Where Is Syria’s Asma al-Assad?

Vogue also delighted in the Nazi sympathizing Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the 1960's. How little some things change.♘

The Rosett Report » Where Is Syria’s Asma al-Assad?

It’s just six months since the first lady of Syria, Asma al-Assad, was on a roll as the plushly-accessorized human face of Syria’s Assad regime. British-born, well-educated, multilingual, slim, young, and shod by Louboutin, Mrs. Assad had already been feted for her wardrobe by the Huffington Post, hosted Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in Damascus, and been tapped by the Harvard Arab Alumni Association to serve as patroness and keynote speaker for its March 2011 Arab World Conference in Damascus. For the February edition of Vogue, she made herself oh-so-accessible to writer Joan Juliet Buck — who produced a widely circulated article describing Asma al-Assad as on a mission “to put a modern face on her husband’s regime.”

...This Assad idyll was interrupted by mass protests from Syrians who have had a bellyful of the Assad dynasty. To hold onto power, Assad’s regime has relied on carnage in which the United Nations estimates more than 2,200 people have so far been killed. Assad’s forces have been using heavy artillery against Syria’s own people, availing themselves of the help and expertise of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and posting snipers on rooftops. In May, they returned the mutilated corpse of 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khateeb to his family, reportedly on condition they keep quiet about how he was murdered. This past week, Syria’s best-known political cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, was grabbed by armed, masked men, who beat him and broke the bones in his hands, to stop him from drawing.

[Read on at link.]

Perfect Storm of Hype: Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was

Perfect Storm of Hype: Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was – Telegraph Blogs

posted By Toby Harnden 8-28-11

For the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan.

“We are in, right, now…the right eye wall, no doubt about that…there you see the surf,” he said breathlessly. “That tells a story right there.”

Stumbling and apparently buffeted by ferocious gusts, he took shelter next to a building. “This is our protection from the wind,” he explained. “It’s been truly remarkable to watch the power of the ocean here.”

The surf may have told a story but so too did the sight behind the reporter of people chatting and ambling along the sea front and just goofing around. There was a man in a t-shirt, a woman waving her arms and then walking backwards. Then someone on a bicycle glided past....

Then came the press conferences from the politicians, with Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey that his evacuation of the Jersey Shore was “a pre-emptive measure that I am confident saved lives” and there could still be damage worth “tens of billions” of dollars.

....

Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security chief, declared that there was ” a ways to go with Irene” but “with the evacuations and other precautions taken we have dramatically decreased the risk to life”. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York seemed thoroughly delighted with himself, as if he personally had calmed the waters and stifled the winds. ...

Obama needed to project an aura of seriousness and command. He was all too aware that the political fortunes of his predecessor George W. Bush never recovered after the Hurricane Katrina in 2005,

...

The press mostly reported the message the White House had carefully crafted: “Obama takes charge” read the headline of one wire service story. ...

At the state level, Irene was a chance for political redemption. Christie had been lambasted a few months ago for taking a holiday during one of the worst snow storms in New Jersey history.

Bloomberg, who ordered a mandatory evacuation of residents in low-lying areas during Irene that thousands ignored, had been widely criticised for inadequate clean-up plans during the same blizzards.

There was some loss of life during Irene, though significantly less than during dozens of other weather events across the US this year...

Preparation for the worst-case scenario makes sense and could have saved hundreds during Katrina. But the worst-case scenario was largely portrayed as inevitable. Some of the footage of television reporters putting themselves in the most extreme position possible just to get the best “stand-up” live shot was beyond parody....

[Read on at above lnk.]

More Government Blowhards - After Irene: Little damage seen in many places

After Irene: Little damage seen in many places - Yahoo! News

8-28-11

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (AP) — From North Carolina to New Jersey, Hurricane Irene appeared to have fallen short of the doomsday predictions. But with rivers still rising, and roads impassable because of high water and fallen trees, it could be days before the full extent of the damage is known.

More than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the East Coast lost power, and at least 11 deaths were blamed on the storm. But as day broke Sunday, surprisingly light damage was reported in many places, with little more than downed trees and power lines. ...

Floodwaters were rising across New Jersey, and more than 2,000 National Guardsmen were helping with search and rescue work as officials assessed the damage. The Raritan River, which caused disastrous flooding after it was swelled by rain from Hurricane Floyd 12 years ago, was not expected to crest until Sunday evening.

...

Still, with skies clearing Sunday morning, some of those living on the coast were cautiously optimistic.

After spending the night hunkered down in his Pleasantville, N.J., home overnight without electricity, Harry Webber went outside in a fruitless search for place to buy a cup of coffee.

"I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of my town is still in one piece," he said.

Late last week, Irene was a fearsome Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of around 115 mph as it barreled across open water toward the East Coast. Forecasters predicted it could grow to a scarier Category 4 before blowing ashore.

By Friday, though, the storm began losing steam. It came ashore the next day in North Carolina a mere Category 1 with winds of about 85 mph, and had weakened into a tropical storm by the time its eye hit New York City on Sunday. ...

In the resort town of Ocean City, Md., damage appeared minimal. A few small trees along a major road had been uprooted. Scattered piles of sand about two feet high covered areas of the boardwalk. The end of a wooden pier was sagging and a wooden railing was askew.

...At the Quietstorm surf shop on the boardwalk, part of a wall where the shop's name is advertised had been torn off, exposing wiring and scattering insulation. Locals, though, said they had seen worse during ordinary storms.

Expect the ‘Unexpectedly’ What else could be expected from total incompetence!

Expect the ‘Unexpectedly’ - Jim Geraghty - National Review Online

8-26-11

In the Obama years, bad news has always surprised the media.

It is the most common adverb of the Obama years: “unexpectedly.”

● “Sales of U.S. previously owned homes unexpectedly dropped in July,” reported Bloomberg.

● “Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly contracted in August by the most in more than two years as orders plunged and factories shed workers,”reported Bloomberg Businessweek.

● “Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in June,” reported Reuters.

● “Dismal economic data on Thursday pointed to an unexpectedly abrupt slowdown in manufacturing and a pickup in inflation,” reported the New York Times’ business page.

This is just in the past week; hundreds of articles each month note that some new bit of economic data is contrary to the expectations of experts. But the term is starting to become an object of ridicule within the conservative blogosphere as the country endures its third year of hard economic times under President Obama.

Three years after a financial crisis, unemployment has hit painful highs, GDP growth has been sluggish at best, and some predict a “double dip” recession. During this period, the Obama administration and its allies have repeatedly made bold promises about imminent prosperity — from an infamous chart that projected that the stimulus would keep unemployment rate below 8 percent, to the administration’s “Recovery Summer” tour of 2010, to Nancy Pelosi’s prediction that passing Obamacare would create 400,000 jobs “almost immediately,” to the president’s prediction that we would enjoy 3.1 percent growth this year and 4.1 percent growth in 2012 and beyond.

For about three years now, conservative bloggers have chuckled at how frequently the unveiling of bad economic news comes with the adverb “unexpectedly” in media reports. As Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, Michael Barone, and others have often asked, unexpected to whom?

[Read on at above link.]

OH No! Does this mean we are going to get a double dip hurricane? Obama takes charge at hurricane command center

Oy vey!

Obama takes charge at hurricane command center - Yahoo! News

8-27-11

Barack Obama warned the US east coast was in for a "long 72 hours" as he led his government's response to Hurricane Irene at a disaster command center in Washington.

Obama on Saturday chaired a meeting at the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) set up at the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, which is marshaling federal and local hurricane-relief efforts.

"This is going to be a tough slog getting through this thing," Obama said during a video teleconference including senior federal officials and local government agencies in the east coast path of Irene.

A successful heist! Jury sides with burglar's family in 2009 shooting death at auto lot

Jury sides with burglar's family in 2009 shooting death at auto lot | jury, burglar, lot - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

DDT will work wonders instead - Warren Cracks Down On Those Who Harbor Mosquitoes

Warren Cracks Down On Those Who Harbor Mosquitoes « CBS Detroit

Be Well, Inspiration Embodied! Steve Jobs: America’s Greatest Failure

photo from Macworld Magazine 1984

Steve Jobs: America’s Greatest Failure - Nick Schulz - National Review Online

8-25-11

Glory is sometimes born of catastrophe.

AUGUST 25, 2011 4:00 A.M. Steve Jobs: America’s Greatest Failure Glory is sometimes born of catastrophe.

Steve Jobs’s announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of Apple is not surprising. He’s a very sick man; and running the world’s largest market-cap technology firm can’t be easy for someone with pancreatic cancer and who-knows-what other ailments.

Lots of digital ink will be spilled about Jobs in the coming days, most of it focusing on his truly marvelous successes.

It’s better to focus on his failures.

Jobs failed better than anyone else in Silicon Valley, maybe better than anyone in corporate America. By that I mean Jobs did what only the greatest entrepreneurs can do: learn from their failures. I don’t mean learn from their mistakes. I mean learn from their abject, humiliating, bonehead, epic fails.

Everyone today thinks of Jobs as the genius who gave us the iPod, MacBooks, the iTunes store, the iPhone, the iPad, and so on. Yes, he transformed personal computing and multimedia. But let’s not forget what else Jobs did.

[Read on at above link.]

Nobody wants to be "Katrinad" as George W. Bush was. The hype over Hurricane Irene is overblown

If Hurricane "Irene" flooded and damaged parts of Washington D.C., would the press vilify Obama? Not a chance.

"The storm cannot master its own strength." | GPlus.com

8-26-11

Dr. Simon AtkinsCEO, Advanced Forecasting Corporation [AFC]

o The demise of Irene has already begun. There is no visible eye. The storm intensity is down to 99 mph. This would be a low-end category 2 or a strong category 1 storm, while 36 hours ago some predicted a catastrophic category 4 storm. Air Force Reserve aircraft have found that Irene's eyewall has collapsed, and the central pressure has risen -- rising pressure means a weakening storm.

o The reduction in storm intensity likely confirms that this storm is not going to be as monstrous as it has been publicly forecast to be.

o Yes, it will be windy. However, north of Delaware most hurricane force winds will very likely be gusts, not sustained winds.

There better be a contract out on this murdered! Libya: Scottish officials still in dark as to whereabouts of Lockerbie bomber

I'd be happy to take it.

Thanks to western diplomats who always get conned by Arabs and Muslims who please Allah if they get away with their mendacity.

Libya: Scottish officials still in dark as to whereabouts of Lockerbie bomber - The Scotsman