MOOSERIDER magazine

U.S. extends travel warning to Mexico over violence - Obama wants to ignore it for his own racial reasons

2012-02-10T17:36:00.001-05:00

Why expect Mexicans no to be violent here when they are so violent in Mexico. It is engendered!

It was the same in 1916, but at least we tried to stop the cross boarder raids then.

U.S. extends travel warning to Mexico over violence | Reuters

Feb 9, 2012

Spreading drug violence, kidnappings and carjackings in Mexico have led the State Department to increase the number of places it says Americans should avoid for safety reasons for the second time in less than a year.

A travel advisory issued this week urged U.S. citizens to avoid all but essential travel to 14 states in northern and central Mexico, warning that U.S. citizens have fallen victim to drug-cartel related activity "including homicide, gunbattles, kidnapping, carjacking and highway robbery." ...

The latest advisory cites concerns about parts of Aguascalientes, Guerrero and Nayarit in central Mexico, and raises its advisory against non-essential travel to include Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa and Zacatecas as well as Tamaulipas and Michoacan.

The State Department also maintained an April warning against non-essential travel to parts of Sonora, south of Arizona, and central Jalisco state, where drug cartel violence has become more widespread. ...

More than 47,500 people have been killed in Mexico since late 2006 when President Felipe Calderon took office and sent the Mexican armed forces to crush powerful cartels battling for lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

The State Department advisory noted that 130 Americans were reported murdered in Mexico last year, up from 111 in 2010 and 35 in 2007. Among recent atrocities have been a fire set by masked gunmen in a casino in Monterrey, Mexico's industrial capital in Nuevo Leon, that killed 52 people, mostly women.

In another high profile incident, a U.S. missionary couple from Colorado was killed at their home in the city earlier this month. The advisory urged travelers to the city to exercise "extreme caution."

-more at link-

Casandra warns beware of Greece’s ‘Austerity’ Plan

2012-02-10T09:01:00.000-05:00

There hasn’t been an austerity drive. Sacrifices have been demanded of taxpayers, such as a 217 percent rise in property taxes. And this deprivation has resulted in three years of negative growth—with a debt-to-GDP ratio set to approach 160 percent this year.

Greece’s ‘Austerity’ Plan Is Anything But | FrontPage Magazine

by Daniel Flynn On February 10, 2012

...A coalition of Greek political leaders came to an agreement on Thursday to narrow the chasm between revenues and receipts in hopes of paving the way for $172 billion in new loans from the European Union. But EU finance ministers balked at the proposal that contained very little in specified cuts for non-defense-related government expenditures. The European finance ministers demanded from the troubled nation $325 billion in new cuts and parliament’s preapproval of the plan before it will agree to a further bailout. Greece, which is already de facto in default since other nations are paying its creditors, stands to legally default on March 20 if it doesn’t receive a cash infusion.

The refusal to implement promised budgetary and economic structural reforms is a tacit admission that Greek politicians believe the debt crisis just isn’t their fault. This is a popular sentiment within Greece, muted only when going abroad with hat in hand. Foreign bankers, EU bureaucrats, and American capitalists are favorite scapegoats according to internal Greek rhetoric. If outsiders are to blame for the crisis, why should Greeks reform their economic system? It’s everyone else who has the problem, after all, not Greece.

This attitude manifests itself in periodic temper-tantrum street protests and strikes by state workers. Government officials behave similarly in refusing to cut state jobs and services lest they alienate voters and find themselves out of a job. The procrastination seems to be based on the hope that the EU will inflate the currency—as Greece so often did when it controlled its money in the past—and print away the nation’s debts. Given that one in ten Greeks, and one in four employed Greeks, calls government boss, the country’s political leaders have made it nearly impossible to institute meaningful reform. The politicians have bribed the populace into supporting big government, and the populace’s dependence on the behemoth state has made it politically suicidal for politicians to cut into it. Not doing what is personal political suicide is surely national political suicide...

-More at link-

'Howdy Doody's' Luker | Travel Costs To Indiana | Taxpayer Money

2012-02-09T16:58:00.002-05:00

Richard Lugar | Travel Costs To Indiana | Taxpayer Money | The Daily Caller

By Will Rahn - The Daily Caller 2-8-12

When Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar visits the Hoosier State, he often does it on the taxpayers’ dime.

The Daily Caller previously reported that Lugar, currently the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, has not owned a home in Indiana for over 30 years. However, Lugar is still registered to vote at 3200 Highwoods Court in Indianapolis, a property he sold in 1977.

Lugar, who now lives in Virginia, mostly spends his time in hotels during trips back to Indiana. And these trips, Fox News reports in a story citing Indiana Democratic Party research, have cost taxpayers nearly $50,000 in travel expenses.

"There was a crooked man" - Warren Buffett: Baptist and Bootlegger

2012-02-09T14:08:00.001-05:00

During the 2008 presidential campaign Buffett was mentioned as a candidate for Treasury secretary by both John McCain and Barack Obama. But it was clear where his loyalties lay: He had been a financial supporter of Barack Obama going back to 2004, when Obama ran for the U.S. Senate.
Several senators and congressmen were shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway and therefore in a position to earn big returns by passing the bailout bill.

Warren Buffett: Baptist and Bootlegger - Reason Magazine

How America’s favorite billionaire plays politics to make money

Peter Schweizer from the March 2012 issue

In 19th-century America, there was a concerted effort to ban alcohol sales on Sunday. “Blue laws,” intended to protect the sanctity and sobriety of the Sabbath, were pushed by what seemed like an odd alliance: Baptists and bootleggers. Baptists backed the ban publicly on moral and religious grounds, while the bootleggers lobbied for the ban privately to boost their own bottom lines. Blocking legal alcohol purchases for even one day each week meant more opportunities for their illegal sales. Bans were enacted state by state, and many blue laws still exist (in Arkansas, Indiana, Minnesota, and Mississippi, for example), although restrictions have been steadily disappearing in recent years. Economist Bruce Yandle immortalized the phrase “Bootleggers and Baptists” in a 1983 Regulation magazine article of the same name, making the point that ostensibly opposing sides will happily collude when it serves their mutual interests.

The old paradox continues in modern-day Washington. Politicians enrich their friends and allies—and sometimes themselves—by coming off as earnest “Baptists” for a worthy cause. Lobbyists for big corporate interests, by contrast, are widely considered bootleggers, no matter how nobly they cloak their arguments. This arrangement has created an opening for a third way: What if a capitalist could somehow manage to sound like a Baptist?

Consider Warren Buffett. Often seen as a grandfatherly figure above the rough-and-tumble of politics, Buffett appears to be immune to the folly and excess of finance as well. ...

-Read on at link-

Weenie World - LA County OKs $1,000 Fine For Throwing Football, Frisbee On Beaches

2012-02-09T13:10:00.000-05:00

They will fine the wings of a Sparrow next, if they don't tax them first.

LA County OKs $1,000 Fine For Throwing Football, Frisbee On Beaches « CBS Los Angeles

What doesn't Washington Foot the Bill For?

2012-02-09T13:02:00.000-05:00

Washington Footing the Cell Phone Bill for Millions of Low Income Americans - Yahoo! News

Wasters -its not their money! - Lawmakers from N.J. and N.Y. outraged over Port Authority spending, call for rollback of toll hike

2012-02-09T10:47:00.002-05:00

Quasi-government - not responsible to anyone and waste without any check.

Tolls in the tunnels are now $12 per car and toll takers sit in toll booths, even when it is EZ-Pass-only, and collect up to $100,000+ in pay a year.

Lawmakers from N.J. and N.Y. outraged over Port Authority spending, call for rollback of toll hike | NJ.com

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger

February 09, 2012

Citing an audit critical of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, lawmakers from the two states are calling on the two governors to back bills intended to boost accountability at the agency.

The lawmakers — New Jersey Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) and New York State Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) — are also calling for a rollback of the Port Authority toll hike imposed in September.

"Yesterday’s report on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is nothing short of an indictment of Port Authority operations," Lanza said in a statement Wednesday.

The report outlined the first phase of a financial review ordered by Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a condition of their approving a multi-year toll hike in August.

-more at link-

Caution, train wreck in progress

2012-02-09T09:36:00.004-05:00

The Unraveling of MF Global was a foretelling of the Inevitable Collapse of Greece

In September, MF Global Holdings Ltd.'s management sent a memo to the securities firm's 2,800 employees: Start printing on both sides of paper.

Now my opinion: Greece is screwed. The new debt accord won’t hold, austerity measures won’t be fully implemented, and the Greek government will formally default within six months. And stocks are rising as powerful people and organizations prop up share prices just long enough to unload their own positions, leaving the little guys to drown.

-Robert X. Cringely

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Caution, train wreck in progress - Cringely on technology

More news later today on my new/old book project, but for a moment let’s look at what’s happening in Greece, because I’ve become quite convinced that markets have gone completely mad and the world economy is about to suffer for that madness. In fact I am sure of it. That’s because stocks are up today on word of a second debt bailout for Greece — a bailout that has no more hope of standing than the one before it. Greece is bound to default, beginning a likely fall of economic dominoes across Europe. And while that news is not explicitly about technology, it will certainly affect all of us interested in technology, because Greece is screwed along with much of southern Europe....

The Greek budget deficit is stuck near 8-9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because the country’s economic base is shrinking so fast.

Yet shares are rising on markets across Europe supposedly on the idea that Greece will this time fulfill its obligations under the new debt accord — obligations that will continue until 2020 when the country will still be prostrate with public debt at 120 percent of GDP — if everything goes perfectly?

-read on at link-

No such thing - All a Big Hoax- Breaking Global Warming Taboos: 'I Feel Duped on Climate Change'

2012-02-09T06:58:00.001-05:00

The False Religion of Global Warming with its grand poobahs, 'climate heretics' and all!

Breaking Global Warming Taboos: 'I Feel Duped on Climate Change' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

2-8-12

Will reduced solar activity counteract global warming in the coming decades? That is what outgoing German electric utility executive Fritz Vahrenholt claims in a new book. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he argues that the official United Nations forecasts on the severity of climate change are overstated and supported by weak science.

The articulate utility executive is nervous at the beginning of the conversation. He is groping for words -- not a common occurrence for the practiced provocateur. After all, Fritz Vahrenholt, 62, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, has been a rebel throughout his life. "Perhaps it's just part of my generation," he says.

He is typical of someone who came of age during the student protest movement of the late 1960s, and who fought against the chemical industry's toxic manufacturing plants in the 1970s. His party, Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), chose him as environment senator in the city-state of Hamburg, where he incurred the wrath of the environmental lobby by building a waste incineration plant, earning him the nickname "Feuerfritze" (Fire Fritz). He worked in industry after that, first for oil multinational Shell and then for wind turbine maker RePower, which he helped develop. Now, as the outgoing CEO of the renewable energy group RWE Innogy, he is about to embark on his next major battle. "I'm going to make enemies in all camps," he says.

He wants to break a taboo. "The climate catastrophe is not occurring," he writes in his book "Die Kalte Sonne" (The Cold Sun), published by Hoffmann and Campe, which will be in bookstores next week.

He has only given the book to one climatologist, Jochem Marotzke, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, to read prior to its publication. Marotzke's assessment is clear: Vahrenholt represents the standpoints of climate skeptics. "A number of the hypotheses in the book were refuted long ago," Marotzke claims, but adds, on a self-critical note, that his profession has neglected to explain that global temperatures will not increase uniformly. Instead, says Marotzke, there could also be phases of stagnation and even minor declines in temperature. "This has exposed us to potential criticism," he says.

While books by climate heretics usually receive little attention, it could be different in Vahrenholt's case. "His fame," says Marotzke, "will ensure that there will be a debate on the issue."

-more at link-

Not Melting - Climate Hoax - Earth's Polar Ice Melting Less Than Thought

2012-02-09T06:49:00.002-05:00

They act shocked about believing their own lies!

Phony models resulted in phony results, what a surprise.

Earth's Polar Ice Melting Less Than Thought - US News and World Report

2-8-12 By JASON KOEBLER

Better technology yields better data. The bad news is the extra water from 2003-2010 would fill Lake Erie eight times

Nearly 230 billion tons of ice is melting into the ocean from glaciers, ice caps, and mountaintops annually—which is actually less than previous estimates, according to new research by scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

If the amount of ice lost between 2003 and 2010 covered the United States, the whole country would be under one-and-a-half feet of water, or it'd fill Lake Erie eight times, researchers say. Ocean levels worldwide are rising about six hundredths of an inch per year, according to researcher John Wahr.

-more of this limited story at link-

[How about the vast quantities of ice that is freezing?]

Forgetting Adam Smith at all our peril. Farewell to the Free Market?

2012-02-08T22:50:00.000-05:00

Every choice, but the right ones. They have failed to get out the way in a misguided attempt to replicate FDR, as taught in schools, how he saved America in the Depression. The reality was just the opposite. Unlike the romantic bilge perpetuated in American schools and economic texts, FDR failed miserably, perpetuating the economic failures throughout the depression and institutionalizing his failures with new, wasteful and regulatory bureaucracies.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? ♘

Farewell to the Free Market? by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal Winter 2012

Western governments have compounded the economic crisis by rejecting the one force that can end it.
Winter 2012

In the years leading up to 2007, the rules necessary to govern a flourishing market economy broke down, producing a financial and economic crisis. Rather than responding to the crisis by fixing those rules, the West aggressively repudiated market economics, and the repudiation continues to this day. Through their actions, which have lately involved everything from European debt to the American financial system to house prices in Britain, government officials around the world have revealed a disturbing assumption: that they can decide how to allocate resources better than markets can. No longer, it seems, do Western governments use investor signals as valuable feedback in devising effective policies; instead, they ignore those signals and plow ahead with their policymaking, leaving chaos in their wake. Often, in fact, public officials actively mute market signals in a vain but destructive attempt to impose their own will on struggling economies.

The rejection of markets helps explain the strange inertia of 2011. Across the free world, the year went out just the way it had come in. In December, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy convened a breakthrough summit to rescue Europe’s single currency and its debt-crushed nations from speculators—just as they had done a year earlier. President Barack Obama ended the year bickering with Congress over short-term stimulus measures to jump-start recovery—just as he had done a year earlier. British prime minister David Cameron concluded 2011 promising to do something about bank executives’ rewarding themselves with massive bonuses while refusing to lend to home buyers and small businesses . . . just as he had done in late 2010. Global stock indices were stuck in limbo, at best, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average listlessly flirting with 12,000 as 2011 came to a close, just as it had 12 months previously.

Western leaders’ attack on free markets has made perfect sense to them. After all, the dominant narrative of the crisis has described the alleged failure of capitalism. As Obama put it in a December speech, the Great Recession struck because “everybody [was] left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.” Sarkozy lamented back in 2008 that “financial capitalism” had “imposed its logic on the whole economy.” People close to Merkel tell reporters that she feels “duped” by investors. Yet free markets aren’t to blame for the various problems threatening Europe, America, and Britain, and abandoning market economics will weaken the West in ways that will be hard to reverse.

-read on at link-

Old news, very old news. John F Kennedy bought 1,200 Cuban cigars hours before he ordered US trade embargo

2012-02-08T18:40:00.000-05:00

John F Kennedy bought 1,200 Cuban cigars hours before he ordered US trade embargo | Mail Online

The Surreal World of Asma al-Assad

2012-02-08T14:07:00.000-05:00

The Rosett Report » The Surreal World of Asma al-Assad

by Claudia Rosett 2-7-12

In 2009, the Huffington Post featured a spread of her top fashion looks. A year ago, Vogue profiled her as a “Rose in the Desert,” with her Chanel necklace and Louboutin silk handbag. And just last March, she was patroness and keynote speaker at a Damascus conference of the Harvard Arab Alumni Club.

Then Syria erupted in revolt against the dynastic dictatorship of her husband, Bashar al-Assad, and Syria’s First Lady, Asma al-Assad, pretty much vanished from view. More than 5,000 Syrians have died, as the government has descended to the brute depths of shooting and shelling its own people, in its own cities — this brutality abetted by the Quds Force of Iran. For the past 11 months of mass protest and bloody repression, Asma al-Assad has been an elusive figure, rumored to be in London, then perhaps back in Syria, then reported last month as in Damascus but trying — unsuccessfully — to escape.

Now the Times of London is reporting having received an email from Asma, or at least from an intermediary in her office, saying her husband “is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role.” The Times is a subscribers-only site, but the Telegraph reports on the Times’s story, quoting the unverified email as saying that Asma’s “very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has been involved with” as well as “supporting the President as needed,” and “bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue” as she “listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.”

What to believe? Did Asma al-Assad actually author that email? Or authorize it? Did someone in her husband’s office decide it was time to put the First Lady on the record, again — for the first time in quite a while — as supporting the dictator?

-more at link-

Things that do matter to us - Why Does Arnold Bread Have Forty Different Kinds of bread?

2012-02-08T12:02:00.003-05:00

"There ought to be a law." But should it be for or against? Doesn't matter to our legislators and regulators (and judges too). They will pass two laws, one for and one against. Some laws will combine 'for' and 'against'. ♘

Re: Why Does Arnold Bread Have Forty Different Kinds of bread? - By Jim Manzi - The Corner - National Review Online

And what did I tell you!

CDC: Bread beats out chips as biggest salt source

Oppose taxes, cherish individual liberty? DHS & FBI say you’re a terrorist threat

2012-02-08T11:52:00.000-05:00

Oppose taxes, cherish individual liberty? DHS & FBI say you’re a terrorist threat « Creeping Sharia

Don't we little people need to be governed after all? Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress

2012-02-08T10:11:00.001-05:00

Drones in our towns, yards and homes!

Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress - Washington Times

By Shaun Waterman 2-7-12

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congresspassed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.

The FAA Reauthorization Act, which PresidentObama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well.

“There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also is “concerned about the implications for surveillance by government agencies,” said attorneyJennifer Lynch.

-more at link-

American micro-drones as small as a humming bird

American military engineers are developing a new generation of aerial micro-drones, shrinking the unmanned aircraft to the size of insects and birds.

In the 'Sundunce' Mode - Matt Damon Brings Howard Zinn to Life

2012-02-08T09:24:00.001-05:00

When dullards 'think' they are smart.

"Damoning" us down.

Matt Damon Brings Howard Zinn to Life | FrontPage Magazine

by Mark Tapson On February 8, 2012

Fourteen years ago in his breakout performance as an arrogant young genius in the movie Good Will Hunting, actor Matt Damon’s character sneered at his Boston psychiatrist for “surrounding yourself with all the wrong f**kin’ books. You wanna read a real history book, read Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. That book’ll f**kin’ knock you on your ass.”

That was from a script Damon himself had written (with fellow actor Ben Affleck, with Oscar-winning rewrite assistance from famed screenwriter William Goldman). It reflected Damon’s own real-life admiration for self-proclaimed radical historian Howard Zinn, whom he is still actively promoting today, almost two years to the day after Zinn’s death.

Damon went on to co-produce a documentary entitled “The People Speak,” based on A People’s History and Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which Zinn co-edited with anti-war-on-terror socialist Anthony Arnove. Other Hollywood folk like Josh Brolin, Marisa Tomei, Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen, Rosario Dawson, and Kerry Washington lent their star power to it for a History Channel premiere back in 2009.

On January 31^st, actor/activist Damon lent his name and voice to a live performance in Chicago called “The People Speak, Live!” Composed of songs and dramatic readings based on the actual words of, as the organizers put it, “rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from America’s past,” the show was part of an ongoing program to promote Zinn’s subversive work.

Zinn was arguably the most popular proponent of the “history from below” school of historiography, which explores past events from the perspective of everyday people as opposed to the “Great Men” theory, which actor Brolin, another Zinn devotee, calls mere “propaganda.” Zinn’s 1980 book A People’s History of the United States, one of the best-selling history books of all time thanks partly to the influence of pop culture powerhouses like Damon, Brolin, and the rock group Pearl Jam, is a litany of oppression and exploitation on the part of America’s white ruling class, a “raggedly conceived Marxist caricature” of American history, as David Horowitz calls it in his Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left.

Zinn’s book is as ubiquitous in high school and university classrooms as sexual tension. His website proudly asserts that “no other radical historian has reached so many hearts and minds.” Well certainly, no other has darkened as many young hearts toward America and clouded as many young minds with utter disdain for facts and objectivity.

-read on at link-

The Picture of Dorian Sebelius - so nice and normal outwardly, but wherein hangs the true picture

2012-02-07T12:03:00.001-05:00

Sebelius’s ‘Balance’ - By Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner - National Review Online

Why Does President Obama Dislike Freedom Of Conscience?

2012-02-07T11:55:00.000-05:00

Because it does not fit into group think!

"Take that, you moron rube," is Obamathink.

Why Does President Obama Dislike Freedom Of Conscience? - Forbes

Doug Bandow, 2-6-12

Authoritarian liberalism has taken over Obama administration policy. People must be forced to accept anything and everything in the name of tolerance. The only valid belief is no belief. Acting on one’s faith must be punished.

Such is the impact of the new Department of Health and Human Services ruling on birth control (as well as abortifacients, or “morning after” pills, and sterilization procedures). Even religious organizations must provide policies offering full coverage with no shared payment. Never mind if the people involved believe that contraception is morally wrong.

ObamaCare, which vastly expands federal control over American health care, suffers manifold flaws. One of the most obvious is further taking insurance out of “health insurance.”

-more at link-

Ginsberg and Breyer both hate the rights of the people and limits on government - Trashing the Constitution

2012-02-07T11:32:00.002-05:00

Trashing the Constitution | FrontPage Magazine

By Joseph Klein On February 7, 2012

Every Supreme Court justice is required, under Article VI of the United States Constitution, to be bound by his or her oath or affirmation “to support this Constitution.” Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has just broken this commitment by insulting, in front of a foreign audience, the very document she is sworn to support.

In an interview during her visit to Cairo, which aired January 30, 2012 on Al-Hayat TV, Justice Ginsburg advised the Egyptian people to ignore the U.S. Constitution in preparing their own new constitution. It’s just too “old,” she said. Instead, Justice Ginsburg lavished praise on several post-World War II foreign documents such as the South African constitution, Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the European Convention on Human Rights.

“I might look at the constitution of South Africa,” Justice Ginsburg said. It is “a great piece of work that was done.”

“You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights,” she continued.

As for her own country’s constitution, Justice Ginsburg said she “would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a new constitution in 2012.”

Quite the contrary. Justice Ginsburg believes that contemporary foreign laws and decisions should be used by her and other Supreme Court justices in determining the meaning of provisions of our own constitution.

-read on at link-

http://www.pjtv.com/s/HAYDCNI

Justice Breyer: Founding Fathers Were for Gun Control

Déjà Jimmy Carter All Over Again

2012-02-07T11:22:00.000-05:00

It is remarkable, as much as it is being down played.

Been there once, but will the correct results happen again:

- Getting the hostages back!

- Getting rid of Obama (at least from the executive office)

The press will cover-up all they can for this incompetent and the Republican candidates don't hold a candle to Ronals Reagan, so it will be tight. ♘

Jimmy Carter All Over Again | FrontPage Magazine

Robert Spencer On February 7, 2012

The Egyptian Government has released the names of nineteen American citizens that it intends to prosecute for their role in fomenting anti-government protests – a charge they deny. Protests from the American Government have so far been futile, met with sneers of contempt.

The echoes are unmistakable. On November 4, 1979, Iranian thugs stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage. Jimmy Carter’s government wrung its hands in futility for the next fourteen months, until finally the Islamic Republic released the hostages on January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan took office as President of the United States.

The bitter irony in all that was that Carter had betrayed the Shah of Iran, a longtime U.S. ally, and thereby paved the way for the ascent to power of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian mullahcracy that has ruled Iran ever since. Rather than feel gratitude toward Carter, however, Khomeini viewed his abandonment of the Shah as a sign of weakness, and pressed forward with his jihad against the Great Satan.

Iran has maintained a hostile posture toward the United States ever since then, including gleeful predictions of our nation’s imminent demise. Just days ago, Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, declared to an enthusiastic Tehran crowd that “in light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan (America) will soon be defeated….Allah’s promises will be delivered and Islam will be victorious.”

As the Iranian regime inches ever closer toward constructing nuclear weapons, as even Hillary Clinton has acknowledged it is trying to do, these words become more than just empty braggadocio and saber-rattling. The U.S. and Israel have one man to thank for the advent of a genocide-minded regime that considers them both the most implacable of enemies, is not deterred by the prospect of millions of its own people dead, and is racing toward completion of a nuclear weapon.

That man, of course, is Jimmy Carter. And from the looks of recent events, he is back in the White House.

In June 2009, when Barack Obama made his notorious appeal to the Muslim world from Cairo, he specifically stipulated that leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood be allowed to attend – despite the fact that at that time the Brotherhood was still an outlawed group. Last March, as the “Arab Spring” uprisings toppled the sclerotic and brutal regime of Hosni Mubarak, Obama hailed “the peaceful transition to democracy in both Tunisia and in Egypt.” As the regime fell, Obama exulted: “We’ve borne witness to the beginning of new chapter in the history of a great country and a longtime partner of the United States.”

At the same time, Obama signaled his willingness to open talks with the Muslim Brotherhood, and gave every indication that he would not oppose the establishment of an Islamic state in Egypt. ...

-Read on at link-

Here is Detroit!

2012-02-07T10:09:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Gags and Mark Wilson the photographer.

Evaluation: The Ruins of Detroit

"What is the one constant in Detroit, all of these years? It's been run by liberals. Liberal ideology. Liberal economics. Liberal belief system. Detroit, other places: A microcosm of where Europe is, and where we are headed — unchecked, unstopped liberalism. For those of you who like the Democrat Party, that’s where we are headed. There hasn’t been any opposition there, not of any strength or power. Take a look. That’s the one thing that is constant. It was the same thing in New Orleans, post-Katrina. What’s the one thing that was constant there? All run by liberals. All run by Democrats." ~ Rush Limbaugh

Detroit, industrial capital of the XXth Century, played a fundamental role shaping the modern world. The logic that created the city also destroyed it. Nowadays, unlike anywhere else, the city’s ruins are not isolated details in the urban environment. They have become a natural component of the landscape. Detroit presents all archetypal buildings of an American city in a state of mummification. Its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great Empire.

Source...

The Gov't thinks we are stupid and can just feed us BS - Detroit ‘Comeback' Ad Filmed in New Orleans, L.A.

2012-02-07T09:55:00.001-05:00

This administration is worse than most, but it is typical of the bureaucratic 'we know best' attititude that pervades all levels of government. They think they can tell us anything they want and we have to take it.

Don't believe them, they are the biggest liars of all! Maybe the "Halftime in America" Ad should be called "Halfassed in America" like the programs it supported. ♘

Detroit ‘Comeback' Ad Filmed in New Orleans, L.A. | The Weekly Standard

Not Detroit.

FEB 6, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER

One of the most popular Super Bowl advertisements last night was the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood, titled “Halftime in America.”

The spot is supposed to be encouraging, as it focuses on the resilience of Detroit. “It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half,” Eastwood says in the spot. “It’s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared, because this isn’t a game. The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together, now Motor City is fighting again.”

But contrary to what the might ad suggest, the spot was actually filmed in New Orleans and Los Angeles. “Yes, part of it was filmed in New Orleans . . . and some was filmed in various parts—such as Los Angeles,” Dianna Gutierrez said. She specifically points to the tunnel scenes as being taken at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, while the stadium shots were in New Orleans.

-the ad and more at the link-

Guess Who Made and the Guess Who Paid for the Most Expensive Two Minutes of TV Advertising?

You paid for this high priced pantload!

... Still, the advertising agency that created the commercial — Wieden + Kennedy — has members who have designed Obama campaign items or who have worked on behalf of Democratic causes.

The creative minds behind the ad are in the agency’s Portland, Ore., branch. Aaron Allen designed a poster for the 2008 Obama campaign and Jimm Lasser designed a basketball sneaker called the “Obama Force One,” with an image of the president on the soles and the message “A Black Man Runs and a Nation Is Behind Him.” Lasser displayed the shoe in a 2008 gallery exhibition with the tagline “The Dunk on McCain.”

Elsewhere at Wieden + Kennedy, which has Kraft and Coca-Cola on its client list, global public relations director Joani Wardwell worked in the press office of the Clinton White House. She started as a grassroots organizer for Democratic causes in the early 1990s and continues to do political consulting.

“I’ve managed to always keep my toe dipped in the water that way,” she said in 2009.

The Wieden + Kennedy spot set itself apart in two ways: its length — two minutes, compared with the standard 30 seconds — and its powerful message. ...

- more at link-

Portrait of the Major Obama Donors - Tied to Pepe Cardona, Mexican Fugitive

2012-02-07T09:41:00.000-05:00

It speaks for itself, pay to play.

Major Obama Donors Are Tied to Pepe Cardona, Mexican Fugitive - NYTimes.com

February 6, 2012 By MIKE McINTIRE

Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who fled drug and fraud charges in the United States and has been seeking a pardon enabling him to return have emerged as major fund-raisers and donors for President Obama’s re-election campaign.

The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico. A State Department cable in 2009 said he was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials.

When The New York Times asked the Obama campaign early Monday about the Cardonas, officials said they were unaware of the brother in Mexico. Later in the day, the campaign said it was refunding the money raised by the family, which totaled more than $200,000.

As recently as January of last year, one of Mr. Cardona’s brothers in Chicago, Carlos Rojas Cardona, arranged for the former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party to seek a pardon from the governor for Pepe Cardona, according to prosecutors in that state. None was forthcoming.

Last fall, Carlos Cardona and another brother in Chicago, Alberto Rojas Cardona, began raising money for the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

-more at link-

Crushed to Death by Red Tape

2012-02-07T09:28:00.001-05:00

"The problem is not red tape but the core notion that the government has the right to tell people what they can do with their property based on some subjective notion of what is “historic.” If people want to protect historic properties, they should privately buy them."

Crushed to Death by Red Tape » The Antiplanner

2-7-12

posted in Follow up, News commentary |

The Antiplanner’s friend, Ann Brower, barely survived last February’s earthquake in Christchurch when a building fell on her bus, killing the driver and seven other passengers as well as four pedestrians. Now it turns out that the building had been known to be unsafe for nearly 30 years. The owner wanted to demolish it but couldn’t because the city considered it a “heritage building” and any work on it had to tramp through mountains of red tape.

Brower testified before a Royal Commission last week, and noted in a radio interview that numerous experts considered the building unsafe.

The city, of course, denies that red tape was a problem even though it can take six months to obtain consent to demolish or modify a building that the city has declared to be historic. Moreover, despite continuing earthquakes in Christchurch, historic preservationistsmoan that historic buildings are “losing the battle against the bulldozers.”

Brower pointed out that the New Zealand parliament had actually given the city the power to accelerate the process of approving demolitions, but the city considered such authority “draconian” and rarely if ever used it. City officials were obviously hoping that, if they stalled long enough, the owner would repair the building instead of tear it down.

-more at link-

Gestapo in the US - Public surveillance from private property questioned

2012-02-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

What about the real threat from Muslim terrorism?

Public surveillance from private property questioned - Washington Times

By Andrea Noble 2-5-12

When D.C. police began installing surveillance cameras in neighborhoods more than five years ago as crime-fighting tools, privacy concerns voiced by civil liberties groups limited their scope and use.

Now a less-formal agreement from a citizens association planning to expand the Metropolitan Police Department’s watchful eye in Georgetown over the next few months is hitting a similar hurdle.

The Citizens Association of Georgetown, a private neighborhood association, plans to pay for the installation of up to 10 cameras in the hopes that the additional surveillance will deter crime.

“The No. 1 thing we would like is deterrence,” said Diane Colasanto, a member of the association’s public safety committee. “We just want crime not to happen here. But if crimes are committed, we hope the images from the cameras are images police can use.”

The Georgetown group’s cameras will tape public spaces such as streets and sidewalks, and video that could be used to solve a crime will be turned over to police, the group’s members said. The cameras will be located on private property, such as in residents’ yards, and as a result they will skirt the stringent rules imposed on the police department’s closed-circuit camera system.

-read on link-

FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists

By Patrick Temple-West

WASHINGTON | Mon Feb 6, 2012

Reuters) - Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Routine encounters with police can turn violent "at the drop of a hat," said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI's counterterrorism division.

-more of this at link-

One Could Only Hope It Were True - Egyptian TV: Poisoned Zionist Jeans From Israel Cause Infertility!

2012-02-06T17:46:00.000-05:00

Egyptian TV: Poisoned Zionist Jeans From Israel Cause Infertility! — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami

Governor Christie’s Judicial Missteps - By Carrie Severino - Bench Memos - National Review Online

2012-02-06T17:33:00.000-05:00

Governor Christie’s Judicial Missteps - By Carrie Severino - Bench Memos - National Review Online

Here is the real Armageddon of 2012 - at the Strip Mall

2012-02-06T17:02:00.002-05:00

Those 5 years term commercial office, retail and industrial leases signed in the go go boom of 2007 are about to expire this year!

Armageddon at the Strip Mall - By Kevin D. Williamson - Exchequer - National Review Online

February 4, 2012

Five years: Seems like it was only yesterday. By my always-suspect English-major math, that means that a whole bunch of commercial mortgages written at that poisonous sweet spot when prices were highest but lending standards were lowest are coming due . . . oh, any minute now.

In New York City alone, there’s about $70 billion worth of commercial mortgages — some of which have been sold off as mortgage-backed securities, naturally — coming due this year. The national total is more than $150 billion, or a bit more than 1 percent of U.S. GDP. That’s going to be a little awkward: The value of U.S. commercial properties has declined by an average of 45.7 percent since their all-time high in 2007, according to Real Capital Analytics. Those 2007 vintage loans weren’t exactly bulletproof: Typical terms included a 20 percent down payment and a five-year payment schedule that required little more than interest payments. An $80 million mortgage on a $100 million property is not so bad, but an $80 million mortgage on what is now a $60 million property is a problem. More than half of the 2007-vintage loans are expected to have trouble refinancing, and maybe well more than half.

This is true even for borrowers who have never missed a payment. Banks are required to take into account a number of factors when rating commercial mortgages. One of the most important is the loan-to-value ratio, which has a lot of borrowers over a particularly uncomfortable barrel: They may have the cash to make their payments, and they may have the cash flow to continue making payments on a refinanced loan, but their properties still are worth less than their mortgages, so nobody wants to refinance. And those are the lucky ones: Just as those loans were mostly for five years, most commercial leases are for about the same length of time. With retail and office-space rentals down, lots of commercial borrowers are sitting on largely vacant properties that are not producing much in the way of cash flow. Among the more high-profile cases, the WTC 3 tower at the World Trade Center still has not located an anchor tenant, which could put the much of the project on ice. Thousands of strip malls across the fruited plains have empty storefronts, and thousands of office buildings have floor upon vacant floor.

Standard & Poor’s advises: “One-third of maturing loans are for office properties, for which five-year lease terms are fairly common — and if tenants don’t renew these leases, securing new, long-term lease commitments may be more difficult in the current environment. Those leases [were] signed in 2007, at peak rents will likely reset to lower levels as five-year leases roll.” S&P’s bottom line: “50%-60% of the 2007 vintage five-year-term loans maturing next year may fail to refinance, and retail loans are at the greatest risk.”

Translation: Armageddon at the strip mall.

-read on at link-

Bernanke’s Housing-Market Meddling Tarnishes Trust

2012-02-06T16:00:00.000-05:00

Constant meddling to save themselves and their buddies.

Shlaes: Bernanke’s Housing-Market Meddling Tarnishes Trust - Bloomberg

By Amity Shlaes Jan 18, 2012

In 2009, an economist named Paola Sapienza came up with an image to describe the challenge the U.S. economy faced after the financial crisis. The economy was like a board game, Sapienza, a professor atNorthwestern University, told me. Especially like the old favorite “Monopoly.”

Despite the name, “Monopoly” isn’t really about antitrust. It’s about trust. Trust and commerce, Sapienza said. If people want to buy properties, if renters pay their rents and the bank acts predictably, then the game will move merrily forward, and hotels will replace houses on the board.

But if the bank can’t be trusted -- if it cheats or proves too erratic -- there is a problem. The players walk away from the table.

-read on link-

Sipsey Street Irregulars: Sipsey Street Exclusive: Deception Plan. The Gunwalker Conspiracy was not, and is not, primarily an ATF scandal, although you are meant to think it is.

2012-02-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

Read this here

Sipsey Street Irregulars: Sipsey Street Exclusive: Deception Plan. The Gunwalker Conspiracy was not, and is not, primarily an ATF scandal, although you are meant to think it is.

Didn't this BS start with the media sucking up to Jesse Jackson? - Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'

2012-02-06T11:08:00.001-05:00

My favorite faux pas with this contrivance came from Geraldo Rivera. On his old CNBC panel show he was interviewing a lovely black lady. Rivera asked her for an "African-American" perspective.

She promptly corrected the PC buffoon Rivera by saying, "I'm not African-American, I'm English."

Newsvine - Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'

JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer 2-4-12

— The labels used to describe Americans of African descent mark the movement of a people from the slave house to the White House. Today, many are resisting this progression by holding on to a name from the past: "black."

For this group — some descended from U.S. slaves, some immigrants with a separate history — "African-American" is not the sign of progress hailed when the term was popularized in the late 1980s. Instead, it's a misleading connection to a distant culture.

The debate has waxed and waned since African-American went mainstream, and gained new significance after the son of a black Kenyan and a white American moved into the White House. President Barack Obama's identity has been contested from all sides, renewing questions that have followed millions of darker Americans:

What are you? Where are you from? And how do you fit into this country?

"I prefer to be called black," said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. "How I really feel is, I'm American."

--more at link-

After 9/11, why does the Gov't not believe these fanatics? Ayatollah: Kill all Jews, annihilate Israel

2012-02-06T10:41:00.000-05:00

It is as plain as day. The leaders of the Muslims of Iran want to kill all of us in the west, even if all Iranians are forced to die in their fanatical goals. As usual, these sick minded Islamic leaders protect themselves from harm and make sure their subject's make all their sacrifices.

The Obama administration, with its rorting its disputes with Israel to the press, set this new "justification" in motion.

Ayatollah: Kill all Jews, annihilate Israel

2-6-11 By Reza Kahlili

Iran lays out legal case for genocidal attack against 'cancerous tumor'

The Iranian government, through a website proxy, has laid out the legal and religious justification for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its people.

The doctrine includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide.

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a “‘jurisprudential justification” to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues.

-go to link-

Usually our enemies get our classified information from the New York Times

2012-02-05T09:59:00.001-05:00

Panetta’s Biggest Worry

The Rosett Report

By Claudia Rosett On February 3, 2012

So, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta just told told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius that his biggest worry right now is that Israel will attack Iran in the next few months. Panetta then spelled out that the likeliest window for an Israeli attack would be April, May or June, before Iran stores enough enriched uranium deep enough underground so that only the U.S. would have the ability to stop the bomb-making. Perhaps Iran should send him a thank you note for the information?

Let’s hope that Panetta had some brilliant hidden agenda in talking like this to the press; perhaps a secret plan for imminent American air strikes that would render an Israeli attack unnecessary, or cover for an Israeli plan to attack tonight. But more likely Panetta simply meant what he said, and he meant to say it. In other words, while Iran keeps building the bomb, his biggest worry is how to stop Israel from acting in its own defense.

That’s fine if you’re dead certain that within the next few months Iran’s regime is either going to collapse, or throw wide open its nuclear program — a la Qaddafi — and invite the U.S. in to pick up the entire nuclear kit and haul it off to be examined at leisure in Tennessee. Does anyone believe that? The immediate collapse of the Tehran regime is a long shot. The notion of the Tehran regime amiably surrendering its nuclear program is utterly improbable, especially after the NATO-assisted demise of Qaddafi — who, had he held on to his nuclear kit, in the manner of North Korea, might have avoided being killed like a rat near a Libyan drainpipe. (Note: Qaddafi survived for years under sanctions. What persuaded him to give up his nuclear program was fear of suffering the fate of Saddam Hussein. What finally brought him down was use of force.)

-read on at link-

Wonder if this happened because of the technology Iran got from the Chinese, who got it from the Clinton Administration

2012-02-05T09:46:00.001-05:00

The Obama administration's foreign policy has consisted of apologising for the US-for-exisitng to our stated and sworn enemies, insulting our friends England and Israel, allowing Mexico to dictate our immigration policy while snubbing Canadian support for our own energy, supporting and funding Brazilian off-shore drilling (Geo. Soros investment) and preventing all American drilling, supporting the anti-west Muslim Brotherhood over pro-west Mubarak in Egypt, calling for the overthrow of Qaddafi only after France, Italy and England supported the rebellion, and only after he thought it looked politically beneficial to Obama (without Congressional approval) bombing parts of Libya would take a month only. Doing nothing in Syria, hoping the UN would, so Obama could take credit.

So now what has he wrought, the Middle East is firmly in the hands of the Muslim brotherhood and Hamas, all enemies surrounding Israel and all anti-American. Oh yes, Obama gave approval to the Navy Seals to kill Obama bin Laden... Osama Obama ... Osama bin Laden. This was the Bush policy he followed (and for once did not blame Bush or give him credit) and is now putting it out front as his major foreign policy achievement. ♘

And now this, not to mention the Ostrich style policy in dealing with the Iranian A-bomb. ♘

Iran reports launch of small satellite into orbit

News from The Associated Press (who never know what year it is)

Feb 3, 2012 By NASSER KARIMI

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran successfully launched a new small satellite into orbit early Friday, state media reported, the latest in the country's ambitious space program that has raised concerns in the West because of its possible military applications.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called in to the launch site, saying he was "hopeful this act will send a signal of more friendship among all human beings," the official IRNA news agency reported.

IRNA said the domestically-made satellite, Navid, or Gospel, was designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor for natural disasters.

It said the satellite weighs about 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and would orbit Earth at an altitude of up to 234 miles (375 kilometers), circling the planet 15 times a day. It's of a type known as miniaturized or microsatellites, which are cheaper to produce and allow for less costly launch vehicles. ...

[In a 'gee they can't do that, it's against the UN rule' moment.]

In Washington, a State Department official said the technology used in the Safir rocket was "critical" to the development of a long-range ballistic missile and that its use violated a 2010 U.N. resolution prohibiting Iran from conducting launches using ballistic missile technology.

-more at link-

Absolutely Clueless!!!! Obama urges Congress to fix housing problem, tax banks

2012-02-04T21:45:00.002-05:00

Is this pap for the consumption of fools? Nothing like this in his plans has ever worked.

Obama has no idea where money is generated. Taxing is confiscatory, legalized theft.

Unfortunately for all of us, Obama believes money and jobs are generated by the government. He really thinks that all things come from the government and we are his subjects. This guy is scary and unteachable. ♘

Obama urges Congress to fix housing problem, tax banks - Washington Times

by Dave Boyer-The Washington Times Saturday, February 4, 2012

President Obama told underwater homeowners Saturday that their ability to refinance their mortgages is in the hands of a do-nothing Congress.

"In order to lower mortgage payments for millions of Americans, we need Congress to act," Mr. Obama said in his weekly address. "And as anyone who has followed the news in the last six months can tell you, getting Congress to do anything these days is not an easy job."

The president is pushing a plan that will cost up to $10 billion to allow homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth to refinance their mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration. It would save the average homeowner about $3,000 per year, according to administration estimates. About 3.5 million homeowners would qualify.
Mr. Obama first detailed the program Wednesday during a visit to a community center in Falls Church, Va.

The program would be funded through a new tax on big banks. In his address, the president called it "a small fee" that "doesn't add a dime to the deficit." Congress has rejected the tax on banks twice in the past two years, including in 2010 when Democrats controlled the House and Senate.

-read on at link-

Marx, Jesus, or Obama, Who Are You Going To Believe

2012-02-04T15:49:00.003-05:00

While walking on water, Obama talks to Chauncey Gardener and thinks Jesus wants us to pay higher taxes. Obama thinks he talks to Jesus. He talks to Mohammad. He talks too much. ♘

Marx, Jesus, or Obama, Who Are You Going To Believe - Page 1 - Floyd and Mary Beth Brown - Townhall Conservative

2-4-12 Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

President Obama has hit a new low. By promoting his reasoning for hiking taxes on the rich at the National Prayer Breakfast, he diminished the seriousness of his proposals and manipulated Jesus' teachings for his own political purposes.

Listening to Obama talk about taxation almost as a form of worship was beyond the bounds as he said, "For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required." He was quoting and distorting the Gospel of Luke and the Parable of the Faithful Servant. And, as Christians, we are greatly grieved by what Obama has done.

Obama is quoting a small portion of a lengthy answer given by Christ in response to a question by St. Peter. Here is a more complete version of Christ's dialogue from the New International Version:

"Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth; he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, 'My master is taking a long time in coming,' and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

-more at link-

We need to be more careful of the roots of Fascism and Communism

2012-02-04T10:28:00.002-05:00

Here is the insight from Christopher Hitchens.

IT IS NOT THEIR PLACE NOR JOB! GOP freshman fights Obama's soda crusade

2012-02-04T09:54:00.002-05:00

This is a small case where the big trouble with government lies.

GOP freshman fights Obama's soda crusade - Washington Times

By Susan Crabtree

Friday, February 3, 2012 The Washington Times

...Republican congressman from Tennessee is fighting back against anti-obesity ad campaigns initiated by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats that target sugary soft drinks and other high-calorie food.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, who is also a medical doctor, is arguing that, in the middle of difficult economic times, it’s absurd for the federal government to be spending billions of dollars demonizing certain foods and trying to affect people’s personal dietary choices.

The president’s 2009 stimulus bill included $230 million for community-level anti-obesity campaigns, known as “Communities Putting Prevention to Work,” which sent grant money to 31 states for advertising that often attacked the nutritional value of fast food and sodas. Under President Obama’s health care overhaul, the program was made permanent, fully authorized and with target funding of $15 billion over 10 years.

Mr. DesJarlais, who sits on the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee, is pushing a bill that would prohibit the use of federal money for advertising campaigns against any food or beverage that is deemed safe and lawful by the federal government.

-read on at link-

Objects may appear smaller than they actually are - Honda Hounded

2012-02-04T09:45:00.000-05:00

The American Spectator : Honda Hounded

By ERIC PETERS on 2.3.12

It is the federal government.

The government -- in this case, the EPA -- takes a new car, then runs it through its test loop. Mileage figures are posted on the window sticker based on these tests, which are by nature subjective. Hence the caveat, in plain standard English: Your mileage will vary. Note, not may.

Will.

The exact wording is as follows:

"Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle [italics added]."

And just under the big "best case" mileage numbers, in smaller type, one finds a range of "expected mileage." As an example, this week I am test-driving a new Fiat 500C. The "best case" number is 32 MPG highway. But underneath this is a range of "expected mileage" between a low of 26 MPG and an even higher high of 38 MPG.

In other words, your mileage will vary.

Unfortunately for Honda -- and potentially every other seller of hybrid cars and perhaps cars, period -- there are a lot of people out there who cannot read and comprehend the meaning of plain English and worse, assume everything the government tells them must be true, since it's the government that's telling it to them. Thus, they become angry when reality disabuses them -- but unfortunately, they channel their anger toward the wrong party.

-read on at link-

The Cancer Grows - Israel, U.S. Divided Over Timing of Potential Military Strike Against Iran

2012-02-04T09:20:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, Obama is apparently willing to give up Israel to appease Iran.

Israel, U.S. Divided Over Timing of Potential Military Strike Against Iran - Bloomberg

by Nicole Gaouette and Jonathan Ferziger - Feb 3, 2012

The U.S. and Israel are publicly disagreeing over timing for a potential attack on Iran’s disputed nuclear facilities, as that nation’s leader said it won’t back down.

The U.S. and Israel have a “significant analytic difference” over estimates of how close Iran is to shielding its nuclear program from attack, Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, said today.

“There’s a growing concern -- more than a concern -- that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge,” he said in an interview.

The differing views were underscored by public comments this week by senior Israeli and U.S. defense officials....

... Tension between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be complicating communications on the issue, a U.S. defense official said. “There’s no love lost between the two of them, and there’s a trust deficit,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the news media. ...

-read on at link-

Holder is a racist and arrogant liar who thinks he is above the law

2012-02-03T09:32:00.002-05:00

Holder to Puerto Rican Rep: 'Wherever you're from' | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner

byDavid Freddoso Online Opinion Editor 2-2-12

If you need confirmation that Republicans on the House Oversight committee got under Attorney General Eric Holder's skin today at the hearing on Fast and Furious, just look at this response he gave to Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, who grilled Holder about his own previous statements.

Specifically, note Holder's comment that "maybe this is the way you do things in Idaho, or wherever you're from."

Holder is upset. How dare a white boy (Puerto Rican) from Idaho, "or wherever you're from," 'dis me!'

But Holder never answered the questions.

He's as advanced as every 13 year-old girl - Media Swoon Over ‘Techie’ Obama

2012-02-03T08:07:00.002-05:00

He wants to 'friend' everybody and then watch their every move and word.

Media Swoon Over ‘Techie’ Obama | FrontPage Magazine

President Obama’s pals in the media are at it again, this time cheering Team Obama’s command of the latest technology. One outlet is entranced by the Obama campaign’s use of Google+ to conduct “the first completely digital interview from the White House.” A mobile technology news site declares that “President Obama’s decision to use Google+” and “embrace of social media…enhances his reputation as a tech-savvy commander-in-chief.” Another media outlet gushes that the Obama campaign represents “the first national political adoption” of mobile credit card readers. Yet anothermarvels at how “President Obama has Twittered, Googled and Facebooked millions of American voters.” Fast Company expects Team Obama “to storm into new digital territory in the upcoming race,” thanks to the Obama campaign’s hiring of “uber-hipster and tech rebel Harper Reed as the organization’s chief technology officer.” Calling Obama “the Google-style candidate,” The Financial Times adds, with a sense of fait accompli, “Mr. Obama’s campaign Facebook page already has 24m friends.” Translation: Why even bother trying to challenge our tech-savvy, with-it, and above-all, hip commander-in-chief?

This all calls to mind some of the nonsense said early in the Age of Obama.

A Computer Weekly column, for instance, praised “Obama’s technology presidency,” declared the new president a “technology-savvy leader” and applauded Obama for “leadership by example” in the area of information technology.

Perhaps worst of all was a piece penned by Anna Quindlen mocking John McCain because he “doesn’t text-message or have a BlackBerry or use e-mail.” The next president of the United States needs to be a “techie,” she declared, because “Americans cannot afford” a president who is “out of it”—and because America’s national security depends on it. “If Osama bin Laden beat us with a laptop,” Quindlen queried, “shouldn’t we at least have a president who is reasonably conversant with one?”

The short answer was then—and remains today: “Not necessarily.” Being a “techie” is not a prerequisite for being president.

These Country Club Rinos are as corrupt and power hungry as the Dems and not to be trusted - Big-Government Republicans

2012-02-02T22:58:00.000-05:00

Big-Government Republicans - Andrew C. McCarthy - National Review Online

Atlas Shrugged all over again - Getting Nowhere, Very Fast

2012-02-02T22:56:00.000-05:00

Getting Nowhere, Very Fast - Thomas Sowell - National Review Online

Fast and Furious Questioning | Eric Holder Hearing | Zoning Out

2012-02-02T19:46:00.000-05:00

Fast and Furious Questioning | Eric Holder Hearing | Zoning Out | The Daily Caller

Matthew Boyle 2-2-12

Attorney General Eric Holder stopped paying attention during a line of questioning from Tennessee Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais in the middle of Thursday’s House oversight committee hearing about Operation Fast and Furious.

DesJarlais introduced a graphic titled “Fortress Holder” that visualized how Holder’s Department of Justice has stonewalled congressional document requests.

“You said you were notified probably within 24 hours of [Border Patrol] agent [Brian] Terry’s death, is that what I heard you say?” DesJarlais asked Holder, referring to the border guard who was murdered with a weapon the U.S. government intentionally allowed to disappear into Mexico.

Holder didn’t respond.

“Sir?” DesJarlais followed up.

“I’m sorry,” Holder responded. “I was looking at Fortress Holder. That was kind of interesting.”

“We can get a copy of it for you,” DesJarlais then said.

A Movie for All Time

2012-02-02T12:51:00.002-05:00

This is the film Bill Murray tried to make years earlier when he re-made W. Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge." The book dealt more with reincarnation, the 1946 film had the better cast and production, and Bill Murray's 1984 version dealt more with the horror and terror of war, but ultimately seemed to miss the redemption that the Murray character, Larry Darrell, was seeking. This film failed to give the viewer the satisfaction present in the earlier film version and in the book.

"Groundhog Day" finds the means to the redemption Bill Murray had been seeking in the earlier film and was led into after innumerable mistrial days in this one. There is satisfaction for the viewer in this.

My only question is how and why was Andie MacDowell cast in this film. She added six more weeks of winter to the film by her presence in it. She did the same destruction to "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

PC platitudes, tripe toasts for "world peace' through her great-northern-bean-like teeth were in no way endearing or an enhancement to this otherwise great film. ♘

A Movie for All Time - National Review Online

by Jonah Goldberg

OK, campers, rise and shine! It’s become a Groundhog’s Day tradition around here to run this cover story from the February 14, 2005, issue of National Review over and over and over . .

...In a wonderful essay for the Christian magazine Touchstone, theology professor Michael P. Foley wrote that Groundhog Day is “a stunning allegory of moral, intellectual, and even religious excellence in the face of postmodern decay, a sort of Christian-Aristotelian Pilgrim’s Progress for those lost in the contemporary cosmos.” Charles Murray, author of Human Accomplishment, has cited Groundhog Day more than once as one of the few cultural achievements of recent times that will be remembered centuries from now. He was quoted in The New Yorker declaring, “It is a brilliant moral fable offering an Aristotelian view of the world.”...

DUMB ASS! First lady Michelle Obama cites 'remarkable progress' on the economy

2012-02-02T09:32:00.000-05:00

First lady Michelle Obama cites 'remarkable progress' on the economy - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Michelle Obama cited "remarkable progress" on the economy during a speech for a small crowd of high-profile Hollywood names in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.

"In the last three years, we've worked hard to get out of this mess and we've made some remarkable progress," the first lady told a group of about 135 supporters at a private campaign event for her husband. She listed President Obama's accomplishments on healthcare reform, the removal of troops from Iraq and the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" among other items on the list of "promises kept" touted by Obama's reelection campaign.

The government's fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Total public debt subject to limit Jan. 30

15,313,699,000,000

The question is, What fools bought them?! Must have been some Gov't agency. Volt sales fall in January

2012-02-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

Volt sales fall in January | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com

A voting machine in Chicago managed to fall out of a window on election day

2012-02-01T23:54:00.001-05:00

"... having lived in Chicago for a while in the late 1970s, I occasionally wonder if, with no effort on my part, I have continued voting there ever since."

And now as a Democrat, no doubt!

The Rosett Report » “The government dole will rot your soul”

By Claudia Rosett 1-31-12

Just 46 more states, two conventions and nine more months till we get to go into the voting booths and mark the hanging chads — or whatever technological wizardry awaits us in this next election. I still remember, with disconcerting fondness, a report many years ago of a voting machine in Chicago that managed to fall out of a window on election day. For that matter, having lived in Chicago for a while in the late 1970s, I occasionally wonder if, with no effort on my part, I have continued voting there ever since.

Anyway, while I have enormous respect for the democratic process, right now this campaign year looks interminable. Take your comfort where you find it.

In that spirit, I’m going to take a break tonight from the debates about the debates, the perfidies of multilateral institutions and the horrors of assorted tyrants who do indeed have designs on our general well-being. This is a note about music. A few months ago, my husband came across the music of Stan Rogers, a Canadian folk singer. Rogers died young, in 1983, in an airplane fire. But during his short span, he wrote some terrific songs, most of them about the sea-faring life. All by himself, he’s a reason to pay more attention to Canada (which has been looking better and better lately).

-read on at link-

Recipients were asking for payments in $1 bills - House Set to Ban Welfare Payments at Strip Clubs

2012-02-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

House Set to Ban Welfare Payments at Strip Clubs - US News and World Report

Some people never learn - Prince William deploys to Falkland Islands as tensions rise with Argentina

2012-02-01T12:36:00.000-05:00

Prince William deploys to Falkland Islands as tensions rise with Argentina

2-1-12

Yesterday it emerged that one of the Royal Navy's most advanced new warships is being sent to the area.

HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, is due to set sail for the South Atlantic on her maiden mission in the coming months to replace frigate HMS Montrose.

Today it was confirmed that the Duke of Cambridge will begin his six-week deployment as a helicopter pilot earlier than expected. He will fly out from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, tonight.

He will be crewing one of two search-and-rescue helicopters on call 24 hours a day for missions flying out of a large British military base, 45 minutes from Stanley, the islands' capital.

Argentina's foreign ministry slammed Prince William's visit, saying that the heir to the British throne would be arriving as a "conqueror."

-more at link-

The historic and monumental disappointment President Obama has been - 'Islamist Firster' president not what he claimed

2012-02-01T10:51:00.001-05:00

"Obama has devoted his administration to raising taxes, adding to the byzantine structure of the federal government, and has created a whole new massive bureaucracy"

HURT: 'Islamist Firster' president not what he claimed - Washington Times

by Charles Hurt 1-31-12

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

GOLAN HEIGHTS — Surveying the live minefields, cratered roads and mortar-pocked concrete buildings along the border here between Syria and Israel, it is hard not to be reminded of the historic and monumental disappointment President Obama has been.

When he was campaigning to become the most powerful man in the last standing superpower on Earth, he spoke passionately about changing the world, restoring America's greatness and bringing more peace and fairness to everyone.

In both foreign and domestic matters, Mr. Obama had unique credibility to change things as few presidents ever had.

Despite his background as a liberal street organizer, he campaigned on tax cuts and personal responsibility and preached that the government simply cannot be the answer to every problem. Republicans would have no choice but to go along with an agenda to shrink the tax burden and get the federal government out of our everyday lives.

-read on at link-

Happy Birthday Moose!

2012-02-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

We Fear He Lacks the Intestinal Fortitude to Take Out Obama, he may be another McCain - Romney Rising for a Fall?

2012-02-01T08:28:00.002-05:00

Will he also be afraid to call Obama 'Hussein', bring up Obama's inept 'green' policies, his crony favoritism, his week international relations and chronic apologies for America, wasteful spending and taxing, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, ...?

Romney Rising | FrontPage Magazine

By Ryan Mauro On February 1, 2012

Mitt Romney won a big victory in Florida’s primary yesterday, taking the state’s 50 delegates with 46% of the vote. There’s still a long road ahead, as Romney only has 87 of the 1,144 delegates needed to officially win the nomination. In their speeches following the primary results, the candidates indicate that the contest will take a more positive direction.

Romney did not mention any of his opponents by name in his victory speech. The only criticism he made was that the others did not have the experience in creating jobs that he has. His focus was completely on President Obama, sounding as if the general election campaign had already begun. He pledged to “end the Obama era and begin a new era of American prosperity.”

He said that President Obama wants to “fundamentally transform” the country and that he be the one to bring true hope and change. One standout line in Romney’s speech was, “Hope is a new paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker.” A look at Romney’s financial advantage and the upcoming contests helps explain why Romney sounded so confident and is, once again, talking as if the nomination is his. “If you believe the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not our destiny, then I am asking for your vote,” he said.

The Romney campaign has nearly 10 times the money that Newt Gingrich has with no debt. It is likely that Romney will score 7 victories in a row by the end of February, as political analyst Dick Morris pointed out. The next contest will be on February 4 when Nevada holds its caucus.

-more at link-

Why Should the NYPD be left out - The NYPD Caves to CAIR

2012-01-31T21:34:00.001-05:00

The NYPD Caves to CAIR | FrontPage Magazine

By Arnold Ahlert On January 31, 2012

On Monday, the New York Post reported on a website where would-be jihadists have been “meticulously dissecting” convicted terrorist Faisal Shahzad’s failure to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in 2010. The purpose of this dissection is to improve the chances of the next bomber’s ability to carry out a mission of destruction. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who has distributed these analyses to law enforcement officials, consider them critical in understanding violent jihad. Thus, it is a little more than ironic that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has been brow-beaten by the American left and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to stop showing the anti-extremist film, The Third Jihad to police personnel. Thankfully, some Muslims have seen through the political intimidation. Enter Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD).

Dr. Jasser, a devout Muslim, refuses to buy into the conventional “wisdom” embraced by both the New York Times and CAIR, both of whom see any attempt to inform police personnel (or anyone else) about the aspirations of violent jihadism as tantamount to Islamophobia. “Last week’s controversy over the NYPD’s showing of the documentary ‘The Third Jihad,’ which I narrated, has brought horrendous distortion of the film and my body of work against radical Islam,” writes Jasser. “It seems obvious that The New York Times, and in its wake the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg, is buying into blatant inaccuracies peddled by the Council on American-Islamic Relations–a group named in federal testimony as linked to the terrorist organization Hamas and one to which the FBI has broken off all ties.”

Times reporter Michael Powell’s latest article, “In Police Training, a Dark Film on Muslims,” is hardly news. It is essentially the re-telling of a story published by the uber-leftist Village Voice newspaper over a year ago, describing the film as “a full-length color feature, with more explosions than a Transformers sequel and more blood-splattered victims than an HBO World War II series.” The Voice contends the film is a “spectacularly offensive smear of American Muslims.” Powell augments that theme. “Ominous music plays as images appear on the screen: Muslim terrorists shoot Christians in the head, car bombs explode, executed children lie covered by sheets and a doctored photograph shows an Islamic flag flying over the White House,” he writes.

If Mr. Powell has bothered to do anything resembling honest reporting, he might have informed his readers that the flag in question can be found in a picture of a poster held by Muslim radical themselves, demonstrating at the site of the 9/11 terror attack in New York during an anti-jihadist rally on February 1st–2006. Powell further notes that the film was shown even as the NYPD “wrestles with its relationship with the city’s large Muslim community” and, as a result of the film’s dissemination, “members of the City Council, civil rights advocates and Muslim leaders say the department, in its zeal, has trampled on civil rights, blurred lines between foreign and domestic spying and sown fear among Muslims.”

-read on at link-

Perfect for a Flim-Flam-Man, Environmentalist-in-Chief

2012-01-30T18:21:00.000-05:00

The American Spectator : Environmentalist-in-Chief

By WILLIAM TUCKER on 1.30.12

At the rate he's going, our president will soon be taking credit for the discovery of natural gas.

In Ancient China, the Emperor went out every spring and walked the fields to bless the harvest and encourage the crops to grow. Sure enough, when the peasants put the seeds in the ground, the crops appeared and the Emperor took credit.

The job of President of the United States is often much the same. According to the legend embraced by some, he is responsible for just about everything good that happens in the country. If a group of wildcatting oil geologists in North Dakota, for instance, use 3-D seismographic to discover a whole new strata of shale oil, and if "fracking" techniques developed in Texas should make these deposits accessible for the first time in history -- well then, it must be the President who made it all happen.

This was the mantle, at least, that President Barack Obama was willing to assume last week when he declared in his State of the Union address:

Over the last three years, we've opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I'm directing my administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. Right now --
-read on at link-

Hear, Hear! Allen West Tells Liberal Leaders To "Get The Hell Out Of The USA"

2012-01-30T18:00:00.000-05:00

Allen West Tells Liberal Leaders To "Get The Hell Out Of The USA"

1-28-12

"Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America," Rep. Allen West (R-FL) said at the Palm Beach County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner. West represents the district in the U.S. Congress.

The Shape of Our Toilets - One of the Most Important Interviews as a Clarion Call for Today!

2012-01-30T15:36:00.003-05:00

Progressivism is threatened by rational administration.

Our founders learned from the ancient republics.

The tyrannical inclinations of the administrative entitlement state.

Nothing like being a government 'insider' - MF Global client money feared gone

2012-01-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

What does "MF" stand for?

MF Global client money feared gone - NYPOST.com

Two tier shopping, Target for the Public and Madison Ave. for Michelle Antoinette

2012-01-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

Agent Provocateur sales boosted by US First Lady Michelle Obama - Telegraph

Michelle Obama has risked the wrath of cash-strapped Americans by indulging in a $50,000 shopping spree at Agent Provocateur.

He got off too easy - The 'Injustice' Done to Joe Paterno

2012-01-30T11:26:00.001-05:00

I could not disagree with this article more. I am fed up with the gods of sports trumping every aspect of our modern life, including the sacrifice of common decency!

Just call it state and popularly sanctioned pagan sacrifice of virgins to school athletic departments and pro-sports and be done with it!

The Injustice Done to Joe Paterno - Michael Novak - National Review Online

Sebelius and Obama appear so normal and are so delusional

2012-01-30T11:12:00.001-05:00

Our founders learned how not to govern from the Classics.

This administration just governs as in the unlearned Classic way.

Free Birth Control vs. Freedom of Religion - Wesley J. Smith - National Review Online

1-30-12

When Pliny the Younger was a provincial governor in the Roman Empire, he wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan asking whether he should execute Christians who refused to burn incense in worship of the emperor. Pliny, in keeping with the customs of the empire, did not care about forcing Christians to believethat the emperor was a god. But in public they had to behave as if they did. Thus, the Christians were in the dock not so much because of their faith in a risen Christ as over their willful refusal to declare themselves part of the reigning social order.

I thought of Pliny when I read that the Obama administration, in creating specific rules to implement Obamacare, will require all employers (with a very narrow exemption discussed below) to offer their employees health insurance that provides FDA-approved contraception, female sterilization, and other “reproductive” services free of charge — even if the employer is a religious organization and doing so violates its doctrine. I also recalled the times that President Obama and other members of his administration have supported “freedom of worship.” However, as in Pliny’s time, “freedom of worship” is not the same thing as “freedom of religion.” The former means that one may believe whatever one wants and worship privately without interference, whereas the latter allows one freedom to live in the world at large consistent with one’s faith tenets, even if they are not endorsed by the state.

-more at link-

So True - Too bad most flow charts don't work this well

2012-01-30T10:54:00.003-05:00

Thanks Gags

Fifteen Years of World Cooling Reported, and Another Green Energy Stimulus Recipient Hits the Skids (the third this week!)

2012-01-30T09:21:00.001-05:00

Drip, Drip, Drip: Yet Another Green Energy Stimulus Recipient Hits the Skids (the third this week!)

by WILLIAM YEATMAN on JANUARY 27, 2012

Earlier this week, Stimulus beneficiary Evergreen Energy bit the dust. Then, Ener1, a manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles and recipient of Stimulus largesse, filed for bankruptcy. And today, the Las Vegas Sun reports that Amonix, Inc., a manufacturer of solar panels that received $5.9 million from the Porkulus, will cut two-thirds of its workforce, about 200 employees, only seven months after opening a factory in Nevada.

-go to link-

Amonix, a California-based solar power company, laid off 200 at North Las Vegas

2012-01-30T09:18:00.001-05:00

Solar flare-outs!

Some 200 laid off at North Las Vegas Amonix solar plant - Las Vegas Sun

Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc.opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce.

Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.

Amonix’s director of manufacturing operations, Eric Culberson, said the layoffs are part of “retooling” the factory as the company prepares to roll out its next-generation product.

-more at link-

The Real State of the Union

2012-01-30T08:28:00.001-05:00

This is the straight forward skinny that politicians avoid too often. That includes Mitch Daniels.

The Real State of the Union | FrontPage Magazine

By Ben Shapiro On January 30, 2012

I watched Mitch Daniels’ response to the pathetic state of the union address by Barack Obama – and then I fell asleep. It was boring, uninspiring, and unwatchable.

Here’s what Mitch Daniels should have said.

“Good evening, my fellow Americans. I’m not going to take an hour of your time, or half an hour of your time, or even fifteen minutes of your time. I’m going to take less than ten minutes to explain the state of our union, how we got here, and how we get out.

“My fellow Americans, the state of our union is critical. We are so deeply in debt that within the decade, we will be spending more in interest on the debt than we will on our military budget. That’s just the interest, not the actual debt. By 2015, we will be paying for the entire Chinese military budget, since we owe them so much money. What have we gotten for all this cash? We certainly haven’t gotten jobs – nearly half of all working-age Americans are either unemployed, underemployed, or have dropped out of the labor force entirely. The real unemployment rate is somewhere near 11 percent, not 8.5. The economy, to put it politely, stinks, and we all know it.

“Spending vast quantities of money hasn’t given our children a good education, either. Thanks to the teachers unions, which effectively bribe politicians all over the country to keep bad teachers employed and tenured, American children rank 14^th in the industrialized world in reading, 17^th in science, and 25^thin math. There are plenty of jobs available in America, in places like Silicon Valley – but we don’t have enough qualified people to fill them, because our education system has been bought and paid for by the greedy and perverse teachers unions. And while President Obama talks about everybody needing to stay in school and go to college, if our schools are terrible, all we’re doing is prolonging their ignorance.

“And all that money we’re spending isn’t making the world safer, either. China is building up its military. Russia is actively undermining us. Both those countries are extending their spheres of influence in South America. Our allies like Britain and France are rightly angry at us – and our treatment of Israel has been utterly shameful. In the Middle East, Iran is developing nuclear weapons and threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, and we’re pretending that the international community is united behind us, even as Russia and China stonewall all action; Libya and Egypt and Tunis have fallen to Islamists; the Jew-haters in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have been emboldened; Bashar Assad is murdering his own people en masse; Iraq is spiraling back into chaos; Pakistan is a disaster zone; and in Afghanistan, we’re now negotiating with the same folks we toppled after they provided Osama Bin Laden safe haven. Yes, Bin Laden is dead. But pretending that killing Bin Laden solved the Islamist threat is worse than wrong. It’s reprehensible, because it gives us the same sense of false security that led to 9/11 in the first place. Meanwhile, we slash the military budget.

“And things are slated to get worse. In the next year, if re-elected, President Obama will allow the Bush tax rates to expire; he will vastly increase the burdensome regulations that kill business; Obamacare will kick in, destroying our healthcare system.

-read on at link-

Easy = Voter Fraud - Left Demands James O’Keefe’s Head Over Voter Fraud Exposé

2012-01-30T08:22:00.000-05:00

Left Demands James O’Keefe’s Head Over Voter Fraud Exposé | FrontPage Magazine

By Joseph Klein On January 30, 2012

The Left is in a horrible huff. Once again James O’Keefe, the conservative film-maker who exposed ACORN, has demonstrated the duplicity of the Left. This time he proved why strict voter ID laws, opposed strongly by the Left, are necessary.

In more than 10 minutes of video footage, which has gone viral on the Internet, O’Keefe demonstrated how easy it was in New Hampshire for an individual to pose as a deceased voter and still receive a ballot to vote in an election.

New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien, (R-Mont Vernon) called the video “a shocking exclamation point on the need for immediate reform to New Hampshire’s election laws to ensure that voter fraud does not taint the rights of our citizens to have their votes counted in an honest, responsible way and impact our state.”

New Hampshire Governor John Lynch vetoed legislation passed in 2011 requiring photo ID at the polls. Governor Lynch had stated in his veto message that there was “no voter fraud problem in New Hampshire.”

O’Brien begged to differ. He said the House will pass legislation again this year. “Hopefully, this video will shame the Governor into signing it,” O’Brien remarked.

Leftists are trying to divert attention away from the underlying voter fraud issue, which O’Keefe graphically exposed, by going after the messenger.

-read on at link-

"My Message is Simple (minded)": Obama's SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year

2012-01-29T14:44:00.000-05:00

You expected a Churchillian language level?

"My Message is Simple": Obama's SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year - Smart Politics

By Eric Ostermeier on January 25, 2012

Obama's SOTU addresses have the lowest average Flesch-Kincaid score of any modern president; Obama owns three of the six lowest-scoring addresses since FDR.

For the third consecutive State of the Union Address, Barack Obama spoke in clear, plain terms.

And for the third straight Address, the President's speech was written at an eighth-grade level.

In Obama's own words: "My message is simple."

But was it too simplistic?

A Smart Politics study of the 70 orally delivered State of the Union Addresses since 1934 finds the text of Obama's 2012 speech to have tallied the third lowest score on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, at an 8.4 grade level.

Obama also delivered the second lowest scoring address in 2011 (at an 8.1 grade level) and the sixth lowest in 2010 (at an 8.8 grade level)

-read on at link-

Cocaine Mysteries at the United Nations

2012-01-29T13:01:00.001-05:00

"Quick Watson, the needle!"

The Seven Percent Solution, the UN wants to Tax all Nations (especially the US) disarm all people from protecting themselves from "world governments," then be the biggest drug cartel of all.

So, What's New?

The Rosett Report » Cocaine Mysteries at the United Nations

January 28, 2012 - 10:41 pm - by Claudia Rosett

To the many mysteries of the United Nations, we may now add the case of the curious cocaine shipment, which arrived recently in the UN mailroom in two sacks emblazoned with pale copies of the blue UN logo. Inside the sacks were 16 kilos of cocaine, hidden inside hollowed-out notebooks. UN security officials spotted the shipment and turned it over to the New York Police Department for investigation. ....

.... “Why, when the bags were discovered, there was no attempt to wait to see who might try to pick them up?”

The reply this question elicited from the UN spokesperson was the circular argument that since there was no address on the bags with the fake UN logo, they were not intended for the UN, and there was no point in waiting to see if someone would try to pick them up:

“There was no address, either addressee or from whom these bags had come– there was nothing; nothing. So it is rather odd to think, well you need to wait for someone, turn up when the bags were never intended to come here in the first place.”

We don’t yet know what was going on with these wayward sacks of cocaine. But what does seem clear is that UN authorities had strangely little interest in finding out.

-read on at link-

[Where are the drugs now?]

Forget global warming -It was a hoax - it's back to the 1970's with a coming Ice Age

2012-01-29T11:44:00.001-05:00

None of these gross Global Warming, Ice Age, Climate Change predictors know much. They are guessing for the publicity and the scam. It has been and will always be a hoax and a confidence game that will cost us all a lot of time and money. The press are a bunch of hoax loving crisis whores and the governments are just whores.

Al Gore is one of the biggest Climate Hoax Whores and the UN is his whore house!

Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again) | Mail Online

1-29-12 By DAVID ROSE

Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

“Saul Alinsky radical” Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model

2012-01-29T11:24:00.000-05:00

Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model | FrontPage Magazine

Who does this sound like?

But Alinsky understood that there was a flip side to his strategy of speaking the palatable language of the middle class and the reassuring parlance of morality. Specifically, he said that organizers must be entirely unpredictable and unmistakably willing -- for the sake of the moral principles in whose name they claim to act -- to watch society descend into utter chaos and anarchy. He stated that they must be prepared, if necessary, to “go into a state of complete confusion and draw [their] opponent into the vortex of the same confusion.”[69]

One way in which organizers and their disciples can broadcast their preparedness for this possibility is by staging loud, defiant, massive protest rallies expressing deep rage and discontent over one particular injustice or another. Such demonstrations can give onlookers the impression that a mass movement is preparing to shift into high gear, and that its present (already formidable) size is but a fraction of what it eventually will become. “A mass impression,” said Alinsky, “can be lasting and intimidating…. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.”[70] “The threat,” he added, “is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”[71] “If your organization is small in numbers,” said Alinsky, “… conceal the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does.”[72]

“Wherever possible,” Alinsky counseled, “go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.”[73] Marching mobs of chanting demonstrators accomplishes this objective. The average observer’s reaction to such a display is of a dual nature: First he is afraid. But he also recalls the organizer’s initial articulation of middle-class ideals and morals. Thus he convinces himself that the People’s Organization is surely composed of reasonable people who actually hold values similar to his own, and who seek resolutions that will be beneficial to both sides. This thought process causes him to proffer -- in hopes of appeasing the angry mobs -- concessions and admissions of guilt, which the organizer in turn exploits to gain still greater moral leverage and to extort further concessions.

In Alinsky’s view, action was more often the catalyst for revolutionary fervor than vice versa. He deemed it essential for the organizer to get people to act first (e.g., participate in a demonstration) and rationalize their actions later. “Get them to move in the right direction first,” said Alinsky. “They’ll explain to themselves later why they moved in that direction.”[74]

Among the most vital tenets of Alinsky’s method were the following:

“Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more live up to their own rules than the Christian Church can live up to Christianity.”[75]
“No organization, including organized religion, can live up to the letter of its own book. You can club them to death with their ‘book’ of rules and regulations.”[76]
“Practically all people live in a world of contradictions. They espouse a morality which they do not practice.… This dilemma can and should be fully utilized by the organizer in getting individuals and groups involved in a People’s Organization. It is a very definite Achilles’ heel even in the most materialistic person. Caught in the trap of his own contradictions, that person will find it difficult to show satisfactory cause to both the organizer and himself as to why he should not join and participate in the organization. He will be driven either to participation or else to a public and private admission of his own lack of faith in democracy and man.”[77]

Alinsky taught that in order to most effectively cast themselves as defenders of moral principals and human decency, organizers must react with “shock, horror, and moral outrage” whenever their targeted enemy in any way misspeaks or fails to live up to his “book of rules.”[78]

Moreover, said Alinsky, whenever possible the organizer must deride his enemy and dismiss him as someone unworthy of being taken seriously because he is either intellectually deficient or morally bankrupt. “The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength,” said Alinsky.[79] He advised organizers to “laugh at the enemy” in an effort to provoke “an irrational anger.”[80] “Ridicule,” said Alinsky, “is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”[81]

Go here: SAUL ALINSKY

http://discoverthenetworks.org/printindividualProfile.asp?indid=2314

The State of Our Union Is Broke - Obama's Speech is old and Broken

2012-01-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

The State of Our Union Is Broke - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

JANUARY 28, 2012

Obama calls for more of the unaffordable same.

Had I been asked to deliver the State of the Union address, it would not have delayed your dinner plans:

“The State of our Union is broke, heading for bankrupt, and total collapse shortly thereafter. Thank you and goodnight! You’ve been a terrific crowd!”

I gather that Americans prefer something a little more upbeat, so one would not begrudge a speechwriter fluffing it up by holding out at least the possibility of some change of fortune, however remote. Instead, President Obama assured us at great length that nothing is going to change, not now, not never. Indeed the Union’s state — its unprecedented world-record brokeness — was not even mentioned. If, as I was, you happened to be stuck at Gate 27 at one of the many U.S. airports laboring under the misapprehension that pumping CNN at you all evening long somehow adds to the gaiety of flight delays, you would have watched an address that gave no indication its speaker was even aware that the parlous state of our finances is an existential threat not only to the nation but to global stability. The message was, oh, sure, unemployment’s still a little higher than it should be, and student loans are kind of expensive, and the housing market’s pretty flat, but it’s nothing that a little government “investment” in green jobs and rural broadband and retraining programs can’t fix. In other words, more of the unaffordable same.

The president certainly had facts and figures at his disposal. He boasted that his regulatory reforms “will save business and citizens more than $10 billion over the next five years.” Wow. Ten billion smackeroos! That’s some savings — and in a mere half a decade! Why, it’s equivalent to what the government of the United States borrows every 53 hours. So by midnight on Thursday Obama had already re-borrowed all those hard-fought savings from 2017. “In the last 22 months,” said the president, “businesses have created more than three million jobs.” Impressive. But 125,000 new foreign workers arrive every month (officially). So we would have to have created 2,750,000 jobs in that period just to stand still.

Fortunately, most of the items in Obama’s interminable speech will never happen, any more than the federally funded bicycling helmets or whatever fancies found their way onto Bill Clinton’s extravagant shopping lists in the Nineties. ....

-Read on at link-

Rick Santorum Calls Global Warming a "Hoax" because it is!

2012-01-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

He is right, you know!

Video: Rick Santorum Calls Global Warming a "Hoax"

by Michael Allen on Jan 26, 2012

During the Florida GOP presidential debate Thursday night, host Wolf Blitzer asked Rick Santorum why he was the Republican candidate most likely to defeat President Obama (video below).

Santorum explained his differences with fellow candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, and then capped it off with: “Both of them bought into the global warming hoax!”

This not the first time Rick Santorum has denied global warming science. Last summer, Santorum told Glenn Beck that “there was no such thing as global warming."

EUROPE - One in five young Germans unaware of Auschwitz: poll

2012-01-26T09:53:00.002-05:00

That's nothing, some Stanford Grad Student's have no clue what the Cold War was! (from Peter Robinson Uncommon Knowledge Interview)

As with all things, banning the 'Swastika' symbol and "Mein Kampf" in Germany just added a mystique to the genocidal murderous thugs the Nazis were. Like a telling a child (and adults) don't do something makes them want to do that thing more.

EUROPE - One in five young Germans unaware of Auschwitz: poll

JANUARY 26, 2012

Auschwitz: Ignoring History, Predicting the Future

excerpt Alan Caruba, 2012

....Several generations of Americans have passed through our school systems—literally controlled by the federal government after the creation of the Department of Education in 1979 after being transferred from the former Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, a legacy of Jimmy Carter’s single term. All curriculum taught in the schools comes from the DOE thanks to its control over a national, one-size-fits-all testing system introduced with the “No Child Left Behind” program championed by George W. Bush.

To not know about Auschwitz, whether one is German, American, or any other nationality is a failure on a grand scale because it means that it can be repeated. To not know America’s epic struggle to fulfill its promise of liberty leaves new generations at a disadvantage, as in the case of a fifth of young Germans today, ignorant of their nation’s past.

In today’s world, many worry about the fate of Israel, surrounded by hostile nations and openly threatened by an Iran seeking nuclear weapons. Its independence was declared in 1948, barely three years after the end of World War II. Its first task was to absorb, not only the survivors of the Nazi regime throughout Europe, but those who were forced to flee Arab nations in the wake of the war. Its independence was greeted with the first of several wars against it. The general hostility to Jews that preceded the Holocaust by centuries is a stain on humanity. ...

-go to link-

He is just Classless! Brewer On Heated Argument With Obama: "He Was A Little Tense"

2012-01-26T09:40:00.000-05:00

Brewer On Heated Argument With Obama: "He Was A Little Tense"

1-25-12

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) phoned in to the Mike Broomhead Show to talk about her confrontation with President Obama when he landed in Phoenix earlier today.

Host: Tell us what happened.

Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ): Well, I was there to greet him. I was the first in line as he came off the plane. He came down, he said 'Hello Jan.' I told him, 'Mr. President, welcome to Arizona and we kept the sun up for you.' And it was a beautiful day in Arizona. And I said, 'We appreciate you being here and the bottom line is I'd like the opportunity to sit down to talk to him about the great Arizona comeback and the things that we have done here and job growth, etc. etc.

I explained to him how we have turned Arizona around and that we both love our country. I know that he loves our country, I love our country. And he brought up my book. And he was a little tense.

He said that he had read the excerpt and he didn't think that I was very cordial. And I said, 'Well, we agreed on that day to disagree.' And he was somewhat thin-skinned and a little tense, to say the least. And I don't remember -- I was trying to be calm. You know, that picture (Brewer pointing her finger at Obama) is very interesting but I don't remember actually doing that. And he moved on down the line.

Still No Class! Warren Buffett's Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year

2012-01-26T09:31:00.001-05:00

A phony stage prop, Buffet fighting Treasury over the $1Billion in taxes he contests and then Buffet may get a big boost to his Burlington Northern RR with Obama unilaterally cancelling the Keystone Pipeline from Canada.

Make one a bit cynical, doesn't it?

Warren Buffett's Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year - Forbes

Obama says "No Class Warfare" Because He Has No Class! WHO'S GREEDY? Obama Gave 1% to Charity, Romney Gave 15%

2012-01-25T11:04:00.000-05:00

WHO'S GREEDY? Obama Gave 1% to Charity, Romney Gave 15% - Mitt Romney - Fox Nation

If You Think Federal Employees in Washington Are Overpaid…

2012-01-24T23:43:00.001-05:00

The Rosett Report

If You Think Federal Employees in Washington Are Overpaid…

January 23, 2012

… Check out salaries at the United Nations. According to the U.S. envoy for UN Management and Reform, Joseph Torsella, UN salaries average out to $119,000 per year, and at UN headquarters in New York they are on average 30% higher than U.S. federal salaries in Washington ^[1].

The UN hasn’t figured much in the Republican debates, but surely those are numbers that would resonate with average American voters — who pay the biggest share of the bill for these average UN salaries.

Salaries at the UN average $119,000 a year, making compensation one of the largest costs at the 193-nation body, Torsella said in August. Today he said the UN is a $36 billion “retro” enterprise stuck in the 1950s and that a “small group of member states” -- which he declined to name -- opposed a push to disclose UN salaries, contracts and budgets.

[1] 30% higher than U.S. federal salaries in Washington: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-01-20/u-s-calls-for-salary-freeze-for-employees-at-distorted-un.html

From the Pages of "Atlas Shrugged"! Buffett's Burlington Northern RR Among Pipeline Cancellation Winners

2012-01-24T15:52:00.001-05:00

It is as if Ayn Rand was sitting in on this Whitehouse crony meeting.

"From the first catch-phrases flung at a child to the last, it is like a series of shocks to freeze his motor, to undercut the power of his consciousness. 'Don't ask so many questions, children should be seen and not heard!'–'Who are you to think? It's so, because I say so!'–'Don't argue, obey!'–'Don't try to understand, believe!'–'Don't rebel, adjust!–'Don't stand out, belong!'–'Don't struggle, compromise!'–'Your heart is more important than your mind!'–'Who are you to know? Your parents know best!'–'Who are you to know? Society knows best!'–'Who are you to know? The bureaucrats know best!'–'Who are you to object? All values are relative!'–'Who are you to want to escape a thug's bullet? That's only a personal prejudice!'"

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Part 3, Ch. 6

Buffett's Burlington Northern Among Pipeline Winners | Full Page

This report was curiously missing from the Bloomberg site after initial posting.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration's decision to reject TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit.

With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.

"Whatever people bring to us, we're ready to haul," Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern, a unit of Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in an interview. If Keystone XL "doesn't happen, we're here to haul."

The State Department denied TransCanada a permit on Jan. 18, saying there was not enough time to study the proposal by Feb. 21, a deadline Congress imposed on President Barack Obama. Calgary-based TransCanada has said it intends to re-apply with a route that avoids an environmentally sensitive region of Nebraska, something the Obama administration encouraged.

The rail option, though costlier, would lessen the environmental impact, such as a loss of wetlands and agricultural productivity, compared to the pipeline, according to the State Department analysis. Greenhouse gas emissions, however, would be worse. [Note: This last paragraph is all utter nonsense since the entire region is already crisscrossed with petroleum and related pipelines! m/r]

I bought a gun, but...In the cities where you need to carry a gun the most

2012-01-24T12:34:00.000-05:00

There was always an unspoken dirty secret underlying gun control in cities. The politics of hand gun ownership and the right to bear arms in the more populated cities in the US relates to the party-in-charge that has over-regulated and ruined these places. The laws are now fully designed to protect the criminals and ironically the gun laws, from the beginning, were race based. Initially these laws, especially New York's Sullivan Act, were an attempted to keep guns out of the hands of the criminal elements, namely the Italians, Jews, Chinese, Spanish and Blacks.

Today the racial element is reversed. Liberal, and well protected, city politicians make it nearly impossible for law abiding citizens to have their own private forms of personal protection. The whole charade is couched in there bald faced lies about citizens are too unreliable to protect themselves and thus too dangerous. They can only be protected through their polical control and authority.

The reality is, their authority is nascent protection of the lives of the racial minorities who tend to make up the majority percentage of the violent criminal element in these cities. The perception is if these political 'leaders' don't protect these criminal elements, then they will lose votes from their 'community' constituencies who are represented by the same minority racial groups.

The sinister underlying motives have always been essentially the same, it is just that the protected minority has shifted. ♘

MILLER: I bought a gun, but... - Washington Times

By Emily Miller 1-23-12

After days of calls, emails, tweets, comments and posts, I finally bought the exact gun I wanted, the two-tone version of the Sig Sauer P229 9mm. I’m so excited to shoot my new purchase, but in the nation’s capital, it's not that simple. Buying a gun doesn’t mean you get to have the gun.

Washington, D.C. has a list of firearms that are eligible to be registered. The make, model and even the color (two-tone) of the gun I wanted was on the list, but I had a bear of a time finding one with a D.C.-legal 10-round magazine. The standard version has a 13-round capacity.

I called Sig Sauer’s customer service number to ask for help finding a dealer who had the model I wanted in the lower-capacity magazine.

The agent, Andy, said that he could not help me find a dealer. I asked if the the P229 was made with the 10-round magazine or could be switched out to it. He said, no.

-continues at link in a series-

Unlearned Lessons of Daniel Pearl’s Murder, the “willful blindness” of many in the West to the Islamic roots of the perpetrators’

2012-01-24T10:54:00.000-05:00

The Unlearned Lessons of Daniel Pearl’s Murder | FrontPage Magazine

By Bruce Thornton On January 24, 2012

Ten years ago this week, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan, after he had been lured into what he thought was an interview with Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani about the links between al Qaeda and the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid. The shadowy Pakistani group that kidnapped Pearl accused him of being a spy for the CIA, and made several demands, including the release of Pakistani detainees from Guantanamo. Nine days later, Pearl was murdered and beheaded, and on February 21, a video was released called “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl.” The footage showed Pearl’s “confession” and brutal decapitation, interspersed with images of dead Muslims, George Bush shaking hands with Ariel Sharon, and Palestinians allegedly killed by Israeli Defense Forces, including 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura, whose death was later exposed as a Palestinian fabrication. Later, captured 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would brag to interrogators that he personally had beheaded Pearl. As for his abductor, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, though tried and condemned to death, still lives in a Pakistani jail cell, from which according to some reports he has planned other terrorist attacks.

The killing of Pearl concentrated much of what Andrew McCarthy calls the “willful blindness” of many in the West to the Islamic roots of the perpetrators’ violence. At the time, most of the media mainly decried Pearl’s death because he was a reporter. Worse yet were the comments that scolded the terrorists for not understanding that American journalists are neutral observers whose impartiality could help them get their story out. As a New York Times editorial put it,

“The terrible irony of Mr. Pearl’s murder is that he and other independent journalists have been trying to present a detailed and informed portrait of the mindset, motives and grievances of the Islamic fundamentalists in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan. That work will continue despite the killing, but the kidnappers have only undermined their cause by their acts.”

The professional corruption of the mainstream-media was revealed in this statement, with its claims that journalists are objective (mostly false) and have no loyalties to their own country and people (mostly true), and that the murderers had a legitimate “cause” and “grievances” (moral idiocy and cowardice).

Most commentary also ignored the Koranic-inspired anti-Semitism ...

-Read on at link-

Let us hope the rest of America's voters do the same in November

2012-01-24T10:45:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins Goaltender Tim Thomas Snubs Obama White House | FrontPage Magazine

Is ‘Saul Alinsky Portrait’ Hanging In White House?

2012-01-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

If not it hangs in his conscious political mental process.

Breitbart.tv » Is ‘Saul Alinsky Portrait’ Hanging In White House?

GESTAPO USA - Rand Paul on TSA detainment: ‘I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle!”

2012-01-23T17:01:00.000-05:00

Rand Paul on TSA detainment: ‘I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle!” | The Daily Caller

Our first guess was Teresa Heinz let him have it. John Kerry Breaks Nose

2012-01-23T15:27:00.001-05:00

Our second guess was the Massachusetts Tax Cops caught up with the Mass. Senator for his 'delinquent yacht' he docks in Rhode Island to avoid Mass. Yacht Taxes.

John Kerry Breaks Nose Playing Hockey « CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – Senator John Kerry surprised a few people at the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup ceremony at the White House Monday afternoon.

He had two black eyes and a swollen nose.

His spokeswoman Whitney Smith told WBZ-TV Kerry broke his nose playing ice hockey recently.

In Islam, she is to blame!

2012-01-23T15:09:00.001-05:00

Lara Logan: Life is not about dwelling on the bad - NY Daily News

Sunday, January 22 2012,BY RICHARD HUFF /

Lara Logan is back on the air, she’s got nine stories in the works at “60 Minutes” and a new show set to launch — but she still battles the demons of a horrific gang sexual assault, even sometimes while she puts her young daughter to bed.

“People don’t really know that much about (posttraumatic stress disorder),” she told the Daily News. “There’s something called latent PTSD. It manifests itself in different ways. I want to be free of it, but I’m not.

“It doesn’t go away,” she said. “It’s not something I keep track of. It’s not predictable like that. But it happens more than I’d like.”

Last Feb. 11, while covering the Egyptian uprisings in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Logan was surrounded by an angry mob of men and ripped away from her CBS crew. She was viciously stripped and suffered a “brutal and sustained” sexual assault.

As out of touch and idiotic as "The View" let us hope these phonies are Wrong!

2012-01-23T15:08:00.000-05:00

The AP sucks up to Obama also. Whinfrey's support is plain racial and the white liberal support is delusory "racial guilt."

Whinfrey praised Obama, but without any supporting evidence to back up the praise, since there is none.

News from The Associated Press

Jan 22, 2012

Oprah confident Obama will win re-election

JAIPUR, India (AP) -- Oprah Winfrey says she is confident that President Barack Obama will win another four-year term in this year's U.S. election.

The talk show host was addressing a literary festival Sunday in the northwestern Indian town of Jaipur.

Winfrey praised Obama's handling of the presidency. She said his next four years would be even more successful, with people able to get back to work.

Winfrey backed Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign in her first-ever political endorsement.

Atheism is a personal conviction not to be proselytized

2012-01-23T06:59:00.002-05:00

Facebook is infantile and is hardly a place for deep personal conviction. A facebook Atheist page is a group think form of an infantile cry for attention. Of course facebook itself is an infantile cry for attention. On the other hand, Mohammedanism is the ultimate group think as a dangerous murder cult with the same goals as Stalinism and Nazism.

So why does the US fund Muslim governments that have their long knives out for any infidel, atheist or otherwise?

The Most Dangerous Place to be an Atheist | FrontPage Magazine

By Daniel Greenfield On January 23, 2012

Alexander Aan was just another bureaucrat holding down a desk at the Department of Planning until his Facebook Atheism page came to the notice of Indonesian authorities in Obama’s old stomping grounds. Now Aan is facing a five year jail sentence for using social media to spread the message that Allah does not exist.

Alexander is being charged with “defiling” Islam by using passages from the Koran to challenge the Islamic religion. And while the State Department and the media routinely go on the attack against any manifestation of what they call “Islamophobia,” it isn’t likely that they will be rushing to Aan’s defense. This isn’t exactly the first time that atheists have run afoul of the Islamic codes under which the Muslim world operates.

Two years ago, the Palestinian Authority arrested Waleed Hasayin on similar charges of blaspheming against Islam on Facebook. Waleed Hasayin had written that, “Muhammad was no different than barbaric thugs who slaughtered, robbed and raped women” and that “Islam has legitimized slavery, reinforced the gap between social classes and allowed stealing from the infidels, taking women in captivity during wars and sexual abuse of women slaves.”

For these and other truthful statements, he was arrested and his family demanded that he be sentenced to life in prison. He has since written a letter of apology in hopes of being released.

The regimes imprisoning Aan and Hasayin are funded by the United States. Indonesia is on the list of the top twenty countries benefiting from USAID funding and the Palestinian Authority, including its security forces and prisons, is mostly subsidized by American taxpayers. The arrests were accompanied by mob protests and violence reflecting populist Muslim hostility toward non-Muslims.

Underlying these individual incidents is a legal code that goes to the very definition of what it means to be a citizen of a Muslim country. Muslim countries recognize a limited set of legal religions. Non-Muslims who are members of legal religions have fewer rights and run the usual risks that come with being a minority group. Non-Muslims who are not members of official religions do not. This includes Muslim sects that the Islamic system does not recognize as legitimate. It includes Muslims who wish to convert to another religion, and it includes atheists who are not a recognized religious group.

-more at link-

Loafers and Suck-ups - Environmentalism and the Leisure Class

2012-01-22T22:13:00.001-05:00

Of course the environmentalist were watching out for icebergs and polar bears over the horizon just ahead of the coming Ice Age in the 1970s.

The American Spectator : Environmentalism and the Leisure Class

By WILLIAM TUCKER on 1.20.12 @ 6:08AM

In playing Keystone cop, President Obama protects his environmental flank for no good reason.

This week President Obama handed down what may prove to be one of the most fateful decisions of his entire administration when he rejected the plan to build the Keystone XL Pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands of Canada to the refineries of Houston. The decision did not win him one new vote but was crucial in protecting his environmental flank. The movie stars and Sierra Club contributors were getting restless and had drawn the line in the sand.

In turning down Keystone, however, the President has uncovered an ugly little secret that has always lurked beneath the surface of environmentalism. Its basic appeal is to the affluent. Despite all the professions of being "liberal" and "against big business," environmentalism's main appeal is that it promises to slow the progress of industrial progress. People who are already comfortable with the present state of affairs -- who are established in the environment, so to speak -- are happy to go along with this. It is not that they have any greater insight into the mysteries and workings of nature. They are happier with the way things are. In fact, environmentalism works to their advantage. The main danger to the affluent is not that they will be denied from improving their estate but that too many other people will achieve what they already have. As the Forest Service used to say, the person who built his mountain cabin last year is an environmentalist. The person who wants to build one this year is a developer.

Environmentalism has spent three decades trying to hide this simple truth. How can environmentalists be motivated by self-interest when they are anti-business? Doesn't that align them with the working classes? Well, not quite. You can be anti-business as a union member trying to claim higher wages but you can also be anti-business as a member of the aristocracy who believes "trade" and "commercialism" are crass and not attuned to the higher things in life. Environmentalism is born from the latter, not the former. It has spent decades trying to pretend it has common cause with the working people. With the defeat of the Keystone Pipeline, this is no longer possible. Too many blue-collar and middle-class jobs have been sacrificed on the altar of carbon emissions and global warming.

In 1977, I wrote a cover story for Harper's called "Environmentalism and the Leisure Class," my first story for a national magazine. Environmentalism was very young at the time -- born supposedly on Earth Day in 1970 -- but had already achieved a seat in the upper echelons of the Carter Administration. These freshly appointed bureaucrats began canceling dams, preaching the sins of fossil fuels, and raising obstacles to nuclear power.

-more at link-

Ten Stories of Time-shares Floated on a Sunken Shingle - The Sinking of the West

2012-01-22T13:29:00.002-05:00

Historic Decency, drawn from ages of firm Traditional Etiquette, the glue that holds society together, infirmly fell apart decades ago. A Captain and Crew abandoning a sinking cruise ship and its passengers is nothing new in recent events. It was unfortunately and still is done without shame! ♘

The Casta Concordia sinks in the cowardly "tradition" of the Oceanos.

The Sinking of the West - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

Mark Steyn 1-21-12

It’ll look more like the Costa Concordia than the Titanic.

Abe Greenwald of Commentary magazine tweets:

Is there any chance that Mark Steyn won’t use the Italian captain fleeing the sinking ship as the lead metaphor in a column on EU collapse?

Oh, dear. You’ve got to get up early in the morning to beat me to civilizational-collapse metaphors. Been there, done that. See page 185 of my most recent book, where I contrast the orderly, dignified, and moving behavior of those on the Titanic (the ship, not the mendacious Hollywood blockbuster) with that manifested in more recent disasters. There was no orderly evacuation from the Costa Concordia, just chaos punctuated by individual acts of courage from, for example, an Hungarian violinist in the orchestra and a ship’s entertainer in a Spiderman costume, both of whom helped children to safety, the former paying with his life.

The miserable Captain Schettino, by contrast, is presently under house arrest, charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship. His explanation is that, when the vessel listed suddenly, he fell into a lifeboat and was unable to climb out. Seriously. Could happen to anyone, slippery decks and all that. Next thing you know, he was safe on shore, leaving his passengers all at sea. On the other hand, the audio of him being ordered by Coast Guard officers to return to his ship and refusing to do so is not helpful to this version of events.

In the centenary year of the most famous of all maritime disasters, we would do well to consider honestly the tale of the Titanic. When James Cameron made his movie, he was interested in everything except what the story was actually about. I confess I have very little memory of the film except for Kate Winslet’s lush full breasts and some tedious sub-Riverdance prancing in the hold, but what I do recall traduced the memory of honorable men: In my book, I cite First Officer William Murdoch. In real life, he threw deckchairs to passengers drowning in the water to give them something to cling to, and then he went down with the ship — the dull, decent thing, all very British, with no fuss. In Cameron’s movie, Murdoch takes a bribe and murders a third-class passenger. The director subsequently apologized to the First Officer’s hometown in Scotland and offered £5,000 toward a memorial, which converted into Hollywood dollars equals rather less than what Cameron and his family paid for dinner after the Oscars.

On the Titanic, the male passengers gave their lives for the women and would never have considered doing otherwise. ....

-Read on at link-

Consistent in its Lack of Intestinal Fortitude - Nicolas Sarkozy Weighs Afghan Withdrawal After Soldier Kills 4 French Troops

2012-01-21T15:29:00.000-05:00

Nicolas Sarkozy Weighs Afghan Withdrawal After Soldier Kills 4 French Troops - NYTimes.com