By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - Consumer borrowing posted a hefty increase in May, reflecting the biggest jump in credit card debt in six months.

The Federal Reserve reported Monday that consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 6.4 percent in May, far above the small 1.1 percent gain of April.

The increase was propelled by a surge in the category that includes credit cards, which rose at a rate of 9.8 percent in May after having a tiny increase of 0.2 percent in April. The jump in credit card debt was the largest since a 14.5 percent rate of increase in November.

The category of consumer credit that includes auto loans was also up in May, rising at a 4.4 percent rate after a 1.7 percent gain in April.

The size of the increase was nearly double what economists had been forecasting, although they were looking for a rebound from the sluggish performance in May, when the 1.1 percent rise in overall credit was the smallest gain since a 0.1 percent rise in October.

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York, said some of the surge in credit card debt reflects the fact that it is getting harder to get home equity loans with banks tightening up on standards and home values not soaring as they did during the housing boom.

“We think that people who had been refinancing their credit card debt into home equity loans are finding that harder to do now,” Wyss said. That would explain part of the big rise in credit card borrowing in May, he said.

Wyss said another factor was a strong gain in retail sales in May, which shot up by 1.4 percent, the largest jump in more than a year, as consumers brushed off rising gasoline prices to storm the malls.

By Kamran Haider
from YAHOO! News

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani forces stormed a mosque compound in the capital on Tuesday after talks to end a week-long standoff with militants broke down. Initial reports put casualties at 26 killed and many wounded.

Big blasts and gunfire rang out over the capital as the assault began an hour before dawn, and more than three hours later the sounds of the battle were still being heard, though firing had become more sporadic.

By 7:50 a.m. (0250 GMT), military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said more than half the mosque’school complex had been cleared.

Twenty children escaped as commandos overran Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, but a military spokesman said fierce fighting raged at the religious school and library in the compound, where hundreds of women and children were believed to be hunkered down.

Early information indicated 23 militants and three members of the security forces were killed in the assault, with many wounded, the military said.

“Progress is very slow because they’re using women and children as human shields. The area is heavily mined and we’re facing stiff resistance,” a security official told Reuters.

“The mosque has been cleared. Commandoes are now clearing the madrasa. They have cleared (the) rooftop of the madrasa and now trying to get down into the madrasa,” an intelligence officer said..

The militants put up strong resistance, using rockets and grenades as well as automatic weapons, the military said.

The attack began immediately after talks to end a week-long standoff with the rebel cleric inside Lal Masjid broke down.

Thick smoke shrouded the compound troops have surrounded since clashes erupted between armed student radicals and government forces on July 3.

There are fears the militants may resort to suicide bombs. Officials said on Monday that suicide vests had been distributed among the defenders.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

Link below is to the clip of Michael Moore on “The Situation Room”

There must be applause for Michael Moore, producer of the new documentary “Sicko”. After a short “hit piece” about the film, Wolf “The Beard” Blitzer had Michael on live in “The Situation Room“. And Mike really went off on CNN. The link will take you to “Crooks and Liars“. Enjoy and appreciate Michael for speaking truth to power.

Check out the video here

By Walter Pincus

The Pentagon has steadily tightened its grip over U.S. aid and foreign policy in recent years. Now, the Senate Armed Services Committee is trying to pry it loose.

In its lengthy June report accompanying the 2008 Defense Authorization bill, the Senate panel sheds light on the workings of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), a little-known Pentagon group that is central to the Defense Department’s forays into foreign assistance. Aware that the Defense Department’s share of U.S. foreign aid has grown from 7 percent to 20 percent over the past few years, the Armed Services panel cut one-third of the DSCA’s requested $673.4 million program budget in the authorization bill, according to the report. Among other things, the DSCA manages $12 billion in foreign military sales each year, has 900 security assistance personnel in 102 countries, supervises 14,000 international military students annually and spends $50 million in humanitarian aid.

The DSCA also handles Section 1206 funds, whose “Global Train and Equip” programs are designed “to build the capacity of partner nations supporting the global war on terrorism operations,” according to the budget that the DSCA submitted to Congress in February. With State Department concurrence, those funds are used to instruct and supply other countries’ forces to support military or stability operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, according to the committee.

More at the Washington Post

Chairman Henry Waxman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding an important hearing with three former Surgeons General about the importance of the position’s independence, it’s role relative to public health education and impediments ot carrying out that mission. Those testifying include:

The Bush nominee for Surgeon General, James Holsinger, has blatant biases against homosexuality, and he has been involved in making judicial decisions in the United Methodist Church as a member of its leadership that stripped a gay clergy member of her church and ordination. He also is embroiled in a charge that he used church funds to finance his own break-away not for profit agency. There are concerns that his stance toward reproductive health is not based on a basis of solid science. Furthermore, when he headed a VA hospital, it was cited for deep and broad substandard care problems.

Tomorrow’s informational hearing should be of interest in shedding light on how important the US Surgeon General’s role is in public health. Moreover, it will lay the groundwork for holding Holsinger’s dismal record up to the light and demonstrating whether or not the nominee is qualified to hold the position.

To get you started, this is the mission and purpose of the US Surgeon General:

Mission of the Surgeon General

More at Universalhealth

Gates cancelled his trip to Latin America because they have to get their talking points together. And they probably leaked this intentionally to soften the fall.

From the Houston Chronicle:

By ANNE FLAHERTY AND ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A draft report to Congress on the war will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Iraq has met none of its targets for political, economic and other reform, speeding up the Bush administration’s reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday.

One likely result of the report will be a vastly accelerated debate among President Bush’s top aides on withdrawing troops and scaling back the U.S. presence in Iraq.

The “pivot point” for addressing the matter will no longer be Sept. 15, as initially envisioned, when a full report on Bush’s so-called “surge” plan is due, but instead will come this week when the interim mid-July assessment is released, the official said.

A draft version of the report, expected to be presented to Congress on Thursday or Friday, circulated among various government agencies in Washington on Monday.

“The facts are not in question,” the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the draft is still under discussion. “The real question is how the White House proceeds with a post’surge strategy in light of the report.”

The official said it is highly unlikely that Bush will withhold or suspend some aid to the Iraqis based on the report, as he can do under the law.

One word……GOOD. Maybe people are finally waking up and realizing these kids are nothing more than cannon fodder and this administration doesn’t really care about our troops.

From Reuters:

By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army, strained by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, missed its recruiting goal for the second straight month in June, indicating a trend that some defense officials on Monday called worrying.

The Army will announce the monthly data on Tuesday. Army spokesmen would not discuss the specific figures.

But some defense officials said the Army significantly missed its June goal of 8,400 recruits. One official placed the shortfall at about 15 percent, a major gap for a typically strong month when recruiters normally find more willing young people fresh from high school graduation.

“We are fighting a war on two fronts,” one Pentagon official said. “Parental support has declined. That’s a big factor.”

Another defense official called the numbers “concerning.”

The Army had boasted strong recruiting numbers despite ongoing wars and rising casualty rates. But Pentagon polling data months ago started to show support for recruitment easing among parents and other people the military calls “influencers.”

In May, the active-duty Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time this year. It signed up 5,101 new recruits, short of its goal of 5,500 for that month.

Still, Army spokesmen then said the Army was confident it would meet its fiscal 2007 goal of 80,000 new soldiers.

The Army is still exceeding its goals for the year, despite June’s miss, defense officials said.

But if recruiting figures continue to decline at current rates, the gains notched earlier this year could disappear by next month, leaving the largest branch of the U.S. military at risk of missing its annual goals.

Rumors has it that staffers were required to sign the petition by higher ups in Washington DC. After speaking out about Washington’s decision of directing $2million for a NOAA public relations campaign rather than funding a new hurricane satellite it was over for Proenza. I guess Bush didn’t like that. Loyalty…..it’s all about loyalty. Competence doesn’t matter…..as long as you’re loyal!! I do have to say, though, that I love Ed Rappaport. I wondered why he wasn’t named director when Max Mayfield resigned. I figured he didn’t want the job, and it looks like that’s the case, since he’s been named the “acting director.” I imagine they offered him the job and he said no. But that’s just my guess. Living on the South Florida coast, this is an important issue for me. I was devastated when Max Mayfield retired, and I think he did so because no one in the Bush administration listens. He was disgusted after Hurricane Katrina.

From Reuters:

by Jim Loney

The director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, a critical government agency that issues hurricane and tropical storm forecasts, was ousted on Monday after a staff mutiny.

Bill Proenza, who was appointed to the top hurricane job about six month ago, was embroiled in controversy after criticizing his Washington bosses for spending money on public relations while an aging weather satellite needed replacement.

After vowing not to be silenced, Proenza faced a revolt at the Miami hurricane center last week, when 23 staff members, about half the work force, issued a petition calling for him to resign.

They said Proenza had “poisoned the atmosphere” at the hurricane center, which also issues weather information widely used by nations throughout the Caribbean basin.

“We need to move forward,” NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen said. “Effective immediately, Ed Rappaport will serve as acting director on an interim basis.”

Rappaport, a veteran hurricane forecaster, was the center’s deputy director.

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Rest in Peace Major Jimmy Ahearn.

From ABC11TV:

Fort Bragg Army Major Jim Ahearn known as Jimmy by many died in a roadside bombing last Thursday.

Monday his wife, who was born in Iraq, spoke to Eyewitness News about her husband’s life with his family - and his death.

Lena Ahearn remembers the day her husband, Major James Ahearn left for his third tour of duty in Iraq. He wrote a note to his family on their refrigerator bulletin board. “No matter how far we are apart, our hearts will always be together. I love you guys so much,” the soldier wrote on the note.

Jimmy died in Iraq along with another Fort Bragg soldier. Lena is Iraqi and she met Jimmy in the Green Zone where she worked in Baghdad. They fell in love instantly. “He tried to do anything… anything you want just to make you happy,” Lena told Eyewitness News reporter Gilbert Baez. “Like… whenever I cry… he cried. Whenever I’m happy… he’s happy. This is the man I always dreamed of but he got to go so fast,” Lena said.

Lena says she’s the first Iraqi woman to fall in love with and marry an American soldier after the war in Iraq began in 2003. Her family received death threats after the marriage. The repercussions forced her mother and sister to flee Iraq.

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