Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, is to call for greater help from Islamic communities to identify suspects at home.
He says: “I’m looking for the community to work much more closely with the police in identifying young people they have concerns about in terms of people they’re mixing with, the sort of websites they’re going on and the material they’re reading.
“That information can only come from the community itself.”
When asked if Muslims could do more to help pinpoint potential terrorists, he says: “We have to be alert and conscious of the risk that’s ever present and prepared to interdict and share information.
“The community as a whole could do more and the Muslim community as a part of that, yes.”
THIS COP IS IN DENIAL.
THIS IS AS STUPID AS ASKING THE TALIBAN TO LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS FOR MONEY.
THE COMMUNITY SUPPORTS JIHAD. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE THERE.
IF I AM WRONG, THEN WE'LL SOON READ STORIES ABOUT HOW THIS COP'S APPEAL BROUGHT IN MANY GOOD LEADS.
The two Republicans briefed on the matter immediately objected to Brennan’s characterization of the amount of information delivered by the White House on the EunuchBomber’s situation:
But Brennan’s comment provoked a sharp rebuke from two of the Republicans who received the briefings.
“This was like a three or four minute phone call,” Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) told POLITICO on Sunday. Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “At no point did he ever talk to me about legal strategies.”
“For this guy to get out there and start saying things like this is irresponsible,” Hoekstra said.
Byron York heard from Senator Kit Bond, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee:
Sen. Bond responds, saying Brennan “never told” him of the plan to Mirandize Abdulmutallab. Bond’s entire statement:
["]Brennan never told me any of plans to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber — if he had I would have told him the administration was making a mistake. The truth is that the administration did not even consult our intelligence chiefs, as DNI Blair testified, so it’s absurd to try to blame Congressional leaders for this dangerous decision that gave terrorists a five week head start to cover their tracks.["]
It seems ridiculous to claim that Bond and Hoekstra got fully briefed on the strategy for handling Abdulmutallab when DNI Dennis Blair, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and others in the counterterrorist chain of command have already testified that they didn’t get briefed on that decision until it was made.
If the White House didn’t consult Mueller or Blair, why would they have picked up the phone and called Bond and Hoekstra? Brennan’s claim that a call giving the two the outline of the attack somehow amounts to acquiescence of the point of Mirandizing a terrorist before fully interrogating him is ludicrous, and obviously self-serving.
THE TIMELINE IS ALSO QUESTIONBLE.
OBAMA MUST FIRE BRENNAN AND HOLDER AND NAPOLITANO.
Something about their cars being government standard (i.e., craptastic) and them not being able to pay their employees federal salaries while still turning a profit or something. Now not even the government is willing to keep supporting them and federal subsidies were the only thing keeping them afloat.
Basically, the government took over a company, slowly, through unionization - because half of Italy and the Vatican really did manage to learn absolutely nothing from their fascist era - until the company's product became all Soviet and embarrassing from everyone's perspective. This is the fate of literally everything the government does with our money: it ultimately becomes what would be a hilarious running joke if it weren't going to be the death of us. Fiat, GM, the Post Office, Social Security, Medikare, Medikaid, public education, the FDA, the TSA, higher education, etc. are cancers: they feed on us, destroy us, and take us over from within; they have no redeeming value and yet, because they are gubbmint cancer, you can't kill them. You have to feed them your time and your labor and your children's futures until they are the death of your nation.
A harbinger of things to come.
Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne looked like a pretty shrewd operator when he was able to snag a bailed-out Chrysler from the US government without paying a penny. Between that and the booming European sales on the back of government-funded scrappage schemes, Fiat pretty much spent 2009 proving that automakers should cater to governments almost as much as consumers. But as 2009 wound down, Fiat’s government affairs winning streak came to a halt as the Italian government started asking for a little quid for its quo, and it’s been going downhill from there. Now that Fiat wants to shut down its Sicilian Termini Imerese plant, and right-size Italian production, the love affair is officially over. “We are examining the possibility of renewing [consumer incentives],” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told reporters from Automotive News [sub]. “But Fiat does not seem interested in them.”
Of course Fiat is interested in the incentives that it has admitted its addiction to. Berlusconi’s paternal pronunciation merely indicates that Fiat isn’t ready to guarantee jobs at the money-losing Imerese plant, which is the Italian government’s political price. “We have to have the courage to say that there have been enough government handouts if they do not safeguard jobs and industrial sites,” explains Italian Senate Speaker Renato Schifani.
Read the whole thing. It's our not-too-distant future if we don't decimate the federal government with pitchforks and torches if necessary. We have to be more united than unions and the ever-growing public sector so that we don't have to be as thuggish, brutal, or unaccountable. It can't be that hard. Any idiot who isn't even trying can do just about anything better than the government and that's the truth.
In fact, I wonder if there was ever a small business which employed the mentally handicapped but was later taken over by government. I would bet my bottom dollar that the mentally handicapped kicked the government's asses at everything that hypothetical small business did.
Fiat, like GM, makes cheap, crappy cars. The key difference between cheap and crappy standards, which companies can survive through upholding for decades, centuries even, and government standards is this: a plausible reason for existence.
Oh, and Fiat owns Chrysler, in case anyone forgot.
Researchers have discovered that the health benefits of aerobic exercise are determined by our genes - and can vary substantially between individuals. ... 20 per cent of the population do not get any significant aerobic fitness benefit from regular exercise, according to an international study led by scientists at the University of London.
For these people, regular jogging and gym work will do little to ward off conditions like heart disease and diabetes which aerobic exercise is generally thought to resist.
Researchers say they would be better off abandoning their exercise regime and focusing on other ways of staying healthy - such as improving their diet or taking medication.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS ONE SIZE FITS ALL.
HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT IF YOU'RE ONE OF THE 1-IN-5 WHO NEEDN'T BOTHER!?
The BBC's head of religion has accused the Church of England of "living in the past" and said that the corporation should not give Christianity preferential treatment.
...Aaqil Ahmed, a controversial executive whose appointment last year prompted more than 100 complaints, said: "I think all the faiths should be treated in the same way. I don't believe in treating any faith differently."
He dismissed claims that the BBC was marginalising religion as overly simplistic and argued that Christianity, in particular, was already covered well on television.
OH, BTW: THE HEAD OF RELIGION FOR THE BBC IS A FREAKIN MUZZIE.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE.
THE BRITISH EDUCATED ELITES HAVE BENT OVER AND SPREAD THEIR CHEEKS AND INVITED THE MUSLIMS TO INVADE.
THE BRITISH PEOPLE WON'T TAKE THIS MUCH LONGER:
THE BNP AND UKIP WILL RISE IN THE POLLS -
AND IF THEY FALL SHORT ON THE NEXT ELECTION, THEN BRITISH PEOPLE WILL BEGIN TO TAKE DIRECT ACTION IN THE STREETS - AND VIOLENTLY REBEL AGAINST THE MUSLIM INVASION AND THE EDUCATED ELITE'S.
GOOD RIDDANCE TO BOTH!
I'D RATHER IT HAPPENED THE EASY WAY, BUT IF THE ELITES WON'T DO WHAT MUST BE DONE THEN THE HARD WAY WITH VIGILANTE VIOLENCE - VIA THE EDL AND OTHER GROUPS - IS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE.
WHAT I'M ADVOCATING IS NOT OVER-THE-TOP OR NUTTY: THE BRITS USED VIOLENCE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM THE NAZIS. ISLAM IS WORSE THAN NAZISM AND THEY MAY NEED TO USE VIOLENCE AGAIN.
EXTREMISM IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY AND THE WEST IS NO VICE.
BTW: I EXPECT IT TO GET VIOLENT IN BRITAIN THIS YEAR: IN THE 1770'S THE BRITISH EDUCATED ELITES FAILED TO LISTEN TO AMERICANS; THEY SEEM AS DEAF NOW. MORE HERE.
From this column by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:
[T]he paramount civil liberty is a sense of security and this, sad to say, has eroded under Barack Obama. Repeatedly, the administration has shown poor judgment.
Cohen even praises George W. Bush, albeit in a backhanded fashion:
No doubt George Bush soiled America's image abroad with what looked liked vigilante justice and Dick Cheney's hearty endorsement of ugly interrogation measures. But more is at stake here than America's image abroad -- namely the security and peace of mind of Americans in America. Bush stands condemned by the facts for Sept. 11 -- his watch, his responsibility -- and in all likelihood he bent over backward to ensure that nothing like those attacks would happen again.
The entire essay by Cohen is an indictment of the BHO administration and reads much like Krauthammer's work. An interesting turn because Cohen and Krauthammer typically express antithetical ideas.
A LEADING British government scientist has warned the United Nations’ climate panel to tackle its blunders or lose all credibility.
Robert Watson, chief scientist at Defra, the environment ministry, who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, was speaking after more potential inaccuracies emerged in the IPCC’s 2007 benchmark report on global warming.
The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, and by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.
This weekend Professor Chris Field, the new lead author of the IPCC’s climate impacts team, told The Sunday Times that he could find nothing in the report to support the claim. The revelation follows the IPCC’s retraction of a claim that the Himalayan glaciers might all melt by 2035.
The African claims could be even more embarrassing for the IPCC because they appear not only in its report on climate change impacts but, unlike the glaciers claim, are also repeated in its Synthesis Report. This report is the IPCC’s most politically sensitive publication, distilling its most important science into a form accessible to politicians and policy makers. Its lead authors include Pachauri himself.
In it he wrote: “By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised.” The same claims have since been cited in speeches to world leaders by Pachauri and Ban.
Speaking at the 2008 global climate talks in Poznan, Poland, Pachauri said: “In some countries of Africa, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by 50% by 2020.” In a speech last July, Ban said: “Yields from rain-fed agriculture could fall by half in some African countries over the next 10 years.”
Speaking this weekend, Field said: “I was not an author on the Synthesis Report but on reading it I cannot find support for the statement about African crop yield declines.”
Watson said such claims should be based on hard evidence. “Any such projection should be based on peer-reviewed literature from computer modelling of how agricultural yields would respond to climate change. I can see no such data supporting the IPCC report,” he said.
AND TO THINK THE RED-GREEN ALLIANCE NEARLY RAISED TAXES ON ALL INDUSTRY IN THE FIRST WORLD AND NEARLY ARRANGED TO SEND IT TO A GLOBAL GOVERNMENT TO GIVE TO THE THIRD WORLD.
EVERY JACKASS POLITICIAN WHO BOUGHT INTO THIS HOAX SHOULD BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE.
The storm is officially the biggest February snowfall on record for Philadelphia, and the second biggest snowstorm for the city --- 28.5" and counting.
DESPITE CO2, AND THE NOBEL-SHARING AL GORE & THE IPCC - WHO SHOULD GO HOME AND STFU.
Haiti has received billions of dollars in foreign aid over the last 50 years, and yet it remains the least developed country in the Western Hemisphere. Its indicators of progress are closer to Africa's than to those of Latin America. It has defied all development prescriptions.
Why? Because Haiti's culture is powerfully influenced by its religion, voodoo. Voodoo is one of numerous spirit-based religions common to Africa. It is without ethical content.
Director, Cultural Change Institute and Lecturer; TUFTS UNIVERISTY - FLETCHER SCHOOL
Education
AB, Dartmouth College MPA, Harvard University
Professional Activities
Currently, Associate, Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University; has served as a Visiting scholar at Center for International Affairs, Harvard University (1981-83, 1988-1990,1994-96,1998-2000), Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (1997-1998), and Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1996-1997); Vice President for International Development, National Cooperative Business Association (1984-1988); Consultant to USAID for several projects/programs in Latin America and Asia; Director, USAID Missions to Costa Rica, Guatemala (for Central American region), Nicaragua, and Haiti, Deputy Director, Dominican Republic (1969-81).
NOBODY KNBOWS MORE ABOUT THIS THAN HARRISON. HE IS THE EXPERT.
A ferocious blizzard, dubbed the "snowpocalypse" and "snowmageddon," descended on Washington yesterday, shutting federal offices early, closing schools, and sending residents scurrying to stock up on supplies to carry them through the weekend.
Forecasters predicted 30 inches or more of snow, which would easily break the area's snowfall record of 28 inches set in 1922.
The area has seen more than a foot of snow only 13 times since 1870, according to the National Weather Service.
DESPITE 90 YEARS OF ANTRHOPOGENIC CO2 SPEWING INTO THE ATMOSPHERE!?!?!? HMMM....
And the MSM - for all intents and purposes an organ of the DNC - calls these pinko Democrats "mainstream" while deriding the Tea Partiers as teabagging right-wing racist extremists despite the fact that we are just Americans who revere the US Constitution and the free-market.
How are these Democrats becoming Chavezistas? Simple:
The left-wing dominated Democrat Party truly has no use for democracy IF IT DOESN'T ADVANCE THEIR UTOPIANIST SOCIAL AGENDA.
For example, when Senator Torricelli got in trouble they had no problem taking him off the ballot and inserting Lautenberg despite the fact that this broke the law. (They just got a Democrat Party-machine appointed "Judge" to rule in their favor.)
And in Massachusetts, the Democrat Party controlled legislature TWICE changed US Senate succession rules just to make it tougher for a Republican to get the job.
SO, WHY HAVE THE DEMOCRATS BECOME SO ANTI-DEMOCRATIC?
It's because they have become more and more leftist and UTOPIANISTIC.
You see, utopianists think that they can make human society PERFECT: eliminate poverty, ignorance, disease, war, greed, selfishness and so on.
All we'd have to do is follow their BRILLIANT logic and FLAWLESS policies carried out by the most intelligent and moral and well-educated men and women and transgender people of every race, nationality, ethnicity and sexual identification - (according to a soft quota).
They really REALLY do believe that they can make the world A PERFECT PLACE; they believe in the perfectibility of people and government and bureaucracies.
And believing this is possible, then ANYTHING which gets in the way of a UTOPIA - a perfect world without anything bad - is certainly worth GETTING RID OF!!!!!!!
Whether it's democracy or a race of people.
It's this UTOPIANISTIC IMPERATIVE which animates the leftist seeming need to ride roughshod over our innate rights - and even commit genocide.
And make no mistake about it: leftist utopianists have killed more people than any other ideology in human history - (except for Islam - which has done it over more centuries). PolPot was a utopianst. So was Mao, and Stalin and Hitler and Kim il Sung and Mugabe and Castro and so on.
Conservatives don't believe in the perfectibility of man or government or society. That's why the Founding Fathers wanted LIMITED government with checks and balances and divided power.
The Founding Fathers knew that because humanity wasn't perfect, a too powerful government run by humans would inevitably decline into tyranny. And they knew that each of us has OUR OWN IDEA OF WHAT'S PERFECT FOR US. And that this is different for all people. And that therefore government mustn't decide for us what is best for everyone.
For a conservative, an ideal world is one in which each of us is free to live our lives according to what makes us happy - and where we each take individual responsibility for our own IMPERFECT lives, its up and its downs.
It's understandable that utopianists should be the most murderous people in history: if you believed that all that stood between the current screwed-up world and Utopia for 6 billion people - and a world without hunger or climate change or war or disease or greed and so on - was a few million or a few hundred million people or their "rights", then you would do what they have always done and continue to try to do: kill millions to get there.
And this is what animates the Democrats' efforts right here in the USA - today.
And this is why they must be stopped.
Utopianists have never failed to create DYSTOPIA. Mugabe did it. Castro too. And Stalin and Mao and Hitler and so on.
And if the utopianistic Democrat Party succeeds here then we will be poorer, and less free.
YnetNews reports on how anti-semitism in the UK has reached frightening levels. Gordon Brown condemns it, but honestly, I can't be moved to take his word at face value.
And while it's not too hard to guess what kind of fiends are behind these attacks, I still think it'd be a good idea to clearly identify them, which this article fails to do (nor in fact does this short item by the AP on the Wash. Post). Are there any vile Pakistanis doing this? Or even native Brits? Or both? It's not too hard to guess what kind of people are doing this, but, only if you clearly identify the problem will it be possible to figure it out.
I fear the number of recorded incidents (924 to date) will cross 1000 very soon, as Britain continues its slow path to self-destruction.
But who will Obama and Axelrod and Soros and the SEIU replace him with?
Here's who I think is gonna get thrown under the bus between now and the end of the year - and who I think will replace them --- and who I think SHOULD replace them if Obama wasn't a radical leftist but a shrewd liberal politician like the Clinton's:
OUT - - - - - - - - OBAMA/AXELROD/SEIU/SOROS PICK - - - - - - MY PICK SUGGESTION
HOLDER - - - - - ELENA KAGAN (HOW 'BOUT SPITZER! HEH!) - - -MARY JO WHITE NAPOLITANO - GRANHOLM OR BILL RICHARDSON - - - - - - - - - - COLIN POWELL EMANUEL - - - -JOHN PODESTA & BILL DALEY - - - - - - SAM NUNN & ED RENDELL
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:
WHO DO YOU THINK WILL GET THROWN UNDER THE BUS, AND WHO DO YOU THINK OBAMA WILL PICK - AND WHO WOULD YOU PREFER A DEMOCRAT LIBERAL PRESIDENT TO PICK?
"I don't have the sense that we're close to an agreement," Gates told reporters in Ankara where he met Turkish leaders.
His comments stood in contrast to those by Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who said on Friday he saw good prospects for clinching a deal with world powers on exchanging LEU for higher-grade fuel it can use in a reactor producing medical isotopes.
"If they are prepared to take up the original proposal of the P-5 plus one of delivering 1,200 kilograms of their low enriched uranium, all at once to an agreed party, I think there would be a response to that," he added, referring to the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.
..."But the reality is they have done nothing to reassure the international community that they are prepared to comply with the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) or stop their progress toward a nuclear weapon, and therefore I think various nations need to think about whether the time has come for a different tack," Gates added, in an apparent reference to sanctions.
IT'S TIME TO LAUNCH SEVERAL HUNDRED MISSILES AIMED AT IRAN'S NUKE ASSETS AND ITS MILITARY.
An Australian firm has signed a $60bn (AUS$69bn; £38bn) deal to supply coal to Chinese power stations.
...Under the deal, the firm will build a new mining complex to give China Power International Development (CPI) 30m tonnes of coal a year for 20 years.
... The plan involves building a huge new mining complex in the Australian state of Queensland, and laying 500km (311 miles) of railway line to move the coal to the coast.
... But the lucrative Sino-Australian deal will almost certainly disappoint some environmental groups, says the BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney.
GOOD ON THEM! WHAT WILL LEFTIE/GREENIE OZ PM RUDD DO!?!? I HOPE HE KEEPS HIS MOUTH SHUT.
Adolf Hitler took a primitive form of Viagra for his encounters with Eva Braun, claim the authors of a book about the dictator's fragile health.
The testosterone extract was one of 82 different medications that Hitler used during the course of his 12-year reign.
...One of their major sources are the papers of Dr Morrell, whom Hitler came to rely upon with increasing desperation, even though he was regarded as a quack by many of the Nazi elite and used unconventional and holistic treatments.
His records show that he began giving Hitler testosterone injections and a cocktail made from the semen and prostate glands of young bulls in 1944.
The Nazi leader, then 55, believed this would give him the necessary energy for his encounters with Miss Braun, 32.
The concoction was one of many injections he was given because he had a fear of pills.
... He gave Hitler small doses of Pervitin, a form ofspeed.
He gave him glucose, intravenous injections of methamphetamine, barbiturates and opiates.
Remember how he bowed to the King of Saudi Arab and how he bowed to the Emperor if Japan and how he bowed to the Mayor of Tampa?
I do. It was un-presidential each time. SEE FOR YOURSELF:
Remember how he interjected himself into a police matter in Cambridge Massachusetts?
I do. It was un-presidential. THE ARREST OF SKIP GATES WAS A LOCAL POLICE MATTER.
And at the National Prayer Breakfast - while we are a nation in two wars and struggling out of a deep recession - he gave a partisan speech instead of a solemn unifying prayer.
It was un-presidential.
And every time he blames Bush instead of accepting responsibility he seems that much more un-presidential because there's nothing going on the the world now that he didn't know about before getting nominated; he shouldn't have sought the job if he wasn't ready to accept responsibility AND LEAD.
But perhaps he really thought he was ready.
So did his supporters.
Now, they ALL are disappointed - though many remain hopeful
We on the Right knew better.
We weren't duped. They were duped.
They didn't care about 3am phone calls. They were duped.
They didn't care about Wright or Ayers or Rezko or Blago or Geithner or Richardson or Daschle. They were duped.
Duped or not, though, eyes are opening up - and what do they see?
An un-presidential Obama.
You see, unlike being a college law professor or a state senator or a US Senator, being president is a job you can't hide in. You can't vote present. You can't be for IT before you were against IT.
Presidents have to make decisions - national decisions and decisions with grave international and global repercussions.
And how well you make these decisions and how strong you appear, how sure-footed and resolute, all have a bearing on how well you can continue to lead.
Obama has done poorly on all counts.
He failed at Obamacare. His Stimulus Plan was a failure. His budget is a failure. His Gitmo plans failed. His KSM plans failed.
And each failure - like each CORPSE-MAN gaffe and each inappropriate "shout out" - further diminishes his ability to appear presidential.
I frankly don't think Obama can recover.
I think his best shot would be to bring in Bill Daley, San Nunn, and Ed Rendell, but Obama and Axelrod and Soros won't do it. They're too committed to the Leftist agenda to tack to the center and take control of the nation and appear presidential.
Obama is still a "community organizer" in his heart and sol, still an Alinsky agitator more at home in the corrupt precincts of the Chicago Machine than the hallowed halls of Congress on the dangerous seas of global politics.
His out of his league - him and his advisors - and it shows.
The BBC Asian Network reports that a growing number of young Muslims in the UK are entering marriages that are not legally recognised. This, the Network says, is because couples are having an Islamic wedding without the civil ceremony needed for the marriage to be recognised under British law.
The report quotes Aina Khan, a family lawyer with Blacklaws Davis LLP, who says:
"It's a rising trend for Muslim couples to have marriages that are not legally recognized….. My colleagues and I are having to deal with hundreds of cases where things have gone wrong because the wedding has not been registered. Because the couples only have co-habitant rights, it is extremely expensive and complicated to use the law to get the individuals any justice once the marriage ends.''
THEY DON'T SEEK CIVIL RECOGNITION FOR THEIR MARRIAGES BECAUSE THEY DON'T RECOGNIZE WESTERN CIVIL LAW!
SHARIA SHOULD BE BANNED AND SHARIA-FOLLOWERS EXILED OR JAILED FOR SEDITION.
A Jan 27th article on a planned UAW protest outside the beltway Japanese embassy, protesting the shut down of the New United Motors Manufacturing assembly plant in Fremont, CA.
The UAW and Teamsters plan to protest Toyota outside the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, calling the automaker “a danger to America” in a statement Wednesday.
The unions say they will be joined by environmental and consumer protection advocates.
They plan to deliver a letter from the unions expressing concerns about Toyota’s plans to stop manufacturing at the New United Motors Manufacturing assembly plant in Fremont, Calif.
Toyota is closing the plant after General Motors, which shared the facility, pulled out as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. The union leaders are calling on the Japanese government to meet with them and Toyota management.
In a statement, the Teamsters said Toyota’s decision “will mean a loss of 5,400 direct jobs and up to 50,000 jobs at suppliers and other supporting businesses. This would be the biggest factory layoff in California since the beginning of the recession. Toyota is also endangering 5,000 middle-class jobs in the car haul industry.”
So let me get this straight… the UAW, who has no love for Toyota anyway, is calling the manufacturer a “danger to America” for closing a plant shared with Obama’s GM? And now the WH is hot on the economic destruction of Toyota in order to throw more biz to GM?
One would think that, if the UAW wants to demonstrate a modicum of consistency INRE jobs (union or not), they would be protesting the WH pressuring Toyota to halt production.
That's leftist think for you, paranoid and confused. The man is trying to get them, so we hate the man, but the man should give us more goodies. Fuck the man.
Paranoid and confused resentment is the essence of Socialism.
More from Astute Bloggers about Obama's war on Toyota here and here.
A recently-erected statue of President Obama as a 10-year-old boy will be removed from a public park here, city officials said Friday, bowing to vociferous criticism on Facebook one month before Mr. Obama visits Indonesia.
Indonesian students looking at the statue of President Barack Obama as a 10-year-old boy at Menteng Park in Jakarta on Friday.
The statue will relocated as soon as possible to an elementary school that Mr. Obama attended during the four years he spent as a child here , the governor of Jakarta, Fauzi Bowo, told reporters.
In December, the city unveiled the 43-inch tall bronze statue in a park in Menteng, the leafy neighborhood where Mr. Obama lived with his divorced mother and Indonesian stepfather in the late 1960s.
Financed by $10,000 from Mr. Obama’s supporters here, it depicts the boy known at the time as Barry in shorts and a T-shirt, smiling as a butterfly lands on his left thumb.
But the statue of Mr. Obama — who successfully exploited the potential of social networking sites during the 2008 presidential campaign — soon became the target of intense ire by critics who said Mr. Obama who had done nothing for Indonesia, and said the public park should be reserved to honor an Indonesian..
CHANGE MY ASS.
OBAMA HAS DONE NOTHING TO IMPORVE AMERICA'S STANDING IN THE WOLRD - AND OUR ENEMIES REASPECT AND FEAR US LESS.
A judge wants a former aide to John Edwards to appear in a North Carolina court along any copies of private videotapes that are being demanded by Edwards' former mistress.
IF SHE GETS THEM BACK,THEN WE WILL SEE THEM BECAUSE SHE WILL SELL THEM.
UNLESS SHE GETS EDWARDS TO PAY MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE.
Police say a man who stuffed 75 bottles of body lotion in his pants couldn't slip away from authorities, hampered by slacks that were nearly bursting at the seams.
Springfield police say 30-year-old Chamil Guadarrama was charged with larceny after the incident Wednesday night at Bath and Body Works in the Eastfield Mall.
Police say mall security officers chased Guadarrama, but he had stuffed so many of the eight-ounce(225-gram)lotion containers in his pants that he could barely run. Police say he could not bend over to get in the police car until some of the bottles were removed.
CHICAGO — The US transportation chief's public rebukes of Toyota's handling of a massive safety recall have raised eyebrows, given the US government's major stake in rivals General Motors and Chrysler.
"The optics are terrible because -- and this is what happens when a government owns a company - the two companies that are going to gain the most out of this are General Motors and Chrysler," said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland's business school.
The smart guy says, "The optics are terrible," instead of using common speak, which would be, "This looks bad for the government."
It looks bad, because it is bad.
The government is purposefully going after Toyota because Toyota is more successful than Government Motors and Obama's Chrysler.
If the government really cared about the accelerator problems in Toyota's cars, they would be informing the public of how they can solve the problem if it should arise.
Here's how you solve the problem; PUT IT IN NEUTRAL AND APPLY THE BRAKES.
You heard it here first.
That is advice the government would be wise to follow with regards to it's spending habits.
But, the U.S. government under the Obama regime is profligate in both spending and it's treatment of successful corporations.
Obama Prepares for 2 Supreme Vacancies — SCOTUS Watchers Believe Justices Stevens and Ginsburg Could Decide to Step Aside — Lawyers for President Obama have been working behind the scenes to prepare for the possibility of one, and maybe two Supreme Court vacancies this spring.
You know what they are - and who they are. The blogs that another blogger always links to is her Click Clique.
You know, like how Glenn always links to McCardle, Althouse, Volokh, Surber, Vodkapundit, well - anything PJ.
I think this propensity makes a blog boring: one comes to expect certain links are gonna be there. And when this is coupled with repetitive blogging style - like always having a post titled DUDE or always having a sarcastic tone to a title like by starting off with the word GREAT when something bad happens - is also boring.
I try to mix it up. I try to link to different blogs, and also I try to link to news items before the big blogs do and to news outlets the big bloggers ignore; (they're usually foreign).
But maybe having boring and repetitive links and titles is better; after all, some of the biggest blogs are guilty of both offenses everyday.
Well, if you have an interesting blog nobody links to - or some interesting news-sites - let me know in the comments.
German GP Daniel Ubani - on his first NHS shift - gave patient David Gray, 70, an overdose of diamorphine.
He was working for Take Care Now, a company that provided care in Cambridgeshire.
Coroner William Morris said the doctor had been "incompetent" and called for a shake-up of the out-of-hours care system to ensure patient safety.
... Dr Ubani had made "a gross error" and was "not of an acceptable standard" in carrying out his duties in Cambridgeshire in February 2008.
But he also criticised the "insufficient induction" he was given by Take Care Now as well as the NHS system which meant his skills were not properly assessed. The company's contract has now been terminated.
Mr Morris called for a review of European regulations which allow free movement of doctors, a national database of overseas doctors applying to work in out-of-hours services in the NHS, and more consistent standards in monitoring by local health chiefs working for primary care trusts.
A second patient Dr Ubani had treated - Iris Edwards, 86 - was ruled by the inquest to have died of natural causes.
Dr Ubani had had an application to work in the UK rejected by the NHS in Leeds because of inadequate English.
But he later got approval in Cornwall after they did not test his language skills.
Mr Morris also said there should be better assessment by the NHS of overseas doctors' ability to work in the UK.
... Mr Gray was suffering from renal colic when he was given 10 times the normal amount of the painkiller diamorphine by Dr Ubani at his home in Manea, Cambridgeshire on February 16 2008, and was pronounced dead fours hour later, the hearing was told.
In April 2009, the German authorities gave Dr Ubani a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and he was ordered to pay a £4,500 fine for causing Mr Gray's death by negligence.
But he continues to practise as a cosmetic surgeon in the west German town of Witten.
It would be good if the government heeded that advice with regard to spending.
Instead, they are attacking the Toyota Motor Company.
But Pastorius, you say, these Toyota's have faulty accelerator pedals which sometimes cause the cars to speed out of control.
Ok, perhaps. I know plenty of people who have Toyota Camry's, and I know of none who have had this problem. But, I do know this can happen. It happened to me with an old Ford Fairlane way back when I was 17 years old, and a brand new driver.
So, get this, I'm making a left hand turn, and all of the sudden the accelerator pedal comes out from underneath my foot, and the car accelerates like crazy. I pump the brakes, the car will not stop. The left turn I'm making is not going left, instead, the car is going diagonal right towards a gas station pump, at about 25 MPH, even with the brakes applied.
So, I PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL AND I APPLIED THE BRAKES.
If a brand new, 17 year old, driver can think of the solution, then the Media and the government can think of the solution.
But, you haven't read the solution anywhere, have you?
The government could, if they cared, be doing everything they could to get this message out. But, they are not doing so.
This is because the government does not care about you. They don't care that Toyota's cars might hurt you.
Gangster government targets Toyota Examiner Editorial February 4, 2010
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
What is it about the automotive industry that inspires such thuggish attitudes in the Obama administration? The Examiner's Michael Barone coined the term "gangster government" to describe threats by the White House last spring against Chrysler creditors who had the temerity to insist that bankruptcy laws be followed in the bailout of the perennially ailing third member of the once-fabled Detroit Big Three.
Now along comes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood muttering darkly that "we're not finished with Toyota" in the controversy over sticking gas pedals in vehicles made and sold in America by the Japanese automaker.
The basis for these threats is little more than anecdote-based suspicions that an electronic malady related to electro-magnetic interference from power lines might be the problem instead of the mechanical wear identified by Toyota engineers.
Regardless, LaHood, headline-chasing congressmen like Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and a chorus of Naderite auto safety nannies led by former National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Joan Claybrook are demanding that Toyota submit to a punishing new round of subpoenas, hearings, and media inquisition.
It's not enough that Toyota -- the auto industry's perennial leader on respected measures of initial and long-term quality -- has already taken the unprecedented step of suspending production and sales of eight of its most popular models, undertaken a crash course to identify the cause of the problem, and guaranteed a fix for every one of the 2.3 million affected owners.
Given the Obama administration's catering to one of its favorite special interest groups, the United Auto Workers union, during the government's bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler last year, it is difficult to avoid wondering whether Toyota has become a victim of the Chicago Way of dealing with competitors.
Toyota overtook GM several years ago as the world's leading automaker. The potential of the current sticking gas pedal controversy to inflict damage on Toyota here in its largest single market is seen in the January sales figures. Toyota sales are down 16 percent while GM is up 14 percent (Ford, which declined a government bailout last year, is up 25 percent, while Chrysler is down 8 percent).
Keep the controversy going and odds are good that Toyota sales will continue to drop. The biggest losers besides American consumers will be the men and women who own and work at Toyota's 1,200 U.S. dealerships and the 30,000 Americans who build Toyotas in its five factories here. LaHood might as well have said "Nice car company ya got there, be a shame if anything happened to it."
Punditarian adds:
One thing the Examiner didn't mention, is that Ray LaHood's employer, the Federal government, owns GM.
So you now have GM using the power of the government to attack a competitor. You have the government using its vast power to weaken a free-market competitor.
That has got to be one of the most corrupt actions ever taken by any American administration.
ANKARA - A 16-YEAR-OLD girl was buried alive by relatives in southeast Turkey in a gruesome honour killing just because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday.
Acting on a tip-off, police discovered Medine Memi's body in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre-deep hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing, the agency said.
A subsequent post mortem revealed that she had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning that she was buried alive, foresic experts told the agency.
The object was spotted 90 million miles from Earth by the Hubble Telescope
Scientists say the object could be the result of a collision between two asteroids, possibly siblings of the rock blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs when it smashed into the Earth millions of years ago.
Nasa described the debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust as "mysterious" but said the images captured by the Hubble Telescope suggested a head-on collision.
HMMMMMMM: "X-XHAPED"!?!? SOME MIGHT SAY IT LOOKS LIKE A CROSS... TH MSM WILL GO TO ANY LENGTH TO AVOID CHIRSTIANIST LINGO.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The International Criminal Court will again consider charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur, after an appeals panel ruled that judges made an "error in law" when they refused to indict him on that charge last year.
"He should get a lawyer," court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said after ruling Wednesday.
He accused al-Bashir of keeping 2.5 million refugees from specific ethnic groups in Darfur in camps "under genocide conditions, like a gigantic Auschwitz."
The appeals decision — which said the burden of proof should be lower when prosecutors seek an indictment than when they try to secure a conviction at trial — fueled hopes among human rights activists that prosecutors will indict other leaders around the world for atrocities.
Moreno Ocampo welcomed the decision to reopen the Darfur genocide case and vowed to give judges even more evidence when they again consider charging al-Bashir with genocide.
A five-judge appeals chamber said the International Criminal Court wrongly concluded in March that there was insufficient evidence to charge al-Bashir with three counts of genocide for allegedly attempting to wipe out entire ethnic groups in the war-ravaged province of Darfur.
Instead, the court charged him with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly orchestrating a campaign of murder, torture, rape and forced expulsions in Darfur.
The Sudanese president refuses to recognize the court's jurisdiction and has vowed never to surrender to it. Since the charges were issued, he has traveled to friendly countries but called off trips to nations where he fears he could be arrested and sent to The Hague.
Moreno Ocampo credited his investigations in Darfur with energizing peace efforts.
Since he launched his case in 2008 "everything is moving," Moreno Ocampo said. "When I presented my case, there was no peace process ... now there are vibrant discussions."
Moreno Ocampo accuses al-Bashir of mobilizing the entire Sudanese state apparatus with the aim of destroying a substantial part of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in Darfur over more than six years.
Prosecutors accuse Sudanese troops and the janjaweed Arab militia they support of murdering civilians and preying on them in refugee camps. Moreno Ocampo said part of the alleged genocide was a campaign of rape to drive women into the desert, where they die of starvation.
The Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit peoples are African peoples. The Masalit are Muslims. The Arab government is waging a Jihad against black people.
They enslave women and children.
The modern enslavement of black people for racist reasons.
A modern Jihad against black people for racist reasons.
President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism for seeking advice from the communist-led island that has struggled with its own electricity woes.
Chavez gave few details on Wednesday about what is expected of Cuba, but insisted that "it's valuable experience that's serving us well." He said that he spoke for hours Tuesday with Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes after his arrival in Venezuela to lead the consulting team.
The decision to seek help from Cuba bewildered Venezuelans coping with the nation's power shortage.
"It's laughable that he's looking for help from Cuba," said Aixa Lopez, director of the Committee for People Affected by Power Outages, which monitors the extent of current energy shortages and rationing in Venezuela.
THIS IS LIKE JOHN EDWARDS GETTING MARRIAGE COUNSELING FROM TIGER WOODS.
CHAVEZ IS MORE COMMITTED TO HIS LEFTIST UTOPIAN DREAM THAN REALITY.
CHINA WENT FROM BASKET CASE TO POWERHOUSE BY INVITING IN CAPITALISTS AND THE USA AND DO ON.
CUBA AND ZIMBABWE AN VENEZUELA CHOSE POLICIES WHICH INVARIABLY LEAD THEM THE OTHER DIRECTION.
IDIOTS.
AND THE PEOPLE SUFFER.
AND POOR PEOPLE SUFFER THE MOST.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY, THEN YOU HAVE TO MAKE LEFTISM HISTORY.
Colombia could add as much as 6 billion barrels of oil to its reserves over the next decade if exploration holds at the current pace and state-controlled Ecopetrol boosts recovery rates, a top energy official said today.
Colombia's National Hydrocarbons Agency will auction nearly 200 oil and gas exploration blocks in June as part of a programme that began in 2004.
The sales are likely to boost proven oil and gas reserves from a current 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent as investment picks up into one of Latin America's fastest growing energy sectors.
"The optimistic scenario would be that we'd go to in excess of 6 billion barrels of oil between now and 2020 and that would bring us to a very comfortable position," agency director Armando Zamora said in Toronto during the first leg of a road trip to present the auction to Canadian investors.
He said the official goal was to add 4 billion barrels in the decade.
Desire Petroleum, the Aim-listed oil and gas explorer focused on the North Falkland Basin, said yesterday that two drilling slots using the Ocean Guardian rig had been assigned to Rockhopper Exploration.
The rig will be used on an upcoming exploration programme in the Falklands, and is expected to be in position mid-February after a two-month journey from the Cromarty Firth to drill the first well of the campaign on Desire’s Liz prospect, which has been mooted to contain up to 660million barrels of oil equivalent.
Following the Liz well the Ocean Guardian – a unit of Aberdeen-based Diamond Offshore Drilling (UK) – will go to Rockhopper to drill its Sea Lion and Ernest oil prospects.
Desire said advanced discussions continued with BHP Billiton which may lead to the group taking an early drilling slot, and so it was likely that Desire's second well would be the fourth or fifth well in the drilling campaign.
The timing of later Desire wells will depend upon results from Liz, Sea Lion and Ernest.
The Ocean Guardian is to drill a minimum of four wells for Desire.
Desire has said that independent analysis had concluded that it had more than 3billion barrels of oil equivalent of recoverable resources in its top 10 prospects.
The British Geological Survey has estimated more than 60billion barrels of oil may be in the Falklands area.
BP is eying a new oil and gas exploration area in Indonesia's West Papua province near Tangguh to boost reserves, an official at the Indonesia energy ministry said on Wednesday.
"BP has an intention to explore oil and gas in a new area in Western Papua and it has submitted its request. We welcome their intention and we are now studying their proposal," Edy Hermantoro, a director at the ministry, told Reuters.
An official of BP's Indonesia unit confirmed the company intended to expand its area in West Papua but gave no further details.
BP Indonesia is the operator of the Wiriagar, Muturi and Berau blocks in West Papua, which together have combined reserves of 14.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas.
Another Indonesian energy ministry official, who declined to be identified, said proven plus probable and possible reserves in West Papua's Tangguh were estimated at around 23 trillion cubic feet of gas.
THE EARTH HAS NO SHORTAGE OF OIL - OR GAS.
PEAK OIL IS BS - A SCAM LIKE AGW.
OIL SHOULD BE $54/BARREL AND IT WILL BE SOONER THAN YOU THINK.
When Alexi Giannoulias was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago in the mid-1990s, one of the guys he would play pick-up basketball games with in Hyde Park was Barack Obama, who taught at the U. of C. law school.
Now Giannoulias is the Illinois state treasurer and Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee. Obama has been "like a mentor to me," Giannoulias told me. He will be one of the parade of Chicagoans who will speak at the Democratic convention Monday night, when Obama's family and friends tell the story of Obama's life.
... "I want people throughout the country to know the Barack Obama I know," said Giannoulias. Giannoulias --who won a tough primary with Obama's endorsement -- is a surrogate -- stumping in half dozen states; a major fund-raiser, on Obama's National Finance Committee, which means collecting at least $250,000 and a primary day basketball buddy.
HERE'S THE SPEECH HE GAVE - ON MONDAY NIGHT JUST BEFORE MICHELLE SPOKE:
The Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson informs us that Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a “longtime loyalist” of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), will have a plum speaking spot at the DNC convention’s opening night in Denver.
Obama endorsed Giannoulias, a banking heir, for state treasurer and Giannoulias defeated the slated Democratic candidate. Obama has said Giannoulias provided help with Chicago’s Greek Community and Obama used the Giannoulias family’s bank for his Senate campaign fund.
Well, there’s a bit more to the Obama-Giannoulias back story.
On June 15, 2008, RezkoWatchposted the following article, “Coincidence or not? Obama, Rezko, Giannoulias”. Judge for yourself.
In 2006, when Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias was running for office, his good friend Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) not only vouched for him but also appeared in a campaign commercial in support of his campaign.
When Giannoulias visited Chicago’s SouthtownStar editorial board last week, he said that he had “met several times” with convicted political fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko as a “banking customer,” Kristen McQuearyreported June 15, 2008.
Before being elected state treasurer, Giannoulias was vice president of his family’s North Side bank, Broadway Bank. Rezko was a client. In addition to at least one loan secured through the bank, Rezko held a checking account there. Rezko is accused of writing nine bad checks from the account totaling more than $400,000 to Las Vegas casinos, Nevada authorities revealed last month.
Wouldn’t you know it? Rezko liked to gamble, just like his pal Christopher Kelly, who faces federal charges in a separate case alleging he hid gambling debts and cheated the IRS. Both men were close advisers to [Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich].
Giannoulias could not, and would not, elaborate on his specific financial dealings with Rezko because as a banker, that information is private, Giannoulias said. “I would love to, but I can’t,” Giannoulias said.
As for Rezko’s bounced checks, Giannoulias said they simply show “the bank did the right thing.” In other words, the bank didn’t help Rezko by covering the losses. Giannoulias said he oversaw the loan portfolio of the bank anyway and would not have been aware of Rezko’s bad check-writing habits.
Giannoulias told McQueary “Rezko never asked him or Broadway Bank to help with the gambling debts; Rezkowasn’t steered to Broadway Bank by Barack Obama, a mutual friend; and Rezko had no personal connection to Giannoulias, other than as a bank customer.”
“Where else will Rezko’s taint spill over?” McQueary asked.
As a P.S. to the June 15, 2008, article, RW asked: Would it surprise anyone to know that Obama’s close friend Alexi Giannoulias was tossed under the Obama bus more than two years ago—and Giannoulias still runs the Obama endorsement on his official website?
Well, here’s a taste for America of politics done the “Chicago Way”.
P.S. Illinois Gov. Blagojevich is NOT scheduled to speak at the convention although his possible opponents are.
THIS GUYS IS AS SLIMY AS THEY COME.
THE GOP COMMERCIAL IS NOT OVER THE TOP - AND IT FAILS AT ONLY ONE THING: TYING ALEXI TO BARACK:
AND DON'T FORGET: HE HAS CLOSE TIES TO THE SEIU, TOO:
