Tomorrow at 6:10 AM EST, (12:10AM HST) President Barack Obama will deliver a keynote address at Cairo University. If past experience is any guide, he will continue apologizing for America’s “mistakes” and bend over backward trying to explain that the United States is not a threat to Islam. The President has already apologized for his country to nearly 3 billion people across Europe, the Muslim world and the Americas.

ABC News reports that federal investigators "are engaged in an intense effort to reconstruct Muhammad's path to extremism -- and allegedly to murder -- taking apart his life, examining his friendships, educational records, travel within the United States and possible contacts with extremists overseas."

That path should lead to Dammaj, a tribal area of Yemen, and a madrassa run by a Salafi cleric named Yahya Hajuri, a knowledgeable source told the IPT. Muhammad wanted to study at Hajuri's Al-Da'wah Center when he went to Yemen in early 2007.

The much-anticipated meeting between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu on May 18 went off smoothly, if a bit tensely, as predicted....

...based on an interview officers conducted with Muhammad, the suspect “probably had political and religious motives for the attack” on the recruiting center about 1.5 miles from his apartment.

“Mr. Muhammad, previously known as Mr. Bledsoe, did convert to Islam sometime previously in his life. At this point it appears that he specifically targeted military personnel, but there doesn’t appear to be a wider conspiracy or, at this point in time, any indication that he’s a part of a larger group or a conspiracy to go further,” the chief said. “At this point, we believe that it’s associated with his disagreement over the military operations.”

"...we now have a government that we cannot afford....

"I cannot support raising taxes because it would cause further hardship for families, businesses, and the overall economy.

"We have two options:  we can continue to tax and spend to pay for a government that we would like to have but can no longer afford, or we can take the steps necessary to create the government that we need and are able to afford.

"...delaying bills until July, instituting a statewide furlough plan, and scaling back free Medicaid benefits to low-income adults – will allow us to avoid deeper cuts in education, environmental protection, public safety, and other core services the State provides."

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle and State School Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto today announced Hawai‘i’s participation in a nationwide program led by the states to ensure public school students have the knowledge and skills they need to compete in the global economy.

Governor Lingle and Superintendent Hamamoto have co-signed a Memorandum of Agreement that commits Hawai‘i to participate in the process of developing a common core of state standards that are internationally benchmarked.

North Korea is for the third time since 2006 preparing to launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile from its base along the western shores of the Korean peninsula near the Chinese border.  Both previous tests were reportedly aimed at Hawaii. 

Governor Lingle will address the people of Hawai‘i on the Administration’s plan to close the budget shortfall.  The address will be carried live on line at 1PM today.  Four links are available to avoid website overloads.

The Auchi-Rezko-Obama connection came to public attention with federal marshals pounding on the door of Tony Rezko’s Wilmette Chicago mansion in the early morning of January 28, 2008. They hauled Rezko to jail after his bail was revoked for concealing a $3.5 million Auchi loan from the court. The Times outlines the story in two sentences. It should be of tremendous interest to the American public and the world.

But there is more to this story than run-of-the mill political corruption. Nadhmi Auchi is alleged to have a long affiliation with Iraqi Baathism and Saddam Hussein—which his attorneys deny. How close were they? According to a 1960 US Embassy report, Auchi was convicted along with Saddam by an Iraqi court for his part in a failed 1959 assassination attempt against then-Iraqi Prime Minister Qassim. For his crime, Auchi earned a sentence of “three years rigorous imprisonment.”

According to an analysis by USA Today, American taxpayers “are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises.” Federal obligations now stand at a record $546,668 per household, quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.

Here is video of the latest Islamist riots in Athens.  The excuse: something about Koranic verse being written on a piece of paper torn up by an Athens police officer.  The date:  May 29, 2009 (Gregorian).  The fall (and looting) of Constantinople to the Ottomans was ...(drumroll please)... May 29, 1453 (Julian). 

Of course this is just a coincidence.  Really.  Certainly nobody would ever do such a thing in Hawaii.

  MUGSHOT: Criminal who founded Air America Evan Montvel-Cohen

Evan Montvel-Cohen, a Guam media executive who co-founded the liberal national radio network Air America, pleaded no contest in Circuit Court yesterday to a charge of first-degree theft....His no-contest plea was part of a bargain with prosecutors who agreed to dismiss other charges of credit card fraud, forgery, money laundering and second-degree theft.....

(THIS WILL BE THE ONLY TIME COHEN HAS FACED JUSTICE FOR ANY PART OF HIS ALLEGED MULTI-STATE, MULTI-YEAR CRIME SPREE....)

“I will be meeting tomorrow and throughout the weekend with my staff to identify options to close the immediate shortfall projected by the Council on Revenues, as well as our projected $500 million shortfall in the fiscal 2010 – 2011 budget period that begins July 1, 2009.
“I will address the public at 1:00 p.m., Monday, June 1 on television, radio and webcast to discuss these options and to outline our path to economic recovery.”

Speaking to a celebrity studded fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Beverly Hills last night, President Barack Obama humbly proclaimed he “would put these first four months up against any prior administration since FDR.”....

Near the end of his Beverly Hills remarks to the Hollywood elite, Obama promised, “Los Angeles, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Unfortunately President Obama may be right again. His upcoming agenda includes a trillion dollar energy tax, the stealth nationalization of the health care industry, and an economy killing rewrite of our nation’s labor laws.

Canadian Shona Holmes had a brain tumor and was told by her government health care agency to wait 6 months for treatment.  In Canada she had no choice.  The government had spoken.  So Shona mortgaged her home and came to the United States for immediate treatment--that saved her life.

Now--in response to the response--Frankel claims he “typed in the wrong date” for “Islam Day”. In a commentary posted May 25 on HawaiiReporter.com, Frankel pretends to “take full responsibility” for becoming the only person on Earth--other than Hawaii Legislators and Muslim Association of Hawaii (MAH) leaders --to claim that “the 12th day of Rabi ul-Awwal will fall on September 24, 2009 (Islam Day).”

Frankel then goes on to explain helpfully that, “September 24, 2009 should correspond to the 21st day of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar.”

Once again Frankel is dead wrong -- and has again exposed an utterly stupendous ignorance of his own field of study. One quick glance at an Islamic calendar shows that September 24, 2009 corresponds to the 4^th day of Shawwal. The 21^st day of Ramadan will be … September 11, 2009. Perhaps this is Frankel’s idea of a joke?

(HERE ARE THE REASONS OBAMA PICKED SOTOMAYOR)

In 2001, Sonia Sotomayor, an appeals court judge, gave a speech declaring that the ethnicity and sex of a judge “may and will make a difference in our judging.”

This month, for example, a video surfaced of Judge Sotomayor asserting in 2005 that a “court of appeals is where policy is made.”

“Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences,” she said, for jurists who are women and nonwhite, “our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.”

She added, “And I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society.”

She also approvingly quoted several law professors who said that “to judge is an exercise of power” and that “there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives.”

“Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see,” she said.

(WHO NEEDS LAWS OR A CONSTITUTION WHEN ONE CAN FACE JUDGEMENT BASED ON THE JUDGE'S INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY?)

Links to Memorial Day commemorations across the state...

At the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles (200 kilometers) northwest from the test site, an emergency siren sounded shortly before 9 a.m. when officials thought an earthquake occurred. A receptionist at Yanji's International Hotel said she and several hotel guests felt the ground tremble.

Aziz Poonawalla of Madison, Wisconsin May 19 writes: “Naturally, there are some (conservative, Republican) people who see this as dhimmitude incarnate. This fellow for example ... intones seriously, 'the muslims are laughing'. Why, yes, we are indeed.”

The first commenter on Poonawalla’s blog post identifies himself as Hawaii IIO webmaster Abdul Rashid Abdullah.  The Islamic Information Office (IIO) website is tied to the Hawaii-based Muslim initiators of the “Islam Day” resolution. 

The next morning “Indira” comments: “Nice work, that is also September 11 on the Julian calendar, no wonder you are laughing at kufr.”