OSAMA'S DAUGHTER IMAN BIN LADEN LEAVES IRAN

YAHOO/AFP (FRIDAY): Iran allows bin Laden daughter to leave: Saudi paper

A teenaged daughter of Osama bin Laden has been allowed to fly out of Tehran where she had taken refuge in Saudi Arabia's embassy, a Saudi-financed newspaper reported on Friday.

Asharq Al-Awsat said Iman bin Laden arrived in Damascus on a commercial flight on Thursday together with her mother Najwa al-Ghanem, the fugitive Al-Qaeda chief's first wife.

The mother of Syrian origin had travelled to Iran from Damascus to collect the teenager, it said.

Asharq Al-Awsat said that Saudi diplomatic efforts had led to her being authorised to leave the Islamic republic, unlike other members of the bin Laden family.

Iman bin Laden, 17, who holds Saudi nationality, escaped her Iranian minders and took refuge in the Saudi embassy in January.

Asharq Al-Awsat reported in late December that 18 members of the bin Laden family missing since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States had been living under house arrest in Iran.

Bin Laden's youngest daughter, Bakr, 16, was allowed to leave for Syria on December 25, after having spent eight years in Iran, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.

HMMM...: 18 MEMBERS OF BIN LADEN'S FAMILY WERE IN IRAN SINCE 9/11.

THESE SUNNIS/WAHHABIS/ARABS FOUND IT SAFE THERE IN SHIA PERSIAN IRAN...

HMMM...

BRRRRRR!: FLORIDA'S COLDEST WINTER SINCE 1969 IS OVER!

TBO:

Records compiled by meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Ruskin show that December, January and February — the months meteorologists consider winter — were the coldest in Tampa since 1969 and the 10th coldest since 1890 when records started here.

The blasts of icy air reached all of the state except the Keys, said Amy Godsey, state meteorologist.

Every county in Florida except in the Keys opened cold weather shelters at some point this year, she said.

"The number of Arctic outbreaks was unusual," she said. "We had 12 days in a row when much of the state was below freezing."

AGW=BS.

OBAMACARE/PELOSICARE PREDICTION: "NO THEY WON'T!"

REMEMBER: FASCISM CAN NEVER WIN IN THE END...

























FASCISTS ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE THE GOVERNMENT MORE POWERFUL.

MAKING THE GOVERNMENT MORE POWERFUL WILL NEVER MAKE OUR LIVES BETTER - OR OUR NATION BETTER.

THE MORE LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY WE EACH HAVE THE BETTER OUR LIVES ARE - AND THE BETTER OUR NATION IS.

MOST PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THIS, AND THAT'S WHY CONGRESS WILL FAIL TO PASS OBAMACARE.

IF I'M WRONG - AND THEY PASS SOMETHING, THEN THE PEOPLE WILL GET THE LAST SAY:

CONGRESS WILL COME UNDER CONTROL OF THE GOP AFTER NOVEMBER AND OBAMA WILL BE IMPEACHED NEXT SUMMER.

GREAT PIC'S FROM THE ANTI-OBAMACARE RALLY

HERE.

FIXED.

RUMOR-MONGERING: HAVE OBAMA, PELOSI AND RAHM BEEN SNOOKERED?

The Democrats think they are at 217 votes for Obamacare.

THEY MIGHT BE VERY WRONG:

Perhaps as many as 3 of the Congressmen who have told the Democrat House leadership that they would probably vote "Yea" only told them that to get the leadership to stop pressuring them, and to get the leadership to schedule a regular vote on the bill and get them damn thing behind us all.

SNOOKERED!

BWHAHAHAHAHA!

THERE'S MORE MONEY STOLEN FROM MEDICARE AND MEDICAID THAN PROFITS FOR PRIVATE HEALTH INSURERS

NO WONDER THE CHICAGO MACHINE WANTS TO EXPAND GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER HEALTHCARE INSURANCE:

THERE'S MORE FRAUD IN MEDICARE AND MEDICAID THAN PROFITS IN PRIVATE HEALTH INSURERS:

• $60 BILLION A YEAR FROM MEDICARE ACCORDING TO 6OMINUTES

• (AND ABCNEWS)

• MEDICAID FRAUD COSTS ANOTHER $30 BILLION PER YEAR

USNEWS (2009):

Overall, the profit margin for health insurance companies was a modest 3.4 percent over the past year, according to data provided by MORNINGSTAR

.

That ranks 87th out of 215 industries and slightly above the median of 2.2 percent.

By this measure, the most profitable industry over the past year has been beverages, with a 25.9 percent profit margin.

Right behind that were healthcare real-estate trusts (firms that are basically the landlords for hospitals and healthcare facilities) and application-software (think Windows).

The worst performer was copper, with a profit margin of minus 56.6 percent.

The big money, in other words, isn't in the insurance industry.

FORTUNE:

Top industries: Most profitable

Industry Rank	Industry	2008 Profits as % of Revenues
1	Network and Other Communications Equipment	20.4
2	Internet Services and Retailing	19.4
3	Pharmaceuticals	19.3
4	Medical Products and Equipment	16.3
5	Railroads	12.6
6	Financial Data Services	11.7
7	Mining, Crude-Oil production	11.5
8	Securities	10.7
9	Oil and Gas Equipment, Services	10.2
10	Scientific, Photographic, and Control Equipment	9.9
11	Household and Personal Products	8.7
12	Utilities: Gas and Electric	8.7
13	Aerospace and Defense	7.6
14	Food Services	7.1
15	Industrial Machinery	6.9
16	Food Consumer Products	6.7
17	Electronics, Electrical Equipment	6.5
18	Commercial Banks	5.2
19	Telecommunications	5.1
20	Chemicals	5.0
21	Construction and Farm Machinery	5.0
22	Insurance: Life, Health (stock)	4.6
23	Information Technology Services	4.5
24	Computers, Office Equipment	4.3
25	Metals	3.9
26	Wholesalers: Diversified	3.5
27	Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock)	3.3
28	Specialty Retailers	3.2
29	General Merchandisers	3.2
30	Health Care: Pharmacy and Other Services	3.0
31	Packaging, Containers	3.0
32	Beverages	2.9
33	Engineering, Construction	2.7
34	Health Care: Medical Facilities	2.4
35	Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care	2.2

HOOVERS:

Using the 2002 Census Bureau Economic Census, Hoover's has generated an industry financial summary for the Accident & Health Insurance industry.

Indicator

Total

NAICS Codes

2

Establishments

4,764

Sales, receipts or shipments ($1,000)

$359,570,071

Annual Payroll ($1,000)

$23,078,845

Paid Employees

464,454

Full Accident & Health Insurance Industry Financials

THAT'S $360 BILLION IN SALES.

• FIGURING IT HIGH - AT 3% - THAT MEANS THEY MADE $10 BILLION.

• THAT'S 1/10TH OF WHAT WAS STOLEN FROM MEDICARE AND MEDICAID.

NOW, TELL ME AGAIN: WHERE IS THE GREED AND INCOMPETENCE AND THE WASTE!?!?

IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR!?!?

NOPE.

IN THE GOVERNMENT.

IF WE WANT REALLY TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE IN THIS COUNTRY, THEN LET'S START BY ENDING THE FRAUD.

WE CAN APPLY SOME OF THAT MONEY TO HELP PEOPLE BUY THEIR OWN INSURANCE.

VIDEO: "AMERICA'S COMEBACK"

The voice of optimism and determination:

THE DEMOCRATS ARE AS WRONG ON OBAMACARE AS THEY WERE ON THE SURGE

The Democrats got the Surge completely WRONG.

Especially Obama and Biden.

And they're using the same awful judgment on Obamacare.

The resulting POLITICAL mess here will be as bad as what might have happened in Iraq had Obama and Biden gotten heir way.

YUP: POLITICAL GENOCIDE: THE DEMOCRATS ARE GONNA GET SLAUGHTERED AT THE POLLS.

Candlelight vigil around the Capitol on Saturday night...

Broad TEA Party & Grassroots Coalition Aligns To "Kill The Bill":

WASHINGTON, DC (March 18, 2010) - The past two weeks has seen the "Take The Town Halls To Washington" initiative get nearly 1,000 people to DC to meet with approximately 30 Congressman. The event culminated in the rally at Taft Park near the Capitol, which was sponsored by Tea Party Express. Over 1,500 people assembled to rally against the health care bill and then meet with their representatives. While the Capitol Police diverted the stage and sound for the park rally, grass roots activists innovated and used a park bench and bull horn to get their message to the attendees!

With the critical nature of a looming Congressional decision, a broad coalition of Tea Party organizations and leadership is launching the final push before a possible vote by the House. These events are being coordinated across the US and are aimed at communicating the frustration of the people while demanding the termination of this health bill legislation. While the DNC and the administration continue to obfuscate and confuse, this coalition is focused on getting activists involved prior to Pelosi's maneuvering.

This event is being sponsored by the Tea Party Express, American Grassroots Coalition, Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, and Take the Town Halls to Washington.

Code Red Rally in Washington, DC at 12 noon on Saturday on the West Lawn of the Capitol.

Candlelight vigil around the Capitol on Saturday night.

Featured speakers and Entertainers at the Washington, D.C. Rally on Saturday will include:

• Lisa Norton, National Anthem
• Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (MN)
• Congressman Tom Price (GA)
• Congressman Joe Wilson (SC)
• Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (TN)
• Congressman Phil Gingrey (GA)
• Actor & Conservative Jon Voight
• Dr. Milton Wolf, Barack Obama’s second cousin who opposes Obamacare
• Colin Hanna, Let Freedom Ring
• Jim Martin, 60 Plus
• Phil Kerpen, Americans for Prosperity
• Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
• Andrew Langer, Institute for Liberty
• Kathryn Serkes, Doctor Patient Medical Association
• Mark Skoda, Memphis Tea Party
• Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express
• Jennifer Hulsey, American Grassroots Coalition
• FreedomWorks Representative
• Ben Cunningham, Founder of the Tennessee Tax Revolt
• Darla Dawald, Grassfire / Resistnet
• Tom McCluskey, Family Research Council
• Ana Puig, Kitchen Table Patriots
• Toby Marie Walker, Waco Tea Party

Grassroots activists everywhere have worked to inform themselves, notify their representatives of their objections and take action in the form of rallies, meetings and calls into those representatives. Individual groups have worked to stop the health care legislation while coordinating with each other to amplify their message and their efforts.

Amy Kremer, of Tea Party Express, commented, "We had a great rally this week in DC and people have overwhelmed us with their desire to do it again on Saturday. With so many people concerned about this legislation and the ability to come to Washington on a weekend, we are working within this coalition to expand the Code Red rally participation ."

The coalition of Tea Party and grassroots organizations and leadership is committed to changing the dynamics of this legislative process. The Democratic led Congress is using procedural and legislative rules to ignore the overwhelming opposition to this bill. The will of the American people is being subverted by these actions and the grass roots activists who make up this coalition are focusing their energy to kill the bill.

The coalition includes:

• 60 Plus
• Alexandria Tea Party
• American Conservative Union
• American Grassroots Coalition
• Americans for Prosperity
• Americans for Tax Reform
• Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
• Cincinnati Tea Party
• Cincinnati 9/12 Project
• Coalition for a Conservative Majority
• Concerned Women for America
• Constitutional Sovereignty Alliance
• Constitutional Tea Party
• Doctor Patient Medical Association
• Family Research Council
• FreedomWorks
• Grassfire/Resistnet
• Heartland Institute
• Hispanic Leadership Fund
• Institute for Liberty
• Let Freedom Ring
• Memphis Tea Party
• Mom for America
• National Center for Public Policy Research
• National Taxpayer’s Union
• Nationwide Tea Party Coalition
• New Jersey Tea Party Coalition
• Northern Virginia 912
• Pray in Jesus Name Project
• RePatriot Radio
• Richmond Patriots
• Right March
• Standing True to America's National Destiny
• Take the Town Halls to Washington
• Tea Party Express
• Tea Party Patriots
• Tea Party Patriots Live Radio Show
• United States Justice Foundation
• Washington DC Tea Party
• We the People of Pennsylvania

For further information or to register and participate or assist others to come to Washington, DC, please check the above websites where details will be posted and updated regularly throughout the next 24 hours and http://www.americangrassrootscoalition.org/.

Right Pundits will be covering the Health Care Bill vote this weekend...

Right Pundits will be covering the Health Care Bill vote this weekend - doing live chat and a live stream up so that you can watch and chat as long as you want (or can stand it).

Go over to Right Pundits to discuss this monumental vote!

OBAMA : OBAMACARE'S PASSAGE :: SADDAM : INVASION OF KUWAIT

OBAMA : OBAMACARE'S PASSAGE :: SADDAM : INVASION OF KUWAIT

Saddam thought he had won a great victory when he invaded Kuwait.

He was wrong.

Obama and Rahm and Pelosi and Reid may think a great victory awaits them, too - upon passage of Obamacare.

They will be wrong, too.

If the Democrat pass Obamacare, then the people will get justice and revenge and November.

It will make 1994 look like a picnic in the park.

A QUESTION FOR DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS: WHOM DO YOU SERVE?

Do you serve Obama or the people?

Answer: THE PEOPLE!

Listen to the people.

If you don't, then you will be tossed from office.

UPDATE: FROM A COMMENTER - TERRAPOD:

Dear reader and erstwhile free citzen,

Having read the following documents, I find myself incredulous that the Founders were unable to consider or foresee a situation where both Houses and the presidency, the media and almost half the Supreme Court ended up under one party control.

Federalist № 69,66, 47, 65 84, 74, 39, 77 and the Constitution make no place for impeachment by the combined states or by a majority of the population, assuming that a new election wouldn't right such an extreme condition.

It would appear that we may have no mechanism to reverse the unconstitutional actions of this corrupt edifice short of violence, which indeed was contemplated but surely without vision to what technology has made possible to the opposing sides nor the sheer size and scope of what government has become.

I welcome anyone who can point out how we the people can overcome this, if the government chooses to circumvent and ignore the constitution and has control in larger measure of weapons and personnel that can be applied against the people?

The Founders were nearly all anti-factionalists and abhorred factions - which are "parties".

They thought they had made the federal government sufficiently limited and circumscribed.

It seems our last best hopes will be the Senate and then the SCOTUS.

If that fails then secession by states which refuse to be taken over in violation of the Tenth Amendment.

Then all hell breaks loose.

God Help Us.

INSTAPUNDIT UNILATERALLY DECLARES PALESTINIAN STATE

WEIRD:

March 19, 2010

NOT MUCH PRESS COVERAGE, THOUGH: A major demonstration against honor killiings in Palestine.

Posted at 7:07 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHERE WAS THIS DEMONSTRATION?!?!?!?

SHEESH.

Seriously: Does Reynolds mean Gaza?!? The West Bank!? He should have said Arabs in the West Bank as the author of the post he linked to wrote:

Major Arab Demonstration Against Palestinian Honor Killings.

I always thought Reynolds was skeptical of giving Fatah or Hamas a state. I seem to remember him posting cynical stuff after a jihado-terror attack on Israel - like "let's give them a state."

But perhaps I was wrong. I gotta think Glenn's post is a revealing Freudian Slip.

LOOKIT FOLKS: just using the term "Palestinian" to refer to Arabs in the Holy Land is submitting to propaganda: until 1967 no Arab referred to himself as a Palestinian; the only people who did refer to themselves as Palestinians were JEWS before 1948.

And make no mistake about it, folks: to Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza, there is NO ISRAEL, but only a Zionist entity occupying ALL of "Palestine".

PROOF:

• In PA controlled schools in the West Bank they are still teaching the children using maps which have NO ISRAEL ON IT, and instead have a big country called PALESTINE.

• And the PA OFFICIALLY honors jihadoterrorists who murdered Israelis - one more when Biden was in Israel!

If they were really interested in a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza then these two things would not be happening.

That's why I say anyone who regards himself as a friend of Israel and who regards Israel as a vital state an important ally should refrain from using the jargon and propaganda of the enemy.

BOTTOM-LINE: THERE IS NO STATE CALLED PALESTINE, and I don't think there should be - unless the Arabs decide to rename Jordan Palestine.

Toyota Responds To ABC News' Attack - Demands Retraction

After all of this is said and done, somebody's going to end up looking stupid, and it's not going to be Toyota.

The L.A. Times most likely will be next.

From the WSJ:

Toyota Demands ABC Retract Report

The Wall Street Journal 03/19/2010

Toyota Motor Corp. has asked ABC News for a public retraction and formal apology for an "irresponsible broadcast" of a report last month that purported to show how electronics problems in Toyota vehicles could lead to unintended acceleration.

In a letter to ABC News President David Westin dated March 11, Toyota said ABC "fabricated" a shot of a Toyota Avalon sedan in the report "to create the false and misleading impression with viewers of a dangerous and uncontrolled acceleration" in the Japanese company's vehicles.

"Regrettably, in its Feb. 22 report, ABC News chose fear-mongering over public service," Toyota General Counsel Christopher P. Reynolds wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

Jeffrey Schneider, a spokesman for ABC News, said the broadcaster received the letter. "Our lawyers are reviewing it and we will respond to Toyota," the spokesman said. ABC is a unit of Walt Disney Co.

In the Feb. 22 report, ABC News cited findings by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Professor David W. Gilbert, who said he found a way to make Toyotas surge by causing a short in the wires that carry signals from the gas pedal to the engine computer, in such a way that the vehicle's diagnostic system doesn't notice a fault in the circuit.

Toyota said ABC "fabricated a dramatized sequence" in its news report that showed the car's tachometer needle racing up to more than 6,000 revolutions per minute, near the safe limit of the engine's design, while the car was being driven. Toyota said the car was actually standing still and in park when the tachometer hit that level.

On its Web-site posting of the video report, ABC subsequently replaced that part of the video with another shot of the tachometer surging that apparently was taken while the car was moving. In that shot, the needle didn't reach 6,000 rpm. ABC noted the change on its Web site, saying the network taped multiple demonstrations by Mr. Gilbert and that the engine's surge "was comparable" in each of them.

In the letter, earlier reported by media Web site gawker.com, Toyota laid out five criticisms of the broadcast, including not being given the opportunity to review Mr. Gilbert's research or provide a response for the news report.

Here's the original article from Gawker:

Toyota's general counsel is calling on ABC News president David Westin to retract and apologize for a cocked-up story by America's Wrongest Reporter, Brian Ross. UPDATE: ABC News' response is below.

Last month, Ross filed a report featuring a test conducted by David Gilbert, an Illinois professor who claimed to have found a way to induce unintended acceleration in Toyotas without triggering an error code that would allow mechanics to diagnose the problem. The exercise was supposed to prove that it's theoretically possible for Toyotas to accelerate without command and then show no sign of having done so later on.

Ross himself took a little on-camera death ride. And to make it seem even scarier, he took a staged shot of a surging tachometer taken while the car was parked and stitched it in to the piece to make it look like it was happening while he was driving. ABC News later changed the online version of the story after we asked them about the fakery.

The story had other problems, according to Toyota: As the company demonstrated in a lengthy online rebuttal, Gilbert's test almost certainly can't be replicated under real-world conditions. He essentially rewired a Toyota to do what he wanted it to do—accelerate without command and without generating an error code—which is kind of like leaving the gas on a stove on for a few hours and lighting a match to prove that America's kitchens are littered with millions of ticking timebombs. Engineers from Stanford working on Toyota's behalf were able to rewire a Subarus, Honda, Chevrolet, and Ford in the same manner.

And Ross didn't disclose in his report that Gilbert had previously been paid as a consultant by Sean Kane, an investigator working for plaintiff's lawyers in lawsuits against Toyota, and has an agreement with Kane paying him $150 an hour for work "going forward." In the March 11 letter, a copy of which was provided to Gawker by a source close to Toyota, the company says Ross "singularly failed in his basic duty as a journalist to disclose material information about Professor Gilbert that would have directly influenced his credibility with the audience." It also accuses him of "rush[ing] out his report on the eve of important congressional hearings concerning Toyota" and failing to offer the company an opportunity to examine Gilbert's test before responding. Indeed, on February 23, the day after Ross' story aired, Gilbert testified before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the death-ride came up.

Read the full letter, which ends with the veiled boilerplate threat that "Toyota reserves the right to take any and every appropriate step to protect and defend the reputation of our company and its products from irresponsible and inaccurate claims," below. A good reporter knows when he gets letters like this that he's doing his job. Unfortunately, Brian Ross is not a good reporter. And he's been off the radar at a particularly sensitive time—Ross hasn't covered Toyota since the furor over his report erupted. An ABC News spokesman says he's in the midst of a "long-planned vacation," and that ABC is "in receipt of Toyota's letter. Our lawyers are looking at it, and we will respond."

LAND FOR PEACE?: HOW MANY MORE "SUDETENLAND'S" MUST ISRAEL ENDURE?

Just give up the Sinai, and you will have peace.
Just give up southern Lebanon, and you will have peace.
Just give up Gaza, and you will have peace.
Just give up the West Bank, and you will have peace.
Just give up half of Jerusalem, and you will have peace.

Giving Hitler Sudetenland didn't work for Chamberlain.

Giving Arab Muslims Sinai, southern Lebanon, Gaza - and autonomy on the West Bank hasn't worked either.

Land for peace won't work now.

All Israel has gotten is more violence and threats and war.

NOT PEACE.

The real message has been for Arab Muslims: They have been getting land for violence.

HENCE THIS: JPOST:

Jerusalem Police on Thursday announced that the deployment of more than 3,000 police officers throughout the Old City and east Jerusalem would continue Friday, and access to the Temple Mount would be restricted, amid fears that prayers there could give way to renewed clashes.

The heightened police presence has been in effect since last Friday, when tensions in the area began to build and sporadic clashes erupted inside the Old City’s Muslim Quarter and in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.

Since then, the thousands of police and Border Police officers, special forces and undercover agents have been working overtime, especially on Tuesday, when rioting in the Old City and east Jerusalem erupted on levels unseen in months, if not years.

Arab Muslims have every reason to believe that violence works; that's why they continue to use it.

Remember: Israel has agreed to direct talks without precondition; it's the Arab Muslim who refuse to this.

Of course they refuse: violence and the threats of violence work better for them than talks.

Especially with Obama and the EU Quartet shilling for them.

ANOTHER ROCKET ATTACK

Just in case you forgot about Hamas rocket attacks, they've just made sure to remind you again:

(IsraelNN.com) A short range rocket slammed into southern Israel Thursday evening, within the territory of the Eshkol Local Authority. No one was hurt. Earlier in the day, a Thai worker was killed by a similar rocket.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon held a press conference Thursday at Netiv Ha'asara, near the spot where the foreign worker was killed.

"This is one rocket out of 12,000 that the citizens of Israel have endured in recent years," the Deputy Foreign Minister said. "The responsibility for this attack rests with Hamas."

There's nothing new here. It's all the same jihadist bloodshed continuing.

QUESTION FOR MARK LEVIN: CAN THE HOUSE "DEEM AS PASSED" A VETO OVERRIDE?

What if...

What if - in a few years, after we conservatives have won majorities in both bodies of Congress, the Congress passes a law eliminating the IRS and instituting a flat tax.

But then - surprise surprise - Obama VETOES it.

THEN... The Senate passes it again with 3/4 of the US Senate, OVERRIDING the veto...

AND THEN - stay with me...

THEN... the House leadership finds it CANNOT get enough votes override the veto by a STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN VOTE, BUT... they find that they can get enough votes to DEEM IT PASSED and override the veto.

QUESTION: HAS THE VETO BEEN CONSTITUTIONALLY OVERRIDDEN?

If not, then THE "DEEM AS PASSED" gimmick by Pelosi and Reid and Obama cannot stand.

GENERALISSIMOBAMA

Maybe the title of this post should be HUGOBAMA.

After all, it seems to me that Obama is becoming our Chavez - using unconstitutional tricks and blatant lies to impose his statist polices on us.

It will not stand.

FESS PARKER DEAD - AGE 85

AP:

Fess Parker, a baby-boomer idol in the 1950s who launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV's Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death came on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

"She's a wreck," Anash said, adding Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

The first installment of "Davy Crockett," with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the "Disneyland" TV show.

The 6-foot, 6-inch Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts and trademark fur caps. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ("Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...") was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Parker's own version reached No. 5.

The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," in 1955.

True to history, Disney killed off its hero in the third episode, "Davy Crockett at the Alamo," where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 at age 49. But spurred by popular demand, Disney brought back the Crockett character for some episodes in the 1955-56 season, including "Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race."

"Like many kids growing up in the 50's, Davy Crockett was my first hero, and I had the coonskin cap to prove it," said Disney CEO Bob Iger. "Fess Parker's unforgettable, exciting and admirable performance as this American icon has remained with me all these years, as it has for his millions of fans around the world. Fess is truly a Disney Legend, as is the heroic character he portrayed, and while he will certainly be missed, he will never be forgotten."

Parker's career leveled off when the Crockett craze died down, but he made a TV comeback from 1964-1970 in the title role of the TV adventure series "Daniel Boone" — also based on a real-life American frontiersman. Actor-singer Ed Ames, formerly of the Ames Brothers, played Boone's Indian friend, Mingo.

RIP..

BREAKING: OBAMA'S SHIPMENT OF BUNKER-BUSTERS TO DIEGO GARCIA MIGHT BE TO PROTECT IRAN

Yesterday we posed news items which reported that the USA made a large shipment of bunker-busting weapons to Diego Garcia - and that this might indicate that Obama was readying a military attack on Iran.

And that while a preemptive attack is needed - we wondered if it might be cynically used by Obama to gain popularity, i.e. "WAG THE DOG".

NOW COMNES THIS EXPLANATION - WHICH JIBES MORE CLOSELY WITH OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL AND PRO-IRAN STANCES:

JAWA: IT WAS A DIVERSION OF ASSETS WHICH HAD BEEN HEADED FOR ISRAEL:

Obama Moves To Support His New Allies Iran And Hezballah

Via World Tribune:

The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel.

"This was a political decision," an official said.

"All signs indicate that this will continue in 2010," a congressional source familiar with the Israeli military
requests said. "This is really an embargo, but nobody talks about it publicly."

OBAMA GETS TO PUNISH ISRAEL AND PROTECT IRAN IN ONE FELL SWOOP!

QUESTION: IF OBAMA WAS A CRYPTO-MUSLIM AND RADICAL LEFTIST WHO WANTED TO RUIN AMERICA AND DESTROY ISRAEL, THEN ... WOULD HE BE DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?

NOPE.

SCIENTISTS INVENT 3D INVISIBILITY CLOAK!

DISCOVERY:

European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter's invisibility cloak after they made an object disappear, a study published Thursday in the journal Science showed.

Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used their cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.

"It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet -- except this time the carpet also disappears," they said.

... The researchers are working now to recreate the disappearing bump but on a larger scale, but Stenger said Harry Potter's invisibility cloak would not be hanging in would-be wizards' wardrobes in the near future.

"Theoretically, it would be possible to do this on a large scale but technically, it's totally impossible with the knowledge we have now," he said.

• The invisibility cloak was minute, measuring 100 microns by 30 microns.
• Recreating the invisibility cloak on a larger scale could prove challenging technically.

RTWT.

US CITIZEN PLEADS GUILTY TO AIDING MUMBAI JIHADO-TERROR ATTACK

BBC:

A US citizen has pleaded guilty to scouting targets for the 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai.

David Headley, at his trial in Chicago, also admitted plotting to attack a Danish newspaper that published a cartoon many Muslims deemed offensive.

Headley, 49, had denied the charges but changed his plea to avoid the death penalty or extradition to India, Pakistan or Denmark.

The attacks on Mumbai in November 2008 left more than 170 people dead.

HIS TARGETS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH BUSHITLERCHENEY OR THE GOP OR ISRAEL OR ZIONISM.

HE IS MERELY PART OF GLOBAL JIHAD.

BLAMING BUSH OR ISRAEL OR THE IRAQ WAR OR THE AFGHAN WAR FOR ANY ACT OF JIHADO-TERROR IS IDIOTIC - AND IT MAKES US LESS SAFE BY OBSCURING THE REAL ENEMY AND BY PREVENTING US FROM COUNTER-ATTACKING WITH ENOUGH FORCE AGAINST THE REAL POWER CENTER OF THE ENEMY.

ISLAMISTS ARREST ANOTHER 20 PEOPLE FOR ALLEGED COUP PLOT - BRINGING TOTAL TO 200 ARRESTED

Turkish police today detained about 20 people, including serving military officers, as part of an investigation into an alleged plot to topple the government, The Guardian disclosed:

The operation was part of an investigation into the "Ergenekon" network, an alleged rightwing militant group that prosecutors say had planned to overthrow prime minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK party government, according to broadcaster NTV.

The suspects were detained in eight cities, the television report said. No details of names were given.

More than 200 civilians and retired and working officers in the military are on trial accused of membership of Ergenekon.

THEY MAY END UP ARRESTING HALF THE NATION - THE HALF THAT DOESN'T WANT SHARIA!

IT'S TIME TURKEY WAS BOOTED OUT OF NATO.

More proof that the Medieval Warm Period was not a regional “non event”

Just one more indication that despite what some would like you to believe, the MWP was not a regional “non event”:

A 3,000-year record from 52 of the world’s oldest trees shows that California’s western Sierra Nevada was droughty and often fiery from 800 to 1300, according to a new study led by University of Arizona researchers.

This is not a coincidence - THAT IT WAS VERY WARM IN THE USA AT THE SAME TIME IT WEAS VERY WARM IN EUROPE, but proof that climate change and warming is natural and that the warming we had last decade was not unusual.

AGW = BS.

RTWT.

A Few Choice Words About BHO

Robert Kagan in yesterday's Washington Post, in a commentary that has garnered some ten pages of comments:

...Who has attracted attention in the Obama administration? The answer, so far, seems to be not America's allies but its competitors, and in some cases its adversaries. If there were a way to measure administration exertion in foreign policy, the meter would show the greatest concentration of energy, beyond the war in Afghanistan, has been devoted to four endeavors: the failed first-year attempt to improve relations with Iran; the ongoing attempt to improve relations with Russia; the stalled effort to improve cooperation with China; and the effort -- fruitless so far -- to prove to the Arab states that the United States is willing to pressure Israel to further the peace process. Add to these the efforts to improve relations with Syria, engage Burma and everything with Af-Pak, and not much has been left for the concerns of our allies.

[...]

This administration pays lip-service to "multilateralism," but it is a multilateralism of accommodating autocratic rivals, not of solidifying relations with longtime democratic allies. Rather than strengthening the democratic foundation of the new "international architecture" -- the G-20 world -- the administration's posture is increasingly one of neutrality, at best, between allies and adversaries, and between democrats and autocrats. Israel is not the only unhappy ally, therefore; it's just the most vulnerable.

In less than two years in office, BHO is alienating the world much more than GWB did in eight years.

RELIAPUNDIT HAD SOMETHING ON THIS YESTERDAY.

BRITAIN BANS AGW ALARMIST TV ADS: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS MEMEORANDUM, NEWSBUSTERS AND THE BBC BY 4 DAYS

What they have today...

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:

Britain Bans Ads Exaggerating Danger of Global Warming

Link Search: IceRocket, Google, and Ask

+Discussion: BBC and NewsReal Blog

... I posted over the weekend. YEAH: 4 DAYS AGO!

The Astute Bloggers is the best!

Please spread the word.

UNBELIEVABLE: ON FOXNEWS, OBAMA CONFUSES HAWAII WITH HAITI!

WHAT AN IDIOT! (HAT TIP TO HOFT WHOSE ALSO GOT A TRANSCRIPT!); HERE'S THE VIDEO:


HAWAII HASN'T HAD AN EARTHQUAKE IN DECADES!

I THINK OBAMA WAS THINKING SORT OF LIKE THIS:

OF ... OF... OF A PLACE... WHERE IS IT... IT HAS A BIG EARTHQUAKE, WE SENT AID... IT BEGINS WITH AN "H" AND ENDS WITH AN "I"... EARTHQUAKE... WHICH WAS IT... A STATE WITH AN "H".... HAWAII!!!!

ONLY THE PLACE THAT HAD A REALLY BIG EARTHQUAKE WITH AN "H" WAS HAITI.

APPARENTLY, OBAMA CONFUSED THE STATE HE SPENT HIS TEEN YEARS IN WITH HAITI.

APPARENTLY, MR BARACK HUSSEIN SOETORO OBAMA DOESN'T KNOW THAT HAITI IS NOT ONE OF THE 50 STATES.

PERHAPS BARRY THINKS IT'S ONE OF THE 57:

ERDOGAN THREATENS TO EXPEL 100,000 ARMENIANS

INTL NEWS/PAKISTAN:

... in an interview with the BBC Turkish service that was broadcast late on Tuesday, Erdogan said: “There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them in my country.”

Thousands of illegal Armenian immigrants, mostly women from the impoverished countryside, work as cleaning ladies and in other low-skilled jobs in Istanbul, where they settled after an earthquake in their homeland in 1988.

The exact number of Armenian immigrants in Turkey is unknown. But Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians inflate numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions escalate between Ankara and Yerevan.

Erdogan said Armenian immigrants had been allowed to work in Turkey as a “display of our peaceful approach, but we have to get something in return”.

THIS ERDOGAN AND HIS ISLAMIST AKP HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING IN NATO.

KICK THEM OUT NOW.

AND DON'T ADMIT THEM INTO THE EUSSR, EITHER.

OBAMACARE IS NOT LIKE RUBE GOLDBERG - BECAUSE THOUGH CONVOLUTED, THEY ACTUALLY WORKED!

FOSTER/NRO:

It has been clear for months that the only path to passage for Obamacare is a Rube Goldberg machine of special interest bribes, back-room deals, procedural opacity, presidential pep rallies and the like.

The problem with building a voting coalition that way is that it doesn't take much to break the circuit.

I AGREE THAT OBAMACARE IS FALLING APART BECAUSE THE CONVOLUTED AND CORRUPT DEALS NECESSARY TO BUY VOTES FALL APART UNDER MODESTLY MORAL SCRUTINY.

BUT I DISAGREE WITH THE ANALOGY.

OBAMACARE: IT'S NOT LIKE RUBE GOLDBERG; IT'S LIKE MC ESCHER.


WHY?

SIMPLE:

RUBE GOLDBERG CONTRAPTIONS ACTUALLY WORK.


MC ESCHER PICTURES APPEAR TO WORK, BUT DON'T, AT LEAST NOT IN THE REAL WORLD.

(WE POSTED ON THIS BEFORE - 12/26/09.)

All allies snubbed by Obama

KAGAN/WASHPOST:

The contretemps between President Obama and Israel needs to be seen in a broader global context. The president who ran against "unilateralism" in the 2008 campaign has worse relations overall with American allies than George W. Bush did in his second term.

Israelis shouldn't feel that they have been singled out.

...This administration pays lip-service to "multilateralism," but it is a multilateralism of accommodating autocratic rivals, not of solidifying relations with longtime democratic allies. Rather than strengthening the democratic foundation of the new "international architecture" -- the G-20 world -- the administration's posture is increasingly one of neutrality, at best, between allies and adversaries, and between democrats and autocrats. Israel is not the only unhappy ally, therefore; it's just the most vulnerable.

RTWT.

OBAMA MEDDLES IN ISRAEL, BUT WON'T IN IRAN.

OBAMA SQUEEZES ISRAEL'S NUTS, BUT SUCKS IRAN'S...

OBAMA APPEASES ENEMIES AND IGNORES OR IS DISMISSIVE OR ANTAGONISTIC TO ALLIES.

OBAMA MUST GO!

THE LAST TIME GOD TESTED SOMEONE AT MT MORIAH, HE PASSED...

WILL WE PASS THE TEST THIS TIME?

IT SEEMS TO ME OBAMA IS FAILING.

SURFING ALPACA: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS INSTAPUNDIT AND HOT AIR BY A DAY!

THE SURFING ALAPACA MADE THE BIG BLOGS TODAY - AND WE SCOOPED THEM BOTH:

RETRACTO’S VACATION appears to be going well. Come back rested, Retracto — your work isn’t finished!

Posted at 6:18 pm by Glenn Reynolds

AND WE SCOOPED HOT AIR - ON A DUDE POST NO LESS!:

YUP: WE POSTED ON THIS YESTERDAY.

NOW THESE TWO FINE BLOGS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR HOT LINKS AND THEIR COOL LINKS.

BUT WE SCOOP THEM BOTH REGULARLY.

REGULAR READERS OF THIS BLOG KNOW IT.

SPREAD THE WORD.

UPDATED! BREAKING: WAG THE DOG?: US PREPARING TO STRIKE IRAN

UPDATED: SCROLL DOWN!

TIMES OF INDIA:

Stepping up its preparations for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, the United States is transporting hundreds of 387 'bunker-buster' bombs to its air base on the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, a media report claimed on Wednesday.

The US government signed a contract in January with Superior Maritime Services to transport 10 ammunition containers to Diego Garcia from Concord, California, the Sunday Herald reported.

The shipment includes 195 smart, guided Blu-110 bombs and 192 Blu-117 900kg bombs. The key Iranian nuclear facilities are underground and both these type of bombs are effective against reinforced or underground facilities.

The US and Israel have repeatedly asserted that they do not rule out a military action to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions and that they are keeping all the options on the table.

Contract details for the shipment were posted on an international tenders' website by the US navy.

"They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran," Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, said.

UPDATE: MORE HERE:

The preparations were being made by the US military, but it would be up to President Obama to make the final decision. He may decide that it would be better for the US to act instead of Israel, Plesch argued.

“The US is not publicising the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely,” he added. “The US ... is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.”

According to Ian Davis, director of the new independent thinktank, Nato Watch, the shipment to Diego Garcia is a major concern. “We would urge the US to clarify its intentions for these weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran,” he said.

For Alan Mackinnon, chair of Scottish CND, the revelation was “extremely worrying”. He stated: “It is clear that the US government continues to beat the drums of war over Iran, most recently in the statements of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“It is depressingly similar to the rhetoric we heard prior to the war in Iraq in 2003.”

WAG THE DOG?: AS AMERICANS RALLY AROUND THE US PREEMPTIVE ACTION, OBAMA WILL TRY TO PASS OBAMACARE.

I POSTED IN THIS POSSIBILITY MONTHS AGO:

Sunday, January 31, 2010

WAG THE DOGBAMA?

Would Obama initiate a preemptive attack on Iran to help his ratings and advance his domestic agenda?

Maybe...

Would he delay a preemptive attack on Iran to help his ratings and advance his domestic agenda?

Maybe...

I have zero confidence in him as our CiC.

• IF OBAMA ORDERS AN EFFECTIVE STRIKE ON IRAN, THEN I WILL SUPPORT OBAMA.

• IF ISRAEL DOES, THEN I EXPECT THE USA TO DEFEND ISRAEL - AND IF WE DON'T I WILL ATTACK OBAMA.

The clock is ticking...

I REPEAT: I SUPPORT PREEMPTIVE ACTION AGAINST IRAN.

I URGE ALL AMERICANS TO SUPPORT IT.

BUT I STILL OPPOSE OBAMACARE - AND HOPE OBAMA'S BOUNCE WON'T HELP HIM DESTROY OUR ECONOMY BY MAKING US LIKE POST-WAR BRITAIN.

UPDATE: THEN THERE'S THIS: Tehran aiding al Qaeda links, Petraeus says

Iran is assisting al Qaeda by facilitating links between senior terrorist leaders and affiliate groups, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, also said Iran's nuclear program is facing problems, and as a result, Tehran is not expected to emerge with a nuclear weapon this year.

The exact details of when U.S. intelligence agencies estimate Iran will have a nuclear bomb are classified, but the timeline for developing a nuclear device has "thankfully slid to the right a bit," he said.

On Tehran's ties to al Qaeda, Gen. Petraeus said the group "continues to use Iran as a key facilitation hub, where facilitators connect al Qaedas senior leadership to regional affiliates."

THIS IS BOTH ANOTHER REASON TO ATTACK IRAN, AND A HEAD-FAKE TO KEEP THEM OFF-GUARD...

STAY TUNED...

OBAMA: “Rules!? RULES!?!?!? We don’t need no stinking RULES!”

“Rules!? RULES!?!?!? We don’t need no stinking RULES!”

DO ORTHODOX JEWS BELONG MORE IN BERLIN - THE HISTORIC CAPITOL OF NAZISM, THAN IN JERUSALEM THE HISTORIC CAPITOL OF JUDAISM?

NYTIMES/AP:

When American Rabbi Joshua Spinner moved to Berlin's trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood a decade ago, there were no other Jews to be seen. Now when the sun sets on a Friday night, dozens of Jewish men clad in traditional Shabbat garb with big black hats and dark long coats walk down the streets past hip coffee shops, chic boutiques and tiny art galleries to attend services at Rykestrasse synagogue.

''When my wife and I arrived here in 2000, we were the only Jews around. There was nobody to invite for Shabbat dinner,'' the rabbi recalled over a cappuccino at kosher Cafe Rado, just down the street from the Jewish kindergarten.

He's in the middle of a thriving orthodox Lauder Yeshurun community of young immigrants mostly from the former Soviet Union. Members say its believers are more actively celebrating their faith than their oppressed parents and grandparents and moving forward from the traumatic past of Judaism in the country.

There about 200 believers now and it's growing fast: There are several weddings a year and the nursery school has become so overcrowded that parents have to register their children soon after birth if they want to get one of the coveted spots.

DO ORTHODOX JEWS BELONG MORE IN BERLIN - THE HISTORIC CAPITOL OF NAZISM, THAN IN JERUSALEM THE HISTORIC CAPITOL OF JUDAISM?

IF JEWS CAN MOVE INTO BERLIN, THEN THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO MOVE TO AND LIVE IN JERUSALEM - ESPECIALLY ALREADY EXCLUSIVELY JEWISH NEIGHBORHOODS IN JERUSALEM.

OBAMA'S AND FATAH'S AND HAMAS'S DEMAND THAT JEWS NOT BUILD NEW APARTMENTS IN JERUSALEM IS WRONG, EVIL AND BAD.

HERE'S HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF OBAMA

HERE'S HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF OBAMA:

• SOCIALISM IS GOAL #1 -

• ALL OTHER THINGS HE DESIRES FLOW FROM THAT;

• EVERYTHING ELSE IS SUBORDINATE TO THAT,

• BECAUSE ONCE THE USA IS SOCIALIST - VIA "ATTLEEFICATION", IT WILL PETER OUT LIKE THE ONCE GREAT BRITISH EMPIRE.

• THE USA WILL BECOME WEAK...

• AND MULTICULTURAL...

• AND GO OUT WITH A WHIMPER.

• AND THE JIHADISTS AND THE TRANS-NATIONAL SOCIALISTS WILL HAVE WON.

THINK OF OBAMA AS REAGAN IN REVERSE.

ANOTHER MUSLIM MACHETE ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA

BBC:

Nigeria village in machete attack
At least 10 people are killed in an attack on a mainly Christian Nigerian village in the violence-hit Jos area, officials say.

WILL OBAMA DECRY THIS OUTRAGE - OR IS IT SOMEHOW NOT AS HORRIBLE OR CONDEMNABLE AS JOOOOOZE BUILDING APARTMENTS IN JERUSALEM!?

YITZHAR WINS LIBEL SUIT AGAINST POLICE

The Israeli police now stands seriously guilty in a case of discrimination and for resorting to perjury:

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Monday partially accepted a lawsuit filed by four settlers from Yitzhar and ordered the state to pay NIS 10,000 to each of them and to their lawyer.

Judge Irit Cohen found the police guilty of libeling the plaintiffs after accusing them of armed robbery, assault, stealing goats from a Palestinian, and preventing the police from doing their job.

The case grew out an incident on June 9, 2004, when a Palestinian goatherd complained that a resident of the Yitzhar, near Nablus, had stolen his goats. The police escorted him to the settlement and returned the goats to him.

As the goatherd was returning to his village, he was attacked by settlers who took back the goats back by force. In the meantime, the members of Yitzhar’s readiness unit went down in the direction of the assault, apparently to protect the settlers, though they say they were alerted for another reason.

The members of the readiness unit, Boaz Albert, Akiva Hacohen, Eran Schwartz and Moshe Skali, maintained that they were not involved in the assault and were far away from the confrontation between the settlers and the goatherd.

Meanwhile, a police unit, that had remained near Yitzhar after returning the goats to the goatherd, rushed down to arrest the settlers. The police claim that the members of the readiness group blocked their way and interfered with their actions. They arrested the four and detained them in jail.

However, Cohen ruled that the police had presented false and misleading testimony regarding the incident. She said that Yaakov Golan, one of policeman who took part in the incident, wrote a report saying that the plaintiffs had stolen the sheep. In a sworn affidavit that he signed later, he omitted the charge. Later, he also admitted that he had not seen the attack against the goatherd.

Cohen also found that another policeman presented “information that may have been misleading” to the court in the hearings to extend the remand of the suspects. He told the court the plaintiffs had charged the goatherd and attacked him, even though “it had been proven that the plaintiffs had not charged the Palestinian or attacked him” and that the police had not witnessed any such incident.

Meanwhile, in a radio interview, Dep.-Cmdr. Eliezer Elharar said that 10 people from Yitzhar, armed with weapons, “attacked the Palestinian goatherd with severe violence.”

Cohen found Elharar guilty of libel for this and other charges, which were made on the basis of police reports that he received.

The organization Human Rights in Judea, Samaria and Gaza wrote that its lawyer, Elad Rosenblatt, had “succeeded in revealing one of the gravest incidents in the continuous attacks against the residents of Yitzhar and demonstrating how police hostility toward the settlers drives them into resorting to lies and defamations, which are utterly unacceptable from those who are supposed to be law-abiding.”

The organization said it would complain to the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Department against the officers.

This is very grave, and discredits the police from being trusted in their job. How are we supposed to trust them if they allow their political positions to get the better of themselves? As this report says:

Others in Yitzhar noted that Policeman Desheh often appears in court to testify against Jews, and that the police will now have to explain how his word can be trusted after it has been shown that he lied on three separate occasions.

They have a lot to answer for, and I think their personal politics are going to have to be part of any questions asked of them.

QUEBEC SEEKING TO EXPLOIT MORE OIL AND GAS

The Quebec government on Tuesday called on Ottawa to come to an agreement that would allow oil and gas exploration in Quebec's sector of a multi-billion dollar prospect in the Gulf of St. Lawrence:

The Old Harry formation is one of the largest undrilled prospects in Eastern Canada. Corridor Resources, the company which holds licences from the Quebec government covering about 60 per cent of Old Harry, estimates the field has the potential to hold up to two billion barrels of recoverable oil or up to five trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas.

That would be almost twice the size of the Hibernia oil project off Newfoundland and Labrador. Old Harry has remained undrilled because Quebec and Ottawa have not struck a deal yet on oil and gas management and revenue sharing.

IF THEY CAN DO IT JUST NORTH OF US. WHY CAN'T WE?

IF THE BRITS AND THE NORWEGIANS CAN DRILL IN THE NORTH SEA, THEN WHY CAN'T WE OFF OUR COASTS?!

BECAUSE OF THE LEFTISTS, THAT'S WHY.

THEY HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM DOWN SOUTH - IN MEXICO; NYTIMES:

To the Mexican people, one of the great achievements in their history was the day their president kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938. Thus, they celebrate March 18 as a civic holiday.

The effort to develop the geologically challenging Chicontepec field is deteriorating into an embarrassing setback for Pemex.

Yet today, that 72-year-old act has put Mexico in a straitjacket, one that threatens both the welfare of the country and the oil supply of the United States.

The national oil company created after the 1938 seizure, Pemex, is entering a period of turmoil. Oil production in its aging fields is sagging so rapidly that Mexico, long one of the world’s top oil-exporting countries, could begin importing oil within the decade.

Mexico is among the three leading foreign suppliers of oil to the United States, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia. Mexican barrels can be replaced, but at a cost. It means greater American dependence on unfriendly countries like Venezuela, unstable countries like Nigeria and Iraq, and on the oil sands of Canada, an environmentally destructive form of oil production.

“As you lose Mexican oil, you lose a critical supply,” said Jeremy M. Martin, director of the energy program at the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s not just about energy security but national security, because our neighbor’s economic and political well-being is largely linked to its capacity to produce and export oil.”

Mexico probably still has plenty of oil, especially beneath the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but Pemex lacks the technology and know-how to get it out. Inviting foreign companies into the country to help is one of the touchiest propositions in Mexican politics.

As the Mexican government struggles to find a way forward, production keeps falling.

SO, IN MEXICO, THE LEFT IS PREVENTING THEM FROM MAINTAINING THEIR OIL INDUSTRY.

JUST LIKE HERE.

IF WE WANT TO BECOME ENERGY INDEPENDENT, WE NEED TO THROW THE LEFTISTS OUT OF OFFICE.

IT'S THAT SIMPLE.