The Tortured Progressive World

In the progressive world that is descending upon Western civilization, it would seem that the lunatics have clearly taken over the farm:

• It is permissible for the military to vaporize young Taliban men planting roadside bombs in the dead of night, even if those young Taliban men are miles from any ISAF or ANA forces ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• Citizens and security forces are permitted to use lethal force to defend themselves and even their property ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• Military forces regularly kill Taliban in Pakistan, a country not at war with the USA ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• Military forces are permitted to shoot Somali teenagers in the head in order to free a captive civilian ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• The military sometimes inadvertently kills and wounds civilians during combat operations aimed at stopping terrorists ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• Special forces undergo harsher treatment during training than CIA enhanced interrogation techniques ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• It is permissible for police forces to use pepper spray, mace, tasers, clubs, and fists to control mobs or individuals who are unruly, but who do not threaten life ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.
• It is permissible to kill millions of unborn children simply as a matter of convenience or for better health ... but the CIA is not permitted to waterboard terrorists to prevent the mass murder of civilians at home.

Previous:

- Dunking Heads Under Water

- Ultimate Oxymoron

- The Clean End of the Turd

September 10th - in - Chief

All it took was 100 days to turn the clock back to September 10, 2001:

Come on, who’s surprised? The White House-engineered photo-op of low-flying Air Force aircraft that caused terror in New York City this week epitomizes the Age of Obama. What better way to mark 100 days in office than with an appalling exercise in pointless, taxpayer-funded stagecraft.

The superficiality, the unseriousness, the hubris, the obliviousness to post-9/11 realities: They were trademarks of the Obama campaign and they are the tattoos on his governance.

He never leaves home without his teleprompter. All the Obama world’s a stage. Or a world ready to be staged.

So, is it any wonder he would staff his White House Military Office with a clueless paper-pusher who saw nothing wrong with spending inordinate government resources – and recreating 9/11 havoc — to update Air Force One publicity shots? And who planned, believe it or not, to do the same in Washington, D.C., next month, where 53 passengers and 6 crew members on board American Airlines Flight 77, and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the Pentagon were murdered by the 9/11 jihadists?

... keep reading.

The First 100 Days

In celebration of the first 100 Days, we give you alternative reading ...

CLICK

Have We Lost Our Minds?

Some days I wake up, grab my morning fresh ground java, give the news a gander, and suddenly think I've entered a lunatic farm.

Swine Flu ... first up on the MSM menu.

• Egypt Kills Pigs ... O ... K ...
• France wants all flights to Mexico suspended ... sheesh
• UK leaflets every household ... does this go along with putting padding on lamp posts to protect text messaging loons
• At least the flu is going PC ... thank god they didn't call it the monkey flu

The reality is, that on average 100 Americans die a day of the flu or half a million people worldwide. So far, the swine is a very mild strain.

When the real deal hits ... if the real deal ever hits, we'll know it. The 1918 killer attacked its victims by causing overreaction of the immune system (ARDS) ... meaning that the healthier you were, the more likely you were to be killed. The lungs simply filled up as your defences went into overdrive. Some victims died within hours of getting the virus ... others took days to drown.

In the modern jet age, if we get another strain like the 1918 killer the pandemic will be brutal beyond comprehension and no WHO will be able to stop it unless vast numbers of people have been vaccinated beforehand.

The swine is nothing ... meaningless ... even less than the annual flu strains that sweep the world. Unless it mutates and offers up a truly ugly surprise (which most any strain could), this bug's only purpose is to give journalists something to write about and bureaucrats something to demand higher budgets over.

... and then later in the morning comes the truth about the Swine making it all look like a Chinese Fire-drill.

Extending "Progressive" Torture Logic to Pakistan

What's good for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is good for his Followers:

After UAV evidence shows that armed Taliban have been frequenting a stone abode in Waziristan province, and evidence mounts that these armed men are commanders, a strike is ordered.

Two missiles hit the dwelling, killing 7 Taliban, one possibly a high value target, and 5 others are wounded. Among the wounded, one is blinded, two are burned grievously. The other three suffer lesser wounds such as the loss of limbs.

All five survivors become torture victims by every definition available ... they will suffer physical and psychological harm for the rest of their lives.

Progressives the world over demand that the UAV operators, the entire command structure, and Pentagon officials be tried. In the end, the sanguine Mr. Obama launches a Truth Commission to unravel who knew what and when ... even though the trail will lead back to him. After all, there is a line that "civilized" progressive society should not cross.

The Reality.

Picking a Turd Up ... by the Clean End

A child porn ring abducts your 5 year old daughter.

The police catch one of the abductors, who refuses to give up his fellow members. The police intend on using "enhanced" interrogation techniques to discover the whereabouts of your little girl.

But, in a fit of "progressive" high dudgeon you insist that the police do no such thing. Your child, as a result, becomes a rape victim and is never found again except as a star in kiddie porn videos, even though "enhanced" techniques may have saved her.

The parent who would do such is not worthy of being called a parent ... they are less than the animals ... they are in every sense of the term, subhuman.

The nation who would not make high value terrorists suffer discomfort in order to save the lives of its citizens does not deserve to survive ... in fact, the civilization that would not do so is as good as dead.

There is no room for utopian liberal fools in this world ... the barbarians will swallow them up ... will swallow "us" up.

Progressives believe that there is such a thing as picking a turd up by the clean end, they consist of that aimless mass of Western humanity so burdened by cultural self-loathing that it is to Islam, as ungulates are to lions."

Progressia Gives us the Ultimate Oxymoron

You've got to admit, "progressives" have a way with words.

Humane War:

The renewed debate over enhanced interrogation techniques is just another episode in the hopelessly naive search for the ultimate oxymoron -- humane war.

"Shocks the conscience" is a key phrase in the CIA documents that the Obama administration released. Obama's motive for releasing the memos is fertile ground for speculation. (If it's part of his strategy to be a uniter, it isn't working.)

It's difficult not to assume it had something to do with politics beyond the stated motive of promoting transparency in government. The Federal Government is as inherently transparent as lead, except in cases of dramatic waste and incompetence.

It's equally hard to assume that all those who say the interrogations represent us "losing our moral bearings," as the President said we had, are suffering from shock to their consciences. Some inside the Beltway are just pretending to be shocked. Particularly those who were briefed at the time the CIA's efforts to gain information from high value detainees were underway.

That means some are playing politics with a serious national security issue. Unfortunately, there isn't a litmus test we can administer to identify the hypocrites and subject them to the ridicule and distain they deserve. (I put several of the retired generals who are now commentators for the networks into this category, especially those who served in Vietnam. They've seen the ugliness of a war where waterboarding is dunking for apples on Halloween.)

Some others, both inside and outside the Beltway, politicians and ordinary citizens alike, are unquestionably shocked to learn what the CIA did to 28 detainees, three of whom were repeatedly waterboarded.

These are the people suffering a genuine shock to their conscience. They also buy the notion that we lost our moral bearings by using rough treatment on terrorist detainees after 9/11. It makes Americans, some of them say, as bad as our enemies.

One wonders about their understanding and expectation of war? How much do they grasp, at least by imagination, about what it takes to defend a nation? What personal pain would they tolerate being inflicted on their families without doing whatever it took to defend those they love?

... keep reading.


The "Progressive" Torture Chamber:

Fly-by-in-Chief

The "Morality" of Dunking Heads Under Water

A Sanguine view:

After opening the door to a truth commission to investigate torture by the CIA of al-Qaida subjects, and leaving the door open to prosecution of higher-ups, President Obama walked the cat back.

He is now opposed to a truth commission. That means it is dead. He is no longer interested in prosecutions. That means no independent counsel -- for now.

Sen. Harry Reid does not want any new "commissions, boards, tribunals, until we find out what the facts are." Thus, there will be none. The place to find out the facts, says the majority leader, is the intelligence committee of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Though belated, White House recognition that high-profile public hearings on the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the CIA in the Bush-Cheney years could divide the nation and rip this city apart is politically wise.

... keep reading.

I guess it comes down to this:

... would you rather live up to the "progressive" utopian view of "civility", and possibly err by allowing a terror attack to go ahead simply because you didn't want to make a high value captive feel uncomfortable.

Or

... would you rather live up to a "pragmatic" view of "civility", and possibly err by physically harming a high value captive but averting a terrorist attack and saving lives in the process.

I come down on the side of life, pragmatism, and realism. I'd rather make 100 terrorists feel uncomfortable, and save the life of one child in the process, than satisfy the utopian ideals of the "progressive" class.

Who are the Biggest Borrowers?

The USA sits @ number 15 ... but who's number one?

click

Cheney and Rove Hatch Diabolical Plan

... to discredit Obama.

Clearly, the only thing that could explain a stunt this stupid and ill conceived is that Cheney and Rove used their "connections" in the Pentagon to come up with this one. There is no way that a White House led by the greatest teleprompt reader in the history of world, a marketing agent, and a ballerina, could fumble something this bad.

A Skeptic Lays out the Skeptic Basics

Climate Skeptic:

I am sure there are skeptics that have no comprehension of the science that blindly follow the pronouncements of certain groups, just as I am sure there are probably as high a percentage of global warming activists who don’t understand the science but are following the lead of sources they trust. The only thing I will say is that there is a funny dynamic here. Those of us who run more skeptical web sites tend to focus our attention on deconstructing the arguments of Hansen and Schmidt and Romm, who alarmist folks would consider their top spokesmen. Many climate alarmists in turn tend to focus on skeptical buffoons. I mean, I guess its fun to rip a straw man to shreds, but why not match your best against the best of those who disagree with you?

Anyway, I am off my point. There is a reason both sides can talk past each other. There is a reason you can confidently say “well established and can’t be denied” for your theory and be both wrong and right at the same time.

The argument that manmade CO2 emissions will lead to a catastrophe is based on a three step argument.

CO2 has a first order effect that warms the planet
The planet is dominated by net positive feedback effects that multiply this first order effect 3 or more times.
These higher temperatures will lead to and already are causing catastrophic effects.
You are dead right on #1, and skeptics who fight this are truly swimming against the science. The IPCC has an equation that results in a temperature sensitivity of about 1.2C per doubling of CO2 as a first order effect, and I have found little reason to quibble with this. Most science-based skeptics accept this as well, or a number within a few tenths.

The grand weakness of the alarmist case comes in #2. It is the rare long-term stable natural physical process that is dominated by positive feedback, and the evidence that Earth’s climate is dominated by feedbacks so high as to triple (in the IPCC report) or more (e.g. per Joe Romm) the climate sensitivity is weak or in great dispute. To say this point is “settled science” is absurd.

So thus we get to the heart of the dispute. Catastrophists posit enormous temperature increases, deflecting criticism by saying that CO2 as a greenhouse gas is settled. Though half right, they gloss over the fact that 2/3 or more of their projected temperature increase is based on a theory of Earth’s climate being dominated by strong positive feedbacks, a theory that is most certainly not settled, and in fact is probably wrong. Temperature increases over the last 100 years are consistent with neutral to negative, not positive feedback, and the long-term history of temperatures and CO2 are utterly inconsistent with the proposition there is positive feedback or a tipping point hidden around 350ppm CO2.

So stop repeating “settled science” like it was garlic in front of a vampire. Deal with the best arguments of skeptics, not their worst.

I see someone is arguing that skeptics have not posited an alternate theory to explain 20th century temperatures. In fact, a number have. A climate sensitivity to CO2 of 1.2C combined with net negative feedback, a term to account for ENSO and the PDO, plus an acknowledgment that the sun has been in a relatively strong phase in the second half of the 20th century model temperatures fairly well. In fact, these terms are a much cleaner fit than the contortions alarmists have to go through to try to fit a 3C+ sensitivity to a 0.6C historic temperature increase.

Finally, I want to spend a bit of time on #3. I certainly think that skeptics often make fools of themselves. But, because nature abhors a vacuum, alarmists tend to in turn make buffoons of themselves, particularly when predicting the effects on other climate variables of even mild temperature increases. The folks positing ridiculous catastrophes from small temperature increases are just embarrassing themselves.

Even bright people like Obama fall into the trap. Earlier this year he said that global warming was a factor in making the North Dakota floods worse.

Really? He knows this? First, anyone familiar with the prediction and analysis of complex systems would laugh at such certainty vis a vis one variable’s effect on a dynamic system. Further, while most anything is possible, his comment tends to ignore the fact that North Dakota had a colder than normal winter and record snowfalls, which is what caused the flood (record snows = record melts). To say that he knows that global warming contributed to record cold and snow is a pretty heroic assumption.

Yeah, I know, this is why for marketing reasons alarmists have renamed global warming as “climate change.” Look, that works for the ignorant masses, because they can probably be fooled into believing that CO2 causes climate change directly by some undefined mechanism. But we here all know that CO2 only affects climate through the intermediate step of warming. There is no other proven way CO2 can affect climate. So, no warming, no climate change.

Yeah, I know, somehow warming in Australia could have been the butterfly flapping its wings to make North Dakota snowy, but by the same unproven logic I could argue that California droughts are caused by colder than average weather in South America. At the end of the day, there is no way to know if this statement is correct and a lot of good reasons to believe Obama’s statement was wrong. So don’t tell me that only skeptics say boneheaded stuff.

The argument is not that the greenhouse gas effect of CO2 doesn’t exist. The argument is that the climate models built on the rickety foundation of substantial positive feedbacks are overestimating future warming by a factor of 3 or more. The difference matters substantially to public policy. Based on neutral to negative feedback, warming over the next century will be 1-1.5C. According to Joe Romm, it will be as much as 8C (15F). There is a pretty big difference in the magnitude of the effort justified by one degree vs. eight.

Al Gore Feels the Warming

... because his pants are on fire.

Liar liar:

It’s a good thing Al Gore didn’t have to raise his right hand and take an oath to tell the truth before he testified on April 24 to the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee about the Waxman-Markey climate bill.

GreenHellBlog.com first reported on April 24 that Al Gore lied to the Subcommittee about his personal finances during questioning by Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn. It turns out that Gore also lied to Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who had asked Gore about his connections with the Wall Street firm of Goldman Sachs.

While the connection between Gore and Goldman Sachs that Scalise probably was referring to involves David Blood, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management who is the co-founder with Gore of the U.K.-based investment firm of Generation Investment Management, the April 27 issue of Fortune unearths a more appalling connection between Gore and Goldman Sachs.

In mid-2008 — six months after Gore joined the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins as a partner — Kleiner Perkins joined Goldman Sachs in financing a company called Terralliance — an oil exploration firm!

Peer Reviewed D&G

There's nothing like a good dose of D&G to send a tingle running up your leg:

SINCE Copenhagen the intensity of doom and gloom [D&G] has been ratcheted up with such anthropogenic global warming luminaries as Will Steffan and David Karoly declaring their previous predictions not dire enough and so have been superseded by much worse predictions.

Jay Leno has a good response to this;
“According to a new U.N. report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which is pretty bad when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet.”

The question is, is there any evidence to support the worsening D&G?

Professor Chris Field was recently reported on the ABC doing D&G about an increase in fossil fuel emissions, but this quickly died when the penny dropped that the main increase in emissions was coming from China and India, not to mention the fact that temperature was declining concurrently.

With increased emissions insufficient to sustain the D&G could the peer-reviewed literature provide justification? Peer-review is the life-blood of AGW and lo-and-behold it was apparent that the D&G was backed up by several new and recycled papers. 10 of these papers which offer ‘evidence’ for the D&G are discussed. All of them exhibit the usual defects of pro-AGW papers; reliance on modeling regardless of contradictory or non-existent ‘real-world’ data.

... read the 10 scariest peer reviewed D&G papers you'll ever set eyes on.

More Global Warming Garbage Science

With each day ... with each month ... we discover that the foundations of Anthropogenic Global Warming are little more than a smoke-screen built on a foundation of sand:

It is conceivable that TCZ in the posted data was constructed from an already obsolete or less reliable version of the ice core data. If so, Thompson et al. should provide PNAS a corrected version of TCZ, HCZ and ACZ that is actually based on the posted ice core data. Or, if the posted ice core data was already obsolete or considered less reliable when TCZ was constructed from better data, they should instead provide a corrected verion of it, so that the relationship of TCZ to its actual component series can be confirmed. In either case, the ice core data should be extended back to 0AD to include all the data that was used in constructing TCZ, in order to permit replication of the pre-1600 portion of this now-questionable series, as well as its calibration to instrumental global temperature.

It should be noted that already in 2007 Steve McIntyre appealed to PNAS to ask Thompson to post complete data for this paper, but with no success. See "More Evasion by Thompson" and preceding threads. Thompson's ice core data is a potentially valuable source of information about pre-instrumental global climate. It is most unfortunate for science that he has not posted complete and consistent versions of all his data. [See, in particular, "More on Guliya" and "IPCC and the Dunde Variations" and preceding posts. -- HM]

Until Thompson either corrects the TCZ series or provides corrected ice core data that is consistent with it, no credence can be placed in this supposedly improved version of "Dr. Thompson's Thermometer". And until PNAS insists that he post consistent and complete data, it can have no more credibility than that famous science humor publication, The Journal of Irreproducible Results.

The Details.

Picking Thugs

When "progressives" have the keys to the farm, as they do in Europe, the inevitable result is racial and cultural violence. Here's how it works.

European "progressives" have used their utopian world view to foist upon Western culture the more crude and barbaric culture of Islam. On the surface, this is done in the name of "progressive" ideology that apparently champions multiculturalism and not only cultural pluralism, but political pluralism as well ... where political entities like Islam are welcomed with open arms.

The reality though, is that "progressive" leadership holds these sanguine views for one reason only ... that is to enact vast immigration policies that change demographic trends and give "progressive" entities the edge in the electoral process. In Europe this strategy has worked brilliantly, where Muslim voters ensure that "progressive" parties get ever more power ... and in a decade or two, "progressive" voting Muslims will actually carry the balance of power in the multi-party and fractured European democratic systems.

The flaw in this process is obvious though; Muslim voters will force "progressive" parties to enact more and more Muslim friendly (anti-Western) legislation in exchange for votes.

Europe is now set up for a very ugly moment. Europeans, including "progressive" voters who hold more traditional Euro views, are not going to give up their decadence and freedoms to the barbarians from North Africa. Already Europe is seeing the emergence of cultural warfare ... the first sparks are beginning.

Traditional Europeans will eventually come to the point that they will feel cornered in their own homes. Today, many regions of Europe are dangerous no-go zones for "uncovered" women and even the police; thus, it begins. As non-violent Euro-centric organizations try to stem the tide of barbarism unsuccessfully, more and more people will turn to or tolerate more violent solutions. Enter, groups like the Hell's Angels.

White bikers ... intimidating, murdering, and bombing Muslims will get quiet approval from "peaceful" Europeans. Police organizations will turn a blind eye despite the high dudgeon ... and ever more racist politicians will gain support. The war, as it escalates, will begin as drug and turf violence, but will spill over into an "us" versus "them" warfare.

We saw this before though ... didn't we? Fear of communism drove millions into the arms of Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini. Back then the "progressives" were the enablers when they took the form of ruthless manipulators like Chamberlain and Hindenburg who played to any side in order to maintain power. These early day “progressives” saw fit to kiss whatever derriere came attached to votes.

Desperate people take desperate measures ... but in the process they often unleash nasty forces lurking in the shadows. Organizations like the Hell’s Angels and Russian mofia are criminal entities ... but for Europeans seeing their modern culture and freedoms slowly ceding ground to North African barbarians, even the Angels will seem like a breath of fresh air ... after all, when given a choice between Muslim-embracing politicians, next to useless "progressive" judicial and police systems, and the relentless tide of Islamification, the natural reaction of many Europeans will of course be to side with strength. Organizations like the Angels and Russian Mofia offer strength.

Is Lebanon closer to Europe's future than we think?

Green Corruption on Display

picture: the new face of global warming corruption.

Global Warming never was about the science ... it was always, and will remain always, a political animal bent on exacting vast sums of money and transfering those to "progressive" regimes:

In exchange for votes to pass a controversial global warming package, Democratic leaders are offering some lawmakers generous emission “allowances” to protect their districts from the economic pain of pollution restrictions.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, represents a district with several oil refineries, a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. He also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which must approve the global warming plan backed by President Barack Obama.

Green says Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who heads the panel, is trying to entice him into voting for the bill by giving some refineries favorable treatment in the administration’s “cap and trade” system, which is expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years. Under the plan, companies would pay for the right to emit carbon dioxide, but Green and other lawmakers are angling to get a free pass for refineries in their districts.

“We’ve been talking,” Green said, referring to a meeting he had with Waxman on Tuesday night. “To put together a bill that passes, they have to get our votes, and I’m not going to vote for a bill without refinery allowances.”

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the top Republican on the energy panel, said Waxman and others are also dangling allowances for steel and coal-fired power plants to give political cover to Democrats whose districts rely on these companies.

Democrats so far have been unable to get enough support from their own members to pass the bill out of a small global warming subcommittee because most Republicans and many Democrats say the plan will raise energy rates, destroy jobs and increase prices on manufactured goods.

More US Released Abuse Photos

"If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and [liberal philanthropist] George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, 'Your son was vaporized because we didn’t want to dump some guy's head under water for 30 seconds.'" Peter King

Previous.

Tinkerbell-in-Chief

It's going to be a long 4 years:

If al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the rest of the Looney Tunes brigade want to kick America to death, they had better move in quickly and grab a piece of the action before Barack Obama finishes the job himself. Never in the history of the United States has a president worked so actively against the interests of his own people - not even Jimmy Carter.

Obama's problem is that he does not know who the enemy is. To him, the enemy does not squat in caves in Waziristan, clutching automatic weapons and reciting the more militant verses from the Koran: instead, it sits around at tea parties in Kentucky quoting from the US Constitution. Obama is not at war with terrorists, but with his Republican fellow citizens. He has never abandoned the campaign trail.

That is why he opened Pandora's Box by publishing the Justice Department's legal opinions on waterboarding and other hardline interrogation techniques. He cynically subordinated the national interest to his partisan desire to embarrass the Republicans. Then he had to rush to Langley, Virginia to try to reassure a demoralised CIA that had just discovered the President of the United States was an even more formidable foe than al-Qaeda.

[...]

So, next time a senior al-Qaeda hood is captured, all the CIA can do is ask him nicely if he would care to reveal when a major population centre is due to be hit by a terror spectacular, or which American city is about to be irradiated by a dirty bomb. Your view of this situation will be dictated by one simple criterion: whether or not you watched the people jumping from the twin towers.

... keep reading.

Naked Short

Another Reason to Stay the Course in Afghanistan

If those weak willed and geopolitically retarded Canadians demanding an Afghan pullout had their way, the Taliban would soon be rulers of a vast region stretching from Kabul to Islamabad ... with nukes:

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said nuclear armed Pakistan, wherein Al Qaeda and the Taliban extremists are increasing their influence, poses a "mortal threat" to the world and asked the Pakistani officials as well as people to "speak out" forcefully against the Swat deal.

In her first testimony to Congress since her confirmation as the US chief diplomat in January, Clinton said Pakistan, poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of the US and the world.

She asked Pakistani government officials as well as Pakistanis at home and abroad, including in the United States, to "speak out forcefully against a policy (Swat peace accord) that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents".

[...]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told American lawmakers in an unusually blunt statement Wednesday that Pakistan's leaders were "basically abdicating to the Taliban." On Thursday, however, she said the Pakistani government appeared increasingly aware of the threat.

The Taliban are knocking at the gates of Islamabad at this writing ... they now control a province less than 70 miles from the capital and have yet to stay true to a single "peace accord" ... the new term used by the Pak government in place of "retreat".

References: click click

It's our Favorite Reality Show

Time for Amateur hour USA ... Who Wants to be POTUS:

So now the president has chaos on his hands and no one but himself to blame for it. From the Left’s perspective, he has validated their war-crimes allegations. You can’t expect to do that and then just say, “never mind.” Senator Leahy was already agitating for an accounting before Obama’s high-wire act, as was the ACLU. Obama opened the door to prosecutions only 48 hours after his chief of staff assured a national television audience that there would be no prosecutions; having proved it can push around the weak-willed president, the Left is not going away.

[...]

This underscores that it is, indeed, amateur hour. While no one is above the law, the law often is not enforced. As law-enforcement professionals will tell you, we don’t always follow the evidence wherever it takes us. If a defendant commits perjury at his trial, for example, we don’t investigate his lawyer, even though the lawyer elicited, and may well have encouraged, the false testimony. The bedrock of our system is prosecutorial discretion. How we use the government’s scarce resources is not a legal judgment but a political one that the president is elected to make, with the help of an attorney general expected to have the maturity the task demands. We don’t just “follow the evidence” — we expect that we’ve put adults in charge to decide which evidence gets followed.

USA Releases Shocking Torture Photos and Video

... read.

ht

Looking Nervously at the Sky

2012 has it ... the end, or beginning ... depending on how things work out:

The chair of the NASA workshop was Dan Baker at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Some of his comments, and the comments he approved in the report, are very strong about the potential connection between coronal mass ejections and power grids here on Earth. There's a direct relationship between how technologically sophisticated a society is and how badly it could be hurt. That's the meta-message of the report.

I had the good fortune last week to meet with John Kappenman at MetaTech. He took me through a meticulous two-hour presentation about just how vulnerable the power grid is, and how it becomes more vulnerable as higher voltages are sent across it. He sees it as a big antenna for space weather outbursts.

... read it all.

... a fact based scare; or just another NASA make work? Frankly, no matter what could happen, I'm getting increasingly concerned by how fragile our technological civilization is ... every day that goes by it seems to become more digital ... more interdependent ... more a house of cards waiting for either a natural event or terrorist act to bring it down ... or just plain stupidity on some faceless bureaucrat's part.

It's a Win: 62 to 56

W by a head:

Gallup reports that 56% of the public believes that Obama is doing an excellent/good job. Gallup reported 62% approved of George W. Bush's job performance after the first 100 days. MSM tells us how popular Barack Obama is but the numbers tell a different story especially when used comparatively. Comparing the Gallup poll taken following the first 100 day of George W. Bush and Barack Obama is rather informative especially given the highly contentious nature of the 2000 election.

... keep reading.

Does This Mean Lower Sea Levels?

Ah yes ... the IPCC amazing models of wonder ... new and improved, no doubt:

A new NASA-funded study finds that predicted increases in precipitation due to warmer air temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions may actually increase sea ice volume in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean. This adds new evidence of potential asymmetry between the two poles, and may be an indication that climate change processes may have different impact on different areas of the globe. … numerical models have improved considerably over the last two decades”

Next thing you know the panic will be over falling sea levels due to global warming ... caused by increased antarctic ice mass, of course. This, in turn, will trigger a massive population increase among homo sapiens ... which will trigger a collapse in the water-wing market ... which in turn will cause a collapse of developing world incomes where water-wings are manufactured ... leading to increased piracy and whale hunting as recently unemployed workers seek other means of sustaining themselves.

All of this, of course, will give new impetus to the Sea Shepherd Society and the WWF. Al Gore ... no matter what ... will get richer.

***

... what would you expect though, from someone who compares skeptics to Madoff:



***

Numpty Nation

Jeez Louise:

John McCain is the latest high-profile politician to repeat the diehard American falsehood that the 9-11 terrorists entered the United States through Canada.

Just days after Janet Napolitano, the U.S. homeland security secretary, sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle by suggesting the terrorists took a Canadian route to the U.S. eight years ago, McCain defended her by saying that, in fact, the former Arizona governor was correct.

... earlier.

The Saskatchewan Boom: Just Beginning

We've boasted on these pages about the Saskatchewan economic boom ... what's interesting, is that you ain't seen nothing yet:

Saskatchewan could become North America's energy powerhouse, thanks to its 'huge' heavy oil resource, the Bakken light oil play and large-scale coal, oil shale and other unconventional energy sources, the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Forum was told Thursday.

"Saskatchewan could become the number one oil and gas producer in the country," Quinton Hardage of North Rim Exploration Ltd. told delegates at the two-day forum at the Delta Regina.

All that's needed is billions of dollars of investment in technology and infrastructure by multinational energy companies with deep pockets, he added.

Since 2005, Saskatchewan has surpassed Alberta in terms of average oil well productivity and could soon surpass our neighbour to the west in terms of conventional oil production, said the Saskatoon-based geological engineer.

Hardage's optimism is based on a number of strengths that Saskatchewan has in its fossil fuel resources, the biggest one being heavy oil.

... keep reading

Keep in mind as well, that Saskatchewan also is the world's number one producer of potash and number one producer of Uranium. And now, since the socialists have been punted from power, there are more test holes being drilled in this province than there are holes in the former NDP government policy manual. Rare earth minerals and coal plays have investors rushing in ... not to mention diamonds ... some big enough to make Liz Taylor blush.

There is even a coal rush on of all things ...

So, unless the world economy remains on life support for the next decade or two, Saskatchewan is destined to be another Western Canadian powerhouse. Those who get in on the ground floor of this boom will be Canada's next nouveau riche ... or in the least, upper middle class.

Great jobs await those who can weld a straight bead, wire a building, pour cement, drive a big rig ... you get the picture. And, in short order all the support and infrastructure for the blue collar boom will follow.

Boo - Hiss To Those Who Nay-Say Afghan Villagers

There is a very sizable percentage of Canadians who list among their reasons to "pull out" of Afghanistan, the myth that ordinary Afghans don't want us there.

Bullocks to that crowd:

The surreal disengagement of the MoD and our media continues with the latest round of non-reporting on Afghanistan. The event of the moment – from US sources – is a disturbing development, where the Taleban has fielded two heavy anti-aircraft weapons capable of taking out a Chinook or other British helicopter.

Both were Soviet-made ZPU-1s (pictured), loaded and ready for use, mounted on the back of pick-up trucks. They were located in the Nad Ali district, close to Lashkar Gah, where British troops are stationed.

Fortunately – in an encouraging testament to the ground work done by coalition forces - the villagers spotted the first gun and reported it to the authorities. Shortly thereafter, it was given the undivided attention of a brace of US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs. According to the dry, descriptive prose of the official bulletin, the aircraft "engaged" the enemy truck, using their 30mm Avenger cannons "to destroy the truck and the machine gun."

Less than 12 hours later, villagers reported that the Taleban in Nad Ali had obtained another ZPU-1, which they had been firing in the vicinity of the local bazaar. Coalition forces used a precision strike successfully to destroy this gun as well.

Other and similar thoughts at The Torch.

The UK: Bound and Determined on Murder

Oh brother:

What makes this worse, however, is the complete inability of the MoD and the Army to admit their own mistakes. Having started down the wrong path, they follows in the classic mould of poor generalship of reinforcing failure, bolting on more armour to a poor design, in the vain hope that this will somehow overcome the inherent defects.

Then, as always, they devotes huge amounts of time and effort to their propaganda machine in an attempt to convince themselves and others that they have made the right choice. With the one exception of Ann Winterton, they will succeed with the MPs and the BBC report already shows that we need expect no criticisms from the media.

But the final outcome is that they are compounding the original errors in also purchasing the Coyote (pictured above). If actually fielded in the configuration shown, this will transcend the normal incompetence we have come to expect from the MoD and the Army. Without even the bolt-on protection of the Jackal, sending troops out in this will be nothing short of murder.

... Source

Trooper Karine Blais

Trooper Karine Blais grew up with opportunities and equality. She was offered real choices in her life ... part of the privilege of living in Canada. Karine did not have to cover herself when she went outdoors, she was free to attend school, free to be involved in the activities of her choosing, and free to pursue her dreams and express opinions without fear of retribution.

Karine Blais chose the Canadian Forces and she did so at a time when Canada was involved in armed conflict where Canadian soldiers were being killed. Karine chose what traditionally and in most countries would be a man’s profession ... and she excelled.

Trooper Karine Blais died as a Canadian soldiers, in the service of her country, and during a mission that attempts to bring to Afghan women at least a tiny bit of the freedom that she enjoyed.

How humbling, that a young Canadian women would give her life for a cause that brings to Afghan women that which she could take for granted.

It has been said that the greatest gift one can offer is to lay down their life for another.

Whenever we see images of Afghan girls attending school, let us never forget the young Canadian woman who perished while defending their right to pursue a better life. Trooper Karine Blais is there with them; watching over their shoulders; offering each and every girl in Kandahar province a chance ... a chance that Trooper Blais bought with her life.

Updates:

... of course, others don't see things my way ... click.

... Women from around the world are supporting the Afghan mission ... some by providing security as did Karine, others with knitting needles, no matter how difficult the challenges.

... a great rebuttle by Unambiguously Ambidextrous to those using Trooper Blais' death as a call to abandon Afghanistan.

The Green Job Myth

Green jobs are everywhere ... right?

And the future ... it's awash in green ... right?

A rapidly growing literature promises that a massive program of government mandates, subsidies, and forced technological interventions will reward the nation with an economy brimming with green jobs. Not only will these jobs improve the environment, but they will be high paying, interesting, and provide collective rights. This literature is built on mythologies about economics, forecasting, and technology.

Myth: Everyone understands what a green job is.

Reality: No standard definition of a green job exists.

Myth: Creating green jobs will boost productive employment.

Reality: Green jobs estimates include huge numbers of clerical, bureaucratic, and administrative positions that do not produce goods and services for consumption.

Myth: Green jobs forecasts are reliable.

Reality: The green jobs studies made estimates using poor economic models based on dubious assumptions.

Myth: Green jobs promote employment growth.

Reality: By promoting more jobs instead of more productivity, the green jobs described in the literature encourage low-paying jobs in less desirable conditions. Economic growth cannot be ordered by Congress or by the United Nations. Government interference - such as restricting successful technologies in favor of speculative technologies favored by special interests - will generate stagnation.

... keep reading.

How to Spin a Poll

Isn't it interesting, that the MSM (official progressive press), would take a poll on general American optimism, and turn it into a love affair for The One. We hear this often from the liberal press ... that Obama is "popular".

Interesting indeed, when the truth is that Obama's personal numbers are worse than those of G W Bush at the 100 day mark of both Bush terms and even more interesting given the fact that Obama enjoys unprecedented liberal press backing. Bush did not have overall media support, yet out polled The Big O. Obama’s numbers are in fact, nothing to cheer about.

CTV gets into the act ... fanning the myth that Obama is somehow unusually popular:

For the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction, a sign that Barack Obama has used the first 100 days of his presidency to lift the public's mood and inspire hopes for a brighter future.

Intensely worried about their personal finances and medical expenses, Americans nonetheless appear realistic about the time Obama might need to turn things around, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. It shows most Americans consider their new president to be a strong, ethical and empathetic leader who is working to change Washington.

Says it All

... more from WSJ.

Numpty Time in the USA

Duh ...

Truly, Obama has surrounded himself with a crop of numbskulls ... or to be more colourful ... shit-pumps:

Ottawa was rushing to defend its border security on Tuesday amid a diplomatic scuffle with the U.S., which erupted after Washington's homeland security chief suggested that the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the comments during a media interview earlier this week, much to the chagrin of Canadians on both sides of the border.

[...]

"As the 9-11 commission reported in 2004, all of the 9-11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government and no 9-11 terrorists came from Canada."

Are we feeling safer yet?

... the discussion.

Missed it by "That" Much

Rasmussen: Look at the bright side ... he's still got a plus in front of that number:

What amazes me though, is that I predicted that BO's poll numbers would move up with the stock market ... that as confidence in recovery grew, so would confidence in BO.

By now, BO has punished me thoroughly on my predictive abilities. I predicted he'd govern to the center ... wrong. I predicted that his popularity would hinge on the economy ... wrong.

In the end, it would seem that the reasonable centrist that so many people voted for has yet to emerge ... I don't think that moderate America expected to be led by the socialist college lounge. But, that's what they've gotten ... a cross between Noam Chomsky and Ward Churchill ... or Jimma Carter with a pulse.

Instead of “God Damn America” ... it should now read "God Help America."

How Unions and Bureaucrats Cost us Millions

... and can kill people:

Witnesses were outraged after staff at Saskatoon City Hospital insisted upon phoning an ambulance for an unresponsive patient discovered outside the hospital's emergency room doors.

Ken Olson, a Saskatoon contractor, was on his way to a meeting Monday morning when he noticed a man in a hospital gown lying on his back "less than 10 feet" from the entrance to the ER.

"I parked and ran in through the emergency doors and said, 'You've got someone in hospital clothing outside your doors unconscious,' " he said.

Olson said he was stunned when staff responded by phoning 911 for an ambulance. He says they told him policy prevents hospital staff from attending to patients found on the grounds.

Sell Sell Sell

Sucks to be you ... NYT:

The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived Tuesday.

The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers said Tuesday that it lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis.

Bubble - in - Chief

Nanny state on steroids:

According to Austan Goolsbee, a key Obama economic adviser, the president plans to focus on stopping bubbles along with preventing busts. And in an interview with POLITICO, Goolsbee said the administration will be on the lookout for new bubbles, like the tech stocks or housing prices.

If new threats are spotted, he said Obama would use “regulatory oversight to prevent guys who want to make a quick buck from doing real harm to the economy. ... That is what it means to get out of the bubble-and-bust cycle.”

How to Fight an O-War

A kinder gentler USA is still blowing the pants off of muslims:

President Obama proclaims no more of George W. Bush’s “War on Terror,” even as he silently keeps most of it in place. The result is as confusing as it soon will be dangerous.

In these first 100 days of his presidency, Barack Obama has promised that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility will be closed within a year. He has assured us wiretapping and overseas rendition are under re-examination.

The Obama administration has also been busy tweaking terminology in an effort to put a kinder, gentler face to the war. There is no longer a “Global War on Terror”: It has been replaced by “overseas contingency operations.”

... keep reading VDH.

Live Tea or Die

Steyn:

In other cultures, tea is a soothing beverage, a respite from the cares of the world. A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit-Down is a British bestseller offering advice on tea, biscuits (that’s “cookies” in American), and comfy chairs by the husband-and-wife team of “Nicey” and “Wifey,” whose soubriquets suggest that these are not the folks to turn to for societal insurrection.

George Orwell — the George Orwell of Animal Farm and 1984 — wrote a famous essay called “A Nice Cup Of Tea,” all about the best way to warm the pot, and the defects of shallow cups. Is it some sort of political allegory for impending civil war set in a household torn between those who put the milk in before the tea and those who do so after? No, Orwell liked a good cuppa (as they say in England) and was eager to pass on his advice for extracting maximum satisfaction from the experience.

But in America, tea is not a soothing beverage to be served with McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits. It’s a raging stimulant. It’s rabies in an Earl Grey bag. At America’s tea parties, there’s no McVitie’s, just McVeighs — as in Timothy of that ilk, as in angry white men twitching to go nuts. To Paul Krugman of the New York Times, the tea party is a movement of “crazy people” manipulated by sinister “rightwing billionaires.” To the briefly famous Susan Roesgen of CNN, the parties are not safe for “family viewing.” Which is presumably why the Boston Globe forbore to cover them last week. The original Boston Tea Party was so-called because it took place at Boston Harbor, which I gather is a harbor somewhere in the general vicinity of the Greater Boston area. So there would appear to be what I believe the journalism professors call a “local angle” to Wednesday’s re-enactment. Might be useful for a publication losing a million bucks a week and threatened with closure by a parent company that in one of the worst media acquisitions of all time paid over a billion dollars for a property that barely a decade later is all but worthless.

... keep reading.

O-Cuba

And So it Begins

US Marines Do What UK Forces Couldn't

Is the following going to be the way of Kandahar as well? Where US forces take and hold that which Canada could only take ... but not hold. By this summer, it is estimated that 4 in 5 soldiers operating in Kandahar province will be American:

What was once solely a British area of responsibility is no longer. In March 2006 British troops deployed to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, with a view to imposing stability and bringing reconstruction.

Not only have they failed, the situation has become so tenuous that, increasingly, US troops are taking over, fighting for towns and territories that we have failed to capture or have lost.

Starting in December 2007, the US provided the bulk of the troops and most of the air assets to re-take Musa Qala. In April 2008, US Marines then re-took the town of Garmsir and now, having been effectively abandoned by the British in 2007, this month US Marines re-took the district town of Now Zad.

However, it says something of the paucity of information coming out of Afghanistan that the recent history of this small town is shrouded in obscurity, if not mystery.

Situated some 45 miles north of Gereshk and just under 40 miles due west of Kajaki, it was first occupied by British soldiers in June 2006, in response to a call for help from the governor of Now Zad. B Company, 3 Para, were flown out to the town. On arrival they found it calm but went ahead and helped shore up defences.

This had not been the first activity in the area. On 4 June, A Coy, 3 Para went on a mission codenamed Operation Mutay to a secure a suspected Taleban compound, close to Now Zad. They were supported by Patrols Coy, 3 Para, a platoon of Gurkhas and local police.

On their way to secure their objectives, the Gurkhas' Wimik convoy became involved in a heavy contact. Patrols Coy, also aboard WMIK Land Rovers, also had a heavy contact. Army Air Corps Apache gunships provided close air support.

... keep reading.

Warmists Now a Minority

There is hope ... despite massive manipulation of the media and government, warmists are losing the battle of common sense and science.

Even sitting in the dark for one hour ... with candles lit in the living room window for all to see hasn't been enough ... the war is all but over.

Rasmussen:

Just one-out-of-three voters (34%) now believe global warming is caused by human activity, the lowest finding yet in Rasmussen Reports national surveying. However, a plurality (48%) of the Political Class believes humans are to blame.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of all likely voters attribute climate change to long-term planetary trends, while seven percent (7%) blame some other reason. Eleven percent (11%) aren’t sure.

These numbers reflect a reversal from a year ago when 47% blamed human activity while 34% said long-term planetary trends.

ht

Mr. Pork

John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport:

The John Murtha airport sits on a windy mountain two hours east of Pittsburgh, a 650-acre expanse of smooth tarmac, spacious buildings, a helicopter hangar and a National Guard training center.

Inside the terminal on a recent weekday, four passengers lined up to board a flight, outnumbered by seven security staff members and supervisors, all suited up in gloves and uniforms to screen six pieces of luggage. For three hours that day, no commercial or private planes took off or landed. Three commercial flights leave the airport on weekdays, all bound for Dulles International Airport.

The key to the airport's gleaming facilities -- and, indeed, its continued existence -- is $200 million in federal funds in the past decade and the powerful patron who steered most of that money here. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) is credited with securing at least $150 million for the airport. It was among the first in the country to win funding from this year's stimulus package: $800,000 to repave a backup runway.

The facility, newly renamed the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, is a testament to Murtha's ability to tap streams of federal money for pricey, state-of-the-art projects that are rare among regional airports of comparable size.

Murtha, dubbed the King of Pork by critics, consistently directs more federal money to his district than any other congressman -- $192 million in the 2008 budget. His pattern of steering millions in earmarks to defense contractors who give to his campaign and hire his allies as lobbyists is being scrutinized by the FBI as part of an investigation of a lobbying firm led by one of Murtha's closest friends.

ht

Crushing the Language Barrier

One of the realities that shelters Islam from Western scrutiny is the language barrier, because most Muslim nations do not communicate in English. The result is that the ugly realities of Islam remain hidden to a large degree and Islam's Western apologists, the liberal class, are free to spout myths regarding Islam's benign nature.

If, however, we pay attention to what Muslims are saying among themselves, and what passes as discourse within their media, it becomes ever more clear that normal everyday "peaceful" Islam is anathema to Western notions of democracy and freedom.

Enter, MEMRI TV:

Retired IDF colonel Yigal Carmon, the president of MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), has an impressive CV. He served in the IDF Intelligence Corps, was an adviser on Arab affairs to the Civil Administration in the West Bank and a senior staff member of Israel's National Defense College. He was a senior member of the Israel delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference, an adviser on counter-terrorism to prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, and director of the Washington Institute for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence.

All of this, Carmon said, made him aware of the need for the organization he founded a little over a decade ago.

"In my long government career, I had the opportunity to see how governments, legislatures and the public at large suffered from lack of knowledge despite the fact that information was available - but in alien languages," he told The Jerusalem Post. "This enabled self-proclaimed pundits, who didn't even know any foreign languages, to hold a monopoly on what was the perceived reality of the Muslim world.

Memri Homepage

A New Dodge-Ball Candidate

... talk about Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge:



... what is most interesting, is that the Obama administration now wants call international terrorist acts "Manmade disasters" ... yet will refer to local "Manmade disasters" as terrorist acts.

Perfect

... kicked by a Small Dead Animal:

Mr. Obama's Eyes Get Opened

My my ... how things change once you're on the inside looking out:

Michelle Obama is Beautiful Update

Keeping in the spirit of things, or on the lighter side as it were ... a reader sent in the following collague... which just goes to show that Ann Coulter has a point when she says that what set Jackie O apart from other Democrat women, was that she dressed and acted like a Republican:

Michelle Obama is Beautiful?

picture: Jackie-O looking lovely in kodachrome.

It's an apparent truism, that Republican female politicians who are physically attractive, are treated as bimbos or "shrill", by the MSM. After all, don't good looking women get into positions of power by assuming "certain positions?" All one needs do is recall the shameless attacks on Sarah Palin where most every MSM organ, from news to entertainment, tolerated and promoted Caribou Barbie character assasination on a stunning scale.

On the other hand, Democratic female politicians and personalities ... no matter how they actually "look", are more often than not treated like the latest reincarnation of Jackie O.

The latest attempt by the MSM to create a silk purse out of a sow's ear is the nauseating and almost constant coverage of the "beautiful" and "Jackie-O-esque" Michelle Obama.

Frankly, it's becoming insufferable.

It's one thing to engage in the lionizing of Michelle by appealing to her character. Call her articulate, intelligent, shrewd, loving, empathetic ... even that she "loves her country", but why appeal to her appearance when in reality she's .... how to put this delicately ... a mutt.

Take for instance her "arms" ... you know, those so-called wonderfully toned appendages that we are told are all the rage. The MSM has fixated on her arms ... and for a very specific reason ... they're a distraction.

Those arms don't change the fact that they are attached to a flat homely face, legs like tree stumps, a backside 1.5 axe handles across, no chest, and a masculine stride. All the MSM Photoshop talent and meticulous photo selection being employed can't change the fact that Baby-Mama is not pretty ... nor will a full-time make-up artist. Jackie-O looked lovely on a bad day in candid photos and she didn't need all the techno wizardry of the MSM to make her look that way ... in fact, back then it didn't even exist.

In the end, I say all the power to Michelle for trying to look her best ... but let's nix the Jackie-O comparisons before the intelligence of every living creature on earth has been thoroughly and completely insulted. As far as trying to fool those of us who get to wake each morning with a truly lovely woman by our side ... forget about it.



Picture: Michelle in Vogue using all the power of the studio and digital tweaks to look great. Pretty, as long as you keep the "angles right".

For the other kind of beauty ... I give you Susan Boyle.




Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
by dwarthy

All We Need is Love

Peace protestors, anti-war loons, and the extreme left in general are anything but "peaceful":

Vandals have kicked to pieces 20 grave markers belonging to war dead and veterans at a Port Alberni, B.C., cemetery. The violence has devastated local veterans and their families.

Margaret Groeneveld, a service officer at the Royal Canadian Legion, said her father is buried in the cemetery. Although his gravesite was undamaged, she became emotional as she described the impact the broken crosses would have.

More Thug - in - Chief: Update

For decades, America has seen the rise of leftist organizations and individuals which:

1. Try to cheat during elections on behalf of Democrat Candidates.
2. Attack and damage Republican property during elections.
3. Make constant threats of violence toward Republicans by threatening to rape, murder, or imprison them.
4. Fill the internet with violent imagery directed at Republicans.
5. March in violent protests
6. Damage public property on behalf of lefist causes.
7. Sieze and occupy and damage property on behalf of lefist causes.

Yet, the new United States President (the who until he won the election had not accomplished a thing of note in his entire life), wants to create fear and loathing around the unsupported myth that "Right-wing" groups now bear special mention under the heading of "THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY". The use of the office of Homeland Security to propagate completely unsubstantiated and oblique accusations is a complete and thorough abuse of power ... especially when used as a public opinion forming weapon just before Americans peacefully protest Obama’s spending practices. Note, when you read the so-called “report”, that “right-wing” radicals as defined within it are basically those who organized to protest against Liberal boilerplate issues ... like abortion, immigration, gun rights, and over taxation.

Real security organizations work in secret to infiltrate "threats". They spend hundreds of millions of dollars in employing everything within their means to prevent violence against their citizens. They DO NOT publish unsubstantiated fluff pieces like Obama just did ... even Clinton and Carter weren't this transparently manipulative.

Truly, America has elected herself a Chicago thug, who if it weren't for the American Constitution and democratic institutions would be little more than a Kenyan ruffian. There is nothing sophisticated or nuanced about this guy, he’s simply a hardcore leftist doing what hardcore leftists do ... which is to use all means at their disposal to stifle dissent. Only the law holds him back.

Update:

Let this sink in ...

The report states the DHS will be working with state and local partners over the next several months to determine the levels of right-wing extremist activity in the U.S.

Last month, the chief of the Missouri highway patrol blasted a report issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that linked conservative groups to domestic terrorism, assuring that such reports no longer will be issued. The report had been compiled with the assistance of DHS.

The report warned law enforcement agencies to watch for suspicious individuals who may have bumper stickers for third-party political candidates such as Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.

It further warned law enforcement to watch out for individuals with "radical" ideologies based on Christian views, such as opposing illegal immigration, abortion and federal taxes.

Spectacular Australian Bush-fire video

Turn up the volume and let this sink in. Note the fire storm complete with vortex at the 2:00 minute mark ... just prior, you'll also see the smoke running counter-clockwise and back into the storm:



Previous ... How Green Ideology Kills People.

A Decades Long Mission of Hate

The Jews wouldn't hang him ... so now it's the German's turn to try simply to ensure that a handful of bureaucrats can justify their postions:

On Good Friday, John Demjanjuk, 89 and gravely ill, was ordered deported to Germany to stand trial as an accessory to the murder of 29,000 Jews -- at Sobibor camp in Poland.

Sound familiar? It should. It is a re-enactment of the 1986 extradition of John Demjanjuk to Israel to be tried for the murder of 870,000 Jews -- at Treblinka camp in Poland.

How many men in the history of this country have been so relentlessly pursued and remorselessly persecuted?

The ordeal of this American Dreyfus began 30 years ago.

Update

Violent Death Throws

Pity ...

Associated Press chairman Dean Singleton kicked off the week by telling newspaper executives that the AP is “mad as hell”—but at whom, exactly, still remains unclear.

“It came off pretty combative,” the AP’s Jane Seagrave told POLITICO Friday, “but that really wasn’t our intent.”

Regardless of the AP’s intent, Singleton's tough talk about those who "walk off with our work" fueled speculation that search engines (Google) or news aggregators (The Huffington Post) are now in the AP’s crosshairs. Singleton, talking of “misguided, unfounded legal theories,” even raised the possibility of litigation for those not following the rules.

Seagrave, a senior vice president for global product development, stressed that “what we’re really trying to do is work on ways to affirm the value of original reporting.”

News Flash for AP ... until you fire 100% of your journalists and replace them true political centrists who do not mix political spin with reporting of news, your industry will conintue to die.

In the meantime, NYT is bound a determined to perish:

If the incompetent management driving the New York Times from junk status to oblivion wished to decelerate their terminal decline, they might usefully amend their motto to “All the News That’s Fit to Distract.” Tom Blumer of Newsbusters notes that in the last 30 days there have been some 2,500 stories featuring Obama and “distractions,” as opposed to about 800 “distractions” for Bush in his entire second term. The sub-headline of the Reuters story suggests the unprecedented pace at which the mountain of distractions is piling up: “First North Korea, Iran — now Somali pirates.”

Tax Rap

Sucks to be You ... O

President Pantywaist doesn't go over even as well as President Hitler Chimp Bush did during the same time period it Hitler Chimps presidency ... it hasn't even been a hundred days. Clearly, Marxism and superficial glitz don't sell that well ... even the naked arms of Jackie O can't help this guy.

... for the record ... the most alluring thing about the real Jackie O was that she dressed and behaved like a Republican even though married to a rutting rabbit.

All that happened though, is that Americans are simply waking up to what they've just done ... elected a man who even the Europhiles recognize as all show and no go.

In the meantime, Obama keeps on proving me wrong in more ways than I care to admit.

Psychopath

Hare's Psychopathy Checklist:

• Glibness/superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self-worth
• Pathological lying
• Cunning/manipulative
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Shallow
• Callous/lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  
  ... more.
  
  
  
  

Banker-In-Chief

Picture: Saul Alinsky - A favorite of BO & MO and Hillary.

Never waste a good crisis:

I must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn't much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street's black hole. So why no cheering as the cash comes back?

My answer: The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this intensely political president, mere influence is not enough. The White House wants to tell 'em what to do. Control. Direct. Command.

It is not for nothing that rage has been turned on those wicked financiers. The banks are at the core of the administration's thrust: By managing the money, government can steer the whole economy even more firmly down the left fork in the road.

If the banks are forced to keep TARP cash -- which was often forced on them in the first place -- the Obama team can work its will on the financial system to unprecedented degree. That's what's happening right now.

Saul Alinsky must be smiling in hell.

By way of offering some balance, there is another, equally as disturbing reason to force banks to keep TARP. Those banks who return TARP will have a great advantage in the market place ... they will attract a flood of execs and managers who don't want to work under the Federal Government wage and bonus controls, and they will also attract investors who see banks that return TARP as more stable.

Either way, The Big O is playing a dangerous game of micromanaging the financial sector. No good will come of any of this.

O-Rating

For me, today's dismal O-rating is a stunner.

I had predicted and expected a significant "uptick" in Obama's approval rating, especially as the long awaited stock market rebound winds up. Perhaps we'll see an O-surge from the Eurabia trip.

Whatever the case, if I were an O-bot, I'd be concerned, given the short time that Baby Daddy has been in power.

Frankly, if the press treated The One like they treated Bush ... or Reagan ... Obama would get slaughtered in the polls.

My What a Difference a Surge Makes

Thank You Mr. Bush

... meanwhile, back at the Ranch.

Cramer Freaks ...

Keep in mind, that this Cramer explosion took place in the Summer of 2007 ... precient: