"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, March 07, 2009

MORE MAJOR GAFFES FROM OUR INCOMPETENT COMMANDER IN CHIEF



BBC:
Mr Obama, referring to the US policy in Iraq, said: "If you talk to General [David] Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al-Qaeda in Iraq."
  • A COMMANDER IN CHIEF MUST NEVER PUT WORLDS INTO THE MOUTHS OF HIS SUBORDINATES.
  • HOW CAN PETRAEUS PUBLICLY CORRECT HIS COMMANDER IN CHIEF WITHOUT MAKING OBAMA LOOK LIKE AN ASS!?
OBAMA ALSO SAID "WE'RE NOT WINNING." NOT A GREAT WAY TO PUT IT. THE US COMMANDER ON THE GROUND HAS CALLED IT " A STALEMATE" - AND THAT'S WHY OBAMA SENT MORE TROOPS. OBAMA SHOULD EMPHASIZE TO POSITIVE AND OUR RESOLUTENESS , OUR RESOLVE TO STICK IT OUT UNTIL WE WIN.

ANYTHING LESS AIDS THE ENEMY.

ALSO THIS:

He also discussed what the US would do if a terror suspect appeared in a country without an extradition arrangement with the US.

"There could be situations - and I emphasise 'could be' because we haven't made a determination yet - where, let's say that we have a well-known al-Qaeda operative that doesn't surface very often, appears in a third country with whom we don't have an extradition relationship or would not be willing to prosecute, but we think is a very dangerous person," he said.

"I think we still have to think about how do we deal with that kind of scenario," he added.
  • OBAMA SHOULD NOT TELEGRAPH THAT HE HAS NO CONTINGENCIES FOR SUCH A POSSIBLE SITUATION. HE SHOULD INTIMATE WE HAVE CONTINGENCIES.
  • OBAMA IS AN IDIOT AND UNQUALIFIED TO BE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.
  • OUR ENEMIES KNOW THIS.
IS OBAMA SO STUPID HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO TALK LIKE A COMMANDER IN CHIEF?

OR IS HE DELIBERATELY SABOTAGING OUR EFFORTS!?

AS PREDICTED: OBAMA APPEASES ISLAMISTS AND TURNS UP THE HEAT ON ISRAEL


ON THE HEALS OF HIS ANNOUNCING HE'D BE OPEN TO DIALOG WITH THE TALIBAN, AND WAS HAPPY WITH THE DEAL THE PAKISTANIS MADE IN SWAT, THIS:

HAARETZ: U.S. turns up heat on Israel over settlements
Israel is under increased pressure from the United States over settlement construction. In the past month, since Barack Obama was sworn in as U.S. president, Israel has received four official complaints from members of the new administration regarding various issues linked to West Bank settlements.

A senior government official in Jerusalem told Haaretz that the complaints represent a gradual increase in American pressure vis-a-vis settlement activity. "This is going to be one of the main issues that the Obama administration will be dealing with in the coming weeks and months," the official said. "It is not going to be easy to argue with them."

The American complaints were relayed to Jerusalem via senior officials in the State Department as well as the National Security Council, which seek clarifications and explanations from Israel.

The four separate complaints relate to the demolition of Palestinian-owned homes in East Jerusalem, reports of Israeli plans to construct additional housing in the E1 area, between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem, the relocation of the illegal outpost at Migron to a new, as-yet unbuilt neighborhood of the Adam settlement and to plans to build thousands of new residential units in the settlement of Efrat.

"Thus far," the Israeli official said, "the issue has been raised by senior officials, but it is going to go higher up the hierarchy. It is a safe bet that special envoy George Mitchell will raise the matter when he makes his next visit to the Middle East in a few weeks, after the Netanyahu government is sworn in."
OBAMA IS TURNING UP THE HEAT ON ISRAEL. OUR BEST ALLY - ON THE FRONT-LINES IN THE GWOT.

OBAMA ISN'T FOR PEACE: HE'S ON THE OTHER SIDE.

DISSENT ACCORDINGLY.

OBAMA'S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR: MAKING CARTER LOOK GOOD






















OBAMA HAS ACCOMPLISHED THE IMPOSSIBLE: MAKING CARTER LOOK GOOD.

DEFINITION OF COWARDICE: OBAMA WILL TALK TO AHMADINEJAD WITHOUT PRECONDITON, BUT NOT RUSH




























OBAMA IS NOT JUST A LYING, CORRUPT LEFT-WING APPEASING RACIST; HE'S A COWARD.

APPEASERS AND ISLAMIKAZI MANIACS: BIRDS OF A FEATHER

"Gods" who demand human sacrifice aren't Divine; they're evil.

Adherents who believe suicidal murderers (committing - in their minds - human sacrifice) - get 72 virgins in Heaven as a reward for suicidal murder are evil - as is their "god".

Appeasing the enemy is like committing human sacrifice to appease evil "gods". One should stand up and defend what's right and not kowtow to evil. Appeasing is sacrificing the soul to evil. It may leave the body whole, but it's dead inside.

This is another reason why appeasers and islamikazis are birds of a feather.

Perhaps they share a vestigial gene?

CIVILIZED PEOPLE SHOULDN'T COMMIT HUMAN SACRIFICE OR APPEASE EVIL. EACH THREATENS CIVILIZATION, BODY AND SOUL.

ABOARD AIRFORCE ONE, OBAMA TELLS NYTIMES HE MAY APPEASE TALIBAN




NYTIMES:
President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq.
  • I DON'T THINK THAT THE SUNNIFICATION OF OUR EFFORTS IN IRAQ IS AN APT MODEL.
  • I GUESS OBAMA REALLY WANTS TO EMULATE THE PAKISTANI REGIME AND APPEASE ISLAMO-FASCISM.
  • OBAMA AND THE PAKIS DON'T CARE.
  • BOTH SCUM.

REPRISE: IRONY ALERT: OBAMA'S PLAN INVESTS MOST IN THE ONLY FOUR PARTS OF THE ECONOMY WHICH ARE ALREADY DOING WELL


  • OBAMA IS COMPLETELY OFF TARGET.
  • OBAMA'S RECOVERY PLAN INVESTS MOST IN THE ONLY FOUR AREAS OF THE ECONOMY WHICH ARE ALREADY DOING WELL: HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION; ENERGY - AND OF COURSE GOVERNMENT.
  • REPEAT: OBAMA'S RECOVERY PLAN INVESTS MOST IN THE ONLY FOUR AREAS OF THE ECONOMY WHICH ARE ALREADY DOING WELL: HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION; ENERGY - AND OF COURSE GOVERNMENT.
  • REPEAT: OBAMA'S RECOVERY PLAN INVESTS MOST IN THE ONLY FOUR AREAS OF THE ECONOMY WHICH ARE ALREADY DOING WELL: HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION; ENERGY - AND OF COURSE GOVERNMENT.
  • EVEN IF IT WAS EFFECTIVE, OBAMA'S PLAN WOULD BE A WASTE.

ALICE WALKER WALKS HERSELF RIGHT OFF MY RECOMMENDED AUTHORS LIST

Actually, I can't say I've ever read any of her books, but those with common sense, her current intentions should raise some eyebrows. From the AP/LeHigh Valley Express-Times:
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Pulitzer-prize winning author Alice Walker, who wrote "The Color Purple," is traveling to Gaza along with other female activists to highlight the devastation of the Israeli offensive on Gaza's residents.

"I feel that what is happening in the Middle East is very important because the situation is so volatile," said Walker, speaking by telephone Saturday from the Rafah border crossing as her group waited to travel into Gaza. "I love people, and I love children and I feel that the Palestinian child is just as precious as the African-American child, as the Jewish child."

Walker is part of a group of about 60 women going to Gaza to deliver aid and meet with NGOs and residents. The trip, organized by the U.S. anti-war group Code Pink, is intended to push both Israel and Egypt to open the borders into Gaza, said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink who helped organize the trip.
Aw gee, what a shame she doesn't have the courage to voice her concerns about how Muslims in Gaza or elsewhere raise their children for jihad. No need to waste time on this naive anti-warrist's works then.

BLOGGER ALERT: SEND ME A LINK TO YOUR BLOG

IF YOU HAVE COMMENTED HERE OR LINKED TO US SINCE BLOGROLLING WENT DOWN, PLEASE LEAVE ME A LINK TO YOUR BLOG IN COMMENTS AND I WILL PUT YOUR BLOG IN MY BLOGROLL

ANOTHER "CENTRIST" SEES THE LIGHT AND CALLS OBAMA WHAT HE'S ALWAYS BEEN: A LEFTIST RUINING THE ECONOMY



STUART TAYLOR - (VIA GLENN):
OPENING ARGUMENT

Obama's Left Turn

Centrists fear that the president's budget reveals his liberal leanings.

by Stuart Taylor

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Having praised President Obama's job performance in two recent columns, it is with regret that I now worry that he may be deepening what looks more and more like a depression and may engineer so much spending, debt, and government control of the economy as to leave most Americans permanently less prosperous and less free.

Other Obama-admiring centrists have expressed similar concerns. Like them, I would like to be proved wrong. After all, if this president fails, who will revive our economy? And when? And what kind of America will our children inherit?

The house is burning down. It's no time to be watering the grass.

But with the nation already plunging deep into probably necessary debt to rescue the crippled financial system and stimulate the economy, Obama's proposals for many hundreds of billions in additional spending on universal health care, universal postsecondary education, a massive overhaul of the energy economy, and other liberal programs seem grandiose and unaffordable.

With little in the way of offsetting savings likely to materialize, the Obama agenda would probably generate trillion-dollar deficits with no end in sight, or send middle-class taxes soaring to record levels, or both.

All this from a man who told the nation last week that he doesn't "believe in bigger government" and who promised tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans.

TOO BAD HE'S ONLY WAKING UP, SEEING AND SAYING THIS NOW, BECAUSE OBAMA DIDN'T MAKE ANY LEFT TURNS.
  • OBAMA HAS BEEN ON THE LEFT HIS WHOLE LIFE.
  • AS A SENATOR HE HAD THE SENATES MOST LIBERAL VOTING RECORD.
  • I MEAN, SHEESH: OBAMA EVEN SUPPORTED AND VOTED FOR INFANTICIDE!
  • ASSHOLES LIKE STUART TAYLOR AND CHRISSIE BUCKLEY AND DAVID BROOKS AND COLIN POWELL ARE PART OF THE REASON THE USA ELECTED OBAMA.
  • NOW WE MUST ALL PAY THE PRICE.

UNTIL 2010.

*******UPDATE: GLENN AGREES:

PETER ROBINSON ON the disillusionment of the Obamacons. “The elite journalists, I repeat, got Obama wrong. The troglodytes got him right. As our national drama continues to unfold, bear that in mind.”

Posted at 10:36 am by Glenn Reynolds

OBAMA HAJJ TO TURKEY: OBAMA TO MAKE TURKEY THE FIRST MUSLIM COUNTRY HE VISITS


BBC: Obama trip to Turkey within weeks
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on 7 March 2009

The visit is seen as a good chance to repair ties between two old allies

President Barack Obama will visit Turkey "in a month or so", US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said on a visit to Ankara.

She met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the first visit by a member of the new US administration to Turkey ...

Mr Obama is due to head for Europe next month to attend the G20 summit in London on 2 April.

... Our correspondent says Turkey is expected to try to ensure President Obama does not refer to the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 as genocide, in his speech on the anniversary of the forced deportations next month.
  • TURKEY IS A PISS-POOR ALLY: THEY REFUSED TO LET US USE TURKEY AS A BASE OF OPERATIONS FOR THE INVASION OF IRAQ AND THIS SEVERELY EFFECTED THE OUTCOME.
  • TURKEY IS RUN BY THE AKP - AND ISLAMIST PARTY GRADUALLY TURNING THE SECULAR TURKEY INTO AN ISLAMIC STATE.
  • WE SHOULD BE PRESSURING THEM TO REVERSE COURSE AND NOT BE KOWTOWING TO THEM.

ISLAM=HONOR KILLINGS INCORPORATED







Source: Atlas Shrugs

Click here to witness more victims murdered and maimed in the most barbaric fashion, all carried out in the name of Islam, their prophet, Muhammad & the nefarious legal code he instituted.

Crossposted@ Let's Get It Right

PIGS FLY: AP QUESTIONS OBAMA'S POLICIES AND PRIORITIES



AWESOME - EVEN IF UNDERSTATED:


AP: Analysis: Obama Recovery Plans Sowing Some Unease

President Barack Obama offered his domestic-policy proposals as a ''break from a troubled past.''

But the economic outlook now is more troubled than it was even in January, despite Obama's bold rhetoric and commitment of more trillions of dollars.

And while his personal popularity remains high, some economists and lawmakers are beginning to question whether Obama's agenda of increased government activism is helping, or hurting, by sowing uncertainty among businesses, investors and consumers that could prolong the recession.

OBAMA IS DOING SO BADLY, EVEN THE AP CANT IGNORE IT!

TO SAVE THE ECONOMY OBAMA MUST REVERSE COURSE:
  • FIRE GEITHNER;
  • ROLLBACK THE PORK;
  • SCRAP CAP™
  • AND CUT ALL TAXES ACROSS THE BOARD.

BARNEY FRANK SHOULD BE THE FIRST


IBD:
Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted.

And we couldn't agree more.

First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Even by the extraordinarily loose standards of Congress, it takes some chutzpah for someone such as Frank to suggest that he'll seek prosecutions for those behind the housing and financial crunch and for what he called "a strongly empowered systemic risk regulator."

For Frank, perhaps more than any single individual in private or public life, is responsible for both the housing market mess and subsequent bank disaster.

And no, this isn't partisan hyperbole or historical exaggeration.


But first, a little trip down memory lane.

RTWT. (VIA HOT AIR.)

SCUM LIKE FRANK SHOULD BE ARRESTED, TRIED, CONVICTED, SHOT, DRAWN AND QUARTERED.

HILLARY'S RUSSIAN GAFFE: TYPICAL STATE DEPARTMENT CRAP, OR SABOTAGE . . . BY THE WHITE HOUSE?

BBC:

Russian media have been poking fun at the US secretary of state over a translation error on a gift she presented to her Russian counterpart.

Hillary Clinton gave Sergei Lavrov a mock "reset" button, symbolising US hopes to mend frayed ties with Moscow.

But he said the word the Americans chose, "peregruzka", meant "overloaded" or "overcharged", rather than "reset".

Daily newspaper Kommersant declared on its front page: "Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton push the wrong button."
HOW EMBARRASSING! I wonder if Hillary got the gift to give Lavrov from Obama?

SAD ANNIVERSARY COMING UP: MOHAMMED'S BIRTHDAY SUNDAY


IF WE HAD A TIME MACHINE THAT YOU COULD YOU ONLY ONCE,
THEN I'D USE IT TO MAKE SURE HE WAS NEVER BORN.


THE COLLAPSE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE UNDER OBAMA SHOULD BE NO SURPISE


The Obama cabinet doesn't have a single businessman in it.

Not one has ever been in or run a private profit-seeking enterprise.

Not Geithner. Or Locke. Or Hillary. Or Summers. Or Solis. Or Napolitano. Or Holder. Or Biden. Or Obama.

No diversity when it comes to this.

Obama couldn't find one suitable businessman.

No wonder they have made "misstep" after "misstep".

THE GREAT ONE LEVIN VERSUS THE WEENIE FRUM


  • JUST LIKE OBAMA, DAVID FRUM ATTACKED RUSH. HE DID IT BECAUSE LIKE DAVID BROOKS - ANOTHER PSEUDO-CON - HE'S GONE SOFT, LIB AND STUPID.
  • A LOT OF WHAT FRUM HATES IS THE TONE AND STYLE OF RUSH AND LEVIN.
  • BUT THIS STYLE IS PARTIALLY WHY RUSH AND LEVIN ARE ABLE TO REACH AND ENTERTAIN MILLIONS AS A RESULT. WHEREAS FRUM REACHES NOBODY.
  • BESIDES: THERE SHOULD BE ROOM FOR MANY STYLES. FRUM SEEMS TO WANT TO SQUELCH RUSH AS MUCH AS OBAMA. IDIOT.
  • MARK LEVIN DEMOLISHES HIM FOR AIMING HIS FIRE AT THE GOP AND AT CONSERVATIVES INSTEAD OF THE ENEMY: THE DEMS AND THE LEFT.
  • AND ALL FRUM BASICALLY HAS TO SAY - AND IT'S LIKE A FREAKIN LIB MANTRA - IS THAT "THE GOP HAS TO MODERNIZE AND TACKLE HEALTH CARE".
  • SHEESH: THIS IS UTTER LIB BS. HE MIGHT AS WELL SAY WE NEED TO EMBRACE AGW.
  • ALL THE GOP HAS TO GET BACK TO CORE PRINCIPLES: SMALL GOVERNMENT; LOW TAXES; A STRONG NATIONAL DEFENSE.
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF.




























THE QUESTIONS FOR MR FRUM ARE SIMPLE:
  • HOW CAN YOU BUILD "A NEW MAJORITY" IF YOU ALIENATE THE CONSERVATIVE BASE AND RUSH!??!?!
  • SHOULDN'T YOU BE ATTACKING THOSE ON THE LEFT AND NOT THE RIGHT?!
MR. FRUM, YOU ARE AN IDIOT AND AN ASS.

OBAMA IS A MENACE

CLICK PICK AND LISTEN TO MARK LEVIN.

Friday, March 06, 2009

TODAY'S UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS MAY SHOW WE'VE ALREADY BOTTOMED OUT


UNEMPLOYMENT GOT WORSE -
BUT AT A REDUCED RATE -
FOR THE SECOND MONTH IN A ROW.


THIS IS A GOOD SIGN.
AND IT HAPPENS BEFORE OBAMA HAS PORKED US UP THE ASPHALT.

CORROBORATION:

Today's Jobs' Report [Robert Stein]

The labor market continues to weaken, reflecting the intense economic slowdown of late 2008. Consumption plummeted in late 2008, and now businesses are working furiously to cut inventories even as consumption seems to be leveling off. In order to cut inventories, firms have to slash production, and that means substantial layoffs. Look for more large payrolls losses in the next few months. However, we expect inventories to hit targeted levels by mid-year, leading to both higher production and fewer job losses later this year as well as eventual job gains in 2010.

One oddity in today’s report is that the labor force (people working or looking for work) increased 498,000 in February.

Without this unusual increase, the unemployment rate would have increased to 7.8% rather than 8.1%.

One relatively bright spot in the report was that average hourly earnings (the cash earnings of production workers) increased 0.2% and are up 3.6% versus last year.

In addition, the civilian employment measure of jobs (adjusted for the payroll concept) declined only 175,000 in February and is down much less over the past year than payrolls.

This signals that the worst payroll job losses of the recession are almost over.

— Robert Stein is senior economist at First Trust Advisors.

OBAMA HAS HIS PRIORITIES EXACTLY BASS ACKWARDS: THE PARTS OF THE ECONOMY HE WANTS TO FOCUS ON - EDUCATION, ENERGY, AND HEALTHCARE - ARE DOING WELL


OBAMA/WHITE HOUSE.GOV:
Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.

... The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children ...

... We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again. That is why, even as it cuts back on the programs we don’t need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education. ...
KRAUTHAMMER - ON OBAM'S FOCUS:
"... with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis."
RELIAPUNDIT TAKES THE UTTER RIDICULOUSNESS OF OBAMA'S FOCUS ONE STEP FURTHER:
  • IT'S NOT JUST THAT HE'S IGNORING THE REAL PROBLEMS;
  • IT'S ALSO THAT OBAMA IS FOCUSING ON AREAS WHICH ARE NOT DOING BADLY:
FACT: THE BEST SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY RIGHT NOW FOR JOBS ARE EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE AND ENERGY.

YUP: THE THREE AREAS THAT OBAMA WANTS TO FOCUS MOST ON ARE THE THREE AREAS WHICH NEED HELP THE LEAST. (MORE CORROBORATION HERE - AT CNN.

OH... AND GOVERNMENT IS ANOTHER AREA THAT IS GROWING DURING THE RECESSION. YET OBAMA ALSO WANTS TO EXPAND GOVERNMENT!
THE JOBS THAT HAVE BEEN LOST ARE BLUE COLLAR AND WHITE COLLAR JOBS - BUT NOT IN THE THREE INDUSTRIES OBAMA WANTS US TO FOCUS ON.

OBAMA IS A PIECE OF CRAP.

HIS POLICIES WILL RUIN THIS NATION IF WE LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT.

DISSENT ACCORDINGLY.

Is Hizbollah Plotting A Terrorist Attack Against The Hague In Retaliation For A UN Investigation of the Hariri Assassination?

From Michael Totten at Commentary:
A United Nations tribunal to investigate and put on trial the assassins of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri opened this week in The Hague, and Hezbollah has been caught running reconnaissance missions outside the grounds.

According to French newspaper Le Monde, Dutch police have caught individuals affiliated with Hezbollah taking photographs of the tribunal headquarters on three separate occasions.

A Hezbollah spokesman denies the accusation, of course, and I might even believe him if the police didn’t insist it already happened three times. If one person were caught taking photographs, we might write this off as a fluke or a misunderstanding. Two separate incidents are harder to dismiss. Three make a pattern.

If anyone would have asked me a week ago if I thought Hezbollah might use or even threaten to use force against the tribunal I would have said no, and I would have said no with confidence. Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah desperately wants to be thought of as the leader of a “resistance” movement instead of a terrorist army. He spattered his own brand with blood when his fighters, along with armed men from Amal and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, seized West Beirut with automatic weapons last year. But still, in recent years, he has only pointed and fired his weapons at Lebanese and Israelis. Westerners, even Jewish Westerners, have been strictly off limits.

Never forget, though, that Hezbollah has, in the past, used violence against people who are not Lebanese and who are not Israeli.

Until September 11, 2001, Hezbollah was responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist organization in the world. A Hezbollah suicide truck bomber killed 241 Marineswhen he rammed his payload through the gate at the barracks near the airport in the suburbs south of Beirut. Fifty eight French soldiers were killed by another Hezbollah suicide truck bomber in West Beirut two minutes later.

In 1994 another Hezbollah suicide bomber exploded himself and his vehicle outside a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and killed 85 people two years after the same group ignited a car bomb in front of the Israeli embassy there and killed 29.

Hezbollah men armed with pistols and hand grenades hijacked TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome in 1985, and cells led by Hezbollah commander Imad Mugniyeh kidnapped 96 foreign civilians – mostly Westerners – between 1982 and 1992. After they kidnapped Beirut’s CIA station chief William Buckley, they tortured him to death, and they did it on video.

Hezbollah has been relatively restrained in recent years, but that’s not because the party has undergone a process of authentic transformation into something a bit more respectable. Hezbollah’s restraint is entirely practical and imposed from the outside. Its leaders and even some of its lower-rung supporters and members are the most paranoid people I have ever met in my life. They are deeply worried about an American assault or CIA-sponsored internal sabotage, and they’re rightly wary about what will happen to them if they start acting like Al Qaeda again. Hezbollah is barely tolerated while its fighters and rocket launch teams limit their violent attacks to their own countrymen and to the citizens of the “Zionist Entity,” but all that will change if Americans and Europeans are blown up or kidnapped again.

IN DEFENSE OF SPEAKING UP

Bill Whittle is a true believer who writes and speaks the truth without apology. He has authored some of the greatest essays I have ever read about the American experience. And he used to be a Bush-hating Liberal. So when I saw that he had recently commented about Rush Limbaugh's speech at CPAC, I could not wait to get his take. After all some of my left leaning friends cringe or go ballistic if the name Rush Limbaugh is even brought up.

As usual, Whittle does not disappoint.

Incidentally, if you have not seen Rush's entire speech at CPAC--if all you saw were the clips the elites at CNN wanted you to see; (i.e. the ones taken out of context), here is your chance to at least be counted among those who can truthfully say they fully understood what was said AND its context. Because if you can't then I don't want to hear your lame knee-jerk criticisms of the man. Many of my friends who lean towards the Left of center are either too obstinate or disinterested to go to those lengths--but if you are out there and are reading this, and you think I might be talking about you, here is your chance to prove me wrong. (AND... your chance for a dose of refreshing, unadulerated truth.)

Anyway, I wrote this yesterday, after quoting Limbaugh on another matter, and I think it fits in quite well with what Whittle is saying:
Now I realize that Limbaugh is a lightning rod because he is a master at satire who is not afraid to say something controversial to hammer home his point. But that knife cuts both ways The very same Democrats who think slash artists Michael Moore and Bill Maher hung the moon go postal when the tables are turned. Yes, Limbaugh makes fun of Democrats and what they do, and this. drives. them. nuts.

But the thing is--and the reason why Limbaugh has been so successful--is not merely his ability to integrate biting criticism, satire, and humor to bear against the Left's strawmen; it is rather his substantial intellect coupled with his ability to articulate the truths of Conservatism in a manner that makes the complex easy to understand. If only the Republican Party could field someone as capable; it obviously had the right formula with Reagan and his two landslides. But since then the Republicans have lost their way; they have neglected the principles that gave them those landslides. Yes, Reagan's communication skills were great--but it is the combination of communication skills COMBINED WITH principle which made him so formidable and popular.

With an articulate, but dangerous Marxist President who literally may be trying to destroy the greatest economic engine the world has ever known, we have never needed more urgently candidates who could clearly articulate and communicate the principles that have made the United States a magnet for those dreaming of a better life everywhere on earth.
Hurry, please.

Meanwhile, Scott Ott has some dramatic news about the Obama Administration's quest to silence Rush.

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein responds to criticism from Patterico as to whether or not Rush would be better off playing to the "highbrow" double standard that elites hold the Right to (thus making himself less of a "target" for the Left) rather than to cater to his audience. Here is Goldstein's response to that criticism:

My response [i.e. to Patterico's crituque--DT], point by point:

I’ll ask the same question I asked at Hot Air. If you could have a well-known conservative say:

— first, let me stop you right there. I don’t want to have to measure every word I say with the thought in mind that somebody is going to take me out of context. Instead, I’d like to be free to say what I mean, and when my meaning is obvious, I would like to know that honest people have my back — and will tell dishonest people to stop being dishonest, and stupid people that they need to smarten up before they presume to join the conversation.

But back to your example:

1) “I want Obama’s terrible policies to be voted down so America can succeed”

or

2) “I want Obama to fail”

which would you have them say?

You’ve left out the context of number 2. With the proper context, they two mean the same thing, so I don’t much care how it’s said — and I certainly don’t expect a person who talks for a living to pre-think every utterance as if he’s a lawyer so that nobody looking to take him out of context will. I suggest you read my link to the Bennett piece again, and that will make things clearer.

#2 is pithier, sure. But it’s also WAY easier to twist in a way that will repel voters.

Yeah. They could have gone with “I want Obama”. So? You are on the wrong side. You shouldn’t be concerning yourself with how easy it is to twist things. You should be working to make it less productive to do so.

As it stands, you’re part of the problem.

Do you want to phrase things in a way that makes it EASY or HARD for media cretins to distort what you’re saying?

I want the freedom to phrase things my own way and have them mean what they mean. Again, you’re fighting the wrong battle.

I post daily on Obama’s reckless spending, ethically challenged nominees, broken promises, and other shortcomings. I have no illusions about how disastrous his policies are. I believe we have to take the fight to him.

But I want us to fight smart. You can say things in a way that’s easily distorted, or not. Rush says provocative things because it will benefit his career, and meanwhile, Republicans get put on the defensive. We spend days talking about whether Rush wants us to have a Depression, rather than talking about how Obama is mortgaging our children’s future and passing budgets amounting to $25,000 per taxpayer. Deficits of close to $2 trillion. That’s where our focus should be.

Instead we have this prominent guy make a speech and double down on a formulation that he KNOWS the drive-by media will distort. If it were necessary to phrase it that way, fine. But it’s not.

Says you. Me, I say f**k the drive-by media, and f**k letting them frame what it is we say. And no, we don’t do that by carefully self-filtering. We do that by calling them on their dishonesty.

You want to fight them on their terms. I’m arguing that to fight on their terms is to have already lost the battle.

I want us to take the fight to the enemy and stand up for what we believe in. But I want us to do it in a smart way.

When you say “I hope X fails” then some people are going to hear that and nothing else you say.

Some folks are going to hear what they want to hear. But you know what? It’s time to make them feel stupid for being stupid — not empowering their stupidity by pandering to it.

Never mind that Bill Maher's and Michael Moore's lowbrow evisceration of anything conservative in the world are treated as royalty by the same media for being equally "abrasive".

No, count me in with Goldstein--and Rush: that while it is true that we do not live in a "fair" world, but in a pragmatic one, this does not mean we should sit by and play into that "unfairness" either. Personally I think the reason that Republicans' message is not trumping the lame and tired class warfare rhetoric of the Democrats is that too many Republicans are afraid to speak the truth without dressing it up for the double standard. Reagan was the last Republican leader who was not cowed by the expectation of the mindless masses. He said what he meant, and that is why we loved him. He boldly told Gorbachev to tear down this wall, even though a State Department flunkie tried to edit the passage out of that speech--twice--because it would be so "offensive". Reagan kept putting it back and said (sternly) that it was exactly what he wanted to say. THAT is bold. THAT is leadership.

Personally I am "offended" by the whole notion that we have advisors communicating to the people running against Marxists who would destroy our country that they should not dare to speak the bold truth in a bold way because it will upset some imaginary elitist applecart. Why was Sarah Palin so popular (and McCain so unpopular) with the base? Because Palin spoke from the heart while McCain tried to match Obama's mastery of the language of political correctness mealy-mouthed line by pathetic line. It was almost as if he was embarassed to be associated with the Republican base. And we all saw how that turned out.

The RINO's in the Republican party and the inside the beltway political advisor class have become so invested in not "offending" anyone that it has transformed the party of Goldwater and Reagan into a modern day version of "The Emperor's New Clothes".

Last time I looked that strategy wasn't working so well; maybe it is time we found some people with the courage and the character to actually speak up for a change. Because when it comes to parallels with the "Emperor", President Obama is figuratively as naked as a jaybird.

To paraphrase the Gipper in another way: The problem is not that too many Republicans are not pandering enough to the media elites and/or pop cultural "conventional wisdom"; pandering to the elites IS the problem.

OBAMA'S WAR ON THE TRUTH - AND THE TRUTHTELLERS

OBAMA'S STALINISTIC ATTACK ON HIS DETRACTORS IS BACKFIRING.

























MORE HERE.

DO YOU LIKE LIBERTY? THEN FIGHT OBAMA.
DO YOU LIKE PROSPERITY? THEN FIGHT OBAMA.
DO YOU LIKE TRUTH? THEN FIGHT OBAMA.

*******UPDATE: Think about this:

In 8 years of near constant chimpy mcbushitlerburton TANG-awol attacks, Bush never went after Moore or Stewart or Franken or Olbermann the way Obama has gone after Rush and Santelli and Cramer.

Tinkabbboudddit!

Who was more pro 1st amendment - Bush or Obama?

Who could take the heat?

It ain't even close.

BBC CAN BE COUNTED ON TO DISTORT MORE THAN ENOUGH OF THE FACTS

Specifically, this is about the bulldozer attack yesterday. Honest Reporting's Backspin blog (Hat tip: Cosmic X) features some screenshot examples of how the Beeb lied about the bus, for example: they said it was an empty bus, when as it so happens, there were schoolgirls in it. In the third picture, they omitted the bus part altogether.

And there's little chance that we can ever expect them to improve. I won't be surprised if tons of people in Britain foolishly rely more on the MSM than they do in the US, and that's why they're able to get away with much of it.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

IF OBAMA SUCCEEDS ,THEN AMERICA FAILS















































Obama's policies will ruin America just as they have ruined every nation they've ever been tried in.

AND YES, I MEAN SOCIALIST EUROPE AS MUCH AS ZIMBABWE AND NORTH KOREA AND CUBA AND SO ON!

France and Germany and Spain - often cited as paradise by libs and lefties - endured unemployment TWICE as high as America's all during the Bush years.

And they can't afford their entitlement liabilities.

Rooting against Obama's success - DISSENTING FROM HIS POLICES! - is PATRIOTIC.

Attacking Obama and his comrades is not only our right; it's our duty.

THREE OF A KIND BEATS TWO PAIR - PART 2

THESE THREE CAN DESTROY THE ENTIRE ECONOMY...
























THESE FOUR WILL JUST ROB US BLIND...


DIABETES: CAUSED BY A VIRUS

BBC: A common virus may be the trigger for the development of many cases of diabetes

CAIR FUNDS ISLAMIC ADS ON BUSES

Zombietime reports on a Islam promotion drive being funded by CAIR and ICNA, putting ads on buses, first in Ft. Lauderdale and now in San Francisco (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin).

Most peculiar is how no gay-lesbian groups have objected to them in SF, as Islam opposes their culture(?). If Christian and Judaist activists try to cure people suffering from homosexuality or ban gay marriage as has taken place in California, that often does have them in a tizzy. But here? So far, as Zombie reports, they've been silent. Where then do they stand?

I think a good response to the advertisements would be to follow the example of Martin Luther King and boycott companies that take these ads, or even to wear a protest shirt while riding on them.

ANOTHER BULLDOZER ATTACK

And the terrorist who drove it to the scene did so without any notice being taken until he committed the crime:
Beit-Hanina resident Mar'i al-Rdaidah, the Palestinian driver who rammed a bulldozer into a bus and a police car on a Jerusalem highway Thursday, drove the construction vehicle unhindered through the city to the scene of the attack, Channel 2 reported.

Two police officers were lightly wounded in the attack before Rdaidah was shot dead in the latest in a string of attacks by Palestinian terrorists using heavy machinery against Israeli civilian targets. (Click here for security camera footage of the attack)

Witnesses described a harrowing sight of the towering yellow front loader speeding along the highway, dragging the police car, flipping it into the air and trying to crush it with its front shovel.

According to the television channel, the bulldozer used in the attack was listed under Rdaidah's name.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it wasn't clear whether the man worked on his own or was affiliated with a terror group.

However, the family of 26-year-old Rdaidah, who was married and had a young daughter, said they believed the incident was an accident and not a deliberate act of terror.

"We are waiting for him to return home… He is only interested in religion, he doesn't know what terror attacks are, they don't interest him," his mother told Channel 10.
Having ties to terror groups is not what's relevant here - it's that he did it in the name of the Religion of Peace that is. And his family should be ashamed of themselves for pretending that their ROP had nothing to do with it.
In the afternoon, policeman Eldad Bin-Nun, who helped neutralize the terrorist, gave Channel 10 his account of the incident. "We were in the area by chance and were waiting at a red light when we noticed the tractor in the opposite lane, to our left, trying to slam the police car into the bus," he said.

"We stopped the police car and I ran toward the tractor, firing several shots at the driver from the vehicle's left side until he slumped to the right. I then ran to the bulldozer's other side and noticed he [the terrorist] was trying to sit up, so I fired at him again. Several moments later another policeman arrived, and he fired three more shots at the driver from an M-16 rifle," Bin-Nun told the television channel.

One witness, a taxi driver identified as "Dor," told Israel Radio that he chased the driver as he witnessed the attack.

"I saw the police car fly into the air. He flipped it over twice, then continued dragging it toward a bus that was stuck in traffic," he said.

He told the station that he had fired four shots at the man, wounding him. "Then a policeman came with his M-16 and finally finished him off," he added.

Police, MDA and ZAKA forces streamed to the scene minutes later, after police received emergency calls telling them that a bulldozer was trying to run over a police vehicle.

An initial police investigation indicated that the bulldozer driver reached the intersection near Teddy Stadium and managed to push a police vehicle for about 30 meters. After that, he tried to push the police vehicle into a bus, but was apparently blocked by an electrical post.

According to ZAKA, the bus was full of girls dressed in Purim costumes en route to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital to cheer up patients before the holiday.

A number of bystanders suffering from shock were treated on the scene by MDA teams.

ZAKA operation commander Haim Weinrot said that "the girls were hysterical. They saw the enormous scoop heading toward them and saw death approaching, but they were saved at the last minute by the post. It is a Purim miracle."

[...]

Within half an hour of the attack, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was on the scene to personally inspect the situation.

"The attack targeted us for no reason other than the fact that we live in Jerusalem. This was an attack carried out exclusively for the purpose of harming civilians," he said.

Barkat said he expected the government to approve harsher punishment of terrorists.

"The policy toward those who want to hurt us should combine strict punishment to create effective deterrence, quickly neutralizing the attackers, and returning to our routine lives as soon a possible following an attack," the Jerusalem mayor said.

Barkat gave the two policemen and the civilian who helped kill the terrorists the Lion Pin, bearing the city's emblem, and thanked them for their heroic behavior.

He went on to vow that "everyone involved in the attack" would be brought to justice.

The attack is the third of its kind in less than a year. At the beginning of last July, a bulldozer plowed into a number of vehicles on Jaffa Street, near the Mahane Yehuda market in the capital. Four people were killed in that incident, including the terrorist.

Three weeks later, another bulldozer driver went on a rampage in Jerusalem, aiming his vehicle at an Egged bus near the King David hotel. He wounded 15 people before being shot and killed.
It's a good thing that nobody save for the terrorist died this time. I fully agree with the mayor: the incoming government must do more to prevent terror attacks like these from happening.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

DEMONIZATION: A CENTRAL TACTIC OF THE DEMOCRATS AND THE LEFT

They demonized Reagan, then Newt. Then Delay. Then Bush. And Cheney. Then Rove, then Libby. Then Palin.

Now they're demonizing the upper 2% of income earners. And they're demonizing CO2. Soon they'll be demonizing Bibi Netatnyahu.

It's how the left plays politics.

We should, too.

We should be demonizing Obama and Reid and Pelosi. And Geithner. And Rangel. And Frank. And so on. Every single leftist Dem should be targeted with anything and everything. relentlessly drug through the mud. Day in and day out.

More on demonization Conservatives here.

NEW NICKNAME FOR THE MAN WHOSE NEGATIVITY HELPED SAP PUBLIC CONFIDENCE AND STRIP THE ECONOMY OF $6 TRILLION DOLLARS



NOT BARACK OBAMA.... BUT BROKE OBAMA.

FACTS, FIGURES AND LINKS HERE, AT GATEWAY, EXCERPT:
Many economists say there is one single word that drives the economy and that word is: CONFIDENCE.
The question is: Do Americans have confidence that the economy has bottomed out or do they believe it is about to get worse? And if worse, how much worse?

More...
The odds that the present economic crisis will churn into a depression is now up to 20%.

Thanks Barack.
THANKS BROKE.

FROM THE UK: MORE PROOF THAT SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE SUCKS

THE ARGUS - UK: NHS failings exposed after Steyning man dies from hospital bug
A hospital horror story has uncovered a series of failings in our National Health Service.
  • No beds available in intensive care,
  • patients looked after by "health care assistants",
  • nursing notes being lost
  • and the wife of a dying man feeling as though she was a "worrier" are just some of the incidents revealed.
A hospital matron admitted that too many agency staff meant there was "no consistency" in the care of patients leading to a lack of communication among staff.

A coroner raised a series of concerns about patients' care at the inquest into the death of a Sussex man.

Painter and decorator David Dyke appeared to be recovering well at Worthing Hospital after undergoing a bowel operation.

But just five days later he died.

The inquest heard the 61-year-old made a heartbreaking call to his wife and son hours before his death telling them how ill he felt.

Just two days earlier a nurse told Jill, his wife of 30 years, "there was nothing to worry about" when she raised concerns about his health.

Yesterday David Skipp, assistant deputy coroner for West Sussex, told Mrs Dyke and her son Jamie they had every right to be "angry".
Read why. It's shocking. It proves that the NHS is a horror.

Yet obama wants us to emulate that system.

It's insane.

THE TEN GREATEST PEOPLE OF THE 20TH CENTURY - AND THE TEN WORST . . .

THE TOP TEN GREATEST:
  1. CHURCHILL
  2. REAGAN
  3. DR. KING
  4. HAYEK
  5. MILTON FRIEDMAN
  6. BORLAUGH
  7. THATCHER
  8. POPE JOHN 23
  9. POPE JP2
  10. LECH WALESA
THE TEN WORST WERE ALL SOCIALISTS:
  1. MAO
  2. STALIN
  3. HITLER
  4. POL POT
  5. QUTB
  6. SADDAM
  7. KHOMEINI
  8. MUGABE
  9. HO CHI MINH
  10. KIM IL SUNG
OBAMA IS A 21ST CENTURY SOCIALIST.

HE'LL BE ONE ANOTHER LIST SOMEDAY...

IF HE'S LOST CHRIS MATTHEWS THEN OBAMA HAS LOST THE COUNTRY

HOT AIR HAS VIDEO OF MATTHEWS SLAMMING OBAMA FOR THE PORK AND EARMARKS AND HYPOCRISY.

THREE OF A KIND BEATS TWO PAIR

















REPRISE: THE MAP THAT EXPLAINS IT ALL...

RESULTS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS:

COUNTIES WHERE LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS HAVE GOVERNED WITH LONGTIME DEMOCRAT POLICIES SUCK.

OBAMA IS TAKING THEM NATIONAL.

OY.

THE DETROITIZATION OF THE USA.

MAP FROM SONDRAK.

OBAMA'S CAP'N TRADE PROGRAM IS A DISASTER

DETROIT NEWS EDITORIAL:

The nation's gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 3.8 percent in last year's fourth quarter -- the worst economic record in nearly three decades. Is this really a good time to be talking about a carbon tax? How will such talk impact investment decisions?

Obama promises to use some of the revenues for tax relief for certain workers and some of the rest for subsidies for alternative energy. But that won't make up for the damage this huge new tax will do to the economy, especially in Michigan.

A similar program in Europe hasn't worked. European automakers complained about carbon dioxide limits the European Union proposed in 2007 as damaging to the economy.

The Obama cap-and-trade program will place even more of the economy under the control of the federal government. The only upside is that the negative impact it will have on economic growth and job creation will take care of the carbon emissions problem, for sure.

EXACTLY. (VIA MEMORANDUM.)

HILARY CLINTON REARS HER UGLY HEAD, AND INTERFERES WITH ANOTHER COUNTRY'S BUSINESS

Israel's, of course. She opposes demolishing illegally built Arab houses:
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday promised vigorous and personal involvement in stalled Mideast peace efforts and criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem as "unhelpful."

Clinton also displayed strong public support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The PA is the "only legitimate government of the Palestinian people," she told a news conference in Ramallah standing next to Abbas.

In recent days, Israel has issued orders for the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem, saying the homes were built illegally.

Palestinians say they cannot receive proper building permits from Israeli authorities.

"Clearly, this kind of activity is unhelpful," Clinton said, adding that she would raise it with the Israeli government as well as municipal officials in Jerusalem. She said such actions violate the "road map."

Clinton spoke shortly after Israel issued a new order to demolish five residential buildings containing 55 apartments, said Hatem Abdul Qader, a Palestinian official on Jerusalem affairs.

"It's an open demographic war," he said. He said lawyers have challenged the orders, halting the demolitions until March 10.

Stephan Miller, a spokesman for city hall, said the buildings under demolition notice were empty and had been built illegally.

Abbas said Israel cannot be considered a peace partner if it keeps expanding settlements and demolishes homes in east Jerusalem. "The Israeli government has to respect its obligations under the road map and the two-state solution and completely stop all that is related to settlement and demolitions," he said.

Clinton signaled that she'd be heavily involved in the region, and said her special envoy, George Mitchell, would return soon.

"The Obama administration will be vigorously engaged in efforts to forge a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and all of the Arab neighbors. I will remain personally engaged," she said. "This is a commitment that I carry in my heart, not just in my portfolio."
Oh, does she ever. She is as bad as her husband, one of the worst leftist POTUS. On the other hand, she clearly is not concerned at all about something like this. All concerned should email the State Dept. to let her know your opposition to her interference.

OBAMANOMICS: ECONOMIC SUICIDE


TAKING AWAY A LOT FROM A FEW OF THEM THAT HAVE
IN ORDER TO GIVE A PITTANCE TO MANY WHO HAVE LESS
MAKES NO ONE RICHER AND
DIMINISHES OVERALL ECONOMIC GROWTH
AND HENCE DIMINISHES GENERAL PROSPERITY.


SPENDING MONEY TO REDUCE
THE AMOUNT OF NON-TOXIC CO2 WE PRODUCE
IS A TOTAL WASTE OF RESOURCES.


DOING BOTH IN A RECESSION IS INSANE - OR SUICIDAL.
  • IS OBAMA A PSYCHOPATH TRYING PUNISHING AMERICA ON BEHALF OF HIS KENYAN FATHER?
  • SHOULD THE FIRST VOLUME OF HIS MEMOIRS BEEN CALLED "NIGHTMARES FROM MY FATHER"?
  • OUR NIGHTMARE.
DISSENT ACCORDINGLY.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

SCOTLAND TO RECEIVE EVEN MORE WINTRY WEATHER AND BLIZZARDS

SCOTSMAN:
WINTRY weather is expected to grip parts of Scotland again over the next few days, forecasters said.
Some areas may see as much as 13cm of snow on the ground as Arctic conditions sweep across the country.

Temperatures will also drop to below freezing and rain today will turn to snow later in the evening. Central Scotland and the Highlands are the areas expected to be worst hit.

... Forecasters also confirmed that Britain has had its coldest winter for more than a decade. The last three months have been the chilliest for 13 years, with an average temperature of 2.9C.

THE HERALD:

Severe weather warnings were issued by the Met Office last night for most of Scotland as heavy snow and ice threatened to make driving conditions hazardous.

Commuters are being warned to take extra care this morning after the warnings were issued at 10pm last night and were expected to be in force for most of the early part of the day. Forecasters were predicting heavy snow and icy roads in the Highlands and Islands, Strathclyde, Central, Tayside, Fife, south-west Scotland and Lothian and Borders. Traffic Scotland cautioned about heavy snowfall of up to six inches in the Highlands and the Western Isles last night affecting the A82, A835 at Ullapool and the A87.

TINGS AIN'T MUCH BETTER IN IRELAND:

Coldest winter in 20 years recorded

Parts of Ireland endured the coldest winter for up to 20 years, Met Eireann revealed.

Average temperatures were below normal through December and although January and February

THE UK IS COLD EVEN ACCORDING TO AGW-ALARMIST BBC:

The UK had its coldest winter for 13 years, bucking a recent trend of mild temperatures, the Met Office has said.

The average mean temperature across December, January and February was 3.1C - the lowest since the winter beginning in 1995, which averaged 2.5C.

February started very cold as the heaviest snowfall for 18 years swept in, but temperatures ended up average.

AGW = BS.

ELECTRIC WHEELCHAIR WAITING TIMES REVEAL NHS SUCKS

CHANNEL 4 - UK:
The NHS has been told to stop "relying on charities" to fill funding gaps after figures revealed many trusts would not pay the full cost of electric wheelchairs for disabled children.

Freedom of Information figures obtained by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign found children were subject to a postcode lottery over what equipment they were given.

Responses were received from 54% of NHS trusts in England and Scotland, revealing that disabled children in England are forced to wait five months on average for a wheelchair.

The worst performing primary care trust (PCT), which is in the North West, had an average wait of two years for an electric wheelchair.

The survey showed 58% of children in England had to wait at least three months for an electric wheelchair and 14% wait more than six months.

Overall, 50% of PCTs which responded said they did not fund the full cost of a powered wheelchair for a disabled child.

Meanwhile, children living just four miles apart could have a difference of 11 months in wait for vital equipment.
THIS IS WHAT OBAMA WANTS US TO EMULATE!?

SHEESH.

UK INQUIRY: Schizophrenic murderer of 4 was failed BY NHS

TOL: Schizophrenic Daniel Gonzales stabbed four people after NHS ignored his pleas
A schizophrenic killer who murdered four people in three days was failed repeatedly by an ineffective NHS, an inquiry has found.

The treatment of Daniel Gonzales was full of missed opportunities that could have prevented him stabbing three pensioners and another man to death.

Despite nearly 60 appointments with doctors and psychiatrists and his own pleas to be admitted to a hospital, Gonzales was free to fulfil his ambition of becoming a serial killer resembling the film character Freddy Krueger, from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.

Gonzales's mother, Lesley Savage, had written to her MP begging for help, saying that she feared her son would only get the treatment he needed if he killed someone.

An independent investigation found that the work of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust had been hampered by human errors, a lack of funds, system failure and bad luck.
THIS IS WHAT OBAMA WANTS US TO EMULATE.

SHEESH.

CHECHNYA PROVES THAT "HONOR KILLINGS" ARE ISLAMIC, NOT JUST ARABIC

WALES ONLINE:
The President of Chechnya justified the right of male relatives to carry out ’honour killings’ after seven young women were found shot dead.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had “loose morals” and were rightfully shot.

“If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed,” Mr Kadyrov said outside a mosque in Grozny where he had attended afternoon prayers.

The 32-year-old former militia leader is carrying out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya, in an effort to blunt the appeal of hardline Islamic separatists and shore up his power.

In doing so, critics say, he is setting up a dictatorship where Russian laws do not apply.

Some in Russia say Mr Kadyrov’s attempt to create an Islamic society violates the Russian constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women and a separation of church and state.

But the Kremlin has given him its staunch backing, seeing him as the key to keeping the separatists in check, and that has allowed him to impose his will.
THIS IS THE SAME THING THAT PAKISTAN AGREED TO IN SWAT.
IT'S IMMORAL. LIKE ACCEPTING SLAVERY.
PUTIN AND THE PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT ARE IMMORAL

MORE PROOF WE'RE GETTING SCREWED BY THE POLITICIANS AND THEIR PALS VIA THE MORTGAGE CRISIS THE BANK BAILOUTS!

NYTIMES:
Fairly or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most lists of those who share blame for the nation’s economic crisis. After all, the banking behemoth made risky loans to tens of thousands of Americans, helping set off a chain of events that has the economy staggering.

So it may come as a surprise that a dozen former top Countrywide executives now stand to make millions from the home mortgage mess.
Stanford L. Kurland, Countrywide’s former president, and his team have been buying up delinquent home mortgages that the government took over from other failed banks, sometimes for pennies on the dollar.
They get a piece of what they can collect.

“It has been very successful — very strong,” John Lawrence, the company’s head of loan servicing, told Mr. Kurland one recent morning in a glass-walled boardroom here at PennyMac’s spacious headquarters, opened last year in the same Los Angeles suburb where Countrywide once flourished.

“In fact, it’s off-the-charts good,” he told Mr. Kurland, who was leaning back comfortably in his leather boardroom chair, even as the financial markets in New York were plunging.

As hundreds of billions of dollars flow from Washington to jump-start the nation’s staggering banks, automakers and other industries, a new economy is emerging of businesses that hope to make money from the various government programs that make up the largest economic rescue in history.

They include big investors who are buying up failed banks taken over by the federal government and lobbyists. And there is PennyMac, led by Mr. Kurland, 56, once the soft-spoken No. 2 to Angelo R. Mozilo, the perpetually tanned former chief executive of Countrywide and its public face.

Mr. Kurland has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from big players like BlackRock, the investment manager, to finance his start-up. Having sold off close to $200 million in stock before leaving Countrywide, he has also put up some of his own cash.

While some critics are distressed that Mr. Kurland and his team are back in business, the executives say that PennyMac’s operations serve as a model for how the government, working with banks, can help stabilize the housing market and lead the nation out of the recession.
SICKENING...
  • THEY DUG THE HOLE WE'RE IN - WITH FANNIE MAE'S HELP.
  • THEN, THEY LEFT US HOLDING THE BAG.
  • NOW - WITH THE HELP OF THE US TREASURY, THEY'RE GETTING TO BUY BACK THE BAG AT A BARGAIN PRICE.
  • THESE VULTURES ARE SCREWING US THREEFOLD.
  • PREVIOUS POSTS ON THE VULUTRES HERE AND HERE.
  • THEY COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT THE COOPERATION OF THE POLITICANS...

MORE PROOF AGW IS BULLSHIT - AND CAP & TRADE A SCAM

DISCOVERY CHANNEL:

Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year

trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite rising greenhouse gas concentrations, and a heat surplus that should have cranked up the planetary thermostat.

"This is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950," Kyle Swanson of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said. "Cooling events since then had firm causes, like eruptions or large-magnitude La Ninas. This current cooling doesn't have one."

Instead, Swanson and colleague Anastasios Tsonis think a series of climate processes have aligned, conspiring to chill the climate. In 1997 and 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean warmed rapidly in what Swanson called a "super El Nino event." It sent a shock wave through the oceans and atmosphere, jarring their circulation patterns into unison.

How does this square with temperature records from 2005-2007, by some measurements among the warmest years on record? When added up with the other four years since 2001, Swanson said the overall trend is flat, even though temperatures should have gone up by 0.2 degrees Centigrade (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time.

The discrepancy gets to the heart of one of the toughest problems in climate science -- identifying the difference between natural variability (like the occasional March snowstorm) from human-induced change.

IOW: AGW = BS.

GORE SHOULD STFU, AND OBAMA SHOULD FORGET ABOUT CAP & TRADE.

ALL CAP AND TRADE COULD ACCOLMPLISH WOULD BE TO CAP OUR POTENTIAL GROWTH AND TRADE AWAY OUR PROSPERITY.

(VIA HOT AIR.)

Obama: a president who would rather redistribute income than create wealth

DINOCRAT:
Dreary words and figures

Dick Morris does some numbers:
President Obama’s will become notable for his War on Prosperity. We’re speaking, of course, of Obama’s plans to hike income taxes on the most wealthy 2 or 3 percent of the nation. He’s not just raising the top rate to 39.6 percent; he’s also disallowing about one-third of top earner’s deductions, whether for state and local taxes, charitable contributions or mortgage interest. This is an effective hike in their taxes by an average of about 20 percent.

And soon the next shoe will drop — he’ll announce that he’s keeping yet another of his campaign promises: to apply the full payroll tax to all income over $250,000 a year. (Right now, the 15.3 percent Social Security tax only applies to the first $106,800 of income — you neither pay the tax on income above that, nor accumulate added benefit.) For many taxpayers in this bracket, this hike will raise their total taxes by about half. Finally, he’s declaring war on investors by raising the capital-gains-tax rate to 20 percent.

These increases are politically insignificant: The top 2 percent of the nation casts only about 4 percent of the votes, barely enough to attract the notice of even the most meticulous pollsters. But they have enormous economic significance. Those who earn more than $200,000 pay almost 60 percent of America’s income taxes and account for a third of its total disposable income…

Here is a president who would rather redistribute income than create wealth. He thinks it more important to grow government than to fight inflation…. We have a president, in short, who will stand on his principles. Unfortunately, they’re bad ones.
Clever commentators who fancy themselves conservative and use big words like epistemological are having second thoughts about the second coming. ‘Bout time.
OBAMA IS ALREADY THE WORST PRESDIENT OF ALL TIME.