A key Senate Democrat, Max Baucus of Montana, complains that Obama's opposition to paying for it with a tax on health benefits "is not helping us." Another Democrat, Representative Dan Boren of Oklahoma, tells his local newspaper that Obama is too liberal and is "very unpopular" in his district. From his first days in office, Obama's popularity helped him pass the landmark $787 billion stimulus package and fuelled his ambitious plans to overhaul the nation's health care system and tackle global warming.

Democratic strategist Steve Glorioso said hardcore base voters were as enthusiastic as ever for Obama but that there was a sense of disappointment about him among less committed Democrats and independents. "PEOPLE ARE SCARED," GLORIOSO SAID. "THIS IS THE WORST ECONOMIC TIME ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 80 HAS EVER EXPERIENCED, AND YOU CAN'T DISCOUNT PEOPLE BEING AFRAID. Now that we are in July, the fear is turning to disappointment that the president hasn't fixed everything yet. I don't know why they thought he could change everything by now, but some did."

A second seemingly unrelated fire broke out on Sunday some 10km (6 miles) away and has already consumed 100 hectares. The cause of the fires are not known. A 2003 fire in the same area destroyed more than 240 homes. No injuries or deaths have been reported in the latest fires.

More than 150 firefighters are battling the blazes, with support from helicopters and water bomber planes. One resident told local media that big, hot embers were falling all around his home. Fire-fighters said they were facing difficult conditions, with more hot and dry weather to come.

Lord Jones of Birmingham, an original member of the Prime Minister's "government of all the talents" who resigned last year, delivered a damning indictment of the workings of Whitehall. The former trade minister, who as Digby Jones was head of the CBI between 2000 and 2006, called for "amateur" politicians to be relegated to junior roles in government, allowing experienced professionals like himself to run departments.

Last week, THE FORMER HOME SECRETARY admitted that she had found the post challenging AS SHE LACKED ANY TRAINING IN RUNNING A LARGE ORGANISATION. In an article about his 15 months in government, Lord Jones wrote: "By her own admission, Ms Smith had never run a major organisation. Actually, as a former teacher from Redditch she'd never run anything at all. WITH NO TRAINING OR EXPERIENCE, SHE HAD TAKEN UP THE REINS OF THE THIRD GREAT OFFICE OF STATE."

"Expecting her to deliver in the post of home secretary without a scintilla of experience or training was not only unfair on her but damaging to all of us. Health, education, business, transport, defence and security are TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT ANY LONGER TO ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEURS."

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who has been appointed to a shadowy post that will grant him powers that are merely mind-boggling, explicitly supports using the courts TO IMPOSE A "CHILLING EFFECT" ON SPEECH THAT MIGHT HURT SOMEONE'S FEELINGS. He thinks that the bloggers have been rampaging out of control and that new laws need to be written to corral them.

Sunstein is President Obama's choice to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It's the bland titles that should scare you the most. "Although obscure," reported the Wall Street Journal, "THE POST WIELDS OUTSIZE POWER. It oversees regulations throughout the government, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration."

"Obama aides have said the job will be crucial as the new administration overhauls financial-services regulations, attempts to pass universal health care and tries to forge a new approach to controlling emissions of greenhouse gases." Sunstein was appointed, no doubt, off the success of "Nudge," his previous book, WHICH SUGGESTS THAT GOVERNMENT OUGHT TO GENTLY FORCE PEOPLE TO BE BETTER HUMAN BEINGS.

Sunstein dreams of an impossibly virtuous America: "We could also imagine a future in which those who spread false rumors are categorized as such, discounted and marginalized... People would approach rumors skeptically even they provide comfort and fit their own biases." But if his chilling wind doesn't work, Sunstein may try to make good on the implicit threat that runs through his book: that he would redefine libel as the spread of false information and hold everyone up the ladder responsible.

If this happened, the blogosphere would turn into Pluto overnight. Comments sections would slam shut. Every writer would work on a leash shorter than a shoelace. Sunstein is an enemy to every news organization and blogger. We should return the favor and declare war on him.

Picture this hypothetical dreamed up by a national security expert obsessed with economic catastrophe:

'Angry that US policies aimed at boosting the economy have devalued their $2 trillion of currency reserves, the Chinese decide to stop buying Treasurys just as America tries to finance its massive spending plans. In response, the US imposes trade sanctions against China, which in turn pushes for a global currency. From there, the US accuses China of manipulating its own currency and things escalate further.'

Without a shot being fired, those actions represent a type of unfriendly economic competition that some are very worried about. An economic war between the US and another adversary would hardly be the world's first. Countries have resorted to such measures in the forms of trade embargoes, blockades and protectionism for centuries.

To take one recent example, the US has considered economic sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear programs. In response, Iran has said it could hold the world's oil supply hostage by blocking the Persian Gulf's export routes, a move that would likely damage the global economy. "In a globalized world, the ability of one country to impact the economy of another, and hence affect it strategically, has grown exponentially from what it was before," said Goure.

Eight years after Middle East militants carried out the September 11 attacks, Muslim Americans are raising their profile, encouraged by the election of Barack Obama, A US PRESIDENT PROUD OF HIS KENYAN FATHER'S MUSLIM HERITAGE. The president, who is a Christian, used his middle name, Hussein, at his inauguration. He called for new dialogue with Islamic nations and named a special envoy for the Middle East on his second full day in office.

"We are more optimistic about the future for us here," said Alqaisi, an accountant. "They changed the way they communicate with the Muslim countries. We feel like we have more value here now. We hope that will continue in the future." The greater scrutiny prompted Muslims to engage more with one another and politically, said US Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim member of Congress.

"The Muslim community has learned the lesson that if you want things to change for you in America, you have to be involved in the process," he said. "Political engagement of the Muslim community is higher than I have ever seen it." In the last two years, TWO MUSLIMS HAVE BEEN ELECTED TO CONGRESS, FIVE HAVE WON SEATS IN STATE LEGISLATURES AND MANY MORE HAVE BEEN ELECTED ON MORE LOCAL LEVELS, Ellison said.

"We will be closed this Friday, as the last and the oncoming Friday, due to the ordering of three furlough days each month by the governor," an official from the Hollywood Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office, which issues driver's licenses, told AFP.

The DMV is one of many state offices to close on Friday, one of three unpaid leave days a month ordered for state workers to help the government reduce its expenses. The furloughs declared earlier this month are expected to save more than one billion dollars over the next year in California.

On Wednesday, authorities shut down most of the operations of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the largest court system in the country with approximately 100,000 people passing through its 600 courtrooms every day. Presiding Judge Charles McCoy said he was forced to take the step in anticipation of a 138-million-dollar funding shortfall for the fiscal year that began this month. "That is very significant," McCoy told the Los Angeles Times. "BUT I AM MOST WORRIED ABOUT WHAT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO NEXT, BECAUSE IT IS NOT GOING TO GET BETTER."

California, which is home to 37 million inhabitants, would be the world's seventh-largest economy if compared to other countries.

Home to the nation's struggling auto makers, Michigan has been clobbered by lost factory jobs. Its jobless rate of 15.2 percent in June was the highest in the country, but the record-high for the state was 16.9 percent in November 1982. Still, the government says it's the first time in 25 years that any state has suffered an unemployment rate of at least 15 percent. In 1984, it was West Virginia.

The national unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, a 26-year high, and is expected to hit 10 percent by year-end.

The number of banks on the FDIC's list of problem institutions leaped to 305 in the first quarter - the HIGHEST NUMBER SINCE 1994 DURING THE SAVINGS AND LOAN CRISIS - from 252 in the fourth quarter. The FDIC expects US bank failures to cost the insurance fund around $70 billion through 2013.

The May closing of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the insurance fund $4.9 billion, the second-largest hit since the financial crisis began. The costliest was the July 2008 seizure of big California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion.

The largest US bank failure ever also came last year: Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc fell in September, with about $307 billion in assets. It was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion in a deal brokered by the FDIC.

The world is on the verge of new manned exploration of the solar system – and, this time, environmentalists are backing it. Yesterday, the International Space Station, now as large as a four-storey house, yet speeding at 17,239mph, took on board the crew of the shuttle Endeavour: 12 men, one woman – seven Americans, two Russians, two Canadians, one Japanese and a Belgian. During a two-man space-walk, the crew added a four-ton porch – an outdoor shelf for experiments – to the station.

It is yet another small step in space exploration. But next month, a far bigger one could be taken. A panel of specialists will advise President Barack Obama on whether the US should embark on an ambitious 21st-century space programme that could see Americans return to the Moon, and eventually venture further to near-Earth asteroids and Mars. It is an issue that rouses not just space enthusiasts but those who think the world should have other, greener priorities.

Next year, China's first Mars probe will go into orbit around the planet after a 10-month, 236 million mile journey. There are also the lunar ambitions of India and Japan, plus the rivalry among companies for primitive commercial space flights.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace are vying with each other to make the first suborbital flights. Sir Richard has said that Virgin Galactic spaceships will be completed by December 2009 and are "on track to be carbon neutral", with paying passengers by 2011.

In a devastating attack on the regime, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leading cleric and former President, told a crowd at Tehran University that the Government had lost the people's trust. Referring to the handling of last month's disputed election, which President Ahmadinejad claims to have won, he said that the custodians of the Islamic Revolution had undermined its basic principles.

Hojatoleslam Rafsanjani condemned the brutal suppression of protests and called for the release of those detained during the post-election crackdown. The crowd acclaimed his address by chanting: "Death to the dictator" and "Leaders, give us arms". Police and pro-government Basij militiamen responded by firing teargas and using truncheons to break up the crowd, the largest street gathering in weeks. Mehdi Karoubi, one of the presidential candidates who claims that his votes were stolen last month, was assaulted by plainclothes militia.

Only a month ago, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, declared that the election debate was over and warned of consequences for those who questioned the victory of Mr Ahmadinejad, the conservative incumbent. MANY WITHIN THE CLERICAL ESTABLISHMENT SAW HIS BACKING OF ONE CANDIDATE AS A BETRAYAL OF HIS POSITION.

The Neturei Karta believe that A JEWISH STATE CAN ONLY BE ESTABLISHED BY THE MESSIAH and thus denounce Israel as heretic and embrace its enemies. Mr Haniya welcomed them, saying Hamas rejects Zionist ideology, not Jews. "We feel your suffering, we cry your cry," the Associated Press quoted Rabbi Yisroel Weiss as saying.

"It is your land, it is occupied, illegitimately and unjustly by people who stole it, kidnapped the name of Judaism and our identity." The representatives entered Gaza, which is under a strict Israeli embargo, with a convoy of activists who travelled through Egypt.

Once it stood simply for Police Constable. But now PC could equally mean Pagan Cop. Witches, druids and followers of the Norse gods in police forces throughout the country have persuaded the Home Office to let them set up a support group.

THE PAGAN POLICE ASSOCIATION WILL HELP OFFICERS WHO CAST SPELLS AND JOIN MIDNIGHT RITUALS TO FIT THEIR BELIEFS AROUND THEIR POLICE WORK.

In a surprise act of reconciliation with the playwright, the Holy See's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, praised the poet as a "LUCID ANALYST OF THE MODERN WORLD". Wilde, who was sent to prison for acts of gross indecency with Lord Alfred Douglas and later CONVERTED TO CATHOLICISM, has been regarded by the Roman Catholic Church in the century since his death as a dangerous degenerate and dissolute nonconformist.

But in an article published on Thursday, L'Osservatore declared that the author of The Importance of Being Earnest was more than "an aesthete and a lover of the ephemeral". The playwright was, instead, "one of the personalities of the 19th century who most lucidly analysed the modern world in its disturbing as well as its positive aspects", the Vatican newspaper said in a review of a new book about Wilde by an Italian author.

While acknowledging that Wilde, who died in 1900, was a rebel who delighted in shocking Victorian England, L'Osservatore said he was a profound thinker WHO SPENT HIS PROFESSIONAL LIFE ASKING "WHAT WAS TRUE AND WHAT WAS FALSE". In April 1895, Wilde sued Douglas's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, for libel, after the Marquis had accused him of being homosexual. Wilde lost and, after salacious details of his private life were revealed during the trial, was arrested and tried for gross indecency. He was sentenced to two years of hard labour in Reading Gaol.

"And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable," Biden said at the event on Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia "It's totally unacceptable. And it's completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can't do it financially. WE'RE GOING TO GO BANKRUPT AS A NATION," Biden said.

"Now, people when I say that look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?'" Biden said. "The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you." The event, sponsored by the AARP – which supports the Obama administration's plan – was attended by mostly AARP members who were bussed in for the meeting.