IDF noted after the incident the organization's growing influence over the Lebanese Army.
Northern Border
At the start of the his speech, Nasrallah said, "Today we are marking four years since the Lebanon's victory over the strongest and most terrorist military in the region."
However, the Hezbollah leader said, "I wanted to start on this topic, but what happened today on the border between Lebanon and Palestine, in which officers and soldiers from our national military fought a battle of heroism, necessitates mention of their strong stance and their sacrifice."
On the same note, Nasrallah continued, "Israel's aggression against Lebanon, its land, and its sovereignty never ceased, but continues in various ways. It has manifested itself in no less than 7,000 Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty since August 14, 2006, over which the world prefers not to open its mouth. These violations occur in the air, land, and sea, and what we saw today was just another expression of this."
Regarding the Second Lebanon War, Nasrallah accused the international community of "showing, for the most part, support for the Israeli enemy, whose plan was to crush us until we hand over our arms. Prof. Noam Chomsky also believes that the war was an American decision executed by Israel."
The Hezbollah leader said that his organization notified the Lebanese military during the first moments of the conflict that it is prepared to stand by its side with help in support during a conflict with the IDF.
"From the first moment, the opposition went on high alert in the region, followed all the events, and was in contact with the command headquarters. We notified the Lebanese military: We are prepared, we are with you, and we will help you with everything, if needed. Our people and our equipment stand at your disposal," Nasrallah said.
He also said that he updated the highest ranking officials in Beirut: "We also contacted the president, the parliament chairman, and the prime minister and updated them on this. We told them that we will not initiate any move, despite the painful images we saw. They asked for a quiet and responsible opposition. The message was clear to the Israeli enemy: Lebanon, all of Lebanon, will not leave any aggression on its occupied land unanswered and will stand by this courageously."
'Israeli hand will be cut off'
Nasrallah also addressed Israel. "You are the ones threatening war, but Lebanon is not afraid of confronting you. All of the military alignments you dealt with are above the surface, but they are within fortified embankments. Even though we don't have equipment on the same level, our fighters fight with courage and shocked them."
Nasrallah also threatened that Hezbollah "is on alert and is ready to help the military in all the villages on the front. We are not concerned and are not hysterical like their coward settlers. The nation, the opposition, and the military have paid in blood for this act of heroism, but they did not bear fruit.
"Officers and soldiers in the Lebanese military are our brothers and loved ones. How could it be that the opposition will sit with its armed crossed from now on as the military is bombed? I will saw honestly: We will not sit with arms crossed, and the Israeli hand outstretched to strike the Lebanese military will be cut off by the opposition."
'Exposing al-Hariri's true murderer'
As Hezbollah is in the crosshairs of the international tribunal into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Nasrallah took the opportunity to accuse Israel of being responsible for the incident.
"The Israeli media gladly reports all kinds of speculations on the direction, in their opinion, Lebanon is headed," said Nasrallah.
After noting that he follows the Israeli press, the Hezbollah leaders said, "They speak of a big explosion, a civil war, crisis, and more. We want to expose the truth surrounding the circumstances of al-Hariri's death, something that from our perspective is the right of every Lebanese. We want to protect the unity of Lebanon and the well-being of its citizens."
He said, "This coming Monday, I will hold a press conference during which I will present evidence of Israel's involvement in the al-Hariri assassination and the goings-on in the international tribunal in The Hague. We will present significant proof that Israel, via its agents, tried to convince al-Hariri already in 1993 that Hezbollah wants to assassinate him. We blame the Israeli enemy for the assassination, and the figures I will reveal will open new horizons in the investigation that will lead to the identity of the true murderer."
2b) Violence against Israelis is intensifying in the northern and southern regions of the country. Update and others predicted these developments given the prospect of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas and Hezbollah, backed by Iran, can be expected to do everything possible to disrupt the talks and provoke Israel into retaliating.
WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?
Two recent events clearly reflect a double-standard when it comes to Israel. Both sadly have escaped the media spotlight.
According the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the Palestinian WAFA news service reported that Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, said the following to reporters in Cairo on July 28: "I'm willing to agree to a third party that would supervise the agreement, such as NATO forces, but I would not agree to having Jews among the NATO forces, or that there will live among us even a single Israeli on Palestinian land."
This means that Jews who serve valiantly in our armed forces and those of France, Britain and other countries would be barred from participating in an international peace keeping force. Imagine the indignation if Israel were to say no Arabs are welcome within its borders and that Muslims may not serve with international troops in the area.
SEVERE DAMAGE
Regarding the second example, a school for special needs children in the Sderot area in southern Israel received a direct hit Saturday night from a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza. The school was severely damaged. There were no injuries because it was a Saturday, but the Sderot Media Center reports that on any other day it could have been catastrophic because the students are present until 10 each night.
In late 2008 and early 2009, Israel attacked Hamas in Gaza in Operation Cast Lead, after eight years and thousands of rockets falling in Sderot, Ashkelon and the Shar HaNegev region of Israel. Hamas fighters hid among the civilian population and fired on Israel from schools and hospitals. We all saw and read endless news stories about civilian targets being hit, but not much about why they were hit.
However, reflecting on Israel's actions in Gaza, Col. Richard Kemp, the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, said, "I don't think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza." Reports on Israel's efforts to avoid civilian casualties received minimal coverage in the mainstream media.
BARELY A MENTION
Saturday's attack in Sderot and one in Ashkelon Friday rated barely a mention by the world press. The reporters and commentators may not think the special needs school in Sderot is as important the schools in Gaza, but we know differently.
Where are the news media reports on this school being hit and Abbas' offensive and frightening comments? Where is the righteous anger from human rights groups on the nearly 400 rockets that have fallen on the Shar Hanegev region since the Cast Lead cease fire? Where are those Jewish organizations that are so quick to jump on the band wagon in their criticism of Israel?
Where is the outrage?
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3)The Next Sovereign Debt Crisis
By Jay Weiser
Europe’s PIIGs are in a poke, but U.S. states and municipalities risk their own sovereign debt crisis.
Europe’s PIIGs are in a poke, but U.S. states and municipalities risk their own sovereign debt crisis, with a huge liquidity risk from short-term debt. According to the Federal Reserve, at the end of the first quarter of 2010, state and local governments had $2.8 trillion in outstanding debt. This massive figure doesn’t count unfunded pension liabilities (which, except for a few governments in immediate distress, face a longer-term solvency crisis), but does include $465 billion of debt issued on behalf of nonprofits and private industrial revenue bond borrowers, many of whom are politically connected. Of the $2.8 trillion, perhaps 25 percent effectively consists of short-term obligations, much of which was purchased based on questionable ratings resting on doubtful guarantees. Even if only a few financially stressed municipal debt issuers default, anxious short-term debt holders could suddenly demand cash and trigger a liquidity crunch.
Traditionally, municipal debt was long term and self-amortizing, so risks decreased over the life of the bonds. Today, much municipal debt is long term only in theory. According to the Fed, only $134 billion of municipal debt (or about 6 percent of the outstanding total) technically originated as short-term debt (having an original maturity of 13 months or less). But at the end of the first quarter of 2010, tax-exempt money market funds held $369 billion of assets. This means that almost 66 percent of tax-exempt money market fund assets are short-term debt dressed in long-term drag. These are better known as Variable Rate Demand Obligations (VRDOs) or Variable Rate Demand Notes (VRDNs)—two acronyms for the same instrument (I’ll use VRDNs here). In addition, VRDNs are presumably a significant portion of the $1.9 trillion in municipal securities held by households and entities such as property-casualty companies.
So how do VRDNs work? As T. Rowe Price, whose $844 million Tax-Exempt Money Fund was 45 percent in VRDNs as of February 28, 2010, explains it, a VRDN holder “has the right to sell the security to the issuer … at a predetermined price (generally par) on specified dates (generally daily or weekly)” [italics added].
In other words, the bond may technically mature in 20 years, but the interest rate resets weekly and the buyer can put it back to the issuer at any time. Based on a selective review of large tax-exempt money market funds, high VRDN allocations are typical.
Regulations generally limit money market funds to high-rated securities, so one might think VRDNs are safe. But the ratings agencies are subject to the same pressures from originators as in the subprime glory days: if the rating isn’t high enough to do the deal, the ratings agency doesn’t get paid. The agencies typically don’t re-rate securities for financial strength after origination unless they receive information on a change in condition. The result, as in the infamous Enron case, is that downgrades usually follow rather than lead the market’s valuation, and troubled securities can retain high ratings until just before default. In rating individual securities at origination, the agencies gave little weight to liquidity risk: whether the VRDN market has the capacity to handle a wave of redemptions.
As with home mortgages, many high ratings are based on credit enhancement (a guarantor’s credit) rather than the quality of the revenue stream that is expected to pay off the security itself. Of the two major pre-bust municipal bond insurers, AMBAC is gradually liquidating under state supervision after functional insolvency, while MBIA is still in financial difficulty and is writing only limited new municipal bond insurance. Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp., a new entrant, was rapidly downgraded by the ratings agencies. VRDNs are often backstopped by bank letters of credit—often required in case the bond insurers are downgraded, and requiring municipal securities issuers to pay a high interest rate if drawn on—but this merely transfers the risk of nonpayment from municipal bondholders to the banking system.
As Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Steven Malanga has noted, state and local politicians around the country have issued municipal debt to fund vanity projects and hide shortfalls. The New York Times recently reported that the New York City Housing Development Corporation lent political powerhouse pastor Floyd Flake $14 million for his no-bid, no-money-down acquisition of a federally funded housing complex from a nonprofit he controlled. The total financing package apparently exceeded 100 percent of the property value. Back in 2004, the Times reported that a senior South Jersey legislator forced cash-strapped NJ Transit to incur $1 billion in debt to build the River Line light rail, currently serving just 8,200 riders a day from Trenton to Camden at a huge deficit. While the maturity structure for these specific obligations is unclear, municipal money market fund portfolios contain many industrial development, hospital, and housing securities, suggesting a substantial amount of politically connected debt.
The 2008 meltdown was triggered by Lehman’s reliance on short-term debt for funding. When Lehman cratered, so did the commercial paper markets (led by the failure of the Reserve Funds), requiring rescue by a Fed commercial paper facility that has now closed. Municipal debt issuers are increasingly stressed, needing to place $435 billion in debt and fund an aggregate $200 billion deficit this year. Given all the poorly underwritten, politically connected municipal debt, it is hard to gauge whether any major issuers—like Christmas trees still in the living room in the dog days of August—require a single spark to explode in flames. With investors holding billions of dollars in short-term municipal debt at near-zero yields and almost no reward for bearing credit risk, we may find out.
Jay Weiser is an associate professor of law and real estate at Baruch College.
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4)Will Bam lose Iraq? President's weird 'victory' lap
By Ralph Peters
One president gave his premature "Mission Accomplished" speech about Iraq on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Now another has given his own version as part of a Chicago-ward-politics sales pitch to disabled veterans.
The difference is that the first guy was sincere.
President Obama's pork-barrel speech to the Disabled Veterans of America yesterday (if you want to help our vets, shut up and do it) would have drawn a blush from those Soviet propagandists who cropped purged Politburo members from Stalin-era photographs.
Ignoring his own opposition to the liberation of Iraq, supporting our troops and the surge, Obama spoke as if all's well in Baghdad -- thanks to him.
As part of his weird victory lap, the president rightfully praised the way "our troops adapted and adjusted" to the insurgency in Iraq, then stressed that 90,000 service members have come home during his administration.
He preened that we'll meet his Aug. 31 deadline to transition "from combat to supporting and training Iraqi security forces" and reaffirmed that we'll remove the last of our troops in 2012. But the portion of yesterday's speech that focused on Iraq left out . . . Iraq.
While that country has passed its military crisis, it's now in political turmoil -- from which our government has utterly disengaged. We won that war, but we still can lose the peace. Obama shunned the fact that, almost half a year after its last national election, Iraq doesn't have a new government. Determined to abandon "Bush's war," Obama's been AWOL in Baghdad.
His neglect may prove disastrous. And the saddest aspect is that the Iraqis wanted us to step in and act as referees, to press them to get past their political differences.
The Iraqi elections were so close that both main camps claimed victory. In the macho atmosphere of Iraq, neither side could back down or compromise after that without an
excuse ("Those mean Americans made me do it!"). Our essential and dirt-cheap role would have been to hand the posturing parties a fig leaf.
We've seen this before, in the Balkans, where all sides wanted to stop fighting but were too macho to be the first to suggest a truce. When American troops arrived, they had their excuse. We just don't get it that a key role for our soldiers and diplomats is to enable foreign parties to do what they already want to do themselves.
The situation in Iraq this year didn't call for more troops. Those force reductions were fine. But after hearing for years about the supremacy of political over military solutions, it was odd to witness this administration's neglect of basic statesmanship (which opened the door to the Iranians).
The problem is that this White House and its left-wing base now believe their own propaganda that Iraq was just a distraction, that Afghanistan's all that matters.
So when his script reached the part about Afghanistan yesterday, the president spoke with the rhetoric of a warlord, insisting that "we are going on the offensive against the Taliban" and "we will disrupt, we will dismantle and we will ultimately defeat al Qaeda."
Apart from sounding like George W. Bush (after extensive training by a public-speaking coach), it was noteworthy that, in the course of rattling his light saber, Obama didn't mention his deadline for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan next year.
We'll see how that one goes. Meanwhile, the really-big-booboo aspect of his speech was Obama's utter refusal to acknowledge that Iraq matters to us at all, that it has any strategic value. Yet Iraq, not Afghanistan, lies at the heart of the Middle East, has a profound psychological grip on the Arab world, possesses a critical geo-strategic location -- and, yes, has a lot of oil.
Even a sloppy, kinda-sorta, not-downright-awful outcome in Iraq improves the Middle East enormously. But all this administration cares about is getting out. We're in danger of throwing away seven years of sacrifices -- many made by those disabled veterans to whom Obama pandered -- because our president won't tell our diplomats to step up.
Sure, some on the left would delight in a belated disaster in Iraq to spite the long-gone bogeyman, George W. Bush. I do not believe President Obama is among them. He just doesn't understand the stakes in Baghdad -- and doesn't want to.
But, then, he never has.
Ralph Peters' latest book is "Endless War."
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5)For a long time, we have noticed that the decor at the White House has
changed since BHO moved in.
The Oval Office is now stripped of the traditional red, white, and blue,
and replaced with middle eastern wallpaper, drapes, and decor.
The hallway that he walks out of to talk to the press now has middle eastern
chairs, drapes, etc. And the thing that has bothered me the most is the bright
yellow drape behind him every time he speaks from the White House.
It has Arabic symbols on it and has been there from the beginning.
Today I received this and it clearly shows what I have been noticing.
That bright yellow curtain is highly visible, but as you scroll down,
you will see what is predominantly absent. Also, as you look at
the pictures of other presidents speaking from the same spot, look
at the traditional 'American' background and decor as opposed to
the new decor. Trust me when I say that this is intentional. It should
alarm every American.
What is missing at Barack Hussein Obama's press conference?
No it is not the teleprompters. See the other president?s pics for a clue.
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