The Weekly Standard has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel%u2019s behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident.

The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

Obama to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN Next Week :: Bible Prophecy In The News          

BP Official Admits to Damage BENEATH THE SEA FLOOR

As I noted Tuesday, there is growing evidence that BP's oil well - technically called the "well casing" or "well bore" - has suffered damage beneath the level of the sea floor.

The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This has enormous impacts on both the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, and the prospects for quickly stopping the leak this summer.

On May 31st, the Washington Post noted:

Sources at two companies involved with the well said that BP also discovered new damage inside the well below the seafloor and that, as a result, some of the drilling mud that was successfully forced into the well was going off to the side into rock formations.

"We discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface," said a BP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said that mud was making it "out to the side, into the formation."

On June 2nd, Bloomberg pointed out:

Plugging the well is another challenge even after BP successfully intersects it, Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor, said. BP has said it believes the well bore to be damaged, which could hamper efforts to fill it with mud and set a concrete plug, Bea said.

Bea is an expert in offshore drilling and a high-level governmental adviser concerning disasters.

On the same day, the Wall Street Journal noted that there might be a leak in BP's well casing 1,000 feet beneath the sea floor:

BP PLC has concluded that its "top-kill" attempt last week to seal its broken well in the Gulf of Mexico may have failed due to a malfunctioning disk inside the well about 1,000 feet below the ocean floor.
Washington's Blog          

Newsmax - Ex-Iranian Spy: Iran Will Use Its Nukes          
Ex-Iranian Spy: Iran Will Use Its Nukes
Monday, 19 Apr 2010 08:53 PM
Article Font Size

By: Jim Meyers

A former member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who spied for the U.S. tells Newsmax that Iran is likely on the brink of obtaining nuclear weapons and says he is certain they will use them to bring about the chaos they seek.

Reza Kahlili also says the fanatical minority who rule Iran will kill as many people as they have to in order to stave off regime change.

Newsmax - Ex-Iranian Spy: Iran Will Use Its Nukes          

YouTube - National Strike Day Promo Video          

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer declined to say Wednesday if Democrats have enough votes to pass historic health care legislation, but hinted that they're poised to use an arcane parliamentary process to get it done.

Hoyer's Republican counterpart, Rep. Eric Cantor, acknowledged that such a process is permissible under House rules. Under the procedure, a Senate-passed health bill would be "deemed" to have passed if House members voted in favor of a rule governing a separate bill with amendments to it.

Cantor, R-Va., said he couldn't understand why Democrats would use such a parliamentary detour with a bill of this magnitude and reach.

Asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" to say if he had the 216 votes necessary to pass the legislation in the House, Hoyer, D-Md., replied, "I don't have a precise number. Having said that, we think we'll get the votes. ... We think we will have the votes when the roll is called."

House leaders joust over use of parliamentary rule - Examiner.com