The Era of Progressive Wars

When "Progressives" conduct wars, the outcome is always certain:



More from Glavin:

'I told you so' is an unbecoming political posture, but NDP leader Jack Layton could certainly be forgiven such thoughts when the subject turns to negotiating with the Taliban.

That pretty well sums up the hubris of the troops-out and peace-talks lobby: Claim credit for what only the most casual or reactionary observers would think wise, but when the grisly consequences of such counsel become horribly apparent, try not to get noticed, or find someone else to blame. Do you expect all those sanctimonious know-it-alls to step up to admit their folly now that the knives are coming out?

Surrender:

The significance of Obama's surrender speech is starting to sink in. Brett Stephens notices: It emboldens the Taliban. It increases the risk to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. It strengthens already potent anti-American forces in Pakistan and weakens the hand of moderates. It strengthens the hand of Iran. It further weakens NATO. It gives Hamid Karzai opportunity and motive to reinvent himself as an anti-American leader. It accelerates Afghanistan's barely suppressed, and invariably violent, centrifugal forces. "Finally, it signals that the United States, like Britain before it, is a waning power."

Reason to Buy VW

The Original:



More Reason to buy VW than you could ever imagine:

A Come to Jesus Moment

Demonic: Your Progressive Future

A Great Read ... and once again, Ann says what most of our Conservative leadership won't:

Straight Up

Stephen Harper: Putting the "Big" in Government

Progressives never waste an opportunity to create more mandarins:

The Harper government is looking to regulate the technology used to control oil industry emissions, in a move aimed at demonstrating Ottawa is determined to deal with the oil sands’ carbon footprint.

Environment Canada plans to release a formal notice this summer that the government will proceed with “performance rules” for large industrial emitters, starting with refineries and oil sands upgraders, and eventually covering bitumen production.

The Big Green Choo Choo

... if you pay taxes, you're part of the train:

The next question to ask is this... Can an organisation that represents commercial enterprises really offer governmental organisations impartial policy advice? Imagine the furore that would ensue, were oil companies so instrumental in the design of EU policies and their implementation. Lobbying is one thing; such proximity to policy-making is quite another.

The organisations involved make no secret of the fact that they enjoy a privileged relationship with EU policy-makers. EREC member, the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), for instance, proudly states that ...

How to Kill a Nation

... one palabra at a time:

One Legged Blind Black Lesbian Muslim Bloggers

... and other "progressive" fantasies:

Now consider it from Assad's point of view. Unlike "Amina," "Rania" and the "three armed men in their early 20s" who "hustled Amina into a red Dacia Logan," you have the disadvantage of actually existing. You're the dictator of Syria. You've killed more demonstrators than those losers Mubarak, Ben Ali and Gadhafi combined, and the Americans have barely uttered a peep. Suddenly Hillary Clinton, who was hailing you as a "reformer" only 20 minutes ago, wants to give you a hard time over some lesbian blogger. Any moment now Sarkozy or Cameron or some other Europoseur will demand anti-homophobic NATO bombing missions over your presidential palace. On CNN Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper will be interviewing each other back and forth all day long about the Gay Spring sweeping the Arab world. You'll be the first Middle East strongman brought down by lesbianism. You'll be a laughingstock at Arab League Where-Are-They-Now? nights.

Who needs it? "Release the lesbian bloggers!" commands Assad.

Taliban Fading

Canada’s efforts have left the insurgency in southern Afghanistan “on its knees,” says the commander of the Afghan troops who have been fighting alongside Canadian soldiers.

Last month at Kandahar Airfield, Brig.-Gen. Ahmed Habibi gave Prime Minister Stephen Harper an upbeat private briefing on the state of the war in southern Afghanistan.

He is expected to give a similar talk when he travels to Kingston, Ont., next month to address Canadian officers studying at the war college there.

... well done.

Update: From the comments

We have paid fairly constant attention to the quarterly Afghanistan progress reports the federal government has submitted since special advisor John Manley recommended greater transparency (along with other things) in 2008. The tale has been pretty consistent, and bleak: progress against limited, quantifiable goals on specific projects, in a general context of worsening violence and despair. It wouldn’t have been too unfair to summarize most of these reports as, “Construction continues on schedule, but the locals who haven’t died yet are terrified that they’ll be next.”

That’s changing. Quite starkly. For the better.

We predicted a Sea Change in Afghanistan back in September 2009 ... it may be now bearing fruit.

And finally, some gratuitous Taliban salad (best viewed full screen @ liveleak)

The Right to Defend Yourself

... and your property:

Last May, Mr. Singleton and his wife returned home to their rural acreage to find a car idling in their driveway. Mr. Singleton parked his own vehicle across the driveway and went inside to find their home ransacked. Mr. Singleton then went back outside to discover the burglar using the previously idling vehicle to ram his in an attempt to escape. Knowing that police response times in rural areas are appalling, Mr. Singleton hastily grabbed a hatchet and, using the blunt end, struck the car-ramming burglar in the side of the face, knocking out some the perpetrator’s teeth and breaking “facial bones.”

IPCC Learns Its Lesson

... to hell with all of you:

We cannot be dealing with an organisation that has learned nothing. After the furore over AR4 in the wake of Climategate, no one person, and no institution can be that stupid as to fail to take away lessons from the experience. Doubtless, the IPCC has learned something – just not what its critics would have it learn.

It's clear that the single goal of the IPCC is to preserve lavish UN jobs ... and I'd be willing to bet, that the parasites that abide within are already making plans on how to shift gears if the sun reaches out and crushes the Human Caused Global Warming Fraud.

Stephen Harper's Character

... is perfect, if maintaining the vast "progressive" regime is the goal:

Peter C. Newman has tackled prime ministers Brian Mulroney, John Diefenbaker and Pierre Trudeau in some of his best-selling books, but don’t wait for his tome on Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Why not?

“He’s not interesting enough. There’s no human dimension,” he said.

[...]

Perhaps there's just a bit of a put down in that comment. Tiny bit. Still, I agree with Newman, Stephen Harper is not a particularly interesting man. Yes, very competent and quite pragmatic (i.e. semi-principled). The most interesting man in the world? Hardly. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having the personality of an accountant on valium can be a good thing, if you're just managing the status quo. Politics doesn't always need bold visionary leaders whose personal lives are out of Greek tragedy. As Bill Davis, one of the least interesting men ever to occupy public office in Canadian history, observed: Bland works.

... more from The Gods.

Close Your Eyes and Think of America

Jon Stewart: No Moderate

Greece Stops Chirping

Canary:

The country is now only two notches away from Standard & Poor's (S&P) benchmark default rating after its credit rating was cut to CCC, the lowest in the world.

Greek sovereign debt is now rated below Ecuador, Jamaica, Pakistan and Grenada.

Coal Mine:

When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

A Most Excellent Libyan Adventure

In which Canada recognizes a rabble:

Signalling a shift in foreign policy, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced Tuesday that Canada will formally recognize the rebel National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya.

... no, we aren't making this up.

A while back, the incisive Mark Steyn had some thoughts on Libya:



previous

Canadian Muslim Demographics

 We hear a lot about Muslim activism and extremism in Europe, from no-go enclaves to the bullying of politicians and police.  Many terrorist acts directed at the West were hatched, in fact, in the UK.  The following news piece is just a tiny example of the constant pressure that UK Muslim exert:

Victims say that officers in the borough of Tower Hamlets have ignored or downplayed outbreaks of hate crime, and suppressed evidence implicating Muslims in them, because they fear being accused of racism.

The claims come as four Tower Hamlets Muslims were jailed for at least 19 years for attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to Muslim girls.

Meanwhile in Canada, aside from a handful of honor-killings and a couple of terror cases, Canada has yet to experience the violently supremacist side of Islam in any significant way.

Even more curious, is the fact that Canada's percentage of Muslims (3%) is almost as great as that of the UK... yet Canadian Muslims have come nowhere near their British counterparts in contributing to world terror and supremacist activism.

Could it be the ethnic blend of Canada's Muslims ... or the fact that until now Canadian Muslims have not concentrated in enclaves?

Nevertheless, it should concern Canadians that within the next two decades, if Muslim immigration continues its pace, Canada's Muslim population will equal that of France (in percentage) ... and surpass that of the UK.  If Muslim "integration" continues as it has, do Canadians have anything to fear ... or, is Canada simply postponing the inevitable creation of Muslim enclaves and the accompanying disruptions, activism, and violence that are now common in Europe?

Finally, is Europe's Muslim strife rooted in "progressive elite" pandering to Muslims as much as is it in the violently supremacist ideology of Islam?  Is there something truly different about the Canuck way (immigration that is more ethnically diverse; stronger economy; less sharia tolerance from groups like the MCC)?

Ryerson University Professor Mehrunnisa Ahmad Ali has found in her research that many second generation Muslim Canadians have cultivated ways in how they want to practice their religion, while still balancing their Canadian lifestyles.

“I’ve seen that many are able to seamlessly balance one aspect of their life with another,” she said.

For some, she added, that means selectively shifting between different peer groups.

“There are many who go to bars and drink, something that Islam prohibits, but then participate in activities with their Muslim friends at the mosque," she said.

Previous: The Muslim Reformation

Libya Front Line: Mad Max War

The following long video from the Libyan front line is unique. It was filmed at a flash-point between the two sides ... incoming and outgoing are just about steady ... with the accompanying death and maiming that is to be expected. The first part of the two part series ends with the photographer and others being hit. For best viewing, click through the embed to LiveLeak and watch on full screen:

My best guess is that the action takes place at the front end of a rebel attempt to move up a road ... note the haphazard "assault" of the dominating structure across the road from the photographer.





Keep in mind, that while the Libyan Mad Max conflict goes on, kept alive by Western Air Power (Canada included), Syria now daily murders its own civilians using gunships and tanks and ruthless small arms attacks. The very same atrocities that Our Most Excellent Libyan Adventure was supposed to stop, are now a daily reality in "Assad the Reformer's" Syria.

The Women of Afghanistan

Almost three million girls are back in school, women are back at work, 40 per cent of the media are women and 25 per cent of regional councillors are female. What’s more, the fundamentalist mentality is changing. Only a few women in urban centres still wear a burka. Religious doctrines are slightly less oppressive. The constitution demands that 25 per cent of seats in the parliament are reserved for women. Says Shinkai Karokhail, 49, a long-time women’s activist and member of parliament for Kabul: “It’s the presence of countries like Canada that have made that happen. It has given me the right to speak out and to claim my space. The international community is like a thousand eyes on the government."

... more.

Romney: I Believe

ht

Monty Python Squirrel

The Palin Emails: Dejected Journalists ...

Even Politico, which writes hit piece after hit piece, can't help itself (but of course adds its own spin ... Palin then, Palin now)

Much more @ SDA.

The Case of the Uncooked Weiner

Not a question of morality, but rather sagacity:

Is Anthony Weiner a grown-up at all? This isn’t a question that evades other questions; he may also be a lot of other things, like an Internet predator and a creep. But mostly Weiner looks like a case of arrested development, an adolescent with 30 years of experience rather than an adult. Weiner is a year younger than me, solidly into middle age, with a young wife, a child on the way, and a high-profile job of substantial importance and responsibility. Yet his focus has not been on any of these, but instead on silly and salacious interactions with a variety of women on line, especially women less than half his age. His interactions with them bespeak the sexuality of a 14-year-old, taking pictures of his equipment and engaging in dialogue that most resembles a porn script.

... And Then I Met a Conservative

Playwright, screenwriter, director David Mamet discusses with Dennis his departure from the Left, which he details in his new book, "The Secret Knowledge."

... click.

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The Sarah Palin Emails

... everybody should read them:

“‘The thousands upon thousands of emails released today show a very engaged Governor Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state,’ Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah PAC, said in an email. ‘The emails detail a Governor hard at work. Everyone should read them.’”

Johnny Canuck

Continuing the Tradition of Fearless, Unbiased, Investigation

It is only fair ... after all, they left no stone unturned when Barry O. became a presidential candidate ... and who can forget the stellar reporting that accompanied all those climate-gates:

The way that MSNBC coos over the story of Sarah Palin’s e-mails from her time as governor, one might think they were perusing Anthony Weiner’s Twitter feed. Not a chance, because if they did that, the media might actually find something. Instead, Andrea Mitchell and Michael Isikoff give the palette of paper the breaking-news treatment, complete with a “DEVELOPING NOW” logo, as if emails from the Alaska government from 2009 and earlier were the hottest story facing the nation:

Update: Stunning revelations ...

I’ve skimmed about a thousand pages. One thing you see is what a good relationship Palin had with her staff. The only one I’ve seen where she seems upset is when she was not told about a funeral for AK guardsmen killed in Afghanistan. She says something like, “Shouldn’t I know about these things so I can honor them???”

Previous

Mowhawk Woman to Her People

... stop blaming others and look in the mirror:

• repeated vandalism of the Veterans’ Hall.
• Men’s Fire telling people provincial laws don’t apply, and that Six Nations Police have no authority, which promotes lawlessness.
• People paying kids to steal cars and sell drugs.
• Cigarette shops, some of which are fronts for drug dealers.
• ATV drivers & Poker Run organizers refuse to respect farmers properties and crops.
• People stealing reserve land, including the Glebe Lands.
• Domestic violence is rampant.
• Women and girls are being sexually assaulted.
• Too many kids being raised by single parents because fathers refuse responsibility or mothers deny access.
• Increased violence at sports games with racism on both sides.
• More suicides among kids in last few years than in 10 years.
• Kids being bullied at school, but no zero-tolerance policy adopted.
• Drug addictions are plaguing the community, not just youth, but moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles. Several babies born addicted to drugs, or born w/Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
• Elected council fighting with confederacy council with Mohawk Workers refusing to work with either council.

NATO ... R.I.P.

Gates:

America's military alliance with Europe - the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades - faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.

In his final policy speech as Pentagon chief, Gates questioned the viability of NATO, saying its members' penny-pinching and lack of political will could hasten the end of U.S. support. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949 as a U.S.-led bulwark against Soviet aggression, but in the post-Cold War era it has struggled to find a purpose.

"Future U.S. political leaders - those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me - may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost," he told a European think tank on the final day of an 11-day overseas journey.

Gates has made no secret of his frustration with NATO bureaucracy and the huge restrictions many European governments placed on their military participation in the Afghanistan war. He ruffled NATO feathers early in his tenure with a direct challenge to contribute more front-line troops that yielded few contributions.

Afghanistan: WE WON!

Who would have thought it could be so easy:

Obama administration officials and lawmakers are lowering the bar for success in Afghanistan ahead of the first strategic review of war policy in the post-Osama bin Laden era.

Washington has largely shed words like “winning” and “success” as public fatigue about the costs and duration of the decade-long conflict have increased.

The Worst Door-kickers in the World

SWAT officers fired 71 rounds at Jose Guerena from the doorway of his home while serving a search warrant the morning of May 5, officials from Pima County Sheriff's Department have said. Fewer than a third of those shots hit Guerena, leaving 49 rounds passing through walls and some hitting nearby homes, according to reports released by the department last week.

71 rounds fired, 20+ on target, and only 3 center of mass and one graze to the head. So much for controlling your rounds in a crowded, friendly, urban environment.

The militarization of USA police forces has got to stop ... poorly trained yahoos out to get a thrill is not law enforcement; it's a murderous rabble.  I've spoken to soldiers ... their training would never allow for the falling-over-each-other killer squad tactics that the police displayed; and soldiers operate in a war zone.

Terror on the Left

Sarah Palin is so irrelevant, so stupid, and uneducated that it's now critical to dig through 24,000 emails to find dirt ... anything ... even a crumb on her:

More than 24,000 e-mail messages sent to and from Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska’s governor will be released Friday. Join The Post in digging through them. We are looking for 100 organized and diligent readers who will work alongside Post reporters to analyze, contextualize, and research the e-mails. Think of it as spending some time in our newsroom.

Our hope is that working together, we can efficiently find interesting information and extract new stories that will lead to further investigation. We don’t know what we’ll find, but we want you to be ready and open for the challenge.

Terror ... I can think of nothing else that better describes the emotion felt by the left and elites in America.

The next president of the USA is going to be a Republican; but no Republican can win without the endorsement of Caribou Barbie ... hell, she may even endorse herself.

Nothing has given me more pleasure in a long time, than watching Palin turn them all into pretzels, hate-filled misogynists, or fools too insipid to know that they are mocking themselves as they mock her.

Who Is Stephen Harper?

Mike Brock attended that particular smackdown. For those of the school that believes Stephen Harper has not so much betrayed the pro-freedom agenda as failed to understand it, this event is Exhibit A. Describing the 2008 financial crisis as a product of unrestrained capitalism shows an astonishing ignorance of American housing and financial regulation. That such ignorance should come from an economist all the more so. The Prime Minister was playing grown-up to the supposedly teenaged libertarians. If a typical teenager managed his finances the way Harper has managed the country's budget, he'd be grounded.

... the details from The Gods.

CPC Debt Reduction

... blowing sunshine up our ass:

The 2011-12 budget, reintroduced Monday by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, is clearly an elegant palace constructed on sand. There is almost no chance Ottawa will reach its optimistic projection of balancing the budget by 2014-15 unless the new Tory majority government gets much more serious about cutting spending than it demonstrated Monday.

... more, from Lorne.

I'm thinking that the PMO is banking on accelerated GDP and resource revenue to take care of things without the pain of cuts ... that's what you call budgeting by happenstance.  The long and short of it is, watch China and India, because they'll have more to do with Canadian deficit reduction than the PMO. If they continue to boom and gobble up resources, Canuck GDP will remain positive and resource revenue with fill federal coffers; despite America's slide.  If China is in a dangerous bubble, as some suggest, look for increased deficits in Canada before 2014.

It took only a couple months to amass our deficit, yet Harper won't pay it off for years ... and he claims to be Keynesian (my ass).  And worse yet, he's depending on Asia more than anything else ... China booms, Harper wins ... China slumps ... we all lose.

World Energy Consumption Sea Change

... China now king:

China surpassed the U.S. last year as the world’s largest energy consumer, according to an annual report by British oil giant BP (BP).

China moved to the top spot of energy consumption in 2010 with 20.3% of global demand, ahead of the U.S.’s 19%, according to BP’s 60th annual Statistical Review of World Energy. China’s consumption edged up 11.2% last year compared with just 3.7% growth in the U.S.

Listening to Afghans

... no, they aren't all just a bunch of inbred Muslims looking to murder each other ... as many of my conservative fellow travelers would have us believe:

A few years ago, the Canadian novelist Yann Martel embarked on a project he called “What is Stephen Harper reading?” For as long as Harper was prime minister, Martel vowed to send him a book, every two weeks, accompanied by a letter explaining why he thought Harper should read the book. I really disliked the project; I thought it was a smug little exercise built around the prissy conceit that Harper lacked “stillness.” Nevertheless, Martel’s idea was in the front of my mind last week, as I found myself sitting a table in a banquet hall in the north-east reaches of Toronto. If there is one book I’d like to press into Harper’s hands, and sit on him while he reads it, it is Letters to my Daughters, by the Afghan member of parliament Fawzia Koofi.

SWAT Saving America

... one student loan at a time:

As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for was not there - Wright's estranged wife.

"They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids," Wright said.

Wright said he later went to the mayor and Stockton Police Department, but the City of Stockton had nothing to do with Wright's search warrant.

The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife's defaulted student loans.

Donald: Tell Us What You Really Think

Julian Fantino's Legacy

Mr. Harper's best friend has left a legacy that lives on. Most reasonable people see it as police-state tactics.

It goes something like this ... grind down citizens you disagree with, but who haven't broken the law , by slamming them with frivolous charges and endless harassment:

Earlier this afternoon I received a call from Gary McHale shortly after he left the Cayuga courthouse in which he confirmed that the Crown has now dropped the charge of Assault against him because there was “no reasonable prospect for conviction.”

... I still can't get past the fact, that so many supposed law and order loving, freedom loving, and human dignity loving conservatives are willing to tolerate the lump of guano that sits among them ... one Julian Fantino. What a stain and disgrace this ladder-climbing principle-whoring politico is.

Even now, his legacy lives on in Ontario.

They are All Weiners Now

The so-called Weinergate scandal provided a true spectacle of media bias and conspiracy theorizing. While there was certainly plenty of good reporting throughout, many opted to take Rep. Anthony Weiner's claims at face value and search for other culprits or scapegoats.

Others devised more malicious theories about why a lewd picture had appeared on the congressman's Twitter feed. It was Andrew Breitbart's attempt to gin up another bogus story, or a coordinated effort by conservatives to provide cover for Clarence Thomas. These wild theories actually gained quite a bit of traction among liberals online, and even a few more mainstream personalities.

We know now, by Weiner's own admission, that they were all nonsense. So with the facts readily available, it's worth reviewing some of the dominant narratives that pervaded media coverage of the scandal.

... read and view the videos in what is an excellent News Buster's synopsis of Weinergate.

Carbon Dioxide

... what we need, is as much as possible:

At any rate, it's obvious that in the long run, and maybe even in the medium run, people should think about the ways how to make and keep the CO2 in the atmosphere elevated - as high as possible. This is a real long-term survival goal that researchers should investigate. The virtues of a higher CO2 are completely indisputable.

We're Running Out of Oil ...

... that is, until they perfect the Nat. Gas/Oil conversion process:

Here’s the basic story: In a June 4th story, Michael Persson reports that the first product is coming from the Shell-Qatari joint project a half-hour out of Doha. The project is called “Pearl” and its function is to transform natural gas into synthetic replacements for petroleum products. In other words, turning natural gas into oil.

Truly ... A Thing of Beauty

Hot Air ... and more Hot Air.

Poor Wiener ... Finally coughs up the truth ... so far. 

A Wiener sexting mate speaks up:

My name is Meagan Broussard. I am 26 years old. I served in the U.S. Army, and I am a full-time college student and a single mom.

I admired Rep. Anthony Weiner because I had seen a video of him standing up for the 9/11 responders. It was a rant, but he came across as someone very passionate, someone who cares about what he believes in. I didn’t know much more about him.

On April 20, I clicked on his Facebook page that I “liked” a video of Rep. Weiner addressing a gathering of construction workers in Washington, DC. I commented that it was “hot.” That’s the only way I came into contact with him at first.

Disasters and the Displaced ...

Enter the "experts":

More than 42 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than double the number during the previous year, experts said Monday.

One reason for the increase could be climate change, and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the experts said.

... another example of brilliant research on the part of reporters ... letting guano go unchallenged. I also get a kick out of the most important two words in the Warmist vocabulary ... "could be".

Don't Drink and Walk

*** language warning!

30 Kilos of alcohol induced fury:

I Thought Options Traders Were Supposed to be Boring

Options Trader ... yep!

Sarah Palin is Stupid

First, a sample of two geniuses uncut:



Then, an explanation of how utterly stupid Palin really is ... click.

Saab JAS 39 Gripen

By the time the F-35 Black Hole goes into production, even developing world backwaters will be putting their pilots into multi-role fighters that far exceed the CF Hornet in capability ... and those very same fighters will have capabilities that are not that much less than the debt inducing, budget crushing (but Quebec job creating), F-35:

Saab is convinced its lightweight single-engine multirole fighter aircraft is both as capable as and much cheaper to buy and operate than larger, twin-engined jets such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault's Rafale and Boeing's Super Hornet - not to mention Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which has suffered from cost overruns running into billions of dollars.

By contrast, Mr Sindahl observes: "We made the Gripen demonstrator at 40% of the original budget because we introduced new ways of working.

"In almost all the campaigns we have the advantage of low cost, with respect to purchasing and operating the aircraft."

Slogans of the Apocalypse

What do we want? ... Free Stuff!

"I want to guarantee to those who are watching us from abroad that Portugal does not intend to be a burden for the future to other countries that lent us the means that we needed today to face up to our responsibilities,"

Everything for everyone ... and nothing for ourselves:

But the government is under huge pressure, not from the hooded radicals who battled police in the early days of the austerity drive, but from ordinary Greeks who are suffering badly under pay and pension cuts and soaring unemployment.

On Sunday night people from Athens and far beyond the capital crammed into the city's Syntagma Square to show they are close to the limit of their endurance.

Growing a Brain

... one Europhile at a time:

The shift in approach will be outlined when the government's counter-terrorism strategy is unveiled by the home secretary, Theresa May, on Tuesday. Central to the Prevent strategy is a broader definition of extremism that will be extended beyond groups condoning violence to those considered non-violent but whose views, such as the advocacy of sharia law, fail to "reflect British mainstream values".

The Great O-Healer

No hurricanes have struck the US since Obama became president, temperatures and sea level have dropped, and we have had record snow. Reservoirs are filling up – and all of the damage Bush did to the climate has been healed.

Obama should declare “mission accomplished” and take credit!

***

Palin, Christy, and the Media

January 13th ~ Chris Christie:

Christie, who has never expressed particular affection for the former Alaska governor, says Palin needs to engage with the media and voters in settings less staged than those she currently utilizes.

“You have to look at it and see, what are they like when they’re tested, what are they like when they’re not scripted, what are they like when they’re pushed,” Christie told the New York Times Wednesday. He added the former vice presidential nominee “rightfully has been criticized” for her refusal to go less scripted.

June 4th ~ CNN:

But once reporters tracked her down, Palin was eager to engage. At stop after stop after stop, she answered questions on everything from energy subsidies to the debt ceiling to her favorite brand of designer jeans.

[..]

The Palin team's stubborn and unconventional game plan also fed an inaccurate media narrative that the potential presidential candidate was actively ignoring the media.

Quite the opposite.

June 3rd ~ What we said:

Little by little ... one smile at a time, Sarah Palin is capturing the media gaggle that is relentlessly following her. I'm not talking about the editorial boards and upper echelon "pundits" like Rove, I'm talking about the beat-reporters who are getting to know Sarah and her family on what is becoming the political story of the month ... the Palin bus tour.

Operation Cupcake

Cooking up trouble:

The cyber-warfare operation was launched by MI6 and GCHQ in an attempt to disrupt efforts by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular to recruit “lone-wolf” terrorists with a new English-language magazine, the Daily Telegraph understands.

When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by “The AQ Chef” they were greeted with garbled computer code.

Police State: Cops are Not Soldiers ... Rein Them In

During the raid, 5 concussion grenades were exploded in and around the home. One of the grenades exploded near the feet of the young lady visitor, seen in the video, who, at the time, was seated on the couch. Two additional grenades were exploded subsequent to the arrest on the premise that the CPD needed to prove that the previous 5 grenades had done no damage. The grenades left clear charred remains on the carpet and other areas of the home.

During sworn testimony taken by Viets, the SWAT officers who executed this raid acknowledged that they had shot to death two dogs with their machine guns. Both dogs were shot in the back while retreating. One of the dogs is shot at around the 6:30 mark in the video as an officer tops the stairs, passes a suspect on the floor, and steps into a bedroom. You can see a glimpse of the dead dog as the officer stands in the doorway. The dog is obviously facing away from the officer. At 6:55 you can see another injured dog struggling in the hall.

... the details.

Previous: When SWAT Goes Bad

The Best Double-Dip Chart Ever

***

Ask the Plumbers

... because all you'll get from the elites is what plumbers flush down the pipe:

We are always watching the price of fuel, copper, steel and, frankly, you just grab your invoice and pass it on to the customer. So I'm not going to rant and rave about it, I'm just going to pass the cost of it on because I want to get to Bali at the end of the year. It's not going to make the temperature any cooler or the trees grow or the rain come. It'd be better if they admitted it was just another tax and stopped bull-----ing us."

Palin: The Story Everyone Is Missing

Little by little ... one smile at a time, Sarah Palin is capturing the media gaggle that is relentlessly following her. I'm not talking about the editorial boards and upper echelon "pundits" like Rove, I'm talking about the beat-reporters who are getting to know Sarah and her family on what is becoming the political story of the month ... the Palin bus tour.

In the videos provided it's clear that the hostile state of being between Palin and those at the top of the media food-chain doesn't exist between Palin and the gumshoes.  The relationship is courteous, respectful, and even friendly.

The first video demonstrates the nature of the repartee.  Note how Piper gets between her mother and the reporter ... later, Piper was brought out to apologize to the reporters.

Silence is Treason

Outstanding One-Take Music Video

... back story.

The Weiner Affair

... destined for Small Claims Court:

Sometimes I wonder if Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., is too nice for his own good.

An evil swine hacks into Weiner's Twitter account and posts an embarrassing photo of spindly legs topped by a small erect penis draped in dingy gray briefs no male over the age of 11 would wear -- and Anthony just wants to forget the whole thing!

Instead of angrily demanding an investigation like anyone else would, Anthony has gone all St. Francis of Assisi on us.