Assad: A Thorn in the Desert - Syria, Vogue, and the Apologia of Joan Juliet Buck

The Rosett Report » Syria, Vogue, and the Apologia of Joan Juliet Buck


July 31, 2012 - 12:26 am - by Claudia Rosett

It’s now 17 months since Vogue published its cover-story paean to the first lady of Syria, “Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert.” Readers were treated to a profile of Asma up close, “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies,” a dazzling paragon of understated style and philanthropic works, “on a mission to create a beacon of secularism and culture in a powder-keg region — and to put a modern face on her husband’s regime.” Asma, “glamorous, young and very chic,” was featured playing with her kids, whipping up home-cooked fondue with her jeans-clad husband, “the off-duty president,” and urging millions of Syrian youth to engage in “active citizenship.”

That was February of 2011. The following month, Syrians began engaging in a lot more active citizenship than the Assad regime evidently had in mind, rising in rebellion against the dynastic tyranny in Damascus. For 16 months now, abetted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Syrian regime has been fighting back — with heavy weapons, arrests, torture and butchery, mutilating and murdering even children. To date, an estimated 19,000 or more Syrians have been slaughtered, and the killing continues.

Now, at long last, comes a recantation of sorts from the author of Vogue‘s “Rose in the Desert,” Joan Juliet Buck.  To call it a full-throated apology would be inaccurate. Buck appears genuinely appalled by the carnage with which the Assad regime itself so swiftly and utterly discredited her labors to give it a fashion-plate human face. But her deeper sympathies seem reserved for herself, and her woefully bad luck that her Asma profile — which closed with President Bashar al-Assad, surrounded by singing children, ringing a peace bell —  came out just before the monstrous character of the Assad regime hove into full view in the international headlines. (After a blitz of criticism last year, Vogue scrubbed the article from its web site, though you can still find a copy here.)

“Joan Juliet Buck: Mrs. Assad Duped Me” is the headline of Buck’s new take on Asma al-Assad, published in the current edition of Newsweek, with an accompanying essay by Tina Brown on “Syria’s First Lady of Hell: The real story behind the notorious interview.”
-go to links-

Hamas Official Calls Romney A "Racist" And An "Extremist" After Speech In Israel...

Romney was generous calling what the Palestinians have as a 'culture.' He is more of a "Culturalist" in recognizing the superiority of the Culture in Israel over the mean, murderous, hate filled and unproductive mass entrapped by old Arafat and new Hamas lies.

Weasel Zippers: Hamas Official Calls Romney A "Racist" And An "Extremist" After Speech In Israel...
Takes one to know one.

Via Times of Israel:

The visit of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Israel left many politicians smiling in Israel. But Romney’s unequivocal support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as his patently pro-Israeli statements on Jerusalem, left Palestinians across the political spectrum offended and disappointed.

Most aggravating to Palestinians was Romney’s reference to Jerusalem as “the capital of Israel.” Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP Sunday that Romney’s comments on Jerusalem were “harmful to American interests in our region.” On Monday, he told BBC that they were “completely unacceptable.”

“Even if this statement is within the US election campaign, it is unacceptable and we completely reject it. The US election campaign should never be at the expense of the Palestinians,” he said, and added, “Romney is rewarding occupation, settlement and extremism in the region with such declarations.”

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum was less diplomatic. He told Palestinian press Monday that Romney’s statements on Jerusalem were “racist and extremist and denied the Palestinian rights.”

“Romney’s statements on Jerusalem distort the truth, falsify history and misguide public opinion,” Barhoum added. “They provoke the emotions of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims and encourage Judaization [of Jerusalem] and settlement building.”

Insults the Brits and Lies to US - Busted: Mr. Pfeiffer and the White House Blog

Pfeiffer is a Pfool! 

Busted: Mr. Pfeiffer and the White House Blog - Charles Krauthammer - National Review Online


JULY 29, 2012 8:00 P.M.

History Forgotten: Obama lives in his own Year One.

Busted: Mr. Pfeiffer and the White House Blog
...Yes, Obama returned the Churchill bust—it’s now in the British ambassador’s residence.
I wrote that Barack Obama “started his presidency by returning to the British Embassy the bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office.”
Within hours, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer had created something of a bonfire. Citing my statement, he posted a furious blog on the White House website, saying: “Normally we wouldn’t address a rumor that’s so patently false, but just this morning the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer repeated this ridiculous claim in his column. . . . This is 100% false. The bust [is] still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room.”
Except that it isn’t. As the British Embassy said in a statement issued just a few hours later, “The bust now resides in the British ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C.”
As the British Embassy explained in 2009: “[The bust] was lent for the first term of office of President Bush. When the president was elected for his second and final term, the loan was extended until January 2009. The new president has decided not to continue this loan and the bust has now been returned.”
QED.
At which point, one would expect Pfeiffer to say: Sorry, I made a mistake. End of story.
But Pfeiffer had an additional problem. In his original post, he had provided photographic proof of his claim that the Oval Office Churchill had never been returned, indeed had never left the White House at all, but had simply been moved from the Oval Office to the residence.
“Here’s a picture of the president showing off the Churchill bust to Prime Minister Cameron when he visited the White House residence in 2010,” he wrote. “Hopefully this clears things up a bit and prevents folks from making this ridiculous claim again.”
Except that the photo does nothing of the sort. The Churchill sculpture shown in the photograph is a different copy — given to President Lyndon Johnson...
-more at link-

The self-righteous fool tries to mock the Rational Genius - Milton Friedman on Greed

This should be replayed at least once a week to remind us of our better, but self interested nature.
I just happened to hear Rush Limbaugh replay it today.

Milton Friedman - Greed - YouTube

Not Mentioned by our press, as usual - ‘Racist’ to Remember the Victims of the 1972 Olympic Jihad Attacks?

It was never mentioned that by our major media Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee blocked the remembrance of the murdered Israelis at the Munich Olympics. Must have been an oversight. m/r

‘Racist’ to Remember the Victims of the 1972 Olympic Jihad Attacks? | FrontPage Magazine

By Robert Spencer On July 31, 2012 @ 12:49 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 2 Comments

When the International Olympic Committee turned down a request to hold a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the 1972 Munich Olympics, unnoticed in the furor was the shocking moral inversion in the statement from Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. In explaining why he opposed the moment of silence, Rajoub said: “Sports are meant for peace, not for racism… Sports are a bridge to love, interconnection, and spreading of peace among nations; it must not be a cause of division and spreading of racism between them [nations].”
Rajoub’s statement strikingly paralleled Islamic supremacist rhetoric about “Islamophobia” in labeling any commemoration of the victims of the Munich jihad attacks “racist” — as if the jihad murderers who perpetrated the attacks, including Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, were the real victims. So the purveyors of “Islamophobia” identify the opponents of jihadist Jew-killers and persecutors of Christians as “bigots” and the destroyers of civility in the world today.
In line with this, Rajoub praised IOC President Jacques Rogge’s refusal to hold a moment of silence: “[Rogge] said that his position not to politicize sports, and his determination to implement the International Olympic Charter represents a victory for freedom in sports.” Of course, it wasn’t those who requested the moment of silence who were “politicizing sports”; the Munich assassins did that forty years ago when they murdered Israeli athletes in order to advance a religious and political cause. Mirroring the way in which Islamic supremacists habitually deploy charges of “Islamophobia,” Rajoub (and Rogge) shifted responsibility from the Palestinian murderers to their Jewish victims.
Last February, Islamic supremacist writer Reza Aslan provided a telling example of this twisted mindset. “Attitudes towards Muslims in the United States are getting progressively more and more bigoted,” he claimed during an address at Colgate University. “Two-thirds of Americans don’t think Muslims should have the same rights or civil liberties as non-Muslims….It is not the result of a slow-moving grassroots sentiment. On the contrary, this is the result of a very well-organized, well-funded campaign by a handful of far-right extremist groups (Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America) to convince Americans that Islam is the enemy.”
Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America: that’s essentially Pamela Geller and me.
-more at link-

Lawsuits Galore, Just Write It and They Will Come - Hockey-sticking it to the Mann

Hockey-sticking it to the Mann :: SteynOnline

Valerie Jarrett, Obama's Senior Advisor: 'People Who Receive that Unemployment Check Go Out and Spend It and Help Stimulate the Economy'

Let us review how dumb people are in the White House. It almost sounds like Nancy Pelosi.

Valerie Jarrett: 'People Who Receive that Unemployment Check Go Out and Spend It and Help Stimulate the Economy' | The Weekly Standard

The Blog

Valerie Jarrett: 'People Who Receive that Unemployment Check Go Out and Spend It and Help Stimulate the Economy'

9:47 PM, Feb 21, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

       

This evening, speaking at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said that folks getting and spending unemployment checks is a healthy thing . . . because it stimulates the economy:

"Even though we had a terrible economic crisis three years ago, throughout our country many people were suffering before the last three years, particularly in the black community," Jarrett said. "And so we need to make sure that we continue to support that important safety net. It not only is good for the family, but it's good for the economy. People who receive that unemployment check go out and spend it and help stimulate the economy, so that's healthy as well."

Kim Rhodes Shoots Her Way Into the Olympic Record Books … Win 5 Medals in an Individual Event in 5 Consecutive Olympic Games

Kim Rhodes Shoots Her Way Into the Olympic Record Books … Win 5 Medals in an Individual Event in 5 Consecutive Olympic Games | Scared Monkeys

No American athlete in an individual sport has ever gone to 5 consecutive Olympics and meddled 5 consecutive times. That was until today when  Kim Rhodes of the United States won gold in woman’s skeet.  Rhodes set an Olympic record and tied the world record by hitting 99 of 100 targets on the way to winning the gold medal. She also became the first woman to win three gold medals in Olympic shooting.
Kim Rhodes said during her interview that she would be back for a 6th Olympics to defend her gold medal. Hey why not, she began her Olympic career at the age of 17 in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA and she expects to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Isn’t this interesting, I bet that Democrats like Chucky Schumer, Diane Feinstein, Frank Lautenburg and Barack Obama would block and question Kim Rhodes as to why she uses so many rounds of ammunition. She averages 500 to 1,000 rounds a day, seven days a week. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (NJ) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (NY) will announce new legislation on Monday to regulate the online and mail-order sale of ammunition. Because no one could ever have a legal reason and purpose to use large amounts of ammunition.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if Kim Rhodes was invited to the White House for her amazing Olympic accomplishment? What are the odds that Obama would praise an athlete who’s sport was involved with guns? The heck with that silly 2nd Amendment thing and Rhodes’ record breaking accomplishment.
-more at link-

The "Truth to Power" Liar Advisor: Obama canceled Bin Laden 'kill' raid three times at Jarrett's urging

Book bombshell: Obama canceled Bin Laden 'kill' raid three times at Jarrett's urging | The Daily Caller

Published: 9:10 PM 07/29/2012 David Martosko

At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21. The Daily Caller has seen a portion of the chapter in which the stunning revelation appears.
In ”Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,“ Richard Miniter writes that Obama canceled the “kill” mission in January 2011, again in February, and a third time in March. Obama’s close adviser Valerie Jarrett persuaded him to hold off each time, according to the book.
Obama administration officials also said after the raid that the president had delayed giving the order to kill the arch-terrorist the day before the operation was carried out, in what turned out to be his fourth moment of indecision. At the time, the White House blamed the delay on unfavorable weather conditions near bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
But when Miniter obtained that day’s weather reports from the U.S. Air Force Combat Meteorological Center, he said, they showed ideal conditions for the SEALs to carry out their orders.
“President Obama’s greatest success was actually his greatest failure,” Miniter told The Daily Caller Friday. ”Leading From Behind,“ he said, traces the arc of six key Obama administration decisions, and shows how the president made them — and, often, failed to make them.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/29/obama-canceled-bin-laden-kill-raid-three-times-valerie-jarrett/#ixzz227MbbjOG

California Nightmares - Penniless in Paradise

Penniless in Paradise - Kevin D. Williamson - National Review Online
From the August 13, 2012, issue of NR
Here is an example of how low the quality of politician in California has fallen:

... After a great deal of self-congratulatory speechification — during which one council member used the phrase “the buck stops” no fewer than five times without once getting it quite right, laid out a little Boston Consulting–style two-by-two matrix to explain his analysis of the situation, repeatedly reminded the citizens of how often he had “prayed for strength” during his four long months in elected office, and generally made a po-faced spectacle of himself — after all that, the feckless ladies and clueless gentlemen of the San Bernardino city council voted to seek shelter under Chapter 9 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, a law that deals specifically with municipal bankruptcies and grants cities an extraordinary level of protection during financial reorganizations. A phalanx of pant-suited she-bureaucrats and the city attorney explained that in addition to filing for bankruptcy, the city needed to declare a fiscal emergency, because it did not have enough money even to last through the 60-day waiting period that would follow initiating the bankruptcy. The moment was not without levity: When one of the ladies of the city council inquired as to which court would hear the case, the city attorney explained that he was pretty sure the city’s filing under federal bankruptcy law would be heard in federal bankruptcy court. When another council member inquired as to why the city was filing under Chapter 9 instead of the more famous Chapter 11, the city attorney gently explained that the municipality was filing under the municipal-bankruptcy law because it is a municipality, not a guy with hospital bills and a mortgage in default.
San Bernardino spends about 75 percent of its general-fund budget on salaries, benefits, and pensions, with the vast majority of those expenses coming from one class of employee: public-safety workers, meaning cops and firemen, who earn as much as $230,000 a year with overtime. Their pensions, as will not surprise anybody who has been paying attention to government finances in recent years, are extraordinarily generous. In 2007, a consulting firm warned the city that its budget was in trouble because its personnel costs were growing considerably more quickly than revenue, and the city’s response was #. . .# to offer even more generous pensions in the same year. The firemen are fat and happy in the California sunshine, but the rest of San Bernardino is not doing as well: “When times were good, my wife and I didn’t go hog-wild and play the let’s-get-a-bigger-house game,” says Mike Potter, who works for a local construction firm. “But now times aren’t good. At my company, 50 percent of the employees have been laid off, and I’ve taken a 15 percent pay cut. I was the head of engineering, and now I’m also a part-time receptionist and janitor.” He is one of the lucky ones — the local unemployment rate runs around 15 percent — and he is blunt on the subject of what encumbers San Bernardino and other bankruptcy-bound California cities: “The public-employee unions are killing us. They are killing our cities, our states, and our country.”

John Magness, the biggest real-estate developer in San Bernardino, is bearish on the city’s near-term prospects. “No respectable developer would risk its relationships by getting its clients to locate in a city with this risk,” he says. He estimates that his company’s projects have added $1 billion to the city’s tax base and about 5,000 jobs over the past decade, but finds himself “reluctant to encourage customers to come here in this uncertain environment.” He spoke in favor of the bankruptcy filing and fiscal emergency, arguing that it would give the city an opportunity to run a river of reform through the Augean stables of its finances, renegotiating contracts and rewriting the city charter. The local business leaders were nearly unanimous in endorsing the measures.

-more at link-

We are all under the jackboot of unbridled government powers - A vast new federal power

They just give more powers to themselves!

A vast new federal power | Fox News

by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Published July 02, 2012

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street, If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
-- The Beatles in “The Taxman”

Of the 17 lawyers who have served as chief justice of the United States, John Marshall -- the fourth chief justice -- has come to be known as the "Great Chief Justice." The folks who have given him that title are the progressives who have largely written the history we are taught in government schools. They revere him because he is the intellectual progenitor of federal power. Marshall's opinions over a 34-year period during the nation's infancy -- expanding federal power at the expense of personal freedom and the sovereignty of the states -- set a pattern for federal control of our lives and actually invited Congress to regulate areas of human behavior nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. He was Thomas Jefferson’s cousin, but they rarely spoke. No chief justice in history has so pronouncedly and creatively offered the feds power on a platter as he.

Now he has a rival.

No one can know the true motivations for the idiosyncratic rationale in the health care decision written by Marshall's current successor, John Roberts. Often five member majorities on the court are fragile, and bizarre compromises are necessary in order to keep a five-member majority from becoming a four-member minority. Perhaps Chief Justice Roberts really means what he wrote -- that congressional power to tax is without constitutional limit -- and his opinion is a faithful reflection of that view, without a political or legal or intra-court agenda. But that view finds no support in the Constitution or our history. It even contradicts the most famous of Marshall's big government aphorisms: The power to tax is the power to destroy.

The reasoning underlying the 5 to 4 majority opinion is the court’s unprecedented pronouncement that Congress' power to tax is unlimited. The majority held that the ext

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/02/vast-new-federal-power/#ixzz224VNzypp

Nanny, Nanny - Mayor Bloomberg pushing NYC hospitals to hide baby formula so more new mothers will breast-feed.

Mayor Bloomberg pushing NYC hospitals to hide baby formula so more new mothers will breast-feed - NYPOST.com

Thank You, NRA

Thank You, NRA - Rich Lowry - National Review Online

What’s Wrong With Polygamy? Obama's Father Practiced it. Why Should Romney's Mormonism be a Problem?

Mormons are just strange, Mormons don’t smoke, or drink liquor or coffee or tea or colas, and they oppose sex before marriage and infidelity and give a tithing. 
What's that? Obama's father was a polygamist Muslim who was not supposed to drink, but was a drunk! He abandoned his family, but that's not strange?
And just try smoking tobacco in most public buildings and restaurants now a days.
Obama went to Rev. Wright's church and contributed money to it for twenty years, until Obama had to act as if he had never heard of Wright and had to hide the fact that Wright hates whites and America (with much help from the press and  John McCain).
Well then Romney is out of touch as a rich businessman and so is his equestrian wife.
Obama has no clue about the real workings of any business and his dismal, failed policies reflect it. 
Oh yeah, didn't the favorite of the liberal press adore equestrian Jackie Kennedy?

Why Should Romney's Mormonism be a Problem?

Arthur Louis

What’s Wrong With Polygamy

Posted: July 29, 2012

For the first time ever we are about to have a Mormon nominated for president by a major political party. By a strange coincidence, we also are beginning to see a flurry of posts on liberal blogs telling us what a  bizarre and deplorable religion Mormonism is. Mormons don’t smoke, or drink alcoholic or caffeinated beverages, and they oppose sex before marriage and marital infidelity. What a bunch of boobs!

On one liberal blog a woman who formerly belonged to the Mormon Church complained bitterly because church officials have persisted in their attempts to bring her back into the fold. No matter how many times she tells them to buzz off (I am using a phrase suitable for use in the presence of Mormons), they keep buzzing back. ...

But with Romney in the field, religion is back as a political issue.
Some liberals are trying to tar Romney with the specter of polygamy, even though polygamy was outlawed by his church in 1890, and the last polygamous marriage ended nearly sixty years ago with the death of one of the wives. The Democratic governor of Montana, for example, recently made a fuss because the parents of Romney’s late father, George, fled to Mexico more than a century ago in protest against U.S. anti-polygamy laws. They did this even though they themselves were in a monogamous marriage. It was strictly on principle. Those wacky Mormons!

But really, what is wrong with polygamy? Does it strike you as any stranger than gay marriage? And let me interject here that gay marriage is absolutely the most wonderful idea ever conceived by mankind, and gays are, and should be, treated as sacred cows.

-more at link-

The Tolerance Enforcers

There is a Muslim Solution to this Gay Chicken Problem

The Tolerance Enforcers - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

They’re ever more intolerant of anything less than total ideological homogeneity.

By Mark Steyn
July 28, 2012


They’re ever more intolerant of anything less than total ideological homogeneity.
To modify Lord Acton, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but aldermanic power corrupts all der more manically. Proco “Joe” Moreno is alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, and last week, in a city with an Aurora-sized body count every weekend, his priority was to take the municipal tire-iron to the owners of a chain of fast-food restaurants. “Because of this man’s ignorance,” said Alderman Moreno, “I will now be denying Chick-fil-A’s permit to open a restaurant in the First Ward.”
“This man’s ignorance”? You mean, of the City of Chicago permit process? Zoning regulations? Health and safety ordinances? No, Alderman Moreno means “this man’s ignorance” of the approved position on same-sex marriage. “This man” is Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, and a few days earlier he had remarked that “we are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives” — which last part suggests he is as antipathetic to no-fault divorce and other heterosexual assaults on matrimony as he is to more recent novelties such as gay marriage. But no matter. Alderman Moreno does not allege that Chick-fil-A discriminates in its hiring practices or in its customer service. Nor does he argue that business owners should not be entitled to hold opinions: The Muppets, for example, have reacted to Mr. Cathy’s observations by announcing that they’re severing all ties with Chick-fil-A. Did you know that the Muppet Corporation has a position on gay marriage? Well, they do. But Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef would be permitted to open a business in the First Ward of Chicago because their opinion on gay marriage happens to coincide with Alderman Moreno’s. It’s his ward, you just live in it. When it comes to lunch options, he’s the chicken supremo and don’t you forget it.
The city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, agrees with the alderman: Chick-fil-A does not represent “Chicago values” — which is true if by “Chicago values” you mean machine politics, AIDS-conspiracy-peddling pastors, and industrial-scale black youth homicide rates. But, before he was mayor, Rahm Emanuel was President Obama’s chief of staff. Until the president’s recent “evolution,” the Obama administration held the same position on gay marriage as Chick-fil-A. Would Alderman Moreno have denied Barack Obama the right to open a chicken restaurant in the First Ward? Did Rahm Emanuel quit the Obama administration on principle? Don’t be ridiculous. Mayor Emanuel is a former ballet dancer, and when it’s politically necessary he can twirl on a dime.
-more at link-

The Law of Unintended Consequences and Ineptitude at the Top - Too Few Doctors in Many U.S. Communities

Notice the PC NY Times Won't Call Obamacare Obamacare. 


Why become a Doctor when every part of your income and your decisions are restricted, dictated and second guessed by a massive, stupid bureaucracy.

Too Few Doctors in Many U.S. Communities - NYTimes.com

By ANNIE LOWREY and ROBERT PEAR

Published: July 28, 2012

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In the Inland Empire, an economically depressed region in Southern California, President Obama’s health care law is expected to extend insurance coverage to more than 300,000 people by 2014. But coverage will not necessarily translate into care: Local health experts doubt there will be enough doctors to meet the area’s needs. There are not enough now.

-no need to continue, it is the usual self -important, overly long and says little, NY Times article-

‘Military-Style Weapons’ - some work, some don't

"Function, not cosmetics, should govern gun policy."

‘Military-Style Weapons’ - John R. Lott Jr. - National Review Online


July 27, 2012 4:00 A.M.

‘AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets of our cities,” President Obama told the National Urban League on Wednesday. After the deadly attack in Colorado last Friday, the president’s concern is understandable. However, even — or perhaps especially — at such a time, distinctions need to be made.
The police in Aurora, Colo., reported that the killer used a Smith & Wesson M&P 15. This weapon bears a cosmetic resemblance to the M-16, which has been used by the U.S. military since the Vietnam War. The call has frequently been made that there is “no reason” for such “military-style weapons” to be available to civilians.
Yes, the M&P 15 and the AK-47 are “military-style weapons.” But the key word is “style” — they are similar to military guns in their aesthetics, not in the way they actually operate. The guns covered by the federal assault-weapons ban (which was enacted in 1994 and expired ten year later) were not the fully automatic machine guns used by the military but semi-automatic versions of those guns.
The civilian version of the AK-47 uses essentially the same sorts of bullets as deer-hunting rifles, fires at the same rapidity (one bullet per pull of the trigger), and does the same damage. The M&P 15 is similar, though it fires a much smaller bullet — .223 inches in diameter, as opposed to the .30-inch rounds used by the AK-47.
The Aurora killer’s large-capacity ammunition magazines are also misunderstood. The common perception that so-called “assault weapons” can hold larger magazines than hunting rifles is simply wrong. Any gun that can hold a magazine can hold one of any size. That is true for handguns as well as rifles. A magazine, which is basically a metal box with a spring, is also trivially easy to make and virtually impossible to stop criminals from obtaining.
Further, the guns in a couple of recent mass shootings (including the one in Aurora) have jammed because of the large magazines that were used. The reason is simple physics. Large magazines require very strong springs, but the springs cannot be too strong, or it becomes impossible to load the magazines. Over time, the springs wear out, and when a spring loses its ability to push bullets into the chamber properly, the gun jams. With large springs, even a small amount of fatigue can cause jams.
If Obama wants to campaign against semi-automatic guns based on their function, he should go after all semi-automatic guns. After all, in 1998, as an Illinois state senator, he supported just such a ban – a ban that would eliminate most of the guns in the United States.

-more at link-

Raaaaaaacists! - We are all Racists Now!

 Just ask a Democrat.

Raaaaaaacists! - By Jonah Goldberg - The Corner - National Review Online
The one and only.


By Jonah Goldberg
July 27, 2012 - full post

Dan’s post on Jonathan Chait’s entry into the “if it’s bad for Obama, it’s racist” games is a keeper. What I love about this stuff is that liberals tend to insist how racism is not only repugnant to them, but alien to them. And yet, they continually demonstrate a sensitivity and acuity for spotting it that even real racists seem to lack. They’re like people who claim to be nose deaf (if you prefer, anosmic) who nonetheless insist they can pick up an exotic scent from miles away (“A lactose intolerant armadillo has grown flatulent over by the old Miller farm . . .”).
I don’t think liberals appreciate how much conservatives laugh at this stuff. We’re constantly being told we’re racists and that conservatism is full of racist codes and dog whistles aimed at conservatives. And yet the only people who consistently decipher these codes or hear these dog whistles are liberals themselves. Most of the time it’s a form of projection of course. Liberals see themselves as sinless and heroic on matters racial, so their opposite numbers in politics must be sinful and villainous on matters of race. It’s a form of lazy categorical thinking that completely fails to take account of reality in order to sustain a self-serving narrative.
I still laugh at this earnest handwringing from Tim Noah about how journalists must not call attention to the fact that Barack Obama is skinny because doing so may — just may — tip off racist voters that Obama is black. “Hey this Obama guys looks like he’s got a 32 inch waist . . . Wait. A. Second. He’s black! I can’t vote for him!”

This is the Scary Virus: Ebola breaks out in Uganda

Unlike AIDS, which can be prevented by behavioral changes, this virus is one of the hardest to stop when it break out.

Officials: Ebola breaks out in Uganda – USATODAY.com
7-28-12
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month, Ugandan health officials said on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many people fleeing their homes.

The officials and a World Health Organizationrepresentative told a news conference in Kampala Saturday that there is "an outbreak of Ebola" in Uganda.

"Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute…have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola hemorrhagic fever," the Ugandan government and WHO said in joint statement.

Kibaale is a district in midwestern Uganda, where people in recent weeks have been troubled by a mysterious illness that seemed to have come from nowhere. Ugandan health officials had been stumped as well, and spent weeks conducting laboratory tests that were at first inconclusive.

On Friday, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told The Associated Press that investigators were "not so sure" it was Ebola, and a Ugandan health official dismissed the possibility of Ebola as merely a rumor. It appears firm evidence of Ebola was clinched overnight.

Health officials told reporters in Kampala that the 14 dead were among 20 reported with the disease. Two of the infected have been isolated for examination by researchers and health officials. A clinical officer and, days later, her 4-month-old baby died from the disease caused by the Ebola virus, officials said.

-scary at link-

Stalinist tactics - Democratic senators offer gun control amendment for cybersecurity bill

The Dems Goal: Make us less secure and give these commie-fascist more free reign to take away all our individual rights! 
The same old politburo clan of Lautenberg, Boxer, Schumer, Feinstein... the most guarded and protected, pompous blowhards in the senate want to take our personal protection away. They fear for the safety to their fatheaded egos.

Democratic senators offer gun control amendment for cybersecurity bill - The Hill's Video
By Ramsey Cox - 07/26/12 

Democratic senators have offered an amendment to the cybersecurity bill that would limit the purchase of high capacity gun magazines for some consumers.

Shortly after the Cybersecurity Act gained Senate approval to proceed to filing proposed amendments and a vote next week, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a sponsor of the gun control amendment, came to the floor to defend the idea of implementing some “reasonable” gun control measures.

The amendment was sponsored by Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Jack Reed (R.I.), Bob Menendez (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Schumer and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.). S.A. 2575 would make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition.

The amendment is identical to a separate bill sponsored by Lautenberg. Feinstein was the sponsor of the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004.  - go to link to see a fathead talking-

We own these! Tesla reports 2nd quarter loss, says its looking to ramp up Model S production

What can cost over $120m, looks like last decades Chrysler, go up to 55 miles then take 16 hours to recharge for the next 55 miles, overheats and can only use a one speed gearbox because the two speed kept breaking?
Oh yea, the best part is that each of these battery powered turkeys is also subsidized for over $200,000 each. That mean we own over 50% of each Tesla.
When do we get out test Tesla drive?


Tesla reports 2nd quarter loss, says its looking to ramp up Model S production - egmCarTech
Jul 26, 2012 [short post]

Tesla Motors has announced a second-quarter loss saying that the drop comes due to the end of Roadster sales and the start of full production of the Model S electric sedan.

Check out more news on the Tesla Model S.

Tesla’s net loss hit $105.6 million, or $1 a share, up from $58.9 million a year earlier. Revenue dropped 54 percent to $26.7 million.

Separately, Tesla said that it is also considering bumping up production of the Model S to 30,000 units in response to high demand that has pushed the waiting let to 10-11 months.

“Our key objective for the rest of the year is to ramp production with a focus on quality and to rollout the Model S experience to a broader audience through customer deliveries, test drives and store openings,” Tesla said in its second quarter 2012 shareholder letter.

- By: Omar Rana

The Manhattan Gun Control Lobby wants us to follow Mexico's stellar example

In nearly a decade of South-of-the-border slaughter, the New York Times has never responded to the carnage by questioning Mexican gun-control laws. Instead, it regularly blames gun violence in Mexico on the lack of gun control in America. And last Friday’s Aurora, Colorado movie-house shooting has prompted the newspaper of record to solicit Mexico’s opinion of America’s largely permissive gun laws. It turns out that the inhabitants of one of the most violent places on the planet think that the U.S. has a gun problem.

The Manhattan Gun Control Lobby | FrontPage Magazine

Daniel Flynn On July 27, 2012 

In Colorado, gun-permit applications spiked 44 percent in the wake of last Friday’s shooting at an Aurora cineplex. The public response to multiple victim public shootings isn’t gun control. It is more guns.
Colorado’s reaction to the Dark Knight Rises tragedy confuses Gothamites, who have been drawing the opposite lesson from the shooting that claimed twelve lives. Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN’s Piers Morgan, “I don’t understand why police officers across this country don’t stand up collectively and say, ‘We’re going to go on strike. We’re not going to protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what’s required to keep us safe.’” Morgan, a Brit who broadcasts out of the Big Apple, had days earlier treated More Guns, Less Crime author John Lott the way Robert Blake had recently treated the host: rudely. Morgan has spent the week lecturing a country where guns outnumber adults about the idiocy of private gun ownership. Last month, Morgan’s ratings reached a primetime low for CNN’s history.
There is the parochialism of cosmopolitans at work here, in which New Yorkers mistake the opinions prevailing among their neighbors as prevailing opinion. But when Manhattanites venture from their island, they discover the presence of woods where people hunt and the absence of a policeman on every corner where most people live. People so drenched in their gunless milieu can’t understand why anyone would want or need a firearm.
The New York Times counseled in an editorial, “The most appropriate response now to the shootings early Friday in Aurora, Colo., is also the simplest: sympathy for the victims, for the injured and for their families.” The editors then discarded their own advice by sermonizing against an “out-of-control gun market” and “too readily available” semi-automatic rifles. The bodies hadn’t even been cleared from the theater and the Times had already politicized the tragedy.
The newspaper of record has over the last week released a torrent of op-eds, editorials, blog posts, and news articles advocating government restrictions on private gun ownership. In a news article this week, the Times cited an “extensive review of the scholarly literature by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center” that maintains that the proliferation of guns proliferates murder.  “There is unanimous evidence that higher homicide rates lead to people getting more guns,” countered Florida State’s Gary Kleck. This is precisely what happened in Colorado.

-go to link-

Whose side is he on? Ramadan Ding-Dong

Religion of peace-

The month of Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and God’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators… The holy war is not confined to a particular arena and we shall fight the Jews and the Americans until they leave the land of Islam. -
 “Qaedat al-Jihad,”

Ramadan Ding-Dong | FrontPage Magazine

Mark Tapson On July 27, 2012

As is customary, President Obama and wife Michelle released their annual Ramadan greetings last Friday. Also customary for Obama, it was full of platitudes about Islam’s supposedly invaluable contribution to American culture, and devoid of any acknowledgement of the dark reality of the Arab Spring that he helped facilitate.
The statement began:

Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world at the start of Ramadan. For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting, prayer, and reflection; a time of joy and celebration. It’s a time to cherish family, friends, and neighbors, and to help those in need.

In ironic response, CNN posted this headline two days later: “Iraq Bombs Kill 25 People as Muslims Celebrate Ramadan.” Similar headlines followed: “Ramadan Fails to Curtail Syrian Violence.” “Muslims Begin Ramadan Fast; Bombs Hit Thai South.” “7 Shot Dead in Karachi on First Day of Ramadan.” So much for reflection, joy, and celebration.
Even if many Muslims around the world weren’t respectful of Ramadan, at least American officials in Guantanamo were. In deference to the Muslims who are vacationing – sorry, I mean incarcerated – there, they graciously postponed any court hearings to allow the murderous 9/11 plotters their time of contemplation and joy.
Ramadan is also a reminder, the Obamas’ statement went on, “to people of all faiths of our common humanity and the commitment to justice, equality, and compassion shared by all great faiths.”
Not according to a group by the name of “Qaedat al-Jihad,” a branch of al Qaeda that has been described as one of the “affiliates of the Global Jihad movement.” This is their take on Ramadan, delivered in their statement claiming responsibility for last Wednesday’s terror attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed seven and wounded dozens more:
-go to link-

Layers of pompous do-gooders - UN arms treaty takes shape, raising alarm among gun rights advocates

Power to the tyrants, despots and weenies!

UN arms treaty takes shape, raising alarm among gun rights advocates | Fox News

Steven Edwards

Published July 25, 2012

UNITED NATIONS –  The arms trade treaty being hammered out by the United Nations is nearing completion, and the current draft shows it could lead to perpetual attacks on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and American foreign policy, critics say.

The document, which critics say has been framed by countries hostile to U.S. interests, allows for future amendments to be approved by just two-thirds of states showing up at an amendment conference. That means it could be agreed to by the U.S., put into effect and then changed over Washington's objections. And even if the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify it, the deal could have a huge impact on the global arms trade, where the U.S. is the biggest player.

“The talks … are now being dominated by skeptical governments including Iran, Syria and Cuba."

- Statement from Control Arms, group seeking global arms control

“This alone is grounds for rejection,” said Ted Bromund, senior research fellow with the Washington-based Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, as he pored over the text.

But even without amendments, there is plenty for the U.S. not to like in the draft, say critics. The treaty could set the stage for legal challenges to U.S. aid to allies like Israel and Taiwan, and it could also expose private information about U.S. gun owners.  

“We have been making clear throughout our red lines, including that we will not accept any treaty that infringes on Americans' Second Amendment rights,” said one U.S. official close to the talks, but who asked not to be identified.

But release of the draft so close to Friday’s deadline for a final text sends a strong signal that the treaty’s broad strokes are already set, observers say. 

While critics say U.S. gun owners and interests would be left exposed by the draft, it has drawn criticism on other fronts. Activists on the political left say it is a gift to illicit gunrunners around the world, and the only group that seems to like it is the rogue states leading talks, say critics.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/25/un-treaty-takes-shape-and-takes-aim-at-gun-owners/#ixzz21lopKFSd

Our Partner and Enemy - Kid's Hot Dog Stand Shut Down by City Officials Before It Even Opens

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Kid's Hot Dog Stand Shut Down by City Officials Before It Even Opens - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Katherine Mangu-Ward | July 26, 2012

This summer, 13-year-old Nathan Duszynski wanted to make some money to help out his disabled parents—his mom has epilepsy and his dad has multiple sclerosis. So he decided to open a hot dog stand. He saved $1,200, mostly money made by mowing lawns and shoveling snow. He checked with the city to make sure he didn't need any licenses or permits, even going to city hall in person with his mom. And then he bought a cart. (Yep, that's hot dog's from Nathan's, for those who are keeping score at home.) 

He arrived to set up shop on his first day and 10 minutes later, a zoning official arrived to shut him down. The problem: The cart, which is in the parking lot of a sporting goods store, is on the edge of official downtown commercial district of Holland, Michigan. The city bans food carts in that area in order to minimize competition for the eight tax-paying restaurants a couple of blocks away.

As it happens, I've been to Holland. It's a lovely town, but not exactly a booming metropolis. And frankly (ha!), after an evening of Blue Motorcycles Butch's Dry Dock, a hot dog would really have hit the spot. The city says it is willing to work with Nathan, but keeping food carts out of the small, walkable downtown area is pretty much the same thing as banning food carts altogether. Nathan and his family obviously know that: The hot dog cart is now for sale.

-go to link and video-

So were some of the Gitmo Prisoners - REVEALED: Corzine’s MF Global Was Client of Eric Holder’s Law Firm

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

REVEALED: Corzine’s MF Global Was Client of Eric Holder’s Law Firm
WYNTON HALL 26 Jul 2012, 

Those wondering why the Department of Justice has refused to go after Jon Corzine for the vaporization of $1.6 billion in MF Global client funds need look no further than the documents uncovered by theGovernment Accountability Institute that reveal that the now-defunct MF Global was a client of Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s former law firm, Covington & Burling.

There’s more.

Records also reveal that MF Global’s trustee for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy retained as its general bankruptcy counsel Morrison & Foerester--the very law firm from which Associate Attorney General Tony West came to DOJ.

And more.

As Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer explains in the Washington Times Thursday, the trustee overseeing MF Global’s bankruptcy is former FBI Director Louis Freeh. At Holder’s Senate confirmation hearing Freeh served as a character witness for Holder and revealed that Holder had previously worked for Freeh. “As general counsel,” Freehsaid, “I could have engaged any lawyer in America to represent our bank. I chose Eric.”

Until now, the conventional wisdom for why Holder wouldn’t throw the book at Corzine was that Corzine is an Obama campaignbundler. Indeed, as Breitbart News reported, four of the top officials at the Department of Justice--Eric Holder, Thomas Perrelli, Karol Mason, and Tony West--were also big money bundlers for Obama.

But the newly understood crony connections reveal conflicts of interest that extend well beyond mere political support for a common candidate--they go to a tangle of prior business dealings that further underscore the need for a special prosecutor in the Corzine case.

-go to link-

Romney 'Looking Forward to the Bust of Winston Churchill Being in the Oval Office Again'

HEAR, HEAR!

Romney 'Looking Forward to the Bust of Winston Churchill Being in the Oval Office Again' | The Weekly Standard

Americans are now all outlaws, because of the Law-crazed legislators and their supporters

WE ARE FELONS NOW AN DON'T EVEN KNOW FOR WHAT!
And Bill "There Needs to be a Law" O'Reilly is amongst the worst offenders of all.

America, the Law-crazed - Reason.com

America's zeal for legislating has turned us all into criminals of one type or another.

John Stossel | July 25, 2012

Over the past few decades, America has locked up more and more people. Our prison population has tripled. Now we jail a higher percentage of people than even the most repressive countries: China locks up 121 out of every 100,000 people; Russia 511. In America? 730.

"Never in the civilized world have so many been locked up for so little," The Economist says.

Yet we keep adding more laws and longer jail terms.

"Beria: Enemy of the people". 

Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin's secret police in the old Soviet Union, supposedly said, "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime." Stalin executed anyone he considered a threat, and it didn't take much to be considered a threat. Beria could always find some law the targeted person had broken. That's easy to do when there are tons of vague laws on the books. Stalin "legally" executed nearly a million people that way.

 [Beria was later executed for treason, and other crimes, after Stalin's death during the power vacuum that followed with the rise of Khrushchev.]

I'm not saying that America is like Stalin's Russia, but consider the federal laws we have. The rules that bind us now total more than 160,000 pages. The Congressional Research Service said it was unable to count the number of crimes on the books. Yet last week the feds added or proposed another thousand pages. States and cities have thousands more. Have you read them all? Have our "representatives" read them all? You know the answer.

When there is a big crime, legislators quickly demand that felons be given longer jail sentences and "mandatory minimums" for repeat offenses. 

-more at link-